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barrowdown's 40K Army Building on a Budget

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26 Sep 2016 16:08 #235005 by barrowdown
The local 40k league has a minimum requirement of 1,500 points to have a legal game. That is lower than what I think is the standard of 1,850 points, so it will be easier for me to get something playable up an running. I just paint, but having an actual reason to paint up a focused force would provide me with motivation to get through projects quicker (I tend to stall around 90% done and want to move to something else).

As a side note, I have not played 40k in over 20 years, so I am prepared to get repeatedly thrashed by the more experienced players (or at least players that are running tournament caliber armies).

My two goals for selecting an army were:

1. It needed to be cheap. My wife would not be happy with me spending the $800 at once that it takes to get a top tier army with a lot of options into play.
2. It needs to have as few minis as possible. I like to have a painted army and I do not paint very fast. Also, painting lots of the same mini would probably drive me insane.

First, I looked at what I had in the unpainted stacks in the closet and only one of the armies would be able to field a legal force in the 1.5k-2k point range (a Necron army that I had traded for). Unfortunately, it was a haphazard collection of items and I would have to strip the primer off the majority of the minis. The previous owner apparently primed them in the worst possible conditions for spray paint as they all appear to be covered with a layer of dried toothpaste. This would take a long time to strip and would probably be only "meh" as a playable army. Plus, the army would probably have close to 70-80 minis, thus failing my goal of keeping model count low.

The other armies that could probably field close to a playable army were Dark Angels and Eldar, both around 1k-1.2k. Both would require lots of purchases to become legal. Dark Angels would probably take around $200-300 to be legal. The resulting army would be a mishmash of core, Deathwing and Ravenwing purely to hit the base point count. Eldar would require a lot more as one of their units (Wraithknight) would be ineliglble in the league as it was a Superheavy unit, unless I could field at least 2k points.

Put Dark Angels in the maybe column.

I then began looking for other legal, low-count armies and I found three common options: Imperial Knights (obviously), Grey Knights, and Daemons. Imperial Knights fail my cost measure as it would be at least $500 to purchase the requisite number of knights. Grey Knights might be a possibility as they could field a fairly low count army and would probably be about the same cost as getting the Dark Angels playable. Daemons can field a formation called the Infernal Tetrad that can get to just under 1.5k points with just four minis (Daemon Princes, one of each alignment), which would only be around $130 to field. The small number of minis + low cost makes it perfect, plus I own Dark Vengeance so I can add some of those models as allies if needed.

Chaos Daemons it is. Now I have a new problem, I don't actually have the rules for Daemons and they need the campaign supplement, Curse of the Wulfen to be even playable. Daemons were originally released during sixth edition, so they predate the existing detachment/formation structure. Curse of the Wulfen serves as a patch, which adds a list of formations for them to use, including the one I would be using. While I am sure I would be okay without the books, I still want to have them available. That eats up a lot of what I want to spend.

I am going to attempt to make the four Daemon Princes from one actual kit and whatever I have available on the shelf. I've already failed at this as I picked up the Start Collecting Nurgle Daemon set to steal some Plague Drone wings with the justification that I can always add the Plaguebearers and Nurglings later.

The Daemon Prince kit comes with three heads, two front torsos, and six arms to steal from.

The rough idea I had for them is:

Nurgle - Most of the actual Daemon Prince kit and Plague Drone Wings
Khorne - Front torso, arms and head of Daemon Prince, legs of Tyranid Carnifex, wings from a Reaper Bones Clockwork Dragon
Tzeentch - Base from Necron Nightbringer, various accessories from AoS Curseling, wings from Daemon Prince
Slaanesh - Base from Necron Deceiver, accessories from Dark Eldar Scourges, wings from Plague Drone
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26 Sep 2016 16:15 #235007 by barrowdown
Progress so far: Nurgle

Base figure:


Rough putty belly:


Green stuff belly:


I have since attached the arms, wings, and head. I still need to do more green stuff to Nurgle it up.
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26 Sep 2016 16:20 #235008 by barrowdown
Progress so far: Khorne

It looks like I forgot to take a picture of the initial Daemon Prince only construction.

Legs attached (Tyranid Carnifex legs that have been cut down and modified at the hip joint to look like they belong together on the narrower Daemon Prince):



Here you can see the rough putty structure from the back:



I then added Clockwork Dragon wings that have been cut down and filed smooth along the edges:



Rough wing join from the back:

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26 Sep 2016 16:24 #235009 by barrowdown
Progress so far: Tzeentch:

Here I am covering up the ripped abs of the Nightbringer mini to make it look more Tzeentch-y. Yes, I know I am terrible at taking photos.

I've covered up the abs with additional robing and applied more green stuff to the base as it had some Necron scarabs erupting from the ground.





Here is the initial join of the Daemon Prince wings (the wing joint has been shaved down to better match the minis shape):

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26 Sep 2016 16:29 #235010 by barrowdown
Progress so far: Slaanesh

I've flipped the original head sides from the model to look like horns and then blended them in with green stuff:



I added a sword from the Dark Eldar Scourges kit (I didn't really have anything else that looked Slaanesh-like or was in the correct scale):



I was out of great wing options so I decided to build it from Plague Drone wings:



I shaved and filed the top spikes off. I then cut off the join on the smaller wing and shaved the back side down to more easily blend with the top wing:



I still need to patch the holes in the wings with green stuff, but the idea is to look kind of like butterfly or faerie wings and less Nurgle-like.
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26 Sep 2016 16:47 #235013 by metalface13
Awesome project. I think your Tzeentch demon needs feathered wings though for that avian feel.

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26 Sep 2016 16:59 - 26 Sep 2016 17:00 #235014 by barrowdown

metalface13 wrote: Awesome project. I think your Tzeentch demon needs feathered wings though for that avian feel.


That would have been ideal, but I couldn't source a feathered wing that was the right scale. Some of the Scourges have feathered wings, but they are too small for the size of the figure. GW's own Tzeentch Daemon Prince has the same wings in the Codex, so I will hide my disappointment with that.

Edit: I guess I could try and sculpt feathers, but that is probably beyond my skills.
Last edit: 26 Sep 2016 17:00 by barrowdown.

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27 Sep 2016 12:52 #235039 by Delobius
Awesome idea - the Tetrad is a cool formation. Love the clockwork wings!

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27 Sep 2016 12:55 #235040 by Mr. White
Yes, 'On a budget' is always an interesting way to approach these sort of games so make for some great reading.

keep it up!
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27 Sep 2016 19:51 #235056 by Sevej
There are some really interesting armies if you consider the start collecting boxes. Tau and Dark Eldar for example. At 25% discount, these are about $65. If you get 3, with Tau you'll have 30 fire warriors and 9 crisis suit. With DE 30 warriors, 3 raiders and 9 jetbikes. If your budget is $400 you can add 2 or 3 elites and super heavies. Even the Riptide.

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28 Sep 2016 10:24 #235091 by barrowdown

Sevej wrote: There are some really interesting armies if you consider the start collecting boxes. Tau and Dark Eldar for example. At 25% discount, these are about $65. If you get 3, with Tau you'll have 30 fire warriors and 9 crisis suit. With DE 30 warriors, 3 raiders and 9 jetbikes. If your budget is $400 you can add 2 or 3 elites and super heavies. Even the Riptide.


Honestly, I had ignored most of the Start Collecting boxes as a starting point simply because I wanted to keep the model count down and each box would be 10-15 models, but this is great advice.

I do have interest in eventually getting a Tau army, so I might use that plan for a future league. How "fun" are fire warriors to play? My understanding of Tau is their goal is to put the board on lockdown, which does not sound super fun to me (I like the look/fluff, not necessarily the play style).

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28 Sep 2016 13:18 #235103 by Delobius
Tau are exactly what you'd expect - sit and shoot for the most part. Their shooting is amazing but it's like they don't participate in 2/3 of the game - they don't fight in close combat and they don't have psykers so they're BORING. But that's just my opinion. My friend who plays them hates assault so it's right up his alley.

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29 Sep 2016 00:10 #235139 by Sevej
The new Tau Fire Warriors have options for Tau shotguns (for the whole squad!). Basically the closer you get, the more deadly they are. Put them in Devilfish and have some fun. Don't blame me if you lose though.

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30 Sep 2016 10:48 - 30 Sep 2016 10:48 #235246 by barrowdown
Finally was able to get some work in last night.

I focuses on the Khorne and Nurgle minis as they needed the most work.

Here are some shots of the Khorne one:

Back:


Back right:


Back left:


As you can see, I missed the section under the left wing next to the left shoulder. I also still need to blend in the head to the neck and patch a little of the inside legs. I extended the green stuff down the outside of the legs to cover the most obviously Tyranid texture. I am fairly pleased with how it is shaping up.
Last edit: 30 Sep 2016 10:48 by barrowdown.
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30 Sep 2016 10:52 - 30 Sep 2016 10:52 #235248 by barrowdown
And the Nurgle Daemon. I missed a spot on the upper left wing base. It's covered, but not actually blended into the body. I still need to go do some work blending the shoulder joins and the left arm (which is composed of two halves).

Face (covered the eyes and made a Nurgle wound symbol on the face):


Upper back (I left just a little of the spine spikes showing to look like they are tearing through):


Back:


Neck, shoulder blends:
Last edit: 30 Sep 2016 10:52 by barrowdown.
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