The curious life of a Forgeworld rhino upgrade set

o/

The base of the Praetor in my prior post got me thinking about the Rhino door on which that mini stands: a ‘leftover’ Forgeworld piece. How does that happen anyways?

In the end I think this was one of my better FW purchases.

Like many geeks wanting a prettier rhino, I bought the Imperial Fists’ rhino door upgrade kit for my old Iron Hands army (the demise of which pre-dates this blog, 4th ed 40k i think). I had to buy the Imperial Fists set as at the time, Forgeworld didn’t make any Iron Hands upgrade kits. Wanting to spread the love around, I decided to put the front plate on a predator and the doors onto a rhino. 

I've recycled this pic soooo many times...

The predator served its army (fully painted) till the Iron Hands’ eBay sale, but stayed behind, as did the as-yet unpainted Rhino. The Predator was repainted in the colors of the Dark Hands space marine chapter, an Imperial Fists’ successor and garnered great renown (in my opinion anyways) when it got an honorable mention in an Atlanta Gamesday golden daemon competition's 'open' category (I forget the year). The fact that it did so whilst being a repaint made it all the better!

The Dark Hands didn’t stay around too long, also going the way of eBay (but I will note that the new owner messaged me asking for instructions in hopes of matching the army’s paint scheme which made me quite happy). Once again, the predator stayed behind, and except for a brief stint with the Subjugator’s chapter, it remains in a display case. 

It seems that the Honorable Mention was to be this tank’s downfall, as it was often targeted first for that specific reason alone, as more than one opponent told me…the bastards! 

As for the doors, I decided to add an allied Crimson fists’ squad and rhino to one of my armies, I forget which, but possibly the Dark Hands. Only a few minis were painted (the rhino only partially) before I tired of painting that color scheme (adult ADHD for the win)!

The half-painted Crimson Fists’ rhino’s only notable action was when it was parked in plain sight in one of my grandmother’s dollhouses, yet remained unseen for 4 days! She was not happy when on removing it there were (quote) ‘tank tracks in the carpeting!’

Not this tanks' best view, but no doubt Neverness will recall its demise with glee!

I believe that it was during mid-to-late 5th ed 40k when Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself took possession of the rhino and konverted it into a looted wagon with a BOOM gun! Its (somewhat reliably) served with them ever since, though during the ‘konverting’ stage, one door was popped out to be replaced with a plain door bearing an Ork icon, and it landed in purgatory my bitz box where it bounced around for some years. 

Well, at least one of them got an Imperial Fists paint job.

Skip forward to the present (late 7th ed) and I took this last remaining Imperial Fist rhino door and ‘battle-damaged’ the hell out of it for the very short-lived Captain Woo, of Word Bearers’ fame. Woo died before painting, only to be replaced by Praetor T, who now stands upon this last rhino door.

Sorry if this was a bit long-winded, but the recollection that one upgrade kit was split between 3 different models, for three different armies, over the course of 3 different 40k editions amused me, and I thought it needed telling. 

Originality in 40k

Yeah, good luck with that...

o/

I was talking about custom space marine color schemes the other day with my buddy Sam. He had come up with a 'new' color scheme for his Kill Team marines, Purple and gold. Like the Hawk Lords I asked? and his shoulders just slumped. lol, no worries dude, finding an original color scheme in this game is nigh impossible. I mean hell, that's also the pre-heresy Emperor's Children colors...but whatever. So I just told him to go with what he liked and don't worry about it.

Not only is this an inconclusive list of Space Marine chapters (wait, where are the Smurfs?!), but its also an inconclusive list of the marines I've fielded over the years (which includes those missing Smurfs, the Storm Wardens...etc.).

Speaking of, I've also been searching for a chapter to use for my newly acquired 40k space marines for Kill Team ($20 for a NIB tac squad, why yes thank you!). However it seems like I'm just looking at the same old, same old, and/or rehashing something I've run before. In looking online for a bit of inspiration, I mis-read the name of the Angels Revenant and me being me I just ran with it, coming up with the following:

The Angels Irrelevant 

In keeping with their chapter name, this enigmatic chapter of Adeptus Astartes is all but unknown. An official search into the Imperial Archives of Terra, instigated by the Ordo Hereticus revealed little to nothing. It would seem that the the adepts responsible simply couldn't be bothered to record anything for posterity. No chapter lineage, founding date, home world, fleet and/or unit strength, only the rare and scattered reports of an unknown Astartes chapter engaging in small unit surgical assaults (indeed, they were the same such reports which lead to this investigation in the first place). The knowledge that there is more known of the so-called Legion of the Damned than there is of the Angels Irrelevant alarms Ordo Hereticus to no end… 

The only troop types thus far encountered have been Tactical and Scout marines, and never numbering more than a dozen or so individuals at any one time. Leading investigators to assume that their total Chapter strength to be less than one company. 

The name 'Angels Irrelevant' is only known due to a single, garbled vox intercept of inter-squad communications, believed to be rallying their battle brothers to prevail upon the enemy.

Livery is black and dark grayish-blue armor with a dull silver Aquilas. Tactical Arrows are displayed on the helmet and presumably display the company color. Scouts wear black armor with dark grayish-blue fatigues, but neither tactical marines nor Scouts show any other insignia aside from their chest plate Aquilas. 

Gee, that sounds familiar...

Curiously, a few tactical marines have been seen wearing Deathwatch heraldry. However inquiries into the matter sent to the Ordo Xenos have been ignored by the highest levels of the Ordo.

So will I use that? I'm so indecisive (like you couldn't already tell...), all I can say is: maybe. Then again I have a bunch of cool, custom decals that would work for the Black or Star Dragons so maybe I'll choose one of them instead. 

Or, maybe something all together different...who the fuck knows at this point.

For the 1st time in my 20 years of gaming, I DON'T have a Space Marine army!

How did that happen?

Oh that's right: ebay.

Yes, this pic came from their ebay auction.

The most recent marines sold (the Storm Wardens) were ironically made up of almost all of the exact same models as I got 20 years ago in the 2nd ed 40k starter box. At my height (somewhere between 4th & 5th ed) I topped out at 19 40k armies! Don't ask where the hell I stored them all, because even now I can't figure that madness out. Currently, I have 3 (Orks & Eldar, both of which struggle to reach the 1500 point mark and my Grymn Militarum and friends who can't even reach 1k). Wolfy still has her Fem Fa'Tau though, which is easily the largest 40k army in the house.

What can I say, the twin travesties of 7th ed 40k and more recently the Age of Sigmeh have really strained my love of all things GW. However their redemption may possibly be in the near future. Ya see, unlike so many miniatures that have gone the way of ebay over the past year or so to keep the lights on, food on the table, credit cards at bay, etc., the Storm Wardens have a higher purpose. Their funds are going into a savings account, to await the day that plastic 30k arrives.

We've all seen the sprue pics, so we know its going to happen, the question is when. Luckily GW's marketing division likes to keep their customers completely in the dark, so who the hell knows. Right before Christmas is my guess. Regardless, I'm generally not in the position to make a triple-digit impulse buy (which often seems like GW's overall marketing scheme). Thus the Storm Wardens' funds will await that release. I may add to it in the intervening days/months/years as well...we'll see.

I do still have marines though. My current inventory of them is as follows:

Dark Hands/Subjugators: I have the periodically retired predator that I got an honorable mention with at Gamesday Atlanta some years ago, along with my Subjugators Librarian. Not sure why I kept him, I just like the mini I guess.

Exorcists: Yes, the accursed Matt Fucking Ward still exists, in my game room...I forgot about that model until just recently actually.

ANGRY MAHREENS!!!: Floyd Uberson is the only one I actually painted, and the only one I have left...and he's really fucking pissed off about it!!!

Aurora Chapter:  How in the FUCK can there still be a damned Aurora scout sniper left in this house?!?!?! I've sold them to Sweden (literally), given them away, repainted them and then given them away, and yet there's another half painted, headless one in the fucking mini case! Its like a god damned conspiracy or something...

Techmarine: He's a 'non-denominational' techmarine, meaning he's bereft of chapter iconography as I got tired of switching/repainting his shoulder pads (you can see him in Floyd Uberson's link above). He has 2 heavy bolter servitors that have been primed green for years now.

Blackshields: My former Emperor's Children, 30k contingent. Currently I have the recently painted Centurion and 5 recon marines (a.k.a. Scouts), a Techmarine with a conversion beamer along with a pair of Servo-Automata flunkies to serve as ablative wounds for him. I also have the now former Captain I killed Draigo (11th pic down, fighting some losers...), swimming in simple green who will be demoted to a mere grunt, an original rhino that's swimming with him, and my original predator which is the very first 40k model that I ever bought (in another year, that tank will of legal drinking age in this country!).

Storm Wardens: (3) bikers, of which only one is assembled and painted. These are the first minis my beloved Wolfy bought me, and thus they have sentimental value, yes even on the sprue.

Red Corsairs: with the demise of my Chaos marines, Centurion Niro has found himself retired to my Hall of Heros awaiting the day he can scratch the cowardly name of Tigurious off of his Murder Sword...

*****

I was going to further list the chapters I've fielded in the past as the number far exceeds the total number of marines listed above, but...I'm kinda tired and its getting late,  so screw it.

Maybe some other time.

6th ed redeux?

o/

As I said last week, this weekend I took my Spess Mahreenz to the FLGS for a game of 40k. Mac was there with the Red Corsair army I'd given him, along with some reinforcements he added, all of which looked amazing! Indeed, so much so that I tried to convince him it was a loan, and I wanted them back but as compensation he could 'borrow' my Storm Wardens and Angry Marines to paint for awhile.

...sigh...

No, he didn't buy that line of bullshit but did offer to play against me at least. I did take several pics of the army but alas, I had shaky hands syndrome (can I blame my bronchitis for that?). As such quite a few photos were of no use. Thus I'm no sure how coherent the following bat rep will be (not that mine are ever the most coherent to begin with...).

1500 points, one of the old missions w/o the stupid cards...the one with 1 objective each. No psykers either, so really it was a rather enjoyable 6th ed game with a few minor tweaks to the vehicle damage chart, charging into terrain, and apparently rending is only AP2 now (making my Eldar snipers even worse than they were last week). Sorry, no pics of the deployments either, to be honest I think I just flat forgot to take any...

This was the only showcase pic that wasn't blurred all to hell. Here, the Cultists prepare to unleash the hounds (Spawn).

Unleashed they were, only to be charged by my Dreadnought on turn 1. The Spawn couldn't hurt the dread, and it settled into an oh-so-rare and happy state of winning in HTH...

Turn 2 and an already damaged Hellbrute Charged in, to try and save the hounds for some even rarer dread on dread combat!

1 Hull point lost and the hellbrute goes down, leaving my dread to return to his original targets!

My Captain lost his tactical combat squad to these Raptors with a mark of Slaanesh, though he did kill their champion in the challenge.

A turn or two later, the techmarine and another chewed up combat squad tried to save him, but his Relic blade succeeded in finishing off the Raptors, who finished him off in return. The rest of the I4 schleps could only watch in horror...

Having disembarked from their rhino, and wading thru all sorts of fire, the Angry Marines slaughter their way thru the cultist horde.

The Chaos Lord with the Axe of Blind Fury tries repeatedly to climb the wall and take my objective (in the tower one level above my tac squad), but to no avail. He would fall to overwatch fire before succeeding. That said, he did wipe out a Dark Hands' Sternguard Squad earlier, so he probably paid for himself at least.

Having wiped out the cultists, and run down the Obliterator, the few surviving Angry Marines spot what looks to be a beer cooler on the top level and advance to take it...

Here we have Mac, painter extraordinaire and heinous Chaos warlord who informed the triumphant Angry Marines that the objective only contained diet coke! Enraged they hurled endless obscenities in his direction!

I do believe my dread had found his happy place, as he never left this combat till the bottom of turn 7 when he finished off the last Spawn.

Bereft of its storm bolter, the Angry Marines rhino, after multiple turns of going flat out tank shocks a havoc squad out of its cover (pancaking one in a death or glory attempt)!

Unable to contain himself from the diet coke treachery, my Angry Marines leader: The Fist Fucker, calls out the Havocs and kills them all in glorious combat!

 End result: I had both objectives and had tabled Mac's beautiful army. Huzzah!

However as a parting note: before anyone comments that I only like 40k if I'm winning, after my game I dropped right back into my usual rant mode along with Bob, who was suffering under stupid psychic phase and it's near-impossible to deny-the-witch BS.

Subjugators 3rd Company, all of it!

Well, maybe...

So as I said earlier, I've been pondering a small allied force of the Subjugators Space Marine chapter. Again this is really just an excuse to drag my old Dark Hands Predator out of retirement without making another DH army. The Subjugators fit the bill, although as you can see, the newly painted captain (now with a visibly distinguishable shoulder icon) doesn't quite match it. I wonder if I should forgo the wash and paint the grunts to better match the pred? That ought to allow me to keep the chapter icons black as well...

The 'T's' and 'D's' on the bases distinguished tactical and devastator marines previously.

Anyways, I'd only picked the 3rd Company as the Predator was bedecked with 3's, and so added a '3' to the captain's shoulder as well. Having since read the Chapter's fluff on Lexicanum a little closer, the 3rd was 'almost completely wiped out'. Thus, its conceivable that my 500 point contingent could in fact be the entire company (assuming roughly 80% casualties from full company strength). Conveniently, this is yet another obscure chapter with only a smidgen of canon fluff, leaving me to fill in the gaping holes with whatever I want.

Such as:

The 3rd company's captain ordered the Ramilies star fort's reactor to be overloaded when he realized the station was lost to chaos. With most of the company going down with the fort (the captain included), only a handful of marines in the rearguard were able to escape the debacle.

With the dire news coming from their losses in the Cadian warzone, the Chapter Master pulled the beleaguered vanguard off the line to rest and refit. Of the shattered 3rd company, he reorganized the
company's 19 survivors (including the 2 in the predator) into the most combat effective force he could muster: two under strength tactical squads, with a single predator in support. Two marines were then promoted to the rank of sergeant to lead the tac. squads.  The company's sole surviving sergeant (prior to the reorganization) was elevated to the rank of captain. To instill in him the chapter's confidence, as well as to rekindle the sense of purpose into the defeated 3rd co. (which was ordered to leave the Cadian war zone rather than risk annihilation), the newly minted captain was given the privilege to use a chapter relic: The Primarch's Wrath.

So, 19 marines, 1 tank, and (presumably) a ship of some sort, probably an escort with a single Thunderhawk to shuttle them around...plying the space of the Imperium, and looking to ally with whomever in an attempt to regain their sense of purpose (and a paint job).  Yup, that'll work just nicely I think. Also, I realized that I have almost another full tac. squad of the same generic bolter marines still on the sprue. Meaning the loss of the 16 marines above will have a minimal impact on the Storm Warden army from whence they came.

A new lease on life for an old favorite...

o/

Amusingly, the 'new owners' of this tank only field the Destructor pattern of the Predator.

I've been wanting to use my old Dark Hands predator but there's a bit of a dilemma with that. Mainly as I didn't want to (a) repaint it as its nicely painted already, (b) just use it as a proxy Storm Wardens Predator again, or (c) restart another Dark Hands army as I don't miss them (though ol' Captain Kurtz was a rather pretty mini).

Thus I was perusing Lexicanum to see if there were any other SM chapters out there with similar color schemes (even though the official Dark Hands color scheme uses a much lighter green) and iconography, as GW is notorious for reusing icons. Given the Imperial Fists front plate, I started there and quickly found a successor chapter I'd never heard of, but still fit the bill nicely: The Subjugators.

Perfect! Once again, I can use a bit of artistic license to alter the colors to my liking (i.e.: Catachan green instead of that more emeraldish green), and put the ol' predator back to work. About half of the minis I have for the Storm Wardens are still primed green (because Hawk Turquoise covers that much easier than it does black), and as such they're half way ready already.  No worries, I still quite like my Warden army, just not too keen on painting anymore of them here lately.  Also, these guys are actual IF descendents, so I can still use the IF chapter traits, allowing me try a different chapter trait for the Wardens.

Not enough contrast on the shoulder icon, hmm...

One thing I lacked for this little endeavor however was a leader, as all of my suitable minis are already painted. Well, except for my Angry Marines' leader 'The Fist Fucker'. Yet with a name like that, how can he be anything other than an angry marine??? lol. That said, one  of his angry marine subordinates volunteered to leave his brethren, to be re-equipped as a captain for the Subjugators. Trading in his bolt pistol and chainsword (and helmet), he now has a power sword and the 'Primarch's Wrath' relic weapon.

Old timers will recognize that gun as coming from a 2nd. ed. scout's heavy bolter, albeit trimmed down and modified a bit. Also, the Subjugators don't seem to display company colors anywhere. However the predator has 3's all over it from its former company, so I added one to the captain's shoulder to tie him in with the tank, and announce which company it is that he leads. Not too well though, as the chapter's fluff on Lexicanum states that the 3rd co. was almost completely wiped out during the 13th black crusade. Indeed, of the 3 companies initially deployed (the 1st, 3rd and 5th), 168 battle brothers were lost in short order, most with their gene seed unrecoverable! Leaving the chapter master to decide on whether or not to pull out of the conflict...

On a totally different note, Mac (last week dubbed as 'Mac n' Cheese' by Screech) sent me a pic of two of his newly acquired and now painted Red Corsairs:

Amazing! He made more progress in mere days than I did with them in 2ish years. Damn they look good too! Neverness commented: Wow! Fuck it, i quit...lol.

Also tomorrow is Thanksgiving. So to all of you out there in the good ol' US of A, I wish you a good day replete with entirely too much good food, a football game to fall asleep in front of afterwards, and then followed of course by pie! :-D

Thus I wish you all safe travels as the snow has arrived!

The view off of my deck this morning.

Sinking history...

Ooh, the photo credit is both included and unobtrusive, how convenient.

Yup, that photo just about sums this post up especially as the water's even green, lol!

Going way back in the the grim dark of my gaming history, back in 2nd ed. 40k, where the IG was still working from the 'Black Codex' as the Imperial army, I bought a predator tank. The Leman Russ had been released at that point, however I didn't have the rules for it, though I did have rules for the predator in the IG list. Here is that tank:

That is the first GW model I ever bought! As such this model is more or less responsible for my life long financial ruin which has been spawned by this miniature addiction. There are layers upon layers of paint on that tank (no doubt with plenty of painted over dust as well) as we didn't know how to strip models way back then. As my first model, this tank also dates back to my 40k upbringing as a WAAC player, indeed that disgusting residue has likewise been painted over.

Going from memory, I have no recollection of just when it acquired the 2nd gen. pred. sponsons or the additional frontal armor, however its many layers of paint are layered as such:

1) The original 2-tone camouflage of olive drab and light olive drab of the Imperial Army/early IG.

2) The over that a crude white wash  for the Ice Warriors of Valhalla that looked kinda bad and elicited incessant 'those damned seagulls' comments from my opponents (yes I was still living in Florida).

3) Then all black with boltgun metal trim as I once read that the Adeptus Arbites were equipped to fight a small war on their own, and with about 30 or so Arbites in my collection, they did just that.

4) It stayed like that for years till it fell to Chaos and was dry brushed over with boltgun metal (most of which is still visible) for the Iron Warriors.

5) The 'final' painting update which you see above where some of the chaosy bitz were removed, and the front of the tank and a few other accenting parts were painted Regal blue of the Silver Skulls.

This tank (and another like it) were used in conjunction with some old Space Hulk termies and a bunch of other old minis at an Atlanta GD GT one year. The first round of that tourney they fought a memorable knock-down, drag-out, slugfest with a Necron army that won best painted army that year.  I still have the printed 'brochure' of that guy's army list. 

During that GT, they earned two moments of memorable amusement (glory? not so much...). The first being the look of horror from the GW painting judge when I asked him when he'd last seen minis so old at the GT, and the second when two kids asked what I had used to convert my predator turrets. lol, they were shocked to hear that they were original turrets, and the guy next to me commented: 'that's because those tanks are as old as you two are!'

Awesome!

Anyways, with the Silver Skulls' demise some years back, the Predator has been in retirement ever since, aside from occasional training missions with other fledgling Marine armies. Doesn't make sense to have a perfectly good predator sit unused in a drawer. I say that, yet there's the exception to that rule being my Dark Hands Predator (from another sold off army). It won an honorable mention at a Atlanta GD one year and appeared on the GW website for a year or so. That's the closest I ever came to winning a painting award.

As such, after snapping the few photos above for nostalgia purposes (and this post), the old beast was sunk in some simple green. It'll rest in there for a bit, and then be fully stripped and repainted. Both my Dark Angels and Storm Wardens are at this point made almost entirely of 2nd ed minis, so it would fit in well with either of them. Though, if the DA get it there will be some irony, as this tank started its career fighting them for about a year or so straight!

Revisions

o/

After posting pics of my Blood Bowl templates yesterday, eriochrome generously measured his own passing template and left those measurements in my post comments. As my template was way off, I revised it & you can see the side-by-side comparison of the two at right. This evening when I go to play Dark Heresy, I'll bring my templates along for a comparison to the real things. Many thanks again to eriochrome!


While on the subject of changes, my old Dark Hands (and originally Iron Hands) Landraider Cursader entered the chop shop last night for a bit of cosmetic alteration.

Old parts on the left, and new on the right, and a last look @ the engine.

It now belongs to the Aurora Chapter. The front doors didn't come out quietly as expected, and so the new ones were trimmed and glued into place (hiding the engine & the white Iron Hands interior). On one hand that sucks (cause its all painted) and on the other it doesn't (because the FW doors never lined up right, so they didn't open in unison, nor ever close all the way). I'm sure that someone will question the Imperial/Crimson Fists icons that were used for the Iron hands, and the reason for that is this tank was purchased well before IH doors were available. The Aurora will instead just get some custom decals for their doors.

Rodents of unusual size?

I don't believe they exist.

o/

While along with the Princess Bride, that is also the 'official' stance on Skaven in WHFB's Empire. Up until now it was mine as well. I never much cared for the old Skaven models as they struck me as kinda clunky, their tails always broke off, and they all kinda looked the same (well, virtually any WHFB army has that problem when ya think about it). Anyways, I never bought any.

Then, on Tuesday almost all of my new ebay purchases arrived in the mail, and four Skaven minis were among them. Putting the BB team aside, I painted up the two of them. Never having painted a Skaven before, it was kindova novelty to paint something a bit different.

Starting off on Characters, these will form the leadership of my Mordheim Warband (assuming I ever play that again). First off, my leader, a Warlock Engineer from the Island of Blood:
I'll use him in place of the assassin adept. The assassin gets an extra -1 to armor saves, however I'm sure that like Necromunda, the prevalence of well armored troops is minimal. So armed with a Halberd & warplock pistol (with armor modifiers of -2 & -3 respectively) that point will more or less be moot. Virtually all I know about Skaven fluff wise, I pulled off of Lexicanum, so these guys will (nominally) be from Clan Skyre with their engineering bent, rather than Eshin.

One thing I wanted was a sorcerer, however I didn't like any of the various Seer minis in the Skaven mini range. So instead I opted for the rat ogre handler which also comes from the Island of Blood box:
I figure to have him armed with a spear, which looking as pseudo-mechanical as it does will also fit into a Skyre theme. I was thinking of a warband name and have kinda settled on the 'Clockwork Forage' (foraging for warp stone that is). It both goes well with the sorta steampunk/Skyre theme, as well as being the kind of name that most of my friends will groan & grumble about.

I also have two Stormvermin to use as black Skaven? Whatever the champions are called (I don't have the book in front of me). I also have some ebay bids in for giant rats & some plastic slings (and a few more on my watch list in case those don't pan out). After getting those, all I would need is a clanrat box & I'll be good to go! Actually I could probably sell half the contents of that box and still have more than enough options for a good sized warband.

Speaking of ebay, I'm selling off the painted/finished portion of my Dark Hands marines. I tried selling them in the past, but was only able to get rid of the horde of tac. & assault marines that were frankensteined together from spare/old parts. Now the painted stuff (minus the predator which will go into permanent retirement) has a bid & a bucket load of watchers, so I'm hopeful they'll fetch a good price.

I'm taking what's left & folding it into the Aurora Chapter. True that'll kill the scouts-only list, but its the much cheaper route. Currently this puts the army @ 1500 points. Add in 2 predators and some new doors for the landraider (currently it has Imperial Fist FW doors) and it should be close to 1850 or so. I figure that'll cost a little over $100, as opposed to $200-$300 had I built the Aurora as I had originally intended (and if you're reading this GW, then you can attribute this change to your latest price hike).

I'll test the reorganized Aurora this weekend, and tentatively against whatever foul & vile traitor army neverness places in front of my guns.

Its been a good week of gaming.

o/

Things have been rather busy on the gaming front this week.

On Tuesday, Screech brought over a potential chees-err, umm Space Wolf tourney list. Meeting this nightmare head on were my Dark Hands with their Aurora scout allies. It was the usual slugfest, with the center of the table looking particularly ugly about mid game. My LR Crusader was immobilized, his LR Crusader was immobilized, one of his rhinos was immobile next to my LR, and in between that mess of pill boxes was Lysander & 5 termies, vs. a SW 'Death Star' backed up by another Grey Hunter squad. Lysander's fate was never in doubt, but he did do a good job of plugging up a BIG hole in my line for a bit. Had the game ended turn 5 it would've been a draw (multiple objectives scenario, can never remember the name) but on Turn 6 he pulled me off of one of mine, giving the cheese wolves the victory.

Out of spite, I gave him imaginary zeroes for comp & sportsmanship for putting a Death Star in his army. ;-p

The day after, Hivefleet BannerElk descended on Bristol once more & George Lupus & his Rebel Alliance stood ready to face the onslaught. It was the 'auto-tie' mission (I hope Ron from FTW doesn't see that) and yet another glorious slugfest! Despite heavy casualties, George Lupus orchestrated an ugly win (not that Plague Marines are ever 'pretty'). However had the game gone into turn 7, then I think a tie would have been inevitable.

Tonight will cap off this week's gaming @ a friend's house where they hold what I like to call 'weird board game night'. They have a bedazzling number of European board games, and hold game night once a month. Usually our DH campaign conflicts with these game nights, but currently our GM is out of town on business. So that'll be something different, and I don't think I've ever played the same game twice (how they manage to know all of the rules for these games baffles me).

On the hobby front, work on the scouts continues, albeit slowly as it's been a busy week. I finally managed to get an 'el cheapo' box of scouts off of ebay, and they are currently enroute to me. I also found one of my missing sniper rifle bitz, which returns another scout to my roster. Last night I worked up the mini below for use as a Sgt. when Sgt. Onteli (Telion) isn't in use.
I've never liked this particular pose, nor having him hold the scope in his hand. However, sometime between stripping off his old paint job & this week, I lost the left hand & scope bit. So I chopped up the rest of the arm as well as an Iron Hands bionic arm to fit. Then added an Auspex. I trimmed the SM head a little as well, looks a bit large but I think it'll work. So now it looks like he's calling out targets to his squad.

And last but not the least...

After having sold off my O&G army I no longer have any content forthcoming for you WHFB readers out there. However an old friend of mine, Necron Bob, has started up a blog called From the Jaws of Victory that is focuses on his experiences playing in WHFB tournies. You should go & check it out!

As a side project rears it's ugly head...

o/

I had the urge the other day to paint a Techmarine. Dunno why, I just did. Knowing I had one somewhere, I dug though my mini cases & bitz boxes and excavated the Aurora's Techmarine and it is now primed (so technically it got painted). With the Aurora in mind I dug out their lone painted scout squad & did a few touch ups, gave them a bath in Delvan Mud, and clipped off the Sgt.'s chainsword & replaced it with an old 2nd. ed., SM powerfist. While a bit of a hack-job, it works well enough I think. The poor Aurora's have been on the back burner for so long, that when I mentioned working on scouts to a friend of mine, his reply was:

'What scouts?'

Too funny. I have a bid in on ebay for another squad of five and if successful, I plan to add them into this squad outfitted with shotguns. That'll give me a full squad with a good mix of short ranged firepower & HTH capability. Proper work on the Techmarine will commence later this weekend. On his completion, he along with the scouts will likely operate as allies to the Dark Hands. I have the Aurora's Captain Erme painted, but a captain accompanying a mere five scouts (currently) strikes me as odd. A Techmarine could be as well, though the squad has a mechanicum aspirant in it, so it strikes me as a bit more feasible. Perhaps they have an ulterior motive for their alliance or something like that.

Also on the gaming front, Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop was a attacked by Hivefleet Banner Elk the other night in the Emperor forsaken city of Bristol. It as the annihilation scenario and bringing an ungodly number of kill points along with them, my Ork's doom was never in doubt. That said, there were some rather epic HTH combats which made for a glorious game nonetheless! So was a rather good time. The Hivefleet is already vowing a return, but odds are it will vs. one of my other armies. I rarely play the same one in back to back games (unless laziness has set in) as it keeps me from getting bored.

Snap Tite 40k?

o/

Last night I was assembling/fitting together the Rhino-turned-Razorback that I bought recently. I assembled & glued the sides, and then just fit everything else together and found that it stays together quite well, without glue! Nice! I prefer to paint my Rhino interiors prior to gluing them all together, and I usually half assemble them like this to make sure all is in order. But until last night it hadn't occurred to me that I could use it in a game without gluing anything else. It could make for a nice 'wrecked' pile too (though I'd be wary of losing something).


Work also continues on the Exodites. I got the 'dragons' base coated & the first inking done, but no photos. Not much to look at yet anyhow.

There's also a good piece of news to announce, but I'll leave that to a certain someone else...

;-p

What? ANOTHER green army you say?

Now I'll just sit back and wait for the inevitable comment from Screech (for those who don't remember, Screech is the keeper of all of the gray armies that are frequently shooting at my green ones). Anyways...

o/

So in keeping with the Chaos marine theme this week, I moved the rhino to the side (typical, although I plan to work on it more this Sunday), and instead started painting some plague marines. As said previously (I think) I'm painting them as 'The Purge'. Given that most of their bodies are just black, they don't take too long to paint up. Here's my first three:

The green is all drybrushing (a common theme with me). The base coat (excluding the black primer) is a heavy drybrush of Knarloc green, then Gretchin green, and then a light drybrush of rotting flesh. The detail work, drown the mini in Ogryn flesh & let dry. When dry there's a light drybrush over all with bleached bone, and then its just matte varnish & ard' coat on the drippy parts (its Nurgle, don't ask). Barring the time required for the ink to dry (in which I start painting on the next mini in line) it takes me about an hour to paint a single marine. So is easy to crank them out going just one per night.

Speaking of green guys (and before I forget), here are the finished pics of Capt. Kurtz of the Dark Hands' 3rd. Company.

(not too much different from the last pic as it was pretty close to done then)

Mainly all I had left to do was cut the decals around the shoulder icons. The #3 that comes on the SM tac sq. sheet is too small (unless its inside the tactical arrow), whereas the one on the SM vehicle sheet was too big. So in digging through the decal pile I found one that was just right on one of the little decal sheets labeled 'Dark Angels' which probably dates back to 2nd. ed. (it took forever to soak enough to remove it from the paper). Then I had to cut it around the name banner, luckily the sheet had two #3's on it, good thing too as I messed up the bottom portion the first time around,to which Screech can attest as he was on the speaker phone when the profanity started in earnest!

But that's about all for this week. I've added a few chaos icons onto a 3rd hand Predator that I got from Murl which will be going to The Purge. It was intended for the Aurora scout company. However they're so far from a viable allied contingent, much less an army that chaos stole it. However as a nod to the Aurora, I will probably give it demonic possession, so it still shoots @ BS3 (betcha you were wondering how I was connecting the Aurora to demonic possession weren't ya?).

Dark Hands

o/

Well, my Dark Hands army has certainly been around the block. Once numbering in the 3000 point range, they hit the auction block and were cut in half. The remainder (the painted part basically) were kept as no one wanted them. they're an official, GW created chapter (though I have altered they're colors a good bit as can be seen here vs. their official colors here), but I guess that if you don't pick one of the chapters that EVERYBODY else plays, it devalues the models. Nice paint & Forgeworld additions to no avail. So a few squads of AoBR tac. marines later (to fill in the then gaping hole in their Force Org.), the Dark Hands are once again a viable army.

One thing they've never really had though was fluff. I used to have officers & sergeants with Roman names, going for that kind of theme. Then I made a long and detailed description of the ceremonies for anointing the chapter master. Where he was issued the same wargear as is given to a newly minted marine, so that he may never lose sight of his humble origin. I often refer to this as the 'Uriel Ventris syndrome'. It threw a few opponents for a loop on the table, and then usually he would die. Again, all to no avail.

So here's my latest bit. The Dark Hands are all but unknown in the wider universe. Why is this? I was hoping for a bit of a sinister reason. Despite many chapters being the defenders of humanity, they are often (and rightly so) feared as mindless, blood crazed murderers such as the Flesh Tearers, or unstoppable berzerkers as in the Space Wolves. So what would place the Dark Hands in this category, while remaining virtually unknown? I can answer that with but a word:

Survivors.

Wanton murder, and crazed destruction results in scattered (and invariably emotionally scarred) survivors. It lacks a meticulous methodology that leaves no one alive. So I came up with the following. Sure they leave a calling card, so to speak, however to prepare for resettlement Imperial authorities often will enact a scorched earth method of cleansing the ruins without a thorough inspection, obliterating any evidence. These cleansings are usually instigated by the Inquisition with whom my Dark Hands frequently operate (usually Hereticus, though occasionally Malleus).

(Note: The author 'Snipes' is one of my inquisitorial henchmen.)

++++++++++INTERNAL COMMUNIQUE++++++++

Milord,

In the event that sleep fails you on your journey to the conclave, I’ve attached a Munitorum request for Inquisitorial intervention, it should be most helpful.

Below I’ve pulled an entertaining extract from said request. It seems as though the Astartes have fulfilled your request for assistance, and they were quite thorough in the undertaking. Indeed they’re methodology certainly has spooked the Mordian high command. I’ve already taken the liberty of informing the Munitorum that the Ordo Hereticus will be taking over this matter, and to reassign their regiments elsewhere.

Safe travels,
Snipes

Munitorum official Request No.: #456006850.25.6
Addendum C, Subsection 2, pg. 17 (Partial Extract)

…hot dropped on the capital city to no resistance. On securing our drop zones we found a scene of utmost destruction. To say a battle was fought here would be folly, this was a massacre. Few buildings are still standing, and bodies are everywhere. We moved on the Governor’s palace to see if he still lived, so we might effect his rescue. A few scattered and frightened domestic animals, livestock and native fauna were encountered, but not a single human soul. The Governor’s palace was little more than a shell, his court a scene of utter carnage, bodies everywhere, none identifiable. Blood and gore covered all surfaces save one, the seat back of the Governor’s throne had been meticulously cleaned, and upon it we found the following inscription:

There are those who stand radiant, within the Emperor’s holy light. Angels held high, the pinnacles of humanity, names such as the Ultramarines, Imperial fists and so many more. When the Emperor’s light is usurped from the faithful souls of humanity, it is these angels who come, for they are His angels of salvation.

Then there are those who stand outside of His holy light. They stand in His shadow. When humanity fails our almighty Emperor, when it willingly turns from His light, the Emperor of mankind turns to these angels. These are not angels of salvation. No, these are His angels of destruction.

You chose the darkness.

You chose us.

We are the Dark Hands of the Emperor.

We are the reason you should never have turned from His light.

Our Logis engines can find no record of any Astartes named ‘The Dark Hands of the Emperor’ and I fear this may be the work of a heretofore-unknown traitor marine warband. I am forwarding a request to high command for Inquisitorial assistance. I suggest we put all nearby worlds on alert and…

-Extract ends-

Anyways, here's the cause of this whole train of thought, my 3rd Co. captain that I was working on last night.

I've not settled on a name for him yet but given my army's theme I was thinking of Captain Kurtz.

Hmmm, what shall be next week's project....

o/

Not a whole lot has happened hobby wise since my last post (you can translate that as: nothing). I made a weekend run to Florida for a family get together, so getting everything organized for that more or less ate up most of my evenings last week.

...and speaking of going away...

Next weekend my Dad & Stepmother (and their 2 dogs, which equals out to 4 total) will be down for their annual visit. They stay at Grandma's house as there is more room, however its about an hour drive, so I stay there for the week as well (and that translates to: no blog posts next week as I won't have computer access). We usually make day trips, however at night, there's little to do aside from watching TV. I personally have little use for TV (especially when its satellite meaning we all have to watch the same thing) so instead I just turn on the iPod and paint minis. Since I'm denied my usual distractions as well as virtually all of my other models, I bring a painting 'project' which is something that's usually pretty low on my 'to do' list.

I've been wanting to paint my Renegade IG, as I now finally have all the parts necessary to assemble a second lascannon squad, as well as work on the 2nd Sabre platform that I got for my birthday. However I'm out of primer, and am not making a 40+ mile round trip out of my way to go to the FLGS just for a can of primer (besides being at the top of my 'to do' list, they really don't qualify). So looking at the bottom of the list I came up with the following:

WHFB Orcs (couln't sell them on ebay, so I'm stuck with them)
Chaos Marines (the Havocs most likely) & Rhino
Dark Hands Landraider
City Fight Buildings
Aurora Scouts & Command Squad

The buildings are probably out as they require a rather large footprint, and my cousin & her family (including 2 little ones) will also be in town the end of the week, meaning Ma's house will be an absolute zoo! So I dunno, I'm kinda leaning towards the Orcs, Aurora or Land Raider, but I'm usually pretty indecisive in regards to this sort of thing, so I may not know till I have to load up my truck on Sunday.

3rd Company Colors

o/

(if you're geek enough you'll know that that was a 'hello')

So, given that ebay didn't want them, I figured I'd paint a few Dark Hands tactical marines this week (while ignoring the withering stares of the unpainted Aurora marines) They're pretty easy to paint & given that virtually all that's left is already painted, the army itself is now almost painted. All of my painted tactical marines were sold, so I was able to make some adjustments to the colors of the AoBR marines that I have now. I've never really used company or squad markings in any of my prior marine armies, so I thought I'd give that a shot.

I'd already painted the shoulder trim black and added a black helmet stripe, and after looking at the company colors in the SM codex I determined that these would be members of the 5th company, great! At least until I looked at my tanks and saw that they both had large #3s on them...shit. Apparently @ some point in the past I had decided to make them the 3rd company. Okay fine, what color goes to the 3rd company, lemme see.....red.

Red and Catachan green...oh lovely. :-(

Only having three painted, I could repaint the trim & helmet stripe. However that doesn't alleviate the problem of blood red bordering what is effectively olive drab. At this point I figured that I'd just scrap the company color idea when it occurred to me that red goes best with black. Slowly the light bulb flickered on, and I had an idea. If I paint just the right shoulder pad red, that would display the company color, while not touching any green. Here's how they came out:


Success!

After some work of course... So, Blood Red is a notoriously transparent color, and really won't cover Catachan green well. I often use scorched brown under red, so I painted a shoulder scorched brown & then blood red. Ya know, blood red doesn't cover scorched brown too well either. In fact, it takes about four coats. Actually, now that I think of it, I use Terracotta as an intermediate color between the scorched brown and blood red. However at this point I had a new dilemma, I had taken a simple paint job and added in half a dozen coats of paint for a friggin shoulder pad.

Digging through the paint box I came across the Tallarn Flesh foundation paint. One coat of that covered the green, and one coat of red covered that as well as 4-5 coats of red covered the brown. So my idea was saved. Squad numbers were easy enough, just put it on the nice and large tactical arrow on the shoulder pad.

So all in all I think they came out well without being too complicated. The red also brightens them up a bit.

Taking stock of what's left.

Howdy folks!

Well as I've stated aways back, I was selling the majority of my Dark Hands Space Marine army (barring a few select models) to try and recoup some unexpected truck repairs. Well, so much for that idea. Unpainted, primed, no problem, it sold easily. Whereas as painted? No one wants it. I'm not going to practically give away well painted models, virtually all of which are sporting Forgeworld stuff. I guess that's the price to pay for playing an obscure chapter. Dark Hands are an official, GW canon chapter, but apparently the need to let some minis swim in some simple green for a few days devalues them (considerably i.e.: to less than half retail price which were my starting bid prices).

So to hell with it, I'm keeping what's left! After taking stock of the ebay survivors here's what I have:

HQ:
Lysander (last man standing, he's in charge)

Elite:
(5) termies with assault cannon & 2 chainfists
(1) Venerable Dreadnought with multi-melta (oddly, this mini usually pays for itself in spades as a standard dread, and dies in turn 2 when a venerable)


Need a wider sheet of paper to hide the foil in my light box.

Troops:
(20) AoBR tac Marines (actually i only had 10 left, but picked up a squad cheap on ebay to make the army usable)

Fast attack:
zilch (didn't have much to begin with)

Heavy Support:
(1) Predator destructor (got an honorable mention in a golden demon with this some years back, it was NOT on the auction block as a result)
(1) Landraider Crusader (the only model my Mom ever bought for gaming, 40k is not a popular hobby with the family, so it kinda has sentimental value, also was not for sale)
(1) Forgeworld Vindicator (this was going to fall to Chaos with my Blood Eagles, not any more i guess)



The lone tac marine is the only one that's painted, though another half dozen or so are base coated. Aside from the tac marines & landraider though, i now basically have a fully painted army that rolls in around the 1500pt mark, which is about half of the points in Dark Hands i had when I started selling.

There's still a lot of other random bits & bobs around here, i suppose I'll clean that stuff out to sell instead.

My Space Marine Conundrum.

What to do, what to do, what to do...

Well, like most people it feels like I've played space marines forever (though unlike most people, my first 40k army was IG). Over the years I've fielded (in no particular order): Silver Skulls, Desert Wolves (home brew chapter), Red Talons, Black Talons, Ultramarines, Skittles (Crusade SM army), Red Corsairs (back when they were mostly multi-colored with defaced loyalist heraldry), Iron Hands, Space Wolves (twice), Flesh Tearers, Iron Warriors, Blood Eagles (home brew CSM), Angels of Redemption (a bitch to paint!), and currently the Dark Hands. Umm, yeah I think that that's everybody. If I'm not a repeat offender, then no one is!

So I'm sure that by now you'll not be surprised to hear that I'm kinda bored with marines, and not sure where to go with them. 2 weeks ago I fielded an 1850 list of Dark Hands that was pure infantry (and not using all of it), and later that week I wondered, 'well just how many points of DH do i have?'

Answer: 3100+ points!

Hello ebay, how are ya? No more Catachan Green & black for me, tired of that. I announced that I was going to sell them while at the game shop last weekend which was met with loud & immediate protests and outrage. Indeed I was told, point blank (and more than once) that I was 'just stupid' for selling that army. So, bowing to public pressure (for once), I pulled a few Termies off of ebay, and let the rest with bids go. So my now pared down DH army rolls in somewhere between 1800-2000pts. Still quite respectable, and fieldible.

I had intended to get rid of all of them barring what couldn't be easily repainted as Imperial Paladins (more on them in a bit) and my Predator, which was going to be retired to a permanent place in a display case.





I got an Honorable mention at the Atlanta Gamesday with the above tank a few years back (it made it onto GW's website, though not the White Dwarf) and as such, it'll never be sold. Probably the closest I'll ever come to a trophy.

I've never fielded more than a handful of Imperial Paladins, usually as allies to the Inquisition (till that army went onto ebay leaving me with just random inquisitors & retinues). The Imperial Paladins, like the Dark Hands have an official color scheme, name & icon, and nothing else, allowing me to do with them as I please. Borrowing heavily from the remnants of the DH, they were going to more or less fit my usual SM template of slow, methodical, foot slogging marines that win through brute force & attrition. In fact, pretty much all of my marine armies have used this methodology aside from the 'rhino rush' Desert Wolves and (somewhat oddly) Iron Warriors.




No, we're not Blue Templars! We're the Imperial Paladins!

Of course the whole reason I was aiming for the IP (lol, with those initials & the blue paint, I can already hear the IP police jokes coming) for really no other reason than I like this Predator. Painted more or less as a one off 'for the hell of it' model, the only other things I have painted is a captain (who tore a bloody swathe through the Blood Angels last weekend) and a single sergeant. A few marines are base coated, but that's it. A buddy of mine last week suggested that I do something different with the IP, than just my usual set up.

Hmmm...

Well, I've always wanted to do a scout company, lets try that. I know there are arguements all over the internet that are both for and against scout armies but so what, I want to do itI It'll be fluffy, screw effective (which is true if my DH scout sniper squad is any indication). Keeping my captain, cherry picking a few base coated marines & the painted sarge for a command squad (found a narcethium pack in the bitz box and a Librarian too). So that'll cover HQ, I have a primed AoBR quad-autocannon dread (yes my cheap dread is now just as expensive as a normal one) and techmarine for Elites. I'll fill the troops & Fast attack slots with scouts of various descriptions and for heavy, I'll just use the above Predator. Just with a BS of 3, as its a 'training tank' crewed by scouts.

Sounds like a plan...but...with so few painted minis for the Paladins, I could just sell them too, and start from scratch.

...sigh...

Having no fluff kinda leaves me in the dark on where to go with them, so I was thinking of what chapter's fluff really appealed to me that I've never fielded before (I don't go the math hammer/shiny new codex route when picking, either pretty color scheme/minis or fluff is the deciding factor). After a bit, the only name that popped into mind, was the Marines Malevolent.

-evil grin-

In the 3rd war for Armageddon, they got their first bit of fluff and showed a serious sense of pride & ego. Collateral damage? What collateral damage? There was also rumor that blows were struck between their Captain & the Salamander's Chapter Master. Then came the 1st Salamanders novel (SPOILER ALERT), in which they were in my opinion, the BEST part of the novel! (are they in the 2nd by chance?) Their role was limited but pivotal in the end, and well...they weren't only borderline Pirates, but REAL bastards in that book, no other way to describe it. {:-D That's quite appealing when I think of it! And with all of the newly acquired power armor from the Arx Tyrannis, they certainly need some scouts to fill them. I also have several marines in old armor types (which is appropriate) to use as the Captain & command squad (and to tie in the Armageddon fluff, the Whirlwinds would have scout crews with BS3).

So, build an army around a pretty blue tank? Or go for the black and yellow Bastards that are all but hated by the Salamanders?

Dunno what to do.....

...and the winner is....TAU!

No, no, no contests, just an internal debate. Every year for the past several I've blown my entire income tax return on a vacation (felt good too!), not this year though. Money's a bit tighter, and I have several odds & ends that need taking care of, so I had to scratch the spring vacation this year. I will spend about $100 or so on 'toys' though, and that's been my debate. What to buy?

I was bouncing mainly between 3 choices:

(1) CSMs, I gutted my army earlier this year after realizing that I had fallen into the standard cookie cutter Plague marine list. Plague marines seem to be the most common CSM flavor as they work the best. Currently I have about 700ish points of CSMs, but after trying to paint a few earlier this week...well, I just put them back on the shelf. Moving on...

(2) SMs, I have a rather substantial Dark Hands Space Marine army (they're one of the ubiquitous name & color scheme but nothing else chapters). I also have a small contingent of Imperial Paladins (another that GW just gave a name & colors to). I've been considering the idea of a 10th co. list, and was intrigued by that topic which appeared on the BoLS today. BUT, in the end, it'll take quite a bit to fill the ranks. Currently I only have a Commander, tac. squad & predator. So...

I figured that I'd just go on the cheap (relatively speaking) with the...

(3) Tau. I've got about 1250ish points of Tau, with roughly half of it painted. I haven't played that army too much here of late as I always need to borrow minis from a friend to hit the 1500pt. mark (the usual minimum at our FLGS). Usually a squad of Fire Warriors & Shas'O R'myr (more on that model next week). For reasons unknown, my dice don't seem to like the greater good, don't feel like buying more of those though. I've given them the Farsight Enclave icons, though I only occasionally use Farsight himself. Mainly because the model isn't fully assembled, and I hate proxying & using 'armless wonders' as I sometimes call them. No, I'm not above using unpainted minis. Also, due to the limitations of the Farsight list reductions, I can't use my piranha & broadsides in the same list, the broadsides win out every time.

So what'd I get? Well, my army falls into the typical Farsight format (ironic considering my thoughts on the CSMs), of basically lots of fire warriors & crises suits. I have (2) FW broadsides with smart missiles, so today I ordered a third with the plasma Rifles to use as my squad leader. This Saturday when I go to our FLGS (aside from restocking on some much needed glue, clear coat & primer) I plan to get another box of fire warriors. I have a Sky Ray kit already that needs to be assembled, I had intended to build it as just a Devilfish, but the sky ray (somewhat oddly) comes with both turret options, so I dunno how I'll build it just yet.

Below are my two assembled vehicles so far, mainly to show my color scheme.



Okay, back to painting my renegade storm troopers!