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31 December 2015

Jørn's 2015 in review

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He we are again, on the tail-end of another year. All across the 'blogosphere' there's one end-of-year article after another, reminding me it's time I got started on something similar here as well.

This year's Main Event has undoubtedly been the trip to Adepticon, back in March. I'd like to thank Teras Cassidy from Geek Nation Tours once more for taking care of a lot of details for us, so that we could focus in having fun. I also want to do a shout-out to all our opponents in the Team Tournament this year. From our first game to the last you guys were awesome. Of course, winning the Agressors award was a really fun surprise.

We also owe Ørn big, for all his help with making objective counters, display boards, bases for us - as well as helping with both ideas and some actual painting on a couple of our armies. Sadly, we will not be going 2016, but we will more than likely be back again eventually! :D

Sometimes, the 'grind' of building and painting an army for an event will take so much out of you that it takes a while after the event before you're able to get back in the saddle. Not so for me this year.

Looking back, I seem to have produced more than a dozen new units after Adepticon. Ørn's close behind with nine units by my count, including his five amazing Imperial Knights. Inger Helene, Tom-Erik, and Trond have finished a handful of units between them too - although not all have been posted here yet.

There's quite a few kits floating around the group's hobby tables in various states of assembly and painting, I know. It's too cold and damp outside to be able to (safely) spray undercoat anything, but we all have enough unstarted and unfinished projects to keep busy until the weather turns again, I'm sure.

I'll be posting all of mine here as I'm able to finish them. You can expect new units for both my Chaos armies and my Crimson Fists. For now, here's a Spartan that I just got some alternate tracks for.

Until then... Here's to an entertaining and productive 2016 for everyone!


JørnN

24 December 2015

Dark Eldar - Grotesques - Ørnulvs #5 (Dark Eldar related) project 2015

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I posted an article on my Grotesques yesterday; instant feedback from my son (currently working on even more Carnis…), the venom canisters looked like ”light balls”, and they should have ”puss” and blood streaming from their surgery wounds and clamps. Oh well, an early Christmas morning and they have received a make over. I will keep my original text, but with updated pictures. 

It has been a while since my last post (Imperial Knights). In fact, I have not had the time ore energy to do any hobby work since this summer. But finally, I am back in the saddle again with several units about to be added to my Dark Eldar all ready fore painting.

The Grotesque model from GW is very expensive, and has one pose. Of course, I could try to repose them, but all in all I decided to go with a conversion from the Fantasy range. I used spare bits from the Dark Eldar Talos/Cronos set, as well as from Skaven and ordinary Dark Eldar kits. I also got to test my new “green stuff cable roller”.

I wanted them to have the same colour scheme as my other Dark Eldar units (Haemonculus), yet giving their skin a more tore and worn appearance. Of course this is due to the Covens constant alteration of their appearance.
 
Grotesque Aberration with Close combat weapon and Flesh gauntlet

Grotesque with Close combat weapon and Flesh gauntlet

Grotesque with Flesh gauntlet and Liquifier gun

The whole of the Grotesquery

Looking forward to more hobby activities and gaming in 2016.

Last but not least, I wish all of my fellow team members and all that follow our blog a merry Christmas!

Cheers,
Ørnulv

6 December 2015

Bloodthirster of... Magnetized Anger?

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Sorry I missed my 'regular' timeslot last Sunday. RealLife (tm) kind of got in the way...

I'd like to be able to say I'll do better, going forward, but the Bloodthirster here marks the end of a nearly two-month 'hobby-spurt'. I seems I've run out of 

The kit went together really well! The biggest... 'issue' was deciding which pair of arms to use. I wanted to be able to use all three Bloodthirster-variants - without having to buy three models.

I quickly figured out that the giant axe for the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage was the most restrictive weapon pose-wise, and used the arms that fit that one. Magnets in the wrists and the various hands allow me to swap between the variants as the mood takes me...


Lots (and lots) of surface texture allowed for a relatively quick drybrush-up-and-shade-down (repeat until happy) technique, allowing me to finish the model over a couple weeks worth of evenings. An old and mangled Space Marine Bike was repurposed for the base, and painted my favourite shade of blue.


With nothing left that's ready to paint, I'll be building kits from my on-sprue-and-in-bag drawer. I suppose I can do the occasional show-and-tell, once I have a handful of built kits.


Until then...

JørnN

22 November 2015

Hunker in the Bunker... November 2015

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It's been a while since the last time we've had the pleasure of being invited to Ørn's place for a weekend of gaming, drinking and a big casserole of chilli.

Apart from a couple of test games, this was the first real field test for my new Khorne Daemonkin army.

First game, on Friday, was against Trond's Eldar. I either need some tools specifically designed for killing Wraithknight(s, without dying in the process), or I need to figure out how to take them out with the tolls that I do possess.


On the other table, Inger Helene dropped in on Ørn's Knight Titans.


After breakfast on Saturday, I set up opposite Inger Helene's Black Templars to play Adepticon 2015 Championship primer mission one. After four tense rounds trying to catch up to Inger Helene's early break-away, the cards finally turned in my favour and I was able to secure a two-points victory.



On the other table, Ørn's Knights were fending off Tom-Erik's Eldar army.


A little later, Ørnulv went and got his Imperial Knights. I knew that in a straight Kill-points game, I would have to play the run-away-and-hide game to minimize the inevitable loss. So I insisted we'd roll up a book scenario with objectives, to keep it interesting and give me a fighting chance. I managed to rush his deployed Knights early and keep the pressure up, leaving me in control of two of the three objectives.


Another great weekend in the Eagle's Nest!!!
I'm looking forward to the next one already.

My only regret is not managing to get a game in against the Tyranids no longer played by Ørn...


JørnN

Coming up: "Tham'pa'xtr'o'let"

15 November 2015

Herald of Khorne, on foot

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Another small update for you this weekend...

I have something bigger and time-consuming than the last few weeks on my painting table at the moment... No cookies forguessing what it is, though. It shouldbe pretty obvious.

Anyway; That means the weekly update has to be somehing I've prepared earlier. As far as I know, this is the Herald model from the Throne/Skullcannon kit. I've put it on a 30mm base, as the stance is far, far to wide to een consider fitting on a 25mm one.

Even so, I've had to chop up one of the mutated arms I still have left over from the handful of Possessed kits I've bought overth years to accomodate the model's pose and try to keep it interesting.

By this time, next weeknd, we should all be back from the gaming event at Ørn's place. Hopefully, someone will have some pictures from that for you. ;)


JørnN

9 November 2015

Kytan Daemon Engine (from DreamForge Leviathan Crusader)

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A few months ago ForgeWorld presented their new Kytan Daemon Engine, giving those with the Khorne Lord of War kit something worthwhile to use the torso for. A lot of excellent builds of the FW kit, as well as various conversions have since been presented on blogs an forums around the net.

For me, it was an opportunity to dig out one of the two Leviathan Crusader kits I'd acquired from DreamForge's KickStarter campaign last year.

I've left off a lot of the armour plates that's included in the kit to expose more of the mechanical details that would otherwise be obscured. The initial dry-fitting of the armour plates in the model kit quickly showed me that all they added a lot more bulk than I wanted.


I had originally thought I'd use the original torso, but find a beast or daemon head to replace the Crusader's original helmet. In the end, though, I ended up sawing the torso front off again (It was glued on solid!.) to fit the Ogre Kingdoms Longhorn head instead. It took ha handful of pins, some balled-up aluminium foil and a sizeable lump of Green Stuff, but I did get it into a position where the horns didn't end up getting in the way of the shoulder armour plates.

With the basic build done, I dollied up a Knight base, pinned the feet to it and glued all the moveable joints and pistons to lock in a suitable pose. The arms remain moveable and the weapons can still be taken off and replaced - just in case someone at ForgeWorld comes up with other weapon options for the Kytan.


After the pose was finalized, it was time to dive into the bitz-boxes and fit an assortment of symbols and sigils onto the model. I even replaced the gatling cannon barrel with a spare Juggernaut head. I could not find anything large enough to cover the shoulder plates, though, so I ended up taking my very first stab at detailing with plasticard. It took me a couple of nights of cutting strips, fitting and gluing them onto curved surfaces before scraping and sanding them to blend them together.


The paint job doesn't differ too much from what I've done for my Word Bearers. Black primer, heavy drybrush of Warplock Bronze followed by a lighter drybrush of Leadbelcher. The red is the old Red Ink from Citadel Colour, but I'v also treated the metal parts to several other Vallejo inks and washes too.

Next? I have a couple of projects under way already, to enable me to use a few of the formations in the Khorne Daemonkin codex. One's pretty close to completion, so make sure to look both ways before crossing the road...


JørnN

8 November 2015

Khorne Daemonkin Possessed (from AoS Blood Warriors)

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It's that time of the week again, and quite the special occasion today too...

First off, the five 'Khornate Possessed' pictured above marks the completion of the Khorne Daemonkin army I plan on taking to Ørn's get-together in a complete of weeks. I should probably see about getting a test game or two in before then - provided that Real World demands will allow it.

The other milestone reached today, is that this is the five hundredth article published on the blog. During the seven and a half years (almost) that we've been doing this, you have been able to follow several army projects from their inception to their current state. The 'flow' of articles have always been a little unpredictable... Controlled more by the various team members' hobby progress and inclinations to take pictures and do write-ups than any overarching plan.

It is my hope that for the next five hundred articles, more of us will want to 'step up' onto the soap box, figuratively speaking, and show off their progress as well as share their thoughts.

I'll go pour myself a glass now, and go back to some of the oldest articles to remines... reminec... revisit a few favourite moments.


JørnN

1 November 2015

Bloodletters, second batch

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Hope everyone's had a good Halloween. Here's that second batch of Bloodletters.


Two squads of eight, and a few spares not pictured here. That should be enough to keep me in shock troops for a while.


Just one one more small squad left, to complete the army I plan to use in a few weeks.

Then perhaps I'll still have time left over to complete a 'stretch goal' or two...


JørnN

25 October 2015

Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut

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Just a quick update again, this week. I'm still working on the next batch of Bloodletters, so all I have for you today is this Herald on Juggernaut. I suppose it's really just a Bloodcrusher, but until I get around to doing a squad of those it'll do well enough accompanying a unit of Flesh Hounds.

I've spread a liberal amount of heads and helmets from my bitz boxes onto the base, as befitting a favoured soldier of the Blood God.

The Juggernaut has been painted pretty much per the usual colour scheme for my Word Bearers' armour, but I've experimented with Black and Sepia inks from Vallejo in addition to the the usual Red Ink from Citadel Colours. The oxidation/verdigris effect on the brassy pieces is a watery mix of blue and green paints followed by a light dry-brush of 'Brassy Brass' again.

18 October 2015

Bloodletters, first batch

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Nothing too spectacular this week, but there is some progress on the Khorne Daemonkin project.

This week I have managed to finish a squad of Bloodletters. That leaves just one more squad of the Blood God's foot soldiers, as well as some Possessed.

Not quite sure what to do for those, though...


JørnN

10 October 2015

CSM Bike Squadron, second batch (Architecture of Aggression LV)

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The incentive behind my latest productivity spurt is the Khorne Daemonkin Codex. This is the first book where I've been looking closely at using the new Detachments and Formations structures for building an army. I'm finding that while this will give you extra bonuses to the armies that they´re themed for, it also makes it harder than a normal Combined Arms Detachment to add in units that´s not deemed an integral part of the theme.

Anyway... In order to be able to use the Gorepack formation I needed a few more CSMs on bikes. To make sure I can get as much flexibility as possible out of these, I played around with magnets a bit to enable me to swap out the right arm of four of these with various melta-weapons.


This will give me enough models to field the two CSM Bike Squadrons needed to unlock the one to four packs of Flesh Hounds. It's almost a pity that I only painted up twenty of the mongrels...


JørnN 

29 September 2015

Random Access Modelling - Ghoul King & Bloodsecrator's ponytail

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I'm a bit of an eBayoholic, and as such I have a tendency to accrue the occasional bits and models that I have no immediate or concise plans for. Most often, they end up forgotten in the bottom of some bits box or other.


Yes... I have several...


Sometimes, though, the arrival of a new random bit seems to... 'resonate' with another unrelated piece of plastic. Recovering the old bit will often result in something I like the look of, but have no idea how to use on the tabletop.


Callidus/Culexus for my slow-off-the-ground Traitor Guards, perhaps?



20 September 2015

Prima Nocte in the House of Hawkshroud

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The engines of the Mechanicus lander was long lost in the pale blue sky as the the sun crested the distant horizon, but the dust it had left behind was only just starting to settle down. Hugh de Bracy marched down onto the red sandstone flats ahead of the four Knights accompanying him. The signal strength of the distress beacon from the explorator team was increasing steadily. They would reach the magos and his team within the hour.

+ + + SIGNAL LOST + + +

'My Baron..?'
It was de Bois-Guilbert. He'd registered the sudden cut-off too.
'Line abreast, sirs!' De Bracy interrupted the Castigator's pilot.. 'Shields to the fore!'


- o - o -

Ørn's recently completed Knight Titan army gets their first game on some of Per's lovely gaming terrain. Per uses most of his collection of Necrons to match the 2000 points Ørn was bringing. I had tagged along to take pictures and notes - and to 'remembrance' the account below. The combatants had agreed in advance to play a straight Kill Points game with a Dawn of War deployment. Since only one side has any Super Heavies, the rules from the Escalation book affording the Necrons +1 to Reserve rolls as well as giving them a Kill Point for every three Hull Points caused off any Super Heavy are in effect.

I'd also like to beg your pardon in advance, for any mix-up between Knights in the narrative below. I'm sure Ørn will be on hand in the morning, to help make any necessary corrections. ;)

We set the terrain up aiming to use as many different pieces as possible, to create a varied and interesting table. Ørn wins the roll off to choose table edge while Per takes the second roll-off and is able to force the Knights to set up first. Failing to roll the Warlord Trait that would allow a handful of Knights to Outflank, Ørn opts to spread out across the entire table with. He makes sure to keep each Knight within six inches of at least another one, to benefit from the improved Ion Shield save from shots in the Knights' front arc.


Per also spreads his army out across the width of his deployment zone, making sure to keep some distance between his heavy hitters; two Doomsday Arks and a unit of three Heavy Destroyers. Per sets up two units of Necron Warriors to fill out his centre, as well as one on each flank. A unit of Scarabs and a C'tan shard of the Nightbringer takes Per's right flank, while six Wraiths materializes just behind the Warriors on the extreme left. The Necron Overlord and his Immortals retinue is held back, to arrive by Deep Strike at an opportune moment.


After deployment is complete, the two gentlemen shakes hands across the table, before Per rolls the game's first six - to Steal the Initiative.

Round One

The Wraiths moves over the Warriors in front of them to get as close as possible to the Knight Paladin. The two Warrior squads in the centre march far enough ahead to make room for the Heavy Destroyers to get within range of the Knight Errant. The Doomsday Ark on the right and the Heavy Destroyers shoots at the Knight Errant while the other Doomsday Ark targets the Knight Warden. The Errant makes two Ion Shield saves against the Penetrating hits caused, while the last Arc misses.

All of the knights move up as far as their Difficult Terrain rolls allows. In his shooting phase, he uses two Knights to take out two of the Heavy Destroyers. The rest of the Super-Heavy Walkers expend all their shots on the Canoptek Wraiths, killing four.


0 - 0

Round Two

The Necron Overlord and his retinue of Immortals Deep Strike behind the Knight Castigator, and takes two Hull Points off it with their Gauss Blasters. The Necron Warriors in the centre shoots at the Knight Crusader, the shield saves the few glancing hits their Gauss Flayers cause. Both Doomsday Arks hits the Knight Castigator, but only one hull point is lost to the one Penetrating Hit caused. The two remaining Wraiths assaults the Knight Warden, but quickly gets stomped into oblivion. First Blood to Ørn!



The Knight Castigator turns about and advances on the Immortals that had cowardly attacked him from the rear. The Knight Errant shoots at the closest Doomsday Barge, failing to penetrate, and at the rearmost Warrior squad in the centre, killing three. The Knight Warden shoots at the closest Warrior squad, killing five, and kills the last Destroyer. The Crusader also shoots at the closest squad of Warriors, finishing it off. Bois-Guilbert shoots and kills four Immortals, before assaulting the Lord’s retinue. The Immortals prove impossible to wound in close combat, however. Even the Stomp attack fails to do any damage.


1 - 2

Round Three

The Necron infantry advances again, firing volleys at the Knights Warden and the Paladin. They take a Hull point off the Warden for their efforts. Both barges, as well as the C’tan Shard shoots at the Knight Warden, but the shield holds firm. The Castigator makes a Tempest attack before Stomping and kills another four Immortals, but not before loosing two Hull Points to the Necron Lord’s Warscyte.


The Knight line advances again, before opening fire. The Warden on the hill in the centre fires at the Warrior squad below, killing the last seven. The Crusader spreads its fire power among the C’tan shard, the warriors and the Ark on the right, but fails to do any damage. The Paladin fires its Battle Cannon at the Warriors in front of it. Both shells smash straight into the squad, and blows six warriors away. The Heavy stubbers kills another one, forcing them to fall back. The Errant fires his Melta Cannon at the Barge, scoring yet another Hit on the scatter dice but fails to penetrate. At the rear, the Castigator falls to the Necron Lord.


2 - 3

Round Four

The C’tan shard summons an Antimatter Meteor at the Knight Warden. One Doomsday Ark and the last warrior in the centre fires at the same Knight. The Ion shield saves every shot that rolls high enough to cause damage. The Warriors that fell back into the river regroups and shoots at the Knight Paladin, but also fails to penetrate anything. The Lord and last Immortal assaults the Knight Crusader, and the Scarabs assaults the Errant. The Lord causes a Penetrating hit, but only takes a Hull Point off the Knight. In return, the Knight Stomps one wound off the Necron Lord. The Errant hits and kills three bases of Scarabs before loosing two Hull Points in return. The Errant then stomps out the rest of the Scarabs.


The Knights Errant and Warden close in on the C’tan shard and the Necron Warriors. The Knight Paladin fires its battle Cannon at the Doomsday Ark and the Heavy Stubber at the Necron Warriors in the river. The Errant fires at the Warriors squad. The Melta cannon kills four, the Stubber another one. The Knight Warden fires his Avenger Gatling Cannon at the same Warriors squad, wiping the rest of the unit off the board, and then the Stormspear missiles at the C’tan, taking two wounds off it. The Knight Crusader swings and kills the last Immortal. It then loses three Hull Points to the Necron Lord’s Warschyte before stomping the Lord into the ground, earning Ørn Slay the Warlord. The Knight Paladin assaults and slays the last two Warriors in the river.


3 - 8

Round Five

The Doomsday Ark on the left flank fires at the Knight Errant, taking off one Hull Point. The C’tan shard summons another Antimatter Meteor at the Knight Crusader, but fails to penetrate. The Ark on the right flank misses its shot.

The Knights Errant moves to flank the C’tan shard, shooting its Battle Cannon and Avenger Gatling cannon. The Battle cannon fails to do any damage, but the Avenger takes the last two wounds off the Necrodermis construct. The Knight Errant advances to within melta range of the Doomsday Ark on the left flank, firing the Melta Cannon but rolling snake eyes to penetrate. The Warden then assaults the Doomsday Ark on the right flank and causes a Glancing Hit on the Impact Hit and another two with the Reaper Chainsword. The Paladin assaults the Doomsday Ark on the left flank and causes it to explodes with the Impact Hit.



3 - 11

Round Six

The doomsday Ark on the right flank remain stationary to shoot at the Knight Warden, taking another Hull Point off it.

In return, the Warden swings and cuts the last Doomsday Ark in half…

4 - 12

The final score is four Victory Points to the Necrons, versus a massive fourteen to the Knights.

- o - o -

The strange war machines and battle automata vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert's Castigator would likely never rise again and both Philip de Malvoisin's Errant and Sir Front de Boeuf's Crusader would need weeks in the restoration halls before being able to to take to the field again.

+ + + SIGNAL REACQUIRED + + +

There was still a chance to achieve the mission's primary objective, it seemed. It would fall to Sir Hugh de Bracy and Ralph de Vipont to complete it, and uphold the honour of House Hawkshroud...

23 August 2015

Eldar windriders

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With the new Eldar bikes models it was time for me to add som bikes to my Saim-Hann army, and off curse a Farseer on bike.
With the new codex they also have some new options, something called a Scatter laser that along with the Shuriken cannon will give this unit a lot off firepower.
I went with 5 bikes with a Farseer as the first Windriders  unit, 3 Shuriken cannon and 2 Scatter lasers, and with some "guide" from the Farseer this can be a threat to most infantry models.


As Saim-Hann are the Wild Host off the Eldars these bikes will not be the last, I am already working on some more bikes, and some Vypers to add some heavy weapons, that may scratch some Knight armour :-)
There is also a Warlock on bike on my painting table, I discovered in the last game that my Warlock needs to be a bit more mobile.



9 August 2015

Imperial Knights – House Hawkshroud

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When the first Codex Imperial Knights came out, I was very drawn to the models and the concept. When I discarded my idea of building an Imperial Guard Army, I bought 3 Imperial Knights. But, I never got around to building (or painting) them until I attended the Adepticon event 2015 (where I bought my Forge World Castigator Knight, see separate post). And when the new Codex Imperial Knights came out (about at the same time), well – why not field 4 variants at the same time?

I wanted the models to theme with my Ultramarines, hence I chose a base with "desert look", but the size of the base and models compelled me to add some ruins so that they “told a story”.

A picture of one of the 4 bases before priming

With 3 kits of the ordinary Knights, and the new kit, I decided to magnetize not only the torso and legs, but most of the weapons as well. Thus, I can field several of them in different configurations (I had to build from scratch a second Avenger Gatling Cannon as well as some rocket launchers though).
A picture of the main guns being magnetized


A picture of all the parts after washing (before priming)


Early on I decided that my Knights should come from House Hawkshroud. Why? Because they are famed for being the most Imperium-loyal of the Knightly houses, and always known to aid when called for. Hence, I was inspired “fluff wise”. They are also the only (named) Knight house that incorporate markings and badges from their allies, and that show variety in their Standard and Personal livery. For me, variety was key.

The “Family” from House Hawkshroud that is Oathsworn to my Ultramarines has chosen the Imperial eagle (and Eagle) as their Personal Emblem, and they have inverted the House Livery and Personal Livery on the left shoulder shields. They have also chosen to incorporate the campaign badge shown on my Ultramarines vehicles, and to add the Ultramarines markings (in black) as part of the Personal Livery. I wanted them to look a little torn and worn. 
Sir Philip DeMalvoisin, pilot of the Imperial Knight Errant – the Vengeance


Sir Ralph DeVipont, pilot of the Imperial Knight Paladin – the Accuser

Sir Hugh De Bracy, pilot of the Imperial Knight Warden – the Retribution


Sir Front De Boeuf, pilot of the Imperial Knight Crusader – the Avenger
Optional

Optional

What next? I have a Zone Mortalis table to finish, plans for expansion of my Dark Eldar Army and my Ultramarines army. One of them I guess…


By the way, the names of the pilots and the knights are themed from to very different ”sagas”. Anyone recognizing them?



Cheers,

Ørnulv