Ork Burna Bommer

The ork fighter kit was the next choice for me to build. I built the model before I ever got the new rulebook, so I hadn't planned to do anything with it beside have it sit on my model shelf. But now, I have the opportunity to add a small ork force to augment my chaos or marine armies.

Somewhere in my model collection, I have an Ork Warboss from Black Reach painted up as a Deathskull. For that reason, I chose to paint this model as part of the same clan. Just for the weaponry it has, I built the kit as the Burna Bommer.

I always liked the look of silver metallic with Devlan Mud over top of it. however none of my armies ever really lent themselves to that dirty look. But the orks are a whole nother kettle of fish. So I gave the model a coat of Boltgun Metal, then a wash of Argax Earthshade. Then a light highlight of Chainmail.

To finish off the model, I painted the ork skin shades with P3 Gnarls Green, Wurm Green and Necrotite Green. The skull emblems were painted with a coat of Altdorf Guard Blue.

6th Edition First Game

Here are the pics from my first game of Warhammer 40,000 6th edition. This isn't going to be a battle report so much as reflections on the changes in the new edition of the game. I brought out my Ultramarines and allied them to my Space Wolves, mainly because I wanted to try out the Thunderwolf Cavalry. They rocked!

The biggest difference to me was the change to the weapon rules. They have become a lot more individualized and complex. We even had to stop mid game to print out the Space Wolves FAQ.

I ran my Ultramarines, mainly so that I could field my two Storm Talons. As I may have mentioned before, flyers are my all time favorite models - ever since I was a kid - so I was very interested to try out the flyer rules. I found them to work pretty easily, flyers are neither dominant nor fragile.

The new vehicle rules have the potential to make vehicles very fragile, however I didn't feel that was necessarily the case. In addition to the two Storm Talons, I also took a Rhino and a Predator. While the Predator did die, it was a quick death; and it was able to deal out a fair share of damage as well.

One thing we did get wrong during the game, was we played that models n your squad can give targeted squads cover, but on rereading the rulebook, I found that your own squad does not grant cover to other squads. I'll be studying the rulebook a lot more in the coming days and weeks now to say the least.

The most interesting change is Snap Fire. While not a huge advantage, the ability to always shoot has big implications. For vehicles, this is the balance to hull points, letting them deal out much more damage than before. For infantry, the ability to fire non-blast heavy weapons is also potent. I also liked that moving is now on a model by model basis, rather than across the whole squad.

The changes to charging are by far the wildest element to the game now. Rolling 2d6 for charge range can make a huge impact on the game. In this one, we saw squads charging three inches and other charge eleven. Sadly, it was not the Thunderwolves.

The allies rules for 6th edition are probably going to end up being the biggest money maker for this edition. Now, unless you play Tyranids, you can pretty much build an army with any other army allied to it. While I already have Guard and Grey Knights, now I have every reason to add an allied force org chart for the other armies. I'm already contemplating Eldar and Tau.

While I know I have been slacking on the blog front lately, this has been a pretty busy month for me. Lots of traveling, lots more work as I recently was promoted too. On the other hand, I have had time to do a good bit of modeling, so expect more regular posts again now.

Warhammer 6th Edition

Having purchased 6th edition Warhammer 40,000 a couple weeks after the initial release date, I'm still taking time to digest and process the changes. In terms of production value, this book has a lot of great pictures and art. The army background section is one of the more thorough sections of the book. While it has a heavy Imperial focus (as the rest of the game does), it does have good sections for the other armies as well. The hobby section is also pretty good, but the best part of the book is definitely the art and photography, which does a great job of inspiring the hobby aspects of the game. My next post will be a battle report of my first 6th edition game played so far, and I will talk about the rule changes then.

Ultramarines Storm Talons

The first models I ever built were airplanes. I made forays into tanks and battleships, but it was always airplanes that I loved to build as a child. The heyday of that for me was during Dessert Storm - I was in middle school then, but there were so many fighter kits available for a kid to choose from.

I have or have had most of the Forge World Imperial aircraft at one time, right now I don't have a Marauder or Aquilla Lander, but I do have the others (the Storm Eagle is waiting to be built). I also have three Valkyries, and I picked up the Dark Eldar Razorwing as well. So when i saw the Storm Talon I was definitely excited. It has a helicopter look to it that is pretty cool, and it seems to fill that role here.

After a lot of pondering, it seemed to me that the most efficient built is the Skyhammer Missile launchers paired with the assault cannon. This gives the Storm talon the highest rate of fire with the largest possibility of both anti-tank and anti-infantry roles. The only other modification I've made is a head swap on one of the pilots.

Chris Wraight's Wrath of Iron

Warth of Iron, by Chris Wraight is the Space Marine battle for Shardenus. The Iron Hands have been prosecuting a campaign throughout a sector fallen to chaos, and they are at the close of the campaign. Shardenus hive is all that is left, and something evil is at work there. What follows is a stark comparison of the Iron Hand's loss of humanity struggling between the traitors of Shardenus and the wounded pride of Lord general Nethata. This was a good read, well paced and packed full of excitement. It even has some titan action. Worth picking up.

Ultramarines Armored Proteus Land Raider

As a Space Marine fanatic, I've been craving both the Land Raider Proteus, and the Armored Land Raider Proteus. The armored variant being far more appealing to me, I decided to add it to my Pre Heresy Ultramarines first, though at some point I do hope o get the Proteus as well.

The assembly was pretty easy, save for the tracks. One piece of the tracks on each side fit pretty poorly and either out of a lack of skill or just laziness, it ends up not looking right. I dd choose not to add a storm bolter, however I did add three pieces of Ultramarines brass etched.

The biggest challenge with this model is keeping it from being too monotone. This is why I added the brass etched, to add a couple splashes of gold to the blue and silver of the rest of the model.

Space Wolves Grey Hunters

This unit of Grey Hunters is the final unit in my 1000 points of Space Wolves. At this level, the squad gets split in half and a Wolf Lord joins one part. Every model has been built to have a pistol, bolter and close combat of one kind or another.

Just like the other Space Wolves, I used the same paint schemes. The big difference is that the shoulder pads were painted red as Grey Hunters. Then a single black dag was put on the left shoulder. On the right, I used the Harald Deathwolf water slide transfers to add Great Company markings.

The Grey Hunters are the last step in phase one of my Space Wolf force. Unfortunately, with newer releases, I'm more interested in other projects for the time being, so they will have to sit for a bit. However I do plan to add more wolves, Canis Wolfborn and an Iron Priest riding a wolf.

With the completion of the space Wolves force, there are only two armies left to be finished. The Iron Hands still need a venerable dreadnought and the Disciples of Caliban who most likely won't be done until the new starter set is released.