Until next time, have nice day...
Sunday, 30 July 2023
Hobby Spending - July 2023.
July has now passed for Hobby purchases, and the rundown is a bit bigger then normal, as I found some great stuff on eBay for future project which I thought I'd snap up as it was there.
I've always liked the Iron Kingdoms, Warmachine/Hordes setting which Privateer Press created.
The mix between Steampunk and traditional Fantasy was fantastic I thought, and other things like the Khador faction being Steampunk Soviets, or the Cryx being Undead Pirates, later the Trollbloods being Scottish and Viking in their theming were all cool.
And robots bashing each other, steam powered in this instance, has always been very cool!
So with Privateer Press moving to Mk.IV of their rules and making some announcements* about the latest version of the game, a LOT of stuff popped up on eBay.
I started the month with some Khadoran flavour, picking up this unit of Winter Guard, along with all the attachments (3 Rocketeers and the Commander and Flag), a staple unit of the Khadoran army, I was going to need at least one of these:
A caster who uses ice magic to freeze her enemies before smashing them asunder was cool...also, she's wearing an Ushanka as well as her armour..."URAAAAA!".
The fourth version of her miniature featured a fromotion to full Kommandant (general I think) and a nice new suit of Khadoran Man-O-War armour (steam powered armoured which turns her into a walking tank!) what's not to like?
Turning to the Khadorans arch rivals in the setting, this Trencher bunder popped up and I put a cheeky offer in, winning the lot.
20 Trenchers, 6 Grenadiers, 2 Officers and 2 Snipers.
This will form a core of a Cygnaran force for the plans, just a couple of bits to fill it out:
With Cygnar mostly sorted apart from bigger bits, a large group of Tempest Gun-Mages turned up and I couldn't resist.
Already having a miniature of Ashlynn d'Elyse, the Llaelese mercenary warcaster, I decided to have a punt on this stuff to make a dedicated Llael force for her, imagining a slightly different version of the history of the Iron Kingdoms then was written by Privateer.
The Tempest Chargers are the mounted Gun-Mages and are usually very hard to find for not silly money, a punt of an offer was accepted which I was surprised about. The two units of Gun-Mages were again cheap buys, and do most of the infantry for the force:
This unit of Cygnaran long gunners are going to be recommissioned for Llael, being such close allies with Cygnar it won't be that much of a jump to assume that their Llaelese, I just need to find 2 more, preferably command models to form the unit:
These are the Black 13th Strike Force, an elite black ops Cygnaran unit, who will become a command bodyguard to Ashlynn, again a cheap offer for a hard to find unit:
Lastly a couple of Warcasters:
Major Beth Maddox on the left is a Cygnaran Warcaster and will fit in as a secondary leader.
Captain Kara Sloan on the right (part painted pink) I'm not sure what to do with yet, she's a Cygnaran character, but might fit in with the Llael force with her arcane sniper rifle (considering everything else in the force fires arcane bullets):
Lastly, I picked up these two Minicrate Exclusive alternate sculpts of characters.
The Plaid Piper of Ord is a resculpt of Rupert Carvolo, the mercenary character:
Likewise, Professor Viktoria Pendrake is a resculpt of the mercenary Viktor Pendrake, the Cygnaran professor from who's point of view many of the unit entries in the books are told from. Imagine him as part soldier, part Indiana Jones and you get the idea.
The Minicrate miniature is a gender-bent version of the character:
This month's numbers:
Khador Winter Guard: £15.
Khador Marksman: £2.50.
kommandant Sorscha in Man-O-War armour: £5.
Cygnar Trenchers bundle: £20.
Cygnar Tempest Chargers: £10
Cygnar Tempest Gun-Mages bundle: £7.
Cygnar Long Gunners: £5.
Black 13th Strike Force: £4.
Captain Kara Sloan: £1.
Major Beth Maddox: £1.50.
Minicrate Exclusive Piper of Ord: £2.
Minicrate Exclusive Viktoria Pendrake: £2.
Total for July: £75
Budget for June: £50.
Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £19.44.
Yes, I've gone over budget, but when deals turn up I think you have to if you can.
As I said, all these are for a future project, I'm planning to run next year. Keeping tally of stuff it's been moved to next year as Myself, Chris and Cardboard Fortress have decided upon definitely doing a Weird World War 2 project for the last three months of this year.
I'm not using the Warmachine rules for the Warmachine project either as I'll convert stuff over to Xenos Rampant to make stuff a little more manageable and more fun**.
I need to buy some more for the Warmachine project, so we'll see what next month brings, but there has been noise made by another friend about Tenth Edition 40k and trying that, so the Orks or Astra...Imperial Guard may get an overhaul and organised for the edition.
Until next time, have nice day...
*Privateer Press announced Mk.IV Warmachine, then whilst announcing that they would be 3D printing their new armies to sell to the players (which itself has had mixed results), they also announced that any legacy miniatures (Mk.I, II & III) would not be supported in Mk.IV.
This had the inevitable result that people were shedding Warmachine stuff faster then GWs release schedule, and most at low, low prices.
Perfect for a hobbyist like myself!
Saturday, 22 July 2023
World Eaters Red Butcher's Squad Gauste.
It is an Age of Darkness.
The Galaxy is aflame.
Brother turns on Brother.
This is M.31.
*****
Fire rained from the heavens, covering the Himalazian mountain tops with debris and causing the soldiers stationed on the line to duck and curse the foul traitors again and again.
Amongst the orbital drop and general detritus raised, there were bright white spots falling in the wake of the twelfth legion stormbird passing low on a gunnery run.
A series of rippling missile strikes exploded upon the parapets of the trenchline and amongst the buildings around the gatepost.
The another series of heavier impacts occured and two hab blocks away from the missile strike collapsed under impact, the rockcrete folding in upon itself and raising another cloud of grey dust nearby.
The loyalist command in the area couldn't explain the impacts, so the fourty-five men of 'A platoon, Merican 7th' were sent on a reconnaissance patrol, as an enemy landing so close would need to be dealt with and forced back from the salient, lest the traitors gain a foothold close to the outer trench.
There was still no movement from the ruins as the first squads approached and the men fanned out to explore working in groups of five men, they sifted through the area looking for anything which could have been dropped by the enemy.
A shout went up, and disbelieving the infantry gathered around as they stared at what appeared to be a dead Astartes Terminator.
The giant was laid in a crater, obviously a deployment mistake as the enemy surely wouldn't waste a resource like this. The runes carved onto the armour, as well as the corrupted decorations caused some men to pale, or vomit with fear. Several spontaneously started bleeding from their noses and the smells of sulphur and blood were strong, a ripple of fear was felt amongst the men.
"Can you hear whispering?"
"What's that smell?"
"Did that hand just move? I thought it was dead?"
One of the engineers accompanying the men realised what had happened and began to demand a retreat.
"Sir, we need to fall back now! Look at the chains, the scorch marks on the armour, this wasn't a teleportation mistake, this Astartes was dropped from orbit to land here"
"Don't be ridiculous, nothing could survive that impact"
With a rising electrical whine, the eyeslits of the terminator plate started to glow a deep red, and without warning the roar of chain weapons erupted causing panic amongst the gathered mortal troops.
"Open fire" the officer screamed and bright blue lasfire scorched the remaining white armour as the terminator began to rise, chains and skulls rattling from ceramite plate as it did. A grenade exploded at the monsters feet, if it felt anything it didn't slow the inevitable rise of this terrifying beast.
The vox became a distorted growl, but a rythmic chant could just be made out amongst the noise as the loyalists panicked and tried to flee.
From amongst the ruins, another four of the Astartes charged in, Chainblades already screaming, armoured bulk crushing unfortunates in their way to a bloody paste as they passed.
Limbs and heads were separated in welters of gore and bodies were hacked in two.
The Astartes whom the loyalists had been gathered around snatched up the officer with one hand and held him aloft, several feet from the floor. Hopelessly he tried to fight the vice like grip until he shook as the chainfist attached to the Astartes other wrist scythed through his waist and then up through his torso covering the terminator in crimson blood.
Looking more like butchers in a slaughterhouse then noble warriors, the Astartes loped off in a ground eating sprint, the rythmic growl-chant emitted from all five distorted vox grills.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
*****
Welcome to the third installment of the World Eaters Legion build for Horus Heresy.
This time we turn our attention from the command cadre and look towards the forlorn souls of the elites, those who have lost themselves completely to the Butcher's Nails...the Red Butcher's!
Knowing I was building the World Eaters I wanted to include at least one of the unique legion units for the army, and it was honestly a toss-up between the Gladiatorial Ravagers or the Red Butcher's.
Having a love for Cataphacti pattern Terminator armour, the Butcher's won out this time and plans were laid to build a unit of five of them.
Turning back to the Collected Visions books, this was the only World Eaters terminator artwork I could find, not quite what I was looking for:
After a perusal of the Forge World website* I decided to launch ahead with the conversion anyway and built up the bodies along with some minor conversion work.
Weapon loadout wise, given that they are a melee unit first and foremost I decided to work exclusively with salvaged Chainaxe's from wrecked Berzerkers and the Chainfist's which come with the Cataphractii kit.
Whilst not 100% accurate to the unit listing, I think most opponents will understand what unit they are and what they are armed with, officially paired power axes in the rules.
The "Bunny Ears", a staple Khornate icon were culled from the same wrecked Berzerkers that the axes came from and were clipped to varying lengths to give each member a bit of a different profile.
Likewise the shoulder plates were 3D printed offerings, I was slightly disappointed when they turned up given how thick they were, but once in place they looked the part and added to the heavy armour look of the terminator plate.
The last thing was to add some broken chains, culled from the Wrathmongers kit and some skulls, because KHORNE NEEDS SKULLS**.
Once painted the unit looks like this:
A bit of a departure from the blue and white of the legion***, but suited given the nature of the Red Butchers, and Kharn (along with a few other pieces I plan, will tie them across the force nicely.
Looking at the models then, the Devoured (the unit leader), is a standard example of the description I gave above:
The length of skulls hanging down his back hides some damage which was caused when salvaging these miniatures from an eBay lot:
Finally the two most converted members of the unit. Both advancing, and the guy on the left of the photo sprinting...in Terminator plate!
The lower legs are separate on these kits anyway, so it was a minor conversion to scrape and file away at the joint to re-angle the leg, then it was just a case of making sure the other details flowed with the movement of the model:
Bases follow the standard urban base scheme I'm using across the army.
*****
The army tally now looks as follows:
HQ:
Kharn the Bloody.
Elites:
Dreadnaught Talon.
Apothecarion Detachment.
Troops:
Tactical Squad.
Despoiler Squad.
Breacher Siege Squad.
Fast Attack:
Heavy Support:
Leviathan Dreadnaught.
Missile Heavy Support Squad.
Bodyguard:
*****
You may be wondering why Kharn is crossed out, well, I was moving something in the display case the other day and knocked him out.
A four foot fall to the floor caused his axe to snap off at his hand and disappear into the warp.
Another spare plastic axe and hand was sourced and pinned to the wrist after I clipped off his original hand.
I've gotten it undercoated and will get him finished again soon:
* Always dangerous doing that.
* SkULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE.
*** I know the red is meant to be dried blood, and I've had suggestions about adding gore and blood effects to them.
I won't and I have my own personal reasons for not doing so.
Tuesday, 18 July 2023
World Eaters Commanders.
The assault had begun, Astartes brother fought Astartes brother, combat upon a superhuman level, the contingents of mortal troops had no effect other then attrition numbers.
This was the thinking of Centurion Argus Brond of the World Eaters legion as he surveyed the initial push.
The smoke from the orbital bombardments was hanging lazily, mixing with the dust and fire-sorched earth which their Dreadclaw Assault Pods had kicked up when landing.
His counterpart, Centurion Khaggort was already advancing by himself, no doubt looking for a combat to embroil himself in.
Some of the World Eaters gave in more easily to the Nails then others, no matter their rank.
Brond fought the thumping ticks in the back of his head as he sought clarity to order him men into combat. He'd always felt that having the Nails implanted was a mistake, but their father had ordered it, so they complied.
He shook his head and bit his lip, motioning for Ancient Tyche and his chosen to attend him with the company banner acting as a rallying point.
Tactical, Despoiler and Breacher squads all looked forwards to his position, being given curt commands to filter through the ruins into firing positions.
He looked for their Dreadnaught support but it was nowhere to be seen as yet. But Orbital drop assaults were notorious for scattering troops over the target area, even with their locator technology, there were ways to throw that off.
With a grunted command, Argus Brond took a step through the ruins and further into damnation as he led his company into battle against his former brothers, he had a moment of clarity as he realised that, here on the cradle of mankind, they had started the last great war.
For this war would never end, and in the future there would only be war.
*****
Greetings, welcome to the second post of the Horus Heresy World Eaters force I am currently building.
This post features two of the HQ choices, the third being Kharn himself who has already been completed.
They're painted in the scheme discussed in the Chieftain Squad post with additions like the tassels and cloak of the terminator being red and tan and simple to do.
Terminator Centurion Khaggort is made from an old metal Terminator Champion model which was released around 2005/6 for the "Fall of Medusa V" campaign.
He had a perfect brooding, "come get some" pose, so with the addition of some cataphractii arms I thought I was good.
The problem is that the Cataphractii don't come with chainaxes.
Off to the bits box.
The axe head is made from an Ork Nob Chainchoppa, as this is a suitable size, and the arm from the elbow down is a Space Wolf Terminator arm, a lot of chopping and dry fitting took place, but the result is suitably imposing for a commander I think.
Centurion Argus Brond is made from Chaos Space Marine and Khorne Berzerker parts to get that mixture of armour look I want for the force.
He has a power Axe and shield as originally he was going to be a company champion using the 5th edition rules for 40k, but got co-opted into the Heresy force and his load out was legal, so I left it.
His helmet has been converted by adding a spare set of Khorne "bunny ears" onto one of the Chaos Champion helmets in place of the horns which were cut off and saved for later.
A skull on a chain was added hanging from his belt as a trophy as well.
This shield is a Fantasy Chaos Warrior child, dinged up a little with the hobby file.
I chose the chaos star, as I didn't have a Khorne shield spare, but also it adds a little variation.
Yes the World Eaters fell to Khorne, but I felt that they wouldn't quite have full worship of the blood god going on yet and still be finding their way through the chaos powers, so the occasional other symbol would appear in their ranks.
Terminator Centurion.Centurion.
Command Squad.
*****
On with the tally of completed stuff, and you'll note between this post and the last that the list has changed slightly.
I figured we may as well work to HH2.0 as other people we know are playing those rules and we can get more games in when the force is completed.
Also this lot if now 2,000 points, not 2,500 points like in HH1.0.
HQ:
Kharn the Bloody.
Elites:
Red Butchers Squad.
Dreadnaught Talon.
Apothecarion Detachment.
Troops:
Tactical Squad.
Despoiler Squad.
Breacher Siege Squad.
Fast Attack:
Heavy Support:
Leviathan Dreadnaught.
Heavy Support Squad.
Bodyguard:
*****
I've gotten a few more things to post before I run out of finished stuff yet, so I'll carry on with those every couple of days.
Until next time, have nice day...
Sunday, 16 July 2023
World Eaters Chieftain Squad Tyche.
It is an Age of Darkness.
The Galaxy is aflame.
Brother turns on Brother.
This is M.31.
*****
They had been given the assault orders eighteen minutes ago, judging by their internal chronometers and many of the warriors had been raging to be on with the assault.
Instead they had been forced to wait until everything was ready. Then with an apocalyptic barrage of firepower, the assault pods were launched and the Siege of Terra had began proper. They had fought past Pluto, the Jupiter Dockyards, Mars in the grip of its own civil war and the Lunar defences.
Now they fell like hungry predators upon Terra...like Warhounds slipped the leash.
With a thunderous roar the retro rockets burned and the assault pod hit the ground, causing a burned crater twenty meters wide beneath it. Other from the assault wave landed around it, smashed through buildings or were caught by lacing anti-aircraft fire as they fell from orbit.
Another slew of supporting fire exploded before the Dreadclaw lifted itself clear of the troops it had brought to the battlefield.
Ancient Tyche, Banner-Bearer of the company moved forwards from under the transport's shadow and hefted the adamantium banner high, unfurling the material as it went. A huge pair of red jaws sinking their teeth into a lush green and blue world appeared, imposing upon the white background of the Legion Colour.
His two chosen veterans stalked up beside him as the Dreadclaw lifted itself off in a deafening roar of rockets firing. Their Praetor, Kharn had already disappeared into the hazy dust seeking heads to cleave for the Blood God.
They sought out Centurion Brond, greeting him on the vox, in order to organise the assault.
Since the nails were implanted in the legion, they had always had discipline problems during actions, but things had become exponentially worse after Kharn began giving in to them over the last few years of the campaign.
With the banner flying, underlie by the plasma glow of the Chosen, the World Eaters moved forward en-masse from their landing positions, ready to kill, maim and burn for the Blood God.
*****
Whilst it has its flaws from a customer standpoint (being overly drawn out by black library, being mega expensive to begin with due to being FW resin and leather bound books, being seen as slightly elitist because of said FW production) the Horus Heresy is one of my favourite periods of 40k lore.
More specifically, the Siege of Terra era is my favourite, as seen in this Post on the blog, and the desperate nature of the fighting in the lore really stuck with me.
I loved the thought of the ragged armies, having fought themselves almost to exhaustion, pushing on for the final gambit and, for the traitors at least, revealing just how corrupted by Chaos their forces they have become over the war.
To this end, when I was asked about possibly playing Horus Heresy with the second edition of the rules being released last year, I hesitantly said yes, as I didn't fancy spending a month's salary on an army from FW, and even with the plastics from GW it's not a cheap endeavour.
With a friend owning these classic books, which I requested to borrow for inspiration, and looking at the old diorama GW made, I decided upon a course of action.
Now, unfortunately, he only had books 1, 2 and 4 of the set (and to find book 3 at a reasonable price is an impossible task), I had a root through the bitz boxes and a few searches on eBay and how I wanted my army to look started to come together.
Rather then everyone being in shiny, smooth, new mk.3, 4, 5 or 6 armour, I was going to mix and match parts with older Chaos Space Marines.
And, rather given away in the title, older Khorne Berzerker mini's which I could pull apart and paint strip, then reassemble everything together randomly to get that ragged, hodge-podge of armour, corrupted look I wanted from a bunch of traitorous veterans.
A flick through the artbooks found this piece:
Kharn the Bloody.
Command Squad.
Alright, alright, I know it's meant to be Sons of Horus, but it was the best I could find. The archaic looking armour and lack of uniformity spoke to me, so I decided to press on with my own World Eaters version:
The squad, along with an extra marine whom we'll get to in time.
Why the World Eaters?
For one thing, their colour scheme is just awesome and I've always loved armies which charge across the battlefield before chopping everyone to pieces in melee combat!
Although I don't really like Angron as a Primarch, and the way GW/FW/BL have written him and the Emperor (just help him in that final stand with his slave army for fuck sake!), I do find the expanded story of the legion just wanting to emulate their father quite sympathetic to read, when you consider they become psychopathic blood hungry killers in the long run.
There has also been an excellent series of unofficial audio drama's by the excellent A Vox in the Void channel on YouTube.
So it HAS to be the World Eaters I do first, but let's not forget Kharn in this because he's just awesome.
Looking at the models, as these were veterans I decided to build them mostly from Berzerker parts to get the Khorne symbols I wanted.
The axe wielding guy on the left of the photo actually has a Mk.VII backpack (because I had them and they look close enough) and a Raptor Plasma Pistol arm, because those were the only parts I could strip off this particular model with any accuracy and not bending and snapping the model. His base was built up a little using my techniques from here in order to get him charging downwards into the enemy:
The Chainsword toting veteran on the right only has a Khorne Berzerker body and legs pairing, his head and Plasma Pistol again come from the Raptors kit, a Mk.VII backpack finishes off his armour. His left arm however is an Ork Shoota arm (for the musculature) and a Chaos Marine Chainsword, talk about an eclectic mix of parts:
Onto the focal point of the command squad, the Banner Bearer.
This was the first model I converted for the unit actually, he's more Chaos Marine then Berzerker, but still got a Khorne Torso.
Aside from the Chainaxe and banner, everything else about him comes from the regular Chaos Space Marines kit, even the banner holding arm.
The banner itself however is a mixture of a Bloodletters banner and the Khornate banner topper from the Chaos Marines kit added as I felt the daemonic standard topper was a little too much:
For the legion symbol, I traced out what I wanted with pencil first onto the banner itself, then went from there, asking for advice from Cardboard Fortress along the way.
Originally I was going to include a white Roman numeral XII, for the twelfth legion across the center of the world on the banner. But once I'd gotten this far I realised how easily I could mess the entire thing up, so just highlighted the differing colours and called it a day there:
Painting wise, I used the normal World Eaters scheme of white and blue armour trimmed with brass.
In this case it was Ulthuan Grey for the armour.
Calgar Blue for the blue areas, and Hashut Copper for the brass.
The real work is done by "Marine Juice", the mixed wash which the Army Painter team use to pump out the big HH armies they needed for the book photography.
Marine Juice is an equal parts mixture of Nuln Oil, Riekland Fleshshade and Lahmian Medium.
Once mixed, it's washed over everything on the mini, including the base.
From there it's just a matter of layering things up and highlighting them, or in the case of the white armour, just highlighting with Ulthuan Grey.
Not the fastest paint scheme in the world, but a striking one and one which I am proud of, especially as it works so well with the urban rubble basing, which I am using for the ruins of the Imperial Palace.
*****
I'll keep a tally of what gets finished as the army progresses, but The full list (currently***) is as follows:
HQ:
Terminator Praetor.
Centurion.
Elites:
Red Butchers Squad.
Dreadnaught Talon.
Apothecarion Detachment.
Troops:
Tactical Squad.
Assault Squad.
Breacher Siege Squad.
Fast Attack:
Rampager Squad.
Heavy Support:
Leviathan Dreadnaught.
Bodyguard:
According to Battlescribe, this lot comes out at 2,500 points in the 1st edition* rules**, obviously each unit has gear and I'll go into it as and when I complete them and post them up. But the plan is to get this army done so that we can play some games, and then I can continue on with stuff for the Siege of Terra project.
So that's the start of my Horus Heresy World Eaters force, I'm aiming to have these done by the end of September (yeah right) as we have a longer term project planned for the last three months of the year, and it's nice to visit friends, play a game and roll the bones on the table once in a while.
Until next time, have nice day...
*We've chosen 1st edition, as we have all our 7th edition 40k rulebook which the system runs off of, and the red books for Legiones Astartes, Mechanicum and Cults Imperialis.
**This is currently, as there has been talk of 2nd edition rearing it's head amongst us recently, and I've made a 2,000 point list for HH2.0 which contains most of the 1st edition list and a few extra things as stuff is really cheap points wise.
***I say currently, because I have half an idea to convert some drop pods into dreadclaws following this tutorial to give them some mobility when deploying, maybe.