Thursday, May 26, 2016

Outremars

o/

30k's Imperialis Militia list has twin-heavy stubber teams, huzzah!!!

So, I've been rereading the Horus Heresy novel Legion to refamiliarize myself with my chosen 30k army. When just the other day I stumbled across a paragraph that turned the idea of using my Grymn as Imperialis Militia with the 'Abhuman Helots provenance' (a.k.a.: Squats) alongside my Alpha Legion into canon lore!!!!

Well, sorta...read below, mainly the paragraph on the right as its more or less verbatim from the novel.

Copyright of: warhammer40k.wikia.com.

Okay, so my Grymn's uniform colors are all wrong,  but hell the Alpha Legion in the novel are wearing purple armor. What matters is space dwarfs and Alpha Legion fighting in the same campaign! True my Grymn aren't Squat minis, but let's face it: whilst we old timers in the hobby all have a soft spot for the old Squats, their minis were really kinda awful.

(...and after saying that, Neverness is no doubt loudly railing at the notion, but we all know he licked a few too many lead Rogue Trader era minis in his youth and these random outbursts are...well, not the worst that could've happened to him, right?)

Anyways, not only are those old Squats fugly, but they often sell for astronomical prices on ebay, and very few of us (not including me) have the skills to sculpt our own like Inso is doing...so, my Grymn-errr-Outremars it is! Besides, I love those little guys! Waaargh Pug does too, and also has a 30k army in the making, so I may not be the only one locally to go this route.

Conveniently, I already have a dozen or more Grymn painted up!

Of course, I could just skip the whole 'Squat/Outremar' thing and just treat them as normal humans and my Alpha Legion as True Scale marines...but I probably won't.

Monday, May 23, 2016

Centurion Asirnoth

o/

As a follow up to my prior post, I feel I ought to have another story...yeah-no, I got nothing.

Sorry.

I do however have pics of my finished Alpha Legion Centurion:


That shadow you always see in the lower right corner of my close up pics? Yeah, that's my camera's zoom lens at full extension. Apparently Canon never took photographing minis into account during the design process. 

I built this model more on aesthetics than actual table-top use, thus...whilst looking good (I think) his battlefield effectiveness will be debatable. Ah well...30k/40k is all about over-the-top giant stompy robots, D-weapons and super-heavies everywhere. So whether a power weapon or a chainsword, honestly would it really matter?

Exactly.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

A decade of deceit...

Operative 568435
The Gorgon, Primarch Ferrus Manus, father of the Iron Hands Legion and direct descendant of the Emperor of Mankind himself stood with his Morlock bodyguards and surveyed the devastation around them with disgust. Xenos and Iron Hands bodies were strewn about in all directions, for as far as the eye could see. Making a quick count, the Gorgon spoke: 'Only ten Orks carcasses for each of my sons, a pitiful ratio. Ungavarr’s Iron Father shall answer to me personally for this outrage!'

'He no longer lives Sire, reports were all Ungavarr forces in this sector were lost.' Replied one of his terminator bodyguards.

'Fitting.' is all Ferrus Manus replied.

'Look, their banner still stands sire.' Pointing to where the Orks were piled the highest, the  tattered Clan Ungavarr battle standard could be seen. Quickly making their way across the field of carnage, the Gorgon and his terminators came upon a the ruin of a marine. Slumped against a redoubt, a bolter still clutched in his right hand, the Ungavarr standard in the crook of his left arm, just above the bloody stump where his bionic hand should have been. His left leg was severed as well, just below the knee and there was a savage wound where his right eye had been. 

'My apologies father, for I cannot stand…blood loss I think.'

'Identify yourself my son.' Spoke the Gorgon.

'Asirnoth, 14th…tactical brother, 24th squad, 9th line company, Clan…Ungavarr.' 

In a very rare moment of mirth, the Gorgon smiled and quipped. 'Asirnoth? Yes, I see the resemblance.' Turning quickly to his retinue the Gorgon issued his commands 'Summon the apothecaries to rebuild this man! Collect the standard, so that upon its cleansing and repair, it shall be returned to Clan Ungavarr’s Standard Bearer.' 

Taking the banner a Morlock replied 'but the standard bearer has fallen sire…'

Turning towards the marine before him, Ferrus Manus replied 'No, no he has not.'

With blood bubbling from between his lips, Asirnoth smiled. 

**** 

Aboard the battleship Alpha, alone in the docking bay Omegon waited as the ramp descended from the Storm Eagle gunship before him. On the world of Istvaan IV below, the treacherous nightmare of history was playing out but this…this might worth the momentary distraction of one of the Alpha Legion’s primarchs.

Down the ramp came a what struck the Omegon as a hissing, clanking parody of an Astartes. Clad in battle-scarred and bloodied but still magnificent artificer armor, and festooned with an abundance of bionic implants that only a son of Ferrus Manus could take pride in, strode an Iron Hand Legionaire.

'And who were you when we last met?' asked Omegon. 

'Operative 568435, extracted per your signal Sire.' replied the Iron Hand.

'Deployed more than a decade ago…and whom do I see before me now?' inquired the Primarch.

Asirnoth (WIP)
Standing at rigid attention the Iron Hand replied: 'Clan Color Sergeant Asniroth, the right hand of Iron Father Isador, Headquarters Company, Clan Ungavarr, Iron Hands Legion. I bring you information straight from the highest levels of Ferrus Manus’ war councils as well as my personal gift to you My Lord.' Lowering his head and bending down to one knee, Asniroth unfurled Clan Ungavarr’s Battle Standard for his Primarch. 

Omegon replied 'My brother Ferrus Manus is dead, or so I've heard'.

Raising his head to look up at the god of war before him, Asirnoth simply nodded 'Yes my Lord, I was there.'

Examining the Iron Hand's Clan Standard, a humorless grin slowly spread across the face of the Emperor’s least known son...

Monday, May 16, 2016

The Black Sun Vigo

We finally made it to game night at the FLGS this past Saturday, and with X-Wing in hand we played one of our usual, 4-player free-for-alls. 100 points a piece with myself and Rob fielding Scum and Villainy, and my Beloved Wolfy and Kushial both fielding the Empire.

This was also the battlefield debut of Wolfy's TIE Advanced Prototype.

lol, with this many fighters on the board, I figured that its about as close to reenacting the battle of Endor was we'll ever get despite the lack of Rebel fighters.

My HWK-290 and Rob's Scyk Interceptor were the earliest victims of this mess...

However the ranks thinned out quickly, with Rob being the 1st one wiped out. Suited him fine though as he was both tired and suffering heavily from allergies (tis the season...). That said, his Mist hunter once again tied up too many points for too little return. Thoroughly unimpressed with that ship, and I seriously doubt I'll buy it at this point.

Yeah, that TIE Advanced Prototype is a keeper. Hell, its better than the actual production model in my opinion (even though that's still my favorite type of TIE).

Curiously, when it came down to the last three fighters (one for each of us), mine was a Black Sun Vigo with no upgrades and it even still had it's shield! What the hell? Starvipers SUCK (when I'm using them anyways), and have never survived past mid-game for me-EVER! Wolfy's had little better luck with them (we have 2), Rob's Starviper piloted by Guri was his last ship to fall, but still it didn't last long.

However when the shooting came to an end, my Black Sun Vigo was the last one standing, with no damage aside from the loss of his shield. I just hope this performance wasn't a fluke...

Thursday, May 12, 2016

My 30th Anniversary Marine is done!

o/

Despite several good suggestions, and a passionate plea (of a sorts) from Neverness for the Rainbow Warriors, I opted to go with one of my original ideas and painted this mini up as an Alpha Legionnaire. Or, more specifically the 30k Special character: Exodus.

In a nutshell, Exodus is the Alpha Legion equivalent of a Vindicare Assassin, who is armed with a heavily modified bolter-type weapon of unknown origin that he/they (one can never really know with the Alpha Legion) calls 'The Instrument'.

The red light on the hilt of his power dagger (easily the most mediocre of power weapons) indicates that it is in the debatably more effective 'off' setting (i.e.: a regular CCW). 

You'll note he's bereft of any markings which conveniently is 'fluffy' as the Alpha Legion had a notorious habit of operating without any identifying iconography (as well as using false colors, and/or inexplicable iconography...anything to confuse their actual identities). Besides, the 30k Alpha Legion decal sheet from Forgeworld is a whopping $23 before shipping is added!

This mini is based in the same manner as my Grymn army. That's because Forgeworld's Imperial Militia list in their book Tempest elegantly made adding my Grymn into the Grim-Dark easier than every attempt that I've tried to do that thus far. But I'll save that for a later post. However, those of you who are paying attention will have already realized that that means more Alpha Legionnaires are in my painting queue.

Also, for my own reference, my painting recipe for the Alpha Legion is as follows:

• Primed Testors Medium Green
• Base-coated with GW's Sotek Green
• Then Drybrushed lightly with the near Ancient GW Glistening Green
       (which is luckily still available via Coat D'arms)
• Then a light drybrushing of Coat D'arms Enchanted Blue
• After all detailing, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone
• Then a very light drybrushing of GW Bleached Bone

Monday, May 9, 2016

What's black & blue and red all over?

How'd you guess 'a Firespray'? (must've been the damned thumbnail pic...)





Like the now infamous Blue Waffle, this repaint is also for my friend Billy. In exchange for doing these two ships, he bought us the new X-Wing core set which is a very nice trade off I think! He's seen pics of this and I presume is pleased with it, given that as we didn't make it to gaming at the FLGS this past Saturday, he's making a trip over to our house to pick it up this evening.

The Daemon Kitty demands to know why the human slave keeps putting his toys in what she thinks is her kitty cube?

The firespray is a ship that I've never really been a fan of aesthetically, and having now painted one? Yeah, no...it still does nothing for me.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

In whose colors shall I paint this guy?


I have a few ideas but am open to suggestions...

Monday, May 2, 2016

Pick a army pal...

o/

Sorry for the lack of a post on Thursday. On Monday of last week, my beloved Wolfy had a major, and much needed surgery. She's recovering well, but time spent at the hospital and adjusting to her new needs at home basically eliminated any hobby time for the week.

I did get a bit of reading in though...


Not overly impressed with both the British and Soviet army books for Bolt Action, I ordered the France and Allies book off of ebay and it arrived this past Tuesday. I was already somewhat familiar with the Partisans army list and fully intend to use it with my multi-color uniformed and 'hillbilly' Quar. There are a handful that need to be painted to fill out the ranks, and the option of using 'captured' enemy vehicles (unreliable as they are...) is also appealing.

For anyone wondering, yes, I'm pulling a 'Rob' when it comes to army selection (or rather the lack thereof).

As for the rest of my Quar, I'm not sure yet. The Polish army list is rather appealing actually. Another option of course is the new Australian army list assuming Warlord ever sends me the download link.



DrivethruRPG Warlord is not! No order and instant download with Warlord, not even for free downloads! The Beyond the Gates of Antares quick-start rules PDF took 4 days to receive the link, which I thought was a bit much. However the Aussie army list PDF download (which I ordered whilst Wolfy was in surgery) is heading into a full week on my having to wait on some bloke in England to send me the link.

Grumble, grumble...

Oh well, I've been short on time anyways, but hopefully we'll be getting back to normal here soon...