Sunday, 5 February 2012

Finished Praetorian Exterminator

Managed to finish updating another tank this evening, my Leman Russ Exterminator. Tank-wise that's 4 chimera, 1 hellhound, 1 Russ, 1 Exterminator and 1 Medusa all finished. Next up is finishing the Command HQ chimera and the Salamander for a nice round total of 10 tanks. When they are done I have my eye on getting a stormlord for some big games. Here are some photos of the Exterminator




Ive also been doing a little work on converting the empire engineer on mechanical horse to use for Mogul Kamir. There are lots of details that need removing so its taking a while then I'll have to start sculpting all the 40k bits. The torso and head are sitting on pins at the moment but give you an idea of how it might look a little further down the line.


Friday, 3 February 2012

Finished Praetorian Medusa!

I have finished my new favourite tank, the medusa!




The crew are two heavy weapon loaders with goggles sculpted on their helmets. The loading area has a custom built shell rack and has had the rails removed. One little touch was the Praetorian lion from the standard bearer being added above the loading breach. There is free hand insignia all over the tank (though its not my best I'm thinking about changing the crossed cannons) and a lot of battle damage to the paint work as it always appears a popular target for enemy fire.

1850pts Necrons v Praetorians Battle Report!

Tonights entertainment was a 1850pts battle against a beautiful necron army (striking it lucky with my opponents these days!), commanded by a great opponent.

The mission was multiple objectives and the deployment was dawn of war, the battlefield was a runied city which afforded plenty of cover to both armies and the 4 objectives were evenly spaced in the middle of the table.

Notable additions to my army today were a Valkyrie with missile pods and a multilaser, sent by the inquisition to aid the valiant Praetorians against the mechanical menace.and the Salamander!

The necrons had two big units of immortals, two of warriors, 10 scarabs, a doomsday ark, two annihilation barges, 3 heavy destroyers, 3 wraiths, destroyer lord and a C'tan. Also possibly some other stuff, nontheless there were a lot of robots!!!


As per the deployment I had 2 troops and a HQ deploying, the vets taking cover in the middle of the table, 1st platoon on the right by the cathedral, heavy weapon squad in the building on the left of my table edge and the Command HQ in their chimera supporting the heavy weapon squad at the base of the building.
The necrons foregoing the HQ choice put a troop to the extreme right and left of their deployment in cover. Due to the C'tan the were then redeployed focusing to the right of his table edge (being a god has its perks...). I was due to go first but he stole the initiative.

His entire army bar one squad of warrior (which come on on his left) arrived en masse castling the buldings in that corner. The other exception was the 10 scarabs occupying the ruins opposite the chimeras. After his shooting and with a roar of engines the mainstay of the Praetorians turned up (rough riders and hellhound being kept in reserve), the exterminator and salamander on the left, valkyrie on the right and leman russ and medusa in the centre (keeping out of sight of the doomsday ark). Both of our shooting phases were largely ineffective, he stunned a chimera and I killed a couple of scarabs warms and a warrior or two.

The necron castle...

In turn two there was little manouvering from the two armies with only his assault minded destroyer lord accompanied by nigh on indestructable wraiths (he hates everyone so who can blame him) advancing towards my exterminator and salamander on my left, other units just moved slowly though cover to get a better firing position. Shooting was a far more deadly affair, the medusa was destroyer-ed (sorry for the pun), the Highlanders chimera was wrecked and a few of them succumbed to enemy fire. The doomsday ark fired hit three chimera under its blast, glanced one not under the centre and failed to even glance the targeted tank! Result was shaken for the glanced tank, I'll certainly take that! My shooting wasn't anything to write home about, a couple of wraiths and scarabs were killed, a few warriors and immortals were destroyed and that was about it.

 The necron advance...
 

 Return fire!


 The destroyer lord closes on his prey...

Turn three saw the first assaults of the game, my Exterminator was destroyed by the destroyer lord, and the highland vets were killed by the combined efforts of the C'tan and scarabs. Shooting led to the demise of the ineffectual heavy weapon squad and the destruction of the autcannon infantry squad's chimera. Casualties were mounting!

The battle rages on...

A highlander prepares for the scarab assault...


With the scarabs now in striking distance of many tanks the hellhound turned up and promptly roasted the lot of them! 6 dead swarms, result! The roughriders remained in reserve but sly marbo did turn up in cover amongst the necrons and kill a mighty... 2 necrons with his demo charge. The only movement was the two remaining chimeras of first platoon advancing towards the objective on the right and a unit of immortals heading towards the central objective. Other than the hellhound my shooting was only managing to chip away at various squads killing a destroyer, a few warriors and a couple of immortals and an annihilation barge no decisive blows had yet been struck by the guardsman but they were still in the fight!

In turn 4 the Praetorians went on the offensive, in a bold move Col. Winterborne disembarked and assaulted a unit of immortals sheltering in a building. What followed was a casualty-less combat, who knew a necron guard combat could be so brutal! The Destroyer lord eliminated yet another tank in combat (the salamander and the C'tan advanced ominously towards the Leman Russ. The rough riders arrived this turn with their intended target being the immortals occupying the central objective, however a mighty roll of a 1 for fleet ended any hope of getting there.

The Colonel engages the robotic foe...

 The cavalry arrives...

 The Leman Russ' demise is only a matter of time...

So at the end of turn 4 the scores were 2-1 to the Praetorians with both objectives on my right flank occupied by troops and chimera of the 1st platoon, the central objective held by immortals and the final objective on my right contested by the command squad. Random game length, a three was rolled so the fight continued!

Turn 5 saw Colonel Winterborne and his command squad emerge victorious, the Colonel personally slaying two of the souless machines, with the immortals fleeing and the command squad consolodating into cover and contesting the objective. The Leman Russ was in the unenviable position of destroyer lord on one side and C'tan on the other, unsurprisingly the tank was wrecked several times over. More necrons fell to the persistant shooting of the remaining chimeras and valkyrie; the heavy destroyers were reduced to one, the warriors on my right were also reduced to one, and the central immortal unit took a couple more casualties. In the tradition of foolhardy cavalry charges the Rough Riders lowered their lances and engaged the C'tan, knowing killing it was nigh on impossible the brave cavalrymen would buy my scoring units time to secure objectives. As the monster is T7 (and 4++) I could only injure it on the charge with my hunting lances, as luck would have it one wound was caused a piece and the rough riders were rewarded for the valiance with a drawn combat.

For Praetoria!

Turn 6 would be the last turn of the game and turned out to be an incredbly bloody one. While the necrons tried their best to clear some of my units from objectives, a combination of poor rolls and the (there was a lot of 6s to glance that never materialised) ultimate wooden spoon winner the doomsday ark complete failure to really kill anything meant that little was achieved. My guardsmen's reply was brutal. Two warrior squads the last heavy destroyer and a squad of immortals were entirely wiped out. This left me with 2 objectives to my opponents 0 (2 were contested with no troop choices there). 

The Command HQ take cover from the annihilation barge...

 The valkyrie stands overwatch over the objective...

 The last few rough riders sell their lives dearly...

Final Score Praetorians 2 - 0 Necrons

It was a thoroughly entertaining game and went right down to the wire with plenty of madness, mayhem and carnage all over the board. A big thanks go to my opponent who was truely sporting and shared my philosophy of trying to make the game as fun and cinematic as possible! Wooden spoon as I mentioned has to go to the doomsday ark while the real matchwinner for me was my hellhound who accounted for an entire warrior squad and most of the scarabs!

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Praetorian Salamander update

Having finally restocked on spray paint I've managed to start painting the Salamander and tank crew. Heres what I've done so far.

All undercoated and ready to go


Also a photo of the newly undercoated Medusa crew,


Step 1. Undercoat the whole tank snakebite leather. Be sure to water the paint down a little and give it two coats to get it even.


Step 2. Give the whole wash of ogryn flesh. Water it down a bit so it is 2 parts ink to one part water. This will help give the model more definition and make the base coat look more even in colour.


Step 3. Now a lot of drybrushing with ever increasing amounts of bleached bone added to snakebite leather.  About 5 or 6 rounds of drybrushing should do it. Each time more bleached bone and less paint on the brush. The final drybrush will be pure bleached bone and needs to be very light.



more drybrushing...

So that is the main colour done, next I will be picking out all the detail and painting the rest of it.

Here are the crew with an undercoat of bestial brown on theur uniforms.



I'll try and crack on with tank painting tonight, hopefuly get the medusa and crew finished for my game with necrons tomorrow!