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!

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!