Angel of Absolution WIP...

So here are some WIP pictures of my first models for the new army. I was finally able to get the macro settings adjusted properly on my camera and I have to admit it works really well; almost too well. I'm really surprised at the amount of detail that shows up in these pictures and the number of mistakes that I see on the models. Honestly, when looking at them normally, both under the modeling light and in pure sunshine they look really sharp but after looking at the pictures I see many areas that need to be touched up. Looks like I'll be digging out the ole' Opti-Visor so that I can get a closer look at things.

Anyways, here are the pictures and feel free to post your comments below:

These first three shots are of my actual test model, it's one of the Stern Guard veterans. The color scheme was taken directly from the Siege of Vraks - Vol. III book from Forge World. This one is mostly done with the painting part but as you can tell I still have add the base and static grass.

 The second model is the Sergeant from the Stern Guard set and I still have to complete the backpack and pick out some of the details on the power-fist. as with the first model I still need to complete the base and add the static grass.

So that is it for now, I'll post pictures of the completed models later this week.

Cheers...

A Brief Update...

Well, I hope everyone had a really good Thanksgiving holiday because I sure did. I cooked this year and I’m proud to say that everything turned out just great. The turkey was moist and just came out perfect and the stuffing and side dishes all complemented one another. My family was very pleased and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves because unlike years past they all just chilled out and watched football and a couple of movies until evening set in. After everyone left, I cleaned off the dining table and proceeded to but my modeling area back in order… gotta love being a Bachelor some days J nobody complaining about leaving stuff on the tables all the time.

Angels of Absolution

I mentioned previously that I started working on my first squad of troops for the Angels of Absolution army and I’m pleased to announce that the first non-test model is complete. One of the things that I have always taken pride in is the amount of detail that I put into my table top models. I’ve never really gotten why some people will just seem to slap some paint on a model just to have three colors on it and then call that table top quality. While I will admit that it takes me a long time to complete an army and I do play the occasional game with unfinished models. I always ensure that what is out on the table is well done and pleasing to the eyes. 

As many of you know, I worked hard this past summer to complete my pure Deathwing army and for the most part it is complete. The models look great and many of my fellow players have complemented the army and even awarded me the Best Painted Army award for the campaign. So with this new army I want to keep up that level of work and possibly surpass it by trying some new techniques.

 The first model was primed white and then I took a page from Les Bursley over at Awesome Paint Job. He has a couple of recipes for ‘soft body’ washes which I used on this model. I applied the initial coat of Vallejo’s Bleached Bone then washed the model using the Brown wash and then began highlighting the model. I thinned the paints this time using his water/thinner mixture and it worked out very well. The greaves, bolter and ornaments were all painted using Vallejo’s German Grey which I like better than GW’s Chaos Black because it has a touch of grey already mixed in. This effect makes highlighting easier and more subtle for the darker colors, I have to make less passes with the lighter shades to get the final colors. 

The interesting thing that I found about using Les’s method is how fast it seems to go. Usually, one would think that when using a blended or layered technique that it’ll be very time consuming; not the case with this one. This first model is nearly complete and as a result I have started the base/wash step for the other four models of the squad. With luck I may be able to report that the first squad is complete by Monday morning. 

I’m also considering expanding my original idea for the army to include members of other Space Marine chapters that took place in the Siege of Vraks campaign. I have the decal sheets for the campaign and it includes the markings for not only the Angels of Absolution but also the Red Hunters and Red Scorpion chapters. I discussed this idea with a buddy of mine and he thought that since they all use the same codex that it would be an original idea for an army.  

Most players typically focus their army’s on a single chapter, war host, company or mob but this would allow a modeler to expand his pallet and possibly his skill set. The majority of the army will be based on the AoA but I think that by adding a unit or two of the Red Scorpions and Red Hunters will add something unique to the army.  I’m thinking of adding a squad of RH Terminators to the army after I have my two troops and an HQ completed. I like the idea of adding RS Assault Marines to the mix because the Forge World models look pretty awesome. 

Well until next time…unters HunHhhhhhhhhhhhh

Happy Thanksgiving to All....

So it looks like the Blood Angels will be getting a second wave of models in February 2011 and there is some speculation that it’ll include the Storm Raven model. This image surfaced recently on the internet of what appears to be the actual model that GW will be releasing.

Responses on the various forums and websites are mixed but my opinion is that it fits very well with the rest of the Space Marine product line. My hope is that when it is released that there will be a set of rules that would allow other chapters to use the model that probably won’t happen until the next marine codex is released. However, I expect that we’ll be seeing more than a few of these hit the gaming tables in the near future.

I’m planning on picking one up when it is finally released so that I can add it to my new Angels of Absolution army. The reason is that I highly doubt that it will remain solely a Blood Angel or Grey Knights unit for too long and I think it would be pretty cool have in my display case. The new AoA army will be using the standard Space Marine codex instead of being based off of the Dark Angel’s codex. This will allow me to have the flexibility of using the Space Marine rules without be hampered by future updates and releases as I am with a pure Dark Angels army.

The Dark Angels army was not only my first army but it was what got me excited to get into the hobby. Sadly, we all know that their codex is outdated and non-competitive when compared to other army’s in the game. The AoA army will follow the more stringent Space Marine rules but take advantage of the newer units options, cheaper point values and special characters that are in that codex. Also, by making them a DA successor chapter it will allow me to mix a match the models in larger games and tournaments without suffering composition or fluff penalties.

This past weekend, I prepped the first Tac squad models for priming and decided that I’m probably going to go for a Multi-Melta/Melta Gun combo for this squad. I know that currently players are still leaning towards this combo so I figured that I would give it a try, at least with this first squad. I’ve got an extra Rhino lying around along with a set of Forge World the extra armor so I’ll be working on that over the holiday weekend. Hopefully, with four days off I can make some pretty good progress and have something to post next week.

So until next time, please have a good Thanksgiving holiday and keep modeling…

New Items from Forge World...

Well, it looks like Forge World is releasing some new products which includes a new Land Raider variant, Dreadnaught variant, Space Marine decals and my personal favorite new Dark Angels decals. Links to each item is listed below....

Dark Angels Decals

Space Marine Decals

Land Raider Achilles

Dreadnaught Mk IV Ironclad

Cheers...

Just a little update...

Just a brief update today, the first item is that you may remember that I mentioned I was working on a Skaven army but ran into some issues after applying a clear coat. Well, I’ve decided to set that project aside for now because it still bothers me a little about painting mishap. Until I can work past that issue, I’m going to work finishing a platoon for the Imperial Guard project. I have about 20 troops in various stages of painting that have been waiting on the sidelines until I finished the Deathwing army.

I intend the IG army to be a long term project as I will be adding several Forge World pieces to the army and they will take a while to save up for and complete. Some of the pieces can now be found in plastic which is fantastic in that it will allow me to speed things along without too much converting. The troops are being assembled using the Cadian face masks and backpacks upgrade set that is sold by Forge World. I have ten completed and ready for final basing and another twenty that need a bit more painting before they’re done.

I’m keeping the paintjob simple but I’m using various oils for washes and weathering on the troop models. The plan is to extend that practice into the transports and tanks with a few weathering powders thrown in as well. My goal is to use skills learned from scale armor modeling on this army to make everything a little more realistically weathered. The first Leman Russ is being assembled and I’m adding some photo-etch parts that were designed by Eduard for the 1/48 Tamiya line of armor kits. I’ll keep you posted on this project and should be able to post some pictures of the first platoon shortly.

The second item, is that I made a decision after my last post that I was withdrawing from the local gaming club. I contacted the president and explained that I would be withdrawing as an officer and as a member. I’ll continue to go to the store periodically and play games and possibly host events but I won’t be getting involved too much with the group. I’m planning on going to another store over the Thanksgiving Holiday so we’ll see how that works out.

Cheers….

Long Overdue Update with a Little Venting on the Side...

So it’s been a good while since my last update and for that I apologize. Real life has once again gotten in the way and sucked up most of my free time. The good news is that hopefully for the next couple of months that has changed.

When I last posted I was in LGS’s summer WH40k league and doing pretty well with running my traditional Deathwing Army. Well, I ended up getting 4th place overall (20 players total) and I walked away with the Best Painted Army award for my Terminators. So overall I succeeded in my goal to play more games, develop better tactics and to learn the 5th edition rules better. In the end, I have an almost completely painted 3000pt. traditional Deathwing Army that consists strictly of Terminators, Dreadnoughts and Land Raiders.

I really like the addition of the TLLAC Mortis Dreadnought to the list as while it is more expensive when forced to use the Forge World rules it is very useful in many of the scenarios that we played over the summer. It is very effective against light armor and most everything else in an opponent’s army. Hell, I even used it to chew up and knock off most of the wounds on a Daemon Prince recently; took an armless, immobilized Venerable Dreadnought to kill the DP in the end ….what a game that was too! The point is that I think the Mortis variant is a great addition to the line-up and I look forward to using it in the future. Hopefully, when GW gets off its ass and releases the new Dark Angels codex it’ll be in there properly and cheaper to boot.

Now to change gears a little, when the league finished up back in August, I decided to finish exploring into putting together a Skaven army for WHFB. I collected several boxes of Clanrats, a Regiment Box, Doomwheels and even one of the new starter sets. The army looks very interesting in the army book and I like some of the tricks and humorous outcomes that can happen when playing with this army. What bothers me the most is the sheer number of models that you have to assemble and paint in order to play a decent game in WHFB.

Part of the reason I elected to play Deathwing over the summer was the small number of models that I would need to paint to have a functional army. With Skaven, I’m looking at having to paint close to 200 models just to have a decent army list. Most of the games around here are in the 2500 - 3000pt. range so I’ll need to run bigger blocks than I had originally intended. Now understand something here, I have all this money invested in an army and game system that I have yet to play. Hell, I only played a demo game a few years ago but because I decided earlier this year that I wanted to help expand the store’s WHFB experience, I went full bore into the project without really thinking about the amount of work that it was going to take to complete the army.

I decided to use Army Painters product line of primers and dips to speed things up when painting the core troops. I tested the new process on five models and they initially turned out pretty good but when a clear flat coat was applied to dull the sheen of the Strong dip, the affect was ruined. The flat coat crinkled up and didn’t adhere properly to the glossy dipped surface of the models. So out of frustration, I set the models aside and haven’t really touched them in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been looking at altering the dipping technique a little by brushing on the Strong dip instead as that may still do the job and provide the affect I’m looking for. At the moment though, the project is on hold until I can completely resolve this issue.

So that pretty much covers what I’ve been doing with regards to my miniature painting and gaming since summer ended. However, there is one other item that has been bothering me for the last several months that really seems to have had an impact on my enjoyment of this hobby. So I’m going to take an opportunity to vent a little here.

When I started this blog, it was meant to be a way to share my experiences within this wonderful hobby but I’ve been dealing with a problem recently is that has impacted my enjoyment. I enjoy the various aspects of the hobby but occasionally the one thing that causes me the most grief is the human factor. By that I mean in having to deal with people that have become extremely difficult to deal with while playing. When I started in this hobby well over a decade ago, it was easy because I was in my mid-twenties and most of my close friends played and they helped introduced me to the game. We had a great time but as with all things time marched on, we got older, started careers, got married or started families and in many cases they moved out of state. As a result, I was forced to play at various stores, meet new players and develop new friendships along the way. It wasn’t all bad but every now and then I would run across certain people that just rubbed me the wrong way. When this happened, I would usually delve into why they made me feel upset or what caused the situation in the first place. I would look internally to see if it was something that I might have done or what was the specific trigger was that had caused me to feel that way; in most cases, I came to realize that the person in question was just an ass so no further explanation needed :)

My point in all of this is that at certain times in my gaming career, we all come across people that just suck the fun out of everything and cause us to question why we’re in this hobby. Me, I’ve been feeling like that for most of the past year due to an individual at my LGS. I’ll admit that I have a strong personality but I have a good heart and I’m willing to help out just about anyone with anything. I’ll be the first to state that this person and I are very much alike in certain ways but in others we’re vastly different. Hell, one buddy described the situation as him being a deadly disease but that I’m the cure that’ll probably kill the patient in the process ;) what are friends for right? I’ve tried to discuss the situation with this person and few others but it usually falls on deaf ears or people would listen but didn’t have the power or desire to intervene.

As we all belong to the same gaming club in addition to playing at the same store it has been rather difficult to get past some of the issues. Partly, due to his gruff attitude and unwillingness to either change or compromise. As a result of these events, I had strongly considered resigning as both a club officer and as a club member a few months ago but I was talked out of doing that by some friends. The part that really bothers me is that the behavior still continues and he either doesn’t care or doesn’t see how it is affecting the gaming community. His behavior lately can be compared to that of a Troll sitting under a bridge waiting to harass anyone that comes by. In this case, he sits in a corner of the gaming area and will make various disparaging remarks to people, often unsolicited, about their choice of army or their playing style. He is sad example of how to be a poor sport and a poor individual altogether when it comes to interacting with other gamers.

Normally, I’d stay away from posting issues like this on a public media site but, hell, it’s my blog and I said I was going to use it to vent a little. I’ve more or less realized over the last few days that I cannot let this issue continue any further because frankly it’s causing me to not enjoy something that has given me so much enjoyment over the years. So I think that a time has come for me to make a change, sadly, I think that means traveling well out of my way to play at another store. The person in question has strong ties with the store’s owner so I don’t see him changing anytime soon. I’ll keep in touch with those people that are my good friends but for the most part it looks like my regular games will be happening someplace else.

Well it looks like I have a lot to think about over the next few days and hopefully I can come to a decision that’ll lead to me enjoying this great hobby once again.

Until next time….

Picking up speed and sprinting to the finish...

Sorry for the lack of updates but things have been a little hectic around here lately. First I went out of town for the holiday weekend and had a great time visiting family that I haven’t seen in a couple of years. Second, the new job is going very well as things are ramping up with the project. Regardless, the WH40k Summer League soldiers on we are now beginning the Fourth and final round.

For Round 3, I played two 1850pt. games and ended up getting a Draw in both matches. The first game was against another Dark Angels player using a Black/White list featuring both Belial and Samuel (AV14 Landspeeder) and lots of multi-melta’s and melta guns. The mission was Secure and Control and the deployment selected was Spearhead with my opponent winning the toss to go first.

It was a knock down dragged out fight with my Mortis Dreadnaught w/ Two Twin-Linked Auto cannons being my armies MVP. He took out a couple of attack bikes and then chewed up a Landspeeder and part of a squad of bikes. The other two dreads helped finish off the remaining bike squad. My shooting was spot on for much of the game. While I was taking casualties and losing terminators to my opponent’s melta guns he was also taking heavy losses from my assault cannon and auto cannons. The game ended after six turns with each of us holding our own objectives.

I think that I might have one the game had I kept a unit of terminators in reserve and Deepstriked them into his back field after he had committed his bikes to attacking my army. That unit could have contested his objective and might have prevented the game from becoming a Draw. To be honest though, this player is one of better players at the LGS so I was glad to have gotten a draw instead of a loss.

My second game was against one of the store’s Tyranid players and it went better than I expected. This mission was Annihilation with a Pitched Battle deployment. He ran a mix of giant and small bugs and it was interesting to play against him. This was the first time that I had truly played against the Nids since the new codex was released earlier this year. Now, understand I have a Nid army but I have not played it or updated it with the new models so I went into this game a little blind. He had a Trygon that was just insane in that it regenerate wounds like I have never seen before; recovered three wounds in one turn.

In this game, I made an error in that I spread my army apart too much and I feel that is was cost me some units. I placed my Mortis and one Venerable dreadnaught’s on high ground to the right of my main force. They were attacked by the Trygon and a Genestealer squad and I diverted a squad of terminators to assist. I feel now that I made an error in that I should have kept the squad with the main force because they could have done more damage and helped finish off a few of his units more quickly. I’ve realized that I should have just used the two dreads as throw away units for that game because they did tie up his Trygon and Genestealers for most of the game.

When the game ended I had Belial and two terminators left while my opponent has the Trygon, a single Genestealer and roughly 10 lurking termagants on the table. It was a really good game and I’m looking forward to playing him again in the future as he was one of the first kids to join our merry band of gamers oh so many years ago. He has transformed into a very good player and is in his senior year of high school so he has really come a long way.

On a final note, I am very pleased with how I am doing in the league so far. Round 4 kicked off this past weekend and the point values jump to 2500pts. I am currently hovering in 5th or 6th place out of a field of 20 players. This next round lasts for only one week so I am going to try to get in a City Fight game in as we are allowed a one-time five point bonus if we do a mission from either City Fight, Planet Strike or Battle Missions books. I’m choosing the City Fight because it will be easier to setup and play and it will allow me to use some of the nice terrain that we made last fall.

Until next time...

Round 2 and I'm back for more...

So the Deathwing are gaining momentum in this summers’ WH40k League at my LGS. I have played three games league so far and I am ranked in the top five out of eighteen players. I’m really hoping that I can keep up this up as my goal is to finish in the top ten or higher. Now I will be the first to admit that my last two games have been played against younger more inexperienced players but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

We started Round 2 of the league this past weekend and I played a 1500pt. game against and new player to our store. I believe he has been playing for a while now as he had most of his Space Marine army fully painted and table ready. He had an interesting list which included Scouts, Landspeeders, Tac Marines, Rhino’s and Razorbacks. He even brought along a Land Raider and a Librarian in Terminator armor. My army was the same one that I mentioned and play tested last week.

The mission was Secure and Control with Dawn of War deployment and this time I didn’t make the mistake of leaving a squad on the objective to be sniped all game. I deployed first and setup two squads with Belial right on the line across from his objective marker. He setup his troops along his table edge but not completely out of Stormbolter range. During my first turn I walked/ran the Dreadnaughts towards my objects from the table edge and had the Land Raider Crusader go flat out to be in a better position next turn. I deepstriked (Deathwing Assault) my third squad onto his left flank and then all three squads opened up into his two squads. I wounded quite a few models but he made most of the save and only lost six models between the two squads. On his turn he brought in everything else but was forced to spread out his models which caused his to place the Land Raider, a Rhino and a Razorback within closing distance of my new arrived Terminator squad. He opened up on my squads and even had the librarian try a psychic attack but I only lost one man in Belial’s squad.

On turn two, I moved two squads up and annihilated the Librarian and his squad in a combination of shooting and close combat attacks. The Venerable Dreadnaught fired his Missile Launcher and Lascannon but didn’t crack the Land Raiders armor. I moved the LR Crusader up took a shot at the Razorback but that didn’t do much either. The third Terminator squad opened up and then assaulted the Razorback and turned it into a crater. My opponent opened up on my two squads and killed one more from Belail’s first squad but I made saves on the guys wounded in the second squad. He tried to shoot my third squad but didn’t do any damage. His Land Raider opened up on my Venerable Dreadnaught and caused a Shaken affect for the next round. He also Deepstriked a five-man squad of Assault Marines near my third squad but there shots were easily saved by the Terminators.

In turn three things changed drastically as my LR Crusader and third squad eliminated the Assault Marine while Belial’s first squad eliminated a five-man Scout squad. They shot up and then assault the scouts but stayed locked in CC until his turn. At that point they wiped out the unit and moved closer to another Tac squad. My second squad shot into his Stern Guard squad and then charged into them killing several but they remained locked as well. I lost one member of that squad to a powerfist so they were down to four men in that squad. During his third turn, he brought in a Landspeeder and tried to take out my LR Crusader with a multi-melta but it failed to hit. He piled in another Tac squad into to assist his Stern Guard and ended up taking out the Sergeant and Assault Cannon Terminator but not before he lost his remaining Stern Guard members. Belial’s squad finished off the scouts and advanced toward his second squad to assist.

Turn four, the LR Crusader and regular Dreadnaught eliminated the Landspeeder while the third squad took out the Rhino. He didn’t move it last turn so they auto-hit and blew that one up as well. Belial’s first and second squads eliminated the remaining Tac squad and began moving towards his objective marker. The Tac squad took several of the Terminators with them so both first and second squads had only two Terminators apiece remaining. On his turn, he moved the Land Raider towards his objective and too a Lascannon shot at my Venerable Dreadnaught blowing it to pieces, thankfully nothing was close so no additional wounds were caused. He bought in his second Landspeeder and tried to take out the LR Crusader again but again his dice failed him.

Turn Five would prove to be very interesting for both of us; my LR Crusader destroyed his Landspeeder in a hail of bolter, assault cannon and multi-melta fire. He had a Rhino and Land Raider left and first, second and third squads were able to wreck the Land Raider; got to love those power and chain fists. It looked as I if had won the game at this point but my opponent decide to tank shock his remaining Rhino into my three squads. This caused both of us to scratch our heads and review the rules because he was attempting to hit three different squads. Now the Rhino had no weapons and all my Terminators were fearless so with a little assistance in rules clarification from another Veteran player, we moved on to the carnage. So the first squad was unable to stop the Rhino as the first squad had no powerfists and they didn’t get a ‘6’ on their armor pen test. They moved aside and second squad made their attacks. They had both a power and chain fist and they were able to get two Immobilized results which wrecked the tank and stopped it about four inches from the objective.

It was a great game and I think I learned two valuable lessons in that I shouldn’t have ignored the Rhino earlier in the game and that I should have spread out my units to surrounds the objective a little better. Because had I done either, he would have been in a position to Tank Shock the units so close to the objective. It was hairy there for a bit because a Draw result would have bumped me lower in the rankings and it would have caused me difficulty in the later rounds.
I’m looking forward to next weekend so that I can get another game in and hopefully come out ahead in this round as well. I know that as the league escalates, I’ll have a much harder time in dealing with the newer army’s and their various Death Star units.

Cheers…

It’s always fun until someone loses an eye or gets sucked into the warp…

This weekend the weather sucked so I headed over to the LGS earlier than usual and got in a couple of 1500pt. games. I put together a new list for Round 2 of the league and wanted to try it out in case I needed to make changes before next weekend. The list included all of the components from my 1000 point list but I added another Dreadnought and a Land Raider Crusader. I adjusted the three Terminator squads so that they all have Assault Cannon and Chain Fists and I added Extra Armor to my existing Dreadnought.

My first game went really well in that I played the same Space Wolf player from last week. Again like last week, the game was really fun and I had a great time playing him. The game was interesting this time around in that I lost Belial and Sergeant to the ‘Jaws of the Wolf’ spell on our first real round of shooting. I again focused my fire onto single units in an effort to remove them completely before moving onto the next one. This seemed to work really well throughout the game in that I was able to eliminate a squad of Long Fangs, two Rhinos and half a squad of Grey Hunters in my first shooting attempt.

I did my best to remain focused and not get too excited or frustrated and in the end I won that game 7 – 3 KP and I still had a Terminator, the LR Crusader and both Dreadnoughts on the table. My efforts were successful in nibbling away at his army because he only had a single Wolf Guard and six-man Grey Hunter squad left at the end of the game. The Deathwing army is really performing pretty well in the lower point games but I’m a little concerned about what happens when we get to the bigger games.

My second game didn’t go exactly as planned in that I ended up losing that game but I learned a valuable lesson about how best to play my army in a Secure and Control mission. I learned that I should have held two units in Reserve instead of setting up a squad of Terminators on the objective and just sitting there as my opponent picks them off with his long range heavy weapons. If I had kept them in Reserve I could have walked them onto the table in a latter round and dealt with some of his units before they got to my objective. I also learned that in a Spearhead mission, units can walk onto the table from your long board edge not just from the long edge of your table quarter.

Sadly, I also learned that I should have kept Belial with the squad mounted in the Land Raider instead of trying to Deep-strike him behind enemy lines. You see, he scattered off the table and then I rolled a one on the mishap table which resulted in wiping him and the squad out completely. So I ended up playing the game with a LR Crusader, a Dreadnought and one Terminator squad but still managed to take out 40 Guardsmen, a Dreadnought and part of a bunch of marines.

All in all, this the weekend was a good one in that I decided that my 1500 point list should do well in the next round provided that don’t make any deployment mistakes and remember to keep focusing my fire.

and pounced on some Space Pups…

Well, the summer WH40k league kicked off this past weekend and I did fairly well for someone that hasn’t been playing that often. This initial round consisted of two games ranging from 750 to 1250 points and each round lasts for two weeks. This allows players enough time to get in both games before the next round while not pressuring them to be there every weekend. So a player could play both his games in a single weekend and then skip the following weekend to go out and enjoy the nice summer weather; granted not a normal activity for many gamers ;)

I elected to play both of my games this Saturday, they were in the 1000 point range and both went really well and I admit that I had a lot of fun. My first game was against a Space Wolves player and I have to say that I’m very proud of my Deathwing terminators. I fielded three Terminator squads, Belial and a Dreadnought for each game. The squads each had a heavy weapon, two AC and one CML, a Chainfist and a Twin Lightening-Claw terminator. The dreadnought was outfitted with a default kit consisting of an AC and CCW to keep the points down. This army list worked out really well and allowed me to keep on task with countering my opponent’s movements and attacks.

As this was the first time that I had played against Space Wolves since the new codex was released, I wasn’t quite sure of what I would be facing. He took three six man Grey Hunters with Rhino/Razorback and a squad of Long Fangs. His Wolf Lord was armed with a Storm Shield and a special weapon and mounted on a Thunder wolf. He also had a Dreadnought mounted in a Drop Pod. I was lucky to setup and go first and I put everything out there on the board as I figured that I would need as much firepower early as I could get. I opened up and focused fire into one squad and took out the Rhino and then the squad with my shooting. On his first turn he charged his Wolf Lord up and then took out an entire squad of Terminator’s on Close Combat which really shocked the hell out of me; hadn’t realized just how powerful they made the new Wolf Lords.

During my second turn, I shifted all of my forces to the left and opened up on the Long Fangs with my dreadnought and one Terminator squad and then popped a few rounds into the Wolf Lord with the other. The Long Fangs lost a man and the Wolf Lord took a wound. On his second turn, his dreadnaught arrived via drop pod and promptly took out my dreadnought with a Multi-Melta. He charged another Terminator squad with his Wolf Lord and took out only two of them this time. The squad attacked back and caused another wound on his Wolf Lord but I lost combat and took three extra wounds which thankfully I made all of the saves so we remained locked in Assault.

The third turn, I charged and destroyed his dreadnought and then was lucky enough to finish off his Wolf Lord. On his turn he moved a Rhino up and rapid fired into my second Terminator squad taking out one more in Belial’s squad. He fired into my first Terminator squad with is Long Fangs but they miraculously made all of their saves. The fourth turn, I moved my first squad over to assist Belial’s remaining squad and they fired into his second six-man Grey Hunter squad wounding all but one. Belial’s men opened up and then charged the other Grey Hunter squad and wiped them out during the Assault phase but not before his Grey Hunter took out one more Terminator in Belial’s squad.

At this point, I was down to five Terminator models total and he had four Long Fangs, a single Grey Hunter, a Rhino and a Razorback left. On the Fifth turn, I began moving towards his Long Fangs and Grey Hunter and I fired off a few rounds at the Long Fangs, wounding one but during his turn he opened up on my first squad and I lost another model. He moved his Grey Hunter back behind the Rhino for cover and out of view from my Terminators. On the final turn, I opened up on the Long Fangs but he was able to make all of his saves and then he then was able take out all but one of my Terminators before the game ended.

I ended up winning the game and I must say that it was one of the most enjoyable games that I have had in a long time. The game was fast paced and very enjoyable and it didn’t hurt that I was able to make most of my saves during the game. I did play another 1000 point game that afternoon but that ended in a Draw but I realized afterwords that I had messed up at the beginning by forgetting to Deathwing Assault a Terminator squad that was held in reserve. That mistake put me in a position where I was forced to keep running around the table to try and hunt down a Deep Striking Necron Lord; kind of irritating. Good thing is that I won’t be forgetting to perform the Deathwing Assault anytime soon.

On that note, I’ll continue to play games to help the others get in their two games this coming weekend and I’ll be creating a few new lists to deal with the increased point levels in Round Two. So far the league is off to a good start and I am having a really good time playing again. Hopefully, this trend will continue and I’ll learn more about Fifth Edition and improve my tactics along the way.

and Angels descended from the Heavens….

In the last week and a half, I have completed ten Deathwing Terminator models and I have another five that are partially done. These last five models have the Forge World DW shoulder pads on them and I really like how they look. I still need to finish painting some of the details but I should have that done by this weekend. The escalation league doesn’t kick off for another couple of weeks but it will be nice to have most of the army finished before the start of the league.

I’m also making headway on assembling my remaining terminator models and I figure that I’ll have about 45 terminators finished by the end of the league. My LR Crusader model is pretty much complete and I am just starting to paint my third dreadnought, this one was a conversion piece that I had done some time ago. I’ve also started assembling a fourth dreadnought using the new plastic Venerable model. This will give the army a total of four dreadnoughts to choose from so I should have some flexibility when creating my lists. When these models are finished over the next two weeks, I’m planning on completing my LR Helios model and possibly adding a third Land Raider variant. I have a Prometheus conversion ‘squirreled’ away somewhere that I would love to add to my collection but if I cannot locate it I’ll assemble the model as a regular Land Raider so that it is ready for the event.

As I mentioned last week, I placed an order with Forge World and I was surprised to find that it arrived on my doorstep Monday evening. This box was heavy but looked to have arrived ok and all of the goodies looked great with no issues to report. I have to admit that this was the fastest that I have ever gotten an order from Forge World or overseas for that matter. Let me say that the Macharious Heavy Tank is a hefty chunk of resin that looks impressive when sitting on the table. I didn’t really have to do much clean up but there was some warping of the lower plate lower body but a hair dryer fixed this problem. The model is actually assembled and ready to prime at this time but once it is primed, I’ll be setting it aside for after the Deathwing project.

Also, thanks to the folks that sent me emails congratulating me on the new job, it was much appreciated. So far things are going well and I definitely like the new job and the people that I work with. I’m still working on getting some pictures taken of my completed models but the weather really nice so I spent some time this past weekend outdoors getting some much needed Vitamin D :)

So until next time….

Whoa!?! Is it May already...

So I realized this morning that it has been roughly three months since I last updated this blog. My apologies to my readers for the delay but life threw me a few curve balls that took priority over my modeling projects. Thankfully, everything has been sorted out and it looks like things will be getting back to normal. Chiefly among these changes is that I just accepted a new job that will now allow me to have a normal personal life. So I’ll no longer have any excuses for not painting and completing several model related projects this year.

As previously mentioned, I have started a Skaven army and I have been slowly working on that project. I have assembled and based the Clan Rats and Plague Monk models and they are ready to be primed and painted. I picked up the new Screaming Bell model and that is on hold for the time being due to my desire to complete the Core units first. I’ve also put this project on the back burner due to a couple of campaigns that I’ll be participating in this summer.

The LGS is hosting a Mordenheim campaign and WH40k Escalation League this summer and now that I have more free time, I’m going to do a little more playing than painting this summer. I’ll be playing a Black Orcs warband in the campaign and an all Deathwing list for the league. The Black Orcs are all completely painted so I am focusing on the remaining Deathwing models. I have about 20 terminators that have been mostly complete for a while but I’d like to get all of the models completed by the end of the league. There are bonus points given in the league for models you add and paint during the new rounds and for having a fully painted 2500 point army by the end of the league. I’ll be adding a Land Raider or two and I already have three dreadnoughts with two being fully painted and ready to roll-out … err... walk-out :P

I’ve also just ordered a bunch of new stuff from Forgeworld today because now is the time to buy. The British Pound is at the lowest it has been in over a year so if you’re planning to buy something from FW then you might want to get your order in now. As for me I picked up some goodies for the Deathwing army, mainly Land Raider doors and Terminator shoulder pads but I also picked up the two latest IA books and the Imperial Macharious Heavy Tank for my Imperial Guard project. I saved about eighty bucks on this order over one placed last year for about the same amount….hoody hoo!!!

So that’s a short update on where I am today so keep checking back as I’ll be posting some pictures of my current projects just as soon as I figure out how to post the damn things into the blog ;)

It's Been a Long Time Coming....

So I know it has been a while since I last updated but work has been kickin’ my butt all over the place lately. However, I have been able to pick up and review the new Tyranid codex and sadly, I’m a little disappointed. As a result, I think I’ll be focusing on my new Skaven army instead of dusting off the Nid’s army. The key reason is that to make a competitive list I would have to assemble and paint another thirty or forty models and then covert several new ones to add some of the new units to the list. Frankly, I’m just not that interested at this point to do that much work for my secondary army.

Therefore, I am moving forward with assembling and painting a Skaven army for WHFB. I’ve never actually played a real game of WHFB and from what I hear it is more tactical than WH40k. So I’ll give it a try and we’ll see what happens.

I’ve so far picked up the Skaven regiment, Plague Monks and another Clanrat box. I’ve also just added a Doom Wheel to the mix and I do plan on picking up the Screaming Bell this weekend. The Bell will be the centerpiece for the army and I am still deciding if I want to add another Doom Wheel to the mix but I think that I’ll hold off on that for now. I’d like to get a few games in with the models that I have purchased so far and see how things progress from there.

This will be a new experience for me because I have been playing WH40k for over tens years now and for many years Fantasy didn’t really grab my attention. I think that the time is right for me to try WHFB in that I want to do something different but still within the realms of Warhammer. I’ve tried Warmachine, hell I actually have the beginnings of a Khador army, but for some reason the mechanics of the game just never really grabbed me. GR anted, this was when it was initially released and from what I hear the new release is pretty good in that they altered moved away from the warcaster is king methodology. I might still give this a go down the road but for now I’m going to stick with the Skaven and see how that pans out.

So until next time…

The New Year's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and that the New Year is treating you well so far. Mine has been very good so far there has been no drama or unexpected problems that have come up; so far so good. I have finished cleaning up the basement and I am now in the process of reorganizing and repacking my ‘stuff’, not ‘shit' there's a difference (see George Carlin), into plastic storage containers.

However, I have made time over the last couple of weeks to do a little work on the Porsche King Tiger that I have been working on. I also dug out a 1/48 BF-109 G10 from Hasegawa to work on as well. The Bf-109 already has all of the detail items that I’ll need to accurately detail the model. I’ve pulled out several items from Ultracast, Aires and Eagle Editions to add to the model and the cockpit is nearly ready for painting. I’ll be using the discontinued Eagle Strike paints for most of this project; they were manufactured by Vallejo for Aeromaster/Eagle Strike Productions. They don’t require any thinner as they are similar to the Model Air line from Vallejo, just use an acrylic cleaner for clean up. While I haven’t used them before, I have seen the results from other modelers so they do nicely.

The King Tiger has been a little slow in getting finished as I’m at the stage of adding the little photo-etch details and working on cleaning up the ejector pin marks on the track links. I’m still looking at reference pictures to decide which scheme I want to do. Depending on the particular tank, I might have to make some adjustments to certain hull details but I think for the most part it’ll turn out pretty well.

I’ve also been doing so reading about the new Tyranid codex, released today, and I have to admit that I’m a little excited about using my bugs again. The interesting thing that I have found so far is that my army used to be at 2000pts. and I’m curious to see if they have dropped down to 1500pts. I’d rather not be forced to by a bunch of stuff to make the army useable again. That is one of the things that upsets me most about how Games Workshop does their new codex’s lately. They force the player to scramble and bye a bunch of unnecessary items to make the army playable. Hell, in this new codex they have several units that actually have no models at all, forcing the player to come up with something quickly if they want to use that unit and remain WYSIWYG. While not a bad business strategy, it’s just a pet peeve of mine when you force people to do that right of the bat. Oh, well, I’ll still be picking up a copy of the codex today and then will probably add a Trygon or two before the end of the year.