Two-Handed Chainswords and Chainaxes

First Things First! This post WILL contain spoilers for Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver AND Void Stalker, ergo if you have not read those books, feel free to just look at the pretty pictures...

So since I last posted, (a whole two weeks ago) I have been fervently ordering bits and pieces for First Claw (and well, Night Lords in general) and I am pleased to say work is well under way on the 'assault element' of these sons of Nostromo. Now as anyone who has read the Novels, which I highly recommend, will know, this means the characters Uzas and Xarl.

Xarl is, it has to be said, probably my favourite character, I love the sarcasm that drips from him when he his taunting his foes and well just speaking in general, ADB really has a talent for writing his characters, I cannot wait to see a pre-heresy Night Lords novel...

Brother Xarl

Xarl is regarded by First Claw as being their best fighter in Close-Combat and the whole of 10th Company, and wields a nasty two-handed chainsword, which in game is going to either be used as a Power Sword or a Power Fist (more likely the second, but for the competition, I'm thinking the first seen as I can give him armourbane).

Extra 'Rippy' Chainsword

I don't know about you, but I would not want to be on the receiving end of that thing! Xarl also is renowned for taking lots of trophies, as the photo below shows:

Uncle Bill is that you?

While Xarl is a proficient swordsman, the same cannot be same for Uzas, a frothing madman, he is in fact the direct opposite of Xarl. So much so that he has been condemned to death for his crimes by Talos.

Blood for the Blood God!

Formerly the Sergeant of Fourth Claw, Uzas his a devoted follower of Khorne much to the disgust of the rest of First Claw, however, they put up with his blood-crazed rants and unreliability because... well who knows? In the novels I cannot help but end up feeling sorry for Uzas, especially by the end of Void Stalker, but he provided much humour through the first two novels... 

Skulls for the Skull Throne!

 What can be seen here, apart from my shoddy photography... is a pre-heresy style bolter, one of my favourite bits of the Night Lords Novels is the scene where Talos reminisces about how Uzas was rewarded by Malcharion the War-Sage (The Original Captain of 10th Company) for his excellent command skills and discipline, with a ceremonial bolter, a great contrast to the marine who stands today.

Milk for the Khorne Flakes? Wait what?!

This last photo is to show that Uzas is still a WIP, he still needs his second shoulder pad, on which shall be the beginnings of a cloak made of flayed skin, a part of the project that I am dreading... but will give my best shot...

lastly...

Obligatory Group Photo

First Claw

Okay, So me and a couple of friends are looking to enter the Kill Team event up at Nottingham (the 30th of June event) and I've been pondering an idea, which I really hope I can do justice...

Artwork by Shane Cook, genuinely love this piece, really captures First Claw in my eyes

First Claw, 10th Company VIII Legion

Talos - Combi-Bolter, Power Sword)
Cyrion - Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon
Xarl - Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Two-Handed Chainsword (Power Fist)
Uzas - Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe (Power Axe)
Mercutian - Heavy Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon
Variel - Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon

The Unit will have Veterans of the Long War, and Talos shall have the Gift of Mutation, which leaves me with 2 points, I was toying with the idea of giving them the mark of Tzeentch so they all had a 5+ invulnerable, but I don't think I can bring myself to do it...

In addition this tournament you are allowed to take 3 special rules:

Mercutian has Relentless
Xarl has Fleshbane
Uzas has Rage

I don't expect this army list to do well, to be honest, I'm sure it will have the crap kicked out of it, but... It's First Claw...

Coming In Hot...

So, in my last blog, I talked about the future and my Warhammer related 'new years resolutions' the last point that was mentioned was the Crashed Aquila Lander from the Battle of Macragge box-set. Firstly, I said this was no-longer available from Games Workshop... It is, mere hours after posting I discovered it on their website... Whoops! Anyhow, the person who I ordered it from, sold it to me for less than retail price, so I saved myself a few quid... Good news all round.

So my new piece of terrain arrived on Wednesday, and as I set about cleaning up the parts, I released, that I had absolutely no idea as to how I would paint this up... So off to the internet I went! Trawling through pictures of the crashed lander, most of them had a light paint scheme, which did not suit my purposes, I plan to make my first Realms of Battle board a desert scheme, and as such I wanted something that would contrast with the light coloured sand...

All was not lost though, with a little more digging I came across this:

I believe this was a Forge World paint scheme

This immediately struck me as being exactly what I wanted, so I sat there with my laptop and scenery, carefully examining the image to ascertain which parts of the crash would be red and would be black... a few hours later and this is sat in front of me:

And no-longer looking quite so graceful

Please keep in mind that these pictures are a work in progress, the basic scheme is done but it needs several washes and some serious dry-brushing before I will be happy with it.

Even more WIP than the picture before

I'm hoping when these are done they will be very visually striking against the board they are intended for.

In the left hand piece above, I intend to fill the hole, probably with EZ Water or a similar product, which will have lots of black wash in it, the hope is to make it look like fuel that has leaked and pooled amongst the wreckage.

A really boring piece of terrain in comparison...

Anyway, it's not just been about terrain recently, I did also find time to add a little paint to this guy, albeit, only this guy:

Big Mek Gubbinz!

Clever Bitz!

Anyway, until next time,

Ciao!

Thinking about the future...

Hello Everybody,

Welcome back, and a happy new year...

I'm going to be honest with you, not really a fan of new years, never end up having an awesome night, normally its a lot of wasted money and effort, on top of that, everyone makes new years resolutions that end up falling by the wayside by the end of January. In my attempt to stop this from happening, I am hereby writing down my 40K related Resolutions, in the hope that I will be able to look back a year from now, and say, yes I have done all of those, and this, this and this as well.

I'm sure none of these will be a surprise to most of you, anyway here goes:

1. Have a 2000 point Ork army painted up, with a minimum of an additional 1000 pts for the ability to play in Apocalypse Games.
2. Have a 2000 point Chaos army painted up, with a minimum of an additional 1000 pts for apocalypse sized games
3. Buy, convert and paint up a Realms of Battle and some themed scenery, so I am able to play games, whenever I feel like it.

Thus by the end of the year, I want to be able to have a choice of two armies and a board to play them on... now much of the stuff I need (in particular, for the chaos) I already have, which is good because it means I can keep the costs down.

With my new years resolutions in mind, I did a little searching online for a particular item that I never got round to purchasing when they were available and now I am just waiting for this to be delivered:

Anybody remember this little Gem, believe it or now, that was two box sets ago now!

 Now I'm just waiting on my prize to be delivered, apologises for the blue hue, this photo was not taken by me, and I'm sure when this gets delivered I wont be able to resist converting it a little, the aim is to remove the 'glass' in the cockpit, to add a chair and your mandatory dead pilot.

anyway, I'll let you know how I get on soon enough,

Ciao