What are you doing today hobbywise?

Been busy still sorting out the spare room, might need to order some more foam boxes for slightly safer storage. Never realised how many Skinks I have, just makes me think of the TW Unit Review: Skinks. "Skinks.Skinks.Skinks."
While busy sorting that out and doing other things, getting lectured by someone on Discord on painting minis "Breaking up painting to simple forms..."
Another person going on about painting miniatures like doll painters do...
While I be the apparent Kroxigor, have a WIP I hope to eventually get back to. This was way before having to sort the spare room.

 

...that is one big, fat rat... Where's that from?

 

The Blind Bishop from the Affliction: Outbreak collection by Archvillain games. I got it from etsy as it's a 3D printed miniature and I don't have one yet.

 

Nice! I'm tempted to get one and have it riding on a Plague Furnace or a Screaming Bell or something.

 

Been working on some flame patterns for a couple of Legio Astorum titans.



I'm already done the tedium of cutting out masking templates so that I can go ahead with painting. Now it's just a matter of nice weather for airbrushing. Fortunately, Macragge Blue (the base layer I'm using for all things blue on these titans) is easy enough to go over with a rattle can (I wish I could say the same for the orange I was using as the yellow base layer).

My goal at the moment is to get these two particular titans done up to the standard of my current Astorum collection for an event on Sunday.

 

Motivation has been low lately and between playing a MMO in the evenings and being a father during the day it's been tough to get motivated.
Kind of had a project in the planning but with the Lizards on the horizon and some great new releases recently in the form of Slaanesh and Gloomspite I thought it better to put an end to it.
The idea was to paint the contents of the Stormbringer magazine but it's kind of expensive and there's not enough "must haves" for me to warrant continuing it.

In other news I played a 750 point battle against my "Better half", a Squig focused Jaws of Mork vs my Koatl's claw.
First turn was for me as I set up a screen of Knights forgetting that all her units could "fly". This was followed up by her failing a 3" charge, having to reroll to succeed. A redeploy of my knights meant her Mangler Squigs failed their charge after rolling a 3. But once she actually stated to attack, her very small looking force quickly decimated my ranks, ending the game by turn 3.

I found it fun regardless

 

Yeah, squigs are kind of chompy right now. I have been browsing ebay, which is a terrible thing to do because my inner 5 year old goes "ooo, we never had one of those! That's neat, get that! Hey, that's a nice price, get that!" "...none of those items fit my current list of armies." "So? They're cool!"

...my inner 5 year old needs to win the lottery.

In the meantime, I'm plotting out an orruk warclans force while I wait for new Seraphon releases.

 

I am rewatching the reveals of Adepticon right now!

Grrr, !mrahil

 

Still selling some models to thin the collection and here I am buying a Zombie Dragon sprue with some parts missing, mainly riders and the wings, I've got some wings laying about, choice of Hive Tyrant or those random wings you used to be able to buy, will be smaller but this will be a conversion project based on a themed Death army I want to do, been scratching my head whether it's actually playable but it's something to try and use what I have existing in the collection. I like my themed stuff though.

 

Fighting the impulse/temptation to buy chaos dwarf alternative minis, especially when I have doc and dental appointments coming up, plus the fact I have some higher priority purchases for my Empire and Orcs and Gobbos planned.

 

Finally found my original squat models. Obviously a bad paint job from the 80's but still better than the new GW ones I think.
New:


Old:

 

I'm going to strip them and try to do them justice with a new paint job

 

Finished up two Titans today: a dire wolf with a neutron laser and a Lucius-pattern warhound with two vulcan mega-bolters.

As such, here's the 2000pt list I'm taking with me to a local event tomorrow:

 

After two games yesterday, my Astorum force won Best Loyalist!

My first game had both my opponent and I each doing Retrieval missions on an L-shaped deployment as our primary objectives. As such, our mid-field objectives started within 4" of our respective deployment zones on opposite ends of the board - easy movement range even for a warlord to reach under normal circumstances. Both of us dedicated a warhound each to make the delivery express of getting the objective off the battlefield ASAP.

That was about the only common thing my opponent and I were doing strategically that game.

My opponent needed to wipe out at least 40% of my force worth in points to achieve their own secondary objective. Meanwhile, I had to make sure that my princeps seniores and one other titan (I chose the dire wolf) survived the entire game.



In the end, my opponent only managed to engine-kill two warhounds - a 430pt loss on my part - while I in turn took out both a warhound and his warlord. Incidentally, the dire wolf proved to be an effective nuisance by shutting down the warlord with its neutron laser on a lucky roll of a 6, not only stripping it of void shields but also preventing it from shooting that turn. Not long afterward, I got a little brave with using it as a screen for the one warhound in the back making off with my objective, and it surprisingly held up magnificently.

Victory points
Me: 40 (25 for Retrieval, 15 for keeping both designated titans alive)
Opponent: 25 (Retrieval)



My second game turned into something a bit more defensive. My opponent had to destroy an objective in my deployment zone and I had to defend three objectives also set up near my deployment zone, more or less forcing my opponent to come towards me. I also had to keep as much of my stuff alive by the end of the game for my secondary (I can't remember what my opponent took - I think he was trying to wipe mine out in turn for his).



Once again, the dire wolf proves invaluable as a harrassment unit, shutting down their princeps seniores melee reaver two turns in a row before dancing around the two warhounds he dispatched to deal with it. Meanwhile, the rest of my force had an excellent corridor to defend, from which they silenced the other reaver, blew up the nearby warhound, and eventually conducted a pincer attack on the warlord which resulted in a magazine explosion. A round of thermal mines on the melee reaver later, and it found itself getting its legs buzz-sawed by vulcan mega-bolters.



By the time the smoke cleared at the end of Turn 5, my opponent had all of one warhound left on the board, running hot with an overloaded reactor and taking a serious beating on all sides, rushing in to accomplish their primary objective.

Victory points
Me: 40 (25 for Defend & Extract, 15 for keeping at least 60% of my starting force on the table)
Opponent: 25 (Salt the Earth)



All in all, a fun time!

 

What have I done hobbywise of late?

• Completed some more Celts and Romans for SPQR, including applying shield transfers to the first lot of Romans I completed
• Undercoated and started painting some Necrons, my next painting project
• Working on building some more Beastmen - some Ungors and the Grashrak's Despoilers warband I got for Christmas
• Writing some rules for a 40K campaign following a Starcraft RTS style. I doubt if I'll ever get to play through it as I don't have many 6th Edition gaming buddies, but one can still dream.
• Writing rules to use Lizardmen in 6th Edition 40K - as the Old Ones' foremost creations, they were probably placed on dozens of worlds besides the Warhammer Fantasy one.

 

Now that is niche.

 

I was inspired by another forumite having written one for 8th Edition 40K. It's been fun, I've completed my first draft and am going to do some playtesting against my 40K armies (Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, Dark Eldar and Chaos Space Marines) when I get some more time.