NovemberIX

Not that I need anymore Land Raiders, but I think a pair of kits covering Assault Ramp and Non-Assault Ramp variants is pretty cool. Personally, I'd like to see Plasma, Melta, Grav, and Volkite (since it seems to be back) as Sponson and main gun options. Ironically, I'm the opposite camp of wrap around tracks, I'd like to see more track cover extensions. I love how you can identify an Achilles by it's track covers, I think small things like that give character. I do think a Quad-Las hull gun variant would be cool too, would fit in with the Ares and Achilles. Options to add extra armor would be nice, I rather like the way the old FW Reinforced Armor Kit looks, and I kinda wish I had gotten the spaced armor when I had the chance. Basically, I'm looking for an excuse to build another handful of land raiders.

I'd call it All push-fit are monopose, but not all monopose are push-fit.

I don't think that's quite true, I think there were at least 45+ leg variations, 15 running (van vet, assault, DC), 25+ Standing type (Tacs, Devs, DC, SG, MkIV, MkIII) and two squatting types that came with the old and new Devs. I'm kinda under counting a bit since I didn't actually check not counting the old tac box, or the 5 man sprue that was used in assault and command squads, they're legs were more or less mirrors of the old basic tac legs. And while it can be argued that the standing legs are all pretty much the same save for details, the running legs are all each unique.

Gotta disagree with you there. While yeah, my own efforts are rather pedestrian and have some "basic" elements, there was definitely more variety than the monopose kits. Like Evil Eye said, the death company kit was full of interesting parts, so was the Van Vets kit, along with BT and the early MkIV could be combined to do some very interesting stuff, and that ignores the ease of finding different weapon variants that you could just pop on. I mean to put it simply, I don't think I could re-make my shrugging marine from the kits that are out now.

The venerable dreadnought kit has some decorative bits that might help.

So there is one iPad app I can think of that I've used, it's called Concepts, it has a free to use option, but to export images I think you have to buy a 5 dollar upgrade (or at least it did when I was using it). I remember it being fairly robust and had a lot of options available depending on how much you wanted to spend. It is also vector based.

I'd normally recommend some combination of GIMP and Inkscape, both free and open source, but they are PC programs.

I love that the first shot is a Storm Eagle, and the shot of the running Preds, the Iron Clad dreadnought in the background, and of course the jump packs. This is the 40K I wanna see.

I used to use loctite before switching to Cyapro medium viscosity, I'd say both are pretty good, though these days I do prefer Cyapro for the price.

I've used AnyCubic Photons for a few years now, my current is a Photon Mono X 6Ks, you can get a Mono 2 for $147.00, though anycubic is running a sale so there's a few options under 450. I think a small printer for a few things can be pretty handy, though I am partial to a larger build plate if only to reduce the number of prints I need to do and maximize sub assemblies.

Congrats to all, especially Rusted Boltgun! This really is one of the best and more difficult challenges in the hobby, and encapsulates the total hobby experience. I've said before, I've gotten more done this year than I have in the past 3. Thank you to Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch and Lysimachus for running the event, here's to hoping third time is the charm and I can finally finish the gauntlet (or obtain it, dependent on how you look at it I suppose).

The Sunset Dance The IV had dripped, and the day was dragging on. Outside in the hall her manciple had adjusted a lightswitch, bringing a much appreciated shade to the room. The Pilot of the Knight Preceptor Milenus Suproxim was exhausted, but she had secured her legacy; the next in the unbroken line of pilots that could trace its way back to the greatest grandmother was born. Exhausted, and accomplished. She adjusted the warm bundle that now slept upon her chest. She would have preferred to give birth on the Glatisant, but she was stationed on the lander Avengent Fury above Cartrox IIc. The house had been operating planet side for 6 months now in grinding urban combat against an entrenched insurgent force. The rebels had captured a deep layer manufactura complex that sprawled underneath the primary macrohive on the Pedulla Continent. Though they had yet to corrupt it, the traitor forces had managed to engage the ancient machinery to produce war walkers. Invading from underground industrial elevators, they had been attacking the civilians and infrastructure topside. It was the task of the Garaipeña to engage the enemy walkers so that the 765th and local Skitarii Cohorts could retake occupied facilities. The Twins had been given groundside operation command to implement a partitioning of forces into quick response squads. They were currently planet side in a picket around the rebel forces. Because of her gravid status, She’d been assigned to the Orbital Warning and Command lander keeping station above the continent. Ostensibly she was there as command representative of the Matriarch, but that hadn’t amounted to much more than the occasional SNAP traffic message, stamping her approval of the Twins battle plans, and regular but interminable meetings with the Manciples. She would be glad to get a break from that at least. She was beginning to lightly doze, and her manciple had left the room in search of a pot of recaffe. Her mind wandered as she lay there, ‘Vapor and Zenith squads had just cycled up for refit and repair, Halo and Gram were ready to cycle down, and Comet would be after them if the fighting kept up, hopefully another Quistoris or two could be freed up and assist the twins.’ Her thoughts were interrupted by a distant thud, violent tremors and the lights switching to emergency reds. She grabbed the medi-bed handvox and hit the activation keys, barely waiting for the connection tone to complete before asking for a report. She heard a second tone of the intraship network before she heard the voice of the Senior Manciples assistant. “We’ve been hit by orbital debris, engines are severely damaged and are unable to keep station. Ship master has ordered that we make a controlled descent while we can. SNAP message reports a breakout force have taken over the western continental anti-asteroid turret network and are circumventing the friendly fire protocols by using the debris as a weapon.” She squared up the details and considered, with the majority of Novemberine forces on the northern continent, response to this attack would be slow compared to the damage they could do in that time. “Let the ship master know I’m invoking command privilege, get crew to crash stations, aim us toward the complex, and prepare Milenus Suproxima for my arrival” She could feel a change in the vibration in the deck plate as he responded affirmative. The voice continued “Estimated time to impact, roughly 18 minutes” She heard the door cycle open, her manciple entered, carrying her piloting gear and a disposable recaffe cup with a lid. “Rig for defense once we’re down, I’ll have further orders once I’m in the plug” Disconnecting the handvox she shifted her waking progeny to one arm and reached for the cup as he started to prepare her suit, “On time as always dear” ---- The Avengent Fury was burning towards the terminator line, a streak of golden spark followed as it delved the blue and black sky. Inside the rumbling had grown fierce, the last of the deckhands were clearing out. Milenus Suproxima was free of her moorings, braced for a dynamic entry onto the battlefield. Flanking her were the quickly readied Vapor units. Their rough looks belied their readiness, their pauldrons, newly replaced, were rife with overspray, the lighting locks themselves while fully cleaned, still bore signs of electrode oxidation. Inside the cockpit of Milenus Suproxima, a mother’s warmth soothed her newborn. A wrap held the child close. Over her small mouth and nose, and newborn sized respiration mask. The plug began to fill with the link connection fluid, a slightly orange substance, slightly denser than pure liquid but more fluid than a gel. As the fluid rose and began to reach her head, the pilot had a thought, she’d hated this part, going from gas to liquid breathing always felt weird. For a moment she envied her progeny. She dismissed the thought with a tilt of her head and a gritting of her teeth. The House Garaipena had customs about introducing their children to battle, but in her memory her daughter would be the first neonatal introduction. In her mind, the safest place was the entry plug of the Milenus Suproxima. Avengent fury was about to be a battlefield, her manciple in command of the defense. She simply had to tear through the traitor forces fast enough that they couldn’t pose a threat to her and her own. Inside 9 cockpits a red timer counted down. Knight and arimgers awaited on grav chute pallets. The pilots were making last moment prayers under the neon light of their HUDs. The buffeting of the ship had smoothed relatively as they speared the atmosphere leaving a trail of superheated air in their wake. The Anti-Asteroid gun complex was composed of a series of concentric rings. The Outer retaining wall, The Gun Yards, an inner wall protecting 7 massive generators sitting equidistant, each feeding energy to the large turreted guns sitting at the points of a giant star and then the Core of the facility itself, which housed the command center. In the Milenus Suproxim, as the counter wound its way down, the pilot keyed her vox. “Suproxim to all knights, the rebels must be stopped here, this lance is all that stands between them, and control of the skies, we bring destruction for the damage they’ve wrought to Avengent Fury, brace for dynamic entry, drop in 3, 2,1.” She looked down at her child strapped to her chest and thought to herself, not even an hour old, and she’s already going to have her first combat drop, this would be a special child. Across the walker bay, the great maw of the doors began to lift, the armigers on their drop sleds began to accelerate towards the opening, sparks dancing off the inductor rails in their wake. Until finally it was her turn. The rush of acceleration was thankfully dampened by the Link Connection Liquid that filled the plug. Lights flashed by in blurred rows towards a glowing brightness then suddenly she was in the air. Free. Today there’d be no grav chutes, each Armiger and her knight were angels of vengeance falling through the clear blue air somewhere between the sunlight and the ground. Great plumes of dirt arose from the impact sites. The reverberation of impact was replaced by the sounding of war horns. Over the vox the order came “All units, begin operation, weapons free, good hunting” from Milenus Suproxim the opening roar of battle song belted forth. A violent staccato thrumming and a driving triple bass beat emanated from the large knight, followed by a shrill stab of what sounded like string instrument. The effect was twofold, the Knights were primed, and the sound filled the all bands of transmission, acting as a jammer for enemy communication. The Armigers and Knight had landed in the westernmost part of the Gun Yard, intent on taking to their intended targets. Vapor and Zenith would handle any light force, Gram for any infantry and medium tank, Halo medium to heavy targets; Milenus Suproxim would disable the guns and any heavy forces on the field. The rebels had brought a passel of small walkers and armored cavalry to reinforce their position. It had taken them a few moments to respond to the arrival of the Knights, but now they were beginning to swarm. The first shot of the battle was by Gram, they slagged a strange tripedal walker that carried a cannon on its back. Suproxim followed by vaporizing another three that had angled towards them. Soon the battle was a wash of flashing lights, whizzing kinetics and the irregular flare of Suproxim’s Ion Shield. The Knight Preceptor was leading the rush forward, taking snapshots at passing tanks and walkers while tightly focused on its objective, the still firing anti-asteroid gun. The ground shuddered and shaked with each volley. Though she would not be denied from her target. The first of the seven guns was in her view. Charging her Las Impulsor she came to a sliding halt as she braced to fire. Aiming not for the gun itself, but it’s counterweight, she intended to drop the gun, preventing firing, but allowing for later repair. She wouldn't be the only part of the November IX that couldn’t limit collateral damage, or else she’d never hear the end of it from the Kantariss Tech Priests. The lasbeam struck dead on, melting the giant chains that held the counterweight, the barrel of the anti-asteroid gun falling level. She transmitted over the tac net, “First gun down, Rally to me.” On the HUD TACMAP she could see the icons indicating all four squads turning her direction, Zenith, Halo and Vapor were coming in from the sides while both Gram units brought up the rear. Milenus Suproxim accelerated in the direction of the next gun. Footfalls of titanic proportions shook the ground as the Knight and Armigers began to move towards the next gun. A new wave of enemies was pouring forth. This time they had larger heavy birdlike bipedal walkers, legs connected to torso, weapons mounted on the top of the carapace. The pilot of Suproxim was disgusted and saw them as a twisted reflection of the Armigers. The first was dispatched with a blast of Las Impulsor fire, the next was electrocuted in a blast of Lightnight Lock fire, a third had been caught up in the blast and lost a leg, falling to the ground. Milenus Suproxim and the armigers closed the distance, allowing the larger knight to sweep aside another pair of the strange walkers with her gauntlet. Another was picked up and tossed toward a group of the smaller tripod walkers that were emerging from around the bend. “Vapor 5-2, Scratch one more tin can” was heard over the tac net followed by, “Zenith 7-3, 5th one for me, do I get ace stripes now?” Inside the plug of Milenux Suproxim the pilot smiled and responded “Keep your heads on a swivel.” With work like efficiency they cleared the wave of enemies and continued their advance around the bend of the gun-yard. The barrel of the great gun slowly came into view. Surrounding the gun was yet another wave of the twisted bipedal walkers and the smaller tripods. “Split fire, take the sides, I’ll cut through the middle” The Armigers split away and Milenus Suproxim continued it’s charge forward. As they came into range of their respective targets fire began to lance out, the red deflagrating beams of Volkite vs the searing bolts of the Lightning Locks, The bending air of Grav and the actinic flare of Melta. Scores of the enemy were mowed down, even more as the Las Impulsor reached out to vaporize a group of the rebel walkers. A fusillade of fire issued forth from the enemy walkers, doing not much more that chipping the paint on Milenus Suproxim, unfortunately, a lucky shot seemed to have completely obliterated the shielding on Vapor 5-3s right side Lightning Lock, exposing the charging coils. Vapor 5-3 immediately began to wheel off to the left, keeping it’s exposed flank out of the line of fire. Vapor 5-2 and Gram 4-3 came around to support it, attempting to siphon off some of the aggro 5-3 had generated. Over the tacnet Vapor 5-3 transmitted, ”I’m still in it, just lost the armor panel, if I keep to the left, I can angle out the damage” The Armigers shifted positions to cover their damaged lance mate. From across the distance Milenus Suproxim saw a new emerging group of enemies, among them this time smaller walkers, faster than any before, but seemingly not carrying any weapons. The pilot didn’t have much time to think about it as the next volley of fire issued forth. She split her fire between targets, using her shoulder mounted multi-las and her Las-Impulsor to clear the enemy two at a time. Scoring a pair of hits she lined up her next shots to destroy a pair of the smaller walkers, she wasn’t prepared for the force of their explosion. From the distance it didn’t feel like much more than a vibration, but if they closed in, she thought, and looked down. “Suproxim to all units, the small walkers are explosive units, priority target do NOT let them close” A series of affirmatives were heard over the vox. At the same time fire concentrated on the smaller walkers destroying them one after another till none were left in the wave. Halo moved forward to engage a group of heavy tanks that had emerged from behind one of the many support buildings that lined the Gun Yard. Milenus Suproxim carried her way forward to the next big gun, and again lined up her shot to sever the chains that held the counterweight in place when a shot from above interrupted her. She looked up and was perplexed to see a massive boxy bipedal walker with a tiny head, it was as big as a knight and floating in the air, great gouts of flame shooting from its back. It carried a massive cannon and what looked like a heavy mining drill as armaments. It hung only for a moment before it came slamming down in the path of the Knight Preceptor. Joining the fray were more of the bird like bipedal walkers from the earlier waves and what could only be described as crude technicals. Munitions trolleys had been converted into makeshift weapons platforms, some armed with nothing more than heavy stubbers, a couple had autocannons and one carried a very hastily mounted lascannon. The pilot thought to herself that with this motley effort, she was fairly sure that if she took down their false knight, the rebels would break and rout. “Armigers, press the attack, I’ll clear the large mech.” The Armigers broke to the flanks engaging the remainder of the strange bipedal walkers ignoring the technicals except for when expedient to dispatch them underfoot. For a moment though, the two large walkers stood across from each other not moving. When in a flash both darted forward. Milenus Suproxim let loose a volley of multi-las fire that scorched harmless off the armor panels of the enemy walker. It thrust it’s drill forward but Suproxim parried it aside with it’s thunderstrike gauntlet. Sparks flashed as the two giants clashed. For all it’s mass, the enemy walker didn’t have the sheer strength of construction that the Imperial Knight did. Suproxim was able to turn the melee attack aside and swing around to train it’s Las Impulsor on the torso of the enemy. Firing a quick shot, Milenus Suproxim was able to stagger the enemy mech. It’s torso armor was badly scorched, but still damnably uncompromised. The Preceptor charged forward, taking the initiative to grab the head unit in it’s thunderstrike gauntleted hand, holding it in place, Suproxim began to fire repeated heavy shots into the torso at point blank range. The collimation thermal radiators began to glow an ominous orange, till finally the beam penetrated all the way through, and the large walker ceased to struggle. Across the field, the smaller units began to run away, only to be destroyed as they turned their backs. The Knights of Garaipeña would not allow these rebels to flee and fight another day. They had made a choice, now it was time to reckon with it. The guns, not yet silenced, were still firing into the sky bringing down a hail of asteroid fragments, causing a rain of shooting meteors. The knights made their way forth till they had come to a junction. One path continued curving with the Gun Yard, the other was blocked by a massive gate, but led to the command center. “Suproxim to all armigers, we’re gonna make for the pathway to the command center, fire at the gate on my mark.” Across the nine cockpits, a target appeared on the inner wall gate of the Gun Yard. “3. 2. 1. MARK” With a hail of fury, weapons fire lit up the fading day, slowly vaporizing, crunching, and deflagrating the metal portal. “Keep on firing til we make a gap” Inch by inch, meter by meter the knights blasted their way through till there was a crumbling and the gate fell in on itself, creating a gap just large enough for Milenus Suproxim to scrape it’s way through. By this point there was no resistance, they had thrown everything they had, everything that might even damage a knight, all to no avail. So the Knights walked uncontested to the command center. The tremors of the guns, slowing with every step. The pilot of Milenus Suproxim had an unfortunate feeling, she knew by the time they’d reach the control center, the enemy would have faded back into the shadows and escaped. Arriving at the massive building the five units came to a slow halt. The battle song from Milenus Suproxim faded out. Inside the Knight Preceptor the pilot switched frequencies and hailed the long landed Avengent Fury. “Suproxim to Fury Control, Suproxim to Fury Control, do you copy?” The vox crackled with response, “Fury Control to Suproxim, affirmative we copy. Sitrep?” “Suproxim to Fury Control, large enemy forces destroyed, damage is minimal, ground forces seem to have escaped, but the control room is still in need of clearing “ “Copy that Suproxim, ground forces are en route, Local Skitarii Cohort Alpha-33-Phi have been following your progress, they appreciate your… conscientious disabling of the Anti-Asteroid Turrets and send their thanks, I’ve also got someone here who wants to talk to you” A new but familiar voice was on the line, her manciple, and father of her child she was currently looking at. “Congratulations Kisida, how's our child looking?” “Gorgeous, she slept through the whole thing. I’ve decided to name her after your grandmother, Temis” “Temis, I like that” “I’m going to take a nap till the Skitarii get here, wake me up when they do please?” she asked. After getting an affirmative, she sat back, feeling the warm bundle across her chest and let her eyes close.

I'll take it, gives me time to do a sanity check on what I've written. Update: And I'm done! Its not the best thing ever written, but better to do something than nothing at all is my take. Funny enough, I'm finally getting my game in on Sunday!

That's pretty nice and tidy, a very organized set up and it definitely let's you see everything.

Honestly, I gotta give Grot muchos kudos for running this, I'd been jonesing for an ETL type event, and this more than fit the bill. It motivated me to finally build some big models that had been gathering dust, nothing to say about all the armigers that resulted from trying to get to a hundred points.