Forgeworld Friday! New Cataphracti Kits and Alpha Legion Upgrades

Forgeworld rarely let us down and this Friday is no exception. We are getting some new Cataphracti weapons kits and the Alpha Legion Headhunters get a kit to upgrade your regular troops.

The Alpha Legion Headhunters are upgrades to your existing kits rather than full kits themselves - I can't decide if that works out better financially - probably not always depending on what you have lying around the work bench. Dad Dave saw these in the 'flesh' yesterday at WarhammerWorld and thinks the detailing is some of Forgeworlds best. I have to say that they certainly look that way. Here's what FW say:

The most secretive of all Legions, the Alpha Legion developed the original Seeker Squads. Tasked with eliminating the enemy’s command structure, the tactics and training of this unique unit type were perfected by the XXth Legion with the formation of Headhunter Kill Teams.


The Cataprachti Kits look great and expands the range of choices for these very popular terminators. I don't have any (yet) as my current style of painting favours the flatter surface areas of the Tartarus Terminators, but maybe later this year...Here's what FW say:

Today also sees the release of two new upgrade sets designed for Cataphractii Terminators, specifically for the plastic Cataphractii pattern Terminators you’ll find in The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth. One set is made up of five power axes and the arms to weild them, and the other includes thunder hammers, power mauls, combi-weapons, a reaper autocannon, and a plasma blaster. Awesome weapons of war for your Terminators, arm yours today!

Part 4: For Sparta!

Ok, Rich has given his update, so I thought I better give mine.

Reading Rich's post I have realised that we really are using completely different approaches to painting our Spartans. Rich is all airbrushes and chipping fluid, mine is more old skool, using a brush and a sponge.

I've already run through the undercoating, base coating and dry-brushed highlighting.

Next I have painted on the metals, using on Boltgun Metal for the silver and Balthasar Gold. I found this particular gold gave a nice rich colour and good coverage.

Next I have washed on some blue glaze to simulate oxidisation on to the areas that would get hot, such as the exhausts and lascannons. Yeah, it's not a swish as the airbrushed effects I've seen but it's quick, subtle and looks pleasing. Having kids = less hobby time which pushes you more towards using quick, good looking technique rather than slower, amazing looking techniques, if you ever want to have an army finished!

I have also sponged on some black paint to simulate weathering, and some dark brown paint to simulate dirt.

This week I also started playing with Games Workshop's technical paints. There's two in particular I am going to use on the Spartan. the first being Stirland Mud. I want to add dirt to the tracks on my tanks and figured I'd give this a go. Being in the hobby for so long I have tried various textured paints over the years with mixed results, so I'll admit that I was wary of this product.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. I first applied it to the base for my contemptor (post to come...), and thought it was a bit too subtle, but after applying two coats it actually looks fantastic and gave good coverage. What I would say is that, yes, it does need two coats, but wait until the first coat is dry or at least tacky before applying a second otherwise it just moves around in clumps. On the contemptor base I think I'll dry brush it, but I possibly won't here on the tank.

I haven't finished the tracks yet, but here is where I am at so far. I've also applied pack markings and painted bits of the lascannons gold, in the picture below.

Lastly, today was a boy day here at Dad Dave HQ. I thought I'd share what we got up to as we at Four Dads talk a lot about the hobby not much about being dads. First me and Logan went to soft play for two hours (standard procedure, get the physical exercise in early so he flakes out later on!). Logan took his toy drill and spent the whole time 'fixing' things whilst singing Bob the Builder!

Then for lunch, me and Logan hit Warhammer World. Living only 10 minutes away from 40k Mecca does have it's benefits! The food is good, they have highchairs in Bugmans, and I really can't ever fault their service in the bar when I take Logan along (even if some of the store staff can be a bit grumpy with him when he's touching boxes of plastic space men...). The waitress today even came and took my order from the table so I could keep an eye on him (i.e. stop him from diving head first off the chair he was clambering on), which is beyond what I would expect.

Today at WhW there seemed to be a lot of people playing 30k and Warhammer (not AoS, proper 8th edition Warhammer, I could tell by the rule books). There were some really good looking 30k armies, some of those larger Mechanicum tanks look amazing when painted well. Logan loves looking at the scenery on the boards and the miniatures being played with. I think he'll make a fine 40k player in the future. I also got to see some of the Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team kits first hand and they look better than the pictures. So tempted...

That's it from me this week. Let me know what you think of the GW technical paints.

Dave

Book Review: The Underworld War - Aaron Demski-Bowden

Book Review: The Underworld War by Aaron Demski-Bowden



You might not recognise the title, but this is my favourite short story within The Mark Of Calth collection (edited by Laurie Goulding).

The book is light on combat but explores the effect of the change from human to Astartes and more specifically the change from Astartes to one of the Gal Vorbak; I thought this was a nice little study. ADB describes successful humans who become Astartes as 'once human' and defines their ability to leave former lives behind as critical in this accepting fully the duties of the Legion without question or fear. He takes this further by looking at the make-up of a Gal Vorbak.

The Ultramarines are absent as ADB focuses on one Word Bearer Sergeant Jerudai Kaurtal. He is a likeable character (for a filthy traitor!) who displays honour and the ability to think for himself aside from the dogma of his Legion.

This independence of thought leads him to consider himself abandoned on Calth and he vows to collect icons of all the fallen Chapters and return them to his Legion so their sacrifice is never forgotten.

I love how ADB give a sense of a pointless war of attrition and he tells us that Kaurtal lost his first boltgun 6years 246 days ago and that he has scavenged 13 since then! He paints a picture of a pointless war which the Ultramarines are winning.

We get to see the Word Bearer wrestle for control with the daemon inside him, and see him retain his Astartes-ness within his own mind, never giving in fully to the daemon.

The book ends with a great plot twist that I never saw coming and we understand what is special about the Gal Vorbak and other Word Bearers sent to the war on Calth.

The verdict: Overall I really enjoyed this story and finding out a bit more about the inner workings of the Gal Vorbak. It's well written, paced and gives us another morsel of info on one of the coolest units in The Horus Heresy! 8/10.

Now go read Betrayal at Calth! This is my favourite story but there are 5 other great ones!

Part 3 - The Spartan Challenge - James enters the arena!

So after seeing Rich and Dave duel it out with their Spartans 40k was feeling a little left out. Therefore my Flesh Tearers have stepped in as , let's face it, they're always up for a rumble!

Now I haven't got a Spartan tank seeing as I am way out into the future and so the dads have let me join in with my own assault delivery system - my Stormraven!

It has been built for a while but I haven't yet got around to painting it as I have been really focusing on infantry to have a legal painted army. I am now at the point where I have finished 3 assault squads, 2 tactical squads, some terminators and a land raider and a baal predator. More about these in a future post! I just have highlights to do on a librarian and I am at a legal force so I figured I have earned my right for the flyer!

The first step was to spray the stormraven with Dragon Red Army Painter primer which I have used for all of my models. It comes out with a very smooth finish and is extremely durable which means you don't have to bother with a black primer underneath.

Secondly I drybrushed all over with bleached bone (still old school with that paint) to lighten up the edges.

At this point the red is far too bright for mine, and the flesh tearers, liking. So at this point the whole thing gets a wash of Nuln Oil. The pic below is what it comes out like.

Following these first stages the flyer is still too bright but we'll wait for a while first as I need to get some black on it to mark it out in Flesh Tearer colours. This has been a challenge as I couldn't decide exactly where to do the black. The marines have black weapons, shoulder pads and helmets and so I will try to keep to this style and break up the red on the flyer.

As you can see from the pictures below I have boltgun metalled the engines and so far brushed on black underneath, on the landing pads and the tips of the wings. I think that I need to add black tips to the tail and maybe the top exhaust port and cockpit (not on yet) too.

 

I always find that models look rubbish at this stage as the colours are blocky and not highlighted or weathered but it is definitely starting to take shape.

What do you think about adding more black?
Where should I put it?

I'd love to hear any comments.

All the best,

James

Forgeworld Wednesday - Flickr Pool & Tartarus Pattern Terminators

As a FW addict I am always chuffed by a midweek bulletin to give me a quick boost on the way to the Friday goodies!

This Wednesday the FW bulletin dude is sharing some lovely Tartarus Pattern Terminator Armour models from the Flickr pool:
Link to Bulletin

These appealed to me as I have an Imperial Fists army, but I especially liked the painting style - battleworn and dynamic which is how I tried to get my Terminators to look. This also reminded me of an errata I had seen published this month link. The errata amends rules for lots of Horus Heresy units crossing into 40k games and includes this boost to Tartarus Armour Terminators...

Tartarus Pattern Terminator Armour: This was an advanced pattern of Terminator armour developed late on during the Great Crusade in parallel
with the Maximus pattern power armour, and was considered a technological masterwork. Tartarus armour is more streamlined and power efficient than its predecessors, making it more agile and providing short bursts of additional speed when needed, but was also more difficult and resource intensive to manufacture. Regardless of this, it had become one of the most widely circulated patterns issued in the decades before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.

In addition to the effects and rules listed previously for Terminator armour, models in Tartarus pattern armour may make Sweeping Advances in combat unlike other patterns of Terminator armour. If a model with Tartarus pattern armour is joined by a character equipped with a different pattern of Terminator armour or vice versa, this ability is lost. 

I think this could see a few more Tartarus on the battlefield as this is handy for stopping your enemy running, regrouping and then shooting you to death with pesky bolters (not that I am bitter James!).

Part 2: For Sparta!

Part 2: For Sparta!

Ok so to recap, I have built the tank, primed with Chaos Black and then airbrushed Vallejo Grey Primer.

When I did the black and grey I left the recesses darker and ensured the raised areas got plenty of the Vallejo grey. This is a form of pre-shading which will leave the recessed areas darker once I have airbrushed the base colour, in this case Vallejo Gold Yellow. I like this approach as it is a simple way of getting some shading, but most importantly it gives some variation in colour to the larger panels. This is something anyone can do; I picked up a couple of cans of Chaos Black and Mechanicum Grey from GW earlier in the week and these would do the job even if you don't own an airbrush - simply spray the black and then a lighter layer of grey on top. I tend to spray from the direction of the light when doing this, ie directly above to imitate the natural effect of upper surfaces appearing brighter. I can recommend it even on infantry to give you some easy shading.


Next I airbrushed on a couple of coats of Vallejo Gold Yellow. There are plenty of recipes online for painting Imperial Fists, I looked through a few of these but ultimately found this to be a great yellow by accident - I ordered the wrong paint and thought I'd give it a go, looks good to me so have stuck with it! It's quite a 'rich' yellow with some thick pigment and it makes a great base for all the weathering I love - still shining through beneath all the oil washing and chipping.



I masked off three stripes and sprayed the area between with AK Interactive Heavy Chipping Fluid. This is going to produce a natural looking chipping effect, it is amazing stuff and really simple to use. Once the Chipping Fluid is dry, spray on some paint (Vallejo Dark Sea Grey). Once this is dry get a toothbrush and some water. Wet the surface of the paint, and brush gently, the paint will flake away in a random and interesting way. I think it looks great and is far easier than trying to do it with a brush.



I think with yellow you need plenty of dark contrasting colours to make it stand out and these stripes will help frame the yellow. I would also recommend Tamiya Masking Tape, I have used it for years, I get it on a dispensing roll. It's never stuck too hard and pulled paint off and it makes a perfect edge every time without any paint bleeding beneath it.

I then painted the tracks and any metal bits in Leadbelcher. A quick wash of Nuln oil and the Spartan was ready for the next stage....



Time for some decals. I got the latest FW Imperial Fist transfers - the updated decals are subtly improved with more detail that is in keeping with the FW 'look'. I use MicroSol and MicroSet with decals. You only really need these on an uneven surface. Buy a bottle of each and they'll last a lifetime.



I asked the Dads for advice on which decals to use and white ones got the vote - they make a nice contrast with the dark grey I think. Before I add decals I always take a modelling knife and 'chip' some bits off before I set them down. This gives them the same weathered look as the rest of the tank without having to try and paint over them - doesnt work I've tried it when I forgot to do this once!

Weathering powder time:



Using the weathering pigments from Forgeworld (aged rust, light rust, dark iron, dark earth, fresh mud) and some Lamina Medium I daubed these liberally on the tracks leaving a little Leadbelcher showing through in places. I will come back to these later and drybrush a little more Leadbelcher on to finish them. It's a simple technique to produce some nicely aged looking tracks. Nothing difficult here.



Now for something I have done on my Terminators and Kheres Dreadnaught. Using Vallejo Hull Red I airbrush along the seams of plating and any recesses on the tank. This is to represent wear and collection of dirt and dust. It's a burnt umber kind of colour which I would never have guessed would look good but somehow the contrast looks great to me and once you go in with some chipping and dirt type dust colours it looks ace.

So that's it for now. To follow is some chipping, then varnish, then some oil washing in the recesses, weathering powder in the lower areas and it's well on track for completion. Hope you like it so far, drop me a line if you want to know about anything I have done.

Forge World Bulletin - 25/01/2016

So the latest FW bulletin is in and I'm really excited about the content: HH Book 6 Retribution!



Here's what they had to say:
I only managed to get a quick look inside, but it is absolutely packed with Legion rules, units, rights of war and more. I can’t wait to get my hands on it, and I’m told that a limited number should be available at The Horus Heresy Weekender. Don’t worry if you’re not going to be at the weekender though, I hear that The Horus Heresy Book Six - Retribution is expected to be released very soon after the event.

I can't wait to get my hands on this and start a Shattered Legions force! How I tie them in with my Vlka Fenryka force is another matter...

What are you guys looking forward to most?

Dave

This week in Dad Dave's World

So,

I wanted to add an update as to what I have been up to this week. Apart from the Spartan Challenge (which has been really inspiring, motivating and exciting) I have also been working on my new Contemptor Dreadnought and some Mk2/Mk5 jump packs.

The jump packs are for my first 20-man 30k assault squad. When I starting re-branding my army I already had 15 Skyclaws. They were all Mk6 armour so really almost ready for 30k action, but I wanted to replace the Mk7 jump packs. I have already added some Mk4 but then brought another 5 Mk2/Mk5 jump packs and I want to try some open source lighting on the jets. More on this in the future, I just wanted to let you know what was coming!

On to the Contemptor. I posted about the conversion I did on the plastic BaC dread. I was pretty pleased with that so couldn't wait to start painting (even though I have the Spartan on the table!).

So far I've base coated and highlighted the grey (Mechanicus Standard grey followed by Administratum grey and then Ulthuan Grey (or Space Wolves grey as it was)), added the Boltgun Metal to the metal bits, added some markings using black with the pack markings masked out and red sponged on, and then finally this week I have sponged on battle damage using watered down black paint. I always find watering the paint down before sponging it on in several layers gives a more pleasing and controlled effect.






Also this week I finished reading Deathfire, Book 32 of the Horus Heresy series. If there's anything other than painting and playing that us Dads like it's reading, and I for one am enjoying the HH series. It's had it's ups and downs in terms of quality but Deathfire is definitely up there, in terms of good writing, pushing the story on and twists. Particularly when a bonus Primarch turns up! (i.e. he wasn't listed at the front as featuring and actually plays quite a big role).

It's a good read (I don't want to give anything away), and I'm really looking forward to the third instalment of this trilogy. The afterword is also really interesting as it gives an insight into the HH series an the way it is progressing.

That's it from me this weekend. Comments and thoughts welcome!

Dave

The Emperor's Feth Astra Militarum Army Part 1 - The beginning & thelist

The Emperor’s Feth

I enjoy hearing about how people started in this hobby, chatting about armies, lists and I absolutely love looking at painted models. With this in mind I thought I would blog about my history with 40k, what I’ve been up to, and introduce my 1^st army The Emperor’s Feth. I hope that you enjoy what I’ve been up to and would love to hear your story and what you think of my army and list. Over this post and more over the next few weeks I’ll showcase this army with my thoughts and how I painted each unit so please read on, enjoy and comment by all means…

The Beginning…

So as The Emperor’s Champion (Rich) says 2009 rolls around and out of curiosity I walk into a Games Workshop in Stockport, Manchester. As it happened, that week 5^th edition was due to be released and 40k was being pushed in the store. I got chatting with the manager and had a good look around before my eyes finally came to rest on an Ogryn model. It looked ace – bigger than the others and full of character. I had no idea of the rules or army, all I wanted was to paint this beast and so I bought it with a few paints and a brush and there was the start of my love affair with the Imperial Guard or as it is now known the Astra Militarum.

Above: The first model!

Tournaments

Over the next few weeks 5^th Edition Imperial Guard was released with a bunch of new models which nicely relieved me of any spare cash I had at the time. As I was building my army Rich had also been getting into Ultramarines which prompted lots of games and new models as were constantly trying to beat each other. Each week would see a new addition that one of us would have to counter with a purchase or a list change of our own – we were having a mini arms-race!! At this time Games Workshop began their 40k Doubles tournaments and Rich and myself decided to enter with Ultramarines and Astra Militarum at our first tournament and then with a Double Astra Militarum force at subsequent tournaments. We had to choose a name for our army and so The Emperor’s Feth was born. The doubles tournaments were amazing, we got to meet loads of people (Dad Dave is one), see Warhammer World, do fairly well in the tournaments and most importantly get nominated 4 times for best painted armies.

Above: The Emperor’s Feth at a tournament at Warhammer World

Above: Under pressure at a tournament at Warhammer World. Not quite sure how we got ourselves into this situation!!

Above: Dad Rich looking a bit geeky at our first trip to Warhammer World back in the day

Hobbying

It was during these tournaments where I saw some beautifully painted models that I decided that I wanted to create not just an army but an army with a theme. At this point I was considering painting a Tyranid army as I love Aliens (who doesn’t) and love the idea of Genestealers and a swarm. I started but after putting together and painting a handful of Genestealers decided it was a bad idea that would take far too long – especially as I still wanted to add to The Emperor’s Feth. So I came about the idea that The Feth would be specialists at fighting Tyranids and began to model Tyranids onto my existing Astra Miltarum figures. I also built the army list to this theme. In order to fight the swarm I have lots of bullets, flamers and some snipers and lascannons for the bigger creatures. This hobby idea is still taking shape so you will see some ideas completed and some more develop as I complete projects this year.

Above: One of The Emperor’s Feth Chimeras

At the current time I am also halfway through painting a 40k Flesh Tearers army – more to come on that in a future post – but I still have lots of Feth to continue with yet. Anyway enough chat, let’s get to it with my current list of all the models that are completely painted:

Company Command Squad

Company Commander

2 Veterans with Meltaguns

1 Lascannon Heavy Weapon Team

1 Astropath

Chimera – Multilaser & Heavy Flamer

Platoon Command Squad

Platoon Commander

4 Troops with Flamers

Chimera – Multilaser & Heavy Flamer

Combined Troop Squad

2 x Troop squads

2 x Flamers

2 x Lascannon Heavy Weapon Teams

Commissar

Heavy Weapon Team

3 x Autocannons

Heavy Weapon Team

3 x Missile Launchers

Veteran Squad

3 Plasma Guns

Camo cloaks and snare mines

Chimera – Multilaser & Heavy Flamer

Ratling Squad

6 x Ratlings

Vendetta

10 man troop squad

Vendetta

Manticore

Heavy Flamer

Leman Russ Punisher

Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Heavy Bolter

Leman Russ Executioner

Plasma Sponsons

Heavy Flamer

Leman Russ Demolisher

Plasma Sponsons

Lascannon

Grand Total – 2000 points

Above: The current 2000pt army in all its glory.

As I said earlier, keep looking out for posts on ‘The Feth’ over the next few weeks where I will post more photos, discuss each unit and include how I painted it in detail.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

James

Forgeworld Friday - Updated Armour Sets

FW New Armour

I love checking in on the FW website on a friday to see what new goodies are on offer for us and this week they haven't let us down! On offer are 'updated armour sets' to match the updated weapons issued last month.

So I tried to play spot the difference as I couldn't make out what had changed and after scratching my head for a while picked up the phone to FW for an explanation, there are four changes we can see here:

1. The models now come in a blister pack - woohoo!
2. The models are now missing a right hand - this will allow them to take the weapons that were issued last month, and also ...
3. The change has been made to make them compatible with the plastic Betrayal at Calth sets
4. All the models are issued with the 32mm bases

This is an interesting shift making a change directly to a FW product to make it more compatible with a GW marketed boxed set - makes perfect sense to me. Only downside I can see is what to do with all those weapons I still have that need models with a right hand!

Part 1: The Spartan Challenge - Building a tank the Spartan Way!

If you research this online you will find plenty of horror stories and I can tell you after building one of these badboys it ain't for the faint hearted - if you are new to resin, put this back on the shelf and try something smaller first! I would also recommend the Forgeworld guide to Spartan building - no doubt recorded in response to the troubles we were all having...

 

ForgeWorld Guide to Spartan Tank

I have heard that the design is improving. For example I also built a Sicarian at the same time which put itself together and looks lovely so it's not impossible for Forgeworld to get this to work. But their Spartan production process needs some fine tuning. There were two main problem areas for me: 

1. Tracks

These things are not at one with the machine spirit. I dry fitted them multiple times, some times they would all fit fine, others they wouldn't - I still can't explain it! In the end I trimmed a bit off two of the tracks on each side and ended up with a nice snug fit. 

It wasn't that hard so I think some of the Internet fuss is a bit much at times. That said we are paying a lot and it doesn't seem too much to ask for a set of tracks that fit! The tracks on the Sicarian are built into the chassis which looks great still and hasn't got the hassle - I think this is the way to go for FW tanks. 

2. Fitting chasis to track units

This is fitting the main body of the tank to the sides. The main body of the tank comes in three pieces (top, bottom, rear) leaving the sides open. The sides are large pieces of resin and fit with grooves onto the main body o the tank. Problem is the shape of my main body was different to the grooves of the side pieces. It took a lot of cutting and slicing to get them to fit together. Then some serious filling with milliput to tidy up the gaps. 

Watch out for this if you are building. The position I glued the pieces in was a contributing factor but ultimately the resin sections were not aligned as they came out of the box.

In the end the tank goes together beautifully and it looks stunning when finished.

Ultimately the tank reflects its namesake; it is tough to put together, can wound you badly and doesn't go down without a fight! 

I will keep you posted on progress and the appraoches I am using, happy modelling!

Update from Dave:
To add to Rich's update above, I have been working furiously on my own Spartan.

To reiterate Rich's comments about the tracks, they are a bit of a bugger to fit. You dry fit them and they look great, then you come to stick them they miraculously change configuration! Nothing a hairdryer, a hobby knife and a bit of green-stuff can't fix, but it still took time. I think FW have re-built the mould so that the tracks are cast on to the chassis now, which should remove that headache and about an hour of build time.

To be honest, the bit I found most annoying was the cables for the lascannons. These have to be heated and bent in to position whilst sticking them. I've put two Spartans together now and had at least 4 cables stuck to my fingers with superglue!!

Anyway, once you've powered through these issues, the tank looks amazing! It's huge! These are my new transports of choice. What else will get 20 space marines into battle unscathed?!

Anyway, I have been painting away. This challenge has really motivated me to get it painted. Below is a picture of the tank at the end of week one. I have base coated and applied a two-stage dry-brushed highlight so far. Rich prefers his airbrush, which looks great, but at this moment I have nowhere to set one up so am staying old skool!

Anyway, that's all for now, thanks for reading.
 

GW's 40th Birthday Party - Bitz box challenge

Just a quick post here folks, you still have until the 24th January to vote for the best diorama from the GW 40th Birthday Bash.

As us dads have 4 entries in total we'd really urge you to take a look and vote for your favourite.

Plus, there are some awesome ideas for dioramas there, whether they are ours or not!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1134470153239130.1073741984.212614545424700&type=3

Some of these are really dynamic.



At the time, we were at the table with the Tactical Squad space marines I didn't realise there were terminators and scouts about also!

The Spartan Challenge - for Sparta!!!

Dave and I have challenged ourselves to complete one new unit for our next game set for 19th March.
Looking through our workbenches we both had a Spartan that needed to be brought into battle readiness so the game is afoot!

The challenge is to complete a Spartan tank each in the next 61 days - easy eh? Well these things are never easy when kids and work are involved and in my case a house move in February! Nevertheless the challenge is set, keep checking back on our progress. We will post up our work with a description of the techniques or approaches we are using.

We have both already built our tanks and primed them. Dave's has started with a chaos black base and mine is airbrushed with Vallejo Primer and based with Vallejo Yellow Gold. Our first posts will include some thoughts on the build job for a spartan and why we chose our respective primers as a base.

The clock is ticking...61 days to see who is Leonidis and who is swimming at the bottom of a well!

Plastic Contemptor Dreadnought Conversion

Hey there,

I just wanted to share this with you guys. It's my plastic contemptor dreadnought conversion for my Vlka Fenryka.

I have one contemptor in my army already but have always had a hankering to do one with a siege drill. I don't know why, they just look pretty brutal and that's what the Wolves of Fenris are all about I guess. So how did this conversion finally come about?

Well I recently brought the Betrayal at Calth box set. I wasn't that bothered about the dreadnought to be honest. As I say, I already had one in my army and like everyone else on the internet, I thought it looked a bit static. I wasn't in love with it. But then the guys over at Battle Bunnies posted up a conversion walk-through and I thought, you're right, it's plastic, it'd be simple to convert. And as I already had one... Then FW released the leviathan Siege Drill, and I just thought what have I got to loose!

Firstly I stuck the main body together. Then I cut it at the waist and took the left leg off, gluing them back on in a slightly more dynamic pose. Battle Bunnies took the head off too but at the time I was doing this I didn't have a lot of time, so I left it.

I then stuck the fist arm together before cutting the fist off at the shoulder.

Then I glued my leviathan arm together and then stuck that on. The power cable housing fits quite nicely too. To get it snug I filed the ornamental trim around the bottom of the shoulder down flat. A bit of green-stuff to fill gaps, some wolfy totems, and you're done!

 

I'm really pleased with it. The pose looks ok, and that siege drill is mahoosive! I went with the multi-melta rather than the assault cannon because I figured with the siege drill he's going to be going after tanks rather than infantry. My other contemptor has a heavy bolter so he can deal with the traitors on foot.

 

Let me know what you think, or even better, share your own conversions with us!

Dave

Dad no 4

So Finally I find the time to post my intro and my very first ever blog!

I've been in the hobby for nearly 20 years with my first ever purchase being the 3rd edition starter box. In fact my 2 main armies are still Blood Angels and Orks and both armies still include my very first painted models. Since that small start both have grown in size to create two decent sized armies with the Blood Angels being the bigger at about 8000 points.

Not bad for a 12 year old with no

guidance what so ever!

Since then I've gone on to collect many different armies and of the four dads I'm the only one to have a non imperial army and, I think, I'm the only one to have more than a couple of armies ( I have 8 in total, 9 if you include 30k in that). However painting isn't really my favourite part of the hobby so I am guilty of having many unpainted or just base coated models. There is always more to collect though so I doubt that will ever change!

My foray into 30k has thus far been quite limited with only a small XIII Legion force currently occupying a space on my shelf along with Angron and Horus. I just couldn't say no to them when they came out, Angron is an epic miniature and Horus is, well, Horus... I do have plans to expand it and an unopened Mark of Calth box sat on my floor will certainly help with that.

Recently my hobby time has been severely curtailed with the birth of my son and daughter in 2014. Who knew little people could take up so much of your time! Unlike Dave I couldn't talk my wife into 40k related names for them. I thought Lemartes and Mephiston were perfectly reasonable names as well.

The fluff is very much my favourite part of the hobby so any army lists I do or models I build must be believable fluff wise, so much so in fact that I still use tactical squads in my Blood Angel army (shock horror!).

Thanks for reading.

Book Review: Cybernetica

This Horus Heresy novella was published in July 2015 by long time Black Library contributor Rob Sanders who has written fairly broadly across 40k and 30k in his time. Interestingly Rob is an English Teacher at a secondary school in addition to writing for the Black Library - very cool to have as your teacher!

The book is set around the issue of what Dorn, Malcador and the Fabricator General of Terra think should be done about Mars. As you would expect the lead character convinces Dorn ("just give me 48hours chief") to let him try a clandestine mission to bring about victory over the traitors on Mars and the bulk of the story tracks his progress.

The lead character is a very cool Raven Guard known as the 'Carrion' who was badly injured, 'repaired' with extensive cybernetics and as a result began training to be a Techmarine on Mars prior to the outbreak of the civil war. He is an appealing character who takes us along the way in an engaging way starting off as a tortured soul following his extensive injuries which prevent him returning to the ranks of stealthy Ravens. He has some very cool in-built weaponry which uses power drained from enemies and friends alike. His main weapon is a grav-gun that he wields like a shotgun - very cool. He would make a great model with some awesome rules.

There are some interesting insights into Dorns thinking, Malcadors' relationship with the Primarch and the state of civil war on Mars but to be honest it's not revealing a great deal more than we already know. As a VIIth Legion fan I was happy just to see a bit more of Dorn and in some ways that's what these peripheral stories can offer most of.

If you like fight scenes you won't be disappointed - there are plenty of epic battles with leaps from collapsing buildings to conveyor belt fights against swarming Skitari.

I think you have to read these novellas knowing that they probably won't make a big impact on the overall story line but they can give you a look 'behind the scenes' of the bigger stuff or even develop a Heresy character further by filling in the blanks. Rob Sanders goes some way to doing this but this book is more about filling in the backstory than revealing much about any of our favourite characters.

The verdict: 6/10

I enjoyed the read but at times found the fights scenes to be a little repetitive. The character of the Carrion was interesting in the first half but became a little static thereafter. I think if you are interested in the war on Mars and Mechanicus related stuff then it's worth a read, if you love a good fight scene and like the sound of some cool weaponry not used much elsewhere you'll also not be disappointed.

If you are like me, and simply have to know what's going on in the Heresy then just get it!

Sepp Company, Vlka Fenryka

So, as we're purportedly a blog written by dads dedicated to the hobby, I thought I better introduce my army.

I've always collected Space Wolves, amidst trying other armies, over the years and this is the fourth incarnation. However, since becoming a dad I have limited time and limited funds so set a few ground rules this time round:

1. I wouldn't just scrap my previous army - usually when I start a wolves army I have got rid of / sold / given away the previous army to make way for the new. This time round I wanted to move firmly into 30k. I've always love Mk6 armour so much of my army was already 'Heresy compliant', I kept those miniatures, whilst getting rid of any 40k-only units such as Thunderwolves, etc.
2. I would only paint what I can play - again, my previous mantra has been to collect as much a possible and at least one of everything in the codex. This time round I didn't want my funds or hobbytime to get distracted by units that I was never ever going to get out of the box. At least to begin with anyway. This meant getting rid of Rune Priests, multiple wolf lords, etc.

Weighing in at 7,198pts, this is where I am at with my 30k army:

There is still quite a bit to do. I also wanted to change the bases from snow to mud/dust, and continue down the dark and dirty route, using weathering powder and open source lighting to add that bit extra to my units. My painting ability has also improved a lot over the 5 years of collecting this army, so now was the time to update the army as a whole with everything I have learned.

 

Where I have kept tactical marines from the previous army I have combined them with new FW armour marks to add more 30k flavour. This is pretty easy as 30k squads are 20 men in size compared to the 10-man squads in 40k, so I could simply add 10 new miniatures to an existing unit, with the weathering powder, blood splatter and new base style tying the old and new together.

This was my test miniature, an objective marker.

So what have I completed so far? Well my challenge for 2015 was to stick the army together and undercoat it so that I could concentrate on painting it in 2016 whilst still having stuck-together miniatures to play with when us 4 Dads meet up (we like our games big so having 5000pts + was a must).

In terms of painting, when I took out the miniatures I realised I'd actually completed more than I thought.

• Fully painted: Storm Eagle, jet bike squad, bike squad, destroyer squad, 20 man assault squad,
• Just bases to do: contemptor dreadnought, rune priest, legion champion, wolf guard battle leader (legion centurion?), Iron Priest
• Half finished: 3No. Tactical support squads, 3No. heavy weapon support squads, 3No. tactical squads, Legion Praetor, Moritat, Standard Bearer, Master of Signal (he's pretty useful)
• Base coated: 2No. Spartan Assault Tanks, 6No. Rhinos, 1No. Breacher Shield Squad (looking forward to painting these!!), 20 man assault squad, and the mighty Fellblade (wanted one of those since I was a kid, glad FW made one!)

I really want to get stuck in, and am working on the Praetor and Moritat at the moment, but am waiting for the FW transfers before I get cracking on the vehicles. My aim is to complete as many units as possible, so I'm likely to concentrate on the 'half finished' and 'just bases to do' units first.

Four things not mentioned above but will distract me from the main part of the army in 2016 are likely (hopefully) going to be:

1. Leman Russ - when the Wolf King drops I will be buying him immediately and dedicating my time to getting him painted up
2. Armies on Parade - I'd like to put together a 2x2 board and enter AoP this year. Hopefully I will have enough army to enter!!
3. A diorama - The Emperor's Champion mentioned doing one which reminded me that I have a cool little base I made about 2 years ago with the intention of making a Wolves/Dark Angels duel scene on. I think I'll revive that this year and have a Wolves / Thousand Sons scene, tied in to the AoP board maybe?
4. Shattered Legions - I wanted an excuse to paint something other than grey so have decided upon a Veteran Tactical Squad of Shattered Legionnaires. This may grow in future. I think the 4 Dads may each paint something up also so we have a Blog Army built by the four of us. Who knows!

Anyway, that's where I am at to date. Once I've finished the edge highlighting on the bedroom coving and ceiling rose I should have some more Wolves updates!

Comments welcome!

Dave