Red Dragon Entries and WIPs

Well today I finished up my two Red Dragon entries for Gathering in the Desert painting competition. First up is Gandalf in a cart, which if some of you remember, I was going to enter this last year in the Large category, but I was unable to finish it in time. For the longest time it sat painted in basic colors, I just was not enthused to finish it. So last week I busted it out and took a second look at it.

What was bugging me was the fact that the Gandalf figure had no reins in his hands! So I went on a mission to make a set of reins. I tried everything, but could not find the right material. I was about to give up when I noticed that I had some floral wire sitting around. I had a thought that maybe I could flatten out the wire like I do for spears (by smashing the wire on a anvil with a hammer). So I went to town hammering the wire. Well that was the ticket and it worked out great.



The second entry is called "Death of a Hero" it is between Lurtz the Uruk-hai and Boromir after the Fellowship breaks up. This was the diorama I was talking about in the last post about having the base warp on me. Well you can see from the photo that this base will not warp. All in all I like how it turned out.

And lastly here is a WIP of a Balrog that I was going to enter into the Large Monster category, but I realized that I bit of more than I can chew and would not have this baddie ready for GitD. He is a long way off from being done, who would have thought that this was a pain in the butt to paint!

Anyhow, just a quick little update, time to get back to the Numidians I am working on.

TK

Adepticon Update

Well, I have been busy so thought I would let folks know where I stand on the preparations for Adepticon.

1 Numidians/Republic Romans for Hank Edley - Well this past Sunday the weather out here in Phoenix was good for shooting some primer, so I got all the infantry models primed white. I also got Green Stuff on the Numidian Elephant and finished off all the cavalry models cleaned up and equipped with spears. I also test painted up 3 skirmishing javeliners to see if I like the color. This week I will be busting out the army to get it ready for Adepticon.

2 Legends of the Old West Figures - Well I spoke to Jay in Chicago who is running the LotOW event on Friday night. Well he only needs a beginning level ($200) Posse of Lawmen for the event, he has enough to cover the rest of the game. As luck would have it, I happen to have just the figures ready to go. So I will be bringing about 12 models and the great thing is that they are already painted! WooHoo! Cross this one off the list!

3 Finish my LotR army - Well I dug out the figures and got them all primed and ready for paint this weekend as well. I am planning on running a Numenor force lead by either Isildur or a regular Numenor Captain. All I have done are 12 Spearman and one captain, I still need to paint up the bowmen and swordsmen. Well they are primed and ready to go, just waiting in the paint que now.

4 Figuring out how to Pack - Well have not figured that out yet, but I am thinking that the Numidian will get shipped out to Chicago so as to save me space.

Besides the above, I still need to make up a 1000 flyer's for Saguaro Paint Service. Good thing is that I can get them printed pretty cheap, but trying to figure out how to transport 100o flyer's. I am thinking that I will ship these as well.

And as if I did not have enough to do, I still have GitD in less than 3 weeks. Nice thing is that everything for Gathering in the Desert 2010 is ready to go. I pick up the Shirts this Friday, the prize support form GW showed up yesterday, packets & certificates are printed. Only thing to do is order the food. Event though it mostly done, it still feels like I have a ton of work to do.

One more thing, I decided to paint up a few items for the Red Dragon paint competition. I am doing Gandalf in his cart which got finished yesterday for the large entry. For the Battle scene I am doing Boromir's last few minutes with the mighty Uruk-hai Lurtz.

Everything was going great, models painted, based the minis on the display base and started to do the ground work. Well I choose a thin base that I picked up from Michaels a few months ago. But once I started adding the Liqutex to the base I started to notice that the base looked like it was warping. Well by the time I got the paint on it, it started to warp even more, so much so that it would not sit flat. So I had to start from scratch and removed the figures and used a thicker base. Now I just need to paint the ground work and it will be done.

All of this is being done while I look for real work and do commission work for Saguaro Painting Service, which I have 12 Old West figures for my buddy as well as a bunch of Fow Tanks.

So there you go...

TK

Adepticon or Bust!

Well,

It looks like I will be able to attend Adepticon 2010 this year thanks to my awesome parents (Thanks Mom & Dad!!!). Adepticon is March 26th - 28th, 2010 and is one of the largest, if not the biggest game convention run by gamers for gamers.

So with me now going again I have a list of stuff that I need to get ready for, so I thought I would list out a few things here.

1 - Finish the Numdian army for Hank Edley for WAB. I got these figures last year from Hank and he commissioned me to paint them up. I will hopefully use this army as a ringer army for the 2000 point WAB tournament that I will be running while there.

2 - Finish up some Old West Figures for a Legends of the Old West game that will be happening on Friday night. I have about 10 figures to paint up to add to my collection. The game will be a multi-player game, should be fun!

3 - Finish my LotR army, I have 12 out of the 30+ figures done, so need to finish them up. I am only playing in the 350 Championship on Friday and I am looking forward to it.

4 - Pack! Have to figure out just how to pack all this stuff which is always fun. Since I hate checking bags all this stuff needs to go carry on. And yes you do get a lot of strange looks from TSA when you travel with figures.

So there you have it, a short list but a lot of work to do before than. Also I have commission work to finish as well as get stuff ready for Gathering in the Desert. So I will be real busy for the next few weeks.

TK

Logo for GitD 2010 LotR GT

Well here is the New Logo for Gathering in the Desert Lord of the Rings Grand Tournament 2010.


Well here is the new Logo for the Gathering in the Desert for 2010. The idea for this years logo came from Brent Sinclair as we had dinner last year after the event. He mentioned that since his Harad army won why not do a Harad themed shirt.


Thanks to Jerry Auteri for the artwork and Jon over at AZ Hotshots for getting the finalized logo put together.

TK

The Begining of a Campaign

So,

DrunkenSamurai & I have a good friend (Brandon) who has been wanting to do a 40K campaign for about 2 years now. Brandon has had an idea of what he wanted fro sometime, than he bought the Forgeworld book, Imperial Armour volume four - The Anphelion Project. Now real life (work, family, etc) have always gotten in the way of starting this. But with the New year upon us, there is no excuse to get started with it.

So with that in mind Brandon & I made the trip this past Sunday out to Empire games to start the beginning of the campaign. Now we will be using our own armies and not the ones listed in the book.

So I answered the threat of a Tyranid invasion on an Imperial city. Two Adeptus Sororitas units were dispatched to stall the Tyranid incursion into the city. Reinforcements would slowly arrive since the Tyranids appeared suddenly into this system, so it was up to the Sisters of Battle to hold them.

One unit deployed atop an Imperial building on the right while another unit took to the ground.

Although the Sisters had swept their positions with Auspex scanners but they did not detect the Lictors that were well disguised and hidden in the buildings.

Sister Chiana leads her Squad out to find the aliens that are invading this system.

The Tyranids bust out of Cargo containers that were brought to this planet from a long lost transport ship.

Through a window a Imperial citizens spot Tyranid warriors approaching! All they can do is hide while the authorities deal with them.

Sister Shannon's squad spots a Lictor trying to climb the building to assault them.

Mean while Palatine Grayza and her Celestine bodyguards spot another Lictor lurking in a building and open fire, reducing the foul beast to ichor!

Sister Chiana squad blunders into the Tryanids trap as the creatures spring from their hiding places.

Sister Shannon's squad does not fair well with the Lictor and it manges to climb to the top of the building while evading bolter & flamer fire.

But Sister Shannon bellows the order to close with the creature in the name of the Emperor! With faith of the Emperor protecting them, they quickly dispatch the foul beast.

Sister Chiana squad is able to wipe out most of the bugs that tried to ambush them, it seems that the Emperor is with them.

Meanwhile a Genesteller brood lord appears with some Genestealers and closes in on Palatine Grayzas position.

Somehow the Broodlord summoned more gaunts to his aid to assault Palatines position.

A bitter fight ensued with Palatine Grayza and her bodyguard, unfortunately Palatine group was overpowered as the Tyranids cut down the Celestines and pursued Palatine Grayza.

Palatine Grayza sent a com burst for more reinforcements and that her position was over run by Tryanids, her com then goes dead as she falls to the invaders.

The swarm then hits a squad of reinforcements as they arrive and quickly wades through the brave Sisters.

Sister Chiana squad is then ambushed by a hoard of gaunts that explode out of a near by building, quickly surrounding them.

Sister Shannon's squad is pinned down by Bio fire from the Tryanid warriors and can only watch in horror as their positions are over run. Sister Shannon watches as Palatine Grayza is cut down by the approaching swarm.

Just when hope seems lost, an Imperial Valkyrie approaches to airlift Sister Shannon's squad to safety. Sister Chiana fights and the gaunts buying time for Sister Shannon's team to be airlifted.

The last thing that is seen as the Valkyrie speeds away is Sister Chiana holding off the gaunts and giving her life to the Emperor. Sister Shannon vows that the loss' today will be avenged!

All in all it was a great game and was allot of fun. We had a few folks come up to us and ask how many points we were playing, when we explained that we were not using points, they seemed confused. We told them it was a narrative campaign and they looked at us as if we just did something wrong. .

I guess some 40k players are to entrenched in their thinking to play 40K any other way than besides tournament point based games. I feel sorry for folks that think that way, what ever happened to playing a game for fun and for a story??

Anyhow we had a blast playing and will be doing more of these games in the future.

TK

Sisters of Battle part II

Well it's time for Part II of the Sisters of Battle, in the last post you saw what I have completed, this post will show you what I am working on and what needs assembly. So on with the post...

First up is an Elite choice of Arco-flagellants that I am working on. These models have been on the blog before but now I have them finished and primed up for paint. I really never liked the GW version because there is only one pose. So after thinking about it I converted up these guys with WHFB Ghouls and Empire Flagellants, throw in some 40K bits, and you have some cool looking models. I know from a game perspective that the Arco's are a bit of a gamble, but I really love the back story on them and had to build them.

Next up is another Elite choice that has seen the blog before, my Father Repentias, now with basic colors being applied. Once again I was not fond of the GW Sister Repentias, too Dominatrix like and it really did not fit with the rest of the army. So I came up with a back story that these guys are minor criminals that the SoB had caught and to atone for their crimes they went into battle to die for the Emperor to be absolved for their crimes. Once again these guys are the leftovers of the WHFB Flagellants with chainswords taken from different 40K models. The only true GW Repentia is the Mistress model that DrunkenSamurai gave me.

Now we move onto items that will be added or need assembly (or paint), first up is a group of Inquisitor Henchman from the GW Witch Hunter Box set. I have started some figures but put them away after loosing interest to finish them. These guys are going to be back on the bench again since they can work for all sorts of things.

next up are a few more Priests and a old Redemptor Kyrinov The Arch Confessor as well as a Cawdor ganger and regular civilian model from GW (far left). Once again these are great models for just about anything and I am glad I have them. I also found my Uriah Jacobus model after I took the picture.

Next are a few Sisters carrying Imagifers, I have a total of four of them and look forward to getting them into battle.

Here is a second group of Seraphim equipped the same as my painted squad. I had envisioned having two units of ten to use too out flank opponents, but the cost of them is pretty high. perhaps one day I will field this unit.

Now here are a few extra Sisters of Battle, there are 19 of them here, I also have an extra 15 painted that I did not take pictures of yesterday. My goal is to take the helmeted SoB and make them Celestines while the others will become Dominion Squads, and Retributer squads.

Here are a few extra Sisters Supierors and Cannoness. The Cannoness to the left has a converted bolter (taken from a Void Figure) to represent a Master Crafted weapon.

Now onto a true Heavy Support, here is a Penitent Engine, once again I am looking forward to getting this painted and into the army.

Now we move onto some Heavy weapons, first up are three extra Heavy Flamers, I have three currently painted and these will be added one day.

Next are 9 Multi-Meltas ready for action in Retributer Squad.

And following along are 8 Heavy Bolters to be changed out if I want Bolter fire for big hoard armies.

Special weapons come next with eight regular meltas. Once again I have one Melta in each of my painted units already. These can be used for a Dominion squad or two.

And since we are talking Dominion squads how about adding in a few regular flamers? I have 14 of them here ready to go, man a squad with four flamers could mess up a lot of hoard armies.

Here is the transport box, it has something like nine old school rhinos in there to either be stock Rhinos or Immolators. I have enough immolater parts to make all nine true Immolaters. But I have been toying with upgrading my army to new vehicles, I am still thinking about that. I have a plan to use the old bits on the New Rhinos to make some custom looking vehicles, so we shall see.

Here are a few extra Seraphim that I have, I counted and there is about 22 of them, I have all their backpacks as well. Once again I had ideas to see an all Seraphim equipped army to play against friends.

Here is also the leftover of Sisters that include a few heavy weapon bodies, a few regular SoB missing their backpacks, as well as a few Sisters Superiors in there. These are used for trade or conversions.

Also I did not get a chance to take pictures of the 60 Mordian Imperial Guard models that I have. I have enough to do an Inducted Platoon to fight along side my SoB. The Mordians look very officer like and would look good with the SoB.

So there you go, all of my Sisters of Battle stuff, I can only hope that the Witch Hunters get a new Codex soon (Rumors say sometime in 2011) which will give me enough time to paint up all this stuff...

TK

Sisters of Battle

So,

I got asked in an email about my Sisters of Battle army and what do I have for it? Well I have a lot but none ever really made it onto the blog, sure bits and pieces have been posted, but not all of it. So I busted out the army for a few pictures. I also will be showing (in another post) some of the things I am working on and what I still need to assemble.

But lets get going with the current army...


First up is Saint Celestine which is used as an HQ choice. As you can see, I did some converting on this model, I really liked the Living Saint model by Neil Hodgson in the back of the current Witch Hunters Codex. So I took off the stock cape and added wings to her and did a little green stuff work to blend them in. Her armour is painted with a Pearl White from Creamcoate and has a nice shine to it. I also added a 40mm base to give it some stability to it.

Since this is a Witch Hunter army, I needed to include a Witch Hunter Inquisitor, this is my Puritan Inquisitor, he is pretty stock unlike my Radical Inquisitor below.

Here is a really old (1980 something) Inquisitor that my buddy DrunkenSamurai gave me. He has had a Power Sword added to him, Plasma Gun and a Dark Angel backpack added to him. I also added him on a 40mm base to give him some height. Since he is a radical, I decided to paint him up in bright gold armour, it seems to work on the model and fits with the radical feel, sort of a "Look at Me, I am A Bad Ass Inquisitor!"

Next up two Canoness' for a pure SoB army, nothing special here, just cool looking models.

These guys are either Inquisitor Henchman or stand in for Inquisitor agents. The three Van Saar figures are from an old Necromunda gang and work for henchman. And the Void figure stands in as either my Puritan Inquisitor in plain cloths or as an Imperial agent.

Every Sob army needs a few Priests, once again they can be Inquisitor Henchman or Priests depending on how I am playing the army.

Here are a few more Imperial agents, Shotgun boy is a converted Guardsmen, the Pirate looking fellow is converted using IG bits & Mordheim parts. and the guy carrying the Heavy Stubber is a converted Orlock figure withe a IG guardsmen. Once again they can be whatever I need them to be.

Here we have a Sister Hospitaller and a converted Limited edition Foundry figure to stand in for a Inquisitor. The Inquisitor has had a Power Sword & plasma pistol added to her. I also had to cut down the figure on the planted foot since she was a lot taller than most GW figures. She fits in nicely now.

Here are a few Cyber skulls for the Inquisitor group, the one in the center was a conversion so I could have another one.

Next up are some of the Elites, we start with Officio Assassinorum Operatives.

These are all stock figures and the only one that has not been in battle yet is the Culexus assassin, but he will soon.

Next up is a squad of Celestians, there is a total of ten, (ones missing from the photo) and I have used them as a stand alone unit as well as attaching them to the Cannoness.

Here is a ten man unit of Inquisitor Storm Troopers. I am still on the fence with these boys. They do not get all of the cool things that regular storm troopers get and for the cost they are not very useful, but they are in the army.

We next move to Troops:

There are three 15 girl squads, each with a Heavy Flamer and Melta gun. I used to run 20 girl squads, but have found the 15 girl units to be just right. In the second & third picture, the Veteran sisters have had weapon swaps done to them to add some differences between them.

Next up is the Fast Attack section:

I run a ten girl Seraphim Squad with two girls carrying hand flamers. I usually attach the Saint to this squad and use them to clear flanks and clear off objectives.

Next up is the Heavy support section:

Here I have two heavily converted Exorcists from old school Rhinos.


I found this conversion from Agis Neugebaur site. I really liked what he did and had to do two of these myself. I never liked the GW model for the Exorcist and these "feel" right for the Sisters.

Now the next two pictures are items that I just got together over New Years Eve, first up is some faith point counters.

I always forget that I have used Faith points and made these counters to remind me as well as my opponent that a certain unit is using faith points. The parts come from the Cities of Death sets and are used to fix atop some of the buildings. All I did was paint them gold and add them to a flat base.

Also something I did were these banners:

Since this version of 40K uses objectives, I wanted something that would say Inquisition and SoB. I got the idea from the Dawn of War computer game and all they are is a few banner poles stuck to bases. I had a hell of a time to get the decals to set, it seems that I have some old decals that do not have much sticking quality to them. After an hour of working with some decal setting solution, I got them to stick to the banner. I think they came out rather nice and they look better than the GW Neon Green flags in the counter set.

So there you go, that is my current Sisters of Battle army. In the next post I will show you what I am adding to the army and what is still waiting to be assembled, so stay tuned and keep uttering the Litany of Divine Guidance...

TK