'Ard Boys 2009: The Darkening!

I had every intention of playing demons for 'Ard Boys this year, but the more I thought about it the less excited I was about playing at all. I decided to change it up and switch to something off the wall and wacky. Well...
That's right, I'm bringing out the Deathwing again with a little added flair. No body suspects the demon hunters!
Belial
Belials Deathwing squad w/ banner
4x5 Deathwing terminators
Grey Knight brother captain w/ 4 GK terminators
5 Grey Knight terminators
Land Raider "Godhammer"
Land Raider "Crusader"

Thirty-six terminators and 2 Land Raiders. Should be interesting at least! :)

Painting Contest: IronHalo Flying Base

As most everyone knows, recently Ironhalo gave away 14 of their awesome flying bases to bols readers. I happen to be lucky enough to receive one, I was the only fly lord to get their email out in time. I chose the "Wyldewood" base as I thought it would work well for one of my Eldar flyers. I received it about a week later and I must say, the detail on it is excellent.

I started by painting a solid coat of Orkhide Shade followed by a heavy dry brush of snot green. From there a slightly lighter dry brush of scorpion green completeled the basic grass shade. The rocks were a solid coat of Adeptus Battlegrey, then dry brush of Codex Grey, and Fortress Grey. A light dry brush of Astronomicon Grey and white finished them off.
A solid coat of scorched brown started off the trees and the roots. I followed that by a few other of the many browns until I got a basic undercoat I liked.
I thought about it for a while, which season to make this world. I would naturally choose autumn as it is my favorite season, but I don't really love the way it looks with the colored leaves. I decided to go for a late fall look instead. I used some beiges, light browns, and greys to lighten up the trees and roots, trying to make them look as though they'd been there for a while.
After going through and blacking out the leaves to accept their own color, I started with one of the middle range browns (I cant remember which).
I liked the basic look I was getting at this point, but the leaves weren't quite right. I decided to go over them again with I believe Khemri Brown and I was getting the color I wanted.
Once I had the basic color I wanted, it was time to darken it all. Good 'Ole Badab Black wash over each leaf, around the trees and rocks, as well as by the roots to bring everything out.
The last step was to kill the grass a bit (it is fall) with a VERY light dry brush of one of the lighter browns.
The last things I did were to paint the small things near the tree (I decided they were stones, but I have no idea what they're supposed to be...) and put in the stand. I decided to use one of the rocks to give it a little more resilience after the hole was drilled.
I had intended to convert a Valyrie for this project, but I decided to do something a little more cool (but lazy). I decided the Nightwing would be best as it is smaller and already had the correct hole for the stand.
I'm not that happy with the lighting for the pics, so I'm not going to send these to Ironhalo for the contest. I'm going to set something up so I can get some really good photos and send them in. I'm happy with the results of the paint job and I will look at the Ironhalo bases in the future, especially since the FLGS will be carrying them in store!

Battle Report: Dragon's Lair 1850

For the first time in a few months I was able to make it to a Dragon's Lair tournament. I decided to play my demons, though I don't think they are as effective 150 points down. They are my most fun army and I wanted to get back into the demon mindset.

Fateweaver
4x8 Horrors of Tzeentch
3x3 Flamers of Tzeentch
2x Soul Grinder
Demon Prince of Tzeentch

ROUND 1: Tyranids
Kill Points, Dawn of War
The first round I was paired up against Gregory and his Tyranids. I think I may have played him once before, but I'm not certain. He was playing a winged assault tyrant with warp blast, an assault carnifex, a sniperfex, broodlord with stealers, a large squad of stealers, 2x16 hormagaunts, 2x16 gaunts with fleshborers, 3 warriors, and a zoanthrope.
Dawn of war is an advantage for me as long as I get to go second. I won the roll so that's what I did. I don't think he deployed anything before the game and walked it all in on turn 1 save for his Tyrant which was deep striking and the two squads of genestealers were outflanking, one with the broodlord.
I got the half I wanted and proceeded to annihlate a squad of gaunts. I also scattered well and generally got what I want. He hadn't mentioned he was outflanking his stealers before this point and I'd gotten a little closer to the edges than I would have if I'd known... The broodlord ended up coming in on turn 2 and assaulting my grinder. I've been here before and I was fairly confident in my chances.
His Tyrant arrived on turn 3, only to deviate 9 inchest backaward off the board, but a mishap 5 meant he'd be back. My demon prince got into combat with the assault carnifex and was able to take him down after 3 rounds. Unfortunately, my plan was unsuccessful as I was unable to turn him into a spawn despite 4 tries.
I was able to hang with the stealers again for the entire game. In the end, I had no close combat weapons and was immobilized, but the kill point survived. The Tyrant arrived again next turn, but this time was able to avoid the table edge but just a little over an inch. Though his psychic bolt was unable to damage the second grinder.

In the end, I was able to wipe out 10 kill points worth (including a without number squad twice). He was able to wipe out two squads of horrors, as well as the squad of flamers that never made it onto the board. 10-3 victory for the demons.

ROUND 2: Orks
Capture and Control, Pitched Battle
This match was against Ben and his orks. The scenario was worst case scenario for me and I figured I wouldn't be playing long. I consider Orks one of the least fun armies to play against. This was further cemented when my scattering was terrible, everything going 8+ inches in all directions. Not to mention turn 2, when Ben rammed my soul grinder with his battle wagon's def rolla (a meneuver which does not actually work) and found out that it had been ruled at DL that it did work! D6 str10 hits was fairly likely to wipe out the grinder anyway, so what the hell. I tried a death or glory and immobilized it. Then what happens?? Oh, now I take 2d6 str10 hits despite stopping the ram from ever happening! Of course, the grinder was toast. Shortly after that my poor scattering meant no protection for fateweaver or the prince and they both fell.
That was enough for me and I had no further interest in the game. Aims and I decided that we'd head out and have some bar-b-cue for independence day. Not to mention we got to watch some great fireworks right from our backyard!

'Ard Boys 2009: Army List

After going through some testing with the chaos marines army, I've decided to just play my favorite instead. I think although demons are likely not going to be able to stand up to guard with psychic choir, or null zone it will at least have a chance to be fun. I will likely be playing my fairly standard heavier list that includes the Khorne elements with the Tzeentch.

Fateweaver
Bloodthirster, unholy strength
8 horrors of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch, icon of Tzeentch, the Changeling
8 horrors of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch, icon of Tzeentch
8 horrors of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch, icon of Tzeentch
8 horrors of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch, icon of Tzeentch
10 bloodletters of Khorne, Icon
4 flamers of Tzeentch
4 flamers of Tzeentch
4 flamers of Tzeentch
Demon prince of Tzeentch, demonic flight, iron hide, unholy strength, mark of Tzeentch, bolt of Tzeentch, boon of mutation
Soul Grinder, tongue
Soul Grinder, tongue

It will give some armies serious trouble, and others will have no trouble at all. As long as I don't have to play against PBS, Lash, or Null Zone I think I might actually have fun at Ard Boys.

Project Interuptus, Complete!

I finished up the paint on my racer and I am happy with the final product. Thanks to Aims for the color suggestion!
My next project is going to be assembling some terrain pieces for BolsCon.

Project Interuptus!

Anyone who's read my blog more than once knows I have a number of projects on my table right now. From the Red Scorpions, to my Valhallans, to a bunch of other things. Well, I got a new project that has interrupted them until it's finished.

I can't go into detail about what it is yet, but suffice to say it is VERY fun! My fellow Austinites should know what it is :)

Obviously from the pics you can tell it's not primed or painted, but I plan to work on it most of this weekend and I think I can get it done.

The back engines and the dudes are all megnetized for easy painting and removal.

I don't think it will be too long and I'll be able to share this baby's purpose with the world outside of Austin. Keep an eye on BoLS for more info!

HINT: Its FAAAAAAAAAAAST!!!

'Ard Boys 2009: A Titanic Project

Quite some time ago, I posted a picture of a large number of epic titans I had acquired. Now's the time to share their purpose.

Chaos Space Marines!

Demon Prince (Warlord Titan)

Lesser Demons (Knight Paladin Titans)

Obliterators (Reaver Titans)

Greater Demon (Imperator Titan)

The Paladins and Reavers were awesome as is, but the other two needed something extra. I found some cool toy bits (on the suggestion of jwolf) that I think have worked nicely. They are over the top, which was the effect I was going for. I have 2 more reavers at the game store, and I need to get 3 more after that(they are not so easy to come by).

The theme of this "counts as" army that I was going for is a sort of "techno-magi" group. I will be using standard marines for the cult troops. My normal sorceror will be a Techmarine w/ servo harness.

Demon Prince w/ wings, mark of slaanesh, lash of submission
Sorceror w/ wings, icon, mark of slaanesh, lash of submission
Summoned Greater Demon
Chaos marines x 10, melta, las cannon, mark of chaos glory, champion w/ powerweapon, rhino
Plague marines x 8, 2x melta, icon, champion w/ power fist, rhino
Khorne berserkers x 8, champion w/ power fist, rhino
Khorne berserkers x 8, champion w/ power fist, rhino
Summoned Lesser Demons x 7
Obliterators x 3
Obliterators x 3
Obliterators x 3
Termiantor Champions x 5, chain fist, power fist, 3x combi-melta, heavy flamer, mark of khorne

I think it's a powerful, well rounded list that can handle most comers. I'll be testing it for the first time tomorrow night.