Our first 6th ed game

Last night Warfrog and I got together to try out the new Warhammer 40,000 6th edition rules system. We chose 1000pt each, I took Space Wolve and he chose Tyranids. It was supposed to be a toss-off kind of practice game, but as is typical when we play, we totally got into it and didn't stop until after 2am! I took two Runepriests so I could play around with the new psi rules, my classic landspeeder to see if the tweaks to skimmers could be experienced, 2 Rhinos each with a 6-man squad of Greyhunters, a pack of Longfangs, a Lonewolf and a drop pod with 5 Wolfguard.

I'll let Warfrog explain the hilarity of this situation! LOL

We took a bunch of pics and Warfrog is committed to doing a battle report in the next few days, and talking about what we thought of certain rules. I had a few WTF moments with a few things, but in hindsight I get the 'theatrical' elements that GW was trying to achieve with this edition and they sort of make sense when I think about them from that perspective. As is typical, my dice stole the show and blew our minds- as my Runepriest could attest too.  :)

Anyway, it was more fun then either of us thought it would be, so look forward to his write up. Once he posts it, I will add a link on this blog post.


UPDATE: Here's Warfrog's report: http://warfrog.blogspot.com/2012/07/first-run-with-6th-ed-tyranids.html and I am adding my additional observations to his comments thread. So continue over there please (it's like a comic book cross over!)

Waaagh Plane! pt1

Having been virtually enslaved by my work, I have been unable to focus much at all on this hobby, however the week that the new Ork Fightabomber came out, I was determined to not only get it on the day of release, but to start working on it immediately!  I took it right home and after drooling on the sprues and reading through the White Dwarf to pick which rules variation I liked most (I like them all), and failing to pick one, I wasted no further time and took the sprues out for a good priming.

Now before I continue, I must state that I've wanted a full-scale ork jet since the days of Rogue Trader. I got my start building models with model aircraft, jets in particular, with a mantra of 'More missiles!!!' as I overburdened my Harrier Jump-jets with every rocket in the box. It only seems natural to me that Orks would have the same mindset. When the concept first appeared in Epic-scale, I knew it was only a matter of time before I got my wish. Fast forward 20 years, and I finally get my wish! LOL!

Here are the sprues being primed on the front porch. Nothing terribly exotic or particularly blog-worthy about spraying sprues black, only that I had to beware of the smooth and flat surfaces to avoid leaving finger prints or smudges in the primed layer that could bug me later.

While doing this I took the opportunity to prime a few other models, namely my Fenrisian Wolves and an ammo grot that were all lounging about on my painting table. I have pics of these, but I will save them for when I actually write about them.

After I primed these, I decided to let them sit for a day before tackling them any further. The next night I based coated all of the orkoid fleshy bits while they were still on the sprue.

I began assembly while watching the Game of Thrones marathon (leading up to the season finale) in case your curious as to what i'm watching in the background there.

I used the rubberband method to ensure the tightest bond I could for the main hull. I painted the internal turbine a metallic color prior to assembly as there are parts of if you can see through a grill in the top.

A week later I had the chance to work more on the kit, and my focus was on the pilot. I decided to experiment a bit with my classic paint scheme. Usually I paint orks/orcs with a black prime, then Dark Angels Green, then with a thined out Bilious Green building up to a thicker bilous green. I then mix yellow and green ink until it looks almost like radiator fluid. I thin that with some water, then glaze the whole model (the green bits anyway). I will then re-highlight with Bilious Green, then add a final highlight of Sunburst Yellow. To see examples of this checkout Orky love, and this pic below of my Warboss (Ror-Ruk the Ravager)

Ror-Ruk, with his 'ammo grot' on the alien savanah of Backyardistan III. during the 'Stomp'n of Da Pointy Earred Git' campaign, 892M41.

My Bilious Green paint pot is only half-gone, but it's 23 years old now and I can't find an analog for it. However I still have a lot of Goblin Green, so I decided to try that as my base coat for my ork pilots. I figured with him being sealed inside the kit you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference if there is much of one. This next pic shows this and the palette that I mixed my colors on (yup, the underside of a base).

Here is the main torso after the inking (and the exact paints I used to get it this far). Also, I really like the look of old metal, not  a bright more recent rust, but the dark rusted look of an old yet still being used machine. I have achieved this look in the past  by just painting a thinned-down brown wash over black with some highlighted areas painted darker. I painted the main fuselage of the jet this color to act as the base coat for when I start applying the red coats.

That's it for now, more to come soon.