Imperial Knight Freeblade - The Kodiak

Out with the old!

With the recent release of the new 8th edition Imperial Knights Codex, I decided that I would revisit one of my Imperial Knight Freeblades: The Kodiak.

My original vision for this model was that it was piloted by a grizzled old mercenary.  His heraldry and the look of his knight were bear themed, so I painted it in shades of brown.

I was never happy with how he turned out; the browns and brass trim all seemed to meld into one another and the model also didn't stand out from his (brown) base.  All in all, he just looked like a big shiny turd...

The Refit

Although I still love the buzz-saw blade which I originally equipped him with, it just never really fit with the Kodiak's theme.  As such, I decided to replace it with a more bear-like Thunderstrike Gauntlet with extended ursine claws.

The faceplate also needed a swap-out.  When he was originally built, it was with the original knight kit which had a limited selection of helms to choose from.  The subsequent release of the Warden kit included alternative face plates and the one with the 'snout' seemed like a perfect replacement!

I also came to the conclusion that a hoary old bear would happily pound the enemy with whatever weapons he could lay his grubby sell-sword mits on.  So I also decided to up-gun him with an Ironstorm missile pod for when you absolutely, positively have to kill every single mother hubbard holed up behind cover...

As I would be adding a carapace weapon option, I had to move his totem.  This didn't present much of an issue as I wasn't a fan of the carapace badge I'd used the first time round.  Some trimming and sanding ensued with me accidently snapping off his tilt shield during the process (which turned out to be rather fortuitous as I could then repaint it more easily!) - and his new symbol was in place.

I decided that I would try and save the tilt shield freehand bear symbol as I was rather fond of it.  As I was going to repaint the hull of the knight in black, I made the decision to repaint the edges of the tilt shield in a white spot colour and use white in other key areas to break up larger areas of plate.

I secretly also wanted to try out some new weathering techniques which I had devised and I think they worked in spectacular fashion! :)

Let loose the dogs bear of war...

And so, without further ado, I give you the Kodiak reborn!

 

 

Please let me know whether you think the overhaul was a success - I certainly prefer his new look!

Thanks for visiting!

Goddenzilla

Simplicity is the key

Sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in a complicated project and overwork it, ending up with a contrived mess that ultimately might have worked out better if you hadn't tried to reinvent the wheel.

And while it is nice to add something special to your miniature projects, I sometimes find that going for a very simple result often works out best!

To demonstrate this, I'd like to share some pictures of one of my most recent projects - a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Age of Sigmar Griffon Griffin Giant Leopeagle (TM).

Fishmaid riding Leopeagle.  A thing of beauty...

Having had nightmares after visualising the image above, I actually decided that I wanted to make a Griffon without a rider so that he could be used as a wandering monster and a display piece.

This seemed like it would be an easy challenge until I got hold of the kit and realised how much of the armour and reigns were integrated into the creature's components!

What followed was an exercise in learning how to sculpt feathers and deciding that I'd rather not have to do it ever again.  Like, ever.  Until I remembered that I had the Island of Blood Griffon which I intended to complete the same exercise with in order to create a 'family' of Griffons to play themed games with.  Totally keeping it all simple...

Anyway; back on the original subject, after I'd finally completed embedding a life long aversion to sculpting avian plumage, I set to painting my Daddy Griffon and was very pleased with the final results.

 I'll update you on my progress with the Isle of Blood Griffon in a future post but for now; thanks for reading!

The Return to Commorragh...

Seeds of Evil

Greetings and salutations!

Today I want to talk about my Dark Eldar Haemonculus Coven.  I built a small number of them some time ago for a one off event that I ran called the Blood Games which was a sort of gladiatorial games set in Commorragh.

With the release of the new Dark Eldar / Drukhari Codex, I thought I'd have a little ramble about my thoughts on the Codex and share some images of how I'm reviving the force.

My observations on the Codex are limited mainly to the Coven units and shouldn't really be taken as having any battlefield value as quite frankly, my tactical genius extends only as far as making a themed army that looks great as it's wiped off the table!

My approach to battle and regard for my men's safety was recently likened to Wellington...



"An extraordinary affair. I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them..."

WARNING!!
If you don't like your own fingers then Drukhari are for you.  Be safe in the knowledge that should you ever require a lethal weapon to defend your home, look no further than a Dark Eldar Raider...

The Drukhari Codex

Although I understand why the Indexes were produced, I still found that they sucked the life out of the armies, leaving them as dry and lifeless husks.  Much like the effect of a hot summer on the British.

Well, I was extremely pleased to see that GW have restored not only the former glory of the Drukhari, but also breathed some new life into them as well.  Where the Indexes reduced the races to very bland variations of the same core troops, the Codexes have restored what was lost, with the individual qualities of the Dark Eldar coming back to the fore.

The Drukhari are once again a fragile but deadly force with a very distinct style of play.  Much like a scalpel, they need to be used with precision and planning to get the best results.  Which is why when I play them, they tend to get bludgeoned to death by thunder hammers on turn 2 after being poorly positioned!

Having said that, they are an absolute joy to play with in 8th edition.  The new strategems provide really useful benefits which you can use in lots of different situations rather than requiring a contrived and overly complicated A-team style plan in order to use them...

Tau dementia is common - help your commander by placing him in familiar surroundings at just the right moment...

My favourite aspect of the new Codex is the fact that Incubi, Scourges and Mandrakes are now free agents, effectively allowing you to drop them into detachments without causing all of your other units to lose army traits and have some sort of existential / self-determination crisis mid-battle.

This free agent mechanic has led me to cast a slightly wider net when planning my Haemonculus Coven expansion.  As Covens traditionally don't do well against armoured targets (because it's hard to poison a land raider), I decided that I needed some mobile heavy weapons in order to dish out some anti-tank nastiness.  And to that end, I have created this bad boy...

Wrack Scourge with blaster and hideous humpy bone wings!

Eventually, he'll be part of a whole unit with two blasters and two haywire blasters. Tanks shall be nommed....

So what the hell have I been up to?!

As well as adding some more outlandish conversions, I've also been revisiting the original units and either touching up worn paint jobs or just expanding the units.  I have more planned for the force but it's mainly WIP at the moment.  My chosen Coven is The Hex...

Hex Then...

Utterly Grotesque

 

 Hex Now... 

 

 

Wrack Knight

And finally, I'd like to show you one of my more diabolical creations.  As usual, I started work on this some time ago and it's not finished yet although the new Codex has given me the foot up the arse I needed to get him painted!

In-game he's an Eldar Wraith Knight armed with a giant Husk blade (Wraith Knight Glaive), a Shadow Field (Scatter Shield) and Disintegrator Cannons instead of Eldar Starcannons as they cost the same and vary only slightly in their profile.

I played a game with him on Saturday and even though he doesn't benefit from any of the Codex rules, he's still an absolute beast!!


Concept Sketch
 

Magnus Body and Heavily modified Wraith Knight legs were the basis for this conversion...



Clearly having a dump

My hump, my hump, my lovely bony lumps

Slimmed down legs and reversed joints

...can we get ice-cream please dad?



Wrack for scale...

Building up the hump in layers was key to getting some nice detailing









First lick of paint! Plenty more work to do!

                   Just time for one last sneak peak of things to come...

Can you guess what it is yet?!

Looking back on WD Battle Reports

I came across an older article today and thought I'd resurrect the discussion which was so eloquently laid out by the author (neverness).  I'd urge people to go and have a look through his post as it really does describe exactly how I have felt about battle reports in White Dwarf over the years!

The absolute low point of battle reports was in the accursed Warhammer Visions publication doorstop which genuinely almost brought me to tears.  It was the epitome of everything I hated about GWs attitude towards big fat money sacks (their customers as we're known again now).  In this £8 advertising supplement, the 'Battle Report' was a two page spread with some really dull one line comments.  It may as well have just been a Codex 'flavour' pic.

Looking back on the battle report heritage of GW, it's hard to see how they fell so far.  But my question is whether or not they have recovered from this face plant.  My conclusion is... sort of.

Battle reports began to interest me again since WD was brought back in its monthly format - which is also the first time I re-subscribed to the magazine after cancelling in disgust at the Visions / WD Weekly shitfest. .  While not exactly a radical reinvention of the magazine, it did at least return with some of the content which I used to enjoy even if it still contains a lot of rampant marketing junk.

The battle reports are still very new army-centric and rarely feature themed armies or any which have not received a new codex since the latest edition dropped.  I can forgive them that though as they've at least started to return to form.  The content is more engaging again, but as neverness wrote in his blog post, tactical planning, execution and review is still very thin on the ground and is often guided purely by one new character combo or new unit's 'time to shine'.

What I will say for the new battle reports is that while they were gone (DAMN YOU VISIONS!), the player community filled the gap by expanding the available content across the net.  GW seems to have realised that they're nothing without the community.  People who build enthusiasm and additional spin-off content on the net.

GW are running to catch up now that they have at last re-engaged their community and I think that's a good thing as the magazine battle reports are now being held to higher standards with player content some times outshining the dry GW coverage of new releases.  The rigorous battering that new armies and rules get on the net is forcing GW to be more insightful in their articles as they know that a few pictures and one-liners just doesn't cut the mustard any more!

Lastly I'd like to share my favourite ever battle report with you.  If you've not read it, go back and take a peek, it's worth the read!

White Dwarf 351... Assault on Fort Wrath battle report.

I must have re-read this battle report a hundred times!  It's an absolutely huge Apocalypse battle, which also being fought across several smaller tables - each had their own theme and mission objectives which then tied in together on the main table.

The fact that the players had individual objectives led to some hilarious antics as one of the Ork warlords had to 'accidentally' take out a rival whilst Phil Kelly's Warboss is ordered to 'Kill something big' and subsequently punches out a Warhound titan before being turned into red (green?) mist by the whole Imperial Battleline!

It makes me cry with laughter whenever I read it.  Also, the fact that there are so many Stompas (11 I think), really gives it an epic feel!

Thanks go to neverness for inspiring this random post!  His 'not-squat' drawing is great and makes me want him to revisit his fanzine vision in web format! :)