Archive for September, 2009

Marks of Khorne in 8 Steps

Posted by NockerGeek in Modeling on September 25th, 2009

mark_of_khorne_1

One thing I’m still of a mixed mind about in the Chaos Space Marine Codex is the whole icon thing. Having to have one model in a unit being an icon bearer is a bit of a pain when it comes to WYSIWYG modeling. It’s not so bad for vanilla CSMs, as they have the parts for having someone tote around an icon on the sprue. For terminators, though, it’s a bit trickier. For one thing, there’s no comparable parts. For another, they don’t have any free hands. At a loss for what to do, and not really feeling like drilling into a terminator’s body, I pulled out my Green Stuff. Now, before the other night, I’d never really used Green Stuff for anything but patching gaps and doing pseudo-pinning, but suddenly I felt brave. What if the icon bearer’s armor itself was the icon? Of course, this meant one thing – putting the mark of Khorne on him, and that meant sculpting. That’s the mark of a good hobby – it encourages you to stretch yourself and try things you haven’t done before. Getting my Green Stuff, hobby knife, and cup of water ready, I got to work.

I was happy enough with the results to repeat it on his shoulder, and then again on my Terminator Lord, who also bears the mark of Khorne. So, how’d I do it? Here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »

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My First Khorne CSM List

Posted by NockerGeek in Army Lists on September 22nd, 2009

csm_lordI haven’t had much painting time this week, so I’ve been running through various configurations of Chaos Space Marine lists. One thing that’s requiring me to do some adjusting is the point cost of CSMs. Coming from the Tau, I’m surprised at how few models I can fit into, say, 1000 points. It feels like I’m running with a much leaner force, albeit one that’s tougher on a per-model basis. One lesson that I’ve learned – it’s very hard to fit Terminators into a 1000 point list and have enough budget left over to build a worthwhile list. Not a big surprise, maybe, but I’m used to being able to throw two or three Crisis Suits – also Elite choices – into a comparable Tau list.

Fortunately, I found an alternative to the Chaos Terminator Lord (which I still plan on using in larger armies) in the above mini (GW’s picture, not mine), which I found floating in the collection I recently acquired. He comes in cheaper than Kharn, and serves as a good substitute for a Skull Champion in a group of Berzerkers. His equipment set-up is a bit static, but still workable. Here’s what I’ve managed to throw together:

HQ: Chaos Lord (1#, 145 pts)
1 Chaos Lord (Power Fist; Combi-melta; Melta Bombs; Personal Icon*; Mark of Khorne)

Troops: Khorne Berzerkers (8#, 192 pts)
7 Khorne Berzerkers
1 Rhino (Combi-flamer)

Troops: Khorne Berzerkers (9#, 258 pts)
7 Khorne Berzerkers
1 Skull Champion (Power Fist; Melta Bombs)
1 Rhino (Combi-flamer)

Fast Attack: Raptors (8#, 255 pts)
7 Raptors (Meltagun x2; Icon of Khorne)
1 Aspiring Champion (Lightning Claws (pair); Melta Bombs)

Heavy Support: Defiler (1#, 150 pts)
1 Defiler @  (Dreadnought CCW x4)

* I had 5 points left over and nothing useful to buy with it.

I still have to assemble all of these, except for the Berzerkers. Still, I think it’ll be a good list for getting a feel for a Khornite assault-y army before I grow it to 1500 points.

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A bit of Tau love from GW

Posted by NockerGeek in Warhammer 40K on September 17th, 2009

Apparently, this week is Tau week over at the Games Workshop Astronomican, as they’ve put up three articles this week on building, painting, and playing Tau.

It’s been a while since there’s been much attention paid to the Tau by GW, so it’s been refreshing to see these articles. They’re not perfect, though: on page 2 of the tactics article, Fire Warriors are said to have Str 5 AP 4 guns. You be the judge: harmless typo, wishful thinking, or a hint of things to come?

Also, be sure not to miss the blog entries introducing the articles here, here, and here – there are some good pictures of nicely-painted Tau armies/models to admire.

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Blood god, Skull throne, etc., etc.

Posted by NockerGeek in General on September 15th, 2009

khorne_med

So, after reviewing the contents of my latest acquisitions, I’ve decided to change my Chaos plans around for the time being. Seeing as I have a mess of Khorne Berzerkers, about 2/3rds of which are assembled, I can jump-start my Chaos army by going Khornite. It won’t be that difficult to do – I’ve got Kharn, two Defilers (with extra close combat weapon bits), and a Land Raider for holding some assault-oriented Terminators. I’m probably going to take the plastic Terminator Lord, make it a Khorne Lord with a Bloodfeeder, and throw it in with the Termies to bring some more nastiness to the table as well. I’m not abandoning my plans for a Tzeentch army; I have around 5000 points of Chaos Space Marine models available, so I should easily be able to build both armies. In the immediate future, though, it’s all blood and gore for me!

As far as my primary army, I’m still working on my Tau. Sadly, I haven’t had any time to paint in the past few weeks, and that doesn’t look to change much until mid-October or so. I’ll see what I can squeeze in, but the going will be slow. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things next month.

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Christmas in September

Posted by NockerGeek in General on September 11th, 2009

christmas_in_september

A friend of mine was going to get into 40K – in fact, he was the one who got me back into the game – but time and his schedule didn’t really mesh well with his desire to get started. Fortunately, I was on the sidelines to help him pick up the pieces – literally. This weekend, he sold me his collection (at a very generous discount, I might add) so that I could get my Chaos army put together. What you see in the picture above is what I’ve acquired, and it is quite the haul. Even better is that the overwhelming majority of what’s in the boxes is still on the sprue and unassembled. I haven’t done a full inventory on everything yet, but I do know that it includes:

38 Berzerkers
5 Possessed
10 terminators (5 metal, 5 plastic)
6 Chaos Bikes
1 Vindicator
1 Land Raider
2 Rhinos
2 Defilers
3 Obliterators
10 Raptors
1 Chaos Lord
1 Chaos Terminator Lord kit
Kharn
Abbadon

And a number of Chaos Marines that I haven’t counted yet (probably around 30-40), and a Chaos Daemon Spearhead (sans codex). Opening the boxes yesterday was just like Christmas!!

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