WIP - Mechanicus terrain

As soon as this was released, I knew I had to have it. Currently the shade is drying, after that I'm painting it in the same colours as my Metalica army!

Good night!

Zone Mortalis - Who's up for a game!?

So I've been talking about it for ages, even tried to build my own version of it, and now I finally got myself a Zone Mortalis from Forge World!!

I started small, only got 1 of each of the 2 sets, so now I have 8 different tiles. Eventually I will add 1 more of each so I can play on a 2' * 2' table. I also got a Large blast door and 2 small ones, will add more of these when I get more tiles.

And as I mentioned in the last post, I have the Armies on Parade to focus on, so I won't be able to do anything with these toys before Saturday. I haven't even washed the resin!

Considering the number of ways you can make a table, I made small paper tiles that I will use to plan the layout of the battlefield before I set up the table.

I really look forward to play a lot of small games, tons of infantry and close combat!
Who's up for a game!?

Cheers!

City of Zarona

Was it perhaps a month ago when I last posted? Two maybe? It's been very long, I'll give you that.

I have several reasons for not posting:

1: I've been getting into Warhammer: Fantasy Battles, and I want to keep this blog "40k pure".
2: The 40k I have been working on is for my entry to Armies on Parade that the store will host on Saturday the 13th.

I have also been working on the new Realm of Battle table that was released not long ago, and I didn't want to show anything before it was completly finished.

So here is the progress of my expansion of Zarona!

The areas with sand needed some more texture, so I brushed on some Armagedon Dust and small patches of Agrellan Earth.

Even applied some in the cracks on the pavement and roads.

Sprayed everything Zamesi Desert, trying to avoid the metal parts.

Drybrushed the rocks and sand with Ushabti Bone.

The metal parts was mostly painted Leadbelcher, but some areas (like manholes) were painted Warplock Bronze. When this was dry, I painted Nuln Oil in patches.

The Aquilla and Saint Plaques were painted Balthasar Gold, then washed Agrax Earthshade

The rest of the metal was also given a cover of Agrax Earthshade.

Then I drybrushed the Leadbelcher parts with Ryza Rust, followed by a drybrush of Necron Compound. This was applied on the parts painted Warplock Bronze as well. Normally I would go for Runefang Steel, but Necron Compound is basically the same, and made for drybrushing, so you can't really go wrong there. The gold parts were painted with Nihilak Oxide in the recesses, followed by a drybrush of Necron Compound as well. The recesses on the road and pavement got a thin wash of Seraphim Sepia.

And Voíla!! Here's my litte run down town on Zarona!

On Saturday is Armies on Parade in Oslo as I mentioned before, so I will post pictures of my army then. I have also recently received a very exciting order from Forge World, I will show this soon as well.

Until next time!
Cheers!

Welcome to Zarona - Here be Daemons!

For the first time I'm actually satisfied with my work on a gaming board! My desert table "Zarona" is a big accomplishment for me because - as I've said before - this is the first time I actually finish a gaming table. 5th time's a charm, eh?

I realized that I probably need a bigger table and decided to paint up two more tiles. I now have a 6'x4' table! The timing couldn't be better, with the release of 7th edition...

I'm actually considering adding a generatorum nexus from Forge World, switching out one of the flat tiles for a huge machine. Probably the thing powering up the entire outpost before "the incident".

Generatorum Nexus form Forge World, picture used without permission.

I haven't played any games of 7th edition yet (not on my table at least), and this is the only battle I've played so far. Death Guard VS Space Wolves. My friend Ricardo brought his beautifully painted Wolves (that just entered (and won) several categories in The Fang painting competition!) and managed to end my winning streak. We have a game booked in two weeks, so I'll make sure to kick his ass then.

Speaking of ass-kicking, with the Malefic Psychic powers in the new edition of 40k, I need something to summon the daemons. That's what I'm working on for the moment, amongst other things. More on this as work progresses.

Oh, and if you haven't tried Maelstrom of War scenarios yet - Do it!

Until next time!
Cheers!

Terrain - Changing my mind and going through with the decision!

Last time I played against Øivind at my place, I realized that I wasn't satisfied with the choise I'd made for the colour scheme. I decided to re-paint my recently finished table.

For you who have played Inquisitor (the 54mm figure-role playing game), you might remember some of the terrain they made for the rulebook. They created a world called Zarona, and designed a small frontier town in the dessert, with all kind of machinery, suggesting it used to be a mining town or similar. I wanted to do something similar. I was good and took a lot of pictures while I was painting, so I will walk you through the process.

Step 1 - Getting rid of the ugly brown I previously used. I loaded my spraygun with Zamesi dessert and covered the entire board.

I noticed that there were several patches where the sand hadn't stuck to the board (a problem you might encounter when you mix too much water with the PVA glue). This was going to be repaired.

Step 2 - I filled the patches (and some random areas that were missing sand) with a thick layer of Agrellan Earth.

When the paint dried, it cracked up and gave me the desired effect.

Step 3 - I sprayed the table again. To give a even layer of Zamesi, and to paint the patches of Agrellan Earth.

Step 4 - I drybrushed the entire table with Ushabti Bone, using a large drybrush.

I switched to an even larger brush when I realized that it would take forever to finish the board with the large drybrush.

Step 5 - Almost done! The patches that still looked "naked", i.e. missing either sand or Agrellan Earth, was decorated with a couple of Mordheim Tufts (using PVA glue).

Step 6 - And onto the buildings! I donated a couple of my old buildings, because I decided to use Manufactorums exclusively. These were sprayed black to begin with.

 Step 7 - Using the same huge brush I used for the board, I drybrushed all the buildings Leadbelcher.

Step 8 - Using a large drybrush, I washed the buildings Agrax Earthshade...

Step 9 - ...and using the same brush, stippling Ryza Rust in patches.

Step 10 - With the same brush (Think i was my favorite during this period), I painted a verrrry light drybrush of Runefang Steel to represent chipping.

Step 11 - The floor was painted Eshin Grey.

Step 12 - Drybrushed Dawnstone.

Step 13 - And a final highlight by drybrushing Administratum Grey.

Step 14 - I had a lot of barrels and crates from my days of playing Inquisitor, so these got the same treatment as the buildings.

And there we go! The finished gaming table! I am really satisfied with the looks of the table now, and I am actually already making 3 more buildings, and adding some more barrels. I still have 4 more tiles for my Realm of Battle, and these will be finished as well at some point. As for the roofs, they are made out of textured plastic card, painted Khorne Red, washed Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed in Leadbelcher, Ryza Rust and Runefang Steel.

I have also improved when it comes to gaming (just luck I guess), so I'm really looking forward to another game, preferably on my new table!

Until next time!
Cheers!

Board and Buildings

After a couple of tries to make a gaming table, i decided to go with the Realm of Battle table.
I really regret not doing this before. I only painted 4 tiles - I know, you get 6 tiles in a set, and with the RoB expansion from Games-workshop.com I actually have 8 tiles, but when I play 40k I usually play 1500 points battles, and 4 tiles is perfect for games of that size! I decided to start with 4, and do the rest later. Here's what I did with my tiles:

I started with covering the tiles in a super-thin layer of filler. The skull-pits looks great, but doesn't fit the idea I have for my board.

I placed the buildings and planned how I wanted the board to look. The original idea was to magnetize the buildings to the board, but i dropped that idea since I want to be able to place buildings on top of the hills, etc. White Dwarf issue 400 has a lot of helpful tips on painting a Realm of Battle table, so this was my toilet magazine of choice.

I had to consult my wife regarding placement of the buildings. She insisted that the small building should be on top of the hill, while I wanted it on one of the flat tiles, making a plaza in the middle. That's why I dropped the magnet idea, and why we didn't speak for several days.

After a layer of filler, I used PVA glue to add some sand. The sand got a PVA-water-mixture-sealing layer before I attacked it with my spray cans. I used several pots of Dryad Bark as a basecoat on the whole board, including the rocks.

The sand got drybrushed in Mournfang Brown.

The rocks were drybrushed Eshin Grey, Dawnstone and finally Administratum Grey on the edges.
This is what my wife called a "finished board", but I had more in mind.
So some harsh word were exchanged and we stopped talking again.

I painted patches of Loren Forest and Zamesi Dessert on the sand, and the creaks between the rocks were washed with Agrax Earthshade. NOW I'm finished with the four tiles! Next up: adding buildings, craters and trees.
But before that, I have to buy flowers for my wife...

Cheers!

Psychic Warfare!

I know I promised you some Black Legion progress, and in a way, that's what I'm giving you.

Mons just started his vacation and got the new Eldar Codex, along with the entire new range of figures. He was up for a match and wanted a larger point limit.

Around 4000 points should do it.

So we met up at my place and set up the terrain, deployed our forces and rolled for an INSANE amount of psychic powers! Like that wasn't enough, I also had several Rewards for my Daemons. 

 The Eldars deployed behind a home-made Aegis defence line with a beautiful converted icarus cannon.

 I tried to do the same, deploy everything with a clear line of sight and in good cover. At 4k there wasn't much room left so I had to leave a lot in reserve.

 First turn, and 3 warlocks dies from perils of the warp! I was in luck!

 The Bloodletters advance with covering fire from the skull cannon. The cannon managed to kill a lot of storm guardians and dire avengers. On the right, the spawn runs into cover, only to be charged by the storm guardians.

 One lucky hit from a wraithguards weapon manages to inflict an instant death on  my flying bloodthirster. A serious blow to my morale!

 The bloodcrushers charges with furious anger. The Rhino with dirge caster denied the wraithguard their overwatch, helping a few crushers to survive the trip.

 The combined fire from the dire avengers and jetbikes cut down all bloodletters and leave the herald to his fate. The spawn, having cut down almost all guardians are charged by the wraithlord.

 A wave serpent carrying 5 wraithguards with low AP template weapons deploys in front of my battle lines. they cut down the entire chaos marine squad and a couple of plaguebearers. The pink horrors blessed the plaguebearers, and together with the plaguemarines they chopped down every single wraithguard! Again, a rhino with dirge caster ensued their survival while charging.

 The portalglyph is deployed and starts spewing out daemons. The spawn, having killed the last of the guardians starts clawing at the wraithlord, and manages to bring it down, but a great cost to their own unit... only one spawn is left. The screamers bite their way through the hull of the wave serpent.

This was some of the highlights of my latest game. The Wraithknight is an awesome figure (and huge!), but i felt it didn't contribute anything major. We'll see on wednesday, when another game with Mons is planned. This time at a 2k limit though...

And I got myself some styrofoam, and using a technique I saw on Warseer, I have started to add texture to the plates, without gluing stuff on. It's still in the very early stages, but given some more texture (And I'll probably add some stuff too) and a decent paintjob, it will be a great board for my city table.

So next post will (probably) be another battle against Eldars!

Until then,

Cheers!

P.S. Totally forgot to mention the outcome of the game - Which ended with an Eldar Victory. 15-9 victory points, but I managed to dish out some serious hurt...