A Weekend of Conquest

So my 40 days of 40k culminated in attending the South Islands main 40k event of the year, Conquest, in Christchurch. This years event attracted a field of 40 players from the 140 odd attending the multi-system weekend. This would be my first 40k tournament since 5th edition.

Sentinels of Terra, in all their glory!

My list consisted of a Fellblade, Sicarn with heavy bolter sponsons, Whirlwind Scorpius with Venteran of Keylek campaign, a Fire Raptor with Autocannon turrets, 2 10 marine Tactical squads with melta, combi-melta in drop pod, 1 10 marine Sternguard squad in drop pod, and a Master of the forge with 2 servitors.

Played Daryl first with his zombie hoard and C'tan mix. Ended up putting 22 wounds on the C'tan only for him to ward save 21 of them... He had gone first so the last turn was mine to steal the objectives and gain a win taking both primary and secondary objectives 7-2

Josh was up next with his Deathwing terminators. He deep struck them all in my side first turn. The Fellblade turn its attention to one squad taking a large tool only to be assaulted by josh turn 2 with his Warlord and escort, however when the Fellbade exploded, ony resulting in a st2 hit on the unit, I still managed to cause 2 wounds to his Warlord killing him! I spent the rest of the game running off with the relic throwing combat squads between me and the terminators eventually tableing my opponent. Josh was the only person to kill the Fellblade at the tournament. 9-2

JD had a hoard of Orks which suited my template numbers well. I had first turn taking big chunks out of his hoard. I put my drop pods on objectives early and managed to maintain the dominance. A last turn push by JD to contest some failed giving me both primary and secondary objectives. The Fire Raptor took a huge toll on his light vehicles. 9-1

Tim Adams and his very nicely painted space puppies where next up (ooooh do I hate space puppies!). Tim decided early on to ignore the Fellblade, which probably cost him the game. Got a good hit off with the Scorpios Whirlwind on his wolf riders, a cheeky shot from the Fellblade's accelerator cannon killed his Achilles, and terrible luck with his drop pods didn't help. I even managed to 1 shot overwatch a charge from his dread with a tactical marine using his melta gun... 9-1 win

Final round, and I unexpectedly find myself table 2 and within 3 points of the top. Karn's Eldar did not fair any better than the rest. Poison from the Sternguard help clean out the Avatar and Wraith Knight, Scorpios Whirlwind got 4 hits on a Nightweaver, and then proceeded to roll 4 's for pen before dieing to combined firepower of the war walkers. The Fire Raptor almost went down in flames after getting a  immobilized result from being shot by the Eldar flier, but then the Fellblade exacted revenge by snapfiring a quad lascannon and exploding it mid air. 9-2

So a rather eventful weekend after staying up to 4am Friday night painting everything in preparation. After only 2 games of 7th before the tournament I managed to come first place to my surprise. I boil it down to all the ruthless WHFB tournaments preparing me! 

Thanks to Wes for taking the time to run a great event and to all my opponents for 5 good games.

40 days of 40k - Crunch time...

With a little over 4 days to get the army finished I have made some reasonable progress over the long weekend. Still heaps to go, however I now am only looking to get everything to a similar level of completion. I doubt I will have time to move onto the pigments or mud/dust effects.

Sicaran ready for sponsons and turret. 

Ive done all the transfers and filter, however still a little bit of work to get the filter shade right. 

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Still need to work on the tracks before moving onto the rust streaks and weathering powders. 

 

The Fire Raptor has made a bit of progress to. Its at the same stage as the Sicaran. 

I need to work on some edge highlights and weathering on the black sections, work on the streaks and add pigment to simulate atmospheric entry...

The ball turrets are still WIP, as is the canopy and interior

I also have got 10 Tactical marines mostly done to a similar level. No guns yet, that's tonight's project

Close up on the MKIV armour

And then there's old yella'. You can see how difference in the yellow before the filter is applied.

Basically all that's been done here is track base coat and chipping in the yellow. Still plenty of work to go here...

So in addition to the above, I have 3 drop pods, 10 more Tactical Marines, 10 Sternguard and a Master of the Forge with Servitors to complete... They are all at varying stages

40 days of 40k - 10 days left!

Fellblade assembly is finally finished!

The tracks where rather difficult to get aligned and straight. I had to make a few new links as noted by the greenstuff

I chose to used plastic rhino doors as the resin ones where rather warped.

You can spot the magnet in the weapon sponson to enable me to swap out weapon systems. I have done this with all my tanks

Close up of the fixed commanders cupola. 

Yes I even went to the effort of replacing all the rivets that where removed as a consequence of having to rebuild the surrounding area

Finishing touches, I drilled out the gun barrels and smoke stacks. I think it makes it look a lot better.

Time for some black stuff

I've fitted the weapon sponsons and fuel barrels

The air brush makes projects like this achievable!

And now for a bit of German Red Brown. This is the first stage for my chipping effects

You can see the demolisher cannon has had the same treatment with the power drill

I have also manager to magnetize the main canon. The fit is still very tight so will need to shave some more off the pivot

This thing is huge!

The business end... Very pleased with how it has turned out after a good 20+ hours of work getting to this stage

Oh yes I also made some more progress on the rest of the army. All that's left to do now is clean the Sterguard and prep for paint. Assembly is over... 10 days to paint it all...

Oh yeah, got some Yellow done as well. First 2 coats, one more to go then time to attack it with the stippling brush and sculpting tools...

40 days of 40k

Another quick update. Time is slowing for nobody and I am into day 24 with little progress to show...
And here's one of the reason's why

I've had to rebuild the entire hatch area thanks to a sagged mold. No chance of bending it into shape as the turret is one solid lump of resin. I had to saw off the hatch and build up the area around it with greenstuff.

Here it is finished after several nights work. I'm still not happy with it but thats more to do with the ammo rack.

You can see on this picture the ammo rack has a bend in the middle. It looks odd to me and its not something that heat will bend out of it.

This model has been a complete nightmare, almost as bad as the Storm Eagle. I still need to replace the rivets that have been sanded off but I'm almost done with it, more out of shear frustration with the model. Forgeworld why can't you have decent quality control for products you send half way around the world!

Bit of black got on last night. Aiming for some red tonight then some varnish... 

A little over two weeks to paint the entire army for Conquest now, and I still have to finish off 8 Tactical Marines and 10 Sternguard.

40 days of 40k

Getting into the flow of things now. Please excuse the bad lighting!

On the right is the marine all base coated and shaded, ready for chipping/weathering.

On the left is a marine after I have completed chipping, and applied enamel washes to aid in giving it a worn/ weathered look. 

The next step will be applying some pigments after I clean up a little of the blotchy streaks. The pigments will be applied once I base the model, and will be a red/brown dusty effect to signify the campaign on Mars that liberated the loyal Mechanicus and some equipment circa M30.

Let me know what you think? I do like the end result but am unsure if it has come across to dark or not.

Lots more yellow marines to paint...

40 days of 40K

Its been a week so far on this little side journey from my usual flavour of plastic krak, so what better time than to post some updates!

 I've been busy this last week making up several kits including a Sicaran, 3 Predators, 2 Vinidcators, 2 Drop Pods, a Land Raider Protos, 30 Devastators 10 Assault and 20 Tactical Marines in MkIV armour + some assorted Mechanicus infantry.

Over the weekend I got a chance to get some undercoats, basecoats and varnish on in preparation for the chipping mediums.

I've also ordered 10 Destroyer's and some brass Icons that I will use to make up some Sternguard. We'll see how well that goes...