Relictors Space Marine Attack Bike Squad w/ Multi-Meltas

 As promised, here is a couple of shots of the Relictors Space Marine Attack Bike Squad, all anti-tank armed with a Multi-Melta and twin linked bolters for those pesky crew...

As you can see I have echoed the aspect colours of the army with the Grey/Bone/Black pennants. I intend to run the two twin bikes as a Squad and the third converted one on its own - much de-mech goodness! Lets hope I don't fight Bugs or Monstrous Daemons, but these babies made light work of Pornstarjedi's 3 Soulgrinders last weekend!

Relictors Space Marine Attack Bike #3

 Not much to say, just completed the third of my Space Marine Multi-Melta Attack Bikes for my BlogWars3 Army. Here are some pictures, it's just a stock model with the addition of a Scout Bike pennant.

The other two can be found here and here.

I'll post a picture or two of all three together tomorrow... hope you like. Enjoy.

Necrons Paint Scheme - Updated

 I am busy finishng off the Relictors Army for BlogWars3 but I get distracted easily...

Something just wasn't right with the Black and Blue trim glow of the Destroyer sitting to the left of my painting station, then it hit me - why would black glow blue? So I dabbed on some Necron Abyss Blue and voila, Blue glow blue... here is a before shot. Is it better now? And thanks for those comments before, I have made both their eyes glow from the centre more with a tiny dab of Skull White.

I must get a new drybrush - mine's all flayed, need the glow effect to be more smooth next time. I think blue carapace ties in more with the blues of the cables, eyes and Gauss effect. Whatcha think people?

Siph

Relictors Space Marine Attack Bike Conversion - for BW3

 So some more progress has been made on my Army for BlogWars3 this Saturday. I have been slowly painting away the missing bits for the army list I have chosen. Here is the latest offering, an Attack Bike with (Twin-Linked Vulkan List) Multi-Melta. As you can see I have not used the stock model, but rather a conversion I saw somewhere on Warseer (ages ago so don't have a link) that looked easy to do and added a little character to my three Attack Bikes. Two will be stock models in a Squad together, the other a separate Fast Attck slot - that can be this one. The final Fast Attack slot will be a TL MM, TL HF Landspeeder.

 Lots of Relictor skull goodness... and a Multi-Melta in your face before your tank dies!

 I may add any kills they make at BW3 on to the base here such as a daemon head or tyranid claw etc...

 The pennant is from a SM Scout Bike kit, the Chariot body from a WFB Tomb Kings chariot set.

The 'Nids are ready for BW3

Ok - so in a post earlier in May I said that I was ready for BW3 - and I was...the list was written and tested and models were bought and painted a good month in advance.

So why the hell did I decide it would be a good idea to strip and repaint half a dozen models a week before the tournament???

When I was looking through my army, there were a few models that I painted a year or two ago that really stuck out like a sore thumb - both my painting skills and colour schemes have progressed a bit since then and I've been toying with the idea of repainting a few models for a while now (I can't even look at my first Tervigon conversion any more - that'll be getting repainted next).

Anyhow - here are a few Hive Guards that I re-finished this weekend.

 

And here's a sneak peek of the army I am taking (the pic was before I've done some tidying up).

  

By the way, if anyone wants to go to BW3, hop over to From the Fang - Alex is looking for another player to even up numbers.

Relictors Multi-Melta Tactical Marine

 Hi, a quick update. I haven't been totally idle since I completed the Ironclad, I have been doing bits and pieces to get my army up to the listed army I sent for the forthcoming BlogWars3. I am currently working on two Attack Bikes and another Multi-Melta Trooper, however, I have just comleted this Marine. He replaces a Missile Launcher Marine who has now been re-badged and knee-capped to join the next Devastator Squad. This Marine joins Tactical Squad III of my Relictors Battle Company.

Right, back to painting bikes, Vulkan, MM's (and practice gaming) for me. Have a nice weekend.

Warhound Titan 'Canis Praetor' Legio Astorum WIP

 Hi All, here is some WIP shots of my newest addition to my Legio Astorum Titans, another Warhound 'Canis Praetor', brother machine of 'Canis Bellum' and his larger Reaver 'Honorum' both seen here. Not my own work I hasten to add, for this much resin I bow to better judgement and got an excellent artist to commission them for me. Maybe one day I'll attempt something this large and expensive, however for now I'll stick to tanks and flyers...

 As always, the artist *Slayer Sword Winner 2014 Richard Gray has surprised me with the sheer awesomeness of the detail and professional finish.

 The crew above, look awesome - and they'll be hidden for the most part! And below shows the airbrush work on the Carapace - got to love that Legio Astorum logo!

 Striped work is hard work, but all three have these beautiful stripes - excellent work. Should be with me soon. Anyone interested in getting Richard to do some commission work, see his website for details http://www.richardgraycreations.com/ .

Relictors Ironclad Space Marine Dreadnought

 Hi All, this is the latest addition to the Relictors Army. I needed an Ironclad for BlogWars3, so I needed to paint this beauty that had been in the cupboard of bare plastic for over six months! What is not to like about AV13 and all that CC goodness? Plus with Vulkan Hestan, his Melta Gun and Heavy Flamer are Twin-Linked. Plus 2 Hunter Killer Missiles for some ranged Anti-Tank (and he arrives in a Drop Pod). Nice.

I have added Armoured Plates to the knees to reflect the AV13 front armour, think they were from an IG vehicle, perhaps a Manticore/Chimera, as well as a shoulder mounted shield to bulk him out a little - it was taken from a SM Champion Combat Shield. The little decorative plate protecting his 'man-bits' is from a Venerable Dreadnought kit.

 As you can see I added an armoured plate to the back to protect the rear of the engine block, again to reflect his Ironclad status.

And here is a shot of some of the growing Relictor Dreadnought Armoury, not including my two Riflemen... still have a Forgeworld MKIV Ironclad, a Relic Mortis Contemptor and a Chaplain Dread to do... always more, never finished!!

Relictors 1750pt BlogWars 3 List

So it's my turn to post the list for the forthcoming BlogWars3 held at the end of the month at Maelstrom Games, Mansfield, UK and organised by fellow blogger Alex (From the Fang). Tickets are still available, come along and join the fun.

1750 Siph Horridus’ Space Marines (Relictors) BW3 Army List

　

HQ - Vulkan Hestan, Master Crafted Relic Blade, TL HF

TROOP - Tactical Squad (10), TL Flamer / TL Multi-Melta, Serg – Combi Melta, Rhino

TROOP - Tactical Squad (10), TL Flamer / TL Multi-Melta

TROOP - Sniper Scouts, Hvy Bolter Hellfire Rounds

ELITE - Ironclad Dreadnought, Seismic Hammer w/ TL Melta Gun, DCCW w/ TL HF, 2 x Hunter Killer Missiles, Drop Pod

ELITE - Dreadnought, 2 x TL Autocannon

ELITE - Terminator Assault Squad, 3 Master Crafted Thunderhammer / Storm Shield, 2 Lightning Claws, 2 x TL LC Landraider Dedicated Transport, TL Multi Melta

FA - Landspeeder, 1 x TL HF, TL MM

FA - Attack Bike Squad (2), 2 x TL Multi Melta

FA - Attack Bike, TL Multi Melta

HVY - Predator w/ Autocannon, Side Sponson Hvy Bolters

I hope this will give Pornstarjedi's triple Soul Grinder list something to think about if I have to battle him. Vulkan Hestan gives a great army wide upgrade of making all Multi-Melta's and Flamers, Hvy Flamers Twin Linked! Worth it's weight in plastic/finecast Ha. And ThunderHammers become Master Crafted. Nice.

I can combat squad the Tacticals giving me 5 troop choices if needed, LR for transporting Vulkan and Termies and some mobile anti-tank with Bikes and Speeder. Rifleman Dread and Predator gives some reliable anti-transport guns as well as anti-heavy troop guns. And the Ironclad is an AV13 headache dropping into your back lines on turn 1 with Drop Pod Assault. Nice (would have been better in a Lucius Pod to Assault Turn 1 but the AV13 with TL Melta Gun and TL Hvy Flamer should ensure he sticks around for turn 2).

Comments welcome, list is submitted now so no changing...

Blog Wars 3 Daemon Army List

The time has come to submit my army list- as posted previously I'm opting to go for the 'themed' daemon army- Mono-Khorne, I'm hoping that the Dice (Khorne) Gods will be smiling on me as I have made the (foolish) decision to not include Icons- this in part is due to the points cost, and the fact that Khorne I'm sure wouldn't like his army to go to war with 'Magic'

HQ
A bloodthirster with Blessing of the Blood God, and Unholy Might
Skulltaker on a Juggernaut
Herald of Khorne on a Juggernaut with Blessing of the Blood God
Elite
5 Bloodcrushers
Troops
8 man Bloodletter Squad
7 man Bloodletter Squad
5 man Bloodletter Squad
5 man Bloodletter Squad
Fast
5 Flesh Hounds, + Karanak (making the squad 6 strong)
Heavy
3 Soul Grinders, all with Plhegm upgrade

I'm not sure on the split of the army for initial waves, however I'll be making this decision prior to each game.

The army is pretty easy to pick the main 'heavy' hitters- and my initial plans, I've also included 2 smaller Bloodletter squads- the hope is that with the smaller 'footprint' I will be able to deep strike them into tighter spots without having any deep striking mishaps...  Karanak is a new addition which I haven't tried yet- I'm sure I'll end up playing GK throughout the event, thus having a squad with a 2+ save against them will be worth its weight in gold!

Blog Wars 3 Tyranid List

Blog Wars 3 is now only 2 weeks away and final lists have to be submitted tomorrow.

Picking my list was fairly easy – I took what I liked from Blog Wars 2 (the Swarmlord being unstoppable and my Tyrannofex getting a few Turn 1 de-mechs in). I then removed what hasn’t been working for me (Tervigons – I will keep a single one, but in my pairs list they just weren’t doing anything useful) and added units that I know will work (Trygons and Hormagaunts).

The list I will be taking is:

HQ

Swarmlord with two Tyrant Guard (Lash Whips)

Troops

Tervigon (Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacks)

10x Termagants

18x Hormagaunts

Elite

2x Hive Guard

2x Hive Guard

2x Hive Guard

Heavy

2x Trygons (Adrenal Glands)

Tyrannofex

It’s Nidzilla!!! It’s got some decent some good shooting and combat skills and offers flexibility for reserves. There should only be 11KPs in the list (which is not much for me) and whilst the list is few in numbers, I wouldn’t want to be stood opposite it and have to make the decision about what to aim at first (a pair of Trygons who should be in combat around T2 – or the CC bohemoth just behind them)...

 I was slightly concerned with the lower number of Troops than normal, but so long as I am careful with them and get lucky spawning more Gants, then there should be no problems with claiming objectives. Additionally, I normally run with at least 3 pieces of synapse – but with the Swarmlords increased synapse range and the fact that MCs don’t really need synapse, I should be fine.

I’ve almost changed the list up a dozen times in the past fortnight after getting numerous suggestions of improvements; taking out Swarmlord and replacing him with Doom of Malantai and a Tyrant (the Tyrant is almost as good and the Doom is great fun – but neither are really suited to the special mission rules) and also getting rid of the TFex for some Genestealers (something I tried but missed the chance of taking down mech from T1 and the Genestealers always died quickly in the test games).

I’m sure its not as competitive as it could be and I pray I don't go up against and Dark Elder players; but its a fun list to play in practice, which I think embodies some of the essence of Nidzilla and I think it will bring a smile to my opponents faces (at least at first...).

Necrons - New Army Colour Scheme

Here is a shot of my new Necron Army colour scheme, as you can see I am not a fan of the glass green rods, they look too 'Lego' for me so I thought I'd be a little different and have a blue theme. I envisage the vehicles being black with a glow blue trim (Skink Blue Dry Paint) like the destroyer above, the more important the necron, the more gold they will have - these two are bog standards so no gold, Praetorians will have more, Characters more so.

The scheme was quick enough to do, basecoat of Army Painter silver, matches Chainmail (or whatever that is called - Runefang Steel) then washed with Badab Black (Nuln Oil) and Devlan Mud (Agrax Earthshade) and then highlighted with Chainmail. Blue is mainly Ice Blue (Lothern Blue). The bases are same as my Relictors (Calthan Brown, drybrush Kommando Khaki, Bleached Bone). I've drybrushed around the blue eyes too so suggest a glow.

Comments welcome...

I've got 30 more warriors washed and basecoated and a ton of purchases made (Monolith, 2 Barges, Ark, Praetorians, Immortals, Stormlord, Spiders, Wraiths, Scarabs...)

Tyranid Display Board

I am now ready for BW3; I have a list picked and (semi) tested and all the models are bought and painted.

Somehow I was lucky enough to win best painted army at BW2 last year and as its unlikely I will place in the top half of the tournament, let alone get near the podium, I thought I’d get my ‘Nids looking as nice as possible for BW3.

Annoyingly, I am using a few of the same models from last year, so to mix things up a bit and to avoid having to trapse an army case and boxes for my MCs around, I thought I would make a display board/tray.

The board is made from pin board I picked up from Tescos for less than £4 and is textured, painted and I have added a few scenic objects. It would have been nice to add a few more pieces of scenery; a hill/cliff or digestion pool etc, but things started getting too busy to actually fit my army on the board.

 

Roll on BW3!!!

Tyranid Mycetic Spores

I don't use Mycetic Spores (the ‘Nid version of SM Drop Pods) very often; I do with Doom of Malantai and occasionally to drop dakkaFex’s in BIIIIIIIIG games (they are a bit pricy) but I have been really tempted to try and put together a full Deepstriking list recently – which obviously means lots of pods are required. Not exactly easy when GW don’t make any models for them.

The general consensus is that Mega Bloks Plasma Hatcher toys are the best/easiest proxy (you can get them for cheap on eBay); they are big enough to realistically transport a Carnifex, have a decent level of detail and can be painted pretty easily. I actually used one in Blog Wars 1:

The thing is; they look a bit dull/samey if you don’t do anything with them – but then I stumbled across a post on Claws and Fists on how to (IMO) make the best looking Mycetic Spores ever. Basically half an egg and play around with expanding foam. Genius!

 

 

I’ve bought enough eggs to make up four Mycetic Spores and these are my first two attempts.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself (although all credit goes to Claws and Fists). The next two are going to have a few “extras”....

Daemons VS Relictors- BW3 warm up battle (Picture Heavy)

With Siph returning home, a cheeky BW3 warm up battle was arranged to test potential army lists.

Siph's list was a Calgar-Dread list, including a Master of the Forge to enable him to field 5 dreadnoughts of various types. Jedi's list was a Mono-Khorne list, with Skulltaker as the Character choice.

We decided to test them on of the scenerios that we will be playing at BW3 (thanks FtF)

Daemon wave 1 included 2 Soul Grinders, a Bloodthirster and a unit of Bloodcrushers including Skulltaker and a Herald. Daemon wave 2 was 2 units of 8 Bloodletters, 1 unit of 7 Bloodletters, 5 Flesh Hounds and a another Soul Grinder.

Infiltators- Scouts into 'infirmary' building in opposite quarter to Relictors Deployment.

Turn1

• Daemons Wave 1 arrive via Deep Strike- Soul Grinders (SG) in position to fire, Bloodthirster (BT) and Bloodcrushers (BC) behind centre building
• Poor Daemon shooting phase- with no casaulties from SG firing scattering/not wounding
• Relictors open fire on SG's- causing no damage. Forget to shoot Scouts at BT
• Rifle-dread's fire on BC unit- causing 3 single wounds
• Ironclad charges BT
• Venerable dread charges SG
• Both dreadnoughts are destroyed in CC (Siph :-(  stoopid in hindsight )

Turn 2

• Flesh Hounds and 7 Bloodletters arrive- FH in front of the Relictors lines, BL in cover to claim a quarter
• Bloodthirster charges into Rifledread - destroys Dread
• 2nd SG charges Rhino and is smashed to pieces
• SG hit and has a weapon blown off and Immobilised
• Marneus and MotF charged into the SG
• 2nd SG taken out with a 'lucky' krak
• FH wiped out from Relictor bolter fire
• MotF killed by the SG in CC - squish
• Marneus wounded twice by the SG in CC - Daemon and Relictor rounds

 

Turn 3

• 2nd Rhino moved into position to claim Quarter
• 8 man Bloodletters arrives via DS- however a mishap occurs and Siph positions them into building in Daemons claimed quarter - far left of below pic
• Bloodthirster charges 2nd Rifleman- killing in CC 
• Terminators arrive via DS- homing onto Marneus' Homing Beacon
• Herald killed by marines and Scouts fire
• Marneus wounded again - in return destroyed a SG weapon
• Bloodletters charge 5 man Relictor squad- killing all,
• Dreadnought charges BL in response- killing 1 and contesting Quarter

 

Turn 4

• 3rd SG arrives via DS- in support of the other SG
• final BL squad arrives via DS, and mishaps - and is destroyed
• Bloodthirster charges final dreadnought- another dreadnought is killed due to the Khorne Greater deamon
• SG fires on the Scouts, reducing them to 2 and enabling enough room for Skulltaker to charge them in combat and wipe out next turn.
• SG killed via combined force of Calgar and Assault Terminators.

Turn5

• Skulltaker kills remaining scouts. Relictor's shoot up Skulltaker but to no avail
• Marneus moves into contest Skulltakers 'Quarter' and tempt him down. But he hides.
• Terminators charge 3rd SG in combat - however unable to penetrate...

We rolled to see whether we finished - a 3 was rolled- a turn 6!

Turn 6

• Marneus charges the SG to help destroy the SG which would enable Relictors to win their contested Quarter back and get a draw - however the Daemon engine survives (Siph - mumble mumble... damage rolls, 1 and 2's again...)
• Marine fire takes out several Bloodcrushers - reducing to 1 wound single BC. 
• Daemons claim 1 quarter, the remaining 3 are all contested

 Game end - a win for the Daemons!! 1 quarters to 0