TheChirurgeon's Road Through 2026, Part 9: Frantic Clutch Hobby Prep

Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing blog of hobby and competitive progress through 2026. Last time around I was testing a new Veterans of the Long War list with Huron and friends. This time I'm testing another list concept using my final list for Clutch and scrambling to finish painting the army before the event on Saturday. It's been a hectic week and as I write this I've still got a ton of painting to do over the next two days. So let's dive right in.

My Clutch List

After my tests, here's where I ended up:

My Clutch List - Click to Expand

Clutch Huron List (2000 points)

Chaos Space Marines Strike Force (2000 points) Huron's Marauders

CHARACTERS

Chaos Lord (90 points) • 1x Daemon hammer 1x Plasma pistol

Cypher (90 points) • 1x Cypher’s bolt pistol 1x Cypher’s plasma pistol

Huron Blackheart (120 points) • Warlord • 1x Exalted weapon 1x Tyrant’s Claw

Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (80 points) • 1x Combi-bolter 1x Force weapon 1x Infernal Gaze

BATTLELINE

Cultist Mob (50 points) • 1x Cultist Champion • 1x Autopistol 1x Brutal assault weapon • 9x Chaos Cultist • 9x Autopistol 9x Brutal assault weapon

Legionaries (90 points) • 1x Aspiring Champion • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Chaos Icon 1x Close combat weapon 1x Heavy melee weapon • 4x Legionary • 3x Astartes chainsword 4x Bolt pistol 4x Close combat weapon 1x Heavy melee weapon

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Chaos Rhino (75 points) • 1x Armoured tracks 1x Combi-bolter 1x Combi-weapon 1x Havoc launcher

Chaos Rhino (75 points) • 1x Armoured tracks 1x Combi-bolter 1x Combi-weapon 1x Havoc launcher

OTHER DATASHEETS

Chaos Bikers (70 points) • 1x Biker Champion • 1x Chaos Icon 1x Close combat weapon 1x Combi-bolter 1x Power fist • 2x Chaos Biker • 2x Bolt pistol 2x Close combat weapon 2x Combi-bolter 2x Plasma gun

Chaos Land Raider (220 points) • 1x Armoured tracks 1x Combi-weapon 1x Havoc launcher 2x Soulshatter lascannon 1x Twin heavy bolter

Chaos Terminator Squad (180 points) • 1x Terminator Champion • 1x Combi-weapon 1x Power fist • 4x Chaos Terminator • 1x Chainfist 2x Combi-weapon 1x Paired accursed weapons 2x Power fist 1x Reaper autocannon

Chaos Vindicator (185 points) • 1x Armoured tracks 1x Combi-weapon 1x Demolisher cannon 1x Havoc launcher

Chosen (125 points) • 1x Chosen Champion • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Boltgun 1x Chaos Icon 1x Power fist • 4x Chosen • 3x Accursed weapon 2x Bolt pistol 1x Boltgun 2x Combi-weapon 1x Paired accursed weapons 2x Plasma pistol

Chosen (125 points) • 1x Chosen Champion • 1x Bolt pistol 1x Boltgun 1x Chaos Icon 1x Power fist • 4x Chosen • 3x Accursed weapon 2x Bolt pistol 1x Boltgun 2x Combi-weapon 1x Paired accursed weapons 2x Plasma pistol

Nemesis Claw (110 points) • 1x Visionary • 1x Plasma pistol 1x Power fist • 4x Legionary • 1x Accursed weapon 1x Astartes chainsword 4x Bolt pistol 4x Close combat weapon 1x Nostraman chainglaive 1x Paired accursed weapons 1x Voice Eater

Masters of the Maelstrom (115 points) • 1x Garlon Souleater • 1x Garreon the Corpsemaster • 1x Katar Garrix • 1x Captain Sargotta • 1x The Enforcer

Obliterators (160 points) • 2x Obliterator • 2x Crushing fists 2x Fleshmetal guns

ALLIED UNITS

Nurglings (40 points) • 3x Nurgling Swarm • 3x Diseased claws and teeth

Exported with App Version: v1.46.2 (108), Data Version: v732

There are some things to like about this list and some things that aren't so great. Let me start by saying that I'm a big fan of Huron's Marauders as a Detachment - it has a lot of powerful Stratagems and a flat +1 to hit for infantry and bike units is a solid upgrade. That said, there are a few decisions here which have been made more because of what I have painted and can finish painting by Saturday. That Land Raider falls right on the line between them - it's not great in this Detachment, but it's very cute to have Huron be able to reactive move back into it and more importantly, it eats up 220 points from the list and will take less time to paint than ten marines. It also gives me some more ranged firepower to work with.

Otherwise, this feels like every other CSM list, where you're on the hook to combine firepower from multiple sources to take down key threats while avoiding getting clapped back too hard. It's a punishing faction to play because nothing in it hits quite hard enough for its cost and the datasheets are all priced relatively fairly and it just won't compete well with bigger threats. I have no idea how to handle C'Tan here, though I suspect the answer will be "throw a shitload of 1 damage accursed weapons at them, then die."

The more I test this list, the more I wish I was playing Death Guard. THAT SAID, I have gotten relatively sick of playing them and I'm excited to have the reason to paint an entirely new army - something I started doing a few weeks ago in preparation for the community painting article on Warhammer Community.

I had time this week for one more test game, and I definitely needed to get in at least one rep with the list and detachment I'm actually going to be using. So I called KC back up and we get in another test game.

Test Game: vs. KC's Space Marines, Again

KC's always a great person to test against - he's a very good player and he can bring Space Marines, a versatile army that generally represents the largest share of any tournament field. This time around he's bringing a more shooty army, running Firestorm with Vulkan and Adrax in a pair of Land Raiders - one regular, one redeemer - plus two Predator Destructors, a pair of Storm Speeders, and a fair amount of chaff for doing actions and backing them up. It's a solid core and I'm going to have a hard time taking out two Land Raiders at once.

The Mission: Tipping Point + Take and Hold

We go with Mission A. I'm going second, and that's a big help. I put the Obliterators and Terminators into deep strike and everything but the Cultists into Rhinos. KC and I spend the first turn moving out without really engaging and I only expose my bikes, which KC is able to destroy with some solid fire from one of his Predators. He swings his Redeemer around the south side of the map and so that's largely where I don't want to be - it has insanely strong overwatch and is full of Redeemers. I can try and hit it later but for now my plan is to swing around the north side and avoid the redeemer, giving up that objective. I want to kill the top land raider - far less dangerous - and occupy the north objective and the middle. Because I'm going second I only need to keep parity with KC for the first half of the game and I can snag 15 on the final turn and pull ahead on primary. Take and Hold gives an easy way to do that.

In retrospect, I probably got too aggressive in that regard trying to get ahead and I could have held back another round before charging the middle. I drop my Terminators on the north side of the board and after failing to kill the Land Raider in shooting, I'm forced to finish it off in melee. KC's Bladeguard get out, but I stay close enough to the Land Raider to get back in with Huron's unit after they move closer. The Obliterators drop in and pair with the Vindicator to shoot the Redeemer. My dice don't go great here and after a save Re-roll, KC manages to keep his Redeemer alive on 5 wounds. That's not great for me, but it's manageable. I put out my Nemesis Claw to draw overwatch but KC doesn't bite and I make the mistake of not also putting out the Chosen - I should have put out both and forced him to handle the units and instead just fed a unit to him for free - a mistake I can't make.

At this point, despite those losses I have a really strong board state. I'm holding the middle and he's down a Land Raider. I just need to hold out a bit here... and of course that doesn't happen. I fail every save on my Land Raider and Vindicator, losing the former and watching the latter drop to 2 wounds. The Terminators fail a ridiculous number of saves and are killed by the Bladeguard before Adrax even gets to swing. KC pushes forward with his Redeemer as Vulkan and co get out and I'm unable to kill the Redeemer in Overwatch and it sneaks through a lucky flamer hit to kill the Vindicator. I lose the Obliterators to flamer shots from Vulkan's unit, and suddenly I'm losing badly.

It's not over - with some OK dice luck I can turn this around - but it just goes to shit from here. I failed every single Leadership and Battle-shock test from this point onward, and Huron's unit spent all game being battle-shocked as a result. The Chaos Lord and his unit more or less bounce off those flamers, and Huron bounces off the Storm Speeder stealing the objective at mid table. It's not a massive blowout, but it's a loss that stings. I made some mistakes early, but they were relatively recoverable. But sometimes that's how it goes - you fail a couple of 4+ saves and your opponent spikes 7 damage on their lascannons and things turn.

Result: 58-72, Loss

So what should I have done differently? Well, I definitely needed to commit the Nemesis Claw and Chosen + Lord at the same time, rather than just feeding a unit to the Redeemer. There's a decent shot the Chosen weather some of the Redeemer firepower, and if I push the Nem Claw through to the Incursors and kill them they don't melta mine my Land Raider - though notably failing four 3+ saves to the Predator's autocannon would have likely killed me anyways. But it would have meant having another threat out there to deal with and forcing KC to choose how to deal with those vs. my Obliterators. I also needed to commit more to the Land Raider to try and kill it in shooting to open things up for my other units to kill the bladeguard inside.

The good news is that I got some much-needed experience against a solid player, and I'm glad to have a rep under my belt with the army. What I need to figure out - on the fly, unfortunately - is how to make better use of that uppy-downy stratagem. When things go well, the Terminators and Obliterators can be pulled back up into Deep Strike and redeployed. I also need to remember to use the redeploy from the Masters of the Maelstrom.

Hobby Progress

I've made a terrible mistake.

By my count, when I submitted this list, I needed to paint:

One Land Raider
One Rhino
One Vindicator
Eight Chosen
Five Terminators
One Terminator Sorcerer
Five Nemesis Claw

That's a shitload, but the tanks fortunately paint up faster than everything else. Someone asked how I paint them, and here's the quick rundown.

Rob's Guide to Red Corsairs Tanks

These are just regular tanks, but they have custom iconography I've made myself. The big thing here is making that and the secret is just: Cut it out of plasticard. I start by drawing the design at the correct size on a thin sheet of plasticard. I got these in the Galeforce 9 variety pack and they're among the thinner sheets in the pack, which makes them easy to work with.

Once that's done I cut the shape out with scissors and use a hobby knife to get the finer details done - mostly that section inside the fist. Then, depending on where it's going I'll either glue the individual parts onto the vehicle or cut them up further to make them work on the top hatches.

After that I prime the thing. I start by priming the whole thing black, then I give it a zenithal prime with Mephiston Red. The goal is to get a smoother blend from red to dark red going down.

Next up I'll fill in the black panels on the thing and paint the icon black - this is done with Black Legion then Corvus Black - and then I'll do the metal bits with Leadbelcher.

I'll then go around some of the panels with Carroburg Crimson and start the process of edge highlighting. I wash the metal bits with Leadbelcher, then highlight with Runefang Steel. The Red gets edge highlighted with Wild Rider Red and as I do those highlights I'll put in small nick marks and scratches to add some detail. You can shade these a bit with carroburg if you want to give them depth but just little marks are fine here. I edge highlight the black parts with Mechanicus Standard Grey, then do some corner highlights with Celestra Grey.

Then you have to paint the rivets - every single one. The red rivets are done with Runefang, the black portion rivets with Retributor Armour. This makes a massive difference and makes the whole thing pop.

The final step is weathering and this is the easiest part - I just take a big drybrush and drybrush Celestra Grey onto the thing, starting on the treads and working up. A little goes a long way here and this will add depth and additional color to the thing while also hitting key edges with light highlights.

That's the same process I applied to my Land Raider, which was a bit of a rescue - I'd had this old Thousand Sons-ish Land Raider I bought secondhand about ten years ago just sitting around. This was a good time to put it into paint, because not assembling a land raider would save me a lot of time while having one in my army would mean eating up a lot of the points I'd need to paint.

So I dusted it off - keep a can of compressed air around, kids! - then it got the same treatment with a custom door on one side.

I also added some trophy racks and plugged up some gaps along the top corners using Liquid Green Stuff.

I also painted the Vindicator using the same scheme. While I've been using Mk.II Deimos Rhinos, I prefer the aesthetics of the "modern" Land Raider and Vindicator quite a bit more.

Note on doing chipped paint - I painted the chipped parts with Leadbelcher, then went back and painted Corvus Black up to those edges and did a very thin line of Black Legion right along the edge to give it the illusion of depth and paint thickness, so it looks like the paint has chipped off to reveal the plasteel underneath.

That front shield just looks so good and gives you such a big canvas to work with. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, and with the Land Raider and Vindicator done, that just leaves regular yabbos to paint.

I'm running this guy as a Chaos Lord and more or less finished him last night. He's a great model and I'll come back at some point and add some kind of OSL to his power maul but for now he's done.

This guy is from my red Corsairs Nemesis Claw. The big thing I'm doing with them is making them renegade Carcharodons, which seemed like both a fun way to incorporate them and also be suggestive of a "loyalist Night Lords" theme. It offers great opportunities for freehand. This guy is a former Apothecary and so gets the white armor in a similar fashion to the Corpsemaster. If I can't finish the claw in time, I'll use Night Lords for them and use this guy as the heavy melee guy in my Legionaries unit.

Then I needed a Terminator Sorcerer. They don't sell the Terminator Lord kit in GW stores any more but I have the bits from it lying around so I went to see what Max had in stock. Turns out he had a Terminator Chaplain which would do just fine for this conversion, since the legs have exactly the kind of trim I'm looking for. So I added a tabard to him and replaced his belt buckle with the skull from the torso piece of the Chaos Terminator Sorcerer, and I swapped his Crozius Hand for a force stave. Then I added the cape on for good measure and a long-tusked Terminator helmet from the new kit and the result I think is a very solid Terminator Sorcerer.

Mixing in the loyalist bits and keeping the Storm Bolter really helps keep him with the aesthetic of the army and I love how these kits combine Chaos and loyalist elements.

And on top of that I've finished one Terminator.

My plan is to finish off the rest of the Terminators today, try and get the other five Raiders done (as my Chosen) tomorrow, and as many Nemesis Claw guys as I can manage. I doubt I'll finish the Obliterators, so that means I'll need to just run some Black Legion ones on Saturday, but they'll mix in just fine.

That's still a ton of work to do and they have to be painted to a pretty high standard. Anyways every minute I spend writing this is a minute I can't spend painting, so I'm going to log off and get back to it.

Next Time: Clutch Results

That's it for this week. I need to finish these models off and then on Saturday I'm off to the Clutch City GT, which is almost certainly going to be five rounds for me. I'll be back next week with the results of the event and my usual tournament report wrapping everything up. In the meantime, I've got a ton of painting left to do.

See you next week.

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