Colour Scheme Reminder

While my models are far away I realised that I did have this pic on my laptop that I could show everyone before I get back and start painting again. I also wanted to commit, somewhere I could never lose it, the colours I had finally settled on after a lot of trial and error! Thanks to those who gave me their thoughts on the green trousered guy but after a lot of thought I realised I wanted khaki trousers, I just hadn't got the colour khaki the way I wanted it. The guy below is the survivor of more than a dozen test models I started, using combinations of literally every bloody paint in the vague spectrum close to what I was after.

The Khaki is: Steel Legion Drab, Baneblade Brown, then Karak Stone.

Green: Caliban Green, Black Wash, Caliban again, then Castellan Green.

Brown: Simply Mournfang, Black Wash, more Mournfang.

Base: Scorched Brown (Rhinox), Drybrush Calthan Brown, then XV-88, finally Zandri Dust.

The long grass is Swamp Tuft from Army Painter, the smaller Middenland Tuft. I'll use these two as the main grass throughout the whole army, with some other effects on some models for variety (maybe some of the leaves, new barbed wire etc.). I have tree stumps for 60mm bases.

I'm finally happy, although on the actual guys I think I will add a further highlight to the Khaki of a Karak Stone/White Scar mix, and highlight the metal properly.

Of course if you have any comments I can't actually do any work on them so I am open to any ideas for improvement in the meantime, but as I say, after months of trial and error, I finally love the scheme the way I wanted to when I first suggested it.

6th Edition and Allies

I have been away (still technically am) with work for a few weeks now so modelling and 6th has mainly passed me by. I have been working on the background fluff of my Regiment though and will start posting up articles soon, as without my models there's not much else I can do hobby related till I return home. Annoyingly, after finally settling on what I think is the best looking scheme I have the first half painted squad at home, where I'm not, which I'm itching to finish and get some pictures up.

In the mean time having ordered the new rulebook and been busy scouring the blogs the main thing I'm excited about in 6th is bringing some allies to the table. My mainly foot Army I think is going to fare quite well with the HP changes to armour, so I have been thinking of what's missing from my army and what I can get in allies wise to do the job. Not necessarily the best army but one I could write fluff for why they are joined and that I would like to collect and paint. So as with all Guard what's really missing is a good CC option. I don't want to sit back like Wellington at Waterloo and just grind the enemy into submission. I'd like to do that while causing serious thought provoking headaches to the enemy!

Firstly it has to be Space Marines, I don't want a weird Tau or Eldar alliance (not that they fit the criteria above!) I want Astartes inspiring my men. My first and obvious thought was Grey Knights but the sheer expense of the units seems too much to stomach, plus fluff wise, in my mind, the leaders of Praetoria, while loyal to the Emperor, are not adverse to lining their pockets and meeting their own agendas while doing so. Therefore they don't exactly want the inquisition around. So with no to GK, while Blood Angels or Black Templar might be the next on the list for CC SM goodness, I don't have any real love for either. This left me with the two Chapters I do really like, Dark Angels and Space Wolves. Fluff problems, Dark Angels are very secretive, Space Wolves are based the other side of the Galaxy (not that that really matters). I have a small Dark Angels Army remaining that I could work with on the plus side, on the downside I'm not really feeling it as for CC prowess we are looking at Deathwing and Ravenwing both of which I don't really like! Bone armour, black armour and on bikes, yuk!

So I'm now looking at a small Space Wolves Ally Army. While not the greatest SM CC force they are still good, plus with the world the 13th are based on being wolf infested, I get a good fluff tie in and can also tie models across the army with Wolf related items. I had already planned on the two CCS bodyguards being wolves! I'm planning on adding a single Grey Hunter Pack, a Character (probably Canis Wolfborn) and Thunderwolf cavalry, maybe Wolf Guard in the future for terminator CC goodness.

I'm quite excited by this, while the Praetorians are still my first labour of love, the thought of painting 100s of green jackets without rest was filling me with dread. A little bit of Space Wolf modelling in-between will help break stuff up. I'd be interested if others have similar plans for allies and what they intend to take? While every 40k Army has a flaw, with allies it probably means you can create an army that is good at all elements, but maybe not as good as the one you are facing!

Won my first Practice Game!

Went to a local store who run a games night and encouraged me to come, I had scrabbled together a makeshift army of models from things I haven't yet stripped or was planning to sell and took them along. It closely resembles a lower level of what I'm putting together so I thought a good chance to practice with my intended army and see how I got on. My opponent was very patient with me as I explained I hadn't played a game in about 11 years! But having read the rules and many battle reports I was quite quick to catch on. He had an Ork army and we settled on 1150 points as I could muster 1167 easily and he was happy with me taking that as it was my first game. I stupidly didn't note down his Army when I left but basically he had a Warboss, 90 Boyz, Lootas and one of the new Flyers. The Army I used is below. Sorry no battle report, I was concentrating too hard each turn on checking the rules! Maybe in the future when I get a hang of everything. We ended on turn 6 with his Army wiped out bar the Flyer which had been stunned for 3 turns. I had the Ratlings, Marbo, Leman Russ, Basilisk and 1 Sergeant and a Commissar left of a blob made of  3rd and 4th Squad.

I did learn a few things:

• Taking the Powerfists and Commissar in the PCS was a complete waste, the squad got wiped out in one turn of shooting. 65 Points is another platoon squad with grenade launcher and powersword, no brainer really.
• By that token the Commander should probably have a Powerfist to make good use of those three attacks. CCS could also have done with more bodies as well as he targeted it quite heavily (because of the MOO) so maybe will chuck bodyguards in. 
• The basilisk and Master of Ordnance definitely proved their worth against hordes,
• I also had much more success with the missile launchers dropping frag than the Autocannons who I always rolled badly for and got only 1 hit out of three turns of firing from the 2! Made me realise guaranteeing a blast against weak armoured horde troops is better, but obviously not as good against better armour and light vehicles so something to tailor dependant on opponent. 
• The 3 power weapons in the two blobs did really well against the whittled down orcs and one blob managed to send one squad of boyz running after a failed leadership test, after I luckily rolled 7 wounds from them. 
• Maybe priests would be an idea attached to blobs, expensive though.
• Ratlings were ace against orks, need more!
• Penals were an excellent cheap screen, but I need to remember just because they have rolled and been given furious charge does not mean I should assault orks! Got wiped out and stopped them from being a nice road bump like I planned.
• The Leman russ missed with the lascannon on every turn, as it was there to fire at troops I definitely want ones with just a bolter. 
• Apart from the missiles I had no real AT which was fine against just his flyer but I think a squad of meltagunners and some lascannons is in order.

I'm playing a Tyranid player next week, which I think will be a learning experience. All very well gunning down Orks running at me, Tyranids deep striking amongst me will cause much more problems I think!

List I used is below:

Unit		Upgrade	Cost
HQ
Company Command HQ1			50
	Company Commander	Power Weapon	10
	4x Veteran	Regimental Standard	15
		Medipack	30
		2x Plasma Gun	30
	Master of Ordinance		30
			165
Elites
Ratling Squad			30
	X5 Ratlings	2 extra Ratlings	20
			50
Marbo			65
Troops
1st Platoon
PCS			30
	Officer	Powerfist, Bolt Pistol	17
	4x Guardsman	4x Flamer	20
	Commissar	Powerfist	50
			117
1st Squad			50
	Sergeant	Power Weapon	10
	7x Guardsman	Grenade Launcher	5
	2xGuardsman (1)	Missile Launcher	15
	Commissar	Power Weapon	45
			125
2nd Squad			50
	Sergeant	Power Weapon	10
	7x Guardsman	Grenade Launcher	5
	2xGuardsman (1)	Missile Launcher	15
			80
3rd Squad			50
	Sergeant	Power Weapon	10
	7x Guardsman	Grenade Launcher	5
	2xGuardsman (1)	Autocannon	10
	Commissar	Power Weapon	45
			120
4th Squad			50
	Sergeant	Power Weapon	10
	7x Guardsman	Grenade Launcher	5
	2xGuardsman (1)	Autocannon	10
			75
Penal Squad		N/A	80
	Penal Custodian	N/A	N/A
Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank		Lascannon	165
Basilisk			125
Total			1167

Army List Advice Please

So I either own in various stages of construction or have on the way the following below.When I added it all up it came to a whopping great 2500 pts. Now that's great except by the time I'll have finished this lot we will definitely be on 6th and more than likely in possession of a new codex! So here is my Question, I want to pull a decent 1500 pt list out to have a play with so where do I concentrate my building/painting efforts? The first 2 squads of First Platoon, its PCS and 5 Ratlings are effectively done and in the painting queue. That is 360 points, here's my thoughts on how I proceed. I want to get 5 rough riders done (that's a must!) so another 55-70 points. The plasma vets are quite important I think so another 160 and of course I need at least 1 CCS so minimum of 100 points there with just a Standard and Plasma Rifles (Second HQ is a pure indulgence idea for later on). I also want Marbo and the Penals for some outflanky mayhem action so add another 145. Storm Troopers are only 105 points and 5 models so a quick project so seem another obvious choice as well as being a solid AT threat taking me in total if I do that to around 950pts (depending on advisor's, but think I really need an astropath as planning to flank Penals and possibly RR as well as Marbos and Paratroopers arrival). Now I feel I really need more troop numbers so (as I have loads of them I could paint) 3rd and 4th squad come next taking me to around 1150 points ( I can obv massage the numbers slightly with the loadouts). So I suppose what I'm really asking is at this point to I load up on the two Russes? Or do I take the HWS with Lascannon with whatever I have left in points to get me to the magic 1500 mark? Either way looking at it on paper I'm slightly worried about whether there's enough bodies as its not a mechanised list and also there's a lack of manoeuvrability, but I wanted mainly infantry so what do I expect, I'll see how it plays. I'm going to take some unpainted figures to a local hobby group for play testing at some point soon. Even though I modelled the Platoon standard its just a shite addition, 15 points is the same as the Regimental one, it doesn't effect the checks and I can get another flamer for ten points less, on display yes, in a game no! Any other points on anything else in the list before I start modelling things (to put the breakers on a big mistake!) would be welcome as well! I'm wondering whether two bodyguards instead of a medic is a better 30pt investment if only taking one CCS as it will also allow another plasma rifle, although I am a bit worried of gets hot mayhem killing half the HQ! Also if I don't take the HWS Lascannon think I will have to take more meltas as otherwise I'm a bit light on AT.

HQ
Company Command HQ1		50
	Power Weapon	10
	Regimental Standard	15
	Medipack	30
	Plasma Gun	15
	Plasma Gun	15
	Astropath	30
	Master of Ordinance	30
			195
Company Command HQ2		50
	Straken	95
	Regimental Standard	15
	2 Bodyguards	30
	Meltagun x3	30
			220
Elites
Ratling Squad		30
	x7 Ratlings	70
			100
Marbo		65	65
Storm Troopers		85
	2x Meltagun	20	105
Troops
1st Platoon
PCS		30
	4x Flamer	20
	Powerfist x 2	30
	Commissar	35
			105
1st and 2nd Squad		100
	2x Grenade Launcher	10
	2x Missile Launcher	30
	3x Power Weapon	30
	Commissar	35
			205
3rd and 4th Squad		100
	2x Grenade Launcher	10
	2x Autocannon	20
	3x Power Weapon	30
	Commissar	35
			195
HWS		300
	3xLascannon	45
	3xLascannon	45
	3xAutocannon	15
	3xAutocannon	15
	3xMorter	0
			420
Veteran Squad		70
	3x Plasma Rifle	45
	Missile Launcher	15
	Grenadiers	30
			160
Veteran Squad		70
	Harker	55
	1x Meltagun	10
	2x Plasma Rifle	30
	Heavy Bolter	10
	Demolitions	30
			205
Penal Squad		80	80
Fast Attack
Rough Riders		55
	Power Weapon	10
	5x Riders	50
	2x Meltagun	20
			135
Heavy Support
Leman Russ x 2		2x 150	300
		TOTAL	2490