2nd hand vehicle woes...

o/

Overcompensating much?

Prior to Christmas I picked up a 3rd party Big Momma space marine vindicator for barely more than the price of the conversion kit (plus the shipping cost). Basically the attached rhino hull clocked in at a mere $3, awesome right? Yeah not so much. It looked as though it was assembled but a 10-year old who thought 'the more glue the better!' And then there are the tracks...what the actual fuck happened there?

In true ANGRY MAHREEN!!! fashion (with Floyd Uberson included in the pic for scale), they could easily be fired out of this gun, perhaps even two at a time!

Despite that, on arrival the big fucking gun bit was (luckily) separate from the rhino. After a fair bit of scraping of excess glue and trimming, etc., I'm thinking the rhino is going to be a total write off. I mean it would be workable if not for the fact that I need to replace the tracks and well...those bitz cost so much by themselves on ebay (assuming you can even find 'em) that hell, I may as well just get a whole rhino for not much more.

Damnit!

Looks like I can get a rhino hull in pieces for a fairly reasonable $25 or so. But that'll have to wait for a bit as our Pacifica decided it wanted a Christmas present too in the form of a new starter/ignition. Yay.

Oh well, the tank is functional enough for the time being in the event that I actually manage to get in a game of 30k.

The Hunchback

'What hump?'

lol, oh wait-wrong hunchback...

Screech put in an order for some Mechwarrior Online-styled battlemechs for Battletech. Coming from Australia, shipping costs were astronomical, so a group order to split the shipping was the idea (though after only 4 mechs, the shipping got even worse!). Not knowing what to get him for Christmas I offered to buy him a mech, and in turn he bought mine (killing 2-birds with one stone for the both of us). So what did I get? A hunchback!

This is what it looks like in MWO.

The Hunchback has a bucket load of versions and whilst not an omnimech fluff wise, the mini was built as one (more or less) where the main armament could be swapped out for another. In game terms its a moot point as you only use one configuration through out the battle, omni or not. They do sell single armament versions of the mini which are cheaper, but the cost difference was negligible, so why bother?

Of course not everything in MWO is completely cross compatible with its table-top forebearer. Thus I ended up with some extra parts. Either unidentifiable weapons not available in the table top version, extra lasers as the all med. laser variant in MWO gives you the option of mounting them on either shoulder or split between the two (the latter of which is probably best but regardless not available for the table top), one SRM-6 launcher was missing out of the two needed for the dual mount, (2) AC-20/10 bits (which was fine as both were somewhat badly miscast and after considerable drilling/scraping/cutting I took the better of the two), and so on.

Fodder for basing...In hindsight, I may snag the one on the far right with the extended barrel to use as the oh-so-mediocre (but occasionally useful) AC-5 variant. 

The miscasts were unfortunate given that it was on the mech's trademark weapon, but in the end I have usable bits for my three preferred versions:

easily one of Battletech's most
 recognizable designs.

The HBK-4G (base model AC-20, plus upgraded AC-20 variants of which there are many), the 4-H AC-10 variant (my favorite Hunchback type overall. The Autocannon toting variants are the Hunchback's bread and butter. Whilst everyone fears the AC-20 ones I prefer the AC-10 which halves the damage for double the range. The only AC-20 version that I like to use the is the 5-H pirate model which is also festooned with rocket packs!

6 medium laser in the torso
and 1 more in each arm!

The HBK-4P or, as I like to call it 'Death by a thousand laser cuts' is my 2nd favorite Hunchback. Whilst its just as short ranged as the AC-20 types, it doesn't suffer from having your 'big gun' miss with one bad die roll (like Rob did twice in our last game!), but instead fires a flurry of shots that will shred the target. Like the AC-20 types, this is an excellent city fighter!

This would be a great fire
support mech for a Hunchback
lance though...

And lastly the HBK-4J, twin-LRM 10 model. Sure the dervish or Apollo, or..well, any number of other fire support mechs do the job either better, cheaper (or both), but (1) the LRM bit is visually my favorite of the weapons options in this set and (2) I don't have any of the other fire support mechs in my limited inventory. Yes, as far as hunchbacks go, this is kind of a meh option but it looks cool, so will no doubt see some tabletop use.



So yeah, a good buy, I'd highly recommend 'em, just beware of casting issues which are far too expensive to return.

Tau update

o/

Notta whole lot of hobby time this week, so I'm working thru the backlog.

All they need now are some space marines to kill!

A little ways back I managed to assemble the remaining three Breachers and their attendant Guardian drone. I've never seen this squad type used and am curious to see how they fair in our games of Kill Team. The Guardian Drone confers a 5++ save to the squad which ought to (hopefully) compensate for the fact that their guns are most effective at point blank range.

The Gue'vesa Squad leader is the one on the left with the little critter who will mete out her 2 close combat attacks. 

This week I did manage at least to finish painting the first of my Farsight Enclave Fire Warriors. This is a repaint of one of my older minis which was painted in a time-consuming camouflage scheme of discontinued colors. This color scheme is much quicker to paint!

As small as the auxiliaries' guns are, I think I'll just use the same stats as the auxiliary carbines that they wield in 30k rather than the standard lasguns. I doubt any of my opponents will mind. 

He's painted to match my Grymn who will serve as Tau Auxiliaries (a.k.a.: cannon fodder) for my Kill Team. Its a simple color scheme that's easy to paint, and considering that the Fem Fa'Tau are led by Commander Shadowsun (who is tasked with bringing Farsight in), its easily justifiable to have our forces shooting at one another in a Kill Team game.

Mr. Dangly Bitz

 As the convoy of Knarlocs came to a halt, the Kroot Shaper took in his surroundings. The scouts had chosen well, deep beneath the canopy they were hidden from Imperial aircraft, and well beyond the range of their artillery. Yes it would do. With a gesture his warriors set about making camp, hobbling the Knarlocs so they wouldn’t wander off, and securing their human prisoners to several large trees.

Humans...such sad creatures. Their Fem Fa’Tau allies referred to these as Catachan Jungle Fighters. The Tau spoke as if they were a dangerous foe in the forests. The Kroot had balked at the notion and rightly so. Like all, typical humans, these were poor opponents. A loud and boisterous lot, oblivious to their surroundings...clearly they’d felt safe from any threat and were taken by total surprise with nary a shot fired, still the Shaper was curious.

I'm really pleased with how this mini turned (despite the 'brass balls').

Their leader, ‘Sarge’ his men had called him, was separated from the rest for interrogation. All of the prisoners were stripped naked to ensure no blades were hidden to allow them escape, a lesson hard learned a few weeks earlier in the campaign. The man’s body language was defiant, his eyes seethed with hatred.

Taking a moment to wrap his alien tongue around the human language, the Shaper spoke."Brass balls...what means this?"

"W...what?" The prisoner was instantly dumbfounded.

"We tracked your patrol, for long while, you spoke loudly and gestured (pointing to the man’s groin) you say BRASS BALLS! Loudly, many times...what means this?"

Still confused the sergeant gave the worst possible answer to the Kroot. "It means I’m brave. A fierce warrior."

"Brave. Fierce Warrior." Repeated the Shaper, his eyes lighting up with delight!

With a deft motion, almost too fast to follow, a blade was in the Shaper’s hand, the man’s ‘bravery’ was sliced from his body and the Shaper popped the morsels into his beak and began to chew!

He pondered his meal...not the most delectable part of the human anatomy...perhaps he ought to have washed them first. Normally, they fed these along with the other scraps to the hounds.

The prisoner however was wailing far in excess of what the Shaper thought appropriate for losing such a small piece of his anatomy. Further still, many of the other prisoners had cried out as well, and all were watching with emotions ranging from panic to abject horror!

Brave. Fierce warrior...maybe there was some connection after all. 

*****

In the early dawn, the Kroot broke camp in preparation for another raid on the humans. As what was left of the human carcasses were strapped back onto the Knarlocs, the Shaper tinkered with his kit, mulling over the previous evening.

Ya know ya wanted
to see 'em...

The rest of the prisoners, despite having been bound at the wrists and ankles had fought savagely to avoid their leader’s fate. So much so that two Kroot warriors suffered injury in the process of butchering the humans in preparation for the night’s meal.

The Shaper secured two, brass colored containment spheres to a preserved paw, taken from a wild beast, killed some time ago but kept as a talisman. He then strapped these to his lower torso, with the spheres dangling between his legs. They felt awkward. Brass Balls...so strange humans were.

*****

...aaaaand there you have it folks, the backstory of ‘Mr. Dangly Bitz’, my Beloved Wolfy’s first, and thus far only (I think) converted mini. She’s quite proud of her customization (I’m notta fan even though I realize its something of a play on the fact that 40k is largely a guy’s realm). Its always annoyed me that we had to look between the legs of the various Kroot  minis to figure out which one was the Shaper (meaning I rarely bothered).

Kinda hard to see, but the banner is
from the 11th Catachan.

With a bit of patience I eventually I found an Ethereal’s hover drone cheap on eBay and added it to her conversion making Mr. Dangly bitz instantly recognizable. No doubt the drone was bartered as partial payment for services to the Tau Empire. Handles were added for ease of tying it to a Knarloc for transport/storage when not in use, and the markings are most likely a signature/symbol of ownership.

The Shaper’s metallic coloring came out a bit greener than I wanted, but looks alright I suppose. I was aiming for the blues, greens and golds of a peacock. Now with another Tau mini in the completed column, I suppose I ought to work on Kushial’s dreadnought a bit more. Especially since I know Neverness eagerly awaits facing it!

Leviathan WIP 3

o/

Yup, I'm running late this week too. Real Life intervened postponing Kushial and my 'tanks only' Battletech game. That was rather fortuitous as Papa Nurgle launched a surgical strike in my direction later that evening that lead to yet another weekend of illness.

Late last week though I did manage to at least get some more paint onto Kushial's leviathan dread. As I recall, he wanted it to be finished before year's end meaning I'm well behind schedule. Don't recall if he specifically said which year though...

Gaaaah! It's blind!

Yes, I know...its not much to look at, and the blue paint matches up quite well with the blue painter's tape I used to mask off the center torso. I don't normally mask off area's on minis but I wasn't too confident of my ability to paint straight lines up and around the curved torso. I have something special in my for this model, but it'll take a bit more work to see if I can pull it off yet.

So stay tuned...

Prepping for battle

o/

Yes both posts are a day late this week...deal with it.

Anyways, in our next round of what I've taken to calling Hobart's Funnies (following last week's all Urbanmech game), Kushial and are playing a 'no mechs' game of battletech this coming weekend.

They look like little more than wreckage at this point.

Cleaned up...mostly. The behemoth wouldn't come clean after at least a year in the simple green, followed by such a vigorous scrubbing that I nearly broke one of the guns off of the turret! 

My force. The Behemoth isn't a standard tank for the Free Worlds League Militia, so this one was captured at some point. Judging by the appearance of it however, it looks like it was recovered from the bottom of an ocean!

In preparation, I pulled my horde of tanks out of the simple green and scrubbed what was left of their old paint jobs off. Seriously, considering the majority of the 2nd hand CBT tanks I've gotten over the years, I think the average Battletech miniature painter is visually impaired, though as always there are exceptions (yeah and those paint jobs make mine look I'm visually impaired...).

Aww yeah...

Speaking of, I painted an AC-2 Carrier this week giving me 2 painted minis vs. Kushial's completely painted force. :-/ 

The AC-2 Carrier is kinda like my signature tank if there is such a thing. I've converted several over the years, but this is my best incarnation yet, built off of an old Oro. At best they're very situational, at worst...near worthless. But for whatever reason I like 'em. It'll also make a reasonable stand-in for another fav or mine, the even more maligned Laser Carrier.

Hopping on the Primaris bandwagon...

...but only long enough to rant about it again.

Okay I'll admit it up front: I like 'em! Most of them are really nice looking models that I want to paint though like all miniature lines, some just look like crap. Their fluff however is...in a word: awful. But I've ranted about that before, so why do so again right? Right. Let's bitch about some matched play point values instead.

But first off, the cause of this rant: my Alpha Legion Lieutenant.

Note the Rainbow warrior helms decorating the base...

Admittedly it was fun if somewhat laborious to paint, using my old tried and tested 30k color scheme. So, despite my apathy towards 8th, what to do with him if I were to try 8th again? Not sure, but some mild research has generated some confusion in me, so here we go...

I guess he could be considered a Chaos exalted champion, but honestly why bother? In matched play...he could be a full blown Chaos lord for four measly points more. What do those 4 points grant you? 1+ better to shoot, +1 better armor save, +2 wounds, +1 to his Ld, and a 4++ save. Seriously, all of that for 4 freakin' points?!? Are they even trying? Why wouldn't you take him as a lord over a champion except for purely fluffy reasons (which have no place in matched play because it is for the competitive sort...).

Moving on, lord or champion stats ignored, he's my only HA (Heretic Astartes as an acronym shouldn't be an expression of amusement), let's try it again: my only CSM which makes him my warlord by default. That means he gets a relic for the points of the weapon it replaces, otherwise known as for FREE! Because that seems fair. Yep, chainsword-turned-relic = free. Dumb, but whatever. The Alpha Legion relic (which conveniently and unbeknownst to me prior to painting is a chainsword) is the Blade of the Hydra which has +1S, -2AP, Damage: 2, and D3 extra attacks. Cool.

But, but Chaos doesn't have Primaris marines you say? Don't they? Well why not, they have a Loyalist Space Marine relic so why not Primaris marines? Lemme splain...

Yeah, that Blade of the Hydra...its the same fucking thing as the Space Marine relic called the Teeth of fucking Terra!!! Seriously, same stats! Sure that may qualify as literal matched play, but that's not game design...that's just plain fucking lazy!

Crap its late, time for bed so for the time being, on the shelf this guy shall remain!

Finally! A game of Battletech!

o/

Scheduling a game of anything with my buddy Rob all but takes an act of congress. Thus after a month and a half (or so) of cancellations, we managed to finally get a game of Battletech in. We played the usual straight up and kill each other scenario, 8k points per side, he was fielding a  medium Free Worlds League lance with uber pilots (by my standards) vs my heavy Marion Hegemony Century (their version of a lance) along with a lone infantry platoon.

Despite the lanes running thru it, we counted the whole thing as a heavy forest. Unfortunately the to-hit modifiers were so bad we did little but just plow through it rather than fight in it as I had hoped when setting up the table.

Well, we tried to shoot thru it, but quickly realized the folly of that...

lol, I called snake eyes and he obliged with his AC20 in point blank range of my rear armor! He was not happy, especially as this was a repeat performance of the same thing earlier in the game vs. the front armor of my Mad Cat!

As usual, my little circus side show was totally ignored despite inflicting minor damage almost continuously...

The game went rather smoothly and was bloody as usual. He ran up the white flag after loosing an apollo and a hunchback. I lost a charger (no surprise there) though both my Cyclops and 'looted Mad Cat' were in really rough shape and about ready to fall back under covering fire from the Stalkers.

All in all it was a fun time, and I'm looking forward to an all Urbanmech (yes, you read that correctly) game vs. Kushial this weekend!

Leviathan Dreadnought WIP 2?

lol, I'm not sure if my earlier post really qualified as a WIP or just a lolz post.

You sure you don't want this to be an Iron Warriors' dreadnought?
All it needs now are hazard stripes!

Now the real work begins...

I finally managed to get to the FLGS for some more black primer, allowing for the initial dry brushed base coat over the entire surface. Its a shame this mini is fully assembled as there are some nooks and crannies beneath the arm/torso areas that will have to remain as is, with nothing more than a simple dry brushing. Especially as I'm loathe to try and pop the arms off as this is a very expensive resin mini.

I did remove its base as that just added to the number of hard-to-reach areas, as such I'll leave that off till the dread all but finished and ready to clear coat.

The Fem Fa'Tau would like to suggest moderation on this day of American Gluttony...

Yeah...screw that, now pass the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy-mmMMmm...gravy! Oh and there's pie! Don't forget the pie!!!

Anyways...

A little ways back, I said that I had a plan to revitalize my Beloved Wolfy’s Fem Fa’Tau. It was simple really: Every other painted mini would be a tau mini. And then…Dreadtober hit, and the Tau haven’t been heard from since! Worse yet, I only painted one mini during that time (and then got sick shortly thereafter).

Turns out, I was for once true to my word (well, hobby-wise), and I actually did paint some Tau minis, two in fact. Primarily whilst waiting for the inordinate amount of ink I slathered onto that dread to dry. 

Ya know, they say the camera adds 20 mistakes,
but then you take pics from four different angles...

These two breachers are deceptively difficult to paint, because I’m not inking and dry brushing the hell out of ‘em like I normally do. All the filth and grime that usually coats my minis hides a hellova lot of mistakes, meaning with these I instead have to actually fix said mistakes when painting her Tau rather than just hide them. That said, I do rather like em, as does my Wolfy.

I still need to assemble another three plus their savior drone (or whatever its called) for the squad minimum. Once that’s done, then hopefully we can see how they perform in combat via Kill Team.  

Site Quarantined due to a Nurgle infestation!

Yes, this about sums it up...

Yes, the great unclean one and its countless minions not only launched an all out assault on me last week but had all but claimed total victory by Wednesday. The only reason I even had a Thursday post was because it had been written and scheduled earlier in the week. Regardless, anything even remotely hobbyish ground to a halt and has been at a stand still ever since (unless this meager post qualifies?).

Currently the battle for my survival is still raging, but hopefully the forces of good...(or well, at least my side in case 'good' isn't a proper definition) will have wrested back the tide of contagion to make a proper post later this week. No, I won't have worked on anything new, but I do have a little bit back log that needs blogging about.

The Sad Cat

o/

On a whim, I picked up an old (mid-1990s) plastic Mad Cat off of ebay for a reasonable price a little ways back. Its an old sculpt and not the best cast, but unlike its metal counterpart, it stays together. Years ago a very frustrated Screech gave me a metal Mad Cat that he couldn't get to stay glued together. Awesome! I thought, only to later sell the pile of parts myself for the same reason, the damned thing wouldn't stay together!

As this is the only clan mech I have, I opted to use it as a captured Clan mech rather than buy a force to go around it. I have 4 inner sphere assault mechs and these 5 together will make for a fun little Marian Hegemony century (their version of a lance). However maintaining a clan mech is far beyond their technological ability. Indeed, even by the Jihad when the Hegemony first started producing their own mechs, they were on par with ancient, obsolete designs! Thus I modified (downgraded) the Mad Cat considerably, and wrote a bit of fluff to give it some background:

In 3067 whilst the Marian Hegemony’s III Legio was garrisoning Ballalaba, the planet was raided by a mixed trinary of Dark Caste bandits. Initially running amok, looting settlements of both supplies and slaves, the bandits were soon bogged down by the Legio defenders. Whilst the Legio vastly outnumbered the Bandits, the Clan mechs, pilots and elementals were far superior to anything the Hegemony defenders could throw at them and they inflicted heavy casualties. However a protracted fight is the last thing any raiding force wants and little more than a week after they first landed, the Dark Caste boosted off world with their loot and disappeared into the void.

Ignoring the extensive civilian losses, the III Legio itself suffered close to a full cohort’s worth of heavily damaged or destroyed mechs and tanks, and infantry losses were even higher. In return, they inflicted unknown damage on the clansmen and only managed to destroy a handful of cargo vehicles and a lone Mad Cat C. 

The Mad Cat, already in a poor state or repair (by Clan standards) fought savagely when cornered, even fighting on (barely) after its ammo bins ran dry! It was finally taken down by none other than Prefect Talawar Marius, CO of the III Legio, piloting his 11-H model Cyclops. The kill shot was an AC20 round to the Mad Cat’s back which disabled the engine. The bandit pilot was dragged from his mech and executed on the spot, and Talawar claimed the machine as his own personal prize.

The damaged machine was well beyond the ability of the Legio astechs to repair, and extensive assistance was requested from their Word of Blake allies who practically rebuilt the mech for Talawar’s use. Word technicians downgraded the clan mech using weapons and technologies which were both within the realistic realm of maintenance and serviceability of the Hegemony forces. Indeed the mech’s operational capabilities were so greatly reduced, that jokingly (and privately) the Word’s engineers referred to it as the ‘Sad Cat’. 

Steel yourself Screech! This

is going to hurt to look at!

First the mech was reskinned with standard armor plate, the Mad Cat was then refitted with a standard fusion engine and inner sphere standard double heat sinks (the latter a gift from the Word in exchange for the salvaged clan weaponry, none of which was operable but nonetheless held valuable potential). 

Opting to go for the Marian equivalent of the original Mad Cat ‘C’ model’s weapons fit, the LRMs were replaced with a trio of Marian rocket launcher 15s in each side torso, the clan UAC-5 and ER medium laser were both replaced with Inner Sphere models, and the AMS was swapped for a small pulse laser. Lastly, in the right arm, in place of the two clan ER large Lasers (one of which wasn’t even fitted to the Mad Cat prior to the raid), the Word of Blake fitted a much shorter ranged but highly accurate large pulse laser. 

Piloting the only Clan Omnimech (well visually, if no longer technologically) in the all of the Marian Legions appeals greatly to Prefect Talawar’s ego. As such Talawar’s Mad Cat approximate’s the III Legio’s ‘totem mech’ to steal something else from the Clans. However, were it to face 'real' clans mechs in battle, neither Talawar nor his Mad Cat will likely survive the encounter.

Just some minor tweaks...

o/

Like Neverness, Friday I made some minor alterations to an existing mini in preparation for this week's Kill Team game. Originally a painboss named Da 13th' Dokta, this mini usually serves as just a nob in KT games, though on occasion he's also been acting Warboss of Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop as well.

As a painboss, his big choppa and docs toolz were just fine, but as one of the others its always irked me that he's lacked a slugga. Not wanting to completely rework the mini, I opted to go the easy route instead.

First I popped him and his spida off of their base. Tossed the spida back into the bitz pile, moved him over a bit and added one of the better painted grots from Da Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun to his base to serve as his 'slugga'. The grot needed a few touch ups and a wash to match, followed by rebasing and then I sealed them.

Nice, simple and honestly, without the 13th dokta link above to prove otherwise, it looks like they've always been on the base together. As for their performance in our game, I'll leave the details to Neverness since I know he has a bat rep in progress.

*****

On a totally different note, Kushial's dreadnought has reached the 3-color minimum due to the fact that I ran out of black primer. Sad Face. I'll have to get some more this week so that I can continue on with that project.

Trouble’s a-brewin’ in the Appalachian Subsector….

Vox traffic indicates that the ENTIRE Lions of Harlech Space Marine chapter is mustering for an all-out assault/extraction attempt on the nearby Rainbow Warriors’ home world…

Hell, even the Rainbow Warriors don't use pink paint!

MWUHAHAHAHAHA!!! I had to do it! I just HAD to!!!! Seriously, who uses white primer under dark colors anyways??? 

No worries pal, this little diversion will soon be covered by BLACK primer (but that layer o’ pink will always be under there)… Also, I took the liberty of removing the torso mounted parchments, I have something better in mind (and no it doesn’t involve the color pink!). 

I also removed the Space Wolf from the base for ease of painting. Speaking of the base, I may add a rock or two to break up that large expanse of nothing in front. Not sure yet but we’ll see…

Caged Lions

o/

Look who's trapped in my mud-slow paint queue...

Aways back Kushial came into a horde of Battletech tanks for a steal. Looking thru his extras, I asked how much he wanted for a lance of Manticore tanks. Knowing that hobby funds are sometimes tight for me, he asked if I'd paint a dreadnought for him in exchange for the tanks. Sure, works for me!

A few tanks in need of a refurb...

The Dreadnought to be painted is a Leviathan with storm cannon and grav-flux bombard. Yeah that sounds scary, though to be honest I have no idea what those weapons do. I asked if his color scheme was lavender with pink accents, to which he curtly replied no, lol.

I suppose I could paint the Contemptor lavender and pink, but following my Salamanders dread and the Leviathan, that would be like painting 3.5 dreads, so I'm pretty sure its safe from that fate!

Instead a Lions of Harlech Contemptor was supplied along with the Leviathan to act as a sort of color guide. Speaking of, I know that Kushial and Neverness played a game of 8th ed Sunday, however these two weren't present for the battle as they're currently in my possession, so Neverness: you're welcome!

VEAL DONUTS!!!

 Take 2 (due to blogger deleting the 1st version of this).

A little ways back I bought some minis and bitz to make a Deathwatch Kill Team for Kill Team (fitting no?). When they arrived I tossed them aside as Dreadtober was in progress. However now that that's over its time I started putting these guys together. 

Smurfs, why does it always have to be Smurfs...

As I was perusing ebay I came across this guy: The Ultramarine Vael Donatus. However at first glance my mind read the words Veal Donuts, lol! Come on GW, surely when that name was tossed around the room, somebody must've made that connection! Luckily there's no such thing as a veal donut right? Hmmm...to the google!

Wow, seriously people?!? What the actual fuck??? 

Yup, veal donuts are a thing.

Thanks Malta, you've just ruined donuts forever, moving on...

Still looks AWESOME!

So anyways, I got Vael for almost the same price as a single generic space marine because-yeah, Ultramarines are that popular! I didn't want to field him in his stock configuration and swapped out his artificer-forged bolter (because everything Ultramarines is AWESOME!). Instead, sticking to his boy scout heritage, he's now armed with an astartes assault shotgun just like he did when he was a lowly scout (though admittedly the ammo of the DW shotgun is vastly superior).

Not to totally beat up on the Smurfs, Vael will at least serve as my Deatwatch kill teams' watch sergeant. He's highly respected by all of his team's members save one, the lone ANGRY MAHREEN, Floyd Uberson (I linked to that post purely for the hilarious-to-me Ferengi comment beneath Floyd's pic). Floyd will soon to be repainted/pauldroned into DW colors and insignia. 

I wonder who threw that choppa?
An Ork? Or was it Floyd?

The enmity between these two began with Floyd's insistence on calling Vael (you guessed it) Veal Donuts, and will no doubt throw a wrench into every well conceived plan (which is cover for the fact that I never actually have one of those when playing...).

Dreadtober: My Salamanders Dread is complete!

Yes, yes...cutting it a bit close to the deadline, but after spending yesterday afternoon painting its done! I don't seem to have made it onto the list of official participants for this year's Dreadtober. Not sure why but ultimately it doesn't matter. What does matter is that after years on the back burner, my dreadnought is once again complete!

Ta dah!!

Those headlights were troublesome as hell!

No matter how I tweak this photo, the upper shoulder comes out looking far flatter than it does in person. This arm was a bit disastrous in the final stages as when dry-brushing it, the bristles hit a still wet spot of the ink, causing an immediate smear! I tried to fix it as best I could, but ultimately this arm looks a little more worse for the wear than I would have preferred.  

Dreadtober WIP (6): The Multi-Melta

o/

The multi-melta arm arrived and I quickly set about bringing up  to the point of the rest of my Salamanders' dread. I had hoped to achieve that by this post, but that didn't happen. I got about halfway though...

The cheapest available multi-melta arm was a Space Wolf one because-who the hell likes those guys anyways right? Right.

Luckily the Salamanders' artificers took to the arm right away, scraping off the imagery of the Emperor's misguided children and the laughable trinket dangling from the weapon's muzzle.

Once cleansed of the offending legion iconography, its was assembled...

...primed, and then base coated. 

Hopefully by my next post it'll be fully painted, but either way I ought to have enough time to finish the dread by month's end.

Introducing one's self via treachery...

Its not recommended, just saying.

Okay time to rant. It's been awhile right? Yeah, I've missed it too. Let's begin:

A new guy arrived at the FLGS this past Saturday looking for a game of 8th. Bob and I were the only 40k players present, and we were looking to forward to a game of Kill Team as (1) neither of us had been able to get in a game of any sort for the past month or so (2) neither of us like 8th ed. Happy to join in, the new guy (to us mind you, he'd been playing since 6th ed) was happy enough to join in. Cool!

Bob's Dark Angels spewing death as my 'Eagle-Eye' upgraded Dire Avenger lines up a shot.

He had his new Tau army he was showing off, he'd gotten it used for a rock bottom price of $150 which was a steal that he couldn't shut up about. Stereotypical gamer I figured, over compensating for the lack of social skills by going on and on about his new army. Though lets be honest we've all done that at some point right?

My Dire Avengers charging forth into the Tau onslaught, few would survive...

After explaining the how to's of KT: 200 point limit and unit restrictions, the guy hemmed and hawed but finally made a Tau list using my borrowed codex (he brought the 8th ed one with him). It seemed like he had an awful lot of stuff in his force: 5 fire warriors with marker light toting sushi (no not an auto correct), 4 pathfinders with 2 rail rifles, and 3 crises suits decked out just about to the max including one with a 25 point shield generator, who can afford that in a 200 point game?

Asking to check his math seems like a dick move so on we went to a 3-player kill point free for all. Game play was fun though the overwhelming Tau firepower was kinda rough, with Bob and I focusing on that threat whilst only trading sporadic fire with one another. It wasn't planned rather a case of dealing with the biggest threat. Ultimately Bob was tabled and by game's end, I had 2 Eldar left. The Tau won handily.

Fist bump, good game, etc. all was good.

Then whilst packing up i was treated to a self-congratulatory monologue on how he used superior strategy to lure us in and pick us apart. Tau turtled up in a corner and pounded anything that came close, yes very original, I've never seen that before.

Afterwards, annoyed Bob and I started comparing notes...and there was an awful lot of Tau for 200 points. Sunday Bob texted me saying he redid the new guy's list in battlescribe and that Tau list was about 350 points! What the actual fuck??? My beloved Wolfy and I were out and about so I wasn't able to tally up the list till later.

The pathfinders, fire warriors and crises suits WITHOUT any weapons or wargear clock in at 210 points! By my reckoning his list clocked in at 330 points, either way, that's more than 50% over by a veteran player who knew how to build a kill team. So yeah, he won thru superior strategy: cheating. Not shady dice shit, that happens periodically, but luckily we haven't seen that locally in quite awhile, but seriously? Wow, he actually cheated...that hasn't happened in what-years?

There's no way he didn't know he was fielding almost as much as the two of us combined. So word to the wise, if something smells fishy (and we're not just talking Tau in general) with a new guy's army, don't go purely the 'nice guy' route and ask questions before rather than later.

Also: A note to the locals, we will provide name description, etc, of this guy to give you with adequate warning so you'll know to be on your toes.