Friday 13 July 2018

Battle Reports - Imperial Knights Renegade

For a variety of reasons I got to visit my mate Liam the other day. He lives in Chorley, about 40 minutes away from where I live but when I get the train into work the station is roughly half way there so it makes sense for me to go to him. Invariably it mean he makes my tea, which is always nice but we don't catch up as often as we should. However, the request for a spare Thunderstrike Gauntlet from my Renegades box gave us the opportunity to actually have a crack at the game. The mission we rolled required us to critically damage 4 areas on the legs. Liam used his Khorne Knight, it has two fists but we played it with a fist and a Reaper Chainsword. Whereas I had Euronymous with the Thermal Cannon, Chainsword and we both had Heavy Stubbers

We started the game well apart but it was evident that he would have to come to me, although with my short range I'd have to be very careful not to get too close so I could take advantage of the range from the Thermal Cannon.


By the end of the first turn Liam had managed to get past the Shrine of the Aquila. I think I'd been lucky with a Stubber shot, it had missed its legs but hit the Gauntlet and taken a wound.


Next turn and I gambled instead of moving to Snap Fire and Standard fire. I thought two rounds of shooting, even one wildly inaccurate, might be better than him chasing me round the table. The Snap Fire did some damage but the Standard Fire missed completely


I had tried to get out of base contact range but then found out that in Renegade all melee weapons have a range. The Chainsword is 6" and the Gauntlet 4" so he was able to smash one hip to pieces - they autohit and do 3 damage. He then took another leg hard point to all but 1 wound left.


It was clear I was trapped now, with the damage I'd already sustained my movement was done by 1". All I could do was snap shot and standard shot again. I managed even the score about, Liam's Knight was on roughly the same sort of damage. I'd wiped out leg plate with the Thermal Cannon and mostly damaged another leg. I'd also put another wound on his gauntlet.


But there was nothing I could do as the Gauntlet and Chainsword autohit again.


Taking my legs out from under me.


Khorne had prevailed, Eurnoymous truly was a fallen knight!


As the game had been relatively quick we had a nother go, this time I took Liam's loyalist House Terryn Gallant and he took the Nurgle Paladin. We were playing a mission where I just had to escape the top of the board, it was Liam's job to stop me.


I moved into cover of the Shrine and rotated my Ion Shield for a better save.


Unfortunately the Fecund of Filth couldn't hit the side of a barn, let alone Sir Diddymous of House Terryn.


Next turn I moved further out, again rotating Ion Shields


The Nurgle Knight moved to cover my escape but it was running out of space.


Sire Diddymous pondered whether to fulfill the mission.


He could not stomach the though of this monstrosity left.


So he charged. A smash to the face destroyed the head and rendered the demon engine dumbstruck, reducing it's options in the following turns


A subsequent swipe removed its Reaper Broadsword, leaving it with no melee weapons whatsoever.. it was clear at this point there was no stopping Sir Diddymous, he had all the advantages, could escape at his leisure and he was toying with the Renegade, we called it for the Imperium.


I'm not sur emany people buy Imperial Kights Renegade for the game and so it's flaws perhaps aren't too much of a worry. It's clear shooting is far from effective, more accurately melee is too effective. The auto-hit is just too powerful and there is no stopping those weapons as they're AP just cuts through a 5+ armour save.

Also the combined critical damage could do with broadening. Only the weapons are destroyed after two hardpoints are critical, it'd be nice for legs to be crippled more/risk toppling over like the old Adeptus Titanicus rules. We may develop some house rules for this, see if it's possible for multiple Knights and create rules for the Warglaives... Still as a quick game goes it's fine, I just think there's more potential in it to make it more compelling and it's clear if you go melee you will win the game.

Wednesday 11 July 2018

'nids part 260 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.14 - Flesh and bone

The Chitin highlights are all done, but rather than post another 'save point' progress shot I;ve just cracked on with a first set of Vermilion highlights on the fleshy bits.


There are still some pink bits to do on the tongue and pipework on the torso. It looks a bit garish at the moment but gloss varnish and Tamiya Clear Red X-27 will change all that.


As stated the chitin highlights got completed.


It was a hard slog in the end but the Hobby Season deadline is just 46 days away now and I'm itching to see this complete so I can tackle that last of my Big 3.


With the fleshy bits done I moved on to the bone highlights. I'd gone with Army Painter Skeleton Bone first time around and as Valejo Bonewhite is lighter I did the next set of highlights with that but honestly I'm seeing very little difference. I'm not sure if this approach is worth the effort


You can see here that the right hand side has had a Bonewhite highlight and the left hasn't. It's almost impossible to tell the difference and I think I'm just covering up a lot of what I did anyway, making the fine lines thicker.


But I also applied the 'third highlights' in places - ends of ribs and the first two striation to the front of each rib. Even that is difficult to tell, so I'm just going to continue to use this second highlight colour instead of the Bonewhite across the entire model. Hopefully the increased contrast between my highlight mix and the Skeleton Bone will help.


I'm also going to add some shading under the ribs, unsurprisingly in the shadow areas. Hopefully it'll add a bit more definition as it's looking a little one dimensional [although technically with width and height it's two dimensional]. Half the ribcage in 45 minutes though was good going. Hopefully I can be happy with that finish the body and then crack on with the legs.

Monday 9 July 2018

Principles or toy soldiers?


This month the staff recognition scheme thought our team deserved the reward. Previously I hadn't engaged with the process as it's built on staff recognising each others efforts which smacks of 'fishing for likes' and having an employee of the month based on that can be open for abuse. I'd much prefer the powers that be were directly aware of what we do instead of crowd sourcing nominations so they can remain arms-length.

However, I know what all our team members nationwide did last month and as there's 20+ of us that means the reward is shared between us and isn't one person pocketing the lot. It's a far more equitable recognition than I'd previously observed.

The key fact is that the reward can be taken in Amazon vouchers which means when I add it to the birthday and Christmas gifts already accrued I could blow it all on the Renegade box set, because who doesn't want another two Imperial Knights - they're all the rage! Not to mention the terrain too...

It does mean my grey tide has suddenly become somewhat of a tsunami again and will require a re-think of next season's To Do List but that's the hobby right? So, when someone asks what price your principles?, you know my answer is "screw principles Heretic - for the Emperor!"

Friday 6 July 2018

'nids part 259 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.13 - Chitin highlights 2

I'm cracking on with this beast now, made just a little bit tougher by the silly heatwave. On the plus side I added a new fly-screen to my window in the shed so I can have it open at night and not be swamped by flying bugs [wanting to meet their Hive Queen no doubt!]. Unfortunately it can still be 26°C in the evening, mainly because it's topping out 32°C during the day. That temp is really uncomfortable and the paint is drying on the palette. I'm sure Marcellis has no sympathy for me ;)


Anyway, the highlighting continues and I have finished the legs. What is pleasing is that these took about 9 sessions to highlight first time around and I managed it in 5. So my 75% time saving estimate was particularly conservative. 


I think you can just about see both sets of highlights on the striations. I honestly think there is a much finer touch on this than my recent Trygon.


The brush strokes are a bit bolder on the shins for instance but I think overall I'm achieving the best I can. I still wish the striations could be finer but I see an improvement and subtlety in places so at least I'm doing my best and not rushing it.

Bio-cannons also got done which meant I was on to the back carapace.


When I did the head and carapace sections last time I got really despondent afterwards. There was something that made it feel like an enormous task ahead but this time round I felt great. Also interesting was the fact I am highlighting the spots as I go, whereas I think I did them all in one or two sessions first time round.


That means I'll save time at the end too. I've two big plates to do next and their vents. The vents can be quite tedious, I did consider doing them separately and just focusing on the plates. However, like the spots its just something I can do as I go along.  


The dots in particular are handy as with all the fine control of the striations and the paint becoming sticky in the heat it's always easy to blob in a dot. I don't get hand cramps but it's much harder to do those lines than dots, it breaks up the monotony. Again that's important because despite the good feeling I had after the last session I was once again wracked by doubts before doing these plates, but feel much better now they're done.


Here's a close up of my highlights so you can really see the detail in the brush strokes. It amplifies everything so you can see they're much chunkier than I would like but c'est la vie.


And the head itself, you may have spotted earlier I've painted the eye orange, you can't see it here. That's the base for the rest of the yellow, it'll be pretty cool to get that done. I'm also looking forward to highlighting the fleshy bits eventually.


I have three big plates to do next and then it's just lots of progressively smaller/easier tail plates. I'm really anxious to see this done, there's actually still a lot left do though. All the second bone highlights [and maybe third!] fleshy bits and green glows on the vents, not to mention the claws/talons. But my hobby season is drawing to a close and I'm thinking about next year's To Do List already visualising those projects boxed off and complete. First things first though...

Wednesday 4 July 2018

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Chosen Axes Basing TO DONE!

Don't worry, after the big show of prioritising the Hierophant I've not immediately lost interest. This is where I was at on the Fireslayers before I got focused. As usual I did the bases first as I knew I'd be scruffy with the drybrushing.


I wanted something a little weird, hence the Coelia Greenshade and Purple washes. I'm not sure if it works and the drybrushing is a bit untidy when it's solely on plastic and not sand. However the white highlights brought some semblence of intent that tied it all together.


Obviously I went grey, but I think teal/turquoise might have been a bit better. As I intend to sell these the one silver lining that is helping me to part with them is I see it as an opportunity to play around with different colour schemes. These learning opportunities mean I have to part with them to move on to the next one.


The big skull turned out OK, no doubt because I'm used to painting bone so much. Next [when I've finished the Biotitan] I'll be doing the metallics and hair base colours. That seems odd not to do the skin but the plan I have for that requires the hiatus to help me accept the route I want to take. Patience will be my friend.


I still have to do the base edges, which will be black, that will be done at the end but in the mean time I get the Big Build Basing Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval.


Monday 2 July 2018

'nids part 258 - Biotitan Tyranid Hierophant pt.12 - Bonewhite complete

Oops, spoiler. Obviously this is the pic that gets into the blog feeds so it helps if it looks good.


Which is obviously better than this WiP of the legs.


Which I finally got through and what a relief.


So I got a full built photo shoot so we can see how she is progressing.


And despite the hardship of getting to this stage it tipped me over the edge - the good edge and I can foresee how this is going to play out. Having recorded my efforts [show at the end of the post] I can see the second Chitin highlights will take possibly another 18 days.


Then the second Bonewhite highlights another 10. So I have 28 days worth of work, and I will be doing some additional 3rd highlight on both and not including the red fleshy bits, claws and talons all the glow effects and varnishing.


It's 62 days until the Hobby Season ends [when I wrote this]. I want this done and so it'll be my priority and if I crack on then the Razorback might just sneak in at the end. Shadespire Fireslayers and future containers seem a stretch at this point but who knows. Regardless this is big prize, and getting this out of the way in a timely fashion will provide opportunity for the others.


With at least 28 days worth of work it seems like a big slog but I'm up for the challenge and think now with a more positive attitude I might struggle less. With the first highlights done it's slightly quicker tracing over them with a second highlight. There's less to think about, which speeds things up but I have to take a bit of care that I don't obliterate all the first highlight - else what was the point. So I'd estimate it's 75% quicker to do.


But I have a deadline now and an overall guide of how long things take that I aim to beat, so although there's a lot and it'll take a significant amount of effort I'm raring to get it done.


Here's my updated log, which has been marked up so I can track the different parts to do again.


And finishing up the first set of highlights.


And there we go, almost a 'What's on my palette'!