A Tale of One Gamer - Part Nine

Whew! This the last post of 2012 and the last post in my A Tale of One Gamer series.

The last pic, for those unfamiliar with Tyranids is a Tyrannofex and the thing is bigger than a tank! Here is the final Tyranid list of units:

HQ
Hive Tyrant
Tyrant Guard Brood (2)
Tyranid Prime

Troops
Tyranid Brood (3)
Genestealer Brood w/Broodlord (10)
Termagant Brood (18)
Hormagant Brood (16)
Hormagant Brood (16)

Elites
Lictor Brood (2)
Zoanthrope Brood (2)

Fast Attack
Ravener Brood (3)
Spore Mine Cluster (4)
Spore Mine Cluster (4)

Heavy Support
Carnifex Brood (2)
Tyrannofex

I far exceeded my goal as my army is up to 86 models and 2300 points (basically the cost of the Tyrannofex). While I am finished with the A Tale of One Gamer series, I have decided to push this army on to 3000 points as I have time. I still want to add a Trygon (or two - I easily have enough units to build a two force structure army) and a second unit of Tyranids. I also like to max out each branch selection so I need another Fast Attack (the second spore mine unit doesn't really count as I would probably field a single unit of six) and another Elite choice - probably a Gargoyle Brood and Hive Guard Brood respectively.

One of the goals of this project was to concentrate on models I already owned. I bought the Tyrant Guard Brood, Lictor Brood, Zoanthrope Brood, and Tyrannofex - everything else came from my storage closet!

This has been a lot of fun. I don't know if I'll do another series like this next year, but I definitely plan to follow the 500 points/month model the next time I build a new 40k army. The pace was quite leisurely for me and left me time to work on other projects. Splitting between two armies was a great way to avoid burnout as well as each unit felt fresh when I sat down to paint!

The next thing I want to do with these armies (besides play some games) is set up my photo equipment and get some action shots with terrain - next year!

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Eight

November sees the completion of my Red Scorpions army at 2000 points!

Of course, I've already shown the Land Raider. The remaining additions gave some much needed speed to my force. The bike squad and attack bike will be fielded as one unit and the Assault Squad will normally support the bikes or the Vanguard Veteran squad.

So the final tally...

HQ
Space Marine Captain
Space Marine Command Squad
Space Marine Librarian

Troops
Space Marine Tactical Squad (10)
Space Marine Tactical Squad (10)
Space Marine Squad Squad (8)

Elite
Space Marine Terminator Squad (5)
Dreadnought

Fast Attack
Space Marine Bike Squad (3 + Attack Bike)
Space Marine Assault Squad (5)
Vanguard Veterans (5)

Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader

Basically painted over the course of four months! I discovered that by alternating between the Space Marines and Tyranids, it was easier to keep the drive going and not burn out slapping the same colors on models day after day. It was also easy to paint 500-points a month and left me time to work on other projects.

When I started this project, part of the goal was to paint things I had tucked away in my game room. The only thing I purchased for the Red Scorpion army were the Assault Marine box and the Land Raider doors from Forge World. After all this, I STILL have enough unpainted kits to add another 1000 points easy, but I am planning on starting ANOTHER Space Marine army for 2013 that I've wanted to do for a very long time...

Anyway, this was a fun experiment - next month will see the completion of my 2000 point Tyranid army!

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Seven

Last month I managed to bring my Tyranid force up to 1500 points...

This gives me one HQ, five Troops(!), one Elite (or two if I split up the Lictors), and one Heavy Support (a pair of Carnifex). Now for the fun part - because I already have so many Troop choices, getting to 2000 points in December will be easy with the addition of one of tank-sized monsters and one or two small units. I have no idea how effective this army will be on the table, but that is really secondary for now. When I get the chance to run some games, I can rework the list while I fill in extra units toward 3000 points!

Red Scorpions Land Raider

Ok - I was supposed to be painting Tyranids for my 'A Tale of One Gamer' this month and I have made progress on that front (pics next week). However, I have also been working on a Space Marine Land Raider Crusader for my Red Scorpions army and rather than wait for next month I wanted to feature the tank in a post of it's own.

I am extremely pleased with the results. The skull and wings emblem on the upper hull was painted freehand which was something I've never really attempted. I took a photo of the top of the model, imported the image into CorelDraw, and designed the graphic to size. I printed this to use as a reference. After painting the hull grey, I used a white colored pencil to sketch my design on the hull and then carefully blocked in the shapes. When I was satisfied with the emblem, I highlighted in the same manner as the rest of the tank.

The side and front hatches are from Forge World. I painted the crew model as a Techmarine rather than a standard trooper to break up the monotony of grey and gold. Right now the model is in pristine condition, right from the manufactorum, but I plan on adding battle damage and weathering.

Tyranids coming next week...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Six

This month's 40k painting has brought me to 1500-points...

The addition of the Space Marine Librarian gives me psychic support that my force has been lacking so far and it's never bad to have an extra character. The Command Squad adds extra support for my Space Marine Captain and helps keep from being so easily targeted. Finally, I like to field lots of Troops in my army for those all important objective grabs so I painted up a second Tactical Squad. My army is up to 46 models which is very respectable for Space Marines!

I've decided to target my armies for 1850-points for now which seems to be a fairly popular tournament point total... not that I'll be taking part in such events, but the logic behind the total is to allow a good variety of stuff while still finishing battles in a reasonable amount of time, which suits me perfectly. For November expect to see my Red Scorpions gain reinforcements in the form of a couple of Heavy Support choices! Back to Tyranids for October...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Five

40k Friday - Here are the results of another round of my 'A Tale of One Gamer' project for August!

This brings me around 1000 points and gives me a battlefield legal force. The Hive Tyrant gives me terrifying combat abilities while the Tyrant Guard will help keep this monster on the table. Though they lost a bit of power in 6th edition, Genestealers are still one of the scariest close combat units around and I'm happy to add them to my army. I've pretty much reached the end of what I had on hand (the Tyrant Guard are my first new purchase for this project). I still have a carnifex kit and a handful of gaunts so going forward they will make up the next round of reinforcements. Not sure what I'll add to make up the rest of my next 500 point goal - off to the store!

I'm planning to play the first game of a mini-campaign in September and will post the results when I can.

More Space Marines next month as I try to get them to 1500 points...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Four

After a fast start (I finished my Vanguard Veterans way back on July 9th) I didn't have as much time to paint as I'd hoped, but I did manage to add two units to my Red Scorpions army...

These units bring me up to 1020 points and (more importantly) the addition of the Scout Squad gives me my second Troops choice - I now have a legal army for the game table. By the end of August, with the gribblies sitting on my desk, I should have at least 1000 points of Tyranids as well and I'll be able to play my first game!


Badab Bloggers

40k Friday

Progress on my 'A Tale of One Gamer' project so far for July...

Red Scorpions Vanguard Veterans

Still going through the new 40k rule book - I'll have some general impressions by next weekend, maybe for my 40k Friday post. 

40k Friday

WIP update on my ToOG project with the first of my Vanguard Veterans in action with the help of Photoshop!

As a vanilla chapter, I've chosen to paint veteran Red Scorpions models with the codex white helmet (and the sergeant with red).


Badab Bloggers

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Three

Again on 40k Friday it's time to post an update on my ToOG project. This month I painted the equivalent of a Battleforce Box set of Tyranids, built from sprues I had tucked away in the cupboard, which comes out to roughly 500-points. The first two pics are one unit - I just couldn't cram them all into the photo without rearranging my desktop photography set up!

Next month it's back to my Red Scorpions Space Marines. I have a Scout Squad on the table to fill my second Troops slot and a box set of Vanguard Veterans up next. Depending on how that goes I may add a Command Squad or another character if I have time. I'd like to make it to 1000-points if I can...

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Two

This week for 40k Friday, I want to show the results of May, my first month of my ToOG project. I set out to paint the Space Marines of The Assault on Black Reach box set as the core of my new army - The Red Scorpions! Right off the bat, I decided to replace the captain that comes with that set with the multipart kit I also had in the closet. The rest of the models are from the set, with the addition of brass Red Scorpion badges from Forge World.

Just realized I complete forgot to 'weather' the Dreadnought - oh, well, I'll fit that in later this week. This comes to roughly 635 points which is a good start for the army and I am rather pleased with the results so far. I haven't decided exactly what to add next except a second Troops choice to make this a 'legal' army. I'll probably add a Command Squad to back up my Captain as well...

WARHAMMER 40K PLAYERS TAKE NOTE: I am a terrible Warhammer player. I tend to build armies with units I want to paint that look cool. I rarely spend a lot of time weighing point values other than to get the totals right. Do not follow my growing army list as a path toward victory on the table. You have been warned!

Ok, June is the month of Tyranids! My next ToOG post will feature my first 500(ish) points of my SECOND new army.


Badab Bloggers

A Tale of One Gamer - Part One

Anyone familiar with Games Workshop and White Dwarf will have seen the article series 'A Tale of Four Gamers'. For those not acquainted with the series, it features... well... four gamers (HA)! But what these guys are up to is collecting a new army in a manner that many of us at home might - assuming we might maintain a small amount of discipline. Each participant selects his new army and a Battleforce (a pre-packaged collection designed to provide a small mixed force of a GW army), with the goal of painting it in one month. The goal of the next month is to add enough troops to make a 'codex legal' army and get in at least one game - maybe 750 or 1000 points. The third month is 1500 points and the fourth 2000 points, with a game in each...

So, what am I on about? I'm going to attempt this project solo by building TWO new Warhammer 40k armies and alternating months! That means TWO 2000 points armies finished over the course of eight months... my problem will be maintaining focus for that long as I am riddled with Gamer ADD. I also have no plans to suspend work on my Battle of the Boyne collection (the Warfare Miniatures Horse packs will be out soon), so this will be quite the challenge!

Something I also want to avoid is going broke pursuing this little project (GW kits are pricy). With that in mind, I decided to limit my initial army choices and my 'Battleforce' selection to the piles of unpainted plastic that I already have languishing in storage cupboards. My first choice had to be Space Marines! I have a 2000+ point Crimson Fist army and a mountain of kits purchased with megalomaniacal dreams of expansion. However, I want to paint something new so I'm going to add another chapter to my Imperial collection. I am a huge fan of Forge World's Imperial Armour books and the Red Scorpions are featured in two sets - The Anphelion Project and the Badab War. They have a very different color scheme than the Crimson Fists, but will look great allied along side them for Apocalypse games.

My second choice, based on models I already have is Tyranids (also featured in the Anphelion Project). I don't remember buying the models, but at some point I acquired a large box of plastic sprues for these alien monsters. The new 'How to Paint Citadel Miniatures' book has a chapter on painting Hive Fleet Kraken Tyranids using mostly washes that I am keen to try out - it looks like an extremely fast way to paint a force which will be very useful with a horde army.

While I do have lots of sprues around, I don't have an actual Battleforce box set for either army. For the Space Marines I do have the Assault on Black Reach set which is close. This gives me a squad of Tactical Marines, a squad of Terminators, a Dreadnought, and a Space Marine Captain - around 500 points depending on the options I choose and a good start toward my legal codex army (all I am lacking is one more Troops choice). For my Tyranids, my initial group will simply be cobbled together from what I have on hand which looks like 18 Termagants, 8 Hormagaunts, 3 Tyranid Warriors, and a Carnifex - roughly 450 points, again depending on the options. Expanding this force will require an HQ (and a few more Hormagaunts - a legal unit would be 10+ models).

Ok - that's four 'units' for each force which gives me a fairly relaxed painting schedule considering I can allot a whole week to single figures in some cases. I think the Space Marines will be up first - I'll post WIP shots as I get on...