Colour me thunderstruck!

When it comes to Warhammer I rant a lot to anyone willing to hear about it. Which is mainly just one person, i.e my fiancé. And I'm not too sure about the whole willing part. But anyways I did actually buy her some Sisters of Battle models a few years back and some time even before that I spent a fair amount of hours painting up a Seraphim model in her "likeness". I use the citation marks because to do otherwise would be to belie an ability with the brush that would impress. But she's had them for years.

But these last few months I have been speaking a lot more of 40k than usually because of my project and so today she asked me to get her the Witch Hunters Codex and find her models for her because she wanted to do something with them. 'Maybe we could even have a small game sometime?', was also a phrase that left her lips that had me slightly bamboozled. As I prepare to leave for class she pesters me about using my paints and brushes, something I eventually concede to. Of course I never concede in actual words. To do so would be to admit defeat and whilst defeat is a dime a dozen when it comes to the machinations of the she-devils, not admitting those defeats outright allows a veneer of male pride to exist. And so a semblance of stability is assured.

I go away to class for a couple of hours at the University only to have a look at my telephone as I prepare to leave. A text is there asking me to pick up a few paints on the way home. I oblige. I figure she's actually painted a wee bit to keep herself busy. But when I return she's actually done quite a bit! And now writing several hours later she's painted thirteen models to varying degress of completion!

If this doesn't get some bloody hot coals up my backside then I don't know what will?! Surely she can't feasibly beat me at everything? Can she?

Pictures to be supplied tomorrow.

My friend, my enemy!

Glorious news!

Yesterday I got called up by a friend of mine who I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles with who has once more gotten the bug of playing, only he is now interested in joining me in playing 40k. He is very interested in starting up an army of Imperial Guard and who can blame him? We've even discussed having a game sometime after Christmas so that should get me interested in starting to get this project properly back on track. I still lack time somewhat but I'll try.

I bought the Imperial Guard big box when they released new models a while after the Eye of Terror campaign so I have at somewhere around a 50 standard infantry men, a Chimera, some special weapons, a Sentinel, a Command Platoon, some junior officers, one or two Commisars and a couple of Heavy Weapons teams that I don't plan on using myself so that should set him up nicely as well if he wants to take some of them off my hands.

Fisting it to the Imperials

My favourite Legion out of the bunch is obviously the Word Bearers. But that doesn't preclude me being able to have a certain affection for other Legions or Chapters for that matter. I happen to appreciate in varying degrees almost all of the first founding. But I must confess that there is one unlikely candidate that I feel a certain bit more for that isn't the Word Bearers.

The unlikelyhood stems from a certain colour scheme. When I first saw models painted yellow I thought it was one of the most ghastly ways you could possibly paint a model outside Games Workshop's period when everything was painted in the most garish of colours. I speak of course of the Imperial Fists. But as with many things my averse position to the colour yellow was subject to change. I began to see it as a very characterful and most importantly a stand out quality. I dare say I even started to downright like the colour scheme. Reading the Index Astartes article for the Fists fleshed out knowledge about them and thus made them even more attractive. But whilst I do find the information on who, what, how and why the Imperial Fists are to be compelling, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the one thing that they are for me is the actual colour yellow. However I quite like the dogmatic stubborness, refusal to give in and their skills in fortification. In that they resemble my first army in the Warhammer family, the Dwarfs.

I've been toying with the idea of including a model or a squad from outside the Word Bearers for almost as long as I've been planning this army. I've gone back and forth between what Legion I'd use and what kind of unit would be represented. But seeing the picture of Rogal Dorn, the Arch-Betrayer, from the Dornian Heresy material found on the Bolter and Chainsword website, I immediately knew what needed doing.

Rogal Dorn the Arch-Betrayer from the excellent fan material 'the Dornian Heresy'

You see I've been a firm admirer of the Space Marines model for Captain Darnath Lysander for as long as its been out. He looks big, momentous and downright imposing. Obviously there is no such thing as a Thunderhammer or Storm shield in the Chaos Space Marine army list so they will have to go and instead be replaced with more suitable weaponry. I've decided to go with a Chainfist and Combi-melta, in homage to the Imperial Fists heritage. The Fists iconography will be staying and will alongside a mostly Imperial Fist colour scheme present both an homage to the Dornian Heresy and a giant raised middle finger to the Imperial cause.

I've gone ahead and ordered the model and am suitably excited. There is one thing that I am conscious of and that is not to lose the thing that I love about the model which is the momentum and that 'biggish' feel it has. It's hard to say how I am going to resolve this whilst not having the model but I am confident I can make it work.

I have a lot of stuff going on and can't seem to properly focus on one thing, not in life let alone in my army building. But I'll get there one day!

In the warp time flows differently

It's been well and truly long since I posted anything here and there has been next to no progress since last. This is mainly due to me mismanaging my time and being preoccupied with life. But there is another reason that I have felt it wasn't the prudent time to move forward. I know I posted a small 500pts force that I was going to start out with and build on, but I've come to the conclusion that I'd much rather have a standard 1500pts force that I can build towards in chunks. So I've been mulling over different things but haven't really gotten that much wiser. But I do have a list in mind, only problem is that I don't know if it is any good;

Warhost of the Boltgun Choir   1498pts

Headquarters     295pts

Daemon Prince – Ur-Ereshkigal (110)    140pts

Wings (20), Doombolt (10)

Chaos Lord – Khor Gaalen, Dark Apostle (90)   155pts
Terminator armour (30), Daemon weapon (25), Combi- flamer (5), Personal icon (5)

Elites      401pts

5 Chaos Terminators (150)    185pts
Power fist (10), 5xCombi-plasmaguns (25)
7 Chosen Chaos Space Marines (126)    216pts
Aspiring Champion (10), Power fist (25), 4xMeltaguns (40), Flamer (5)  Icon of Chaos Glory (10)

Troops      470pts

10 Chaos Space Marines (150)    240pts
Aspiring Champion (15), Power weapon (10), Icon of Chaos Glory (10), 2xMeltagun (20)
- Assigned Chaos Rhino transport (35)
10 Chaos Space Marines (150)    230pts
Aspiring Champion (15), Power weapon (10), 2xFlamer (10), Icon of Chaos Glory (10)
- Assigned Chaos Rhino transport (35)

Heavy support                 150pts

Obliterator (75)     75pts
Obliterator (75)     75pts

Summoned Daemons    182pts

7 Summoned Lesser Daemons (91)   91pts

7 Summoned Lesser Daemons (91)   91pts

I am happy with the kind of squads/units/models I'd be fielding with such a list. Daemon Princes are too cool for school, every Word Bearer force of any repute is going to need a Dark Apostle and some Daemons, Chaos Space Marines and their Rhinos add that disciplined army element (+tanks of sorts) I'm after whilst Terminators and Chosen add units with that special elite feel to the list with their special rules and equipment possibilities. The only thing I'm not too fond of are the Obliterators. Ideally I'd rather have a Predator, because I like tanks, but I feel Obliterators are too good to pass up on in comparison. But there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that I'm going to use their models (!). I'll figure something out.

I know it isn't what might pass for an effective Chaos Marines force if forums are to be believed, but it is a list I like the look of and with varied choices. I do fret a lot about the weapon choices I've made for my units though and whilst the rest of the list is pretty much what I think I want to go for, that bit really is up for discussion, internally as well as externally.

First model under development

It's been a few days I've noticed since my last post. I've been mildly tied down during that time doing different stuff. My plan from the last post didn't happen exactly as I wanted it to. I noticed I'd lost some of my hobby tools, most notably a file to shave off mold lines, and so I didn't really feel like putting together a fresh model and painting it if it were to have lines. I did however find a normal Chaos Space Marine model I put together a couple of years back. So I started to work a bit with it.

I should perhaps let you in on a well kept secret (well not if you knew me then it'd be a very poorly kept one), but despite owning more than ten thousand points worth of different models for different Warhammer systems, I have painted very few. STAGGERINGLY few to be exact. Well to be honest I've painted a fair few, but only a handfull have ever been fully painted with most models being painted to a completion rate of thirty-ish percent. And to make matters worse it is easily 4 years since I painted even a little.

I inform you of my lack of painting because as I've now been sitting painting my wee Marine I have realised a couple of things. (1) Red is a hellish colour to paint as it takes a couple of coats to not look complete sheit and (2) it is better to not fully assemble a model if you want to be able to paint the model proper. When it comes to point number two I am primarily thinking of not attaching bolters to hands in the future until the latter stages of painting.

As is I've come some way with my single Marine and I'll get pictures up sooner rather than later. Its been nice to test out painting although I'm not certain of which colours to progress with. But once this one model is done I plan to make the rest of the Chaos Space Marine squad.

An army list to work with

So I've reached a conclusion, which is pretty straight forward and logical. That conclusion is that it would probably be best if I started working on my force with some sort of goal in mind. Cue, an army list. Since I haven't got an enormous amount of models I've thought I'd start out with a 500 point list. This does two things for me. (1) It will allow me to get a working force together that can be played with without too much work and (2) it will present a less daunting task from a perspective of morale than an army list of normal proportions. So without further ado I give you this;

Chaos Lord - 150pts

Terminator armour (30), Daemon weapon (25), Personal icon (5)

5 Chosen Chaos Space Marines - 150pts

Aspiring Champion (10), Power fist (25), Icon of Chaos Glory (10), Power weapon (15)

6 Chaos Space Marines - 135pts

Aspiring Champion (15), Power weapon (15), Plasma gun (15)

5 Summoned Lesser Daemons - 65pts

Points total: 500pts

Now it doesn't conform to what I presume is still the norm of needing 2 troop choices for a list to be valid but that's not of too much concern. I only expect to get a couple of try out games with a friend to get the feel for the game again. And it mightn't be very good either. But what it does is give me a fair base on which to build. A surprise inclusion for me are the Daemons. I never used to fancy daemons even though I am a Word Bearer fanatic through and through. But I've had a change of heart that in much is owed to me getting the idea to use Wood Elf dryad models instead of any of the normal daemon models that I've never really had much in the way of love for.

So now I have an army list and I already have colour schemes in mind and know pretty much how I want to put the models together. Now I just need to get cracking. I think I'll just assemble a normal Marine, with a pretty basic look with not too many extras just to get the hang of it again and then paint him up to see if what I get corresponds to some form of aesthetic appeal.

How I turned to Chaos

From the fires of betrayal

Unto the blood of revenge

We bring the word of Lorgar

The Bearer of the Word

The Favoured Son of Chaos

All praise be given unto him

For those that would

not heed

We offer praise to those

who do

That they might turn their

gaze our way

And gift us with the

boon of pain

To turn the galaxy

red with blood

And feed the hunger

of the gods

That is one of the first things I ever read that pertained to a certain game called Warhammer 40.000. That was back in June 2002 or so my White Dwarf 270 would have me believe, which incidentally, was also my first White Dwarf. I'd been playing the sister game Warhammer Fantasy Battles for a while at the time and had vaguely registered that there were other, more futuristic, and decidedly less dwarfed, models available whenever I'd go to the game store to pick up longbearded fellows of grumpy delight to expand my standing Dwarf army. Truth be told I wasn't really interested. I was hooked on fantasy and what little exposure I'd had of science fiction and its ilk hadn't really ever tickled my fancy.

White Dwarf 270 didn't really change that. It featured mainly fantasy stuff centered around the release of the new Hordes of Chaos book but it did contain something called Index Astartes that featured the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion. I read the whole bit once or twice and thought it to be a very interesting read, although many of the different references were lost on me simply because I had no understanding of the 40k universe. But I found it a compelling tale of how someone, a chap of some percieved importance, called Lorgar, was spurned by someone called the Emperor and in due course turned to the darkness of Chaos. The whole story was quite tragic. Even as interesting as that story was it would be a while still until I next dabbled with the far future.

When I finally did it was because I got to know a new friend who also happened to play Warhammer but who also played Warhammer 40k. He managed to persuade me to get into that side of things as well. Problem was I knew absolutely nothing of 40k and so I was bewildered to say the least. I consulted him a bit and eventually wound up buying Codex: Blood Angels as well as a number of models.

What followed was a number of years of sporadic playing with my Blood Angels as well as me buying a some Imperial Guard but never getting to play them. I increasingly found that I loved the setting of the 41st millenium and managed to aquire much more than a working understanding of the combined lore. I never really got all that into playing 40k though. I just didn't find it to be that fun. I had no problem with the system. Truth be told I thought it seemed a lot more fun and easy going than the fantasy version. It was just that I didn't really feel any affinity towards the armies at my disposal. I'm quite big on creating my own little stories when I play games but I just couldn't seem to do it in a pleasing way with neither Blood Angels or Imperial Guard. So I eventually wound up not playing.

But somewhere just before the release of the newest Codex: Chaos Space Marines I had an epiphany. In truth I had been considering it for a while but now I decided I'd take the plunge. It really dawned on me just then that it had infact been love at first sight when I had gazed upon the hallowed pages of the Index Astartes those 5 years ago. I knew what I had to do. I had to spread the Word. In essence, I needed to get me some Word Bearers.

So I went out and spent some money ordering bits and pieces and buying some different models. I started to assemble a few. And that was pretty much three years ago (!). But now I've got the bug again and I want to do something about it. Hence this blog. I don't know it's mission statements just yet but I imagine I'll be writing about my progress in assembly & painting as well as any progress I have in getting games under my belt together with the odd bit of fluff.

Enjoy.

Spread the Word (of Lorgar).