Combat Drug Addict

I have been planning to add a small allied contingent of regular 'ole Dark Eldar to my force so I can legitimately field a Ravager with Haemonculus crew without having to go full unbound.

I haven't really decided if I want it led by an Archon or a Succubus, but I know whatever I pick I want it to be wearing the  armour of Misery to make the most of the  freakish spectacle rule by stacking leadership debuffs.  

I'm leaning more towards a Succubus because she can bring an Archite Glaive to help with AP2, I'm planning for her to be hitching a ride with the other squad of Grotesques from the Grotesquerie in a raider,  and I hit on the idea of just having a really marshal character, more like a lone Incubi badass mercenary than an actual Succubus as I'm not planning on bringing any wyches.

For some bizarre reason, I have a complete set of the Asdrubael Vect metal components floating around, including the badass trench coat Incubi, but I wanted to give the model more character so I gave him a Casshern style half-helm (which was absolute misery to carve into just the right shape.) 

Initially I was unhappy with the paint job, until I added the runes along the bottom of the coat and the red lines to the shoulder pads, the "deadpool" style eyes really add to the malice of the model as well which I love, just got to get him on a table!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!