Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Armies ready for the NOVA Open!

I've been in a mild panic mode about the army for the upcoming Nova Open, and behind the scenes have been writing list after list trying to find the right balance of minis and points and effectiveness and worries about air travel and so on. It's all finally crystallized however and I'm now officially done and ready to go to the show! I'm participating in two of the Horus Heresy events while I'm out there, the Asymmetrical Warfare campaign on Friday and the Escalation campaign on Saturday, both of which require multiple army lists at varying point values. The idea however was to use as many of the same models in each version of the force to cut down on what I had to paint, as well as what I'd have to pack and travel with.

The Asymmetrical Warfare campaign starts off with a tiny 500 point force, using the Zone Mortalis combatant force org. That's a tough point level for Heresy armies I find, so I went with a basic tactical squad for the requisite Troops choice, a fairly low-calorie Centurion as the HQ and a unit of Terminators for the Elites slot.

The second tier of the campaign bumps the armies up to 750, which provides enough points to add an assault squad for a much needed 2nd Troops choice and a rhino for the tac squad to hopefully get them up to the objective markers.

Finally is the 1000 point army which fulfills both the largest of the Asymmetrical Warfare and smallest of the Escalation campaign the following day. The further 250 points allows for a much-needed psyker for the force both strategically and fluff-wise. I find a pair of Consuls at lower point values to be far too eggs-in-one-basket-y, but until we get the Prospero book later in the year I'm only allowed to take a librarian/sorceror as a secondary or tertiary HQ choice. Boo! The Terminator squad gets a couple more marines to bulk up the unit as well, and provide the Centurion and the Sorcerer a bit more of a bodyguard.

Now we're talking! The second stage of the Escalation campaign makes a big jump up to 1850 points, giving the army a significant boost to its lethality - A unit of veterans joins the force to act as bodyguards for the Praetor (same model as the centurion before, but with better stats and an equipment boost) and the Sorcerer, and who are also joined by an Apothecary to hopefully keep 'em alive. Their own personal Land Raider transport doesn't hurt either. The Terminators drop back down to a 5-man squad, but theyalso get a Land Raider to ferry 'em upfield, so that's not a bad tradeoff. Finally, the ever-popular twin-Kheres Contemptor Mortis provides some anti-air cover for the force.

Finally, the Escalation campaign tops out at 2150 points, which adds the Damocles command rhino, the Techmarine and his creepy automata to the force. Th Damocles provides a little extra fun with the lance strike, better deep strike capability and reserve rolls, and makes for an unusual centerpiece for the army. I'm rather excited to get out there and play in the campaigns, and though I don't expect to do particularly well from a win/loss standpoint I'm sure I'll have a heck of a good time getting crushed!

It's been quite a while since I updated the painting chart and was quite pleased with how many boxes I got to tick over to green! It's become apparent I may have built just a few too many HQ choices...

Last but most assuredly not least, I want to point out the rather excellent raffles going on at the NOVA Open this year, which include several fantastic armies (including a Bad Moons Ork Army that I was honored to contribute to) and the money for which goes to an excellent cause. You need not be present to win, and the armies will be shipped anywhere worldwide! Absolutely worth checking out!

NOCF Charity Ork Army - The penultimate session!

Real Life(tm) continues to be heinous to my schedule of late, so while the following pics were taken back on Saturday I'm only just now able to get them posted up on the ol' blog. That said, Da Boyz are 99% complete!

I say 99% as it's inevitable that during the sealant step that I identify some step of the process that I've completely overlooked until then. In this case, I missed out on painting the tongues on all of the Orks with open mouths. Doh!

That final cleanup notwithstanding the units are complete and I am really happy with 'em. It was an absolute blast to paint some Orks again after so long and was really refreshing to use the strong greens and yellows - colors rather underutilized in my other recent projects! I'm planning on getting them touched up and boxed up to send over to the rally point for the army later this week, and then it's time to dive back into the Heresy - got a Box o' Resin Joy heading my way from Forge World with some new Thousand Sons goodies to add to the force, can't wait!

NOCF Charity Ork Army - Allmost... Alllllllmost...

Oh so very close to the finish line now! Over the last few days I've been doing battle with the house refinance so that's eaten up some time, but I did manage to finish off the detailing on Da Boyz!

Got all the black flames done, added in the copper jewelry and bullet casings, and got the spot colors laid in on the Rokkit Boyz. Also went back and picked out all the little teef and leather I'd missed here and there one the way through the lot. Phew!

Next up is a little further work on the Rokkits, then on to the bases - hurtling towards the end!

In other NOCF news:
-Zab has started laying in the base shading on some Ad Mech goodness!
-Greg has started working on the Grots and pressed on with the Deff Dredd (which is shaping up to be a corker)!
-Celso has done a frankly astonishing job on a battlewagon for the force as well!

More to come!

NOCF Charity Ork Army - Heavy metal

Real Life(tm) has been a bear recently so not as much brush time as I would have hoped. I did manage to squeeze in a couple more colors since Saturday, but sadly I've fallen well behind my initial plan to crank out two colors a day. Curses!

Got the boltgun metal painted in and washed with a pass of Agrax Earthshade, which gives the metal an oily, rusted look which is rather fitting for the Orks! Also started a bit of the shoulder pad detailing, painting on the Bad Moons typical flame motif here and there.

So far it's just been the yellow flames on the black shoulder pads, but the yellow pads will also get the treatment with some black flames (a couple have been done so far). Once those are done it'll be time to pick out all the leather and fur which should really help the look. Right around this mid-point is where I usually start to get discouraged in the batch process but I have to say I'm still really digging painting them. If only I had more time to do so! Planning to carve out a good chunk of time this coming weekend with a goal of getting them done up to the point where I can start painting the bases. Fingers crossed!

NOCF 2016 Charity Ork Army - Old Yeller...

Got a fair bit of brush time in this morning, and after getting the eyes in I got cracking on with the next set of colors for the Boyz!

Started off by basecoating any area intended to be yellow with Vallejo Beast Brown, which covers fairly well over the black and provides the subsequent yellow a bit more of a warm tone. I decided that I'd do up half of the models with black trousers and yellow shirts, while the other half would have yellow trousers and black shirts which will help distinguish the two mobs as well as keep me from going mental painting 40 of the exact same pattern 40 times!

Next up to bring the color up a bit the brown got a further pass with Vallejo Scrofulous Brown, which is a nice ochre color and shines nicely under the following step.

The last step of the session was the additional highlight of Vallejo Medium Yellow. This is one of the Model Air range of paints and is extremely translucent, it's almost more of a glaze consistency when applied with a regular brush. The shoddy pic-in-progress shot blows out a lot of the highlight it seems. Next up is cleaning up all the areas that will be black, then on to all the leather colors. They're starting to look like proper Bad Moons now!

NOCF 2016 Charity Ork Army - What big Teef you have...

...Da better ta bite yer wif!

In the process of refinancing my house so it's been frantic home repair for the last several days to take care of some cosmetic stuff prior to the appraiser making his rounds. That being the case, not as much painting time as I would have liked - just one color a day for the last two days, but it was a fun couple sessions.

Painted in the teeth with a basecoat of Vallejo Earth, followed by a pass of Bone White. They'll get a final highlight of Ghost Grey in the next step to give 'em a bit more pop, but I have to say that getting the teeth painted in really snaps the models into focus. ...Metaphorically speaking that is, my actual camera skills are as questionable as ever!

In recent NOCF news, Zab over at Almost Perftec got cracking on with several of the individual models that will be up for auction. Definitely worth checking out! In addition, the raffle for the two beautiful Dark Age armies painted by Dave Taylor are ending this coming Sunday!

I have a reasonably open schedule on Saturday so I'm hoping to get at least four more colors on to make up for lost time. 'Ere we go, as they say!

NOCF 2016 Ork Charity Army - It's not easy being green...

...But it's getting easier!

Few more steps on the Ork skin last night - nothing glamorous but it's actually been rather fun!

The first stage was to paint in the flesh again with Warboss Green, followed by a mix of Warboss Green and Nurgling Green, hitting successively less of the area with each pass and leaving the darkest green in the recesses.

Next up is a highlight of pure Nurgling Green on the uppermost surfaces of the skin where it would catch the light.

The last step of the evening is a pass of Waywatcher Green glaze to help blend the layers together. Much like the final step Monday night, the glaze really needs to dry thoroughly so the models are left to dry overnight. Moving right along!

In addition to the Ork and Space Marine armies that will be raffled off later in the year, there are already a couple forces up on the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation site, both painted by the phenomenally talented Dave Taylor - Definitely worth a look, and it's for a great cause!

NOCF 2016 Charity Ork Army - Green is best!

'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go!

It had been cold and snowy for the last five days here and as such while the Orks for the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation raffle were all built they'd been hanging fire until the weather turned. Which it has! Over the next week it's supposed to get up to 85F (gotta love springtime in the Rockies!) and I was able to get all of 'em prepped and primed after work yesterday. I'm planning on going through the process step-by-step and documenting it here on the blog, so that you will be as sick of Orks by the end as I am. Hah! The plan is to try and get two or three colors a day done until they're all complete, so today's post is just the first two colors.

The paint recipes were provided to everyone working on the force in order to ensure that all of the models end up with the same color scheme (more or less, they are Orks after all), and as it generally the case I started off with the skin tones first as it's the sloppiest part of the recipe for the orks and any overspill onto the clothing will be cleaned up in subsequent passes. The recipe calls for a GW Warboss Green as the base color, so the models got a couple thinned coats.

The second step in the recipe is a wash of Thrakka Green which helps darken down the tone and settle into the recesses for some initial shading. You gotta let washes dry thoroughly before moving on so this was the last step of the evening (the wash is still damp in the pic as you can see), the models are left to dry overnight in preparation for the next couple skin colors on deck for tonight's painting session! 40 models is really about the limit for batch painting for me - any more than that and it REALLY starts to get tedious. Still, I'm really enjoying this project so far, it's been ages since I painted any Orks, and the color palate is radically different than what I've been working on recently which is very nice.

A couple other fellow bloggers have started posting their work for the NOCF as well, and I'll do my best to keep up with them (drop me a line if you're taking part and I've missed your posts):

Zab at Almost Perftec is painting up some Malifaux and Wrath of Kings models that are looking awesome!
Greg Hess at Feed Your Nerd is working up some Grots and a Flying Deff Dread!

More links to come as people get cracking!

NOCF 2016 Charity Ork Army - Orks, orks, orks, orks...

Orks!

Earlier this year the phenomenally talented painter Zab over at Almost Perftec suggested that I speak with the further thoroughly talented Dave Taylor of his eponymous blog about pitching in on the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation project for this year, and I am honored to have been invited to do so! One of the two 40k armies that will be up for raffle is a rather fun airbase-themed Ork force, and the various participants put in requests for their preferred units - there have already been some really cool looking WIP shots coming out around the blogosphere, so I have some tough acts to follow!

Of course all proppa' Ork armies need a couple bigmobs of Boyz, and as I have no real fear of batch painting I volunteered to build and paint up the pair of 20-strong Boyz mobs included in the force. Not the most glamorous part of the army perhaps, but where would a Warboss be without his Boyz, eh?

Rooted around in the Closet of Doom for bits and have started getting things put together. I had the better part of the first mob already assembled, just needed to pop 'em off their previous bases and get 'em onto the rather cool resin bases generously donated by Secret Weapon Miniatures. While the basic Boys sprues provide pieces for a Nob, I decided to use a couple from the separate Nobz kit as they're just a bit more intimidating in my opinion.

The second mob is still in the assembly phase, but I did get the 'fun' models of the squad built. Still some more detailing to add to both squads as well, there's shoulder plates, knives and stikkbombs yet to be added, as well as the occasional hair squig! Hoping to get them built by the end of the weekend, and take advantage of the nicer weather forecast to be on the way to get 'em primered so I can get stuck in on some colors that aren't red or gold for a change! The deadline for completion looms for these (though not quite so imminent as the Thousand Sons were recently), so expect to see a slew of Orky posts over the next couple weeks as the Greenskins thunder down the painting table at me!

Giveaway Results! ...And an Eeeeeevil post!

I realized that today's post is the 666th post I've made, which of course calls for...

In a similar vein, early next week a few friends are going to go see Iron Maiden, which is always a fun time - granted, we don't rock out at shows like we used to, but I'll still stand in the back and throw up the horns. Heh.
Now, the Million View Giveaway results! I just want to say thank you all once again for all the kind words and encouragement over the years, it is truly humbling. You folks are awesome, and I'm truly glad that my inane scribblings have provided entertainment and inspiration! I went through the list of commenters and fed them into the randomization cogitator to determine who gets the Rogue Trader rule book and the winner is...

Dave Weston!

Drop me an email at moonlight (at) cold-moon.com with your address and I'll pop the book in the mail to ya!

In actual modeling news the cult limo arrived from Wargame Exclusive and I'm rather pleased with the model, looking forward to getting some paint on it. Been pretty busy this week with work and the band so not much hobby time, but this weekend is looking pretty open, hoping to get some good brush time in!

One Millllllion views!

Holy Throne!

Yesterday afternoon the blog hit a milestone that never occurred in my most fevered imagining - One million views! I am absolutely humbled by that thought and I wanted to take a moment to express just how much I have appreciated all the kind words, helpful suggestions, and hilarious commentary over the years. It has been a pleasure getting to know some of you in person, and I look forward to meeting even more of you in the future!

As a way of saying thank you to all of you awesome folks out there in the blogosphere, I'm giving away my last softcover copy of the 1st edition Rogue Trader rulebook. A little bit of 40k history to commemorate such a momentous event in the blog's life seems appropriate! Be a follower of the blog and leave a comment on this post and at the end of March I'll fire up the random numeric cogitation polyhedrons and send the book to the winner!

Once again, thank you all so much for your support over the years, and I'll strive to keep doing what I do for years to come! Cheers, everyone!

Giveaway results! ...And some old Ad-Mech goodness.

I wanted to say thank you all once again for all the kind words and encouragement over the years, and the outpouring of comments and congratulations on the 500th post was truly humbling. You folks are awesome, and I'm truly glad that my inane scribblings have provided entertainment and inspiration! I went through the list of commenters and fed them into the randomization cogitator to determine who gets the Rogue Trader rule book and the winner is...

Craig Bowles!

Drop me an email at moonlight (at) cold-moon.com with your address and I'll pop the book in the mail to ya!

In other news, I finally finished up some models I've been sort of dilly-dallying over for quite a while. A whole mess of old models in fact, forming the basis of the Magos Covenant for the ever-growing Taghmata Omnissiah force.

The majority of them are from the old Skullz promotional set, plus a couple old metal tech-priests that had been lurking on the shelves for ages. At this point there's actually a viable painted army taking shape, with HQ and Troops models completed - still quite a lot to do though! I recently ordered up a mess of bits from various companies (Anvil, MaxMini, Blight Wheel and more) to come up with a couple large units of Tech-Thrall Adsecularis - the basic cannon-fodder rabble that gladly give their lives for the glory of the Omnissiah. Forge World has also been showing off a bunch of new Mechanicus models that have my wallet cringing in fear... Might be an expensive 4th quarter!

Post #500 Giveaway and a look to the future!

This marks the 500th post to the blog, which calls for a bit of a celebration! As many of you know, I've been playing 40k since its inception back in the late 80s and most of my hobby mojo is based on the old fluff (the core of the Mordian 7th is drawn from the old red-cover 40k Compendium) and game systems such as Adeptus Titanicus and the original Epic Space Marine (where my love for heresy-era gaming took root). In an effort to share my love of old school 40k gaming, I'm giving away one of my soft-cover 1st Ed Rogue Trader Rulebooks to mark the occasion:

Pretty simple, if you're a follower of my blog and leave a comment below, your name will be entered into the drawing which will take place on September 15th. Couldn't be easier!

Figured it was a good time to look at what's on the horizon hobby-wise as well. I have to admit that my interest in 40k has been on the wane for quite some time, and I've been giving serious consideration to selling off the current iteration of the Mordian 7th either as one big apocalypse army set, or in smaller lots (possibly keeping a few units for sentimental reasons). It's been sitting unused in the Closet of Doom for well over a year, and I have no real plan to play them any time soon. I've long said that 'the building and the painting is more fun than the having', and besides if I get rid of 'em, that gives me an excuse to re-create them once again in the future, right?

Now that's not to say that I'm looking to get out of the hobby entirely, by any means! My interest in Heresy-era gaming has never been stronger, and I have been up to my ears in the Thousand Sons for months. Sadly, I'm reaching the finish line with them, and they're going to be shelved for a bit while we await the release of the Prospero book. I've more or less built all of the 'generic' units I can for the army, and I want to hold off on the rest until there's actual rules and models (cannot WAIT to see what FW does for Magnus the Red)!

So that means I have a few other projects in line to keep me occupied. As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm planning on a Geno Five-Two Chiliad army with some Alpha Legion allies, and since I have to wait for Conquest to arrive later this year to do the guard portion, I got started on a test unit of Alpha Legion over the past long weekend!

Didn't really take many in progress pics on these, but they started off with a Jade Green basecoat, followed by 3-4 passes with a Guilliman Blue glaze. This is the first time I'd tried a controlled multi-application of a glaze/wash to tint a color overall rather than just using them for a one-shot shade, and while it was very time consuming (had to wait an hour between coats to let the glaze dry) I quite like the end result!

 

But that's not all! I always have a force of Ad-Mech lurking in one form or another on the shelves, and with the most recent book Extermination, there is finally a rather flexible set of army rules and a bunch of cool models, such as the Thanatar that I picked up at Gencon and assembled over the holiday weekend as well.

 

Taking a cue from Eye of Error, I went with the 'unfolded petals' on the plasma mortar, and spent an inordinate amount of time hot-water bending the ammo feeds to get the mauler bolt cannons into a bit more of a dynamic pose. Quite looking forward to getting some paint on this beast!

 

...And speaking of painting a beast, over the past weekend I managed to get the Castigator painted up to the point where I could get a coat of sealant on it in preparation for waterslide transfers and weathering! Tried out a green on the power sword initially but found it looked a little off-balance so I went with an alternate blue such that it both ties together with, and stands apart from, the main blue of the armour plates. So, between the work to finish off the Castigator, a couple remaining Thousand Sons units, some planned Alpha Legion units, and a mess of Ad Mech there's plenty to keep me occupied for the foreseeable future, no doubt about that!

When all is said and done however, I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you readers out there. Your comments, suggestions and encouragement over the years has been instrumental in getting me to this point, and I am always humbled by all your kind words. Cheers everyone, and here's to another 500 posts in the future!

Be sure to leave a comment (and be a follower of the blog) to be entered for a chance to win the Rogue Trader rulebook!

Post 400 giveaway!

This marks the 400th post to the Mordian 7th Regiment blog, and first things first today I want to thank all of you readers and followers out there - I truly appreciate all the support, advice, constructive criticism and kind words you've given me over the years! It really means a lot to me, and I thought I'd offer up an old legacy unit of mine as a thank your to commemorate the 400th post.

While going through the display cabinet my eye fell upon the original motorized rough riders I'd built years back. and since these were some of the very first conversions I posted when the blog began back in 2009 I thought they'd be a nice thing to give away.

Anyone who is a follower of the blog that posts a comment here over the next week will be entered into a drawing for them - these guys have been waiting to see some action for far too long! Thanks again for all of your support over the years folks, you guys rock!

In other news, this milestone ended up being a fortuitous conincidence - at this point, all of the non-apocalypse units in the army are now painted! I spent some time pulling everything out and snapped a family photo:

It's been a long road getting all of these guys done, and I'm really happy with how they've turned out. I have to get the Baneblade done by October for Feast of Blades, but I'm thinking that for now it's time to move on to another project for a while - new poll up in the upper right, lemme know what you guys want to see! While rooting around in the Closet of Doom I unearthed a whole mess of Iron Hands that a friend had mailed me prior to him moving overseas. There's darn near a whole army of 'em - just in time to take advantage of the new marine releases. My wallet cries out in terror!

And the winner is...

Just got back from a nice getaway weekend, and I was floored by all the kind words upon my return - I really appreciate it, everyone! It's humbling (and a little scary) to know that all of you are out there enjoying the decent into madness that is my hobby! Thank you all once again for all the support and feedback you've given over the years!

That said, before I call it a night I broke out a set of polyhedral random number generators, consulted the Emperor's Tarot and the Storm Raven goes to...

Tristan M! 

Tristan, I wasn't able to find a contact email on your profile, so please contact me at moonlight (at) cold-moon.com and we'll get you sorted out!

I have some more World Eaters coming your way in the next day or two - stay tuned!