The Miniature Side of Me

Snotling Boxing/UFC Diorama WIP

2011-09-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

This is a diorama I built a while back and never finished. I figured Snotlings have something they enjoy doing when they're not running from Orcs. I spent some time getting all the bits together and made the rest from balsa wood and wire. The picture at the bottom shows all the characters that go on the base. I decided to keep them separate until after painting.

As you can see in the above picture, I have the ring set up on barrels and a couple plank benches sitting on some small pails. I also put a small ladder on each side of the ring and a spit bucket where the coach hangs out ringside. I also have a treasure chest with da' winnings. There are a couple guards below you can see that keep it from getting carried off during the fight. There's also a gong for rounds and a banner to keep rounds on. I also put some barrels of fungus beer in there for the spectators to purchase. There are a couple more pics below showing more angles.

Above are the characters that will be added to the diorama. The top row consists of the coaches and cheerleaders for each fighter. The second row consists of the spectators I have chosen to watch this fine sporting event. The third row has the judge on left, and the bellringer with hammer just to right and the guardians of the winnings on right. And the two bottom ones are the fighters. The left one is more of a karate kid martial arts snotling, while the right is more Bloodsport with his bound fists dipped in broken glass. I guess technically this is more UFC style but with the square ring it can be called whatever.

Well, it's been a little slow on model front for me lately, thus showing you an old half finished project that I wish I had time to finish. I did however build a Malifaux gang on Friday. I hope to get pics of them taken this week and posted up. I started with Bayou Gremlins and have all models except a couple that I ordered today. I hope they come in so I can finish building everything that is out and start some painting on them. Maybe after that I'll actually get a rulebook and try to play a game.

And I also put up my Lizardmen army on ebay and it ends tonight. So, if you interested check the link I added. Ebay items ending tonight

DreadFleet up for PreOrder

2011-09-16T19:08:00.000-04:00

I just ordered my copy of DreadFleet that just went up for PreOrder a few minutes ago. Didn't even look at all the up close sprue pics yet. Now off to do that.

For Sale: Lizardmen Army, IG misc, & WM/H misc

2011-09-13T15:39:00.000-04:00

Lizardmen Saurus on Sprue x 20

I finally got around to getting some pics of more things I will never get around to painting in my life, so Lizardmen must go, along with a few more odds & ends I found. Check it out and shoot me an email at ctreleheb AT gmail.com if you're interested in any of this stuff. It will be hitting Ebay probably early next week. I have a few items up now, ending tomorrow, if you want to check them out at following link: Mostly Warmachine Mercenary Stuff

8 Older Lizardmen Saurus with parts shown

11 Old Plastic Skinks with Short Bows as shown

Skink Priest

Skink Chief

Old Skink Chief Model

Skink Chief

Skink Chief with sweet feather cloak

Skink Chief

Saurus Lord

Kroxigor

Salamander with Handlers

Tenehousnreanditha guy?

Commissar with Hand Flamer

Commissar

Catachan with Powerfist

OOP Yarrick

Catachan with Powerfist

Cadian Banner with broken pole

Cadian Banner Guy

IG Techpriest

Lord Solar Macharius

Colonel Straken

pMadrak and Impaler

10 Chameleon Skinks

Slann in box, missing shrinkwrap

Saurus Lord on Carnosaur partially assembled

Skinks on sprue x 24

Skinks on sprue x 18

Saurus on sprue x 16

Saurus on sprue x 20

Well, there's a pretty good size Lizardmen army in there. The Orc & Goblin army I posted earlier will be going on Ebay in the future also. I am trimming Fantasy down to only one army, for now anyways. I have a huge Ogre Army I want to add to and then maybe if my interest in the game goes up, I'll add another one later slowly. I am also wanting to start into some Malifaux, the Bayou Gremlins are to cool to pass up on that game.

Content is slow lately, but that just means real life is busy. Maybe after getting some models out of the way, I will start getting some things that I have most interest in now and start actually working on something. Please hurry Chaos Space Marine Codex.

Current Ogre Kingdoms Army

2011-09-02T16:10:00.000-04:00

With the new pics up of the very soon to be released Ogre Kingdoms, I decided to pull out my old army and see what I had. Seeing the new pics I already know what I'll be adding. That would be two of everything, haha, well definitely the new big guys and maybe the special characters, depending on their rules. But, like all armies I really like, I want one of everything, naturally.

I figured I would take some pics of the army as it was built and then when I get the new book, I'll rearrange the units and whatnot to get it fitting the new rules. So, for now, check out the pics and I'll get the book and go over this armies evolution into 8th edition.

Greasus Goldtootha and a Slaughtermaster

Unit of Ogres with 2 hand weapons with attached Butcher

Unit of Ogres with hand weapon-ironfist and attached Butcher

Skrag the Slaughterer and some Gnoblar Trappers

Pic of two units and Leadbelchers and the Maneaters

Another Group shot, showing the Hunter and some Ironguts

GIANT

So happy when the plastic Giant was released

Closeup of Irongut unit with Bruiser

Another Irongut unit with Tyrant and oversized Banner

Converted Scrap Launcher. I hate the metal one. Was fun to build this gunpowder version.

Another shot of the Launcher

Yeah, I like this simple sled.

The only model I painted for test. Love the metals, like the new flesh colors much more.

I really need to work on large surfaces of skin. These guys are tough to paint depth without real skills.

Well, that's the army as it stands now. Hopefully, soon I'll be adding some real monsters to the mix and maybe actually try out 8th edition.

Anyone else have a cool army waiting in the closet for an update? I know my Chaos Marines are raging about it in their case.

In other news I put all the Khador stuff on Ebay finally. The auction ends Tuesday evening. Check the following link to all those guys: http://www.ebay.com/sch/ctreleheb/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

More Warmachine Models Must Go

2011-08-16T16:52:00.001-04:00

Epic Magnus - SOLD

Found a few more Warmachine models to post up that I will be selling. Most of these are mercs. I will be posting on Ebay soon, so you can wait for that(I'll post the links), or email me at ctreleheb AT gmail.com and we can discuss a deal. Look back a couple posts if you haven't already to see more things I have to offer at 30+% off retail and better if you want more than one item.

I couldn't find a picture of the model in my files, but I also have a Karchev the Terrible warcaster for Khador for sell also. He is mostly built without paint. I can get a pic of the actual model if you wanted to see its condition.

Mangler - Built and Primed - SOLD

Mangler - Unbuilt - SOLD

Mule - Unbuilt - SOLD

Renegade - Built - SOLD

Renegade - Partially Built - SOLD

Talon - Partially built - Stripped - SOLD

Talon - Partially Built - SOLD

That's it for now, until I take pics of the Lizardmen and random 40k stuff. Once I get everything up, I will start slowly putting on Ebay(slow because I hate doing it), and post the links to those auctions.

I have thought about using Bartertown instead, but just have no experience with it. Anyone else sell or trade anything on there and have good/bad experiences?

Who Knew the Miniatures World was so Big.

2011-08-16T09:42:00.000-04:00

I saw a contest going on over at Tabletop Fix and saw the great prizes and knew I should enter. Anyone who has found my tiny blog will already know about this site and all the great pics they put up showing off miniatures from companies other than the Big Two(GW & PP). However, if you haven't seen the site, I recommend adding them to your blog roll or whatever and check out all the new posts.

I honestly didn't know there were so many miniature companies out there until I added Tabletop Fix to my blogroll. Many of these are producing awesome kits that will compete with any companies minis. So, instead of finding all these companies sites for yourself and checking in with them all the time, just check Tabletop Fix and everything you need to see coming will be there.

'Ard Boyz Prelims Results

2011-08-15T10:23:00.001-04:00

I was able to attend the 'Ard Boyz tournament again this year at Hobbytown in Charlotte. The past 2 years there has been a turnout of around 12 people, with only about half of these being pretty good players. Well, Saturday a group of 6 of us showed up and were part of a 22 person turnout. This was huge for this store and they had to set up tables outside to accommodate everyone. This took 2 hrs and made the start noon instead of 10:00 as we were prepared for. The players consisted of 2 IG, 2 Ork, 1 Necron, 1 Dark Eldar, 2 Grey Knights, 1 Chaos Daemon, and the rest Space Marines of some flavor, mostly Vanilla and BA with little to no SW. I brought the following list to throw down with.

Vulkan in Landraider Redeemer with Multimelta, HK missile with 3 TH/SS & 2 LC Terminators

Shrike with 10 TH/SS Terminators

3 x 10 man Tactical Squads in Rhinos with Meltagun, Missile Launcher, and Combi-melta

1 x 5 man Scout Squad with Combi-melta/meltabomb in Landspeeder Storm with Multimelta

2 Landspeeders with Multimelta, Heavy Flamers

3 Attack Bikes with Multimeltas

1 Multimelta Dreadnought in Drop Pod

All in all a decent list with enough variety and tricks to get the job done. I use the dreadnought and scouts to alpha strike opponents and slow down there parking lots. The 10 termies tarpit and Vulkans crew cleans up. Good plan with everything goes well, I was of course hoping to play against some marine variant every round. This was a good plan after seeing 75% of the field were marines.

Round 1 I drew a Space Marine player with Cato and Chapter Master and a variety of other units. He had only been playing 6 months and started with the stuff he liked, deciding to do 'Ard Boyz just to see what it was like. He went first and advanced killing little. I was then able to drop the dread within inches of his landraider and wreck it on his side of board, just in front of my Shrike unit. His next turn killed nothing.

It went downhill for him after this. My termies marched through much of his army, mostly the Legion of the Damned and 2 shooty termie squads he dropped in front of them. Shrike walked through 3 full 10 man tactical squads by himself. This game ended up being textbook seal clubbing. I kinda felt bad tabling him for full battle points and receiving all 6 bonus points. He was just not prepared for a tournament level list.

After this round I was sitting in first with 26. Two closest players had 23 each. Next round I drew the only Chaos Daemon player. This sucked bad as I was prepared to shut down mech list mainly and this was completely different. Also, having only played Daemons once ever, I know almost nothing about the list. He brought to the table the following:

Fateweaver
Skulltaker on Bloodcrusher
Herald on Bloodcrusher
2 units of 8 Bloodcrushers
1 unit of Fiends
4 units of 5 Plaguebearers
3 Daemon Princes

At first glance, small army with minimal troops. This was ok as I drew him in the only objective mission, but the rest of the army is tough as nails. Not knowing the rules hurt a little on this game, as this player didn't share any non-beneficial Daemon rules. I didn't know Fateweaver had to take leadership test after every wound, and of course he didn't share this. I also didn't know Daemons could deepstrike into cover with only consequence being dangerous terrain tests. Still not sure if this was correct, I think should have mishapped. More issues I had with this player included the fact that whole army was on square bases, the Bloodcrushers had no riders, only based Bloodletters scotch-taped to the bases. He would also, conveniently drop wound dice off the bases of all multi-wound models during movement and then pick these up to roll quickly. This was annoying as I was constantly replacing dice on his models. And apparently all daemons move 7" per turn, plus the little for square base corners. Pretty much the most annoying game ever. This dude was probably only 20, but was already playing like the beardiest 40-plus year old basement dweller I have ever seen.

I didn't play a bad game, but still got massacred, which was no fun. I should have just concentrated on Plaguebearers and let his army chew on mine, but stood a good chance of being tabled by Bloodcrushers if I didn't do anything to them. I charged one unit of Crushers and a Prince with Shrike and termies. I was rolling my invulns hot and killed all after a couple turns. I was happy only losing 2 guys from this unit, so I charged another full unit and a Daemon prince, but also threw Vulkan and his boys into the fray. This one didn't do so well. I lost both units and both HQs in this one, only killing a couple Crushers. He was able to walk through the rest of my stuff then, killing everything but 2 full tactical squads on objectives. Unfortunately, he contested both of these. He then had all three others with Plaguebearers, giving him 7 to 0 and the massacre.

This dropped me down to 9th for round 3. After looking at the scores, I decided to drop for Game 3 and just watch a couple friends play on Table 1 and 2. The daemon player was playing Grey Knights on Table 1, so I watched most of this. Luckily, for the GK player he knew some of their rules, so he was able to make better progress than me. They ended up with draw.

The final results at this store were Vulkan Space Marines in first with 63 pts, Horde Orks in 2nd with 60, and the Daemon player in 3rd with 57(winning tie-breaker by 400 VPs) and the Grey Knight player in 4th.

We all had a great time, even with no one in our group placing. We will all play again next year I'm sure, even though it's not the most competitive event around. It is a good way to play in a tournament without having to drop a lot of cash on a GT somewhere. I would prefer a more competitive venue as the players would be better people, with nicer armies, instead of some of the thrown together stuff you see at 'Ard Boyz.

Any one else's store have 75% marines with only 1 making the cut. I thought this was odd, but in this situation, both the Daemon player and Ork player were very liberal with their rules interpretations and measuring. Most people don't play these armies often, so just take the opponent's word for their rules. I know some people don't think measuring is a big deal, but between movement and running they can gain an inch per turn, which can be everything in assault-based armies. Oh well, beardiness aside, it was fun to actually get in some games and I'll do it again next year.

If you're interested, check back last two posts, I have tons of Warmachine and Fantasy Orcs for sale.

Orcs & Goblins Army for Sell....Huge Lot

2011-08-08T12:30:00.000-04:00

With Fantasy being low on my "games I want to play list" I have finally decided to let go of my largest army. I started playing Orcs and Goblins 8 years ago and amassed this huge horde. I have lost countless games with them and won very few. I suck at Fantasy and have for a couple of editions. I haven't played any 8th yet, so I decided to get this army on to someone who can enjoy it. I thought I would put the pics up on here first before loading up my Ebay account, selling unit by unit.

I have closeups of all units in the army shown below. I think the pics are good enough that I won't have to describe each picture. There are several conversions and some mixed units of old and new models. Also, the movement trays are made from 18 ga galvanized steel with balsa wood edges. I made them out of steel so I could magnetize the models for ease of transport. A few of the units I actually got around to magnetizing, but don't remember which. Scroll down and check it out. My email is at bottom if you're interested in any of the units/characters. I would prefer to sell units as they are arranged, so I don't have any odd-numbered units when I get to putting them on Ebay.

There it is, the army I took years to build, but never have time or want to play with. I will also be posting up my Lizardmen army soon before hitting the Ebay with them.

After seeing the new Ogre Kingdom models, I know that will be my one army I get for 8th edition. I already have several thousand pts built and will definitely be adding some of the new beasts to it. At least then I will have a Fantasy army to game with if I have the desire.

If you would like to work out something on any of the units, or have any questions about something shown above, shoot me an email at ctreleheb AT hotmail.com. Also, if you didn't see my last post and are interested in starting Warmachine, I have a huge lot of models for sell that you should check out. They will be hitting Ebay very soon. If anyone is uncomfortable buying through the blog I will be posting links to my auctions as I put them up to remind anyone wanting that type of transaction.

Want New Stuff, Selling Lots of Stuff Cheap.....Warmachine

2011-08-02T10:07:00.002-04:00

Big Angry Behemoth....Fully Built - $42 - SOLD

It's time I finally got around to getting some pics of stuff I ~~want~~ need to get rid of. I hate posting up on ebay so I thought I would throw pics up here on the blog to offer up some good deals for you fine folk. Hopefully, this will save me from spending tons of time on ebay, so they can take half my money with fees. I know some people frown upon others selling things on their blog, but hey Ebay sucks and I promise you'll get a better deal here since I don't have to account for fees and time. You can check my ebay seller rating at username ctreleheb, and I have sold models through the blog in the past and was left positive feedback in the comments. http://theminiaturesideofme.blogspot.com/2010/07/want-new-stuff-selling-new-stuffwh-dh.html

Today, all the stuff I have posted up is from a trade I did for some Warmachine a while back. It all consists of Khador and mercenaries. In a couple days I'll be posting up lots more stuff I need to move, including my 13,000 pt fully built Orcs & Goblin Fantasy Army, as well as lots of Lizardmen stuff and a few 40k things. If you know anyone interested in any of these armies tell them to check it out later in the week. Scroll down and check out all the Warmachine up for now.

Epic Butcher in pieces...partially painted by friend - $15 - SOLD

Berzerker Fully Built....Arm Broken off, needs pinning - $15 - SOLD

Marauder...unbuilt - $20 - SOLD

Another Marauder....unbuilt - $20 - SOLD

Man-O-War Demo Corps....Fully Built - $ 12 - SOLD

Devastator....fully built - $28 - SOLD

Devil Dogs....Built and primed....I think 2 bits/weapons are missing - $ 18 - SOLD

Juggernaut....Fully Built - $20

Greylords Ternion.....Fully Built - $12 -SOLD

3 Iron Fang Uhlans...Fully Built, shields separate for painting - $44 - SOLD

Irusk...Partially Built and Painted - $6 - SOLD

Jozef Something..Fully Built & Primed - $7 - SOLD

WinterGuard Mortar Crew....Fully Built -$13 - SOLD

WinterGuard Mortar Crew....Fully Built -$13- SOLD

Nomad Parts - $20 - SOLD

Another Nomad in Parts -$20 - SOLD

Another Nomad...Partially Assembled....Been Stripped - $20 - SOLD

Spriggan....Fully Built & Primed & Partially Painted - $ 26 - SOLD

2 Rocketeers......Fully Built - $6 each - 1 LEFT - SOLD

2 Man-O-War Shocktroopers....Fully Built - $25 - SOLD

2 more Man-O-War Shocktroopers....Fully Built, Left one Axe Broken, Bit is lost - $20 - SOLD

Spriggan Parts - $26 - SOLD

Witch and Scrapjack....Partially Built - $20 - SOLD

Vanguard..Partially Built and Primed - $16

Winter Guard Infantry Unit....8 models, Fully Built - $26 - SOLD

Another Winter Guard Infantry Unit....8 models, Fully Built - $26 - SOLD

Those are all the Warmachine models I have for sell right now. All pics are of the actual models you would be receiving if you purchased them. I put a price by each picture description that will be around 30% off retail, unless a part is missing and they will be cheaper. If you want a large lot of these I will do better than that and in some cases will include shipping. I can only ship on Fridays and Saturdays due to work schedule, so if you want something soon, it would be best to make a deal before then so I can get them packaged up and shipped out in timely manner.

If you have been wanting to try Warmachine, now is the time to get a good army started cheap. Email me at ctreleheb AT gmail.com. Let me know which models you would like to take off my hands and we can make a deal on price and shipping. I can ship worldwide, but it may take me a couple of days to get you a shipping price. Also, I will only accept Paypal for these transactions, as it protects both of us.

Edit: I have MK II cards for most of the Khador stuff.

Misson Ard Boyz. Sallie Wing

2011-07-31T16:55:00.004-04:00

So it's that time of year again. Time for Ard Boyz. The past 2 years I have played and made it to semis with a "fluffy" Vulkan list. I say it was fluffy because I didn't have a ton of spam in it, it simply was a great army. Yes I admit, I did have lots of hammer and melta everywhere (why wouldn't I?) but I did follow the fluff in that it contained no fast attack choices. 'gasp!' That's right, no multi melta attack bikes or speeders. Just marines and termies... and 2 land raiders, and 2 dreads. Ok, so maybe it was a little spammed but what Ard Boyz army isn't? Anyways, my point is this. I loved that army and really liked the fluff of the army after reading Salamander and Fire Drake. If you haven't read them I highly recommend them.

But this year I wanted to do something different. I still love my sallies but wanted to try another list with them. But how I should do this proved a problem. And low and behold the Dark Angels got a Codex Update. Storm Shields are 3++ now you say? Yes please! There was my answer, I'll run my sallies as a First Company and use the Dark Angels book. I know, I know, the proper response now is, "count as armys are gay!". And normally I would agree. You should not be able to use vanilla tactical marines as blood claws, or use your unpainted jump marines as blood angels. But what I do think is exceptable is this, you should be able to have some wiggle room between codexes as long as your boys are modeled appropriately and you've devoted your time into making it work. If you have a great modeling idea for an army then you should be able to do what you want. I know this is a hot topic now because people are trying to make their models fulfill different codices. "Yay I have a SM army! Space Wolves are coming out? I'll just say mine are a later founding of the Space Wolves chapter so I can use their codex." No, that's not good.

So back to my plan. Yes I will be running a deathwing list this year at Ard Boyz. But frankly I think the Dark Angels are, well, kinda lame. I mean they wear dresses, and they're pretty much one step away from being heretics. But the idea of an all terminator list or a 1st company list is just too cool. And according to the fluff of 40k every chapter has a 1st company comprised very similarly to that of the Dark Angels. The first company are the best of the best, every army has access to them... including Salamanders! If Salamanders had their own official codex then yeah, I may be calling shenanigans on myself but they don't! So why not right?

But I'm not just going to get a bunch of termies, paint them a different shade of green and be done with it. No, I wanted this army to really show the background and feel of a salamander list. So I went all out with them. Here's my list:

Belial w/ TH/SS (Praetor?)
Librarian in Terminator Armor (Pyriel?)

2 Dreads
1 Land Raider Crusader (no Redeemer option gayness )

7 Termie Squads. 4 TH/SS, 1 Chainfist, 1 CCML

Simple enough right? So I purchased all new termies for this project and made a little order to ForgeWorld.

Body:
That's right, all these termies are going to be wearing the official shoulder pads of their chapter.
I'm thinking of giving them some special shields, maybe from some saurus warriors, to help with the feel of the army.

Bases:
I would like to do the bases in a jet black sand. I've found some thanks to ct that looks perfect. It even has a nice shine to it. I want to cover most of base in that save for a few open lines running across the base. In these lines I would like to paint an orange/yellow/red to make it look like lava. See where I'm going with this?

Customization:
I want these guys to fulfill many roles so I'm going to magnetize about half of the model's arms so I can trade out the TH/SS with a Storm Bolter and PF for another game. This is also my big plan for my HQ models.

HQ
I named my HQ after the Salamander books. Pyriel is a librarian in the series and Praetor is a Terminator Seargant. For these two models I'm going to use the Terminator Librarian frow GW since he's "Citadel Finecast" now and for Praetor I'm using Commander Culn from the Red Scorpions. I'll have to shave a small insignia off his chest but I think he'll work nicely. He's got a cool dynamic pose and he's got a mohawk! No contest. These guys will definetly be magnetized to allow for greater flexibility in later games.

Dreads and Land Raiders
The Land Raider is straight forward. It's a Crusader with a Multi Melta for My HQs to ride in. I'm planning on stringing some lizardmen heads along the side of it like trophies and I am going to "attempt" to green stuff some scales on the side.
For my two dreads I'm using a Venerable and an Ironclad. I didn't want to use the plain GW dread so I thought these would give me a better look. Luckily about a week after my FW order they came out with the Salamander dread so that's just wonderful. I'll just have to work with what I have for now. I found some cool dwarf shields that have a hammer and anvil or a hammer with wings on them. I'm going to put those on my dread's arms which should give them a little flavor.

So there's my idea. I'm using a count as army for Ard Boyz but I'm spending a lot of time (and money!) to really make it worth while. Let the hate begin below.

Chaos Legions?....Yes, Please.

2011-07-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

The Chaos Legion rumor, even with no info, is the most exciting rumor for me in a while. Chaos is by far my favorite army of 40k. I started them in 3rd edition when they had the awesome codex with tons of options for specific Legions. I liked them all, but Plague Marines were definitely my favorite. I hope they make Chaos into at least 2 Codexes(I guess 3, if you include Daemons). I mean why not, half of the legions defected, yet they only get 1 old Codex, while the mummy-worshipers get 6 codexes, half of which are less than 2 years old. This sucks and is the main reason why Chaos players have started building the dreaded "counts-as" armies.

Regardless, I hope the rumor is true so Chaos players can rise once again. I started this blog to catalog the building and painting of my Deathguard army, but lost interest because of all the new codexes getting tons of cool stuff, while we're left with a bland excuse for a codex. While I think it is still semi-competitive, it's just not cool that we have less units in the whole book than some newer armies have HQ options. I want to get back on my original project and finish painting the army I converted.

Above and below are the only 2 models with paint from the 2,500 pts I built. The top is a Champion with plastic powerfist(don't mind the banner pin, all the champions have removable banners to represent Icons). All backpacks have been converted to either steel barrels or wooden drums. You can see the whole army being built in the first couple months of this blogs existence to the right.

Below are a couple shot of my Chaos army in its entirety. Don't mind a few of the Space Marine models on the right that snuck into the family photo. I have closeup shots of the units that I will post up next. Most of these have been posted individually somewhere on here, but I'll put up again since it's been awhile for Chaos on here. The most recent stuff added have been units built for use using SW or BA codex, like the Raptors for a pure DoA(R!) Nightlords army from BA 'dex and the Juggernauts for Wolf Lords from SW 'dex.

So, please rumors, be true. I want more Chaos in my life. I do like the idea of the main legions having their own book while the renegades(go Huron) have their own book as well. I'm sure there will be crossover units that are in both books. And with all the new huge plastic kits as of late, maybe both books will get a nice flying transport or something. The possibilities are endless, so I can't even venture a guess as to what they will come up with, but I'm excited.

I am hoping for new plastic Thousand Sons and Emperor's Children. I do not have either of these units yet and would like to add them, but with new models instead of the hybrids. New Berzerkers would be nice as those are looking dated compared to newer plastics.

Oh, and plastic Obliterators and Dreadnoughts please, with tons of options. Okay, I can do without the dreads as Forgeworld makes some beauties already.

Oh, and plastic Raptor box, instead of the top-heavy ones from now.

Oh, and awesome rules so we can keep up the new guys.

Oh, and the first 300 pt HQ that beats face. This should be fine, some of these guys have been around for 10,000 years, you really think they should die in a small battle.

Okay, so wishlist aside, I do hope we get a couple of well-rounded codexes with rules that set them apart from other "normal" Space Marines. Some new unit entries would be nice, and I think a must to add to existing and add flavor to the armies.

How many of you guys are excited about this rumor? Do you have a wishlist for your favorite army?

The Costs of my "Other" Hobbies

2011-06-27T15:29:00.000-04:00

After Part 1 on Wargaming Costs, I hope some of you at least see that this hobby is pretty affordable even if you do buy something every week or two. Maybe not if you want to jump on purchasing a 2,000 pt army in one day, but starting small and building a competitive list over time is an affordable proposition. Next I will list my other personal hobbies with their costs. There are many things that pique my interest, so I have a pretty wide variety of things I enjoy doing in my spare time.

The biggest hobby I have other than wargaming would be hunting. This may not seem like a hobby to some, but it is something I do in my spare time that I don't need to do, thus the hobby classification. Every year I can't wait for September to come so I can get into the woods with bow and arrow in hand, hoping for a deer to come into under 25 yds(sometimes as close as a few feet). The excitement is awesome. I also hunt deer with muzzleloaders and rifles. I also do some small game hunting, including doves and rabbits. The outdoors is a great place to be and I highly suggest it. Some of the things I have purchased over the years to help with my hunting endeavors are:

NC Hunting/Fishing License -$40
Remington .270 WSM with Scope - $800
20 Bullets for .270 WSM - $45
Clothing/Boots/hats/gloves/socks/etc for Warm, mild, cool, cold, very cold weather -at least $1000-$2000
Cover Scents/Calls/Accessories - at least $250
2 Scout Cameras - $250
2 Ladder Stands - $250
3 Lock-On Stands with Ladder Sticks - $250
Ground Blind - $150
Muzzleloader plus Scope and Accessories - $600
Compound Bow with Accessories - $800(arrows cost $10 each plus broadheads are $12 each, so $22 per shot, usually good for 1-2 shots through game)
Four other guns of various caliber - $2000
Skinning Knife - $125
Processing Equipment(vacuum sealer, bags, grinder)- $500

Keep in mind most of the above equipment is in the lower to middle end of cost scale for comparable items. I usually look for products that will get the job done and are still affordable. I don't have the extra income to afford the highest quality items around. Shopping around is a must as hunting equipment ranges wildly in costs and qualities. As in wargaming, you can buy cheap knock-offs or top-of-the-line products. At least with GW stuff you know you are getting the best of the best and the cost aren't that much more than knock-offs.

Luckily, I have local private land to hunt on that I don't have to lease. Left is a pic of a deer I got a photo of on my scout camera that I was able to take a few days later. If you lease, that can be another $500 per year. I also process my game myself, saving another $80 per deer taken. Also, if you travel to other places to hunt, like Texas, the Midwest, Canada or go on big game hunts abroad(Africa, New Zealand) you can plan on spending at least $2,000 for cheapest hunts in Texas, around $6,000 to go to Canada and the sky is limit on some hunts in Africa(elephant). Even sheep hunting in the Yukon of Alaska can be $20,000 for a 7-10 day hunt.

Like wargaming I have been collecting the things I want/need for hunting in same manner. Spending a little over $1,000 a year has kept it enjoyable and affordable for me. And like in wargaming, after a few years I can spend little on new things and just buy the essentials to keep this hobby really cheap, while providing hours of enjoyment(and no you don't have to harvest an animal to have fun, I just like being out there spending time in the outdoors). It has taken years to add the above to my collection. I still add new stands, accessories, clothing to this as I see the need arise. When it gets near hunting season, my models hit backburner until afterwards. I spend lots of time scouting for new locations, putting in stands, and practicing my shooting. It keeps me in shape as a side benefit also. I get plenty of hiking in and just spending time in the outdoors is good for the soul. Just so I can sit in a tree in sub-freezing temps hoping a nice one will walk in range. The cost for me is comparable to wargaming, but at least in 40k it doesn't cost me $2.50 per bullet or $22 per arrow.

Another thing that I just started getting into this year is Organic Vegetable Gardening. To the left is a pic of the my small garden earlier in the season with some potatoes growing. This is something I have been interested in for a while but really just had the chance this year at my new house. I planned out a modest 1,500 sq ft garden and began ordering seeds back in the winter so I could be ready. This was the startup year for me, so I had a lot of one time costs, much like wargaming. Some of these include the tools needed, wheelbarrow, water hoses, seed starting supplies, etc. Other costs I will incur each year like seeds, plants, organic fertilizers, soil amendments will make this cost go down. I may also sell some of the vegetables I produce at a local organic vegetable stand to help lessen the overall cost, like selling old models on ebay to recoup some costs. So far this summer I have spent around $750 on the garden and supplies. I have kept a journal of all expenditures and see that the yearly items will usually cost $300-$400 per year from here on out, unless I decide to build a small greenhouse(I want one) or purchase a small tiller.

Again, this is another hobby that has a similar costs to wargaming. It has a larger startup cost, while becoming much cheaper after initial investments are made. Also, it gets me outside more in the spring and summer. My 3 year old and I have a lot of fun out there planting seeds and plants, watering and finally picking the fruits of our labor. Though we have only picked a few squash, cucumbers, onions and potatoes so far. There are a lot more things to harvest coming up later in the summer.

My last hobby would be fishing. I don't go as much as I would like with the small children and water. This is very cheap for me actually on a per year basis. Over the years I have collected enough rods and lures to have a fun time fishing in local streams, rivers and small ponds. In my case, fishing is relatively cheap. I only go a few times per year and spend very little money doing so. The startup costs for the fishing I do is about the same as a good 2,000 pt army, again this can be spent over a period of time. Granted I don't do any saltwater fishing, or going to large lakes where you need a fishing boat, truck and lots of gas money. I keep this small and it is fun for me.

I used to snowboard a lot when I was younger. This is another hobby similar to wargaming. The cost of the equipment you need will be about the same as starting up the wargaming hobby. But you then have to add in the constant lift ticket purchases needed to go, costing $20-$40 per day usually, not to mention I have to drive almost 2 hrs to get to a suitable ski resort.

A hobby that I would like to have is auto racing, not Nascar, I like more grassroots style autocrossing/road racing. However, this is too expensive for me to get into, so I just watch on TV. No, I don't go into racing forums and put up hate posts about how it is too expensive for me. I just don't get involved in it. Just because you can't afford to participate in a hobby doesn't mean you should hate the companies involved in it.

My family and their needs always come first before any of my hobbies. Case in point, to the left is the car I traded for a minivan to keep my family safe and I love some turbo'ed sport compacts. That is why I choose hobbies that are on the lower end of the cost scale, while still providing large a amount of enjoyment. I also like doing things that can involve my family. Currently my children are to small for wargaming so I spend very little time with it. However, with gardening my 3 year daughter and I can go outside, enjoy the weather, spend time together, get dirty and watch tiny seeds grow into food. Nick Jr. just can't provide that type of learning.

Well, there are a few examples of things that are considered hobbies and their costs, that I am actively involved in. Like any hobby, you can get into any of these as little or as deep as you want. Which means spending as little, or as much as you want. Wargaming can be enjoyed for years on as little as $1,000 total, as can hunting, but in the end the sky is the limit on how much you think you have to spend to enjoy yourself.

I feel like all the hobbies I enjoy are worth every penny I spend. If I didn't I wouldn't have that as a hobby. I know models are expensive, but it's a hobby, enjoy it or stop playing. So far though, I think the cost is affordable for the amount of time enjoyed and it really is a lower-cost hobby really, at least over a period of time. I do think the general consensus is that the startup cost is formidable for some. I know I couldn't go to the FLGS and throw down $600+ on some models in one day. The wife would probably kill me, just kidding, well maybe I would get lucky and only be maimed severely. If I spread this out over a several months or a year(and don't let her find out), the cost is a little easier to swallow. Personally, I think it is one of the most affordable hobbies around for what you get. If you can name some hobbies that are cheaper, let me know what they are, I am having trouble coming up with more than a couple. On the other hand, I could name over a dozen in seconds that cost more, some lots more.

My Opinion on the Costs of Wargaming

2011-06-21T15:08:00.000-04:00

My Space Marine Army. I have to much here. And one is painted.

I see everyone online is up in arms about price raises and whatnot from their favorite miniature company. There are also posts comparing wargaming to video gaming or whatever. Here in my smallest of corners of the internet I thought I would just compare my wargaming costs to my other hobbies. I usually refrain from adding up and knowing the cost of my various hobbies, but since this is for a cause, I will break the rule.

First, I will say that as it is a hobby, costs shouldn't be considered. A hobby is something you choose to do in your spare time. I do not have the funds to purchase all the models I would like. This is okay, I just buy the ones you want/need to play the game. You don't have to have every model GW makes to have fun. I also do a lot of trading/selling of my older models before purchasing new ones. I probably only spend $100-$200 dollars of my income per year on wargaming even though I may spend over $1000. The remaining funds come from ebaying old models.

For the sake of this article though we will consider the costs for a new player starting the game vs my other personal hobbies. I am using my hobbies as I know the costs of them for sure. There are plenty of hobbies out there that costs more than wargaming, in fact most hobbies costs more. They are hobbies because they are afforded with disposable income. The more disposable income, the more expensive the hobby, think sports car racing, yachting, flying airplanes(not RC ones), etc. Our hobby is a lower end hobby, whether you believe that or not.

A new player coming into the game will need to purchase the following most likely:
Main Rulebook
Codex of their choice
Army of their choice, minimum 1000 pts
Super Glue
Plastic Glue
Hobby Knife
Primer
Few paints

The above would probably be around $600 to start. This could be broken down into a few months purchases. IMO it should take a new player around a year to get their first 2,000 pts built and painted. We'll say the total for everything you need to get going that first year would be around $1,200. This would include a competitive 2,000 pt army and enough tools and paints to get it built, painted and based. No this doesn't include fancy carrying cases, resin bases or Forgeworld bits. Breaking this cost down, thats around $100 a month for first year.

The good thing about wargaming is that after that first year the cost can go way down. It can go as low as none, if you are content with the army you built and just want to play. Now, we know no one is content, so lets say you add a new army every year. Again you'll need a few paints, but you'll already have the tools.

Wargaming is a hobby where you get what you put in. If you want you can buy terrain and play at home, or you can build your own cheap. With the internet you can find how-tos on almost anything terrain related. If you want to paint better look online, learn new techniques, practice. And if you want to save more money, buy from online retailers like The Warstore. They offer 20% off retail on new things and is most of the time easier than hassling with ebay. If you get lucky on ebay though, there are some better deals to be had. I do say if you have a FLGS that you play at frequently you should buy at least some product there so you'll have a place to play. If you get too cheap, you'll being playing in some shady dude's basement.

This is getting long so I will add a part 2 putting the costs of my other personal hobbies in a separate post. So far, though I am seeing that for around $20-$25 dollars a week you can have a great hobby, continuously adding new units, models, armies, terrain pieces, paints/tools to your collection. You can't even smoke cigarettes for this little money and they kill you. I say stop the whining and play the game and have some fun.

Part 2 will show some real costs of my other hobbies.

Another 'Ardboyz Practice Game - Shrike/Vulkan vs Deathwing

2011-06-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

I was able to get in another game with my 'Ardboyz list against reklawsj Friday morning. He is in that glorious transition phase between finishing college and starting real life, so he had a chance to get in another game before moving to Charlotte.

He tweaked the Deathwing list for this game. He took out 2 units of the terminators and added a Landraider Crusader and 2 dreadnoughts. This leaves 6 troops choices filled with units of 5 termies. Three of these units have 5 TH&SS plus a Cyclone, while the other 3 pitch one hammer for a chainfist. The seventh squad is an elite unit and is also 5 hammers with a Cyclone and the Librarian and Belial attached to ride in Crusader. Belial also pulled out the claws for this game.

We rolled up a Seized Ground Mission with 4 objectives and Pitched Battle setup. I'm not doing a full battle report, just some highlights and a summary. We played to a 2.5 hr time limit.

After setup, I seized the initiative. Normally, in an objective mission I would not have attempted this, but he had a juicy Landraider that I could alpha strike with my Storm Scouts and/or Dreadnought. This list gives me four chances to take down heavy tanks before game starts. It should be noted he didn't reserve any models, not using the Deathwing assault rule as last game.

So, I go first deepstriking the Dreadnought right in front of his all army. The Storm also moves 12 inches and drops the scouts a couple inches from the Landraider. The Scouts whiffed their shot with point blank melta on the Raider, but the Storm came through getting an exploded result and removing it from the table. No casualties inside, but they are on foot now. The Dreadnought stuns one of his dreads, neutralizing it for a turn.

In his turn, he charge my dreadnought with character unit and only removed weapon. My dread held this unit up for four rounds of combat against 5 thunder hammers. This was awesome and let me do work on opposite side of the board. On opposite side of board he charged my Shrike unit with 2 of his units. Next turn I would add Vulkan and his unit to this melee fest. He would also feed 2 more units into this grinder. After 3 turns my 15 termies took down 20 of his termies in combat, with only loss of 8 of mine and Vulkan was insta-killed by Hammer early on.

By turn 3 I had mopped up left side of board and started moving my combat squadded tactical squads toward 2 of the objectives. I also started trudging through building in center with leftover termies, heading for more kills. By turn 4 I had 2 objectives solidly in my control with no way he could contest. I also had a 3rd objective in my control, but he would get there with 2 units before end game, so I also started getting my Landspeeders in position for last turn contesting. But going first hurt this as he just Cycloned these in his turn.

After 5 turns we rolled and game ended. We each had 2 objectives controlled with scoring units for the draw.

This was an attrition game for both of us. He had to get the charge on my termies or lose combat, unless using multiple units. My master-crafted hammers were very good. It also must be said that his dice hated him the entire game and mine were on fire again. At one point he put 13 wounds on my TH&SS unit with his Thunder hammers. I proceeded to only fail one of these invulnerable saves, the other 12 were all 4 or better. Ridiculous!

With the strength of his army, I could only feed termies to grinder, hoping to hold his units from slogging to objectives so I could win. The rest of my army had to use hit and run tactics or just run, haha. In the end, I didn't slow him down enough on my right side. Oh well, it was an awesome game. I finally got to use my Storm Scouts/Podding Dreadnought alpha strike. Taking down the Raider paid for all of this, not to mention my Dread holding for 4 rounds of combat.

So, I think lists are pretty much finalized already. I have a few models to build to get the army completely WYSIWIG, while my cousin has decided his Deathwing will be built as the First Company of the Salamanders. This will go well with his normal Salamander army he has used to make it to 'Ardboyz Semi-finals these last two years. Hopefully, he'll put up some posts once work starts on the building of this army. He has great plans. They will all be padded up with Forgeworld shoulderpads and be put on Secret Weapon Lava Flow Resin Bases.

This was probably the last game we'll get in before August, so I hope we're ready for whatever shows up. At least we have a little experience with our armies this year. The last two years I have played with lists I only wrote and never played with until tournament day. This lack of practice put me in 4th two years ago and 2nd last year.

Salamanders vs Deathwing - 'Ardboyz Practice Game

2011-06-16T15:48:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, reklawsj and I got together for another 2,500 pt game to do a little practice for 'Ardboyz, albeit without the sometimes goofy missions they come up with. I brought the Shrike/Vulkan list I used last time with only changes being missile launchers in tactical squads instead of multi-meltas. That list can be seen here. My cousin brought a completely different codex, as the Grey Knights didn't really measure up in the last game. His new list was from the Dark Angels codex consisting entirely of termies. List included:

Belial - TH&SS

Librarian with Termie Armor and Combi-melta

6 Troop Units with 5 Terminators each including 3 with TH&SS, 1 with pair lightning claws and 1 with a Cyclone Missile Launcher and Chainfist

3 Elite Units equipped same as above.

1 of the above units had the Apothecary and Banner with Belial Attached.

The game we rolled up was Spearhead & Seize Ground with 3 objectives. The objectives were pretty much spread evenly across board center in terrain 18" apart. We had a large building center table and ruins spread around board.

I won first turn and setup most of my army spread around my corner to minimize deepstrikers amidst my army. I had combat squadded all 3 of tactical squads and left the heavy weapons in cover while keeping the meltagun and combi-melta in rhinos.

He next setup 2 units in his corner with rest coming in reserve. I then infiltrated Shrike and 10 termies in front of his 2 units.

First turn, I dropped my Dreadnought in on right objective to camp out while everything else spread out to minimize large areas that would be good for deepstriking. I shot a few times, but no saves were failed.

His turn he dropped 4 units of termies onto board. Only 1 of these landed in my deployment zone while others spread out to reinforce ones already on board. A rhino was immobilized as was the dreadnought from missile fire.

After this I moved my termies up to engage, while rest of army poured fire into termie squads. The Feel No Pain unit with Belial was a tough unit to put wounds on. With master crafted hammers and more storm shields in my termie units, I found that I was winning combat more often, but fearless was keeping the Deathwing around.

We were only able to play 4 turns before running out of time. This was mostly attributed to not being really familiar with Deathwing and the wound allocation and different saves on those units. Initiative orders in combat were also ridiculous, what with characters and THs and lightning claws.

When time was called I ended up with 2 objectives while contesting the other one. I took one with a Storm full of Scouts, another with a unit in rhino and contested his with Landraider. I was pumped as I took down 31 of his termies in four turns with 20+ of these being killed in combat. Another turn and he would have contested one I had with Rhino unit and probably taken down my raider, resulting in a tie. And with turn 5 my Attack Bikes would have shown up automatically from reserve instead of missing entire game.

This was a surprising result for me, as I was pretty worried about facing down 47 Terminators, 28 of which had Storm Shields. I know he is tweaking the list to throwdown more Storm shields for a game tomorrow. I again will keep same list, as I like the flexibility it has and with 2 hammer units, it is pretty tough to crack. Not to mention my bad dice rolling is not much of a factor when everything is twin-linked or master-crafted.

I'll let you know if tomorrow's games ends in victory again or if the tweaked list and different tactics change the game. We always have an after game theory session and tactics talk to discuss where each of us could have done differently. We both agreed that the Deathwing list needs more Storm Shields and that they would be more effective if all together in large mass. This game they were really spread out across board and coming in different turns of game. I was able to pick my battles, using superior numbers to push combat my way before his other units could react. Next time, I will not be so lucky.

Well, crappy report I know, but what you think? Is my list ready for 'Ardboyz? How would you tweak his? Or do both suck so bad we shouldn't even show up for 'Ardboyz?

Troll Axer Painted Pics

2011-06-09T11:37:00.000-04:00

Finally, I had a little time Friday to finish this guy up. The pictures are not good again, but as soon as get pMadrak finished I will have a fully painted 25 pt list. At that point I will get out the light box for some family photos. These large models are still giving me fits with the time they take to do even decently well. So, check him out.

You see the small troll and not the massive mold line. I hate you metal model & I am lazy.

Next up for painting is pMadrak to finish the 25 pt list I have going. After that it's on to my Grim Angus Tier List. That means assembling the huge stack of metal models I have been ignoring.

In other hobby related news, tomorrow I am having another 'Ardboyz practice game with reklawsj using the Shrike/Vulkan list I posted a couple weeks ago. He is bringing 47 termies with TH/SS. Gonna be a tough one. I will post my thoughts on the game and lists next week.

Troll Impaler Painted Pics

2011-05-16T12:40:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pics of the Impaler I finished up after the Mauler. I liked this model a lot until I started painting it. There are tons of little details in there that required different colors. I am not the most creative person when it comes to color schemes/theory. I just tried to keep all the details toned down and make the skin bright and colorful so it pops on the table. Mostly earthy tones of browns and brownish greens, plus dirty metal.

Too bad the skin color is a mix I made up 6 years ago and I have no idea how to replicate it. At the time I made 3 successive layers of color and a wash for a Lizardmen army that never really got off the ground. So, check out the really sunny pics.

Over the weekend I made some great progress on the Axer. Just a few more washes on the metal to get the look I'm after and then highlighting of skin and finishing the base. So, hopefully another hour and he'll be finished. This will finish my 15 pt list, except for painting pMadrak. I will probably save my warlocks for last and just start on a unit next to get away from the beasts for a while.

Below is a pic of my Hordes gaming case with the models I have currently built and painted. I will have to upgrade my case when I build the stack of models I just purchased though. I'm not sure where I want to go next on the painting after completed Axer. Krielstone Bearer and Scribes, another beast, or something I haven't even built yet.

Dire Troll Mauler Painted Pics

2011-05-10T11:01:00.000-04:00

Finally got around to snapping some pics of the Dire Troll Mauler I finished up a while back. This is one of my favorite Privateer Press sculpts and probably the one that drew me into their games and Trolls especially. He is awesome looking with an extremely dynamic pose.

I'm not really used to painting models this large, so it was quite an endeavor. I started by airbrushing basecoat since the model is 90% muscle. I then blacked out all the details and went to work. Taking the pictures outside washed out a little bit of the more extreme highlights, but I think you can still see most of the depth of color.

The hardest part was picking a color for the bony/stony/? protrusions coming from his skin. I ended up just giving them a coat of gloss varnish. This served two purposes. First, it keeps the paint from rubbing off on these sharp bits that get handled most during gaming. This was a huge plus. Also, it kinda self highlights, so it saved me some work.

If I ever finish painting my battlegroup I will get the lightbox out for some family photos. With spring here, I have been super busy outside doing yardwork and gardening when I'm not working or playing with the children. Hope to get some my half-started Axer finished soon. I also have lots more Trolls purchased that need building. I wish I didn't hate metal models so much.

Grey Knights vs Salamanders - 'Ardboyz Practice Game

2011-05-09T11:56:00.000-04:00

Lately, I have been spending some time trying to come up with a list I want to take to 'Ardboyz this year. And yeah, yeah I know 2,500 pts you can take whatever you want. And while this is true, so can everyone else. To me it is much harder to make a strong all-comers list that can win at 2,500 as it is almost impossible to include something to take down whatever the opponent will bring. In smaller games, like 1,500, you only have to be ready for the 2 or 3 best units from each codex, because that is what the competitive guys will spam. IMO.

Finally, I had a chance to get in a game with reklawsj to test the list I wrote up. He finally finished his college career, so now has a short break before real life starts. He wanted to test a Grey Knights list he wrote up so he could tweak for the tournament in August. He has made it to semis the last two years using his Salamanders and wanted a change. I finished 4th two years ago with Chaos and 3rd last year with IG to get into semis, where we both got owned, haha.

My most recent list thoughts have included being on the opponent as early game as possible with as much of my army as possible. Not necessarily an alpha-strike concept, just a you now need to deal with this half of my army now, and when you do, the other half arrives. This is a tough concept to explain and even harder to find a codex that does this effectively. For this year, I finally decided on a Vulkan list with a side of Shrike.

My list consists of:

Shrike with 10 TH/SS termies infiltrating
Vulkan with 5 TH/SS termies in LR Redeemer
3 units of Tactical Marines in Rhinos with combi-melta, meltagun, multimelta
1 unit of Scouts with combi-melta/meltabomb Srg in Landspeeder Storm with Multimelta
3 Attack Bikes with Multimelta
2 Landspeeders with Multimelta/Heavy Flamers
1 Dreadnought with Multimelta/Heavy Flamer in Drop Pod

His Grey Knight List consisted of:

Coteaz with Henchmen in Chimera(psykers and plasmacannons)
3 Strike Squads with 10 dudes in Rhinos - 2 psycannons, some hammers, halberds, etc
2 Interceptor Squads with 10 dudes - 2 psycannons and few hammers in each
Vindicare
2 Techmarines with Orbital Relays
Dreadnought with lascannons
Think that is all

We learned a lot about our lists and a lot about the Grey Knights at once. We played Spearhead deployment with 3 objectives. I had first turn, but got seized by Coteaz, this hurt. I had scouted by Storm up for the alpha attack and had Shrike with buddies in open 18" out. After Grey Knights first turn, the Storm was a wreck(Chimera), the Redeemer was exploded(Vindicare made this look easy), a Rhino was immobilized(psycannons are good), and I had lost 2 termies from Shrikes unit(misc shooting). The only good part was his psykers rolled boxcars and all died. I was pretty down after this turn, before I even started to play. Funny, because my army is all about this same principle. Devastate opponent early on and overwhelm his side of board before game starts for him. Irony. I think I told him too much of my plan when I came up with the list.

We decided to continue, thinking that if I could pull this one out the list had some balls. Keeping this short, I essentially just ran both units of termies as fast as possible toward him. Dreadnought dropped, missed, died. Shrike charged a unit and was mercilessly cut down by daemon hammers after killing only 3 dudes. I isolated the right half of the board using the termies as tarpits. I had one objective easily on right flank and tried to contest another on left, but he cut down my unit. He used a shunt move from an Interceptor squad to slow down another one of my units going for the middle objective, while he tank-shocked through my termies with a Strike Squad to take the objective in his fifth turn. We timed this game so knew this was end game. I used my Attack bike to run to left objective and contest, one down. For the middle unit, I was able to pop rhino with bikes, and assaulted strike squad with termies pulling them from objective. The Interceptor squad was annihilated by hammers and Vulkan.

So, end game saw me having one objective and contesting the other two. Awesome game with huge swings of luck and dice rolling. Mine were terrible early, but heated up. I must have made at least 50 saves on the termies with another 30 storm shield saves made. At end game I still had 7 of the 15 remaining, keeping in mind all of these walked across the board.

What did we learn? I learned why he always plays Salamanders, Vulkan is awesome. All those re-rolls are invaluable in a game using dice. Shrike and his unit didn't take tons of early game fire as I hoped. Of course, he knew I wanted them to absorb everything while the rest of the army got into position, so he didn't fall for it. The list did well even without the LR, the Storm and Scouts died immediately and the dreadnought whiffed. This will not keep any of these out though, because the Storm is cheap and can gain it's points back three-fold in right situation as goes for the the dreadnought. I want more practice games is all.

On the Grey Knight side we saw a few things.
Vindicare Assassin is a must in any list, he kills things, anythings.

Techmarines with Orbital Relays - Overhyped for sure, don't think after 10 shots they even killed a model. Bolster defences would have been nice, but I never shot at these units.

Grey Knights need to sit and shoot until time comes to pull out their power weapons and go to work on leftovers. They die like marines, but can get the jump on you with those halberds. I think would have been more effective if my armor saves weren't on fire with the storm shields.

Dreadnought was fine until I hit him in head with a hammer. My list lacked any psykers and little shooting so didn't see fortitude or aegis at work.

Fun times for sure, even with crappy first turn for me, I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. The Grey Knights book has potential, it will just take some games to figure them out. I do wish the psyker squad had performed better as I think they would have helped thin the termies down alot.

"Hobby List of the Week": Psyker Bomb Grey Knights

2011-05-03T12:33:00.000-04:00

Games Workshop Coteaz

Today's hobby list of the week will expand on the idea I posted about last week of running an all inquisitor army with henchmen. Each of the units rely heavily on the psykers in the unit to throw out a large blast template of Str 10 AP 1. The list below is what I quickly came up with incorporating this idea and other firepower. The Henchmen loadouts can all be changed to suit you taste and orientation toward some CC ability and/or more shooting. The psykers only take up one fire point of the five offered by a Chimera so you can have 4 more guns shooting from hatch. However, some of these could be wasted if you use the template to shoot at a large tank and have the chimera full of heavy bolter servitors.

Psyker Bomb - 2,000 pts

Coteaz plus retinue of henchmen

7 Psykers

3 Plasma Cannon Servitors

1 Acolyte - Plasmagun/Power Armor

Chimera Transport

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor plus retinue of Henchmen

Hell Rifle

Power Armor

3 Servo Skulls
Daemon Blade
7 Psykers
3 Hvy Bolter Servitors
1 Crusader
Chimera Transport

Henchmen #1
7 Psykers
3 Multi-melta Servitors
2 Arco-Flagellants
Chimera Transport

Henchmen #2
7 Psykers
3 Hvy Bolter Servitors
2 Daemonhosts
Chimera Transport

Henchmen #3
7 Psykers
3 Acolytes with Meltaguns
2 DC Assassins
Chimera Transport

Henchmen #4
7 Psykers
2 Crusaders
3 Daemonhosts
Chimera Transport

Henchmen #5
7 Psykers
3 Arco Flagellants
2 DC Assassins
Chimera Transport

Henchmen #6
7 Psykers
2 Acolytes with Plasmaguns
1 Acolytes with Plasmagun/Power Armor
1 Jokaero
1 Banisher
Chimera Transport

Culexus Assassin

Vindicare Assassin

2,000 pts
18 Killpoints
6 Scoring Units
98 models
8 Chimeras

The last article goes over most of the tactics and how Coteaz plays a huge role in the alpha strike capabilities of this army, allowing re-rolls for Seize and forcing re-rolls for opponent if they happen to seize. This is huge. If this army goes first it can throw down 8 large blast templates of Str 10 AP 1, 24 multilaser shots and 24 heavy bolter shots from Chimeras, plus shots from other guys inside Chimeras. Downside is all the templates are after leadership tests.

With the psyker blasts being Assault weapons you can roll on in Dawn of War and still fire to full effect. The Vindicare Assassin is a major nuisance in this list and hopefully will make an important kill early game to frustrate opponent into firing at him instead of the real army. The Culexus Assassin is in the list to come in from reserve after opponent closes and shoot them in the face with Animus Speculum. With so many Psykers on the board it should be easy to get 20 or even 30 shots from this at Str 5 AP 1.

On the modelling side this is a great army. There are so many conversion opportunities for the henchmen and the loadouts can change easily as the pt values for most are the same. I used a lot of different henchmen instead of spamming the same ones over and over as I feel the effectiveness is not much different. Also, would get boring building this many dudes if all were same. Of course, the list would probably be better if you just filled out Chimeras with 4pt Acolytes after the seven Psykers and used the points to get a Dreadknight or some Grey Knights of some flavor, but for now I like the smattering of henchmen in this Radical Inquisition force.

I have a tendency to roll low dice all the time, so this list would be beneficial to someone like me. The lower you roll on the leadership test, the more templates you fire each turn. Also, the lower you roll on scatter rolls, the better your game will be. So, in a game where everyone wants to roll sixes, you can play this army and hope for lots of twos. Will definitely be a different feel at the table when you're always yelling, "Come on twos" the whole game. And the more twos you roll, the more games you will win. If like me you suck with dice, this could be your army.

Is this the strongest list concept in Grey Knight Codex?

2011-04-28T11:10:00.000-04:00

Picture jacked online somewhere, no malicious intent intended

I have been reading the Grey Knight Codex all weak trying to think of a good list concept to use for them. It has so many themes you can run it is silly, but I also wanted to come up with a really strong list that would be pretty competitive. I think what I came up with is very strong, but who knows this is the internet and every list fails on here except ones made by that guy.

I am only throwing the concept in this post with what I think the list needs. I haven't pointed up any of this yet, but am shooting for 2,000 pts and there is room for tweaks and units I could do without.

Before the list, I must say this pivots on a rules interpretation that I think I am correct on, but really need others opinions. The rule is regarding henchmen and inquisitors. If I take two inquisitors of any type I can have a unit of henchmen to act as a retinue, which doesn't take up any force org slots. Now, if one of these two inquisitors is Coteaz, I feel as if you can also take six units of henchmen as Troops choices for a total of eight units. I think this is the key to the list and haven't seen this addressed anywhere. However, I do not surf forums daily for lists info and all that bs where the same two people critique everyones lists and tell them where they failed and what they should really have in it if they want to play 40k. Rant over. Seriously though, I need this cleared up.

The list concept: Bodies + Templates = Fun Times

Coteaz plus Henchmen retinue in Chimera
Henchmen unit includes 7 Psykers, 3 plasmacannon servitors, 1 meltagun henchmen

This unit is geared to fire 5 guys from hatch at anything coming in from reserve within 12". Thanks for dropping by Drop Pods, Snikrot, Wolf Scouts, outflankers. With a str 10 ap 1 large blast template, 3 plasmacannons and a meltagun things will die. Also will have a servo skull floating near this Chimera to help with scatter.

Inquisitor(probably Malleus with Hellrifle and Servo Skulls) plus Henchmen in Chimera
Henchmen unit includes 7 Psykers, 3 Plasmacannon servitors, 1 plasmagun henchmen

This unit is another camp and fire unit.

Then we need to fill out six troop slots with Henchmen units in Chimeras. Each of these units includes the 7 psykers a couple servitors of your choice and maybe deathcult assassins, Jokaero, whatever really. These loadouts needs some playtesting to find good combo. The only thing that is important is keeping the 7 psykers in each unit and maybe a little close combat, so when you get disembarked and have to fight.

We should be around 1600 pts now.

Want to add a couple of assassins for funsies. Need at least one Culexus, but two would be nice if it were legal to take two(it's not, so sorry). Keep him near at least four of the henchmen units and laugh when you fire your Assault 30 pistol that is Str 5 AP 1. Would be pretty nice to also squeeze in a Vindicare assassin or a Dreadknight for harassment units that will draw fire away from your Chimeras, giving them a turn or two to weaken units.

Okay, so probably more of a fun list than competitive, but highly capable of annihilating an army very quickly. Also, with Coteaz you have a better chance of seizing initiative for all-important first turn shooting and a great chance at also seizing from opponent.

I think this list will be under rated due to having no Grey Knight support, that is until it starts shooting at you. Sure the psyker squads have to pass a LD 8 test to fire, but with a couple servo skulls and some low LD rolling it's like having 8 Vindicators on the board, but with longer range and better AP.

Essentially, this list relies on dropping at least 6(maybe 8) large blast templates of Str 10 AP 1 on the opponent each turn, plus the servitors with plasmacannons and multimeltas and heavy bolters spread throughout. Eight Chimeras can also put out an amazing amount of high strength firepower. With at least 96 bodies and 8 Chimeras plus assassins, Dreadknight, dreadnought, (insert favorite bullet catcher here), this is not a pushover army even with almost no close combat ability. I would reserve the Culexus assassin in order to come in late game after opponent has committed to a flank or whatever. Walk in and hide behind Chimeras until you get a chance to drop 30 shots, at BS 8! and AP 1 on an unsuspecting unit. This will probably get FAQed, but right now each of those Psykers is a Psyker. They only count as one when firing weapon. Unlike the Grey Knights in book, where only Justicar gets hit with Perils, every Psyker in unit is hit, so I would count each dude, not each unit.

So, strongest list in book? Doubt it, but man that's a lot of large templates and dakka. I see all these lists with orbital strike relays that always scatter 2D6 and costs 45 pts plus the character to carry it. I laugh because here you can have 8 of those templates that don't always scatter(no lance rule though) for 70 pts each, plus they deviate 3" less than roll and even less than that with servo skulls nearby. Oh, and you can move 6" and fire this from relevant safety of Chimera hatch and only taking up one firepoint since they are treated as a single psyker.

What you think, is this old hat that's already been chewed up and spit out on the forums or the future of Grey Knights? Fun, Hobby List or Competitive? Personally, I love this concept and can double duty lots of my IG stuff for this and get to make some great conversions and use as many of the awesome henchmen models available as possible. Oh, and I will be writing up a pointed list to post on here in my "Hobby List of the Week" soon to show how much firepower can really be squeezed out of this book.

"Hobby List of the Week": Outflanking White Scars

2011-04-12T11:31:00.000-04:00

Today, a quick hobby list using Codex: SM and Khan. This list is centered around his ability to allow dedicated transports to outflank. This is a fun rule to use. It's a little bit unreliable and can get you massacred quickly if your army comes in piecemeal, but when it works, it can catch the opponent off guard with two outflanking Land Raiders.

Khan Outflanking List - 2,000 pts

Khan

Librarian Tigurius

Terminator Squad

5 Termies - Cyclone Missile Launcher & 2 Chainfists

Dedicated Transport: Land Raider or Redeemer with Multi-melta

Assault Terminator Squad

7 Termies - 4 Lightning Claws & 3 TH/SS

Dedicated Transport: Land Raider Crusader with Multi-melta

Tactical Squad #1

10 SM - Plasma cannon

Dedicated Transport: Rhino

Tactical Squad #2

10 SM - Plasma cannon

Dedicated Transport: Rhino

Scout Squad

5 Scouts - BP & CCW - power weapon(swap for combi-melta) - meltabombs

Landspeeder Storm - multi-melta

2,000 pts

12-14 KPs

3-5 Scoring Units

44 Models

Not a lot of bodies in this list, but with good rolls the Land Raiders roll in from sides of board and assault immediately. Khan rides with the assault termies to give them a bump with Furious Charge. This makes the lightning claws extremely deadly in combat. The hammers will probably not even get to swing unless the unit is incredibly durable.

Tigurius is in the list for the re-rolls on reserves. This will make this army a little more reliable and get you on the board when you want to be. He also has access to all psychic powers and a force weapon. With the shooty termies they can take on light weights or larger creatures with fists and force weapon. They can also Gate around the board helping out others after initial entry.

Of course both Land raiders have a multi-melta to help de-mech opponents so the termies can get to work. The tactical squads hopefully won't have to see combat. They should come on the board near objectives and camp out firing plasma cannon through hatch of Rhino. The scouts are in the list with storm mostly for annoyance. The Storm can scout before game and pop a tank before it moves if you get first turn. Also, the scouts can be dropped off and go to ground in cover on objectives or be thrown away in first turn after scouting. Do this kinda like demo melta vets in IG army, but with only one meltabomb and need to find points for a combi-melta. You scout before game and then if you don't get seized they can move speeder, jump out and assault opponents highest point cost tank before they get to move. After this the plasma cannons and termies go to work on the units inside.

Well, there's a list I think is very cool from a gaming perspective. Modelling would be okay, but I don't really dig white armies so I would play this with a counts-as Khan in most cases. Don't think the list is super competitive against veteran players, but would cause major headaches if the reserves and outflanking rolls are good. I like the ability to use the Gate ability with termies to move around the board where needed, also Khan and Lightning Claw termies is really nasty when you charge. I had also never thought of using the Storm with Meltabomb Scout Srg like this before typing this up. I need to find the points for a combi-melta as this could potentially take down many times their points in first turn against a Land Raider. I will definitely be trying this out, of course I never get first turn so probably never gonna work for me.

This is a good example of lists I like the most. It has a good look to the army composition(no extreme spam), all units have some resilience(no five man squads shooting nothing but a razorback), a goofy rule or two to make the game fun(Gating termies, outflanking landraiders, Storm scouting with combi-melta and meltabomb scout sergeant), and a couple hard units that can help you win a game, because even fluff-bunnies don't like to lose every time.

Project Thunderbolt Part 5: Almost Finished Pics

2011-04-07T12:35:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pics of the almost completed Thunderbolt. All the details are painted now. I wish my free hand painting didn't suck because I would add some block numbers to the right wing and tail rudder. So, I will not be taking a chance and ruining what I have done already. Maybe I can pick it back up in a few years if I get to the point where I feel confident in my free hand. I took a few pics outside because this thing is too big for my lightbox. All that is left is experimenting with some weathering powders I bought from Secret Weapon Miniatures. Above is the moneyshot, the reason I built the base for the "Strafing Run" scene.

Above is an over the top view showing how far the plane is off the base for fly-in.

View of the cockpit details with pilot in place and canopy removed.

Another top view of plane only.

View of the plane's bottom in different color. Weathering here sucks because I did it all by hand after I got a little aggressive with the brush and water getting the salt off.

Another top view.

Another top view with canopy removed. That's all the pics on this project until I get the weathering powders out. I need to watch some online tutorials on the application of these to get some idea of what I'm doing before starting.

Lately, I have actually been painting models slowly. I have started playing Hordes with my Trollbloods at the FLGS as often as I can get out of the house, which is usually about 1 time every 3 weeks, haha. I have finished a Mauler and Impaler in the last couple weeks and have an Axer in progress. I will get these photographed soon and get them up here.

Project Thunderbolt Part 4: Finished Display Base and Pilot

2011-03-16T12:39:00.000-04:00

Today is a quick post showing a few pics of my base completed. The pics were outside so they're kinda sunny/shadowy. Above shows the display base complete and the initial paint on the gaming base. It will get some drybrushing and shrubbery, but now models. Below are a couple more shots of the finished base.

Above is a shot of the Epic-scale Falcons before they were glued onto the base.

And a couple shots of the completed pilot before I put him into the cockpit.

A side shot of the pilot. I also have the Limited Edition Thunderbolt Pilot that I will eventually paint to go with this. I do wish this model was as good as the standing version I have, it is really awesome.

Next time I'll show the final painting and details along with the base. I still haven't had a chance to use the weathering powders on it yet. Thinking maybe I should try it on something else first. I need to search around a little online and see a few more videos of people using the stuff to try to get a head start. I have also been working on my Trollbloods and will put up a pics of my Mauler I finished Monday.

Project Thunderbolt Part 3: Airbrushing and Initial Weathering(Pic Heavy)

2011-03-03T11:46:00.000-05:00

I finally got this baby assembled and primed with a rust red primer. I agonized over the paint scheme for days and finally decided on a desert theme using the weathering technique I posted here. The light brown would contrast with the rust red primer to make the weathering stand out. The above pic shows the salt still in place after airbrushing. I know top picture is out of order, but the primer pic doesn't draw attention.

The above pic shows the top of the model after the hairspray and salt were applied to the primer. At this point the bottom of the flyer had been airbrushed with a cream color. I wanted the bottom to be totally different using camouflage of sky when seen from below and camouflage of the desert when seen from above.

Above pic shows the bottom taped off before starting the airbrushing of the camo on top of the flyer. This is the part of the project where you learn some valuable lessons. DO NOT RUSH THE PROJECT. However, I didn't follow this rule because the fall weather was nice and I wanted to get at it. So within a half hour of airbrushing the bottom I removed the salt and taped it up. Do not do this in the same day or maybe even couple days, especially on resin models where even with good cleaning practices the paint doesn't adhere great. This was also in the same day as applying the hairspray which is another no-no. Either way, I went on to airbrush the top, then upon removing the tape, removed most of the bottom paint as well. This really sucked and I had to re-paint the majority of the bottom with a brush. Not cool.

Above pic shows flyer with the airbrushed camo before removal of the salt. This was pretty tough, as I'm extremely new to the airbrushing thing and really wanted it to come out awesome. For the most part, I am very happy with the desert camo except for a couple places that I won't tell you about. Also, in this shot you can see most of the steel gaming stand I made and mentioned in the 2nd part of this series.

Above shows the technique I used to removed the salt and do additional weathering. I used a toothpick dipped in warm water to removed the salt. For the really stubborn ones, I would pool a little water around it and wait a few seconds. This would make it release easily. Be careful though, to much water and the thin airbrushed coat of paint can lift completely from the primer. I then rubbed the hard edges with the same damp toothpick as shown. This would leave a great little worn line along any edge. This took a half hour or so, but gave a great look overall, adding to the weathering from the salt. If you look closely there are a few places where this removed all paint including primer. I touched up these spots with a brush and some paint mixed to closely match the rust red primer.

Another shot of the weathering before blacking out any of the details.

A closeup of even more of the weathering down to the hard edges.

A last shot showing the entire flyer after final weathering, but before any details were worked on. Next up would come the brush work, blacking out everything and adding some metals.

In the next installment of this series I will show the pilot and Epic Falcons painted for the base. I also received my weathering powders in the mail and am itching to get a little time to experiment with those to add some additional weathering and exhaust blackening. Hope you're liking how this project is shaping up, I know I'm wanting to put this large project in the done pile so I can get back on some little guys(time permitting of course).

Old Stuff Day and my 100th Post

2011-03-02T09:50:00.000-05:00

I am going to jump on the Old Stuff Day Bandwagon and show the project that started this blog for me back in '09. I wanted to convert up a nice army and paint to a high standard(for me anyways). I had loved the Deathguard army since the old rulebook when they had their own rules and you could have 70 dudes on foot infiltrating and firing bolters like Papa Nurgle meant. I just post a couple links to these articles below that I like the most from that series. So check these out if you get a chance. I hope to get back to this army soon, I kinda gave up on it after all the conversions and little painting. Once I moved in with the mother-in-law for a year and had no place to model they were packed away. They will see a return soon though, I'm hoping for a new CSM codex next year and want to be ready.

My Obliterator Conversion Article

First Unit of Deathguard Conversions

Nurgle Daemon Prince Conversion

Nurgle Rhino Conversion

And some of these painted

That was probably to many links to check out but man, looking back at those old posts makes me wanna get painting on those guys. I have a full 2,500 pt army converted up like that waiting. I also had a couple useful hobby articles that enjoyed putting together.

Organizing your bitz

Hairspray and Salt Weathering Technique

There are some of the old posts I am most proud of on this blog. And I just realized this is my 100th post. Took me almost 2 years, but hey I'm not one for spamming multiple posts everyday just to make my hit counter spin.

This was fun bringing back some of the great stuff from the beginnings of the blog where I was pretty much the only one reading. If you remember these, thanks for reading. Has also been fun checking out the Blog Rolls and seeing what everyone else had on their blog in the early days before discovery.

Project Thunderbolt Part 2: Building A Base (Pic Heavy)

2011-02-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make a cool display base for my Thunderbolt, but needed to come up with a solution to offset the flyer. After lots of thinking and mind changing I decided to make the base with Epic scale models and do a "strafing run" scene. This required a heavy base to accommodate my idea. Luckily, I work at a steel fab shop and know how to work the CNC plasma table. So, I sketched up a quick oval sized what I thought would work on the computer program and burned the base from 1/4" steel hoping this would be heavy enough without going overboard with thickness.

Above is what I came up with. I also took a small strip of flatbar and hand-formed it using a piece of pipe to get some radius. Above is what I came up with after welding it together. I got pretty lucky and this was perfectly weighted.

I finally decided I wanted to do a desert canyon scene with models trying to flank, kinda like in some Black Library book I read. Above is what I sketched up on some old cork tiles.

After roughly breaking the tiles on my marks it started to come together like a canyon.

A shot of all pieces broken out, with some small bits for the top to break up the flat surface.

The completed canyon before adding the sand. I glued this with a hot glue gun initially. Not a very good idea as the small one I have couldn't lay down enough glue fast enough before it started to cool. I had to add some white glue around edges where it was pulling apart and weight down with books to complete process.

Another shot of the canyon before adding the sand.

A view of the canyon depth. Came out around an inch deep and was perfect for the epic scale models I was using.

A shot with the sand added. I used the GW basing material for this. I have several kinds of basing material, but decided this was the best option with the very small sand and larger "boulders". I say boulders because the models on the base are 6mm scale.

Another shot showing the pegs that are used to hold the Eldar Falcons I was able to find on Ebay. I really wanted to use some Forgeworld Epic Tau Hammerheads, but found these were almost impossible to find.

Above show the slot I milled into the bottom of the Thunderbolt using a Dremel tool. It's a little rough, but the fit is tight and lets me position the flyer at different angles of entry.

The only other shot I have showing the Falcons in place before painting.

I think the first picture of this post shows exactly what I was aiming for when the idea popped into my head for a "strafing run" shot. The nose of the flyer can be repositioned up to hide the stand, and this will be shown in later pics. When I envisioned this, I wanted to be able to look over the tail of the Thunderbolt and have the image of small targets rapidly approaching firing range. From the side view, it is a little odd and out of scale, but the "over the top" view makes this look much as I wanted.

I also built a smaller gaming base about the size of the Valkyrie base from steel to. This will be shown in later posts. It is very strong and heavy and will keep accidents from happening during gaming.

Well, that's all i got going with the base until I show the painting of it. Next post will show the initial primer and weathering stages using the salt weathering technique I showed a while back on some Tau test models. I also used the airbrush for the first time on this model doing some camouflage, so that will be shown as well.

Project Thunderbolt Part 1: Building My First Flyer

2011-02-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

Finally, I'm gonna try to get something on the blog about this project. My cousin, who posts here as reklawsj, is the only 40k gamer I know besides me in my county. He bought me this Forgeworld Thunderbolt because I wouldn't stop talking about how awesome it was, and I got him a summer job at where I work, so he says, I think he just wanted me to get this thing on the table so he could shoot it out of the sky first turn played and dash my dreams.

So, as usual this thing sat in a bag for a year before I decided to tackle it. I started building this last June, so yeah it's taken a while, work, new house, wife, 2 year old and baby, you know the usual suspects. At this point I have finished painting this thing, except for some weathering powder experiments I am going to do on it. I ordered a few powders from Secret Weapon Miniatures and expect them in the mail this week. I'll let you know how this experiment turns out.

On with the build. First I laid out all the parts to make sure everything was included and got to work with flash removal(shown below). This was extremely messy and I did it when my family was gone so I could get everything cleaned up safely. Resin dust is bad for you. A couple of the pieces needed a little heating and straightening in some hot water, but nothing major.

Then it was onto the soap bath. I usually soak my parts overnight and scrub several times. These ended up being in the bath for many days, because I couldn't get time to get back to them. None of this matters, just be sure they are nice and clean if you intend on keeping the paint on the model.

After cleaning, it was time to assemble. And yes, what you see below are all the instructions given. The back of one of those pages shows the parts laying out and the other is blank. Pretty much they show you a picture of the fuselage without engines, with engines and then plane done. Even with the lack of instruction, it is a pretty self-explanatory model and with some test fitting and additional sanding it was finally assembled. In a few of the main joints I put some pins and some balls of Green Stuff to strengthen the model.

Below are a couple of pics in its "ready for primer" stage.

I wish I had taken a few more pics of the build-up of this thing so it would be a little more informative for people trying to build one themselves. Sorry. Next installment in this series of posts will be the base I built that holds the flyer about a foot and a half out of the center.

I'm trying to get back on the hobby wagon now. I organized my paint area last night and hope to paint up my Hordes army next before getting back on the 40k stuff. I can't decide which army I want to paint that is built. I have went to my local game store and played Hordes for the first time now, so I'm pretty excited to get the Trolls done and on the table more.

"Hobby List of the Week": Sallie Wing

2011-02-02T10:04:00.003-05:00

So back when the shiny new Space Marine codex came out I was one of the many who came down with Vulkan fever. Twin linked meltas and flamers? Yes please! I immediately bought way too much Space Marine stuff (can you have too much) and started an army. I now have a wide range of Salamanders to choose from for a great variety of games. One thing I might have went overboard with is buying Terminators. Salamanders love their terminators right? Right! So I have 40+ different terminators, half of which have never been used in a game, because well, there aren't enough slots!

But a few weeks ago something wonderful happened. They FAQ'd Dark Angels. I don't like Dark Angels, never have, too many secrets. But I figured "hey, every chapter has an elite first company, better yet they're still green!" So this is my approach at the Salamander DeathWing or Fire Drakes as they're known.

HQ
Belial w/ Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

Chaplain Interrogator w/ Terminator Armor

Troops
5 Terminators
Company Banner upgrade
Apothercary upgrade
4 w/ TH/SS
1 w/ Cyclone Missle and Chainfist

5 Terminators
4 w/ TH/SS
1 w/ Heavy Flamer and Chainfist

5 Terminators
2 w/ TH/SS
1 w/ Cyclone Missle and Chainfist
2 / Powerfist and Storm Bolter

5 Terminators
2 w/ TH/SS
1 w/ Cyclone Missle and Chainfist
2 / Powerfist and Storm Bolter

Elites
Venerable Dread
multi melta
heavy flamer
extra armor
in Drop Pod

Heavy Support
Crusader w/ pintle storm bolter

Land Raider w/ pintle storm bolter

2000 pts
4 scoring units
10 kill points
25 models

The plan: So Belial and the Chaplain will ride with the command termie squad in the crusader. The other CC squad can ride in the other land raider. They can start on the table and in the first turn you can deep strike in one of the 2 termie squads in reserve. Then hopefully around turn 3 or 4 you get a dread comin in and the other termie squad.

I really like the idea of Belial with a command squad of termies. 2+ save with 3+ invlun, and FNP? I'm salivating. I could trade out the 2 land raiders and get 2 more squads of termies to come in, but Land Raiders are just fun and fit the fluff. The Dread may not do too great but again I'm a fluff player and I think he fits in really well. The chappy is just there to get some rerolls in CC. I'm used to TH rerolls with my sallies so I think that squad should be pretty amazing.

This may not be the most amazing list but should be fun to play and in my opinion is the most important thing. I think it may also be a tough list to play since I'll most likely be outnumbered even my Grey Knights. But seeing this many Salamander termies on the table should be a really cool sight.

Now if I can just figure out a way to get those flamers and meltas twin linked again......

"Hobby List of the Week": Huron's Red Corsairs

2011-01-13T15:51:00.000-05:00

Red Corsair Chosen Unit with Space Wolf Bits

Chosen Rhino

Finally, I made it through the holidays and need to get something back on the blog. I am gonna get back to the hobby list and hope to start showing something on Project Thunderbolt when I have time to put together a series of articles and finish the final paint details. Work has been too busy for me to even pick up a model lately.

This week I'm gonna do a Red Corsair list using the Chaos Codex. The Red Corsairs are a cool band of renegades. Pretty much, you can throw together everything you like and it would make a perfect band of Chaos pirates under the employ of Huron Blackheart. So here goes the list, lead by the man himself.

Huron Blackheart

Chaos Sorcerer - Mark of Slaanesh - Lash of Submission - meltabombs

Chosen Squad - 9 dudes - Champion with Power Weapon - 4 flamers - Mark of Khorne
Dedicated Transport - Rhino with Combi-flamer

Chaos Terminators - 3 dudes - 2 with combi-meltas - 1 with Heavy Flamer and Chainfist

Chaos Space Marine Squad 1 - 10 dudes - Champ with Powerfist - 2 meltaguns - Icon of Chaos Glory
Dedicated Transport - Rhino

Chaos Space Marine Squad 2 - 10 dudes - Champ with Powerfist - 2 meltaguns - Icon of Chaos Glory

Dedicated Transport - Rhino

Chaos Space Marine Squad 3 - 20 dudes - Champ with Powerfist - 2 Plasmaguns - Icon of Tzeentch

Chaos Bikers - 5 dudes - Champion with Powerfist and meltabombs - 2 with meltaguns

Vindicator - extra armor - dirge caster

2,000 pts

12 killpoints

3 scoring units

63 models

Okay, so this army just has a little bit of everything you need with some things that are just cool, like 20 crazed bolter-toting Chaos Marines on foot with a 5+ invulnerable save all the time. This unit is where I would attach the Sorcerer, as it will take a lot to make this unit go away completely. I would put Huron in the Chosen unit for the 5 flamer template action, as well as plenty of power weapon and powerfist attacks using the Mark of Khorne. Add to this a couple 10 man units of CSM with meltas and re-rollable leadership for staying power. The Bikers are the fast threat that can be brought in from reserve to help where needed with there meltas. The termies need to deepstrike in using one of the Icons to help any unit in trouble. They are mostly expendable, but being termies they will need to be dealt with. And last is the Vindicator. Not only does it draw fire off other units early game, it will also be nice if you can get Lash off on a unit and bunch them up. Not always a sure thing, but when it happens, it is glorious and pleases Chaos much.

The modelling side of this army is great. It includes some unit of every mark of Chaos except Nurgle. Each unit can be modelled up using normal Space Marine parts as well as Chaos bits. The painting can vary wildly, with some models keeping some parts of their armor painted as they had from whatever chapter they defected from. My idea of Huron's renegades is that they are a bunch of like minded Space Marines that are tired of following the Emperor. Some of these guys will have turned completely to Chaos, while others will still be Space Marines at heart, just not Emperor-loving Space Marines. This idea gives the modeler a great range of opportunities when it comes to conversions.

So, there you go, my idea of a renegade band of Space Marines lead by Huron Blackheart. There are so many modelling possibilities when it comes to Red Corsairs that I can't even begin to list them all. Maybe you think renegade Space Marines are as cool as I do, or maybe not, but you have to admit the modeling aspect of the army is awesome.

The pictures at top are of my Chosen unit that Huron rides with. I converted these using Space Wolf bits. I figure when Huron hijacked the Wolf of Fenris, a few of those guys decided to work for him instead of being tortured and raped by the Slaanesh guys in Huron's warband. And I figure Huron, having read the new Space Wolf codex, would make them his personal bodyguard, hoping they would give him some secrets on becoming the strongest army on the internet.

2010 in review....and what to do in 2011

2010-12-31T11:43:00.000-05:00

2010
This year has been pretty slow on the modelling side for me. Mostly due to having a new house built, moving and all the things that go along with making a new house livable. Also in the summer my son was born. This was a great time and having a 2 year old and a baby in the house is always interesting. So this year real life was a lot more exciting than the hobby side. I have built a few models and actually painted a few. I played in 40k 'Ardboyz and made the semi-finals which was pretty exciting for me as the only games I play all year are in this tournament. I think I played 2 other games of 40k and a couple of the new Space Hulk which was fun.

The few things I have managed to do I have been able to catalog on the blog. I almost averaged 1 post a week on here, which is a goal I had set for my self this year.

2011
Next year I would like to continue with my goal of at least a post a week here on the blog. I also want to have at least 2 a month that actually show something I have built/converted or painted. I also want to detail more techniques I use or experiment with. My favorite blog posts from others usually contain a new technique or tool to help further my hobby experience and keep it interesting. It is fun to try using others ideas and making them fit my skill level.

On the hobby side I want to first find the time to finish my Forgeworld Thunderbolt I have had in progress for at least 6 months. I wanted to finish this before end of year, but instead of getting more time around the holidays I got way less due to working 60 hrs a week. I really want to finish this before posting a series of articles on it, but I may start putting up some posts up to the 60% painted point it is in now.

Other than the Thunderbolt, I plan on painting more of my Trollbloods to get a playable, fully painted 35 pt list. I have a few models I want to purchase for my Space Marine army and a few more for my Chaos army. I am really torn about whether to start painting a full 40k army. Chaos interests me the most, but I really want to get a new codex before jumping on a painting project like that. So, I'll probably just pick and choose a few select models and go from there.

I really want to play more games this year, but again the majority will be probably be limited to the 'Ardboyz tourney. I really want to place in semis this year and have been thinking about the list I will take for a bit now. At the moment it is a Loganwing with Thunderwolf Lord Deathstar Hybrid List. So lots of podding termies(5 units) dropping to provide screening for the Wolf Lords(3 with unit of Fenrisian Wounds) advancing with a couple Scout squads coming in behind the enemy. I will put more up about the exact list at a later time. Oh and it will be all Chaos counts-as with all models being WYSIWYG to limit complaints.

My last plan for the year is to finally start selling off at least 10,000 pts of my 14,000 pt fully built Orcs & Goblins army. I have multiples of every unit in book and with the new book and hopefully new models looming I hope to settle on one list and just have that. Well, it's that or sell my other fantasy armies and only have this one, but I like having more than just a sea of greenskins. Selling stuff I already have is the only way I fuel my purchases of new things. This year I probably spent less than 100 bucks of real hard earned money. The rest was made from selling old stuff. This is getting harder and harder though as most of the stuff I have left are things I really like. The only thing fueling their sell is the realization that I can never paint or play with all of it.

Almost forgot about the Grey Knight release, I bought into that army as soon as it was released before and now want to see how they expand upon the meager selections that were only in codex and lots of plastics please. I personally am glad they did away with allies. Small games at tournament levels should be kept in-book, while apocalypse allows for using multiple codexes to make an army that looks like the fluff and Black Library say it usually is.

Well, probably a boring post, but at leasts it's on the interwebz where I can check it out and see how I did come this time next year. Now if only I could figure out how to live on no sleep, instead of my usual 5-6 sporadic hours, I could get that Thunderbolt done.

"Hobby List of the Week": Blood Angels - Dread List

2010-12-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

Couldn't find suitable pic, so showing my Khorne Landraider again

This week I'm gonna put out a list I came up with a while back. Everyone knows the BA codex allows the use of lots of dreadnoughts. I wanted a list with plenty of them, but not going overboard. There is no real fluff or story to go with this list. I just thought it would be cool to drop a bunch of dreads on the table using Drop Pods. On with the list:

Mephiston

Sanguinary Priest - meltabombs

Assault Squad # 1 - 10 dudes with 2 meltaguns - Srg with powerfist and meltabombs
Dedicated Transport - Land Raider Redeemer - multimelta

Assault Squad # 1 - 10 dudes with 2 flamers - Srg with powerfist

Dedicated Transport - Land Raider Redeemer - multimelta

Furioso Dreadnought - Blood Talons - Heavy Flamer in Drop Pod

Dreadnought - Multimelta - Heavy Flamer in Drop Pod

Dreadnought - Assault Cannon - Heavy Flamer in Drop Pod

2,000 pts

18-20 killpoints

2-4 scoring units

34 models

This list is very light on numbers of models, but is really heavy on killpoints because of all the pods. Pretty much you just hope for a good first turn. This means zooming the raiders as far forwards as possible(probably toward strong flank) and dropping your choice of 3 dreadnoughts on the weakest flank of the opponent. I say this because with so few models you want to split your opponents army into two parts. Hopefully, one of your sides will do really well and need no support. If this happens you have two more dreads in pods to support the side of your army that falls apart. The Sanguinary Priest rides with either unit and lends his bubble to hopefully both units. Mephiston follows either Landraider until he gets there and then starts beating face. Army includes enough melta to get the job done on mech with some luck and enough templates to make foot armies think twice about getting to close.

Mainly, this army relies on confusing your opponent with multiple targets. All targets on the board will present major threats to most armies. Three dreadnoughts in your deployment zone must be dealt with. Also, 2 landraiders full of Assault marines must be dealt with, especially if they have the Feel No Pain and Furious Charge bubble. Mephiston is a really big threat also. So, it should be fun getting in there and taking names with this army. On the other hand, three Long Fang missile squads and a bunch of lascannon Razorbacks could spoil your game before you even started good with some hot rolling. And probably wouldn't be a good idea to just throw this army at a Vulkan-melta & TH-SS spam army.

All in all, not a real competitive army against other really competitive armies. But, if you're just out to have a good time with some buddies, it would be something to pull out of the bag. Hope you enjoyed seeing my take on a multiple threat army list, using lots of hard targets that don't leave you a lot of time to deal with them. Similar lists can be made with books other than the Blood Angels, but lots of armored dreads, a couple Landraiders and Mephiston are some of the hardest units in the game, all in one book.

"Hobby List of the Week": Crimson Fists

2010-12-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

This week, I'm gonna do my personal favorite Space Marine Chapter, Crimson Fists. This has been my favorite chapter of marines since I learned about 40k. In this case I don't think the fluff pulled my in(because I didn't know what fluff was at the time), but the color scheme. I like the striking blue with red fists colors. I always wanted to paint a sweet army like this. Sadly, while I have built a giant force of marine, the above terminator is my only painted one. Oh well, I get them done before I die.

Now that I know the story behind the colors, I want my force to be post-Rynn's World. This means I want a force consisting of staunch veterans that made it through that tragedy, while also including many scouts. The scouts are part of the rebuilding process and are there to learn from the vets. This means I don't take any tactical squads, only Sternguard and Termies as the veteran side. I still get plenty of scoring units thanks to Pedro. On with the list.

Pedro Kantor

Terminators x 10 - 2 with Cyclone Missile Launchers, one other with Chainfist

Sternguard x 10 - 3 with Combi-meltas, 2 with Missile Launchers, 1 with Powerfist

Dedicated Transport - Razorback with twin-linked Lascannons

Sternguard x 10 - 3 with Combi-plasmas, 2 with Missile Launchers, 1 with Powerfist

Dedicated Transport - Razorback with twin-linked Lascannons

Scout Squad x 10 - Heavy Bolter with Hellfire, 9 with Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks

Scout Squad x 5 - Bolt Pistols and Close Combat Weapons, meltabombs, teleport homer

Land Speeder Storm #1 - Multi-melta

Land Speeder Storm #2 - Multi-melta

Scout Bike Squad x 3 - Grenade Launcher - Power weapon - meltabombs

2,000 pts

12-16 killpoints

5-7 scoring units

57 models

All Units in army Stubborn

This army doesn't really offer a multitude of conversions to make the army standout as some of my Chaos counts-as armies do. Decorating the veterans in the army with medals, purity seals, etc would certainly add to the look. This army relies on a cohesive color palette to carry the look that you would be going for.

Now for how they would perform on the table. This army doesn't rely on any gimmicks or tricks, just solid elite choices with backup fire provided by the scouts. Personally, in most situations I would combat squad the Terminators and both units of Sternguard.

One unit of the Termies would have both Cyclones and Sergeant while the other would include the chainfist and four powerfists. The unit with Cyclones would be a mini-devastator squad, setting up in cover and firing, while protecting an objective holding unit of scouts or Sternguard. The one with Chainfists drops to a position, hopefully close to enemy using teleport homers on scout squads mounted in Storms. They are more of a "deal with me now" unit or face 5 termies walking around ripping up your armor.

The Sternguard combat squad with one unit consisting of the powerfist and combi-weapons. This unit hijacks the Razorback and does its thing. Its thing is sit back and fire the lascannons early, then move out seeking objectives and targets laters. One of them also picks up Pedro. Ideally, I would keep both Razorbacks close together for the Pedro "attack aura" and so there are more than 5 dudes in one place. The two other halves of the Sternguard pick up the two missile launchers and also become mini-devastator squads, though these are scoring, so they can camp an objective.

The Scout squad with the snipers usually infiltrates(or not) and camps on an objective you hopefully placed in cover. They will just be really annoying with great cover saves and handing out pinning checks each turn. It would be good to keep the Cyclone strapped Termie squad near this unit for support in close combat should the enemy close. The other two scout squads zoom up in their Land Speeders to be annoying and make sure the Termies drop in a good location. The Storms also have multi-meltas, so if you have first turn, you can scout forward 24" before game, then pop whatever you choose in the first turn. Of course, make sure you stop the scout move near cover and drop off scouts in this before moving out in the first turn to get within 12" of target. This leaves the scouts with some support(the cover) and hopefully stay on the table long enough for their teleport homers to bring in the terminators. The Scout Bikers are in the list, because they look cool. They can outflank, I'm pretty sure, so they could come in and rear shot tanks with grenades and be a general pain in the arse.

Well, there's my "lot longer than I expected" tactical thoughts on this army. This army would definitely take some practice to play well. And there are lots more options on the tactical side that I didn't mention. In general, this army could be played many, many different ways without changing any models. With lots of practice, you could develop different tactics for different situations, scenarios, opposing armies, etc. Ideally, this is what I want in all my armies. I want the same army list to be capable of handling many different challenges without changing the list. It keeps the boring part out of the picture and keeps opponents(even regular ones) guessing at what you will do this time. This list isn't just a spammed army of the 2 best units in a given codex, where the only tactical changes you can make are "Should I reserve" or "Should I not reserve".

This kinda starts another topic of how to build great "all-comers" lists. A great "all-comer" lists doesn't have to include flamers for hordes, melta for tanks, tanks for mobility, psykers for anti-psyker work, you get the idea. A great "all-comers" list just needs "adaptability". The great thing about adaptability is that GW is now building this into their new codexes, you just have to know where to look. This means using some special characters to open up new abilities, using units that can change there setups from game to game without changing the army list, i.e. combat squadding, units that have special rules like scout and infiltrate that allow moving forward before game, setting up outside your deployment zone or coming in from reserve on board edges. This is adaptability. But this type of army will require lots of practice so you can hone your skills at using the right special ability at the right time. Otherwise, you could look like a fool with an army consisting or all different units that have no idea how to work together to achieve a common goal, this goal being winning.

Okay, I'm gonna stop rambling right there. You may have picked up a little bit of my thought process that goes into writing army lists that I would actually want to build and play with for a while.

Wow, just checked the preview and that is one helluva text wall, good luck and thanks for reading the blog if you got this far.

Lelith Hesperax: I had to paint one Dark Eldar model.

2010-11-29T12:02:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm showing you the Lelith Hesperax model that I painted up a couple weeks ago. I had been wanting to give a new Dark Eldar model a paintjob. I knew from the moment of release this wouldn't be an army that I wanted to paint an entire force of. When one of my friends decided to start the Dark Eldar, I picked up this model and put some paint to it as a gift. I'll probably do a couple more characters for him, as it was a definite change of style needed than anything I had ever painted previously. This model is tiny when you start painting it. And line highlighting neatly is very difficult for me. I feel it looks a little better in real life and am still bothered with photographing minis. It is a very hard thing to do well.

I was also enticed by a painting competition that was going to be held over at Spiky Bits. So, I ordered the model and put a couple hours of time into it, then more time photographing. Finally, I was pretty happy with it and sent it in to the competition. As you can see in this link apparently my entry was lost. This is pretty upsetting as I feel I had a chance to finish in the top three. I couldn't have won the thing, but it would have been nice to get some votes. Either way, I now need to send this off to my friend so this chick can kick some faces in on the tabletop.

There are some more pics below. Check them out and see what you think. I do wish they were part of the competition I entered, but whatever.

"Hobby List of the Week": Nightlords Jump List

2010-11-23T17:34:00.000-05:00

This week I'm gonna post some more Chaos stuff as they are the awesome. This is a Nightlords list that I have mostly built. However, this list uses the Blood Angels Codex to fit the theme of fast raiding Nightlords. Above is my version of Dante, who will lead the army. I am working on getting the parts to convert up the unit of Sanguinary Guard in the same style, all with Possessed wings.

My outlook on the Nightlords gives me the impression that they would just fall from the sky under cover of darkness, all the while yelling obscenities and smashing right into the enemy. They are very stealthy and do lightning fast raiding then withdraw. The Blood Angels allows this perfectly. They can have all jump infantry as troops and with Descent of Angels can take a few risk getting close on the drop. Check out the list:

Dante

Sanguinor

Sanguinary Guard x 5 - 1 with Banner, 1 with powerfist, 3 with infernus pistols

Sanguinary Priests x 3 - All 3 have jumppacks - 1 with powerweapon & hand flamer - 1 with powersword - 1 with powerfist

Assault Squad x 10 - 2 with meltaguns - Srg with powerweapon

Assault Squad x 10 - 2 with flamers - Srg with pair of lightning claws

Assault Squad x 10 - 2 with meltaguns - Srg with powerfist

Assault Squad x 10 - 2 with plasma pistols - Srg with powerweapon & plasmapistol

2,000 pts

50 models

10 killpoints

5 scoring units

I have already built the 40 raptors that I am using as Assault marines for this army. In fact, I built these during 3rd edition when the Chaos codex had special rules for Nightlords players allowing this many. I swapped a couple special weapons, but otherwise they are the same as before. I have also converted a Sanguinor and Dante from Possessed parts and will do the same for the Sanguinary Guard and probably same for priest with modifications. I think all of these are easily recognizable as their Blood Angel counterparts and should have little bearing on gameplay with most opponents.

For this list I chose a couple of high points costs HQs. I know I could swap Sanguinor for another whole unit of raptors but that would require 10 more models and money. Plus he is pretty awesome and if anything will give something to soak wounds for army since they drop and sit for a turn. I took a fair amount of special weapons and with some good drops should be able to knock down a few tanks or key enemy units initially. Dante will drop with Sanguinary Guard and infernus pistols to pretty much guarantee dead target on drop. The priests will be split up around the army to offer their services of course. Pretty much the plan is drop as much stuff in the opponents face as possible, then weather the storm and hopefully have enough left to finish the job. If not, whatever, it's a game and this style will offer a great story at least.

I obviously like this list as I am currently building it, so let me know what you think. And I know just another jump army, but at least it's Chaos and not a bunch of followers of the False Emperor.

"Hobby List of the Week": Iron Warriors

2010-11-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

For this week's Hobby list I'm heading back in the Chaos direction, but this time actually using the Chaos Codex. Also, this week I am trying to come up with a format for this weekly post that makes sense instead of my usual ramblings. I am trying to use the following "template" when posting these.

Introduction
Fluff Thoughts/Considerations
Army List
Conversion/Modelling Ideas
Tactical Thoughts/Ideas
Closing

This week I'm going with an Iron Warriors theme. I feel like the Iron Warriors should carry weapons that will bust aside heavy fortifications. This means meltas up close and lascannons from afar, but also with flamers to clear bunkers and the like. This gives a variety of options, so more modelling possibilities. I also think they should have very advanced technology that is augmented by service to Chaos. This means bionics, custom force fields, Obliterators, etc. On with the list:

Fabius Bile

Dreadnought with twin-linked lascannons, missile launcher and extra armor

Chaos Terminators x4 - Combi-melta/Powerfist, Combi-melta/Power weapon, Heavy Flamer/Chainfist, Combi-bolter/Power weapon - All with Mark of Tzeentch
Dedicated Transport - Land Raider with extra armour for termies and Fabius Bile

CSM x10 - Champ with Powerfist/meltabombs, Plasmagun, Lascannon, Icon of Chaos Glory-Fabius Bile Enhancements
Dedicated Transport - Rhino

CSM x 10 - Champ with Powerfist/meltabombs, 2 meltaguns, Icon of Chaos Glory-Fabius Bile Enhancements
Dedicated Transport - Rhino

Lesser Daemons x 10

Predator - Twin linked lascannons, Lascannon sponsons, extra armor

Vindicator - extra armor

Obliterators x 3

2,000 pts
44 models
3 scoring units
12 killpoints

Okay, so some of those were obvious choices for Iron Warriors, i.e. the Dreadnought, Predator, Land Raider, Vindicator, and Obliterators. I chose Fabius Bile as I think his enhancements could be modelled as "tech enhancements" that augments the squads abilities, instead of "organic enhancements". I would also convert some sort of tech priest gone Chaos like fellow to represent Fabius Bile. Also I gave the Terminators the mark of Tzeentch, not because they worship him, but because I think this would show better technology gives better invulnerable save to the termies. The Lesser Daemons were the last part of the modelling to show technology. These could all be modelled as Chaos like servitors that are teleported into battle using the Icons(teleport homers) in the units.

This army also wouldn't be terrible on the tabletop. It is essentially "meched up", with the addition of Oblits and Daemons deepstriking in at some point. The Vindicator, Predator and Dreadnought hug cover and blast things to pieces. I also like to use a unit like the plasmagun/lascannon one to park on objectives and blast their weapons from the hatch. After one turn of movement they have good range and strength to take down high armor targets. They can also be supported by the daemons if need be. The other unit rolls out with the Land Raider to get in opponents face and take down targets with melta, fists, etc. They could also be supported by daemons if they get in trouble and the other unit is in good shape. Either of these units can be supported by deepstriking Obliterators if you choose to reserve them. Pretty simple army with tools to deal with anything if used correctly.

If I had to reduce the size of this army I would start by dropping the Predator and maybe an Obliterator or some daemons to get to 1,750 pts. Going up to 2,500 I would probably add more Termies in a Landraider and try to squeeze in a Summoned Greater Daemon modelled up into some sort of high tech daemon engine.

Well, theres another list that would be neat to build and play, offering something for the hobbyist and gamer in me. I love building and converting models and making army lists that fit the fluff of the chosen army. However, when I play I do not want to lose every game, so my lists never get neutered to the point of pure fluff/theme. And if I am going to lose, I would rather not lose with the "best list on the internet" because that will get you picked on.

What do you think? Crappy list and theme or fit okay with the use of Fabius Bile.

"Hobby List of the Week": Biker Boyz

2010-11-11T16:23:00.000-05:00

This week I am going to throw out a small Ork list, mainly because I have been very busy and it should be a quick write-up. I'm sure this exact list has been built and played to death, but it fits my "Hobby List" theme perfectly. This list is based around the Nob Biker concept, super-low model count(for Orks) and awesome chance for conversions and personality. I feel that by the time a Nob takes up being part of a biker mob he has collected trophies and earned enough teef that each would have something that sets them apart from the others. Whether this be a nice gun, trophies, armour, bits and bobs on the bike, whatever. Well, on with the list.

Nob Biker List

Warboss - Warbike, Power Klaw, Shoota-scorcha, cybork body, eavy armour, bosspole
Warboss - same as above
Nob Bikers x 10 - Painboy with Orderly - All have Cybork bodies - 4 have power klaws - 3 have shoota-scorchas - all have eavy armour - Waagh Banner - Bosspole - 2 with Big Choppas
Nob Bikers x 10 - all same as above but only 2 with shoota-scorchas
Kommandos x 13 - Snikrot - 2 with Burnas

2,000 pts
35 models
5 Killpoints
2 Scoring Units

As far as modelling this list goes. First you would spread around the wargear to help with wound allocation in the list. This army would need to be heavily converted as there are no real Nob biker models except for a few Forgeworld ones that could be sprinkled in. Also, converting up and painting some awesome Ork ninjas(Kommandos) would also be fun. Would be a fun list overall to model up and paint as each model needs character to fit the storyline of the Orks. And you could probably bash a few skulls with this on the tabletop to.

This list could be played full reserves or start 2 bike squads on table and let the other guy worry about what Snikrot and his boyz will do when they come in behind you. Turboboost first turn to a flank and second turn start chewing the other guy up in combat. Hopefully, you will be able to multi-charge units where possible, because you don't want to own the unit in your turn and get rapid fired on by an entire army in the next. With the klaws and furious charge you should be able to give the razorback and chimera parking lots a bit of worry, well if they didn't shoot down most of your army first turn. Of course just a few nobs and a warboss are pretty bad news if all you have in the tanks are 5 man marine squads and guardsmen. I like how this list just gives two "hard as nails" targets on the board and another scary unit coming in behind the opponent's army. The bikers should be in combat by turn 2 and the Kommandos are just there to support the side that takes the most punishment early game.

Well, hope you see where I will continue to head with this "Hobby List of the Week" thing. I am trying to think of a semi-template to help control my ramblings.

Chaos Lord on Juggernaut Conversion #3

2010-11-10T16:55:00.000-05:00

Here is the last of my three Chaos Lords on Juggernauts. This guy is armed with Wolf Claw, Storm Shield and usual. Again I built up the base to give the "unit" a cohesive look. Now for the bitz used in this one if you care.

Legs are plastic Khorne Berzerker

Torso is FW Khorne Berzerker

Head is also FW Khorne Berzerker

Backpack is CSM

Right arm is Raptor Lightning Claw arm

Left arm is CSM bolter arm

Shield is Fantasy Warriors of Chaos

Left Shoulderpad is FW Khorne Berzerker

So not as many different parts as last.

Another short post today. I hope tomorrow to get up my new list for my new series "Hobby List of the Week" that I started last week.

Chaos Lord on Juggernaut Conversion #2

2010-11-09T14:54:00.000-05:00

Here is the second of my Chaos lord on Juggernaut conversions. This fella is armed with a Frost Blade and Storm Shield, plus extra goodies I don't remember because they are not modeled. Again I built up the base with cork tiles to give a little more intimidating stance to the model. To be honest this is my least favorite of the three for some reason.

This model also has a collection of parts from many ranges listed below:

Legs are CSM

Torso front is also CSM

Torso back is from older Space Wolf sprue

Shield is from Fantasy Warriors of Chaos as the other

Head is Khorne Berzerker

Backpack is CSM

Chain is from Wal-mart

Loincloth(chain?) is from CSM

Shoulderpad is Khorne Berzerker plastic

Left arm is CSM bolter arm

Right arm is Fantasy Marauder arm

Frost Blade is bit from Be'lakor the Fantasy Daemon Prince(you used to be able to bit order awesome bitz like this, so I've had it for a while)

I think that is all the bitz used in construction. I am very poor in the Green Stuff Fu department so most of my conversions are really just kit bashes that I try to blend together to make a cohesive looking figure. There are a couple more views below.

Well, there you go a quicker post than my usual ramblings. I'll get the third guy up tomorrow with a group shot and the Chaos Fenrisian Wolves I'm using.

Chaos Lord on Juggernaut Conversion #1

2010-11-08T11:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is the first of three Chaos Lords I have converted on Juggernauts. These will be used as Wolf Lords on Thunderwolves of course. I have had these built for a while and Black Matt over at Black Matt's Black Legion Blog had posted a few pics of my stuff including some of these. Since then I have found some small chain at the trusty Wal-mart and added this. These are built to simulate riding a bull standing up(yeah no easy cover saves with these, oops). The real purpose is that I can now just pop these off(they're only pinned with no glue) and use them on normal bases as Chaos Lords, well and I am a little lazy and didn't want to source proper legs for sitting, sculpting saddle, etc.

This first one is armed with a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield and the usual goodies. He is built with parts from several ranges of GW minis. The hammer is from Ogre Kingdoms, the shield is a Fantasy Chaos warrior one, the backpack is old school CSM, the right arm is old school Possessed arm(muscled to handle weight of hammer), wolf pelt from older Space Wolves set, head is Fantasy Chaos Warrior, chain tabbard is Chaos Terminator Lord kit, legs are from Khorne Berzerker kit, shoulderpads are Forgeworld Khorne Berzerkers, and that's about all I remember. I wanted to make the bases on these more dramatic using some cork tile and old Rhino door. This gives him a very aggressive pose which I like. This is the most feral and menacing looking one I made and probably my favorite of the three(two of which I will be posting later this week). Below are a couple more views.

Well, that's the first one of the three. I'll have the others up in the next couple days. I hope you like it, even if the standing pose is a little ridiculous and over the top.

"Hobby List of the Week": Introduction

2010-11-04T15:51:00.000-04:00

Forgeworld Berzerkers with Landraider

One of my favorite parts of the hobby is to write up lists. I am always scheming some kind of list from various army books depending on which Codex I am reading at the time. I always buy every codex and army book for 40k and Fantasy and read each cover to cover. While I don't always have time to sit down and build/paint models, I do usually spend 15-30 minutes reading each night before bed.

Where I differ as more of a hobbyist than gamer is that I like to write up lists that fit what I have read, not what will kick butt on the table(though I want some nuts in my list because I don't like to lose every time I play either). I enjoy making lists and building a cool looking army to fit the "theme" that I am going for. I have stacks of lists written and not all get built of course. I thought I would start a weekly post showing these lists that I am always writing up. I will just call this "Hobby" instead of "Theme" because I want to show lists that would be fun to build and offer lots of conversion for hobby minded gamers. "Theme" lists get thrown around a lot nowadays and not everyone's idea of a theme list is the same as mine(like 34 plasmaguns in IG army is NOT a theme list to me). Below I will show a list I came up with to introduce what I will try to put across each week. I plan on showing a list and giving some ideas for the conversions/model choice and fluff aspects of said list. I am shooting for 2,000 pt lists each week and will give ideas on what to trim or add to change the size of the army.

The first one I will start with is a Khorne-themed and modeled Chaos army, but using the Blood Angels Codex. The list will show why I think this codex choice is appropriate.

HQ
Astorath the Grim
   Use the Astorath model for this shaving BA symbols. This model is Chaos looking and opens up the Death Company to more than 0-1.

Reclusiarch - plasma pistol - meltabombs
   Use the Kharn the Betrayer model for this. He will add some hitting power and rerolls on everything for the Death Company unit he joins.

Elites
Sanguinary Priest - Terminator Armor
   For this use the Forgeworld Lord Zhufor model, which looks sweet. Give Feel No Pain and Furious Charge to Terminator unit.

Assault Termies x7 - 6 with Lightning Claws - 1 with Thunderhammer & SS(maybe 5 to 2, not sure)
   Dedicated Transport - Land Raider Crusader - Multimelta
   This unit would be converted using Chaos Termies and Forgeworld Khorne Termie Torsos and the Landraider would be a Space marine Crusader with Chaos bits and Forgeworld doors.

Troops
Death Company x 8 - 1 with powerweapon, 1 with powerfist
   Dedicated Transport - Land Raider Redeemer - multimelta
   This unit would be converted with CSM and the Forgeworld World Eater Torso set. Landraider converted like above. Also uses Khorne's lucky number of eight in the unit.

Death Company x 8 - 1 with powerweapon, 1 with powerfist
   Dedicated Transport - LandRaider
   Same modelling as above.

2,000 pts
10 Killpoints
30 models
0 Scoring Units

Okay, so that's the small model count, no scoring unit, triple landraider rush list. Yes it will probably get crushed every game played in your head where every opponent is packing a Leafblower style IG list. Okay, realistically in normal gaming environments with your friends, this would be a very fun list to run. And with such a low model count you can go crazy with all Forgeworld stuff, detailed paintwork or other nice conversions. The Blood Angels Codex fits the Khorne theme very nicely and the ruleset makes these guys crazy bloodthirsty killers, which is what you should be going for in a Khorne-oriented army.

I will flesh out this "Hobby List" idea more in the coming weeks with a wide variety of lists from several codexes. This was just a quick rundown of some of the ideas I have in store for this weekly posts.

How do you feel about building armies, would you rather build a super-competitive army that crushes all the teenagers at the FLGS or build a sweet looking, low model count list that puts every part of the hobby to the test. Personally, this is one of my favorite list from those I have written, as it would look awesome on the table, and each model could get extra attention. KILL, MAIM, BURN.

Selling Reminder: 40k & Fantasy on Ebay

2010-11-01T11:38:00.000-04:00

Thought I would put up a quick post to my items I am currently selling on Ebay. The auctions include a Wood Elf Fantasy army and lots of 40k. The 40k stuff is mostly just single miniatures and characters from the Daemonhunter, Imperial Guard and IG range. Check out the link at http://shop.ebay.com/ctreleheb/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1 . At this point most of it is down to a couple days left on the auction.

I'll get back to the real hobby posts soon. I have been spending most of my hobby time on one big project that will be making its way here soon as a series of articles.

How to: Hairspray and Salt Weathering Technique

2010-10-25T10:48:00.000-04:00

Today I'm gonna show you how I went about trying some weathering techniques for the first time. I "borrowed" the models from my cousin for this experiment so I wouldn't mess up my own. Haha, sucker. I'm gonna go through the pics and give my step by step for this method. At the end I'll go over a couple things I learned that worked really well and a couple things that didn't go so well.

First up are the tools needed for this technique. Above you can see the salt that I used for this. It is very irregular in size and shape, so perfect for this. Also it happened to be free as it was in the cupboard. It does only costs a few bucks for 3 lbs though. Below you can see that I used a Ruddy Brown primer from Wal-mart that costs 3 bucks. This would give me a rusty, dirty look after weathering. I also bought a 2 dollar can of hairspray, also from the walmart. I was also using this exercise as an excuse for practicing some more with the airbrush, but you could just use some spray colors to get your desired effect. You will also need an old toothbrush, some warm water and a toothpick is helpful.

First prime all models used with the Ruddy Brown Primer

Next spray a light coat of hairspray on the models and quickly sprinkle with salt before it dries

Don't spray to many parts at once, just one at a time, then salt, then move on

Top of Hammerhead after spraying and salting

Side view

Pic of bottom

Next I airbrushed a light basecoat and then a darker pattern camouflage. I need more airbrush practice, first time doing anything other than basecoating.

Here you can see the salt still under paint, be careful while painting not to knock this off

After scrubbing the salt off using toothbrush and warm water. You can also use the brush to weather the edges more if wanted.

Side view after weathering

Other side view

Rear view

Bottom view

This even worked on a couple crisis suits

The other Crisis suit

Group Hug Photo

Okay, so that was easy. These four models only took me a couple hours from start to finish including waiting on everything to dry. Granted i haven't touched any of these with a paintbrush yet, but they are definitely tabletop quality and ready to go with 3 colors. Not perfect, but hey it's wear and tear after a long campaign. Now for what I learned through this process to do better the technique.

1. The undercoat can be any color you like, I just used the ruddy brown because it would show up well through light undercoat.

2. You only need a very light coat of hairspray. Don't overdo this step.

3. Make sure you let the hairspray dry for at least an hour depending on how much you applied. I got to excited on this step and had some paint cracking issues. I was able to cover these up with more coats, but I noticed on another model I did later that with a very light coat of hairspray and a longer dry time I had none of this.

4. Let the paint dry for at least an hour after you apply over hairspray. Again I got to excited here and in some places the paint came off too easily.

5. When brushing off the salt with toothbrush and warm water, DO NOT saturate the model over large areas. On a separate project I had used to much hairspray and to much water. This released most of the paint and I had to use a hair dryer to dry before it just flaked off.

6. It is also very easy to remove the salt with a toothpick. Just use the side and rub off. This is also a great tool for weathering edges. Just dip in water and rub the edges with side. Paint easily comes off and looks great.

Well, I hope this has inspired you to try some simple weathering. I would suggest you practice on some spare tank parts before going at a Landraider, etc. It is very easy to do and gives good results. The model I did after these worked out really well and I will be showing it off later. If you have any questions about the process or if I left something unclear let me know in the comments and I'll try to give you an answer. This was my first time doing this, but I feel like I learned a lot in the process that could help others not make the same mistakes I did.

Again Wanting New Stuff: Selling Wood Elf Army

2010-10-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

Well the time has come to sacrifice another army to my wants/desires. I have been thinking hard about what I really want to keep and will have time to paint in my lifetime. This time it is the Wood Elves that will hit the block. I am going to put these on Ebay in a few days, but thought I would give someone the chance to get these at a good deal. As with all the things I sell, I like to get back 65-70 percent of the retail value so I can "invest" in some new models or in this case rulebooks. I am trying to catch up my 40k Codex collection as well as find the remaining books I need in the Legends of the Old West series from Warhammer Historicals.

I have some close-up pics of each unit if anyone wants to see them, but this army includes everything from the Wood Elf Army box that was released when the army book came out a few years ago as well as some extras. I have:
Unit of 8 Glade Riders - built
10 of the old Wardancers
6 of the new Wardancers
12 of the old Waywatchers
3 new Warhawk Riders
2 Great Eagles- one built-one unbuilt
1 Warhawk
Some parts to make a Lord for steed - old metal model
Some parts to make a mage for warhawk - old metal model
Female mage - old metal model
Limited Std Bearer from army box
Lord with great wpn - new one
Floating mage - new one
Bits for Glade guard unbuilt below-how many came in army box?
Bits for dryads unbuilt below - however many came in army box?
Twilight Sisters on dragon - unopened in box shown
There may be other things in pic I didn't note

Well that's all of the Wood elves I have. I will sell the entire army or just parts if you want certain things and not others. The deal will be better for more models. I'll give it a week on here then put the remaining on Ebay. Email me at ctreleheb AT gmail DOT com if you're interested in any of this. Next army on the block will be my 14,000 pts of fully built Fantasy Orcs & Goblins. I'll post some stuff on them in the near future.

Do you play with "counts-as" armies to Win or Save Money?

2010-10-05T12:41:00.000-04:00

Initially this post was just gonna show some pictures of some of my Chaos models that I had taken and never got around to posting about. But then I started thinking about the great things about Chaos and using them for the multitude of power armoured armies out there. I think lately with the release of Blood Angels and Space Wolves there are lots of Chaos guys out there that feel left out. Chaos is probably the easiest army out there to use as a "counts-as" army. All parts from every space marine model out there can be used in conversions. Below I will show some pics of models I have converted and what they are in the Chaos codex and what they can be in other books as well. Some models will be easily moved from book to book while others may only serve one purpose. This is okay, just don't try to pass off some half a$$ effort to make a model something it's not just so you can pull one over on your opponent for an easy win. I only play with a small group so it is easier for me to play counts-as without looking like a jerk.

Iron Warriors Dreadnought, easily used in all books without discrepancy as is case with any Dreadnought

Another view, I like this model

Chaos lord with wings, Librarian, Chaplain, SM Captain, stretch to Dante in Blood Angels

Chaos Sorcerer with wings, Librarian, Chaplain, SM Captain, stretch to Sanguinor in BA Codex

Chaos Termies used as Abaddon's Bodyguard, Wolf Guard Termies counts-as

Fantasy Pestigors used as Lesser Daemons in Chaos Codex, okay so just one use

I have more examples just no pics, like Plague Marines as Grey Hunters, Raptors as Assault Marines, Rhinos as Rhinos, Landraiders as Landraiders, etc.

I love building me some Chaos models as they are fun to build and look sweet. I see no problem using most of the ones I have as other things using other rulebooks. I don't do this to win, but to open up playing possibilities to vary my games. This can also give insight into other armies that you may encounter and give you ideas on how to beat them using the ole' Chaos 'dex. And if you're really into to Chaos stuff why not play with 3 or 4 different codexes to keep the game fresh but building and painting the models you enjoy the most. Which is what is important, this is a hobby after all. And maybe you'll even save some money, but probably not if you're like me and want lots of this cool stuff.

So, in conclusion, I think it's okay to use counts-as armies to a degree. I still want the equipment be the same regardless of books. It doesn't matter if the plasmagun has a few spikes on it or not, just that it is a plasmagun and not a meltagun or whatever you put in the guys hands. I think when playing "counts-as" that WYSIWIG is the most important element, not whether they worship Khorne or the Emperor.

Do you think all of the above models fit into the categories I put them in or do you think I am stretching the boundaries? On the other hand do you think the boundary could be pushed further with some of them? I know there are other ways to do a "counts-as" army besides using power armored dudes, but I think this is by far the most easily acceptable way in gaming circles.

Photographing Minis: How much can Shutter Speed effect your lighting?

2010-09-29T12:15:00.000-04:00

Okay, so while working on this series of articles about photographing my minis I took a lot of pics in one evening for the article specifically. And, in my opinion, none of them were as good as the ones I usually take. Which sucks because I really thought I had it figured out and could help point some people in the right direction. My methods may still help you, but don't stick to exact parameters and expect same results. I did my usual thing exactly, but the difference being at night instead of in front of a window during the day as normal. Maybe this changed the way my lightbox works and the lack of light between lens and box or whatever. So, I guess my point is, sometimes I make what I think are pretty good pics and other times mediocre pics while doing the same thing with only slight variations in room lighting. I do the same thing almost every time with varying results every time. This still puzzles me and I am gonna come up with a real system that works every time the same. Until then, maybe this post will help with part of the puzzle.

This post is gonna show how much changing only the shutter speed can change the picture dramatically. Below are a series of pics that were all taken back to back changing only the shutter speed. I will note in the captions, some have been edited and altered to a suitable state of posting, but are still not what I like to get. I will not get into the numbered settings of my shutter speed as the same speed can take entirely different pics in different lighting conditions. My previous post shows some pics taken a while back using same methods that are much better in my opinion.

Taken with long shutter speed

Resized, cropped, lighting corrected version of above

Slightly shorter than above

Again slightly less than above

And another with less than above-getting closer

Resized, Cropped, Lighting corrected version of above-decent

Shorter still speed than above

Resized, Cropped, Lighting corrected version of above-probably best of night, but still color is off

As shutter speed increases, light decreases more

And shorter still speed and lighting darkens significantly

Well, maybe this little segment on shutter speed effects will help you in your own search of taking the perfect mini pic. I know I still have a lot to learn and will continue to look for new ways to be more consistent with taking better pics.

My next foray into better pics will involve working more with a macro function, but with manual settings. If this helps then I am gonna try to learn more about white balance settings and see if this will help even more.

How I Photograph my Minis in Minutes

2010-09-28T12:39:00.003-04:00

The setup I use when photographing my minis

Today, I will be continuing the series of posts about how I go about photographing my minis. When doing this I try to keep my time doing this to a minimum to save my valuable hobby time I could use for painting, modelling, etc.

The first timesaving tip is I keep the above setup in place so all I have to do is place the mini in the lightbox and put camera on tripod. I use my wife's Nikon D40 SLR camera to take all my pics. I have my own SD card just for minis and blogging that I swap in so mini pics don't get mixed in with wife's pictures. The lightbulb in the lamp is a 150W Reveal(daylight bulb).

That is my basic setup of all the hardware. As far as settings on the camera go, I am still experimenting with that, but I will show you some of my results below and tell you how what I use. I put the camera in Shutter Priority mode first, I know I should use macro mode but I am still learning. Using the Shutter Priority mode allows me to change the shutter speed up or down depending on light. This can vary the outcome of the picture greatly as I have found out during my trials. Another key component in this is to always use the self-time mode. Touching the camera especially during long shutter openings is very bad for quality. I usually setup and take a pic using timer. I then check the lighting in the picture and adjust the shutter speed up or down to let in more or less depending on this outcome. Usually after a couple test pic I am close enough to finish with my next step.

When I have something I want to post, I will take the photos from SD card and open in imaging software like photoshop. I usually keep my changes simple, Crop, Resize to 600x400(or thereabouts), then Autocorrect the lighting. These take just a few seconds and can help the quality of lighting and pic alot. Sometimes if I did everything right in the photobox I skip the Autocorrect lighting step. Below are some pics I have taken in my photobox using the settings talked about above. I am still in the trial and error stage and am still learning more about the camera each time I use it, so hopefully I will get better.

Pics taken just for this article using blue gradient background

Pic posted previously on blog using white background

Taken at same time as above pic

Pic taken with same camera setup, but no lightbox, just paper leaned against glue bottle

Taken same as above

Pic taken outside with no other lightsources or tripod

Pic taken in lightbox with white background paper

Pic taken in lightbox with white background paper at same time as above pic of Gobbers

As you can see from above there are varying ways of doing this all with slightly different outcomes. I think all of the above are acceptable for my blogging purposes. The bottom pics(not Hordes pics) were taken over a year ago while the top pic was taken just two days ago. As I am still learning the settings of the camera, I feel like I need something that pushes it to next level. If you see what I am doing wrong, please tell me. I think there is a little black magic involved in great pics, but that's just my opinion.

Well, I hope you have picked up something useful from my ramblings and poor grammar that will help you take better pics for your blog. I really don't make a concerted effort to get great pics as I am pretty happy right now with my outcome. It really only takes a minute or two per pic to photograph(and edit pics) of your minis to the above quality so give it a shot. I bet you could have photographed your last project in less time than it took to read this post if you used the above methods.

And as always if I learn more on the subject I will post the results of my trials and errors. If you know something I can try, let me know and I'll give it a go.

How to Build Your Own Photo Lightbox for Free, well almost Free.

2010-09-27T17:11:00.000-04:00

This week I will be doing a series of posts about how I photograph my minis to coincide with the collaborative post going on over at From the Warp. The first will be showing how I built my own lightbox to place my minis in. I have no step-by-step pics of the process of building as I did this last year, but I think the pics in this post will explain most.

Items needed for build and setup:

Cardboard box

Parchment Paper

Tape

Printer Paper

Lamp with 150W Reveal(Daylight) Bulb

Tripod

Nikon D40 SLR(what borrow from wife)

To start I found a cardbox at work that I thought was large enough to hold a unit or a vehicle. Next I used a hobby knife to cut the top flaps off, this would become the front opening. I then marked off lines 1 inch in from the corners of the sides and top so I would have a guide to cut my openings. After these were marked I cut these openings for the top and sides. These were then covered in parchment paper(found in cabinet at home) to help with light diffusion. As you can see in the pic I also made a couple triangular shaped pieces of white paper for the corners at top(not sure if it actually helps, but it looks like it does). I then used some 11" x 17" printer paper and taped to bottom front and raduised through back corner and taped again at top. I took pics with only white for first year, but have now added the gradient paper as seen in pics this week for new trials. Building this took less than an hour and used only items found laying around, so free so far.

Pic of the setup I use

Above is my full setup, minus camera. I usually leave this setup somewhere to speed up my picture taking. I will get more into the setup, camera settings and example pics in the next post.

I hope this helps you decide if a lightbox is what you need for your minis. For the time(1 hour) and money(none) invested I think it is worth building and have laying around to use if you have space. Or you could just lean a piece of paper up against an Elmer's glue bottle like I used to do.

Organizing Your Bitz

2010-09-22T12:46:00.000-04:00

Fantasy Chaos/Undead Bitz Box

Here's another post about how I organize my things to maximize the little time I get to spend on my hobby. After about the first six months of playing 40k, I like most had a stack of sprues with extra bitz laying around. I decided to minimized the space these took up in my college apartment at the time, so I went to Wal-mart and bought a couple tackle boxes used for fishing lures. These costs 5-8 bucks depending on size. At first I was able to put all parts in one box, but as I grew my hobby to other armies and games systems I began to expand my bitz box collection to the point of the last picture in this post.

Now every time I purchase a new box of models and build them I clip the extras and sort into these bitz boxes by army. Then in each box I have spots for heads, legs, torsos, left arms, right arms, backpacks, close combat weapons, ranged weapons, etc. This is great as sometimes I don't build all the models that come in the box. These are used later to kitbash other models, swapping bitz between armies and even game systems.

Fantasy Empire Bitz Box

40k Chaos Space Marines Bitz Box

Stack of Bitz Boxes in Closet for all but vehicle bitz includes from top down: IG, SM, CSM, Fantasy Chaos/Undead mix, Lizardmen, Mordheim, Wood Elves, Kroot, Orcs & Goblins, Empire, Ogre Kingdoms, Necromunda, Oddball box

Now I just need to organize my vehicle bitz as they are just thrown in a drawer haphazardly. This will be taken care of eventually when I purchase some more boxes. Try this type of organization and I guarantee it will speed up your conversions immensely. I know I used to just toss extra stuff in a box and then dig around for ages trying to find that plasma pistol I knew I had from a while back. I would never go back to that cluster now. Though some may think my OCD style of organizing is over the top and they may be right, but I'm sure you know someone that digs around for hours looking for bitz in a box. If you're one of these, try this, it is inexpensive, efficiently stored and time saving. Hope this helps, till next time.

Making/Using a Wet Palette and Painting Efficiently

2010-09-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

My makeshift paint station

After seeing so many guys painting nice models on their blogs recently, I have become inspired to do more painting. My painting has been almost non-existent for about 5 years now. I have amassed great armies of nicely built plastics/metals in this time, but put paint to few. As most people that are finished with college know, life takes a lot of time, especially with a more than full-time job, wife, 2 year old, 2 month old and a new house to settle into. With all of this going on I thought painting was impossible for now, so I just keep putting it off. Until now that is, I have come up with a few things that will maximize my efforts in the time alotted.

First thing I did was to drag out everything I need for painting and put in one large plastic drawer that I have a stack of in my closet. You can't just leave all this stuff out on a desk with a 2 year old on the loose. I then primed up a few models to have in the drawer for next up. I also tried out a Wet Palette, which I will go into more detail below. After the first session I did during naptime, I painted more models than I had in two years. This was great inspiration, but also showed me how useful an airbrush would be, while basecoating. So, as I posted earlier I purchased one and I think it is a great investment for painting armies quickly.

The star of the show was the Wet Palette though. I don't know why I never used one before in my painting. It was so easy to make. I just used an old plastic storage container, putting a 1/4" of water into the bottom and placed a piece of parchment paper into it. It really was that easy. Even with all my paints being at least five years old, I was able to keep wet paint for my entire painting session. I am reviving these paints as I use them now, putting a stainless steel nut into each one and adding a few drops of water mixed with Future Floor wax.

The wet palette is so effective for many reasons. For me, I like to use a base color and a lighter shade and just mix up several stages of highlight. When doing this on the parchment paper I am able to start with a blob of basecoat and mix only one end of this making a line of paint that transitions from dark to light. Who cares right? Well an hour later when I have moved on from the jacket of a model to his gunbarrel and my brush slips and spooges his jacket, the paint that I did this with is still completely usable. I do not have to go back and mix or pull pots, anything. Even if I don't slip with the brush it is nice to be able to get up and stretch, or get some water, or change a baby diaper at any point during my painting without having to finish this last highlight before my custom mix dries. The wife appreciates this also, as I don't have to say, "Hold on I gotta finish this highlight before I help you."

My old tile palettes are now a thing of the past. I doubt I'll ever use them again. With the wet palette it doesn't matter if I used the paint an hour ago or just pulled it from the pot, it is the same. I haven't pulled any several hour paint sessions, but for 1-2 hour sessions it has been working great.

Well, I'll stop blabbing about how great I think wet palettes are. Even ones as simple as the one I made up. So if you have been hesitant about trying one out, stop and go get one or make one yourself. You won't regret the few bucks it costs(read free if you just take it from the wife's things like I did).

If you think you don't have time to paint, try a few of those things to help you get more out of your next session. Here's the quick list:
Get your stuff together in one area or drawer like me for a quick setup and takedown.
If painting models with 90% one color basecoat, get an airbrush to do it quickly, then black out small stuff.
Batch prime models in between other chores for family.
Use a wet palette, seriously, do it.

Trollbloods on my Mind

2010-09-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I did a little more painting, making a little progress on my yet unplayed Trollbloods army I posted about last week. I primed up the remaining models for my 25 pt list and tried out the new airbrush basecoating a Dire Troll Mauler. Above is a pic of Madrak, an Axer, an Impaler and Fell Caller that are next up in painting, that is if I can keep the brush off the Mauler. With so little time I am hoping to get one model per weekend painted. With the scale of these being a bit bigger than I'm used to, things are a little slow. Not painting in over a year is not helping my speed either. I am also trying to lower my standards a bit and just try some quick basecoats, couple highlights and plenty of washes to bring everything together. Below is Alten Ashley. He took around an hour, some parts I'm really happy(trench coat) and others are just meh(gun stock).

Alten before matte varnish and static grass

Also before matte varnish

Matte varnish is drying, didn't take the time to put in photobox

More post matte varnish, yes I touched the base too early and smeared it, but fixed later.

I am enjoying painting the Privateer Press models more than building them. I don't like multi-piece metals on the building side of things, though the detail is great. I'm glad to see more plastics coming out of PP, even if they're all for the Warmachine side of things. Once I get my 35 pt list painted I hope to start jumping back and forth painting a 40k army while throwing in the odd Trollblood model here and there. My painting progress should increase when work goes back to 40 hrs, though the overtime is nice.

Next post will talk about how I am just starting to use a wet palette. Also have some Bloodcrushers coming, so more Chaos conversions are on the way.

I finally bought an airbrush and it's a time-saver already.

2010-09-13T12:33:00.000-04:00

I have been debating an airbrush purchase for several weeks now and finally took the plunge. There were several reasons for wanting to take this step. First, I have very little hobby time, so any time saved for me would be time gained and more models painted. Also, after finally painting a few models the other day that started out as predominately one color, I decided it was a must. Basecoating a model with a brush could take upwards of a half hour while with the airbrush I can basecoat with any color in my collection within minutes. This was what I would find out after the airbrush arrived.

After much searching of the interwebz for info on all the various brushes available. I knew from the search that I wanted a double action gravity fed airbrush. Picking the Paasche Talon was the easy part, the air supply was the hard part. After much searching I just picked up a kit that included a hobby compressor. The price was right, though I know it isn't what I would really like. I figure if I upgrade I can always sell this one.

After ordering and getting in the mail Friday, I finally had a chance to get it together Saturday and play around with it. While I wanted to use some other models to practice on, I couldn't wait, so just threw down my Dire Troll Mauler that I had just finished building. I figure to basecoat this model with a brush would take almost an hour. However, even with putting everything together, practicing on some paper, basecoating the troll and cleaning up, I still had less than an hour in model. It came out pretty good, I just need to get used to the trigger and get my paint consistency down. I also need to do more research into cleaning the airbrush properly. This time I just sprayed Windex through it until clean.

So, there's my first experience with an airbrush. It was pretty easy just basecoating this model without messing it up. I think the purchase was well worth it and it will be used a lot in the future. Any model that is mostly one color will definitely be basecoated with it, then just black out the bits I didn't want that color, which most of us would have to tidy up these with a brush anyways. I will continue to post my airbrush experiences on here as they happen. Hope this helps some guys that are on the fence about getting one.

Trollbloods Painted So Far and First List - 25 pts

2010-09-06T11:59:00.000-04:00

Lately, I have been wanting to play Hordes more and more. I have been buying Trollbloods models for a few years now, building them as I get them but never playing. I owned all of the MKI rulebooks but still never played. Then a few months ago I ventured into the local comic book store that I don't ever visit. I don't do comic books, I do miniature wargaming. However, this time was different there were some guys playing Warmachine. I started talking to them and a new owner was just starting up selling things like Warmachine/Hordes, Malifaux, etc. This got me excited so I read all my old books and then bought the MKII when it was released. Well, the family comes first so I have yet to make it down there during game time on Sundays to learn to play and start in their league. I have traded for some new models and painted a couple recently. The Trollkin Champions were painted a couple years back, but the Swamp Gobbers below I did last weekend during naptimes. When I do get a chance to go I wanna at least have my first list painted if possible. Hopefully, I don't just get owned and wanna switch list immediately. Check them out, I'll post list thoughts below.

I really want my list to be a Grim Angus centered list once I learn to play. Too bad most of the models I own don't do as well with him so I hear. I really want a more shooty list using something like Grim, Earthborn, Alten, Impaler, Axer, Bushwhackers, Swamp?, and don't know what else. But for now I have written the below list using pMadrak at 25 pts.

pMadrak+6
Dire Troll Mauler - 9 pts
Troll Axer - 6 pts - free
Troll Impaler - 5 pts
Champions x 5 - 10 pts
Swamp Gobbers - 1 pt

At 35 pts will add
Krielstone Bearer with 5 Scribes - 4 pts
Fell Caller - 3 pts
Alten Ashley - 2 pts

I already have all of these for both lists built, just have to get painting now. Does anyone think these will be semi-successful early on? I really don't want to get stomped all the time.

I know this is off the regular 40k path for me, but this is the only game played locally for me to get in on. I have some 40k projects in the works that I will be posting soon. I have already painted some and am just waiting on my airbrush setup to arrive in the mail before finishing the rest of the project. I'll leave you with a quick WIP of this taken with my cellphone camera. This project will be broken down into several articles, but want to get finished first, so I don't leave it hanging for weeks/months. Till next time....

Tzeentch CSM vs Blood Angels....er, Nightlords Battle Report - 1,750 pts

2010-08-17T12:47:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, my cousin and I decided to try to get in a game during my children’s naptime. After talking about the game, we both wanted to play a fun game. He wanted to bring out his seldom used Tzeentch CSM army and I wanted to throw something together from the Blood Angels Codex using the Nightlords models I have built. We decided on 1,750 pts so we could keep the time down, but big enough to use the models we wanted in this “experimental” game.

I went through my models and came up with a mixed mech list so I could test which way I wanted steer with the army from here on out. I’ll probably just end up getting enough for several variant playstyles but at least this sounds good. Below is a quick rundown of our lists(points probably not exactly right).

Nightlords list using BA Codex

Reclusiarch(Kharn) with 8 Death Company(Khorne Berzerkers) – 1 powerfist all riding in a Landraider

Death Company Dreadnought(FW Nightlords Dread Proxy) with Blood Talons and Heavy Flamer

10 Assault Marines(Raptors) with jump packs, 2 Plasma Pistols and Srg with Plasma Pistol, Power Weapon

10 Assault Marines (Raptors) with jump packs, 2 Meltaguns and Srg with Powerfist

10 Assault Marines(Nightlord CSM) in rhino, 2 flamers, and Srg with powerfist, combi-flamer

10 Assault Marines(Nightlord CSM) in rhino, 2 plasmaguns and Srg with power weapon, plasma pistol

So a little mech, a little deepstrike trials, and a semi-hammer unit in landraider, and the DC Dread for Schlitzengiggles. I later learned that I should have taken some Sanguinary Priests.

Tzeentch-themed list using CSM Codex

Daemon Prince with wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Warptime, and Bolt of Change

Chaos Dreadnought with twin-linked lascannons and heavy flamer

3 Obliterators

8 Thousand Sons plus Sorcerer with Bolt of Change with Icon in Rhino

10 CSM with Icon of Tzeentch, 2 Meltaguns, Aspiring champ with powerfist in Rhino

So plenty of meched up invulnerable save wearing dustbunnies, with a prince, dread and oblits thrown in to make up for weaknesses.

As naptime neared we went and picked up my table from mother-in-laws and got it setup on top of the kitchen table and began to setup while nap was happening. We rolled a Seize Ground mission with 4 Objectives using Spearhead deployment. We set up the objectives pretty much in each quarter.

Setup of my units

Closeup of the CSM Setup

He won the roll-off for first turn and setup everything save the oblits that he would deepstrike later. He set up a rhino full of CSM on his nearest objective, and stacked most stuff near center table to circle around right side of building in center toward 2 objectives nearest me.

I set up everything except my jumppack squads. I put a rhino with the plasmaguns on my nearest objective and parked the other beside to head toward the one he had stacked. I sent the death company toward his weak side, hoping they could handle themselves while the jumppacks would support his heavy side. The DC Dread hid behind one of the rhinos.

Even though this was an objective mission I rolled for seize and actually got it. I wanted this army to try to get the upper hand early.

Turn 1

Game begins and I move forward everything, save the rhino with plasmagun guys camped on objective. I fire a lascannon from landraider and wound the daemon prince. Short turn for me but I’m almost there already.

CSM turn, he moves a few things around whiffs all shooting with Bolt of Change and his dread.

Turn 2

This turn I roll in both deepstriking assault squads. Descent of Angels makes this proposition a lot more reliable getting meltaguns up close. I strike one behind his rhino camped on objective, using the plasma pistols to shake it. The other dropped in close to 2 full rhinos, wrecking one with the meltaguns. The dread is still walking and running forward. This turn the landraider would be in assault range of daemon prince so I charge forward disgorging the raging lunatics. Reclusiarch causes 2 unsaved wounds, while the regular death company throw out 17 wounds from 7 guys. This was pretty awesome to see against a T5 model. They would be insane against anything normal. The powerfist guy was pissed as he just stood around powering up for nothing.

The CSM this turn decide to disembark everybody and take down as many as possible before I could charge next turn. A Thousand Sons unit shoot down 3 of the deathcompany. While the two CSM units shoot down 2 raptors from each squad. The second Thousand Sons unit kills the remaining 8 raptors in the melta unit. He then begins assault, charging my Landraider with Dread, whiffing. Also he charged my remaining raptor unit with a CSM unit, killing some though units stay locked in. He also decides after seeing the deathcompany on the charge he should charge them instead. A full unit of Thousand Sons charge in. The Reclusiarch strikes first missing everything, while his sorcerer kills him outright with a force sword. The rest of the units kill 2 from each and stay locked in combat.

A lot happened in turn 2. His shooting was great and everything in army having invulnerable saves is pretty nice when you can roll them. I would have like a priest in there for the Feel No Pain bubble for the extra chance at living. They will definitely be in my next list.

Early turn 2

Turn 3

In my next turn I really had no shooting as most was locked in combat or had no targets. In combat the CSM squad takes down all but 3 Raptors who flee and regroup. The Death Company and Thousand Sons units are still locked.

In the CSM turn the Obliterators deepstrike in first, firing multimeltas at my Landraider, immobilizing it and taking off one lascannon. The CSM squad fires into remaining 3 Raptors taking down 2 before charging in and finishing off the last one. The other CSM unit meltas my rhino, causing it to explode, killing one passenger. His Dreadnought finally gets the drop on my Death Company, charging in and helping finish them off.

Turn 4

My turn again and I have a chance at some redemption at least. I leave the objective behind, moving up firing 3 flamers and bolt pistols, killing 6 CSM before charging in and finishing them off. My Death Company Dread charges a unit of Thousand Sons missing all attacks.

It’s looking grim for me now with only a couple units on the board and only having annihilated one of his units.

This turn he begins moving onto objectives on left side of board as all I have remaining over there is the dread. His obliterators fire plasma cannons at my flamer unit killing 5 before finishing the remaining 4 in combat. His dreadnought then charges my DC dread, exploding it in a massive ball of fire that kills 4 of his Thousand Sons, EPIC.

Turn 5

Well, this turn I’m hoping it’ll end as all I have left is an immobilized landraider and one rhino full of guys camping an objective. They remain camped firing a couple plasma shots from the hatch, missing of course.

For the second time this game, the TS dread fire frenzies, though this time destroying a CSM rhino, haha. This dread is my best friend this game, killing a rhino and 4 Thousand Sons. Another rhino runs for the contestation of my objective but immobilizes itself in some rough ground 5” away.

We roll and the game continues.

Turn 6

I fire from hatch again, causing 3 wounds on his obliterators.

Again the Thousand Sons Dread fire frenzies killing 1 CSM nearby. Somebody take that lascannon from him. The oblits then fire plasma cannons at my only remaining unit taking down 9 of them.

Again we roll, again the game continues.

Turn 7

My last model moves onto objective.

Obliterators then twin-linked plasma gun him, while a Sorcerer Bolts my last rhino.

Game finally ends with Tzeentch in control of 3 objectives and over half the army remaining, while the poor Blood Angels…er, Nightlords have only the immobilized landraider on the board. Wow, what a slaughter for the CSM.

End Game with only my Landraider and wrecked Rhino, and his having 3 objectives

My thoughts on the game.

Tzeentch themed Chaos armies are tough with all those invulnerable saves. His list was a well-rounded list ready to deal with most things I had. My list showed me that I need to specialize with either full- mech or full- jump pack. I think the mix hurt me, especially with reserves coming in so early. I probably should have hung back and let him camp the objectives before blitzing each one with larger parts of my army, annihilating that part of his before moving on. Instead, I split up hoping that each of my units could deal with each of his and got owned for the trouble. Was a great game, with lots of funny moments, especially the dread fire frenzying almost every turn. At least playing a game got the juices flowing on the direction I will head in with the Nightlords.

If you made it this far, congratulations that was a long one. I gotta figure out how to make these reports more concise.

Check out my new Nightlord inspired Goat Banner

2010-08-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've become tired of the boring look of my blog. Having no skills in photoshop or any artistic drawing abilities I contacted Goatboy of Bols-fame to make up a banner for my blog. I sent him a few images of models I have converted, wanting him to use one of these as his inspiration. After a few emails he settled on the below Nightlord model I converted up a while back. For a mere 25 bucks he whipped up the above banner and I had it in just a couple days. I think he did a great job using my model as his inspiration. Thanks Goatboy.

Using my new banner as inspiration, I'll be posting more on the upcoming Project: Nightlords, including a battle report from this past weekend. I'll also have some pics of my converted models that will stand-in for units in the Blood Angels Codex as these are the rules I will be using for them.

Project Nightlords: Progress, Kinda.

2010-08-04T09:10:00.000-04:00

I finally had a little time to work on a few models lately. I've had a busy few months with working, building a new house, moving into new house, putting things on walls and what not(read list of things wife wants done), taking more time with 2 year old daughter while wife is pregnant and finally having my son be born last week. I still haven't moved all my models to the new house and getting the paint out is beyond what time I have to spend at the moment. I just get a few minutes here and there, so cleaning a few mold lines between chores is about all I get. Most of the time I'm to tired to skip naptime and put in a couple hours on the models.

While on vacation in June I did have a chance to read the Blood Angels Codex and decided it was the way to go with most of my Chaos stuff being geared toward Nightlords. Finally, I can use the 40 Chaos Raptors I have owned since you could actually have that many in a Nightlords army. I got these out and built and based the final 10 models and changed some of the special weapons to fit the Blood Angels Codex unit entry. I think they're all legal now for a jump pack army. When I built the originals a few years ago I wanted a heavy urban war theme on the bases, so I carried this through with the basing on the final 10. Below are the 4 units of 10 Assault Raptors.

A 10 man unit with 2 Plasma Pistols and Srg with Power Weapon/Plasma Pistol

A 10 man unit with 2 Flamers and Srg with Pair Lightning Claws

A 10 man unit with 2 meltaguns and Srg with Powerfist/Bolt Pistol

A 10 man unit with 2 meltaguns and Srg with Powersword/Bolt Pistol

I'm still in the process of going through my army and sorting which models will work for what in the Blood Angels Codex with as little confusion as possible. I want to have a Chaos army, but I don't want my opponent to easily misunderstand what my units and characters are. I'll list my ideas so far.

Mephiston - Fabius Bile model

Reclusiarch - Kharn the Betrayer

Dante - Converted possessed with leathery wings - pic coming

Sanguinor - Converted possessed with leathery wings - pic coming

Sanguinary Guard - Converted possessed all with leather wings - just idea at moment, still need parts to convert

Assault Squad with Jumppacks - Chaos Raptors - see above

Assault Squad with Rhinos - Nightlords CSM - built - pic coming

Terminators Assault Squad - Converted Chaos Termies - still idea stages

Death Company - Khorne Berzerkers - built and posted previously with converted Landraider

Death Company Dreadnought - Forge World Khorne dread with dual CCW

Baal Predators - chaos up the normal model

Vindi - see above

Land Raiders - see above

Sanguinary Priest - maybe Deathguard models, maybe something converted

Those are the few ideas I've had thus far. I'm gonna post a few lists I have thought up to get me started. I still have to purchase some Baal Predators, FW dreads, and maybe more bits for Assault Squads in Rhinos. Gotta get some funds first, which brings me to telling you to check out my earlier post with my list of WH, DH, SM and random bits I'm selling at the moment. I still haven't had time to post any on ebay, so I still have a majority of the ones shown. Email at ctreleheb@gmail.com .

Next up will be some pics of the Forgeworld Thunderbolt I just finished building(may wait til I get more of my basing idea ironed out though). Does anyone have any FW Epic Tau tanks? I am thinking of changing the scale of the base to make more of strafing run diorama and these are part of the plan. I'm also thinking about adding a weekly column about writing themed lists for the hobbyists instead of the competitive player. I have a few ideas so far, but trying to get more of the idea down before I start posting.

Well, its been a while and that was a long one. I'm hoping to be a little more consistent soon when the dust settles around the house.

Selling Reminder: DH, WH, IG, SM & More

2010-07-19T10:52:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder that a couple posts below is a list of lots of models that I am getting rid of cheap. I have pics to go with all and descriptions. These are all new, never built, metal models that are very pricey these days, but seeing that I bought them 5 years ago I don't have as much in them and am willing to part with for 25-40% off retail depending on the quantity you would like. I have updated the post to show which models have already sold. Enough of this, just scroll down and check out the post with all the great models.

2010-07-14T23:07:00.001-04:00

So I finally got around to finishing these models. I know Sallies like their terminator armor but I always thought that Sternguard fit their fluff real nice. But I wanted my Sternguard to stand out from the regular models. I always like the Legion of the Damned models but didn't really like their rules nor did I think they fit in with my army. So I converted some! I use "convert" lightly as I really did was give the whole squad combi-meltas (they are Salamander's after all!) and changed the load out of the Sergeant a little.

Not sure exactly how I should deploy them yet though, may give them a Razorback to cruise around in but I'll save that for a later post!

I can't wait to use them!

Oh, and be sure to check all the goodies for sale on the post below!

-reklawsj