Redemptors of Golinar

EBay My Problems Away...

2010-03-01T16:52:00.001-08:00

Money is tight and sacrifices have to be made. Here is the first batch of 40K scenery I put on Ebay. I have two 4'x6' tables worth of desert scenery and anything that isn't Forgeworld is going. More items go up tomorrow, along with a bunch of gaming books, etc.

Here's the Ebay ink:

Painting Table 2/25/2010

2010-02-25T15:42:00.000-08:00

So in the last week I've done quite a bit of painting, but not a whole lot of completion. You'll notice the Hidden Set Up Counter is no longer in the picture. That's because it's done and waiting to be photographed when I complete a few other models. The armless robed marine from last week only needs some static grass and he's technically done. However, I don't like how his arms fit so I wouldn't be surprised if they get pulled, thrown on another model, and he gets replacement arms. He's well painted but kind of underwhelming for a sergeant. A little bit of work has been done on several of the models from last week but nothing else is close to completion. My goal though is to have 3 or 4 models completed by mid next week including this sergeant and the Hidden Set-Up Counter I mentioned being done. We'll see how that goes.

Painting Table 2/19/2010

2010-02-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

Any of these things could be the next thing completed.

The Resurrection

2010-02-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

So after letting this blog sit dormant for a year as a result of 2ndCityWarzone, I kind of want to bring this back. Not that 2ndCityWarzone is brimming with content, but I just want to document my random project log stuff here, and do more "finished product" and actual articles there.

So here are some quick shots of the Scout legs I've been working on. I've mentioned in the past that I like to paint my models piecemeal when I can. To me, painting a set of legs is a rewarding project in and of itself. I sat down a month ago, after finally deciding the look I wanted for my Angels of Absolution Scouts, and I modeled tabards onto 8 sets of Scout legs. Here are shots of the putty rolled out thin and trimmed into the shapes I wanted, then pics of the modeled legs, and finally the completed test model.

Anyone who has followed my blog entries (all two of you) will recognize that you probably won't see these models completed for another 5 years. But this is one of the many projects I've been working on. Maybe the Great Painting Race, mentioned on 2ndCityWarzone, will move these along a lot faster. Here's hoping!

New Blog - New Terrain!

2009-05-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

The future of Redemptors of Golinar is slightly up in the air at the moment. Scott Kroll from Citizen Nick Hobby Center, myself, a number of guys from our Monday night gaming group in Chicago (affectionately referred to as Nerd Night), and a random collection of guys who I worked with when I managed the Games Workshop Walden Galleria location in Buffalo, NY in the early 2000's have roughly banded together to produce hobby content on a new blog titled 2nd City Warzone. I actually just posted a step by step article relating to the city block project I had started rambling about here. Anyway, while we get our content up and running over at the other blog you probably won't see updates here as often, so go check out 2nd City Warzone and become a follower. The idea being that by all of us banding together the blog will be more of a regularly updated site with a wealth of hobby content. Going forward I'd like to have my step by step articles over there and just throw up pics of random works in progress here where I don't need to really explain the content. Redemptors will be more of a basic "show and tell" blog, and my contributions to 2nd City Warzone will be more "how to". That's the plan in my head today anyway. Thanks for reading and go check out that other blog!

xNickBaranx

2009-04-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I heard that."

"Sir, I think I see movement amongst those rock spires."

"Oh feth."

"Orks are amassing at the city border. Do you copy? DO YOU COPY?"

"Copy! We are mobilizing behind your position. We will make our stand along the In the Emperor's Service Pedestrian Bridge."
"Spread out along the full length of the bridge Varrian's. Shortly a wave of green will be crashing beneath us."

This past Monday I was off from work and used the extra moments before Nerd Night to piece together a themed table representing the edge of a city and the industrial work area just within its borders. I get carried away with trying to compose shots that involve fully painted models in dramatic action so I totally failed to get an overview shot of the board we played on. My apologies for not capturing that essential bit.

I had asked who would be coming that night and what they wanted to play, so I knew that Eric would be bringing 1500 points of Crimson Fists and that Chad would be bringing 1000 points of Imperial Guard (in their final showing with the old Codex, haha.) I only have one true rival army to face off with against the Imperium, so I took 1500 points of Orks. As you can easily figure out with the math, I was down 1000 points from my enemies. To compensate I took 4 Strategic Assets from the Apocalypse book to help balance me out. Next I poured through missions in the 4th Edition 40K Rulebook and the Cities of Death book until I found a mission that seemed to work. I selected the mission BLITZ out of the 4th Edition 40K Rulebook as it worked really well with the table I had devised.

For those that don't know the BLITZ mission. A 4'x6' table is divided into thirds the long way. The Defender sets up in the middle third and I set up everything within 6" of a short board edge and then have to battle through a wall of defended terrain to get to the farthest third of the board. Its a really fun mission and I did my best. I completely forgot about or failed to use 3 of my 4 Strategic Assets and my Orks pushed heavily along the softest flank and was making slow headway. My Ork army includes 2 Warpheads and they both managed to, on the same turn, teleport with their respective squads and Deep Strike into the back third of the board forcing the Fists and the Varrians to maneuver their entire forces to deal with my forces on their flank and rear. It was a dramatic game and I made a great showing despite the odds being stacked against me. Here's some final photos:

Added a Blog

2009-04-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

I don't have some epic blog roll on my site, but I ran across this a week ago. Dave Taylor has created some of the most inspiring heavily converted armies I've seen in the pages of WD. He no longer works for the company but he's still hammering away converting miniatures and painting armies so I see this as an essential blog to follow. Check it out here:

http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/

Dusting the Cases Part 3 - Angels of Absolution

2009-04-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

If anyone has followed the blog for a while you'll know that my main army is my Angels of Absolution. All I need to do is put a few tactical markings on the Dread in the picture and complete one single guy for my Devastator Squad and this force will finally exceed 1500 points fully painted.

Angels of Absolution:
Just shy of 1500 points.
Chaplain Vitus.
This was the first plastic veteran I painted. He's been used as a sergeant and as a company master. He'll have a permanent position and name some day.
Kicking it old school! I have two of these ancient scout models painted. I keep them around as chapter serfs. Cool for objectives or to make my chapter master wanna-be look more important in the display case.
Two close ups of my 3 man Devastator Squad. I finished the 4th dude just hours after I took this picture, and the 5th member of the Squad is on the painting table now. You'll notice they are standing behind some objective counters.
A couple of Tactical Marines. One is current generation and one is a 2nd Edition plastic that's been updated with purity seals and a current bolter.
If you look closely you will notice the 5th company pattern repeated on multiple areas of many of my Assault Marines. The left one has it not only on his knee but on his left shoulder pad. The Assault Marine on the right has it on jump pack harness buckle and on just the rim of his left shoulder pad. He also has the squad number on his right knee pad.
And finally, of course, the matching crater.

One day this army will reach 2000 points and beyond. I have so many models awaiting painting or assembly - 2 drop pods, multiple tanks, multiple landspeeders, a couple terminator squads, several scout squads, a couple bike squads, enough marines to finish out the 5th and possibly the 6th company. The Angels are sort of my "forever" army. I'll just keep going and going. If the rumors of the plastic Thunderhawk are true, you can expect I will eventually own enough to transport a company. I want to be able to portray them as they genuinely go to war and be able to do full scale campaigns from Scout skirmishes to Apocalypse scale planet fall. That's the ultimate goal! Maybe in another decade, haha.

Dusting the Cases Part 2

2009-04-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so now here are some models that have never appeared on the blog. I have a very small Ork force that really needs some more painting love. I've only completed 4 or 5 models for this army in the last 3 years, which is pretty pathetic.

Here are a couple of random models on display - both from a Marienberg themed Empire army that honestly, doesn't get any love at all.
I'm going to save the Angels of Absolution for a separate post. I think the photos came out great.

Time to Dust the Cases!

2009-04-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

So my frantic attempts to get my 1000 point Team Tournament army ready for Adepticon were all in vain. It was one of the poorest showings I've made the last couple years in terms of proportion of fully painted to partially painted models and there were a couple of WYSIWYG atrocities in effect as well. My apologies to my team mates and to my opponents.

Anyway, the dust has settled (literally) and Adepticon is over so it was time to put my Angels of Absolution back in the display case. Spring is in the air and cleaning is at the forefront of my mind so as I was eyeing up my display cases and noticing a layer of dust developing I decided to pull my armies out in order to clean and dust them.

I figured, while I was at it now would be a great time to take some photos and show off some of the armies you've never seen. Today I'm posting pics of my Redemptors of Golinar Imperial Guard and of my Tomb Kings of Khemri, along with a silly conversion I did back when there were vehicle design rules in 3rd Edition:

Redemptors of Golinar:

The Redemptors are based upon the Cawdor Necromunda models and the Divine Army of Lastratii - an army that pushes the Imperial Creed to such limits that no Imperial citizen can live up to their standards of faith and purity. Left to right are a Culexus Assassin, Brother Khalinar (Priest) - notice the head swap with a Cawdor Gang Leader model, and the Servo-Orator - made from Epic Sentinel Legs, 2 different backpacks, and assortment of bitz, plastic, etc. The skulls, stakes, and placards on the bases are themed from the 2nd Edition Sisters of Battle Codex cover art.
You'll notice the Sergeant has Cawdor legs with a plastic Cadian chest, topped off with the head from a Cawdor Heavy. Once I started re-using the same Cawdor models over and over again it became necessary to try and vary the squads up a bit with more elaborate conversions. The Heavy Bolter model is a Necromunda Ash Wastes Nomad.
Each of my 40K armies now has a matching crater to be placed when a vehicle explodes.

All told, this isn't exactly a legal army but if I put in a few hours could probably finish up one of my other squads that is started and get it into the case. This was the first year that this force did not take part in the Team Tournament at Adepticon out of the 3 or 4 years I've gone.

VDR - Scout Titan/Adeptus Mechanicus Construct:
This model is pretty silly though I love how the headlights came out. Back when I worked for GW this model took part in a few mega-battles and it always drew so much fire that it would last on the table for no more than a turn and a half. One day I might trick it out a little more. It did get used in my one and only Apocalypse game so far.

Tomb Kings of Khemri:

The Undead were my first army back in 1994 or 1995. Back then "wet" and "dry" Undead elements were all part of one army book. When GW chose to split them into 2 armies I decided that my army of mostly Skeletons, Chariots, and Skull Catapults would get re-based for the desert wastes and my Vampire Counts would be put aside for a later date. I've fielded this army only 1 or 2 times since I moved to Chicago since none of my friends really play Fantasy. There are a whole lot more models in this army that are sitting in hard cases because they are too inferior to display. One day I'd like to sit down and flesh it out to 2000 points. Since its all dry brushed I could probably do it in a night or two.

So that's the 1st display case. In a couple of days I'll post pics from the 2nd display case which includes my Angels of Absolution and my Orks.

Panic Journal 3

2009-04-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so yesterday I got in like 20 minutes of painting due to a 5 hour dentist appointment, one of my team mates arriving into town, and going to a punk show. Pretty much my whole day got wiped out. Here are some pics of the point I had reached at the end of Wednesday and where I started today:

The bike bases are done aside from needing some static grass. Consider these DONE!

This bike is almost entirely basecoated. The other two are almost fully basecoated as well. Highlights have started to be applied as well. I have to complete two sergeants with power fist. He's almost all highlighted and read for arm and backpack attachment. Those are in various states of progress as well.

Painting playlist: Murder City Devils s/t

Panic Journal Part 2

2009-04-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

So a couple hours have passed since my first entry. In that time I made breakfast, ate, checked some e-mail, etc. I also did a bunch more basecoating on my bikes, primed the brand new bases they are going to go on, and I went into my "fully painted AoA bitz" drawer and picked out a couple things I'm going to need to switch my Vindicator into a Razorback. Here are some quick pics:

Paint Session Playlist: Dag Nasty 'Can I Say?' (side B), Suicidal Tendencies s/t.

PANIC JOURNAL!!!

2009-04-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have 3 days left to prepare for Adepticon's Team Tournament and I'm totally not prepared and it's panic time. I figured I'd document my panicked preparations for all of you between working on painting (which I can only do for limited spans before I need to recharge by doing something else. I'm on one of those breaks right now.

So my Team Tournament list needs to be finalized by this evening. My intended list requires that I paint a number of models. I need to complete my Master of the Ravenwing, Predator, and my 3 man Bike Squad. I need to prepare a Razorback and paint it, and I need 2 Multi-melta Marines and 2 Power Fist wielding sergeants. As a point of reference usually one Angel of Absolution takes me about 8 hours, so this is obviously an impossible task. Here's what my painting table looks like:

The bikes right now are my primary concern. I need to finish base coating them to at least 3 colors today. In the back right corner of the 1st picture you can see a Vindicator. Most of it is not glued together at this juncture and the sides are fairly complete. I can pull the Vindicator bits off and turn it into a Razorback in seconds, so I need to start prepping the bits if I intend to roll with that plan. As you can see the Master of the Ravenwing is in the same state of base coating as the Bikes are. This isn't going to receive the same level of focus just because I don't know if this model will be the Master in the long run. It will be painted up to the minimum standard unfortunately.

A bunch of the infantry models you see behind the bikes in the first photo just had all of their arms broken off last night so that I could replace Heavy Bolters or whatever with the needed Multi-melta's and Power Fists.

Okay, that's enough for the moment. More later.

Cities of Death - Chicago Style

2009-03-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I feel traditional Cities of Death terrain lacks is the truly claustrophobic feel of a city. There aren't actual streets with buildings in blocks, with back alleys to exploit. So a while back I got the idea that I wanted to make movement trays for my buildings. This would allow for neater storage (clean up on Nerd Nights is a complex game of Tetris), and would allow for the terrain to be set up in blocks.

Now the above building was the first one I completed for this project. I had originally tried to get my existing scenery to fit on the trays, but they are so random in sizing that it would just be too much work as is. I'll need to adapt them some other way than how I was initially trying. So I scrapped that approach and built the above as a test for my Chicago inspired city block.

The first thing you'll notice is that the above building is long and narrow. This is very traditional of Chicago City neighborhoods. Most of the buildings are either 2 flats or 3 flats. They will have a door adjacent to a picture window and then 2 sets of windows as you work your way up. On the corners of streets will be larger apartment establishments - sometimes with retail (bodegas) below. In my particular neighborhood there are a lot of vacant lots that will be roughly fenced in. The buildings are really close together with narrow breezeways between them. I tried to capture that with the following buildings.

Vacant lot:
Corner ruins:

Opposing corner ruins:

All of them side by side:
The top-down angle shows the movement tray:

You'll notice the brown square in the lower left hand corner. Spaced around the tray are removable squares where I can put signs, street lights, detritus, etc. All of the buildings are removable and are either on 5" or 6" wide bases currently. I already have a 2nd movement tray and the buildings can be swapped around however I like. The vacant lots allow for less obstructed views of tanks and infantry while targeting through breezeways, etc will allow for those nasty sniping shots.

These are still in the rough stages but I'm really excited by the idea. I think it will make for a really visually stunning game. Hopefully the end result isn't too difficult to play. I think with enough low ruins, parks, and vacant lots it will totally work.

Random Stuff...

2009-03-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I updated the blog. I've been focusing in on other stuff as of late (some productive and some not) but I never completely stop work on my projects. They just get pushed aside. Here's some random crap I've worked on lately:

#1: This is what I SHOULD be working on every day. Adepticon is coming and I haven't put more than a half hour into my tournament army in the last 45 days. As you can see I have a long long way to go - and this is 1 of 3 I absolutely need to complete.

#2: I'm really in more of an Ork mood lately anyway. If it wasn't for Adepticon I'd just work on Orks right now but I'll never get enough points done in time. This Trukk is mostly complete. I've probably got another 8-10 hours to go in order to get the driver and gunner done, and to battle damage and dirty it up a bit.

#3 Scott always complains about this one piece of city scenery I built that is beautiful but extremely difficult to put models in. This is a companion building that I started years ago and just finally put on a base. I deliberately left it more open for Scott.

#4 Here are some CoD plastics being put to use with the combination of some scratch built elements. My friend Christian had talked to me a while back about how he was measuring out bits of foam core to the size of the CoD panels so that he could make his own custom panels. I now have a sheet of foam core that has the lines drawn to turn it entirely into CoD tiles for insertion into whatever project I want. In this case, I didn't do anything fancy - just stuck some CoD bits onto the blank slabs and then added a little gable roof on the top.

#5 One of the terrain elements that gets commented upon when Scott posts pics on his blog is the walkway system often looming in the background (you can see a section of it in the above photo - as usual - looming in the background). Whenever we use the walkway it looks dumb if it doesn't begin and end at a table edge. I need some ruined sections as well as entrance and exit points. After months of contemplation I finally made a ramp a couple of days ago. You can't hide from my bikes up there anymore!

#6 Another Scott Kroll inspiration... We talk about my city terrain pretty frequently and one of the things we agree upon is that it doesn't feel city like enough. The building shapes are too random to make streets and everything is too square. The next piece of scenery is on a base that is deliberately angled to encourage more variety in building placement.

Who knows when any of these projects will be completed. Still, I wanted the world to know I'd still trudging along. Enjoy!

Scenery Rampage!

2009-01-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry for vanishing for so long. My family came in for the holidays and then my band went on tour for a couple weeks, and I've been doing quite a bit with my other hugely time consuming hobby - running a record label.

Despite not posting anything new in over a month, I did find some time last week to work on some scenery. I didn't even photograph everything. There were one or 2 pieces I missed.

However, I completed a full table's worth so I'm excited. The following pieces range from an 15" tall rock formation to a barrel on a base just larger than a quarter. Here's what I've completed.

First off is a pretty much "out of the box" ruined Imperial Building:

Sticking with the out of the box theme, here are some plastic barricades as well as a Forge World barricade that I made a little longer with an extra barrel and an I-beam:

Carrying on with the industrial detritus, here are 4 pieces. One is a large oil refinery style storage container and then a pile of pipes, a discarded dozer blade, and a lone barrel. There are so many ways to make a pile of pipes, in this case they are the core tubes from a roll of dog poo bags. With two pit bulls, you can expect to see these tubes in a lot of future scenery projects! The oil tank is a CD-R canister with some I-beams, brass rod, and card stock.

The next piece is a holdover from when I worked for Games Workshop. Its a foam bunker that they shipped to us for our demo tables at some point or another and after multiple incarnations it finally was just taking up space and went home with me. It never had a base and it was painted rather poorly so I almost never used it in games. A base, a little extra dry brushing, some random inking, and some highlights on the view ports and I think it looks great now.

Okay, so now lets finish off with some completely scratch built stuff. First off are a series of rock formations. They didn't drybrush up the best, but the one is truly massive at 15" tall and they add some height to my desert board. Once I have a Stompa or assemble that Baneblade I'm sitting on, they'll have something to hide behind.

Finally, I'm going to end with my alien desert "forest". These strange thicket trees look suitable for the desert, look good in groups, and are made by making pink foam stumps and hot gluing broom bristles into them. Expect to see more stands of these in the future as I made a bunch more that are unpainted. You'll notice that some of the thicket trees are on separate bases for varied density. Oh, and this piece is for Brian who always wanted to take the 4 individual thicket trees I had made and group them together to make a forest! Never again Brian. You have your forest!

Pit Bulls in the 41st Millenium?

2008-12-17T10:58:00.000-08:00

Rather than talking about my Angels of Absolution I want to take a moment to discuss pets and gaming.

Nerd Night takes place every Monday at my cozy 2 bedroom apartment. I am set up to accommodate three 4'x6' tables in my living and dining room by pushing the couch out of the way. I'm sure if we ever had an increase in turnout I could fit a fourth table in the living room and there's always room for a game in the kitchen! If you haven't guessed, I take gaming seriously and love hosting. One of the hurdles I've had to conquer in the last year and a half was the addition of a stray American Pit Bull Terrier to my home - and then a second one a year later.

My first addition was Ian. Ian is a lovable scamp who had an obsession with hand nibbling and jumping up. He's also the nosiest little guy you'd ever meet. He will root through your bags, he'll sniff at your miniatures, and he'll steal the gloves out of your pockets. If he can get at it or stick his nose in it - he will. So the first challenge was dealing with this behavior. When I got him he was only 7 months and I was living in a 1 bedroom apartment so he was non-stop energy. I followed the recommendations of getting him toys that would keep him busy like putting peanut butter in a Kong, but he'd finish the peanut butter in seconds, rampage through people's stuff some more, and then proceed to eat large chunks out of the Kong toy that he wasn't supposed to be able to destroy. Putting him in the bedroom he'd scratch at the door which isn't a great option in any circumstances but its even worse when one of your gamers is also your landlord! I'd put him in the crate sometimes but he'd whine, cry, bark, and rattle the cage. They say that if you ignore a dog they will learn that their behaviour is failing to get the desired result and they'll stop but Pit Bulls are known for their tenacity, and Ian just wouldn't quit. Eventually we learned that if we put everything up out of his reach and we concentrated on each other, he'd usually curl up on the couch with a Nylabone and alternate between chewing and sleeping. Success!

In June of this year though, I found another stray Pit. He had no tags, no collar, and no chip and I live in the kind of neighborhood where a Pit Bull is a status symbol and a bargaining chip that is used for protection, for fighting, or for a quick $300. In Chicago there is a no adoption policy on Pits that go to animal control so my options were to take him to a rescue, find a home for him myself, or take him in. After a month of trying to find him a home I decided it was wrong to uproot him again and I kept him. Now Harley isn't well adjusted like Ian. Harley seems to have had a rough life so far and he's afraid of everything - strangers, animals, loud noises, everything. When the Nerd Night Crew first came over his tail would go between his legs and sometimes he'd just look at people and give a low growl. A couple of people asked me to lock him up while we were gaming. I went out and bought two gates so I could make a fence to my kitchen 5' high, as these guys can easily clear a single gate.
Unfortunately, there were several problems to this approach. To keep Harley company and to keep Ian out of people's crap I put him behind the gate too. This, of course, drove Ian crazy. He's a very social dog and he loves being around people. He'd whine and cry. He'd shove his feet and nose as far under the gate as possible so he'd look as pitiful as possible while getting as close as he could to the action. When he'd get bored of this he'd bark, howl, push on the gates, and on 1 or 2 occasions he even knocked the lower gate down. He just wanted to be where everyone was that badly. On the other hand, I found that my troubled new Pit Bull was only having his anti-social behaviour reinforced. He'd bark at everyone from behind the gate - whether he knew and trusted them or they were a stranger. He'd be territorial. He was angry and unhappy so he'd reach a point where he'd just bark - without stopping. The Apocalypse game day we had in November was the turning point. After being behind bars for 6 hours (not including the mid game walk) he just started barking as loud as he could, and he did it for the full remaining hour and half we played for. At the next Nerd Night after that, he started with the mega-barking as soon as the gate went up and I walked away. I decided the gate wasn't working.

The anguish here comes from balancing the comfort of my guests and the comfort of my family - who just happen to be two American Pit Bull Terriers. Exacerbating Harley's anti-social tendencies is the last thing I wanted to do and that's exactly what I felt like I was doing. Over the last 6 months I found that once Harley became comfortable around someone the tail went up, the growling stopped, and he's just happy to be around "the pack" and hang out. That isn't to say that my guests shouldn't exercise caution, and if Scott ever brought his son over, Harley would go straight into my bedroom, but otherwise I feel that the best place for the dogs to be is by me and part of the crew. Harley needs to be socialized and he can't be socialized from behind a fence.

Last Nerd Night I found we had a distinct lack of hooks for coats etc so the dogs were back rummaging through people's stuff, so my first order of business was adding another 4 hooks. I'm also clearing shelf space so people have an easier time putting their stuff up high. Expect more renovations in the future to make our gaming as comfortable as possible - for man and beast.

Our pets are part of our families and they feel just the same as we do. The key is finding the best compromise so that we can all co-exist and be happy while we game. Thanks to the Nerd Night Crew for their patience and understanding while I've fumbled my way through trying to find that balance and coming back week after week regardless. It is most appreciated.

This is Embarrassing...

2008-12-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

Back in September of 2005 I participated in a tournament put together by GW Canada. The coverage from that tournament is still accessible and I stumbled across it yesterday. I remember being mortified when they put these pictures up. I had so many completely finished models and they didn't look before they grabbed - they shot photos of anything regardless of how well painted. Here are those pics and some commentary:

We'll start off with this atrocity. This is supposed to be representative of my work? Ouch. It was originally base coated with Bubonic Brown Spray when that was available. I started to paint Bleached Bone leaving Bubonic in the recesses and then came to the conclusion that I preferred Brown Ink in the recesses and started inking it. Nothing was completed on this tank in 2005, and sadly, in 2008 its in pretty close to the same state. I was so upset that they posted this pic and it is still available on the GW CA website for all to see. Terrible.

Okay, this one isn't so bad. Chaplain Vitus and Veteran Sergeant Diceus are looking sharp and complete. The two Assault Marines are at least fully base coated. in the last 3 years only 1 of those 2 models has been completed. Wow, I suck at completing projects.

Okay, here are some models I can be proud of. There is only one incomplete model in the bunch. The far right model is still sitting in my figure case in the exact same state of completion more than 3 years later. He's actually supposed to be part of a Devastator Squad and not this Tactical Squad.

Wow, this Dread is so close to completion. Once again, he's received no additional work in the last 3 years. I really need to finish this model. I was really proud of that Plasma Cannon conversion when I did it. This model was assembled before the plastic dread was available.

So we finish this trip down memory lane with a rather beautiful photo of my completed Whirlwind. One day I might go back and add some more vehicle markings but I'm really proud of this model overall. I think its pretty striking. Thanks for reading.

The Week in Review

2008-12-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

We started the week with completing the jump pack on that Assault Marine I pictured a short while ago.

Then I repaired the Rhino that got dropped on Monday. I actually took 3 pictures of this Rhino which has been in service since 1995 or 1996 and which has gotten multiple upgrades. In this latest round of repair and upgrade I painted the right hand door in the 6th Company colors. This was also done on the front of the Rhino in a small circle on the far left track guard. I also added a small Tactical marking below the angel. That particular angel had to be re-glued and some of the paint got scratched up, so the Tactical symbol was in part to cover the variance in tone between the different era's of Bleached Bone. One of the "Storm Bolter" halves also had to be re-glued along with the whole left flank.

One thing you might notice is that not all the recesses are Brown Inked. This is because when the Rhino was originally painted it started at Bubonic Brown and was worked up to Skull White. I later went back and added Brown Ink and then added battle damage. I apparently didn't compete the job, but it's cool.

Another interesting detail about this Rhino is that I added scratch built reinforced armour after Epic came out in the mid-late 90's. Those metal Rhino models had cool little details and one of them was the reinforced rear armour that I emulated here. Back then I didn't know about buying Plastrux Plastic Rod so the rivets are actually inserted paper clips that were clipped and filed, haha. What a pain in the ass...

Dramatic Re-Enactment - Rhino Explosion!

2008-12-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

On Monday's Nerd Night there was a minor setback to my Angel of Absolution plans - I had a Rhino explode. This is my display case. The door was closed just like in this picture. I, however, thought it was open. The moments that passed as my hand holding the Rhino hit the glass went something like this:

The distortion on the picture of me screaming isn't from re-sizing the image, its from the power of my head exploding.

Needless to say, a week ago I said I only needed to finish 3 models to get my army to 1500 points fully painted. I have not met that goal. I actually just finished repairing the Rhino and demoting it to the 6th Company (you'll get pics on the next sunny day.) Additionally, though I worked on the 2 Devastators I need to complete I put more focus into finishing the Assault Marine pictured in the step by step and working on tanks. Oh well.

Angel of Absolution: Stage by Stage - Armour

2008-12-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

By request - here is a stage by stage account of how I paint the armour on my Angels of Absolution. My apologies for not being an ace photographer.

Stage 1 - Cleaned assembled and primed. As you may have seen in previous articles it is very rare that I fully assemble a model before painting. This model has actually been sitting in my case for a couple of years waiting to get in on the action.

Stage 2 - Prime White and Cover in Brown Ink.

As you can see I left the areas that were quite clearly going to be painted black their original white primer. You can also tell I didn't much care if I got ink on those areas. The point of the brown ink is to establish the tone in the recesses of the armour. If you want to save yourself some time, leave the large flat areas white so that you don't have to coat them as many times in the later stages. I just started doing this. Once again, this model has been lounging in the figure case unpainted for years.

Stage 3 - Bleach Bone

This is the hardest part - and the most tedious. Section by section I work over the model putting down as many as 5 coats of thinned down Bleach Bone over an area of armour, carefully working around the recesses. This process takes a very long time and is part of the reason I usually work with just a set of legs or a shoulder pad at a time. I get sick of looking at the model and I don't feel like I'm making progress until a stage is complete. By breaking down a model into their components I create "easy victories" or "attainable goals".

Note: If at any point you get Bleached Bone into a recess you can "erase" your mistake by quickly dipping your brush in water, wipe it clean, dip it in water again, and then drag it through the recess. Repeat the process rapidly until all of the paint that ran into the recess is gone.

Stage 3.5 - Bleached Bone continued

Here is another figure case shut in brought out for stage by stage purposes. As you can see I got frustrated with this guy and started cannibalizing parts off of him rather than trying to paint him as a completed model. Please note that I've kept the recesses tight and clean. Additionally, I strive for maximum opacity with my Bleached Bone for a very solid consistent finish.

Here's where I'm going to deviate to my true micromanagement painting style. Here is just a shoulder pad painted Bleached Bone with the very crisp Brown Ink lines left in the recesses. In fact I can see the slightest deviation in the rim on the lower left hand corner and its irritating me just looking at it. I can't see it in the other pics so I must have fixed it, haha.

Stage 4 - Bleached Bone Mixed with White Highlight

I wish this picture came out better. I have a paint pot that has Bleached Bone and Skull White mixed together to create a mid tone. I prefer this to mixing every time I paint a model because I may go for months between working on the same model and it preserves a level of consistency with the tone.

In this stage I highlighted the full width of the rim with my mix and also followed the Brown Ink lines tightly with a bold line of the mix. Once again, because I thin down my paints, this will often take two coats.

The keys to keeping tight lines are:

1) Work with a fine detail brush.

2) Choke up on your brush like you are holding a pencil.

3) Brace your painting hand against something to keep it steady - I rest my elbow on my knee but when I worked for GW we taught kids to put both elbows on the table and then use one wrist to steady the other.

4) Maintain consistent pressure to maintain consistent line width - the harder you press the further the bristles spread, and the wider your lines become. Brush control is all about pressure.

Stage 5 - Skull White Highlights

Hit all of the sharpest edges with Skull White. Thin down your Skull White. Make sure you don't have too much on your brush - work only with the tip. Follow your "Mix" lines, making sure that you leave some of the Mix showing. That's it. Easy stuff! ;)

Stage 6 - Finishing Touches

The transition from Brown Ink all the way up to Skull White makes the models "pop" on the battlefield. Its the strong contrast that makes them defined and vibrant. However, models all blend together no matter how cool if you don't add details like tactical, company, and honor markings, script, or other unique details. This shoulder pad was the last thing I need to complete on an Assault Marine in order to get his Jump Pack on. The X was applied in Mechanite Red and the "8" was painted with Chaos Black. Each stage of painting the markings required that I went back with Bone or Red to neaten up the previous stage. Working with thinned paints requires these fixes to take multiple layers but it also reduces the likelihood of ugly thick paint build up. And no, I don't use decals. I don't like them.

Here's the Assault Marine showcasing his brand new pad. Later tonight he'll get that Jump Pack and he'll be put in the display case, making the 8th Squad of the 5th Company a squad of 7. Three more to go at about 12 hours a pop, haha.

Small Steps = Big Accomplishments

2008-11-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

Image created with Space Marine Painter V5.0

Yesterday I finished another Angel of Absolution. I still need to consult my master roster, paint a name under his base, and give him some static grass. For all intents and purposes he's a completed model. Here he is:

This model actually was used to replace one of my oldest models, Barrak (no relation to the President Elect), who was painted in 1994 and was ready to be demoted to the 6th Company (Reserve Company). The first image is Barrak after the demotion, and the second image is what his banner looked like a week ago. You might notice that Barrak is an Rogue Trader marine body with 2nd Edition marine arms, pads, and backpack. He was originally completed 14 years ago. That's kind of mind blowing:

That's actually Sergeant Kilomitus' head. He's also on the demotion list.

Anyway, the title of the thread implies that these little steps are leading up to something much bigger for me to announce, and that is true. You see, I have a ton of unfinished models and I started looking things over and I realized that I've reached a threshold of sorts. When I complete these next 3 models I will have a fully painted 1500 point army. This is huge. Its not quite the standard tournament size. Nor would it hold up under tournament play. Hell, it doesn't even take advantage of any of the unique Dark Angel unit types. Still, its an accomplishment. For the first time in 14 years of playing Warhammer 40K I will have what most would term a completed army. So what's left to be done to get these models in the case? Well, the two marines will complete a 5 man devastator squad. They have a ways to go but will likely be completed this week. As for the dread, you will notice it only needs tactical markings. Easy stuff!

But there is more exciting news! You see, as I am talking about being on this big threshold - this army has yet to reach a plateau. I have multiple other vehicles and squads that are on the cusp of completion. Once I hit that 1500 mark then the 1750, 1850, and 2000 marks should fall in rapid succession. Well, maybe not 2000. That might be getting ahead of myself.

The only sour note as I sing my own praises is that in a tournament setting it still won't be a competitive army. I really need to go the multiwing route if I want to be tournament viable. Still, I only play in tournaments 2-3 times a year, whereas I'll be able to see them in the display case every day and know how long I've work on this army and what a huge accomplishment it will have been for me. Hopefully you'll see me here, tooting my own horn some more, in another week.

Finish What You Started!

2008-11-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

I've talked a lot about trying to maintain impetus to get things done. Any little edge or incentive I can give myself to keep me on task I try to exploit. I'm very big into visual goals. I paint my models piecemeal in part so that I have the visual validation that I've completed something - even if its just a set of legs or a flamer.

I've also mentioned in the past that I use the visual recognition that comes from filling my display cases:

I actually just added these 2 models to the case. The first one is Balor from the 5th Squad of the 5th Company. He actually was in White Dwarf like 2 years ago in a Grand Tournament spread but in my head he wasn't finished. He was still awaiting his chapter symbol and script on the skeleton's parchment. The second is Heletiv, who just replaced one of my most outdated models from the 1st Squad of the 5th Company (which was painted over 10 years ago and really isn't up to my current standards.) Don't ask me where I pulled that name from but that's what was written under his base:

My latest painting strategy has been the act of clearing unfinished models out of my figure case and getting them into the display case. I literally take a model or partially painted piece out of the figure case and put it on my painting table. I then physically shift all of the models down to show myself I've made progress. Its a near compulsive action. The current goal is to reduce this figure case down to only 1 tray of partially finished models and bits:

I've talked a lot about how I do things but this kind of shows the method AND the madness of how I approach painting an army - and possibly why its taken me over a decade to get this far.

Apocalypse Virgin

2008-11-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

On November 2, 2008 the Nerd Night crew converged on my apartment on Maplewood to engage in our first Nerd Night Apocalypse bash. A few of the guys had already experienced a few Apocalypse scale games, but this was my first. To be honest, I felt ill prepared. I was so busy with other things in my life during October that 40K was seriously the furthest thing from my mind. Normally I'd be scurrying around, trying to finish this model or that model, trying to build something grand, and hurriedly completing a new terrain piece. Instead I spent an hour or two watching TV the Thursday night before throwing together a battlewagon I knew I'd never even finish converting in time and totally lacking the tunnel vision mode I need to barrel through any type of project.

The night before I was out especially late and I was up before 7am getting the furniture moved and the tables set up. Arrival time was set for 9:30am so I had to hustle to get the house organized and get the dogs walked and fed. I had great energy early on and felt excited despite feeling unprepared. Eric called just as I finished getting everything into place, letting me know he was ready to arrive early to help set-up. Whoops! I guess I wasn't the only person bent on being pro-active so things went as smoothly as possible.

Somewhere after 10:00am the players had fully arrived and we got our usual chatter out of the way and made last minute changes to army lists etc. We were using approximately 9000 points per side and we played on a 6' x 8' table. Also, we only had one small super heavy on the board which resulted in just masses of troops flooding the table. It took us 7 1/2 hours to deploy, play a couple of turns, eat lunch, and then complete a couple more turns. At about 6 hours in my head started to pound from the sleep I neglected to get, but I had felt good about how well we paced ourselves, how way stayed to task once we got settled in, and that we managed to get in 4 full turns despite the enormous amount of models and the distinct lack of any sort of templates larger than an ordnance blast save for a couple of Orbital Bombardments. A little after 5:00pm everything was cleaned up, the furniture was back in place, and the dogs were once again lords of the living room - they were getting pissed being penned up all alone in the kitchen.

I did learn a number of things from the experience. Everything Jervis had written about being organized was spot on. Having a loose plan for the food, roughly having our crap together, and getting the tables set up ahead of time were all time savers. In the future I think we could get this all streamlined even more, ensuring we got more turns in. Additionally, we needed to scale back the points slightly or make sure we all made use of Datafaxes and Super-Heavy Vehicles. Not only was our killing potential greatly reduced at the expense of our turns being lengthened, but I think we missed out on some of the grandeur that comes from dropping a 10" template on your opponents forces. We also picked our Strategic Assets randomly from a hand picked selection Eric chose out of the book. Assets like Flank March and Strategic Redeployment were left out of the mix and though part of me thinks the idea of 20 Sentinels picking up and relocating to another section of the board mid game is completely ridiculous, our huge number of models and lack of massive kill power resulted in a pretty much the center of the board being one giant fight that just largely stalemated, especially since we reached a point where we had tons of models that couldn't do anything because they were blocked by other friendly models.

I love the idea of the massive battle and it was a great excuse to gather and have a light hearted game with lots of chatter about what's going on in our lives. Nerd Nights have been scattered at best the last couple months and it was just nice having everyone in the same place for an afternoon so we could catch up. The only two things I felt the day lacked was a story to tie it together (see my last post) and a bit more fully painted models. I'm really all about aesthetics when it comes to wargaming and I think a slightly smaller fight would have resulted in a prettier fight.

Regardless, it got me jump started once again and the last couple weeks the paints and brushes were dragged out, the new Space Marine Codex and Imperial Armour Masterclass Vol 1 were bought, the blog has been added to, and a couple of models are nearing completion. I am pretty sure its done the same for some of the other guys, so not only was it a successful day in terms of fun had by all amidst quality company, but it was doubly successful because it got a few of us a bit more motivated.

Thanks to everyone for a great day. Extra special thanks to Eric for making it happen.

PS. The Orks won the day against the Space Wolves/Ecclessiarchal contingent. Waaghh!

Yearning for the Days...

2008-11-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

When I first got into Warhammer Fantasy in the mid-90's I played most of my games against a customer at my gaming store named Christian. He'd come flying into the store, usually declaring something obscene about wife-swapping, and then he'd get down to the business of talking about his Chaos Dwarfs. Astrogoth (or whatever his name was) was constantly pushing towards Zufbar (sp) but had to march through my Undead to get there. Maps were drawn, scenarios were created on the spot, and the story line advanced.

Eventually I made the switch to 40K and started collecting the Angels of Absolution. At the time I changed systems he started collecting his first 40K love - the brand new Sisters of Battle. I started a campaign in the store revolving around a planet called Biletrus III and considering more games were played by Christian and I, the rest of the campaign players were just playing in a league more or less, while we were advancing a narrative. That narrative carried on long after the campaign died out. Commander Caligulas, Chaplain Vitus, Captain Belial, Techmarine Aries, and Genetor Evodius (I was using some Adeptus Mechanicus allies from the 2nd Edition Black Codex at the time) were all names that were thrown around. Both sides claimed we had rightful claim to the Emperor's Blessing and that the other had gone heretic, and the Ministorum held world of Biletrus III resisted our reclaimation of crucial STC technologies. A lot of the games we played even used the desert combat rules out of Citadel Journal, which I thought were great fun. Those were memorable days.

Time passed and narratives advanced. We both went on to work for Games Workshop and eventually Christian switched to Black Templars and I switched to my Redemptors of Golinar fanatical zealot IG army. We were still insisting the other side had gone rogue, but despite having armies from the Imperium we could always come up with a reason for fighting, a cool scenario, and a cool looking battlefield that looked like it made sense based upon the scenarios and narratives we came up with.

I've had some other great narrative games with other former co-workers and friends, but nothing has really compared to those games with Chris. We just clicked on what we wanted out of the hobby and out of gaming - the fusion of fantastic models, beautiful terrain, unique scenarios, and a developing story to tie it all together.

When I got to Chicago I joined an expansive group of fledgling and veteran gamers with divergent interests and armies. We've tried several campaigns. We've tried unique scenario generators. More than anything we've played a lot of tournament style games. I quickly found that whenever I was in a campaign I liked picking on my buddy Chad because he liked writing narrative style battle reports afterward that gave everything a little more depth, kind of like those early days with Christian.

As of late I've been really yearning for those days. My last two games were a giant 9000 point Apocalypse game and a nail-biter of a game against the Orks that was straight out of the book, tournament style. Both were fun games but there was no rivalry and no depth. I didn't even refer to any of my characters by their names - it all felt very detached.

On Citizen Nick Hobby Center there is a couple of posts where Scott is talking about the nature of campaigns and how we might alter the Alpheca campaign that we were playing in that he had developed all sorts of background and rules for. I read through it all and my answer was "mechanics be damned, let's strip it down to just the narrative." The more I think about it the more I miss those early days and yearn for narrative play. Tournaments and leagues are fun but I just feel like something is missing - that I need to get back to my roots. Mechanics be damned my friends. Let's strip it down and concentrate on giving our games and armies depth.

Angels of Absolution Promotions and Demotions.

2008-08-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

Last post I mentioned buying a second DETOLF glass display case from Ikea and how I'm using it as a source of inspiration. Though I don't have any pictures today, I did want to say that the last couple of cool days I actually spent some time going through my broken Angels of Absolution and making repairs so that I could get them into the display case.

While I was at it I felt it was time for Promotions and Demotions! You see, I've been collecting my Angels of Absolution for 14 years. I have full tactical markings on all of my finished models representing squads from 2 different companies and, of course, I have a ton of unfinished models earmarked for specific squads. Additionally, some of my earliest Angels of Absolution were models from the 2nd Edition 40K box set, and quite frankly are so static and ugly, I relegated them to the hard shell figure case long ago. However, with the advent of Apocalypse (which I still haven't played!) no model need be retired.

All of this said, I went through all of those old static marines that I had finished and I changed their knee pads from 5th Company to 6th Company so that the old marines operate from the Reserve Company where, in my head, they belong. I then had a number of beautiful newer marines that had 6th company markings that I promoted by changing their knee pads and squad number. While I'm at it I finishing some of the lingering models and getting them into the case as well. I'm actually very excited.

And while everyone is crying a river over the new C:SM, I'm getting stoked about Drop Pods and Black Reach. You can't please any of these people it seems. Oh well.

Glass Display Cases and Painting Impetus

2008-08-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

For several years, dating back to when I lived in Washington, DC, I would stare at this glass display case at IKEA and jot the number down so I could pick it up when I got down to the warehouse floor. At least a dozen times I talked myself out of actually buying it. Concerns about having to move it, a hang up I had that it didn't match my other IKEA furniture, worries that the dogs would break it (or my friends!), and whatever else I could come up with consistently prevented me from buying this glass display case. Well around this time last year I finally broke down and bought it. It met with mixed reviews, some people loved it, yet others said it was the final nail in the coffin of me ever getting laid. Truth be told, though my models don't keep me warm at night, seeing them on display and having visitors compliment them fills me with pride. As a mediocre player, my greatest joy in the hobby has always been when people stop at my table at a tournament or when I used to display them in the cabinet at the GW store I managed, and they would compliment my painting. Even I periodically walk past my own models on display and stop to look at them. I'm proud of them and I feel they are worthy of display.

One of the greatest things about owning a display case is that it reinforces the feeling of accomplishment you get when you complete a model. Instead of the finished model going straight into the hard shell figure case for storage in the closet until the next battle, it goes up on display and you get a constant visual reminder of your army growing. This often acts as a catalyst for continued progress. For someone who has trouble staying focused, its just another tool for keeping my eye on the prize.

A few months ago, as I was working on my Redemptors of Golinar Imperial Guard army I quickly discovered that I was basically out of space in my cabinet. I was storing all of my IG tanks in progress in the case so I could maintain a visual reminder of my progress and I had to pull all of my other models out of the display case to make room for them. My beautiful Orks and Angels of Absolution were shelved and put back into cold storage.

Last week I dusted my display case which had gone half empty from various models going to tournaments or getting pulled out of their cases for gaming nights and re-shelved elsewhere. Now nice and clean I started re-organizing the display case and dragging out my completed models for display. This is what actually prompted me to repair Chaplain Vitus - I wanted to get him back in the case.

In the last couple of days I've repaired a few other marines that had fallen into disrepair. I scraped off old glue to make sure the new bonds were solid, and I touched up chipped paint on the metal bits. I've actually repaired and restored 4 models - which I consider a bit of an accomplishment with how much I've been working the last 3 months.

As I've been going through and re-organizing my display case I realized that I had outgrown it. Its overcrowded and an overcrowded case doesn't create much of a demand for completing or repairing models. It was time to get another display case. I actually had 2 days off in a row for the first time this summer, so yesterday I made the 40 minute trek to IKEA up in Schaumburg and I got another DETOLF display case to match my original and not surprisingly, I'm exceedingly anxious to get to the painting table for a few hours today to help fill it. Its funny how these things work.

Games Day Chicago and the Angels of Disrepair

2008-07-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

"Where is everyone?" was the resounding question at Games Day Chicago this past weekend. The Games Day 40K tournament - normally 120 players strong and a complete sellout - had around 36 players. Three of those players were from my gaming group, so my gaming group accounted for 1/12 of the players. What happened? One might speculate it is event "over saturation" here in Chicago. At 3 major tournaments in one year - could that be too many? I don't think so. Our centralized location makes Chicago an ideal place for Games Day and for major tournaments. Could it have been the timing of the 5th Edition release? Was it that no one wanted to go two weeks back in time for one last roll in the hay with 4th Edition? Or was it a new form of gaming snobbery? Has Adepticon gotten so big that its adherents are thumbing their noses at Games Workshop's premier event in the mid west? I'll be really curious to see how the turnout for the Chicago Grand Tournament is in October.

And most importantly, will Dung Trinh from Tennessee be there? One of the biggest disappointments of Games Day Chicago this year was that I didn't face off against Dung Trinh and his Thousand Sons. You see, by some freak occurrence (more like us both being dead average players), we have somehow been paired against each other 3 years in a row. Every year I had my Angels of Absolution and every year he has his Thousand Sons and we battle. Last year our battle was my favorite of the tournament - old rivals laughing like war buddies and just having a fun relaxed game. If you know Dung Trinh from Tennessee you make sure he knows his presence is requested at the Chicago Grand Tournament in October!

Despite the small size of the tournament I had a really good time. All of my opponents were friendly and enjoyable to play against. I got to play on Table #1 for the first time in my life due to earning 20 points on the 1st mission. There may have been a miscalculation so my place may not have been earned and I was rightly defeated by my Tyranid horde opponent in the 2nd game and was driven several tables back where I belonged. For me the highlight of the tournament was my 3rd game which was against Brian Carlson. For the last couple of years I've made it a point to always wander over and spy his models at tournaments. I've seen him walk into tournaments and the Chicago Bunker with beautifully painted Tyranids and Kroot Mercs, and it was awesome to actually talk to the him about his armies and see if his hobby spirit translated onto the gaming table as well. As it turns out he was my favorite player of the day. He was extremely pleasant and we played at a great pace, got all of our turns in, conversed about the hobby, and had a great game. His Sons of Guilliman (Ultramarines) were exceptionally painted, his army list was full color on photo paper with tons of fluff, his dice matched his army, and his army was fun to play against despite the fact it became Assault Cannon Hell once he got within 24". Hats off to Brian for being a model hobbyist, and thanks to all my opponents for a great time.

Now, I must take a moment to beat myself up. Every year I tell Dung Trinh that the Angels will be done "next year" and every year we laugh because we both know its a lie. I've been working on the Angels for 13 years now and they've made an appearance at every tournament event I've attended and they still aren't done. Not only have I done myself and my opponents a disservice by always falling short of the goal, I've allowed my army to fall into disrepair. I fielded more broken models this year than ever. Its not uncommon to have 1 or 2 models break in transport to the event, but last fall (almost a year ago now) my case flipped over and spilled models all over the hardwood floor. I repaired a bunch of them, but not even close to all of them. Since then, more models have broken and I just continue to field them. My beloved Chaplain Vitus has gone to the last 2 tournaments without his bolt pistol arm or jump pack. Several other models were missing bits. The latest casualty was a Rhino having its smoke launchers bust off.

Last night and this morning, I pulled out the one and only Chaplain Vitus and I scraped away old glue, repainted chips in his armor, and re-glued his broken bits restoring him to his former glory. All hail Chaplain Vitus!

Summer Kills My Progress

2008-06-22T05:59:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and this is my first update in almost a month. What is happening in the world of Nerd Night? Are they playing? Is the campaign going on? I'm sure all 3 readers outside of our group are wondering!

First a bit about my life... I lease apartments in a high rise apartment building in downtown Chicago. Somehow I managed to convince my bosses that it was a good idea to fire and rehire me every winter. So I work for 6 months of the year and I'm off the other 6. This year, with the state of the economy, I'm having to work harder to get people to live in our expensive high rise. I'm skipping lunches, I'm coming in on my days off. Last night I was standing around after hours, already changed into my civilian garb (cut off camo shorts, studded belt, sneakers, and a Carcass t-shirt), and one of our best locators/realitors was standing outside with a client hoping to see a couple apartments. Years previous I would have ignored them, but this year I said, "I hope you don't mind I'm in a Carcass t-shirt" and we were off to look at apartments. Needless to say, finding time for hobby activity has been slim. I get home, walk the dogs, and crash - every night. Except Nerd Night of course!

My painting has suffered. My blog has suffered. But the campaign is going fine.

The campaign consists of: The Varrian 10th Imperial Guard (Chad), Thousand Sons (Scott), Space Wolves (Matt), Amethyst Shroud Sisters of Battle (Anton), Highland Lions Space Marines (Eric), Orks (Brian), and finally Waaagh Kweergit and Zaggrod (Nick).

The Space Wolves, in our 3 campaign turns, have amassed a small empire on the board, but the true menace on the planet seems to be the two Ork forces. We'll see how it all pans out.

I'll try and get more information up when I can. I want to show off the beautiful campaign map that Scott created using Mighty Empires tiles and some other stuff.

More to come!

Quiet on the Hobby Front

2008-05-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

Not much blog worthy has been going on the last 2 weeks so I've been remarkably silent. I keep dragging out potential projects, working on them for a few minutes, and then getting distracted by something that's not hobby related. I have been following the 5th Edition reports feverishly on BoLS and Warseer but that's about it.

Two Monday's ago I pulled out my Orks and administered a sound beating. I've been playing a mostly foot slogging force with 2 Warpheads and I love the way it plays. Its a little unpredictable but it works really well with my play style I think. It also makes me think I'd really like to switch my DA army to a Multiwing format. I really want to try the Ravenwing/Deathwing combo.

Anyway, last night I tried an experimental DA tournament list that isn't Multiwing against Eric's completely vehicle-less Blood Angels force. I played a strong game despite some terrible dangerous terrain rolls for my vehicles (I had my Landraider and a Vindicator both roll Immobilized results in the same turn!). It clearly wasn't strong enough as the Blood Angels won by 600+ points.

Here are some photos from that game. The first one is my favorite. It screams photoshop me with some sort of cool background and some drifting smoke. I'm definitely going to try and get more dramatic pics like that in the future.

These two Highland Lion's (Blood Angels) more than earned their points, popping the Dreadnought and then dragging down several marines from that Rhino in the distance down with them.

Impending Campaign = New Scenery

2008-05-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend involved a trip to Home Depot to pick up some supplies. There was a brief concern that I wasn't going to have enough gaming area if we have our possible 8 campaign participants so I decided to pop in and get some more 2'x4' sections to paint up. While I was there I became inspired by this:

My immediate thought was to make it into a monument, so I added a suitable base:

I did attempt to seal with watered down white glue to reduce the amount that the wood grain would show up but it failed to make an impact. Down the road I may go back with some spackle and then do a complete repaint of the piece. It looks good, but too obviously wood:

Inspired by the statue in Cities of Death, I added some bird shit. I think it came out fairly well:

While I was working on this, I did all off the drybrush work on the temple I made a few posts back. Here are all of the photos from today:

Thanks for reading!

Full Circle

2008-05-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

In four days I will have had the blog for a full month. My opening post discussed that the reason for this blog is to help keep me focused. So far you've read about me playing both Fantasy and 40K. You've seen pictures of Imperial Guard I was working on, a bunch of scenery, a scenario generator, and read about the excitement I'm having about our upcoming Monday night campaign. The things you haven't seen, behind the scenes, were the couple of nights I spent drybrushing table sections to blend with my existing city terrain, the day I spent going to GW to buy some of their plastic scenery to prepare for an off night game of Fantasy, the 1 hour I spent working on painting my Empire army, and numerous nights clipping sprues in front of the TV that I never actually did anything with.

Considering, this is all in 30 days, the one thing this blog has certainly not helped me with, its my focus. At the very least, it did keep me on track with some city scenery since I wrote a poll about what scenery should I work on next, and I came through. Otherwise, its been a total failure when it comes to focusing me.

A couple of nights ago I dragged out a new Ork trukk I was working on diligently back in January and is at least half way complete. I did some quick highlights on a couple of areas and now I'm bored. Considering I even paint 40K infantry piecemeal, I'm going to go back to Ork boyz for a little bit. Working on an arm, a set of legs, or a torso each day allows me to at least get something done and stay a little focused when I'm only getting anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour of hobby time a night.

I'll report back on how I feel my focus is coming in another month... You know, when its 1 month away from Games Day and I'm in a panic to get an army ready, haha.

About Last Night!

2008-05-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Here's last night's Nerd Night in images. I'll save my wordy tirades for another day.

Necron Advance!

The Highland Lion's turn rogue. The Varian 10th and the Redemptors of Golinar bear down upon them.

Advanced Rules of Engagement

2008-05-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

I started work on something similar to this during our preparation for Adepticon. I would throw together a series of charts for Deployment, Special Rules, and Objectives in order to emulate the structure of their scenarios, which have definite identifiable trends that could be categorized and put into chart form, creating a variety of circumstances that would could expect to have thrown at us. I felt like it worked pretty well even if I generated the rough charts anew each game.

With our campaign coming up, Scott (the organizer) suggested we might use the Rules of Engagement ( http://uk.games-workshop.com/warhammer40000/rules-of-engagement/1/). I like the idea of random scenarios, but looking over the options the Rules of Engagement presented, it really left off a lot of cool stuff and means of variety. So I present to you the rough draft of my own Advanced Rules of Engagement. Look them over and tell me what you think!

I. Roll Strategy Rating.
The winning side can modify 1 die roll by the difference they won by during the following steps (II.-VI.)

II. Deployment Zones (Roll D6):

1. Quarters
2. Strong Point
3. Diagonal
4. Board Edge
5. Surrounded
6. Apocalypse

Notes:
Strong Point. "Attacker" gets 3 board edges, the "defender" gets a 12"x12" square on the open edge. See BGB P207.

Surrounded. "Defender" gets a 12"x12" square in the center of the board, the attacker utilizes the board edges. See BGB P213 for the closest example.

III. Separation (Roll D6):

1. 12"
2. 15"
3. 18"
4. 24"
5. 27"
6. 30"

Note: If one side gets pushed off of their board edge their forces move onto their board edge on Turn 1.

IV. Special Rules (Roll 2D6):

2. Night Fighting
3. Hidden Set Up
4. Fortifications or Preliminary Bombardment*
5. Concealment
6. Deep Strike
7. Infiltrate
8. Dusk + Dawn
9. Random Game Length
10. Obstacles or Preliminary Bombardment*
11. Divided Force and Reserves
12. Sustained Attack

Optionally, both sides can choose 1 City Fight Stratagem.

Notes: * Roll off. One receives Fortifications or Obstacles, and the other side receives Preliminary Bombardment to counter them.

V. Objective (Roll 2D6):

2. The Gauntlet (Set up a 12" wide exit point in your deployment zone. Exit off the opposing player's exit point. COD P48)
3. Hold Out (Occupy more area terrain than your opponent. COD P43)
4. Sabotage (Blow up objective in opponents deployment zine by getting into base to base. BGB P206)
5. Enemy Lines (Recon BGB P83)
6. Loot (Objective markers. Secure and Control BGB P82)
7. Table Quarters (BGB P81)
8. Annihilation (BGB P82)
9. Field of Battle (BGB P83)
10. Plant the Flag (Move through scenery to claim it, most flags wins. COD P42)
11. Capture Vital Building (COD P43)
12. Assassins (Kill enemy HQ. COD P51)

VI. FOC (Roll D6): (Optional)

1. Raiders
Required: 1x HQ and 1x ELITES
Optional: 1x HQ, 2x ELITES, 5x TROOPS, 3x FAST, 1x HEAVY

2. Breakers
Required: 1x ELITES and 1x TROOPS
Optional: 2x HQ, 1x ELITES, 4x TROOPS, 3x FAST, 3x HEAVY

3. Hit and Fade
Required: 1x HQ, 1x FAST and 2x ELITES
Optional: 1x HQ, 4x ELITES, 2x TROOPS, 2x FAST

4. Standard
Required: 1x HQ and 2x TROOPS
Optional: 1x HQ, 3x ELITES, 4x TROOPS, 3x FAST, 3x HEAVY

5. Siege
Required: 1x HQ and 3x TROOPS
Optional: 1x ELITES, 6x TROOPS, 3x HEAVY

6. Defender
Required: 2x TROOPS
Optional: 1x HQ, 2x ELITES, 4x TROOPS, 1x FAST, 2x HEAVY

Note: All of these alternate FOCs are taken from the Dark Millennium section of the BGB and from COD.

I think this would create an amazing array of scenarios.

What do you think?

Impending Campaign!

2008-05-03T05:22:00.000-07:00

The Nerd Night crew are beginning a campaign in June put together by Scott from Citizen Nick Hobby Center. Inspired by a number of Black Library and Forgeworld books, he's started throwing together images for the campaign using Photoshop. I'm always interested in ways to push the limits of the hobby and I feel imagery is huge, but not all of us can draw, let alone produce anything as inspiring as the GW artist stable. Scott used Photoshop to produce this image and I feel it instantly adds a feeling of depth to the campaign.

Governor Bellavos, Lord Governor of Alpheca III.

Very cool if you ask me. When he produces more I'll probably show some of them off as well.

This Week in Scenery.

2008-04-30T20:43:00.000-07:00

I have a job that requires I work on the weekends, so my "weekend" falls on Tuesday and Wednesday. I, unfortunately, did not complete any projects. However, I have some shots of works in progress to share. First up is what I'm referring to as the "Machine Shop". The upcoming Nerd Night campaign will involve factories that we will use to produce resources, so I set out to build a factory. Rather than produce one giant factory, my plan is to create three mid sized pieces that when combined give the feel of a manufacturing area. I also made this piece partially ruined but largely intact so that it could feasibly be still in use while still being highly playable.

This next piece was a total stream of conciousness build. I had two ruined wall barriers that I bought at Adepticon that were still sitting out and waiting to be put away. I started messing around with placing them on a base and nothing seemed to look good at first. Then I started brainstorming on using them for a classic ruined temple design (classic in that GW have made several variations on the ruined temple concept that are all vaguely similar.) Here's my take on it:

That's it for now. More to come!

People Love City Terrain!

2008-04-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

City Terrain won resoundingly in the poll. I should work on City Terrain next. Unless people in my gaming group voted twice by going to other computers, the numbers show that more than the people I roll with want more City Terrain. Though I have nothing brand new to show my gaming group, I'm going to show off some old stuff and I'll complete some new stuff next week.

First up is a piece entirely composed of GW's city terrain plastic sections. I probably won't use these straight out of the box for much. I prefer to make the buildings more unique by combining them with other scratch build sections.

Anyway, this piece was recently updated from its Codex Grey on Chaos Black roots to include some Bleached Bone drybrushing on the skulls, Tin Bitz and Boltgun Metal drybrushing on the chains and exhaust vents, some Dark Angels Green washing on a variety of details, Scorched Brown washing over the skulls, and finally a Bubonic Brown drybrush on the top floor and a Bleached Bone drybrush on the ground floor.

You will also notice the base has sidewalk lines. These, as mentioned in an article last week, were added with a linoleum block cutter.

The above is a road section that I use to add city elements to my badlands board, or to use as an airfield landing strip, or the base for parkland on my city board (more on that next week!) Once again, this is 1/8" plastic card with the cracks cut in with the linoleum block cutter.

It is mutually agreed amongst the gamers in my group that this is a pretty beautiful piece of terrain, but getting your models in and out of there is a complete bastard. At least the models have lots of flat area to stand. They just fall over when your hand hangs up on part of the terrain and you bobble the whole thing. You'll notice a variety of new and old techniques for this building. The structure is classic cut out foam core, cardstock bricks and tiling on the floors and on the chimney stack (I don't know what else to call that section), but a lot of the other details are from misc Hirst Arts molds. Finally plasticard is used for the roofing.

These foam core sections were cut at the same time and will form some sort of companion building in the coming weeks. The sad truth was that these were drawn out possibly as early as 2001? They've been sitting around for that long. The building above was drawn out at the same time and was completed in 2006. I work slower than real building contractors!

This is Ian. Every so often he'll decide that all 48lbs of pitbull need to be on my lap so he can inspect my work and chew it up if he sees fit. You can see glimpses of other works in progress in the background. More on those next week!

Thinking Ahead... UPDATED!

2008-04-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

I had planned to play Mechanized Guard in the 40K Championships at Adepticon 08. I didn't get the army to a point that I felt was complete enough to field so I used my Angels of Absolution instead. So here we are, Chicago Games Day is coming up in July, and I really should start figuring out now what army I'm going to bring.

The Angels of Absolution have been fielded in every tournament I've ever been to in all my years of gaming, with the exception of the Team Tournament at Adepticon which has always seen 1000 points of my Imperial Guard.

My Orks really would be my first choice, but I paint insanely slow and there is no way I would be able to complete them in time - maybe they could make it to the Chicago Grand Tournament in the Fall, but definitely not GD in July.

So that leaves the Imperial Guard I was trying to have ready for the Championships. I'd have some set backs from what I've accomplished. I was painting all Autocannon and Twin Linked Heavy Bolter turrets, and I'd want to replace the Autocannon turrets with Multi-laser Turrets, and I would have to radically alter my Heavy Support choices as I was taking all Forge World vehicles, and though my Manticore can quite reasonably "count as" a Basilisk, the 2 Thunderers would really only be able to "count as" Demolishers - and those frankly eat up way too many points.

I'd be down but not out. I should have plenty of time to finish what I have left to assemble and paint.

Another bit of thinking ahead...

All signs seem to indicate that in July when 5th Edition comes out that S5 weapons will shift from defensive to primary. This means all 6 of my Chimeras will no longer be able to shoot both weapons on the move. The often ignored Pintle Mounted Heavy Stubber at its rather burly 12 points was never that attractive to me before but seem to gain a whole lot of usefulness in 5th Edition. I think I'll be modeling some removable hatches with Pintle Mounts and trying them out. July is just around the corner!

Update: I realize that anyone reading the blog who isn't part of my gaming group probably had no insight into what my models look like or how I work. I paint very slowly, but I've speed up considerably in the last year. I cut corners I never would have before. Here's a collection of tank sections that were being prepared for Adepticon. This is effectively a portion of 2 months worth of work. Each of these stage by stage shots is actually a separate vehicle in a different stage of production.

I find that when I work on a large model I often lose interest before I complete it. Instead I like to work in manageable bites. For these Chimeras I clipped and cleaned the parts that I needed and painted them all individually. My work area currently looks like this:

Each of the above bits was cleaned, primed white, hit with a coat of Blood Red Spray, and then given a 2-3 watered down coats of Blood Red to "de-orange-ify" the tone of the spray and make it so that the model takes inks more easily. (Note: I am not an "airbrush guy" but for what I use Blood Red and Bleached Bone sprays for, I simply cannot wait for the Hand Flamer Sprayer. It will speed up the above process and that's something to be stoked about!)

The above photo I titled "The Five Stages of Redemption." Side armour #1 is basecoated Blood Red as described above. #2 You can faintly see has a Blazing Orange highlight on all off the edges and rivets. #3 depicts the Fiery Orange highlight which only goes on side and upper edges, as well as on the rivets. On #4 I have gone back and carefully hit each rivet and plate separation with watered down brown ink. Finally, #4 I've gone back with Fiery Orange and cleaned up any highlights that got muddied up by the inking and hit each of the rivets another 1-2 times with Fiery Orange (the ink usually really darkens these).

Once I have enough sections fully highlighted to assemble the center of the vehicle, I assemble it. I "glass" the viewport at the front at this point, when its easy to hold the model and not get fingerprints on the paint because I can hold the bare plastic sides.

The outer side is placed on now. As you can see, I don't bother priming the spacing wheels. I only note it because my Adepticon Team Mate, Mike Nogle, said to me, "Oh, you don't prime those?" I think he figured I was so anal that I would.

Here I've added the top section, tracks, and the Heavy Bolter. I was on another blog and they were going over their technique for tracks and they pushed them all down really flush with the spacing wheels and meticulously cut one of the "1" Tracks down to half the size. I actually did this on one or two of the vehicles I worked on, but I recently tried just going with a "loose fit". I didn't shove anything down tight, I just rested them on the wheels and found that it was possible to get the tracks to fit without any trimming of bits by merely letting the tracks "float" more. The tanks will sometimes rock a little because the tracks balloon out a little but they look more natural. Next time I do tracks I'll try and step by step it.

Lasguns are painted separately and then added. As you can see all of the viewports are glassed with the standard "gem" effect. I could go back and wash or 'Ard Coat them for additional effect, but the truth is, this army is never going to win any awards anyway, its just to a high gaming standard and I have to keep that in mind.

Next side armour with tactical markings is added, as well as the side hatch. At this moment this vehicle belongs to the 5th Armoured Fist Company and is the 1st vehicle of the 1st platoon, though part of me is considering it being the 7th vehicle and putting the company number elsewhere. We'll see how I feel when I detail those other side armour pieces above.

Thank You Warphammer!

2008-04-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Warphammer added this site to their blog role. I am deeply honored! My blog has only been up for a week and people are checking out. Thank you.

Take a minute to go check http://warphammer.wordpress.com/ if you haven't already.

The Marienburgers Defend Their Goods!

2008-04-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Marienburg Merchant Guard entered the Vale of Woe. They sent a small party ahead to meet up with guides for hire that they had arranged for several weeks previous. These guides were to lead them to the point along the river where the hermit boatman supposedly lives.

The two meeting parties approached one another and something seemed dramatically wrong. The approaching guides were larger than expected. They weren't men either, but Ogres -and there were over a dozen of them.

Ogres do roam the streets of Marienburg and their sight would not have been cause for immediate distress. However, it was the fact that they were barreling towards them, bawling, and brandishing iron clad fists and other weapons.

The Merchant Guard braced for the inevitable impact and steeled themselves for victory or death. Spears were readied, black powder and shot were packed into handguns and pistols, and the militia fanned out.

Quick thinking on the part of several merchants even resulted in a Mortar - meant to be a gift to the Merchants of Ind - being brought to ready and fired at the closing Ogres. Luckily they had been trained in its use so they could demonstrate it, but their lack of proficiency was obvious.

Two groups of Pistoliers attempted to flank the Ogres, but as soon as the wild eyed gaze of hunger lust fell upon horses the steeds panicked! No amount of training between the rider and mount could calm them.

The Spearmen fought bravely - holding their ground and battling back. The biggest bruiser was ultimately dragged down, but the battle didn't end there. The Ogres that had driven off the Pistoliers came to his defense, allowing him to crawl away. The regimented training of the Merchant Guard and heroic leader ship of their proud Captain allowed them to face all comers and run them down. The disorganization of the Ogres being their downfall.

It was a hard fought battle. This was my first game against the Ogres and they are a burly lot. Previous experience in the game had taught me that big blocks of troops and out casting him would win the day, and it surely did. I went for a 6x5 block of 30 spearmen (6 being the frontage) and coupled with a tooled up captain and tooled up wizards. It was a fun game. Things looked bleak when my two units of pistoliers fled the table in the face of separate Ogre charges, but it still all worked out. Those failed charges took 2 Ogre units out of position and resulted in all of the Ogre charges in the center of the battlefield to go on unsupported against my superior numbers. In all it was good game.

My apologies to Chad for no longer knowing the game backwards and forwards. It was a long night of looking up rules, but still fun and rewarding.

My apologies as well to any reader who read an earlier draft of the above this morning. It was an ugly first draft. Ugly!

Wisdom of the Ancients?

2008-04-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

I got into GW games around 1995. The game store I co-owned expanded to include Warhammer with all the surplus Magic:TG cash we had, and all of the owners started armies to learn the game. I selected Undead, and this was in the days previous to the splitting of Undead into Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. It doesn't seem that long ago, but I've been playing for almost 14 years.

Anyway, Magic:TG was a cash cow in those days, so we had even more surplus cash - and we decided to carry 40K as well. Once again we all selected armies and though I was torn between Orks and Dark Angels, I opted for the DA's successor chapter - Angels of Absolution.

Back in those days I remember playing Warhammer against a kid named Mike Mattlock. He played Empire and I don't think he ever won a game. He tried so hard. On at least one occasion I got a first turn win on him. We spent 45 minutes setting up. I got the first turn and I rolled for all 3 of my Screaming Skull Catapults and they all hit their mark. Units panicked in droves and this caused chain panic in the other units. I cleared almost an entire army off the board with 3 well guess shots, and Matt failing countless leadership tests. It was frustrating for both of us because we put so much into getting the game set up, and it was over inside of 10 minutes after deployment.

My earliest experiences with 40K were no different. A Virus Outbreak strategy card could clear a Guard Army before the game began. Was it Karandaras with Combat Drugs who got the first turn charge almost guaranteed and most likely tear the heart out of your army? (Note: armies were much smaller then.) Entire Wolfguard units could be equipped with Assault Cannons and Cyclone Missile Launchers. Vortex Grenades. Vortex Grenades! The list of insanely broken elements to the game goes on and on.

We eventually created additional limitations for both games like "no magic items over 50 points" and removing Virus Outbreak from the deck or Strategy Cards and denying Vortex Grenades as an option. That, and I outright refused to play the 12 year olds in my store with their Space Wolf Wolfguard.

I eventually went to work for GW when they opened a store in Buffalo, NY and I left the store I co-owner for a job with a paycheck. Before I was promoted to manager, I was rewarded for my commitment to the store by being sent to both the US and Canadian staff tournaments.

At the Canadian staff tournament, a guy named Sean Murphey deployed his enire army in 1 building. His opponent elected to shoot at the building instead of at any of his units. He blew up that building and Sean Murphy's army perished in its entirety on turn 1! They created something that day called the Murphy's Luck Award and whoever came in last at a staff tournament got a new boxed army of a different force than what they played with in the hope that they could do better with it.

People on the internet are always screaming bloody murder whenever GW does anything - its always the "wrong thing". The latest whining is about the impending 5th Edition that is "ruining 40K" before its even been released. Its also being endlessly asserted on the internet these days that GW have thrown game balance out the window.

Every edition of both games has gotten better. I haven't seen an army tabled in either game on the 1st turn since the late mid 90's. 5th Edition Fantasy and 3rd Edition 40K both made changes that prevented these sorts of things from happening.

Yes, your army is going to play differently.

Yes, you're likely going to have to convert or buy new models to adjust to the changes.

Yes, you're going to have to spend the next 5 years adjusting to the new ruleset just to have them tweak it again.

Embrace these things. Change is good. The game would get stale otherwise.

And as for game balance - there are too many variables with that many races. Perfectly balanced army lists is a myth. Its a concept that does not exist and it never will. Maybe if they cut both games down to 4 races each it would be possible, but then we'd lose all the character and variety that make the game so engaging.

Finally, if you can't adapt - get out! Seriously. I'm astounded how many GW haters still post on forums and comment on blogs. If you don't like the models, you don't like the prices, and you don't like the rules, then why are you here? Do all of us that are actually excited about the hobby a favor and take your crybaby bullshit elsewhere and rain on somebody else's parade. Personally I suggest politics where maybe you can focus all of that negative energy into something positive.

This is not a plea, its a demand. Sell your models and get out!

It Begins with a Journey...

2008-04-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

I think narrative is a huge part of the hobby. If there isn't a story to why we are fighting then we might as well be playing chess or Risk instead of games with a dozen or more factions with unique character and goals.

40K, with Warp technology, makes it pretty easy to explain away most pairings of hostile armies.

Warhammer Fantasy though, with the slow speed at which armies travel and there spacing across the known world - at makes explaining why 2 armies are fighting more difficult. Empire, as an example, at war with Vampire Counts, Orcs, Chaos, Bretonnia, or other portions of the Empire all make perfect sense. Empire at war with anyone else requires a great journey.

So tonight my Marienburg Empire force is doing battle with Chad's Ogre Kingdoms. We're separated by most of a continent and some of the most dangerous lands in the Warhammer World. He didn't envision his Ogres as mercenaries, which would have been the easy explanation, so instead my newly dubbed Marienburg Merchant Guard are attempting an overland journey to Ind. I detailed the jouney and gave Chad the option of choosing the point of attack that worked best with how he envisioned his army, and the start of the narrative was established. Here are the initial bits of narrative we each wrote:

"Here is your itinerary for your journey to Ind. You will set sail from Marienburg along the River Reik as soon as the winter breaks. You will head eastward until you reach the mouth of the Talabec - this will take you to Kislev. Be ever vigilant once you pass the mouth of the Urskoy, dark creatures lurk everywhere that far north!

At Kislev you may give your men 3 days rest, the hardest part of the journey will be ahead. You will continue north east along the Upper Talabec until you can travel no further. You will then follow the track to Peak Pass - this will be your path across the World's Edge Mountains. I would suggest acquiring a guide from either Kislev or Ostermark to assist you in your travels into the mountains.

The journey across the mountains will be arduous, but your travels will get more dangerous still when you enter the Dark Lands. It goes without saying, but once you leave the confines of the Empire you should only travel by day and each night keep your light minimal so as not to attract the wicked and barbarous.

Continue to follow the track through the Dark Lands due east. You will come to a river. Rumor tells of a shack and a hermit who sells boats but these cannot be validated nor do they seem likely. I will be providing you with the necessary tools and a couple of craftsmen to help you cobble some barges to take you down this river. Follow it to its mouth and you will reach the exotic and civilized land of Ind.

You will be transporting some of our finest goods. Protect them with your life, trade them judiciously, and then return to Marienburg. If you succeed you will be rich beyond measure and your men and their families will live comfortably for many years.

There is much to prepare for, winter will break within the month and you will need men and supplies. Inside of 6 months we will all be much wealthier - Sigmar be with you.

-Fredrik von Hedlerberg"

------------------------------

Gregor Mountaineater of the Iron Storm tribe sat and brooded, idly picking the remains of a Gnoblar from his teeth. Climbing Mount Skabrand was no simple feat, yet what was his reward? To sit here, waiting to meet a trade caravan that Tyrant Nazlar had agreed to escort through the Vale of Woe. No fighting, no looting, no meat fresh from a clubbing... This was no life for an Ogre.

Gregor's brother, Denor Maw Bitten, approached. "The man-things approach. Better to be eating them than watching them, damn Nazlar's teeth. Me thinks he's lost his teeth and his gut, been eating too much gold."

"Aye, was just thinking the same," replied Gregor. "But what can we do? He's the Tyrant, we's the followers. We've got our little band of bashers here, he's got the rest."

"But we've the Maw on our side," growled Denor. There was blood on his face, and a strange light in his eyes. Gregor sighed inwardly. "You's been snacking on Chaos Dwarves again Denor? They's no good for you, and you know it."

Denor roared, shaking a blood covered cleaver to the sky and casually decapitating a nearby Gnoblar. "The Maw speaks, and I listen! Eat, the Maw says! Gorge, kill, crush, eat! Meat, that's what we want, meat and glory for the Iron Storm, not gold, not this trade Nazlar makes. The Maw says we kill him, eat him, and then..."

As his brother trailed off, Gregor considered. Nazlar had been looking a little weak and gaunt lately, his gut plate getting a little loose. And anyway, a nice little pit fight and snack after would be more interesting than following orders all day. "All rights, you talk sense. But what then? and what now? How's do we start this?"

Denor grinned, showing his blood and marrow stained teeth. "After Nazlar, we takes the tribe and we obey the Maw. We kill, we eat, and we do it again. And to start..." Denor pointed the cleaver at an approaching caravan, barely visible in the distance. "We feast on the weak ones, the man things, in the name of the Maw."

Ogre text by Chad McMann

The only wrench in the plan is that my 1000 point list for tonight includes a Mortar - a weapon not really suited for protecting merchants on the go. Could it be a trade good that we were forced to use out of desperation? This could be. If destroyed in the battle it will be left to rot and rust in the Vale of Woe. If it survives, it will persist with us, even when inconvenient because frankly, we've lugged it all the way through the Empire, across the World's Edge Mountains, and across the Dark Lands - we are not discarding it now!

Random Bits

2008-04-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

People will see this on Warseer or Bell of Lost Souls long before they see it here, but I'm excited so I'm posting it anyway - from GD France:

Also, there is a really lively debate on improving tournament play on Bell of Lost Souls. Some people are being really hostile to Mkerr and he's responding with never ending logic and diplomancy (and math!). I think he's right, tournament play needs some revision. His suggested fix is not my #1 choice, but it wouldn't disuade me from a tournament either by any means. To see what the fuss is about go here:

http://belloflostsouls.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-thread-fly-wire.html

So tomorrow is Nerd Night, and as people are still reclaiming their lives after Adepticon, tomorrow will be a 1000 point Warhammer game between my Empire and Chad's recently acquired Ogre Kingdoms army. I've only played a couple of games in the current edition and I don't think I've won a single one with my Empire, but I feel more ready for this game than any of the ones I had in the Fall. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thoughts on Campaigns and Scenarios.

2008-04-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

Scenarios and campaign gaming are a huge part of why I love the GW hobby. Maybe its my role-playing roots at work, but I love telling a story and developing it over time. My Angels of Absolution did most of their fighting in the Biletrus system from 1995-1998 (mostly against Eldar and fractious Sisters of Battle under the sway of a Radical Inquistor gone too far) and had been fighting in the Tyrgon system from 1999-2006, mostly against the very dishonest and untrustworthy Tau. Their true, most secretive calling is the hunt for a Fallen battle brother named Hortikar who continues to flee deeper into the Eastern Fringe. All of these details add depth to my army that tournament play can never give.

Shortly after I joined the Nerd Night crew I ran a slow escalation campaign set on Tyrgon V revolving primarily around Imperial forces, the Tau, and Snakebite Orks. The storyline didn't really get fully fleshed out until the campaign was nearing its end (and some of the superfluous armies dropped by the wayside - like the Necrons), and for me, that's when we finally had something in place worth fighting about.

In the coming months we'll be starting a new campaign involving the Black Ships and the hunt for psychers run by Scott from Citizen Nick Hobby Center and I'm looking forward to it. However, since we have a few weeks in between, I want to revisit Tyrgon V and play out a few of the sub plots I envisioned, as well as the grand conclusion that we wrote about but never played out.

Below is a scenario I brainstormed last night and this morning and that I'd like to play on Tuesday. It pits the Varrian 10th Imperial Guard, the battered heroes of Tyrgon V, against the barbaric Snakebites marauding through the ruined city of Andelon. Lt Tonius has a crippling wound and is separated from his regiment. His microbead has gone dead and he's alone in the ruins. His only option, a signal flare he found in a wrecked Chimera he managed to drag himself into. He hopes it will draw his brothers in arms and he fully knows it will also draw his Ork pursuers. His only hope, launch the flare and then crawl into the cover of one of the nearby buildings and pray to the Emperor the Varrian 10th find him before the Snakebites do.

SEARCH AND RESCUE

OVERVIEW
An Imperial Officer, Lt Tonius, is wounded and down behind enemy lines. His microbead is malfunctioning so his only option was to shoot a signal flare and go into hiding until help arrived. You have tracked the signal flare to this sector of Andelon and must sweep the buildings until you’ve found your downed officer - if he’s still alive! Ork Boyz have also seen the flare and are in pursuit as well.

OBJECTIVES
Primary: Find Our Man! The wounded officer is hiding in one of the buildings, but neither side knows which one. At the beginning of each player turn make a standard Reserve Roll. If the Officer appears pick a building and roll a scatter die. On a hit he deploys in the building you have chosen. Otherwise the sighting was unconfirmed and he stays in hiding. Continue to roll as a Reserve unit at the start of each player turn until he appears. The objective is claimed by holding the building he is in. The player with a unit occupying this building at the end of the game is the winner. If neither side has any units occupying the building at the end of the game, the primary objective is a draw. 4 points for a win, 2 points each for a draw.

Secondary: Plant the Flag. Both forces are seeking to clear the enemy from this sector. This is achieved through occupying city ruins. When a city ruin is occupied, the unit doing so ‘plants a flag’ in that city ruin, and may move off to do so in more city ruins. The ‘flag’ remains until an enemy Scoring Unit occupies the ruin, at which point it plants its own flag instead. The player with the most flags planted at the end of the game wins the secondary objective. 3 points for a win, 1 point each for a draw.

Tertiary: Demonstrate Superiority. Beat your opponent by 251 Victory points or more to win the Tertiary Objective. 2 points for a win, 1 point if neither side achieves this objective.

SCENARIO SPECIAL RULES
Gama: Cityfighting Stratagems, Dusk and Dawn, Victory Points.

SET UP
1 Divide the table into four quarters. Both players roll a dice, the player with the highest score picks which quarter to deploy in. The other player’s deployment zone is the opposite quarter.
2 Declare the use of stratagems, as detailed in the Cityfighting Stratagems chapter.
3 Starting with the player that scored the lowest, the players take it in turns, deploying a unit at a time until both armies are fully deployed. Units are deployed in the following order: Troops, Heavy Support, Elites, HQ, Fast Attack. No unit can be deployed withing 18" of the enemy or within 12" of the center of the table at the start of the game.
4 Roll a D6. The player with the highest score may choose whether to go first or second.

GAME LENGTH: The game lasts 6 turns.

Note: Those familiar with the scenarios at Adepticon will quickly note I ripped off their 3 Objective system. I really like the way this system forces you to concentrate on multiple goals at once - it really adds depth to the scenario. The points are such that if you've dominated the terrain and you've done serious damage to the opposing army you can still be victorious even if the other side has secured Lt Tonius. His rescue or capture will do little good if you need rescuing yourself.

Terrain Piece of the Week

2008-04-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, so over the last couple of days I've been working on terrain. Here's a mostly finished piece. It utilizes the standard plastic building sections made by GW. Here was my starting point:

As you can see I used a bit of plastic card for the roof, with a plastic I-beam to form the peak.

The gable is thin cereal packet (Amy's Toaster Pop packet to be precise - Apple if you were wondering). I added a shadowboxed skull from the inside of a Cities of Death building piece. Be careful removing these. They are rather thick and I managed to stab a chisel shaped X-Acto blade straight into the palm of my hand.

The base is made of some sort of plastic used in sign making. I was pretty sure the Nerd Night founder, Anton, called in Cintra or Sintra. I tried looking it up online but couldn't find it under that name. Regardless, its like 1/8" plasticard and its fairly soft. I actually use a linoleum block cutting tool to put my sidewalk lines in:

Seeing as its a pretty simple piece we'll jump right to the painting:

The entire model was sprayed with GW Rough Coat and then again with Chaos Black. The entire model with the exception of the roof was drybrushed Codex Grey and then again with Codex Grey mixed with Bleached Bone.. A third dry brush of mostly Bleached Bone was applied to all of the skulls. I went back over the skulls with a wash of heavily watered down Scorched Brown and the chains and exhaust pipes were washed with Dark Angels Green.

So what is it? Its probably representative of a grounds shed or a free standing mechanical room. You'll often see these sorts of very small buildings near rail tracks or electrical lines.

I Lost My Focus Already!

2008-04-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

I talked yesterday about the desire to stay focused on my Imperial Guard tanks. I spent a few minutes on some side hatches and I selected which models were so barely started that they should be tucked back away. I then promptly dragged out a bunch of terrain supplies and began working on some city terrain instead.

In my defense, I was jonesing to work on some terrain 3 weeks ago and managed to stay the course and ignore my urges through Adepticon. With no urgency left, I just wandered to wherever the gods willed me in a manner of speaking,

So I worked on a number of terrain projects, none of which are completed at this precise moment. However, in order to make this blog semi useful and not just a way to feel okay about talking to myself here's a terrain tip:

I hate waste. I wish I could find a way to use every last sprue clipping, every bit of packaging... If it goes in the trash as a result of my hobby, I'm going to yearn to find a use for it. Now everyone knows about "sprue rubble" at this point. You clip up your sprues and use them to represent bricks or beams. Well today I cracked out my razor saw and made window sills. Its nothing fancy but here's a pic none the less:

While I'm at it, here's a pic of the stage previous:

And that's it for today. More tomorrow.

Adepticon is Over. What's Next?

2008-04-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

As is tradition, we all mutually agreed to skip the Nerd Night that falls directly after Adepticon. After the mad rush to complete army lists, models, and display boards followed by 3 days of frantic convention activity everyone needs some breathing room. So a couple of days have passed and now I'm looking at my painting table and my display case with ponderings of "What's Next?"

Unlike some of my compatriots, I did not finish my Adepticon army. In fact, I've never strolled into a tournament confidently with a fully painted army. I always fall short. This year, I fell so far short of my goal that not only was my Team Tournament army not finished, but I decided my 40K Championship army was so far from completion that I'd be embarrassed to take it out of the case and elected to crack out the Angels of Absolution that I have taken to every tournament I've been in since my first tournament in 1998.

Former GW staffer, Jason Buyaki asked me this past weekend, "So are those Angels finished yet?" Laughing, I said "No." The last time I talked to Jason was in 2003. Its been 5 years since our last encounter and he's been busting my balls about it since 1999 or 2000. Its so sad its comical. Its been the running joke for 10 years basically (I started painting the Angels of Absolution in 1995.)

I think this week is going to be spent completing a number of tanks that were used in my Redemptors of Golinar army this past weekend that are so far along that it would be stupid for me to hide them back away. I should be thinking ahead to the next big tournament in July as well as preparing my Orks for the upcoming Nerd Night campaign. So many projects, so little time. Maybe this blog will help keep me focused.

Nerd Night - The Blog

2008-04-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

Every Monday night for the last 2 years I've been playing 40K with roughly the same group of guys. People have come and people have gone - but the diehards remain. For the 3rd year in a row I attended Adepticon here in Chicago and for the 3rd year in a row some of our numbers have been there. We all love the GW hobby and we all love going to gatherings and seeing what other people are doing. This year we came to some new realizations...

Flash back to 1994-2001:

In 1994 I was part owner of a gaming store in Buffalo, NY called Adventures Unleashed. We carried D+D stuff and CCG's. MagicTG had just broken out and we paid off our initial investment inside of 3 months of opening (thank you Legends "God Boxes" with 4 rares instead of 3 uncommon cards and a rare!) We had money burning a hole in our pockets to reinvest in the store and we decided to carry Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. Little did I realize my life would change forever.

I went from being completely disinterested in the GW universe, to collecting an Undead army but still wholeheartedly swearing I'd never be interested in the background. Before I knew it I was playing Undead in Warhammer, Angels of Absolution in 40K, and Cawdor in Necromunda, and running detailed campaigns in the store. I was building terrain like a fiend and getting so upset that I couldn't paint like a master that I once threw a model across the store. When I came in the next day it was still where it landed on the floor. I picked it up and looked at it and realized it was actually pretty damn good - aside from the big chip I gave it.

I eventually moved onto working at the newly opened Buffalo, NY GW store in Nov/Dec of 1997 and that's when my friends and I got really hardcore about the hobby - pushing the limits of our abilities. We felt like masters - at the top of the hobby elite in Buffalo. I'd travel to other GW stores and be disappointed at the models in their figure cases and be unimpressed by their scenery. We were hobby snobs to the extreme.

Today I am still a full blown hobby snob - without a doubt. The difference is, the hobby world has stepped up its game and left me behind. Here I was at Adepticon with one of my fellow GW Buffalo staff members and all the guys from my current gaming group here in Chicago and I was blown away by many of the armies, displays, and team commitment. Many people traveled with their gaming groups, sporting their t-shirts or bowling shirts, and they frequently had mind blowing armies with great themes and amazing supplemental works. There was a team that had a full color army list with beautiful photos of every unit in the army. We talked a lot about stepping up our game and feeling inadequate. This blog will be a diary of our hobby exploits as we strive for excellence. Combined with our private msg board we will hopefully push the limits of what we are capable off.

Watch this space!