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.

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!

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!

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Month 6

Hi all it's Neil here with a new post about my Hive Fleet Lindworm force for our group Xenos on Crusade project.  If this is the first time you've seen one of these posts the basic info is that we've been playing the new 9th edition Crusade narrative rules with a Xeno faction each, with mine being Tyranids, and using the Crusade rules to play games and paint models for our rosters.  This month due to lockdown there hasn't been any gaming possibilities so I lost a lot of enthusiasm for the force but I did paint up a Broodlord for the hive.

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Month 5

Hi all it's Neil here with another post about my Hive Fleet Lindworm crusade project as part of our group Xenos on Crusade project.  A quick recap, this project was to get us all playing 9th edition where we all chose a Xeno faction to take into the new Crusade way to play.  My Tyranids have been growing slowly, starting from a couple of units and now being a 75 power list with quite a few games under its belt.  This month's additions complete the outstanding models for this 75 power crusade roster, a Mawloc and a pair of Zoanthropes to reinforce my existing unit.

Xenos on Crusade: James' Craftworld Eldar - Part 4

It's been a while, huh.

Hobby burnout hit me rather hard last month, and as a result, I made very little progress on my models. Rather than ship out a half-hearted post detailing my hobby failings, I figured I'd wait and get a few more models completed for the Craftworld. 

As I mentioned, September was a real struggle for me in terms of hobby. I started on the Wraithblades with the best of intentions, but very quickly I found myself losing all impetus and decided the best approach was to take a break, reset, and come back when I felt the desire to paint again. It took about a month, but once the hobby drive was there I cracked back on, and now, two months from my last post, what have I managed to get done in that time frame?

For the Greater Good; Part Four - A Xenos Project by Medge

T'au 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 three of the series took a long time to come out; personal issues, lockdown-induced hobby burnout and a losing streak really stealing my enthusiasm for the Tau. 

On the back of some pretty terrible performances I decided to step away from the Crusade format for a bit and take a week to reflect on the Tau; what I enjoyed, what I didn't, and what I wanted to do with the army.

Without having to worry about filling a Crusade roster or painting things up for games my mojo for painting returned, and I started working the my backlog and planning next steps...

For the Greater Good; Part 3. A Xenos Crusade Update by Medge

T'au 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 in the new Crusade format for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition.

It's been a looong time since I last posted anything - part 2 of this series was way back at the beginning of August!

It's been a busy and chaotic few months, with both real life and hobby related issues draining me of a lot of my motivation. I've stumbled through snatching time here and there to paint, trying to keep any hobby going. Fortunately things have turned a bit of a corner - I hit a big milestone with the Tau and am starting to get a little more of my mojo back.

There's been a bit too much going on to wrap it all up into a single blog post, so I'll tackle August-September below and follow up with September-October next time!

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Month 4

Hi all it's Neil the Devourer here with another update on my Tyranids from Hive Fleet Lindworm for our Xenos on Crusade group project.  The hive fleet has expanded again and gained a Tyranid Warrior brood, a Hive Guard brood, a Zoanthrope brood as well as a Neurothrope and Tyranid Prime to lead them.  This means that I can play with some more medium infantry as well as some much needed ranged options in the Hive Guard with their gun and their Wizard Bugs with their brain blasts.

Xenos on Crusade: James' Craftworld Eldar - Part 3

Well, this one's a bit behind schedule, isn't it?

Month 3 of our Xenos Crusade has come and gone, and for me, that meant a sizeable increase to my Craftworlds force (well, relative to how tiny it started). Over the month, I managed to complete another squad of Wraithguard, a Wraithlord to provide some much-needed fire support, and a Farseer to offer some additional psychic support to my Spiritseer.

In addition to the painting, I also managed to get my first games of Warhammer in around 6 months! This was a very welcome thing, as I'd very much been feeling the grip of a hobby burnout as a result of not getting to use my models. A man can only paint for so long before he needs to roll some dice. So then, please read on to have a gander at my recently completed models, as well as some quick write-ups on how my first few games went (small teaser - not very well).

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Month 3

Hi all it's Neil here back with a new update for my Tyranids in our Xenos on Crusade series.  Hive Fleet Lindworm has been expanding with the addition of a Maleceptor and a Toxicrene.  Lindworm has also been pretty active on the socially distanced battlefield since the lockdown rules have eased enough for outdoor gaming to start up.  The Toxicrene and Maleceptor bring me up to having 50 (well 49) power painted and ready.

Xenos on Crusade - Tim's Drukhari Month 2: Emboldened by Bloodshed

Hi all it's Tim here, with the next instalment in my Drukhari crusade.

Progress so far

After the massive burst of energy for the first month and a half, my sadistic space elves have had to retreat back to the shadows as a burst of enthusiasm for painting space marines took over with the launch of New 40k and Indomitus.

However, they are still on track, with the last remaining element of my starting force taking on the mantle of agony (/ base coats of paint) and needing tidy up and working to a proper finish. This month I:

1. painted a few more kabalite warriors with splinter rifles to get 2 properly equipped squads
2. basecoated my Wracks (converted from crypt ghouls with creepy harlequin masks to go with my converted Grotesques, and adding worrying  prosthetics)
3. magnetised my 6 Talos and laid down the base coat on the first one to join my Crusade
4. converted some Sslyth with a covens like flavour from spare parts lying around - these creepy bodyguards have been gifted to Archon Orfeon by his Coven allies, and
5. painted up a fair bit of my Haemonculus, Kaizin; and
6. finished off some pre-Crusade Drukhari painting, in the form of a Razorwing Jetfighter.

Here are the results - I don't have a lightbox for proper background, but I do have a book full of pictures of volcanoes: so that is what my Drukhari will have!

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb IV

Hey everyone, Tom here!

So July is now over and I just managed to fully paint the first 25PL (26PL actually) of my crusade force, just in time with the release of the #New40k rules! Here is the force crammed into my light box like errr well skeletons in a tomb!

Xenos on Crusade: James' Craftworld Eldar - Part 2

Why hello there reader,

Well, last weekend was certainly an eventful one, wasn't it? 

The release of Indomitus and 9th ed Warhammer 40,000 was a big moment for the hobby, and I know both myself and my fellow warlords felt the excitement keenly. However, being the only one out of our group not to buy a copy of Indomitus certainly left me feeling a bit deflated. What can I say, all these new Marines and especially the Necrons had me very tempted to start another new force! 

Fortunately, the Ai'elethra (or the Path for any Mon'Keigh reading) has allowed me to resist temptation and continue on with my Craftworlders. For Month 2 we were tasked with painting up a full 25PL, ready to begin playing our first Crusade games as and when we are free to roll our dice with abandon. Having only managed to paint 11PL last month with my one completed unit of Wraithguard I'd have to get through a chunk of models to make that target. Unfortunately, as I'll go into, life had other plans for my hobby time.

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindwyrm Month 2

Hi all it's Neil here with a look at my second month's progress on our 9th edition 40k group project.  This months aim was to get any outstanding models from the 50 power initial list built and to get at least 25 power painted ready for battle.  For me, I had ended month 1 with 22 power's worth of models painted up already though I was still 17 power down on having built my planned 50 power.  The only model I had left to paint at the beginning of the month was my Tyrannofex so this made its way from the spawning pools to the painting table.

For the Greater Good; Part 2. A Xenos Crusade Update by Medge

T'au'va Reader! 

Welcome back to "For the Greater Good", a Xenos on crusade project update. With 9th Edition now upon us I'm more excited than ever for Warhammer 40k and, despite all the new reinforcements my Blood Angels received, I've still been chipping away with the Tau Empire.

This month our Goal was to bring our Crusade forces up to 25 PL (based on the 8th Edition Power Levels). This meant a quiet month for me, with 20 PL already complete after my Commander and Battlesuits from month one. With the extra time I had available I started thinking about my Crusade narrative, and began fleshing out out the backstory for my Commander, O'Ashi, and his Strike Force.

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb III

Hello everyone, Phaeron Tom here!

It has been a very busy weekend for my hobby with a massive amount of despruing, gluing, priming and starting to paint. As you might have already guessed, it was the Indomitus release weekend! This was a fantastic set, the rulebook looks great, and the build-up and planning for the Crusade has really excited me for the new edition of 40k (I barely played any 7th, and skipped all of 8th).

Xenos on Crusade: Tim's Drukhari month 1 - Eager to Flay

We left off last month with the Kabal of the Shattered Lung gathering their allies and poised to set out on their crusade. This month I'm pleased to report good progress on the Kabal and Wych Cult elements, while the Haemonculus Covens sit tight for now, scheming and exulting at their relative strength following the recently revealed and truly baffling points changes across the faction. Here's the main fruits of this month:

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb II

Greetings everyone!

It is only a few days until Indomitus is with us and I can get my hands a vast legion of undying robots. Whilst waiting for new the Necrons to arrive I've made steady progress working through my existing models, aiming to finish as much as possible before 9th lands and I have many more distractions!

My focus has been primarily on assembling a Ghost Ark that I mentioned in my previous post. I had planned to assemble it as a Doomsday Ark, but I made an early mistake in assembly, committing me to the dedicated transport variant. The kit is really cool and I have long admired the novel design of the vehicle that stands apart from many other 40k tanks.

The other unit I have worked on is 9 bases of Canoptek Scarabs. A little bit of scouring eBay, and a generous donation from the seller of the Ghost/Doomsday Ark sprues, resulted in me sitting on 100 of the (soon to be obsolete) plastic scarab models. Using the current 4 per 40mm base that would be 25 bases of scarabs, many more than I would ever consider running in a game. To mix things up I decided to pile high the little critters and create some truly massive 'swarms' of these miniature robots!

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb I

Awakening the Tomb I

Hey everyone!

So June was the first month of our Xenos Crusade preparations. The aim was to plan a 50 Power Level force of our chosen faction and to begin assembling it with the intention of painting at least one unit before the end of the month.

As I mentioned previously the preview of the Indomitus box and the new Necron models sold me on the faction and sent me scurrying around to Medge's house to pick up Forgebane. Such was my excitement I had assembled and painted virtually all of this starter set before the 10 June post we made announcing the Crusade! So I'm going to show off progress so far and feast upon the life energies of the rest of the Warlords knowing that I am out ahead in painting progress!

That said, June was not a great month for painting and I barely made much more progress, stalling with the Lychguard and getting sidetracked into painting the Lord model I converted. My main excuse was finishing and moving into a new garden office that will be serving dual roles as my lockdown working from home fortress, a hobby space and future gaming hangout. It turns out I have had a lot of models to move and unbox into my new hobby den!