I got some shelf space

I finally got some shelf space in our local gaming club and took the opportunity to take a picture of all my painted models. I painted them between Summer 2008 and Fall 2009 when our daughter was born. Now I paint at a slower pace and I still have at least as many Blood Angels still to paint, but I am already very satisfied of what I managed to paint so far – they are about 6’800 points worth of models.

(Below my Blood Angels you can spot nu55kill’s magnificent Tau)

Painting progress

I am currently painting two projects after I have finally created my own man cave (i.e. hobby corner) in the cellar. It even has a fridge there so I might fill in some beers later.

Either way, my Thunderhead has now all it’s base colors:

On the other hand, I am currently painting mission objectives markers for my Blood Angels to have nicer ones besides my neongreen markers from GW:

I am sick of all those dead Space Marines being used as mission objectives, so I decided to create markers more along the idea of supply points. Therefore, we have here a mobile radio station, an ammo depot, and a depot with energy cells and a Servo Skull.

In the meantime, all my brand new Blood Angels sit in their boxes unoppened. It sure would be satisfying to build and paint these, but I have made good experiences with sticking to something and finishing it before I move on. Hence my Cygnar Army will be done first. Of course this makes me lag quite a bit on my Blood Angels stuff, but I will start to work on them when all the instant fan boys already have moved on to the next cool Codex, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Furthermore, this gives me time to observe the forums, look at other people’s lists and conversions, and then benefit from their experience.

Competitive 1750 points mechanized Blood Angels

So, after thinking through the new Blood Angels Codex over and over I have finally come up with a new competitive army list that I want to work on in my painting queue. The list is based on two paradigms by Jwolf on BoLS:

1. If you have a good unit, preferably take two for added redundancy.
2. Warhammer 40K has always been about Space Marines in tanks.

Furthermore, I want this to be an allround list that can handle virtually every opponent. Lists with über-units may get your opponent desperate on day one, but once the community has found out how to beat it, there goes your strongest ace and with it the entire list. Therefore, the focus of the following list is heavily on basic units that may not have as much punch, but a high and constant reliability over time.

***HQ***
1 Epistolary
1 Honor Guard (Sanguinary Novitiate, Blood Champion, Meltagun, Razorback, twl Las Canons)

***TROOPS***
2 Assault Squads (10 Marines, Powerfist, 2 Meltaguns, Rhino)
2 Tactical Squads (10 Marines, Powerfist, Meltagun, Missile Launcher, Rhino)

***FAST ATTACK***
2 Baal Predators (twl Assault Canons, Heavy Bolters, Dozer Blade)

***HEAVY SUPPORT***
2 Vindicators (Siege Shield)

TOTAL COST: 1745 POINTS

The tactics behind this list are very simple: use the Assault Squads, the Razorback, and the Vindicators to attack the opponent in his deployment zone. Flank in with the Baal Predators to close the trap. Use the Tactical Squads to capture mission objectives and provide supporting fire. Use the HQ to provide supporting fire as well, boost the Assault Squads, cast and protect yourself from psy powers, and deliver that instant kill if needed.

Goatboy was so nice to give me comments on an earlier draft of this list. The most important point he made that he finds the extra weapons on tanks useless as they will most of the time drive their 12″ per turn and fire their main weapon only. I sort of disagree with that since Blood Angels players know fairly well what the amount of devastating shooting a Baal Predator can lay on the table when it fires all its weapons – and at 24″ there are only few opponents that are going to charge you in the next turn.

Either way, I am on my way to building this army now. Once it’s done I’ll let you know how it’s doing in battle.

Time Shift

So, the waiting has finally and end and we can look at printed beautiful Blood Angels pictures in the current White Dwarf. However, throughout these years I kept an old copy from December 1998 as the Blood Angels were my dearest 40K army already back then.

White Dwarf 36 (the German version uses a different numbering system) featured an introduction to Angels of Death by Gav Thorpe, had the rules for the new Baal Predator model (the one with what is considered now the old Rhino chassis ), a painting section (including banners), an extra special mission for Blood Angels, and a battle report between 2964 points of Eldar versus 2999 points of Blood Angels. Last but not least, the Codex clocked in at 15 Deutsche Mark.

Basecoating my Cygnar Army

It’s over a month since my last post and my projects are moving slowly, very slowly. Well, my family and my job keep me busy. If I can bring in the harvest from performing in these duties, it will make a happy Parcival, however. I sure do enjoy playing with my daughter and wargaming won’t run away.

That being said, my projects haven’t come to a complete halt. In the meanwhile I built all my Warmachine miniatures and primed them with their basecoat:

For that purpose, I used a new priming technique I saw first on Massive Voodoo. After that, I also saw it in one of GentleBen’s tutorials on how to paint a Warjack over at BoLS. The method is very simple, but creates a great effect:

1. First, you prime your models with a black spray from all angles until they are pitch black.
2. Second, you apply a little white spray from top, just as if snow were falling on them.

This will give you a neat light/shadow effect on your basecoated miniatures. If you continue and use thin layers of paint so that the basecoat still shines through, you get an easy light effect without putting any effort into it.

I am not very good at painting with watered down paints yet, but I sure wanna take these miniatures as a challenge to do my best and get those lighting effects done. Either way, you will see the pictures on the blog, so you may decide if they are a success or fail.