Month: June 2021

Daemonic Spread and Terrors of the Night

Daemonic Spread and Terrors of the Night

Well, I think I have finally settled on what my force for “Invasion of Terra Two: The Emperor’s Thru” will be. I had been leaning toward Death Guard (as I do have a start to that force done), but realized from discussion with other players who will be a part of that event that we’ve got a really huge Nurgle presence already ready to assault the walls. So rather than double-up things, I wanted to spread out a bit more. I had known that I wanted to add a Khorne contingent to my army list, as there was much talk of a Host of Bloodthirsters assaulting the Throne room. So I’ve been going crazy on the Khorne side of things. Yet I didn’t want just daemons, as while I’ll have at least some hordes of troops with the daemons I also wanted to have lines of warriors and rows of siege tanks to break down the walls (envisioning those sorts of battles you see in the art of just lines of war).

Battle for Terra, art by Eddy Gonzalez Davila (check his instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/eddy_gonz/ )

So to that end, I thought about what 40k Chaos Legions are not represented in our local meta, but still worked with the Daemon forces that I’ve developed–as I’ve got a lot of Nurgle and the growing Khorne. We have Death Guard, Black Legion, World Eaters, and Thousand Sons covered, plus a whole lot of Slaanesh and Tzeentch daemons. So that led me to thinking about some of the groups that could cover all chaos forces: Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, and Night Lords. I’m not keen on the Iron Warriors look, and gave some tries at Word Bearer armor, but finally found a tutorial on Night Lords that I absolutely loved. After a few practice models turned out well, I committed, and it’s the cursed sons of Conrad Kurze for me. To pair with Khorne, as they’re the 8th Legion (very auspicious), and even more than that, I’m thinking they’ll be the 8th Company. There’s very little fluff on the 8th Company, just a picture of a Contemptor Dread in a Forge World Horus Heresy book with just a bit of info about the 8th company. (Reference: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Reeve ). The dread houses a former Company Commander, and the company name is The Circle of Inclemency. Which sounds utterly delightful. So I’m going to go with that.

Khorne – The Gathering of Eight

The one part I know I want to do is finally get all the Khorne forces I’ve got completed, as there was much talk of the Host of Bloodthirsters assaulting the Throne room in our big game this Fall. So I’ve started up on a Khorne kick again alongside the Night Lords. I’ve got Skarbrand done, and three assembled Bloodthirsters (plus three in box waiting to be built, hah). But to really place them down in a meaningful way that means surrounding them with smaller Khorne forces. I’m really trying to do the “boys over toys” approach to things, as that’s what makes big games look really epic: huge lines of troops advancing on positions, with key bigger pieces amidst them.

So here’s the Khornate Progress thus far:

Skull Cannon of Khorne
Another unit of 10x Bloodletters of Khorne
And a third total unit of 10x Bloodletters of Khorne
Karanak, the Cerebus-looking Flesh Hound of Khorne
Flesh Hounds of Khorne

All told I’m pretty pleased with all the painting progress I got in on Khorne stuff. It makes a fun balance to the Night Lords (see below).

Night Lords

A big part of me getting excited about the Night Lords (over Word Bearers, which I also painted some test models for, and would have fit my Daemon army well), was that I found a paint scheme that I really liked. I tried a first Night Lord with a flat color paint scheme, and while it was okay, I didn’t love it. Then I found a great metallic blue tutorial for Night Lords from Kabin Miniatures (check it out here: https://youtu.be/nFJJTCEMyQY ). I gave it a try, with some of my own color tricks for the reds and leathers, and really loved how it came together. Particularly with my lava base scheme. So with some hunting around the fluff, The Night Lords 8th Legion–The Circle of Inclemency–has begun. I’ve painted more Night Lords points this month than anything else combined all year (and honestly all pandemic). Which shows me something.

Night Lords Warpsmith. Really pleased with him, to the point that at least for now he’ll be the leader of my Crusade force.
Night Lords Sorcerer. Definitely a needed addition, though psykers will take a bit of a rear seat for the force as they’ll frequently be pairing with Khorne (and don’t want to draw his ire, hah).
The first five Night Lords Chaos Space Marines. The one with the meltagun on the right was my test model for the scheme, but they all turned out quite neat I think.
Night Lords Obliterator. This was a fun model to do, as I really enjoy the warped flesh elements the model has. Particularly the weird feet/toes. Creepy!
Did up a Chaos Space Marines Predator Tank as well. At first I was worried, as I tried doing the whole tank in the metallic blue. That just looked too much, particularly as the blue sections’ sheen isn’t always uniform. So I went with large sections of black (and a few of that gold color trim) to balance the blue. I’m still not in love with my lightning bolt freehand work, but overall I’m quite pleased.

Crusade – Charadon: Book of Rust

Our local game store, Drawbridge Games, is running a Crusade campaign, leveraging the Charadon: Book of Rust rules. I managed to get my first game in against Matt’s Adeptus Sororitas Sisters of Battle force. It was a good game, and I managed to keep it close until the last of my units were wiped out by his firepower. Those battlesuit sisters pack a punch. A couple of shots from the game are below.

Skarbrand was a workhorse, destroying 2 units of Battle Sisters, a Rhino tank, an Immolator, and a Canoness (cutting off the leg of the latter and leaving her needing a bionic replacement in the campaign) all before he was finally gunned down.
Even the Bloodletters charging from out of warp and with bonus attacks thanks to Skarbrand being nearby could not stop the Sororitas battlesuits.
The Night Lords infantry let the Bloodletters do the fighting while they fired from cover, protecting an objective. Ultimately they were wiped out by some charging Seraphim, but overall was a fun game.

Marvel Corner

Finally–and quickly–I am still slowly but surely adding to my Marvel Crisis Protocol options. I finished Rocket Raccoon last month, so that meant this month I surely needed to add Groot to the completed/painted side of my pile of shame.

Groot was pretty simple to paint. Could have done more, but I was satisfied with a bit of depth and a suggestion of roots.

Miniature Painting Goals 2021 – Totals so Far

40k Power Points Painted 188/365

Marvel Crisis Protocol Models Painted 5/12

Two if by Earth

This one is mostly just a painting update. I added a few things to my Death Guard Army, which has been a fair amount of fun to balance the Necron madness. Given that we are long-term planning for an Invasion of Terra 2 scenario in the Fall, I’m definitely putting energy into all things Chaos right now. And that meant expanding the Death Guard a bit more currently. There’s a ton of Death Guard in our local group, so it’s perhaps not ideal to be adding there for purposes of the grand invasion in the fall, but felt good to be painting things!

Another 10 Poxwalkers for Nurgle’s shambling hordes. These guys always look good, and I put far too much time into them for chaff that dies so fast hah.
Death Guard Sorcerer in Terminator Armor. Was good for working out how I’ll be doing the Deathshroud that are on my to-do list. Pretty fun conversion.
Two Termite Drills. These are from a Mantic kit, which is pretty good look and similar to the Forge World versions, at a far more manageable price (and easier-to-work-with materials). Cutting the one in half for the TMNT-like “Shredder’s Arrival” pose was a bit of challenge, but it turned out really well I felt.

So that’s a fair bit more of Death Guard ready to go. Got a few games in with them alongside some of the Necron games I got in. Has been really good to get back into gaming. Definitely lights the fires of the hobby!

Marvel Corner

Painted up Rocket Raccoon. I’m pretty pleased with his suit (did the Avengers Endgame white panels with red) and his gun, maybe less so his fur. But glad he’s done, and got in two games with him on the table–where he certainly did work.

Miniature Painting Goals 2021 – Totals so Far

40k Power Points Painted 120/365

Marvel Crisis Protocol Models Painted 4/12