Warhammer 40,000: Let's Paint Space Elves

At this, the heart of Fulbra sank within him; for he had heard numerous tales of Uccastrog in bygone years; and the tales were not such as would reassure a stranded traveler. Uccastrog, which lay far to the east of Cyntrom, was commonly known as the Isle of the Torturers; and men said that all who landed upon it unaware, or were cast thither by the seas, were imprisoned by the inhabitants and were subjected later to unending curious tortures whose infliction formed the chief delight of these cruel beings.

 - Clark Ashton Smith, the Isle of the Torturers

I had my eye on a Dark Eldar Voidraven bomber for quite a while. I don't know why I want to build one, but I do; I just think it looks cool, like a GI Joe plane that you'd have fondly looked at at the toy store as a kid but that was way too expensive. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence, because at some point I realized that the actual GI Joe aircraft the Voidraven looks like is the Night Raven, which appears in one of my favorite stories, Showdown! So if I just paint the Voidraven in Cobra colors, all of a sudden I also have a color scheme for my Dark Eldar. I'm calling the bomber the Hospitality of the Isle of Uccastrog.

**

Technically, this does not count as starting a new army! Because I already own a box of Dark Eldar Wyches from who knows how long ago. I have no recollection whatsoever of buying them. I also picked up an, ahem, Dark Side space elf Kabalite Champion from the good folks at Wargame Exclusive as part of another order; she will be joining us as the Succubus Ilvaa. Wargame Exclusive were clearly getting in on the GW trend of ludicrously high bases, so I made Ilvaa stand on a random pile of skulls I had lying around instead.

Since I have all these ladies, clearly I'm making a Wych Cult detachment. What with the colors and everything, I think I'm calling them the Cult of the Venom Dreaming. The bomber can also be a Wych Cult plane, so I think this is a winner.

The Kabalite Champion is a lovely model, and my painting skills can't do it any kind of justice. I stuck a marine pistol holster to her thigh just in case I want to actually use the model and someone decides to be an asshole about WYSIWYG, and also because I thought it looked kinda cool. Anyway here she is.

**

While I was waiting for my bomber to show up, it occurred to me that I have another model I was planning to use as an Eldar character: Lupita Love from Raging Heroes. Here she is as Harlequin Solitaire Jolenta, from the Masque of the Dying Sun.

**

Then it's on to the Voidraven! I'm delighted to find that the crew of two can be easily livened up a little with some conversion parts.

By the way, surely that should be bombardiere rather than artigliere in the Italian. I started with the pilot, who was a bit boring, but it was easy enough to swap in a Wych torso and a Brother Vinni head.

Meanwhile, magnetizing the missile pods was fairly easy.

I also magnetized the bomb, by the fairly simple expedient of cutting off the tab in the bomb bay and sticking a magnet on it, and slipping a thinner magnet inside the bomb casing.

It fits quite snugly.

**

So I had the fuselage well underway, but I liked that Kabalite Champion model so much, I decided to get another one and convert her into my bombardier. This involved repositioning her legs, using the arms from the original bombardier model, and a new Statuesque bionic head.

The pose is quite something, and I feel like this was a very succesful conversion.

**

Unfortunately, after this succesful crew conversion came the hard part. The main fuselage is made up of two big, complicatedly contoured parts, and of course they don't fit together properly. This bit of the instructions is not as easy as it looks.

Getting the two fuselage halves to stick together took some strenuous efforts with clamps and some superglue where plastic cement just wasn't good enough. Not an experience I would care to repeat.

I have to admit that after the clamps came off and some filler went into the gaps, the model sat on my shelf for quite a while. Then, though, the Dark Eldar DLC came out for Gladius, and I decided it was high time to finish this damn model! So I stuck on the wings and finished the underside.

This is my first attempt at a symbol for the Venom Dreaming and an army badge for my Eldar.

I also inscribed the name of the aircraft and the cult on it, but kept the overall paint job quite simple, with Black Grey as the main color, Royal Purple highlights and Deep Green text.

No way am I taking any closeups!

**

And so the Voidraven is finally done. It was a bit of a miserable build, to be honest, although I'm quite proud of my bombardier conversion. I'm still very much enjoying actually finishing models I've started, so with apologies to my friendly neighborhood game store, I may keep this not buying new models thing up next year as well...

Let's Play Elder Dragon Highlander 40,000

I kinda got back into Magic: the Gathering around 2017, and have played the odd game since. So when Wizards published 40k Commander decks, I felt I had to get the Chaos one. Now that I have that, and the F1 this year is so mortally boring, I've decided to take the plunge and actually try playing Commander.

**

The deck I've got started life as the Chaos 40k commander deck. I kept Abaddon as my commander, swapped out some cards I didn't like or that felt way too complicated, and tried to make the lands a bit more interesting.

Creature: (28)

Abaddon the Despoiler

Lord of Change

Be'lakor, the Dark Master

Bloodthirster

Keeper of Secrets

Mortarion, Daemon Primarch

Chaos Defiler

Great Unclean One

Helbrute

Heralds of Tzeentch

Knight Rampager

Lucius the Eternal

Magnus the Red

Noise Marine

Pink Horror

The Balrog, Flame of Udûn

Aspiring Champion

Bloodcrusher of Khorne

Chaos Terminator Lord

Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch

Dark Apostle

Plague Drone

Seeker of Slaanesh

Tzaangor Shaman

Venomcrawler

Herald of Slaanesh

Poxwalkers

Tallyman of Nurgle

Sorcery: (7)

Blasphemous Act

Decree of Pain

Let the Galaxy Burn

Blight Grenade

Deny Reality

Mandate of Abaddon

Pyroclasm

Instant: (12)

Blood for the Blood God!

Thunderous Wrath

Bituminous Blast

Kill! Maim! Burn!

Nurgle's Conscription

Chaos Warp

Ionize

Bile Blight

Reverberate

Snap

Brainstorm

Dark Ritual

Artifact: (9)

Chromatic Lantern

Commander's Sphere

Pristine Talisman

Sol Grail

Worn Powerstone

Talisman of Creativity

Talisman of Dominance

Talisman of Indulgence

Sol Ring

Enchantment: (4)

Warstorm Surge

The Ruinous Powers

The Lost and the Damned

Nurgle's Rot

Land: (40)

Barren Moor

Command Tower

Crumbling Necropolis

Desolate Lighthouse

Dismal Backwater

Exotic Orchard

Foreboding Ruins

Forgotten Cave

Island x6

Lonely Sandbar

Mountain x6

Path of Ancestry

Rogue's Passage

Snow-Covered Island

Snow-Covered Mountain

Snow-Covered Swamp

Sunken Hollow

Swamp x7

Swiftwater Cliffs

Tainted Isle

Temple of Malice

Temple of the False God

Wasteland

**

I took this deck to my first ever Magic event, a Casual Commander day at our friendly local game store. 

I included Rogue's Passage in the deck because it did great work for me in Magic: Duels on the XBox, and it paid off when I sent The Balrog, Flame of Udûn down it to knock out my last remaining opponent. I then got obliterated by an endless swarm of Daleks, and the third game I was in was at a level I barely understood. But I had a great time.

**

The second time around, the young people were fairly astonished by my Sol Grail, and I again managed to win my first game!

I didn't really get much use out of Abaddon's ability to grant Cascade in my first event. I feel like the Ruinous Powers deck is trying to be at least two things at once: a Demon tribal deck and a spellslinger/Cascade deck, and it isn't that great at either. So I decided to go all in on the demons and make Be'lakor my commander. Again, I had good fun playing, and won one and lost one game.

In my third event, my Aspiring Champion got me a spectacular win. There were four of us and one other aggro deck, and everyone's life total was low. I had Be'lakor on the field sent my Aspiring Champion to attack another player through Rogue's Passage. Sacrificing him, I managed to draw Orcus, Prince of Undeath. The damage from Orcus showing up knocked out two players, and the damage from Be'lakor took out the third one. It was a lovely Nethack 40,000 moment.

**

So, I've been to three Casual Commander events, and I've had a lot of fun. This is the deck list I've ended up with:

Be'lakor, the Dark Master

Artifact: (9)

Chromatic Lantern

Commander's Sphere

Pristine Talisman

Sol Grail

Whispersilk Cloak

Worn Powerstone

Arcane Signet

Thought Vessel

Sol Ring

Creature: (25)

Lord of Change

Bloodthirster

Keeper of Secrets

Mortarion, Daemon Primarch

Chaos Defiler

Great Unclean One

Heralds of Tzeentch

Lucius the Eternal

Magnus the Red

Noise Marine

Pink Horror

Renegade Demon

Sol'kanar the Swamp King

The Balrog, Flame of Udûn

Aspiring Champion

Bloodcrusher of Khorne

Chaos Terminator Lord

Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch

Orcus, Prince of Undeath

Plague Drone

Seeker of Slaanesh

Soulstinger

Venomcrawler

Baleful Ammit

Herald of Slaanesh

Enchantment: (5)

Warstorm Surge

Coastal Piracy

The Ruinous Powers

Phyrexian Arena

Nurgle's Rot

Instant: (12)

Blood for the Blood God!

Bituminous Blast

Kill! Maim! Burn!

Nurgle's Conscription

Chaos Warp

Ionize

Bile Blight

Boomerang

Snap

Brainstorm

Dark Ritual

Mystical Tutor

Sorcery: (8)

Blasphemous Act

Decree of Pain

Blight Grenade

Deny Reality

Mandate of Abaddon

Stronghold Discipline

Lash of the Balrog

Void Snare

Land: (40)

Barren Moor

Command Tower

Crumbling Necropolis

Desolate Lighthouse

Dismal Backwater

Foreboding Ruins

Forgotten Cave

Island ×6

Lonely Sandbar

Mortuary Mire

Mountain ×7

Path of Ancestry

Rogue's Passage

Snow-Covered Island

Snow-Covered Mountain

Snow-Covered Swamp

Sunken Hollow

Swamp ×6

Swiftwater Cliffs

Tainted Peak

Temple of Epiphany

Temple of Malice

Temple of the False God

Wasteland

Epic: Battle of Bandar Setan

The rumors from Raseir are that Laws have become more important than men, and that it has become a crime to think. Few go to that city now, and even fewer return.

 - dialogue, Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire

Never in a state

Can laws be well administered when dread

Has ceased to act, nor can an armèd host

Be rightly ruled, if no defence of fear

And awe be present.

 - Menelaos, in Sophocles's Ajax, trans. Edward Hayes Plumptre (1878)

The battle for the desert world of Lautan Lama rages on. The Legio Venefica force under Princeps Seniores Modthryth got the better of the loyalists in the initial skirmish at Bitter Tower, but Legio Crucius rallied and seized the vital fuel supplies at Depoh Minyak. As the Titans of Legio Crucius advance deeper into the streets of Bandar Setan, the traitors are waiting for them in ambush.

**

This battle will be the debut of the first new Titan I bought: a Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titan, the Ipse revelat profunda et abscondita, et novit in tenebris constituta, or In Tenebris. This was the single resin model, not the new box of two with all kinds of fancy weapon options. I picked the one with the neutron laser; I like volcano cannons, but you can get them on anything these days, and the neutron laser promises to be weird and disproportionately useful against bigger Titans. The small size of the Dire Wolf also works perfectly with Legio Venefica's Envious trait.

The carapace weapon was easy enough to magnetize: I drilled out the hole in the hull and cut off the tab in the weapon and drilled a corresponding hole there, fit the magnets and left the piston rods supporting the weapon unglued.

The Ardex bolters fit snugly enough that they stay in place without glue, although if I'm honest, I hardly anticipate an alternative weapon option there.

This was actually a very easy assembly job for a Forge World resin model! I pretty much did the whole thing in one sitting, and then applied model railway ballast to the base.

**

My esteemed opponent showed up with a Legio Crucius Mandatum maniple and attached psi-titan, worth 1665 points:

Warlord Battle Titan Filia Gehennae; princeps seniores - 385 pts

 2 × Sunfury Plasma Annihilator - 90 pts

Paired Gatling Blasters - 30 points

Terminus Override Mechanism - 30 pts = 535 points

Warhound Scout Titan Moritelcontar - 180 pts

 Plasma Blastgun - 30 pts

 Vulcan Mega Bolter - 10 pts = 220 points [755]

Warhound Scout Titan Caput Lupi- 180 pts

 Inferno Gun - 20 pts

 Vulcan Mega Bolter - 10 pts = 210 points [965]

Warlord-Sinister Psi Titan Pater Formidinis (ʼAbu Al-hōl) - 385 pts

 Psi-titan - 300 pts

 Paired Apocalypse Missile Launchers - 15 pts = 600 points [1665]

I assembled a force to meet them. I quite like the Heavy Scout Titan rule that lets you bring a Dire Wolf as a replacement for an optional Warhound in a maniple. It means I can bring pretty much exactly the same Ferrox maniple as last time, but with the Dire Wolf as an additional Titan. For Knight support, I'm bringing three Questoris Knights and the two Cerastus lancers from the core set. Here they are:

Reaver Battle Titan Cum ergo videritis abominationem desolationis, quæ dicta est a Lorgar propheta, stantem in loco sancto, qui legit, intelligat; princeps seniores Modthryth - 250 pts

 Melta Cannon - 35 pts

 Power Fist - 20 pts

 Vulcan Mega Bolter - 10 pts

 Reinforced plating - 10 pts = 325 points

Reaver Battle Titan Deos tuos non colimus, et thronum auream, quam erexisti, non adoramus - 250 pts

 Volcano Cannon - 25 pts

 Laser Blaster - 25 pts

 Apoptygma Missile Launcher - 10 pts = 310 points [635]

Warhound Et regnum erit velut ferrum - 180 pts

 Turbo Laser Destructor - 20 pts

 Vulcan Mega Bolter - 10 pts = 210 points [845]

Warhound Regnum transiit a te - 180 pts

 Plasma Blastgun - 30 pts

 Vulcan Mega Bolter - 10 pts = 220 points [1065]

Dire Wolf Scout Titan Ipse revelat profunda et abscondita, et novit in tenebris constituta - 210 points

 Ardex Defensor Mega-Bolter - 10 pts

 Neutron Laser - 45 pts = 265 points [1330]

Cerastus Knight Banner Hircine - 130 pts

 2 × shock lance and ion gauntlet shield - 40 pts = 170 points [1500]

Questoris Knight Banner Azura - 120 pts

 3 × Questoris melee weapon - 15

 rapid fire battle cannon - 10

 2 × thermal cannon [20] = 165 points [1665]

**

We set up the terrain centered on a tall tower block.

I was quite timid in my deployment (I had slept very poorly the previous night), and concentrated on hiding from my opponent's scary Warlords. The Filia Gehennae deployed straight down the middle, and 'Abu Al-hōl on the Crucius left.

I mostly just hid behind buildings, and spent my stratagem points on sending Knight Banner Azura to Outflank. The In Tenebris deployed last due to its special rule, and I lined it up for a shot on the Filia Gehennae.

However, I failed my order rolls, and of course the neutron laser shot missed. And to make things worse, I had my shot lined up properly, but failed to realize that my Dire Wolf was wide open to 'Abu al-Hōl.

The Sinistramanus Tenebrae sang out for the first time, scoring a direct hit on the In Tenebris and nearly destroying it with one shot. The Dire Wolf quickly scuttled into cover behind a building as its servitor clades struggled to control the damage. Meanwhile, the Venefica Reavers engaged the Crucius Warlord on the left. The Cerastus Knights moved up the middle, their ion shields shunting aside enemy fire, and the outflanking Questoris Knights arrived on the left table edge.

As the Cerastus Knights got in range, the Caput Lupi opened up on them, knocking one Knight down with its Inferno Gun.

Alarmed by the Psi-Titan, the whole Venefica force shifted left, hoping to overwhelm the Crucius Warlord Filia Gehennae.

However, despite Knight Banner Azura's best efforts in getting round the Warlord, the battle was a stalemate. The Abominationem Desolationis strode forward to break the deadlock - right into the sights of 'Abu al-Hōl.

Once more, the Sinistramanus Tenebrae struck, leaving the traitor Reaver a smoking wreck. In the last moments of the battle, the In Tenebris scored a hit on a loyalist Warhound, shutting it down temporarily, but the writing was on the wall for Legio Venefica.

With one enemy Reaver knocked out, the Cerastus Knights destroyed and a Dire Wolf heavily damaged with no losses of their own, the battle of Bandar Setan is a clear victory for Legio Crucius.

**

So yeah, I lost that one. Here's the undisputed MVP of the battle, the Warlord-Sinister Psi-Titan Pater Formidinis, better known as ʼAbu Al-hōl. That left hand of darkness really is murderous, and I'm afraid I will definitely be seeing more of it.

My esteemed opponent played a very solid defensive game, and made good use of the Psi-Titan. I don't want to take anything away from that when I say that at the same time, I'm quite disappointed in myself for playing timidly and indecisively. In retrospect, I recognize that having slept very poorly the previous night played a large part in this; I felt like I was operating at the limits of my cognitive capability, like toward the end of our last Game of Thrones session. I didn't have a coherent plan and made poor decisions.

However, I learned a lot. I was quite impressed by the durability of the Cerastus Knights, and I need to use them more. I feel like I could have gotten more out of the Questoris flankers, but also that I need more thermal cannons. The Dire Wolf barely got to participate, but hey, it survived the Psi-Titan and actually managed to shut down a Titan! I like that I'm learning more all the time.

I have two principal tactical notes for myself. The first and most important of these is that if I'm going to do the small Titans and Knights things, which does appeal to me for several reasons, I need to be more consistently aggressive and plan better for taking down the Warlords and such. The other one is that this would be easier if I could ever remember the Ferox maniple bonus. But I'm also pretty sure I want a Warlord.

**

The most important takeaway from all this, though, is that Titanicus is such a fucking great game. I had a good time playing, I got a whole bunch of new ideas I want to try for next time, and I'm quite simply looking forward to more.

Twilight Imperium: Let's Paint the Blue Fleet

Now that the Yin Brotherhood won our second game of Twilight Imperium, Enlightenment is a Function of Willpower, it's time to paint the blue fleet.

**

Drawing on my experience with the red miniatures, I decided to start with the infantry and cruisers.

For the infantry, I did the same thing as I had with the reds: Gunmetal Grey and Black Glaze, with the colored parts of the base in Dark Prussian Blue and Dark Blue, and the flag in Dark Blue.

I feel it's a little borderline whether that's too dark a blue, but I like it so much better on the flags than a lighter one. We'll have to see how it goes.

The cruisers got to be the testbed for my starship color scheme again. I liked the basic idea of what I did with the red cruisers, but this time I decided to up the contrast and make Deep Sky Blue the lightest color.

I feel like it works, and it means that my blues are Dark Prussian Blue, Blue, Dark Blue and Deep Sky Blue. Armed with that decision, I tackled the war suns.

Because Deep Sky Blue is also the color I use for the trans pride flag, it was easy to conclude that the war suns are trans. They're quite easy to paint. The fighters, on the other hand, are the fiddliest miniatures and therefore the most annoying. So I got them out of the way.

The space docks are also trans.

**

In our first game, I don't really recall getting much use out of my flagship. Last time, though, it was a key to my success. The Yin Brotherhood flagship, the van Halen, was the perfect counter to the Muaat death star: if the Eddie van Halen is destroyed, it takes every ship in the system with it. This deterrent value both kept me feeling secure against the Muaat juggernaut, and also let me grab Quann off them in the climactic last turn, which ended up stopping them from winning!

For such sterling service in the cause of the Yin, the van Halen deserves to be remembered. I therefore decided to give the blue flagship a paint scheme based on the Frankenstrat.

I'm actually kinda happy with it! Then it was time to finish the cruisers.

I kept the carriers simple.

The destroyers got a similar paint job to the cruisers.

And finally, here are the dreadnoughts.

Here's a badly lit picture of the whole fleet in my display cabinet.

**

So they're done! I still find painting board game miniatures very rewarding. Now, if we could only find the time for another game...

Let's Paint Victory at Sea: The Royal Navy

‘Thou looks't like Antichrist in that lewd hat,’ she said in a sombre voice, for the hounds had lost their fox and the only tolerable-looking man had vanished.

 - Patrick O'Brian, Post Captain

Earlier, I started a Victory at Sea collection because a friendly nearby mail-order store sold the Kriegsmarine fleet box at a considerable discount. I noticed I quite liked painting the little ships, so when I found they actually had a Royal Navy fleet box at one of their stores, well, I bought it.

**

Of course, there are so many reasons why I would buy a Royal Navy box. But I'm going to start with the models that actually pushed me into doing it: the Fairey Swordfish squadrons. It is nothing short of hilarious that the UK entered the Second World War still flying a biplane made out of cloth. And they made a great success of it, too, from striking the Italian fleet at Taranto to sinking the Bismarck. I've never built or painted a biplane model before!

Like the Stukas earlier, the Swordfish are made out of a rubbery resin that's quite annoying to work with, and the planes and the stand had a lot of flash to clear away. I also still quite dislike the flying stand. The Swordfish has a more complicated one, where you can use a ring to mark what role these particular Swordfish are flying in. One of them broke when I fitted it, for the simple reason that it's too small. Again, not the best idea.

Still, I got them assembled and undercoated, and painted the stands Blue. The planes are Sky Grey, with London Grey top bits.

The fleet box also comes with a carrier: the ancient HMS Eagle, originally laid down as the Almirante Cochrane for the Chilean navy. I decided on a simple paint job of London Grey and Medium Sea Grey, and tried to do something like the camo pattern seen in this picture on Wikimedia Commons.

Referring to David Williams's Naval Camouflage 1914-1945, I take that camo to be one of the unofficial predecessors to the Admiralty Disruptive Patterns introduced in 1942.

**

I really enjoyed playing the PC version of Victory at Sea. Every now and then, you can get captured enemy ships as part of your fleet. It's a bit ahistorical, but fun, so I like it. At one point in my German campaign, I was given a Tribal-class destroyer called HMS Tartar. There actually was an HMS Tartar, which was absolutely everywhere, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean to Burma and the Japanese surrender, but I think I'm painting mine in German colors as a memento of my campaign.

If I understand the German system for designating captured ships, this would have been a ZB, so I'm calling it the ZB Tartar.

**

My first Kriegsmarine campaign ended unceremoniously at the hands of a Royal Navy Town-class cruiser. So I might as well get started with HMS Belfast. She's a museum ship in London now, and I vaguely remember visiting when I was in high school. First things first, though: like the softer Kriegsmarine ships, both the Tribal and the Belfast needed straightening.

After the resin was heated, bent ever so gently into shape and weighed down for a bit, the ships were ready for assembly and painting.

I'm not really that interested in making even my historical miniatures that "accurate", and anyway I feel like it would just be boring to try to replicate the Belfast's actual camo. Instead, I went for a sort of basic Royal Navy scheme of London Grey and Medium Sea Grey, with Off-White masts, and the decks are Pale Sand.

**

The obvious next thing to do was to paint the remaining two Tribal-class destroyers pink. Hey, the Barbie movie had just come out. First, of course, both the Tribals and the HMS Dido had to be boiled and straightened.

So these are HMS Cossack (03) and HMS Bedouin (67), both decked out in real-life Royal Navy camouflage from World War II, namely Mountbatten Pink. The horizontal surfaces are Medium Sea Grey and the verticals are Sunset Red.

And since I already boiled her, I've painted the Dido as well. As I was searching for examples of naval camouflage, I came across this absolutely lovely model of the Dido in green camo, and decided to try something similar myself. The base color is Green Sky, with Ivory and Black Green patterns. I like how it turned out!

**

Finally, we have HMS Neptune and Duke of York, both thankfully in the lighter-colored resin and therefore unboiled. For the Neptune, I've gone for something like the camouflage pattern in this picture, using Sky Grey as the lightest color.

The Duke of York got my take on what Naval Camouflage says was the standard scheme for the King George V battleships.

And with that, the Royal Navy fleet is done! Here's a very badly lit photo of the whole thing, it was February in Finland, this is the best I could do.

**

It was fun to try all the different paint schemes, and to paint a carrier. Luckily I've got more little ships!