Hobby update

I had 5 minutes to sit down at the hobby table the other day and realised that I have got only 2 more Death Company Marines to paint before the whole of the Eagle Knights Space Marine chapter is complete, all 2000+ points of it. This lead me to look at all the posts sitting in my draft folder and see that most of them are hobby updates as I have completed the various units of Knights but haven't posted as I have been busy on the Astra Militarum Codex review. At this point I went back and had a look at the review posts and I was shocked to find that I have basically been doing nothing but the review post since the end of September! The 25th to be precise. That's basically two and a half months of bombarding you with all my nonsense on the new codex! Well, its time to catch up with the rest of the hobby I think. As such I will be posting up a couple of battle reports, one from way back in September, which was a practice match for the Northern Invasion tournament that I did not end up attending (next year!) and something that I haven't even do a review post on. I will also post all the updates to the Knights, running through all the various squads and models that I have painted up for the army, which with the new BA codex, may well have to change again. I don't have the new codex yet, I maybe lucky to get it for Christmas or I may have to buy it in the new year, I'll have to see but I am really excited to get the knights on to the table top now that there all painted.

Now that the Knights are all painted the plan is to go back and redo any thing I need to do to the Hjaltland LI to bring it in line with the new codex, which I am hoping will include painting up a new model, namely an Ogryn Bodyguard for my Warlord. I may well have to paint up a few new models to cover the removal of priest and possibly commissars, although I still need to go through the list properly. I also intend on updating the Valkyrie paint scheme to add in some more camouflage to the green on the top, as suggested by a number of readers, probably by using a darker green or two to add some stripes or splodges, mostly to break up the solid colour that it currently is. After this I will start on the next project. This is where i'm a little torn, as I have two or three projects that I'm pretty keen on getting stuck in to.

The first option is to finish painting up the Dagr Ormr Militarum Tempestus force including the Hildasay PDF units. I have got a number of the Dagr Ormr painted up and the colour scheme is well established. The Hildasay PDF have, after a couple of test models, also received there colours, in there case it will be dark grey trousers and top, with a lighter grey vest and weapon, with black boots, pouches and other highlights, combines with a very pale looking skin tone, probably Pallid Wych Flesh as the final tone. This will tie into the fact that these are supposed to be a local PDF force from an overcrowed, totalitarian hive world, where there main operating environment is the inner and under hive, which are both urban (for the grey) and enclosed (pale flesh). The troops may now be attached to the Dagr Ormr and operation out of there normal environment, but they have retained there kit and look for the moment.

The second option is the Hrossey Yeomanry, with all of its armoured units. With the changes to 8th edition, LRBT's are now a very viable unit on the table top and I have been using them in quite a few games so far. So i'm thinking that it would be nice to get them all painted up properly and get them on to the table top in there entirety. I have a colour scheme in mind for the tanks and also for the various troop units as well, although there will have to be a fair bit of rejigging for the list before I can fully paint everything, as with the disappearance of the platoon structure, there will need to be a few changes to the list. This maybe by the inclusion of addition chimera, of which I still need to purchase one more anyway, or maybe by the addition of a new units or two. I am, as yet, undecided and will probably remain so until I decide to make these my main priority.

The final project that is on the list is a different sort of project as it will probably not see the battlefield much but is quite important to the fluff. The final idea is to get some of my Inquisition painted up, as its these guys that are driving the whole narrative forward and are the reason for my forces existing as they do. This is going to be the smallest of all the projects, as it consists of just a handful of models for each of the three inquisitors and I plan on just painting up one Inquisitor and there retinue for the moment. The biggest issue that I have though, is that in the new edition, Inquisitors, as far as I am aware, have lost the ability to take any form of armour apart from Flak armour, which is annoying, as both of my modelled Inquisitors are wearing power armour. The war band will also have to have some modifications, as they unit sizes and compositions have changed as well, but that should be fairly easy to deal with.

At the moment I am leaning towards doing the Inquisitor and his war band, mostly for the fluff and narrative perspective, as this is lacking somewhat on the table top, plus it will be something different from what I have been painting as there will be little uniformity to the units, with each model being a slightly different pattern and scheme to the others, although they will all follow a basic colour scheme in order to tie them all together. Each Inquisitor will have a primary colour that is shared by all their war band, so that the different war bands are not confused, but the secondary colours will be varied on all the models. One thing I'm confused about at the moment though, is how do you take an inquisitorial detachment as there are no troops?

Talking of the fluff, i really need to update my fluff for the 8th edition setting. Although my little war is set out in the segmentum Pacificus, an area that is on the fringes of the galaxy and also one that seems to be so what removed from the crisis, seeing as the great rift doesn't seem to extend far in to it, there will obviously be repercussions for the men and women of the Hamnavoe System.

The big issue at the moment is how to write in the Eagle Knights to the Baal conflict, as they are a BA successor and all but the Lamenters answered the call from Baal. I guess that the current company that is in my narrative will have been to far away to answer, but the rest of the chapter did. This will lead to a number of reinforcements arriving, as the remains of the chapter join the company, the last major fighting force of the Eagle Knights. How this occurs in game i don't know, as a lot will depend on the new codex. One thing is for sure though, for the moment, they will not be accepting the Primaris marines into there ranks, as they have a similar mentality to Gabriel Seth on the matter of the new marines.

I intended to write up a narrative for each battle i fought and forge it in to a grand narrative for the whole campaign and fluff but as yet i haven't done anything. I really need to find some time to update and catch up with everything, maybe I'll get some time in the New Year when the young lady starts nursery!