Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing blog of competitive and hobby progress for 2024. Last time around I finished painting my final unit of Night Lords Legionaries and was doing some tournament practice with Death Guard for a Teams event in December. With only one week left until the Grand Narrative, I needed to get moving on the final models for the event. My general goal was to finish painting the army – and the only major part of that left was a Land Raider – get in a practice game with the list just so I have an idea of how it plays, and then work a bit on my costume for the event. Let’s go through each part.
Saturday Hobby and Slams
Saturday morning was a double feature: I took Bryce down to the local Warhammer store where he did some hobby work on his Stormtalon Gunship and I got in a practice game against my buddy Greg. No, not the site master and not Klobasnek, but a different, other Texas Greg. He’s cool. Just be cool about it. No, I don’t know how I managed to know so many goddamn Gregs. Yes, I agree that it’s ridiculous.
Anyways, Greg and I get in a quick practice game where I am once again reminded of the inherent terror of Dark Pacts as I proceeded to biff my first dozen or so and lose a dozen mortal wounds in the process. This was mostly a mirror match, with Greg running a trio of Predators and a Vindicator.
This was mostly a good refresher for me on the rules for the Renegade Raiders Detachment, and Greg’s always fun to play. It was some back-and-forth, but I managed to get the upper hand focusing on Greg’s Predators early and just kind of leaving him to take the right side of the table for a bit. This was mostly a low-stakes reminder game, played using loose terrain (which I more or less expect at the Grand Narrative), and a Pariah Nexus mission.
Meanwhile, Bryce was working on his Stormtalon Gunship for Tanksgiving. The store’s thing this year is Tanksgiving, in which you have to assemble and paint a vehicle from new in box to bring to the event. My entry is the Night Lords Land Raider; for Bryce it’s the Stormtalon. He originally asked for it because he liked the Stormhawk Interceptor box and wanted a flyer, but after we opened it he decided he liked the clear canopy more and wanted to do the Stormtalon.
As always, Max was on hand to help Bryce out and more than happy to lend a hand showing him how to clean and trim pieces – Bryce is still a little too young to use a hobby knife, but he can use a mould line remover. We had started on the Stormtalon at home but Bryce and Max were able to knock out the rest of the construction in about an hour, just in time for my wife to pick him up.
Next up is priming and painting it, which I’ll have to get to after the Grand Narrative – it’s been storms all week here since and so I need to find a less humid day to get out there with a rattlecan. But we’ll get there around Thanksgiving, I’m sure.
Hobby Progress
Let’s get to the hobby progress! I needed to finish my army with only a few days left. The good news is that the only part I *needed* to finish was the Land Raider. And by Monday, she was done!
I’m very happy with this model as well. I think it turned out pretty great, and I’m happy with the Defiler Autocannons in place of the Heavy Bolters. This was basically the final piece in my exactly 2,000 points army, and while I’ve got a couple of potential substitutions, my plan is to more or less just bring the 2,000 points to Atlanta and hope my all-comers approach works. I managed to also paint a few more Cultists from the Blackstone Fortress set for the army to spruce them up visually a bit, but this was pretty much the end of the road for me and I’m more than satisfied with the results and not being stuck painting up to the wire.
Here’s the finished army:
It’s a crowded display board, and I’m likely to leave a few models off when I set them up in Atlanta just to give more of them room to breathe. In addition to these I’m bringing a unit of Plague Marines just in case I want to sub out the Rubrics for more melee punch. I’m super happy with how this army looks, and I think they’re much more eye-catching than the Black Legion I brought last year.
The Cosplay Part
I’m not a big cosplay guy. I tend to prioritize comfort, and so my past cosplay efforts have been much more minimal, focusing on one or two slight elements I can add to my existing clothing to add some playful flair without going “all out.” Part of this is that I’m also not super interested in trying to cosplay a Space Marine and doing the whole armor thing, so mostly it’s “how much do you want to dress up as a cultist?”
The problem is that last year, Bryce stole all my costume parts and cosplay stuff.
Fun fact: At one point last year my wife caught him running around holding a pair of the decorative skulls left out at the Grand Narrative and when she asked him what he was doing he told her “they’re skulls. For the skull throne” as he was in the process of taking them to Chris Stover, who was acting as the warlord for the Chaos faction.
Since that was likely to happen again this year I decided I needed a replacement cowl and while I could just buy the same one I decided I’d try a little harder this time around. I ordered a more serious cowl and decided that finishing up the costume was pretty easy. I got a long tunic shirt and a belt to tie around it (Amazon search for “Wizard belt” to find that one), plus some medieval-looking gloves and an old leather book I bought for a DnD campaign prop forever ago. Here’s the final result:
I’m very happy with this. It’s appropriately sinister and recognizably Chaos while also being pretty comfortable. It’s likely to be a little warm but I’ll remove the cowl and gloves as I need and it’s supposed to be pretty cold in Atlanta this week anyways. Like I said I’m not a big cosplay guy so this is probably as serious as it’s going to get for me.
Next Time: The Grand Narrative
I’m on an afternoon flight so all that’s left now is to finish packing and get the family out the door. I’m extremely excited for the event and hype to see the Goonhammer crew again – it was a real shame we couldn’t meet up in Tampa this year. I’ll be posting some kind of update here Saturday morning, and then you can catch my full recap of the event next Thursday as usual. And if you’re going to be at the Grand Narrative, stop by and say “hi,” I’d be happy to talk.
Otherwise, see you next week!
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