Salamanders Conversion (WIP)

Alright, so ever since the new SM codex came out, I have been thinking of a Salamander army and after resisting for so long, I just can't take it any more! This is the look of my new salamanders!

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I am going to use the old metal Alpha Legion shoulder pads for the Salamanders symbol. It provides a feircesome looking dragon head on each Marine and I think embossed shoulder pads look better than the caveman-type looking decal currently available. The other shoulder pads I am using are old metal Legion of the Damned flaming shoulder pads.

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Each Salamander will also have a Dark Elf Corsair cape to display the fact that every Salamander must slay a Drake to become a full Astartes!

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I also plan to base them all on lava bases and don't worry, I am not done with that backpack, it will look like it drapes over with a little GS work. Please hit me with your comments and critisism!

PS - let me know what you think about the chained on bolters.

Showcase Black Templar WIP

I went over to Evolution Games this weekend and Pat brought his budding Black Templars army that he has been painstakingly building over the course of the last month. When I saw it, I had to post it.

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He started this off right by collecting Metal Black Templar shoulder pads (enough for 2 per Marine). The he got Metal Ferrum pattern Helmets for every Marine and even got his hands on enough Templar backpacks for his whole army. Every Bolter and close combat weapon in his army are all from the Templar upgrade sprues (weapons chained to the Marines.)

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The army you see in these photos is based so far, but I think it is still imposing. He is in the process of painting red crosses freehand anto all the helmets and not only painting the shoulder pads white, but also the weapons. The only two models that are finished are his Emperor's Champion (model in the last photo with the green sword) and his Marshal (second to last photo with lighning claws)> Both of these models are outstanding to include small amounts of source lighting. If you would like to see more of those two just ask and I will get better photos of just those.

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Perhaps the most impressive peice in his Templars is his Forgeworld venerable Dreadnought. The Templar Dread is a beatiful scupt on Forge World's part and his WIP paintjob is amazing so far! He is taking his time however as this model has TONS of hidden, little details (ie the tiny squares on the tiny sheilds on the purity seals. Enjoy the photos and let me know if you want more of Pat's Templars!

Emperor's Champion Finished! Righteous Conversion!

Well, with my friend Luke from the FLGS heading off to school, I finally had to finish his Emperor's Champion, but before I turned it over I managed to get some pics of it. I must say that it looks really good on the table at the head of a Crusader Squad! As always, feel free to comment!

Ere' we go Boyz! New noisy guns and gitz for the WAAAAAGH!

Check this stuff out released by Forgeworld today! Ork players enjoy!

Friday Pic, Genestealers Vs. Emperor's Champ & Templars!

Alright, so here we have a pic of a big of 2 squads of genestealers rushing a squad of Templars with their Emperor's Champ. The stealers outflanked and popped the rhinos and everything looked good for them, but two turns later, the Emperor's Champion crawed out on top! WTF! Enjoy the photo!

An attempt to make my Deathwing viable again.

Alright, I have been struggling with something for a while now. I have this Deathwing army and it was painstakingly painted, but the problem is that it isn't competitive and it gets stomped even in the funnest of games. I have realized for some time that it is not possible to make a purist DW list these days and while I have seen lascannon preadators work, they suffer the same problem my Death Wing faces in general - Lack of shots.

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Now they have been sitting on a shelf for a while now, gathering dust which is shameful and while I could field them as codex Marines and try to squeeze a decent list out of them, that seems even more shameful to the 1st Legion.

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So, I am trying to put together a Dark Angels army centered aroun the Deathwing that can stand up in a 1750 competitive environment (pick-up games mostly, with some tourney action). Here is what I have:

Belial 130

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Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer, Multi-Melta 130

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Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer, Muti-Melta 130

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Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer Multi-Melta 130

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5 DW Terminators, 1 w/Cyclone ML, 1 w/ Chain Fist 240

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5 DW Terminators, 1 CML, 1 CF 240

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5 DW Terminators, 1 CML, 1 CF 240

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Land Speeder, Heavy Flamer Multi-melta 75

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LS, HF, MM 75

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LS, HF, MM 75

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Predator Autocannon, Heavy Bolters, Smoke SL 95

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Pred AC, HB, Smoke, SL 95

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Pred AC, HB, Smoke SL 95

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I think this list makes up for the lack of firepower brought by a typical purist DW army while making it still feel Deathwingish. The Preds offer a whopping potential of 24 midrange damage shots a turn, which will put the hurt on troop heavy armies. The Land Speeders are great for popping vehicles and can do it all while moving very quickly, but I also feel that not being able to DS them (per the DW book) can be a liablity, though not too many opponents are shrewd enough to shoot them 1st turn vice the preds or the dreads facing them down.

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The dreads will advance and probably run first turn, since they will likely not have too many viable targets 1st turn. The termies will do the same as well to help them get into their sweetspot for damage output.

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My feeling on the termies was to give them Assault Cannons at first for more shots, but the missile launchers I think will help me clear hordes and kill harder MEQ types anyway, while giving me a little more anti-vehicle punch to help the preds and all the flamers get into a position to really capitalize on their damage potential. Let me know what you think. I think I am ready to proxy some preds to see how the do.

Amazing Daemon models!

Check out these amazing models, paintjobs and conversions by this company called MiniMonsters. Their Daemons are simply amazing and inspiring! I don't know what their prices are or what country they are from, but these minis look amazing and I just wanted more people to check this out! I found them by searching Cool Mini Or Not for Daemons and set my search by decending order. I urge you to check out their work simply to oogle the awesome!

Combat Patrol hitting Lansing MI

As part of an upcoming campaign, there will be a 400pt game coming to Evolution Games Sept 6.
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The lists must include one troop choice, there is no HQ requirement, but you may only take one if you choose to at all.
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The 'WYSIWYG' rule is in place.
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No model may have more than 2 wounds and no model may have better than a 3+ save. There will be no Special, Unique or named characters.
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There will be no vehicle with an armour total greater than 33 (ie, front + Side + Rear = no greater than 33).
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All models must be painted Citadel Minis (up to 50% conversions allowed).
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If any of you are going to be in the Lansing area, pop in and support it or if you think you may be able to get in on the campaign, get your typed list in by the 4th. Other than that, if you have any tips for an industrious CSM player going into a 400 point match with Guard, Orks ect, feel free to comment!!

3500 teams game Chaos + Templar vs Guard at Evolution Games!

This was no doubt the funnest game for 40k that I have played in a longtime. The teams were 1750 of my Chaos Deathguard/Iron Warriors paired with 1750 of my buddy's Black Templars versus two Guard armies both at1750. We used standard 40k rules, no Apoc and it was brutal.

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The pics are pretty much in sequential order.

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Just to give you an idea of what was fielded, we had a vindicator, 6rhinos, 6 Oblitz, 3 5-man tacs with las cannon, 2 Lascannon dreads, 2Assault squads, 2 tac squads (one with the emporer's champ and one withthe Marshal), 3 plague marine squads, 2 daemon princes, and a 5 man chosen team with 5 meltas.

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The Guard players had 3 squads of Storm troopers, an executioner, 2Russes with Battle cannons, quite a few vet squads with meltas in tricked- out chimeras, a Medusa, an inquisitor Lord with retinue, a Banewolf, a big Psycher squad, 3 armoured sentinels with autocannons, 1armoured sentinel with a plasma cannon, Sly Marbo, a big squad with heavy weapon team, Creed and a partridge in a pear tree.

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They got to go first and what a first turn it was. I think the shooting took about 45 minutes and was filled with Large and small blasts,exploding vehicles and dead Plague Marines. In turn two, we pressed forward and failed to pop any vehicles.

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Turn two, they shelled us again and for the most part, my armour was all gone along with a couple oblitz, but the real killer was when Sly Marbo popped out and dropped a demo charge on a team of Assault Marines and killed 7 of them. In our reply, we lashed the ratlings out of cover and assaulted them, the templars still pushed forward and a group of Plague Marines got into assault with some Storm Troopers.

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Turn three saw the destruction of all but one of my oblitz at the hands of the executioner and the death of both dreadnoughts, one from a team of vets with melta bombs. Our reply got us into assault with the psychers with an assault squad, taking them out of the game and a group of Marines in combat with an Inquisitor Lord and his retinue. My loneoblit took out the executioner, another lone plague Marine Popped a sentinel and two surving plague Marines from another squad managed to pop a Banewolf. The Lash Prince also managed to feed the psycher squad to the assault marines. Marbo hit and ran a squad and then ended up near some guardsman in combat with a las cannon tac squad.

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Turn four brought the death of my Lash Prince, the end of my last obliterator and a group of Plague Marines killed in CC by Stormtroopers. Sly Marbo helped kill a squad of tac Marines and ran further across our deployment zone. We still hadn't gotten our chosen in, but the templars were starting to walk the Guards gun line unit by unit with their Marshal Squad.

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Turn five, we had no more assault Marines, Sly Marbo managed to get intoCC with 5 Plague Marines, The Templars seemed to keep walking the back line while the Inquisitorial retinue held back the squad they were in assault with. I got my chosen and wrecked a Russ while the templars scored a kill on the Medusa with a melta gun. The bad news was that Ionly had a few models left on the board.

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Turn six and seven were like a blur, but Marbo managed to kill the Plague Marines and run out across the board, my Nurgle Prince died uneventfully, my chosen were killed except for one, who popped a chimera and then got into assault with the inquisitor retinue and managed to be he last Chaos model on the board. The Guard line was decimated, but if it had gone on another turn, there would be no doubt they would have won.

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The end result was what was really incredible. WE TIED! 19 to 19 kill points and the same number of HQ remaining on both sides. Points-wise,the Guard still had more points on the board, though, but we called it a draw..This was so fun, we saw a lifetime of crazy scenarios from a vindicare assasin who killed or wounded nothing and spent the game relaxing on a rooftop to Guardsman Marbo killing a total of 15 Space Marines (some with FNP)and travelling about 6' around the table. Absolutely fun and Iwould do it again any day. If you live anywhere near Lansing MI, you need to come on in to Evolution Games and play a game! I promise you will have fun against any of the players here!

Space Hulk arrives at Evolution Games, New, Up Close Pics!

Evolution Games just got its first copy of Space Hulk and it is sweeeeet!, just look at Larry's face as he opens the box! I figured I would post some really up close pics for you all to enjoy! Here you GO!

Iron Warriors Chosen Squad painting stage one!

Alright, I got the first stage of the Chosen squads paintjob finished and I figured I should write about it in case there are any future Warsmiths out there. After the models were primed black, I drybrushed grey heavily over the entire model. The first coat was a little transparent, so I hit the high areas and the large grey area with another coat of codex grey.

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Next, I ran tin bitz over all the areas that will eventually be gold. Tin bitz is pretty thick and should only take one coat. Once that is finished, take a look and make sure you got everything you meant to paint gold later.

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With that complete, generously wash the models in Badab Black and let them dry (prefferably overnight, but if you must, then 2 hours should do.)

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This will give you a dark and gritty base to jump from for stage two, which will involve brightening the gold areas and adding metallics to the grey areas. This is the same method I used for my oblitz. Also, don't worry about the pouches and holsters. Those can all be attended to in the detail stage of the paint job. Feel free to comment, these guys are on their way to a big game tonight; Iron Warriors/Death Guard paired with Black Templars vs. Eldrad and his space Elves and the Crimson Fists! Wish me luck.

A two-tone Plaguebearer fresh from the warp!

Here is a plaguebearer I finished for my lesser deamons! As always feel free to comment!

New Tyranid Codex rumours! Let's speculate!

With new rumours of a Tyranids codex on its way and with the author being Robin Cruddace, the author of the recent IG book, I would like to open the floor for some speculation and discussion.
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First, Lets establish what the current reliable rumours are:
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Plastic Hive Tyrant will come with wings (cool and self-explanitory) A new creature that dwarfs the Carnifex Four new species of tyranids The return of Tyranid Characters Tyranids improved to contend with tanks .
I would like to address the Nids ability to deal with Mech armies. Do you think the improvements will likely come from upgrades to old codex bugs, like the biovore or a crazy weapon upgrade to the Carny or maybe a psychic power that could rock a Land Raider? Could it be the job of some of the new creatures? Do you think the bugs NEED more AT? Will it come in shooting or assault weapon form? Let me know what you think or what you think Nids need!
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Alright, I think it is safe to say the BoLS guys have busted the huge creature as the plastic Trygon, which, judging from photos, I would agree. I think this would also be one of the four new species. As for three others, is there anything you Tyranid players out there and fluff enthusiasts know of that exists in the fiction, but not on the table that could actually be interpreted into 40k rules? Feel free to offer your opinions on what it may be or what the nids need here.
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Finally, I must say that it isn't suprising to see that there will be special-type character bugs added to the dex as it would move their codex into line with the hero hammer theme of the Space Marine and Guard codexes. Maybe there will be a Brood lordish character (perhaps a Magus), who can add rules for an outflanking army of genestealers followed by a drop pod assault style deep striking of bug units or something that allows for squadrons of carnifexes (if the Russ can do it why not). Bug players, what do you expect and what would you like?
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Obviosly by now you can tell I am not a bug player, but I have seen less and less of them the last year or so and would like to see them hit the table with new miniatures for the 40k universe and a codex that will allow Nid players to make diverse and different armies for the table. As always, SOUND OFF!

Iron Warrior Chosen Conversions! Meltas FTW!

After I fell for the Iron Warriors theme I painted on my oblitz and seeing as it broke up the "uh, another plague marine army" feel my army was starting to have, I decided that my 5 man chosen Melta squad would need to be done up as Iron warriors as well.

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I decided that since they were chosen, that they are veterans, so I gave most of this group augmetics and either a cool helmet or an IW themed one. Then I started to think about how I deploy them (they always outflank), which made me think about the beginning of Storm of Iron and how the Iron Warriors snuck up on the Guard in the beginning, so I gave them kits from various bitz that I had laying around. Most have the standard Chaos pistol holster, but one has a bag filled with ammo and a bolter and E-tool strapped to his leg while another has a shotgun on his powerpack.

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Hopefully these will be as much fun to paint as they were to convert. Let me know what you think!