Getting Ready for the First Michigan Grand Tournament

Hey all! Sorry to interrupt the Space Marine love-fest this week, but I wanted to talk about the first ever Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament to be held in Michigan!   The tournament is this weekend in Lansing and it sounds like there will be a good turnout.   I will be Fresh Coast Gaming's representative in what appears to be a pretty competitive field of 40k players.   The schedule looks very aggressive and I really don't know how I will survive playing FOUR 1850 point games on Saturday followed by two more on Sunday!   Anyway, hobby stuff after the jump.

The past couple weeks have been all 40k all the time for me.  Family issues unfortunately kept me from being able to play in the recent Warmahordes Michigan Cup tournament.  However, I have managed to get some hobby work done as well as some test games using the MIGT beta missions.

First up, I modeled and painted up the new Finecast Tau Commander model in the "Enforcer" armor.  I magnetized his arms for different weapon load out and the back banner for ease of transport.

I tried a dry fitting a few different head swaps at first but chose one similar to commander picture on the codex cover.  I did some work on the base as well.   I did not like the "falling over" stock pose and cut off some of the original terrain off of the feet.   I put the model on a Secret Weapon Miniature's resin base with some green stuff to give it a nice upright commanding pose.   Painting was done with my airbrush to get a nice smooth base coat and shading before painting details.

I also modeled up some new marker drones using parts from the new broadside box on some gun drones I bought from a bitz bin at Adepticon.

The commander's drones got a touch of white so to keep track of them if/when he joins another unit with marker drones.

For fluff fun, I included on the banner both the Vior'la Sept World symbol (my main color scheme) with the Farsight Enclaves symbol which are both beneath the larger Tau Empire symbol.  I used Microset solution to get the symbols from the transfers sheet to lay smooth on the surface.

With the commander done, it was time to move on to the next project, my second Riptide.   I knew I wanted to run Farsight allies eventually so this was a good opportunity to try out the paint scheme.

First however, I went through and magnetized the arms to run either the Ion Accelerator or the Heavy Burst Cannon.   With new war gear in the supplement, the HBC is a viable option to take.   However, I mostly plan on using the more popular Ion Accelerator in competitive events.

I painted up the Riptide in sections and used some blue tape to get color contrast between layers.   I used black primer as well before layering up dark brown and eventually getting to the maroon-red top layer.

I did start to strip the paint off some older XV8 models as well.   I had planned on getting them converted to Farsight Enclave colors (troop choice now!) but did not get them finished in time for this weekend.   I did get the Riptide finished though.

I didn't get the HBC finished, but the Ion Accelerator and the two Shielded Missile Drones are done and will be used in my list for this weekend.

I went with the Captain Morgan pose for this Riptide.  I used some resin-rock basing material I bought from a vendor at GenCon.   Like my first Riptide I used a alternative head from Paulson Games (Commander's banner was from there as well).

Anyway, for those that haven't guessed by now, I have this Riptide setup as the character Honour Guard, Shas'vre O'vesa from the Farsight Enclave supplement rules.   He's pretty expensive, but he doesn't take a force org chart spot and he is a Independent character, jump jet, monstrous creature....  so pretty bad ass.

The final model I raced to get finished this week was my second broadside battlesuit.   I modeled and painted this one in my Vior'la Sept world scheme, same as my first.

With the additional missile drones, this unit can pump out some serious amount of shooting.

These new broadside models are way cooler looking than the old ones which have sadly now left my carry bag and are enjoying retirement in my Tau bitz box.

Like the first one, I magnetized the Heavy Rail Rifle option in place of the High Yield Missile pods.   I don't think these are as competitive, but it's such a cool look I plan on using them in some future fluffy games.

I managed to get five practice games in the last two weeks against five different opponents.

Double Riptide Smash attacks wrecking a Land Raider in a GT practice game

I definitely felt the rust the first couple of games as I had been playing a lot of Infinity and Warmahordes lately. But things came together the last couple of games well and I feel confident I am bringing a pretty good take-all-comers list this weekend.

Everything is painted up and ready to go.  The GT requires three 40mm objective markers per player.  I don't think I will use my Forge World drone objective markers as they are not tournament friendly (can't drive over them).   I did find some older Fresh Coast ones we had from before so I will defend them the best I can for the club!

I'll post my highlights next week after I recover from six games in two days (ugh!).   Thanks for reading!