Caution: Necromechanics in Progress

Things have been dark and cold out here, so I figured that raising the undead would be appropriate. Here are some WIP shots of the slowly growing Cryx force that lurks on my shelf.

They will count as 'mechani-thralls', and there is probably more to come after this, but I call them steam-zombies. I chose to start with the minimum unit size, which is six. Along with this unit I also have two brute-thralls to add in and another four steam zombies to make after.

These zombies are made from Warhammer zombies, with their hands cut off, attached to Warmachine bases. New hands, as well as the occasional leg or arm, were made from plastic tubes and rods (from the friendly neighborhood model train store). Once that was finished, guitar wire was glued on, then some putty to plug the wires into the hands and create furnaces.

While the putty was wet, more tubes were added to make smoke stacks. I cut some of them at angles to emulate the Cryxian style. It might be the grins, but they do seem happy.

Ah, yes. The Iron Lich. He accumulates paint very slowly, maybe I just like him on the painting table...

I am tempted to paint the same tone of red that Deneghra has on his hood and skirt...err....robe. Hmmmm.....hopefully this will get me painting him again...

Beware of clones,
Ricalope.

A Day in the Life of an Ankle Biter

Mr. Huggy and some of his Black Legion had stumbled upon a infestation of tyranids from Hive Fester last Sunday. Squiggly-face began the long float from the far right corner along with Franky and the ankle-biters (aka rippers).

Mr. Huggy began with the termagaunts, killing them all. The Quadruped moved towards Franky, completely ignoring the ankle-biters who were much relieved.

While Franky and Qudruped traded blows, and the ankle-biters slithered towards the terminators, the Triplets floated forwards. Except for their initial warp lances at Quarduped, the marines continued to back off keeping themselves out of range, they were getting frustrated.

Once finished with the gaunts, Mr. Huggy set about ripping apart the warriors behind them. The Black Legion must have realized that this was not where they wanted to hang around, as the swarm slithered and skipped towards them they dug into what cover they could.

Franky had eviscerated the clawed chaos robot and wandered over to help out his little ripper buddies with the terminators. As terminators are wont to do, they were holding their line nicely until a monstrous death-beast arrived.

Franky was regenerating his wounds he got from the robot (shrapnel I guess) and tearing apart a couple of terminators, even those berserkers didn't worry him much. The problem was, Mr. Huggy had finished off the warriors and counter-attacked Franky, causing enough wounds for the skull-taker's powerfist to finish off the monster. The rippers went nuts, as Franky died the little buggers killed a terminator AND Mr.Huggy. Never trust a poisonous worm-thing.

The Triplets got in range to give the chaos marines large globs of warp energy. The three of them melting marines, and Fester approaching and spitting death, caused the chaos filth to change tactics slightly. They were on full defensive now.

Fester began pinning down the fire-support squad, while the Triplets blasted anything not in combat with ankle-biters. (Those little freaks lasted over three full turns of combat, with terminators....poisonous rippers are awesome.)

Sadly, the little ankle-biters couldn't get past the terminators and nibble on the other marines. The Black Legion still had enough numbers to seize a victory (or a tactical retreat as the case may be) and won the battle. Until next time crunchy chaos snacks!

Warp Wednesday Fifteen: The Return

Happy Wednesday, it's been a while, but once again it is Wednesday in the warp. It is a bit winterly in the warp today, Tzeentch's work, I'm sure of it.

Some of you may have noticed a poll (up near the top of the page) about who to bring to GottaCon this year. Sorry folks, the guard are out this year, they fought last year.

As many of you know, GottaCon is a gaming convention on our little frozen island, and since last year was so good I am gladly going again. This time there is a painting competition sponsored by Dice Bag Games, in addition to all the other shenanigans.

The easiest question is which army to bring to the 40k tournament. It honestly boils down to: a) eldar that might win some games, look neat, and is all painted, or b) tyranids that still need 50 points of work, have barely been played, and is entirely modified.

I often hear about awards that get handed out at the end of a tournament, and I don't have any, I have different goals in competitive play. I try to get good scores, specifically sportsmanship and showmanship, but those are secondary. I play in tournaments because it is a chance to play against new opponents with amazing armies.

In short, I get to play AND drool.

There is the problem that, if I bring Hive Fester, using swarm armies at tournaments might cause some to cry fowl, and possibly slow down the game to much.

On a side note, those of you who read WW's, I am curious as to what you want to read about. Background of the armies? Hobby stuff? Insane, barely wargaming-associated rants? Reviews? What blog I read that was way too awesome? My lunch menu? Or do you just look at the pictures (that's cool too)...

Well, as I have said before, it is good to be back blogging. It is even better to have the limitless inspiration of the other blogs I follow, I missed you guys.
Yup, still snowing (and I thought we were tropical...)
Ricalope.

Red

Red is my favorite color, but oddly, I have no red-themed armies... So I pulled Deneghra off the Wall of Shame and applied many reds.At first she was not a planned part of my Cryxian Legion (since she is not an iron lich), but even liches like some feminine company. That, and she comes in the battlegroup set. And third, and possibly the most motivational, Sheffield Irregulars' theme this month is red. So, with two weeks to finish her, I put brush to model.

I began with her skin, using light dull-grey blues. I then picked out the major red areas using Privateer's shading techniques from the rulebook. The dark grey-blue of the armor is to tie her in with the rest of the legion. I always paint metallics last, and Deneghra's metal I washed with red and devlan mud before highlighting with mithril.

If I was a steam-powered zombie, I would follow her around.
Ricalope.

A Day in the Life of Zaras, Part 2

Zaras' day wasn't quite over, the next battle at the bridge began with a spectacular explosion courtesy of a vindicator. Mr. Huggy took notice and attempted to smash the grav tank, to no avail.

So, Zaras picked up the dragons and headed towards the incoming dreadnought. Meanwhile, as berserkers and other such nasties came over the bridge, the deamon prince was gunned down.

Far from almost everyone, a squad of striking scorpions had finished off a squad of Black Legion, only to be assaulted (and killed) by the "quadraped".

Arriving with the terminators, the chaos sorceror turned one of the rangers into a spawn, life began to suck for them. Then they died.

But Zaras was headed off to the other fight that was brewing. The dire avangers were taking on the terminators, but the chaos dread' was still incoming. The aspect warriors managed quite a few wounds, with the terminators saving all of them. D'oh.

The dreadnought seemed indestructible, but not all too deadly against grav tanks.

Jetbikes were incoming, dealing with the deamons and berserkers behind the sorceror, Zaras deployed the dragons on the dreadnought. The two grav tanks gave cover fire as they destroyed it.

The sorceror killed the farseer and his dire avengers, with no terminators remaining, while the dread's explosion left the exarch alone. With no scoring units on either side the battle was a draw.

That was a long day,
Ricalope.

A Day in the Life of Zaras

If you have been reading lately you might be familiar with Zaras. Today is his maiden battle, as well as the vyper and war walker from the last post. At the Rabbit Hole we were playing 1250 point matches, I decided to field a fast list.

The farseer deployed Zaras on the right flank during the first battle. The eldar were facing a marine force consisting of 42 loyalists, including sternguard and devastators.

The devastators were on the fire dragon's to do list, so into the mealstrom of heavy fire he happily flew. Many cover saves later, the dragons were deployed.

The mon-kieh responded with missile fire and an orbital bombardment. After also making many cover saves, their assault plan in tatters and the dragons fell back.

The right flank was bolstered by the timely arrival of the jetbike squadron (who wasted no time in assaulting them). Zaras ferried the remaining dragons to secure the rear objective. Now with both the devastators in combat, and the farseer and dire avengers dealing with the sternies, the focus was on the tactical squads.

The Master Captain and his marines were in Zaras' sights, but Chaplain Goldie was after the farseer. Storms of laser and shriuken fire strafed the building as the dragons secured the objective.

The farseer spent five rounds in combat with Goldie and his marines until the jetbikes arrived and he finally fell. The marines had been removed from the objectives, and the dragons held one.

The next skirmish was against Waagh! Sparky. Zaras quickly sped towards the deffdread, delivering its payload. As it flew to a safer distance the 'dread caught the pulse laser in one of its claws.

The orks attempted to rush the river, but with the dire avengers holding the landing pad/objective, and the roving skimmers, the eldar bank was secure. The fire dragons destroyed the 'dread with meltabombs, but were them killed by angry burnas.

The battle was a draw, on the seventh turn a warboss was tentatively holding the center objective, the dire avengers holding the other.

And that was a day in the life of a falcon named Zaras. Until next time,
Ricalope.

mmmm...Eldar

Here is my second vyper, just one more to go until a full squadron, meaning 21 str 6 shots. Yes please, especially at 210 points.

Does a swarm of eldar bikes and grav tanks remind anyone else of schools of fish?

There was no green on that vyper, it didn't feel 'right'. So with the war walker I attempted to use both.

The bad part is, now I only want to look at it from the one side...
That's all for now, I must get back to my fire prisms.
Ricalope.