Author: Joe B

Mentor Legion Squad WIP – Part 2

Published by Joe B

Although I was hoping to get some feedback on my first cut at my Mentor Legion Squad before continuing I decided to press on and finish the squad. As I picked up my paintbrush I realized that this was the first time I had done any painting for nearly 3 months! And man could I tell, my hands were somewhat shaky, the paint wasn’t smooth and my hands kept cramping up. After a few sessions I was able to get some good progress on the squad and regain some of the painting mojo. I almost didn’t post this next picture as it looks like a elementary school kid slapped the some paint on so that they could be played in a store… ugh. But oh well, here is some WIP shots of the squad: Here I blocked out the different colors to both get an idea of what goes where, as well as cover up all the white primer in all the little nooks withoutÂ worryingÂ about getting paint where it doesn’t belong. Colors are pretty simple: …

Lizardmen Salamanders

Published by Joe B

Lizards, check… lizards prodding larger lizards intoÂ battle, check those same larger lizards can breath fire, CHECK! These are all the reasons to love the salamanders, well that and they are actually pretty darn good game wise too. The breath weapons just got a boost with 8th edition as well now that every thing is hit that touches the flame template, and with the increase in large units this couldÂ potentialityÂ doÂ monstrousÂ damage! I almost always run the unit as a pair to get redundancy in shooting as well as close combat. Inevitably one of the salamanders will decide to get hungry at the wrong moment and eat a skink instead of frying up that nice, juicy enemy unit, but hopefully both won’t decide to do the same and some fire can still be thrown. I often spend the extra 10 points to add two more handlers as well since the pesky salamanders seem to take a liking to skink flesh.Â FortunatelyÂ it only takes 1 skink to keep both beasts in line so even if I lose the other 7 …

Another Side Project: Mentor Legion – WIP

Published by Joe B

A long while back my FLGS was doing a challenge to paint a unit from every Space Marine Chapter on the poster that GW put out a few years back. I looked into my bitz boxes and realized I had quite a few loyal space marine pieces that I needed to put a use to and decided to jump in. I wanted to chose a chapter that would be fun to paint, but require me to stretch my painting skills. With this requirements, the Mentor Legion caught my eye as they are a not-often played army (at least from what I’ve seen) and had white armor (which I heard was difficult to paint well). To further challenge my self I decided that I would minimize my use of washes on this army and work on blending and layering. I decided to start with the sergeant the squad as the test model since it is a bit more ok if he stands out slightly from the rest of the squad. I think the white armor came …

Lizardmen Stegadon – old school style!

Published by Joe B

Some more old-school lizard goodness! Ranking as the hardest to-hold-together model, the OOP Stegadon displays the main of the issues with metal models: size = cost, higher cost = less margin, less margin = unhappy stock holders. Once I get around to buying the new plastic kit I’ll have to take a picture of them side-by-side but I am willing to guess that the old stegadon is at least half the size of the new one. Then you have the howdah, not only is it so small it is hard to fit even 5 skinks in there, but it connects to the stegadon at a very small point, causing it to break off time, and time again… which is part of the reason I hardly ever play with the model. Tactic wise I have had mixed results with the Stegadon in 7th edition and not sure how well it will work at all in 8th with the changes to many of the rules. The basic stegadon (which is the only one I’ve used) is simply …

Saurus Warriors – The Lizardmen Pillars

Published by Joe B

The Saurus Warriors are the backbone of the Lizardmen army. They are tough and they are mean. With toughness of 4 and a 4+ save they can take pretty good beating and even once they do it is hard to fail a leadership test of 8 using the cold blooded rule. With two attacks atÂ strengthÂ 4 they are also a great unit on the offence as well. I usually run two units of 20 with full command which acts as the focal point of my army. They attract the attention of the larger enemy units while my Skinks run around and pick off monsters and the like while the cold oneÂ calvary take a flank. Currently both of my units are armed with only hand weapons but for 20 more points I could add 4 more attacks from the unit, something I’ll have to consider for the next unit build. One of the things that I found really helpful for my units is toÂ magnetizeÂ the base which keeps the banner bearer from falling over and troops from flying …

Iron Warriors Vindicator

Published by Joe B

So this is one that I’ve have done for a long time but seem to have failed to capture it on film. Personally I really like the vindicator and put it in nearly every army list. Sure it is a one-trick pony with its one big gun but no matter what it hits, it is gonna hurt. In objective missions I’ll often leave the vindicator in reserve to give the enemy time to move towards my objectives. Once the tank rolls on it should be able to find a nice juicy target to demolish. [amazonify]B0010A1AHQ[/amazonify]

Skink Heroes

Published by Joe B

Skink heroes seem to be often looked in favor or the mightier Suarus Scar-Vets or used only as Slann sight-glasses. Used correct Skink Chiefs can be perfect wizard hunters,Â war-machineÂ destroyersÂ orÂ Â a great boost for hunting Skinks. With their movement of 6 they can get where they are needed quickly and with 3 attacks at I6 and S4 they will often strike the first blows against their intended target. Add in the Bane head to double wounds on a specific character and the Burning Blade to punch through armor and even the little skink can take much larger foes down. In 7th edition, Skink Priests were often used as anÂ extensionÂ of the Slann’s eyes and perhaps dropping a thunderbolt here and there. The can only pick from Lore of the Heavens which had some great spells but also some not-so-great spells. With the revamp of spells and magic system, the Skink priest has theÂ potentialÂ of laying some smack down with chain lightning or the comet or really messing with theÂ enemiesÂ plans by making a unit re-roll all their 6’s. Those of …

Lizardmen Scar-Veteran

Published by Joe B

Next up in my Lizardmen showcase is the Scar-Veteran. While not the most powerful hero in the game, he is a solid character at only 85 points base.With S/T of 5 most troops won’t wound him on less than a 5 while he’ll wound on 2’s. My standard upgrades include the Sword of the Hornet, Enchanted shield and light armor. This gives him a 2+ save and always strikes first. Tactics are pretty straight forward: place him in a unit of Saurus and charge the toughest unit the enemy has. Between his 4 attacks and the 13 S4 attacks of the unit, entire ranks of enemy areÂ knocked down and eaten. The scenic base was more of aÂ necessityÂ as this model is very front heavy and would often fall forward when I moved the unit or placed on any sort of downward slope. I built up the rock mound with flash from the metal kits to create a bit more weight to the base then covered it with green stuff and contoured it to create a jutting …

Slann Mage-Priest

Published by Joe B

To introduce my Lizardmen army I could think of no better model that the Slann in charge! My starting steps in to the Warhammer hobby was the 5th edition Fantasy box with Bretonia and Lizardmen (an odd combination to be sure!). While I no longer have the Bretonian army, the old lizards are still part of my favorite fantasy army. I mean who wouldn’t want to take an army that has angry toads as the lord andÂ dinosaursÂ as their pawns? Before 5th edition 40k sucked me away from fantasy, the Lizardman army was my rock solid force. Saurus are dependable, between their cold-blooded leadership tests, toughness 4, and 4+ armor saves they could take a beating and return it in kind. And the skinks! I have an entire army of them and man can they do some damage. With the changes to skirmishers they may have a tougher time, but that is yet to be seen. Any way, I’ve lost myself on a tangent… the Slann Mage Priest! I do agree that the latest army book …

How to Paint Iron Warriors a Painting Tutorial and Guide

Published by Joe B

The Iron Warriors were my first 40k army. I picked them in part because they had a simple painting guide int he 3rd edition Codex. Both my painting skills, as well as the hobby, have changed since then. But here is my updated guide to how to paint Iron Warriors. I’ve broken down how I paint Iron Warriors in six detailed sections on the specific parts of the model. How to Paint Iron Warriors Part 1: The Metals Following on my step-by-step paint guides for my Sorcerer and Fabius Bile I figured it was time to do one for the bread and butter of my army: the Iron Warrior. I’ve broken this down into multiple parts to give more detail in each step. So first up is the metals. This is the prominent feature of any Iron Warrior: iron/silver armor and gold trim. It is also the messiest stage which is why I always do it first. Step 1: Primer I always prime my Iron Warriors black. If anyone has tried to paint metallic over …

Book Review: Iron Warrior by Graham McNeill

Published by Joe B

Being a bit of a fan of the Iron Warriors I was super excited when I heard about the new novella from Black Library titled “Iron Warrior“. This is another Graham McNeill store featuring Honsou and the Ultramarines continuing after the end of “Dead Sky, Black Sun.” Iron Warriors Book Review: Short Story and Disappointing Pictures The biggest selling point that got me to shell out the extra for this little book was the description that the book is “filled with many pieces of artwork, both illustrations and full-color portraits” which made me visualize an Index Astartes type of production. This ended up being my biggest disappointment of the book, the quality of the illustrations were more of the ’80 GW style of cartoony creations, but with hazard stripes to make themÂ authentic Iron Warriors. Also, half the illustrations were of Ultramarines or imperial warriors, which is great to fill in the story and space but was disappointing when I was looking forward to a book featuring, I don’t know, maybe the Iron Warriors? The colored …

Chaos Sorcerer Done

Published by Joe B

Another step to finishing the Golden Throne challenge, my Chaos Sorcerer is not finished. I’m not completely happy with how he turned out but for now he is done, perhaps I’ll come back to him and touch him up. Tzeentch has always been my favorite of the Chaos powers so naturally I did this sorcerer in the colors of the master of change.Â The challenge is to have him still fit in with the rest of my army. I’m not sure how well this comes off in the end though. As with Fabius, I took step-by-step pictures: I wasn’t sure what colors I was going to paint where so I “blocked” out the main colors to get an idea of how it would fit together. Next up is 3 squads of bikers for my fast attack. I’m hoping to do this much quicker than the models to date, the Golden Throne Challenge is half over and I have 2/3s of the models left to paint.