The War Panoply Grows

I finally got around to finishing the Lynx armed with a sonic lance.

All in all I'm happy with the kit, even though I'm not sure when I'll be able to try it out. It's a nice compliment to the cobra and I'm especially happy with the free hand rune panel.

With the changes to D weapons I feel this  is really a worthy alternative weapon now, much like in 4th edition when pulsars had to roll to hit.

8 Years, But I Finally Completed This

I have completed a major milestone.  Both Dire Avenger units are done (revamped in one case).  The squad that was initially completed is now revamped in whole with the flashier bases and I'm hoping my focus on revamping troop units pays off long term.

Original Photo:

Here are the two units together.

 

This marks the dormancy of Exarch Vanesh, but the re-awakening of Exarch Rowendey and the Shrine of the Ebon Spirit.  Hopefully he'll be a fine complement to Exarch Tuithador of the Unblemished Fury Shrine.

Wraithknight 2 WIP

This last weekend I set out to film a battle report for the blog. I faced off against Ultramarines in a tight 9-6 game that was the first time I faced off against an Imperial Knight. Unfortunately the battery in the camera dropped dead half way through the second turn, so no video report. I will say this though, my opponent played extremely well, and what should probably have been a narrow loss for me turned into a narrow victory due to one lucky round of rolling by me. His tooled up Grav Centurion unit absolutely lit up my Wraithknight, and since I was trying out an Iyanden list he was also my warlord.

By virtue of a reroll on the warlord trait table he had FNP. After the Centurions levied 14 wounds against me I rolled 7 scatter shield saves followed by 5 FNP saves. Despite this demoralizing moment he continued to play for the win and kept me on my toes, especially with the knight, which did a fair job of collapsing one of my flanks pretty much unsupported.

After the game I bought a second Wraithknight to bolster my Ulthwe forces, but I don't know that I'd run the two together outside of an apocalypse game because I feel just a single one dominates the game too frequently against some forces.

This one is a pure stock build and I've set the arms in a pose that I felt looked dynamic, almost as if it had a silhouette for wings. I'm not super happy with the angle of the pic, but I'll try get some better shots after the GS dries.

Weekend Update

I got a number of things done this weekend and was quite happy with my overall productivity. Firstly, I made the cards from my prior post. Secondly I'm half way through updating the original Dire Avenger squad:

Lastly I shifted where the magnets were on the shoulders of my original Ulthwe WraithKnight. Instead of at the point where the supports attach to the gun I moved it to where the support meets the shoulder, which looks better and allows for a more appropriate swivel on the cannon:

Hopefully I can finish up the Dire Avenger squad this week and then I can get on to finishing this guy:

Remnants of Glory Cards

Having been happy with the way my re-using the outdated psychic cards went I've re-used a few more to create cards for the standard Remnants of Glory.

I was particularly happy with the back of the cards:

I'm not sure if I'll get around to the Iyanden ones, but I probably will. Between the photoshop work, printing, cutting, glueing and laminating the process, even for 7 cards, takes hours, so I'll give myself some time before I venture to that, plus I'm planning out how to make laminated Apocalypse Strategem cards.

Refreshing an Old Unit

I've been trying to ride my wave of productivity and get cracking on re-doin the first Dire Avenger squad to something more commonly related to the classic DA shrine colors. Once the unit is done I'll post a before and after shot of the unit, but I do have a single model comparison of one model before and one after the touch-up process:

In my standard approach I painted the Exarch first and he's here:

I was really happy with the revised version of him. While I love the idea of the spear, the only time I actually charged with the unit was at Wraithguard, which prettyade the bonus strength meaningless. I normally like the unit absorbing a charge and benefitting from overwatch and counter assault. In addition the blade of the spear snapped off in transit, so I used a spare axe head from a Wraithblade kit along with the butt of the handle to create a conversion that I think blends pretty well.

I've also got some close ups of the helmet, his Ulthwe and shrine banner and base:

I'm excited to get this unit done so I can try out the dual large Avenger squads on foot.

Unit Completed

It may not seem that important, that I painted a second Dire Avenger squad, but I should give a little history.

Back in 4th edition I ordered two boxes of the new Dire Avengers, and had a huge painting backlog. I made a deal with myself, whichever unit performed better would get painted. The other unit earned it. Then I instituted the 'no more than once' rule for unpaired models. Now it's the 'not unless painted' rule. With other, newer, shinier units the second squad languished... Until now.

I'm quite pleased with them. I should note, originally this exarch had dual catapults, but when the new dex dropped I was no longer enthused about the prospect, and found my go-to build is a power weapon an Shimmer Shield because it allows me to field the unit on foot, no transport needed.

I wanted something unique for the Exarch, so he got a power maul, which I refer to as the 'beat stick' and I think captures the feel of a batter winding up.

Tuithador, Exarch of the Unblemished Fury Shrine has Finally awoken.  Once again you can see the standard Ulthwe elements I've repeated throughout the shrines.