'nids part 385 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - Chitin highlights 1

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the 3D printed capillary towers. I kept track of how long it took me to paint the striations. 

The big towers were 123 and 132 minutes.

 A medium tower was 105 and a small one 42. 

Roughly 654 just short of 11 hours to do the lines! I also did the first highlight on all the spikes and the bonewhite Wraithbone chips on the base.

Then when I came to do the spots I decided not to bother keeping track and now I'm really annoyed with myself because that took far more time than I expected. It definitely would have been handy to know for the 2nd set of highlights. 

2nd highlights feel quicker as you can see where you going to put a spot or line. But, it actually requires you to be much neater and controlled. That way you don't completely cover the first stage work. Or else what's the point?

I've had 2nd stage sessions that have been much faster, the same or even taken longer, but a rough estimate is always handy. Second stage next and then maybe some very minor 3rd stage highlights, the red fleshy bits and 2nd stage bone. Lots to do on the Chitin, but then it feels like it's downhill from there.

Terrain is everything - Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Board extension - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on some extra flat pieces of terrain board that we can use to extend, or replace sections of my Red Planet BASE! 🔴 Realm of Battle Board. Essentially, what happened was I turned up to Otty's shed and he handed me these three 1'x2' sections and told me to paint them red! Totally ambushed, but what could I do? He had used some textured wallpaper to give a relief, but I had to add some sand in places to cover up the seams.

Then I got totally fixated on finishing! It wasn't a huge task, so despite being an unexpected new project I [thought I] knew what I was doing. First up, the prime. Rather than go with a spray primer I still had a tin of Red Oxide  paint on primer I'd used on the edges of my RoBB. 

Slopped it on, maybe we can still see those joins but the subsequent highlights might disguise them.

OK, so I thought I knew how to do this - subsequent highlighted Vermillion blobs to create a mottled random pattern. But I think I did the blobs smaller than I did on my RoBB. Or at least it looks that way now I refer back to the finished showcase pics. I hadn't put a wash on top of the primer, which was not as matt as I expected it to be. I hoped the matt varnish would flatten it all out.

But I thought there was far too much contrast between the blobs, so did a light overspray with my Red Oxide Car Primer to give the flattening a head start.

Then I flicked on some bonewhite paint to get my wraithbone chips

It worked really well all things considered.

From this angle it's not too bad

But compared to the RoBB you can see I was much more subtle in how I created the highlighted areas. It'll be fine with terrain on I hope but yeah, not a match I'm happy with, but I'll survive

And here we go after the varnish.

Well it's definitely matt, which has helped to remove the shine from the paint on primer at least.

It hasn't quite smoothed out the contrast that I'd hoped but it'll do.

We'll just have to wait and see when it actually gets used.

So I get a Great Big Chrome 'BIG BUILD' BASE Stamp of Approval.

As well as the Great Big Chrome Stamp of Approval according to my spreadsheet I've judged the three pieces together as 20 points, plus a 5 point terrain bonus. Therefore, this brings me up to 245 points for the season so far.

 

Battle Record - WH40K - Imperial Knights Vs Tyranids 01/04/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PlayingWarhammer with my son again! He's been home in the lead up to Easter and he wanted a game to get more experience in the lead up to his efforts to start a Warhammer Alliance club at his school.

I decided he could go Tyranids and I would be Imperial Knights 500pts each but based on the Combat Patrol missions. As I had 3 Armigers [2 Warglaives and a Helverin], I tried to beef his patrol with a Tervigon with Crushing Claws, 10 Termagants, 3 Warriors [2 with Deathspitters and a Heavy Venom Cannon], a Screamer Killer and a Carnifex with Deathspitters and Crushing Claws.

As per usual they went Invasion Fleet to give him Lethal Hits on Vehicles. 

 

Now I had no idea if this match-up was fair. Points wise the same, but the Combat Patrol warbands are usually about 400-440pts and Imperial Knights only get 2 Armigers so it concerned me a bit that I had 3.

Anyway, we rolled Scorched Earth for the missions and the 4 Ripper Swarms were the objectives to hold/raze.

Tyler got first turn and pushed forward, with his Tervigon skulking in the ruin top left. I think his shooting put a wound or two on one of the Warglaives.

My turn and I moved to engage. The Helverin blasted the Termagants, halving their numbers. While the Warglaive on the right melted the Screamer Killer in one round of shooting being in Melta range for both the gun and the Thermal Lance was just too much.

Having respawned the 5 dead Termagants in the brood, the Tervigon surged from behind the ruins in retaliation for the lost Screamer Killer.

And smashed the Warglaive to pieces with its Crushing Claws - fond memories of the old Warp Speed on a CC tervigon came flooding back.

Meanwhile the Carnidex, having an adrenal surge [Lethals Hits on 5+] crashed into the back of the other Warglaive and promptly stroked it's back rather than do any damage with its Crushing Claws.

Missing the opportunity the Warglaive sliced its remaining 2 wounds with ease and moved round to take on the Termagants, halving the brood once again. I think by the end of turn 3 we were both on 10 VPs each fro holding an objective each on turns 2 and 3. 

But the Tervigon was emboldened and headed for my home objective and the Warglaive.

 It's 'chicken feet' were no match.

With Lethal Hits auto-wounding.

No saves made and then the damage 3x D6+1 = 18 damage.

The Helverin was wrecked, with no explosion, and the objective secured.

My last Warglaive was able to wipe out the Teragmants, just, and tried to recapture the objective [if it survived Tyler's next turn. Meanwhile the Warriors razed their objective for 10VPs and the Tervigon scored 5.

Then the Tervigon and Warriors swarmed the Warglaive, taking the objective back.

But lost 2 Warriors for their audacity.

The Tervigon continued it's murderous killing spree and wiped the last Imperial Knight off the table securing the entire board. 

I think the final score was something like 35-10, but it was the probably the most enjoyable game of 40k I've played in 10th edition so far. Nothing seemed outrageous. It was a learning experience so although Tyler was shocked at the early demise of his Screamer Killer it didn't spoil the game. He remarked on the nature of spending hours painting a model only for it to be vaporised in one turn - totally understanding the 'new model syndrome'.

But that Tervigon was a beast and total MVP. I absolutely love seeing this model be so effective again. it might have been moreso with Scything Talons - more hits for it and the Carnifex might have capitalised on their Lethal hits. Although, without the higher AP they might not have got through the armour... Anyway, great game. Maybe next time it'll be 11th edition...

'nids part 384 - Terrain is everything - 3D printed capillary towers - shade and BASE - TO DONE!

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the 3D printed capillary towers. First up sepia washes, and you can see it has not gone well. My Vallejo dipping wash is behaving just like Seraphim Sepia. It's starting to do this more often now. But I was sure it wouldn't be a problem as the AP Strong Tone wash [Agrax colour] would cover the dried out powdery bits. Except I ran out of Strong Tone.

So my solution was to mix Dark Tone [black] with my sepia to give it the higher quality glossy finish. 

For the most part that worked. I was able to cover up most of the patchy bits.

But I definitely need to start making a list of paints I need as I keep forgetting. The I order something, throw in a few paints and then when it arrives I suddenly realise there were a couple more I needed. 

Oh, and I did the Red Planet BASE! 🔴 too.

Which secures me a Great Big Chrome 'BASE' Stamps of Approval.