The things my wife is into...

  I can proudly say that my efforts over the last two decades has paid off.  My wife is a hobbyist.  But it's rather strange the things that she enjoys...

  First off, she's much more into AoS than 40k.  In fact, she has an equivalent amount of undead as I do Ultramarines (and I have the high credit card debt to prove it).  While I have plenty of Fantasy armies (Aelves, Free Peoples, Slaves to Darkness, Greenskins), she can equal most of them with just skeletons and ghosts.  Worse, her Legions of Nagash and Nighthaunt are already mostly painted while I have exactly one model painted from my Ironjaws.  It's embarrassing. 

  Second, my wife loves 'fantasy' more than scifi.  This is obvious not only in the point above but in her D&D choices and even board games that we play.  The best example I have is the Joan of Arc game, where she is not interested in the massive French cavalry charges or royal intrigue that drives the story.  Oh no- she wants ghosts and skeletons and zombies and werewolves and the Devil (in whatever form)!  There seems to be some consequences to all those years of work...

  Finally, she's imbued with the luck in games that I, AN ACTUAL GAMER, don't seem to enjoy.  While I have been known to do well in tournies and even help some others refine their style, she just wins.  Like, doesn't even know how she does it wins.   Undead making FNP saves like champs, hitting with every attack from a Harbinger unit, and even playing soccer with a Knight against hordes of renegades!  It can be frustrating, and my son is more often the victim than I am (which may explain his disdain of AoS). 

  I've done such a good job of dragging my wife into the hobby that she's even started a blog.  In this blog, she discusses all sorts of things about life.  I took notice when she posted some work that she'd done, because it was more undead that already gave me nightmares.  And she did a fantastic job at it.  This Mourngul, courtesy of my buddy in his quest to see me lose hard and often, has been in the wife's army a number of times already and I've found the only way to handle it is to stay very far away.  It won't die and it puts out insane damage.  Check it out!

 

  She did a great post on her blog all about it and I recommend checking it out.  My love of the hobby and posting about it has rubbed off on her- SUCCESS!  And that Mourngul does not look friendly...

  Have you had any impressive 'conversion' stories like this?  We know wives and partners can often be resistant, but so can friends!  Let me know the story in the comments below.  

Happy Hobbying!

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!

The Word is Iron!

  Remember from my last post that I'm back to working on my Chaos Space Marines.  I quickly finished both the units from that post and this one in the same week because, well, you'll see.  But I'm happy to be ripping through these units trying to get back on track for all these projects.


  I needed some fire support for the advance-heavy portions of my Chaos Marines and I already painted the unit with the Missile Launcher.  Sometimes, though, you need something just a little more powerful than Strength 8, so I dug for a Lascannon.  While digging, I found an old Iron Warriors conversion kit and decided to use those in this army.  I even took the drastic step of painting them as Iron Warriors because they're easy.  And eye-catching (who doesn't love silver marines?).

Chaos Space Marine Squad
  This unit also costs less than 100 points and brings that punch that is needed when my opponent brings heavy tanks and big monsters.  Armed with the heaviest weapon in the Imperial arsenal (from whom they originated), this squad just sits back and provides that heavy support.  And just like I noted in the last post- sticking these guys in cover can turn them into a frustration for their opponent, forcing them to commit just a bit more firepower than they want to.

  The metal bitz that go onto the plastic parts of these models makes them very top-heavy.  But the torsos and heads are so full of character to the Iron Warriors that I couldn't resist.  I originally wanted to paint the squad red to match my Word Bearers, but with bits like these, you have to stay true.  Plus, this kit isn't available anymore, so a little homage from the paintbrush seemed appropriate.  

  My Lascannon invited a bit of experimentation, as I wanted to get a pulsing, glowing look on the coils.  It would add some color to these otherwise bland models.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite get what I was looking for, but it came out alright anyway.  I'm not complaining!

  The Aspiring Champion also got a Chainsword to make him a bit of a beast in a fight.  Hopefully, he never has to prove it...

  They may not be the most 'Chaosy' that they can be, but the Iron Warriors are always a cool-looking scheme on the tabletop.  Mixing them in with my Word Bearers (that I play as Red Corsairs because duh) adds some narrative element that I like to sneak into my army lists.  If you remember, I did the same thing with my Black Templars...

   And that's it for this post!  Back to the painting table...  Happy Hobbying!