Random battle images

I thought if I didn't at least do a random post soon I might never get back to this blog.

The first set of images are me trying out an 1850 SM (Ultramarine Tactics) with Ork Allies. I wanted to mix in a little bit of speed, but just can't bring myself to field SM bikes.

I traveled to a new store. Friendly people, but pretty sparse on terrain. I decided to set up a gunline to try and thin down the Space Wolves before I got stuck in combat.

Stupid drop pods! Why haven't any Xeno players told me how annoying they are?

The Orks managed to thin out some of the Wolves and then got run off the table.

My Centurions were running with Tigirius, who managed to score us a very needed invul save. They stayed locked in combat for about two game turns before being overrun.

Ok, so this is a whole different battle, but I wanted to show pics of the most annoying dog fight ever. This one is a pure SM list.

If you think harder about your choice of table edge, your Land Raider may not get stuck in this position.

Skyshield and that Dark Angels banner of rolling a hundred die when shooting bolters is pretty annoying.

WIP Centurion Devastators

I am really enjoying putting together this Centurion kit. My big surprise was that GW has actually included all of the weapon options for all 3 models. It is also my first foray into magnetizing, and now I see what everyone has been raving about. My Centuri-Tubbies are growing on me.

Initial assembly. I think I might leave the tabards (?) off.

I am magnetizing the heads in case I want to try and Ork them up as Meganobs.

I posted this to my Facebook group earlier after someone asked for a size comparison.

Almost finished with the initial stages of painting. 

This has nothing to do with Centurions. I am wanting to customize one of my squads so that it would stand out from my standard Tac Squads. 

TLOS and Cover in 6th

No pictures today, but hopefully tomorrow.

I was following a great article on Bell of Lost Souls today about Line of Sight blocking terrain:

Uncle Sam Wants You to Use Line of Sight Blocking Terrain!

The article is a great read and is followed by some pretty insightful comments. The RAW (Rules as Written) arguments are pretty cut and dry as to being able to make some pretty "Wanted" level shots in 6th. A few samples from the rule book:

p. 8 - "...unblocked line from its eyes to any part of the target's body (the head, torso, arms or legs)."

On the same page it is stated that you can, "spot lurking enemies through the windows of ruined buildings,catch a glimpse of a model's legs under tree branches..." Clearly, this gets down to an issue of trying to determine Rules as Intended (RAI) or just sticking with RAW.

Two Examples:

1) An enemy Riptide is 17" away from your Tac Squad, which is in cover behind the walls of a ruin (approximately 3" away from the wall). The Riptide shoots through the window of the wall (which it is approximately 14" away from) on a squad that has already been hit by maker lights.Legally this shot is possible and any cover can be ignored.

2) An enemy unit shoots at your Tac Squad across a 1' x 1' terrain piece (a graveyard with walls tall enough to block line of sight). The enemy unit draws LOS through two wrought iron gates and a bush. Legally, this shot is possible and any cover can be ignored (again, marker lights).

I am not suggesting any argument that shooting at a barely glimpsed model is illegal. I do think that once you combine the abundance of ignores cover and ignores armour we are left with models with 3+ armour saves and potential cover saves that have almost no survivability. Yes, I play Space Marines and Orks, but please understand I am not trying to be a whiny internet fan boy. I am not an overly competitive player, so my desire to "Create a Narrative" in both my list building and how I apply rules do not take full advantage of the rules available to all players. That is my choice, and I recognize my decision to not shoot through two gates and a bush is my decision alone.

I have no suggestions about how to proceed, but I point to the blog whose title sums up my 40k hobby philosophy:

How to Lose at 40k (and look good while doing it)

* Maybe one suggestion, everybody board up the windows on your ruins :)

First Bitz Bazaar

      Tomorrow my FLGS is having a Bitz Bazaar. For someone as cheap as me this is great timing for SM pre-release day. This is my first one, and I just pulled out every unit and model that never leaves the boxes. If I am lucky I'll get enough store credit to not feel bad about pre-ordering those horrible Centurions. Since this is my first time getting rid of models I'm posting a picture dump to battle my strange sentimental attachment to these pieces of plastic.

 I still have my other Vindi, and all they seem to be doing lately is ending up as craters. Maybe a Vindi + TFC + Centurion or Devestator Squad or Predator Heavy Support.

 Such a cool model. So many points. So little chance of surviving past Turn 2.

 The Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad. I've been using these guys as proxies to test plasma. I'm hoping someone just wants to pic up some DA painted to a decent quality.

I really do love these guys, but they are just too DA to run with my Space Marines. 

 I like the idea of the KFF, but my HQ slots are going to have 2 Warbosses or Warboss + Warphead.

Death Skulls Update

My primed Mega group. I'm not selling these guys, but thought I should include a project update. These guys and my bikers are on the paint table. I need to convert one of the bikers to a painboy and make the others look a little tougher since I have decided to run them as nobs.

Terminator Librarian

So, I decided that I would just keep adding to my mountain of unpainted models. I haven't felt like anyone other than a Captain leading my Space Marines made any sense, but it looks like there is not any other choice but a Librarian to have my HQ be at all useful. The rumored changes for Tigerus may make this guy unnecessary, but I had all the parts laying around.

 Unpainted Shot. 

I'm still trying to improve my work with green stuff. I didn't have a Storm Shield in my bits box, so I used a Combat Shield. If my opponent is really going to make a fuss about it, I beat he would have rules lawyered me to death anyway.

Primed Shot.

This weekend will hopefully have me painting some Skaven and my Orks on bikes parade. If I find my spray adhesive I am making that paperhammer terminator my priority project!

Paperhammer!

I love quality paperhammer proxies. In the past I created a true to scale rhino chassis to proxy variants in friendly games. Someone in the facebook group I belong to posted this link:

http://newobmij.tumblr.com/post/12645812652/papercraft-terminators

Sorry there is no picture, but I know I am making an oversized paperhammer terminator this evening. Check out his other works (that Stormraven is amazing!).

On this topic, here is another great paperhammer source:

http://thegrimcheapness.blogspot.com/

It isn't updated frequently, but check out some of the old posts.

Death Skull Mega Nobs (WIP)

Other projects are keeping me busy until after this weekend, but these are the in progress additions of some armour to my Death Skulls.

Below are the 'Eavy Nobs I am making from the WHFB Black Orc set. The detail on the set is great, and it is nice to have some actual two-handed Big Choppas. I'm keep the changes to a minimum for now, as I really like how these guys look.

I'm also really excited to add a banner.

The next project is a group of Meganobs supporing a warboss in mega-armour. Again, the AoBR Warboss is put to good use. I've seen a lot Meganob conversions using Terminator bits, which is something I wanted to replicate. The Terminator body and legs were just too thin for my beefy Nobs. The face masks are some left over shield bits from the Black Orc box.

I am still debating if I should make any changes to make the Power fists Power Claws.

Daughter Beinemac's High Elves (WIP)

As promised, these are Daughter Beinemac's High Elves WIP. This is her first army, and will have the base of the army done well before she turns 11.

Sharpclaw

 Ellyrian Reavers

 Caladris the Mage

Sword Masters of Hoeth

The Lothern Sea Guard are still only in a primed state.

We are hoping to figure our how to play Fantasy in the coming weeks, meaning I better get to work on my Skaven. This is my first foray into Fantasy, and I have to say that the sculpts in the Island of Blood are great. The quality of the detail inspired me to make some 'Eavy Nobs from the Black Orc set. I will post WIP pictures next week.

Ironclad Paladins Command Squad

I want to start mixing in some pictures of my almost completed Space Marine Army. This is the Second Company of my custom chapter, the Ironclad Paladins. There is a great Chapter Creation Table on 4Chan (not normally a corner of the internet I frequent) that is really helpful for those of us who haven't spent a great deal of time in the fluff.

Chapter Creation Table

After mainly picking (I wasn't going to roll, they are my plastic army men) I came up with:
* Crusade Chapter
* 26th Millenium Founding
* Ultramarine Progenitor
* Deeds of legend: actions against an Eldar Craftworld
* Combat Doctrine: Armoured Assault
* Chapter Friendly: Inquisition

I have a big list of names to work through for naming the 2nd Company members. To make it easier on myself (and to give some kind of theme) all of the names are coming from Shakespearan characters.

 Captain Benedict, 2nd Battle Company

 Another angle, both shots include the 2nd Company Command Rhino

The entire Command Squad and one of two possible Librarians.

Wazdakka Gutsmek

I have finished putting together Wazdakka and hope to start painting today. The model contains parts from: the AoBR Warboss, a SM Scout Bike, a DA bike from Dark Vengeance, the Loota box, the AoBR Deffkopta, and a hand from the fantasy Black Orcs. After having him sit around for about a month I double-checked the codex and saw that he did not have a shoota, which made it easier to work some handlebars onto the bike.

The picture quality is going down for a bit :(

Once I have Wazdakka painted I am going back to work on some custom Meganobs. The next post will have pics of my daughter's High Elves.

Dakka Jet

So, I am lousy at updating this blog in any kind of timely manner. My daughter talked me into getting Island of Blood for us to do together, so I have been painting rats for a bit.

Here is the "finished" Dakka Jet, and I have sent out requests for input on it's acceptance for tournament play  (for size issues).

I am still exploring what I want to do with the base.

I have basecoated my custom Battlewagon and took pictures to seek out the same opinions about tournament play.

Expect pictures of my daughter's WIP High Elves soon!

Ork Trukk Conversion

Sooner or later I'll take some decent pictures of the finished Dakkajet and Looted Deff Dread. I took advantage of the weekly 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby and picked up a cheap German Half-track. My heart was set on an American one, but my wallet won out.

The model was in 1/35th scale and had almost enough length, but I ended up cutting it in half and widening it.

My bits are running low, so I wanted to see how much I could accomplish with plasticard. I always feel like I have a better sense of how it has come together once I have primed it.

Looted Deff Dread

I've been looking a pictures of looted Deff Dread conversions based on Space Marine Dreadnoughts for some time, but I finally got past the nostalgia and cut up my old AoBR dreadnought on Wed. To work in the round can feel I grabbed one of my extra paint containers that was a little larger than the old 35mm film canisters.

I decided I was never going to field this dreadnought again. Depending on the SM codex update my Ironclad might make it out of the box.

I haven't heard great things about walkers in 6th, but I felt like a looted dreadnought would add to the aesthetic of my army. I may go back and add back in my Ironclad Paladin color scheme for most of the SM parts.

I haven't had a great deal of success painting my Ork vehicles black, so I went through and dusted the Dread with some flat black spray paint and am going to build the colors back up on top of that.

After adding in the bases and a few washes I plan to do another (lighter) dusting with flat black and make pick up some flat "rust" color spray spray paint.

Here he is standing in front of my unfinished looted battlewagon based on a WWII M3. I took a look at Hobby Lobby today to try and find a half track that I could try to use for a Trukk, but the WWII German on they had in the store seemed to have a little too much style for the Orks.

Next post are pics of the completed Dakkajet and painted Weirdboy conversion.

Dakkajet first flight

I got the chance to catch a great, relaxed 1200 pt game yesterday against the Sisters of Battle. This was the first time my Death Skulls got out of the box in 6th Edition. These orks need a lot of paint.

I managed not to get tabled, but was roundly beaten in Victory Points. Wazdakka and the biker mob he was with managed to Immobilise his Penitent Engine in Overwatch. My 5 man Loota Mob did well, so I am definitely going to get that up to a 10 man squad. I'll post better pics of the Dakkajet soon.

Upcoming projects:

1) Deffdread conversion from Dreadnought
2) Trukk conversion from WWII halftrack
3) Loads of painting.

Looted Dakka Jet Project

In keeping with my Death Skulls desire to have as many looted vehicles as possible I am working on a custom Dakkajet starting with a WWII P-38 Lightning.

My daughter pointed out that the pilot would have trouble flying while holding a banner, but I rebutted that an ork probably can't fly very well with two hands.

Here it is primed.

...and basecoated.