Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Scenario: Robot Building Factory

This scenario is a suggestion inspired by the original Rogue Trader rules. In Rogue Trader, there are a number of plot-driven suggestions for scenarios. One category of these scenarios is that of the "Oddball". And contained therein is the Robot Building Factory. I think you can probably guess what is going on here. The factory has run amok and the robots are going to take over if you don't quickly put a stop to the production and destroy the rogue robots immediately.

Here's my take on the scenario for a two player game.

Set-up: Both players should deploy according to a standard (random) 40k game, with an agreed points value.

Special scenery: A modest to large sized piece of scenery should be placed in the centre of the board. This is the "robot factory". Something like a manufactorum would be good for this purpose.

Victory conditions: Three objectives are placed on the board: one in each of the player's deployment zones (one placed by each player), and one inside the "robot factory" in the centre of the board. The winner is the one with the most objectives at the end of the game. If this is tied, then the winner is the player who destroyed the most robots.

Special Rules:
This scenario features a unique turn structure:
(1) Player 1 moves and shoots any robots already on the board according to the rules below.
(2) As long as the robot's objective is not contested by either player, Player 1 places more robots on to the board according to the rules below.
(3) Player 1 then executes his normal turn.

Player 2 then follows the same sequence of events at which point the turn will end.

For the first step in the sequence, the robots are essentially "mindless" automatons. They will head toward the nearest enemy models every turn and shoot at it as they go. It is recommended that the robots have the "slow and purposeful" rule applied to them.
Further, the robots can contest any objective that they are within 3 inches of. If they start their movement within 3 inches of an objective, the controlling player may elect to keep them stationary rather than move them. This is the only exception to the otherwise mindless behaviour.

For the second step in the sequence, the number of robots that are placed should be in proportion to the points value of the army each side has. Explicitly, no more than 1/10th of the points value of each player can be placed on to the board during step 2 of each player's turn sequence. Each robot can be represented by any model that the players can agree on. We find it best to use necron warriors for obvious reasons. Note that a player cannot place any further robots if the central objective is contested or seized by either player -- this represents a player being in control of the robot building off-switch!

As an example, if each player has an army of 1500 points, then no more than 8 necrons could be placed during each step 2. Players may like to experiment with this 1/10th points value as 8 necrons can rapidly build up! e.g. at the terminal end of turn 2, there would be 32 necrons on the board (=576 points!) assuming none of them have been killed.

The player that is placing the necrons can place them anywhere within 3 inches of the boundary of the robot factory. Hence, they can be placed right next to the objective in the centre of the building, or at a forward position from the walls of the manufactorum. Each and every single robot (or necron) is considered to be a unit and can therefore be moved differently and shoot different targets.

And that is all there is to it. Sixteen necrons per turn showing up from nowhere, they're slow and purposeful and utterly mindless, but can stay stationary next to any objective they're contesting! They move toward and shoot the nearest non-necron model every turn. Enjoy!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Obliterator Pair Finished

I realized the other day that I'd long ago painted up both of my obliterators, but hadn't shown an image of the final result on the blog. So here they are in their glory: not one but two obliterators.The painting follows the detail that I posted about when I painted the first one. The broad idea was to have the colours fit in with my Nurgle Death Guard army -- i.e. lots of rusted tones on the main parts of the armour. I feel this goal has been well achieved. I chose blue for the fleshy icky parts that cover the obliterator to be consistent with the unnatural blue plagueswords that my plaguebearers carry in to battle.

The bases are resin back2basix bases and were painted separately to the main obliterators. The metal miniatures were then pinned on one foot to the base with some greenstuff to help camouflage the join around the pin. I feel the rugged terrain on the bases helps give valuable dynamism to these otherwise slow and purposeful models.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Gallery: Herald of Khorne Doesn't Need Help

On a mission to rid the world of Angstrom from the Blood Ravens, a Herald of Khorne takes on a force commander in single handed combat. He bellows at the Soul Grinder coming over the wreck of a rhino behind that this skull is his...

(with apologies to David whose Blood Ravens weren't having a good day out that day...)

Friday, June 25, 2010

Chaos Rhino Built


It has been a long time since I constructed a new Rhino. This particular beast is one that I put together in an evening once all the chores were done. It is eventually going to be painted in Sons of Malice colours and will take them to battle. It doesn't have an special features, but it does have some of the more usual imperial kit: a storm bolter rather than a twin-linked bolter and the imperial variant of the smoke launchers. I figure this is broadly in keeping with a chapter that turned to chaos more recently than the old legions did.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Terminator of Malice

To expand the range of miniatures that I've got for the Sons of Malice, I've added a few terminators. This particular chap has the standard chaos terminator armaments: a power weapons coupled with a twin linked bolter. On his back, I've attached the upper portions of a force weapon from the terminator lord boxed set (since the miniature I've assembled from the terminator lord won't be a sorcerer). This will double up as an icon of chaos glory when required. But otherwise is simply a cool looking accessory.

The painting follows the usual scheme for the Sons of Malice: quartered black and white. The accent colour is red, the same as for my power armoured marines. There's not too many problems with the painting, but the halving of the black and white caused me headaches near the skull icon in the centre of his forehead. Otherwise this one was smooth and by the numbers.

For the base, I've added a couple of bits and pieces from the warhammer 40,000 basing kit (e.g. a purple marine's beaked helmet can be seen at the right foot of the terminator). The look I was going for on the base was an urban wasteland / battlefield which I think complements the miniature well.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Possessed Chaos Marines in Kill Team

Question: Do possessed chaos space marines get to roll separately on the special ability table in kill team given that each individual model is considered a unit in and of itself?

Apologies if this has been talked of elsewhere before, but this question came up in a recent conversation and I thought I'd post it here and see what others thought. My personal opinion is that they would each roll separately since they're each treated as a single unit. But equally, I'm biased. Does anyone have a different point of view, or do the majority share my opinion?

Monday, June 21, 2010

Winner of the June 2010 Army List Challenge

This months Army List Challenge winner is .....

TQA!!! With a game plan of having huge squads of grots running over the board, TQA won the vote with 57%. Congratulations mate - I liked the list very much! Your username has been entered in to the hall of fame.

There will be another challenge next month.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Planetary Empires: Crater Tile

The crater tile from Planetary Empires has three distinct components to be painted (a) the crater itself; (b) the ruins around some of the edges; and (c) empty land around the other edges.
After investigating some internet pictures of Earth-based and other craters, it became obvious that the central raised circle of the crater should be a slightly different hue to the main portion of the crater, and the outer rim. I have attempted to accomplish this by dry brushing the inner rim to give some highlight to it.

The ruins otherwise followed the prescription that I followed when I was painting one of the ruined tiles earlier. The grassy area then followed on neatly from the ruins area as I blended the two in to one another to suggest that the ruination had occurred recently, but not so far back in the past that the grass has started to over-grow the ruins.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Chaos Marine Champion

Amongst the rank and file of the chaos marines, there are always those that through chance or otherwise get elevated above the rest. I personally like fielding aspiring champions with my regular troops as it gives me the option to have a power fist. These days, there are very few folks out there who don't take this option or the power sword on an aspiring champion - they're pretty much a staple in whatever flavour of chaos space marine army I'm fielding!

This particular fellow will be painted up in Sons of Malice colours eventually. He has a power fist on the left arm and is holding a bolter in the right thanks to a little conversion work. A bolt pistol holder can be seen glued to the rear of his left thigh. He is otherwise a standard chaos space marine aspiring champion except for the base. On the base, I've glued several broken buttons (and other assorted random bits) in to place for him to stand on and gesticulate past. Buttons are a surprisingly good material to work with for your urban basing needs!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

What Colour Should Daemon's Eyes be?

Of course, the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is any colour you like! Frankly we should be at liberty to choose this as free-willed painters.

However, being somewhat pedantic (and liking to occasionally paint in the intended colour scheme), I decided to do a bit of research in to the issue about what colour the eyes should be according to some historic (i.e. Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned) and modern (i.e. Codex: Chaos Daemons) tomes.

First up, Slaves to Darkness:
Bloodthirsters: Milky white with no visible iris or pupil.
Bloodletters: Same again: milky white with no pupil.
Flesh Hounds: Milky white.
Juggernauts: no comment is made.
Keeper of Secrets: no comment is made.
Daemonettes: Deep green saucer-like eyes.
Fiends of Slaanesh: Dark bottle green.
Mounts of Slaanesh: no comment is made.

Lost and the Damned:
Great Unclean Ones: no comment is made. Illustrations and paint schemes show "normal" mammalian eyes, but obviously corrupted and decaying.
Plaguebearers: although it is said pus and blood run from the singular eye continually, no direct comment is made. However, illustrations and paint schemes in the book are a white milky colour, or show normal eyes.
Nurglings: no comment is made. Painted models show white eyes.
Beasts of Nurgle: no comment is made. Illustrations show normal eyes and the painted models show a yellow to red eye.
Lords of Change: no comment is made. Illustrations and paint schemes are tough to make out, but some do have mammalian eyes.
Pink and Blue Horrors: no comment is made. Illustrations and paint schemes are varierd to say the least: some have an iris, others are a pure milky white colour.
Flamers of Tzeentch: no comment is made. Illustrations and paint schemes show a pupil-less eye.
Discs of Tzeentch: "penetrating little eyes", with illustrations showing a variety of eye types.

Codex: Chaos Daemons has the following to say, where a comment is explicitly made of eyes or their colours.
Bloodletters: burning eyes without a pupil (painting schemes are white)
Daemonettes: opal eyes (painting schemes are white)
Plaguebearers: rheumy (painting schemes are white)
Mounts of Slaanesh: glittering eyes

In Liber Choatica, the eye colours are generally described in similar terms to the Realms of Chaos book (e.g. Milky white eyes without pupils for bloodlettters and so forth). This is unsurprising given the strong association of the two volumes.

So in summary, it appears that for Khorne daemons most sources would indicate white, pupil-less eyes all round. Many older sources suggest a shade of green for Slaanesh daemons. But modern sources are divergent, with many having white pupil-less eyes as well. Nurgle is harder to pin down and they exhibit some pupils, unlike their Khorne and Slaanesh cousins. However, plaguebearers do seem to go for the milky white pupil-less eye variety fairly often. Tzeentch daemons, perhaps quite naturally, have the most variation amongst the sources examined and no further comment can really be made!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Poll Open for the June 2010 Army List Challenge

This month, the army list challenge is a two horse race. The poll is now open (right hand side) and the army lists are as below!:

TQA (Orks / Grots!)
I'll cheerfully admit in advance that the following list is probably not the most competitive response to the challenge. It's a bit light on units to seek out and destroy the opposing 3 objectives, and the approach I've taken to hiding and protecting the item is also almost certainly not the most effective approach.

But it should be a list that would make for a very fun game to play.

Ork Hide-N-Seek List - 1500 points

HQ1: Big Mek w/ KFF
HQ2: Big Mek w/ KFF

T1: 19 grots, 1 grotherd
T2: 19 grots, 1 grotherd
T3: 19 grots, 1 grotherd
T4: 19 grots, 1 grotherd
T5: 19 grots, 1 grotherd
T6: 19 grots, 1 grotherd

E1: 5 Tankbustas, 2 squigs
E2: 5 Burna Boys, 2 Meks
E3: Painboy, Nob w/combi ML & ammo runt, Nob w/klaw, Nob w/klaw and combi ML, Nob w/Waaaagh! banner
Battlewagon w/ Zzap gun, red, rolla, plates, riggers, 2 big shootas

H1: 3 Kans w/ RL
H2: Looted Wagon w/ red, riggers, plates, 2 big shootas
H3: Battlewagon w/ Kannon, 2 big shootas, red, riggers, rolla, plates

That should come out to 1500 on the nose.

The three designated models will all be (and you've probably guessed this by now) grots - one from each of the first three troop selections. It doesn't really matter which of the three is the actual target, since all are identical choices with identical statlines.

The play concept for this list basically involves setting up the units with the target grots so that they are relatively well shielded by the non-target grot units, and in terrain if possible (and covered by the KFF meks if not. The units will be spread thin to avoid as much template damage as possible, and will be positioned as far from each other as possible. The grots will most likely spend the bulk of the game gone to ground.

The burna boys go in the second battlewagon, the tankbustas go in the looted wagon, the nobs go in their own wagon.

The tankbustas and their open-topped vehicle will try to move to intercept oncoming armored assaults heading for the target units. (With priority given to units heading toward the wrong target.) The burnas and the nobs will try to deffroll the heck out of everything in sight, and assault units that are not in tin cans. The RL kans can provide anti-armor support, and/or additional walls in front of grots.

Seriously, I think this list is probably one of the better options that an Ork player would have in this scenario. There are effectively six objectives in play, and the 'arder ork units are just slightly too pricey to be able to effectively use given the point limit. Confusing the opponent enough to outlast the time limit strikes me as the best chance for at least a limited amount of success.

And even if it doesn't work, it should still allow for a hugely memorable game while my opponent dodges deffrollas while trying to find and kill the right gretchin.

schuelerliu (Eldar):
I am not seeking an "upper competitive" list but rather a list which has enough firepower to hunt down the opposing target units and protect/hide your own army from the enemy while still being a "fun" list. I would like to choose Eldar for my list (I actually play Eldar and could play the list with my own army).

I hope you like the list too, so here it is:

HQ:

Autarch w/ FusionGun, PW, Mandiblaster, WJumpGen

Farseer w/ Jetbike, RoWarding, SpiritStones, MindWar, Fortune

Elite:

Firedragons (5)+ Exarch w/ Firepike, TankHunter, CrackShot
(go in Falcon)

Striking Scorpions (9) + Exarch w/ ScorpionsClaw, Shadowstrike
WaveSerpent w/ TL BL, SpiritStones, StarEngines

Troop:

Guardian Jetbike Squad (4) w/ 1xShCannon + Warlock w/ SingingSpear, Conceal

Guardian Jetbike Squad (4) w/ 1xShCannon + Warlock w/ SingingSpear, Conceal

Heavy:

Falcon w/ EML, ShCannon, HoloField, SpiritStones, StarEngines

That's 1499 points.

The whole army is quite mobile and hit the enemy where needed or hide if possible.

The three designated units are both jetbike squads and the warp spiders.

The autarch attaches to the unit of warp spiders and both come in via deep strike (Turn 2/3?) and use "hit and run" to bait the enemy. The Farseer attaches to one of the jetbike squads and uses Fortune on them. However, he can detach mid-game and join the other jetbike squad or fight alone if necessary, gaining are more active combat role. This might also confuse the enemy which unit actually holds the "trophy": the later coming warp spiders, the farseer attached jetbike squad, or the "lone" jetbike squad? I pick the last one and maybe attach the farseer to the squad late-game.

The two elite choices and under some circumstances the autarch / warp spiders are the head hunters which can deal with heavy tanks as well as mass infantery and power armour. Furthermore, the Wave Serpent and the Falcon give them enough protection and additional firepower. The star engines are used for multi-purpose: fast repositioning,(additional) tank shocking and hide maneuver/defence of designated unit.

While not having the numbers for a massed assault this army relies on "hit and run" tactics and sneaky tricks to "luckily" pick of the right target. If it is not possible to isolate and destroy the designated units, than try to hang back, hide and avoid the enemy, confusing him about the right trophy unit and deny him the kill and the secondary object. If the enemy units got stretched in the chase, maybe one can find a good chance to pick of some targets.

In my opinion this army has a lot of options to use depending on the opponent and has a good chance of achieving the primary objective.

So, try catching some fast-flying, sly Eldar, mon-keigh! :P

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Axeman of Malice

Just a quick post and a picture today to show some further progress on a growing contingent of Sons of Malice space marines. This conversion is a chap with an axe from the chaos warriors boxed set of Warhammer Fantasy. Other than that, a pretty standard chaos marine miniature.

The paint scheme follows the one that I've been working to perfect over the last few Sons of Malice models. The highlighting of the white still needs some thought, but I'm happy with the black quadrants now. The choice of reds and oranges for the accent colour also seems to be working out rather well too. There's a bit more mud on this chap's boots than my previous miniatures in this range, but I think it looks fine as it makes the miniature look more natural (i.e. not pristine white painted armour ... its a bit more worn!)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Horus Heresy Board Game Report: An Imperial Victory

Today's game report is from the Horus Heresy Board Game. We played the second mission from the booklet, which is identical to the first except that you get to think about where to put your initial troops yourself. This involves a little bit of thought about which faction you want where (i.e. you should think about having Angron with his World Eater marines, but do you place them in a space port, or hold them in reserve for later in the game?).

The game works on an initiative based turn. If you have the quicker initiative, then you get to place commands and execute orders. The full rule book is available for download in pdf format from the publishers, so I won't go in to too much detail about them. I will note here though that it is very, very easy to forget an odd rule or two on the first few games that you have. But try not to stress about that!
The first picture shows the game after a few turns after the set-up point. I am controlling the traitor forces whilst my opponent controls the imperial forces (in grey). I have Angron and the World Eaters controlling one of the space ports near the bottom right of the picture (in red). Meanwhile, Magnus and the Thousand Sons (in blue) control a second port (top right) and have begun to spread out. The green guys near the palace are Death Guard which I've just dropped on to the board.

On the loyalist side, the Imperial Fists and Dorn can be seen in and around a manufactorum just north of Angron's position. Dorn's forces are spread out and Angron thinks they're going to be easy meat for the blood god. Meanwhile, Sanguinius and his Blood Angels are holed up to the West side of the board. The Khan and his White Scars are not visible: they're way off to the West of the board and out of sight. In the palace, the Emperor sits on his throne looking on. His has his personal guards around him and a few mechanicum forces. Various other tanks, infantry and titans are scattered around. But notice the tanks and infantry with the black bases just East of the Death Guard -- I've managed to turn several units traitor! Indeed, this is part of the set-up: the traitor player has the chance to "corrupt" some of the Imperial forces before the game begins. This often makes for an interesting opening!

My plan is simple. I'll let Angron loose on the South of the board and cause all sorts of mayhem down there. Meanwhile, I'll hold off any Imperial forces around the palace with the Death Guard marines. This should buy enough time for Magnus to make a charge through the palace and get to the throne room for a first assault on the Emperor!In the second image, you can see my plan in action! Magnus the Red has easily breached the palace walls and his marines are running amok inside the palace. He's still completely mad about the whole sorcery and Space Wolves thing a little earlier on... Also, you can see that I've reinforced my grip on the space port to the East of the palace -- Fulgrim has arrived with some Emperor's Children marines (purple) to debase themselves on Terra. Mortarion has even brought a traitor titan with him, just to show he's serious. Along the way though, Fulgrim manages to corrupt more Imperial units to the traitor cause.

However, my opponent has executed a well-timed plan. The fabricator general (top left of the palace) has rushed to the Emperor's side thanks to the Machine Spirit. But he's not alone. He's brought with him the might of Mars with a titan or two!

In the South meanwhile, Angron makes short work of Rogal Dorn and his pesky Imperial Fists. Dorn dies horribly at Angron's hand as the World Eaters begin to enjoy being in Khorne's service. This, of course, incenses Sanguinius. He's not a happy chap. He takes his Blood Angels and swoops in on Angron. Sadly for Sanguinius: Angron is up to the challenge. He dispatches poor Sanguinius as well.

However, the Khan is having much better luck. In a lightning strike, his marines decimate the Death Guard standing guard over the palace. They're just no match for his unexpectedly quick re-deployment! Especially since Mortarion is still having a friendly chat with Fulgrim in the corner of the Space Port. Pay attention Mortarion! Fulgrim is distracting you!

But my plan is working very well despite the Death Guard losses. Whilst the Emperor's Children engage Imperial Tank divisions, Magnus the Red storms in to the palace with the remains of his Thousand Sons to confront the Emperor. Little is said between them as they unleash their forces. Many Thousand Sons perish. Whole imperial infantry platoons with millenia of legendary dutiful service die. The Emperor seriously wounds Magnus, but Magnus fails to scratch the Emperor.

Realizing that the Emperor is in trouble, my opponent withdraws him to join up with the Fabricator General and his titan. Only now do they fully realize the gravity of the situation. Only now do they recognize that there can be no turning back. His sons have turned against him. Sanguinius and Dorn are dead. Jaghatai Khan's White Scars are losing against a tide of daemons summoned by Fulgrim. Angron will not give up his hold of the space port. They're going to have to take on Horus himself. The Emperor gathers his forces around him and teleports them on to the Vengeful Spirit.
The Emperor's forces (pictured above) clear the spacecraft's vaults of their daemonic infestation quite readily. But they were not expecting a swift counter-assault. Horus takes to the battle himself. Previously holed up in the control room of the Spirit, he descends in to the bowls of his space craft to find the Emperor there with the Fabricator General and some select imperial forces. But he has sent a signal out. Mortarion answers the warmaster and brings with him a battalion of Death Guard and Emperor's Children. But will it be enough?

The fight is at first evenly matched. But Nurgle's power flows through Mortarion and the Death Guard as they rust the Fabricator General's titan into the void. Although the imperial tank division stands up bravely to Horus, they suffer the price. Horus takes their souls. The Emperor's side lances the Emperor's Children in exchange for their sins.

As the fight progresses, both the Emperor and Horus take damage. But soon, there is only Horus and Mortarion standing on the traitor side. The Emperor and the Fabricator general are looking stronger, and they still have some troops left alive. In another exchange of blood, Mortarion and Horus almost slay the Fabricator General - only his bionics are keeping him alive at this point. But it is too little too late. Horus' auto-senses inform him that the Imperial Fleet has arrived.

The Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves are here already. Horus and the traitors have lost and will now pay dearly for their heresy...

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Experimental Chaos Space Marine Kill Team List

Next weekend, I will be playing a small kill team game (but probably without any special universal rules). I've been trying to give some thought to what should go in to my list. Whilst I know that a decked-out squad of plain chaos space marines might be a good way to go, I wanted to try out something else. Here's a list that I came up with.

3 Chaos Terminators, including 1 combi-melta.
5 Khorne Berzerkers.

Total Points Value = 200 on the dot.

The model count is reasonable compared to many power armoured lists for kill team that I've seen. It lacks devastating high strength fire power such as plasma guns, yes. But what it has is a bucket load of attacks from the khorne berzerkers who should be able to weather a few incoming shots so that they can actually charge in to melee. And the terminators should cause problems with their high armour save, power weapons and (singular) melta gun! Moreover, the re-rolls on the twin-linked bolt guns should also give pause for thought -- they're going to be hitting their targets more often than not. My only concern is that my friend has been winding me up (or bluffing completely) about facing a squad of thunder hammer and storm shield terminators from the other side of the board (but I don't know that for sure!). So my plan is to team up my berzerkers with a terminator friend and attack in unison to ensure that enough wounds get caused before a thunder hammer lets rip.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Shadow Sword: Part VII. Primed

The Shadowsword has seen little precious progress over the past few months due to other miniatures getting prioritization in the old painting schedule and a thing called real life. But, I've finally managed to get a black primer / undercoat on to the superheavy tank now.In some places the undercoat is slightly blotchy as I probably should have thinned the black down somewhat. I think I will be able to get away with the blotches by painting some well chosen areas with chips in the paintwork.

The colour of the undercoat is black. I was toying with white or grey at various points along the way as I was considering a variety of colour schemes. However, black works well so long as the paint manages to find its way in to the nooks and crannies around the vehicle. For the main part, I think I've managed this well. The pictures show the tank in its Storm Lord set-up which I enabled with some choice magnetizing.
The side-on view shows one of the variety of side panels that I crafted for the tank: a regular panel with Horus' eye upon it and a magnet behind. I'll be base coating the tank next; once I've thought some more about colours.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Reminder: June Army List Challenge

The June 2010 army list challenge is still open for entries. Full details about what to do can be found here. Can you design a themed and fluffy army list that is also effective at the mission described?

I'm keen to see what you guys come up with. This one could be very interesting.
Good Luck!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Painted Fiend of Slannesh

This fiend of Slaanesh was not so evil to paint in the end. I might even go as far as to say that I enjoyed(*) it. I decided to go with a white undercoat for this miniature as I wanted to ensure that the colours that I used were nice and vibrant.

Following a basecoat of bleached bone on the body and liche purple on the fur, I then inked the whole model with a couple of washes of devlan and some deep purple ink in the fur. After allowing sufficient time for these layers to dry, I applied a further devlan wash to really ensure that the recesses were suitably shaded. Rather than dry brush the miniature as I might do with Nurgle models, I decided that I would have a go at painting each individual line of highlight on to the model directly. Starting out with a mixture of brown and white, I gradually worked my way up not only the tones, but also up the scorpion-like tail, taking my time to ensure that each segment was getting some individual treatment.

The fur I also picked out one by one in a lighter shade of purple. In turn, the purple was mixed in with pink for some final highlighting. The chitinous armour on the legs was painted in a tyranid-like manner to suggest aging. The horns and tongue were picked out in a lipstick-bright shade of red which was slightly toned to brighter shades at the tips. I also polka-dotted the skin of the flesh near to the fur to suggest blotching (freckles?) on the surface of the body. The Slaaneshi rune was picked out separately to ensure it stood out.

With the claws, I applied a heavier wash of darker colours (more brown) to ensure that they had a different hue to the main body. This also helped the more pointed bits of the claw (picked out in white) to stand out. Further, the blotches on the claws were also picked out in a pale yellow tone.

The flash of the camera has got in the way of displaying this a little bit, but I also painted the eyes with a vertical slit instead of leaving them a milky white colour as I was originally tempted to do. The reason I was tempted to do that was because I'm an old timer -- in Realms of Chaos, many of the daemons have blank (soul-less!) eyes. In Slaves to Darkness however, fiends of Slaanesh are noted as having pure bottle green eyes. Maybe I'll try that out on the next fiend I paint.

(*: And now I see the trap that Slaanesh lies before us).

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Ruined House Scenery - II. Painting and Final Detail

After building a partially constructed house / ruin out of Hirst Arts blocks, I went about basecoating the entire model in black. For the walls, my wife suggested that I try painting them in a light colour, perhaps some sort of terracotta. Not wanting to disappoint, I decided to give that a go. So, I steadily dry brushed the scenery up to a healthy looking pale orange with several coats.

The flooring was dry brushed with several shades of grey and highlighted around two of the edges (each tile). This creates a nice effect on the stone floor that I'm very happy with.
About the only thing that I'm not entirely satisfied with is the flocking and greenery that I've added around the edge. I think something more rubble like would have been a superior choice to the lawn and (semi muddied) pathway that I've put in place. Other than that, I'm content overall with the outcome.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Horrors of Tzeentch Squad Re-Based

With the new plastic horrors around the corner, I felt it was time that my old metal horrors got a little bit of an update. My original designs had them on quite plain bases (flocked, yes, but plain nonetheless). Here, I've invested some non-negligible amount of time re-mounting them on to back2basix resin bases. And I think they're much better for it as well.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

June 2010 Army List Challenge

Welcome to the June 2010 Army List Challenge here at Warpstone Flux. The idea of these challenges is to design effective and themed army lists to take on a particular scenario, or opposition (etc.). This month, it is going to be about a unique scenario.

Briefing.
Alien xenos are believed to have a valuable artifact / standard template construct datacrystal / yummy DNA / slave / cloned left thumb of Horus (delete as appropriate) in their possession. In order to take it from them, you're going to have to pry it from their dead fingers / prehensile tentacles / sucker pods / cloned thumbs. The only problem is this: you don't know which of them has hold of it. Your intelligence agencies have narrowed it down to three possibilities...

The Game.
The game will be fought over a standard board (4' x 6') with a mixture of scenery available for cover saves. The opposition has nominated three models who may be in possession of the object you seek, but only 1 of the 3 models is the correct one. Each of the models is contained in a non-HQ squad with 5 or more models. To win the game, you need to remove the correct model from play. Sadly, you don't know which of the three models is the right one - you will only find this out at the end of the game.

The twist is that opposition is trying to also do the same to you as well! Hence, you must protect the model who is carrying the object that they seek as well. If the scores are tied (i.e. both sides kill the target model, or neither do), then the outcome of the game will be decided by kill points.

Rules.
(1) Design a 1500 points army from any codex to take on this mission.
(2) Nominate three of your miniatures as possible "targets" for the opposition to hunt down. Nominate one of these three as the "real" target. The real target will only be revealed when the game ends. The nominations must be contained in non-HQ squads and inside a squad of 5 or more miniatures strong.
(3) Post your army lists as a comment to this posting and suggest why they're well suited / well themed to this mission and why you've chosen your nominations the way you did.
(4) Entries close at 01:00 GMT (i.e. 1AM GMT) on June 14th.
(5) On that same day, I'll open a poll for Warpstone Flux readers to judge which army list they consider to be the "most effective army list that also best articulates the theme" (whatever readers interpret that to mean) out of all entrants.
(6) Winner will be tallied and announced on June 21st (and entered in to the hall of fame!).
(7) One entry per person please.

Remember that there are no prizes for these contests, beyond kudos, honour and entry in to the hall of fame.
Good Luck!!!
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