Dreadtober 2022 Week 4

 Almost There…

Another WIP photo of this year's dread.  Body details are finished, now I just need to paint the arms.

Imperial Entanglements Part II

 And Now The Thrilling Conclusion ...

WM: Imperial Guard – Turn 3: The majority of the army continued their advance towards the Dark Angels deployment zone or shuffled around to create better fire lanes.  The infantry squad in the center of the table, whipped to a fervor by the exhalation of their commissar and accompanying priest, charged the scout squad in the middle of the table!  The Legion of the Damned troopers opened fire on the remaining members of the Devastator combat squad, opening the flankfor a final drive.  Once again the Terminators outside of combat weathered the fire of almost the entire Guard 

army.  Almost.  The missile launcher team, detached from the squad charging up the center, opened fire and struck the assault cannon armed terminator, which promptly failed its save!  I’m not sure two turns of firing was worth a single Terminator but it sure felt good when one finally died!  The Librarian must have been struggling to control the warp in the close combat phase as he failed to kill any of the mortar crew members he was fighting.  The Priest's zeal was a little misplaced as he was cut down by a Scout in close combat, buta pistol shot through the eye brought down a scout!  The Deathwing were also having a hard time making their superior skills pay off and only killed a single Infantryman in close combat.  

Follow along after the jump to read the rest of the battle report

Imperial Entanglements Part I

40K 2nd Edition Battle Report!!!!

Next on the list of projects: a bed sheet sized matte painiting to hangup behind the table on game days for better looking game photos.

The Wachtmeister and I had a chance recently to play a game with all the forces we had painted for the first two rounds of the 40K2ndAC.  We both wrote up a report on the battle, with the Wachtmeisters report being slightly more chronological and mine is a little more after game analysis.  I will switch back and forth with our relevant paragraphs and intersperse with a few photos taken mid game.  The Wachtmeister is a much better photographer than me so be sure to click on his name and check out the report on his blog for a lot of great pictures.  

Follow along after the jump for the first half of the action, then tune in later this week for the thrilling conclusion...

WH40K 2nd Edition Battle Report Incoming!

Forces Preview 

An opportunity recently arose to play an amazing  2,400 point game of 2nd edition WH40K and it was fantastic.  My opponent and I both wrote up our takes on the battle plus we took plenty of photos so an expansive battle report is inbound.  In order to ensure the whole report does not turn out to be TL,DNR I am splittling it up into several parts to make it more managable to read.  The glorious attention grabbing photo of my army above is to lure you into today's post about the army lists involved.  Our opposing forces were made up of all the models The Wachtmeister and I painted for the first two seasons of the 40K2ndAC.  It was awesome to play a game with fully painted models and scenery all with a 2nd edition flair, it felt straight out of the battle reports of old that I encountered when first reading White Dwarf in the early 90s.  Click on the name of the unit to find out mopre details about them from their original appearance on this blog. 

Army list Dark Angels 4th Company — 2,390 points total with 50% points cost increase for teleporting terminators - Floyd Lawton

Company Master Zakeal Korlael 133 points

Bolt Pistol, Power Sword, Conversion Field, Member of the Deathwing

Techmarine Hephaestus 48 points

Servo Arm, Plasma Pistol

Terminator Librarian Azathor - 207 points

Storm Bolter, Force Axe, Member of the Deathwing

Tactical Squad Zanthor 362 points

Veteran Sergeant Zanthor with Chain sword and Bolt pistol, 7 marines with bolters,

Marine with Meltagun, Marine with Missile Launcher plus Frag and Krak missiles

Tactical Squad Astelan - 362 points

Veteran Sergeant Astelan with Chains word and Bolt pistol, 7 marines with Bolters,

Marine with Plasma gun, Marine with Missile Launcher plus Frag and Krak missiles

Devastator Squad Scalprum - 485 points

Veteran Sergeant with Power Axe and Combi-weapon: Bolter and Meltagun, 5 marines with Bolters,

Multi-Melta, Lascannon, Missile Launcher with Frag and Krak missiles, Heavy Bolter

Deathwing Terminator Squad Cadmus - 387 points

Sergeant Cadmus with Power Sword and Storm Bolter, 3 Terminators with Power Fist and Storm Bolter,

Terminator with Assault Cannon and Chain Fist

 

Scout Squad Rhellion - 109 points

Veteran Sergeant Rhellion with Chains word, Bolt Pistol, 4 Scouts Bolt Pistol and Combat Knife 

 

Catachans Imperial Guard Army – 2, 376 points – The Wachtmeister

 

Command HQ w/Colonel w/Power fist, bolter, comm-link operator, Plasma Gun, Grenade Launcher 159 points

 

Commissar w/ Axe, hand flamer 47 points

Infantry Squad – Sergeant w/chain sword, bolt pistol, Heavy Bolter Team, melta-gun 120 points

Infantry Squad – Sergeant w/chain sword, bolt pistol, Heavy Bolter Team, melta-gun 120 points

Mortar Squad 120 points

Stumper Muskstart 45 points

Basilisk 175 points

Leman Russ w/ Heavy Bolter sponsons 205 points

Command Squad w/ Lieutenant w/bolter, Vortex Grenade, comm-link operator, 2 plasma guns 152 points

Infantry Squad – Sergeant w/ laspistol, power sword, Missile Launcher team, melta-gun 140 points

Lascannon Squad 150 points

Demolisher w/auto-launchers, dozer blade, plasma sponsons, storm bolter 275 points

Hellhound 165 points

Ratling Squad 80 points

Legion of the Damned Squad w/ Sergeant w/bolt pistol, chain sword, Heavy Bolter, Flamer 413 points

Priest 10 points

That wraps up the introduction of both army lists, tnue in this week to get a battle report in a few parts.  Be sure to check out the blog that started all this madness, Dr The Viking's C0wabunga

Imperial Misunderstandings...

Or Camo And Feathered Wings Clash At The Cooling Towers

"Master Korlael, the Catachan unit that witnessed the ravings of the Fallen we ran to ground this morning are deployed on the other side of this subterranean manufactorum's cooling vents.  Squads Zanthor and Scalprum are moving into position to ensure that whatever the guard may have heard will not leave this world." 

The long awaited meeting between my Dark Angels and the picture perfect Catachans of the Wachtmeister's 40K2ndAC army finally occurred and it was great fun.  It was my first game with the 2nd edition ruleset since I was a teen.  The combination of nostalgia for the old days and the satisfaction of fielding the colorful 2nd edition army I've been working on for the last year was an awesome feeling.  Unfortunately that feeling didn't translate into onboard success since the Catachans defeated my Dark Angels 12VP to 5 VP.  However since I play more for the love of the game rather than competitiveness, getting our asses handed to us by a bunch of baseline humans was only a small speed bump in the road to pure happiness that this classic game generated.  The Wachtmeister took notes during the game so I will leave the detailed battle report to him.  Follow along after the jump for some awesome pictures of the action and a version of the events that fits with the perceptions of my members of the 1st Legion...

9th Squad, 4th Company

Devastator Squad Scalprum

Veteran battle brother Daskhorael has the honor of carrying one of the squad's two banners, while brother Malachai wields the Lascannon and brother Azathor hefts the ponderous Multi-Melta.

These 2nd edition beauties were completed for the first round of the 40K2ndAC back in November and December and are here to get the official finished unit post presentation.  In addition to wanting to feature them as a unit, I also had some details to finish up.  With the busy-ness of the holidays, I was pressed for painting time and I cheated by not painting the backs of the backs packs since I only submit one photo from the front for the challenge summary post each month.  Along with cleaning up any undone details, I added some transfers to various parts of the weapons that had broad flat open areas.  Follow along after the jump for pictures with all the angles and some more talking about the minis...

The wisdom of veteran sergeant Scalprum helps guide the powerful fire of the squad, ensuring that brothers Soriel and Astrovel find plentiful targets for their Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter.

The Herohammer Strikes!

 Remembering When...

White Dwarf #128 Back Cover Diorama

After several months of hard work, the first issue of Herohammer magazine, the unofficial fanzine of early 90's White Dwarf has been released and it's amazing!  Be sure to check out the link below where you can read or download the issue.  It is packed with more than 90 pages of content that includes Battle Reports, 'Eavy Metal, and even a spotlight article about the 40K2ndAC.  This fantastic product is the labor of love from a great group of amateur contributors (that includes the mysterious Dr The Viking) and is well worth the read if your White Dwarf sweet spot is between issues #100 - #200.  

Click Here For Issue #1 of Herohammer

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge January - Final Month

 4th Company Master and Techmarine

Continuing to milk my completion of the 2nd edition army challenge for content, these two awesome characters were my contribution for the last month of the 2nd Ed Challenge.  Besides being the character portion of the 1,000 points I painted for the challenge, these also rank as only the second and third character models I have painted for my Dark Angels army.  I have written about my intimidation towards painting character models in the past, so the completion of these two increases my fully painted HQ choices by 200%.  It was extremely satisfying to finish these models after owning them since 1999, but they did take me 30 days to get every detail the way I wanted it, so my prior anxiety about painting character models was not completely unfounded.  However looking at the finished products gives me no end of joy, and that's the whole purpose of this hobby for me, so mission accomplished.  I will post more detailed pictures and words about how I painted them in the future but for now I will just bask in the glow of project finished for one more day.  Thanks for reading and stay safe out there!

WH40K Second Edition Army Challenge Complete!

 The Lion’s Blade...

There were so few bodies for 1,000 points in the space marine armies of old...

Wow, It is hard to believe the six months of the 2nd edition army challenge are over.  Participating in the challenge has been the best experience I've had so far since I started this blog to be part of the wider hobby community.  There was a great feeling of camaraderie among the participants, probably partially thanks to the niche interest that is loving 2nd edition minis and the infamous "red period" of the GW studio's painting and marketing departments.  Much encouragement and joking went on via a group chat thread that continued from before the challenge started right up to the end.  It was a great way to refine ideas for the challenge through discussion and find inspiration to stick with one project over six months.  Thanks to this challenge I attempted many new techniques I hadn't tried before and really enjoyed being able to experiment with things like wet blending and freehand designs.  Plus I was able to paint miniatures I've owned for many years while also using the painting of those models to add two more squads along with two characters to my ongoing project to paint all of the 4th company of the Dark Angels.  I will milk the end of the challenge for a few more days, the warm fuzzies of accomplishment deserve a few more posts after half a year of work.  Be sure to check out the final post for the challenge, all the participants did an amazing job:

https://c0wabunga.com/2nd-ed-armychallenge-1-final-month/

Here is the 2nd edition army list for the force pictured above:

Army list Dark Angels 4th Company 1003 points

Company Master Zakeal Korlael 123 points
Bolt Pistol, Power Sword, Member of the Deathwing

Techmarine Hephaestus 43 points
Servo Arm, Bolt Pistol

Tactical Squad Zanthor 357points
Sergeant with chain sword and bolt pistol
Meltagun, Missile Launcher with Frag and Krak

Devastator Squad Scalprum 480 points
Sergeant with Power Axe and Boltgun
Multi-Melta, Lascannon, Missile Launcher, Heavy Bolter

Thanks for following along, and watch out for the WH40K Army Challenge Season 2 coming in March!

Where it all started six months ago...

40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge Final Month WIP

 Characterful Sculpts Require A Lot Of Painting...

In the strange vagaries of the -blog publishing/photo taking/progress on a project- warp of the space time continuum, here are pictures from a few days ago that are for a challenge with a due date a few days from now.  Now that we've accelerated to the verbal equivalent of ludicrous speed, a few words about the models in question.  Both of these models have been in my collection since the late 90's, but due to my earlier expressed worries about painting character models, these two have been unpainted for 20 years.  However as my recent musings on the army challenge have pondered, in the end I think this will only benefit me since my painting skills have finally caught up to what I wanted them to be at the time I actually purchased these models.  Plus since they were second edition models that were still on the pegs at the start of third edition, they were perfect character models for my entry in 40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge.  All that being said, there are a lot of tiny details on these models to finish up in the last few days before the deadline and then I need to take a dramatic full army picture for the close of the challenge.  After that, in March it will be onto Season 2 of the 2nd edition army challenge!

Wave That Flag...

 Squad Scalprum Gets Their Banners 

The slow moving servitors and adepts of the Banneratorum have finally completed their work on the standards of Squad Scalprum.  The 9th squad of the 4th company get two banners in traditional second edition style.  The sergeant's banner is in a style lifted from the third edition Dark Angels codex, with the yellow of the 4th Company edging the banner and the bend sinister in the center.  The lower edge of the banner carries the Devastator symbol and the squad number.

The second combat squad's banner uses the more modern company markings for the 4th company, black and white checks over a field of bone white, with a roundel of the chapter symbol in the middle.  This lower edge then mimics the sergeant's banner with the Devastator designation and squad number.  I have used the black and white checks on many of the 4th company banners and coincidentally have used more and more rows of checks for the higher squad numbers.  This occurred without planning as I kept adding more and smaller checks just to challenge my painting skills, but now I think I will stick with the theme of more or less rows of checks depending on the squad number.  Thanks for following along, a full post on my recently completed Devastator squad should be along soon.  Stay safe out there...

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge December

 Happy New Year From The 4th Company Of The First Legion!

Happy New Year and thank you to all those who have been reading along this year.  The latest summary of the 2nd Edition Army Challenge should be up soon so I wanted to post my progress this month as well as a group shot of everyone I've painted so far for the challenge.  This has been a lot of fun and now that the Devastator squad is completed I can also say it's been very helpful in motivating me to add to my ongoing dream project of painting an entire battle company of Dark Angels.  The marines pictured below are the five that it took all of the last two months to complete.  I'm aiming to finish strong by painting my Captain and Techmarine and hopefully a bonus model for January, the last month of the challenge.  Thanks for reading, Happy New Year! and stay safe in 2021  :-)

Be sure to follow all the great painting action over at the:

Warhammer 40k 2nd Edition Army Challenge

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge Month 4 WIP Part 2

Progress Crawls Along At The Pace Of One Of Those Fallen Marine Models They Used To Make In The Rogue Trader Era...

It doesn't look much different than the picture from a few days ago, but the reds and yellows have been shaded and the green on the pauldrons has been blended.  I'm working to finish the blending for the greaves and kneepads next.  The page for month four is up over at Dr TV's Cowabunga so go check it out to see all the amazing models that people painted in November for the project.

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge WIP

 Squad Scalprum 

This squad did not get finished in time for this month's army challenge deadline but I thought I'd post a WIP shot of my progress so far.  The heavy bolter and missile launcher in this squad will help round out the "one of each kind" style that many Devastator squads in the pages of White Dwarf had in the early 90's.  The sergeant for this unit is also the only true 2nd edition pewter veteran sergeant model I have, bought long ago in the days when I was building my 3rd edition army.  A fatal combination of the the level of detail on the miniatures and some distracting side projects this month led me to not wrapping them up in time but hopefully I'll be posting finished pictures of them by the end of the month.

6th Squad, 4th Company

 Tactical Squad Zanthor 

Fascinated by the idea that the transfer sheet labels are ACTUALLY TRANSFERS THEMSELVES! I added the transfers to the apocalypse bases which involved quite a bit of decal bending trickery.

Marching into formation along side their battle brothers in the 4th Company of the Dark Angels, Squad Zanthor is ready to join the fray.  This squad was painted in my overexaggerated 2nd edition style and serve the twin goals of being my first two months submission in the WH40K 2nd edition army challenge, as well as the now third tactical squad to join my growing 4th company of the Dark Angels in all their fully painted glory.  Follow along after the jump for pictures of all the angles of my most recent project finish and some self serving reflections on my first year of blogging...

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge October To-Done

 Mustering The 4th Company 

Squad Scalprum deploys their heavy weapons under the watchful eye of Tactical Squad Zanthor.

That Multi-Melta is so long it casts a shadow.

Just a quick photo post to celebrate the successful submission of another month's work in the WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge.  More updates coming this week and hopefully the completion of the Dreadtober project.

Squad Scalprum Minor Build To-Done

 Drilling and Slicing My Way Through October 

It still counts as a monthly goal even if the arc of kitbashing stretches from 1999 to present day, right?

Being a fan of low hanging fruit here at the 1st Legion headquarters, I am tagging my first hobby season goal of Dreadtober with the big build (minor) completion of my Devastator Squad for the WH40K 2nd Edition army challenge this month.  There is quite a bit of conversion and modeling work in these five marines so I’m going to take it as a goal completion for this month even if one of the models was converted 20 years ago. Follow along after the jump if you want to hear about the deceptive amount of drilling and kit bashing contained in this months army challenge goal…

2020/2021 Hobby Season Kick Off And To-Do List

 The Big Leagues

As I began to read more and more hobby blogs in the last few years I spotted these badges on a few of my favorite blogs.  They were an enticingly cool way to keep track of hobby progress through the year, but I didn't want to go the typical internet route to steal the badges and start using them with out understanding more about ''hobby season".  Fortunately I had my ear to the proverbial hobby blog street at the right time this year, and the excellent Confessions Of A 40k Addict blog revealed the secrets of inclusion in hobby season I had been seeking.  Read the preceding link for more information on hobby season and follow along after the jump for my personal hobby goals of the 2020-2021 hobby season...

40k 2nd Edition Army Challenge Second Month Completed

 Tactical Squad Zanthor 

Since ten marines used to cost more than 350 points in second edition, the banner per combat squad at least made them look a little larger than life on the battlefield.

September saw the completion of my first full squad for the 2nd Edition Army painting challenge.  Squad Zanthor will also fit into my ongoing Dark Angels Battle Company project so this unit will get a full bells and whistles write up in a few days.  I'm just throwing this quick post up since other participants have been posting this months progress on Facebook and the army challenge was also featured in the Crown of Command podcast.

40k 2nd Edition Army Challenge First Month Completed

 Combat Squad Zanthor 

Pictures like these make me think the whole Goblin Green bases we nostalgically love so much were just a photographic expediency because every table at the White Dwarf studio in 1990 was covered in bright green flock.

The first month pf the 2nd Edition Army challenge is in the bag and it was a lot of fun.  My army has always been in a color scheme that predates even 2nd edition, and my Space Marine weapons have been painted in a style that slightly exaggerates the already bright weapons of the "Red Period" of GW studio army painters so this challenge was the perfect fit for my style.  The community of painters in the challenge has been very fun to interact with since everyone shares a love of the old models and painting schemes.