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Neona Dēmons - the Dreadland walkers.


Payce

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We walk de foot a de movnten. We scovr de lands fer pillage an plunder. We fite dose in ovr vey - de walkin ded men from de sovth, de ritechus umens from west, de hords ov demons from de summit a de movnten, de oger berberiun tribes sharin ovr lands. Befor de movnten blew up, de Northern Steppes was land ripe ov tunder life, ov gruntas an mornfang an mity beasts. Den de summit brovk an de hordes ov demons pored into de world, an de steppes became Dreadlands. De towns an settelmens was razd an the land became barren. But we will not surrender. We fite. We paint ovr armor in de warpaint ov demons. We bekom de enemy an take de fite to dem. We are de Neona Dēmons ov de Dreadlands, an we will fite until dees lands are ovrs an ovrs alone.

 

THE STORY SO FAR.

Back in January, I was participating at the Norwegian national championships with my Sisters of Sigmar. That didn't end particularily well, at least in terms of gaming (I placed 19th out of 24 overall), but I did win best painted army, which we all know is the real prize. For game 4, however, something happened. My life changed. I was up against a double cabbage pure Ironjawz list, and I was utterly destroyed. He double-turned me between one and two, and by the end of turn three I was wiped out to a (wo)man. It was glorious and thanks to a combination of an amazingly sporting opponent, some really cool dice moments and just being awestruck by these ****** orcs, it remains, to this day the single most fun game of Age of Sigmar I've ever played. We shook hands, and I asked if I could borrow his battletome for a gander; five minutes later, I was at the tournament store, getting my Start Collecting Ironjawz box.

After the prize ceremony, my opponent came up to me, asking how I planned to paint my Ironjawz to defend my title next year. "Pink," I said. "Grimdark and pink, with lots of checkers." Laughs were had, Facebook contacts were exchanged, we went our separate ways.

Which brings us to the current. The Neona Dēmons are now fast becoming a reality. Pink orcs are happening, ladies and gentle men, and for this, my 100th post on the TGA forums, I am starting my new army thread with photos of my progress so far, to function very similar to @Chris Tomlin's thread - document games and modelling progress as I go along, to both encourage myself to work faster and play more games, and document my progess onwards to next year's tournament.

So without further ado...

 

WARCHANTER.

This was the test model. There are things about him that I'm not entirely happy with (the Mordheim tufts on the base, the depth of the brown wash on his stikks), but overall, I like him well enough to not be bothered to do anything more with him. I can always paint up more, it's not like I won't have spares lying around from all the Start Collecting-boxes.

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BRUTES.

With the Warchanter done and my colour scheme set, I went out to model some Ardboys, only to put them aside and paint Brutes instead. Because the Brutes kit is just too damn awesome and I wanted to. I got some proper winter tufts from a modelling shop that looks far better on the bases, which I will keep using throughout my army (I might scatter in one or two Mordheim tufts here and there on larger bases, to break up the monotone colour and make the Warchanter look less out of place). These ones are with Jagged Gore-Hackas and will likely be the unit I expand upon into me 15-strong Megabrutes eventually.

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UPWARDS AND ONWARDS.

I'm an abysmally slow painter, and I refuse to play with unpainted models, which means updates will be a bit slow. I try to aim for about a unit per ten days or so, give or take, and a character for every two units I paint,  to reward myself. Currently on my painting table are ten Ardboys with twohanders:

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Apart from the banner bearer, they're all recess shaded and ready for highlighting and battle damage, and after that I only have to do the checkers, steel, leather,  wood, cloth, skin, eyes, bone and teeth, banner... yeah. You get the idea. After that, I'm painting a Megaboss on foot, then three Gruntas, before another five Brutes will take me to a flat 1000 points for actually playing some games. Seeing how my regular opponents will primarily be Sylvaneth, Khorne and Bonesplitterz, I reckon I'll have a steep learning curve...

I also plan to make a step-by-step painting guide for how I do these guys once I get to the Megaboss. For now, however, I'll get back to painting. Finally, a big thank you to everyone in this section for being awesome and inspirational about the Ironjawz. I've genuinely not had this much fun working on an army for as long as I can remember.

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Hi @Payce,

I gotta say I love these, fantastic work and a fun introduction story as well.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of pink & black as a colour scheme and you've utilised it brilliant here. The pink is vibrant without being unnecessarily in your face and the checkers offset it perfectly (they are very nicely executed as well). Snow basing is another favourite of mine, a large number of the armies I've painted over the years have used snow. Which product have you used for yours?

But yeh, great stuff man. Keep the thread going and I look forward to your progress. *thumbs up*

Chris

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Love these guys! The contrast between the hot pink, the metal, the checkers and the dark skin tone is great, a really well composed paintscheme. I'm also a sucker for non-green skin on greenskins, so that's an extra bonus for me. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

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Thanks everyone for the kind words. Who would have thought the destruction subforum is such a haven for the glory that is pink?

 

21 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Snow basing is another favourite of mine, a large number of the armies I've painted over the years have used snow. Which product have you used for yours?

The bases are done as follows:

Citadel Stirland Battlemire texture paint, followed by a drybrush of Citadel Underhive Ash dry paint. I then glue on some frosted snow tufts from Scenic Express, before finally splodging on Citadel Valhallan Blizzard texture paint.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yeah, that took a while. As much as the Ardboys turned out REALLY nice (if I do say so myself), they took the better part of three weeks to finish. Granted, I spent a lot of those nights slacking or doing other things, but still. If I plan to paint 50 more of them, I better whip myself into shape. My thinking is to get three units of ten each with shields, and to build this unit to a total of thirty guys with twohanders (using the command dudes from the shield units to swap in if I ever want to split them into smaller units).

On that particular note, does anyone have any Ardboys shields left over that they're willing to part with? PM me. Trades or money. I need shields.

Did I mention the Ardboys were finished? Have a gander.

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I totally don't main D.Va in any of my games, true story.

Next up is a megaboss on foot, which should ideally take less than three weeks. Then, Gore-gruntas, which will come with stage-by-stage tutorials on some things. Until next time!

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Thanks for the kind words, everyone. The appreciation for the magic that is pink remains awesome in the destruction subforum. Here's a WIP on Megaboss Uru, third in command to Grand Warlord Snoffo!

 

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Next step is to get the checkers on the axe done. However, I wanted to get this one up now since I did a step by step tutorial on the pink armour while I did him. Enjoy.

 

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STEP 1 - two thin layers of Screamer Pink. I just smudge it all over at this point, later layers will clean it up anyway.
STEP 2 - two thin layers of Emperor's Children. Same procedure. Some areas might require a third layer to get proper crisp.
STEP 3 - Recess shade of roughly 4:1 Carroburg Crimson/Druchii Violet. I say roughly since I sort of just mixed up a pot that looked about right.
STEP 4 - Edge highlight everything with Fulgrim Pink, even the small bumps and bends on the armor plating.
STEP 5 - Draw in thin lines of battle damage with Rhinox Hide here and there. I tend to go from small cracks in the armour edges.
STEP 6 - Highlight the battle damage with Ironbreaker.

And just like that, pink armour!

I'll finish up the Megaboss in a couple of days I think, he's damn fun to paint. Which means next week, we get cracking on the Gore-Gruntas!

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AHW YEAH!

Megaboss Uru is done and man, I love him. Model was amazing fun to paint, and I really love how he turned out. He's the self-proclaimed badduzt of azzes and loves nothing more than violently decapitating lesser creatures. Which, truth be told, is pretty much everything and everyone. He's also fond of poetry and the operAAAGH.

 

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Gruntas are built and the priming spray is drying as I type. Let's see if those take three weeks too, or I can actually be a bit effective for once.

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@Payce - Your Megaboss looks great mate. I really love the colour palette you've chosen. The ashen skin works perfectly with this and the base offsets it all so well. I'm sure I keep saying the same things in all my responses, but it's true!! Those checks are super tidy as well. Awesome work.

@Tom - Nothing wrong with a bit of pink, brother!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I fell off the front page? I need to get my rear in gear and paint faster, this is unacceptable.

But anyway, the Gore-gruntas are finally done, and I'm slowly closing in on 1000 painted points! Only a unit of Brutes left now, and we're there, for a cabbage to wait for me as a reward (not to meantion a cheap trick to immediately jump to 1500). I loved working with the Gruntas, they are really nice models and far more nuanced and complex physically than the pictures in the battletome and on the website give you an impression of. Even if I spent a whopping three weeks on getting them done, I'm already looking forward to adding some more.

Anyway.

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Speaking, as we were, of Brutes - they're built and ready to be primed tomorrow. I did some minor conversion work on them because I wanted the unit to all have double axes, a few handswaps here and there, as well as giving the Boss a club from the Mournfang kit which I think turned out rather nice (if I do say so myself). Hopefully these will be faster to pai-- oh, who am I kidding?

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Anyway, time to get cracking! Once these are done, there will at least be battle reports, so content won't be as sporadic. AND! A full army shot, which is going to be an immensely good feeling. If you want anymore tutorials like the one I did on the pink, feel free to ask. Was pondering making one for the skin, any interest?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ladies and gentlebeings, hold your breath, as this post will contain...

ACTUAL GAMING CONTENT!

That's right, you heard it here first! Step right in to get a first look at the Neona Dēmons taking on a warband of humans worshipping some skullduggery deity of dubious intent in a series of games using the new rules for skirmishes!

Jokes aside, while waiting for the new General's Handbook to land, a friend and I started a skirmish campaign tonight, to get a feel for the rules. And it was amazing. Skirmish might just be one of the most fun additions to Age of Sigmar ever. We decided to just play through the battleplans from the top, working our way through the first three tonight. I brought the following:

Bwonsamdi the Warchanter - Inspirational Fighter, Helm of Authority
Brute Boss - Boss Choppa
Ardboy Boss - Big Choppa
2 Ardboys - Big Choppas

Opposite me was the following menagerie of pinkskins:

Hegg, Exalted Deathbringer - Impaling Spear, Merciless Killer, Runeblade
Skullreaper
Blood Warrior Champion - dual weapons
2 Blood Warriors - dual weapons, one banner

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GAME 1: CLASH AT DAWN.

This scenario was simple enough; four corners, random deployment determined by dice, with a large dead zone at the center. The objective was simple, first one to kill more than half of the opponent's army wins. In our case, it meant three models since we both started out at five. Round one, the single Blood Warrior managed to get a charge in on my Ardboy Boss, who didn't like that and smacked him around a bit for a wound. In return, my Brute Boss charged the banner bearer and justifiably beheaded him as is good and proper. Round two, the Brute Boss charged on to pump four wounds into Hegg, who returns two wounds but fail to impale him. The Ardboy Boss has no such bad luck, finishing off the Blood Warrior and moving on towards the final lone Blood Warrior. Round three, Hegg manages to kill the Brute Boss, only to be finished off by Bwonsamdi. At the same time, over in the other corner, three Ardboys gang up on the final Blood Warrior and off him, and at the end of turn, I have four models left to his one, giving me a minor victory.

After my win, I added a second Brute with a Jagged Gore-hacka to my warband, and Bwonsamdi rolled a Healing Elixir on the table thingie. My opponent got a Warding Glyph and picked up a fourth Blood Warrior and two Marauders.

GAME 2: TRESURE HUNT.

This map is interesting, because it very fast became very apparent that it would all come down to one giant fight in the middle. Five objectives in an X-shape all contains a chance to reveal a treasure on a 6, which is rolled for at the end of a player turn by every model within 3". The treasures, once claimed, is part of the win condition, however, to score a major victory, total elimination of the opponent is required.

Skip to turn 5. Hegg is the lone figure left for my opponent, with one wound remaining. He fails his charge, and my Brute with the Jagged Gore-hacka and Bwonsamdi both charge him. In a flurry of blows, they fail to kill him, rolling the most spectacular amount of two's you'll ever see. Sadly, in no less than 11 rolls for treasure, I have only uncovered a single one, giving my opponent a minor victory as he has two. The taste of bitter defeat is nigh.

This scenario was amazing fun to play, and we're already considering converting it to full Matched Play Age of Sigmar - it's kind of like Border War, only... not boring and full of suck. Definitely pick up 50 reknown worth of models and try it if you haven't already. Really fun battleplan.

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GAME 3: FRAGILE CARGO.

I add a single Ardboy with a Big Choppa and get a Fortuitous Trinket from my roll, my opponent rolls for D3 reknown and gets a two, which allows him to afford a Juggernaut. The scenario as it stands in the book looks complicated, but once we got into it, it was really rather simple. A model carries a thing and has to cross the table. There's more to it, but that's basically the long and short of it.  Again, a major victory requires a total wipeout of the opposing team.

Turn one, we both move, running with everything, so there are no charges. I attempt to build a line of my Ardboys to dam his advance, with my Brutes and Bwonsamdi in the back to counterpunch. This works out OK for turn two, where we apply some blows and pick off a few wounds of each other, some Blood Warriors, a Marauder and a few Ardboys biting the dust. Then turn 3 happens, and in a massive swing of fives and sixes, he wipes me out. No jury, no trial, straight to execution. His artifact carrier isn't even halfway across the table when he scores the major victory.

All in all, probably the least fun of the three scenarios, because it heavily favours the escorting player in terms of deployment. Still, I could and should have played it different and made some pretty glaring mistakes, so all credit to my opponent for punishing me.

With the leftover reknown from last round as well as the points from this loss, I'm adding a Gore-grunta Boss (Pig Iron, of course), while Khorne Flakes adds a Wrathmonger and banks 5 reknown for later. After three games, he's got a lead of 62 to my 55, so it's still close.

In other news, I'm very close to finishing my unit of Brutes (only the cloth, skin, gums, teeth, bone and bases left!), which will put me at 1000 points flat until the next GHB. I have a few games penned in before then to test them, so stay tuned for more content over the next few weeks!

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