Initiates /w tabard

So I have worked on these initiates some more. The tabards aren't finished yet, but as I am going to get a surgery I wanted to update the blog before I go. The light isn't perfect, as I didn't do my best for these photo's, sorry for that! When I paint new tabards I will put up a tutorial on how to paint them. Until next update!

1st Xenos battle! (through the eyes of a newbie)

So today I had my first battle against an army other than Chaos Marines. Since I started the Black Templars I have made a own board and terrain (will come up soon), played quite a few battles with my friend and learned the rules quite well. So after asking to borrow a Chaos Rhino and Predator, I was good to go to kick some Xenos scum!

I had absolutely no clue what to expect, after doing some research I was surprised to see that the Firewarriors had only BS3, I would have thought them to have atleast 4 or perhaps even 5. These are all such things one would find when not knowing allot of armies yet! Another thing was that I was expecting allot of casualties from shooting, and that it would be quite hard to kill them, even in CC!

So, the battle began, we rolled annihilation and had Pitched Battle. He fielded 2 Hammerheads, 1 squad of Pathfinders, 2 squads of Firewarriors, 1 Devilfish, a squad of 3 crisis suits and a crisis suit HQ. I had 3 Rhino's with different initiates and neophytes, an EC and another Castellan and a Predator (autcannon/LC sponsons).

I deployed everything at the 12" mark, I knew I had to get into CC asap. The predator was deployed somewhere back, in between buildings for the cover. I rushed all forward, failing to do anything on the Devilfish with the predator (he continued to shoot it until the Devilfish finally wrecked in turn 4!). One rhino got wrecked (Castellan+flamer squad), some initiates from that rhino killed due to Firewarrior guns, and one LC sponson got destroyed.
In turn 2 I rushed my Rhino with EC further to a building where the suits, 1 squad of firewarriors and the 2 Hammerheads were 'hiding' at. I dismounted to get melta shots on the Hammerhead, but did nothing. The Castellan squad ran towards the Pathfinders, not in range to assault yet. The 3rd Rhino drove towards the Devilfish.
Next, I lost all but the EC and Powerfist marine from Tau fire (lesson learned, don't dismount unless you can charge! Even if the hammerhead causes you fear! :P), Predator got stunned, and 1 or 2 marines in the Castellan squad died. Again I got lucky on the predator, either having the cover save help me or bad rolls from the opponent, the predator lived till the end!

Well this is where the massacre began. The EC killed the crisissuits with HQ, although the powerfist didn't survive it. The Castellan squad killed the pathfinders, and the other squad from the Rhino killed the Firewarrior squad that just disembarked from the devilfish (they shot the rhino but didn't do anything). Turn after the EC single handily killed the other group of Firewarriors, and after that he had only the Devilfish and 2 hammerhead remaining, one of which was immobilized (can't remember how).
The predator shot the devilfish down, and the EC wrecked the immobilized hammerhead in turn 5. This is where we decided we stopped, since the remaining hammerhead could do nothing anymore.


So, perhaps this post is somehow a bit chaotic, but I didn't write the turns down so no real battlereport can be done. The things I did learn however, is that Tau REALLY suck at CC, which I would not have guessed. A thing that comes in mind here, is that mostly all of the Chaos Marines units my friend is fielding are fearless, so there are no sweeping advances. And sweeping advances were just the thing that kills all the Tau! Since they don't have super high morale, can't kill anything in CC, they will almost be always caught.
Sure I know all you players know this, but this is one thing I really, really wouldn't have thought of! This day was full of lessons, and with allot of new insights on the game. I am already looking forward to all the next battles versus different races, to see how they react and learn even more!

I hate Black armor!

So, as I'm finally doing some painting on the marines, I thought I'd give you guys an update. Not much done yet, most of the highlighting on the armor is finished though. The pic with the 3 marines showing miss some final highlights. I tried to capture the highlighting on the armor, but I guess that's something to see better in the future (due to the lighting). Expect updates soon now, as I'm getting the hang of the 'batch' painting!
But I don't like painting it.. there is only highlighting, but you can't do too much or it will look too gray. Marines with other colors are more fun to paint I think, as you can do more things with the armor (real blending etc), ah well, there is still much left on the model to paint with that in mind!

Restyle and upcoming plans!

As you guys see I've redone the style on the blog, must say I like this template better!
Since my brother hasn't returned yet, I might aswell tell you guys what my plans are for the few weeks.
I contacted Col.Corbane for his new column on the FtW Blog regarding terrain and playing boards. Recently I have finished my board, including some scenery. I will finish the several scenery pieces and I'm planning to do some tutorials on several of them.
Next I'm planning to give some hobby tips. I have a few of my own, and I think this could help several other gamers, even if it is just one gamer that found it useful I'm happy!
And regarding the painting.. I have to finish a LotR model, doing it as a commission piece and this one has priority. Other then that I'm currently working on 7 marines and a Rhino.

Guess these are my plans for the next couple of weeks, if anyone wants some thing clarified just ask!

Finished!

I found some time these days to finally finish the Neophyte. There is quite some time invested in this model, but most due to experiments and finding the new mixes for the Pads for example. I will add some grass/high grass to it, but not until I have finished more marines. Photo's of the WiP marines will come not until next Tuesday, my brother is on a trip and he has the camera with him, so stay tuned!

Frosting...

The Dreadnought base is finished. And just as I thought.. it frosted when I varnished him.
I knew this would happen! The last week I heard of frosting with spray varnish for the first time. I read it somewhere and I was interested in this 'phenomenon', so I wanted to find more info about this. Apperently this can happen on several occasions, but I have never had this myself. I am doing this hobby for about 2 years now, and have used about 2 or 3 GW Satin Seal varnishes. Never did frosting occur. This week I read something about it, and immidiatly it crossed my mind.. 'I bet I will get frosting real soon now'. And here ya go.. the first 'mini' I spray gets frosted. These kinda things always happen to me!

Ah well, tomorrow I will try to find those topics and sites again. See what solutions they have for this.

Neophyte update

So, I've had some time to paint today, and I worked on the Neophyte and the EC. The EC didn't got any real improvement so I don't bother to post an image. The Neophyte is closing to completion, and as I can't update the blog with pics the next couple of days (very busy, no painting time) I figured I gave you guys the Neophyte as he currently is.

Bear with me, the picture isn't taken in daylight, hence the lower quality of light in the pic ;)