2014 Year in Review

This was a big year for me for 40k, and yet I've played very few actual games.

It feels like a reasonable amount got painted, and I have completed my Kan Wall army and finally fielded them on the table (victory! wooot!). My Imperial Knight and Space Wolves are still on the To Do list (although in the case of the Wolves, I am mainly filling in some gaps so not a huge amount remaining).

Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

May you get all the plastic little painted mens in your stocking you deserve.

Morkanaut finished and ready for the table! Rawr!

Alrighty then - its done. My Big Mek's Morkanaut is finally ready to stomp down the ramp from his workshop and waddle slowly into combat.

WIP Roboto a Roboto Fight!

Some slow progress this week.

The Morkanaut continues and is at a point where normally I would finish the OSL and call it done, but I'm keen to break out the weathering pigments and see how that works.

WIP Morkanaut ready for weathering

Its been a while since I posted pics of this big guy - I have been distracting myself with eldar and other side projects, but in between have been plugging away at completing this one.

I'm at the stage where I just want it to be done, but not yet. Not yet.

Kill Team: old school randomness and fun

My friends and I got together about a month ago now to play us some Kill Team.

 The Inquisition, Orks and Eldar again faced off, this time in a Space Hulk where the Inquisitor had led his team under the influence of his daemonic artefact (his deamon sword). The Orks followed as they like a good punch up, and the Eldar sent in Harlequins and Dire Avengers to try and prevent the Inquisitor from doing whatever he was doing.

WIP: Nest of Scorpions ready for basing

The Eldar Striking Scorpions are almost done, only needing basing to be complete.

WIP - Eldar progress

The Striking Scorpions are coming along over the weekend, and I'm now in the detail stage which is fun but need patience to let everything dry between washes/highlights.

I'm doing a batch of 4 scorpions - for some reason I've left the fluro dude  to last - he seems to be my mascot for painting the others at the moment, which means he'll get done on his own perhaps next weekend.

WIP: moar paintings! Eldar update and some Morkanaut progress

The Kill Team game on Sunday must have been awesome, as more paint was added to figures in the last 2 days - woohoo!

First - here is an update of the Striking Scorpion test model:

WIP: Eldar Striking Scorpion - Test Model

After a really fun game of 3 player kill team, I 'borrowed' my friend's unit of old school Striking Scorpions to give them some paintbrush love.

These guys were fun to play against in the previous game of kill team, and I thought they deserved some colour.

Battle Rep: 3-sides Kill Team

My usual cunning opponent and I were joined for a game of Kill Team last month by our friend who had recently discovered his old eldar at the bottom of a pile of boxes and wanted a game. Sadly he left most at home except for his Striking Scorpions, and his list was fleshed out with some Rangers.

I brought my Orks and my cunning opponent put together an awesome looking Inquisitorial warband using some Necromunda and cultist figs.

Lots of text and pics behind the cut.

Mekboy painted!

I have been feeling very unmotivated about painting the Gorkanaut for some reason - I suspect it is that very few people on the interwebs seem to have much time for them, and orky walkers in general in the current 7th edition and codex. Which is a shame, as they look fantastic.

It could also be that the model was a pain to assemble, and the amount of detail to be painted is looking a little discouraging.

Whatever.

In an attempt to get my painting mojo back I have finished my new mekboy using the new model released with the codex.

Battle Report - first game of 7th Ed: 1500 pts new SW codex vs Squats (IG + IK allies) - Pic Heavy!

So my regular opponent of awesome and I finally managed to sync up for a game of 40k using 7th Ed rules and the shiny new Space Wolf codex I had obtained the previous week.

And it was awesome!

My Space Wolves and the Squats of Clan Kincaid have been duelling for several years over possession of an alleged artefact linked to Russ himself, although the Squats refuse to part with the device until the Wolves pay for Russ's bar tab (with interest).

And this time, the Squats obtained an abandoned mining robot housing the mortally wounded remnants of the last member of the Golgothan Resistance to help the remnants of the clan fend off the ravening force of Wolves.

Meanwhile, I tried out using a named character - Harald Deathwolf. With the previous codex, the named IC's were all so so expensive, but Harald is quite reasonably priced for what you get.

On to the detail of the game - lots of text and pictures after the break.

WIP Morkanaut assembled

After about five 1 hour sessions of cleaning up and gluing this big boy is ready for a coat of chaos black.

WIP: Painboy almost done

This guy is nearing completion - mostly final highlighting and finishing off the base.

Arooooooooo! the Wolf Time is here

Through cunning, determination, and plain old wandering into the FLGS the shiny new Space Wolf codex is mine!

I'm poring through it trying to get my head around what to do with it - I think I want to be doing something a bit different to my old rune priest + grey hunters in rhinos + long fangs. Thunderwolves are cheaper, my rune priest might stay around thanks to the point drop. I will probably pick up in a Stormfang in several months as it seems the perfect counter for an Imperial Knight or a Leman Russ squadron. No rush.

For the moment I'm thinking drop pods and thunderwolves. Arroooo!

WIP: Painboy assembled and ready for some chaos black

Just a quick one - have the new Painboy model assembled and based and ready for undercoating when the weather clears.

Initially I picked this guy up as something fun to paint (all the vials etc) but after an interesting kill team game the other week I am really thinking I need this guy in the unit with the Warboss to give him a hope of surviving long enough to swing his unwieldy power klaw. I'm too used to 3+ wolves!

Might start assembling the Morkanaut while waiting for a well timed break in the rain and cold.

Ork Nobz painted

I finished the 3 Nobz this week, and managed to complete 2 more in a fit of enthusiasm - really enjoying the break from painting power armour (although the recent releases are getting me excited - must finish orks asap to clear room for wolves!).

Most of these are AoBR minis that have been lurking around for 4-5'ish years, with boss poles added, except for the big choppa nob, and one nob using the bits from the boyz box..

nobz (group of 3)

Waagh enabled: Warboss finished

I had some motivational issues with the Ork nobs, so decided to focus on the Warboss and remembered why Orks are fun to paint.

I'm really happy with the skin, the highlighting on the pants/leather, the red armour and particularly the face. The checks on the bosspole and shoulder feel a bit messy, and I'm not wild with the banner - its less crisp than I'd like. Then again, I tell myself - its an Ork, they don't do crisp.

WIP: Orks! Warboss and some Nobs - Basecoat 1

Some quick work in progress pics of the latest additions to the Kan Wall.

I'm forcing myself to finish these guys before letting myself start the Morkanaut - very motivating!

WIP Imperial Knight - Legs assembled

I spent an evening recently finally with the Imperial Knight, cleaning up and assembling the legs and lower torso. I have kept all the plating separate to make it easy to paint the parts of the skeleton underneath those areas.

Sky Claws finished (pic heavy)

Finally got my camera to charge, so here are some pics of the Sky Claws finished (although before a coat of Dullcote - its been raining most of the weekend).

Not sure how effective these guys will be, although in 7th ed they can contest Objectives (although not Secure them). With their mobility they might also suit some of the Maelstrom games where you get a VP if you hold an random objective at the end of the turn.

That being said, there is a certain something about a squad of space wolves sufficiently headstrong to strap jump packs on their backs while the rest of the army shakes their heads.

Here they are:

Stormclaw! a dilemma...

Rumours of a campaign boxed set for Sanctus Reach called Stormclaw are all over the place this week, and for me have resulted in a rollercoaster of conflicted emotions.

Because obviously I wants it my preciousssssss! But do I?

Orks! and some Sky Claw progress

A reasonable amount of 40k stuff has progressed the over last fortnight. Time for a post!

Our first game of 7th Edition was postponed due to cold-of-doom, so I worked on finishing the Sky Claws who are done (pending a spray of Dullcote to take the shine off the decals and some areas where washes have dried with a bit of gloss). I'll do a separate post with pics when my camera decides to charge.

The Ork codex has released, and I'm looking to bring my Kan Wall army up to snuff, as well as I couldn't help but lash out on a Morkanaut (its a big orky walker - how could I not?!).

On the workbench - Sky Claws squad

I have always tried to limit my 40k plastic habit by my painting backlog - no new toys until the queue is done. Fine in theory, in reality a few side projects have accumulated (much like the dust).

These sky claws have been lurking in my queue

First Post!

Who is this masked man, and why is he bothering?..

I have been gaming with 40k since late 2008, playing mainly 5th edition. I can probably count the number of 6th edition games on both hands due to the arrival of my daughter in late 2012 followed by my main gaming friend also becoming a dad in late 2013.

My first love in 40k has been the Space Wolves, and has been since I was poring through White Dwarf back in the early 90's so when I started 40k in 2008 that's where I began.

Since then I have also dipped a toe into the realms of Orks, with a Kanwall army (it was a great idea in 5th when I started, less so in 6th when I finished painting the army although still fun to play and a blast to paint.

So why bother with a blog since I'm certainly late to the blogging party?

Because 2014 is looking to be a big year, with 7th Edition having just dropped, and an Ork codex just around the corner. A Gorkanaut should fit into the kanwall just nicely.

There are rumours of a new Space Wolf codex, which would be almost 5 years since the last one. The 2009 codex has aged well, but an update to 7th ed would be nice.

And after trying to decide what codex to ally my Wolves with for about a year, GW released the Imperial Knights and it was clear - it must be mine!

Should be a good year!