Jain Zar and Drazhar

 It’s taken a while to get my finances back in order to do some real hobby investment, but now I’m ready to start building up a set of “studio” armies and really expand the channel.

I’d like to introduce the new style Drazhar and Jain Zar!

With them now ready to duel, I’ve been hard at work building the background for the slowly growing Drukhari force and in a change for me, instead of leaning into the Grim Dark I’m going with a more comical bent.

I’m excited to try out Drazhar, even if he is facing off against a character in my previous Ulthwe force.

How Often Do You Revamp Your Army?

With the crash of Corsairs from Forgeworld I'm thinking they'll be shifted to Kill Team at some future point.  Thus I'm slowly adapting mt old units that will never again see the table to play other roles.  This means I can find new ways to expand out existing units, such as below:

The two flamers were part of the original squad, and when the unit had templates they were an ideal way to make the unit a surprise impact squad that could spring out of a transport and lay waste to a massive infantry squad.  In 8th I haven't been able to fire the flamers a single time either on the charge or when being charged.  With the reduction in cost of the Fusion guns reduced along with the overall cost of the Storm Guardians it seems like a more tempting choice.

Fire Dragons still feel vastly too expensive, but this gives me an option to deep strike a massive unit and stretch it out enough so that the bulk of the unit can do something helpful like hold an objective, while these two models are stretched out to be close enough to add some potent firepower to a vulnerable target without wasting a ton of points.  With the 1-2 punch of Discipline of the Black Guardians and Celestial Shield they can provide an unexpectedly devastating hit, and then be surprisingly tough to shift.  If you somehow drop Protect on them at the same time a unit that is positioned well can become a nightmare to deal with, and one that your opponent never conceived could give them issues when overlooking your army at the start of the game.

All that said, I can switch out as I see fit, and I accomplished this by revamping an old unit to something I can make the most of now, the same way I scrapped two old bodyguard conversions to become Swooping Hawks again.  In some ways it just feels incredibly exciting to find new uses out of classic models I hadn't been able to run in what feels like forever.  It's bringing the fun back.

Ulthwe Family Photo

It's been a long time since I did one of these, a single photo of my whole craftworld army:

This shot realistically covers over 25 years of collecting.  Ulthwe has kept along with me through a lot in my life, including a bout with cancer in which I sold off nearly all my models to help pay my medical bills.

Other units have been retired like the original Eldrad, but the first model I ever purchased is still there and still used.

Here's the inventory of the photo:
50 Guardian Defenders with 5 weapon platforms
Autarch
24 Storm Guardians
10 Howling Banshees
Jain Zar
10 Striking Scorpions
Karandras
8 Rangers
8 Warp Spiders
6 Fire Dragons
16 Warlocks
3 Farseers
Eldrad Ulthran
1 Avatar
20 Dire Avengers
10 Dark Reapers
Maugen Ra
Yvraine
Yncarne
Visarch
6 Windriders
3 War Walkers
Skyrunner Warlock
Skyrunner Farseer
Skyrunner Autarch
3 Vyper Jetbikes
2 Night Spinners
3 Warp Hunters
2 Fire Prisms
Webway Gate
Star Striker (unique conversion)
2 Falcons
3 Hornets
4 Wave Serpents
2 Hemlocks
2 Crimson Hunters
Crimson Hunter Exarch
Nightwing
Phoenix Bomber
Vampire
Scorpion
Cobra
Void Spinner (unique conversion)
Storm Serpent (unique conversion)
Lynx
Support Weapon Battery
Autarch with Wings
6 Shadow Spectres
10 Wraithguard
6 Wraithguard with D-scythes
Spiritseer
7 Wraithblades
2 Bonesingers
7 Wraithblades with axes
Wraithlord
Wraithseer
Skathach Wraithknight
2 Wraithknights
2 Revenant Titans
Phantom Titan

I highly recommend people have a bit of fun and put their largest army out all at once and see how massive your collection has grown.  One day I'd love to use the force all at once, though I doubt I'll ever be able to.

Flying Mote: Complete

back when I was working on my Vampire I had a lot of spare Acrylic rod, so I thought about how I could finally complete a Flying Mote I had dreamed of adding to my Aeldari table as terrain for some time. I started working on the Mote over a year ago and put it aside. There were moments I almost abandoned it because I worried I wasn't going to do it right, but now I convinced myself to work on it and I'm very happy with the results!

The starting place:

From the top down there's a craft "coaster", a large styrofoam cone with three small foam cones attached with toothpicks, pva, and wall patching putty. I drilled through the large cone to fit large clear acrylic rod. At the bottom of the base I glued two thick foam discs together and drilled through the centre to fit the rod. I used putty to strengthen the fit of the rod and hold it steady. Once dried I glued that to a Dinner Plate sized craft coaster. I then chipped away at the foam to get it most of the way to the shape I wanted, carved some lines in the cones like areas eroded from rain, and then lathered it all with PVA glue. Once dried I was able to spray primer it without it eating the foam. After that it's all about painting it to taste, and adding some of my basing kit stuff to taste. I looked up images of "flying motes" to get some visual inspiration for the painting. Here's the final product:

I was incredibly happy with this piece, and I think it should be fun to have a piece of terrain that realistically only Fly units can get up to it during a game (or a unit like Reivers with their grappling hooks). 

Engines of Vaul Complete Set

It all started with me getting a broken Cobra kit from FW and them sending me a replacement hull.  It triggered an idea in my head about creating conversions for the Storm Serpent and Void Spinner.  Once I saw an old Night Spinner kit go up on ebay I knew I had to do it.  Now that I finished the Scorpion, over 3 years after this whole project started, I have now completed the fourth and final Engine of Vaul.  As far as I know I'm the only person with all four Engines of Vaul in 40k scale.  It still surprises me that FW hasn't released kits of these on their own.  They seem like low hanging fruit.  In the mean time, Enjoy:

I'm pretty happy with the two converted kits, though I may bring in the rear fins.  I'm not certain yet.  That said I certainly feel like a burden has been lifted now that these are completed and the project as a whole is no longer hanging over my head.

Another Aeldari Unit

I've been slowly getting to some of the units I've had kicking around that I really wanted to finish and get out of the way.  In this case it's one of the most beautiful units in the game... Mandrakes.  These models were originally made in metal, and they did not fare well in the transition to finecast, predominantly because their feet are such a thin and frail connection to the base, so they consistently break at the feet.  In addition some of the weapons are extremely thin and removing thicker flash can break them.

With 8th allowing Keyword Aeldari and no real reason to build to a deeper keyword right now it's opened up the units I can take.  In addition the rules for Mandrakes are quite sexy.  Having them painted means my Ulthwe force can benefit from a thematic game wherein the warp is being abused and Mandrakes can represent an Aeldari style lesser daemon that isn't affiliated with Slaanesh.  In their 5th edition book they were daemons.

In the hands of a better painter I think the unit would look absolutely gorgeous, but for my own skill level I was very happy with them and feel like they captured the feel I wanted them to have.

One thing you'll note is that similar to my Ulthwe Craftworld units no two models are exactly the same.  For this squad I made sure their weapons were more varied, and I used a piece from a Venom to make sure the Night Fiend is properly recognisable in the squad.

The GW Technical blood has felt very appropriate for the Dark Eldar units, but none moreso than the Mandrakes, who I wanted to be if not bathed in it then definitely as stained as a butcher's apron.  As for the bases, I made sure all of them had tufts of dying grass to thematically represent plants dying in their proximity (similar to what I did with Ynnead).

Reinforcing My Ynnari

I've finished some long term projects.  The first is my second Hemlock, painted roughly 4 years after painting the first, and I've had it for over 6 months so it's about time I got to it.  I'm happy with how similar they look.  I'm hoping they are good in the new edition because I love the concept behind them.

Otherwise I've finally finished off the Incubi squad I started in 2012.  They are lead by Drazhar (whom I converted to look like the 5th edition codex artwork).  There is also a Klaivex with Banner (Crimson Moon Temple).  I love the aesthetics of the unit and really hope they're fierce in 8th.  To be honest I always had a bit of a sad run with this unit (they had three painted Incubi and I'd run them in a Venom with Drazhar and an Archon.  That unit never made it into combat.  They always died an ignominious death well before getting in to combat.  However, with Strength from Death in the Ynnari rule set I had the chance to run them even without Drazhar and they royally kicked ass.  The extra speed and out of sequence assaults made them an impressive threat.  I had so much fun using that particular unit it inspired me to actually get around to painting the whole unit.  With that in mind, I will need to get a raider if I ever intend to get them all in one transport at the same time.  So many units waiting to get painted.  I wish I was quicker at it.

Balewind Vortex Conversion

I was always a fan of the Balewind Vortex,a nd was a bit bummed that it was essentially AoS only.  Seemed like a missed opportunity.  As such I have converted one to fit my army theme and we've created some test rules for it (below).

Summon Terrain, WC2, any unengaged psyker or brotherhood of psykers (i.e. not locked in combat) may cast the Balewind Vortex.  Psykers with the Monstrous Creature or Vehicle type cannot cast the Balewind Vortex.  Units on the vortex receive 4+ cover, are immune to nova, template and blast attacks, cannot move, assault, or be tank shocked, moved, or assaulted.  The vortex doubles the range of witchfires, blessings, and maledictions for units casting from the vortex.  At the start of the controlling player's next turn the vortex automatically dissipates.  Any perils of the warp suffered while on the vortex result in a -1 to the roll.  Once per turn psykers on the vortex may harness the power of the vortex, capturing warp charge on a 2+, but any doubles result in Perils of the Warp.

Cegorach's Jest: The Danse Macabre

It took more than a year, but I finally finished:


When I first painted a single squad of Harlequins I tried as much as possible to make them all individuals.  With the release of the new book I spent a while contemplating how I'd like to use them going forward and what possible masque would be best paired with Ulthwe.  There was one little mention of Midnight Sorrow coming to Utlhwe's aid early in their big reveal, but no real notes since.  Finally Death Masque came out, with a new plastic Eldrad and cementing a tenuous bond between Ulthwe and the Midnight Sorrow, so my decision was made.  While I haven't gotten around to painting the Death Masque Harlequins yet I have painted all the ones I'd previously bought and built.  1750 worth of Harlequins in a full Cegorach's Revenge formation.  In the years since I've first painted them my tremble has made the diamond pattern a bit more difficult, but I approached it as best I could.

I've even gotten to run the formation in a game so I can start understanding them a bit more.  My thoughts on that below:

I played in a game against Minotaurs with a unit of Custodes acting as a bodyguard to their Chapter Master, supported by a Leviathan dread.  My thoughts are, super elite forces are absolutely murdered by Harlequins.  I was worried to start the game, but quickly found that I was able to focus on units and remove them.  The Leviathan was a model I simply avoided, as I had the speed to do so, negating the futility of trying to take it out.  I focused on taking objectives whenever I could, even when it prevented me from being able to engage my foe in the manner I wished.

Keeping the Death Jesters and Shadow Seers as separate units worked well.  While it made them easy targets for First blood or wipe out a unit victory points it also means my opponent is wasting an entire unit's worth of firepower to wipe out a single T3 model.  I really wish the ability to reroll 1's for the invul was somehow built in, because it felt so necessary as the game went on.

Grav Centurions are totally wasted against Harlequins, and since they're such a no brain force you're likely to see them on the table, and boy does it feel good running them down.

I finally lost my solitaire in a game, but my opponent came at him with a drop pod filled with 10 marines and rapid fired at point blank range.  It was mostly a moral victory for my opponent as the marines did not survive to see their next turn.

Overall the Harlequins have a number of weaknesses, primarily flyers and massed small arms fire, but in the right situation they're clearly a dangerous tool.

Light Troupe

Another step towards completing a Masque.  Shaking off the rust to get these Harlequins up to snuff and a playable force on the table top has been a struggle for me, in part because my hands are far less steady compared to when I originally painted the single unit, but in part because it's a very daunting prospect to pick up a full army and suddenly need to paint them before I let myself use them on the table top.  Hopefully they'll be a bit of a surprise to my opponent the first time I crack down with them, but until then I'll labor away and try to pain them as well as I can with the goal of unleashing an unexpected challenge upon my foe.

This unit is filled with Harlequin Kisses, in part because when the unit was first introduced I converted the unit so every model, except the seer, jester, and master, had kisses.  I really felt that the whole unit (my only one in the army) should have the quintessential Harlequin weapon.  Now I've maintained a unit entirely featuring the weapon for the new rules.  Note that the Masque is Midnight Sorrow due to the fluff connection between that Masque and Ulthwe.

Harlequin Revamp Continues

My work to bend the Harlequins to the Masque of Midnight Sorrow has taken another step forward, with a full size troupe all painted / repainted.

Coming in near 300 pts despite having 3 ablative wound harlies shows how expensive the unit can get to do what you want it to do. Eventually I'll actually get my whole 1750 that's built all painted up. I'll probably play through that a few times before I figure out what I need from the extra Death Masque stuff.

For a while I thought I'd paint them up very quickly and have the first online battle rep that was all harlequins and all painted using Cegorach's Revenge. My laziness cost me and now that's been done, so I've still got to see my way through it. With the biggest unit done I feel a major step has been taken.

The death Jesters and Shadowseers will remain in unique raiments compared to the rest of the masque, denoting their special role. At this point I just need to paint up a second Shadowseer and I'll be able to start using the cast of players along with hero's path, which I think is the intent of the codex, to be built in pieces, slowly adding to an existing force. The formations are great at letting you try out a piece here and there as you go, with the big payoff being Cegorach's Revenge supporting an apocalypse force of Craftworlders. They are more likely to avoid being an early target on that type of field.

One step closer to fun.

Shining Spears Complete

I'm In April I'd finally started converting my Shining Spears and Biketarch, but my hatred for painting white and lack of time to paint meant I've been working on the unit slowly ever since.

I had promised myself I'd finish them before my next game and I've finally met that benchmark, despite really wanting to get a game in.

I may joke that the unit's primary weapon is harsh language, but I think they may be over criticised. I look forward to trying them out and seeing if I can figure out how to get the best from them.

I think the Autarch will be the lynchpin for me to make it work, but now that the celestial lance is useable again I may try it  in place of the standard laser lance to get AP2. It seems like nowadays every MEQ has 2+ armor saves. That said, if he doesn't do the job right the first time it's just a CCW, as opposed to the basic lances now, which are AP3 in subsequent rounds.

We'll see how it goes, but I can't wait to get back to the battlefield.

Shining Spears part 1

Way back in 5th edition, when I had pretty much moved on to complete null deployment As the only real way Eldar had a chance to put up a fight (refusing to engage before turn 5) I had managed to maintain a pretty admirable unit of 5 Shining Spears and an Autarch and Farseer. They were fast and versatile enough I could get a lot out of them with other supporting units like jetbike guardians.

With 6th edition power weapons dropped to AP2. I had previously used the unit to take on small, high-value targets, but they were effectively retired despite a points drop. When I moved to Australia the models broke, and since I was never fully happy with their paint scheme I was in no hurry to repair them.

In 7th we got new bikes, but not new spears. They did get new rules, which I have found intriguing, and ultimately it drove me on a path to take all the spear bits I had and combine the old and new kits in to a sleek hybrid unit. So far I'm happy with the results:

5 more to go, and a revised Autarch and I'll be looking to test their newest incarnation on the table top again.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

It's been a long time so nice I've posted, but that's mainly because over the last few months most of my hobby time has gone to working on one of the more difficult kits I've had to make. Without further ado, here is the second largest, and second most difficult kit I've ever worked on, the Vampire:

The Hemlock is included purely for scale.

I tried to use the hand painted tunes as judiciously as possible to really draw the eye in, but not make the entire plane too busy.  I was also able to hide my initials in the small panel of runes on the top side of the hull.

Prior to the release of IA11 2nd ed I had converted the centre line pulsar. Once the book came out I adapted to the appropriate upgrade, but decided I liked the conversion enough to keep it.

A statue of Isha as Mother

A statue of Isha as Mourner

Base details.

Scale photos. I actually made this so that it comes apart in 4 pieces. The two wings, upper hull and lower hull/cockpit all separate and come off the stand. As one of FW's older kits it was a bit daunting and tough to work with, but overall I'm happy with the final product.

Sorry it's been so long between posts, but as you can see I've been hard at work.

Doomshroud Skathach Complete

It's been more than a month of me working off and on, but I finally got the Skathach done.  I wanted it to have a bit of a different pose than the others in that I wanted it to look like it was jumping in and out of reality and pointing both barrels at its unfortunate target.  I have a large game coming up in early February and used it as motivation to get this project done.  I went for the Doomshroud Skathach because I'm a fan of monofilament weaponry and it feels esoteric and Eldar.  While I have no doubts the heat lances will be effective they seem boring by comparison.  I may pick them up in the future, but it's a far down the line thing.  If it's not clear in the photo the shoulder weapons are magnetized.

I am super excited to see it in action... and to see if it earns a name.

Refreshing a unit: Banshee edition

I originally painted this squad circa 2003, and was very happy with it. In fact, they were the first unit I added flair to on their bases.

The unit had an ethereal colour scheme, and had the unique variation I wanted, but in the time sense I've noticed how out-of-date the highlighting looked compared to the hard edge work I use now. In addition I have been bringing my units into more traditional schemes and I wanted to Bring the Banshees up to snuff.

Here they are all together:

And here is the Exarch, with a better view of her banner, the Tree of Life on a field of blood, a dark omen from which the unit takes it's name - Baleful Vision

Lastly is a model I did some time ago, their Phoenix Lord - Jain Zar:

With the adjusted rules in the 7th edition book I'm really excited to get them on the tabletop and see if they work as well there as they do in my imagination (especially as part of a craftworld Warhost... With a 12" fleet and minimum charge of 5")!

Project Wraithguard: Another Task Done

Well, after nearly a year I finally have a game scheduled that (with the additional shame of not having finished them) inspired me to finish the revamp of my old Ulthwe wraithguard as I blend the metal models with the plastic. First up is the d scythe squad. At just 5 members I'm considering buying another box to bump them up to 6 and my two blade squads to 7.

The real showcase of this little project, however, is the standard wraithguard unit made up of a mixture of new plastic and classic metal models.

I'm really quite pleased (or as they say in Australia quite chuffed) with the final product. The hip guards as shoulder pads really blended the unit quite well, and changing the gun barrels helps sell the look as well.

I intend to spend a bit more time dressing  up their bases like I do with my other units, but in the mean time I'm happy enough to play them on the tabletop.

For all the folks that think me ridiculous for playing the unit as 10... I make this choice with years of experience under my belt and I'm anticipating the unit can continue to impress as they take to the field of battle at full strength once again.

Wraithguard - Blending Old and New

Shortly after the fourth edition codex came out I revamped my lowly Ulthwe wraithguard unit to bring them back to prominence with their then new rules. Part of this included putting them on larger, terminator-sized, bases. I was particularly happy because, at the time, it made them much more stable.

5th edition came and went, but in 6th new wraithguard models finally came out and the bases fit. At that time I was fitting out new plastics for close combat and swapping half my classic squad for d-scythes. I then received another box of 5 as a gift and figured I'd fill the basic cannon unit back to full. This revealed a problem, the old unit looked weird mixed into the new unit.

The height was similar, and swapping out gun barrels was an obvious step, but they just looked out of place, and the problem was the shoulders. The classic wraithguard don't have pauldrons and it means they lose that exaggerated triangle torso shape that Jes replicates throughout the army. To rectify this I've added the hip plates from the plastic models as pauldrons to the metal, and overall I'm very happy with how it blends the old unit with the new one.

Skyweavers

When the Harlequin codex came out I nabbed a number of new kits, including 2 boxes of sky weavers. Tonight I finally got around to putting one box together.  It was only one because it was incredibly difficult. They are definitely not a beginner kit. I'll need a lot of free time and patience to get around to a second unit.

I had been planning to get a third box and run them in 3's, but after building some it will probably be a while before I talk myself in to that.

That said the cannon is designed to be easily swapped out, which I appreciate, and even before paint the models look great.

Considering how many projects I have going at the moment, I don't expect to get through them all before the end of 2015, but I keep picking up more stuff anyway.

I'm not 100% certain how this unit will actually play on the table, but I look forward to trying them out.

40k Scale Void Spinner.

I finally finished it.  I'd been working on it off and on for a few months, mixed with some other projects, but now she's finally done.  The void Spinner.  I'd been inspired to try and track down an old Forgeworld Night Spinner kit and convert one of these for over a year, but it wasn't until a couple months ago that  I saw the parts come up on ebay and snatched them up as quickly as I could.

Below I have pictures of the finished conversion next to my other painted Vaul's engines, and next to its smaller cousin the Night Spinner.  The flash blows out the layering in the yellow on the void spinner array, but it looks quite nice in person.  once I get a basic Scorpion done and dusted I'll have the entire quartet of Vaul's engines.

Below are the rules I developed with my friend Saunders, a constant opponent, for the Void Spinner.  I really liked the description in the epic rules about the Void Spinner being another weapon that the Eldar consider somewhat horrific to bring to battle because it mixes their terraforming technology with their most gruesome form of weaponry.

Void Spinner 700 pts

Super heavy fast skimmer tank

Hp 9

Shuriken cannon and upgrades, see scorpion.

Void Spinner Array

Range 60" str 8/7/6 ap 3/5/- primary Weapon, apocalyptic mega blast, barrage, ignore cover, pinning, monofilament, abomination.

Abomination: The bacteria and wraithbone parasites, normally used for terraforming, unleashed in the monofilament salvoes are horrifying to behold as they reduce, metal, stone, flesh, and bone to organic compost. Pinning tests caused by wounds from this weapon are taken at -3 ld.

I'm also reprinting the Storm Serpent rules from a prior post, for those who missed it, since it's visible in the top picture.

Storm Serpent 475 pts

Super heavy fast skimmer tank transport*

HP 9

Pulse laser

Shuriken cannon and upgrades, see scorpion.

Up to 6 units with the infantry, Jetbike, fast skimmer, or walker unit type may be embarked upon the Storm Serpent at the start of the game. No units may embark upon the transport once the game has started.

Wraithgate: each turn up to 3 units embarked upon the Storm Serpent may disembark from any point along the front or sides of the Storm Serpent's hull. If the Storm Serpent is destroyed the embarked units suffer no negative effects and are instead immediately placed into ongoing reserve.