Saturday, April 28, 2012

Friday, April 27, 2012

Tonight's WIP


Using the tutorial from Stahly's Tale of Painters I started working on my first Dreadnought. It was also my first time using mixed paints (2 or more colors per coat mixed together) and a thinning medium. I really liked how it worked, though my second coat (a Kator Blue and Chaos Black) was too dark and I probably used too much glaze on my third coat. So lesson learned here is just be a tad more patient. That said, while the color isn't exactly right for this stage of the painting (at least according to the tutorial), I am happy with the affect.


In addition, I also got my Terminators based finally, though I do need to come back and do a little clean up.


Last but not least I also finally got all of my arms and shoulders on my second set of Purifiers. Now to just getthem based...


My paint collection as of today. :)




Each step I take on this project seems to further motivate me to the next step. If this motivation can just stay, then perhaps by the end of May I'll have all of my GK's painted and only be a few models shy of my 2,000 point goal - which of course will require a couple more boxes of models. The horror! ;)

New Paint; WIP Update


Just got back from Bud's Place, where I picked up some more of the new paint line. On the right side of the photo above is Mourfang Brown and Wakdazza Red. Below is just some minor updates to my GK Purifiers.



Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Battle Report: City Fight



This last Sunday I got in a 900 pt. game playing Grey Knights vs Vanilla Space Marines (list below). My opponent was a newb like me and we had some pretty funny/fail moments in our game, but we had fun and learned a lot. Despite the fact that we declared it a tie, upon further review, I have to admit I lost 2-1. It was an Anhiliation mission with Dawn of War deployment, I got to go first.

As you can see from the pic above, the far red tower was on my side of deployment and made a great camping spot for half of my Purifier Squad that I had combat squaded. The other half of my Purifiers deployed in the street below in a Psyback. Near the "park" my Dreadnought and Castellan Crowe too up residence, with the Terminator Squad behind the building near them. My opponent hid his Terminators, Devastators, Tactical Squad and Chapter Master behind buildings well into his territory. Again, upon review it looks like he took too much form his 1,500 pt Army and gave me the advantage in points, as I think his pts would of only added up to maybe 800 or so pts.



First turn was a complete disaster. After getting my numbers wrong on how many shots a Twin-Linked Autocannon has (don't ask), I ended up missing with the Dreadnought. The Razorback failed at seeing anyone for the night rule effect and everybody else was also out of range... except more on this in a minute.

After this fail round of shooting I moved. Yes, we realized after this that I had done the steps backwards and what a difference that would of made, also considering I forgot to shoot with my 3 Psycannons from the building to the next street over - a feat that even with a casual roll for seeing I would of had range. Realizing this, I declare popping smoke from the Psyback though it was to do no good.

My opponent began by getting sight on my Purifiers with his Chapter Master and called down an orbital bombardment onto my Purifier squad that immediately scattered... directly onto the Psyback, which exploded and killed 2 of my Halberd-toting assault Purifiers. His Tactical Squad that had a flamer opened up from their new vantage point looking through a window and fried the 3rd Halberd-guy. So much for my assault force there. They failed leadership and ran, though the following turn got everything under control, took cover in a building and began to take pop shots for the remainder of the game. In the meantime, his Devastators took out my Dreadnought with equal ease and turn passed back to me.



I ended up moving Crowe and the Terminators (seperately) into assault position, where my Terminators ate his Devastators for breakfast. I forgot to make my consolidaiton move, which would haunt me during the final turn of the game and missing by literally only 2 inches into a final assault with his Terminators, which had been whittled down to 2 by then (thanks to Purfier Psycannons) and my squad still completely full.


Was a slow game, with both of us having to look up our stats and such for everything but we had a blast. My Psycannon squad was really good, chipping away at both his Tactical and Terminator Squads, while my Terminator Squad got my only kill-point for the game. Unfortunately, since I lost both the Psyback and the Dreadnought, final score would be 2-1, my opponents favor. That said, if I was to get a re-do of this game, I'm fairly confident I could of owned him. Perhaps next time!

My Army list for this game:

HQ: Castellan Crowe (Did nothing).

Heavy Support: Dreadnought w/Twin-linked Autocannon x2 w/Psybolt ammo (Died).

Troops: Terminator Squad (5) with a variety of weapons. (Killed opponents Devastators).

Purifie Squad (10) combat squaded into:

3x Halberds, 1 Psycannon, 1 Hammer in Psyback (Hammer and Psycannon survived to do nothing).

3x Psycannon, 1 Hammer, 1 Sword and Gun (gave opponents Termies and Tact. Squads a beating, no losses taken).

Monday, April 23, 2012

Book Review: Firedrake by Nick Kyme


This was a wonderful book and seemed tailor-made just for me. I'm a fan of both Salamanders and Dark Eldar and this book introduces us to such players from the game as Vulkan He'Stan of the Salamanders and Lilith Hespereth of the Dark Eldar. It goes without saying that these two HQ choices from the game are amongst my favorites from any of the armies. So to see them come to life in Firedrake was a real joyride.

It also showed me just how much of the lroe I didn't know or thought I did know. Trivial things for the most-part, such as how Hespereth is white-haired, not a redhead as shown on most miniatures. Of how rare it is for He-Stan to actually be present or with a squad of Terminators - or any of the Salamanders for that matter.

From purely a story-telling perspective, this book more than other so far that I've read in the 40K universe, gives me glimpses in both of these factions and how they fight or can fight on the tabletop. Great stuff all in all!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

The GK's Grow...


Yesterday and last night after work, I got a lot of hobbying done (at least by my standards). The new 5 Purifiers are coming together nicely and have all been put on their bases now and at the very least their heads, bodies and legs have been attached. The Knight of the Flame above has his arms and weapons now, but still missing his shoulder pads.


The Purifier with no arms plans on wield a Hammer one day, while the Psycannon guys are still missing one of their arms.


I also primed and started putting together my very first Dreadnought. I'm very happy to say it is easier than it looks and components so far fit well in a dry fitting. I actually plan on using him (dry-fitted) tomorrow if I can get in a match or two at Bud's.


I also got my first 5 Purifiers based properly. The rock mix I got from Michaels is working out well IMO.


Last but not least added more detail to my Razorback, though it appears I glued the hatch here too soon. Lesson learned for my next one. I think I can still make it look pretty sharp but in hind-sight I wouldn't of glued down the hatchs yet and make sure the edges were painted correctly first.

Tomorrow I am hoping toget in a couple of games. My list is still pretty small considering what I can field, but the army is growing and is the second step in my army in too many months.

Weighing in at 891 points...

HQ:

Castellan Crowe

Troops:

5-man Terminator Squad
- 1 w/Hammer
- 1 w/Nemesis Stave
- 1 w/Brotherhood Banner
- 1 w/Psycannon
- 1 w/Halberd
- Psybolt Ammo for squad

10-man Purifier Squad
- 4 w/Psycannon
- 3 w/Halberd
- 2 w/Hammer
- Knight of Flame w/reg. Nemesis Sword
- Psybolt ammo for squad
- Razorback w/Psybolt ammo

Heavy Support:

Dreadnought
- 2 Twin-linked Autocannons
- Psybolt ammo

I plan on combat squading my Purifiers to:

Assault Unit:
- 1 w/Psycannon
- 2 w/Halberd
- 1 w/Hammer
- Knight of Flame
- Razorback

Defensive Unit:
- 3 w/Psycannon
- 1 w/Halberd
- 1 w/Hammer

Grey Knight List Update


Before I get into my updated list, I have to share this link and post. It's a tutorial on how to paint a Grey Knight as you see in the pic above (pic/painting by Stahly's Tale of Painters). If you want to paint like a beast, check this link out!!!

Tale of Painters Blog

And now onto the Grey Knights list update (2,000 points):


HQ:

Castellan Crowe
Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with:
- Power Armor
- Combi-melta
- Rad and Psychotroke Grenades
- 3 servo skulls
- Digital Weapons
- Psychic power Hammerhand

Elites:

Venerable Dreadnought w/2 Twin-linked Autocannons w/Psybolt ammo
Vindicare Assassin
10 Death Cult Assassins in a Chimera w/Dozer Blade (Inquisitor attached to this unit)
*** Will be using DE Wyches

Heavy Support:

Dreadnought w/2 Twin-linked Autocannons w/Psybolt ammo
Dreadknight w/Gatling Psilencer and Hvy. Incinerator

Troops:

10 Purifiers
- 4 w/Psycannons
- 1 w/Hammers
- 5 w/Halberds
- Psyback
*** Combat squad into ranged and assault 5-mans, assault w/Psyback

10 Grey Knights
- 2 w/Psycannons
- 2 w/Hammers
- Psybolt ammo
- Psyback
*** May or may not combat squad depending on game; Deep Strike when appropiate

5 Purifiers
- 2 w/Psycannons
- 1 w/Hammer
- Psyback

What I like about this list is that I kept what I felt were really core things to have in a GK flavored list:

- A Dreadknight
- Twin-linked Autocannon toting Dreadnoughts
- Bunch of cultist rattling swords
- Psycannons and Halberds
- Psybacks rolling around
- Grenades!



Friday, April 20, 2012

Mo' Painting, Mo' Painting, Mo' Paint-ing


I got some more painting done tonight. I'm pretty happy how my Castellan Crowe is coming along. I messed up his eye a little but I expect I can fix that.


Two of my new paints I used tonight was the Necron Compound Drybrush followed up with Guilliman Blue Glaze. I liked the result (see above pic).


Last but not least I also worked on some details throughout my models. I only spent about an hour on painting tonight, but hey each hour adds up. More later this weekend I expect!

New Paint


I got new paint today from Bud's. Was under a budget, so wanted to concentrate on paints that I didn't have yet or really wanted to try (such as the Glaze and Drybrush varieties). Got to use a couple of them tonight - namely the Guilliman Blue Glaze and Necron Compound Dry).


Added to my previous paint pots, I've really got a pretty good newb collection of pots going. I took advantage a couple of weeks ago, just before the new line of paint pots came out to stock up on a couple of my previous favorite pots (Skull White, Asurmen Blue, Burnished Gold and Boltgun Metal).


All-in-all I have 28 pots now. Not bad for someone a year ago who thought he'd never paint at all and was planning on having his wife paint his miniatures or pay for it to be done. Next post will be of some of my work tonight with the new (and old) paints.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

More Grey Knight Progress


Using corks has helped a lot in highlighting details. There's still the whole putting these together once they are done and I'm sure some left over detailing then as well. But in the meantime I am enjoying this particular process for painting my army - or at least this set of Purifiers.





Sunday, April 15, 2012

Forward Progress


It's been a long while, but between classes, the photography business, work at the book store, life in general, I finally found some time today to work on my Grey Knights. Started adding base coat and wash and beginning highlights to Crowe to begin with.


Thanks to this year's tax return I was able to purchase some units for my GK army. So I began with a new unit of Purifiers. These guys will be broken apart though, with 2 Hammers going to different units and the same with Psycannons.


Not a lot, but also started adding detail... ok base and wash, to my Razorback.


Still have plenty of work to do with the above still unopened or put together. With summer semester coming on, summer wedding photography schedule and work it's a gambit if and when these will get done. At this point, I'm simply hoping to have everything done by the time 6th edition comes out. For my first 2,000 point GK army, I still need to pick up 3 GK boxes, a Vindicare Assassin, 2 more Razorbacks and a final Dreadnought.