Codex: Skitarii Sicaran Ruststalkers/Infiltrators

ZOMG...

These things look effing amazing!  I'm VERY excited about this impending release.  I'm REALLY, REALLY hopeful that the Codex will be good.  I'm expecting a more or less useless detachment that requires you to buy 1-2 of every release and gives you almost no leeway in how you assemble your army...  kind of like the Harlequin Masque Detachment.  I'm also expecting a pretty good number of formations.

As excited as I am by this release, the plan is to wait and read the Codex before buying any models.  I don't want to accidentally buy or assemble something that isn't going to fit into a chosen formation.  I've done this in the past with new product releases and ended up with models that I'm unable to use.

These just look SO DAMN GOOD.

The Infiltrators actually have a sort of Star Wars Drone vibe going for them.

In other news, I'll be playing an actual, honest to God game of Warhammer 40k tomorrow.  I don't actually play very often owing to my local Games Workshop store closing down this past year.  The other local gaming stores that sell product don't really have tables, so i have to make plans and go for a bit of a drive to get a game in.  It's now always convenient.  The plan is to play with a hybrid army of Necrons and Tau.  I'll take some pictures and post them on Friday.

More Potential Tau Empire/Gundam Conversion...

I ran across this very cool little Gundam model at Barnes and Noble over the weekend.  Depending on how long you've been following this blog for, you may know that I previously made a "Crisis Spotter" conversion to replace the Firesight Spotter guy in a Sniper Drone Team.  I liked the idea of a Crisis Suit with a fancy, up-scaled Markerlight "gun".

Here it is in case you've never seen it.

I think it turned out well and definitely has a Tau feel to it.  Keeping the color scheme consistent and making sure a couple of prominent features are made with Tau bits (the head, in this case) makes the model look like it really belongs in my army.

So...

I found this new Gundam model and I think it'll be the perfect base for a "Broadside Commander" conversion.  The model is large enough to fit on a 60mm base with just a little overhang.  I have him standing on a beat up old Dreadnought base in the below photos for scale.  You can see how it compares to a Crisis Suit and Broadside, both standing on cork.

I'm thinking that I'll be able to glue some wrist mounted missile pods, a Crsis Suit head and maybe a few other bits and bobs to make this look like a Tau Empire model.  I'll most likely try to work in some Fire Caste emblems here and there.  I'll also most likely try to use plastic card to emulate the armor panels with lines running through them.  I'm not sure how it'll work out, but I think it's going to be a fun side project.  Don't worry, though!  The Necrons aren't going anywhere.  They're just still waiting on that Leadbelcher paint.

In the last photo, you can see how the arms come completely apart.  Other than a few bits on the back, the rest of the model is one piece.  I'm sure I could pull it apart, but I don't think I'll need to.

I'm also thinking I'll have to trim the feet down.  They're comically large.

The Arms are SUPER Poseable

Night Scythe Built

I'm very, very anxiously awaiting the release of White Dwarf #61 and the impending pre-orders for the Skitarii stuff.

In the meantime, I actually did some hobby work.

This is number one of two.  I still have to put the other together.  I'm pretty sure it'll be a Night Scythe also and not a Doom Scythe.  The plan is to spray these with the Leadbelcher spray that's supposed to be coming out on 4/3.

Ad Mech.

Tick Tock.

Plans for the Next Few Weeks

So, it looks like Codex: Skitarii is going to start coming out this weekend...  for preorder, anyways.  I'm very excited about this.  It looks like week 1 will feature a dual kit, 10 man box and a dual kit walker.  I'll likely pick up one of each for now.  I don't want to go crazy until I see what the rest of the kits look like and how they all fit together.

One nice thing that is also supposedly coming out for preorder this weekend is a spray can of Leadbelcher.  This is going to dramatically help with basecoating my Necrons.  It will especially help with basecoating the vehicles.  In light of this impending release, I'm not going to do any painting for the next week or so.  Instead, I'm playing on doing some assembly work.

By 4/3, I should have the following assembled and ready to receive some paint.

1. 2x Night Scythes (1x assembled now)
2. 1x Doom Scythe
3. 6x Wraiths (assembled now)
4. 5x Destroyers (2x assembled now)
5. 2x Annihilation Barges (1x assembled now)

That's the plan anyways.  Depending on how life goes, I may not be able to get it all put together.  I'm thinking it's doable though.

And in honor of me working on the Necrons for now while the AdMech waits a bit...

http://ning.deviantart.com/art/Necron-vs-Dark-Mechanicus-357166259

New AdMech Photos

I'm just gonna leave this here.

Meh...

I'm feeling very down and depressed right now.  I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to pull myself out of this funk.  Hopefully things will start looking up soon.

We should probably start seeing some actual Codex: Skitarii rumors coming down the pipe this week.  It looks like the release will probably be similar in size to the Harlequins release, but with the core troops box making two different units.

And this is supposedly artwork of one of the two units.

Given the style, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a colored version being the codex cover.

Next in the painting queue is some Necron Wraiths, but I didn't start them yet.  I just can't get the motivation right now.

Maybe tomorrow.

Necron Immortals with Light Conversion

I decided I needed a break from the world, so I sat down and painted the five Immortals that I recently re-based.  This was a relatively quick job.  Since these are intended for regular play, I'm not wasting my time giving them a really solid paint job.  As I type this, it's 8:51PM on Thursday.  I didn't start these until at least 6PM or so, so you're looking at less than 3 hours of work.

You can see some light conversion work done on these models.  The "Sarge" model, i.e., the one with the brass face armor, was lucky enough to score a Deathmark torso.  This is mainly because I dropped, and then promptly crushed by stepping on, the Immortal torso.  I think it turned out fine.  All five have Deathmark heads with Tau Empire Crisis Suit antennas glued to the side.

In my head, these Necrons were awoken when a Tau Earth Caste Engineering Crew started screwing around with some old tech found in a cave.  They found these five defunct robots and wired in an antenna to patch them into the Drone network.  This had the unexpected side effect of waking them up!  Fluff is fun.  I like to give my models stories sometimes.

BUT...  some of you are just here for the pictures.  Here you go...

First up, a quick group shot...

Another group shot, standing on the small bit of terrain from my recent tutorial video...

A better angle...

This next shot really shows how well some cork and a 32 mm base makes an Immortal so much more imposing than a Warrior.  I'm really happy with this difference.  I think the little Tau antennas also help by giving the Immortals another 3-4mm of height...

And lastly, going into battle with a Lord.  This is probably how I'll field them...

I'm not sure what I'll paint next.  I think the next week might be a build week.  I need to assemble 8 more Warriors and 3 Tomb Blades to be able to field a Decurian Detachment.  That's sort of the end goal.  Build the Reclamation Legion Core and then start working an auxiliary detachments with the Destroyer Cult and Canoptek Harvest Formations being first.

Family Emergency

My mother had a heart attack.

She will be fine, but this was classified as a life changing event.  Diet and exercise will have to change dramatically.

This blog, while important to me, is taking a back seat for the next several days to a week while things normalize with my mother.

I promise to post something interesting on Friday to make up for the lack of content today.

In the meantime...

This binary translates to ALL HAIL MARS!  Looks like we're getting Adeptus Mechanicus of some sort being released on Friday 4/3 with a pre-order date of Saturday 3/28.  I'm pretty excited about this.  Time to start saving my pennies and praying that the models look good.  I'm expecting a roughly Harlequin sized release over the course of several weeks.

Potential Flayed Ones

I don't have much time to post, but I wanted to put something up.

I ran across this tutorial over the weekend and I'm going to try it out as soon as I can get my hands on the appropriate plastic rods and whatnot.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/253476.page

This is what they'll look like when they're done.

I don't think I'll do the climbing out of the ground thing, but you never know.  I like how varies these things are.  My biggest concern is actually the green stuff.  It's really not my strong suit, but this doesn't look too terribly challenging...  and no time like the present to learn something new.

Immortals!

I got a small amount of work done on my first batch of Immortals.  They've been re-based on 32 mm bases and sprayed black.  I'm expecting they'll be complete by Monday.

By putting the Immortals on cork and 32 mm bases, they literally tower over Warriors.  I think this is a nice visual queue that the Immortals are intended to really be much bulkier.

The Immortal in the picture was a work in progress and has since been sprayed black to restart.  He's one of the dudes in the top photo.

Lastly, I met up with a buddy last night and we traded some of my old "I'm never gonna work on this" Eldar stuff for some new in box Necron stuff.  So, yeah...  my to do list is growing.

Lastly, I'll be meeting up with my buddy soon to play a series of 500 point quick games.  We're experimenting with different units and thought it would be fun to play something between Kill Teams and a proper battle.  I'm thinking about bringing a Canoptek Harvest with a Cryptek or two mixed in, but I'm not sure that I can make the points work.  I think I'll have to go Unbound for this.