World Eaters! - Brother Handro's Work Bench - February 2021
What new, seemingly unconnected projects have we been working on this week?…
That’s right, apropos of nothing, World Eaters!
Well, not entirely from nothing. These boys have been kicking around for the best part of 2 years, until the majority of the stuff I had squirrelled away for some bright day where I’d magically start the project was actually folded in my first full, proper army, the Sons of Horus. (Lots of infantry, Assault squads, chainaxes…makes sense!) But that army did bring some indirect benefit - it was the first time I committed to airbrushing the whole army, infantry included, which is an obvious stumbling block when it come to painting the white armour of the World Eaters….
Fast forward a year or so and the #returntoisstvan campaign spearheaded on Instagram seemed as good a spur as any to finally start the XII Legion…
Gotta Go Fast!…
Another inadvertent benefit of delaying the project was getting used to the concept of painting in subassemblies, something we’d picked up from Adeptus Titanicus. This brings pretty obvious benefits when it comes to airbrushing models that are white and blue and never the twain shall meet.
Quick Mock-up time!
The final unintentional bonus came from my dabbling in oil washes on my Militia/Solar Auxilia tanks. Using oils as a recess wash (something I’ve already done with my first few Imperial Fists units) is a huge boon to armies that are painted in light colours, and airbrushed in general. The thought of trying to use washes and layers on Fists and World Eaters….(shudders)….they are equally useful for streaking and rust effects, which also looks extra nice on pale armour.
So that’s it for this month. Wonder what I’ll start next week?…. (Der H: I don’t want to even guess…)
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.
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
We have awoken!
Good lord it has been a long time again! It’s nearly the end of May, and we’ve not posted anything since November! Since then there has been much painting (Brother Handro: Ha!), two events, and a great deal of buying!
The time has come to try harder to deliver some more frequent content to motivate our progress through our respective (Der H: ever expanding…) legions of grey.
Der H is now post-exam, with NO MORE EXAMS in the foreseeable future (Brother Handro: I’ve heard that before) and now that real life is a little more settled, has promptly bought more models than sin.
Brother Handro has, again, flitted between several options, but has fleshed out the Sons of Horus to an extent never seen in our little hobby bubble (Der H: Don’t forget your rapidly expanding Instagram account Brother! Brother Handro: Linky linky)
We’ve been quite happy dishing out tempting pictures on Instagram, but haven’t really frequented our own blog…today that changes!
The plan…
Over the coming weeks we’re going to be more diligent at posting our exploits, starting with a veritable plethora of posts due this weekend when we attend…
We’re heading down this Friday for a fun-filled weekend of Heresy gaming, and the old allegiance of the Sons of Horus and the Emperors Children will be put to the test (Brother Handro: Not really a ‘fair’ test though is it….). We’re planning on discussing our list over the weekend, and already have a sneak peek of some of the competition through our operatives (Der H: Ok…its Facebook), but more on this in our Throne of Skulls - prelude post later this week.
Following that we will be reviewing the much anticipated Battle report app MyMiniReport when it is released this week. This is much anticipated so head over to their Kickstarter for details of the (now closed) campaign, or head to their forum for general chatter.
Going forwards…
Following that we have a huge backlog of blog posts to churn through, from a review of the December 2018 Scouring of Melos event hosted by the Road to Terra Podcast, to a look forwards to their next event in July. We will discuss Der H’s exploits in Durham at the Company of Legends, and will be going through and showing all the lovely plastic/resin crack we’ve been buying…
In the mean time check our our official Instagram here…
…and Brother Handro’s instagram here…
Der H & Brother Handro
Thought for the day: “Heresy grows from idleness”
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
Legio Praesagius walks!
Presenting to you in all its glory the first completed model for Adeptus Titanicus, Arx Argenti, Thrice Blessed, of the World Eat...Legio Praesagius...
Oh, how the faithful have waited for this day!...I mean, assuming we managed to get our hands on Grand Master Editions (Der H - Obviously we did!), otherwise it would have been a mighty blow to our campaign plans, but fear not, the Legios will walk!
The first finished Titan, Arx Argenti (Silver Fortress), also known as the Thrice Blessed; by the Emperor, by the Forgeworld of her birth (Gantz) and by the genius that saved me from throwing it out of the window when I realised I'd messed up building the legs...
Heraldry left blank optimistically in case of Praesagius transfers in the future...
I may throw some FW weathering powders on the lower legs and feet to dusty them up a little...
Although I didn't enjoy airbrushing this model as much as my Sons of Horus stuff, the results were more than acceptable, and practice is practice! Be warned, painting all the trim of the 38(!?) armour panels may make your brain melt...I also used enamel weathering products for the first time, and they are...tricky to get used to. You need near-microscopic amounts, a bottle will last several lifetimes. Blending them in requires patience, otherwise you end up with horrible-looking, painted-on lines or blotches. White is hardly the most forgiving colour for this either!
On the plus side, I'm well pleased with the end result, and I'd back Arx against any other tabletop standard titan I've seen so far. (Spoiler, that's precisely none). The aim, as always, is to get models on the table, not agonise over mistakes or imperfections (Inb4 Der H makes an Emperor's Children joke)...also, my World Eaters test scheme is ready to go!
Dux Ferrum, the second God-machine, is already under construction in the sacred macro-forges, and is earmarked for the hard-pressed Legion Gryphonicus...
Handro.
Adeptus Titanicus arrives!
So, like many of you, we have both been suckered int...dutifully bought the infamous Grand Master Edition of GW's new Adeptus Titanicus range, (Der H -'Did we not have enough to do?) and I couldn't wait to get started, getting a Warlord built on release day...of course it wasn't until 3 days later I realised I'd put the lower legs on back to front...
Airbrush stage finished, onto the nitty gritty...
It is definitely easier to paint the armour panels whist still on sprue, especially if you're airbrushing.
You will be heartily sick of painting armour trim by the time you finish...
...but once it starts to come together...
Starting to put some panels into place...
Slowly, slowly...
And finally a mock-up to check the leg plates all fit as they should...once the lower legs were the right way round...
This one is Legio Praesagius, but I expect to cave in and go full Legio Gryphonicus before too long...glad I got my World Eaters test scheme down though!...
Handro