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War Kitten wrote:As a fellow ultramarines player I love how your models are coming out, and as a prospective eldar player I'm interested to see where you take them. Nice work

Glad you like it. I should really take stock of the Eldar and formulate some sort of plan. Right now I’ve got piles of stuff bought either ~2 or ~20 years ago. Slowly painting it all, but no firm idea where to go.

GrimDork wrote:Good progress, I always did kind of loathe painting 50-60 point units for 40k

I think it would bother me less if they were points better spent, or the models weren’t quite as fiddly. But I just put a lot of effort into a unit that on a good day will strive towards mediocrity, and doesn’t put me a lot closer to being able to field a viable army. Although saying that, they are a low cost troop pick. I could use them for an allied detachment, with one of my newer HQs and the crimson hunter that need to see play.

As I said, I need to take stock of the Eldar, see what I have painted that could work into a list. And probably prioritize my paint queue to get some of the more vital stuff done.

Finished parts of the viper. I blacklined it with the pen this time (used a brush on the crimson hunter) Very easy, did not appear to damage the pen. Skipped out of the grove a few times, so needed some touch-ups, but the brush would need that anyway. Pilot/gunner and gun cradle are getting paint, basecoats are down on them though.



Big guy has a few coats down on him. 3-4 on the head and two on the body. Need to do the cables, and drybrush some silver on the guns. I might do a grey drybrush on the joints, just to get some more shade in there Feeling a little monochromatic ATM.

Nice to see that old elder dread being worked on. Loved those in the day and have painted quite a number myself over the years.

...And his arm fell off. God I hate this model, from an assembly/construction POV. I think I didn’t use enough blue in some of my greenstuff mixing, it was still a little gummy. That’s what I get for using hobby supplies over a decade or two old...

On the bright side, easier to paint with the arm not there!

Aesthetically, I like the model. And he should be fun to play. Wraithlords get a bad rep, but it’s mostly undeserved. If they didn’t share the codex with some of the horribly broken junk in the Eldar book, they would be fine.

Still no idea how I’d field him on the table. WYSWYG he’s got one flamer, one cat, and a single shoulder heavy slot. As I’m less strict on the WYSWYG for my eldar, I’m leaning for paired flamers at the very least. Not sure what to put on for real guns, or if the word is worth it.

Two flamers and a bright lance was always my favorite load-out... but then again back when I was playing Eldar I wasn't doing anything competitive.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Two flamers and a bright lance was always my favorite load-out... but then again back when I was playing Eldar I wasn't doing anything competitive.

I’m all for non-competitiveness. With Eldar where they are these days, I’m OK with seeding my list with a few sub-par choices. Makes up for all the bikes.

2 flamers and a bright lance is actually a decent loadout, I've seen it used and it can be pretty good

Really getting your teeth into those Eldar since I last checked in. I've never seen an old school WL before. The jury is still out on whether or not I like it...

Oh, and as cool as 2 companies would be. Dont do it! Get the toys, not the marines (resisted the urge to say boys) lol

War Kitten wrote:2 flamers and a bright lance is actually a decent loadout, I've seen it used and it can be pretty good

I’ve hear of people just running them naked as CC machines, and it sounds interesting. But I tend to stick as many brightlances as I can into my lists. Eldar should be able to shred anything that looks like a person with massed shurcat fire, tanks, particularly heavy ones, need something more.

Zambro wrote:Really getting your teeth into those Eldar since I last checked in. I've never seen an old school WL before. The jury is still out on whether or not I like it...

Oh, and as cool as 2 companies would be. Dont do it! Get the toys, not the marines (resisted the urge to say boys) lol

Don’t worry about the marines, they will get more love soon. But I figured I’ve got some drive to get Eldar painted, I should ride that for as long as it lasts. I think I like the concept of Eldar more then the actual painting of them. Such finicky minis.

The old WL has a lot of nostalgic charm, and I love him for it. But the new kit is so much better then the old metal one. Both in looks and material. Metal and tall, spindly, models are not a good mix. But I own the old guy, and not the new, so he gets built and painted.

The second company is (mostly) just a thought exercise. If GW/FW made 30k more accessible, it might happen though. I’m just not ready to slap down the cash for the 3-4 FW priced books I’d need to play, and that’s before picking up more models. But there are pics of plastic heresy era marine sprues out there, and if the rumored box is reasonable, that might happen.

But I do need more toys; especially tanks. A few more bikes would also be useful.

1-3 Whirlwinds
2+ bikes (for librarian, techmarine conversions, maybe command squad)
Vindicator
Scout bikes? Would be nice to have a larger squad a/o field 2 squads.
Cents (I know, they are kinda ugly, but the rules....)

Deathwatch shoulderpads (need 4)
Gravs/MM on PA bodies

Eldar, there is less on my “covet” list. Mostly just a fire prism. Although a third falcon for the formation is tempting. I’d love to get a unit or scorpions, or some new hawks, but not in finecast.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Do these two lists look to be reasonably balanced against each other? I’m trying to make a pair of 1,500 point lists out of my collection for a game, and want it to be reasonable, while also showcasing some of the new formations.

1st list: Mechanized Strikeforce

List #2, Gladius/10th

second edit: Went up to the FLGS, didn’t get a game in, but picked up a pot of black paint.

The new guy:


And with his ~20 year old buddy:


At some point in the far future, when I run out of things to paint, all of my Blackwash Everything! minis are going to get stripped and re-done. But they are fieldable, so get to live for now. While the Vyper only adds roughly the same number of points to my list as the rangers, it was much easier to paint. It helps that it’s got almost no detail. That is one perk of working with old models.

WL is basically done. I need to decide if I want to put transfers on him, or try some freehand. And then glue him back together. Again. One of his legs went a little wobbly. Then I need to base him. I’ve got some green flock purchased at roughly the same time as my RTB01 marines. That stuff doesn’t go bad, does it?

Flock going bad? Surely not. Just stick your nose really close and sniff, to make sure its not moldy

Viper looks solid, looking forward to the wraithlord.

Like the red on the Vyper, looks good.

The Vyper is looking great. Nice work

Thanks for the kind words all.

I realized as I was doing the final assembly on the vyper that I forgot to do his slash/chevron. I think I might leave him plain though. I like the clean look on him. I can always go back and add it later.



WL is glued together (again). Well, his head is just set on for now. I figured it would be easier to do decals if separate. Base has a layer of goblin green down, ready for flock. I think I’m going to keep the black rims, as that will tie all my armies together. It was very tempting to go full retro with them.



This box or flock and moss has been hanging out forever. Hand me down supplies from a friend when he went off to college in the early 90s. Part was used when I based my undead in the mid 90s, but otherwise has been sitting neglected.

Some tinkering on the workbench:


I picked up some (very strong) ring magnets at the hardware store a while ago in an attempt to make flight stems for my speeders that could actually bank and pivot. Used some round headed furniture tacks to try to duplicate the ball and socket stem. Didn’t work (not enough friction to keep it upright). However, I’ve found a new use for them. One of the problems with magnetizing the flight stems on speeders, and more importantly grav tanks, is the mass. While bikes are small enough that they can work with just a magnet sunk into them, the larger guys need a little physical support to keep them from tipping over. This setup gives them that. As long as the magnets don’t sheer of the flight stem, which happens if I don’t build them right. My fix is to brush a little superglue around the join after the initial drop glueing the magnet to the top has dried. Seems to work.

I also worked a bit on the turret. I was debating ways to magnetize it so I could pop it off easily for transport. In the end I just glued the attachment peg inside the tank, and just loosened up the slot for it in the turret, so it goes on easier and still pivots.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekends!

--Nev

Hmm I haven't tried the ring magnets yet. I know if you use a ball magnet with a flat disk to make a ball/socket joint you have to use greenstuff/putty to make a larger contact area... but that doesn't seem to be your problem with the ring type magnet.


Enjoy your weekend too

I looked into the idea of ball magnets, but was unsure how to actually get them to connect to the flight stem without a lot of work. Plus I’d have to special order them, and much prefer to be able to grab things off a shelf at a brick and mortar store.

Set up the tripod for a photo shoot:


So another month’s challenge complete. Let’s see if just participating will keep me in the top ten for another month.

On the paint bench I’d started work on the brightlances I set up for the waveserpent (mostly so the WL can use one) as well as the AsC arm for the ven dread. With the ability to squadron them, I think it might be fun to field a trio of dreads all with assault cannons. Effective? Probably not. But fun I’ll put money on.

Looking back, I got a lot of stuff done this month. Far more then I expected. 4 Rangers, the Vyper, and the Wraithlord. Unlike the rangers, which were a lot of work for very few points, the WL was reasonably easy to paint, and adds about 135 points to the tally. 150 if I count him as 2xflamer, 2xBL (even though he only has one on his shoulder) Trucking right along getting those Eldar painted; let’s see if I can keep up some sort of momentum here.

Although there will be at least one marine this next month. Chainsword Captain is going to be my entry for “Never tell me the odds!” While I’m sure there are going to be a half dozen or so dioramas that outshadow him, I like his attitude of charging headlong forward, regardless of what’s in front of him. Much like me entering the comp in the first place

Well, I use flat disk magnets with steel ball bearings. I'd say you could get them at a local bicycle shop but you'd probably give an arm or a leg whereas I got mine for just a few bucks on amazon. I dunno that it would work for flight stands though.

Maybe X-Wing flight stands, but you lose a fair amount of power going from magnet=magnet to magnet=steel.

Wraithlord works. Nice and simple, pew pew punch punch.

Works for me. Like the boulder on the base.

Looking good!

Thanks guys.

OK, Wednesday night means a trip up to the FLGS, and this time, I actually managed to get a game in. Well, part of one; we ended on turn three, as the guys had to head to their weekly RPG session.

1k teams, Ravenguard and myself vs. Khorn demonkin and necrons. Here is the catch: I put 1k of painted Eldar down!



And setup:

Not pictured is another ghost arc, two forgefiends, some wraiths, and their flyers: 2 helldrakes and a necron one (that never showed up)
Mission was the two objective one, ours is under the guardians, theirs in near the middle of the table. We opted to go second.

Their first turn was to rush forward and some ineffective shooting. On our turn my flacons move to the sides to attempt to crack open the barges (ineffectually all game) while the rest of our forces move up the middle to deal with the khorn lord/dogs, the two fiends, and the wraiths. We blow a chunk of the dogs out of the unit, and charge in with the vanguard vets and the WL. Due to some hilarious dice rolling, all but the lord and one dog is killed in CC, and I think only one or two marines die.

Second turn one drake shows up, and flamers shrike and his squad, blowing the squad away. Wraiths charge and take the chin gun and a HP off of a falcon. Fiend cracks a rhino open, and marines pour out. Lord CC sees a chunk of marines dead, and the last dog. Some fire at the vypers cause them to jink and loose a HP. I opt to use the autarch to help the Crimson hunter show up, and he does. Zips up the side of the table, vector dances to get a clean shot at the back of the drake, and blows it out of the sky. We also finish off the wraiths, and I pop on of the fiends with a brightlance shot. CC turns ugly. WLs are mean and all, but I was rolling kinda crappy, they have no invuln save, and he had some sort of ID weapon, snaked a wound in, and POP! One marine staggers away from the combat.

Turn three the second drake shows up. Rather then VS the hunter, he heads for the de-rhinoed tac squad lined up in a perfect template formation. He also cashes in his blood pool for a thirster. Ouch. Khorne lord charges the autarch and snuffs him. Some more random shooting from the necrons, whiffing vs. the hunter, but killing one of the falcons. Our turn sees the hunter swing in behind the other drake and like the one before it, drops it from the sky. We blow up the other fiend, and shrike and the last vet charge the lord (and die).

At this point we call it for time. From what’s left on the table, things look to be going well for team evil, so we were going to hand them the win. But then we realized that he was doing the armor on his lord wrong all game (it’s not a 2+) so we call it a draw.

Fresh paint report (and there is a lot of it)
Wraithlord: I fielded him with a pair of brightlances and duel flamers. He shot pretty well, but was very lackluster in CC. Not up for tangling with a tooled up Knorne lord. Some psychic buffs might have helped, or a less lethal opponent. Still, I feel he pulled his weight.
Autarch: He was here for the reserve roll, which was ultimately unnecessary, but could have been. He was only lightly equipped, and once again, not a match for a serious CC monster. I should have had him flitting about hunting softer targets. I was hoping for necrons, but we never got them out of the arcs. He felt like a waste, and I would have been better off with a farseer.
Rangers: I had low expectations, but they were met. Sat and plinked. If I was thinking better, and knew my opponent’s army better, I would have focused on the cultist mob to try to get the sarge before he grew into a thirster. Only one objective in this game on our side to camp, so they just hung out in the middle.
Crimson Hunter: This guy was hot death in the sky. Sure, he’s made of paper, but the flyers rules make it hard to hit, and the one turn he ate ground fire, I just relied on poor rolling from my opponent. 6’s to hit, followed by 6’s to glance from a barge full of crons was a lot of dice, but ultimately did nothing. I probably should have lost a HP, but it would not have changed things.
Vypers: OMG the dakka! Paired shuicannons puts a huge amount of fire downrange. For their points these guys were nasty.
While not technically fresh paint, this was also the first time I used my 1.5 sized KRX’s to bring armies to the FLGS. I has also packed 1k of marines, and rather then having both armies intermingled in 3 cases, I was able to keep each side in their own box.

Other notes: I need more brightlances, for the falcons. The scatter lasers did literally nothing all game. If I’m taking them primarily for anti-armor, the scats might help vs. rhinos and other soft targets, but were useless vs. the AV13 I was trying to crack open.

Modeling note: Need to go back to the drawing board for the flight stems on the falcons. While they worked in the controlled environments of my bench, the ring magnets are stronger then the superglue holding the little ones on the stems. Both sheared off, one during play, the other when packing up.

Painting note: I put a layer of yellow down on a fire dragon. It made me realize how much I hate painting things yellow. So I’m entertaining alternative thoughts for a new scheme for them. I’ve seen some nice ones done in blacks and reds, but worry that it might be too close to how I paint my guardians. Thoughts?

1k points of painted eldar!! Congrats

I know what you mean about the stems on the skimmers. I tried magnetising them on the jetbikes and wave serpents I did. It worked ok on my desk, but any bump or knock broke them off. I honestly couldn't think of an alternative.

What about orange and black for the FD?

Yeah do something lava-ish for the dragons. Like black armor but with hot-orange edge highlights. Or maybe a hard drybrush of red/orange, then yellow edges. Something like that, depends on your style. If you work towards orange/yellow, it shouldn't blend to easily with the red of the rest of your guys.

Also grats on the 1k painted

Game sounded fun, wish I could play games like 40k locally. My luck, there would be games but it would be 'bring the best dataslate/formation or don't bother unpacking to save time' competitive or whatever.

If I do an orange/red undersuit, with black armor plates, that might make for a lava-esque look. Maybe orange helms. Hmm, something to consider.

The bikes and vypers do fine on their stems. They are light enough not to require more then just the duel magnet join to keep them up. Too much torque on the tanks though. Might be worth looking into a flat headed bolt for the magnet to grip. Once The Boy is back to school, I might head to the hardware store and just poke around looking at bits.

I should have done more painting this weekend, but made the mistake of starting a Civ V game. And forgot that last time I played, I restricted the victory conditions available. It would also help if I was more of a warmonger, I tend not to go for the crushing military victory, even if I have the upper hand.

I asked earlier in this thread, but it looks like it got auto-appended. So I started a thread over in the army list section and I’ll ask here again:

Do these two lists look to be reasonably balanced against each other? I’m trying to make a pair of 1,500 point lists out of my collection for a game, and want it to be reasonable, while also showcasing some of the new formations. A friend is swinging through town, hasn’t picked up the new SM codex yet, so I want to make a fun pair of lists to face off against each other. They don’t need to be competitive per-sae, just a reasonably fun battle. While everything is painted blue, Chapter Tactics are flexible. Whichever one I’m using will obviously be Ultramarines, but the drop list could play as Imp. Fists, and the mech list would work as a White Scars list. I can tinker around with the lists until late Tuesday, but game is going to be mid Wednesday, so I need to have things finalized by then.

1st list: Mechanized Strikeforce


List #2, Gladius/10th


Or for the more visual among you:
This--

vs. this--

Congrats on the 1K of painted Eldar.

The two lists look reasonable to me, speed and maneuverability vs more static more firepower. At least to me it does, but I haven't played in a long time so have no idea how those units would actually work on the table.

Very interesting pairing, though I'd give the edge to army #1.

Honestly, I like the look of both lists. And would happily play either as is.

However, I agree that list 1 has the advantage on list 2. The 10 bikes gives it an edge, and the scout contingent might be sub par. I'm not sure how you could balance it out without removing the scout contingent.

The goal was to get a few different formations on the table, and I wanted to avoid a mirror match with two demi-companies.

The drop pod list is going to have the advantage in the alpha strike. Higher early game mobility. Also a significant advantage in boots on the ground vs. the more elite veteran list. A little light on AV fire, with the LC devs and the melta tacs being the basis, with some CC to back it up.

The mech list has a lot more mobility on the table, and a higher caliber of units. But not a lot of durability. And with the drop pod alpha strike, I think that might be an issue.

Think replacing a bike squad (probably the plas/grav one) with a 5 man tac squad in a razor would help?

Good work Nevelon. Each lissst looks tasssty.

You know Nev... I wouldn't. While I'd give an edge to the first list, it's not an overwhelming one. Give that one to your friend which will help compensate for his lack of experience the new dex. It should work out fine.