HammerBlog

The New Eldar Codex?

2010-02-17T21:30:00.002-05:00

I'm hearing some possibly-credible rumors about a new Eldar codex in the works. Surely, this is far from a confirmation, but I'm getting the sense it could come to pass. I could analyze the rumors, but that's a discussion for another time.

The thing I'm not looking forward to is this: The Eldar codex comes out, some of the rules are insanely unbalanced, and then people say to me "See? Now you have a codex that's just as powerful as those other books. Everything's fine."

The thing is... my concerns about balance pertain to the entire game. Another codex that's full of busted, stupid rules isn't going to be make that any better, even if it's my army's codex.

Warlock brain dump

2010-02-16T22:32:00.002-05:00

The first part of getting my 19 Warlocks up to speed is cleaning the crap off of them and getting them to a "neutral" starting place. Previous owners have used the strangest paint, glue and epoxy... made the strangest choices about what to clip and shave off the model... broken the models in the most inexplicable ways. Once I got all that dealt with, rebasing them. Then hand-priming them all black. Then blocking out the Wraithbone parts with Deneb Stone. Then Bleached Bone. Then the wash over the bone. That's about where I am right now. Still to come: Shading on the robes, glyphs and runes, fancy looking base, and gems. That should do the trick.

Pics soon I think. Maybe.

How to destroy an Eldar Falcon

2010-02-07T17:51:00.007-05:00

(This is a continuation of the project log I started here)

After taking a long, hard look at this Falcon, I realized that my painting/modeling game was way under par. I pride myself on a being a guy who takes some chances and works without the safety of a net... but the guts that went into creating that thing makes me look like a scared kitten. I decided not so much that I would copy what he did (because, honestly... like I could do that) but, instead, that I would show some courage and break some trends. The point wasn't so much to end up with beautiful, innovative models. The point was more to develop the guts necessary to make them. Fine distinction.

I approached this idea thinking that the Eldar vehicles look far, far too human. With their panels and air intakes and exhaust pipes and canopies, I couldn't help but think the basic Eldar Falcon could be rolling off the production line of the U.S. Air Force in 25 years. This is not a criticism, as I happen to think that Jes Godwin's ubiquitous Falcon is the most beautiful tank in the entire game. I simply want to stretch and try new things. I want to make my tanks look more eldritch. It occurred to me that, unlike humans, Eldar do not always need to see where they're going. Due to powerful psychic vision or the astral perception of Wraith constructs, the canopies with pilots therein seemed like they weren't always necessary. Add to this the BFG rules for Ghost Ships which are piloted by the souls of dead Eldar warriors and I got my vision in mind.

I decided to section off part of the hull in a long stripe (a stripe that has, like it or not, become somewhat common in my work) and remove all the details, thus making it a smooth, featureless expanse wedged between two standard sections of detail-laden Falcon. With the Forgeworld Mk II Falcon expansion installed, I did exactly this by filling the cracks with Brown Stuff and filing/sanding it down. This isn't a project that would work well with GW's Green Stuff; the Brown Stuff dries harder and responds better to sanding, especially fine grit.

The yellow needs evening out. There's always more to sand, more to file, more to repaint. Getting a simple, even yellow surface is much, much harder than you probably imagine. It's harder than I imagined at least.

This picture represents where I'm at with it now. As you can see, it's nowhere near done. Will I fill the yellow area with runes or art? Will I leave it blank? Will this be my Sistine Chapel? Or will this be my Hindenburg? I guess we'll find out.

Warlocks without powers...

2010-02-06T00:28:00.003-05:00

There are few things that strike me as more blasphemous than Warlocks without powers of one kind or another.

But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. My current list is desperately starved for points. There's no fat to trim away. No one thing that doesn't remove an absolutely essential component.

Or so I thought.

I'm going to start taking some of the powers away. Enhance and Embolden are essential, yes... and a few Destructors are good to keep on hand. But... do all the other Warlocks need to be loaded up?

Maybe not. Maybe not.

Eldar versus Tau

2010-02-05T12:43:00.007-05:00

So yesterday I took the exact same list I used against Dennis last Friday and put it to work against Jason's Tau. I'm going to be completely honest: I expected to really pound him out, and I did. There were surprises along the way and it was a closer game than I thought it would be, but the end result was the same.

As I did the last time, I rocketed four Wave Serpents into Jason's deployment zone, bit down on a belt to withstand a turn of shooting, and then let the clown party loose. Constant point: If you have two large Seer Councils running wild in your deployment zone, you're going to lose a lot of stuff fast. Broadside team and Crisis Suits were gone completely by the end of turn 2 (when my War Walkers came in, by the way).

Jason's vehicles presented me with a challenge that was a little tougher than what Dennis offered me. What I didn't expect was the Flechette Dischargers, which cause hits on the assaulting unit before my hits are resolved. My first three casualties (all Warlocks) were from this. Jason's also been running a Kroot-less list with O'Shovah and he strikes with considerable precision, so I lost a transport, a squad of Storm Guardians and almost all of one Seer Council. Personally, I thought O'Shovah wasn't as interesting or effective as Kroot would have been. I fear those far more.

The game ended on turn 5 (so it was a short game because we both deployed nothing on turn 1, so our turn 2 was really our turn 2), and in the end I'd blown up some vehicles, killed his scoring units and picked off several other units along the way.

Eldar players, take heed: This is the first time I wished I'd used at least a couple of Singing Spears. On at least two occasions I was close enough to a Devilfish or Hammerhead to pop it from close up, but just couldn't catch up to it in close combat. That's the only change I would have made, list-wise, but I also played through a few dumb mistakes: I have to start thinking about what I'm supposed to do after after the transports dump out and all hell breaks loose. As it was, I didn't do a lot of thinking ahead in this game and found myself dispersed and a little unfocused as the game drew to a close. Jason's a smart player, so he knew when to turn his vehicles to keep the front arc facing enemies, throw intervening models between assaulters and their targets, and how to use cover against me. If I had played smarter, I would have kept the pressure on until the end instead of coasting on the successes from early in the game.

In retrospect, there's no arguing that this is the most powerful list I've used in 4th or 5th ed. Whatever it is you have in your deployment zone as you start the game, this list has the means to a) Get to it quickly, b) Destroy it easily. The only thing that can stop me from delivering my biggest fist to the enemy's face in turn 2 is if the dice rolls are bizarrely against me. To really refine this list, I need to start playing against armies with more unusual first-turn deployment, such as masses of Imperial Guard or Drop-Podding Marines. I think that either spreading targets out or massing so many targets that I can scarcely hit them all will be my foil.

Naturally, there are always going to be those macho men who boast "That list isn't bad. All I have do is x, y, z and I'll crush it", but I think that so long as the dice remain statistically average and I don't switch off my brain after turn 2, these Eldar will be hard to subdue.

Der Vårlöcken

2010-02-03T23:33:00.002-05:00

My latest approach to the Eldar list involves two Seer Councils. The popular choice these days is to put them on jetbikes, as this increases their toughness, their mobility and their saving throw. I've decided, instead, to put them into Wave Serpents. This is for five reasons:

1. With Star Engines, their first turn mobility is better than bikes.

2. Individual Warlocks are protected by the Wave Serpent if Ordinance or other stupid things should fly at them.

3. The point cost is much lower.

4. I don't have to buy $300 of Jetbikes and convert them and find place for them in my transport.

5. More heavy weapons on the table, as well as vehicles that can contest objectives.

Now, even with Wave Serpents, the point cost of a solid Seer Council is very high. Farseer and 7 Warlocks comes to about 330, and the transport (as I run it) is another 135... for a grand total of 465. That is not a cheap unit. And I like taking two in my lists, so...

I've been scrambling to collect Warlocks so I can try this stuff out. So far I have 15 and will get three more tomorrow. That should hold me.

Rumors of my death

2010-02-03T04:20:00.004-05:00

I've decided I'm going to finish my Eldar army this year. I'm hoping we're not talking about a whole year, but that's sort of the timeframe it may require. See, when I got most of this army it was right around the time when the new Eldar stuff was released, and it was a massive pile: The contents of the huge release box plus a bunch of other things I threw in. And there it was: A gigantic pile of unpainted stupid. Intimidating. I think this is why it's taken so long for me: A lot of painting doesn't really put much of a visible dent in the whole.

There's also the fact that, to be blunt, I've had way too much other stuff to do to worry about whether or not I've done the line highlighting on my War Walkers.

What's nice is that I have several cool projects which are only partly done:

- A crazy Falcon conversion that uses the Forgeworld Falcon II extensions

- A Forgeworld Cobra that needs some finishing touches

- Two Jetbike conversions (Autarch and Farseer)

- An ambitious Fire Prism conversion

- The Reaperhawk

- Scores and scores of basic infantry

Finishing them is easier than it might sound, as most of this stuff is started and put on hold.

Gaming will also happen, but that's for another post.

New Tyranid Codex vs My New Eldar

2010-01-31T21:12:00.002-05:00

(This is clipped from the Game Summit Forums)

Tonight I played my first game against the new Tyranids with Matt Varnish (aka Dennis Campbell). This was my return to 40k after playing for what's at least six months and maybe longer, and my first run-in with 5th ed Tyranids. I'm also trying out a new Eldar list, which is as follows:

The List
• (2x) Farseer (w/Fortune)
7 Warlocks (5 w/Destructor, 1 w/Enhance, 1 w/Embolden)
Wave Serpent (w/Eldar Missile Launchers, Star Engines)
• (2x) 10 Storm Guardians (w/Flamer x2)
Warlock (w/Enhance)
Wave Serpent (w/Eldar Missile Launchers, Star Engines)
• (2x) 3 War Walkers (w/Scatter Lasers)
Points: 1750

What happened: I shoved four Wave Serpents right into the Tyranid deployment zone on turn one. With the Walkers in reserve, the army was mostly Witchblades and Flamers. I wanted them to get to work as quickly as I could. What ensued was a very tangled mess on MV's side of the table where Eldar were hacking and slashing their way through handfuls of Nids every turn, but the Nids (particularly the monstrous creatures) were really hitting very hard. As MV will corroborate, it looked as if there was absolutely no hope in hell for an Eldar win by the end of turn 2: It was a slow grind against the masses of Guants (with more being pooped out by his MCs), Wave Serpents were getting wrecked, War Walkers being eaten by Genestealers and the first Seer Council to touch down was mostly torn up. As three squads of Genestealers were outflanking as my army was gradually being expended, I really thought that was it.

The two things that really turned the tide were my second War Walker squad arriving and the second Seer Council killing the Tervagon. This created a ripple effect that caused an epic 34 wounds on the surrounding Gaunt squads, pretty much clearing them out. To the flank, the War Walkers were unleashing hell and, combined with one lucky Wave Serpent, managed to clear the flank either with massed fire or by tank-shocking units off the table. Make no mistake: This was pure luck, but luck is part of how the game flows.

There was some wrestling for the victory after that, but the struggle was much easier for me than it had been for the previous four turns or so. I really do believe that I broke the Tyranids' back with the execution of the Tervagon and the ridiculously lucky breaking of two Genestealer squads.

Analysis
Against the current generation of 5th-ed books, the Warlock-heavy Eldar army is the only build I consider to be reasonably viable if your luck is average. I chose not to put the Warlocks on Jetbikes and, after this game, I stand by that decision. Getting Flamers and Witchblades deep into the fray by turn 2 requires Star Engines and Wave Serpents. I also stand by the Storm Guardians: Their respectable CC skills and Flamers managed to keep a crazy number of Gaunts under control. Also, anyone who tells you that War Walkers aren't that great has no idea what they're talking about; not only did they perform brilliantly in this game, but they are consistently brilliant in every game. I've never regretted taking them.

I would have made sure to find the points for Runes of Warding somehow. With the Tyranid psychic powers being as formidable as they are, I could have really put a much-needed speed bump in their way. I will also be considering ways to somehow increase the scoring units; I'm not sure how yet, as there's no fat in this list to trim off, but I felt the pressure in the last two turns. I may experiment with Destructor on the Warlocks who accompany the Guardians instead of Enhance, as there were several times when having one more Flamer would have helped a lot. On the other hand, Enhance also gave them that WS4 edge which helped put a lot of Gaunts in their place, so I'm undecided about which would be better. I would also like to say that Embolden is very valuable, as the Shadows of the Warp did harass my Farseers and re-rolling my failed tests came very much in handy.

Bottom Line
It was a fair but lucky win for me. While Lady Luck took a steaming dump on some of my rolls for the first half of the game, she decided to share the pain with Dennis for the second half. I wouldn't count on this game unfolding the same way a second time.

For me, the Warlock-heavy army is really my ticket to survival in 5th ed, but I'm still very tentative because of the insane point cost of the two 7-Warlock units (Seer Council + Transport crests about 450 points). But, because there's no fat in the list, it's hard to find a place to trim something out... and, with this particular army, if you try to shave anything off any of the units you may as well just remove it and start new.

This is pretty close to an army that I can fall in love with again. Ever since my experiments with Ulthwe Strike Force and Iyanden in 3rd ed, I haven't found a concept that really grabbed me. This Warlock-licious list might just get me back into playing more often, as it gives me some confidence against the current generation of codices without being insanely overpowered.

I think a video battle report is coming soon, and MV can probably points you in the direction for that.

The Reaper Hawk

2008-05-20T01:31:00.006-05:00

I've talked about the possibility of doing this for a while and, in fact, I've been writing on Hammerblog for so long that I may well have posted about it here. As it happens, I am thinking about creating what I call a "Kindaheavy" (as opposed to Superheavy) which will primarily be used in Apoc games, and it'll be called the Reaper Hawk. Here's the basic outline of what I was hoping to do with it, as recently posted on Deep Space:

- 2 Structure Points
- Agile Skimmer
- Armor: 12 front, 12 sides, 11 rear
- Eldar Energy Field: Reduces all incoming fire to front and sides greater than S8 to S8
- Spirit Stones
- 2 long-barreled, gatling hull-mounted Reaper Launchers. If memory serves, this gives me a range of about 62" range and two 2D3 shots. Each is able to target a different unit.
- Transport capacity: 5 Dark Reapers (only Dark Reapers) +Maugen Ra or an Autarch who must be carrying a Reaper Launcher
- BS4
- Points cost rings in around 450-475, but I will have to check that math

Hull will be a modified Falcon Chassis: Similar shape but slightly larger footprint.

As any Eldar player will tell you (ask one if you aren't one), this tank isn't about winning games. It's about a cool idea. Or an idea that's cool to people who love Reaper Launchers.

Pics? I got 'em.

I've taken the cab of a War Walker and nestled it into the cockpit of a Falcon. Yes, I know it looks like crap right now. I probably shouldn't even be showing anyone this. Notice, however, that the vents of the WW cab look a bit like the eyes of a skull? I'll be capitalizing on that. Just watch me. I'll also be expanding the wings with plasticard and building the reaper launcher batteries in an interesting way.

More to come. I can't leave this as your last look at the RH, so you can trust me on that.

Dire Avengers

2008-01-03T00:34:00.002-05:00

I found my Shadowseer, bitches

2007-10-19T12:59:00.001-05:00

I had a Shadowseer. Bought him, like, 8 months ago. Lost him. Found him today. Still in the blister. I may possibly paint him, even.

The Four Horsemen drag me back into the fray

2007-10-08T00:57:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, 2006... how good you were to me. How you took Craftworld Baast into your loving arms and made sure that it always got attention and support, no matter what else was going on. Always and faithfully, Baast was nurtured and loved in the bosom of your endless generosity.

2007... not so generous. Not so nurturing. Not so supportive.

In fact, I don't think I've painted so much as one model in the entirety of 2007 so far. My memory might be failing, but if I did, I sure didn't do it a lot. This is because work, personal life and just a general disinterest set in. Maybe it's because I overdid it in 2006 and just needed to cool off. Maybe it's just because life has more to offer than just Warhammer. I don't know.

When the codex came out last year, I played one game in November. Then another in April. Then another in June. Then, just in the past 7 days, I've played 5 more games. My interest seems to be coming back. I count this as a good thing (mostly). I think the renewed inspiration mostly stems from Apocalypse, to be honest. Interestingly, I have relatively little interest in playing a lot of really big games (which seems to be what Apocalypse is all about), but what I do like is the way that the Force Org Chart is all but cast aside in the interest of creating more free-flowing, more dynamic, and more flavorful games and army lists. I do like that a lot. In fact, it inspired me to take out all my Eldar models and put them on a table and look at them. And then I looked some more. Then some more after that. What struck me is how I have a very neat and tidy collection: Lots of full units, few stray models. Good coverage of the Force Org Chart, few things that I wouldn't use in a game. Lots of meat, very little fat. It makes for a good Apoc collection, as I nearly crest 10,000 points.

Also interesting is the emphasis on social playing rather than tournament playing. The doors are wide open to create awesome narrative scenarios and inventive story-based battles. I, myself, was tempted to organize a recreation of the battle of Baast where the Ultramarines descended upon the hapless Craftworld shortly after the Horus Heresy and set in play the events which led up to the megabattle we had last year. You see why I like it? Apoc lends itself well to this stuff. That's fun.

So I'm starting to play again on Thursday nights at the local Games Workshop. Exciting for me, to be honest (and a great way to have fun for free). Craftworld Baast seems to be making something of a return.

Problem is, I just don't want to paint anything... but we'll discuss that another time.

In All His Wraithbone Glory

2007-01-24T01:52:00.000-05:00

This is my Wraithlord. There are many like him, but this one is mine.

I'm debating whether or not I should start adding the runes and details. On the one hand, I know it'd look so fantastic. On the other hand, well... you know. A lot of work.

Tree H8RZ can suck it

2007-01-23T08:13:00.000-05:00

I have 8 finished trees. I now know how to make trees.

BTW The Woodland Scenics water, in case you noticed, is starting to look a little cloudy, which is weird. That doesn't make me happy. I may have to re-open the official taste test.

Arbor Day

2007-01-22T23:52:00.000-05:00

Here's the finished product.

Now I begin mass-production.

Absence makes the heart grow fronder

2007-01-22T03:08:00.000-05:00

I painted these fronds up first with black primer, followed by Dark Angels Green, then drybrushed with Sunburst Yellow, then washed liberally with Dark Green Ink to give it a nice gloss as well as a nice green look (green ink giving something a green look... who would have guessed?):

Moving on to the tree itself, here's the stump (already primed black) glued to a large base:

Glue on a trunk.

Glue on a trunk with a branch sticking out:

Paint Scorched Brown:

Drybrush with Vermin Brown:

Wash with watered-down black ink:

Glue on some of those awesome fronds with the aforementioned green effect that's so hard to get:

Here's a side-view:

Glue on some sand with some thinned-out white glue:

Glue on your vines cause it's the jungle. Duh.

Now some watered-down white glue over it all to seal it:

Time to watch some illegally downloaded television while it dries:

Paint black onto the base.

Beastial Brown heavily drybrushed on top:

Followed by lots of Desert Yellow:

Then the magic color: Bleached Bone.

A dusting of Skull White and Bestial Brown around the base to clean it up.

It occurred to me that, because I now know how to do this tree thing and it seems to work, that I could try something and put a few drops of GW Water Effects on the base. I used the GW product instead of the Woodland Scenics because it's harder to control it in smaller spaces (both because of its viscosity and the small spout you squeeze it through... not to mention that I still have a bottle full of it).

When the water is cured, I'll take a snap and show you how it turned out.

Now, to repeat this process roughly 40 more times and I'll have the trees made for the jungle table!

*kills self

This Warp Spider Sucks

2007-01-19T07:02:00.000-05:00

This is the worst fucking Warp Spider in the world. Notice that it sucks so bad, it's even got a pubic hair or something stuck to its shoulder. I am trying to save it, but I just can't.

By the time you read this, it's gonna be soaking in Simple Green.

Warp Spiders

2007-01-18T08:41:00.000-05:00

Imagine how stupid I felt when I realized I'd assembled all my Warp Spiders upside down.

Actually I was wet-blending and I wanted to prevent the paint from running in the wrong direction.

At this point the Warp Spiders look as crap as crap can be because I'm just getting the wet-blending together. And it's taking me a while. Here's the current state:

No cure for Warp Spider foot yet. I'm working on it.

Right up the middle

2007-01-11T04:38:00.000-05:00

Eldrad Ulthran (one of the few names I've heard with four consonants in a row). Still have arms and that big antenna thingie on his head to finish off. Oh, and the cloak and feet... but his middle is comin' along:

I don't know what it is about the Eldrad model, but it's one of my favorites of all time. Funny, too, because I usually don't like the older 2nd ed models. I think the pose (I assume sculpted by the amazing Jes Goodwin) is what strikes me most; balanced and symmetrical and yet authoritative and powerful. Tons of gorgeous little details, too.

I deviated from my original plan which was to do the entire model with only Shadow Grey, Bleached Bone and Yellow Ink (black and white don't count towards the total, btw). I just couldn't come up with a way to do Eldrad's hip pouches with those colors, so I broke down and mixed up some Scorched Brown, Tanned Leather (from Reaper Mini) and Brown Ink. The gems, btw, are Hawk Turquoise (the color I think makes for the loveliest gems). Ok, once I got that far I just went hog wild and used some Blue Ink around the chest "thing" Eldrad wears and a bit of Orange Ink on the eyes and stripe up the back of his helmet. So much for only three colors. As I said, the arms and weapons aren't done yet, but I imagine it'll continue to primarily be Shadow Grey and Bleached Bone mixes except for where I feel tempted to cheat and use something else.

The Staff of Ulthamar is gonna be the really interesting thing. I won't make it a Froot-Loop-like rainbow of colors on the staff but, instead, will likely build up various blues and greys with some yellow for accent. The thing that's really a challenge for me is the weird tassle thing down by his right foot. Zero idea what I'm gonna do with that.

In other news, my camera makes models look like crap. Seriously. It doesn't look ANYWHERE this rough in person. I swear. Sheesh.

Orks Vs. Eldar (NSFW)

2007-01-08T23:38:00.000-05:00

(A recent MSN chat with Nick. So wrong on so many levels. Don't read it if you're sensitive to nasty talk)

Corey: I got my forgeworld avatar
Nick: well, it doesn't surprise me that an Eldar model would be concerned about the condition of his nails.....they're so.....metrosexual
Corey: Say what you want. That's the Avatar who will be picking chunks of your Ork army out from between his molars.
Nick: bah...he's nothing but a lesser Bloodthirster
Corey: Seriously? There's a reason that the Eldar have an advantage over Orks, though. It's fluff-based: Apparently the Eldar discovered certain artifacts and items long ago which gave them a certain evolutionary options that the Orks just don't have.
Corey: I believe one of those items was soap. Another was toilet paper.
Nick: tough words from a dying race
Nick: did the Eldar use soap and toilet paper to create Slaanesh?
Nick: and besides, Orks HAVE toilet paper, they call them snotlings and grots
Corey: I'll get to that in a minute. First... got a joke for you.
Corey: What did the Ork get on his IQ test?
Nick: waaaaaghn? (one)
Corey: No.
Nick: ok, what?
Corey: Saliva.
Nick: what did the Eldar get on his AIDS test?
Nick: positive
Nick: sorry, I had to some up with something
Corey: The only reason the Eldar got AIDS is because some sick pervert of an Eldar somewhere along the line had sex with a monkey
Corey: Or, as you know him, your Warboss.
Nick:well, he must have been on the recieving end of that exchange, the ass never gives the prick AIDS
Nick: Corey doens't like the highway, he takes teh dirt road
Corey: Oh, we're going personal with this now, huh?
Nick: YOU STARTED IT
Corey: I just insult Orks. I don't insult you. But seeing as you gave me permission...Reminds me of the story about how the doctor told you that he needed a stool sample, a feces sample and a urine sample... and you just gave him a pair of your underwear.
Nick: "needed a stool sample, a feces sample " aren;t they the same thing?
Corey: Sorry. Urine, feces... I lose track. They're all just Ork troop choices to me.
Nick: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Nick: I wonder in how many years will all those abandoned and derelict Craftworlds will be crawling with urine and shit then?
Corey: Hmm. Kinda sounds like an Ork theme park.
Corey: Anyhow, I'm gonna post this chat in my blog.

Eldrad Ulthran Is My Master Now

2007-01-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

I've always really liked Eldrad Ulthran as a special character. Some terrific stories surround his role in the game and his rules are terrific (especially in the new codex). This is just the starting point for me but, in my mind, Eldrad should be dark and even ghostly. As the greatest Farseer of Ulthwe (and maybe of them all), he should wear the Ulthwe colors and manifest the darkness of the Ulthwe look. Sometimes you come across Eldrad paint jobs that makes you ask "Gee, is it Mardi Gras already??", and that's all fine... but I wanted something dark... so this is the starting point.

Another step forward for Johnny Flame

2007-01-08T03:14:00.000-05:00

In case you don't know what's new, it's the bronze on the armor and sword. Bringing it up to gold, you see. Those of you who know my old army will know I put a lot of time into gold. Anyhow... take a peek.

The Fusion Gun

2007-01-07T02:56:00.000-05:00

My name is Corey. And this is my Fusion Gun.

I got it at Canadian Tire, on sale, for $12.99. It's like a blow-dryer, except about a squillion times hotter. Some smartymen use it to make depressions in foam that can be filled with water effects and turned into ponds.

Here's the chunk of foam that I used for my third and final "tester" table. You'll notice I have three "ponds"; one deep, one shallow, one medium. Just to see how that went.

Covered with sand, it's hard to see where the ponds are... but there's one of my Fire Dragons.

You'll see that I put some GW gravel at the bottom of the pond areas (as I am applying Bestial Brown). I thought this was a really good idea until I realized it would cause MORE bubbles...

As you can see... we have results. Still some bubbles, but it's ok as far as I'm concerned. I sprinkled a bit of GW flock into the water efects as it was drying to make it look a little more shmutzy. Welcome, by the way, to Galadriel, who was painted by my daughter, Dora.

The winner of the water effects Pepsi Challenge, btw, was Woodland Scenics.

Ace and Gary

2007-01-07T00:39:00.000-05:00

Jokes aside, the question of how the Games Workshop Autarchs are equipped is an interesting one. I got both because I wanted to mix and match a bit (as you can tell from my options-obsessed solution here). Fusion gun for one guy, Reaper Launcher for the second, exchangeable back-mounted gear for the rest. I gave some thought to the question of "What if I want the Autarch with Mandiblasters to have the Fusion Gun and I want the Autarch with the Banshee Mask to have the Reaper Launcher?"

And then I decided life's too short.

Notice I built Biff's left arm from a Dire Avenger Exarch's arm (using the one with the Deflector Shield and the pointing finger from the wrist-mounted Shuriken Catapult). The swords that come with the models are too pokey-outy. In other words, I wanted them to take up a bit less space. I'll put a sword on Biff's belt, so no problem there (why have a Banshee Mask if you're not gonna hit someone with a sword?), but I haven't made up my mind yet as to what he should be holding in it. I have an idea, though...

Stay tuned.

Flame On

2007-01-06T23:31:00.000-05:00

Just the starting point... there'll be a lot more.

Rare Earth Magnet Wonderfulness

2007-01-06T21:38:00.000-05:00

Two Autarchs. Let's call them Biff and his life partner Harold. I trimmed the feathers off of Biff's head and took the extra shoehorn off of Harold's helmet... but that's not what this is about.

When it comes to Autarch, the question is: What do you equip him with? You can give him the back-banners, the Warp Spider Jump Pack, or the Swooping Hawk wings.

My decision was that I couldn't live without being able to give either of them whichever I preferred:

I used my Mighty Power Go-Go Sparkle Fun Dremel Powers to put a nice, deep hole in each of their backs... as you can see:

Insert magnets, fill with Green Stuff and voila... change their gear on the fly.

...

2007-01-06T02:41:00.000-05:00

How big is a Forgeworld Avatar?

2007-01-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

This big.

Speaking of paint jobs...

2007-01-05T11:54:00.000-05:00

My army has a consistent look and feel: Enchanted blue wherever possible... hardened plates (i.e. armor) are typically bone... Golden Yellow for accents... Liche Purple for gems... and the occasional touch of Scorpion Green. This doesn't take into account the various Aspect colors, but I blend them with my usual scheme anyhow.

For special characters and so-on, I'm going a different route. I'm painting them as appropriate to their Craftworld or fluff rather than to match my army. Eldrad Ulthran will be done in Ulthwe Colors... Yriel in Iyanden... the Avatar will be in flames (and I'm considering a few touches of gold, though his tabard will be Enchanted Blue, as he is the Avatar of Baast)... Phoenix Lords will be painted according to their Aspect and background.

I want the special characters to stand out as "Guests" in the army, not to blend in with it. When you survey the entire force, you can pick out the unique additions easily.

Just felt like explaining that.

He IS the Brute Squad

2007-01-05T10:43:00.000-05:00

The Forgeworld Eldar Avatar. My second piece of Forgeworld resin*.

Observations so far:
- The detail on this thing is NUCKING FUTS. Observe, the arm and bracer: The picture doesn't do it justice, but the runes on the bracer are settled on top of a subtly textured arm. It's really nice. There's a lot of light flash to remove, but that's so little work it's not even worth mentoning.
- The huge blob of hair isn't mounted on a pinhead's worth of metal like the GW Avatar. Instead it rests on the extended thingie that comes off the head AND on the "fins" on the sides of his helmet. Those of you who nearly got an ulcer from trying to get the hair to stay on the GW model will be glad to see how this one works.
- It is NOT very posable. The joints are molded in such a way as to allow one pose and very little variation thereof. Naturally, anyone can convert any way they want, but I for one do not have the guts to mess with the detail on this thing by trying to change the angle of the elbows or waist.
- Even as a guy who has had a few Forgeworld pieces in his hands over the years, I am amazed at how soft the resin is. I can bend the sword back and forth with minimal effort (though part of my soul dies of terror every single time I do). It reminds me of the plastic that they used to make the little green soldiers out of... just with a bit more resilience.
- The cost-to-product ratio is not worth it. If you buy one of these, do it for love... not for the desire to get a good deal. It's a puny handful of 7 resin chunks and a base. Good for "treating yourself" if you're not a regular resin junkie, but not priced in such a way as to make it a must-have item.
- The paintjob is what's going to make this model work. The details and sculpt and all that is truly great, but it's not one of those models that stands on its own before the first drop of paint is applied. What will make the Avatar great will be the completed article. This, my friends, is not my idea of a paint job that makes the model great. Reminds me too much of this guy.
- I'm leaning toward a flaming, molten body, a glossy, bloody hand and making the Wailing Doom the one metallic item in my entire army: Gleaming gold, I was thinking... as gold goes with red. Ask any woman with red shoes and a gold handbag.
- I'm going to hand-prime it in order to avoid killing ANY of the detail.

* I sold that Phoenix Flyer

Just let me do this, Mr Kelly...

2007-01-04T10:12:00.000-05:00

This skit reminds me of what I was like when I met Phil Kelly.

I even had the hat.

(BTW it looks like NBC told YouTube to yank the video. Shame)

Welp. I screwed THAT up.

2007-01-03T09:15:00.000-05:00

I don't wanna hear any smart talk out of you people (especially you, John... you bastard).

The thing about reading the directions, whether it be for Water Effects or a home stereo or nitro glycerine, is that someone usually writes them for a reason. Take, for example, the instruction on both bottles of Water Effects which clearly say that you should layer the water in 1/8" increments. I just sorta said "screw that" and piledrove my way into it. Patience is a virtue... it's just not my virtue.

So the result (predictably) is that there are bubbles everywhere. The Games Workshop product has lots of little ones:

...and the Woodland Scenics' has a few giant ones.

Both of the ponds have a hard-enough surface that popping them is difficult and also leaves a permanent mark (or it would if I didn't fill it with more product after).

Interestingly, the Woodland Scenics product is coming into the lead again. It's easier to do on-the-fly repair work with it (like popping a giant bubble and then refilling the hole with more resin), whereas the GW product tends to tug and ripple when you mess with it in a way that is hard to compensate for.

The battle's not over yet, though.

Pimp my ride

2007-01-02T15:54:00.000-05:00

Yes. I'm that bored.

Ok, I should flesh this out a bit.

Yeah, this photo is just one of those "I'll take it and post it and I'm not sure why" things, but I'm also looking at the turret of the Scorpion II tank as inspiration for my Fire Prism conversion.

It's a really nice turret. The other tanks should have a turret so nice.

GW Water Effects edges ahead

2007-01-02T15:25:00.000-05:00

An incident has come up that gives Games Workshop Water Effects an edge over Woodland Scenics Water Effects. It's about bubbles. Observe:

On the left you'll see some bubbles that have come to the surface. The GW Water Effects is thin enough that they float to the top, and I just popped them with the end of a toothpick. GW Water Effects always seems to let the bubbles out (most of the time they pop on their own, in fact). On the right you can see a bubble stuck at the bottom of the Woodland Scenics pond, and it won't come up. This is typical for the WS product; the bubbles tend to stick to the bottom. I don't know why that is, but I have to decide whether I want to dispatch that bubble by shoving a toothpick in there (because the resin is already hardening, it's likely to leave a permanent mark).

Advantage: Games Workshop.

(p.s. The Woodland Scenics stuff does look very watery at this point, which is nice. Still being in liquid form probably has a lot to do with that)

What to do while the resin dries...

2007-01-02T15:06:00.000-05:00

I have a conversion concept for my Fire Prisms that I wanna show you:

The Pepsi Challenge

2007-01-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

I added more water effects to the two ponds. I also added a sprinkling of green flock to see if it looks nice when the time comes.

Here are the current standings:
Games Workshop Water Effects:
Clarity: Very cloudy
Speed of drying: Extremely slow
Bubbles: A few little ones that work themselves out
Shrinkage: Minimal
Ease of use: Due to the small hole through which it's squeezed and it's low viscosity (compared to Woodland Scenics), pretty darn good.

Woodland Scenics Water Effects:
Clarity: A little cloudy
Speed of drying: Slow
Bubbles: A couple big ones that had to be dug out with a toothpick and a permanent mark will be visible once it's dry
Shrinkage: Enough to reduce the "dome-like" surface
Ease of use: The open bottle top (as opposed to a hole to squeeze it through) makes it too easy to accidentally pour more out than you intend to. Also, it's much more viscous than the Games Workshop product, so it's harder to do pin-point drops to fill tiny holes without getting a "rope" of resin coming out.

Winner so far:
If the challenge was over now, it'd be Woodland Scenics for clarity, cost, and shrinkage (which, as I said, is a good thing). It is still way too early to tell which is the better product, so stay tuned.

This is going to take several days to resolve, but I'll keep you all posted.

The secret of Brown

2007-01-02T03:26:00.000-05:00

If you read this blog then you already know a fair amount of how I do the table thing: Paint it black, then Bestial Brown, then Desert Yellow, then Bleached Bone, then a dusting of Skull White. I'm not gonna go through another series of photos which chronicle it.

Thing is, after I started painting the black, I got an idea from looking at some photos (namely this and this): All this time I've been thinking about adding vines to give a much more "jungly" appearance, but couldn't figure out how to add the green vines to the jungle floor. The answer was simple: Use brown vines, not green.

This simple detail emboldened me to roll up a bunch of Green Stuff "Snakes" and start laying them around on the table (even though I'd started painting).

As you can see, once I built up through the various colors the vines looked really good and very natural.

Ok. Time to move on to the next stage. First thing I did was fill the two "pools" with Dark Green Ink.

While that was drying, I played around with the watered-down glue and added a little bit of flock here and there to the tiles. Now this... this is starting to get close to the effect I've been wanting. Very happy with how this looks.

With a bit of Reaper Mini Pure White, I painted "GW" (for Games Workshop) in one pool and "WS" (for Woodland Scenics) in the other. Then, I started filling each with their respective resin products. I'm going to try to build up slowly in layers rather than pour it all in at once (which is what the instructions say I should have done the first time... duhhh). So the Water Effects Pepsi Challenge is now underway:

Now, I shall eat some cheese and crackers.

Test Table v2.0

2007-01-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

Now that I've pretty much finished off the first "test tabIe" I was working on, I can now learn from my mistakes a bit and try something new. in particular, I'm really trying to nail down a technique for making marshy ponds and for creating swampy water. I also want to start working on some of the stone tiles and adding vegetation.

I started with a hunk of foam (for those who are curious, I did not take this from the bag that has the spider in it. I still haven't gone into that bag since I made the post):

Next, I used a T-square and ball-point-pen to etch out tiles, each .5" apart. The tutorial here suggests I use a blade to cut the tile grooves instead of the pen, but that just seemed like so much trouble.

I also marked out two ponds. I will use Games Workshop Water Effects in one and Woodland Scenics Water Effects in the other. Whichever one is better, that'll be what I use on the full-size table.

Note the rock I have hanging around. That's there for rubbing on the foam to give it a rougher, more organic look. It really works!

Here's a close-up of the tile surface. I would love to accurately create an effect which replicates aged water damage on these tiles but, seeing as I don't actually know what the looks like in real life, I'll have to do without.

Two ponds, dug out with an Xacto blade. This really isn't the best way to dig the ponds out, believe me; the ponds end up way too deep and you end up wasting Water Effects solution there (not to mention that deep ponds take longer to cure, and I'm impatient enough as it is). Anyhow, live and learn.

Speaking of impatience, I like to point a fan at the glued sand to dry it as quickly as possible.

As I did with the first "test" table, I coated the relevant areas with white glue and heaped on the sand. I then used watered-down glue over the sand to seal it in. You'll notice how the sand is of different hues. I have no idea why this is except that they come from two different GW sand tubs. BTW, GW sand is the best. If I could use it on the entire table, I would in a heartbeat... but I'm too busy spending all my extra money on overpriced Water Effects to afford any overpriced Modeling Sand.

Here's a good head-on of the test piece as it currently is at the time of this writing:

...and a close-up:

Now that there's nothing to do except wait for this thing to dry, I think I'll go have a nap.

Little Wing

2006-12-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

If you're a Swooping Hawk living on Craftworld Baast, this is what your wings look like.

Only 19 more to go (both sides, btw).

You're not funny, Ben.

2006-12-30T07:26:00.000-05:00

Ben says he thinks Yriel looks jaundiced.

My Painting "To Do" List

2006-12-29T23:04:00.000-05:00

(It hurts just reading it)

Things which aren't yet primed:
7 Jetbikes
Maugen Ra

Things which aren't yet base-coated:
2 Bonesingers
1 Farseer
Eldrad Ulthran

Things which aren't yet blocked out:
30 Dire Avengers (including Exarchs)
9 Banshees (including Exarch)
9 Swooping Hawks (including Exarch)
11 Striking Scorpions (including 2 Exarchs)
3 Vypers
Wraithlord
Yriel, Autarch of Iyanden
Fuegan
3 War Walkers

Blocked out, but needing a lot more paint:
9 Fire Dragons (including Exarch)
10 Warp Spiders (including Exarch)
20 Wraithguard
1 Farseer
6 platform crewmen
3 Support Platforms

Things needing "finishing touches":
Autarch
2 Warlocks
10 Dark Reapers (including 2 Exarchs)
2 Fire Prisms
12 Guardians
3 Wave Serpents
Scorpion Mark II

Completed items so far:
1 Warlock
2 Heavy Support Platforms
9 Striking Scorpions (including Exarch)

Progress Report

2006-12-28T10:48:00.000-05:00

Swooping Hawks: White primer, then a few light coats of Scaly Green, followed by a bath of blue ink.

Fire Prisms: The undercarriage is a nice Snakebite Leather washed with brown ink.

Wraithlord: With a painted base. Not quite there yet.

Warp Spiders: Based in Shadow Grey (it looks better than this photo makes it seem):

Yriel: Yellow, baby.

Getting by with a little help from my friends

2006-12-28T06:46:00.000-05:00

I had Keith and Matt over last night. We ate a ton of Indian food and I believe a sandwich made from Italian proscuitto and a fresh bagel was eaten.

I did some airbrushing of Matt's models, which I think he appreciated, and I think Keith left with a pocket of stuff he swiped from my bitz box.

Later, I was rooting through two units that were giving me huge trouble: My Warp Spiders and my Swooping Hawks. The trouble came from me trying to determine what color base-coat I wanted to give them. The standard red/white/black/ for Warp Spiders and turquoise for the Hawks wasn't doing much for me. I suggested to Keith that I do the Hawks in yellow as an undercoat. Before the words were even out of my mouth, he replied with "Death Canaries!", thus showing me the error of my thinking. I thanked him for that.

I asked Matt what he thought and he made some suggestions that instantly resonated with me: Shadow Grey for the Spiders and Scaly Green for the Hawks.

And that's what I'm gonna do.

How the experiment is working...

2006-12-26T06:38:00.000-05:00

I started with GW Water Effects in the pond and then, later, poured Woodland Scenics Water Effects on top. I should have waited and tried them separately but I didn't. Despite the fact that I'm 37, I still have the patience of a 9 year old. You'll notice some kind of weird bubble popping up under the top layer of Water Effects. It may possibly explode, spraying debris over quite a large area. I guess we'll see.

The GW Water Effects is flatly superior. It takes longer to cure (notice the "foggy" parts under the surface of the water), but when it does it lies perfectly flat (which the Woodland Scenics product doesn't), it somehow ejects all the bubbles before hardening (which the Woodland Scenics product doesn't), and it shrinks just enough from the edges so that the "bubble" water effect doesn't happen (which the Woodland Scenics product doesn't). On the other hand, the GW product is almost $20 more per bottle and has less in it... so going with the best product isn't going to be cheap and, frankly, I'm not sure if it's worth the cost. Right now I think it isn't because, to be honest, that's a hell of a lot of money. I believe that working with the Woodland Scenic stuff won't be so bad if I'm extremely careful with it all.

Woodland Scenic did come through on those reedy grass bits by the side of the water, though. Don't they look good? I just have to get them to stand up straight (the method for which, Bill has since explained to me). Also, I have to perfect my lilly pad colors. I'll do it, though.

Happy with the dirt jungle floor... but soon I have to start looking at how to get it looking more like a jungle. Moss, mould, vines, lichen, etc... we'll have to see how I make that happen. Not sure yet.

Sunburst

2006-12-26T01:06:00.000-05:00

Yellow For Dummies

2006-12-25T20:49:00.000-05:00

Prime the model white, then slather with yellow ink (mixed with a tiny bit of dish detergent).

This is going to be my second Fire Prism. I wanted to make the Fire Prisms in my force to be an exception to my usual technique of Bone Undercoat + Blue Accents. I wanted to make them more solid colors, just to give them some distinction from the look of the Wave Serpents.

I'm challenged to come up with fresh angles on certain paint schemes, as my goal is to at least prime and base-coat everything in my possession. I have a strong aversion to having unpainted, unassembled models just sitting around. My hope is, before long, every model I own will either be in service or it'll be sold/given away/donated to the cat to play with.

More on this as it develops.

Lilly pads

2006-12-23T08:14:00.000-05:00

One last thing for now: I put lilly pads in the water:

A combination of Dark Angels Green, Goblin Green and Snot Green. When the water is dry, I'll put some varnish on them to make them all shiny.

Just worth trying out to see how it works.

The Experimental Jungle

2006-12-23T06:45:00.000-05:00

First, I painted the table with black (no pic). After I had that all done, I painted it over with Bestial Brown (as was the methodology explained here, which is my template for this project). Even though I suppose I could have guessed this was going to happen, I was actually a bit surprised by how the undercoat of black made a different and really made the brown more complex and interesting and, most importantly, "earthy".

I vaguely remember a table at the Bayshore Games Workshop that had a pond on it, and the pond was lined with dark green ink. It looked great, so I'm stealing that approach.

I was pretty tentative about how to bring the brown shading of the earth up from the Bestial Brown. I decided to go with Desert Yellow, and it worked out nicely. I'm almost disappointed that it worked well because, honestly, Desert Yellow is one of the hardest Games Workshop colors to dry-brush with. Well, it looks pretty damned good and I'm now sentenced to drybrushing 48 square feet with this accursed color.

If you know me, you'll know that I think that Bleached Bone is one of the miracle colors that can do no wrong. I drybrushed over the Desert Yellow, and (as I predicted) it made everything look amazing... as usual. BB FTW!

Ok... here's my first stupid mistake: I added some GW Water Effects (left over from this project) before the ink was totally dry. Now I have green floating around in the water effects. Aw, well... that's what "experimenting" is all about, right?

Ah, who cares? I filled up the rest of the pond. We'll check back in 24 hours and see how it looks.

Not too jungley yet... obviously. I'm trying to get the jungle floor right, so the foliage and so-on will come later. For now, however, Im working on earth tones that have something of a Mayan/Desert look. Next? I try to figure out how to get lichen and mould and undergrowth into the scheme.

We'll see.

You can't spell "Painting" without "Pain"

2006-12-22T05:33:00.000-05:00

Here's how it goes with War Walkers in the Baast Warhost: You gotta paint everything separately. I've painted the legs separately from the cab, as you can see below:

I even built little stands out of soda bottle lids so I could prime and paint the "ears" of the War Walkers.

Before long all three will be built, but it's a slow process that's fussy. I just keep telling myself that I'll be so glad I took all this extra time when they're done.

Speaking of all that fussy still I'll be glad I did when I'm done, the Vypers are a good chunk of the way there. As you can see, the assembly is mostly done, but there's painting and inking still to be done.

War Walkers and Vypers are the most fussy models in the Eldar line because you gotta assemble and paint in stages, whereas you can just slap other models together and then paint without having to think about what comes first, what comes second, etc. Due to the fact that I'm sort of bad at this kind of organization, I play it extra carefully and move very slowly.

I'll be glad when these are done. Seriously.

Here We Go Again

2006-12-21T10:23:00.000-05:00

Planning for Eldar Megabattle '07 has begun. More details on that later, but I can tell you that we're making ourselves a "jungle" table for this year. Who's making it? Me, of course! And I wouldn't make a table without me doing a test piece first to make sure it looks good. So... here I go.

Step one: Get an old, nasty chunk of styrofoam out for a "test terrain" piece.

Step two: Carve a "swamp" hole, cover with white glue.

Step three: Use the last bit of GW sand I have to cover the foam. Let it dry, then seal it with a layer of glue on top.

Step Four: Take a good, close look at the sand. Wait for it to dry.

Step Five: Eat some soup.

Dear Mr. Wraithlord: I'm In Love With You

2006-12-21T07:20:00.000-05:00

The airbrush is responsible, ladies and jellyspoons:

Obviously no interesting base or details yet, but mmm-mmmm... he looks gooood.

My Blogger Profile

2006-12-19T06:54:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to change my profile in a way so that my posts are no longer signed "Deimhinn Sinn" and, instead, are signed "Baast". This probably has something to do with my profile. I'm not sure.

Here's a picture I found of a really cute cat.

My Airbrush Makes Me Happy In My Pants

2006-12-19T05:19:00.000-05:00

I've spoken a bit about the airbrush that my brother got me for my birthday. Really, it was a combination of airbrush and compressor and, as people who own these things will attest, the compressor is usually the expensive part... so I'm really grateful to him for that. He confessed the airbrush part was a cheap one, and he was right; it fell apart like kleenex origami in a rainstorm. I put a few bucks on the table for a new one (about $25, because I didn't need anything fancy), and it really did the trick. You would have enjoyed watching me use the first one, though; it jammed every time I would think of using it, and would otherwise spray paint in all sorts of different directions like fountains at the Bellagio Hotel (like, imagine this, only in your hand, and instead of water you have Hawk Turquoise).

Anyhow, the new brush soved that problem.

So here's what I'm doing now:
- Prime the models using whatever primer does the job
- Use the airbrush to base in Snakebite Leather
- Use the airbrush to cover in Bleached Bone
- Ink the models
- Done

The results are amazingly flat, amazingly even, amazingly smooth basecoats. I'm just blown away. Here are some shots of what I'm getting so far (after the primer/Snakebite/Bone/Ink process I described above):

Now, it's not that I can't get these results with a brush, but the time factor is a huge consideration. With this kind of thing, I'd need to put maybe 5 or so layers of super-thinned Bleached Bone down on top of the Snakebite Leather to get what I'm going for. The airbrush gives it to me in a matter of hours and, if I didn't have to wait for the layers to dry between between coats, I'd be able to do it in almost no time at all.

Obviously this is going to change how I do my models from here on out. I would leave so many models on the shelf for months or longer simply because I couldn't face the long hours of labor required to get the basic bone and ink coats on them. I'm much less put off by doing details and freehand and other "fun" stuff than I am by the mind-numbing assembly-line work of basecoating properly... so this is a lot like all the fun stuff and none of the dreary.

Best of all, using the airbrush is fun. Come on; I turn on the compressor and press that little button and spray paint at the model. It's awesome. Watching the model get painted up in no time flat is fantastic.

In time I'll experiment a bit with doing those really neat gradients you see people do with airbrushes and, eventually, will get myself one of those fancyshmancy airbrushes that allows me to do super cool details.

For now, however, I'm having a lot of fun. I've got two War Walkers and a Wraithlord in the other room with silky-smooth Bleached Bone coats drying right now.

This airbrush rocks. Thanks, Bro!

My last Sabol post for a while. I promise.

2006-12-16T07:19:00.000-05:00

I put one of my old trays in that last remaining Army Transport spot. In it you'll find 9 Striking Scorpions (including Exarch), 6 platform crewmen, three Support Platforms (kitted out for D-Cannons). That's 171 models in two cases.

Right here.

Ok, I know you're getting sick of how much I love these Sabol cases, but come on... 171 models, not including heavy weapons, books, dice, measuring tape and flight stands.

Can't. Touch. This.

More fun with Sabol

2006-12-16T01:28:00.000-05:00

While I'm on a tear about how great the Sabol cases are, I'd like to add a couple things about what I've done with my own cases over the past year or so that I've had them (a bit longer, I think).

The Sabol paint tray is damn good for holding paints (and, as you'll notice on the website, 28 standing models). What it doesn't offer me is a space for my brushes, my files, my glue, the whole thing. When you're painting at Games Workshop, you need your own brushes and stuff because they're not technically allowed to lend you certain things... so it's good to have them on hand. This is a pic of how I have it set up and, if you're a person who paints on the go, you should know this kind of thing is possible.

You might notice that I have an eyedropper. I was taught a technique by a friend named Urban who is a fantastic painter. It goes like this: A bit of flow improver with a little water mixed with the paint makes it the perfect consistency without destroying the pigment. I have a pot of Reaper Mini Flow Improver, a pot of water, and an eyedropper to drop them into the paint (rather than dipping in a brush or something and getting paint into the pot). I routinely carry four GW empty paint points. One with Reaper Mini Flow Improver, one with Reaper Mini Brush-on Primer (great for fixing paint chips), one with Reaper Mini Pure White (the best white paint I've ever found) and one with straight-up H2O.

I started asking myself what else I could do with my Sabol trays that could increase my convenience, and I realized that one ongoing problem I have is what to do with my "stuff" while I'm playing in a store or hobby center. There are great gaming tables at some of the places in my area, but I often find that I show up with stuff that I don't want to keep in my pockets but I don't want to put down (lest they get lost or stolen)... so I did this.

The trays are pretty beaten up because I've had them in heavy use for quite a while. During the Forge Primus campaign I was trotting these out several times a week. My current setup only allows for one more tray, so I can't put them both in and keep all my models as well, but it's a small thing to swap that extra tray space out as I have different demands.

That's Sabol Designs, kids.

Sabol: You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings

2006-12-15T02:41:00.001-05:00

You might remember from my complaining here, I've needed extra storage space for my models. I got myself 5 extra trays for my Sabol Army Transports (just two standard ones) and went to work re-arranging how all my models are stored. Here's what I managed to store:

30 Dire Avengers (including Exarchs)
10 Warp Spiders (including Exarch)
9 Banshees (including Exarch)
9 Fire Dragons (including Exarch)
9 Swooping Hawks (including Exarch)
11 Striking Scorpions (including 2 Exarchs)
10 Dark Reapers (including 2 Exarchs)
20 Wraithguard
Autarch
3 Warlocks
2 Bonesingers
3 Vypers
2 Fire Prisms
7 Jetbikes
12 Guardians
2 Heavy Support Platforms
Wraithlord
2 Farseers
Eldrad Ulthran
Yriel, Autarch of Iyanden
Fuegan
Maugen Ra
3 Wave Serpents
3 War Walkers

(These items are stored in the pockets:)
All my heavy weapons (too many to list)
All my flight bases & stems
1 Eldar Codex
1 Rulebook

Ok, to be fair, I trimmed out some stuff from the old list I made in the previous post. For instance, I removed a bunch of the old Striking Scorpions, reduced the number of Jetbikes, and put all the weapons in the pocket. Don't scoff, however; That's 153 models in the cases ranging from basic infantry to vehicles (not including the heavy weapons in the pocket). Let us not forget the amazing way that Sabol Designs allows you to create shaped slots for various models so that they sit perfectly in the tray (here's an example, and here's another, and here's a third). Also, note that the models lay on their backs (instead of the GW case... where stories abound of models falling through the case to the bottom) and you can get trays of varying thickness so that the model is properly covered and not left hanging out of the foam.

Sorry, GW army case, but you can't touch this.

So I've got everything I need in there now. There's nothing left I need to store. Here's the part that's gonna make you a believer: I still have room for one tray left over. I'm not even kidding. I could put one more tray of models in there if I want to. Wanna hear about the Super Dazzle Extra Fantasy Rock And Roll Bonus Treat? Sabol sent one of these for free. For freakin' free. Ok, granted, I've done a better version of the same thing on my own with the standard 1" tray, but it's still cool.

Friends... if you're looking for a way to store your models and carry them around, this is it.

Oh, btw. I'm gonna save up to buy another one. They're too good not to.

GW: Are you kidding me with this?

2006-12-05T19:14:00.000-05:00

Games Workshop Vehicle Damage Dice.

$16.00 Cdn, plus tax.

For 12 dice. Before tax, that's roughly $1.33 per die.

I bought a pack. They seemed expensive to me when I got them and I was thinking "this is a stupid expenditure, but... I bet I'll like having them". Then I got home and opened them up, saw there were only 12 dice inside, closed it up, found the receipt, and I'm taking them back tomorrow.

Check it out. The outside of the tin:

And the inside:

Come on already with this.

You think YOU got problems?

2006-12-01T05:05:00.003-05:00

I can't fit all my stuff into my cases.

I've got two Army Transport cases loaded with trays of all sorts. Can you believe that? I got some new foam trays and managed to put some of my new models into them and, before I knew it, I was out of space! Can you believe that?

Here's what they currently hold in them:

30 Dire Avengers (including Exarchs)
10 Warp Spiders (including Exarch)
9 Fire Dragons (including Exarch)
9 Swooping Hawks (including Exarch)
20 Striking Scorpions (including Exarchs)
10 Dark Reapers (including Exarchs)
20 Wraithguard
7 Rangers
Autarch
3 Warlocks
2 Bonesingers
Wraithlord
6 Platform Crew
3 Farseers
Eldrad Ulthran
Fuegan
Limited Edition Autarch
3 Wave Serpents
3 War Walkers
2 Heavy Weapon Platforms
3 D-Cannon Platforms
2 Starcannons
Twin-Linked Brightlance
3 Twin-Linked Scatter Lasers
2 Twin-Linked Starcannons
3 Twin-Linked Eldar Missile Launchers
20 Eldar Missile Launchers (yeah, 20)
3 flight bases with stems
1 Eldar Codex
1 Rulebook

...Hmm. When I look over that list maybe I shouldn't complain.

Alright. So maybe I don't have it that bad. That's a lot of cabbage to cram into two vinyl bags. That having been said, here's what I'm looking at:
Maugen Ra
3 Vypers
2 Fire Prisms
9 Jetbikes
12 Guardians
10 Banshees (including Exarch)

I can probably cram the War Walkers in there and maybe one Fire Prism, but that's it. I'll be outta room.

I figure I can retire a couple things (some of those extra Scorpions and the Rangers) and move some stuff around using new trays, and it'll all work out great. Thing is... I need some more trays. That's the trick.

Time for a visit to these folks to get more trays. I'd better hurry.

Why the hell am I working on Striking Scorpions right now?

2006-11-29T04:59:00.000-05:00

I'm working on my Striking Scorpions right now (the ones with the Warp Spider foot and the nearly-impossible-to-remove mold lines) instead of things I actually need like my Dire Avengers. I don't know why.

What's nice, though, is that I finally busted out my airbrush. You know... the one I got back in May... and gave these guys a few squirts. Know what? It WORKED! I shouldnt be so surprised, but seriously... I just mixed Scorpion Green with Flow Improver, lined 'em up, and fired away. I love the results!

I'll be painting bone armor over the armored parts, but this makes a really nice basecoat, I say.

Warp Spider Foot

2006-11-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

Eldar players know what I'm talking about: Warp Spiders have feet that curl up at the end. You gotta actually use the end of a paintbrush or the handle of a pair of side clippers to push them down. If you don't, it looks like they have excited toes that point up to heaven. It reminds me of Mad Magazine cartoonist Don Martin's work; he'd do these pictures of people whose toes would jut up in the air like magnets pointing due north.

The reason I mention this is because the new Striking Scorpions from Games Workshop? I'm working on a bunch tonight. They have Warp Spider Foot.

March of the Dire Avengers

2006-11-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

The new Eldar codex has one new factor that I really support and am glad to see: Eldar players must now take troops, just like everyone else. I don't mean "troop slots". I mean troops; not Wraithlords, not Vypers, not non-Dire Avenger Aspect Warriors. Real, honest-to-goodness troops. The new codex goes a long way to try and sweeten the pill, and we should be grateful: Storm Guardians, Defender Guardians, Rangers, Pathfinders, Dire Avengers, Jetbikes and, in some cases, Wraithguard. This sounds pretty good, but it's still an adjustment for those who have been juggling the Force Org Chart to suit their whim for years with the 3rd Ed Craftworld Eldar codex. No more all-Banshee Scorpion armies. No more Wraithlords as troops (freeing up heavy support slots for 3 Falcons or whatever). No more mass-Vyper attacks. It's simple, straight-forward troop choices.

Just because I am all for this change in the new codex doesn't mean that it's a walk in the park for me to get my troops ready. Like a lot of guys, the new codex hit me with no real troop choices on hand. Rather than try to put it off and somehow force the stuff I have into some sort of list (I did give two squads of 10 Wraithguard some thought, but the 800 point total or so put me off), I decided to bite the bullet and start getting a healthy contingent of Dire Avengers together. I've scored a nice infusion of free Eldar models lately (don't ask how; you wouldn't like the answer), and I have 3 units of Avengers now.

All are assembled (save the arms, which go on after the body is painted). 30 of them. Exarchs and all. Here you go:

God, that is one crapload of painting I have ahead of me.

*Long exhale* ...back to it. Talk later.

Painting List

2006-11-22T06:11:00.000-05:00

There's this thing that happens when you acquire a whole bunch of models at once: You put them all out on a table and look at them and feel a swell of joy. Soon, however, your smile melts away as you realize that you have to assemble and paint them, and how much work that's going to be. I took a good look at what I have to paint right now, and I think I've come down with a case of hives just from reading my own list.

HQ
To paint:
Limited Edition Autarch
Farseer
Prince Yriel of Iyanden
Eldrad Ulthran
3 Warlocks
Farseer on Jetbike

Troops
To paint:
9 Dire Avengers, 1 Exarch
7 Jetbikes
7 Rangers
1 Heavy Support Platform

To assemble and paint:
18 Dire Avengers, 2 Exarchs
3 Jetbikes

Elites
To paint:
8 Howling Banshees, 1 Exarch
5 Wraithguard
9 Fire Dragons, 1 Exarch

To assemble and paint:
9 Striking Scorpions, 1 Exarch

Fast Attack
To paint:
9 Warp Spiders, 1 Exarch
9 Swooping Hawks, 1 Exarch

To assemble and paint:
3 Vypers

Heavy Support
To paint:
Wraithlord
2 Fire Prisms
2 War Walkers

To assemble and paint:
Wraithlord
1 War Walker

Will I get them done? Of course. Will I enjoy it? 75% of the time I'll enjoy it very much... the other 25% Well, you know how it goes.

What I'll do is make up a lit and then paint what I need to fill it. Over time as I adjust lists and change my approach, I'll paint more.

Yep. That'll work.

(Good Lord)

Cow Walkers

2006-11-11T07:58:00.000-05:00

Games Workshop has released the new War Walkers in a three-pack splash release (single War Walker boxes will be out soon). I got mine yesterday and, instead of posting all about sprues and bases and other things which are typical celebrations of new models, I'm going to link you to something else: This is a screenshot of a post I made at Warseer when photos of the new War Walkers were just starting to emerge. I have to show you a screenshot because, oddly enough, the original post was deleted.

Wonder why.

I'm Semi-Sorta-Kinda Micro-Famous

2006-11-10T03:35:00.000-05:00

I was interviewed by Games Workshop Ottawa. Wasn't just me, though; it was my trusted and respected compatriot, Bill Dullemond (who is far, far more knowledgable about Eldar than I am). In my usual, inimitable way, I blather on and on and on every time I answer a question and use ten words where one would do... but those of you who follow this blog should be used to that by now.

Anyhow, I sorta feel a bit like a coat-tail rider by being on the same marquis as Bill, but it was fun all the same and, for the record, if you're not too up on the current Eldar stuff then you might get some new info from this interview.

Poor Derek

2006-11-07T06:38:00.000-05:00

So I was at the Bayshore Games Workshop last night, and I ran into my old pal Derek. He's a huge Ultramarine fan and has tons and tons of models, and we always end up talking about our respective armies when we get together. I decided, for the heck of it, to ask him about how he likes to transport his models, and he said he likes the Games Workshop cases a lot. I asked him which cases he had. He said this:

"I really want the big hard one because right now I only have the big soft one", and then went on to explain why sometimes the models don't sit right in the big soft case because the walls move and sometimes let the models drop to the bottom.

"What was that you just said?" I asked him.

"I want the big hard one because I only have the big soft one" he replied.

I called Red Shirt Adam over.

"Now tell me again," I said to Derek. "You really want the...."

Derek, who had already figured out what I was doing, murmured through his teeth... "big hard one", he said.

"Cause you've already got... what?"

"The big soft one" he replied.

"I think I've heard enough." I told him.

Poor Derek. He needs better friends.

130 Days

2006-10-21T04:32:00.000-05:00

It's been 130 days since I last made a substantial, 40k-relevant post here. Late June, summer was nearing its zenith, I was just wrapping up heavy involvement in the Forge Primus campaign, and the mysteries of the new Eldar codex were just starting to truly flow forth in earnest.

Now, fall is a hair's breadth away from giving into winter, I haven't touched a paintbrush or a bottle of glue since the above-mentioned post. I've had three haircuts, acquired a new computer, enjoyed a turbulent up-and-down love life, had my car in the shop for repairs twice, had a visit from my mother, took the kids on a trip to visit my brother in Ohio, and got a cat. Thoughts of Eldar and 40k have barely crossed my mind. My models and tools have all been neatly stashed in a closet, out of sight.

It's been a while, but I am so back. Oh, you heard me.

I got the giganticus Eldar box (which includes Codex, Wraithlord, Dire Avengers, Guardians, Fire Dragons, Howling Banshees, Limited Edition Autarch, Falcon and Vyper), managed to score two Bonesinger models, and am dusting off a bunch of my old stuff again. There's tons of stuff to paint, but I'm slowing priming and prepping models.

Am I hot to play? Only sorta. Right now it's about the models and the new book. We'll get to the rest later.

So where did I go? I just lost interest for a while. I'd had enough. Life changes, love changes, priorities change, and sometimes you just don't need tiny space elves to be your priority in life.

But I do now. Oh, you heard me: I do now.

Pics will follow as soon as I can find the stupid cable that connects my camera to my computer. I've got a Limited Edition Autarch carrying a Reaper Launcher that you have *got* to see...

Uh oh.

2006-08-18T20:47:00.000-05:00

I've lost my interest in Eldar and 40k in general.

It's true. The thing that we all thought would never have happened has happened.

Help?

Wraithlord

2006-06-27T18:39:00.000-05:00

A picture surfaced today from the Russian (???) Games Day: The Plastic Wraithlord has finally been revealed in all his splendor.

Let's ignore the stunning new Scorpion Exarch on his right and the two thingies to his left. Let's talk about the Wraithlord.

Here's what I like:
- He's plastic. I love that.
- His joints are ball-socket. The main complaint I have about the current Wraithlord is that he's very, very difficult to pose in anything except the most boring manner. This new guy? He'll look amazing.
- A variety of weapons and armaments.
- Nice looking base.
- He's lost that "Ant Man" look
- He kept the blank faceplate. That was a big thing for me, as I think the blank face goes far to give him the "dead" look that the model needs (it is a Ghost Warrior, after all)

Here's what I don't like:
- The fists look a little clunky

I am in love with this guy. Expect to see many of them posted here when the time comes.

The Careful Battle Against Aarhus

2006-06-27T18:00:00.001-05:00

A big piece of area terrain in the middle of the table can really make all the decisions about a game.

This was a 1500 point pickup game between Lawrence, aka Aarhus and I that took place after Bill and I wrapped up (batrep coming soon). Incidentally, the diference between my 1500 point list and my 1700 is some Shuriken Cannons, some Wargear and some Witchblades. :) Nothing you can see, for the most part.

Some observations:
- All ten Dark Reapers went into a building with Fortifications and Medkit strategems. That, combined with Fortune, made them almost unkillable.
- The giant piece of area terrain in the middle, however, meant that they didn't kill anything else.
- It's worth it to huck the D Cannons up the table for 4 turns so that you can get a great shot on the 5th or 6th.
- Fury of the Ancients is frustrating as hell. Utterly unstoppable and no restrictions whatsoever in terms of range or line of sight. He kept running it through two or three squads at a time and it was driving me crazy.
- Wraithlords are great. It's not that they are monsters, as they don't move very fast and they have somewhat limited firing power... but they're solid. They always give me a nice, dependable shooter that doesn't have to cower in terror because a bolter might pop out of nowhere. Two Wraithlords took a few casualties. No world records set... but, as usual, they were a good anchor.
- The Psychic Hood is a broken piece of Wargear.

In the end, it was very close. Neither of us took many casualties (I lost two crewmen from my D Cannons, and that was it. He lost half a Devastator Squad and a Dreadnought). Due to the fact that his Librarian took one wound, I got extra points and eked out a win. Lawrence went a little green (as it was his fault; that wound was lost to Perils of the Warp), but was a good sport about it.

Yay, Lawrence for not being a big baby!

Beta 1 falls

2006-06-25T21:45:00.000-05:00

The name of the game is to grab the objectives and hold on for dear life.

Secure and Control Gamma at 1500 points, 2 on 2. Ryan and James (Black Legion and Def Skullz) against myself and Brent (Biel Tan and Dark Angels). The region was Beta 1 in the Forge Primus campaign (of which I've spoken several times) and, for the record, this may have been one of the weightiest games of the entire campaign. You see, "Control Points" (the currency by which participants move forward) are awarded based on several factors. The winner, naturally, gets some points. You also get more points if the players are both campaign participants, if they're in the same region, if it's a megabattle, if it's a grudge match (i.e. part of an ongoing series of games between the same opponents), if there's fluff, and if there's a battle report. We had all of that. You can imagine, therefore, that while the game was friendly, no-one wanted to lose.

In the end, Brent and I held all three objectives (worth 1000 points each) and had significantly whittled down the ranks of the enemy in almost every section of the table. As the game was careening into turns 5 and 6, large numbers of Trukk Boyz, a Warboss, a Painboss and a rhino full of Chaos tac marines were beaten into submission on one flank by assault marines and striking scorpions. On the other flank, more marines and boyz were beaten back by a Wraithlord, an Attack Bike and lots of gunire, and the central objective was grabbed by a Wraithlord who helped to push out two killa kans an a looted leman russ.

The Chaos/Ork side was not without its victories, however; a lot of Dark Reapers bit the dust, a lot of weapons were blown off of Wave Serpents, and my D-Cannons were driven off the table before they fired a single shot. One of the biggest speed bumps for them, however, was early in the game when an errant squad of killa kans wandered right into the perfect position to block several volleys of fire from a Havoc squad. I think that if those guys had gotten more shots off in that first turn (especially with the Kans later getting immobilized and stuck in that position which blocked the firing lane), things might have been brighter for the enemy team.

Black Storm in the City of Death

2006-06-25T00:14:00.000-05:00

The title has a good ring to it, doesn't it?

Grudge match versus Bill's Black Storm Chaos army (Bill... you can write the fluff part, ok?). This was my first full-on game of Cities of Death. Let me tell you: If you haven't tried it yet, I encourage you to do so. I thought it was going to be a really difficult thing with lots of special rules to memorize, but it was nothing of the sort. Pick a mission, pick some strategems, go kill something. It's really very quick to start (which, to me, seems like an indicator of how well-designed it is). Bill took "Power Generator" for his Defiler (which I killed on turn 2 anyhow) and "Deep Strike" for his Obliterators. I took "Fortification" for a building with Dark Reapers in it, and "Preliminary Bombardment", which did a wound on his Demon Prince.

It was something of a game of ring-around the rosey. 1500 points of the "Domination" mission, and a big piece of area terrain in the middle of the table. Bill always likes putting a big area terrain "no go" zone there because he doesn't like getting his head blown off by Dark Reapers.

This was also the first time in my life (at least that I can remember) trying out a Court of the Young King. It's flufffy, it looks great, the statline of that unit is absolutely staggering and... once it hits the table it's almost totally useless. See, here's the thing: The enemy will (not "might"... will) blast it to bits before you get it to do anything significant. First of all, it's slow moving and can't deep strike or get in a vehicle... so you're going to walk it everywhere, 6" per turn. Second, its shooting powers will be modest at best. Third, if it gets into hand to hand with *anything*, that thing will probably die instantly. Most enemies know this. Worst of all, they also know that it's a crapload of victory points on feet. Not only will they blow it to kingdom come before it touches anything, they'd be stupid not to. People tell me different things, like "Oh, it works well in big games" or "If you surrounded it by Guardians, it'll work", or "Best to escort it with some Wraithlords", but you know what? I love the Court on paper and as a modeling unit and blah blah blah but I will never, ever field it again. Bill Autocannoned the unit (Avatar and 3 Fire Dragon Exarchs, which was all I had painted) into confetti and I watched about 270 points turn into fertilizer... without it killing a single thing. Nosir. That's not for me.

In the end, it was a draw. Very tight game. He held 3 buildings. I did the same. He needed to kill just one more Dark Reaper to bring it down to a non-scoring unit and... nearly, but not quite. His last shot of the game... hit, wounded and I made my 4+ save with a roll of 4+.

Magic.

While we're on the subject of "Goals"...

2006-06-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

Check out this post I made about my goals for Warhammer 40k. How am I doing? Let's look at the "to do" items and see what's still left.

- Top the challenge board at Deep Space
Update: I'm close. One tier down from the top. It'll be a fair amount of playing to get that top position and stay there (at absolute minimum I have to win 4 games in a row to do it, and I don't know if that'll happen).

~~- Play at this year's Conflict event~~
Update: I skipped it. It was on the same weekend I was with my kids.

- Finish my Iyanden army
Update: Not quite there yet. I can field a comfortable 1250, a lean 1500-1700... but nothing more, really. I'd like to get a few more key things into the army (like that Phoenix flyer) and finish all the painting. I'm not goin gto aim for something nutty like 4000 points, but a nice comfortable 2000 would be nice.

- Finish an Ulthwe Strike Force army under the new codex rules
Update: Haven't even started yet. That won't come into being until at least October/November.

- Do well in this year's Deep Space Campaign: The War for Forge Primus
Update: It's done in just over a week or two... and I'm doing well, I think. I'll be pushing to finish on a high note.

~~- Do well in this year's GW Campaign (The Fall of Medusa V)~~
Update: I'm gonna skip it. I'm not that interested in it and I don't want to constantly be feeling a pressure to play more... especially when I'm just a drop in the bucket.

- To finish a cityfight addition for my Eldar table.
Update: Got concept drawings. I'll be doing some more on that, probably when the Forge Primus campaign is over.

That's the thing about cheese...

2006-06-20T20:58:00.000-05:00

For the record, I don't blame Marty.

I am participating in two online Warhammer 40k thingies which are both based on Deep Space (my favorite 40k web forum). One is an online campaign called Forgeworld Primus (it's a lot like Medusa V, but it's mostly made up of Ottawa-area players). The other is a challenge ladder that I'm scrambling to get to the top of. Both of these endeavors include my friend Marty (against whom I have fought before, and whose army you might recognize from pictures in earlier posts of this blog). Though he's not particularly active in Forgeworld Primus, he *is* at the top of the challenge ladder, and I have to knock him off. Those of you who follow my blog will also know that succeeding in the Forge Primus campaign and getting to the top of the challenge ladder are goals for me.

1250 points. Alpha-level Secure and Control is what it ended up being. I made my list about a week ago and did something I never thought I'd do: Take three Wraithlords. That's right: The world's favorite example of how to build a cheesy army had finally, for the first time, made it into one of my lists. I felt dirty doing it, that's for sure, and spent the week asking friends if I was going to go to hell for this. Oddly enough, a lot of people seemed to think it was fine, but that's probably beside the point. The important thing, however, is this: You can't decide what is and what isn't cheese from what other people say. This is a hard lesson for me, as I am adept at conforming to the status quo and then using those constraints to excel within a framework. In this case I was doing the thing you don't do. The list was basically like this:

- Two squads of Dark Reapers with Exarchs, each Fortuned by a Farseer
- Striking Scorpions and Exarch in a Wave Serpent
- Three Wrathlords

The thing is, the challenge board is meant for the hardest of hardcore armies. This is understood by all participants. No-one in our little online community is allowed to bitch about cheesy lists in the challenge board. Other places, sure... but not there. It's the safe haven for people who want to play the really hardcore, no holds-barred games. Secondly, Marty and I talk from time to time and he has been very clear that he sees nothing wrong with three Wraithlords. He isn't scared of them and doesn't see them as a bad thing. The combination of these two facts emboldened me to take the three Wraithlords this one time.

More to the point, however, I don't find them particularly hard to kill... and they don't dish out so much firepower that you have to constantly run for your life. They're pretty good in hand-to-hand, but they move so slowly that you'd be an idiot to let yourself get charged.

The day came and we hit the table. It was a very, very small table... not even 4X4. Maybe more like 3X3. I took Marty aside and told him that three WL's were coming his way, and he seemed a little anxious, but non-judgmental about it. The game started and we were off.

Marty got first turn and started killing things right away. Eldar players will tell you how it sucks not to get first turn (because you can't get your psychic powers off in time to help yourself), and this was certainly a good example. Then, the Librarian and his stupid psychic hood (a piece of wargear which I consider to be flat-out, no excuses about it broken). Fortuned continued to fail and Reapers just fell left right and center.

Then out came the four Assault Cannons. Let me just tell you: Never again will I feel guilty about fielding three Wraithlords... ever. Two of them went down so fast it almost gave me a nosebleed. The third tottered around trying to get a bead on something to kill, but it never happened.

When the Wave Serpent got killed and the Scorpions were entangled for one turn and then pinned the next (thanks to Fury of the Ancients), it was all over. I conceded in turn 5.

Lessons learned? 1250 points on a 3X3 table is just as cramped and claustrophobic as 2000 points on a 6X4... put more stuff in a good hiding place in first turn, even if it means you have to move your Reapers to get a good line of sight later... and just accept that the psychic hood is never, ever going away. Oh, and grab some cover when the Assault Cannons come out.

Anyhow, here are five neat pictures of Marty's army and one picture of my Wraithlord, hiding.

Step Two

2006-06-20T02:33:00.000-05:00

Working on this Wraithlord a little more.

I've commented before on how static the standard Wraithlord pose is and how much of a pain it is converting them, but this guy is starting to look pretty nice and that does make it all worth it. The gun is mounted in the hand with a magnet so I can swap it out if I want to. The other hand will hold a banner pole, and there'll be pictures of that before too long.

In other news, I like blue.

The Iyanden Eyeball

2006-06-19T01:45:00.000-05:00

The Wraithlord is sort of hit-and-miss. On the one hand, it's so plain and uninteresting that a talented, inspired painter/modeler can make it into a thing of amazing beauty. On the other hand, if you don't have that talent or inspiration, it wilts in your hands.

I normally prefer to keep the huge, blank "face" of the Wraithlord empty. I'm not a person who believes that you have to try to fill every empty space. This time, however, I'm going for something slightly different. I did this quickly, I did it in one take, and I'm going to clean it up in the morning.

What it does qualify as, however, is inspiration. I like the direction this is going in.

Bad Dreams

2006-06-15T08:28:00.000-05:00

I had a dream last night that I was being stalked through my house by a Space Marine Terminator.

I seriously need to stop eating spicy food before bedtime.

Comparing Paintjobs

2006-06-13T12:46:00.000-05:00

It's not about being proud or arrogant, but there are times when it feels good to take a moment and measure the distance between where you've been and where you are. This, for instance, was the peak of what I could muster about 18 months ago, while this is the kind of thing I'm doing now. I think in another 18 months I'll maybe try another comparison and see how it looks.

Inquisitor: Hephaestus IX

2006-06-13T01:28:00.000-05:00

Once you have completed your tasks on Ganymede, the Traders whom you have been charged to protect will feel the cold chill of evil relentlessly tracking them. They will trust you at this point, however, for showing naught but intent to defend and protect them and their interests. They will offer you passage from Ganymede, and you are to travel with them, but not as one of them; When they consult, let them do so amongst themselves, for you must be consumed in meditation to prepare for that which will soon come to pass. Their plans and goals are incidental, for their fates have already been decided, did they but know it.

The Traders will feel an urgency to complete their business transactions in the sector as quickly as possible in order to retreat sooner to safer regions. In order to do this, they will elect to split up and carry out their various meetings and transactions separately. Then, once they have regrouped in six days, they expect that they will make haste to flee to a distant system. Again, their plans are inconsequential, as they will not unfold as planned.

The human traders will travel each to a different planet to conclude their business, and each will be in safety. They will not require your presence among them and are no cause for concern. The Tau Emissary named Kale'os Un'varas, however, will seek to complete an exchange on Hephaestus IX. You must accompany him on this voyage, for he will be in great danger once he arrives there, and death will attempt to lay its hand on his heart many times before one hour on the planet's surface has passed. It is imperative that it not claim him, and the duty to protect him will fall upon you. Though the loss of a single mortal life may seem serious among the young races of the galaxy, you must understand a greater purpose: If this Tau does not survive Hephaestus IX, many galaxies will fall under the heel of great evil and the light of a dozen Craftworlds will be extinguished. Though his purpose is hard to discern at this time, we have forseen that soon the fate of this one soul will determine the destiny of a thousand worlds.

For a thousand years, Hephaestus IX has been an unimportant world in itself, mostly populated with stupid Orks and almost-as-stupid traitor Imperials who seek to avoid the eye of their Emperor, but the face of that planet has changed considerably in the past several weeks. The Hive Fleet Daerkatta has been noticed by the humans as hastening a trajectory towards Terra Prime. Predictably, they have pursued a poorly-considered recourse to divert the Tyranids; a beacon has been planted on Hephaestus IX by Imperial scientists which has drawn the Hive Fleet from its course and lured them to deploy their savage Genestealers to its surface. For weeks, the cruel and vicious creatures have clashed with Orks and humans alike, and have become both more fearsome and intelligent. Now, even in this short time since planetfall, the Tyranids control Hephaestus IX, and the few remaining humans and Orks struggle for their existence.

Phase two of the Human plan to draw Daerkatta away from Terra Prime has begun; a sub-sonic agitator has been activated on the planet's surface which will cause the Genestealers to call to the rest of the Hive Fleet and beckon them to invade. Even to those who cannot scry the future, the short-sightedness of this plan is plainly evident, but the Farseers among us have seen that if Hephaestus IX falls to the Hive Fleet Daerkatta, so will numerous other worlds... including Terra Prime itself. It is for this reason that you are charged not only with the protection of the Tau Emissary, but also with the duty of neutralizing the Agitator, so that the Genstealers on Hephaestus IX do not call the forces of Daerkatta to the planet surface.

Weighty as your tasks may be, weightier still is this one last duty: Hephaestus IX is the home to a poor, angry fugitive by the name of Xavier, but you will know him as the Vessel. When you first arrive on the planet's surface, you will instinctively move alone an in the character of the assassin, but you must pause to notice the Vessel immediately, for he will be close. Not only must he live, but you must bring him with you from Hephaestus IX when you depart. If the Vessel is left behind then all else will be in vain. Again, the tasks which fall upon your shoulders while you tread upon Hephaestus IX are many, and fate has chosen a path for you which you would not have chosen for yourself. It is not for us to decide, however, and the exigencies of the time in which we live call us to great sacrifice for the sake of the future. As an Eldar warrior and prodigy, you above all should understand that the future is our charge, for our past has left us broken.

When your feet touch the ground of Hephaestus IX, the Vessel will pay you no heed; he will see you as another unimportant survivor of the Daerkatta Genestealer invasion and seek shelter from the fierce devourers. It will not be until the last moments on Hephaestus IX when you will find him again, but find him you will. At that time, you will know what to do.

Begin your short time in the ruined capital city by searching for the Agitator. At first it will seem impossible to find but, before long, your duty to preserve the life of Kale'os Un'varas will place it in your path. Beware, however; a fierce human warrior tarries near the device and will not suffer intruders. Do not engage him, but be certain that the device has been neutralized, even if not by your own hand.

The talons of Daerkatta scuttle around you and you will witness many deaths, even at a close distance. These should not concern you directly, but continue on your appointed tasks before you are overwhelmed.

When your missions have been carried out and you prepare to flee, you will be kept on Hephaestus IX by an urgent crisis that will arise in the short span of a single heartbeat; the Human Marine will seek to kill Kale'os Un'varas and will come very close to doing so. Only through powers which are Eldar in nature alone will you stave back the aggressor and bring both the Tau and the Vessel to safety.

Be vigilent and swift. Do not be distracted, but take advantage of the distractions of others. Move with a singularly determined speed and cunning and be the boldest among many. You have no time to reflect or pause; the talons of Daerkatta are outstretched not only for the throats of Humans and Orks, but for yours as well.

As Kale'os Un'varas, only having barely escaped death from a bolter shell (which, if not for his helmet, would have decapitated him) ran stunned and weakened to the loading ramp of the shuttle, Xavier the mutant priest followed shortly behind. Though dizzy and aching from a terrible gash in his chest from a furious Genestealer who got a little too close, he managed to reach the loading ramp and find shelter inside of the ship. It was the Eldar who came last, his face turned to the ruined city of Hephaestus IX, making triply sure that his charges had found complete safety before following them. In the passing of a few quickened heartbeats, his eyes met with the enraged visage of the Human Space Marine who sought to kill them for tampering with the Imperial Sub-sonic Agitator. The Marine rushed madly to them, Bolter blazing, seeking violent revenge for being slowed by the Eldar's Haywire Grenade, but he was stopped; the Eldar voice was inside of his mind and spoke to him in the weird voice which mingled with his own sub-consciousness.

"You do not see us, Human..."

"We are to your left... search there..."

"We are behind you... turn quickly..."

"Do you believe your eyes, Human? Check again? Check a second time..."

By the time the hissing, twisting voice of the Eldar psyche had cleared the Marine's head, the shuttle had lifted and was far, far from the ravaged husk that was once Hephaestus IX.

Orkses

2006-06-13T01:15:00.000-05:00

1250 points, Orks vs. Biel Tan in a game of Patrol.

Kind of a weird game. I wanted to use Dire Avengers, but it's hard to paint up figs which look like this when I know new figs will soon be released which look like this. I pulled out my old Deiminn Sinn Avengers and used those instead. While I'm not thrilled by the quality of the paintjob, I think the idea (Aspect Warriors trained to fight without sight or hearing) was a neat one.

Oh, and I also used Eldar Missile Launchers for Shuriken Cannons. I was high class all the way.

James took a Wave Serpent to task quickly on the far flank, pinning a squad of Dire Avengers. Grots moseyed their way over to finish them off, followed by some Killer Kans, but it was a single buggy that tore ass up the table which did the dirty work; the Avengers humped their way over the Serpent wreckage to try and crack it themselves, but ended up almost entirely impaled on the spikes. The final insult was dealt when the buggy barfed up a scorcha blast and took the last remaining Avenger, the Exarch no less.

The Ork-looted Leman Russ dropped a fat template on the head of a single War Walker and blew it to smithereens. It's one of those stories that enjoys a crisp brevity. Basically: Pow. Boom. Dead.

And that was about it for James. His Grots were mostly ventilated with heavy weapon fire in the early stages of the game, the War Walkers tore up some Killa Kans, Wave Serpents corked a buggy... but the real moment of pride came when the Striking Scorpions (accompanied by a Farseer who Fortuned them) and the second squad of Dire Avengers converged in their transports on the Warboss' retinue. Nothing but Ork kibbles by the time they were done (and a dead Warboss makes for big kibbles).

A picture tells a thousand words... so here are a few thousand to really illustrate how it all went down.

Shapes of Things...

2006-06-12T03:13:00.000-05:00

...to come.

Reading a passage & verse from The Book of Beatdowns

2006-06-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

Two leaders of armies shall come forth and issue their soldiers upon the ground. Chase after small pieces of round plastic they shall for turns numbering six, looking to gain advantage or superiority one over the other. One shall be Eldar and one shall be Marines and ever shall it be thus until the end of turn six at which point thine battle shall be decided and thy gathering disperse.

They shalt gather points numbering one and nine-hundred-ninety-nine, totaling a thousand in number. They shalt not bring one-thousand-one, nor one-thousand-two, nor one-thousand-three, nor such a number which is in excess of one thousand, which is decreed and sacred. To do so is folly and thou shalt lose thine victory before battle has even begun, and be brought low and mocked by thine peers. Do not fudge thine math, for the Lord thy God sees all and knows of your doings and thou shalt be judged harshly and without pity.

Once the leader of armies whose ranks are purple throws forth his lot upon the earth, he shall seek to summon great totals upon those lots, and he shall invoke My Name with passion and fury. Alas, I shall not be with him, and vain and pitiful shall be his lament, for he shall only see the eyes of the serpent... and the serpent has many, many eyes. Thou shalt think it is not thus, but indeed it is thus; and the leader of armies shall blanch and take my name in vain, and accursed among men he shall be; and his army shall fall upon the dust.

Showeth not pride, leader of purple, against the dark reapers of men to the east, for they shall steal your objective out from under your gaze and, like a whisper of wind, will leave thou behind in the dust with thine pants down. Thus sayeth the Lord.

Showeth not arrogance whenst thou takest thine Librarian to battle, and callest not for victory, for thine shall roll thy lot upon the ground and see only the eyes of the serpent again and again thou hast learned thine lesson or thou hast been beaten into mulch. Thus sayeth the Lord.

Pause thou for refreshment by cola beverage or similar drink, for rolling ones is much toil and one must remain soothed by carbonated drink. Thus sayeth the Lord.

Whenst thou dost play, observe my warning: I speak of a Wave Serpent which will move quickly and use star engines to gain even greater swiftness, for you may tarry and miss thine chance to shoot it before it absconds behind area terrain. Behold, even as I have spoken it, it has come to pass, and thine pants are down once more.

By turn five thou shalt receive counsel to cease bringing thyself low and into pain, and to concede oneself to defeat, do not cast the offer upon the earth, for great humiliation still awaits you, my servant, and you are wise to stop the beating. Do as thou willest, however, for your foe is not averse to punishing you for more turns if you care not to protect thineself. After all, the starcannon isn't there for decoration.

Whenst the battle has passed and all has come to completion, shake hands with thine enemy and be not a sourpuss, for every player rolls evil lots which betray him in his career as a leader of armies. Though few roll as many betrayals as you have in this game, it still happens occasionally.

And give thanks to the Lord, Lawrence of the Purple Army, that there are not seven turns in a game, for thy beating was plenteous and richly deserved.

The Last Hours of Shas'el Kai'las

2006-06-10T21:51:00.000-05:00

"I have followed the myriad potential futures of the Tau with great interest."

Craftworld Baast did not seek to engage the Tau in combat. Though coming from the learned of another Craftworld, the words of Eldrad Ulthran are not cast aside lightly by any Eldar. Baast has never wanted to clash with the Tau; those burgeoning thinkers who revere knowledge over conquest, who remain untainted by the dark forces of the universe. Though the Eldar of Baast (as all Eldar) remain aloof and unconcerned with fates of races which do not affect their own, they mind the words of Seer Ulthran with great deference. To violate the mystical and inexplicable link between the Eldar and Tau, perhaps as grandparent and infant, would seem more to rob Baast of its honor as Eldar. It is not out of kindness that the Craftworld seek to avoid war against the Tau, but rather that even the very young Eldar are ancient enough to remember the cost of disrespecting mystical things.

"Though barely even striplings compared to us, I feel a strange protectivness towards them."

It was not the Eldar who aggressed first in the combat upon Forgeworld Primus. The Blinding Lance Hunter Cadre struck with formidable power and speed on the face of the beleaguered planet, and the Eldar paid greatly for being slow to respond. The ranks of Tau under Shas'o Jet'os Vral're struck surgically and without warning, leaving many of the Craftworld's Wraith constructs dead in the twisted wreckage of their transports, and their mechanized scouts slaughtered without mercy.

On this day, however, Craftworld Baast was not slow to respond. On this day, the Eldar were keenly ready to be swift in correcting the errant direction of the Blinding Lance. On this day, the Eldar were not willing to stay their hand.

The onslaught of Tau came, complete with its furious firepower and unrelenting marksmanship. Eldar casualties were taken and many Aspect Warriors, precious to Craftworld Baast, lost their lives on the surface of Forge Primus. Despite the obvious display of the Tau's might, the Eldar were not cowed in the theater of War. Among them were Dealers of Death; Dark Reapers whose cold, merciless assault tore through the ranks of Blinding Lance Cadre like wildfire. Great, towering Wraithlords who showed no fear or hesitation hunted the Tau Battlesuits without pause, and one after another they fell to the ground. Eldar tanks wove between the trees and ruins to spew hails of laser into the fragile Kroot. The tide turned against the ranks of Shas'el Kai'las early in the battle and, though Baast suffered its own losses, many Tau lay fallen or fled the battlefield altogether.

"In time I belive they will exceed even our greatest feats and master the darkness within their souls"

Before the sun of Forgeworld Primus set that day, the Eldar of Craftworld Baast delivered one final message to the Blinding Lance Cadre, intended as both chastisement and warning: Shas'el Kai'las was slain by the swift blades of Striking Scorpions without even an opportunity to strike back or defend herself.

Do not raise your hand to us again, young Tau. We honor Eldrad Ulthran's intention, but will not let our people become your playthings.

We pray this should be our last battle.

Orkses

2006-06-09T19:31:00.000-05:00

1700 points against Dennis' Orks. All the games against Dennis are great; he knows the rules, but isn't a rules lawyer. He plays competitive, but not dirty. He likes to laugh, but doesn't screw around. Just the right balance all the way around. My formerly-conflict-bound list which is rife with Scatter Lasers did some great damage but, much to the betterment of the game, Dennis fought back pretty hard. The mission was a unique one; the terrain at the St Laurent Battle Bunker is quite good, and they have a bunch of very Ork-centric terrain. We basically put together an Ork "strip mall" on one side of the table, including two gun towers. The idea was that I had to bring the towers down and get victory points for them. I managed to bust one, but the other remained safe and sound. A good time was had by all and some great photos ensued.

Dark Angels

2006-06-08T20:58:00.000-05:00

Played a very enjoyable game against Brent's Dark Angels yesterday. The mission was quite unusual, as well: It was a variation on "Secure and Control", but we played with with live Khorne Berzerkers. See, during the Forge Primus Campaign, we've found ourselves in the Vulcanis region where the place is positively crawling with Chaos. Both Brent and myself see Chaos as a bigger enemy than we see each other, so the mission included plopping about 7 Khorne Marine figs around the table and moving them around. Each had 2D6 movement every turn (to represent their Blood Lusted move) and. if this put them in base contact with either Brent or myself, we'd play the assault out as it normally would go. Casualties from Khorne were rather low; only Brent lost a few models, but it did add an interesting dimension to the game that we both enjoyed. Once a Khorne Berzerker was subdued, he was dragged around like an objective counter, representing the fact that he was being taken back to "base" to be "questioned".

As for the actual game, I handily lost. I don't know if it was pure dumb luck (where Brent got first turn and did most of his damage at that point) or if it's old-fashioned stupidity (where I put too many Eldar in close quarters while a Whirlwind was on the table), but that first turn really tipped the balance for me and I never really got my groove back. Little things like just being a few hairs the wrong way so that snipers could pick me off from behind cover or, as I said, clumping too many models together... it all cost me too much too soon. In the end of the game I did manage to do a little damage behind enemy lines, but nothing substantial. By the time I managed to take out his Librarian with a squad of Striking Scorpions and a Farseer, had about 5 dead Khorne Berzerkers in tow and had easily won the game.

It was fun, however; after the initial shock of losing so many troops, Brent and I had some great laughs and a couple interesting maneuvers. Great player. Would play again. A++++++++++++.

In other news, the camera seems to turn my Enchanted Blue Eldar into Sky Blue Eldar, this making them look much more poncy and effette. I don't get it.

Goooooourdians

2006-06-08T01:37:00.000-05:00

I hate Jim Carrey. You see, in his role as Count Olaf in Lemony Snicket's Series Of Unfortunate Events, he plays a scene where he impersonates a Newfie-style fisherman named Julio Sham. In this scene he attempts to take custody of three orphans and, in announcing himself, says (in thick accent) "I'm yor new goooooordian".

Christ I hate that I've seen that movie. Now, every time I deploy a Defender or Storm Guardian on the table, I can hear his stupid voice saying "Now I'm deploying my goooooooourdians". Sometimes I even say it out loud, just like that.

Anyway...

I'm wrapping up 12 Guardians for a Guardian-based concept list I'm working on. I don't want to spill the beans at the moment, but I think it'll be very effective against certain armies. I'm excited about it.

These Guardians aren't finished, but they're close, and I decided it was time to mark the progress. As you can see, they use some heads and cloaks from the Wood Elf line, as well as some torsos nicked from Shining Spears. This is how I did it mainly because I was trying to slap together enough Guardians, but didn't have the bitz. I don't mind that this is how it's worked out, however; I like to see variety in the rank and file. I've done too many Guardian units where each one is identical to the last. This is better. You can obviously see they're all together as a unit, but they're not just cookie-cutter models and paint jobs.

Naturally there will be more photos when they're done.

God, I hate Jim Carrey.

More Inquisitor

2006-06-06T03:18:00.000-05:00

In the end, the demon will fall as it is meant to, and this will fulfill your task on Hera. This will not be the end of your mission, however, as the unraveling of time will pose important questions and possibilities for the Eldar, as well as profound dangers. Mysterious and complex will be intertwining veins of fate, and your purpose will be difficult to understand at this early juncture. Even those who you protect will be unsure as to whether you are friend or foe, so be wary of them even as you are close to them.

You will travel with the humans and their Tau companion to the Imperial planet of Ganymede, but do not arrive with them. Descend upon the spoiled planet alone and rejoin them on the surface. You will see, then, that the fingers of the corrupted have coiled around this place and will not be easily displaced. When the humans arrive, you must be as a shadow to them, protecting and watchful, for their survival is imperative. If left to their own devices, they will be easily overtaken by the twisted minions of the Ruined One, and it falls upon you to ensure this does not happen.

Alert them early to your presence and, while you must not join with them, you must be their shield and concerned only with protecting them, not yourself. Even if the odds against you are grave, you must always choose the path which best ensures the survival of the traders. You will not be defeated, though you be overpowered and close to your death; the fortune of Eldanesh will surround you and thwart all foes who contend with you.

The Human and Tau traders do not fully understand the power of their enemies and will be caught unaware of their presence. They will foolishly attempt to engage the enemies, but will not be their match. You must strike first in order to keep the Spoiled Ones on the the defense rather than allowing the opportunity for them to formulate a proper assault. If the forces of Chaos gain the upper hand in your struggles, all will be lost. Strike when you see the opportunity to do so, and employ your many talents to gain the greatest advantage possible, for this first attack will set the tone for the rest of the battle.

There will be several mis-steps in the traders' efforts to neutralize the heavy hand of evil, and you must be fast to restore balance in the inevitable conflict. Be swift to support them, be first to engage and, when it appears that a victory is imminent, do not tarry to withdraw and travel with all speed to where you are most needed.

As the first few minutes of conflict pass, the enemy will gain strength rather than surrender it. Eventually, you will be completely overtaken, but do not despair; we have seen it unfold thusly and you are not intended to scour the theater of battle. Merely fight back the tide of Chaos and remember that victory is only achieved by ensuring the survival of the traders who find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings and ill-equipped to meet the advance of the hardened foe.

Use your many tools to gain advantage against the enemy wherever possible; slow them, blind them, surprise them... all of the touchstones of Eldar superiority in combat. If pressed by many foes at once, call upon the psychic powers of your people and prey upon their weak, vulnerable minds. Numerous and formidable as they may be, the minions of Chaos are playthings to the keen edge of the Eldar mind, and so it is your mind that you must use above all else to discharge your responsibilities.

In the end, it will be the Tau emissary, not the humans, who will open a door through which you must pass. Once he has done so, your time has been spent and you must not delay. Though the humans you have been charged to protect may lay about you, wounded and helpless as the enemy encroaches upon them, you must not hesitate to pass through that portal. Fear not, for fate and fortune will ensure the safety and escape of those you leave behind.

Through these means you shall achieve victory and attain your goal. Those you fight alongside will neither understand nor appreciate the importance of your place among them, for they are even unaware of their own roles in the stage of time. Do not measure victory by their standards. Rather, be true to the admonition of the Seers among your people. Time is of the essence, and only you protect its integrity. If you fail, all shall fail.

Baastan clung to the side of the Human Trader shuttle as it approached Ganymede. Clad only in a thin Eldar flight suit (created for deep space environs) and clinging like a lithe spider to the hull of their ship, he had traveled with them for many hours without their knowledge. During the long interval of space flight, he meditated upon the words of the Baast Farseers as they rang in his ears on the day they assigned him this task. Long had it been since he was among his people, and longer still would it be until he rejoined them; the myriad duties set out before him were incalculably vital to stemming the tide of a Chaotic horror so great that no living Human had ever seen its like.

There were still many Eldar alive, however, who could remember much, much worse in the universe.

The Trader Shuttle descended over Ganymede and made a low pass over the capital city. All was obviously not as it should be; buildings burned, streets were empty and the dull psychic symphony of despoiled souls burned in Baastan's mind as bile burns the throat. It was as he had been told it would be. Ganymede had already fallen.

He released himself from the hull of the shuttle before it made its final approach to the landing pad. Though falling from a great height and at high speed, he steadied himself and landed, cat-like, on the half-destroyed roof of a building which was still wreathed in flames. From there he surveyed the floor of the city; motionless but for the thickly armored Marines patrolling slowly and methodically, their hearts filled with hatred and lies and a desire to spread the influence of the ruined, the corrupted, the spoiled.

From his elevated position he watched the Trader shuttle land and, after a few moments, the passengers disembarking.

"Now it begins," he whispered to himself as he began his descent down the side of the building to the street below.

Again With The Klingons

2006-06-04T00:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's not a Klingon ship of some kind. It's a Forgeworld Eldar Phoenix Bomber.

I measure the question of whether or not I should pick up a Forgeworld item the same way I decided if I should get a tattoo or my ears pierced: I give myself a lonnnnnng time to see if it keeps coming back to my head over and over. Basically, if you forget about wanting it, you probably didn't want it that much. Well, I've wanted this for about two years... so much so that I've felt myself reaching for my wallet more than once. Alas, I have resisted the urge (and smartly so, given the fact that it's not so cheap). A nice, healthy price break at the recent Games Day event in Toronto made it hard to resist. So I bought one.

You can probably guess the rest. I'll paint it up in my Iyanden colors and set it upon anyone who annoys me too much. One thing I really like (other than, oh, the whole thing) is the model Forgeworld used for Eldar pilots. I'm not sure if I love them or hate them, but I love that they're really different than the dumb models that GW uses for Eldar pilots.

It's also missing a Bright Lance but, seriously? Who cares. I have about 50 of them anyhow.

Obviously there will be more about this thing before too much time goes by. Stay tuned.

Holy Awesome Necrons, Batman

2006-06-03T00:35:00.000-05:00

I've been literally knocked on my ass by something I saw tonight.

This guy's Necrons.

It's not the paint job or the basing or whatever. It's the pure, unbridled creativity. How often do you actually see something new in 40k modeling/painting? This guy (who's army was yanked from this work in progress site) created something flavorful, original, unique, and good looking.

God, I wish more people (myself included) dug deeper to get more original ideas out.

I <3 Inquisitor

2006-05-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I played my first game of Inquisitor and I loved it. It was right in that sweet spot between the not-so-characterful Warhammer 40,000 and the little-too-characterful-for-my-tastes Dungeons and Dragons. For those of you who aren't familiar with the game, it's a lot like a very, very detailed version of 40k in which you have a single character (rather than a unit or army). As is typical for me, I designed an Eldar character who carried a Shuriken Catapult and Dire Sword. On the one hand he was nearly impossible to hit either by shooting or close combat thanks to several buffs which made it impossible to touch him, but... if you do hit him, he'd crumple like tin foil under Shaquille O'Neal's size 18 Nikes.

As the game really lends itself to a story-like narative, I'm going to show you what I've written up about my adventures. There were five of us playing, but I couldn't keep track of what everyone else was doing, so this story has to come just from my own vantage point.

Hera
Even behind thick steel walls he could hear its heart beating in a sickly, errant rhythm.

It began on the hills near the complex where she was being held; deep in the administratum, in the powerful fist of an energy containment field through which nothing could either enter nor leave. The mysterious Ranger from Shad'el-Khaine covered Baastan as he moved forward through the ruins; debris of an Eldar city (ancient by even their standards) in which the Imperium had erected a science facility like a vile stain marring an aging work of art. As Baastan silently stepped from ruin to ruin, advancing on the administratum, the Ranger watched for enemy movement and noticed a peculiar sight: A single Tau soldier, standing well back from the Imperial building and its guards, stepped out from behind the shadows. Perhaps he was there on a mission of peace, perhaps commerce, perhaps something more sinister... but his presence here was odd. Baastan spoke a message to him through telepathic signal: "Carry out your purpose here on Hera as you please, for we will not seek to obstruct your delay your intentions. Be aware, however, that you come at a dangerous moment and great evil is here that must be subdued. Do not prevent us from fulfilling out mission to disperse the Daemonic energies and we shall each be able to leave this place alive." The Tau, surprised but not without his nerve, agreed and communicated to his fellows (two humans inside the adminstratum who were carrying out a commercial transaction). Alas, it was too late.

Baastan began the raid on the building by detonating an Eldar blind grenade to neutralize the offensive power of the guards. As they found themselves stunned and in disarray, the Shad'el-Khaine sniper rifle began to fire over Baastan's shoulders (bringing his opponents to the ground) as he clung to the building wall, edging his way forward. As he came around the corner to the front face of the administratum, Bastaan unleashed a storm of shurikens from his weapon and neutralized the Guardsmen who would seek to block his access to the Daemonic quarry. Apparently the human commercial effort was not going particularly well, as gunshots rang out from within the building and one of the Imperial soldiers was blown straight through the wall in front of the Eldar assassin's eyes from the force of a combat shotgun.

Now, with the confusion of combat and the scrambling of Imperial Guardsmen about, time became more of a factor than ever. Baastan could see two enemies rushing to the hatch of a Chimera tank in an effort to both protect themselves and to bring heavy firepower to the fray. This would most certainly have proven lethal to the Eldar effort, and Baastan moved quickly. Quickly leaping to the front door of the administratum in one movement, he dispatched the two remaining Guardsmen (both wounded) with shurikens to the back of the skull while throwing his one Haywire grenade at the vehicle. A dull cracking sound split the air as it detonated, and all electronic equipment in the area suddenly failed. The Chimera was dead and useless. Lasguns were rendered inert and still. A keen advantage might have been gained and, in fact, savored by Baastan if not for the one mistake he did not foresee: He had neutralized the electronic energy containment device within the building which held the Daemonhost prisoner. He had unwittingly released the true enemy. In an explosion of sickly green light that blew the third floor out from the adminstratum, the Daemon came to life, and now every living thing in the area was in terrible danger from her wrath; for daemons do not care to be restrained.

Baastan could not afford the luxury of reeling in awe at the power of it; he had dodged the grenades and gunfire of the still-living Guardsmen and found himself quickly leaping forward, sword drawn, to assail one soldier who was clearly not going to afford him any respite to deal with the mission. After a quick locking of swords, the Guardsman dove quickly away to seek cover both from the swift Eldar blade and the encroaching daemon, thus opening an opportunity for Baastan to displace and find a quick escape.

Already the daemonic energy was rife in the area; an electrical charge was in the air making Baastan's hair rise on his head, as if a great lightning blast was gathering only an inch away from him. Humans ran in every direction and the sound of gunfire was ringing out. He might have noticed that his partner, the emissary of Shad'el-Khaine, had rushed forward in an attempt to place a detonation charge on the building itself (in an effort to destroy both the adminstratum and the foul beast within), if not for the bizarre and unnatural sight before him: Two dead Guardsmen, eyes as lifeless as stones, climbed to their feet. As blood poured from their open wounds and their heads rolled back and forth on their necks, Baastan could see that they were being controlled like flesh marionettes by the Daemon's will, and as they advanced on him it became clear that she knew not only that the Eldar were here... but what they were here for.

Trying to protect himself as best he could, Baastan took several agile steps back into the rubble and swung his blade back and forth against the advancing puppets. It was then that the building erupted in a violent blast of fire and brick, as the Shad'el-Khaine sniper triggered the detonator from a distance with a bullet. Now, as Baastan remained locked in melee with the two dead men, he could see her twisting, pulsing visage. She was horrible to behold and her odor made him wince. There was a strange river of harsh chatter and shrieking in his ears and he felt her eyes boring into him with hatred and malice. He realized that whether he succeeded or failed in his mission, its end was only seconds away. Though humans on the ground around him fired round after round of gunfire at the Daemon, he was still pursued by her puppet dead who advanced clumsily but deliberately.

Baastan knew this was the time where his responsibilities had to be discharged. Whatever the Seers of the Craftworld divined about the appearance of this abomination, this hand of Slaanesh, he knew that great harm would, in one way or another, come to the Eldar if she were allowed to survive. He also knew that it now rested on his shoulders to end this.

He refocused his gaze on the dead Guardsmen who pursued him. With one slash of his Eldar blade, the first lost his entire arm. With a second, the second lost a leg and fell to the earth. Though they grabbed and struck at Baastan from their weakened positions, he had already lept away from them, climbing the rubble with preternatural speed and advancing on the daemon. Gun blasts kept her attention distracted from him but, otherwise, he would have easily had her full attention. The Eldar are beacons to the Daemons of Slaanesh; even among a million humans, the souls of just one Eldar can be discerned like a sharp beam of light. The mortal host of this particular daemon, however, was crumpling under sustained fire from the humans who advanced on her, but Baastan knew that would not be enough. He lept forth and, with a prayer of Eldanesh on his lips, he severed her cursed head from her shoulders. Her human host had been destroyed and all around them could feel the Daemon trying to claw its way back to the material realm, but to no avail. As the corpse hit the ground and the air cleared of the Daemon's energy, it was all over.

When the humans regained their wits only moments later, the Eldar were gone.

Warpaint

2006-05-29T00:08:00.000-05:00

After spending time at Games Day and seeing some of what Jes Goodwin sketched, I started thinking about the idea of Warpaint on Aspect Warriors. As I'm currently working on some Dark Reapers for my Iyanden army, I thought I'd give something a go. It's not finished, but this is what it's starting as... and I think I like it.

Games Day Diary

2006-05-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

All the Eldar stuff I saw at Games Day Canada yesterday has been repored and documented over at Warseer. If you're interested, go take a peek. There's a LOT there, thanks to the generosity of Phil Kelly and a few others. I was very pleased with what I saw.

There was a lot that happened for me on Games Day other than just Eldar stuff, however. I was up at the crack of WTF to catch a bus hired by Games Workshop to drive losers like me from Ottawa to Toronto (about 4.5 hours). The bus and admission into Games Day was $50, so that was too cheap not to take advantage of. So here I am driving on the 417 highway at 2:45 AM to get to Games Workshop in time to take the bus.

When I got there, we hung around waiting for the bus to arrive. By "we" I mean me and about 45 12-year-olds.

Here's Urban. He's the only guy I know who was OLDER than me (by a few months) going to the same event. We pledged to sit next to each other just in case we found ourselves next to someone who's young enough to think of U2 as an "oldies" band.

The tots were marched onto the bus, and me along with them. And Urban.

Oh, I was ready for Games Day alright. I had my new hat, my new sunglasses, my new shirt, my iPod and a head full of dreams. Also, I had my army case with me. Nothing makes me feel like a grown-up more than carrying around a shoulder-bag that has "ARMY TRANSPORT" stenciled onto it.

The sun eventually rose, and the lovely Canadian countryside was visible at long last.

Toronto at long last.

We got off the bus and found ourselves at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, moving like a bovine herd of nerdlings who, to the local Torontonians, were hicks as well. Chances of scoring women while on the trip were skyrocketing at this point.

This was the lineup, or so I thought.

In truth, it was the lineup to get to the real lineup, which was this.

And then there was this Games Workshop employee who was there to wrangle attendees properly. He was probably the most excited, jumpy guy I've ever seen in my life.

Whew.

Notice here that there is someone going up to the Games Day floor ahead of us? That's right, kids: Always buy that sniper rifle you see on Ebay, even if you don't know at the time why you'll need it.

Who farted?

Ok, look at the head of the guy who is wearing the red shirt and then glance to the left of him, but to the right of the guy with the visor. See that thing way, way off in the distance?

It's a girl.

Finally. Games Day.

Uh.

This area of the floor sold Games Day exclusive stuff. Like those shirts (which I have to admit were quite awesome).

This is me and my friend, Drew. Drew is one of the funniest, most quick-witted individuals you'll ever meet. He won the very coveted Golden Demon award for his painting not once, but twice (that's his gold winner below).

Drew and I share more than a love for games. We also share a love for nitrates. Here's the hot dog stand where we had lunch.

Here's games developer Phil Kelly making with the porn.

All around I have to say it was a good day. If I come up with anything else clever to say, I'll add it.

Games Day Toronto, 2006

2006-05-26T03:43:00.000-05:00

I'm going.

A Draw Against Orks

2006-05-26T02:32:00.000-05:00

Played a game against Orks tonight. Turned out to be a draw, but I messed around a bit with the pictures from the game and I kinda like how they turned out!

When I get bored late at night, I play around in Photoshop and then post what I make on Warseer

2006-05-23T02:41:00.000-05:00

Warseer has a love/hate relationship with me. On the one hand, they seem to like that I write up long-winded summaries of all the Eldar rumors in order to save them the trouble of sifting through rumor threads which are at least dozens of pages long. I think they like that. On the other hand, I tend to post things which it seems like only I think are funny. You might remember from this post that I posted a fake Games Workshop catalogue entry about rocks which was met with some scorn and, ultimately, deleted. The mods at Warseer think that watching people lose their shit over a post about fake rocks. I suppose I can sort of understand their perspective.

Anyhow, tonight I started feeling like it was all too serious, and I did some messing around in Photoshop. When I was done, I posted this. I'm showing you a picture rather than linking directly to the thread because, let's face it, I think it's going to get deleted. If fake rocks aren't considered funny, Cow Walkers won't be considered much funnier.

Things that don't help your freehand painting

2006-05-22T01:05:00.000-05:00

Mystery Science Theater 3000.

I couldn't stop laughing, and now I have to redo about 25% of my Striking Scorpion Exarch.

(If you're gonna do it anyhow, make sure you get the Outlaw of Gor episode)

Christmas Elves

2006-05-21T03:01:00.000-05:00

So, as you know, I'm working on some Striking Scorpions (which are coming along nicely thankyouverymuch), and I showed them to my eldest daughter, Ruth. She really liked them a lot...

...she said that she particularly liked the pompom on the top of his hat, and she wondered what they were called. I was just drawing a breath to tell her, and then she said that they're probably called Christmas Elves, because that's what they look like.

I can live with that.

The Dichotomy

2006-05-19T23:22:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder how something can be both the best and the worst paint job you've ever seen at the same time?

Great work, but it looks like he based it on this.

Arachnida Scorpiones

2006-05-18T04:38:00.000-05:00

You probably think you've seen him before in an earlier post, but he's not the same Striking Scorpion. At least it's not the same paint job. Even though you may not actually be able to tell him apart from the other guy, this one has highlighting, detail and a whole new set of runes on his helmet (blacklined, no less). I wanna get just one of these Striking Scorpions right before I move on to the others. I wanna make sure I know what I'm doing before I commit the whole squad to one scheme.

Man, the photo sure makes him look lousy, though.

What's Better? Starcannons or Scatter Lasers?

2006-05-16T14:05:00.000-05:00

Average:
Each weapon has the same range, the same strength and is fired using the same Ballistic Skill. Both weapons are available on all the same weapons, and neither weapon is more susceptible to being destroyed than the other.

When you consider all the vehicles and units that can take a Starcannon, you'll find the average points cost for that weapon is 32.5.

When you consider all the vehicles and units that can take a Scatter Laser, you'll find the average points cost for that weapon is 21.6

Let's look at performance in some standard situations. The first thing I'm going to do is average out the number of shots the Scatter Laser fires in a turn. As the Scatter Laser fires D6 times per turn, you can't get a static number of shots... so I'll calculate the average, which is 3. Some people believe that the average number of shots a Scatter Laser fires is actually 3.5; if you believe that then it's easy to recalculate the results below (though the difference will be minimal).

Vehicles
Seeing as both weapons shoot an average of 3 times per turn, are the same strength, same range, etc., both the Starcannon and Scatter Laser fire with equal effectiveness at vehicles. For that reason, I'm not going to do the calculations.

Shooting on Marines not in cover:
Starcannon
3 shots per turn
Average 1.5 will hit
Average 1.25 will wound
No save
1.25 marines dead
6 turns = 7.5 marines dead
Per 32.5 points , 7.5 Marines in the open die.

Scatter Laser
3 shots per turn
Average 1.5 will hit
Average 1.25 will wound
0.41 will fail their armor saves
0.41 marines dead
6 turns = 2.46 marines dead
Per 32.5 points , 2.46 Marines in the open die.

Shooting on Marines in hard cover:
Starcannon
3 shots per turn
Average 1.5 will hit
Average 1.25 will wound
0.62 marines dead
6 turns = 3.75
Per 32.5 points , 3.75 Marines in hard cover die.

Scatter Laser
3 shots per turn
Average 1.5 will hit
Average 1.25 will wound
0.41 will fail their armor saves
0.41 marines dead
6 turns = 2.46 marines dead
Per 21.6 points, 2.46 Marines in hard cover die.

Shooting on Orks or models with 6+ (or worse) save:
Starcannon
3 shots per turn
Average 1.5 will hit
Average 1.25 will wound
No save
1.25 Orks dead
6 turns = 7.5 Orks dead
Per 32.5 points , 7.5 Orks die.

Scatter Laser
3 shots per turn
Average 1.5 will hit
Average 1.25 will wound
No save
1.25 Orks dead
6 turns = 7.5 Orks dead
Per 21.6 points , 7.5 Orks die.

Summary:
Note that the below-mentioned results are not adjusted for points cost. Be aware that the kills described below are relative to the average points cost of each weapon, not relative to an absolute points cost. What this means is that the Scatter Laser performs better than the below-mentioned stats describe.

When firing on Marines who are standing out in the open, turkey-shoot style, Starcannons (which get 7.5 kills per game) perform more than twice as well than Scatter Lasers (2.46 fatalities per game).

When firing on Marines who are hiding in hard cover, Starcannons only do modestly better (3.75 kills per game) than Starcannons (2.46 kills).

When firing on low-armor opponents like Orks, Starcannons and Scatter Lasers perform identically (7.5 kills per turn).

Rumor Roundup Updated

2006-05-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm only going to do this the once because I don't feel like turning my blog into the Eldar gossip sheet. Nevertheless, I've updated my post about Eldar rumors.

BTW, here are some pics that you might be interested in if you haven't already seen them:
War Walkers
Howling Banshees
Fire Dragons
Dire Avengers (blurry)
Howling Banshee (unpainted)
Dire Avenger Exarch
Fire Dragon (unpainted)
Dire Avenger squad

HammerBlog

The New Eldar Codex?

Warlock brain dump

How to destroy an Eldar Falcon

Warlocks without powers...

Eldar versus Tau

Der Vårlöcken

Rumors of my death

New Tyranid Codex vs My New Eldar

The Reaper Hawk

Dire Avengers

I found my Shadowseer, bitches

The Four Horsemen drag me back into the fray

In All His Wraithbone Glory

Tree H8RZ can suck it

Arbor Day

Absence makes the heart grow fronder

This Warp Spider Sucks

Warp Spiders

Right up the middle

Orks Vs. Eldar (NSFW)

Eldrad Ulthran Is My Master Now

Another step forward for Johnny Flame

The Fusion Gun

Ace and Gary

Flame On

Rare Earth Magnet Wonderfulness

...

How big is a Forgeworld Avatar?

Speaking of paint jobs...

He *IS* the Brute Squad

Just let me do this, Mr Kelly...

Welp. I screwed THAT up.

Pimp my ride

GW Water Effects edges ahead

What to do while the resin dries...

The Pepsi Challenge

The secret of Brown

Test Table v2.0

Little Wing

You're not funny, Ben.

My Painting "To Do" List

Progress Report

Getting by with a little help from my friends

How the experiment is working...

Sunburst

Yellow For Dummies

Lilly pads

The Experimental Jungle

You can't spell "Painting" without "Pain"

Here We Go Again

Dear Mr. Wraithlord: I'm In Love With You

My Blogger Profile

My Airbrush Makes Me Happy In My Pants

My last Sabol post for a while. I promise.

More fun with Sabol

Sabol: You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings

GW: Are you kidding me with this?

You think YOU got problems?

Why the hell am I working on Striking Scorpions right now?

Warp Spider Foot

March of the Dire Avengers

Painting List

Cow Walkers

I'm Semi-Sorta-Kinda Micro-Famous

Poor Derek

130 Days

Uh oh.

Wraithlord

The Careful Battle Against Aarhus

Beta 1 falls

Black Storm in the City of Death

While we're on the subject of "Goals"...

That's the thing about cheese...

Step Two

The Iyanden Eyeball

Bad Dreams

Comparing Paintjobs

Inquisitor: Hephaestus IX

Orkses

He IS the Brute Squad