Thawing hell!

Here's an update on my frosty figures. I obviously searched a bit for advice and received some in the comments. I thought I'd try a couple of solutions to see which was most effective. First up was acetone - nail varnish remover. I can't help thinking that's going to be difficult to put on without removing all the paint and I didn't actually have any. But I had a quick idea that liquid poly glue - ketone, which is like acetone might achieve the same thing and I have quite a bit of that and with a fine needle glu applicator I can drop it on. Tried it and it works, in a fashion.

Where it pooled I tried to whick it away with a corner of card, even that light touch allowed the paint underneath to melt. However, where it was left seems to have dried, unfrozen the frost and left it with an ultra-glossy finish, I mean hyperglossy as you can make out on the Tyranid hoof below. That white spot is pure gloss sheen! I only applied it in small places - pipes, hoof  and thorax but where the glue soaked into the Purity Seal you could actually see it working, like the frost was having hot water melt through and where imperfections existed they just melted away!

You can see the gloss on the adrenal gland thorax join here.

These pics show just how frosty the Hive Guard got, I know it could have been worse but this was still disheartening. The next option was to try Da masta Cheef's organic solution of Olive Oil.

WOW! I couldn't believe this. It worked, and it enriched the colours greatly. Sure it's not matt, but it's not quite glossy either and I really like the finish. With results like this I half fancy doing everything without bothering with any further tests. I've tried to brush away any excess and it doess dull the sheen a little bit but somehow it looks all polished again an hour later!

As you can see it looks a bit oily in the creases but it kind of looks a bit 'niddy' so we can live with that. I'm just amazed such a simple solution gave such good results. Of course it precludes my mix of glossy varnish on all the black 'hard points' but I can live with that too.

Theses are the worst affected Devgaunts, I will try some of the other options on these when I get chance.

The Devourers took the worst of the frosting, hopefully we can fix that. 

I'll get round to testing/fixing these as and when.

Tuesday night's all right for fighting - 500pts Nids v Dark Angels

Over at the local friendly neighborhood gaming club there has been renewed interest in 40k. Warmachine has gone off the boil a bit and there's a Fantasy campaign underway so one of the guys - Gonders [who has an excellent blog you should check out] has put together a loose 40k campaign, starting with just 500pts and growing each month by 250pts. There are other restrictions:

1) Must include one HQ choice.

No more, no less. When this rule is removed, the second HQ option becomes open, and with it, so does the chance to take allies.
2) Must include one troops choice.
When this rule is removed, players will be forced to take a second compulsory troops choice.
3) No model my have better than a 3+ save.
This goes for both Armour, and invulnerable saves.
4)No weapons that can use the large blast templates.
Includes ordnance, and other effects, such as eldritch storm.
5) No vehicle may have a total Armour value or more than 33, including front/side/rear.
This makes the heaviest vehicle available at the start a devilfish transport.
6) No model may have more than 3 wounds.
7) No models with the flier special rule.
8) No psykers with a mastery level of higher than 1.

Of course that makes my list slightly difficult and easy - no Tervigon, Barbed Stranglers and I pretty much HAVE to take a Warrior squad to provide synapse along with the Prime. So my list was:

Tranid Prime, lash whip, bone sword, Deathspitter (Intimidating Presence)
1 Hive Guard
10 Termagants with Devourers
12 Hormagaunts

3 Tyranid warriors with scything talons and Deathspitters

5 Genestealers

And Gonders had 

A Librarian  with the psychic powers to twin link shooting or overwatch on full BS (Inspiring Presence)

10 man tactical squad with missile launcher and plasma gun.

5 man Tactical squad with plasma gun

Twin Linked Las Cannon Razorback

Now that's all out the way here's the game - Dawn of War, Purge the Alien, Gonders got first turn and I didn't steal. The only thing to note is the 10 man squad in the ruin top left and the five man squad in the Razorback.

Here's my force 'hiding'.

and the Stealers Infiltrated in the central ruin.

Gonders moved through the ruin and fired at the Stealers killing the two that were visible.

The Razorback trundled backwards [after this pic that is] and managed to target a stealer through the ruined window with it's Las Cannons but it was saved by cover.

I moved forward, the Hive Guard stormed through the cover with a 6, fired at the Razorback but with a 1&2 failed to penetrate or even glance! The Stealers advanced through the building and were out of sight.

The Devgaunts advanced, hoping to reach cover but their run move falling short. Exposed, in Gonders next turn three of their numbers were killed through bolter fire.

With little for the Dark Angels lack of targets my turn came around soon, the Hive Guard got a glancing hit on the Razorback after another storming move into cover.

Everything else was out of range after their move forwards.

The Tac squad finally left the cover of the ruins...

... and were in range to do some serious damage to the Devgaunts.

Leaving one solitary gaunt on his tod, but not for long as the Razorback drew a bead on him with his Las-cannons! To which I scoffed as he was vaporised only to be shown tactical genius as Gonders claimed first Blood!

Bit of loss of pics here. The five man squad had disembarked from the Razorback earlier. Advanced, thrown a grenade at the Hormagaunts - killing five and then assaulting. I struck first and two marines went down. In return he killed four but we were locked.

The Stealers charged the squad two more Marines were killed for one Hormagaunt. The front two Warriors fired at the Rhino but no damage, meanwhile the Hive Guard once again sprinted through difficult terrain only to shoot like girl ;)

The Marine sergeant died in a frenzy of teeth and claws, the stealers consolidated 6" and the Hormagaunts 5". The Warriors took fire from the tac squad and Razorback but Look Out Sire saved the Prime [although we really do have to check how that works as other folk were playing it differently]

As you can see, 1 wound on the Prime and 2 on the Warrior.

The Warriors moved to target the tac squad. Hormagaunts hid to deny a VP and the Hive Guard finally rocked up and shot the Razorback to pieces leaving the Stealers with nowhere to go but hang around in the backfield for Line Breaker.

The marines returned fire but with some judicious position I was able to Look out Sir on a different Warrior for bolter shots and prevent Insta-kills with the Missile launcher on the Prime.

By this stage almost all the Warriors had been wounded and he had tried to gain Line Breaker. His Librarian had been casting the Overwatch on full BS in fear of the assault and this caused all the wounds. His Sergeant accepted a challenge by the Prime and was slaughtered. The remaining Warriors killed three more but they stuck at it.

Another round of combat and the Librarian was duly challenged and slaughtered, two more Marines fell to the nids and they ran screaming, too quick for the Warriors but straight towards the stealers who had been crossing the back field.

Even then they did not reach the awaiting gribblies as Deathspitters cut them down as they fled.

So it was a win from me but Gonders did some really neat things - using the Grenades, tactically using the right psychic power at the right time, taking First blood and heading for Line Breaker. I can't say my Devgaunts did much and the hive guard could run for Jamaica but wouldn't be allowed on the Great Britain shooting team! Not sure if I have an MVP but the bonesword is a beast of a weapon but I'm forever dismayed that he doesn't have the re-rolls for scything talons that the other Warriors have.

Still a good game and more to come no doubt.

'nids part 60 / Terrain is everything - Tyranid Aegis Defence Line Pt7

One thing I learned through the tediousness of painting these things is do something that tricks your mind into what you are doing. So for instance I would plan to paint plates but then after I'd done two I'd then switch to doing the red planet basing - say adding the Badab Black wash. that way having been bored with the first task I broke it up with the second only to find that when I planned to complete the second task parts of it were already done and therefore it went quicker and became less boring.

Each panel was taking 15 minutes to do the highlights with 12 in all that was 3 hours. But sitting down knowing I could handle 45-60mins at most was both hard and daunting. Its great to have those figures in your head but it can put you right off. The advantage was that I could find 15 mins from somewhere and just do a single panel but setting aside an evening was just awful to contemplate - hence the diversion tactics.

One way to speed things up was by using a cocktail stick for all the dot. Cutting it in half meant I had a point and a large flat circle which actually made some dots way bigger than I normally do but these are larger pieces of Chitin than I normally do.

What amazes me is the reservations I had about achieving the same finish because they were too denim seems to have been premature, once again I refer you to the most important rule of painting. I thinkeven without the next set of highlights most of the Turquoise covers any discrepancies and the mixed tones add depth and variety. Simply he lighter colour makes the darker colour 'appear' darker, it's pretty much an optical illusion.

The kicker for all this is that in doing the red planet basing I also have to do the bone white fragments which meant one of the other diversions from the monotonous Chitin was the backs of the panels. So once again these things start to come together all at once.

I also tried some Mechrite Red on the alien tentacle vines to see if that would make them stand out a bit more.

The backs are pretty much done, no secondary bonewhite highlights I think, just a few highlights on the alien tentacle vines to pick it out from the base a bit more.

Once again the quad gun in context with the defence line.

Next up more highlights, another 15-20 mins per panel - oh joy!

Flufftastic - Professor Egon Seuss

Professor Egon Seuss eminent xeno-botanist, Delta Level Bio-Magi of the Frau Mara Institute of Floramancy and part-time children's author.

It is his research into the mysteries of the Ferron Fire Fir and many other local flora that has saved countless lives of children, picnickers and couples who thought to enjoy nature without realising they were standing in the middle of a powder keg. One of his simple tongue twisters:

Four flaming Fronds on a Ferron Fire Fir.

is cited as reducing forest fatalities by 46%. It's also believed he has used his children's book as socio-political commentaries, the subversive messages often being condemned by the scientific community despite their widespread success. His festive tale about harmony to greenskins - How the Gretchin Stole Christmas has even been investigated by the Inquisition but in truth it is a harmless tale due to the fact Ferron Proxima is largely anathema to the Ork species. It is his extensive research into whether it is the Flora of Ferron Proxima that repels the Ork horde that prompted this tale.

The majority of plant life on Ferron Proxima is in a yellow hue and that includes fungal growth too. Whether this colour shift has any impact on the lifespan of Orks, who are by naturey green fungus, has still to be determined but Prof. Seuss has conducted many surveys, in particular, on the fungal reproduction cycle.

Many of the native fungus have light emitting properties, indeed the Bear Claw Tribe harvested wild mushrooms to use as illumination. Investigation of this phenomena may be important.

Prof. Seuss continues to collect many and varied samples to try to unlock the potential final solution to the Ork problem.

Additionally the Professor is very much interested in the connection between some of the genome strands in certain plants on Ferron Proxima and the Catachan Devil. Was Ferron Proxima the origin of the Catachan Devil or did the Devil somehow make it's way across hyperspace to infest Ferron Proxima? Once again the Professor posited some of his more outlandish thoughts in 'The Catachan Devil in the Hat'. What purpose these children's prose is not sure but in the scientific community his discoveries are often overshadowed by these comic interludes. His gifted artistic catalogues of native plant species tempered by the ludicrous cartoons to send little babes to sleep. Although the startling dénouement of 'The Catachan Devil in the Hat' where a full-scale Tyranid invasion takes place to re-acquire the Catachan Devils DNA strain conveniently hidden in his hat is enough to make any child have nightmares.

 

Again this is considered more social commentary and his fans cite the increased contact with Tyranids as justification for the bestseller. They claim he is preparing the next generation for the impending invasion. Pre-warning and fore-arming them for the conflict to come. Never stop being vigilant! Or, it might be the ramblings of a bi-polar madman about a Xenos in a hat!