Painting - WIP 40k Imperial Knight - torso

Over the weekend I made more progress on my Ultramarine affiliated Imperial Knight(any suggestions for appropriate names?).

After finishing the main carapace I started in the torso.  Washes of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade were applied to engine parts and the superstructure.  I painted some of the machine housing, cowling, faceplate and shield in the same thunderhawk blue and weathered to match the top.

The exhaust vents and heat sinks were painted in balthazar gold then retributor gold.  Washes for oil streaks were added and small touches of verdigris.

I will have to remedy the mold line on the back of main exhaust :/

For the house shield, after looking through a few relevant books then shuffling through many unused transfer sheets I went with a mechanicum cog and an Ultramarine symbol which perfectly fit.  I sent Jake and Ryan some pictures and Jake from boyopaints suggested toning down the bold white if the transfers.  I carefully painted over them in gold, pallid flesh then white and it does fit in better with the freehand.  I then finished it off with the marbling effect and weathering.

Painting - WIP ok it's an Imperial Knight

Following up on last nights shoulder guard I applied some weathering to the main carapace armour.  This has been a clean thunderhawk blue to a balthazar gold trim.  It had looked to factory new for my liking so I added layers of Retributor gold and washes to the armour trim.

I added a combination of weathering powders, washes and sponge chipping to the main blue sections.  After seeing how the shoulder had turned out I needed to do more.  I flipped through FW Horus Heresy V, looking at the Ultramarine Honour Guard and roughly replicated an eagle from there.

First a rough layout in brown, then a neater layer in gold.

After this I layered Pallid Wych Flesh, White and some fine black linework.  I then re-weathered some of the recesses.

Looking at the Honour Guard's Shields, they are depicted as marble so taking inspiration I painted a few fine lines with Incubi Darkness then edged them with Fenris Grey to give the impression of a little depth.

Carapace complete!

Painting - a little WIP

I have other things on my painting table at the moment.  A were bear and it's human warrior form, a Sorcerer of Tzeentch and a deviant beast Ryan acquired.  But tonight I thought I'd try something I had in mind hobby wise.

I painted a medium brown base coat then applied Agrellan Earth to the main surface of the shoulder guard.  Once dry and the cracks had formed I carefully drybrushed Pallid Wych Flesh then began some freehand work.

I painted the pattern along the bottom of the guard then in layers of brown and gold painted the laurel.  The gold blended in with the trim too much so I added a layer of white.  Using the same techniques I did half the Ultramarine symbol and numeral for their Legion.  Some fine black lines were added to better outline the freehand.

Then I painting the half Aquila.  I shaded the retributor gold on the trim with black and green washes and started the scratches on the edges.  There is no hurry to have this done in its entirety so it might be a case of working on sections between the miniatures for other people.  Anyway I hope you like what you see so far.

Maelstrom IX 2016

Some pics from the event - thanks again to Hagen for organising and running this. I took a Codex SM CAD army using White Scar chapter tactics focused around 2 grav command squads, chapter master & librarian, with 2 troop bike melta squds and rear field fire support from 4 typhoon land speeders and a thunderfire cannon.

First up I played Sean's Dark Eldar on the Mechanicus table. There were quite a few questions regarding the mat on this table - it is available here. After a brutal shoot up on both sides I ended up 17-3 at the end.

Game 2 versus Glen's Daemons. After my firepower provided incredibly ineffective and his drones wrecked havoc in the middle I fled around the board trying to bully horrors and score maelstrom cards with the remnants of my force. 12-8 win to Glen.

Game 3 versus Bredan's Eldar. Turn 1 chapter master tanked a massive 10" Ap3 eldritch storm, taking 1 wound. However the heavy wraithcannons came next - failed LoS & failed 3++ & 3 wounds from the D shot killed my big boss while scatter lasers ripped through the grav command squads. I tried to be aggressive to claim points back by tying up the guns but it got worse from there and Brendon tabled me for a 20 - 0 to him.

Game 4 versus Hugh's 20 terminators and a land raider. With all my speed, grav and melta it was a rough match up for Hugh. 19-1 to me.

Meanwhile Wil was stomping around with his 4 knight army...

Game 5 versus Caleb's Iron Hands bike army. A very close game throughout - we met in the middle and had swings of luck both ways. I was lucky for this to end turn 5 with an 11-9 victory to me.

Awesome weekend!

Lord of the D

Surprise Battle 25.07.2015 – Or “Lord of the D”

So last Saturday I was very pleasantly surprised when Wil and Glen lured me over for a surprise super heavy over game of 40k.

I had been instructed to bring my Imperial Knight (despite playing WHFB), and combined with Wil’s knight, the 3 further Imperial Knights from Levin, 2 Eldar Wraithknights (recent entrants to the super heavy club), Eldar Revenant Titan, Lynx, Khorne Lord of Skulls, Baneblade, we formed the two teams:

Eldar Revenant Titan, 2 Wraithknights (1 x dual wraithcannon, 1 x sword and shield), Eldar Lynx, Lord of Skulls

Vs

5 Imperial Knights (1 gun knight, 3 errants, 1 paladin, in formation from new book), Baneblade, Firestorm redoubt.

The Imperial side set up in a rough line of knights with baneblade and firestorm behind.

The Xenos/Traitor army were aggressive with the lord of skulls on the Imperial right flank and sword/shield Wraithknight on the Imperial left flank. Behind this lurked the 2 cannon Wraithknight, followed by the Revenant Titan and the Lynx right at the back.

The Imperials went first.

Concentrated firepower into the lord of skulls was reasonably effective initially. Some well timed 5++ demon saves meant the damage ended up at only 3 HP. The gun Imperial Knight unleased on the sword/board Wraithknight but thanks to 5++ and 5+ FNP did no damage.

Then the Eldar started.

Lord of skulls & sword/board Wraithknight moved forward. Revenant and Lynx moved about ½ inch to get the holo shield. The Imperials were taking a few HP here and there, but most being soaked up by ion shields. This changed when the Revenant opened up. One pulse laser rolled a ‘6’ against the baneblade while the other rolled a ‘6’ against the gun Imperial Knight. With D, that meant no saves and 6 + d6 HP – TAKE IT OFF!

Imperial second turn.

This saw a ganging up on the lord of skulls. A pen from one of the thermal cannons got an explodes result and took this off.  Some further wounds were put on the sword/board, but the reoccurring save absorbed these. A good shot hit the revenant but the Holo field meant we hit nothing but air. The redoubt took some wounds from the sword/board knight.

Eldar second turn.

Surprisingly little – some HP damage here and there but thankfully no D ‘6’s so shields kept the Imperials safe. Sword/Board Wraithknight failed a charge.

Imperial third turn.

One of the remaining Imperial Knights charged the Sword/Board knight but was cut down by the D sword at initiative 5 (no shield in combat boy!).

Eldar (third?) turn…

Another two D ‘6’ results from the ranged firepower took off another two knights. From here the Eldar quickly mopped up the Imperials.

Ranged D is da bomb.... The Imperials couldn't protect against the ignoring of the saves and the ability to put 6 + d6 HP damage out. In contrast, the Imperials had a lot of non-D firepower but no way to ignore the saves at range. Getting close may have paid off but had to get through the Lord of Skulls and Sword Wraithknight which took too long (and ultimately didn't work!)

All in all a silly game but very fun game, and a great excuse to get those big models on the table.

I now have a second Imperial knight to build and paint with all the extra guns so looking forward to that!

Thanks again Glen and Wil for the surprise – really made my day J