Pause

I fear I can't update the blog even as often as I usually do. I'll try hard but I'm not sure I'll succeed because I've got much to study and when I'd have time, I go to work. I don't have time to play not to mention modelling. I've got trust in the Tau buildings though, which I'll try to make in the workplace when I've got free time. I began something like a dish today, which will be a great part for the guard tower and the power generator as well. Hope You're interested in this, because I fear I won't have anything else to update the blog with... I think It will be fun though, and maybe a bit different than other blogs. WH40k buildings made out of carbon instead of cardboard? That's cool in my opinion :)

Tau buildings are coming soon!

At least I hope so. I've got a few ideas in mind and the chance to realize them. I will make these buildings from fiberglass and resin (with carbon added, occasionally) to be light, strong and flat. Hopefully they will look similar to the ones You can find in the 4th edition codex. I'm planning to make more than I can use so if they'll look good I can make a few for You as well! Would You be ineterested?

Reinforcements have arrived!

Indeed. In the form of 10 FWs. I don't like painting these guys so I think I won't buy anymore, but try to build some kind of a drone army. I'll count the drones as FWs, They will be in the same height as the FW heads, they will have a pulse rifle and a TA to give them the unbelievable BS 3 of the FWs. What do you think about this idea?

Anyway, here are a few bad pics!

First Hammerhead 3

I think this will be the last post about the painting of HH #20 since I consider it ready. I kinda like the weathering though I think I'll add boltgun metal or something like that on the nose to resemble heavier damage. I didn't really weather the SMS drones because in my opinion these are very mobile parts on a HH and are easier to replace by newer ones than the engines for example (I don't really use SMS on HHs by the way so I'll change them to burst cannons if I'll have the chance). I don't really know what to write about it so here come the pics. Tell me what You think!

On GW decals

I just drybrushed the HH with a lighter color than the original and when i cleaned the brush, I noticed one of the "20" numbers on my hand. I rushed back to the model to notice the other was missing from the engine too. I didn't get to the tower yet, I hope I won't loose that, coz I've already done that earlier but put it back to its place with watered down PVA glue... The same will go with the new decals on the engines, I'm sure. Have You ever had a similar experience?

First Hammerhead 2

As You can see below I got on with the HammerHead. There isn't too much to say, I painted the sensors on the front, a few parts of the railgun, the sept marking on the front, and the back of the turbines which You can't see now.

I added 3 decals as well, They look cool I think. I figured this means 20 in Tau, and now that's the number of the vehicle. I chose this number coz my brother was born on the 20th of Feb. I have never seen this kind of decal on the tower of a HH, but I think it looks good, especially that this method was (maybe even now is) used in many armies around the World.

The other funny part is the railgun with the red stripes. I got the idea from German tank aces from WW2 who painted a circle on their cannons after every tank which they destroyed. I think it looks great on the railgun as well, showing this tank's crew is experienced with 4 victories from previous battles. (We only draw a circle after Land Raiders of course...)

Oh I almost forgot to mention the sensor in the middle of the tank to which I gave a Knight Rider / Battlestar Galactica Cylon feeling with the painting. Since I hate this part on the HH most, I just thought this would be a good joke, laughing out the segment itself, though I kinda like it now.

For me, now comes the fun part because finally i can get to weather RH (Railhead) #20.

First Hammerhead

I got fed up with the FWs (I just can't paint them nice, always mess up sg. I should go with a 1-color scheme on them with washes and drybrushing) so I decided to carry on with the painting of my HH. Here are a few pics about my progress. I'd like to thank the Santa Cruz Warhammer crew for the idea of the camo, I think It looks great.

Before the camo.

With the camo.

Painted a few details.

We Will see how will It turn out, I have to correct it here and there, paint a few more details, apply some decals and weather It as good as I can. Remember, this item is from my first wh40k buy ever so this have to be very worn-out and damaged. How do You like it?

New scheme

I brought home 10 airbrushed fire warriors and my hammerhead a couple of days ago and began to think about colors for the hammerhead. Well It has the same base color as the FWs You could see earlier, that yellowish, but I don't know if I should paint some camo over it, or just paint the gaps, or both. I think I'll just put midnight blue in those gaps and highlight tha parts around it with dark grey to resemble that the vehicle is really war-torn.

When I got the idea to use midnight blue as a kind of wash I just started to wonder if It would look better as my secondary color instead of the grey. I applied it to a FW just to see and I liked it much more than the first combination, so I'm painting the 10 new FWs to this scheme. Alas my painting skills didn't improve so they won't look good, but the colors will look cool together, I hope. I'll post pictures at friday or saturday I think. Comments are welcome about the HH and everything of course!

Dark Eldar vs. SM 500pt patrol

I tried out Dark Eldar for the first time a couple of days ago and I just loved it. We played annihilation (in patrol rules You have to play that) and I could bring in the following army:

2 raider squads with 1 blaster and 1 splinter cannon each, with disintegrators on the raiders
and
2 ravagers with 2 disintegrators and 1 dark lance each

Though this is a 6 victory point army I was lucky because my opponent rolled really bad and I didn't.

He brought in 2*10 SM with 1 flamer and 1 rocket launcher and a 7 man devastator squad with 3 rocket launchers.

This was my first battle ever where I have managed to wipe out the enemy at the end of 5th turn. Disintegrators are a bless compared to the Tau anti-MEq weapons. range 36" S7 AP2 Blast? Sweet.

I'm gonna try and play with the Dark Eldar more and more, maybe I should rename the blog to a more collective title since I'm writing about everything about 40k...

Campaign 1st mission

Since We play WH40k with one of my friends We always wanted to give it a bit more character, to make campaigns somehow. Well, the first game of that kind was held today, He was something like a DM and I was the player.

First He told me a story about what happened before the battle. It was about the Tau finding something really interesting on a planet, which they wanted to investigate, but surprisingly enough Orks attacked them and since this was only an expeditionary force, We, the Tau had to flee to one of our settlements and wait for evac.

This is the time when I was asked to create a Tau army of about 750-1000, but fluffy. I really liked the idea to make an fun army so I created something like this:
12 FW squad with pulse rifles and with a team leader who had a markerlight, Devilfish with disruption pod, blacksun filter and 2 seeker missiles
10 FW squad with pulse rifles, Devilfish with disruption pod and blacksun filter
7 FW with pulse carbines (without DF, assuming they lost it in the surprise attack)
1 Ethereal with an 8-man honour guard, Devilfish with disruption pod and blacksun filter
3 XV25s, one with fusion blaster

I still believe this army is fluffy enough with all the disruption pods, blacksun filters, stealth suits and the Ethereal of course.

After this We put up a map full of buildings and I gained my objectives: for 9 turns keep the Ethereal alive, or hold a certain building with computers in it to get access to the information. I got to choose the place of 3 stratagems, of which 1 gave feel no pain, 1 reroll to hit and 1 reroll to wound.

When I put up my forces (I was told where to deploy them, outside the city) I got 2 six-man FW squads in the city, assuming they were guarding it or keeping the contact with the spaceships or something like that. After this He immediately deployed 2 trukks with 20 boyz about 3-4 inches from me.

This was my starting position and every turn for 9 turns He rolled the dice to look if any ork reinforcements will come (after the 5th round automatically came something of course) and if something came in (He always rolled enough to bring a few more orks) He rolled a few again to find out what will it be exactly with the help of a self made chart which worked really fine.

First It was really easy to fight off the Orks but as He rolled more and more orks to come in from different sides the whole thing started to get really messy for the Tau. The funniest part was when it came out that a looted wagon will come in and of course it was the Devilfish the FWs lost a few minutes ago but with a flamer and a big shoota on it... After hours of play, loosing nearly all of my warriors at the end of 9th round We couldn't agree on who has won because the Ethereal has been killed, but the building was held by a Devilfish.

I'm sure We will play more like this because a story behind the battle really helps You imagine the situations and enjoy the game in a different way as well.