No Monkey Business

Howdy.
Lots of things happening around here. I have some interesting updates to share and cool work in progress pictures.

Howdy. Seems there is a lot going on just when I have time to post.

Hello, been a long time.

But with life, the kids and wife, and all  that goes with having a home full of teenagers, some things just don't get the attention they deserve. 

Howdy, its been a little while

Howdy everyone. So I am going to get back into the swing of things here. I can hardly believe its been almost a year since my last update. Way too long.

X-wing and why Biggs is awesome

Howdy.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to travel to Austin to compete in the X-wing regional tournament. It was a decently attended tourney, given the new-ness of the game and the difficulty in getting any of the model ships. But...

Desert Afrika Korps

Howdy. I would like to present my Desert Afrika Korps.

Honda and the Dread Pirate Annual Duel

Howdy. So my friend Honda and I got together for our annual 40K game.  We call it our annual game because it usually what we have time for in between our two schedules.

Honda was playing his Black Templars and was seeking to purge planet Copperwood ( our local GW store) of the Xenos scum that were known to scurry about there.

Little did the followers of the Zombie Lord of the Imperium know that these particular xenos are fond of their prey coming to our hunting grounds of their own free will. You can bring a 8 foot tall superman to a knife fight, Dark Eldar bring guns. The Black Halo was up to the challenge.

Honda won the initiative and choose to deploy first. I can't remember the name of the scenario, but we played long table with short table player edges.

Honda elected to deploy in an balanced set up. He had 2 combat squads in the building on the left, one in the top of the bastion on the right, and a big block of terminators behind the bastion. In the middle he had another combat squad behind a stock Landraider, flanked by 2 Land Raider Crusaders and a Vindicator in the back.

I choose to deploy anti infantry venoms to my left side, with the 3 Ravagers using cover and staying as far out of reach to his las cannons as possible. My Succubus HQ and Haemii deployed in a raider with the wyches on on the opposite side of the ravagers.

I failed to seize the initiative and the game began in broad daylight.  Honda moved his LR Crusader behind cover and moved his Land Raider forward to get in range Honda opened up with his las cannons on my closest ravager. I am not sure what kind of ballistic training templars are using these days, but my ravager came away unscathed.

My turn 1.  I shifted my venoms to the right side of the board and my Ravagers moved forward in range of the Land raider. The Wych Raider moved forward. Every lance I had in range  opened up on the land raider. For all my effort I managed to inflict one hull point of damage. Hmmm. The venoms however did a fantastic job of removing both forard combat squads of templars, removing 2 of the las cannons threatening my precious paper mache armored transports.

My Movement.

The Black and Gold dish out some pain!

Top of turn two. Here is where Honda reminded my I had to have his entire forced wiped out or it was a moral victory for him. He moved his terminators up and opened up on one of my ravagers, blowing it to smithereens. One of the terminators with a Cyclone Missle launcher glanced one of my venoms.

For my part on turn two, I redirected my transports back towards the bastion and moving forward to put as many models in range as possible.

The raider and the Ravagers finished off the Land Raider and wiping out all of the Bastion Templars and also killing 2 of the terminators, including one of the 2 cyclone missile launchers.

At this point we began to check possibilites. Honda was down to 2 LR Crusaders and a Vindicator, which could not touch any of my vehicles due to my mobility and nightshields. He had one 5 man unit of marines equipped with a heavy bolter and a flamer. And he had 6 terminators and a Chalpin HQ I think who had taken a wound. I was down 1 Ravager.

At this point it was kind of like this.

At this point he conceded, seeing no possible way to overcome my venoms and ravagers out ranging and out gunning him. He could have pushed the 2 LR Crusaders up, but I had a god sized unit of wyches with haywire grenades and a unit of scourges with heat lances, which could have made quick work of the LRCs.

Victory for the Boys in Gold and Black.

It was a good game, but also a little bit of a foregone conclusion. One of the things I have noticed about Dark Eldar in 6th is the standard meta just does not apply. Conventional thinking is mech is dead, assault is dead heavy foot armies are the wave of the future. I disagree with this mindset. Dark Eldar vehicles have always been fragile, but with the new glancing rules, they have actually become more durable. Also, factor in the sheer amount of firepower a venom can crank out, without regard to toughness, and a lot of armor saves are being made. I typically average about 4.5 wounds for each venom and I run 6 or 7. Inflicting 30 wounds or so is a lot of wounds. Enough to wipe out a full squad of marines, or at least render non-threatening unless a heavy weapon somehow manages to be the only model left and does not run.

It seems Anonymous really likes my Bloig

Howdy. I have been getting literally bombed with comments and postings by Anonymous. My poor inbox is getting dozens of emails a day.

So I had had to take some steps to remedy this. Sorry if this is an inconvenience for you guys.

I am going to post a few pictures and updates in the next day or two, as life slows down a bit and allows, but suffice to say I have been crazy busy with work and real  life and most of my free time has been devoted to sleep and honey do's. Not a whole lot has been happening.

I have kicked around some Flames of War DAK tanks. I think I have a neat idea for camouflage I want to try and see how it works.

Also going to begin work again on my DE and Silver Skull space marines. Need to get those finished sooner rather than later.

More soon, I promise.

Howdy, been a little bit...

Yeah, its been kind of like that. Work and real life has been insane since my last post. But things are looking a little more positive here over the rest of the year. I will of course be gone periodically for work, but nothing major.

So updates. What have I been doing. To be honest, not much. I went to Wargamescon, made it into the top bracket on Sunday, so I was pretty excited about that. Got best single in Fantasy, and in general had a really good time. I have always liked the effort the guys in Austin put into their convention and it is greatly appreciated. Its the one big event I look forward to every year.

I am hopeful to make some progress on a few things over the next few weeks. I have not done a nice single figure in a long long while, so I will probably do one of those. I have a couple other models to finish for some buddies of mine.

Which goes to another subject, officially, I am not doing commissions anymore. I just don't have the time. I had a gentleman ask me if I would consider working for his studio. While I was flattered, I politley, I hope, declined. To be honest, I am not trying to toot my own horn, but the reality is if I have painted roughly 3 minis in the last year, not even competition minis, just a couple hours each, I don't have time to take one anyone elses work.

That being said, my effort on my Dark Eldar has not gone unnoticed. With 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there I have gotten closer to finishing them. They are still no where near to be done, but I can put them on the gaming table and not be embarrassed.

Here is a picture taken by Frontline Gaming of my army. Thank you for posting this.

It still looks a lot like it did last year, but I finally got my halos on the vehicles. If I am lucky I can be done with this army by the fall.

So in closing, for my faithful followers, lol, expect more frequent updates and hobby progress on my figures over the rest of the year. I am going to finish up some projects, do a few competition level figures, and then possibly start and Space ork army or a Counts as Blood Angel Genestealer cult.

Angels falling from the heavens

HOWDY


So my buddy Honda and I are talking about doing a Decent of Angels list for doubles at Wargamescon this year for the Doubles tournament.



For my part, I intend to run a Dante list with 2 units of Sanguinary guard, 2 priest and a librarian. A whooping grand total of 14 models.

My buddy Honda is thinking about :
Libby, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, with Blood Rage and Sword of Sanguinius
Chaplain, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol

Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, Power Weapon, Melta Bomb
Sanguinary Priest, Jump Pack, Infernus Pistol, Power Weapon, Melta Bomb

RAS x10, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, x2 Meltaguns
RAS x10, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, x2 Meltaguns
copied from BNC.


Yes I am fully aware this is a very low model count and we will likely get blown out of the sky.

However, that is really not the point. There a couple of good matchups we could totally exploit and in hand to hand I think we are going to be pretty devastating. But more importantly is the army will look great. With so few models, I can focus on the painting side of them, which is a big part of my I am in wargaming.

I however, an not a huge Blood Angles fan. I've always been a Dark Angels guy at heart, and then Mannus and Dorn, with the great Khan as another I am fond of. So how do I reconcile doing a chapter that has never really appealled to me....

What came to mind were two ways to go, I could to the Flesh Eaters, a BS successor and 3rd founding, or I could do them as Crimson Guard, who are a Crimson Fist Successor, but are red and gold armor.

I think either way could be good, and in the short term it doesn't really matter much since I am fielding Sanguinary Guard, but the painter fluff bunny inside me is screaming in protest for direction. So I have these 2 boxes of guard and no motivation to even clip them off the sprue yet.

Any thoughts?? I would still like to be competitive, as much as I can be with an all jumper list.

I'm going to blog my progress on these over the next few months until the big day.

An Interesting trend

Howdy all.

Been crazy busy with work and travel so very very little in the way of updates. I am sure you all realize that already.

Anyway, I have noticed an interesting trend of late. I typically surf the blog sites for what is interesting or amusing to me in the wargame world.

One thing I have noticed more andmore of late, the last 3 or 4 months in particular, is the shift to Warmachine / Hordes. I myself have been building a Cryx and Legion army for playing, along with some flames of war brits. But it seems the rumors of 6th 40K, while interesting, or how the game has shifted and the prices along with it are affecting the gaming community at large.

Personally, I say the more the merrier, 40K is a great little game, but is by no means the end all be all, despite what GW may tell you. I'm also not going to bash GW. They do what they do, and other see an opportunity to capitalize. Some do, some don't. pretty much like everything else out there in the wargame and large market world for all things.

What I wonder, if this trend, if it really is one or my own mind seeing something that really isn't there, is due to a burnout on the current 5th edition, people hating Matt Ward, people hating annual price hikes, or just an older crowd looking for something new and interesting.

In my case, I want to get all my armies painted, but I want to expand into playing FOW and Warmahordes because it looks fun. I'm quite far from saying I am putting all my GW stuff on ebay, but I am just a wee bit burned out on hitting on 3s and wounding on 4s type of thing. Something completely different could be a nice break and rechareg my batteries for later in the year when I get to go to a few tournaments.

Currently, I am planning to go to Wargamescon in Austin, play in the Friday Warmachine blitz and then play in the 40K GT on Sat and Sunday. 3 days on non stop gaming so I can make the long drive back to Houston utterly exhausted with much to talk about.

Anyhoo, not much for updates at the moment, but I hope to have some new photos up in the next day or so.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! For as long as it lasts

Howdy all and Happy New Year.

Lets hope the Mayans and Al Gore are wrong about the end of the world and a zombie Apocalypse. I would rather look forward to some great games and painting projects instead of the planets lining up and causing Cthulhu to wake up from his nap and devour everyone. Think positive happy thoughts people! Just sayin...

Suffice to say I have been ridiculously busy the last couple of months with work and real life. So much so I have not really had time to do anything hobby related.

However, I did get a little bit of a break right after Christmas, so I started to tackle a couple of projects. I began working again my the Valkya conversion about a year or more behind on. Not to mention the Kugath model which is over 2 years behind. Expect to see some progress on those over the next couple months.

One thing about me is I am really bad about being able to keep up with commissions. With the kids and their activities, work and my lovely wife who can't drive any more, my free time is really eaten up with getting where I or someone else needs to be. its not a big deal, it just takes time.

Still, a little bit of free time and a good podcast to listen too and I'm in hobby heaven. I have almost completed one of my Dark Eldar Venoms. I'm pretty pleased with the way things are turning out with them.

The Skull head is the helmet for the gunner on my venom. I like the look of them. I'll have a finished picture here before too long. Actually, I have one already finished up, just no pictures yet...

I also have picked up a bunch of Necron kits. I don't know exactly when I am going to get to them, since I am still working on my DE, but I have always loved the toasters and I am looking forward to getting them assembled and painted.

One goal I have for this year is to make back to games day to compete again. I have a couple of entries that are in various states of completion which I think will be solid entries. One is a squad of Exorcists Veterans, another is a Goblin Shaman and then there is a really nice looking Theoden single figure. I'm hoping this year I finally get a Gold Demon. A Slayer Sword would be nice too.

I'm also hopeful to go to Reapercon. I think that would be a lot of fun to go and compete, make a few friends and be in one of the premier painting contests in the US.

I'm also planning on heading back to BOLScon / Wargames con or whatever they want to name it this year. I have a lot of fun going and playing games for 3 days non stop. Its tiring, and I am pretty wiped out and can barely speak by the time I am headed back Sunday evening, but it is a lot of fun.

Something wicked this way comes! Oh My...

Howdy all.

It almost Halloween and I have been busy with many projects that are keeping me away from my painting desk, but I do have one little item I did when it came out last year and this is one bad samma jamma.

A Skaven Hellpit Abomination. Now first off let me say I think the original pose is pretty good, but they missed the mark in a bad way when they did the heads. I think they may have been inspired by the 80s version of " The Thing", but epicly failed, in my own opinion.

That being said I went about my own idea of something better, and what I came up with was one large central head that looked vaguely rat like and then a couple little heads off to the side.

Hope you enjoy and please be careful driving out there on Halloween, I won't be the only one out there with my daughters trick or treating and I like for every little kid to have a happy and safe evening out there.

True Love? True Blood/? No, its Trueborn Pt 2

Howdy. Sorry I have been a little slow in the posting, but I have been crazy busy.


Anyhoo, up for review is the second of my 2 current DE Trueborn units. This unit is made up of females. Not the sultry sensuous vixens Hollywood my come up with. I think they have a touch of sadistic. I was somewhat inspired by the freak girlfriend character from the movie Doomsday. Maybe not the best movie, but it did have some interesting personalities.

The ladies have 2 of my blaster conversions using a splinter rifle and the blaster from the Reavers. its a little bit oversized, but, when compared to the undersized tip from the blast pistol, I prefer the reaver blaster.


As always, comments and thoughts are welcome!

True Love? True Blood/? No, its Trueborn

HOWDY.

Its been crazy busy, but still a I have updates. Everyone loves updates. Up for review is one of my 2 Dark Eldar Trueborn units.

One of the big issues I think all Dark Eldar players have had is what to use as trueborn. Some use the bubble heads, others have used the Incubi heads and others have used different combinations of cloaks, Dark Elf corsiar heads, banners etc...

I wanted to do something a little bit different, so I went with the obvious, I used the Dark Eldar heads from the warriors and wyches box sets. Not very creative or revolutionary I know, but the sculpts are simply amazing and are among the best heads I think GW has every made.

Also, I am really not too keen on payinp upwards of $10 for a blaster bit, so what I did was re-purpose some splinter rifles with the blaster bits from my Reaver jet bikes. I also used sections of the blast pistols in the boxes. I'm actually much happier with the reaver jetbike conversion that the blast pistol. its much easier to do and looks like it fits better, but since I need 12 models with blasters just for my trueborn, and then another 6 at least for my Warriors, I wasn't going to be too picky.

Anyhoo, I broke the first 2 units into male and female units. First unit is the males.

I still need to the bases, but those are on the agenda this weekend along with finishing out 2 of my venoms. I actually have high hopes to get a fair amount of final details done this weekend and start making much better progress on my projects.

Comments and critiques are always welcome.

A Scourge on you!

Howdy.

I've been busy. I know its hard to believe, but it does happen from time to time. Still, I have some progress to report. Ok not really progress, but pictures of my Dark Eldar Scourges that are almost done.

its kind of sad how much of my Dark Eldar are almost done. My goal is to have my Dark Eldar done by Christmas Holidays. Should be able to pull it off. Maybe not all of my DE, but at least 3K points.

My focus of late has been doing more competition models, so I have been doing a little shopping around  for some inspirational figures that I want to paint for the love of painting. I've picked up a couple of Reaper figures and a couple of those Kingdom Death figures that seem to fly off the shelves anytime they are for sale.

I'm also starting to make some progress on the valkya model for my buddy Raymond. I know its may overdue and Raymond's a great guy for being as patient as he has been. Also is the Kugath conversion. So expect to see some progress on those 2 here shortly.

But on to the pictures. Up for review are my Scourges for Dark Edlar. I wanted to keep my desert Dune theme going, so I painted them up with a darker brown armor. Its a mix of GW Scorched brown and Dark Flesh and a tiny bit of black. It initially comes out very dark. Its almost the same as the fabric for my DE warriors. Its washed with thinned GW Asurmen Blue, the BW Devlan Mud and then a thin wash of GW Badab Black. I then apply the base color again and add GW Bubonic Brown to the mix for the highlights.

The weapons are base in GW Chaos Black and then highlighted by adding Hawk turquoise and GW Scaly Green. The color is OOP, but Vallejo makes a good alternative that I use in their Game Color Range.

The skin I wanted darker than my warriors and wyches. base coat is Dwarf Flesh and Dark Flesh, shaded with Devaln mud and Ogryn Flesh and then highlighted with Dwarf flesh and adding GW Elf Flesh to the mix until its where I want it. The flesh was kind of a pain, especially the wings since I used a bit too much water and my wet blending became a wet mess. But it worked out just fine in the end.

The Helmets are the same as my Warrior helmets. Bone, washed with Ogryn Flesh, highlighted with vallejo Desert Sand and Bone White with final highlights of GW Skull White.

One thing I did here on the helmet was to detail the individual feathers. I am really pleased with how these turned out.

Its as simple as Black and White

Howdy.

So I have finally decided to begin working on my Ostland Empire Army again for Warhammer FB. I was doing fairly well on them about 2 years ago, and then life got complicated and these guys have not seen the light of day since then.

So I have a few WIPS I was last working on since the last time I saw them and a image or two of my spearmen unit so far. I really like the black and white look with the red accent. I intend to add the "red Bull" head to the shields as soon as I can narrow down the exact pattern I want.

if all goes well this weekend I will be working on some more of my Dark Eldar, my Empire and the Valkya conversion.

I'm also going to post my articles on painting Black, White and Red. They are good simple tutorials and this Empire Army is the basis for those articles.

Comments and critique are always welcome.