I said I'd finish my Black Knights, and the Greater Good

Told you I'd have them done for the next update! But in all honesty, these guys bogged me down and I was starting to reach the point of giving up with them, so to get them done was a relief. It's a terrible picture, but luckily I will soon be getting the new Galaxy S4. Been playing with the GF's S3, and the camera is amazing, so hopefully I can start to get some more impressive pics up soon

Now, question time...what shall I paint next for the Dark Angels? I have 3 more Ravenwing bikes to paint, plus Sammael and a Darkshroud. But I was also thinking of going for a complete Tactical Squad and the Rhino transport. What are your thoughts readers?

I received my new Tau Codex today, and have been flicking through eagerly. It's a very nice book, and the army itself looks solid. There seems to be options all over the place, and no obvious picks. Well, maybe Broadsides, but only because the model is gorgeous. The lesser HQ's are standouts for me, especially when they can start making your Fire Warriors start pumping out 4 shots each at short range. It's all so tempting. Very tempting. And soon it's my birthday. I may have to invest...

Edit

I now have better pictures of the Knights. Enjoy.

The 4th Brotherhood. Nerd League Round Two.

Been a while! I didn't really get much chance to get any modelling/painting done over the last few weeks, due to staying at the GF's house for a week, and then having a stag do in Bristol over the Easter weekend. However, I did get more work done on the Black Knights. Pouches, weapons and bases to go, so not too much...

I have been looking at what I need to build/paint to get my Grey Knight Brotherhood up to scratch. I have been digging through my army case, and have pulled out the following.

Castellan Crowe. He's not a massive priority, seeing as he's only in my army to unlock Purifiers as troops (Crowe tax!). However, his sword was always slightly bent, due to the joys of Finecast, and eventually snapped. Which would have been fine if I hadn't painted him already...! So, new sword time. I'm going to cut off the remains of the sword and look to either use a standard Nemesis Force Sword, or try and look for a suitably Chaotic replacement.

Strike Squad Dumias. These guys used to be Interceptors, but I realised I had a lack of basic power armoured Knights in any army I ran. So off came the vanes. These guys are what I consider a standard loadout for GK's - a five man unit with a Daemon Hammer and Psycannon, mounted in a Psyback with Heavy Bolter. For under 170 pts you get a unit that can pump out shots and present a strong threat. I have ordered a box of Grey Knights and will mix them with the models from this squad to give me two of these units. I also have a Razorback on order.

Grand Master Larandis. Standard Kaldor Draigo conversion. He does need a Force Halberd though, as the sword is a throwback to 5th Edition when combat was a lot more dangerous, and a 3++ save was the bomb. Nowadays, especially with challenges, being able to kill your opponent before they strike is much more important, and I7 is going to give me that option.

Librarian Hyperion. The name is a reference to The Emperor's Gift by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, which I cannot recommend highly enough. It really shows what happens to the Imperium after a massive battle, and the results are not pretty. He needs a storm bolter strapped to his wrist, but I'm not sure what Nemesis weapon to give him in his right hand. I really want him to avoid combat, but need to keep him ticking if he gets there somehow. Ideas?

A Dreadknight to be built. This guy will have a Heavy Incinerator , as he will be able to flush out models behind cover using torrent and then beat them in the face. Plus, it's always been a cool model. Always.

     

And I think you can guess what these are for. They're ordered and waiting for their new arms :P

Round Two of the Nerd League was played last night. Gandy and myself went head to head in an extremely tight game. Poor rolling from myself lead to me having a 5-0 deficit by the end of turn two. However, Sammael did what he does best, absolutely turning the tide of battle. On his own he killed two units of Chaos Marines, a unit of Havocs and took out Gandy's Warlord in combat, scoring three points for this one act alone. In the end the Dark Angels were too much for the forces of the Alpha Legion, leaving me with a 12-7 victory. Two for two, which is about the best run I've ever had :P In Danny and Pootank' game the Tyranid hordes were voracious in exterminating Marines, setting the stage nicely for next week's game to be a decider between Pootank and me. It will be a hotly contested, exciting game, with all to play for!

Also, a promise. The next post will have my finished Black Knights, even if I have to press gang people into helping me finish them!

The Raven's Shadow, The Supreme Grand Master and how bikes are destroying my life.

I have been painting the second half of my Black Knight unit, Squad Kushial, for about two weeks now on and off. For some reason, they just aren't quite clicking for me. Maybe it's my sloppy painting, which is fine as they will be tidied up, but I look at them and just...I don't know. Pretty sure it's just me needing to step away from them and have a fresh look. They aren't far from completion now anyways, with just the Huntsmaster requiring the majority of the work.

After posting my Standard of Devastation list, I realised the only model I would need to run the list would be Azrael himself. However, the original model, while still being very cool, suffers due to being sculpted around 20 years ago when Marine models were generally a bit smaller than now. So, what can I use to create a new Azrael. Enter....this guy!

In case you weren't aware, this is the Captain from the Dark Vengeance starter box. it's a gorgeous piece of sculpting  and would make a great Azrael stand in. Pootank has a few of these boxes he bought to sell for parts on Ebay, so I'll be grabbing a new one from him. Mine will have the bare head from the Deathwing Command box, as I want him to be accompanied by...

I think it's obvious why!

I also managed to find a Dark Talon kit on Amazon for £35 including free postage. I'd say bargain but, well, even that's a bit steep for one model. However, having the spare money, I decided I should probably grab it anyways. I get the feeling that flyers are soon to start making a real dent in the Nerd Garage, with Danny eagerly eyeing the new Tau codex and models, and looking at buying at least one of the new Razorshark/Sunshark kits. Personally for me the star is the new Broadside, just for looking exactly like an anime robot, but the Riptide runs this a very close second. It will be good to have a new army to play against either way! Anyways, say hello to the Raven's Shadow.

Finally, I treated myself to some Forge World items. The new plasma guns are gorgeous, and look suitably old and archaic for the sons of the First Legion. Ten of those ordered pleases! Also, a five man Mark IV squad, as it's my favourite armour mark by a long shot, and I needed something to glue the plasma guns onto in case they were too big for the standard Marine hands.

The Inner Circle appears. Black Knight progress/excuses

So, painting on the Black Knights has slowed down, mostly due to real life and spending all weekend with the Girly (that's not a complaint!). However, I didn't want to post anything without putting some photos up of things I had been working on before my new plan. With that in mind, I've decided to put up some pictures of the one type of unit I wish I could have in my 1500 pt Dark Angels list. Here come the Deathwing!

I've always loved the Deathwing. The bone colour, their secret mission, the flexibility of their units. But my favourite thing about the Deathwing is the ability to field a whole army of Terminators. Who doesn't love that? I'm hoping that I can start getting some more of these guys painted, and quietly building up a 1500 pt list, looking at 4 units of Deathwing, Belial and a Land Raider (and maybe some Deathwing Knights if I can get them in there, as they are gorgeous models).

These guys were my test models. I had seen some beautiful Deathwing in Games Workshop Coventry, and popped in one day to get some advice to how to recreate the colour from the manager, Dave. He's a great guy, and was more than happy to help me get a nice shade of bone. It's very simple to paint and has a fantastic result! Also, don't worry about the Cyclone Terminator, he's 'armless! (I'm sorry)

This is my Belial. When the models were previewed, I wasn't the biggest fan of the Finecast version. However, the Deathwing Command box gives ample opportunity to create your own. I think he looks much better here :P

These all still have to be built and painted. That's a pleasure though as I adore this kit. There's so many parts and variety that you could spend days getting your models right. The only complaint I have is that there could be extra lightning claws and/or Thunder Hammers. But it's a small gripe, and not one I should have to worry about.

The nice thing with painting all three Wings is that I can create lots of different types of armies from the one codex, all of which with their individual flavour, but not at the expenses of learning how the codex works as a whole. Also when Gandy starts running his Drakes, I can laugh as the baleflamer whiffs at my 2+ save!

The Black Knights are getting there slowly, and should be finished by next week with any luck. I've found that keeping momentum through a project can be tricky, especially when a longer than expected gap is taken. However seeing them on my painting desk is making me want to get them all done and on here.

Squad Kushial 50% complete...here comes the Sixth Company!

I've finished my first three Black Knights. I was planning to complete the rest of the unit much later on, but I enjoyed painting them so much I will be doing the other three after a little break. Of course, when I start painting the Huntsmaster I will be regretting this immensely!

I realise in my last post I said I would be using XV-88 as a leather colour. However, after using it and washing with Devlin Mud, I found it was too bright and distracted from the overall scheme. So instead, I have decided to use Scorched Brown. This is one of my favourite colours, and luckily enough has a base colour match in the new GW paints (Rhinox Hide for the record)

Pic time

So, what am I going to paint next? I was looking to paint more Ravenwing, but I have had my fill of painting black for the time being. Six bikes is more than enough for now! So, I thought I would have a crack at painting some of the Greenwing element of my army. I love painting Caliban Green, but sometimes I struggle getting a consistent shade. Hopefully I can sort this and get my models how I want them to look. Also, I have a lot of robed marines, so this will make each squad interesting as they will have a nice mix of bone and dark green colours, hopefully meaning I won't get too bored.

So...a before pic of the first unit.

Say hello to Squad Numiah. These guys are a nice distraction unit to put onto a backfield objective and provide lascannon support. All for 90 points! These guys will be Sixth Company marines. I'd like to say I chose the Sixth for fluffy reasons, but in all honesty I chose them due to the fact the kneepad marking is so easy to paint...

These hopefully won't take long, will allow me to get my robe and green colours sorted, and provide a small break until I crack into the rest of Squad Kushial. Win/win all round!

Bonus pic

This little Watcher was painted by me for a friend. For 30 mins work I'm very happy, but not as happy as she was :)

Tactica Black Knights

I want to try and start giving advice on units within the Dark Angels codex. This won't be a regular thing, but I thought it would be good to break the painting side of it, and to help people who are a little stuck on how to use units.

Disclaimer
I'm not the best player. I have a horrible W/L record. These kinds of posts are my opinion only, and should not be taken as game winning advice.

So, with that out of the way, let's get it on! And to start, I'm going to advise on one of my favourite new units from the Codex - Ravenwing Black Knights.

Ravenwing Black Knights are the elite of the Ravenwing Comapny. Clocking in at 42 points a model, they come with Skilled Rider, Hit and Run, Grim Resolve and Scouts. They are also armed with Plasma Talons and Corvus Hammers as standard.

Plasma Talons are a shorter ranged twin linked plasma gun. This on its own is a sound gun to have, but put onto a bike unit gives you a 30" range for putting plasma wounds onto a target. Getting better right? One in three bikes can swap their Talon for a Ravenwing Grenade Launcher. This little gem can fire frag and krak grenades (never a bad thing), stasis grenades (useful for making elite assualt units less deadly to attack in HTH) or rad grenades (this is my personal favourite, knocking all models uner its blast's toughness down by one. This does affect ID thresholds, meaning T4 models can be ID'd by the Talons. Use this on Obliterators or Paladins and laugh)

Corvus Hammers are a +1 strength, rending CCW. These are very useful for mopping up elite units after blasting them with Talons, or, as each RBK has 4 attacks on the charge, for shredding horde infantry. The Huntsmaster also has the option of a power weapon, which if you do choose it, should be a power lance to take advantage of your ability to choose your charges due to your maneuverability. If you get stuck in a combat, or need a little extra oomph to break that tough unit, then Hit and Run is a great option. Just remember, never , never, NEVER use it in your turn, otherwise you will be in for a world of hurt.

If you do take Black Knights, a useful choice to choose alongside them is a Darkshroud. This, combined with your Skilled Rider will give your Knights a 3+ cover save. Turbo boosting gives you a 2+! Of course this will depend on your army composition, but if you are going Ravenwing heavy you can't go far wrong with this mix.

I know it's not the most detailed overview, but hopefully it will help someone :)

Black Knight Squad Kushial WIP

Black Knights are too detailed. Honestly!

Actually now that I've done the biggest sections (Silver and White) these guys are starting to be tamed. I need to get the gold down, but having used the shoulder pad markings as testers, I have finally found that Balthasar Gold is a very nice paint, so I'm looking forward to that section. Just waiting on an order of XV-88 to  give me a base brown to use for the pouches and seat leather.

WIP pic time!

They're getting there!

Squad Arael rides to war! (Guest starring The Nerd Garage)

And done! Really happy with these guys. They're definitely better than just table top in my eyes, but I would say that. I thought painting Sergeant Arael would be a chore, but he was surprisingly easy to do. I just need to remember that when I paint, my models only tend to come together at the end, and that they always look a mess just before finishing.

Enough talk. Picture time!

 They look quite happy, and will be running around melta-ing the Fallen soon enough...


So now my first unit is complete, time to line up the next thing. Which is...

Three Ravenwing Black Knights! These guys are half of Squad Kushial, which is the elite part of my army. I've decided to paint these in two halves as this will mean I get less bored with painting the same thing six times over, and to reward myself for finishing my first unit. The second half will get painted after I complete something else significant (possibly either Sammael or my Darkshroud).

I say reward...I looked at these guys again yesterday and realised the amount of detail on the models. Gulp.

Also, I thought it was time I mentioned my gaming group. We usually play at my friend's garage, which we have christened The Nerd Garage, here in Coventry on Wednesdays. There's four of us in the group, Gandy, Pootank, Danny Kastigaunt and myself. It tends to be a bit of a 40K free for all, with Danny and Pootank running tournie lists against each other, while Gandy and myself like to kick back and play casually. Gandy is the newest gamer to our group, and has only just started playing 40K. He runs a Chaos list and is starting to get very good at working out threats and creating havoc. His janky dice rolling doesn't help either :P

Next week I will be running a Ravenwing/Greenwng list against Gandy, who's only gone and bought himself a Heldrake. It promises to be brutal and I will try to get the battle report up on here...if I don't lose too badly that is! (Edit - I found out that this won't be happening next week but the week after, so probably 27/02/2013. I'm really sorry about that, but as an apology here's a copy of the list I will be using and am currently painting towards


Sammael (Corvex) 200
6 Ravenwing Black Knights - 1 x Grenade Launcher - 252
10 tact - Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon, Rhino - 205
10 tact - Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon, Rhino - 205
5 tact - Lascannon - 90
5 devs - 3 x Missile Launcher, 1 x Lascannon - 135
3 x Ravenwing - 2 x melta, Combi-Melta, Attack Bike (Multi Melta) - 165
3 x Ravenwing - 2 x melta, Combi-Melta, Attack Bike (Multi Melta) - 165
Darkshroud - 80 pts

I will definitely do a battle report now to make up for the delay!)


Kobrakei