Four-eyes plus five!

  I'm so focused on trying to get my Chaos marines painted that I don't have time to paint other projects right now.  And Emprah knows I have a ton of projects.  My wife decided to help out and picked up one of those projects for me.  Of course it had to be for her favorite game...

  When my buddy came down to visit, we played a ton of Underworlds.  Like, a ton.  And now he's coming down for a visit in a couple of months again, so we have to get more painted!  With almost all the Shadespire warbands painted (only the Skaven and Vanguard left), we needed to get to some Nightvault going.  Luckily, I haven't built most of those, so it was an easy choice.  Remember that focus on Chaos?

  This warband is one that my son showed some interest in and so did my wife, so it was definitely on the docket already.  Because of their fantastical nature and the magical foundation, the Eyes of the Nine definitely got some attention.  Being a follower of the pantheon in general, I don't know a whole lot about Tzeentch's representatives, so I'm curious to see these guys in action.

Eyes of the Nine
  This warband, dispatched by one of the nine Gaunt Summoners, is trying to build a magical portal back to its own realm to escape from the clutches of Nagash's punishment.  Their magical nature gives them some fantastic abilities, including the ability to summon a Blue Horror back to the battlefield each round!  They have speed, but very little defense and so depend on a ton of glory-point grabs based on objective points and casting spells.

  The warband's leader, Vortemis the All-seeing, is a wizard with the ability to cast spells and even has a range 3 spell attack.  His melee weapon is no joke either, with a range and damage of 2 and rolling 2 dice for hammers!  With four wounds and a 4 movement, he's definitely the most powerful member of the band as far as causing damage.  He also has the ability to use an action to summon a Blue Horror daemon back to a starting hex, so he's got some definite utility on the battlefield.  

  Those daemons, including the Blue Horror and Brimstone Horror, are very fragile, but they have the ability to cause a great deal of damage very quickly.  And killing the Blue Horror spawns the Brimstone (which attacks twice in his activation), allowing Vortemis to summon the Blue Horror right back!  It's a really neat little 'evolution' mechanic that really capture's the magic.  

 Now for the 'beatstick' part of the army- K'charik and the two Acolytes.  The daemon monster has a very powerful great blade and gets inspired by being near a caster when they cast a spell (Tzeentch!), plus a shield defense for toughness.  The two cultists, on the other hand, have few wounds and barely any defense, but they come with the ability to attack up to range 3.  The cultists and leader all get inspired by successfully attacking at range 3- a strange inspire condition for a daemonic warband, for sure!

  I can't say that this warband is very confusing.  In fact, it still fits very well with the theme set by Garrek's Reavers, another Chaos Warband.  But it is interesting to see the Tzeentchian habit of fire and range where the Reavers are all about smacking and slashing.  

  I really love the wife's work on this band.  She didn't think that she would do it justice and still pulled it off amazingly.  I keep trying to tell her that she's better than she thinks, and this warband (not being bones or boo-sheets) proves it.  And I really want to play them now too!

Let me know what you think or what you're working on in the comments below.  As always, happy hobbying!

Obliteration is at hand

  I've continued hard on the crusade to paint these armies, and the Chaos Space Marines are seeing progress for it.  In this case, I've returned to my Obliterators, because they're really good and probably the only reason my army ever wins.  

  It's funny too, because I used to be a hater of these guys.  Not only were they too powerful when they first came out, but I dealt with scores of opponents from all over the country bringing these things to destroy me.  I even got a unit of three and then promptly gave them away without regret.  It was sad.  But after losing so many games and finding myself with some extra money, I finally bit the bullet and bought another full unit (at much higher cost than they used to be, of course). 

  I actually also like these old metal ones better than the new plastic ones that GW released in the Shadowspear box.  I think this old version captures the 'daemonic' nature of the Obliterators so much more.  Unfortunately, being old and metal meant that there was much more work to do on these models than I anticipated.  If you look closely at the pics, you can see flashing in various places that I didn't notice.  The models just have so much detail!  And that's why I like them...

  To start with, I'm going to show off some of the progress bits, then I'm going to finish with the actual pics of the models.  To begin the 'hobby' part, I basecoated these models with Khorne Red and Leadbelcher and basecoated all the flesh with Bugman's Glow and the wires with black.  I then liberally washed the models with Agrax Earthshade...

  You'll notice that I also painted the weapons with Flayed One Flesh for that creamy bone color.  This was to start that 'ghostly' effect that I wanted to achieve on their guns.  See, Obliterators create weapons from imagination and blast the enemy with them- materializing whatever guns they need from warp power.  I wanted to represent that with a greenish glow.  

  After the cream color dried, I washed the weapons with Biel-tan Green wash.  It's important to see that I tried to wash over the fleshy areas that produced the weapons as well, but it didn't turn out as strong as I'd hoped.   

  So I took some watered-down Moot Green and 'washed' it over those transition points.  You can see that it faded into the flesh color and the green-washed bone color quite nicely!

  You'll see later how I drybrushed the weapons with white and BOOM!  It easily achieved the affect I was looking for.  The other technique I wanted to show off and test out was how I was going to paint the flesh parts of the model.  When I get to painting Possessed, it might be necessary...

  As noted above, I started by basecoating the flesh in Bugman's Glow.  I then gave all the flesh a liberal wash of Carroburg Crimson and let that dry.  

  Once I had the time, I layered the flesh with Cadian Fleshtone and then a shorter layer of Kislev Flesh.  The important part with the final color is not highlighting from one end of the flesh to the other- paint just the middle.  This lighter 'middle' gives the flesh that organic, 'stretched' feel.  

Obliterators

  This is easily one of the top units in the Chaos Space Marine codex.  With four wounds at Toughness 5 and a 2+ armor save plus a 5+ daemonic save, they are VERY hard to take out.  Worse, they have guns that fire six shots that can either mow away infantry or demolish Imperial (or Chaos) Knights!  And in case you think that close combat is safe, they don't hit very lightly either.  

  Obliterators have a major advantage that keeps them safe- the ability to deep strike onto the battlefield!  This keeps the enemy from being able to engage them until they've had a chance to slag something.  Add the Mark of Slaanesh so they have the ability to fire those powerful weapons twice in the same phase and the devastation they put out can make even Rogal Dorn jealous.  

  The only drawback to this unit is their cost.  They will set you back almost 350 points for three of the buggers.  But they are worth every point...

  I even had that extra motivation and decided to add a tiny bit of blue-glow effect.  I imagine that this could represent their teleportation hardware or something.  More importantly, it adds even more colors to the unit, making the Obliterators the most colorful unit in my army!  

  There's the next unit done, more to come.  Let me know what you've been working on in the comments below.  And, as always, Happy Hobbying!