292: One Force all, and all Force One

Here is my generic marines force, purposefully designed to be as "generic" as possible, allowing maximum flexibility to field a force from any of the codices.  There's lots of magnets included in this force, with most of the weapons swappable in one way or another.  You can see the slow and steady growth under the One Force label.

Colour wise, I thought to try and draw from a "realistic" military look, so the air wing is in grey... :)

... and the mechanised components are in a desert yellow.

As another 7th Ed army, there's units included to make up the formations, and there's also my Centurion conversions based on the Kataphron Destroyers.

The fantastic Korvydae model as my commander, and Iron Hand veterans to double as an Honour Guard or Sternguard.

Hammer-nator Termies and a Chaplain for extra kill.  >:)

The troops, all magnetised to run either as Assault or Tactical troops, and interchangeable special and sergeant weapons.  (There's 30 marines in total, a mix of Mk II, IV, and V;  all the original resin models)

That's that then.  I'm sure you'll see them over on the Beard Bunker from time to time, and they'll be expanded over time as well as I feel like it.

291: Tomb Raiders

As I mothball my blog I'm taking stock of my hobby and armies as they stand.  

Here at the end of 2018, this is my whole Necron army.  What started off as a side project and a quick and easy army ended up being one of the most difficult as I had to customise every last model with electrical wire to replace the green rods in the original kit.

To my mind, a Necron army should always be about a horde of relentless, advancing warriors and I've tried to keep that in this army.  I've got over 40 warriors that I take as many of as reasonable every time I play.  In big units of ~20 they are amazingly resilient and it can be impressive to see almost half the unit return to life even if there's only one left on the battlefield.

290: 10th birthday, the end of an era

Terrifyingly enough, today marks 10 years since I began this blog.  I can't quite believe I've been back in the hobby for that long.

It can't escape the notice of any poor sod who's still checking that posting has pretty much ceased here.  This is down to various factors, a big part being my own changing personal circumstances, and how much (or rather little) time I can give to the hobby.  That which I have I am plowing 100% into actual hobby and so this place takes a back seat.

Considering its just hit such a milestone, I've taken the difficult decision that I'm going to mothball the blog.  I plan to do a couple of posts to wrap things up over the next few weeks, but that'll be it for the foreseeable future.  Should life ever return to a situation where I can support this again I may return but I offer no promises...

I won't be completely lost from the hobby blogosphere however, my very good friends and primary gaming group, The Beard Bunker, have agreed to allow me to join them as a contributor to their much more excellent site, so anyone who even remembers my ramblings and would like to see more are strongly recommended to head on over that way and add them to whatever site aggregator you use.

I'll be back in the not too distant future with those wrapping up posts.

In the meantime - toodle-pip and all that!

289: Pyrkol wound trackers for 40k

I just got a bunch of these wound tracker dials. I think they are a much nicer design than the dice from GW.

I already have magnets on the inside of the hull of my planes, from magnetising the stand on. Now I can stick a dial on. I will certainly be sticking magnets on the inside of the hull of future vehicles.

More info on how the flight stands are attached: http://iron-legion.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/250-magnetising-flying-stand.html

I found the tracker dials on www.ebay.co.uk. Search for "pyrkol wound".

288: Striking Scorpions of the Occulted Claw Shrine

I finished a group. Shrine of the occulted blade. 
There's a mix of 1990 lead models that I bought from Andrew and new (ahem) resin models. I plan to use them as 1 large or 2 small squads. I might try the claw exarch as a Karandras stand-in: I think the loadout is the same.

It's good to have more aspect warriors available to my Biel-Tan. The fluff grows stronger.

I have been planning for the new year. I have some Howling Banshees and Rangers underway. I also have an unassembled shame pile including a Wave Serpent and Dark Reapers. I think I might convert up some Shining Spears before assembling those: I need more fast attack to qualify for a battalion.

287: Hassiq's Log - part I

I'm not dead....

I've just had a somewhat busy year and after the flurry of posts leading up to the conflict at J'migan Bridge (reminder, I must write up the battle sometime)  I've not really had much of a chance to look in here.

I have however been taking part in a very fun Battlefleet Gothic based roleplay set in Scyrian Expanse the with some of the guys from the Beard Bunker.

I'm playing Hassiq Betancourt-Xing, a Rogue Trader who's not been having much luck (all thanks to my pesky family) who has set his sails (or perhaps that should be engines) for the edge of known space to see if he can't improve his lot.  We've got ourselves into a number of scrapes already, and much like Laius Ortano (or Jon as I sometimes call him), I'm going to be chronicling our adventures in the form of a journal (part 1 and part 2) in character.

3.142.999.M41

Hassiq’s log - entry 13

[++ Vox Recording and Transcription]

I really should try and keep this updated somewhat more.  Oh well, if wishes were Astartes...

Isn’t this just a turn-up for the books. After being constantly blocked by my so called “family”, jealous of how I’m doing, I might have just struck gold by finally getting out from under their overbearing presence. I’ve only gone and found myself on the edge of Imperial space, lining up with a Naval escort, and a whole series of repairs on the Imperium’s tab. I knew my luck would turn eventually.

I’m finally reaping my rewards. They just couldn’t stand the fact I’d married into BXK, had to work my way up through the ranks. I mean it was a whole decade before they allowed me command of one of their ships, disgraeful! Its not like the Zen is much of a ship either, its swallowed almost everything I’ve made just to keep her spaceworthy, no-one really understands just how much it costs to keep a ship in the sky, they all think its swanning around and doing whatever you want. Anyway, that’s not the point.

Xephone seems like an acceptable place. I wouldn’t want to spend too much time here, very provincial, and a bit of a mess after they let the Orkoid get out of hand. They say they’ve got things sorted now - I’ll believe it when I see it.

We popped over to the Intemperance for a welcome dinner. Its a little sparse on those naval vessels, but they did their best and put on a passable spread. There was plenty of ‘sec at least, although I might have to keep a tighter leash on Antono in future, he was getting far too chatty with one of their female captains. Captain Ortano… Captain, or was it Commodore, who knows? Anyway, Ortano seems a bit green, but apparently he was the one who sorted out the Orkoid, so he can’t be all that bad. Where was I. Oh yes, Ortano seems like an alright chap, some decent chat, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of success with him along.

Anyway, that’s me for the night. Might have had a little too much of that ‘sec myself. Must remember to show them a proper party sometime. We’re off exploring tomorrow. Venka said she’d have selected the most promising system in the local area by the morning.

P.S.: Must remember to keep Sifira away from the navy boys in future. I think she may have “left and impression” on that Gunnery Sergeant (Barnabus I think his name was), and not in that way mind you. I don’t doubt she probably gave away a bit too much about the true condition of the Zen, she was bending his ear pretty much the whole night, and spent far too much time pointing to that pad with our list of needs. She can be a bit too efficient at times.

[-- Vox Recording and Transcription]

286: Baharroth conversion

I finished this chap recently. He is made from the Swooping Hawk Autarch with bits of Scourge. 

I have to thank MechaEmporer7000 on dakka for bits advice. I had no idea how sweet the scourge kit is.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/692128.page

285: Centurion Devastators

Here are what I'm going to be taking to represent Centurion Devastators when I feel the need for a ridiculous amount of Grav weaponry.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned previously that I didn't like the aesthetic of the real models, something about Space Marines in armour donning a second suit of armour just to tout big guns didn't really do it for me.  These are the Mechanicum Kataphron Destroyers with marine heads and backpacks.  It was a super simple conversion.
They're mounted onto 50mm bases (which I'm pretty sure is what marine destroyers come with) so you can see they aren't too dissimilar is size for gaming - a little shorter, but wider.
Eventually I need to figure out a way to model their secondary weapons (either missile launchers or hurricane bolters), but that'll be an addition for another time.

I'm sure they'll die horribly and do absolutely nothing in their first game, such is the life of any new shiny model ;)

284: J'migan bridge part 4

282: J'migan bridge part 3

(earlier parts of the little narrative I'm building for an upcoming battle are here:  part 1, part 2)

Additional Ordo Xenos Inquisitorial intercept

Eyes Only

Pertains to J'migan Situation

Additional data inload...

Ordo Analyticus cross referenced

  

281: J'migan bridge part 2

(part one of the little narrative I'm building for an upcoming battle can be found here: part 1)

Every time he delved so deep within the infinity circuit, withdrawing became that little more difficult.  Muscles took longer to respond, joints were stiffer, the feel of crystallisation within his limbs as bone became that little more attuned to the matrix was always a telling sign that each time may be the last, and he would finally join the others as a permanent fixture of the Garden of the Seers.  Not this time though, the spirit of Kaela Mensha Khaine was stirring and the infinity circuit was awakening, hostility growing as the Craftworld readied for war.

Throughout the Craftworld, artesans set down their tools, artists their brushes, and the music halls and studios fell silent.  Prompted by the prevailing mental currents, all of these otherwise peaceful members of the eldar community gravitated towards the warrior temples to begin the preparations for war.  

It wasn’t only on a single craftworld that this occurred, for the warrior temples are linked throughout the galaxy via the webway, allowing those on the path of the Aspect to navigate to places where they are most needed.  As the spirit of Kaela Mensha Khaine awakens in any one location, its effects ripple outwards through these webway links and so when a Craftworld goes to war, it is rarely alone.

The Bahzhakain of Biel-Tan was preparing for war.  Their Seers have divined that the coming moments were ripe to reclaim the Maiden World of Yne’gen and cleanse the sacred sites of the cursed Mon-Keigh.  They would not be alone, and their wrath would be terrifying...

280: One Force Mk III Sternguard painted

At last.  I don't even want to think about how long its taken me to get to this point but I've finally finished painting my initial batch of One Force marines.

Without further ado, here's my Mk III Iron Armoured squad.  They are built with combi-weapons that come from Anvil Industries, with the top level of the weapon interchangeable so I can swap in meltas, plasma, or even grav options with minimal extra painting.

The squad is a mix of the Iron Hands squad and the Legion Mk III squad from Forgeworld (no cheating plastic Mk III here ;), and they are beautiful models with lots of bionics which fits nicely into the One Force aesthetic.

As elites within One Force, they are painted up in a slightly alternate, predominately black colour scheme highlighted with greens and then with spot colours of the One Force trifecta of camo-green, grey, and desert yellow.

I'm also deviating somewhat from my original One Force paint job (which will of course require a repaint of everything thats come before) to include some metallics into the scheme.  Ho hum.

Hope you like them, and Happy New Year to you all.

279: Storm Talons finished (almost)

I built these guys a heck of a while ago (a full 18 months ago it turns out!) and they've since been sitting in my painting queue as I lost all motivation.  After finally finishing off the Mk III marines (post to come when I get some decent photos), I pulled these out and couldn't quite believe how quickly they painted up.

278: J'migan bridge part 1

Ordo Xenos Inquisitorial intercept.  

Ensure review of the following information and prepare for additional data inload.

277: Finding Wally/Waldo for a second time

Scarily, it was 4 years ago, December 2012, when I posted about finding Wally/Waldo in the Assault on Isstvan diorama, tucked almost out of sight in a doorway at the back.

Well guess who's back, and this time featuring in White Dwarf no less...

Can you see him?  If not, in CSI fashion I can zoom (but not enhance ;)

276: Bahzhakhain!

I recently finished the requirements for the Guardian Battlehost version of the Craftworld Warhost. I took a pic to celebrate.

 Bahzhakhain is the term used on Biel-Tan for a battle host ("Tempest of blades").

Click on the image to embiggen slightly.

Or download even higher res.

275: War walkers

Wotcher. I have yet more eldar completed. These leggy fellows should get their first outing in a couple of days.

They are built straight out of the box without much tweaking. They come with scenic bases. I did feel the need to hack bits off and add patches of cracked earth in different places so they were not all the same.

The guns are magnetised. Indeed, they are identical to the guardian squad's heavy weapon platform guns. I painted up so many of those that I have not bothered to paint the guns that came with the walkers.

274: Bikes

Progress!  Hopefully not the last either.  I'm back and with One Force marines no less.  Here's my latest addition, a trio of bikers to add into my force to help me on the way to running one of the new Codex Space Marine formations.

The two slightly drunk bikers are taken from the Dark Vengence set, bodies replaced with more generic marine torso's (One Force are a spartan chapter after all), and Volkite Calivers for weapons.  As these don't appear in 40K, I can reasonably claim them to be grav-weapons for the purposes of running them as filthy grav-bikers.  The Sergeant gets the standard yellow helm, and a combi-grav which is a DIY combination of a Volkite Caliver and a bolter from Anvil Industries.

These also mark a slight change in my painting technique for One Force.  Previously I've completely avoided the use of metallics in their colour scheme, but on reflection (its only taken my 40+ models), I've decided to change their weapons and a few other details to metallic and give them black weapons housings.  This'll be applied to all of the models going forward, and potentially retro-applied to the older models.

I've not weathered the models yet because that is another aspect I'll be changing going forward, but I haven't had a chance to experiment yet.

273: Eldar artillery and a Vyper

I finished some stuff for my Bahzhakain. First, a Vyper

Secondly, a Vaul's wrath defence battery.

The crew on their own.

I painted all 3 gun options for the artillery. It's a nicely designed kit in that no magnets are needed. The guns sit on a block, and can be slid on. It's just snug enough.

272: Guardian horde

I chose Eldar because they are an elite army. I was not keen to paint huge numbers of models. So... I just finished almost 50 models.

40 guardians, 4 heavy weapons platforms and 3 warlocks. I will probably use them as 2 squads of 10 guardians and 1 squad of 20.