Battle Bunnies Lords of War 2017

Hi all,

My Thousand Sons project is gradually running down and I am slowly starting to run out of steam.  Needless to say, my attention is now focused on my next project.

With both my Death Guard and Thousand Sons army, I very much approached them from a hobby perspective and let my list grow organically, purchasing any old model which took my fancy.  Whilst this approach proved to be immensely fun, I suspect it is somewhat responsible for my rather impressive loss to win count, which is heavily slanted towards loss.

I think I have managed one victory with my Thousand Sons in about twenty games!  I am the first to admit that I am not the best gamer (obviously), nor do I game to win.  However, suffering defeat after defeat is rather demoralizing. 

I like to think that my Thousand Sons are a big improvement compared to my Death Guard in terms of painting and hobbying and I am keen to continue this theme with my next legion.

I was fortunate enough to go on the last MKA Tank course, where I had a go at painting a Sons of Horus rhino.  Needless to say, I was over the moon with the results.  As soon as I got home I stripped it so I could redo it and practice the new techniques I had learnt.

It goes without saying that my next legion is going to be a traitor XVIth force. 

I thought this would an excellent opportunity to try to bully the other Bunnies into starting a new force (it didn’t take much), hopefully allowing all of us to advance our fledgling forces in increments and have lots of games!

Without further ado, the runners and riders of the Battle Bunnies Lords of War 2017!

Ahmose Seuk	Sons of Horus
Drake Seta	Vlka Fenryka
Hector Cyphas	Custodes
Castiel Druas	Alpha Legion
Ikthelion Orthos	****Redacted****
Darien Vasco	****Redacted****

The aim is to complete 750 increments, with the first lot due by the 01/02/2018.  The ultimate aim is 3000 points.  The caveat for the first round is a minimum of  one HQ and one Troop.

Stay tuned for updates soon!

Thousand Sons Delegatus

Hi all,

Just a quick post today.  I have recently converted up a model to act as a Delegatus for my XVth.

It is one of the first conversions I have ever done.

I used a chest piece from the Thousand Sons upgrade set, along with an Achean head.  The backpack is from Betrayal at Calth, with the Iron Halo glued on.  That was originally from a head in the plastic Blood Angels upgrade set.  I filed off the gems and used plastic putty to fill the inner ring.

The legs were cut and repositioned from the Betrayal at Calth Chaplain model.  I also filled the leg greaves.

The power mace came from the Mk III resin upgrade set.

His shoulder pads were taken from the FW resin Praetor who is in MkIII.  One of his arms came from the Death Guard Power Scythe set as well.

What do you think?  Is it an effective conversion, or does it look like a weird mish-mash of parts?

Happy hobbying!

Thousand Sons - Tactical Support Squad

Hi all,

I thought I would todays post to talk about one of my Thousand Sons unit that has become somewhat of a staple in my army. 

First off, I know that they are from the most competitive choice for an army, but I felt that I just had to include some rotor cannons as they fit a Thousand Sons theme.  The models themselves were relative easy to assemble with minimal flash.  I was a bit nervous about bending the ammo feeds, but it was relatively painless.

Despite the low strength of the rotor cannon, they do have their uses.  A basic squad of five still throw out twenty shots which is nothing to sneeze at.  This is even more impressive if you add in Asphyx shells, allowing rerolls to wound, and pick the cult arcana which allows you to reroll ones to hit.  If you want to make them even more effective, try using them on a target which has had misfortune cast on it!  All of a sudden the low strength isn’t such an issue!

I think the best result I have managed with them is glancing the side armor of a Vindicator to death, knocking off all three hull points in a turn.  Given the two perks available to Thousand Sons I’m not sure if I’d run them with a different legion.

What have your experiences been using rotor cannons?

Citadel Paint App Review

Hi all,

I thought I would take the opportunity to review the Citadel Paint App this week, as it has just launched today.

I have downloaded the App on my iPhone and will be using the iOS version for this review. Having said, that it is also available for Android and Kindle.

Firstly, the App is free! Upon seeing that it was free, I initially thought the App would essentially be a glorified shopping basket for buying Citadel paints. You'll be relieved to hear its much more than this!

Upon opening the App you are greeted with a menu screen. You are presented with options to paint by colour, paint by miniature, paint bases, inventory and wish list as well as a get started tab.

If you select the get started tab, you progress to a further menu where the whole range of techniques utilised are listed, with instructional videos for each. It also lists all of the different brushes offered by Citadel, providing detailed information as to why you should use them for each specific technique. If you've ever wondered about the the composition of your shade brush - the Omnissiah has heard your cry!

The paint by colour tab opens up into a further menu of generic colours. If for instance you select red, it opens up a further list of varying shades.

In this instance I selected bright red and was greeted with a list of paints required to achieve the colour, providing a different recipe whether I was dry brushing or layering. All of the colour schemes are represented on Space Marine backpacks.

If you open the paint by miniature section, you are presented with just over fifty different models to choose from. The currently available options offer a good balance between Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar. It would seem that GW are planning on expanding this over time though. No Horus Heresy schemes yet.

If you select a model, you are presented with a close up labelling the major colours used.

You can then click the individual colours and are presented with the same layout as found under paint by colour option.

If you select the paint bases tab, it provides you with a list of different styles.

When you select one it again lists the paints you need and the techniques needed to replicate the effect.

In review, I would say that this is a cracking App by Games Workshop - all the more so when you consider it is free. I would wholeheartedly recommend downloading it today! Especially given they are giving away five sets of the entire paint range next week to five lucky individuals who download the App!

Doubles or Nothing

Hi All,

I wanted to take the time today to talk about the upcoming Horus Heresy Doubles Event at Warhammer World in November; Ahmose and I picked up a ticket on Monday and we’ve already started the planning phase.

We attended the Doubles Event earlier this year, and while we had a great time, we didn’t pull off a single victory over the weekend – something we’d like to change this time around! Last time, Ahmose and I took Death Guard and Iron Warriors; while the Legions get on from a background perspective, our lists were ultimately too similar and we suffered from a lack of diversity and speed across the army which led to us surrendering board control too quickly and losing out on the Maelstrom objectives.

My army for the last Doubles event (Though I didn't have so many Siege Tyrants!)

There are a couple of major changes to this event from the last one; the games are not Maelstrom Missions this time around, the Force Organisation Chart is the standard Age of Darkness (rather than the custom one they used before), the Allies Matrix is in full effect, and the scoring system has changed to place less weight on Favourite Game votes.

The change that is going to have the biggest effect on our armies is the Allies Matrix; sadly the Iron Warriors and Thousand Sons do not get on with each other. The Allies Matrix and the Event rules mean that none of our units count as scoring, which is going to put us at a bit of a disadvantage as we stand. We’ve figured that there are two approaches that we could adopt to this; either design lists with our current Legions to minimise the effect, or the nuclear option of starting new Legions that are better allies on the Matrix!

So, are you going to the doubles event in November?  What Legions are you taking, and what are you doing to prepare for it?

Cheers

Ikthelion & Ahmose

Khenetai Blade Occult

Hi all,

I thought I would talk about my favourite Thousand Sons unit this week.  I'm not sure why, but the Khenetai Blade Occult has really captured my imagination and are now a staple in my army.

I've used them in quite a few games and they have either proved nigh on unstoppable, or been blown to smithereens before making a contribution.

For those who are not familiar, they are an absolute blender in terms of the amount of attacks they can put out.  Especially if you run a full squad with the Mindsong of Blades rule.  In essence, this means your basic Blade is looking at five WS6 attacks on the charge at initiative with force.  This becomes even more fun if you roll on Biomancy, potentially giving you an extra three attacks each or upping your strength by three.

My army is predominantly based around a Zone Mortalis force, so I don't have any transports which somewhat hinders their performance on a conventional battlefield.  I probably should get around to adding some transports!

The models themselves were quick and easy to build.  You can definitely tell it's one of the newer kits with minimal amounts of flash.  Even more impressively, all of the swords were perfect and required none of the rigmarole of heating and cooling to get them the right shape.

I recently attended my first Throne of Skulls with Ikthelion and was presently surprised to be nominated for the Best Army award.  I was over the moon with this result as I had never entered any of the painting competitions before.  Even more surprising was that my Khenetai Blade Occult squad managed to win the Company of Legend award.  Clearly some warp fuelled trickery occurred as some of the other entrants were truly amazing.

Has anyone else had any success running Khenetai Blade Occult?  I saw quite a few other XV legion lists at the Throne of Skulls, but didn't see any other Khenetai.

Death Guard - Sicaran Venator

Hi all,

It's just a quick post this week as I still have a bit of a painting backlog for the upcoming Throne of Skulls this weekend.  As I write, I still have two HQ’s to finish, a squad of ten Veterans to base, as well as needing to apply transfers and weathering pigments.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute! 

Anyways, I thought I would talk about my Sicaran Venator this time.  

First off, I love the menacing appearance of the kit and how it shares the same squat look of tank destroyers from the Second World War.  The kit itself was a nice easy build that went together very smoothly.  I would definitely recommend keeping the gun separate whilst you paint the hull, especially if you are spraying it.  The neutron beam laser itself simply slots into a rather chunky hole and is fairly robust.  The cables are simply glued on top and can also easily be added once everything else has been painted.

The Venator was the first tank I got for my Death Guard, and I have used it in nearly every game.  It has always struggled to make an impact though, as I seem to be jinxed with bad dice rolls for it, with every shot always missing or bouncing off the enemy's armour.  

It has spent multiple games exchanging fire with Darien’s Venator, both harmlessly pinging away at each other for the entirety of the game.

I know some in the community are not a fan of the new Punisher variant and how the gun is supported on the turret of the tank.  I initially didn't like it, and thought they should have mounted the rotary cannon into the hull, much the same way they did with the neutron beam laser on the Venator.  However, after seeing the Punisher on Sunday at the Forgeworld Open Day, it has grown considerably on me, to the point where I’d quite like to buy one.

What have your experiences with the Sicaran been?

Airbrushing and Lube.

Hi all,

I was having a chat with a few of the other Bunnies about airbrushing and "dry tip" and we thought it might be a good idea to share our collective knowledge, plus hopefully learn a few new tips!

I'm sure everyone who airbrushes is already well aware of this phenomenon, but dry tip is where as you spray, paint accumulates and dries on the tip of the needle.  This very quickly causes the airbrush to start spluttering and results in lumps of semi dried paint being flung all over your mini.

Sometimes you can scrape the dried paint off the needle with a fingernail, but it rarely works.  This is a pain with siphon fed airbrushes, where you can remove the paint cup before removing the needle, but far more inconvenient if you are using a gravity fed airbrush.  This is due to the fact that the paint cups are often irremovable, so you have to decant the contents before removing the needle to prevent paint seeping into the trigger mechanism.

Before I go any further, I  need to stress that I am not an airbrushing expert.  However, I have had a lot of success with the following tips and techniques.

If I am using acrylic paints I always use Vallejo flow improver.  As I understand it, this retards the drying time of the paint slightly, reducing the opportunity for the paint to set on the tip of the needle.  The instructions state 1-2 drops of improver per 10 drops of paint, but I normally just half the acrylic thinner and add flow improver.  Whilst reducing dry tip noticeably, I haven't noticed any real difference it takes the time for my miniatures to dry.

Perhaps the best thing to reduce dry tip is lube.  I used to dread airbrushing, but as soon as I started using this stuff it turned out to be a game changer.  It has easily extended my spraying time to about 25-30 minutes without any issues at all.  Plus it is dead easy to use.

When I strip the needle I simply dip it into the Iwata tube, or rub a bit on using my fingers if I'm using Regdab.  It is that simple!  I've also found that putting two drops into the trigger assembly keeps the action nice and smooth as well as protecting the O ring.  The Iwata is super handy as you can dip the needle in.  However, the Badger is a much better buy and a single bottle will last for years.

The other trick I've found to reducing dry tip is to make sure your airbrush is kept immaculate inside. Any flecks of paint left inside attract more and before you know it - your tip is dry.  I predominantly use a mixture of Vallejo, Forgeworld, Games Workshop and Liquitex paints and have found the following cleaning regime to be very effective.

I normally wipe out as much of the paint left in the cup as I can, before spraying a blast of Premi Air Liquid Reamer into it.  I'll then use a cotton bud to wipe out all of the residue it will have dislodged.  I'll then squirt in some Medea Airbrush Cleaner.  This stuff is really cool, as it will make massive bubbles lifting the residue out.  To do this, simply spray using blowback(form a seal around the crown and spray).  Once I have done this I'll remove the needle, and repeat the above steps.  It sounds complicated, but once you have a routine you can accomplish it in about 2 minutes. 

These are also incredible useful for getting into the nooks and crannies of the airbrush. You can order them off Amazon or buy them in most supermarkets. 

What techniques do you use to avoid dry tip?

Textured rolling pin review and tutorial.

Hi all,

As you all know, I have recently started collecting a Thousand Sons force.  I was drawn to them due to both the fluff and technical aspects of a somewhat unique paint scheme.  I decided that I would try a different approach to basing as opposed to my normal techinque of sand and PVA, in order to push my abilities.

After quite a bit of googling, I came across textured rolling pins sold by Green Stuff World.

They offer an amazing range, but in the end I settled for plain, Egyptian, brick and some silicone rings.

The basic idea is that you use the smooth pin to remove any lumps, fingerprints or other annoying marks, before using the textured pins.  The silicone rings come in different sizes, so you can use the largest on the smooth pin, and the small on the textured pins so you get a good impression.  Having said that, if you are just making bases I've found that you don't really need the silicone rings.  They would come into their own if you started using them make large display boards.

After much experimenting I found it works best to dip the smooth roller in water immediately before using it.  With the textured pins, I do the exact same, but add in a good dose of talc which massively reduces the prospect of the green stuff sticking.

First mix up your green stuff.  I've found a ratio of 50/50 blue and yellow is perfect.

I then spread out a good sized lump with my fingers across the base.

Then use the smooth roller to get rid of any finger marks.  Be careful not to press too hard or you won't have enough green stuff left to make an impression on.

Next, use a textured rolling pin to make your impression.  Be sure to dip it in water with lots of talc so it doesn't catch.  Don't worry if excess talc stays on the green stuff.  Just dip it in water and it will lift it straight off.

Let the green stuff cure, then use a sharp scalpel to trim the excess away.

As an additional step, I've used PVA to glue sand in random patches before adding GW grass clumps and birch seed.

I've followed a similar principle, but used Super Sculpey and the Egyptian themed rolling pin to make chunks of fallen hieroglyph murals, before gluing them onto the base as rubble.  The beauty of using Super Sculpey for this is that when baked, it snaps with a sharp edge resembling broken stone.

What do you think?  Has anyone used any of the other rolling pins?

Throne of Skulls - Assault on Angelus Minor

Hi all,

I thought I would take a break from talking about my Death Guard this week and focus my attention on the upcoming Throne of Skulls.

This will be the second gaming event I have attended, the first being earlier this year with Ikthelion at the Heresy Doubles.

I'm planning on taking my budding Thousand Sons force if it can get 2000 points assembled, painted and made ready for war in time.  Historically, my normal gaming opponents are Ikthelion and Darien, with very much an emphasis on fun, narrative gaming.

My force was originally focussed on an escalation style Zone Mortals campaign, so my available models are somewhat skewed towards this.  I've poured over the event pack and it's clear Warhammer World want the games to be fun and friendly as opposed to ultra competitive/win at all costs.  The realist in me though is a bit worried I'm going to get kerb stomped in every game by super competitive lists/titans - bringing back rather horrible memories of Prospero for my legionaries!

At the minute I am planning on taking the following 2k list running Pride of the Legion:

HQ

Delegatus
Arcane litanies, Artificer Armour, ML1, Plasma Pistol, Force Weapon, Refractor Field,

Troops

Veteran Squad
Veterans x 9
Asphyx Shells, ML 1, 2 x Heavy Bolters with suspensor web, Vexilla
Sergeant
Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol, Power Sword

Legion Tactical Support Squad
Troops x 4
Volkie Calivers, Extra close combat weapon
Sergeant
Volkite Caliver, Artificer Armour

Legion Tactical Support Squad
Troops x 4
Volkite Caliver, Extra close combat weapon
Sergeant
Volkite Caliver, Artificer Armour

Legion Terminator Squad
Troops x 4
ML1, Tartaros Armour,
2x Chain Fist
1 x Autocannon
2 x Lightning Claw
2 x Combi plasma
Sergeant
1x Combi plasma and power fist

Legion Terminator Squad
Troops x 4
ML 1, Tartaros Armour
2 x Chain Fist
1 x Plasma Blaster
1 x Combi Melta
2 x dual Lightning Claw.
Sergeant
1 x Combi Melta, 1 x Chain Fist.

Elites

Contemptor Dreadnought
2 x Volkite Culverin

Khenetai Blade Occult Cabal 
1 x Blademaster
9 x Blades

Heavy Support 

Whirlwind Scorpius

I know I'm severely lacking in anti-armour, so I could swap to my Death Guard if the general consensus is that I am going to be owned.  Having said that, I'm more interested in having a good laugh and meeting some like-minded fellow hobbyists.

As this is my first solo event what tips would you give me?