Relictors Space Marine Bike Squad

Hello all, I'm back from overseas and straight back into the hobby! I wasn't totally idle whilst at work away, I did basecoat these bikes and riders but left the details until I was back on terra firma.

These complete the bike squad I had grand designs to finish way back in May 2011 when I did the Sergeant (found here) but circumstances, fickle fate and 'bike' burnout from doing 3 Attack Bikes and 1 Master of the Forge on Bike with Conversion Beamer put these on the side pile of stuff to do. With the subtle change to toughness that 6th has brought, bikes are now T5 for all purposes of instant death etc. rather than T4(5) as they used to, bikes may make a re-emergence on the table tops?...

Besides, where else as a Vanilla Marine player can I have a squad of only three marines T5, Fast and with 2 Special Weapons plus Sergeant load out - normally I need a full squad of ten just to get 1 special weapon, but with these I can have survivable mobile anti-tank / anti-termi MEQ with Melta or Plasma.

Hope you like. Normal mini service will now resume... I'm back from sea for a while. Yay!

Nuns with Guns Test Model

In the (hopefully) near future, Preston will be getting its first LFGS – Worthy Games (who are also a pretty good miniature painting service). Anyone interested can find out more on the Red Steel: Preston FB page.

Everyone is really excited to have a new store open locally and there is already talk of a 40K and WarmaHordes tournament soon after opening. There is also some buzz about getting a Necromunda campaign going (something me and GreyLamb have been talking about wanting get involved in for ages now). I used to love Necromunda when it was first released and played my Orlock Warlocks until they were so hard they could single handedly take on a 2000pts SM army. Well maybe not SMs...but probably Tau or something...

Rather than go out and buy a standard GW gang I thought it would be a great opportunity to make a counts-as gang. Whilst I was looking for ideas, I stumbled across a trailer for the new Hitman game and was inspired by the effective use of lighting on the costumes and fluid combat styles....or something. Lol.

Anyway, I have spent some time sourcing a variety of suitable models that I will be using either as-is, or after making some minor conversions (mainly just adding the correct weapons and changing a few poses) to make my kinky-nuns-with-guns gang. The great thing is that with the right models and weapons, I could pretty much use them as Eschers, Cawdors or even Redemptionists at a push.

Here is a test model I picked up to see how I liked the look of the concept. The model is “Grace the Holy Assassin” from the Chronoscope range by Reaper Miniatures.

My first Forgeworld piece (its a Flyrant!)

I have wanted a Forgeworld piece ever since I first laid my eyes on their site when started collecting again a few years back, but I always end up weighing up the price of one of of their pieces against the ever growing “to buy” list and always opted for the latter (especially because most of the ‘Nid FW pieces can’t really be played in most games).

Just before 6^th Ed dropped I managed to pick this guy up off eBay for about a quarter of the normal FW price (with the new focus on flyers, I bet it would have gone for more now) and according to the seller, the model just needed the head gluing back on, but was otherwise “pro-painted” (I really hate that term) and in perfect condition.

When it finally turned up, it needed a little more attention than the seller let on, unless it got damaged in transit and all of the broken parts mysteriously disappeared from the shipping box....

The central horn on the head was broken, as well as the Tyrants tongue – simple enough jobs to fix (I reshaped the the rear of the head and the tongue and you can’t tell unless you have another model to compare it to). Also the model was in about 20 different parts...

I left it in parts and started stripping the “pro paint job” (which was two colour minimum and looked like it had been applied with a trowel). At this point I thought the model looked nice but didn’t see what all the FW fuss was about – it had no more detail than a regular GW model...and then I stripped off the top layer of paint. And then the next. And the next. And another one...about 5 coats in all until I got to the black undercoat...and I have no idea what had been used to undercoat the thing but it was now a black tar that was so thick and viscous that it could be moved around the model and took impressions of your fingerprints when you touched it – horrible stuff! Dettol and Power Spray wouldn’t touch the stuff, so it took hours of scrubbing with hot water (trying not to warp the FW resin too much) to finally get rid of it all – and there it was...FW detail! And it was niiiice!

The model then went back together nicely and was actually relatively easy to paint – here it is:

Repainted Tyranid Warriors

I’m still going ahead with a repaint of some of my Nids; mainly the ones that look hideous and that I use regularly. 

Due to their fatal T4 flaw, the Tyranid Warriors don’t get played half as much as I would like (why can’t they be T5 2W - seeing as Hive/Tyrant Guard are T6 2W???); there is just too much S8 in decent sized games, but I have recently played them in a couple of smaller 1000pt games and they really can be awesome. 

My favourite build is Deathspitter and Lash Whip/Bonesword – a little expensive at 50pts each, but a brood of 3 can happily turn a squad of 5 Termi’s into mush in combat and you can’t turn your nose up at 15 S5 shots either...so long as you can avoid the incoming S8 shots...and GW doesn’t nerf the Boneswords in the next FAQ (which I am pretty sure they will).

With GW finally releasing the Lash Whip/Bonesword sprues, I thought these guys deserved stripping and re-equiping. This is what one of them looked like originally:

Naaaaasty...

And this is what the brood looks like now – much more pleasing to the eye (at least I think so...):

 

WIP Skulltaker on Juggernaut

Hi all,

Just a quick post with one of my current WIP - Skulltaker on a juggernaut!

For those that were at BW3- you may have spotted him making his first tournament appearance- however he didn't take as many skulls as I was hoping for...  :(  I decided to make my own version of Skulltaker, and converted both him and the juggernaut to get the pose right. 

The big problem with the Skulltaker model, is also the best part of the model - the cape. Ideally you would position him so that he was riding the juggernaut correctly with his legs either side, this could be done via cutting into the cape however, this was an option I didn't want to take. Instead I opted to convert him and the Juggernaut with a view to achieving a dynamic look with the cape 'flowing' behind him.

To achieve this, I converted his right leg slightly so that it would nestle into the juggernaut - the next step was to cut the sword away from his right arm, and position it so that he could hold on to the juggernaut's collar via a chain piece. The left hand was cut away, and then turned with the sword repositioned. I love the way the sword arm looks, as if he is sizing up the next skull to be beheaded.

The juggernaut had its hind legs modified, so that the juggernaut was rearing up, this was done to:

 a) make the juggernaut stand out
 b) add to the dynamics of the cape
 c) to try to capture the essence of the model - if the juggernaut looked too 'static' the flowing nature of Skulltaker would be lost.

The hind left left leg was heavily converted, as it was completely cut away from the 'knee joint' and the 'ankle' and then re-applied using some 'bitz' to bulk out and support the new positions. 

Overall I like the look of the model, and having seen several on various other blogs, I'm quite happy with the finish. I am still in the process of finishing painting up the model, I opted for a metallic juggernaut to contrast with my 'midnight purple' Bloodcrushers. I have tried to create a 'fire' effect both within the juggernaut (eyes, and armour) and Skulltakers sword. I hope you like it! and will post completed pictures once he is finished..

Warmachine - Khador Winterguard Squad

I haven’t played a huge amount of Warmachine recently with Blog Wars 3 prep and the roll-up to 40K 6^th Ed, but that hasn’t stopped me painting up my Warmachine army.

Here we have a complete Khador Winterguard squad which comprises of 9 Winterguard Infantry, a Sergeant, a pair of Winterguard Rocketeers, a Winterguard Command Squad and Winterguard character Kovnic Joseph Grigorovich.

Individually the Winterguard are relatively weak, but their strength lies in numbers and synergy with each other; the addition of the Command Squad allows extra Orders and combined attacks, which Kovnic Joe has a choice of Inspiring Speeches which make the unit hit harder or more resilient. When the unit is working correctly – they can be extremely tough.

Kovnic Joesph Grigorovich

 

Winterguard Command Squad

Winterguard Sergeant

Winterguard Infantry

Winterguard Rocketeers

 

 Winterguard Squad

6th Ed Nids vs Grey Knights Battlerep

Me and Greylamb (from the Sheep of War blog) had our first 6^th Ed game; I was obviously running my Nids and Greylamb was rocking his Grey Knights. It was a small (1250pts) game with varied lists to get the hang of the new rules.

Flyrant (Twin Linked Devourers/Old Adversary/ 2x Psychic Powers)

Tervigon (Crushing Claws/ Adrenal Glands/ Toxin Sacks/ 2x Psychic Powers)

3x Tyranid Warriors (Lash Whips & Boneswords/ Deathspitters)

20x Termagants

21x Termagants

2x Hive Guard

2x Hive Guard

Carnifex (2x Twin Linked Devourers)

I managed to get quite a lot for my pts with this list. The Flyrant was expensive but I wanted to play the new Flying MC rules. Tyranid Warriors don’t normally get a look in with the amount of S8 that can get thrown out, but I thought I would risk it. I’m still not a fan of Tervigons, but they can be useful in smaller games; the Carnifex and Hive Guard were there to take care of any mech that got in range.

Greylamb took something like:

Librarian

5x Terminators (1x Psycannon)

5x Terminators (1x Psycannon)

5x Purifiers (Rhino)

Rifleman Dreadnaught

Stormraven

We played with 1 objective each – mine went in a forest in my deployment zone and Greylambs went behind cover in the middle of his deployment. We both rolled for Warlord traits but didn’t use them (they seemed pretty useless in this game – maybe they work better in bigger games).

We both decided to swap out our standard psychic powers for rolls on the new powers. Greylamb rolled Divination and got ‘Prescience’, ‘Precognition’ and ‘Scriers Gaze’ (Divinations not that great IMO). I went for Biomancy (awesome) and my Flyrant got ‘Iron Arm’ (woot – great against GKs!) and ‘Warp Speed’ and the Tervigon got ‘Enfeeble’ and ‘Haemorrage’.

I rolled first turn and set everything up on the left flank around my objective. Greylamb deployed the Rifleman and Purifiers – everything else went in Reserve. GKs then stole the initiative.

Turn 1

GK: The Rifleman shuffled forward and the Rhino popped smoke. The Rifleman opened up on the Flyrant but only managed score one wound and the Flyrant passed its Grounded tests.

Nids: The Flyrant used Iron Arm to boost to S/T9 and took to the skies (Swooping). Everything else pushed forwards. 

The Flyrant opened up on Rhino and stripped 2 Hull Points (already loving Hull Points!). We then remembered the smoke and both shots were saved.

Turn 2

GK: A shocking Reserve roll (you only need 3+ on T2 now...) only brought in a single squad of Terminators who Deep Striked right in front of my forces. The Rifleman and Rhino opened up on the Flyrant again but missed with everything. The Terminators fired into the nearest brood of Gants killing about 8.

 

Nids: The Flyrant used ‘Iron Arm’ again and boosted to S/T7 and used its Vector Strike on the Rhino – but failed to even glance (Vector Strike is overrated IMO as you have to use your unmodified S). The Tervigon spawned a small brood of Gants (and pooped out...) who moved onto my objective. 

The rest of my force encircled the Terminators making sure I would still get a charge even after Overwatch wounds and a poor Charge roll.

One brood of Hive Guard fired into the Rifleman and stripped 2 Hull Points. The Flyrant unleashed on the Rhino with Devourers but rubbish rolls meant that nothing happened. Everything else fired into the Terminators killing 3 of them (given that I threw about 50+ shots at them that was some good saving!). The smaller brood of Gants charged the remaining Terminators, losing a couple to overwatch and got the charge in. A few more Gants died together with another Terminator (leaving 1).

Turn 3

GK: The Stormraven and Terminators (with Librarian) finally turned up – the Termi’s near the GK objective and the Stormraven right next to the Flyrant. The Purifiers disembarked and shot at the Flyrant together with the Rhino and Rifleman, but failed to hurt it (the Flyrant passed its Grounded tests again). The Stormraven opened up on the Flyrant with everything it had and Skyfire really came into effect; 4 unsavable wounds were placed onto the Flyrant who only had 3 wounds left – so the Flyrant had no choice but to Dive (Jink) to save itself. 

It made 2 saves and its Grounded Tests and dropped to a single wound. The Termi stayed locked in combat after passing more saves.

Nids: The Flyrant used ‘Iron Arm’ again and went to S/T9 again and chose to Glide. Everything pushed forward towards the newly arrived Terminator squad. Hive Guards finished off the Rifleman (first blood VP!).

The Flyrant charged the Purifiers; amusingly they had nothing that could hurt the T9 Flyrant after they failed Cleansing Flame (thank you SitW). The Flyrant easily butchered the entire squad. The lone Termi remained locked in combat with the Gants.

Turn 4

GK: The Terminators shuffled around and the Stormraven moved the middle of the board. The Termi’s (along with the Librarians various blessings) opened up on the second Gant brood and killed about half of them. The Stormraven unleashed on the Flyrant again and the only thing to hurt it was the damn Mindstrike missiles...killing the Flyrant (VP to the GKs). The lone Termi in combat survived another round of combat!

Nids: More advancing towards the Terminator squad – if I can lock them in combat I might be able to sneak onto their objective if the game drags on. 

Time to take down the Stormraven (hoping for lots of 6’s to hit due to no Skyfire). A brood of Hive Guard went first and hit with 2 out of 4 shots and managed to penetrate and roll 6 on the damage chart – talk about luck (well...kind of luck...the Stormraven then crashed onto some nearby Gants killing them)! With that out of the way, everything shot up the Terminators killing a pair of them. The Termi stayed locked in combat.

Turn 5

GK: The Terminators high-tailed it towards their objective seeing what was coming. The lone Termi still made all its saves.

Nids: My Nids chase them and the Termi with the blessed armour still sat there – we rolled for next turn and the game ended 2-1VPs to Nids!

Overall – the new rules seemed really good! The game was only 1250pts but seemed to flow really quickly (I think it lasted about an hour). The new Psychic powers worked really well (mine at least) and wound allocation was nowhere near as complicated as we anticipated. The only contentious point was the Flyrants ‘Dive’ manoeuvre...it is the same rule as ‘Jink’ which gives a 5+ cover save; 4+ if you are going Flat Out. The confusing thing is only vehicles get to go Flat Out, despite Swooping being exactly the same. We rolled off to decide if it got a 4+ or a 5+ and ended up playing it as RAW (5+).

Can’t wait to get another game in!

6th Edition Massive Flyer's Battle

For the release of 6th Edition on the 30th June, my local GW had planned a massive flyer's battle.

The objective was simple enough- for the Imperial Thunderhawk gunship to make it across the board- for the opposition, to take it down.

I had control of the T-hawk, along with my Ceastus Ram acting as escort.

The battle was pretty intense, with lots of players, all with various flyer's and vehicles/troops etc.

The new rules were pretty easy to take on board, and implement into the game.

The game finished with the T-hawk surviving, but only making it half way across the board (we limited the movement it could make) the issue was the weight in numbers of flyer's! however it was pretty cool to see various fighta jets getting blown out of the skies by combined fire from 7 talon's and the T-hawk!