Sculpting Wolf Lord Final Pictures

It's been a rabidly busy few months and I've finally gotten around to sharing the final photos of the Wolf Lord that I was working on.

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this model.

More sculpting madness to come in the future.  I've got a bunch of great ideas that I'll be working on next year.

Sculpting

I took on a commission recently to sculpt a 13th Company Wolf Lord based off the new plastic Daemon Prince model.  My job is to kit him out with hair aplenty, a new wolf greave on the right forearm, and a howling wolf head.

 The model is coming along quite nicely and you'll notice the basic structure of the head and mouth.

I've dabbled a bit with a 54mm style head. I am happy with most of the features but the eyes gave me a lot of trouble.  The eyelids don't look quite right, so I will have to try a different technique. 

While I am sculpting away on these projects, I am attempting to sculpt on plenty of Blood Angel iconography onto regular Space Marine Terminators in an attempt to bring them up to the outstanding quality of the Space Hulk Blood Angel miniatures. Pictures to come!

The Warstore Weekend

The Warstore Weekend was a fun-filled, fantastic weekend.  There were plenty of great inspiring games and loads of challenging tournament action.  There were tournaments for 40K, FOW, and Warmachine and the dice were rolling the entire weekend.

I met a lot of great people and got in a number of games.  The 40K tournament was a blast to run and the players were excellent sports and brought all manner of challenging armies. 

The winners of the tournament were:

Overall Champion - Dmitry Fetisov (Blood Angels)
2nd Place - Joe Biasco (Imperial Guard)
3rd Place - Sean Nayden (Salamanders Dreadnought Drop)
Best Sport - Sean Nayden (Salamanders Dreadnought Drop)
Best Appearance - Daniel Oppedisano (Imperial Guard Traitors)
Player's Choice - Daniel Oppedisano (Imperial Guard Traitors

More pictures of Dan's army can be seen on his blog found here: http://teninchtemplate.blogspot.com/.  There were a number of great looking armies and not a single unpainted model could be found in the tournament.  I look forward to next year's tournament. 

For those that didn't make it, I'd recommend to begin making plans now to attend the Warstore Weekend next year.   You won't regret a weekend of gaming with great people!

Warhammer Forge - Forge World style debut

Hot off the presses from the German Games Day comes a series of photographs of Warhammer Forge products. These products are made by the same chaps at Forge World but reside in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle background.

Marienburg Land Ship

In the photos found here you'll find photos of a Chaos Dwarf Siege Train, Nurgle Ogres, Nurgle Trolls, Chaos Dwarfs, Nurgle Rotbeasts, Chaos Spawn, a Carmine Dragon, and all kinds of great new Empire stuff.

While I'm not sure when this products will be released, you can be sure it will be pretty soon, otherwise you wouldn't be seeing them now.

I wonder if the Marienburg Land Ship will work like a steam tank, the old war altar, or a bit of both. 

Either way, WFB will be even more fun with these new toys!

Fishing!

I've been pretty quiet on the blogosphere front as I have been consumed by many projects that all seemed to be due at once.  Thankfully, those projects are behind me and I've been able to take some time and go fishing for a bit.  Here's a photo of a solid days work on the river and the combined catch.  I caught this nice sized Chinook 'King' salmon after a good fight in Northern Michigan. It was about 44" and 18 lbs.  We used to regularly catch fish way over 20 lbs but there's a lot of competition in Lake Michigan for food, so we are regularly seeing smaller fish. But this jack put up a good fight and I'm sure he'll taste good.

 

 

The river is always enjoyable regardless of the weather and the solitude is gratifying and soothing to the soul.  Spending some time out here always focuses my mind and helps reset the priorities in life. 

I'll be back to regular updates this week with a few fun things in store.

The Warstore Weekend

The Warstore Weekend is shaping up to get a great weekend of some fantastic gaming covering all manner of games. Its primarily focused on miniatures, but I'm sure you might see some board games there too!   The Warstore Crew is planning on a couple of big Apocalypse games, and there are a number of great games lined up to suit any taste - ancients, WWII, historicals, GW 40K and WFB, Flames of War, Warmachine, and more.  Additionally, you'll be able to try out a variety of demo games, hobby seminars, and some of the greatest hobby shopping in the USA.

You can find more details here: The Warstore Weekend 

I'm planning to bring my copy of Junta for some evening fun as this truly is one of the greatest games ever made. Google it and check it out. Its a very robust game built around lots of table talk, conniving, backstabbing, loyal alliances and ticked off air force officers and navy admirals.  Its a game that you sit back in some comfy chairs, drink some brews, and fill your Swiss bank accounts.

My friend Tim said he'd bring up his super Axis and Allies game. This game is so big that Hasbro decided (marketed) to break it into two distinct games, Pacific and Europe.  A few weeks ago, Tim stopped by for a wargaming weekend visit which included an awesome game of Twilight Imperium, and we capped the weekend with the full game of Axis and Allies.   

Here's a picture of the game right after it was set-up. My table is 9 feet long by 42 inched wide and the game took up the entire space.  We barely had room for our drinks.

 It was quite a dynamic game, and Tim was winning the game with the Axis when we called it late into the night.   The most useless power in the game is................France! Did you think otherwise?  We felt this was a well designed game and because it takes quite a long time to play, its worth setting a day aside for it to get full value from the game.  We intend to play it at least twice a year.

If you have that weekend free and are looking for something fun to do, then the Warstore Weekend is the event for you!  See you there.

Remembering 9/11

Nine years ago today a great tragedy befell the USA.   I remember it as if it was just yesterday and it still continues to break my heart, likely a wound that will never heal. 

Please take the time to remember the fallen this day. Some have tried to hijack this day as the National Day of Service and they are wrong.  It is a day of remembrance, prayer, and reflection.



All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing - Edmund Burke


Liberty and freedom take vast amounts of dedication and sacrifice to secure, and even more to preserve it.  It is hard, thankless work, but those of us who do, I salute you.

Chuck the Blood Angel and Games Day 2010

Meet Chuck the Blood Angel Space Marine.   Years ago, GW had a set of Space Marines create to be 'life-size' and this Blood Angel was one of them that was sent over here to the good old US of A.  He didn't have a name and the Promotions Department named him Chuck.  He's been to more shows than I can remember, and I enjoyed the chance to catch up with him.  I'd gotten the chance to play Artificier with Chuck years ago and patched him up for battle. 

In the grand tradition of Games Day wackiness, here's a photo of a life-size Empire Cannon.  Why anyone would want to be a crew member of a device that will explode in your face 16% of the time is beyond me, but my Empire Cannon crew never complain to me about the explosions.

These big wacky things always made Games Day quite a bit of fun. For the 1999 Games Day, I build a large 40K Bunker for the Big Game, and I can't remember the year that I built the life-size Chimera.  That one blew people away (sometimes when they had to pick it up and move it around).  I'd really like to have some photos of that Chimera so if you see any, let me know!

I had a lot of fun at Games Day this year and got to see old friends again.  Sadly, this will be the last Games Day in Baltimore for who knows how long, but we'll get together again for some East Coast events.

Death Company and flowers

I painted this a few months back to win an online painting contest and thought I should share it.  Its a Blood Angel Death Company Marine who's subject to a moment of clarity during the madness and has taken the time to admire some natural beauty.   Too bad for the Chaos Marine but that's the price they pay when the turn from the light.

The flower was sculpted onto a length of paperclip.   The leaves from the flower are simply strips of painted paper bent to have a nice curve, then affixed in place with a drop of super glue.  The roots were added by placing a drop of super glue at the root bottom and dipping it in static grass.  When the glue was dry I just painted the roots brown.

Skaven Stormvermin Champion Done

I've put the finishing touches on the Stormvermin Champion last night, and painted the base.    The base was covered in sand, and painted with slightly thinned Graveyard Earth. When that was dry, the sand was drybrushed with Bubonic Brown followed by Bleached Bone. 

I'm pleased with the results and its another model finished.  I'm planning on adding two different types of static grass, the standard short fibers that you can get at GF9 and a longer set of darker fibers. 

Paint One Model A Day

I've been good at collecting models throughout the years and pretty awful at getting them painted.  I used to only play with painted models, but the demands of all that I do have taken a toll on the ability to get models painted and onto the tabletop.

So, I've resolved in my head to average at least one painted model a day, and it doesn't matter what the model is or what game its for, as long as I'm painting.   They just need to be finished and I think monthly updates seem to be the most reasonable way of accounting for this task.  Epic miniatures and dipping will certainly allow me to pad the numbers to hit the target when I have off days or other commitments.

In the last 4 weeks, I've painted 6 Khorne Beserkers, 1 Knight of Khorne, a Conquest Miniatures Colonial Militia model, and have on the go numerous Samurai, Epic Gretchin, a Stormvermin Champion, 2 Knights of Khorne, Brad's Blood Angel that he sent to me, and a few other things I can't recall. 

You'll see them here as I finish them and I'll probably add a sidebar widget to track what I've accomplished.

Are you up for a challenge like this?

Skaven Stormvermin paint test

Here's a picture of a work in progress Skaven Stormvermin.  I'm trying to paint it rather quickly and trying a few different techniques.     All the metallic areas were painted with Chainmail and given a heavy wash of Badab Black followed by a very thin wash of Vermin Brown.  I find that the Vermin Brown wash adds some subtle rust coloration to the armor areas.  The pictures don't show the depth of the armor colors.

I've decided to paint my Skaven army as real rag-tag colors so they'll have all manner of cloth colors wherever they've managed to scavenge it from. 

Awesome Elf Terrain

And the final awesome terrain set to be revealed at GenCon today in the GF9 booth is this immaculate elven tower surrounded by pillars and icons.  This was quite a challenging set to create but I think you'll agree that the results are well worth it. 

I've recently completed a few toppled pillars that will make great pieces for models to fight behind and take cover from enemy shooting, and slowing down enemy units as they try to climb over them (or perish trying!).  I think elf terrain is probably the hardest type of terrain for players to build and this set takes a huge chunk of work out of it. 

 My summer has been a very busy one at work but we've been creating some great pieces for tabletop wargaming.

Hall of Heroes Terrain

The month of May was spent working on the Tree of Woe and the Hall of Heroes ruins set.     These pieces are being shown at GenCon today and more details can be found at GF9. 

The Hall of Heroes is a great set and provides lots of great cover for vehicles and infantry in any game.   The round shapes are a refreshing break from most square buildings that we see populating the majority of gaming tables.   This makes a great centerpiece for any war-torn table and a serious objective to take from your opponent!

Khorne Knight color test

This here is a color test that I did on a Knight of Khorne.  Base coated in all GW paints over white primer, then dipped in army painter strong tone.   A little bit of army painter matte sealer and its done.

The dirty little secret is that I painted this up for Maggitti.  I'm not sure if there is anyone who hates painting more than Maggitti.  He hates it so much that he stores his models in buckets and when games are over he just uses his forearm to scrape the models into the bucket.  No joke!

 

Tree of Woe terrain piece

The Tree of Woe!  This inspiring piece is sure to be a welcome addition to many tables and game systems.    Imagine the Tree of Woe dominating the battlefield on a lone hilltop, or controlling the only safe passage through a disease-ridden swamp.  The possibilities are endless.  This piece is being shown at Gen Con today.

This and some cool new tokens can be found at Gale Force Nine.

I have some mad plans on converting my Tree of Woe to tie in with my new Skaven army.  More on that when I get the tree finished.

New Terrain

Fantastic new terrain is being unveiled at GenCon in the Gale Force Nine booth created by yours truly. I hope that you'll find it useful and inspiring.  For more information and for additional updates everyday, go to Gale Force Nine.

Yes, Brad, you will want it and you will know ahead of time that I made it, instead of after you leave the store. :-)

USAF Fly-by

During the last half hour of work today while painting something special for Gencon, I was greeted with the roar of jet engines as the flight path of a United States Air Force F-18 flew nearly over my office building.  At first I didn't know what jet plane was the cause, but I rushed out the back door for a quick check as it rushed past.   The noise was tremendous and it was quite thrilling to see one of the great workhorses of freedom in action!

The F-18 was doing a few touch and goes at the local airport and I could still hear it flying around as I left work.  My commute takes me right past the southern end of our airport and so I stopped for a moment on a little pull-off and was rewarded with a few fly-bys right over the top of my truck!  As he flew off into the distance and curled around to the northeast, the parked aircraft started moving onto the tarmac so I knew that was the end of the maneuvers so off to home I went.

Thank you to all our servicemen and women who protect this nation.  You have my gratitude for your efforts and patriotism.  God Bless you all!  If you happen to see a member of our Armed Forces, take a moment and thank them for their service.  It puts a smile on their face, and brightens everyone's day.

How do you make ruins more ruined?

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to work on the blog.  I've been busy doing some remodeling around the house.  I did manage to get a sweet deal on some old Khorne Beserkers while at Historicon  and enjoyed some good meals and tasty drinks with the Warstore crew.

So here's a picture of a classic Khorne Beserker that I recently painted up.  The model was primed white, then basecoated with GW Blood Red. Details were picked out with Bleached Bone, Snot Green, Chainmail, and Vallejo Glistening Gold.  Then the model was painted with Army Painter Dip Strong Tone.  A coat of Army Painter Matt Varnish removed the shine from the model and then I painted the base Catachan Green.  I plan to go back in with some GW Gloss Varnish to make the metallic areas shine.

August is going to be filled with painting Perry Miniatures Samurai for an article on how to paint samurai for Wargames Illustrated.

And the answer to the question is here.  You make ruins more ruined by having them fly off a moving vehicle at 70 mph on a busy interstate and watching it shatter into pieces when it hits the road. No joke! I picked up the classic Outrider Thunderhawk Down tables and terrain, which were a big hit at Games Day USA back in 2003 or 2004, from my buddy Rick a few weeks ago.  We strapped the tables and most of the terrain down and sandwiched one piece of terrain amongst the rest.  45 miles later right in the heart of Baltimore, I glanced back in my side mirror and saw it peeling off the back of the truck and hit the asphalt and explode into hundreds of pieces.  Being made mostly of foam, it was a goner and I kept on going for there would be nothing left of value. 

GW New FAQs

New FAQ's popped up on the GW website today.

Blood Angel FAQ

Tyranid FAQ

 Most of the answers are as we've been playing them.    A good number in the Blood Angel FAQ show once again that the INAT FAQ is to be avoided at all costs.   Just stick with the GW FAQs and avoid others 'clarification manipulations' to the rules of the game.

That's all for today.  I've been extremely busy around the home as of late, and thus not much time to do postings. 

In upcoming posts, I'll write a bit about the Warstore Weekend Tournaments.  Its set for 2000 points and I hope you are making plans to attend.

New fancy junk from GW

Here's a link to a video some new fancy junk from GW for their release of 8th edition Warhammer   The broken GW website.  Watch at your own wallet's peril! 

I'll be the first to say that these new templates look pretty cool but do I need them to replace my already nifty GF9 multi-template....I think not! 

While the measuring device (both folding yardstick and compass) brings back thoughts of yester-year carpentry, it's unweildiness will certainly see it left in the figure case.  I'll go for a standard tape measure as my ally, unbreakable and unbendy in all its METAL goodness!

The combat calculator looks pretty interesting but its small counting sticks will soon be lost, thus the piece becomes irrelevant and nothing more than a decorative sconce for a terrain piece.  Send me yours and I'll make you something with it.

The rulebook is coming in at a pricey $75US for a mere 115 pages or so of rules out of 528 pages.  The rest of the book is background and hobby articles (which should be in White Dwarf, GW!!!). This book isn't guaranteed to stop bullets, but it will stop some (maybe from ticked off spouses, girlfriends, or lone wolf boyfriends).  Go here to see all the details including 100 pages of Citadel miniatures.... You didn't buy their catalogue this year??? well guess again!!!

A couple of folks have already told me that the new books pretty much makes all Warhammer Army Books obselete immediately upon purchase of the 8th Edition. I haven't seen it for myself, and no one at GW was willing to give me an answer so go figure.

I've also been told by a secret squirrel that the big rulebook's rules don't match the rules in the small softcover book that is included within the box game coming in the fall. Oh dear, let the speculation commence.

Heroic 40K - Sentries

I've decided that I'll blog away on rules as they coalesce in my head. 

Today's topic is sentries.  Every army has them and posts them to guard barracks, outposts, ammo and fuel depots, prisoners, etc.  You name it, some dude or grot is tasked with protecting something which superiors deem important.  Of course, the sentry doesn't and would rather be thinking about girls, beer, synth-smokes, or whatever else is more thought provoking than standing around guarding some dumb thing while his buddies are off having a great time.

These rules are a blend of old GW and my own.


Each sentry on sentry duty will, in his turn, potentially move.

• Roll a D6.
• 1-3 - The sentry player may move the model D6 inches in any direction and place it in any facing.
• 4-5 - Random.  Roll the scatter dice.  If a hit shows, the model doesn't move, but merely turns to face in the direction of the little arrow on the hit.  Something has caught his attention like a rock, shiny bit, a critter moving around, etc.   If the arrows show, move the model D6 inches in that direction and facing that direction.
• 6 - The infiltrator/enemy player may move the model D6 inches in any direction and place it in any facing.

Sentries may spot Infiltrator/enemy models up to double their Initiative. An infiltrator/enemy is spotted when it is in the 90 degree front facing of the Sentry model.  GM's may change this amount depending on weather, visibility (night, chem waste clouds, drunk, etc), abilities (model attributes, equipment, etc), etc. Infiltrators may be harder to spot due to skills and abilities (scouts/assassins), or special equipment (chameoline cloak) - again, its a GM decision.

If any infiltrator/enemy model is spotted, both players roll a dice and add their Initiative and the highest score wins. If the sentry's score is higher, the alarm has been sounded. 

If the infiltrator has the higher score, he may try to react to eliminate the enemy model before it gets a chance to sound the alarm.  Move the infiltrator in base to base contact and fight a round of hand to hand combat.  If the sentry is still alive after a round, the alarm is sounded. If the sentry has been eliminated, then the infiltration continues to go unnoticed.

Infiltrators can attempt to silence the sentries by taking them by suprise by moving into base to base contact with the sentry.  The infiltrator will strike first and will receive a +1 to hit and a +1 to wound and the sentry will receive a -1 to his armor roll. 

That's sentries and infiltrators for the moment.

Heroic 40K

Heroic 40K!  What's that?  It a little project that I'm working on to bring more life into my 40K hobby.

When I first started playing 40K in the Rogue Trader days, the games we played were all oriented around small unit actions with a very developed scenario run by a game master.   The GM would set the stage and we'd begin gaming.  This was a lot of fun back then and when 2nd edition came along, those types of games fell be the wayside with the introduction of scenarios in the game.   Now, GW scenarios and tournament style scenarios are the standard and you won't find many people making an effort to try something different. 

I like competitive 40K tournament play, but I've found myself wanting more from my hobby. For quite some time I've wanted to do some small scale skirmish battles in both 40K, WFB, and historical settings.  Imagine a game with 30 Vikings landing ashore in North America fighting back against the Skraelings (American Indians) or a Space Marine night assault against an Ork settlement on Armageddon.  That's what I'm aiming to do.

I'm sure most folks have read at least one Black Library novel (with the exception of Patrick), and imagined how games would be different if the game was more like the background.   That's part of the inspiration in Heroic 40K.

So my storyline for next week involves about 20 Space Marines vs. 80+ Orks.  The SM players can pick their weapon load-outs for the action and will be accompanied by 2 scouts armed with sniper rifles.    It will be up to the players to decide how they are going to destroy all the Orks.  Additionally, some of the players will be playing the Orks and will have their own objectives.

The game will be a blend of 40K (all editions), Inquisitor, and Necromunda rules and will have substantially more depth and decision making within the game.  I won't be writing a set of rules for the game, but modifying the existing rules and I expect that they'll morph as we go. 

Here are some of the rules changes for the Ft. Buyaki Friday night game.

• Marine squad coherency is set at 6".  Each model may choose to move, fire, run, assault as if they were a seperate unit as long as they maintain their unit coherency.  This means that each model may shoot at a different target and a single model may assault without the rest of the unit. 
• Story driven.  Players can attempt to try things that regular 40K rules don't allow for.  The GM decides the difficulty of such feats and gives players a chance on a die roll to attempt it.
• Additional abilities on both side making some of the models in the game very unique, ie, sharpshooters, combat masters, beserkers, tough ol' sonuva guns, etc.  These unique effects will only be shared with individual players and will bring some surprises to the players in the game.  
• Anything goes.  Imagination is the limit!
• Points don't exist here, neither do fair and balanced scenarios.
• I will most likely have a semi-simultaneous turn, similar to old Space Marine Epic rules.

As I create my documents for these games, I will post them here so you may have a go as well.  I will take pictures and write up a battle report for the game and share with you.

Skull Tower - Warstore Weekend

This picture came up a few weeks ago on the GW website.  I think the Skull Towers look pretty cool.  Are they a shield wall, warning sign, or something much simpler....like a flux capacitor!  I've got a bunch of extra skulls lying about so I've been thinking that I might give these a whirl. Yes, the bitz box is immense!

Many commented on other blogs that these were the same pieces.  They are not. I deal with terrain and details all day long so I pick up on the differences immediately.  So look again folks, look at the cracks and positions of the skulls.   What you need to know is the GW has had 3-D printers for well over 6 years now and I think these skulls are the same ones from Temple of Skulls.  It doesn't take much effort for GW to print out a series of skulls, mold them up and make some castings and then have the Hobby team paint them up.

But my skull towers, I need to wrap up a Death Company marine for a blog contest.

I also want to put in a plug for an awesome upcoming event called The Warstore Weekend.  Yes, that's right, those madcaps at The Warstore will be putting on a great weekend of gaming and fun.  Sign up now while you still have the chance.  I will be attending this event and hope to see you there.    More details to come as soon as I am allowed to speak about them.

The First Land Raider

This Blood Angel Death Company Landraider was painted by me back when I had more free time for blending and mad, mad details.  This model was given to me as a reward for hard work and accomplishment when I was a member of the GW US Studio team running Games Day, Grand Tournaments, and US Battletours.  We had more fun than you could shake a stick at in those days, and the US business isn't what is used to be, but I digress. 

This model was the very first on to arrive in the States from England and they wanted to see what I would do with it. No deadlines or anything.  As I've said before, I've always wanted to work on a Death Company army and GW had just started producing Index Astartes articles.  So I painted it up as you see it.  Dirty Steve took loads of photos of it, and the pictures below are taken from White Dwarf.   Once that Dwarf came out, Mail Order got swamped with phone calls asking how I could have this Landraider for Death Company when there were no rules at the time for it.   Mail Order was a bit ticked off regarding the number of calls, but I replied to them that it's just a normal Landraiders, just painted in Death Company colors.  Enjoy!

I'll try to get some more pictures of it to share when I can get a chance. 

Giant Black Spot

The giant black spot is no more.   Awesome artwork provided by Liz  is now a banner at the top of the blog.  Thanks Liz!!

It's been quite some time from my last update and I've been extremely busy with everything except gaming.  I've been meaning to enter into a painting competition with a Death Company Marine over at akers minis but haven't had time to sculpt it holding a rose amidst a field of flowers.  The idea was to have a raving mad lunatic Blood Angel Death Company marine having a moment of clarity and enjoying the purity and beauty of nature at it's finest before rampaging back into enemy lines.  A few casualties on the base would drive home the point even further.

I'm completely swamped with work which I can't say much about, but you will really like what we put out in a few months time.  It will be a need, not a want.   Go ahead, get some for yourself, you've worked hard for it. I'll remind you when it arrives for I'll surely be posting up some pictures as well.

Blood Angel 'Ardboyz list

Here's a list that I used over the weekend.

Dante  225
Librarian w/ Jump Pack 125  Powers -Blood Lance and Might of Heroes (now to be Shield of Sanguinius)

2 Sanguinary Priests w/ Jump Packs 150
Furioso Librarian w/ Drop Pod 210  Powers- Blood Lance and Wings of Sanguinius
Furioso Librarian w/ Drop Pod 210  Powers- Blood Lance and Wings of Sanguinius

5 model Assault squad w/ Melta gun, power fist, and infernus pistol 150
5 model Assault squad w/ power fist, and infernus pistol 140
5 model Assault squad w/ flamer in Razorback with twin-linked lascannons 160
10 Death Company w/ powerfist  225  and  w/ dedicated Landraider w/ multi-melta 260
Death Company Dreadnought w/ magna grapple and drop pod 175
Death Company Dreadnought w/ magna grapple and drop pod 175

Vindicator  145
Vindicator 145

Total  2495

Give every dreadnought a grapple.  If it can't kill a vehicle when it lands, then hit it with the grapple and drag it closer and kill it in an assault.  The grapple is an additional weapon that can be blown off by a damage result.

It is interesting to note that a Vindicator costs nearly the same as an upgraded assault squad.

Librarian Dreadnoughts - taking Wings of Sanguinius was a novel idea and seemed to be pretty good.  I think the better choice might be to take the Shield of Sanguinius to absorb some incoming fire at the start of the opponent's shooting phase.  Add in a locator beacon or two to the drop pods and the Librarians and DC Dreads can boost their survivability.

Hmmm, lots of different lists are rolling in my head.

Sanguinary Guard Wings Assembly

I had the hardest time figuring out how to attach the wings to the Sanguinary Guard models.  The instructions provided by GW were worthless in trying to figure it out and since they are all digital diagrams, a reasonable person would expect that they'd show how it assembles. But the finer points of model construction are not GW's bag.

So, the wings contain a spot that fits into the round bubbles on the back side of the marine torso. Yeah, its complicated to describe, so check out the picture for a more accurate description.  The areas that are circled are glued together.  Hope that helps.

 

Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard

First off, thanks to The Warstore for fulfilling all of my purchasing needs.  You guys rock.

Second, it's been many a moon since I've posted and I'm back!  Thank all of you for your comments and I will be responding more as your comments pop up.  The truth is so much easier to handle!  I'd rather be known for telling it like it is than one who can't face the facts!  So on we go.

I've been a rabid Blood Angel player since I played Space Marine Epic with the black armored Salamanders on the cover way back in 1991.  I've always like the color red, the glorious Red Wings and I think part of the draw of choosing the Blood Angels for Epic was they were always pictured in White Dwarf magazine.  So I got my copy of the Blood Angel Codex last week. Thanks Warstore!!!!!!

I'm very pleased with the Codex.  There are a few things I'm still digesting and figuring out, more on that later. 

But today is a discussion on Sanguinary Guard. These are some great models with some solid rules. I haven't used them yet in a game but overall I think they are a pretty good choice.   A player may take 5 models at the cost of 200 points.  It's pretty expensive, but I think there are a few good bits in there.  Each one has veteran stats and thus have 2 attacks. Artificier armor gives them a 2+ save and they are fearless. With Descent of Angels, they can drop in nearly anywhere they want.  The Glaive Encarmine is a two-handed master crafted power weapon so they can be devastating when they engage in combat and Death Masks can be taken that force opponents to make a leadership check and if they should fail, they will be at Weapon Skill 1 for the duration of the assault phase.  I would bet that during playtesting they tried the Glaives at Str. 6 and found it to be too much with the Artificier armor and Fearless rules and thus reduced it to merely a master crafted power weapon.  I think that losing the attack of the additional hand weapon to be rather silly for Blood Angels. Why shouldn't the Sanguinary Guard have 4 attacks each when they charge?  They are the Elite of the Elite!  I'd like to take units of 10 models, but alas, I can only take units of 5. Guess someone figured out just how good they were.

Add in a Sanguinary Priest to give Furious Charge and Feel No Pain, and a player has one fantastic and dangerous unit of 5 models, and sadly not 10.   Taking Dante as an HQ choice allows a player to take Sanguinary Guard as Troops choices.  That's awesome and allows for GW to really sell lots of these models which is what they want to do anyway, so why not give players that opportunity!  Good job, GW.

The models are fantastic too.  My only real complaint is that the sprues come with only one Infernus pistol, one Plasma pistol, and one Power fist.  The options in the book allow me to take as many as each of these as I'd like, but I'm limited by the number of pieces in the box. GW dropped the ball here.   It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how the wings attach to the model and I'll post up how that's done in the next few days as a proper customer service bit!

I like the way the Death Masks and armor look in that Italian Renaissance sculpture style (think Michelangelo's David), but I'm not a fan of the bare heads behind the Death Masks and they have the exact same hairstylist! Upon closer inspection, the un-helmeted heads have the same stylist too!   I like my Marines with close-cropped hair. These hairdoos look like they should belong in the Emperor's Children Fulgrim pretty boy camp. (Note: I like the Emperor's Children and Fulgrim, so this isn't a slam on them, just a statement of truth).  But I do applaud GW on the amount of different bits and shoulder pads on the sprues.

If you plan on taking Blood Angels Honor Guard, I'd recommend using most parts from the Sanguinary Guard models for your models. Just paint them red instead!

Entry Point and Expansion

Many years ago, GW published core and secondary games and supported them with a wide range of figures.  The core games are/were WFB, 40K, and LotR.  The secondary games were Space Marine, Epic 40,000, Epic Armageddon, Necromunda, Space Hulk, Blood Bowl, Mordheim, and Battlefleet Gothic to name the big hitters.

A large number of people were drawn into the GW Hobby from these secondary games, myself being one of them.  And a lot of us speak about those games with passion and fond memories!   But those games aren't supported much at all anymore and GW isn't focused on using them or other great game ideas as entry points into the GW Hobby.

While GW has continued to produce great models and kits, there is no effort into additional entry point games.  Yes, they have licenses with Fantasy Flight Games to produce great board games, and video game companies to make video games, but are those folks who play these games actually entering the GW Hobby?  GW certainly has wider recognition than ever before, but is the hobbyist pool actually expanding?   Board gaming and video gaming are great fun, but they are instant gratification games and easily achievable results within hours.  Do those people want to or are willing to spend hours working on an army?

I find it to be an interesting discussion point. In all my years of playing and wide spread interaction with hobbyists across the world, I haven't met anyone yet who has said that GW video games or GW board games (2005-present) were the cause of them getting into the GW Hobby.

Gratuitous model shot of a Praetors of Orpheus Space Marine that I painted way back when I was still at GW. 

What was your first GW game?

As the title says, what was your first GW game? 

Space Hulk for me back in 1990.  The game was awesome and still is to this day.   We played a lot of it and the rulebooks mentioned additional scenarios, rules, and campaigns in White Dwarf magazine.  So we picked up a couple of copies of this and that was all she wrote.  Looking at all the great pictures, armies, scenarios, everything about GW games that those WDs used to contain, we were hooked.

Within months, we were also playing Adeptus Titanicus/Space Marine and Blood Bowl.  Within the year, WFB and 40K.    And I'm still going strong too!

Jervis Johnson is wrong again

I just got around to reading Jervis Johnson's standard bearer article in US WD 361 on page 76 today.   He says, "The days that you had to use converted models in your army, like Aly and I did, have long gone." Man, that really ticked me off when I read that and reflected on all the missing models that we have to convert.

Not so Mr. Johnson, I guess you haven't been constructing enough armies to realize how wrong you are.  I'll rattle off a few models that we need to convert because they don't exist as products by GW Citadel Miniatures and we are not talking Forgeworld models either.  Vendetta, Manticore, Medusa, Hydra, Griffon, Thunderwolf Cavalry, Long Fangs (regular Devastators aren't Wolf enough!), half the Tyranid models in the new book, Space Marine Razorback with Las/Twin Plasma, and the Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship (Don't worry about the Stormraven, I've got it covered for everyone!).

So we, the consumers, who want to spend our hard-earned money on your products (GW) expect that you (GW) create the models for the Codices that you publish. PERIOD.  Stop lolly-gagging around in your comfy studio and start speaking more to the public about what's missing.   If you need help, I'm happy to help.  You know how to get in contact with me!

Death Company Dreams

For many years, I've always wanted to build a Death Company army and now it looks like I might be able to do that soon with the new Death Company plastics now available on Advance Order off the GW website.  The plastics are full of all manner of excellent details such as little skulls, blood drops, and angelic wings. 

 

These models look great and I'm very excited to purchase gobs of these for my collection!

Blood Angel Stormraven Gunship Details and Revalations

I've been thinking about what the Blood Angel Stormraven Gunship should look like. I'm imagining that it will be a flying brick with a few guns and short wings.  It would be a cross between a Land Raider Assault Tank and a Thunderhawk Gunship.  I think the old Epic Thunderhawk Gunship Flying Bricks might be just about right but with the flair of the Aquilla Lander Winged style wings.  That would be right and proper Blood Angel-y.

I'll post up a couple of sketches what I think it should look like and begin building one.  Chime in with some thoughts.

These cool pictures have been floating around the internet too. GW have brought the Space Hulk levels of details to the new Blood Angels range.  Great job GW!

Death Company with lots of great interesting details.

Assault Marines of the 2nd Company (note the yellow teardrop on the right shoulder pad signifying Company designation), with a cool special character.  Note the inferno pistol held by the model in the top right of the photograph and the handguard of the chainsword held by the model in front of the Rhino.

Rumor says these are Sanguinary Guard. I can't say for certain but they certainly are some of the coolest models GW have ever made.  There on tons of great details in the picture so you've got to find all the cool stuff for yourself.

More Lamenters

Years ago on the GW website when the 4th edition Space Marine Codex was released, GW put up some awesome marine sketches.  Mark Gibbons, now with Blizzard Entertainment, was doing concept art for GW at the time, and contributed some great variety to the ever growing Space Marine ideas vault.  One that captured my attention was a heavily armored heavy weapon totting Marine.  This conversion is one of my attempts at playing around with a few different ideas.
 

 I expect this marine to withstand a fearsome barrage of weaponry and still maintain a high fire output due to the additional protection of the shield and armor plating.  

This marine has personalized his equipment with a lone bleeding heart on his knee guard and the artificiers have placed a zorathrax hair crest on his helmet.

 Maybe I'll get around to painting more of the Lamenters one day. But before then, I'll be working on my Blood Angels