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...