Friday, October 30, 2020

Dreadtober 2020 Black Legion Hellbrute (Part 4)

 It's getting down to final days of the month and it looks like I am going to miss the deadline by a few days. Not wanting to do a rush job and confound what I think is turning out to be a good paint job so far, I have decided to just do what I can do but concede that I won't make the goal. But darn it, did I get close! After painting those areas I was far enough along that I felt that I could finally attach the front plate; an act which completes the construction of this beastly machine.

Almost done...

Since the previous update, I highlighted the black armored bitz, and painted shinning gold on the trim. Also basecoated the eyeballs using Firy Orange as I am going for an Eye Of Souron vibe with the eyeballs. 

Still not done though...

The only things left to do are to finish those burning eyes, the pistons and metallic bits, the fuel tanks, flamers and that Space Marine helmet (I did manage to start on it's eye lenses however). Hopefully I can get this finished next week and not be too late on my deadline...

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Dreadtober 2020 Black Legion Hellbrute (Part 3.5)

 Due to the technical issues I was having last time I wasn't able to share all of my progress pics. Hopefully I get them to you today. 

So creepy I had to use this pic twice.

This first pic is the Reikland Fleshwash step over the Bugman's Glow basecoat.  

Reikland Fleshwash.

Bugman's Glow was reapplied again, but not too much as to leave the fleshtone wash showing near the recesses. 

Bugman's Glow layer.

Next, Cadian Fleshtone was strategicly applied to those fleshy bits. 

Cadian Fleshtone.


The next step was a highlight of Kislev Flesh.

Kislev Flesh.

Druchii Violet was used at all of the grooves and recesses. According to our man Duncan this will make it appear as demonic flesh, although my version seems brighter than their example, but I like the way mine turned out so...yeah. oh, and the tentacles bursting out from the side of this thing was painted using the steps GW advised in the Fear No Evil book (which I also recently used in my Death Guard Experiment.).

Daemonic Flesh complete and gutty tentacles.

Then came the gluing, where I finally went about joining the main parts together. It was all about the head of the beastie, as it has to be placed prior to assembly and I was only satisfied with the original Hellbrute (AKA Bloodbrute) headand found it to be a challenge the first time. I like the way this guy is turning out so far and I made sure to push him a bit more forward if you will, as it gives him more of an "erupting" look. 

A bonding experience.

Ok, those were the missing bits from the previous post, I should (hopefully) get this guy finished by the end of the month. Hopefully.



Thursday, October 22, 2020

Dreadtober 2020 Black Legion Hellbrute (Part 3)

This is my 2nd attempt to write this post. my first attempt disappeared after fighting Blogger when I was attempting to add the final photos. This new interface is fricking aweful and is very hard to use on a mobile device. Now when I upload a photo all I see is code, and I have to look at a preview to see if everything is aligning correctly. It's very infuriating! But this isn't intended to be a rant about blogger but a continuation of the saga of my painting and construction of this Hellbrute.
The rupturing of my internal rage.

Due to the fact that I can't see what I am posting, I am simply going to post what this thing currently looks like and will add in the step-by-step photos and comments in a future post.
Gluing this beast together.

UPDATE: I figured it out. One those hieroglyphs allows you to toggle between Compose and HTML view. How I hit that is mystery, but at least I figured it out...

It's the one that looks like a pencil.

Look for Part 4 in a few days with all the steps that lead up to the current progress shot posted above. 

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Dreadtober 2020: Black Legion Hellbrute (Part 2)


The month is rolling by fast, the season is in a colorful state of change here in the mountains of East Tennessee, and tucked away in our shotgun shack progress on this warmachine of Chaos continues. In Part 1 of this series I focused on the modeling and preparation work prior to priming the model. Here you can see it all the parts prior to assembly post priming.

The primed parts.

It was while scrutinizing these parts that I realized that I forgot to attach the auxiliary heavy flamer. I again decided to use a pair of standard Imperial Guard flamers like I did on the Bloodbrute. They look right and it's easier to work them onto the model than all the other choices I have available.

The heavy flamer assembly on the Bloodbrute.

I seem to have a lot of these arms in my bitz bin also, so it's an easy thing to make happen.

Cadian flamers.

I thought about getting a bit more advanced with this assembly and model on some fuel hoses. But I quickly determined that this would be more ambitious of a project than I have time, or patience, for. But I came up with another idea that involved a fuel tank but I nixed that one also because it was just too absurd. But it did inspire another idea...

Flamers attached.


Looking at this model it's clear that there is a techno-organic fusion occurring throughout it. Muscles are evolving throughout the piece replacing machine parts with some of that muscle mass still containing pipes, pistons, wires and cables running throughout it. I thought a pair of tanks attached to the rear left side of this thing looked interesting. I imagine that they connect to hoses that run throughout the body and come out through the arm to terminate at the heavy flamer. It's sick, insane, and woefully appropriate for this thing.

Fuels tanks attached.

Next up, I turned my attention back to the overall paint job. I started with the fleshy bits, particularly the head, legs and abdominal areas.

The fleshy bits.

Then I basecoated the trim using Gamecolor Hammered Copper. I used Tin Bitz on the Multi-melta barrel and the flamer. 

Hammered Copper trim.

And progress shall continue, but this is where it's at right now. I should have more done in about a week. Meanwhile, see what everyone else is up to over on the main Dreadtober site. 



Sunday, October 11, 2020

Storm Their Lines

Finally, after 16 months, I got to play a game of Warhammer 40,000. Da Masta Cheef and I arranged to play a game at the local Hobbytown USA and we choose to keep tradition alive by agreeing to another Ork vs. Ork game. This is also my first game of the 9th edition.  

"I come for da reap'n!"


We like how unpredictable and zany the Open Warhammer card deck can be so we went with that and a mission called Storm Their Lines. We ended up with an interesting deployment layout (quqrters) and a Twist called Last Stand which basically made both of our armies fearless. Note that in some of the pics below you might occasionally spot a lonely grot. Those are actually objective counters. Also, yes, we know, they aren't on 40mm bases, it's just the best that we had at the time. 


Open War!

Cheef was able to get a Ruse card (Ambush) that allowed him to move a unit anywhere that wasn't within than 9" of one of my units, so that's how I ended up with his "Matildah" Battlewaggon full of Tankbustas on my side of the table. 

Ambush!


With that maneuver out of the way, both armies are now deployed accept foe my Dakkajet which I placed into Reserves. 

Da field of battle!

It's a good time to point out that my Orks Clan Kulture was Goffs and Cheef's was Death Skulls.
Here's the Death Skull deployment:  

Cheef's Deathskull gits!

Here is the over-all view of the Goff (with a fen unofficial Bad Moon guests) deployment: 

Neverness has deployed!

Here is a close-up of the Goff Boyz deployment: 

Close up of da boyz!

ORKS (NEVERNESS) TURN ONE

With a mighty yell of WAAAAGH! My Shoota Boyz leapt over the trench walls and stormed the nearest objective, claiming it. All the other units surged forward as well, accept for the Mek Guns of course. My Warphead used Da Jump to move the Mega Nobz to be 9" away from Da Cheef's Battlewagon for what I thought was going to be a strategic maneuver on my part. After a woefully ineffective Shooting Phase where I only managed to kill a single Ork Boy on the opposing side, I made the foolish mistake of assuming I would have better luck in the Charge Phase. The Mega Nobz declared a charge on the Battlewagon and Cheef gleefully burned a CP to be able to Overwatch with the Battlewagon and it's open top crew. Even with good odds to save, I botched four of my rolls resulting in four dead Mega Nobz! Ouch! However the last guy still made the charge and he latched himself onto the front of the Matildah and did the level of annoying damage that would impress a nature park monkey. ("Look Mom, he's peeing on the hood!" "Hey, leave my radio antenna alone!")

Those four Meganobz on the bottom are dead!

ORKS (DA MASTA CHEEF) TURN ONE

The cacophony of roaring jets filled the air as the Blitz Bomba soared over my lines. The Tankbustas, accompanied by Da Masta Cheef himself, left the Battlewaggon to deal with my Shoota Boyz that had taken one of the objectives. "Oy, dat's mine dat is!" 
The hail of rockets and exploding projectiles reduced the unit of Boyz down to half it's starting strength, and I was already thanking Mork and Gork for that Last Stand card or this game would have been way harder on my orks!

A Last Stand indeed!

Above you can see the survivors of the once mighty Shoota Boyz squad, and below you can see the Tankbustas gleefully reloading their rokkits for another volley...

Tankbustas bring the pain!

On the Charge Phase I decided to burn a CP to allow my Shootas a chance to Overwatch and I managed to kill a Tankbusta or two while Da Masta Cheef himself set himself up to deal with the Meganob attacking his Battlewaggon ("Oy, don't scratch da trim!").

"Oy, leave me tank alone!"

It was a bloodbath. In the end I had only a single Boyz model left, the unit's  nob. I did take a few Tankbustas to Hell with me though but they were clearly winning. 

Clearly. (And yes, my Nob is still missing his head).


ORKS (NEVERNESS) TURN TWO.

Being the sneaky git that I am, I was able to get my Slugga Boys onto another objective while my Dakkajet roared on from Reserves. I pulled my Boyz Nob and via the Stratagem called Endless Green Tide I was able to bring back that unit into play. 


"Don't call it a come back!"

The new Shoota Boys arrived to see the DakkaJet, which I spent more CP to give it More Dakka, to waste the remainder of the Tankbustas. Their only viable target was Da Masta Cheef himself, who was looting the gear from the now dead Meganob, whom they shot to ribbons. 

Da Masta' Cheef''s murder sponsored by Coke!

It was a far better round than my Turn One but not nearly as awesome as Da Cheef's was. I had the moral support of having 2 points to zero at the end of my turn, but this fight was still in it's infancy...

Bottom of Turn two.

ORKS (DA MASTA CHEEF) TURN TWO.

Cheef's forces were not bothered by their leader dying, and continued their advancement. Their attempts to bring down the DakkaJet were to no avail but they did destroy my Slugga Boyz from shooting with the final blow coming from the Big Bomb dropped by the Bomber. 

The thing I miss most about 5th edition is the craters...

ORKS (NEVERNESS) TURN 3

My Deffdread ambled closer to the unit that was defending a crater. It would attempt to charge those guys but would fail to reach them after losing a wound to Overwatch. Meanwhile my Dakkajet would blast the Blitzbomber out of the sky.

Air supremacy! 

ORKS (DA MASTA CHEEF) TURN THREE.

Other than his Weirdboy smiting more wounds off of my Deffdread I don't recall much more happening in this turn other then Cheef taking more objectives, which was actual quite crucial as now we were tied.

ORKS (NEVERNESS ) TURN FOUR

An explosive turn as the Mek Guns eliminate the Battlewaggon and the Dakkajet jet straffs one of the smaller Boyz mobz in an attempt to prevent them from taking another objective. 

The demise of da Matildah.

My Deffdread made into combat finally only to kill... no one. The Deathskulls never saw a machine they didn't want to loot and pretty much dismantled the Deffdread on the spot. 

"Look, da scrap is coming to us!"

ORKS TURN FIVE. 
My efforts to stymie Da Cheef's surge were to no avail as his forces crashed into mine. In the end I had a few Shoota Boyz left alive along with the Dakkajet and Warphead. The Mekgubz survived also but one of them only had 2 wounds left which was mostly due to self-inflicted Mortal Wounds that it did to itself while shooting.  Cheef was limping also but his forces clearly had the tactical advantage and claimed 6 points to my 3, securing his victory. 
  • Dis is how da waaargh ends...

Wow! What a fun game! Yeah we probably made a few mistakes, but we had way to much fun to care.  My first turn was awful and Cheef's was just amazing. A lesser ork might have forfeited at that point but I was committed to the Waaargh and stuck it out to the end! 

The highlight for both of us had to be my suicidal Megnobz and their ill-fated attempt to charge the opened top Battlewagon. Cheef was grinning ear to ear as I was also bemused, and a bit shocked, by how well he was rolling his saves. And how absurdly bad I was rolling mine. My luck has never seen a good plan it didn't want to thwart! In the end though, it was another good game and we both agreed that we need to do this more than just once a year! An Ork vs. Ork game is also a perfect way to celebrate Orktober and I encourage you to give a go if you can.

Silly Bad Moons, this was supposed to be a Goff army!








Monday, October 05, 2020

Dreadtober 2020: Black Legion Hellbrute (Part 1)

It's that time of the year when one must select a Dreadnought* in order to participate in Dreadtober, the annual painting challenge themed around those big bipedal machines. For the past three years I combined Orktober with Dreadtober and painted an Ork Dreadnought. This year I decided to do something different and do something to support my Chaos Space Marine army. Also I simply haven't painted enough models from the Dark Vengeance boxed set, which I deeply regret, and thought this could be an opportunity to address that.

Hellbrute parts ready for assembly.
Long time readers might remember that I have painted one of these models before for the Khorne side of my Chaos Astartes, appropriately dubbed The Bloodbrute. You can see more and read about it in Part 1 and Part-2. But I can sum it up by saying that I knocked that model out in record time (for me). Some conditions applied to that situation that don't exist in my current one, namely free time. And I don't have much of that these days. As a result, this model may actually take me the whole month of October to complete.


The steps here will pretty much mirror Bloodbrute part 1, with really only the final color being different. This Hellbrute will be painted as a Black Legion machine, since most of my Chaos Marines are pretty much Black Legion at this point and they could use some love.


One of the things that I was really proud of, that I did on the Bloodbrute, was the base. I used some of the rock slates from the Warhammer 40,000 Basing Set which I believe is no longer produced. Since this is a special occasion (Dreadtober is special to me, surely it is to you too, right?) I decided to use one of the resin pieces in this set. The piece I selected was a helmet of a loyalist marine, which will sit amongst the shattered rocks which this Hellbrute will be stomping over. Not sure which Chapter this helmet belonged to, but I will figure that out soon enough.
The rock stage of basing. 
I flocked the base and then noticed that I forgot to drill out the holes on the barrel of the Multi-melta. I do recommend doing that before flocking the base, or even assembking any of the model actually. Never-the-less, it wasn't too problematic to do this and it wasn't as messy as you might envision. I don't drill out gun barrels like I used to mainly because the results rarely satisfy me for the effort that it takes, but on a gun like this one it looks really cool and turns out great each time thst I have done it.

Drilled out gun barrel.

On to the priming stage, and hopefully by next week I will be beyond that point and we'll into the basecoats....hopefully.

*"Collectors of every faction are welcome to participate; the only guideline is that your model should fit on a 60 mm base (or larger!)."