For the Emperor

Things are still not really back to normal, but I did have a few minutes to take some photos of models I painted months ago... a couple of motivational speakers for the Emperor!

The chaplain is from the Eighth Company of the Red Scorpions and the commissar for my Death Korps of Krieg army (more pics of units from the DKoK over the next few weeks).

The photos look a little washed out, but that's what I get for rushing!

Commander Culln

Here's the newest addition to my Red Scorpions Space Marine army - Commander Culln! The addition of the Commander places me somewhere around 2600 points for this army, though I would need to use two force structures because I now how three HQ choices... not a problem since I have four Troop choices!

I have a pile of Rhino/Razorback (I plan to leave the top hatch unglued so I can use the kits for either) and Drop Pod transports hanging around which will probably be up next when I get around to more Space Marines.

Red Scorpions Devastator Squad

More reinforcements for my Red Scorpions Space Marine army, this time in the form of some much needed Heavy Support...

I'm going to add another four marines next week and I'll have the option of fielding a full ten man squad, a five or six man squad if I want to place them in a Razorback (a hint for something else coming in the near future), or I can leave the heavies at home and field an extra six man tactical squad.

Medic!

One of the special rules in the Forge World Red Scorpions army list called PURITY ABOVE ALL. The fluff is that the chapter closely monitors it's geneseed, screening for mutation and corruption, to the point of fanatiscism! The game rule allows you to upgrade any Sergeants in Tactical Squads to Apothecaries for 25pts which will give the entire squad FEEL NO PAIN (Ignore unsaved Wounds on a 5+).

This use to seem overpowered to me before the Blood Angels Codex came out. Forge World rules are not allowed in most of the national tournaments, but I don't play in those kind of events - my local group is fine with the rule. In any case, I still have the original Sergeants I painted.

In light of the post from yesterday, I should also mention the other special rule for the Red Scorpions - HAVE PRIDE IN YOUR COLOURS. The Red Scorpions shun the use of camouflage and it's attendant tactics such as covert operations, stealth, and infiltration. This means no model in the army may use the INFILTRATION or SCOUT special rule so my Scout units will set up in the same manner as the rest of my troops... still worth it for the Sniper Rifles!

Red Scorpions Snipers

In the Kill Team event last week, my Plague Marines were nearly annihilated in two turns by a combination of Space Marine scouts armed with sniper rifles and a missile launcher - this after weathering a storm of heavy bolter fire and Tau pulse weapons without flinching. My brother has been after me to use this combo for a decade, so this week I finally painted up a small squad to add to my Red Scorpions army.

The camo cloaks sport the chapter approved scheme used during the Angstrom Incident during the Badab War. These are the first of many new models I plan to add to my Red Scorpions this year...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Eight

November sees the completion of my Red Scorpions army at 2000 points!

Of course, I've already shown the Land Raider. The remaining additions gave some much needed speed to my force. The bike squad and attack bike will be fielded as one unit and the Assault Squad will normally support the bikes or the Vanguard Veteran squad.

So the final tally...

HQ
Space Marine Captain
Space Marine Command Squad
Space Marine Librarian

Troops
Space Marine Tactical Squad (10)
Space Marine Tactical Squad (10)
Space Marine Squad Squad (8)

Elite
Space Marine Terminator Squad (5)
Dreadnought

Fast Attack
Space Marine Bike Squad (3 + Attack Bike)
Space Marine Assault Squad (5)
Vanguard Veterans (5)

Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader

Basically painted over the course of four months! I discovered that by alternating between the Space Marines and Tyranids, it was easier to keep the drive going and not burn out slapping the same colors on models day after day. It was also easy to paint 500-points a month and left me time to work on other projects.

When I started this project, part of the goal was to paint things I had tucked away in my game room. The only thing I purchased for the Red Scorpion army were the Assault Marine box and the Land Raider doors from Forge World. After all this, I STILL have enough unpainted kits to add another 1000 points easy, but I am planning on starting ANOTHER Space Marine army for 2013 that I've wanted to do for a very long time...

Anyway, this was a fun experiment - next month will see the completion of my 2000 point Tyranid army!

Red Scorpions Land Raider

Ok - I was supposed to be painting Tyranids for my 'A Tale of One Gamer' this month and I have made progress on that front (pics next week). However, I have also been working on a Space Marine Land Raider Crusader for my Red Scorpions army and rather than wait for next month I wanted to feature the tank in a post of it's own.

I am extremely pleased with the results. The skull and wings emblem on the upper hull was painted freehand which was something I've never really attempted. I took a photo of the top of the model, imported the image into CorelDraw, and designed the graphic to size. I printed this to use as a reference. After painting the hull grey, I used a white colored pencil to sketch my design on the hull and then carefully blocked in the shapes. When I was satisfied with the emblem, I highlighted in the same manner as the rest of the tank.

The side and front hatches are from Forge World. I painted the crew model as a Techmarine rather than a standard trooper to break up the monotony of grey and gold. Right now the model is in pristine condition, right from the manufactorum, but I plan on adding battle damage and weathering.

Tyranids coming next week...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Six

This month's 40k painting has brought me to 1500-points...

The addition of the Space Marine Librarian gives me psychic support that my force has been lacking so far and it's never bad to have an extra character. The Command Squad adds extra support for my Space Marine Captain and helps keep from being so easily targeted. Finally, I like to field lots of Troops in my army for those all important objective grabs so I painted up a second Tactical Squad. My army is up to 46 models which is very respectable for Space Marines!

I've decided to target my armies for 1850-points for now which seems to be a fairly popular tournament point total... not that I'll be taking part in such events, but the logic behind the total is to allow a good variety of stuff while still finishing battles in a reasonable amount of time, which suits me perfectly. For November expect to see my Red Scorpions gain reinforcements in the form of a couple of Heavy Support choices! Back to Tyranids for October...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Four

After a fast start (I finished my Vanguard Veterans way back on July 9th) I didn't have as much time to paint as I'd hoped, but I did manage to add two units to my Red Scorpions army...

These units bring me up to 1020 points and (more importantly) the addition of the Scout Squad gives me my second Troops choice - I now have a legal army for the game table. By the end of August, with the gribblies sitting on my desk, I should have at least 1000 points of Tyranids as well and I'll be able to play my first game!


Badab Bloggers

40k Friday

Progress on my 'A Tale of One Gamer' project so far for July...

Red Scorpions Vanguard Veterans

Still going through the new 40k rule book - I'll have some general impressions by next weekend, maybe for my 40k Friday post. 

40k Friday

WIP update on my ToOG project with the first of my Vanguard Veterans in action with the help of Photoshop!

As a vanilla chapter, I've chosen to paint veteran Red Scorpions models with the codex white helmet (and the sergeant with red).


Badab Bloggers

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Two

This week for 40k Friday, I want to show the results of May, my first month of my ToOG project. I set out to paint the Space Marines of The Assault on Black Reach box set as the core of my new army - The Red Scorpions! Right off the bat, I decided to replace the captain that comes with that set with the multipart kit I also had in the closet. The rest of the models are from the set, with the addition of brass Red Scorpion badges from Forge World.

Just realized I complete forgot to 'weather' the Dreadnought - oh, well, I'll fit that in later this week. This comes to roughly 635 points which is a good start for the army and I am rather pleased with the results so far. I haven't decided exactly what to add next except a second Troops choice to make this a 'legal' army. I'll probably add a Command Squad to back up my Captain as well...

WARHAMMER 40K PLAYERS TAKE NOTE: I am a terrible Warhammer player. I tend to build armies with units I want to paint that look cool. I rarely spend a lot of time weighing point values other than to get the totals right. Do not follow my growing army list as a path toward victory on the table. You have been warned!

Ok, June is the month of Tyranids! My next ToOG post will feature my first 500(ish) points of my SECOND new army.


Badab Bloggers

A Tale of One Gamer - Part One

Anyone familiar with Games Workshop and White Dwarf will have seen the article series 'A Tale of Four Gamers'. For those not acquainted with the series, it features... well... four gamers (HA)! But what these guys are up to is collecting a new army in a manner that many of us at home might - assuming we might maintain a small amount of discipline. Each participant selects his new army and a Battleforce (a pre-packaged collection designed to provide a small mixed force of a GW army), with the goal of painting it in one month. The goal of the next month is to add enough troops to make a 'codex legal' army and get in at least one game - maybe 750 or 1000 points. The third month is 1500 points and the fourth 2000 points, with a game in each...

So, what am I on about? I'm going to attempt this project solo by building TWO new Warhammer 40k armies and alternating months! That means TWO 2000 points armies finished over the course of eight months... my problem will be maintaining focus for that long as I am riddled with Gamer ADD. I also have no plans to suspend work on my Battle of the Boyne collection (the Warfare Miniatures Horse packs will be out soon), so this will be quite the challenge!

Something I also want to avoid is going broke pursuing this little project (GW kits are pricy). With that in mind, I decided to limit my initial army choices and my 'Battleforce' selection to the piles of unpainted plastic that I already have languishing in storage cupboards. My first choice had to be Space Marines! I have a 2000+ point Crimson Fist army and a mountain of kits purchased with megalomaniacal dreams of expansion. However, I want to paint something new so I'm going to add another chapter to my Imperial collection. I am a huge fan of Forge World's Imperial Armour books and the Red Scorpions are featured in two sets - The Anphelion Project and the Badab War. They have a very different color scheme than the Crimson Fists, but will look great allied along side them for Apocalypse games.

My second choice, based on models I already have is Tyranids (also featured in the Anphelion Project). I don't remember buying the models, but at some point I acquired a large box of plastic sprues for these alien monsters. The new 'How to Paint Citadel Miniatures' book has a chapter on painting Hive Fleet Kraken Tyranids using mostly washes that I am keen to try out - it looks like an extremely fast way to paint a force which will be very useful with a horde army.

While I do have lots of sprues around, I don't have an actual Battleforce box set for either army. For the Space Marines I do have the Assault on Black Reach set which is close. This gives me a squad of Tactical Marines, a squad of Terminators, a Dreadnought, and a Space Marine Captain - around 500 points depending on the options I choose and a good start toward my legal codex army (all I am lacking is one more Troops choice). For my Tyranids, my initial group will simply be cobbled together from what I have on hand which looks like 18 Termagants, 8 Hormagaunts, 3 Tyranid Warriors, and a Carnifex - roughly 450 points, again depending on the options. Expanding this force will require an HQ (and a few more Hormagaunts - a legal unit would be 10+ models).

Ok - that's four 'units' for each force which gives me a fairly relaxed painting schedule considering I can allot a whole week to single figures in some cases. I think the Space Marines will be up first - I'll post WIP shots as I get on...