Down but not out

I haven't updated because I haven't been able to really work on anything. The whole town I live in has been passing around the flu so I've been curling up and staying warm. I'll start putting my BA tactical squad together as my guinea pigs for my posing and building of marines. My Necron force was basically a production line while these guys will be built individually, since I will have sargents, special weapon, and heavy weapon marines, etc that need to look different than the pack. I'll also magnetize these particular ones to switch out the weapon choices. My goal is also to make veteran's look more ornate and carry more seals, etc than the normal bolter carrying guy.

On a side note, the latest words from GW are Tyranids are the next to be updated. Boo to that, since they still seem quite capable. Nor have a lack of army builds like Necrons do. And a new 40k CGI movie will be coming out starring... the Ultramarines. Bleh to that too; wish it could be any other chapter. I do have hope that it will look good and do well, but ya know, that's what happens when you don't like the poster child of a company.

Anyway, I'll be posting some background and details to my BA build project. I'll try to get some pictures up of my current Necrons as well.

Adding paint to the palette

When I picked up my models and started painting I just got the Citadel starter kit of colors with all the extras and that's all I've had to work with for a while now. I slowly bought a color two like Bleached Bone and Codex Gray, but that still wasn't cutting it. So I checked out Ebay (which is were I get all my models, bits, etc) and found a lot that had about 13 paints, the whole citadel wash series, and a bottle of the citadel super glue. I placed my maximum bid on the last day of the bid, went out and did my own thing thinking I'd be out bid, since I wouldn't be home to try wrestle for it if it went over my max. But low and behold I actually won and got it in the mail the other day. So now I'm set to paint just about whatever I need. Plus I have two of some important ones like black, white, and red (for my Blood Angels, haha). Now all I need are the foundation paints for making super nice looking models, but that can wait.

I'll try to do some washing on my current models or terrain pieces to add some character and I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Battle Report - 1000pt Blood Angels vs Tau

So this is my first battle report on here and it was between my Blood Angel successor chapter (yet to be named or built... haha) vs my friend Dak's Tau themed around the Soviet Union. The battle as 1000pt as I couldn't proxy enough Rhino hulls, as my 1500pt list has 3 Rhinos and 2 Baal Preds but I only have 3 actual Rhino models. So, my forces were:

• Lord Dante
• Carbulo in Rhino with 3 DC
• 2x 5-man ASM in Rhinos
• Sargents had PW and Melta Bombs
• 10-man Tac Squad with Las-cannon
• 2x Landspeeders with MM

Tau forces where:

• 2x HQ Suits (Plasma/Missile)
  
• 1x Elite Suit (Plasma/Missile)
  
• 2x Firewarrior Squads with Devilfish transports
• Hammerhead with Rail Cannon
  
• Hammerhead with Ion Cannon

Deployment and mission were spearhead/annihilation, he won roll off and went first and chose his quadrant. He deployed everything near the center and I deployed my las-cannon team near the center as well, everything else of mine is in reserve. The center of the board is my bunker from earlier posts, so it's up for grabs. One DF runs up and unloads his troops near the door and the rest circle around the bunker to get LOS on my unit which brings his other DF and HH near my table edge. The squad take shots like a champ surviving the round of shooting. They didn't have a shot at the end of the turn so they move to cover for the incoming plasma shots next turn.

Top of 2, he pours more shots into them reducing them to just the lascannon, but the final failed save was from a pinning shot, which I of course fail so he can't shoot next turn. I roll for reserves and one Landspeeder, Dante, and a normal Rhino come on. The speeder rolls on behind his DF, penning his rear armor for an immobilize. Dante arrived behind his HH, penning rear armor with his melta-pistol, wrecking it, and the Rhino just moves up 12" but forgets to pop smoke. The key here was the Tau not knowing I can come in on the whole table edge and the skimmers were both near 12" of my edge so were in range of getting 2d6 pen rolls on rear armor. On his turn, I think a suit missile'd the side armor of my Rhino and it got wrecked, failing an area cover save. My ASM pile out into this cover to get saves vs any plasma or Ion cannons. Their mission is now to melta the downed DF to get the KP.

Top of 3, one of his HQs goes to rapid fire plasma and missiles into my lone lascannon who promptly sticks the cannon into the ground and hides behind it, as the HQ rolls 4 1s missing all shots! The HQ is forced to charge or he will open fire next turn, and he is finally cut down. The ASM squad on foot takes some wounds from the Ion cannon but live on. His other units maneuver around but not much else. My second 'speeder comes on and moves up 12" to get in MM range of the second DF which hits on side armor and immob that one as well. My DC Rhino comes on and moves up and pops smoke. The speeder that immob the 1st DF moves around to fire on the HQ with his MM, but fails to hit. Dante jumps forward and pops a suit with his pistol.

Top of 4, his HQ suit proceeds to score a weapon destroyed and an immob on my 1st speeder, but doesn't give up its KP. His two downed DF launch their 2 gun drones each to bring the fight to me. His suit and some FW in the bunker fire at Dante scoring 1 wound, but Carbulo was close enough to heal it. I can't remember how, but my 2nd speeder was destroyed by fire, probably the Ion cannon. My ASM go to meet his one squad of gun drones and shoot them from the sky on their way to the downed DF. Dante jumps past the other downed DF where a suit was hiding and preceded to kill him in CC, leaving just one suit left, which was an HQ. The DC rhino moves up to stay within range of Dante to give him a saved wound for the next shooting phase.

Top of 5, he turns everything around and labels Dante the threat. The FW in the bunker come out so all can rapid fire into him, the other FW in the immob DF pile out and move to get into RF as well, the last suit comes around the bunker and the Ion HH take aim. Both squads of FW fail to wound, as Carbulo heals the only one they inflict. The suit inflicts one wound, and finally 2 Ion blasts aren't saved so he is knocked out. This allows my ASM squad to stroll over to the other DF and melta it and wreck it. My 3 DC unload and hop the nearby wall and charge his closest FW squad, winning combat but they only fall back a few inches, which sets me up to charge them on turn 6 and sweep them. Speaking of turn 6 my last rhino that came in on turn 5 rolls up and shoots the other gun drone squad from the air with help from bolt pistols inside. The other FW squad ran back in the bunker but couldn't shoot much. The game ends there as a win for me 7 to 4.

Some questions that came up, that I pose to anyone that plays and is reading this are: Can foot infantry go thru walls that are tall enough to cover a rhino and are gun drone squads that disembark from a Devilfish count as a squad that create a KP? For the first, I figured it was just a difficult terrain test, like they blow a hole thru the wall with explosives. We just played it as 1d6 difficult terrain, instead of 2d6 picking the highest. And for the second, I counted the drones as KP as they have an entry in the codex as an actual fast attack choice with a unit stat line, they just happened to start on the DF. My opponent said they shouldn't as they are more like a wargear choice for the DF. Lemme know what you think of this post as well, if it was too long or what. It was long as I don't have a way to recording it and making it like a 5-7 min post on YouTube like Jawaballs and the other bloggers. Thoughts?

Ruined Terrain 3 - Tips

This will close out the Ruined Terrain project for now. I got some ideas from others that checked out my work and I'll go back to these to add some age to the concrete and maybe some detail like mossy build up at the bottom. Some tips I wanted to share are:

• Spray paint put on thick will break down the styrofoam. Pull back so it's lightly coated on and it will be fine and quicker than painting with a brush from the pot.
• Pull your blade backwards across the surface to get rough, more natural looking edges instead of cutting away and making it smooth.
  
• Super glue is useful in creating damage marks. A drop with eat a hole into the side of the wall. I like to dip a toothpick with glue after placing a drop on and poke it down to a good depth and then pull it out. This will provide a channel down into the foam and create a larger hole. You can also drip it down the side of a building for different effects. It leaves the crater made a bit glossy and easy to paint.
• Flames from a lighter also make for a quick way to add damage. The disclaimer here is that foam will burn on its own, so do it in a safe location. Hold the flame far away and slowly inch it in and the foam will shrink a bit and wallah, damage from a heavy flamer on your bunker.
• Everything can be used for the next project. I cut out the center of that bunker, looked at it and said, hey, I can build something from that. That's what I created my destroyed bunker from, which is below. Also, the cut out windows make a good start for a brick pile I can add to my bunker, or pile up to make a destroyed wall for more cover. The list goes on.
  

 

On the second picture I carved out a door way to the right, painted it black, and filled it with foam bubble scraps, brushing on watered down PVA glue to stick them together. Then more bubbles and another coat or two of watered PVA glue so it would flow on its own, otherwise the thickness would just pull the foam away with each stroke. This makes it look like the bunker entry point is caved in and unusable. I preceded to hit it with super glue, flame, and my razor and piled on the damage. It will just serve as a terrain piece to block LOS and look more appropriate. It will also get some touch ups with an aged wash and some moss eventually.

 

Ruined Terrain 2 - The Bunker

This post will detail my creation of a 40k bunker, with removable roof, so you can keep your units on the table when you occupy it. Oddly enough the styrofoam block I used for this was perfect in scale and size in that it can easily fit 10-15 men squads inside, and is tall enough to place the roof on top and clear the heads of marine sized models, and it just came out of an electronics box ready to be trashed! The first thing was measuring out the inside cut, which was 1" away from the edges. Any less and it would be unstable walls and any thicker and you could fit a max of 10 models, tightly. I measured the windows to be 1" wide and .5" tall, plenty big to place a lascannon or HB through the window. I also traced out two Rhino doors, one on either side, as entry points. Per the buildings rule, you could claim the doors to be open and gain an extra "firing point" but risk a +1 on the damage table.

 

 The roof was an additional piece of styrofoam, also the perfect size right out of the box. I decided to add a radio tower out of a plastic mounting arm from a hamster cage I have. Odd I know, but it also looked pretty good as is, but I added a Landspeeder antenna to it and a Dark Angels Icon as a sort of radar dish. I also added a small "electrical box." I smoothed down the Rhino door area so it would be flush with the walls, and not just sticking out like a sore thumb. I just used some PVA glue to secure it to the surface.

I also added Rhino head lights next to the two entrances and added two lamps from the Landspeeder sprue to either side of the bunker with no doors, to act as spot lamps. Since they were just lamps with no mounting, I took actual sprue bits to act as a arm from the bunker wall and glued the lamp to that. I base coated it in black spray paint, being very careful with that, and then watered down some Codex Gray and brushed it on. I used some of the styrofoam shavings dipped in paint to give the surface a rough look. Sand would be better, but I didn't have a source of that at the time.

 

I use the same technique as on the walls to wear down the edges of the building and the roof, to take off the sharp edges. The little pipes in the foreground were my test bed for painting rust and it came out well. Plus I now have a stack of rusty pipes to place anywhere to add a bit of flavor. Finally, I added some Dark Angels icons to the doors, including a Dreadnought face plate. I painted the rust on the doors, lights, and roof stuff by starting with watered down Blood Red, followed by watery Snake Bite Leather. I focused on the edges of things, hinges, and rivets.

 

And here are some close up shots for details.

 So, let me know what you think. I'm quite happy with it for being a simple job. More detailed people might put more layers and highlights of paint, but I think it looks fine the way it is. Much better than cardboard buildings we've been using so far and our first actual bunker that units can occupy. Next up will be my tips and tricks I picked up while doing this project, as well as pics of my destroyed bunker.

Ruined Terrain 1 - Walls

So I ran across some styrofoam blocks while throwing out some electronics boxes and they screamed out to be turned into terrain. Currently my friends and I only use some Necromunda buildings and low walls for our games, that are usually just treated as blocking and impassible terrain, only using the roofs if we have jump packs or are skimmers, etc and having to take a dangerous terrain test for them. So I thought I'd spruce it up a bit. With the various size pieces I decided to make 4 walls and two bunkers initially. Two of the walls would be for infantry cover but still get shots off and the other would be for vehicle cover, which we severely lacked.

And here they are (click for a larger image). They started off as perfect rectangles of course, so I worked them down with my straight utility razor that I also use for cleaning my models down in the same fashion, pulling the blade back across it, not pushing against it. This pulled up the foam bubbles individually and gave it an uneven surface on the edges. Next I added the holes on the large walls to show off some ordnance hits. I primed them black and then used watered down Codex Gray, then went back and filled the blast holes with black to give them a shadow on the inside, finally going around the holes with a 1:1 mix of black and gray for scorch marks. Both long sides have these effects and I even did each short side so it didn't look untouched there. All told, done in about an hour or so, including paint drying time and the like.

I left the infantry cover mostly untouched, except the surface of each has a rough top, like piled rocks on top of it. And there we have it, my first set of ruined terrain. I also completed a functional bunker with roof as well as a ruined bunker that is just impassible terrain, but will look more authentic on the battlefield. I'll have more pics of that project in my next post as well as post some tips I picked up while doing all this.

...we ride into battle!

Hello world! This is my very own 40k/nerd blog following me, Haunter. I was inspired by Jawaballs and his circle of friends that blog to do the same. He also inspired me to pick up Blood Angels as my secondary army after Necrons. They will actually be my main after they are built, but both will be represented on the blog equally as my Necron are a WIP as well. I'll also try my hand at battle reports if I get my hands on a camera of some sort. This will also keep me motivated to keep working on my guys and also share my findings.

I only started a few months ago, egged on by a friend, and I'm doing alright so far, but I still need more time and battles under my belt. So I look forward to what this will bring and welcome constructive comments.