Some Adeptus Mechanicus Terrain

Hello once again Chaos fanatics! Old Man Chaos is back after a couple of months with some newly painted stuff. I know I haven't posted in awhile but I have been working on some terrain when I have been able to- things are just so busy with the baby and all. I steal some time for modeling here and there as best as I can.

At any rate, I told you guys last time that I had been bitten by the terrain bug. I really want to create an entire table of Manufactorum-style terrain. An entire industrial sector to battle over. Last time I did the Sector Mechanicus building, which turned out pretty good- though I was dividing my hobby time between the Knight and that building.

So now I'm back with some other painted up terrain. First up are my Plasma Conduits (AKA pipes) and Plasma Regulators. I used the same paint scheme as the rest of my pipes and mechanicus stuff.

The metal is Leadbelcher, washed in Earthshade, with Ryza orange, Nurgle slime,  and Typhus Corrosion to add rust and other effects to the pipes. The red plasma is done with several red highlights followed up by the red gemstone technical paint, thus giving it a bright, energized effect.

The Conduits (pipes) go with my other pipes, so I now have a huge pipeline if I want to. And the Regulators can go with the pipes, as can the Haemotropic Reactors. I really like how just about everything in the Mechanicus terrain line up goes together so well.

Speaking of going together well, I also completed what I consider to be my centerpiece mechanicus terrain, the Tectonic Fragdrill. I say go together well because the piece went together very easily. It is just two platforms on top of each other plus the drill rig, which was fairly straightforward (except trying to get the drill on the track but it didn't take too long).

The metal sections are the same as I described above, except I put Necron Compound onto the drill itself, just to give it a little highlight. The armored surfaces I did Khnorne Red to match my other Mechanicus terrain pieces.

Putting the drill with my other mechanicus platforms, you can see how it all goes so nicely together.  If I had more platforms I could build quite a series of catwalks along with the drill. I probably won't go THAT nuts, but it is something for me to think about at some point.

So that is all I have to say about that (thanks Forrest Gump). I still have one more thing of terrain I have to work on, then its onto some regular stuff again (Hello Lord Discordant and Abaddon).

Until next time...

I fell off the face of the warp

Hey there Chaos fanatics! Old Man Chaos is back, with a vengeance as it were. I know I haven't posted for quite a while, but I have been very, very busy. Mrs. Chaos and I bought a new house. As I'm sure you realize, this is a big undertaking- banks, lawyers, etc... but it also meant that we had to move, get settled, do work on the house, paint, rearrange furniture for the 20th time... well you get the picture. Because of all that, I have been unable to post in quite some time. That doesn't mean I haven't been keeping up on my 40K though. I have been doing my models, reading 8th edition rules, etc. I will show the things I've painted up... when I can find my lamps that I use to illuminate the models, that is...

Besides, I have something a bit bigger than that to share with you now, my fellow denizens of the warp. When my wife and I were shopping for a house, she said that I should have a dedicated space for my hobby. Not just a painting desk, but a virtual man-cave sized gaming and hobby area. Now that is an understanding wife, no? At my old family home, I had a gaming table in the basement, but the basement was crowded with a family's lifetime of stuff and clutter. It wasn't that big either. And it had an old boiler that my friend Pete said was the gateway to hell itself (it threw out lots and lots of heat- making it impossible to play down there in the summers). At any rate, my wife wanted me to live the 40K addicts dream with a dedicated space.

With incredible luck, we found such a house that had the perfect space. Yes, it is a basement. But with a little work the basement could be finished, and it would practically double our living space. Great neighborhood, great house, good price... and an area for 40K.

Fast forward a few months. With most of the work done I began planning out my man cave / battle bunker. Half would be dedicated to a good TV and videogame setup. The other half would be 40K central. I moved my painting desk down to the cave and it was perfect (I just have to tidy up a little bit).

When it came time to get a table... I was fucked. I am absolutely NO good with building actual things (plastic models? Yes. A 4x8 table? Hell no.). My previous table was designed and built by Pete (my brother and I certainly helped, but Pete was the boss. And Joe only played with Skorpinok in my basement as we toiled). Pete has since moved far away, and while I see him once in a while there's no way he could build me another table. How could I do it now?

As it turned out, I'd get a ton of help. A bunch of my friends/family put our heads together and came up with a solution. Russ, who has never ever played 40K before is very good at figuring out things. As we described the table I wanted he said that it could certainly be done. And it would be a housewarming present to boot!

 So, a few Saturdays ago, Brian, Russ, Steve, and I went to get all the lumber and screws and such. We took it all back to my basement and began construction. It took several hours, but by the end we had created an incredible table! And despite all our efforts, there were no snags or snafus- heck, no one got hurt either (power tools and us don't mix exactly).

 We started with the legs, framing them out. Russ wanted me to have storage space underneath so that I could store some terrain, dice, models, etc. Now, it could never fit all my terrain crap, but it would certainly be helpful to have that space.

Once the legs and shelf space was set in, we then put the table top on. Now, originally it was just going to be one huge sheet of wood. However, it couldn't fit in any of our vehicles. So I said to have the store cut it down the middle for transport. Russ said he could make it work. With metal braces placed on the undersides, he as able to join them together just fine. Then, the table went on top of the legs and with some screwing, hammering, etc, the table was done.

 But we were not finished. One of the things that always bugged everyone who has ever played warhammer is when dice roll onto the floor. To solve that problem, we put wood molding around the perimeter of the table, as a border. Now, dice won't roll off the table edge.

The other issue we dealt with was WHERE to roll the dice. Now whenever Pete built a table, it was always 4 x 8. Now, usually games are no more than 4x6. I figured that I would only do 4x6. But Brian had a wild idea- build it 4x8 (just in case we wanted an Apoc game or something). Using similar molding as what we placed on the perimeter, we would cut two pieces so they would fit width-wise across the table. If I placed my game mat in the exact middle of the table, I would have a foot on each side. The molding border would be put in, giving us a rolling lane, an area to put Tactical cards or dead models or what have you. This was also accomplished with great ease.

With construction done, I decided to paint the table top black (my multimedia unit and my modelling desk are black so I figured why not match it all). I may or may not paint the table legs at a later date, but I really just wanted to get the top done.

Ah! Now it was finished I put on one of my mats that I got from FAT Mats. And then some terrain. And at that point I knew that I had exactly what I wanted- a gaming table in a place with plenty of space! And the table is just perfect.

So, about a week later, Brian and I decided to break in the new table with two games. His Ultramarines against my Khorne forces- as nature intended. Now I have played a few 8th edition games, as had Brian. I like 8th edition, though I think it still has problems. Brian with his gun line wins against me every time, because I have to go in close to get him. Though close combat is brutal, you still have to GET there, which turned out to be very difficult for me.

In the first game, we had table quarters playing big guns never tire. Brian stole the initiative and shot me to hell. I lost half my army during his turn 1 shooting phase. There was literally nothing I could do. Nothing. And I made decent save rolls too. It was just too much firepower.

 In his turn 2 he wiped out most of what remained. Brian is the type of player who always goes for the throat. Not unfair or cheating- just he plays tough and he plays to win. He said that close combat armies will always lose to that sustained shooting. He feels that alpha strike determines the winner way too much.

The second game was the arrowheads deployment and we played the cleanse and control maelstrom mission. This game Brian also won, but It was back and forth until turn 3. Heck, some of my guys even managed to kill things in combat!

 Kharn killed some stuff (including 4 of my Warp Talons- I forgot he can re-roll to hits. I rolled 4 1s and forgot the re-roll. Ugh). Again, Brian shot me to hell, but I was able to score some points with the cards and hurt him a little bit. The fact that Marines can get re-roll to hits and re-roll of 1s to wound makes their shooting pretty much unstoppable. But I got some skulls so Khorne was happy.

 Two losses in a row was not the ideal way to break in my new table, but that's OK. The table was great- the mat and terrain were just fine, and the rolling lane made it really nice so our dice weren't hitting models, getting cocked every 5 seconds, etc. 

So with that I will close this blog post. I am grateful that I have gotten the chance to have what I have always wanted- a dedicated Warhammer space. Thanks to Brian, Steve, and Russ for making it happen. And my wife, who doesn't mind being married to a nerd.

Until next time...

The New GW Containers, A Battle Report and a "Brexit"

Hey there Chaos fanatics! Old Man Chaos is back with an update to this part of the Realm of Chaos, known as the interweb. Like the title says I've got a lot so lets get started:

GW Containers

After seeing them in a recent issue of White Dwarf I knew I was going to get a set. My friend Joe and I have decided to split the cost, as they will be used frequently on his ice world table. I really like the look of the big containers- they were fairly easy to assemble and paint up. The barrels are also nice and an improvement on the old barrels. Finally, the ammo cases are a cool, though I think they give you too many- save that plastic for something else!

At any rate, I painted the containers and ammo crates pretty much like it says on the back of the box. I did one in Mephiston Red, with a drybrush of Astorath Red. I used Nuln Oil (matte) on the recesses to give it a bit of depth. I also added signs of wear and tear with dark browns and metals, as well as some acid or slime coming through the vents.

I painted half of the barrels the same way- Mephiston Red, with copious amounts of slime and grime. The other barrels I did in Leadbelcher with plenty of Typhus Corrosion. I think that putting a singular barrel somewhere is OK, but grouping them together is just so much cooler.

As for the other tow storage containers, I did one in Mechanicum Grey with lighter highlights. The green one was naturally Castellan with a drybrush of Niblet Green. To these two I added streaks of blood and even bullet holes. These details would have been lost on the red container, but they show up just fine on these. I also gave them signs of wear and tear as I described above.

The ammo crates were painted using the methods above. I really like them, but painting that many was a bit annoying. They are also somewhat small, so to give it a good effect on the table you'll have to pile them all together to look cool. 

I wanted to show them off, so I staged some photos of them with models so you can see the sizes. I pitted my Mechanicus against my Khorne Bezerkers and Chaos Cultists. I think you'll find that the storage containers are a good size, as are the barrels. I think they are quite interesting looking, and will give your battlefield a bit more detail.

I painted these ones quite "neutral", though one could paint them to be almost anything- cargo for Space Marines, or perhaps rusted out wrecks, or maybe they've been "looted"... The possibilities with these are endless. The price ain't too bad either, considering the 3 cargo containers are, together, bigger than a Rhino.

When we use them in a game I will be sure to use them as terrain, though I'm rather dubious of using the somewhat silly rules they have- but who knows? I'll have to give it a shot at any rate.

Speaking of battles, I had a "final grudge match" against one of my regular opponents at my local store. Nick is a great player- friendly, even-tempered, very fair and laid back. He also plays very much old school- no wacky allies, no broken formations. He plays in the old style, and I have always appreciated that, and he had become one of the opponents I most looked forward to playing- our matches were not only fun- but just about all of them were nail bitters, right down to the wire! And yet we were both always laughing and laid back. Great games.

Unfortunately (for me at least), Nick is moving quite far away, and won't be around the local anymore. Nick also sold most of his stuff (a bit of it to me actually. He's a damn pirate, appealing to my weakness for plastic crack at a discount), and now he only has a small Dark Angels force.

At any rate, we decided to have a "final grudge match". It was a small game, at 1250 points. The mission was The Relic. It was tough for me to make a Plague Marine list at 1250, so I included 6 meltas in 3 squads of 5 Plague Marines in 3 Rhinos (champions had power fists). I also had a Heldrake, Predator, Vindicator, and a lord and 4 terminators all armed with power fists.Nick had like 4 squads of terminators and 2 tac squads with plasma cannons.

Our final match was no different from the others. My heldrake incinerated his tac squads. His terminators attacked my heavy armor with their powerfists. It went back and forth like that for a while. But, Nick faced 2 problems. First, the Meltas ruined his day, killing whole swaths of terminators (his 5 inv sav rolling was lousy).

However, the game truly ended when one of my champions challenged one of his in combat. Nick's power sword attacks all whiffed (1s!!). When it was my champion's turn, he nailed him with the powerfist. I then rolled on the Chaos Boon Table and... Bam! Instant Daemon Prince. At that point, there was no real way for Nick to win, though he gave it a good go. In the end, I had the relic and he had virtually nothing to stop me, especially with a rampaging Daemon Prince running amok.

The game was a ton of fun. One of the things I liked about the battle was that at 1250, you had to make tough choices about what to take. It also meant no allies or formation tom foolery. It made for a fast, intense, and desperate game- each unit is vital, and yet you must risk them to win. You don't always feel that in 2000 plus point games. It was a lot of fun. I salute Nick- a worthy and honorable opponent. I hope to play him again someday.

Finally, I want a word about the "Brexit". Now, I have been following it fairly closely, and I get the arguments on both sides. It was a close vote, unquestionably. I find myself thinking that if the EU leaders were a bit more careful with their decisions, they might have not faced British backlash. Instead, the EU mismanaged and made big mistakes. I get British anger. I just don't know if the "Brexit" will help them or not, in the long run.

However, like a lot of you, I decided to act as a vulture (it's their fault for making me want it so bad)- I ordered some stuff from Forgeworld. As the dollar vs pound ratio shifted so crazily today, my friend Joe and I placed a $400 (American) order at FW. What did I order? I won't tell you now, as if I did it would be a HERESY and I'd have to kill you. You will just have to wait and see...

Until next time!!

The Wulfen Have Awoken My Daemons

Hey there folks! Welcome back to the Corners of Chaos. I'm still thinking about last week's Tournament. That was a lot of fun. There's supposed to be another in April- hopefully that weekend will be clear so that I can go.

I just finished the Curse of the Wulfen book. I love the story- a saga of heroes, misguided heroes, and some villains too, in the form of Chaos daemons. I also love the friggin' cliffhanger of an ending too. Wow. I am really looking forward to the conclusion (assuming they are following the format of the previous campaign book releases).

Of course, my eye was immediately drawn to the Daemons part of the rules. I am slightly disappointed with the Daemonic Incursion "Decurion". The number of models (and points) required to take these formations make it fairly impractical. You simply don't have the points in most 1800-2000 point games to fill out the Incursion and have the flexibility that the Daemons codex actually provides. I mean, you can possibly have both a Tallyband the Tzeentch formation (9 units!!). It blows.

However, if you take ONE of the formations AND instead use CAD... well, then it is possible to build a decent army around a solid core of the Formations. I could well take a Tallyband, and then take a standard detachment with a few other daemon types. That, I think, would work really well. I could (thanks to my numerous Daemonkin) also do the same with a Murderhost. Tzeentch and Slaanesh- well, I don't have enough models for those, and I doubt I ever will.

I am appreciative of the god-specific psychic powers, artifacts, and warlord traits. Several of the warlord traits are actually useful, and some of those artifacts can be nasty. I am pleased they expanded this after the rather too narrow scope of the original Daemon codex. Oh- another bonus- you can now take the new Bloodthirster and give him Lesser,  Greater, and Exalted Gifts. That ain't too shabby.

Of course, all this talk of Daemons really got me thinking. I told you before, the lure of Chaos is very strong, and I can only be away for so long before I get sucked back in. Well, thanks to the Wulfen book- I'm doing Chaos again. Now, don't get me wrong- I still have Mechanicus I'm working on. I'm enjoying that army so I will continue to build on it. However.... must... paint... Daemons! LOL

After reading Wulfen and dreaming of a Tallyband, I counted my Plaguebearers and Nurglings. I had 6 between the two unit types (provided I use the minimum sizes for each). So... you know what I had to do. I decided to buy one more box of the plastic Plaguebearers of course! Now I have 7 units (and of course, I already have a Herald of Nurgle).

I love this "new" plastic kit. Don't get me wrong- the metal ones from 4th (I think) edition are really nice. At the time, they were the best. I enjoyed painting those (I think it was in 2002 or so). Those metal models inspired me greatly, impacting my modeling work in many ways. I had already been doing Plague Marines, but doing the Daemons pushed my painting techniques further, thus influencing my painting of subsequent Plague Marines. Indeed, painting these metal Plaguebearers made me a much better painter- I only started seriously painting in 2000- and my Dark Eldar were quite plain. Using the old White Dwarf articles, I learned about new techniques and applied them to the Plaguebearers. I really upped my painting with them. (Truly, that is something I truly miss with White Dwarf magazine as it is now. It is merely a sales brochure- I loved the old WD that had hobby and story articles that INSPIRED).

Anyways, as I assembled my Plaguebearers I decided I would do something totally different. I decided I would spray them white and then do their flesh ONLY using washes. It is a technique that I have NEVER used before. Naturally, I have used washes (recesses, to alter a hue), but never have I used washes to primarily paint a model. I have read about the technique (WD had a few articles when the new paints were released, but mostly I read about it online).

So, I used different wash combos on different Plaguebearers. For some, I used Cammoshade to make the sickly, pale green that has been the trademark of my Plague stuff since day 1. However, the washes allowed me to get a nice color much more quickly.

For others, I used alternating coats of Fleshshade and Sepia. This gave them a more fleshy, yet still sickly appearance. Though my original Plague stuff was NOT this color, I had since painted Nurgle stuff in all kinds of colors, as long as they were disgusting (though I still primarily do that pale and sickly green, I have enough colors interspersed that they still form a coherent looking army).

On one, I used Fleshade and Earthshade. That guy looks the most different. However, he still looks like part of the same Daemonic force. I think I may paint future Nurgle stuff with that color combo, as I like how dirty it looks.

There was only one model I had a mishap with. I used Bel Tan Green on one- yikes. Waaaaaayy too green. I tried to put Cammoshade over, but to no avail. So, I had no choice but to re-coat him with Deathworld paint, followed by Cammo wash. Despite this error, he still came out looking like his festering brothers. (Note to self- don't use Bel Tan Green over white again. Ever.)

The rest of the details I painted with regular paints and the technical paints. The guts I did Khorne Red, then I brightened them up with lighter reds, finally adding pink to some of the intestines. Then I followed this by using Blood for the Blood god technical paint. Nice and goopy in some spots.

The swords I did with Leadbelcher, followed by Typhus Corrosion technical paint. This gave them a filthy look. As for the eyes, I used my old technique of painting the entire eye area white, followed by a Mephiston Red eye rim, and finally a slit of black for the iris.

For the sores and tumor looking stuff, I used various contrasting washes (yes, Bel Tan Green works for this stage, as does purple and yellow) and the Nurgle's Rot technical paint around/over the sores, then used white to highlight the top of the sores.

Finally, I put gobs of Nurgle's Rot on their swords, their sores, some of their mouths, and running down their legs and onto the bases. Once all of that was done, I used 'Ardcoat over the entire model- sword and all (EXCEPT the banner). This gloss varnish makes them look extra slimy and sickly.

Oh- forgot one thing. My Plague champion I put a zombie head on. The one think about the kit I don't like is that SOME of the poses are limited. The champion is posed so that his sword is sticking straight up. I decided that, since there was little I could do with the sword, I put a zombie head on the Plaguebearer, thus making him look different from the others. After all, according to the mythology, anyone killed by one of Nurgle's plagues becomes a Plaguebearer in the warp. So- why not look slightly "man-ish"?

Now- a confession. I enjoyed painting these guys so much that... at last week's Tourney, I bought a Start Collecting! Daemons of Nurgle box... That means I have more Nurgle stuff to keep me busy. I told you- Chaos will always have me in its grasp! Hehe! As for the ones I just finished, they match quite well with the rest of my Nurgle Daemons- as I mix and match them, they would form a very unified force- all the colors of filth and rot. I think I will paint my next batch of Nurgle stuff in the same manner with the washes, as I like the results of this technique.

I also wanted to show off some terrain I recently finished for my friend Joe. As you may recall, we recently finished his ice world table (it is beautiful for sure). Joe had the old wrecked ship terrain from an old 40K boxed set from the early 2000s. He asked if I would paint it for him.

So, I painted the ship to be Dark Angels, which is now is primary army that he's working on. I did it simply, Caliban Green with lighter green highlights. As for the snow, I started with Kantor Blue, then used brighter blues. Then, I followed with a liberal drybrush of Russ Grey, followed by brighter greys and whites, making sure to leave the blue beneath. It gives the whole thing an icy appearance. If you paint it just snow white, you lose a ton of detail and visually its rather dull. The blue under the white gives it the appearance of glacial ice or something.

These didn't take me long to do. I used Blood technical paint to give it a little something interesting. I also put on some Dark Angel transfers. With all the pieces together, they really make a nice set of terrain pieces, and the ice blue will go with Joe's table perfectly.

So- that's everything for now. I'll be back next time with undoubtedly more Daemons, but I will be getting back to Mechanicus as well very soon.

Until next time...