Roadmap to summer...1500pts ZM
Lockdown is ending!!
.So it appears we have a road map to summer and the end of COVID restrictions. Clearly this is an ideal scenario type gig - my quiet Jan/Feb (due to COVID escalation rotas) is a testament to plans not quite going as…well…planned.
At the current rate, however, we are on for games in the not too distant future. (Brother Handro: “Wait…does that mean we need to paint something?…”)
Zone Mortalis
Some time ago Der H bought some ZM tiles on Last Chance to Buy, they sat unused for a time and eventually found some paint last year!
So hey…why not use them.
Both of the Butterflies have Legion goals with new forces that haven’t quite taken off, and so we decided that a great way to start would be planning for a set of 1000pt ZM games following the Hit and Run Blood in the Void rules against an escort. Mission one being Void Strike. depending how it goes, and depending on progress we can do mission 2 and 3, and push to 1500 pts.
Der H will be running Iron Warriors
Brother Handro will be pushing the Imperial Fists…
….Roll on Phall!
The first phase…
Der H’s list is a tidy 23 models, with Praevian, 2 Castellax and 20 Breachers, whilst Brother Handro has gone for the squishier Champion, 2 Apothecaries, 10 Tacticals, 10 Breachers and 10 Warders.
Stretch Goal…
1500 adds 10 more Breachers and 10 Iron Havocs for Der H and 5 Vets plus 5 Terminators for Brother Handro…evening out the squishy somewhat!
The idea is that, missing our usual event-driven progress, we can make our own event of it…and drive some progress….
…of course, knowing one’s opponent might mean some subtle changes before list day….
Legio Cybernetica - Brother Handro's dive into giant robots!
If there’s one thing playing games in a 30k environment has taught me, it’s that the bodies of the noble Astartes are but grist for the mill of the heresy, and no matter how superhuman they may be against humans or Xenos, the Iron Hands have the right of it…the flesh is weak!
Join me as I dive into the world of servos and plastek brain wafer-chips to bring you big stompy robots…
(Der H: So you bought a Mechanicus T-shirt and realised you should probably start all those robots you’ve been hoarding….)
The Calix-Thanatar, not as good as the standard, plasma mortar-lobbing one, but way prettier. Also I hate Salamanders.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Handro, Mechanicum are a bit…well, good, aren’t they? Yes, yes they are. You’ve grasped the practicalities of playing Mechanicum straight away! But obviously here at The Hobby Butterflies we like to think that fluff is equally if not more important and the lore behind the Mechanicum is some of the richest and most evocative of the 30/40k universe. Plus if you can think of something cooler than the line of Mechanicum models I’d like to know about it.
So we felt it was about time we had something 30K non-Astartes on the blog. We will both be churning out Mech and Imperial Militia forces over the coming months. (Der H: If we can find them in our piles of shame, that is!)
This is what the Castellax look like!
The initial plan is to complete a 1000 points Allies list for the upcoming return to Melos. So a Magos, 4 Castellax and the Thanatar need to be completed alongside a 3-strong unit of Vorax to accompany a Praevian consul. Plenty to be getting on with, but after that I fully expect to start requisitioning bigger, stompier robots from the forges of…y’know, I should actually get some fluff brewing…and from there, a long, slow descent into robotic madness…
Thought for the day: The flesh is weak, duh.
Handro.
Fulgrim (...finally)
Everybody loves a ‘pretty boy’….(Brother Handro: apparently! It’s not something we’ve dealt with often….) and in 30k there’s only one true choice…
(Brother Handro: *cough* Sanguinius *cough*)
…FULGRIM!
This beautiful model was released long ago, but I’ve simply not got around to buying him (Brother Handro: *looks around in disbelief surrounded by resin*). Finally, the wonderland/perpetual hell* that is the Heresy Trading Facebook group gave results in the form of an abandoned, part converted, Fulgrim.
The cloak sculpt is a thing of beauty, and the feathers are pretty tasty too!
Fulgrim, in game, can be run wielding either The Blade of the Laer or Ferrus Manus’ creation, Fireblade. The model only comes with The Blade of the Laer, which is beautiful in its own way, but in game terms Fireblade nearly always wins.
Blade of the Laer: Strength User, AP 2, Rending, specialist weapon, two handed
Fireblade: Strength +1, AP 2, Murderous strike (5+), specialist weapon, master-crafted
With the model only having the Laer blade, things went to Heresy Trading pretty quickly, with this as the result!
The G-Dubs mainstream Rowboat Girlyman has a lovely sword which is quite large, and certainly larger then the Laer blade from Forge World, but works well as an alternative.
The plan is to magnetise the swords, extract the fallen banner from the base to be carried by Phoenix terminators/Command squad, and to finish the sculpting on the cloak in the next few months…
…Painting however will take longer. Miles of Lil Legend Painting Studios has a fantastic series via his Patreon covering some techniques…guess I should get started!
What do people think? Does the larger sword look too big?
Der H
Throne of Skulls - a Prelude
So, tomorrow is the day! Throne of Skulls! Our first doubles event and our first event at Warhammer World!
We drove down in the mean machine that is Der H’s red and white Citroen 2CV6 (Brother Handro: I can confirm that my ears are bleeding…) and set up camp in a nearby well known hotel #notsponsored.
A quick trip to Warhammer World for supplies, beer, and a cheeky practice game and we have our armies ready for war!
Game 1 was Tide of Carnage with Dawn of War deployment. Emperors Children started strong hitting the rapier laser destroyers hard, and shaking the Whirlwind - snap shots FTW!
The veteran tacticals of the Sons of Horus moved up slowly, taking out both Rhinos in close combat, but they were beaten back by Kakophoni. Bio-psychic shock gives D6 wounds at AP2 instant death, no cover saves allowed. On occasion this does nothing, but a poor side roll for Ld followed by a 5 or 6 just destroys units....like it did for Brother Handro...
before...
...after...
Eventually, the relentless heavy 2 Kakophani, the sicaran and the Whirlwind were just too potent. With some particularly harsh shots from the sicaran at Brother Handro’s Delegatus leading to the death of the Sons of Horus warlord.
Game 2 was Dominion using the Vanguard Strike deployment. Brother Handro seized the initiative and promptly destroyed a predator, hull pointed the other. Turn two he destroyed the sicaran, and a rhino before the scorpius scored 19 strength 8 AP 3 wounds on the squad, killing all 10 occupants! Things were not going well. Der H’s scorpius survived all 6 turns but without Vox cover the scatters were significant!
Brother Handro
I’ve gone for a chosen duty list. My plan is two Rhino mounted veteran tactical squads each with a Nuncio Vox to provide reliable firing solutions for the Whirlwind scorpius. Two rapier laser destroyers hit hard when needed, and the list is rounded out with a 5 man volkite culverin squad, 5 man tactical support squad with plasma guns. All led by a basic delgatus. 1247pts all in, and ready to go!
The practice games with Der H were mixed. If the laser destroyer and scorpius get hit, it all falls apart. Der H got lucky game one with his Kakophoni rolls (Der H: well...you rolled the D6 instant death dice....) but it was going south before that! Placement is the key me thinks, and protecting the heavy stuff without sacrificing their LoS is going to be the trick.
Der H
I’ve gone with the ol’ faithful Kakophoni as my base, built around the IIIrd company elite RoW. This allows sonic shriekers for nearly everyone of note, Kakophoni as troops (with relentless to boot) allowing 17 heavy 2 Strength 5 biopsychic shock attacks per turn. Apothecaries are near-vital for this unit as without they have a HILARIOUS ability to wipe themselves off the table (Der H: you’d be surprised at how many 1’s can be rolled with 20 D6… Brother Handro: No…no I wouldn’t….). A Delegatus makes this possible, but he has to be cheap. Sicaran battle tank and Scorpius make a nice dual-threat armoured section. I toyed between using 6 Jetbikes with 2 multimeltas or rolling up with 2 predators, eventually settling on the latter!
Let’s hope they perform as well tomorrow!
More updates on our Instagram throughout the day, and on here at some point too!
Look out for our updates via MyMiniReport, and a full review of the app next week!
Der H & Brother Handro
Legio Fureans
So Adeptus Titanicus is finally returned, and I am here for it!
[Brother Handro: “you took your time...” ]
Exams and really life issues took priority so it sat UNOPENED for weeks. Finally, after a busy Hobby Day with Brother Handro, I can claim some progress!
The sprues themselves are a thing of beauty!
Slowly taking shape...
Titans are amongst us!
The building kits are simultaneously amazing and infuriating; they have a degree of interchangeability but several combinations simply won’t work. I focussed on a huge building with the large walls, and small buildings with the small walls. Brother Handro did the opposite. Hopefully this will give us an array of buildings to use for our upcoming games!
The shame grows! A quick, post shift, trip to Element Games resulted in some re-enforcements to the Legio, as well as a fan of lead belcher....because who has time to paint silver for days...
I’ve decided on Fureans for my Legion. Good true traitors, and suits my Kill Kill Kill tactics! The black books are full of reference images...
Just need to learn to paint now....if only there was some way of doing it...*furiously orders stencils*
Der H
Instagram progress!
So, real life is in the way again. Der H is approaching his last (Der H: “hopefully...” ) post grad exam, and Brother Handro is merrily churning through thousands and thousands of points of Sons of Horus before Decembers Scouring of Melos event in Stockport.
This will be our first ever event weekend - late to the party as ever - and will see Brother Handro’s SoH and Der H’s EC battle it out with 18 other North-West heresy fanboys. Having played some of these guys before we’re expecting tough competition. The whole thing is organised by the Road to Terra guys; they’re awesome guys so check out their podcast.
Progress!
There has been some!
Brother Handro has been merrily painting his SoH. 33 infantry this week, and 33 to go....(Brother Handro: “....and the vehicles” )
Meanwhile, Der H has been assembling Phoenix Terminators....after the mammoth task of relocating his modelling desk out of the city of Rapture...aka the basement of damp....
Hopefully it all come together for December!
Check out our pages on Instagram:
@brotherhandro and @thehobbybutterflies
Brother Handro & Der H
So you want to build a Storm Eagle...
Short answer - don't.
Long answer...
FW resin, meet my friend Mr. Clamps...
Now this is how the Steagle sat on my shelf for nearly a year, which was long enough for the top rear panel to almost nearly not quite fit where it needed to be...Seriously, it was, and still is way out from where it ludicrously claims it ought to physically be able to exist. The fit is so bad, I eventually had to pin both sides of the fuselage to the floor, even after hours of heating and filing. Even then, the front ramp sits in a gap that is too big for it, requiring plasticard and Greenstuff to help out.
Further on....you can see that even the plastic on this kit is bent, the front 'flap' of the cockpit housing the (absent) Multimelta is lifting away from the hull...You can also see that the resin differs in colour, depending on whether it had sat in the sun on my shelf or the darkness of the hobby cupboard for a year...
I had to remove significant amounts of the rears of the top wing parts (where the Greenstuff is in the above pic) just to get them in, the main issue being that the front plastic top panel just wouldn't sit in the right position, consequently shifting all the parts behind it out of position...The engines are pinned into the hull for strength, most of the weight is on the wings and rear of the model (which also causes 'issues' in terms of flying stand stability). Don't forget to pin the landing skids to their legs either, I didn't trust them to hold the weight of the thing alone. Magnetising is an option here.
Pretty much there!
Here she is, pretty much done and awaiting undercoat. What a labour of...well, it wasn't love, certainly. Bit of a grind, really!
Best of a bad job an' all that...
Here you can see the WIP 'Greenstuff covered in Liquid Greenstuff' phase of the project. Yeah. It looks better than this now, promise!
Overall, this is a great looking model (remember the brick-like abomination this kit is based on) that is dragged down by horrendous warping and bad fit. Equally it's so rear-heavy extra attention will be required to get it to go safely (and/or semi-permanently) on its flying stand. God-Emperor knows how I'll transport it either. I can't really recommend the kit itself to anyone, never mind the inexperienced modeller, just get a Spartan instead. (Der H: Funny you should mention that...) It does pretty much the same job and is more survivable (on and off the battlefield). However, if you really want, or list restrictions require you to have a flyer transport, you don't have any other option in this price range...in that case, Emperor be with you.
Handro