WIP Dark Angels, RIP Uncharted Seas

Green and mean.

 More painting today.  The focus was armor and the bounty was (relatively) great: a squad worth of green finished.  Previously I was unhappy with how the armor was going, but something clicked this morning and gave me a new perspective.  The work I had done before looked odd because it was incomplete.  With highlighting, and armor, finished the squad looks much better.  It was a rude welcome back to the world of painting for quality instead of speed, but after blitzing through Dust models for the past while it is satisfying to do work that is satisfying instead of sufficient.  The plan is to do the do the metals and/or reds on Sunday.  If I can get both done the squad will hopefully need only one more session to finish and I'll be halfway through my first EPL pledge.

Mostly a Place Holder

The vengeance, it is dark.

I may come back to flesh this into a fuller post in the future (probably not).  Mostly I need a place to link pictures from.  I've jumped into the E Tenebrae Lux (ETL) painting challenge at the Bolter and Chainsword as a goad towards getting my Dark Angels painted.  I'm starting small with two Tactical squads, one each of Dark Vengeance and Assault on Black Reach flavors.

Unpainted these many years, but on the road to completion.

These are just starting point shots.  I actually got more work done on these today, mostly base coating the AoBR squad green and taking a second swing at shading down (which is an awkward phrase at best, but nothing better has come to me just yet).  This time around I tried a wash (Army Painter Dark Tone, aka Badab Black) instead of a full-on paint.  The time invested vs results gained ratio is still too lean for my tastes, but it looks decent enough and doesn't take as long as layering 95% of the model to leave those black cracks intact.  I'll save discussion of work done today for when I have pictures of it, so for now use your imagination, then scale it back a few steps so you aren't disappointed when you see how they've turned out.

A Long Expected (Partial) Assembly

Finally on the road to the table.

Prompted in large part by a flurry of texts with EV last night, today saw the nigh-total construction of my long neglected Stormraven.  The impetus for this assembling was the dread Heldrake and attempting to find an answer for them that doesn't involve buying my own flyer or a large batch of Tau that I have no real interest in outside of killing flyers. While I think the Stormraven will do a reasonable job of fending off the dragons, I don't really like it as a solution for my Dark Angels mostly because it requires allying in Blood Angels and getting away from my plan for 6th edition (build some Dark Angels). Despite these misgivings I'm glad to get the Stormraven on the path to completion.  The red marines are getting a rest for a while, but that doesn't mean they have stopped occupying the place closest to my (40k) heart.  I'm the only person who likes the look of the model and I love the idea of a flying gunship/transport that gives unique flavor to the Blood Angels any random chapter can now field (except for Dark Angels of course).  Why all marines get the Blood Angels' special toy while the BAs can't field a Stormtalon is beyond me, but I'm sure there's some well thought out reasoning behind it.

Of course I can't just take the Stormraven, it has to have a minimum posse of a BA HQ and a Troops choice.  My initial thought was to load up on Death Company, plus a DC Dreadnaught, and top it off with a Chaplain.  Turns out that's really expensive, so now I'm considering something that is probably just as expensive: Dante and Sanguinary Guard.  The SGs got a bump this edition thanks to the nerfing of power weapons (their 2+ actually means something now), though their weaponry still leaves much to be desired.  Whatever route I end up on it'll be something with melee punch as I've had issues getting swamped in combat lately. 

In other news, don't let the long pause between posts let you think I haven't been doing other things.  I finally assembled the remaining parts of the pair of AoBR Tacticals, plus basing and priming.  I'll need to find a pair of missile launcher marines to join my BA Devastators now that the aforementioned Tacticals will be filling their primary roles, not to mention building a whole squad of Devs for my Dark Angels, but at least now I won't have Devs with Tactical markings.  While poking around at the Bolter & Chainsword I found a painting challenge that started a couple days ago and runs through the middle of August, which sounds like a great time frame to get some stuff finished.  I've noticed a large drop off in painting recently, aside from the speed painting that is Dust, and I wonder if it isn't related to the loss (to me at least) of Lost Hemisphere's Paint the Target (which may still be running in spite of the demise of the site).  I'll lurk along through the various B&C threads for a bit before making my move, but considering the personal success that was the LPC it's all but certain that I'll be throwing in my hat for this new (to me) challenge.

Painting and Dust News

What I did this afternoon.

Since 40k has been my most played game for the past month or so I figured it'd be a good idea to slap some paint on my budding Dark Angels army.  My plan was modest: dark green on the regular marines, blue on the Librarian.  Nothing excessive, not even (much) concern with leaving the black primer exposed in the crevices, just a quick base coat so I could prime the other squads and still be able to tell them apart at a glance. 

Of course things soon spun out of control, but we'll get to the soon enough.

Another Batch of Axis

It'll be time for basing soon as I'm almost out of unpainted minis.

The (painting of the) Axis war machine continues, inching towards total domination of unpainted models.  This batch consists of:

• Snipers
• Spotters
• Brain Eaters
• Grenadier X
• Stefan
• Ludwig arms
• Flamm-Luther arms
• Wotan arm shields

I had another unfortunate Dust experience this week, akin to the previous one.  My Wednesday opened up unexpectedly so I headed out to roll some dice at Huzzah but found no other combatants.  The group there has taken a couple body blows over the past few months, but this was the first time I showed up in vain.  This saps my zeal for reinforcements as I don't want to sink money into a game that I may have no competition for, which is unfortunate on a couple levels.  With the recent release of Icarus there are a couple builds I want to try out with the new units, Brain Eaters among them, but said builds will require another couple boxes to manage which, despite Dust's reasonable pricing, is more than I'm willing to put towards something that might sit on the shelf.  While this is, in my mind, a reasonable response to faltering interest, it also reinforces the problem.  If less people show up to play because less people are showing up to play then even less people will show up to play.  Quite the spiral.  I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but with the Caps making the playoffs gaming time might be scarcer than it already is for the next few weeks, which could be the deathblow for Dust.

The last few posts here have been pretty down, so I'll end this one on an note of optimism.  I cut it pretty close without really meaning to, but I bought in on the Arena Rex Kickstarter just before it expired.  It's a gladiator skirmish game that looks fast to play while having a reaction system, like Dust, to keep everyone involved throughout the game.  The models are few at this point and mostly in progress, but what has been shown is gorgeous.  One of my Warmahordes locals bought in as well, so this won't be another Dreadball-esque solo leap of faith, and there's still the option on the AR site to kinda sorta get in on the Kickstarter via Paypal.  There are playtest rules in the works for "summer," which hopefully is in the near future.  In other news I'm still fighting the good fight against including flyers and dedicated anti-flyer tech in my Dark Angels army, but with EV fielding a pair of (unreasonably brutal) Heldrakes that time may be winding down.  I considered an Aegis Defense Line at Huzzah this week but balked at the $30 tag as I'd mentally figured $20 would do it.  High prices from GW shouldn't surprise me any more, but they still manage it every now and again.

Dust Regionals, Games And Stuff Style

If you like, I can save you some time: it didn't happen.

Want the fuller course?  I suppose I can oblige.  As with the Huzzah qualifier, I headed up to Games and Stuff on Sunday with little preparation, running late, no list, and only a general idea of what I wanted to play.  I nearly stuck the second Horten that arrived on Saturday in with the rest of my army, but my previous attempts to forge a dual plane list were unsatisfying so I left it at home.  The trip into the heart of darkness (aka Maryland) was uneventful and I found the new location with only one U turn.  Now GNS is in a strip mall with lots of obvious parking, food options, and a lack of the general unease for your bodily well being that I always got while walking from my car to the old location.  I arrived right on time, a minute or two before things were to kick off, paid my entry fee and rumbled into the gaming room where I found...the TO and the guy who won at Huzzah.  Without breaking my arm trying to twist it around to properly reach my back, I'd like to draw your attention to a bit of prophecy that I dropped in my Huzzah post a week back:

Another Wave of Reinforcements

Chipping away at the pile.

Got my paint on yesterday with an eye towards having a fully painted tournament list for this weekend.  I'm still not sure what I'll be fielding, but since most of my stuff is painted at this point I think I'll be able to plug any gaps that appear.  This particular batch finished off the (first) Horten (got another for $23 on Amazon yesterday while looking to fill out a free shipping order), one Wotan, arms for a Luther, Recon grenadiers, the last Battle grenadiers squad, and Lara.  With the exception of a Hans and the other pair of Wotan guns (but not shields), all my walkers are either "finished" or have had their initial wave of spray can painting, which makes them all but finished.  There's still a set of spotters and snipers to do, plus any infantry with a laser and all the non-Lara heroes, but at this point everything that I'm likely to field is painted (or close enough as previously detailed for the walkers).  This afternoon will see a massive cloud of varnish rise over the DMV as I seal up a bunch of stuff, then there will be basing.  I'd pay a reasonable amount to see a movie where Daniel Day Lewis rants away while gluing sand and drybrushing...

Dust Regionals, Huzzah Style

Not quite what I expected from a GIS for "gamer butts."

Round one of the Dust Regional Qualifiers was this weekend at one of my local stores Huzzah Hobbies.  They expanded at Huzzah last week and this was my first time there when the expansion was officially open.  The floor space doubled, in part to accommodate more and larger events, and it was just in time.  There was a Malifaux tournament going at the same time...and in the same room.  Things were close but there was still room for everyone.  To be fair we had one table in the expansion room, but it was an extra and didn't see use past the first round.  I don't think I mentioned my concerns on turnout previously, but it didn't matter as we had all the regulars including the folks that haven't been around for a while (but without EV, who is inaccessible on weekends).  Despite my nitpicking things went smooth and I never bumped butts with anyone behind me which is the highest praise I can give.

A Tiny Taste

Reinforcements, now in a reasonable diversity of color.

The past few days have been productive.  I've managed to get another big chunk of Axis painted.  I'd love to be able to say that this latest push allows me to field a fully painted army for the upcoming regionals, but that may not be accurate.  Or it could be.  Truth is I still don't have a list or even a good idea for what I want to run, outside the usual template that I've had so much success with.  The Lothar in the picture isn't necessarily a portent of things to come.  The big factor in getting it painted was that the arms were ready to go and straightforward to paint.  That doesn't mean I won't be fielding a Lothar as I find them to be effective if a little frustrating since they have to reload after every shot.  I'm still on the fence about the Fledermaus (which has already suffered a broken/about to be broken landing strut, which is very disappointing) but am leaning towards fielding it if only to get some more reps in with it and because I had a good time with it earlier in the week.  For tonight I'd like to go over the new tournament battle builder again and build up a couple lists, but that's going to be a stretch.  If I manage to settle on a list before the morning I'll call today a success.

First Flight

The camo actually worked.

My cup of flying enthusiasm overflowed yesterday so I broke out the painter's tape and spray cans and got started on the Axis plane.  In retrospect I should have left the area immediately around the cockpit the base dark grey primer so the cockpit itself doesn't stick out so much.  I'll have to put that into practice if I go in for a second plane.  The base and flight stand are very frustrating but I have some ideas for them.  In general the model has grown on me a bit but it's still far from attractive.  There may be a bit of an Axis painting push for Saturday since there's plenty of stuff, mostly soldier 3 units, that are ready for washing and final details.  I'd like to field a fully painted army for the batch of regionals, but that's probably not going to happen.  It would also require me to have a list in mind to play.  I had hoped that the plane would take my pants off and demand a permanent place in all lists going forward, but the results were less than hoped for.