Off to TSHFT!

Got the whole thing more or less ready to head off to Bellevue in search of Victory and Glory. My actual camera is already packed up, so it's just a cellphone pic, but I think the overall effect comes through. Some of the stuff in the back isn't actually in the list, it's just there to summon with the Blood Tithe and/or the Axe of Ruin.

Y'all have a good one, and hopefully I will remember to take pics and get at least a rough after-action report up.

Warp Shield Generator Complete!

Well, it wants some more touchup, but given how much else I have to work on, I'm calling it good for now. As I mentioned, it's not just for my DaemonKin, but for all my Chaos Armies, so I did one side for each God. Here are Nurgle and Khorne, and below are Slaanesh and Tzeentch:

The camera didn't do a great job of capturing the transitions, and it seems to make stuff a bit bluer. Looks better in person.

My secret weapon is this huge house-painting brush. I've used a couple of different ones over the years, because I use them a lot for drybrushing Terrain that's got sand on and stuff, and that really wrecks 'em. Eh, they're like $2 at the hardware store. This one's 1 1/2", because they were out of the 1" with the bristles that I like when I went in the other day, but it still works pretty well. Most of the WiP stuff you can see here with it was done using just it for most of what's been done so far.

I finally got my list nailed down, less than 60 hours before dice drop. Had a bit of a panic when I went to double-check it, because I'd made two math errors in the original. In one, I carried an extra hundred, and in the other, I forgot to carry a hundred. In my first check, I only found the second error, panicked, stripped out a bunch of Hounds, added it all up again from scratch, and found myself at 1748. Doh. Did it all again from the start, found the other error, and got the final form:

195/195 - Lord, Juggernaut, Gorethirster, Power Sword, 4++, Meltabombs
155/350 - Lord, Bike, Axe of Ruin
160/510 - 2x8 Bloodletters
064/574 - 2x1 Chaos Spawn
390/964 - 3 MaulerFiends
100/1064 - Void Shield Generator, 2 extra Shields

170/1234 - Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, 4++
050/1284 - 10 Culties

111/1395 - 3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs
101/1496 - 3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Meltabombs
160/1656 - 2x5 Flesh Hounds
192/1848 - 12 Flesh Hounds

I did drop one Hound to put some Meltabombs back in, because I started thinking about having to deal with something like a Hellforged Hunting Pack, and I basically just had the MaulerFiends there. Think it's pretty well rounded now, at least as far as DK go. It's a fun list to play. Insanely fast, and whatever does make it across the field hits like a ton of bricks.

Prime Time

All cleaned up and spackled and Chaosified. I took it out on the balcony and sprayed it before posting this, and was very relieved to see that I had, in fact, been thorough enough in sealing it. Should have pics with at least some drybrushing to make the details visible tomorrow or Wednesday.

Warp Shield Generator: Scale Check

Doing a bit of a check on size now that I've got the thing roughly hacked to shape. I'm using a Knight as comparison because in part I'm working from this pic:

Mine's a bit bulkier, and it's a complete LoS blocker, but otherwise I think I've got it about right. The LoS bit shouldn't be an issue, because if I'm hiding anything behind it, it's going to be stuff like Culties or Flesh Hounds, that wouldn't come up to the point where the difference really starts.

I carved some stonework patterns in it, and gave most of it a coat of Mod Podge (Thanks for the rec, Thor!). Tomorrow, when that's dry, there are a few bits I'm going to patch up with spackle, and get Mod Podge on the rest. Then probably one more thinned down coat, just to make sure I've gotten all the cracks and crevices sealed, glue some Chaos icons on it (Mon-Tues), spray it black (Weds), and get it all drybrushed on Thursday so it's ready to head over to Bellevue for TSHFT when I take off Friday afternoon.

The Road to TSHFT

These are the last few plastic Models I need to paint (plus an old-ass Ordo Malleus Inquisitor who I've been meaning to prime for ages, and it seemed amusing to include him with this lot) for my TSHFT list for next weekend. I also still need to build and paint my "Void Shield Generator", but that's going to be pretty easy. I'm just doing a big monolith-type thing with chaos symbols all over it that roughly fits the footprint and silhouette of a VSG. Most of the time needed for that is just going to be waiting for sealant and primer to dry. Should be doable over the next 8 days, given that I don't have much else putting demands on me in that time.

I've been kicking around and trying out a bunch of variations on the list since the Elvensword Ambassador Tournament (I never did get around to doing up a write-up. I ended up taking 5th in my bracket, narrowly losing two games to the clock (one of them, I literally only needed another 45 seconds), and roflstomping my other two opponents). I've finally decided on this:

Daemonkin CAD
190/190  -  Lord, Juggernaut, Gorethirster, Power Sword, 4++ (Warlord)
155/345  -  Lord, Bike, Axe of Ruin
160/505  -  2x8 Bloodletters
064/569  -  2x1 Chaos Spawn
390/959  -  3 MaulerFiends
125/1084  -  Void Shield Generator, 2 extra Shields


CSM Allied Detachment
170/1254  -  Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, 4++
050/1304  -  10 Culties

GorePack
111/1415  -  3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs
096/1511  -  3 Bikers, 2xMelta
160/1671  -  2x5 Flesh Hounds
176/1847  -  11 Flesh Hounds

My Warlord goes with the big Unit of Flesh Hounds, the CSM Lord goes with the smaller one (As long as he's part of a DK Unit, his Unit kills count toward the Blood Tithe, tho he doesn't generate the extra points for kills in Challenges or his own death), the Biker Lord goes with the Bikers without the Champion gear.

The Void Shields should help a lot to mitigate some of the issues I've had with Alpha Strikes, while cutting the Spawn down to just solo Objective Grabbers and ditching the DK Culties and Possessed cuts down the model count and the number of extra steps dealing with random Attacks, random abilities, and extra Initiative steps, so that should save me some time. I also dropped the Helldrake, because it's really only proved great in one Game out of my last 10 with it. The limited fire arc makes it really awkward to use, and a couple of times it's ended up stuck in Reserves until Turn 4, which sucks.

I'm not in good enough practice to win the thing, but fast Assault MSU gives a lot of common Armies trouble, and there's a surprising amount of durability here, so I'm hoping to be able to go 4-2 for the weekend.

merr chrismas

Sorry for the lack of posting around here. Autumn probably wasn't the best time for me to try to start up this blog, the holidays always see things fall by the wayside. Next week, I'm going to get the Christmas decorations packed away, and then I'll have my full table available for the first time since July to set up a bunch of photoshoots of the stuff I've been working on over the last couple of months. Not much completed yet, but some WiP stuff that I'm pretty excited about, both Terrain and Units.

Y'all have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and a happy Friday for those who don't!

Escalation Again

I dropped out of the Escalation League at the store, because November just got away from me on a number of levels (including blogging :P), and the way it was organized, players who were ahead had no incentive to accept challenges from players below them, meaning it ended up really static.

But now one of my regular Opponents has three co-workers who are interested in getting into the game, and with some help from a ridiculously good bargain on craigslist, we're helping them get started. We've got a simplified version of Planetary Empires set up, starting with them playing Kill Team or 500 Point Games against one of the more experienced players, and then after a couple of Games, they'll be in range to start going after each other or moving up in Points value, depending on whether they work along the edge or in toward the center.

I doubt they'll all stick around, but one of them has started making terrain already, and even one more player in the local pool would be pretty nice. Plus, I get a few games in with models that I don't usually use, since we've decided to handicap ourselves a bit in games against the newbies, so I'm going to get to do things like run CSM lists that actually involve Chaos Space Marines themselves instead of just Culties, Characters, Helldrakes, and MaulerFiends.