Warhammer 40k: Deathwatch Kill Team

 These were the models that got me back to painting traditional 40k. I started a full Deathwatch army, sold it, and just kept these guys. These are great models. Sort of a farewell to the Firstborn Space Marines. Characterful, detailed, well sculpted... they were a ton of fun to paint. 

Imperial Knights: House Cadmus

 My journey back to painting a few years ago included several months of painting just these four models. I wasn't yet ready to get back to working on anything infantry based, but really loved the big chunky knights GW made. I went with House Cadmus purely due to the color scheme. These guys used a lot of spray cans and masking to get the colors right. The freehand work was supplemented with a few transfers as well. 

The Ulthwe that Was...

I don't have many pictures of the old army. It was a simpler time when our phones didn't connect to the internet and have professional cameras built in... But here's what I do have. As I said last post, this was one of my first ever 100% painted armies.

That's some rough paint work right there... 

As I started to pull the new army together I was focused on the same old fluff that had caused me to put the original force together. Ulthwe meant lots of Guardians, lots of psykers, and lots of small vehicles such as war walkers and vypers. They would of course be led by Eldrad and a seer council and I would hold off on any aspect warriors for the time being. 

I also looked at my old color scheme and wanted to stick to the same general idea, while actually making sure this project looked GOOD. 

I started with a limited color pallet. The basic black guardian would be black with dry brushes of reaper's ghost white (still one of my favorite paints on the rack.) The armor would feature wraith bone details depending on the squad and all the weapons would be wraithbone as well. I also decided early on that no metallics would show up in this project. Red would still be a contrasting color, but only on gems and unique squad markings. I brought in Trollblood Base (blue) as my new color for fabrics in the army.  My daughter decided that they should be based on a desert scheme as well. 

Stay tuned tomorrow to see the first models of the new army! 

Return to 40k: Dark Angels vs. Dark Eldar

Last night saw a return to 40k for the Carney Wargaming Crew. With the upcoming Warmahordes slow grow league we figured a evening diversion back to our original game would be a lot of fun. We set up the basement for 40k and rolled some dice... a lot of dice.

I took on Joey Baltimore's Dark Eldar and their shiny new (well to us at least) codex with a good old fashioned DarkAngels mech list. We rolled sieze ground and pitched battle. The early turns were domintaed by long range shooting. After years of PP games, 48" seems like it goes forever. I had quite a few lucky shots in turn one shutting down some of the DE skimmers. Joe moved in on one objective early on and I decided to let that one go as it had a unit of wracks and a Chronos pain engine sitting on it. I focused on the right flank and the objective that was placed there and soon had a tac. squad in a razorback parked on the objective with a clear third of the board. The middle of the table became a scrim as my fire power brought down the transports but not before Joe dropped a unit of warriors and incubi with Vect on the objective. I headed in with my command squad; a combat squad; and a very angry chaplain under the cover fire of a combat squad and a dreadnaught while he hoofed the chronos and a second unit of wracks in to add to the melee. I shot down a few DE but Vect chumped almost everything he touched before the chaplain brought his crozious into the dark eldar's helmet, ending his reign of terror in the table. In turn five a razorback charged onto the far left flank to contest the objective and then in turn 6 the dreadnought marched in to the middle objective contesting it and allowing the Dark Angels to pull off a 1-0 win.

40k = fun. The rules seem clunky now, especially the vehicle rules but I still enjoyed myself. I hope that 2012 brings 6th edition and a big return to the K for our group.

Now, we've got some Warmahordes to cover! But before the Jan. 4 kick off to the slow grow league, tune in tomorrow for the first of two end of year blog entries!