Some weekend work

I made a few conversions today after tweaking my 14th Tiefwalder Combined Arms regiment list. The main list change was replacing both the 3 sentinels' lascannons and the fire support team's heavy bolters with autocannons. I switched out the storm bolters on the Chimeras for hunter killer missiles, added a heavy stubber gunner to the hellhound, and switched out the meltagun in the command HQ for a grenade launcher.

I adapted a few backpacks for my veteran squad and created a vet sergeant with the legs and torso from a vehicle sprue, catachan arms, and genestealer upgrade sprue (extended carapace shoulder pads and scything talon knife). He also has a genestealer skull on his belt and a toothed bolter (from a Space Wolves accessory sprue). I envision him as the sole survivor of a different Tiefwalder regiment wiped out by an encounter with my own splinter fleet. The 14th itself has not yet faced tyranids and hopefully "Patch" will give me some good juju going into such a battle.

I've also been working on the hive tyrant's paint job. He's in the final highlighting stages now. I finished the lictor and after going over lightly with 90:10 white:yellow highlights, I went back and applied the same look to the prototype genestealer and gaunt. It improved their appearance quite a bit so I continued on with the tyrant. Now I'm considering using some ultra-thin ink pens to add scores of tiny black spots in the yellow just around the solid black armored areas. I need to go pick up the pens this week.

New Hotness

Cool pics of upcoming kits on this spanish website, La Posada del Friki Pisador, mostly chaos:
Color pics of chaos spawn, the codex front, lord in terminator armor, jumppack lord, khorne lord, and CSMs
Marine sprues, terminator sprues, champion sprues
Photos from the last WD
Color pic of the chaos terminator lord/champion

and most exciting, in my opinion, new guard stuff:
Ogryn and commissars

I take it that's a bonehead, seeing as how his hand appears to be gesturing others forward. This is definitely a good sign that the new plastic Ogs will be less cartooney. Hopefully they won't paint them with those horrible 5 o'clock shadows anymore. The chaos dex cover looks badass overall, but the central figure's pose does seem a bit awkward. Part of him looks like he's wearing terminator armor, part of him is kind of puny (his head and the plasma pistol arm). Is that a titan in the background? I definitely like the firey reds and yellows.

Chaos spawns, I never really used them much myself; perhaps the new list will make them more common. The terminator lord helmet makes him look really anonymous. I guess I just prefer unique helmets or faces. The jump pack lord appears to match raptors fairly well. The possessed sprues are intruiging but based on what I know so far, my old flying possessed will be able to segue into khornate raptors, hopefully for a more reasonable price. I just don't know about that khorne lord. The pose has the effect of making him look like he's bringing down that axe reaaaaalllyy slowwwwllyy. As for the regular marines, eh ok. They're more poseable and detailed than the old metals I guess.

Looks like most of the chaos stuff, including the new codex, hits September 19.

Stormrunners

As the mass of dark figures approached, their corrupted weapons snarling with increasing fury, Trefain the Elder spoke quietly to himself in the ancient tongue. In his mind he recalled once again the darkest storm he had ever seen – one of the six-year typhoons that had come to his old home at Caer Nyss, the one that had taken his entire family – and felt the sudden buildup and release of pressure in his skull that always followed the invocation. Wisps of fog issued from the earth, the atmosphere thickening and expressing depth with moisture, and the wind began to scream as it wove paths around his armored frame and those of his battle brothers. Just as the storm became distinctly visible, taking the form of a swirling gray column amongst them, it whipped and pulsed outwards, towards their oncoming foe. They would need whatever advantage they could take against hardened savages such as these – Trefain had encountered such berzerkers before, and he knew they could be quite persistent in their endless pursuit of skulls for their patron. Through the fog and rain came several small objects, and though Trefain and his Wolf Guard identified them immediately, it was too late to substantively react. The fragmentation grenades exploded, scattering shards of fire and metal into the group, giving them pause ever so slightly, negating the precious few moments they might have otherwise stolen before the cresting wave of deadly madness descended and drowned them all.

14th Tiefwalder Combined... Now With Vets!

I'm messing about with a new guard list, switching out the special weapons squad for a deep-striking (or infiltrating) veteran squad. Despite my better judgement I brought sharpshooters back in, ditching the mortars from last game. What can I say, I roll a lot of ones and I'm tired of picking them out as losers. The close order drill is also sticking around, and anyways the price is right! I still don't particularly like the non-infiltrating command squads in the chimeras, but I'm backed up on modelling projects (nids, witch hunter retinue) and it will be some time before I even think about more guard minis. I think with BS4 and 3 anti-tank/MEQ weapons the vets will be more reliable than the old demo pack squad. They'll be trying to drop in and take out the backsides of big vehicles or walkers, or maybe harass small units of heavy infantry. I could throw in a hidden powerfist and honorifica on the vet sergeant (and use the old Ahhnold catachan captain model) but I'd have to lose one of the sentinels, and after recently painting up that third one I don't want to put it right back on the shelf just yet - I love that little pack of wolves! I already had a searchlight or two painted up so I filled in one last point giving one to a sentinel. In case of dawn I'll gladly sacrifice him so that everyone else can fire through the darkness.

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