Small Beginnings and Willful Dissent

First, what I've been up to as far as hobbying goes:

Practice mini for my red techniques?  Or start of a Chaos Warriors Army?  Both!  Still needs lots of work.

And these two are the start of my Great Crusade Era Space Wolves.  I'm scrapping the old and replacing them with the older!  Still need to GS over that pin in the right arm.

Need to scrape and sand that GS.  Looking like ass right?

Now the soapbox:

I'm a huge fan of the Black Library.  I have a case full of books and I add more with every new release.  Well, that's a bit of a lie since I've recently started purchasing eBooks instead of physical copies.

I can only imagine that the addition of fresh writer blood and the influx of capital from the runaway success of the Horus Heresy series has flooded their coffers.  I'm glad for this.  I want Black Library to succeed.  They're putting out fantastic material nowadays and I very much want it to continue.

But...

They have taken to a rather distressing practice of Limited Edition runs.  I applaud them for offering their fans prestige format novellas.  They give excellent value to the fans that want them.

What I do not...what I cannot condone...is the way they have chosen to go about doing this.  They are denying us stories.  Their latest offering, The Kindness of Ravens, will be limited to 3,000 copies retailing(if that word even applies in this case) at $50 USD.  These copies will be sold out in hours.

This is the Kindest of choices as it is a continuation of an audiobook release.  The prior releases that I know of have been Horus Heresy stories that will lead into future releases.  For instance, Aurellion by Aaron Demski Bowden.  I have seen information that suggests that Nick Kyme's, Promethean Sun, will lead into a future HH novel from him as well.

I'm going to be silly.  I'm going to exercise my right as a human being to rage against the flame that burns.  If you're a blogger reading this AND YOU AGREE then please repost this in your own words on your page.  Let's boycott Black Library's latest foray into absurdity.  They will listen.

I am not calling on a boycott of Black Library.  I reiterate, I love their novels.  I will continue buying them as long as they continue printing them.

BUT...

Limited Editions hurt more than they help.  No stories should be kept from the fans because of price or release window.  We share this world.  So fucking share it.  They printed a silver edition of Aurellion due to fan feedback.  Black Library appreciates it's fans.  If we tell them that this is something WE DO NOT WANT I have faith that they will find a way to give us what we do want.  Stories for all that want them.

I could purchase this novella.  I am not a man that denies himself the things he desires.  The twenty five Forge World marines I'm currently working on are evidence enough of this.  I choose not too.

Boycott the Limited release of, The Kindness of Ravens, if you agree.  If you do not...well...enjoy the reading experience that the majority of your fellow gamers will never have the pleasure of sharing.

First Thunderwolf Cavalry Marine Assembled and Magnetized

Picked up a box this morning and I've been messing with my first TCav in between bouts of Skyrim.  I'm very pleased with the kit.  It would have been better if GW had included more options to customize the riders themselves, but oh well.  Space Wolf players have no shortage of bits.  Still, what I wouldn't give for some older Mark helmets with Space Wolf detailing.

Enough talk...the pics:

As you can see, there are some seem issues.  Mainly in the face.  I need to use more liquid green stuff.  I try to water it down so much that it's tough to gauge coverage until it's fully cured.

These models must be magnetized at the wrists.  Most of the weapon options are attached to fists rather than entire arm sculpts.  The power fist is a full arm piece, of course, so that is a bit of a hassle.  I can't help, but feel GW did this on purpose.  Fewer players magnetizing equals more models sold.  Maybe I'm just being paranoid.  I use the same size magnets as with my Dark Eldar.  If you're curious I include the size in posts below this one.

It looks like the magnet is not properly set, but that's because I had to shave off the top of the hand's wrist.  I made a noob mistake and screwed up my polarity.  These magnets are a bitch to pry out if you mess up.  For the record, I do not like the way these storm shields are attached to the top of the fist.  It almost forces stock assemblers to set the shield arm at a certain angle.

This is going to be my test model so I'm planning on priming him tomorrow.  Hopefully, I'll get some actual painting done as well!  Thanks for looking folks.

Overdue Update (Photo Heavy)

It's been a while blah blah blah.  No explanations because no one cares about that.  On to the miniatures!

First of all, I got an airbrush and compressor for my birthday in October.  Nothing fancy.  It's an Iwata Neo.  You can generally find them for forty to fifty bucks.  It's a nice entry level brush.  It's not really suited to detail work, but it's more than able enough for basecoating and experimentation with the intent of upgrading at a later date.

Here's an example of the kind of results I've been able to achieve so far with it.  I think it's very smooth and this result was achieved in a fraction of the time it would have taken with a brush.

Miniatures!

Assembled and magnetized a Talos.  I was originally going to work it so that I could switch between the Talos and Cronos, but I dropped that idea.  1) Because the Cronos, when taken in the context of all the other choices we have in our Heavy Support slots, is lackluster.  2) It would have taken a larger number of my precious magnets.  So, I magnetized both arms and the tail weapon mount.  After the fact, I'd realized that magnetizing the shoulder sockets was stupid.  I should have magnetized the forearm joins.  At the time, I'd reasoned that the snug push fit forearms were enough to switch on the fly.  Unfortunately, they get more loose each time you switch.  Duh huh?

My Archon.  Fully magnetized so that I can make just about any HQ/wargear mix I want.  I might have posted this guy before, but I can't be bothered to go back and look.  I just ordered some bits from the warstore's thanksgiving weekend sale to make this guy into The Duke as well.  Depicted here are the uber expensive CC monster and the standard(Read: Cheap) Archon set up.

My Lady Malys Counts As.  I'm still mulling over whether I want to leave her as is or make a plasticard fan.  I'm a big fan of the sculpt despite the unit the miniature actually represents being of questionable quality.  I got a shamefully large amount of pleasure out of the models pose allowing me to pin her to the skulls on the base. Like she's gliding across the battlefield.  At least, that's the way I like to see it.

I'm currently running the Archon above, Lady Malys, and eight Incubi in a Raider.  Super expensive!  Here's the breakdown on the charge:  fourteen S3 attacks at I7, four S5 I6 attacks, and twenty one S4 I5 attacks.(IIRC)  All with power weapons.  It's very deadly, but I do miss my Haemy.  He just doesn't fit that well with the Incubi because anything that makes it through their armor will likely negate FNP anyway.  Ahh, but when they get Furious Charge on them...look out!  It's a deadly unit with fair staying power.  Plus, the redeployment hijinks Malys brings to the table keeps my opponent guessing.

Now, if only I could get the GK players out there to acknowledge that all their powers are psychic powers and "immune" leaves very little room for interpretation.  In my mind, even Hammerhand should be negated.  I can acknowledge the grey area though.  A lot of people would argue that only psychic shooting attacks are effected.(cough GK Players cough)  I wish GW would FAQ'd this...then again...it's a Xenos vs. Marine issue so I'm sure if a FAQ was released Lady Malys would be rendered absolutely useless.

Some work done on my Wyches.  Still lots to do, but progress is progress.  I've exceeded my upload limit so single shots will have to be posted tomorrow or so.  For now, here's a group shot.  The Hekatrix is fully magnetized.  I only included one special weapon Wyche in the squad because I rarely run a full ten.  If I do I like to save the points.

Poll: Help me decide

I'm at a cross roads regarding my Dark Eldar.  I decided to renovate them a few weeks ago and part of this decision involves whether to stick with my original scheme or a new one.  The bloody red scheme is the original. The green and gold is a more traditional DE scheme of edge highlights and dark paint for the majority of the surface area.

If you feel like weighing in; please comment on which one you think looks better.  In the end, the decision is my own, but I'd honestly like some input.

I wasn't using my usual camera so if the pictures are too dark please say so and I'll reshoot them.

Magnetized Razorwing WIP

I need to clean this Razorwing up because I got a lot of superglue finger prints on it.  The green stuff is fresh so I still need to scrub and sand it down.  I used 1/16" by 1/32" magnets on the missiles, moorings, and dark lances.  To magnetize the gun mounts I just sawed off the tabs on the back of the Dark Lances and glued them into the slots.  Then I drilled holes into those.  1/8" magnets on the stand and undercarriage.

Space Marine Exterminatus Cooperative Mode Announced

Coming VERY late in the game, Relic announced that a coop mode will drop one month after release of their new Space Marine video game.  It's going to be in the same vein as Gears of War's Horde mode or Halo's Firefight.  It'll be called Exterminatus, it will include two maps, and be playable with up to four players online.  You'll fight increasingly difficult waves of enemies until Khorne himself comes down from his Throne and tells you to quit making such a mess.

The FREEEEEEEEEE DLC will be released in October.

Source:

Kotaku

Magnetizing Dark Eldar Infantry

For all intents and purposes I've scrapped my Kabalite Warriors in favor of redoing them with magnets and a, hopefully, better paint job.  This will allow me to customize their weapons loadouts.  They can also pull double duty as Trueborn when I need them too.

I did a little trial and error investigating and I've come to the conclusion that the best size for magnetizing DE is 1/16" by 1/32".  These are very tiny magnets that fit perfectly in the slim shoulders and torsos of DE models.  I've found that the perfect drill bit to use with this size magnet is a 1/8".  It creates a hole just a tad bit bigger than the magnet so the fit is snug without being a bother.  This is important because, again, these are really tiny magnets that can be a bit annoying when handled with man hands.

Normally, I'd suggest covering the magnet with green stuff, but in this case its counter productive.  The magnet is just powerful enough to hold a limb.  If you added a layer of green stuff I'm not sure how well it would attract its counterpart magnet.

Reference photo.  The top line of magnets are 1/8" by 1/16".  I use these for Terminators and Marines.  The bottom magnets are the 1/16" by 1/32".  There are 96 of them in this photo.