Injuries and Mayhem

Posted by lordokaos on

Took a spill on the ice in my driveway and landed on the shoulder where I tore the rotator cuff two months ago.  This has seriously impacted my painting schedule since simple tasks like holding a brush hurt like hell.  Despite that I managed to finally finish the Dev squad, only the Assault Squad to go to have a fully painted battle company.  In all honesty, it won’t happen this year.  I started two of the marines, but I really need to focus on a few other things.  For one, I am adding some more buildings and industrial scenery to my game table.  The table is going to my LGS for a tournament on the 21st.  For two, I am pretty excited about my Necrons and am working to add a unit of Deathmarks, a FW Bomber, and the Tesserect Vault to the army.  I’ve started working on all three Necron projects.  Plus, I need to rebase the Wraiths, of which only one is all the way painted, and I’d like to build some reanimation protocol markers.  Plus much more.

The mayhem will commence on Jan 11th when the Tyranids get their new book.  I will be revamping the points for that army then.  Once I do that I’ll see what I want to add and get that army back up over 20,000 points.  My other goals for next year are to finish that battle company (easy enough) and add a whole bunch of vehicles to that army, since I have plenty of infantry.  I’ll also make some headway into the 1st company.

Pictures of the Dev squad will be up next week.

Slow and Steady

Posted by lordokaos on

Slowly working though my Devestator squad.  7 models done, 3 to go.  I’m also finishing the last model for my Ogre Kingdoms army, which wraps up a painting oath I took almost 5 months ago.  Added two Crypteks to my Necrons as well, built a Night Shroud bomber for them, but honestly probably won’t get to painting it this month.  Will update points after the Devs are done.

Space Marines and Necrons

Posted by lordokaos on

Alrighty, so my painting is still going slow thanks to a torn rotator cuff.  However, I did manage to finish a unit of 3 Centurions for my marines, and just finished up a devestator marine as well.  I have 8 devs left for that squad, and hope to finish another one or two this week.  I am also in the process of re-basing my Necrons.  They are currently on desert themed bases, which matches a table to my game store.  However I am building a table at home that includes the Forge World Necron tile, so I am doing new bases that will match that.  Fortunately it doesn’t take a ton of time to paint, and I can make them while watching movies with the wife.  My Ogres army is only three models from done as well, and I should finish two of them this week, both characters, leaving just the Thundertusk to wrap up the 2500 point list.

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Imperial Total: 13,499

More Space Marine Musings, and some Pics

Posted by lordokaos on

So, I am still super excited about the new Space Marine Codex.  There are so many things I would like to try out with this book, but more than anything it has pushed my focus back to my beloved Storm of Wrath Space Marine chapter.  I started this chapter eight or nine years ago with the intention of making my own chapter based on an Ultramarines successor.  They were intended to be a city fighting/urban warfare specialist chapter, with their recruits coming from an imperial hive world.  With the new book I’ve made a few modifications to their story.  Now they are an Imperial Fist successor, which helps mold them into urban warfare/siege specialists role.  Also, it helps explain some of my heraldry, such as the sergeants having yellow helms and the yellow symbols that are predominate against the turquoise armor, it is all a homage to their parent chapter’s colors.  In addition, in the new fluff there is an Imperial Fist battle barge called the Storm of Wrath.  I like the idea of a new chapter being named after one of the crusade era relics of the parent chapter.

For a while I was toying with the idea of adding some allies from other chapters, namely the Black Templars and the Minotaurs.  I just love painting Space Marines, and would love to add more to my collection.  I picked up some really cool shoulder pads and helmets from Puppet Wars that have a Greek/Spartan feel that really screams Minotaurs.  Also, I love the idea of a Templar force.  I may pursue these ideas in the future, but for now they are all shelved.  I just finished assembling a Legion Glaive for my chapter, and started priming it last night.  I have a few pieces I need to re-clean before priming later today, but overall I should be ready to start painting it later this week.  A super-heavy tank for my marines.  That has helped focused me on some things I would like to do for this army before moving on to something else.  For one, I need to finish my battle company, the 4th.  I have 21 models left to finish a project I started when I started this army all those years ago.  It doesn’t seem like much, only 21 models, but every marine takes a lot of time and commitment for me to paint.  There have been a few years where I was lucky if I could muster the motivation to paint a full 10 man squad.  Now, my painting techniques have changed over the years, and the way I paint the marines now is a bit easier and less time intensive.  In fact, I’ve painted 10 tactical marines, 5 terminators, and several vehicles over the last two months, which is an amazing amount for me.

With that said, I am planning on wrapping up the 4th company this year.  I have two models left for the Command Squad, 9 devestators, and a full 10-man assault squad to go.  After that I own 95 of the 110 models needed to make the 1st company, I just need a 10th squad plus a command squad.  This does not count any transports, just 10 10-man squads, a Captain, Chaplain, 5-man command squad, plus 3 dreads.  Of that I have 22 models painted so far, a squad of Terminators, a squad of Sternguard, and 2 Contemptors.  Not a bad start, but a ways to go.  I also have a handful of scouts, about 25 on foot, plus 5 bikes.  I really have no desire to paint the 10th company though.  What I do have a desire to do is add the 9th company at some point.  The idea of fielding the Devestator Reserve Company in an Apoc game is really appealing, and falls into my theme of a siege list.  Plus I have a unique look planned for that company that I would like to further explore.  The friend of mine who sculpted my original shoulder pads will be casting some news one for me soon, and with that I may have to start adding some new models to my collection.  I even have ideas on how to field the 9th in normal games.

I am looking at some of the now very dusty projects for my marines.  There is a Caestus, a Storm Eagle, and even a Thunderhawk.  These things need to be done at some point soon.  For now though I am going to focus on finishing the 4th company, some Centurions for the 9th, the Glaive, and some Hyperios Air Defense Batteries.  I have not been this excited for my marines since I first started this army, and I am really looking forward to the next leg of this journey.

Also, as promised, here are some pictures of the Hunter I just added to the list.  I will have an updated points tally for my Imperials soon.

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An Update

Posted by lordokaos on

So, just got my hands on the new Space Marine codex and I am very happy so far.  My Storm of Wrath chapter are looking to be a successor to the Imperial Fists.  What’s funny is that it explains my use of the yellow on the armor and heraldry, and that in the fluff there is an Imperial Fist battle barge called the Storm of Wrath.  It’s like they wrote that in for me.  I need to revamp my list for the new point cost of models.  I am holding off on doing the same to my Tyranids until their new codex, which is rumored to be before the end of the year still.

I made a decision to thin my collection out a bit lately.  I am down to “only” having four 40K armies now: Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Tyranids, and Necrons.  For Fantasy I only have the Ogres that I am working on.  I may add some other Space Marine chapters to my forces, Black Templars and Minotaurs being the prime candidates at the moment.  I still have large swathes of Storm of Wrath marines to paint in the meanwhile.

In the meantime, I have actually finished my first 10 man squad of Terminators and been working on some Ogres.  I am painting the 6th Tactical Squad (technically squad 3, but the last of the six I need) for my Battle Company.  To finish the company I need to finish that squad, a command squad, an assault squad, a devestator squad, and a dreadnaught.  Which all sounds like a lot until you consider I’ve already painted 50 tactical marines, 10 assault marines, 10 devs, two characters, and two dreads.  I’ll get some photos up soon.