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Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Warband, A Sick and Wrong™ Idea I have finally finished my Tyranid army to my satisfaction. Now I'm looking to start a new army. I thought it would be useful or entertaining for you to see my thoughts on this and what I'm planning on doing with it. Later on, as further ideas strike me, or if I realize that some of my ideas are impractical, I will make updates to this article, by adding new installments under the Sergeant Pepper’s name. Step 1: coming up with the main idea. Given my penchant for conversions, I know I’ll want to go hog-wild with this one. I'm planning on doing extensive conversions on every model and painting them to a much higher standard than I have previously. I want to really stretch my artistic and imaginative skills here. That being said, I don’t have a lot of time to do this and I don’t want the army to take multiple years to finish. I have a tendency to use lots of Troops, which means that I will tend to have a lot of models in an army, which means it would take longer. Since this is the case, I knew I’d need to use an army that features a low model count. I considered Iyanden Eldar (Wraithlords and Wraithguard) but I wasn’t really happy with them. I also gave consideration to Space Marines, but I’d end up taking way too many Tactical squads and I’d end up with a lot of models. I checked out Harlequins, and I’d really like to play them sometime, but there is no official codex out yet, and I'm not willing to wait until the updated Eldar Codex comes out (which is supposed to have an official list for them.) Finally, I came across the ultimate solution: DeathWing! A DeathWing army is a specialist Dark Angels army that consists of members of their first company: Terminators. All Terminators, all the time. Now this is an army with a low model count. Each basic warrior costs 47pts and the only transports are LandRaiders, coming in at a minimum of 250pts each. I should end up with 18-24 models in 1500pts, the typical game size we play currently at Ludicrous. At Rogue Trader Tournaments, the size seems to be between 1500 and 1700, which would only net me a few more models, so this is definitely doable. Step 2: the basic plan. I want to use my theme in different ways to create a really unique army that is visually impressive and cohesive, as well as being effective on the battlefield. I plan on doing a lot of research on the Sergeant Pepper’s theme, and using various ideas on the different models. In addition, I need to improve my sculpting and painting skills, as well as finding out more about the DeathWing army and how to use it from seasoned veterans. I will be renting/buying the Beatles’ movie, Yellow Submarine for most of these ideas. Adrienne also told me about a Bee Gees movie based on the Sergeant Pepper theme. I’ll have to try to check that one out as well for more ideas. As far as improving my sculpting and painting skills, I have subscribed to a Yahoo group about sculpting miniatures, and I'm going to be getting some painting lessons, as well as reading up on painting and getting some practice in on techniques that are new to me. As far as finding out more about DeathWing and how to use it, I’ve subscribed to a couple of Yahoo Groups devoted to DeathWing, and I'm talking to a number of DeathWing veterans on the Millenium Gate as well, in addition to familiarizing myself with the rules and coming up with some armylists. Step 3: brainstorming and specific plans. I'm planning on using the Beatles in some way. At this stage, I'm considering using them as my Characters and leaders (veteran Sgts, etc.) I would like to use some variation on the Sergeant Pepper costumes for all the models, though I may start with just doing that on the characters, then doing the others, we’ll see. I'm planning on using at least one LandRaider, with modeling based on the Yellow Submarine, naturally. I also had an idea that I’d like to get one of those recording chips that you find in some greeting cards, and have that wired into the Yellow Submarine’s assault ramp, with a recording of the opening horn intro from the Sergeant Pepper’s song. I expect I’ll be leaning toward a more “cartooney” look (somewhat like the movie) rather than a gritty, realistic look for my models. That means I’ll be using brighter colors and less shading and no tarnish or mud spatter. As far as army planning goes, I'm leaning toward an all-mounted army, to give me valuable mobility. So, there you have it, the beginning of a Sick and Wrong Idea™, submitted for your approval. If you have any suggestions or additional ideas that you think would work well with this, let me know at wren_tiki@earthlink.net, I’d love to check them out. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |