Space Shrimp! aka Necron Wraiths

These models rock.  They're fun, very cool looking and actually a blast to play in game.  They scare the crap out of opponents and under night fight can run up a flank relatively unmolested.  The whole time I assembled them I kept thinking of tasty prawns or shrimp.  My wife probably didn't appreciate me chasing her around the house with them shouting "Space Shrimp"!

Here's some shots of the first 5 I painted up.  What a really cool kit, I give the GW sculpters some major props.  They captured that creepy look almost out of the Matrix movies.

I think I might do a 2nd squad of 5.  The sad thing is they compete against scarabs for fast attack slots.  I wish I could run 4 slots, that would be sweet to be able to do both!

Only a little more time until 6th edition!

Boom goes the Thunder: Stormlord painted

I've been slacking off posting pictures of things I've painted.  Unfortunately real life has been taking hold.  I started a new job last week and it's a bit overwhelming, really taking the steam out of my hobby drive.  I can't wait for the new edition of 40k though, it should be a fun change of pace.

Here's some shots of the Stormlord completed.  He did great in a tournament I played in a few weeks ago, very surprising.  I don't think he's really worth the points but he does make for an interesting game if playing against MSU or light armor spam.  I'm half tempted to design a list around him, but I can't figure out what unit would really benefit from the Phareon rules.  I don't think relentless really benefits Necrons at all from what I'm hearing on 6th.

I am anxiously awaiting the NOVA organizers to way in on whether they'll be running 5th or 6th edition for the tournament, and then beyond that what they'll be allowing vs. leaving things out.  I don't envy their position on having to make this call with so little time.  I do hope they go the 6th edition route, I highly doubt I'll be able to get any 5th edition games in against anyone over the next two months!

6e Allies: Nerd Rage

Let me start off by saying that we're naturally resistant to change.  Change is scary, and most of the time we assume the worst.  But I'm just not able to get my head around any good redeeming qualities of Allies in the new edition of 40k. 

I think it's great if you and your friends want to do a fun game with some themed allies, but I can't think of anything but broke.  As far as I know, the codex were written in isolation of each other.  Never did they think about how an allied retinue would help.  In my mind, outside of Grey Knights each codex has its benefits and drawbacks.  Allies basically trump that.  

Visually it bothers me as well.  Very rarely will we see themed up allies that match the parent list, it's just going to be borrowing from each others armies to get new combos.  It's a sad way to get cross army sales from GW.

I really hope I'm wrong in my extreme distaste of allies and it will only be used as "with opponent's permission" or something to that degree.  Otherwise if it gets too over the top, I'm sure most tournaments will end up having no-allies only tournaments. 

We'll see one way or another in less then a week.  Until then, I need to get started painting on my beastmen!

Necron Royal Court & HQ's

Here are all of the royal court painted up minus the static grass and gold designs on the shoulder pads.  I'll add those in after playtesting.  I decided in order to not confuse the crypteks, I painted their weapon orbs different colors.  I'll give my opponent a color chart each time for ease of reference.  That will allow me to try different combinations while I learn the army. 

I also bought my supplies for my portable display base to fit in the suitcase for our NOVA trip.  I'm really anxious to find out if we'll be using 6th or 5th edition rules for the main event.  That will shape which way I go with the army.  At least I'll have a painted army to practice with.

There is a beautiful thing about painting up a "speed" army.  Just like my imperial guard, I can knock out units really fast.  It's refreshing. 

Necron Night Scythe Painted

The first of the flying circus is finished!  What a cool model, and I'm especially pleased that the portal and death ray are interchangeable without magnets to allow for switching.  This is the first of 6 I'll be painting up.  To add some variety, future ones will have alternate areas turquoise.

I did have some issues with the decals.  The thin gold ones that were supplied in the box didn't seem to work right from a fit standpoint and broke apart a bunch.  I will probably go back to the decals supplied with the other vehicles. 

I'm hoping to get my first test game with the foot necrons tomorrow, and on Sunday I have a three game tournament so I'll finally get some games in.  I can't believe how fast this army has come together.

All that is left to paint is a couple of barges.  Pictures on the royal court and HQ's will go up tomorrow.

Scarab Cookies

The necron project for NOVA is flying through record completion... I may have the army (first version) finished by this weekend.  Not bad, getting over 2,000 points done in a few weeks.  I painted up all of the scarab bases; a combination of resin scarab parts and "normal" scarabs up top.  I think they look more like swarms emerging from the desert rather then a few (pictured) floating above the sands.

While painting them I kept thinking the scarabs looked like raisins or chocolate chips since I paint the sand first and had the scarabs based black.  Last night I got about half way through the last of my infantry, I'm currently in the process of painting:

2 Overlords
1 Lord
10 Crypteks
5 Immortals

I also couldn't resist starting to paint the new Necron Night Scythe.  Here's where I'm at with that.  I should have that finished along with this infantry tonight.  That will leave me with just an annihilation barge and command barge and I'm finished!

With the rumors of 6th edition toting cumulative glances destroying things, I really like the idea of crypteks wielding the assault 4 haywire gun.  A pair of them from dual courts attached to a 5 man warrior squad in a Night Scythe could be deadly to vehicles.  We'll see if that's the case.  If it is my Necron Flying Circus could be nasty.

Necron Night Scythe Assembly

Even though I'm painting my foot necrons for the weekend tournament, I couldn't help but assemble the new Necron Night Scythe / Doom Scythe.  The kit went together very easy compared to the trials of the ghost ark and annihilation barge.  I kept a few pieces off of the kit for ease of painting the driver and weapons, I would highly suggest the same.  As always, do a dry fit to make sure the pieces work before priming.  I left the top fuselage, front "nose" piece (holds the two parts together), and the portal & death ray.

As you can see below, the portal and death ray fit perfectly without having to use any glue or magnets.  This is really nice and will allow for quick swapping between the two, or weapon destroyed on the death ray. 

I really want to get some paint on this but I need to focus on the rest of the army.  Last night I finished up 24 scarab bases, and almost finished 9 warriors.  Pictures to follow!

The Perfect Workbench

I think I found the perfect workbench hobby spot.  I got all of our lawn furniture out yesterday for a BBQ and we've had beautiful weather this weekend.  After cleaning up the aftermath today I thought why not enjoy some painting outside?  It's 77 degrees (25 Celsius for my friends across the ocean), sunny, dry and a light breeze.

It's amazing what natural sunlight in full effect does!  I'm going to try to spend the entire afternoon out here and enjoy the deck before the heat, humidity and bugs come out for the summer!

Necrons are progressing quickly.  Today's goal is to knock out the rest of my warriors and potentially 25 scarab bases.

Ghost Ark, Immortals and Warriors Finished

I am rolling through this army fast - exactly how I was hoping.  I think overall it is looking like I envisioned.  I finally finished the Ghost Ark.  This monstrosity took forever to clean and assemble and it was a bit of a pain to paint the "ribs" of the sides.  It is very cool though, and I have another one to do at some point in the future... but not anytime soon!

I also over the last week finished up 10 Immortals and 16 Warriors.  I didn't put static grass or paint their gold unit markers on their shoulders yet.  The thought is I'll batch do that at the end.

Here's a shot of what's next on the docket: 14 more warriors, 5 immortals, Overlord, lord, bunch o'crypteks.  I also have primed and ready a command barge and annihilation barge. 

My friend helped me with some scenic scarabs in the sand bases.  I'm stretching my scarabs a little thin by putting one on a base. It'll appear that there will be 5 to 7 on each base.  I'll probably go back and put more "real" scarabs on at a later date.

Here's how the list has evolved for Nova 2k.  I'm going to try a blob squad out.

HQ: Overlord with warscythe, phaeron, mindshackle scarabs (attached to blob squad)
HQ: Overlord with warscythe on command barge

Court 1:
Lord with warscythe, mindshackle scarabs, res orb (attached to blob squad)
Cryptek harbinger of destruction, pulse (2 each of the destruct-teks will be attached to the troops)
Cryptek harbinger of destruction
Cryptek harbinger of destruction
Cryptek harbinger of destruction

Court 2:
Cryptek  harbinger of  transmogrification with seismic crucible  (attached to blob squad)
Cryptek harbinger of destruction, pulse
Cryptek harbinger of destruction
Cryptek harbinger of destruction
Cryptek harbinger of destruction

Troop: 20 warriors
Troop: 5 warriors in Ghost Ark
Troop: 5 Immortals with Tesla
Troop: 5 Immortals with Tesla
Troop: 5 Immortals with Tesla

Fast: 6 scarabs
Fast: 6 scarabs

Heavy: 3 spyders: gloom prism and fabricator claws
Heavy: annihilation barge
Heavy: annihilation barge

We'll see what this build can do.  Not sure it puts out enough firepower, but I can night fight pulse twice while using the max range of the crypteks to bring down light armor.   Hopefully this does well against the MSU razor spam and guard chimera spam.