Tom-Erik`s April Hobby Challenge

This month I chose to get some new units done for the "hunker in the bunker" gaming event, the plan was to get a Monolith or Doomsday Ark for my 2000 point list, but I ended up with going for a second Stalker. I feel like i can get more from these spider things that can move around the table and stil get their deadly shoots off. Had some mixed experience with them so far, but they sure take a lot off heat from every one that has faced them, and the heavy gauss cannon give me some needed longe range fire power.

The second unite I have finished is the Deathmarks, and I love these robots! I all games when they have deep striked the right way, and not into close combat with a Defiler or 45 orks they have been great!

So need some more off these!

Their hit on 3+ and wound on 2+ against a marked unit is a killer, and they have rending...

That`s it for April, in May I think it might be a Necron break, and time to digg out some pointy ears stuff called the Void Dragons...

Word Bearers 'Noise Marines' II - Jørn's April Hobby Challenge (Architecture of Aggression XXXIV)

After a week of prodding old miniatures sitting around in the closest thing to Simple Green we've got and a week of too short evening painting sessions, I managed to finish a unit of Sonic Blaster wielding Noise Marines just in time for this past weekend's 'Hunker in the Bunker'. (More on that later, I'm sure.)

I was holding off on posting until after this weekend, but now that the cat's out of the bag anyway there's no point in putting it off any longer. I'll have to test them out in a few games before I decide if they're getting shelved (or 'foamed' rather) or if I'll be fleshing the unit out to ten - or even twelve, to be fluffy.

A drake

A heldrake finished. Well I had to say stop. Could have done more with both the model and base. Not everything here I am completely satisfied with, but overall I think it's ok, and fit the theme of my army. I actually think the Heldrake model is quite nice. Guess it has to do with the armour and machine, and not so much weight on an insectous and animalistic expression.

I used one of buypainted.coms paint schemes, but decided to go my own way. Maybe a little too much wash from Secret Weapon in the end, but at least the drake got a dirty, greasy look. I have used a lot of brown pigments both on the model and base, making a rusty effect that almost vanished when I varnished the model. But it was too much in the first place, so a good thing that much was blown away.

And that is how I paint in a nutshell: Not always having the end product in my mind. Finding the path as I walk. Planning is therefore something I will try to improve.

Used the ultra fine needle on the Krome a lot on this really nice model, in the end managing to spray quite fine lines. But I must admit, finding the right mix of paint thinning, air pressure and distance to model is difficult! I've experienced dots, spiderweb and everything that is wrong. Perhaps the most important lesson is to remember to not finish the airbrush shot with paint in the system. Always finish blowing out air. Then you will not start the next shot with uncontrollable paint dots all over the model!

I started out this model testing the Krome, and after a few seconds - the stupid neewbie disaster happened. The airbrushed clogged and I got paint everywhere in the spraygun. I had to disassemble the whole thing, tried to clean it up, and managed to go on. And learned a lot. Last weekend disaster number two occured when I dropped the Krome on the floor, and naturally the needle was bent. I e-mailed Ken Schlotfeldt at Badger and he directed me to a german retailer who sent me the parts I needed in three days! So now I am up and going again.

The Forgefiend is next. But probably not finished by the end of the month.

See you tomorrow!

(Edit: Added som pics on request)

Chaos Spawn - Jørn's March Hobby Challenge

A week into April, and I'm finally done with my pledges for March.

Playing a Chaos Space Marines army, you never know when the Gods turn their backs to your champions, and you're called upon to have a Spawn model ready. I've had the two models below lying around since... Since they were released probably. It's about time then that they finally received some paint.

I've been playing around with all sorts of new tool while painting these two. The base colours were airbrushed on, enabling me to experiment with colour gradients on their extremities and between the different parts of their bodies. A number of different oil washes was then applied, to tone down the most extreme colour variations and to bring out the texture. A bit of light dry-brushing here and there, followed by more wash... Back and forth a few times until they reached the stage you can see above.

Death from the skies

I hear a high pitch shriek ;)

And death and destruction will follow….

Cheers,

Ørnulv

March Hobby challenges

Finally some time to write about this months hobby challenge, 2 days late.
It has been a very busy March with work and familly, but i manged to get some hobby stuff done!

First, I have almost finished my second building, need some more work on the base, and there wil be some statue in front of this building. Painting buildings is not my favorite thing to do....

I had to change some planes this month as I want to try some new necron stuff in games, which ment I needed to paint some new necrons, the deathmarks! The plan is to have a unit of 10, or 2 units of 6, depending on the game. Deep striking snipers that wounds a selected squad on 2, sounds good if I can use them the right way! I am also thinking about a monolith in my 2000 point army for the gaming weekend, any thoughts on that?
Anyhoooo here are the first 4 deathmarks, the rest is only primed.

March & April 2013 Hobby Challenges

It's really April already, isn't it? Spring may actually be here at last, and I have the feeling our activity level is starting to pick up a little with the return of daylight and the (ever so slowly) rising temperatures.

So... Last month's challenges first.

I pledged two Hell Blade Chaos Fighterst from Forge World and a couple of old Chaos Spawn I had lying around. I finished the flyers around the middle of the month, but didn't get around to finishing the Spawn models during the week before Easter holiday so I'll have to get those done before pledging anything for April.

Linus finished his Chaos Chosen from the Dark Vengeance box set a few days after the fighter pictures went up, and the Helbrute from the same set a few days ago. Linus has started using his airbrush kit rather extensively lately, so I'm sure he'll be joining Ørn in shaming the rest of us for not being nearly as productive before long. ;)

Other than that, there's no other completed challenges for March. We have been getting a healthy number of games in though, so here's hoping we'll be able to keep that up - or even increase the frequency a little.

Pledges for this month in Comments, as usually and when March's challenges are completed, please...


JørnN

Easter holiday gaming summary

As mentioned in a previous post, I have mostly spent the last couple of months building terrain and two new gaming tables. This work has been fun (but time consuming), so it felt good to have played a couple of games again. This is a quick summary and a couple of pictures from my last four games.

3000p Orks (Inger Helene) vs Ultramarines (two organisation charts)

A game initiating my new city gaming board, some time before Easter. We played “Crusade” with 5 objectives and used “Dawn of War” deployment. It is always fun to play with so many (finished) models. But it is time consuming. Especially since there where some time since both Inger Helene and I had played together. But we picked up the “slack” pretty quick. This game where particularly bloody. In example the Big Mek with Shock Attack Gun killed 8 marines in one shot turn one, and a pop shot from a Razorback blew up a Ork Battle Wagon turn one! Units where slaughtered all over the place by the end of turn two. We did not manage to finish the game. We have both have had a hard working period, resulting in us finishing mid way after agreeing on a draw. However, we decided on a rematch with the same army lists during April or early May.

2000p Dark Eldar (André) vs Ultramarines (one organisation chart)

We played “Purge The Alien” and used “Hammer and Anvil” deployment. André wanted to play on the desert table. I used an army list that I have tested a couple of times. It has more variety than I have used earlier (a take all comers list). Andre used his “standard take all comers” army. As usual André and myself “lurked” around the two first couple of turns, but suddenly there where bitter fire fighting all across the table.

After 5 turns the game ended:

Ultramarines 11 – Dark Eldar 6

2000p Chaos Space Marines (Linus) vs Dark Eldar (one organisation chart)

We played The Emperor’s Will and used “Vanguard Strike” deployment. Linus wanted to play on the city table. Having played Ultramarines two times in a row, I used my Dark Eldar army. The army is slightly altered from my “standard list”, using a flyer and kiting the warlord for close combat, having to reduce the number of squads. Linus played a “fun MSU list”, including Chosen, and lots of zombies. The Chaos Marines pushed real hard in turn one – three, with Typhus and he’s Terminator Squad deep striking behind/into the Dark Eldar line. Focusing all attention on first the Daemon Prince, then Typhus and his terminators, the Dark Eldar managed to turn the battle, grinding the Chaos army apart.

After 5 turns the game ended:

Dark Eldar 6 – Chaos Space Marines 0

2000p Eldar (Trond) vs Ultramarines (one organisation chart)

 

We played “Crusade” and used “Hammer And Anvil” deployment. Having played Dark Eldar the day before this game, I reverted to my Space Marines, eager to have ago with them against Tronds´  Eldar army. By turn two the Eldar army had two units of Warp Spiders in my deployment line, War Walkers on one of my flanks, a Jetfighter in front of me and a unit with Harlequins in assault range next turn…. And as if that was not bad enough he had multiple small units and two Fire Prisms guarding three (out of a total of five objectives) in his own deployment zone. But the blessings were upon the Ultramarines (and their dice) this battle, and the Ultramarines slowly regained momentum and got the upper hand. One thing that was fun was taking the risk and declaring using the psychic ability “Gate of Infinity” (rolling three dice) and deep striking/transporting 10 marines and the Librarian straight into the Eldar deployment zone. Great fun, must try that again some time. 

 

 

By turn four the Eldar general felt the end result was so definite, he decided to end the game:

Ultramarines 9 – Eldar 6

Looking forward to more gaming!

Cheers,

Ørnulv     

Linus' february/march hobby challenge part II

Finally I got this dude finished. Sorry for the bad picture...

At least I think I will put him into some army lists, something that is not the case with the stupid Chosen. I'm not very satisfied with this one, which has been a model I have used to try out airbrushing techniques a little more. Some of the colours are inspired by the excellent painter at Buypainted.com.



I started out clogging the Krome after five seconds, resulting in a terrible mess and total disassembling and cleaning. But that was interesting. Since then I have found out how to adjust the air pressure and set the paint flow somewhat correct for different painting purposes. I've only been using the ,21 needle for detailing, but will switch to the 0,3 needle when I start basing the models for my April hobby challenge.

And in april I hope I can finish these two machines. One of them with probably 30 magnets... ugh

And here is a little glimpse into the near future...