Preview - the Iron Hands are recruiting scouts

Here are a couple preview shots of the scouts I've been painting between changing diapers...

I wanted the camo cloaks to be reminiscent of the German "rain" camouflage pattern

East German rain pattern camouflage (strichtarn) 

I still have to base them and finish some details

Strike Squads are GO! (...ish)

In preparation for upcoming events I'm trying to get the majority of my infantry squared away. Among those tasks one of the largest was the force weapon treatments for the Strike Squads. I have 15 of these guys in my 2000 point list, and 20 in some of my smaller point value lists so I really just want to get them done so I have a pool of finished marines to draw on for whatever point level I decide to play.

I had originally intended on doing a yellow to red color scheme for the force weapons but I was a little worried about not being 100% pleased with the results so I went the safe route and tried to rip off the GW colors.

I started with a trick I learned in a painting masterclass taught by miniature painter Mathieu Fontaine. I took a small sheet of kitchen plastic wrap and pushed the blade of the sword through and wrapped the mini in the remainder and secured it with masking tape. This is by far the easiest way to keep any part of the model from getting hit by overspray from the airbrush. It also means you can wrap the model up without fear of damaging any already complete paint work with tape or blue tack.


I painted the blades white with the airbrush, then taped off one edge of the blade as well as it's inverse on the opposite facing of the blade. Then I airbrushed GW Enchanted Blue from the hilt of the sword up 2/3 of the length of the blade. After that I airbrushed black from the hilt up to about 1/3 of the length of the blade. After that it's the same process except you mask the unpainted edges of the blade and paint from the tip of the sword down towards the hilt. As a side note I have issues with the Tamiya masking tape taking off some of my airbrush paint so I tend to do lots of redundant clear coats, almost always with Testors Dullcote, so I don't risk pulling my paint job up once I try to remove the masking tape.



Here's how the look before they were unwrapped. I was a little bit nervous that I'd have missed a spot during the masking process and they'd have some bitchin' blue graffiti on their armor, but they were fully protected during the whole process.

Here are the final results...



I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, I do think I went a little too heavy with the black but I may bring back some of the blue with a brush as I finish them up.

The whole process is a little time consuming but I think the finished product is worth it, especially if you only have a handfull of power weapons in your army and you really want them to stand out. For me, I liked the way GW's team painted the force weapons from the beginning so it was a pretty easy choice for me. Now I'm looking forward to getting into some the details on these guys and really getting them table top ready.

Oh Tau what will I do with you

I lost a game with my Tau on Thursday. That makes two losses and one draw (and frankly pulled that out of my ass should of been a loss) in the three years that I have been playing them. Unfortunately this last loss and draw came back-to-back and on the heels of several wins that I barely managed.

After every game I tend to look back and try to figure out what I could have done better. As I thought through this latest loss I took into account some of the poorer tactical choices I made, my horrendous reserve rolling (reserved much of everything to minimize the alpha strike and instead had everything come in turn two so I could get hit nonetheless), and the stupid mistakes I made as I tried to salvage the game after an initial onslaught. What I felt most keenly was the lack of unit saturation on the table.

I also play marines (frankly not as well as my Tau) and at similar point levels I just have many more units and options on the table. What does this mean? Well in effect most every unit I field in a Marine army is capable of hurting both vehicles and infantry. I likewise just have a lot more units on the table. As I have been building my Dark Eldar army I also find that I am able to saturate the table with units which can do both. My Tau simply cannot do this my units as all somewhat specialized (outside of my battle suits which make competitive games possible) and I simply don't have as many of them.

This feeling of being overpowered on the table didn't come suddenly, more of a gradual increase in the level of difficulty and base tactics as more and more codices rollout with that challenge or neutralize the ability of Tau to be effective. First came the imperial guard with their ability to outshoot the Tau AND beat them in close combat. DOA blood angels came next forcing the inclusion of bubble wrap Kroot and the reintroduction of fireknife battle suits over deathrains to deal with FNP marines. Space Wolves and Dark Eldar didn't help either. Now I feel forced to play entirely defensive and castled up. I no longer have sufficient mobility to scoot away nor can I play enough hulls on the battlefield to offset the mass of vehicles my opponent lay out.

So what to do? I am loathe to play the same defensive game over and over and not looking forward to shelving them until a new codex. Would love to hear thoughts.

Vulkan Guilt

I had such big plans... Marneus Calgar. Darnath Lysander. TWO LIBRARIANS! Now look at me. Happily chugging along with a Vulkan He'stan "counts as" Dark Angel's army. The primarch must be rolling in his secret crypt.

Here's the thing, Vulkan is the best HQ. Definitely the best for the Codex Marines, but maybe even for EVERYONE. Don't get me wrong, he can easily be killed by many of the brutally overpowered HQs: Draigo, Calgar, anyone with a thunderhammer... actually just about any HQ worth their salt. So why the hell is he so good?

Twin-linked and master-crafted, baby. He makes the best stuff that marines can take even better. For anyone familiar with 40k, this is old news. I always suspected that it was the case, but had yet to summon the courage to ask Vulkan out. Now that I've done the deed, I feel a little guilty for loving him so much.

After almost a year of Deathwing, I needed a change. I wanted the flexibility that marines ffer. I remembered all the times I've used combat tactics, and how awesome it was when it actually worked. Who makes that better? Calgar of course, but Calgar is always insanely expensive. Sure you can put him in power armor, and stick him with an Honor Guard in a rhino or razorback. They'll tear shit up and it will be awesome. Despite their 2+ armor, however, his coterie has no invulnerable save, and Calgar in power armor is only a 3+/4++. Four wounds, yes, but entirely killable. With my luck a squad of Long Fangs would take him out in one round of shooting. Ok then, we'll upgrade him to terminator armor, and put him in a Land Raider Crusader (my favorite of Dr. Land's raiders) with some terminators. Now we're reaching toward 600 points. I really like librarians especially when they're in terminator armor, so that puts us closer to 700...what's that you say, I have to take an ENTIRE ARMY? Well, 1300 points can buy me a fair amount: 3x10-man tac squads with rhinos or razorbacks (and powerfists on the sergeants--I love me some powerfists), a pair of melta attack bikes, a pair of landspeeder typhoons, and a thunderfire cannon. Not a bad list, but even at 2000 points its a bit top heavy (here's what it looks like in army builder).

So what can I do with Vulkan?

Vulkan, libby (in power armor this time), th/ss termies, Land Raider Crusader. We're already 100 points cheaper. So we'll take the same tac squads, Land Speeders, attack bikes, thunderfire cannon, and throw in a a melta/flamer dreadnought for good measure (here's the .pdf). We've lost the close combat monster that is Marneus Calgar,  as well as the ability to pass and fail all morale checks at will, and not take fearless wounds, what have we gained? Better shooting (and slightly more of it), and better thunderhammers. Is it worth it? It sure seems like it.

I'm not going to try and mathhammer it out, that's been done to death, besides I went to a public school--I can barely tie my own shoes--it would be lost on me. I've played both of these lists though, and have witnessed first hand the way that Vulkan makes everything that matters work better. I'm missing the kind of flexibility that Calgar provides less and less, because in the place of army-wide tactical flexibility I have the flexibility that comes from reliable shooting and assaults.

I know the Dark Angels purists are probably like "No way dude, Azrael rocks." They're right, Azrael does rock. It doesn't matter that he has WS 5 instead of 6, he's totally bad ass. Eternal warrior, 4 wounds, a butt load of strength 6 attacks, and an 4++ save for any squad he joins? Yes please. The difference, however, is that you don't take your HQ in a vacuum. An army with Vulkan is better than an army with Azrael (or just about any other Codex Marine HQ), and in the end, the game is about armies, not HQs.

Grey Knights getting some TLC

After a much needed break from painting, I've started working on the Grey Knights again. I had Lord Kaldor Draigo collecting dust for a while, and as he wasn't a part of my tournament list I had no time to work on him. Now with the weight of the NOVA of my shoulders I'm back to painting for fun.

So here he is:


I felt pretty rusty going back to painting after a few months off, so there's a lot I want to clean up on this model but It's a good start.

I'm focusing on just getting the existing Grey Knights I have completed and trying to focus on having one fully painted army list. I'll be playing in a 500 point tournament at the beginning of November so that's going to be a good reason to get some results on my GK strike squads as well. Unfortunately I've adopted a Land Raider recently as well as a pair of Dreadnoughts, but they're going to have to be on the back burner until the troops get completed.

Selling Out (Rifleman Dreadnought)

Modeling them in all of their unpainted glory

The story - I was curious about all of the bits available from the 3d printing service Shapeways (search for 40k) so I ordered some bits from various designers.  They were all untried designs that turned out to be unprintable.  Shapeways has a minimum order of $25, and I ended up with a credit in that amount.  I decided to use it before I forgot about it and ordered the arms pictured here for $12.50 each from Custom Minis, a designer who uses Shapeways.  

Comparison with twin-linked lascannon

Ordering was no problem and the level of detail is great, however I feel like the arms are about 20% too large at the "shoulder" area (i.e. the part that attaches to the body).

Beefy!

Compared to "stock" dreadnought arms

Lascannon

Autocannon - larger overhang front and back

Overall I think they're a good deal.  They are printed in one piece and are solid all the way through.  The plastic is slightly porous looking, almost like the texture of fiber paper.  I think they will look good once I get around to painting them.