Tau Ghostkeel and new Firewarriors spotted

Look at the size of the new Tau commander, the box set also comes with two stealth drones and ONLY £45!?

P.S. Cool looking helmet :)

TAU KX139 TA'UNAR SUPREMACY ARMOUR....... OMG

Ok.. First things first sorry for the hibernation, I just needed to recharge my modelling batteries, but how about this to get the blood pumping again after a big slumber, true it would only last two turns, but how much fun would those turns will be..... :)  

Link to Forge World here

Rules here

Khorne vs Tau - Easter holiday battle report - Son vs Daddy

Hi all and welcome to our Easter holiday battle report, were I teach my seven year old son how to play 40K while my wife is away.  Sam choose my Khorne army and I choose Tau.  Sorry but the images are not great and my son insisted on pulling funny faces. 

This is my Son Sam (looking normal apart from being a hoodie) and his 1300pts of Khorne which includes:- Kharn the Betrayer, 9 Berzerkers, 5 Plague Marines, 20 Chaos cultists, Daemon Prince and 2 Defilers.

This is me and my Tau army which includes:- Commander Farsight and two Crises suited body guards, Cadre Fireblade and 12 Fire warriors, 8 Fire Warriors, 4 Tetras and 3 Riptides.

Standard set up on a small 2' x 4' board with Purge the Alien.  Let battle commence. 

Sam won first turn moved everything forward and first to shoot was a Defiler and Sam decided to annihilate Commander Farsight.  Luckily he did just that with his first shot, also killing both body guards and had two shots to spare...... Jammy so and so, I couldn't believe it.  He definitely doesn't have my luck :)  First blood and slay the Warlord both go to Sam.

Sam looking a bit smug...... On my turn one, I shot everything at one Defiler and the Berzerkers and I only managed doing two wounds on each, not a great turn.

Sam's turn 2, the Daemon Prince assaulted the Tetras and Kharn's unit assaulted the both units of Fire warriors, with little or no resistance from me.  having said that though, I did forget to fire overwatch from both Riptides :(  

As expected the Fire warriors didn't last long and the Daemon Prince was unlucky and only killed 1 Tetra.   My turn 2, I did another wound on the Defiler, leaving it with only one wound left, the Tetras made a dart for freedom and the Two Riptides that forgot to fire over watch made sort work of Kharn and his Berzerkers.  With a Daemon Prince on my back line and two Defilers breathing down my neck this was going to be a short game :) 

Sam's turn 3, and his first shot was to shoot the Riptides with 20 Chaos Cultists hitting 12 times and remarkably wounding 5 times, I also failed to save 2 out of the 5 rolling double 1 :( 

On my turn 3, I had left my Riptide with a fusion blaster, within easy charge range hoping to kill it with overwatch fire, but the dice gods were against me and my son saved the only shot that hit and wounded, that shot was all I needed to kill it.

Turn 4, Sam charged the Defiler and killed the Riptide with the Fusion blaster and the Daemon Prince charged and killed the other Riptide but took a couple of wounds from overwatch in the process.  My turn 4 and the last Riptide took aim with help from the Tetras and killed the Daemon prince in it's tracks.

Turn 5 and it was looking a bit grim for me, Defiler one with the one wound remaining, charged my last Riptide and Defiler two charged the three Tetras, with 2 Plague marines and 20 Chaos cultists watching and cheering them on.  Defiler Two completely wiped out the Tetra squadron but Defiler one couldn't kill the Riptide and I had a chance to get my revenge with a smash attack, but the dice gods were with my son again and he made his daemonic save of 5+ and obliterated me on my turn 5.

Sam had such a good time, the next day we played again but swapped sides to see if the Tau were unmatched against Chaos.  But guess what? he beat me again................

Tau XV109 Y’vahra Battlesuit - Flying base Part 2 (WIP)

Just a quick update on my XV109 Y'vahra.  The basic colour scheme is on but the question is "blue flame" or "red flame"?  For weeks now I have been convinced it was going to be a red flame, but now it's half painted, I'm airing on the side of blue.  What's your thoughts?

Tau XV109 Y’vahra Battlesuit - Flying base

This is my first attempt at sculpting flames, which I am going to use as a flying base for my XV109.  As this is my first attempt it has it's problems, as in, the length of the flame coming out of the flamer is a little short, but that's due to the size of the base, I had to make do with the limited size and I didn't want to have him flying too high. and additionally and more importantly sculpting flames is hard :)

Once again I'm rekindling my love for Milliput.

I hope you like and hints and tips are welcome.

New Riptide heads

Yes that's right I have another new Riptide.  "One can never have enough Riptides"  It's the XV109 and as it's a variant from the normal Riptide, I thought it needed a completely different head, I also wanted to keep the XV107's head in mind, so it's roughly based on his, but its not a fixed head like the XV107.  what do you think?

Tau Skyshield landing pad - Concept through to design

Hi all, it's been a little busy in my house catching up on University work and I'm still un-boxing after our move.  I thought this would be a good time to re-visit the Tau Skyshield Landing Pad and as you can see I stole ideas from the web and began to develop on the back of these images into a working digital modal.  I was torn between what I wanted and what it would cost, I knew I did not have a massive budget for this project, I also wanted to produce something that could be laser cut by a third party.  I had to compromise on the 6 towers, as seen below I wanted big thick towers but to keep the costs down I changed it.  I also wanted to use the top of the landing pad walls as Tau Aegis defence lines (for future projects).  

Anyway I hope these are inspirational for others, I have also put the dimensions on the drawing so if anybody wanted to create their own based on these plans they could.  Enjoy :) 

2 weeks, 2 armies and 2 events "Armies on Parade GW Bolton" and "Blog Wars 8"

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks and I have to apologies for the lack of posts during this time, while I have had a lot to share.  Moving house and not having internet for two weeks has seriously effected my addiction - talk about going cold turkey and stressfull doesn't even come close. 

Preparing for two events and adding some additional figures in the last moments while trying to move house was a little silly on my part, but as they say, the proof is in the pudding and winning two painting competitions with two armies back to back and one of them on my birthday, has to go down as a major achievement in my life, I just hope my wife doesn't read this, I'll be eating from of a straw for month, but joking aside she has been very supportive of my hobby/addiction (as long as all the chores are done :) ) and I couldn't do it with out her and her support.  

Well back to it - as promised images of my winning Armies on Parade army in the cabinet at GW Bolton and more images can be seen on the GW Bolton Facebook page, thanks to Ryan for a great day, Ill defo do it agan.

And secondly after an awesome weekend at Blog Wars 8 with Pete Butler (space wolves), Ben Houghton (necron) and Dave Western (nids).  Ok true, I did come dead last, adding to the saying "those who cant play, paint" not my best gaming moment, but I faced some good opponents and some fabulous armies.  It's not an excuse honest, but I like to look at it in another way, my dice rebelled against me because my luck was being channeled in winning prizes, money and goodies.  One Wooden spoon and £5 later, plus the addition of £10 for best painted Character and £15 for best painted army, And that's not all I won third place in the raffle - Space Wolves Venerable dreadnought sweeeeet.  Then Pete won the second prize, the Dark Eldar Void Raven Bomber, and we did a swap sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.  Wow so what was first prize you might ask, only an Imperial knight!

If people are looking for a great day out at a tournament but don't wont to spend a boat load of cash to do it, I highly recommend Blog Wars and all for £18.50 and you get lunch, Barginus..  Check out Alex''s blog "From the Fang" for more details

In the mean time some images from the event enjoy :-

My Urien Rakarth and his followers

Martin's drop pods and terminators appearing in my back line turn 1, holy moly.

Dave Western's (2nd place) Awesome Tyranids 

Martin Waine's (3rd place) kick ass Space Wolves

Farsight Enclave - Fire Warriors Teams for Armies on Parade

5 days to go for the Armies on Parade and a good time to showcase my newly painted units of Farsight Enclave Fire Warriors.  I think I have bitten off more then I can chew time scale wise, hence these are not my best painted troops.  I think they will do just fine though and hopefully people wont be looking at the troops, they'll be concentrating and everything else :)  Also the observant of you may have spotted a sneak peak of project "Y".