Hammertime

Hi,

This update will be a small one with a few pictures of a "finished" Hammerhead. Quotation marks as I still have to finish the Ion Cannon and some small stuff on it, but I deemed it field ready so here you go!

My painting scheme is similiar to my earlier Devilfish (this can easily be "downgraded to a Devilfish also). I continued with the trend to add some red\organge colour on the model to make it stand out a bit, as I did for my Broadsides. The gun turret is magnetized so you can switch the Rail cannon for a Ion Cannon. The turret is removable all together so it can transform to a Skyray, The nose turret can be changed to a burst cannon and you have a Devilfish. Assembly took about 2-3 hours and painting about 6-8 hours during three evenings in a row.

Next up will probably be my two Piranhas. After that I have quite a solid 1000 points painted army.

Front

Front/side

Interior

Battles for the Greater Good

Hi, 

Here is a complilation of some stories from the front lines where my Fire Warriors fight for the Greater Good. 

The first story tells about the battle with Tau and their Ultramarine allies (Allies from here on) against the mechanized fist of the Astra Militarum in a 1500 point Eternal War: Emperor´s Will Mission. The allies side consisted of a primary Detachment of 900 points of  Tau and a allied detachment of 600 points of Ultramarines. 

The Setup

AM got the first turn. The Allies plans was to hold their own objective with the space marines and fire warriors while the Tau commander with XV8 suits and drones, terminators and gun drone unit deep strike behind enemy lines to cause mayhem and ultimately capture the AM´s objective. I must admit that always when I see the AM's wall of steel deployed, doubt creeps into my mind as I already two times in the past got steamrolled by it. The whole battle plan was haning on the performance of the deep strikers so it was a very risky plan. 

AM Turn 1

Allies deployment

Allies Turn 1

Shooting turn 1 

The AM machines of war rolled forward and a relentless barrage came raining down on the Allies lines causing some casualties. The Allies manouvered to better positions during the first turn, but overall a very cautious start. The AM bombardment intensified during turn two and caused substantial casualties on the Tau force. A Broadside and a unit of Fire warriors were wiped out scoring AM First Blood.
The start of turn 2 for the Allies was the most crucial one in the game as a lot was depening on the reserve rolls for the deep strikers. This time the Tau and their Allies had more luck than Aun'La Sa'cea Shaseira when the reinforcments never arrived. This time the orbital jumps and teleports struck their targets with surgical precision. As soon they landed the fusion blasters, plasma guns and other guns turned vehicles to molten slag and shattered the bodies of the guardsmen caught in the torrent of fire.

A successfull Deepstrike mission. The Tau Coimmander, Terminators and Drones drop exactly as planned on turn 2 

Allies Shooting Turn 2

On turn 3 AM regroups to face the new threat and pours tons of fire into the Tau Commanders unit destroying most of the drones, but the suits survives the onslaught. On Turn 3 and forward the Allies defence line with Space Marines and FW unit with their Devilfish start to advance forward building up to the Mont'ka "the killing blow". The Deep strikers joined with the Dreadnought continued to wipe out the AM forces. The AM commander had his last stand in the wood near the objective as the Allies filled every inch of air in the woods with grenade shrapnell and storm bolter rounds,






The AM can put up some fierce resistance and on the last turns the commander's last squad mate succumbed to fire and only the commanders Iridium suit saved his life. In the end a lonely Guardsman stood defiant holding their objective, but as the game continued to turn 6 the hero dropped his gun to the ground surrounded by the towering Terminators and Tau Commander. After that the guns silenced on battlefield. The Allies were victorius on that day.






A few lessons learnt:


-Tau Commander in Battlesuit is a monster. With T5, W4 and 2+ armour save and tons of wargear he is a one man army. Add in squaddie suits and drones with him and the unit delivers a world of pain to both vehicles and infantry.


-Fusion guns. Did I already mention fusion guns?


-The effectivness of Gun Drones suprised me. In this game they destroyed Chimeras and infantry alike. But leave them in the open and they will quickly go down as evrything else.


-Deepstrikers. In this game they won the game, but as in my previous game they nevere arrived. If half your force never arrives you are practically playing with half the points compared to your opponent for many turns and at the time they arrive it can be too late. I think your reserve should only be one tool (a potent one) in your toolbox, but not be relied on as only one.

AM retaliates for their losses

Drones get decimated

Turn 5-6. The last survivor holds the objective as he is a troop choise.

In this second story, the fickle Ultramarines have turned their coat on their former allies and joined AM against the Tau, in a game of 1200 points, Maelstrom mission: Lost Contact. For this battle I had worked hard the whole week to get assemled, magnetized and painted my bigger guns This was the first time I used the Riptide, Hammerhead two Broadsides and Piranhas. I had quite a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest seeing my army deployed. Unlike the previous games I was less scared of the AM as I had equal big guns on my side. My biggest worry were the Terminators that would be deepstriking so I had equipped my Riptide with Interceptor to lessen their impact, also my Broadsides were deployde with the Terminators in mind so the could plasma and rail them wherever they landed.


The Allies went first. A single Chimera drove forward to get the objective. Also the Space Marinesquad with the Warlord in the middle moved forward towards the objective in the middle of the table. On their right flank the Walkers lumbered forward into cover. Shooting resulted in a orbital bombardment taking a hullpoint away from the Hammerhead and a dead or two Fire Warrior. On Tau turn one the Piranhas flanked the Chimera and destroyed (exploded) it with fusion guns and the gun drones. The Devilfish with a squad of FW moved forwarded and disembarked near the middle objective to wrestle it from the Space Marines. The Riptide walked forward to Greet the imperial walkers.


Shooting resulted in the destuction of the Dreadnought. With the aid of 4 Markerlights the Riptide Nova Charged it's Ion Cannon and caused the Dreadnought to explode. The FW in the middle managed to kill enough Marines so that FW unit held the objective.The Veteran squad that had emerged from the exploded Chimera was reduced also to 3 men after my second squad of FW. The Tau had scored first blood and Secure objective 6 on turn 1.


On turn 2 the Allies managed to deepstrike their Terminators in the middle of the Tau Forces. The Riptide intercepted and managed to kill one Terminator. In the shooting face the Allies caused enough casualties to invoke 3 morale checks, but the Tau's will held. Perhaps one of the turning points in the game happened when the Space Marine squad with the librarian failed to assault the FW squad even after a re-roll.


On Tau turn two I got 3 more objective cards as I held 3 Objectives at the beginning of the turn. The AM had not got any on their turn. The Tau Commander with suits move forward. The Riptide also moved to secure the objective on the flank in the middle with a secondary objective to assault the Sentinel. The Piranhas turbo-boosted to secure the objective in the woods. In the shooting phase the Space Marines with the warlord Librarian was wiped out, one terminator fell to Broadside fire. The Sentinel was wrecked by the XV8 suits, so the Riptide assisted in wiping out the Space Marines. In the end I received 3 more VPs, The situation was 5-0 in the Taus favor so we decided not to continue the game as the end-result looked quite obvious.


Lessons learned:

-The Allies sides biggest downfall in this game was probably the army list. I had against me two small distinct 600 point armies that put too much limitations on the force compostion. I again could effectively utilise the Force organisation and 1200 points to bring a balanced and powerful force to the table. Allies should probaly not be used in a very small games unless you have a very specific role you want to fill with the ally.

-Big guns can be waste of points. The Hammerhead was a very expensive Objective holder that did absolutely nothing.

-In Tactial Objective Game you live or die depending how you can utilise or receive your objectives each turn. In this game the Allies only received the single objective card as I had 4. I think the Tactical Objectives are fun with the decision points if you should rush for the objective this turn sacrificing shooting and even the unit next turn. It can turn out that there is too much randomness in the tactical objective system, so that you feel out of control. But it is still too early to say with only one (half) battles experience.


So far the Tau's are rolling victoriously forward to spread the Greater Good in the galaxy. Let's see how they fare in a larger game without allies. Until next time!

Deployment and Objective markers

Situation on turn two of the Allies. The Riptide killed one Deep striking terminator with it's Interceptor ability 

Start of Tau turn 2

Tau Turn 2 movement

Tau Turn two shooting and final situation

Broadsides and Get stuff done

Hi there readers!

I love suprises and this time I have a suprise for you! Unlike my assumption in my last post that I would be working on the Riptide or the Hammerhead I instead have been busy with two XV88 Broadside suits for the Taus.

I will have a 1200 point game this Saturday and I have been hard working on getting my armylist togheter and at least a few of the new models painted. The new(ish) Broadside miniatures are quite lovely, especially with the rail rifles so it was a joy all the way to paint them even if it took me 3+ h/model to paint.

During the process of assembling my force I also discovered that for me it is quite a efficient way to work. With a clear deadline and a bit of self-pride on the table I was motivated at a completley different levelt to get stuff done. I suppose that most Wargamers are familiar with the syndrome that you have more cardboard boxes filled with plastic to be glued and painted than you can count but you are indecisive what you want to start with or just procastrinate and think "I can do that tomorrow". I suggest that you try this method then. Make your armylist that includes at least one or more of those shiny METAL DETH BAWKSES you always wanted to get painted and a set a date not too long in to the future, 1-4 weeks at most and try to get it done within that time period. Then you can start a new 1-4 week cycle with a plan what you want to get done during that period. Rinse and repeat and don´t forget to reward yourself for completing something. I had to scale back on my initial goals, but it then felt much better when it was achieved. If you are familiar with agile development methods I think you recognize this,

Anyways, after that life advice here is what I have got ready between tuesday and thursday. You may notice that I have magnetized them differently. I suggest the method where the magnet for the ball joint is horisontal position instead of the vertical one. It will get so much more support and keep the gun up instead of letting gravity turning the gun towards the floor. When painting I also experimented with adding a srtriking colour into the mix and I must say the red/orange is really nice with the blue/gray colours.

Front view

Back and side view

Both models taken into parts. All of the parts have a magnet or more attached to it

My first attempt to magnetize the arms for the rail rifle. This is not the way I recommend it as there will not be any uppward support for the gun. 

My second attempt. Here the magnet is horisontal and will rest on top of the ball joint

 

Big Robot and Interior Design

Hi,

Apologies for the week long break, but I was bed bound for most of the time with a killer flu. Now I am back and will tell and show you some small things I have been working on during the weekend.

A few days ago I received my orders from Waylands Games with a lot of Tau goodies including Piranhas, stealth suits and some more secret weapons. Most important of all were the bag of magnets. With the 3 mm and 5 mm magnets I can now continue the MWi (i.e. Modular Weapon Initiative) and save hundreds of bucks in the process. 

Here is what I magnetized at the moment:

Devilfish/Hammerhead/Skyray - You can choose the turrets and weapons you want, click, click and it transforms to your heart’s desire. (I'll post a tutorial during next week)

2 x Broadsides with weapons - The new Broadsides models are awesome, but unfortunately the street retail price is 40 EUR/model so these babies cry for magnetizing. To be honest they are a bit tricky to get right. I spent 3 hours with the first one and 1 hour with the second one. The problem is that the High yield missile launcher and heavy rail rifle arms attach at different angels to the arm ball. The different angles means that the magnet placing inside the arm socket is a bit tricky. I solved it by carving the arm socket and then using some green stuff and placing the magnet inside it while it was sticky and held the whole model in place in the position I wanted. It is still a bit of trial and error. The shoulder mounts are also magnetized for the option of twin linked plasma/smart missile system

Riptide - I had this sucker since Christmas but without the correct size magnets I did not want to work on him. Now all the parts are put together and all weapon options are magnetized. The model is just huge and looking cool, what the small head looks a bit odd. 

Riptide parts, Firewarrior included for size comparison

As I put together the hull for the Devilfish/Hammerhead/Skyray i was inspired to do some fun interior design and went on painting the transport compartment. I had this vision of a very bright interior and to save time I went with white. I sprayed and painted all the parts separately before gluing them together. I also added a few transfers to the interior to spice it up. Here is the result and enjoy it before it is sealed up! Next updates will probably either be painting the Hammerhead or riptide. Until next time!

Interior

Interior

Interior with back hatch closed

Interior

Aspiring for greatness

Hi,

The week is at an end. I had a great game of WH40k with Space Marines & Tau vs. Astra Militarum (aka Imperial Guard). It was the first game I won since we started playing so that was nice. I will post a mini report on that game in a separate post.

Today I spent half a day painting a Chosen Chaos Space Marine that will be an Aspiring Champion for my CMS squad.

I wanted to push my boundaries of my paintig skills with this one as the sculpt deserves a great paint job. A few challenges I set out for this one;

-Power Axe effect with Object Source Lightning (or OSL)
This is aa first time for me painting a power weapon effect and I wanted to make it look that the gem in the blade looks like it lights up the rest of the blade
-A smooth gradient from dark to light on the shoulderpad. 
I wanted that neat almost gemlike gradient for the shoulderpad from dark to light
-Neat edge high lightas
I tried to be as neat as possible with the edge highlights and tried to avoid large blobs.

I am quite pleased with the end-restult, the axe took me a few retries and experimentig before I had an end result I was pleased with. Even if it took me about 5 hours to complete I had tons of fun and learned a lot in the process. Here some pictures, enjoy!

Front

Side with Power axe

Back, note tenctacles on bolter. 

Alternate front pic

Complete squad

A first step into chaos

Hi there,

Last time we had some pirate hats, but after all the name of the army is Chaos SPACE MARINES, so the Stars today are the Space Marines. With this I am really setting the tone and style for the rest of the army exploring the coulour scheme of the Red Corsairs. These models of Dark Angel SMs that have been tuned with pirate gear and a few skulls (for that chaos flavour).

During the process of painting these guys I was amazed how much time it takes to just paint them in two different coulurs and two highlights, even if spray primed them with red. I am quite pleased with the end result though. After highligting I dipped them in Army Painter Quick Shade, I might take a notch back on the quality of basic marines and concentrate on the fantastic Chosen models I will use as aspiring champions for the basic CMS troop and the crazy lord on bike idea I have in mind that will set the whole backstory of this little warband. ( a different post will be just about him).

Regarding the "chaosy" stuff  with mutations, spikes etc. I think that  I do not want to restrict myself too much regarding conversions and just cool miniatures that are totally wicked looking and demonic by limiting the fluff that they are just pirate versions of codex astartes marines. As the army evolves there will be more chaos specific units like warp talons, obliterators and demon engines that will probably fit into a bit of fluff story about a starting chaos warband that with time embraces more and more of the dark powers to gain an edge over their loyalist prey. It gives some motivation and fun things to do with the army beside painting and playing it. I should probably do the same with my Tau, but at the moment I am totally into all the crazy and cool stuff you can do with chaos.

So here is the first 4 marines and they are waiting for their Aspiring Champion to get his paint job done back in the Eye of Terror.

Space Marines from front

Pictures of some added items and conversions

Cult of (Space) Pirate Hats

Ahoy 'ere planet dwelling lubbers!

I will quickly show you some progress and experiments I done with green stuff and the instant mold over the weekend. I also played with what kind of army list I could get together that is not too shabby but sticks to my Space Pirate theme (and not buying insane amounts of new miniatures).

So as the topic says the way of the pirate is to accessorize with piraty things, and what comes to my mind is skulls and hats. The hats are the most notable on a small miniature so I started with them. Unfortunately burely space marine with pirate hats would be a bit silly, so I turned  my gaze to the cultists who already look the part.. 

Cultist champion with his blunderbuss and cutthroat friends. Scarfs and hats. 

Above is my tutorial on making pirate hats out of green stuff as I had a hard time findig any. Hope any fellow aspiring pirate appreciates it. 

For other piraty accessories I scavenged my bit box and found the Kroot sprues with perfect looking flinlock pistols and knives and sharp things. Using the instant mold I produced a large pool of Chaos and pirate looking bits that I will glue on the space marines and cultist to give them that pirate vibe.

Lots of bits inside the instant mold

Assorted stuff ready from the mold.

As for the 1000 point list I  had in mind you can see it here. I need a box of bikes and a Rhino to be set and go with the list. I dropped the Chosen squad and use the lovely models as Aspiring champions for my CMS troops. My three way punch of the army is the terminator squad that will probably guard the lord, the 5 bikes and the hellbrute. The rest will camp on objectives and support, I have a healthy dose of plasma guns in the army to deal with other Space Marines, Terminators and light vehicles. Note also the lack of Marks or Icons of chaos, my bikes might get the mark of Khorne or Slanesh for extra attacks or higher iniative. If I had to choose a cult I think that Slaanesh would be a good candidate for Pirates that enjoy their space rum and gold.

Until next time!

Red Corsairs (982pts)

Chaos Space Marines: Codex (2012) (Combined Arms Detachment) (982pts)

• HQ (157pts)

  • Chaos Lord (157pts)

    Lightning claw, Power fist, Sigil of corruption, Terminator Armour
    

• Elites (259pts)

  • Chaos Terminators (159pts)

    • Terminator

      Powerfist
      

    • Terminator

      Powerfist
      

    • Terminator

      Powerfist
      

    • Terminator Champion

      Lightning Claw
      

      • Combi-Weapon

        Combi-flamer
        

  • Helbrute (100pts)

    Multi-melta, Power fist
    

• Troops (371pts)

  • Chaos Cultists (65pts)

    8x Autogun, Heavy stubber, 10x Squad models (champion included)
    

    • Champion's upgrade

      Cultist Champion's Shotgun
      

  • Chaos Cultists (55pts)

    Champion's upgrade, Flamer, 10x Squad models (champion included)
    

  • Chaos Space Marines (158pts)

    4x Chaos Marine with CCW and Boltgun, Chaos Rhino, Plasma Gun
    

    • Aspiring Champion

      Bolt Pistol
      

      • Combi-weapon

        Combi-flamer
        

      • Power Weapon

        Power Axe
        

  • Chaos Space Marines (93pts)

    4x Chaos Space Marine with Boltgun
    

    • Aspiring Champion

      Bolt Pistol, Combi-bolter
      

      • Power Weapon

        Power Maul
        

• Fast Attack (195pts)

  • Chaos Bikers (195pts)

    5x Chaos Biker, 2x Plasma Gun
    

    • Chaos Biker Champion

      Power Fist
      

      • Combi-Weapon

        Combi-plasma
        

Created with BattleScribe

Space Pirates and renegade Space Marines

Hi, 

The new year is here and I hope it will mean for my part a lot of painted miniatures and lot of slaughter and damned souls fuelling the dark chaos gods, ahem I mean battles of  WH40K. You may know that I obtained the Dark Vengeance starter set with Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines a while ago and fell in love with the cute small cultist and insanely detailed Chosen marines. I have now decide that the Dark Angels will give in to Chaos and join the other side. The whole pack will apply for Space Pirate jobs at the Red Corsairs Renegade Space Marines under Huron Blackhearts leadership (Link to Lexicanun). My Taus will be in the backseat for a while until my reinforcements arrive with more magnets.

To successfully turn the Dark Angels gone bad I went shopping for Green stuff, Instant mold, red primer spray and sculpting tools. I will tune the loyalist marines with a little chaos bits here and there made of green stuff. To save time I will use the instant mold to replicate bits I need, like skulls, swords etc. To work with instantmold you pour hot water in to any container and drop one bar of the stuff in the water. A few minutes later it is soft and you can press in the master object in to it and let it cool down. Voila, you have a mold you can use then to replicate the object. When the mold is not needed anymore you can just throw it into hot water again. 

Green Stuff, Sculpting tools and Instant mold.

Red Primer

Other people have done similar projects with the DV box and it seems doable. I think I will leave most of the DA emblems on the miniatures and just paint a red X on them at least on the shoulder pads to signify that they are now part of the Red Corsairs. They should probably retain their Dark Angel colours on the armour, but I say that they have had time to paint them with the Crimson and Black of their new allegiance.

I today finished the assembly of the all the DA miniatures, I am really impressed how they were just plug & play and how it was practically  impossible to stick the wrong bits together as the pins would not fit the holes or otherwise not fit. What you see in the picture is all without glue. I calculate that the whole assembly and cleaning of the plastic parts took me around 3-4 hours in total. So if you have a friend or two you could be blasting each other on the battlefield in just a few hours with all the models assembled and quick start booklet. How cool is not that for new people coming in to the hobby!

Krampus and his to be Red Corsair space pirates. Amazingly there is not a drop of glue holding this band of brother together (pun intended)!