Swamp Thing! A new Terrain set for The Code 40k

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with my latest project (with help from Doc!).
For quite a while now the Code boys have been bemoaning the inevitable wear and tear on our scenery brought on by the quite heavy use it's been getting in recent years, what with running several events as well as our own regular games.
So we've started to invest in a few new sets, (hopefully there'll be many future posts about the other sets in progress), I'd suggested the idea of a tank graveyard and had originally envisioned it in a desert theme. However I couldn't decide on a way to easily make realistic sand dunes that would not only look good but also be hard wearing and usable; models would need to balance on them. So I went back to the drawing board and had the idea of a swamp theme; I've been wanting to have another go at water effects since my disastrous attempt on the Eldar Hornet base; see here .
The plan was to make a series of swampy pools with the wrecks of various tanks partially submerged and crashed in them, that way I could cut up whatever vehicles I ended up using and get multiple pieces from each kit.
Doc found the ideal solution to what vehicles to use in the form of a box full of broken old Space Marine tanks covered in lots of paint and with all their bits ripped off; all unusable as gaming miniatures even with the best will in the world. These came from Andy at Worcester Wargames, a big thanks to him!
So I set about stripping the years of paint from these bad boys; and what a task that was! One landraider had no less than 6 layers of different colour paint on it. Several bottles of Dettol and a very smelly house (Thankfully my better half is very understanding) later, I had 4 landraiders, 6 rhinos and 4 landspeeders ready for the hacksaw!!
I ended up with 12 pieces of terrain.....

The base is cut from 6mm Dutch Grey Board and the rim built up with the off cuts and plaster skim (a really useful ready mixed plaster designed for repairing plastered walls), the tank parts and random bodies and bits glued to the base. Then they were given a solid spray undercoat of grey (Tamiya).

Next step was a mega paint session with Doc in which we got all the pieces to a point where we were happy to just have the addition of weeds and plantlife and some extra weathering and detailing left, and of course the all important water effects.

So I set about this over the next couple of weeks, the plants are modelling Lichen, I put all these in place and then poured the water effects (Woodland Scenics Realistic Water). This took about 2 days to cure fully however there was some almost random reaction between the Lichen and the resin which left some areas slightly cloudy even after another day. I seem to be a little cursed with water effects! Unperturbed I decided to camouflage these areas with a muddy swampy effect, achieved by gluing green flock, washing with Athonian Camoshade, adding Nurgles Rot and a variety of rust effect liquids and powders whilst still wet and then once it was fully dry (with a very matte finish) applying a coat of gloss varnish to the areas to bring back the wet look.

Here's lots of piccies......

Overall I'm happy with the look, slightly annoyed with the clouding of the water effects, it was a brand new bottle. It hasn't come out as I'd originally intended or as I anticipated as it went along. It's definitely evolved as it's progressed. I'm pleased with how close the edges matche the cloth, we have a pre printed swamp mat on order for use with this set, so that should look even better.
Hope you all like this, as ever c and c are very welcome.
Do you think it's enough scenery for a game? How would you define the pools in a game?

Bluddtoof

Big Game report. Nids V Marines

It has been a while since I last posted here. My marines have slowly being expanding. Since the last time I have painted:

• Assault terminators (lightening claws)
• Void Shield generator (started)
• Tactical terminators (heavy flamer)
• 5 man close combat scout squad
• Played some games
• New kitchen

Now I am in the process of buying a house so more time being used up doing no geekery stuff.

Anyway last weekend my local mates and i played a large game. we had been discussing it for a while as with any large games things can get complicated, time consuming, unbalanced and all of the above!

First of all to try and keep it simple we said the marines would defend a fortress in the centre of the table. The nids would come in from both sides (like a mission in Horus Heresy Book 1). The marines would set up and the nids would have turn 1 in which the moved on from the board edge. This would save time in not having to set the nids up then move them. When we setting the board up we decided that it would be best not to have any terrain between the base and the table edge. While this would not give the nids cover it would also not slow them down getting to the marines. The nids aim was to wipe out the marines (not flyers).

We agreed on a time limit for moving and shooting of 30mins (timer paused for the psychic phase). We didn’t time assault as it was felt you could not do an assault for an advantage, so all would have to be done, where if you forgot to move or shoot it is generally to your own detriment. Rather than play APOC we just played a big game of 40K. APOC has even more rules and situations to remember and to be honest we just wanted to roll dice and play!

I’m not going to give a turn by turn report or anything like that, but overall the game played well with very little that needed changing. We ran out of time (as usual) but managed to complete 4 turns, which isn’t bad for 21k points on the board. The marines held out and had a little over 2k left… the nids still had a lot left! The nids did start with 25% more models and could respawn stuff each turn. Their entry point also crept closer to the base each turn. I think it was a balanced game, maybe swinging to the easier side for marines. I think we still would have held out for 1 more turn, after that not so sure!

Here are a few pictures of the game.

More can be seen in my photobucket account here:

http://s856.photobucket.com/user/toonboy78/library/Big%20Game%20Sept%2015

Lessons learned:

• Big games are hard to plan. This took the best part of 2 months of chat to get a rule set we all liked (or at least compromised on!)
• Time: no matter how much time you give you will always run out
• Space: hosting is hard and we needed space for an 8*6 table (no deployment zone for nids) and plenty of space to walk around and put models out of the way. We were lucky and could hire a local room that allowed us to be there until after 11pm.
• Game rules: it was a little one dimensional and as the marine player I didn’t have to think about too much, no choosing between a run for an objective or shoot the nearest enemy. Not this scenario needed it but other games I would like to have a 3 tiered set of objective, turn based (maelstrom), game based (eternal war), secret (special one made up for that specific game, like kill all HQ’s, or hold any 6 objectives at the end of the game). each one worth more than the other so it would be hard to know how is going to win

So that is now over I am cracking on with finishing off my first load of Centurions and I have started the storm raven. That should keep me busy until my house move is complete!

New Boy -Please don't feed-

 'tap' 'tap' '1' '2' ......is this thing on.........

Howdy, they call me Gumby
This is my first post so sorry if I ramble.
what can you expect you say ? well other then bad grammar ( and worse puns ) hopefully a bit of converting, painting and interesting ideas. So lets dive in

I've played Space Wolves forever and really miss my 13th co army from 3rd edition (deep striking long fangs with melta guns ) and of course the loss of wulfen, so i was intrigued by the idea of Murderfang even if it is a silly name (and it is so I think he'll be Gnaf Redrum sounds much more Fenrisian :) ), but the model is really static for a mad wulfen dread so in step a contemptor which are way more pose-able.

I got this c/c dread off our favorite auction site, managed to take it apart quite cleanly and cos he's a lune he's bound to be battle damaged so it didn't have to be purfect.

I removed the Purity Seals and Codex icons, shaved the knuckles on the hands, repositioned the toes to give a more running stance, pinned all the joints and took most of the mounts off the Murderclaws

Dry fit 

Cheers Doc for letting me post
till next time
Gumby out

Sicaran Tank - The Build / Battle Shots Necron vs Dark Angels

Evening Folks,

Doc here so a couple of things to share in today's post.  I have started work on a Sicaran battle tank for my Death Guard so I thought for a change I would share some pictures of the build and magnetising process for the sponsons.

First off as forgeworld kits go its a relatively simple build especially as there are no tracks to build with this kit unlike a Spartan which is a future build.  I have decided to go with Lascannon sponsons but magentise them so I can have a none sponson option if desired or needed as a points saving option.

So as I say pretty straight forward build yet still managed to glue myself to the hull.  Perils of superglue!  The last shot shows my mini dremel / rotary tool from maplin best £12 i've ever spent!  Its great for drilling, cleaning and cutting and takes the elbow work out of it all!

So for those who don't magnetise there really isn't much too it.  Work out how you line up the magnets on the two pieces you would like to magnetise.  Ensure you check the polarity of the magnets you need them to attract to each other (lol).  You will get it wrong at least once and curse!   Just drill the right size hole not too deep just enough to make the magnet sit flat with the adjoining surface.  I superglue magnets in place and use a plastic rod to adjust its position before the glue goes off which is usually very quick.  Dont be tempted to check the two pieces magentise too early as often one of the magnets will pull out of its position if not dry!

Ok, second part of this post I snapped a few shots of our big Dark Angels vs Maynark Necrons game. So close just 1 vp in it, a bloody late night and a great time. On that last point it doesn't look like Innermech was enjoying himself in one of the shots which made me laugh.

 
So who do you reckon won by 1 point folks?

Comments Welcome

Cheers

DOC

Showcase Necron Canoptek Artillery - Gauss Exterminator

Hi All,

DOC here to showcase my new Necron Canoptek Artillery piece.  I haven't built or painted anything for crons for ages.  In fact I don't think me or red have for a while.  So a little background on our crons....

We collect the army between us as we have gamed together since the late 90's and the army is massive!  Check back through the blog with Necron tags to get an idea.  The advantages of being such a large army and having basically all the options is you can ride codex changes.  For example the previous codex required heavy use of Necon Lords and Crypteks.  So they got a lot of use whilst tomb blades never got a run out.  This has reversed now.  We are pleased that we can just roll this army out when we want to and be ready to go.

In fact we have a game lined up this Friday against Tom Baker and Innermech the Dark Angels code players which I am looking forward to.  We might even battle report it watch this space.  So despite this massive army we still have more to do for the crons mainly on the forgeworld front.

We still have a Necron Night Shroud Bomber to finish, Tomb Sentinal and a Tesseract Ark to build and paint (my bad sorry red!).  I think we would like to purchase an obelisk between us at some point as well.

Anyway onto the model itself.  First thing I'm worried about is it being very fragile (well it wouldn't be a necron model if it wasn't) In particular where it attaches to the base.  See picture 3 below the thin slot on the base holds up the rest of the structure.  We shall see how it lasts if it breaks I may remove the space between the two sections and pin in multiple places.  In fact the model is full of pins all the feet.... well actually all the pieces are drilled and pinned.

For the paint job I stuck to the colour scheme we have used up to now and was pleased when I opened up the mixed pot of grey paint I made up for this project and it was still usable after a good 2-3 years!  Painted pictures of the finished model are below:

Hope you like although not the most exciting model I think it fits well with the cron design ethic.  Another 10pts on the board!  Comments are always welcome.

Cheers

DOC