Broken Paintbrush

Perhaps the title is a bit misleading, are any of our little plastic armies ever really finished? Perhaps not, but I completed the 2,000 point army I brought to the Seattle GT  including a display board for it.

Two models that were last to be finished also completed (though very late) ToEMP #10: officer of the fleet and the company command’s chimera.

The officer of the fleet is a real help against reserved based armies such as drop pod marines. During the tournament he wasn’t a game changer as none of my opponents relied on reserves, but then again maybe they just changed their tactics in response to him?

The Chimera was used to protect my command squad with the invaluable Commander Creed. This tank was destroyed in nearly every game in the tournament but Creed was lost in only 2 of them, so I think all in all it was well worth its cost.

As for my results? I achieved my goal for my first ever GT: win 2 games. In fact I even tied a third while grabbing the secondary objective. The two I lost were both hard losses. The first was against Nidzilla and only a sole sentinel remained at turn 6. The second was the last game against a fully mechanized guard army which would have been a great deal closer if luck had been better with me.  In the end I placed 47th out of 80 some great 40k players (and cheating one who won but was later disqualified!). After spending the last few weeks getting over the hard losses and the less than I hoped painting score, I’ve started to reorganize my army composition and think hard about how I want to play this army. I may move to a more mechanized army with squads of veterans rather than the platoons, but I still want to stick to the theme I’ve started so may look at replacing the tanks altogether and build a completely foot based army. We shall see what the future holds…

So in celebration of finishing my Leman Russ and Armoured Sentinels (need to post finished pictures of them…) I thought I should post a group shot of my Traitor Guard army. I also needed to put together an official army list for the army for the painting competition on Sunday as well. As you can see they came a long way from just two months ago.

My company commander with his horde as his back drop and the two sentinels looming in the distance.

I am still needing to paint two more heavy weapon squads and two scout sentinels to finish what I currently have built. I also have another platoon worth of troops from a friend at the store but they may have to wait for some tanks to bolster the line first.

The Army List using only what is painted:

• HQ: Company Command Squad 137 pts
  • Company Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon and melta bombs
  • Veterans with regimental standard, medi-pack, plasmagun, vox, krak grenades
• Troop: Platoon #1 352
  • Platoon Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon, melta bomb; standard, 2x grenade launchers, vox 77pts
  • 2x squads with vox, flamer, power weapon, melta bomb , krak grenades 85 pnts each
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x lascannons 105 pnts
• Troop: Platoon #2 352
  • Platoon Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon, melta bomb; standard, 2x grenade launchers, vox 77pts
  • 2x squads with vox, flamer, power weapon, melta bomb, krak grenades 85 pnts each
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x lascannons 105 pnts
• Fast Attack: Armoured Sentinels x2 with plasma cannons 150 pnts
• Heavy Support: Leman Russ with lascannon, heavy bolters 185 pnts

Total: 1176

Here are a bunch of group shots of my traitor guard horde as it currently stands. As you can see I have the one platoon command nearly done and the two platoon squads started (well only one coat of orange so far…). At this point I have a company command squad, two platoons each with two squads and two heavy weapons squads. I have two squads of lascannons, one missle launcher squad and a mortar squad. This comes out to around 750 points which is a nice starting point and a solid core of any size game I am able to play in the future as this army continues to grow.

on to the pictures!

overhead view of my traitor guard horde

The missle launcher squad and the mortors still need to be primed, I had built them while waiting for the other models to dry. After seeing this post on From the Warp I may try priming with brown and save some time painting multiple layers of orange, flesh and light brown while maintaining the dark shadows where the brush doesn’t fit.

the company command backed by the mob of traitors

Yes, that is indeed a inquisitor model leading my traitor army. Ironic as it is, the model is great and with some slight modification looks like a merciless leader of traitors under the whip of the Iron Warriors.

Lascannon Squad #1

Because of their larger bases, the heavy weapon teams screamed for more customization and imagination. I had a great time building these squads and tried to build a story into each one. In this squad, its hard to see in this picture, but the guy on the far left got too excited and cut the power cable for his now upset teammate.

Lascannons, missiles, orange, oh my!

Here is a group shot of the other lascannon squad hiding in the ruins of a building (I know the cover doesn’t count, but it sure looks cool), the missile launchers (with a very upset spotter) and the platoon I started painting.

Mortars hiding in the back

Here is my mortar squad hiding in the back and behind a pile of sand bags. I have a long way to go to get all these guys painted but I’m hoping I can work on my bulk painting skills and bust out a platoon in a week (heres to dreaming!)