Monday, August 31, 2015

Showcase: Blood Angels Fire Raptor (with Freehand designs)

Saturday night I finished my Blood Angels' Fire Raptor Gunship. This is definitely on of my favourite models and makes a great centerpiece for any Space Marine army. 
I really love how this turned out. It was mostly done by brush. I only airbrushed on a base coat, but then did extensive brush work and washing (using a blend of secret weapon just red, red black and reaper red ink) to give it the shade and gloss I wanted. As such it also has no varnish (I find that ink washes tend to give models a degree of protection that normal paint doesn't, so I get to keep my gloss and not worry too much about damage).

You can see the WIP pictures here. I plan to use this guy for Adepticon no matter what. It is just to BA a model to not bring it (pun intended). 

You may notice in a few pictures 2 unpainted lights. I discovered I had missed them while photgraphing, so I fixed them and continued to take pictures, but some of the early ones were overall better quality photos.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

If CSM are coming soon, FW already gave you the perfect tool against them...

So there are some rumours floating around the internet of a possible 7th Ed release of CSM. They need it and I would love to see ACTUAL chaos marines back on the table.
But if they do come and they are top tier, FW came out with a little piece of tech for Space Marine Players to use. I wish it was usuable by ALL SM Factions, but it is specifically Codex: Space Marines.

So Forge World has its Exclusive Centurion model for sale right now. With this guy comes some 30k rules, BUT there is also an associated 40k Relic for 35 points.


Codex Space Marines Chapter Relic (+35 points) 
The Panoply of the Crusader:
Several Space Marine Chapters are fortunate enough to have in their armouries artificer armour of a type that dates to the earliest days of the Great Crusade, adorned with the heraldry of that lost age. Such relics are more than simply peerless examples of the armourer’s craft to the Chapters that hold them, they are a tangible link to glories and tragedies that to others are merely myths to be told, and a mantle of sacred duty made manifest. The Panoply of the Crusader confers a 2+ Armour save and, in addition, the model and any unit they have joined gains the Stubborn and Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines) special rules. The Panoply of the Crusader may not be selected by models equipped with Terminator armour.
So this seems pretty nice, especially to add to Librarius Conclaves or super friends characters. Basically a great way to get a character (Captain, Chaplain, or Librarian) a 2+ save and buff a squad without relying on chapter tactics or worrying about when to use a combat doctrine. Stubborn can be kinda useless at times on Space Marines IMO, but still not bad to have.

Really just a solid piece of wargear, and much cheaper than the 50 point Armour Indomitus or 60 point Shield Eternal if you are stretched for points.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

A Call To All Patriots! Support Team USA (Megabots) for Robot Duel!!! (It looks like a KNIGHT!!!)

Do you like massive robots?
Do you like a nice solid round of "fisticuffs"?
Do you love the U S of A?

THEN THIS KICKSTARTER IS FOR YOU!!!!



If you want some background information, check out THIS POST HERE!!! Seriously do it now, they are some AWESOME videos featuring more of these crazy fighting robots!

And if you are "Meh, why should I watch these?"

I mean seriously, look at this thing!

Don't tell me that doesn't remind you of one of these:
They got some awesome companies and advisers helping out (even NASA!), but obviously Giant Robots don't come for free (if you own a Knight yourself you know this pain all too well).

So if you want to be remembered for all time as someone who brought a Knight to life for a real life Gundam battle, then do it.

For America. For the future. For the children, so they don't have to grow up in a world where giant robot fighting is a fantasy.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Super Cheap Plague Toad Alternative

So I found this little kickstarter today by Toad King Castings. Just trying to produce 3 models, but two of these are perfect for Nurgle Players as Plague Toads, especially now that they have AoS warscrolls as well.

Warts and Wings Kickstarter: Giant Toads and Stirge Swarms

EDIT 8/27: IT IS FUNDED, So little need to worry about not getting your reward (this is really low risk as the producer has been a miniature maker in the past and all the toads at least will be cast in house)

So it is just 4 GBP for that big guy (about $6). With shipping it came out to $13. Not bad IMO, and obviously cheaper per model if you back a larger pledge to get a bunch of them.

I ordered mine in hopes of it being a Beast of Nurgle for Blood Bowl, but these are also obviously great for RPGs and the like.
So back it if you are interested in the least! Help me get my Plague Toad and I doubt you will let down by the buy. And if the resin quality is just "meh" then it is NURGLE ANYWAYS, you wouldn't have to worry!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

WIP: Blood Angels Fire Raptor w/ Freehand designs

Just a quick update/share. Hopefully I have this fully done by Monday/Tuesday (I really want to so I can keep pressing on w/ my BA and BB)

So here is the work I have done on my Fire Raptor this weekend.
Banner after my shower this morning. It is true about great ideas in the shower...
Icon to show secondment to the 2nd Company
The port side "Banner" is based off an old Rouge Trader Era Blood Angels Banner
I didn't want to include the battle victories on it because
1- This isn't a banner
2- I wasn't going to try and write that small some battle names
SO Instead I went with the cool old school skull and a crux terminatus to represent the venerable/relic nature of the Fire Raptor.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

WIP: Blood Bowl Chaos Pact and Wood Elf Linemen (Cool Proxies/Conversions)

Just a quick share. I have been trying to expand my Blood Bowl teams lately. I would really like to get a league going where I am at, but if it comes down to it, I have ideas for a 2 person league with a bunch of teams, all just for the fun of it. Additionally though, Blood Bowl teams are just extremely fun hobby projects. Since all the models are OOP, finding new and clever ways to make your team is fun and relatively cheap if done right. What you are about to see cost me less than $20.
So first up, my Chaos Pact Marauders. These guys are the linemen of the Chaos Pact team. I originally was just going to get some Warhammer Chaos Marauders, but then I found these really cheap old early 90s plastic Chaos Warriors and said "Those are PERFECT". They were already built, and some of them had mutations, so I mostly just had to remove the weapons, clean them up (they still had sprue bits and mouldlines on them) and do some arm/hand repositioning.
These guys just have SO MUCH CHARACTER to them I feel. They are the embodiment of a Chaos mortal, represent one of the most iconic looks of WHFB and have a surprising amount of motion to their poses given their age. Plus the person who had built them before me had already integrated the Chaos Mutations sprue, so I already have some great mutation options for leveling up. Chaos Pact is one of only 4 teams with access to mutations. I can easily represent Tentacles, Extra-arms, Claw and Big-hand.
I also am going something somewhat unique for my woodelves I feel. Instead of using elves, I am going with Dryads for my linemen. All my specialists will still be elves (I have another AWESOME Proxy in store for them, but that will be revealed in due time). The Dryad models are great and fluid enough to show athletic motion IMO. They should really set the team apart from other wood elf teams.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Dark Heresy RPG- thoughts on character creation and the game as a whole.

So my college buddies and I played a campaign  of Dark Heresy recently We are not playing as marines, but rather a group of human heretics. To make sure we could kick off, we got together online one weekend and started making our characters.
I went with a Chaos Heretek. It is a heretical Tech Adept. Get it? Not sure it was obvious enough.

So aside from the typically "Khorney" names that GW tends to have in their fluff, here are my thoughts on the game as gleaned from character creation

PROS-
1- The game is very rich. There are alot of skills and talents and items of wargear. I as a Tech guy have a Servo-arm, utility mechadendrite, ballistic mechadendrite, internal grav coils, and some other cool Machine tech. I was able to upgrade my weapons in various ways, had a vast array of weapons to choose from. But all my friends were very easily able to define their characters in their particular path from the get go. There is really no awkward start up phase.
2- It is very accurate to the lore. Everything is based on or entirely conceivable in the 40k universe. Alot of research and dedications was put into this book, and all the "Tomes" that support it. I think these guys at FFG may be more knowledgeable than some Black Library authors now.
3- It feels chaotic. The blessing of the gods tables are just as likely to ruin you as bless you, and the infamy and corruption mechanics that go into determining these are pretty neat, but require a good GM to run properly IMO.
CONS
1- Poor layout. You have to flip (or scroll if digital) back and forth a million times during character creation to reference different things. Certain things aren't even in the character creation chapter, like movement and weight capacity. We spent a whole 3+ hour session on just character creation. I had 4 copies of the pdf open at one point so I could easier switch between pages to reference what I needed to.
2- The character sheets are missing vital skills/talents. Things like survival just aren't on there.
3- Difference in language between the character sheet and book. So when you look in the book for skills/talents it defines them as Known, Trained (+10), Experienced (+20), and Veteran (+30) where as on the character sheet it goes Trained, +10, +20, +30. Easily able to realize what it means, but it just a very annoying inconsistency IMO.
4- Initial equipment procurement is BROKEN. This is easily abused. I was able to get a servo arm added to my Heretek, which proved invaluable in the long run and was our MVP. That is right, a mechanical arm was the MVP.

Now, the game as a whole can be really fun, but it is really easy to break. If you avoid using the tomes, I don't think it would be as easy, but once you dabble in those, your GM will have to keep a tight leash on the game to run it smoothly. That said, it is still highly possible to make a WAY OP party.
Here is an except from an article I wrote a few weeks ago on Rules As Intended vs Rules as Written that covers this pretty well
"Let me give and example. I just finished a Black Crusade game that only lasted 5 sessions. We had already made our characters WAY more powerful than they should have been via clever use of equipment procurement and talents (we had +8 to our initiative and I myself was +10. To a d10 roll. I was ALWAYS faster than the maximum the dice could give). We had a nurgle psyker in the group and a slaaneshi flesh moulder. One of the things the flesh molder could do was boost a characteristic. SO the psyker had him boost his willpower, already a considerable 60/100. Because of the talents between them, and the bonuses to the ritual they performed, and the flesh shapers already considerable skill in his art, they were able to pass the check required to improve his willpower by 5 degrees of success, giving the nurgle psyker a 110 willpower, which meant AUTO SUCCEED ALL TESTS. When the GM decided that this was to broken of a way to do that, the psyker's player INSTANTLY had a plan be which involved possession of himself and then using his already considerable willpower and bonus to force the daemon into submission, the end result being he had a will power of 110. So at the end of the session, we all concluded the game was broken and to move on. It just killed all the fun. And while it may have been fun for the nurgle psyker's player, it wouldn't have been for the rest of us."

So that may paint it a little doom and gloom of a scenario, but you get the point.

With the right group of dedicated people, you could most likely have a super fun and indepth campaign. But these people needed to be dedicated to living out the lore IMO. If they aren't I recommend something else.
Rouge Trader Apocalypse perhaps?

Monday, August 17, 2015

Weekend WIP: Blood Angels Fire Raptor (and an ebay sale and find)

Just a quick update on my progress over the weekend. After finishing my Ogres I took a small breather, but then jumped right back into it with my Fire Raptor. Just starting to add details to this guy. What I really need to figure out is what to freehand on the side between the cockpit and the turrets. If you have any suggestions or inspiration, please share!!!  I am kinda drawing a blank.
Additionally, I managed to receive this beauty in the mail this weekend!
WOOHOO!!!

And last of all I have a REALLY COOL MODEL for sale on Ebay. I got this guy to be a Blood Bowl Troll for a Chaos Pact team (and trust me I have some really cool things coming down the pipe on that front, so stay tuned) BUT he is just TOO BIG. So I have to part ways with him.

It is a Rackham Miniatures Confrontation Wartroll, and he is for sale on ebay, starting at $15 with a buy it now for $30. (That is the link to the ebay sale if you are interested).
Space Marine shown for scale purposes only.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Blood Bowl: Completed Gnoblars (Snotlings) and full Ogre Team

The other day I posted my completed Blood Bowl Ogres for my team the Bolgosgrad Berserkers.
Well last night I finished up my Gnoblars, which fill the roll of Snotlings, for the team. I went with Gnoblars for a few reasons
1- They were plastic and cheaper
2- They had clothes and helmets and such that could be uniform items
3- I wasn't going to attempt to sort through the variety of snotling minis to find suitable ones.
4- Gnoblars I feel fit the fluff of the Bolgosgrad Berserkers.

SO for the last point, I guess I should explain the fluff of my team.

Bolgosgrad is an actual small city/large town in Kislev (thus the tundra bases), lying between the banks of the North River Lynsk and South River Lynsk. Now normally Empire town would have a human team, but Bolgosgrad happens to sponsor a team of Ogres, who are better equipped in a physical sense to practice and play year round in the icy north, and as such, Bolgosgrad is one of the few Kislevite cities with a full time Blood Bowl Team. Bolgosgrad however lives in the shadow of the Bonerattlaz Orc tribe, and as such have a distrust of orcs, and even though snotlings are often seem as harmless, most of them have flocked to the Bonerattlaz banner. Gnoblars however are of a different sort, and are nearly always found in the service of an Ogre. Being so close to the World's Edge Mountains, and having a team of six famous and impressive Ogres, Bolgosgrad has no difficulty in or compunction towards hiring these submissive creatures to play alongside the Berserkers (often referred to as the Bone'eads by their fans).

Fluff, aside, I am super happy to have these guys done. I have had them for a few years, so it is really nice to see a project completed!

So I give you the completed Bolgosgrad Bersekers.