The rise of Waaagh Bink!

When billboards attack!

 The title says it all, but I'm sure it raises lots of questions as well! My old pal, the wild Bink, has quite a huge collection of Orks. Most of them are circa the late '90s and represent a good mix of 2nd and 3rd edition era models. He even has an Armorcast Gargant. None of his stuff painted with exception to few odd models here and there, but at least they were in a mostly playable state. Well he hasn't played in years and with his wife out of town for the weekend I was able to convince him to play at Hobbytown this past Saturday. We spent the afternoon working up lists on armybuilder, gathered up a fraction of his collection, and proceeded on down to HT in Johnson City for his first 6th edition scrap.

The Ultramarines deploy.

I brought the Ultramarines for their 3rd game, but mostly because the list I had didn't have any of the weird cheese that might shock a new player in it. Well, except the Legion of the Damned, but they aren't so much cheese as just weird.

I had 3 Tactical Squads (10 troop each), 4 man Terminator Squad, A Librarian in Terminator armor, Legion of the Damned, Land Raider, and a Whirlwind for 1500pts :

 

He had all of the above! 2 Bigmeks (The army warlord was escorting 2 deff dreds with his kustom force field, while the other took a shokk attack gun and hung out with the big gun battery). A squad of Nob bikers with a painboy, a 30-ork squad of choppa boys, and 30-ork squad of 'Ard boys. And the big guns were all kannons by the way.

Since this was a training game, I wanted us both to have fun. Understand that although he hasn't played in years, Bink is a shrewd tactician, so there was no "going light" taking place, but rather try to show him as many scenarios as I could for his orks to get involved with. Most of what follows will be highlights:

Turn one. The Orks run to and claim the 1st objective!

Both sides advance...

The Landraider and Whirlwind begin to whittledown the Ard Boyz.

The Bink went 1st and he blasted a few marines away with his big gunz and assorted shooting. My 1st turn was lame, with very few causalties claimed.

Ouch!

This was a 10-man squad but after a resounding hit by a Shokk attack gun, etc, this squad was reduced to just three guys!

The Deff Dreds approach!

Around turn 3, The whirlwind scores a direct hit on Big Mek, giving him a wound and blowing up one of the Deff Dreds! I thought it was definately the radest thing I've seen a whirlwind do in quite a while!

And from the mists, the Legion of the Damned appear!

The Legion of the Damned appear and start killing orks. Not many, but some!  Note that his is the very first time I have EVER used these guys in any edition despite the fact that I finished working on the unit way back in 1999!

Eventually my Terminators arrived and to have the shot up squad on the far left, and drive back the slugga bloys, only the Librarian gave himself a wound thanks to a Perils of the Warp result on double 1's. The nob bikers (only one of which did I manage to kill) came careening around the field to finish off the remaining member of tactical squad.

Can you spot the painted Legionnaires amongst all that metal?

The Legion of the damned were jumped on by the 'Ard Boyz who tore the mysterious marines up, but the one marine remained to tie up the orks, and keep them off of that objective!

"Super run away!"

The Terminators and Librarian shoot at the slugga boyz. With concentrated fire and a reduction of their numbers, the slugga boyz made a run for it! Almost off of the board!

Saved by the boys in blue!

Leaping from the Landraider, the tactical squad rushed into the melee with the 'Ard boyz and the last Legionnaire. They win the combat, forcing a route by the orks who are cut down! They consolidate toward the objective...but would it be close enough?

The deff dread takes taunts the survivors on the roof...

The game ended, and, with all his troops choices in route, or dead I thought I might just...oh. I forgot that that BigMek allowed the Deff Dreds to be taken as a troops choice, and he was just within the 3 inches of the objective! The Orks WIN!!!

Orks: Objective: 5pts total: 3pts, 1st blood, and Line Breaker.
Utlramarines: 0pts

We had a blast, with Bink getting a good grasp of the 6th edition rules, I think he's hungry for more! A few more training games he'll be able to take down cheesy crap like Blood Angels! He was damn near surgical with the shokk attakk gun and the kannons! I have never used 'Ard Boyz before, and Bink showed me the error of my ways!


Meanwhile, on the other tables:

Murl and Screech in a fight between chaos and Space Wolves. Both claim that is was close game and very fun! Glad to hear. I forget who who though...

Screech, walls of dice won't save your rhinos!

This looks like a nasty skirmish.....

 Da Masta Cheef, Hiveangel and a new guy.

Hive Angel's Blood Angels (some of whom now have heads, which is a paradigm shift that I am having a hard time adjusting too...) vs, an allied force of Tau and Eldar.

The "hide everything" deployment method.

 Maybe some one else can fill in what's going on here....

 ...and here...

Proxy Mephiston lacks the vampire mullet...:(

 

 I took this one when I heard the rage and gnashing of teeth coming from Da Masta Cheef's dying eldar. I guess it was bad enough getting slaughtered by Mephiston, but a proxy Mephiston was just too much to handle!

I think the Blood Angels won...

EDIT: Read the full report here: blood-angels-vs-allied-xenos-battle.

"I am the Law!"

"No, I am the law!"
"I am the law too!"
"Yeah, well, I have a cyber mastiff, and that makes me the law and than some!"
"...But I'm the guy with the bigger gun."

Or something like that as my players got into their roles as Adeptus Arbites, Imperial Judges of Task Force Gamma.

If you recall back at the end of summer I did a review of Dredd and compared the Judges found in the world of Judge Dredd to the Arbites of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I believe I stated that I really wanted to run an all Judge campaign for Dark Heresy. This past Friday I got my wish!

"I said: "Hotshot" "

 

My group hasn't played since last summer, and numerous personal events kept occurring that prevented us from picking that game back up. Leaving everything in a 'cliff hanger' state, I decided to run my Judge game, and have it pick up in the aftermath of the previous campaign, not revealing to the players the fates of their previous characters.

Accept one.

In the previous game, the players were running two teams and things were sort of crossing over and intermixing as both teams were working simultaneously to achieve multiple ends and stumbling over similar clues and tangents. In one of the last games, I had Da Masta Cheef's character, Boris, sent to join another character that was sort of removed from the main action to assist with whatever was going on. I decided that this new team of Judges, Task Force Gamma, would be investigating why Boris never showed up.

I just finished and sent out the mission brief, so for your amusement I shall share it with you. Sadly, I can't give you much insight with what's really going on as it would tip off my players (the few that bother to read my blog), and most of them only have a clue at best! LOL

(It was this or show you more progress shots of have half-finished Grey Hunters...)

Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice,

Mission Statement: You have been assigned to special Inquisition sponsored task force. Your skills and attributes have been found exemplary in your previous roles, and together you are the unit we need to assist in finding and retrieving Boris Sevastopol, a missing agent of the Holy Inquisition. You are to assess his last known location and from there track down his whereabouts, and retrieve him. Early indications point towards an abduction scenario, but this is a theory at best. Find the facts. Find Boris. Bring Boris back.   

 

Team Composition: Zurio Lug, Metalus Zek, Pontius, Bones Gunner, Taron Drake, and another member who will join later.

 

Note 1: You are mostly likely going to descend into areas of the city where Arbite presence is scare or totally non-existent. You are the law. But to enforce every infraction you see would take a life-time. You must stay focused on your task and achieve success in your mission.

Note 2: You have been provided with a special Inquisitional Rosette that will allow you to by-pass most systems, and deputize you to carry out your orders. You have also been assigned a pack with additional gear: A combat shot gun, 3 clips of ammo, Magnagles, Carapace Helm, and Arbite Riot armor. Use these at your discretion. Remember that resupplying you will be difficult. Also you have a week’s worth of water and rations.  

Note 3: Keep a log of your progress, clue gathering, and who made what decision so that all note-worthy events can be properly vetted upon post-mission examination.

Note 4: Regardless of what has transpired with Boris Sevastopol he must be brought back alive. If he is involved with sinister or heretical forces, your assigned Inquisitor would like to personally pass judgment: you are not to make a termination of the subject unless the situation can be resolved in no other way.

Note 5: The chain of command of your superiors is as follows: Col. Gentleman, Interrogator Errasmus and Inquisitor Svech.

 

 

And now the mission notes, in case you're curious...

 

 

Game one Notes:

• Task Force Gamma’s 1^st mission takes them to the abandoned lander where the lander black box has been retrieved. The pilot has been violently slain and is in a state of rapid decomposition.
• A sniper kills the pilot to Gamma’s lander and it is lost. The sniper wounds a squad member. The sniper is still at large
• Navigating through the abandoned retail complex of Freddicus Mejiers Mexiplex Location XXV, Gamma follows a trail of dead gangers gathering clues that lead them to the Sommer Wells Hab Level 33.
• In Sommer Wells Hab Level 33 a precinct is found with a lone Enforcer who is unkempt and a touch mad. Sgt. Rathers is his name, and he tells Gamma on the fate of his unit. He tells of the times of trouble,the coming of the flys and how they coincided with the arrival of “the one who promises to bring salvation.” He provides info on how to proceed to the next sublevel, as well as where to get medicae treatment.
• Sgt Rathers has a container that contains a contagious object that burst out of one of his men’s navel. No one from Gamma wanted to see what was in it.
• Sgt Rathers provided some Inferno shells (12) to the group if they would send word that he desperately needs assistance at his precinct.
• Sgt Rathers IDs Borris Sevastopol as this salvation figure, and points to a 3-story work in progress mural of Boris. The mural has the words “The Grounds Keeper of the Garden of Salvation” on a scroll at the bottom of the piece.
• The medicae provides healing assistance to Zurio and Bones*.

*Bones injured his leg leaping from the crashng lander, and Zurio was shot by a sniper.

It was a lot tension having these guys worm their way through an abandoned store bloc, gathering clues and follwing the bread crumbs. It was even more fun getting to role play the Sgt Rathers NPC who was pretty much mad as a hatter and paranoid. Also, I got to assign this team to Col. Gentleman who a previous player, that moved away, based (loosely) off of the character with the same name from the Venture Brother's Cartoon, but played more like SNL Sean Connery on the Jeopardy skits. But I totally envision the character in the cartoon, but suited up as an Arbite. I could go on, but let's just say that Colonel Gentleman in my campaign was a riot!

"With Mind-bullets!" Our Psy player will join us in a future game.

 

So after the game, with half the group gone, I put in the Dredd bluray for additional inspiration and we stayed up late getting idea for next time. I like the dystopic and quasi-anarchy state of the lower and underhive, and the amped up level of paranoia and danger that these Judges are going to have to endure. I wanted to point out that Judge Anderson and Judge Dredd being trapped in Peachtrees isn't going to be too different from where these guys are going, only that this team is going down deeper and will be experiencing more hardships and challenges and with little chance of back up or extraction... it's going to be blast!
:D

The Easter Bunker

Happy Holiday, for today is Easter, and those of you who celebrate it, may your day be filled with yummy edibles and chocolate delights. Today I am inspired to show off a piece of scenery that I created many years ago, around '99 or '00. We call it the Easter Bunker.

The "front".

Back then, Warhammer 40,000 was in it's 3rd edition, and one of the missions was called Bunker Assault and you got Victory Points for blowing up bunkers. Only GW was no longer supplying us with cardboard (or any kind of) bunkers. So if we wanted to play the Bunker Assault mission, it was left to us to scratch-build the bloody things (or use a shoe or something)!

The "back". Looks much like the front, right?

Scratch-building scenery can be a lot of fun, and when you create something that any one can look at and recognize it to be the thing you envision, and they tell you "hey, that's a cool bunker you got there" it can be quite satisfying.

Profile, to give you a sense of depth.

 Scratch-building can lead to stock-piling of what "normal" people refer to as "trash", but to us scratch-builders what the lay-person sees as "trash" we can see embryonic form of a complete trench system, or the foundation of an underhive industrial complex, or a lizardman pyramid, etc.



Sometimes however, you don't really have to work that hard to find the perfect thing to make into another thing...







The secret of the Easter Bunker revealed!

I hope you enjoyed that!

Book Review: Brothers of the Snake

So what do you do when you finish reading the latest Eisenhorn saga installment and need more of that Abnett-fix? You could lose yourself in all of the Gaunt's Ghost books, but that feels like it might be work at this point. No, I wanted a short fix, so I turned to the book shelf and found that I had a hardcover copy of Brothers-of-the-Snake  which I recall that I found at a used book store in Louisville KY while on a business trip. So, I flipped it open and started reading, and damn it, like most other Abnett books, I just couldn't put it down.

Understand, that Da Masta Cheef didn't give me a good review on this book, so I was a bit reluctant to dive into it. However, seeing how Abnett treats the Adeptus Astartes in his other books, I was overwhelmingly curious to see how he would handle Space Marines from their perspective. In his other books, regardless of the perspective that Abnett tells the story, the characters, typically humans, all would view the genetically-altered giant super-humans as demigods. Fearsome, powerful, demigods.

And that's how he starts out this book. The world of Baal Solock is in a state of emergency. This rural, extremely low-tech backwater world has a bit of Xenos problem. So they call for help. And they get it. A pod lands and a single Marine arrives. Just one. Without spoiling this for those of you who might not have read this yet, let's just say that this first chapter shows you just what a single Space Marine is capable of doing. It is a fun, well written, and a bad-ass read!

The second and subsequent chapters then illustrate how the Space Marines of the Iron Snakes battle squads function. The focus is on squad Damocles, in particular Brother Sergeant Priad's ascent to squad leader and how he prepares the battle-brothers under his command to be ready for war. The thing that is apparent, quickly apparent, is that the Iron Snakes are not a typical 'Codex' chapter. They are very much patterned to adhere to their customs and take their rituals quite seriously. They have a water ritual that they must perform each time that they land on a new world which becomes almost amusing at one point as they barely wait for the action to stop before making sure that that ritual is completed!

Back in '92 White Dwarf presented a series of articles in the twilight hours of Warhammer 40,000 1st edition on the Space Wolves. Here for the 1st time we were introduced to all of the Space Wolf lore, including short stories by Bill King, character background, Chapter history and lore,  that would later be collected and expanded into the 1st Codex: Space Wolves. These stories showed us the rituals, and ways of the Space Wolves, their beliefs and their customs as well as why their army is formalized in such a unique way. Reading Brothers of the Snake gave me the same thrill that I had the first time that I read those White Dwarf issues! By the time I had finished with this book, I wanted to play this army! So, in contrast and comparison to the Space Wolves, the Iron Snakes have a unique chapter world, a watery death world with giant aquatic Dune-like serpents that Iron Snake prospects test themselves by catching with unique hooking devices and harpoons. Later we see that these serpent hunting harpoons are often taken into war, and used with devastating effect against horde armies. I found it fascinating and engaging.

As this book unfolds, it feels like you're reading a short story omnibus, with each story subtly building on the last one as you are learning more about the members of Damocles Squad and Brother Sergeant Priad. The chapters that take place back at the Iron Snakes chapter base were particularly interesting as you got a sense of their organizational politics and law (don't know if you can tell, but I'm trying really hard not to throw out any spoilers here! LOL). You also get to see some the inner tensions and rivalries that seem to afflict the Iron Snakes. Also, the rituals and trials that new recruits are put through was interesting to as well, again, reminds me of some the Space Wolf writing by Bill King, the novel Space Wolf in particular, however, in contrast due to the Iron Snakes unique ways.

As these chapters roll onward it ultimately builds to a near chapter-wide conflict as the Damocles reserve force tries to extract the Chapter Master and primary assault force from a world overwhelmed and caught in the cross hairs of a massive Ork civil war. It is here that Adnett shows us war on an epic scale, and shows us what demigods of war are truly capable of. Allow me to present an extract of a pause during one of the battles:

The Snakes came to a standstill, gasping and sore, flushing ichor out of their helmets' valves, clearing optic slits of blood and shreds of meat. Slowly, they realised what they had accomplished. Behind them, for a distance of about three acres, the earth was piled six or seven deep with the enemy dead, stinking slopes and mounds of carrion, gurgling as waste and fluid leaked out and turned the ground beneath to a quagmire.

Trust me, it's more epic in context!

Another particular favorite aspect of this book is the introduction of Autolochus, a revered venerable dreadnought. He was awesome, and it reminded me, again, of the 1st time I had read the background on Bjorn Fellhand in the Space Wolf  codex. He also had some wonderful lines and moments:

'When a Librarian dreams,' Autolochus rumbled, 'it pays to listen. If I'd listened to Nector, I wouldn't be four tonnes of scrap metal.'

His influence, and power due to his age and legendary status,  is taken seriously by all at this meeting of chapter leaders who were trying to decide their next course of action in a system wide conflict.

I was quite satisfied with the ending of this book, both glad that it was a self-contained story in one tome, and yet wishing that I wasn't saying bye to these new friends, and desiring to know what happened next in the legend of Priad, Damocles Squad and the Iron Snakes.

So, a return to my review template:

• Did I like it? Yes! I loved it!
• Was it hard to put down? Absolutely. I lost a lot of sleep reading this on the nights that I could find time, tearing through this hungrily.
• Could I care about the characters? Surprisingly, yeah. Abnett is notorious for introducing  a group of characters, describing them and infusing them with character, trappings and sometimes even a bit of idiom, only to have them killed in some manner. Snuffed like colorful candles. My favorite example is his WHF pirate novel Fell Cargo (I loved this book, but man what an insane body count!) and I recall reading his early Gaunt's Ghost stories in Inferno that had named characters dying left and right. So, yeah, you go into any Black Library publication knowing that no one is safe, especially in short stories and one-off novels, but in Abnett's books in particular no one is safe! But that's part of the thrill on this ride, and the risk, as damn him, Adnett can't help but make you like his characters. So, yeah, I cared about some of these characters and shared in their loss when a warrior would fall, because it does happen. 
• Did the writer truly grasp how the 'world' of the 41st millennium works in the sense that it doesn't betray or retcon previously established (as I know it) lore? In this one, yeah. Abnett's kind of got his own sub-universe set in the 40K universe, but it sticks to the established 40K cannon and spirit. If anything, I often feel that he adds and builds to the mythos. Having said that, I only wish my Space Marines were half as awesome on the table-top as they are in his writing!
• Was I being talked down too? No, if anything Abnett is good at making the reader feel comfortable in the 40K universe without dumbing it down. Seriously, there is a short story Space Marine anthology that I have been limping through for a while now that has examples of the type of ways to not tell Space Marine stories. Seriously, I used to like the Salamanders until I tried to read their fiction... 
• How predictable is this story? Not very. The broken apart, short-story compilation feel of the first 2/3s of the book really worked well at presenting the story in a way that you couldn't predict over-all. When it all comes together, I wouldn't call it mind-blowing, but definitely satisfying. I do hope Dan Abnett has another Iron Snakes story to tell us as some point. I would like to see them take the fight to the primuls and finish what the Orks started.
• Do I recommend reading this book? Well, if you made it this far, I think you get that I have a positive vibe about it. Yeah. Especially good as an introduction to people new to the Warhammer 40,000 universe and Space Marines. Although this isn't an army that has it's own rulebook like that Dark Angels or Space Wolves, it is a solid examination of the character of what makes a Space Marine, how the citizens of the Imperium look upon them, and it's a damn fine read. After I finished reading it, I bought a paperback copy for a friend as a birthday present and, well, he devoured it! He loved it, and raved about how it was the best 40K fiction he has read so far (he hasn't read Eisnehorn yet). So, yes, I recommend Brothers of the Snake. Highly.

When Sisters make you HOT!

Last Saturday I ventured down to the local Hobbyhole for some gaming action. My new job has kept me in a worn-out state much of the week, and by the time I get home, I am just too tired to deal with little toy soldiers, never mind writing about them! But before I forget the details, I need to record this battle for prosperity. Or something.

Edwin recently challenged me to a game of WH40K but mostly due to the fact that he has simply never played against me, not that there was any prize to earn for going to war with me or anything. Also, he just acquired a shiny "new" Sisters of battle army and wanted to give it a 2nd test run. His previous run can be viewed here. Edwin has a bit of a reputation for being a power gamer, where I tend to just throw lists together based upon some preconceived notion of balance and background. But I decided to toughen things up a bit and play around with a light "Loganwing" force, which I haven't done since 40K transitioned over to 6th edition.

My force consisted of: Logan Grimnar, 2 Wolfguard packs, each with a heavy flamer, a Long Fang pack (see previous posts for close ups), a Lone Wolf (with Fenrisian Wolf), a Vindicator, and a Grey Hunter pack with Rhino APC. The Grey hunters would be joined by Erik Axegrinder who today will count as a Wolf Guard squad leader. Logan and this Wolf Guard will be deploying via drop pod.

Edwin's Sisters of Battle were fully mechanized and kitted up to flame-bake anything that comes near it.

 The game starts with us selecting the mission Big Guns Never Tire, and the diagonal board set up. My Long Fangs started the game holding an objective. Once again my Warlord Trait was Master of Cities and once again I found myself playing on a City Fight board!



Space Wolf Deployment

Sisters of Battle deployment

Loganwing arrives on Turn 1.

 I tried to take the fight to the Sisters by throwing Logan Grimnar and this Wolfguard at them.
They were able to target the weaker armor of the Exorcist and blew it up immediately! I knew if it had the most potential to ruin my day, so made it a target priority. The unit  soaked up a lot of firepower while the drop pod took out about half of the Battle Sister squad that had jumped out of the rhino to counter-attack the Loganwing.


"Quiet girl, they won't be able to spot us!"

On turn two an Immolator rolled up and, true to it's design, torched the Lone Wolf in his cover, but both he and his Wolf survived the gout of flames...

The Lone Wolf''s retaliation was swift and he blew it up with krak grenades, Unfortunately his furry friend failed to survive the explosion. But it did give the First Blood award to the Space Wolves.

Meanwhile Logan and the lads kill the Dominion squad. but lose another of their number due to overwatch. Note that this will become a theme....;)

The Sisters execute the Lone Wolf. Who dies a glorious death.

...Perhaps paint will improve your saves?

Meanwhile in the not-so-glorious death dept., Logan and the last Wolf Guard charge the Sister's Rhino, only to fail their Overwatch saves! Logan was down to his final wound, and well, they died! We both were shocked, Edwin more so than I, as me being me, there are two fundamental laws in effect: 1.) Special Character always die hard if I use them. 2.) Terminators will fail their saves en mass! And usually when I really need them to not fail!

 Meanwhile, the Sisters advance up the flank, and dispatch Eric and his Grey Hunters with a combination of Seraphin strikes and Shooting from a supporting Sister's squad. My Rune Priest took a wound early in the game due to a Perils of the Warp result.

Prior to this next pic, a lot of stuff happened in my deployment zone.
There was a rhino and an immolator over there that both unloaded squads of Sisters that attempted to flame broil the Long Fangs, They killed three of them, however the Long Fangs charged the squad of Sisters and killed them in close combat, running the screeching witches down as they attempted to flee their grizzled assault. The other squad hopped into the Rhino (the Vindicator having blasted the Immolator apart.). And was moving closer to the Vindicator.

The Rune Priest and Wolf Guard kill the Seraphin, except for two which the Rune Priest deals with himself in the following turn.

The Living Saint, having left her Seraphin behind, destroys the Vindicator.




With my army mostly whittled down, the following rounds would prove strangely grueling for us both.

My favorite moment in the game!

 The Living Saint Charges the Long Fangs only to find herself "killed" by an overwatch  shot of super heated multi melta goodness! There she would remain for 2 more of my rounds before rising from the dead.

 The rhino is destroyed and my Rune Priest charges the Sisters, killing them.

On my Turn 7 I had the Rune Priest send living lighting psychic attacks down the field at the Sister's squad holding an objective while the remaining Long Fangs sent Frag missiles into the same squad. They failed to kill off or break the Sisters who clung greedily to their prize!

Finally on the bottom of Turn 7 (7!) the Living Saint comes to her senses, hops over the wall and contests my objective! That bitch!!! Grrr!

For WAY too many rounds, the Sisters had the drop pod circled and was trying to blow it up with krak grenades, but this proved unsuccessful, my final attempt to kill with with the drop pod missiles scattered horribly, allowing the Sisters to claim the objective...


With Big Guns never tire in effect, our Heavy Support choices could score and count toward the VP tally. We figured it was Sister 8 to Space Wolves 3.

Things I learned about the Sisters:

• For a White Dwarf liste that seemed uninspired and drafted just to get the players by, it was surprisingly resilient. The special Faith Saves really saved their bacon far more than it should've!
• Imperial Guard in power armor aren't bad! Especially with Strength 4 bolters!
• Charging flamers is never a good thing! I started to take a lot of flamers in my armies as I find that they are a good counter-attack against assaults and for those relying on cover saves. The Sisters can maximize flamers better than any army in the game!
• Space Wolves are easily distracted by cleavage. Personally, I think the Lone Wolf surrendered and faked his death...

It was a good game, one that the dice gods definitely decided to randomly foil us. Had the game ended at the bottom of turn 5, the results would have been in my favor, but the resulting two rounds were all the Sisters needed to turn things around to their favor.

I enjoyed the game, and found Edwin to be a decent chap to play against.

Wow! Someone painted those trees finally?!

On another table, Murl was tormenting Da Masta Cheef with his daemonic legions! Read the tale brief here.

Long in the Fang (Part three)

The four Long Fangs completed in this round, ready for war.

This is the final part of this Long Fang series, that is, until I get around to painting more Long Fangs.
This part will feature the model that required the most work, the Squad Leader.

"I feel so dis con nect ed".

For models like this that can prove to be tricky to get to all the areas with a paint brush, I like to leave them in a semi-assembled state. In this model's case I left off the head, backpack, shoulder pads and melta bomb. This allowed me to paint all the areas of the model that might otherwise be difficult to reach if these components were already there.


If Hiveangel played Space Wolves. :)

This was the level I had brought the model up to prior to attaching the head. I used a really dark blue on the "plasma parts" of the plasma pistol, and used Ultramarine Blue as the mid-tone.



Aiming at you!

Leaving the head off allowed me to paint the area of the armor around where it would rest without spending a lot of time touching up the model. Placing the head so that he was kind of looking down his arm and aiming with the plasma pistol gave a lot of character and body language to the model.

Tin Bitz base coat

Tin Bitz was the base coat for what will become the gold sections. Also I have added the Space Wolf Gray highlight and finished the fur apron.

 Shining Gold added.

 Final highlights of white added throughout the model.

Flocked!

 Here is the model completed with all the components added.

Here you can see the highlights on the plasma gun, and the rest of the model. The melta bomb was painted to match the canisters on the multi-meltas that I recently painted as well. I added the decal to the shoulder pads before I glued them to the model. I find them to be a bit easier to work with doing it this way. Both of the decals in this pic are old 1st edition era decals. Of particular interest is the sergeant badge that I put on his left leg greave. I panted the yellow on the leg, and then placed the decal over it so as not to lose any detail that could happen had I attempted to 'color it in'. Due to the age of these decals I had to touch up the areas around the image to cover up the distorted color of the transparency. Apparently these old GW decals are not "acid free", and I suspect the new ones aren't either...


As per the 2nd edition Space Wolf Codex, I placed the Long Fang Squad Leader fanged red skull icon over the pack marking. However, while trying to reposition the decal on the shoulder pad, it tore! I lost most of the top of the skull, and I had to repaint it free-hand. Luckily I was able to get a fairly close color match to the decal.

That's it for now.