Work on the Flesh Tearers Continues...

Albeit at a snails pace.  I've reevaluated my painting strategies and rather than try and dedicate a large chunk of my time to paint up a storm, I've piecemealed my painting.  I've been consistent over the last while to just take 40 min to an hour a day to plug away at my 1k list.  It helps that I have my painting method down pact to get my boys up to a three colour min.  I'm painting large blocks in stages and avoiding mixing colours so that its easy to pick up a brush and get at it every day.  The following two photo's showcases the different steps I've been taking.

So, after the models are assembled, basing and primed I've been painting up the marines in segments.  Building on the black primer I painted the plates of the power armour with merchrite red trying to maintain the natural shading of the primer in the recesses.  Next step I go back and touch up the black areas that the primer did not cover.  I washed the model in badab black then dry brushed silver on the joints and chest regalia.  The stage I'm currently working on now is painting a layer of red gore on the red bits.  I think the next step after this will be to paint astronomican grey on all the shoulder buzz saw symbols and edge highlight the black areas as well.  Its a long process but every day sees me closer to a finished product.  As for the tanks, saving them for last.  I plan to tape off the red areas and get my hands dirty with an airbrush.

I got a game in with the army last week as well.  Man, even though the guilt hit for leaving my Eldar behind, it was nice to play with a strong book.  I played my Imperial Guard buddy again and steam rolled through the game.  A lot had to do with poor luck on his part but a large part was also due to playing with a strong codex.  Having a strong army makes it a lot easier to get inspired to paint your models.

Base Coat Down on Assault Squad

Managed to work on the Flesh Tearers this afternoon.  Got a base coat down on my 10 man assault squad.  No air brush just yet, though I might just save it for the tanks.  Anyway, as far as the squad goes, I painted all the red bits with mechrite red and went back with chaos black and painted all the bits that needed it including outlining between areas where the armour plates required it..  I will paint up the remaining 5 man assault squad the same.  Next step, after all 15 assault troops have a base coat down, I think I'm going to give them a wash of black then layer the red bits red gore.  After that it will be time to go back and paint the details (eyes, purity seals, shoulder pads).  Paint the bases then done!

As always, I'm continually making army lists.  I've attached a photo of my tentative 2k list.  No way ultra competitive but I've got Seth and a healthy dose of death company.

HQ:
Seth
Librarian - fear the darkness, shield

Elite:
Chaplain
2 Priests

Troops:
10 man Tac Squad - melta gun, power fist, missile launcher, rhino
10 man Assault Squad - power fist, 2 melta guns, rhino
5 man Assault Squad - melta gun, twin lascannon razorback
8 Death Company
Death Company Dread

Fast Attack:
2 Baal Predators

Heavy:
Storm Raven - extra armour, twin plasma cannons, twin multi-melta
Predator - lascannon sponsons.

Total Points: 2k

Ultimately this is just a tentative list.  I'm not sure if I want to run the termies at this point.  As far as Seth goes, I want to try running him with the Death Company.  I figure with Seth and a Chaplain, I don't need to give the Death Company any upgrades.  Seth takes care of any dreads or tanks that they come across and the Chaplain allows the Death Company to re-roll 32 to hit and wound rolls at weapon skill and strength 5.  I figure I really do not need power weapons with this torrent of attacks.

Got my painting mojo back at any rate.  I hope to get a game in next week at my LGS with my 1k list and start getting some practice in with it.  Hopefully by then I will have the majority of my infantry completed.

Working on the Flesh Tearers

I got a bit of work in on the flesh tearers tonight.  My thousand point list is assembled and primed.  Now I need to work in a day to try out using an air brush to throw down a coat of blood gore.  Not sure if I should do a layer of merchrite red first and then a layer of blood gore...  I will go back and paint out the black parts properly.  As for the tanks not sure how I want to paint them.  I like the dark with touches of blood gore I've on the one tank.  I might try taping off the red areas to apply the air brush to then touch up the black bits.  I don't think I want to just blast the whole tank red.

The 1k list I've built is as follows:

HQ:
Librarian - blood lance, shield

Elite:
2 Priests

Troops:
10 Tac Squad - power fist, missile launcher, melta gun, rhino
10 Assault Squad - power fist, 2 melta-guns, rhino
5 Assault Squad - melta-gun, twin-linked lascannon razorback

Heavy:
Predator - lascannon sponsons

Total 1k

Not the most optimal at 1k but solid non the less.  The general idea is to combat squad the tac squad with the sergent and meltagun riding in the rhino (the farseer and a priest tags along).  The other half of the tac squad forms part of my gun line.  Beside them is the 5 man assault squad with the lascannon razorback.  The second priest sits in the tank to give the exposed tac squad FNP.  As for the predator it will set up somewhere that has good line of site and is protective of its side armour.  I put a melta gun in the 5 man tac squad encase of outflanking armour.  The remaining 10 man assault squad along with the librarian's crew strike out to claim an objective and push the attack.  Over all I think the list is flexible to deal with all sorts of lists that might show up at my local gaming store on game night.

I also picked up a box of assault terminators over the weekend and put the sergeant together.

I like the pose where he is bracing for an impact on his storm shield.  Not sure how I want to assemble the other 4 but I'm thinking 2 more storm shields and 2 lightning claws.  As far as painting goes I can add a squad of 5 termies in a landraider to bring the list up to 1500 points.  Probably not the wisest decision but man if I'm going to run with space marines I really want to try out terminators.

Anyway I'm happy that I've progressed, with painting the army.  As for the Eldar I still plan to get some games in to fine tune my list, but as far as painting goes I'm going to slap some paint on the marines as quick as possible.

Manhandled by Fateweaver

Got a game in yesterday against deamons at 1k.  The game was roll dice and tie with pitched battle deployment.  I brought the following list:

HQ:
Farseer - Doom, RoWard, Spear

Elite:
5 Dragons - wave serpent, shuriken cannon up and down, stones

Troops:
10 Avengers - wave serpent, EML, stones
10 Storm Guardians - fusion guns, wave serpent, EML, stones

Heavy:
(2) Fire Prisms

He had from memory:

HQ:
Fateweaver

Elite:
3 Blood Crushers
5 (or 6) Fiends

Troops:
about 8 pink horrors with bolt
about 8 plague bearers with icon

Heavy:
(2) Deamon Princes (no upgrades)

We played on a 4x4 board.  I went first and used my first turn to spread my tanks out to give cover saves all around.  Not much to say, I did not play a strong game.  Wish I could blame the loss on my dice but I was out played and maneuvered.  I just could not put wounds on his models.  The hardest part was dealing with Fateweaver allowing him to re-roll armour saves.  All I was able to do was dance around plunking shots to little effect.  The small game board hurt as my mobility was hamstrung.  In order to stay away from his deamons, I was forced to continually move flat out, which cut my fire power down to nothing.

At any rate a fun game though.  The fella I played was a good guy and the game progressed smoothly.  Changes to the list?  I think I need to drop a fire prism and work in a seer council for the 1k bracket.  I love the seer council, allows the eldar to play more aggressively.  I'm not a big fan of playing Eldar at 1k but its the cap at my LGS.

As it stands though, I think I'm going to take a break from the Eldar for a little bit.  A friend is going to let me try out his air brush so I plan to use it on my Flesh Tearers.  I have my etched brass and after I place it on my tanks I want to paint up 1k of points with the gun.  I would like to try it on the Eldar but I'm too far into painting the army to want to take a chance on switching painting methods.  Though, if my marines turn out well, I may try my hand at painting my seer council with the air gun.

I'm hopeful that trying out the new painting method works out well.  My friend has been painting up a storm with the air brush getting an IG army together far more quickly than if he had painted by hand.  His army is looking great.  So if I can speed up my painting process with the air gun, I think I might invest in one myself.

Seer Council + 5 Wraithguard at 1.5k Part II

Well as said earlier, here is my battle report with respect to my last loosing battle against the guard.  I took photo's at the end of each turn so'll post them in order of the game as it progressed.  I'm going to just write some captions in the photo's then write a little summation of the game.  Not sure how it will read but I want to experiment with the format.

The two opposing armies.

The mission was dawn of war roll dice and tie.
I got first turn and placed the two serpents forward to limit the guards deployment

End of Guard movement turn one.  

The guard player started off the board during deployment and rolled everything on turn one.  I had used my movement turn to bunker down my tanks to try and weather the oncoming Guard fire storm...

End of Eldar's turn two.

My guardian wave serpent is immobilized from the last guard round.  The seer council pushes forward towards his heavy tanks.  The falcon is taking pot shots from my objective.

End of Eldar turn three.

In hindsight I made the mistake here that lost me the game.  I should not have moved the seer councils wave serpent.  I should have disembarked the council when they were surrounded by troops.  It would have been the perfect wedge.  The Avengers and Wraithguard should have moved in front of the Vendetta.  The Wraithguard could have taken it out and the Avengers could have shot up his infantry.  I then should have moved the seer council's wave serpent back to collect my stranded guardians.  But for some reason I break up my assault and over extend my seer council.

End of Guard turn three.

My Seer Council is devastated and an opportunity squandered.  It all falls apart here on in.

End of Eldar turn four:

The remnants of the seer council wreak the pyscher battle squad's ride.  My wraithguard destroy the vendetta.  My Avengers redeploy to try and co-ordinate an attack with my guardians.  My fail continues to grow as I split up my forces allowing the guard player to piecemeal me.

End of Guard turn four:

The battle squad finishes off my farseer.  My guardians are wiped by the manticore.  Avengers do nothing. The wraithguard are wiped out and their wave serpent imobalized.  It's at this point I think I'm going to loose the game.

End of Eldar Turn 5:

If the game ends on this turn It's a tie.  I have his objective contested with an Avenger squad in cover and a wave serpent.  I have my objective claimed by my falcon but likely contested by a guard squad.

End of Eldar turn Five:

The guard player cleaned up my units on his objective and sent another chimera down to try and claim the objective.

Turn Six - Eldar tabled by Guard.

Conclusion:

Turn three lost me the game.  I believe my initial set up and attack was well played though.  But one thing with Eldar, make a mistake and the house of cards comes tumbling down.  I've got it in me to try one more game with the wriathguard, but to be honest, I don't think they are going to make the cut.  I'm already planning out a new direction to take my army.  One thing for sure is that the seer council will be sticking around for awhile