What's On Your Table: To submit your work, please send up to 8 pics to natfka@live.com
Here are some shots of my Black Legion army for What's On Your Table.
Lead by Abaddon, the Black Legion surges forth with cult troops representing the full force of the Chaos Gods. In this photo, you will see Cultists, Chaos Space Marines, Possessed, Bikers, Terminators, Noise Marines, Berzerkers, Plague Marines, Rubric Marines, Havocs, Obliterators, Spawn, Predators, Rhinos, Sorcerers, Daemon Princes, Defilers, Rhinos, Predators, Landraiders, Forgefiends and Heldrakes. This is a small part of the full army, which includes just about everything else you can imagine.
I recently completed work on this Chaos Land Raider. The hull is trimmed with a soft highlight to give it an ethereal, glowing look, as if it doesn't really belong. The guns stand out in bold metallic colors meant to give emphasis to the power it carries to the battlefield. The trophy racks and tracks are painted in rusty colors conveying a sense of ancient desolation and despite towards fallen foes.
Abaddon and several HQ choices are pictured in this photo. The Sorcerer on the bike is a conversion I did as part of a Cyclopea Cabal that has gone away as part of 8th edition - here's hoping they bring it back! This Abaddon model was one of the first I ever painted, and I am surprised how well the look has held up as my skills as a painter advanced.
The MVPs of my 8th edition lists are my Noise Marines. 30 of them makes an incredibly powerful firebase. Despite the fact they are only as resilient as regular troops, one good round of shooting from 3 squads of 10 is usually all I need to wipe out a large part of an opponent's army. I usually bring them in Rhinos and screen them with cheap troops to prevent charges.
All of the models are 2nd edition, featuring Sonic Blasters and Blastmasters. The color scheme varies from model to model, and they look appropriately garish compared to the all the black and gold of the rest of the army.
Besides the Land Raider and the Noise Marines, the model that seems to get the most attention on the tabletop is the Heldrake. It was one of the first models I painted with an airbrush, and it continues to be a work in process. I am coming back to detail the mouth, eyes and claws before finalizing it. As with all my vehicles and monsters, it's magnetized. The head and wings pop off for easy transport and occasional mishaps on the table.
The Chaos Space Marines all feature freehand marks of the Black Legion on their shoulder pads. The post and paint job is themed towards a sense of weariness, as if they have been fighting the long war for thousands of years. This really comes out when I put 60 of them on the board and you can see them all together.
I have a large collection of Berzerkers at this point - about 60 of them painted, more than enough to run a World Eaters army. They are all painted to a high standard with many conversions. The lighting of this photo doesn't do them justice. Unlike the CSMs, they are all lunging forward on the battlefield, posed to strike whatever they come across. While they have been devastating in the games I have played with them, I also see the potential for their offense to fall apart.
Last, the cultists. I hated playing these guys in 7th edition, all they did is die. But it's necessary to have a lot of them any time Noise Marines are on the field, they stop charges and can deny landing spots for deep strikers. I recently painted up 20 of them and just bought 6 more sets from Dark Vengeance, which means I will be fielding up to 120 of them at a time soon.
-Michael