Friday, January 30, 2015

2015 Painting List

After capping off a great 2014 painting, I would like to continue that trend.  A lot of my enthusiasm for painting was due to my interest in completing my Grey Knights and starting and mostly finishing my Daemons.

So far, in January alone, I've already completed my GK Librarian and Terminator squad along with extra hammers and halberds.  I completed the conversion of one Strike squad to a Purifier squad, redoing the swords in my lightning theme.  The Dreadknight swords were finally finished.  I ended up doing them in the lightning theme as well, which looks fantastic next to all the other models because of the consistency.

Just last night I finished up my custom Ork Kommandos.  I would like to do a post on them because they have a long history and are unique.

Here's what is in the queue currently:

Orks

  • 8 Warbikers - The skin is done, just need to complete the bikes themselves
  • Nob Bikers - I need to redo the highlights on their skin in my new scheme
  • Grukk - The Squig is done as is his skin
  • Mad Dok Grotsnik - Skin done, all the rest to complete
  • 27 Slugga boyz - Tabletop standard only
  • 6 Traktor Kannons -  Need to scratch build these and paint (2x3 squads)
  • 5 Kustom Mega Kannons -  Need to scratch build these and paint
  • 18 Grots - Various crew and ammo runts need to be painted

 

Grey Knights

  • 10 Interceptors - In various stages of painting
  • Various magnetized hammers, swords, and halberds
  • 2 Rhinos/Razorbacks - Mostly painted, just need to finish the details
  • Dreadnought - I already have two done with no plans to use, but might finish just for completeness

 

Inquisition

  • Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor - Primed and ready to paint
  • 2 Priests - Primed and ready to paint
  • 5 Psykers - I don't need more, but I might as well finish them since they don't take long
  • 8 Crusaders - 1 is done.  I still need to affix the brass I got mostly for them

 Daemons

  •  4 Heralds of Slaanesh on mounts - Primed and ready to paint
  • 2 Heralds of Slaanesh on foot  - Primed and ready to paint.  I know I don't need more, but the models are so cool
  • 22 Pink Horrors - Base coat and wash done
  • 3 Tzeentch Heralds (1 on disc) - Pink base coat and wash done
  • 3 Plague Drones - Primed.  I'll do the flies in a black theme
  • 10 Plaguebearers - primed
  • 1 Herald of Nurgle - primed, for summoning
  • 1 Mamon, DP of Nurgle - primed, for summoning a GUO
  • 20 Cultists - built, in case I want to run Be'Lakor as a CSM ally

 

Blood Angels

  • 8 Death Company - Mostly painted, just need to complete
  • 10 Death Company with bolters - primed
  • Relic Scorpius - Primed
  • 2 Stormravens - I use this with both GK and BA.  There are a lot of details to paint remaining.
  • 83 other BA infantry, 13 other BA vehicles - Most of these are 3 years old and many are quite worthless to paint because I can't field them all (assault marines).  I haven't made any decisions on them yet.

Other

  • Callidus Assassin - Primed
  • Eversor Assassin - Primed
  • LotD - Triple melta, primed and ready to paint

Here is a rough purchasequeue

Purchase Queue

  • 10 Pink Horrors - For Summoning goodness
  • Portalglyph - Need to find an appropriate base/model  
  • 5 Fiends - Just so I can run Slaanesh in each slot
  • 9 Screamers - Because they are  pretty dang good
  • Nurglings - dirt cheap, durable troop with objective secured
  • Lord of Change - For summoning, if I can find an appropriate model
  • Culexus Assassin - To complete my assassin quarter
  • LotD - A 2nd squad same as the first
  • More Ork bikes - They have been a stand out for me
  • Meganobz - I'm strongly considering them as an option
  • More GK terminators - 5 seems too few
  • BA Drop Pods - Maybe at least 2 more
  • Renegades and Lost and the Damned might be my next army

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Hobby progress 2014

I really rocked 2014 in terms of painting.  I completed almost an entire army (daemons) and made a lot of progress with Grey Knights, orks, and even did some terrain:

Grey Knights/Inquisition
My henchmen are mostly complete.  I still have crusaders to paint, but I'm not sure how I would even use them, so they aren't a priority.  The GK Purgators and Strikes were completed early on in the year, but I'm reorganizing them.  The Dreadknights were my big project.
  • 3 Jokaero
  • 8 Rifle Acolytes
  • 8 Death Cult Assassins
  • Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
  • Ordo Xenos Inquisitor
  • Vindicaire Assassin
  • 2 Servo Skulls
  • 2 Dreadknights - full build/conversion/paint
  • 10 GK Strike squad (8 swords, 2 Psycannons) - Started in 2013, finally finished
  • Purgation Squad
  • 2 Nemesis Warding Staves, magnetized
  • 1 Nemesis Daemon Hammer, magnetized
  • 1 Nemesis Daemon Halberd, magnetized
  • GK Dreadnought
  • 2 sets Forgeworld Inquisition doors for Stormravens

Orks
Most of the work on the bikers was done in late 2013.  The finishing details took a lot longer than I expected.  I put in extra work on the warboss, which even won me a painting competition.  The lobbas, tankbustas, and grots were new things I bought with the new codex.

  • Warboss on Bike
  • Painboy on Bike
  • Wazdakka
  • Nob Biker mob
  • 12 Gretchin Crew
  • 2 Lobbas
  • 8 Tankbustas

Blood Angels
Most of these were done early in the year when I was still playing them for the titan tournament.  Most of these are just arm swap options that are magnetized.  My Drop Pod is pretty sweet, but I need at least 2 more to be able to use them in any list.
  • BA Drop Pod (death company)
  • BA combi-weapons (4 plasma, 1 melta)
  • BA Librarian weapons (staff, sword, axe)
  • 14 BA SGT Arms
  • 4 meltabombs
  • 2 Dozer blades

Terrain
Mostly this was fixing up the terrain for the shop.  The Imperial Bunker was a lot of fun to use, until they took away casting psychic powers inside and skyfire got nerfed.  I may bring this back with my nemesis strike force detachment to utilize the comms relay.
  • Imperial Bunker
  • Comms Relay
  • Shop Terrain - Dreadstone Blight
  • Shop Terrain – sand stacks
  • Shop Terrain – sand stacks
  • Shop Terrain – pipe ruins
  • Shop Terrain – grey hills

Daemons
I decided in April to pick up Daemons and really rocked them through the fall.  All of the below is fully painted and based and looks fantastic.  I just have some mounted heralds left to paint before my Slaanesh Daemons are complete then I'll do a full picture post.  I have a small contingent of Tzeentch and Nurgle models that I want to add.  The Tzeentch is mostly just for summoning and the Nurgle is mostly for being summoned.
  • Be'Lakor
  • 80 Daemonettes
  • 20 Seekers
  • 4 Slaanesh Heralds
  • 2 Soul Grinders
  • 1 Fiend of Slaanesh (test model)
  • Keeper of Secrets
  • 2 Daemon Princes of Slaanesh
  • Slaanesh Banner & icon arms (magnetized)

Overall, it was a great year.  MY goal for 2015 is to finish up some factions entirely, like my GK, Inquisition, and Daemons.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Grey Knight Strike Squad Conversions


I've discussed in previous posts how much I loved my Strike Squads.  Unfortunately, they just don't work very well anymore.  I can't find a role for them in my army and don't want them to just sit on the shelf collecting dust.

For 240 points I used to get 10 PAGK with 2 psycannons and psybolt ammo.  That was 16 S5 shots and 4-8 S7 rending shots. Throw in a 110pt inquisitor with terminator armor, psycannon, and psykre upgrade for prescience and now we're really talking about a unit that could bring some serious firepower.  The force weapons were a bonus that I rarely ever used.  Anything that was susceptible would keep far away because it was very strong, though not incredibly durable so it would die often and quickly.  I miss warp quake and the deep strike protection it provided.  The aegis helped with psychic defense.

Here's something I never understood.  All Grey Knights are supposed to be veterans that are the very best, most elite, and purest of the galaxy.  Each Grey Knight has a suit of terminator armor.  They put on power armor for specialized roles - strike squad, interceptor, etc.  I'm not the most well versed in the fluff, so I may have some things wrong.  However, if that's true, then why do they lose an attack when they change to power armor (strikes, interceptor, purgation squad) from TDA?  It makes sense from a game play perspective, so that's something.

The first trickle of nerfing came with the advent of 7th.  Warp Quake was gone completely.  The aegis was changed  to rerolling ones for maledictions (yay, from 6/18 to 7/18 chance to deny). Hammerhand now raises  strength by 2 which offset these loses.  GK were  still in a good position for a few months with all the psychic dice they could bring so it .

Then when the new codex hit, so much was lost for strikes.  It still costs the same 240 points to field the unit, but they lose psybolt ammo.  The psycannon was hit with a multitude of nerfs and went up in cost. Salvo sucks for so many reasons.  I'm not even clear on why salvo exists, what is the real world analogue?  Now you lose range when you move, not just shots.  Even worse, you cannot assault after shooting it at all.  I don't see any reason to take psycannons ever for them

This presents an issue with the GK special weapons in general and for purgation squads in particular.  PAGK don't have good options for the special weapons.  Why can't they make special versions that have longer range or maybe a psychic power that extends their range just for purgation squads?  Give PAGK relentless or S&P.  Heavy weapons with a 24" range just isn't enough.  For power armor it's incinerators or GTFO.

In addition to the 20 strikes, I have 2 squads of 5 Purgators. Their previous incarnation was in a strange spot.  You rarely saw them on the table because they didn't fulfill much of a role.  Their range was too short to provide pure fire support and psycannons were horribly over-costed.  Incinerators were a free upgrade however, so throw 4 of those with the justicar into a storm raven for only 100 points was a steal.

My other idea was to put three squads behind a set of Promethium relay pipes for only 340pts that puts out 12 S6 torrent flamers.  Now, the same setup costs 430pts and you give up the chance to take dreadknights. 

They swapped Astral aim for night vision which is completely useless for the incinerator and nearly useless for the other weapons,  How often are they going to be in range anyways.  At least our vehicles got seachlights for free now.  It was annoying to pay the 1pt.


Now that I'm a few months removed from the shock of the codex dropping I can make more rational arguments.  I still haven't played them with the new codex, but my friend Andy has and had succes.  He's in some of these pictures using my models in a tournament last December.  I've got a few list ideas but really need to try them out.

I have 30 PAGK that I need to decide how to use because I refuse to sell them.  I spent so many hours panting them that market value for them is nowhere near the emotional value I have for them.

Let's make some purifiers and interceptors instead.  I'll keep one strike squad but modify them to fit the new codex better:

10 Strikes with justicar and 2 incinerators
  •  I have the incinerators already painted so I can swap out two from the purgation squad and put them in here.  The only work is to switch the bases up, but otherwise this is pretty straightforward.
  • No new painting required, which is good.
10 Purifiers with justicar, no special weapons, 2 hammers
  • I like Purifier squads a lot more now.  With cleansing flame standard, I don't think I need the incinerators and I don't want to lose out on the 2 attacks base.  This unit will need some delivery mechanism, probably a storm raven.  Since they are ML2 I can get off both hammerhand and force.
  • This is going to require some work. I'll need to pop the heads off to strip and repaint them.  The psycannons will have to be ripped off as well and replaced with swords. I would prefer to use single handed swords and magnetize so I can swap between sword and hammer.  I don't have spares, so I'll need to find the bits somewhere.  The daemon hammers for PAGK don't come in single-handed variety.  I've been considering using the vanguard vet hammers.
  • The new swords and arms will need to be painted as well as the heads. I'll also need to touch up the areas covered by the psycannons as they probably aren't painted.  I'm going to repaint their swords in the lightning theme so they are consistent, plus it looks really good.
10 Interceptors with justicar, 2 incinerators
  •  Interceptors have a place now because of the Nemesis Strike Force detachment.  The incinerators were over-costed at 20pts each, but now are a reasonable at 5pts each.
  • This is going to take a lot of work, comparatively.  I can use the justicar and 2 incinerators remaining from the purgation squad.  The two former strike squad guys will have to have the psycannons ripped off.  The other 4 purgators with incinerators will have to have those ripped off as well.  The other justicar will need a new head and shoulder pads.  Luckily, I have plenty of stormbolters and 2 handed swords, but I'll need to order a few more swords.  I have the interceptor backpacks already, but everyone will need a new one.
  • I'll have to paint all the backpacks.  Two guys will have to have arms painted.  The remaining 5 guys will need to be fully painted.
  • Unfortunately, the justicar will not have a magnetized weapon.  He has a two handed sword which I don't think I can rip off without damaging him and/or the shoulder pads.
 I'll be placing some bits orders and doing some painting.  I have finished my terminators and Librarian and will have a post on them soon.

Editor note: I started writing this post a long time ago but never posted it.  So I'm already well on my way to finishing this project.