Il-Kaithe Guardian Defender Squad is complete!

 o/

All ready to get obliterated at the enemy's earliest possible convenience!

Well, I milked this squad for all they were worth, now didn't I? (4) posts till completion equals 2.75 models per post (counting 11 with the separate model for the star cannon). It sounds paltry, and indeed it is compared to some folks out there. For me however, I'd call that about average (well, aside from the Covid quarantine Tau painting extravaganza of early 2022). 

The Final Four. Their Bayonets have been bloodied, though given how effective these guys are in close combat, they were likely bayonetting some Mon'keigh civilians or something similarly verminous.

Still, these weren't the slog that I expected them to be, Indeed I even managed to get a lone Dark Reaper and Farseer painted in along with them. Currently, I have the other four Dark Reapers and a full 10-Strong squad of Dire Avengers left to paint. All told these will bring me up to 400 points. Thus I've been searching eBay for a deal on something cheap to round out the first 500 points.

Yet another Guardian frolicking amongst the Venusian fly traps. 

I really like the pickaxe style bayonets!

Note the forked bayonet, much like an Eldar's tongue!

This one is in my favorite pose of the squad. This was originally a gunner model that I rearmed. 

That said, I have a partially painted Ogryn bodyguard and mortar team for my PHIGs on the table that I am thinking of shoving to the front of the line, before tackling some more Eldar. 

In the Grim Darkness of the future, there is a Joker inspired Craftworld

 o/

Hey, what's under that shelving unit over there?

While boxing up my office in preparations to move to South Carolina, I discovered a bitz baggie containing an Eldar Guardian minus his arms under some shelves. I tossed said baggie in the nearest box and promptly forgot about it until I found it a week or two later during the unpacking of my hobby stuff. 

The yellow & red lights on his catapult indicate that he's running low on ammo.

Lacking any Eldar bitz to replace his arms (or rather, not willing to wade thru the bitz box to try and find a matching pair of arms, if any), I ordered another set along with some other odds and ends to justify the shipping cost. I had to fill in the armpit joints with greenstuff, as all of the new Guardian arms are flat where they join the torso rather than a ball socket as it was on the old models.

Mold lines, yeah we got 'em!

When it came to picking a color scheme, there was really no question: Craftworld Il-Kaithe. My favorite color has always been purple, with green a close second. As you can see, Il-Kaithe's color scheme is just the opposite: green with purple trim. 

You know, like the Joker.

Though I believe the resemblance ends there (or not). A quick perusal of their fluff indicates that the Eldar of Il-Kaithe play well and often with the Dark Eldar, So like the Joker, they too are buddies with the bad guys!

Buns of steel!

(and armor of cardboard)

I found a squad of 9 guardian defenders that needed a little love, a warlock as well as some parts to effect repairs. Collectively, that all came to about half of their original retail their price on eBay (yes, I ought to have been buying Tau, but whatever). I'll see if I can make it through painting these before I lose interest in the Eldar (again). In the event that I do keep them, I would say that the likely pace of expansion up to an army would be glacial at best. 

The Harbinger of the Old Ones

o/

Let's see...hmmm, theguide book says its best to bypass this particular planet due to a severe infestation of humanity. 

Here I go, bringing tourism of all things to the Grim Dark. 

While not a tourist per se, it may be more of just an interplanetary traveler perhaps? Regardless this critter is never seen in the same place for very long. Wandering the galaxy, from world to world, cataloging all that it sees for its final expeditionary report when it eventually makes its way back to...well, wherever it came from. 

Walking stick spear-check, fully filled, yet orderly backpack-check, cloak-check, gun-check, rope, clothing, power armor and bedroll-check, check, check, and check!

When asked and translation of languages is somehow achieved, it (I keep saying 'it' as the gender is unknown) ominously calls itself the Harbinger of the Old Ones. It says its task is to travel the galaxy taking stock of the current 'child' species who have risen to prominence in their absence. Inscrutable as this may be...so far, the only 'child' races this Harbinger has been known to have encountered have been the Eldar and the Tau. 

This critter will be used as a 'counts-as' Jokaero Weaponsmith in most of my armies. Fielded as an Auxiliary Support Detachment, costing me 2CPs and 'Battle-Forged' in most cases. 

In the case of the former, it first appeared in the hidden realm known as the Black Library. The vast majority of communications that it has had, has been with the Harlequins with whom the Harbinger has been witnessed to have held extensive conversations. It's language apparently known to the followers of the Laughing God.

In fitting with the background, I've created for it the Harbinger will have its own mission of simply getting off of the other side of the board. If left alone, it will return the favor. However, should one try and interfere with its plans, the Harbinger will fight back aggressively. One would be wise not to threaten it.

Since departing the Black Library, and traveling via the Webway with natural ease, the Harbinger has since had at least made passing contact with the Craftworlders, Exodites, Corsairs, Ynarri and the Dark kin as well. Indeed, the arrival and apparent mission of this Harbinger has caused quite a stir amongst the Farseer community. 

Taking its leave of the Eldar, the Harbinger next appeared within the Tau Empire. Welcomed with open arms as is the way of the Greater Good, the Ethereal Caste has been quite taken by, yet perplexed with this curious creature. It has traveled their Empire extensively, often as a passenger aboard Tau vessels, visiting the homeworlds, Orbital cities, the frontiers of the Empire, and most recently the battlezones along their border with the Imperium. 

Here it is standing atop it's Temple...for a selfie, as suggested by my bemused fiancé. 

The Tau have been trying to convince this traveler to stay within the Empire, no doubt in hopes of fostering relations with whomever The Old Ones are. However, the Harbinger is growing weary of their hospitality and will likely be soon on its way. Perhaps using the confusion of the battlefield to give its 'clingy' hosts the slip!

NOCF Ukraine Raffle Warlocks

o/

Well, these are pretty! I'm still thrilled that I actually won something (two somethings it turns out). While I no longer have any Iyanden painted Eldar minis of my own, I'm sure that these two will no doubt serve valiantly in my multi-colored Corsair horde at some future date. 

As I'm sure you've gathered, I've not done a whole lot of painting here of late. Typical summertime hobbying lull. It's daylight till almost 9pm, and usually the evening hours are the best time to be outside due to the heat. 

Despite a valiant packing job, the spear hand snapped off in shipping, though as you can see it was easily repaired.

My old Iyanden minis would have been ashamed were they ever to have stood too close to these guys.

That said, I have painted a very little, but I'll save those minis for my next post as these two simply put them to shame!

Skitarii Color scheme change and another Surprise!

 o/

As my IG Conscript platoon is/was starting to become a mind numbing slog, I decided to paint something else to break up the monotony. Pleased with the recent performance of my little Admech contingent's debut (before getting all but wiped off of the table), I thought I'd paint another mini up. 

The aura of radiation leakage is working wonders on that little tuft.

However one of the reasons I had stopped after painting just one and a half minis previously was the color scheme was both laborious and just kinda okay looking to me (sorry I don't have a 'finished' pic of that WiP mini handy). 

The mini above however I cranked out fairly quickly & easily once I'd painted over the prior, partial paint job in all black.  

That decal implies a questionable allegiance to the Imperium...

Its principally black, leadbelcher and brazen brass, with red for hoses and a handful of others for minor details which don't warrant any concern for consistency. I washed it lightly with Agrax Earthshade and drybrushed afterwards with bleached bone. It is simple but respectable look I think. 

It would appear that the IG heavy bolter or autocannon gunner died with his weapon...

The uncropped version of the first pic above which was photobombed by our 85lb Australian Shepard and his half deflated soccer ball in the background!

In other news, Saturday morning I was checking my email, saw the ubiquitous 'YOU ARE A WINNER!' and almost deleted the mail out of hand. Luckily my eye caught the NOCF and whoa wait a minute! Turns out I won a pair of Iyanden Warlocks (who's colors are the same as the Ukraine's) in this year's raffle! I've been entering for several yers now at about $20-$30 at a time without ever really expecting to win. 

It's always for a good cause and ya never know, there's always a chance. Well, apparently this year was my chance, huzzah! Here's the full winner's video here. I'll post pics when my new minis arrive which ought to be soon as I just received the shipping notification from the USPS. 

Cheese, Smelly Cheese & the Smurfs

 o/

This here is my blog, and if I want to call both of my opponents cheesy while claiming not to be myself, then you can just accept that as gospel and not some sort of Imperial propaganda. 

Just saying, lol. 

I met up again with Rob and Mike for another game of 40k, I tried to lure in Neverness, but he's still lost in the warp it seems. 1K each, central objective, (as it turned out, not so) random initiative and firing into enemy combats, just like the last time. 

The smurfs deployed in my center. Not pictured but on their right were 5 hellblasters, Captain Horridus and a 7-strong firstborn tactical squad from one of the reserve companies.  

On my left was my first ever deployment of the Adeptus Mechanicus. They're from one of the unnamed custom forge worlds and their bonus was +6" to their carbine's range. The painted one is Ordo Mechanum Inquisitor MS-D05, and to his left is Techno Archanologist 808-Linum, as well as an X-101 class servitor.

Mike as you can see brought the 3D printed cheese. The wraith guard with shield and spear is a proxied Farseer as he has yet to find a file for one of those. 

With his Necrons still snoozing away somewhere, Rob opted for his good ol' Nurgle psychic shenanigans list (though as we would later learn, the Eldar had shenanigans in spades as well).

Turn one and I made a general 6" advance with the assault intercessors advancing 11" right into range of the Wraithguard who summarily slaughtered them to a man!

The Legions of Nurgle reveal themselves enmasse (to me anyways, I'm sure Mike could see them all just fine from his side of the table).

The Marines decide to stay in place and just blaze away ineffectually at the wraith guard from afar, wounding 1 in exchange for another dead marine or two thanks to the wraith lord.

I was rather enjoying the 24" ranged carbines (ineffective as they were against wraith guard), Mike however was not amused and removed that squad from the board. 

With bolters proving worthless, the hellblasters softened up the nearest squad of plague marines, before sending in the firstborn to finish them off. While a successful endeavor, this would be a multi-turn brawl that would take a marine or two of mine with them.

Rob had gotten to the objective (the ruined building in the middle) first, earning him a VP or two. It was also at this point that the Smurfs and plague marines pondered joining forces against the nigh unkillable Eldar. Mike's dice were rolling good and shrugging off most everything we threw at him. 

Realizing that the X-101 had a grav-gun meant it died next with the inquisitor taking 3 wounds as well. In fact, the only Inquisitorial thing that MD-D05 would do before dying was iron willing an Eldar psychic power off. 

After some more generally fruitless shooting, Rob's Daemon prince and the surviving death shrouds prepare to charge into melee...

...however the wraith guard overwatched and using some side-boarded 6's via the strands of fate of some such chicanery, they obliterated Rob's daemon prince!

The first born having finally dispatched the last plague marine advance and engage the stupid poxwalkers who all but one die as usual. The rest of my surviving army shoots at the lead wraith guard squad reducing them from 3 models to just 1. bleh!

I'm sure that the eradication pistol is a damned fine weapon when it's shooting at something that isn't toughness 8!

As the pox walkers pop up out of the ground like daisies to further bog down the firstborn, more terminators wade into the scrum on the other side of the objective. At least nobody was getting any points for it now. 

808-Linum charges in to meet his destiny...

...and suffers 2 wounds for if troubles. We later learned that had Mike read his rules properly, 808-Linum would instead have been reduced to a fine mist!

The plague marines and firstborn exchange a few potshots but little becomes of it. 

The wraith guard turn away from my smurfs to engage with the far more dangerous terminators in their midst. 

As usual, the entire surviving smurf contingent unloads on the wraith guard, killing the last one from the front squad and wounding another.  

Well that was fun despite feeling like I was totally outclassed! The all wraith guard list has always been the cheesiest in any edition when it has been available (the only time I've crushed it was with an IG armored company). 

That said, to his credit Mike only chose it because it looked cool rather than knowing how good it was. Had he actually read more than just their most basic rules and stats they would've been so much worse!

We weren't sure of the total VP count, Rob had 1 or 2, and neither of us had any so the point was moot, and the Plague marines claimed the victory. 

A Cogboy and a Corsair

 o/

I'm quite certain that those runes are insulting in one language or another...

T'was a busy week, but I did manage a little bit of hobby time. Finally managing to get some flat black Panzer grey primer (the latter was close enough, since the former is sold out everywhere locally). As such I primed my small contingent of AdMech minis. They'll serve as an allied contingent to my Incandescent Coyotes, though theoretically they'll likely work well with any of my space marine armies. 

I can easily imagine that incense brazier getting caught on something and yanking this guy off of his feet as a (comical) result. 

This mini is my first WIP model which it was later pointed out to me on FB resembles the paint scheme of the Deimos Forge World. That just happens to be purely coincidental, not that I figured I'd have any sort of original color scheme by this point. Indeed, I'm sure that every possible variation of any possible color scheme has been tried by somebody somewhere. 

Not sure if that'll be just a unit marking, or that of his parent Forge World.

I'm liking it thus far. As per the norm, I thought I was ready to start inking, but instead noticed a slew of needed touch ups in the photos. After fixing those issues, I'll head on to the weathering. Given that these guys are intended to back up my Coyotes, they'll eventually be slathered in the dust wash which will later be blended in once dry for a truly dust caked appearance. No worries though, I'm sure that all of that grit has no ill-effect on Skitarii performance, nor requires any added maintenance needs...

This one's pose with the blade is a little awkward, but it works.

Also, I cranked out another Eldar Corsair. These guys really are simple speed paints which is a nice change from the somewhat tedious norm. This particular model wasn't present for his squad's battlefield debut, however he looks forward to slaughtering some Ratlings just like his brethren did!

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THR-oh wait! Wrong army...