Stormtalon tainted by Nurgle?

I've been mulling over the Space Marine Stormtalon for a few days looking at its chunkiness and wondering whether it is a good or bad design.  I'm undecided on the design, but I like the idea of a single person flyer and it does have a few similarities to the Bell Huey Cobra with its chin gun and side mounted weapons.  The Cobra was a great piece of weaponry in the US arsenal - fast, narrow profile, and loads of weapon options. No one in their right mind wanted to be on the receiving end of business from the Cobra.

When I broaden my scope of examination to understand where this design might have come from, my thoughts jumped to the Forge World Blight Drone.  Reverse engineer the Blight Drone and millenia of corruption and you have the Stormtalon.
 

 

Aside from these musings, I've been working on some Flames of War American Tankers, and a few Chaos Terminators for some games of Space Hulk.

Early War Polish Army - Painting One a Day

I've finally been able to complete a major painting project and while still behind on the count, I have at least gained some ground this month on shortening the gap of unpainted figures.  I was behind by 100 models, but now the number hovers around 80.  I still have a long way to go, but I am making strides.  

Today I present a Flames of War Early War Polish Army with the armored train that I showed at the beginning of the month.

This army comes in at around 1500 points and can easily be boosted to 1750 with the addition of some anti-tank guns and artillery.   Below is one of the HMG platoons that are attached to the large Piechoty platoons.

 

The Polish army has a large number of exciting options to field include their famed lancers (Kawalerii) and their armored trains.  I've got a couple of Mounted Kawalerii regiments in the process of being cleaned and they'll be next up onto my Flames of War painting docket along with some armored cars, and heavy artillery.

In the coming weeks, I'll post the process by which I paint my figures and share a few insights along the way.

Fort Buyaki Invitational Update - Now with Warhammer

The FBI prize package continues to grow at a healthy rate.  As I type, we have a prize package worth over $1300 for our recognized winners and I am working on securing a number of swag bag goodies from a number of great manufacturers for each participant.

The FBI is a two day, 5 round 40K tournament featuring 2000 point armies.  Players are randomly matched for the first round and in subsequent rounds are matched up swiss-style by comparing their battle scores.  The highest battle score is matched up with the second highest, the third highest with the fourth, and so on.  No player will ever play the same player twice.  You may purchase your tickets to the FBI HERE!

The overall champion is the player with the highest battle score.  Only game play determines our champion and we offer separate awards for painting and sportsmanship.


We have also added a Warhammer Fantasy Battle tournament to the Fort Buyaki Invitational.  This tournament will  be a two day, 5 round event with armies of 2400 points.  More info to come soon.

Polish Armoured Train Completed

I completed work on the Polish armoured train for Flames of War sometime last week.  It was a massive project that took weeks of work but the end result is a fantastic piece by itself or standing amidst an army on the table top. 

The most challenging aspect of painting this model is the sheer number of rivets that adorn the model.  The rivets add much detail to the overall model and therefore must be emphasized.   There is a great painting article for this model in Wargames Illustrated 281 and I'd recommend reviewing it if you are planning on working this model.

The locomotive and cars are massive in size.  The locomotive measures 6 inches long, the artillery cars measure 7.5 inches long, and the assault car is 4.5 inches long.  The sheer size of the pieces translated in some cases to a single color on a single car for one evening's painting session.

I found that wearing a rubber glove on the hand holding the model prevented the paint from wearing off due to the natural oils on my hands.  In all of my years of painting, I've never known that it was body oil that caused that, simply thinking that it was a matter of being handled and rubbed off.  A big thanks to Jeff for explaining that to me!

In addition to the train, I've complete a unit of tankettes to go along with my Polish forces.  These models are quite small when placed next to the smallest of Flames of War tanks.

The next project I'm working towards is the painting of a number of Polish Infantry Platoons.  If you are heading to Historicon, you'll be able to see the army in action at the Flames of War National tournament, including the train!

The Painting Continues

May has turned out to be a great month for painting. I've completed 10 additional Sisters of Battle, as well as number of other items that I'll showcase in a separate post.  While I'm significantly behind in trying to accomplish achieving a paint rate of a model a day, May has been very productive. 

I've painted 10 Chaos Epic Landraiders, 10 Sisters of Battle, and a number of Flames of War models that will bring my total up to lofty heights.  I'll be posting the Flames of War models in the next few days

Iron Warriors Land Raiders - EPIC

After a few hectic months, I'm back on the painting path painting a plethora of models.  This week sees the completion of 11 Iron Warriors Land Raiders ready to roll into the breach.  These will certainly be a joy to push around on the tabletop.

On the Paint Bench is a large plethora of Flames of War early war Polish models including an Armored Train.  I'm currently working on the train and should be close to wrapping that up this weekend. Its a very challenging model to paint due to the sheer number of rivets but when it is finished, it is such a beautiful model to view.

Fort Buyaki Invitational 40K GT Tickets

You may now get your tickets for the Fort Buyaki Invitational 40K Grand Tournament.

Simply head to the WarStore Weekend ticket sales and purchase The Full Warstore Weekend Pass and add 40K Tournament into the comments section.  Your tournament fee also gives you full access to The WarStore Weekend and exhibitor areas, as well as the opportunity to participate in many other great gaming events.

The Fort Buyaki Invitational Tournament is a 5-game, 2000 point, 2 day event held on October 8-9, 2011 in Seacaucus, NJ.