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

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

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)!

Landfall, battle and retreat

"Early in the morning we made landfall near the location where the spy drone had crashed. The Pathfinders set out to find the imperials. After a few hours the scouts reported that an imperial mechanised company were heading towards a small rural village. Why were they here on this planet? I decided to ambush the company and take some prisoners. The village would provide good cover. At nightfall we were ready and waited for the imperials to drive through. In early dawn we heard the loud noise of their primitive vehicles and saw the glint of their lights. They were here!

The ambush would consist of pathfinders marking targets from their vantage point in a tall building in the middle and me and two groups of fire warriors hidden in two other buildings. The second group of pathfinders in a devilfish would scout out the imperials and mark a landing zone for the XV8 tank hunter suits and drones to drop in a surgical strike from orbit.

The plan was set in motion and had started well

It was a sound plan, but there is a truth as old as warfare that victory requires both cunning and luck. In the cover of darkness the Devilfish with the homing beacon drove forward to mark the landing zone. My fire warriors took up position in the buildings. The pathfinders in the tall building painted the front Chimera with their markerlights. Two flashes was seen from the speeding Devilfish when the Seeker missiles launched in to the air and speeded towards the Chimera. Two large explosions followed and I could feel how the sight bolstered our fighting spirit. But alas, the crude engine of war just pushed forward. Soon after a hail of fire rained down on our position. The flimsy building just barely held together and many a proud hunter fell. Pinned down by the heavy fire I really hoped that the suits would descend any moment to turn the imperials to smouldering heaps of slag. The Devilfish reported that it was also taking heavy fire but was in position and marked the LZ. I could hear over the communication grid that several hails were made to the skies, but no response came. Something blocked our communications to orbit, either they were jammed or then some electrical weather phenomenon blocked the signals. 

The Devilfish was marking the LZ, but the orbit was silent.
Chimeras closed in on our postion in the middle.

The wall of steel was rolling towards our positions and we could as well throw rocks as fire our weapons against them. The situation was dire and I had just a few of my men left. Even if the combat discipline held I could sense the underlying despair in the voices on the com grid. Suddenly the building turned to a burning hell. Drops of the burning liquid touched my face and I fell to the ground in agony. Around me I could hear the screams of my men and the guttural battle cries of charging humans. Somehow I managed to save myself through a space under the floor and crawl outside. Blinded by my wounds I scrambled for safety in a random direction. After a small eternity I was grabbed by my arms and dragged inside a vehicle. After I regained my posture I learned that our forces was withdrawing. We had managed to get an emergency extraction signal to orbit and the landing crafts were waiting for us a few clicks away. We had suffered horrendous casualties in just a few moments and I will bear the mark of my failure on my face as a sober reminder and to commemorate our fallen warriors.

My last warrior buying me time to esacpe in the midst of the confusion.

A few days have gone past. We are heading back to Sa’cea sector.  I look into the darkness of space and fear for the future. The fire caste will demand retribution and I crave for it also. We still don´t know why the Imperial armies are mustering on that planet. Revenge will only lead to escalation and the possibility of a full out war with the imperium, a situation we are not prepared for. Maybe we should wait for Imperials next move. On the other hand a pre-emptive strike with overwhelming force could be the other solution to stall any Imperial lordling’s ambitions for conquest in this sector…”

Recon Cadre sent to action

Hi,

There have been reports from spy drones situated on planets on the outskirts of our Empire that the Imperials have been more active than usual. Only a week ago one of the spy drones went offline. Without the drone we are blind.  I, Aun'La Sa'cea Shaseira, of the Ethereal caste have been dispatched with a small Pathfinder recon cadre to investigate the situation further.

We left our home Sept Sa’cea a week ago and tomorrow we will make landfall on the planet near where the drone went offline. Something is clearly going on the surface. The first objective is information but if I deem the threat to be substantial we will try to neutralise it with the forces at hand. I held a small ceremony this evening for the Fire Warriors to calm their souls and remind them that we all work for the Greater good for all beings in the galaxy and it gives us all resolution and a purpose. The humans maybe need our guiding hand, even if it is a harsh one, to set them on the correct path to enlightenment.

The industrious Earth Caste sent us a few examples of the new Recon Drones with homing beacons and positional relays. The Pathfinders are eager to use their new toys so I decided to take one with us. It should give us real-time pinpoint co-ordinates at all times to guide our forces. 

The hunt begins!

Recon Drone side view

Recon Drone, front view

Recon drone inside the Devilfish

State of the Greater Good

Hi,

It is night before Christmas eve, so I decided to go through the status of the Greater Good (I don´t want to compete at new year with state of the union). What it all means is that I will go through what I have painted at the moment in my Tau Army and my future direction with it. My taus are from the Sa'cea sept, and therefore have the orange markings on everything. 

At this point i calculated that my current painted army stands at ~800 points (according to 2013 Tau Empire Codex).  

Tau Painted (800pts)

Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Combined Arms Detachment) (800pts)

• HQ (50pts)

  • Ethereal (50pts)

• Elites (156pts)

  • XV8 Crisis Team (156pts)

    • Crisis Shas'ui

      Missile pod, Plasma rifle
      

    • Crisis Shas'ui

      Missile pod, Plasma rifle
      

    • Crisis Shas'ui

      Missile pod, Plasma rifle
      

• Troops (236pts)

  • Fire Warrior Team (118pts)

    11x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
    

    • Fire Warrior Shas'ui

      Pulse rifle
      

  • Fire Warrior Team (118pts)

    11x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
    

    • Fire Warrior Shas'ui

      Pulse rifle
      

• Fast Attack (358pts)

  • Drone Squadron (168pts)

    12x Gun Drone
    

  • Pathfinder Team (190pts)

    10x Pathfinder Shas'la
    

    • Devilfish

      Two Gun Drones
      

Created with BattleScribe

800 pts of  painted Greater Good

My most recent addition were the 12 Drones you can see to the right. This time I experimented to make orange much more prominent colour. I really like how it gives that extra punch that make them stand out. This made me think that should I revisit my fire warriors to either paint the helmets light grey with a orange antenna or vice versa? The current colour scheme is more realistic, but to be honest they look a bit dull on the table. Either way I most revisit them to complete their bases. As it stands now they have only a fine grain sand glued on the base without colour. I will probably add some grit and go with a grey colour (look at the pathfinders)

Latest addition were 12 Gun Drones

Pathfinders got an additional 5 members with  pulse carbines and markerlights

That was the current situation. What about the future? I have made lists after lists for 1000 and 1750 points and tried to think about what I like. The core army I have now is very light on anti-tank and a Sentinel or Dreadnought will have a breeze walk in the park as long the front points in the direction of  my pulse rifles. Worst case a Sentinel could walk up to my gun line and shut down an entire unit from shooting.  My battlesuits equiped with fusion blasters (Str 8, AP 1, melta) and some markerlights is the only option at the moment. So the remedy for armour would be broadsides or/and Hammerhead. My standard setup will include 1-3 broadsides and most of the time probably with all missiles and missile drones. While thinking about how to add more AT to my list I got the idea to have a Mecha-suit list. The king of the suits is of course the  XV-104 Riptide. A Monstrous creature with jetpack and a freaking battle cannon  equivalent as the main gun. The Riptide together with Broadsides and XV8 suits would form the hardhitting core of the army, FW, PF and Drones would be support units. My warlord would probably be a commander in a suit with buffing wargear.  With only one elite slot left I could opt to go for more XV8s or Stealth units. If maximum number of suits is the order of the day it would be a squad of 6 Stealth suits and my commander would take two XV8 Bodyguards (does not take a force org slot). The Stealth team would probably have a homing beacon so my XV8s could deepstrike precisely where I want them to be. This could be squeezed under 1500 points.

For that tournament point level of 1750 points I could get an secondary detachment with say a second riptide or another XV8 team and maybe some kroot to fill the points. Looking from my opponents view the horde of robosuits would look both awesome and intimidating. But looking from my side I could as easily be intimidated with the 6 tanks or the likes coming in my general direction (thats why the melta suits pops the tanks from behind),

After all this ranting you got a general idea where my future plans are. That said I also have a vision for a fast recon army with flyers and piranhas as the main theme. But my next step is to get the unit of broadsides assembled and painted to get the current army up to 1000 points.


Merry Christmas!

The Ethereal

Hi again dear readers!

Christmas is almost upon us, That means I have more time to work on my projects. During the weekend I have been busy working on Aunshi, hero of the empire as he, probably in mistake, defeated a tactical Space Marine in close combat. Anywys many thanks to my friend "Decorus" for donating the miniature. I hope you approve of his new home.

I replacde the normal 20 mm base with a 40 mm one, so that I would have more space to modell on it. I had to ponder a bit on the choise of larger base. He will look a lot cooler but in games he will stand out as a sore thumb and be the height of a XV8 crisis battlesuit. I still decided I wanted to go forward with the larger base, and from an artistic stand point I am really glad I did. Here are pictures and videos of  the miniature. My next project will either be the horde of drones or the rest of the Pathfinders with special weapons. Until next time!

Material used for the base:
-40 mm generic base (not GW)
-GF9 cement rubble (for stairs)
-Brown card board
-GF9 rocky basing grit
-PVA Glue
-Quick dry putty to fill holes in the card borad
-Paints: black, greys and browns.
-PlayStation 4 as background for picture...

The base assembled. The white stuff at the bottom is putty

Aunshi painted without base

Aunshi from back

Aunshi standing on his new base

I am really happy with this end result.

All Your Bases belongs to the Pathfinders

Greetings follower of the Greater Good!

Yesterday evening I started a small project of basing my XV8 Crisis Suits and my 5 Pathfinders I almost got ready.

I had just acquired some cement rubble and coarse grain from the hobby store (brand is Gale Force 9 and costs about 4.5 euro) so I put my skills to the test. My goal was to make it look that the bases would belong into a ruined cityscape. Here follows the work steps:

Step 1 

In Step 1 I glued on the empty bases the white cement pieces and the grains with PVA glue. I also glued fine grain sand after the larger pieces had dried a while.  I let everything dry completely overnight

Step 2 - base coat and drybrush

  In Step 2 I first base coated the bases with brush and watered down black. The fine grain sand soaks in the watered paint much better than thick one. After the undercoat had dried I dry brushed all the bases with a darker and lighter grey. It is really easy and the end results look really good. I could have ended here, but I decided to go one step further. 

Step 3 - Finished bases

  In Step 3 I watered down a dark brown and brushed over the bases, not at every spot, but here and there to add some dirt colour to the base for a warmer tint. After it had dried I glued on some Citadel dead grass. I really liked the end result, but maybe for the ruin feeling I would have better stopped at Step 2. The finished bases have more natural rock formation look than ruins and rubble.

Crisis Suits with their new bases. 

Pathfinders leading the way. Sergeant is in the middle with binoculars and radio

Pathfinders from other view. I added some small details like gun holster and knifes to the models. 

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Heretic (i.e. Dark Vengeance unboxing)

Hi, 

This is more of a filler update with nothing new finished. It is more like a preview what I will work on the next months. 

Today after work I took a stroll to my local game store (Poromagia,com) with the intent to by some material for bases, rubble and the like. Tuesdays are gaming days and there were 20 or more people playing Warhammer 40k games at different tables. I watched the games for a moment after picking up the stuff I came for and saw that Tau are quite popular. Then from nowhere the consumer demon possessed me and I picked the Dark Vengeance starter set (7th Edition) with some additional secret boxes of Tau tools of destruction. After spending ten times more then I intended I walked out of the store feeling like Santa with a sack of presents for myself. The staff was very nice in the store and even gave me a free card game in addition to the purchases.

I opened the box and looked through the model sprues in the box. The box comes with about 500 points worth each of Chaos Space Marines and Dark Angels. "Holy cow" was my first impression. The details on the plastic sculpts are insane now days. I remember buying GW plastic stuff over 10 years ago and it doesn’t even come close in quality or detail of modern sculpts. One specific Chaos Space Marine sprue made me fall in love with the Chaos Gods and I let out a mad cackling cultist laughter. You will see soon which one. But here follows an "unboxing" of the starter kit and some impressions. Overall I felt that I got value for my money. Enjoy!

Box Art, a bit bland in my opinion. The newer Dethstorm is much more eye catching

All the contents in one picture

The gaming aids and paper contents of the box. The "how to play" guide is really nice with a simple go-through of the rules a phase at a time with clear examples. Notice that only 6 dice + scatter dice are included...c´mon. You include miniatures worth 100 euros, but only include six dice. Also I see that the horrible measure sticks are the same that first appeared in WH Fantasy 5th edtion box 16 years ago. The templates are nice though. 

Size comparison of the 6th Edition Rule book and the one in the box. A4 vs A5 and ~700 pages vs 208. Nice and handy to only have the rules in one small pocket sized book. It is full colour and the quality is ok. The cover is very soft and will probably look like hell after a few months. 

Comparison between page designs. These ones are almost identical, The design language in the 7th edition feel fresh and striking while the 6th edition is more traditional. I like both .

Then onwards to the first sprue with Chaos Chosens and a hellbrute. This one is absolutely spectacular

These 3 dudes made me fall in love with Chaos. The horns, the horns...and the crazy axe wielding cultist champion. Insane details. Admit it, after seeing them you also want to embrace the dark gods. The left side one with two horns is Krampus himself (Kranon the Relentless IRL)  .

Details of backside of the Hellbrute, I am not a greates fan of the flesh mechanical look, but again awesome details. 

The box contains two of these sprues. Bikes, Space marines and cultists.

Just look at these! They look adorable with their gas masks and spiky periphelia, Would go well wiht the Dark Eldar SM look. 

The Special Edition miniature inside the box, Vrosh Tattersoul, aspiring champion. The miniature is ok I guess, but Krampus sweeps the floor with him. 

Dark Angel Sprue

The Dark Angels are great sculpts with lot of cool details, but... put three horns on the Deathwing terminator in the middle and he would be awesome.  

More details of a terminator with a power sword. I really like the stuff that hangs from his belt (is the spehere a incense burner?)

Details of the bike. The banner pole annoys me tremendously and oterwhise they look a bit meh. If it must have wings I would put them as details from the front wheels going upwards or as covers for the legs.