Magnets Magnets Magnets

So now that most of my desk is setup for building, I started with my dreadnought.

I magnetized all my arms (assault cannon, autocannon, lascannon, multi-melta, plasma cannon, CCW, and Missile Launcher) I'm still lamenting not getting a heavy bolter, I will have to get one later.

The magnets weren't perfectly flush, mostly due to the drill bit I'm using having somewhat of a convex edge and creating a cone cavity rather than a cylinder cavity. It doesn't present an odd effect when they are magnetized on though, so I think I'm good.

Next, just for the hell of it, I assembled my chaplain, terminator captain, and company master.

I realized here that the magnets I purchased for the terminator arms are probably too small (.63" versus the .125") But it's fine, they'll do for other things.

Moving on to "other things" My Company master came with two heads, and I managed to magnetize the head and helmet pretty easily. I still need to get something similar to a pinning vice or a hand screwdriver that I can put my drill bits into.

I customized the Chaplain's Crozius using one of the bits from the blister pack. Instead of the typical Skull Mace head it's one of the dark angel icons. I'm a little curious about this model because it has two small columns attached to the iron halo that look like they belong, but i don't see them on the model photo.

I decided not to actually put the arms on until the model was painted, and will most likely magnetize the arms in the case of a combi-weapons.

I'm ordering another set of magnets now, and will pick up a bigger drill bit so I'll be able to do my termie arms.

Camera is still at my old house, so Ill get a photo of the whole setup this weekend.

Oh, PS-

Don't use plastic cement on resin models :)

Late Update

Here's my most recent attempt. Not terrible, but he came off with a bit of a grittier look thanks to my awesome fail of using slow-dry instead of flow-aid for the paint. The good news is that my touch is getting a little bit better with practice (thank you SpaceHulk) and I'm confident that by the time I complete my spacehulk set I'll be ready to burn through my termies fairly quickly.

I'm going to give the tutorial I posted earlier a shot on my next termie. I like the base/wash/highlight method, but I'm having a hard time getting good contrast in the crevaces. We'll see how the next one turns out.

I've been dragging my feet on painting because I'm moving this weekend, and didn't want to have a ton of shit to deal with packing it all back up. Probably a cop-out, but I'll have my fully functioning nerd-lair once I get moved in with the girl and I'll be able to hit it hard.

One positive note, I did get a chance to play with wet-blending as this clown was wearing a robe. Again, not terrible, but I need practice. I have a flat piece of resin that I think I'm going to use as a palette and just practice wet blending. Les Bursley's sword pisses me off.

Another note is that I'm still finding exactly what I want my color scheme to be in terms of the details. The Crux-Terminatus and the Aquila on the breastplate will end up being gold, and I think I am going to go with more metal pieces (ie: the tubing on the handles, webbing at the joints, etc.) Initially I wanted it to be fairly uniform, but the more I think about it the more I think the paint job will look "easy"

Another note, I need to perfect my Dark Angel green on the parts that need to be green.

My goal is still complete my deathwing army (Termies, Dread and Landraider) then work on my Ravenwing, which should be a complete vacation. I was planning on setting up a standard Dark Angel army after that, but I think I'm goin to build a 1500 point Ravenwing army (basically consists of 3 RW battleforces, Sammael and a chaplain on a bike) before I move onto that.

I'm pretty excited about the prospect of having the full Dark Angel arsenal at my disposal. Looking forward to using the Codex: Space Marine book when I roll with the DA's, but I'm willing to suffer through the shortfalls with DW and RW in the meantime because I dig the themes.

Just in case I forget

New link for Deathwing Paint Tutorial. This guys' DW look great and hopefully will be helpful.

http://www.codexunforgiven.com/content/view/42/27/

Changing Armies

So...after my third attempt at a Deathwing Terminator and not being happy with the bone white I've decided to switch Chapters. Luckily I have only painted my Spacehulk termies so I haven't blown the $50 per box.

It's actually a custom army that a guy put up on the web that I should be able to pull off using the Vanilla Space Marine codex.

Link to paint scheme here

In Other News:

Purchased the remainder of my 1500 point army.

Belial + 5 Termie Command Squad(Assault
5man Assault Terminators
5man Tactical Terminators
5man Tactical Terminators
3man Biker Squad
3man Biker Squad
Attack Bike
Skimmer

I'm pretty psyched. Now I just need for my slow-dry and flow-aid to arrive, and order some rare-earth magnets and I'll be good to start assembling/painting.

Recap.

Tyranids vs. Space Marines: Annihilation.

It was the Space Marine Army that I mentioned earlier, versus the following:

Hive Tyrant + Retinue(big beetle looking bugs)
1 unit of Rippers
1 unit of Termigaunts
1 unit of Hormogaunts
2 zoanthrope
2 carnifax

I a immediately upset at his decision to carry as many elites and heavies as possible.

We started at opposite corners, me setting up somewhat of a defensive line with my assault troops protecting my shooters. My purpose with this was the idea that Tyranids were almost exclusively hand-to-hand, and I wanted to hold them off.

The problem is, he had several guys that could shoot...even though they moved like 12" (reference previous post)

Anyway, I lost two of my command squad right of the bat, significantly diminishing their abilities in hand-to-hand.

I deep striked my terminators in an attempt to hold the high ground, and missed slightly landing on the ramp out of range. I still managed to fire a cyclone shot.

I moved my tactical squad with the heavy plasma in position to not have to fire through cover, and moved my flamer+multi melta in a position just outside of a trench.

I took out a few termigaunts the first turn, winning the round in terms of combat.

Next turn pretty much confirmed my suspicions that the battle would be an exercise in futility. His reinforcements showed up from the side nearest to my terminators. Nearly all of his units were on top of me this turn. My Plasma tactical squad was engaged by the Carnifax. My Flamer/Melta squad was overrun by hormigaunts.

The Carnifax didn't do much, but he took my plasma cannon out of play. The hormigaunts picked apart my Flamer/Melta squad immediately. The zoanthropes nearly annihilated my remaining tactical squad. My Dreadnought was all but worthless with a missile launcher and a lascannon, as he had monsters and no vehicles. My assault terminators moved in to support my melta/flamer squad, a little too late. My tactical terminators made short work of the genestealers but it seemed like a futile effort.

The next round was prtty much the coup'de grat. The rest of his guys moved in to assault me, the only punch being held back his second carnifax and zoanthrope.

In the end, if I would've killed the remaining two termigaunts I would've tied. He won.

Lessons learned:

1. I forgot the move 6" followed by a 6" move to assault.
2. My squads were too bunched up. Gotta expand on the 2" rule.
3. Task and Maneuver needs adjustment. Need a solution for moving tactical squads(re: giving up heavy weapon firing)
4. Think about putting tactical squads in reserve.
5. Throw all terminators into the thick of the action, don't just send them vs. one unit.
6. Don't use Lascannon's against beasts.


All in all I got a better idea of using squads. Seeing the terminators in action gives me hope for the deathwing despite their small numbers. I am wondering about whether or not I'll continue with the cyclone missiles on the Assault termies. Gotta brainstorm that s'more.

on Sportsmanship.

Before I go into the recap, I'd lke to talk a bit about sportsmanship.

If you engage in a hobby that doesn't have a strong following, one in which you cannot readily identify participants or more individuals who would like to join you, I'll offer a few tips that will bring more to you.

1. Don't try to annihilate them outside the gate. Nobody likes to play a game they are immediately bad at.

2. Help them learn the rules, don't obfusicate said rules in order to help you win.

3. Don't cheat. It just makes you look like a dick.

That is all I can think of at the moment. /end rant.

Insomnia

So...bored and can't sleep I was messing around with Army Builder. I've got a good idea of what my 1500 Army is gonna look like for Deathwing, mini-wise, just need to work out the upgrades.

Belial

Deathwing Command Terminators(5)(Assault-Lightning Claws)
Apothecary
Standard Bearer
Cyclone Missile Luncher

Deathwing Assault Terminators(5)(Thunder Hammer/Stormshield)
Cyclone Missile Launcher

Deathwing Terminators(5)
Assault Cannon

Deathwing Terminators(5)
Assault Cannon

Ravenwing Attack Squadron(3)

Ravenwing Attack Squadron
+Attack Bike

Ravenwing Support Squadron

The goal here is to utilize fast attack guys as well as the homer beacon so I can teleport in. Initially I was looking at Dreadnought+Land Raider Crusader, but I think for 1500 points this would be good. To have all the pieces I'd need to buy two terminator squads(attack and tac) and the ravenwing battleforce. Stopping by the game store on the way to Paul's tomorrow so we'll see!..I think I'll at least pick up the termies.

Another possibility I've heard of (aside from the dread/LRC and Ravenwing) is just going ALL terminators. Not sure how I feel about this option. From what I've seen it's more "successful" but I wonder if I'd get bored pushing a bunch of the same model around every battle.

Mission Prep

So lessons learned from the most recent battle, my first experience with 5th edition.
1. Space marines with 3+ armor save don't need a 4+ cover save.
2. 10 man tactical squads are much better.
3. Beef up HQ and Command squad more strategically.
4. Be more strategic with Deep Strike .
5. Orks can't shoot for shit, shouldn't fear the big guns.
6. Orks are nasty in close combat, move and shoot, keep them at bay.

I put together 1500 points for a battle on Monday:
Company Master
Command Squad (5Man)
Tactical Squad x3 (10Man)
Terminator Squad x2 (5Man)
Dreadnought

42 total models. Probably still pretty light for 1500, hopefully round 2 goes a little smoother.

We'll see how it turns out.

Second attempt

Second attempt was MUCH better. At the behest of Sean I checked out awesomepaintjob.com's painting of White Scars. He started with a primer, then went over it with a dark washthen went over it with a series of grey's to show the transition.

After white primer, I used a dark flesh wash diluted with flow-aid 1:1. After the Dark Flesh wash I went to paint the details of the model (weapon, honors, etc.) rather than the main body. This was another technique shown by awesomepaintjob and I really liked it. I diluted all paints 1:1 with slow-dry, and not only did this allow for me to paint smaller details with the paint getting all goopy it also made the paint last. I didn't use a ton of paint in this process.

With the aquila, I ended up using skull white as a base instead of chaos black with my first model. It definitely brought out the gaps a lot better, but I still think the eagles should be darker. The reds (weapon, honors) turned out perfectly, transitioning between gory red and bloody red. I was very happy with the eyes, and the honors were better, but I'm still not completely pleased with it.

I made more "metal" parts than I wanted to on this one...again. The crux terminatus I made silver, his skull shinuard, as well as a skull medallion hanging from his belt. It doesn't look bad, I'm just not sure theme-wise it fits and I don't want to get off on the wrong foot in terms of uniformity.

All in all, HUGE improvement. Again the photo was with my iPhone so when I get my camera out I'll have a better rendition from multiple angles.

First Attempt

The image is a little blurry, I used my iPhone.

It's probably a good thing, since this paint job kinda sucks. I started with a bestial flesh base coat, and went over it with bone white.

I had a lot of problems with this paint job, but it was my first and they were all great learning points.

First, I primered it up, then used a bestial brown as a basecoat then went over it with Bone White.

Most of the reason I had issues with the bone white was because I didn't dilute any of the paint, despite urgings by awesomepaintjob.com and Sean. I couldn't get the eyes right without them being goopy, and I ended up filling in most of the crevaces with bone white instead of leaving the dark lines.

Another point of reference is the metallic details. In the DA book the Deathwing Crux Terminatus isn't silver, it's a darker bone color. The aquila didn't come out the way I liked, I started with chaos black and then used Dark Angel Green and it ended up looking more black than green. This might be due to the contrast of the entirely bone white model. The honors I had problems with shading, but I think that is just goin to come with practice. All the extra metal bits (ie: the conduit attached to the arms) is gunmetal here but I'll end up going with the deathwing colors instead. Oh, and apparently he has a motion detector in his hand that I didn't notice that is completely unpainted.

In short: FAIL.

Practice

I've decided to practice painting terminators by utilizing my Spacehulk miniatures. The upside is that these are awesome models and they are all terminators. The downside is that they are Blood Angels, and if you look close you'll be able to see some of the insignia. But..I'm not terribly concerned with all that. Here are my first two attempts:

The Deathwing

So my first project into 40k is(of course) a little daunting. I've decided to go with a Dark Angels Deathwing Army, led by Belial.

There are a few reasons I decided to do this..

A) I like the idea of elite troops.
B) I like the idea of a small force (roughly 29 models) fighting against an army of insurmountable odds.
C) I heard that Deathwing routinely gets it's ass kicked.

Paint jobs to follow...

Intro

This is my Warhammer 40k blog. In it I'll post pictures, stories, game recaps, what I'm working on and probably rants about what I don't like. Enjoy.