High Elves Army Plog Update #1

With the recent flurry of painting work to complete my Chaos Daemons in time for Chosen and also The Outpost's Painting Challenge, I've been psyched up to complete all the half finished armies on my back burners.

I've dug the High Elves out of mothballs and am going to start chronicling their journey from basecoat to table top.

Heres the army thus far:

Lord choice is an Archmage. For games where named characters are allowed I'd definately go for Teclis.

Next up is a BSB Noble. Am planning to use the banner bearer from the Swordmasters command group to represent him

For my core troops I can choose from  3 main blocks.
a. 20 Archers (to be assembled)
b. 20 Lothern Seaguard

c. 28 Spearelves

Moving on to the Specialist troops:

a. horde of 30 White Lions (much choppy death - 15 done, 15 to go)

b. 20 Phoenix Guard to act as my mage bunker (10 done, 10 to go)

c. 14 Swordmasters (even more choppy death)

d. 5 Dragon Princes

e. Lion Chariot (assembled)

Finally a Great Eagle to round up the rare choice. Really hoping to win this bid on Ebay for the Coolminiornot Great Eagle model. Its an awesome mini!

Will be targeting to complete this army by March or April.

Keep looking for more updates.

Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons

Having finally read A Thousand Sons, I've decided to have a go at making a Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons army. Warhammer 30K man!

Started to put together a list of stuff I needed to convert my minis.

My inspiration

Will be using mainly TK plastics and some Grey Knight / CSM parts to convert the models.

I managed to get these sweet 'Stargate' looking Anubis and Horus helmets which I hope to recast for my power armored boys. The Anubis head will be the Sorceror and the rest will have the Horus heads. (If you remember in Stargate, the chief guardian is Anubis headed. The Sorcerer will carry a Heqa staff and the rest will be carrying swords or halberds with kopesh type blades (from TK tomb guard).

For the Sekhmet or Scarab Occult who are the veterans, I'll be using these resin Terminator casts also with Anubis and Horus heads.

Planning to have an initial 1500 - 1750 point army consisting of :

Ahriman

2 units of  3 Sekhmet Terminators

3-4 units of 9 Rubricae, each unit will represent one of the main cults - Corvidae, Pyrae, Raptora, Pavoni (not sure about the Athenaens at the moment)

Defiler (using a Necrosphinx head and torso on Defiler legs)

Heldrake (suitably modded to look Egyptian / Sphinx-like)

Armour will be in Crimson Red with Gold and White Trim.

Chosen 2012

My first games using 6th Ed rules in a tournament setting, phew!

We got to Battlefront Miniatures just past 9 am and Khairul started by briefing all the participants.

My first game was against Nahri's 'Grey' Blood Angels.

He proceeded to castle in one corner and awaited the arrival of my Daemons. I made some very ballsy deepstrikes and succeeded and taking out his Termies and some vehicles with my Flamers and Screamers but ultimately I was outgunned and he took the first game.

The second game vs Soo Kai was quite interesting also, highlight of the game for me was deepstriking my squad of Flamers onto a tower where his Devastators were and proceeding to roast them all, after that my squad jumped down and barbecued the techpriest and his thunderfire and completed a hattrick by blowing up his Whirlwind launcher, 3 for 3 heavy support choices fried by one squad.

Despite my unnerringly accurate deep strikes, I made a critical error by not wiping out his tactical squad and conceding the 1 KP to lose the game.

Finally my last game was against Faizal Sani and his 'pre-heresy' style Space Wolves. The Vlka Fenryka gunline proved to be nearly impossible to penetrate and by turn 4 I was left with my 2 Heralds and LoC on the table and willingly conceded. However this game proved to be one of the most fun that I played and Faizal was a great sport.

The Winners: Faizal Sani (Best Painted Army), Khairul (Organiser), Joe Soon (The Chosen One), Alvin Khaw (Organiser) and Hassanal (Best Sportmanship)

Incidentally I found out that I tied with Hassanal for Best Sportsmanship (Both of us earning the max score of 9). Now I just have to learn to play better LOL!

The Participants of Chosen 2012

Final tally, I'm suppose to be playing Daemons, Khairul!

Chaos Daemons Chosen 2012 Update #3

We travelled down for the Chosen on Friday and I spent the night putting the last minute finishing touches to my minis.

My final list

Lord of Change all done

The night before, basing done

Taken in better light

Close up of my Screamers

Chaos Daemons Chosen 2012 Update #2

Managed to get some painting done over the weekend. Though not as much as I would have liked.

Earlier on had a bit of a panic as I suddenly realised that I didn't have the Changeling model. Luck was on my side though as a quick shout out on Facebook yielded the model that I needed.

Thank you to the Dutchman in Penang! Now I just have to replace the model that he loaned to me.

So I got started on the Lord of Change and Daemon Prince as these would be the focal point of the army and I wanted to spend as much time as I could on them.

Also managed to basecoat all the models (except the Changeling).

Started doing the chiaroscuro for the LoC, DP and flamers.

Recap for those who missed my earlier post:

1. Basecoat whole model Chaos Black spray.
2. First drybrush all over with Codex Grey using large drybrush.
3. 1st highlights with Fortress Grey using large drybrush.
4. 2nd highlights with Fortress Grey / Skull White mix, using large drybrush, hitting the highest areas.
5. Final highlights with Skull White using a small drybrush, only hitting the highest points. Edge highlighting where requrired.

After doing that I'm left with this:


Chiaroscuro done.
 

Did the same with the DP.

 After drybrushing the flamers, I started to layer in the colour washes.

1. Guilliman Blue glaze 1:3 with water.
2. For the flamers fire, I used Kabalite Green 1:3 with water to block in where I wanted a 'ghostly flame' look - mainly on the hands and the flames around their back and head.

After first few layers of washing. Can't really see the effect on the flamers in this pic. (will try to post some better shots)

This is after 3 layers of blue and green washes.

 The trick with chiaroscuro is to get a nice monotone to set your highlights and shading, then you just need to wash the model in your selected colour. However on large models like the LoC, you will need to take it another step and do some highlighting after you are done blocking in the large areas of colour.

One thing I like about the LoC is the amount of texture on the model rewards careful highlighting. I'll probably need to do some final highlights and glaze over with ink to complete the effect I'm looking for but overall I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

Added several more layers of blue and started to layer in some Hawk Turquoise on the leading edges of the wings.

 Am looking to have a gradation of colour from an Icy Blue through Hawk Turquoise, to Dark Blue and finally blending into purple at the trailing edge of the wings.

 

Still lots to be done, so I'm going to be painting up a storm over the next 3-4 days.

Wish me luck!

Chaos Daemons Chosen 2012 Update #1

Well, like I mentioned in the last post, I had to amend my army for Chosen 2012.

Managed to finish assembling all the minis last night, except for the Changeling.

Heres the complete army in all its glory.

1.5K fully assembled - Yay!

Closer look at the LoC, Herald and Flamers

Closer look at the DP, other Herald and Horrors. Screamers sitting in the back.
 

Now I just have to complete painting everything (except for the Heralds) before the 15th.

Chaos Daemons for Chosen 2012

Well, in a freak mishap several of the Kabal transports were lost in the warp.

I somehow misplaced 2 Raiders and 2 Venoms when moving my stuff and I don't think I will have the time to prepare new ones for Chosen.

With that, I've decided to change out my list and will now be bringing Chaos Daemons for the tourney instead.

So here's my new list:

Army List: Chaos Daemons 1500 points

HQ – Lord of Change – Greater Daemon of Tzeentch – 290 points

Lord of Change, Master of Sorcery, Breath of Chaos

HQ – Herald of Tzeentch – 130 points

Herald of Tzeentch on Chariot, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Breath of Chaos

HQ – Herald of Tzeentch – 130 points

Herald of Tzeentch on Chariot, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Breath of Chaos

Elites – Flamers of Tzeentch - 97 points

4 Flamers of Tzeentch, Pyrocaster

Elites – Flamers of Tzeentch – 97 points

4 Flamers of Tzeentch, Pyrocaster

Troops – Pink Horrors of Tzeentch – 100 points

5 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch, The Changeling

Troops – Pink Horrors of Tzeentch – 95 points

5 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch,

Troops – Pink Horrors of Tzeentch – 95 points

5 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch,

Fast Attack – Screamers of Tzeentch – 125 points

5 Screamers of Tzeentch

Fast Attack – Screamers of Tzeentch – 100 points

4 Screamers of Tzeentch

Heavy Support – Daemon Prince of Tzeentch – 240 points

Daemon Prince of Chaos, Daemonic Flight, Mark of Tzeentch, Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Breath of Chaos                                             

Total: 1499 pts.

36 models

Dark Eldar Chosen 2012 Update #2

Completed assembling the Duke and his retinue of Incubi.

Duke Sliscus and retinue

A closer look, gave him a blast pistol and venom sword

Incubi are the new go to troops for much needed AP2 killiness to handle those Terminator heavy MEQ armies. Hope to see them perform well against the field of more than 18 MEQ armies in Chosen.

PI Monthly Painting Challenge - Done!

Started on this guy at 11.25 pm using a technique I found on the web called 'chiaroscuro' - Italian for 'light-dark'. It involves blocking out sections using gradients of shading.

Basecoat Chaos Black

Drybrush all over with Codex Grey

Drybrush highlights with Fortress Grey and Skull White

Add colour using washes.

Robes - Guilliman Blue Glaze 1:3 parts water, several layers
Armour - Leadbelcher 1:3 parts water, several layers
Gold - stain the Leadbelcher using Devlan Mud and Calthan Brown 1:1:3 parts water
Chaos Icons - Hawk Turqoise and Mephiston Red
Staff - Warlock Purple stain 1:3 parts water with Skull White added for definition and lining
Skin - Codex Grey and Caledor Sky 1:1:3 parts water 
Eyes - Mephiston Red
Shading - Nuln Oil to tips of horns and in between armour plates
Base - Codex Grey shaded with Devlan Mud and Nuln Oil

The finished Chaos Sorcerer Lord

 The whole model took me about one and a half hours to complete and I'm quite happy with the results.

The Chiaroscuro technique is really fast because it uses a lot of drybrushing. Careful drybrushing to define the light and dark areas of the model coupled with several careful layers of colour washes brings the whole model together and is good enough for table top quality.

I think I should be able to pull off my 1.5 k army in 2 weeks at this rate.

Dark Eldar Chosen 2012 Update #1

Well here's where we are at the moment.

Total of 45 models.

14 more to assemble. All require priming and painting. Slightly under 3 weeks to complete.

Dark Eldar 1500 The Chosen
HQ
Duke Sliscus
Elites
Incubi
Venom
Kabalite Trueborn
Raider
Kabalite Trueborn
Raider
Troops
Wyches
Venom
Wyches
Venom
Wyches
Venom
Fast Attack
Reavers
Heavy Support
Ravager
Ravager
Razorwing Jetfighter
Key
Assembly required
Fully assembled
Fully painted

PI Penang Monthly Painting Challenge - Just for fun

Well the nice folks at Paradigm Infinitum Penang (PI Penang) have initiated a monthly painting challenge to hone their painting skills. Basically each staff member will select a model or models to paint and pledge to complete within the month. No prizes, just the pride of completing a nicely painted model and bragging rights.

Having nothing better to do (sic!) and an abundance of models to paint up I decided to join the fun and get some of my greyish armies painted up.

Here's my pledge for the November painting challenge: A Chaos Sorceror Lord.

Chaos Sorceror Lord

I've assembled him and will be going for a Tzeentchian theme - Blues and golds. Going to try out a method using washes that I found on the web and will update with some step by step pics on my progress. I've got 4 days to finish this guy which should be enough I think.

Assembled and ready for a lick of paint

Dark Eldar Assemble!

Completed assembling the 15 Wyches for my 3 Venom borne AT hunters.

5 Wyches armed with Haywire grenades and mounted in a Venom with 2 Splinter cannons should be able to take out most armour hopefully. With the Venoms pumping out 12 poisoned shots to take care of the occupants that will inevitably spill out of the tanks.



3 squads of 5 Wyches



Wyches and 1st Venom

Also finished assembling the first squad of Kabalite Trueborn with Shardcarbines. Modeled one of them with a plasma grenade as I bought the upgrade for the squad. Need to get another box of Scourges to loot another 5 carbines for the second squad.

Trueborn with Shardcarbines

 For my HQ I've selected Duke Sliscus, basically because he gives all my vehicles Deep Strike capability and he adds some punch to my Wyches with his ability to roll twice on the Combat Drugs table. That, and the fact that I can also make one of my Trueborn squads weapons Poisoned (3+) is really good.

I've decided to use the Archon model as a base but remodeling him with a Venom blade (gonna see how I can model a second one on him to represent his 'Serpent's Bite') and a blast pistol. But I can't decide which head to use, though I am leaning towards horny IYKWIM ;P. Ideas, guys?

Duke Sliscus WIP

Got a box of finecast Incubi for the Duke's retinue too.

Incubi retinue for the Duke

Dark Eldar 1500 pts Army for Legio Malaysia's Chosen 2012

So here's the list that I'll be taking for the tourney.

HQ – Duke Sliscus

Duke Sliscus, the Serpent

150 pts.

 

Elites - Incubi

4 Incubi, dedicated transport: Venom with 2x Splinter cannons

153 pts.

 

Elites – Kabalite Trueborn

5 Kabalite Trueborn, Shardcarbines, Plasma grenades, dedicated transport: Raider with Disintegrator cannon

150 pts.

 

Elites – Kabalite Trueborn

5 Kabalite Trueborn, Shardcarbines, Plasma grenades, dedicated transport: Raider with Disintegrator cannon

150 pts.

 

Troops - Wyches

5 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, dedicated transport: Venom with 2x Splinter cannons

125 pts.

 

Troops - Wyches

5 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, dedicated transport: Venom with 2x Splinter cannons

125 pts.

 

Troops - Wyches

5 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, dedicated transport: Venom with 2x Splinter cannons

125 pts.

 

Fast Attack - Reavers

6 Reavers, Heat lances x 2

156 pts.

 

Heavy Support - Ravager

1 Ravager, Dark Lances x 3

105 pts.

 

Heavy Support - Ravager

1 Ravager, Dark Lances x 3

105 pts.

 

Heavy Support - Razorwing Jetfighter

Razorwing Jetfighter, Dark Lances x 2, Monoscythe Missiles x 4, Flickerfield

155 pts.

 

Total: 1499 pts.

Finally decided to start Blogging

I set up this blog a couple of years back but never got round to posting anything.

Recently, the need for me to complete a fully painted 1,500 point Warhammer 40k army for Legio Malaysia's Chosen Tournament has given me the impetus I need to finally put thoughts to paper so to speak and start blogging.

This blog will be mainly about my Army projects - list building, assembly and painting.

Enough talk and on to the blog!