Start of Play

Well, cricket on, rain expected, washing brought in. Painting required.

May have left it a little later than I would like, but the deadline is finally working it's magic and forcing me to paint an army.

Pictures will follow. Highlighting the armour on the first lot of five Marines. Long way to go yet.

Will keep updating.

Bloodthirster

A Real Deadline!

SO, quite a while since I posted anything. In this time I have built a Command Squad and Chimera for the Cadian 141st, the unit the Tallarn 117th are attached to at the moment. New Guard codex has been out. Read another two Horus Heresy books. Entered a tournament.

The reason I post today is linked with the final point.

I like to think I can set myself deadlines to work to. Goals to achieve, but I am rubbish at doing so. I need to have a deadline that has been set in stone by someone else that I cannot miss. Two years ago I entered a Conflict tournament in London with a mate of mine. Doubles, 500 points each. This really focused my army building and painting. I managed to get an army painted up ready to use and it looked good. (I will post pictures later).

When I was asked if I wanted to enter another doubles tournament I jumped at the chance. Spending a whole day at Warhammer World, playing 40K with a good mate. What could be better?

We had a discussion and decided that we enjoyed using Space Marines last time. In addition, we both had a large supply of bits and models to use. When the Marine codex came out we both worked out cool Salamander armies. I even went as far as collating some models to build it with. That was last September. Nothing happened since. However, with the deadline set, 24th August, and a goal set, 600 points painted well, I'm off.

The mighty Sons of Vulkan are going to be the theme for the army. Lots of melta/flamer goodness. We needed a balanced list and some cool models, so I have actually been quite busy with modelling and painting recently and later today I will show you the fruits of my labour.

For now, back to work.

20 days to go
22 models to paint

Bloodthirster

It was all going so well

So, I thought I was safe painting my Skinks (Nearly finished). but then I was hit hard over the head with a brand spanking new book. War of the Ring. Ah. This has posed a problem.

With the skinks on the go I was drawn back to my 'Stealer force for 40K and have finished my lictor conversion, built some gargolyes. I have worked out a method for these guys and will post it now I have some time.

Now, I am a big fan of Lord of the Rings, the books, the films and the game. Having played War of the Ring I knew I needed an army. A proper army. So, easiest way o do this was to build on what I already have. Uruk-hai.

I found that my Uruk-hai force already included some key elements for my planned army based on the Fortress Isengard list.

One thing I did not have was numbers. 3 boxes of Uruk-hai scouts later and I have the models. It took me about two hours to clean, build and spray 1 box. So I should have all three built by tomorrow evening sometime. I can then start to paint them.

More on this later.

Bloodthirster

The Rise of Sotek

So, I have been looking through the new Lizardmen Army Book.

It is very nice, with a wonderful background section filling in some of the gaps in the Lizardman life time with interesting little stories.

A lot of this time has been spent painting Skinks and writing army lists.

After some fun trying to find a balanced army list I have decided to go for a Skink theme. No real reason, I have a Saurus regiment ready to paint, but I guess the whole Rise of Sotek and Tehenhuain character from the Lustria book has captured my imagination. I will at some point branch out into Saurus land with many Cold One Cavalry, but Skinks first.

Here then, is my initial 500 points. This will hopefully be painted ASAP. Although I do have some old painted models available as stand-ins so at least I will get a couple of games played soon.

Hero: Skink Chief with Dagger of Sotek and Shield

Core: 12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins, Shields led by a Brave

Core: 12 Skink Skirmishers with blowpipes led by a Brave

Special: 5 Chameleon Skinks

Special: 3 Kroxigor

The idea is a skirmishing force (obviously) just to see the limitations of these skink units. I would like to include some ranked skinks with kroxigor in the units eventually and this might be the next step forward, but unitl then, these will do.

The Skink Chief is a fiesty little character. With 3 strength 4 attacks at initiative 6, he can compete with most Heroes in combat. The Dagger of Sotek gives him Killing Blow, just to add a little extra to his attacks. Backed up by 3 Kroxigor they should be able to take on most units at 500 points. The skirmishing skinks provide a little shooting, all poisoned weapons. The Chameleons can scout and will cause problems early on for stationary enemies. If they can stay in cover they could distract a shooting unit for a couple of turns.

Here is the first unit of Skinks so far.

Very simple paint job. Enchanted Blue basecoat. Drybrushed 50:50 Enchanted Blue and Ice Blue followed by a drybrush of just Ice Blue. This was given an Asurmen Blue Wash. The scales were painted Scaly green, highlighted with a Scaley Green/Bleached Bone mix.

They are in the process of being tidyed up ready for the gold and stone to be painted. This will be a Dwarf Bronze Base with Burnished Gold Highlight with a Ogryn Flesh Wash. The stone is simply highlighted with a mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey and the Eye is Golden Yellow.

The Brave was painted about a year ago and is probably how light I want my Skinks. This first unit are probably the tone required by Saurus. The Kroxigors will be darker still.

Will post up pictures of these when they are finished.

And Now for something...

Has it really been six months since I last put anything on here?

Wow!

Well, the 500 point Tyranid army is nearly there. Just need to paint the Broodlord and Retinue and then do all the details on the horde. Not much left.

However, I have come across a problem. Well, two problems.

Problem 1: For the next 250 points I want to add a Lictor (I have one nicely converted ready, pics to follow) and some Gargoyles. I was warned that these beasties were notoriusly hard to put together. Those warnings were true. They will be some time coming.

Problem 2: Lizardmen. My first every Fantasy army were Lizardmen, back when they were released in the box set for 4th ed? with the Bretonnians. Now I did have a nice army and about 5 years ago when their army book was released I bought the army set. I painted one skink. New army book came out this weekend. I had it on advnace order anyway, but still got down to the store. I will post a review up soon with my thoughts.

Why is this a problem? Well, I have dusted off the models and have embarked on a 500 point Lizardmen army. I now have more than one skink painted. I will put pictures up hopefully, tomorrow.

Anyway, I will post a more complete thing later.

One final thought. I had to check this out stright away in the army book.

Saurus Old-Blood on a Carnosaur with the Carnosaur Pendant, Sword of the Hornet and Maiming Shield with Light Armour. This guy and his mount will go Frenzy if they kill anything and neither will lose it for the rest of the game. So when they are frenzied they will get 7 str 5 attacks from the Old-Blood that always strike first at WS 6. 5 str 7 attacks from the Carnosaur that inflict D3 wounds. They cause Terror and the Old-Blood has a 2+ Armour save, the Carnosaur is T 5 with a 4+ save.

More on him tomorrow.

Bloodthirster

Update

Hey hey,

Just popping online to give an update on how the 'Nids are progressing.

In a word, slowly.

I am looking to have completely finished the two units of gaunts and one unit of Genestealers by tomorrow. It should be o.k. I will post pictures of them tomorrow afternoon along with a reflection on the new rules, both how they play, and the impact they will have on the 'Nids.

Battle for the Abyss is good.

'Till then.

Bloodthirster

5th Edition

Hey hey,

Picked up the shiney new copy of 40K today. It is very nice.

Also, was able to fit in a game. Only 500 points, but it took a good 2 hours. It always seems to be the way when me and my mate game that it is a really close battle that lasts for ages.

'Nids against his Orks.

I knew that if I could assault one of his 20 strong boyz mobs with two units of 'Stealers I would be ok. However, after some hideous shooting I was left with my broodlord and two of his retinue and another 'stealer on one flank and the other unit of 'stealers on the other flank. Some lucky difficult terrain rolls and I managed to assault his slugga boyz with everything I had on the table and duly anihilated them. The Broodlord then practically walked through the rest of his army. By the end of the 5th turn I had only the Broodlord (on a single wound) and one other 'Stealer. It was a very close game.

As usual neither army was quite finished in the painting department, but that will be rectified ASAP. I will post up some pictures of units when they are finished.

We have arranged to add 250 points to the armies and meet up again soonish.

So, 5th Ed. A very neat rule set. Not changed a lot, but enough to be fresh and fun. The mission selection is a fantasic invention. It works so well. We played an anihilation mission using the Dawn of War deployment rules.

Running is brilliant as units can actually cover alot of ground now. Combats are far more brutal and line of sight and cover saves from units make a lot of sense. All in all a very nice first impression.

I will read throught the rule book and post up a more comprehensive review later.

As a side note I have recieved Battle for the Abyss. So far it is excelllent, again a review will follow.

Anywho, I have to sleep, but school holidays are soon and I will have a lot of free time to model, paint and game. Yay.

Until then,

Cheers,

Bloodthirster.