What am I going to do with this?

I excitedly picked up Crusade of Fire recently.  I am a huge fan of campaigns, even if in the past my attempts at running one have been full of issues, and mixed successes and failures.  From having too many players, to having to deal with power gamers, campaigns are a difficult thing to do correctly.

This time around though I promised myself it would be different.  Instead of running the group in conjunction with a local game store supporting it, I would run it more privately, with just a few like minded friends.

So, I spoke with a couple buddies, and while we are all eager to play a full fledged 40k campaign, it's that time of year.  By that I mean 40k while played, takes a back seat for a few months while I usually get my Mordheim on (those of you may remember my past years posts with my Rieklanders and Chaos Warbands).  I have gotten in a couple of games, but have been recently side tracked with terrain building and holiday season prep work.  As a Husband and Father of three, there is only so much hobby time in a week.

I like, err.. love the skirmish games that GW has put out over the years, and I haven't played Necromunda in some time.  So, with a new campaign book in hand I thought we would do the Crusade of Fire...

Necromunda Style! Sorry, too much?

 

There, that better?

Now my thought wasn't to try and replicate the whole campaign using gangs and experience from Necromunda and try to wage such a large scale war. 
I want to use the Crusade of Fire as a source book for all of our future 40k adventures, very akin to what you might have done with Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms in your old D&D days.

The Corvus Sub-sector is the perfect place for all sorts of campaigns.  A quick read of the background and I found where our Necromunda campaign would be.
Corvus Majoris, perfect.
Given the current state of the Sub-sector, this also gives my son a chance to easily integrate his Chaos Cultists from Dark Vengeance into our games and play a Chaos Cultist gang.

So, that was all the easy part.  I have been hard at work at Aetherstorm Games painting a variety of City Terrain, and building some more traditional looking terrain for our upcoming campaign.  Look for an upcoming post featuring some cool looking tables in the near future.

Now, I have to come up with some special campaign rules, paint a gang myself, paint up some NPCs, and decide upon a format for the News letter that keeps the players informed from week to week.  Easy right?

Shooting for a second week in January 2013 kick-off. 
I'm really geared up, this should be a blast, stay tuned for some WIP posts real soon!

Some WIP on my Space Marines

I've been hard at work lately on the painting front, between getting my Iron Warriors up from 1500 points to 2000 points for some upcoming events, painting terrain for Aetherstorm Games down the corner from me, and painting my as of yet unnamed Space Marine Army.

I have recently found the Space Marines to be a much needed distraction from the terrain project and the Iron Warriors.  Especially the Iron Warriors, don't get me wrong, I love them.  Fun to play, fun to paint, and while I certainly don't think it's my best painted project ever, I'm not unhappy with how they have turned out.  I just went a little to hard on them trying to get them ready for Mechanicon, and am suffering from a little burn out.  I do have to get back to them though, as I have the Colonial coming up in January, and the St. Valentine's day Massacre in Feb.  Both at 2k points.

I do have my next Land Raider for them assembled, and hit with their metallic base coat.  So that's a nice start.

Next up I have some quick pictures of my new Space Marines, some of you may remember the test models I threw up here a little while ago, some progress has been made since.

"And then there were 3" with the completion of the Sergeant, I now have a whole three marines completed!
With the list I have in mind that means I only have like sixty or so more marines to paint...

I have been using a wide variety of bits putting these marines together, using pieces from Dark Angel, Blood Angel, Black Templar, and normal Marine sprues.  The only pieces I have been staying away from are Space Wolf, as they just don't fit in with the Knightly theme I am going for. (though I usually find a way to sneak in a Wolf Pelt)

Above you can see some WIP, these guys are very time consuming.  I have been using Wolf Grey as a base coat, which seems to be working fairly well, allowing for a rich red color while allowing me to work up the white without too much hassle.  I have changed my recipe for painting the white, and while I don't think I have it down quite yet, I am much happier with the more recent results.

After receiving some comments on the red and black hazard stripes on one of the other marines, someone suggested I try a checkered pattern on some Chainswords.  Above you can see my first attempt at that.

I am still very early in this project, and am nowhere near deciding on a list, but I do think it is going to be very infantry heavy led by a Biker Captain, with a Biker unit (or two) as troop choices.

I also know I am going to be doing several Tactical squads, all with Flamer and Missile Launcher.  Other than that? I am just not sure.

Finishing up the Iron Warriors over the next couple months, I am adding the following; a 2nd Land Raider, a unit of 5 Terminators, and a Helbrute with Plasma Cannon.
While I certainly don't think they are the most powerful choices I could make, I think it will stick with my Heavy Armor theme.
That gives me 2 Land Raiders, a Rhino, Defiler, Vindicator, Helbrute, and Forge Fiend all squeezed into 2k points.  Not to mention the ten terminators.  Should be a blast!

I'll post more details on that when I have that list finalized.

Some new terrain

Been hard at work working on some new terrain.
Well, that is new to me, it seems Mike down at Aetherstorm Games has come into some used terrain from Les, from when he had GVE games.

The terrain was for the most part already assembled, but was in need of some TLC.  So me and my buddy Chris set to work repairing and repainting all of it.

We are not finished yet, but I figure at the pace we are going we should have a full 2 tables worth of new terrain finished by the end of next week.

 Here is a WIP shot, I wish I took some more "before" photos to give you an idea of the amount of work we have put in, but I was so eager to get started, I didn't get many.

Above you can see the test piece, this was the piece I did to figure out the paint scheme and over all look that I was going for with the terrain.
Below a quick shot of what will probably be an Adeptus Arbites HQ

 And of course the Fortress of Redemption!  I am pretty pleased with the way this beast turned out.

Of course there is more to come, and the gears are already turning for how to form a campaign around this stuff, and of course some Necromunda action, and then the IG army I want to do to match the new terrain set...

Damn this plastic crack!

I have some serious issues.

I decided I needed a short break from painting Iron Warriors, so was messing with some bits that I had laying around, and thinking I wanted to paint a new "Vanilla Marine" army.

Choosing a Chapter is always a problem, so inspired by Dave Taylor, and Jawaballs I decided I wanted to do something a little different.  No, I am not doing the Lamentors, but damn, I do like the idea of painting the checks.  So old school, reminds me of the Rogue Trader days.

No, I thought I would try and leave my comfort zone, and paint some colors I really don't like to paint.  originally I was going to do Howling Griffons, but after some fiddling around this is what I decided on.

They are quite intimidating to paint, but just the thing I need to try and expand my painting ability, and hopefully take my work to the next level.  I do have to get back to work on my Iron Warriors sometime in the next week if I expect to get another 500 points done for St. Valentines Day Massacre in February, but this is a nice distraction as a side project.

I'm actually quite pumped to get a squad done, if not a whole army.

The Mechanicon, a win for the Iron Warriors! so, what's next?

Chucky and me at the Mechanicon out in front of their WIP mascot!

What a great weekend!  we both had an absolute blast hanging out with Chris "Jawaballs" himself, and of course so many of my old friends that I only get to see a couple of times a year, Evan, Kieth, John, Colin , Mike B. the list just goes on and on.  Then of course there is Tony and Crew, who put on this great event.  I know I say it often, but it bears saying again.  This is the best 40k event of the year, and this year was no different.

As many of you know, I changed things up this year and for year 4 of this Tournament, I left my Space Wolves at home and took a brand new army.  My Iron Warriors, which I began painting late this summer in anticipation of a new Chaos Codex.  Boy am I glad I did, shockingly enough, I won over-all!  Now attendance was a bit on the low side mind ya, but hey, a win is a win! hahahaha.

I have been posting quite a bit of coverage  on the Bolter And Chainsword, here is the link for those interested in checking out some notes on the missions and full lists of my opponents http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=264498

I love to play "anti-meta" and go against the grain with my lists, and I really think I have done that with my current Iron Warriors army, my "Armor Saturation" theory while certainly not unbeatable (in fact it is quite fragile) is a blast to play, and against many opponents actually works. In an age where many on the internet are screaming that "Melta is dead!" I say go ahead and believe that, because I've got some Land Raider Loving for ya!

So, what's next?  well, I have to take my Iron Warriors up to 2000 points.  Currently the list stands at 1500 and I need lists that work at 1750, 1850 and 2000. 
I quickly have the Colonial coming up, possibly in January(?) and don't know what point level that will be, so I am going to prepare for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in February next.  That's at 2000 points.

What to add? well, I have thought about many different options, on of which included a Helldrake.  but in the end, I'm going to continue with my theory.
I am going to add a 2nd 5 man Terminator squad for some more Deep Striking goodness, and they will get a Land Raider transport that will start on the board.  I still have points for a Hellbrute with a Plasma Cannon.  There are some other minor tweaks to the current 1500 that I am going to make, time permitting.  Such as, dropping the Fist from the Champion in my ten man squad and adding the Icon of Vengance, and getting rid of the Power Lances on my Terminators, but those are low priority right now.  First things first, and I've got to get another Land Raider together, hopefully this afternoon.

Tomorrow, The Mechanicon!

Well, I have just finished painting my Iron Warriors Army to 1500 points, and thought I would snap a few photos before I pack them up for their big debut at the Mechanicon.

I certainly don't think that they are my best work for a couple of reasons, I painted the entire 1500 points in less than 3 months, that's very fast for me, so some of the army feels rushed.
Also due to time constraints, I didn't do as much conversion work as I would have liked.
That being said, I am still very happy with the army, it has been a wonderful break from painting Space Wolves, and has given me a chance to experiment some more with free-hand work, and learning how to paint red.  Which I think may be very important for my next project.

Here are a couple of more pictures

 Above you can see my Terminator Squad, with some minor conversions making a mockery of the Grey Knights.

 I wanted to convert all of my cultists using Flagellants but just didn't have the time if I wanted to use the army for Mechanicon, so I painted up 20 of the models from the new boxed set.

Above you can see an example of a couple of the standard Chaos Marines in the force, there are only 15 of them forming 2 squads, but they set the standard for the army.

So, my son Chucky (who still isn't done painting), our friend Chris Hartman playing Dark Angels, and I will be heading out around noon tomorrow and meeting up with Jawaballs where I will try and get some revenge for the pounding he gave me on Friday night last year at the Mechanicon!

So Mechanicon is going to be great, and will be my first major tournament of 6th edition.  Truthfully, my list is quite weak in my opinion, but what the hell, I'm hoping for 2 wins through the weekend, and I'll call it a success.  I am guess my army is going to garner some mixed reactions in regards to its paint score as I went a bit non-traditional on a traditional legion.  One that has a strong following, I'm thinking some people will love it, and some will hate it.  But that is the chance you take when you try something new.

I am committed to this army for the year though, and this is going to be my main Tournament army into 2013.  I am going to be expanding it quickly to 1850 for their next big outing, but have not yet decided what to add, but that is for another post.

Till next time, wish me luck.
and Jawaballs, you had best look out, I have lots of Pie-plate lovin' comin' yer way...

The Forge Fiend

Well, I am painting furiously, but I am right on track to get my 1500 points army of Iron Warriors done in time for the Mechanicon

Damn, this guy was time consuming, but a wonderful model

You can see in the photo above, that I gave up on painting all of the banding, though I did try and make it so that it looked intentional, rather than me running out of time. (and getting tired of painting red)

You know, I do love to convert models, but I'm finding more and more with Games Workshop that the model quality is such, that I feel like it would be a shame to alter this beast.  Maybe on the next one, I'll add some personal touches.

Hope you all enjoy, now I'm off to paint some Cultists, and get a practice game or three in...