Deathwing Progress 2

So right when I was coming up on the anniversary of the blog and feeling the least motivated to actually do any painting I suddenly had a flurry of activity only for it to blow as I once again reached a 'painters block'. I did all the antique bronze and then applied my verdigris washes to the Deathwing and I think they came out awesome, but they now don't fit the look of the rest of the army, in particular the Tactical squad. Anyway these pics show how the verdigris looks, under natural light and I even attempted some glow effects on the eye lenses.

I'm not entirely convinced with my efforts on the Crux Terminatus. The Ferron Proxima stone effect doesn't look like stone, it's particularly reminiscent of my old Empire army figures, not sure how to tone it down or whether some drybrushing might make it more dusty, therefore more stone-like...

The other issue is battle damage, which I want to do, but it's going to be tough as I don't want to put silver in any scratches. I want perhaps black to show through as the fluff suggests that underneath all the Bonewhite there's black but what's underneath that? Again a decision that is choking any further progress.

And here lies the other side of the equation. The antique brass here is great, I don't want to touch it but it looks odd next to the Deathwing, although the verdigris being greenish does tie in with the tac squad colouring I wouldn't want their brass to have this effect. The same brasses are on the drop pod and dreadnought. Too much thought is stifling this whole project, no wonder I haven't touched it in weeks.

 The sad thing is that aside from the battle damage, targeting lenses, chapter markings and bases I think these are nearly done. There's not a whole lot left to finish the Deathwing off which I know would be a real boost to my motivation. The Tac squad isn't too far behind either. The fact is my priorities are fixed for the next few months but come April I may well be spending a lot more time and effort getting these things done but any little bit I can do between now and then will just make things go smoother.

The art of 40k - Yet more Gary Harrod

OK, look when I started this 'art of 40k' section I hadn't planned on getting stuck on Mr. Harrod, I don't owe him money/represent him/want his children. It's just there seemed very little artwork online and as times gone by I keep stumbling across more and more of his work I've missed/forgotten that I've rediscovered and I need to share before I can move onto the next artist. These pics were rediscovered in my copy of the 40k Compendium.

Oh WOW! How could I forget this beauty, the original Deimos Pattern Rhino and this pic makes a mockery of the current design. Sure the central transport area is disproportionate to the acutal model, but have you ever seen a picture that quite captures the feel of an armored transport vehicle about turn you into spatula fodder?

An original 'Land's Speeder' and it seems there was less use of an anti-gravity plate on the bottom and more a vectored jet to keep it skimming above the ground in Rogue Trader days.

Next we have an original jet bike with an extremely early mark armored Space Marine, check out the pipes going into his 'beaky' helm. Practically AdMech in design and I can't make out the insignia on his shoulder, anyone? Also of note is the rocket homing in on the bike. There's a real sense of activity and motion in this pic, love it. Lastly, some Orks, not much to say but I really like the way the picture breaks out of the frame with the Stormboyz helm poking out the top.

In an attempt to move things on I'll drop a taster of my next favorite 40k artist, a no-prize if you can guess. Not sure how to progress with it though as I've noticed my scanning destroys the subtle pencil work and I think showing these pieces this way won't do them justice, still guess away

New Ferron Proxima

As promised I finally got around to producing a larger print out of my Ferron Proxima Battle mat. Thankfully scaling the image to the new table size of 150 x 90cm [a 5' x 3' table!] which translates to 127% more width and 118% more length didn't degrade the image. However, I did find the output varied from our plotter. Now I think I recall something similar happening first time around but as you can see below I ended up with two versions, one that has significantly more darker detail and thother which is equally vibrant but without all the lowlights. This time around I think we will be suing the high contrast version for gaiming but I did print and laminate both.

Here's another shot so you can see how much detail has suddenly been picked out.

And again, by laying them on top of eath other you can get a decent comparrison, particualarly in the large crack in ground and the shadowy area below the pale triangular shape.

And a nice shot to end on

Land Raider and Rhino History

I was looking at BoLS the other day and the lead story was a new Forgeworld Land Raider Armoured Proteus

It's a beautiful little beast but the accompanying YouTube video was also cool for those of us with a penchant for GW history and some interesting back story on the modelling of these iconic vehicles.

Now without wishing to look like I just cribbed someone else's news, here's a reminder of my particular interest in these fellas:

Which made me realise a massive omission from the blog, my original Land Raider Proteus has never been photographed, nor has the second Deimos Pattern Rhino, so here's a couple of phone shots, I'll photograph them better some other time.

Deimos Pattern Rhino with Dark Angel upgrades and some 'spotlights' on the front made from Space Crusade bits...

New Forgeworld goodies

New from Forgeworld:

CONTEMPTOR PATTERN AUTOCANNON

Awesome for Mortis Dreads but £7.50 each? I know that's the price of a Dreadnought weapon but it's a shame they aren't more affordable. Still, they're better looking than the other standard Dreadnought Autocannons so on balance they're good value

MINOTAURS SHOULDER PADS

MINOTAURS TERMINATOR SHOULDER PADS

And finally...

GRAIA PATTERN RAPIER LASER DESTROYER

The Rapier Laser Destroyer was one of the first 40k models that came into our house, in fact it was not my figure but my brothers, which I painted. I'm pretty sure I have the chassis knocking around in a bitz box somewhere though the tracks and lasers are probably long gone. I'm not entirely convinced by this sculpt. I think if you were going to make the trapezoidal shape less regular which, is the right thing to do given the current anachronistic Imperial design, then although this is the right direction it needed to be a little more exaggerated. As it is it almost makes sense!

Terrain is everything - Can't see the wood for the trees

I mentioned in April my concerns over trees and after a 12 month wait I finally got to nip back to Dobbies, our local garden centre [and craft shop] to pick up a pack of their model Christmas Trees. These are really popular in the USA for 40k. I've seen loads of battle reports that feature these particular festive flora.

That's the set you get, 21 pieces from a company called Lemax for £13 which I think is good value. Clearly there's at least two that are just a bit too big, they're the same size as my 40k outpost that got bigger! but great line of sight blockers for a Trygon!

Of course there's one big issue with these trees, the seasonal kind. Ferron Proxima is not known for it's snow and chlorophyll as a substance does not exist in it's standard green as evidenced by the Ferron Bindweed. So initially I will be undercoating them all in Red Oxide primer and will be then repainting them in shades of yellow.

More to follow...

Apocalypse - Out

...finally

For some silly reason we ran the Prime at the Librarian squad and because he doesn't have fleet wasn't able to assault them. Stupid really, he only got 3" and didn't need them to make the assault but we abided the decision just because it was a valuable lesson. Thankfully we didn't need him as the Termagants managed to Poison the remaining Blood Angels and win the day, but non of the objectives.

Over on the other side, the Broodlord was squished, I think one weapon had been destroyed on the dread but it moved off in search of the Trygon. Nothing much happened apart from a few more of the other Blood Angels from the Rhino being picked off, though by warrior fire or Necron gauss I don't recall.

So my thoughts? We had a lot of fun. The last Apocalypse battle we went to was very hectic and the age range was significantly lower which made things more like herding cats. This time there was a lot of experience, maybe too much because we were often bemused by what was going on. Our little corner was pretty much self-contained. But, with so many taking part it was also a bit frustrating to suddenly have swathes of figures wiped off the board without much chance to use them or retaliate. For the most part we faced a squad of five marines, with a Librarian and they pretty much squashed the entire 'nid force flat! Maybe this is how most current games play, perhaps we're still not experienced enough about this to expect that the army you spent hours compiling doesn't get to do half the things you plan on it doing, I don't know. Maybe it's a peculiarity of Apocalypse, again I don't know. Don't get me wrong, it's not sour grapes. Neither my son nor I care whether we win or lose - there's nothing more fun than a spectacular loss but somehow we didn't even get that out of the poor Hormogaunts for instance. And deep-striking was pointless as we only had a couple of turns each and the wee-little Rippers never even got to gnash their teeth.

Saying that though we did have a lot of figures left and in another turn I think the Trygon would have squashed the dread, the Termagants could have captured the objectives and the Warriors would have mopped up anything else knocking about so we were well placed for further battle. Overall we enjoyed ourselves immensely and everyone was super nice and made us feel welcome but I was reminded of how much more fun it is to have a proper 'crew', a group of friends you can banter with and really enjoy the games. I may have some more to say on this in a future post, as a wise-man once said "things are afoot at the Circle K"

Apocalypse - and

Continuing on, here's the rest of the board, though I haven't a clue what was going on. I know my son suggested to the guy with the Necrons who had some power to take control of vehicles why didn't he target the Baneblade [which was actually a Tower of Skulls] which prompted a furious round of high-fives and cackles of glee as they hadn't thought of that!

Another shot of the lay of the land, which I love the board colours, almost 'Ferron' ;)

In their turn all the Hormogaunts were killed by an Orbital Bombardment thanks to Marneus Calgar half a board away. Only the Bonesword Prime left alive, with a Legion of the Damned  squad materialising in front of him to pick off the remaining gaunts. I think at this point the Tervigon had been killed as well, I think that's why the squad left the building to take it out and that Librarian did awful damage. Only 4 of the spawned Termagants died in the Psychic backlash from the death of their Brood Progenitor. Our next turn, the Mycetic Spore arrives with a plop, Devgaunts jump out ready to take on the now decamped Blood Angel squad. With 30 shots I think the managed to take down 1 or two, maybe the Fleshborers did something but 

The Trygon Prime burst from the ground, his Containment Spines perhaps taking out a Space Marine. Meanwhile the Adrenal Stealers were killed off with the Broodlord the only one left.

More Necrons sweep across the board.

I'll conclude tomorrow...

Apocalypse - Over

Last Saturday was the Apocalypse battle at the local GW and having finally set on a list me and my son hto footed over to enjoy the 'early' Christmas party. We set everything up and waited for the rest of the eager combatants to turn. By a twist of fate we ended up on the side of the newly resurrected Necrons and as one guy with a number of Monoliths hadn't arrived a mass of the stores Chaos Space Marines turned up to take the middle as we started on the left flank opposite some Blood Angels in Rhinos. You can see the Tervigon, a Prime attached to the Hormogaunt Brood and the two broods of Genestealers by the tower [which contained three objective markers. 

Slightly further over were the Gargoyles and the shooty Tyranid Warriors and attached Prime. In the first turn Tom, the young lad with the Blood Angels burned up in the Rhino and managed to gain entrance to the Tower [damn] he also had the Death Company Dreadnought drop pod in just behind the shooty warriors as you can see below [yes the Drop Pod is that WFB tower...]

I'm not sure how long after these shots were taken but at some point the guy with the other Necron force turned up and the Chaos crew turned traitor [of course they did] and what followed was the chaos force proceeded to shoot/assault us in the same turn we assaulted then, it was all free-flowing and dynamic, mad, fun but also very weird. My son's Tervigon managed to spawn 15 Termagants [the max possible without pooping out]. We decided to barrel the adrenalin fueled Stealers over to the Dread, hopefully the rending Broodlord would have his wicked way as so often before. Th Hormies moved forwards and the Warriors poured fire into the tower hoping to thin out the Blood Angels squad in residence. The Termagants didn't do much and the Toxin Sac Stealers assaulted into cover and were pretty much wiped out as the Blood Angels Librarian with Might of Heroes and another psychic ability decimated them one by one.

Here you can see the whizzy Monoliths doing all sorts of weird Apocalypse things - Null Fields and such, I've no idea. The more experienced guys seemed to know what was going on and I wasn't on the receiving end of it but all these quirky rules were a bit hard for us average gamers to follow. Meanwhile the Adrenal Stealers seemed perplexed by the Death Company Dread. Where in the past they've done really well - rending claws tearing my Dark Angel Dread to ribbons on many occasion, this time nothing and they were whittled down for their efforts. The shooty warriors also suffered a number of wounds spread out over the squad.

The Gargoyles decided to have a bite of the Chaos Warriors hiding in the ruins, the ate one and then proceeded to be slaughtered to one plucky little flapping thing...

More tomorrow...

Apocalypse Wow!

 

My local GW - Southport has recently had a new manager start, and as mentioned there will be an Apocalypse battle against the newly reawakened Necrons on the 19th November. So we've got together a 1,500pt force [as per instructions]. It's prety much our standard list but I wanted to try out the two Primes, and the Mycetic Spore.

We ummed and ahhed over Zoanthropes, Rippers, more Hormogaunts and the Biovore and in the end managed a bit of each just minus the Zoanthrope. 'Madness' some may say but he's currently broken and although their the only real anti-tank we have I don't think it's worth it to pin all our Monolith killing hopes on the big brained bug.

The Biovore was also not a first choice but having heard some reports about the danger of the new Scarabs I can see his pie-plate blasts coming in handy to thin out those things, so he came back in.

The Rippers may be surprising considering my past thoughts but I wanted to finish the other two bases of them but in the end thought just the three, and the Biovore was a better option. I ran the maths versus more Hormagaunts but realised I could have 4 Hormies or 3 Rippers and although there's less option to claim objectives the increased wounds may make them more of a pain to the Necrons. So long as I can keep them in Synapse of one of my creatures, probably the Trygon Prime after Tunneling then at least they won't start eating themselves!

So we have:

• Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter
• Tyranid Prime with Pair of Boneswords, Scything Talons
• Tervigon with Catalyst, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Stinger Salvo
• 10x Termagaunts with Devourer inside:
• Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles, Stinger Salvo
• 21x Hormaguants with Toxin Sacs
• 3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler,Deathspitter
• Broodlord with Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, with:
• 7x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands
• 7x Genestealers with Toxin Sacs
• 3x Ripper Swarms with Tunnel Swarm
• 10x Gargoyles
• Trygon with Upgrade to Trygon Prime
• 1x Biovore

1499pts. 68 figures [7 Synapse creatures] although some will be deep striking. The CC Prime will most likely join the Hormagaunts. I think the Trygon will be deep-striking but we'll decide on the day. I'll take pictures and report back after the event.

Size is everything... excuse me, isn't 'Terrain everything'?

Well, I suppose it's a bit of both in this case. You may recall the new kitchen was fitted last month and with it came a new dining table. Some may say it's too big but 'some' would never say that to his wife! The old table was 118 x 76cm, and the new table is 150 x 90cm [a 5' x 3' table!] which translates to 127% more width and 118% more length [depending on which way you look at it].

Obviously these pics imply that Ferron proxima has bitten the dust and been replaced with the homeworld of Superted's side-kick Spotty but this is only due to a new Ferron Proxima battlemat awaiting printing.

Here's my son's Tervigon and Old Matt Black: Former hero of the Imperium to add a sense of scale. Considering it's only a minor increase in size it certainly seems like there's a lot of room. To play I think we'll rotate the table so we can finally setup long board edge-wise but our deployment zone will only be 6 inches in so we have the full two inches of killing ground to make the shooting phase effective.

Anyway, when the new battlemat is done I'll share it with y'all.

To done...!

Following on from Purity Sealing 90% of my son's 'nids, which was on my To Do List. I still had to gloss varnish all the claws and talons. This wasn't actually high up on my list, not with some progress on my Dark Angels, which I'll share at some point. However, I found out the other day that our local GW is having an Apocalypse battle on the 19th to celebrate the Necron re-awakening and you've got to bring a 1500pt army. I wanted to get the majority glossed up so their claws are nice and sharp for the living metal.

The Trygon, Tervigon and Broodlord were already done but I've just gone through the

• 3 Tyranid Warriors
• 1 Tyranid Prime [the other hasn't been sealed yet so there's not much point to varnishing it]
• 24 Genestealers
• 28 Hormagaunts
• 47 Termagants [I think, it's difficult to count them as they all look the same - racist!]

Any job done so I'm a bit chuffed with myself and also that my son is interested again, well he's written his list for Father Christmas and good old Santa is going to have to visit GW too!

The art of 40k - More Gary Harrod

In the second of my posts about my favorite 40k artists I've only gone and stumbled across a few more pictures by Gary Harrod so I thought I'd share these before going on to my next fave artist. So here's the pic that blew me away the most [the one I described in my original post]. They all click much bigger than my usual fair, so enjoy.

Next up are three images from the Deathwing, Space Hulk expansion rules. Like I said the stark highlights and shadows literally jump off the page compared to the rest of the illustrations and I think when you add in the two pictures I already found you can begin to see the awesomeness of Gary's work. I love this terminator, just look at the amount of light coming from his gun, you can imagine having your retinas scorched by that after image!

Here too, the psychic battle between genestealer and presumably Deathwing Librarian. Taking into account most of the GW rulebooks at this time were monotone, with pure black and white and where grey was needed the dots in the halftone pattern were employed to give the required grey it was Gary's extensive use of black and white that made his drawings stand out most, like I say they leap from the page.

Lastly, what i think is the weakest of the three images in execution but possibly the image which holds more menace and anticipation thanks to the unsuspecting marine about to experience 'death from above' not the other way round as their usual motto states.

Oh, and the two previous pics to see Gary's work I've discovered so far as a set.

Get your Dose

WARNING, this is not really 40k related so please don't panic but it's better than nothing.

Some may recall my post in September regarding the video for the music from the recently released Space Marine video game. I got to showcase some of the work my Facebook buddy, Sam Hayles. Well he's only gone and updated his Portfolio website. On it you can see his awesome CD cover designs for the likes of Earthtone 9 and Monstter:

Also his excellent playing card designs:

His work is really cool and potentially inspirational for those who are creative and if you're painting figures then yes, that means you. Additionally you can purchase some of his artworks [currently featured in the TV show Hollyoaks of all places?!], sticker packs, t-shirts and even a mug at the DOSEprodSHOP. Check out his stuff, he's a really cool dude.