A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – Finally had a minute to start work on my genestealer cult. Not really much progress per say but getting them assembled is my primary goal at the moment. I want to have a solid 1000 points built that will be my core so I can learn to play them before I invest in more models.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The boys in blue make a return to my table. To go along with the rest of the project, I'm working on a Landspeeder Storm and Storm Talon. The Landspeeder was partially assembled incorrectly, so I had to do my best to make it look ok, the plastic glue my client used was to strong of a bond to break apart without damaging so this will be a unique version of the vehicle.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I just wrapped up some Thunderwolves for a client, these are part of Harods' Death Wolves company. He needed custom decals made to match the models I previously painted for him.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Two landspeeder storms and a drop pod are next on the list for my Ultramarine client. Both of these kits fall into the "least favorite to build" category for most gamers so I tend to see many of them come through for either build and paint or just build requests. After you have as many under your belt as I do it becomes quite easy to build them. Of course getting the drop pod doors to line up perfectly is still damn near impossible.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Flight of the Valkyrie has been running through my head. I'm working on four of these planes, I guess they have a decent formation? I'm not really sure as I typically see Vendettas across the table. Never having put these kits together before I have to say I'm impressed. They go together smoothly even though it's the older style of GW kit with vague diagrams and no numbers on the sprue.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I wrapped up the first four drop pods for my Ultramarine client. These are nice a simple tabletop quality. When he picked these up he dropped off another pod and a few land speeder storms so it looks like I won't be putting away the blue paint anytime soon!
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The second half of the Space Hulk commission I've been working on has wrapped up. These are really basic Blood Angels. The whole job is a simple 3-Color job with a wash. Since they are just board game pieces my client didn't want anything fancy. I have more photos of these in the 40K Gallery.
Read MoreSpace Hulk – Genestealer Cults are back and I for one am excited. One of my regular clients recently dropped off a set of Space Hulk miniatures from the most recent version of the game to have me paint up to a basic standard. I never managed to pick up a copy of the game for myself, partially because a friend owns it and partially because I have a full bug hunt corridor set that I can play Zone Mortalis 40K on to get that type of feel. Or so I thought ...
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – What's better than one drop pod? How about four? I just wrapped up these for a client to a basic 3-color+ job. At this point I've assembeled and painted about 25 of these and feel like it gets just a little easier each time.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – So the command squad I painted for the RIW Painters Showcase sold a week after they put it up. Not exactly a prolonged advertising venture but pretty cool that mine is the only set that has sold from that portion of their case. Hopefully the buyer will contact me to get the rest of the army painted up.
Read MoreI just updated all the galleries with better shots of my recent projects. Much of my recent in progress shots have be relegate to twitter updates so if you'd like to following me on twitter you can do so here:
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Look who's back. My client with the homebrew space marine chapter just dropped off a Betrayal at Cath box set and Scions Starter for my to paint up. After working with the fantasy terrain for a good while I was glad to be back batch painting marines to a three color standard. There's something satisfying about finishing 30+ dudes in a night.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I guess it's really outgoing, I just wrapped up my first commission of Deathwatch Marines (I'm going to have more...) This one was a simple three color, wash and base job. I think they look pretty good, edge highlighting would really make them pop but my client wanted to keep the budget relatively low on these.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I picked up a few variants of the Razorback turrets for my Twilight Ravens, it's pretty useful that they cost the same as the Lascannon which means I don't have to tweak my lists in order to use them. The twin linked assault cannons will work great with the Stormlance formation that I've been running lately. I like the punch the lascannons provide but a few extra shots could make he world of difference against hordes of dudes.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – If you want to accomplish something have a plan.
Read MoreBATTLE REPORT: Warhammer 40,000 – I recently made a trek down over to Flatlands Games in Wixom,MI for a team game. We decided to play 1500 points a player with a standard malestrom mission.
I put together a simple CAD to bring since this was the first time I played with one of the guys and only my third game against the other. I didn't want to do anything to crazy. I opted for White Scars (However looking back on it the Iron Hands would be way better for the Feel No Pain roll.)
HQ - Tech Marine on Bike with Conversion Beamer
TROOP - Three man Bike Squad with (2) Gravgun
TROOP - Three man Bike Squad with (2) Gravgun
TROOP - Three man Bike Squad with (2) Gravgun and Power Lance
TROOP - Tactical Squad (Combimelta, Melta, Imperial Marine) Razorback with Assault Cannon
TROOP - Tactical Squad Rhino
HEAVY - Relic Sicarian
HEAVY - Grav Centurions in Landraider Crusader
FAST - Landspeeder Mulitmelta/Assault Cannon
FAST - Landspeeder Mulitmelta/Assault Cannon
It's a pretty straightforward list that should have been pretty good. My opponent played Guard with a bunch of tanks and basilisks as well as an infantry blob squad lead by Yarick.
We faced off against Ultramarines using the Scout Company formation and Orbital Stike Force Formation with a Flyer Wing teamed up with a Wulfen and Thunderwolves. This was my first time seeing the Wulfen in action and I was curious to see what they could do.
We set up first and were ready to lay down some hurt on the first turn, however they siezed the initative and we got to be on the receiving end of the hurt. The Wulfen some chart they roll on that grants special abilities to other Space Wolf models. What that meant for my squishy guard ally was a face full of hammer and fur as the Thunderwolves moved twice and assaulted his lines. The Orbital Strike force and Space Wolf Drop Pods crashed down in front of the guard player essentially cutting off his LOS to most of the table. After the smoke disapated a bit I had lost the Siccarian, and the majority of the blob squad was cleared as well as the sentinals on the far edge of the board.
On our turn all my grav didn't have many hard targets just a bunch of jinking speeders. So I felt a bit ineffective, my partner on the other hand could do no better. I had an ominous feeling at this point things were not going to go well for us. The Malestrom card didn't help either as our objectives seemed to always be on the other side of the table.
The second turn continued the meat grinder as the Thunderwolves continued to eat the guard side of our lines. Manuvering around the mess of drop pods and speeders proved difficult and once again it was a pretty ineffective turn for us.
Over all this was quite the tromping with the guard player being tabled by the time we had to call the game due to the store closing. It was still fun and great to see assualt isn't dead in 40K.
Warhammer 40,000 – One of the game stores I frequent is working on a new program that will showcase local painters in the store. It's a pretty cool program, they give you a box to assemble and paint however you want and you bring it back with a detailed cost breakdown. They'll display this in the case along with your contact info/ad and have it for sale.
Read MoreBATTLE REPORT: Warhammer 40,000 – I'm not sure how I feel about random team events. On one hand they're fun and it's a great way to meet new players. On the other hand it can be grueling trying to play a team game with someone you don't know with lists that may or may not work well together. To offset this most events of this type that I've played in are raffle events that don't give a real prize to the overall winner but rather tickets for participation and other random events over the course of the day. Some do it better than others but overall the goal is to keep it casual and focus more on having fun than being the top dog.
The day of the event I got packed up and headed out early figuring I'd have plenty of time to get there and relax before the event started. Unfortunately it's construction season in Michigan and most of the major highways I'd take to get to the event were closed ... good thing I left early. When I got to the event they had already wrapped up the sign ups apparently the organizer posted two different times in two different places. So far this is looking to be a great day. Oh and every mission is Malestrom, yet I left my cards at home...
Round one I faced the ringer for the event in an 800 point match up. He was playing Dark Angels Raven Wing with the big skimmer that gives everything a 2+ re-rollable jink save. I spent the whole game inflicting a tons of wounds that were ignored because of the re-rolls. It was a little frustrating having never faced the force I realized after the fact that I should have just charged and hoped for the best rather than wasting the waste the game hoping he'd roll two ones in a row. My opponent was pretty nice guy which helped make the trouncing tolerable.
Round Two I got paired up with Dark Eldar and would be facing odd against a mostly Killa Kan Ork list. Unfortunately the other partner was nowhere to be found so I got to face the Ringer again. The Dark Eldar player was better equipped to deal with the bike nonsense but it was still an uphill battle. The mission allowed you to steal your opponents capture objective 1-6 cards and score on your turn. We go lucky with the way the cards came up and out-scored our opponents pretty badly.
Round Three I was paired with a Necron player against a Khorne Daemonkin and Dark Angels force. This was a weird mix of The Relic with generic Maelstrom Objectives. The table was set up rather odd with a raised city potion on one side of the table. (I really liked the idea behind it and might build my own terrain piece with a fortress to defend set up similarly) We didn't size the initiative so the Khorne player ran to the middle of the table to seize the relic with his Bloodthirster. Since it was on the ground I poured lascannon a melta fire into it until is vanished back into the warp. From that point on the game was more of an exercise in playing smart and killing off threats as they presented themselves. This is a game where the benefits of the Stormlance Squadron really paid off. Besides staying safe in my transports most of the game I was able to gun down a unit of cultists charging me while I was on an objective. Since the cultists had objective secured they "controlled" the objective when I fired overwatch which allowed me to re-roll my overwatch shots. (pretty strong, ability).
Overall I had a good time at the event, 32 players in total made for a busy event. This was my first time at this game store and the overall impression I got was pretty good. They have a good amount of space to play, decent terrain and really nice tables. I'll defiantly be back and might even swing out to meet up with some of the guys I met at the event. The event itself was a little losey goosy for my tastes, even when you're not playing "to win" it's nice to see standings and to keep the rounds tight so the event doesn't go to long. I'm sure for future events they'll pay a bit more attention to that so they can keep this momentum going.
Warhammer 40,000 – One of my regular clients sent over the Deathwatch marines from the Overkill board game to have painted to match his Inquisitor/Grey Knight/Assassin force. I don't know how effective they are on the battlefield but the models look amazing. They are however one pose models, which is the thing I dislike about other companies plastic models. The poses are dynamic and look cool, however the end result is you have the exact same models as everyone else that chooses to play it. The thing that always set GW above the rest was the possibility and customizability of their models and kits. I have bins of space marine parts and can spend days building random dudes that just look cool. With the new direction that is significantly harder to do. Hopefully the multi part kits with more possibility stay part of the range in the future.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – There a silly random team event coming up in my area that has some strange limitations. I'm using it as motivation to get some of my own models painted as nothing is a better motivator than an event to be ready for. (Especially when there's a painting award).
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