The Black Sunz - Ironjawz - Update 28/02 - PICS! Whole new army painted!!

[Chris Tomlin]

12 hours ago, N_Watson said:

@Chris Tomlin Loves the Battle report on Periscope. Hope to see more of these. Feel I learned a lot as well, one of my main opponents being Sylvaneth and have struggled with them a lot. Granted, mostly at 1000 - 1500 points as we are building up our armies. 
Look forward to the last match at Warlords. You seem to be doing pretty well at all these tournaments!

Thanks man, glad you liked it and more importantly found it useful from a learning perspective. It actually was a great game and both me and @Forestreveries agreed it was a good example of a competitive game. Both going for it, but being courteous explaining and reminding stuff etc. As mentioned before, I know where I can improve the videos so look forward to making more of them - may even do a poll for the next one to see which Ironjawz battalion people would like to see used?

As it happens, the Periscope videos are still available it seems (I thought they expired after 24 hours), so please have a look if you haven't already.

As for my Tournament performances, they have been pretty mixed to be honest. The army is draw dependant (both on the opponents list and the battleplan) and I need to look to take advantage of dual list events to cover any potential weaknesses, if possible. It's just getting it all painted the moment. I still have another 11 Tournament games to report on, as well as covering off that Periscope one with Aaron. Once they are done I will have 5 more from Clash at the end of the month, plus hopefully a couple of practice games.

If you want to see my Ironjawz hobby progress (until I get around to posting it here!), check out my Twitter feed for #wipwednesday yesterday. I made a short video and posted some pics of my converter 2nd Warchanter and next 10 Brutes...have 2 weeks to paint them for Clash...why do I do it to myself.

There will be more reports up tomorrow for sure.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

[Chris Tomlin]

Actually thought I'd quickly smash this one out now, as it's not really a battle report...

Game 17 - The Warlords - Round Six vs Tim Fisher @Bananaman (Ironjawz?!)

Ok so the keen eyed reader may recall that my second round opponent was Timmy! After my 5th game against 5 amazing opponents I knew it wouldn't be possible to to get a 6th...and I didn't!
Me and Tim had been tracking pretty closely since our game earlier in the event, but I still couldn't believe it when I was drawn against him again. I said, "did you want me go up and let them know?", Tim replied with a "shall we just not?".
I was pretty over the moon(clan) about this response as it hadn't even crossed my mind. We were midtable-ish, so us playing again wasn't going to impact anything of importance. So it was set, I was due to finish the event with 6 great games against 5 great opponents!! haha

Shortly after this, I was in the toilets chatting with a younger, slimmer version of myself (@Liam Cook) and he came up with the bright idea of an army swap if we were going to play again. This is something I would not usually entertain as I am super weird about things like that. However Tim is a good friend and a top hobbyist who I knew I could trust with my models (and vice versa I'd hope!). So I went back to the table and suggested this to Tim, who was eager to give it a go. If you want to see Tim's (or mine, for this game!) Moonclan list, scroll back a bit to round 2. This worked well actually as we'd played each other and had some idea of how each others armies played and what stuff did. Being the friendly kind of game it was we were both offering up suggestions and reminding of rules etc.

The battleplan was Take and Hold, which upset me a little as I quite like playing this with my Ironjawz myself, it's one of only ones you can literally run and the opponent in smash!

I won't really go into the game due to the nature of it. Suffice to say it was loads of fun!! I didn't get to Hooded Villain off anything good, but did supe up a Mangler to similar levels and squashed the Cabbage in a oner. Using all the big Squig monsters as a first wave I made a really big dent in the Ironjawz, using fanatics as a second wave to halt the charges (this was on Tim's advices), all the while pinging away with magic before wiping up in combat with the Grots. It ended up as a tabling for the Ironjawz, but a Major Victory to me! Odd!!

Result - Major Victory

Feels kind of strange recording that one, but it should certainly be noted as it was a fantastic way to end a brilliant event.
The overall winners and my feelings on painting have already been discussed elsewhere, so no need to get into that again other than to say I was obviously disappointed to not be nominated.However this had no impact on my enjoyment of what was an amazing weekend.

Oh, I should say I came 35rd out of 100ish, so not too bad

Will leave it there now as it's lunch! I'll put some photos of my wip's up during the next hour (easier to upload pics from my phone!)

Cheers,
Chris

Edited October 13, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

So for those not on Twitter here are some work in progress pics of what I've got to paint for Clash of Swords at the end of the month. Still gotta take some good pics of the completed stuff so far. 

The Warchanter was actually pretty tough to convert his right arm like that and I had to use a Brute right arm and shoulder pad in the end. 

Used lots of 40k Ork heads to make sure that none of my 30 Brutes are the same. Also utilised some Gore-grunta Jagged-hackas for further variance. 

Enjoy, Chris

[Chris Tomlin]

Happy Friday all!

Wow...talking to myself much in here at the moment?  
No love for the Warchanter conversion? Was hoping that'd get a bit of interest tbh. Makes me worry less about not putting photos up here at least!!

So with The Warlords finally covered off, it's time to move onto Facehammer GT, I will just focus on the games as opposed to the event as a whole as that will be covered off in Episode XCVIII of The Black Sun which will be out over the next week or so...lots of audio to edit, but kinda gotta prioritise painting for Clash I guess. It'll get done.
This event operated a 2 list policy, using 5 of the General's Handbook battelplans. You could freely pick your General, Command Trait and Artefact(s) at the start of each game. I am a fan of this format and would probably adopt something similar for events I run in the future.
Due to my limited pool of painted models, I was just running the one list, identical to what I ran at The Warlords;

Megaboss Krunk
Pig Benis, The Warmaster, Fist of Krunk on Red Cabbage
Da Ardnob
Da Kurlzz (Slaughter-choppa)

Ironfist
10 Brutes (Jagged-hackas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
5 Brutes (Choppas)
10 Ardboyz (9 'Uge Choppas, 1 Shield)
3 Gore-gruntas (Choppas)

Krunk took Ravager and Battle Brew in every game. The Cabbage went with the Talisman in every game I think...though there may have been the odd one or two he went with Battle Brew as well.
The rest of the army is ok, after the number of games (including this Tournament and the one to follow) played now, I am looking to switch up the Ardnob and run him with a pair of Deff Choppas instead. The Slaughter-choppa can be brutal, but you need him near another character to ensure the hits. I'm going to try him with the Deff Choppas at Clash and see how he does. Saying that, the weapon choice doesn't need to be listed and my model works as either, so I may need to be a bit savvy and tailor it to my opposition (Slaughter-choppa is amazing vs Seraphon etc).
The Gore-gruntas are rubbish, I vehemently disagree with anyone saying otherwise. 5 Brutes or 10 Ardboyz would make my list instantly better, however as I am also trying to compete on the painting front, they are crucial (adding a different height to the army and being awesome models!) so will remain.
As for the Brutes, the configuration I have is pretty solid I think. This would only differ if I had a different character set up. With two Warchanters, two units of 10 is very nice. Also with 2 units of 10 you start considering the Ardnob as the General perhaps.
I'll quickly touch on Ardboyz as clearly my above configuration is far from optimal. I made them like that way back at the beginning of this journey as I preferred the aesthetic of the 'Uge Choppas (and you only got 9 in the box). I would like to do a whole piece on Ardboyz in the future and talk about different weapon loadouts for different situations - like the Ardnob, you don't need to be writing weapon selections on your army list, so if you have the models painted could tailor to each opponent, which is ideal.
However, in lieu of that I am actually adamant that shields are just the best choice. If you want more punch, then just take Brutes. But I do think probably a couple of units of Ardboyz are key to pure Ironjawz armies as our best point/wound ratio. They are very solid when it comes to defense, not just with the shields but also the improved Bravery when in combat. So yeh, keeping it short for now, I definitely need to suck it up and do more of these boyz!!

My deployment now actually tends to be pretty similar from game to game, I feel having the confidence to just put your stuff down and force your opponent to be reactionary can (but not always) be benficial. Perhaps I'll take a photo of a sample deployment, or you can watch the Periscope vids for a good example of this.
Essentially I tend to have Krunk and the Warchanter pretty central, accompanied by the 10 Brutes. The Ardnob will go slightly wider (ensuring he will be in range of one of the other characters when combat hits) and the Cabbage on the opposite flank. The two units of 5 Brutes start slightly out of the centre (the one on the Ardnobs side usually further towards the flank) and the Gore-gruntas near the Cabbage, usually quite tight to the board edge. Obviously it is key to make sure everything gets to take advantage of Rampaging Destroyers.
The Ardboyz are the unit that varies most, dependant on the battleplan. Most often though they will sit behind the 10 Brutes, allowing them to advance with impunity whilst the Ardboyz hold the backfield.

Obviously this is by no means definitive or set in stone and will be adapted as required. Just thought it might be nice to share some of my current thoughts.
How do you guys like to deploy your Ironjawz?

That's the preamble out of the way, make sure you check back for the battle reports over the next week,

Cheers,
Megaboss Chris

[N_Watson]

@Chris Tomlin

At this point, silence says as much as any amount of words when it comes to your conversions and painting lol. Yet to see anything that isn't awesome. 

I got a 2000 point game in yesterday against nurgle demons with some rot bringers. Stole you deployment from the battle report you had on twitter and won 14 - 9. List was the same except I had the shaman instead of the ardnob 

No idea how much that video has changed my game play. 

Feel that i want to drop the gruntas for 10 more ardboys and would only consider the extra 10 brutes and dropping the cabbage in a dual list tournament because the model is just fantastic and fun. And brings the mortal wounds. Looking forward to seeing what you achieve with it though. 

[The Barwick]

Been lurking and reading this thread for a long time. 

Your conversions, painting and batreps are great.

I am doing a Mooclan force but I have picked up some Ironjawz for a sweet deal from a club mate of mine. Reading this makes me want to do Ironjawz first!

The Warchanter looks like hes getting ready  to raise the other stik and bellow "WAAAGH!"

Great stuff cant wait to see what you do in the future!

[Vasshpit]

1 hour ago, Chris Tomlin said:

No love for the Warchanter conversion? Was hoping that'd get a bit of interest tbh. Makes me worry less about not putting photos up here at least!!

"Megaboss Krunk
Pig Benis"

Your WC looks great. Nice choice on the Flashgitz head. Those are the best orc head sculpts out there imo.

Is Pig Benis a Mushroomhead reference? Love that band!!!

[N_Watson]

Big ****** was probably the intent. 

My Wierdnobs name is Prince Albert as that is an awfully weird thing to do....

Having looked up Mushroomhead now though, I don't thing I will ever sleep again.... 

Edited October 14, 2016 by N_Watson
Scared!

[Chris Tomlin]

Ooooh!! Replies  

48 minutes ago, N_Watson said:

@Chris Tomlin

At this point, silence says as much as any amount of words when it comes to your conversions and painting lol. Yet to see anything that isn't awesome. 

I got a 2000 point game in yesterday against nurgle demons with some rot bringers. Stole you deployment from the battle report you had on twitter and won 14 - 9. List was the same except I had the shaman instead of the ardnob 

No idea how much that video has changed my game play. 

Feel that i want to drop the gruntas for 10 more ardboys and would only consider the extra 10 brutes and dropping the cabbage in a dual list tournament because the model is just fantastic and fun. And brings the mortal wounds. Looking forward to seeing what you achieve with it though. 

Cheers man, super kind words there! Really pleased my experiences can be of some use to you. That's great to hear. That 2k list of mine is pretty standard I would say and I think most people, like you, will opt with the Weirdnob over the Ardnob - I just haven't got on with him personally. Congratulations on your win though.

As mentioned above, dropping the pigs for 10 more Ardboyz is certainly "better" in my mind. But...the Gore-gruntas look so cool! I am starting a new escalation campaign ran by @Forestreveries this Sunday. My plan for this is to assemble my extra Gore-gruntas and give them a run out for the lolz!

I pretty much have the same plan as you say for Clash. It's not dual lists, rather 2500 pool, with 2000 pt games. That way the Cabbage can sit in the sideboard whilst I replace him in most games with 10 more Brutes and another Warchanter. Interested to see how this goes!!

26 minutes ago, The Barwick said:

Been lurking and reading this thread for a long time. 

Your conversions, painting and batreps are great.

I am doing a Mooclan force but I have picked up some Ironjawz for a sweet deal from a club mate of mine. Reading this makes me want to do Ironjawz first!

The Warchanter looks like hes getting ready  to raise the other stik and bellow "WAAAGH!"

Great stuff cant wait to see what you do in the future!

Thanks bro! Appreciate your post and indeed your lurking! Moonclan are awesome, I have so much love for them. When they get a new Battletome I'll be on them I'm sure.

Glad you like the Warchanter. I have plenty of plans for the future so stick around.

25 minutes ago, Vasshpit said:

Your WC looks great. Nice choice on the Flashgitz head. Those are the best orc head sculpts out there imo.

Is Pig Benis a Mushroomhead reference? Love that band!!!

Cheers! Not sure exactly where the head came from, I have an extensive 40k Ork bitzbox and also order some individual heads online. Keen to not do too much with the Flashgitz though as Pete Foley's amazing Ironjawz use a lot of them.

And yes!! Great call on the Mushroomhead reference, wasn't sure anyone would pick up on that. I always have an Orc/Orruk/Ork called that and no one has ever got it before. Yeh, gotta love that band. Think I'll give them a listen on my lunch break now!

12 minutes ago, N_Watson said:

Big ****** was probably the intent. 

My Wierdnobs name is Prince Albert as that is an awfully weird thing to do....

Having looked up Mushroomhead now though, I don't thing I will ever sleep again.... 

Yeh I'm pretty sure the dude from Mushroomhead had that exact intent haha!! Prince Albert works nicely for a Weirdnobs name actually!

Have you tried their music or just checked a pic of them? Won't be for everyone, but I like 'em

Thanks again for all the replies guys,

Chris

[N_Watson]

@Chris Tomlin listened to qwerty on YouTube to see who they were. Did remind me of slipknot from back in the day. Their masks are utterly terrifying though haha. 

[Chris Tomlin]

25 minutes ago, N_Watson said:

@Chris Tomlin listened to qwerty on YouTube to see who they were. Did remind me of slipknot from back in the day. Their masks are utterly terrifying though haha. 

Yeh they are doomed to always get the Slipknot comparison tbh. Back in the day there was bad blood between loyal fans of both bands who argued the other was a rip-off etc!! haha I've always enjoyed both and IMO they don't even sound alike.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Chris Tomlin

[Soulsmith]

I definitely need to find an ebay lot for ork parts, those back banners work so much better on brutes than nobs... I personally think some heads look too 40K, but otherwise nice and unique.

[Mitzy]

Dude, the Warchanter is lush as are the next lot of Brutes, you've certainly got your work cut out @Chris Tomlin

I wait with baited breath for more progress! I need all the inspiration I can get at the moment as RAW is sucking every ounce of my hobby skills and time! 

Keep up the good work bro x

[Will]

On 1 August 2016 at 11:07 AM, Chris Tomlin said:

Morning Maw-Krushas!

Hopd you all had a good weekend? Finally have some pics of another painted model. 

Da Kurlzz - Ironjawz Warchanter

Enjoy

Did I hear on the podcast that you used some flourescent pigments for this? Where did you get them from? Looks great!

I've tried some Vallejo flu colours, but i'd like to give pigments a go too. More versatile perhaps.

[Chris Tomlin]

On ‎14‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 10:25 PM, Soulsmith said:

I definitely need to find an ebay lot for ork parts, those back banners work so much better on brutes than nobs... I personally think some heads look too 40K, but otherwise nice and unique.

Yeh I can see that, fair play. Tbh there's a couple on the latest 10 which I think are borderline.

13 hours ago, Mitzy said:

Dude, the Warchanter is lush as are the next lot of Brutes, you've certainly got your work cut out @Chris Tomlin

I wait with baited breath for more progress! I need all the inspiration I can get at the moment as RAW is sucking every ounce of my hobby skills and time! 

Keep up the good work bro x

Cheers man, all the effort into RAW will be totally worth it I'm sure! Glad you like the new stuff...I am a little concerned they won't get done for Clash, however with 2,000 points already done I'm not letting myself get stressed about it.

11 hours ago, Will said:

Did I hear on the podcast that you used some flourescent pigments for this? Where did you get them from? Looks great!

I've tried some Vallejo flu colours, but i'd like to give pigments a go too. More versatile perhaps.

Yeh mate, was from a company called Kremer, I think they are German. Glad you like it.

[Will]

Cheers Chris. Looks dope!

[scrubyandwells]

On 10/17/2016 at 4:14 PM, Will said:

Did I hear on the podcast that you used some flourescent pigments for this? Where did you get them from? Looks great!

I've tried some Vallejo flu colours, but i'd like to give pigments a go too. More versatile perhaps.

@Chris Tomlin, holy ---- this Warchanter is sensational. Brilliant work.

[Chris Tomlin]

19 minutes ago, scrubyandwells said:

@Chris Tomlin, holy ---- this Warchanter is sensational. Brilliant work.

Cheers bro

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey there,

Apologies I've been so useless in updating here recently. Usual story; busy at work + painting at home! I've been making some good progress on my next 10 Brutes and second Warchanter though, please be sure to check out my #wipwednesday video on Twitter tomorrow as I'll be sharing how far I am with them then.

My deadline is Thursday evening as I'll be heading up to Cardiff on Friday afternoon for Clash of Swords. This is a 50-60 player, 5 game event which usually has a pretty messy social side (my kinda event!). Really looking forward to the games as much as the partying though, which says a lot about where I am with the hobby right now as that's never really been my focus.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for a good finish, but we'll have to see...it could easily all go wrong. The main issue is the comp pack as it's not using the General's Handbook battleplans and has different criteria for scoring. It's going to be a bit of a departure to what I'm used to and due to all the painting I haven't had any practice games with the army I intend to use.

There is a 2,500 point pool, with 2,000 points to be selected each game. I believe single models never score (though need to double check this), which makes the Cabbage a big point sink...sure he can mess stuff up, but if he can't subsequently score it's a issue. So I plan to use the models I'm painting now instead of him (he'll still be in my sideboard to hopefully assist with painting votes - if I get nominated). Again though, I haven't played any practice games so I could see this not going my way. We'll see I guess.

This will mean that come Monday next week I will have a further 20 games to report on(!!!)...yeh, I've not done too well keeping up have I?

I will 100% be providing reports on all of these, even if brief. I think I'll need to break my "No TGA at home" rule next week after Clash and spend a couple of hours smashing through a load of them. Still hopeful of getting a few written up this week.

But yeh, just wanted to give a bit of an update as it's been a while. I was close to saying something about posting photos...but I'm even more useless with that than I am reports  

Keep an eye on the thread, there will be something worthwhile here again very soon!!

Megaboss Chris

[Nico]

Quote

There is a 2,500 point pool, with 2,000 points to be selected each game. I believe single models never score (though need to double check this), which makes the Cabbage a big point sink...sure he can mess stuff up, but if he can't subsequently score it's a issue. So I plan to use the models I'm painting now instead of him (he'll still be in my sideboard to hopefully assist with painting votes - if I get nominated). Again though, I haven't played any practice games so I could see this not going my way. We'll see I guess.

Good move. I think at least your Brutes are still scoring until they get down to one model, which is nice. Although you should check that.

[Soulsmith]

Look forward to reading the reports, best of luck warboss.

[Aaron Schmidt]

Nice! Loving the simple head swap conversions. There is a lot you can do with the Warchanter I think. If you can repose the shoulder than you can repose the arm, and there are a lot of cool poses you can do from there. I've been experimenting with adding fire to the sticks. We'll see how it works. Great stuff, Tomlin. Keep posting. 

[Ryan Taylor]

Great conversion on the Warchanter. Just built my first one stock standard. Need to get some of those 40k heads!

[Chris Tomlin]

On ‎25‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 10:34 AM, Nico said:

Good move. I think at least your Brutes are still scoring until they get down to one model, which is nice. Although you should check that.

I still need to look over the pack to confirm this. May be getting confused with SCGT when I think about need 5 wounds worth of models.

Considering running my Ardnob as General in some games. His command ability is very short range and he is less survivable than the Megaboss, however I do feel that it could be the key to running 2x 10 Brutes. We shall see.

On ‎25‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 1:25 PM, Soulsmith said:

Look forward to reading the reports, best of luck warboss.

Thanks man, fingers crossed it goes ok...I literally have no expectation; untried list, unplayed comp pack & Cardiff (so, permadrunk!) = ???

Oh, and its Megaboss I'll have you know  

22 hours ago, Aaron Schmidt said:

Nice! Loving the simple head swap conversions. There is a lot you can do with the Warchanter I think. If you can repose the shoulder than you can repose the arm, and there are a lot of cool poses you can do from there. I've been experimenting with adding fire to the sticks. We'll see how it works. Great stuff, Tomlin. Keep posting. 

Cheers bro, appreciate the comments from a skilled hobbyist such as yourself. IMO there is more potential to the Warchanter than even I originally believed...however you do need to bust out the greenstuff. Even just what I've done is by no means simple tbh. Would be interested to see your flaming bone!  

5 minutes ago, Ryan Taylor said:

Great conversion on the Warchanter. Just built my first one stock standard. Need to get some of those 40k heads!

Thanks man! Did you see my first Warchanter on one of the earlier pages? His pose is stock standard, though I did give him a head swap so he looks like he's pulling a sweet scream as opposed to looking pretty gormless haha! I've got a 3rd to build so will have to see with what I can come up with...

Quick update on Clash progress. You can check my Twitter feed (@the_black_sun) to see a #wipwednesday video of the 10 Brutes and 2nd Warchanter. I ended up stay awake until 2.30am painting last night (4 1/2 sleep ftw! ) and made some good progress. May have another late one tonight ahead of the event though.

30 Brutes is gonna look so sweet on the table though!!

Chris

[Gaz Taylor]

3 minutes ago, Chris Tomlin said:

I still need to look over the pack to confirm this. May be getting confused with SCGT when I think about need 5 wounds worth of models.

I'm fairly sure it's five wounds of models else I'm stuffed and be joining @Ben Johnson in trying to stop my opponent completing their objective and killing everything!  

See you tomorrow