A little bit of salt, and a whole lot of blasphemy!

o/

So, I've heard & seen a lot of good things involving the salt method of weathering & thought I'd give it a go after perusing this nice little guide on the subject. Now that guide (I would say wisely) suggests you use a 'stunt double' or sacrificial test model to try this out on before using it on whatever you really want to weather in this method. Presently I don't have anything that I'm looking to really use this on, however I did have a Warmahordes Commander Nemo lying around & figured he would work as well as anything. True, the salt technique is I think intended for use more on tanks than infantry, but no matter, I salted the little bastard anyways. I guess I'll see just what sort of a mess I've made of this mini when I get home tonight.

Considering Murl's love of warmahordes & my exceptional dislike of the game, its debatable as to whether I salted the model or Murl's old wounds...

Now, this model is of one of Cygnar's most venerated commanders who I'm sure would NEVER let his armor get rusted in such a manner as I intend. However one of my (many) gripes with Warmahordes is that despite showing all sorts of officers, generals, etc. in the Cygnar fluff book, the same half dozen heroes are @ the helm of every battle (if not more than one in the same battle while maintaining a casual conversation amidst combat). To me, that's just lame. I mean, just what the hell do all of the other officers do? Logistics? Look good for parades?

Given that I'm never going to play the stupid game again anyways, I figured I'll just paint him as someone else. Now, with 40k I'm known for rearranging the letters in a 'counts as' special character's last name to make him better fit into my army. For example Lysander became Captain Sanderly, and Sgt. Telion is instead Sgt. Onteli and so on. Following that example, I have N-E-M-O to work with...hmmm, not many options there. How bout...Moen? Now where have I heard that before?

Moen, moen....oh yeah, Moen, Buy it for looks. Buy it for life.

lol!

...and then, the dim light of amusement flickered to life (which is appropriate given Cygnar's love of electricity) and Lt. Moen was born. Behold:

Qualified as much as any other warcaster, Captain Moen never achieved the fame or glory of the more gifted members of his trade. Instead, he simply maintained the line when needed, which was the best his abilites could muster. However in his spare time, Moen was something of a tinkerer who fancied himself to be a great inventor like the famed Sebastian Nemo. Himself aspiring for fame, Moen reasoned that if the battlefield isn’t where that was to be won, then the workshop would have to do instead!

Thus, after many years and much effort, he presented to the local Cygnarian aristocracy what he claimed would revolutionize the realm of Cygnar, the electricly powered water closet! While curiosities were piqued, most present weren’t quite able to muster the enthusiasm that he did while explaining its many perceived virtues. Asking for a volunteer to aid in a demonstration, a Duke from within the audience who had imbibed in a bit too much alcohol stepped forward to give it a try. Beaming with pride, Moen offered the man a sheef of written instructions. However the Duke brushed them aside saying quote:

‘I can turn a handle’.

Drawing the curtain closed, all waited with nervous expectation. Bemused by the contraption, the Duke turned the water closet’s handle mid-stream, resulting in immediate disaster! Perhaps there was a short, or…something similarly bad…

Regardless, to be electrocuted not only with one’s pants down but by way of his manhood was no way for anyone, much less a noble Duke to go! In his subsequent trial, Moen was acquitted of murder, as there were many witnesses present who attested to the Duke’s refusal of instructions on how to use Moen’s device. However he was still found guilty of letting a noble use an improperly tested design.

Demoted to the rank of a mere Lieutenant, Moen was exiled to a far off and obscure outpost on the Khadoran front line. There he would not only be permanently removed from the public’s eye, but the scarcity of 'liquid' water available would (hopefully) deter any further attempts to refine his so-called ‘electric water closet’.

Now, I do make the assumption of the existence of dukes in Cygnar. They are called the 'Iron Kingdoms' after all. To be honest I really don't recall Cygnar's method of government. In the end, while I have no idea how the mini above will turn out, I can at least rest assured in knowing that somewhere Murl and potentially many others are right now staring daggers at their monitors and cursing my very existence!

;-p

Edit: After posting this, I switched the local of Moen's exile to the Khadoran front, as it occurred to me that my original idea of him getting sent to the desert, would eliminate any potential for rust on his armor...

Stolen: 1 Space Wolf Rhino

o/


I started painting on my new rhino for my Red Corsairs this weekend using the razorback I won at the tourney sometime back. The razorback's turret will go to my Tyrant's Legion army in the form of a converted sentry gun. I just HAVE to have those sentry guns and for no other reason than the fact that an 'immobile' fast attack choice amuses me to no end.

Anyways, the rhino...

The exterior will be the usual red & black however being pirates, I figured it would only be appropriate to have their rhino appear to be stolen/captured. Now, in the CSM codex, there's a story where the Corsairs capture a SW strike cruiser, and one can only assume that there were a few rhinos in its hold. Therefore I'll also assume that this was one of them.

I'm rather pleased with the SW pack marking on the floorboard if I do say so myself. Rather than paint over it, someone just sprayed the wolf icon with a burst of bolter fire, to show the proper level of respect that the Corsairs have for some of the Emperor's favorite lap dogs.

However my freehand painting isn't near good enough to pull off something like this. To compensate for my lack of skill, I made the stencil at left using adobe illustrator & a scan of the SW decal sheet. I output a film positive & then hand cut the black areas out with an exacto blade. Paint was applied one stencil layer at a time, though I skipped the rectangle & just painted the entire floor yellow to start. After stenciling, I touched up the lines, painted the recessed strips black & the bolter holes with boltgun metal. Gave it a wash in Orgyn flesh, and then dirtied it up with a dry brushing of deneb stone and...some sort of khaki color, I forget which off hand.

Now I'm sure that were this the interior of a Black Templar rhino (or some other overtly religious chapter), then the entire interior would be repainted as the wall-to-wall scripture would be sheer torture to the Corsairs riding within. However while the SW are a loyalist chapter, piety isn't one of their strongest traits. So the interior was left more or less as is, with just a few of (my still feeble attempts at) Dave Taylor's chaos stars decorating the interior walls. I also added a chaos arrow to the wall mounted bolter, though you really can't see it that well in the pics below.


Just one thing else of note. I unfortunately had to glue the rear ramp closed after taking these photos as it simply wouldn't stay shut. At least the top hatch doors won't be glued in place (otherwise this would have just been a pointless endeavor).

NORK DEADGOD!!!!

o/

So, Morristown is switching up its biweekly tourney a bit next time around. Instead of the normal 1500 pts., random scenario setup, it'll be 1750 pts., all annihilation games. The T.O. mentioned wanting to see people's death stars or something to that effect. The problem with annihilation is I tend to field horde armies of one form or another, so I'm looking at around a dozen KPs @ 1750 pts. Orks, due to my high number of transports & vehicle 'skwadruns' can effectively double that number. However thus far at the tourneys, my IG (14ish KPs) have fared best and I was thinking of bringing them again.

Given my like for vast hordes of cannon fodder backed up by lotsa big guns. I was somewhat amused to have Adam refer last night to my gun-line IG as a 'leaf blower' list. That said, it was kinda hard to argue the point as it is an exercise in brute firepower.

So, I've tried to come up with the IG 'deathstar'. In truth there's only one option for that, and that's what I'll use. Yes, Its Colonel 'Extra-Hand' Straken and his trusty side kick 'NORK DEADGOD!!!'. Staken I've had for quite some time & he's pretty good @ what he does. However only having one or two IG squads w/o heavy weapon teams moving around has left him kinda exposed. So I'm hoping my recent addition of the mutant conscripts, led by the infamous Khorne Dog (commissar lord) will correct that problem. The addition of Nork will further add to Straken's resilience. Plus, Straken's squad will now have the following USRs: Feel No Pain (gotta love those Khorne worshiping medics), Fearless, Stubborn, Counter Attack, & Furious Charge.

Sheesh!

A few months back I got the renegade Ogryn dirt cheap off of ebay. It was partially painted, partially assembled, some pieces broken...ya know, one of those kind of purchases. I also picked up the SM landspeeder assault cannon bitz & turned the drill arm into the ripper cannon you now see.

Yes, poor Nork. He passed out after losing his arm...and fell into the custody of his new Chaos masters. They tried to explain to him the lies he was told, that the corpse god was indeed dead.

Corpse. That's such a difficult word for a simple minded ogryn to process...

They tried to fix him, a new bionic arm & cybernetic implants, but some things are beyond even the tender ministrations of the dark mechanicus. Even despite their obvious superiority to the martian mechanicus. In the end, as always, drugs seemed to work best.

Normally sedated, just before battle is joined, Straken gives the order to 'fire him up' and the slaught injectors are turned wide open. Shaking uncontrollably due to the drugs coursing through his veins, Nork runs around screaming 'NORK DEAD GOD!!!' and shooting anything that gets too close to the colonel.

He's kinda like a little chaos dreadnought...

A weekend away...

o/

I'm running a day late I suppose, but from time to time such things will happen I guess. I spent the weekend out of town, (sounds like as good an excuse as any, right?) starting off in beautiful Asheville, NC for a concert (and food fight) Friday night, and then half of Saturday just wandering around before heading back to TN. However rather than going home which would take me directly into the path of 100,000+ screaming & intoxicated NASCAR fans (you can tell the economy is still shot as I didn't say 160,000+). Instead I went to my grandparent's house which is only about an hour away from my place.

Spending the night there I was able to get a little bit of painting done. though it did take a bit of effort to get going initially. I had an army with me, and so pulled out a plague marine champion to finish out, rather than start on something new. Indeed, when done I figured that at least I'll have something to blog about...

Such an awesome backpack!

Then Sunday morning Screech arrived & we went to Morristown for then biweekly 40k tourney. I had the Aurora Scouts with me & though I lost it was a close fought game that was decided in the bottom of the last round, so I can't complain. Plus Orks won, not mine but that's still ok. Especially as it wasn't the usual 4 deff rolla, 2 KFF, cookie cutter list. Regardless, I picked up my razorback that was ordered after my earlier win, so I showed up & got a free tank, and that alone is worth the trip in my book.

Screech made it to the 2nd round, so rogue.trader.voril & I played a game as we never had before (which is kinda odd). I think we called it when Screech lost (he claims he threw the game allowing Chad & Madival to split the win) and we were ready for some dinner. Not sure who won our game but it was good & bloody, so no matter.

...and that was about it for my fun filled weekend!

Spess Mehreenz

o/

So, I was looking around the blogosphere the other day, and saw the list-o-space marines poster again (and why won't GW make a higher resolution of it?). Indeed frontline gamer had a more realistic interpretation of that list...or at least insofar as what you can expect to see on the tabletop.

While its an old poster (meaning the storm Wardens among others aren't listed) I thought I'd tweak it to show those chapters that I've fielded with at least a painted squad over the years, though in most cases it was a whole army (if not several in the case of the Space Wolves). I was tempted to highlight the Red Wolves as well, seeing as how my old home-made chapter the Desert Wolves were based off of them. However I never actually painted any of them red, so I left it shadowed.

One of those highlighted are of course my Auroras. This coming Sunday I'll be attending the Morristown tournament & the Auroras will make their tourney debut. Last time I fielded them vs. Adam's BA, they lost but wracked up an impressive body count. The week following they quite handily beat Screech's SW tourney-test list. That's about as good as I can expect from them, so figured why not. To that end I finished painting two more Auroras:

Painted in recognition of rending a razorback to death, only the 2nd time that's happened for me in all of 5th ed.

NO! This is NOT just a blue Grey Knight, its a librarian...really.

Speaking of the tourney, This poster was sent to me by one of my devoted followers yesterday. At the time Screech wasn't going to attend the tourney, though he has since changed his mind (so this might actually occur). Somewhat amusingly (and unknown to both me & the sender at the time), Screech will be working the end of this week to set up a convention/meeting/something-of-that-sort for the Ronald McDonald House organization.

Yes folks, sometimes timing is everything...

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note, I saw this rant this morning (and I do love a good rant) and it really made me laugh, so I thought I'd link it.

1st Storm Wardens Squad Complete

Sounds impressive doesn't it? Then you see the pictures and...yawn, old models, lol.

As expected, they were simple and easy to paint (especially as I omitted trying to freehand paint the blue shield over which the lightning bolt is supposed to go). Plus, one has already survived a swan dive to the floor while suffering no visible effect. While not intended, it sorta passed the 'loaner' army test when that happened...

Going by the one 'official' bit of artwork for the Wardens in the Deathwatch RPG book, there's no way to tell how they mark squad/companies. So I just added it to the squad # lower right leg, should make telling who goes to what squad easy enough. Given that these guys are of the 4th company, I figured squad #4 ought to be included. I had painted the gem on the chest eagle green to represent the Codex Astartes 4th co. color, however the bolter covers it, so doesn't matter I guess.

All is quiet on the eastern front...

o/

Been kindova slow week on the hobby front. I suppose that the combination of getting pasted in the tournament last Sunday & the nice weather this week has really dulled my enthusiasm for a few days. As you can see from the photo, my first Storm Warden tac. squad is nearing completion. Need to add the lightning bolt & squad # decals, give 'em a bath in Delvan Mud, then some touch ups, highlights, flock & they'll be done.

In the foreground, you can also see my sole remaining mini from Classic Battletech, a Maxim infantry transport. Lately there seems to be a sudden interest in resurrecting the game locally. Murl's all over it, whereas I recall selling everything as he didn't want to play anymore & I had no other opponents. Well that, and the contents of the Total Warfare box was garbage IMO (though via ebay, I made a handsome profit on selling those contents off...).

Anyways I've been resisting the urge to return to the game, but as anyone that knows me will tell you, that effort is probably a futile one. At one time (lumping all of the factions & their myriad paint schemes together) I could field a combined arms regiment (Mechs, tanks & Infantry) as well as an additional reinforced tank regiment. Whereas currently I just have the IFV above & a platoon of infantry using old EPIC Imperial Guardsmen who amusingly they can be armed with lasers...

I had never put any of my hordes of tanks on bases, but finding one on the bitz box, I decided to just for shits & giggles. I built up the center with plasticard & filled in the gaps with LGS. No idea what I would paint it as since literally every faction in CBT has access to it. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be resisting that urge...

Damn.

The Storm Wardens arrive!

o/

As you can see below, I received my box of little blue men on sprues this past Friday.


After counting them all up & leaving good feedback, the assembly line process began. This will be the first tactical squad with the silver helmed marine being the sergeant. Pretty boring really, but then again, pretty quick & easy to paint so far as well. As such, they're proceeding as intended. Amusingly, I saw several of these type of ML marines at the tournament that I went to yesterday. They were unpainted and screamingly bright amongst their Angels Sanguine brethren.

Speaking of that tournament...

Heh, my dice said 'No way buddy, not this time!' Indeed even my opponent Chad was apologizing for onslaught of ones & twos my dice were handing me by the second turn. Oh well, some damage was done before the game came to its inevitable conclusion. I managed to claim one of the three objectives at least. Of course, given that I was using the newly gifted Corsairs, and after the game I went to spend my gift card from winning the last time, no sympathy was to be had for me. So when I return there in 2 weeks there will be a Razorback waiting for me to pick up. In the end, I later heard (we had already left to & get some dinner) that Madival 's cheese whiz list split first place with the above mentioned Angels Sanguine, so congrats to him! That's 1st place tie #2 for the Tri-Cities guys!

Preparing for a raid...

o/

The Red Corsairs will be making their tournament debut this coming weekend on the sparse battlefields of Morristown. I've made some minor alterations to the army, just a few back pack, arm & weapon swaps. I feel like I'm ruining gorgeous models with my own alterations, but some changes were needed. Anyways, after much cajoling on his part, I've agreed to a practice game this Saturday @ the FLGS vs. Madival.

Given all of the wonderful things that I've heard about player reactions to his army lists, the above is kinda what I'm expecting...lol.

Storm Wardens Demo Army

o/


This is an old Space Marine mini that I've had for quite some time. Its been around the block a few times having fought previously in my Iron Warriors & Silver Skulls armies (if not more). Now he's painted in the colors of the Storm Wardens. He's painted using a lighter shade of blue than that used in the Storm Wardens charity army of last year as the darker blue more or less renders this color scheme identical to my Eldar, and I didn't want to repeat that scheme across two armies.

'So why a Storm Warden?' is what I'm sure several of you are wondering right now.

Well, I was perusing GW's online store & saw that the humble Tactical squad is now $37.25, or basically $40 with tax (I've never noticed this as I have a scout army). True, AoBR tac marines go for $10-$15 on ebay, but call it a mental exercise, a whim, stupidity, a combination thereof...I wanted to see if I could build a SM army of some sort, with all minis new & on-the-sprue, For the cost cost of just one new tac. squad.

The answer to that question is 'yes' though its kinda bland to look at (and you ignore the mini above which I already had in my collection).

I found a seller on ebay who had the old 2nd. ed. 40k starter box marines listed @ groups of 8 bolter marines for $5, and individual 2nd. ed. starter ML marines also for $5. Shipping was $5 for the first & the rest were free. So (4) ML marines & (24) bolter marines plus shipping totaled out to $40.

28 boring models, now what do I do with them?

I decided on a demo/combat patrol army of Storm Wardens (more because they're different and easy to paint than any other reason). Quite often new & potential players will stop by the FLGS to 'just watch' cause they have no minis of their own. Sometimes we have enough loaner minis to let them give it a shot, but there's always a concern about handing these lovingly painted & expensive models to a total stranger who might drop them or (as I've seen before) grab squads by the handful as they're unaware of the effort put forth to paint and convert them.

The marine above as I said was an old model, and with a few bitz added later, has now been promoted to the rank of captain! His servo skull who bears his Iron Halo has a 'IV' engraved on it, so he became the 4th co. captain by default. The Codex Astartes tradition lists that company's color as green, hence the green circle emblazoned with the #4 on his shoulder pad.

So far the pros: Dirt cheap, easy to paint, (and excluding the captain) all models are simple and plastic so most likely not to reach terminal velocity if dropped onto the floor. Plus, even after they're all painted they'll never be even close to the prettiest of models (actually they'll be the polar opposite of my Red Corsairs) meaning that newer players will have an obvious incentive to get their own stuff, rather than just expecting to use the 'free' army forever.

The cons: WTF good is 25 bolters, 1 power sword & 4 missile launchers?

The easy fix: make some of them Sternguard.

The army:

HQ:
Captain with power sword, bolter with hellfire ammo & digital weapon: 135 points. Basically my standard 'captain' fit. In my opinion, captains should be bad asses, so their shots should always wound (hellfire) and their attacks should always kill in HTH (power & digi weapons). Sounds good on paper anyways...

ELITE:
6 man Sternguard Squad: 150 points. With two attacks a piece, they can form an ad hoc assault unit, and their variable ammo options help them fill in the lack of special weapons to some extent. I just need to paint them differently from the tac. marines to set them apart.

TROOPS:
6 man Tactical Squad: 106 points
6 man Tactical Squad: 106 points
The 'meat and potatoes' to any 'standard' SM army. No options though. So my apologies as there's no gravy to go with this meal...

Heavy Support: 10 man Devastator Squad with 4 missile launchers: 250 points. A full 10 man squad allows the option to split into combat squads and thus split those MLs into pairs as well.

So there you have it: a 747 point demo army. Its simple, straight forward, and cost me the same as a single, new tac. squad.

It also conveniently falls into the 'split force org.' list type, so could be allied to another like sized force to oppose a 1500 point army making for a more exciting demo game. Or, I can simply remove the captain and one tactical marine, which drops the cost to 596 points, perfect for a game of 'Combat Patrol' (not that that ever happens...). Also, totaling 29 for a demo or (more importantly) 27 Marines for the combat patrol, they'd all fit into a single Thunderhawk! That fits nicely into the theme of a combat patrol, so the list is even 'fluffy!'

Huzzah!