Battle for Blob's Park

I attended the Battle for Blob's Park this weekend just outside of Baltimore. It was a good time. The tournament was being held in an outdoor pavilion at a Bavarian bier garden.

I drove down with two other guys from the club Friday night. We pitched a tent in the park behind the bar and commenced drinking heavily. By Saturday morning I was NOT ready to play four games of 40K. Still, I made it through them with the aid of some bratwurst and German beer.

I did not know that the tournament was a GT qualifier. Based on it being held just outside a bar I thought it was going to be a less serious event. I'm not much for competitive 40K games and this event just reinforced that for me. There were a lot of lists that were built to take every advantage of the rules. Those games just weren't that fun.

I did get a single very good game in with a guy who was playing Eldar. Two painted armies on a table with painted terrain is one of the best parts of the hobby to me. Unfortunately for him I seized initiative and wrecked his force early on in the game.

There were a lot of beautiful armies at the event. Most had a fancy display board. I was jealous, especially when the judges had to ask me to unpack my army to get it judged for paint. Needless to say, construction commenced on a display board of my very own Monday afternoon.

Xian and I were also inspired to build a 4'x4' themed table for small games and demos. Let's just say that if you ever get a chance to play with us you should bring a "shit-load of dimes."

The Dark Kin of Commorragh

So a couple weeks ago at 'Ard Boyz I bought a local player's Dark Eldar, and with the few squads I had already I now have a Dark Eldar army. Alot of the things he had are kinda meh in the current codex (scourges, hellions, mandrakes, etc) but if rumors are to be believed a new codex soon 1 or 2 of the units should be usable or even good. But until then I have a reasonable raiding force. At my disposal I've got around 70 warriors (with various Hvy's and sybarites) 13 wyches, 8 incubi, various HQ's, 5 raiders, 2 ravagers (could be 3) and a Talos. I got my first game in with them a week ago Sunday against Razorback Blood Angels with an inducted 20 girl squad of SoB's. The mission was kill points spearhead, he went first, I lost 7-2 but had damaged the crap out of all of his vehicles. It was more of a learning experience than anything, I did enjoy the game though and look forward to hopefully 2 this Sunday. I've decided on a paint scheme for my army, Its predominantly blue progressing towards white the further up the chain of command (pics below) with special things within units (Sybarites, Hvy's) getting one piece of armor painted lighter than their squad. I'm using silver for most of the metallics except on the white/light blue guys where I found gold looks nicer. The only 100% finished model here is the wych the other two just had their fronts painted fully so I could get an idea for the color scheme. The dark blue on the warriors will only be on them and grotesques if I ever use them, being that their lowest rung. The lighter blue on the warriors will be the most common color in the army, with idividual armor pieces picked out depending on wargear/status. The HQ's will be predominantly white with some blues on the trim, Probably some cool freehand stuff in blue too like on my archons jetbike. I'm still undecided on the vehicles They will probably match their squad I'll make one lighter in case I decide to use an HQ with retinue and use it for the wyches when I don't. I'm really looking forward to the big triangle panels on the fronts of the vehicles for freehand space. Well below is my chosen scheme and a side view of my bike archon conversion, like I said only the wych is completed the others are WIP but I figured it'd be good to get some pics up maybe get some feedback.

'Ard Boyz Results, Lamenter's Banner, and Tervigon part 3!!!

Sorry for the delay, I've had a bunch of things interfering with writing posts this week, but after much delay are the results of Sunday's tournament for me. Round one I played against the Tau list that ended up getting first it got a little ugly for me and he won 3-1 in the end for a major victory. Game 2 was against a Necron player; it was a fun game but there was nothing the skeleton robots could do against the superhuman zombies I got a massacre phasing him out. Game 3 was against the Space wolf player that ended up making 2nd, he beat me by 2 kp (21-23 I believe) for a minor victory. I ended up 6th or 7th out of 13, but I think if I had done slightly better in either the first or third games I think I could have made top 3. Overall it was a good time, if a little draining though playing 3 2500 point games in a row. I accomplished my goal of doing better than I did in the practice tournament. As far as individual units go the Defilers held up amazingly well over the 3 games, were even clutch in two of the games, much to my amazement. The three demon squads did their job, at 2000+ I would definitely run them again but not at lower point values. Hopefully by 'Ard Boyz next year I'll be rocking Dark Eldar (and maybe even a new codex) and I'll do even better.

Now back to the Tervigon!

Now that you have your belly sacs covered in greenstuff making them smooth you're ready to start detailing. You're going to want to plan out the order of the lines in between the sacs much in the same way you planned the last step:



















The lines are the lines in between the bubbles, the red ones one the outside are last as they'll take a few sessions. The dotted lines are the other side of the bubble they go through. I started with the black lines; rolling a sausage (2Y:1B) of greenstuff about 5-7mm diameter up to maybe 1cm in between the bigger bulges the length of the line your following. Push it in the with your fingers then take your tools with hooks and points and pull at the sides of the sausages up the bubbles in a a combination of straight pulls and curved ones, keep them pretty close together. Try not to get into repeating patterns as it will look more natural if you don't. Continue this both sides of each sausage the entire length of them. After you finish with the hard tools you want to pull out the cone shaped colour shaper (or whatever soft blending tool you have) and smooth out the curves around the little "slime lines" so it looks as though the connector piece you just put in is part of the two bubbles instead of on top of them. When you are onto the second and third steps when you get the line your working on to intersect a finished one just blend it into the existing detail.




























Now when you get to the outside of the sacs your going to use a slightly different placing method, roll your sausage and place it around the outside of the sac, but roll tiny balls about the width of the ribs, and place them on top of the sausage on each rib. On the sac side your going to do the same thing as you did in between them sacs. On the rib side your going to want to use your pointiest tool maybe even an exacto blade tip and pull the sausage up in between the ribs and push it into the gap (don't be too thick) but on the ribs (where the extra bits of greenstuff are) pull them way up (1 cm or so) the ribs in very close straight lines. Take the chisel tip colour shaper and smooth the lines into the ribs as necessary. You should have something that looks like this:





































Now at the very back and front of the beast its sinewy "muscle" stuff instead of ribs, this is a mixture of the technique you use to detail the ribs and sacs just try to follow the existing lines into where you connect it to the sac. On the front you might have to put a wedge of putty into the top of the ribs so its a steady incline from the neck sinew and the sac on the chest. Here's what you should have by the end of this step:








































Next installment of the Tervigon conversion will be end of it with the final detailing. We will be putting veins on the sacs, cleaning up other small details, and putting all other finishing touches on it.

Finally here's pictures of the Lamenter's banner I did for one of the local player's. This is one the standard space marine chapter banner, with the freehand on the front coming from a description he gave me. I've been doing freehand on my rhinos and larger things like that but this was the smallest one I've done yet, but honestly the hardest part had to have been the checkers on the back of it. Note to self NEVER start an army with a predominant checker pattern in their scheme.









































Well now that I'm back online and able to write I'll have a ton of content coming about my Dark Eldar (WOOHOO!!!!)and will have the conclusion of the Tervigon within a week.

Cratos Skitarri Regiment Background

Here's the background for the Imperial Guard army that I'm working on. Comments and criticism are welcome.

The regiment is an Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarri force based on the Forge World Cratos. Cratos is 'east' of Terra in Ultima Segmentum. The planet resembles Mars from the Dark Age of Technology with its red soil and abundant resources.

The Mechanicus established Cratos as a Forge World in M34. ArchMagos Technicus Hest'phus is the current administrator. A small council of Magi oversee the day to day operations of the planet. They supply the Imperium with all manner of standard Imperial Guard equipment. Cratos is also home to the Legium Cratum Titan Legion.

Magos Genetor Leten, who specializes in genetic manipulation, takes particular interest in Cratos' Skitarii regiments. He has continued the long held tradition of directing the growth of all potential members to make them better soldiers. This is accomplished with a three step process. First selective breeding and genetic screening is used to ensure that only the most fit are allowed to be born. During puberty the prospective soldiers undergo simple brain surgery to remove un-needed emotional ability. Shortly thereafter they begin a rigorous chemical-based therapy to condition them physically for the rigors of combat. This cocktail of drugs is administered routinely throughout their lifetimes. By the sixteen years of age a soldier is fully mature and is ready to serve as a Hypaspist (regular trooper).

Some troopers have additional physcial modifications based on their role in the regiment. Sagitarii (heavy weapons teams) are often integrated with their weapon of choice. A Rune Priest will accompany Sagitarii into battle to ensure they function at full performance. Balisteria and Cataphractii (artillery and armor) units are also integrated into their vehicles. Techpriest Engineseers are on hand for these units anytime they are deployed. Tribunes (officers) are bred for their roles and given even more physical and mental modifcation than other soldiers.

The basic platoon is composed of Steel Legion models. I really like the coats and rebreathers. Veterans are Cadian models with a rebreather head swap. I also like to use Penal Legion squads and have modeled them as Cadians with a different rebreather head swap. I hope to do some more detailed conversions on the heavy weapons teams, officers and tanks. For now they are just modeled and painted so that I can add to them as inspiration strikes.

'Ard Boyz Tomorrow!

Well tomorrow is 'Ard Boyz, and I think I'm ready for it. After much mulling it over I made some list changes, hopefully for the better. I think (hope) I'm rounded enough for the missions, but I'll be happy with anything better than I got at the practice tournament a couple weeks ago (1 major victory, 1 minor loss, and 1 massacre against me). I'm also getting a Dark Eldar army tomorrow off of a local player so even if I don't win in the tournament I still kinda win. The list is as follows with the major changes being one less chosen squad, 2 more lesser demon squads, and giving the prince lash, so we'll see how it goes.

HQ
Demon Prince(110); ---155
Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission

Elite
6 Chosen(18); ---193
5 Meltaguns, Rhino

6 Terminators(30); ---250
Chainfist/Combi-melta; Chainfist/Combi-plasma; Powerfist/Combi-melta; Power Weapon/Combi-melta; Power Weapon/Combi-melta; Power Weapon/Combi-plasma

Troops
7 Plague Marines(23); ---271
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-melta; 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines(23); ---271
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-melta; 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines(23); ---281
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-plasma; 2 Plasmaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines(23); ---281
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-plasma; 2 Plasmaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Lesser Demons(13); ---91

7 Lesser Demons(13); ---91

7 Lesser Demons(13); ---91

Heavy Support
3 Obliterators(75); ---225

Defiler(150); ---150
Reaper Autocannon & Twin Linked Heavy Flamer

Defiler(150); ---150
Reaper Autocannon & +1 Close Combat Weapon
Total - 2500

I will post an update on how I did on Monday, will also be a report on the status of my new Dark Eldar army, and I will have pics of the Lamenter's chapter banner I finished up

Will's Army History

I've been playing 40K since late 2001. Some friends in college encouraged me to start playing a few months after they started. I picked up the Tau codex and went from there. The Tau army that I started with has long been sold. I spent a solid year losing games with them in third edition while I learned the rules of the game. My regular opponents were a Dark Eldar player, an Orks Speed Freak player and a Blood Angels player. All were fast armies that assaulted me on turn two and made for some pretty discouraging games. It was a running joke that the roll to go first was also called the "roll to win".


I also had a third edition Eldar army. I say third edition because I built it using Ulthwe rules and min-maxed it for a Rogue Trader Tournament. I did win the tournament but never had much fun playing the army after that. I tried to use the army with the fourth edition Eldar codex but didn't want to add the units that made it effective, namely three Falcons and Harlequins. The army sat in its cases for years before I sold it to a guy through Bartertown. This experience really taught me a lot about how and why to choose an army.


The third army I picked up was a Khorne based Chaos army. I never made much progress with them before I sold them. At the end there were a couple of painted squads of Berserkers and Daemons.


In January of 2008 I started with Necrons. I spent a lot of time labouring over the army selection decision. I wanted something that complimented my playstyle, had an enjoyable background and that I would enjoy painting. I have a fully-painted force of ~4000 points including a home-made Plyon. On top of that I acquired a couple more thousand points of models in a trade that have not been painted yet. I have a few projects to work on that are Necron related but they are on the backburner until we get a new codex. Did someone say Gargantuan Creature Deceiver?!


My current project is an Imperial Guard army. I bought a Cadian army from a local player and combined it with a college friend's Steel Legion. The army is assembled and about half painted. I have enough to play an Apocalypse game of about 3000 points painted and can easily swing the local 1850 point tournaments. I probably have another two thousand points of unpainted stuff and several Apocalypse size things that are in various states of construction. My goal with this army is to spend some time on conversions and give it a very strong theme that is easily recognizable when you first see it. I'll post more on this in the future.

DIY Indoor Airbrushing Station

I live in the frigid northeastern US where the weather doesn't always cooperate with my priming and airbrushing schedule. I put together this airbrushing station this winter so that I could work indoors.



I have been airbrushing, priming and even using the dremel at this station all winter. It's basically a cardboard box with a furnace filter and shop vac. The vacuum pulls stray paint particles through the furnace filter so they aren't deposited all over your work area. It doesn't do anything for paint fumes though so prime indoors at your own risk and make sure you have plenty of ventilation.

I had some Forgeworld stuff to assemble this winter and used this station to dremel the parts with a rotary sandpaper bit. The vacuum sucked up most of the resin dust so that it was much easier to clean up afterwards.

Here's how I put this one together:

Materials:
16"x16"x16" cardboard box
16"x20" furnace filter - I got these in a pack of four for under $10.
Shop Vac - Also useful around the house and in the workshop.
Tape

I cut the side out of the box and then assembled it like so:



Notice how the box flaps are oriented. I did this so that I could swap out the furnace filters as they get clogged and need to be replaced. The furnace filter I use is a little larger than the box so it fits in at a bit of a slant. I haven't noticed any issues with this though. I angled it into the box so that I have the most room at the bottom of my work space.



Then at the back of the box, behind the filter, I cut a hole for the shop vac hose to fit.



That's it! Just remember to turn on the shop vac before you spray and always wear a respirator mask. Just because you're using acrylic paint doesn't mean that it's okay to breath it in.