The Emperor's Codex

INSPIRE - CONTEMPTOR

2012-02-21T08:35:00.000-08:00

This picture has been making the rounds online, it was posted by Forgeworld and you can find it floating around the Cool Mini or Not site. To cool not to share and something that Inspires us to push ourselves and do better. The painter is Bogusz Stupnicki a link to his personal site is at the bottom. Credit is due to him not me. Enjoy as you consider repainting your own Contemptor model. =P

Mr Bogusz Stupnicki can be found online here. http://bohunarts.cba.pl/index.htm

Managing Time

2012-02-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Not everyone can casually jump back and forth through time I mean my Tardis is currently in the shop personally. So between “the busy” that is our lives each of us tends to try and carve out some time to march around or tinker with our little toy soldiers. Not everyone is lucky enough to get paid to play with little plastic men for a living, most of us have several other things that require our attention and time. Most of us have a job for example or things we have to do during the day like school. (some of us have both) I will let you in on a little secret that you already know. It takes time to get good at this hobby just like anything else. Only this hobby is a bit more complex than most hobbies so it’s easy to forget that. (why we play)

No matter what part of the hobby is your favorite it all requires some leveling so to speak in a grinding type fashion to get better. You will only become a better modeler, painter, or player by spending some time doing so. No big shock I am sure, I might as well have told you that the cast of Jersey Shore will be getting drunk in the next episode. Instead how about some tips on keeping yourself on track to hitting your new hobby goals this year.

Tip One – Break things down in small easy chunks.

This won’t work for everything but there are several things you can break into small chunks. It isn’t always possible to find a large block of time to relax and do things in. So this small tip will move your projects way further along if you can do the parts that don’t require large chunks of time. If you’re building models you can take 15 minutes to clip everything you need from the sprue and throw it in a bag. If you can get in the habit of thinking of your projects in 15 minute steps you can actually sneak in a ton of hobby time during the week to get closer to your goals. Glue together the basing material, clean off flash for 15, are your bases already done? Go ahead and glue the legs in place, or the torso and walk away. You can also sneak in some painting the same way. A quick Primer coat and put them up to dry, or even 20 minutes to base coat a squad isn’t impossible. You will be amazed at how much this adds up over the week when you normally would have gotten nothing done. (Disclaimer some models are super annoying to put together from a bag of parts you cut from the sprue. Cough cough.. Ghost ark)

Tip Two – Everything has it’s place

This really just adds to the above, but you should have a hobby area, or if possible a mobile hobby area. Something you can move around with you depending on what you are doing. A T.V tray so you can spend 15 minutes clipping sprue while watching a movie with the wife is the idea. I cook often in our home and I tend to put water on or something and while waiting for it to boil or the oven to pre heat I will spend 15 minutes on something hobby related at the kitchen table with my little “to go” hobby area. If your area isn’t mobile no shame in that there are several chances during the day to escape for 15 minutes to your hobby area. Just make it a POINT to only do the one step in the process you stopped in to do real quick. If you start spending too much time getting lost in the hobby you won’t be able to sneak in small hobby steps in your day because you will start to avoid them because you don’t have time which is the opposite of our goal here.

This is one of my mobile hobby area's so can easily carry or move around the next step or two with me. The wooden thing is like 1 dollar at any craft store. Some extra hobby time on the go is worth a dollar right?

Quick shot of my press mold emblems in the background of the top picture. The detail is amazing once you get the process down. You can see more of the army in progress with conversions here.

TIP Three – Setting some realistic Goals

Now that we are thinking about our hobby in what we can do in smaller steps and figuring out when we can take a small hobby break in our daily schedule. I have found with me and my friends it helps to set a goal. I would suggest a weekly goal of get X progress with a unit. Maybe you want to have a entire unit built by the end of the week. Maybe you want to have an entire unit based and primed by the end of the week. Maybe your goal is to have all your current projects clipped from sprue so you can take them with you while you travel. Setting a goal will help you keep the steps you would like to have done in your mind and help keep you focused on how much hobby break time you are going to be able to fit into your schedule on a regular basis

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TIP Four - ~~Profit~~ ~~Brag~~ ~~Talk Trash~~ Show off progress?

This last tip like buying your wife a new vacuum might come across the wrong way. I don't mean brag or talk trash, although I would normally encourage a little trash talk among friends. The point is at least in our local circles progress encourages progress. If you are making steady progress and the guys you game with can see that, it might a light a fire under some people to also chip away at projects we have setting around. Just like a good paint night can encourage more people to paint. It's always a plus to have more great armies on the table both locally and for the hobby as a whole, so I tend to compare progress with my friends to encourage them to keep their heads in the game and I challenge you to do the same. You never know when they will be the one's encouraging you to put that last layer of paint on your squads. =)

Cool Mini or Not 12.07

2012-02-18T06:22:00.000-08:00

Cool Mini or Not news letter is out with a great line up this week of Star Wars restocks and lots' of Soda Pop mini's. Also some great stuff form the Marvel line like the Ghost Rider you see here. Enjoy the eye candy.

ForgeWorld BASILISK

2012-02-17T04:00:00.000-08:00

NEW FORGEWORLD release and they have really out done themselves this time. The detail on this model is fantastic. If you haven't seen it yet you owe it to yourself to at least check out the pictures real quick. Great center piece to a army I think and I personally can't wait to see one of these painted up...

BASILISK

"Found in the most treacherous regions of the Warhammer world, from the Bloodspine Mountains of the unknown Southlands to the Grey Peaks that shoulder the Empire, Basilisks are a reclusive menace. They are a living blight so inimical to life that they poison the very ground they walk upon, the venom that suffuses their body and spirit capable of swiftly reducing verdant land to ruined waste.

Their huge bodies are covered with brightly coloured scales from the membranous fins upon their head to the tip of their muscled tail; a warning of their noxious nature. They prowl stealthily on eight legs, and are capable of moving swiftly enough to run down even the quickest prey. The most potent weapon in the Basilisk’s arsenal, however, is its gaze. Renowned in folklore across the Old World for its lethal potency, the sickly pale eyes of the Basilisk can focus the essence of their poisonous soul, withering their prey until its skin and flesh slough away"

All rights belong to ForgeWorld of course and for more info head on over to the site.

Necron update

2012-02-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

Adepticon update really.. Some pictures of the progress on the Crons for Adepticon Team event. My fellow team mates in Chicago slave away in the Necron sweat shot as that deadline looms ever closer. Also for the record does anyone not hate building a ghost ark??

Our "master mold" aka SLAVE DRIVER ED hard at work...

The blue glow will be the final effect as you can see from the complete test model.

Again a finished scarab to show the final effect when everything is said and done.

Acolyte paint scheme

2012-02-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

So I am super busy and I have been having some camera issues so I have missed a post or two I was hoping to get out already. However thought I would drop a quick line and show some painting. Pictures are from my phone so they aren't fantastic.

The first squad of three is done in my test colors and I feel they came out really well. The detail really doesn't show in these picture but hey what can you do sometimes. =P The bases need a bush or two but over all they are finished and since I have the process down I'll be moving on to the other squads as well so expect more progress shots soon.

The armor is heavily weathered which you can only kind of see in the pictures, and his clothing is dark red which looks great in person but doesn't appear to photograph super well without great light since its so dark. The base is done in dessert after a few test bases I ended up going with the colors from the Armageddon book.

The squad looks really sharp when all together and I am over all happy with the color scheme. The base is nice contrast to the dark models and will also look great in contrast to the silver on the actual GK's and vehicles. The stone came out great also and again will really pull the army together since I have them scattered across the army.

Here is a better shot of the base with the stone on it. The guy is blurry but you can see the detail on the face from the back of the model.

More coming soon...

1850 RTT Quick bat reps

2012-02-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

The event was a good time, the missions ended up being a bit wonky and causing confusing in how they scored them but over all a good time was had, which is normal for a event at Eastside Games and Cards. Link to results is here if you haven't seen it.

I went into this event as a great chance to play a few games and really test out my GK's. Since I don't get to play as often as I would like a tourney can be a awesome way to get some solid test games in to really understand what units do on the table vs in theory or on paper. We all know sometimes they don't match up. I had only a few games under my belt so far with the army so I knew that I was still in the learning curve phase.

My list roughly.

LORD INQ "STEEL" Coteaz
Libby, with quickening, summoning, might of titan, warp rift, shrouding

5 x 3 puny humans in Razor with Fancy ammo and search light
6 Deathcult girls of killy death, Razor with fancy ammo and searchlight

Land Raider Redeemer with assault cannon, melta, fancy ammo, searchlight
2 X Dreads with twin link autocannons fancy ammo searchlight's

Ven Dread twin linked AutoCannons Fancy ammo Searchlight
2 X 5 Purifiers, hammer, 2 pyscannons, 2 halberds, rhino, searchlight

The event used Adepticon missions from last year game one was basically table quarters, KP's, and center objective, but the center can only be held by a HQ.

<Disclaimer there isn't near as many pictures as normal since my camera was dying.>

Round 1 VS Chaos Demons Fatecrusher
I pulled Brian L fellow club member, who was running a pretty standard Fatecrusher build.

Fateweaver
Thirster
2 Units Blood crushers
5 horrors
5 plague bearers
3 DP's of Zinch
11ish Seekers

Wasn't a good Match up for Brian, and Demons are my primary army so I know what they do better than your average player you run into. Then to make it worst he get's the wrong wave to boot.

I fill my deployment zone with armor, leaving him a small spot to attempt to land in the back if he wants to risk it. (always a good strategy to encourage DS mishaps against people with heavy DS armies) This was a shooting gallery of a game. I didn't push forward enough though, and made a couple mistakes with the army as I was over eager to try other things out. However the problem was that even when he got close I am better in assault than he is. I ended up multi charging crushers and fateweaver wiping out the crushers and killing fateweaver with Fearless combat res wounds. The game didn't go past turn 5. I was rolling below average with shooting all game and hoping for a turn 6 to cement a solid win. Instead it was closer than I thought. I ended up getting KP by one, the center objective, but a push on table quarters.

Things to note. The shooting in this army is great even with my below average rolling it didn't matter because I had so much shooting and most of it is twin linked, so I only suffered on wounding even with bad dice.

Warp Rift beat face, I jumped out and hit his Crushers with Warp Rift before charging and I ended up killing half of them.

I stayed castled a bit too long and needed to be pushing for the table quarters a bit sooner I am not used to the list yet. I also could have used the Summoning to win table quarters this game if I would have thought about it. It's clear I am not used to playing the army.

Round two.

Matched up against Monger and his CRONS. A heavy Wraith build, list from memory was something like.
"I control your tank" HQ on barge
Destroyer lord with mind bugs
two units of Wraiths with whip coils
7 scarabs
Monolith
5 immortals with Veil Cryptek
2 units 5 warriors with Lance Cryptek
2 Lance Crypteks rolling together
3 Spyders

The mission is basically having more units in your opponents deployment zone, killing half his army measured with KP's and objectives.

We rolled off and I let Monger have first turn, I wanted to see how he would deploy and I wanted to attempt to seize on him using Coteaz which I understand isn't good odds, but it's nice when it happens. He deploys pretty centrally. I end up seizing and I will tell you Cron players don't like searchlights. I wipe out his scarabs even in cover, and I start putting wounds on the wraiths right away. The game is again a shooting gallery. Monger moves up and I tear down parts of his army every turn. We end up losing track and being pressed for time. Monger plays well and even though I have his back to the ropes all game he keeps the pressure on waiting for me to make a mistake or have a bad turn. Two things happen back to back, and he is able to really punish me for it turning the tide just as time runs out. I jump out and WARP RIFT his wraiths plus destroyer lord wiping out over half the squad again like with the crushers (WARP RIFT FTW!!). Then rolled bad to assault the unit and failed.... His unit is able to break away and move into my lines away from my DCA and libby... He spends his turn getting into my deployment zone and I lost my chance to kill off his unit. I should use summoning, then jump in the raider, and push the raider into his lines or chase his Wraiths. I however jump in the raider with my DCA and it immob's itself on terrain!!! wow bad timing lol, so now because I got in I am no long holding the objective, and I lose the ability to do anything with my unit this turn since I can't get back out!! It was funny and also highlights the fact I didn't use the summoning like I was planning, costing me the win. On Mongers turn he pushes into my deployment zone and wins that objective, we tie on objectives, and we both tie on KP's. If I would have summoned my unit I would have won objectives and won the round on VP also if there was one more turn I could recovered but oh well. It was a great game..

Again I learned I need to use my mobility with this army better, and I again missed a chance to use summoning in a useful manner in the game. Mind you DS is less than reliable, it's not a sure thing, but it was still a option like in the first game I failed to use correctly in my list. Warp Rift again was awesome as Wraiths with Whip coils could be very troublesome for DCA I think. Also I could have made my assault more reliable than I did but I didn't think I would kill so many with Warp Rift and I wanted the option to use my flamestorms on each side. So I parked to be able to do so on two different squads depending on how things went that turn. Looking back the assault was vastly more important.

Searchlights again make me not care at all about night fighting and for the cost I think they aren't going anyplace. Monger went on to take second place though!! Congrats to Monger again if your reading this! =)

Round 3

Round 3 I faced a crazy shrike list from Diamond Dickie another club member. I appear to only be drawing club members the last few times I have gone to events lol. Its a odd list and Dickie has been having mixed results with it I think. From memory it was something like.

Shrike
libby in term armor
10 terms
7 terms
thunderfire cannon
3 land speeders with melta and scouts inside them
10 tac marines
Razorback las plas

mission was one marked unit, objectives, and KP's

The board we played on was a city fight board. Like the terrain was crazy as you can see from the pictures. LOS blocking everywhere it was over kill and really made it a different sort of game I thought.
Dickie's list basically rushes you, he infiltrates and then bum rushes you with just about everything. The terms the scouts and everything. In our game because I had servo skulls so he couldn't really infiltrate at all against me. Then because my razors are normally deployed empty he really didnt' have anything to bum rush with his scouts. So it was a bit different. He used shrike to go for a first turn assault and wrecked a razor, but then I just ID killed him with a dread. I also took out his thunderfire cannon turn one. I assaulted into his terms when they got close enough with my DCA to see what would happen. They ended up eating the terms over a couple combats but, his counter assault with his other squad pulled them down over 3 or 4 turns. I ended up wiping out most his list except for one squad o terms by the time the game was over though. He was holding me up as best he could but the last round I made a push and did serious damage to his list. The LR plowed through cover FLAMING some scouts down to one that broke and ran off the board and a objective. A squad of purifiers killed the last remaining tac squad in hth to steal another from him. My other squad of purifiers rescued my IG dudes, from his lone libby claiming another objective for me. I ended up with a solid win KP's, objectives, and marked unit.

So I learned a ton and have some idea's how to take the army to the 2000 point level now or at least a list I want to test. I ended up finishing 5th I think.

Things to note
I didn't lose any dreads all day, they took some fire but never died.

My LR actually didn't die all day and did its job in every game for the most part.

The Purifiers did exactly what I hoped they would do pepper shots and be a flexible unit that can react to
things as needed. I need to learn to use them better but over all they preformed very well I felt.

I never felt like I was lacking anything all day either aside from practice with the army.

I reserved the 3 man units all day and I need to decide if there is ever a time you wouldn't put them in reserve? Having them further up the board makes it easier to get them to longer range objectives, but singles them out as more valid targets than the empty razors. Not to mention explode results will really hurt them.
More play testing is needed and of course the army needs some paint, so it isn't a wall of primer death. Also still playing around with idea's to grow the list to the 2000 points level. More pictures and in depth reports in the future as I test though STAY TUNED. =P

Happy Birthday Emperor's Codex!!

2012-02-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

So in our yearly birthday tradition this post has a picture of a SteamPunk Girl. What's that? It can't be a tradition if it's the first year you say.. ? You have to start somewhere and what's a better tradition than STEAM PUNK GIRL? Dead tree with lights on it? pffft cake and candles...pffft.. well... if the steam punk girl came out of the cake with candles maybe.. hmmmm... Anyway moving on..

Today my internet home on the corner of nonsense and many pictures, where I "sling" my random musings of tactics, things going on, and metaphors about our hobby time, is officially a year old. For an entire year I have been keeping on with the...ummm.... Kee.p..ing on.. I suppose.

The first year has been great online IMHO, content stayed flowing, and I even picked up a few stray guest authors hitchhiking across the internet. Thanks to my good RL friends DFK, and EAP for pitching in from time to time. The blog has changed its original focus over the year, but the over all intent is the same. To help be involved and grow the online community. So thanks to all of you that stop by, follow, email, and comment.

While your here though let's highlight a couple contests going on because who doesn't like free stuff?

Cupboard of NURGLE is having a contest giving away NURGLE Stuff of course. All you have to do to win is sell your soul to the Lord of DECA... wait.... oh I was reading that wrong you just have to follow the blog.. That is a ton less intense I suppose at a chance to win.. Linky here.

MWC is having another Conversion contest with BIG MONEY, BIG PRIZES, I'D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR Action going on!!!

Are you Converting MONSTER then this is the contest for you?

Already working on a vehicle project!! That's perfect timing WIN A PRIZE while your at it?

Haven't a clue what your doing with glue, or just aren't really a converter? Just shake some bits together in a box with glue and put a ork in the driver seat when your done and send in a picture!! (You never know till you try right?)

1st Place

$100 Gift Certificate to Kabuki Models!!!!!!!

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

2nd Place

$25 Gift Certificate to a FLGS

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

3rd Place

$15 Gift Certificate to VoodooWorx

1 Model voucher to Hitech Miniatures (Can be redeemed for any model)

Linky for more information here

Cool Mini or Not 12.05

2012-02-04T12:33:00.000-08:00

Short New letter this week but some awesome looking things and things we aren't used to seeing. A display board for one and what looks to be a objective marker for a zombie game perhaps?

Battle Foam Review - pt1 PACK AIR

2012-02-01T02:36:00.000-08:00

This is a Battle Foam Review I did for the MWC site as a guest article. Again I will be cataloging all my guest work on my personal site as often as I can for those of you that come here to follow my ramblings and nonsense.

So I am sure we have all heard of Battle Foam at some point. Some people would say they are the Mercedes of army bags, the high end. In fact It literally says that on the battle foam banner.

That's pretty confident to put that on your banner but time and time again I have talked to people who own and use the Battle Foam systems and they only have one complaint, the cost. I won't lie I am pretty cheap most the time (it's not my fault I am Asian =P ) However the cost was what was keeping me from making the plunge for a bit myself. I will confess I have held several of the bags in my hands while looking at them at events only to decide that the cost was a bit more than I wanted to spend at the moment. How ever a few weeks back my Parent's send me a PACK AIR in the mail as a late birthday gift. Yeah my sister got help with college and I totally scored a PACK AIR... I clearly made out on that deal right? SUCKER!!! Moving on....

I have held off on doing a review because I wanted to use the bag at a couple events giving it a good test run before I said anything about it.

This is the bag as most people will use it most the time. It has wheels and a handle. I first opened the top pocket and closed it to see how well it stays shut. Then I pulled on the pocket in all different directions to see if it would rip easily. It was stitched well and I could comfortably put tape measure dice bags, and other odd shaped larger things in it. However while it won't spill during normal use I wouldn't put anything in these two side pockets if I was to check the bag at a Airport. Things would fall out of them I am pretty sure.

on the side it has legs so you can set it down long way and use the handle on the other side. I again pulled on these and flexed them all around to see if they would break or if they had been attached cheaply. Again they appear very secure and I think they do the job well.

This is the bag on its side using the legs seen above. The handle is sturdy and stitched well into the bag. I held it by the handle and shook the bag all over the place honestly to see if I could tear it. I didn't put my foot on it and attempt to pry the handle off mind you I just shook it all over to see if it would loosen the stitching.

These legs are the ones that normally break on cheap luggage I have owned in the past. These are secure in place though I can't even wiggle them at all. They are flush against the bag and short of breaking the plastic itself I don't see these being a problem. The pocket on the bottom is exactly the same as the one on the other side. The wheels are double roller blade wheels as far as I can tell and roll well. They are attached just as secure as the bottom legs without any give. (again a note as above I wouldn't put anything in this pocket if you are checking this thing at a airport)

The front pocket is nice sized and closes very snug. I again opened it and pulled on it several times this way and that to see if it was secure or if it had any give in the stitching. Again as above I had no issues with it at all.

The pocket is comfortably sized to be able to put rule books or army lists inside as you can see.

The hand part on the back is just as sturdy as the rest of the bag. I pulled this thing up and down several times to see if it was always smooth or if it would stick. I also shook it all around because in cheaper bags or suitcases this handle tends to break or bend easy. I personally again had no issue with this thing. Small note the pictures below show the handle slid out. It actually locks into place in two different positions.

I have since taken this bag to two different weekends out but I haven't taken it on the road yet. I did however after doing my initial inspection hand the thing to my 6 year old. I basically let him play with it all over the house up and down the stairs. He pulled it around and beat it up for a few hours, at one point I even found him sitting in it like a boat. The bag seemed to hold up well and didn't have any rips.

These are my stairs that my son pulled the bag up and down some times using the wheels, and I know at least twice he just rolled it down. (disclaimer the bag held up well but I didn't put my models in it while he rolled it down the stairs)

Some how in the house... Without going outside my son ended up getting dirt or mud on the bag.

I took some warm water and soap with a washcloth and scrubbed the bag.

Once it dried it appears to have cleaned up well. Something else to note the bag cleans well if you get it dirty while travelling.

I so far really love the bag. I have again taken it to a few local events and it does exactly what I was looking for in a bag. I so far will recommend the bag to anyone on the border about picking one up. I will be reviewing the Foam itself and the load out I am using in the next article. I will say that I can easily fit a second army in this bag, or my clothes so I wouldn't need another bag while travelling.

A quick note about the company.

Battle Foam is owned by Romeo who travels to several events through out the year. I have personally shook his hand and talked to him several times at different places. He is open and willing to talk to you about whatever or explain anything to do with the bags or his system. Over all he really tries for great customer service. Since I am but one of "the mass" I am sure he doesn't have a clue who I am but I was greeted with the same Respect and good attitude every time I talked with him. Customer Service is a big deal to me when I deal with any company so I wanted to make a note that Romeo and his guys have so far gone above and beyond for everyone I have personally talked to about them so far.

I talked to my Dad about shipping and I appear to have gotten the bag about a week after it was ordered. So nothing to complain about there.

I wanted to leave you with the Video they use on the site about PACK AIR it shows everything I said above, and of course for more information you can go to www.Battlefoam.com.

Advanced Basing Techniques (The Ian Files)

2012-01-29T18:17:00.000-08:00

Ian was a local part of our gaming group, a friend, and someone I wish I got to know better. You can read about him here if you haven't before. (Ian Tribute). He was a great painter, great with mods, and he did a ton of workshop's and helped others out locally, as well as commission work. Although he isn't with us anymore his spirit lives on. He posted a handful of great helpful articles online that I will repost with permission here over the next few weeks to share with the community in hopes it inspires and help out which is what he was shooting for. So without further intro from me I present the Ian Files. (Tips technically from the beyond)

Ian File # 8
Advanced Basing Techniques

Basing can make or break a model. Even if your painting skills rank only a "meh", complete and uniform basing can make your army really pop. But if you're looking to make your army look super-sharp, complex or creative basing can be one of the most important steps.

I recommend devising a theme for your army. For example, I thought it'd be fun for my Dark Eldar to be assaulting a Mechanicum Forge World. If you've read Graham McNeil's "Mechanicum" or Dan Abnett's "Titanicus" then you know what a Forge World looks like in my mind's eye: dusty, gritty, utterly polluted, littered with scrap machinery and junk parts left to rust for eternity. My Dark Eldar would be raiding this Forge World to steal items and technology to sell to other races or to use for themselves, as well as grab a few Tech-Adepts and menials for the torture tables! Therefore, they'd be blowing holes in buildings and assaulting through to nab all the cool stuff. I itemized what I wanted to do, and wrote down how to do it.

1: Dusty/Gritty: The obvious starting point would be gravel/sand glued to the base, what really mattered was the color choice. The sand would be painted GW Vomit Brown and then dry-brushed GW Plague Brown, with a few spots of dry-brushed GW Bleached Bone. I also added stones and boulders buried in the sand, using my old standby of cork glued to the base before the sand. Here's the type of cork I use: Linky-link!

2: Junk: I glue anything to the base that looks even remotely mechanical. My favorite are lock washers because they look like cogs or gears. Plastruct and Evergreen make a variety of useful types of plasticard rod such as I-beams or ladders, and all sizes of round tubing. GW bitz are also super-useful. I've been using the inside gubbinz of Space Marine Drop Pods, (because I don't use them on the inside of the Drop Pods, I just glue the SoB's shut!) because they can be easily cut to look like ubiquitous machine parts. Searchlights, jerry cans, ammo bins, IG stowage, grating cut from SM Razorback hatches, exhaust ports, anything! A $20 box of Cities of Death terrain can supply an entire army's worth of basing material! Just start digging through your bitz bins until you can find something that could be mistaken for machinery. Even just brass rod bent at rounded 90 degree angles can simulate laid wiring.

3: Buildings: Of course I can't construct buildings on bases, but I can hint at them. Remember, the miniature is a little display of another reality plucked and placed onto a base. It's perfectly fine to have just a portion of something showing on a model's base. Once again, I return to Evergreen and Plastruct for plasticard sheets with diamond plate patterns, tile patterns, corrugated sheet patterns and siding patterns. I like Evergreen's 1/4" Tile pattern plasticard because it has a very defined cut, snaps easily into workable pieces, and looks just like a tiled or paneled floor! I add pieces of standard plasticard sheeting to simulate a broken wall, just leave on edge flat to glue to the base where the tile stops, and rag up the other edge with snips or a knife.

4: Pollution: This mostly came down to choice of paint. Having "oil" leaking from pipes or into drainage ditches by layering on green, brown and black washes to flavor. Most of the metal things were painted with splotches of rust, using a progression of GW Bestial Brown, VGC Hot Orange, then VGC Fiery Orange in a stippling pattern.

I suggest gathering your materials before you start your project, and make sure you have enough for the whole army. Take an hour and go to your local hardware store and check out their supply of washers and nuts, something is sure to catch your fancy. If they do window screen repair, ask for some scraps of aluminum screen, it makes great decking and grilles. I bought a piece today from Grieve's that was 12"x 24", it cost me $1.10, and it's more than I'll ever use. Stop by Hobby Lobby or Michael's and just look for doodads. Most of the stuff can be picked up cheap, and it's dead-useful.

So, I'll leave you with some shots of my DE bases, and I'll be back next time with some more basing techniques ,or whatever I damn well feel like!

Cool Mini or Not 12.04

2012-01-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

This week from Cool Mini or Not we have some new Legacy models that are very interesting as well as several new Dark Age mini's that I really like. I haven't seen these in person so I am not sure the scale of the Dark Age mini's but they appear to be some good stand in's for other game systems or RPG games. More pictures below.

Eastside Games and Cards Jan 21st 1850 results

2012-01-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

Played in a RTT in the Cinci area on the 21st. The store was East Side Games and Cardss in Milton Oh
(You can find the link to them here)

We had 18 players show up for the 1850 event. The Adepticon Missions from last year is what was used for the 3 rounds of play with VP's as the tie breaker.

We had a good spread of armies show up as well

Justin   Orks
Eric Miller   Necrons
James C   GK
Mike West   BA
Charles GK
Mark T
Edge IG
Brian L   Demons
Russ IG
Sean Marines
James B   Nids
Dickie   Marines
Mike Willis
Joe Eldar
Kevin K Necrons
Ryan
Jason M Chaos
Jan T SW

(If you're army type is blank or there is a mistake please leave a comment and I will fix it)

Let's see some pictures from a few tables round one!!!

Final Standing after the dust settled ended up

Rank W/L Obj's VP's

1 Justin 3W 6 3807

2 Eric Miller 3W 6 3078

3 James C 2W 7 4558

4 Mike West 2W 6 2560

5 Charles 2W 5 3402

6 Mark T 2W 4 3233

7 Edge 2W 4 2971

8 Brian L 2W 4 1572

9 Russ 1W 5 3592

10 Sean 1W 5 3120

11 James B 1W 5 3102

12 Dickie 1W 5 1923

13 Mike Willis 1W 4 2728

14 Joe 1W 3 2296

15 Kevin K 1W 2 2766

16 Ryan 0W 2 2442

17 Jason M 0W 1 2422

18 Jan T 0W 1 845

Prize support was given for 1st 2nd and 3rd with Kirby also winning the door prize which was 30 dollars. I am pretty sure 3rd was 30 dollars as well. I didn't see what 1st and 2nd got. Over all a great day of gaming and I'll post up some quick bat reps with what I learned soon.

ForgeWorld Scarab Swarms and Ork Vehicle Weapons

2012-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Forgeworld has released Necron Swarms and if yoru building Crons they are a cool looking option to check out. I was wondering personally if they would do this since they do the Ripper swarms and several people I know like those models

Also they have a kit for Ork Vehicle weapons newly released to check out.

Anyway enjoy the pictures and for more info as always go to ForgeWorld Website.

Necron Scarab Swarms

Canoptek Scarabs can be found scurrying hither and yon through the vast and dusty halls of a Necron Tomb World. Seemingly mimicking the behaviour of organic invertebrates, a Scarab’s only purpose is to break matter down into energy. On the battlefield, swarms of Scarabs are unleashed both as expendable assault waves and to latch on to and destroy enemy armoured vehicles.

ORK VEHICLE WEAPONS

Ork Mekboyz are unable to resist tinkering with their mechanical creations, in particular bolting on extra weapons until their vehicles bristle with gun barrels. It is debatable if this is to provide additional firepower or simply to give the Ork passengers something to shoot wildly into the air as the trukk, trakk or wagon careens toward the enemy. The Ork Vehicle Weapons Set contains four weapons: a big shoota, twin-linked

New Son Born as of 13:09 Today!!!!!

2012-01-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

I have fallen off my normal posting schedule because my hands have been full. Today is officially Happy Birthday for my youngest Son as of 13:09 Eastern time 1/25/2012.

Baby Liam 7lbs 3oz 19inches long. Everyone is healthy and happy and if I could give you all cigars I would!!!

Cool Mini or Not 12.03

2012-01-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

Cool Mini or not newsletter for the week is out. Enjoy the weekly eye candy.

Forgeworld - CHAOS DWARF DAEMONSMITHS

2012-01-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

Forge world continues to drop great looking models and these are no exception. They seem to be on a roll lately it has been some time since they released something I didn't think was pretty impressive or fun in some way. The Chaos Dwarf line really is starting to stand out, and be something that I think would look pretty amazing on the table together. Take a better look at the newest member of the family of models below.

CHAOS DWARF DAEMONSMITHS

The cruel and malign race of Chaos Dwarfs, who refer to themselves as the Dawi Zharr, long ago abandoned the ancient Dwarf gods they once worshipped, and pledged themselves wholly to Hashut, the Father of Darkness. Now they no longer value the old ways of their noble and honourable kin and instead covet strength and power above all else, seeing other living creatures as chattels to be used and discarded in their brutal forge-citadels which dominate the Plain of Zharr.

For information or to throw your hard earned gold at the makers of these models so you too can paint them head over to Forgeworld for more information. All rights belong to them of course.

FAQ's things you should know

2012-01-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

I know not everyone who is into this hobby lives and breathes the rules per say... but the nets have been all buzzing like a frat boys locked over night in a liquor store with the new FAQ's that came out across several armies. There are some great things in there that have been a long time coming.. Some useless nonsense as well though.. What do we care about? What might you actually see or need to know as you play? Here are some quick things to note if you haven't bothered to really read into them yet.

Chaos Marines

Q: When working out which targets are visible to a
Chaos Dreadnought suffering from a Fire Frenzy result,
are you limited to those units within the 45 degree line
of sight of its weapons? (p40)
A: Yes

That's right finally some clear rules so that this doesn't cause an argument. We already play it this way locally but its always great to make the Chaos dreads more playable without any questions about how it works. So your local Chaos players might be fielding more Dread's from now on.

Q: Is Lash of Submission a Psychic Shooting Attack and
must it roll To Hit? (p88)
A: Yes to both questions. Note that if it misses, it will
have no effect

I have no idea why all of a sudden they Nerf Lash a bit? But you guys now have to roll to hit although your BS is pretty good so you shouldn't notice most the time.

Q: Does Typhus’ weapon, Manreaper, follow all the
rules on page 93 for Daemon weapons? (p55)
A: Yes

If you play Typhus , you want to roll less one's.

Q: Does Warptime allow the psyker to pick and choose
which To Hit and To Wound dice he will re-roll? (p88)
A: No. He can decide after each To Hit or To Wound roll
but he must re-roll all dice or no dice

Warp time get's hit with the Nerf Bat I know a few people that aren't going to like this ruling.

Demons

Q: If there isn’t space on the board to place the Chaos
Spawn created by Boon of Mutation, what happens?
(p73)
A: Move the models that are in the way the minimum
distance required to make enough space

This has only come up a few times in games I have seen but basically when the large bird of I am rolling lucky (Fateweaver) is spawning things you might have to back up and make room for you new spawn friend when your HQ or priest betrays you.

Blood Angel's

Q: When a unit of 10 Space Marines with the Combat
Squad special rule arrives from reserve as two combat
squads, can they move on from, or Deep Strike onto,
two different locations? (p23)
A: Yes

I want to point out this has been fixed for every marine codex. Two things to note about this, it makes your options much more flexible since now you roll once for the two combat squads that can DS in two different locations, and also you still cannot combat squad and deploy half the unit and reserve the other half.

Q: If a transport vehicle is destroyed in a Movement
phase in which it has moved flat out, what happens to
any embarked models, as passengers may not
disembark from a vehicle that has moved flat out in
that Movement phase? (p70)
A: They are removed as casualties

This isn't going to happen very often but its a good thing to know and is how it works for Eldar, and Orks.

Nids

Q: If a model with Lash Whips is attacking a model
with an Initiative-boosting rule/piece of wargear (e.g.
Furious Charge, an Eldar Banshee Mask etc.), which
order are the Initiatives modified? (p83)
A: The Lash Whips will reduce an enemy model’s
initiative to 1 before any other modifiers are applied.
So, a model with Furious Charge that assaults a Tyranid
with Lash Whips will strike at Initiative 2, a Grey Knight
with a Nemesis force halberd will strike at Initiative 3
and an Eldar with a Banshee Mask will strike at
Initiative 10 in the first round of assault

This I think is a bit of a Nerf but also how they ruled the Necron's rule with wraiths.

Q: Does Shadow in the Warp affect psykers who are
taking a Psychic test whilst embarked within a
transport vehicle? (p33)
A: Yes

This again was a long time coming, and you know reading it off the top of my head I wonder if this will work on the GK vehicles since they are taking a leadership check?

IG

Page 96 – Infantry Platoon, second sentence
Change to “Each Infantry Platoon is deployed in place
of a single unit in missions that limit the number units
that can be deployed. In addition when making a
reserve or outflanking roll, roll once for the whole
Infantry Platoon. Any units in reserve that are
embarked upon a non-dedicated transport are instead
rolled for separately.

This is interesting and changes how DOW and Outflanking can work for this army. Look out for some changes in tactics the IG can use now. Especially in DOW when they can deploy something silly like a 1000 points of their army depending on the list.

Q: Can Weaken Resolve target an enemy unit that is
locked in close combat? (p47)
A: Yes

Expect to see this come up as you play games as well. I don't think its over powered but its going to have some good tactical uses especially for people who are playing Straken lists I think.

And the one everyone was waiting for
NECRONS

Q: Is the roll for an Ever-living counter the same as a
Reanimation Protocol roll; does it benefit from the
resurrection orb? (p29)
A: Yes to both questions

This is a nice buff that I didn't see coming personally. Makes having a orb that much better.

Q: Do you roll to see if a hit with the Entropic Strike
special rule reduces a vehicle’s armour before rolling for
armour penetration? As all attacks at the same Initiative
are simultaneous, does this mean that other models
with the same Initiative will also roll to penetrate
against the reduced armour value? (p29)
A: Yes to both questions

This clears up a argument I have seen go down a few times now. So basically if they little bugs make it to your Land Raider it's most likely toast... you should move on and in reflection you perhaps shouldn't have put it there.

Q: How do you resolve the Entropic Strike special rule
against a vehicle squadron? (p29)
A: Roll a number of D6 equal to the number of hits.
Split the successes equally between all member of the
squadron with any excess allocated by the squadrons
controlling player. Then roll to penetrate as normal

This seems really odd to me personally since now if I can reach one vehicle in your Squadron all of them are basically screwed and gives yet another reason you shouldn't be running squadrons. I think GW secretly hates Squadrons.

Q: Can Canoptek Spyders add models to a unit of
Canoptek Scarabs that is locked in combat? (p46)
A: Yes

Who honestly didn't see this coming, if you have been complaining when people do this you should be ashamed and you might owe them an apology.

Q: If a death ray passes over 3 models out of 10 in a
unit, how many hits does that unit take? (p50)
A: 3

This also was easy to spot coming a long way off since the RAW makes it seem as though if you touch one ork all 30 take hits.. Which is fun... unless your playing the Orks. It really further nerfs this already glass unit though. Not horrible but its still pretty fragile for what you get out of it.

Q: What is the arc of fire for a gauss flayer array? (p53)
A: As it is mounted on the hull it will have a 45 degree
arc of fire. However it is slightly unusual in that it has
multiple gun barrels. As long as you can draw line of
sight along one of them, you can target the unit

This has come up in several test games from several people I know so its nice they explained this since the flayer array is such a odd weapon type.

Q: Does Writhing Worldscape cause every model moving
through difficult terrain, moving as if in difficult terrain
and counting as moving through difficult terrain to take
a Dangerous Terrain test? (p41)
A: Yes. For example a unit hit by a tremor stave would
have to take Dangerous Terrain tests if they moved in
the following turn, as would any unit moving in the first
turn of the game if their opponent had Orikan the
Diviner

This is going to raise the stock in Dozer blades if this type of army catches on. It can be fun but I don't see it as being a dominate thing you run into on the tourney scene. Just be aware it will be very annoying to play this type of army since the abilities stack rolling for Dangerous terrain when you move anyplace will get old fast for horde players and for mech armies. I am pleased it gives people a reason to run C'tan's though since I am a little sad they aren't better.

Q: Must Imotekh the Stormlord roll to see if Night
Fighting continues at the start of the game turn? (p55)
A: No, he can attempt it but isn’t forced to

A tactical option that is good to know although I can't see many times you would not want to use your lightning ability for the points you pay for this guy.

Q: If a single model fails the Leadership test caused by
mindshackle scarabs, will his Attacks be resolved
against himself? (p81)
A: Yes

Q: If an Independent Character that has joined a unit is
affected by mindshackle scarabs will his attacks be
resolved against the unit he has joined? (p81)
A: Yes

These two above are very clear and go together. If you aren't running Mindshackle scarabs find the points to do so. This is a great ability to have and now that is completely clear it's a great way to defend yourself in Hth since Crons aren't good there. You want to always make sure you can use these on the IC or HQ since they are usually better in combat. On a failed LEadership as you can see they now fight for your side for the turn, and if you don't run them down when/if you win since your Necron's we now have it in writing that if the HQ is still standing he will stabby stabby himself. .

Q: If a vehicle with Quantum Shielding passes a cover
save against a penetrating hit, does it lose the bonus to
its armour value? (p82)
A: No

I don't know anyone who wasn't already playing this like this, however it was written odd.

Q: If I have 2 Royal Courts, can one model from each
be attached to the same unit? (p90)
A: Yes

This could have gone either way and really changes your build abilities with the army I think now. Making getting two RC's something you need to consider when list building.

Q: When using an abyssal staff, do you use the target’s
Toughness or Leadership for the purposes of working
out if Instant Death applies? (p84)
A: You use the target’s Leadership

This has been played both ways by people I know as well. This is a good rule you need to know if you play Deathstar type list.

Q: Can a veil of darkness be used instead of moving
onto the board when a unit arrives from reserve? (p84)
A: Yes

This is very interesting and again another tactical choice the Cron players get. Makes Veil that much more useful now and more and more worth its points if you aren't already taking it.

Q: If I choose to use a solar pulse to remove the effects
of Night Fighting for the turn, do I roll to see if
Imotekh’s Lord of the Storm special rule hits any enemy
units? (p84)
A: No.

Q: If an army contains Imotekh the Stormlord can a
Cryptek with a chronometron use it to re-roll the roll to
see if the Night Fighting special rule stays in effect? (p85)

A: Only if Imotekh is in the same unit as the Cryptek
with the chronometron

Why would you not take a Cryptek to do this? You might as well just add it to his cost when list building.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Page 46 – Scarab Hive, second paragraph
Change the second sentence to “On a roll of 2-6, add
one base to the Canoptek Scarab unit. This must be
placed within unit coherency of at least one base that
hasn’t been created this turn. It can move and act
normally this turn.

Yeah that's right Conga line nonsense put to a stop. Although I am surprised anyone was playing it that way personally but this is the one I heard the most complaints about online.

ForgeWorld - Fimir Warriors and Skaven Wolf Rats

2012-01-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

Forgeworld Newsletter dropped this weekend and we have the official release of the Fimir Warriors and of the Skaven Wolf Rats Pictures and Info listed below.

FIMIR WARRIORS

Once, when all the world was fog-shrouded and dark, legend has it that the dreaded Fimir once ruled, tearing down the cities of the High Elves and struggling in bloody conflict against the wild and brutish forebears of Sigmar. For centuries they roared the praises of the Dark Gods over blood-splattered altars, then the world changed and their gods left them to suffer a slow and lingering decay.
Cold-hearted, cruel and mightier than any man, the Fimir are said to possess but a single baleful eye atop a pointed snout bristling with jagged fangs. Larger and more ferocious than the sorcerous Draichs, Fimir Warriors boast tails tipped with bony clubs and yellow-grey flesh that is all but immune to pain.

SKAVEN WOLF RATS

Not even the insidious rat-men themselves know the origins of the ravenous packs of Wolf Rats that are found almost everywhere that the Skaven themselves infest. Neither wholly rat or wholly wolf, but instead an aberrant and savage amalgamation of the two, Skaven Wolf Rats are kept by the rat-men for a myriad of uses; for guarding their lairs, as hunting beasts, and occasionally even as food. In battle packs of these hellish creatures will be unleashed ahead of Skaven troops, for unlike the cowardly rat-men the Wolf Rats are fearless shock troops, eager to feast upon the flesh of those who face their ferocious assault.

Inspire - Visions of Hatred

2012-01-15T16:51:00.000-08:00

This time around on our Inspire post we present the Italy Golden Demon Gold winner for the Warhammer 40.000 Monster Category 2011. The model is called "Visions of Hatred" and is done by Rafaele Picca. Another truly great bit of work that stands out as something amazing and INSPIRES those of us in this hobby.

Cool Mini or Not 12.02

2012-01-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

Cool Mini or not newsletter with new and restocked items it out this week. There are a few interesting things of note. Some restocking of the Game of thrones mini's, but also the 3D Terraclips game boards. I am pretty sure they are designed for Wyrd minituares but they look great and I don't see why you couldn't use them for several other systems or for some D and D type RPG action. Really worth a look if you haven't seen them before. If anyone has these and could offer some first hand experience I would love to here from you below through comment or via email. Also of note you can get a sack o skulls as seen below for those few 40k models that don't have enough already on them. =P

All rights to Cool Mini or Not for more information please check out the Cool Mini or Not website.

Through the Looking Glass 2011

2012-01-12T02:53:00.000-08:00

This is a article I put together for the MWC blog as I spread out and plan to do much more freelance type writing this year. I also plan to re-post the majority of it here. This will help me track my work personally and so that those of you that follow me here don't have to hunt around the web for all my work. A run down of 2011 follows after the jump.

Drkmorals here one of the new member to the M “Dub” C team of writers. After some intense negotiations I have been allowed to spread my online nonsense on the front page on a semi regular basis. In fact my label will most likely be [Drkmorals Nonsense] because let’s not sugar coat it, while there is great tips, fun tactics, and other stuff it’s mixed in the insanity that dances through my thoughts, you could easily call it nonsense I know my wife does. However I’ve heard “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest man.” I could do an entire intro post; however that sounds boring so instead let’s do a bit of a 2011 run down of things 40k that GW lobbed into the field and waited to see what would happen.

GREY KNIGHTS

Yes the Grey Knights, the army that starts off Grey and ends up shiny grey when you actually paint it. They burst onto the scene giving people that yell of codex creep not only something to yell about, but a full song with a catchy chorus. The Imperial Grenade maker’s official chapter. The Knights came with a grenade for everything, there are so many grenades in the book that you could see Billy Mays trying to sell them in an infomercial and they ran out of names so they just named one the “rad” Grenade. They come with the Dreadnaught that makes other dreads cry.The Dread that Long Fangs wished they could shoot like, oh and it comes in the standard sedan and luxury models depending on what you’re looking for to boot. This is the army that proved the power of the troop slot like Ork players wish they could. Terminators are a normal choice. Strike squads aren’t shabby at all. You want Purifiers as troops? We can do that too. Super Paladins as troops? Sure no problem, and if you just want points efficient troops you can take a 12 point 3 man squad. That’s right Gretchin you have been out done and out classed in every way. For a few points more than a small unit of objective grabbing Gretchen, and a few points less than a minimum squad of Plague Bearers I can get a troop choice WITH a twin linked str 6 metal box of safety.

The release isn’t perfect, they have the large robot of death with what must be the worst cockpit design in the Imperial armory. I often wonder how many mothers walked by with babies in carriers before the tech marine designed that thing. The kit just screams to be converted though, which makes it not a total loss. The codex is solid on all fronts, new models, solid rules, added fluff that really takes the chapter over the top. The Chapter master appears to literally be the marine from DOOM with the GOD code on. The codex arrived and put a damper on the Dark Eldar in the meta game, as well as adding its name as a solid contender going head to head with IG, and SW still today as a dominate force on the local tourney scenes.

FINECAST

That's right we also get what I can only laugh at in a resin idea... Man I wish I could have been in this business meeting. "Who ever thought of this" must have got a nice bonus. Financially this must have sounded great on paper. Let's use a cheaper material to cut costs, and then let’s not make anything new. Instead we will use the same old molds and designs we already have. Then repackage or re-image the items calling them Citadel Finecast!!! We can market them as a new high end product line without creating a new line!! I am sure everyone clapped and thought that a great idea. No one stood up in the back of the room and asked if these changes would make people upset. That clearly the Hitler Video will be resubbed again to make fun of us as a company. No of course not...and any wargamer knows that not everything that looks good on paper actually turns out that way.

Finecast has turned into the blond girl at the bar. Some people love her and some people can't stand her. She can be fun or no fun depending on who you ask. I overall had been hearing positive stuff about the new models mixed with the anger of the price increase. It appears that the material and the QA department on them isn't exactly perfect. I have seen many reports of poor quality control resulting in mass air bubbles or molds not being full. Then also I am sure several of you online saw that the blond at the bar is apparently a vampire, because she is scared of the sun. That's right I am sure several of you saw the melted model that had been left in the sun. However sadly like real vampires this too appears to be a bit of a stretch and also what I would point out as a Quality control issue. The only model I could find a picture of having melted from the sun was on the "front line gamer blog". Everyone else I could find that mentions it had no pictures and due to the mass of traffic and negative press it appears the original post was taken down and replaced it with a run down of facts.

I’ll save you some time though; the blonde is not a vampire, most people like her, she is flexible, fun to work with, has great detail, and is like most girls.... is expensive.. (note this was not intended to offend any actual Vampires. If you are a actual Vampire reading this I apologize for calling you not real... unless reading that you are not real made you vanish then it doesn't really matter I suppose)

Sister of Battle

WD Codex sisters of battle just adds to the stereotype that when you give some old wargamer’s a group of girls they have no idea what to do with them. They ended up in a WD and although the update proved to be lackluster in the eyes of many it still proved that putting girls in Magazines tends to sell more magazines. I know several people myself included that picked one of these up after I haven’t even looked at a WD in years.

First off the Nuns with Guns are not as faithful as they once had been for some reason. It could be the stock reports GW released the last year(although this year looks good). It could be that Michael Moore has made a documentary about the false emperor, but whatever the reason they now only get D6 Faith points per game turn it appears. They didn’t get access to more vehicles and they lost the ability to use immolators the way they have been in the past. Plus they didn’t even get any new models or at least a release in plastic making this army still one of the most expensive to field on the table. So many things could be said about this update. They are still playable but I think over all most people will agree this was a missed opportunity by Games Workshop to do an older army some justice. We can only hope they have plans to come back to the ladies in the future and as Grandma would say "Show the ladies some respect"

NECRONS

In the Grim dark future there is no Maytag Repair man, because the robots repair themselves. Yes that’s right unless you live under a rock (like a caveman) you know that the Necron codex dropped and the undead pet project of the C’tan have gotten an update. I don’t mean some shabby windows update that makes you restart your computer two times when you clearly don’t want to right now. I mean a real manly update that would make Tim Allen proud. You get all kinds of new shiny for your Metallo inspired army. What is better than metal hungry soulless killing robot zombies? Well fluffy robot zombies of course! Wait, no I don’t mean like that unicorn in Despicable Me, although feel free to model your new army as fluffy bunny crons if that amuses you.

No I mean we actually get a back story that gives them some character and depth. In the past the codex was cold, like your friends ex wife cold. Yeah that was fitting since they are cold lifeless machines and you can argue that they had some cool points with the ancient C’tan waking up and fighting amongst themselves like children using their new robots to play battle chess because the Deceiver tricked the Nightbringer or some nonsense. (Although he should have seen it coming, he is named “the Deceiver”) Really they had some interesting background things about how the army got to where it is, but the units themselves acted out with less character than the borg. Show up, march forward, shoot, get assaulted , and phase out. Oh wait that’s game play.. I get those confused sometimes.. Moving on..

What I am saying is now they have some flavor. They have bitten the hand that feeds them, threw it in a jar and hell they even march the hand out making it epic slap fight things for them. You even get to choose the flavor of the hand. I am a scissors guy myself, but feel free to try out paper or rock. Time still will show how much the new army on the block will shift the meta game and effect the tourney scene though.

So that was it for 2011 for the most part. There was some fun other small things in there. FAQ’s, the Rumor black out, ongoing GW lawsuits but for the most part it wasn’t a huge 40k year. Plus if I talk about everything what will I write about next time?(A actual intro post perhaps?) So here’s to 2012 as I look forward to several interesting things that appear to be coming down the pipe if rumors are true. Tau, chaos, 6th edition, and more appear to be just around the corner and I for one can’t wait.

What are you looking forward to the most in 2012?

Reaver Jetbikes (The Ian Files)

2012-01-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Reaver Jetbikes

Here's a small tutorial on how to paint Dark Eldar. The theory behind it is that the DE use different shades black that only really reflect color on the edges. As such, we'll only be putting color on the edges.

First step after assembly and priming is to mix VGC Chaos Black with water in a 1:1 ratio, then apply this over all the areas that will be predominantly black, such as the armored carapace. This is done because primer black tends to less vibrant than the paint-on acrylic black and Chaos Black will help the model's overall tone and aid in blending.

Next you'll block out all of the metal areas in GW Boltgun Metal, after the areas are thoroughly dry you'll wash with GW Badab Black. Clean up any areas where you strayed onto the black areas with VGC Chaos Black.

Our next step is to thin out some GW Necron Abyss, just enough to help it flow. We'll then take the color and rim the edges of all the carapace. Remember, two thin coats are ALWAYS better than one thick coat, especially for this style of painting. One of the reasons why this style is easier than most for blending is because you keep your paint thin, using the paint's translucency and allowing the previous layer to show through, enhancing the color progression and blending. The width of the line you put on the edge of the carapace depends on how vibrant you want the overall effect to be. If you want your carapace to look like a dark depthless black with the faintest of color, use thin lines. If you want the color to be more apparent, use thicker lines.

Next up is VGC Imperial Blue. Use the same method and go over the same areas. Because we already have the Necron Abyss base coat down, this step should go quicker and you should have less areas where you'll need to go back over twice.

The last two steps require more discretion. We'll be edging again with VGC Magic Blue, but you'll want to keep it VERY thin, remembering to allow the previous layer to show through. Here you'll have to decide which areas to highlight. On mine, I chose to highlight the "upper" areas, as if the light source for the highlights were directly above the model. take a close look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean. You have to imagine how light would reflect off the surface of the model.

The final step is done with VGC Ice Blue. This will be done very sparingly and only on the corners.

So, that's the hard part done! As long as you've got a good color progression, you can use this technique for almost any color. Here are a few recipes for those of you who don't want to do just blue:

RED
VMC Burnt Cadmium Red
VMC Burnt Cadmium Red + VMC Carmine Red (1:1)
VMC Carmine Red
VGC Bloody Red
VGC Bloody Red + VGC Fiery Orange (2:1)

GREEN
GW Orkhide Shade
VGC Scurvy Green
VGC Jade Green
VGC Foul Green

PURPLE
VGC Chaos Black + VGC Liche Purple (1:2)
VGC Liche Purple
VGC Warlock Purple
VGC Warlock + VGC Tentacle Pink (1:1)

DARK LEATHER
VGC Scorched Brown
VGC Scorched Brown + VGC Dark Flesh (1:1)
VGC Dark Flesh
VGC Dark Flesh + VGC Bleached Bone (2:1)

MATTE BLACK
VMC German Grey
GW Adeptus Battlegrey
VGC Cold Grey
VGC Stonewall Grey

Cool Mini or Not 12.01

2012-01-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

Cool Mini or Not eye candy for the week. This news letter is a little shorter but still has some great stuff. Enjoy!!!

All rights belong to Cool Mini or Not for more info check out the site. www.coolminiornot.com

Resolutions?

2012-01-07T03:11:00.000-08:00

DFK! here, checking in as 2011 has ended and 2012 is revving up.

First off, let me give a major "sorry for lack of content" to both Drkmorals and the forum readers. I signed on last spring hoping to do a couple articles a month, but if we average it out I'm probably sitting at more like 1 a quarter. Lamez0rs. I can't promise to publish more in 2012, but it's something that I certainly hope to do. I have more concepts/articles in mind than I have time to write, which brings me to the next point.

Seems like the modern world is all about doing more with less. Being more efficient. Managing your time and energy. Etc. etc., blah blah. The bottom line is that most people I know are absurdly busy unless they're unemployed, single, and have no children. And even those guys seem to be finding things to do to fill up their time.

However, we must set against this backdrop of huge time demands a true liberalization of "stuff to do." The modern world (or at least modern America, for you overseas readers) is a dramatically more diverse place than 50 or even 20 years ago. (Thanks webertubernetz). Think about it, 50 years ago, unless you were in a major urban area, you had seasonal sports, 3 TV channels, and maybe the fair or a personal hobby.

Today, you could have a gajillion hobbies, 1000+ channels, new movies streaming/for rent/at theaters every week of the year, sports run all year round, and/or family and a dayjob. Take me for example: I have a day job, a spouse, 3 major hobbies, and quite a bit more I'd like to find time for; but there just aren't enough hours in the day. Or days in the week. Or weeks in the year, or whatever.

Point is, how do you balance all this out? I have no clue. If you do, please let us know.

I think the bottom line is just to set little goals (very hard for us procrastinators). Wanna get that army done? If you're like me, you see the vast amount of models in the army, get discouraged, and then go watch Netflix instead (or play Xbox, or prep to GM/play roleplaying games, or some other hobby, see above). Focus instead on the unit, or find ways to work on this stuff while you're also doing something else. We all focus on efficiency and "more with less" at work, why not at home?

For example, my spouse doesn't really mind if I'm painting miniatures while we watch the evening show or movie together. What matters to her is that we're "together." So I try to remember to break the paints out and get SHTUFF DONE. Doesn't always work that way, but it's an example of trying to maximize the hours.

In the end, it's about prioritization. Your family or job should probably come first in all this. After that though, what matters to you? When you're 70 and looking back, do you want to think to yourself "boy I'm glad I managed to watch every single episode of Lost on Netflix 3 times each?" Or would you instead like to say something like "my friends and family had a great time playing/building those miniatures and playing that game?" Or going on a camping trip. Or whatever it is that brings you joy.

TV and movies are easy, and if that's what you really love then you need to be watchin' the shit outta some Hulu. But if you'd rather be with friends then find time for a weeknight game of 40k. Play smaller, go 750 points. Do whatever other hobby works for you. Just make the time.

I know I've been too much of a couch lizard this year. If you've got good motivational tips, Comment below and tell us what you do to stay active, motivated, and doing the things that matter.

ForgeWorld Sneak Peeks for 2012

2012-01-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

Forgworld released a news letter with a couple of teaser pictures of upcoming models. Take a look below as we can only guess at what these could be. In fact because of how 40k is we don't know if they are good or bad guys lol.

So while it appears to be power armor for sure we don't know too much more. Also it looks as if there is another vehicle coming down the pipe and Forgeworld does make some nice vehicle kits. Although a bit pricey.

The Road to Adepticon 2012

2012-01-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

The countdown to Adepticon is clicking away in back ground as the real world tends to do everything in its powers to slow progress on getting ready. Adepticon is in April but really it will be here before you know it. Last year I went and had a blast and I was able to secure some passes to get in this year again. This time I'll be trying out the TEAM event as well.

I have never played in a team event before but pffft that shouldn't be a big deal. I'll be playing with some Chicago area natives so we have home turf advantage right? We will be laying the smack down and talking mad trash and if we lose it will be in a AMAZING blaze of glory of course. (is there another way?) My team is busy constructing our tools of DESTRUCTION as you read this. We have opted to go with the undead robots because the normal power armies would just be too easy right? Let's check in on some minor progress in the NECRON MAKING factory our buddy Eddy is running at his house.

Some assembly required.

Updates to follow on the Team's army progress stay tuned.

The Local Scene Jan 2012

2012-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

One of the new things that I will be putting together is a monthly newsletter of sorts. I will be putting together a monthly post that you can refer back to for local events. Basically anything that is going on that I hear about or find out about I'll post information here and as things change I will update this post through out the month. If I update the post I'll leave a comment so that anyone following the comments can see the update.

What area does this cover you ask? Well I live in Ohio, by Dayton to be more specific so anyone that is within Driving distance that I hear about I will post up here.(hoping to include Kentucky and INDY in the mix once I get things going) I hope to take this to the next level and also be able to post other store information, pictures, and results from all the events. (You have to start some where though) Lets get started.

JANUARY 2012

JAN 7th
Game Table Adventures
74s 30th street
Newark Ohio 43055
740-281-0195

Hosting a 30 player, 1850pt RTT for Warhammer 40k.

$10 entry with all entry money going to prizes,
Doors at 10am pairings by 11am

10% off on all GW items for tournament players, 15% if we fill.

Scoring - 65%battle 25% paint 10%sports

http://www.gametableadventures.com

JAN 14th
EPIC LOOT
9130 Dayton-Lebanon Pike
Centerville, OH 45458

We'll be hosting a team tournament on January 14th starting at noon. The rules will be the same for the Adepticon Team Tournament except that there will only be two payers per team. The basics are:

1000 pts. per player

Modified force org is:

1 HQ

1-3 Troops

1 Fast Attack

1 Elite

1 Heavy

Each player can choose to have either one additional fast, elite, or heavy slot or to bring one Forgeworld figure that doesn't have structure points or fly and isn't gargantuan. Both players can not chose the same additional slot or both bring Forgeworld.

More detail can be found at: http://www.adepticon.org/12rules/201240Kteam.pdf

Email or post if you have any questions,
http://epiclootgames.com/

JAN 14th

The Sage's Shoppe
1009 Sagamore Parkway West
West Lafayette, Indiana 47906

mailto:info@thesagesshoppe.com
Phone/Fax:
765.463.4841

Title: The Sage's New Years Tournament
Time: 10.00-20.00
Organizer/Contact: Chad Fauber (chad@thesagesshoppe.com)
System: Warhammer 40K
Format: 1,500 pts, 3 rounds
Registration: Pre-registration required to secure entry
Event Information: Entry $20.00. 24 players. WYSIWYG; no painting requirement.

http://www.thesagesshoppe.com/

JAN 21
East Side Games and Cards
Milford Square Shopping center
1151 Main st. (State route 28)
Milford Ohio 45150

Saturday January 21, 2012 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Every 2 months on the third Saturday
$10 entry ,1850 points, 3 rounds , top 3 get prizes, starts at 11am be here early to sign up with your army list

http://www.eastsidegamesncards.com/

JAN 28
EPIC LOOT
9130 Dayton-Lebanon Pike
Centerville, OH 45458

On January 28th, we'll be hosting a 4 round, 400 pt. tournament starting at 11:30 AM. It will follow the same rules as the Adepticon saturday combat patrol which can be found here: http://www.adepticon.org/wpfiles/2011/2011cpsat.pdf

The same missions will be used, and please note that unlike most of our other tournaments, painting and sportsmanship scores will be used to determine the overall winner. Let me know if you have questions, but the adepticon rules are pretty complete.

http://epiclootgames.com/

MARCH 2012

Mar 3-4
THE INDY OPEN

We are happy to announce that The Indy Open (a Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament) will be held in Indianapolis, on March 3rd and 4th!

We will have a 2,000 point 64-man, 6 round win/loss Grand Tournament, with Separate prizes for the best Painted army, Best General, and Renaissance Man (best combined Paint and Generalship). There is a three color minimum for this tournament.

The format will be a Win-loss style (like NOVA Open) with prizes for the top person in each of the W/L brackets (5-1, 4-2, 3-3, 2-4, 1-5) as well as other door prizes. March 3rd we will have 4 games, followed by two games on March 4th.

Registration fees will be as follows:
$40 Pre-registration (Nov. 1st through Jan. 7th)
(all pre-registered entrants will be put in 2 drawings for a free Adepticon ticket)
$50 Early Registration (Jan. 1st through Feb. 24th)
$60 At the Door Registration (if slots are available)

Location will be:
The American Legion located at 601 S. Holt Rd, Indianapolis, In 46241 317-248-8801.

http://theindyopen.com/blog/

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<Is there something missing? Is there a Store by you that is running a Event and you would like to get the word out? Leave a Comment or drop me a Email>

New Year's Resolution's Bloggers supporting Bloggers

2012-01-01T05:43:00.000-08:00

Ahhh the New Year has arrived and the majority of people I know celebrate in a traditional next day hang over fashion. (Some of you have been practicing all year for this lol) While we crawl off the floor and try to figure out who’s house we ended up passing out in and who we may or may not be dating all of a sudden it’s time for another tradition for the new year.

It’s that time when we make promises that we most likely won’t be able to stick to.No I don't mean starting a relationship, I am talking about NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS. I am sure several of you out there are going to improve your life in some manner. Figuring out a way to make more moneys, remembering to feed the dog, hitting the weights, putting down cancer sticks, or picking up guitar picks. I have several Art friends that will set art goals and several paint and hobbyist that will set hobby goals.

This short blurb isn’t for them though. This is for my blogging community. Readers, writers, and blog owners alike where ever you fit in as you read this I wanted to first off say Thank You. The online community continues to grow and more importantly support itself, as well as the others involved in the hobby. So many great people are involved in this hobby. We all know real life gets in the way of the more interesting things you would rather be doing from time to time. We all have responsibilities and commitments that we must attend to before we can make time for ourselves. The hobby is our time away from the stresses, the chance to be creative, and a fun time with friends. I want to remind everyone that the blogging part of the hobby is the same for a large part of the community.

Updating, managing, and working on a blog takes up a bit of time to say the least. Also everyone out there with a blog has started it for different reasons I won’t even pretend that I can put a label or a stereotype on your average blogger. For some it’s to share progress, for others to inspire themselves to keep going. Some blogs seek net fame, while others work to help grow and build the community. The point is that people working to give back or join the community is never a bad thing, and as I enter the new year one of my resolutions is to comment more on the sites I bounce around too. I invite anyone doing this to do the same. Offer a little feedback and encouragement to the sites that you enjoy or stop by too often a little more frequently this year. I personally view my blog as a bit of a online magazine with some goals I am working toward and comments while always welcome and enjoyed aren’t what keeps me going. I know several other bloggers that I personally have spoken with though and every comment is like a reminder to keep up the good work from friends, almost like a small thank you for taking the time.

So I encourage you to comment a bit more often wherever your online journeys take you. Perhaps even to follow or add some more sites to your RSS if your journeys take you the same place often.

Happy New Year from the Emperor’s Codex and I hope you continue to join us as we head into 2012 there is much planned for the year both online and off.

Cool Mini or Not 11.53

2011-12-31T05:03:00.000-08:00

A handful of pictures from Cool Mini or Not as we prepare to ring in the NEW YEAR. Enjoy!!

Ironclad Dreadnought Conversion (Ian Files)

2011-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

Geek Chic - A spotlight and some sale notes.

2011-12-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

Geek Chic if you have never heard of them is company that basically makes furniture for gamer's. No I don't mean that shabby stuff you can buy at your local Warmart built in some Chinese factory where if you leave a bolt out while self putting it together with non English instructions hoping the pictures make sense it wobbles for the rest of its life, or I don't mean the crazy compact yet oddly affordable treasure you find while going through the Dungeon that is a IKEA store.

I mean they make old school classy fancy furniture. The type of furniture that looks like the guy on the monopoly box owns it except it has all been done in a custom twist for gaming. Also just like the other things the Monopoly guy owns rest assured that several of us, (and I say US because I am including myself) can't afford several of these items. This is fancy stuff but if you have never seen any of it. It is well worth a look and drool in typical Forgewold type fashion.

Let's take a look at some examples taken from the Site. All rights to them of course.

The GM's Valet

"Evil geniuses need minions.

Game Masters know campaigns hinge on logistics. And what better way to handle your resources than the perfect minion? The GM's Valet is your trusted aide de camp. It is organized and always at hand, ready with the essentials to assist you in guiding adventures, testing heroes, and building the legends your friends will recount for decades.

What makes the GM's Valet a prized minion?

Wheels. Everything is better when it comes to you: pizza, doctors, the circus... The Mountain.

Flip-down desk. Transforms the whole piece into a campaign desk.

Portable Library. Keep your relevent reference materials at the game table, not in the other room.

Filing System. Piles are not a system.

Rail System. It's like your furniture has a utility belt."

They also offer several table types with the Gamer involved, I won't get into the details of each but here are a few pictures to give you an idea.

The Portal

The Hoplite

And to really highlight the range of tables and touch on the wow I totally can't afford that options I present

The Locus

Yeah that's right its a table with a 1080P Touch screen built into the thing. It has several bells and whistles that allow you to use this table to play several games and table top on it, as well as link friend via the internet to get your RPG Action going in a long distant type relationship.

The point of this article is to show you this company and some of its cool furniture so I could also highlight the sale they currently have going on until Dec 31st. They are offering some free gifts for anyone who puts down a deposit on any of the furniture on the site as well as some discounts on some non furniture items that they also make in all wood grain goodness. Some fun Gamer Aids that you might be interested in. So things like this are currently on sale.

Anyway the site is http://geekchichq.com/ If you like anything you see and could use some more info.

Cool Mini or Not 11.52

2011-12-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

Eye candy from this weekend and a give away from Cool Mini or Not.

They are also giving away a Cang Dragon model to a lucky person on Jan 10th!!!

All you have to do is go to http://www.coolminiornot.com and share the main site with your friends via Facebook or Via twitter to be entered in the drawing. Pretty painless.

ForgeWorld - Fimir Warrior sneak peak (Christmas Jigsaw Revealed!!)

2011-12-23T04:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas Jigsaw Revealed!! ForgeWorld just sent out the teaser they have been hinting at online. It is a new Fimir Warrior model. Take a look a the pictures below with the short blurb they attached along with them.

As no-one managed to guess correctly (!), our three-part tease was in fact a Fimir Warrior, and we’ll be releasing these dread creatures in a set of three during the first quarter of 2012. You can see the completed jigsaw below along with a shot of the unit to whet your appetite, and rules for these detailed resin models will be featured in the forthcoming Warhammer Forge Monstrous Arcana book.

ForgeWorld- MACHARIUS OMEGA and DEIMOS PATTERN PREDATOR

2011-12-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

Forgeworld News letter dropped with again some great Resin models. One of them a old school throw back tank for you marine players out there. Well worth a look if you haven't seen them yet.

MACHARIUS OMEGA

While the sins of innovation and initiative are frowned upon by the Adeptus Mechanicus, new patterns and designs of weapons and armoured vehicles are still created. The Macharius Omega is one such vehicle, created with a single focus, that of the battlefield deployment of the Omega Pattern Plasma Blastgun. The STC for this weapon was originally discovered by Explorator-Magus Hum’nal in late M39, but a Mechanicus schism over the purity and completeness of its template delayed the testing and eventual deployment of the Omega pattern weapon for centuries

DEIMOS PATTERN PREDATOR

The Predator is a highly effective medium tank designed to provide Space Marine detachments with heavy fire support in the heat of battle. An ancient and revered design, cited by the Codex Astartes as a spiritual mentor, no less, there are almost as many patterns of Predator as there are of the ubiquitous Rhino hull it is based upon. One such variant is the Deimos Pattern Predator, first issued en-masse to the Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade. Artificer-crafted by the finest machine-wrights of the great forge-complexes of Mars, the Deimos Pattern Predator has since been modified to the ‘Annihilator’ variant by those Chapters who are supplied with this pattern.

Video- Happy Holidays short

2011-12-22T02:33:00.000-08:00

Real Life is shockingly busy for most of us around the holiday season, as we juggle family, friends, and hobby time. A short video with a little new meets old (in several ways).

Feel free to share or link if you think its cute. =P Don't give my daughter a larger head than she already has though I mean all MEDIA already tells her she is a princess. >_<

I'll also go ahead and get a head start on the Holiday wishes that will be flooding around the Inter-Tubes in another day or so. Let me be the first to wish you all a Happy Holidays from everyone here at

Emperor's Codex!!!!

Inspire - NecroTau

2011-12-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

This time up we have some awesome shots from Alan Bligh's 'NecroTau. The army was done as part of the Forgeworld Battle force painting challenge. I am sure I am not alone though in hoping he expands this great looking army.

This is great work and one of those armies you run into that truly inspires. My hat's off to you good sir if your reading this.

Video - Space Marines vs Grey Knights test game 2

2011-12-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

Second report from my day of GK testing. Same board and same list as before only I threw down with some SM's that our buddy Drew brought along. Quick video to share with you guys enjoy.

Ill follow up with my thoughts on the list, and how the GK's work.

KrystalKeep Combat Patrol, and a fond farewell....

2011-12-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

So,
this weekend marked the final yearly 'Combat Patrol' tournament at the KrystalKeep.
As usual, Jim Williams ran a fast, furious and funtastic event full of much cursing, screaming and gnashing of tzeentch (and smiles).
Many a brave soldier(xenos, infidel, traitor)died yesterday, only to rise again shortly thereafter to wage the war eternal in the 40k 'oonivers'.
Final standings showed how strong, balanced and fair players and scenarios were, with a 4 way split for 1st!
Edge T
John W
Stephen (?)
Nick S.

I had a blast, as is usual for Jim's events (and events that have been run for years up at the Keep).
But alas, this marks an end.

December 30th, the store will be closing for the last time.

Rick, Raj and the others who have contributed to the store, with their heart and souls, have finally had enough.
The economy, coupled with other major, and minor, factors beyond their control have taken their toll.
KrystalKeep has kept its doors open throughout the most trying of economic times, worse than any I have seen personally.

I moved to Ohio 3 years ago. I greatly feared the loss of my hobby and friends due to a new environment.
I should never have feared.
I discovered the Keep, and moved in...and quickly realized I had found a new 'home' in more ways than one.
The staff became friends, the players became friends, and within 6 months I not only felt as though I had regained the 'old' guard, but had gained an even better crowd!
I fell in love with the community all over again.
I wanted to share that particular anecdote, not to make the changes coming about me...but to emphasize the impact the Keep has had on a great deal of people.

A club, a forum, an arena AND a place where 'everybody knows your name'.
EVERYONE I know, who frequented the place (and there were many in my 3 years of attendance) saw KrystalKeep as a 'home away from home'. A place to leave behind the trials and tribulations of life, sit down with a mental 'pint', and just be.
I have known few places with this sense of family attached to such a business, and doubt I will know many more.

I know I'm going to miss all the weekends, all the events and all the 'BS' sessions over our little 'toy soldiers'.
All these things that were made so much more satisfying due to the environment within which they were set.

I want to wish the guys who ran our little home all the best luck in their future endeavors, thank them from the bottom of my heart for providing all the joy they did.
I wish to thank all the players who accepted me from the git-go, and all the heart they put into their play, and their friendships.
And I wish to thank all those who sacrificed their personal time, effort and heart to run the events that kept us all in the loop!

a hearty salute to the end of an era, and now....

"Dice Down, gentlemen...Dice Down"

Cool Mini or Not 11.51

2011-12-18T05:15:00.000-08:00

Home stretch before Christmas nothing like some more Cool Mini or Not eye candy to distract us from our holiday shopping.

Trial Techniques - Over-highlighting and Washes (The Ian Files)

2011-12-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

Grey Knight Update

2011-12-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

So I threw up a battle report here testing out the list and making a few tweaks after a few games. I didn't actually throw up an progress shots of what I have done with the army. So let's do some recap and updating since really isn't that why most people have blogs? (well they also complain, and randomly make up reasons to post pictures of girls yeah you guys know who your are!! lol)

So I threw up some pictures of Coteaz and his girls here. You can see the simple basing theme and the DCA I made for the list. Following in line with that I have 15 Henchmen made for my min man squads I have been running.

The models as you can see are using the same Cork theme with broken statue's I was using on the DCA. I have of course made several molds and copies with Green stuff of the stature bits, so I wouldn't run out and I could use a ton all over the army. The models themselves are all metal you can find them here on GW site. They are Kasrkin IG models. I had never personally heard of them or seen them before. My buddy Edge just happen to have a bunch laying around he wasn't using for anything. Sold them to me at a good price since I liked them. Figured they would be perfect for the Project. (THANKS EDGE)

I also posted up a review of the arm bits for dreads earlier you can find here. I ended up getting my hands on two more sets of these from another friend who wasn't using them. I will say that having used them you most likely will have to fix or replace the barrels. They molds aren't perfect as with any resin stuff we normally get in this hobby. There can be some pits or small holes in parts of the bits too that will need to be repaired if that bothers you. I personally don't care for vehicles since it just shows wear or damage. Perhaps you are a bit pickier than I though and it wouldn't be a honest review without pointing that out. Now let's look at the Complete dreads a bit.

So as you can see in what will turn out cool or horrible once paint has touched the model. I added green stuff tot he front of the dread to give it that armored mural type look. I used Death cult models to make partial presses to show respect to the other units in the army since it a GK army. I like the Death Cult Theme. I also put magnets on the arms and angled them slightly different on each side do the dread doesn't look so static and boring to me. Something people may or may not like.

I added the INQ type symbols on the top as extra armor plates. Also molded and then with added damage to show age or a little battle wear on the model.

I did pretty much the same with the second normal dread int he army. A little different process and clean up. I also used Sisters Repentia molds for this one since I use them as DCA's in the army as well. Same concept just should turn out slightly different. Also again same theme on the basing as you can see. Even if they don't turn out perfect they at least don't look like plain AOBR dreads which is all they are.

The army also runs a VEN Dread who is angled in a cool fashion and has magnets and the same basing. His arms aren't complete they are drying still so they aren't attached to him at the moment. He didn't get any fancy green stuff because really the Ven Dread looks pretty cool to start with. Plus since I am currently running one of them he doesn't need to look different in any way for the moment.

Libby is complete and while I left off his odd book in the sky banner he is pretty much stock. Just again he went on a base to match the army theme.

One squad of purifiers is complete there will be a second squad pretty much the same. The Halberds in such a small squad are a waste of points IMHO. However they look cool so they stay. =)

These in addition to the same basing have the Templar Skeleton shoulder pads added to them. The second squad will be the same and any other actual GK in the army until my wife yells at me for buying so many silly shoulder pads...so shhhhhhhh.

The Land Raider Redeemer is fun and honestly I am not sure if it will stay or if I will end up running a more normal LR with Lascannons as I keep playing. I do oddly like running the thing in this army though. It has the Forgeworld Upgrade doors as you can see and is the theme for all the vehicles in the army if you go back and take a look at my initial Green stuff test bits. I have enough to do all my motor pool at this point.

When some of the razors are done I'll throw up some pictures and of course as things actually get painted and completed. =)

Video - Necrons vs IG

2011-12-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

Martial Law battle report action to kick off this weeks posts. I am sure just like your local gamer buddies and clubs, mine has been testing Necrons as well. I have a couple reports to throw up. This one is shot a little odd but not a bad report by any means.

HOD and Warmonger threw down with HOD testing out his Necrons against Warmongers IG. Some Dooooooooom Arks get a test run in the video below. Enjoy!!!

Cool Mini or Not 11.50

2011-12-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

Cool Mini or Not weekly Eye Candy!!!

Pink Horror Speed Painting Tutorial (The Ian Files)

2011-12-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

2: Take Vallejo Game Color “Squid Pink” and base-coat the models with a large flat brush. Thin your paint slightly with water and do two thin coats instead of one heavy coat. Let the pink dry COMPLETELY between coats! If you disturb paint while it’s drying you’ll leave ugly rough, patchy textures on the model.

3: After the final coat of pink has dried, wash the entire model liberally with Citadel Baal Red wash. Once again, I cannot stress enough that you must wait for the pink to dry completely. If you wash the model while the pink is still wet in the crevasses it will bleed into the wash and ruin the effect.

4: After the wash has dried completely, (and once again, completely!) thin down some Squid Pink and highlight the raised surfaces of the model, (tentacles, flexed muscles, jowls, et cetera.) I prefer a wet-brush method with a No. 0 Round, though if you’re a little shaky at it a solid dry-brushing will get you a similar effect.

Flames

1: Start by blocking in the flames with VGC Falcon Turquoise, if you’re feeling creative you can have the color running onto the skin of the Horror to simulate an engulfing magical fire.
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2: Wash the Turquoise areas carefully with Citadel Asurmen Blue wash. Since Asurmen Blue is a dark wash, you don’t need to be very heavy with it.

3: Just like we did with the pink, re-line the high points of the flame with Falcon Turquoise.

4: Start mixing in White to your Falcon Turquoise, beginning with a 1:3 White/Turquoise ratio, and highlight the flames again, but this time over a smaller area, so that the previous color shows a bit. Do this a few more times, gradually increasing the amount of White each time, (1:2, 1:1, 2:1) and allowing the step below to show through a bit. By keeping your paint thin, you increase the transparency of the paint, which allows the layer below to show through the layer on top and helps with the blend.

Tongues

1: Base coat with Citadel Tallarn Flesh

2: Wash with Citadel Ogryn Flesh wash.

3: Highlight with Citadel Dwarf Flesh

4: Highlight with Citadel Elf Flesh

Horns/Teeth

1: Base coat with Citadel Dheneb Stone

2: Wash with Citadel Gryphonne Sepia wash

3: Highlight with VGC Bone White

4: Highlight with VMC Ivory

All that’s left is to pick out the eyes in Black and you’re done! Spray with a protective Gloss and then two or three coats of Dull to matte the model back down. I highly recommend Testor’s Glosscote and Dullcote, I’ve used it in high-humidity, winter cold and other undesirable coating conditions and NEVER had it fuzz or frost.

Here's all ten of the buggers together. Some of the Pink Horrors have Blue Horrors evolving/spawning/bursting from them, I used the same technique on the blue parts as I did the pink parts. Just base with Citadel's Mordian Blue, wash Asurman Blue, highlight again with Mordian Blue, then progressively bring the tone up by mixing in gradual amounts of Citadel's Space Wolves' Grey into the Mordian Blue.

Hope this was educational!

-Ian

Video - Grey Knights VS Necrons Test game

2011-12-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

So while life is keeping me stupid busy I did get a chance to get together with Mike and play a test game with my incomplete GK's I am building. I took all the models I have gotten cleaned up and glued together, (plus two borrowed rhino's from Mike) Mike wanted to test out armor 13 type spam list with some ghost arks, and to see if you could run Necrons without Scarabs. He also video recorded the test game, oh and he was being dad to his new daughter the whole time and she was not happy. =P As a father myself I didn't mind but it's funny. So you will hear baby during the video in several parts and sometimes she is happier than others. Viewer discretion advised if that sort of thing bothers you.

Just a quick test game between friends. Mike complains about GK's but he's joking he actually owns and plays GK's on a regular basis. =P I have to get used to the new style of play and I have some tweaks to make of course as I see what I like and don't. I was able to get one more game in with Drew that Mike recorded I'll see about getting that spliced together to throw up here as well.

Any comments or Questions are welcome. Pictures of my stuff is also incoming as I finish it and get ready to primer. Possibly pictures of the Necron's as Mike gets them together as well.

Forgeworld GRAIA PATTERN RAPIER LASER DESTROYER

2011-12-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

New releases from ForgeWorld We have a new vehicle. Autocannon arms for the shiny old school dread, and some shoulderpads!! Woot woot. Get your orders in so you can get your Resin Crack before Christmas!! lol

GRAIA PATTERN RAPIER LASER DESTROYER

The Rapier Armoured Carrier is an ancient device, one of many such technological relics of the dawning days of Mankind’s stellar empire; a bulky, armoured track unit which mounts a powerful antomantic reactor. The Rapier is often armed with a powerful quad lascannon known as a laser destroyer. This has become synonymous with the Rapier Armoured Carrier itself, and the Graia Pattern Rapier Laser Destroyer is perhaps the most common design of this potent anti-tank weapon.

CONTEMPTOR PATTERN AUTOCANNON

The Contemptor Pattern twin linked Autocannon allows the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought to be armed with potent multi purpose weaponry

MINOTAURS SHOULDER PADS

Replacement shoulder pads for plastic and resin Space Marine infantry depicting Minotaurs iconography.

Cool Mini or Not 11.49

2011-12-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

Cool Mini or not Eye candy in coming. Lot's of fresh restocked items and cool things to consider painting over the holidays.

Forgeworld CHAOS DWARF SKULLCRACKER

2011-12-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

New release from our favorite Resin dealer for our favorite evil dwarfs!

More info can be found on the Forgeworld site of course, and they do have that nice shopping cart action going on if you feel like you deserve something chaos dwarf related for Christmas. More pictures below of course!!!

CHAOS DWARF SKULLCRACKER

When laying siege to an enemy, a Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith will sometimes remove the fell cannonades of an Iron Daemon and replace them with a hissing and grinding arcane-mechanical conglomeration of iron hammers, hacking blades and brutal picks. Designed to smash down walls and tear fortifications asunder, the cruel blades of the so-called Chaos Dwarf Skullcracker are equally adept at pulverising the flesh and bones of any enemy unfortunate to be caught in its implacable path

Paint Brushes 102 – Synthetic or Natural? (The Ian Files)

2011-12-01T05:49:00.000-08:00

Ian File # 3
Paint Brushes 102 – Synthetic or Natural?

Paint brush bristles can be made from many different types of fibers. The type of bristle determines the brush’s quality, longevity and behavior. Brushes are made with either synthetic bristles or natural animal hair bristles. Each type has its benefits and draw-backs.

Synthetic

The most common synthetic materials are Nylons and Taklons, which both come in white and gold colored bristles. Nylons mimic the soft natural sable-hair bristles and tend to be more delicate than the Taklons, which while Taklons also mimic sable, they tend to be more robust and hold their shape when loaded with paint. For the life of me, I have not noticed a difference between the gold and white Nylons/Taklons, and about 30 minutes of intensive internet research tells me there is no difference aside from aesthetics.

Natural

While almost all animal hair will work in a pinch for a brush, (examples being goat, camel, boar, badger, horse, deer, rabbit and tiger for starters) the most common that we’re concerned about are Sable bristles harvested from small mammals called martens.

Cute, yes?

So why is it called a “Sable” brush and not a “Marten” brush? According to the Internetz trappers nicknamed the Marten the “Sable” for whatever reason and the name stuck. Sable brushes are what I tend to run into at art stores.

Another very popular type of natural brush is the Kolinsky, which oddly enough is not named after a person, but the Russian Kolinsky mink from which the bristles are harvested. Kolinsky brushes have been dubbed to have the highest quality and most desirable spring and absorbency (the amount of paint the brush can hold).

The Variables

So now that we’ve discussed the two generic types of brushes, (natural and synthetic) let’s talk about the attributes of a brush and how each type performs.

Absorbency: Like a fountain pen, the brush holds a reservoir of paint that allows it to be used for more than a stroke or two. Absorbency is how much paint a brush holds. Technically, natural brushes have a better absorbency because the individual hairs are “scaled” as shown in this microscope picture.

These scales give more surface area to the hair, allowing more paint to be held. Synthetic bristles are smooth and therefore cannot hold as much paint. I have been told that the scales also hold onto the paint better, giving you more control because the paint flows off the brush at a steadier pace. Since synthetics do not have these scales, paint can collect at the tip or rush off the brush when stroked. Realistically, with the amount of paint scale-modelers use, the difference in absorbency between natural and synthetic is nearly indiscernible.

Spring: I’ll also call this the “action” of the brush. When the brush is stroked, the bristles bend based on the amount of pressure applied. The more pressure applied, the more of the length of the bristle is touching the surface, the more paint is applied. The more pressure applied also means that the bristles can fan out, giving you a larger area of coverage. While Kolinskies are considered to have the most desirable spring, I find that Taklon is a close second. I consider Spring to be intrinsically connected to my next attribute, Reliability.

Reliability: What do I mean by reliability? I mean that every time you stroke with the same amount of pressure, the brush behaves in the same way, the bristles spread out to cover the same area, the same amount of paint flows onto the model. If your brush seems to behave differently on the same stroke, consider getting a new type!

Longevity: Literally: how long the brush will remain consistent and usable. If your brush loses its point and frays out after a few strokes (I call this “getting tired” and it’s indicative of a brush nearing the end of its life, though sometimes it just means you need to clean it,), if it starts to curl at the tip, or get stray bristles poking out at odd angles it’s probably time to toss it in the trash. A long lifespan does not make or break a brush, because high-quality long-lasting brushes are usually expensive.

Ability to Hold a Fine Point: Your brushes absolutely MUST be able to hold a fine point. As mentioned in 101, rookies often make the mistake of buying teeny-tiny brushes like Spotters for fine detail work. Unfortunately Spotters have almost no Absorbency, which can make for a frustrating experience trying to do free-hand or eyes. A good No. 0 Round or 5/0 Liner that can hold a point will serve you better, simply because it will have a better paint capacity.

Cost: Cost must be balanced against all the above attributes, and it really depends on how much you paint. For example, a weekend-warrior who logs only four or five hours a week at his paint station can probably buy a $15 Reaper Kolinsky No. 0 Round and have it last for several months or even a couple years, provided he doesn’t abuse it with excessive base-coating/washing/dry-brushing. I log between 40 and 60 hours a week painting, I use my No. 0 Round for hours at a time every day. I’ve found that the $15 Reaper Kolinsky No. 0 Round lasts me about six to eight weeks, while a $5 Reaper Taklon No. 0 Round lasts four to five weeks. Financially, it makes more sense for me to by two Taklons instead of one Kolinsky; I simply wear out brushes too quickly, even if they’re the “high-quality” ones! But more importantly, I can get the same results with a fresh Taklon as I can with a fresh Kolinsky. I used to buy a new Kolinsky every month until I tried the Taklon on a lark and discovered what I know now.

I use the same approach with my other types of brushes. My favorites are these:

http://www.loew-cornell.com/product-page-pages-43.php?cid=65&pid=198

I get them at Wal-Mart for less than $5 a bag. They come with 10 brushes, and I regularly use all of them with the exception of the Glaze ¾” which I still use on tanks. Sure, they don’t last more than a month, but if I paid $5-$10 per brush for a high-quality natural-hair, or even $3-$6 for a high-quality Taklon they’d still get destroyed almost as quickly. Not that I always go for the cheap and easy, though! And it’s not like I’m saying there’s no difference between the cheap and expensive, but for my purposes, with how much abuse my brushes take, there’s really not a difference for me. I often go to Michael’s or United Art and Education and see what’s on sale, spend about $20 and get four or five high-quality brushes. Sometimes I’ll even spring for a $15 Kolinsky just to treat myself!

Hope you enjoyed reading Paint Brush 102! Join me next time for Paint Brushes 103: Proper Maintenance and Cleaning.

-Ian

Privateer Press Nov 30 release

2011-11-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

So Privateer Press News letter dropped and it has some great new models to check out. Some nice eye candy for everyone as we get back into the swing of posting again after a slight break in our schedule. =)

Trial Techniques - Dirt (The Ian Files)

2011-11-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

Ian File #2

Trial Techniques - Dirt

Recently, I've started building an Ork Dread Mob list for the release of the new Imperial Armor 8: Raid on Kastorel-Novem by Forgeworld. Now normally, Bad Moons are my Ork clan of choice, but yellow (as I'm sure you all know) can be an absolute pain to paint. So, I've decided to try my hand at a Goff color scheme.

Right off, I found that the problem with Goffs is that they can get a little boring with all that black armor on them. So, I had a look around the interwebs and found that many painters had used a nice dirt technique to break them up. So, I've embarked on a bit of a learning journey to try and replicate this effect and I figured I'd share the results.

I started by painting the Kan as I usually would, except that I tried to keep the colors more subdued. For all the "white" areas, I've used Citadel's Dehneb Stone foundation paint as it's pretty close to white. This keeps the lighter areas from completely dominating the models, while still providing a nice contrast.

Once the model was based and nicked around the edges with Boltgun Metal, I started the dirtying process. I started by very lightly stippling, and in some cases dry brushing, Vermin Brown over the areas I wanted to accentuate. I made sure to hit the lower areas of the armor to try and give the impression that the dirt is getting kicked up and sticking to the model.

I then moved on to stippling Macharius Solar Orange over the Vermin Brown, taking care to let the Vermin Brown show through. Finally, I mixed in a little Bleached Bone into the orange and stippled the edges very lightly. As you can see, my preliminary findings are a little rough...

I will continue to post updates here as I progress through the army and refine the technique. Sometimes, the best way to explain something is to freshly learn it yourself.

If you have any question on the rest of the model or just want to comment, feel free to post below.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Sabotage of the 40k gamer...marketing rant

2011-11-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have this shiny new codex...one I've awaited for quite a while.
It is a simple little book, with undead robots, flying saucers and such.

It is a book that has been introduced during the reign of the 1+1 paradigm (unit+transport), the year of the (pseudo)flyer and the edition-of-mech...

and something is distinctly lacking...

something I consider QUITE frustrating (and with the lack of Thunderwolves, Tervigons etc, possibly frightening).
New models that SHOULD be here now, vs waiting for an ephemeral '2nd wave'.
I speak of the 'scythes'.

The biggest issues(with regards to the new model range);
-1 unit transport is available (not the Barge, that's really a chariot, though a GREAT tool).
-A transport that can ONLY tote the basic troop(and attendant character joins) that falls short compared to the new and wonderful plastic Immortals.
-A transport that has questionable current-ed value to army synergy.

-in an environment where securing territory with mobility (while at the same time protecting the elements seizing that territory) is paramount to play, providing a new army with only one true method of achieving that aim is not a way to encourage a dedicated player base to maintain the loyalty they have.
This isn't just from a tournament perspective, but also a new player/fluff player perspective.
You cannot maintain enthusiasm for an army that will find itself constantly fighting the steep learning curve of short-legged unit availability long enough to capitalize on a 2nd (or 3rd) wave, if the players begin to see little way out of a marketing induced oubliette.
-with nearly all other armies fully capable of playing the transport-shuffle, you have to wonder how new player will react when he/she is told they cannot play the same game? Kids like neat new models, like the 'Terminator' feel of some of the models...and they are going to be told they can't do what you can, over and over again, as you paste them with your chimera mounted Purifier squads? (or other can-shuffled uber-units).
Kids are the future of our hobby, and have a distinct sense of 'fair-play' in them...and though the veteran might recognize this, and tailor his/her play accordingly...that other new kid playing his GK or SW won't always know this, and will play what makes sense, or was learned on the interwebbernetz.
-without 6e rules in hand, I can't tell you whether or not the GhostArk will/won't be DOOM on the field. What I can tell you is, though there may be ways to make it work in the hands of good(or great) players, they are QUITE over-costed as a basic transport. They are slow (relative to other open-topped skimmers), with no inherent weapon flex (I'm looking at you, Razorbacks) and vulnerable in a melta-heavy environment (shared with other OT vehicles, as I said in my previous article). I'm using them because I like the concept and model. I know that I'm going to be relying on exceptional army synergy to compensate for a lack of protection for said army...protection provided, in spades, to all our Imperial enemies.
What I do see lacking, though, is a synergy with the rest of the vehicles in the 'dex. They slow down your barges, they slow down your scythes, they slow down armies designed around teleportation elements and they go faster than the Monolith. WTF?
They do compliment an AV-13 oriented army, but that's about it...and at 50$ a pop, requiring 4-6 of them (coupled with the 4+ 33$ barges) gets VERY prohibitive to be shoehorned into singular play styles.

Now I cannot argue that GW does try to maximize its income with controlled waves, to avoid overwhelming a saturated market, control mold/sculptor resources and generate peaks of hype. I can't complain about these things, as they keep the hobby I love afloat...
BUT,
they have also capitulated (as is evidenced by their most recent design trends, 'dex writers, and 'hands-off' approach on the GT circuit...not to mention 'Ard Boyz) to a more competitive player base. With a new edition 6months out, I cannot speculate how potent the units we have had given to us already shall be, but writing 'forward' could very well leave the Necrons flapping in the wind with regards to dedicated players when that finally comes about, and net fewer wave releases ('Nidz anyone?).

A slight tweak to the rules, making the Ghost Ark/Doomsday Ark more effective (points efficient?), and making them a 2nd wave release (eg; Dark Eldar Razorwing) while placing the 'Scythe' kits into the first wave, would have (IMHO) been a far better application of resources/release schedule than we saw.
Though I do NOT have a fear that we will truly see a 'scythe' kit fiasco like that of Thunderwolves/Tervigons/etc etc, the trend of marketing blunders leads me to fear some of the simple decisions GW makes, and question how truly interested I am in grabbing the next 'Big Thing' when it comes down the pipe...until such a time as at least the 2nd wave hits/is a few weeks out.

quick GK progress, and blogroll info.

2011-11-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

So I have been grinding away at building GK models the last week and half. I was told about a tourney this Saturday and the goal was to have enough built, and primed in time to take the army for a test spin. I have been doing pretty good I had already built Coteaz and his ladies and this week or so I have thrown together and added my mods to

2 Dreads
1 Ven dread
1 LR redeemer
12 henchmen
4 of 6 Razors

Really I am in the home stretch of getting the last of the Razors done and the weapons all good with the Green Stuff emblems and such on them. I am planning to borrow some units to get my army up to 1850. So it won't be what I would typically run but it will still be some practice with a codex I haven't played before.

I however still need a Libby and I went to two of the three stores in my area already and no dice. They don't have the dumb libby because FINECAST makes getting one horrible and slow. Finecast you are messing with my mojo man!!! WTF .. I might have to borrow that too, we shall see.

Anyway just a quick update on what I am doing game wise and a complaint about finecast. (like there aren't enough of those around.) If I finish before Friday night I will take some pictures of the stuff before and after Primer to throw up on the blog. If not I will have pictures of my games at the very least to share with you guys.

ALSO before I run off and get glue on my fingers again. I will be updating a few things on the site this weekend. So if I am on your blog roll but your not on mine leave a comment, or if you want to do a blog roll exchange let me know. I try to link to everyone that links to me even if you don't contact me but its hard to track that.