Valhallan, erm... Astra Militarum.

Valhallan Sniper. Image from: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Valhallan_Ice_Warriors.

With a trip to Warhammer World in their very near future, and a new codex just out, it's time to start thinking about just what the Valhallan's are going to look like in the new edition. The army, which has survived two editions of Warhammer 40,000, and several ruthless culls on the toy cupboard, now has a fresh codex to contend with and, to make matters even more confusing, they're no longer the Imperial Guard but the Astra Militarum (presumably the result of an intergalactic battle with intellectual property pirates from beyond the stars). My regular irregular opponent has asked for 40K and so with much pleasure I find myself returning to the game after a fairly lengthy absence. The first job is to work out whether what I have will make a playable army...

Dark Angels Green Wing Part Seven: Command Squad

As promised, here's a picture of the Dark Angel's command squad. Overall I'm pleased with how they came out and painting robed marines turns out to be faster than painting those without so they were fairly quick to do as well. My one regret with this unit is that I built them with bolt pistols - given that they're always going to be toting the Banner of Devastation this was something of an oversight!

Here's the unit:

And here's a close up of the Banner of Devastation which is my first attempt at a freehand banner. Again, I am pleased with how it turned out. I reckon it looks close enough to the original.

My version

The original

That might be it for a while for the Dark Angels as I'm about to turn my attention to Flames of War but I am tempted to paint up a Chaplain in terminator armour to be my 'counts as' Belial. I don't much like the Belial sculpt whereas I think the Chaplain looks completely badass!

Dark Angels: Deathwing

My allegiance to the Greenwing has been seriously weakened by the mind-numbing tedium of painting marine after marine in the ludicrously slow style I've adopted and in order to get the Dark Angels moving off the paint station I've turned to the Terminators who, of course, aren't green... It's taken a few weeks but they're finally done and here they are:

So far I've run then out in three games (one against Necrons and two against Blood Angels) and they've rocked (largely due to their being joined by Belial)). They certainly add something to the list, they can't be ignored and they seem to be able to stand up to an almighty amount of unfriendly attention.

Next up, it's back to the Greenwing. The Command Squad is almost done, just the Banner of Devastation to paint (yikes!). 

Dark Angels Green Wing Part Five - Dreadnought

It's been a while but finally there's something to show, here's the first Dreadnought to join the army.

I say 'the first' dreadnought as I've just picked up a second-hand copy of Assault for Black Reach and the first thing I plan to paint up is the dreadnought. Not that I think they're particularly good in the game but I do like the look of them and they don't take that long to paint.

There are also other reinforcements on the way  - a fourth tactical squad, a second Devastator squad (and reinforcements for the first squad), and a couple of rhinos (once I get hold of some new top hatches to replace the ones I'm about to rip off).

By the next post the first tactical squad will be done - finally - there's just one to go...

Dark Angels Techmarine and Forge World Transfers...

Work on the Dark Angels continues. First up, here's the second finished model for the Dark Angels, the plucky Techmarine who was the lone survivor of the battle with the Chaos Space Marines, it was a fairly quick job but he looks good enough for the tabletop providing a nice break from a sea of dark green. So far he's spent a good deal of time hanging out in the Landraider but when he's got out he's proved to be surprisingly resilient. I think perhaps I'll pick up a couple of servitors to help him keep the machines running (in five games he's yet to manage a repair) and to act as ablative wounds when he does charge in to combat.

****

Work on the first Tactical Squad goes on and I've just finished experimenting with some Forge World Dark Angels transfers. The sheet cost about £12 and came a week after ordering (the day before I went to Warhammer World!) in a nice solid card envelope. The A4 sheet is packed with transfers (the ones I really wanted were the squad numbers which come in two sizes, you get twenty of each number (1-10) at 3mm and about 15 of each at 4mm. I went for the 3mm which are just about the perfect size to use over the tactical squad markings on the Dark Vengeance marines. In use they appear to work well, they lift off the backing a little quicker than the GW equivalent (10 seconds max in water) and the white covers the red nicely. In the following picture the decal was applied over a coat of gloss varnish ('Ardcoat) with the area to be 'decalled' given a thin coating of micro set. I then let the decal dry before giving it another light coat of microset where the decal overhangs the raised tactical squad symbol. Then another coat of gloss, sand a final coat of semi-gloss (Vallejo) some might prefer matt but I like the 'free' highlighting you get from semi-gloss. Overall I'm impressed with the transfers, they're well designed and are nicely opaque so there's no need to overpaint them.

Dark Angels Vs Blood Angels Battle Report

The Dark Angels have had a few games this week with mixed results (a loss to Chaos Space Marines that left them with just one man standing, two wins and an unfinished game against that we called a draw against their Astartes brothers, the Blood Angels. Here's a report from the first battle with the Blood Angels.

The lists:

Dark Angels

Librarian

Techmarine Power field generator

Command Squad (5) Banner of devastation, Storm shield, powerfist, apothecary

Tactical Squad (10) power fist, plasma gun, Missile launcher

Tactical Squad (10) plasma pistol, Plasma gun, Missile Launcher)

Tactical Squad (10) Plasma Gun Missile Launcher

Scouts (5)  2 sniper rifles, Hvy Bolter

Assault Squad  (6) 2 Plasma Pistols

Landraider Crusader (Multimelta)

Devastator Squad (5) Lascannon, 2 Plasma Cannon

Blood Angels

Librarian, Terminator armou, Storm shield.

Sanguinary Guard (5)

Terminator (5) Hvy flamer

Deathguard (10), Rhino

Tactical Squad (10), Lascannon, Meltagun
Tactical Squad (10), Lascannon Meltagun

Death Company Dreadnought

Devastators (10) 2 lascannons, 2 hvy bolters

The mission was Crusade and there were three objectives (the two central ruins and one  between the two woods).

Initial deployment.

Both armies set up their devastators in central buildings (both were the locations of primary objectives) with a squad of Marines on each side. Off the board are a unit of deep striking Sanguinary Guard and a squad of outflanking Dark Angel scouts. The DA Techmarine reinforced the central building in their deployment zone.

****

Turn One:

The Blood Angels took the first turn and their attention was clearly on removing the DA's big guns to give their Dreadnought and Rhino the best possible chance of getting across no-man's land. To this end their librarian used prescience to boost the skills of Devastators and with the result that three of the Dark Angels Devastators were gone (leaving just two). That was my first lesson of the match: small units of Devastators are vulnerable (they need some sacrificial marines) and prescience + Devs is a very handy combo. Aside from this the Death Co. Dred ran forwards on the BA's right flank, the Terminators advanced on the central objective (looking like being a nasty denial unit - it'd turn out that my opponent had forgotten they weren't a scoring unit at this point) and the Rhino (full of Death Co.) rushed forwards 12".

In response the Dark Angels fixated on the Rhino, firing everything they had at it resulting in one glancing hit. Not a very dramatic start...

****

Turn Two:

The position at the start of turn two.

The BA turn is one of aggressive movement... The Sanguinary Guard teleport in close to the DA lines, the Death Company Rhino rushes another 12" and the Dreadnought keeps running up the right flank. The Devs shoot across at their Dark Angel counterparts but the 3+ cover save keeps them safe.

The Sanguinary Guard arrive deep in Dark Angels' territory.

The Scout squad came on the DA's right flank with the intention of hiding and later snagging the central objective (I'd hoped they'd come on later). The only major bit of movement saw the Assault Marines head towards the Death Company. Then the Dark Angels laid down some serious fire with the Landraider's multimelta wrecking the Rhino (sending the Death Company behind it for cover), and the remainder of the marines killing all five of the Sanguinary guard (first blood) and four of the sheltering Death Company. Finally, the Assault Marines charged the Death Company and the combat was drawn at a casualty each.

****

Turn Three:

The start of the third turn

Surviving against the odds...

The Dreadnought continued his run down the right flank getting ever nearer to the Dark Angels' line. The Terminators noticed the Scout squad and redirected their attentions, moving to intercept them and taking one down with their storm bolters. The Devastators took down another DA Devastator (leaving just one) and a Lascannon from a Tactical Squad took managed a penetrating hit on the Landraider leaving it shaken. The Death Company took the Assault Squad down to one man.

In the DA turn nothing much happened with the exception of the fact that miraculously the single Assault Marine held off the Death Company!

****

Turn Four:

Start of turn four

The Terminators head back towards the DA line, while one of the BA tactical squads heads off to deal with the scout squad on their left flank (and to contest the central objective). The Death Company finish off the surviving Assault marine. There's some good shooting from the Blood Angels and the Landraider is left with just two hit points left...

The Death Company, now not protected by combat, and perilously close to the DA line, were promptly shot to pieces.

****

Turn Five:

The Terminators Assault.

The Terminators charge the Landraider and manage two glancing hits which it then saves thanks to the Techmarine's Power Field Generator.

In the Dark Angels' turn the Landraider tank shocks the Terminators (who sensibly get out of the way) before unloading its shooting at the devastator squad in the central building who are wiped out. The DC Dreadnought is shot down having turned his back on the tactical squad on the Dark Angels' left flank while three of the Terminators fall to sustained bolter fire.

And with that the game ended. The score-line was 5-1 (both had Linebreaker, while the Dark Angels held a primary objective and first blood). It was an oddly abrupt end and had things gone on another turn as we both expected  the score would likely have been much closer. As it was both of the Blood Angels tactical squads were just out of reach of the objectives but that could easily have been fixed had the game continued.

All in all I was pleased with how the list fared, it was fun to play and thankfully we'd brought armies that seemed to be roughly of the same power level so it always felt like the game could go either way. As a gunline the Banner of Devastation + Tactical Squads + Prescience is a pretty horrific thing to face if you have to get near to it. Outflanking scouts, a new addition to the list, worked well as a cheap scoring unit able to get the drop on the enemy - in the second game they'd co-ordinate with deep striking assault marines to do some more serious damage by getting behind the Death Company Dreadnought. And the Landraider, with a Techmarine inside and the banner of Devastation boosting its guns was truly horrific, and extremely resilient, and really came into its own when played aggressively (something I failed to do in this game) - that said it died to the second shot of the game in our final battle! Less successful were the devastators who were too small a unit to survive (more bodies need adding) and I know that this list lacks any defence against fliers (defence line + flakk missiles need to go in there somehow).

Dark Angels Green Wing: Part Four

Today I abandoned batch painting marines and had a go at painting up a test marine. In terms of colours I followed the Tale of Painters recipe pretty closely but I moved the order around a bit. Here's how it went:

STAGE ONE

Green and based.












STAGE TWO

Base coats. Then black lining and black wash on metals. I should have washed the chest eagle at this point but forgot.










STAGE THREE

Done! Highlights (in all cases I touched up the original colour and edge highlighted). All that's left to do is put a squad number on his shoulder and varnish him up...

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how he's turned out. It's not the fastest method of painting marines and the edge highlighting look is pretty stylised so won't appeal to everyone but I think they'll look nice on the tabletop as it gives them a bit of 'pop' that might not be there if I'd gone for a more realistic blended style.

Dark Angels Green Wing - Part Three

With a gaming day at Warhammer World coming up fast, my painting motivation has been totally pumped! Here's the Landraider, the first model completed for the Dark Angels' army. 

This is probably the model I've most enjoyed building and painting in quite some time. The colours came from the Dark Angel tutorial on the Tale Of Painters blog and the weathering came from another tutorial there (on an Ultramarines Landraider) - I went for fairly minimal weathering (it's near showroom) and it got even lighter when my spray varnish blew away the weathering powder. On to the pictures (in which you can see that Linus has just taken a pen to our coffee table):

Detail of the driver (he's a Techmarine and I'll be honest, there's likely to one sitting inside this tank keeping it safe):

A couple more pictures, showing off the fancy Forgeworld doors (which are worth the money just to avoid having to use waterslide transfers):

A few notes on painting. First up, despite my irritation when they came out I found that the new (or not so new now) GW paints cover really very well indeed with the base range covering at least as well as the old Foundation paints without the associated grittiness. I thinned Caliban Green and used two coats for the Landraider (over a black undercoat) and ended up with nice smooth coverage and the rest are used straight from the pot. In particular I am impressed with Leadbelcher which has great coverage and which takes inks very well and with the reds. The Techmarine was painted with Khorne Red, shadow was added with thinned Vallejo black ink (50/50 ink/water), followed by a touch up with Khorne Red and highlights (largely edges) of which Mephiston Red followed by Squig Orange). For my own records (and not because it’s exciting, the blues were painted with Regal Blue followed by Ice Blue, and the Whites are Codex Grey followed by Vallejo white). Again, for reference, there’s a great conversion chart over on Dakka here: (note that the colours display very poorly on my monitor so really this is only good for translating colours not for picking them).

Grey Knight Paladins...

The final unit of Grey Knights is done bringing me within four miniatures of having the whole army painted!

Here's my Paladin unit complete with apothecary and standard:

And here's a close-up of that standard, I did my best to translate the metals into suitable non-metallic (cloth) colours and tried a bit harder with the Micron pen with the writing this time (that's the bit I'm most pleased about I think):

Next up, it'll be the Deathcult assassins I think.

Grey Knights vs Blood Angels

Just spotted this pic on another blog and it summed up the issue of the day - to whit - how do I ensure that my Grey Knights will give a good game to both me and my opponent. I'm told that 6th edition 40K has toned them down a bit but the internet chatter still suggests that they're a tough nut to crack. With my forthcoming game in mind (against Blood Angels) I've posted a request for some help over on the Bolter and Chainsword forum (here).

Here's the first draft list I thought I might try out:

HQ

Inquisitor Coteaz 100

TROOPS

Terminator Squad (Psycannon, 2 halberd, hammer, psybolt ammo) 230

Strike Squad (10 marines: 2 Psycannon, hammer, halberd, psybolt ammo) 255

FAST ATTACK 

Interceptor Squad (Incinerator, 1 pair falchions, psybolt ammo) 180

HEAVY SUPPORT 

Dreadnought (autocannons, psybolt ammo) 135

Defence Line + Quad Gun 100

And here's how that would look:

Another recruit for Coteaz's retinue

I managed to find an hour or so of painting time today to finish off another of Coteaz's retinue.

It's a quick paint job (can't have been much more than an hour all told) but I think he looks ok though he really doesn't look like he belongs on the battlefield. I may have to paint up an inquisitorial Rhino APC for all these non combatants to hide behind!

Next up I really will paint a terminator. In fact, I've cleared the paint station of everything but the Terminator Librarian. As he's meant to be the army commander he really does need to be painted up before the army hits the tabletop for its inaugral game in January.

Another gimp for the Retinue of Lost Souls...

Yet again, the implacable terminators look on as another of Coteaz's pets leaves the paint station ahead of them. This time it's this chap (if you ask me he looks a little peeved, could he be about to turn traitor?):

I don't know what his battlefield role will be but for now he's doing sterling service recording Coteaz's every move for his forthcoming autobiography.

Terminators (finally)...

Finally the first terminator squad is done, here they are (they're blurry because they've only just materialised from the Warp!):

 Here's Draigo, he'll be the squad leader for now:

And here's the army as it currently stands (roughly 1200 points so far):

Heirophant...

Another member of Coteaz's retinue has snuck past the Grey Knight terminators in the painting queue. This was a really quick paintjob but I'm happy with him. Once again I'm not really sure what he does in the game but he does add a bit more character to the silver army and he'll get a slot in the list for that reason alone.

He's not this shiny...

Here's the latest recruit to the Grey Knight army, an unfortunate-looking dude with a multi-melta in place of one arm and some kind of Swiss Army knife screw thing where his other hand used to be. I can only assume he's had a bit of a rough ride in the service of the God Emperor. Perhaps the shine you can see on his forehead is the cold sweat of a very scared man who knows it's his legs that get replaced next...

Here he is:

Next up it has to be the Grey Knight Terminator squad that I pushed to the side of the paint station in order to make space for Lobot here.

Dark Angel Rumours

As the owner of too many unpainted Dark Angels including a Landraider type that's not in their current codex I was delighted to read rumours of a new codex in January which suggest that the Landraider I want is going to be in.. Huzzah! Here's a link to the rumour thread on BOLS:

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?24243-DA-Rumours

Time to get the Grey Knights done ready to shift from silver to green marines in the new year!

And while I get ready for the next challenge, here's a link to a Dark Angel guide on one of my favourite painting blogs, Tale of Painters:
http://taleofpainters.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/tutorial-how-to-paint-dark-angels-from.html

Inquisitor Coteaz is (almost) done

Much to my delight, Inquisitor Coteaz is finally finished after what feels like hundreds of six-minute painting sessions spread over several weeks. Here's how he turned out (the base is still to be flocked):

       
And at a slightly different angle:

This means that once his base is done I've got myself a legal army of around 1000 points. Next up I think it'll be the dreadnought for a slightly quicker painting win...

Grey Knights: What is this thing?

I've just finished the next recruit to the Grey Knight army, this time it's a weird cherub thing. I'm not sure what he actually does (or is) but I really like the figure, he makes a nice change from all the Grey Knights so I'd like to think he'll make it onto the tabletop. Here he is:

A quick edit... It turns out that he is a familiar and, under the last codex he'd have given +1 initiative to the Inquisitor. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be the option for this in the current codex so he's more likely to be a stand-in servo skull or maybe a mystic or a psyker. I seem to remember that there are at least two other creepy cherubs out there (one with a book and one with a bolter) and I'd quite like to collect them all so that they can flutter around Inquisitor Coteaz looking suitably weird!

Here are pics of the two I've found online:

Grey Knights: Quads...

A cheap and cheerful bit of painting today sees the anti-aircraft wing of the Grey Knights arrive. Two Quad guns and a Lascannon thing, along with a bit of wall for hiding behind.

Grey Knights: Hammertime

In the words of MC Hammer, 'you can't touch this.' Why? Because the second helping of snow flock is still drying. So here he is, the Dreadknight: I'll concede that he looks like he's armed himself with a toffee hammer but he is still a most fearsome engine and a rather nice centrepiece to the army so far.

With this model painted, my army stands at 755 points (with the following list):

• Vindicare Assassin
• Grey Knight Strike Squad (5), Hammer, Psycannon, + psybolt ammo
• Grey Knight Strike Squad (5), Halberd, Psycannon + psybolt ammo
• Grey Knight Interceptor Squad, MC Falchions, Incinerator + psybolt ammo
• Nemesis Dreadknight, Hvy Psycannon, Daemonhammer

Next on the paintstation will be Inquisitor Coteaz, which will mean I'll have a legal army of 855 points. At the same time I'll paint up my quad gun which, with the defence line that's already painted, will bring this up to 955... Nearly there for the 1000 point game we're planning.