FrankenDread



     Some of you might know from my other blog Grumble Grumble Eldar that this last weekend saw a great win for the Eldar. However it was that last game in that tournament that really stuck with me and for the reason of this update. As one of the members of the opponents team was the new Grey Knights. This is the first time I have played against them and saw them played up close. Let me tell ya, they can bring down some hurt. However in that game one of my opponents mentioned something and it got me thinking. He said that without a few certain options that GK have trouble vs Arm 12. Which upon closer inspection I agree with.

    I have always seen Arm 12 as a 'medium' armor as on paper it does not look strong when compared to Arm 13 or 14 but when the game gets started it definately seems to last longer than one might think. I think in part it is to do with the mentality of the armor, most people think of 12 as thin so they do not dedicate as much high str anti tank to it as they think things such as S7 or S8 can take care of it. However when you boil it down 7's need 5 to glance 6 to pen the same as a las cannon vs a land raider. Also Arm 12 seems to be the standard armor for skimmers which if played correctly are hard to get into melta or melee range and only slightly harder to get out of the 24" threat range of the standard GK shot.

Now that is not say that GK are royaly boned vs Arm 12 Skimmers but they do need to be careful of them and do their best to take them out with the proper options. The most common option that comes to mind is the Psy Riflemen Dread. It has the range to keep most skimmers threatened and enough shots to give you a better chance of success. In the test list I am working up I plan on taking 2 Psy Rifledreads just to give added fire support. Thus today I sat down and built what I have dubbed the FrankenDread. He contains a 1993 Metal SM Dreadnaught, Aegis Defence Line AutoCannons, Venerable Dread shoulder plates, and Grey Knight Strike Squad purity seals and a Furiosodread spot light. Here are the pics

All in all  I am very pleased with how it came out. I am working on my second dread which will contain different bits from my bits box for the special dread options. I am working on the second dread's custom base as I did not have another textured dread base, what I have is stage one and I plan on adding more to the green stuff as soon as it completely hardens.

Please post any comments or ideas for FrankenDread or the second Dread or Base.





Base-ics part 2

Here is a picture of some of the test bases I have painted up for my Grey Knights. I used a press mold substance called instant mold to create the mold for the base by pressing against some terrain I had around the house. I have to say this stuff is super easy to work with and the greatest part it is reusable. I have cut some of it down to small pieces and then threw it back into the hot water, let me heat up and melt alittle and then pressed it back together and it was as good as new no evidence that it had been multiple pieces moments before. Here are some videos of Instant mold in action. I warn you it is as awesome as it looks.







Back to Base-ics



To those that know me know that I am a die hard Eldar player. For a time I branched out to Blood Angels and IG to try something different. So it might seem odd for me to all of a sudden pick up Grey Knights as a new army and possibly dethrone Eldar as my primary army. While my close friends who read that last statement take a moment to recollect themselves after such  blasphemous words, I will go into what drew me to this army. The main pull that brought me to this has really little to do with 40k at all it stems from my other all consuming hobby, pen and paper rpgs. In truth my very first exposure to 40k was when I went into the local game store looking for a DnD group and saw it being played. Where this ties into 40k and Grey knights is the main two character types I almost always played were Mages/Magic-users and Paladins/ Knights, so naturally when the two are rolled into one army it is almost like a dream come true. In regards to 40k the GK have powerful psy-powers, good close combat, good shooting and some tricks that put the opponent off balance or surprise them. All of which are things I enjoy in my 40k armies.

While I know a portion of the forum users on 40k sites have a very different opinion of the fluff in the new GK book, I on the whole quite enjoyed it. Was it the most amazing fluff ever written? No but it isn't the worst either. But as to not get into that kind of debate here I will simply say it still gave me that impression that the GK are the Shield of Mankind set down by the Emperor to protect man from the true evils. I find that notion very enjoyable as it plays back into the whole rpg aspect I mentioned above. Where this , I believe, might dethrone my Eldar from my favorites is that for a reason I cannot explain I am putting an almost obessive level of effort into making the Gk the best I can make them. What that means is that I am going to try to do the whole nine yards, custom bases, custom display board, the highest quality paint job that I can summon forth. I have already started work on some test bases to see how well I can do so here are some of the test shots.

I am thinking the tiled one of the far left is going to be that of my purifier squad and the paint on it will be like a mosaic tile of a church. The bullet pocked street tile of the center will be for my strike squads with a general theme of advancing forward in a demon infested city and the one to the far right with the grate work and hoses and veins will be that of the purgation squad in the midst of a infested building clensing it with holy flame.

If you have any ideas for bases or comments on what I have done so far feel free to post.