Airbrushing my Phoenix/Vendetta

So I got an airbrush about a year ago or so and have only been using it to paint large areas very quickly.  I wanted to finally start using it to its fullest potential and what better what to do that, than to work on my Phoenix. 

  This has been a blast doing, and while I did make a few mistakes.  It's still waay better than the stuff I normally crank out. I've learned that I do need to invest in a smaller nozzle for my airbrush.  Even using the smallest one I have, there were times when I wished I could have had a smaller spray.  

  Gonna have to order a proper flying base from Games-Workshop.  For the time being I'm using a makeshift base that I carved out of hard foam just so it would support the stick to make him the correct height.  

League Results, Imperial Guard, and a Massive Photo Dump

Things have been busy as hell as of late with work so I've not posted in weeks, so rather than giving each subject it's own posting I'm just gonna lay it all out in one go.

LEAGUE

  I ended the league 1-4-1 which is a win and a tie better than I expected to do.  It's been so long since I played those game, it wouldn't be fair to try and do battle reports on any of them.  I would mostly be talking out my ass and probably misrepresenting the ass kicking I got, however, here's some photos of my trouncing in action.

SHIELDS UP!

In my last post I showed that I had received my shields.  Well I got them attached and painted.

They deserve some more cleanup and maybe another coat of paint on them, but for the time being, they're on.  

TRIBESMEN(aka Imperial Guard)

I've decided that what my army really needs is some Imperial Guard.  Keeping with the native american theme, I decided to go with figures from Conquest Miniatures.  They're a little cheaper than buying Games Workshop IG troops. (about 40 dollars for 19 guys) whereas if I went with normal IG, I would have to pay 30 bucks for 10 troopers, and then buy heads for them.  The other benefit to using the Conquest minis is that I can make my guard more like savages instead of just another guard army.  

 I started with a box of their Woodland Indian War Party. I wanted to make sure that the scale of the models held up against GW models as well check out the quality of the miniatures in person.  

These did not fail to impress.  Quiet a few different poses in the box, single piece miniatures, took me very little work to make them work for me.  

I'm actually REALLY pleased with how these turned out.  I've since ordered another box of the Woodland War Party(giving me ~40 Infantry), a pack of Commanche Warriors(who will be my PCS) and the Buffalo Hump and His-oo-san-chees pack (Buffalo Hump is either going to be my Primaris Psycher or Guardsman Marbo)

That covers my HQ, and Troop choice for my allied contingent, now comes the fun part.

FIREBIRD / VENDETTA

With the recent release of the new High Elf army, came one of the coolest looking GW models I've seen in a while.  The Phoenix.

This model is a godsend.  It was going to be tough to say that my IG were primitive savages when they had aircraft at their disposal... however, by using the phoenix model I can keep the theme going.  

Newest addition to the fleet

I decided to take a break from assembling/painting Stormtalons (one more to go)  and bought myself a Stormraven.  This is by far the biggest(and most expensive) model I've ever built. Took me a day to get it assembled.  Lots of glue and beer.

PHOTO DUMP!

You might notice the dremel in that picture.  Well it's not just there because I feel like showing it off.  Thanks to GW's infinite wisdom, the stormraven is a bitch to get onto the flying base stand unless you are willing to glue it down.  Anyone that has ever seen the underbelly of a Stormtalon knows that the flying base hole extends into the model itself, so you don't have to glue it in and that makes transport SOO much easier.  Well the Stormraven doesn't have that.... unless you do what I did.

Painting the Stormraven would be pretty easy, just time consuming.  I'm going go transfer the color scheme from the Stormtalons over to it so the only thing is just doing the work... which I admit is slow going.

That's where I am as of today.  Getting closer, but I still feel like I'm weeks away.

League Week 1

Been a while since I posted anything, but that doesn't meant I haven't been up to things.  On the contrary, I've been so busy with stuff, I haven't had time to update.  Ok.. so that's not completely true, but I have been getting stuff done.

We have heads!  For the first time, I am able to field an army where everyone has a head.

I still have some painting to do, but the heads are all one.  I made an additional Thunderfire cannon so he has 0 paint on him.

Week 1 of the League

Vs. Khrone Daemon

I LOVE this army, makes me want to start a Daemon army.  Big Guns never tire was the mission.  3 objectives.  This game was VERY close.  I ultimately lost 5-2.  With the objectives being worth 3 points, it literally came down to 1 objective.

Highlight of the game for me, was Khan getting slay the Warlord against Skulltaker in a challenge. This was my first ever game of 40k vs Daemon so I stayed up the night before reading their codex.  I ultimately think I didnt make any big mistakes.  My opponent just flat out beat me.  Can't even blame it on the dice here.

MVP was Khan. Taking out a Khrone Daemon named character in COMBAT.  Mucho impressivo sir.
LVP was ME.  I didn't necessarily do bad, but all my models preformed above average.  Even the scout squads held their own in combat.

Shields up, camo cloaks on and the Khan survives all.

  Got another league practice game under my belt, and boy was it a weird one.  To the outside observer, I lost the game BAD.  The two models pictured below (Khan and another biker) were all that was left of my army.  My opponents army suffered minimal losses. Oh and I won.

  How you might ask?  Well the mission was The Relic(the red objective marker in the picture) which at the end of the game no one controlled.  So it went down to secondary objectives.  My opponent has First Blood .  I had Line breaker, and Slay the warlord.  I won the game 2 - 1.

  The dice hated me for most of the game.  I botched tons of reserve rolls.  At one point in the game, I had a single scout left alive on the board and the majority of my army waiting to come on the board.  So hands down MVP goes to that scout.  He stood alone on a battle field full of Eldar and lived to tell the tale.

  With the amount of reserve rolls I need, I'm considering an aegis/comms relay. Not sure what I'll need to cut for the 70 points, but I think it will be worth it on games where I run the Khan and 4 flyers.

  Here is the finalised list that I provided for the league.

  Sigmar – Space Marines - Khan Air (1850pts)

HQ
-Kor'Sarro Khan - Moondrakken - 205 Points
-Command Squad - 350 Points
Apothecary, Space Marine Bikes
Veteran - Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Storm Shield
Veteran - Bolt Pistol, Meltagun, Storm Shield
Veteran - Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Storm Shield
Veteran - Bolt Pistol, Power Fist, Storm Shield
Elites
-Dreadnought - Twin-Linked Autocannon, Twin-Linked Autocannon - 125 Points
Troops
-Scout Squad - 100 Points
4x Scout
4x Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher, 3x Sniper Rifle
Scout Sergeant- Bolt Pistol, Camo Cloak, Sniper Rifle
-Scout Squad - 100 Points
4x Scout
4x Camo Cloaks, Missile Launcher, 3x Sniper Rifle
Scout Sergeant - Bolt Pistol, Camo Cloak, Sniper Rifle
-Space Marine Bike Squad (Troops) - 235 Points
2x Meltagun, 4x Space Marine Biker
Attack Bike - Multi-Melta
Biker Sergeant - Power Fist
-Space Marine Bike Squad (Troops) - 245 Points
2x Plasma Gun, 4x Space Marine Biker
Attack Bike - Multi-Melta
Biker Sergeant - Power Fist
Fast Attack
-Stormtalon Gunship - Typhoon Missle Launcher - 145 Points
-Stormtalon Gunship - Typhoon Missle Launcher - 145 Points
Heavy Support
-Thunderfire Cannon - 100 Points
-Thunderfire Cannon - 100 Points
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sidebar
-Stormtalon Gunship - Typhoon Missle Launcher - 145 Points
-Stormraven - Hurricane Bolter, Twin Linked Assault Cannon 255 points
-Aegis Defense Line - Comms Relay 70 points



  My week 1 matchup is against Khrone Deamons.  Never faced off against the new deamons so I'll be interested in seeing how that goes.

  On the modelling/painting side of the world.  I very stupidly forgot to put cloaks on my scouts before priming them.  I've added those on.

 

  My shields have arrived and I'm impressed.  To be honest,  I think I like the finished product better than I liked the display images on the website, which when you order random parts from random miniature companies tends not to be the case very often.

  

 I'm looking forward to painting them up and throwing some magnets onto them for use with the command squad.

  I'll do my best to take pictures and do a  more detail breakdown on the first game of the league, but anyone that reads this regularly knows... I'm not so good at remembering to take pictures during the heat of things.

League Lists, painting and more!

League prep is in full force.  Got another game in with what has become my standard bike list.

  Me vs Tyranids... Have I mentioned how much I HATE Tyranids.  It's just a bad matchup for me.  I need to kill like 10-15 of them for every 1 of my models that go down.  Then when your planes get lost on the way and don't show up till Turn 4.  It's not going to be your day.  Lots of things didn't go my way this day, and me not being very good didn't help me much either.  If I had to pick an MVP, it would be the terminators.  They were beasts when it came to making those 2+ armor saves and killing bugs.  LVP were the pilots of the storm talons.  Once they finally arrived they were doing damage, but I needed them another turn or so earlier to have made any significant difference.  

  As much as it pains me to say it, I think from now on when I play the standard Psychic Chorus style Tyranid list, I need to play with a tie in mind.  I think if I just hang back and pray to survive I'd do better than my usual "kill em all" style. (Once an Ogre player, always an Ogre player)  I'm really trying to remind myself that 40k is my play for fun game, and Fantasy is where I become a competitive asshole, but that side of me is always there.

Here is my newest list for the league.  

+++ Khan Air (1848pts) +++
+++ 0pt Space Marines 5th Ed  Roster (Primary Detachment)) +++

Selections:

Space Marines 5th Ed  (Primary Detachment) Selections:

+ HQ + (205pts)

    * Kor'Sarro Khan (205pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Tactics, Independent Character, Master of the Hunt)
        Moondrakken (45pts)

+ Troops + (752pts)

    * Scout Squad (116pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Scouts)
        * 5x Scout (90pts) 
            5x Camo Cloaks (15pts), Missile Launcher (10pts), 4x Sniper Rifle
        * Scout Sergeant (26pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Camo Cloak (3pts), Sniper Rifle

    * Scout Squad (106pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Scouts)
        * 5x Scout (80pts) 
            5x Camo Cloaks (15pts), 5x Sniper Rifle
        * Scout Sergeant (26pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Camo Cloak (3pts), Sniper Rifle

    * Space Marine Bike Squad (Troops) (260pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Mounted Assault)
        2x Meltagun (20pts), 5x Space Marine Biker (125pts)
        * Attack Bike (50pts) 
            Multi-Melta (10pts)
        * Biker Sergeant (65pts) 
            Power Fist (25pts)

    * Space Marine Bike Squad (Troops) (270pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Mounted Assault)
        2x Plasma Gun (30pts), 5x Space Marine Biker (125pts)
        * Attack Bike (50pts) 
            Multi-Melta (10pts)
        * Biker Sergeant (65pts) 
            Power Fist (25pts)

+ Fast Attack + (435pts)

    * Stormtalon Gunship (145pts) 
        (Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Strafing Run, Supersonic)
        Typhoon Missle Launcher (35pts)

    * Stormtalon Gunship (145pts) 
        (Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Strafing Run, Supersonic)
        Typhoon Missle Launcher (35pts)

    * Stormtalon Gunship (145pts) 
        (Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Strafing Run, Supersonic)
        Typhoon Missle Launcher (35pts)

+ Heavy Support + (456pts)

    * Stormraven Gunship (256pts) 
        (Assault Vehicle, Power of the Machine Spirit, Skies of Fury)
        Hurricane Bolters (30pts), Searchlight (1pts), Twin Linked Assault Cannons, Typhoon Missile Launcher (25pts)

    * Thunderfire Cannon (100pts)

    * Thunderfire Cannon (100pts)

Yeah that's right.  4 Flyers and 2 TFC.  I know there are def flaws in this list.  Bikes are prob not the BEST troop choice for this list, but I did throw in another unit of scouts and increased their sizes to 6.  This meant buying more scouts.

Thank god for Bitzbarn.  I know I've went on and on about how much I love them so I'll spare you that rant again. My bitz arrived in the mail yesterday and before the end of the night, I had assembled, primed and did some painting.

I wanted to make the Scout Sergeant different looking that the rest of the squad, and I've found these Bretonian bowmen bodies.

Just something to make them look a little different.  I might decide on something else down the road, maybe something that looks a little more native americany but for not it'll do... plus it was like 50 cents for the whole body.

The yellow facepaint didn't really photograph well.

League Prep Game and Another Storm talon

  As we stand today, my current army list for the upcoming 40k league is:

+++ New Roster (1850pts) +++
+++ 1850pt Space Marines 5th Ed  Roster (Primary Detachment)) +++

Selections:

Space Marines 5th Ed  (Primary Detachment) Selections:

+ (No Category) + (350pts)

    * Command Squad (350pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Tactics)
        Apothecary (23pts), Company Standard (15pts), Space Marine Bikes (90pts)
        * Veteran (63pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Power Fist (25pts), Storm Shield (15pts)
        * Veteran (63pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Power Fist (25pts), Storm Shield (15pts)
        * Veteran (48pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Power Fist (25pts)
        * Veteran (48pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Meltagun (10pts), Storm Shield (15pts)

+ HQ + (205pts)

    * Kor'Sarro Khan (205pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Tactics, Independent Character, Master of the Hunt)
        Moondrakken (45pts)

+ Elites + (325pts)

    * Dreadnought (125pts) 
        Twin-Linked Autocannon (10pts), Twin-Linked Autocannon (10pts)

    * Terminator Squad (200pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics)
        Terminator Sergeant (40pts)
        * Terminator (40pts) 
            Power Fist
        * Terminator (40pts) 
            Power Fist
        * Terminator (40pts) 
            Power Fist
        * Terminator (40pts) 
            Power Fist

+ Troops + (580pts)

    * Scout Squad (100pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Infiltrate, Move Through Cover, Scouts)
        * 4x Scout (74pts) 
            4x Camo Cloaks (12pts), Missile Launcher (10pts), 3x Sniper Rifle
        * Scout Sergeant (26pts) 
            Bolt Pistol, Camo Cloak (3pts), Sniper Rifle

    * Space Marine Bike Squad (Troops) (235pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Mounted Assault)
        2x Meltagun (20pts), 4x Space Marine Biker (100pts)
        * Attack Bike (50pts) 
            Multi-Melta (10pts)
        * Biker Sergeant (65pts) 
            Power Fist (25pts)

    * Space Marine Bike Squad (Troops) (245pts) 
        (And They Shall Know no Fear, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, Mounted Assault)
        2x Plasma Gun (30pts), 4x Space Marine Biker (100pts)
        * Attack Bike (50pts) 
            Multi-Melta (10pts)
        * Biker Sergeant (65pts) 
            Power Fist (25pts)

+ Fast Attack + (290pts)

    * Stormtalon Gunship (145pts) 
        (Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Strafing Run, Supersonic)
        Typhoon Missle Launcher (35pts)

    * Stormtalon Gunship (145pts) 
        (Aerial Assault, Escort Craft, Strafing Run, Supersonic)
        Typhoon Missle Launcher (35pts)

+ Heavy Support + (100pts)

    * Thunderfire Cannon (100pts)

I played a test game vs another league member on Sunday.  Another bike vs bike fight.. except these bikes were Eldar.

The Blank base was my 2nd Stormtalon but more on that later.

  I feel like I did learn a lot from the prep game.  I'd like to get another game or two in before the start just to work out some things, but all in all I like the army list. 40k will never replace my love of Fantasy, but it's growing more and more on me.

  Some of you might have noticed(or read the caption below the photo) that I was running a blank base in my army. On Sunday I bought a 2nd Stormtalon before the game.  Anyone that knows me knows that I HAAATTTTEEE fielding unpainted models, let alone fielding an unassembled one, but my gracious opponent was ok with since we were prepping for the league.

  Monday afternoon I started working on the kit.  Being my 2nd one, it was much easier this time around.  I also was hit with one of my spells of insomnia and didn't go to bed on Monday.  So I've gotten a TON done.

Always remember to take an animal cracker break.