Double Army Painting Update

Hey there, Internet. I've been plugging away again at some painting projects. For one reason or another, I've gotten the Eldar bug again. I played Eldar a while back, lost four games in a row terribly then put them back up on the shelf. This was about a year and half ago. The issue I think was that I wasn't playing to the Eldar strengths by having the army support each other. The Tau list that I played required a certain amount of synergy to be successful. If I can take those skills and tactics, I think I can apply them to Eldar with some modifications.

Anywho, painting. The models that really set the Eldar apart for me were the Wraithguard and Wraithlords. My starting army had three lords and a small 4 man guard unit. I'm now up to the full 10 man Wraithguard unit with Warlock to make them a troop choice.
I'm working on the original 5 man unit to start.

They start out with a solid black base coat (courtesy of Black Gesso), then coat the whole model with Astronomicon Grey. I do a really rough stipple/dry brush on all the top facing surfaces with White then wash the entire thing in Vallejo Smoke. Vallejo Smoke comes out super super thick so I add a lot of water to it. Why Smoke instead of Devlin Mud or even an oil wash of Sienna? Smoke has this really nice dirty quality to it that does some solid weathering without a lot of effort.

From there its got to dry for a while. Take some Desert Yellow (one of my new favorite colors) and put down some base colors on the top facing surfaces again. The Smoke layer is now your shadow colors. Allowing a little bit of that edge to be seen gives it a great chipped up effect. Heavy dry brush some Bone color, and follow up with White for the best contrast. Done. The gun was done up with some watered down Chardon Granite then washed black. The head is just straight black for now but it'll be getting some attention soon.

My other army, the Raptor Legion, has just received a nice shot in the arm for base colors. The Vallejo Surface primer painted on looks just like the olive green I'm aiming for. Pictured here, you got 5 Terminators, 10 Tacticals, 10 Assualts without jump packs, 5 Assault Termies, and a Baal Predator. All done within about an hour or so.

The Surface Primer brings the primer and base coat to the table so you save a lot of time overall.
Here's a close up of one the Assault Terminators with a resin sheild from MaxMini or Scibor, I can't recall.

Close shot of the Predator.

BLOOOOOOOOOM Lighting

I apologize for the image quality. During the move, I found my camera but the battery died and the charger is still missing. As soon as I track it down, I'll try to do a tutorial or two so you can see my process.

Until next time, have a safe Thanksgiving!

Future Project

Getting back into 40K in a big way now. I've always been a staunch supporter of Xenos and Fantasy but I have to admit; I'm having a blast painting up some Marines for a change. I've actually been reading into the newer Codicies and enjoying the fluff. Again, didn't see that coming.

With the NoVA Open on the way and my Grey Knights nearing completion, I've already queued up my next project.


Blood Angels.

I only played against them once or twice, but they have loads of character. I'm digging on Death Company way hard. Plus, they can actually make a well-rounded flexible force without a lot of sacrificing. What really got me was a piece I read about the Grey Knights working in tandem with Blood Angels. Afterwards, they mind wipe the BA's and send them off. As a background to the army, I want to base it around this idea and have some of the color scheme possibly translate over to the BA's as well. My GK's have a steel body but the heraldry is olive/cream colored, so maybe a split red/cream or even split olive/black down the center line of the models. Really like the 50-50 color schemes because each model really pops and you get to flex some painting skills.

The current boxes I'm looking to get consist of:

Dante x1
The Battleforce x1 (its got a transport and 3 troop choices, great deal)
Sanguinary Guard x1
Assault Termies x1
Death Co. Dreadnought x1
Baal Predators x2
Drop Pod x2

Its a pretty penny to drop on this (~400 bucks) but here's the plan: I want to get all of this by either returning models I bought and never opened for store credit OR funding it by selling off some of my old fantasy stuff. I have about 4 fantasy armies including a full painted, fully based 2500 point Skaven army. Fantasy is just not holding my attention these days and it takes up too much space. And the boxes of stuff I never opened were usually painting projects for fun or just cool models. I might also try to pick up some painting commissions as well. The idea is to get up around 2500 points with either models I already have (mostly transports and older metal HQ's that fit in most Imperial armies) or a minimal amount of money.

No real important reason, I just want to see how I can build a fun army on a limited budget and getting a little creative with the resources already provided to me. I'll post up on the status of this little journey as I go along. Hopefully someone can glean some information or some cost saving tricks from it.

Stay tuned for a basing tutorial in the next couple days. Happy on-coming July 4th everyone!

Nemesis Force Coma

Oh man, its been a while. So here's what's been going on for me:

insane amount of job related stuff
holiday stuff and family trips
moving into a new apartment
and just adopted a dog

Busy is an understatement. I think in the last 6 months or so I've gotten in about 5 games. Recently I've been going through a revival of my gaming spirit. Painting for the last 6 months has left me itching for a few fights and a wargaming wishlist item actually came true: Grey Knights released.

I had always liked the idea of a special forces version of the Marines but the book was so outdated and the models all metal made it difficult to bridge that gap away from Fantasy and my 40K Tau army. In addition, I dig the whole concept of a future Inquisition.

So yep, you guessed it: I am definitely an agent of Formosa. I managed to find the Coteaz model at a FLGS before the re-release. Since the model count is so low in the GK book, just throwing Coteaz down gives you the options to double the count fast with cheap units. Customizable henchmen units and new (old) models can give the army a really fantastic look on the table.

I've gotten one game in so far with the new book and a tourney in May. I dig the models, dig the strategies I've been developing, dig the painting that's come out of it. I dig digging.

Stay tuned, and I'll throw up what I'm thinking at 1500 points for a mixed GK/Inquisition list.

Gift horses, gifted to myself

My buying habits are a little crazy right now with the holiday season, but I think I'll be good with my recent purchases to keep me busy through a few months. After my game last night, I picked up a set of Khador Uhlans and Kovnik Markov. Plus, waiting for me at home were the Man-of-War Drakhun and the Widowmakers I ordered online. I have a serious back log of painting to do now.

Last Thursday was my usual Warmachine night, but I hadn't played in a few weeks. I met up with a buddy of mine, Caleb, at the FLGS. We actually played a two-versus-two match with some other guys at the shop. Everyone dragged 25 points out. My partner was another Khador player. Instead of intermixing our armies, it was pretty much one-on-one until someone died to support the other. So Caleb was my opponent with this more-or-less:

pDenegra
-Ripjaw (2)
-Slayer
-Spell Cast-astic guy attached
Mechani-Thralls (10)
Pistol Wraith
Machine Wraith
Nerco-surgeon

To match, brought this:

eVlad
-Kodiak
Iron Fang Pikemen (6)
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord unit (3)
Koldun Lord
Demo-corp (3)

The plan was to use Transference, Hand of Fate, and eVlad's feat to just smash face. Here's what actually happened: first turn just got my line to jump forward; Caleb tried to Cripple my Pikemen through an arc node but was short by an inch, so I tried to charge it with the whole unit and almost one-shot it a CMA combined with Hand of Fate, which resulted in a very damaged light jack early.

Here's where things got nuts quickly. He moved the damaged jack just enough to free up one of the Pikemen who had a decent looking line to the caster. So, popped feat, got 5 guys all jacked up and tried to take out the witch. Pikemen slides in, gets within melee range, but his buddy gets a free-strike for breaking combat and with one die gets killed by the light jack. Super-Pikeman nails her, uses Transference to boost the melee damage, and causes 11 points of damage. This is turn 3 or 4, by the way. I used one of the other feat boosts on a Greylord - charge in, with battle wizard, kills four Mechani-Thralls with the melee/spray combo. A few other guys smack around some Mechani-Thralls, and my Koldun Lord takes out a Pistol Wraith. Little did I know, this made his Necro-surgeon the scariest model on the field.

My noble Pikeman gets crushed by a Slayer. Deneghra pops her feat (everyone gets sickly). Thralls come back and my Kodiak gets possessed by a Wraith. Koldun Lord gets eaten by a light jack but he took out the Pistol Wraith in the previous turn. So my scary turn gets turned on me completely and I end up behind the ball. Everyone being sickly means no charges or double attacks with the Great Bears. My Kodiak couldn't shake the Wraith, so in an act of pride, the Great Bears attack it from behind to kill the Wraith inside. No one dances with my girl but me, so that guy had to go. I knock out both its arms leaving legs intact. The Wraith pops out, then the cortex gets damaged, so the Kodiak is now a blocker. Until it gets smashed to pieces by combo-strikes the next turn.

Major threat now becomes the Slayer who finds his way to Vlad. Knocks Vlad down to 5 boxes with two attacks. Vlad hulks-out and destroys a healthy Slayer by himself using Martial Paragon and additional attacks. Here's where I lost the game. After the attacks destroyed the jack, I didn't move him far enough away. Next turn, Deneghra spells him with a boosted hit, beats his armor and does 6 damage.

Insane game and I'm really starting to learn the combos that work. eVlad might have to be my caster for a while now. I was incredibly impressed with the way he can do almost anything. The only weak point of the list was the Kodiak. I'm not sure if its because I used him incorrectly or if Caleb managed to control him out of being a threat, but its probably going to get phased out. I might throw in a Destroyer for the AoE or replace another unit for range other than the Greylords.

On a side note, I started writing this Friday and thought I had posted it. In the time between, I've managed to assemble the Drakhun, three Uhlans, Kovnik Markov, a unit of Windowmakers on resin bases, and an Assault Kommando Flame Thrower. So I've been busy.

I also managed to paint-up the Drakhun watching Monday Night Football. Photos coming later. I got a game set for tonight, so I'll try to take pictures and get a battle rep up too.