Legio Astorum Will Walk - Imperial Reaver and Warhound Titan Battlegroup

 Finally what some have you have been waiting for, all three titans are together. What a great family shot! Some people spend their spare cash on practical things, but I've spent mine on a Titan Legion, lol.

 These were painted by Richard Gray, from *Slayer Sword Winner 2014 Richard Gray Art. He was always going to do a better job than me! And after my first commission to him, there was no doubt I'd send more business his way. Truely jaw dropping inspiring Weemen work! I am one very proud notso-Weeman owner now ;)

 Imperial Reaver Titan 'Honorum' as appears in the Imperial Armour Vraks books. More pics here and here.

Imperial Warhound Titan 'Canis Bellum'. More pics here.

And finally, the new addition. Imperial Warhound Titan 'Canis Praetor'. More pics found here.

Hope you like Richard's work. If you are interested in him painting some of your major pieces of work, feel free to drop him a line.

Relictors StormTalon Gunship - Space Marine Ground Attack Aircraft

 As soon as I saw the pictures in White Dwarf, I knew I wanted two of these (at least), I see them as the Space Marines Apache Gunship of the 41st millennium. Presenting my Relictor's StormTalon Gunship. Hope you like.

 I used Badab Black wash to deliniate the glass before painting,however it kinda stained blotchy, but better than super glue clouding I guess - I fixed it in place with PVA glue.

 I've magnetized the sponsons so I can change between Hvy Bolters or Lascannon pods, however the rear of the pod and side have gun parts and ammo (the ammo bins for the Hvy Bolter look okay on with the Lascannon barrels).  The second StormTalon will have SkyHammer Missile pods.

 With it's TL Hvy Bolters...

 With Lascannons

 Rear shot showing landing gear stowed.

 Side shot.

 Over view, you will note I've attached the wings backwards on purpose - looks more streamlined and aircraft like I think. I much prefer it to the reverse angle.

 A dead tyranid head painted to match 6thDegree's Nids! Ha Ha

Just want to sing 'Ride of the Valkyries' really loud everytime I pick it up and make whooshing noises... ;)  Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Admiral Drax vs Siph - Imperial Guard vs Relictors Space Marines

So I met up with fellow Blogger Admiral Drax for a friendly 1750pt battle at Giant's Lair, the premier gaming venue in the South West. I'd never visited Giants Lair before (only hearing about it on Drax's Blog) and never met Drax before but followed his blog for a good few years now. His was one of the first I used to read at about the time Ron set up From the Warp bloggers community. I even named my first Rifleman Dreadnought after him, lol.

It was an Annihilation and Table Quarters, putting Drax's mass of guard in a tight spot and at a killpoint disadvantage. To make matters worse, I stole the initiative and opened the game with a devastating volley of template weapon blasts which killed guard in their droves...

I've never played Guard before and now I see why SM are feared, Power Armour saved the day and Frag is actually useful (I mostly play against Pornstarjedi's SM or Daemons where it is next to useless).

My new StormTalon made its first shiny outing (pre-transfers) and promptly fell to his Hydra AA guns without getting a shot off! Such is the way with new toys!

His penal platoons had Furious Charge and CC weapons and with the Sentinel outflanked into my Assault marines and chopped them up nicely after both my Marines and Termies failed their charges into cover, falling short on turn 2 and paid the price for failure.

During the battle Drax's shooting and saves failed due to desertion of the Dice Gods and I made some great saves, leaving Drax in a tight spot with by turn 3 and the clock ticking away into the wee small hours, Drax had to concede and a narrow win for the Relictors. We were not the quickest of players it is said - but a nice battle all the same. Marbo didn't make an appearance thank goodness and my experimental use of Devastators left me underwhelmed, Krak just bounces off AV14... but Frag does kill Guard.

If we had time to go to turn 4-5 my flank would have been open and only the Landraider my best chance of victory against his Leman Russ and Demolisher. It could have gone both ways.

A great battle and a good opponent, and a top venue. Check it out. I look forward to a re-match in the future. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Tyranid Prime

Sticking with my re-painting theme, here is my Tyranid Prime that I recently re-finished. Its quite good that I am posting the re-paint jobs...it turns out I never actually posted most of my army when I was initially building it.

You can just about make out the original paint job in a pic of my BW1 army where he accompanied a brood of Venomthropes (for Wound sharing), but did very little else...

 Anyone familiar with 2^nd Ed (which is when me and pornstarjedi started playing) will recognise this as the 2^nd gen Tyranid Warrior. I love the newer Tyranid Warrior models, but do have a soft spot for these guys. They are still available on eBay for around £10 a piece (which isn’t that bad compared to the price of a GW single model like Broodlord/ SM Captains etc.) and it is pretty easy to find a variant with some interesting weapons (I think this guy was still in its blister pack and had a pair of Boneswords, rending claws and a Lash Whip).

The only change I made to the model was adding the current Deathspitter weapon. He has a pair of Boneswords to cause ID if the enemy fail a Ld test on 3D6, which complement the Lashwhip/Bonesword Warriors that he normally accompanies.

Pornstarjedi- review of Blogwars 3

Hi all.

So- BW3- how did the daemons fair....

Laughable might be one way of putting it! the choice of a mono-khorne list definitely limited the army as a whole, as did my luck with the initial wave- failing 2 out of 3- however to be far, I think this would only have changed one of the games, however potentially this would have not really changed the final result.

Battles

Game 1  daemons taking on the imperial guard.

Game 2  daemons vs blood angles

Game 3- daemons against dark eldar

In all three instances, it was the first time I'd opposed the forces of each race- so it was a little of a challenge!- having normally fought Siph's marines, or nids/orks at my local GW,

Results

Game 1- KP- loss-
Game 2- Objectives- draw-
Game 3- Quarters- loss-

however I am consistent- having finished with a loss, and 2 draws at BW1...

Conclusion

The Mono- Khorne army was found lacking in several key areas, too much emphasis was placed on the key units that died before being affect- the Bloodcrushers are too slow thus you spend a good few turns foot slogging it across to reach the opposition. The plan of 3 soul grinders in 1 wave might have been more affect in the later games, however the one turn they arrived as 1 was into lots of melta gun fire...

Therefore

The next BW will see (depending on 6th) a full daemon army, with a combination of all 4 powers...either that or a return of my Ultramarines!

I am now the proud owner of the weeman wooden spoon...

How I've been stripping my 'Nids

I’m sure most people will be familiar with how to strip minis; but whilst I was recently looking around the interwebs for tips, I noticed a lot of articles and posts were very US-centric – so I thought I would post some tips for the Uk’ers.

First of all, the criteria I’ve used:

• Whatever I use has got to be readily available in the UK (and ideally cheap).
• It’s got to be “me-friendly” (basically I don’t want to get cancer by looking at it).
• I need to be able to use it on metal and plastic minis without destroying them.

If you have a search for “how to strip models”, you will probably get “Simple Green” back. We can’t really get that over here so we need alternatives. After working my way through various suggestions I crossed off anything that would melt plastic, kill me or would require import/exports and I was left with Fairy Power Spray and Dettol.

Apparently Fairy Power Spray is the bee’s knees and I have a friend who has repainted his entire army 3 or 4 times and swears by it...but my local supermarkets don’t stock the stuff so I ended up trying Dettol. I got a 500ml bottle for about £2.50 which was enough to fill a container holding 3 medium sized models (think 40mm base) and can be reused. (Fairy Power Spray is awesome - try big supermarkets - Siph) (I found it in the end - it does work really well, just spray it on and leave it for an few hours! - T6D)

I tested it using some Gaunts that I could bear to lose if they turned into a puddle of plastic-y sludge; I just threw them in a jam jar with enough Dettol to cover them and left them overnight.

The next morning I gloved up, took them out and ran them under some warm water and paint just fell off (including the sand on the base that was stuck on with PVA glue) leaving the plastic mini unharmed. The paint turns a bit tar-like and any bits that stuck to the detail were quickly dispatched with a straightened paperclip. I tried using an old toothbrush but it gunked it up really quickly.

 After rinsing and drying they were ready for a new paint job – easy peasy!

Contemplating Resorting to Strippin’

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently decided to give some of my ‘Nids an overhaul and have a go at repainting them.

This is something that’s been floating around in my head for a few months now. Whilst I would only class myself as an enthusiastic amateur - an average painter at best (I hate it when people refer to their mini’s as being “pro-painted” when they are three colour minimum or barely even tabletop standard), I do think my painting has jumped ahead quite a bit since I first decided to pick up a paintbrush and start my army a couple of years ago. I’ll be honest – I actually cringe now whilst looking at some of my earlier models and only use them on the table when I have no choice.

 

One of the first Tyranid models I painted

An early Hive Guard (thankfully now repainted) - eurgh...look at that green!

 It’s not just my painting that has moved on – so has my colour scheme. Whilst my ‘Nids are the same green/black combo they have always been, I have started using a combination of washes to try and give the gribblies a more organic look.

 

My first Tervigon - not an awful conversion, but now rarely leaves its box...

I also decided that if a unit is T4 or less it gets a lighter skin tone and T5 or more it gets a darker shade. Overall it makes the big stuff look older and tougher and the little stuff a bit younger and more fragile. Pretty much the only thing that’s not changed is the carapace – but that’s only because I haven’t found a better way to paint it yet (although I do have some idea's floating around that might work...must get testing).

An example of a recent Tervigon I painted...compare and contrast with the earlier one and you will understand what I am talking about...

Comparing the older and newer minis, I don't think anyone will argue that they could do with a repaint, but I'm having a nagging thought; as an average painter there is always room for improvement and development, but with an ever changing point of view can you ever look back at your painting and be happy with it? In a couple of years will I look back at my current work and cringe? And is it possible to have an ever growing large army that you are actually happy with or do you end up in a never ending cycle of repainting the same 5K-10K pts worth of models?

Maybe that’s a question for the painters out there with a few more years under their belts...?

Legio Astorum Will Walk... Imperial Warhound Titan Canis Praetor

 Legio Astorum has a new titan. Introducing Warhound Titan 'Canis Praetor', brother titan of Warhound Titan 'Canis Bellum' and escort to Reaver Titan 'Honorum' of my fledgling Titan Legion! Ha Ha... have to wait now until FW do a Warlord!! I can hope.

 Once again, Richard Gray *Slayer Sword Winner 2014 has done it proud, check him out a http://www.richardgraycreations.com/ if you are interested in getting some fine quality work like this done for yourself. He is very professional and will ask you how exactly you want the details, pose, etc etc. after all, as he says, "it's your titan". I wanted a static pose as if he is firing those two Laser Destructors in your face/superheavy/titan...

 I promise to post pics of all three together once I receive him in the post shortly. Until then, here is a pic of him at Richard's front door waiting for the postman to collect him(!?)

###UPDATE### 2019 AFTER ACTION PIC CAPTUR ###