On the painting table ... Deathwing Terminators

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Warhammer 40,000 – The third batch of my Dark Angel commission consists of 10 Terminators. Five of these are from the Dark Vengeance set and five are thunderhammer close combat terminators. These came to me assembled and "cleaned" for a tabletop quality paintjob. I offer a better price to customers that don't need their models assembled and cleaned up, some clients are good about removing the mold lines others not-so-much. I have to hold back from cleaning them up however (as much as it pains me) otherwise I'd have to charge a higher price to break even.

I based these with Deneb stone and gave an earthshade wash to bring out the detail. From there I went in with Screaming Skull to pick out the edge hightlights and do some basic flat surface highlights. I find this to be a really quick and effective way to paint bone armor. 

The rest of the painting followed suit with the other models in the army. Green base with a green wash to bring out the detail and edge highlights. The gold was painted bronze, earthshade wash and a gold highlight. 

Safe Haven ... Defenses in 40K

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Warhammer 40,000 – In sixth edition you are able to buy and bring your own defenses. While I find it slightly odd that two forces could erect a Bastion during the heat of a battle so near to the enemy; it is cool that you're guaranteed being able to use your fancy terrain and be sure you're not caught out in the open.

When Planetstrike was released I looked at the kits and decided to pass. While the rules were fun only a few player in my group at the time had enough models of the right types to field the special army lists for Planet Strike. With the terrain I had at the time it didn't make sense to buy a landing pad, defense lines and bunkers so it was a no go for me.

Now that sixth edition has reinvigorated my groups interest in 40K I decided to look at getting an Imperial Strongpoint. After wining both my Fantasy Football Leagues, my mind was made up to invest in this box of terrain. For about $100 you get two bunkers, 3 defense lines, 3 quad guns, 2 lascannons and 2 comm stations. This is a decent amount of stuff that can cover a pretty solid surface area on a table. 

As always the kits are detailed and easy to assemble. The price is higher than some comparable stuff but fits the aesthetic of the game system better. As with the other GW kits I've put together there isn't a ton of space for models to stand on the terrain, so interaction is fairly limited. Essentially you're paying for a pretty box to take up space on the battlefield. I'm happy with my choice, but others would be less enthused.

On the painting table ... Super Secret Angels

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Warhammer 40K – I received the second batch of Dark Angels the other day and am quite happy to report I was able to paint them up in a single sitting. (Well for the most part) I got all the colors blocked in and the basic washes done. Next up is the edge highlights and the minor detail work. 

These probably look very similar as its the same squad that comes with Dark Vengeance with some minor conversion work on the sergeant. The client has informed me that the next batch with be Deathwing Terminators. I'm looking forward to painting them as it's been a long time since I painted a mostly white (OK fine ... bone) model.

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On a side note I'm back in the lab casting a boatload more of those LED flame counters. It seems like just when I finish up a big batch they sell out and I get another big order. Thanks again for everyone's patience on these. I think I need to revisit the molds for these to try and make a more efficient way of producing them. 

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Also Dork Tower has a great strip that everyone should read. Happy Holidays!

 

Diceless Dice? You gotta have these.

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Ok so this Kickstarter thing is pretty crazy. I'm a little bummed about the timing of some of these bigger ones and the wait from kick to product in hand is agonizing. 

That said I came across this little gem. That's right never again will you be caught without dice. Just slip them on and you're good to go. I think having the D6 one with pips would be a classy way to proclaim your gamer pride but the life counter one seems like a must have for MTG players.

I can't wait to come across a 40k player with 20+ rings on their hand trying to spin for rapid fire.

Decoding the Cypher – Dark Angels Successor Chapter (sorta)

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Warhammer 40k – The commissions just keep rolling in. This time around my client picked up several of the Dark Vengeance boxes to build a marine army. He started out playing Tau and Tyranids however given that most of our group plays some variety of marines he decided that it would be good to have a small marine force to keep on even ground.

Couple that with the really cool fluff about Cypher that rumours say might be rearing his head again and you have motivation to put together a secret fallen themed marine list. Come January I'm guessing he's going to have a bunch more dudes to add when the Dark Angels Codex releases. (mmmm plasma goodness and tons of terminators).

He used the marine painter on Bolter and Chainsword to come up with a pretty cool two color scheme. The top half is black and the bottom is green. I really like when I client provides me good reference material for a job. It keeps us on the same page and means less back and forth regarding basic color choice. (of course I also love when I client says do what you want and loves whatever I come up with). However after some hemming and hawing he decided to stick with the traditional Dark Angels color scheme. 

One of the things he mentioned before turning the models over to me is that he planned on using them as Dark Angels and as whatever marine codex he felt like playing at the time. To accomplish that he did some nifty conversions including building his own "Cypher" model which has enough bitz and do-dads to count as whatever piece of wargear he might want to equip in any game. I personally find this to be a better way of building a multipurpose model. I know some guys love their magnets, but for me they seem to be more trouble than they're worth.

Painting is pretty straightforward. I started with an Orchide base coat and did a Biel-tan green wash. This gave me the basic shading I was looking for on these models. From there I went in and painted the cloaks Denab Stone. The plasma coils and power weapons with Mordheim Blue and then a gun metal and brass color for the metallic parts. I quick wash of Nuln Oil shaded the metallic bits and a sepia wash gave me the shading for the cloaks.

Next step is to pick out the details and edge highlight the models. The client requested tabletop quality so I'm not going to go overboard with the highlighting. The first batch he provided included a tactical squad, librarian, chaplain and two commanders.

The Back Forty K (ok that's not as clever as I thought)

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Warhammer 40,000 – It's weird how cylical my gaming group is. We can go weeks without getting together and then jump right back into a weekly routine. I really prefer having a standing night during the week to play as it's less likely to get interrupted by other obligations then events on the weekends.

Anyway we're back into playing 40K and I'm really liking that sixth edition seems to play faster than the previous editions. The allies rules work well for team games especially when they're all imperial armies. Yes I know it's a bit weird to have all imperials fighting each other. 

Last night we played a 3,000 point game with five guys. I paired my 1,500 points  of my Twilight Ravens (Space Sharks this game) with 1,500 points of Drew's Salamanders and we took on 1,000 points each of Dark Angels, Codex Marines and Imperial Guard. For the game we just chose to do three objectives worth 3 points a piece with annihilation being a secondary objective.

Turn one saw two Salamanders dreads and a Twilight Raven dread arriving via droppod. Their goal was to take out the Leman Russ loaded out with Plasma Weapons. Unfortunately they only caused it to loose a few hull points. The guard were able to get a lucky shot and destroy the TR Dread. However the Droppod delivered the locator beacon to a sweet spot for the rest of the pods that would be arriving later.

Tybereous is so cool he and his Red Breathren carved up two squads of Dark Angels, Dark Angels Company Master, an Attack Bike and a Platoon of Guard. I really like using the Carcadons master as a supplement to my shooty force. 

We were able to get in 4 solid turns before reaching our designated end time and essentially all the Dark Angels and Guard were wiped out with a few of the codex marines hiding out in the ruins. I claimed two of the objectives and Drew picked up the other one. 

The game was a ton of fun and moved quicker then I expected, this includes a bunch of looking in the book to reference special rules and look up how things work in this edition. Nice enough there wasn't a single rules argument which either says my group has matured or GW has written a relatively solid rule book.

Leaping Lizards - More Salamanders

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Warhammer 40K – Moving forward with a full head of steam sixth edition has several of my painting clients really excited. In particular my friend Drew is loving his Salamanders force. However he has come to the realization that 50%-75% of the games you play in sixth edition 40K are going to be objective based and he needs more troops. (While I pointed out that is some of those fast attach units are scoring he doesn't think they fit with his army theme).

To increase his options he picked up two more squads from Black Reach and asked me to add a power fist and storm bolter to the squad to fill in where he might have points to spend. He didn't want me to spend a ton of time on the conversion so I kept it simple and clipped off the point arm on the sergant and replaced it with a power fist. the other sergant had his hand clipped and rotated so he could hold the storm bolter "nonghettostyle." with plastic models simple swaps like this are easy so loing as you use plastic glue. using the glue to melt the plastic fills in weird joins and creates an incrediblly strong bond.

Painting followed the same scheme as the rest of the army, gretchin green base, green wash etc.

On the painting table ... 3+ Goodness

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Warhammer 40K – So I'm getting back into the swing of painting my company of Space Marines. The last time I got the bug I was able to assemble and entire companies worth of marines as well as numerous optional attachments. However when it came time to paint them up I got three colors of base coat on them and lost interest (seeing a trend here?) After playing a few games of sixth I pulled out my marines to see where I stand on getting them completed.

So far I have fully painted, based, sealed and felted:

HQ

Chaplain on Bike

Kasaro Khan on Bike (doubles as Bike Squad Sergent and Librarian on Bike)

Close enough to done to count

Shrike

Pedro Cantor 

Troops

Tactical Squad 7 - 10 marines with Missle Launcher and Flamer 

Tactical Squad 3 - 10 marines with Missle Launcher and Flamer  

Fast

Assault Squad Sword - 10 marines with 3 plasma pistols 

Assault Squad Arrow - 10 marines with 2 plasma pistols and thunder hammer

Bike Squad - 3 Marines with Attack Bike  

Elite

5 Terminators

Sternguard Veteran - 10 man squad 

Heavy

Dreadnaught with all weapon options 

So as you can see from this list I have 2 devastator squads, 4 tactical squads and the associated transports to finish up before the company is done. Just a wee bit of work.

Like many marine players I know, I keep a composition book full of lists that I can build from my collection at various point levels. Currently I really like to build 750 lists as this allows me to mix and match to suit my mood at 1500 points or to easily have my half of a list ready for a team game. Rather than set a year end goal I'm never going to make I decided instead to try and finish up my current favorite units that seem to make it into every list.

Land Raider Achilles – This ridiculously expensive piece of machinery is by far my favorite variant. Having multimeltas and a mobile thunderfire cannon is to cool to not use. Add in the special rules that make is almost invulnerable and you have a force to be reckoned with. Since picking up the Badab War books this is my second favorite model to put on the table (yes Tyberos with his lightning claw chainfists is the first).

This vehicle is my first priority to finish up. I really just need to do the purple highlights and the other detail work before I can apply the transfers and seal this bad boy up.

Next up on my list is my Master of the Forge on a bike with a conversion beamer. Again a mobile gun platform is to cool to not use. I love the conversion I did to build this model and really need to finish up the paint job. Mostly this is just some highlights and detail work. Should be easy enough to wrap up before the end of the year. I also need to paint up his base, I'm using the wasteland bases from Dragon Forge with a scroll added to the front front each models name. the large attack bike base is just right to fit my quad driving techmarine.

Finally I need to finish up my Thunderfire cannon and 2 razorback/rhinos for my troops. Once these few units are done I will have a solid force completely painted that I can run sixth edition games with. Hopefully I don't lose interest again before and I'll have these done before seventh edition.

 

Sixth Edition 40K - Serious Fun

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Warhammer 40K – I've been slowly working 40K back into my regular gaming schedule. So far I'm pretty happy with this edition of the game. After getting over the insane price of entry (not really applicable to those of us that have been collecting forever) and the gigantic rulebook, I really like what they've done with the game. 

I like the story driven elements and secondary objectives it brings more to the game than just straight up kill everything or grab and hold objectives. The warlord traits are ok, but most of the time they're irrelevant to the game. The changes to vehicles make it riskier to run a fully mechanized list, however I own a ton of tanks and will keep using them. I have switched from rhinos to razorbacks to get some extra firepower but other wise I'm using the same lists from 5th edition. 

Recently I played a game against Tyranids and was able to bring out my Land Raider Achilles and Thunderfire cannon. Combined with a Master of the Forge on a bike with a Conversion Beamer and two squads of marines with plasma cannons, with an Assault Cannon Razorback and a Heavy Flamer Razorback I had a boat load of templates to lay down. Suffice to say the bugs didn't really do much before they were slaughtered. We called the game after 3 turns as there wasn't much left with the bugs fog slogging across the table.

After the game my opponent realizes his Genestealers have "Dormant" as a special rule which means he didn't have to walk across the table. Instead they pop out of a terrain feature. Kind of a big deal, which would have made a world of difference as they would have been in combat fairly quickly.

The game is fun and so long as I'm playing one on one or 4 player teams (2 per side as allies). I really need to get more of the company I built painted to completion, right now everything is at 3 color minimum with a few squads done to completion.

Salamanders or a close approximation

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Warhammer 40K – My latest large scale commission is in full swing. I finished up the three drop pods and ten terminators last week and delivered them to the client. I'm happy with how the paint scheme turned out, rather then go with the "official" Christmas green color I chose to go more of a muted lime green with orange and brass accents. I think they really pop with this scheme.

Sometimes an army scale project like this can be daunting. Over the years I've tried various techniques including painting one color on every model in the army and then moving on to the next until they're finished. This time around I decided to stick with 10 man squads. This would allow me to quickly focus on painting them to a tabletop standard as well as allowing my client to pick up each squad as it is finished and get them on the table.

Assembly line is really the best way to paint groups of models that are the same color. The models were provided to me primed and assembled, so I was able to get right into painting. A while back my mother-in-law found a great deal on the old GW foundation paints from a store that was closing. As such I had a bunch of pots of rather odd colors I don't ususally use. Of course the paint needed to be thinned out and refreshed as the old Foundation paints were thick to start with and old stock tends to separate a little. After adding some agitators to the pots and thinning them down I was ready to go.

To start I base coated each model with Gretchin Green, a weird sickly green color. Once that dried I gave them a wash with Thraka Green. While I'm speed painting like this I keep my light close to the table to speed up the drying process. By the time I finished the tenth model the first was ready for the next step which was painting the black/grey areas. I found that painting any black areas with a dark grey and washing with black gives a nice result that has a little depth. After the grey was dry I went back through and painted all the silver metallic bits, then went through and painted the brass. With that done the models are to a three color minimum. My client wanted a little more than that so I followed through and painted the orange trim and eyes, then the bone and parchment parts. After that was done a quick wash of black on the silver and grey bits, a wash of earthshade on the brass and these are ready to go. 

The next step once these are dry is to apply the decals. This step can be a giant pain as the salamander decals don't like to lie flat on the shoulder pads. A small cut at the top of the decal helps to allow it to curve with the pad. I also like to use mirco sol and miro set when doing decals. I was of course out of it at the moment so white vinegar works in a pinch. This helps to soften the decal so it "melts" into the pad. Once the dry I go over them with a coat of clear gloss varnish. This helps to hide the edges of the decal and gives the pad a little more pop. 

Baseing was a simple matter of brush on super glue. Dip in my box 'o sand, litter and random detrius. Shake off and paint with a dark grey. Drybrush lighter grey, repaint the edge to clean it up and they're done.

I use Kryon Matte finish to seal these. It gives a nice level of protection without being shiny.

So start to finish I was able to paint up (3) drop pods, (2) ten man tactical squads, (1) ten man terminator squad, (2) rhinos, (2) dreadnaughts, (4) multimelta marines, (1) terminator librarian, (1) captain, (1) chaplain and Vulcan over the course of two weeks painting from 9:30pm – 11:30pm every other night.

Paid in Full: Commissions - How much is your time worth?

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Random – Lately the number of inquires I've recieved about commission work has dramatically increased. Many of these questions have been about how to determine a price when doing commission work. So in an effort to answer these questions for the larger population, here's the basic principles I use when putting together a quote.

1. How much is your time worth? When considering doing "craft" projects that you intend to sell to others the first thing you need to consider is how much is your time worth. For the most part you're not going to make $16-$30 an hour painting models or building terrain. Even when painting to a Golden Daemon or Crystal Brush winning level the amount of time you put in usually won't equate to "real job" money. Most gamer's won't pay more to have a model painted then it cost them to purchase so keep that in mind when putting together a price. Also remember if you have a wife and kids or girlfriend your hobby time is probably limited. When I started this site I was between jobs and had much more time to build and paint stuff. Now my time is limited so it's important I enjoy every project I take on and be as efficient as possible so I'm not working for pennies an hour during my free time.

2. What are your material costs and how do you recoup them? Paint, primer, glue, sand all cost money. Good paint brushes and glue cost more. While it can take a while to burn through a pot of paint, you have to consider the costs when figuring your price. One thing I've instituted is buying new pots for army scale projects and billing them as a line item. Once you're done with the project your can give the remainder to your client in case they need touch up or add models they don't need or want you to paint.

Terrain Projects can get tricky as sometimes you use found materials and other times you need to buy foam and other raw materials. Most of the time you're going to buy in bulk and have a bunch of stuff you need to store. If you have limited room you might need to invest in space to store that stuff. Right now I'm not quite at that point but it's getting close.

3. What are your customers expectations? This is a big one. Some customers just want a three color minimum. While other might ask for table top quality expecting to be able to enter them in a juried contest. Managing those expectations and delivering as promised is huge. I've heard many horror stories from painters about unreasonable clients that make requests well beyond what the initial request was and then want to pay less because the quality is what was expected. On the flip side I've also heard numerous stories of painters that send over a quick shot of the base coated model only to have the client "love it and want to know how quick it will ship." That second one is rare but important to remember as some clients dont' want you best work. They just want some color on the models. Knowing this you can save yourself a ton of time.

4. How are you going to get it to the client? Nobody considers shipping costs. One more then one occasion I've  had to deal with customers complaining about shipping, "DUDE the flat rate box is only $5, why does it cost $20 to ship to me in Antarctica? You're trying to RIP ME OFF!" You also see this all over several companies forums. The reality is shipping is expensive, foam and packing materials are expensive. Tracking and insuring packages is expensive. And even it you do everything right the post office, UPS or Fed Ex will inevitably screw up on a one-of-a-kind rare product. It happens, sending boxes across the country or world has risks. Most of the time it's not an issue but when it is will be the one time you didn't insure or track a package. C.Y.A. 

While the post office and FedEx provide free boxes the packing material is not free. Even cheap foam is a $1-$5 a yard minimum. If you're shipping painted models wrap them in foam and pack them well. Otherwise it's likely to be damaged during shipping. For an order of several models you can quickly burn through a large amount of foam and tape. So figure in the cost of shipping and add a few dollars to cover packing materials otherwise it will eat into your already tight bottom line.

5. Don't get burned. When painting models this isn't as big a deal as if you don't get paid keep the model and resell it. So long as it's nothing to obscure you should be able to get at least 40-50% of the retail cost, more if you're willing to wait. But terrain projects are another beast entirely. Custom terrain is hard to sell once its built. Particularly if it's custom to specific client. After getting burned a few times I put forth a 50% nonrefundable deposit. That way if I have to go buy a bunch of supplies for a project I'm not going to be out of pocket if the client changes their mind or "is broke this month bro."

6. Be transparent. Have examples of your work and the various levels of quality and pricing tiers available. Put them out there for the work to see. Eventually people will start to connect with your work and ask about pricing. For example for a table top quality miniature from a skirmish game I typical charge by model size: 30mm - $8-$12; 40mm - $10-$15; 50mm - $15-$30. This gives a good starting point. But for an army level game it's unlikely you'll get that much per model. At this point most people want a "lower table top quality" which falls more in line with the 25mm- $2-$3, and goes up from there.

For terrain projects it helps to come up with some designs you can quickly replicate and make a bunch of them at once. Assembly lines are good for managing time and if you make something that can be used for several systems you diversify your client base. For example the swamps I sell in the online store I typically make 6-10 of them at a time. Since they use water effects it's better to mix a larger pot of it and pour all at once than to make small pot and have a bunch of waste. Having an existing stock also lets you focus on other projects and have a reference point for custom orders.

Being consistent helps you to manage your time and be able to quickly quote a price to a potential customer. I hope this answers any questions for aspiring painters and potential clients.

 

Grime Darkness – 40K on the horizon?

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Warhammer 40,000 – Having dodged the bullet and sold off my Chaos Marine stuff prior to temptation seducing me into buying giant metal dragons and deformed gun beasts, I didn't expect to be playing 40K anytime soon. I still have my Space Marine army and Slaanesh Daemons that are still in need of some painting love. With the marines I have enough units completed to field a fully painted list, not necessarily the units I want to run but a functional army non-the-less. 

Recently my good friend called me up out of the blue and asked how much to paint a Space Marine army. I was pretty shocked by the request as he had sworn off any army scale mini games a while back and has stuck by it. Then I remembered he had picked up a Marine force for the Badab campaign I tried running after Forge World released the campaign books. Initially he had planned on painting them himself as Salamanders and during the process he remembered he hates painting.

As such I now have several custom built drop pods, and a unit of ten terminators on my painting table. Since paying customers always come first some of my projects are going to be taking a back seat while I finish this up for him. Luckily he just wants a tabletop standard finish so I won't be slaving away at these for long. (He's also happy with how he assembled them so I won't be cleaning any mold lines or assembling anything, since he wants this on the cheap.)

I'm pretty sure once he has his force painted up he's going to want to play some games. And while I'm in the grime dark mindset I might need to finish up some of my own units. Storm Raven I'm looking at you ... (as well as considering a Storm Talon ... sigh)

Black Library - Thoughts on Campaign Books

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Warhammer 40,000 – My heyday for 40K was in the early 2000's. At that time it seemed like the hobby was huge in my area with worldwide campaigns, weekly tournaments, convention support you name it. It was a glorious time to be playing Warhammer 40K. 

During that time period Black Library was really just coming into it's own and was publishing art books and background books. Among these were the Battle for Armageddon and the 13th Black Crusade. Each of these books took the results of their respective worldwide campaigns and detailed them out into a comprehensive history of the phases of the campaign. 

While these are not quite as detailed as the Forge World books that came after them they were top of the line during that time period. As a precursor to the Imperial Armour books they do share numerous similarities such as the system overview pages, a brief out line of major conflicts and supplemental art showing modifications to standard kit that happened over the course of the campaign. The only thing the Black Library versions lack are army lists, which to be fair are published in the regular codexes at the time as they are "modern" conflicts.

If you'd like to pick up your own copy of either of these books click here.

Liber Chaotica - A look back at rare books

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Warhammer - Back in 2003 Black Library released a set of four books each featuring a specific chaos god. At the time I couldn't resist the lure of chaos in all its myriad of forms and picked them up as soon as they released. Which turned out to be very wise of me as the books were not printed in a huge quantity and quickly sold out. Eventually they did reprint all four books collected into one large special edition. This also quickly sold out and is very hard to find.

Since a new and improved chaos codex was recently released I thought this would be a good time to look back at these books.

Each of the four volumes was released as a beautiful soft cover with a spot varnish and soft touch UV coating on the cover. The results are quite striking and make these books stand out from the typical GW book of the period.

Within the pages you'll find the writings of Marijan von Staufer detailing his extensive research into the gods of Chaos. The pages are set up like a journal with writings in the margins and sketches of the various daemonic entities. I really enjoyed reading through these and the sketches provided numerous ideas for conversions.

Games Workshop and the Black Library haven't put out books of this quality in a long time and it would be great to see them bring back this format as the books were very popular and still are on the secondary market when you can find them. Luckily if you've been looking for a complete set of these books you can find them here.

Brown Black really? – Step by Step Library Board (Part Four)

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Relic Knights – Continuing my progress on this library board I've gotten some of my bookshelves assembled and smoothed out. Gluing them together I ran into some issues with gaps and shelves that are slightly different heights. I used some Dap spackle to fill these in.

After sanding them smooth, it time to paint. I found a dark brown satin finish spray paint to do the base coat. I have this crazy idea that the book shelves should be the same color as the Ikea book shelves I have in my game room. The problem I have is: What color is black brown exactly? It's not really a color at all at first glimpse it seems like I could take in in and have it color matched at Home Depot, unfortunately the effect seems to be from layering two colors so you get hints of brown when the light shines on it.

My solution was to spray them with a dark satin brown and then apply dark walnut acyclic wood stain. This did my basic shading for me and brought the color closer to what I was looking for. I'll tweak it more as I move into the detail painting of the shelves.

With the sections I've base coated so far I have a pretty decent area of the board covered and once I add in some statuary I think it will start to look more like what I've envisioned in my head.

Shelved - Step by Step Library Board (Part Three)

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Relic Knights – With the basic board done it's time to populate it with terrain elements. I sat down and did some sketching to plan out what it is this board will need to feel like a library/school. Usually I don't really sketch anything when I'm building terrain as I like to play it by ear and build what I see looking at the parts I have to work with.

While that system has worked well for me in the past it also have some drawbacks, namely not having a solid plan means some projects just go on forever. I've also run into the problem of playing it by ear and having a piece that looks great but is impossible to store. 

After doing some thinking I decided that I will need several elements to make this board look and feel like a library. I also came up with some optional elements to make it feel more like a school, anytime a board can pull double duty with minor tweaks you should include that in your planning.

BOOKSHELVES – I decided the primary terrain element for this board is going to be various bookshelves. To make the best use of my time I decided on several configurations that could be easily repositioned to create a new layout and were small enough to be easily stored. I settled on a single-stack L shape, a double-stack L shape, a single stack S shape and a few straight sections.

STAIRS - I'm still looking for some inspiration on these. My first thought was to use wooden balls and build the stairs going around them. I think that could look mystical and cool, but I'm afraid they won't have enough height. I've been looking at using a tube and ringing the steps around that to give some more height and provide someplace for snipers to nest. 

STATUES - I need to find some cheap Egyptian style statues. I see this more as a library/museum of mystical power and history so incorporating some statues and other relic type items will give more scatter terrain and add a bit more character to the table. While the bookshelves I found are really cool a table of nothing but bookshelf is going to feel like a simple dungeon.

ARCHES - To help give the feel of being in a massive structure I'm considering building some arches. These will provide some more interest areas as well as some minor cover for long hallways. I'm not 100% sold on the idea yet but will  probably at least build one to see how it looks.

Here's the optional stuff. To try and get more life out of this board I'm considering adding some school elements.

DORMITORY - Essentially the idea would be to create some rooms (or walls) that can divide up sections of the board into rooms (essentially buildings on something this big). I have some beds that will make a good dorm room, they're just over 1" high so it will be a bunch of light cover in a small area that could be interesting.

LOCKER ROOM - I'm not sure about this one. On one hand I think it could be fun to build on the other I don't know how functional it will be in game terms. I'm going to revisit my sketches before I try to build anything.

BOILER ROOM - This will be easy a room full of pipes and techy looking things. Gives me the chance to pull in some additional sci-fi elements and add some grime to the table. I'm not sure it's necessary yet but as an option I like it.

STAGE - Most schools have stages for presentations and talent shows. If I build one this could potentially serve double duty as the Star Theater for Malifaux. Not sold on it yet but we'll see.

Warhammer 40K Sixth Edition - Ever Hear of a Press Check?

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Warhammer 40K – While I didn't plan on picking up the new edition of the 40K rule book, as I'm not currently playing the game (love the fluff and models, but other games are more interesting to me at the moment). I was at Great Lakes Hobby and Train, getting some plastic parts for my Malifaux project and noticed they had the book in stock and on sale for a decent discount.

Of course GW ships these all shrink wrapped now so you can't look inside. All the copies they had at the store had the same issue with the corners bending slightly. Now big deal right? Annoyed with this "minor defect" I make my purchase and take the book home. Later that evening I crack the shrink wrap and sit down to read through my $75 giant book. That "minor defect" with the shrink wrap bending the corners, well it also is inside the book the top right corner of every page looks to be dog-eared and bent.

As I'm flipping through the pages enjoying that fresh printing smell, some of the pages looked off to me. Upon closer inspection I notice that the registration is completely off, so on several pages the images are ghosted and look like an old-school 3D poster.

As a graphic designer who specializes in printing I'm appalled that this would ever be released to the public. In my copy their are about 15 pages that have major issues. On some pages it appears the magenta plate is off register so there is a pink shadow, and on others it is the cyan so their is a blue shadow. The black plate seems to be fine as I haven't notice a major issue with the text (except when they are in a  box with an image). These are noticeable with the naked eye and are so bad it makes it hurt my eyes to look at the pages. How this could have slipped through a press check is beyond me, let alone past a competent pressman (Then I looked at the back cover "Printed in China") and whoever printed this book needs to seriously reevaluate their quality control.

I've contacted Games Workshop's Customer Service Department and have yet to hear back from them. I'm hoping that this is just an issue my my book. However the corner issue existed on every copy at the shop where I picked mine up.

Other than the terrible quality control the book is really nicely laid out. I can see where some of the added cost came in with the gatefold pages. While they are cool and it's nice to see the art so big, they don't add much to the book other than some added costs to the end consumer.

I haven't had time to thoroughly read through the changes and new fluff but the basic layout and design of the book looks great (apart from shitty printing). 

UPDATE:
After sending and email and calling the customer service department (and waiting on hold forever). I'm happy to report Games Workshop is sending me out a replacement copy. Say what you will about GW's business practices, when it comes to sending replacement stuff out they're really good about it.  I'm hoping it was only a small portion of the print run that was affected by the registration issue and I'll post an update when I get my replacement.

UPDATE:
So my replacement copy came in the mail over the weekend. The registration issues aren't as bad in this copy and the corner bending is less noticeable. I'm still disappointed in the overall quality of the printing, but at least this won't give me a migraine looking at it.

Sixth Edition – Is it worth it?

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Warhammer 40K – It's that time once again when GW rolls out a new rule set for Warhammer 40,000. I haven't really been playing the game often so I'm not overly excited about this and looking at the latest rumors the cost of the new book has significantly increased. ($70+ for a core rule book ... really?) Given the quantities I assume they print this book at for worldwide release I'd love to know how they fail to get the cost down to something more reasonable. Rather then digress into a diatribe about GW's pricing policies I'll try and stay on track.

I really enjoyed the 5th edition rules, I found them to be simple and clear cut. That said I think I played maybe 30 games in total over the course of the four years the edition was out. So while I love the 40K universe and am very attached to my armies (which I will finish someday) I'm just not as excited about this release as others are.

The rumours about the psychic disciplines and other similarities to the latest edition of fantasy seem like they could be interesting if done right. I think I'll wait until the actual product is out and reviewed before I jump back on this bandwagon again. 

 

Soul Drinkers ... A review of sorts

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Way back in 2002, I picked up a 40K novel called Soul Drinker, by Ben Counter. I was amazed at how great the book was and couldn't wait for the more tales of this space marine chapter. Two years later the follow up Bleeding Chalice was released and continued the intriguing tales of this Chapter that turns from the Imperium of Man. The series continued over the next few years with the sixth and supposedly final book being released this year.

Over the course of the books the trials and tribulations of this chapter (that strays from the light only to seek redemption after realizing the trickery that led them down the wrong path) are detailed in action packed stories that leave you wanting more.

I'm not going to do a full recap of the books but in summary, Sarpedon, leds his chapter in conflict against the Adeptus Mechanicus, which leads to a chapter war. Becoming renegades they continue to fight with their own agenda eventually being tracked down and captured.

The sixth book, Phalanx picks up after that capture and attempts to tie up all the loose ends of the book. While I enjoyed the book, it really felt like the author was rushing through to tie up all the plot hooks he planted in the other novels. For people who don't like loose ends you'll be satisfied.

Some of the resolutions seemd to be a case of, "these are my characters, I'm ending this so there's no way anyone else can pick up the torch." Which is understandable, when the Gotrek and Feliz books continued under a different author, they didn't quite have the same magic as the older stories. 

Book Review – Know No Fear

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Warhammer 40K – I just finished reading the two latest books from the Horus Heresy series. Deliverance Lost and Know No Fear. Both were excellent reads and continue the detailed exploration of the pivotal events that shaped the Warhammer 40K universe as we know it today.

Deliverance Lost explores the actions of Corax, primarch of the Raven Guard Legion after the dropsite massacre. While I enjoyed the book, it left me feeling a bit let down. Most of the other Legion specific books go into great detail about the practices and culture of the Legion. This book focused almost solely on Corax's single minded quest to rebuild his legion to get back into the fight.

While it was nice to have the two paragraphs from the Raven Guard Index Astrates covered in more detail, I still feel like the story falls into the trap of these are the sneaky marines that do hit and run, they don't talk about what goes on.

In my mind the the real stars of the show are the Alpha Legion, the villians of this tale. We get to see more of their inner working in this book and see what drives them. I don't want to go into to much detail to spoil the surprises and plot twists. 

Know No Fear details the attack on Cath by the Word Bearers Legion. This is my favorite book in the series so far. Dan Abnett does a great job refecting the confusion caused by the attack with his writing style. The snippets of information remind me of the news casts during the 9/11 attacks and make the book very hard to put down.

Rather then focusing on one character throughout as most of the other books have done, Know No Fear jumps around telling the tale from multiple viewpoints and focuing on the scale of the conflict. 

This book filled in the gaps for me on why GW's poster boy marines weren't directly involved in most of the Heresy background material. From what I can remember there was a small blurb or two about the Ultramarines being sent to the far reaches of the galaxy and unable to reach Terra. This book explains exactly why they couldn't make it, and hints at the beginings of the Codex Astrates.