ForgeWorld Contemptor Pattern Relic Dreadnought
Catching up on my years old painting queue. Had this built and primed for > 2 years. Finally finished it. I didn’t matte coat it and weather it like my other contemptor, so it’s a bit shiny, but I have SO many models to get through I’m honestly lowering my standard just a bit, especially on stuff I can always circle back on and enhance later (like matte varnish and weathering).
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2x Forgeworld Lucius Pattern Drop Pods
I just finished airbrushing the atmospheric ‘burn’ on the two ForgeWorld Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pods tonight. It’s difficult to tell from the picture because the standard drop pod isn’t there for size reference…but they are huge!
Excuses: I didn’t have a large enough back-drop to show one closed and one expanded like i’d like…and just moved my little light-box photo studio and don’t have the lighting like I like it yet… so I’m not supra happy with the pictures but am very happy with the models themselves.
- The main external metallic is Alclad II golden titanium over gloss black.
- The internal metallic is Alcad II steel with some dry-brushed mithril silver highlights.
- The red is Createx Wicked Crimson over primer gray and black shadows.
- The atmospheric burn is Alclad II jet exhaust.
- Throw in a few Reaper MSP paints on the details and that’s it!
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Blood Angels Land Raider Redeemer
Finally finished up a land raider redeemer today. Of course photographed with a macro lens I see all kinds of things I want to change. :/
I had primed it and painted the base red shade months ago… and in the time it had set the front doors ‘froze’ in place. When I forced the door open the plastic hinge actually twisted off. So… I had to drill it out and replace it with a brass rod. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely close now.
I also switched to a different color scheme for the forgeworld land raider doors… went to ‘black’ wings and I’m really happy with how they turned out. I could do more work on the comms relay metallic, the ‘burn metal’ on the flamer sponsors… Generally I’m happy with it and will move on to my next projects (2x Lucius pattern drop pods, a whirlwind, assault terminators, 2x Warmachine Hunters, Astorath the grim…ug, have too many projects going on right now!)
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Game 3: 1250 Blood Angels & Tau vs. Chaos & Eldar
My parter was a Tau player, Will. Opponents were Mark (Eldar) & Mike (Chaos Space Marines).
We lost the roll to decide who chooses deployment order, our opponents went first. It was interesting… we rolled off TWICE with both sides rolling snake eyes, finally on the third roll of there was another 1 (us) and a 5 (them).
We got hit HARD with an alpha strike. I lost my vindicator and my dreadnought at the very top of turn 1… which meant that 15% of my army didn’t do anything before dying. I also choose to deep strike my two assault squads… so there weren’t a lot of models on the table in turn 1 which meant we soaked up a bunch of pain right off the bat.
Time to rethink my list, moving away from a DOA strategy… maybe mechanized assault.
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Blood Angels Brother Corbulo with Jump Pack
I run this model as a regular Sanguinary Priest, as Brother Corbulo can’t buy the jump pack upgrade. However, the jump pack is magnetized so when I get around to painting the apothecary pack that comes with the model I can run Corbulo as well.
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Game 2: 1.3K Blood Angels 2v2 Tau
W00T! My second game!
It was a team game… my ally was Joe, playing Dark Angels. My opponents were Ryan and Jim, both fielding what ended up to be very mean and shooty Tau.
While me and my fellow space marine lost in actual ‘victory points’ I learned a LOT and had great fun.
A quick synopsis and lessons learned from the battle…
- The 3 man squad of Tau XV-88 broadsides with with shield drones and rail guns HURT. Between the other shooty units doing some damage and the 6 railgun hits (AP1/2) my assault squad wasn’t able to close into assault after deep striking in. I’m not sure how to counter this and need to think this through.
- I need to bring a regular tape measure…the fabric one I have isn’t great for 40k.
- I need to write my name on all my stuff…when theres 12 players all with rulebooks and gear out, it can get a bit confusing.
- Dreadnoughts are slow and while tough, haven’t been relevant until late game when the tide is already not in my favor. I need to either drop-pod them in and hope they survive an enemy round of shooting… and/or order the lucius pattern drop pod from Forgeworld.
- The contemptor patter dreadnoughts 5+ shooty invulnerable saved ended up being worth it!
- When I WAS able to charge into assault with my assault marines…the Tau dropped like flies.
- I purchased a $12 brand new combination blast/spray template, put it in my back pocket, then sat down. I now have 1 template in two pieces. :/
- I still need to study assault rules & vehicle rules. I have movement and shooting phases more or less down (although I still have to ask for opponents toughness and think for 5-10 seconds on to wound roles in the shooting phase.
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Game 1: 2k Blood Angels vs. Space Marines Battle Report
My first game of war hammer 40K! I went on down to At Ease Games in Poway. I entered the league for $10 (although not sure what being in the league means?) and was matched against Chris, who was running a mech heavy space marines list. (Thank you Chris for your patience and teaching me the basics of 40K!)
As this was my first game, I lost BADLY. I was tabled at the top of turn 5. Here are some of my lessons learned:
- Holding 70% of my army in reserve for deep strike, even with descent of angels, was a bad idea. (I kept on failing on my reserve roles)
- Remember to roll for ‘red thirst’
- When deep striking, you have to do it well away from cover and the table edge… and your squad arrives in a nicely packed group that fits nicely under the large blast template (not good). Sanguinary priests are more of a must here.
- My ‘shooty’ terminators weren’t so great against assault terminators.
- To hit is easy to remember.
- I’m starting to understand/remember the ‘to wound’ chart in my head but not the toughness of all the models.
- I need to study the assault rules at length.
- The ‘Master of the Forge’ and ‘Vulcan’ (need to look up in more detail) hurt me badly.
- Remember to pop smoke on the predator and vindicator when appropriate.
- I forgot to take my contempt or pattern dreadnought, even though he was in my list!
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3 commissioned models by miniaturepainters.com
I commissioned 3 models by miniature painters.com (a painting studio in Poland). They took a while, but I’m very happy with the results. If I were to do it again I’d carefully watch the exchange rates as that can significantly alter the prices. I wanted a great example of black power armor (chaplain in terminator armor), nonmetallic-metalics (The Sanquinor) and blue power armor (Librarian in terminator armor). All three will be great teaching aids as I work on my painting skills. I’m still going to airbrush base coats for troops and leave it at that, but for my next HQ (which will be a while since I’m starting a reaver titan!) I’ll practice layering/painted blends, edge highlights, etc. based on these models as great examples.
30mm Madness! 
