108th Cadian "Wyverns"

I come to you today with some updates and planning for my Astra Militarum army. I wanted to take a different approach with my IG and do something more challenging. With that in mind, I chose the 108th Wyverns. They appeared in one image in the 8th Edition Astra Militarum Codex and I absolutely loved the scheme. So, I went with it. Here are some WIP pictures.

These guys are squad one of two for my 500pts list. With that being said, I have like 100 dudes to paint and those are just the Guardsmen! I have commissars, company commanders, heavy weapon teams, sentinels, and of course tanks. Lots of stuff for me to work on. Let's get on to the 500pt list for the Escalation Series I am participating in.

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Astra Militarum) [31 PL, 498pts] ++ + No Force Org Slot + Regimental Doctrine: Regiment: Cadian + HQ + Company Commander [2 PL, 34pts]: Display Astra Militarum Orders, Laspistol, Power sword Lord Commissar [4 PL, 35pts]: Bolt pistol, Master of Command, Power sword, Warlord + Troops + Infantry Squad [3 PL, 48pts] . 7x Guardsman . Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Grenade Launcher . Guardsman w/ Vox-caster: Vox-caster . Sergeant: Laspistol Infantry Squad [3 PL, 52pts] . 7x Guardsman . Guardsman W/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun . Guardsman w/ Vox-caster: Vox-caster . Sergeant: Laspistol Militarum Tempestus Scions [3 PL, 67pts] . 2x Scion . Scion w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun . Scion w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun . Tempestor: Chainsword, Hot-shot Laspistol + Fast Attack + Armoured Sentinels [3 PL, 40pts] . Armoured Sentinel: Autocannon + Heavy Support + Heavy Weapons Squad [3 PL, 42pts] . Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter . Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter . Heavy Weapon Team: Heavy bolter Leman Russ Battle Tanks [10 PL, 180pts] . Leman Russ Battle Tank: Battle Cannon, Heavy Bolters, Lascannon ++ Total: [31 PL, 498pts] ++ 

Keep in mind that our goal is to build and paint a 2000pt army that we have fun painting and playing. I am in a series with several people that still have never played WH40k, so we want to have fun. Our main focus is to play the models that you think are badass and cool as shit. Not so much on the competitive side of the game.

That's all I got for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Country Roads Take Me Home

May 2018 - May 2019 has been a long year for me. As I type this out, I sit in a stair well (stairwell?) in Texas waiting to demob after a year long deployment cycle. Surprisingly, I was actually able to make some hobby progress while deployed. I purchased some reaper miniatures and paints and had them shipped to me and just worked away at them until it was time to send it all home.

I sent all of my hobby stuff home at the tail end of January and let me tell you, I am dying to be surrounded by miniatures again. From today, I have maybe five or six days until I go home, move into my new apartment, and immediately set off on making bigger steps in the hobby as a whole. I have gone so far as to even make a working list of what I want to get painted. You saw a little bit of that list in my last post.

The biggest thing for me is going to be getting my Imperial Guard painted. I have so many models for that army and I work so slow at getting them completed. The last year has shown me that I can paint a lot faster than I used to and still maintain quality. After all, these are game pieces, not display pieces. Several friends expressed interest in starting an Escalation League in order to motivate ourselves to get our shit painted. I am playing Imperial Guard for this league, what else would I play?

Which actually brings up something cool for me that I have never done. I have pre-ordered a display miniature from Black Sun Miniatures in the UK. Now, I have never painted a display piece before. For the last ten years I have been painting what I considered to be "Game Pieces". Basically, I was painting everything with the intent that these miniatures would be handled a lot by myself and others. Not that they looked like garbage, but I was not putting my maximum effort into creating art or making something look badass.

The Duke

I plan to do a Bill "The Butcher" Cutting inspired paint scheme for this dude. He is 75mm, comes on a small base, and looks generally cool. I am really excited to get my hands on him and really put my skills to the test. I will be providing a lot of updates for this guy as well as the Escalation League. So, make sure to check back for all of that fun shit.

Link to Preorder The Duke: https://www.blacksunminiatures.co.uk/product/the-duke-preorder/

He comes for the SLAUGHTER!

I painted this Slaughter Priest for my Blades of Khorne AoS army back in November, 2017. At the time it was probably one of the best miniatures I had painted up to that point. I was really feeling the idea of using blue. Not that it is ground breaking to paint Khorne models any color but red, but I was very happy with the results. The base gave me a chance to practice some blending, but the blends aren't super smooth. Still working on that.

In the beginning...

In the beginning...

Welcome to Tabletop_Av3ng3r, I am Skyler and this is my blog about Miniature War Gaming. I am seeking to kind of chronicle what I am doing in the War Gaming hobby from painting, to building, and even actually playing the games. This all sounds great, but who am I?

As I said, I am Skyler or Av3ng3r (15 year old gaming handle) and I play miniature games. I got started back in 2009 playing Warhammer 40K 5th Edition. I was playing Necrons then and I am kind of happy to not have any photos of them from that time. It was a truly awful paint job. Over the next few years I would ONLY play various 40K armies. I had Necrons, Blood Angels, and Tau all for short times until I fell in on the Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) and quickly fell in love with these walking flashlights. Since 2014 I have begun to look into games other than 40K. Not because I don't enjoy it, but because variety is the spice of life. I am now involved in playing several games like Frostgrave, Malifaux, Infinity, Age of Sigmar, and many others.

So, that's a little bit about my hobby history.

What am I looking to accomplish here? That's a great question and I am glad you asked! This blog, as previously touched on is just going to be a space for me to post about what I am working on and what I have finished. 2019 is going to be the year of the hobby for me and I am going to finally take the next step for myself to improve all of my skills. I am a decent painter, but I want to further my skills and explore what I can do to create art in the miniature realm, so expect to see some of that. I will regularly post about my Astra Militarum army that is well over 10,000 points and my progress towards getting it painted. How about I break it down further?

• Stripping my current Astra Militarum army and repainting it with a better scheme and more advanced skills.
• Painting a Protectorate of Menoth army for Warmachine.
• Building and painting a Frostgrave Warband
• Painting Nomads for Infinity
• Painting a Guild Warband for Malifaux
• Building and painting terrain

Those are just a few things that I will be working on this year. 

Another big leap that I am going to take is putting my work out on Twitch. There are so many amazing painters on Twitch, but I want to push my skills further and learn more from painting in general. I feel as though this will be a great way to get feedback and let others see what I am working on. It is going to be quite the journey to get started on that and I am really looking forward to it. I will put out an update soon once I get all of that started.

Well, thanks for checking out the very start of my blog and I hope you stick around to follow me through my journey to become a better painter as I also try to play more games. It feels like this hobby is more painting and way less game playing, so I am going to try and make both happen. Wish me luck!