BrookM tries to paint stuff occasionally

[Hoxtalicious]

So, as if painting wasn't hellish enough for me, I decide to go with Imperial Fists for my heresy-era Astartes, because painting yellow isn't that hard and all that. emotion_facepalm  

[Vikki Stardust]

Way to go sir Tosspot Bunglecunt the First! yum_tea  

[Hoxtalicious]

So, lacking focus and all that then..

One slightly converted Christmas miniature:



And a project on the side, because I don't already have enough of those:

 

[Lady Blodwynn]

BrookM

Wow, it's amazing to see you commit to something and stick to it for a change! wink

I'm happy you've finally found an army that works for you though! emotion_yatta  

[Hoxtalicious]

Lady Blodwynn

Wow, it's amazing to see you commit to something and stick to it for a change! wink

I'm happy you've finally found an army that works for you though! emotion_yatta

Trial and error I suppose. It helps to bin, give away or sell everything that doesn't see any play around here as well. I more or less went from someone who had a lot of games lying about to downsizing it all to just the bare essentials, in this case 30K and 40K models in general, everything else is either gone or will be out sooner or later at this stage.

That said, abysmal win-loss ratio aside (8 to 34 or so), I do enjoy fielding both armies a lot, especially against my regular opponent the Tau player, who doesn't object to the utter cheese that is the Horus Heresy, especially after I tore him a massive new one in a 2000 pts game of Knights against his fish.

Win some, lost a lot I suppose.  

[Hoxtalicious]

May as well post this here as well, a rough plan of what lies in store for me hobby-wise 2016. At the end of 2016 we shall point and laugh at how much of this hasn't been done in the end due to reasons.

- Get a Solar Auxilia army of 2500 pts ready for a game in April this year, as I'll be going to the UK for the first time in.. quite a few years now to pay a visit to the guild owner and his wife, which of course means that one must bring an army along for an obligatory fight to the death. Most of the models for this army are already present, but still need to be painted and based, so it's going to be a hard few months to get it all done. I also need to track down a Stormlord for the list, not to mention convert it to give it its Heresy-era armaments.

- Wrap up 2500 pts of Imperial Knights with a small allied contingent of Mechanicum for completionists sake and for when my regular Tau opponent wants to go big-game hunting.

- Build a 1000 pts Solar Auxilia force for Zone Mortalis missions. While I have most of the units already in my possession, the general idea is to also add in units that normally wouldn't see as much play, like the power axe armed Veletaris squad.

- Get started on an allied force of Imperial Fists (Heresy-era of course) of around 750 - 1000 pts, in proper yellow and all that for a few games against the Iron Warriors of a fellow local Heresy player.

So, place bets and all that.  

[Hoxtalicious]

So, for the list I'm working on my order just came in, courtesy of Raging Heroes:

One metal Drakenfeld who will become a Strategos, minus the stupid gun and silly helmet:



One box of..



Three boxes of..



A resin nuncio vox operator:



And one metal Tercio Vexilla bearer:



All this, minus the Strategos, combined will become a single Lasrifle Section of twenty models, complete with vox and banner. The metal head of the Strategos will go to the Troop Master of this squad, plus the Vexilla bearer will also get a nice padded helmet to fit in with the rest of the girls.

These ladies will become the Voidborn Hoplites, to explain away their freakish thin and tall builds when compared to the other miniatures in my army. These ladies may or may not also be getting a Dracosan armoured transport, if the order ever gets there in time. If not, they'll be slogging it on foot with the Tactical Command Squad.  

[Vikki Stardust]

BrookM

At the end of 2016 we shall point and laugh at how much of this hasn't been done in the end due to reasons.

We could skip a bit and just do the shaming now. emotion_awesome  

[Hoxtalicious]

And people wonder why I break down and cry so much.. emo

Anyway, made a start on the second Lasrifle section:



Six down, fourteen more to go. This is going to be a problematic build, to say the least. After cleaning the parts twice they're still quite greasy, meaning they don't take glue that well. There's also a severe lack of the more mundane parts in these kits, as in, a pair of arms holding a lasgun instead of holding it aloft in one hand, while the other chucks a grenade, holds a demolition charge or does odd hand gestures. They'll be an odd bunch for sure when done.

I also made a checklist on what's still to be done and what's already out of the way. The optimist in me says that I'm already halfway there, the realist in me is tutting and wagging a finger, because the stuff that still needs to be done is for the most part infantry and a pair of big vehicles.

HQ
Rogue Trader - Archeotech pistol, master-crafted Paragon blade, digital lasers, displacer matrix, artificer armour, grav-wave generator & psi-jammer
Tactical Command Squad - 2x grenade launcher
Tank Commander
ELITES
Household Retinue - Power fist
Household Retinue
Auxilia Medicae detachment (4)
TROOPS
Lasrifle Section - Blast-chargers
Dracosan armoured transport - Auxiliary drive
Lasrifle Section - Blast-chargers
Dracosan armoured transport - Auxiliary drive
Auxila flamer section - Power axe
FAST ATTACK
Thunderbolt - Ground-tracking auguries
HEAVY SUPPORT
Leman Russ Assault squadron (2) - 2x Leman Russ Executioner
LORD OF WAR
Stormlord - Sponsons, pintle-mounted multi-laser

Aside from the second Dracosan and the Stormlord, I've got everything I need right here, in various states of assembly or paint. The Stormlord will be picked up at the end of the month, whereas the Dracosan is status unknown at the moment. So in the meantime I'll just have to focus on the others until then.

But if I power through all of this it should be done in time for the trip, hopefully. If I manage to get it all done in time I'll reward myself with something special, maybe another Knight or some other sort of super-heavy.  

[Lady Blodwynn]

BrookM

If I manage to get it all done in time I'll reward myself with something special, maybe another Knight or some other sort of super-heavy.

ninja  

[Hoxtalicious]

Work on the list progresses at a snail's pace, due to work and well, other things like the new Tomb Raider game, though seeing as I beat that one and got most of the challenges out of the way, all that remains now is.. this.

Well, the whole "April or bust!" project and a "Start Collecting!" set of Skitarii, courtesy of Canadian bacon after winning a bet of sorts. Thanks for adding more to the pile of shame, though it's worth it just for the Techpriest. So far stuck together is the Techpriest and the Donkey tank (plus primed the top half red, because why not?), the Skitarii will have to wait until I'm in the dumps and in dire need of something to stick together as a pick-me-up. Some people eat chocolate, some people cut, I stick together man-dollies and get high off the fumes of melting plastic together. They'll be built as Vanguard, because their radiation guns are too good to pass up on, especially in the current meta of the store I frequent.

Now for a short list of sad stuff, starting with the Stormlord, which will have to be proxied, as for some reason GW has decided that non-GW retailers are no longer allowed to stock the kit. So alas, proxying it is, as I really wanted one, but at 20% off at the local store. Maybe I'll get one regardless later in the year when the budget permits this, as I've dug out quite a few spare bits and bobs to use for the conversion of this project. So, another pair of items I can scratch off the list (Stormlord and the tank commander), along with the Thunderbolt which I'll be proxying on site with a kickass Avenger strike fighter, courtesy of the hostess.

Adding onto the misery that is this project I doubt I can get my hands on a second Dracosan in time for the deadline, so I did some rewriting of the list, dropping it, the second lasrifle section, a medic and the auxilia flamer section in favour of a pair of Leman Russ Exterminators and an Enginseer Auxilia with three servo arms, who will be hitching a ride in the Stormlord and hopefully keep it in one piece throughout the game.

Enough whining, progress:



The Strategos for the Tactical Command Squad, in charge of dropping orbital strikes and buffing BS of other squads with her Cognis-signum. The rest of the squad will be done once the models go up for sale, though I already have a vox operator lying about somewhere, in snazzy Imperial Fleet uniform.



The Troop Master of the Lasrifle Section. She'll be the only one with a fancy helmet and gilded armour, the rest will wear more sensible headgear and hopefully attract less sniper fire in the process. The rest of the section is being worked on at a slow pace, as I'm still trying to work out how to best do them.

On the gaming front, after a couple of months of not being able to, last Sunday I managed to get a game of Zone Mortalis in, playing on a smaller 3' x 3' table with Taghmata Mechanicum for a change, against my regular opponent the Tau player. It ended in a win for me, though with most of my (tiny) army dead and gone.

HQ
Arch-Magos Prime - Malagra, machinator array, abeyant, phased plasma fusil, rad grenades - 240

TROOPS
Thallax Cohort (3) - 3x heavy chainblade, phased plasma fusil - 160

Scyllax Covenant (4) - Frag grenades, 4x rotor cannon - 185 pts

Castellax maniple (1) - Enhanced targeting array, Paragon of Living Metal, automata power blades - 165 pts

Total: 750

The Magos in particular was quite a beast, if a bit unlucky with the Look-out Sir! rolls.. But It Will Not Die came to the rescue. The Scyllax also did well enough, first acting as a bodyguard unit, then going off on their own, keeping the enemy occupied long enough to make a good difference.

So yeah, that's that then.  

[Hoxtalicious]

Instead of painting troops I decided to paint tanks, because they're easier and whatnot.



That's three down, two more to go. After that all that remains is an Aegis defence line with ammo dump / communications relay and.. 22 infantry. gonk  

[Asmondai]

Looking good. biggrin
I would atleast wait for the new ad-mech codex before deciding with vanguard or ranger build.
Radiation rules on guns and models are sweet, but becomes problematic if the
vanguards can't do anything else but sit and wait,
they become kinda prizey units to own, specially when comparing with the rangers, all because skitaaris or machine cult don't have a transport vehicles.  

[Hoxtalicious]

Asmondai

Looking good. biggrin
I would atleast wait for the new ad-mech codex before deciding with vanguard or ranger build.
Radiation rules on guns and models are sweet, but becomes problematic if the
vanguards can't do anything else but sit and wait,
they become kinda prizey units to own, specially when comparing with the rangers, all because skitaaris or machine cult don't have a transport vehicles.

Thanks!

I'm honestly not too worried about radical changes to both squads, it'll just be a book combining both books, plus adding in some extra robot variants, nothing too severe.

Also, don't forget that the entire army is relentless and in some handy cases the extra 3" on movement. This isn't really an army made to dig in and have big shooting matches from a distance. Vanguard in particular need to really get in close to get the most out of those assault 3 guns of theirs.

That said though, these guys aren't exactly a high priority right now and they'll be staying home for sure. The main focus will be Horus Heresy for a considerable time to come for sure.  

[Asmondai]

BrookM

I'm honestly not too worried about radical changes to both squads, it'll just be a book combining both books, plus adding in some extra robot variants, nothing too severe.

Vanguard in particular need to really get in close to get the most out of those assault 3 guns of theirs.

Exactly, which is good if the rumours about an transport vehicle is true,
vanguards would get the mobility it surely needs.
With short shooting range, no dunestrider rule and feel no pain being more of meh rule to have on a unit with T3 value,
changes are you're rarely going to use them on any other matches than the
ones involving standing and shooting. sweatdrop

BrookM

That said though, these guys aren't exactly a high priority right now and they'll be staying home for sure. The main focus will be Horus Heresy for a considerable time to come for sure.

3nodding indeed, time of the machines comes when shall.