Birthday Bash 2.0 - Tickets are live

I know it's been a few weeks since I first mentioned the Birthday Bash but we've been getting all our ducks in a row, by ducks I obviously mean proto-human genetic super beings clad in impact resistant powered battle armour! Well the ducks are most definitely in a row and you should be able to book tickets from www.wargamesuk.co.uk/events

I'll put some more information up later but was just desperate to finally get this information out

The Great Build part 1 - TO DONE! Dark Angel Assault Squad

Another unexpected beneficiary of the 'drop pod doldrums' was that I'd been contemplating my lack of progress on 'The Great Build' - my hobby season pledge to get more figures built, based, primed and the bases painted. With the pods proving difficult I looked to the bits of figures I had and what I could build and chose the Assault squad that had been sat in a little round turquoise box for over a year. I'd sourced some Sanguinary guard legs on ebay last year. The seller had loads of bits including some Blood Angel chainswords. I loved the slightly ornate nature of the legs, especially the quartered knee pads because they were perfect for my 5th company heraldry.

I wanted a diverse mix of torsos and helmets, a unique unit of dynamic looking characters. Assault marines aren't great by any stretch so I felt it was very important to just make them look cool so their innate awesomeness was reason alone to pick them

I also made the bold choice of giving them two Flamers. It's a cheap upgrade and I had the Forgeworld ones from when I got the MK1 missile launchers for my Devastator squad. I'm not sure anyone else would use them but for 10 points for the two they might put a dint in some low armoured horde army and the 2D3 overwatch shots are handy in a pinch.

This is the Sergeant, which I've swapped his Bolt Pistol for a second Chainsword, bonkers I know. I've effectively removed his overwatch and ranged capabilities but I was desperate to have a figure wielding two weapons. The plan was to do it 'nito style' with a smaller combat blade 'shielding' in the left hand low down with the Chainsword raised up high. Sadly I couldn't manage the pose but this did OK and I was happy with the bare Ravenwing command head too. I also added some Dark Angel veteran upgrade bits to hide Blood Angel elements that were cut off. I've since also added some grenades to his right hip. I preferred the silhouette of the model without but felt it would make a helpful reminder he can at least throw some grenades in overwatch, he's not totally ranged free [or free ranged?].

Another decision I may live to regret is that the Sergeant, this model and the next were not pinned to the slate rock, just super glued... still, I was pretty chuffed with this pose, twisting at the waist to give it more dynamism. The Dark Angel upgrade head was particularly cool with it's tall arched mouthpiece.

Slightly less convinced about this pose, the drum feed bolt pistol is pretty cool alongside the Ravewning upgrade beaky helmet but the pose is a bit more 'falling down' than 'strike from upon high'. I tried to attach a little Dark Angel toke on the end of the chainsword but it pinged off in the shed - forever lost. I did put some elements on his right hip to hide some Blood Angel motif that was removed.

The flamer was really quite difficult to pose, I had a load of second edition arms but it was still a struggle to get it to look right. Luckily that purity seal helps cover up how weedy the right arm is. The left arm is a Space Wolf arm PeteB gave me ages ago in an effort to empty his bits box. I thought it'd luck cool, but more importantly it'd reach the flamer handle. I used some flower arranging wire to lift the model up I could have used clear acrylic rod but with the painting I thought I'd still get it messed up and a simple black rod can be just as effective. 

I suddenly realised with this guy it's the Bolt Pistol that's replace not the Chainsword. It was too late to add one to the previous model but I had to ensure this one carried both hopefully to remind me they all have the melee weapons. Pretty happy with the pose, all the squad have the DA upgrade shoulder pad with a sword blade on the right shoulder. Not really chapter approved but for some reason it had to be that side, I'll justify it with fluff somehow ;)

Whilst I was basing the squad I decided to base these two Terminators from Space Hulk that I was lucky enough to have thrown into the copy I got off ebay that wasn't supposed to have any of the Terminators included. The standard sharp sand mix I use was supplemented by some grit that I won as part of my 2nd place Best Army winnings. It's just smaller than my main pieces and bigger than the fine sand. Hopefully it should be more interesting now.

Lastly I based the Genestealer Patriarch too.

Lots more elements from my rubble mix with bits of sprue, larger stones, card off cuts and bits of plastic so they fit my slightly more urban resin bases.

After all that I get a Big Purple Great Build Stamp of Approval for the Assault Squad...

and another two for the Patriarch and Terminators.

Carcharadons

I have form with helping my kids with their homework... In the midst of my trying to motivate myself to do the Drop Pods I helped my youngest with his half term project. In the past I've made a model of a Neon atom and helped with the trees from a Savannah biome, each time I've probably done more than I should so why should making a Glyphis Shark be any different? So we start with a fabric softener bottle.

I then cut two arches out of cardboard and taped them onto the bottle.

Two dorsal fins, with L shaped supprts either side to make them stand tall.

The pelvic and anal [yes, that's right, anal] fins were added alongside and extension for the tail. I also added some more card inside the mouth so it wasn't flat but bulked out.

Pectoral fins were added and the caudal fin [the tail]. I attached two crescent shapes onto the caudal fin so it would be more rigid, add more dimension too it and help the tail structure hold together better. Teeth were added and lots more brown tap just to hold everything in place.

Papier mache - the wife took this as I helped cover the entire shark with kitchen roll soaked in PVA and water. The interesting thing was the paper towel had a spotty embosed texture that transferred perfectly, representing the rough sandstone texture of a shark.

And here's the youngest once it was painted - grey primer, white primer, black poster paint for the gills and some googly eyes.

A bit of red oxide primer in the mouth,

OK, I'm a bad Dad in just how much of a hand I had in this construction, but he did put half the papier mache on, painted the gills and helped with the spraying. I felt really guilty about it but I can;t help myself, he was clearly chuffed with the results though, I just hope he enjoyed making it together. Anyway, thoguht I;d share what you can make over a few hours with just a little bit of effort and a lot of brown sticky tape.

Dark Angels - Drop Pod[s]

NOTE: For reasons I cannot fathom, all the pics have been deleted from Google photos and a recent image purge on my phone [maybe thats the connection] has resulted in their removal. I've found some lo-res cached copeis but I'll try and find the hi res versions, in the mean time I appreciate this doesn't look good and sorry for the cock up. 

UPDATE: Found I'd set an automated sync to a cloud storage site I'd forgotten about and managed to reupload the hires versions...

I'm not sure if I was otherwise affected by Rory Priest's last comment on the drop pods:

"I do think they should really be approached in ones from what I have heard/read."

But as it was I did stall for a while on this, it's odd really as the process is highly predictable and although I can't say I feel the need to gnaw my own face off as I would a dozen Genestealers there is something emotionally null about it. I don't dread it or fear it but it just fills me with no pleasure whatsoever as I finish shading the inner parts of the fins.

The other sides have also been done but I now need to find a way to blend the colours, the highlight is too olive looking. Usually I use my Dark Angel green Valejo paint, if it's not shaken it has a semi-opaque glaze quality that will help blend the stippled highlights and enrich the darker greens. I'm a little hesitant though as I fear it may obscure the black shading, part of me wants to get the Citadel Green Glaze to achieve the same result and be more consistent so I'm waiting for my next opportunity to get some.

In the mean time I went on to highlight the doors. The stippling is not looking great at this stage. From experience I would have applied the £1 craft acrylic to simulate a rougher cast surface that would have meant my stippling would pick up the extra detail and not need to be so perfect, like my Imperial Knights.

Unfortunately this had already progressed so far I didn't want to go back to such an early stage and with the knights they had another coat of spray over the top to try to seal the art paint onto the model. Now I had to decide about the black shading on the doors and how to apply it. Then I'll be at the same crossroads as the fins for blending the greens.

Therefore with decisions to be made I moved onto pod number 2. Hopefully while I focus elsewhere a decision can percolate in the back of my mind while my efforts are more productive elsewhere. So I move onto the bronze, can I recreate the success of the original?

I manage to get the Gehenna Gold and Brass Scorpion on. The stippling is a bit more chunky than pod 1, less realistic but I don't think it's any worse for it. I've some sepia washes to do next to deepen the tones and then I can work on the greens and sync pod 1 and 2 together in the process.

This was a long slog to get here but I did flip between a number of projects, projects that I don;t want to be working on as the pods are the primary goal; but they're all on the list I just don't want to get sidetracked from the next thing I have planned after the pods. I fear I may get too attached to the things I'm doing to keep my mojo up and not get back to the next big thing I'm hoping to do. That said I'll still be sharing the supplementary efforts over the next few days, lots of exciting things after a period of seeming inactivity.

1500pts battle report - Caledonian Highlander 5 - Tyranids v Tau

Peter Lennon was my final opponent of the tournament, also with Tau but a slightly unique list with only 1 Riptide, it's almost as if he thought a Highlander event was about bringing just one of a particular type. That said he also had 2 Remora, 2 Tetra, 2 XV9 Battlesuits some Kroot and Farsight with his gang.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant HQ Tervigon CC TR Broodlord Onslaught Dominion Dominion The Horror Psychic Scream The Horror Dominion

The low down:

• Eternal War missions
• Maelstrom missions
• Hammer and Anvil
• I think I won deployment but asked Pete to deploy first and failed to seize on a 1!
• Warlord Trait -Warlord and 3 units get infiltrate
• Not sure about night fighting. 

Unfortunately I lost the most important dice role of the game - getting to deploy Infiltrators first. Peter positioned those Stealth suits the other side of the Factory ruins effectively blocking off my options to capitalise on my 5 Infiltrators. The best I could do was bunch up on the flank  halfway up the board and my Genestealers just 3" out of my DZ.

Peter had the advantage of the high ground and cover.

Peter lines up the Malenthrope with marker lights and he suffers 3 wounds before he's even moved. Luckily everything else was left unmolested.

With the weight of fire from all the Devourers the Riptide just couldn't last and was readily dispatched. This may have been First Blood and probably a Maelstrom Card too, things were looking good with the major threat out of the picture.

Kroot came on at the back of my DZ

The Remoras zoomed on, dodging through the ruins...

their targeting systems locking onto the Flyrant...

...putting 3 wounds on the conduit to the Hive Mind, despite jinking.

 
Farsight and his gang appeared behind my advance force.

They would not suffer the Tyrannofex to live and executed him with precision, the Malenthrope was also destroyed.

The Flyrant swooped across to take cover behind the rocks.

I actually think he may have died from a Perils, I think that's the Perils result of a two, which is a wound with no saves. Stupid winged flappy thing!

Meanwhile the Genestealers had only just made it into the Factory - lazy gets! But I think they did secure objective 6 for me.

Which did them no favours as they were cut to ribbons by the XV9s and Stealth Suits.

With no airborne targets left the Remoras focused their attention on the Hormagaunts holding objective 5.

They thinned their numbers but Farsight was nearby to mop anything else up.

The Carnifex came under fire from the Battle Suits on the building but their armour was ridiculously ineffective against the Tau weaponry.

That wasn't the end of their woes and the remaining Carnifex took another two wounds.

Farsight, rebel that he is assaulted the Hormagaunts.

They got wiped out with the Termagants next on his list.

The gaunts swarmed together, putting two wounds on his retinue.

The battlesuits systematically dispatched gaunt after gaunt

But the weight of number brought two of the suits down leaving Farsight and one bodyguard.

The XV9s faced down 8 spawned gaunts but however hard they tried they could not eliminate the last one as it skulked int e shadows.

The last Carnifex headed towards the Tau line unawares the last Remora had targeted it from behind.

The Carnifex was brought down and suddenly my entire flank had crumbled, so much for that good start!

The Tyrannocyte arrived deep in the heart of Tau territory, it's cargo of Rippers stealing the objective out from under the Battle Suits but it's Deathspitters limited in effectiveness against the Tau armour.

Meanwhile back in my DZ the Kroot had moved to snatch objective 2 away from my Tervigon. It was repeatedly casting dominion to keep the still engaged Termagants from bolting from Farsight.

With only one bodyguard left the suits could fight in close harmony using Farsights enhance Weapon Skill to hamper my ability to hit. He still took wounds but the brood was thinning each round of combat.

Eventually the Kroot contested objective 2, turn 5 came and the game ended. I think another 20-0 defeat after differentials [I socred points in the game but when you look at the difference Pete gets 20 points and I got zero for game score]. I thought I had a chance of the wooden spoon but Sandy must have had another bad game as he went away with the rather impressive trophy, £15 voucher and jar of lollipops.

With time left on the board, I know, me not going to full time! We played out the Farsight combat I was curious to find out if the Gaunts could prevail. Sadly they didn't, with Farsight cutting them all down - amazing, Tau succeeding in assault. I'm sure the Tervigon would have Miasmic Spit the Kroot off objective 2 and joined the fray at some point. But overall it was amazing to witness the nids just crumble so quickly with the loss of the Flyrant.

Another great event attended and five excellent games with genuinely pleasant individuals. The perception beforehand was the Caledonian events breed a more competitive atmosphere and although the Highlander format attempts to make it less WAAC there were clearly some very competitive builds. Of course I spent most of the tournament down on the bottom tables were just getting a win was challenging all round. I have to say not having any aspirations of progress it's so much more relaxed and enjoyable. I always play my best but if my best isn't good enough then I'll have a darn good time losing! I think this marks a new dawn in my appreciation of the social aspect above and beyond the competitive side, as evidenced by the selfies. I know it's a bit cheesy regardless of the results it's the people that count and the shared experiences, here's to the next event!