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

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

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

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. 

A Short visit to the Vechicle factory

Hi,

Yesterday I worked on the engines of the Devilfish and here are some pictures of the results.

"Today we visit the Earth Caste Vehicle factory and specially the Engine workline. Here they work night and day to produce the engines that will power the vehicles that will liberate the galaxy. Today they are working on the most common engine of the Vector Thrust Nova type. These engines power both civilian and military vehicles alike."

Camo pattern design station

Stencils cut out from foil

First stencils attached to the engine

To the left engine after first paint layer, to the right after second paint layer

Results with stencils removed (and after cleaning with brush)

Engines ready to be attached to the Devilfish

Back in Action! Crisis and Fishes

Hi Dear Reader,

I have been absent from this blog over a year my apoligies. A lot has happened tha last year. A few weeks ago I and a group of friends played some Warhammer 40K in our local Games Workshop store. I played as Tau, champion of the greater good against the oppressive forces of the Imperal Guard. That day the Tau left the field with a bloodied nose, thanks a lot to IG sentinels I could not hurt. That game and my friends got me returning to painting and collecting minis.

Today I have been working on two projects:

1. "Modular Weapon initiative (MWi)"
2. "Flying Fish"

First I almost finished my 3 XV8 Crisis Suites, the bases must be done, I will put some ruins and debris on the bases at some point. For the suit weapons i started the MWi. For this purpose I drilled holes in my suites and weapons the whole morning. 3x4 holes in the suites and some more in the weapons. In these holes I glued 5mm disc magnets carefully checking the polarity of the magnets. I put the magnet on the tip of my craft knife and checked if it would attract or repulse another magnet and glued the repulsive side downards (relative to the hole),

Here are some pictures of the project:

XV8 Crisis suit with magnets in arms and shoulders

My Crisis Suit team and their stash of MWi weapons (all magnetised)

My Second project is the Devilfish. The transport is crucial for the Tau to take and hold objectives and keep the firewarriors alive. I primed the body and other parts with Wolf Grey. Then I decided i wanted camouflage. I watched some youtube videos where they used stencils for camouflage painting. It seemed easy enough if you hade some stencil material and air brush, I got neither. But the Earth caste beeing resourceful I found some white paper stickers. I drew some polygon shapes on them and cut them out. For the first layer I would paint Deep Blue. Below is picture before and after.  

First Stencil layer on

Deep blue painted and second Stencil layer on. 

I almost knew for certain that my material choise for the stencil was a bad idea, but I went forward with it. After removing the stencils after the Ash Grey coat I almost cried. My Devilfish looked like some hippemobil from Berlin painted by a three year old. All the colours where a mess as the paint from the layers had gone under the stencil and mixed. I did not give up but took a small brush in my hand an started to define and clean up the patter. 3 hours later I was fairly happy with the result. The engines, hatch and landing gear are still unpainted. Until next time.  

Final camo after a lot of patching up with brush and wash,

WH40K Forward for the Greater Good

Hi,

I am already breaking my SDE theme, but it is still not November :)

This weekend I painted a Warhammer 40k  Tau Fire Warrior squad I probably had for almost 6-7 years. I really hope I get a chance to play with them.

I went with a gray/blue colour scheme, These guys are urban fighters, perhaps participating in a "liberation" campaign of an Imperial hive world.

In my next update I hope I have some SDE Kobolds painted.

Have a nice late autumn week!

A complete Fire Warrior Squad

"Live and Die for the Greater Good!"