Ork Looted Valkyrie, stage 1

Right. My brother (who I am painting this army for) really like planes. As such, I have acquired, and begun the painting of, a IG Valkyrie. First Impressions: Whoa, this model is huge, really, I did not expect to get a hunk of plastic this big on my desk. Lots of open space for freehand (if one feels so inclined), and the model presents ample opportunity for detailing and weathering. However, as I am working on a two week schedule to paint up about 25 Orks, 3 deffkoptas and finish Warboss Karkrusha, I have forgone the more fancy brush work for straight up silver highlights and an eventual coat of Devlan Mud.
WIP shots of the model, piloted by two trained Grots, taught the basics of flying by captured Air Caste Tau.




Planning to run it as a fighta, or fighta-bomba, depending if I get a Storm Raven on my hands. If it goes the rought of the fighta-bomba, it'll have some Bomb squigs or Grot Bombs coming out the back. If it goes fighta, then some wing mountain orks on guns will likely be added.

Here is an updated Warboss Karkrusha, now with more highlights and shading on the arms, newly painted trousers (snakebite leather, followed by Red Oak stain, the highlighted with snakebite again). Started work on the, er, rear end of the model.

Ork Warboss Karkrusha, Ork Speed Kult Painting Recipe

My 7 year old brother wants to start playing Orks (he likes all the guns), so I'm currently painting an assemblying a small starting force for him. Here is the HQ choice for his Speed Kult army, Warboss Karkrusha.



The whole model was primed black. The skin is a base of some store brand acrylic I had a while back, this is one of my older models and I'm basically upgrading his paint job, followed by Snot Green, then Goblin Green to highlight to the higher points on the model, muscles, etc. The Shirt is currently only snake bite leather, though I plan to add in some shading later. The red armor plates are Blood Red and Mechrite Red. Pants I haven't touched, they are an unknown paint. The gun and power klaw where painting with Chainmail and Dwarf Bronze. The eyes are blood red, with a fine Hawk Turquoise (I have to have this color SOMEWHERE on every model I do) glaze on the eyelids. The wires are Dwarf Bronze, while the wire covering is Hawk Turquoise lightly dry brushed with the same Dwarf Bronze. The armor plates where edged with Chainmail to give them the worn, broken down Ork look. His banner and loincloth still need work, and touch ups all around, but he is turning out all right. And yes, that is a horde of wyches in the back ground.

I want to take some time to gush over how awesome this model is. Big and bulky, he really shows off how an Ork should look. The power klaw is brutal looking, while the crude wires and augmetics, along with the patch job armor and shoota do a great job of showing how a "propa Ork" should look. On top of this, the combination of long flat pieces (in the form of the loin cloth, banner, and armor, have the potential for some great freehand while the detail of the face and weapons provide an great opportunity to practice highlighting, weathering, etc.

Speaking of Dark Eldar, here is a tally of what I have painted, followed by what I own.
Painted:
10 Kabalite Warriors, One raider.
Owned:
3 Ravagers
5 Raiders
1 Venom
1 Void Raven
24 Kabalite Warriors
17 Wyches
12 Jet Bikes
6 "Incubi"
6 Harlequins
2 Haemunculi
10 Wracks
4 Grotesques
So 11/91 models done.

1850 Dark Eldar vs. Tyranids, Assault on Outer Demeter

First game of the campaign for Viridis Sileo, using the Planetstrike rule set, specifically the Planetfall Scenario.

The lists:
DE 1850, The Prince of Pain's Court

HQ: Zhai Mor, the Prince of Pain (counts as Duke Sliscus) 150

Haemunculus Agaith Dannam, webway portal, 85
Haemunculus Sheeshran Shalreen, scissorhand, liquefier gun 75

Elites:
10x Hekatrix Bloodbrides (the Brides of Khaine) 3 hydra gauntlets, Syren, agonizer, 190
4x Kabalite Trueborn (the Prince's Posse), 2x Shardcarbines, 2x Splintercannons 78
Venom, additional Splintercannon, night shield, 75
6x Incubi of the Shrine of the Jaged Fang, Klaivex, Onslaught 162
4x Grotesques, liquifier gun, Aberration with Scissorhand 175
Raider, night shield, 70
6x Harlequins, all with Kisses, shadow seer 158

Troops:
10x Kabalite Warriors, splintercannon, Designate "Searing Arrow" 100
Raider, Splinter racks, nightshield 80
10x Kabalite Warriors, splinter cannon, Designate "Hornet's Sting" 100
Raider, Splinter racks, nightshield, 80
9x Wracks, liquifier gun 100
Raider, night shield 80

Tyranids 1850

HQ:
The Horror of Demeter (Hive Tyrant, 2x TL Devourer with Brainleech worms, winges, Hive Commander
Elites:
9x Ymgarl Genestealers
9x Ymgarl Genestealers
Troops:
20 Termagants with Devourers
20 Termagants with Devourers
Fast Attack:
4x Shrikes
Heavy Support:
3x Trygon

Both armies are held completely in reserve, with the exception of the two termagant units, hiding in their captured bastions, while Haemunuculus Dannam, with the 4 grotesque unit in the raider, deployed in my table edge.

Pre-turn 1 firestorm failed to harm anything other than successfully immobilizing the bastions, as well as stopping them from shooting for a turn. Attacker gets turn one, and with reserves coming in on turn 1, with a reserve roll of a 3+. Thanks to that, my entire army comes in turn one, which actually worked against me, as my Webway Portal was rendered useless and several fragile units had to hoof it across the board.
Heres the board after my turn one, after Haemunuclus Dannam disembarked and dropped the portal, and everyone moved/ran. with the harlequins hiding from the red bunker's firing points.


Turn 1: Nids.
The entire tyranid army comes in, deep striking near almost all my units, with two trygons bursting from the ground just inches from my line of raiders, while another trygon appears in front of the Prince's ride. Two hidden broods of Ymgarl genestealers appear from their hiding places and run towards my Grotesques.

A burst of Devourer fire from a the bug-bastion mounted Termagants wipe out the Harlequins before they can do much of anything, while bursts of electricity from the clustered trygons blows up the Searing Arrow's raider, and kills four of them.

Turn 2: DE
The Prince's ride drives forward, and with the combined fire of all the Prince's posse and his custom venom, the trygon lumbering in front of him is reduced to a single wound, while combined fire from the Hornet's Sting and the Searing Arrow inflicts several wounds on trygon rumber1.
Turn 2:Nids
Trygon number one launches another bio-electric pulse, blowing the Hornet's Sting's raider to smithereens, killing 4 of the Dark Kin in the explosion. The Hive Tryant opens fire on the Incubi hiding behind a hill, killing all but one.

The a Ymgarl genestealer brood assaults Dannam's Grotesques, but they fail to get the first strike, and the Grotesques kill 4 of them, while the 'stealers inflict 2 wound on the unit, which are absorbed the the hulking physiques of the Grotesques. Across the board, trygon number 3 slice's the Prince's ride in two, leaving a smoking crater and five very angry dark eldar.



Turn 3 (lots of stuff happened this turn, so Its all being written like it happened at once)

The Prince's posse open fire on Trygon 3 wounding it, as the Prince hurls himself into combat with the towering creature, stabbing it in its armored chest, the potent venom on his blades eating through flesh and chitin, killing the Trygon. Combined fire from the Searing Arrow and the Hornet's sting kills Trygon One. The Bloodbrides assault Trygon Two, killing it in a flurry of stabbing blades and poisoned whips, in it;s death throws it pulverizes three Bloodbrides, the remaining ones attempt to move into cover.
The Shrikes fly on top of a hill, and open fire on Haemunculus Shalreen and his wrack's, killing several. The Hive Tryant moves into combat with Dannam's Grotesques, who lose all but one of their number.

Turn 4:
The Prince runs forward, confident in his shadwofield's power to protect him. The remnants of the Searing Arrow and the Hornet's sting wipe out the second brood of Ymgarls, before the Hornet's sting is shot to death by Termagant fire. The Prince and his squad come under fire from over 60 devourer shots, and the Prince is lost in a hail of fire.The Hive Tyrant kills the last Grotesque, and Haemunculus Shalreen flees the battle, while Haemunculus Dannam is torn to shreds, along with his Wracks, by the Shrikes.

Due to time constraints, we called it here, with the Dark Eldar's raid on the burning city thwarted by it's new, hungry defenders. Its a bad planet, it's a bug planet.

Crashed Land Raider terrain piece

Here is a terrain piece I have been working on, using my old, damaged LRC, a piece a cardboard, some sand, some Citadel razor wire and some glue.


How did I build it?

Step One, take assembled Land Raider, cut out rough chunks with a saw, then, after highlighting, washing, and applying rust/battle damage, take a cotton ball, place it in the opening formed by the hacked off pieces, and set it on fire. Let it burn itself out, and you'll get a nice melted look to the side of the vehicle that you want to look liker it got hit by a melta.

Step Two,cut out a large piece of cardboard, and cover in white glue, then continually apply layers of fine to course grain sand, keep applying it till you have good cover, and wait for the glue to dry.

Step Three: Take some super glue, krazy glue, or any other powerful adhesive,and plop the LRC down wherever you want it to got, then apply extra bits and pieces as you see fit.

Void Raven Conversion, part 2

The falcon arrived in the mail today, and I took a hack saw to it as soon as the chassis was built. Here is what I have got, so far, primed, and waiting to be painted:


Sawing off the wings off the Falcon according to the diagram from two posts ago, I arranged them as I had originally planned, then used left over aether sails to cover the huge slashes that are where the fins used to meet the chassis, as well as to add some dark eldar spiky-ness to it. Along with those, Extra rudders from the Raider and Jet Bike kits where used to get some ore blades on there, and two left over desintergrators form the void lances.

Whats left to do:
Cover up the hole on the roof, maybe with a plasticard tray, painted with the Kabal's insignia.
Missile racks. I'm trying to create a rack of missiles (to represent the various optional ones available to the bomber, but am struggling to find a way to keep the dark eldar sleek, bladed look while having the damn things LOOK like missiles.

Well, thats about it for today, possible pictures of a new terrain piece I have been working on tomorrow

Mini-campaign, the Battle for Viridis Sileo

Going to be starting a mini-campaign (of about 4-5 games) with Mike Monigan from Disposable Income (see link on the side bar), taking place on the agri-world of Viridis Sileo. Basic plan:

Opening Game: Planet Strike

Games 2-4: Using Astrnomi-con scenarios (found here)
Game 5: ????

Anyway, I have taken it upon myself to write up a bit of fluff for our campaign.

The Fall of Viridis Sileo, Part One

CASE FILE: 114:87G:YY6:Seg
Ordo Xenos Tempestus
Authority Code: *********************

Account of the Tyranid xenos breed siege of [GE class agri-world Viridis Sileo, Tempestus Segmentum]as told by Confessor Varro Oridiaus (of the Church of the Emperor Beneficent, in Demeter, planetary capitol [estimated population of 6.9 million]

6113978.M41

It was a warm day, it was always a warm day in Demeter. I rose early, before the sun, to ready the chapel for the morning sermon. Let it be known that the men and women of Demeter where a pious people, I regularly had a congregation of 50 or so in my small chapel, and many of my brothers in the Ecclesiarchey told me of the large numbers of the faithful that would great each dawn with a prayer to the Emperor on their lips, and His light in their hearts.

Opening the slates covering the only window in my modest cell, I was greeted by a storm wracked sky. The sky lacked the yellow tint it would acquire before a storm, and i felt that there was something altogether wrong with what I was seeing.

Then it began. The very air of our home was screaming. The awful noise, by the Throne you cannot imagine the noise.

Or the screams. The screams of the dying, of women, of children, of men, torn asunder by the foul daemons, for what else could these creatures be? Had we displeased the Emperor, had we not shown the proper piety? I do not know. What I do know is that our brave soldiers, the fiercest, toughest men our home could offer, where unable to stop the creatures from destroying our homes, our farms, our lives.

I was with a group of seventy or so of women, children, and men too old or sick to fight, in my chapel, which now served as a makeshift fortress. 20 Judges of the Arbites had barricaded the doors and windows, and had stationed patrols around the area. Here we waited, waited for help. But none arrived, only more of the beasts.

I had my first true look at one the daemons when they burst through the wood and steal barricade blocking the door to the chapel proper. It was a vile thing, pale, sickly skin, with a chitinous shell of a warped, unnatural purple. What it lacked for hands or paws it made up for in a pair of scything talons, large, vicious looking blades bursting from the ends of it's thin arms.

With a screech, it tore into the Arbites blocking the door, its claws cutting through armor and bone and flesh. But there wasn't just one, by the throne there where more than I could count. the numbers, you cannot imagine the numbers.

I hid, I hid beneath a pile of corpses, the corpses of the men, women, and children I was to cowardly to protect. Emperor save me, I hid, thinking the worst was over.

Then the swarms came.

+++++++Continue y/n++++++++
N
Extract file #114:87G:YY7:Seg



And thats the first bit I've got, more as the story develops. Play me off, keyboard cat.

Dark Eldar void raven/Void Dragon Phoenix conversion: Stage 1 (Planning)

I have decided to begin work on a void raven conversion, using the falcon chassis as a starting point.
The basic idea is to work out a design that will mimic the look of the Void Dragon Phoenix, a ship used by Eldar Corsairs. This will let me use it as either a Void Raven (until the plastic kit comes out) or a Forge World Void Dragon Phoenix in Apoc. games, without having to spend $120 on the damn thing.

So, we are trying to make this:

Into this:


Basic Plan:
Saw off the fins from the chassis,sand till smooth, and then, through green stuff and super glue, form wings from the fins on the side of the chassis.
See the diagram:

Cutting along the white line, the areas labeled "1" will be removed to be used as wings, while the areas labeled "2" will be the general area where the wings will attached to the chassis. From there, well, I've always been good at coming up with things on the spot. Work should begin tomorrow, if FedEx is a timely as they usually are.

Apocalypse, 20,000 points, The Xenos assault on Fort Walton

Here are the pictures, and highlights, of our 20,000 point Apoc game, the teams where:
( I played using Mike Monigan's Tyranids) XENOS: 5,000 point Tyranids, 5,000 point Orks, 2 Stompas
IMPERIALS: 2,500 point Scout Marines, 1 Warlord-Class Imperator Titan, 1 Warhound-class Scout Titan, 2,500+ points Blood Angels (they where painted green)

The armies and deployment:





some stuff happening, including:
Our entire left flank being wiped out by a Titan fire, the stompas doing jack, and Scoutguy mocking us:





the scene of the bloody battle and the xenos retreat at the end of the game:

Unboxing: Blood Angels Battalion, possible new Grey Knights model.

The new blood angels battalion came in th email yesterday, and I though I'd show you guys whats inside, in case anyone is interested in buying one.

First, sprues to build ten tactical marines, with all the standard its for special weapons:


Then we get sprues to build five Assault Marines (enough parts to build more, but there are only 5 "standard" jump packs)

And then we get the death company spruce:

Crap, I meant sprues, sorry.




The Death Company sprues come with a ton of bits, and can be used to pretty up your bland tactical or assault marines. I've managed to give each of my assault marines custom shoulder pads from the bits, and still have some left over.

Lastly, we get parts for a basic rhino, with bits for the storm bolter gunner and other do dads. Along with this we get a command frame sprue for the normal marines, which holds a banner, plasma gun, melta gun and a rocket launcher.



On a side note, here is a picture of what MAY be a Grey Knights dreadnought or a new Monstrousness Creature (thanks to the guys at Heresy Online) for them called a "Nemesis Dreadnought". Take this with a barrel of salt.

Dark Eldar Wracks, Blood Angels Librarian and High Examplar Kreoss

The line up today:
Wracks, made from random Dark Eldar kits (mainly wyches/Kabalites), wads of green stuff, and Empire Flaggelants.



I have several more of these guys, but most are primed black, and I wanted to show the conversion work involved. What I did was filed the neck down on the collars on the Flaggie torso, then cut of the round neck-stub from the DE heads and then glued them on. Now, they each have varius oddities on them, as I wanted to convey that the Haemunculus making them was just bored, and was messing around on his servants for kicks.

Codicer Varro, A Space Marine Librarian I had lying around.


I wanted to show that this guy has been in the thick of the fighting for a while, so I drilled several holes in his armor, "bullet holes", cut up his face, using a mix of scab and blood red, with some Dwarf Flesh, as well as dirtying up the model with Devlan Mud and Badab Black.

The Force weapon was an exercise in lighting, and I think its glowy look turned out well.


High Examplar Kreoss, first painted Warmachine fig, and exercise in the frustration of painting white.


This guy really exemplified the biggest issue I have with PP models, and that is that the details on them tend to be very shallow, and even a slightly thick basecoat will make you lose a lot of them. However, this was a blast to paint. The flowing robes give lots of opportunity for shading practice, and there are plenty of pieces of armor to practice metals on. The fire I sculpted from some Green Stuff.