Dark Angels - Tanks - Predator battle damage

As discussed progress has been less than forthcoming on the projects currently in the works. I imagine them like four planets in orbit that have aligned so you can no longer see through them. Ordinarily I might convince myself to tackle one of the onerous jobs - basing and such, and luckily I have all those trees to base [painting-wise]. But the problem with onerous jobs is there no real motivaiton to do them!

However, I did force myself to go into the shed around 10:30 and just try and crack on with battle damage on my Predator. I don't know why I was reluctant to do it but I went in with zero feeling or emotion. I appreciate that many will find this anathema to the 'enjoyment of the hobby' but as I've said many times before when you're painting alone you spend a considerable amount of time in your own head. This becomes a challenge in itself, if it wasn;t you wouldn;t see so many folk on forums and social media asking about 'hobby block' and loss of mojo.

Couple that with the fact that I'm a functioning hobby addict, there are many times I don't 'enjoy' the hobby because I;ve become immune to the effects of the dopamine I get when I do well. That said there are always surprises and with numerous activities quite often when you are least looking forward to doing something the rewards are often greater because of it.

Anyway, what did I do? Well it's apparent now that I was reluctant to do the battle damage because I think I was worried it'd be too much like the Drop Pods or my Bastions whereas I felt the weathering should be more like my Imperial Knight. essentially instead of sticking to sponge weathering I should actually paint on the damage, which in tunr would be a longer more drawn out process which made it less appealing.

Ultimately I just stopped worrying, got out the sponge, some Rhinox Hide paint and dabbed on, but much more controlled than usual. I tried not to get the diffused 'spray' of tarnishing and used it to just get areas of damage. I then added some extra scratches with a brusch and neatend it up. This was followed by some addition of Khorne Red to look like a red oxide primer undercoat [althouth it should be a little warmer than Khorne Red, but then it'd be rusty looking and I didn't want rust on the tank].

I then added some light green highlights to the bottom of the damage, something I didnDt do on the Drop Pods and Bastions but I did on the Knight. I think I have different weathering on all four of these models now which is a little frustrating as consistency across an army is key. But, weathering and battle damage is not consistent so I can rationalise the difference, it;s just you want the entire army to look the same.

Regardless the results were great on their own, I completed most of it in an evening, which was beyond my expectations. With hindsight I think I should have consulted the Drop Pod and Knight prior to doing this, and the green highlights too for that matter as i tmight have proved an easier proposition - it's amazing how little I think to consult my own blog for tips to move things along. Perhaps I need a new rule to 'consult past projects before progress'. I always work that way in my day job, I've no idea why I'm so blasé about it for my hobby?

I had a few more nights off and then added some Verdigris to the bronze areas. I wasn't paying too much attention and having painted the tracks and exhaust realise I needed to glue in the Las-cannons and couldn't patina those until the glue dried.

Next night I got the Las-cannons done, I'd also picked out some gun metal scratches on the battle damage, not too much. All that's left to do is the three Las-cannon coils in the middle of the barrel. Also the rear lights need doing, varnishing and its complete!

Which prompted me to start bringing the Razorback up to speed.

I only think this is additional shading on the green.

Which is starting look OK. Stipple highlights next and then glazing.

It'll be awesome to see these both done, can't wait.

'nids part 243 - Genestealer Broodlord - TO DONE!

A week or so ago, in the midst of my malaise I conjured up the motivation to crack on with this guy and a couple of nights work was sufficient to fix the bits I wasn't happy with and then varnish it.

I have a sneaking suspicion I may want to use this Broodlord more than the others, whether that comes to pass or not I don't know but I find something appealing about him.

I now have the Triumvirate of the Hive and could add in the two 'Broodlords in Body Warmers' to have five!

And not to forget I have another Patriarch from my second Deathwatch Overkill box. I'm unsure what to do with him actually. I'm pretty certain I don't need a sixth Broodlord and aside from the challenge of converting it to be posed on the ground and thus use the pipe elsewhere I can't see a reason to keep it...

 But there's no urgency to get rid so I'll keep hold of it for now.

I was really chuffed how the base worked out on this guy and really handy to have it on the 40mm round base too.

 They make a nice trio

Here are the phone shots as well, I didn't take too many pictures but these ones look fab.

And a couple suitable for use as desktop wallpapers should you feel so inclined.

And once again the three brothers

And so I get the Great Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval!

dlvr.it for hobby bloggers

I wanted to share my limited experience with dlvr.it to the rest of the hobby bloggers. We're all in this together now and although there's no secret to blog success this is another tool to attach to your belt to help you share your posts.

So what is dlvr.it?

According to their website it's the '#1 Automated Social Media Manager' and the most important aspect of that is the 'automated' bit, which I'll come to shortly. Firstly though some background - most of my current social media use is Facebook, obviously blogger, a YouTube channel of mixed videos [manily from my kendo days] and I do have Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Twitter is not something I ever really warmed to though, I get what it's for but I've always found the app really unintuitive to use. Instagram is also a lesser concern, originally I was going to use it to share the best snapshots I'd taken but as Games Workshop started to use it to harvest pictures of hobbyists models to go on their product pages it soon became important to share pictures on there if I had a hope of them being 'officially' recognised. I use it now to showcase my finished To Done pics.

Most importantly though is that just because I have a narrow field of social media doesn't mean those that follow [or would be potentially interested in what I do] are not using them. So how does one engage with a social media platform they can't get their head round? Automation! And that's where dlvr.it comes in. Dlvr.it will take your blog feed and automatically share it to various social media platfroms including:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pintrest
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• LinkedIn Company [?]
• Tumblr
• RSS Feed
• Stocktwits [The Largest Social Network for Investors and Traders]

The ones I've highlighted in yellow are potentially of interest to us. Initially I was just using dlvr.it to automatically shunt my blog posts to my facebook group. I'd used another RSS feed tool but it needed approvals every couple of months [or it wouldn't work] and eventually the app folded anyway which led me to dlvr.it

For the purpose of Facebook though I think you do need access to a group you manage, which might not make it suitable if you haven't set one up or have direct admin over one. But as a simple way to get readers to see your blog I think Facebook has worked really well as a gateway to 40kaddict and for the most part I was fine with that. I'll occassionally post content direct to the group, bypassing the blog altogether, sometimes the content feels right for Facebook and not for the blog.

Then I had the epipany above that just because I don't use twitter doesn't mean other people don't and so I started looking into how I could automatically send my blog feed to twitter and while I was looking at a number of tools discovered that I was already using one and it was pretty straightforward to add my twitter account to it. The added bonus is that post labels are parsed as hashtags which wasquite handy for likes of #dreadtober. I'm now using twitter far more than I used to, specifically keeping up with other hobbyists and those from the Warhammer Community team who are quite active. I may end up far more confident with it but as a starting point dlvr.it has allowed me to participate with minimal effort.

Now although I have a Pintrest account it's not something I understand and I couldn't envisage how my feed would translate but feel free to experiment. Google+ seemed redundant as my blog is automatically shared on G+ and any specific G+ communities I want to share it to really need a more direct approach.

Lastly [as the RSS feed was pretty explanatory anyway] there was Tumblr which is a 'microblogging' site. I've no idea what this is for, who uses it or how popular it is but I now have a tumblr page because again dlvr.it just automates it. Whether it's successful or not I don't have to do anything to be a part of that platform. Regardless it increases the size of my social media footprint and I'm guessing will make search engines pick up more than just my blog.

So the bottom line is I don't know much more than the rest of you, but dlvr.it has allowed me to be part of platforms I didn't want to deal with directly, or at least until I actually understand them I'll have a foot in the door. So if you're like me then you might want to look into trying dlvr.it. or a similar social media tool, as it's minimal effort for some potential gains. Word of warning though, I'm no IT support, I did this back in September and it was reasonably straightforward with a bit of work but I don't recall any of the setup process, but if I can manage it so can you.

2000pts battle report - Tyranids v Astra Militarum

GT3 is fast approaching and although I now have a list I'm happy with, in principle, I'm yet to try it and see how Hive Fleet Adaptations and stratagems work with it.

The low down:

• Scorched Earth [Chapter Approved mission]
• Search and Destroy - Table Corner deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but Ben deployed last unit [giving me +1 to win first turn], 
• Ben won first turn, I failed to seize

I'd been advised to taken Kraken as my Hive Fleet for the 3D6, choose the highest for Advance and Fall Back and charge ability for all models. I was sceptical as with 8/14 'deep strikes', six of which would benefit from a charge on arrival, Behemoth's re-roll charges seemed more beneficial.

 

I committed to Kraken and took the Chameleonic Skin Relic on my Tervigon. Now, you may notice I said 8/14 had Tactical Reserve status and I must delpoy half on the battlefield. I did, my Hive Tyrant Warlord was on the Skyshield but took Alien Cunning as my Warlord Trait and re-deplyed him into reserves so as to deep Strike. Again I asked online about this, the majority consensus was it was a legit move, even when I suggested the FAQ about 'changing locales' in deployment might be pertinent, they suggested it was OK.

 After my last pasting at the hands of the Astra Militarum I was a little apprehensive and with more than half my army off the board I was filled with the dread of everything being wiped out but with more LoS blocking terrain this time there was really only two exposed targets...

 My Tervigon took the brunt of the shooting alongside the Termagants and was popped. The Chameleonic Skin at least meant she took a whole lot of direct firepower to put her down. Of course Ben also had a whole lot of indirect fire and the Wyverns and Basilisks managed to take out two of the Hive Guard and left me with just one Termagant who staunchly stayed where the Broodlord told it to.

Ben closed out turn one holding three objectives and First Blood for 3 VPs. My movement phase was pretty short - I moved the Broodlord towards the centre and the Termagant inside the ruin. The Tyranid Warriors shuffled along the Skyshield to get a bead on the Vendetta. 

Ben had tied up his backfield so I could bring in any of my units behind him and I wasn;t much better off deploying in the midfield. Trygon and gaunts were on the left to take on the Ratlings [whoopee-do]. Rippers secured the objective, Genestealers were in the centre. 

Hive Tyrants where alongside the ruin and on the far edge next to the trees, aiming for the Wyverns. Shooting wise I didn't have very much to do. I couldn't fire the Termagants at the Ratlings as I needed them to be in charge range and any casualties would leave me stranded. The Warlord Tyrant took the guard unit by the ruins down to two.

Trygon and Termagants made their charge on the Ratlings and we took them off as there was no chance for them to survive. I consolidated the Termagants next to the Leman Russ to force it to Fall Back next turn.

I'd managed to kill some of the guard on the Chaos altar but the Broodlord scythed through some of the rest and killed the Wyrdvane Psyker which allowed me to use Feeder Tendrills Stratagem to regain the 3CPs I'd already used so far. Unfortunately nothing else made their charges - Genestealers, Trygon or Fylrants - Behemoth's re-roll charge move looking pretty handy at this point. I did come away with 4 VPs for being on objectives though, so we were all even.

Ben's turn and he killed my Trygon, took my Warlord Flyrant down to 6 wounds, I think the other Flyrant was wounded but only slightly. The Basilisks then focused on the second Trygon and managed to kill that as well. Ben came away with just 2 VPs this turn.

Sadly I didn't take any more pictures, but it was the last turn. I multi-charged the Leman Russ and the Guard Heavy Weapon Team with my Broodlord - typically getting overwatched on it's last wound, luckily the inuvl save was re-rolled and it dodged the autocannon tying them both up. The Termagants charged the second Leman Russ which allowed the Genestealers to multicharge both  Leman Russes, without being overwatched. Combined assault managed to strip a fair few wounds off them and then I spent 3CPs to attack again but I just couldn't do enough damage on the tanksand it was 12:30am at this stage and pretty pointless to carry on.

We called it and I had 5 VPs added to my score but another turn would have seen Ben wipe me off the board. It was a good learning experience and I've certainly got room for thought. The Skyshield did serve a purpose for board control and holding objectives so I'm far from disappointed in choosing it. Kracken is a definite disadvantage for the charge and I will be switching to Behemoth because I need to be assaulting and the 70% chance of the Trygons and Flyrants getting into combat is essential. The Genestealers and Termagants will make it on around 56% but they're less of a concern.

The least effective thing in my list? The movement trays - they're practically unusable. They help me get my unit onto the board and then they don't fit around the terrain and I just ended up abandoning them. A sad waste of money, time and effort unfortunately. I'll probably end up drilling a whole in one of the spaces so I can pin them to my shed wall as decoration :( Nevermind, a decent game but a much better learning experience, I think for both of us. Ben's army is fierce and he has the stratagems I think we agree it;s understanding the tactical mechanics of the game and being 'au fait' with your army that's the next challenge. We'll get there though :)

If you're interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html

Whats on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it's been over 2 months since my last confession.

Once again I feel like I've been pretty productive, since my last 'Whats on my palette?' I was looking at:

• Space Hulk Brood Lord 
• Trygon
• Rippers 
• Movement trays
• Ferron Fire Firs
• Dark Angels Rhino 
• Dark Angels Predator 
• Land Speeder Dark Shroud

And as you can see four of those were completed [although the Broodlord was not complete at time of writing], and painted from scratch [one was even built from scratch!]. The Predator too is almost done and the Fire Firs, Land Speeder and Rhino had some progress so I feel pretty good. Except for the 'post Christmas malaise' which I avoided until the end of January... Actually it's not malaise it's fatigue mixed with malaise. As I write this [22nd Jan] I've had a few 'nights off' to try and recharge a little bit, then...

That night and 23rd Jan I cracked on with Broodlord and completed it making me feel a whole lot better. Then the reality hit again and the Predator damage, coupled with no desire to tackle my Dark Shroud or any other item has brought me to a standstill again. It's far from ideal but I've a lot on my plate at the moment outside of the hobby, but also in preparation for GT3, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it [in fact I went to bed just after 11 last night!].

Re-prioritising 'real life' is in part because I realised I actually have a lot of things already painted - too much in fact, so that they're just done and put in boxes. I definitely need to rationalise what I have and where I'm going with things. Not necessarily sellign things, just start thinking about rearranging the shed so I can store my finished items in such a way that makes them also accessible.

But I'm actually quite pleased with progress so far this season and in a week or two I'll be back to normal. One other thing I'll be working on is this Samurai from 1984 that I'm attempting to finish for the 'Eavier Metal Facebook group's 20 Year Challenge. The standard is always insane so I've no aspirations aside from taking part, it's just I've never tried before and felt I was missing out.

Sadly is also means I'm unlikely to throw my hat in with Squaduary. I've a Tactical squad that's 80% built but there is no way I can build the rest and paint them in one month with everything else going on. But give it a go if you're able.

So, I've a couple of further updates and perhaps I'll have kicked back into gear but right now I've those five things to think about and attempt when I get the motivation.

'nids part 242 - Re-magnetising my Crushing Claw Tervigon

My Crushing Claw Tervigon has been a staple of my army since 2011 but when I was painting it as a sub-assembly I asked myself even then should I magnetise it? But I was still quite green with my hobby skills and I was much more wary about screwing up the basecoats and wash I'd achieved so far than today, where I can drill this mother and worry about fixing the altogether finished paint job afterwards.

Now I've loved the Crushing Claws since the days of Biomancy Warp Speed. The ability to do a potential 9 Smash attacks [and it did on numerous occasions]. Granted this lumbering beast, moving with insane speed and smashing apart things with brutal ease, doesn't quite add up but that's what prompted me gluing them in place and that's what I was worrying about now that I had to remove the Claws from their sockets. I was imaging I'd have to drill some 0.5mm pilot holes, join them up and then slip a small screw driver into the gap and hopefully pop it off. But thankfully I didn't need to.

The thing with poly glue is it comes as liquid poly and poly cement. Both work by softening the plastic and the two pieces melt and bond together. But from my experience poly cement, although great for gap filling doesn't melt the two parts quite as much as liquid poly and often acts as a sandwich filling between them rather stick them together. And so all that was required was to jimmy the screwdriver in without the pilot holes and they did indeed pop off without any damage to the model!

On to the drilling. Once again 6mm holes to fit my Magnetix magnets.

I've still got a load in my garage that need to be separated from their plastic but I've a few knocking around from my last scavenge.

Glued in place, using my current magnetised Scything Talons from my other Tervigon to ensure polarity it consistent and therefore I can swap the weapons to either model [hopefully].

One reason for doing this is if I want to take a Rupture Cannon for a Tyrannofex. Currently the Mawloc head conversion on my 'Great Maw' Tervigon makes magnetising the Rupture Cannon a little difficult. I mean the gun is fine, it's just the feeder arm. Obviously I had the same issue with the Acid Spray but fixed it by extending the feeder tubes. I can try the same here but it's clear it'll be easier to achieve on this Tervigon head than the Mawloc/Tfex conversion.

Claws magnetised and as usual versatility means I do end up sacrificing the pose a little. Unfortunately I put the magnets into the claws almost perpendicular to the arms so the only poses I can make are tight into the body raised.

And tight into the body lowered. I'll never get the wide mid position I'd originally glued but I actually don't mind these poses so much.

This pose looks actually quite cool because it comes across as a quadroped with forearms, not a hexaped [is that the correct term?]. 

And here it is with the Scything Talons in place. Interestingly this pic was taken the following night, no extra lighting just the fluorescent tubes in the man cave and yet the pictures still look great, in part due to the Veliva filter.

I thought I'd also try putting the Acid Spray on it but it appears the Great Maw Tervigon must have had it's magnets standing proud of its torso, not recessed like this one. 

As such you can see there is a significant gap on one side.

Regardless these pictures remind me how much I love this model. Granted painting this one originally was a nightmare and it would have been nicer if it was easier to re-pose it but it it just so big and brutal looking. This model makes me like the Tyranid faction more than any other model in the Tyranid line, I just find it really impressive.

'nids part 241 - Trygon - Moar shots

Oh man! I mean look at it. It's far from a perfect picture, In fact the positioning of the model make it actually very difficult to work out what's going on but the colours are fabulous.

Composition wise I think this is much better but sadly less dynamic and could do with a bit more of the Vermilion than the orange in the background. But I bet it makes an swesome desktop wallpaper... yes it does!

And some full body shots. Again thanks to the dynamic pose it's difficult to find the golden angle for this, although this isn't too bad.

There we go my Trygon is complete, might be worth looking at what's on my Palette soon...