Dragons? In SAGA...

Well it's been a while. How are we all doing?

In an effort to wrestle the Blog away from Eddy (good work by the way on the scenery - very nice and looking forward to playing on that) here's what is currently on my painting table:

Sssh. Don't tell Urn that the Scots have found a reinforcement...

I've been struggling to find time to paint since the Eldar Challenge (picture below) due to a work trip to the US and, well, late nights. So I've finally decided I just need to paint whatever takes my fancy at the time... it's not like I don't have shelves of unpainted minis for a dozen games sat waiting.

You'll see a Forgefiend destined for my favourite 40K army - World Eaters. He's got some tidying up to be done and some Dynasty level shoulder pads to be put on. Then it's the washes which should turn him a shade of orange.

In front of him are the remaining Scots for SAGA. They've just been stuck on their bases and next up is the challenge of the spear insertion. Believe me it's as fun as it sounds! These 20 gentlemen give me 8 warriors and 12 levy and take me up to a massive 6 points. Which is a big game in the SAGA world and a total army of 45 models. The Forgefiend is optional.

After that? I don't know to be honest and that suits me fine right now. Paint what I want whenever the whim takes me.

As promised here's my Eldar army at the event end of January. Still need to complete the highlighting on the vehicles but otherwise a challenge beaten.

yes there is a Wraithguard missing. He'd just been hit hard by a dice and is licking his wounds off to the side

Kharn's Krew (WiP)

6th edition has re-affirmed the need for more feet on the ground, particularly your scoring units. It seems that each and every Codex that appears is carving huge points values off the scoring units.

I haven't owned a horde army before but now I seem to have several. My Daemons have gone horde-tastic and no doubt more on them to come, whereas my previously non-horde-like World Eaters have acquired a nice cheap unit in Cultists.

Now one thing that Kharn is very good at is killing his own side in combat and every time he does that to a Berzerker I cringe inside. They is expensive. I'd rather he didn't slice them up.

But eureka and all that: how about giving Kharn a new horde squad to play with? Genius. So here are Kharn's Krew - all 32 of them in their first WiP outing. 3 Flamers to hopefully deter too many charges against them, a champion for the inevitable challenge and then 28 other bodies for Kharn to waltz through.

At only 4 points a pop I'm more than happy for these boys to take a pounding from the main man himself. They are also fearless whilst Kharn is in play so that's very nice to.

What's more they are a scoring unit so cannot be ignored. This unit of 32 comes in at 153 points (no Mark of Khorne as that adds 64 points to the unit). Yes that's cheaper than Kharn himself. Ridiculous right?

I've also acquired another 6 autogun armed Cultists who will be joining the existing squad to boost their numbers to 16. Well I have to. The 10 man squad is not very Khornately numbered now is it?

Tried to keep the colour palette down whilst also varying the figures. Think there's 7 main colours in the squad plus Flesh and Metal colours. They will all be tidied up and washed down with Earthshade and others to blend them into the World Eaters army. Then all I have to do is base 32 figures. Oh joy!

Ahem. Hello? Is this thing on?

The usual comment about now is - good golly man who are you?

Well yes. It has been a very long time but truth be told over Christmas my Wargaming Mojo upped and left and stayed away for months. Odd indeed.

So what brings me back? 40K. Always does in the end and just recently the arrival of the new Daemons Codex which has brought me full circle to the army I first started this blog with for our GoG Tale. More on the Daemons in a minute.

Firstly let's discuss 40K Events. I have always enjoyed going along to events, meeting old acquaintances, new opponents and fancy looking armies. These days I very much sit in mid-table to bottom table excitement but as long as we're all having fun then that's what matters.

So why do I mention Events? Because they are what motivates me generally to finish a project. Case in point was the recent X-Legion event to which I decided to take my World Eaters. I wanted to take some new units which meant my Berzerker Icons, Chaos Space Marines and the Maulerfiend.

But those are finished - I hear you cry - there were posts and everything. Well yes and no. The models were painted but they've been languishing in the space between painting table and army box for months as the bases were not flocked or completed. I know. How rubbish right?

Remember this picture:

This is the Maulferfiend last year.
Now here he is finally completed...

The base took a couple of hours if that. Maulerfiend is happy now. I also completed the other units in time for the event but they're in their box so you'll have to take my word for it.

How'd the event go? Well we finished 2-0-4 and somewhere in the bottom half. Kharn took his Betrayer tally to 37 and managed to turn himself in to a spawn(!). Also managed to walk away with the Most Sporting Trophy which is ace!

The Daemons have been completely revamped in the new Codex and I'm loving it. Not going to go in to details here but would instead like to introduce my new Screamers unit that is needed for Vanquish this coming weekend.

I do have 9 of the old metal ones completed but I hate the models and they are forever falling off their bases. I bit the bullet and went for 6 of the new ones and boy are they so much better looking. A real joy to paint and I've stuck to my Daemon colour code of Blue for Tzeentch (if you must know red = Khorne, green = Nurgle, purple = Slaanesh and yellow = neutral).

Used all new paints on these and there are 4 layers of blue in there somewhere.

Here's a close up:

Only complaint I have is the ball topped flying base. They don't sit on the base and therefore have to be glued in place (yes, I'm sure magnets could be made to work but I had a deadline!). We'll see how they survive the travel next weekend.

So lots of reading to do before Vanquish and next weekend the Tau land as well. I was wondering what allies to add to my World Eaters...

Next up: Chaos Cultists as they've been sat on the painting table for months.

Crossing the 4000

If you remember I am in the middle of trying to paint up 6000 points of World Eaters for March 2013; assuming the Mayans got it wrong obviously...

The original army list I had was just over 6000 and included everything I owned for this army. After a few games that list has, of course, completely changed and now if I was to paint everything I own I'd have over 7000 points. Eek.

Last week was a holiday week so I was able to concentrate on the army for a good few hours every day.

Here's the first model completed in that time: say hello to the Maulerfiend with Lash Tendrils (cos they look cool!)

You will note he seems to be crawling over a ruin and you'd be correct. He has a special rule called Siege Crawler which means he can move 12" and ignore difficult terrain so rather than plant him on a bare base I decided to get a little more creative.

Still a fair bit of work to complete the base and currently he's just balancing for effect. The intention is to use magnets so he can be transported more easily and to help out should I meet any unscrupulous players who decide that TLOS means they can see him on his elevated base.

He was a lot of fun to paint although if you do build one I'd advise leaving the engine chimneys and shoulder pads off to paint separately. Mine eats Grots apparently but dislikes Obliterators.

He was so much fun to do that I opted to add his cousin to the army even though I didn't have the model until Thursday last week! Say hello to the Forgefiend with Hades Autocannons.

What else have I added then? Well you saw the Aegis Line previously although I should probably get some more pictures of the completed version.

The main additions this week have been another 10 Combat Cultists who are now built and undercoated so that I can have a squad of 20 marching up the board with Kharn. I've also treated myself to a Decimator Daemon Engine from Forgeworld who no doubt will get some pictures eventually.

One thing I'm finding with 6th Edition is that large blobs of Infantry are the kings of objectives; hence the Cultists. However, I'm now changing the army to include 2 x 16 Khorne Berzerker units to see how they do. One item that just has to be added is the Icon of Wrath! The ability to re-roll my charge range with these large squads is absolutely vital. I got hold of the Banners of Rage from GW and two of them were completed today.

So what else have I added then? 10 Chaos Space Marines with Icon of Vengeance, Heavy Bolter and Plasma Gun were also built, undercoated and basecoated in the lovely Humbrol Desert Yellow. These boys are Troops and can man the Aegis Line or Bastion. With the Icon of Vengeance they are Fearless. So now I have a Troop unit that will stand still to operate a Skyfire gun and hopefully capture objectives.

Normally I'd add a Power Fist to any unit but with this army I'm now moving away from that idea. Why you ask? Champion of Chaos rule. Essentially whenever we get into combat (we're Khorne so it's going to happen right?) any Chaos Champion has to either Issue a Challenge or Accept a Challenge: they have no choice.

A Power Fist is great but in a challenge you're going at initiative 1 and probably dying. I want to keep these boys alive or at least give them a fighting chance so I'm re-thinking Power Weapons and/or Lightning Claws.

So here's the Champion for the new Chaos Space Marine squad. Yes he has 2 Bloodletter arms as the Hellblade sword is gorgeous.

And as that worked I've now set about creating 2 new Berzerker Champions for the large 16 man units both armed with Power Weapons. The first one below uses a Power Sword from the new Chaos Raptor boxset as I'm going to build mine as Warp Talons I had this weapon spare.

 

The other one is actually going to be armed with 2 Power Swords for that extra attack because, well, because he can. He also has a Hellblade and a standard CSM power sword. He costs 5 points more than having a Power Fist but as Champion number 1 above is 10 points less than with a Power Fist it still fits the army list. And 2 Power Swords is cool right??

My current total painted has now crossed the 4000 point mark! I will post the new list and what's done next time but for now I need a rest so back to work Monday and take stock again tomorrow evening.

What next for the painting table? Haven't a clue!

Chaos Drive Continues

My drive to paint as much Chaos as possible continues! I've now got myself into a fairly good routine of an hour or two of hobby time every night of the week (except Tuesday's which are gaming nights!) and then some good hours at weekends. It helps that I've started popping over to Triple every couple of weeks where hobby time is an absolute.

So first up here are the 10 Cultists from the Dark Vengeance boxset with Autoguns. Lovely figures considering they are a starter set and very easy to paint.

Say hello to my Little Friend

I've tried to use very similar colours to the World Eaters without making them look exactly like the Berzerkers. So lots of Mechrite Red just like the Berzerkers but then Tausept Ochre rather than sand. Again though a very small pallette to keep things simple and plenty of washes.

Right. Where's that Aegis Defence Line they promised?

Experimented with the new Washes on these chaps and they don't look too bad. What it did show me though is that the new Carroburg Crimson wash is a good deal darker than the old Baal Red. Not good as the Red wash is the colour that finalises my scheme.

A quick trawl of eBay and I found someone in Glasgow with 10 pots of Baal Red on buy it now. Sorted. That should keep me going for a while.

Nice Mask. Gun's not too shabby either.

And as I wait for the bases of the Cultists to dry I've plonked the Maulerfiend on the painting table and started work on him. He's another model that perhaps some pieces should have been left off originally until painted - like the shoulder pads... Still sure it will be fine.

My right side

I also decided to break him off his base so I could properly paint him underneath and then give him a proper designer base when ready.... must be some more Howling Griffons I can accidentally add!

Experimenting with the new Khorne Red paint instead of Mechrite and then I'll use a bit of Mephiston Red to brighten it before plastering on the washes.

My Other side

Brilliantly I have a week off work next week so I suspect that providing the list of things to do around the house isn't too long that I should get some good quality hobby time. Wahoo!

The Cultists and the Dragon reach No1

Just a quick update to say that the Obliterators and Aegis Line were completed in time for Sutton Coldfield last weekend and both did me proud. I'll get pictures up just as soon as I can.

In the meantime I've been busy... again....
Heldrake is completed although the light in the photo has washed it out a bit. Still take it from me that he's done with just the basing (including some weird peppers terminator kindly donated by Eddy ages ago) to be completed. Should be able to complete before Sunday.

And because I was waiting for the wash to dry on the Heldrake I decided to get some Cultists added in. Why these first and why the Autogun squad? The Aegis Line. In Sutton I was manning it with 5 Berzerkers which just felt so wrong so instead I'll let the mad frothing loonies go and do what they do best and add these Cultists into the protection of the Aegis.

 

I need to apply highlighting to the red and grey pieces plus pick out any cables but essentially he's done. Just block painting with Mechrite Red, Tau Sept Ochre, Adeptus Battlegrey, Rotting Flesh and Boltgun Metal. Then wash the Red/Grey/Black with Earthshade; the Ochre with Sepia and Red and the Flesh with Red.

Here he is stood next to a friend who has been block painted so you can see the difference the washes make. I love the washes and I think these boys (the mob is in the background as you can see quite blurily) will turn out just right and look right at home with the World Eaters!

No I'm not aiming to have these done by Sunday as well as I have to sort my own event out for Saturday and cover Year End at work this week. Suspect finishing the Heldrake and these guys is a little bit of a tall order...

What follows the Cultists? Probably the Maulerfiend and then I want to get Zhufor up and running as I like to throw in a character as a reward after painting troops.

And then I have quite taken a fancy to a couple of Forgeworld pieces that are not on my army list. See what Father Xmas brings shall we :-)

Is that a Fortification?

Thought I'd drop in and provide an update on my progress to the 6,000 points of World Eaters.

Remember that list I presented last time and suggested it might change? Well it has. I've decided to add an Aegis Defence Line as frankly flyers are a bugger to deal with and anything that is Heavy4 Twin Linked stands a chance of, at the very least, forcing them to evade.

This week's challenge is...

You'll see I've added a couple of things to try to make it a little unique. Spikes (of course), Khornate Symbols and some statues/banners from various kits that I had lying around (as you do). I have razorwire to add once it has all been completed.

I have Skyfire and Interceptor don't you know?

With a Tournament looming in Sutton next Saturday I desperately need to get the Aegis and 2 Obliterators done! We're using the old Chaos Codex for this one so the HelDrake was able to step down the panic requirements.

Mind you he's needed for the weekend after Sutton across in Bristol. I do so like a deadline to work to!

Here's Tiger and his pal. All done except the bases and some skin highlights. Love the faces on these guys as they seem to be smiling: or have gas. Hopefully get them completed this week. The Aegis will probably not be fully done by Saturday but it should be close enough so I can take it along. Aiming to have it to the point where the basing is required and then finish it in time for Bristol.

And finally the Heldrake. Only the red wash to go and he's tabletop ready. Ideally want to get a highlight onto the actual deamon flesh but that can wait - just as on the Obliterators.

So yes it has been a very busy week and weekend. More to come during the week as I push to complete the models for the next couple of weekends and then I can take it a bit easier! Yeah. Right. Like that's going to happen with 2,500 points to paint in 5 months.

Madness. World Eater Style

Madness. Sheer, absolute madness.

Not the Eighties group but what I've managed to talk myself into. You see the standard state of a wargamer's army is incomplete and somewhat huge. Why buy just what you need for the 1500 point army when 8000 points will do? Right?

3,300 Points of World Eaters

The GoGs are no exception and we've been marvelling at the size of Eddy's... (quiet at the back)... armies for some time. His Howling Griffons and Eldar are massive and both well over 6000 points painted I suspect.

Kharn's Current Kill Count. Not the Enemy. His own side!

Current unit of 10 Berzerkers. Icon of Wrath now required!

We also keep saying that we must take advantage of the tables at the WHC more often and thus was born the desire to pit the 6000 point armies against each other. Now, for most people that would be enough: 2 x 6000 points going to war: not the GoGs obviously. No. We want at least 24000 points on the table thank you very much.

See this Axe? It's really a Mace. Honest :-)

Which brings me to my current madness. You see I want to take the World Eaters to this as I'm loving the new Codex, I have new units to add and I adore the paint scheme that came about a little by accident.

The Stuff that needs to be added. Minus the light that snuck in!

HelDRAKE! A bit fiddly to paint is an understatement

My current points level is about 3,300 painted. A quick piece of maths shows a deficit of 2,700 points that is required to be completed. I would say I need to buy the balance but actually I have about 6,500 points of World Eaters sat waiting in various stages of buildingness from in sealed boxes to basecoated. We have decided to set a deadline for Easter 2013 for this.

Remember Tiger the Obliterator? He's Back!

I therefore have 5.5 months to complete 2,700 points. Or as we like to call it: Oh Bloody hell what have I just volunteered for??!

Zealots! These guys should last ages on the battlefield. Or not.

Look what the Guys bought me! Thanks Chaps!

So a quick order in to GW for some more World Eaters shoulder pads + some other bits and an order to Triple Helix for a box of Berzerkers and a single Chaos Bike sees me with everything I need to complete the task. All I need now is to knuckle down and crack on...

The Possessed are back out of their box of shame!

... expect regular updates as the months countdown.

I'm a Maulerfiend. I'm new. I like to wave at my dinner.

Paint for the Paint God!

Here's the current plan of an Army List. It may change as time progresses or if new kits come out!

HQ
Kharn the Betrayer (Warlord) (done)
Chaos Lord (Terminator) (done)
Daemon Prince (done)
Chaos Lord (Zhufor - Terminator)
Chaos Lord (Dark Vengeance Power Armour)

Troops
Khorne Berzerkers x16 (9 done: new Icon Bearer)
Khorne Berzerkers x16 (9 done: new Icon Bearer)
Khorne Berzerkers x10 + Rhino (9 done: new Icon Bearer)
Khorne Berzerkers x9 (8 done: new Icon Bearer)
Chaos Space Marines x15
Chaos Cultists x10 (built)
Chaos Cultists x10 (built)

Elites
Possessed x8 (built)
Terminators x5 (done)
Chosen x6 (built) + Rhino
Helbrute (done)
Helbrute (done)

Fast Attack
Raptors x10 (done)
Warp Talons x5
HelDRAKE (built)
Chaos Bikers x6

Heavy Support
Land Raider (done)
Land Raider (done)
Vindicator (done)
Maulerfiend (built)
Defiler (done)
Obliterators x3 (built)

Apparently there's a new Codex on the block

Zooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Whizzzzzzzzzzzzz
Whooooooooooooossssssshhhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry. Did you say something? I was a little distracted by my new pet dragon.

Yes I have a brand new Heldrake for my World Eaters army. Picked him up on release day (Saturday), built, undercoated and basecoated Sunday. He's very nice although the wings are a bit of a pain with a single ball joint trying to hold a lot of weight: let's see how long they last.

He goes out tomorrow for his first outing with the new Codex and we'll see if he gets passed turn 2...

He is bringing a little friend along as well:

That's right he's bringing his own pet Maulerfiend to the party.



I have no idea whether these two units are any good in the game but I love how they look and that will do me fine when designing an army list.

Tomorrow the forces of World Eaters and Word Bearers will unite. Let's see how many skulls we can collect as we try out our new Codex.

Blood for the Blood Dragon!

Come in Raptors; your time is now

First weekend in April was Vanquish over in Bristol. The results and pictures are over on the Bristol Vanguard site. Suffice to say I took the World Eaters, lost all 3 games on the Saturday and was in the bottom 4 and then won both games on the Sunday to finish 47th out of 67. I'm happy with that to be honest.

Even happier with an honourable mention for the army itself!


However, I now realise the army doesn't quite work (what's new eh?) so changes are a-foot. Or a-wing depending on your viewpoint. I'll detail what I'm planning in a later post but for now meet the new Raptors.
 

World Eaters recruitment drive

Please welcome some new recruits to the ranks of the World Eaters.

Evil Monkey and I are off to Cardiff in Feb and we need 2,000 point armies so I had to acquire a couple of hundred extra points. I love Choas Termies and with some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket I ended up in GW Southampton and a box of Termies appeared.

4 of them will be taking part and joining the Chaos Lord in his Land Raider.

Heavy Flamer Dude
Combi-Flamer & Chainfist
Lightning Claws
Power Fist (he's the odd one out for Cardiff)
Icon of Chaos Glory to help out as these ancient warriors of Chaos are not fearless...
Next up I'm going for finishing projects that started a while back and adding more stuff to the World Eaters as I'm enjoying the painting a great deal at the moment.

In the future expect to see Tzeentch Marines, WE Bezerkers, WE Possessed, WE Raptors, WE Bikers, Cryx Warmachine expansion and Dystopian Wars Prussians.

Also Evil Monkey and I are going for a Tale of 2 armies in an effort to encourage me to complete my Orks. He's doing an Eldar army based on Spider-Man so expect lots of red and blue + Warp Spiders. We aim to have 500 points each completed by the end of Feb and then 250 points every couple of months. Expect regular updates as we make progress.

World Eaters ready for PMBE

Tonight I'm chuffed. I've finished my GoG army for the PMBE this weekend. 1800 points from scratch in 2 and a half months. Wow. And do you know what? I've really enjoyed painting this lot up; so much so that I want to finish off the 4th squad of Bezerkers and a squad of Possessed (that I've had since the plastics were released...)


Anyway on to a couple of pictures of the army; not the best quality pictures but they convey that the army is all together. You might notice a couple of Dreadnoughts in there and think "they're not World Eater Dreads!". You'd be correct: had lots of trouble getting the Forgeworld Dreads to stick so ended up raiding the boxes of bits and converting up 2 Assault on Black Reach Dreads that I recently swapped with VariStat. Necessity is the mother of invention and/or deadlines focus the mind!


... and Kharn. What can we say about Kharn? Whilst he was maiming my army the other week Silverback suggested I should put some kind of scorecard on his base: then paint on the new Betrayer kill total after each battle. I liked this idea so took it away, mulled it over and came to the conclusion that a scoreboard of some sort was definately required; something to stand out and advertise Kharn's lethality.

So this is what I came up with:
"Look what I did, Ma!"

Anyway, 1800 points. Done. Fantastic. Just in time for those rather spiffing looking Blood Angels...