Dark Angels - Devastator Squad - TO DONE!

Well that was a surprise, to finish these ahead of the new hobby season, still I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Of course the reason this happened is because I can't really get on with anything else but it's a win nontheless.

Funnily enough I actually did all the green highlights on a per model basis. Although that means consistency is slightly compromised it doesn't mean I'm mixing loads of green which just dries out on the palette, I should probably look at a wet palette, it's not like they're difficult to make from what I've seen.

Anyway, the five man squad is done. I probably need a couple more marines to take wounds on but most of my lists can't fit them in so if they get some brothers it will be a long way down the line and will be made up from the remaining assorted old skool metal miniatures I have.

I still think the Missile Launchers are massive on the Rogue Trader era models but added to the slate bases they at least can stand tall[er] against the modern day 28mm plastic models.

Sadly they're not pointing their weapons up, which would at least justify they're anti-air capability but I didn't include the extra missile bits I ordered either so it doesn't matter really.

Such a nice little group, I look forward to fielding them although I dread how the paint job will cope with repeated game use. Thus far all my metal Tyranid models have been a complete pain, the Biovore, Zonathrope, Hive Tyrant and Brood Lords have all been prone to chipping.

 I'm hoping the old skool Lead [pb] will be slightly more forgiving than pewter but I tried to pick off a small spot of congealed paint on one shoulder pad and it stripped a pin head sized flake off with it, so I don't hold any hope out for them :(

All the targeting lenses and viewing screens were painted as per the the usual way your would do gems, gradient with a spot of light but I then add on a coating of Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 which gives it the glossy transparency. Then I add a further blob of  VerniDas gloss varnish which retains it's shape just a little more add adds a lense effect.

But they're an interim choice until I have a more varied force, and have come to terms with how I want to play Dark Angels so they may very well be retired before they get to 'game worn'.

If I'm honest i think this is my least favourite model out of the squad. It's really to do with his thighs, they're tiny and thin, not nearly enough to support his bulk and completely disproportionate to his shin guards. It also looks a little unbalanced, like he's about to fall backwards.

I really wanted to put the extra missiles I ordered on this guy to bulk out his weedy legs but the legs just weren't long enough to fit them on. I may look to get a loin cloth to cover up the huge gap but it may just look stupid.

The squad and company marking came out really well though so hopefully that can overshadow the poor model.

 This fella is a different beast altogether. I love his squat pose, and despite also having weedy thighs at least he looks braced to support the weight of his Missile Launcher.

He obviously won't be running with a Power Fist but it looks cool and it's not like I'm going to remove it. His shin markings worked out well but I'm starting to think it looks like these guys are very much supporters of legalising cannabis! Still, the Devastator badge symbol is actually really easy to do so I didn't even need to pencil in the badge beforehand by this stage.

I also like his oversized Dark Angel chapter badge. The wing sweep upwards a lot more than the symbol stipulates but I think it fits the shoulder pad better.

Obviously the freehand doesn't stand up to close scrutiny... do you see that! There on the left most stud on his power fist - CHIPPED! Already, I only knocked him over once!

The squad sacrifice with added Dark Angel upgrade bits.

He now has the Company number in his squad symbol and you can see how I tidied up the shading in the symbol.

That plastic honour badge is a pain. I super glued it, while painting the bronze bit split from its cyanoacrylate bond. I re-glued it and as I was painting it snapped again so I just did a big blob of PVA behind and now it feels solid [and slightly more tolerant of movement]. 

Some interesting extra freehand on this one on his shin.

Luckily there was just enough room for the squad marking on his shoulder pad.

Although he also has weedy legs again the slightly more braced pose means the model doesn't look quite as feeble.

Not to mention his Mk V beaky helmet looks awesome.

The last Launcher of the squad.

Which I went a little OTT on the litanies on his thighs. too much I think. makes it look like he's got lots of threads or bones, more like Legion of the Damned than Dark Angel!

Still the back isn't too bad.

You just have to ask is that L for the Lion, or Luther...?

And here's the squad with their tactical brethren. Add in my Deathwing and Brother Cask and it's my Dark Angels to date. I'll post some pics of them altogether at a later date.

So I was wrong and big blue tick for my Watcher in Dark was in fact the penultimate one of the season and this is my last. It also means I have to amend my 2014/15 To Do List yet again, luckily I never included the Land Speeder Typhoons in that list so they can take the now vacated spot of the Devs. Tune in on the 28th to see what I've got planned.

Once again, a reminder of how they used to look:

Tuesday Nights alright for fighting

PeteB managed to score a set of Tactical Objective cards from his local independent game store. They had 7 packs in store but didn't think to mention it! suffice to say there were none left by the end of the evening Pete got his. So we decided to have a little crack at the first mission and duly positioned six numbered MDF discs on our board. Pete was trying to make his Wraith Guard work again with the use of a Wraith Seer. I'd decided to go crazy, I had a list worked up for a specific reason so decided to see what it was capable of. 

Of note is the fact the Capillary Towers now have a number of chips in their clay Chitinous plates :(

Can you make out the Genestealers? Yes I went with a Maufactorum Genestealer brood. Knowing what I was taking I got Pete to put the terrain down, I didn't want any bias as to the advantage I can get with those - being able to Infiltrate in unoccupied buildings or ruins within 6" of enemy model. I realise that means they have to sit for a turn doing nothing because they can't assault and that means I'm likely to lose First Blood but that's an immediate threat you can't ignore which allows the rest of my force to go slightly less molested. Add in the fact I also had a Lictor Forest Brood, which I forgot to Infiltrate and that's another thing to occupy your thoughts down the line.

As it was, using a Skyshield may have seemed a bit redundant and for the most part my Tervigon [which spawned out on 8 first turn] and his Gaunts did little to nothing for the entire game [although I think he killed a couple of Jet Bikes with his Stinger Salvo] except camp on the nearest objectives. Maelstom of War Games are very much like the final mission from Blog Wars 7 in that you can keep getting VPs by achieving certain objectives - securing Strategic Objectives, killing people in assault or shooting etc. I was lucky in that first turn I had already secured objectives 4 and 6. I'd later get the maximum D3 VPs for taking out PeteB's Warlord, points for killing a unit in Assault, discovering each Mysterious Objective, and securing more objectives than my opponent. 

Ultimately the game ended up with me in double figures and Pete with around 5 or 6. To be honest the final score was irrelevant because I was more interested in the game play and my army list. The Genestealers were fantastic! As predicted I lost First Blood with them, but they took all the heat from the shooting first turn and 'going to ground' at night in a ruin certainly makes them more durable. There's great potential there to get a Flyrant into Synapse range the following turn to auto-negate going to ground, add in Dominion and that's even better. Even so with three broods in the ruins I still had enough troops to be a threat in this corner.

As it was PeteB charged me, with the Wraithlord and the Wraithseer. I'd added Toxin Sacs to these three broods and boy did it pay off, wounding on 4's and Rending on 6's. It took a couple of turns but both the Eldar Wraith constructs succumbed to the Stealer broods. It's hard to say how effective these can be on a different force but considering the Tervigon, Gaunts and the other two Stealer broods had no direct impact on the game - not assaulting at least, I had plenty of points that could have been doing something sould the need arise.

Also of note was the Lictor Forest Brood. they didn't deploy in the forest, I forgot and the forest was on my board side anyway. But deep striking behind the Wave Serpents... well I was worried about them deviating but Lictors dont'! So they turned up en masse, only did a glance and a pen on one of the Serpents but having five, three wound models turn up in your back field is another immediate concern. With 20 S6 Rending attacks on the charge that's also a highly effective killing squad, especially when they're in proximity to the already effective Genestealers 

I honestly didn't think this list would work, but the mobility of the units allowed me to be in parts of the battlefield I wouldn't usually be able to get to. For some reason this reminds me a lot of how I used to play with the Mycetic Spores. In truth it's not actually mobile, it can just be where I want it to be and saturate the battlefield so that it doesn't have to be fast because it's already where it needs to be.

One other thing of note, with only two psykers in this list the psychic phase was completely underwhelming. I struggled to roll more than 2 for my Warp Charge and even when I got a five still managed to fail to cast most of my powers. Granted I tried a number of Paroxysms but Dominion! And even passing that test I was repeatedly denied by the Eldar because Pete knew that Dominion would auto rally one Genestealer that spent the entire gaming running for my board edge but would have allowed it to actually assault a nearby Wave Serpent. Psychic Phase sucks, there I said it :P

One last thing I have to say GW, really has dropped the ball with the availability of the Tactical Objective Cards. I don't know what it is that's preventing them being in store, perhaps it's boxes they're in because the cards alone could be done at any printers. I nipped to the Manchester GW the day after this battle and asked if they had some in and they said no and they never would, as they're now order only. I finally relented and said I'd order them in only to find they're unavailable, AGAIN! The manager said he's sold out of stock 4 times now and hoped that when the months numbers went back to head office they'd up their orders.

I'm shocked that this hadn't been picked up already. It's a £5 item that changes the way you can play your game. After White Dwarf and paints it's nearly the cheapest thing in the store, almost Pocket Money priced [now there's a blog post I've had in draft for years] and it's like playing the game anew. They're even a really cool item and although you can dice roll for the same effect it's quicker and easier with the cards. I think you'd even find folk paying £5 for the cards without the fancy box just to have them. Add in some numbered objective markers, yes you can make your own and there's other objective markers that they make that could be used - the servo skulls with a munitorum dice on but why not make some 40mm circular ones with Ad Mech effect and gothic numerals. The Omnissiah knows they would sell!

Dark Angels - Devastator squad marking

Day 1 of the loft conversion [last Thursday] brings with it all the scaffolding and having taken the day off to be 'on site' I do get to spend the rest of the day painting. I don't think I'll be able to justify that every day I'm home but it's nice to get something done considering it's preventing Armies on Parade. This is only a micro blog but it'll do considering the upheaval. The Devastators have get the most of my attention and having created a wonderfully dark blend on this marine I'm now going to cover it up with the Devastator blast symbol. First things first was to pencil in the shape. Later on I didn't bother as it's relatively simple [although I didn't take anymore pictures :( ]

With outline in place I painted an inverted T shape using Mechrite Red [still have my supply] and then ran diagonal lines off the bottom of the T, then filled in the spikes. Black washes at the base gave it a bit of depth and then Vallejo Bloody red edges. Subsequently I decided there was too much black in the 'blast' so toned the spikes down with Mechrite red, making more of a linear gradient than an offset inner one. Interestingly I kept on finding all sorts of brown marks on the leg greaves after painting these. I couldn't figure it out as they weren't like that when I started. Then I realised I'd been using latex gloves I'd used when sculpting Milliput months ago and somehow it was still transferring to the model! Lesson learned - wear different/clean gloves.

The Missile Launcher guys have slightly smaller right shoulders and some have discs on which will render the blast symbol impossible. For these marines I will paint the 5th Company symbol on the disc and paint the blast symbol on their right leg. Where possible I'll also paint the 5th Company Roman numeral and various litanies painted on their armour.

And to prove I'm not just scamming you all on the abandonment of Armies on Parade, this is the morning of day 4 of the loft conversion. The dormer is up and by the end of the day was roofed and boxed in. The builder is hoping to finish in 3 weeks, instead of the 4-6 originally quoted so who knows where we'll be at the end of it, there may yet be time for AoP.

But at least we'll have a kick-a$$ view ;)

Terrain is everything - Hail the Omnissiah a new Print & Play building

It's been a good few months since my last 'Print & Play' terrain template and as the loft conversion is beginning my hobby and blogging exploits will take a back seat. Therefore, to tide you over I thought I'd release a new building skin. This time you get a green marble structure with reinforced iron buttresses.

The complete set of three will once again follow the same basic sizes as my beige and black buildings. Which raises the question - should I be making some additional sizes? How about a tower that is half the width [2 windows] of this one or some single storey buildings that will offer LoS blocking to infantry but leave those Imperial Knights and Lords of War with just a cover save. Let me know if you prefer new sizes or new skins?

Just to point out you can make these as simple or as difficult/detailed as you like - print onto paper and stick to foamboard and they're done but you can print multiple copies and stick on top of the foamboard another cut-out version on mounting card that's the rusted iron and then another later of just the buttresses. That way your buildings can be more detailed or as simple as you want.

These would ideally be suited for foamboard that has the black foam core. Black foamboard would make these easily playable from the off, without looking too much like a quickly knocked up bit of terrain.

To access the full STC please point your Cogitators here, be fair warned it is 8MB in size [I make no apologies for this, I could probably render it as a .jpg or spend hours trying to reduce the file size, I tweaked it a little bit and got it down so hopefully it's less of an issue now.]:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B97Rk-BalgZbNGJyS05pLWtuNzg

Dark Angels - Land's Speeder Typhoon Pattern

I mentioned how I was struggling to paint my Ravenwingand thought I'd shared the pics of why but can't seem to find them so forgive me if this is a repost. As you can see the highlights are by no means neat, or subtle. As I've maintained 'nids by their very organic nature offer so many advantages for those who struggle to be neat in their painting.

As you can see man-made items need a lot more finesse than my hand/eye co-ordination can provide. However, I hoped some Badab Black would solve this but that's where it had issues with strange effects appearing in it's 'tide marks'.
[incidentally that's the sort of size a Heavy Bolter barrel should be drilled to, none of this 1mm nonsense, make those Bolter rounds proportional, rant over]

I've since tried thinning black paint down and painting over the mottled Badab Black wash, this has improve the effect so much more.

As you can see here, with it's newly acquired wing-man. I've still to add some litanies and maybe some decorative markings. The Codex includes the old tropes of checks, red and gold piping, I want these to be dark and menacing but maybe I need to bite the bullet and do them just to break things up. Alternatively I could try some battle damage and I will maybe add some of my Secret Weapon Miniatures red weathering powders to represent the dust picked up on Ferron Proxima

So there's plenty to do, there's mini progress at least and having a second one completes the squadron. I do fancy a Darkshroud to provide cover and be their big brother but it'll be a while yet before I get one of them.

ebay purchases I won't regret!

I'll be honest here this is nothing more than a tease post. I've made a couple of purchases on ebay recently that I'm super stoked about. They'll form part of my 2014/15 Hobby Season but I won't be looking at them at all until after Armies on Parade, should I have the opportunity to create my new board that will require all my focus.

Suffice to say that although they won't be as exciting as a scratchbuild based on my own designs and crazy ideas they are really important items that will be interesting to share with you all. So I'm sorry about the tease but I'm super excited and had to share something at least. It's going to be all kinds of awesome, bring on the new hobby season!

Dark Angels - Watcher in the Dark - TO DONE!

Aah, this wee little fella got done. Not sure why I was so keen to get him finished, he's little to nothing in my army but I guess it just feels good to complete something.

I went a little OTT on the yellow weed, just a tad more than I should have done but I find it's quite difficult to work with so it's a bit of a gamble.

The Lion Helm is a little understated I think but I chose to do it similar to the Codex version - red wings. It fits my colour scheme [with the red planet base], although I think bronze would have probably been more appropriate.

Shadows in the creases of his cloak/mantle/habit are probably a bit too extreme but I've always been a big fan of contrast so although it's not realistic I'm still happy with the result, despite knowing it's wrong, wrong, wrong ;)

The Dark Angel green turned out OK too, now I just have to replicate it on the Tactical and Devastator squad.

Glad to see his hood was suitably dark and mysterious inside.

Some pics before I got the white balance half decent, but this is probably what the little fella would look like on Ferron Proxima, where the sulphur yellow skies would have this tint.

I find it so amusing to mount such a tiny little model on such an imposing piece of slate. It's like he's the one in charge,

Anyway, I've run out of content for the next few days, the scaffolding has gone up for the loft conversion and I've done nothing significant hobby-wise since the weekend. I've a few new terrain templates I hope to reveal that should tide you over but a slight lull in momentum is definitely in effect as the house prepares to get ripped apart.

However I do still get a big blue tick [probably my last] for being a good boy and painting some Dark Angels, even if it's only 15pts for a Perfidious Relic or 0pts to add to my Azrael.