Gaius Magnus Chapter Master of the Celestial Lions

Gaius Magnus (Lugft Huron) is done being painted by my friend Faolain. Check out his blog post about the project and see some great pics. I will have to post some pics of my own once I have him on his base.

Modeling update and my time as a new TO.

Well as I was given 11/11/11 off to honor all our great Veterans that have served our great nation I spent my time painting some Tac Marines that will one day become veterans of the 41st millennial. I got down to business and painted 6 Tac Marines that I posted some pics of in my last entry, as well as I built my 2nd Contemptor Dread but not the arms (need to order more magnets), and got some last minute items together for the first 40k tournament I would be running.

Lets start off with the Tac marines. When I first started working on the idea for this army I used the Space Marine Painter over at BolterandChainsword.com and it looked like this...

Well I think I got close to that with my actual models.

As I said as well that I put together the body of my 2nd Contemptor. I needed to make his base before I could really start putting it together as I was unsure how he would be standing on the base. I did not want to do another column on the base like I did for the first one, so I decided to go for some steps like I did for some of the Terminators. So here is a pic with the first Contemptor.

Besides all this modeling and painting I was the TO for what will hopefully become a monthly 40k tournament at my FLGS. It was a simply Win/Loss format with no battle points. I was going to make some of my own missions but with this being the first time around I figured it would be best to use something a little more established... like the AdepticCon missions. I did catch some flack for letting everyone know that I would be allowing Forge World units to be used as long as they had the model or a very close stand in (regular drop pod can count as a dreadnought drop pod), but that they must have the newest book/Data sheet for what they would want to use. All FW items would first have to be approved by me and that no formations, super heavies, or gargantuan creatures would be allowed. In the end though no one even brought any FW so it did not matter, then again only 4 people came. But even though turn out was low we were able to give out over $100 in prizes, everyone got to play each other, and I got to watch some interesting games. There were very few questions overall and everything went smoother then I could have hoped.

The tournament ended with Blood Angels taking 1st going 3-0 and received $65 in GW product. Best painted when to Necrons and received $25 in GW product, and the Best Sportsman when to a Space Wolves player who also received $25 in GW product.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures for you guys, but if you would like me to take some of the next tournament let me know and I will be happy to show off some of our local armies. Heck maybe next time we can talk Faolain from http://awakeningynnead.blogspot.com to join in, I am sure we would be the top contender for best painted just by showing up.

Hormagaunts, Drop Pod, and Tac Marines! Oh My!

Well as I don't have a bunch to show this week I thought that I may share some of my Hormagaunts with you. I will show what little progress I have made this week on the Celestial Lions later in the post.

Well the Tyranids were my first army for 40k  when I started 10+ years ago. Unfortunately they are quite a bit out of date as I did not touch them at all during 4th edition and only really got the 5th ed codex and have not gotten any of the new units at this point. One of my favorite Tyranid units of all has always been the lowly Hormagaunt. In this edition they have really come into their own. With proper upgrades the Hormagaunt can destroy most vehicles, kill Monstrous Creatures, and wipe out groups of infantry in 1 turn of combat.

At this point my favorite unit load out for the Hormagaunts with my old 3rd ed list style is the Super-Gaunt with Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands. The reason this load out work well in my build is because I have very few units that can deal with tanks, and fewer that can take care of MCs like Wraithlord that are common in my area. I have read allot of forums about how useless Adrenal Glands because most people believe that Gaunt should never be assaulting vehicles. I feel that in a more of a "Horde" style list that everything needs to be able to damage vehicles as you don't want to be left out in the open with your opponents Marines, Orks or Dark Eldar staying in their vehicles and using fire ports or open topped rules to destroy you while staying safe in their boxs.

I have had several games where the Hormagaunts have paid for them selves several times over. Recently a couple of these scenarios have been game changers. In one game I was able to have my 1 unit of SuperGaunts outflank (thanks to Hive Commander) and by the end of the game vs Space Marines they were able to destroy 2 Rhinos, each with 10 man tac squads and a Whirlwind tank. In my latest 1,000 point game vs Eldar half of my gaunts were destroyed by flamers from a Wraithlord in 1 turn. But due to taking my casualties from the front I was able to deny my opponent the charge. In the following turn I was able to charge 2 Wraithlords, killing 1 on the charge and killing the 2nd in my opponents turn leaving me able to charge a unit of guardians in my next turn and wiping them out on the charge. In the last turn of the game I had the SuperGaunts back track and charge the Avatar, killing him as well.

I find it interesting that an opponent my spend 2-3 turns shooting a some Hiveguard while leaving the Hormagaunts to do far more damage then the HG could dream up. In the end I think you need to give some respect to the lowly Hormagaunt.

Celestial Lions Update:
I finally received my Battleforce from 'Ard Boys. I spent a day or 2 cutting out all the pieces off the sprue and organizing them in smaller bins. I was disappointed in the amount of ranged and melee special weapons. It looks like I am going to have to put my Instant Mold and Green Stuff skills to use. Anyway I was able to build 5 tac marines, I was also able to pick up some Mud Wash and Ultramarines Blue to put some finishing touches on the Drop Pod and Contemptor Dread. I have also started cleaning up the 2nd Contemptor Dread so that I can get it build so that I no longer have to use a Chaos Dread to stand in for it during games.

Pics!