Warhammer Chapel - Scenery

With my recent move away from my previous FLGS I have found a scarcity of places to play 40k in the area. I have also had the chance to teach a few coworkers to play over the last few weeks, and in doing so required a game board.  My idea for the board is to use the Warhammer Fantasy scenery to construct a small religious complex...something fit for a Daemon force to assault.

I also, really love the contrast between the old world style of Fantasy with the sci fi high tech 40k universe.  Naturally, if I get into Fantasy I can use this board for fantasy games as well.  Here is my first (ever) building - I magnetized the torches and the crescent moon because they looked likely to break off during game use.

Daemonettes Update!

Two updates in one day is craziness, but I have to thank the in-laws for cooking all day, listening to Christmas carols and humoring me as I spend the day painting in the corner.

With the test model successfully executed, I decided to start in on the Daemonette unit.  For this unit I am taking a different tactic, mainly I am painting each miniature start to finish rather than assembly line style.  This makes it a bit less tedious for me.  When I do have some time while washes dry, I start the basecoats of another model.

Here are the first three models.

Daemonette Test Model

My painting activities of late have been a bit mixed.  Primarily because I mentally ran out of steam on some of the larger projects (the two Soul Grinders) and because I am concurrently working on a new game board - actually this is the only board I will have!  I will try to provide an update on that later, but for now I want to show off a test model for my Daemonettes.  Since I am at the in-laws this week for the Holidays, I thought it was best to leave the Slaanesh Daemon Princess at home, also I am debating on how to construct her wings right now, but more on that later.

Painting Interlude

With work requiring so much writing lately I have taken a brief break from finishing up the Battle Reports to do some painting.  I originally intended to get back to work on the Soul Grinders, but a recent announcement about an 'Ard Boyz style tournament locally has inspired me to get enough points into playing shape that I can participate.

I acquired this model almost 2 years ago, but I just have not felt ready to tackle it yet.  I think now I am ready to give her a shot.  I plan to keep her skin pale white, in contrast to the fleshyness of the rest of my army.  Otherwise, standard colors from my army palette with the exception of the checkerboard legging/arming.

So far I have just about everything, except her accessories, basecoated with some additional work on the claws and checkerboard.

Daemon Princess - Front Profile

Da Boyz Round 2 - Eldar

Da Boyz Round 2 - Eldar

I check my pairings and at first I misread them and think I am up against Nick Rose (he Massacred me round 1 last year at this event when I played SoB).  I move to the table and am relieved at first to see someone else there until I realize it is Greg Sparks.

On a side note, what an awesome last name is Sparks?  I mean, seriously, when they were handing out last names at the beginning of time his great-great grandfather must have won the lottery to pick first.

I have never met Greg before but his reputation precedes him in Rochester, I know he is not going to make mistakes.  I also know that this is probably the worst mission possible for me to draw against him, before we get into the, the mission.

Da Boyz Round 1 - Grey Knights

I wanted to give back a bit to all those Battle Reps I have enjoyed over the last year.  To do so, I wrote the story of my Daemons here at Da Boyz GT.   I did not win the event (in fact my painting/comp score took me right out of the running), but I did manage to stay in the running for Battle Points!

In a tournament dominated by Grey Knights the Chaos Gods call upon members of an elite team called the Bandwagon Breaking Unit to corrupt the metagame.  These are their stories.

Da Boyz GT - Pregame

It has been a while since my last post, a recurring theme with Blogs it seems.  However, I am going to buck the trend and just continue to randomly update regardless of how long a time period has gone by.  Last weekend (October 21-22) was the Da Boyz GT.  For those that have never heard of this event, it is a heavy comp based event where the comp score is predicated on 'exploring' one's codex.  This means specifically that no units can be duplicated.

Since this is a major event (over 100 players typically) it would mean lot's of Grey Knights.  I faced two of them, I will provide some battle reports and pictures to go with them as well.

Naturally this presented a problem for me as a mono-Slaanesh player, I did not even meet the minimum score required to play.  Instead I Slaanesh was forced to Ally with the devious Tzeetch for this game.  As you can see I was nailed pretty hard on the Comp matrix and all the new models meant I was unable to get to an acceptable painting standard.  Interesting note, I have not updated any of my painting because I have lot's of barely base coated models I painted rather than meaningful progress on the others.  Here is the list I ran, and associated Composition Matrix score.

Slaanesh-Tzeetch Daemons

Soul Grinder Updates

A lack of rainy days this summer has hampered my painting but in spite of this I wanted to share some of my progress on a pair of Soul Grinders. I am starting to feel a bit of a time crunch, I want to have this army complete in time for Da boyz GT in Rochester at the end of October.  I am hoping these two models are taking longer than the rest of my 'standard' Daemons.  If not there is no way I will make my deadline!

I have yet to name my SG's, I am thinking this one will be named Lick though since I am working to incorporate a Green Stuff tongue with the model (both may have them though so any ideas of tongue related names would be good).

SG Lick-Front

Soul Grinder and Daemon Princess Update

It has been a while since my last update, my wife and I are in the process of buying a new warhammer room, I mean house, and that has taken its toll.  I have not, however, been idle during that entire time (only part of it) and I have managed to ping away at the soul grinders a bit more and to get some GS done on the Daemon Princess.

Here are a pair of updates on the Soul Grinders

Soul Grinder - Front

Soul Grinder Update

Soul grinder - Front View

KoS - Finishing Touches

With the Soul Grinder presenting so much work, I figured I would get one mini (mostly) mentally off my plate.  That is the Keeper of Secrets that I had some touch up to do and some basing to finish.  the idea is that this whole army is on stage, so I added a little stage scenery to the base and I redid the sword to have a purple sheen to it rather than a central gold band like it had before.  Here are the results.

Keeper of Secrets - front

Mini Battle Report

After a brief hiatus from painting and gaming (working on cars, opening up camps and house hunting have taken up a ton of time over the last few weeks) I managed to get a game in this weekend against a local SM player.

No pictures on this one - camera was in another city 60 miles away - so I'll do a brief synopsis and some commentary on the army.

I ran Slaanesh Daemons using my standard 2000 point list - looking at it I think I misadded and was 18 points over, removing Musk from the Keeper would have 0 impact on the game.

Fiends Complete - Soulgrinder Progress

Since I did not have much planned for this weekend other than spending some time with the wife I had a ton of chances to paint.  This means I was able to finish my first set of 6x Fiends which I think turned out pretty well.  I still need to base them (which will be done using the same basing as my Keeper of Secrets).  I figure I will probably have a big basing party at some point - by party I mean I will sit home basing my minis with a few beers.  Here is a group shot of the finished product.

Fiends - Group Photo

Fiends Progress - 2 of 6

Seeing all the great painting at the tournament last weekend inspired me to get to it and try to work a bit each night to complete some more minis in my Daemon army.  I had been working on the Fiends for about a week but I made a ton of progress over the last few days and figured I would share.  I wanted to stay with my general theme for these models so they are green, and purple with dominant flesh/natural tones for the rest of the body.  Here are the results...

Fiend - Front

Last Man Standing Results

I had hoped to include a full write up and battle reports with this post but I was unable to for a few reasons.  The first is I forgot my camera, the second is the games went poorly enough in general there really wasn't a point in including more detailed information.  I do want to, however, provide a synopsis of each tournament round and some thoughts on my list/strategy.  For reference, the list I used can be found here.

1250 Last Man Standing List

Tonight I will be heading out to a lock in at my FLGS where the feature event is going to be a last man standing tournament.  Each game is played on a 5'x5' board with a single objective in the center (worth 3 points per player turn held) and 4 players (each allowed a 1250 point army).  Winners are determined based on the sum of Kill Points, Objective points and remaining Kill Points at the end of a 5 turn game.  The order of a turn is randomly determined.  The full rules can be found here

Keeper and Masque Painting Update

It has been a bit of an inauspicious start to the blog, managing two updates in the first week and then going on a multi-week hiatus.  Fortuntately, that hiatus was the result of computer problems and not the result of skipping out on painting over the last few weeks.  Last post I mentioned The Masque was the inspiration for the color scheme for the Slaanesh army I am building.   Here are a few shots of her completed (except for basing).

Masque - Front View

Masque - Left View

  

Masque - Right View

Similar to the soul grinders The Masque is painted to be a bit 'fleshy' although not as dark as the ginders.  I wanted to replicate this effect for my Keeper of Secrets (KoS) but I, unfortunately, do not remember how I did it.  I painted her last summer before I became so engrossed in school that I took a painting vacation (and I was painting some SoB for Da Boyz GT).

Three weeks ago I started the in earnest and she is getting pretty close to done.  Here are some images along with her theater stage inspired base.  Thanks to my wife for the tips on the base.

KoS - Front

KoS - Right

KoS - Left

I really like how the model turned out even though I essentially started over after painting it similar tot he SG's I had done.  In retrospect I think I could have highlighted with Dwarf Flesh and been okay, but I tried Elf Flesh and I really did not like the way it looked.

I also magnetized the KoS, with the Magnets on the piece of plastic card, I have a plan to make it fit in with the rest of the scenery, but I will share that next week when I have a chance to get more into basing again.  (I have to do basing at my home on the weekend since I live in a different city for work during the week).

Next on the block are some fiends which I have already basecoated with Tallarn and will try to finish the set this week.  The level of detail on those is much lower than on the KoS so I am optimistic.

Army Color Theme and Test Models

So far I have one completed model (and coincidentally unit) for this army but it is unfortunately a bit camera shy at the moment.  When I am able to get to her (The Masque) I will share the completed model.  She still needs basing, but I am a bit on the fence at the moment as to how I want to base the army anyway.

I established my basic color scheme with the Masque (who served as my test model).  The skin tones are flesh with Purple and Green being the two primary colors for cloth, armor, scales and hair.  I wanted the army to be very 'fleshy' looking with the skin tones while paying homage to Slaanesh's color of choice using some purple, but to offset it with something with some pop by using green with bright highlights.  You can see part of these results in the pictures below.

Soul Grinder - Front

Soul Grinder - Right

Soul Grinder - Left

This soul grinder is almost totally assembled, but I am missing the armor plates on the legs and the other half of the claw on his left.  I left these off to east the painting process and actually magnetized the top of the grinder so it can be removed for easy transport.  This model does not have the 'test' I painted for the armor plates (the next one does) on the body but I did experiment a bit with the sword.  Starting with a 50/50 of Liche and Hormagaunt and then lightening the mixture by mixing in skull white.  Finally, I washed it with some Leviathan Purple and then highlighted it again to bring up the ridges at the top.

The body I sprayed black and then did a base coat of Tallarn Flesh.  I then washed three or four times with Ogryn Flesh before lightly washing with Baal Red and Leviathan Purple.  I really like the results overall and am continuing to refine the process (as you will see on the next Soul Grinder).

Going with my natural look, I did the spine as bone and started with a base of Scorched Brown.  I then used Beastial Brown to bring up the color on the surfaces and used Snakebite to bring up the color some more on the ridges.  I then drybrushed on Bleached bone before hitting it with a wash of Devlan to bring it all together. I think the result was pretty good and if I were to paint bone again (I am sure I will), I would definitely use this approach again.  At this point there is no green on the model, although I plan to incorporate some in the model, possibly on the claw to offset the sword.

Soul Grinder - Front

Soul Grinder - Right

Soul Grinder - Left

I used the same approach for this Soul Grinder as I used for the one with the sword for the body with a slight modification.  I used watered down Dark Flesh as my first wash rather than Ogryn Flesh which saved me on my washing a bit since it darkens the crevasses of the model much more effectively.   I started on this one (for no reason) working on the armor plates.  They are based using Lich Purple and I want to brighten it slightly to the ridges by mixing in some skull while darkening it as it moves towards the center.  I will hopefully have a chance to work on this over the next week and share the results.

Finally, I painted up a test model for my Seekers which I think turned out well.  I still haven't painted its rider, she will probably be done as part of the batch of 36 Daemonettes I need to paint.  Here is the test model (I need to update the bone colors to match my new method of doing bone since this model was completed before the Soul Grinders).

Seeker - Front

Seeker - Left

Seeker - Right

I actually completed this models over the summer.  It was the first experiment painting flesh tones and I refined it after finishing the Soul Grinder torsos.  The scales I painted Liche Purple after priming black in light layers leaving the gaps as black.  I then lightly washed them with Leviathon Purple and highlighted the edges with a 50/50 mix of Liche and Skull White.  I could blend them a bit more than they are now, but I am not sure it would improve the look that much (although it might win some technical points with the judges).

Up next I hope to share The Masque, a nearly complete Keeper of Secrets and some initial steps I have been taking on Fiends to better show the process I used to generate the flesh tones.  I also thing I need to highlight a bit using some Elf Flesh to bring out the skin tones a bit more on the Soul Grinders.

Slaanesh Awakes!

I have tried a few times to begin a Warhammer 40k blog, but it seems every time I stumble at the 'choose a name' page.  This time, however, I have finally come up with an interesting name that will draw 1980's fans and maybe some warhammer fans alike.  This blog will chronicle the development of my Slaanesh themed Daemon army and is broken into categories discussing list building, strategy/tactics, painting and modeling.  I would like to start by discussing my current (partly painted) collection and the army list I plan to populate.

I plan to complete painting of this army in time for the 2011 DaBoyz tournament which is a composition heavy event.  As a part of the DaBoyz gaming group, I ascribe to their gaming philosophy (found here).  The army I am building mirrors this philosophy in its formulation - mainly it is representative of Codex: Chaos Daemons while remaining faithful to Slaanesh.  Without further adiue I present my initial army list for painting and playing.

HQ

Keeper of Secrets

Herald of Slaanesh - Chariot, Might, Musk, Icon

The Masque

Elites

6x Fiends of Slaanesh

6x Fiends of Slaanesh

Troops

12x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

12x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

6x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

6x Daemonettes of Slaanesh

Fast

12x Seekers of Slaanesh

Heavy

1x Soulgrinder

1x Soulgrinder

1x Daemon Prince

Tomorrow I will provide some pictures to demonstrate the style I plan to use for this army in a painting article and discuss how I achieved the effects.