Broken Paintbrush

So with the long, holiday weekend I spent a bit of time finishing up the two Traitor Russes.

Here is the finished Traitor Leman Russ #2.

At first I was going to paint the lenses green to match my Iron Warriors but through it clashed a bit too much and decided on the blue instead.

I also thought the cargo boxes looked a bit funny being empty so I painted up some bitz to add some details. This one has an extra gas can (for those torch wielding fanatics), an extra lasgun and a rusty shovel.

And Russ #3.

This one got a camo cloth and broken down  stubber.

Hope you all like how they turned out. I have the two Leman Russ Demolishers still to do but first I have a surprise. The next unit has been sitting on my desk for a few years now begging to be painted and all you old school Chaos players might remember this character

So the second Russ went a lot faster even though I did a bigger Chaos star. I also was more careful with not rubbing the masking medium and it paid off.

In trying to keep the stars more free-form and chaotic I choose different centers and angles for each but kept the same size to give some coherency.

Next up is some more detailing and the final weathering (dust/mud splatter)

So I’m hoping that I’m starting to pick up the pace a bit now that I’m getting back into the painting but it still feels like I’m slogging along. Anyway, on to the new work:

I spent this last week to add a chaos star to the tank to add some color and break up the large side. As I said in the last post the idea came from the amazing Dave Taylor’s work and tutorial. The base coat is Tausept Ocher, then adding Dheneb Stone and finally Skull White for the highlights. I wanted to set off the yellow from the red as the two colors somewhat blue together at the edges so I added a fine line of Necron Abyss.

I wanted to add some wear to the markings but without having to go back and repainting it on so I tried using a masking medium that “paints” on and once dry allows you to paint over it, and when done just rub it off. It didn’t seem to work to well on this tank as I tended to rub it off while working on it so the other Russ I plan on handling a bit more careful.

The close up of the back o the turret you can see some of the masking fluid’s work.

The last Russ is almost complete with it’s chaos stars and both will be moving on to the last weathering stage before completion.

So I’ve been able to change my schedule up to get some free time in the morning to start (finally) painting again. After getting over the hand cramps and the loss of muscle memory in the hands, I have managed to get some work done on two more Leman Russ tanks for my traitor guard.

Both of these tanks are fairly simple in the conversion sense as they are support tanks for the lead Russ. To add some character (and color) to the tanks I plan on adding some Chaos stars ala Dave Taylor thanks to his great tutorial.

Its kinda weird seeing the interblogs all up in flames about the price raises, the finecast (or not so finecast), and European stores in chains. Maybe its been too long since I’ve actually played a game to be too concerned about it all but I have no plans on dropping GW or their products. Personally I’m going to wait a few months or a year before buying any finecast so they can work out their production issues but I’m excited for the possibilities.

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…

I have just finished another tank to my growing horde of traitor guard. This one is the dreaded Leman Russ Demolisher with sponsoon plasma cannons. Indeed it is a pricy tank, but when it lets loose, it is sure worth it. Thanks to the Lumbering Behemoth rule it can move 6″ and still fire off the demolisher and a plasma cannon, ensuring the destruction of any squad unlucky enough to get in its way.

The demolisher cannon is a kit bash using the Banehammer cannon that I didn’t use for my Baneblade. I had 4 Leman Russ kits, a built Leman Russ and an old built Leman Russ demolisher so I decided to build my own demolisher cannons to create two full squads of tanks, one of the traditional LR and another of demolishers (the other 4 tanks are built and painting has started so watch for them!)

Every weapon on the tank is AP2, ensuring that anything that the tank hits will not get a armor save.

I tried something different with the back by adding two extra barrels and placing a smoke stack on either side.

I also wanted to pull in a theme I’ve used on my troops by adding gas cans and ready-to-light torches to the storage bin.

This also complete the 8th challenge of The Tale of Even More Painters:

• Vehicle: 10 points
• Symbol: 1 point
• Meeting deadline: 2 points
• Total for Challenge 8: 13 points

And here is a sneak peak of whats coming next:

So I’ve been thinking about attending the NW GT in January hosted by Conquest. It is 2k, 5 game tourny which will be an intense weekend both because the games are larger than I normally play as well as way more games than I normally play in a weekend.

I have until mid December to decide if I want to go or not so in the mean time I am going to prepare for it by making a 2k list and playing as many games as I can with it. So here it goes:

HQ: Company Command Squad @ 290 pts (Medi-pack; Regimental Standard; Vox Caster; Plasmagun x1)

• Lord Castellan Creed
• Officer of the Fleet
• Chimera (Heavy Bolter;  Multi-Laser)

Troops:  Infantry Platoon @ 207 pts

• Platoon Command Squad ( Krak Grenades; Vox Caster; Grenade Launcher x2)
  • Platoon Commander (Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon)
• Infantry Squad ( Power Weapon; Vox Caster; Flamer)
• Infantry Squad (Power Weapon; Vox Caster; Flamer)

Troops: Infantry Platoon @ 567 pts

• Platoon Command Squad ( Krak Grenades; Vox Caster; Grenade Launcher x2)
  • Platoon Commander (Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon)
• Infantry Squad (Power Weapon;  Vox Caster; Flamer)
• Infantry Squad (Power Weapon; Vox Caster; Flamer)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Lascannon x3)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Lascannon x3)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Missile Launcher x3)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Mortar x3)

Fast Attack: 2 Armoured Sentinel @ 150 pts (Plasma Cannon)

Fast Attack: 2 Bane Wolves @ 290 pts (Chem Cannon; Multi-Melta)

Fast Attack: 2 Scout Sentinels @ 90 pts (Missile Launcher)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Battle Tank @ 185 pts ( Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Demolisher @ 220 pts (Lascannon; Plasma Cannon Sponsons x2)

This may not be the most competitive list, in fact I’m sure it is not, but it should be fun and uses everything I’ve built so far. The only things I need to add are: the Demolisher, Chimera and officer of the fleet. I also have to paint the mortar squad.

Let me know your thoughts (good or bad). I have 2 months to tweak the list and build any other units I need.

This is a combinational post. First of it is to display my second entry for ToEMPs but also for FTW’s request for our “Must Have Unit.” I’ve only played a few games for my traitor guard, but in all the games my Bane Wolves have made a huge difference by either killing 15 marines in one turn or taking a lot of shots while my lowly platoons take the objectives. These tanks aren’t real tough but they are fast and they are very deadly, which causes many people to fear them to the point of ignoring anything else.

Even though there are the disadvantages of running these tanks in a squadron, it does give them more survivability – I really just need one shot from the chem cannon to make that marine player cry Also my fast attack slots are all filled with my scout and armored sentinels (which are other favorite units!).

Bane Wolf 1:

And its pack mate, Bane Wolf 2:

For the ToEMP this unit gives me an additional:

• Vehicles x2: 20 pnts
• Vehicle details x2: 10 pnts
• Challenge 7b total: 30 pnts
• Challenge 7 total: 37

Whats next? Well in part it depends on what the next challenge is for ToEMP but I have 4 Leman Russes in the mail to add to the one I have finished and the Demolisher I need to strip and repaint, this will give me a full squad of Leman Russes and a full squad of Demolishes! I would like to get these all done for Tanks-giving but we’ll see how that goes!

Well I was hoping to have finished both this squad as well as the mortar squad for the 4th ToEMP challenge, but alas, I got distracted yet again. The 4th challenge was 60 points of what ever we felt like, as long as we gave a reason why we chose what we did. I picked this squad (and wanted to finish the mortar squad) because they are the “last” troops I need to paint for my traitor guard.  And when I say last, we all know that means: “all I currently have at this time, until I get inspired to buy more plastic crack…”

Any way onto the pictures:

I want my traitor guard to be colorful, but not over the top with mutations and such (the Iron Warriors really don’t like that type of thing).

For the fourth challenge I earn:

• Foot sloggers x6: 6 points
• Meeting deadline: 2 points

Total Points: 8

Total to date: 69

Hmm I didn’t really push my self to much for this challenge did I?

One of my many distracts for this last week will probably be part of the next challenge and I give a sneak peak here:

I finished these a few days back but haven’t had a chance to post until today. These are two more sentinels for my traitor guard army but scout versions armed (currently) with missile launchers.

the biggest conversion done on these is removing the roll bar and adding some spiky bitz. The banner is from the WFB flagellants from the Empire range.

The missile launchers are magnetized in case I decide multi-lasers or auto cannons are a better choice. I doubt I will mount lascannons as I have 6 of these on heavy weapon squads and having only bs 3 I would rather have multiple shots or blast weapons.

This also completes the current ToEMP challenge (I didn’t count the two armoured sentinels as I started them before the challenge was announced). Althogh I finished painting these a few days back I’m not counting these as complete until I post them here. For painting points this gives me:

• Walkers x2 5 points each: 10 points
• Lenses 1 point per model: 2 points
• Walker details 5 points each: 10 points
• Meeting Deadline: 2 points
• Bonus points for detailed bases: 5 points

Total for Challenge 3: 29 points

Total Overall: 61 Points

I have only two heavy weapon teams left for my traitor guard to paint but I just dunked a bunch of my old Iron Warriors into a Simple Green bath so they may be up next on the painting desk.