11 August 2019

Fun and Fluff: Part 2. The Knights of Titan rise

Welcome back to the Fun and Fluff series; a short blog series dedicated to my preparation for the London Wargaming Guilds Fun and Fluff Tournament in October. 

Last post I talked about my army choices and put together a potential army list (along with a brief description of how I intended the army to play). It's been a month since that post... how have I gotten on?

Army List

Last post I shared my proposed Army list. For those that need a catch up, it was a full Terminator list (plus one Nemesis Dreadknight) designed to deep strike hard on turn one (representing a classic Grey Knights decapitation strike)

Unfortunately my plans were undone almost as soon as I'd shared the post when I realised that, despite some house rules relaxing the Tactical Reserves rules, I couldn't start the game with 100% of my army off the board.

I briefly considered running the list anyway, but found it all but impossible to split the army in to two equal and effective halves (points and model number).

So instead I've re-jigged the list into the following incarnation:

Grand Master Voldus
Grey Knight Chaplain

5-man Strike Squad in a Rhino
5-man Terminator Squad
5-man Terminator Squad

Apothecary
5-man Purifier Squad in a Rhino

5-man Interceptor Squad

Nemesis Dreadknight

The new narrative for the force being a outrider force lead by Voldus (the Strike Squad, Purifier, Dreadknight and Interceptor) take to the field and provide the "bait", luring the enemy Warlord out of position, whilst the Chaplain and Terminators (with Apothecary) wait in the teleportarium to provide the Decapitation Strike.

The force should still be pretty nimble thanks to the Rhinos, Jump/ Teleportation packs of the Interceptors, and Gate of Infinity psychic powers. It actually feels a bit less cheesy than the Terminator list too - a bit more "bits of everything" which should fit the theme of the event more.

Progress in Month 1

With only 3 and a bit months to complete the army I needed to get the lead out with my painting, and a horrendously well-detailed army like the Grey Knights didn't exactly enable speed painting. Couple that with some burnout and general busy work/ life schedule (and, I'm not gonna lie... Necromunda and Warcry excitements!) and the GKs didn't progress as well as they probably should have this month.

That being said my brush was far from idle, and I've managed to power though 10 Terminators and a Terminator Apothecary.





The two squads of Terminators, pictured above, were picked up second hand and so I had no real control over the weapon options. For the fun and fluff I think it works best as an eclectic combination of wargear though, since I don't want it to be overly rules optimised. A nice combination of Nemesis weapons certainly reflects the individual nature of the the Knights of Titan! I'm just happy both the squad leaders, the Paladins, have Nemesis Daemon Hammers! Nothings more intimidating than that!!




The Apothecary was an old models I had lying around from last year (so yes... he will feature on me #BashtheBacklog series soon!)

Not only was it great to finally get him done, but the Narthecium gauntlet he wears gave me the opportunity to try out some contrast paints too!



Rather fittingly, I used Apothecary White to apply some recess shading to the gauntlet. I usually end up using something like thinned down Nuln Oil for shading white, and whilst it works fine it does give the model a really high contrast black/ white feel (better suited to cell-shaded cartoons and games than models). The contrast paint (painted over an Ulthuan Grey undercoat) provided a far more subtle grey shade which I massively prefer. Apothecary White will be a permanent resident on my painting table from now on!

How am I feeling about the project?

The Grey Knights are brilliant and exhausting to paint - every model is so characterful and has so much detail it's really difficult to not paint them all to a good standard. And the result, of course, is that they take an age and really drain you.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how they're turning out, especially for a project that's predominantly second hand models. I definitely think they're helping me push my painting skills particularly because I feel the models deserve those extra edge highlights, being so full of detail. Hopefully the weather improves and I can take some better lit photos to really show them off.

In terms of gaming I've not taken them out for a spin yet. I'm in the midst of a Necromunda campaign at the moment, and I still need to pick up one more Rhino before I can use this list. With so many house-rules to consider at the event I'm going to be really relying on James and Tim for practice games. 

Fortunately it's a pretty good time to play GK's right now with the unexpected, but welcome, buffs the factions are getting thanks to the new Space Marines codex. Yeah alright... it's not as good as the buffs the Marines are getting, but it's better than being totally overlooked!!


Whats Next?

With 11 models down I'm roughly one-third of the way to completing the list. This month I'm turning my attention to the remaining Infantry I need to complete the force; the Purifiers, Strike Squad and Interceptors. If I can nail those 15 in the next 4 weeks that'll give me about 6 weeks for two Rhinos, the Dreadknight and a Chaplain, which should be pretty doable.

The eagle eye'd will notice Voldus isn't included on that list, and that's because he's almost finished already (base is drying as I type this!)



He still needs a little bit of highlighting and his bolter completing, but I suspect he'll be done within a few days.

And with that my update is complete. Hopefully this time next month Voldus will be done and have 15 new Knights to lead against the Daemonic hordes of Imperium Nihilus.

If you want to follow closer updates then visit my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmedge/?hl=en

Good luck with all your hobby endeavors out there!
Until next time!



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