Hordes Legion of Everblight Ebay Auction

For those of you interested in Hordes, specifically Legion of Everblight, I have decided to Ebay my Legion army. I've done this for two great reasons, the first being I had to spend an exorbitant (for my modest income) amount of money to fix my car recently. The other reason, and probably the more pertinent one, is just that I haven;t played the game in over a year and it isn't the same now that Mark 2 is out. I would have to spend over $100 just to play again. And that is $100 I would rather spend on Forge World goodness. If anyone is interested in the army, check out the auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150556693742&ssPageName=STRK:MESCX:IT

There is a link in the auction to a gallery of pics of all of the models.

Thanks!

Ultramarines 7th Company

I originally built my Seventh Company army for a GT way back in the early 2000's. I themed the army to be fighting on a volcanic planet, with lava flows on the bases. They are also fighting Necrons, and some of the models have Necron bitz which they are ripping off, or are on their bases. I used chalk dust to weather the models, creating a sooty, volcanic ash look. Another element I added was a number of Ultramarines with Death Watch shoulder pads to add some variety to the army. Later I added models to make the full company, and these just have grey bases without the weathering. Another thing I did was re purpose the first Tyranid Hunters squad I built to be the first squad for the army, which is why they have snow bases. At some point I need to update their bases.

Gav Thorpe's Purging of Kadillus

I just finished reading Gav Thorpe's Purging of Kadillus. I would have been done sooner, but I kept forgetting the darn thing at work. This is the story of the Dark Angels campaign on Piscina IV against the orks. Love him or hate him, Gav has definitely come a long way from his first novels about the Last Chancers. Not being a hard core Dark Angels fan (like HuronBH) I liked this novel. It was well paced, and had a good mix of character interactions and battle scenes. My favorite parts were those pertaining to Namaan. Unlike Nick Khyme, who made Telion a space marine version of Mkoll, Namaan is a good scout sergeant, but not a master of invisibility or anything like that. All in all, this is a good read. Dark Angels fans should give it a go, it has nice characterisation, and has nothing to do with Angels of Darkness (for those that hated that book), though it's events are briefly alluded to by Chaplain Boreas. Marine and guard fans should like this too, it has a similar feel to Helsreach, but is distinctly Dark Angels and distinctly Thorpe's own style of writing.

George Mann's Helion Rain

Helion Rain is the latest Black Library audio book. This time, the Raven Guard are fighting Tyranids in defense of the planet Idos. This was a middling audio book, and Mann's newness to the 40k universe definite tells. You could play a drinking game and get pretty hammered were you to have to drink every time he says the words ichor or swathe. Still, despite the repetitive word choices, it is well paced and tells a good story that fleshes out the Raven Guard in a way that hasn't been done much by the Black Library so far.

Dan Abnett's Thunder & Steel

Thunder & Steel is an omnibus of Dan Abnett's fantasy novels. It contains Riders of the Dead, Gilead's Blood and Hammer's of Ulric. Though I do not typically read the Warhammer Fantasy novels, I have read these three back when they were originally published. For those readers who haven't had an opportunity to read them before, this is a good one. Riders of the Dead is a great novel about Kislev and a chaos invasion. Gilead's Blood is a series of short stories similar in layout to the second Gaunt's Ghosts novels. It is the quest of a High Elf to reunite with his kin on Ulthuan after the magic of his keep fails. Hammers of Ulric is the story of the knights of the White Wolf and their defense of Middenheim. All three are entertaining, though Gilead's Blood is probably the weakest.

Finished MKIV Ironclad

Normally when I paint an Ultramarine's model it gets a very clean, crisp finish. There isn't any weathering, just the model as it would be fresh off the embarkation deck. I've always wanted to build a bunch of servitors whose job it was to just clean the Ultramarine's wargear and vehicles.



The clean look doesn't really fit the "in medias res" feel of this Ironclad. For one thing it is bunker busting, so it should look a bit dirty from doing that. I've experimented with weathering before, and haven't always been happy with the results. You really have two choices when you decide to weather a model. First, you can paint on the weathering, while it still gives a smooth finish (and their are various mediums which can affect that finish) it is still just paint. The other choice is to use weathering powders.



I chose to use weathering powders for the MKIV Ironclad. However, I didn't go buy Mig or Tamaiya or even the Forge World weathering powders. Instead, I own a pair of chalk sets which I bought at Michaels. One has a bunch of earth tones, one has greys that range from white to black and a couple shades in between. This may be a cheaper alternative to weathering pigments, I'm not really sure. It just happens that I've had these chalks for a couple of years and only used them once - on a model I don't even own anymore.



To make the powder, just use some sandpaper (I have an assortment that ranges from coarse to fine) and grind the chalk into a powder. Then pick a brush that you don't plan to paint with anymore (or buy a cheap one) and liberally apply the chalk. Remember that it is basically dust, and the excess will get blown off when you prime.

Second Caestus

A little Christmas Elf brought me a second Caestus, so I decided this one should have the interior visible and painted. I went with just a silver metallic look, using Boltgun Metal, Devlan Mud and Chainmail, and I painted the lights yellow, using P3 paints, starting with Rucksack Tan, Sulfuric Yellow, then GW's Golden Yellow then p3's Cygnus Yellow.



I then Glued the booms together and used a vice to the parts together. One thing I hadn't noticed until this point was how warped the boom pieces were. Unfortunately, the vice only partially helped. Normally, hot water would help this problem, but having already painted the interior, I chose to accept mediocrity and just let the glue as they did.



For the rest of the Caestus, I pretty much followed the same painting scheme as the first Ceastus from the previous post.



I chose to put water slide decals on this Ceastus as well. For the best results, you need to seal the model first. I always seal with Testors Dullcote.



Once that is dry, apply Testors Decal Set to the area where you plan to place the decals. Then, cut your decals out and soak them in hot water.



Once the decal is ready, slide it off onto the model. Then apply another coat of Decal Set. When that is all dry, seal the model again.

Dead men Walking by Steve Lyons

Dead Men Walking by Steve Lyons is the story of an Imperial mining world that discovers odd artifacts within their mines and mistakenly awakens a Necron Host. The Death Corps of Krieg are diverted to destroy the Necrons and 40k hijinks's ensues. For my normally lightning reading pace, this book was a sluggish read. For one thing, halfway through, Prospero Burns and God King were released. For another, the plot is slow to develop and felt like a 40k version of Cloverfield at times, only without the cool effects and stuff. I would rate this novel on the low end of the scale, it was barely entertaining, and the few parts that were felt like Lyons was skimming the apocalypse book and was pulling out random Necron formations to use for his fight scenes. The characterisation of the Death Corps is pretty spot on, but their lack of general human empathy makes them harder to sympathize with than the average Space Marine character. In short, I would suggest skipping this one unless you are a die hard BL fan or love the Death Corps of Krieg in all forms.

Building the MKIV Ironclad

I don't normally do work in progress posts. For one thing, I often don't have the patience to photograph as I go, preferring to show off the constituent parts and then the built model. Having had a request to show more picks of the MKIV Ironclad as its built, I figured I would give it a try.



For this model, I have a vision of the Ironclad busting into a structure and wreaking havoc. In order to make that work, and look reasonably decent, I decided to build the base and the model at the same time. For a dread, I will usually build the legs and feet - since they have enough stability to stand on their own as I build the rest of the model - and at the end I make a base. Sometimes it is as simple as gluing flock and some bitz onto the base and presto. Here, not so much.



The structure is defined by a thin sheet of plasticard cut to cover part of the base. Pretty easy to do, just place the base upside down and cut around the edge until you have a piece as big as you want. Then I took to pieces of brass etched from the 40k Basing kit (maybe still available, I'm unsure) and glued them so that they looked like walls. Next, glue where you want flock to go, I used fine slate (from the same kit) to create a small rubble effect. Finally,I added some barbed wire, to show that this building was defended to some degree. On the dread, I placed the two feet on my work table, lined them up so I got the illusion of motion I wanted for the dread, and glued the feet to the legs.



Next I added the head and upper body to the dreadnought, as well as the power plant. These pieces are pretty easy to add on, and only require you to make a choice in terms of which way the head is facing. I chose to have it follow the motion of the model. I did a pretty good job cleaning the flash from this model, but there is still some damage to the power plant hosing couplings. The edges are just so fragile this is probably going to happen 90% of the time.



Now we need to make some choices again. I made some of them when I bought the model, the arms are going to be Hurricane Bolters and Seismic Hammer. The uniqueness of the Forgeworld Seismic Hammer was one of the reasons I decided to buy this model.



However, I need to choose between flamer and meltagun for the built in weapon. The Seismic Hammer comes with the meltagun, and the kit comes with two heavy flamers. I opted for the meltagun for the extra armor busting capacity. Next I added the extra armor onto the weapon arms. The Hurricane Bolter arm has no real pose-ability, its either aim straight, aim down or aim up, so it's aiming straight. The Seismic Hammer has a bit more complexity, not only can you decide which way it is facing, but it has a hinged joint that allows you to pose it up or down. This is the point where a more industrious modeller could insert all kinds of magnets. That's not my style, as a collector I want to own all of the possibilities, not have a cost effective force that fits a preplanned army build.



Finally, for the dread, it is time to add the smoke launchers, assault launchers and hunter killer missiles. The HK Missiles are the second reason I love this model, they sit on a tiny launcher at the top of the Ironclad, waiting to unleash doom.



Make sure you build the HK Missile launcher first and glue it to the rear of the Ironclad. Then you can glue on the smoke launchers and assault launchers in either order. Finally, I added some Ultramarines brass etched to add some distinctiveness.



In order to finish off the base, I clipped some pieces of sprue to use as rubble and girders. I used two to make support beams, and a pair of clippers to distress them. Then I made a small pile of sprue rubble and stuck a hand holding some cloth into to it.



A lasgun and helmet from the Cadian sprue were then used (eagles removed) to add a foe to the battle - traitor or chaos guardsmen perhaps - and some more slate was used for the interior. To change up the texture and help delineate the difference between building and outside, I used Woodland Scenic's ballast (I have a mix of fine and coarse that i prefer to base with) on the exterior of the base - around the razorwire and on some of the open patches.



The end result looks like a battle in progress, with the Ultramarines winning of course!