Tau XV25 Stealth Battlesuits

I recently finished painting up some Tau XV25 Stealth Battlesuits for use in One Page Rules (Grimdark Future: Firefight) and Warhammer 40,000: Fireteam.   

I wanted to build a squad of transparent troops to reflect the cloaking technology of the Tau.  I painted the other miniatures (markerlight drone and the a homing beacon) in a mottled pink camouflage pattern (using a small piece of sea sponge) to match the surrounding landscape, complete with pink flower tufts from Shadow's Edge Miniatures.

Blackstone Fortress Spindle Drones

A few months ago I finished painting up eight Spindle Drones, found in Games Workshop's Blackstone Fortress game.  These metallic-organic arachnids help defend Blackstone Fortress from intruders.  I primed these robotic war machines in metallic silver, then washed them with a purple Army Painter wash.  I finished up their bases simply, with some crackle media and flock.

I may have a few uses for them - they could be used for 15mm "tri-pod" aliens (a la War of the Worlds) in a superhero game, for One Page Rules: Grimdark Firefight as proxies for Snipers (Rebel Guerrillas faction), or for an additional small unit add-on in a game of Warhammer 40,000. 

"Painting" 40K Plague Marines with Sharpie Pens

One of my more recent attempts at painting with Sharpie pens was some Plague Marines to help support the Nurgle Poxwalkers that I completed some time ago.  After priming them green, (with a zenithal overprime of a lighter green primer), I used Sharpies to paint them.  The metallic colors were used for all metal areas on the models and this effect was the most successful.  I dipped them using Royal Walnut Satin Mixwax Polyshade.  To match the Poxwalkers, I used normal acrylics to paint the the bases and added the same flocked foliage.

This approach saved some time over painting them with acrylics, but they turned out pretty messy.  But once again, because the models are Nurgle this method definitely works better than it would have on other types of models.  They match the Poxwalkers pretty well, and together they make a great Havoc Brothers (Disciples of Plague) skirmish force for Grimdark Future: Firefight.

"Painting" More 40K Chaos Space Marines (Black Legion) with Sharpie Pens

I recently "painted" additional models to add to my small contingent of Black Legion models that were speed painted using Sharpie pens and a limited number of acrylic paints.  This time I added a few Chaos Cultists and two Possessed models.

The Chaos Cultists were primed using a Desert Yellow Army Painter spray primer.  I then used a variety of Sharpie pens to add different earth shades to each model.  Metallic Sharpies were used to highlight the metal areas.

For the Possessed, I used metallic Sharpies to highlight many of the areas on each model after first priming them black, (with a zenithal overprime of dark grey).  The purple areas were then Sharpied over using a reddish pink pen.

I dipped all the models using Tudor Mixwax Polyshade.  I used regular acrylics to paint the bases and added some flocked foliage to complete the models.

I think the models turned out fine for the time spent, and they complement the Black Legion Space Marines well.  However, these models also showed me the limits of the Sharpie painting approach as I found the paint job to just barely achieve what I consider tabletop quality.  Still, sometimes getting painted models to the table is more important than a quality paint job.  I plan to use all the model for a One Page Rules Kill Team, and for that purpose, I believe they will serve me well on the battlefield!

Grimdark Future: Firefight - Ambush at the Farming Colony

We played another game of One Page Rules - Grimdark Future: Firefight over the holidays.  We are really enjoying these quick and cinematic games (that we place in the Warhammer 40K universe), and hope to play some more over the course of the year.

A small fire team of Ultramarines has been dispatched to investigate reported rebellious activity at a small colony on a remote farming world.  The colony's administrator has sent a contingent of snipers to ambush the team of Space Marines at the local landing port, foolishly thinking this may discourage future Imperial meddling.  The landing ship takes off, and soon after, the snipers open fire....

250 Points - Ultramarines (Battle Brothers):

• 5 x Battle Brothers: 3+ Quality, 2+ Defense, Assault Rifle (24”, A1), CCW (A1), Fearless.  One was upgraded with a Flamethrower (Flamer), and one with a Missle Launcher....

250 Points - Local Militia (Human Defense Force):

• 10 x Snipers: 6+ Quality, 6+ Defense, Sniper Rifle (36”, A1, AP(1), Sniper), CCW (A1), Scout, Stealth

It was quality vs. quantity, and quantity won this time.  Vastly outnumbered, the Space Marines intended to concentrate fire on the left flank, hopefully reducing the numbers of snipers in early rounds to even the odds before the other snipers could take part in the battle.

Unfortunately, due to the range of the sniper rifles, a massive barrage of early sniper shots took out some Space Marines.  There wasn't much hope for the Space Marines at that point, even after one of them made it into close combat with a small grouping of snipers.  The large number of objectives meant it was impossible to keep the snipers from overwhelming and securing the small landing pad.

The colony's administrator smiled when informed of the devastating defeat inflicted upon the Ultramarines.  As he clutched his triple-circle medallion, under his breath he whispered "I shall help spread his virulent gifts across the false Imperium, and watch its final rotting...".

"Painting" 40K Eldar with Sharpie Pens

I tried to speed paint some Eldar Guardians a few months back, using just a quick purple wash and metallic Sharpie for the Shuriken Rifles. This was before the release of the new Contrast Paints, but I think they turned out well despite not spending much time painting them....

"Painting" 40K Poxwalkers with Sharpie Pens

As we have been playing Warhammer 40,000: Killteam, I have been attempting to speed paint a number of small forces to try out with the game.  Before this latest attempt, I painted a squad of three Chaos Marines with some Sharpies a little while ago.

One of my most recent attempts has been to paint some Poxwalkers, using Army Painter color primer and Sharpie pens.  After priming them green, (with a zenithal overprime of a lighter green primer), I used Sharpies before dipping them using Royal Walnut Satin Mixwax Polyshade.  I used normal acrylics to paint the the bases and added some flocked foliage to complete the models.  I used a silver Sharpie for the eyes which turned out looking great.

In all, they turned out alright, and the approach did save some time over painting them with acrylics.  Because the model are Nurgle, the dipping method definitely worked better than it would have on other types of models, where a more clean look is appropriate.

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team - Session Report

Over the recent break we had a chance to play a small, three-player, fifty-point game of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team.  There was a Nurgle force, a Chaos Space Marine force, and I played a Necron force.  The Nurgle force was comprised of all Nurgle Marines, the Chaos Space Marines included three Chaos Marines and two cultists (one with a Heavy Stubber who stayed back all game), and the Necrons included just three Immortals.

The game featured a high-elevation objective, which awarded ten points per turn that it was held unchallenged. 

There were a number of avenues to approach the objective, and Nurgle made a mad dash to the objective, while the Necrons and Chaos Marines tried to shoot them from afar (with little effect).

By mid-game, every force had all assembled near the center objective, and the game turned into a massive, multi-team melee.

In the end, the massive melee turned into a boring roll-fest.  The three forces were so strong on defense and so weak on offense that the rolling went on several turns without one casualty.

The Nurgle force eventually dominated close combat (thanks to their extreme durability and plague weapons) and won the game by defeating a few Chaos Marines, thereby reaching fifty points to achieve victory.

Although a fun learning game, we decided that next game we would likely change the objective placement and win conditions.  We also decided that each team would have benefited from bringing a few more special and heavy weapons into the battle.

We look forward to future battles using our Kill Team forces!

Games Workshop Announces "Blackstone Fortress" - 40K Warhammer Quest!

Games Workshop recently announced Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress - a 40K version of Warhammer Quest. The game will come with eight different explorers for players to choose from, including a robot, a Kroot warrior, a Ratling, and an Eldar warrior, (the others appear to be additional members of the Imperium).

Each session of Blackstone Fortress will take two to three hours, and it is played on a hex-based board instead of the squares familiar to the original Warhammer Quest. It will also include D8s, D12s, and D20s in addition to the ubiquitous D6.

I've wanted a 40K version of Warhammer Quest since the mid-1990s (even failing miserably at creating my own version many years ago), so I'm very excited to find out more about the release....

"Painting" 40K Chaos Space Marines (Black Legion) with Sharpie Pens

Three 40K Black Legion models have been my latest experiment in speed painting miniatures using Sharpie pens and a limited number of acrylic paints.  After painting some Space Marines (Ultramarines) with this method, I decided I would try again with some Chaos Space Marines.  The Black Legion worked great with this method as their colors are black and metallic colors.

After priming them black, (with a zenithal overprime of dark grey), I used metallic Sharpies to hit their boltguns and armor.  Then I dipped them using Tudor Mixwax Polyshade.  I used normal acrylics to paint the eyes and the bases, and added some flocked foliage to complete the models.

I think the models turned out well for the level of effort involved, and I may be able to use them in smaller skirmish games, like Kill Team, in the future.

Games Workshop Announces "Kill Team"

Today Games Workshop officially announced Kill Team, a skirmish game similar to the recent Shadow War: Armageddon and past iterations of Kill Team.  This new Kill Team game is for two to four players and plays on a tight 22" by 30" board.

Each player leads a squad of warriors, consisting of about five to ten individuals.  The Kill Team box set will contain two factions - a Genestealer Cult and Skitarii (the military forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus).  Games Workshop also announced that additional, smaller Starter Sets for specific factions will be released, as well as new "Killzones" terrain set expansions.  It appears that Games Workshop is taking the Shadespire expansion approach to Kill Team and it will have a number of future releases and support.

There was mention of the Rogue Trader book in today's Kill Team Q&A.  It appears now that Kill Team: Rogue Trader will be a supplement to Kill Team that introduces Rogue Traders into the game, along with some RPG-type elements.

New Games Workshop "Rogue Trader" Pictures

Some leaked pictures have appeared for the Rogue Trader rulebook cover.  This helps expand upon the Rogue Trader teaser video that Games Workshop released back in May.

Kill Team was originally designed as an asymmetrical game where one player took on the role of the Kill Team and the other controlled a much larger group of weaker enemies.  The Kill Team player would move and achieve an objective while attempting to not alert a sentry or trigger an alarm. 

Later, Games Workshop used Kill Team for the "skirmish" rules for 40K.  Without specifics, it's difficult to know what this version will be closer to.  It may be entirely different from all prior uses of the Kill Team name.

However, the upcoming Rogue Trader box set will likely contain the Nurgle and Rogue Trader models from the May video.  Along with that, perhaps the Kill Team: Rogue Trader supplement.

Games Workshop Announces "Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons"

Games Workshop announced an introductory game called Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons at the New York Toy Fair over the weekend.  Like the Battle for Vedros set, this game is targeted more toward new-comers to the hobby.

The Space Marines miniatures are from the Japanese Hero Figurine sets, and they include some of the more common Space Marine chapters - Ultramarines (blue), Space Wolves (grey), Salamanders (green), Blood Angels (red), and Imperial Fists (yellow).

The Necron figures are cardboard and the game looks to be fairly simple.  However, based on a close examination of the picture, one can make out "Do Not Open" on three packs of cards.  Might this indicate a more complicated campaign approach, or even a legacy-style game mechanic?

Space Marine Adventures allows 1-4 players to join forces and attempt to break into a Necron labyrinth. Choose your hero and use each character’s unique skills to battle various deadly hazards, not least of which are the Necron guardians themselves. The easy-build nature of the kits and intuitive game make it suitable for players aged 8 and over – good for anything from family games nights to a quick adventure for a regular gaming club. While this set is a great introduction to the 41st Millennium, each Space Marine in the set is also a unique and dynamic sculpt, making them great additions to an existing collection, too.

"Painting" 40K Space Marines with Sharpie Pens - Completed Land Speeder

A few weeks ago I started to assemble and paint a Build+Paint Land Speeder for the small Sharpie-painted Ultramarines force.

Over the weekend I completed the Land Speeder, and I think it turned out well for the time and effort spent.  The last few steps were to dip the model, apply the decals, glue in the drive and gunner, re-apply dipping media over the decals.  I finally applied a matte spray to tone down the reflection of the dipping media to complete the model.

There are a few touch-ups needed to be made with a fine Sharpie pen, (in areas where I still see some blue where it shouldn't be). As a proof of concept, it was a success.  The metallic Sharpie pens worked great and saved a ton of time painting those colors.

I probably won't paint any miniatures solely with Sharpie pens alone going forward, but for models with some metallic colors, I'll be sure to pull out the Sharpies - at least for easy to mark areas.

"Painting" 40K Space Marines with Sharpie Pens - Build+Paint Land Speeder

After I painted a small contingent of Space Marines with Sharpies, I decided to pickup a Build+Paint Land Speeder to attempt the same quick, basic paint job.

Below is the work in progress, showing the model primed and then after less than an hour of work with the Sharpies.  I decided to give the Land Speeder some battle damage to match the scars on the Dreadnought.  This was achieved by outlining silver splotches with black ink.

I'm hoping to paint the flesh color on the Space Marine's face this weekend, then dip the model soon afterwards.  As usual before dipping, it looks like garbage at this stage.  However, dipping should tone down the stark contrast that the pens achieve, give the colors some depth, and create a better overall effect.  I'm still curious to see how the finished model will look without a terrain base like the rest of the Space Marines.

The Best Dice Roll Of My Entire Gaming Lifetime

Strom and I played another game of 40K 8th Edition a few weekends back.  This time, it was the Grey Knights versus my new Death Guard from the Dark Imperium starter set.  We are still learning the rules, but the game was fun and played fast.  It was pretty close at the end, but the Grey Knights were victorious and had a few models remaining on the table while all my Death Guard forces were destroyed.

In the game I rolled the best dice roll of my entire gaming lifetime.  When rolling saves for my Poxwalkers, I rolled 8D6 and came up with 7 sixes and 1 four, which saved 7 Poxwalkers from extinction.

Looking at it another way, that roll is a sum of 46 on 8D6.  I ran the calculations - that sum or better on 8D6 is only 45 chances out of 1,679,616 rolls.  That simplifies to a 1 out of 37,324.8 chance....  Quite impressive indeed.

Warhammer 40K - 8th Edition Battle Report: Ultramarines vs. Hive Fleet Kraken

Strom and I recently tried out our first game of Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition.  It had been a while since we last played, but with our large selection of fully painted armies we decided that the classic matchup of the Ultramarines and Hive Fleet Kraken would be a great introduction to the new rules.

We decided on using the new Power Levels and decided on Power 40 for the size of the battle.  Strom took a good mix for a classic Ultramarine force - a Tactical Squad, a Dreadnought, Terminators, and a Landspeeder.  I selected a force focused on a Tervigon with lots of Gaunts, along with some Tyranid Warriors and a Carnifex.

I brought over my winter table for the battle.  We setup the terrain and decided that a 3x3 battle area would work well for us to test out the rules and based on the size of our forces.

Our first 8th Edition battle was fast, easy to play, and fun.  Unfortunately, the Tyranids did not fare so well, with only a few Tactical Space Marines being defeated.  My Tyranid Warriors and Carnifex did the worst, getting fully wiped out in hand-to-hard without even causing more a single wound on the Terminators.  In the end, my remaining model, the Tervigon, did manage to destroy the Dreadnought with its Smite power, just prior to losing its last wound.

The new rules use Datasheets, which make for a quick and easy reference for a unit's stats, weapons, and abilities.  The fixed "to hit" rolls speed up the game, without losing much from gameplay.

In all, the game was fun and stream-lined compared to older versions of Warhammer 40,000.  We're excited to try out more games using our different painted armies.

"Painting" 40K Space Marines with Sharpie Pens - Ultramarines from Battle for Vedros

Based on a short Youtube video from Lukes Affordable Painting Service (APS), I was curious to see how quickly I could "paint up" Ultramarines from the Battle for Vedros Starter Set using only Sharpies.

I first primed the Space Marines with The Army Painter's Ultramarine Blue.  I then proceeded to "paint" the miniatures via Sharpie pens, afterwards dipping the models.  Unfortunately, the dipping media did dissolve some of the pen marks, so I had to reapply after dipping.  The colors white and red were a pain.  For red, I first had to color the spot white, then add the red afterwards.  I also had to use flesh paint for the faces (Sharpie doesn't make a flesh-color pen).

To see how cheap I could paint them, I decided to try out a cheap acrylic paint for the base.  I now know why good acrylic paints are so important.  Even after more than five coats I could still see some of the original color underneath.

The crackle paint I used did not work very well for the bases, and the only noticeable crackle effect was on the Dreadnought's wide base. 

I have never been good with decals, and the Ultramarine ones were the worst.  The bunched up and generally look poor, especially with the frost effect that decals can sometimes get.

Ultramarines were a good candidate for this method due to their blue color scheme and gold trim.  I found coloring the cape white, then coloring it red was a waste of 25 minutes.  I think the Dreadnought turned out the best of all the models.

I just purchased a Build+Paint Landspeeder that I will quickly paint using the same method.  I'm curious to see how quickly I can complete it using the lessons learned from these models.