Astronomi-mini-con: preparation

Just a quick post up for now, today my buddy Mike (shiftedmatrix.com) ran a small tournament in preparation for this years Astronomi-con.  Astro last year was a blast and I was looking forward to it this year, but unfortunately it has fallen on the same date as Zlurpeebowl this year to which I have already committed.

Regardless Mike's mini-tournament (full details here) would be a fun day of 40K on some tables of amazing terrain with good people, so I was still planning to go.  The compromise I made was to just run a very similar list to last year, since my Space Sharks would need a lot of painting to get 1,500 points painted - whereas I wrote up a list for my Novamarines that swapped out the FW special character I used at last years Astronomi-con and swapped in a dreadnought (already painted) and 2 more drop pods (which I needed to paint)

regular and dreadnought drop pods

So over the past few days I got these drop pods painted up so I could run a fully painted army.  Definitely one of the best things about astro is the amazing armies and I didn't want to be running any grey plastic.  This was another nice chunk of this army painted, just leaving some assault terminators, some extra special/heavy weapons choices, some scouts and a second land speeder storm to reach what I expect the limit of this army to be.  It's nearly 75% completely painted now and I have made some major updates to the army page (including painting chart) so check it out!

I will put up a little series of short battle reports from Astronomi-mini-con in the next couple days - I am completely bagged right now but I just wanted to claim the 20 painting points for completing these two vehicles!

Flesh Tearer catch up!

Well with the big move to the house at the end of the year in 2011, I missed several updates from Ric about my Flesh Tearers.  I am aiming to get him the remaining pieces that will go in the first KR multicase as soon as I can (mainly because I want to get a pile of these guys back!!).  For each I have linked to Rics post for more details/photos.  Just as a teaser though, here's a pic of the two dreadnoughts I have built for this army. I bought one of the new boxes and used it for the death company dread.  I used the librarian front and some plastic card along with an AoBR dreadnought to convert the librarian dread.

pretty happy with the librarian conversion

First up was a Land Raider Crusader, this one is for Terminators (the other will be for Death Company)

awesome sawblade pattern!!

Second was a batch of three more terminators. Previously Ric had painted a squad of five (basically the "2nd" squad from the game)

left to right: genestealer spine ripped out, sergeant, signum

Third was another batch of three terminators.  He mentions there's just the Librarian and 2 objectives to go, but soon he will have another 7 or 8 terminators (got myself a second Space Hulk box) ;-)

left to right: heavy flamer, lightning claws, ripping up floor

Looking forward to seeing the results for the second Crusader, more terminators and some Death Company.  Hoping to get a big batch of Flesh Tearers sent back this year!  There's a bunch more stuff that Ric either already has or I have in a box that will get sent along this year too.

Dread Drop Pods

Just wanted to get a quick post up about the two custom drop pods I picked up from Ashton (redfinger). They are converted with plasticard from the standard pod kit. One will go to Ric (ricalopia) for my Flesh Tearers (obviously the red one) and the other will be the final drop pod for my Novamarines.

Heard there's some new rules in the updated apocalypse book, looking forward to testing them out!

awesome dreadnought hammer conversion

I'm not usually one for posting links to other blog posts, but I know there are lots of folks (** cough Ian cough Josh cough **) who don't care for the seismic hammer that comes with the Ironclad Dreadnought, and this is simply just too cool not to link. I'm pretty sure this is what most people were thinking when they read the words "seismic hammer" - I highly recommend you check this out.

Conversion brought to you by CVinton at Dark Future Games.

finally updates... pt1

Whew, had a few hectic weeks there where I didn't really have time to take pics and post. I did manage to do some modeling and painting in between being busy and being hurt. I've put together a fair number of models since I've decided it'd be nice to be able to use them before being painted, and includes;

• 3 magnetized AoBR dreadnoughts
  
• 1 techmarine with converted servo-harness (basically 2 servo-arm backpacks combined)
• 1 eversor assassin
  
• 2 magnetized rhino chassis' (minus side doors and rhino top hatches)
  
• 1 set of magnetized predator components (the turret needs another magnet to keep the barrel up I think but it's good enough for now)
• 5 iron knights 'squires' (SM scouts aka neophytes - planning to use the black templar list for that chapter - since my iron knights are going to have the studded shoulder pad, i've used old RT001 arms for these guys and they are perfect sized for a smaller model)

The only pics I've managed to take that came out ok are of the three dreadnoughts - so without further ado, here they are. I used magnets in two positions on each arm to try and make sure they stay pointed up.

Arms detached

Arms attached

I need to post up pics of my painted trolls for the Lo2G competition @ Two Headed Dragon tonight (done with same techniques as the goblins), so parts 2 and possibly 3 of "finally updates" to come.

More Novamarines.. Tactical Squad and Dreadnought

OK, i'm back with some photos/updates.

Some tactical squad shots.. I tried to use model parts to unify these guys. For eg. all the bolters have either a scope if they go in the ranged/heavy combat squad or straps if they go in the close/special combat squad. Have one extra bolter guy and with the deathwatch sergeant could actually take as 2 5 man squads (no special/heavys).

All (aka options)


Close range (flamer + straps) with DW sgt.


Long range (missile launcher + scopes) w AoBR Sgt.


A painted shot of the deathwatch guy. Still to highlight armour and do power sword plus last bit of heraldry.


Plus a couple pics of the dreadnought. I especially like the crushed tree under his left foot.