Hobby update: tourneys and flikr

Hallo again.  I think a brief update would be in order, not like much has happened this last while...

First, I want to say that I'm on flikr now (barely).  I think this link should take you to my photostream.  Not much up there right now but I hope it'll become a regular thing; also, I'm not really sure of how things work there-- any pointers I would gladly accept.

 ***

Last weekend I was at a 750 pt tourney at my local; I got four games in, three of which I lost through sheer inattention. I've also contracted a cold from somewhere and that's no fun.

First I was up against eight hundred eldar jetbikes, so I knew I was flocked right from the start.  My opponent (a tau veteran, by-the-by) was very nice though, giving advice and reminding me not to "follow the rabbit" and get distracted.

The second game was against orks who were very lazy but still managed to win somehow.  Their deffkopta pilots were drunk and the boyz didn't like running at all; it was quite funny to watch...

This melee went nowhere

...Until the (counts-as) deff dread backhanded my captain insensible after I teleported him behind it and put a melta charge in its back.  That was terrifying.  Then his nobz brought down my dreadnought-- his first defeat!

Third I was fighting (much to my ire) the tyranids.  I'm not really meant to be fighting bugs with this army, but oh well.  There was a bit of confusion when wounds were being resolved against his flyrant; I had hit him with my centurion's gav-cannons and had forgotten only 6's hit him.
But I took out the carnifex before he could do anything, which was nice.

Sadly, I didn't get any decent photos of the White Rose's first victory.  She was put up against a knight paladin and a knight crusader; to make up for points I had two stormtalons which didn't do much.
The White Rose immobilized the paladin with an ordinance shot point-blank (remember her battle-cannon?) into the chest before charging and ripping it in half-- and surviving the apocalyptic blast with three HP left.  She then slammed the crusader from the side and tore him to shreds-- carefully this time, and I felt like such a proud parent when she left unscathed!

***

In other news, I've been considering again the prospect of Dark Eldar as an army, though I'm having trouble finding a comfortable kitbashing level.  Not helped by the fact that my bitz box is more SM related.
I also have another (non-40k) project I have yet to start on to fill in my all-encompassing "make something" bingo square; still gathering bits for this one...

And that's that, I suppose.  A very broad hobby update, nothing more.  Bye-bye for now.

D

Vererated Asbjorn finished!

Waltzing with Doom; they killed each other a life ago, only to meet again transcended... 

So I finished my "repaint" job.  Hee hee, it proved more of a challenge than I expected, but I so badly wanted Asbjorn back in my army I did not put it down until it was finished.  And here he is!

...Now I look at them, I think the light was a bit off.  I'm sorry.

I don't like to boast, BUT I believe this is my best vehicle yet, 'specially compared to his first incarnation!  I'm a bit worried how the work I did on the White Rose will stand up now.
The image of Thollr I gave three roots; one to Niflheim (power pack), one to jotland (right arm) and one to Asgard (the sarcophagus).

If the light's right you can see him

I LOVE the texture the tech paints give.

Multi-melta; I found they don't actually produce a plastic piece for this option and the OoP ones are going for a lot on ebay.  Oh well!  I noticed that the 6th ed studio models had the barrel taken off their assault cannon with a sponson melta slapped on the front.  Anything I did would look nicer, surely.

Twin-linked heavy flamer; I think I've already voiced my dislike of the frag cannon's aesthetic, so I had no qualms about chopping it to bits.  The outer flamer is from a sentinel, the inner one is the dreadnought's own.

Twin-linked lascannon; I got lucky a while ago with a trademe auction, when I found these in amongst everything else.  The corpse was an accident.  Honest.

I also gave him the option of a storm bolter or another heavy flamer.
 So that's that, and probably all I will be doing concerning Space Marines for a bit (unless distraction takes hold, which I do not doubt.)  I'm trying to find a suitable method of kitbashing dark Eldar right now-- I'm thinking of using vampire counts perhaps, maybe even lizardmen?

D

Two weapons I haven't finished so didn't show you.

"repainting" a dreadnought part 2: and he did not get distracted

And suddenly the primer's down!  Quite happy with the way this has gone so far; already he's far more of a character than he was and now befits a little more his glorious history of warfare.

 All his weapon options are complete and now just want painting, too.  I was compelled to make them all myself or salvage from IG turrets, like the autocannon and missile pod.  I couldn't get my hands on a nice Oop multi-melta, so I made one from the lascannon, and the twin-linked heavy flamer was a sentinel one linked to the dreadnought's one and stuck to the furioso frag cannon base.
Quite a stretch I must say, even for the Lonely Kitbasher, but it's so close to completion and I'm quite excited!

The brother interred; it's a shame you won't be able to see him within the sarcophagus, not very well at least.
Those exhaust stacks, too-- I was worried they'd look orky, but they seem okay...Oh well, too late to change them now!

***

Deadline or no, I'm usually not this fast with projects.  I must say, for a project so intricate (if not very big) it's gone by really quite quick.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm just beginning new projects to get attention...  Hopefully that's not the image I'm portraying.  I'm an awful scatterbrain and staying on one project is difficult.

No more Undertale references.  I promise.

So that's that.  Will the ancient be finished in time for the tourney come month's end?

D

Elders of the Blotfjord

If you didn't notice, I prefer my troops to be a menagerie of characters as opposed to a mass of cookie-cutter soldiers.  A circus, if you like, a side-show attraction of-- of creatures both interesting and game-legal (where I feel like it), and the characters are no exception by a long shot.
So slowly, between fixing a dreadnought, making a "jetbike", painting a stormtalon and a host of Angels Encarmine I have been returning on occasion to the elites of the Sagodjur Fjorlag 3rd company.  Not much has been finished yet but I have a bit of fluff to go with what I DO have, to flesh out the post if nothing else.

"... No, you DON'T understand, mortal.  I see behind the eyes of the very devils, I taste their blood before you so much as know of them; I fought them in the warp on the edge of ecstasy and beneath the sewers of the underhives they fell before my touch.  What do you think you hope to understand, and what does it matter now?  You are already dead.  I know you will die this morrow."

Lexicanum Snerra predicting the first recorded genestealer

infestation of hive Acapella, 2,000 years before it occurred.

Across the five centuries he has lived, he has earned many titles across the worlds he has fought; Suffocator, Pestilence and Choking wind being some of the more polite; so named for his unique power to still atmosphere and drain the very air of life.
While his brothers are always fallen in broken misery the lexicanum appears to revel in it; his dark mood appearing almost amnesic.  Some have thought Snerra to be from the time the Sagodjur Fjorlag were based upon a planet, and that a rogue gate of infinity carried him into the future, thus explaining away his temperament. 

For a librarian to wear the templar badge is seen as heretical by the other children of the VIIth but nobody else.

Snerra is one of the first characters I came up with when my chapter was first conceived back in 2013, and I didn't really feel confident enough to try and capture his essence in a miniature.  I had a go a few years back (the image is on the left) but it felt too... athletic, too pompous and 1st legion.  Must have been the manner of hood I used, plus the fact the pose was accidentally a carbon copy of Turmiel.  This new pose is far more slow and purposeful, I feel it gives off a darker air, too.

A daring move I made which I have never tried before was to give him a broken sword.  I have never really liked the idea in general (who does?) but you see broken weapons in classic artwork all over the place.  Also, I had a FW legion praetor's sword break on me as I was trying to straighten it out, so there we are.

"...Death's plutonian shore awaits your passage, you have only to accept it.  Give up, give up give up!"

Chaplain Strandvaskere to a failed neophyte

Chaplain Strandvaskere is Master of Recruits, overseeing the work enacted by the apothecarion on the new blood harvested from the Nastrond's hive cities and ensuring spiritual purity amongst the ranks of those children surviving the mad initiation process.  He wears the pyramid mask his office demands as he has done for what feels like ever; perhaps the mask is empty now, empty but for a few destitute scraps of brain held together with wire and the Emperor's will. 
A few have said they have seen him communicating with the Lords of the Sump, the eight who live in the utter depths of the space hulk the chapter call home.  Could it be that he unifies these unconquerable machines, he leads them out into the bitter light to wage the Emperor's war?

The chains for his chain-axe Holy Deciever are made from weapons found across battlefields of old; if there is one major point of an otherwise featureless personality, it's the nigh-obsessive hoarding of archeotech, which often gets Strandvaskere on the wrong side of the children of the Cog-- 'specially when he refuses to hand over some bit of scrap he found before they.

I have some random metal skull icons sitting about.  I didn't believe it when I found they fitted on the jump pack so neatly.

I had a WoC chariot driver body to start with, and its pose had an arm raised with a whip.  To put the axe in that hand might have worked but it would have looked too savage, too "BLOOD FOR THE-" etc, but what could I do?  The muscle was sculpted towards the raised arm and I couldn't just have him waving autistically.  Then I had the idea of lowering the axe and his hand raised in blessing; you see him and realise that this is not a monster-- this is an Imperial priest, as concerned for your spiritual purity as any other of the cloister.

And that's that.  Once again, very happy with the way these two chaps turned out-- no doubt in six months the paintwork will embarrass me, but oh well.

D

"repainting" a dreadnought part 1: yet another nice game...

I painted a dreadnought some time back in 2013.  At the time I thought I'd done a fabulous job, but I did not know about watering down paints for washes and so it dated really quickly.

Three years on and now he just embarrasses me.  He has done me proud in battles past, oddly never getting into close combat but his lascannon has seldom missed.  His most glorious moment was when he took on three traitor guard basilisks at once and destroyed them without so much as a hull point lost.  Other people have commented on his paintwork, but like I said, he just embarrasses me.
So I have decided it is time I repainted him.

Of course, to the Lonely Kitbasher, repainting means pulling completely to bits and getting very, very distracted.  It goes rather against what I normally like but I'll be giving him every weapon option in the book.  Here's what I've got to work from so far;

I wish I could give him a twin-linked multi-melta...  he has earned the right to become a venerable dreadnought, that'll open up one or two more options.  I'd like to bring up now; there's a fine line between disturbing Imperial and just looking orky; so often I have seen the line crossed, and I wish above all things to keep my loyalty at least a little obvious.

At first I was just going to give him some templar icons and re-prime him, but then I remembered something I've wanted to make for the longest time--

Now, trying to fit everything in a sarcophagus is not the easiest of things, but I think I've managed to compact it into something believable, using a skeleton horseman for the base.

And lots of barbed wire and hurricane mesh, just what the doctor ordered.

So that's that.  Yet another another distraction from everything else.  I need to finish my stormtalon before the end of the month, I'll be attending a 750 pt tourney on possibly the 27th, and I'll be taking my biggest units for a bit of fun.  One of the fellows has an IK, I can't wait to see how the White Rose will fare...

D

Progress on stormtalon for the record