Deathgaze, Overlord of the Deathmarque Guilds

Bit of a mea culpa here. I've actually had this model complete and ready for quite some time, and just never bothered to photograph him. 

I know, I'm sorry.

So anyway, yes, he's named after a Final fantasy 6 character, and yes, his sniper's shield cape comes from a Persona 3 character. A rather neat combination, wouldn't you say? 

I featured this scythe in a WIP post, and to be honest, it was ready far before the rest of the model was. It would've snapped into a million pieces had it been made of, say, plastic or resin, but thanks to the all-metal frame it survived quite a  bit of bending, drilling, and general manhandling. 

I always liked the design of the Thanatos from Persona 3, but never found a way to incorporate it into a character miniature before this one. The sarcophagus lids are from Reaper miniatures, bless their bits-friendly hearts. I had thought to give him horrible organic spreading wings to tie him more into Deathgaze, but this seemed the more Necron way to go.

I suppose I should have named him "Thanatokh" or something, but with that big cyclopean eye, "Deathgaze".

I suppose, like Grievous, in addition to just being used as a Transcendant C'Tan, he also deserves an entirely for funsies character profile: 

Deathgaze, Master of the Deathmarque Guilds, Lord of Death

679 points

BS   WS  S          T    W   I     A    LD      Sv

12     9     8 (16)  10   8   6     4    10     2+/2+

Wargear:

The Scythe Invictus Mors: Invictus Mors is the ultimate weapon of war, crafted by Death itself and given to Deathgaze just so he could show up General Grievous, because the wily son of a bitch keeps escaping his own certain demise through various schemes and generally cowardly acts. That he doesn't have such a great piece of kit honks the good general off like you wouldn't believe. This pleases Death, and makes Deathgaze very happy. It has two profiles. 

As a melee weapon it doubles Deathgaze's strength attribute, and may be used either against a single target for Deathgaze's maximum number of attacks, or Deathgaze may make a single attack against every model in base-to-base contact. If Deathgaze hits, remove these models from play. 

As a ranged weapon, Invictus Mors has the following profile:

Range    Strength        Special Rules                                                                      
 72"             D                Firing modes, Ignores Cover, Instant Death

Invictus Mors may be fired in one of two firing modes: Single and Death Ray.

- In single shot mode, Invictus Mors is is a Heavy 1 weapon. If you miss with a BS of 12     you have no business rolling dice. 

- For Death Ray mode, designate a point within 48" of Deathgaze. Roll 5D6, find something that long and 2" wide and lay it down on the table. evevything above or below the line is hit.

Necrodermis Mortis: Deathgaze has a 2+ armor save. Rolls of 1 must be rerolled.

The Bastion of the Dead: Given Deathgaze by the great death lord Nito, this immense shield was made from the sarcophagus lids of the nine previous Lords of Death, and grants Deathgaze admittance to their monthly card game. It also gives him a  2+ invulnerable save, and allows him to redeploy himself via Deep Strike once per turn, during either players turn, at the beginning of the movement phase. He may assault on the round he does this. Furthermore, it gives him the Shrouded and Stealth rules. 

The Blades of the Arkhanus: Deathgaze replaced his legs long ago with these because he felt they looked cool. He moves in a skating motion that crackles with cold energy, producing a high-pitched squeal that draws in his minions like carrion birds. Deathgaze may move 18" in a single turn, ignoring terrain and other models. If he does this, the nearest unit of Deathmarks (yes, even if it's 52" away) removed from the table and deployed within 6"of Deathgaze via Deep Strike. No buts.  

Master of the Deathmarque Guilds: For every maximum model number Deathmark unit you purchase, you may purchase an additional one at zero cost. Any Deathmark unit entering play via Deep Strike does not scatter. Deathgaze's presence makes the Deathmarks so anxious to please, that the Hunters From Hyperspace rule remains in effect for the entire game instead of just one turn. Furthermore, at the beginning of the Necron player's turn, a unit of Deathmarks at less than full strength may be removed from the table. During the movement phase, that unit must be returned to the table via Deep Strike at full strength. All Synaptic Distintegrator weapons gain the Armourbane rule, and their range increases to 36". 

Death is Fickle: If an independent character is wounded by Deathgaze, roll 3D6. On a triple 6, that character is unharmed. 

Merry Christmas!

I teased these a while back and only recently got the free time to shoot them. This little group all happened to be assembled and painted at the same time. After seeing a vintage metal necron lot on ebay, I had to pick it up, and as a result added some much need scythe power to my army. 

Nehekhara here came from my wanting to use Anrakyr in a battle (not to mention my regret at never having purchased a WHF Tomb Queen) , but not having a mini for him. After experiencing the Failcast horror of Trazyn and Orikan, I wasn't about to go seeking out another rubbery horror. So I bought a PP Tomb Maiden (how apt!) and converted this imperious beauty. I shaved down the features of a stock Triarch Praetorian, narrowing the jaw a bit and accentuating the cheekbones. 

I don't mind that she's rather tall and lithe compared to other Necrons, because I imagine the Cryptek that crafted this shell for her was probably in love with her. Plus, being royalty she would've wanted to not only preserve her beauty, but look down on her subjects for all time. Imagine her anger when she woke up sheathed in cold metal. The poor fool that did this to her is probably scrap by now. 

She looks rather more like Imotekh in this pose. The PP base model took some reposing and a lot of pinning, and is terribly fiddly. Nonetheless I still prefer it to anything made out of that horrid resin. 

Those whip bits are courtesy of the Hive Tyrant that became my General Grievous. Combined with the skirt (which was almost bright blue) and an extra Destroyer spine, I think it lends the model a nice John Blanche-ian look. I found some of his Necron sketches recently, and in the future might attempt a model or two based on them. 

Speaking of Grievous...

Now mini-Grievous need not fight alone, thanks to his trusted Magnaguard. I didn't pose them with the Hive Tyrant C'tan sized version because they are, of course ridiculously small to be guarding him at all. Maybe if they were 30mm scale like the  Knight Models versions, but certainly not these. 

The original Pariah models were quite boring, and the capes help immensely. I thought about re-doing the heads with goggle-eyed robot ones and headscarves to match the movie droids, but then they wouldn't have gone with the Necrons. As you can see, these match up with mini-Grievous and the rest of the nobility quite well. They came out a bit too light blue, though, but oh well. 

Lastly, a stock overlord to serve as a lackey for Trollzyn Trazyn, and therefore painted with matching accents. Really, he could accompany any other nobility (like, say Nehekhara) that happens to need someone to kick around.

Next time, something much, much larger. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Necrons: A little expansion of the ranks....

At some point, both the "to paint" and "done" piles on my desk looked like this. 

These days all the buzz is that the sky is falling, GW is in free-fall, 40k is collapsing, and lots of other doom and gloom that point to changes on the horizon, and not necessarily for the good. All fretting and wringing of the hands that has been, quite frankly, done to death. 

So of course, my group planned an Apoc game for which I dusted off some unassembled Necrons. The resulting frenzy of assembly was quite cathartic, considering the short hiatus I'd taken from hobby things lately. 

Orikan and his buddy Trazyn I bought for a song. There's no way I'd pay full price, ever, for this absolutely shitty resin. If anyone at GW reads this blog, please spearhead an initiative to get the characters either A) cast in metal, or B) out of some better resin. Whatever moron looked at the first samples of these things cast in this shit and stamped them "approved" should be boiled in his own pudding. I like the Orikan model, but I'm sure I'll be repairing that staff (which I already had to rebuild out of bits and green stuff) and tail soon. 

Wait, why the hell does he have a tail?

On the lighter side of things, in a game that will inevitably involve pie plate templates removing lots of things from the field, my hope is for Trazyn (or Trollzyn, as he's known) here to confound their efforts as long as possible with his body-swapping and empathic obliterating. We'll see if that combined with Orikan's hulking out will win the day. I'll just be happy if they both survive being transported intact. Necron characters, are of course, one of the good things to come from the First Great Revision, even if the Second Great Revision made them.... not as good as the first. Rest in piece, Fat Ward. 

I'm sure I'd had a plan to turn these two into something else. Why else would these two lone fellows just be sitting by themselves for so long? Also, you'll notice the heavy destroyer is the only thing in this mob of 'crons with glowy green rods. GW, these are what made the Necron line look really, really distinctive on the tabletop. What idiot convinced you to do away with them in favor of these:

Those plastic rods are absolutely wretched. Yes, you can paint them up to look nice, but they don't catch the light and glow like the old mk.1's did. This is indicative of the larger trend coming out their minis design shop: over detailed with zero character. You know what had character? All the things they did in 1983.

Yes, those Immortals do have Warrior chests and transplanted spines, as what I'd bought the two boxes for in the first place were these:

In a game about 3 weeks ago, two of them held up an entire space marine assault squad for 3 turns by refusing to die. It was quite amazing. Yes, I'd proxied them while having the unassembled kits all along. I didn't green the barrel inserts because they aren't gauss weakens, even though I did give them the obligatory green energy vents. 

You know what even Bandai is doing now GW? Option packages. If you were smart, and wanted to make money, you'd put out option kits containing what the dual boxes were missing, so all people would have to do is buy the kit box and the option box and they have both units. This is why eBay resellers are making money and you're not. 

Remember way back when I posted about how Ghost Arks were an excellent paragon of a kit? Well, the Tomb Blade is quite the opposite. I'd planned a separate post on these, but instead, I'll just get my rant out of the way here. 

On the one hand, I quite like the radiating spines with spikes motif the top 2/3 of this has, but on the other hand, the tacked-on cannons are like a hasty finish to a promising drawing. It's like the guy had this orb, and it was great, but he then didn't know how to finish it off or what it, in fact was, until Fat Ward came trundling up behind him to say "Whatcha coin? Oooooh can it be a jet bike? Put some guns on it!"

In practice, it's in infuriating piece of shit that embodies all of the worst things about the new design philosophy. It's covered in detail which you then further cover in detail. (an offense to be further repeated in the new Ironstrider kit) No glowy rods were some should be, overly fiddly small bits (separate spinal cables? Are you mad, GW designers?) that just plain are poorly designed (shield vanes with tiny, tiny contact points, and they're in 2 even tinier parts!). The end result looks like a chunk of a larger kit they just couldn't be bothered to finish. Here's your insanely delicate spiny cockpit orb for your...thing. (a 5-man Ghost Ark? A Triarch Stalker? Who knows?) Oh wait, let's put some cannons on it. (sigh) I may just sell these three and go make some different mecha-bugs. Or more of other mecha-bugs. God knows more of these kits would just be flogging myself.

To boot, it badly fills a role that the old mk1 Destroyer did quite well. Really, all they had to do was keep the mk1  stats (jet bike, S6 AP3 Heavy 3 gun) and add the Tomb Blade's options (especially nebuloscopes. Mmmm!) and you'd have had an excellent unit. The Second Great Revision requires you take a squad of these to get the good Decurion, which seems to be The Great Plan to Sell Models 2.0, subsection Everyone Has Destroyers, Here's How We Sell Them Something Else.

Make no mistake, these trends are bad, and they're not just limited to the Necrons. 

Maybe the sky really is falling. Maybe it's time to throw in the towel and evolve to another hobby. 

Maybe I'll just keep making things. 

Happy Wednesday, people. 

Crypteks....

Before we move on to the Knight stuff, photos of a gaggle of themed Crypteks have been fermenting on my hard drive since... well, since that Tomb Stalker post. Then there's the Roboute model, some more Mechanicus stuff, and so on. No, I'm not going to do any ork stuff, ever. I despise the damn orks. Overpowered, undercosted, showing up in hordes and punching my perfectly good Leman Russes with their Deathrollers... ugh. Anyway, let's do some Space Egyptians. 

The Storm-teks were my prototypes for the rest of the range. I worked out the color-coding for the different staves early, and figured I wanted different Crypteks to also have subtle differences according to their specialties. These and the Destruction-Teks are all in aggressive stances, and have different cowling than their brethren. I don't know if you noticed, but the staff bits are awfully brittle. As a result, half of these have metal pins in them, and the rest will probably get them after they've been used a bit. 

I thought these and the Storm-teks would see more use, so I made three of each and fewer of the others, reasoning I'd use them as rank fillers or one-offs, depending on the type of Cryptek. I wanted to cover all of them for the sake of doing so. 

I had fun making the ascetic-looking Chrono-Teks. I was tempted to work-in some other kind of clock imagery, but they're aliens, and so any imagery we equate with time wouldn't fit the branding. So, I made them less aggressive and more scholarly than the others. 

Who knows what a Harp of Dissonance looks like? I reasoned it glows green and looks like a staff. Probably should have made one or two more of these than the others, but I was running out of bits, so...

No, the Veil of Darkness isn't literally a veil, I just wanted to give him a dark cloak to play up the whole despair theme. The purple staff didn't work out as well as I'd liked, sadly, but I still think he looks sufficiently gloomy to carry it off. I though about giving him a white skull mask, but that would've been shifitng too far into Nightbringer territory, wouldn't it? 

Next time, something big and stompy. 

Happy Wednesday, people. 

The Factory's open again....

Well, really, the factory never closed, but I took a break from doing things for a while, an when I felt like it again, I opened up some new projects. The Necron army still needs some bits and bobs, so I finished a second Triarch stalker kit and started on another Grievous-sized general. Up there's his rifle/scythe. If you seen the new Apocalypse doorstop book, you know how cool the new C'tan are, so there you go. Of course, I've played exactly one Apoc battle since it first came out, so this fellow might end up being a Hive Tyrant long before ascending to godhood. 

The other WIP is a gaggle of Crypteks. I already have two prototypes paint, so there'll be a total of ten. I figured I'd do one or two of each discipline (there are ten) with glowy staves that color-coordinate to each. I'm still on the fence as to whether to convert up some orks to hold objectives for me. Might have to sell off a fantasy army to justify that first.

As to other projects down the line we'll see. I do sort of want an Avenger fighter to run interference for my Vendettas, but on the other hand it might be nice to have two gunships supporting the marines instead of just the one...

Happy Sunday, people. 

Doomsday/Ghost Arks and the magnets that bind them...

This is a bit of a cautionary tale; not because of the Puppetswar head-bike, which itself makes a wonderful Ghost Ark Prow, as you can see from Command Ark Charon, here:

Rather, the caution comes from the other task he and his sister (brother?) ark encompassed; a magnetized conversion to Doomsday Ark. Choosing not to do as others have done (the magnetized  flipping and switching of little guns) I instead took the less wise path of painting and modeling TWO MORE HULLS, which, as you can imagine, takes absolutely forever and tests the limits of human patience. Charon, as you can see, is also a bit longer than the average Ghost Ark: 

And thanks to the addition of coupling bits and the Head-bike, rather off-balance. Nonetheless, I recommend the Head-bike as a nice prow bit. I think it lends the right bit of character to an already wonderful model. GW did a disappointing job with the viking-like prow bits, which is why I whipped up something different for the Doomday Arks altogether: 

I thought the Doomsday cannon needed something more substantial than those underslung orbs, and so fashioned an imposing-looking bit from Annihilation barge backings (since my "barges" have legs on them; see the Tyrannocrons from a year ago).

Now they have more a living insect look that matches the rest of the army. The magnets sit at the opposite end of the hull, tucked into the spine and gun. 

As you can see, this necessitated a bit of fabrication for the Ghost Ark hull, which just plain didn't have a second contact point and was too damn heavy to hang on without one. I rigged up a sort of Resurrection Orb out of a hull piece and some plastic tubing, and anchored it with a metal rod cut to size. Now both of the command sections are these lovely detachable pods. Maybe the Necrons have other war machines for these to attach to? I understand the next Imperial Armor is Necron-oriented, which may prompt me to buy on of these super-expensive tomes after all...

The stalk nestles quite well between the back ranks of the Necron passengers, and makes these models quite a bit more solid than their counterparts. I also altered the operators a bit, giving them the cyclops targeting eyes of the Deathmark/Crypteks to differentiate them from the steersmen of the static arks from so many posts  ago. 

One of them suffered a fractured crown, but really, any minor breakage like this only lends character to the Necrons anyway, so it doesn't bother me. What did bother me was the excruciatingly long process of painting not two, but FOUR HULLS full of little gauss flayers, which is something I don't recommend, at all, ever. Whew!

Also, Happy New Year!

Triarch Stalkers or Is that a Heat Ray in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Glad to See Me?

Like the Ghost Ark, the Triarch Stalker is a real mixed bag of pain and pleasure. On the one hand, he's a handy little spider-tank with a melta gun--


"A MELTA gun? For Xenos you say?"


Oh yes. He can even stabby-stabby a tank with those wicked not-Dred CCS forelegs of his. Why, he'd almost be perfect except for the incredibly stupid open-topped design philosophy the Necrons apparently have now. Oh, and is that gun a turret? We aren't told. It could be. 

Now, if you had illusions of Defiler-like posable legs, keep dreaming. Only those great forelegs have the barest lip service in terms of hinges. The thing is a dream to assemble.... mostly. Yet again, we're being punished by complexity. Complexity which looks amazing when it's painted and together, but... 

Damn, I forgot to color-balance that photo. Oh well. See that little howdah on top? It doesn't quite synch up if you're building the thing in subassemblies, so while I can take him apart and store him in two easy sections, it's held on there mainly by tension and hope. And yet again, we're treated to a pilot that's broken down all the way to separate legs, and neck . Not a lot of places for anything but the smallest magnets, either. If the Stalker legs were hinged and folded at every joint (Bandai and many other model makers figured this out twenty years ago, by the way) the little monster would be a snap to store. Otherwise, you have to slot the cockpit next to this fellow: 

What a nasty looking little monster. Why didn't they make a codex entry for some kind of giant jumping spider or something that just ran around and crushed things using the new 6E "monstrous creatures can slam now" rules. (Did I mention how pleased I am with the new Necron line? Because I am. Well, 90%, anyway.). Speaking of bugs, can we cross-utilize a Tervicron as a Triarch Stalker?

Hmm... well, the height's there, but one of these spiders has no cannons to speak of (unless you consider the monocle on the spider head, which you could, I suppose) and the Tervicron just isn't wide enough, either. I suppose, if the other player were forgiving enough?

I leave you with something you've never see (unless you're fielding Necrons): a shot of the thing's shapely backside. Being open-topped, if someone blasts him with a big gun or smacks him around with a big enough stick, the poor fellow's going to go all legs up. Of course, being AV13 this isn't going to happen very quickly, and who knows how long those 3 hull points will last against nasty Eldar lances and hordes of Ork rokkit launchas? It'd last longer if they gave him a pair of CCW's and a secondary gun, that's for sure. Not a perfect design by any means, but better than the Necrons had before, and that's something.


Happy Sunday, folks. 

Flyer Leak! or GW's Art Dept has Schizophrenia like you wouldn't believe...

What is this, a 1985 GI Joe cartoon?

(images from the leaked scans over at The Shell Case blog.)

Oh GW, words fail me. 


Wait, no they don't , otherwise I wouldn't have a blog. Words do not fail me on how shit this aircraft is. One had hoped that the "concept art" from a while back was someone's idea of a joke, but sadly, it's not. When at rest, the thing sits on its turret. Considering the weight of the rest of the aircraft, this is a MAJOR ENGINEERING NO-NO. They couldn't be bothered to stylize the turret at all, and left it as an irritating little box with an assault cannon sticking out of it (ammo, GW?) And what is that thing sticking out the back of the canopy? A cloaking shield for the rest of the thing? The artist that drew it and the manager that green lit it should be shot. For crying out loud, it looks like something from a Japanese bullet hell shooter (except that the Japanese would have employed decent artists). This thing should have been a burly, muscular aircraft, not the front 1/8 of one. Why do the GW artists stop at the front of the plane and call it a day? Why?


Oh wait, they don't:

Hooray! It's a plane! Boo it's wasted on the Orks.

Look! It's a proper aircraft! That's right, the thing that makes sense as an actual working plane is built by the howling  space monkeys who look like they should have built that flying blue guppy up there. Once again, the orks seem to get all the good art talent for their shitty codex. Bravo, boys, and fuck you. 


You know, in a colossal middle finger to whomever designed the StormFish, I might have to ram these two kits together and make some kind of Cobra Rattler for the Ultramarines to fly around. Except, of course, that the game stats for the StormFly are utter shit. 


Moving on:

I understand the working name was "Moon Over My Hammy"

We knew it'd look like this, didn't we? A nasty flying crescent with an inexplicably exposed pilot. The new robot bug designs are phenomenal, and the plane is.... well, it's not bad, is it? I don't know what that shit around the rim is, but the rest of the thing is serviceable... sort of? The same way you wouldn't mind being given a shitty sports car because, though it may not be a great sports car,  at least it's got a turbocharged V12 and it's free? Anyway, let's look at the competitor for this slot in my army: 

Ooooh right. A horrifying mechanical nightmare with actual scythes that is, itself, vaguely scythe-shaped:

Scythes, GW, are long and curved, not shaped like fluffy french pastry.

 All I'd have to do is mount it on a flight base and bob's-your-uncle. Oh, did I mention they break down into smaller parts for easy storage? And, since I'd inevitably want to spam them I already have a pair built. 


It seems you lose again, GW. But don't worry, those Carnifex bits don't come too cheap (wait, yes they do) and I will need some other gribblies from the parts resellers. 


Happy Wednesday, people. Note the poll in the top right.

This Head Crab Makes Me Smart....

I had a few metal Destroyer Lord torsos sitting around, and so decided to try my hand  at a Cryptek or two. Unfortunately, the chin being tucked in makes it impossible to add the little King Tut beard that makes Crypteks so distinctive. So, the result is that he looks sort of like a dressed-up Deathmark. Hmmm.... maybe if I add a cloak or something. 


Thoughts?


Also, on a semi-related note, I came across these metal Grievous & Magna Guard models. 

Being made in Europe by a Spanish company called Knight Models, they're nice, but expensive. For the money, I'd rather stick with the scratch-built variety, but those are some nice minis, and  if they're not officially  licensed, it might be worth the hassle to get some before Lucasfilm shuts the company down with a tactical lawyer missile. For those interested, they also make a huge variety of other Star Wars minis, too. All of them good sculpts, too. 


Hey Knight Models, if you're reading, I do reviews for free models, sooo......

Floating Skullballs Make Me Happy....

Image copyright Privateer Press, used without permission

Whether it's their Wraith engine or this thing, every time I turn around Privateer Press turns out something cool. Between this and their stompy Warjack goodness, it's almost as if they want me to try their game or something. 


Maybe if I sell a WHF army or two?


If I hadn't already made a Zoanthrope model, this thing would be it. Maybe Skullball will be my new Overlord or something, I dunno. Either way, I want one. 

Last Model of 2011...

My Christmas present to myself this year was a command barge bought not from eBay, but the local gaming store. As much as I'm against the usurious prices set by GW, the LGS has been struggling like everybody else, and now that I'm gainfully employed, I'm resolved to help out where I can. After all, we're all in this together. 

I realize now I probably should've taken snaps of it alongside a Tyranno, but I'm too lazy to go back and do it now. One barge and a few more Arks from now and the revised army will be ready to take to the battlefield again. When that happens I'll take some photos of them in all their metal glory. As you can see, the theme of the new millennia is the Weathered Penny, which is working out quite well. 

I'm a big fan of extras, so having another lord model (or in this case, an Overlord Phaeron) is never a bad thing. I rather liked the gold-headed fellow on the cover, so this is my stab at him. I cut away that awkward cable that ran from the scythe blade to the power matrix on his staff, though. A plug sticking into the blade just looked odd. He was modeled separately, of course, so he could jump out of the barge and assault the shit out of any survivors of his drive-by. 

Of course, you should never jump out of your barge  and leave the keys in. Anybody could take that thing for a ride, and will. 

Happy New Year, everybody! See you in 2012!