The Original Old One Eye

 This is the original Old One Eye miniature released around 2000. 

In my last game with Da Mastacheef  I accidentally left my classic Screamer Killer at home and Joah, who just acquired a rather large Tyranids army,  let me use this model as a stand in. I agreed to paint it as a "thank you for this favor. 

The Screamer Killer's state when I borrowed it.

First of all, I picked out the meaty bits with Appellee Barrel Terracotta paint. This was followed by a glaze of Carroburg Crimson, then a highlight of Pink Horror. 

WIP, building up the colors.

The rest of the model was painted up to my typical Tyranids standard using my recipe for the purple and blues. 

After that I used Nuln Oil Gloss on the purple carapace and the claws. I really liked how this turned out. But, this being a heavy a clunky model, I felt I had no choice but to spray a clear coat over the whole this which dulled the Nuln Gloss. I liked that glossy look, so I apied 'ard Coat to the claws, carapace and fleshy bits. 

I think it turned out great in the end. So much so that I have a new appreciation for a model I once dismissed as silly at best.  I decided I wanted one for  myself and I lucked out and won an unassembled one on ebay for a surprisingly low price. I say that because mint in blister versions go for staggeringly high price there as do well painted ones.  So expect to see this winning smile on here again at some point. 

I've ran out of things to say. Other than, I really enjoyed working on this and that Joah seems to like it also. If your ever in the area you can swing by The Outpost in Johnson City to check it out 

Ok, we'll close this out with some glamor shots. Enjoy! 

It's Only War!

 Is there a better way to celebrate your birthday than a birthday bash? Or bashing? Probably.  But this is the fun we decided to have. 

"I'm next!"

Da Masta Cheef and I agreed to meet up for a 1,000 point game of Warhammer 40,000 10th edition. It was our first game of this shiny new edition, and we were eager to give it a go. We decided to play the Only War mission from the basic rulebook as it's a simple and straight forward game.  The objective was that we had to "table' the opponent (i.e. eliminate fully all elements of the opposing force)  and if by the end of Turn 5 that hasn't happened the winner will be determined by who has collected the most VPs. VPs are earned by claiming or holding Objectives. 

980 points of Tyranids.

My army only came up to 980 points due to the wonky way in which armies are built now, it was jusr not possible to find an extra 20 points anywhere with what I was bringing. My force consisted of a winged Hive Tyrant wth Venom Cannon, Two Brood Lords, one with Adaptive Biology and the other with Alien Cunning. Three stands of Rippers, two five-alien broods of Genestealers, two broods of ten termagants and a Screamer Killer. Only I left my Screamer Killer miniature at home so I borrowed Joah's Old One Eye model as a stand-in (and since the colors are basically the base colors for my army I agreed to paint the model for him).

Not really Old One Eye. 

The Space Marines were ...a whole lot of marines! They actually out-numbered the nids! This is Cheef's newest army, the Black Dragons. So forgive him if they appear in some pics to be the Primed Dragons or Bare Plastic Dragons as they are very much a work in progress. Led by a Chaplain and a Primaris Lieutenant, the mustered force was comprised of Assault Intercessors (5 troops) two squads of Intercessors, one with 5 troops the other with 10, a Hellblaster squad, an Infernus Squad, a unit of 5 Reivers, a Balistus Dreadnought and an Imperial Agents unit of Voidsmen-at-arms. 

995 points of Primaris Space Marines.

We chose the Only War mission from the main rulebook, as it seemed straightforward and simplified (but not simple). Naturally I would be playing  the Attacker.  Other than placing down the first unit the role of Attacker seemed to be little more than a title for this scenario. 

The field of battle. 

The battlelines we made seemed to be straightforward also, something a Napolionics player might admire. 

Astartes deployment.

I had my Genestealers, along with their accompanying Broodlords, take advantage of their Scout moves and scuttle 8" forward. 

Tyranid deployment (after Scout moves)

Cheef's Reivers moved up in the board edge, with the quip of "I'm not sure I need to get closer to the Tyranids." 

Reivers make their Scout move.

Turn One, Cheef won the roll-off to go first, and apart from moving units onto the closest objectives, not much really occurred. Oh, other than the Black Dragons wiped one of the Genestealer brood off of the table relying on Oath of Moment and the tools of the Primaris Lieutenant (Target Priority, Tactical Precision and Bolter Discipline) to effectively reduce the Genestealers to a spray of ichor and shattered chitin. Yikes! The Hive Tyrant arrived to take an objective in one of the round ruins. His Venom Cannon was ineffective against the Ballistus Dreadnought. In fact the Tyranids shooting was easily rebuffed by the Astartes. This was already feeling like an up hill climb for the Tyranids. 

End of Turn 1.

Turn two, and finally we could start claiming Objectives. The Black Dragons scored 2 vps.  The Tyranids would only claim 1 vp when their turn came around. The Black Dragons pushed hard on the Termagants, who were not wiped out, but pulled back to the ruins close enough to hold an objective.  Wounds were taken on the other Genestealers, Screamer Killer and the Hive Tyrant. Boldly the Black Dragons charged the Genestealers, and they were wiped out, except for the Broodlord who held on fighting. His counter attack wiped out the Assault Intercessors until it was just the Broodlord and the Chaplain facing off. By the Tyranids Turn 2, they were only able to score the single VP. 

Pappa Claws about to let it rip. 

On Turn Three both sides were able to claim 3 VPs each, with the Black Dragons still in the lead and ahead on the attrition rate. I had hoped to change that with the Hive Tyrant, whose impotent shooting was starting to annoy me, so I moved him off of the objective allowing the Ripper Swarm to hold it instead. He flew up, shooting his Venom Cannon again only to have the Balistus Dreadnought shrug it off again. So the Hive Tyrant declared a charge, he was only 5" away,  and after he survived the overwatch shots and... I rolled double 1's! Naturally I had to cash in a CP to get a re-roll, only to defy all odds and roll ...another pair of ones! Snakes-eyes twice in a row?! Nuts! We all had a good laugh over it, and Kushail was even there to witness this spectacular fumble. 

Come on, it's only 5"! 

It wasn't all laughs though, as the Screamer Killer closed on a unit of Primaris fiends and reduced them to admantite coated beef jerky chunks. 

For those about to be ripped apart, we salute you!

Turn 4 was upon us, and the Black Dragons pointed every available gun and special shenanigan available at the Hive Tyrant, until finally a gernade toppled the mighty beast. The tussle between the Chaplain and the Broodlord continued until the Chaplain overcame his foe with his mighty beat-stick (TM).

"Once you were bigger, now I am the giant!"

Yikes! On my Turn 4, I was left with a shattered army, with no synapse available for any additional support,  While the Black Dragons held on to their cleansing advance. 

The Black Dragons press on.

Ar the bottom of Turn 4 I had moved the Screamer Killer to an Objective on the hill, while my lurking Termagants claimed another objective and the Rippers held on to theirs. The score was now 8 vps for the Space Marines, and 7 vps for the Tyranids.  But now ot was tome foe some vengeance. I had the Screamer Killer charge in an eviscerated the 10-man Primaria unit along with the accompanying Primaris Lieutenant. He consolidated back toward the objective since there were no other target units within range. 

Flank taken! 

The Reivers, despite losing three of their unit, were unwavering in their resolve and eliminated the last of the termagants by the ruins where the Rippers controlled the objective. They consolidated into the Rippers, whose counter attack was little more than  a nuisance to the Reivers. 

Turn 5, the last round, and it was looking like the nids were needing a miracle. The Black Dragons were now methodically cleaning up the remaining xenos infestation. The Infernus Squad immolated the last squad of Termagants, and served the objective. 

Objecrive secured -with fire!

The Balistus Dreadnought turned it's sights onto the Screamer Killer, who was still above half strength, and lanced it like a boil. 

Long distance lancing. 

Finally the Reivers proved their worth by tearing up the last of the Rippers. "What's the point of these again?" The Reiver Sgt asked fasciously after spitting out a ripper tail. 

The Ripper's last stand. 

And here we are at the bottom of Turn 5, and Tyranids have no assets left. The VPs proved to not matter in the end as the xenos threat has been utterly eliminated the Black Dragons win the day! 

Zone secured. 

So, that was our first 10th edition game. Other than agreeing that Battleshock is a great name for a ruleset that didn't seem to matter, the game played just fine. But it was the little things that tripped us (mostly me) up. Like my completely forgetting about the Termagant's Skulking Horrors ability (a way over sold name, all-things considering). That could have kept them alive a bit longer. But there was not a strategy to undo rolling snake-eyes for a 5" charge and rolling them again with a reroll. The Tyranids MVP was the Screamer Killer, the model of which I was borrowing. MVP on the Marine side... I think I will say it was the Chaplain, only for his heroic stand against the Broodlord. 

He fought for his life, Chapter, and a paint job. 

Fun game as always, we had a lot of laughs, and I learned a lot about these bugz as well as the new edition. Hopefully the new knowledge will make for a more successful fight in their (and my) next game. 

Termagant Fun! (Part 5)

 You got to see a preview of these guys at the end of part 4, now I'm going to talk about them in a bit more detail. 

These guys were painted  primarily using Contrast Paints. Skeleton Horde on the gun, claws and teeth. Ultramarines Blue on the armored parts of their bodies and Leviathan Purple on the rest. 

And I think this not only makes for a nice base coat but it's a decent 'battle ready scheme as well. Especially when you have a horde of these things to paint. 

And the hive node / back-brain thing was based using Applebarrel Terracotta. 

Ultimately these will be colored up to my Hivefleet's scheme. Of Particular note is the fleshborer which will end up green. But I thinking about making it a bit more multicolored. We'll see whenever I get back to them. 

The Doom of Malan'tai and Zoanthrope Friends (Part 1)

 This is a project I have been wanting to do for many years now. The original Zoanthrope miniature from the mid-'90s was a grotesque mess that was not just displeasing to the eye, but it didn't even conform to the description as presented in the Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition Codex: Tyranids:

"Zoanthropes are perhaps the strangest of the mutant strains of  Tyranid Warrior seen amongst the swarms. Though they are  considerably larger than Tyranid Warriors their bodies are fragile and have feeble, atrophied limbs, and their heads are so huge and bloated that they look too large for their frail bodies to support. Zoanthropes appear to have been engineered to exploit the maximum psychic potential of Tyranid Warriors and even seem to use psychic energy to invigorate their wasted bodies. '*

The original Zoanthrope. 

But the illustration by John Blanche, The Swarm, contained a vision of that era's Zoanthrope that represented the description perfectly. 

A section from The Swarm by John Blanche.

Years later and the entire Tyranid army would be overhauled for the 40k's 3rd edition. And the form of the floating Zoanthrope we know and love today would first arrive in blister packs to our favorite hobby stores. He was a total rework of the original concept, as he floated around as opposed to walking..(or maybe he bounced around on his tail like Tigger?) He had the tiny atrophied limbs and massive head as detailed in the original description and it made sense that  he would float about now due to the limitations of those limbs. 

The 3rd edition era miniature.

A few years later and the Tyranids would get their 5th edition Codex which introduced a special character called the Doom of Malan'tai. The concept art made me think: what if I take that old head from the 2nd edition model and attach it to the 3rd edition body? Not only would it kind of work for The Doom, but it would kind of pay homage to that old Blanche art also. 

I had the 2nd edition model already, and I ordered the 3rd edition body from Games Workshop Mail-order (back when the bitz program was alive and well. Oh how I wish I hadn't taken it for granted back then...).  And then I sat on the idea for about, oh, 20 years. 

And now, as 9th edition has ended and 10th edition launches, I am putting together these guys with the idea that they'll just have a unique looking unit leader. Then this caught my eye:

Snippet from the 10th ed Tyranids list.

So I am going to use my Doom model as a Neurothrope (which, basically it was). Which seems like a perfect solution to me. And I ha e two of the 3rs edition era models as well to make the minimum size squad. 

Next, the construction phase...

The 2023 Inquisitional Conclave.

 The time has arrived. 

This year's secret location, in an orbital station somewhere close to the Maelstrom, has attendees arriving slowly and cautiously to it. 

Voidsmen by Da Mastacheef

The first shuttle arrived, and when the doors opened these chaps spilled out, securing the docking bay and roughing up the concierge servitor. They heralded the arrival of this guy:

Inquisitor Wyrd, by Da Masta Cheef

Unlike most of Cheef's characters this guy doesn't have a name yet so I'm calling Inquisitor Wyrd. Anyway, after mind-probing the station's staff, he led his entourage into the Conclave Chambers. 

The next shuttle arrived, spilling forth a motley assortment of henchmen and archo-flagellants onto the deck. 

The Baddie Team by Zzzzzz 

Here is Zzzzzz with the details: 

The central character here is the demagogue: she is part of a select coven hunted by the OH.  She is flanked here by two close combat bodyguards with ceremonial flensing knives from the Grox herder enclaves of the northern parire: they've brought their traditional tribal tools to use as weapons in their new religion.  There's also her principal muscle, Xondar, who as you tell from his stature, was once even a giant amongst Space Marines.  Anyway, he's long turned to the ruinous powers and sometimes manages to cause a plague zombie or two to come into being, but he has no real control over this and it's not something to rely on.  There are three more cultists with a variety of weapons, including Xondar's bolter, which he can no long use, because plot armour.  The last member of this team is Sav.  She is a chaos aligned astropath.  

Sav and three cultists by Zzzzzz.

And some arcoflagellants.  These were glued together two years ago on a child free break in Somerset, but only painted and based now to have something for the conclave.  I'll post them on Devos IV, but not until the middle of September.

Arcoflagellants by Zzzzzz.

The station security team was a bit weirded out by that lot, but they were getting used to the flamboyant and eccentric styles of Inquisitors and their followers. So into the chamber they shuffled. 

From an antechamber, bedecked in overpriced swag, emerged the Inquisitor who goes by the call sign Alpha. He looked around the room suspiciously, as an Inquisitor of Ordo Hereticus is likely to do, before taking his seat at the conclave table. 

Inquisitor Alpha by Neverness.

Quote by Lord Inquisitor Torquemada Corteaz

+++++++++++

Despite opening the entries up to include Imperial Agents, very few people participated this year. (If I missed you let me know and I will edit you into the post. ) Shall we see what happens next year or give this thing a rest?