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.

Dark Eldar FAQ Update

DE Faq Update Here

So, it would appear that all they did was update the Crucible of Malediction's rules.  No big surprises.  I already played the item this way.  Kind of strange that they released an entire FAQ for this.  Maybe a Dev at GW plays Grey Knights?


Q: Does every psyker in a unit of psykers, which are in
range of the Crucible of Malediction when it is opened,
have to take a Leadership test? (p60)
A: Yes. The notable exceptions to this are units with the
Brotherhood of Psykers special rule. These units just
take a single test, and will loose a single model if
failed.

So...pretty much the only psyker defense, which is offensive, is still virtually useless against an army composed entirely of psykers.  Thanks?  I don't know why they felt the need to clear this up though.  If you read the CoM info and the Brotherhood of Psykers blurb in the GKC it was pretty clear how this would play out.  AbusePuppy, I believe it was, pretty much spelled it out when I brought up the CoM a while ago.



Q: Does the Crucible of Malediction affect vehicles that
are also psykers? (p60)
A: No.


Basically, vehicles that are psykers...somehow don't count as Psykers.  Despite being driven by Psykers.  This is kind of stupid in my opinion.  I know that GW prefers to act like a vehicle has no passengers while its on the table and intact, but...come on.

It's a 20 point piece of wargear that's virtually useless against more than a single model in an entire army.(in most cases)  Hell, a single model that's always LD10.  How often do people screw up rolling under a ten?  Throw us a bone.  It even has random range!  Why would anyone take this now?

And...that't it!  No one's sent them an email about, oh I don't know, errata'ing the Court of the Archon rules so that people might actually buy the models they're putting out?  I thought for sure that they'd change the 1-* listing.  Especially, since the internet has declared that GW only writes rules to sell models.

Games Day '11 Skaven Warlord WIP and Terrain WIP

Maybe 85% done with this mini.  I don't play Warhammer Fantasy, but I had to get him.  If I did play WFB I'd definitely play Skaven as I really dig the models.  The main impediment for collecting them is...ignoring the fact that I already have a mountain of plastic...its horde nature.  So many models to paint!  These pictures sort of make it look like crap, but it looks a lot better in person for some reason.  I'd say decent table top standard.  I have one more of this model unassembled.  Probably going to eBay it, but I don't know...

If anyone's interested in buying the my extra Skaven Warlord just email me at variableidentity01@gmail.com.  Like I said, I'm not entirely sure if I want to sell it, but I might be convinced.

This bit of terrain is compliments of Games Workshop.  I made it during their "Terrain Make and Take" event at Games Day '11.  Basically, they had a ton of terrain sprues and you had about 30-45 minutes to cut, clean, and construct some usable terrain.  Very cool and I'm very glad I got to do this.

This set is not actually what I made at GD.  The time rush didn't leave a lot of time to plan out and design a playable building.  I did what I could and tore it apart when I got home.  So this is what I made with more time on my hands.  Its worth mentioning that this is my first attempt at assembling terrain.

Space Marine Gameplay Footage from Games Day Chicago

Just some random dudes making meat spray out of Orks.

Personal Opinion:
It plays like a mix of Gears of War and Dynasty Warriors.  I was demoing it on a PS3 despite the 360 being my chosen console so the controller layout was giving me issues.  This went from a possible buy to a definite rental for me.  I have to run through the single player, but unless the final game is different I have my doubts about the longevity of the multiplayer.  Awesome character customization mechanics aside there's just not a whole lot that's unique here.

Demo Rating(1-5):
3.25

Games Day '11 Forgeworld Seminar Vids

I'll add them as I upload them until each video is in this post.  This was recorded on a digital camera without a tripod so please forgive the occasional shaking and posture change.  Also, I had to switch from my Digi Cam to my Android for the later videos.  If you're so inclined, please give a thumbs up on the Youtube videos to promote these.  My blog is, put nicely, a grain of sand in the desert and when you "thumbs up" a video it spreads to people who might not read BOLS, FTW, or my blog ordinarily.

The speaker is Mark Bedford by the way.  Seems like a good guy and a fan of the game.


Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:
Halfway through I turned my phone sideways and for some reason...the video is sideways.  This is the only part affected though.  Part 4 is back to normal.  Sorry folks!


Part 4:
Video should be back to normal.  Sorry for Part 3!  The audio pick up on my phone is, unfortunately, crap so you most likely won't be able to hear the questions asked in the Questions and Answers portion.  You can, however, get an idea of what's asked from the answers given.


Part 5:



Part 6:





Part 7:



Part 8:
aaaaand I'm spent.

Games Day '11 Forgeworld Seminar Info Dump

This is a precursor to video of the full seminar.  Its uploading, ever so slowly, to Youtube as I type.

Big news summary for folks that cannot wait:

More Contemptor arms.(Plasma Cannon, Heavy Conversion Beamer, Typhoon Launchers and Assault Cannons on each arm, Heavy Bolters)
Imperial Armour 11 is set for sale Nov-Dec.(He said Holidays)
Imperial Armour 12 is likely to feature Dark Eldar(edit: contrary to what the speaker seemed to hint I've seen info that indicates that DE might be in IA 13 instead)
More Marine Armor variants to come...
More Marine shoulder pad sets...
More Land Raider Variants(a plasma cannon variant was explicitly mentioned)
They will continue to introduce Special Character models from the Badab War.(A beautiful Techmarine with a conversion beamer was shown off)
A full picture of the huge Dark Eldar skimmer was shown

And lots of Warhammer Forge stuff that I didn't really care about, but I have footage of that as well!  The Skaven Brood Mother was all that really stuck out in my mind.

That's all off the top of my head, but the full seminar footage is forthcoming.  Tonight is likely, but I cannot guarantee it because I'm looking at the first part and there's still about 100 minutes left on the upload.

Forgive the poor writing please.  I'm starving because I refuse to pay concession stand prices and this plate of curry chicken is calling my name.

Completed Test Grey Knight Purifier

This guy's done for the most part.  I'm saving the final touch up and the right shoulder pad free hand for when I've gotten all fifteen to this stage for continuity's sake.  For the record, the client's having me paint up five Terminators, five Purifiers, and five Interceptors.  Possibly a Razorback and a Rhino, but that really depends.

I want to disavow any responsibility for assembling them.  He did that all himself; much to my chagrin.  There's one GK in particular that you'll see eventually.  He put the hands on backwards.  Le sigh.  Its only a $7 model why bother looking at it for more than ten seconds before gluing it right?  When I pointed it out he was like, "well...I wanted it that way."  Ok...if he wanted the NFW to point a particular way... he should have taken the time to cut the hands off and reposition them correctly.  To which he responded, "shut up and paint monkey."  Oh well.  I have been ripping arms off and fixing them where I can because a lot of them weren't even glued on all the way.

I have a lot of my own stuff to paint and I'm really only doing this so I have some extra mad money to burn at Games Day Chicago.  Now, the question I keep asking myself is...can I crank out all fifteen in time for the 30th? Its possible since I'm not doing these to a really high standard.(As if I have a high standard :))  I'm only doing these for $3 a model.  Thats what he offered me and, really, if he'd asked nicely I probably would have done them for free.  They just wouldn't have been pushed to the top of my To-Do List.

The Force Weapon pissed me off immensely.  I had it looking great, but for some dumb reason I kept adding paint so the wet blend turned into wet ass as the shade dried under the mid and high tones.

This side of the NFW looks a lot better imo.  Notice the messed up Inquisition symbol on the shoulder pad book?  Yeah...

Completed my test Wrack and a Grey Knight WIP.

So this is what my Wracks will look like for the most part.  The skin will be a bit different for the others as I've come to the conclusion that dry brushing will be easier and faster than the method I used on this one.  Probably cleaner looking as well.

The Grey Knight is a test mini for my first commission.  I know, why right?  I'm not a very good painter, but I guess this guy thinks its better than he can do.  Who am I to argue?  I'm doing it for super cheap, but this'll still probably net me enough cash to get another Raider, Venom, or a Razorwing.  Plus, its more power armor practice for my neglected Space Wolves.  More to come.  This is a Purifier and its my second attempt at white.  I went for a cool tone as I thought it would suit the silver armor.