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.