//The Descent to Dusk// Vyper's RG Plog and BatRep Journal

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Thanks for all the awesome and kind words guys!

 

The claws were quite a simple swap. They are the Blood Talons from a Death Company Dread, trimmed and filed down. I ran steel rod trough the fingertips into the claw itself for strength and stability.

 

I might use a bit of Liquid Greenstuff to smooth out the transition before hitting it with some primer.

 

@ Dracos: I think you are right, I think Terryn is probably the best. The bonus of doing my own Knightly House is I can play them all and pick one, but I suspect what you are saying is correct (And the competitive scene would agree with you)

 

@ Bjron: I hadn't given though to a custom name for it, but I can see that now that you mentioned it. I like the reference to Krueger, it really does look like a monster version of his, doesn't it? 

 

I had considered using plastic for my basis to make a more curved claw so it appears talon-like, but after laying out the gauntlet and looking at it, the length of the fingers seemed prohibitive to this (I assumed it would just look goofy). It's hard to tell from the photo, but I left the "thumb" longer than the 3 fingers to attempt to simulate how most raptor species have a longer "dew-talon" than their three others. (Is dew-talon even a term? I don't know the biology term for the single opposite facing talon, like a dew-claw on a cat).

 

@ Race: 

[Cordova]

That is an immense looking conversion - that'll look properly menacing on a completed Knight.

 

 

As for a name, how about, rather than: The Paragon Gauntlet, perhaps The Accipitridae Talon  ??

[Race Bannon]

Corvus Talon?

[Brother Quixote]

The single opposite facing toe is known as the 'hind toe' on a bird, so 'hind talon' maybe?

I'm not a bird expert at all but these little things get in my head and I must find out.

 

Yes, I learned something from the internet today.

 

Love the conversion too.  Namewise a something 'Talon' has my vote but I'm struggling to be creative today.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Been a while since I played. My usual sparring partner is getting ready to get married - means my future of play is looking grim.

 

With the release of the codex, and the hype I have been toying with a new list, and its a Brigade!

 

HQ

 

143 Pts - Smash Captain - SS+TH+JP - Hero of the Chapter - The Imperium's Sword 

99   Pts - Sneaky Chapter Master - Marksman's Honors, The Vox Espiritum, Warlord/Chapter Master

90   Pts - Smash Chaplain -JP+BoF+Bolter - Mantra of Strength

 

Troops

 

186 Pts - 10x Intercessors. Sergeant w/ Bolt Rifle + TH

260 Pts - 4x5 Scouts - Sniper Rifles

55   Pts - 5 Scouts - Bolters

 

Elites

 

393 Pts - 3x Invictor Tactical Warsuit - Incendium Cannons x 3

 

Fast Attack

 

270 Pts - 3x 3 Suppressors

 

Heavy Support

 

504 Pts - 3x Contemptor Mortis Dreads - 2x Twin Lascannons 

 

An alternative is swapping the Suppressors for 2x HB Tarantulas and swapping one Contemptor to a Leviathan with 2x Storm Cannons and 3x Hunter Killers

 

The idea is that the Scouts and Phobos Captain work together to kill characters

I park on a central objective close to the enemy with the Phobos Captain to buff the 3 Warsuits, and he moves up with them

The Intercessors move up the middle with the intent of reinforcing the push alongside the Phobos Captain 

The Smash Captain and Smash Chaplain are there to crack open hard targets after the Warsuits and Intercessors kill all the chaff

The Contemptors trade long range fire

 

The Contemptors, 15 Snipers, and Warsuits take strong advantage of the Devastator Doctrine on Turn 1, and I can likely stay in that doctrine until the Intercessors get in an advantageous position that it benefits switching to Tactical (and in turn Assault)

 

Ideally if I stay with Suppressors they can castle up with the Dreads, and I can afford to Wisdom the blob every turn to Re-roll ones. Alternatively the blob can move forward and its possible depending on deployment to get them within the Chapter Master's bubble after T1 movement.

 

If my opponent allows me to use the old STFS I would likely use it on the Intercessors and/or the punchy bois, but RAW I don't expect that to be the case, until we get to supplement land.

 

Would love feedback!

[thewarriorhunter]

It sound super nasty and makes me want to paint more and get to where I play faster so I'm not intimidated by 2k point games.

 

Curious why you're going with scouts over eliminators?

[Dracos]

They are cheaper Troop choices and he's going for the CP of a Brigade

[thewarriorhunter]

Oh right, I forgot Eliminators are Heavy, I haven't used them yet.

[Dracos]

Yeah I get that. I just relearned specialty slots of a Battalion . I'll eventually want to go Double Battalion end up with 2 units of 3 Eliminators to go with my 4 MSU squads of Hellblasters. I'm an infantry man in all things but except for my love of <aircraft>. 

[MithrilForge]

That Claw...is so wicked     how about  "The Exterreri Gauntlet" 

 

paint it paint it !! 

 

Cheers, Mithril

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

That Claw...is so wicked     how about  "The Exterreri Gauntlet" 

 

paint it paint it !! 

 

Cheers, Mithril

 

Appreciate the positive vibes :D

 

I got the prime coat, and base layer down (leadbelcher air), armor plates in sub assembly mounts and masked. Then I played 3 games with him (2 solo, 1 in a Super Heavy Detachment with my two Warglaives) and... ran my opponents over in what felt like a totally skill-less game, even after I warned/asked them about playing against a knight. Kinda killed my buzz to get the remaining colors on him.

 

Now given how Angels of Death/Chapter Tactics/Super Tactic works, I feel like the odds of me running him are even less. Maybe in a full knights list...or maybe I finally bring my Iron Warriors back to life 

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Been working on my Vanguard stuff. Now that I'm all caught up I've got two Smash Captains up next. Hopefully I can get one done for the Corax event

9 Eliminators. 4 from Shadowspear, 3 from the kit, 2 custom built using Reivers and leftover Eliminator bits.

[thewarriorhunter]

I was thinking of doing the same. I have extra reivers that I could try and kit bash to the eliminator box. To bring my numbers up. I've got 3 from shadowspear as well so I'd be in a similar position as you.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Got this bad boy finished this weekend. I want to vow him for the CC event, but I'm afraid I wont get finished.

 

[Frostbit3]

Seems to me you’d be more likely to finish him if you vowed it. Good looking model that deserves your paint!

[duz_]

He looks great! I almost bought one of those jump packs the other day when I got some more goodies

 

Looking firsts forward to seeing him painted up :tu:

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

I think I might be going hard on the Corax Command event. I got a vacation day approved for this Friday, and if I can get the airbrush out to get these primed and basecoated, I think I'll be on my way.

 

Got a new collage app for my phone, here's some pics of the 3 new HQ kitbashes. Props to SkimaskMowhawk for seeing his Phobos LT conversion, inspired me to order my own.

 

I now have two Smash caps and an Ex Tenbris LT ready for paint.

 

 

 

http://imgur.com/uerLOSW.jpg

[thewarriorhunter]

What app are you using? I've got one that I use but if you unintentionally rotate the pictures when zooming/positioning they'll never be straight again so I have to start the collage all over.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

I'm on Android and the app I'm using is called Pic Stitch. It's super simple, you just pick the frame style you want and then drop in your pictures. Basic zoom/crop capability to get them lined up then export them.

 

The export features are a little wonky cause they want to sell you cloud storage, but there's an export to text feature. I text them to myself then save the attachments to my phone's local drive.

[thewarriorhunter]

Sweet, I'll check it out.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Useless rant inc:

 

As is typical with my hobby progress (in terms of paint), I am once again king procrastinator. Decided to break out the airbrush (it's been a while, at least 6 months). Ran water through it just to make sure assembly was fine/good, spray/volume looked great, and no leaks. Looked great. Blew that out and loaded up my stylynrez black primer. As soon as I hit my trigger I noticed foaming underneath where the tip housing screws into the main chassis. This doesn't come as a shock to me, as I know I don't take great care of it, and I have let it soak overnight a couple of times, so I assume I have an o-ring that's degraded. I keep going. 20 seconds later, paint is literally dripping from that same threaded seam onto my gloves, pants, lazy susan, and floor.  Like, dripping so bad that I can empty a half full paint cup onto the floor in under 30 seconds.

 

I pull the tip, load up some q-tips with cleaner and get to work. I get the bulk of things off, but there's paint everywhere. In the threads, the head cap, and nozzle are all saturated. Of course while I'm fighting this I forgot to run cleaner through the paint cup and clean that out first, so that's drying up in there while I'm messing with the tip. Finally get the tip sorted, I re-adjust the needle pull which seems to aid in the leaking, and get things blown through enough so I can at least finish priming the HQs I have built for the CC painting event. My brush is an absolute mess at this point, and the seam is still foaming/bubbling, but isn't straight leaking anymore. I disconnect it and shut everything off, so I can bring it upstairs to do a full breakdown and clean of it. 

 

Side note: My basement isn't really a basement at all. It's a tiny room that is functionally a cellar surrounded by a crawl space. The "stairs" are nearly vertical, so it typically requires going up using hands and feet (like a ladder). This means I have to lift stuff I'm carrying up 4-5 steps at a time and set them on the treads before going up myself. It is at this moment, as i'm going up with my brush (and pipe cleaners) that my younger cat decides NOW is the time to brave learning to climb the "stairs", gets half way down as I'm going up, gets spooked, runs by and knocks the bin off the treads and it goes tumbling down the steps. At this point I am consumed by a rage to rival that of a Khorne Berzerker. 

 

I gather up all the mess and head upstairs, pull the housing apart and draw the needle out and...you guessed it, bent needle. I spend the next hour breaking everything down and cleaning it thoroughly (and honestly I got it pretty good I think, considering I'm working by hand and don't have an ultrasonic), and the whole time I'm asking myself why I bother. Initial research says a new needle is ~$10 and a new head PTFE head washer (what I think needs replaced to remedy the leak) is only a couple of bucks. It almost feels smarter to spend $75 (maybe less on Black Friday) and buy an entirely new brush to use as my primary, and over time try to rebuild/clean this one as a backup.

 

Lessons learned:

1. Invest in an ultrasonic cleaner
2. Don't let your brush soak overnight, even if it's milder chemicals 
3. Lubrication is more important than originally thought. I think the biggest issue here is none of these seals or moving parts have been lubricated by me, and im sure that drying out/friction is part of my issue.
4. Don't lose your tip cap, and if you do buy a new one! I have no idea where mine went, but if I had had it capped, my needle would likely have been ok.
5. Cats are buttholes, even when they aren't trying to be.

 

If you read this far, may the God-Emperor have mercy upon you.

 

Edit: I almost forgot

 

Rant#2 Electric Boogaloo

 

When I was gathering up items to get primed, my Infiltrators I assembled 2 weeks ago I found have all the antenna broken off of. I'm not even sure how that happened, but I can only assume the box I had them in was not tall enough and something heavy was set on top of it, crushing them. Out of the 13 I have, 7 are broken. I brought them with me to work today, and I'm going to attempt to salvage them from excess parts from my Incusor kit that arrived yesterday.

[MajorNese]

When I was gathering up items to get primed, my Infiltrators I assembled 2 weeks ago I found have all the antenna broken off of. I'm not even sure how that happened, but I can only assume the box I had them in was not tall enough and something heavy was set on top of it, crushing them. Out of the 13 I have, 7 are broken. I brought them with me to work today, and I'm going to attempt to salvage them from excess parts from my Incusor kit that arrived yesterday.

Yeah, I know. After 2 or 3 skitarii squads I stopped bothering with flimsy antennas, and just removed them all. Sadly they are designed to be fragile, so I consider it wasted time and effort.

And yeah, there's a reason I never grew fond of the airbrush...

[Jacques Corbin]

I remember, on my honeymoon. My lovely wife decided to bring up cutting back on the hobby, if not getting out of it all together. I stopped and gave her a look. She indignantly asked what that was. I told her that, just then, she sounded like my ex wife. Then, she griped that I never told her that I was married before. I flatly told her that I was not. Lol, Cheers!

[thewarriorhunter]

Sorry to hear about your woes, Vyper. My airbrush leaks a bit as well from the same spot you're saying. It's usually only when I run cleaner through it though. I've been meaning to reach out to Badger support to ask them about it. I'm planning on breaking it out tomorrow so I'll see how it goes.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Sorry to hear about your woes, Vyper. My airbrush leaks a bit as well from the same spot you're saying. It's usually only when I run cleaner through it though. I've been meaning to reach out to Badger support to ask them about it. I'm planning on breaking it out tomorrow so I'll see how it goes.

 

Do you happen to also have a Patriot 105? I feel like I have heard from now a few people that leaking in that spot is common.

 

I honestly love the brush, and would consider buying another Badger, but im also have tempted to try an Iwata on the second go round.