Chris P's Chaos Space Marines February - Leader Month

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour with Twin Bolter and Lightning Claw - 144pts 

Chaos Sorcerer Champion with Plasma Pistol - 101pts 

Total 245pts

 

 

Very happy with how my restored Abbadon turned out, the sword in particular looks just like I hoped. It came from an old 54mm miniature, which is why it's so wonderfully huge. The sorcerer was a great opportunity to experiment with Contrast paints, which I don't often use.

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #2

 

Act 2

The camp was quiet. Most of the boyz were snoring after a meal of stale ale and rotten meat. Gronk Skullbasha, the biggest git of ‘em all, lay sprawled in his tent, one hand still clutching a half-chewed boar leg. His goblin guards, meant to be watching him, were slumped nearby. Rugluk’s “special brew” had seen to that.

Rugluk Backstabba pushed aside the tent flap, creeping closer. His blade rested easy in his hand, but this weren’t no battlefield scrap-this had to be done quiet. Up close. Personal.

Gronk snorted in his sleep, rolling onto his back. Rugluk grinned and thought to himself: “Shh now… dis won’t take long.”

He raised the blade high and pushed it straight into Gronk’s gut. The warboss’s eyes shot open full of fear and confusion. A gurgling growl and a splatter of blood escaped from Gronk's lips as he grabbed at Rugluk’s wrist, but the poison had done its job-he was weak, too slow.

Rugluk leaned in. “Don worry, boss-yer tribe’s in good ‘ands.” He wrenched the blade free. Gronk slumped back, dead as a squashed snotling.

Outside, the camp was still silent. Rugluk wiped his blade on the boss’s furs, then shoved it into one of the sleeping gobbos’ hands. He took a step back, admiring his work.

Gronk, dead. A gobbo, holding the murder weapon. And him? The next boss, just waitin’ to be cheered.

Rugluk grinned and strode out into the night.

 

I'm glad to be writing a post again as it marks the beginning of a new month. This February was a busy one and I don't mind it ending. As most of you probably noticed, the banner bearer from January was converted from a broken trooper from the Ruglud's Aroured Orcs Regiment. He was fast and fun to paint so I figured that I would continue with the same momentum and paint a whole unit of them. It felt like a good idea but there was a bit more work in them than I thought. Luckily I could tap into the unused time reserve that I usually spend sleeping and managed to finish them all. But that's enough talking, let's look at the miniatures!

These guys are missing three models from a nice round number of 30. The general, his bodyguard and the army standard bearer will join this unit after the Leader month. These Boyz clearly need a large banner and I intend to correct that in June.

Despite the time pressure I enjoyed painting these guys a lot. Especially the trooper sculpts are full of character and have just enough variation to keep you interested while still being quite fast to paint. I like the backstory in the Ruglud's RR box and painted some chaos inspired shields accordingly.

This month in points:

 

 

 

These guys are quite professional looking and I think these could also be used as Biguns. Anyway, I decided to call them regular Boyz for the time being. The leader and champion are as in the information given in the Regiments of Renown box. Interestingly, this means that Ruglud is not the leader of the unit. The armour that these Boyz have looks pretty heavy to me, but since it's not available to them I gave them light armour. 

SIEGE

The original plan was to paint some war machines every month but I ran out of time. Still, I wanted to include something siege themed into this month and ended up doing some 5-minute crafts. These log rams were made from sticks, toothpics and some string that I had readily available. More crude logs made from thin round sticks (with bark) would have been more orky but I didn't have time to dry and prepare any materials gathered from nature. I made different rams to be carried by groups of 4, 6 and 8 models.

I'm learning the rules in the Siege book (the 1988 version) as we go and found the mechanics of using these interesting. You score an automatic hit on the castle gate if you manage to move into contact with it. The amount of models using the ram determine the strenth of the hit and the highest strength in the group carrying the ram determines the amount of potential wounds caused. Nice and simple.

 

 

Ruglud, Maggot, Gudruk and Bambrag 

Anyway, that's it for this month, I'll rush back to my painting desk!

 

Pablol - Imperial Guard - Month 2 - Rank & File

February was dedicated to refurbishing an old Hellhound. I was planning on also painting some infantry, but I was quite occupied with a big work project most of this month. The tank had some original metal bits, some 3d printed reproduction bits and some bits just missing. The hull had also taken a fair deal of damage. Removing some accessories from the tank also left some marks.

I decided to recast all the small turret bits from milliput so that it would look uniform.

I filled most of the surface damages with milliput and sanded the surfaces with files, sand paper and scalpels.

Some rivets were missing so I made new ones from plasticard.

The turret got new old hatches instead of the original targeting cupola, because I didn't have one and I wanted to add some accessories to the turret. The targeting cupola looks like its a solid lid which would prevent any of the crew members actually getting to the accessories I fitted on the turret.

I had a second round of sanding after the white undercoat.

I tried to paint the Hellhound more or less the same as the Chimera from January.

Hellhound 165pts

Sadly I didn't get any infantry painted this month, but I did work on something else. I wanted to have a photo backdrop so I searched for some inspiration from 2nd edition 40k books and decided to make a neo gothic industrial wall. The main structures are mostly Kapa board and a few different thicknesses of card. I was tempted to add much more detail to these, but I tried to stay true to the 2nd edition esthetic.

I sculpted a bunker style window from which I made plaster casts.

The door is a plaster cast of some 40k terrain I made about a year ago.

Everything just about fit in the group shot. The base is 16" x 16" and it will also double up as a Necropolis28 board.

A lot of photos, but not so much text. Next month I will have to get some infantry painted and my March tank will most likely be a Leman Russ. I hope everyone else had a productive February!

Pokrzyw's Sisters of Battle - Month 2 - Rank & File 2 - more sisters! OWAC VIII

 "Purity through fire, heretics would burn.."

Plans for February:

Another squad of sisters. This time sisters superior with power sword, specialist with heavy flamer. Following 2nd edition of WH40k squad could have 7 sisters (including superior, special weapon and heavy weapon). Heavy flamer is the most iconouos weapon of the sisters - even space marines has limited access to this equipment. Additional 3 sisters taken from the reserve.

Rhinos waits for better month.

Realization:

My motivation wasn't grown - still I started very early and stopped after few days leaving almost all work to last days of month. I change the way of painting - instead standard paints and washes this time I tried to use contrasts on drybrushed miniatures. It is faster, but effect on armour and faces is not the best.

Still reds are superior, although I tried to add more orange on edges.

Final Gallery:

I finished last day of month. Unfortunately today in Poland was dark rainy day. No chances to utilize daylight. I'm not happy on photos. I would try to deliver better gallery next month.

Second squad

Squads together

From another angle

Plans for March:

I feel that I need some rest from Sisters of Battle. I will work on inquistion wild card or frateris militia.

Two inquisitorial retinues

 

Frateris warband

Of course rhinos are still waiting..

JohnR's Dwarf Month 2 - Rank and File (769 points)

 Rank and File Month #2

 A regiment, character and war-machine again done this month :)

 

 25 Norse Dwarf Clansmen, +1 Shock Elite: great weapons, heavy armour, shields, command and level 10 Hero - 499 points

Level 20 Giant-Slayer Hero (a Morgue Filler - what an awesome title!) with great weapon - 170 points

 

Gyrocopter - Level 5 pilot with light armour - 100 points

 

 The Army so Far. 1600 points, almost enough to get a game in methinks...

 

Finally, my pledge for this year:

Snotbum Dungmuncher - a proper, classic orc: skinny, shifty and evil. Not of those modern, fangled, fungal body-builder, 'Incredible Hulk' type orcs that you seem to get nowadays thank you very much.

Soon to be making his way to one of the Overlords!

 

Byron's Pirate Eldar - Aedysseil's Serpent Squad - Rank and File Month (386.5 points)

Aedysseil's Serpent Squad

Aedysseil, Lochiarch of the serpent squad, views over the prow of his proud Wave Serpent. 

The serpent squad disembarks to assail the enemy.

Enough playing with my little armymen and onto describing what I was up to this month. 

First is Aedysseil - he is a an eldar champion armed with a hafted power weapon (power axe). He is a heavily converted model. I took the venerable Commander Lessei Moondance from the RT402 range and cut off his head and sword. His sword was replaced with a high elf spear (with a doodad to make it look techy). Atop his body I glued a Dark Eldar head and then the helmet on top. I greenstuffed hair and a grip on the spear. I wanted him to look like an ancient Greek hoplite to match he Trireme vibe of the Wave Serpent. 

Next, the start of my Falcon Squad.

This unit is a mix of Eldar bits. The First is a wych with a dire avenger helmet and some eldar bits I dug up at a local nerd store. The second is a striking scorpion with a guardian helmet. And the last is a harlequin. She will act as the lochiarch (champion) for the unit. 

Wave Serpent/Warrior Squad

This unit is mostly composed of RT era bodies with an assortment of Eldar weapon arms (including some Dark Eldar bits)

Here's a second lochiarch, Anaflane StarRain, for the Eldar Warriors.

Lascannon troops

These are all heavily converted minis. The left one is the lease converted, basically a guardian with a weapon platform las cannon on his shoulder. The middle is a dark eldar from the 3rd ed starter box, but she's had top surgery, belly armor added to look like the howling banshee armor, craftworld eldar arms, an eldar las cannon bit from the bits bin. The last one is a Dark Eldar warrior with dark lance that's been swapped out for an old Lascannon. I have painted the danger bits in my army Red so the army is very legible on the tabletop. Red means danger. 

Start of my Razorwing Squad

This is a lochiarch and a trooper. The lochiarch is named Kelvandar Breezekin. Both also have many conversions. The lochiarch started as a Dark Eldar scourge sybarite. His head was removed, replaced with an RT guardian helmet. Given craftworld exarch wings, a power sword and the pistol swapped hands, and the body was resculpted to be less evil. The trooper started with a guardian body, head removed and replaced, catapult replaced with a cannon and wings stuck on.

I used orangey metallics for the wings to match the sails of my Eldar space ships. 

Points

 Leaders

Falcon Squad Lochiarch - Eldar Champion w/ mesh armor, refractor field, Chainsword and las pistol = 14.5 pts

Razor Wing Lochiarch - Eldar Champion w/ mesh armor, refractor field, jump pack, power sword and las pistol = 22 pts

Aedysseil, Warrior Squad Lochiarch - Eldar Champion w/ mesh armor, refractor field, power axe and las pistol = 19.5 pts

Warrior Squad Lochiarch - Eldar Champion w/ mesh armor, refractor field, shuriken catapult and las pistol =15.5 pts

Squads

Warrior Squads

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and Las Cannons x 3 = 166.5 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and shuriken catapults x 4 = 50 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and lasguns x 3 = 36 pts

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, and autogun x 1 = 12 pts

Falcon Squad

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, hand weapons and las pistols x 2 = 23 pts

Razor Wing Squad

Eldar w/ mesh armor, refractor fields, jump pack, heavy heavy bolters x 1 =  27.5 pts

Total: 386.5 points

Paul's Dark Elves - Daggerpoint Cityguard - Rank & File month 2 (288pts)

The tolling of the muster bell echoed along the high walled, moss-clung, alleyways of the port town clinging to the rocks below Daggerpoint. The citizens of the town begrudgingly answer the call for it would imperil their lives not too, either in the short term from potential raiders from the sea, or in the longer term when their lord and his household guard return from their sojourn to the south and punish them for not heeding the call to defend the town.

The sneers of distaste from the Dark Elf merchants and artisans would be obvious as they don the oily grey leather armour provided for the militia of the City Guard, foul to the touch and foul to the senses from the waterproofing of sea mammal by-products. Only the unit leader gets the questionable benefit of a helm, though bereft of the high quill of the military units. His fellow City Guard are glad enough to go without and not suffer the stink of a helm. 

The hard bitten and professional Crossbow armed soldiery look on as the pampered civilians pick up their spears and crossbows, arranging themselves into alternate ranks. All of the whining and posturing will stop pretty quickly if the Blood Dragon did manage to attack the port with his Ulthuan highborns. If that happened then there was one thing the soldiers knew, and that was the 'City Guard' were going to die before they did.

One of my favourite High Elf units are the Lothern Seaguard. I like the idea of a tactically versatile militia unit built on natural or cultural martial traditions and armed with a combination of melee and missile weapons, and one that embodies the character of their city or region. Having enjoyed making a makeshift unit of my own Seaguard in OWAC VI I felt like this unit of Dark Elf City Guard made perfect sense and the Daggerpoint militia would be my own Dark(ish) and miserly mirror of the Seaguard. Providing a window on how dark elf society works on the borders of their territory, with all citizens needing to be able to contribute and survive in harsh conditions, or die...

As you can see the metal spears I had allocated for the unit turned out to be a bit too short...

... and then I ran out of that type of spear with one mini left, so I used a larger option that I only had a few of, chopped a bit off and stuck it on the other end. I much prefer this look and it was only after I finished the unit that I thought I really should have gone back and added some bits of chopped up paperclip to the rest of them to give the same effect to the short spears. I still might...

The luxury of having amassed so much white plastic crack is that I could distinguish my more military Crossbow units with the classic pointed Dark Elf helmets, leaving the excess generic elven heads from last years Wood Elf archers to be used for the civilian militia of the City Guard, where the only helmet belongs to the unit leader. This allowed me to bring a bit more colour with some different Dark Elf hair colours, as did the coloured silken civvies underneath the grey-blue leather oil skin of their uniforms... but only a little bit more as I still want the overall look of these to be quite subdued.

I see these drab and generic militia uniforms as deliberately blending in to the grey and desolate coast line of the rocky islands. Where does this military/naval issue grey leather/oil skin material come from? It implies a local source of suitable hides. Something to return to in future posts perhaps...

A final point is that the mossy rock of my Gardenhammer-esque backdrop inspired the description of the damp alleyways the port town, and I think I'm going to pick up on that for some future basing elements.... 

mmmMMMmmm..... Moist.

Monthly Total

24 DE City Guard (inc 12 Repeater Crossbows) - 288 pts

Total - 288 pts

Tom's Bony Bit

What's up folks!? Tombo's back for another OWAC rank and file month!

I'm happy to be back for this month and I have painted some Skeleton crossbow men! Or maybe they're skeleton Dark Elves? 

I "acquired" ten press moulded crossbows from my Dads dark elf arsenal and stuck them on the back of a unit of Wargames Atlantic skeleton swordsmen. I added a games workshop banner to match my other skeleton units. 

I started with Miniature Paints (MP) Chestnut brown on every part of the skeleton, I then used some MP Coffee as the second dry brush layer on the skeletons. I used Citadel Leadbelcher on the swords and shield rims and other metal work. The crossbows are done in a red triad of VMC hull red as a base coat, then mixing in VMC flat red and moving towards Citadel Blood Red or Mephiston Red for the highlights.

Monthly Total: 

10 skeleton warriors with shields and crossbows (including musician and standard bearer) 12 pts each = 144 pts 

Total 144 pts

I'm looking forward to playing with them in a game of WFB 4 soon :)