Adding Some Character

   With the end of the edition of 40k coming close, I've found my whole gaming group is having a think about changing armies and trying new ideas out. While I am steadfastly trying not to start any new armies, I can have a play about with those projects I really want to put on the table but for one reason or another, have not. Chef amongst these are my Eldar/Aeldari, my first ever army and one I still have a serious soft spot for, but an army that I have struggled to get something together that I am pleased with.

   The first figure is a new Autarch. This was the model that inspired this push - hopefully more posts to come -  as I had an idea for them. This model has far more white on it (and a bright red back to the cloak) to break the yellow/orange fade up a bit and this is something I will add to far more units.

   The next model is one I bought a few months back when I was midway through an idea on where to take this project. It is another figure that got half painted before I ran out of ideas on how to finish them. This was the model where I tried the bronze for the first time in this scheme and I am really pleased with the end result.

I think between these two figures, I know how I want to tidy this army up now - the bronze colour addition has broken up the black that the colour scheme needs but that didn't look right on a few models.

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Beast Snagga Deff-Dread

 Focus Project ; No

    Another model from the Combat Patrol magazine that has been hit by Operation Get Stuff Painted. This time a Deff-Dread for my Orks. I have two* and I just decided that the first one would be the one I converted, with the theme being a Beast Snagga looking walker - hence the lizard skin draped over it's back, a skin on the leg (you can't see in this photo) and various extra skulls.

*they were so cheap

   I went with a green scheme, as green is best and it fitted the Beast Snagga theme a bit better in it. I have a few bits for my Ork army that are slowly getting done - mostly as I know the next edition boxset has loads in it and I don't want my backlog to be absolutely swimming in Orks.

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Tendorians Pt3

Focus Project ; No

    Carrying on with trying to make a project, that I wouldn't have bought right now if it wasn't so cheap, something other than backlog fodder with the last two squads in my completely arbitrary minimum painting list* - the last infantry squad and the last heavy weapon squad of 1st platoon.

*I feel like that needed a comma somewhere but there wasn't really anywhere for one

   I bought 99 figures for this project for much cheaper than retail in the Combat Patrol magazine, 6x10 infantry squads, 4x 6 heavy weapon squads and 3x 5 for command squads. These last units get me half way done if you ignore the extra command**.

**which is penciled to be a company command

   The 3rd infantry squad is pretty much the same as the other two, with the only differences being a flamer as the second special weapon and the sgt has been kit bashed with the command squad spare bits - to avoid having 3 identical models in every platoon. . .

   I spent ages trying to decide what to build the second heavy weapon squad as, and I don't necessarily think I came to the right choice, but I went with lascannons, as I played a game with my Hervictus (Steel Legion models) and the lascannons were useless but fun.

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Chaos Heavy Weapons

Focus Project ; No

   As Operation Get Stuff Painted carries on, last week on my painting desk I had a couple of Chaos Space Marine units that had been sitting on a shelf patiently waiting their turn. Neither of these units has any real claim to being at the head of the queue beyond being within arms reach and having been built and sprayed already.

   The units are a pair of Obliterators that I picked up at a Bring and Buy show a year or so ago (I want to say Lee Valley?) and a unit of Chaos Havocs which came from the magazine and just missed their slot in the queue in favour of the fully lascannon unit that got a bit uppity.

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The Void Claws

Focus Project ; No   

This may have been a mistake.

   A few weeks back I was having a chat with a mate about an idea that was half forming in my head - I was reading a fantasy novel and the enemy race were a tribe like people who each bond with their tribe's totem animal, with families made up of the adult and their animal/s, rather than mixed human groups* and I wanted a 40k version.

*kids counting towards the mother's animal number rather than as people

   As I had a run in the morning and was then doing a fair bit of driving with the kids straight after, I had the time to give this thought the chance to grow into something. The obvious answer was Kroot, they now have a combat patrol and they could fit well into the current campaign as mercenaries allied to the Chaos forces, and lay the ground work for a Tau campaign in the future, but if I am being honest, the idea of painting them scares me.

   The other option was the Space Wolves - although, more in a fuller 1k project than the combat patrol as the patrol didn't have the wolf element I was after. But how to make them 'mine'?

   The thought then grew to how would I make them different to the other chapter's that live in my head and the answer was obvious, bastardise the back story of the Carcharadons. This chapter was created in the Indomintus founding by Guilliman as one of a few chapters seeded with the thought of a future where the Imperium could look to expand again. The chapter was sent straight off into the outer dark, beyond the fringes of Imperial space to harass and weaken threats outside the border, so that when an Imperial push came along, they would have an easier time conquering new planets.

   As part of how they work, they make heavy use of Wolf Scouts. The scout's job is to attack the planet ahead of the main force, hack all communication networks, then when the invasion begins, all the defenders hear on any frequency is incessant howling that breaks resolve.

   More recently, the chapter has been assigned as one of the three Wardens of the Ivonian Cluster chapters**, tasked with capturing the area of space and then holding it for the Imperium, with a single planet being taken as a base of operations and "home planet" for each chapter.

**more in the future

   When it came to putting this theory into practise, I managed to talk myself into keeping it cheap and self contained***, with a single Kill Team - the Wolf Scouts. This way, if I don't buy anything else, the project can already be used, and if I do buy more, I have a squad I can add to the army.

   As the scouts aren't a usual pack, they are individuals with the right talents taken from full packs, I have left their old pack markings on their shoulder pad as I feel that will always be more important to them than their new squad - but their rank is on their knee pad. This squad has members of the Spirit Wolves, Hawk Eyes and Savage Fang packs.

***for the moment?

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Chetis 4 - Ongoing

   It was expected, by Imperial Tacticians, that a full counter attack would be launched by the forces of the foul Gods within 24 hours of taking Zul’Dar, but no full scale response came. The work had began to fortify the foothold on Chetis 4, land as much materiel and troops as quickly as possible, with the aim of starting the push towards the capital city, Qalb al-Bhaal and keeping the momentum of the assault going.

   The Imperial forces made good headway in this push over the next few days encountering only piecemeal resistance but at no where near the pace projected in the preinvasion planning. Partly this was due to the the second division, which was supposed to drop in the day or so after the initial beach head assault, being delayed in the warp but also reports of a increased Ork Waaagh developing on Chetis 5 meaning regiments had to be held back in case this threat became too big to contain.

   It has to be noted that less Astartes chapters had responded to the call for aid in this crusade than was also hoped, with the Ossuary Brotherhood being the only known chapter on the planet at this point. But warp signatures thought to match at least two Strike Cruisers had now been spotted by astropaths in the fleet.

   The Traitors, however, were not giving the planet up without a fight. Their nose had been blooded in the first strikes, their organisation was terrible with each warband working towards their own aims and not willing to sacrifice any gains or blood for others, but this did not mean they couldn't stop the Imperials. A combined force of World Eaters, Renegade Marines, The Sacrificed Sons, Thousand Sons, Iron Warriors, Chaos Knights, Daemons and assorted mortals stood in the path of the advance to Qalb al-Bhaal.

   There was one incident perpetrated by the World Eaters that mystified the Imperial Tacticians. A small warband of chaos marines and human cultists attacked an advance party of armoured vehicles made up of tanks from two different Adepta Sororitas sisterhoods, sacrificing themselves under the big guns and tracks with very little damage to the machines of the God-Emperor. It was only later that this was found to be the final piece of a blood ritual to their God, one that drastically weakened the veil to the warp and allowed daemons to manifest across the planet far more freely.

   With Chaos fully on the offensive and achieving more of their objectives more the Imperial armies, can the Imperium hold for long enough to change their fortunes?

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Tendorians Pt2

Focus Project ; No

   While they shouldn't really be a priority, I am aiming to get at least a 'full' platoon of my Tendorians table ready just to make sure I haven't bought 100 figures that go straight into backlog. From the figures I have bought, I am counting this 'full' platoon as; a command squad, 3 infantry squads and a pair of heavy weapon squads.

   This post is another decent chunk of those figures - mostly held up by how long it takes to build them.

The command squad - I didn't give the squad a banner as it just doesn't feel right for a platoon command to have one - that's something I will leave for the company command despite me losing a fair few useful rules by it. The office has the female head with the pony tail as it is just a really nice piece.

The first heavy weapon squad - I went with the autocannons as they felt the most rounded choice. I am really unsure what to build the next squad with if I am being honest.

The second squad. I've built all 3 units with slightly different special weapons choices - all 3 have plasmas, as they are just the best option, but this squad I gave a grenade launcher instead of the melta for a bit of variety.

The 3rd squad is well on it's way to being done, and that just leaves me to build the 2nd heavy weapon unit and then look at the 2nd platoon.

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