Not a 40k Blog

Right. So, I've not posted anything for some time... Simply put, this means that I haven't been working on my Eldar army of late. That's alright, because I can co-opt my own blog to talk about gaming in general.

What have I been doing? Well, a lot of reading and writing. I've been reading a lot of the older Sword and Sorcery authors. Conan and Elric of Melnobone have featured heavily. I have picked up Joe Abercrombie's newest book, Red Country, and must say that his momentum is simply astounding. He is a juggernaut in the world of Fantasy and Sci-Fi. His newest entry combines the Western genre with his established fantasy world, and while that seems rather jarring, Abercrombie's writing style lends itself very well to the mash up. His grit and visceral characterization is a boon to the legacy that he attempts to honor in Red Country.

Also, I picked up an anthology called Swords and Dark Sorcery, which has been middling thus far. Some interesting nuggets to be found among several outings into already established settings. I've not read The Black Company yet, but if the short story in this anthology is any indication, I may have a hard time getting through it.

But the reason I've been delving into these ancient and hallowed tomes is that I have decided to start writing for my own homebrew Sword and Sorcery setting again. I have called it several things throughout it's storied history, but the name that most of my friends would recognize is Shae Dinar. It's named after the desert continent that had featured heavily in the last epic campaign run in the setting.

But my vision is much broader than that. And since I'm not really motivated to paint or assemble my 40k army, I will post some updates here.

Thanks for reading.

Eldar War Walkers

I figured I should post something quick before the month is out. So, in honor of the release of 6th edition, I have decided to build and paint a squadron of Eldar War Walkers!

Holy flash! The canopies will eventually be edged in black like all of my canopies.

I'm still getting used to the camera on this phone, so the flash ended up drowning out a lot of the work I did on the wraithbone carapace, but in all, I'm pretty happy with the end result.

I found these a lot easier to assemble than the Wraithlord, and that had a lot to do with the fact that I didn't need to glue the legs permanently. In fact, on the last walker, I started basing by gluing a single foot to the base, and adjusting from there.

A selection of my favorite Eldar weaponry on display for your approval.

Now, how to field the damned things... Back in 3rd Edition (the edition I played for the longest), I fought tyranids most regularly, so I was very fond of scatter lasers, which, back in the day, used to roll D6 each to determine how many shots. It was great for mowing through a brood of termagants/hormagants. They've since standardized the rate of fire to a slightly above average 4. Still a formidable weapon against the horde, but I think I would probably go with EML if I were to fight tyranids today. Starcannon spam for the Space Marines, of course.

So, fully loaded these three bastards weigh in at a cool 255 (including spirit stones), and make a fine fire base for your Eldar army, but probably not unless you are playing around the 1750+ range, or fighting against an army that can't shoot back.

So, 6th edition is released tomorrow, and god willing it will be the edition that supersedes 3rd Ed. as my most played system. 

Wraithlords and Wave Serpents

It's been some time, but I assure you, progress has been made! 

I've finally busted open my Battleforce and assembled and painted the Wave Serpent. Well, it's not all the way painted... It still needs another light brushing of Bleached Bone and I need to touch up the black as well as trace the lines with Devlan Mud, but I'm gonna be proud anyway.

The gun mounts are all magnetized (including the under-belly).

As you can see, there is still plenty of slop on this bad-boy to be cleaned up. I am also not completely decided on the fins. My original plan was to do them in wraitbone as well, but I wonder if I shouldn't leave them black.

Magnetizing everything was fairly easy, but plenty tedious. Having learned quite a bit during the process of retrofitting my older models with magnets, I've found a system that I think works rather well. Instead of worrying too much about the polarity of the magnets (I still pay some attention) I actually cut the heads from some cheap finishing nails in order to make all of the weapons ferrous. So the mounts have the magnets, and the weapons have just a bit of metal to make them magnetic

So are the shields on the sides of the mount.

The Wraithlords are somewhat trickier to magnetize, just because of the wide selection of weapons they have available. Nevertheless, each Wraithlord has a magnet in both shoulder mounts, each forearm, and on the wrist of the right hand, in order to accommodate the Wraithsword.

I'm not sure how I am going to field these guys yet. I mean, they have the potential to be pretty mean in CQC, as they are Monstrous Creatures, but they make pretty good mobile fire bases as well. I can arm them with a Missile Launcher, a Scatter-Laser/Shuriken Catapult and two Flamers each... That would be pretty expensive, of course, but something to consider.

Dueling Wraithlords!

On the other hand, I can leave them bare-bones and field a cheap but evil hand-to-hand monster. But enough about the tactics, lets talk about the painting!

I love this model. I love it so much that I was really afraid to start painting it. It took me purchasing a second Lord to give me the courage I needed to start painting the first one. Like the Serpent, they still need a good amount of work done on them.

One of the things I would really like to do (and get right) is decal application. I want my army to really scream ULTHWE! So, I want to put an Eye of Isha on each of their groin plates(?). Also I would like them to sport the Wraithlord "infinity" emblem on their heads.

I took the time to really spruce up the bases of both Lords. I particularly like the way the one on the right turned out, for having so much "clutter" on the base. But, the bases are identical, so in order to really make them look different, I felt the need to throw a bunch of junk on righty's base.

I still have a few concerns about my Ulthwe paint scheme. For instance, should I add more colors to the weapons? Should I find a way to work either red or yellow into the scheme overall, or try to keep it simple.

As it stands, I like the way the scheme looks on the vehicles, but I still have doubts about the appearance of the infantry and Wraithlords...

That's all for now. Hopefully it won't be too long before I post again.