Slipwing's War Room

February Painting Project

2012-02-07T20:00:00.001-05:00

My 40k Fight Club 2012 Painting Challenge painting project for this month is a Necron Overlord that I kit-bashed from leftover pieces from an Annihilation Barge.

I had already decided this was my project before I got my new army yesterday, and I am going to stick with it.

New Army for my Birthday!

2012-02-06T20:00:00.005-05:00

Today is my birthday and I got exactly what I wanted, a new Dark Eldar army!

Practically all of my current armies are low Initiative and/or low Weapon Skill armies and I have been wanting to play something from the opposite end of the spectrum. So my loving Wife and Children gave me a Dark Eldar Megaforce and a Razorwing fighter for my birthday so I could start a new army.

Time to get building!

Laser Fence Painted

2012-01-31T20:44:00.000-05:00

While I was painting my Lychguard this month, I was also working on painting this Laser Fence from the Battle of Macragge set. I just finished it up tonight.

Necron Lychguard Complete

2012-01-30T19:19:00.000-05:00

I have completed my 40k Fight Club 2012 Painting Challenge for this month.

I really like how their shields turned out.

January Painting Project

2012-01-15T13:08:00.000-05:00

My first project of the year for the 40k Fight Club 2012 Painting Challenge is a unit of Necron Lychguard.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T20:07:00.000-05:00

It’s been a while since I posted anything but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope your 2011 was good and I wish you all a joyous and prosperous new year. See you in 2012!

First games with new Necron Codex

2011-11-08T09:26:00.000-05:00

I got my first two games with the new Necron Codex last week and I got thoroughly crushed in both games. I played against Sisters of Battle and Imperial Guard. With not having any of my new kits built, I just used all my old models. I was beaten so badly that there really is nothing to report.

Necrons are not the same army they used to be, nor will they play like it. If you play them that way, you will be crushed. Finding the secret to playing them will require some out-of-the-box thinking and some new tactics.

I have been reading through the codex over and over, and browsing the Internet, looking for ideas on how to play them. I have gotten all my new kits built this weekend which includes an Overlord, Doomsday Arc, Annihilation Barge, Command Barge, 5 Lychguard, and 5 Immortals with Tesla Carbines. I am going to try to get some more games in this week to try this new stuff out and see if I can discover the secrets of playing them.

Necrons awaken

2011-11-03T09:49:00.000-04:00

I picked up the new Necron codex last night, along with a few of the new models, and I have unpacked my Necrons for the first time in two years. In fact, I believe this is the first time my Necrons have ever appeared on my blog. This is not my entire army, just what I have painted.

I have been quite busy lately and have not had any time for gaming, but I have two games scheduled for tonight where I will get to try out the new codex. I am pretty excited. I will be sure to post the results of the games.

Slaughtermaster and Firebelly ready for painting

2011-10-06T19:51:00.000-04:00

My 40k Fight Club 2011 Painting Challenge projects for this month are an Ogre Kingdoms Slaughtermaster and Firebelly. I am trying to get an early start on them this month instead of waiting until the last minute like I did last month.

I have no idea at this time how I am going to paint all the meat hanging off the Slaughtermaster, I have never painted raw meat before. Anyone have any suggestions or tips?

My New Battlefoam trays for Ogres

2011-09-29T19:23:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I order the new Battlefoam Ogre Kingdoms trays for my Ogre army and they just arrived today. I really wanted to get these because I was nervous about transporting my Stonehorn and Thundertusk. Here are the trays of that I ordered.

This is the new Ogre Troop Tray. It holds 16 Ogres, 8 Ironguts, and three Standard Bearers. The only issue with this tray is that the Crusher's sword sticks out of the top of the tray. Otherwise everything fits nicely.

Next is the Ogre Artillery tray. It holds 8 Leadbelchers, 2 Ironblasters, and 2 Scraplaunchers. I have not built my new Scraplauncher yet, but everything else fits nicely.

Here is the Lord and Hero tray. It holds all the special characters, casters, Hunter, Sabertusks, and lots of Maneaters. Since I do not have the two large special characters, I am using those slots for my Gorgers.

The Thundertusk/Stonehorn tray holds two of these plus four Mournfang Cavalry. This is the thickest tray I have seen coming in at 7 inches. I am using the Mournfang slots to hold my Rhinox Riders.

Lastly is the Mournfang tray which holds eight models, including a standard bearer. Unfortunately, some of the Mournfang do not fit in these slots. The mounts that have upward pointing tusks will not fit in any of the slots. Also, the raised sword on the crusher will not fit either. Otherwise everything else fits nicely.

Overall I am very happy with these trays. I just wish the mournfang would fit. I am sure I can cut some slots to make them fit, but I just hate cutting these up.

Arcane Fulcrums Complete

2011-09-26T19:57:00.000-04:00

I was able to knock out my September painting projects in just over a day. They were really easy to paint.

Job Change and my 2011 Painting Challenge Projects

2011-09-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

This last week at work I got a promotion to a Management position directly supervising four people. I have been a team leader before but never a manager, so this is a new experience for me. After fifteen years of sitting in cubicles, I now have my own office. Overall, I am excited about the position and the experience I will gain. Hopefully this promotion will not affect my hobby time too much.

Last month, I tried painting four projects for the 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge. While I got three of them finished, I did not finish the fourth one. Here is a picture of the progress I made on Epidemius. I want to get it finished because it is the last Nurgle Daemon model I have to paint and the army will be fully painted.

I only have six days left in this month to get a project painted, but I am still going to try to do it. I am going to paint my two Storm of Magic Arcane Fulcrums.

>
I need to go get painting now.

Slaughtermaster progress and kitbashed Gutlord

2011-09-16T11:36:00.000-04:00

I have made some progress on my Slaughtermaster this week, I added a few hunks of meat that were included with the new new Stonehorn/Thundertusk and Mournfang kits. I like the way it came out so far, but I am not sure if I am done with him yet. What do you think?

I also have kitbashed a new Irongut Gutlord using some of the pieces from various different kits. The head is from the Ironblaster/Scraplauncher kit and was really the inspiration for this model. The greatweapon is from the Mournfang kit.

Stay-cation and more Ogre Kingdoms WIPs!

2011-09-12T11:07:00.000-04:00

I am taking this week off of work because I am building up too much PTO and I will lose it if I do not use it. I could also use the time off to relax and unwind. With the kids back in school, I am just planning to stay home all week and pretty do whatever I want.

As well as getting some gaming in this week, I am hoping to get all my new Ogre Kingdoms models built, although I have already made good progress over the past week. Here are some pictures of what I have built so far. First up, a Firebelly and Golgfag Maneater.

I must say that after this experience with Citidel Finecast, I am not as much of a fan as I was with my previous experience. The Firebelly had quite a few cating bubbles, but they are all on the bottom of the model where they cannot be seen. Golgfag on the other hand was a bit worse. If you look at the top of his gutplate, you will see a gap where his gutplate was miscast. I kept it to represent battle damage and will gap fill it with some green stuff. He also has quite a few bubbles, mostly where they cannot be seen, and the pieces did not fit together very well at all. It took a lot of work to put the pieces together so they fit, but I was able to do it without having to use green stuff.

The Mournfang Cavalry that I got came without any bases. I called GW and they are going to send them to me. I took these bases from the Tomb Kings kits I have yet to build. Overall, I like these models a lot. They went together fairly well and have lots of extra bits. I used an extra Bellower head and arm from my bitz box because I did not want to use the horn on the Musician.

Here is my Thundertusk so far. After seeing this model in person, I like it much better than I did when I first saw it.

And lastly, my Ironblaster. This kit has a lot of pieces to it and takes a bit of work to put together. I like it though. However, the base seems a bit small for the model. The Rhinox head and horns stick out significantly from the front.

First game with new Ogre Kingdom's Book

2011-09-09T10:01:00.000-04:00

This was on Tuesday night and it was really just a practice game. A friend of mine from my FLGS is starting to get back into Fantasy with his Wood Elves and this was our third game with both of us trying to learn the 8th edition rules. It was 1500 points and it was a decisive victory for the Wood Elves.

My army list was:

- Butcher (Level 2, Grut's Sickle)
- Bruiser (Armor of Destiny, GW)
- 8 Ogres (full Command, Ironfists)
- 3 Ironguts (full command)
- 20 Gnoblar Trappers
- 3 Leadbelchers
- 3 Mournfang Cavalry (HA, IF, Full Command)
- Stonehorn

I mainly just wanted to try some of the new stuff out and here are my impressions.

Using Grut's Sickle helped me to easily cast my spells and not have them countered, that is until turn two when I rolled the snake-eyes at the end of the Magic Phase and I lost my only caster. That was costly.

The Mournfang Cavalry charged a unit of Tree-kin on round two. Unfortunately, they did poorly during combat. They managed to kill one Tree-kin but lost one Mournfang. The Mournfang lost combat by one, they fled and were run down.

The Ogre unit failed a charge against a large unit of Dryads, who charged in the subsequent turn. It was a pretty even match up as the first two turns of combat were tied but went to the Ogres thanks to the Bellower. The Dryads failed their second Ld check and fled. They were run down.

I lost my unit of Leadbelchers to the scouting Waywatchers with Killing Blow over the first two turns, and then two of the Ironguts on turn three. Waywatchers are vicious against Ogres.

The Stonehorn was my only survivor of the game, it still had two wounds left. It did manage to kill a full unit of Gladeguard and the two remaining Tree-kin.

Slaughtermaster and Stonehorn WIP

2011-09-03T12:10:00.000-04:00

I am busily working away on my new Ogre Kingdoms stuff. For this release, I ended up buying 2 Stonehorn/Thundertusk kits, 2 Ironsblaster/Scraplauncher kits, 1 Mournfang Cavalry, 1 Firebelly and Golgfag Maneater, in addition to the book and magic cards.

Here is my WIP Slaughtermaster. I used a Bellower's head from the Ogres box for this model. To me, he looks like he is 'belching' forth the power of the Great Maw.

This is my WIP Stonehorn. I have only got the beast together so far. It is comprised of many more pieces than I thought and they do not fit together as perfectly as I would like. Here are some examples.

I did my best to clean up the pieces before assembly. Some green stuff should fix it right up.

That is all for now.

Ogres Have Arrived!

2011-09-02T07:39:00.000-04:00

Mine have at least. I picked up the new Ogre Kingdoms army book last night and I have pretty much already read through it. I like it. I am no expert when it comes to WHFB, but the book seems balanced. Most of the rumors I read were true. Here are some of the things that have changed.

Slaughtermasters can now be the army General. I like this a lot.

Maneaters are cheaper and are now a Special choice instead of Rare. They now have a rule called Been There, Done That that allows them to choose two special rules from the following list: Immune to Psychology, Poisoned Attacks, Scout, Sniper, Strider, Stubborn, Swiftstride and Vanguard. No two Maneater units are allowed to take the same rule. A lot of possibilities here.

Ogres (sadly they are no longer called Bulls) are now 5 points cheaper and include Light Armor. Ironfists are cheaper, but now only count as shields. Ironguts also dropped in points. Command group upgrade costs are cheaper and are pretty standard throughout the book.

Leadbelchers have changed significantly. In addition to being cheaper, they now roll a d6 for the number of shots instead of the misfire dice (No more misfires!). Plus they can fire every turn and the range of the Leadbelcher cannon increased to 24". They do not suffer shooting penalties for Moving and Shooting or Multiple Shots. However, they are now Slow to Fire and cannot Stand and Shoot as a charge reaction.

Gnoblars went up half a point and lost Sharp Stuff. They now just have throwing weapons. Trappers are now a unit upgrade for Gnoblar units and they cause any unit that successfully charges the front rank of the unit to make a Dangerous Terrain test for the entire charging unit once the charge is complete! As far as I can tell, this is in addition to being able to Stand & Shoot with their throwing weapons! Units will think twice before charging them!

The Scraplauncher moved to a Rare slot, and now uses the small blast template but it retains Killing Blow. We will probably see a lot less of these on the battle fields.

All the new stuff looks great, but that will have to wait for another post.

I cannot wait to get my Ogres onto the battlefield!

Gearing up for Ogre Kingdoms Release

2011-08-31T20:04:00.000-04:00

By now you have probably heard that the new WHFB Ogre Kingdoms book will be released this week and I am very excited about it. My ogres are so ready for it. I have been following the rumors on the Internet, especially over at the Ogre Stronghold forums, for the past few weeks about what the new book has and I think I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. With that in mind, I have taken inventory of what I have so that I can start planning some lists when the book comes out. Here is what I currently have.

Lords & Heroes

Tyrant with Great Weapon
Butcher
Bruiser with Brace of Pistols
Hunter & 2 Sabertusks

Core

8 Ogres with Iron Fists & full command
8 Ironguts with full command
48 Gnoblar Fighters & 10 Trappers

Special

8 Leadbelchers
3 Yhetees
4 Maneaters (Female, Pirate, Paymaster, Araby)
2 Gorgers

Rare

3 Rhinox Riders
Slave Giant

I will most likely be using the Rhinox Riders as Mournfang Cavalry at least until Forge World releases rules for them. As for what I have that I still need to build.

Slaughtermaster
Battle Standard Bearer
6-8 Ogres

I am waiting on building the Ogres (I miss calling them Bulls) until the book comes out to see how to equip them.

As for what I am planning on buying for the new release, I definately want both a Stonehorn and a Thundertusk. I will probably be picking up an Ironblaster and a Scraplauncher. I really should get the two Maneaters I am missing (Ninja and Imperial) as that will give me a unit of six (Maneaters are a Special choice now and are really good from what I hear). I also want a Firebelly. That will probably be more than enough stuff to keep me busy for a while.

More Nurgle Daemons Finished

2011-08-28T18:45:00.001-04:00

I have finished three of my four painting projects for this month: Scabieathrax, my third Blight Drone, and a Herald of Nurgle. I am still working on Epidemius, the fourth model, but I should not have an issue finishing him by the end of the month.

What I Built This Week

2011-08-11T20:38:00.000-04:00

On top of making it to Tuesday Night gaming for the second week in a row, I got a lot of stuff built this week. First up, I built my first Malifaux crew. I am still waiting to hear back from Wyrd about the missing arm for Santiago, but other than that they are ready for basing and priming.

Next, I finished building the last of my Forge World order. I still have some green stuff work to do on the Rhinox Riders (around the horns of the Rhinox and the shoulders of the riders) before they are ready for priming.

And lastly, I have built the Storm of Magic items I picked up back when it was released. With the new Ogre Kingdoms book due out next month, I am looking forward to getting some SoM games in with my Ogres.

I also did some painting this week as well, here is my WIP Scabieathrax.

What do you think of my painting so far?

Getting into Malifaux

2011-08-06T09:06:00.000-04:00

After my trail game of Malifaux on Monday night, I could no longer resist it and I bought the rulebook, a fate deck, and the Perdita boxed set last night.

I went with Perdita's crew because it seemd like the best starter crew Unfortunately, the Santiago model in my boxed set is missing his arm. I have already contacted Wyrd about a replacement. I hear they have really good customer service, but I probably will not get it until GenCon is over.

When I said wanted to try a game that was different, it seems Malifaux was it. I think what sold me the most was that it uses cards instead fo dice. A really nice change. I am still going to try Infinity and Warmachine and may end up getting into those as well, but we will see.

I am really looking forward to playing more Malifaux. Monday nights are Malifaux nights at my FLGS, so I think I will have plenty of opportunities, at least until Monday Night Football starts.

BTW, I am now on Twitter, so feel free to follow me for more frequent updates.

WHFB Nurgle Chaos Daemons List - 2000 pts

2011-08-03T09:40:00.000-04:00

I was able to get to my FLGS last night for my first 40k game in several months and it was good. I took my Nurgle Daemons and ended up playing a 2250 point game against a team of Grey Knights and Space Wolves. It was a fun game but it was a Capture & Control mission that ended in a Draw (as they almost always do).

Anyway, I got to thinking about my sizable Nurgle Daemon army and if it would be fun to play them in WHFB. While all my models have round bases, use of some customized movement trays would allow me to play them in rank and file formations. So, I wrote up this 2000 point list and I am looking for feedback on it.

Great Unclean One (level 3 wizard, Lore of Nurgle) - 535 pts
Herald of Nurgle (BSB, Slime Trail) - 150 pts
Herald of Nurgle (level 1 Wizard, Lore of Nurgle) - 165 pts
20 Plaguebearers (full command) - 270 pts
20 Plaguebearers (full command) - 270 pts
15 Plaguebearers (full command) - 210 pts
4 Beasts of Nurgle - 400 pts
Total: 2000 points

I would need to convert the two Heralds of Nurgle, but everything else is ready to go. What do you think, is this list feasible?

Malifaux trial game

2011-08-02T08:14:00.001-04:00

Rhellion was kind enough to walk me through a demo game of Malifaux last night and I have to say I enjoyed it. While I am not settled on Malifaux as of yet, there are some aspects of the game that I really liked.

We played a 15 point game. I played a Guild warband with Perdita, Nino and Santiago. Rhellion played Arcanists with Rasputina, an Ice Golem and an Ice Gamin. I think I won because Santiago was apparently very trigger happy and would not stop shooting.

As for the game system, I like the fluff of the game and the models are awesome. There is quite a wide array of models to choose from. You can play anything from Wild West Gunslingers to Zombie Hookers to Demons to a giant killer Teddy bear. There is a certain 'creepiness' to this game that really appeals to me.

I like the use of cards instead of dice. It added a whole new dimension to the game with being able to 'cheat' fate with the cards in your hand.

I have downloaded the rules manual from the Malifaux website so that I can read more.

As for the other game systems I am interested in, I have a demo game of Infinity set up for next Tuesday. Still looking for someone to demo Warmachine for me.

Finishing 'The Contagion' - my August Painting Challenge Projects

2011-07-30T17:00:00.002-04:00

The Contagion is my WH40k Nurgle Chaos Daemon army and it is one of my favorite armies, both to model and to play. I have been working on this army on and off for two years now and with my recent Forge World purchase, I have finally gotten everything I wanted for it.

I am very close to completing this army. I have just four models left to paint before it will be fully painted, making it my first fully painted army ever. The models I have left to finish are Scabieathrax, a third Nurgle Blight Drone, Epidemius, and a Herald of Nurgle. I am going to make all of these my 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge Projects for the month of August. It is ambitious, but it will be worth it to finish an army for once.

Once I finish this army, I can then concentrate on my Ogre Kingdoms army since the new book is coming out in September.

Warmachine? Malifaux? Infinity? Hell Dorado? How to choose one?

2011-07-29T08:36:00.001-04:00

I am a long time player of 40k and WHFB (on and off for twenty-three years now) and I have never tried any other miniature war game system. However, I have been feeling the urge for the past couple of months to try something new and I have been looking at other game systems like Warmachine, Malifaux, Hell Dorado, and Infinity. Do not get me wrong, by no means am I quitting 40k or WHFB, I simply want to try something different.

There has been a lot of talk about Warmachine in the blogosphere over the past couple of months, mainly by people leaving GW. I have looked into the game to see what it is about and I like what I have seen.

My FLGS carries a large amount of Warmachine stock, as well as Malifaux, Inifinity, and Hell Dorado, and they all have good looking minis. However, Warmachine seems to interest me the most, particularly Cryx or Khador.

Anyone got any advice, or want to try to persuade me to/from any specific game system/army/faction?

Leadbelchers complete

2011-07-26T21:00:00.001-04:00

I have completed my 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge project for this month, a unit of Ogre Kingdoms Leadbelchers.

After I painted these Leadbelchers and washed them with Devlan Mud, I drybrushed the front of them with Chaos Black to make them look covered with soot. I like the effect, the soot makes their eyes and teeth really pop!

Here is a close up of the Gnoblar that sits on the shoulder of one of the Ogres.

Ogre Kingdoms Rumors

2011-07-21T12:12:00.003-04:00

Stolen from the Ogre Stronghold. I like what I am reading, but take it for what its worth. I am likely to believe the Plastic Rhinox Riders rumor given I just bought the Forge World ones, but I would be surprised if the plastic models can match the detail of the Forge World ones.

Quote:

I happen to know some snippets of the forthcoming ogre book. I registred
for the sole reason of posting what I was told, but still take with a pinch of salt:

Phil Kelly is author.

Plastic kits:

Rhinox Riders (on regular Rhinoxen) (box of 3, Giant Bases)
Scraplauncher/Skewer-slinger (Similar to Warp-cannon/plague-claw in design)
Great Mammox with three ogre crew and plastic tyrant option (Same base as Arachnarock. Imagine a cross between a musk ox and a Mammoth. Absolutely the most astonishing plastic set yet produced by GW!)
Yhetees (More gorilla-like, and and no more 80's hairstyle manes. Really dynamic for a plastic kit. Includes really awsome frozen Gnoblar-bit)

Litterally a small unit of Gnoblars can be made from the extras in these kits alone.

Finecast:

Jahred The Red
Golgfag Maneater
Old models redone in finecast: Goldtooth, Skrag, maneaters (box of 3, female, ninja and pirate discontinued), Tyrant/bruiser, gorger.

Rules:

Bull Charge will work always, even though you're less than 3 ogres and charge less than 6".
All ogres except butchers gain a basic 6+ save from their gut plates.
Ogre Clubs negates parry save, and is a general rule for all weapons like Choppas in OnG.
All army restrictions and max caps gone, but gnoblars do not count towards minimum core.
Weapon options for units cheaper, and minor point reductions across the board. Bulls will stay same base cost.
Magic will be standardized. Most spells will stay similar (augments with low casting values) but with greater range, and can be buffed to affect more units. May also be cast on Yhetees and Gorgers.
Rhinox Riders are super-hard. They get regular stomp and D3+1 Bull Charge, and also has Devastating Charge. (Special Choice). No mention of Bull Rhinoxen.
Scraplauncher, same but moves to Rare, does D6+1 impact hits due to Rhinox's horns.
Rhinox and Mammox are mount options for Tyrant.
Mammox can thunderstomp everything, like the SoM Bonegrinder Giant. Insane stats, but expensive (like 290 points base.). Crew can have leadbelcher swivel guns.
Hunter greatly improved. Move and fire with harpoon and monster-killing special rules.
Yhetees as in SoM, but with options for 2HW or GW.
Leadbelchers auto-hit, and can fire every turn, but only S4, no AP. Don't come with Light Armour.
Maneaters have massive point drop, and even more crazy weapon options. Can take a Special Character champion (Golgfag).
New Cauldron-altar rare unit for butchers, no new model. (Use Skrag?)
Lots of new special character. one with an insane magic weapon. Greasus now LD10 and completely rewritten (Stats, rules and items similar to Gorbad Ironclaw).

Magic Items:

Big Names Gone.
Half of items are Magic Weapons.
Tenderizer and Siegebreaker will stay.
Halfling Cookbook grants Loremaster.
There's a banner granting the same frenzy Minotaurs have.

Plastics will be out in October. Finecast in November.

Forge World Order arrived

2011-07-20T07:00:00.013-04:00

Before I get to the good stuff, I just want to thank everyone for their emails and comments on the loss of our family dog. It really shows me what a great blog community I am part of.

Alright, on to the good stuff. My Forge World order has arrived and here it is.

It contains a Great Unclean One, my third Nurgle Blight Drone, an Ogre Kingdoms Rhinox Thunderlord and both Rhinox Riders, and a set of Death Company Rhino Doors. This order completes both my 40k Nurgle Daemon army and WHFB Ogre Kingdoms army.

I am anxious to get to work on this stuff, but I have to finish painting this month's projects first. So stay tuned to see more over the next few weeks.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend

2011-07-18T20:00:00.041-04:00

This is Laddie. He is a sheltie and one of our family dogs.

My Wife and I got Laddie from the Michigan Sheltie Rescue. At the time we were looking to adopt there were three shelties available. Laddie won us over almost single handedly. Not only was he well trained, but what really got us was his overwhelming desire to play. He was three years old at the time. We had been told that he was given to the rescue shelter because his previous family was unable to keep him. Laddie was the name he came with and it seemed to fit him, so we left it.

After buying our first home, the first night that we spent there was also the same night that we adopted Laddie and brought him home. That was July 3rd, 2001. I remember it clearly because Laddie spent the whole night hiding under the bed due to all the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. Shelties do not like loud noises like fireworks and thunder.

It turned out that Laddie was very well trained as we came to find out years later. One morning when trying to get him to do a trick for a piece of breakfast sausage, Laddie out of the blue just rolled over on his own like he had been doing that trick forever. My wife and I were shocked at this because we had no idea. So we gave Laddie the command to roll over and he did. I think he regretted giving up the fact he knew this trick, because every roll over request since has been followed with this annoyed 'chuff' sound that seemed like he was upset to have to do this demeaning trick to get the treat.

As if that was not enough, a few months later when trying to see if he knew how to jump through a hula hoop and sure enough he did. This trick was also accompanied with an annoyed 'chuff' with each request. We never found any other tricks that he knew, or that he would admit he knew. Honestly, I think he was hiding some.

Laddie had one of the largest and strongest personalities of any dog I have known, and a bit of an attitude as you can see. However, the largest thing about Laddie's personality was his desire for play, especially playing fetch. This dog loved more than anything to chase a ball and would do it for as long as you were willing to throw it. If multiple people were around, Laddie would always make sure that everyone got a turn to throw the ball and participate in the fun. He was oddly meticulous in this. Our guests would often end up with a ball dropped in their lap and a Laddie looking at them with this look that said 'You know you want to throw that for me!' If that did not work, he would be more than willing to show you how he could chase his tail and catch it, over and over and over again. Chasing the ceiling fan was his favorite solo sport.

One thing about Laddie was that he did not care for children. We can only assume that the kids in his previous family mistreated him. We had Laddie for four years before we had kids of our own. Laddie would always try to stay as far from them as he could, at least until they were old enough to throw a ball for him. I worked with my kids to help them understand Laddie and his dislike of kids. They seemed to understand and there was a mutual respect that developed between them and Laddie.

Anyway, this last Friday night, I was home watching the kids and my wife was out at a party with her friends. I had put the kids to bed and was in the basement painting my Ogres when I noticed Laddie quietly standing by the door like he wanted to go out. Odd I thought, he usually lets me know he wants to go out. So I took him upstairs and let him out. He walked out into the back yard about ten feet from the door and just lay down.

I went out to see if he was ok and he was just lying there quietly. He was alert, but his breathing was a bit labored. I could not see anything visibly wrong with him. I tried to get him to stand up or move, but he wouldn't. So I carried him inside and laid him on the floor of the living room.

I had thought about rushing him to an emergency vet, but given his age and health issues, it did not seem like it would help. He was thirteen years old and he had Bladder Stones, Hip Dysplasia and arthritis in his hips, but he never let any of this slow him down, right up until this day. I guess part of me knew that he was dying given his behavior. I though it best to keep him at home with his family and let nature run its course.

I stayed with Laddie until my wife got home about forty minutes later. By then Laddie's breathing had become more labored and he was not very alert. About ten minutes later, he took his last breath and he was gone.

Laddie was my friend and my companion. He was always there when I came home from work, happy to see me no matter how bad my day was. He brought a lot of joy into my life. Since his passing, there is this hole in my life and the house feels oddly empty. I miss how he would always follow me around the house wanting to be where ever I was. This is not the first dog I have lost, but somehow it seems like the biggest loss of any of them. My wife and kids were hit pretty hard by this too.

Goodbye Laddie, my friend. I miss you.

203rd Post!

2011-07-14T10:00:00.004-04:00

Ok, I missed my 200th post. I have been so busy with real life for the past few months that I did not realize that I had passed it even though I knew it was coming up. I had wanted to do something special for it but so much for that.

As I mentioned, I have been quite busy with real life for the past few months (work, family, summer activities, minor health issues, etc) and it has really been affecting my hobby life. I have not done much posting on my blog during this time. The last 40K game I played was on March 4th and I have not played WHFB since last year. My local gaming group has run two events in this time that I wanted to participate in but I dropped out of both of them because I knew I would not have the time or energy. The one thing I have managed to keep up with is my Painting Challenges, but I have not done much beyond that.

Anyway, it looks like things are looking up and I will be able to get back to actually playing some games. In addition, all my hard work these past few months at work has payed off because I recently got a bonus. I have used this money on a Forge World order that will complete two of my armies. I am still waiting for the order to arrive, but it should be here within a couple of days. I am excited about this order and I will be posting the contents when the box arrives, which should be within a couple days.

That is all for now.

July Painting Projects

2011-07-12T07:00:00.006-04:00

For my 40kFightClub 2011 Painting Challenge project this month, I am going to paint a unit of Ogre Kingdom Leadbelchers.

And for my personal 'Finish a Project' Challenge, I am going to finish a unit of Ogre Kingdom Ironguts.

Ork Kustom Force Field - the debate is over!

2011-07-11T15:21:00.009-04:00

A new Ork FAQ was recently released and the long time question about whether it gives vehicles a 4+ or 5+ Cover Save has finally been answered.

Q: What cover save does kustom force field give to a vehicle within 6" of it? (p35)
A: 4+. Note that for a squadron of vehicles only those within 6” of the custom force field will count as obscured.

Honestly, I stopped playing my orks because of this stupid debate. I never cared what the save was (although it being 4+ is nice), I was just sick of this debate coming up in every game. And all the bystanders around would get involved in the debate as well. Then there was having to discuss what save to use with my opponents before each game which really sucked. It took so much fun out of the game for me.

But now the debate is over, the matter is settled and everyone can just shut their pie holes.

June Painting Project (mostly) Complete

2011-07-01T10:00:00.001-04:00

I have mostly completed my first Blood Angels Assault Squad. I still need to paint the Chapter and Squad badges, but I need more practice before I paint them on the models, but they are done enough to count for the 40kFightClub 2011 Painting Challenge.

First Blood Angels WIP

2011-06-27T07:00:00.005-04:00

I have been busily painting my first Blood Angel Assault Squad. They are not done yet, but here is what I have so far.

I got lucky painting these because I hit the exact shade of Red I was shooting for on the first try. Here is my painting recipe. I started with a black undercoat.

For painting the armor, I base coated it with Mechrite Red. I followed that with a 50/50 mix of Blood Red and Water. Then I washed it with Baal Red. To accent the armor pieces, I painted all the areas in between them with Chaos Black and then I lined all the recessed areas of the armor, including around the edge of the shoulder pads, with Badab Black and a very thin brush.

For the helmets, I used Iyanden Darksun, followed by Golden Yellow and then washed with Gryphonne Sepia. I then highlighted the edges with Sunburst Yellow. The eyes were painted with Knarloc Green, then washed with Thraka Green.

All the metal areas where painted with Boltgun Metal and then washed with Badab Black.

I am very happy with the way these models turned out, so now I can start assembly line painting the rest of my army.

Ruined Cathedral Finished

2011-06-24T07:00:00.030-04:00

I have completed my 'Finish a Project' Challenge for this month, a ruined cathedral made using Armorcast Ruined Cathedral pieces. Between this and the Shrine of the Aquila that I painted last month, I have the beginnings of my own Cities of Death table.

Now I can concentrate on getting some Blood Angels painted.

Archangel Skyforce Built

2011-06-23T08:00:00.003-04:00

Over the past few weeks, I have been quietly working on a Blood Angels Apocalypse Formation and I finally have it all built. Here it is, the Archangel Skyforce!

This formation was printed in White Dwarf 373. It consists of three Stormravens, three Furioso Dreadnoughts (can use Librarian Furiosos), and three Terminator squads (can be regular or Assault). The cool thing about this formation is that the Stormravens are considered Flyers with the Hover Rule. The formation must begin the game in reserve, but then gets to fly in, drop off the three Terminator and Furioso units, and then the Stormravens can take to the sky again. It sounds really fun to play. It has some other features too, like being able to combine firing all twelve Bloodstrike missiles at a single target and getting to use the APOC blast template. It is not a cheap formation at 200 points plus models, but well worth the price for flying Stormravens.

My formation consists of one Librarian Furioso and two regular Furiosos. Two of the Terminator squads are Assault Squads with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields (well, it is APOC). The third is a regular Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer and one Chain fist. The Stormravens can be equipped as needed as you will see below.

Building the three Stormravens was quite a task, especially because I magnetized practically everything that could be magnetized, including the front guns and doors/Hurricane Bolters on all three. For the turrets, I only magnetized two of them. The third turret just has assault cannons. After building these three Stormravens, I hope to never build another. Here are some pictures of all the magnetizing I did.

Here is one set of magnetized bits.

With any luck, I will get to use this for the first time this upcoming weekend.

June Painting Challenge Projects

2011-06-15T08:00:00.002-04:00

Again I am getting a late start on my 40k Fight Club 2011 Painting Challenge Project, but it is only half way through the month, so there is still plenty of time.

This month, I am going to begin painting my Blood Angels and I am going to start with an Assault Squad with a Meltagun and a Sergeant with Powerfist. I am only committing to a unit of five models for the challenge, but with any luck, I will get more done.

As for my Finish a Project Challenge, I do not have any partially painted Blood Angel units, so I am going to finish painting a terrain piece I made quite a few years ago. It is a Ruined Cathedral made using Armorcast Ruined Cathedral pieces. I do not have a picture of it right now, but it is about 80% painted. Mostly just detail work to finish.

Blood Angels join the Hunt for Jander Hope

2011-06-10T13:00:00.003-04:00

I will be participating in the local gaming club's Hunt for Jander Hope Campaign that starts in July. I will be playing on the side of the Imperium trying to squash the rebellion. Although I am allowed to play any of my Imperial Armies, Blood Angels will be my main force.

Unfortunately all my Blood Angels are unpainted, but I can use this as motivation to get some paint on them. So, I will have to put everything else on hold and get to it.

It has also been a couple of months since I played my last game and I am really looking forward to playing again. I am hoping for some APOC action during the campaign because I have a particular Blood Angels Formation in mind that I want to play, but I am going to keep that under wraps for the time being. I have everything I need for it, I just need to get it all built and painted.

My First Citadel Finecast - Lord Kaldor Draigo

2011-06-02T07:00:00.054-04:00

With all the talk about the new Citadel Finecast line, I decided to give one of the models a try to see how it is. So I picked up Lord Draigo for my Grey Knights.

The model comes packaged in the new 'blister' and it comes on two resin sprues. After a quick examination of the sprues, I saw practically no flash on this model and only minor mold lines. There were only two bubbles, but they were small and they were on the bottom of the cape where they would not be seen.

I took extra care clipping the pieces off the sprues so that I would not break anything. It seemed rather fragile at the time and the resin felt a bit softer than the Forge World resin that I am used to. Once off the sprue, the pieces cleaned up quickly and easily.

Overall, the model took me roughly 10 minutes to clean and assemble and it looks very good. I really hope that all Finecast models are done this well, but after having read some of the other reviews in the blogosphere, I know they are not.

What about you, what are your experiences with Finecast models?

Shrine of the Aquila Complete

2011-06-01T07:00:00.001-04:00

I have finished my 40kFightClub.com Painting Challenge project for May. This was quite a project as it is the largest terrain piece I have painted, but it was a lot of fun to paint. I tried a new technique for painting Verdigris on the Aquila that did not turn out as well as I had hoped. It still looks weathered though, so it did the job.

Crashed Aquila Lander finished

2011-05-31T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have completed the first of two projects for the month of May. When painting this terrain piece, I wanted to make it look like the Lander had crashed a while ago. So I painted it with a lot of rust and then I used static grass to make it look overgrown. Also, if you notice, I intentionally left it devoid of any Imperial markings to add some mystery to the piece. I like how it turned out.

Shrine of the Aquila Progress

2011-05-24T07:00:00.092-04:00

I decided to try something different for painting my Shrine of the Aquila. Since this project is so big, I decided to use a cheaper paint. So I went to a local Micheal's Craft store and picked up some Liquitex paint and some big paint brushes.

I have had some experience with this paint before, it is what the local game club uses to paint their terrain. At around $5.00 for a 4 oz. tube, it is a better value than GW paint ($3.70 for .4 oz.). However, I would only ever use this paint on terrain projects because it is very thick. Here is the progress I have made on my Shire so far.

I started by painting the building with a very dark mixture of the Black & Grey paint, then I began dry brushing several layers onto it, gradually lightening the paint mixture with each layer until I got it to the color I wanted. I am pleased with how this turned out. Now I just need to paint all the details, then weather it some.

For the Imperial Eagle, I painted it with GW Dwarf Bronze. My goal it to make it look like weathered copper and I want to add some verdigris. I am not entirely sure how I will do this at this yet. I have a little experience with this from when I was painting my Ogre Bulls' gut plates, but all I did there was wash them with green wash. With such a big area here, I think I will need something more. The web has several ways to do this, I am just not sure which method to use.

Also while I was at the craft store, I picked up some paint pens that were on sale for $5.00. At that price, I figured I would give them try. I plan to use them to add unit numbers to my Cadian Infantry units. If that works out, I have more plans for them.

May Painting Challenge Project

2011-05-17T07:00:00.019-04:00

Here it is halfway through the month of May and I had forgotten all about my 40kFightClub Painting Challenge project for this month. I still got time to get it done, so my project for this month will be a terrain piece that I have worked on over the past couple of months, my Shrine of the Aquila.

My personal 'Finish a Project' Challenge for this month is my Crashed Aquila Lander that came with the Battle for Macragge boxed set. I started painting it years ago but it is time to finish it.

Time to get painting.

Tomb Kings Update

2011-05-16T10:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry got the lack of posts lately, it has been a busy month of May for me. With spring arriving, I have been working on various home projects. In addition to the annual spring maintainence projects like yard work and spring cleaning, we have redecorated my daughter's bedroom and bought/assembled a new set of outdoor patio furniture. I had plans to build my wife's new garden box this weekend, but the weather did not cooperate for that.

However, I am still finding time to work on my Tomb Kings army and I am making some progress. Here is my Necrosphinx and Sepuchral Stalkers that are ready for painting.

I am currently working on my Warsphinx and should have that ready for painting soon. I do not plan to do the final assembly of the Warsphinx until after I paint it.

After the Warsphinx is ready for painting, I plan to start assembling some Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Warriors. Once I get them assembled, my army should be playable.

Tomb Kings Status

2011-05-05T07:30:00.004-04:00

Let me start off by saying that I tried to sell off my Tomb King army this last week. Why? I already have a lot of armies and I wasn't feeling like starting another one right now. I was also not sure if I am still interested in playing WH Fantasy. Anyway, I got no buyers for it and there was nothing I was interested in trading for it, so I decided to keep it.

I picked up the new book from my FLGS last night, as well as two of the new Warsphinx kits and two of the Necropolis Knight kits. They did not get any Tomb Guard in yet, I have to wait until Friday for that. I plan to use these kits to build a Necrosphinx, a Warsphinx, three Sepulchral Stalkers, and 3 Necropolis Knights. I will probably pick up a second box of NecroKnights at some point so I can increase the Knight unit to six models.

Now I just need to sit down and read the book so I can decide how I am going to build my army. Having taken some quick scans through the book, it seems like there will be a couple different builds to choose from. I think I am leaning towards a Skeleton horde army. I found a Tomb Kings forum where I can get army advice from other TK generals.

That is all for now.

Plague Hulk of Nurgle complete

2011-04-30T14:37:00.000-04:00

I managed to finish my April project for the 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge, my Plague Hulk of Nurgle. This thing is by far the most disgusting thing I have ever painted. I like the way it came out.

I did not finish my 'Finish a Project' challenge. Epidemius actually suffered a 6 1/2 foot fall off the top shelf of my hobby bench and is pretty badly damaged. This is fine, I was not happy with the paint job I was doing on it anyway. It is now soaking in a bath of Simple Green and will get cleaned up and reassembled.

Battlefoam P.A.C.K. 1520XL

2011-04-21T07:00:00.006-04:00

With some of my tax refund money this year, I picked up a Battlefoam case on Sunday from my FLGS. I also special ordered some IG foam trays that will allow me to transport my Cadian army in style.

This is my second Battlefoam case, I have a P.A.C.K. 720 that I use to for my Blood Angels and I really like it. I'm sure I will like this one just as much.

Still here...

2011-04-20T09:41:00.000-04:00

I am still here. Real life has been keeping my busy the past couple of weeks and I have not had a chance do much hobby stuff. I have even had to drop out of the upcoming 40k League that I was hoping to play in that is starting this week. Hopefully things will lighten up in a couple of weeks and things will get back to normal.

Shameless plug: I have started a second blog, this one is for my software coding experiences. So, if there are any fellow coders out there who are interested in checking it out, you can see it here.

Tomb Kings Progress

2011-04-11T07:00:00.002-04:00

This weekend, I spent most of my free time working on my new Tomb Kings army. After lots of filing, gluing and pinning metal models, here is what I got built.

These are some of the hardest models I have built. The pieces are so thin, it was hard to pin them. But because they are so thin, they needed to be pinned. Believe it or not, I pinned all eight tiny legs on the Tomb Scorpion.

There is no way I am going to build the thirteen metal Tomb Guard, I am just going to wait for the plastics. Besides, I will most likely run them with Halberds anyway, which the metal models do not have.

Until I can get a look at the new book, I am not going build my Skeletons, Chariots, or Skeletal Cavalry. I want to see how I can equip them before I do. My FLGS should have their black box copy this week.

Tomb King Necrosphinx & Warsphinx

2011-04-08T11:00:00.006-04:00

Games Workshop has an article with information on the new Tomb King Sphinxes.

Regarding the Warsphinx:

The Khemrian Warsphinx is effectively an infantry masher. It is accompanied by four Tomb Guard riding in the Howdah, all of which have the Killing Blow Special Rule. The Warsphinx itself has four attacks at Strength 5, which is more than enough to splatter bits of lightly armoured troops all over the battlefield. However, it can exchange all its attacks for one Thundercrush Attack. As you've probably guessed, this will be very painful for the unlucky troops standing in front of the Warsphinx. If the attack hits, you get to place a small template over the unit, roll loads of dice to wound them all and then do a small celebratory ritual while your opponent takes off a couple of ranks of models. And then you can Thunderstomp them, just for good measure. Against infantry on a 20mm base you can potentially kill 26 models (that's 16 under the template, 6 from the Thunderstomp and four from the crew). Oh, I nearly forgot, it also causes Terror, just in case it wasn't scary enough.

On the Necrosphinx:

The Necrosphinx is the monster masher of the Tomb Kings army. It has the Killing Blow rule and the Decapitating Strike rule. This means that one of its attacks every turn is at Strength 10 with Heroic Killing Blow. This gives the Necrosphinx a good chance of killing enemy monsters outright with a single sweep of his blade (and his blades are big). If worst comes to worst and he doesn't kill the monster, you'll be safe in the knowledge that he will have given it a good kicking anyway. Few monsters will survive two turns against the Necrosphinx and even fewer will have the strength to retaliate. If the enemy doesn't have any monsters then, as mentioned earlier, they'll probably have big guns instead. The Necrosphinx can fly, so dealing with pesky cannons hiding at the back of the battlefield won't be too hard for it either.

Wow, one attack of the Necrosphinx is Str 10 with Heroic Killing Blow! Both have Toughness 8 and 5 wounds! Both of these things will be true monsters.

Stuff I built this past week

2011-04-07T07:00:00.012-04:00

Over the past week, I haven't felt much like painting, so I have been busily building things. Here is the stuff I got built.

First up, I built the Fortress of Redemption that I got for Christmas. I still have to put the Heavy Bolters and Spotlights on it, as well as finish the base, then it will be ready for painting.

I also built the Sanguinary Guard that I got for my Birthday. The only thing I have left to finish building for my Blood Angels is a Storm Raven.

I know I said I was going to put my Grey Knights on hold, but I could not resist picking up a box of the new Grey Knights and a Dreadknight. I got the Dreadknight built and two of the Grey Knights.

Next up to build, a big box of Tomb Kings stuff.

Tomb King Advance Orders are up!

2011-04-06T06:45:00.003-04:00

Games Workshop has put up the new Tomb King models for advance ordering. Included are the new Army Book, Battle Magic: Tomb Kings, and three kits.

The first kit, the Necrosphinx/Warsphinx. This is the Necrosphinx, and I love this model.

Here is the Warsphinx. It can have Tomb Guard in it, or it can be a mount for a Tomb King!

There is also the Necropolis Knights/Sepulchral Stalkers kit. Both of these are awesome. The Necropolis Knights are Monstrous Calvary with 5 attacks, 3 poisoned and 2 with Killing Blow! The stalkers are underground burrowers from what I understand.

And lastly, but not least, new Tomb Guard. They can be equipped with Halberds.

This will be a very cool looking army! I cannot wait.

Games Workshop has also release the first new Tomb Kings Article, Tomb Kings: Getting Started that has some cool info in it.

Out with the old, in with the Dead!

2011-04-05T09:30:00.002-04:00

My trade of Empire for Tomb Kings finally went through this morning and I couldn't be happier. The TK stuff is practically all NIB and here is what I got.

Lords & Heroes

Tomb King with Hand Weapon & Shield
High Queen Khalida
Icon Bearer
Mounted Icon Bearer
Liche Priest
Mounted Liche Priest
Casket of Souls

Core

4 Chariots
48 Skeleton Warriors
4 Tomb Swarms

Special

13 Tomb Guard including full command
1 Tomb Scorpion
3 Ushabti
4 Carrion

Rare

Screaming Skull Catapult
Bone Giant

Who knows how much of it will be still be usable in the new book, but I do not care. I will post some pictures later.

April Painting Challenge Project

2011-04-03T07:00:00.002-04:00

My Painting Challenge Project for this month is my Plague Hulk of Nurgle. I have been working on this on and off for roughly seven months and it is finally ready to paint.

For my 'Finish a Project' Challenge, I am going to finish painting Epidemius.

That is all for now.

Grey Knights on hold, possible Tomb Kings

2011-03-29T08:00:00.006-04:00

I am going holding off on updating my Grey Knights army at this time for several reasons.

First, a friend of mine is very interested in acquiring my Grey Knights. Given that I feel I already have too many armies, I may just take him up on it, provided that I can get something good in return.

Second, it is looking like I may be trading the WHFB Empire army I was given a few months back for some used Tomb Kings stuff. If the trade goes through, I would prefer to work on this army over Grey Knights. This would be good timing given that the new army book is due out in just over a month. I am very anxious to see what the new book holds. Back when I was trying to choose a WHFB army last year, Tomb Kings were my first choice. But I went with Ogre Kingdoms, my second choice, because everyone said to wait until the new book comes out.

And lastly, I am going to be playing in a league with my local gaming group that will be starting in three weeks and I am going to use this to focus on painting one of my armies, either Blood Angels or Cadians. Leagues are great motivators to get your army painted if it is not already. I am having a tough time deciding which army to do though.

So, Grey Knights will remain on the shelf for the time being.

More progress on the Shrine of the Aquilla

2011-03-28T07:00:00.033-04:00

I made more progress on my Shrine of the Aquilla this weekend. I got it based and added some rubble to it. Here are some pictures.

Once I got it based, I was glad that I did not make it bigger like I wanted too. The base ended up being roughly 17 x 14 inches as it is. It big enough to fit my Mig Mek Stompa inside of it.

Anyway, I made the rubble using a mixture of basing ballast, sand, and plastic sprues that I ground up using a hand meat grinder that I keep just for making rubble. It works great.

I still want to add some more detail to it before I declare it ready for painting, especially to the interior. It needs something more, I am just not sure what to add at this time. Maybe some fallen floor panels or rubble piles. I am planning to make this my Painting Challenge Project for the month of May, so I still have some time to work on it.

Those old Grey Knights, they ain't what they used to be

2011-03-24T10:45:00.019-04:00

And whether that is good or bad remains to be seen.

The new codex is almost here and I have been debating what to do with my Grey Knights. I have had a small force of them since their last release and I kept them mainly as an allying force to go with my Cadian IG army, much like my Sisters of Battle. I played them a couple of times as a pure GK army though. Here is what I have, and like most of my collection, it is all unpainted.

Brother-Captain Stern
Inquisitor Coteaz w/Henchmen
5 GK Terminators including Justicar
1 GK Terminator with Psycannon
2 GK Terminators with Incinerators
2 Grey Knight Justicars
12 Grey Knights with Nemesis Force Halberds
2 Grey Knights with Incinerators
4 Grey Knights with Psycannons
2 Inquisitors and various henchmen
Various Imperial Assassins

From what I have seen of the new codex up at my FLGS, this seems to be a pretty solid core army to start with. I do not think I would need to add much too it. A Dreadknight is a no-brainer of course, and it is just too cool of a model not to pick up.

I have been torn about updating them or selling them off, especially since I am very interested in Tomb Kings who are being released in May. There are also the Necron rumors that they will be released later this year. I feel like I am getting too many armies. (How many armies it too many?) But it is not like this is a new army, it is one I already have. So I think I am going to pick up at least the codex and a Dreadknight and give it a try. I might also pick up one box of the new Grey Knights just to get some of the new weapon options.

Do you have any opinions on the new GK codex yet? I am interested to hear them.

Large Shrine of the Aquilla WIP

2011-03-22T07:00:00.047-04:00

I decided to take a break from painting this weekend and I started building my Shrines of the Aquilla I got for Christmas. Using some left over Cities of Death building panels that I had, I was able to build quite an elaborate, and somewhat large, ruined building. I have a lot of work to do on it still, but here are a couple of pictures of it so far.

As you can see, it's rather large. And believe it or not, part of me wants to make it even bigger, but I should probably stop.

I am looking forward to finishing this piece so I can play on it.

Lord Commissar and Cadian Junior Officer Complete

2011-03-15T07:00:00.006-04:00

Two more models done for my Cadian army.

Regimental Advisors Complete

2011-03-14T07:00:00.002-04:00

I completed the Regimental Advisors for my Cadian IG army this weekend. I had fun experimenting with some new painting techniques on these models, and I am very happy with the way they came out.

With the Officer of the Fleet, it is the first time I tried painting a white outfit. I used Codex Grey as the base coat, and then painted Skull White over it. I washed it with more Codex Grey that I thinned down with water, probably a 60 (water)/40 (paint) mix. Finally, I highlighted it with more Skull White. It came out nice.

With the Astropath's robe, I base coated it with Catachan Green and highlighted it with Camo Green. Then, I washed it with Orc Flesh Wash (not watered down). That is all I did and I really like how it came out.

More Cadian Projects

2011-03-12T08:00:00.015-05:00

The month is not even half over yet and I have already finished my Painting Challenge project for this month and my 'Finish a Project' project for this month is almost done. Since I cannot start on my next Challenge projects until next month, so I think I will continue on with a few more Cadian projects to get me through to the end of the month.

First, I am going to finish painting a Lord Commissar that is mostly done. I also want to paint a Medic for my command squad should I want to use one. Finally, I am going to paint a Veteran Squad that has three Meltagunners and a Sergeant with Laspistol and Power Sword.

Cadian Company Command Squad Complete

2011-03-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

I have completed my first challange for March, my Cadian Company Command Squad. They came out pretty good. I tried some new painting techniques on them, like the glowing blue on the plasma guns.

I am still working on the Regimental Advisors and should be done with those in a day or two.

Points Painted

2011-03-10T08:27:00.001-05:00

I decided to go through all my 40k armies this week and total up the all the points that I have painted for each one. I was a bit surprised by the results.

Orks: 2,392 pts
Nurgle Daemons: 2,686 pts
Cadians: 202 pts
Necrons: 1,312 pts
Blightlords: 662 pts
Blood Angels: 0 pts
Total: 7,254 pts

The number was a bit higher than I expected on some of them. With Necrons, I thought I had more painted than that. Sadly, I still have at least twice this number in overall points for all my armies to paint.

Another surprising thing I realized as I was doing this was that I only had three models left to paint for my Nurgle Daemon army and it will be entirely painted! The three models are Epidemius, a Plague Hulk, and a Herald of Nurgle. I guess I have my Painting Challenge projects for next month.

However, I still have three models I want to add to that army before I would considered it complete. I need to get Scabeiathrax, the Forge World Greater Daemon of Nurgle, and a third Blight Drone. At some point I would also like to model Ka'Routh the Unstoppable. If I ever want to use him, it must be a WYSIWYG conversion.

For the rest of my armies, I just need to keep painting. Someday I will get it all painted.

Grey Knight Advance Orders are up

2011-03-09T07:07:00.000-05:00

Games Workshop has posted the new Grey Knight codex and models in the Advance Orders section. Release date is April 2nd and includes a bit a stuff, including the new Dreadknight.

I am not sure what to think of the Dreadknight, it looks a bit out of place in the Warhammer universe, but it is pretty cool model though.

The Grey Knight and GK Terminator kits look good, and the new Special Character, Lord Kaldor Draigo, looks really good.

Grey Knights look like they are going to be a really interesting army.

Cadian Company Command Squad WIP

2011-03-08T06:00:00.005-05:00

Here is a picture of my Cadian Command Squad work in progress.

I think they are coming along good so far. I tried for the first time to make the top part of the plasma guns look like it was glowing blue. I am not entire happy with the way it came out. I guess I just need more practice at painting stuff that glows.

'Finish a Project' Challenge

2011-03-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

I have decided to start a new challenge for myself beginning this month, the 'Finish a Project' Challenge, and I will be doing this in conjunction with the 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge. In addition to having lots of unpainted models, I have a fair number of partially painted projects that need to be finished.

Here is how it will work. As I choose a project for the 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge each month that is unpainted, I will choose a partially painted project from the same army and finish it in addition to my other project. This way, I can potentially finish two projects each month.

I got the idea for this because of my March painting project. I wanted to paint my Cadian Company Command Squad, but I had already started painting some of the models a while ago. So, I decided to paint the four Veterans and a special character that were all unpainted and would fulfill the Painting Challenge requirements, and I told myself that I would finish painting the rest of the squad as well.

Hopefully, this will help with my Warhammer ADHD and keep me focused on completing an army or two.

Second Game with Blood Angels

2011-03-05T09:37:00.000-05:00

Thursday Night was my second game with my new Blood Angels army. It was a 1250 point game against Imperial Guard. The mission was Capture & Control and deployment was Spearhead. It was a pretty decisive victory for the Blood Angels thanks to some deadly accurate Descent of Angels rolls. Here is my list.

1250 Pts Blood Angels List

Librarian (Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Unleash Rage) - 125 pts
Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack) - 75 pts
Furioso Dreadnought (Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod (Locator Beacon)) - 180 pts
10 Assault Marines (Sergeant w/PF, 2x Flamers) - 225 pts
10 Assault Marines (Sergeant w/PF, 2x Meltas) - 235 pts
10 Assault Marines (Sergeant w/PF, 2x Meltas, Rhino) - 250 pts
6 Death Company (5x BP & CC, 1x Thunder Hammer) - 150 pts
Total: 1240

For this list, I started with my 1500 point list from my first game and started chopping it. The first couple of things to go was the Baal Predator and the Sanguinary Priest's power weapon. I also dropped the Power Weapon and Rhino from the Death Company, as well as reduced the squad size.

Since we were playing for objectives, I Combat Squaded all my Assault Marine units. I was forced to go first. I deployed my Death Company as close to the center of the table as I could since their Black Rage was going to drive them across the table anyway. When I Combat Squaded the Assault Marine unit with the Rhino, I put the Sergeant and Meltaguns in one unit inside the Rhino (to help protect from outflankers) and the other on top of the objective in my deployment zone. Everything else was held in reserve.

The game was pretty much decided on turn two when all my DoA Assault Marines came in and landed perfectly to punch some big holes in the Guard's gun line. The Librarian destroyed a Chimera and a Lascannon team with Blood Lance (the second wound to the Lascannon team was from the exploding Chimera near it). The remaining Lascannon teams ran off the table after that.

Another Chimera was popped by the Assault Marines with Meltaguns who landed just four inches away from it. One ten man Guard unit was wiped out by the Flamer Marines who landed in perfect position to do so. The Furioso, who arrived on turn one, wiped out a Squad of Autocannon Heavy Weapon teams on turn two.

My opponent got some revenge on turn two when his LR Demolisher rolled onto the table. It got a perfect hit on the Librarian and his unit with the Demolisher Cannon, wiping out all but the Librarian. However, the Librarian died from Lasgun fire from the guardsmen who were in Chimera he destroyed.

On turn three, the Death Company made it to what was left of the Guard line and started reeking havoc, and the Jump Pack Meltagun Marines jumped over to the LR Demolisher and destroyed it.

An outflanking unit of Penal Legion came on in my deployment zone on turn three, but they were wiped out by the Assault Marines guarding my objective. The next turn, an outflanking squad of Storm Troopers arrived in my deployment zone and killed one of the two Combat Squads with their Hot Shot lasguns.

It was a fun game for me, unfortunately not so much for my opponent. We called in on turn five when there was no possibility for my opponent to claim any objectives. It appears Blood Angels can be quite deadly when they want to be.

First Game with Blood Angels

2011-03-04T08:27:00.001-05:00

This week has been a good week for gaming. I was able to get in two games with my Blood Angel army so far this week and I have a third game scheduled for Saturday.

Tuesday night was my first game and it was a 1500 point game against Dark Eldar. The mission was Annihilation and deployment was Pitched Battle. Here is my list.

1500 pt Blood Angel list

Librarian (Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Unleash Rage) - 125 pts
Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack, Power Weapon) - 90 pts
Furioso Dreadnought (Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod (Locator Beacon)) - 180 pts
10 Assault Marines (Sergeant w/PF, 2x Flamers) - 225 pts
10 Assault Marines (Sergeant w/PF, 2x Meltas) - 235 pts
10 Assault Marines (Sergeant w/PF, 2x Meltas, Rhino) - 250 pts
8 Death Company (6x BP & CC, 1x Power Weapon, 1x Thunder Hammer, Rhino) - 255 pts
Baal Predator (Heavy Flamers) - 140 pts
Total: 1500

With this being my first game with BA and only my second against Dark Eldar, I was not sure what to expect. Even though I lost the game, I think I did pretty good. The dice were against me at some key moments of the game. Six Meltagun shots at Raiders, all within 6", and I missed all six shots. I believe this really cost me the game. Also, the Librarian failed to get off his Blood Lance at all during the game.

I deployed the Death Company and Assault Marine Rhinos on the table at the beginning of the game and left both Jump Pack Assault Marines in reserve to Deep Strike. The Baal Predator outflanked.

My opponent's Incubi with Archon and Haemonculus in a Venom killed off the Death Company pretty easily, but not before the Thunder Hammerer in the Death Company squashed the Haemonculus flat as a bug with a single hit.

The Furioso in a drop pod arrived right behind a Ravager and was able to immobilize it, only to be destroyed by a Raider with a Dark Lance on the following turn.

The Rhino with the Assault Marines in it was failed to be cracked by several Dark Lance shots and a unit of assaulting Wyches. The Marines got out next turn and assaulted the Wyches, and would have eventually beaten the Wyches if it wasn't for two Reaver units joining the assault and aiding the Wyches.

The Baal Predator arrived on the wrong side of the table with its outflank move, but it did destroy a Venom on the turn it arrived with it's TL Assault Cannons. However, the TL Assault Cannon was destroyed in the following turn and was not much use for the rest of the game.

Anyway, it was a fun game and a good learning experience. One of my biggest mistakes I believe was spreading myself too thin when deep striking. I should have concentrated more in one area of the table and made the DE come to me. I enjoy the army and I am looking forward to playing them more.

My second game was against Imperial Guard and will be the topic of my next post. My third game on Saturday is against Orks.

"We have awoken!"

2011-03-03T08:01:00.000-05:00

A little over a month ago, I traded an old WHFB Dwarf army for a Blood Angels army and over the past month, I have slowly been working on getting this army ready for playing. In this time, I acquire three of the new Furioso Dreadnought kits that were released in February and although I got them assembled a couple of weeks ago, I am just now getting around to posting them. So, here are my four BA Dreads. The fourth one is an AoBR Dread that I had and never did anything with until now.

I built one of each Dreadnought type: Furioso, Librarian Furioso, and Death Company. These kits are really nice. I built all three of the Magna Grapples, but I did not glue them on. They fit quite snug and stay in place on their own without needing magnets, which is nice.

As for my other BA stuff, I have been working on the Stormraven my family got me for my Birthday last month. It is about 50% built, I am trying to decide on the best way to magnetize the weapons before I finish building it. I have not assembled my Saguinary Guard yet, I am trying to decide the best way to equip them before I do.

I am in no rush to paint my BA army right now given all the other stuff I have to paint. I would rather keep the army unprimed and unpainted until then.

Old Blog Stuff Day

2011-03-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

For Old Blog Stuff day, here is the most viewed post on my blog. It has been view nearly 800 times, almost twice as much the second most viewed post. Oddly enough, the most viewed post is also one of the shortest posts I have made, if not the shortest.

Bad Moon Ork Warboss

I have completed my ork warboss. I think he turned out nice.

Next I am going to start painting my slugga boyz.

My favorite post of all has to be the one I made after I completed my Big Mek Stompa, the pride and joy of my wargaming collection.

Nurgle Plague Tower

2011-03-02T09:56:00.001-05:00

A couple of days ago, I was looking through the APOC Data Sheets on GW's website and I noticed the Nurgle Plague Tower data sheet. After reading through it, I feel I simply must build one.

I have a great idea for it. I would start with a Shadowsword kit and I would build the basic structure of the tank. I would build the Pus Cannon so that it sticks straight out of the front of the tank body, much in the same position as the Volcano Cannon. Then I would build a wooden tower out of the top of the tank with the two Demolisher cannons on the front of the tower and the Plague Mortar on the top. I would add bits of armor plating to cover some of the wooden tower. There would also need to be some kind of Pus tanks, maybe a big open one on the back with pipes leading to the weapons.

What do you think, should I build one? Even though I do not get to play APOC as much as I would like, I would still love to build one simply for the joy of building it. It would look awesome and would be a great centerpiece for my Blightlords army.

March's Painting Challenge Project

2011-03-01T07:00:00.034-05:00

This month I am not going to wait until the last minute to get started on my 40kFightClub 2011 Painting Challenge Project. For March, I am going to choose a project from my Cadian 8th IG army since it has been a while since I have done anything with my guard army. I am going to paint the Company Command Squad.

I had already started painting this squad a long time ago, and since it needs to be unpainted for the Challenge, I am going to paint Lord Castellan Ursarkar Creed and four veteran Guardsmen with Plasma Guns. This will count as a minimum sized unit that is required for the challenge.

However, I am also going to finish painting the rest of the squad, plus another Officer with a Power Fist that needs finishing since I prefer to paint in units of five models.

Plaguebearers finished

2011-02-28T07:19:00.001-05:00

I finished my 15 Plaguebearers for the 40kFightClub.com 2011 Painting Challenge for this month. I got them finished yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately due to the time crunch of needing to get them done before today because I would not have any time to work on them today, I was not able to finish the tutorial that I started in my last post as I would have liked.

Here is a quick summary of what I did for the rest of the painting. I painted the swords with Chainmail and washed with a thick wash of Chestnut Wash. The tongues and wounds were painted with Scab Red and Highlighted with Blood Red. The leather wrappings around the arms was done with Dark Flesh, Snakebite Leather, Highlighted with Bubonic Brown and washed with a thinned down Chestnut Wash. The bases were painted with Bestial Brown, overbrushed with Bubonic Brown, and drybrushed with Bleached Bone.

Painting my Plaguebearers

2011-02-25T08:01:00.020-05:00

It is almost the end of February and I just realized a couple of days ago while recovering from a pretty nasty illness that has made its way through my workplace that I have yet to pick a Painting Challenge project for this month. I have been sick for the last week and I am still recovering, so I need something quick and easy to paint. I looked through my stuff and found that I still had my last 15 Plaguebearers to paint for my Nurgle Daemon army. My painting scheme for these is pretty simple and fast, so I should be able to whip these out pretty quick. I really only need to finish five models for the challenge, but I think I can get all 15 done. That way, I will be that much closer to finishing off this army.

When playing my Nurgle Daemon army, I am frequently told that my Daemons look fantastic and I am asked how I achieve such an effect on them. So, while painting these for the challenge, I thought I would do a painting tutorial for them as I go. This is the same painting scheme I use on all my Nurgle Daemons, from Beasts to Blight Drones to Daemon Princes.

Starting with a black primed models, base coat them with Bubonic Brown. The base coat does not have to be perfect and cover the model evenly. In fact, it works best if it doesn't.

After the base coat is dry, thoroughly wash the entire model with a thinned down green wash. I vary the thinness of the wash on each model to try and give them unique looks, but I try to leave it a little on the thick side. Let dry thoroughly before continuing.

Once the green wash is dry, overbrush the model with Bubonic Brown. Be sure to leave some of the green wash in the recesses of the model.

Then, thoroughly wash with a thinned down red wash. Again, vary the thinness of the wash from model to model while leaving it on the slightly thick side.

Once the red wash is dry, overbrush once again with more Bubonic Brown.

Finally, give them a heavy drybrushing/light overbrushing with Rotting Flesh.

That is it, all that is left to do is paint the details. Unfortunately, pictures do not do this painting scheme justice. When you look closely at the models, the green and red washes under all the overbrushings come through in some really interesting ways and gives the models a really sickly, grotesque look.

Here are some other examples of models I have painted this way.

Blightlord Terminators and more Plague Zombies

2011-02-15T07:12:00.000-05:00

I have assembled my Blightlord Terminators and my final seven Plague Zombies for my ToFG army. For the Terminators, I used the Forge World Death Guard Terminator bits, but I want to use some green stuff to Nurgle-ify the rest of the model and bring it all together.

For my 'counts as Lesser Daemons' Plague Zombies, I just used the WHFB Zombies like I did for Period III, but this time I made two Zombies using some Cadian bits. I like them, but they they need some more work and green stuff on the Cadian bits to bring the whole model together.

These are not the last Plague Zombies I plan to make. Once the ToFG is over, I can go back and make some more, this time using Catachan and Space Marine bitz.

I have also assembled my Vindicator to the point where I can start to Nurgle-ify it and turn it into a Plague-spitter (a 'counts as Vindicator' that instead of shooting shells, it spits big globs of toxic goo), but since I have not started any conversion work on it, there is no point in just showing a picture of a partially built tank.

Incoming: Tomb Kings

2011-02-14T08:07:00.001-05:00

From GW's Website.

An ancient race that has lain dormant for thousands of years, the Tomb Kings now awaken from within their ancient burial pyramids. Cheated from the eternal life that they were promised, the Tomb Kings are instead doomed to an eternal undeath - awakened they thirst for vengeance against those who would disturb their slumber.

At the command of these undying lords march legions of implacable Skeleton Warriors, hosts of chariots crewed by long-dead crewmen and towering statues carved from unyielding stone.

The armies of the Tomb Kings are vast, unstoppable hordes that know neither fear nor remorse - and they shall not rest until all who stand against them are laid low.

This May Warhammer: Tomb Kings is released, containing everything you need to use the legions of Nehekhara in your games of Warhammer.

Alongside the new book we'll also be releases a slew of amazing new miniatures for Tomb Kings players to collect and add to their armies. Details are being kept firmly under wraps for now, but more details will be available over the coming months. To make sure you're the first to see the new models and read the latest news keep your eyes fixed to the pages of White Dwarf, the Games Workshop newsletter and the What's New Today blog.

In the meantime, if you're a Tomb Kings player (or thinking about becoming one) it's time to start building up your Undead hordes in preparation for the new arrivals. So, out with the large drybrush (and the pot of Bleached Bone) and onwards to glory!

Presented below are two exclusive sneak peeks at the upcoming releases. Please keep checking back on the website, and in White Dwarf for more information in the near future.

Last thing I need to be thinking about right now is another army, but last year when I was trying to decide on a Warhammer Fantasy army, Tomb Kings was one of my top choices. Everyone I talked to about them told me to stay away from them because they were bad and there were rumors of a new army book at some point, thus Ogres won out. However, I am still interested in them and I am curious about what this new army book will bring, so I will be watching the rumor mills.

Tale of Four Gamers Update, Period IV list

2011-02-10T08:10:00.004-05:00

Period III ended last Friday and I still have not got anything painted for it. Then again, I have only painted one model in the last three and a half months. I did get everything built. I have pretty much given up on any hope of getting anything painted for this army before the contest ends on March 5th, but I am going to finish builing it. Here is my Period IV list.

Daemon Prince (Mark of Nurgle, Wings) - 150 pts
5 Chaos Terminators w/Mark of Nurgle (1x CF & CM, 1x PLC, 2x PF, 1x HF) - 245 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/PF, 2x PG, Icon, Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher) - 286 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/PF, 2x PG, Icon, Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher) - 286 pts
10 Chaos Space Marines (AC w/PF, Icon, 2x MG, Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher) - 270 pts
14 Plague Zombies (Count as Lesser Daemons) - 182 pts
3 Obliterators - 225 pts
Plague Hulk (already built) - 205 pts
Plague-spitter (counts as Vindicator w/Daemonic Possesion) - 145 pts
4 Objective Markers
Total: 1994 pts

I have the Forge World Death Guard Terminator bits I am going to use to make the Terminators. I also have a really cool idea for modelling the Plague-spitter, but you will have to wait to see that.

Because of conflicting schedules, we are having problems coordinating our ToFG games. I have only played three games; I lost two and tied once. I lost twice to the Dark Eldar player who beat me pretty badly. The combination of speed and poisoned weapons was brutal against my slow, high toughness army.

Birthday Update

2011-02-09T08:34:00.001-05:00

This last Sunday, I celebrated my birthday with a small Super Bowl party at my house and it was a great time. On top of getting to watch one of the best Super Bowls I have seen in a long time, I got some nice Birthday loot that I wanted to show off, mostly for my newly acquired Blood Angels army (which I yet to show off).

I cannot wait to get started on these kits, as well as a couple Furioso kits I picked up with some money I got from selling some stuff that I was not going to use anymore.

Although I have not been doing much modelling or painting lately, I am reading the Horus Heresy series and I have really enjoyed it so far. I just started book four. Reading this series is really making me want to play some Space Marines, so I am going to have to get busy so I can get the Blood Angels onto the tabletop. However, I still have the Tale of Four Games to finish up as well.

Winged Daemon Prince Finished

2011-02-02T07:21:00.000-05:00

I completed my January project for the 40k Fight Club 2011 Painting Challenge, a winged Daemon Prince. Not my best work, I was rushed in getting him finished before the end of last month and was up late Monday night finishing it. So I was not able to take pictures until last night. It turned out good, although I can see a lot of things I missed.

My First 1500 point Blood Angel list

2011-02-01T10:13:00.000-05:00

Here is my first list based on what I acquired with my army.

Librarian (Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Might of Heroes) - 125 pts
Sanquinary Priest (Jump Pack, Power Weapon) - 90 points
Furioso (Drop Pod) - 160 pts
10 Assault Marines w/Jump Packs (Power Fist, 2x Hand Flamers) - 235 pts
10 Assault Marines w/Jump Packs (Power Fist, 2x Infernus Pistols) - 245 pts
10 Tactical Marines w/Rhino (Power Fist, ML, Flamer) - 245 pts
9 Death Company w/Rhino (Thunder Hammer, Power Weapon, Infernus Pistol) - 270 pts
Baal Predator (Storm Bolter) - 125 pts
Total: 1495 pts

My tactics are to put the Librarian with the Infernus Pistol Assault Squad (for Vehicle Hunting) and the Sanguinary Priest with the other Assault Squad and hold both units in reserve, deep striking them. I will probably deploy the Tactical and Death Company Squads on the table. For the Baal Predator, it will be a deployment time decision to hold it in reserve or not. On turn one, drop the Furioso Drop Pod.

Thoughts?

Blood Angels!

2011-01-31T09:48:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I am still around and I won't bother to bore you with any details why, but I do have some news that I am excited about. This weekend I traded an old 3000 point Fantasy Dwarf army for a 3000 point Blood Angel army. I am pretty excited about this new army, I love close combat armies and this one looks like it will be fun to play. Here is what I got:

Commander Dante
The Sanguinor
Mephiston
Brother-Captian Tycho
Librarian in Terminator armor (storm shield)
Librarian with jump pack
Captain (power sword)

Elite

Furioso Dreadnought (Ironclad with BA markings)
Brother Corbulo
Sanguinary Priest, jump pack
5 Terminators (assault cannon)

Troop

10 Assault Marines (power fist, hand flamer)
10 Assault Marines (power fist, hand flamer)
10 Tactical Marines (power fist, plasma gun, plasma cannon)
5 Death Company (thunder hammer, power sword, 2 infernus pistols)

Fast Attack

Baal Predator

Heavy

Vindicator

Dedicated Transports

Land Raider Crusader
Rhino
Drop Pod

I have already picked up one box of Death Company to expand that unit, and will be getting more, plus I will probably pick up the new Stormraven and a couple Furioso dreadnoughts when they come out later this week. Now, where to find the time for this army.

"Brains, Brains...." - Plague Zombies and Nurgle Rhino

2011-01-11T07:12:00.002-05:00

This last weekend was a good one for getting my ToFG Period III models built. First up, here are my Plague Zombies that I will use as a 'counts as' unit of Lesser Daemons in my Blightlord army.

I just used a box of WHFB Zombies and used a little bit of green stuff to add some 'Plague Rot' to them. Not much, just a little as I thought the detail of the Zombies themselves woud be good enough. I modelled them to look like they were shambling and reaching out for their prey, what I take as a classic Zombie pose (I am a fan of Zombie movies, go figure). Simple and I really like the way they came out. Only question is how to paint them. I think I am going to paint their flesh the same 'dry death husk' look that I use on my Plaguebearers.

I also got my third Rhino built and I used some green stuff on this one to make it look 'Nurgly'. Something I have not done on the first two Rhinos yet. I am not sure where I should go from here. It could be done, or does it need more Chaos bits on it? I am planning to make it dirty and rusted when I paint it, so that may be enough. Tough to decide.

Greys Knights Release Announced - April 2011!

2011-01-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

In my email this morning was an announcement from Games Workshop stating that Grey Knights will be released this coming April. Although I do not list Grey Knights as one of my armies here on my blog, I do have a small GK force that I keep for allying with my Cadian Imperial Guard army (it is listed on my Cadian IG Army page, along with my Sisters of Battle army that I also keep for the same reason). I am anxious to see what the new codex will offer; there have been quite a few juicy rumors on the web the past few months.

Incoming! Grey Knights
'We are the warriors of the Grey Knights, armoured in Faith, shielded by Devotion and armed with Purity of Purpose. But greater even than these, we carry the light of the divine Emperor of Man into the dark places to purge the daemonic wherever it may be found.' - Brother-Captain Stern of the Grey Knights, Prior to the Purging of Xoedic Binary 978.M41

In April the Grey Knights, an elite and secretive Chapter of Space Marines, will stand ready to fight the forces of Chaos and the horrors of the Warp with new reinforcements. Take a look at the Astronomican today to see the Studio's Incoming! article for more information about the legendary heroes that are the Grey Knights.

More info can be found here.

Tale of Four Gamers Update - Period II Picture

2011-01-09T18:13:00.000-05:00

Here is what I got done fore Period II/ Not a lot of painting, but some.

I have spent practically all my free time this weekend building my Period III models and will have pictures of those soon.

Tale of Four Gamers - Period III list

2011-01-07T08:31:00.000-05:00

Period II ends today and although I got everything built, I did not get anything painted. Epic failure #2. Unlike Period I, I did make some painting progress. I will post pictures in my next post. Here is my list for Period III and I am going to do my best to complete this period's projects on time.

Daemon Prince (Mark of Nurgle, Wings) - 150 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/PF, 2x PG, Icon, Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher) - 286 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/PF, 2x PG, Icon, Rhino w/ Havoc Launcher) - 286 pts
10 Chaos Space Marines (Aspiring Champion w/PF, Icon, 2x MG, Rhino) - 255 pts
7 Plague Zombies (Count as Lesser Daemons) - 91 pts
3 Obliterators - 225 pts
Plague Hulk (already built) - 205 pts
3 Objective Markers
Total: 1498 pts

Grey Knights Omnibus: Grey Knights

2011-01-06T09:02:00.000-05:00

Last night I finished reading the first book of the Grey Knights Omnibus, Grey Knights, and while I do not want to do a review of the book, I did want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I thought it was a very solid story and that the deceit and betrayal weaved by the servants of Tzeentch was well done by the author. It was good to see the author include Sisters of Battle, Adeptus Arbites, and Imperial Guard in the story.

This is only the second Black Library book I have read, the first being Horus Rising from the Horus Heresy series. While I am looking forward to reading the other two stories in the Grey Knights Omnibus, I want to get back to reading the Horus Heresy Series first. I got books two and three for Christmas and they have been calling to me.

ToFG Update and first Blightlord WIP

2011-01-05T06:52:00.002-05:00

A quick update on the ToFG. First, we lost our Chaos Daemon player, so it is down to four players. Period two ends this Friday and again I am not going to have my units painted. I am still behind, but I am working on getting caught up. I have everything built for period two except my second objective, but I will have that done in time.

I am working on painting my period one units and here is my first Blightlord Plague Champion. I need to paint his base but I think he is done otherwise. What do you think?

My painting scheme is (so that I can remember):

Prime the model black
Painting the Armor

Base coat with Catachan Green
Wash heavily with Chestnut Wash
Overbrush with Catachan Green
Light overbrush with Camo Green
Highlight with Rotting Flesh
Paint trim with Boltgun Metal

Painting the Skin

Basecoat with Rotting Flesh
Wash heavily with Purple Wash
Overbrush with Rotting Flesh
Highlight with Skull White

Wash the whole model with thinned-down Devlan Mud

Comments and suggestions welcome.

2010 Painting Challenge results...and start of 2011 Painting Challenge

2011-01-03T08:19:00.002-05:00

Well, the holidays are over and I hope everyone's holidays were as good as mine. My family and I had a great time this year. Now, 2011 is upon us and I am looking forward to life returning to normal in the new year.

Last year was a good year for me and my hobby. I completed 22 projects with a total of 71 models (a complete list can be seen here). The majority of it was Orks, but I also got some Nurgle Daemons and a couple Terrain pieces done as well. This was due mostly to the 40kFightClub.com 2010 Painting Challenge that I participated in. I was only able to complete 11 of the 12 months for this challenge; the only to month I did not complete was December. For November's Project, I only made it this far on my Ork Meka Dread, but the powers that be said that it was enough to qualify as being complete. I am going to finish it at some point.

For December's project, we were to paint some army themed objectives. I was not sure how many we were to do, so I built five. Unfortunately, I did not get any painting on them done whatsoever as I only got them built last week. I am planning on getting them painted this year.

Here is a picture of everything I got painted for the 2010 Painting Challenge.

There is a 2011 40kFightClub Painting Challenge and I am participating in it. The rules for this one are the same as last year except you do not have to stick to the same army and there is no schedule of what you have to paint. This year, you may simply paint any unit for any army as long as you paint the minimum unit size. You can also paint other projects, like terrain. I plan to include projects from all my armies to avoid burnout, like what happened with my Orks last year, and to throw in a couple of terrain projects.

My January project is a second Blightlord Winged Daemon Prince. This is a model I built years ago, but never got around to painting it because I could never settle on a CSM Chapter. Now that I have my own, I think it is time to paint him.

One last picture before I go, my Christmas loot, which contains two of my future 2011 Painting Challenge Projects.

I am so far behind in my updates that I am going to take them one at a time. My next post will be an update on the ToFG. - slipwing

First 2000 point Blightlord List

2010-12-21T08:58:00.001-05:00

Here is the beginning of my first 2000 point Blightlord list so far, but I am only up to 1699 points. I still have 301 points to spend and I am not sure where to go from here. Anyone have any thoughts or advice they would like to share with me?

HQ
1 Daemon Prince @ 150 pts (Wings; Mark of Nurgle)

Troops
7 Plague Marines @ 271 pts (Plague Champion w/Power Fist, Personal Icon; Plasmagun x2; Rhino)
7 Plague Marines @ 271 pts (Plague Champion w/Power Fist, Personal Icon; Plasmagun x2; Rhino)
14 Summoned Lesser Daemon @ 182 pts

Fast
1 Blight Drone @ 125 pts
1 Blight Drone @ 125 pts

Heavy
3 Obliterators @ 225 pts
1 Vindicator @ 145 pts (Daemonic Possession)
1 Plague Hulk of Nurgle @ 205 pts

Total Roster Cost: 1699

Tale of Five Gamers Update

2010-12-15T09:05:00.000-05:00

Period One for the ToFG ended on Dec 4th and unfortunately I was unable to complete any painting of my 500 point army, so Zero points for me for Period One so far. Epic failure! I did get everything built except for the Objective marker. I have until Period Two ends (Jan 7th) to get my games in, so I might be able to salvage some points.

For Period Two, my 1,000 point Blightlords list is (changes in red):

Daemon Prince (Mark of Nurgle, Wings) - 150 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/PF, 2x Plasma Guns, Personal Icon, Rhino) - 271 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/PF, 2x Plasma Guns, Personal Icon, Rhino) - 271 pts
10 Chaos Space Marines (Aspiring Champion w/PF, Chaos Glory Icon, 2x Meltagun) - 220 pts
1 Obliterator - 75 pts
2 Objective Markers
Total: 987 pts

I started building my Obliterator last night since that seems to be the trickiest thing to build (lots of little pieces). I am hoping to have everything built before Christmas because I have some time off from work for the Holidays and I can concentrate on painting.

New CSM Chapter Name Poll results

2010-12-14T07:15:00.000-05:00

The results of my CSM chapter name are in (they have been in, but I am just getting around to it) and The Blightlords win. Here are the results.

Blightlords - 4 (36%)
Blightreapers - 1 (9%)
Blightseers - 1 (9%)
Blightsowers - 2 (18%)
None of the above - 3 (27%)
Other - 0 (0%)

Thank you to all who voted.

Still here...

2010-12-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say that I am still around. I have been really busy the last month with family, work, illness, and holiday stuff, so I have not had much free time to work on hobby stuff. I have fallen behind in both my Tale of Five Gamers and the 40kFC 2010 Painting Challenge. Once Christmas has past, I should be able to get back to work and hopefully catch up on the ToFGs.

While I was sick for the past two weeks with a nasty sinus infection, I started reading book one of the Horus Heresy series, Horus Rising. This is the first Warhammer 40k novel I have read and I am really enjoying it. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series, and maybe reading some of the other series.

What Chaos Space Marine Chapter Name to use?

2010-11-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

I have been pondering what chapter name to use for my new Chaos Space Marine army. Originally I wanted them to be Death Guard, but I got to thinking that I might like to play more than just a Nurgle-aligned CSM army. So I wanted to come up with some kind of splinter chapter that is mainly aligned to Nurgle, but can have some non-Nurgle aligned units if I want.

In trying to decide on a name for the chapter, I really want the name to include the word 'Blight', but from there I am not sure. There are a lot of good ways this can used.

My first instinct was to use Blightlords. I searched the internet to see if the name was already being used for a CSM chapter, and it isn't. But it is being used quite a bit in other games. Should this deter me from using it? It probably shouldn't.

Anyway, I came up with a couple of names and I have put a poll on the far right column. Please take a minute and vote for your favorite to help me decide. Thanks.

WIP - Winged Daemon Prince of Nurgle

2010-11-13T20:41:00.001-05:00

I did not get as much hobby time this week, so I have not had time to post anything nor have I gotten much done. I have been spending time getting ready for my daughter's 5th Birthday party which is next weekend and doing all the fall chores that need to be done.

With the time I got, I got a bit of work done on my Winged Daemon Prince of Nurlge for the ToFGs. I think he is turning out good so far. Here are some pictures. What do you think?

I wish I had taken the time to take some pictures of it while I was working on it to show what I did. I always mean to but I just get so caught up in the modelling that I forget to do it. I need to get better at that.

The head is my favorite part. I was not sure how it was going to look as I was doing it as I only had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but I like the way it turned out. I am not sure the gut came out as well as I thought it would, but I am definately happy with the rest of it.

Tale of Five Gamers underway...

2010-11-08T14:26:00.000-05:00

Yes, Five Gamers. We had a fifth player join us who is doing Tyranids. We also had one other player who switched to Chaos Daemons which is nice as no two players are doing the same army. Anyway, the ToFG started this last Friday and the final line up is:

slipwing - Chaos Space Marines
daskrusher - Dark Eldar
Deacon - White Scars
JFink85 - Tyranids
Fabricator-General - Chaos Daemons

I was able to get my seven Plague Marines and six Chaos Marines assembled this weekend. Everything is ready for priming except the Plague Marine Icon Bearer. This is an older model that I used one of the new Plague Marine arms on, but his shoulder needs to be built up using some green stuff to look right. I have also started on the Daemon Prince but I have not made it very far yet. Here are pictures of the Marines.

Ork Mega Dread Finished

2010-10-29T09:18:00.001-04:00

I have finished my 40kFC Painting Challenge Project for the month of October, my Ork Mega Dread. I like the way he turned out. I'd like to give thanks to Mart (if you have not seen his Ork stuff, it is worth checking out) for the idea of sponging some Chainmail and Tin Bitz onto the yellow that helped put the final touches on it.

Next month's project is Painter's Choice and I am choosing my Ork Meka Dread.

Mamon, Herald, and Nurglings...Oh My!

2010-10-28T06:00:00.016-04:00

It's been a great week for getting painting done. So far I have got three projects finished, with a couple more that are close to being finished. First up, the Daemon Prince Mamon and Herald of Nurgle.

I have to say, I love the Mamon model. It is just chocked full of great little details. The Nurglings bathing in the barrel on his back are my favorite. The model is also a lot larger than I originally thought, as seen in comparison to this Chaos Space Marine. If a CSM is seven feet tall, Mamon must stand around 18' tall and has legs the size of tree trunks. I cannot wait to get Mamon on the battlefield.

Also finished are my seven Nurgling bases. It is hard to say if I will ever use these little guys, but my army would not feel complete without them.

Finally, and although not finished yet, here is my planned Chaos Space Marine color scheme. This is not my best paint job ever mainly because I was painting and re-painting it to get the color scheme I wanted. Anyway, what do you think?

Projects Update

2010-10-25T07:03:00.002-04:00

Just a quick update on my Projects since I did not post much last week. First up, my Ork Mega Dread is coming along nicely. I just need to finish the base and technically I could call him done. However, I think I need to spend some more time adding more detail. Fortunately, I have until this Sunday to work on him. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

I feel I am finally done customizing my Plague Hulk, but I am going to save painting it for the Tale of Four Gamers that I am in. I will lose a point for it already being assembled. I will probably paint it for Period 2.

Last week, my latest purchased arrived, the Nurgle Daemon Prince Mamon and Herald of Nurgle. I primed them yesterday and started painting them. I must say that these are two awesome models. They are nice additions to my army.

I also put together seven Nurgling bases last week that I found I still had not assembled. They are primed and ready for painting. And finally, my test Chaos Space Marine model is assembled, primed, and I started painting him last night.

Lots of projects, but I think I can get most of them done this week.

Tale of Four Gamers

2010-10-22T10:26:00.003-04:00

A couple of members of my local gaming club and I are going to be starting a Tale of Four Gamers (ToFG) on November 5th. I am going to be doing my Chaos Space Marine army. I was originally going to make a Death Guard army, but I think I am going to just make my own CSM chapter that mainly focuses on Nurgle, but will allow me to field a non-Nurgle army if I so feel like it. I have a couple of chapter names I am toying around with and will probably post a poll at some point so you can help me choose.

The rules for the ToFG are:

The contest will consist of four periods. In each period, each player must paint 500 points for their army and one themed objective marker. Each period will be four weeks to build and paint your army and one week to play your games. After each period, players will vote for which player has the best painted army and the winner of the vote will get an extra 5 points.

For period one, your army must include one HQ and two troop choices. The first period battle will be a four-way game since the armies are only 500 points.

Scoring is as follows:

Army painted on time: +10 pts
Voted for best painted army: +5 pts
For fighting the battle:

Win: 10 pts
Draw: 5 pts
Loss: 1 pt

Misc:

-1 point for each unit already assembled

The player with the most points at the end of period four wins.

My first 500 points will be:

Daemon Prince (Mark of Nurgle, Wings) - 150 pts
7 Plague Marines (Plague Champion w/Power Fist, 2x Plasma Guns, Personal Icon) - 236 pts
6 Chaos Space Marines (Chaos Glory Icon, Meltagun) - 110 pts
Objective Marker
Total: 496 pts

With only 15 models to paint in the first period, I should be able to get it done pretty quick, allowing me extra time to really Nurgle-up the Daemon Prince. It looks like I may spend some time painting on my lunch hour because I also have to paint my Ork Meka Dread in November for the 40kFC Painting Challenge.

I am going to put together one Chaos Space Marine to paint a test scheme on this weekend. It will have to match my Blight Drones that are already painted, so the base chapter color will be Dark Angels Green.

Getting to 2500 points

2010-10-17T13:59:00.001-04:00

After my game last Thursday night, I got to thinking how I could get my Nurgle Daemons up to a decent 2500 point list. I am about 100 pts short. Fortunately, I have had the following model in my bit box for a while now.

I got this model in a trade a while ago. The guy I was trading with just threw it in because he did not want it. I did not know what it was until just recently and it turns out it is the Warmaster Greater Daemon of Nurgle. I mounted him on a 40mm base and I plan to make him into a Herald of Nurgle, which could easily use up 100 points.

At first, I though the model might be a bit small, but I think it will work. Here is a size comparison with a regular Plaguebearer. As you can see, it is shorter than a Plaguebearer, but more than makes up for in in sheer mass.

My only problem now is to decide what to equip it with. At first I thought a Chaos Icon would be the way to go, but I am thinking that Breath of Chaos would be a better option. It would add some offense, as well as a template weapon, to any unit it joined. Unfortunately, the model is missing an arm, so I will have to model something for this.

On the Ork front, work continues on my Mega Dread. Here is the latest WIP picture.