Long overdue hobby updates

Hello everyone. I have been off the radar for almost 2 years now it appears from the date of my last post. Many a reason for this. Exams, new baby, new job, working on the house and garden, COVID etc etc. the blog(s) just fell by the wayside sadly. Hobby output is less now than previously but I’m still plodding on through the endless backlog. Sadly not gaming at present due to COVID (my last game was 8th edition). Still, today I am sitting down for a few hours and updating some things on both sites, as well as clearing out the spam comments. Hopefully this will be a more regular thing from now on but as my hobby output is less, there'll be less to share.

Previously I have let my love of loyalist marines dominate my hobby time, but am branching out now into other armies. The past 2 years I have expanded several fledgling armies into full blown complete collections, most notably imperial knights, death guard, genestealer cults and adeptus sororitas. These are collections that are fully assembled and basecoated. With a couple of hitches that is. I stupidly (after several weeks of hard labour) took a load of sisters and death guard outside to spray them on an unusually warm day. Long story short - the spray finish was rough rather than smooth on leaving me rather annoyed that I'd tripped at the final hurdle. I still need to strip a load of them.

For loyalists, I've made a good start to my sisters (another separate post on them coming up in a while) with a fair few fully painted. Several of my custom knight household are painted as things stand. The admech have been updated with all their bases done and 'most' models basecoated, though I am slowly ploughing through airbrushing chrome onto the vehicles. I have a small cadian (necromundan) infantry army which I have developed a speed painting technique for as seen below. I also have a leman russ tank division but am struggling to find a colour I like for them. Once I've decided I can blast through spraying them fairly quickly. 

Moving onto chaos now, I've done nothing in terms of daemons (except a copy of wrath n rapture gathering dust) but have collected a fair few chaos marines for an upcoming black legion project. I assembled an alpha legion force (Test models seen below) and also the aforementioned death guard - my only  army painted using contrast. (Note the skaven cultists)

 

 Lastly the xenos. No action for orks or tau, though I did paint up a fair few nids for a game at whw pre-COVID. I've recently started to put the finishing touches to my Alaitoc army incorporating some corsairs as swooping hawks and rebasing most of the army. I'm now starting to move on to updating my necrons with the new releases. Fingers crossed I will post up about my sisters soon as i'm particularly proud of them. Cheers. 

 

 

Codex: Khorne Daemonkin review

Well well well, here's a nice surprise. I've lost track of how many comments I've read over the years from people yearning for a mono-God book and now finally it's here. Although I don't plan on moving onto chaos worshipping until next year I couldn't help but pick up the book just to get a feel for what they're doing with things. I'll go over things in some detail but seeing as there are few new units included in the book I won't dwell on them too much and will instead focus on the other aspects to the book.

The Overall look of the book is the same high standard we are now used to. The pages are replete with colour artwork both old and new and detail the Daemonkin hosts of Khorne while giving us the usual timeline and force disposition pages. I found the new fluff on Khornes 8 hosts and how each type of Bloodthirster comes from a specific one particularly interesting. What's also nice (and a throwback to the codexes of old) is a section giving a one-page description and artwork of each unit (the Heldrake is oddly missing). A few pages focus on the markings and colour schemes of the hosts before we are treated to the colour gallery (with a few 'eavy metal spotlights) and then on to the datasheets and rules.

As the title suggests, this book is dedicated to all things Khorne, namely various CSM units and the Khorne Daemons from their respective books, plus a few new entries (Bloodthirsters) and notable absences (Kharn, Karanak, Skarbrand, Oblit/muties). Skarbrand I can understand as he has no model but the muties/oblits are odd as they have the MoK option in the CSM book and both Kharn and Karanak are so quintessentially Khorne that their absence is baffling. Both the predator and vindicator are also absent, as are havocs and chosen. The mark and daemon of Khorne rules are the same as their parent codexes which provides nice continuity and from what I can see most point costs are also uniform in that, for example, a Chaos Marine costs the same as in the CSM book plus the cost of MoK. Difference is that the following rules replace the rules found in the parent Codex. Skulls for the skull throne is effectively the same chaos champion rule regarding challenges. Blood for the Blood God is the real big difference here though and allows you to generate Blood tithe points for each unit you destroy or is destroyed with the BftBG rule, plus the same for characters in challenges. You tally these points to a max of 8 then expend them by picking one reward off the following table - the points are then zeroed and we begin again.

1 - Infernal contempt - all BftBG units have admantium will this turn.

2 - Insatiable bloodlust - all BftBG units have furious charge and rage this turn.

3 - Unstoppable ferocity - all BftBG units have FnP this turn.

4 - Apocalyptic fury - all BftBG units have +1 attacks this turn.

5 - Daemontide - 8 Bloodletters/5 fleshounds are summoned within 12" of a BftBG unit.

6 - Harbingers of blood and brass - 3 bloodcrushers/skullcannon are summoned within 12" of a BftBG unit.

7 - Dark apotheosis - a non-daemon BftBG character must take a Ld test - if failed, a spawn is summoned in 6", if passed a daemon Prince with daemonic flight and warp-forged armour is instead. The character is removed but slay the warlord is not awarded and a warlord trait / relic is retained.

8 - Fury unbound - as for 7 but a Bloodthirster of unfettered fury is summoned instead.

Before I go any further just a note to say that both the warp storm table and daemonic instability are gone from this codex. Not only that, but the chaos boon table is gone also. This removes some flavour but also is adequately replaced by the above table to provide the player with bonuses and ways for psychic-hating Khorne to summon in reinforcements. For the most part the armoury is a streamlined amalgam of the two books with new relics and an absence of chaos rewards. A collar of Khorne can be taken as can ichor blood. The axe of khorne, normally reserved for bloodthirsters, is a welcome addition to the melee weapons section, granting ap2 at initiative and instant death on a 6 to wound. Chaos Lords seem to have the least restricted access to wargear on the list. Unless specifically mentioned assume all the units below have the Blood for the Blood God rule and either mark of Khorne or Daemon of Khorne.  

Let's take a look at the HQ choices as there are plenty. The Chaos Lord, Daemon Prince, Herald, Blood Throne, Skulltaker and all 3 Bloodthristers are in there. Things to note include the lack of rewards for the Herald and the FOC changes in that he takes up a single slot and doesn't need to upgrade to a Blood throne any more - it's a separate entry. Also, though loci are still in the daemonic gifts are gone though the relics compensate for this. The Bloodthirster of unfettered fury is verbatim the regular Bloodthirster we know and love. The Slightly more costly BT of insensate rage is the chap with the D strength AP2 mega-axe (piles in and fights at I1) who also has the rage USR. Lastly, the slightly more expensive Wrath of Khan, I mean Khorne, BT has Admantium will, hatred (characters) a bloodflail and hellfire as well as an axe of Khorne. These provide a 12" s7 Ap2 assault 3 and a S5 ap4 soul blaze template respectively.

Troops consist of cultists, Chaos Space Marines, Beserkers and Bloodletters, though note that the starting size of all these units is 8 (upgradable to standard maximums) and that the Bloodreaper can't take rewards as per the Herald. A small elites section only contains Terminators, possessed and Bloodcrushers, again oddly lacking chosen who are, after all, the chosen of the Chaos Gods after all. Fast attack is pretty crowded with rhinos, Heldrakes, Bikers, Raptors, Warp Talons, Flesh hounds and spawn. Heavy support contains Land raiders (also a DT for terminators), Forgefiends, Maulerfiends, Defilers, Soulgrinders, Helbrutes and Skull cannons. Finally, we couldn't go without mentioning the big guy. Indeedy, the Lord of Skulls is in there as a Lord of War.

Now we've looked at the FOC it's time to look at another new feature first introduced to us in the Necron codex. Rather than a simple detachment with an alternative FOC this book packs a Blood Host detachment, which works in much the same way as a Necron decurion. The core element is a Slaughtercult (covered momentarily) for which each entitles you to a Lord of Slaughter - either one of the 3 Bloodthirsters or a Lord of Skulls. You can then choose 1-8 formations (again, detailed below) per Slaughtercult. One of these 5 isn't actually a formation and is a war engine, entitling you to a Helbrute, Defiler, Soulgrinder, Forgefiend, Maulerfiend or Lord of Skulls. While I think these new style detachments have their place, I'm not so sure this one works very well due to the limited units available and the points costs involved. The perks (as well as the individual formation perks) are that you get to reroll warlord traits and you get a bonus blood tithe point at the start of each turn.

The Slaughtercult is your core detachment and is effectively one HQ chosen from all the options except the BTs, 2-8 troops (except cultists), 1-4 possessed (sales pitch? at least tomb blades were good!), 0-2 cultists and 0-2 spawn. This actually has some good perks in that as well as the Warlord reroll you also get to auto-remove cultists who fail morale checks to bolster that blood tithe and you can choose a second reward on the Blood tithe table as long as it has a lower value that the first to a maximum of 3. I can see this being particularly useful to really milk all you can from that tithe table.

The Brazen onslaught is 1-4 Terminators and 2-4 Bloodcrushers, who benefit from +1A if outnumbered in combat. Khorne's bloodstorm is 2-4 Raptors, 1-4 Warp Talons and 0-1 Heldrakes, allowing +1S to any hammer of wrath or vector strikes they make - nice! The Gorepack is 2-4 bikers and 1-4 Flesh hounds, who gain move through cover, preferred enemy (psykers) and the Fleshounds gain HoW, while the bikers HoW attacks gain shred. Lastly, the charnel cohort is a Daemon-exclusive formation granting counter-attack, rerolls to warlord trait, -2 to fear tests and the ability to reroll deep strike for the HQ and use him to stop other units in 6" from this formation scattering. Overall they're pretty nice if you happen to have the right quantity of models to arrange in this specific way.

Warlord Traits:

1 - Icon of War - reroll failed charge rolls for warlord and all BftBG units in 12" - nice!

2 - Disciple of Khorne - Warlord has zealot.

3 - Arch-slaughterer - Warlord has +1A.

4 - Favoured of Khorne (Skulltaker) - Warlord generates one extra blood tithe point if wins a challenge.

5 - Butcher King - Warlord has preferred enemy.

6 - Destined for Glory - automatically passes LD rolls on results 7/8 on the blood tithe table.

Tactical objectives

11 - Khorne cares not - 1vp if a unit, friend or foe, was destroyed. 3-5 = D3, 6+ = D3+3.

12 - Altar of gore - 1 Vp if an enemy that was controlling an objective is destroyed (D3 if you now control)

13 - Blood and skulls for Khorne - 1VP if an enemy character killed during a challenge (D3 if an IC).

14 - Unfettered butchery - 1 VP if an enemy unit killed during assault phase.

15 - Murder-call - 1VP if a daemon unit summoned or deep struck.

16 - Blood God's scorn - 1VP if 1+ enemy units falling back or if a psyker destroyed.

Artefacts of Slaughter

Goredrinker - S+1, AP2, unwieldy. Blood feast rule means it gets stronger the more it kills. 1-2 wounds = +1 strength, 3-4 =rampage, 5-7 = double strength, 8+ = instant death.

Blood-forged armour - 3+ armour save, eternal warrior and FnP.

Brazen rune - Admantium will and once per game can cause any psyker in 24" to perils on any double, though the bearer loses admantium will after.

Blade of endless bloodshed - AP3 - generates an additional blood tithe point if caused any casualties in melee.

Skull helm of Khorne - bearer has fear and also gains additional attacks for every 6 he rolls to hit in melee.

Kor'Lath, the axe of ruin - AP2 specialist weapon with deapitating blow (instant death on to wound roll of 6) and caged fury, which means a Bloodthirster of unfettered fury will be summoned in 6" if the bearer dies! It suffers D3 wounds per turn (++ saves allowed) however.

In conclusion this is a pretty good release that has done well to piggy-back onto the Bloodthirster release and also helps to make playing a mono-God Chaos list a lot easier through needing only one book, working synergistically within a God-specific ruleset and also eliminating more complicated rules like the warp storm and boon tables. I think enthusiasts may feel that it fell short of the mark (pun intended) with Kharn being left out and therefore even if allied in being unable to add to the BftBG tally. However, that aside let's hope that this book is the first of the four to be released and not a one-off.

Doomwing painting WIP, Cannon of Khorne assembled and Eldar exodites

Hi all,

A few quick updates. The Doomwing has its first coat of paint on now - I'm going with classic colours which, once shaded and highlighted properly will look a bit less 90s. I've also finished the cannon of khorne in a fairly significant deviation from the classic design - I basically made the whole top of the cannon into a Khorne-style daemonic face. Lastly, the Eldar Exodites have finally been sprayed (the rain let up for a while) and I've tried a few colours out on the Autarch. Cheers.

Tzeentch Doomwing scratchbuild complete (plus a bad-un)

Greetings folks.

My hobby room is officially a mess at the moment between painting projects taking up one surface and scratchbuilding daemon engines another. The good news is that the first of the scratchbuilds is complete. I give you the Tzeentch Doomwing:

Now, I appreciate that this modern take on the classic epic vehicle may not be to everyones tastes, but I'm very pleased with how she turned out. If you hadn't already guessed, the Doomwing will be a counts-as Heldrake as they basically pack the same weapon (and the bladed wings will be great for vector striking) This is what the original looked like for comparison:

My take on things is a bit wider but not as bulky, with the piping simplified and the bird-skull head both extended and melded more into the bodywork of the fighter. Also, I've done away with the cockpit - tis a daemon engine after all.

Materials:

Nivea deodorant lid
Glade wall spray casing
10mm ribbed tubing
7mm thick plasticard (4xA4) 
DAS modelling clay
sprue offcuts
Tzeentch banner top (CSM)
necron deathmark rifle and tesla carbine (immortals kit)
guitar wire
2 brass plumbing olives
sculpting tools
hobby knife
greenstuff
superglue
plastic glue
pencil compass and scissors

Now, that looks like an extensive list but considering many items on the list were items I already had it actually doesn't amount to that much money. The plastics I had spare anyway, the deodorant and glade spray are still usable items, the guitar wire and clay have numerous other hobby applications and the tubing/olives cost next to nothing. I estimate that the model cost no more than £10 (probably significantly less) to build and only lacks it's own flying base at present. Not too shabby.

Building:

So, first thing was to make some templates for the wings, which are actually multi-tiered and 7 sheets thick in total. The templates were reversible to make both wings. I cut slots for the wings into the  glade shell and also used some bits of sprue to rest the wings on, angling them down slightly. Before gluing the shell together I cut a slot for the flying base too. Once the shell was glued together with the wings in place, I stuck a length of sprue into the front end to reinforce where the head would go. and also a bit of plasticard to the underside to cover some holes in the shell. I cut the deodorant lid in half and stuck one half on each side of the wings for fuel pods. Now is also a good time to use green-stuff to cover all the tiered details on the wings and cover any gaps between the pods and wings.

When it came to sculpting the head, I did this in two stages: first one to bulk out the sprue and second to add the top layer. In retrospect, I would do it all in one go as the clay did not adhere well to itself and thus, despite longer drying times, I'd do it all in one go. I made sure there were sinuous strands attaching the bird-skull head to the body, reflecting the merger of organic and machine. before the clay dried I added in some guitar-wire tubes to the nostrils and behind the eye attaching to the body to aid with the techno-organic details. Same for the Tzeentch icon, which had the drapes cut off and reversed to make it look as it they were flapping backwards.

The tubing was quite tricky to get right. I kept the length as more than enough for what I wanted for now, and started with it in front of one of the fuel pods. I superglued it in place (there was a gap where the lumen-end joined the wing due to the tension but don't worry for now) over the fuel pod and held it in place til it was dry. I then contorted it around the back and under the wing, following the contour of the shell, again gluing and holding as I went. The tubing was actually very good at hiding any joins in the parts. I then did a loop with the tube at the front and retraced the tubing along the other side until I was in front of the other fuel pod. It was then a case of cutting the tube to length.(make sure you cut too long if anything as you can always retrim it but it'll be hard to extend if you cut too short)

Finishing touches were to glue 2 olives to the rear as engine exhausts and to construct a gun from necron parts, which I had several of spare and seemed to fit the bill. (anything goes though) Lastly just add in greestuff where needed, such as the join between gun/piping and piping/wing. And there we have it, one Doomwing. Again, very pleased with the result and hope to get painting ASAP - I also have enough parts to build two more should I feel adventurous - I hate triple Heldrake lists but then the originals did come in threes. Some comparison shots with a Heldrake below and also a custom Abaddon I made using parts from both Abaddon and the chaos terminator lord kit. 

Cheers

 

Dark Mechanicus and Daemon engine scratchbuilding

Greetings folks,

Thought I would update with a few pictures of what has been occupying my hobby time recently. The aforementioned daemon engine project is underway, the idea being to have God-specific daemon engines to support the rest of my chaos army. Now a lot of these guys are scratchbuilds in the early stages and so bear with me. Several of them are on hold awaiting some cheap parts from China also and so won't be ready to spray anytime soon. First up are the Khorne Daemon engines:

Brass scorpion:
Just awaiting a second coat of spray when it stops raining here, this chap was mostly built from a defiler.

Deathdealer:
Inspired by the Lord of skulls (who is more of a hybrid deathdealer/lord of battles) I decided to build a deathdealer counting as a defiler, so no transport capcity but the chap on the front can fight as a walker. The base is a 99p tank which is about the same length as a landraider I've sculpted a skull and horns onto the sides in a homage to the original and added some armour plates. I then used the lid off a resin bits tub to mount the turret on (handily 8-sided, very chaos) and used the spare torso from the defiler as the turret part (plus some more clay). To spruce up the rear I added some styrene exhaust pipes and a ram. For the front I added an old blood slaughterer model with chaos titan arms and the (very phallic) heldrake hades autocannon. He is therefore represented as a defiler with standard armament + power scourge. I need to add more details to him but I'm reasonably happy with how he turned out. Blood slaughterer is pretty small but aside from adding say a dreadnought torso there wasn't much else to use.

Cannon of Khorne:
Now this one is a bit random as it's essentially a sweet jar! It's supposed to be a counts as daemonically possessed vindicator and only has the chassis built so far. I'm hoping to sculpt some khorne details on but the real issue is the wheels - i need to find 6 (or 3 half) wheels for it before I can take it any further really.

Tzeentch Doomwing:
This has potential to be really cool when finished and is just waiting for some ribbed tubing to arrive for the piping that runs around the body before I can take it any further. I made some paper templates for the wings and then used them to make plasticard copies. Each wing is 7 tiers and gives the impression of 3 dimensions in the same way the original did. The body is a glade aerosol holder and the two bulges to the side are a roll on deodorant lid. I used a bit of embedded plastic sprue and modelling clay to make the basis of the bird-skull head, which I will sculpt when the ribbed tubing can be embedded in it. Overall very pleased and can't wait to finish it.

Dark Mechanicus:
Finally, some bizarre conversions I've been building from spare parts and materials to be counts as chaos marines and cultists.

I also took the plunge and bought a dodgy chinese knock-off decimator of the internet so (assuming it arrives) we'll see how that turns out. Ciao for now.