For the Lion: Holding the Line

Hi all it's Neil here with a new post for my For The Lion series showing my latest unit of Intercessors and some pictures from my first game post codex supplement. These Intercessors help build up the core of my Dark Angels force. Intercessors form a good core able to shoot well, fight in melee and control objectives though they're not the best at any being generalists rather than specialists.

For The Lion: Armour Inbound

 Hi all it's Neil here with a new post for my For The Lion series where I'm showing my Gladiator tank to you.  The Gladiator is one of the latest vehicle releases for the space marines and is basically the Predator version of the Impulsor with a turret weapon and two sponsons.  The addition to my Dark Angels give me more anti-tank or anti-infantry options depending on which variant I use.

For the Lion: Interomancy Support

Hi all its Neil here with some more Dark Angels in my For the Lion series.  The latest editions to my Dark Angels force are a pair of Librarians to help interrogate those pesky Fallen once the Deathwing have captured them.  I've gone for a Terminator armour librarian and a Primaris one with Phobos armour giving me two quite different ways to use them on the table.

For the Lion: Shock and Awe

Hi all Neil here with a new For the Lion post about the Storm Speeder I've painted up this month.  Its quite a short post as I haven't done much beyond paint up the model for this project.  I've gone for making the Hammerstrike variant so I can add some more anti-tank firepower to my Ravenwing.  This new addition brings me closer to my planned 2000 point list for gaming again with 8.5 units out of 14 now fully painted.

Deimos the Steel Forge: Part 3

Hi all its Neil here with some more Adeptus Mechanicus models for my Deimos force.  This time I've been painting up my first vehicle, a Skoripus Disintegrator.  This was a very different painting experience for my Ad Mech and a good lesson for me on using contrast on the large flat panels of a vehicle.  I was planning on sharing my idea for a list to aim for at 2000 points but with the new codex coming soon at the time of writing I'll be waiting till after that's released to do this instead.

For the Lion: New Codex Supplement and Painting

Hi all, it's Neil here with a new For the Lion post with some Deathwing reinforcements and following the new Codex Supplement Dark Angels release my ideas for a list to build towards.  This month I painted up a unit of 5 Deathwing Terminators and the Bladeguard Ancient.

Deimos the Steel Forge: Part 2

Hi all, it's Neil here with some more progress on my #NewYearNewArmy Adeptus Mechanicus project.  This month I'd added another 5 Skitarii Vanguard as well as Daedelosus, the techno-archaeologist from Blackstone Fortress Escalation who is supposed to be a great toolbox character (whom I happened to have in my house).  In addition to painting, I have been looking at some of the rules for the <Forgeworld> available from the codex and Engine War as I'll discuss what I've decided fits best with my idea of Deimos.

For the Lion: The Primarch Himself

Hi all it's Neil here with a new For the Lion post about the Primarch himself today.  Over the Christmas break and into the beginning of the new year I cleared my painting schedule to paint up the Primarch Lion El'Johnson model that I picked up back in about September.  I had planned on finishing the model before the end of 2020 to end the year on a painting high but ended up overrunning into the beginning do 2021.  I wanted to give the model the attention to deserved as a big (expensive) centre piece so I tried to improve my painting in a couple of areas over the mini project.  These areas were cloth, especially the highlighting of it, and bare heads.

Necromunda's 766th Precinct: Neil's Palanite Enforcers; Starting Roster

Hi all Neil here with something new.  This is the first post about my Necromunda gang for which I've chosen to go with Palanite Enforcers as they look super cool (and my other choice is already played by another warlord).  To kick these off I picked up the standard box of Enforcers then headed over to Yaktribe with some guidance by Thomas and James (and a bit from Matt too) went about putting together a 1000 credits starting gang.  I have created a 7 man starting roster which seems pretty solid but not actually knowing how to play or even owning the rulebook I'm going on what the others have said.  This lack of rulebook does mean that I haven't done anything with skills but at some point I will probably with some guidance again.

Deimos the Steel Forge: #NewYearNewArmy

Hi all it's Neil here and today I'll share the first unit I've painted up for my #NewYearNewArmy project which will be Adeptus Mechanicus.  The idea is to paint one box before getting the next one so that I don't create a new backlog in addition to those I already have.  My project will be to using a slightly different forge world that I haven't seen around, Forge World Deimos.  

For the Lion: Bladeguard

Hi all it's Neil here with a new For the Lion post about the latest unit I've added to my 40k Dark Angels.  This new unit is the Bladeguard from the Indomitus box.  I've painted these up in my Deathwing colours to match my Deathwing Knights.  The Bladeguard are a new unit of Primaris Veterans armed with master-crafted power swords and storm shields making them a resilient melee unit but are slow to cross the tabletop as they lack the jump packs of Vanguard Veterans or the teleport strike of Deathwing Terminators.

Blood of the Angel; Part 5 - Reinforcements from the Indomitus Crusade

Welcome back to Blood of the Angel - a Warhammer 40,000 hobby project where I share my increasingly large Blood Angels Successor chapter, the Lament of Angels

2020 saw me add a staggering 81 miniatures to my Blood Angels, most of which were from my backlog/ hobby pile of shame! Thanks to the hard work last year I'm in a position to start adding (relatively!) new models to the collection... finally!

2020 was also a phenomenal year for the Blood Angels as a whole - a new Space Marine codex and a new codex supplement adding a plethora of new models to the range, and a new edition of Warhammer and new meta-game propelling the Blood Angels to the forefront of the competitive landscape!

It's a good time to be painting red!

Whilst Lockdown persists in the UK I'm not thinking too hard about the competitive meta, but I am trying to crack my way through some of the newer models - starting with the Indomitus box!

Read on to see the results...

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Finale

Hi all it's Neil here with another update for my Hive Fleet Lindworm for Xenos on Crusade.  This month's update will be the last for the Xenos on Crusade as with 2020 ended our group project has ended too.  I may revisit Lindworm in the future but for now I'll be moving onto other projects.  This month's edition to the swarm has been 8 genestealers, which are the last Tyranid models I had left in my backlog.

Genesis of a Chapter; The Lament of Angels, Part 1 by Medge

Long-time follows of my blog will know the name "Lament of Angels" - the home-brew Successor Chapter I created for my Blood Angels.

The true origins of the Lament of Angels are straight forward - the project started as a 30k army, but was transformed into a 40k project shortly after the start of 8th Edition, and the launch of the Primaris Range. With a small collection of Firstborn painted in Heresy-era colours, and a new Ultima-Founding (aka Primaris Only!) chapter also bearing the same colours I was left with a choice - repaint the army, or create new background.

I opted for the latter.

As a player I've always preferred the freedom of using my own Chapter/ Sept/ Coven/ Chamber/ etc. I like the concept of the existing factions, but I feel a little restricted creating characters that override the existing Characters/ lore. For example... I can't very well create a brand new Blood Angels Primaris Chapter Master can I?! Dante is iconic, and it would be an insult to his character to sweep him under the rug!

These same restrictions don't apply to home-brew sub-factions, and I find it really fulfilling creating Characters and Lore for my own factions.

I recently wrote a post for another home-brew Chapter; the Celestial Serpents. Writing that post was more fun than I expected and it inspired me to revisit the lore for the Lament of Angels, juggling the different models I have along with the existing Blood Angels/ Space Marine lore to create something bespoke, something unique.

So if you're interested in discovering the TRUE history of the Lament of Angels, read on...

Xenos on Crusade: James' Craftworld Eldar - The Finale

And so here we are, at last, the end of 2020. It's been a long and oftentimes sad and melancholic year, but I felt it important to focus on some of the positives that have come out of it all. 

For me, one of those things is my recently completed Craftworld Eldar army. If you've been keeping up with all my posts, you'll know this is an army I've been working on as part of a big group project between all of my fellow writers, the Xenos on Crusade. When we started off, my ultimate goal was simply to have a painted Eldar collection; the project was something to give me the impetus to finally start collecting an army I'd always loved. 

So with this final post, I'll be going over the final set of models I painted in November and December and giving my final thoughts on the army and where I'll be looking to take it in the future. The picture below is a spoiler for everything I've painted, so no more delaying,  let's get into it!

Oathed by Blood; Part 1 - A Short Story by Medge

Hey All - Medge here. Welcome to Oathed by Blood - a short narrative series written for my custom Tempestus Scions Regiment - the Bloodoathed. 

This project started off as a little thing - a small piece of narrative to set-up the creation of my Astra Militarum project. Unfortunately I forgot how much I enjoy writing, and within and hour or two I'd expanded a short idea into into 2500 words of narrative. Rather than cut it down I thought I'd create a whole new blog series for the short story, fleshing it out as I go over the coming weeks.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and if you want to see more narrative like this let me know in the comments below!

Medge

The Imperium's Finest; An Astra Militarum project, by Medge

Hi All, Medge here with yet another new project!

We can all agree - 2020 has been a pretty bonkers year for hobby. Instead of sitting at home and just sulking about not getting games in (which, in fairness, I've been doing a lot... just not on the blog 😄) I've been using my hobby time to catch up with some Backlog projects.

Regular readers will know about my Blood Angels and Tau projects, two major successes of the year, but today on wanted to show off one of my smaller projects.

It's no secret that I'm more of a collector than I am painter or gamer. It's also no secret that I want to amass a HUGE collection. In a past, more heretical, life it was my ambition to assemble a Chaos horde that would shame Abaddon!
After breaking free of the corrupting touch of Chaos I turned back to the Imperium of Man, and under the Emperors benevolent gaze I've been steadily mustering a Imperial force. Between my Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus I'm sitting on 10-11k points of painted models right now; a planet-concurring force by anyone's standards!

Last year I picked myself up a small second hand Astra Militarum force to add to the existing Imperial horde - a little collecting/ painting project I planned to use in Kill Team, maybe building up into something bigger. With Lockdown offering a little more free time (and disincentivising painting pieces to game with) I've had the freedom to pick up this little side project.

Rather than presenting the force piecemeal in the blog I've completed the full force (24PL, ~500points), which is presented below.
I also thought It'd be a bit different to present this force with some of the narrative I've written for them; a short story regarding their creation and remit with the 41st Millennium. Unfortunately the short story blossomed into something far bigger than I first thought! So instead of presenting it below, I'll capture it in a series of smaller posts running into 2021 - you can read the first one here!

With that said and done, allow me to introduce the 1st Bloodoathed Tempestus Scions 

For the Greater Good, Part Five - the Second Sphere Expansion

Tau'va fellow hobbyists, and welcome back to "For the Greater Good" - a hobby blog  following my journey as I collect and learn the Tau Empire for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition. 

Part Five will be the final installment of 2020; a close out post for the final pieces I've painted for the Tau this year.

Needless to say... it's been a bad year for the Greater Good. The metagame for 9th Edition really doesn't favour the Tau play style, and the consensus on the internet is that the Tau are in one of the worst positions (competitively) they have been for a while. 

Couple that to the ongoing COVID situation, which has really slashed gaming time (particularly in the UK), and it would be easy to finish the year on a downer.

I, however, am determined to NOT LET THE VIRUS GET ME DOWN THIS CHRISTMAS!! and will be looking to celebrate at least some elements of my progress on Tau in this post!

Read on to see how I've got on!

Bash the Backlog; Lockdown Edition - by Medge

Welcome back to Bash the Backlog, a mini-series in which I try to correct that most egregious of hobby sins; the huge pile of unpainted plastic!

It's been over six months since my last #BashtheBacklog entry (see Sigmar's Storm for that one!), with most of my backlog work coming as part of Blood of the Angel and For the Greater Good series. I have, however, worked on a few other projects in between these major series; palette-cleanser models between projects or odds-and-ends that either needed tying off, or were supposed to trigger a bigger project that never took off.

As one of my final posts of the year I wanted to capture these one-off projects in a single post so they don't become forgotten, and can act as a little inspiration for what I hope will be a brighter 2021!

So let's jump into it!

For the Lion: REPENT!

Hi all it's Neil here with another Dark Angel's post in my For the Lion series.  This is about my Interrogator Chaplain in Terminator armour, which is using the Commemorative Series Terminator Chaplain Tarentus model that got a limited release earlier this year.   Interrogator Chaplains are a Dark Angel unique HQ who basically a Chaplain with extra morale harming abilities in the game.  In the lore, these are the Chaplain's who have proven themselves and been inducted into the Inner Circle.  They are responsible for extracting confessions from the Fallen who are captured to redeem the Dark Angel's secret sin from the Heresy.