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And Now, the Ladies…

2012-01-31T17:36:09Z

This past weekend saw me start work on the next-to-last set of minis for my hobby challenge list, the old-school Daemonette models I'm using as Lesser Summoned Daemons. When I set them down to paint them, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. Was I going to make them more flesh-toned, like my Daemon Prince? Or did I want to paint them more like the hatch art on my Rhinos? I decided to go with the latter, so I mixed up the same purplish tone and went to town. It's a blend of Vallejo Game Color paints - 3 parts Pale Flesh, 3 parts Skull White, 2 parts Squid Pink, and 1 part Hexed Lichen. Painted on top of Dheneb Stone (my go-to foundation paint for painting light colors on black priming), it still pops nicely. After that, I washed the skin with Leviathan Purple and put my Daemonette Skin color down again, with occasional highlights made by mixing in a little more Pale Flesh.

The hair/tentacles and nipples were painted with a different blend - 2 parts Hexed Lichen, 1 part Pale Flesh, 1 part Skull White, and 4 parts Glaze Medium. The hair was then washed with watered-down Leviathan Purple, and then drybrushed lightly with the skin tone. The claws were painted with a 50/50 blend of Squid Pink and Blood Red, and then washed with Leviathan Purple near the arm and Baal Red along the rest of the claw; this helped create a smoother transition from purple arm to pink claw. After that, the claws were drybrushed with Squid Pink. Cloth was painted in Bleached Bone (as were the horns), and all the bits to be painted gold were painted in Bestial Brown.

Like everything else I've been working on lately, I've deliberately kept these almost finished. I've been trying to make a lot of progress this month, so I've been pushing to get everything in a state of being ready for detail work, rather than fixating on getting single units completed. That gives me the next 2 months to focus on moving from unit to unit and doing the final touch-ups on a lot of models. Right now, my "to finish" list looks like:

Chaos Sorcerer
18 Noise Marines (including 2 Noise Champions)
6 Chosen
5 Terminators
4 Rhinos
2 Predators
Land Raider
10 Daemonettes

47 models. 2 Months. I don't see that as being a problem at all. I also have 3 Obliterators to paint somewhere over that time, but they're not as critical, since they're in the sideboard. They're still part of the Hobby Challenge, but I think I can knock them out near the end.

Painting the Big Guys

2012-01-25T16:33:24Z

Another week, another progress report! I've been working on getting my Land Raider and Terminators base-coated and ready for detail work. I've kind of switched up how I've been working. Instead of focusing on getting a unit completed, details and all, before moving onto the next model(s), I'm instead getting them all base-coated, cleaned up, and ready for detail work. So far, the plan has been working. While I don't have many units completely done, I have most of them in a state where I they are at least three-color legal and looking decent. When I get to detail work, I can bounce from model to model easily; if I get bored of painting Noise Marines, I can work on a Rhino or a Terminator. It's not necessarily an approach that I'd use with any army any time, but right now with this one it's helping me continue to make progress.

My Land Raider is looking suitably pink and mottled, and I've cleaned up the armor plates and started basing the gold bits in Calthan Brown. I don't think I'm going to put any art on this one - had I been thinking when it was assembled, I would have filed the flying skull off the door and left it flat for decoration - but it's still going to be an imposing brick of pink, black, and gold. I don't think it'll need too much help looking special.

The Terminators are all pinked-up, and I've taken the first two, cleaned them up, and painted the gold bits brown. Since I started with the two without helmets, I also went ahead and painted their faces (which are mostly washed out in this pic, thanks to the interaction of my iPhone and the magnifier light I was using). The lightning claws were originally going to be left plain blue and painted later, but since I wanted to do wet blending I decided to go forward with that. I'm still getting used to the technique, but I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

This week should see me getting the rest of the Terminators looking similar to these two, and then the entire army will be ready for detailing. Well, almost - I have a squad of 10 Daemonettes (as lesser daemons) to paint. You can see them in the background of the first picture, behind the line of prone Black Templar Terminators. I'm still trying to decide on a skintone for them, but I think I have it. If I can, I'm going to keep it similar to the tone I used in the Rhino hatch art for consistency's sake.

Tanks, With a Little Help from My Friends

2012-01-18T06:03:46Z

The end of December and beginning of January have been pretty hectic due to work, which is why I've had little to no blogging activity, but the tempest is slowing down to a reasonable level, and I've been able to get some work done on my Slaanesh CSM army. Namely, I've been able to get some paint on tanks. I have all four Rhinos properly pinked up, as well as the hulls and turrets of my two Predators. I've also got the hatch art started, thanks to my wife. I can't freehand to save my life, but she's an artist by trade and did some quick pencil sketches on the hatches, which is a surprisingly small area for pencil work. I took her lines and started painting over them:

I'm going for Daemonette-themed pinup pics, and right now I have the flats done on them, as well as some metallic paint for the backgrounds. I might try to paint some finer details on them, or clean them up a bit, but I'm not sure yet - I'm concerned that I'll screw them up. Still, they're a damn good start, and much better than I could have done on my own. The tanks still need to have the metal bits (trophy racks, chains, hooks, smoke launchers, treads) painted, and some drybrushing grey on the black to give them some depth, but they're really coming along. Technically, they're painted enough to field in a GW tournament, which is a good start. Between these, the completed Daemon Prince, and the 18 Noise Marines/6 Chosen/Chaos Sorcerer in various stages of detail painting, I can actually put a (not quite completely) painted army on the table. I just have the Land Raider, 5 Terminators, and 10 Daemonettes to go for the main list, and some Oblits for the additional points - easily finished before the end of March.

Speaking of Terminators and pieces painted my friends, here's a gift I received from my friend Richard, one of my fellow hosts on Preferred Enemies:

A Chaos Terminator Lord for my army, complete with a Blissgiver whip. I assembled it, he swapped the stock weapon for a Dark Eldar Agonizer, and then painted it up wonderfully. It's not part of my original list, but it's a great companion for the unit of Terminators, and gives me an additional HQ option to play around with.

Thanks to the artists in my life, my army keeps getting better and better.

Rumors: 2012 Could Be an Expensive Year for Me

2011-12-01T18:00:24Z

Well, if the rumors popping up online about next year's codex releases have any validity, next year looks to be a very expensive year for me. I've seen hints and bits and pieces that indicate that all three of my codexes may get an update next year, and that's on top of the rumored release of Sixth Edition 40K.

I'm not going to try to repost all the rumors here; they're all over Bell of Lost Souls if you want to search for them. I will give my impressions, though.

Tau: More emphasis on the other races in the Empire is a good thing, I think, and the possible addition of the Demiurg could add another facet/option to the army. Hopefully, Tau will get HQs that change up what's scoring (although it's not a definite; I was surprised to not see anything like that in the Necron codex). New plastic Crisis Suit kits are an inevitability, but I hope the rules will allow me to still field my existing suits without having to pop the weapons off and change load-outs. I don't know what to think about the "Uber-suit" rumor, although having a Walker or a MC would be interesting. Finally, new vehicles are another inevitability, so I'm sure we'll see a Tau flyer or two (as rumored).
Chaos Legions: Just as the 4th Edition CSM codex was a throwback to the first 3rd Edition codex (very barebones/stripped-down), the rumored 5th/6th edition Chaos Legions book sounds like a return to the second 3rd Edition codex, with all the flavor bits for each legion. If they can keep it balanced, this is a good thing. I'm liking what I'm hearing about the Mark-specific perks and drawbacks, as well as the various legion rules. A bit disappointed that there's little to no info out about my Chaos God of choice, though. Also, regarding a plastic Chaos Dreadnought kit: it's about damned time. That 2nd Edition metal kit is a travesty compared to all the wonderful dread-ness that's been released since.
Black Templars: Not a lot yet, since the rumors just popped up lately, but they point to more emphasis on the horde nature of the army and the general anger levels of the Templars. The Rage USR shows up in a few places, as well as a rumor about rampaging dying Land Raiders. The long-serving Emperor's Champ character is intriguing as well.

Of course, the big question is: which book comes first? So far, I've heard that they're all the next book, which obviously isn't true. Other rumors put the Chaos codex closer to the summer release of 6th edition, as well as putting them in the new starter box. That seems likely to me. Otherwise, I'd love to see a new Tau book first, but I could live with either the Tau or the Templars being the next big release.

Slaanesh Daemon Prince Complete!

2011-11-11T05:57:33Z

My Work-In-Progress Daemon Prince of Slaanesh is no longer a work in progress. It's done! Tonight, I finished up detailing the metallics, painting the base, and touching up skin tone in a couple of spots (especially in recesses). Here's a set of images to show how she turned out:

I'm still amazed that I managed to turn her out as quickly as I did. From priming to complete was 5 days, and that was 5 days mostly of squeezing in painting early in the morning or in small snippets at night. I'm normally a very slow painter, but when inspiration hits and I'm motivated (as seen in my MERCS minis, which I cranked out in a weekend while sick), I can turn out decent-looking models in a timely manner.

Next up, I have to finish detailing 18 noise marines, and then it's on to Chosen and a Sorcerer.

WIP Slaanesh Daemon Prince

2011-11-08T15:44:53Z

Remember this mini, from March? I finally got around to priming her this weekend, and over the last two days I've started putting down color on her. On Sunday, I had her body basecoated in Dheneb Stone foundation paint (seen here with some Chosen that I'm also working on):

Last night (Monday), I started putting down colors. The shoulder pad, glove, and boots were done with Vallejo Game Color Squid Pink, and the wings and claw were painted in GW Warlock Purple. With the hair, I used my normal technique of applying a wash (in this case, Leviathan Purple), to be drybrushed with Warlock Purple later. I'd found my painting groove, though, so I didn't end up stopping there. I applied a Baal Red wash all over the model, and once it had dried I did an additional wash of Leviathan Purple over the wings and claw. Once that was dry, it was onto the skin tone.

Now, if I had to do it over again, I'd probably use a blend of flesh and pink for my skin basecoat, and I'll probably do that for my Daemonettes to make them more inhuman, but I started with GW Elf Flesh as my base, leaving the red wash in the few recesses and crevices. Once that was down, I then applied a general highlight of VGC Pale Flesh, followed by a more specific/sparingly-used highlight of blended Pale Flesh/Skull White. Her nipples are VGC Squid Pink blended with Vallejo's glaze medium to tone down the opacity a bit. Finally, I gave the wings and claws two layers of drybrush, first in Warlock Purple, and then in Squid Pink.

There's still work to do. The armor pieces have detail work to be done, her eyes need to be painted, the sword needs to be painted, I need to detail the belts, and I'd like to drybrush/blend up some bone on the horns and the claw-tips on the wings. Oh, and the base, of course, but it's easy (paint gray, wash black, drybrush gray, drybrush lighter gray). I'm pleased with how quickly I'm turning her around, though, after having the model in my collection for almost 2 years.

Necrons Incoming

2011-10-28T17:23:45Z

The new White Dwarf came out this week, and (to no one's surprise) the new Necrons are revealed. Now, I'm not a Necron player by any means, although I have briefly flirted with the idea. One of my very first blog posts here was about an alternate non-metallic painting scheme for Necrons. That said, I'm very happy that the people have been sticking with Necrons through thick and thin - and it's been very thin for them in the current edition - are finally getting something that looks like a damn good codex.

Granted, there's going to be a lot of new buying going on, since most, if not all, of the units that already existed in the Necron codex are getting cheaper, but that's the nature of the game. It does make me wonder what new toys and what point changes GW is going to throw at the Tau when our codex gets an update (currently rumored to be Q1 or Q2 of next year) that will make me do a massive upgrade. However, if any army needed the update and new units, it's the Necrons - they made our codex look flush with options in comparison. The new options seem to flesh them out nicely without completely changing the nature of the army.

Also, kudos to GW for keeping the designs consistent with the old Necron kits (which are mostly being repackaged and returned to circulation) - the new kits look like they fit right along side the old ones. There's a definite "Tomb Kings in space" vibe with the line now; whether that's good or bad is up to personal opinion. One thing I am pleased about is the array of color palettes being pushed for the new Necrons. Thanks to their revised fluff, which has each set of tomb worlds representing a different Necron dynasty/faction, there's a wide range of color schemes being pushed. Sure, the old silver/black/green color scheme is still there, but just in the White Dwarf articles I'm seeing reds, blues, whites, teal (pictured above), copper, bronze, gold, and even chipped ceramic schemes.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the new codex brings to the table when it hits next week; I'll definitely be picking up a copy for my collection. If it's as solid a codex as the Dark Eldar book, then I have hope for my own Tau if/when our new book comes early next year.

Tau Commander coming for Dawn of War 2: Last Stand

2011-10-17T19:56:50Z

Not much to say here, other than to make various happy noises from my chair here. I haven't played much Last Stand - and that's been almost entirely as a Chaos Sorcerer - but this would get me back into it with a vengeance. What I'm really enjoying is all the various weapon systems and wargear being pictured. It looks like a Tau player will really be able to customize their commander in Last Stand nearly as much as they can on the tabletop. Also, bonus points for both the GW and Forgeworld head options, although those may be tied to wargear options.

It's not a new model, sure. Still, it's good to see some love for the Tau one way or another.

MERCS Minis: KemVar

2011-10-04T01:40:47Z

This weekend, Papa Nurgle knocked me on my ass with the flu, so I took the time to knock out one of my side projects. As a side game, I've been picking up MERCS, a small squad-based skirmish-level game with an interesting card-based mechanic. One of the great things about this game is the small buy-in; each faction is currently only 6 figures, and the 'codex' is an $8 deck of cards. I picked up the KemVar faction, a group of soldiers from Brazil who base their entire strategy around having active camo generators that give them the equivalent of Stealth (which, like in 40K, makes their cover better). I'd primed the minis a couple of weeks ago in Krylon grey primer, and Saturday afternoon I started working on them.

First up (from left to right) are the Assault Leader, Assassin, and the Monkeywrench.

And from the back:

The bluish circles on their backs are the active camo generators. I tried to give them a glowing effect by putting a Asurmen Blue wash over a Vallejo Stonewall Grey basecoat, followed by a drybrushing with Vallejo Electric Blue and Skull White. The Assault Leader's and Assassin's blades got a similar treatment, as they have blue energy fields around them.

The other three models (again, from left to right) are the Heavy Assault, Demolition, and Sniper:

One thing I like about this range of minis is the dynamic posing; all of the minis really look like they're captured in the middle of action. With the addition of paint and basing, they really come to life. The basing is simple. I painted the inside of the base with Vallejo Beastly Brown, then used a 50/50 white glue and water blend to put down some spots of basing sand, followed by a layer of static grass. I also super-glued on a few pieces of rubble to add a bit of visual interest. All together, I'm very happy with how they've turned out. Since these are metal minis, I will absolutely be sealing them.

I look forward to taking these guys through their paces on the battlefield. MERCS isn't going to replace 40K for me, but it looks like a fun side game, and thanks to the small unit size (most games are either 3-on-3 or 5-on-5) and the smaller board size (2'x3'), I imagine games will be much faster than a full 40K game. I highly recommend checking the game out; there are 6 factions out right now, and they have plans to release 4-6 more over the next year or two. Also, the full-color hardbound rulebook is very well put-together, complete with photographic examples, and is only $35.

Yesterday’s Tournament: Lessons Learned

2011-09-19T04:00:52Z

Saturday's tournament didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped; I only ended up going 1-2 with my Tau. However, like any landing you can walk away from, any game you can take a lesson from is a good one, and I've taken several lessons from this tournament.

Bad Deployment Loses Games. My first game was against a Deathwing Dark Angel army (well, technically a Doublewing army; he had a 3-man squad of Ravenwing bikes and a land speeder), and my deployment was all wrong. I didn't screen my Crisis Suits at all, and I didn't take his Cyclone Terminators into account. He went first, I was unable to seize the initiative, and the majority of my Crisis Suits evaporated under a barrage of krak missiles. It was a total newbie mistake, and I paid for it (as well I should have). Normally, I deploy better than that, so I don't really have an excuse. Oh well; I just have to remember to not do it again.
Outflanking Is Surprisingly Unreliable. One would think that outflanking is relatively safe to count on; two-thirds of the time, any given outflanking unit will come in from the table edge you want. However, between 'Ard Boyz and this past tournament, I've found that the other one-third can screw with your plans. Besides the issues with reserves as-is (and with Tau having few good options for manipulating reserve rolls), having an outflanking unit come in from the wrong edge can do one of two things. It can either leave a unit stranded somewhere where it has no way to easily contribute, or it can put a unit somewhere where it's redundant and somewhat useless. This is especially true when you have two outflanking units coming in at the same time and wanted them to come in on opposite sides. In my second game, both outflanking units of Kroot came in from the same side, and there was only one place where they could safely come in - a good place for one unit, but for two it kept the second unit a bit hemmed in. Outflanking isn't necessarily bad, but sometimes either infiltrating or taking a scout move, as appropriate to the unit, is the better call.
I Should Re-evaluate Pathfinders. While I have the weaponry to deal with things like Feel No Pain, I have to make those shots stick. This was definitely the case in my second game, where I was running up against a Nurgle CSM army. I was either missing with shots that needed to hit, or losing good AP2 wounds to cover saves. Both of these can be dealt with by putting Pathfinders into my list. I'm generally reluctant to remove killing power from my army, but I think I can keep the cuts to a minimum and still fit in a decent-sized squad of Pathfinders. This is probably something that will just happen in lists larger than 1500 points, but it's worth re-examining.
I Need to Play More People. Or, at least, I need to play against more armies. Rounds 1 and 2 - the two rounds I lost - were against armies that I'd never played against. Not just these particular players' lists, but these army archetypes in general. While I had some basic strategies in mind based on theoreticals, nothing beats actual experience. The only way to get that is to get more practice, and find people playing army types I'm not used to, but which are common. Interestingly enough, I beat Purifier Grey Knights in round 3, and I've played against Grey Knights thanks to my friend Richard. I knew what to expect, and it helped me make better tactical decisions. (It also helped that he forgot my first lesson above, put all his Razorbacks together in one block, and one good round of shooting on my first turn turned it into a parking lot of wrecks that he had to climb over.)
Tau Are Unforgiving. I love my Tau, but playing them well is a hell of a challenge. There is little to no room for misfortune or failure in this army. One bad deployment decision, a wrong move in the game, or just a cold streak in your dice (or a hot streak in your opponent's) can leave you scrambling trying to pick up the pieces. There's only one way to deal with this: practice, practice, practice. When I do things right, and can jump on my opponent's mistakes and/or bad luck, as I did in the third round, I can win handily. I just need to get to the point where I do that consistently.

I've heard rumors of a new Tau codex next March, but in the meantime I just need to take the lessons above to heart and see what I can do with what I have. I'm not looking to hang up my Tau, even if I'm working on two other alternate armies; I just want to make sure I can keep getting better with them.