Sunday, February 10, 2013

Independent Characters 2013 Hobby Progress Challenge

I've submitted the list I'll be painting in the coming months starting in march.

Independent CharactersHonour Guard (145)
Sanguinary Priest (75)
Furioso Librarian Dreadnought (175)
Furioso Dreadnought (140)
10x Death Company (420)
10x Assault Marines (225)
Death Company Dreadnought (125)
Death Company Dreadnought (150)
Land Raider Crusader (250)
Baal Predator (145)
Predator (100)

Here's the thread (Everything will be posted here of course)

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I haven't been eaten by the Tyranids just yet!

While I know that most of my traffic is generated from the google juice pulling my work-in-progress pictures thus very few actually cares about the written content of the blog, I still felt somehow like I had to explain why I haven't updated in almost 3 months.

40k hobby desk
The current state for my hobby desk
Well the answer is simple, I've bought a house and the moving process destroyed my hobby progression as I have no room left for it for the time being. Everything should be resuming in March.

Here what you can expect to see in 2013
  • Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge
    • 1850pts of Flesh Tearers
    • March - November
  • Hobby space setup
  • Gaming table construction
  • Terrain building and painting
  • Dark Eldar
    • Girlfriend's ongoing 40k corruption 
  • Space Wolves
    • Logan Grimnar Great Company 2000pts+
  • Tau
  • Black Templars
  • Brother Vinni's Sandlot Figures
  • Infinity 
    • Haqqislam 300pts
  • Dreamforge Eisenkern

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Alien scum from Commoragh sighted

I've managed to convince my girlfriend to get into the hobby and strangely it was the Dark Eldars who caught her eye. It's probably a mix of strong esthethics and the pirate theme that made them appeal to her.
Dark Eldar Kabalite warrior sergeant Sybarite
Sybarite

I gotta say, their kits are awesome but they aren't for hobby novices. You have to be careful about cuting them from the sprues, cleaning the pieces and handling them in general. They are quite delicate and less forgiving than say a tactical space marine. You get why they are toughness 3 every time you handle one.

Flesh Tearers Tactical Squad Sergeant with a Dark Eldar Sybarite size comparison

Expect updates as I get to experiment with the painting scheme she has carefully chosen.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Hobby Progress - Terminators and Sternguard

I've done quite a bit of progress on my terminators, getting the entire squad to the same point, leaving only basing and decals to be applied.

 
Flesh Tearers Assault Terminators with lightning claws
Assault Terminators with lightning claws

Flesh Tearers Assault Terminators with thunder hammers
Assault Terminators with thunder hammers

My sternguards weren't high priority as I don't field them often but since I had previously finished the armour, only the detailing paint steps need to be done which once I get painting should be done quickly.

Flesh Tearers Sternguard with powerfist
Sternguard "Sergeant"

They are all converted with warrior of chaos cloaks and they all have Black Templars helmets, Forge World bolters and some have Black Templars tabards. They were converted to stand out from the rest of my army and get a bit of my own fluff into the army. Flesh Tearers Sternguards should be veterans from many campaigns in order to make sense fluff wise in an aggressive assault army, so I made mine as veterans of the Armageddon campaigns were they would have earned honours from Black Termplars as for me they should be their closest battle-brothers outside of the Blood Angels.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Death Company, Is it worth it ?

Blood Angels Death Company with Bolters and a power fist

If you ever played with them in 5th edition, you know how the Black Rage made them susceptible to be kited around the board. It made them hard to justify for a lot of players, you had to plan around that by making sure that once they were out of a transport, they were in a position to cause havoc.  

6th Edition came around, they lost Initiative 5 but gained another attack on the charge, the torrent of bolter fire is harder to resist has Feel No Pain will save you 33% of the time (5+ against anything except instant death) instead of 50% (4+ against anything but AP1 and AP2, instant death, power weapons). It's harder for infantry in general to get into assault range, no more assault out of a vehicule that didn't move. It's a bit more tactically challenging to get the charge which I believe is where the fun starts.

Blood Angels Death Company works really well as a counter assault unit with 4-5x WS5 S5 attacks per models. They will flood the enemy troops with wounds especially if they have a Reclusiarch to get them rerolls on hit and wounds. You can deck them out with AP2 weapons but the sheer amount of wounds should take care of 2+ armour, equipping power fists simply is an insurance against the volatility of dices or the presence of vehicles.

I've yet to use them with jump packs and Lemartes, they seem rather expensive for what they can hope to accomplish but in support to a deepstriking assault squad I guess they could be decent. I'm not convince that 5x DC with a power fist, jump packs and Lemartes is an efficient 350 points.

The cost is the downfall of the unit and that's why I try to keep mine as bare bone as possible for the task they are meant to accomplish, keeping that in mind will ensure you don't overkit them or try to make them do things that they aren't meant to.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Flesh Tearers Color Scheme

Here's the color scheme I've used on my Flesh Tearers and the one I'm working on as I'm running out of the old paints.


Flesh Tearers Sanguinary Priest with Jump packs and Sanguinary Novitiate Flesh Tearers Tactical Marine
Painted using the old paintsPainted using the new paints
Armour
Base Mechrite Red
Layer Red Gore
Khorne Red

Light highlight Bleached Bone on the edges
Screaming Skull

Badab Black wash in the recess
Nuln Oil

Layer Red Gore to clean up the armour plate from the wash
Khorne Red

Baal Red wash
Carroburg Crimson

Gold
Base Balthasar Gold
Light Nuln Oil Wash
Dirtier looking than Agrax Earthshade, fit more with Flesh Tearers

Overbrush Gehenna's Gold
Light Highlight Auric Armour Gold

Seals
Base Dhened Stone
Gryphonne Sepia wash

Wings
Astronamician Grey
Light Badab Black wash
Depends if I want a dirtier look or not

Highlight White Scar

Monday, October 15, 2012

Hobby Progress - Terminator Sergeant

I've manage to do little in terms of painting but I did manage to crank out my assault terminator sergeant as a test model for the rest of the squad.

Flesh Tearers Assault Terminator Sergeant
Assault Terminator Sergeant
I've use the same technique mentionned in a White Dwarf army workshop article about Flesh Tearers, where the black in the color scheme was to draw the eye in. It's in part why I think the Death Company models are so striking, they're loaded with details and the black armour only emphasis them, besides the black being awesome on his own right.

Time to get busy on the rest of the squad...