New recruits for the Black Legion

Long time no talk, eh?

Freehand plans a plenty!

 I have been able to spend a little bit of time on my own things since I got some comish work done early and I have been preping to do the freehand work on the Slaanesh Rhino from my Black Legion.  Do you guys remember this pic?

I posted it a WHILE ago about how I plan on using this as my inspiration.  Now this is where you guys come in.  I know that I will do a radial color fade from a light to dark pink, but several questions need to be answered before I pick up the paints.  With freehand, always have a plan, so dont just wing it unless you want to be painting over your mistakes soon.  

The way I look at this image, I see that it has a necessity of three differences or colors.  I have to somehow, separate the skin from the background and then there is of course the black sludge.  So, a different color for the back ground, the sludge or ooze, and the body itself.     

If you look at this nurgle rhino freehand, you can deduce that I first did a color fade from top to bottom and then used black to draw the images on top of that.  I will do a similar technique with the Slaanesh image but the question is, what will be the black image and what is the other color that i should use?   

Should I copy the image as much as possible and have the color fade look like some sort of back lighting?  Should I use the color fade as the body with the ooze as a different color, yellow perhaps?  

Should I use the color fade as the ooze with the body as a different color?

Im interested as to what everyones opinions are on this matter!

This video is just me talking about freehand prep on vehicles!

Defiler and a possible commission?

This is a defiler that I have been working on and its on its way to the front lines. I ask a couple of opinion questions in the video and announce a possible commission. Watch out Jawaballs!
PS Damn I miss my old camera when doing this stuff!

Slaanesh Rhino ornaments

I know that I posted that I was going to be working on the Nurgle Squad but when I sat down I didnt have that "feeling," and so I have been working on the Khorne Squad. I will wait until they are finished to display them. I am considering redoing the heads on the Nurgle squad because painting them dirty just wont be enough. I found some empire heads that look pretty knarled up. I will see how it works out. This video is about the Slaanesh rhino and my plans for the top of it. I will also be doing this freehand soon, I hope!

Slaanesh rhino inspiration and nurgle squad

I have found a treasure that I have been searching and searching for. I have got that "feeling," about an image that I ran across and I am leaning heavily towards using it as the inspiration for my slaanesh rhino. For a long time I have been looking for something that fits in with both the 40K chaos fluff and elict an emotion that depicts or identifies with hedonism!

Bolscon challenge

Rise my disciples, your Dark Apostle has been challenged by an Ork Warlord in the South!
++Vox in++
Mr. Black Matt,

My name is splnes and I am a growing ork warlord who hopes to see you in my home town of Austin this July. The reason behind this is because I would like to set a challenge between your lovely painted chaos marines and my own orks! I would hope that you accept my challenge. I have followed your blog over the past year or more and your is one of my favorites. Please let me know... My orks grow restless!
-splnes

++ Vox out++

Warlord splnes,

I appreciate the challenge but I must regrettfully decline! The warp is a crazy mistress and takes us all sorts of crazy ways but my wife has been hospitalized for well over a month so I dare not leave! I really want to come down there too, because I had a old friend move their recently and I dont like running from a good fight. ;) Tell your boys to keep grinding those axes until next year. Good luck and thanks for writing!!!

Black Matt

++ End transmission++

I wouldnt want to leave out that I have finished up the Slaanesh squad. Here are a few pics that show some of the details that I finished.

Back to Business

Dark Lord cape construction part 4

Well, I know its at a snails pace but quality over quantity, right? Even though to be fair, I still put out a lot. ;)

Dark Lord cape construction part 3

Sorcerer Lord cape construction part 2

Sorcerer Lord cape construction part 1

Powerfists, flamers, and meltas oh my!

When I first started playing this unit, I took all flamers for the 08' ard boys. Its also the first time I played the divine Lash. Over the past year and a half, I have taken the chosen in many different forms. Most common was 5 guys with 5 meltas and a rhino on a suicide mission. Recently, I have wanted them to be more survivable so I add more guys to act as meat shields and a powerfist so they dont become bogged down in close combats. I have also become a big fan of combi meltas on the rhino so I can target two different units when I come in off the board edges. If I could afford it, I would really like a mark of Tzeench on the unit for the 5+Inv. I have had better than expected results play testing this unit, so even though its all my 250 eggs in one basket, this is what I have chosen!

8 man chosen = 144

1 powerfist = 25

3 meltas= 30

1 flamer = 5

Rhino = 35

w/ combi weapon = 10

249 pts.

*** Xadhoom gave me some serious thought about the chosen squad. I dont play the daemons so I didnt really think about this idea beforehand. Good Job Xadhoom and I gave it some serious thought, but I am going to stick to my guns and not play any sort of daemons. ***

"The Chosen infiltrate, have a lot of special weapons, as well as the cheapest Aspiring Champion in the Codex. Mix in a Greater Daemon (or rather, the potential threat of one) into this, and you have a distraction the enemy simply cannot ignore in the opening stages of the battle." - Xadhoom

The choice is made!

The choice that I have made is a unit that can be tooled out to deal with a lot of different threats. I choose the CHOSEN!
One of the things tha I have found is htat my army is lacking, is distraction units. I would consider my army an elite army because everything that I take tends to be on the expensive side . WIth no cheap units to provide a distraction, I find the meat and potatoes of my force taking the full force of my opponents wrath.
During any objective mission, I will almost always outflank the chosen. Outflanking is the main reason that I take this unit when jumping up to 2000 pts. That and being able to arm them to the teeth outweighs them being where I need them only 66% of the time. So the wrap up question today is: How do you equip your chosen squad with only 250 points to spend?

1750 to 2000 what to do?

So expanding from 1750 to 2000 for the upcoming tourney has left with some interesting choices. There are a lot of things to consider when making a points jump. Available force org slots, number of points, style of play that you enjoy, and what your army is lacking are all things you should consider.
In my situation, I have several options available. If I wanted, I could combine my 6 Oblits into 2 squads from 3 and include another heavy slot. With 250 points I could include any heavy choice or break up the points and get any of a number of cheaper one hit units. I could take a 70 point predator and still have 180pts to do what I want with. There are a million combos but only 1 that I have chosen. Tell me what you guys think!!
1) What is my 1750 dual Lash tournament list lacking?
2) How would you spend the 250 pts when jumping from 1750 to 2000 without changing the original 1750 composition?

Khorne Rhino Update

Fellas,
Here is a little update on an almost completed Khorne Rhino. "Why not wait until I am all the way complete?" Well good question but I needed some material for a post and while I have been making steady progress on the models, I havent been taking the time to concentrate on filming anything. On each of the smoke stacks, I have a Hellblade that will be hanging on the side without the handle.
By the way, I am playing in a small 1500 pt tourney over at Toywiz across the river! What should I play? With the Khorne themed evening I am leaning that way!!!!!
***EDIT*** Yeah I ended up going with Khorne for the most part. I know, I know, real different from my usual!
Lash Sorcerer 125
5 X
5 man beserker squad with champ w/PFist 185 x 5 = 925
Rhino w/ Dozer Blades
6 Obliterators 450

Wrecked rhinos

Hey fellas,
Here is just another little bit that I plan on doing with my army. It seems there is a growing trend, and rightfully so, where people are doing custom objective markers. This little bit is along those lines in the way that I am going to take extra steps in this army's construction. I plan on building at least 8 rhinos when their are only 4 in the list. I want to do a mobile rhino, destroyed or wrecked rhino, and some sort of crater that will represent a exploded rhino. Let me know what you guys think.

PS I have made heavy progress on the army but I am choosing to keep that hidden for now!

Army construction #5

Exile

Well guys this is going to be the last time that you see the rhinos until I am finished and am ready to debut the completed army. I still will be doing all things chaos, but I dont want there to be a lack of the "WOW" factor when I go for a best painted probably at Adepticon next year! So this pic is a little tid bit of what I am trying to do with the rhinos. Its the Khorne rhino with a refit after the kid sent it flying through the air a few weeks ago. Enjoy and Death to the False Emperor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Army update #4

1st day back/ back tracking during army construction #2

Well today's post is really my first day back to what I said this blog was originally going to be about. I havent picked up a fig since GW announced that they were going to cancel the GTs this year. That really de-railed my get things done attitude. However, after Brother Captain James finally convinced me to pick the brush back up, I have attacked my painting table with a furious assault. I will have small posts through out the week. This one involves backtracking my Dual Lash list- army. I didnt take a pic before the tape image but just imagine that the second pic has the quartered chaos star, and that was what I started with. I taped the rhino because I wanted the clean look of spray, but didnt want to destroy the magical flames and weathering look that is already done on the bottom. Watch the video below and it will explain why I am going through this trouble of backtracking even though I like the position of the quartered chaos star in the first pic.