Terrain and WIP Updates

Brush Woes

My brush, especially the fine detail one has had an accident. Its shelf life is over. Can't use it to paint much now. The stock for new fine detail brush will come in week. So nothing to paint for the Tale at the moment.


Managed to get two Sanguinary Guard's details done before brush had its accident. With a day till next week, i settled to make some terrain just for fun. If it turns out ok, i may bring it back to Singapore for the guys to use :))

Terrain Making

I've gotten down to the local craft store earlier and bought some stuff from their sale bin :)

Got the pen grip thingys for 99 cents and the styrofoam shapes for $1.99. Got another tub of the foam like clay to play with again ;)
Magic Mushies


I used the rubber pen grip thing and a styro circle shape to make a mushroom. The top of the mushroom is made from the foam clay.


The mushroom stands a bit taller than most minis, maybe about 32mm. The height can be adjusted by trimming the pen 'stalk'. I can make a few mushroom forests for games. The color for the mushies will be purplish turquoise mix :))

Depot Set

Also attempting to make a Depot Station for 40k out of used stuff. The set will probably have 3 pieces.


The fuel storage stations.


The waste or tool storage sheds.

And a bunker, not shown here. Still waiting for the glue to dry before priming black. It will be painted in catachan green mix, similar to the army truck color :)

Cheers!

Painting Updates and Army List

I am participating in a Tale of 6 Gamers! First time i'm doing so and its quite exciting!

Details here at YC's Fantasy Blog and also a link to Ray's Blog to register for the event :))

My pledge is to paint up 10 Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard (SG). I'm up to an early start today and have commenced assembly and primed a few SG already.

I think i should have pledged to paint something else haha! The SG have quite a few details on their armor. But i'm looking forward to seeing them painted and tabletop ready!

Just a pic on this morning's efforts.

Again i was very nearly overwhelmed by smell of the glue. Good thing i rolled a 2+ for armor save ;P

Call to Arms

With the potential that the Sanguinary Guard (SG) army may be painted up soon. I am motivated to do up some of an army list roster.

500 Points

1x Commander Dante

1x Squad of Sanguinary Guard (no upgrades)

1x Squad of Scouts (prolly armed with sniper rifles)

Not much i can add here as its a really small points bracket and Dante eats up a huge chunk. With only 75pts left, after SG basics, i could only squeeze in a Scout troop option. Maybe the scouts can hopefully pin the enemy while Dante and his golden boys charge or countercharge the enemy.

1000pts

1 Commander Dante

1 Librarian w/ Jump Pack & melta bomb
Psychic powers (likely Shield and Lance)

1 Squad of Honor Guard
with 2 Flamer and 1 Meltagun

SG Squad One
1Power Fist
2 Infernus Pistol

SG Squad Two
1Power Fist
2 Plasma Pistol

The 1000pt roster has more options. I've been tempted to include a Librarian. The Honor Guard will probably be for Dante and painted in gold scheme as well. I think only Dante's Honor Guard is gold though. The Librarian's task is to hopefully provide Shield to units that land. Dante to hopefully pop a transport and the Honor Guard can flame the troops. The SG squads to provide additional firepower and close combat support if they survive ;)

40K Wargaming: A Meaningful Loss

LGS Meetup and Shennigans

I met a guy at the LGS, and over the course of a few Saturdays, we got to discussing 40K. He's about 14 or 15 years old i think. Anyways, he appears to be quite serious about the hobby and unlike some others, does play by the rules and seek rules clarification if unsure.

We engaged in many crazy discussions and scenarios. Even made up one where we could 'fight' each other in real life. He could slow motion try to punch me, but has to roll to hit on a D6 first. If wounded, one has to make the appropriate sounds of one dying LOL!!

Anyways, like all gamers at one point or another, we do lose a game. Sometimes rather consistently...like me ;P

It bothered him alot that his vanilla Space Marines were always losing the game objectives, no matter what they were. I think this may have to do with his tactics or list composition, or both.

But while he slowly tweaks the list and comes to develop his own tactics, he did mention that the sting of a loss will always be there in some measure.

Well, we talked further and came up with a few reasons for the 'loss' while being careful not to take anything of the (well deserved) victory away from your opponent.

Here are some methods to the madness ;)
1) Divina-vision



The 40k Universe is rife with Psykers. Besides able to do amazing feats of burning enemies to the consistency of crisp bacon, psykers are also noted for one other talent: divination or telling the future!

Thus we can say in our army's backstory that the battle played to be one that the psyker saw in his visions! So the battle and its outcome still took place, no matter what! But in a different path or skein of reality! Thus being so forewarned (after foreseeing all 6 turns of the game lol), the psyker can now (in the army's fluff) warn the captain not to take the battle to the enemy at this time or fashion.

For me since i play Eldar and now Blood Angels, i could say that my Farseer saw the vision of the battle and warned the warhost not to engage the enemy in this reality. For BA, i could use their Librarian or my favored reason, Brother Corbulo's Far Seeing Eye, which could have seen and then warned of the outcome of the battle.

So one still draws or loses the battle, but still have a good background story to write up your battle report according to what the psyker saw :)

2) The Pawn of Destiny


Basically, this is just nominating ANY enemy model. It can be a lowly trooper or a Sergeant (my favs lol) but a HQ is preferred. Even a tank is very acceptable. This can involve psykers divination as well, but is not necessary.

The FLUFF objective of your army is to take out an enemy tank or foot model as they will have moral impacts on the opponent's army. For example, your entire army got wiped by your opponent, but you did kill Pedro Kantor the Chapter Master! (your only kill of the game haha).

You could have taken out a Sergeant who was to have become a mighty warrior for your opponent's army ;)

Or your combat company took out the Chaos Land Raider, Devastator Squads, Imperial Baneblade or Squadron of Leman Russes. So now your reserve foot soldiers arriving later can now engage the enemy as the bombardment of heavy support has ceased.

Again you still draw or most likely lost the battle, but still able to write up a nice piece of background fluff.

And FLUFF is after all, the inspiration for the battles and armies we play.

Hope anyone who read this was inspired,and if not, at least entertained ;)

Cheers!

Painting Updates

CP30

Finished up the Reaper miniature today :) It can be a counts as savant or servitor in an Inquisition army. I used metallic paints for this one.


Front View.


Back View

Now just need to look for an R2D2 haha!

Commander Dante (Update)

I finally decided to finish up Dante's jump pack. Was struggling with giving him a winged Sanguinary Guard (SG) jump pack versus his original one. I finally decided to use the original one as its his classic look :) Also i don't have to buy another box of SG haha!

View of the classic jump pack.


Another shot.

Side view.

I personally find NMM much nicer, not sure why man. Using metallic paints are much easier though. The price of beauty ;P

On Angel's Wings

I finally completed the 5 Sanguinary Guard. They will be the first set of Angels.

The Guard charging into kombat!


View from above.

More to come..



My Sanguinary Guard boxes arrived today! And just in time too :) Time to paint them up as well. Probably using the metallic paints this time lol!

Cheers!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Had a discussion with Ray on YC's Blog Fantasy Games about Mycetic Spore conversion. Decided to go to local art and craft shop called Lincraft to have a look at materials. They are having a May Winter sale on, so its great!

Bought a round styrofoam ball for AUD$2 and a small tub of putty like stuff called Rubba Dubba Doo for AUD$3. Its prolly cheaper in Singapore eh ;P

The putty is like a foam clay, hard to describe. Its really light and dries quite fast in the air. When dried it feels rubbery! I found that interesting. I think i saw it used before locally, people use it to make cute animals of different colors. I bought the yellow color tub and it smells like lemon! I was quite tempted to taste it. Didn't though..hahas!

Heres a pic of the product.

So i was ready to go to try my hand at a Mycetic Spore. I based my on a prehistoric insect like organism that existed 550 million years ago. Its called a Spriggina. Also inspired by the Tyranid art on page 54 of the codex with a Carnifex crawling out.


I cut the styro ball in half and shaped the half i was using bu cutting out some of the sides to make it look less roundish.



I applied glue to the bottom and whacked it onto a piece of cardboard. Its interesting to note the middle of the styro ball has little tiny styro balls haha!


Next i rolled the putty, almost eating it cos it smelled so good. Right...okay, i rolled it into strips and stuck it on the styro frame using white glue.

Other view of lemon pie, i mean Mycetic Spore :)


Small rolled strips for the skeleton frame also glued in.


Back view of the Spore. Strips of rolled putty applied to the back as well as the sides of the bio construct.

More strips added to the sides.

Frontal view, almost done. Did some teeth at the maw/entrance and some carapace on the front as well. Wish i had my bitz boxes here!! I have zilch at the moment except for Sanguinary Guard bitz lol!


Back view.


Side view. Vestigial legs added to the bottom of the spore.

And i have run out of putty. I made the mistake of leaving some outside the box for more than 5 minutes and it hardened! That was pretty fast air drying man! If i had saved the putty from drying, i would prolly had enough to make the lash tentacles...

It was fun doing this. It could be a piece of Tyranid terrain as well or a lemon pie haha!

I will maybe basecoat it and paint it later. My Sanguinary Guard boxes have arrived! Together with my Mushroom men!

Have a fruitful and joyful week ahead everybody!

Lightsabers are Fun!

I was really eager to paint up my Jedi Knight today :) He will be my counts as Sister of Battle Cannoness in terms of 40k stats.

I will be calling him Oberwyn ;P

He was converted from a Reaper Miniature. The original mini was a wizard called Karlov Diedrich which was sculpted by Bob Ridolfi. I cut off the staff on the right hand and the sword on the left. I then drilled a hole and fitted a piece of paper clip as the lightsaber.


Front view



Back view

I'll be doing another Jedi counts as next. I changed me mind and will be using him to represent 'Anakin'.

My 'counts as' madness continues haha!

:)

Ermm...Star Wars

The final order for my counts as Jedis have arrived...finally.

I have been waiting to commence building a Star Wars army for 40K. I was deliberating between Daemon Hunters and Witch Hunters 40k lists.

I finally decided to go for Witch Hunters. My counts as Storm Trooper would just be too overpowered if i used the stats of a Grey Knight. Plus i could not explain why each one had a big Nemesis Force weapon haha!

This is my Storm Trooper to represent a Sister of Battle. I haven't painted his gun and hands yet. Am quite satisfied with the color scheme. I got 50 of these guys am was waiting for the chance to use them :))


My Jedi warriors :) Did some conversion work on the guys. I had the children Jedi from Hasslefree but it didn't seem right to me for a child to be on the battlefield lol!
They will represent my counts as Sisters of Battle Heroes as well as Vet Sgts in SoB squads.

Power weapons to represent light sabers. I have made up some fluff for them as well.

Jedi

A character with the Jedi entry will have the following rule:

Force Adept
The Jedi has the ability to move, deflect and counter small arms and normal close combat weaponary using the Force. As such the Jedi will always benefit from a 3+ armor save to represent his abilities.

Mind Trick
Minor psychic powers have no affect on a Jedi. Other psychic powers can be nullified on a roll of 5+. Roll for each attempt to block the enemy's psychic power.

Aura of the Just (counts as Book of St Lucius)
Jedi are agents of the Forces of Good. They are inspirational leaders in the field of battle.
As such any friendly unit within 6 inches can use their unmodified leadership for moral and pinning tests.

Light Saber
Jedi who have completed their training are gifted with a Light Saber. The Light Saber is a badge of office as well as a potent weapon capable of cutting through armor. Any Jedi character must purchase a light saber (counts as power weapon).

Feats of Valor (counts as Acts of Faith)
The accomplished Jedi can also tap into the Force to generate Feats of Valor. Thus Jedi also generate Force points which they can use to accomplish different Feats of Valor.

1) Force Might =Hand of the Emperor

2) Force Guide =Divine Guidiance

3) Force Speed =The Passion

4) Force Aura =Light of the Emperor

5) Force Armor =Spirit of the Martyr

Force Jump for characters with Jump Pack

Yup thats all the fluff for now ;)

A typical 1500 point List will consist of the Cannoness with JP and 4 Squads of ten SoB in Rhinos. Maybe supported by 2 Excorcists.

And last but not least...


This mini is from Reaper's Chronoscope range. I will be using it as a protocol droid reminiscent of CP30. His just there as fluff scenery.

Finally i can use my Witch Hunters Codex :)))

Sanguinary Guard with a huge @$$ Axe

Got another of the Angels done just today. This one has excellent detail again :)

Front view of the SG.


Side view seen here with Angelus boltgun. I painted the cartridges reddish color to simulate the bloodshard ammunition.


The other side of the mini. The huge axe looks quite heavy. He seems to be falling backwards haha! The big wings also not really helping i reckon ;P

And finally...

An impulse buy at The Reject Shop just cos it looks sooo cute!!



I named him Tako. He will be my painting table mascot heehee :))

Have a great week ahead all!

Sanguinary Guard with Powerfist

Managed to finish up a second Sanguinary Guard. This one was assembled with a powerfist.


Front View.


Side view seen here with ornate Powerfist.


Other side, seen with Angelus Boltgun.


Back view.

There is just so much detail on the Sanguinary Guard minis. Its simply amazing they could pack that much detail in the moulding process.

But it was really fun to paint and i enjoyed the process, even though it was a bit tiring at times haha :)

BA Codex Fun Takes ;)

I was perusing the new Blood Angels Codex and was studying the cover as i was bored.

I noticed some interesting parts on the cover art.



I thought the Priest or Captain here looks like he is doing a yam-seng at a wedding dinner hehe!


And i was also wondering what the servitors were doing man? Prodding around the corpse of Plague Marines?? Weren't they taught not to mess around with Nurgle's Rot? The servitor on the left also seems to be suspiciously concerned about the fallen Plague Marine haha!

Not Juz Any Lone Wolf ;)

Doing a counts as Lone Wolf mini for Krom. He wanted a female lone wolf, so i did some searchin' haha!

I took into consideration that she would be in some form of power armor. The GW Sisters of Battle did come to mind, but i did not find them suitable. Too much inquisitorial markings and their faces look like a man (maybe its just me) LOL!

Other ranges looked too fantasy or just had too few clothes on ;P

My impression of Space Wolves is they are generally like Vikings and Norsemen. And they are famous for their warrior ability as well as their big size.

Big size not meaning fat, but in a way that means they are generally taller, broader and more big boned i guess :)

I settled on a mini by Hasslefree Miniatures called Power Armored Libby.
Its a really beautiful sculpt and fun to paint.



I find she brings out the warrior look really well, and the charging pose is just sweet! She looks like a female Valkyrie of the Norse legends!



I assembled the mini just today, still waiting for the glue and greenstuff to do their work. The mini has also been pinned for more stability.


I will plan to add other details via greenstuf like runestones and whatnot. The weapon can be a Frost Axe or power weapon. The chunky pistol i imagine to be called the Widowmaker can be counts as for a few things. Just give a backstory that it can be configured as a storm bolter, bolt pistol or plasma pistol prior to a battle heehee!

The Power armor can be called e.g. Valkyrie Armor and treated as normal, or Termi armor. Just need to mount on a bigger base if playing as Termi armor ;)

Anyone got any conversions to do can let me know. I can't seem to find a job yet, so it will definitely relieve my boredom haha!

The stork has delivered

I was just reading and commenting on YC's Fantasy Games blog about his purchases. Lots of space marines goodness there. It must have been delivery time for all the wargames companies online, as i received a call from reception that i got a package as well haha!

Looks like online orders everywhere are being fulfilled as the volcanic ash situation improves :)))


My Lizardmen Skinks have arrived, ready for conversion to Deep Ones (counts as Plaguebearers). The Slann Mage Priest is just a beautiful model. I might convert him to a Cthulhu Priest by greenstuffing tentacles to his face heehee!

Also in the pic are a box of Kabuki Dolls from Urban Mammoth. They are excellent and i'm planning to maybe do an Oriental style Seer Council from them.



The rest of the small blister packs are from Hasslefree Miniatures. Minis opened and pictured above. They are for my Inquisition 'Star Wars' style list. Included within one blister is a mini that is destined for conversion into a Lone Wolf for Defu (Krom) which is not shown.....yet ;P

I'm a lurker and sometimes poster at the B&C Forums. Some of the guys there introduced me to Wayland Games from the UK. I placed my order with them and they are excellent! When i emailed them for any enquiries, they replied to me on the SAME DAY! They also kept me in the loop on the status of my purchases, which was for me top notch customer service :)

Cheers!

First Guard

After much fiddling, trial and error, i settled on a paint scheme. I should have checked the web for better gold and NMM recipes though...theres so much better paint schemes out there...

But stuck as i am in my ways, i continued on with the scheme already embarked on.


Here are the SG with their first coat of paint. I wanted a cartoony kind of look. I sure got it i think, though maybe not in a good way haha!


Heres the first Sanguinary Guard. He's pictured here with Angelus boltgun and the Glaive Encarmine. Behind is the gigantic Grail Cup (just kidding..its my tea cup haha!)

I couldn't paint anymore as it would take too much time per mini. Gonna just leave him as he is, cos i will eventually have to do 19 more of them...plus the Sanguinor..

Have a good weekend all!