Thursday 31 January 2013

Dark Vengeance Cultists - Primed

Wassup?! And having made a slightly more urban rubble mix for my cultists bases I got on to priming them. In doing so I was going to try out a couple of tips from Ron at From the Warp [where would we be without Ron?] the two tutorials are:


They should speak for themselves really. First up is the overhead spray with an initial prime of black and then Red Oxide. The cultists will be painted in two styles - red and orange. These will be the red coloured cultists and together with their orange brethren will form a whole cult but the two colours will create variety among their numbers.


The other half are just primed Red Oxide and will hopefully come out like the Skaven BloodBowl team. There will be a few less steps in painting the orange as I think some were redundant in the end but we'll see.


The skin tone's will be quite a mix. I'm hoping to play around to add even more variety amongst the numbers. With all hues and shades - white, dark, mustard, purple and even turquoise hues hopefully. Just playing around really for a bit of fun, stepping outside od what I am familiar with [no 'comfort zones' on Ferron Proxima!].


Meanwhile I was playing around on the HDR settings on one of my photo apps and although the following pics offer no actual resemblance to the real models I thought they looked cool


Richie Rich in vibrancy!


Anyone for Mars

Tuesday 29 January 2013

1250pt battle report - nids Vs Dark Angels


Psychic Powers
Tervigon HQTervigon TroopBroodlord [Adrenal]
EnfeebleLife leechNA Life Leech
Iron ArmIron ArmIron Arm

Here's the low down:
  • Crusade (5 objectives - at the base of the defence cannon tower and between the two rock formations in the first pic, in the second pic in the middle rock formation, behind the tower and in the ruins in Gonders Deployment Zone ).
  • Hammer and Anvil
  • I lost deployment, but eventually stole the initiative
  • Once again I put the Stealers out on a limb and infiltrated them out of sight behind the rock formation, although scouting Ravenwing decided to take an interest in them

With the initiative mine I Iron Armed up on all the psykers spawned out 17 Termagants from the Troop Tervigon at the top and spawned out 10 from the HQ at the bottom. Everything moved up and ran as there was no one within range of any weapons.


The Stealers took cover in the rock formation. Given how these guys quite often get slaughtered early on I was happily reigned to that situation given that they were a very immediate threat to Gonders marines and would potentially draw a lot of fire compared to the rest of the force advancing across the board.


The Ravenwing started their attack sweeping across in front of the 'Brides of Caliban' :) [yes we had a lot of fun discussing the 'hen party' that is Gonders be-robed Tactical Squad.


The Ravenwing manage to get in range of the Stealers.


And pick off the two exposed xenos on the cliffs.


Further fire from the Dark Angels took out 3 Hormagaunts.


My turn two and a series of disastrous armour saves removed 5 of the Bridal squad thanks to Hive Guard, Tervigon, Tyranid Warrior and Devgaunt combined shotting


The Trygon tried to charge into combat but couldn't make it, even with Fleet re-rolls. Instead the remaining Stealers were sacrificed to deliver the Broodlord into a challenge with the Ravenwing Sergeant. Five Hormagaunts were left alive through overwatch but killed an Enfeebled Ravenwing.


The Broodlord on St9 thanks to Adrenal Glands and Iron Arm slaughters the Ravenwing Sergeant. The Ravenwing only manage to kill one Hormagaunt in combat!


The razorback deposits the Dark Angel Command Squad right into the thick of things and one of the Tyranid Warriors is killed but not by the Razorback as it's twin-linked Las-Cannons have never killed a single entity in the four months of this campaign, Gonders would want you to know this.


The Hive Guard wreck the Razorback for First Blood, once again preserving it's track record of impotence. The Tervigon makes it into combat with the Dreadnought but failed his Iron Arm roll. The Trygon joins the fight with the Ravenwing and the Warriors make it into combat with the Command Squad, the Prime and the Librarian going toe-to-toe in a challenge.


The Tervigon puts two penetrating hits on the Dreadnought, more importantly he rips the Close Combat weapon off it with it's Crushing Claws. Two of the Warriors have been smashed by the Power Fist sergeant and the Warrior puts a wound on the Librarian who I think passed his Ld test for the Boneswords.


With little choice the Librarian tries to activate one of his Psychic abilities to keep the squad in the fight but shadows in the warp forces him to fail and with double 6s he loses his last wound! Fortune does not favour the first Legion today.


The Ravewing are also slaughtered with the Trygon only managing to despatch the last biker after the Broodlord and Hormagaunts are done. he did take a wound or two in the process and the consolidation put the Hormagaunts in the sights of the Bridal squad who managed to take down one unit at least.


The Tervigon had wrecked the Dreadnought, moved out of cover and wanted the Brides!


The Broodlord takes a couple of wounds from the tactical squad in the ruins and surrounding the wrecked Razorback, one of the squad died from climbing on the vehicle.


The HQ Tervigon joined the combat with the command squad, which thanks to the efforts of their Apothecary [FnP] and the Power Fist Veteran had killed off the Prime for Slay thee Warlord.


The end of the 4th turn and we had to call it a night. The Brides were still in combat, the Command Squad was down to two and the HQ Tervigon had suffered a couple of wounds from the Power Fist. The Broodlord managed to evade all incoming fire which was focused on him to try and bring him down.


With both my spawned Termagants holding objectives a 3VP each and First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker I was on 9VP and Gonders had 4VP, for the ruin objective and Slay the Warlord.

Seizing the initiative was the beginning of the Dark Angels doom. It wasn't helped by all the psykers having Iron Arm but Gonders dice rolling was appalling - a lot of 1s for 2+ to wound rolls and Power Armour was equally ineffective. Saying that the Tyranid Prime was his usual ineffective self failing to wound and therefore his armour save ignoring bonesword was useless. I may have to consider Adrenal Glands for him just to buff his strength - even 3+ isn't enough. Saying that for 10 pts I could have had Regeneration on him...

As for Dark Angels, well with my own efforts to do my force this didn't bode well but the early rumours are the Codex relies on 'synergy' [where've we heard that before] getting a mix of Ravenwing, Deathwing and Greenwing so it all fights together. Gonders hasn't really had that opportunity. His 1250pts has been built in 250pt chunks so it's no surprise it's finding things difficult when I've got three monstrous creatures - T6 and W6 with the ability to make them even more durable. That's before you factor in Termagants, Hormagaunts, 12 wounds of Warriors and the 6 wounds of the Hive Guard. A really tough challenge for him.

Sunday 27 January 2013

To Done - BloodBowl Skaven 4


I'm not entirely sure when I got Blood Bowl. It's release was in 1988 and I either got it for my Birthday or the Christmas preceding it. My good mate Pete had it first and having played it had to have it. I spent a lot of time with my elves/dwarves but I bought a lot of  the Elves I played with on a French exchange trip which took place around 2nd or 3rd year so it kind of fits. Anyway, in all the time I had it I never had a completely painted team, until now.


The amazing things about this team is that aside from the doubled Throwers, Blitzers, tripled Catchers there are only two Linesman that are the same. When it came to doing Skaven, although the poses are near identical, someone had a lot of fun just tweaking the ratmen. Additionally I took one of the 'star players' with four arms and mutated him yet further with a set of tentacles!


The other half of my front line.


And the man of the moment my rat ogre from the Island of Blood set - no modification required. I still have the second rat ogre and the pack master to go with it. Can't decide if I want to sell them yet.


Three different linesmen.


Three more linesman poses.


I'm really digging the Hallowe'en Pumpkin vibe - maybe I should change their name to something more 'festive'?


They make a good line-up.


I wouldn't want to face these guys - see what I mean about the glowing eyes working en-masse. Sure it's a bit blunt in places but I think the slightly cartoon vibe of BloodBowl means I can get away with it.


Not sure what the rules for mutants are in the current edition, hopefully I can get his mutations. I'm pretty sure the tentacles were painted better the first time compared with this.


This Skaven is called 'Buck' with his eye patch he reminded me of the Simon Pegg character from Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs


And another 'bundle shot', really need to print out their endzone.


Friday 25 January 2013

BloodBowl Skaven 3 - all your base...

With all 16 Skaven complete and based there was only one choice left to make - the base edges. Part of me really wanted to paint them in their 2nd edition colours of:
  • White - thrower
  • Yellow - catcher
  • Red - Blitzer
  • Green - Blocker
  • Grey - Linesman
But those rules no longer fit the game, each race has it's own specific types of character that essentially fill those roles but are 'named' something else. In the end I tried three different browns and I've tried to capture the diefferences in the following pics:



On the left is Vallejo Game colour 'Beasty Brown', in the middle a cheap craft acrylic 'Burnt Sienna' and on the end a mix of black and Beasty Brown.


The Burnt Sienna was not even close, stood out too much against the board and slightly glossy too. So it was between the two end examples.


The Beasty Brown was a much more understated fit and helped the miniature blend with the board but ultimately I decided on the brown/black. The end mix was slightly more brown  but I liked the way it had high contrast, like the black edges on the squares. My son didn't agree but like I was ever going to do it someone else's way?


And once again the 'star of the show' - my Rat Ogre. Now to get all the edges done and they're complete.


Wednesday 23 January 2013

'Mind the gap' - what to do when your slot doesn't fill a 'slotta base!'

A quick and dirty idea I cooked up the other day. The BloodBowl Skaven are notorious for the tiny lead [pb] slots to go in the slotta base. Ordinarily I would have used matchsticks to fill the gaps either side but I didn't really have any to hand so cast my eye around the various pieces of junk I have acquired from the wife's hobby supplies to re-purpose for my own hobby activities and the weapon of choice this time - fun craft foam.


Cut a 2 or 3mm strip and then cut it into little chunks. Add some PVA to the slot and prod the little bits of foam in with a tooth pick or other pointy device. Eventually the PVA will dry and you will be able to cover the gap with your usual basing materials without fear that the sand will droop into the slot and look all weird.


The great advantage to this material is that even if you cut the foam too large ultimately you can squash it into the gap and the foam will conform to the hole making a nice snug fit. It's amazing the things you learn through necessity!


Not the best example but as a group the 'glowing eyes' of the Skaven do look alright, at least I'm happy with them and the much needed splash of colour lifts the figure just a little bit. Nearly finished now.


Monday 21 January 2013

'nids part 66 - Monstrous Devourers

In a recent White Dwarf the editor Jes Bickham showcased a Winged Hive Tyrant kit bash to include the ever popular double twin-linked Devourers with Brain Leech worms. I have to say I actually 'fell in love' with the end result. By utilising some spare Tyrannofex Fleshboreer Hives he has been able to keep the Tyrant to being six limbed, including the wings and legs. Monstrous Devourers have always been a problem for those who wish to do Dakka-fexes and the like. Quite often it involves combining two or more Devourers together to get the 'monstrous' part. The real issue is that the Devourers that come with a Carnifex are exactly the same size as those that come with a Termagant, only the arms are bigger! Puny little guns in fat arms...


Part of my constant study of the kit bash was trying to come to terms with the sheer scale of the Devourers and whether the Tyrant could lift off the ground with them but I started to see the sacks as quite lightweight fleshy things and the conclusion I came to was that these make much better looking MC Devourers than a Fleshborer Hive, which I was never comfortable with as a representation, although I loved the design immensely, so I ended up buying this:

www.waylandgames.co.uk/games-workshop/warhammer-40k/tyranids/tyranid-hive-tyrant-/-the-swarmlord/prod_15818.html
Now I've used the Winged Hive Tyrant a couple of times now and he's inordinately expensive and I'm not often going to use it but this I feel is my final treat to myself for painting so many 'nids, and before I fall hopelessly into Dark Angel mode - a final folly before 'the Rise of the Imperium' if you will. Saying that, I'll be looking to utilise some of the other bits and may look to magnetize them and my old Hive Tyrant so I can try out the Swarmlord too!

Anyway, a quick search on google [which you could do yourself but what the hey] and here's some other takes on MC Devourers:

http://trollapan.blogspot.co.uk
THE_ARCH1TECT's photostream
http://skanwy.blogspot.co.uk
http://skanwy.blogspot.co.uk/2012_11_01_archive.html
http://thetyranidhive.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=converting&action=display&thread=21672
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/432879.page
http://bluetablepainting.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/twin-linked-devourer.html