Adding to Black Templar for the weekend tourny

This Saturday we have a 1,750 tournament at our local GW store, one of our monthly series.  It brings a competitive group of guys and our best rule is that models have to be fully painted.  Which means that my Dark Eldar are not quite ready yet for prime time.  There has been an influx of Grey Knights players (as everywhere else in the country) so many of my armies just can't hang with the nasty Paladins.  They rule out my Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard.  I just don't feel inspired to play one of my many other armies...

So late Wednesday night I though of a fun list that would be flexible and challenging.  All infantry Black Templar.  When I tried them last I didn't have enough down range anti tank.  A little gem in the army list is the ability to take two cyclone missile launchers in a 5 man terminator squad and give the squad tank hunter.  I already had 5 of them ready to go, so it just means painting them up and I can get them on the field tomorrow.

Tonight will be spent staying away from Modern Warfare 3 (yes I'm a sucker for that series) and painting up some Black Templar.  It's funny to see how much you improve over the years.  I'm looking at how I painted this army (5 years ago) and how I'd do it different.  Unfortunately I need to keep to the same style to keep the army looking similar. Here's my close assault terminators, and the 5 regular ones I need to paint.

Here's the list I'm thinking of running.  I can't find my damn codex but luckily I still have army builder on my computer.

HQ: Emperor's Champion with the preferred enemy vow. (probably rides in the drop pod or attaches to the big infantry blob)
HQ: Chaplain with bolt pistol and three cenobite servitors (to attach to the big terminator squad)
HQ: Chaplain with bolt pistol and three cenobite servitors (to attach to the big infantry squad)
Elite: 10 assault terminators, 7 LC, 3 TH/SS. Furious Charge.  I wish I had more painted Thunderhammers...
Elite: 5 terminators, 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers. Tank Hunters
Troop: 10 Initiates (with power fist), 10 neophytes
Troop: 5 Initiates (with power fist & melta-gun), 4 neophytes in drop pod with deathwind missile pods
Troop: 5 Initiates with bolters and a lascannon
Troop: 5 Initiates with bolters and a lascannon

Nice thing is it only gives up 10 kill points in a 1,750 list.  Two nasty close combat blocks that can run in the movement phase and the chaplain with cenobite servitors really pushes the unit forward if they get shot.  I only have 6 Effective strength 9 shots and 1 meltagun, but we'll see how the list hangs.

Necron Test Miniature: Couldn't help it!

I'm such a sucker for new projects... I just had to try my hand at a Necron.  Like I did with my imperial guard project, I went with a super fast paint scheme. I'm really happy with the outcome.  I went with a patina color on the armor and a simple color scheme on the gun. 

The new miniatures are just way too tempting!  Must get back to Dark Eldar!

Wych progress & Flock of Venoms

It was a pleasant weekend at home and I was finally able to get some painting in.  I tackled 4 venoms at the same time and got the main portion done, minus the crew and gunner.  Here's where I stand right now. 

I also finished up my first set of 6 Wyches.  I think they turned out pretty well.  I am just debating on whether or not I actually paint the eyes!

I'm off to Vancouver Tuesday through Friday but I hope to make some serious progress on the ravagers tonight and tomorrow.

Off to London: Chicago Bears!

I'm just finishing up packing my bags for a 5 day weekend in London.  Being a huge Chicago Bears fan, how could I pass up getting to see my favorite team play in Europe?  I have a flight out tomorrow morning and will be staying through Tuesday morning.  We're going to try and hit up Paris on Saturday (I've never been to France).  I'm traveling with 5 football fans, one of them being a dual US/British citizen so he'll give us a full tour of the pub scene.  Unfortunately none of them are wargame fans, so I don't think I'll have any time to catch up on any miniatures. 

If any of you happen to be going to the game, let me know! 

After I get back I head straight to Toronto for work, spend some time back home and then fly the first week of November to Vancouver.  I'm getting a lot of miles up to Canada for work lately.  I'm hoping that starting mid-November I'll get some more time at home so I can accelerate my Dark Eldar. 

I can't wait for some beer and curry fries (I think that's the stuff I got hooked on last time I was there). mmm... beer!

Uncharted Seas: Thaniras Elves

I'm not going to win any awards for painting, but I wanted to do a quick and fun paint job on the Thaniras Elves so I can get them on the table.  I kept to mostly drybrush and inks and used transfers off the Dark Eldar line.  Without having standard cannons, the portals just didn't look that threatening so I did an over-exaggerated light effect coming from the portals.

When I finished painting them I gave a good clear dull coat.  It helps protect the models and disguise the decals even more.  I'm curious to see how they perform tonight!  It'll be my first game with wind as a factor, the steam power of my Shroud Mages kept it simple.  I'm sure this fleet is much more of a finesse fleet.

DE Razorwing Finished

I have to apologize for the lack of posts lately!  It has been a little crazy with work traveling a bunch.  Next week won't be much better with me flying out to London for the week (Thursday through Tuesday) to watch the Bears play at Wembley Stadium and spend the weekend drinking beers and relaxing.

I did finish up the Razorwing, minus the base.  Here are my final shots.

I also painted up a bunch more of the Uncharted Seas miniatures, I have been having a blast playing the game.  It's fun to mix things up and try a different game system and especially try a different scale.  I'll post pictures up for them shortly.

This afternoon watching football I'm going to try and make some progress on a set of 4 venoms and paint up a few more boats.  Good times!

DE Razorwing progress

I decided during football on Sunday to do some mass assembly line painting of my Dark Eldar vehicles.  I'm tackling all at once 2 ravagers, 4 venoms and a razorwing.  About half way through the day I switched gears and focused a little more on the Razorwing.  Here's where it stands right now.  I've put the base gold and silver down, but haven't finished the cockpit, missiles, or guns.  As my other vehicles go, I brought more gold into the model due to it's "elite" status, and glossed it up like the rest of my vehicles.

Here's the assembly line in all it's glory.  I'm going to finish up this Razorwing then try to tackle all of the venoms at once...

After a lot of thought last night, the thought of just doing unit spam isn't as fun for either me or my opponent.  Plus I'm looking for a little more variety in painting.  The whole net list / spam is effective, but I think I can accomplish my goals of a fun list that still can pack some punch.  Here's my latest on what I'm going to do for my 1850 list.  All venoms have 2 splinter cannons.

HQ: Archon with huskblade, soul trap, shadowfield, drugs (rides with the wytches)
HQ: minimum archon's court in a venom (1 of everything and 2 medusa) will be mainly a shooty light assault element.
HQ: Haemonculus
Elite: 3 trueborn with 2 dark lances in venom
Elite: 3 trueborn with 2 dark lances (they walk)
Troop: 7 wytches with haywire grenades, hekatrix with venom blade in raider with aethersails. 
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in venom
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in venom
Troop: 5 warriors with blaster in venom
Troop: 3 wracks in Raider
Troop: 3 wracks (they walk and use the trueborn venom)
Fast: 4 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerea, 6 razorwings
Heavy: Ravager with flickerfield
Heavy: Ravager with flickerfield
Heavy: Razorwing with cannon upgrade... can't remember if I put flickerfield on it or not.

Should be a little more fun to paint.  I still have elements of assault and shooting.  I'm curious to see how the mini-court performs.