Allies in name only...

Here's my background fluff for the converted Word Bearer in my previous post:

No, this isn't a terminator...but it is a
damned fine image of a Word Bearer!

A number of…highly skilled and hand picked emissaries have been assigned to the Alpha Legion at the Warmaster's order. Split equally between the Sons of Hours and Word bearers' Legions, these observers are officially attached to the 20th Legion in order to facilitate closer relations, and the exchange of tactics. In truth, they're mission is to ensure that the Alpha Legion is following the Warmaster's directives to the letter! 

In short order, many of these emissaries were written off as 'unfortunate combat casualties'. However to forestall even further scrutiny, by the order of Alpharius, a handful were allowed to survive, though their interactions with the Alpha legion is anything but congenial. 

For example, the following is the story of how Captain Waaarghpug of the Gal Vorbak, chosen by High Chaplain Erebus himself for the task as emissary of the Word bearers' Legion, came to be known to the Alpha Legion as:  'Captain Woo'.  

Waaarghpug's assignment to the 20th Legion has been along and difficult trial of his patience, despite his best efforts to spread the teachings of the Primordal Annihilator to his misguided and faithless allies. All too often, his preaching falls on deaf ears (literally, as helmets are rarely removed in his presence and their external audio is invariably switched off). Verbal exchanges are also a continuous point of contention. Given his curious name and endless sermons, his Alpha Legion counterparts started addressing him as 'Captain Warp? Ugh! (which was invariably spoken in a comical tone of voice). 

After weeks of this treatment and at his wits end, the Word Bearer almost came to blows with a squad of tactical legionnaires during an exchange outside their training cells. Suddenly the Alpha Legionnaires stiffly came to attention as another seemingly innocuous marine entered the room and identified himself as 'Alpharius'. 

Alpharius indeed...

Admonishing his brother marines for their discourtesy towards their 'guest', he ordered that Captain Waaarghpug was to no longer be addressed as 'Captain Warp? Ugh!', but was henceforth to be known as 'Captain W.U.' or, for the convenience of brevity: 'Captain Woo'. The comedic tone of voice was to be dropped immediately (though not apparently the collective joke at the still furious Word Bearer's expense). 

Aside from Waaarghpug, all of those present nodded the affirmative, and were dismissed. Biting back his anger the Word Bearer stiffly agreed as the 20th's primarch is known to frequently walk hidden amongst his sons in unadorned armor. However, as he was coming to terms with his latest derogatory 'title', Waaarghpug was left to wonder: was that really the primarch, or just an officer, sergeant, or possibly even a mere rank and file marine claiming to be Alpharius (as they all so often do)?

Either way, until he was rid of his tour with the accursed miscreants of the 20th legion, it seems he was be doomed to be humiliated at every opportunity!

Words to bear...

o/

Still no painting, but I had an idea the other day (always a dangerous thing...) and came up with a use for my Cataphractii Terminator Captain. Originally, he was going to be the Centurion who replaced (the now demoted) Asirnoth as my Alpha Legion's commander. However as a result of popular opinion, my most recent sergeant assumed the mantle of command instead, leaving this guy kinda in limbo, especially as I have no other termies for him to accompany (this mini was purchased on a whim for the bargain price of $6).

The weapon swap was easier than
I thought it would be.

I also didn't want the chainfist to be his HTH weapon. Sure its good for tank and well...just bout anything killing, but with 2 wounds, and my usual dice rolling, odds are he'd die before ever getting to use it. Prowling around google for inspiration, I saw a wide variety of arm/weapon swaps and thought I'd give it a go myself.

Rather than a power weapon of some sort, I opted for a Word Bearers' Tainted Weapon. These little nasties are available to any Word Bearers character who can get a standard power weapon, and are swapped out for the power weapon's cost (which in this case is included with the termie armor). If anything, its a whole lot worse than the original chainsfist, as its just a basic close combat weapon in all respects aside from causing instant death. Against characters it has the potential to be quite worrisome to an opponent, but regular grunts? Meh, its a glorified knife. That said it does look mighty cool!

Looks menacing enough...

I'm sure you're wondering how this guy will fit in with an Alpha Legion army-well, prior to the Heresy, marines would often serve for a time with their brother-legions rather than their own. With the aim to exchange tactics as well as to create the link of camaraderie. Post-heresy (or rather, whilst its in progress...), I'm sure that still occurs, though under a different pretense.

Let's face it, the last time any of the primarchs trusted the Alpha Legion to have their back was when they were in the 2nd wave of the infamous dropsite massacre. Yeah, and how'd that work out for em? Following that, when Horus called on Alpharius to account for intentionally aiding the Raven Guard's survivors escape from the Istvaan system, it was revealed that the Alpha Legion had successfully infiltrated Corax's legion. It didn't take long for a shocked Horus (and Erebus who was at Horus' side) to realize the potential threat of Alpha Legion infiltrators within their own legions as well.

I need to fix that split in the vein-tendon-thing
that attaches underneath.

Thus, as usual...nobody trusts the 20th legion and to keep them on task, 'observers' will no doubt have been attached to the Alpha Legion under the guise of brotherhood and cooperation, whilst in actuality trying to keep a close watch on their supposed allies...

This marine is one of those observers.

His background fluff is still evolving, but I hope to have it fleshed out and ready to go for my next post. For now though, I'll let ya know that he's named in honor of a buddy of mine (and yes, he's a Word Bearer player):  Waaargh Pug.

Interrogator Themis

o/

With the recent interest in KT, I picked up this mini from Prodos Games to lead an Inquisitorial Kill Team. Equipped with a bolter and storm shield (which curiously, Inquisitors don't have access to, just their flunkies), this is a really kickass looking mini! Most strangely...it was cast as a single piece of resin.  Yes, seriously.

This is exactly how it looked right out of the box: 

This is from a game called Space Crusades (that last 's' is apparently all that's needed to stave off a copyright lawsuit from GW).

No assembly, washing or anything required. Look at those undercuts...what the hell? Makes ya want to ask: Okay Forgeworld, why in the hell can't you make stuff like this?' Sure they make minis that look just as good, but not flawless single piece casts!

Paint: I giveth, and I taketh away...

o/

Man its been a busy day! Its damned near 10pm as I type this and really the only time I've had to just chill this evening was whilst eating dinner. Whew, being an adult and all that...yeah, it sucks.

Still looking kinda ugly...

Anyways, it wasn't like that all week, and as such I was able to get a bit more work done on my predator. All of the base coating has been added. Now its time to do the detail work before applying the decals and then slathering it in the usual ink wash. That last bit worries me as I never like the results of inking on large flat surfaces, but I'll deal with that problem later I guess.

As for the 'taketh away' part: I bought this jalopy off of ebay for a mere $17.

The pic straight from the ebay auction. 

On its arrival I found it was both poorly and only partially assembled. Normally this would be a complaint, but instead turned out to be a boon. Within minutes it was disassembled and most of it was soaking in the simple green. The crew were painted decently, and the bottom is already primed/painted black and they will be left as is.

The plan is to let the rest of it soak for a week or two, but knowing me...it may remain in its chemical grave for upwards of a year or more. Or, until my beloved Wolfy asks: 'Honey, what the hell's in this container in the cabinet?'

Predator WIP 1

o/

Well, its been a long time coming, but my original predator (for those who don't recall, this is the 1st 40k model ever that I bought), has finally made its way to the front of my painting queue (again).

As you can see, the new reinforcements have arrived as well...

Nope, no sponsons this go round, just the autocannon and combi-bolter. Most of the time this will be outflanking via the 'Sacrificial Offering' Rites of War, and as such the sponson weapons (which I don't have anyways) would only be snap-firing. That said, in 30k the Predator's autocannon gets 4 shots rather than 40's 2. So appearing on the board with enemy vehicle's side or possibly even rear armor visible, this will be quite a potent vehicle vs. anything with AV13 and on down. Even against infantry, the potential to wound/kill 4-6 models a turn is nothing to shrug off.

The Alpha Legion often accent their tanks with steel, or silver, so I think the center of the hull will get that treatment making the painting of this a bit less laborious. Or at least I hope so, I'll let ya know how that works out...

Sergeant or Centurion?

o/

Okay so I'm torn.

This was supposed to my 2nd veteran tactical squad's Sgt., but he looks so awesome that I'm thinking now that he might work better as a centurion (because I'm so lacking in HQ models). He stands out far more than my other Sgt., and easily rivals if not surpasses Asirnoth (who was unceremoniously demoted to the rank Sgt. due to his basic weaponry).

The torso's back half with the attached cloak came from one of the new Deathwatch kits, though one thing of note about that: I had to trim it a bit to fit up properly with the Mk IV front half of the torso. What the hell? I think that's the first time ever that two random space marine torso halves didn't fit together right off of the sprue.

The cloak looks shiny, but its a just a trick of the light. The only metallic part on the cloak is the XX decal. Also, it didn't really come out good in these photos, but the gold thing on his base is a damaged and bloodied Harlequin's mask (no doubt one of Neverness' bunch).

On a slightly different subject, I miscounted when ordering bitz and came up one meltagun short for my Alpha Legion tactical support squad. I needed four, but only had three. Ordering one plus a few other random bitz to justify the shipping cost would have come to about to about $6-8. That's a bit much just to get the meltagun that I needed. However I still had a $40+ credit with Noble Knight, and so instead I now have another Mk IV Tactical squad coming to me which includes a meltagun and only cost $6.87 above my trade-in credit.

I was saving that credit for the Bolt Action, 2nd ed rulebook, but with my Panzerfauste minis not working out as I had hoped, my interest in giving Bolt Action another try more or less took a nose dive. So this was a much better purchase I think!

The production line begins...slowly.

o/

Their bases still need rocks/stuff.

I finally finished my 2nd veteran tactical squad sergeant, but I don't have any good pics of him yet. I did however begin assembling the rest of my Mk IV marines here and there over the course of the weekend.

I only built two minis however...because I accidentally sliced the hell out of the thumb on my left hand (and I'm left handed) Sunday morning. My beloved Wolfy patched me up and kept me from bleeding out. As such building, painting and...well most everything is kinda difficult with my thumb all wrapped in gauze and tape. Anyways, sob story aside, here are the two I was able to assemble.

We actually played a game!

o/

As the title says, we actually played a game of X-Wing, though to be honest its the first game of any sort that we've played in what seems like forever. The gamenight at the FLGS was a washout. I guess my and Wolfy's absence has been the deathknell of it here of late. Since apparently Mike and Screech's personalities haven't been entertaining enough to encourage the gang to come out and play, lol.

Luckily, as we were already in town, Billy lives practically within walking distance of the FLGS (assuming you want to walk up a very big hill that is). So we just went over there, and after BSing for a bit, we got down to a game of X-Wing.

The opening stages of turn 1.

I was playing the 1st Order, Billy the Rebellion and my beloved Wolfy was fielding the Scum and Villainy. Our 3rd TIE/FO and the Punishing One were both making their battlefield debuts as well. Billy was the first player wiped out though my last TIE/FO only lasted a turn longer than his last X-Wing. It seems that when list building, I made Wolfy's list a bit too good!

Yeah....these two were scary to face!

Dengar with the title, and all of the bells and whistles is pretty rough, add to that Kavil with a dorsal turret, opportunist and an unhinged astromech and her list was just plain nasty! At range 1 Kavil was firing salvos of 5-dice from the turret! Anything caught between that and the Punishing One would be toast! Yeah, after making the list and then being on the wrong end of it, I don't think my beloved Wolfy gets to use that one anymore.

On a different note, there will be no thursday post this week, and next Monday's will be questionable as well. My beloved Wofy's surgery is this morning at 8am, and I'll be staying with her at the hospital at night (after work) till she comes home on Wednesday (if all goes to plan). Thus, there simply won't be any hobbytime for the rest of the week.