40K2ndAC V - Month 4 Complete! (May 2024)

 Ragnak Gutzsmashah, Rabidfang's Stunties, & Da Ragewhacka

Continuing my trend of Ork names that could easily be 80's metal bands this month we have Evil Sunz Mekboy Ragnak Gutzsmashah and the wartrak Da Ragewhacka.  The spinning maelstrom that is the Eye of Terror has spat us out this week in the actual present day.  These fine Orky gentlemen and their horseless carriage were my May entry for the current 2nd edition army challenge which is on its 5th season this year.  This year's trusty coordinator should be posting all of May's entries on his great blog very soon over at The Wachtmeister's Patrol - https://wachtmeisterspatrol.com/

Speaking of the Wachtmeister, I can't wait to jam up his fancy Deathwing Terminators with warp-crazed snotlings beamed through a teleportation tube straight into their armor.  Thanks for dropping by and we will be back soon with more entries from past challenges and a battle report or two to show these great looking armies in action.

Ragnak Gutzsmashah - Evil Sunz Mekaniak, Shokk Attack Gun                      43 points

Rabidfang's Stunties - Evil Sunz Snotlings, 3 x Snotling Bases               15 points

Da Ragewhacka - Evil Sunz Wartrak, Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters               50 points

40K2ndAC IV Flashback - 2nd Month (February 2023)

 Mob Slag-Dregga 

The clearly seen Eye of Terror in the background explains the time delay in getting this post published.

Ships cursed by the time tossed eddies of the warp translate back into realspace often far removed from the time and place of their original departure.  This post also disgorges from an uncertain past into a mostly verifiable now to display the second core troops unit in my Ork army, Grimskraga and his Goff boyz mob.  Besides forming the center of my advances on the tabletop, these chaps helped solidify my practice at blended reds and classic Goff black and white checks.  Grimskraga's banner pole also contains a salute to my long gaming history being topped with a beakie Mark VI helmet from my first box of RTB01 that I got for Christmas in 1990.

I wrote about them for the season IV of the 2nd Edition Army Challenge here :  https://cowabungajournal.com/2023/03/04/40k2ndac-iv-month-2-wave-2/

Season V of the challenge has a new home at : https://wachtmeisterspatrol.com/

"Recently returned from their tour of Europe opening for Metallica, let's give a huge Waaaggghhh for Slag-Dregga!"

Grimskraga Slag-Dregga – Goff Nob: Power Axe, Bolter; 5 Goff Boyz: Axe, Bolt Pistol; 91 points.

40K2ndAC III Flashback - 1st Month (January 2022)

Codicer Astrovel & Lexicanum Daskhorael

The firestorm background is soooooo METAL!

Catching up on past challenge entries that did not get posted due to interference from the warp, here are two Librarians from my Dark Angels army.  Codicer Astrovel is a model I've owned since '99 and it was a great pleasure to get him painted and added to my army.  I printed out banners from the Angels of Death codex but due to the use of extra long RT era banner poles I added extra tabbards with the Dark Angels chapter symbol below the heraldry of the librarian's rank.  This post is a great reminder that I need to add that scan of the banners from the 2nd edition codex to my banners page to add to the resources available.

      You can read them here along with several other fantastic entries from month 1 of season III:  

                        https://cowabungajournal.com/40k2ndaciii-month-1-wave-2/

Season V of the challenge is underway and has a new home at: https://wachtmeisterspatrol.com/

"It is I, Prince Vlad of Wallachia!  Please do me the honor of visiting my mountaintop castle"

Codicer Astrovel – Level 2 Librarian – 130 points
Force Axe, Plasma Pistol, Aegis Suit 

Lexicanum Daskhorael – Level 1 Librarian – 63 point
Force Sword, Bolt Pistol

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.

Dreadtober 2022 - Week 2

Better Red Than Dread

Dropping this rough workbench photo to update my Dreadtober progress so far.  Most of the base coat work has been completed so I can move on to detail work over the next week.  Lurking in the blurry photo background is my unfinished dread from last year.  Hopefully I can finish him off this month and make this year's Dreadtober a twofer.  Be sure to check out all the goodness over at the main Dreadtober site.  If you enjoy painting classic goodness like the crimson sarcophagus above, Season 4 of the 40K2ndAC is taking applicants. 

 

Dreadtober 2022 - First Blood

 'Ere We Go Again...

Hello abandoned readers. As the pumpkin spice flavored weather sets in, I will attempt to use Dreadtober as an excuse to rejuvinate this blog.  For this year's Dreadtober I have been fully immersed in the 2nd edition spirit in anticpation of the impending kick off for 40K2ndAC Season 4!  This season's entry for me will be an abrupt departure from this blog's namesake in order to paint an army I spent many hours day dreaming about in high school - Orks!  

Larger base means mores skulls, carefully following the 41st millenia's strict skulls per square feet of ground ratios.

Since I won't be painting any space marines for that challenge, I am going to cram in at least one more space marine model before getting stuck in with my Orks in December.  This year's Dreadtober model will be the boxy Mark IV Blood Angels dreadnought which was shown in the ad pages of many a White Dwarf issue in the 90's as well as appearing in several Battle Reports.  As you can see from the pictures it will be the period proper 5 lbs of pewter that could be used as a door stop or murder weapon depending on one's mood.

It's only fitting to leverage Dreadtober for blog renewal since I started this blog back in 2019 to particpate in Dreadtober for the first time.   During that fateful autumn I had a lot of hobby energy after attending Nova Open for the first time that year and I needed an outlet for all the excitement I had about the hobby.  Back then I only played once a month at best and other than that one gaming group I was relatively unconnected to the greater hobby community, even though I live in an area where tabletop gaming is very popular.  

It took forever to scrub all the red from its previous paint job out of all the tiny recesses.

The blog began as a way to connect with the larger hobby community and in that respect it was a massive success.  I now spend so much time gaming with friends new and old that I have connected to through the blog, that the blog itself has experienced long periods of inactivity.  Hopefully the upcoming community projects will keep the blog rolling along, and if not I'll just retreat to a social media site where much less work is required to post my hobby progress ;-)

Thank you to readers who have stayed or have just joined, and see you next week with a dreadnought that will hopefully be at least red.  Be sure to head to the main Dreadtober site for all the community's awesome work.  Also the 40K2ndAC Season 4 is taking applicants if you want to become involved follow the link.

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge Season III - Complete!

Another One In The Bag 

It's hard to believe but the third season of the 2nEdAC has finished!  Since I have been remiss in posting monthly updates, I will roll out the big picture here first and then add some blog updates with the indivdual units completed.  A little reverse order roll-out due to being so busy with gaming and hobbying that typeing about those activities has fallen behind schedule.  My low model count, high points value army has successfully been finished.   I was also able to add a bonus model this time which was a first for me.  Thanks to the good Dr The Viking and his fabulous challenge I now have 3,000 plus points of fully painted Dark Angels, all in a gorgeous technicolor 2nd edition style. This is the largest fully painted army I have owned in 30 years of gaming and is exactly the kind of army I wanted when immersing myself in the 40k universe via reading White Dwarf in the early 90's.

In addition to making my army buidling dreams come true, the challenge has opened up a new community of gamers for me to enjoy games with as well.  As I write this post I'm preparing for a game against my usual challenge opponent, the Wachtmeister.  My panoply of characters from season III will take on his most recent contribution, a few Valhallan squads and a BANEBLADE!  New challenge participant Valhallan Winter also lives in our area and will stop by to see how our tanks versus heroes challenge will turn out.  Stay tuned to this space to see if you can use 7 second edition characters to kill a super-heavy tank.  Thanks for reading after such a long hiatus, and be sure to follow all the links in the texts to check out fun contributiuons to the great hobby!

 

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

And We're Back

 My Dreadtober Project Is Really Running Late...

Wow! That was the longest publication break in this blog's short history so I appreciate anyone who has come back after the hiatus.  A combination of a lot of Real Life activity and an addiction to Boardgame Arena online led to the severe lack of posts.  Fortunately I was stilll hobbying and gaming while not posting so there is plenty of content in the pipeline.  My Venerable Dreadnought above is almost finished but way behind on the end of Dreadtober deadline.  In other fun hobby news, the 3rd Season of the 40K2ndAC is underway and I am painting a charatcer heavy 1,000 points this time around to give my Dark Angels 2nd edition army a bevy of heroes to choose from to lead them into battle.  I have finished the first months contribution of two librarians and will feature some photos of the finished models this week.  Thanks for rejoining our program already in progress and stay safe out there...

My low model count project for season 3 of the 40K2ndAC

40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - Complete!

Reinforcements!

Still trying to figure out what makes me filled with more nostalgic glee, the hazard stripes on the chainswords or the hazard stripes on the Terminator's power fists?

40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - August - Final Month WIP

 Readying The Banners

One last work in progress shot from season two of the 40K2ndAC.  Dr The Viking will post the final summation of the challenge's second season soon so pay attention to that space to see all the amazing work of the many participants.

The Wachtmeister posted an excellent and much more detailed recounting of our 2nd edition battle on his blog so be sure to check that out here:  Wachtmeister's Patrol 

40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - August WIP

 Almost There...

Closing in on the last month of the challenge.  Squad Astelan here needs a few final details and then I'll need to put everyone together for a Season II full army photo.  This last year involved in the two seasons of the challenge have helped me complete more models in 12 months that I have in the past several years.  Thanks for reading and be sure to check out all the fun over at the home of the 40K2ndACII

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...

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - June Completed!

Combat Squad Astelan

The variety of units that I've painted in the second season has been a lot of fun and make for a more dynamic looking army next to the models I painted for the first season. 

Squad Astelan bears the grey eagles and trim of the 6th Company, composed of all tactical squads as a reserve company to reinforce the three main battle companies (3rd, 4th, 5th).

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - June WIP

So Many Greens To Blend...

Well you can tell my kids got out of school two weeks ago for the summer since my blog out put suddenly dropped to nothing.  Almost all of my hobby time has been tied up in getting my painting done for the 40K2ndAC II.  Some quick pictures to show this month's entry as I worked on them over the last few weeks.

Dr The Viking will be posting the monthly summary for the project in the next few days so I won't beat him to the punch with pictures of the finished minis, but be sure to check back in a few days for pictures of everything I've painted for season two so far.  Thanks for reading and stay safe out there!

Battle Report Incoming!

 Ready The Cardboard Bunkers And Freshly Flocked Hills!

One of the members of the 40K2ndAC community lives in my area and we are going to get together in a few weeks at a neutral venue to have our first 2nd edition game with the 1,000 points we painted for season one of the challenge.  This will be a warm up and refamiliarization game for both of us since we haven't played with the classic rules since the early 90's.  In a fun bit of bonus news, Dr The Viking is busy planting the seeds of a gaming meetup for many members of the challenge in August.  The idea is for us to all to play with our closest colleagues in the challenge but in many separate locations of the globe: Australia, Europe, Asia, and North America where the many participants of the challenge reside. More details on this global gaming meetup will appear in the future so stayed tuned to this space dear readers!

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - May Completed!

 Dr. Jones Said That Crystal Skull Should Be Here Somewhere...

Epistolary Azathor Commands the Deathwing squad holding the ruins of the xenos temple while scout squad Rhellion advances in search of the foe.

Another family picture of all the units I have painted so far for the 40K2ndAC II.  Epistolary Librarian Azathor was an awesome model to paint this month.  It was nice to have a whole month to focus on one miniature and I have always wanted to paint one of the original Terminator Librarians ever since my early days of reading WD in 1990.  The intricacy of the Aegis hood and force axe were interesting details to explore and painting blue armor was a nice break from all the usual dark green. The lessons I learned from wet blending with the greens and last month's bone white were able to be applied to the blue armor and gave it a look I really liked.  The banner is a slight cheat since it came from the 3rd edition codex, but I think the visual meta in early third still hewed very close to the banners of 2nd edition.  Sometimes the geek in me lives for sentences like that one where I can make the 30 years I have spent in the hobby sound like I had a career in very esoteric academia :-)

Three months into season 2 and I have already painted 700 plus points so I really need to start thinking about bonus models.  I have already planned out how I have enough models left if this endlessly enjoyable project goes into season 3, so I'll have to plan carefully not to dip into that material.  There's a fun twist on the bonus models that other participants have taken in the past that may be the route I go.  So that cliffhanger will hopefully have all you bat-viewers tuning into the same bat-time and same bat-channel here in the future.  Stay safe out there...

Be sure to follow along with all the great entries from all the participants for the month of May over at:

Dr The Viking's Cowabunga

WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - April Completed!

 

Just a quick post to show off this month's entry for the 40K2ndAC II, plus a group photo of what I've painted for season II of the challenge so far.  These Terminators add some heavily armored punch to my second edition army list.  Once I have some decals applied to the Terminators I'll add a post with all the angles of the minis, they were a lot of fun to paint.  Thanks for reading and be sure to check out all the great participants in the challenge:

https://c0wabunga.com/2021/05/01/40k-2nd-ac-ii-month-2-wave-1/