Salamanders Fire Drake Conversion

One of the only options that a Salamanders Fire Drake terminator can take is to replace their shield with a (forge crafted) heavy flamer. There are no resin parts for this, so a conversion is the only way forward at this point in time. 

Sitting in my bits box collection was a heavy flamer from the older chaos space marines range. I decided that I would use this for several reasons. This first is that it looks more ornamental than a regular flamer and that communicates "forge crafted" more readily than other alternatives. Secondly, what if this were a traitor Salamanders anyway (shudder!)? And thirdly, there's also the rule of cool. So I went with it.

The primary issue here is that the part needs to be shaved with some precision to make it flush with the shoulder and billowing drake skin comes down from the shoulder. This is straight forward if you can get hold of a good looking bit of resin to clip. Here I have used Right Arm Part B (hope that makes sense for anyone wanting to follow this pathway). I clipped off the hand and shield attachment, of course. Essentially getting rid of the elbow as well in order that the plastic heavy flamer could then be pinned into position.

My strong recommendation here is to do lots of dry fits and judgments by eye by holding the bits up against each other and seeing where to slice. I went slowly and took off less than was needed at each slice, slowly progressing toward a natural joint. Largely because putting back on bits that had too much chopped off it a severe problem! In terms of conversions, this is a reasonable one to execute, but it did require precision and patience. 

The base meanwhile is supposed to be lots of accumulated battlefield debris. Maybe from the drop site that they fought in. I like the outcome here, but haven't yet painted it. I have the rest of the squad to build first!

Thousand Sons Terminator Praetor Conversion

Tackling my first miniature of the Thousand Sons today and I opted to do things the hard way. I really should have started with something more routine! Too late!

This is a Praetor (or perhaps Centurion). I was originally going to make this a simple kit bash and go for a pair of lightning claws. But no. I had to do things differently! Instead, we have a chain fist (tartaros style) accompanied by a combi-disintegrator (from the regular marine range), legs from the chaos space marine range and the core resin from the Thousand Sons range. The shoulders are from the newer cataphractii range and have slotted over the tartaros arms quite nicely to be honest!

Perhaps the hardest point of the miniature was attaching the resin torso to the plastic legs. They really don't want to fit together thanks to the upper outer thigh armour on the legs. Hence, I have torso at a bit of an angle to the legs and pinned on the inside. This works since it looks like the marine is looking down the combi-disintegrator to take a shot, or is otherwise presenting less of a target area to other incoming shots. 

I like this guy overall, he had a certain dynamism about him that the Thousand Sons terminators often lack (for good reason) and can easily imagine him being a sorcerer as well. I like the disintegrator option here for fun and think it might have flexibility. Of course, a force weapon should almost have been the default option, but the chain fist is interesting for different reasons. This is an up close and person praetor who wants to take on your dreadnoughts and isn't afraid to conjure up some psychic might to help along the way. 

Word Bearers Flamer Squad Painted

Built as a tactical support squad with standard flamers, this is a Word Bearers unit that means business. Well suited to close up work in the tight confines of capital ships, I see this unit as a zone mortalis asset overall. I'm looking forward to getting a copy of the new zone mortalis book when it comes out as the 1500 points limit is very appealing to a player like me who actively enjoys the list building trade offs that have to happen at these points levels - they're much more interesting than the take a primarch or not choice in higher points value games to be very honest!

The painting follows my standard approach for Word Bearers, but also has a bit of a bits bash in here. The sergeant has an old school chaos space marines range helmet for instance that I have chosen to pick out in silver. Because why not. 

The bases also work to pick out the industrial close combat nature of this squad. Decals round out a very uniform approach for the models and overall I am quite pleased with how this unit has turned out overall. 

Emperors Champion Conversion for Word Bearers

This is a conversion concept that has been bubbling away in the back of my mind for quite some time - which is to say years. I originally wanted to do it with the older sculpt of the Emperor's Champion, but the newer Primaris version really pushed me over the edge. 

One of the core problems with this conversion is to think how it might plausibly slot into Horus Heresy without looking like it is out of kilter with all the other miniatures. The pose actually helps with this. Standing on the rock should make the miniature look taller or more imposing and therefore this helps disguise the Primaris issue at source.

I have shaved off the guards at the top of the knees to make the miniature look more in keeping with Heresy era space marines. Gone also are the shoulder pads and replaced with a set of mark 4 shoulder pads. The helmet has been similarly replaced as although the sculpt was really good, I didn't like the cross on the side of the cheek and couldn't be bothered to green stuff it over. Moreover, the sculpt wasn't strictly Heresy either even if I could get away with it.

The backpack was an item that I really wanted to retain though. Those ribbons of oaths were something I rather liked. But ultimately the backpack itself screams Primaris. Here I have replaced it with an older Chaos Space Marines sergeant back pack which is much more suited. 

In the left hand I have positioned some works of Lorgar! This is from the older Chaos Space Marine Terminators range that I had lying around. The Imperial Eagle has also been shaved off the rosary beads in the left hand to leave the hand free to hold open the book at the desired page. 

The final miniature is one that I am quite happy with even though he still has a mild height issue compared to his Heresy brothers. I'm certain it will fit in though once painted up. I will use him as either a legion centurion or praetor. Clearly, he is traitor aligned. 

Emperor's Children Terminator Lord or Praetor

A conversion that I've been thinking about undertaking for a long time has finally taken shape! This model is an Emperor's Children terminator. Possibly a Praetor for 30k or a chaos lord for 40k. It could work either way (although obviously traitor aligned for the Heresy era). 

The parts used include:

Tail: Daughters of Khaine Blood Sisters (Age of Sigmar)
Body, Head, and Cape: Chaos Terminator Lord
Lightning Claws: Dark Angels
Shoulder Pads: Regular 40k Terminator

The core idea here is that this is a Lord or Praetor who is treading right down the chaos path toward the dark prince. He is clearly mutated already, but his brothers don't care and regard it as perfectly natural, or perhaps a level of perfection for them to all aspire to! 

I might use him along side the thunder hammer and storm shield Emperor's Children Indomitus terminators that I have already assembled and painted. The painting here uses the exact same formulation of my standard approach to the Emperor's Children in Horus Heresy, so he does at least slot in nicely in terms of the colour scheme, but perhaps a bit less so with the mutation! I'm reasonably content with how it turned out, but I do acknowledge that some finer details could do with touching up (e.g., the eye of Horus in the centre of the chest and some more highlighting on the tail perhaps). 

Painted World Eaters Centurion / Praetor Conversion

This one has taken too long to bring to fruition. Here we have the World Eaters conversion that was made with Age of Sigmar arms and weapon combined with Khorne Berserker body and regular Heresy era helmet. He has been painted up in a slightly modified World Eaters colour scheme. 

I have added extra blue accents on the upper end of the gloves, as well as the lower extremity of the greaves. I then got messy. Nuln oil has been applied very inconsistently around the rest of the raised areas - especially noticeable on the top of the greaves / just below the knee, but also in a variety of other locations like the helm. This gives the idea of armour that has been so well used that the owner (or ship crew) have not serviced it in a while. Accumulated grime. Dirt from so many worlds that the killing didn't really stop. Accents of Guilliman Flesh have been applied in number of the joints as well to give variation to the inking. 

The dirty approach is then accented by application of black using a sponge, as well as some silver edge highlights very selectively. The blood meanwhile has a two stage approach. The first is flicking contrast paint to create a spray in different locations. Blood for the Blood god is then applied liberally elsewhere to show collected gore. Some decals have also been applied (prior to this process) for kill counting (right wrist) and the legion numeral (right shoulder pad - not very visible in the image). 

Overall the goal of creating a World Eater who has either been on campaign too long, or who has really started to have the nails bite as their amour steadily turns wholly read by late Heresy is one that I think has been achieved nicely enough. Happy with this one. The next enterprise will be a despoiler squad to deliver him. 

Iron Father Conversion

By a good margin, this is the most audacious, and slightly ridiculous conversion that I have attempted in a long while! But somehow, it has come together to create something very unique and fitting with the vision that I wanted, whilst having something of an over-the-top aura suited to a slightly older school warhammer vibe. 

There are two major parts to this Iron Father conversion. The first is the left arm to give the Iron Father a Paragon Weapon in the form of a chaos warrior spear. This comes from the old school mounted chaos warriors set. Here, I have used a chaos space marine left arm and pierced it with a pin right through. The pin goes a good way into both ends of the paragon weapon or spear and gives it a long length. It looks suitably deadly, but hopefully the praetor will ditch the graviton pistol and hold it in two hands when wielding it. 

The second item to tackle was a servo arm. But I didn't really want a "usual" arm for this. I wanted something to suggest that this Iron Father has plundered technologies that he probably should have. Maybe he opened those vaults once Ferrus Manus had gone. Regardless, I've used necron parts for the servo arm. Although it is clearly sourced from a ranged weapon, the front flange of the weapon is odd looking enough that it can be interpreted as a grabber of some kind which suits the arm configuration. This also gives the suggestion of plundering those long forbidden vaults as well, with a slight nod toward the Dornian Heresy storyline as well. Illegal technology indeed!

The overall miniature is certainly the craziest that I've done in a long while. And it gave me a giggle on an otherwise dull and vexing day to pull this off. Hope you like it and feel inspired!

Successor Chapters of Traitor Legions

This will be a controversial post, and contain mere opinions backed up by little more than knee-jerk reactions in some parts. The topic: which space marine Chapters are plausibly successor chapters from the traitor legions?

The gem of a topic is one that I've been wanting to tackle on the blog for a little while now, and today is about as opportune a moment as I've had for a time. At the heart of the question is whether any loyalist element of traitor legions survived the Horus Heresy and still exist in more "modern" times in Warhammer 40,000. 

I will start with some non-controversial statements. There are at least 2 main elements of traitor forces that are plausibly still around. 

Grey Knights.

The first the the Grey Knights. It is not controversial in the slightest that the original nucleus of the Grey Knights contained traitor legion elements. Take for example, Revuel Arvida, former member of the Thousand Sons, who became Janus. It is probable that the likes of Night Lord, Fel Zharost, also became part of the original core of the Grey Knights. There is no controversy here, other than they are probably no longer living in 40k. 

Black Shields.

Also of zero controversy at all is the existence of the Black Shields. These marines date from the Horus Heresy and contain elements of most legions who decided to forge different paths to their parent legions. Whether they are still around in 40k is another question entirely. 

Let's turn to the more controversial chapters then.

World Eaters.

Almost the only chapter that I could scour that bears hints of lineage from the World Eaters are the Minotaurs Chapter. It is supposed that the original Minotaurs (the red and yellow heraldry ones) were formed from World Eaters. The later lineage would be from elsewhere (Iron Warriors), or be at least described as chimeric. There are descriptions of this 21st founding cursed chapter as being basically berserkers.  I'd give this a plausible rating overall. 

Iron Warriors.

Carrying on from the above, the newer iteration of the Minotaurs chapter might plausibly contain some element of the Iron Warriors geneseed. Or be a hybrid with World Eaters. Regardless, the change in livery is suspect at best. I'd give this a plausible rating again. 

Secondly, there are historic rumours that old timers like me heard that the Silver Skulls chapter were from the Iron Warriors. This is almost entirely based on their emblem. In Universe, the Silver Skulls are no longer thought to be of Iron Warriors descent -- they are Ultramarines, but there was a time when they might have been. This therefore gets a rating of nope. 

Thousand Sons.

Who doesn't suspect that the Blood Ravens might be descended from the Thousand Sons? Knowledge is Power! This one has to get a rating of plausible simply from the sheer level of interest in the subject! Don't flame me. 

Death Guard.

The Sons of Antaeus seem to be a great fit for a Death Guard descended chapter thanks to their sheer resilience. Officially they are Ultramarines, but they are also part of the cursed 21st founding. I'd give this rumour a rating of possible. 

Night Lords.

The Carcharodons might or might not be descended from the Raven Guard. They might also have an element of Night Lords in them too. We're not sure on this one, but there are hints in the canon books that they might have at least some Night Lords descendants amongst their number, or are chimeric. This gets a plausible rating from me. 

Emperor's Children.

The Red Scorpions have a focus on purity and pride in their livery that is very similar to the Emperor's Children legion. Whilst I'm unclear where this rumour came from, I don't think it is entirely true and thus this one only gets a rating of possible from me. On a bad day, I'd just say nope. 

The Death Eagles have purposefully obscured their background and colours from Imperial records, and it might be with due reason. It might be the case that they are indeed descended from the traitors. I'd give this a rating of possible to plausible -- seems more likely than the Red Scorpions at least. 

Sons of the Phoenix. Officially they are Imperial Fist successors. But that name. And the colour scheme. Plus the iconography. I mean. Seriously. Rating of nope due to the official word on the matter. Rating of plausible due to everything else. I hope Cawl created these ones behind Guilliman's back. 

Sons of Horus / Luna Wolves, and Word Bearers.

I could not locate any loyalist successor rumour for these two traitor chapters. Let me know in the comments if you are aware of any. 

Dark Angels.

Yes, I know the Dark Angels are not traitors to most. Sorry. But wait. What about the Fallen? I couldn't find any loyalist Fallen. But there's Cypher. So I include them here for sake of completeness only. 

Alpha Legion.

Returning to my own favourites now, and again as a long timer in the hobby, there are two chapters that stand out to me. The first is the Sons of Orar. They have an Omega for their symbol and date back to the Heresy with an unclear background. Officially they are Ultramarines. So this gets a rating of nope from me sadly.

Then there are the Iron Snakes. I have no idea where this rumour started up to be honest with you (maybe similar modes of operation?), but I've heard it from multiple sources. However, the official canon is that the Iron Snakes are Ultramarine successors from the second founding. Hence this is also a nope rating. 

However. 

Aren't the Alpha Legion loyal anyway? For the Emperor!

Greater Possessed

On my "to buy" list for a while was the Greater Possessed model that came out quite a while ago now. I really liked the sculpt and wondered whether it would be of comparable size and detail level as the Val Gorbak from 30k Word Bearers legion.

Overall, I like the sculpt and the size of the miniature is indeed rather comparable to the Val Gorbak resin models. However, the sculpt is done in a different way and the detail is simply different to what is found on the Forge World models. I don't think this matters at all for the table top, and they would fit right in with the Word Bearers legion for any 30k game.

For my model, I wanted some red Word Bearers colours on the armour, and to have blue "flesh" coloured bits at the extremities. The images show what I came up with.

They have come out reasonably well overall, and I'm pleased with the contrast of the blues and reds -- particularly against the resin base. I think this would be a fine addition to 30k Val Gorbak squads, and I might just use it as such. 

Mk. III Iron Armour Marine

A new project? Yes.
A large project? Haven't decided yet. Hobby mojo is very active at the moment though!

But this is just a little tease as to what I'm up to at the moment. The space marine in the image is a Mark III Iron Armour space marine. The bulk of the parts are resin, as sold by Forge World. The bolter comes from the older chaos space marine range and features the ammo feed coming in at the bottom. The naked head is from the regular space marine range.  Meanwhile on the base, I have sawed a left over bit from the older mechanicum range to provide a small platform for this marine to stand upon. 

Obviously at the moment, there are few clues here as to my new (mini- or otherwise) project, but guesses are welcome. I will post up the painted marine later this week, time permitting!

Assembled Alpha Legion Praetor Conversion

Following on from the unboxing of the newly released Alpha Legion Praetor in Cataphractii terminator armour, I have finally got this one assembled. 

Putting it together was relatively easy. The only snag was attaching the cape before anything else went on, and making sure that the cape slotted in to the right grooves in the back of the terminator armour. 

As can be seen in the images below, I have opted for a little conversion on the resin.

The addition of a warhammer fantasy or Age of Sigmar chaos sword is a significant development for me. Up until now, I have assembled the Alpha Legion under a few themes.

(1) Crusade era. Featuring the baseline weapons and everything else expected of the Legion in full fighting force during the glory era (or later parts of it at any rate).

(2) Early Heresy era. This is where I went slightly more themed around having some marines with the infamous mark V armour, and with more patchwork armour.

(3) Later Heresy era. Bereft of regular supply lines, I have converted a large number of marines to carry Eldar weapons that they have reversed engineered, as well as having scouts with Necron sniper weapons. They are making do in small cells basically. And possibly splintering from within thanks to the Alpha Legion civil war.

And now (4): Late Heresy and Scouring.

This is where some of their number start to turn to or generally explore chaos. Although they do not necessarily succumb in the slightest, the novel "Shroud of Night" serves as a bit of an inspiration here. The main character in that novel sports a chaos blade (daemon sword), although tries to master it rather than becoming the servant. 

The conversion clipped off the resin blade from the hand, and replaced it with a chaos weapon from the fantasy range. It was pinned in to place with a paperclip and glue and is sturdy enough. Whilst I still need to attend to the rest of the base, I'm hoping this marine will be a pleasure to paint up. Moreover, it serves as a bridge between 30k and 40k, and a miniature that I hope I can use in either game system. For the former, the blade will simply be a power weapon. For the latter, it can be used in a chaos space marines codex I think. Whilst I am tempted to convert up a few more not-quite-chaos-marines-yet Alpha Legion in the future, this will be the only one for a little while. 

Battle Report: Alpha Legion vs. Death Guard (1500 pts)

Overview.

With a new mat from Game Mat EU, I had a game of 30k vs 40k with JK last Friday. I brought 1500 points worth of Alpha Legion using the Pride of the Legion Rite of War to make my terminators and veterans in to scoring units (as it means I can take them as troops).

I was using Skorr with a large blob of veterans inside a storm eagle transport and a master of signals. This was complemented by a squad of terminators riding in a land raider. A scout squad with rifles and a heavy support squad with missiles rounded out my list. More can be read about this style of list here which is essentially the same but without the transports.

My opponent was using a double vindicator approach coupled with two plague marine mechanised units (with flamers, melta guns) in rhinos with havoc launchers, a chaos dreadnought, heldrake and a Forge World blight drone. Templates everywhere basically. Oh, and did I mention the chaos lord on a bike with the Burning Brand? No? Well, he also had a pet chaos spawn for laughs. Or a meat shield. 

Set up and Early Turns.

The game was being fought over two objectives placed in the deployment zone of the enemy after regular squads had been deployed. I infiltrated my sniper squad on to my enemies as he castled up in the corner. This, I thought, gave me a tactical advantage. I had my missile launchers in a ruins on the lower right of the picture and kept the storm eagle in reserves.

The Death Guard, meanwhile, were deployed in a "castle" formation with the fliers in reserves. 

The early turns saw some significant damage to my forces thanks to all of the templates that were going around. Plasma carnage from the dreadnought saw off a heavy support marine, and the scouts got repeatedly whacked by a vindicator and havoc launchers. The land raider came through un-scratched though.

Middle Turns.

There was great carnage as the game progressed. My scouts got whittled down. My land raider moved up and disembarked the terminators to kill the rhino that they successfully charged. And the smelly Death Guard oozed out of the wreck to counter attack the terminators. The chaos lord and the spawn joined in the fun.

I immobilised one of the vindicators though from the heavy support squad.

By now though, the plasma dreadnought was truly whittling them down and the heldrake came on to finish a few off. I got a lucky shot in to kill the heldrake thankfully. But this did not stop the blight drone from killing off all my missile launchers a turn later.

Late Turns. 

Some unlucky reserve rolls saw my storm eagle spend a lot of time off the board. But when it finally came on, I disembarked the veteran squad on to the objective in my board zone. 

However, the other side of the board was looking grim. My scouts had been wiped out and the other Death Guard squad sat comfy on the objective inside their rhino. The storm eagle killed the rhino, but I couldn't dislodge the rest of the squad from the objective.

Meanwhile, the chaos marines slew my terminators eventually. The image above shows the near final board situation. We both have one objective each. And there is little that either of us can do to dislodge the other player from these objectives in time.

The game ends on turn 5 with a draw. Both of us have one objective each. If the game had continued, I think the storm eagle might have done more damage to the death guard on the objective. But equally, the blight drone and the chaos lord on the bike would have made it to my veteran's position for some template carnage. 

Overall, a very entertaining, tactical game full of carnage in the middle. And -- this is not our last 7th edition outing either. There's a tournament on Friday that we'll be doing using this (and more) scenery. 

 

Kill Team (Alpha Legion vs Chaos Space Marines)

Today, a battle report from Round 1 of our local Kill Team tournament. We are using modified Kill Team rules, particularly in reference to army selection (e.g., no more than two fliers, two heavy weapons, etc.; basically if its anything other than a "normal" troops selections, then you can only have 2 of them at most. And no named HQs, as might be expected).

I am running an Alpha Legion 30k Kill Team. The one draw back here is that I cannot infiltrate more than two marines (the rule of two applies here as well). So I opt for counter attack instead. Meanwhile, the Chaos Space Marines have a particular Khorne flavour to them (they're a borrowed force - the enemy miniatures belong to me! So no excuses.). I'll leave you to watch the video, but I will note that there were some dire die rolling going on in this game!

Mark 4 Squad Assembled

A new Mark 4 Space Marine armour squad today -- one that I've literally only just assembled in the precious little free time that I have these days. The squad is entirely constructed from parts in the Mark 4 space marine kit with the exception of the sergeant. For the sergeant, he sports a head taken from the grey knights range, a back pack from the chaos space marine range (because it is from Anvilus, of course).

The base topper beneath the feet of the sergeant comes from Anvil Industry -- they're a nice way to mark out some of the more important characters in a squad. All of the squad are posed in a way that I wanted to communicate "activity" by. Many are looking down the sights of their bolt guns. Those that are not appear to be looking at something very in particular in a different direction. All have grenades attached and bolt pistols stowed (from both space marines and chaos space marine parts) and ready for deployment as well. And there is a legion vexilla on the guy who has been silly by removing his helmet. Plus a forge world shoulder pad that I had left over from another project that I wanted to use up!

These will ultimately be painted in Alpha Legion colours and will complement my other miniatures that I've already assembled and been using. Explicitly, I bought them to ensure I could field bigger and more squads of tactical marines. 

Headhunter with Heavy Bolter

Following on from yesterday's squad leader for my Headhunters, today is the Heavy Bolter toting squad member.

Now, for this marine, remember that the heavy bolter automatically comes with suspensors to offset the "heavy" setting. Hence he can run and shoot normally. 

For this marine, I wanted a heavy bolter that was a bit different to what is normally seen on the table top. This is because the rounds being fired will be bane strike, and the suspensors will probably make the heavy bolter fairly unique in the armour.

The light coloured parts are resin from the Forge World upgrade kit for the headhunters. The heavy bolter itself is from the Blood Angels range, with the front end being from the chaos space marine upgrade set. The backpack is clearly grey knights. The legs are regular space marines. Overall, this is a miniature that looks very unique and helps communicate the diverse weapon (perhaps illegal tech) that the Alpha Legion likes to use. 

There's a bit of finishing off to do here yet. Clearly the armpit requires greenstuff (you can see the conversion work with a paperclip pin in the armpit of this photo), and the cables need bending in to place at the rear of the heavy bolter. But otherwise, this is a miniature that I think is looking very nice already, even if it is a bit of a work in progress. Indeed, the pose is the marine effortlessly lifting the heavy bolter up to a more eye / line of sight level (which I wanted in there to suggest the suspensors at least). The chaos space marine gargoyle head is just the icing on the cake really for me. It fits very well and gives a certain baroque feel to the weapon which fits with what I wanted for the theme of this conversion. 

Headhunter Prime

A little bit of conversion work today -- a headhunter prime to add to my collection for the 30k Alpha Legion.

Although the headhunters are an odd choice in some ways, they are actually really fluffy, and can be very effective in certain Alpha Legion builds. For this model though, I wanted something this might communicate the arrogance (or martial hubris) of the Alpha Legion. Hence, the combi-bolter has been angled at the wrist to give a different orientation to the weapon. Meanwhile the power weapon is trailing behind him in a suggestion of charging in to combat and about to unleash on an unsuspecting target.

Clearly, there are a variety of bits used here, including not least one of the newer plastic bases from Games Workshop. The head of the miniature is from the chaos space marine raptors set which I think fits in very nicely with the Alpha Legion (their armour marks and use is always confusing). The backpack is a grey knights teleportation device (the power weapon is also grey knights). The idea being that I might use these in conjunction with Dynat's deep strike granting ability -- this ties in with an army theme of using stolen, advanced, or reverse engineered tech. Meanwhile the legs are from Khorne Berserkers! What can I say? I just liked the pose. The resin (lighter bits) are from the head hunters upgrade release from Forge World. What do you think - does it communicate the martial hubris and sneakiness of the Alphas well enough?

Wargames Gallery: Alpha Drake Stand-off

A picture from today's game (part of an on-going Planetary Empires Campaign on the frozen wastes of Fahrenheit's Landing) features an interesting tactical situation for my Alpha Legion to find themselves in: a heavy support squad stare down the maw of a Heldrake, whilst the Storm Eagle soars by.

Ultimately, the heavy support squad survived, but the Storm Eagle did not in this particular game!

Warhammer World: Chaos Cabinets

Some assorted chaos miniatures from the glass cabinets in Warhammer World today.

I'm mostly posting these as reference materials for myself, but I hope that they also inspire readers as well!

Red Rain

Kharn the Betrayer has been getting a bit of lime light of late thanks to the imminent release of his new rules and the formations from Traitor's Hate. I can't wait!

But today, I wanted to make a quick note of one of my favourite aspects of the new rules that have been making the rounds on the internet: namely the Red Rain that the Maelstrom of Gore formation is able to invoke once per game.

The Red Rain can truly be a game changer in my opinion, and it takes Khorne Berzerkers from being a bit "okay" to being potentially amazing. Potentially.

Take transports with all of the Berzerker units (with Kharn being inside one of these said units) and get them in to position. Unload (preferably from a land raider assault ramp) and get stuck in. The next turn, activate the Red Rain to gain an additional round of combat in the movement phase where the enemy cannot strike back and take advantage of it!

I would probably want land raiders all around. And arguably the best way of doing this would be to utilise another of the formations in the Traitor's Hate book -- Fist of the Gods!

As for the other formations, I really like the look of the core Chaos Warband. Sure, it doesn't give a lot, but its very thematic and would fit right in with my lust for 30k right at the moment. The helforged war pack is also very nice. I could well imagine having half a dozen dreadnoughts (ahem: helbrutes) in there just to test out an enemy.

I also really like the cult of destruction. Getting twice the number of shots from obliterators could just about break the game in some respects. This is amazing and not to be under-rated. I would willingly take a warp smith per obliterator unit to make this happen.

Overall, I'm excited about Traitor's Hate! Its the first time in a while I've felt positive about chaos space marine developments (ignoring the Khorne Daemonkin which was just too mono-god for my tastes).

Heldrake Base Colours

I am currently in the process of painting up a Heldrake for a friend. The colour scheme for this one is green, with lighter edging. Not too dissimilar to the efforts that I put in to the Warhound Titan that I am currently finishing off to be honest.

The image shows where I'm up to. The base colours are now all in place. Following a black undercoat, a silver airbrush layer was applied to ensure a certain shine on the model, followed by a couple of thinned down layers of green. Reikland Flesh edging was then applied to offset this green colour nicely, and is slightly Nurgle suggestive in parts.

The model is not yet finished. It is simply to a "table top standard" at this stage (which is to say more than the usual 3 colours minimum that is specified by some tournaments). I'd like to do some shading next, but the model is needed for play soon, so I'm pausing at this point and will continue with this one later in the year. 

One of the problems faced here though was the sheer spikeyness of the model! I like to hold the model in my offhand whilst painting. Yes: I know I could do other wise and use the stand, but its just the way I like to undertake things. But oh my! - my offhand feels very prickled right now! I'm going to bed to heal up and hope that I don't get a Nurgly infection!