1,750 Point Battle

This past Monday, I went down to my local game store, Dice Age Games to attend my regular Monday night game. Monday is their 40k night. Instead of playing my regular 1,000 point Ultramarine list like I have been doing, I decided to combine the Ultramarnes and the Eldar to create a 1,750 list. This was my first time using an allied force and the result was pretty cool! I really like how I can use the strengths of one army to fill in the shortcomings in another. This should increase the variety of army lists we'll see at tournaments and simple friendly games.

The idea came up when my rules-advisor and best friend, Sean Tipper, came to visit me from California. While he was here, he gave me the idea of using my Grey Knights to augment my Ultramarines force. When I throw in an Inquisitor with them, that's a quick way to add 250 points into my army. It also makes me want to finish up that Arbites squad to use as a squad of Inquisitorial henchmen, but that's neither here nor there.

When he showed me the allies table and we learned that the Space Marines and Eldar can fight together, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for army lists. In the short term, it means I can play larger games quicker by combining forces. Check out the pictures below to see both armies fighting together for once!

The battle lines are drawn

Ultramarines and Eldar, ready to fight!

Guardians holding the objective (red crystal)

Captain Sicarius joins up with 1st squad

In gaming news, all the rumors around here point to Eldar being the next army to get updated, with Space Marines coming in shortly after that. With the promise of new rules and new models on the horizon, I won't be working on any Space Marines or Eldar after I finish the Guardian squad I'm currently working on. While I wait for the new armies to come out, I'm going to work on my Grey Knights, Inquisitor, and Arbites to use as my allied force. Since I'm using them out of the Grey Knights codex (which isn't changing any time soon) and they're allies of convenience for both the Eldar and the Space Marines, I can work on them with no threat of their rules changing or new models coming out. Keep checking back to see how the new Grey Knighs come out and what cool conversions I do when working on the Arbites!

Back to Work

After my long hiatus from both the blog and the hobby altogether, I'm finally ready to continue my hobby progress. I returned from my second deployment to Afghanistan (this time only for 9 months), then spent time working to get out of the Army. Now finally free of my military obligation and living happily in my new home, I took all the money I saved up and went down to my local gaming store.

Next up on the workbench is a second squad of Eldar Guardians. I wanted to paint something familiar before diving into something more difficult like the Harlequins. I just made it home with my bags of loot today and will be posting some painting progress here in the next week or so. For now though, I'll show you all I needed to pick up in order to get started again. Take a look!

I'm pretty interested to try out these new colors that Games Workshop came out with. At the same time, I'm a little afraid. They're not the exact colors I'm used to and I'm afraid that some of the colors will be noticeably different. I followed GW's color conversion chart as closely as I could so I guess we'll all see the results together.

I'll post up some hobby progress here in the next week or so. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

Also, check out my new Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/The40kHobbiest

Second Dire Avenger Squad Complete

I'm cutting a bit close to the wire here, but I've managed to finish my second Dire Avenger squad just in time. This, unfortunately, will be the last squad I work on for quite a while. To see the full squad, check out the Eldar page!

Right here, though, you can see a comparison of the two Dire Avenger squads side by side.

The different plume colors allow me to tell the squads apart on the battlefield.

Different squad banners

Exarch Finished

The race is on. As my deployment date creeps closer, so too does the end of my current painting project. In order to get the models finished on time, I've had to abandon my goal of writing a tutorial for it. I've taken enough pictures so far that if I have a few days worth of free time between finishing the squad and getting on the plane, I can still write an armor tutorial for everyone.

As for the Dire Avengers themselves, I've gotten a lot done.  The Exarch is completely finished! As you know, I've painted these models exactly the same as my other squad. The only difference separating the squads is the color of the helmet plumes. Take a look and see for yourself!

I love how that plume turned out!

I'm a huge fan of how his helmet plume turned out. I think it'll look fantastic when the whole squad is done. Also, the helmet plumes should be different enough that I can tell the two Dire Avenger squads apart on the battlefield.

As far as the progress on the rest of the squad goes, I'm almost done with them, too. Really all I have left is some detailing on the guns and their helmets. It shouldn't take me too terribly long. I just hope that my work schedule allows me to finish them before they ship me off. For now, take a look at my current progress.

I would like to say that I've noticed a small difference in the color of their armor versus the armor of my other Dire Avengers. The colors for their armor is Regal Blue, Ultramarines Blue, and a 50/50 mix of Ultramarines Blue and Ice Blue. I use them in that order, so that mix is my brightest highlight. I must have mixed this batch differently than when I painted the last squad of Dire Avengers because the armor is slightly different. It's barely even noticable, but it made me realize that if you're going to mix colors, make sure you mix enough for the entire project.

I hope this doesn't end up being my last post for a while. With any luck, I'll be posting again with the finished squad and maybe even a short tutorial for you guys. And with that, I leave you with some reference pictures from the other Dire Avenger squad so you can see the difference for yourself. Take care!

You can see how the armor colors are slightly different.

Finishing Up the Avengers

As I know I've mentioned before in several of my posts, I'm in the Army. Unfortunately, being in the Army comes at the cost of deploying for a length of time. For me, deployment is right around the corner. I'm not allowed to say specifically when I'll be leaving, but suffice to say that this will probably be my last blog post for a while. At the very least, I'll be gone less than a year and I'm planning on getting out of the Army after this deployment and getting a job that will allow me to devote more time into the hobby (and the blog). I'll talk about that more as it happens.

As for right now, I'm working quite hard trying to get my current project finished. I most recent Ultramarines project got my army up to 1,000 points. Now I'm working on doing the same for the Eldar. I'm currently working on my second squad of Dire Avengers. They're going to be exactly the same as my other squad of Dire Avengers with only two exceptions. First, the Exarch will have different wargear. As per my army list, I'm going to be taking a pistol and a power sword in this one, as well as the Defend power. Also, and more importantly, I'm going to paint them exactly the same as the last squad, but change the colors in their helmet plumes. This will help them stand out on the battlefield, especially when I get them into close combat. Instead of doing yellow and black like the last squad, the helmet plumes of this squad will be green and black. Not only will this help them stand out from the other unit, it'll also help them link back to the rest of the army. I try to do little things like that as much as I can since their armor is a different color from the rest of the army.

I'm about halfway done with them right now. So far, this is how they look:

Their waist and everything below it (except for the base) is completely done. I'll be cleaning up the torso next and finishing that completely. After that, its just the arms, heads, and bases and then I'm done. I really hope I can get this squad finished before I deploy. If I can, I'll be posting it here. If not, you'll see 'em after deployment, I guess.

Lastly, I'm still taking pictures and working on the Dire Avengers tutorial. Even if I don't get this project finished before I go, I'm still going to try and post something in the How To section. Until then, have fun painting! I'll try and post again soon!

Painting Contests

Ever since I started painting my Ultramarines back in mid 2008, I had always been a pretty seclusive hobbiest. Being that I'm such a slow painter, I had always spent most of my time painting instead of playing. It was only recently that I had enough models to start playing regularly. On March 25th, however, my local Games Workshop was celebrating the 25th anniversary of Warhammer 40,000 and was running several events that weekend. Two of those events were painting contests. Naturally, I entered them both.

The first contest was on Saturday night and was done in-store. Everyone was to bring a fully assembled and primed model to paint in store. We had two hours to complete the event. Given that I usually take upwards of a week to complete a single model, this would be a problem for me. I brought an Ork Nob from the Assault on Black Reach set because it had a nice amount of detail but should still paint up fairly quickly.

I had some problems during the contest because I just wasn't used to painting that quickly. Also, I used half the time painting just his skin. When the store manager called for us to put our brushes down, I clearly wasn't finished. I set him down in the judging area anyway and this is how he looked:

The pin was my prize for winning

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how the model turned out. Judging was done by everyone in the store, so the manager gave everyone in the store an opportunity to vote on what models they liked the best I ended up taking first place in that competition, along with a Necron player from the Youngblood category.

As for the second contest, we were to submit a model that we had completely finished. No painting in store, no rushing to finish. Just submit a model that was already done. The only stipulation is that the model had to be a space marine. Naturally, I was pretty confident on my ability to do well in this competition. I ended up going with my Captain. In this contest, the judging would be done by the store manager. I ended up taking first place in this contest as well, though a lone space marine scout gave me quite a run for my money.

My contest entry

This awesome scout made me worry. I though he was gonna win.

That's some pretty awesome camo on that cloak.

My trophy for winning!

After winning two contests in a row, I don't think I'm going to enter the next one that rolls around. I don't want to discourage other painters from even trying. I don't want to be that guy. Instead, next time there's a competition, I'm going to offer to make the trophies for it. I think that would be neat.

Through all the competitions, I still haven't forgotten about my promise to make the Eldar armor tutorial. It's coming along quite nicely and should be ready to be posted in a few weeks. Keep checking back! The tutorial should be posted before too long!

Battle Report: Ultramarines vs. Orks

Yesterday, I headed down to my local Games Workshop and played a game with Tom, who I met that day. We played 1,000 points because that's all I had finished. You can see my list on the Ultramarines page. I don't remember exactly what he brought because I'm not all that familiar with Orks, but I do remember Snikrot, a Warboss, a squad of Nobz, and a bunch of Kommandos.

I let Tom thumb through my copy of the Battle Missions book and he found the All-Round Defense mission, which neither of us had ever played before. I deployed in the center of the map and he infiltrated two units into the ruins on either side of me.

Ultramarines deployed

Orks push in through the perimeter

 Tom and his Orks went first. He moved his two squads through the ruins and sacrificed his shooting to run them a bit closer.. On my turn, I opened up on them with everything I had in an attempt to keep them outside my perimeter. The Orks stayed their ground, leapt into my perimeter, and assaulted me on Turn 2.

Kill them before they get too close!

This is where my sergeant dies. . .

First Squad lost combat by losing 4 models, one of which was the squad's sergeant. They passed their leadership test and stayed their ground. The rest of the Ultramarines responded by shooting at the other squad and bringing it down to just two kommandos remaining. They also passed their leadership test and stayed in the fight.

First Squad runs!

By now, Tom has brought in the rest of his army from reserves. The Orks assault Second Squad with kommandos in their turn and end up running. In response, I decided to shoot my entire army at the newly arrived Nobz unit. Miraculously, they didn't die. They were, however, under strength and running away.

Warboss leading the Nobz

Turn 4 ended up being the final turn due to time constraints on both sides. In a last-ditch effort, the Warboss and his boyz failed to finish off first squad and the game ended in an Astartes victory. If I had it to do over, I would have definitely made some different decisions because I'm not so sure I would have survived six full turns. Good game, Tom!