Happy Daddy's Day ... and other hobby odds and ends ...

Had to put this drawing up which my daughter did for me for father's day. I thought it was pretty funny with the smiley faces and the neck tie liturgy scroll.

I've been struggling through hobby this past few months, stealing time here and there to get my fix of hobby goodness. Doesn't help that there's been so many cool stuff lately - Eldar, Langton 1/1200 ships, Napoleonic resurgence, Ravenwing, FoW, BFG ... jeez.

Finally had my first game with the new Eldar, using the latest reincarnation of a "purist" Alaitoc Ranger Force - all foot, no vehicles. Against Faizal's Space Wolves, it was quite a blast. The Alaitoc have become deadlier than ever. Crazy. Will need to try the other new Eldar toys in the next game.

Talking about toys, I'm about 30% done with my Nightshade fighter. Decided to do an Exarch's aircraft. It's been awhile since I painted Eldar, and clean lines and bright colors are such a pain after a long spell painting IG and Ravenwing. My AirCav is on a break - got 2 Vendettas and 1 Valkyrie at about 40%, plus 24 infantry all black and ready to paint. When I get back to these guys next month it's for the home run! Other stuff on the table include 6 new Eldar jetbikes and 6 Ravenwing command squad bikes.

Lastly, Kill Team is a blast! As the pic below (actual in-game) will tell you.

Throwdown Day - 55% done!

The final Throwdown came and went last Friday. There were some really nice models there, but only 1 army was complete. And that of course, was Iqbal's brilliantly bright Eldar! Kudos for that purity seal dude.

My own AirCav came in at 55% complete. And I'm really glad for the Throwdown to get my ass of the ground and get some movement going in this project. Now that the Throwdown is done, I'm going to focus on finishing the army to the original 1750 pts, and then to the expanded 2000 pts.

For 1750, these are the models that need to be finished:

2 Vendetta - status: OD base coat done
1 Valkyrie - status: OD base coat done
20 veteran infantry - status: black under coat done
1 standard bearer - status: base coats 80% done
2 advisors - status: black under coat done
1 priest - status: black under coat done

For the extended 2000 pts, I need to add the following:

6 Ogryns - status: unassembled
1 Chimera - status: MIB
1 Marbo - status: unassembled (kitbash - parts already set aside)

And last Friday also saw the return of Ahriman and his dust boys. After 2 months of playing an all-foot Eldar, I must say it was a huge change - especially in rediscovering how easy Rhinos pop to concentrated fire (when I was playing the all-foot Eldar, that was a great way to gain First Blood. Guess I'm giving those away now).  But Thousand Sons is huge fun! All that magic. So cool.

Of course, in the very first time they come back to Legio battlefields, they go up against armies that ignore their AP3 bolters - Deathwing, and Blood Angels Honor Guard. Typical. The fight vs Deathwing didn't turn out too well. While Belial's uber 10-man Deathwing Assault Squad was wiped out in a single round of shooting, he actually held on in the ensuing close combat till battle's end. And the squad that could have saved the day for the Sons outflanked on the wrong flank (my mistake to assign that squad to the sorcerer with the blindfold - of course he couldn't see where he was going! lol), and the Deathwing carried the day. The fight against the Blood Angels was bloody. At the end of the battle, only Dante, 1 of his bodyguard and 1 Stormraven was left, and only 2 Terminators and 5 Thousand Sons survived (Ahriman died in Turn 2 - rolled a 1 for LOS, and failed his save against a melta shot). But they held the objective and won the day. The Sons are back!

Um, Colonel sir, I'm afraid we have bad news ...

... AirCav Detachment, II Catachan will not be ready for deployment by tomorrow evening as scheduled, sir! Yes sir, I have assigned myself to special punishment detail, sir! What is that sir? Yes sir, I will add self-flogging into my list, sir! Yes, sir, I will use the torture implements as used by the Arco-Flagellants bunking in at base camp, sir!

Sir? Paint faster, sir? Sir, yes sir!!!!

Eldrad Lives!!! Again!!!

What an amazing night of gaming and hobby last Friday! On the downside I didn't manage to finish my Vendetta #05 in time for the last fortnightly Throwdown. It was a great Throwdown too. Khairul's Space Marine jetbikes were awesome, and rookie Lena's Dark Eldar was really cool.  Btw, bunches of kudos to Lena for being the only one to have made 8 for 8 Throwdowns! 100%! Puts us all so-called vets to shame.

Iqbal's lovely Harlequins won the night's Throwdown. Real detail work. And if you know his penchant for really original color combos, it works just fine for Harlies. Well done!

I did manage 2 games. One was a kill team game, which was rather one-sided. Mad Donna and her gang of Escher lovely thugs totally outnumbered and outgunned Khairul's Eldar aspects. Poor xenos. This game convinced me to finish painting my stormtroopers.

Anyways, my second game was a 1750 rematch vs Faizal's Tau, who slaughtered Eldrad's Defenders of Haran 2 weeks ago. The rematch was bloody from Turn 1, with the Kroots fried to a crisp by Wraithlord flamers. By turn 5, the Tau were down to their Riptides, a Hammerhead, a Tetra and the battle suit command squad. Eldar was down to only Eldrad and his Wraithlord buddy, both of whom managed to be in close combat, and thus pretty safe :) In the second last turn, Eldrad survived such a hail of shooting from the entire surviving Tau army. Insane! Fortune is good. With extremely heavy losses, Eldrad won the day, thanks in part to First Blood and the extra VP gained by killing the Ethereal.

And thus completes an amazing tour of duty of Eldrad's Defenders of Haran. Next time, Ahriman and his dust boys will be back in town. In the meantime, there's a s**tload of painting to do to get my AirCav done. And it shall be done!!!

Kill Team! Throwdown! New Tau! What an awesome Hobby Nite!

What an awesome Hobby Nite! So many things going on. I arrived early enough to witness our very own venerable Khairul completely demolish his opponent in a no-holds-barred epic game of ping-pong. Then it was reebs and good hobby talk. Then Faizal came with his new Tau models.

I must say the new Tau models are a vast improvement! What kept me away was the battlesuits - personally not to my taste. But the new Broadsides are really really nice models. And not to mention the ginormous Riptides - of which he brought 2. Since the Kill Team game was delayed (courtesy of a classic KL jam), we set about to having a good ol' 1750 40k game.

And he completely demolished Eldrad's Defenders of Haran! From the receiving end point of view, the Tau shooty just got shootier. But their Achilles Heel remains close combat. When out of desperation I unleashed my left flank (sounds big - 1 squad of Harlies, 1 squad of Warp Spiders) on him, 2 Kroot and 1 Fire Warrior squads were routed in a single charge, and a Riptide was held in combat. Should have done that from the start - and yes, Rangers WILL charge Tau. lol. Next time, you upstarts you.

Kill Team was an amazing experience. Note that these are home-brewed Kill Team rules and scenarios (and superb terrain!), not the GW rules that came out years ago. But it was totally awesome! You really get the feel of your individual warriors as they face down the enemy in a desperate fight to the death. Awesome terrain is absolutely essential as you get down to your models' point of view and eyeball the enemy trying to creep up to their objectives. Completely full of character! I'm so glad I named each individual team member of my Kill Team. It does bring across the feel of that amazing skirmish game - Necromunda. Only it's based on 6th ed 40k mechanics, and it's far simpler. Can't wait for the campaign.

And it was also Throwdown #7, which is the first night of 2 Wild Card entries. I still have loads of Catachan veterans to paint, so I entered my 3rd Squad. And amazingly, they came in 2nd! I was surprised - just finished that squad an hour before Hobby Nite. Thanks for the votes guys. But the highlight of the Throwdown was most definitely Jeff's really nicely painted Mk.II Land Raider. Very carefully done - quite inspiring for me to do my own one for the Thousand Sons.

Anyways, that was totally awesome. I love Hobby Nite!!!

Eldrad Lives!!!

Last Friday was another awesome night of mad hobby and dice chucking. I was a little late, but made it in time to display my Throwdown entry, and have a game vs the smelly minion of the Great Enemy - Papa Faizal Nurgle himself.

Unlike the last time that Eldrad's motley band of maiden world defenders met up with the Plague Marines, Nurgle was this time more careful to not split his army into bite-sized chunks.

And the result was dramatic! For minimal losses, the disciples of the Rotten One nearly wiped out my army - leaving only a Pathfinder and Eldrad alive. While technically the Eldar still won, it didn't feel like it ... lol

Faizal also won the Fast Attack Throwdown with his really nice looking bloated pus filled entry. I really like the detail in the exhaust, with bits of zombies falling out of the flyer's arse. As you can see above, Eldrad was bravely facing down the very same prize-winning flying monstrosity.

My own flyer was also at the Throwdown, and I believe it's the last Vendetta that I actually bothered to paint the insides of (got smarter after that).

Thunda Mutha!

The Catachan Basilisk Thunda Mutha managed to bag votes at last night's heavy support Throwdown. I was amazed - really didn't expect that, considering that the night before I had a matt varnish spray fog up disaster on the vehicle.

I had to brush some gloss varnish over most of the affected areas, repaint some bits and went back to the matt spray to rescue the model. In the process, one of the shovels stuck in the back of the crew compartment broke off.

But I guess the rescue job was good enough. I'll need to go back and finish the crew for the beast. But that will be much later - after the army is done. 

I also managed to have a great pre-hobby nite drinks session w Jeff and Khairul. Haven't done that in a long time. And it was just truly awesome to sit back and enjoy the cold beverages and awesome company.

Talking about cold drinks and nice people, we had the honor of the Doc visiting us all the way from Penang. He brought his ol' skool White Scars Vindicator for the Throwdown, his White Scars army, his Ogre Kingdoms army and 6 packs of cold goodness! What an awesome dude!

My Defenders of Haran rag-tag vehicle-less Eldar army under Eldrad himself took on the White Scars from the north and managed a win. Then Faizal's servants of slimy smelly papa nurgle force took on the Eldar. Eldrad managed to pull off a victory again! 

There were some funny moments in both games, but I think the 2 funniest involved the last standing Striking Scorpion. After his squad was shot to bits by enemy Obliterators and Terminators, he was charged by swarms if shambling zombies. He held on bravely and was eventually rescued by a squad of Harlequins.

The zombies were wiped out swiftly, and the Harlequins in turn fell to the multiple flamers of the Oblits. And so it was that the lone Scorpion drew his chainsword, turned to face the Nurgle Lord and his Terminator retinue, and bellowed in the calmest of voices only an Eldar Aspect Warrior can muster. "You shall not pass!"