Change of Plans (1,000 points • 4 Days Left)

Everyone from DED 'ARD got together at my house 2 Sundays ago for some 40K madness. I ended up playing 2 games. First one was against club member Necromonger and his homebrew Vanilla Space Marines chapter. He's new to the Space Marines and was trying out a list with a Land Raider, Thunder Hammer Terminators, 2 Predators, a Vindicator, Land Speeder Storm, and Vulkan. We ended up playing Capture and Control.

In the first turn, I immobilized his Land Raider and took out the Demolisher Cannon on his Vindicator. From there, it was pretty easy to control the board and stay away from the Thunder Hammer Terminators. I pretty much dictated the flow of the battle and my opponent couldn't do enough to get into position and capture the objectives. Victory for the Blood Angels!

Second game ended up being a 3 vs. 3. with Chaos, Blood Angels, and Eldar vs. Grey Knights, Vanilla Marines, and Imperial Guard. We played 3,000 points per side with 1,000 points each and our own force orgs. I ended up trying the list I intended to take to the Two Headed Giant Tournament at Adventure Games this weekend and I absolutely hated it. We played Kill Points with Dawn of War deployment and won the day, but I sunk way too many points in the Stormraven's unit with Death Company a Reclusiarch and a Death Company Dreadnought. We won a narrow victory with my army giving up most of the kill points.

I decided to scrap that list and start over from square one. I have a much more balanced list which I'm confident will play much better. I'll share my list after the tournament. I haven't had time to post since I've been feverishly painting this past week, but I have taken a lot of in progress pics so expect some painting tutorials in the near future. Been messing around a lot trying to get a nice black and this is what I came up with. There is a lot of clean up and little details needed to be done, but I'm pretty happy with the final look.

I learned a valuable lesson with using Badab Black Wash to try and "tint" down my highlight lines. It left a ton of brush strokes all over the tank and I had to redo all of the black. I've done a lot of black previously with my old Death Company and the Rhino I entered in Golden Demon many years ago and I never ran into this problem. Maybe that was because I used Games Workshop's old Inks or my pot of wash is just bad. Anyone else run into this issue?

Lastly, Ron Saikowski had an interesting post on From The Warp on the top 3 things not to say in a post and I'm sorry to say that I'm guilty of all of them. I'm going to do what I can to make sure what I post shows a model or something I am working on and isn't just filler because I've been a lazy git and I feel bad because I haven't done more with the hobby and updated my blog.

Tomorrow, I should finish up my test marine and get going on my infantry models. I'll post it here in the next few days.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Stormraven Painting (1,000 points • 17 Days Left)

Got a bit of work done on my Death Company Stormraven. I'm starting to think that I bit off a bit more than I could chew. I could spend the next two weeks working on my Stormraven and never touch anything else and still not be completely satisfied. Such is the problem with being an artist... Thankfully my wife will be lending a hand with my troops.

I'm really not a huge fan of painting black, but I think I found a method I'm pretty happy with. I've been doing the panel lines in Codex Gray. Once I'm done, I'll go back over them and do some additional highlights in Fortress Gray. Lastly, I'll do a final wash of Badab Black to even everything out. In these pics the lines are a real mess, but I am getting there.

I did get the side doors magnetized and I'll have a tutorial on that in the future. I also got a new tail piece and added the additional stabilizer wings in the front. I really think this makes the Stormraven look totally bad ass, but I can't take the credit for this. I saw this on another blog, The Brush and Bolter. Ultraraider is an amazing painter, just take a look at this awesome Stormraven. I'd recommend following his blog as he is definitely a painter to watch.

If you have been following my blog, you'll remember that I wasn't too happy with the way I magnetized the Dreadnought to the back of the Stormraven. With the new tail piece I ordered, I got a new grapple so I'll be revisiting that and updating my previous tutorial. I have a ton of work to do, but I'm on a hobby high right now. I just hope I can pull all of this off. Time will tell.

I did find a tutorial on tinting clear plastic canopies with Future Floor Finish and food coloring. So my question to everyone is should I tint my canopies red or green?

Till next time,
–The Harrower

Dreadnought Conversion (1,000 Points • 19 Days Left)

So I got a bit done over the holiday weekend. I'm just about done with my twin-lnked heavy flamer turret. I just need to get hold of a LEGO® hose and I can call it done.

I finished up the conversion of the Dreadnought close combat arm. I didn't do anything crazy here, I just wanted to have the talons more open so both of the close combat arms didn't look exactly the same. This was really easy conversion and here's a quick tutorial.

Materials:

• Furioso Dreadnought close combat arm
• 3/32" Drill Bit
• Drill

Step 1: Take your drill and drill out each of the notches where the blood talons go (see the circled areas below). This will allow the fingers/talons to open up more. You could just cut the back of the blood talons off, but I wanted to keep the extra detail on there. To do this, I used a cheap Black and Decker cordless drill that I have and just cut these these out with the side of the drill bit.  

Step 2: When you are done, you should be left with something like the below image. You can cut the notches in deeper or more shallow depending on how open you want the blood talons to be.

Step 3: Once you are done glue the blood talons in place and your close combat arm should look similar to mine below depending on how deep you cut the notches.

Here are a couple finished pictures. Like I said, this isn't as extensive as some of my other conversions, but I was going for something simple here and I am happy with the way this turned out.

I also picked up an 18" x 24" picture frame at Walmart that I'm planning on turning into my army display board and I've been painting my Death Company Stormraven. Here is my current progress before the tournament:

• Convert: Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm
• Magnetize: all infantry backpacks, Stormraven
• Prime: Assault Marine, Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm, Magna-grapple
• Paint: 2 Assault Squads, 2 Sanguinary Priests, Librarian, Death Company, Stormraven, Dreadnought, 2 Razorbacks
• Base: all infantry, Stormraven, Dreadnought
• Build: Army Display Board
• Figure out how to: Tint the Stormraven canopies red
• Detail Pass: Transfers on the infantry and vehicles, freehand symbols on the tanks, weathering and blood stains on the troops and vehicles, etc.

I'll have more updates in a day or two.

Until then,
–The Harrower

Two-Headed Giant Tournament (1,000 Points • 22 Days Left)

So I'll be playing in my first tournament at Adventure Games in Dickson City, PA on July 24th. This tournament is a Warhammer 40K Two-Headed Giant Tournament. Here's the rundown on the rules.

WHEN: Saturday, July 23rd (Army Lists are due Tuesday, July 19th)
WHERE: Adventure Games in Dickson City, PA
ENTRY FEE: $25 Per Team
PRIZE: CASH! CASH! CASH! $$$
CHECK IN: 11:00 AM
START: 11:30 AM Sharp!

RULES
1. Each team will build a 2,000 Point Army.

2. Each individual member of the team is permitted to spend 1,000 Points on his or her half of the team.

3. During gameplay each player will control (move, fire, make saves) for their own individual half of the giant.

4. Excess Points are lost and can not be for any reason gifted or shifted to your opponents total allowed points.

Example: Big Jimmy C assembles a force that comes to 986 points and cannot find anything to spend those last 14 points on. Jabroni #115 his partner has a total of 990 and can't find anything to spend his last 10 points on. The 24 remaining points are lost unless individually spent.

5. Each player does NOT need to be a fully functional independent force. This means that between BOTH HALVES of the FORCE you must adhere to the legal Warhammer 40,000 Army Composition (BOTH HALVES!)

Example: Player A can focus on spending his points on Strictly Elites/Heavy Support and Player B can purchase the required troops/headquarters to make the entire force as a whole LEGAL. Just remember, each player is only permitted 1,000 Points individually. Your probably thinking wow, I can whip up some really obnoxious setups. Correct: That's the idea.

6. THERE IS NO RESTRICTIONS ON ALLIANCES (Tyranids can Ally with Imperial Guard, Space Marines w/ Chaos etc)

7. Allies can in every circumstance use each other transports.

Example: Tyranids/Space Marines make up the Giant. You CAN put Tyranid Warriors into a Land Raider. Just remember, individual codex restrict units beginning the game inside of a transport without it being dedicated. The dedicated transport rule is a CORE RULE and must be adhered too.

8. Prior to the match beginning (AFTER SETUP) the two teams will be permitted (5 Minutes) that will not take away from game play time to quickly discuss their strategy. After the 5 minutes concludes any/all discussion must be done (AT THE TABLE). This is to ensure that the games are not being bogged down my nonsense/stepping away from the table.

9. To reiterate RULE #3. Each player will ALWAYS control the fate of their own half of the force. No making saves for one another, setting up, shooting and especially moving your partners models. If you are caught doing this for any reason what so ever you will be immediately penalized battle points and if it continues disqualified from the tournament. I cannot stress how serious I am about this rule.

I'll be teaming up with fellow DED 'ARD member SolidSnizzle and his Imperial Guard. Here's a pic of my half of the Two-Headed Giant and the list of what I need to get done in the next 3 weeks.

• Convert: Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm
• Magnetize: all infantry backpacks, Stormraven
• Prime: Assault Marine, Twin-linked heavy flamer turret, Dreadnought close combat arm, Magna-grapple
• Paint: 2 Assault Squads, 2 Sanguinary Priests, Librarian, Death Company, Stormraven, Dreadnought, 2 Razorbacks
• Base: all infantry, Stormraven, Dreadnought
• Build: Army Display Board
• Figure out how to: Tint the Stormraven canopies red
• Detail Pass: Transfers on the infantry and vehicles, freehand symbols on the tanks, weathering and blood stains on the troops and vehicles, etc.

Seems pretty daunting, but I do have most of the models primed and ready to go. I've really been slacking off on the hobby side of things, and I hope this tournament kicks my butt in gear and gets me going. I'll update periodically over the next few weeks on my progress.

Enim Sanguinius!

–The Harrower