Author: Joe B

Fabius Bile

Published by Joe B

Another classic model that I’ve had since third edition, Fabius Bile used to be a potentially amazing (or horrible) character – all his stats were D6 modified! One of my goals for this Golden Throne challenge (other than actually paint all the force org slots) is to try some different painting techniques.  For my terminators and obliterators I focused on the faces and tusks. For Fabius I wanted to try white power armor and even more practice on his face and fleshy robe. I know he is painted with a dark purple armor in the codex but I figured that since Fabius used to be the chaplain of the Emperor’s Children the traditional white armor would be fitting as well. Other than the armor and darker robe I tried to follow how the original GW Fabius looks. For both my own records and since I have been asked before how I paint different aspects of my army I also kept notes and took stage-by-stage pictures of Fabius. Next up is a Sorcerer to finish my …

Obliterators

Published by Joe B

I finished my Obliterators as well, which fills my heavy support slots for the Golden Throne painting challenge. Some of you old time players may recognize these classic sculpts by Dave Andrews, for those who didn’t play 3rd edition CSM behold the glory of old school Chaos: That’s right, these guys are so awesome they have guns out of their eyes, mouth and chest! They are smaller than the current models (they used to be on the smaller bases) but how could I pass up repainting these guys and putting them on the battlefield? One thing I did do with both of these and my terminators I just finished is a slightly different base colors. I had been doing grays for gravel for city besieging but it seemed to make the whole model more dull and blur with the silver. Instead I tried a more organic look with browner gravel and grass. I used graveyard earth for the base and highlighted with bleached bone added to it.  The grass is a mixture of GW’s scorched …

More IW Terminators Finished – Golden Throne Painting and ToEMP Final

Published by Joe B

Well I was happy to continue plodding along my with my Traitor Guard army (I have a handful of guys to add and half a dozen tanks to paint) but when I happened to stop by my local GW I was told about the Golden Throne painting challenge. Basically you get 6 weeks to fully paint a full force org chart. Although I do have plenty of guard to paint the was no way I could fill up a force org without buying a great deal of new guys. Instead I pulled out my old, metal Iron Warriors (the ones I painted many years back). I had already dunked a handful of them and after adding in the ones I was planning on adding to the green tank I am short only one bike of a full chart! It wouldn’t be a very competitive list (not sure the survivability of 3 man terminators and 5 man troop squads), but it fits the bill. The first selection filled, my Elites with three 3 man squads. Squad …

Army Finished and Tourny Results

Published by Joe B

Perhaps the title is a bit misleading, are any of our little plastic armies ever really finished? Perhaps not, but I completed the 2,000 point army I brought to the Seattle GT  including a display board for it. Two models that were last to be finished also completed (though very late) ToEMP #10: officer of the fleet and the company command’s chimera. The officer of the fleet is a real help against reserved based armies such as drop pod marines. During the tournament he wasn’t a game changer as none of my opponents relied on reserves, but then again maybe they just changed their tactics in response to him? The Chimera was used to protect my command squad with the invaluable Commander Creed. This tank was destroyed in nearly every game in the tournament but Creed was lost in only 2 of them, so I think all in all it was well worth its cost. As for my results? I achieved my goal for my first ever GT: win 2 games. In fact I even …

A Year in Review

Published by Joe B

After reading through December’s White Dwarf article about GW’s year in review I was inspired to look back on what I had accomplished this year. January The 14th Grand Company blog is started The Iron Warriors are started: Baneblade Dreadnaught Land Raider Captain Nestryx Raptors February Must have slept through this month! March The scratch built titan is started The Basilisk company is finished April Defilier Terminators A little progress on the titan Chaos Space Marine Squad May Another CSM troop squad done Three weeks in the hospital for appendicitis June The traitor guard army begins with Platoon Command The Warsmith is started My first 40k tourny, taking 2nd place July The Warsmith is painted The Traitor Guard grows with Platoon with lascannon support Seattle hits 90+ degree temperatures and I learn how to paint in the heat August Another platoon finished I join A Tale of Even More Painters and 73rd encourages many to finish those projects The Company command is finished and the traitor guard is a legit army A Leman Russ appears …

Another Tank Swells the Ranks – ToEMP #8 Done

Published by Joe B

I have just finished another tank to my growing horde of traitor guard. This one is the dreaded Leman Russ Demolisher with sponsoon plasma cannons. Indeed it is a pricy tank, but when it lets loose, it is sure worth it. Thanks to the Lumbering Behemoth rule it can move 6″ and still fire off the demolisher and a plasma cannon, ensuring the destruction of any squad unlucky enough to get in its way. The demolisher cannon is a kit bash using the Banehammer cannon that I didn’t use for my Baneblade. I had 4 Leman Russ kits, a built Leman Russ and an old built Leman Russ demolisher so I decided to build my own demolisher cannons to create two full squads of tanks, one of the traditional LR and another of demolishers (the other 4 tanks are built and painting has started so watch for them!) Every weapon on the tank is AP2, ensuring that anything that the tank hits will not get a armor save. I tried something different with the back …

Tanksgiving Indeed

Published by Joe B

Just got back from the Tanksgiving event at the local GW store, and wow there were a lot of tanks there. One gent alone brought 200+ IG, Eldar and Tau tanks, walkers and a few Avatars. Although our store didn’t have the most in the region (two others had 1,000+!) we tallied up 800 tanks, walkers, large targets, monsters and supper heavies. Now for some picts! First up the growing tank arsenal of the 14th Grand Company: And Group Shot #1 And shot #2 And more tanks! Sorry a few are a bit blurry, the camera was having some issues, but I think it gets the point across: a table full of tanks is crazy, but 4 tables full of tanks is crazier! Also if you take a look at my tanks you get a peak of what is on my painting bench and been keeping me busy: 5 more Russes and a Chimera to bulk up my traitors!

Tau Battle Suit – ToEMP #7a Done

Published by Joe B

I finished my body guard for the Shas’O. This is my second, and probably last for a while, Tau battle suit. Armed with a plasma rifle, missile pod and shield generator this suit can either hunt tanks or MEQs at range, while sticking around for a bit. This model is half of my submission for ToEMP #7 which earns me: Large model: 2 pts Icons/Marks: 1 pnt Beating deadline: 2pnts Meating Deadline: 2pnts Total: 7 points! I am also finishing up the second entry for Challenge #7 and here is the sneak peak:

Something New: Tau – ToEMP #6

Published by Joe B

Although I’m not sure if I will ever build up a full army, I succumbed to the desire to own a mecha army.  I like the idea and look of the Tau army so I thought I’d try out painting a few before committing.  After buying the codex and spending a few days searching Google Images I decided on the blue suits but wanted a worn and dirty look. I was inspired very much buy this guy on Advanced Tau Tactica. Although I enjoyed painting this model, the battle suite models (I built another to escort the Shas’O) it is poorly designed and had a bunch of voids that needed filling. Even discarding the minor conversion work, I still needed to use a great deal of green stuff to smooth out the armor. The armament was chosen more out of looks and “coolness” than perhaps competitiveness. I like the idea of the ion blaster, although (and maybe perhaps because) it is unpredictable and using the droid as the shield generator just looks cool. Although  I …

Nothing Like a Big Game to Get Excited Again

Published by Joe B

So I haven’t really been that active in the 40k world this last month for many reasons, one of which was a low excitement for the hobby. This was in part due to not playing a game in nearly 2 months. In the last two weeks though I have had the chance to play my traitor guard twice and took part in a ridiculously huge Apocalypse game. My traitor guard played brilliant and pulled off a win in the last turn in both games. The first was against a small, elite space marine bike army that hit hard but was brittle. Highlight of that game was one of my platoon commanders surviving an assault of 3 bikers and in return cutting all three down with his power weapon! Game two was against a drop pod army hurt the turn it came in but lacked any mobility. Highlight of that game was my banewolves coming in from reserve and toasting an entire tactical squad. In revenge my opponent dropped his sternguard squad with 8 (yes eight!) …

Missile Launcher Squad – ToEMP #4 Done

Published by Joe B

Well I was hoping to have finished both this squad as well as the mortar squad for the 4th ToEMP challenge, but alas, I got distracted yet again. The 4th challenge was 60 points of what ever we felt like, as long as we gave a reason why we chose what we did. I picked this squad (and wanted to finish the mortar squad) because they are the “last” troops I need to paint for my traitor guard.  And when I say last, we all know that means: “all I currently have at this time, until I get inspired to buy more plastic crack…” Any way onto the pictures: I want my traitor guard to be colorful, but not over the top with mutations and such (the Iron Warriors really don’t like that type of thing). For the fourth challenge I earn: Foot sloggers x6: 6 points Meeting deadline: 2 points Total Points: 8 Total to date: 69 Hmm I didn’t really push my self to much for this challenge did I? One of my …