And done.

 Stormtroopers. Finally.

Final detailing got done today, finally. Edge highlights, whitecaps and painting the mono-brows on all the helmets which I had completely forgotten about. 

 

So. Much. White.

I had a wee moment of terror when I sat down to paint yesterday and discovered the gloss gel was still frosty (and thus not quite dry yet) despite having sat on my painting desk for a week in 20+ degree heat here. In the end, I threw them back into the hot water cupboard overnight and lo! all was well. It was a good lesson on using the gel too that just left alone, it will dry very, very slowly. I'm still keen to get a few grasses on the bases but that'll be done in a couple of weeks when I get up to my LGS and can make sure I have enough to do the whole shebang.

Star Wars: Legion Thoughts

I played my first game yesterday, with Pel, Scotty, Tank and clubmate BB and his young apprentice. It was just a 400 point a-side game of Rebels vs Rebels (because I haven't painted all my toys yet) with one side taking two squads, a veteran squad, Leia and some Tauntauns vs three squads, Cassian Andor and an AT-RT.

It was a lot of fun. It was a one-all draw in the end with both sides having almost nothing left on the park. We learned that you shouldn't fight AT-RTs in combat, Tauntauns are really rather useful (except in combat with AT-RTs) and that I am REALLY looking forward to putting Vader on the park.

I really like the mission generation process and the way the dice mechanics work (although specialist dice....aaarrgghhh) as well as the simplicity of the unit coherence and movement rules. There's some clever balancing and subtlety in the order selection and the randomness of unit activation too. The game feels a bit like a boardgame with miniatures (not that that's a bad thing!) but it looks good and plays very smoothly. I am looking forward to putting my own army on the table.

New Adeptus Titanicus firepower! 

Just primed but they'll be mounted on titans fairly swiftly

The FW casts are new and crisp and they look great. There's something innately nice about new casts. The Gatling Blasters are going to be sweet on top of my Warlord and I'm prepping a bunch of new carapace weapons for my Reavers as well as I'm tinkering with the kit layout to better reflect how I want to use the titans. I might even consider magnets. Might. 

Next Time

Probably more Star Wars, although I'm starting to work my way through a list design for a Flames of War event at our annual club competition later in the year and that might wind up adding some new priorities to the list but it looks like I'll be rolling out 653 SchwerePanzerjager again.

Almost there...

 

 

Starting with an oddly appropriate meme... 

 

Being on holiday and deciding to spend a day outdoors hasn't done anything meaningful for my productivity so my Stormtrooper output is decidedly poor.

 

Stormtrooper Squad 1

The squad is mostly done. Mostly. I still need to edge highlight all the weapons, put the whitecaps on the bases (which aren't bleeding dry yet!) and probably do a few white panels that need another quick top coat. I'm pretty happy with how they're coming along though.The important bit is that I have a good method for doing them - I smashed out most of the work on the last five in about three hours.

Stormtrooper Specialists

 

So while I wait for the bases to dry, I've prepped a new set of Stormtroopers before I wade into the second identical squad of Troopers. I've been learning a lot about how the gloss gel works too and I'm nearly confident enough to have a crack at the Speeder Bike bases.

 

Next Time

Complete Stormtroopers. I'm doing a bit of work on upgunning my Warhound Titans with Natrix Shock Lances so I'll be working on those this week too.  

Okay. Time to start on the hard stuff

So I'm doing another army that's mostly painted white. Again. 

I think I could probably go back a few months and find the post where I finished my Teutonic Order where I swore I'd never do this again. And yet here we are. But I have been making some progress with my Legion. Slowly.

Easy

Easy enough

AARRGGHH!

Having done those, I've finished up all the models I have on hand that are black or mostly black. I'm really happy with how they're all coming out and the bases are a lot of fun. They're slow, but it's worth the effort. 

Next Time

More Legion I shouldn't wonder. And when I'm tired of that, I've got a pile of Deathwatch to do. So back to painting black. Maybe I should try doing some work in greyscale...

Pooch's January progress

Well, terrifyingly, a month of the year has already gone. January was a busy one for me work wise, and February is going to be so, so much worse. But still, how did I go with my goals? 

1. Finish a table of terrain

Hold onto your hats team, I have finished.... some trees.

For the bargain price of a couple of dollars for a pack of 3 from a local shop, I have now gotten a bunch of these trees. The set I painted last year I put a coat of green spraypaint on, these ones I just left in the bright green. I don't mind em, I think they add some cool colour mixes for a forest.

That's right. My first picture of the year is six trees.....

And I'm doubling down for my second pic! Dark green are the ones I used spraypaint on.

So... not a table, but some progress. That might actually be the easier way to do this goal, making sure to do a piece of terrain each month!

2. Play a game a month

Not one, but TWO games this month! I played a game of Battaile Empire with McB (French defeated his dastardly Austrians in a learning game), and my Legio Astorum was no match for the rampaging Titans of McZ and Scotty (which you saw some pics of already!)

It's about this time that the withering French defense broke the attacking Austrians....

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

Alrighty, so we have made a start here too!

The army I am slow growing is an Adeptus Sororitas army, from the Order of the Sacred Rose. Which means white.

Lots of white.

In talking with some of the other nerds as I was doing my planning on this, one of the others was pointing out just how good an effect you can get with an airbrush. I have wanted to buy an airbrush and add it in to my modelling repertoire, but had never managed to invest in, either time or $$.

And so, like the fool I am, I decided that this army was the time and place to do it! I haven't bought my own airbrush yet, but Pelarel was kind enough to lend me his, and give me the airbrushing 101 course for the white armour.

Then, with the additional colours done, I also decided to do an edge highlight of white, just to make them really pop.

The finishing touch was some of the Gamer Grass pre-made bases, albeit with some extra flowers.

First 3 done, a Cherub, Palatine and Sister Superior

I painted their backs too, quite happy with the cherub's wings!

Faces can do with some improvement, but I'll get there!

The Palatine was converted from the limited edition Sister Amalia Novena model, but with a bolter swapped for a plasma pistol, a sword and a halo from other Sisters' kits. I copied the equipment of the one which was shown in the Games Workshop teaser video, so I know it'll be legal, whenever I am allowed to start using her!

Next month? The rest of the first Sisters squad.

4. Finish armies that I have part started

No progress on this one, couldn't quite motivate myself to make a start on the piles of shame!

5. Buy, build and play a new game

In my defense, someone else did this one to me. The other nerds had been talking about legion, and I had made more than a few positive indications towards creating a droid army (roger roger!) and so Scotty bought a starter and sent the droids my way.

General Grievous looking awesome

Droideka! In attack mode and wheel mode

And two squads of ever useful B1 Battle Droids

See? Totally not my fault!

I mean, the fact that I then bought Darth Maul.

Such a cool set of models!

Attempting to show off the face tattoos I painted....

And STAP riders.

Also known as "robotic pogo sticks"

And made a Jango Fett.

Made from a 3d print from Skullforge!

It's all totally unrelated....

Progress on four of the objectives.... the eye is pleased...

Pooch

Here comes another one, just like the other one...

It feels like I've been doing a lot of the same stuff lately. Which is definitely true. But hey, I've done some painting and some gaming so it's not all bad. 

Workbench things

Finished! I'm really happy with how this base has come out and putting it in with the rest of the army, it's a little out of place but not as bad as I feared. So now to basing these.

I've also added one more model to the Star Wars: Legion collection. This Imperial Officer will be a second-string commander for me when I want to add something that isn't Vader. It's a neat little model and very evocative of the Imperial style.

Adeptus Titanicus - part II of the story

Pooch, Scotty and I got together for another game of Titanicus too. In this scenario, the Traitor Legions, having successfully landed in our first scenario, attacked the outskirts of the city of Lupercalia. The defending Loyalist Legio, supported by an off-table Imperator-class Titan, met the attacking forces at the edge of the city. 

 Scotty and I decided to attack at dawn, hoping to blunt Pooch's first turn fire, especially given that we were expressly not permitted by the scenario (and the Warmaster) to stand still.

Traitor Titans attack

Loyalist Titans prepare to defend

Turn one was pretty gnarly - as the Traitors ordered "FULL POWER TO LOCOMOTORS" across the board, we took a barrage of incoming fire. And by we, I mean Scotty. One of his Reavers got pretty cut up and was reduced to zero shields as was one of mine (thanks to some accurate fire and poor saves!)

 Turn two got real interesting real fast. Our knights lined up charges (mine on Pooch's knights) and his on one of my Reavers. I landed a charge from a Reaver onto a Warhound and it's chainfist carved up the Warhound with a bit of power to spare.

Prepare to charge Knights!

The knights threw handbags at each other (thanks to some janky void saves on both sides, as well as the staggeringly poor Avenger Gatling Cannons) while my two Reavers both gave the Knights that had the gall to attack them a bit of what for. I did forget to make split fire orders again though. Ugh. Scotty's Titans took another pounding with the first Reaver detonating and the second being heavily damaged.

 Turn three and Pooch won Priority, which he REALLY needed to do to avoid the biggest risk of the below:

Lator Miseria lines up the Astorum Warlord

And then he failed to issue a First Fire order on a 2+, compounding the drama llama! The Reaver made the charge, with the Traitor Legion bonus, and made SEVEN chainfist attacks on the Warlord's head. One missed and three failed to damage. One more and it was close. Two more and that Warlord would have been wrecked. Legio Vulpa titans are scarily effective in assault and I'm definitely getting better at delivering them.

The last Knight falls

Our knights found some steel and Pooch's last Questoris knight battlecannoned mine to death. It was hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.

The Damicium Warlord stands proudly atop an Imperial Fist Landraider

 Finally, as Pooch deleted Scotty's second Reaver, his Warlord was exposed to the full force of the Loyalist fire and it was pretty close to wrecked by the combined fire of a Warbringer, Reaver and two Acastus Porphyrion knights.

Scenario wise, I don't think Scotty and I were expected to win this one, in much the same way that Pooch wasn't really expected to win the first one. Fluff-wise, we were a distraction for the Warmaster Horus to take down the Imperator Titan and basically raze the city so I guess we succeeded?? 

It was a tough scenario - Pooch had a solid defence and a lot of long range firepower. Our use of the Dawn Attack strategem helped on occasion (it kept one of Scotty's Reavers alive on two separate occasions) but never managed to keep the Acastus Porphyrion from shooting (and they did some serious heavy lifting). Pooch failing his 2+ orders TWICE in three turns was really what kept us in the game instead.  It was interesting also that we made it maybe half way through the game in just under 2.5 hours. When this game gets big, it also slows down noticeably.

Lessons? Acastus Porphyrions are scary and need to be kept moving, for one, or seriously focussed on to remove them. There are also some neat new strategems that we'd never used - Titan Hunting infantry were awesome. I had a flick through the FAQ after the game and I think, other than one final mistake in this game, we've nailed down the rules.  

Next Time

I'm going to start on the Storm Troopers for Star Wars: Legion. Krennic's given me enough confidence that I can get a good result that it's time I had a crack at it. Otherwise, I'll be tinkering with the basing on my Ghosties. I've got an idea in my head how I want to do it now which is pleasing.