Building an Army from the Ground Up

So, remember that gaming-related content I promised you? This is me, delivering it!

I told you I have two armies I'm going to be sharing with you. Because I want to milk these armies every drop of bloggery-related content I can (hey, at least I'm honest!) I'm going to go over the components and some WIP stuff before I actually drop the army itself on you.

It's no secret that I worked on the Star Phantoms army for the Badab Campaign. The real tragedy is that I never got to play this army, not even once. Remember all those thinly-veiled references to a life out of control in my "back to blogging" post? One of the victims of my life de-railing over the last half-year or so was my ability to participate in the Badab Campaign. I can't tell you how sick it makes me, or how incredibly sorry I am to the guys that ran the campaign that I wasn't able to take part in it.

Anyway...moving forward.

When I began the Star Phantoms, I decided early on that since this was my second Space Marine army, I was going to try and make it my "showcase" -- more accurately, I was going to paint it using the best of my abilities, pushing myself to hopefully get better in all aspects of modeling and painting in the process, with the goal of having something I could really be proud of when I was done.

I'll let you be the judge of whether or not I succeeded after I've posted the pics and all the stuff about it up. But for now I want to talk about the very ground level of your army...the base.

It's become a trend lately to use custom resin bases to really make your army stand out. I wasn't totally sold on the idea at first, since I hasn't actually seen any of the resiny wonders in person. But the fine crew of gaming elite at Austin's very own Battleforge Games made some kind of distribution deal with IronHalo.net and once I saw the Battlefield of Thran set...well, I knew I'd found my bases.

That's right, bases. As in, my goal was to base the entire army on resin bases. Yeah, I know, it's a bit much...but remember, "showcase army" OK?

Anyway, here's a few pics of a couple of sets of the bases I've used. Unfortunately these were taken pretty late in the process and I don't have any "true" WIP shots.









This set of bases has craters and voids and ruts and the like, and since I was already in WAY over my head I thought, "Hey, why not put some water in those holes? That'll look cool!" It took me 2 hours and three hobby stores before I found a "water kit" with these simple instructions: "Pour this crap into a hole and leave alone for a day." Imagine my surprise when it came out looking...well, half-decent, I think



These last couple of shots are a little more close up, and should give you an idea of just how much detail is packed on these bases. You'll notice the pipes in the ground (which was my inspiration for putting "water" in the voids). The rust on those pipes I'm pretty happy with, especially considering the technique I used for them. And by "technique", I mean I brushed over them with one of my new best friends, the "Floquil Enamel Paint Marker" in "Rust" color. One step rusty pipes? Hell, yes! I'll take two please!




...and there you have it, bona-fide gaming-related content!

What little projects have you guys been working on? Make any discoveries lately that turn a complex process into a one-step dream? Ever started a project, committed to a theme and standard...and about halfway through it realize you must have bumped your head just before you made that decision? Well....share it! It'll make me feel better. :)

Palette Portrait

I have finally -- finally! -- gathered all the paints needed for my next project. It took a lot longer than I expected it to, because I had some issues getting a couple of colors right -- mainly, the different shades of turquoise for the base and highlight. Then I needed to find a complementary color range to use for things like cloaks and banners (more on how I did that a little later in this post).

Anyway, once the colors were decided and then matched to a real-world equivalent, it became my quest to actually find all the ones I didn't have locally and buy them. I have this thing about buying things locally -- if there's a business in town that carries what I need I'll go there and buy it. Now what with me being a network engineer (well, ok that was my title, before my promotion) that I would be all up in the whole Internet shopping. For most things, you'd be right, but when it comes to hobby-related things, I keep my money in Austin...it's just a thing I do.

Anyway, it took a little time and a little driving about town but I finally got everything I needed and thought I'd share this little portrait of me next project's palette. :)

Now...can any of you guess what my next project is based simply on the colors in the palette? (And no fair telling, fellow Austinites!) I have a feeling some of you just might be able to get it right...

Now let me tell you about a couple of nifty little resources I discovered in my quest to match paint colors to colors in a digital image:

Let's say you have a digital picture or document that has colors you want to match. If you've had artistic training you can probably do it without thinking about it too much. Well...I don't, so...technology to the rescue!

First thing I opened the image in Photoshop CS4. There's a tool in Photoshop that lets you "sample" a color and it will return the "values" of the color in several formats, including RGB "hex" color codes used in web pages. I took a few random samples of the color and then proceeded over to Color Match v1.0. If you've never used this site before...I highly suggest you check it out. You feed it a color -- either one from the extensive list of paint ranges that's available, or by RGB hex value. I fed it the value I'd gotten from Photoshop, unrestricted the paint ranges it would choose from, hit the button and 2 seconds later I"m looking at a graphic of my chosen color surrounded by the six closest matches from it's dat abase (and like I said, it's pretty extensive). After that I used a couple of other sites (that, I just realized, are on my other laptop so I don't have the links for them...let me know if you want them and I'll pop them up later). that will take a color (again, by RGB hex value) and present you with the complementary, contrast, split complement and "box" colors of your color from the color wheel. I think it's pretty bad ass.

Finally, I took the hex values from the color "theme" generating sites and put them back into Color Match and badda bing, badda boom I had the info on the colors I needed.

So there you have it: a portrait of the palette and how I got the paints matched to colors in a digital image.

How about you guys? How do you choose your color schemes? Ever use one of those nifty color wheel thingies? How did things turn out?

Back for the Attack!

So...it's been a while.

When I last updated, I was talking about getting my motivation back. Well, it's come back with a vengeance! I've been painting or modeling pretty much every night for the last couple of weeks.

What I've been focusing on is "learning to suck less at painting". I've been experimenting with new techniques, new paints, and even -- gasp! -- bought a "real" paintbrush...a Winsor & Newton Series 7 Size 0.

I've learned how to make a wash out of regular ol' paint. I've even learned some very rudimentary glazing methods. The one thing you'll notice in the pic is something "new" I've been working on, and that's highlighting. I'm far from great at it but I'm finally learning how to do it and I'm pleased with my progress so far.

I've spent a LOT of time haunting the Reaper Minis forums, especially the Painting Tips & Advice section. There are TONS of very experienced painters there, and all sorts of tutorials and advice and pretty much everything I've learned over the last few weeks I've gleaned it from there (or followed a link or two from there). If you'd like to learn more about painting, I'd recommend you check it out.

Plus I broke in the wife's new super-sexy Canon SD1100IS camera, and that's why I actually have a picture to show you (along with setting up a little area to actually photograph minis). I have some other things I want to share but I was just trying to get a decent pic out of out it and I think I did all right. Expect more to come in the future now that I have the camera and photo-place more-or-less sorted.

Anyway, about the mini in the picture. He's my new veteran sergeant (well, they're all veterans now, but that's the way I'm used to thinking about them). There's some minor conversion work in there, mainly the arm holding the pistol. I took one of the old "pointing hand" arms from the old Devastator set, whacked off the pointing hand and replaced it with the hand holding the bolt pistol. I had to use some green stuff to smooth out the join to the body, and it's not super-smooth but I'm OK with that, considering it's my first try at something like that. I had the pose in my head as what I really wanted to do and finding that pointy arm was the final piece to the puzzle. I would like to note that while I've heard they actually make one or two models with them, I can't for the life of me find a right-handed power fist! So I went with what I could find and I'm very pleased with the results.

As for paint, I used the Reaper Master Series "Ultramarie Triad" (which contains Ultramarine Shadow, Ultramarine Blue, and Ultramarine Highlight) for the majority of the work, though somewhere in the middle of it I purchased the RMS Blue Liner, and pretty much immediately switched to that for shading/shadows/darklining. The Blue Liner is superb -- dark, smooth, doesn't need much thinning (a trademark of all RMS paints, actually) and it plays very well with pretty much any shade of blue. I also picked up the RMS Clear Blue and did some glazing experiments with it (though not on this mini) and I'm very pleased with it, too.

I still have a couple of touch-ups to do here and there before I'll consider it 100% done, and I'm working on a base that isn't the ol' "rock and flock" (which I've used pretty much exclusively in the past).

I've also completed the terminator I talked about in my last post. I'm pleased with how it turned out, too. I'll get some pics of him up soon. I'm especially happy with his cyclone missile launcher.

On the painting table right now I have one more veteran sergeant and two multi-melta guys. They're very close to done as I worked on them at the same time I was working on this guy. Right now their bodies done, including highlighting, and I'm working on finishing the multi-melta parts and the power fist and bolter arm for the other sergeant and then they'll be ready to go.

When they're done, here's what I'll have left before my current Ultras list is fully painted:

Captain Agemman (A "counts-as" Lysander, so I'm using the Lysander model with some conversions)
8 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators
2 Vindicators
1 Razorback
1 Land Raider

The vehicles will actually be pretty easy to do, as I'll fire up the ol' airbrush and knock them out. The TH/SS termis will take a while, but one of the reasons I've taken so long on the 4 guys I have on the table in progress is I've been experimenting and learning with them so doing the termis won't be a matter of conquering a learning curve. I'm not deluding myself, it's going to be a lot of work but I'm actually exciting about doing them now that I feel that my painting had taken a "next step". :)

I've also managed to play at least one game a week (except for last week) since I last updated, and that's gone very well. I've even played against a new guard list and pulled out a win (though admittedly there wasn't much of the "cheaty stuff" in the list, so I don't consider it a "true test"). I'm hoping to play JWolf soonish (note to self: talk to JWolf soon and see about arranging a game with him). I know he'll hand me my ass but it's all about the learning, and I'd like to see just how bad the new Guard is, and I'm pretty sure he'll be happy to show me. Painfully. :)

So, anyway, that's the news. I have quite a few posts planned in my head so stay tuned (or something like that).

How about you guys? What's on your painting table? What have you been pushing yourself to learn lately? What are your hobby plans for the next six months?

Motivation, Part II (Take What You Get When You Get It)

Following up on my previous post concerning motivation for painting, I wanted to say that I finally, finally got my brush wet with paint (which sounds like innuendo, but isn't) this morning.

After going to see "A Haunting in Connecticut" (Joe's capsule review: "Hide and seek in the House of the Damned", or, more succinctly: "This movie sucks. A lot.") and subsequently overdosing on BoLS and FTW Blogger Group blog posts to cleanse my pallet, I felt compelled to get out one of my already-primed terminators, and lay down a base-coat of Ultramarine Shadow.

Success.

It's a small step, but it's a big one. I actually feel motivated and excited about painting again.

On a related note, I discovered I really, really need to clean my contacts.

I'm going to go with the "take what you get when you get it" school of thought and be happy I'm feeling good about painting again, even if it's only one base-coating one model. Longest journey, first step and all that.

Wish me luck, brothers!

Motivation (It Comes and Goes)

I finally decided on an army list that I really like for my Ultramarines.

I finally got all the minis I need for The Army of The Crowing.

I have most of them assembled, more than a few primed, and all the paints I need for both armies.

And yet...I find I'm lacking one key ingredient: Motivation.

I don't know where it went. I'm excited about both armies, and I'm really looking forward to putting them both on the tabletop...but for some reason or the other, what with everything that's been going on with work and personal life, I just can't find the motivation to actually...you know...paint.

This bothers me greatly.

But -- this being my hobby and all -- I'm very much against forcing myself to paint, as I'm pretty sure my lack of motivation would come out in the paint job, and it would look less than stellar (and my painting needs all the help it can get!).

So I ask you: what do you do when you can't find the motivation to paint? What little tricks do you have to get you going? I could really use some inspiration here, guys!

First Picture of AoTC Defiler

We'll call this a "teaser" picture. I hope you like it, and by all means feel free to comment/critique.

The Army of The Crowing Defiler Completed!

With the application of the model glue and the placing of the final armor plate over the scratch-build/converted defiler CCW, I'm finally finished with the defiler for The Army of The Crowing.

Pictures, of course, are to follow, as the wife has said she will be happy to let me borrow her super-camera for mini-picture-taking-duties (she's awesome, that wife of mine!).

All I can say is that the defiler turned out to be a much longer and harder project than I've ever done. It being the first chaos vehicle I've ever attempted, I tried to keep it very stock (even though, I know, there are those that feel chaos vehicles need tentacles and slime to make them look "chaos-y"...I'm not one of those people). The first lesson I learned actually came at the suggestion of the wife. She took one look at the first leg armor plate that I completed, all nice and smooth...and said, "It's too clean." She was right, it was, so I had to re-think how I was going to paint the model, and I came up with a base coat of Reaper Master Series Coldstone Grey followed by a wash of Badab Black, then a drybrush of Coldstone Grey again. This process actually evolved towards the end as I realized I could do a basecoat of Reaper Master Series Stormcover Grey and then a drybrush of Coldstone Grey with much the same effect.

The trick is going to be getting the same "look" with the other vehicles in the army (several rhinos, a vindicator, and a land raider). We'll see how that goes, it'll definitely be a very different process than what I do for my Ultras, which involves a nice smooth application of Ultramarines Blue with the airbrush. :)

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it came out and I'm excited to get some pictures up of it soon so you can critique my work.

What's the most challenging project you've ever completed? What did you learn completing it? How satisfied did you feel showing off your new centerpiece?


tell me did the bones collide? why did the bones collide? little lover's so polite, so polite, so polite.

Painting Background Music

If you're like me, you put on the headphones and crank something up to a suitable volume level (my preferred volume level is Asteroid Impact) and get to work on with the water and the pigments.

Lately, I've been listening almost exclusively to Silversun Pickups' Carnavas as I find the mix of smooth layered guitars and often-cryptic lyrics a good mental stimulant to keep my fingers moving in the right ways. Little Lover's So Polite and Dream at Tempo 119 are current favorites, though of course the all-time champion on this album is Lazy Eye.

What do you listen to when you're painting? Do you like something that stimulates your mind? Or do you like something that hovers in the background, never intruding? Or do you prefer to enjoy the silence?


it's the room, the sun and the sky

Gesso FAIL!

Just a word of warning, based on experience...

Gesso does NOT work for vehicles, such as tanks, at least for me. I applied it as usual, and it dried unevenly, leaving brush marks and ripples.

Still works great for minis, though. :)

Gesso = Awesome

Ah, priming.

The bane of my painting existence.

Like most of you, I started out with the rattle-can. Oh, yeah, sure, it works. You hose on the paint and your mini winds up whatever color you've chosen.

The problem is, using the rattle-can is submitting yourself to tyranny.

Spray paint is ridiculously susceptible to variances in temperature and humidity. If you get outside of the recommended temperature range, you're going to have problems. Humidity is even worse. Anyone that's hosed on a coat of primer from a rattle-can knows what I'm talking about.

And then there's the "you've got to go outside" business. Plus, it's messy and time consuming, what with setting up an area to paint, and then hosing it on, followed by the clean up. It's a mess.

So, wanting to free myself from the tyranny of the rattle-can, I investigated paint-on primers. After some trial and error, I discovered Reaper Master Series black primer. Add in some Reaper Anti-Shine Additive and you're in business.

Well, mostly.

You always have to add the anti-shine stuff. And it's expensive, in the long run. Plus, you've got added time and effort involved what with the whole mixing up the primer and the additive. Now, make no mistake, the results are amazing, and I can highly recommend this solution. But I wanted something more, honestly, I wanted to find the ultimate solution to priming minis with minimal effort for cost.

Enter Ron's post about priming with gesso. The funny thing is, I remember reading the original post on WeeToySoldiers.com a long while back and while I thought it was interesting, at the time I was more interested in finding a "paint" solution, and so I filed the whole gesso idea away for later investigation. Ron's post reminded me about gesso, and I thought it was time to check it out.

One trip to the local Hobby Lobby later, I walked out with an 8 oz. bottle of Demco Artist Series Gesso, color black. Cost: $3.99 plus tax. I also picked up cheap-ass #10 shader to glop it on for $4.99 plus tax, making my total investment around $10.00. Not bad for an experiment, right?

This evening I got a chance to try it out.

Here's what I did: opened the bottle of gesso, dipped the brush in, and glopped it on three different test minis: two chaos space marines and one chaos knight horse.

The result?

Pure priming nirvana.

Coverage is ridiculously fast, as in one coat and you're pretty much good. Neatness? Forgeddabout it. Drag your gesso-loaded brush over the mini and be done with it. You'll wind up using quite a bit of the stuff, as it's very viscous. When you're done you'll have a wet, shiny gloss black covered model with some of the detail obscured.

Now set your mini down, and let it dry. Give it a while, as in a couple of hours or so.

When you look at the finished product, you'll be amazed. You'll have a flat black mini that's ready to paint, with no loss of detail. As stated in the other article, gesso shrinks as it dries, and your details "magically" come back. The chainmail on the chaos knight horse? Perfect. Ridges on the helmet hoses on the chaos space marines? Perfect. In fact, setting down the horse I "gesso-ed" and the one I rattle-canned (yes, even I use the rattle-can sometimes...) I can't tell the difference.

The only thing I noticed on the horse was a tiny amount of visible brush stroke on one little part -- and that came about because I tried to "smooth" over a section with my brush. I should have left it alone, as that's what I did with the other side and it's perfectly smooth. Also, there's a tiny "pinhole" or two here and there on the marines where the gesso shrunk, but these "pinholes" are fractions of a millimeter in size and will be easy as pie to cover up.

The best part? It took a total of about 5 minutes to cover all three minis, and a couple of minutes to wash out the brush.

I know what you're all thinking: "Yeah, sure Joe, sounds great. Pictures or it didn't happen."

The good news is, the fiancée got a sexy new camera for Christmas, and as soon as she decides that I can use it, I'll get up some pictures (don't hold your breath or anything, it may be a day or three). If all else fails, I'm probably going to inherit her old camera, which is a damn sight better than the one I have now, so either way, it means good things for photos in my blog. :)

In conclusion: Gesso = Awesome. If you're thinking about giving it a try, DO IT! It's cheap and very time/effort efficient, and the results will blow you away. CJ says, "Check it out."

The Army of The Crowing

What you see here is the color scheme for my CSM army, what I have named "The Army of The Crowing". If your curious, the name comes from the music of Coheed & Cambria, my all-time favorite band (all of their albums are concept albums, each one a "chapter" in a story, a very interesting sci-fi story in fact).

I had a conversation with a fellow Austin gamer, Robert, who was also my Week 5 Macharian Crusade opponent (if you want to see his Mordian Iron Guard, you can look no further than BoLS "Armies We Like" section, and let me tell you, his army looks amazing -- as good as those pictures are, it looks even better in person). Robert is a long-time Chaos player and he's (obviously) a good painter. He and I agreed that the "Black Legion" was over-represented here and that something new would be a good idea. After the Macharian Crusade ends, I'm planning on dunking my existing CSMs into the Simple Green and starting over -- and when I do, this is the color scheme I'm planning on going with.

I know it's a pretty simple scheme, but that's part of the reason I like it. The idea is to use a gloss finish on the (Merchite) red trim to give it a little metallic sheen, which I think will give it a little oomph. What do you guys think?

P.S.: In case some of you are thinking, "God-Emperor dang it, Joe, the name of this blog is Ultramarine Blues, not Chaos Marine Blues. When are you going to talk about your Ultras again?" the answer to that question is: next post! A conversation with Abe at BFG got me to thinking and re-thinking a unit in the new marine codex that I had pretty much written off: Vanguard Vets...and my next post is going to be about them! Stay tuned!

...and now, here's Joe with the weather.

Now that I finally got the whole Disqus thing straightened out, and have actually had a few moments to breathe (and get caught up on some professional and personal things) I thought it'd be a good time to get everyone caught up.

The last few days have been a mixed bag. I wound up having to miss the last couple of days of work due to being under the weather, but that's what doctors and prescriptions are for. So far, so good on the recovery. Next week is going to be very, very hectic, too, as the long-awaited move to the new place finally happens. What this means is that gaming and modeling are going to have to take a brief back seat, but once the move is complete it should get a lot better as I'll finally have a dedicated workspace. I'm really, really looking forward to this and (hopefully) the golden age of productivity that will come with it. I have several projects either already in progress or planned and I'm definitely excited about getting started or moving forward on them!

All right, let's talk about the Macharian Crusade.

The first game I played went pretty well, all things considered (as previously discussed). I promised I'd do a little "what did we learn" about that game, so I'll get that out of the way.

• Khorne Berzerkers are awesome. They are the main reason I wanted to pick up a CSM army to begin with. They're the only "cult" troops I have at the moment, and they're worth their weight in gold in CC. I know this isn't news to anyone, but I wanted to point out that they were as awesome as I thought they'd be.
• You can never have enough meltaguns when you're playing against a vehicle-heavy IG list.
• I really shouldn't have taken the MoK on the daemon prince. The DP really needs some shooty, and that means psychic powers. MoK will be dropped in the future in favor of Doombolt (hey, same points cost either way).
• I could really use another Vindicator or two.
  
• Infiltrating a squad of Chosen into your opponent's backfield is a dirty rotten trick, but definitely the only real reason to take them. I wish I'd given them 4 meltaguns instead of 4 flamers, though. I was thinking there'd be more troops back there for me to barbecue.
• Summoned lesser daemons are a neat diversion, and can certainly crank out the wounds in CC, but man do they die quick. Oh, and they can't use transports. Oops.

Week Two of the Macharian Crusade pitted me against Chris "The Dude" Long and his Methalor Penal Legion. Chris, along with being one of the Fly Lords of Terra, is definitely one of Austin's best players (and he has the tournament wins to prove it) so I was really looking forward to this game as we've never faced off before. This game was a little different for me in that it was 1500 points. I can't remember the last 1500 point game I've played, so shaving down the list a little was a challenge but I think I did all right. We played a very tight, very close game and it literally came down to the wire. In the end, I made a couple of mistakes that wound up costing me big. At one point, I held both objectives, with a squad of CSMs on my home objective and my Berzerkers on his. Alas, it didn't last, though. Some good shooting followed up by a brutal round of CC between my remaining 'zerkers and his command squad and HQ (a Crusade-only special character) ended with the Khorne-boys wiped out to the man and a Demolisher close enough to contest my home objective. Oh, but it was a close, fun game the entire time. Chris told me at one point he was "playing for a tie", and considering how good a player he is, I felt pretty good about that. I had a brief post-game discussion with Chris after I'd had time to think about it, and we both agreed that I made a few crucial mistakes:

• I should have moved my Land Raider the full 12" instead of 6". It probably would have survived the assault from the unit with the priest and the "guy with the eviscerator". Yup, 2D6 on the penetration roll will go through even AV14. Had the Land Raider moved the 12" and survived, it would have been contesting Chris's home objective.
• I mis-directed the final assault of the Berzerkers, not realizing that the SINGLE model accompanying the HQ model was a "troop". I'm pretty sure I could have wounded that "troop" had I directed my attacks towards his unit. Had that model died, Chris wouldn't have been able to claim his home objective (and coupled with the Land Raider, I might have at least been able to contest it).
• When Chris moved his Demolisher to tank shock my CSM unit holding my home objective, I originally declared a Death or Glory! with the PF-equipped AC...and then for some reason, changed my mind and backed out of it. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have popped that tank, what with it being AV14 on the front and all, but I really had nothing to lose. If I had, well, then I would have held my home objective uncontested.

...OK, so maybe those post-game thoughts don't mean as much without having a little more context, but you get the idea: I made some serious errors, and it cost me big time. However, even though I've been playing for a year now I still consider myself in the learning stage, and that game definitely taught me some very good lessons. I have to add that Chris is an excellent player and that game was pure fun.

That brings me to current and upcoming projects.

I'm enjoying playing the Chaos Space Marines. They're similar enough to my Ultras that it's not a huge learning curve, but the different units and options really do make it entertaining. They're not going to become my main army but they do make for a fun diversion. Having said that, though, I've decided that I really want to work on my daemon prince. I have a balrog model and I think it makes a great DP. However, there's something about it that bothers me: the little "fire knife" it has for a CCW. I've decided to attempt sculpting an appropriately-large sword for it. I've made a couple of base forms out of brown stuff and have begun the long and demanding task of carving, cutting and filing. I'm using one as my "test" and the second as the "production"...but there's a long way to go before either of them is even near done. BTW, if you're interested, I found this tutorial on sculpting swords that I found most useful. It's a little hard to read at first as it is presented in multiple languages but definitely worth a look.

Last but certainly not least, I have some plans for my Ultras. I have two lists in mind, one that uses drop pods, Sternguard and a libby, and lots of tacs. The other list replaces some tacs for some scout bikers. I really need to decide on my HQ, too -- which is really a choice between Sicarius or Pedro -- and once I've finalized that I need to get the model and get to work on painting it up. Needless to say, I have a LOT of work in store for me with my Ultras but I'm definitely looking forward to getting it all together, painting it up, and then playing with the new codex.

You'll notice the details are a little light on the upcoming stuff for the Ultras. That's because I really haven't finalized a whole lot yet. I'll let you know what I come up with, though.

So, now that I've blathered on for probably way too long (hey, if you made to the end of this long-ass post, thanks!) I'm wondering: what have you guys learned from recent games? What projects are percolating up? What plans have you made?

Work, Sicarius, and a Few Random 5E Thoughts

So lately, work has been kicking my butt.

In my line of work, sometimes you have quite a bit a free time, and sometimes you really don't. I've been going through a "don't" period over the last couple of weeks, and as a result, I haven't even so much as picked up a paintbrush. This...is not good. Well, it's not good in the sense that I'm not getting any painting done, but it is good in the sense that come the next paycheck, I should have a little more spare cash to spend on models (wait, didn't I recently say that I wasn't going to buy any new models until after I had painted up the ones I already had?...yes, I did...what I meant to say is that I'll have more money to save for when the new SM codex releases so I'll be able to plunk down the cash for the new Sternguard Vets. And a Redeemer. Oh, and a Thunderfire Cannon. And some drop pods. Yeah, that's what I meant to say...).

In other news, I picked up a Captain Sicarius model -- the limited edition Medusa V release one, with the twin lightning claws -- from a local guy and now he sits there, staring at me accusingly, taunting me to paint him. I know I won't be able to resist that siren's call for very long. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll actually have a decent camera within the next couple of weeks, and if so, I'll be taking some photos so this blog won't be so image-bare.

Having played a few 5E games now, I can honestly say I really, really love the new edition. True LOS rocks -- I never did like the "area terrain blocks LOS" rule. Luckily, my FLGS had a terrain-making party recently and there's now lots of LOS-blocking goodness to be had. It really does add another dimension to the game (if you'll pardon the unintended pun).

Running is probably my favorite "new addition", though, as it gives the occasional tac squad something to do when they're out of bolter/melta range. Just remember that the other side gets it, too (and if you don't, you deserve what happens to you when, oh, say, that gaggle of Khorne Berzerkers makes it to your dev squad...).

My next favorite thing is the change that states that ICs with a retinue count as an "upgrade character" until the retinue is dead. This means no more getting your commander/chaplain/librarian running with a command squad singled out in CC, which is, IMHO, a good thing. Well, at least until the new codex comes out. Hopefully, SMs won't lose the ability to take a command squad...but we'll see, right?

Lastly, I'm happy to report that 5E works seamlessly in Apocalypse games. In fact, it seems to make Apoc games run smoother in general.

Anyone got any 5E thoughts they'd like to share?

That pile of models staring at me...

It's hard to believe that I only started in this hobby about 8 months ago.

Between then and now I've managed to get a decent 2000 point army that I can play with and enjoy painted and based -- which is good, because it allows me a little more freedom in that I don't have to be painting models because I need to add them to my army right away. That's why I'm not seriously concerned about not working on the terminator librarian at the moment because while using him is part of a larger plan, he's not necessary right now, so I can take my time with him, and I'm hoping the end result will show that.

Anyway, I was looking around my home office and I noticed that I have quite a few models staring at me from my shelves.

A Whirlwind. A Predator. A tac squad. An assault terminator squad. A few other things. We won't get into the other army I've been gathering models for, because it's going to be a pretty major undertaking to get it ready (I call it my "volunteer chaos" army...it's almost 100% composed of models I bought off Ebay or from other gamers...I seriously don't even have an overall plan for it yet...).

However, looking at all that virgin plastic I've decided that I'm not going to buy any new models until all the new ones I have now are done.

Unless, of course, the new space marine models -- such as the tasty, tasty Sternguard -- are released before I finish the models I have now (Are you with me? Do you honestly think I can resist those models? Can you??).

What this does mean is that I have quite a bit of "utilitarian" painting ahead of me. By that I mean I'm not going to lavish huge amounts of time on a tac squad -- and my airbrush makes pretty short work of vehicles.

So that leaves the assault termies...I really want to make them look good, particularly the lightning claws.

Which means I'm going to also need to get that terminator chaplain to go with them.

Oops.

I might have to renege on that decision sooner than I thought...

Terminator librarian models and failure

So recently I picked up the terminator librarian model. You know, the awesome one that someone described as "dripping with sweet, sweet detail".

I've been working on it.

So far...

...Fail.

I only thought I was up to the challenge of this model because my last two IC models turned out -- by my standards -- really well.

And it's not that what I'm doing with it is turning out horribly, but that I just can't seem to make it look as good as I want. Part of the problem is all those "sweet, sweet details" it's "dripping" with make actually painting the main parts of the model -- the armor and the toga-thingy -- difficult and tedious (at best).

I was talking with my girlfriend about it and she said, "Just put it aside and work on something else. When you feel up to it again, pick it back up."

I'm thinking that's pretty sound advice, until I can build up my paint-fu more to a place where I can tackle this model with the skill it deserves.

What do y'all think?

Pics from CP Tourney at DL and other things...

...wow do I need to learn how to use the image adding feature on this site, and not have it come out looking like pure crap...anyway...

I was mucking about with my camera (the lovely POS-wonder that it is) and discovered the pictures I took at the Combat Patrol tourney at DL were actually still there. Only a few were usable, though, but I thought I'd share.

From the top, the first two are just show of my army, in all its work-in-progress glory (I'm happy to say that's no longer the case, the assault marines are finished and look a lot better, as do the other models you see in those photos that weren't already finished...just a few more bases and I'll be finished with them all).

The third pic is the post-deployment phase of my first game. Can you spot my tactical blunder in progress? I can!

The fourth and fifth images are from my second game, during deployment. After that, my camera's battery died and well, that was that.

On to other things...

I finished my first devastator squad plasma cannon marine. I'm very pleased with how he turned out. Current plan is to have two plasma cannons and two heavy bolters in that squad, so I'm only 25% done there. I'm concurrently working on my jump chaplain. Yes, he's metal so I'm a little squirrelly on working with him but so far it hasn't been so bad. I've discovered once I've slopped on the black primer, the paint goes on about like it does on a plastic mini. One nifty discovery I made this afternoon (after talking paint for a few minutes with Mike) is a Reaper Master Series color called "Adamantium Black". Since I didn't want to be cheesy and just leave the chappy's armor plain ol' primer black, I thought I'd experiment with this and see how it turned out. One word: Awesome. I'll try and post some pictures when I'm done if my POS camera will actually capture the way it looks. Imagine a nice pure black with microscopic metalflake. When applied, it dries with an ultra-cool gleam and adds a depth and texture that makes the surface really stand out. CJ gives it an A+.

My next army building goal is 1,250 points, so I can play in the next round of escalation at DL. I'm already signed up for it and committed, so I'm really working hard to make it happen. Hopefully, it'll all work out nicely. I'll probably post a first stab at an army list for that game sometime soon for y'all to critique.

Lastly, while I was at DL I spoke with someone (whose name I didn't get, and I feel like an ass for not doing so) about the recently "leaked" pre-release version of the WH40K 5th Edition rules. Evidently, it's the real thing -- according to him this is the version that the "tech priests" (what's a "tech priest"?) have been playtesting with. I'm not admitting to having -- shall we say -- questionable PDFs on my laptop or anything, but I have read the document and I can't really find anything in it that makes me want to rip my hair out, other than the rule that vehicle "defensive weapons" are now classified as S4 and under (which is going to cut down on vehicles moving and shooting in the same turn). Yes, skimmers have been nerfed in a couple of ways, but never having played them nor never having had my ass handed to me by a 3-Falcon Eldar Flying Circus, I can't say that I mind or care. I can see where the new "run" rule is going to be a-ha-bused, badly, and I hope it doesn't come to that...but it probably will. Either way, I'm looking forward to 5th edition, even though I am far and away from mastering 4th. I guess that having a new edition come out while I'm still learning makes me feel like the playing field has been "leveled" to a certain extent. Of course, I know this is going to cause no end of wailing and gnashing of teeth for some players whose favorite broken army list gets balanced (even though they will whine about "nerfing")...but I don't think power-gaming is in the spirit of the game, anyway, so I can't say I really care. :)

All right, that's it for now. Happy painting and playing!