Smells Like Wargaming

Finished: Necron Scarabs and Warrior #1

2012-02-10T10:36:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So I sat down and did a bunch of priming yesterday. Not as much as I’d have liked, but hey, you can only sneeze so much black spraypaint before you decide to call it quits.

However, I decided to get the Necrons I had lying around based and up to a level where, whenever I just need a paint break, I can grab two of em and zone out for an hour or so.

Last night was one of those nights. So I present the start of Granesh’s Necrons. Will I be keeping this group? No. Will I play them for a bit. Possibly, it’d be nice to play something besides Guard and Chaos Marines.

8 Scarab bases, rearing to go! I know the kit wants 4 on a base, but they have 3 wounds each, so meh!

Really easy job. Boltgun Metal, Dwarf Bronze, Snot and Scorpion Green, and Badab Black and Thraka Green. BAM! Really wondering now how hard it would be to make a Spyder from a Destroyer and some other bitz…hmmm…

And Warrior #1. Not entirely sure if I’m happy with the gun yet, as well as the back plate. Other than that, he turned out perfectly. 23 more to go!

Kinda makes me wish I still had that Overlord…

And, because I like to see painted models next to painted models…

The Alpha Legion is beset upon by the implacable advance of the Necron Horde.

Won’t be getting any time to paint til this evening, but when I do, I’m planning on finishing Wave Serpent #1 and getting a start on #2. Necrons? Maybe a little more work too….

Granesh

Reworking the Blog; Finished: FW Eldar Shadow Spectres

2012-02-09T17:29:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So just a quick post today, I’ve had a couple of requests to get an RSS feed up for the blog, amongst other things, so I’m playing around with that, seeing what I can do. The RSS Feed for Smells Like Wargaming is HERE, so all you followers with Smart Phones or just like to have your blogs in one place, now you can add me!

You can also see the layout of the blog has changed a little bit. Just something to freshen the SLW experience, as soon as I get more time, I’ll be fixing the size of the logo, as well as finding more buttons and things. Stay tuned, and if you find any bugs or weird things on the site, please, let me know.

Alrighty, the fun stuff! Sat down this weekend and finished up Mike’s Shadow Spectres. BEAUTIFUL models, but if I have to paint another gem…what do you mean I have 2 more Wave Serpents….

I wanted to keep FW’s white armor, but opted for greens for Biel-Tan, rather than Myamera’s blues. I know the bases in the last shot don’t match the War Walker, the matter has been resolved!

Got a 2 Wave Serpents and a Fire Prism to do, and the Eldar’ll be done!

I also found a little time to get a project ready for myself, just something to break up Chaos and Imperial Fists.

My Magpie friend ditched his new Necrons after his second game, so I decided that this’ll be a good group to paint up, play a little, then sell off. We’re looking at just under 1k points:

2 Necron Overlords/Lords
2 Command/Annihilation Barges
Finecast Cryptek
24 Warriors
8 Scarabs (who needs 4 to a base?)
5 Immortals

Should be a quick paint, and will be good to break up monotony a little bit. I need a good personal project, I’ve been feeling a little burnt out lately.

More Eldar shots tomorrow, and hopefully some Necrons!

Granesh

Gaming: Playing Around with Non-Character Necron Lists

2012-02-06T10:08:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I kinda took a little break this weekend from painting just to get myself ready to finish up the Chaos and Eldar. Did manage to get a game in, but nothing too amazing.

However, I’ve been staring at the Necrons on my shelf right now, playing around with list ideas and potential armies (though I probably won’t play Necrons).

Now, I’ve never really been one for Special Characters. I got into the hobby playing the LoTR SBG, and my main hero was an Orc Captain with shield named Granesh who, despite being fun to play, always got his face smashed by Boromir of the White Tower. So my Necron lists don’t have the Stormlord, or the Anakyr the Traveller because, well, I just don’t want to run them!

Anyways, these are just for fun, mainly using released models, except in a few instances.

Necron List #1: 1000 Points

Necron Overlord with a Resurrection Orb and Warscythe in a Command Barge.
Royal Court, consisting of:

Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Warscythe.
Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Warscythe.
Cryptek with Harbinger of Despair and Veil of Darkness.

ELITES

NONE

TROOPS

Necron Warriors X11
Necron Warriors X11
Necron Immortals X5

FAST ATTACK

Necron Scarabs X7

HEAVY SUPPORT

Annihilation Barge

TOTAL: 991 Points

This list functions like a smaller version of my next list, the 2000 one. Command Barge Overlord becomes a speeding Warscythe of Doom, while the Necron Warriors hang back on objectives, supported by the Annihilation Barge. The Warriors get the Lords, while the Cryptek hangs with the Immortals, providing Night Fight for a key turn of the game. The Scarabs help support the Overlord, and the army, as long as it doesn’t get hit by a Deathstar assaulty unit, should be ok.

Necron List #2: 2000 Points

Necron Overlord with a Resurrection Orb and Warscythe in a Command Barge.
Royal Court:

Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Warscythe.
Cryptek with Harbinger of Despair and Veil of Darkness.

Necron Overlord with a Resurrection Orb and Warscythe in a Command Barge.
Royal Court:

Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Warscythe.
Necron Lord with Resurrection Orb and Warscythe.

ELITES

Triarch Stalker
Triarch Stalker

TROOPS

Necron Warriors X13 (with Lord)
Necron Warriors X13 (with Lord and Harbinger of Despair Cryptek)
Necron Warriors X9 in a Ghost Ark (with Lord)

FAST ATTACK

Canoptek Scarabs X5
Canoptek Scarabs X5

HEAVY SUPPORT

Canoptek Spyder X2
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge

A bigger version of the 1000 point list, this army should work alright for its job. I wish I could get another Ghost Ark in, but I don’t think it’ll happen. Anyways, the 13 man….robot…Warrior Squads hang back, supported by their Lords and the Annihilation Barges. The Spyders keep close to the Scarabs, just bolstering them and being a monstrous Creature if something thinks it wants to get close. The Triarch Stalkers, Annihilation Barges, and Overlords provide anti-tank and armour, but if a Land Raider shows up, I think the army would suffer a little.

Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? These are just casual lists I wrote up, but if you have any recommendations, please, don’t hesitate to comment!

Granesh

Painting: Better Alpha Legion Biker Shots

2012-02-03T12:54:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So Ron from From the Warp wanted some more detailed shots of my Alpha Legion Bikers, so I figured I’d do a more in-depth post on them!

The squads usually run in 1 group of 4, although I could drop it down to three and just give the Icon Bearer a Plasmagun.

The Champion is magnetized, meaning he can wield his usual Power Sword, or a Power Fist, especially if my first CSM squad isn’t using theirs.

There’s a little tone variation from the squad and the rest of the army. Its not too noticable.

Also magnetized is the first Plasma Gunner. Sure Plasma’s good, especially with Relentless, but for a unit designed to get up close, I’d prefer Melta or even a Flamer sometimes!

Plasma Gunner #2 isn’t magnetized, mainly because I can’t remember if his arm is one piece or the arm and the gun. I’m happy with the pose as well, gives him a sense of purpose with that gun!

Lastly, the linchpin to the unit, the Icon Bearer.

Little details galore! Script on his bike and the banner, little Hyrda symbols, the use of Scorpion Green for the bright colors. Everything flows with the unit.

The squad is designed to be a fast moving Chaos Icon. For about 200 points, the squad turbo-boosts up for the 3+ save, weathers a turn of shooting, then, depending on location and what needs to die, may bring the Summoned Lesser Daemons in to assault a pesky vehicle or jump on a rear objective. The squad is then free to harass slow tanks or units on foot, no matter the armament.

The squad worked perfectly last week, and although the Daemons never came on the board (fast game…), the Bikers messed up 2 Vindicators and drew fire from a Whirlwind away from my other guys. For a unit that a lot of people don’t like to use, they do me pretty well!

If there’s any other pictures of my personal armies (IG, Tau, Chaos) or any other random projects from Granesh you want to see, just say so in the comments, through our Smells Like Facebook page, or via email!

Hopefully, more Chaos, Eldar, and maybe a Necron this weekend! Huzzah!

Granesh

Finished: Mike’s Thousand Sons and Eldar War Walkers; Bloodletters and Chaos Bikers

2012-02-02T12:13:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I’ve been rocking through projects over the last week while dancing around school projects, assignments, and homework. I think I’ve done pretty good though!

First up is the Thousand Sons squad for Mike’s big Chaos detachment I’m working on.

The client’s army is blue and orange (Orange Crush!), ala the orange on the models.

Really happy with how these turned out, though the vine work is alright.

Still have a Vyper, 3 Wave Serpent-style tanks, and the new FW models to do!

Somehow, I managed to try a couple of my own pieces too. Rather happy with the Bloodletter, although the sword is just ok in my book.

Matches the Berzerkers too!

Finally, I got the biker bases all finished too. Got to play them in a game on Saturday (beat Deathstar Blood Angels), so Granesh is 2-0 in my Local Ladder League! Hoping to get the Alpha Legion out on the table again this Saturday! Oh right, pictures! Of course…

I’ve been going back in and retouching up areas I wasn’t happy with, so the Champion got the Power Sword redo like his on foot counterpart, and the one Plasmagunner is magnetized, I forgot the other one was a full bit…

The Alpha Legion summon in the chosen of Khorne to sneak attack their foes.

More Orange Crush Chaos Marines on the way, along with Eldar. After them, The sons of Dorn!

Granesh

For Sale: 2k Winter Tau Empire Army and 4.4k Imperial Guard “The Granex 25th:

2012-01-28T12:55:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So over the last couple of months, my Chaos Marines have taken over my 40k playtime. I’ve played my IG and my Tau a little bit since then, but for the most part, the Alpha Legion have been taking the spotlight. This being said, I’m hoping to sell the two armies off sometime in the near future and, dear reader, I’m offering them up to you first.

1) 2000 Point Winter Tau Empire Army

With the new codex rumored to come out this year, this army would be an excellent place to start your new Tau Empire army.

The list comes out to 2039 points, and includes:

1 Ethereal with Honour Blade
FW Crisis Suit Commander with Magnetized Weapons
8 Crisis Suits: 5 with PR/MP, 3 with TL Fusion.
3 Stealth Suits with Marker Drone
24 Fire Warriors: 1 squad is in a Devilfish
12 Kroot Carnivores
5 Pathfinders with a Devilfish
Piranha armed with a Fusion Blaster
Hammerhead Gunship

Also included is 1 standard GW Case with Foam, which holds everything but the vehicles, and the current Tau Empire codex with a little wear.

This is a partial army shot, but allows you to get an idea for the army. I’m asking $1300 obo for this army.

#2: 4400 Point Imperial Guard “The Granex 25th”

My pride and joy. The army that got me into 40k initially. I’ve gotten numerous compliments and praise for this army, and have spent countless hours perfecting my painting style using this army.

Company Command

Hydra Flak Tank with Brass Rod barrels

Veteran Squad #2

Infantry Squad White

This army is 4391 points, all WYSIWYG, and includes:

Company Command Squad with Plasma Pistol, Vox, Medic, Meltagun/Plasma Gun, Officer of the Fleet, Master of Ordnance, and a Bodyguard with a Chimera
Classic Commissar Yarrick
Lord Commissar
Primaris Psyker
Ministorum Priest
3 Ogryn converted from Ogre Bulls
7 Man Psyker Battle Squad with Overseer and a Chimera.
2 Veteran Squads armed with Powerfist, Shotguns (FW upgrade set), 3 Meltaguns, and Demolitions.
Penal Legionnaires (7/10) done up for Necromunda use as well
2 Infantry Platoons:

#1: Platoon Command with Plasma Pistol, Vox, Medic, 2 Plasma Guns, in a Chimera.
3 Infantry Squads armed with Flamer/Vox.
3 Heavy Weapons Teams armed with Autocannons and Missile Launchers.
#2: Platoon Command with Plasma Pistol, Vox, Medic, and 2 Plasma Guns.
4 Infantry Squads, 3 with Grenade Launchers/Vox, 1 with Meltagun/Vox.

5 Commissars, color-coordinated to match the Infantry Squads (Blue, Orange, Green, etc.)
1 Armored Sentinel with Magnetized Plasma Cannon.
3 Scout Sentinels with Multi-Lasers and Autocannons.
Valkyrie with magnetized Rocket Pods and Hellstrike Missiles.
Hellhound with Hull-Mounted Multi-Melta and all accompanying turret attachments.
Forge World Hydra Flak Tank with Brass Rod barrels.
Manticore Missile Launcher
4 Leman Russ Tanks:

2 Battle Cannon Leman Russ with Heavy Bolter Sponsons
1 converted Exterminator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons and FW Tallarn Driver as Knight Commander Pask.
1 Demolisher,Punisher, Executioner with unglued sponson weapons

2 Cyclops RC Demolition Vehicles (converted from Epic-Scale Leman Russ tanks)
1 Baneblade Super-heavy Tank with 1 Set of Sponsons.

The army also includes the Imperial Guard Codex (lots of wear and tear…) as well as 3 cases: 2 GW cases that carry all infantry and some tanks, and 1 plastic case that carries the rest of the vehicles minus a couple Russ and the Baneblade, as well as the Ogryn. I’ll also email you with a bunch of different IG lists on Army Builder.

I don’t have any full shots of the army, but if you’re interested, I’d be more than happy to get full shots taken of the force. I’m asking $4000 obo for this army, which is 99% painted and perfect for 40k, Apocalypse, Planetstrike, Cities of Death, etc. You wanna play it, you can with this army!

Whew! Alrighty. These are also up in the ++For Sale++ section of the site, but if you’re interested or want more info, you can email me at SmellsLikeWargaming at hotmail dot com, and we can work something out!!

That being said, I’m hoping to uphold my title as #1 today at my FLGS’s Ladder League with my newly based Alpha Legion this evening after I finish my current obligation! Wish me luck!

Granesh

Painting: Alpha Legion Resin Bases and Touchups

2012-01-25T10:27:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Just a quick post today. Figured I’d share the last day of work; I decided to work on a personal project, just to get me pumped up for the next group of commissions!

I’ve been rocking with my new resin bases from Dragon Forge Design, and they’re turning out great. You can see in the picture with the Champion the brass aquilla on the base, which really helps give it an Imperial feel, which is perfect!

So the Alpha Legion squad went from this:

To this:

Much happier with the new guys, the bases really compliment the darker tone of the Alpha Legionnaires.

I’ve also been retouching up guys as I go. The Alpha Legionnaires aren’t my best work, so its easy to go back in and touch up some boltgun areas. I actually had to replace a bolter on one guy (just didn’t like the mod I’d done), and I also redid their Power Swords to mimic the job I did on, say, the Dreadknight, or Inquisitor Karazmov.

The first biker is the same way:

And lastly, the Chaos Sorcerer on his new base.

A group shot of the rebased Alpha Legion group so far. Still need to do 3 more bikers, but that’ll be easy.

Alright, about to get to work on some Biel-Tan Eldar! Also have a secret project that’s coming in this week that I’ll be do gradually over the next couple of months. Lets just say a Dirge Caster can actually be scary!

Granesh

Finished: GK Inquisitor Karazmov on the Throne of Judgement

2012-01-21T11:54:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Just a quick post today. I’ll be playing a couple games with my IG today, as my CSM are out of commission on account of me being impatient with my resin bases! So I’ll probably stick with my 1k point games, I have more fun there I think.

Anyways, I sat down and finished Karazmov. First off, for those of you who hate Finecast, imagine doing this guy in metal. ‘Nuff said.

I went for a chromatic scheme, with Karazmov in red, the scribe in blue, and the servitor in purple.

Lots of scrollwork, lots of little intricate details. But I think he turned out splendidly!

Next up, Eldar, Chaos Marines, and Imperial Fists!

Granesh

Finished: FW Bray’arth Ashmantle Venerable Dreadnought

2012-01-19T11:44:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So I sat down after finishing Magilla’s Green Knights, and got right into my next set of commissions. This guy’d been sitting on my desk a little longer than I like to keep commissions, but I think he turned out worthwhile.

For those of you who don’t know Bray’arth, he’s in Imperial Armour 10: Badab War Part 2. He’s a little more than a Land Raider, Venerable, has the old Living Metal rule, and is armed with Dual DCCW that can be either 2 Heavy Flamers or a TL Meltagun. In other words, he’s cool. Not broken, but cool.

The model’s even cooler!

The head sits really low, compared to the little rim around the outside of it, so I couldn’t paint his eyes.

Really happy with the DCCW claws, his pose gives him a menacing look, as well as dangerous. Arms are magnetized as well.

And, an idea of size. He’s a little taller than a regular Dreadnought.

That Khorne Berserker won’t know what hit him…

Next up, Inquisitor Karazmov!

Granesh

Finished: Magilla Gurilla’s Green Knights army

2012-01-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

Well I’ve been working my butt off the last couple of days, but its finally done. Over 2k points of Grey Knights, all done up in a Green Scheme. Lets break down the army, with pictures:

Inquisitor Coteaz and 3 Servo-Skulls

Terminator Librarian and 3 Servo-Skulls

20 Warrior Acolytes (9 Meltaguns, 11 CCW)

20 Death Cult Assassins

Squads are differentiated by colored scales on the cloaks:

5 Rhino/Razorbacks with Magnetized Searchlights

1 Inquisitorial Chimera with magnetized Searchlight and Dozer Blade

1 Land Raider Redeemer/Crusader

3 Venerable Dreadnoughts, 6 Autocannon arms, 2 Multi-Melta arms, 1 Lascannon arm, and 3 DCCW.

3 Dreadnoughts, 6 Autocannon arms, 2 Multi-Melta arms, 1 Lascannon arm, and 3 DCCW.

And, of course, the finished product!

Inquisitorial Acolytes, supported by their Chimera, rush to to stop an Alpha Legion Vindicator.

WHEW! Glad to have this group done! Largest commission I’ve ever done at once and, I must say, I had a blast doing them. Magilla’s already enamored by them, and he hasn’t even seen them in person! Just gotta Matte Varnish and pack em off!

Next up, Bray’arth Ashmantle, and Inquisitor Karazmov!

Granesh

Painting: Mag’s Green Knights Almost Done!; Finished: Abaddon the Despoiler in Plastic/Finecast!

2012-01-10T22:55:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

Sorry for the span in posts! Been a crazy last week, just getting through Mag’s pieces, as well as getting settled back in with school! Should be a fairly easy semester with some fun classes and a laid back schedule, so we’ll see what the next 4 months brings!

Anyways, I won’t bore you with silly details, I’ll jump right into pictures!

Inquisitor Coteaz with Servo-Skulls

Terminator Librarian with Servo-Skulls

Warrior Acolytes: Red Squad

Warrior Acolytes: Purple Squad

Warrior Acolytes: Blue Squad

Warrior Acolytes: Yellow Squad

Death Cult Assassins #1

Rhino/Razorback #1: Venus

Rhino/Razorback #2: Pluto

Rhino/Razorback #3: Mercury

Rhino/Razorback #4: Saturn

Rhino/Razorback #5: Jupiter

Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer #1: Sol

Multi-Melta hatch can be switched out for a plain one, and the Assault Ramp opens!

Regular Dreadnoughts (will have Multi-Melta/DCCW AND 2 Twin-Linked Autocannons)

Venerable Dreadnoughts (will have Multi-Melta or TL Lascannon/DCCW AND 2 Twin-Linked Autocannons)

WHEW! All that’s left are 15 Death Cultists and most of the Dreadnought Autocannon arms. The Autocannon arms are from Shapeways, if I recall correctly, and the texture on them makes them a BITCH to paint. Weird, grainy texture makes freehanding anything almost impossible…Goal is to be done by Saturday and have everything shipped out by Monday!

Also, I’ve managed to get my Abaddon model finished up! Must say, I’m really happy with how he turned out. The components include:

Plastic Terminator Lord
Finecast Abaddon the Despoiler
Ork Boy (for the Topknot)
Some Greenstuff

Really easy conversion, the Terminator Lord was built up fairly standardly, minus the arms and the head. The head is the Finecast Abaddon head with the topknot replaced with an Ork Boy’s one. The picture makes it look too big, but it’s fine. Drach’nyen and the Talon of Horus were simply cut from the Finecast arms and made to fit correctly onto the plastic ones I chose. There’s some sculpting done, such as the addition of some Eyes of Horus, as well as additional fur on top of his Terminator armor to make up for the goofy trophy racks.

I chose a NMM scheme for him to make him stand out and make the Black Legion scheme more prominent. Here’s the final paint!

The picture doesn’t do him justice, but I went for a lighter yet alive style skintone that turned out exceptionally well, the Finecast head has plenty of detail!

Best part: He towers over other Terminators, making him look the part of Warmaster! I have another Terminator Lord kit waiting for the first Lord for the Lords of the Black Crusade datasheet, but I don’t really have time to work on them right now. Smells Like Wargaming is swamped with commissions right now, and I’m slowly but surely pumping through them!

Also, my bases from Dragon Forge Designs came in today! I’ll be scrubbing them tomorrow, and working on them whenever I have free time! I’ll give a little more information on my plans for them in the coming days!

Alrighty, the final push on Mag’s Green Knights! Huzzah!

Granesh

Painting: Mag’s Green Knights; WIP: Plastic Fantastic Abaddon

2012-01-03T22:37:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I’ve been on a painting and modeling roll right now. I actually just set up a Netflix account (New Years Resolution), so I’ve been rocking out Magilla’s stuff while watching Pawn Stars (love that show!)

Anyways, all of Magilla’s Warrior Acolytes are finished, as well as the Rhinos (razorback part done tomorrow!). Also finished the 6 Servo-Skulls for the list!

All vehicles are numbered 1-5, and have individual names and icons that make them stand out. First shot shows “Venvs”, “Plvto”, and “Mercvry”, while the second shot has “Jvpiter”, “Satvrn”, and Chimera “Lvna”.

Fly my pretties, FLY!!!

Coteaz’ Acolytes rush up to deal with a troublesome target. I’d throw some Alpha Legion in for some fun shots, but they’re all unbased, waiting for some sexy resin bases from Dragon Forge to come in!

However, I’m not shirking my Chaos army. I managed to grab the boxes waiting in my mail today, which included my Abaddon model. After a quick run to the hobby shop to drop off some those Sisters of Battle and this guy:

I got right to work on Abaddon. He went from this:

to this:

in half an hour! The topknot’s been removed and replaced with an Ork one that’s flowing the right direction with the cape. Drach’nyen was an easy attachment, just requiring me to file down the nub that’d let him glue into the Finecast piece. The Talon required a little more work, and I had to cut a Storm Bolter Chaos Terminator arm at above the elbow to get everything to work.

This was an amazingly easy conversion, and I’m debating whether or not to sit down, like DiGriz and I did with Ciaphas Cain, to play with some updated rules, just for fun.

I do have Abaddon’s old Finecast body lying around, which I’m thinking will turn into the first Terminator Lord for the Lords of the Black Crusade, but the thing’s so small, it’d be a pretty silly looking Lord. Should I do it? I may make him sculpting practice and try to do the Nurgle one…hmm…decisions….

Next up, Razorback additions, the Land Raider, and Dreadnoughts!!

Granesh

For Sale Again: Magnetized and Converted Finecast Necron Overlord with Ever-Living Token

2011-12-31T16:48:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Two posts in a day? Granesh is getting ambitious! Not really, I just figured I’d put up a link again to my latest eBay Auction.

I just don’t have time to do an entire army of these guys and sell them, so I figure that this guy would be an excellent Centerpiece model for all you budding Necron Players out there!

Again, the highlights of this model are:

Professionally painted by Smells Like Wargaming! Marbling effect on his shoulder pauldrons and torso, and OSL from his eyes and the Warscythe!
Left hand is magnetized between his plain hand and a Resurrection Orb, allowing for strict WYSIWYG!
Warscythe has been tucked towards his body, allowing for easier transportation. He also now fits in a Command Barge!
Ever-Living Token means you don’t have to tip him over when he dies: just take him off and pop it down!
Generic basing means he’ll look good in any type of army!

He’s presently listed HERE for $50 and a buy it Now at $70. I’d love to see him go to a home that would appreciate a model like this! If you’re still interested in this piece after the auction closes too, please email me at SmellsLikeWargaming at hotmail dot com, and we can work something out *coughMonsterRaincough*!

Granesh

Painting: Mag’s GK Acolytes, Sisters of Battle, and Abaddon WIP, Part un

2011-12-31T12:06:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

Sorry its been a while since I posted here, but I’m back in Durango, safe and sound, and have been doing nothing but catching up on painting and watching movies!

Anyways, as I said, I’ve been hard at work, rocking through Mag’s GK stuff.

Warrior Acolyte Squad 1 with Chimera and Coteaz in tow. Warrior Acolyte squads are denoted by colors on either their Meltagun arm or their CC arm, depending on what they’ve got.

Acolyte Squad Purple!

Acolyte Squad Red

Holy Chimera 1-X, “ LVNA”

As you can see, every rivet has been picked out in gold.

Mag’s been immortalized in his army!

WIP still, here’s Rhino/Razorback #1: “VENVS”

And a family shot! I’m hoping to have the Warrior Acolytes done tomorrow, meaning I’ll be rocking out Razorbacks and Death Cultists all next week!

Also finished is a small group of Sisters of Battle for a friend of my at the FLGS. He’s starting an army of them, so expect more Sisters to come through the blog!

The faces are what really make these models, otherwise, they just look like ornate Power Armour.

And, amazingly, I’ve gotten some work done on a personal project of mine. Say hello to the start of Abaddon the Despoiler!

Rather than the goofy back trophies (I hate them sooo much…), I opted back to his former days as a Luna Wolf under Horus, so he’s got wolf fur on his back now.

Also, added some more Horus-esque icons to his armour. He may not be Horus, but he’s still the embodiment of Horus’ rebellion!

I’m still waiting on the Finecast Abaddon to come in so I can hack him for parts. I have enough Terminator bits left over that I’ll be able to make a Chaos Terminator Lord out of the old Abaddon body…perhaps a Tzeentchian Lord? We’ll see.

Alrighty, I’m off to drop of the Sisters to my friend. Have a safe New Years everyone, and don’t drink too much, Nurgle already has enough followers!

Granesh

Painting/Modeling: Lords of the Black Crusade and Dragon Forge Bases

2011-12-25T23:21:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

First off, Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Happy Festivus! Just enjoy the holiday season with your loved ones!

So as the blog has shown lately, I haven’t had a lot of time to work on personal projects. I’m alright with that, but I’ve got an itch to get some stuff done for my Chaos Marines between commissions. It’ll be a little bit of time, but I have some big plans for the Alpha Legion and their expansion.

However, I have one big project to get done for them, obviously a fun project more so than anything else, but I think I can get him to work and have a lot of fun with him. Thanks to my little bro, I recently received a Chaos Terminator Lord kit. I also have one coming in through Durango Game Space, thanks to the Winter Objective grabbing, for like $10, which I’m excited for. A holiday eBay gift card got me this guy too:

Hoping to do the Spiky Bitz’ MBG’s treatment on him by combining him and the Plastic Terminator Lord. A pointing pose with the Talon of Horus, Drach’nyn hanging at his side, and an air of Authority about him.

Now obviously, he’s not the best character in the game, unfortunately. That Daemon Weapon needs to stop wounding him, and the Talon needs to be a little more impressive. That’s not why I’m building him. I’d like to focus the Chaos Marines on an Apocalypse-style force. Meaning that I’m already on my way to building the Lords of the Black Crusade datasheet!

For those of you who can’t remember, the Lords of the Black Crusade is:

Warmaster Ezekiel Abaddon
4 Chaos Lords/Sorcerers, working as Lord Ravager, Lord Deceiver, Lord Corruptor, and Lord Purgator.
1 Squad of Chosen or Chaos Terminators

Now, right now, I have the 1 Squad of Terminators (I need more pink!), 2 Lords, and Abaddon. I may have enough bitz in my box to get another Lord or two out of there, so we’ll see where my stuff gets me!

The other thing I’ve decided to do is that the Alpha Legion is going to be a good looking army. So just today, I dropped an order with Jeff over at Dragon Forge Designs for enough Resin Bases to get my Chaos Army all based up. I figured, with the Alpha Legion being sneaky and everything, that a cityscape would be most fitting. So I went with the Concrete Rubble set:

I also picked up the small Aquila Brass Etching from Forge World to give the bases a more 40k-Imperial feel, so expect some updates of those when they come in!

The painting bug is coming back in force, and there’s some Green Knights back on my desk waiting for a sexy coat of paint!

Granesh

Gaming: Ciaphas Cain 40k Rules Playtest

2011-12-24T14:07:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So my buddy DiGriz and I are fairly avid fans of Sandy Mitchell’s lucky Commissar, Ciaphas Cain, and his smelly buddy, Gunner Jurgen. Now, I’m all for writing up fun characters, playing Forge World characters and rules, etc., so we sat down last night and wrote up a set of fun rules for Ciaphas Cain and Jurgen. Set up similarly to Creed and Kell, you don’t have to run these two together, but they’re set up so you’ll want to.

My biggest point I stressed to DiGriz while we wrote these two up was that they needed to fill and unfilled niche in the Guard codex. He’s based on a Lord Commissar profile, but having Commissar Yarrick in the book, he needed to fall in between your run-of-the-mill Commissar Lord, but not encroach on Yarrick’s God-like demeanor.

Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium: 140 Points

WS BS S T W I A LD Sv

5 5 3 3 3 3 ¾ 10 4+

Unit Type: Character (Unique)

Wargear:

Hot-Shot Laspistol

Master-Crafted Chainsword

Frag and Krak Grenades

Carapace Armour

Special Rules

Aura of Discipline: 6” use his LD for morale, pinning, and orders.

Stubborn

Independent Character

Eternal Warrior

Inseparable: If purchased together, Ciaphas Cain and Gunner Jurgen create a unit themselves. These two still count as Independent Characters, but they must stay together if they join a unit.

Gunner Ferik Jurgen: 55 Points

WS BS S T W I A LD Sv

3 4 3 3 2 3 1 8 4+

Unit Type: Character (Unique)

Wargear:

Meltagun

Frag and Krak Grenades

Carapace Armour

Special Rules

Psychic Blank: Jurgen is a blank, and therefore nearly invisible in the Warp. Jurgen counts as having a Psychic Hood that works within 6” of him. Additionally, Jurgen’s Blank ability makes Psykers around him uneasy, or worse. All Psykers (Friend or Foe) in the same combat as Jurgen must take a Leadership check at the beginning of the assault phase, and on a 2 or 12, suffer Perils of the Warp. The Psyker may still make Psychic Powers in the Assault Phase normally.

Inseparable: If purchased together, Ciaphas Cain and Gunner Jurgen create a unit themselves. These two still count as Independent Characters, but they must stay together if they join a unit. In addition for Jurgen, he may only be purchased if Cain is in the army, and does not count as a HQ choice.

Dedicated Transport:

Ciaphas Cain, if accompanied by Gunner Jurgen, may take a Salamander Command Vehicle for 55 Points (from Imperial Armour 1, pg. 142). For posterity’s sake, the Salamander is equipped with a Pintle-Mounted Storm Bolter and has Extra Armour (to represent Jurgen’s Driving Ability).

DESIGNER NOTES

I feel like these rules represent Cain and Jurgen fairly majorly. Cain’s Summery Execution rule has been removed, which increased his points a little bit. Eternal Warrior takes care of his lack of Invulnerable Save. His Hot-Shot Laspistol and Master-Crafted Chainsword represent his increased abilities with his weapons without upping him to a stupid WS/BS 6.

As for Jurgen, he was a very interesting character to do. We wanted to represent his Blank ability, but seeing as a lack of Psychic defense is a key balancing factor for the IG, we gave him a toned down Psychic Hood. Like REALLY toned down, and I’m still worried it’s a little much. The biggest thing with Jurgen is he’s still a Veteran Statline, but over 50 points. A little expensive, yes, but compliments Cain rather nicely.

We would love some feedback here guys! Like I said, I feel like these two are fairly balanced, but not having a chance to playtest yet, I’m not sure if there’s something I missed!

Have a happy holidays guys, hope everything’s joyous and happy!

Granesh

Finished: Khador Additions

2011-12-21T16:52:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

Just been rolling through the painting the last couple of days! I’m going home for holiday tomorrow, so Smells Like Wargaming will be back up with painting goodness next Tuesday! Hoping to post some army list ideas, as I have no plans but to sit back, relax, sleep, and play around with Army Builder while I’m home!

Alrighty! My latest commission was a Khador force, consisting of:

Sorscha
Wardog
Winter Guard Command and Banner Bearer
5 Man-O-Wars
2 Heavy Jacks (A Destroyer and a Juggernaut)

I’m rather happy with how they turned out. The client wanted Menoth bitz scattered about their bases, which turned out best with the Winter Guard commander and Sorscha I think.

Little free-hand filigree for a nice touch!

Man O Wars with Sorscha!

The pictures really don’t do her justice. Here’s a little better shot of the face…

This gentleman here didn’t want to hold his banner. A little Green Stuff cement made him rethink his strategy…

Again, like the other Winter Guard, you can see the age of this model on the face when compared to Sorscha.

‘For the Motherland! For Khador!’

And, of course, the Doggie! Really neat model, PP has some figures I’d love to paint up at some point!

“To war!”

Phew! Alrighty! We at Smells Like Wargaming (more like I….) would like to wish everyone a happy holiday! Safe travels, and don’t party too hardy! Next up on the painting block is Mag’s Green Knights, followed by *gulp* Imperial Fists!

Granesh

Finished: GK Dreadknight and SoB Penitent Engine

2011-12-19T15:31:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So with the semester over and a couple of days free until the holiday, I’ve been able to rock through some commissions and just paint and relax.

Today, I’ve finished a couple of pieces for a friend of my at our FLGS. The Penitent Engine was just to see how it painted up, but the Dreadknight was for his son, which he wanted to give for Christmas. Each piece is probably about 4 hours or so to finish, and I’m very happy with both of them.

The sword is hand painted and hand blended; I think the lightning adds a nicer touch than the last one I did.

For the Inquisition!

And for scale! The Engine’s about the same size as a Daemon Prince, while the Dreadknight…

Yeah…

Next up, Khador!

Granesh

Teaser: Finished DREADFLEET!; 300 Point Objective-Grabbing Xmas Game tomorrow: What to Bring?

2011-12-16T20:55:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So after a lot of late nights and caffeine, Durango Game Space’s copy of Dreadfleet is finished! I’ll be going into the shop tomorrow (to preface the next part) for pictures, so expect full-on action shots then!

Here’s a teaser picture though!

Mmmm…sexy!

Alrighty, so Durango Game Space is running an interesting game idea tomorrow. Here’s the specs I know:

300 Points Max
1 HQ and 1 Troops Choice

Easy enough, right? The whole game is objective. The table is going to be packed with terrain. Objective Markers are labeled with $$ amounts off product in the shop. I love this idea! Last one on the board gets $15 off, and objectives have between $0-15 off. You have to grab the objective and carry it off the table.

My decision is, though, is which army to bring?

I have two list ideas: One fairly good, one more for fun (all are WYSIWYG for any weird upgrades)

List 1: IG Raiding Party

Lord Commissar with Power Weapon/Melta Bombs
10 Man Veteran Squad with 3 Meltaguns, 6 shotguns, and demolitions (melta and demo charge) and a Sgt. with Powerfist/Shotgun, in a Chimera with Hull-mounted Heavy Flamer and Extra Armour.

Fairly mobile squad with good shooting, decent CC (if necessary), and LD 10 thanks to the Lord Commissar. If I wanted, I can swap him out for a Primaris Psyker, and give the Chimera an upgrade or something.

List 2: Gift of Chaos Alpha Legion

Chaos Sorcerer with Mark of Slaanesh, Melta-bombs, and Gift of Chaos.
5 Chaos Marines with Icon of Chaos Glory and a Meltagun, in a Rhino with Daemonic Posession and a Combi-Melta.

Again, fairly mobile squad with decent shooting, CC ability if needed, and the ability to reroll a failed Morale Check thanks to the banner. Gift of Chaos is there for fun, and lets me run the Chaos Spawn I picked up yesterday (That’s right, I’m using SPAWN!) hopefully. Daemonic Posession keeps it moving regardless of Shaken or Stunned, and keeps it focused on the objectives.

I’m thinking the Guard list, but the Chaos Marines could be fun. Any suggestions?

Next up on the painting block: Khador!

Granesh

Digital: Smells Like New Logo!

2011-12-14T15:19:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of recent updates. Dreadfleet will be done by friday at the latest, meaning I can focus on the Khador and Green Knights. Also picked up a stupid-fun project for break, I’ll let you all know what it is soon!

Anyways, I figured I’d just let you all check out the new logo! Did this back in October for a Digital Media class, actually ended up being some of my best pieces for this semester. I think I have a shot of all three…lemme look…

Ah! Here’s the piece I had hanging up in the gallery show last week (its now up in my room!)

For someone who’s not a Graphic Design major, I’m rather happy with their turnout. As you can see, the new logo is the center one, the black lines reversed with white, and some extra text (Vanilla Whale font, for anyone interested). Love to hear some feedback!

Other than that, keep painting! I’ll have some Dreadfleet shots up tomorrow!

Granesh

For Sale: Painted/Magnetized Necron Overlord with Ever-Living Counter

2011-12-09T10:37:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I was sitting there thinking about it, and I probably won’t have time here in the near future to do that entire Necron army. So over the next couple of months, I’ll be painting and selling the little groups I have!

First up is the Necron Overlord with Ever-Living Token.

As you can see, the Resurrection Orb hand is magnetized, allowing for extra WYSIWYG.

The marbling on his shoulderpads and loincloth have been retouched with Gloss Varnish to give it a sheen. There’s plenty of glowing effects, marbling, and metallics, all to make the Overlord stand out on the table top! The basing is fairly neutral as well, meaning that he’ll fit in with just about any Necron army!

He’s listed on eBay here: Necron Overlord with Ever-Living Token.

Should have some pictures of more GK and some Khador up soon, assuming I get time this weekend around finals and studying….ugh.

Granesh

Painting: Dreadfleet and Mag’s Green Knights; Tactics: Running Havocs with No Heavy Weapons?

2011-12-08T22:53:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So with the upcoming finals week, the blog is going to go a little more on the backburner, at least until Monday afternoon, when my 2 hardest finals are finished. Dreadfleet should be finished by mid-next week, as well as my client’s Khador (haven’t forgotten ya buddy!) by the end of the week. Hoping to get some more stuff painted for the Alpha Legion then too. More thoughts on the XX Legion soon too…

Alrighty, painting! First up is more Dreadfleet! Some islands, Sea Monsters, treasure, tools, and a Ship!

Treasure Tokens. EXTREMELY easy to rock though!

Really happy with both the Wind Gauge and the Ship’s Wheel. Got another wheel to do! Need to get another shot of the Gauge too…

Finally, my favorite ship done, the Curse of Zandri. Really fun ship, though there’s a lot of little obnoxious details on there. Apparently too, you can fire a Catapult off a moving ship…go figure…There’s no cannons, just Catapults and Ballistae.

Also finished is the first Dreadnought for Mag’s Green Knight army! Going for Greek Titan names for these guys, so here’s Coeus!

The script turned out funny…may need to invest in a new detail brush…

Warrior Acolytes ho!

Alrighty, so Chaos Havocs. Everyone loves Devastators now thanks to their ability to run a TON of missile Launchers. Now, I’ve been listening to back episodes of one of my favorite podcasts, World’s End Radio, and JJ mentioned an interesting point that I’d never really considered before. How about running Chaos Havocs as a close support unit instead of a long range unit?

JJ proposed running 4 Havocs and a Champ with either Flamers or Meltas as a drive-by shooting unit, and I must say, I love this idea. I was planning on running a unit of Chaos Chosen, but with the Chosen, you can only take 4 special weapons; Power fists, meltaguns, combi-weapons, etc.

With the Havocs, I can throw 4 and a Champion in a Rhino with 4 Meltas, an Icon of Chaos Glory, and a Champion with Power Fist/Combi-Melta. A little expensive at 235 points, but what’s not a little expensive in the Chaos book? 2 Shots riding around in the Rhino, and if need be, they can jump out and pump 5 Melta (6 with the Rhino’s Combi-Melta) shots into a unit. OUCH! Just goes to show there's still aspects to the Chaos Marine book I’m not great with.

Having a ton of fun with this army so far though, glad to be running things like Chaos Marines, Slaaneshi Terminators, Khorne Zerkers in a Rhino, and Chaos Bikers!

Alrighty, off to work again. Big paper for Global Christianity due on Monday, a cumulative final for Art History as well, and a couple of art projects, on top of finals. Gonna be a long weekend!

Granesh

Finished: Salamanders HQ Characters

2011-12-05T11:44:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I was able to sit down last night and get the finishing touches done on Vulkan He’stan, so the commission is finished! Very simple one, it consisted of:

Vulkan He’stan
Terminator Chaplain with Storm Bolter and Crozius Arcanum

Trying a new picture taking area btw, so any feedback is appreciated.

Must say, I LOVE the Terminator Chaplain model. Lots of character and details on him, and he’s relatively easy to paint up!

THIS model, on the other hand, makes me question GW a bit. I understand he’s supposed to be the chief artificer and Chapter Master of the Salamanders, but WHY SO MUCH DETAIL! He’s too busy! There’s not a lot to draw the eye, so it gets hard to look at. I’d like to think I did him some SLW justice though!

Flames turned out really nicely. I’m not super happy with the blending on his Spear, though it looks good nonetheless. He’s off to get varnished here in a few!

And next to a Salamander for good measure!

Alrighty! Next up on the block is more Dreadfleet and the next installment of the Khador models I did a couple weeks ago! Stay tuned!

Granesh

Painting: Magilla’s Assembled GK, Terminator Chaplain and Vulkan, and Dreadfleet; Granesh’s First Game vs. GK!

2011-12-04T19:46:00.001-07:00

Whew!

Sorry for the lack of updates guys! We’re winding down the semester right now, so I’ve got a lot of projects and assignments due in the next couple of weeks that need to get done. Doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy with commissions though! Lets start!

First up, Magilla’s Grey Knights came in on Thursday, so on Friday, I set about starting on putting the beast together. This group includes:

Coteaz (Finished)
Terminator Librarian (Finished)
11 CCW Warrior Acolytes
9 Meltagun Warrior Acolytes
20 Death Cult Assassins
5 Razorbacks with Heavy Bolters
1 Chimera with Multi-Laser
3 Venerable Dreadnoughts
3 Dreadnoughts
Land Raider Redeemer/Crusader

Looks like more than it actually is:

I really like the Death Cult, the client wanted Dark Elf Corsairs for them, which work perfectly. I should be starting painting in the next couple of days.

Next up is a little (but still important) commission of a Salamanders Terminator Chaplain and Vulkan He’stan.

I LOVE the Chaplain model, though its still pewter. I really hate Vulkan though…

Obviously still WIP, I’ll be finishing him tonight. WAY TOO BUSY MODEL!

A little more work on Dreadfleet too! Islands and Wrecks galore!

Oooo…glowing lights….

Marble altar of death!

Careful sailing Grimnir’s Thunder, Careful sailing…

Lastly, I managed to get a game in against Grey Knights on Saturday. Lots of fun, a nail-biter all the way to the end. Here’s lists:

Granesh’s Alpha Legion

Daemon Prince with Wings, Mark of Nurgle, and Warptime
8 Khorne Berserkers with 2 Plasma Pistols, personal Icon, and Skull Champ with Plasma/Power Fist, in a Rhino with Extra Armour/Combi-Melta.
10 Alpha Legionnaires with 2 Meltaguns and Icon of Chaos Glory with a Champ with Power Weapon/Meltabombs in a Rhino with Extra Armour/Combi-Melta.
8 Summoned Lesser Daemons
Vindicator with Daemonic Possession and Combi-Melta.

Andrew’s Grey Knights (Can’t Remember all wargear stuff)

Castellan Crowe
Venerable Psyfleman Dreadnought
10 Purifiers with various weapons
8 GK Terminators with Brotherhood Banner, Halberds, etc.
Vindicare Assassin

I feel like I’m missing something here, but you can get the jist of it. We decided on KP and Pitched Battle setup. I lost the roll to go first, and Andrew deployed first.

Daemons really don’t like Grey Knights, obviously. Daemon Prince ate the Razorback, then got his face eaten. The Summoned Daemons came in off the Alpha Legion, I decided to assault for shits and giggles, and got eaten by Purifiers.

The Vindicare (the Scout) was drinking wine in the tower. He plinked shots at the Vindicator, missing twice (with the reroll!) or stunning it, which I just ignored. Turn 5 saw the Destruction of the Demolisher Cannon, but it was too late, as the S10 template wiped out at least 200 points of GK terminators in one shot.

Bye Daemons!

That single stupid Purifier would wipe out a couple of Space Marines before going down.

Final Scrum. The Khorne Berserkers and Alpha Legionnaires held their ground against Crowe and the Terminators, and held the game to a win in my favor!

Learned several key things in the game.

The Vindicator is perfect for my list. Daemonic Possession does hurt for scatter, but when you hit, you’ll do a TON of damage, my Leman Russ Demolisher will attest to that.
Cleansing Flame sucks. 3+ armor saves don’t like me, so I was consistently losing Space Marines from quantity of saves.
Crowe’s only mean if he’s surrounded by enemies. I drew most of my assaults into the Terminators, meaning that Crowe went from 5 or 6 attacks to 2 every turn.
I got lucky with the Vindicare. My Vindicator should have died, but poor rolls meant he survived and did a TON of damage.

I know the book’s been out for a while, but I’d never played it before, save for that Apocalypse game. Really mean book, you really have to decide what you’re going to assault, what you’re going to shoot, and what you’re going to ignore. I know that sounds like an obvious comment, as you always have to decide that stuff, but I don’t think I truly comprehended just how nasty everything in the book can be. Until our next game Andrew!

Alrighty, got a TON to do in the next two weeks, so expect my sporadic posts, complimented with a TON of pictures!

Granesh

Finished: Refurbished Dark Angels Rhino “Gabriel”

2011-11-29T09:33:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

So I was approached with an interesting commission about a week ago. The client had recently gotten back into 40k with his brother, and was hoping to get an old Rhino he’d put together a long time ago back up to a fighting standard.

Here’s a picture of it before paint was stripped:

As you can see, some thick paint, lots of glue seams, and some off-kilter assembly. After a dip in some Simple Green and some scrubbing with the trusty Smells Like Toothbrush, I got her down to:

Kinda a meh picture next to my new Khorne Rhino, but you get the idea. Thanks to the primer coat of Bone, not all the paint was going to come off. Plus, in some areas, the coat had kinda cracked, almost like dried mud. You can also see, I added a brand new top hatch, as well as an armoured front, made up of an additional Rhino front plate, to fill some wonky gaps from prior assembly. I also popped the Techmarine’s arms off and replaced them, namely to add a Dark Angels Shoulderpad.

Finally, after a couple hours of work, here’s the final result:

Lots of freehand on this badboy! You can see some of the seams and replacement parts too. I, unfortunately, couldn’t fix everything, but the model looks so much better now!

Techmarine’s done in a nice, Bright red in order to keep the Rhino from going Dark Angels to Christmas Angels.

Alpha Legion harassing Dark Angels reinforcements on Vraks Prime.

All in all, I feel that this is another case that shows just how easy it is to take an older, poor condition model, and really bring it back to life. Sure, its not as clean or immaculate as a fresh Rhino, but it looks good, gets the job done, and, in this economy, helps save money, right?

Next up, more Dreadfleet and more Khadorian Winter Guard! Magilla’s GK should be in tomorrow or Thursday!

Granesh

Painting: MORE Dreadfleet, Grey Knights, Alpha Legion Freehand, and Granesh’s First APOC Game!!!

2011-11-27T01:53:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

WHOA! Busy week! Been taking care of the sick girlfriend, so I’ve been finding time to get some painting in, as well as planning for the Apocalypse game for today. I’ll cover that a little more later…SUSPENSE!

First up is a little more work done on Dreadfleet. So far, I’ve finished:

All 7 Cogs
The Dirigible and Dragon Auxilleries
3 Ships
1 Island and a Wreck or two

Group shot! First off is the Dragon Auxiliary; I think the blue tint to the white adds a nice touch.

Lots of detail in the wings too!

AHH! Sea Giant! Really strange model, not quite sure I like him as a model…

Lots of Dwarf stuff in here; the dirigible, the wreck, and the Ironclad..

Elven cog! Along with all the other cogs!

Not quite sure if this is done yet…the picture had the stairs this weird, Minas Morgul-esque white and green, so I tried to replicate it. Still looks funky, no matter how I do it…

Oh, and a sneaky-peeky at the Heldenhammer!

Next up is the start to Magilla Gurilla’s Gold and Green Knights! Inquisitor Coteaz: may need to do a Chaos version of him for the Chaos Legion…could be a cool Lord model!

Also done is his Terminator Librarian. This model is a BEAST to paint, lots of little details and obscure things you’d never guess were there! Love this guy though!

Ah, also, got a little freehand done on the Vindicator, just to break up the monotony of painting wrecked ships.

Picture above, its on the shield, gun mount, and Combi-Melta.

Finally, though, I spent all day on my feet, pointing out rules, helping move models, and occasionally shooting my Tau. That’s right, Granesh played his first game of APOCALYPSE! And I must say, it’s a BLAST!

The Game was:

18k Points per side; 3k per side, give or take. I had 2k worth of Tau
Formations, FW, whatever. I ran the Farstrike Denial Formation.
My Team: Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, and more Tau!
Opponents: Tyranids, Grey Knights, Blood Angels, Orks, and Imperial Guard (mainly a Baneblade)

I’m just kinda throwing out pictures to break up the text. No, the blue’s not water. I didn’t run my guard because I’m bored of them, and I didn’t run my Alpha Legion, because I don’t have enough of them yet. No, I stuck with the Tau. This will probably be their last time hitting the table as my army, as I’m hoping to sell them off here in the near future (anyone’s interested, drop me an email!).

You can see my Hammerhead, Piranha, and Devilfish hanging out. My first Battlesuit didn’t hit the table until turn two, and that was only a third of them.

Yep, that’s Shas’o and his Bodyguard ready to get in harms way!

But Granesh, they can’t hurt front armor of a Baneblade!

Nope, but his Vortex Grenade can! Two turns later (Genestealers ate their face!), the Vortex Grenade sucked the Baneblade into the warp!

My Flying Stand was a Carnifex for today. LE SIGH.

It took ALL their shooting to shake the Line Breaker Squadron, and finally, one succumbed and was wrecked….

Broadside ended up taking out a Storm Raven.

Orks surveying the battlefield.

Commander Farsight attacking the Sanguinor. Guy didn’t know how nasty the BA angel could be….

Run Fire Warriors, run!

Personal MVPs go to a lone Kroot who, after losing his squad and breaking, managed to kill a single Space Marine while fleeing, as well as the Crisis Suit Commander, for getting his Vortex Grenade where he needed before dying for the Greater Good.

Other MVPs were Eldrad, Tau Ethereals, Farsight, and the Avatar.

All in all, this was a great day of just hanging out, talking 40k, and meeting some great people. Shout outs to (and I’m sure I’ll be forgetting someone….) Jacob, DiAngelo, Steven, Gabe, Andrew, and Marcus!

Alrighty, more painting and projects await tomorrow!

Granesh

Painting: Alpha Legion Vindicator WIP, Necrons, Magilla’s GK, and….DREADFLEET!

2011-11-22T11:16:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the time between posts, I’ve been taking care of my sick girlfriend and working on painting. I have been busy though, so lets jump right into some pictures!

First off, I dropped all my store credit for working on Dreadfleet for Durango Game Space on a Vindicator, a box of Necron Warriors, and a Finecast Cryptek. The warriors and Cryptek is going to have to wait, but I had some freetime on Saturday, so I got to work on the Vindicator!

I hate taking pictures of my Alpha Legion, the teal-green turns more into a blue….

Rocking the Combi-Melta (cut the bolter barrel off one end, then glue a Meltagun barrel in its place), some chaos icons, and the Gargoyle smokestacks, I’m really happy with this model so far.

There’s also freehand on the barrel cover that reads “We are Legion; We are Many”, but I missed the chance to take a picture. I’ll throw one up when its done.

Table Top War’s own Magilla Gurilla, as I’ve stated before, has commissioned me to do his new Grey Knights army, and pieces have begun to arrive. First to arrive was a box from GW, containing a bunch of 25mm round bases, as well as:

I can’t wait to get started on these guys, they look like a blast to do! I’ve done Coteaz before, so I know just how nice that model is!

And, finally, DREADFLEET! There’s some beautiful models here, lots of details and little things to paint up. I’m sure this is how doing a Dystopian Wars fleet would feel.

First up, Grimnir’s Thunder:

Love the detail on these ships. The dwarf ship spits out dirigibles! Its awesome!

Next up, Shadewraith:

Really nice ship, very easy to paint up and keep looking ghostly and haunted.

Lastly for the major ships right now, the Kraken:

Lots of metal, so more washes than I like to do, but these guys look sweet right now!

Also done is the Dwarven Dirigible and some Cogs.

I’m trying to match them to their larger counterparts. Here’s a better shot of the Sigmarian Cog’s Freehand:

And, a group shot. RUN GRIMNIR’S THUNDER, RUN!!!

Next up is the Seadrake and the Swordfish, as well as some more Cogs and the Dragon! Lots of pictures coming up in the next couple of days!

Granesh

Painting: Khorne Skull Champion; My First Attempt at a Balanced Necrons List

2011-11-17T19:10:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So a couple of updates today. I’ve been catching up on schoolwork and relaxing today, as I’m waiting on 3 or 4 commissions to come in over the next week or so. Which has been nice, as I get to pull out some of my own projects and play around with some stuff.

The only thing I’ve really gotten done, though, was the Skull Champion for my Khorne Berserkers. First off, as I’ve said, I hate those ugly-ass Berserker helmets, so I replaced them with a set of the Warriors of Chaos helmets. The skull champion, of course, got the Skull helmet.

The Lime Green Plasma kinda washed out…ugh. It’s a standard Berserker with a Blood Angels Death Company Powerfist, WoC helmet, and a RT-Era Plasma Pistol. The pistol’s magnetized, btw, so I can swap it out for a Bolt Pistol.

You can see some of the Etching on the backpack and the Fist. I must say, $15 well spent! I have a ton of it left, so my Khorne Rhino will get some well-deserved attention when it arrives!

Aspiring Champion photo shoot! Gotta work on my Chosen…

Also, as the title states, I’ve been working on a balanced Necron List so far. When I say balanced, I mean fun, effective, and well rounded. None of this Nine Tomb Spider with Scarabs bullshit. Also, just so everyone knows, I’m planning so far with models that have been released. I would like to add a Triarch Stalker, but can’t seem to agree on a size for it. Same with Wraiths, the old Necron Wraiths are too hard to get anymore.

So far, this is what I’ve gotten:

2000 Point Balanced Necrons

HQ (830 Points)

Necron Overlord with Warscythe, Phylactery, Resurrection Orb, and Mindshackle Scarabs in a Command Barge. (240)

Royal Court:

- Necron Lord #1 with Warscythe and Resurrection Orb. (75)

- Necron Lord #2 with Warscythe and Resurrection Orb. (75)

- Cryptek #1 with Harbinger of Destruction/Eldritch Lance, Gaze of Flame, and Solar Pulse (65)

Necron Overlord with Warscythe, Phylactery, Resurrection Orb, and Mindshackle Scarabs in a Command Barge. (240)

Royal Court:

- Necron Lord #3 with Warscythe and Resurrection Orb. (75)

- Cryptek #2 with Harbinger of Despair, Abyssal Staff, and Veil of Darkness. (60)

TROOPS (670)

Necron Warriors X20 (260) accompanied by Lord #1 and Cryptek #2.
Necron Warriors X9 (117) in a Ghost Ark, accompanied by Lord #2. (232)
Necron Warriors X9 (117) in a Ghost Ark, accompanied by Lord #3. (232)

ELITES (260)

C’Tan Shard with Grand Illusion and Writhing Worldscape (260)

FAST ATTACK (60)

4 Canoptek Scarabs (60)

HEAVY SUPPORT (175)

Doomsday Ark (175)

The first problem with this list is the size of both the Troops Choices and the HQ. The Royal Courts get very expensive very quickly, so if I drop one of the Warrior Squads in the Ghost Arks, or even lower the amount of Warriors in the 20 man squad, I’ll have more points to spend.

Plans for the list:

Overlords use their barges to Turbo-Boost over your Opponent, slashing and damaging anything with the Scythes. Phylactery means that the Lord doesn’t have to worry about using wounds to keep the Barge alive, and the Resurrection Orb ups his chances of getting up.
Large, 20 man squad with the Veil of Darkness Cryptek and Lord is there to bubblewrap the Doomsday Ark, as well as Deep Strike near enemy objectives late in the game.
Ghost Arks help keep the 20 Man Squad alive, and can travel to other objectives as necessary.
Doomsday Ark provides anti-armour fire, and can stay stationary for most if not the entire game.
C’Tan provides CC backup for the Overlords while allowing for necessary redeployment and movement hindrance.

This army, unfortunately, doesn’t really flow. It feels too one-trick pony for my taste. I need to modify the Troops and HQ, as well as create a more synergistic flow between everything. I do like Scarabs and Spyders (one, maybe two), I personally like lots of Troops choices, and some hard-hitting CC guys. Any feedback or ideas on the list is greatly appreciated guys!

Alrighty, hoping Magilla’s commission arrives tomorrow, as well as my new Rhino and some Menoth bitz! Thanksgiving Break ho!

Granesh

Finished: Snake Eyes’ Angels Encarmine Add-ons

2011-11-15T21:41:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!

Whew! Its been a couple of really exhausting weeks. School’s beginning to wind down with Thanksgiving around the corner, but my commissions load has been staying steady!

I was hoping to have this done before Saturday, in order to get them back to Snake Eyes, but, amongst school work and other life issues, I couldn’t do it. I also didn’t want to rush through a paint job; I don’t sacrifice quality for speed.

This commission consisted of:

OOP Lemartes converted to Reclusiarch with Jump Pack/Plasma Pistol
10 Assault Marines with fully magnetized Sgt.
GW Direct Order Vanguard Veteran
Furioso Librarian Dreadnought (Love this model!)

The most difficult part of this commission was matching the prior paint scheme. The scheme consisted of no metallic paints, but instead, a psuedo-NMM; Codex Grey for silver, mainly.

You can see the greys for the Meltagun nozzles. I’m really happy with the yellow, I’m always worried it’ll come out too streaky…

Having two plasma pistols on a Sgt. is just funny, btw….

LOVE THIS MODEL!

Brother ‘Socrates’: 39 confirmed kills, including Hive Tyrant '”Parexes’ Bane” in Single Combat…sounds cool, no?

Even without arms, he’s still fairly intimidating…

I used to hate this model, but having a chance to sit down and work with it changed my mind. Shame it got replaced with the Legion of the Damned wannabe…

A lot of fun with this model! Not super happy with the sword effect, but it turned out nonetheless. Very topheavy though, and, despite GS cementing that sword, I’m worried its going to get damaged a lot. It is varnished though, hoping that helps.

And, again, the group:

Glad to have these babies all done! I now get to enjoy the night with some painting (maybe I’ll finish those Tau…) and movies with the girlfriend! I may have my next commission in tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Granesh

Gaming: Necron Thoughts, Part Deux

2011-11-14T17:23:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I got another chance to play Necrons on Sunday, and had a chance to figure out some little tricks and little things that, at least to me, seem very important to the Necron army.

Lots of fun little pictures too. Sorry for the color, the lighting in Durango Game Space is a little bleh. Anyways, to the meat of the post.

Alpha Legion CSM vs Necrons: 1000 Points

My friend was running a Deathstar unit in Imotehk the Stormlord and 7 Lychguard (the IG running around in the pictures). There was also 5 Immortals, 5 Warriors, 4 Scarabs, and an Annihilation Barge.

I was running:

2X Nurgle Daemon Princes with Wings and Warptime.
8 Khorne Berserkers with Skull Champ and Plasma Pistol in a Rhino with a Combi-Melta.
10 Alpha Legionnaires with Flamer, Meltagun, Icon of Chaos, and a Power Weapon.
Vindicator with Daemonic Possession

First off, the game was Pitched Battle with Annihilation. I ended up winning the game 4 KP to 0; all my friend had left was Imotekh and the Lychguard.

Key Points:

Scarabs moved first turn and assaulted the Rhino and the Vindicator; The Vindicator’s cannon was blown off and nothing else, and the Rhino lost 1 point all around. The Berserker’s weren’t happy with that.
Obviously, a Daemon Prince will both A) Lure a 500+ Point unit around, and B) He eats Warriors GOOD. Bypass Reanimation Protocols by Sweeping a unit.
Imotekh’s Night Fight ability is both good and bad. My Demolisher shot scattered first turn, but his immortals were useless the entire game thanks to range.

My friend’s biggest mistake was running a Deathstar unit in an 1k point game without a transport. The unit would have been beast if it had a Night Scythe to get them around; unfortunately, I was able to kite him with the Daemon Prince, which, obviously moves faster than him, and was able to dance around the tabletop.

The Annihilation Barge is meh. I’ll say it right now. Yes, a S6 or S7 weapon is good, but there’s no AP, and its on an open-topped vehicle. Thanks for playing. Keep it a Command Barge, and let your Lord ride around in style.

Imotekh’s Night Fighting ability is good. For the ability to hinder shooting for most of the game and allow for your units to move up into their danger range, its good. I just think there’s better HQ units to run. Hell, I like regular Overlords over him, but that’s just me.

Instead, go with Crypteks; Personally, I like the Harbingers of Despair and Destruction, mainly for the Veil of Darkness (DS!) and the Solar Pulse (Night Fight!). If you wanted a little more fun, I like Transmogrification with the Harp, too.

Finally, I definitely DON’T like MSU in Necrons. I can see it working with Night Scythes, but seeing as there’s no model yet, I don ‘t like to depend on it. Instead, I’d stick with Old School: 20 Warriors and a Necron Lord or Overlord, and maybe a Cryptek.

So the Necrons are very balanced, and remind me of the Dark Eldar. Fragile guys with lots of little tricks and tools to keep them alive. I wish more models were released, but hey, its better than what we had before!

I still need to design a list for my 2500 point list to sell off, but I picked up a Command Barge yesterday, so I’ll have a Command Barge for the Overlord, and a plastic Lord as well.

Whew…long post…I’ll have the Angels Encarmine finished and posted later tonight or tomorrow, but I must say, I’m rather happy with it. I also have a very large commission on its way now from Magilla Gorilla…can’t wait to show that one off!

Granesh

Finished: Necron Overlord with Ever-Living Counter

2011-11-11T21:58:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So I spent today catching up on some personal stuff, school, and, finally, a model I’ve had sitting on my desk for about a week. Happy with the turnaround time on it!

With the new Necron book and all them sweet, sweet, models, released, I knew I had to paint one up. So I grabbed the generic Necron Overlord off the shelf and gave it a whirl.

First off, I HATE the pose he comes stock in. The Resurrection Orb looks like he’s running in a touchdown, and the scythe is going to break off with the weird angle its at. So, a little cutting, minor Greenstuffing, and some paint, and….

BAM! I went with a standard Necron scheme, with green marble for the shoulder pauldrons, dangly bitz, and the torso, and gold for any royal highlights.

Need to get a better picture of the Res Orb. Oh, just in case you don’t want to take the Res Orb…

Yep, magnetized Finecast!

I think the only thing I’m not super happy with is the Sempinternal Weave/cloak thingy. I’m not a huge fan of reliancy on washes, but I use them extensively on metals. The gold just looks too washed out for my tastes. I’m sure I’m just being picky.

Also done, mainly for kicks, is an Ever-Living Counter. I don’t know about you, but I’m NOT putting this model on his side, matte varnished or not, to show he’ll get back up.

It’s a wooden ring glued to a 25mm base. I’ll have to do a Marble tutorial here soon, its really easy to do. There’s also Necron glyphs painted down the sides.

“Your time will come soon, Alpha Legionnaire…”

Now, my initial plan was to paint him up and sell him off. Good, generic lord colors, basic basing, and he’ll stand out in a crowd. However, with some things coming up, I’m thinking, rather than selling off an individual piece, that I’ll build up about a 2500 point army and sell her off. Warriors, Scarabs, Ghost Arks, Crypteks, the whole nine, all done up in the same scheme as the Overlord.

If anyone’s got an interest in picking up an army like this, drop me an email at SmellsLikeWargaming@hotmail dot com, and we’ll get something worked out. Otherwise, expect to see some more Necrons passing the painting table in December and January!

Up next is the finishing touches to Snake Eye’s Blood Angels, and boy, am I feeling refreshed now!

Granesh

Painting: Blood Angels Furioso Librarian; Granesh Needs to Reset His Brain!

2011-11-09T23:47:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So this is how I’m feeling right now:

School’s been kicking my butt, I’ll say it out loud. Papers, projects, presentations, etc., have been rocking my world. I’m at that point where I need to reset my brain for a couple of days, relax, and just let myself go. Thank the Emperor Thanksgiving Break is coming up, on top of a rather free weekend too. Everything just piled up at once, and I’m fighting through all of it.

Though, on the painting table, I can say I’m very happy with how this piece turned out. Currently working on a commission for Snake Eyes’ Angels Encarmine at Table Top War, I just had a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders regarding time, but I’ll have them all done this weekend.

Here’s my favorite piece, the Furioso Librarian Dreadnought. Since I’m essentially copying a prior paint scheme, I’ve been a little out of my element. The Red’s driving me crazy, and there’s not a drop of metallic paint on them either. So I think I pulled off both the Red and a quicker NMM rather nicely though.

The reds, blues, and greens really work well together, and the Force Weapons are reminiscent of the Dreadknight I did.

Also, some Assault Marines I’m finishing up:

Finally, this Sergeant is completely magnetized, from Bolt Pistol/Chainsword to Lightning Claw/Combat Shield.

Phew….I’m gonna get some sleep, and be ready to rock the rest of this tomorrow!

Granesh

Thoughts: Necrons, Both Painting and Gaming

2011-11-07T22:52:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

So as you all know, the Necrons dropped this weekend, and there’s varying reports all over the internet of how they play, what lists are running around, and thoughts on the new models. Thanks to the new hobby store in Durango, I had a chance to play my friend with his slowly growing Necron army with my slowly growing Chaos Marine army.

First off, I must say, I love the new Necron models. My friend put the Command/Annihilation Barge together (in 5 hours, but who’s counting), but it looks great. Its also one of the few models I’ve noticed from Games Workshop that’s designed to make BOTH kits without magnets or clever cutting. They actually give you the big gun, the Lord Platform, and, hell, they give you a Plastic Necron Overlord! Speaking of which, I picked up the new Finecast Overlord to paint up and sell. Nice model, though a little work to get him cleaned up, and more air bubbles than I was hoping for.

The new Immortals/Deathmarks look nice too, glad to see that the clear rods disappeared with the new models and stayed with the Necron Warriors.

Alrighty, gaming. I know this is a little hard to decipher anything from, but we got an approx. 700 point game in, but I feel like its enough to get a true feel for how to slow the Necrons.

Nice Cityfight-Style board at the shop, can’t wait to see what roads really do.

My Chaos List was more of a fun style one, and consisted of:

Chaos Sorcerer with Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, and Gift of Chaos.
10 Alpha Legion Marines with Chaos Glory, Meltagun, Flamer, and Champ with Power Weapon, in a Rhino with Combi-Melta.
8 Khorne Berserkers, including a Skull Champ with Fist.

I like to play WYSIWYG, so the strange wargear on some of them is a result of that. I’d been wanting to try out the Sorcerer, so I put him down in place of a Daemon Prince.

My friend’s Necrons were:

Necron Overlord with Tachyon Arrow, Phylactery, Phase Shifter, Sempinternal Weave, Tesseract Labyrinth and a Warscythe.

I feel like I’m missing something, but this dude was almost 300 Points. He was attached to the Immortals.

12 Necron Warriors
5 Necron Immortals
4 Scarab Swarms
Annihilation Barge with Gauss Cannon.

First off, I messed up and should have given the Zerkers the Rhino and attached the Sorceror. Oops.

Game was 4 Objectives and Spearhead.

I deploy. Zerkers are on my objective.

Necrons set up. My awesomeness forgot to grab a flying stand for the Barge.

A couple of Highlights.

Warriors moved up too fast, allowing me to deploy from the Rhino and Rapid Fire and mess up the squad. I left one standing (I’ll hit on that later.)
Scarabs hit the Rhino, dropped it to a 5-5-4, and Blew it up. Marines multi-assaulted the Scarabs and Warriors and messed them both up.
Overlord and his boys moved up, ended up assaulting my Marines and the Sorcerer. Tesseract Labyrinth sent the Sorcerer back to the Stone Age, and thanks to that, my Marines fell off the board.
Khorne Berserkers assaulted and blew up the Annihilation Barge, and rather than jump back on the objective, I wanted to see how Zerkers would faire. Damn Mindshackle Scarabs and my Skull Champ….

And here’s my thoughts on the army.

Necrons hate Rate of Fire. All you have to do is drop the squad and their Reanimation Protocols don’t work. I Don’t care if you have a 3++, Lasguns kill TH/SS termies, and they’ll kill you too.
Do NOT assault the Overlords. Things like the Tesseract Labyrinth and the Mindshackle Scarabs make you more dangerous to yourself than your opponent.
This is the first army to honestly ignore armour-ignoring weapons. A Necron will get up again whether a Lasgun or a Meltagun shot it. I see Flamers, Heavy Flamers, Heavy Bolters, and other high-rate weapons appearing to stop Necrons.
The book has a lot of interesting little toys to it. It easily matches the Wolves, BA, DE, and GK, and, honestly, the TYRANIDS. Yep, that’s right, the Tyranids. I honestly think that the Tyranids are the best bet against this army, especially the horde-style stuff. I may need to do a supplementary post on it, but I honestly think Tyranids have a chance again.

Alrighty, I’m off to get some Blood Angels painted. I’ve got a Dreadfleet commission coming up, along with some Tyranids and now a HUGE Grey Knights army for Magilla Gorilla over at Table Top War. Phew! I’m gonna be busy!

Granesh

Finished: Khador Winter Guard

2011-11-04T22:33:00.001-06:00

Hey guys!

So we’re at the great breath before the plunge regarding the Necrons. I can’t wait to see some of the new models in person, and hopefully paint some up too! However, I do have some projects ahead of any Necron plans…

Anyways, I sat down and rallied out the Khador Winter Guard I had sitting on my desk for a commission. The client wanted Dragon Forge Resin Bases, which really worked nicely. The interesting thing is the color, though, which, rather than a Crimson red, is a bright blue color.

Really happy with the faces, they’re simple, yet break up the colors on the models.

A little stubble for good measure!

While these models are a little older in Privateer Press’ range, they still have a lot of character and look great all together. I just got the matte varnish on them, and they’re all sealed up and ready to go exterminate some Cryxian scum!

Hopefully, you’ll be seeing some more Khador cross my desk soon! Next up, Blood Angels for Snake Eyes over at Table Top War. I’m also in talks to paint Game Space’s copy of Dreadfleet, so expect some sweet Piratical pictures soon!

Granesh

Initial Thoughts: New Necron Codex: Mostly Fluff, Little Rules, and a Unit List!

2011-11-03T15:53:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So if you didn’t see my previous post, GW delivered my Necron Codex today via FedEx. Yes, that’s right, GW got my book to me 2 days before release! And I must say, it’s a much welcome change from the last edition.

I’ve been busy with class and projects today, but I’ve found a little time to dig through the book and read some stuff. The fluff on the War in Heaven between The Old Ones, the Eldar, the Necrontyr/Necrons, and the C’Tan is very cool, though the ability to destroy the C’Tan feels like it comes out of left field for the Necrons.

The Necron fluff still fits the old shambling undead horde feel, don’t you worry. The best part is that the pact of Blood Angels and Necrons vs Tyranids makes sense. The Lords aren’t mindless, blank killers; rather, the subservient Warriors and Immortals are. They’re the ones who could just become Necrons. Sure they’re immortal now, but their bodies and systems aren’t as nice as the lords. The Lords are cunning, planning creatures who can make pacts, plan invasions, and destroy themselves as easy as their enemies.

FAVORITE CHARACTER/MODEL/EVERYTHING: TRAZYN THE INFINITE

FLUFF

While he’s called the ‘Archeovist of the Solemnace Galleries’, I’ll call him the Necron Curator. He’s a museum curator! He goes around and collects…well…everything. The guy actually goes out and records history by…well…taking it! He has the head of Sabastian Thor, as well as Guardsmen from the Mecharian Crusade. I love it!

RULES

For the price of Pedro Kantor, you get a decent S5 Character with 3 Attacks who can essentially clean out a mob of Boyz, then turn the Nob with Klaw back on his own Boyz. He also grants his unit Relentless, claims objectives, and can respawn back into certain units if he dies. If I EVER do Necrons, only a Reclaiming force for Trazyn will do.

Oh and, just for those of you interested…

List of Units

Imotekh the Stormlord
Nemesor Zahndrekh and Vargard Obyron
Illuminor Szeras
Orikan the Diviner
Anrakyr the Traveller
Trazyn the Infinite
Necron Overlord
Destroyer Lord

Royal Court: Lords and Crypteks

Troops

Necron Warriors
Necron Immortals

Dedicated Transports

Catacomb Command Barge
Ghost Ark
Night Scythe

Elites

Deathmarks
Lychguards
Triarch Praetorians
C’Tan Shard
Flayed One Pack
Triarch Stalker

Fast Attack

Canoptek Wraiths
Canoptek Scarabs
Tomb Blades (JETBIKES!!)
Necron Destroyers

Heavy Support

Doomsday Ark
Annihilation Barge
Necron Monolith (Cheaper than a Land Raider!!!)
Doom Scythe
Canoptek Spyder

Enjoy guys! Any plans for Necron armies out there? Sound off in the comments! Now, back to some schoolwork…damn 10 Page papers…

Granesh

Looky What Came From GW Today….

2011-11-03T10:50:00.001-06:00

Oooooo….I LOVE the new fluff in this book, as well as the models and rules. Headed off to class now, but I’ll try and post some of my initial thoughts later this afternoon!

++WE ARE LEGION++

Granesh

Finished: Tyranid Tervigon MKII; Durango Has a Hobby Shop! Upcoming Apocalypse Ideas!

2011-11-02T10:20:00.001-06:00

Hey guys!

Sorry for the delay in posts, school and life is still kicking my butt. But never fear! Smells Like Wargaming is here! I’ve haven’t been shirking on my wargaming duties either. I just finished my…8th?…yes 8th…Tervigon since I’ve started SLW.

I must say, I’m rather happy with this one, the paint scheme came out perfectly, especially on the birthing sacs, and the snow really compliments the carapace. I didn’t have any fishing line on me though, so the dripping nasty goo is missing.

Enough words….

You can see how lengthening the body makes it much larger than a standard Carnifex.

“ARGH!!! SHOOT IT!!!”

I always model my Tervigons with the Adrenal Gland and the Toxin Sacs. Most players have trouble noticing Xenos upgrades, so its WYSIWYG for the most part. Plus, if the Tervigon gives Gants around it Furious Charge and Poison if she has them, why not model it on the birthing sacs!

Got that Gant done in 15 minutes or so, I really hate the Snap-Tite models for painting. The Gant is more of an extra surprise more than anything else, we like to do some extra stuff sometimes here at SLW!

And a scale shot. I love building these things, I don’t think I’ve ever had one I wasn’t super happy with. I do think next time though, I may just pick up a Trygon Torso, it may make that sculpting unnecessary.

Also, if you’re watching the Facebook page, you’ll see that Durango has finally gotten a hobby shop. The store was actually in Pagosa Springs, about an hour east of us, but Durango’s bigger, so it makes more sense for the shop to be here. My friend and I got to try out Dreadfleet (whooped his butt!), and I may be painting the store copy….ooooo. The store is called Game Space, is ran by a really nice gentleman, and, best of all, has some really good space for gaming. At least 3 tables, if not 4, lots of extra room, and a Television (blaring Denver’s loss to Detroit last week…ugh..)

Anyways, if anyones in the Four Corners area, come up and say hi! I’ve got some pieces on display and some fliers up, and as long as I don’t have class or some arbitrary assignment as a result or class, I’m always down to hang and talk some gaming!

Speaking of gaming, I was given word that the gaming group that’s already showed up at the shop has an Apocalypse game planned for Thanksgiving weekend. Now, since I’m not going home for the holidays, I was thinking the Alpha Legion and their unsuspecting Guard allies would show up for the battle! However, I’d like to have something besides a Baneblade to putt around the board.

Arvus? Sold it.

Brass Scorpion? Poor college student….

Hmmmm….got it!

DOOMSDAY DEVICE *shade falls over eyes*

I’ve got some basic ideas, something either hidden or unsuspecting, something that would convey Alpha Legion AND destruction.

It’s a start…

Next up is some Khadorian Winter guard and Angels Encarmine for my boy Snake Eyes over at Table Top War! Then maybe some time for my own stuff!

Granesh

Modelling: Tervigon #8…More Like Tervigon MKII

2011-10-29T19:06:00.001-06:00

Hey guys!

So after finishing that Space Wolves Land Raider, I got to work on my next commission, a single Tyranid Tervigon. Now, this is either #8 or 9, I can’t remember. Anywho, I decided to step up my game and take this one to the next level.

Not that my other ones aren’t awesome, or on top of my game! But I feel, after 8 times, you need to improve a little.

So I’ve extended the torso Horizontally and made her a little bit fatter.

Some plasticard tubing widened the torso, and then it was just a matter of using Greenstuff to make the torso bigger.

I always give my Tervigons Cluster Spines, but to make the Carapace bigger, I trimmed up the Spore Cysts one to help make my job easier.

Still need to do a little smoothing and filing.

The ribs are just Greenstuff, but the spikes, in order to keep the piece symmetrical, are from some of the little spiky bits in the Carnifex box.

*Tyrannosaurus Roar!* Luckily that Chosen has plasma!

Anyways, just a simple update today, I’m hoping to get all the sculpting work done tonight, and should be painting tomorrow. I’ve discovered that Durango FINALLY has a hobby shop, so I’m bringing some fliers and business cards (thanks to my cute graphic designer girlfriend!) down, along with some models to show off. Hopefully, there’ll be more gaming on this blog!

Granesh

Finished: Space Wolves Land Raider ‘Kraken’s Bane’

2011-10-27T21:12:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So I sat down today and rallied out the Space Wolves Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer I had on my desk, and I must say, I’m rather happy with it.

I went away from GW’s style of the all Grey Land Raider, and added a little bit of yellow and Red to make it a little more interesting.

The Shields come, as I said, from the WHFB Orc regiment, and the decals are Space Wolves ones with some extra paint applied to make it look less like a decal.

‘KRAKEN’S BANE’ The filigree comes from a Viking Tattoo I came across online, and just helps to add the Viking feel.

I went for the engraved look for the runes again, much like the Ultramarines Land Raider I did a couple of days ago.

I did the charred effect on both the Multi-Melta and the Flamestorm Cannons.

‘Yeah, good luck….’

Up next is another Tervigon, this time painted up and ready to spawn for the Hive Mind! I’m gonna be starting on it tonight, so get ready for some Tyranid love (rare these days…)

Granesh

Painting: SW Land Raider, DE Warrior, and the Return of the SLW Marines!!!

2011-10-26T20:13:00.001-06:00

Hey guys!

So its been a little bit since I’ve posted, I’ve been rolling through commissions and school work lately. I do have some results of my work though!

First off, I’ve had a Dark Eldar Warrior just chilling out on my shelf for a while. Yes, just a SINGLE Warrior. I managed to construct an entire Warrior out of the Bitz Bags my friends and I picked up this summer. I decided that the Kabal of the Flayed Skull:

would work the best. Note that he’s not completely done, but was rather just a test to see if my painting style would rock at Dark Eldar (I think so!)

Nice, simple job, very much down the same lane as the SLW marines and the Khorne Land Raiders I just finished recently.

Speaking of SLW Marines! I decided that my kitbashed Librarian needed a little more paint and his backpack, so I set to work on him.

For those of you interested, he’s mainly an AoBR Captain with a Head and Arms swap with some Sanguinary Guard bitz. Really easy to do, and I’m really happy with him.

Trying some different techniques on the Force Axe. Oh, and just in case you guys forgot about the SLW Marines:

I think if I ever really get around to finishing them, they’ll probably be a Dread-heavy BA army or a MotF army out of the regular Marine Dex. I’ve always loved the idea of a heavy Dreadnought army…hmmm…we’ll see where they go…

Ah, I’m sure my client would be happy to see his new Land Raider in progress so far. I’m still getting some details and things blocked in before I go to town on the weathering and scrapes.

The Shield comes from the WHFB Orcs. I painted the black and the silver, then applied a waterslide transfer. After it had dried, I scored it according to the planking in order to make it look more natural. A light Dheneb Stone highlight really tied it into the yellow behind it. See, Waterslides aren’t cheating! I smell a tutorial…hmmm….

Anyways, I’m hoping to have this baby done tonight or tomorrow afternoon. After that, I’ve got some Khadorian Winter Guard waiting on Dragon Forge bases, as well as a Carnifex and a Valkyrie Base that needs to become my EIGHTH TERVIGON!!! I can’t believe I’ve done so many of them….pictures tomorrow!

Also, in case you haven’t checked the Facebook Page (You don’t need to be a college-aged person to use Facebook guys!), there’s been a couple of sites releasing Pre-Orders for Necrons in advance of GW’s official release of them.

I’m planning on ordering a Codex, but those of you interested in getting a Necron army (and it possibly painted by me *winkwink*), your wait is over!

Granesh

Finished: Ultramarines Land Raider ‘Fury of Guilliman’

2011-10-23T09:37:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

Sorry again for the really slow week on the blog. School and life have been kicking my butt, so there hasn’t been a lot of 40k stuff hanging out in my life. Homework on Wednesday, gallery crawl/date on Thursday, Pumpkin carving on Friday…man where’d the time go?!

That doesn’t mean I’ve been shirking in my commissions, though!

Man I love these FW doors, totally beautiful pieces. For some reason, my shot of the Assault Ramp door was corrupted…

Etched into the hull by the finest Artificers…or me with a brush…hmmm…

Everyone owns an Ultramarine!

Flamestorm Cannons both have the charred look on the barrels, as well as red promitheum barrels to match the lights.

‘One of these things is not like the other!’

Well, now that these are done, its time to get my next project ready to go. I already got the tabs clipped off the Khador Winter Guard, so I’ll be priming and painting a little bit today. Really easy models to do, and I can’t wait for the Dragon Forge bases to come in! Hopefully Monday!

Granesh

Finished: Land Raiders for the Land Raider Throne!

2011-10-18T21:10:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So after a lot of red, brass, and some sacrifices to the Blood God, the Khorne Land Raiders are finished!

We’ve got Three of them on the table today. As I stated before, I went with the old Gorgons of Greek Mythology for the naming of these tanks.

MEDUSA

EURYALE

STHENO

I personally think Stheno is my favorite, just for its pure simplicity as a tank, but I do really like the freehand on Euryale and the extra stuff on Medusa. All I have left here is the Ultramarines Crusader/Redeemer, and I’ll be moving onto the Khadorian Winter Guard and the Tiger Shark!

Granesh

Thoughts: New Necron Models on the Way!

2011-10-18T10:52:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So I’m putting the finishing touches on Land Raider ‘Medusa’ right now, and I’ll have the Ultramarines one magnetized and ready to go tonight!

But I decided, with all the rumors and pictures and things running around, that I’d give my opinion on the new Necron Models that will be out on November 5th.

Lets go down the list…

*All pictures courtesy of Beasts of War and Faeit 212*.

Command/Support Barge

Interesting models, nothing I was expecting. I really like the Command Barge, especially the Lord on the back. I feel like the Support Barge is going to become like the Eldar Heavy Support Weapons, depending on their unit type.

Imotekh the Stormlord and Trazyn the Infinite

Oooooo…I love the named characters. I think Trazyn would be my Lord model any day. Imotekh is cool, he just feels too much like the old Lords.

Necron Overlords

Loving these models too. Lots of room to try some different techniques, especially the Hyperphase weapons. May have to pick up the one on the right.

Necron Deathmarks

Blech. While I like Snipers in video games like Left 4 Dead and Borderlands, I hate them in 40k. GW also seems to be going towards the one-eyed helmet thing lately, you can see it in the Manticore/Deathstrike Driver model too. Meh, I’ll pass.

Necron Lynchguard

I feel like these guys are going to work like Wolf Guard or Sanguinary Priest. Start divvying them around! Beautiful models, I really like the segmented armored loincloths, theres plenty of room for some nicely personalized models here. Here’s hoping they’re plastic and not Finecast, like DE Mandrakes!

And the Hyperphase Swords and Dispersion Shields? SWEEEEEET….I’m getting a GK Crusader feel off these guys, which I’m totally cool with.

Necron Triarch Praetorians

Just as cool, if not cooler, than the Lynchguard. While I’d question a totally CC Necron Unit *coughwraithsandflayedonescough*, the text box above them mentions ‘Triarch Praetorians with Particle Casters and Void Blades’. CCW and a Pistol, perhaps? I kinda like that more. These look sweet for painting though, especially that jeweled-blade look they have going.

Necron Ghost Ark

Oooooooooooooooooooo…..Getting a major classic Dark Eldar Raider feel off of these, but they’re sweet. The Necrons riding inside would be perfect for a Necron Tomb board, and, possibly, you might be able to magnetize them and get some extra unit fillers for your Warriors!

Necron Flayed Ones

Finally, the ones everyone’s been waiting for. Flayed Ones. EWWWWWWWW, the corpse on the bottom left one is awesome, though I don’t know if I like the bottom right one, I feel like he’s giving it a piggy-back ride…Sweet models, the skin tone coupled with the metallic is a really nice contrast.

Alrighty guys, there’s more pictures on the links I provided at the top of the post. What do YOU all think? Sweet models? Crappy models? Why do I care about Necrons? What’s with all the questions? Sound off in the comments!

Like I said, I’d love to pick up a Codex and maybe a Lord model or two, so maybe that’ll cross my painting desk soon….hmmmmm….

Granesh

Painting: Khorne Land Raiders ‘Stheno’ and ‘Euryale’; Thoughts on the Chaos Land Raider

2011-10-16T15:14:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So its been a quiet week on the blog, but I’ve been chugging along on the Chaos Land Raiders.

First off, if anyone recognizes the names, good for you! If you don’t, I was playing around with the idea of doing a naming triad, and came up, much to my enjoyment, with the Three Sisters of Greek antiquity, the Gorgons. So the first Land Raider is ‘Stheno’ the little known third sister. The second is ‘Euryale’, and the final one is, of course, Medusa. But Medusa's not done yet, so here goes the first two!

The Red is actually layered up from a Scab Red-Black mix, brushed up to an extremely light layer of Blood Red. The Brass is first Calthan Brown, covered by Dwarf Bronze, then finally overbrushed with Chainmail. Markings in Dheneb Stone. I’m hoping to have Medusa done this evening, as well as the Ultramarines Land Raider completely assembled and magnetized by Monday.

Finally, I was reading a post recently (Over at BoLS, I believe) about how the Dark Angels need their overhaul. Now, I won’t disagree here, I’d be down to play Deathwing with a new book! But there was talks about their Land Raiders and the Dark Angel affinity with Plasma, and I got to wondering. What does Chaos need for their Land Raiders?

Now, I understand that Chaos is using Antiquated technology, but they could (and would!)

A) Loot some new variants, or

B) If you can build a Defiler, you can stick a new stupid gun on your tank! Now, this isn’t a ‘Marines get everything cool so they’re stupid-pants!’ post; rather, what would bring CSM back up to their Loyalist brethren’s levels, while still keeping personality with their own stuff! Chaos Marines have things like the

Reaper Autocannon: TL Autocannon? Why isn’t this on a Land Raider?!
Honestly, Hurricane Bolters fit the whole “We never stole a Storm Bolter, but just stuck a bunch of bolters together’ feel Chaos has.
How about God-Specific Weapons? Doombolt-style weapon on your Land Raider? How about a Doom Siren? Actually, God-marked vehicles could be a cool touch…hmmm…

Forge World’s been going to town with Land Raiders recently, maybe take a page from their stuff. I’m not saying that Chaos needs a Thunderfire Cannon on the front of their Melta-ignoring Land Raider, but something that will make their current, Dual Las/Bolter, 10 man POS a little more impressive.

Any thoughts guys? The Ruinous Powers must be a little more inspired than this?!

Granesh

WIP: So Three Khorne Land Raiders and an Ultramarines one Walk into a Bar…

2011-10-13T20:39:00.001-06:00

Sorry.

Anyways, I’ve been diligently working on getting these Land Raiders all assembled and ready to paint, and I finally got the Chaos ones done.

Land Raider #1: Basic Khorne, some icons, and spikes, nothing too Chaosy.

#2: Similar to the other one, there is a Khorne Berserker popped out of the front hatch (lucky him they can’t have Multi-Meltas…)

And #3: The Gun Nozzles have been replaced with the Gargoyle heads, the Driver’s popped out the back hatch, and theres some extra Chaos icons.

I’m going to be starting to paint these here in the next hour or so!

I’m trying to motivate myself to glue those Treads for the Crusader/Redeemer, so I’m hoping to have that all magnetized and assembled tomorrow.

OH! I also have been drooling over my new Khornate Brass Etching, I’m hoping to add them to the Berserkers soon.

Should have a lot of free time this Saturday, so expect a lot of painting done!

Granesh

Hobby: SO MANY LAND RAIDERS!!!

2011-10-11T10:19:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

Just a fun post for today! I’ve got a History Midterm tomorrow, as well as some art stuff and a date, so hobby’ll be slower today. However, figured I’d share one of my favorite aspects of the hobby:

Yep, that’s 4 Land Raiders all together. All for the same client, too! Being a college student, I usually get to order things in groups of one…is that still a group?…anyways…so its impressive to see that many models together at once.

I still need to put together the 2 other Chaos ones, and I can’t do the Crusader/Redeemer until the FW order comes in…mmm…Ultramarines Doors….

Can’t wait to get some paint slapped on these babies! Pictures soon!

Granesh

Painting: Alpha Legion Scouts & Servo-Skull; Paint Date Anyone?

2011-10-10T07:21:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So it was a fairly casual weekend on the hobby front. For some reason, the SLW Marines I was working on a while ago are starting to look fun again, so you may begin to see the occasional Red marine show up in the future! For those of you following me on Facebook, you’d have seen that I had the weird urge to paint something goofy. So I stuck an IG Command Squad Servo-Skull to a base and went to work.

I may better fill the gap between the two bases, but seeing the model, I’m not too concerned. The basing does match the SLW Marines, in case I decide that’d be fun to play at some point.

I also sat down with the girlfriend on Saturday and got a Paint Date in! Must say, love dating another art major, we’re always doodling and drawing and painting and everything else, its great! Anyways, I managed to sit down and finish the 3rd and final Alpha Legion Scout I had lying around!

I think I have 1 more floating around in a bitz box somewhere, so #4 will pop up at some point.

My girl, on the other hand, was rocking the traditional canvas. Must say, I’m loving this piece!

Finally, I’ve been playing around with 40k Apocalypse models lately, mainly just a minor idea for Chaos to match the Brass Scorpion or the Blight Drones. How about a Dragonfly of Slaanesh?

If the sketch goes anywhere, I’ll scan it in and redo it a bit, but we’re looking at a prehensile tail with a Doom Siren mounted on the back. Its definitely missing something though…any ideas guys?

Alrighty, my next commission should be sitting in the post office, so I’ll be picking that up and starting work on it today. Three Land Raiders ftw!!

Granesh

Painting: Just Gotta Roll with the Punches…

2011-10-06T20:31:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So as I said, not a lot of hobbying done this week on account of my Sophomore Portfolio Review and a large paper due next Monday. I have, however, sat down a little and worked on the Khornate Daemon Prince:

Totally rocking the crude looking Chainaxe that I’m not super happy with right now.

A little more Greenstuff and some brass, and it’ll look dashing, if I do say so myself!

Alrighty, what this post is really about though. My Sophomore Portfolio Review turned out exactly as I figured: shitty. Pardon the language for all my loyal readers, but perfectly conveys the outcome.

I had my regular art ripped apart. And yes, I walked into the critique with models. Its my passion, and my firmest form of art. One professor stated that, because of my models, my time and passion for other artwork dwindled. Very true, its what I’m best at. I’m also certain that the pieces I brought in weren’t taken with any seriousness or understanding of their use, meaning, etc. Obviously, I didn’t just bring in figures, but pieces from other classes. Not my strongest pieces, but I don’t feel like they had the understanding or effect they were meant to have.

I was actually asked why I’m pursuing a degree if I already know I want to keep painting and everything for the rest of my life. I’ve asked myself that very question many, many times.

Is this critique going to stop me from pursuing an art major? Fuck no. Develop a burning hatred towards the art department? Nope. This critique was intended to knock EVERYONE out of their comfort zones. Some of the best artists in the class were graded the same as I was, so I’m not going to let this take me down.

I’m going to pursue my art with a passion and zeal never seen before. Expect more pictures of non-wargaming pieces in the future, I’d love feedback from you guys. /endrant.

Keep painting, my friends.

Granesh

Hobby: New LOGO! And Some Minor Projects

2011-10-03T18:43:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

WOW! Its been a while since I’ve posted. Those of you who don’t follow us on Facebook (SHAME ON YOU, CLICK THE LINK!!!), I’ve been doing some updates over there, namely my crappy Saturday (migraines suck…) and how busy I’ve been with school lately.

Though, thanks to my Digital Media class, I was able to come up with a brand new logo for Smells Like Wargaming! I’ll need to sit down and do some resizing, but I’m fairly happy with it all in all.

I have it set up so I can reverse the colors too, meaning my SLW Marines aren’t obsolete!

Speaking of Marines, as I’d posted on Thursday, I got the 8 Berserkers assembled and based.

However, I’m not putting paint to them for a little bit. I needed to order some FW doors for a client for an upcoming commission, so I got some Forge World Brass Etching ordered along with it. The Berserker kit is so old, I figure the Khorne Etching will add a lot of needed detail to these models, as well as my Khorne Daemon Prince.

Speaking of that Khorne Daemon Prince, I’ve been working on him too! I finally started on the Chainaxe I wanted him to carry.

Yes, it’s a little crude, but Its nowhere near done. I’m also working on his modified armour, the brass etching will look really good on him!

Makes the Daemon Prince look like he should be T6…

Finally, a little work on that Acolyte/Ministorum Priest while I couldn’t sleep….

I’m trying him from a White Basecoat, kinda like the Imperial Fist I did. Must say, still a fan of the darker look from the Black coat, but we’ll see what I say when he’s all done.

Alrighty guys, I’m off for a study session for Art History (AKA ZZZZZ….I'm a History MINOR, why do I need to be here?!). This week’s big for me as my Sophomore Portfolio Review is on Thursday, so expect some pictures of what I plan on presenting. A little more personal side of Smells Like Wargaming!

Granesh

Modeling: Khorne Berserkers (with Plasma!) and Ministorum Priest

2011-09-29T15:36:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So its been a rather slow hobby week for me, with school, life, and a strange bout of insomnia that’s kicked in recently. I’d been feeling the Modeling bug for a while, but the painting bug is mysteriously absent…

But finally, the Khorne Berserkers I ordered came in! I got the 8 needed for the list assembled, while the 4 leftovers went to the bitz box for another time. For those of you who don’t remember, I did a post a little bit ago on whether or not to put plasma on my Berserkers…I went ahead anyways. I feel like it’s a good investment, and if they die, well they die, right?

I opted away from the ugly-ass bunny rabbit heads (they’re a pain to paint too…) and went with the heads from the Warriors of Chaos Warriors kit. Much happier with these, they really add a faceless brutality to the unit. I’m really happy with them though because the Skull Champion still gets a skull helmet!

‘Wait Granesh, where’s his arm?’ Kharn got him. Nah, I’ve decided to magnetize the Bolt Pistol hand and a Plasma Pistol hand, depending on the list. I may pop that Fist off and magnetize it with a Power Weapon, but I’m not quite sure yet.

Old School Plasma Pistols FTW!

I may add some extra packs and things to the Berserkers, but for right now, they’re assembled. As soon as it stops raining, I’ll be out priming and painting!

Also, in my weird bout of insomnia the other night, I grabbed an old model I had sitting on my desk. I was given this model by a friend in Aztec who wasn’t using him, and figured I could use him.

It’s the dude on the far right. I figured I could use him as a Ministorum Priest to accompany my second Veteran Squad. I pretty much hacked off his Plasma Pistol…then forgot about him…

Until Now.

Added bitz include the censer from the DA Veterans Sprue, a Sgt. Laspistol, some SM parchments, a purity seal, and some custom sculpting. Extremely happy with how the sculpting came out.

I can ride my bike with no handlebars (mustache)!

For those of you waiting on the Terminators, my goal is to have them done by next Thursday, my Sophomore Portfolio Review. I feel the response from the community was so good with them that they truly reflect some of my best work.

Other than that, I’m hoping for a relaxing weekend, a little Rogue Trader, possibly, and a lot of sleep, so keep your eyes tuned to the blog!

Granesh

For Sale: Painted KFF Big Mek

2011-09-28T11:49:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So I’d been pondering whether or not I should get rid of this model, but I finally decided that he’d be better off leading a mob of orks somewhere, rather than just sit on my shelf with a Big Shoota and a Grot.

This is the old Pewter model, so he’s a little fragile. The model has been given a coat of Matte Varnish, and the paint will not chip.

Painted up in a pseudo-Goff scheme, he’s complimented by warm blues and reds. You can see in the second picture that the pack and his smock is actually a defiled Crimson Fists banner. Take that, favored of Dorn!

One of my favorite pieces I’ve done, I’d love to see him go to a loving home. For those of you interested, he’ll be going up on eBay for $40, which is actually cheaper than getting this piece commissioned through me. Don’t miss out on a beautiful and important piece for your Orks!

As for my other stuff, I’m struggling through the Terminators, as my pink is starting to run out…damn GW and their Tentacle Pink…pictures later!

Granesh

Hobby: Alpha Legion, Khorne, and Rogue Trader!

2011-09-27T01:44:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

Late night post this time, gotta love the occasional bout of insomnia, ya know?

First off, I finally sat down and rocked out the final biker for my Alpha Legion. You wouldn’t think a squad of 4 would take that long to do…ugh.

‘For the Emperor!’

Also, in progress is the last biker I have at the moment. I’ve done two squads, one Alpha Legion, one Khornate, so I need two more Khorne Bikers to finish out what I need.

Aspiring Champion

Current one in progress. The back pieces are from the WoC Warriors kit with the arms filed off. I must say, Zerkers belong on bikes!

Speaking of Khorne, my box of Berserkers should be in tomorrow! Now, to drop a current commission that’ll be coming in in the next week or so, I’m doing 3 Khorne Land Raiders for a gentleman in Australia.

He wanted FW doors for them, so I’ve been trying to get the site to work, and order them, along with some Khorne Brass Etching. As most CSM players know, the Zerker kit is HORRIBLY outdated…bulky sculpts, old backpacks, an ugh endeavour all around. Hopefully, the brass will really bring the models out. Hopefully.

Finally, the majority of Saturday was spent with the hobby group, playing our first Rogue Trader Campaign. I’m GMing this time, but since no one decided to play the Rogue Trader, I took the initiative and designed the suave, bombastic Rogue Trader Ricardo von Dross, and his ship, The Unit of the Emperor. Here’s his first game appearance:

The group hushes as a petite, yet inspiring man, appears. He has an Air of Authority and sense of purpose behind him. A light, pencil-thin moustache sits above a smirking smile. His Purple cloak flows and bellows behind him, reflecting off of his Golden Artificer Armour, a gift for his actions on Jericho’s Reach. On his left, a Power Sword bounces lightly in its sheath, while on his right hangs a beautifully ornate Plasma Pistol, a family heirloom. A smoking Bolt Pistol is in his hand. This is Lord-Captain Ricardo von Dross: Son of Padilus, Emancipator of Jericho’s Reach. He is a hero of no small measure in this area, and the party stands there, awed and amazed.

That was fun to write. Anyways, started off the party against a minor Ork invasion, and a Necron Tomb Raid. I still have a ton of work to do to get to the level of story I want to present, but it turned out rather well for my first go in a bit. Expect more updates as the storyline goes.

Alrighty, Khorne, Slaanesh, and school planned for tomorrow. Should be a busy day!

Granesh

Finished: Space Wolf Grey Hunters and Add-ons

2011-09-24T12:07:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So I sat down yesterday and really rallied out those Space Wolves! This group, still part of the other two Wolf groups I did, consisted of:

10 Grey Hunters
1 Wolf Guard with Power Fist/Combi-Melta
4 SW Backpacks
1 Replacement arm for a TWC

I affixed the backpacks and the arm to an extra piece of sprue to make it easier to paint.

Forgot a picture of the TWC arm, its nothing too special….

Also, for kicks, the Hunters come across the fell legions of Alpharius…

Alrighty guys, so I’ve got some finishing touches on the Tiger Shark to get done, and on Monday, I’ll be ordering some Land Raiders (yes, with an ‘S’), along with some FW doors, for a commission. I’m also in talks with a gentleman interested in getting his Tyranids painted. Finally, those Berserkers will be in on Monday, so my Chaos Marines will continue to grow!

Also, looks like the polls say you guys want me to finish the Princes of Ecstasy Terminators. Well, thy wills be done, Lantz can continue to live vicariously through my painting!

Granesh

Painting: What To Work on Next?

2011-09-21T13:02:00.001-06:00

Hey Guys,

So around homework and a couple of commissions, I’ve been trying to motivate myself to keep working on my Chaos Marines. I have a couple of projects sitting on my desk, and with more stuff coming, I might as well get some stuff rocked out before I add more to my plate. Anyways, I’ve decided I’ll let my readers decide what I should finally get done.

1) Alpha Legion/Khornate Bikers

I’ve got 4 of 6 done so far. 1 Still needs to be assembled, and I need to get 2 bases finished up, but should be a quick project. To sum it up, it’ll be

Assembly, basing, and painting 1 Khorne Biker with Plasma Gun.
Painting 1 Chaos Biker with Icon of Chaos Glory.

2) Khornate Daemon Prince

He’s been hanging out, half-assembled, since July. The big thing with this model is that I’ve been wanting to do some extensive converting work on him. I want to resculpt the arms, and give him a large, 2 handed Chainglaive, Angron style. I also have to order some FW stuff for a commission soon, so I may pick up some brass etching to add some extra icons and material to this model, as he’s kinda plain right now.

Assembly, converting, sculpting, and painting 1 Daemon Prince with Wings.

3) Slaaneshi Terminators

I’ve been getting a lot of good comments back on the Princes of Ecstasy Terminators I’ve been working on lately, but I just can’t seem to find the drive to get them finished. I am running out of Tentacle Pink, which really sucks too. These guys are a blast to work on, and I’m really happy with how they turn out, so I really should get them done!

Painting 2 Slaanesh Terminators and 1 additional arm (Reaper Autocannon).

4) Imperial Fists Captain Kitbash

Totally didn’t upload that picture to my computer yet…Anyways, maybe I should just stop the CSM for just a little longer and work on that Imperial Fists captain. He won’t be a gaming piece for quite some time, but he’d be a fun, goofy model to work on for a bit. Need a good Captain name for a Fist, any ideas?

Basing and Painting 1 Imperial Fists (Vanilla SM) Captain

Alrighty guys, I’m leaving it up to you all! There’s a poll on the right side of the page, so why not vote and see a project get finished!

Granesh

One Hundred Followers! What’s on the Table at Smells Like Wargaming?

2011-09-20T18:40:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

First off, I’d like to thank all of my followers for getting SLW up to 100 Followers! It may seem like a minor goal for the blog, but to me, it means that everyone’s enjoying what I’m doing, how I’m going about it, etc. So thank you all so very much!

Alrighty, onto the painting block. First off, I’ve been bit by the Yellow bug again. I don’t know why, but that goofy lemon color just appeals to me! So I reprimed an AoBR Tac Marine I had white primer (Gasp! Granesh using white primer?!), and set to work.

I must say, the white base really made the yellow pop more. He’s just a nice, clean Marine. It was more of a test than anything to using the white primer for yellow. If I do my Imperial Fists (and trust me, I will sometime…), I’ll be doing the whole thing with a White Primer.

I also kitbashed this SM Captain out of some pieces. This is what happens when you take this:

And add some better parts:

He’ll be much cooler painted. I’m planning on Imperial Fists with him too, I just couldn’t get the Alpha Legion look going with him.

Speaking of Alpha Legion, I won a box of Khorne Berzerkers for like 40% off on eBay last night, so expect the denizens of Khorne to start appearing for real on my painting desk. I do have an interesting idea for a scheme, so I might run it past you guys before I proceed. And yes, there’ll be plasma!

Finally, my commission of Space Wolves arrived yesterday! I didn’t have time to work on them, as Nyquil really puts me to sleep, as well as cures headcolds! Anyways, I started on them this morning!

The group is 10 Grey Hunters, 1 Wolf Guard, and some various bitz and bobs (packs, arms, etc.) I should have them done by Sunday though!

Phew! Alrighty, back to work on the Wolves! I feel like I’m missing something….oh! I have a plan for my Orky combat patrol army for Adepticon…meh, I’ll go over it soon…

Granesh

Slow Hobby Weekend on the SLW Front…

2011-09-18T14:27:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

Sorry for the slow weekend this week. School’s kicked itself into high gear, and as such, I’ve been stuck at my computer working on a 10 Page paper for my Global Christianity class. A fun little endeavour, though the class feels biased and the professor doesn’t want a bibliography page or citations, so I feel like I’m just kinda regurgitating information and smashing my head against the wall. Did find a neat illustration that would do well for all you Nurgle players out there though!

The Lord of the Flies

On top of schoolwork, Fallout: New Vegas, has caught my attention again. I’ve only played through it once on my roommate’s Lvl 20 character so I could go around and shoot everyone, so its nice to enjoy the story for real this time. Lost 330 chips at The Tops yesterday, though it was all through Legion Denarius I didn’t know I had….

Have no fears though! The painting bug is coming back, and I’m feeling the need to finish the Princes of Ecstasy Terminators here soon, so keep an eye open!

Granesh

Army Planning: Plasma on My Berserkers?

2011-09-15T11:05:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So its been a while since I’ve really done an army list or army question post, but while working on my Chaos Marines, I had an idea.

Running Khorne Berserkers before, I do understand their weaknesses. They’re not Power Weapons, so even if they do hit a ton, your opponent is going to get a ton of saves back. Fearless and lack of ATSKNF really does hurt them in combat too, especially if your luck is like mine and you lose combat a lot.

So my first thought is, of course, a Skull Champion with either a Power Weapon or Fist. Simple enough, I still think CSM should get the Champion regardless, but that’s neither here nor there. I’d probably go with the Fist, just to make sure those Marines or the tank really is dead.

A personal icon is a thought too. Since I want my army to partially rely around the use of Summoned Daemons, I can bring them in to support the Zerkers if necessary.

Alrighty, so we’ve got a Skull Champ and an Icon. Now where I’m really contemplating. For 15 Points each, both the Skull Champion and two regular Zerkers can take a Plasma Pistol.

Plasma has a bad rap right now for the whole overheating thing. In my Guard, I don’t like to take Plasma unless I can take a Medic. But that’s because when I overheat, it’s a 5+ Save. Here, it’s a 3+.

With Great risk comes great reward too. As I stated, Zerkers have a hard time getting through armor. Sure, WS 5, S5, and I5 is nice on the charge, but when your opponent only loses two or three Marines, you’ve gotta be a little worried. Lets look at my planned squad of Zerkers:

8 Man Squad with a Skull Champion with Power Fist.

If they get the charge, that’s 28 Regular Attacks. If I’m going against Marines, that’s about 17 hits, and 10 Wounds. 3 Marines should be dead (hope I did that math right…) With the fist, we should have 2 more dead or so. 5 Dead Marines isn’t bad. This squad is also about 40 points more than a Tactical Squad, and #s less. For that, I’d really prefer to kill off the Squad. So why not plasma?

If I had the Plasma Pistols on the two Marines and the Skull Champion, I’d be more more likely to wipe most of the squad. Lets assume I overheat once. I still have a 3+ Save, and if I fail it, sure I lose a 36 point Marine. But if the other two hit and wound, I’m killing 32+ points of marines. Still a little low, but the potential of killing 48+ points is still worth it in my book.

So what do my followers think? Does the potential to mess up Marines and Monstrous Creatures pay off more than the potential to kill themselves? Should I be wasting my points somewhere else? Am I a fool for Zerkers in general? I’d love your feedback.

Granesh

Painting and Modeling: Granesh’s Alpha Legion Marines

2011-09-14T21:49:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So I finally went out and picked up my second desk lamp for taking pictures, a fire alarm in my campus apartment (nothing, of course) persuaded me down to Wally-World. I immediately started taking some new shots to see if the lighting made a difference. I think it did.

Old Dreadknight picture.

New Dreadknight picture!

I feel like it helped, just need to build that lightbox now…

I’m also still working away at my Alpha Legion army. I must say, I’m having a blast, mainly working on smaller details and freehand work. So far, my total points for what I’m working on or have finished is:

Daemon Price with Wings and
Warptime: 155
Daemon Prince with Wings and Warptime: 155
Khorne Chaos Lord with Lightning Claw, Combi Melta, and Personal Icon.
Chaos Sorcerer with Doombolt.

ELITE

Chaos Terminator with Aspiring Champion (Combi Melta/Lightning Claw) and Two Terminators (Combi-Melta/Chainfist and Power Weapon Combi-Flamer)
Chaos Chosen with Aspiring Champion with Power Fist, 2 Combi-Plasma, and a Meltagun in a Rhino with Extra Armour and a Combi-Melta.

TROOPS

Chaos Space Marine Squad (X10) with two Flamers, Icon of Khorne, and an Aspiring Champ with Powerfist/Power Weapon and Bolt Pistol.

FAST ATTACK

4 Chaos Bikers with 2 Plasmaguns and an Icon of Chaos Glory, with Aspiring Champion with Powersword.

HEAVY SUPPORT’

Chaos Havocs X5 with a Missile Launcher in a Rhino with Extra Armour and a Combi Melta

Kinda a mishmash of Marines right now, but I have a direction they’re going. The list above has me at 1585 points, so I’m at about 1500 if I get rid of the meh HQs and throw in another identical CSM squad. This army is going to be strictly WYSIWYG as soon as I have a fun 2k army: If I want to change something, I’m gonna have to break pieces off or build new models.

My plan though, is 2 Boxes of Bloodletters, another box of Chaos Marines, and a Vindicator. Past that point, I don’t know where I want to go. We’ll see as time goes on. Anyways, less talk, more updated pictures!

Aspiring Champion with Powersword (above) and Power Fist (Below). Thanks magnets!

The first Chaos Marine Squad and their Rhino!

My Chaos Chosen so far. Hey Combi-Plasma, haven’t I seen you before?!

‘We are LEGION!’

Champions hanging out with the Sorcerer.

Sorcerer and the first Daemon Prince. I’m thinking about sticking the sorcerer in with the Chosen and infiltrating up for some trouble!

Chaos Bikers: The key trick to my army. Just need to get that Icon guy done…

And finally, the Khornate Biker Champion for the second squad of bikes. Kill! Maim! Burn!

I currently have the second Daemon Prince sitting on my desk, as well as the two other Terminators and the Icon Biker. As soon as they’re finished, I’ll be picking up my next Chaos Marine Squad.

I’m also in talks with a couple of commissions. Expect some more Chaos Marines and Blood Angels to pass the painting desk soon!

Granesh

Tutorial Redeux: Combi-Plasma; Alpha Legion Update

2011-09-12T20:38:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So after reviewing my latest tutorial, as well as reading a comment over at Col. Shofer’s blog HERE, I decided that my Combi-Plasma tutorial was poorly executed. So rather than repost the tutorial, I’ll just throw up my much better finished pictures, and edit the tutorial I did yesterday:

That’s how your Combi-Plasma should come out. Take your time and use the plasticard. I dropped two little pieces in as the base, glued a top piece on to level it out, then sanded the plasticard to match the roundness of the Plasma Nozzle. Then its just a simple matter of Greenstuff to fill in the cracks!

This took me about 25 minutes or so, but is extremely easy to do!

Also, I got impatient and managed to get a little more use out of my Scorpion Green. I got the Powerfist for the Aspiring Champion almost finished; I need to do the cords and hit the metal with a light wash.

So his Power Weapon:

and the detail work therein:

To the Power Fist:

and the detail therein!

Damn light sheen. I’m debating on another box of Chaos Marines or a box of Khorne Berserkers as my next project. Any ideas guys?

Alrighty, hopefully my paints come in tomorrow so I can continue work on the Alpha Legion! And go check out the Redone Combi-Plasma Tutorial!

Granesh

Thoughts: New Fantasy Heroes Plastics

2011-09-12T14:23:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

So I’ve been watching as GW’s been releasing their new one-off Plastic heroes models, and I must say, as a hobbyist and a gamer, I’m extremely happy with them so far!

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, with the release of Storm of Magic this summer, came a whole group of beautiful Wizard models. Everything from…

Necromancers:

to Chaos Sorcerers:

Their most recent additions include possibly my current favorite: a Nurgle Lord.

Being a 40k player and fan more so than a Fantasy fan, I’ve been playing around with ideas to make work for Chaos Marines, Dark Eldar, etc. The Nurgle Lord looks extremely easy to do so with, just add some extra marine style armor. The best part is that they’re plastic, so they’re much easier to convert and work with than, say, resin, or pewter.

My biggest question, though, is whether or not this type of release is going to be implemented into Warhammer 40k.

These models are beautifully done and fill either empty or decrepit holes in the Fantasy model line, so why not do this for 40k? Just a couple I can think of:

Ministorum Priests
Daemon Heralds (I’ll ignore the $38 Tzeentch Finecast one…)
Space Marine Special Add-ons (Emperor’s Champion, Apothecaries, etc.)
Imperial Servitors
Ork Big Meks/Warbosses/Weirdboyz
Kroot Shapers

The fantasy ones seem like Generic Lord choices (Nurgle Lord, Necromancer, Witch). The list can go on. So, my readers, I would like you to sound off in the comments. What would you like to see GW do for 40k in the realm of one-off plastic kits. Would it be viable for 40k? Will GW even do it for 40k?

As for personal updates, nothing paintingwise really went down this weekend. Mainly social and school stuff got in the way. My paints should be in in the next day or two, so I’ll be able to get back to work on my Alpha Legion!

Granesh

Tutorial: Pimp My Bolter: Combi-Plasma; Combat Patrol Start?

2011-09-11T15:53:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,
Sorry for the slow weekend here on the blog. I beat Space Marine on Friday, and must say, it was a blast! Just need my roommate to jump onto the Playstation Network and let me play as my beloved Imperial Fists or Alpha Legion!
Anyways, I put together my next installment in my Pimp My Bolter series. Very simple, very quick, and very cost-effective too!
Materials Needed:

Bolter
Plasma Pistol
Plasticard/Green Stuff

This is what happens when you’re an Art Major/History Minor, and you get bored in your Art History Class:

As you can see, I like to keep the top-style for my combi-weapons. I did change some stuff from the drawing: Lets let the tutorial speak for me….
1) Trim the top and the top nub on the front off of your bolter, just like the Combi-Melta tutorial.

2) Take your Plasma Pistol, and remove the front nozzle area. Trim down the bottom of the nozzle slightly so that its flat.

3) Affix the nozzle to the front of the bolter so that it sits just above the bolter muzzle.

4) Cut the Plasma area from the bottom and hand pieces. Trim it down slightly as well, so that the top will line up with the top of the Plasma Nozzle.

5) Affix the Plasma Coils bit to the top of the bolter. Its up to you to move it so it sits flush with the Plasma Nozzle, but I’ve found moving it back gives it more of a Plasma Gun feel.

6) Using Plasticard, fill the gap between the Nozzle and the coils. A little Greenstuff will fill in any unwanted cracks.

7) Remove the handle and affix to your Marine! Let the plasma rain down!
This is going to go on one of my CSM Chosen soon, so I’ll let the Green Stuff dry and my paints to come in the mail before I do so!
I hope this helps, the Combi-Plasma bit is in the same vein as the Combi-Melta in that it comes in just one box and goes for a TON on bitz sites! Next up: Combi-Flamer!
Also, I’ve been playing around with the Ork models I have in order to start work on my Combat Patrol army for Adepticon (assuming no kinks are thrown in my plans). For those who don’t remember, the list is:

Big Mek with Kustom Force Field
11 Shoota Boyz with a Big Shoota and a Nob with Power Klaw/Bosspole in a Trukk
12 Shoota Boyz with a Big Shoota and a Nob with Power Klaw/Bosspole in a Trukk.

The trukks may have Armour, but I can’t remember. Anyways, it’s a fun, fast, and potentially good Combat Patrol army. Here’s my work so far. The group is going to be an Evil Sunz Speed Freaks style army, so Reds, Yellows, Tan/White, and Checks!

I feel like the color washed out too much thanks to the lighting. He’s a AoBR Big Shoota with a Deffkopta Pilot’s head.
Also in progress is a Nob with Power Klaw and Bosspole. The bosspole is going to be done seperately, but the Klaw was lying in my bitz box. Some careful cutting, and he was done!

Really having fun with these, though I feel like doing the boyz is gonna drive me crazy, especially at the level I want to do them at. Anyways, slow progress on them around commissions and Alpha Legion!
Granesh

Tutorial: Pimp My Bolter: Combi-Melta

2011-09-07T20:32:00.001-06:00

Hey guys,

The tutorial section is coming back! Doing Tutorial Tuesdays really kicked my butt. Keeping up with new projects and styles without reverting to “This is how to paint *insert color here*!” So they’ll be a rarer occurrence, but will be back!

As us Marine and Chaos Marine players know, getting your hands on Combi-Weapons sucks. The bits are extremely rare, only coming on the Commander sprue, and will go for insane amounts on Bitz sites.

So here’s installment one: Combi-Meltas. I plan on doing an easy Vehicle installment too, but all in good time.

Here’s the current plastic bit:

Here’s mine! Note I did use a Chaos Bolter; either works, obviously.

Quick, easy, and good looking!

Parts Needed

Space Marine Bolter (CSM works too)

Meltagun Nozzle

Plasticard Rod (Square Strips)

1) Shave the top details off of the Bolter.

2) Glue two strips of Plasticard, roughly the length of the detail you shaved off, together, then to the bolter.

3) Shave down the back end of the plasticard strips, and make sure everything’s straight, level, and where you want it.

4) Remove the Melta Nozzle, and glue it to the blank spot above the Bolter Muzzle.

5) Cut down a third piece of plasticard to about 3/4ths the length of the other pieces, and affix it midway on the top of the bolter.

6) Angle the back of the dual strip, and you’re done! You can add little details, like a Flamer canister for the detail on the side of the Meltagun.

7) Find a model for it to go on! Here, its going to my Chaos Chosen I’m working on: 4 Combi-Weapons and a Meltagun ftw!

Next up, Combi-Plasma! I have some good ideas for it, but I’m still deciding what and how to do it.

Alrighty, I hope this gets your Marines ready to pop tanks on the cheap! I’ll have some shots of the Tiger Shark soon, as well as my Chaos Marines!

Granesh

Finished: Fully Magnetized Nemesis Dreadknight For Sale

2011-09-06T16:41:00.002-06:00

Hey guys,

So, without further adieu, the Nemesis Dreadknight is finished! Fully magnetized, painted, and varnished, this model is ready to hit your tabletop. Make him scoring with your Grand Master and be ready to watch your opponents panic as a S6 4 wound monster sits on your objective!

Here he is with all of his options. You can see the magnets in the weapons stuck to the metal tweezers.

Armed with the Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, and Greatsword, he’s ready to rip apart the denizens of the warp! The pistons on his back have been glued in, and would work perfectly as a Personal Teleporter.

Nemesis Daemonhammer. Be sure to clean the Psyker off after every use!

Every Grey Knight needs a glowing effect on the eyes!

This model is a must have for any Grey Knights army, and will definitely bring the vengeance of the Emperor down upon the heretic and the mutant!

He’s going to be up in the ++FOR SALE++ section of my site for $140 OBO. This is cheaper and of higher quality than the other Dreadknights up on eBay right now, plus its fully magnetized, and I’ll cover shipping in the US! Remember, if you’re interested in this piece, please drop me an email at SmellslikeWargaming (at) hotmail (dot) com, and we’ll get you sorted out!

Tomorrow, I’m bringing my Tutorial section back out; get ready for Combi-Weapons!

Granesh