A Girls Guide to Gaming Geekery

Warpath Beta released, and I think I like it ^_^

2011-07-01T23:01:00.002-07:00

So, for those of us that follow Mantic, we know theyve been doing some good stuff. Theyre putting out decent miniatures at a great price, and while they're not the best minis out there, the dollar value comapred to just about any other game company is really hard to beat.

To date, thier offerings have all been fantasy related. Which makes me a sad nerd girl, because Warmachine is my fantasy game since I dont like playing games with formations. Squares attacking other squares or rectangles just doesnt appeal to me ;)

But, now theres Warpath. And between the concept art, and now the Beta rules- Im rather enthused. For now- Im going to talk about my first impressions of the Beta rules.

First- 15 pages. Thats a pamphlet folks. Some of us hear that and think 'Hahaha Ive seen this before!'

And we have, simplicity has been tried before, many times. And its never been very successful, as many wargamers seem to revel in having overly complex charts and interaction rules to randomly determine whos imaginary little space warrior aliens dies.

I've got to thand it to Alessio Cavatore this time- I think he's came up with a nice and elegant game system that addresses the holes in other game systems, and streamlines every aspect of combat.

Movement is made very simple. The squads are based around a leader- or which all the models in the squad have to be within 5" of, and within 1" of eachother. So, movement can be very fast- you mover you squad leader, and then move your dudes within the 5" circle. Done. Like Warmachine- there is a Spd on hte statline. A regular advance moves the Spd, and allows the unit to shoot. "At the double" is just what it says, the unit moves twice its speed rating, but doing that prevents shooting.

The last move option is Charging. This means the charging unit wont be shooting! But, charges work at twice the Spd and ignores difficult terrain for the distance move(but assaulting into terrain will add a -1 modifier to tha attackers rolls).

Next is the shooting phase. On the statlines theres Hit, Fire, and Range. Hit is the base chance a units has to(get this!!) hit their target on a d6 roll. Fire- is how many dice they roll for the unit(bigger squads get more dice). And range, is the maximum range in inches that their weapons will reach. Theres some simple modifiers to the Hit rolls: moving, being 'fragged'(taken lots of hits/damage), cover, and firing at over half your basic range all add a -1 to your Hit number. Nice & simple.

Melee combat is even easier, you look up the Attack rating, roll that number of dice. Any of those that exceed the Hit rating(remember Hit covers Shooting and Melee!) are then rolled against the units Defense, and any that exceed the Def rating add a wound marker to the target unit.

Once you determine how many hits you made(whether from shooting or melee)- you roll against the target units Defense rating. Any roll over that- adds a damage marker. These markers are basically cumulative penalty markers that add up for when the squad makes its 'Nerve' check. Nerve checks are basically when you see if the squads sustained too much damage to keep going without penalty, or if they collapse altogether.

Weapons upgrades for squads are one of the things I am happiest about. In the army lists it tells you how many BFG's you unit can spend extra points on(bigger squads get more Big Frikkin Guns!!). A model with a BFG- does NOT shoot with hte rest of the squad!!! (Screw you stupid 40k rule!!!) They target and determine LOS on thier own. So, the long standing stupidest rule of 40k, where the bolter guys have to waste thier shooting while the melta gun shoots the tank- or vice versa- doesnt not exist here. Thats how it should be- the points of regular guns is to shoot other troops- the point of heavy weapons is to shoot heavy things. Simple, right?

Thats just a rough over view of the 15 page PDF and my initial impressions. Its a nice simple rules set that reduces the level of squad complexity, making the squads an entity on the whole. The combat has less dice rolling, no comparison charts, and only a handful of modifiers which are easy to figure out. The game should roll along quite quickly. The nit picky details of moving what model where, to manipulate wound allocation and line of sight rules aren't going to be present- so that sort of 40k player isnt going to like this kind of set up. But thats fine by me- this seems like a more efficient rules set where shooting and melee are rather well balanced, movement is simple, and it should play pretty quickly as they're suggesting 2 hours for a 2000 point game. The model count should be comparable to 40k, basic troopers seem to cost between 10 and 15 points- with discounts on points cost for the 10 and 20 man units. And with the simpler rules, games should get well past turn 3 or 4 in that time frame. Which makes for a different type of strategy, as the current tourney formats often seem to be focused on 4 turns. Imagine the change in meta if games commonly went to 7 or 8 turns in the same amount of time.

Anyhow, if anyone bothers to read this, and want to discuss, drop a comment below and lets start looking at the potential for what could be a very enjoyable game system ^_^

The statline includes a units range, number needed to hit, and how many dice it rolls. Theres very simple modifiers for movement, long range, the status of the unit(a damaged unit doesnt shoot as well!)

Bases! Desert base uberness :D

2011-06-09T15:51:00.004-07:00

So, at last I finally got around to getting my desert/dry lakebed bases worked up. The pic above is just the first test samples. I make my resin bases a bit differently, I dont make a mold for each individual base.

I basically make a 4x6" or larger section of terrain as a foundation for my bases. I sculpt it up with the intention of making a large silicone pour of it. Once thats done, I pour a thin layer of resin into the mold, and then stick the plastic bases onto it. As the resin sets it adheres to the plastic, and the texture of the terrain is not on top of the plastic. This method takes a little more effort to set up. But has a couple of benefits over individually molded bases. First- your bases dont all come out the same. You can add variation by changing up where you set the plastic bases on the resin. Second- it works for multiple sizes of bases. 25, 30, 40, 50, even the big 120's and flier ovals if your original terrain mold is large enough.

Now that I can crank these out, I have one less excuse to get to finishing my Tallarn army. So thier might be some movement on the GW front- if I can pry myself away from the Waramchine...

Also- if these look like something you might want to use as bases for an army project, feel free to get in touch. Id be happy to work out some trades or even sell some if it helps someone get enthused about thier army :)

The Khadorks March!

2011-06-04T22:26:00.004-07:00

So- heres my first Khadork Destroyer, with a regular Destroyer for comparison. Theres still details I want to add, but all the heavy lifting on the conversion side is done. I had to move quite a bit of metal to get this to turn out the way I envisioned in my head. But a jewlers saw, and dremel stylus made it quick work.

All together it took about 3 or 4 hours to convert up, luckily I wont need more than 3 or 4 of these guys to make an amusing but playable army.

Khador + Orks =.....KHADORKS!!

2011-05-31T16:27:00.002-07:00

Its no secret I like Warmahordes. To me the minis have more character then the most recent 'Dude in power armor with a big sword and fur/spikes/wings/feathers/gophers'.

But, Warmachine does lag behind a bit in the conversion department. For those of us with hte modelling and sculpting skills- whipping up conversions that people see and say 'Oh thats cool!' is like winning the game.

Amongst the 40k conversions I enjoy the most are Orks. Now, Orks have always had a ramshackle appearance, and that just sort of seems to mesh right in with the Steam tech of Warmachine.

Then looking at Khador- and its generally unsubtle heavy armor and HUGE axes, not to mention chainsaw thingies and large loud guns....I realized if Orks did inhabit the Iron Kingdoms- they'd mostly want ot be Khadorans!

So, I acquired some Khador jacks a while back for cheap. And havent known what to do with them- now I do! I have tons of 40k ork bitz, so, once I get my mercs finished (4 jacks, and 3 solos to paint and base, and about 30 guys to base) I'm going to orkify my Khador, and unleash the Khadorks upon the Iron kingdoms :D

So, if anyone out there has some extra khador jacks, notably a juggernaught, berzerkers, man'owars, or any reavers or kommandos- and Karchev- I'd be happy to work out a trade ^_^

Things that distract me from gaming!

2011-05-26T21:50:00.003-07:00

So, heres two reasons Im painting, sculpting, and playing less often lately!

Cygnar-ish goodness!

2011-05-17T17:39:00.003-07:00

So...Im a lazy poster. Instead of posting up sensible progress pics I just keep painting away and totally ignore you all!

Heres my Trencher Sniper, I didnt think it made sense for them to carry sandbags around to prop the rifle on...so hes using a convenient fallen tree ;)

Heres a nifty and shiny chain gun, problly wont use it much but I like the mini :)

A classic Ironclad with one of my fancy fallen tree bases and a repose conversion. Of course with the new resin kits the pose is no biggie. But I did it with a metal one!

A glance at Seige here. I really like how he came out. I might get some better pics if theres any interest.

And finally a group shot. a dozen or so Trenchers, Chain gun, full Sword Knights + UA, full StormGuard, a Lancer, Ironclad, 2 Chargers, minimum unit of Mechanics, Flinn, Pendrake, Seige, pHaley, and pStryker :)

Future expansions- I have a Defender I need to do up. And a couple Chargers Im going to convert into hunters.

And up soon, my Mercs with their bases done! Im in a baasing mood after having these guys bases turn out so well.

I think I just had an Orkgasm.....

2011-04-07T20:15:00.003-07:00

http://www.puppetswar.com/product.php?id_product=24

Sombrerorks.

Imagine a whole army of them lil dudes across the table ready to run you down in a variety of low riders and ghetto wagons.

And wait til you get to hear the ork Mariachi music.

I might just have to do it....I have the spare ork bits.....

Gork and Morxicans....

Funny how nothing GW has done in years has inspired me, but one little outfit that does conversion parts has me thinking about doing a new army.... Imagination shouldnt be pissed on by 'IP' rights ;)

Girls at the gaming table. Yes, its rare...

2011-03-19T02:59:00.003-07:00

It is rare...but it does happen! Not all of us are there to hang out with boyfreinds or anything like that. Theres alot of awkwardness that goes when a gal decides to play table top war games.

Heres the order of reactions:
1-Whoa!!! A girl!!!
2-Wheres her boy freind?!
3-Wait- no boyfreind, awww shit, one of the card game kids moms!!
4-OMG shes got a miniatures case!! She must just paint....
5-Ok, ok, I must now become more manly in my current game and beat this guy loudly!
6-Now Im going to go teach her how to play!!
7-She just corrected me on rules before we even deployed, jeeze, what a snooty bitch...
8-Damn she kicked my ass. Shes mean. I bet she eats puppies and kittens during the full moon.
9-Ok, I just imagined all that...Im going to just stare at her boobs and look awway before she sees me....
10- Why do I have to be playing a game with Stinky? His hygeine is worse than Nurgles and its like a chick repelling forcefield (this only applies to gamers that shower regularly....)

Yes- thats often what it feels like when a girl walks into a gaming store that she may not be well known at. Odd stares, awkward behavior and so on.

So, next time you see some girl walk in the gameshop, and shes not there by accident- keep in mind that foremost- it means shes a geek too! She knows why shes there, she knows theres likely a room full of socially impaired guys that can only communnicate coherently by rolling dice. Dont let the boobs and makeup make you forget that shes a gamer too!

Thank you XKCD for the comic and its use via a Creative Commons License! http://xkcd.com/236/

Ironback Spitter gone WILD!! Run away!

2011-03-16T23:52:00.004-07:00

I haven't posted anything useful for a while- so I might as well post something retarded. Disclaimer-contains footage of natural acts with unnatural objects some people may find distrubing, or disturbingly appealing....

This is the Ironback Spitter, a Minion Warbeast from Hordes. Its sort of silly/cute in an angry mutant ninja turtle sort of way.

This- is a video of an Ironback Spitter in action. Watch out for the Spit Blast, his Ornery Animus is really working for him vs his low DEF oppponent...

Should you ever witness this act on your gaming table, first- get your damn shoes off the table- no one is so hard up for terrain they should be using their dirty shoes!! Second- make sure its your pet Ironback, and not some durty gamer grunting out his luv for some extreme sculpt miniature. And lastly, make sure to record it and post it on youtube so people can make retarded blog posts about it!

Toolsday! My weekly tip on gear & gadgets! Apoxie Sculpt!

2011-02-09T06:55:00.003-07:00

Alrighty, here be one of my hopefully weekly topics where I'll be posting up stuff I have found that many gamers might not be aware of :) This was supposed to post up yesterday, but with a pesky broken rib distracting me I forgot to hit the send button!

On a few of the forums out there Ive seen an occasional elusive mention of some stuff called Apoxie Sculpt as an alternative to our old sculpting stand bys of green and grey stuff. Now- dont get me wrong- green & grey stuff are still useful and good materials, but they have thier limits and quirks. I for one cant sculpt green stuff very well at all, yet when I switched to Procreates grey stuff, I did quite well.

The foremost reason I decided to try Apoxie sculpt is its price. 15$ for a pound. The cheapest I've been able to find anything else was a year ago when I got my 300g tube of Procreate for 16$ on Ebay. One pound is 454 grams. So its a better deal all around- since the 15$ tag is the price from the manufacturer. Another appealing aspect- is the two halves come in little jars with lids that SEAL. So, unlike my unused year old grey stuff or green stuff- its not going to start getting crunchy around the edges and try to kill my fingers when getting mixed.

Its available in several colors, and gets cheaper when you buy the larger batches. For just buying a single pounds worth, the shipping hurts a bit since it starts at 11$. But at 26$ for a pound- its still cheaper than the alternatives and is a better product in general.

Now- one difference is this stuff is just a bit thicker than peanut butter. So it mixes up super super easy. I have problems with my hands sometimes, and have had times when mixing the other stuff was something I couldnt do. Not so with Apoxie, quick and easy. Downside-its stickier when freshly mixed, so I actually used gloves with it. While its freshly mixed like this and very soft- its excellent for using in press mold applications. In the picture you'll see the feildstone section and back packs- press molded! The stones were a Hirst arts mold, and the packs were an old silicone mold I had sitting around.

For actual sculpting use, you let it sit for a while before working with it- 45 minutes or so lets it firm up a bit and it loses some of the stickiness. Like green stuff you can smooth it with water and have to keep your tools a bit wet. Aves provided me a free sample of their Safety Solvent, which can be used to control the sticking and such- but water has worked fine for me so far. You can also use a light oil like olive oil. Its texture is more clay like compared to the rubbery taffy like texture of green/grey stuffs.

And the last tidbit that can be useful- is this stuff acts a bit like cured resin. When it has set up- warming it up in hot water softens it and make it pliable. So you can straighten peices, or- bend them on purpose if you want to make curved armor plates and stuff like that.

In the picture you might be wondering what the clear silicone stuff is- I'll do another post on that stuff as it deserves its own write up. Its called Oyamaru or Instamold and looks like a sort of wonder product for press molding(as the sheild shows it does work!). After I play around with it a bit more I'll make a more in depth post on it.

Oh- and before I forget- http://www.avesstudio.com/ feel free to tell them you heard about stuff from my blog. I wouldnt mind sponsoring thier banner here as I really like thier product. (And I also got some of thier mache' stuff to test out on terrain making!)

Painting too much!

2011-02-05T13:45:00.002-07:00

Ok, so, in my last post I made some big blah blah about posting more often....and then I go off and dont post anything I said I would O.o

And its because Ive been painting too much! Seriosuly, Ive been sorta posessed and have blown through most of my Warmachine figs.

Croes Cuthroats(8) I had one go MIA so I didnt do the full 10.
Irdian Skirmishers + UA
Alexia, 14 undead, 2 thralls
Mangler
Nomad
Talon
2 Renegades
Reinhold
Anastasia
Saxon Orrik

Coleman Stryker
Haley
Ironclad
2 Chargers
1 Lancer
mecahnic & 3 gobbers

Thats all been since my last post O.o

The only mercs I have left, 6 forge guard, a couple gun bunnies, and a unit of High shields with a UA.

Once it warms up a bit and I can do some more priming I may start on my Cryx stuff. Other than that Im waiting on some Cygnar infantry(sword knights and Stormguard).

And I should be getting some new sable brushes in today, and some weathering powders- thats if FedEx isnt retarded and can find my house(and they were here about 2 weeks ago...)

I'll get some pics up soon, I just havent felt like setting up the lights and all that ;)

And UFC will be distracting me tonight too, but I could care less abotu the Superbowl, so I can probly get alot done during that ;)

Magnus...Ashlynn...Pendrake...oh my!

2011-01-26T15:32:00.003-07:00

Ive been busy attacking my unpainted masses! As per the usual disclaimer, I havent decided how to base them yet(so dont nag the basing!) and theres still some details I have to pick out.

The E-Magnus I got in a trade with the 'conversion' done on him already. I didnt feel like mangling his hand further to get the jack head pried off, so I cleaned it up as best I could. A bit too much glue had been used so theres been some detail loss on his cyber-hand. but all in all it turned out alright.

Pendrake was kinda fun, lots of contrasts in textures, cool specs and a good sculpt to work with. PP has really evolved thier level of product over the years.

And for the record, I kinda hate the Ashlynn fig. I did a minor repose on the arms so it looked less retarded. But then once I started painting....I really, really, dont like the sculpt on her face. PP- PLEASE give us a resculpt of her soon!!!

And p-Magnus, simple and fun to paint up.

Some new tricks I used on all of these, was my first foray into wet blending on the various capes. That was the biggest reason for the array of colors used, I wanted to experiment :D Also, when taking the pics, I noticed the metals were really popping out. This is because I tried mixing a drop of Vallejo Air metals in with the VMC metalics and P3 cold steel Ive been using. Really adds alot of sheen and I think its something Im going to keep doing.

All in all Im quite happy with them for a monday nights worth of painting along with 6 steelheads ^_^

Saturday Sculpting trick- Power cables!

2011-01-22T19:11:00.006-07:00

Ok, we've all been there- a really sweet conversion idea for some space marine- but alas, those dang expandable cable/hose bitz are missing and leave the guy looking half done!

But- worry not lads- Ive figured out a pretty simple method to make your own hoses! It takes just a few minutes of practice, and next thing you know youre looking for models to start slapping even more of those cables onto lol

First off- I made a simple little tool for this. What do you do with your old exacto hobby blades? If you said 'I save them to make my ork and chaos conversions uber 'Ardcore!!' go take your meds and get a tetanus shot.

If you answered 'I wisely save them because you never know when they might come in handy...' you are wise! Because now you need them!

What you're looking at there- is some left over blades, lined up side by side and glued together with some nifty CA glue. The more of them you have- the wider your tool will be(hence a bit faster).

Now- I dont have a way to take pics without both hands, so I cant yet get pics of the items in use. But its pretty simple.

Roll out some putty, green, grey, whatever stuff you have. Im using sculpey for this tutorial because its easy and Im lazy.

Roll it out into cylinders/rods that are just a bit bigger around than the cable you wish to make.

Now, for small cables you use the exacto-tool, the blades are closer together and make the ribbing on the cable smaller. My cam doesnt have a macro setting so this is the best pic I could get of the quick results:

I might hit that with a quick wash so the detail is more apparent- but for now thats what you get ;)

For the bigger cables, like dreadnaught sized, I use the tool I made out of old razor blades. The wider spacing on the blades works really well for this.

Now- the technique is pretty simple, and works best if you have let the putty settle in a bit so its a bit firm. Then you just gently press down with whichever tool you're using, and roll it across the putty cable. Pushing hard enough to press into the putty, but not enough to flatten the cylinder shape so it wont roll under the tool. If you want to make the ribs a bit more noticeable, after you have the grooves set into the cable, make a second roll and just pressure a bit to the side when rolling the tool.

So, the duller the blades are, the better this will work since the ridges will be more pronounced. Now, get out there and save those blades, make your cables, and show that you have the power to cable up your troops gear!

This is the first of my Saturday Sculpting tricks, it wont be the last, and I'll try to get one out every week or two. And if youre lucky maybe even weekly ^_^

Let me know what you think- or if you have an easier/cheaper way to make these cables!

New weekly features ahead!

2011-01-21T18:51:00.002-07:00

So, now that it only takes me a few minutes of minimal effort to get pics posted up Ive decided I can get some weekly articles up.

Ive been doing this hobby & gaming thing for a long time, and even with the plethora of great blogs out there- I still dont see alot of things I do covered. So, maybe sharing the way I do things can help some people out or give them a light bulb moment of their own :)

The first thing Im going to do- is a tool post. Im going to grab some generally obscure piece of gear outta my kit and tell you all about why I think its worth the money, how I use it, and some basic safety(but Im not extensive source for safety matters- so any missing digits or limbs are not my fault!). Depending on the response to a particualr item, a full blown tutorial may follow :)

The next feature- is Going Green! I've been doing my modeling a certain way for so long, I never noticed that most of the stuff I use is sort of recycled in some form. So, since people like saving money some of my ideas might help pinch the pennies needed for that squad or warjack you've been wanting :)

At random intervals I'll drop in a sculpting tidbit since I have some tricks I havent seen posted elsewhere. And if anyone likes a particular way I paint something I may be convinced to do a tutorial of some sort.

And, like other blogs, Im considering some random give aways. Probly when I hit certain levels of membership and if I get enough responses & comments to keep me motivated ^_^

Big Bada-Boomhowlers!!

2011-01-19T22:00:00.004-07:00

Finally, Im getting some content up! The last few months have been a bit insane, but thats done for now I hope ;) I got a shiny new phone that makes getting pics posted pretty simple and painless, so along with getting pics of my painted figs up Im planning on doing some Tool & Gadget articles and maybe even some tutorials for stuff that doesnt get much coverage.

Anyhow- onto the Mercenaries!

Coming soon...some actual content!

2010-09-02T11:20:00.003-07:00

So, Ive finally recovered from the laptop death of July. My poor ole Toshiba has been replaced with a sexy new Vaio. And I can vouch firsthand that the Vaio is indeed a very competitive product vs the apple laptops.

Anyhow- Ive been itching to get back to finishing my Warmachine Mercs. Gonna be a few days there though :( We've had some....unexpected house guests and making room for them involved piling stuff in my painting room. so I'll have to do some excavating to get my work space usable.

But, there should be some new stuff coming in here in the next week or two!

Technological Terror Strikes!

2010-07-19T22:32:00.002-07:00

It has been one of those utter WTF sort of days, my daily side kick and companion of the last 2 years, my toshiba laptop has seemingly expired(looks to be a POST fail or corrupted Bios). The hard drive still seems functional at least- so the data is at least savable.

Then around 9 this morning- I notice its getting warm- and I hadnt heard the air conditioner turn on....so- yep- the blower motor wasnt turning on. Not the best news when at 9 am it was already near 100 outside. Made for a long day, and a 200$ repair for a stupid capactior. And that same 200$ came outta the funds that coulda went to replacing or repairing my laptop.....

So, Im on our old backup pc. by old- Im talkin a single core 5 year old 1 ghz processor. So, I may actually get more painting done- since typing on this tiny ass keyboard is a damn nuisance.

Also- might be selling some 40k excess to help fund a decent laptop- so if anyone has any interests/wants let me know and I'll give my blog readers first grabs ^_^

Devil Dogs! More WM goodness

2010-07-17T23:50:00.003-07:00

Ive had this unit of minis sitting around for a couple years- and figured it was about time they got some brush love ;) It gave me a chance ot play with the p3 Cold Steel paint- which I happen to really like. It has good consistancy, covers well ever over black. I didnt do any dry brushing with it however- so I cant vouch for its worth on that.

Anyways- another basic/dirty merc paint job. Wanted them to look like theyd been out in it for a while- mercs arent paid to be clean are they? Although since there are 3 Mr Clean clones with axes- it might be kinda ironic. I might have to give one of them some hair or a hat.

Theyre about 90% done. Stuff like eyes, final brass touches and all that I do after I base my stuff. Keeps the clean up & touch up phase all at once so Im not dropping the paint on the pallette more often than I need to ;)

New books, lack of pics, fun stuff ;)

2010-07-13T19:46:00.002-07:00

Got my Prime Mkii and Merc books last friday, theyre gorgeous books and I tip my proverbial hat to the Pivateer fellows. I had learned about all I could of the rules from the MKII pre release PDF, so the book with actual diagrams was helpful. And the Merc book landed some solid motivation to keep going.

The monsoon here made an effort to get going, which means stupid migraines and the shakes that I get with them- so my paint efforts will get kinda random. I havent even been able to finish Durgen since I posted the last round of pics.

Anyhow, found that the local(which for me means 50 miles away) gameshop runs all nighters on warmachine most friday & saturday nights. Its a 24/7 shop, which makes my inner vampire happy! So, hopefully I can find a few 'training wheels' games if I can make it out that way soon. Maybe even find some sucke-- I mean um, gamers to trade my piles of 40k stuff for more Warmachine :D I also bought my first in store WM purchase, a Highshield officer & Standard bearer UA. I'll need one more for a Tier 2 Gorten list! And got a pot of Cold Steel P3 paint. I noticed the pots had the same lids as the old, old Citadel pop tops- and it turns out theyre made by Coat de Arms! Which is cooo as it means if I dont use the up theyll still be usable in 20 years like some of the Citadel stuff I still have. Yes- that likely means I have paint older than some of the readers of this lil blog- I was once a gamer nerdling too ;)

More Rhulic Rumblings (Warmachine is addictive!)

2010-07-07T17:58:00.007-07:00

Alrighty, had to take a little break after the paint fest of last Friday & Saturday. Mostly because I knew the infantry were going to take more effort than the 'jacks did. Like the last batch, these are about 90% done, and I havent clear coated these so the shades are a tad different still.

So, heres the pretties.

Gorten Grundback. Im not sure I like his playstyle yet, but hes a caster and hes painted! Hes also based on the rough idea I have for basing these guys. Just with cleaner paint, and some weeds growing up between the stones(that I obviously havent added yet o.0)

Next up are Herne & Jonne. I giggled about the idea of a dwarf with a pet ogre that carries a triple barreled mortar. So they had to be done.

And last up the Highshields. If they take as long to kill off as it took to paint them they'll be worth the effort ;)

Warmachine progress at last! Rhulic rampage begins!

2010-07-04T00:12:00.003-07:00

Havent managed to post as often as I'd like- but Ive had a few days of delightfully shake free hands so I made the most of it and painted up some of my Rhulic WM stuff!

The onsluaght of pics is gonna make a mess but I'll edit it as best I can ;) I have more pics, but it seems blogs limit me to 5 at a time. So I can post up more if theres any interest.

These arent 100% complete. They still need basing, and some cleanup/touchup work(and a layer of dull-cote to tame the shiny!). But I think theyre more than adequate for gaming and even tournament usage.

So, heres Thor Steinhammer, the flamethrowing dwarf mechanic. I was origianlly just going to experiment with him- trying the light sourcing highlights coming off the flames. The results were good enough I plan on keeping him. Since the health decline I havent been too happy with most of my paint results, so I was happy I can learn new techniques to replace the old ones I cant do any more.
>

Heres a Wroughtram Rockhammer. It seems like fun, a giant dwarf robot with a gun & hammer. Nothin spectacular, but Ive seen much worse out there(and much better lol).

So, these are the lil tanks. Often called 'Gun bunnies', I think theyre kinda cute. Sorta like the Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell. Theyre useful & cute, but disposable when theirs a need for it.

This here is the ubiquitous Rhulic Driller. It um...drills things. I still wanna add some highlights to it, and some more weathering & such as theyre supposed to do double duty as mining equipment I see it as bein extra worn & dirty.

Forgeguard, these were the figs that made me decide to paint my Rhulics before my Cryx or other mercs. Theyre sorta like stumpy lil badasses with steampowered hammers. They arent exactly cute, but they have a certain charm.

100 Minions!

2010-06-24T10:15:00.002-07:00

So, this morning my blog list hit 100! I hadnt really noticed I was getting that many readers! O.o

I guess that means I'll have to make some attempts to be more amusing and post something worthwhile on a regular basis.

I'm amassing a rather large Warmachine Mercenary force, its not really a coherent roster yet since Im trading for the stuff- its kind of a random hodge podge of units. But many of them have alot of character, and will be fun to paint. The Forgeguard guys look kinda like pot bellied stoves with big ole hammers, Croes Cutthroats look like a buncha D&D or Warcraft rogues gone wild, and the Iridian skirmishers are some of my favorite as they have a very arabic theme(and since I like Tallarns....).

Im hoping, maybe in the next week I'll get some painting up. The health issues havent been overly cooperative lately, but Im gonna try to push past it and see if I can still get some decent results.

Le sigh....I think Im done with GW....

2010-06-08T18:47:00.004-07:00

I've played 40k for a long while now. My freinds Bill and Mark sucked me into it back in 98-ish and we had alot of fun with it over the years. But sadly, all the changes have slowly been making it less fun for me. The last time I really had fun with it was with my Orks in 2004.

Granted, since 2005 I havent played much due to life getting in the way. But since then GW has made thier changes. My hiatus saw two new editions, and a variety of game changes, that really just look like the juggling of the meta-game in order to sell a certain type of model(like transports for 5th ed, or anything with an assualt cannon in 4th edition).

The last piece of GW stuff I bought was a BFM box in 2005, and a bottle of Devlan mud last summer. And I will admit they are putting out some great models, which we have to pay through the nose(and other orifices for).

Lets look at some of the things GW has done over the years-
2001- Online Price fixing- GW limits independent resellers to a 20% discount. Prior to this the norm was a 30% discount, and 40% could be found.
2002-2004 Price hikes. There was internet uproar-everyone was gonna quit. no one did. Reasoning from GW 'We need the funds to build our plastics plant in the US so we can keep costs down'
2005/2006 4th ed comes out. Only a minor price hike on a few kits.
2007 a few more kits get a price hike.
2008/2009 5th ed rolls out, Mech armies become king- first rhinos and drop pods are hard to come buy, then Chimeras as the IG codex comes out. Throw in a price hike for good measure- one that covers most of their ranges.
2010 Guess what....despite massive restructuring in GW-US, a move made for 'cost cutting and efficiency' we get yet another price hike. But with a clever bit of PR- they release Spearhead right afterwards- so the sheep get to think 'Oooh wow!! All tank games!!!' and they run out to buy 5 or 6 more tanks to use. Oh- and you have to buy the Spearhead book when it comes out too.

I should add into all that- the heart breaking decline of White Dwarf. The once noble dwarf used to be a useful read, hobby tips, chapter approved articles, short stories, painting tutorials, Army Spotlights. Then they pimped it out to some whorbits, er, I mean hobbits. After that it circled to bowl a few times before being flushed down the toilet into the realm of total crap.

I still like the the 40k fluff, and modeling. I have like 20 armies worth of crap to prove it. But Im going to whittle that all down to 4 or so. Pet project armies that may end up with no gaming value.

For gaming value- Im setting sail with Privateer Press. Thier prices may not be much better than GW's, but thier core product and rules are more functional and smooth. It evokes the sort of fun feeling that 2nd edition 40k did- but without the confusing complexity. Theres guns, robots, magic, and a variety of other goodstuff that make for plenty of eye candy and fun stuff to paint. And in all- the people into it seem to be more of a mind to have fun- the PP forums in general are much less tense than the 40k forums. A better vibe I suppose. And the artwork theyre putting forth in thier new books is impressive- along with thier sculpts improving over the years this makes me happy to see such progress.

Anyhow- for those that follow my bloggity goodness, you can expect to see Warmachine stuff taking precedence over 40k for the forseeable future. Something might change that, but Im really sick of GW so it seems unlikely I'll ever embrace thier game to the same extent I used to.

Finally- a tallarn with paint on him!

2010-06-01T06:23:00.004-07:00

So, Ive been converting some tallarns(as anyone who reads the past posts should know!). But with my twitchy hands I havent been overly motivated to paint anything, as its just generally frustrating.

But, one of my fellow bloggers (http://akersminis.blogspot.com/) had a lil painting contest for May that got me motivated enough to paint up at least one guy!

Im probly going to convert up another 30 or 40 of these guys(have 25ish already) so I can have a super blob or a couple smaller platoons. I think the paint process I used will work well assembly line style- and the airbrush made for easy base coating with the VMC Yellow Ochre over grey primer. And it was really handy for clearcoating the model. For table top use I'll hit these guys with a layer of krylon gloss, then matte coat them with the airbrush. This will get me a good protective layer- and a nice flat finish I dont have to ever worry about fogging up on me!

C&C and questions welcome :)

Ultrasonic goodness. Or is it?

2010-05-19T16:12:00.002-07:00

So, the health issues have flared back up. Notably a brief blackout last week on my way to the post office. I at least steered into a curb as it started- dunno if that was deliberate or blind luck, but it kept me from running through an intersection and possibly hurting someone.

This means no new tallarnish goodness. But- the post is not without nerdgasmic merit.

Now, after reading the description of Ultrasonic cleaners- I had these visions in my head of a dream machine I could throw a bucket of figs into and 15 minutes later whip out some cleaner than new shiny toys. Thats a bunch of crap.

Supposedly working with jsut water and/or special cleaner stuff(which I will admit I havent tried yet)- water did nothing. Made some bubbles. but thats about it.

But- lose not hope! The unit I bought has a stainless steel pan. So I thought- why not put my regular stripping solution- Superclean- in there? So, in went some super clean. A test run showed that it didnt foam up and cause a diasaster. So in went some figs. A variety of metal tallarns I got from several sources that had a menagerie of hideous paint on them. I also threw in a space marine and some drop pod pieces I got in a trade. And I topped it off with a chimera (the cleanr I bought will fit a land raider).

I flipped the timer to 6 minutes(the longest cycle it will run) and turned on the warmer. Now the warmer is a feature I hadnt thought about much- but it only heats the fluid to like 145 F, so no where near hot enough to melt plastics. But, then I rmember I used to heat up simplegreen on the stove to strip metal figs super fast.

Within a few minutes the figs were getting little clouds around them- and by the end of the 6 minute ultrasonic cycle- I couldnt see the bottom figs. I let it sit for about an hour then came to check, I pulled a metal fig out- one of my old ones that was based with krylon black and had a ton of dry brushing- and the paint wiped right off- no traces in the creases- nothing. It didnt have that silvery new look- but it just looked a bit aged(as Im sure many of us have noticed minis get darker with some handling and time in general). So, it doesnt look out of the blister- but it looked like it had never been touched by paint. The same was true for the rest of the metals- the paint came off with ease- a couple needed a brush or two. And of 10 random paint jobs- all came off spakly except for a blob of black that may be some sort of oil based paint- even with brushing it didnt budge out of the creases. No biggie really.

On the plastics- the chimera was based in krylon brown(from the camo line) and had a speckled camo on it- topped with a layer of krylon clear to seal it, and a coat of flat clear. I was thinkin it would take some work. But- alot of the paint just sloughed off and the rest came off with a light rinse in the sink. totally bare plastic O.o I will add at this point- chimeras really ARE AMPHIBIOUS. It floated for over a week(upside down) so theres a definitive line right where all the track hubs are where the paint didnt come off- but all the submerged stuff- gone- every bit without brushing.

The marine did ok. Its an AOBR guy and whatever it was based with seems to have stained the plastic a darker grey and needed some brushing- end result is it looks like its had some ink slobbed on- so will look fine once painted- no loss of details.

The drop pod parts. I was hoping the soak would kill the glue bonds(super clean NOMS NOMS superglue!) but sadly it seems to have been a solvent based plastic glue that was used with a low skill level- end result- a drop pod thats very likely conversion parts. But- the paint came off! It took some brushing, and seemed a bit oily since it stained the brush I was using. It came with the batch teh MS above did, and didnt seem stained but fine detail parts look like theyve had some black ink applied.

Im happy with the results- but was just hoping they would happen faster ;) Im running a test now to see if its the ultrasonic part that does the super stripping- or the heating of the solution and keeping it warm as often as possible( it only warms for about 30 minutes then shuts off- and the fluid stays warm for about 6 hours) If I hit the warmer button once a day I'll be doing good. And hopefully will have some results before next week. Im strippin a chimera identical to the first- so its sort of my 'control'.

Tallarn PICS!! 5-7-10 update

2010-05-07T14:26:00.004-07:00

I found a way to hack the auto focus on my crap cam- so, we can has pics!

First up, some of the keffiyehs I did quick sculpts on:

Then onto some shemagh shots:

And here we have Omar Marbo, Sly's desert dwelling 54th cousin by marriage.

And here we have a very WIP Straken. He still needs his plasma pistol, headwear, and some detail work on his robe and a sash.

Fun stuff!

2010-05-06T23:17:00.002-07:00

I got my stuff from Blick Art today. They were out of stock on the 2 oz dropper bottles, but other than that I got all the stuff to make a couple gallons of washes. Yes, gallons.

I realised though, I accidentally ordered Sepia instead of a yellow. So I dont quite have all the base colors to mix a full spectrum. But, that no biggie, I can make my own versions of Devlan mud, badab black etc etc. Can make blues, greens, and reds too. I made a quick test batch of the sepia and indigo, and having access to large quantities of washes is going to make me an incredibly lazy painter ^_^ Dippity dippity dippity!!

So, while Im waiting for the bottles to mix the rest, I started playing with the box of Super Sculpey I ordered. I've used regular sculpey years ago, and wasnt impressed much, at all. But the Super sculpey, I like it so far. I havent baked it yet, but the handling qualities are very nice. Using a layered technique I can see how some sculptors build up really good detail with this stuff.

Its really going to be useful for the tanks Im going to start working on very soon. I think I can use it to sculpt out armor plates & sections in the exact shapes and thicknesses I want. Im gonna do it on thin sheets if styrene to keep it flat. Then pop it in the freezer to temporarily harden it- pop the stryene off, then into the toaster oven for its 275 degree bake for 15 minutes (thats not counting thaw time). Tomorrow Im going to spend most of the day arranging my work area so I can work on the first tank design without having to continually clean little spaces out- I clutter up horribly when I get into a project....

And, a bid is in on a digital cam, cross your fingers that it stays under 150$ ;) Its way more cam than anyone would ever need for taking pics of figs, like a 24x optical zoom is a tad overkill....but my roomie can use it for landscape type pics too ^_^

Tallarn update: HW teams

2010-05-06T01:52:00.002-07:00

So Im still waiting on my goodies to arrive, the tracking numbers have it getting here tomorrow, so we'll see ;)

In the mean time I decided to work on my heavy weapons. Last summer I traded for a pile of Cadian infantry, and in that trade was 15 weapon teams. ALL were frikkin ML's, but, fortunately I got the sprues for the spares ^_^

So, with the tallrn conversions Im doing Im trying to decide if I just want to keep that trend going, as in jsut slap the shemaghs or keffiyehs on the crew, or go with another idea I've had brewing for a while.

Idea #2 is putting my weapons on small tracked carriers, like a mini Thunderfire or old Rapier laser. I have the bitz for a bunch of them, Im using the tracks off the old ork warbikes, when thinned down a bit they fit nicely inside a short section of the newer IG track guards. Add a few bitz and it looks like a little ROV with a weapon on it, and has room for some stowage bits like water cans and ruck sacks. Since Im eventually going with upgraded tank designs, these lil platforms should fit in pretty well with the theme of my army and provide some more conversion and mini diorama possibilities. The only dilemma Im having, is if I do it, should I keep 2 men on the bases, or 1 man and the platform?

Tallarns with hats! 5-4-10 update.

2010-05-04T00:40:00.002-07:00

So, Im still waiting for my canoe-load (I dont think my lil splurge warrants a boat-load label!) of goodies, so I wanted to figure out a simple way to do the shemaghs.

I've got the keffiyehs down pretty good- but I want some variety in head gear amongst my guys. A war torn, worn down, using whatever gear they can get sort of look. So, shemaghs are like huge scarves that work as head wraps/hats, and a face covering to keep dust & debris out.

So, enter an old gizmo I recently rediscovered. Years ago I bought a lil clay press- it looks like a retarded chrome syringe- but instead of a needle, theres several various discs that attach to the front. The discs have differently shaped holes in them- if you think back to childhood, its kinda like the PlayDoh-Press that some of us used to make neat shapes with. What does this have to do with anything?

Well, its pretty small- the discs are about the size of a dime. And years ago I tried to use it with Greenstuff. But, lacking the hand strength of a PowerFist, there was no way in hell I was able to get the green stuff out in any extruded shape.
So, it sat unused for years. Until I had one of my brilliant ideas. I discovered that it would fit into the front of a caulking gun! So the plunger on the bottom could be pressed with hte caulking guns ratcheting strength...and its now strong enough to push ProCreate (grey stuff) out of a 1. mm hole. Just about the same size as a las gun barrel.

Now- you might be wondering- "wtf does that have to do with hats on tallarns!??!"

Everything!

Previously I was rolling thin cylinders of this stuff out by hand- which isnt super difficult, but it takes time, during which the stuff is curing, so its a waste of sculpt time and makes me mix smaller batches(also tedious).

So, now I can squirt out about 2-3 inches of 1mm 'rod', which I can then flatten out with a roller into thin strips- which is the right width for the cloth I want for my shemaghs! So, rather than blobbing on putty- then forcing it into as shmagh shape- I can actually wrap it onto the fig like an actual piece of clothing- From there ifs pretty simple to shape it with a sculpting tool. Pushing into the recesses, ans using a point to pull down sections to open them up. And, rolling the edges a bit to emphasize the layers and shape.

For me, another apparent use of being able to easily make the 'rod' shape with the putty- is the ribbed power hoses. I have a tool that makes it super easy to put the ribbed pattern onto a piece of putty, but rahter than explain it I'll eventually just get pics up of all this. Still working on getting a more suitable cam for all this ;)

And my pipettes arrived today, small batch resin mixing is now possible- so I have to find the mold for the shoulder pads I want- or make a new mold :/

Later this week should be the Ultrasonic cleaner, the ink/wash making supplies, and some Fimo to sculpt some stuff that regular putty wont work for (mainly prototyping parts for the line of armored vehicles Im planning on replacing the IG tanks with).

Tallarn Progress Report ^_^

2010-04-28T11:00:00.002-07:00

So, still no new cam. I may try for a group shot to see if the cam will focus on some of the guys. Since it focuses behind the minis on macro shots, Im hoping a group pic will 'trick' it into focusing on something usable :)

I've got several more kheffiyehs sculpted up on my Labor Platoon. A lack of shoulder pads is slowing me down. Ive been sculpting them in the same shape as the cadian ones, but thats getting tedious. So, Im going to break out my old mold for some shoulder pads that are very similar to kroot shoulder pads, and the look good on catachans and cadians. Its a really small mold though, so mixing resin in super small quantities like that will require some pipettes (ebay!! 100 for 7$!!).

So, thats sorta stalled the progress of working on the troops. So I started workin on another character model. My very own Ironsand Strakhan :) IG figs with power fists are kinda rare, so I found the catachan Capt. and after some work he's got a nice flowing robe. His 'high &tight' hair do got filed down and he'll be getting a slightly more ornate kheffiyeh than the troops. Add in a sash and I should have a pretty bad ass Ironhand counts as.

Im also considering purchasing 3 1/48th scale Hind 24d helicopter models to convert to Valks/Vendettas. Why you ask? Theyre almost the same size, with a little work they'll make a nice substitute and will fit my army theme better. And, the biggest factor since Im CHEAP- 3 of them will cost about 45$. So, yeah, thats like a 4 to 1 price advantage over a Valk kit.

Oohh ohh, I also just acquired a 160 watt Ultrasonic cleaner, should be big enough to fit a land raider in. If it works like I anticipate- stripping will become rather simple. SuperClean soak, sonic cleaner for 5-10 minutes, poof, naked figs. If it does work that well, I'll have easy access to another 100 or so cadians and 160+ catachans to convert & fill out my IG ranks (I got them in various trades for cheap due to hideous paint).

Tallarns: Sculptin update :) 4-19

2010-04-19T18:43:00.002-07:00

So, did a bit more sculpting to day. Added some sashes on the 2 shemagh wearing figs I did the other night. The outcome was acceptable, but Im not sure if sashes are going to be something I consider necesarry on all the figs, or jsut as a method of denoting officers or maybe veteran status.

I also dicovered the standard cadian bayonets when removed from the rifles can easily be curved into a jambaya styled knife knife- this also goes for the sheathed knife bits. This was a relief as it means I wont have to sculpt a ton of knives onto the guys ;)

After the sashes I decided to try giving a fellow a Keffiyeh to see how it worked out compared to the shemaghs. Conclusion- keffiyehs are alot easier and fast lol. It took about 10 minutes, most of which was getting the head band thin enough. Most of the sculpts Ive seen others do they do the head band very thick, and it seems ot throw off the balance of the look- so thin head bands for my guys :)

And last, but defintiely not least, I decided to add a character to the conversion pile. I had a bit of putty left over- and decided I wanted an Arabic styled Marbo stand in. I saw someone else using Shiv from the Last Chancers set, and I happen to have one!

Having just had success with the keffiyeh, I noticed Shiv's hair could easily be smoothed to cloth, thus using the head band he has as part of the head gear. so I puttied over the hair, and made the keffiyeh. His power blade I curved into a bit of a shamshir shaped blade, and in his right hand I added one of the jambayas I had jsut learned to make with the cadian knives. He still didnt look quite right, so I added a goatee, which I will enhance a bit more in the painting stages.

Note: pics were an epic fail. Between a shit cam and my shaky hands everything was blurtastic and not worth posting :( (and it was tripod mounted) Will attempt pics with my older camera- its got more manual features I can adjust.

Airbrushing-How to make a portable air tank

2010-04-18T16:56:00.002-07:00

Ok, so, alot of people seem interested in airbrushing. Its not a cheap portion of this hobby-a quality brush can run upwards of a few hundred bucks, ditto for an air source.

I've talked about affordable quality brushes in other posts. Today, Im going to help with the second part- the air.

Some people swear by the little air pumps that the air brush companies sell. And sure, they can puff air out and make the brush work. But, like many things, you get what you pay for. The drawbacks of the entry level units include a pulsing air flow. Whats that? Well, basically everytime it the diaphram inside pushes air theres a push, then when it goes back down- no push. Its not much of an issue at lower pressures, since the hose will absorb most of that energy. If you start getting close to the lil compressors rating though, the pressure fluctuates a bit and gives the pulsing effect. If you're attmepting some fine finish sort of effect the pulsing can screw up the results you want.

Some of these lil compressors will list two numbers. Peak Airflow/pressure. And Continuous airflow/pressure. Peak airflow isnt really important on a practical level, but the continuous air flow IS. Continuous is how much air it can pump out all the time while you're spraying. Most of the affordable AB compressors like this, get up to around 25-30 countinuous PSI.

Another aspect of these lil compressors- some are noisy. And they tend to vibrate alot- so if its sitting on your desk or table, its going to shake things a bit. For the quiter ones that vibrate less, you're again adding cost.

So- I'll stopping pissing on the little AB compressors now. They'll work, but they arent cheap and they can only do one thing - work an air brush.

Now comes the useful part- the alternative to the noisy, rattling over priced AB Compressor.

The portable air tank. Think of it like a Mime thats good for something. Its quiet, and it blows. It doesnt vibrate, no pulsing air flows. Sure, its a little bigger than the AB compressor, but you dont have to plug it in either- so you can pretty much take it and use your AB anywhere you like. These tanks arent very expensive at all:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=portable+air+tank&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-
8&cid=9696546949054867991&ei=-YDLS7z4LJOmswO1r7yYAw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB8Q8wIwAA#ps-sellers

So, it wont work by itself- you need a pressure regulator- so you can dial in the proper amount of out going pressure:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=36797&xcamp=google&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cpc&zmam=13262200&zmas=12&zmac=112&zmap=36797

Thats about as cheap as a regulator gets, but you dont need a super precision piece, so its good enough. Now, Youre also going to need some connectors & fittings.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91860

Now, you have everything you need for the tank- minus a couple wrenchs to assemble it. Which is easy. Righty tighty, lefty loosey. The stubby little hose that comes with the tank is removed. Thats where the pressure regulator gets screwed in- make sure to use the white teflon tape on the threads- otherwise it will leak. Once you get theregulator attached- you connect one of the female couplers to it(it has another hole for the outgoing air) again, use thread tape.

After that done- all you have to do is play with the various connectors to get you brush set up and connected to the tank. But- we still have one more step!

We gotta air it up and make sure it works. Now- some of you are now thinking "Wtf!? I dont have an air compressor!!" Thats ok Heres a list of where to find air compressors-
1-Your parents garage. Go hang out with mom & dad for a lil while- so they dont feel liek youre jsut using them for the compressor
2-Your redneck neighbor thats always working on his cars- pretty good chance hes got a compressor.
3-Local gas stations- that tire filling station will fill your air tank. If you look around a bit some of them even have free air. Truck stops in particualr are good for this- since their compressors have more pressure for the truck tires. It might cost a dollar in change, but 80 or 90 psi in a 5 gal tank will last you quite a while (mine will run my brush at 30 psi for 40 straight minutes).

Once you find an air source and air it up- get it to about 80 or 90 psi. Theyre rated for 125, but airing it up that much wears it out faster, and isnt really needed. One its aired up- watch the pressure gauge- and see if its losing any air- check the valves and make sure theyre all off. You can also spray some soapy stuff on all the joints- if theres any bubbling thats where the leak is. Take that joint apart- add more thread tape- reassemble- and try it again

Other benfits of this tank- if you get that full connector kit- when your freinds have a flat- your portable tank can be used to rescue them and get them down the road without having to use that ridiculous donut tire.

And last resort- it will also inflate the chicks for the bachelor party

Parts list:
Portable Air Tank-25-35$
Harbor Freight Regulator-7$
Fittings & Connectors- 20$
Total- 50-55$ (not counting tax of course)

Compare that to 8.25$ that Gw sells a can of propellant for their crap sprayer- and you're coming out ahead after the first hour of spraying.

Tallarn WIP heads/shemagh sculpts

2010-04-17T20:07:00.003-07:00

So, an actual WIP pic! Its a craptacular pic(paarticularly when you look at it in high res lol) , but I'd rather spend another hour sculpting, than setting up lighting to get a better pic.

So, today we have the first attempts at a couple of shemaghs. They seem to be an adequate start to Tallarn-izing cadians.

I think otehr features Im going to incorporate, is trimmin the torso bottoms down-like remving the belt section. This should get the plastics down to about the same height as the metal figs(which are smaller). Then, to cover that gap I can sculpt on some sashes to tuck thier jambayas(curved knives) into. The other trick I may use is shaving the cargo pockets off their pants. Combine that with a cohesive paint scheme, and they should mesh in quite well with the existing tallarn line.

Mostly these guys are going to bolster the special weapon slots(esp flamers) and step up as Sgt's. And likely there will be some done up as veterans.

To get the lasguns to match up, I may be shaving the e-clip slots off the plastics to fall in theme with the older lead versions. Im considering doing the stocks as wood, since its rarely done, and I think the contrast of wooden stocked rifles may add to the theme of my army.

And now- back to general sculpting ambitiousness while my hands aren't shaking!

Tallarns!!! An army I can stick with?

2010-04-15T18:46:00.003-07:00

So, Im gonna dust off the blog here, its been a while since Ive posted anything useful/entertaining ;)

For everyone that replied to my January post thank you. Some of the techniques mentioned have helped deal with the hand tremors. Combining that with my generally lazy nature when it comes to painting, I think I have several methods that should get me back to gaming/modelling.

As the title suggests, Im going to be resurrecting my Tallarn army. I sat down and realized that theyre my most expensive army, and one of the least played in the 10 years Ive owned them, they never even made it to any tourneys. They also seem pretty rare these days, like 1 in 30 or less compared to Cadians.

So, theyre mostly painted, but theyre painted at my 8 years ago skill level. The tanks/apc's have alot of nifty conversions- which have since been done better as bitz on the IG accesory sprue. And I've always hated IG tanks, theyre like some sort of tank caricatures that have ridiculous layouts and features. I know its an imaginary game- but I like to imagine my little toy soldiers with tanks that have evolved past trench warfare.

So, my big plans-

1-Build a playable list with what I have and start working off the 3 years of gaming rust I have.

2-See if the existing paint jobs are worth saving/upgrading. If not, work up a new color scheme and rotate stripping by squads to repaint.

3-Conversions- The tallarn troopers are metal, and hence limited in selections and weapon options(as well as availability). Im wanting to convert some shemaghs (they arent turbans!) and see how they can match up with Cadian bodies. I may just sculpt them onto the torsos if it seems easier to get the cloth right that way.

4-Add in a Combat Labor/Engineer Platoon- mostly catachan models since I have TONS of the lil bastards. They represent a lower caste, hence are the trench diggers and cannon fodder( but not conscripts).

5-Tanks/APC's- This is the most ambitious part, phasing out the craptastic GW IG tanks with what will hopefully be more practical yet appealing models. Best case, the designs can be cast for easy expansion and a fully mounted force. Also designs to reflect desert warfare(water stowage, wider tracks for sand etc etc)

6-After all that crap is done- add an AirCav element. Converting a 1/35th Hind 24 would provide an size and role equivalent model to a Valkyrie.

To keep on top of all this, I could use your guys help :) Any links of well done Tallarn stuff, specifically updated conversions would be awesome for ideas on what to do with my own. I also could do with some of you guys harassin me to keep working on one army- otherwise my 40k ADHD will have me doing ork,sm and eldar stuff all at once and I'll never get anything done ;)

In return for the help Im hoping I can document easy methods of painting and converting, the basics of airbrushing for 40k models, and maybe even some casting FAQ's if I get some good tallarn heads and tanks worked up :)

Oh, and of course some cool figs to oogle over ^_^

Back, sorta, looking for some non-standard modeling ideas/advice...

2010-01-24T17:27:00.001-07:00

I know the topic is rather vague- but the issues I'm looking for help with arent exactly typical modeling issues of what glue, or how to prime something etc etc. Ive been modeling for many years and am rather competent at it, better than most- but not perfect in any regard.

Some of you may have noticed I sort of stopped posting rather abruptly at the end of the summer. And thats because Ive had some health issues that went from mild nuisance, to signifigant problem. Now, Im not gonna die, or anything like that.

But long story short, my hands have gotten a bit twitchy, and I drop things rather often. So, lookin back, thats probly why I dropped a rather large pair of hardware shears into my big toe in july (I even started an injury thread off that one lol). So, one of the obvious problems of the hobby- is all the sharp stuff that one can injure themselves with.

The other obvious problem to deal with is detail work on painting, and sculpting. Its probly still doable, but incredibly frustrating having to do over & over what used ot be simple just a few months ago. I mean, just hitting the raised egde on a SM shoulder pad right now has become a challenging prospect where I used to be able to hit a dozen of them cleanly on the fig in less than 10 minutes.

So, what Im looking for I guess, is are there any other gamers that have, or had to transition into any sort of disability with thier modeling skills? Im sorta going nuts with nothing to do, and I cant really play video games because of the same problems(except turn based stuff- and Civ 4 is gettin old!) but every time Ive sat down and tried to use the same techniques that have just sort of become habit over the last 10 years or so- the pitiful results Im getting have me fail my Ld check and I flee for a week or two.

So, any brainstorming on how to get the modeling & painting done while working around shaking hands?

Recent Disappearance.

2009-09-02T09:31:00.002-07:00

So, for those that dont already know, my energy level for gaming stuff fluctuates. Sometimes I have the energy, but the migraines, or their precursor symptoms jut dont let me do anything at the modeling desk.

I mean, when you cant stand bright lights, strong smells, and have trembling hands, the options are pretty limited.

To add to the complexity of this, its highly likely Im not just dealing with migraines symptoms. My Dr believes its very likely I have MS. There will be more testing to follow, and its something Im trying to get my head around.

So, I'll had good weeks and bad, with hopeful spurts of creativity during the good.

Digital Camo anyone?

2009-08-10T11:57:00.002-07:00

So, Ive ebeen laid low by a string of successive migraines, which cuts out sitting under bright lights making cool minis :(

But! Fret not my fellow nerds, as its not all wasted time. Its given me time to think about stuff- what might look really good, and how to accomplish it.

That brought me to IG and Camo jobs. Weve all seen the rare well done camo covered tank that was weathered and look great. And we've all seen the many badly thought out camo covered tanks.

With infantry, the camo is even harder to scale down, and palce well on a repeated basis. How many of you IG vets have started a camo scheme that looked great, but after spending 2 weeks on one squad- you decided that sqaud got camo and the rest were getting plain fatigues?

I have in mind a technique to make camo easy, and consistant. For tanks and infantry ^_^

Some of you are probly thinking 'Ya, Ive heard this bullshit before...'

So, to set the nay sayers at ease- Im not just planning on doing regular splotch camo. Im going to be doing digital camo(which is alot more difficult). Now, obviously it wont be at the same scale of our modern BDU equivalents, it will be a little blockier to work at 28/35mm scale. But, the tests Ive already done are very promising.

I jsut have to pick an IG color scheme, and get on it. So, any ideas for 2 or 3 color camo that will go on a base coat of grey or tan- lemme know!

Wow....Airbrush goodness at a new level.

2009-08-06T05:54:00.002-07:00

Its not often that I see a paint job that really, really impresses me, but this guy did it. In case you missed the link in my post title:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/251250.page#888793

Seeing work like that gives me one of those moments where I want to buy a 50 gallon drum of simple green to throw all my figs in and start over.

But, then I realize Im lazy and thats not a good idea.

Anyhow- the monolith pics linked above is why I got my airbrush- there are just some things you cant do with regular brush techniques- or rather- an airbrush makes them practical. I sure someone could do the same sort of thing with regular brush & paints- but it would take like 2,000 layers of shading and a couple hundred hours to do what an airbrush likely did in less than 40 hours.

So, with that monolith in mind, I have several chaos and eldar paint ideas forming. But it will be down the road, as Im still in a space marine mood ;)

Also, the flu/eye booger nurglings are still plaguing me, productivity has been minimal. The only thing I accomplished was an experiment to slow down the curing time of the resin I have- it was drying in the mixing cup and pouring thick-hence screwing up my casts. So, I put part A in fridge. This slows the cure time alot, pot life goes from a minute or two, to almsot 4 or 5. But, the de-mold time goes from 5 minutes- to 15 or so. But- Im not mass casting anything- so speed isnt an issue.

Not jsut a migraine...the flu too!

2009-08-04T13:41:00.002-07:00

Yay. So, either at the Dr office a couple weeks ago- or the hospital last week I picked up a flu bug.

The congestion is so bad I feel like I snorted a bunch of nurglings.

I was gonna paint, but the congestion has worked its way into my eyes. So, in a TMI moment, eye boogers make it hard to paint when your vision is blurry.

So I figured I'd work on something less detail oriented and Im makin some molds. Did up the tire molds Ive been wanting to do for a while. And an old turret I had laying about.

And did a single cavity for my microwave blaster/melta. But, too late realized I didnt leave space for any air vents. So, luckily I will only need to use it 4 or 5 times to makes a multi chamber mold.

Nothin for the weekend :(

2009-08-03T00:29:00.002-07:00

Sorry guys, have a monster migraine thats shut down the paint dungeon.

Hopefully be back with more goodness soon. My Librarian conversion has been talking to me....

Somethin a lil different

2009-07-31T00:47:00.002-07:00

So, not all paintin I do is 40k. I have a potential commission for a fellow with an enormous Axis and Allies collection. I did these up as a couple of samples for him.

And, in the grim darkness of the future, the Ultramarines will take your toys away.

The Poll Results

2009-07-29T22:45:00.003-07:00

So the poll I posted has finished up, and it would seem you evil bastards are intent on making me paint, 53% of you anyway.

So, I figure I'll split my time between getting some paintin done and the usual modeling stuff.

As for what to paint- I think I'll be doing some of my Ultras up. Save the gasps and sighs ;) I have about 1400 points of imbalanced units painted up, and would like to bring that up to a nice 2500 non-Vulkan list.

Heres what I have thats already started:
4 Full tactical squads, w/misc heavy and assault weapons, and Sgt's with fists.
1 Whirlwind
1 predator that needs its turret changed out to an auto cannon.
1 Landspeeder with a MM
2 dreadnaughts (1 Assault cannon, 1 assault cannon & ML....4th ed leftovers...I was short on bits)
1 boring lil commander

What I have that I want to add-
5 Landspeeders- and typhoon bits for all of them.
A ciuple more tactical squads- might be painted up in 2nd Founding UM squads just for variety.

9 bikes-most of which have no fairings(weird stuff acquired in trades) so I'll need to model some uber cool fairings of my own I guess. Also short about 5 or 6 sets of biker legs.
1 Biker commander (same as above on the bike)

A cool Librarian conversion that been collecting dust for several years.
A dread that is gonna become a Ven dread. It came ot me in a trade covered in bits and glue. Poor lil guy could be salvaged as a regular dread, so was in the box to get chaosified- when I realized a Venerable sculpt up could save him.

What I want to acquire:
A couple MM marines to round out my Heavy assortment.
4-6 rhinos
4-6 drop pods

I have 2 MKII rhinos in my IW army I can steal(I dont go retarded on CSM bits- so they'll be easy to recalim). And I have a few MKI rhinos, but I like to use them for my other chaos armies.

I may just flex my mad Scrathbuild-fu and get all over some drop pod builds. I think going to a 4 section design, rather than GW's 5 section, will make for a much simpler model. And it will be more symmetrical, hence easier to mold if I decide to go that route.

For those curious- I run a 7th Company army, which is a reserve company. The 7th is loaded with 10 tactical squads, that are all cross trained as speeder pilots(Hence having a heavy speeder presence in my army). The biker squad I'll likely color up out of the 6th Company(or a diff chapter) as theyre the biker trained ones. I doubt I run assault marines or termies anytime soon, but if I ever add them I'll either paint them from a related chapter, or get them out of the relevant company.

Oh, and in researching 7th company stuff, I discovered the 7th has the Master Victualer for the chapter. Factoid of the day- thats the dude that buys the groceries O.o

And last, Im very tempted to paint up my IG as an Ultramar Defense Auxilia unit. Just means less Imperial iconogrphy and a few more blue and white insignia.

Micro-waver(Melta) MK II-A

2009-07-28T23:34:00.004-07:00

Ok, alot of people seem to think its too much like a plasma gun.

So, Im trying to avoid hose bits- the damn things trap air bubbles, sometimes even with a pressure pot.

So heres the changes Im thinking of making. Basically just adding a melta type cel in the mag well- which makes more sense than the odd-ball side mount on the Imp versions.

This also makes Multi-Micro blasters easier as I can just go for a nozzle like the original.

In the grim darkness of the future....where are the melta guns!?!?

2009-07-28T15:10:00.001-07:00

So, I decided to make my own melta gun variant.

With GW having them back ordered until the middle of 6th edition, I figured I'd save myself some head aches. Ironically I have a buncha melta guns already.....but I like my sculpt better....

Took me about 5 hours, all bare styrene stock with a lil procreate. The pics have some styrene fuzz on them still, cant be helped, the lil micro saw makes a mess of staticy dust.

I'm gonna make a single throw mold for arming up my own guys.

Im also making it IG compatible- flame thrower arms(cadians) and theres a divot on the left side for the side-handle to stick into. Crapachans can pack it just like the marines do, so no probs there.

Officially, in case I sell some of these- they are Microwave Blasters MkI ^_^

Gobber da mighty Sqiggoth WIPs

2009-07-24T18:20:00.003-07:00

So, I havent posted pics of Gobber in a while, and Ive been getting progress made on him between rounds of sculpting I was doing on my Hellhound.

Mounting the kannon and gunner between the driver and the Rokkits up top has been the fiddliest part to fit, mostly because I couldnt decide exactly how I wanted to do it before I started.

So I figured the gunner would be frustrated too- since they miss most of the time I have him displaying the Orkish good luck symbol to some foe that he missed with his last shot (the finger still needs sculptin)

The driver Im gonna have haulin back on some chains for all he's worth- sort of a Yosemite Sam screamin 'Whoa mule!! Whooa!' sorta moment. And for those that might be too young to know who Yosemite Sam is, you suck and arent cool enough to read my blog, GTFO ^_^

The rest of Gobber is pretty obvious, lots of strapped on armor plates, rivety goodness all over, dag decorations.

Still planned is some trophy rack sorta stuff and glyphs, the right side/top of the howdah needs a bit more buffin up to look AV12-ish

Assault Cannon > LasCannon ?!? Math-hammer says yes...

2009-07-21T23:46:00.003-07:00

So...numbers can be funny sometimes. We all know meltas are teh uber tank rapers in the current rule set.

But, there are other weapons out there that do things meltas dont, and Ive been toying with them. I saw a post in which someone said they thought Assault cannons were better Vs av 14 than las cannons. I think most initial reactions will be 'Bullshit!' Mine was.

But, then I crunched the numbers with the nifty Vassal40k- this is 100,000 rounds worth of fire for each weapon- hittin on a 3+ (PS- crunchin the numbers for 400,000 ac shots made my laptop use its safeword)
So Lascannon vs AV 14 11056 dice glance (5), 11186 dice penetrate (6+)
Metla-with 2d6 vs Av 14= 9074 dice glance (6), 38830 dice penetrate (7+) =
Melta w/1d6 vs Av 14= 11071 dice glance (6) =
Assault Cannon vs AV 14 14786 dice glance (8), 15082 dice penetrate (9+)

Lascannon Vs AV 13= 11036 dice glance (4), 22466 dice penetrate (5+)
Melta w/2d6 vs av 13=7274 dice glance (5), 48219 dice penetrate (6+) =
Melta w/1d6 vs Av 13= 11085 dice glance (5), 11089 dice penetrate (6+) =
Assault Cannon vs Av 13 = 14288 dice glance (7), 29664 dice penetrate (8+)

Lascannon Vs Av 12 = 11097 dice glance (3), 33222 dice penetrate (4+) =
Melta w/2d6 vs av 12=5496 dice glance (4), 55943 dice penetrate (5+) =
Melta w/1d6 vs Av 12= 11042 dice glance (4), 22196 dice penetrate (5+) =
Assault cannon vs AV 12 = 45188 dice penetrate (7+) (note- cant glance AV 12 since a 6 pen roll adds the 1-3 to its AP)

Lascannon Vs Av 11 = 11019 dice glance (2), 44327 dice penetrate (3+) =
Melta w/2d6 vs av 11=3655 dice glance (3), 60849 dice penetrate (4+) =
Melta w/1d6 vs Av 11= 11207 dice glance (3), 33192 dice penetrate (4+) =
Assault cannon vs AV 11 = 44201 dice glance (5), 44956 dice penetrate (6+)

Lascannon Vs Av 10 = 11007 dice glance (1), 55415 dice penetrate (2+) =
Melta w/2d6 vs av 10= 1902 dice glance (2), 64722 dice penetrate (3+) =
Melta w/1d6 vs Av 10= 11067 dice glance (2), 44509 dice penetrate (3+) =
Assault cannon vs AV 10= 45276 dice glance (4), 89708 dice penetrate (5+) =

So, Meltas within 12/6" are king Vs Heavy armor. Assault cannon are however capable of more penetrating hits than Lascannon. But the Lascannon has the edge over Meltas when they are only using a single penetration dice.

Once you get to lighter armor however, the sheer number of Pen & glancing hits the assault cannon puts forth is pretty impressive. This seems to make it an ideal weapon for working over squadron based vehicles.

And, all this isnt even getting into using the weapon Vs Infantry.

All this being said- I really think the Assault cannon- while 'nerfed' from 4th ed, is still worth the points in 5th ed.

This also has me wondering if the Assault cannon is better than the Cyclone/Typhoon, as for anti vehicle use krak missles are very easy to compare (use the melta w/1d6 stat line and jsut x2 for the results- its rough but close enough), however, 2 frag missles are pretty random, so are really hard to balance in an anti- infantry role. Oddly, it looks like the Assualt cannon is better Vs Av 14, and AV 10, but a Cyclone/typhoon would be noticably better Vs 11,12, and debatable vs 13 if you look at the glances. So, I think for termies, the assault cannon is better- as it cooperates with their 24" storm bolter range. For speeders, the typhoon gives better stand off range.

Note: I realize this is pure meta-gaming- there are numerous factors unaccounted for.

A Space Marine a day?

2009-07-21T10:47:00.002-07:00

My early A.M. epiphany of the day- I should be sleeping. But, the migraine says "^$#* you!!" So I'm geeking out on 40k as usual.

I made the mistake of digging through my Space marine box looking for a looted bit for my Squiggoth. While goin through the box I realized I have alot of SM crap.

I think the biggest thing that bores with SM's is painting them. Im not a perfectionist type painter. I paint them to a 'better than most' standard with some conversions thrown in and call it a day. But, painting a SM army is pretty boring, so uniform, the base color starts to get old as theres little variety. Base, trim, high light, wash, highlight....zzzzzzz

So, it got me to pondering. The old Rogue Trader 'Rainbow Marines' may have been stuffed back in the closet- but that doesnt mean I cant make my own Rainbow Marine army!

There are alot of cool color themes for various chapters out there, so why not make an 'All Star' sort of space marine army? Keep it regular 'nilla codex entries, but take different squad/selections based on the chapters fluff strengths. Like Blood Angel & Ravn Guard assault marines, Ultras and Imperial fists for tac squads, White scars/ravenwing bkers, stuff like that.

To take it a step farther- Im taking a unit or two of Stern Guard- and modeling them after the unit that pretty much gave birth to thier rules- DeathWatch.

This all works out pretty well with the UM army I have painted so far- as its painted ot 7th Company- which is the reserves- so any holes in my roster I can just fill in with UM reserve units :)

So, along with my usual modeling stuffs- Im going to try and paint up a Marine each day from a different chapter. This will help me get my paintin skills back up to speed, and after a month or two, I'll have a colorful SM army in addition to whatever else Im working on.

2nd half of july productivity....

2009-07-20T14:49:00.003-07:00

So, for all practical purposes my hellhound armored car is 90% complete. If I could get a more solid image in my mind and work off that I'd be able to model faster- but the ideas mutate in my head as the models get built. Its not a bad thing really, one idea spawns another, something doesnt look right(or could look better). Anyhow, the only things left on the HH is rivets, and some suspension/wheel mounts for the front tires. I ended up boring out the front wheel wells to take a set of 1/35th LAV tires like on the back- using the GW tires, even the modded ones, just made it look too toy like. The bigger tires up front give it a much more solid appearance. I tac'd on the finish gubbins, Some aquilas on the side, stowage bits, smoke launchers, turret mount and ring. I didnt want any of those bits on the body when I make a mold of it, I want to keep the customization options as open possible. Im also probly going to work up an extension for the cargo section- make it longer and add an extra set of wheels- make it able to function as a troop carrier also ^_^ Im also thinkin it could work as a Manticore or Hydra platform(both low recoil types of artillery).

So. Im realllly slow doing IG vehicle builds. And I need a break from the HH project. So, its on to the Squiggoths. Gobber is on my desk at the moment. I armored up his driver seat last night. Need to do some more armor plates on the side and front legs. Knock some gunners and a driver together. Add some rivets and Orksy gubbins, and gobber will be ready to paint ^_^

Brilliant idea, or retarded gimmick? Psychic tricks for IG

2009-07-16T01:27:00.004-07:00

So, with my memory being spotty these days, this blog might help me keep track of my genius moments when I figure out something that seems really cool.

So, Im really enamored with the new IG Psyker Battle Squads. Cool conversion possibilities, and a ordanance blast attack were what caught me at first. Then I started thinkin about Weaken Resolve- and alone its just, meh. But, in combo with other stuff...its pretty uber.

My first thoughts of it- were direct IG related stuff. Snipper and barrage pinning. Lets face it- with a Ld of 2 a squad is probly gonna piss its pants off a single pinning casualty. Might make a unit or two of cheap mortars worth taking- still better than ratlings.

But, pinning isnt good enough for lil ole me. So I carried it over to the joys of Tank Shocking- which can be useful for breakin squads, or making them move into lil bunches for template stuff. But, that wont work- WR its used in the shooting phase, and thats after the Movement Phase. Bummer really.

So, I had an epiphany, and a pretty good one. Callidus assassin. This is a good unit as is, Word in your ear to shuffle an opponents unit out of cover at the game start, Phase sword to ignore pesky Invulnerable saves. But, its the Neural Shredder and Polymorphine Im lookin at. the NS treats the enemy models LD as their toughness, and its S8 vs that. So, Hittin the unit with Weaken Resolve, dropping their Ld to 4 or less, means you have an AP1 flamer, wounding on a 2+ and instant killing anything it wounds. With polymorphine letting the assassin pop up anywhere without deviating- its a very surgical sort of strike- that could be devastating against things like Nob bikers, plague marines, or a Hive Tyrant with a full unit of guard. Any non fearless unit (like the Nobs) will likely take more than 50% casualties and flee off the table unless they have something that might rally them once the WR wears off.

Now, to take an assassin, you gotta take an Inquisitor. No biggie, an =][= with mystic side kicks is common fare. But takin a cheap Inq and an assassin wont work using WH allies, so its gotta be an Inq Lord as an HQ slot- which actually is better. Heres why:

A reg Inq has a Ld of 8, so is pretty useless with a psychic hood. An Inq Lord can take Purgatus- and has a good shot at reducing any opponents IC psykers Ld by3 pts for the rest of the game. Which means any other psyker is probly gonna be neutered totally by the Inq psychic hood.

The next trick is a second psychic power that was pretty lame in 4th ed. Divine Pronouncement. Heres where the PBS tag team comes into play. Say hi to the new Lash for the Imperium. DP makes the target squad roll a Ld check as though they just took 25% casualties. Further- for every pt if Ld the target unit is lower than the Inq, that diffference is a penalty to their roll. So, even if your PBS has taken some losses from Warp perils, just droppin a target units ld to 6 will have them needing a 2(auto success anyway) vs a Ld 10 Divine Pronouncement. It doesnt work on fearless units though. But, could still be useful for runnin off squads that cant rally off objectives, and using it on the last turn to break a squad for an extra KP (fleeing units count as destroyed correct?)

And my last bit of insight. I got this idea lookin at some Ard Boyz battle reps. An IG player lost the tourney because of a drawn game because of being one objective short. A squad of CSMs with double flamers had cleaned his infantry off an objective. Only thing near it was 2 armored Las cannon senitnels, with 2 turns left he sat there and shot at the CSMs with it. 7 CSMs,in 4+ cover, 4 lascanon shots. Not gonna happen. He had a PBS with LOS to this 7 CSM squad, a soulstorm shot wouldnt be likely to kill all 7 with scatter & cover. So he shot at something else. I see a different option- and yes, one of desperation- but hey ya never know. I think he should have hit them with WR, woulda dropped them to 2 Ld. And, charge the sentinels. The CSMs without a p-fist cant hurt them, really, krak grenades vs walkers isnt reliable. But, jsut a single CSM casualty would have most likely had that squad breaking with a 2 Ld. 2 turns left is 4 assault phases, so 4 attacks on the charge, then 6 more from 3 subsequent phases- math hammer is 5 hits, and 3 or 4 wounds- one casualty is likely. Better odds than 4 LC shots(if only he had plasma or H-flamers on these! ), of which half miss, and the half that wound get soaked up by cover. So, ya, WR for Assault support of walkers-sorta last ditch, but it could have one the guy the game. If he had broke that scoring unit. I suppose this would work for any assualt- but short of a 30 man infantry blob (with commisars and priests lol)charging with Creed giving them 'For Cadia' its not likely that we'll see IG winning an assault.

Scratch building, and precise conversions.

2009-07-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

So, different armies have different styles of conversions.

Orks are easy, and fun. You just take an absurdly large bitz box, get a shape in your mind, and get creative with it. Its more art than anything else.

Chaos, is alot of mutation. You break out the sculptin gear and have fun making tentacles, pustules, claws, weird muscly stuffs. Its pretty forgiving, as theres no set way something has to look. And any mistakes can be covered pretty easy.

Nids are similar to chaos, they mutate too, so some simple & clean sculpt work can go a long way.

Now, the humans. This is where things start needing to be a bit cleaner. Sure, you can use battle damage and weathering to cover alot of of stuff if the convert isnt great. But, as Ive been learning with my Hellhound armored car variant- keeping clean symetrical lines is not easy.

Im pretty sure my next IG project will have some differences. First, Im going to acquire a set of sliding calipers. This will let me measure a spot and fit in pieces exactly, rather than wasting time getting it close, then filing/cuttin it down to fit. As an example, with some sheet plastic, and a set of calipers I could make a set of IG track guards in about 5 minutes. With the stuff I have now- probly 20 minutes and may, or may not, come out symmetrical/even.

For small projects this isnt an issue, theyre easy to adjust/compensate on. But I'm looking at getting into some more advanced kit bashes. I hate the basic chimera & leman russ hull designs. Ive been lookin over several ways to update them- much like they did with the MkII Rhinos and Land Raiders. They kept the spirit of the previous models, but 'updated' them in a very pleasing way. Why GW didnt take the opportunity to do that this time around is baffling. Until you look at sales- the clunky old models are still selling well- no point in replacing what still sells. So, if my ideas take form as I hope, I'll be able to either create a conversion process for the existng models, or something of my own creation that will look different, but still be recognizable as an 'upgraded' version of the original.

Another project idea- will be kit bashing some Valk/Vendettas out of some much more affordable Hind 24 gunship models- which are actually an almost exact equivalent in terms of tactical usage and effect. And the 1/48th models are almost spot on for size (minus the wings).

My latest Modeling effort...

2009-07-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

So, heres a catch up thread for my Hellhound variant

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/246737.page

It was origianlly just gonna be a Land speeder based sort of buggy. But with the new IG codex, I find myself liking the tactical uses of the HH and variants, but I hate the model (yes- even the new ones). Hence an armored car, that actually looks like it can move fast was born.

Many nay-sayers are complaining its too small. I think theyre retards-a full sized tank frame(ok APC) without suspension isnt gonna go faster jsut because the fluff claims a bigger engine. And flame & chem weapons dont need huge resivoirs. Too much bad stuff in them would make them too explosive. So basically- you just need something that can spray liquid. Like a fire hose, or farm equipment. Not too complex ;)

As I get more done on the sculpts, and possible casts I'll post pics from my free but craptastic cam.

Nerd +1

2009-07-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

So, its Dvernings fault.

I simply cant be upstaged by not having a gamer-geek blog too!

And now I can rant and feel important in my own lil nerd-bubble. Grants a 2+ ego save in case you weren't aware.