Tyrannocytes

Spent some time building the new Tyrannoctye kit. Man this kit is one very troublesome kit with many repetitive elements.

I decided to magnetize all the weapon symbiotes and some of the tentacles for easy transportation.

All the same weapons. You will need to trim the connection flat to affix the magnet

Squid anyone? You can spot a few of flattened tips

Completed model. Took me 4 hours

Used the extra tentacles to build a Mucolid

Based the Tyrannocyte 

Hit the other 3 models with White Primer

And used Black on their carapace

Played a game with the Tyrannocytes

Skin is still WIP. I need to even out the wash but the bruised effect is really nice.

Spent quite a bit of time working on the skin. Starting with the base of Aged White (Vallejo), I washed it down with a diluted Carroburg Crimson. I then work the skin back up to Aged White using a wet brush method, picking out the raised areas and leaving the recesses purple. This gave the model the bruised effect. I then mixed Bleached Bone with some White and wet brush more precisely the raised bony ridges on the model. I then went back to the recessed areas with a Size 1 brush and hit the deepest recesses with the Carroburg Crimson. With this, I am done with the skin. 

If you look at the photo above, you can spot the 3 stages of the work in progress. The left most has just received its Aged White base coat while the one in the middle has just received the wet brush method. The one on the far right has the recesses re-shaded with Carroburg Crimson to restablish the depth.

Spent some time doing the chitin and worked in some purple streaks. Tidied up the viens and tentacles. Started working in the wash for the third Tyrannocyte. 

I have of course finished them awhile ago and forgot to put this post up! Enjoy! 

Malifaux Reinforcements - Ten Thunders & Outcasts

Both Factions I collect suddenly gets a boost in reinforcements. I have been looking for good Scheme runners for my Outcasts for awhile now and when these Winged Plagues were released, i ordered them.

Ready to run for my Schemes

I also broke open my Leveticus set mainly for Rusty Alyce.

Ended building all the girls from the kit

Primed and ready for paint

I managed to also secure some Tengu for my Ten Thunders. Cheap and fast, these are good.

4 points make them easy choice

Good models too. 

Welcome to Malifaux! 

Malifaux Updates

So I am still enamored by this game. The balance, the way the rules are written and the fluff has been amazing. It's just too bad that the pick up rate is quite slow but it's gaining momentum. Those who are sick of the morass of rules you have to thumb through to understand 40k at the competitive level will be fairly easily drawn into this game. Enter Malifaux.

So I've played a fair few games now with my Faction of choice: Outcasts. They are a bunch of Mercenaries that can pair up with any other faction, they hit HARD and can kill pretty well. With the recent release of Parker Barrows, the Faction now rounds out its cast allowing you to win without necessarily killing. I like that. Something different from 40k again. 

Such a characterful model

One of the best parts of Malifaux for me has been the lore. Think Guillermo DelToro meet Tim Burton. That's the universe you're playing in. Cool? Damn right!

In my usual style I build as many models as I can, prime them all and then hit them with a zenithal of white to create instant shade and highlights before applying really thin layers of paint.

One such afternoon later

Smaller model count means that I can really go to town with my crew and masters. Here is a selection for a recent tournament. 

Wide shot of the crew

This crew won me Best Painted! 

Unfortunately not all models were painted at the event - it's still growing! 

A good show of different Masters and Crew

Over time, we can expect the players to slowly paint their stuff and I am truly looking forward to more painted minis. Great game, great minis, now hopefully great paintjobs!

Painting those Marines

I mentioned this in the previous post prior to this, I love pushing out models in large numbers with the airbrush before hitting the details with a brush later. It allows me to get them to the base colours fast, plays nicer on the table and you can always work on them adinfinitum until you are pleased. 

I pre-highlight with a white over a black primer

Airbrushing happens in thin coats and red doesn't cover black too easily. I still chose to use black over white primer mainly because I love a darker shade. Kenny Boucher from Next Level Painting loves to paint red over brown so you could also give that a go.

Completed in under 1 hour

All in all, less than an hour. Airbrush really hastens the painting work and if you do them in bulk like this, you will show progress every time you hit your store! Haha! Enjoy the rest of the week! 

More Reinforcements

So I have been deliberating my list for quite a bit. There seemed to be some 'fat' that I could do away with. And the recent Gauntlet Tactical Squad was too good a deal to pass so I got 2 boxes of them. They basically come with a free Rhino per box (if you work out the math of each individual box at RRP). Nice. 

Reinforcements have arrived

So after scheming and tinkering with my list, I came up with a slight amendment. As my opponents are still not aware what I am scheming, I can't reveal my full ploy yet. Hehehee

Here's a sneak peak

The Army is Coming Together

So I have been spending quite a bit of time assembling and painting quite a number of the mandatory pieces for my army. I have also been playing the same army again and again but making small tweaks here and there. Nothing feels better than when you put down the entirely built army and then snap a photo.

Doing this always help me visualise what I have completed and what I need to do. 

These close ups allow me to focus on some of the unpainted stuff

Panning through the army, I find out which ones I have to prioritize

Certain units need more work than others

While others might not survive the end process

As I played more games with the army, a few things were dropped and replaced. The Devastator squad with the Missiles for example were removed and replaced with 2 Grav Cannons and moved into a Rhino instead. It was small tweaks like this that helped hone this army even more and every time it changed, I went back to build more models so I could really field a complete army.

Some of you may think, wow that's a bit silly. What if it does not work? I have been in this hobby for the past 15 years and what I have learned is that units strong today can be weak tomorrow. Vice versa is true too so I just store it away.

As the wife was away for a break, I took the opportunity to get a game in with Andrew. He is one of Tables and Dice's upcoming beardy git for he spots killer combos really quickly. I brought the very same list again.

It would be a Tau vs Space Marine battle

And I went straight for his lines

With ample Melta, I pushed deep into his lines

With that, I finished the game and walked away with another win. I got lucky with some cards, but wow this list seemed to be doing pretty damn well.

Since I had the full day, Marshall came in and had a game with me. I brought the very same list again.

Space Marine vs Space Marine spam

It was interesting. I had more Pods, he had more Rhinos. For those who have been following, Marshall is my sensei when it comes to Space Marines. He has played a heck more with them and definitely is more intimate with them.

Pods were hard for him to move off the points

And secure those objectives I did. It was another convincing victory for this list. Ouch. It looks like this list is better than I expected. 

Drop Pods - In Bulk

I am a big believer that you spend less time per model if you just did them all in one go. Call efficiency of scale I guess. After the base construction, I hit all parts with a Black Primer followed by the relevant reds. I use an airbrush, Vallejo Game Air Scarlet Red followed by Bloody Red. Apply them in thin layers and do them at angles so that you retain the shade to the crevases. 

My paint booth is basically a cardboard box in my balcony

As painful as these are, I absolutely have to do them because they break up an otherwise boring model

Now you know why I hate these Pods...

Boom! Glue them up and they be ready! 

See why those black yellow stripes work? They are so nice

Drop Pods are tough to build and tougher still to paint. However, I do like their look once deployed on the table and they are also good in game. Hopefully 8th Ed won't come and rip me a new one. 

ABO Gaming at Games Workshop Red House

It was in December that Melvin and DF both had sometime off work. YC was also off work and I was clearing leave. It was a match made in heaven. All 4 of us hauled ass to Games Workshop Red House (Singapore). 

New reinforcements

In time for our game

 So I rushed out as many models I as could for our game the next day.

Here is the army I semi completed

I failed to finish all the toys I wanted to bring to my first game at Games Workshop! But then again, I am not one to give up so easily. I played my two games against YC and Melvin and it was really good fun! The boys ran off to watch Rebels after that and I went back to start working on the rest of my army.

Got home and broke out these bad boys

Built all the missing models from my list

Even based all of them, including those which I may use in the future

Since I am a big WYSIWYG person, I also bought 2 boxes of these Scouts so I can arm them with th relevant shotguns! 

So there you have it, a bit of gaming and modelling I did in December.

At the end of the day, we also agreed to do a painting challenge. 1500 points of whatever you like at the end of 2017. The above will go towards that 1500.

I Am Back!

Hi guys and apologies for disappearing for such a long time. I got the keys to my new place and got a new job as well. Basically I had no time last year to really sit down and blog the hobby you and I both love so very much. I will use the next few posts to play catch up, so apologies if it seems like we are walking down memory lane. 

Chapter Ancients march to war

When Angel's Blade first landed on my desk, I thought maybe our dear Blood Angels have a fair chance again to shine. Having read the rules, I jumped at the Chapter Ancients - Frag Cannons being able to fire effectively twice the turn they land was too good to pass off.

In they went into my new list

Jason was then my victim

And fight they did

Bit by bit, the Blood Angels was slowly clawing a win

And eventually win they did

Granted, this was with the help of some very Red Marines (I call them Blood Marines), the Chapter Ancients could really hit and kill anything that it landed next to.

Only after that when I played Alan that we realise that the shooting happens before the Dreadnaughts arrive. This meant that if they were coming in using Drop Pods, they can only activate the double shots in the second turn that they are on the table. This meant the Armour 12 Dreads had to sit outside their pods and probably cop it thus blunting the alpha strike I had in mind.

Ah well, back to the drawing board then.