The Albigensian Crusade

[HLVW]

This is just awesome, the army's all look great, and I see you finally got not just one but two of the ceisteus Rams. Also your Grimauldus conversion turned out great.

[Honda]

Just a quick update with some general maintenance and continued progress on Grimaldus command squad.

First off, I decided to add a little flavor to my Caestus to liven them up a little and so put a few crusade badges on:

Nerovar, who will most likely be the next to be completed. All these guys are just in the preliminary base coat stage, with highlights and washes and stuff to come.

Markosian*

Bastilan

The good news is that at this stage it's easy to spot any remnant mold lines. The bad news is...I've found some, hence why the base coats are a little splotchy as I was quickly filing the offenders down, then getting back to the area with paint.

I think that's about it for now.

Cheers,

* Yeah, I know, he's not part of the Command squad. I just like his epitaph and it's likely to be the beginning of a larger exercise.. More on that later

[Sete]

Priamus looks awesome. Edited December 8, 2015 by Sete

[Honda]

[Kontakt]

Cannot describe how excited I am for  what's next. Been considering those templar bits for honour guard, myself.

[Acebaur]

I hate you. So not fair! ;)

 

[Honda]

Would you feel better if I told you it was a birthday present?

 

I'm that kind of guy, I'd do that for you. :)

[Eberious]

Be getting one of these most probably in the new year..early jan. Looking forward to seeing what you do with yours. 

[The_Chaplain]

Oh yeah, this is gonna be good.

[Firepower]

The Pillsbury Doughnaught has landed. Stupid rounded edges.

 

'Dem guns though...

Edited December 24, 2015 by Firepower

[Marshal Reinhard]

I see you've beaten me to it, Honda.

 

Can't wait to see how it turns out

[Acebaur]

Would you feel better if I told you it was a birthday present?

 

I'm that kind of guy, I'd do that for you. :)

I'm still jelly ;)

[Honda]

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 

Merry Christmas and a ZEALous New Year to you all!

[Honda]

In preparation for the new year activities and with the gauntlet tossed down by our own Eberious, I felt compelled to "borrow" some of the cookie dough we were fashioning and produce some edible...ZEAL!

Pre-bake

Baked

It awaits some suitably colored frosting...

And now what I have been working on of late, the continued efforts of Squad Grimaldus + 1. I present to you Bastilan, Nerovar, and Markosian.

Bastilan

Nerovar

Markosian

Cheers,

[Firepower]

[Honda]

AXIOS - Gr, "He is worthy" or "I am worthy"

I have started on my Levianthan, who I will be calling AXIOS. While I was over at Mo's back in December watching he, Jefe, and Jordan playing a game, they had one of the Halo movies on and there was a scene where the commander is talking to the cadets and where the phrase "AXIOS" came from.

As we had just been talking about the Leviathan models, I took it as a sign from the Emperor.

While looking at the model, which is pretty awesome I do have to say, I wanted to make sure that it is clearly a Templar vehicle. I may play it in Scouring Era games using the Legion army lists, but I don't want there to be any doubt as to whose army he belongs to.

Remembering that I still have a FW Templar Venerable Dread, I hastily pulled it out and lights went on all over the house. I had to put that helmet on AXIOS.

And so here he is, suitably "behelmed". Apologies up front to the English Language Parole Board for inventing a word.

Now some of you may wonder, "Wow, does that helmet really fit in place of the original version?"

The short answer is, "No", not even close. There is a back plate that sits too low over the original head and therefore I had to take my razor saw and cut off a good 1 cm of the hood part so that the Templar head would fit in there. Also, it doesn't fit in the slot provided so I elevated mine with a bit of putty so that it sits properly.

I'm also going to have to come up with something to fill in the space behind the head. I'm sort of leaning towards a bespoke Iron Halo or something similar so that it looks...proper. However, this may be rather tricky as I am leaning towards putting the phosphex launchers on there and I'm not sure I can get both on. I'll just have to fiddle with it.

I'll take some more pictures so that you can see what I did, in the event you feel similarly ZEALous about your models and want to do something that probably freaks a good proportion of people out (i.e. converting your FW toys).

Also, I've been positioning his legs on his base and working on some other suitably Templar artifacts (i.e. shield).

Looking at how he goes together, I don't really see a way to put him together all the way and still be able to paint him in the manner he deserves. So although I really dislike post painting construction, I don't see a way to get around it this time.

The obvious breakouts are upper torso, legs and hips, arms, so not too bad, but still a little fiddly.

Also yesterday, we got our first Apoc game of the year in, well, we only got through 1.5 turns in 6 hours, so it was more of a test exercise for a few new things than anything, but still we had fun.

Mo pulled out the Battle MIssions book and we played the scenario where SM are orbital assaulting an Ork camp except that the defenders (Mo and Matt) were playing SM and BA. I was playing the good guys (i.e. Templars) and therefore I attacked...which is what good guys do.

The scenario is kind of interesting as the defenders set up all their forces in the middle of the board, no more that six inches from any of their other units. Then the attackers can deep strike everything on the first turn, very much like the mission in the 3rd edition SM codex. Victory conditions are Kill Points, with HQ's worth 3 VPs, Troops/Dedicated transports worth 1VP, and other units worth 2 VPs.

As Mo and Matt were using two 1500 pt FOCs, I seemed to have a decent chance to assassinate some HQs. The BAs also had a witch (Librarian), though most of their units seemed a little odd if you ask me. :P

The defenders had (from memory):

Dante

Sanguinary Priest and six or seven Sanguinary Guard in jet packs (these guys were brutal)

My all time favorite unit (NOT) six or seven Death Company in jet packs

A ten man scout squad, Sgt with a Powerfist

A Storm Raven

A Rhino with 5 tactical guys

Techmarine with 5 servitors riding in an Achilles

Contemptor with 2 x TL-MMelta

Mortis Dread with 2 x TL-Autocannon

Mortis Dread with 2 x TL-Lascannon

Deredo Dread with the super autocannons and really annoying missile launcher

A Storm Raven

A squad of tacticals (5?) in the Raven

I think that's it.

Templars

Grimaldus, 9 man Crusader squad, SB upgrade, PFist, Melta gun, BP/CS, in a drop pod

Emperor's Champion (Priamus), 9 man Crusader squad, SB upgrade, Psword, Plasma gun, BP/CS in a drop pod

10 man Crusader squad, SB upgrade, Paxe, Plasma gun, Bolters in a drop pod

7 man Vanguard squad, jet packs, 2 x LC, 2 x SS, 1 x TH, 3 x Plasma pistols

3 x Gravturians in a drop pod

9 Assault termies 5 x TH/SS, 4 x LC

3 x Dreads in drop pods

3 x Landspeeder Typhoons

Since we didn't get to finish the game, I won't go through the usual play by play. I am very unhappy that the witch escaped (game ended before I could get to him), so I will do penance for my failure. I did get to blow up some stuff.

On the downside, the Emperor's Champion got sniped by Storm Raven missiles, though it took two of them and a Multi-melta shot to take him down. The last missile did it.

The board. We affectionately refer to this table as our "Blade Runner" table as it has been finished (buildings still need work) with a Future's stain and a gloss finish so that it looks like the battlefield is wet from rain. Very cool effect and we will continue to develop this theme with other terrain pieces.

Honda drop podding in to say "hello, it's me*" to the Achilles....which is a really, really annoying tank when it's not on your side.

Honda dropping by to say "Hello, hello again**" to Dante, the Sanguinary Priest and his SG groupies.

Three Landspeeder Typhoons sweeping up the flank, desperately trying to knock out Mo's dreads on AA.

Today's Math Lesson: 1 x Contemptor < 9 x Terminators + 7 Vanguard

#2 reason why you keep your vehicles moving as much as you can when dreadnoughts are about. In Mo's defense, I had pinned him in pretty well (planned) which made it difficult without exposing himself to immobilization.

I think that's about it for now, ONWARDS!

Cheers,

* Cookie for the person who figures out what song and artist(s) that line came from.

** Cookie for the person who figures out what song and artist(s) that line came from.

[Marshal Mattias]

Love the ven helm there, definitely worth the palpitations from cutting into resin ;)

 

(**grab the snazzy jackets and big shades, and don't forget to bring your synth! It's only 80's "the Cars")

[The_Chaplain]

*Hello, it's me = Adele "Hello"

Hello Hello again (sh boom sh boom) = The crew cuts

 

I'd love to see the cuts you did on the leviathan Honda-- I have no qualms about cutting into and converting forgeworld models and have contemplated putting in a different helmet on the Leviathan once I purchase one.

 

Looks like you had a lot of fun in your apocalypse game! 

[Honda]

Cookie for MM guessing The Cars for **, however the first cookie is still up for grabs.

For The_Chaplain and other convertin' fools...

Have at it!

Cheers,

[Marshal Rohr]

HA! I knew these wernt toys! Take that mom.

[AndrewChristlieb]

My wife just rolled her eyes and said it's still a toy. :D

[Krikey]

Hell, I'm making little toy sounds just looking at pics of the thing.

 

~K

[Honda]

Progress continues...

I'd like to repeat again what a joy it is to work with this model. I'm very impressed with how things go together and the fact that FW hides a lot of the mold lines of detailed pieces by placing other bits on top of them. Not 100%, but still pretty darn good.

The last few days I've been adding detail to the various segments, while I continue to develop my vision. I've opted to not paint his shoulders white and instead will go with a draped banner and a special purity seal. I've also decided that I'm not going to cover up all of the painting surface with bling.

Front

Arms

And the base...

So the vision I have is of him reaching out with the left arm, getting ready to fire the melta, while tossing a big chunk of stone back with his right arm. All around him is chunks of rock and masonry, indicating that he is dismantling something like a fortress wall.

At least that's the plan. :)

Cheers,

[Ciler]

Just make sure the cloth/banners hang and fold with respect to gravity.

[NoPityNoRemorseNoFear]

I like your vision for the model! 

"when you can't get to the enemy, throw bits of their fortress at them!"

Very templary indeed!