Kabal of the Burnished Sapphire - allied Wraithknight painted!

Putting my finishing touches together for my force for Thursdays outing...

Only 1000 points so in order to have something coming close to a rounded force and also given that I want to carry as little as possible (thus no raiders or ravagers) I’m leaving some stuff at home that I love (like my Wyches, painted back in Jan which may not have been on this thread as painted before I started it?!?)

My poor stay at home Wyches...



And instead I’m finishing up some Dark Lance Trueborn (poor Ravager replacement)...



And polishing off my Splinter cannon/Blaster Trueborn – converted with Incubi heads (as you might have seen earlier from the one i’ve finished, my incubi will be helmless).



Hopefully I’ll have finished up shots by Thursday morning at the latest!!!!

Chris

Ok, big old fail on the battle photos front, got so caught up in meeting two new people and having my first game in years and totally forgot!!!

Good job to be honest as we only just finished a 1000 pt game in the three hours I had before having to catch the tube home.

The Kabal pulled off a hard fought victory in its first outing, on retrospective totting up 10 - 4.

We were only on 4x4 which probably helped my carnival o flesh theme as the Cronos was MVP wiping out a Devestator Squad, the Librarian warlord and a tactical combat squad and claiming an objective (it was Big Guns never tire). Backed up by the Talos they proved too tough to handle after all the heavy firepower was initially put into my Venoms.

Also of note was the amazing showing of a mini Beastpack (2 flocks!) who blew up a Whirlwind with a lucky rending hit and tied up a 10 man Tac squad for two turns till they died just as my grotesques hit to clean up the remainder,

A mini Trueborn squad did a nice number on a typhoon speeder too double tapping by first blastering it then charging in with haywire grenades.

The one true thorn in my side was the rifleman Dred who was the only marine left at the end, holding an objective and also getting the marines first blood from the Trueborn venom.

Although in the scheme of things they did nothing (well one glance on the Dred) I actually hit with three dark lances fired by moving Trueborn! So moving and trying the 6 is better than standing back and losing out.

The Whirlwind only got to fire once but killed 5 Kabalite so the Beast move (statistically i should have got one glance/pen only) in my turn 2 was massive and the Libby had one roll where he needed a 6 to kill the Cronos outright. Also the enemy reserves rolls all failed on turn two and his attack bike only came on on turn 4 which helped.

Terminators would probably have put a wrinkle in my day and I really need to squeeze on a Ravager to deal with Dreds as it took all game to get just two hull point off of it (haywire cc hit and a snap shotting DL) but I was mildly unlucky there as he did eat 5 lance shots in total and only one took a HP.

If you want to see the Guardians, here is a link to the Guardians project thread...

http://theoverlordsforum.freeforums.org/guardians-of-the-covenant-t2478.html

The armies looked great on the tabletop and I also got to meet his mate who plays Chaos so more games ahead I think, maybe up to 1250 next time.

Anyway, back to the painting progress, here are my Dark Lance Trueborn I painted up mainly due to my inability to carry an additional Raider/Ravager case...





I intend to give the sqaud a spotter/wound with the same helm for consistency when I get time and more corsair cloaks...

Heres the other Trueborn squad (for the game i put the rifle chap in with the lances) with Incubi head swaps...

And

And all of them from the back...



Hope you like my elite shooty dudes!

Chris

Hi,

Been a while since I’ve added progress to this thread and in the main i’ve been working on tidying up some Kabalites I did before I locked my colourscheme and on some Hellion/Beastmaster conversions (using some Wood Elf parts and a rogue bit of Skaven).

Hope you like the progress (nearly finished!)









Cheers

Chris

Love the cloaks! This finally confirmed me that wood elf parts can look good on DE

@Mngwa wrote:

Love the cloaks! This finally confirmed me that wood elf parts can look good on DE

They do require a bit of work, for example they all have quivers on their backs.

These can be converted easily enough by chopping out the arrow fletches and replacing with appropriate sword handles and splinter rifle bits.

For something like Hellion I found the wood elf bits the most dynamic plastic cloaks available.... Plastic being important as plastic glue bonds stronger than superglue due to its melting effect and with the contact space available on the mini and pinning not really being practical this was important.

Cheers

Chris

Those cloaks really make them look dynamic, in mid-motion! I haven't been a huge fan of hellions myself, as I don't really care much about their street-punk types in a corsair army, but your guys are really winning me over - the cloaks really finish the models and give them a bit more esteemed look.

This only approves my theory that any 40k model can only be improved if you add a cloak or other parts of loose clothing to it!



Edit: I also seem to have missed your update on the completed Beastmaster with Razorwing conversions - they look absolutely amazing, and far more dangerous than the regular Razorwings! Your army must look absolutely fantastic on tabletop, that's for sure!

Back when I was considering an exodite force I considered hellion with these cloaks but also on Wood Elf Giant Eagles.

The concept was fun but the cost/practicality of the build swayed me against it.

Beautiful work as always, Chris, but those cloaks really are the bee's knees! They are a great match, and a whole gang of them look terrific. I'm with Siticus, for the same reason, you have completely transformed an element that I was never that keen on, either.

Cheers.

Cheers guys, thanks for all the praise and I hope this is the start of seeing more cloaks (except on superheroes, we've all seen The Incredibles).

Finishing touches added and a quick bit o matte varnish so here are some better shots of the Hellions/Beastmasters...







And a shot of a selection of my recent additions to the Kabal...



Have a great weekend everyone!

Chris

Wow, the Blasterborn with Incubi helms look particularly spiffy! I am really envious on the fine blending of blue and green you seem to achieve, truly fantastic stuff!

Those Kabalite warriors of yours make me obscenely jealous. The cloaks are cool, but what makes them melt-your-face-off awesome is your color scheme. The blended green is masterfully done. Oh, and the custom Archon really takes center stage and takes it with style.

@Siticus the Ancient wrote:

Wow, the Blasterborn with Incubi helms look particularly spiffy! I am really envious on the fine blending of blue and green you seem to achieve, truly fantastic stuff!

Thanks!

Totally off topic, I see you are from Riga... Beautiful city, I had the pleasure of visiting in 2006, that Balsam stuff you guys drink is deadly, I still have one of those clay bottles somewhere in my house!

@Tangentical wrote:

Totally off topic, I see you are from Riga... Beautiful city, I had the pleasure of visiting in 2006, that Balsam stuff you guys drink is deadly, I still have one of those clay bottles somewhere in my house!

Glad you liked our capital! Yes, Riga's Black Balsam is quite something unlike anything else! The blackcurrant flavoured one is my favourite though, the regular black balsam should be used in cocktails, though there are plenty that just slam it down clean!

Hi guys,

I’ve been doing bits and pieces trying to crack out my Sybarite/Dracon model and also work on the (more necessary for Sunday) Venom model.

The Dracon won out as it was clearly going to be more fun to paint than anoooother Venom – think I may be able to get to 5 but then lose the will to build/paint any more.

With the number of things out there that can utterly smash big units now I’m thinking MSU may be a good way to go (other than the kill points mission where I’ll just have to accept the beat down) and that plays to the Venoms>Raiders issue.



Hope to finish them both tonight/tomorrow so will have finished pics up soon I’m sure.

Cheers

Hi guys!

Here is the completed Dracon with a couple of Lanceborn though if he's in that squad he'll just be a standard trueborn 'ablative wound'. Im more likely to se him as a Sybrite for a Kabalite squad...



I also spent some time 'correcting' some test models I painted before settling on my final colourscheme... they were all blue so i didn't fully repaint, just amended the rifles and added the gold bits and cloaks.

As they are corrections they aren't quite perfect though I'll probably need to use the blaster models as I stupidly painted them early doors and the bits are only 1 per 10 man pack (One in my Truebord squad is a converted shredder using a blast pistol end - works pretty well!).



Now on to the Venom (after a nice walk to Hampstead as the sun is now out in London!!!!!!)

Chris

Hurrah, Venom finished so now all I need to to pack up my army for the Overlords 1000pt team thing tomorrow!

I decided to try a new photo style using some terrain though this made it harder to get the lighting right...

Slight rush job, i've spotted some flash I missed and will correct next week.





And here is all three of my Venoms thus far banking to the left in formation!



Woosh!

Have a great weekend all, i'll try to remember pictures from tomorrows battles, hopefully I'll see IC podcaster Carl's Ultramarines in action!

Chris

Very cool, I like the regal colors!

Nice to see some "bright" dark elder

Played a game against Carl or The Independent Characters at The Overlords on Sunday.

My Kabal gets a mention on The Overlords podcast 125 about 1hr37 mins in!

Carl is a great guy and the Overlords club is very friendly and well run.

Thats awesome! I love the IC's and the Overlords as well. Did you play Carl's Ultramarines?

BTW, I haven't commented on your project before, but I love your army. Love the use of bits, excellent paint jobs and a great color scheme.

This is a weird army, the color sheme is very confusing and chaotic, however the army itself is still pretty cool.
One thing is for sure, I really do get the feeling this is a pirate army, the dark elf capes also contribute greatly to this feeling.

Hi,

A few bits of progress...

First off I painted the bike element of the first guardian biker for my allied Eldar (the biker model is so horrid i'm really on the fence about running them at all) and started on my Razorwing Fighter...



The Fighter is part of what I need to complete in May and is well under way now... WIP as I'm tossing up a few embelishment ideas and I've a scenic base on order including a wounded Kreig dude for the base...



Cheers

Chris

The blue and bronze scheme is very striking. Well done

Ooo, nominated for the painting award on here, thanks to whoever nominated me!

sir, i give you hugs. and a drink -hopefully he doesnt notice the poison- these are amazing models.

Hi

I've started writing on getting back into the hobby for 40k Global, if you get time give it a read and leave a comment, much appreciated!

http://www.40kglobal.com/2013/05/02/40k-or-how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-my-hobby/

May come as a shock but before October I hadn't painted a single miniature in about 15 years!

Chris