Surgical excision

I finally got around to finishing off the two units of Wracks that will form the initial vanguard of my force in the form of the scalpel squadron formation from the haemonculus covens book.

Consisting of two units of five wracks, each including an Ossefactor and Hexrifle armed Acothyst, mounted in Venoms (armed with the additional splinter cannon, because, well why wouldn't you?)

I was quite excited when I read about this formation for the first time, it's ability to potentially reap additional victory points is obviously very useful if you can pull it off, and I think that alone can help leverage any difficulty you might come across because of your limited choice in units.

Of course, I could ally in some dark eldar or Eldar stuff, but I've never really been big into allies, I much prefer the look of a coherent force, but one idea I had was to ally in units and make them look as Covenite as possible, I thought a unit of wracks entirely armed with hexrifles could make a good unit of eldar Rangers, and a unit of wracks with additional armour and wielding klaives could be used as Incubi and represent some kind of elite unit in the covens quite well.

The other thing I really want to do is convert a shaven Hellpit abomination into a Covenite monster of hideous proportions, but it would be cool

If I could use it to represent another unit in the game.

I'm interested to see if these guys can pull their weight as they are, I'm now working on a talos and a chronos which will take me up to 1000 points in total!

After that, I'm thinking twenty scarlet epicureans will be next!

Ancient Evil

Aaah, Urien Rakarth. 

I love how utterly removed and uncaring he is.  Having become a truly supernatural being over the aeons and carrying this air of vampiric nobility despite having his face tied on.

I googled around for a bit to look at different paint jobs on this model and I saw one pic that really inspired me where he had been painted in a heavy black scheme where the black was accented pretty much with super pale skin and red detailing.  

I wanted to riff off of this colour scheme whilst tieing him into the rest of my force, and maintaining a highly individual look.   Not always easy to do, the green pipes and detailing are subtle in their positioning on the model, and I really like how the haemovores under his feet really clash with the greens of the pipes suspended over his head, a very pleasing model to paint and look at.

Urien will obviously form a stag party with the unit of Grotesques in a raider most of the time, at least until I get a few more painted, I don't really know what to do with him though, he doesn't scream out as being particularly incredible in game terms yet as far as being specialised towards a particular role.

But that hardly matters when your model is that cool does it?

Flesh Berzerkers

The limited pool of units available when playing a Covenite army in 40k isn't something that has bothered me so far, conversely, it has served a purpose as becoming a sort of "check list" for what to paint.

And one of my favourite units on that check list, and a unit I have wanted to convert and paint for a long time is the Grotesques.

Ever since the Warhammer fantasy battle Vargeists/Crypt horrors box came out I thought "well those are some rad models, how can I get them into 40k? 

Also, there seems to be a shocking lack of source material on the Internet in terms of pictures of other people's attempts at this conversion, despite the box coming up regularly in forum discussion on the subject of converting them.

I quite like the "break dancing" official Grotesque available from Games Workshop, but at some point, I plan to run a unit of nine of these beauties and there was no way I was going to have nine of the same model in the unit.

Strangely enough, people seem to convert them out of Rat Ogres, which look great, but I personally find the additional hair on the models a bit too "un dark eldar", I like the idea of them being just big wracks, hairless and pumped full of steroids with a mask welded to their face.

The other option people go for is the Everblight Warspears which, although lovely models, I feel make a poor conversion piece as the bodies are too small for the heads, and the overall aesthetic of the models, while close, doesn't really convey the mindless nature of a grotesque. 

This first unit was essentially a test run to see if my idea would ever work, I should've really waited until I had purchased a couple more Talos (which I since have.) so that I would have more than enough spare bits available, for example the bio mechanical hands from the Talos kit are obviously perfect to represent the flesh gauntlets, but once I make a few more of these guys, these ones will provide some variation in the unit.

There is actually a moderate amount of green stuff on these models, though none of it particularly skilfully done I would add.  I thought it was important to build up the biceps and neck muscles of the models as they felt too lean originally. I also sculpted little rolls around the ankles and waist (as well as cutting off all the groinal hair of the original models.) to create the trousers which are a recurrent part of the official look for Grotesques.  I also sculpted on the wrist vembraces to again get them closer looking to the Wracks in the army, and to bulk up the arms and round off the outline.

I'm quite happy with them now, but can't help but think any ones I make in future will be better next time round.  I didn't even like the paint job until I applied a super thinned down layer of Cadian fleshtone over the pallid wych flesh highlights, that seemed to mottle them and give the large flat areas of the muscles a bit more detail.

Now to chuck them in a Raider and twist off some Space Marine heads...

Poisonblood

Work continues on the new Coven, the new haemonculus model is real lovely, not quite as convertible as I might like in terms of pose, but the overall mood of the model more than makes up for that.  I was unsure how to paint the eyes at first as they looked really boring in plain white and didn't stand out in black, in the end I

Hit on the idea of watering down pink as a layer over the White and then adding a tin pupil for the really blood shot look, I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The new plastic Wracks are incredible models, I'm loving the store of spare bits I'm building up the more boxes I open, I've got ten painted so far, and I'm working on the next five, I'm planning to run a scalpel squadron with an Acothyst with hexrifle and Ossefactor in each Venom (dual splinter cannons of course.)

Initially I was planning on a squad of ten with three liquifiers to accompany a we way portal haemonculi, but I'm leaning more towards a squad of nine in a raider now, the Dark Artisan seems more fit for deep striking shinanigans.  The army Is shaping up well so far, and I've almost finished my Crypt Horror Grotesques so they will be posted very soon!

Fleshcraft

Back at the painting desk, after a short break away, I've got a battle report that I've been meaning to post for ages as well, my first game of 7th against a friend's Grey Knights with the Marines Exemplar.

With the release of the new Dark Eldar book I'm finally free to resume work on a Haemonculus Coven army for 40k, with plastic Wracks and a new Haemonculus as well as Wrack crew for the ships, the army will be a lot closer to what I was hoping first time round!

I've already got ten new Wracks painted as well as two haemonculi and a Venom, with my Grotesque squad that I recently converted from Crypt Horrors waiting patiently to be finished off, pictures to follow!

Centurion Annihilator, Rexus

For a little while now, i've thought that the Inquisitor Tyrus model from the now defunct 50mm Skirmish-roleplay-em-up game Inquisitor would make a great 40k model, but obviously with it's sheer size it would have difficulty coming off as any of the regular infantry sized models, as it's way more huge than even a beefy Terminator suit.

And then the Centurions came out and i painted a squad up for the Marines Exemplar, they weren't far off the size, but still a little too small.

Anyway, i was selling off some old Inquisitor bits and bobs on Ebay that i will never have a use for and typically i did some searches to see what the models were going for, and then i saw a slightly damaged, child-painted model of Tyrus, complete with horrific head conversion with elongated neck.  But the Basic body was intact even if the shoulder pauldrons were missing. 

I managed to win it for next to nothing ( i don't think most people could be bothered with the renovation work or trying to find alternate parts. ) But for me i was intending to convert it anyway, and when it arrived i searched in my gargantuan bits box of ages past and managed to find a complete set of two Tyrus shoulder Pauldrons even though i didn't have the rest of the model ( i believe i ordered them when such a thing was still possible for a conversion that never materialised.)  But after that stroke of good luck i got to chopping the model and adding parts to make it look like a marine inside a massive warsuit.   And i think the end result is quite good!

I'll use him as a dreadnought (he's on a 60mm base) and bulk-wise he is probably most similar to a dreadnought (and the generic dreadnought models just look a bit bland nowadays, in my opinion.) In terms of background i imagine him to be in a similar vein to the "Punisher Attack Bikes" that the Marines Exemplar have, a lone marine in search of glory, but only able to attain access to the heaviest equipment once he has proven himself.

Big Guns Never Tire - The Devastator Corps of the Marines Exemplar

Marines Exemplar 1st Company Devastators

As i've said before, one of my favourite parts about collecting an established army with no canon is that i get to add it myself, and most of the time this works out great as Games Workshop generally never round out the background for 2nd founding onwards Chapters.

I find that thinking up this background helps me to envision the army as i build it and reason what would "fit" into my army selection, i've become more and more defined for my vision of the Marines Exemplar and wanted them to have a strong vein of Imperial Fists Character running through them, but with their own twist.

Where Daemons tread... - Inquisitor Coteaz Conversion

Lord Inquisitor Geralt Oviron, of the Ordo Malleus

I recently picked up (downloaded? acquired?) the new Codex: Inquisition, after slight initial disappointment at the lack of new toys (i don't really know what people were expecting, they were hardly going to release a new line of Inquisition models when there are so many weird old ones sitting around doing nothing.) i quickly grew to love the book though, it's infinitely closer to my idea of Inquisitors in the background of the 40k universe than any of their other appearances so far (well, apart from maybe 2nd ed.?)

Arrogance as a Virtue - The Chronicles of the Marines Exemplar

1500 Point Marines Exemplar Army, ready for battle

The Marines Exemplar are going strong!   One of the most rewarding Hobby projects i have had in a long time, i can't stop painting units for them!

I guess i've always been a huge fan of Space Marines and with that, 2nd and 3rd founding chapters in particular.

The best part of collecting these guys has been thinking up my own background for them as the army takes shape, all from the original picture i saw in the 6th edition 40k Rulebook when it first came out!

Marines Exemplar Attack Bikes - The Punisher Biker Corps.

"Punisher" class Attack Bike

Within my Marines Exemplar army, throughout the games i have been playing lately, it became more and more clear that the force was lacking in smaller "support elements", units that while not costing a ton of points or being the most effective in terms of decimating entire units in a phase, would be vital to shoring up any weaknesses in my battle line.  Speed is also an important element as they need to be able to react to the enemy battleplan.

Peace through Superior Firepower

Marines Exemplar Devastator Squad

I've mentioned my lack of love for standard Devastator load-outs before (well, that might be a bit harsh, i just think they could look cooler.) and after having a gander at the new Marine book i was thinking that seeing as i was heading into Imperial Fist territory, i was thinking a Heavy Bolter devastator squad would be totally sweet, with all those re-rolls and the ability to annihilate light-medium tanks with tank hunter.  After having already assembled and painted a "stock" Heavy Bolter for one of my Tactical squads i decided 4 of those would be WAY too boring, and something that has always annoyed me is the way Assault cannons have never made it onto the basic infantry of the Space Marine army, any hot blooded male was weened on the film Predator and as a result has an unhealthy love for Miniguns.  Well WYSIWYG be damned, i thought, i'll just convert some Assault cannons onto those suckers and use them like the totally sweet Premium Heavy Bolters they will be in the game anyway.  And if anyone doesn't like it they can SCRATCH.

Marine Exemplar Devastator

Paragons of Obstinacy

Marines Exemplar Tactical Squad

The release of the recent 6th edition Space Marine Codex has fuelled me to a frenzy of painting what i paint best, power-armoured badasses.

I'd been wanting to do a new Successor chapter army for a while what with the veritable new odds and ends released for Marines since selling on my last Iron Lords army (all gajillion points of it.)  and being a long-time hobbyist i have plenty of disowned marines from various chapters in various states of painting sitting in various figure cases and various bits boxes.  One of the things i really like about doing a non "Stock" Space Marine army is the ability to just throw random touches of iconography from different ranges at models and use them in interesting ways, there are lots of winged shoulder pads and touches from models like the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard for example, that would look a touch out of place on an Ultramarine, but not a model with a less established Canon.

The Glorious Dead

Kaevern Mournsong - Iyanden Spiritseer

In my quest to, it would seem, collect every single force vying for attention in the 41st Millennium, i recently decided after some truly appalling defeats with my Tau that i would go back to one of my old favourite armies.  The Eldar.

And not just any Eldar, an Iyanden Craftworld Eldar army.  As with most new releases from Games Workshop, many mewled and cried and moaned about the price of the new Iyanden supplement, and while they were complaining i was ignoring them as i couldn't hand over my money fast enough. 

To the dark gods of the uh.... Greater Good?

 

XV8 Crisis Battlesuit Commander

So, it all started when the Cities of Death book came out,  This Art from the front cover (the artist of which is evading me through google) blew me away when i saw it.  Easily one of the strongest Games Workshop related art pieces i have seen in years, and as badass as the Vostroyans look (they do look, very badass) what caught me was the Tau in the picture, this White and Red colour scheme is so striking i was surprised it hasn't been replicated onto any studio models before or since.  I always wanted to try my hand at converting it to the real thing (even though the Tau are taking an absolute pasting in the picture and one Fire Warrior appears to have lost a fight with... a spike?).

Live by the blade, Die by the blade.

Chosen Chaos Space Marine of Khorne.

With the release of the new Chaos Space Marine Codex i have been pledging to finally dive into 6th Edition 40k.

The release of the new rules set, though brilliant, left me feeling stranded.  My Entire Armoured Chaos Space Marine force was left feeling decidedly gibbed.  It is clear the importance of troop transports has been reduced greatly in the game, and though while they are useful they now work in an entirely different way to before.  Squads buying transports to get into the fray faster seem better off walking now.

Nights best spent crafting flesh

The first five Wracks stagger free of the laboratories.

This edition of Tower of Snakes comes to you straight from the painting table, i've been buoyed ahead with painting recently, feverishly brushing acrylics/inks/mediums/varnishes onto any Dark Eldar models within my reach and i'm happy with the results so far!

The Coven of the Severed Tongue

Dark Eldar by Adrian Smith

It all started with this picture.

Over the weekend of course the 6th Edition Warhammer 40k Rulebook was released and alongside that came all the inevitable reading, i have to say, i'm a huge fan of the new rules so far and for everything they have taken away, they have given you ten more, pretty excited to get some games in!


Flicking through the army background section of the book i was suddenly floored when i came across this picture, Adrian Smith has always been one of my favourite artists, his style is unique and instantly recognizable, but it struck me that i don't think he has ever painted the Dark Eldar before, and if he has, never in such gruesome and beautifully dark detail, the complete picture shows the bodies of terrified guardsmen strewn across the ground with their eyes cut out and the Dark Eldar standing aloof and alien in the aftermath of battle while a Talos floats broodingly in the background.

I'd always been tempted to do a Dark Eldar Coven based army, but now alongside 6th edition coming into being and waiting for the new Chaos Codex it seemed like a perfect time to actually get into action!

I picked up a box of Wracks and a Talos to get to work on and pictured above is my first wrack, not completely finished yet but coming along nicely, the detail of the models is absolutely incredible and very fun to work with, the skin is a lot nicer to view in the flesh and is an absolute joy to paint.

I used a lot of the new GW paints to paint the model including the Dark Eldar specific skin colours and the dark blue/grey highlight colours, the blood is achieved using Tamiya Clear red ink, this stuff is fantastic, it works best if basecoated with a nice dark red (think GW Red Gore) colour and the subtly worked along, the Wrack models are brutally stitched together in a number of places so i thought it would be great to highlight that, basing usually presents a bit of difficulty for me, i don't like to be too flashy with it as i like the attention to be on the models themselves, i like the idea of the army walking across a desert like area, but i also thought it would be cool to have lots of blood spatter and blood drips to further the narrative of such a horrific army, i used the same blood method as i used on the models and it has come out pretty well, going to paint the first 5 wracks up with the same basing method and see if it bears up across the squad, and if it doesn't look so good i can just rebase them!

The models to the right are some more Wracks from the same squad that i am painting, the one on the left has had a Basecoat of Rakarth Flesh, highlighted with Pallid Wych flesh and then inked with Leviathan Purple wash, the model on the right has had the same treatment, but then a recoat of Pallid Wych flesh after the purple wash, after this i do one more coat of Pallid Wych flesh as a highlight, but mixed with 50/50 with Skull White, and then the work on the rest of the model begins!

I will post some more progress soon hopefully and let you know how i get on!

The Gore-Trodden path

The army arrayed in all its Infernal Glory.

6th Edition 40k creeps ever closer, and every day i hear a new rule or tidbit, no matter how hard i try to ignore them.

Not that i'm not interested, i'm just so excited i want to be sitting with the new book and a cup of tea already god damn it.

There are several huge changes i'm liking already though,  firstly the constant chatter about allies interests me, straight off people have been discussing particularly beardy combos and how to pull them off, but me personally, i'm thinking about how to present unique modelling oppurtunities.

For example, once the new Chaos Space Marine book rolls around, if there is in fact no sign of Chaos Cultists (which i'm desperate for as i think they add a ton of theme to any Chaos army) then i will be quite happy to utilize some Imperial Guard and proxy my own, the allies rules also fix the weirdness surrounding Chaos Marines and Chaos Daemons being two books quite nicely also.

The Second thing that interests me greatly is that armies can now purchase "Fortifications" as part of their Army points allowance, which is pretty nuts, especially when you start to factor in the additional heavy weapons and special rules some of them bring to the field.  But even if this is the case i am pretty excited, i love the idea of never hitting a table without enough scenery ever again, that sounds great!

Gorak, Skull Champion of Khorne.

The Khorne Berzerkers in my army prove their worth nearly every game, the damage output these guys have is phenomenal compared to how they look on paper, the best factor about the whole squad i think is the WS5, those 3's to hit really push the bracket up for how much damage they do.  I've played games where the squad (7 Berzerkers and a Champion with Power Weapon) have charged into a squad of 4 Thunder Hammer Terminators and Vulkan and aced the combat (much to my shock).  The furious charge on the unit allows me to break my habit of giving all sergeants power fists in an attempt to cover and redundancy, there is however the constant threat of Dreadnought attack, but i attempt to stay vigilant against that!  As for the modelling side of things, i wanted the Khorne Berzerkers to stand out in the army and i imagined them viewing themselves as more "Pure" in their worship of khorne, i imagined them amputating any mutations not fitting of the blood god in particular and replacing the mangled limbs with simple combat blades and prosthetic chainsaws, the better to aid them in combat, it turned out pretty well!  The Champion Gorak has had his model taken from an old Games Day Limited Edition Chaos Warrior that i'd had sitting around doing nothing for a while, he just seemed perfect, even though he's holding a Wood Elf (which i like to think of as an exodite eldar or possibly a dark eldar)  the pose is so arrogant it's very fitting for a Khorne Berzerker champion i think!

The rest of my troops choices are rounded out with Chaos Space Marine Squads with the Mark of Khorne, a Power fist and a Meltagun in each, if i'd had the points i would have liked to have taken combi weapons on the chaos champions for the more guaranteed melta fusillade at important times, but even so they have performed admirably, the ridiculous amount of attacks they put out tending to do me a lot of favours up close (apart from the odd game where i'm allrgic to rolling 4+.)  For my next project with these boys i am looking to convert some more icon bearers, i imagined the banners as windows into the realm of chaos, so i would like to hollow out a banner and have a daemon model actually lunging forward from the banner itself, i think that would look really cool (if a little tricky to pull off!)

Blood Disciples

Redmawr the Rancid, Daemon Prince of Chaos

Well, i have been remiss updating lately, but so what?  That's what blogs are for right?

I haven't been dozing in a cave though, i have been doing a fair bit of painting in the mean time, i completed a new army which i took to the local 40k Ashes tournament (for the ashes of the 5th edition Rulebook, what with the new one around the corner and all!)

In the run up to the tournament, i decided i wanted to take an army that is viewed as underpowered within the current meta game, so in the weeks running up to it, i kept hearing people say how rubbish the Chaos Space Marine book is and how it's only any good if you take Lash of Submission, and even then it looks a bit shonky now.

Well, i've always been a follower of the dark gods, my first foray into 40k was with a horrific circus coloured Tyranid army (you know, in 2nd ed. when all the troop types were different garish colours) my next and first solid army was a Chaos Space Marine army built around Khorne.

"Soul crusher" Blood Disciples Vindicator

My old army used to be lead by my Chaos Lord Redmawr Rancid riding a Juggernaut of Khorne so i thought it would be fun to do an army built around him a bit further on down the line once he had attained Daemonhood.

I decided i wanted to do something a bit different from traditional red, and also that i wanted the army to consist of renegades who worship Khorne rather than a straight up World Eaters force.    So i settled on naming my force the Blood Disciples, only realising a little later that there is an army called the Blood Disciples in the codex, i decided my Warband had struck out on their own, self imposed exile under the command of Redmawr himself.

I played around with a couple of lists but settled on quite a nice well rounded force headed up by Redmawr himself, with a squad of 5 Terminators boasting a variety of weapons mounted in a Land Raider (as a dedicated transport) for troops i decided on one squad of Khorne Berzerkers (the most blood mad and elite renegades) in a rhino, as well as two squads of 8 chaos marines in rhinos.  Moving on i spent the rest of my points on Heavy Support, with a pair of Obliterators, a Chaos Predator Annihilator and a Vindicator as well.

 "The Gore Hounds" Chaos Terminator squad

The army performed admirably well in practice games, winning the vast majority, and to my surprise i even managed to come out on top against a couple of lists i pretty much expected to get smashed by.

I utilized a variety of techniques in the painting of the army, but i decided straight off that i wanted everything to look filthy, one of my biggest problems with a lot of Chaos Marine armies is how clean cut they all look.  If you worship dark gods, cavort with daemons and flay the skins of the damned, i don't see that polishing armour and repainting it all the time would be high on your list of priorities, i thought it would also provide a nice counter point to more clean looking Loyal marines as well (and of course hopefully look pretty good on the table top)  this project was also the first time i made use of the new Citadel paints range and i have to say that i am very happy with the new paints, i wasn't too sure how they would manage to improve on the old range, but somehow they have!  Good work GW!

"The Corpsegrinder" Chaos Space Marine Land Raider

One thing that surprised me about the army is just how effective the Terminator squad in Land Raider proves to be, even with the laughable set of abilities of the tank (The glaring omission of anything comparable to "power of the machine Spirit" is really felt a lot of the time) the Terminators themselves often ridiculously overperform, and the one thing i put this down to is the purchase of a single chainfist.  That 5 point upgrade has spelt doom for a whole junkyard's worth of vehicles, often my tactic will be to engage an enemy unit and multi-charge the single terminator with chainfist into a tank on his own.

He nearly always takes them down.

The utility of the Chaos marine units and Berzerkers in their rhinos is very interesting to play with as well, part of the end result of going for a core of Chaos Marine squads instead of pure Khorne Berzerkers is that the Melta Guns have provided them the ability to perform "drive-by" attacks from the top of Rhinos whilst maintaining a certain degree of safety.  This is utility would be lost with a pure Khorne Berzerker force, and while the majority of the army isn't full of whacky abilities (something i think a Chaos Codex should be full of by the way) it is extremely solid and tactical, almost on a par with the Loyalist marine codex.

Blood Disciple Obliterators

One victory that caught me off guard in particular was when i went toe to toe with a Kaldor Draigo-wing Grey Knight list, the Obliterator's Plasma Cannons proved to be a vital counterpoint to the monstrous Paladin squad, stripping multiple wounds off at once (stopping Draigo bouncing them all off on his shield)  across the first couple of turns the paladins were all stripped down to one wound each and then slowly picked off, i even got to use the old "Adamantium Barricade" maneuver with both the Chaos Marine Squad's rhinos, disembarking from both and placing the rhinos an inch or so apart so there was room to fire but they couldn't be assaulted in the ensuing turn, beautiful!

 Anyway, i now look forward to the eminent release of 6th edition, bring it on!

March of the Grey Knights

Well!  I've been busy painting away as always!

I decided to alter up the colour scheme of the Grey Knights a bit as i couldn't get the gold helms to look swish, the newer white helms actually look  lot nicer in the flesh so i'm going to go with that, and after a little segway painting some more Flames of War Germans (Which i can photograph this time, including the older batch i painted as the owner was kind enough to lend them to me!) i will be kicking down to finish the Grey Knights or at the very least get them more done!


I should be able to finish at least a squad.

Hopefully.