Death From Above, Or Some Other Angle!

Greets! Just a quick post to show off my Ulthwe Windriders. I have been using them in quite a few battle reports in semi painted semi glued states. They have been in this sorry state for 10 or more years but I have finally gotten my paint on and finished them. When I first constructed them I wanted to use them as pirates hence their completely illegal meltagun and flamer. But since my newfound 40K obsession I finally got round to finishing them.  

The central figure is banking ever so slightly. Probably making whooshing sound as well.

Windriders have very few options; either with twin shuriken catapults or a shuriken cannon. Hopefully the unsettling plethora of new rules emerging from the Space Marine codex will give these fellers some also over the top  weaponry like mini nukes or syphilis cannons. 

Group shot.

Hopefully in the near future they will be instrumental in the Aeldari resurgence whereby they win the war against Chaos, the Imperium and all the other enemies of  my space elfs. So far their recent exploits have sent tiny discs of sharpened plastic into Orks, Tyranids, Tau and Space Marines, all wearing just a black undercoat. Now they have highlighted weapons and helmets the sky's the limit. Possibly.  

Thanks for reading.

The Dy Celiac IV Eradication

Brother Captain Prophylactic's mood was dark. Following an embarrassing defeat a moon cycle ago his forces had been forced to return to their fortress while rebels and insurgents openly mocked the Astartes with graffiti and pamphlets ridiculing their prowess. Civil disobedience had reached critical levels and now a large group of rebels were marching on the Blood Angel fortress. It was hard to tell exact numbers but Brother Sergeant Buttafucco estimated over 200,000. This was possibly incorrect as ever since Buttafucco had been struck by a xenos mind ray during the Gorgonzolan rebellion, his mental acuity had been in question. All Astarte forces were prepared for combat. As the fortress automated gun defense systems activated the rebels marched on regardless heedless to their own casualties (which were huge). As the commander looked on through the vid screens the fortress was rocked by an enormous explosion. The vox came alive with status reports when one voice took precedence, it was Brother Cuppola from the lower courtyard. "Be advised brothers, hostiles in the courtyard assistance imperative!".

Brother Captain Prophylactic then gave the order "Brothers, eradication protocols, lower courtyard, converge and destroy!".

The Food Riot Ambush

Brother Captain Prophylactic watched on the comm the peaceful demonstration outside the food warehouses. Since arriving on the Imperial planet of Dy Celiac IV he had developed a seething hatred for the surly barely human population that resided there. Originally posted as a relief force to assist against Tau aggression, the Blood Angels had been left stranded when Tau Fire Warriors in an act of revenge activated EMP devices that had destroyed transport off world effectively cutting them off. That was 4 Terran orbits ago and of late food shortages and several 'Black rage' incidents had soured the already shaky relationship between humans and Astartes. Prophylactic then noticed a piece of unsanctioned wall propaganda by the main gates of the foodatorium building. It simply read "Blud Angles Go Home!". Filled with anger he sent out a Vox order. "Brother Lieutenant Solarium, deploy for crowd eradication drill. Location 473PQ Gamma." and then muttered under his breathe "I'll give you Blud Angles alright!".

Pansexual Death from Above!

Good evening (or whatever). Some more painted toy soldiers to display! More Aeldari. This time I have finished 10 Swooping Hawks. I have used these models in their less aesthetically pleasing undercoated and wingless versions but now here they are in their full dropping grenades on the unsuspecting then opening up with their highly shooty glory. Long ago when I purchased these lads Games Workshop in their wisdom put 5 identical models in their blister packs, hence ten models with only two poses. So painting this squad wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs but I managed to power through after a mere 25 years. 

I have always had a soft spot for Swooping Hawks even in third edition when they had a 5+ armour save and nearly every weapon in the game had a -1 save modifier. They had the ability to drop up to three frag grenades in their 36" (yes thirty six) move. Now in 8th edition they have a much more respectable 4+ save and the grenade now cause mortal wounds on a 6+. What is also rather sweet is their assault 4 lasblaster guns. They also can deploy from the sky or leave the battlefield to redeploy elsewhere next turn. I like them a lot but in all probability will struggle against tough armies.

I suppose the only other stuff to say about them is I painted them to fit my Ulthwe colour scheme (mainly black, whitish weapons and Hawk Turquoise applied at random) I did also paint any sashes or ribbons red to tie them in with Ynnari in case I get my triumvirate painted. There isn't an Exarch in this squad (for now anyway) as back in the day Exarch's were independent heroes rather than unit champions, I may just paint an Swooping Hawk rune on one of the helmets to represent an Exarch with bog standard equipment. 

The now customary goblin green painted over black sand. As previously mentioned, Aeldari like to bring clumps of scented mosses to strew around them during battle.

Aeldari like to wander about the Imperial guard staging area, or it would seem that way considering a few scant weeks ago there were lots of Imperial troops parading around here in another blog post!

So that's all folks for now. Tune in next time when I may justify how a couple of chaos thugs can manage to inveigle their way into the entourage of a company commander.

Thanks for reading.

Androgynous Scouting Party

Salutations. After a lot of life type distractions I have finished some more models. As the last few games I've played were all Genestealer Cults orientated, I naturally finished up some Eldar.  Here's the blurb....

Scouts of Ulthwe

So as I've gone with Ulthwe as my craftworld of choice I needed to get some troop slots filled in. I used some black primer some grey drybrushing and some sepia ink for the white weapons. One of my faster turnarounds. Of course I had to emphasise something so I thought the luxurious leather knee length boots would give these guys the impression of rugged outdoorsie types who like to kick back in alien S & M clubs at the weekend. It's been a real culture change for me not to drybrush ALL weapons silver but as the fluff says; Eldar weapons are plastic, so they should look it.

The central model with the sword is now completely obsolete but an absolutely cracking model. He can of course double up as the Alaitoc sniper character if I ever decide to piss all over my gaming principles and go for a more competitive army.

The scout on the left is particularly well endowed. A miscast rifle barrel on the model made it's way into my loose lead order and I never threw it out. some years later, a dremel, brass rod and the tip of a plastic Eldar lasgun coalesced into the magnificent Aeldari weapon you see before you.

The final five models are much the same as the rest but for a sense of completeness are depicted here, the only thing to note about Eldar scouts is they really like to kneel down when they shoot.  

It was only when I painted up these guys that I realised what nice sculpts they are. Plenty of folds in the robes and almost expressive helmets. What is also very cool about them is they have very interesting poses. They also fill out my Kill Team, unless I decide to beggar myself getting a few other expansions for it. So another 14 furtive types have joined the Continental Drift Painting family and will hopefully be featured in a batrep in the near future.

Thanks for reading.

My moldlines brings all the boys to the yard!

 Howdy. My rather lackluster painting progress has finally improved! Yes, I've managed to get a few off my to do list. So here's what I done;  

 Brood Brothers

My Genestealers have been bolstered by some rather ancient Imperial Guard models. A purplish tint to the skin and some dull clothes denotes these are members of The Drabb Butchers - the name of my cult that are an offshoot of The Innerwyrm Cult, hailing from an abattoir world. You will probably notice there is a trooper pointing forward with a 33% arm addition. This is trooper Urkk, he normally tucks an extra arm under his uniform but he just got  bit excited in this picture. 

Ready and willing to throw themselves in front of a character at the slightest whiff of danger.

The Deliverance of Skorlax

Patriarch Glurcastes was troubled, his long planned insurrection was imminent but several seemingly unrelated chances put the plans into turmoil. Firstly, was the unprecedented comet that had bathed Skorlax in poisonous radioactivity that wiped out 97% of the human populace here. The alien genes of his family had protected them from the worst depredations of the comet but rendered his hybrid children sterile. The only hope to propagate his line was with the dozen or so pure-strain genestealers that remained. Then came the invaders, first Aeldari, shortly followed by Orks - who gave battle on one of the larger urbanizations on Skorlax. As the Aeldari fought and defeated the Orks more and more green-skins made planet-fall to do battle. When vast numbers had dropped onto the surface of Skorlax, the Aeldari disappeared. Knowing that a large force of Orks on the planet would ruin any attempt to contact the star children, Glurcastes sent out the telepathic summons to all his kin. Leave the mines and eradicate the invaders!

The first Battle of Skorlax was an  attempt by the Seer Council of Ulthwe to entice (sub)Waargh Tonkwappa into a large scale ground invasion. To deal with a threat that directly affected Ulthwe holdings. That threat (as is evident by the blurb above) is Genestealers, in the form of The Cult Of The Four Armed Emperor. I had recently purchased the new Codex and Dylan obligingly gave me a game. As the Ork Codex was new also both of us would have little idea of what to expect. What would be a given though, is that there would be plenty of close combat!