Weathering Effects with Foam

Hey everyone, quick tip here for some easy to do vehicle weathering. The video for this isn't the best; i misplaced my tripod so it's a really close up video on a Flip which doesn't like close up. I have some still pictures to try to make up for it.

This technique can be used for other things than just adding silver to a vehicle to look chipped. For example on my librarian dread a long way back I used it to get a pretty sweet looking fade on the hammer. Also, Grey_Death uses it on his Sons of Medusa to get the battle damage effect using grey and some like spots of highlight.

I really like the method over drybrush because it doesn't leave streaks the way dry brushing can. Its more of a chip pattern. Also, I find it easier to control than when I try and drybrush something.

Here's a quick list of materials-
sliver paint (whatever tone you like)
Brown paint (dark tones work best but this is your mud/rust)
a piece of foam from your mini tray or from a blister




So here are some better finished product still shots. These are after I went all the way around and a little up the sides.


Before and after the added brown for a mud/rust effect. I didn't use any sort of wash for it but one could be added if the model were painted a different color than black.

WIP Plastic Lictors / Objective Markers!

Old School here. I just wanted to drop a couple photos of my plastic lictors that are still works in progress. I made them because I wanted to try them out one night, the FLGS had none and I don't see why I should whip them out when I just have bits laying around to make them WYSIWYG ... worst case scenario, they make great objective markers for a tyranic invasion.
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The first lictor above is one I made that I wanted to do capturing the codex fluff in action. Picture the Guardsman backing toward the building looking around for any possible threat, not realizing that a super-predator was creeping up on him to eat his brain and absorb intel that will lead it to his squadmates!

This Lictor is actually the first one I made. In some of the really old art, I had seen lictors crouched on walls like insects stuck to a wall, so I wanted to make a slightly more beleivable version of that with an action pose that suggests he just swiped with one set of claws and talons and has already caught the head of the Blood Angel in the other hand ... Sanguinary Guard bits are fun!

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Anyway, that was a fun little project. As a side note, they replaced Doom in my list and actually came in, popped one of Captain Obvious's Razorbacks, then fleeted into another vehicle the next turn before helping the Tervigon wip a squad off his objective. I like them, they may stay for a while.

Old School Salvages a Land Raider for the Warmaster! Photos and Video!

Old School here with a few photos of the Warmaster's Land Raider that I salvaged from a terrible Ebay Land Raider (sorry, I never took photos of that thing).
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Basically it all started when I won a Land Raider for 15.99 on one of those "I'd never win it for that much anyway" Ebay bids. When I won it, I thought I had a deal as it didn't look that bad in the photos and I figured I'd just re-paint it.

When I got it, it had this shiny Varnish on it that had yellowed and was coming off like skin from the bottom of your foot. It was in bad shape. It was shelved and brought out as a stand in every once and a while. Then one day, I figured that I had to build my unbuilt Land Raider to give Abbadon a Vehicle - but then I thought about the Forge World World Eaters doors I had and took a look at the Ebay raider - I said "Well, I think I can fix it and not have to mess with my newer LR" (If this story is boring you, just go to the bottom of this post and watch the video!)

So I pulled out a knife and some sand paper and started to rub the nasty "skin Varnish" off of my Land Raider and then started glueing bits from a Pegasus Terrain set on it as extra armour(Hogs of War have talked about that set before and it has many uses, check out Pegasus for some futuristic terrain). I then added the quarters from a pewter Warhammer Fantasy set that the FLGS gave me, Spinkled on some skulls and spikes and Ta-Da, I was in business.

I also added the shields to represent the protection of the Dark Gods and Abbadon's Patronage to all four of them. Hopefully, they will watch my dice now!

As always feedback is always welcome. I know there is some stuff to touch up, but I really am pretty proud of this thing considering its humble beginnings. Let's hear what you think. Have a link to a salvage project of your own? Leave it in the comments for others to check out.

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Quick Modelling Tip (video): Deburring Tool Makes Easy work of Mold Lines!

Old School here with a quick video displaying the benefits of using a Deburring Tool. CVinton actually spotted this tool being used on Awesomepaintjob.com and sought it out as a way to cleanly remove mold lines from models without dulling hobby blades, risking cuts, harming the model with unneeded chops, runs and ruts.

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Anyway, see it in action on this video and let me know what you think!

Distraction Units, What do they do for you?

Old School here to talk about distraction units and their uses and also to ask you what you run to distract your enemy.
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I think my tyranids have the ultimate distraction unit and if you have met him, then you already know who I am talking about; The Doom of Malan'tai. The doom normally hangs out in a spore pod in my list and tries to drop in near objectives in order to force the enemy to either use S8 weapons on him instead of my MCs or to pull the defenders into assualt with him and closer to the fleeting Snake-monsters of my army. Sometimes he really shows off and kills a ton of stuff by draining their life, but most of the time, he kills a couple things and distracts the enemy for a turn or two so my army can live to get across the board.
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In my Chaos Space Marine army, I use the Nurgle Daemon Prince as a distraction, pushing him way too far ahead or in places where I am obviously putting him in harms way. Sure, he takes a couple lumps, but in the end, it buys my rhinos and my Land Raider a few less dice to roll and allows them to get across the board.
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I have noticed Eldar players using their Pathfinders to pull enemy units out of the fight to deal with them, I have seen Guard make a hell of a distraction with Marbo. So my question to you is - Do you run distraction units or use units in your army as big distractions and if so, what are they and how do you pull it off? If you don't, why not? Is it a matter of preference or are there no real need to distract the enmy in your army? Let's hear about it!

DFG Video Battle Report 1; Tyranids v Imperial Guard

First ever video battle from DFG features Oldschool's Nids vs Cvinton's Imperial guard!

We at DFG promise improvement in future video's but we're just really really excited to start having these regularly on the site! Hope you enjoy!!

Combat Patrol Tournament Sat. June 26th

Hey everyone,

As a quick note, our FLGS, Evolution Games, is having a fun and friendly Combat Patrol Tournament this Saturday, June 26th! Please arrive by noon in order to register so that the organizer will know how many people are going to be participating. I am not sure what the entry fee will be but most likely it is going to be 5 or 10 bucks.

With this opportunity you might get to meet quite a few of the DFG posters including myself!

Last time we had one of these at the FLGS an extra final round had to be played between Papa Nurgle's Chaos Daemons and Lord Solar's Imperial Guard with the Daemons scraping by for a victory.

Who will be the champion this time? Blood Angels? Space Wolves? Imperial Guard? Chaos Marines? Or will all fall to the mighty Daemons once again?

Hope to see you there!

Until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it as always...

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Happy Fathers Day!

To all the dad's out there happy fathers day!

This father's day is my first as a father and so as a reflection to the importance of my father, for the blog, I wanted to recognize his role in my 40k life.

My parents are divorced and so when I would spend my weekend with my dad I used to ride my bike up to the Rider's Hobby Shop that was near his house. It was there that I was first introduced into 40k with the second edition Orks vs Spacemarine box set demo game they had set up on a little 3x3 table. After that I was hooked but it was pretty hard to get a hold of whole army at the age of 14 (at that time I was getting 10$ ever two weeks for allowance and had no skills at save money; still don't). So it was for Christmas that my dad bought me my first complete over 1500 point Dark Eldar army.

I'm so glad that he supported me in my endeavor and didn't just say that I was crazy for wanting these over priced pieces of metal.

Beyond buying me my first army, he would take me to the local club in Jackson MI to play. The club was terrible too, it was a rented out basement in an old JC Pennies building that wasn't even a store, it was just a place with tables that charged 5$ at the door to get in 2 nights a week (which he paid). Outside of that he helped me to build my own table, terrain and taught me to use his airbrush.

My dad was never into 40k either, and I'm sure he didn't understand my nerdery but was just there to support me unconditionally in something he knew I'd love; Warhammer 40k.

So thanks dad and to all the other dads out there that helped any of our bloggers get into 40k or supported them in their hobby!

How being a coward lost me the game

So last night I played a spearhead capture and control set up with my IG versus OST's Nids. Aside from the Doom of Malan'tai causing all 3 of my vet squads to fallback off my objective at the end of the game, I made some pretty big tactical errors, the biggest of which was cowardice. I know if I was an IG commander, when I got back to the drop ship, I'd certainly receive the Emperor's Justice from some angry commissar's hellpistol.

OST played a nidzilla list and my original idea was to keep backing up and hope to bring down at least one of the three trygon's but instead I failed at target priority (something I preach) and kept shooting different targets with my hydraflaks and 2 vendettas because I was shock-and-awed at seeing the 3 trygon's and a winged hive tyrant coming at me and a tervigon pooping little nids out.

In the end it was an obvious case of being psyched out because after they trygon's got to me and blew up my 2 demolishers I poured out 3 demo squads of vets with 2 meltaguns and 1 heavy flamer each and with the help of the flaks and vendettas, downed all three in one turn. Now if I had only pushed forward with the vets and dumped out an downed the trygons before they got to my Demolishers it would have been a totally different game for me.

The game was also my first experience with a Doom though. I'm much less afraid of them after putting it together in my mind that he's not eternal warrior and only t4. In this game it was by far the luckiest Doom ever considering I almost always rolled really high on my 3d6 taking 5-6 wounds each time and when I did get a chance to meltagun him I rolled double 1's to wound. After that I failed 3 moral checks on my 3 squads that each had 2 melta guns to just instakill him.

I'll definitely remember this game and reflect on it for my future tactics. My failure was that I went against the nature of my list which is to always push forward. I built an in-your-face guard list and tried to be a static shooting list and it didn't work. So my lesson to everyone is don't fight the biology of your list. When you make your list with a tactic in mind stick with it!

Product review: Super Sculpey Firm

My previous sculpey experience was lack luster. I hated the stuff. It was super hard and you had to kneed it for a few minutes to get it to be work able. After that the biggest let down for its use in 40k was that it shrank. I just started using green stuff after that and never looked back...until now.

Lately I've been on a Les kick from over at Awesomepaintjob.com and following him like he's the messiah. I already used most of his recommended products but then I heard him mention sculpey in one of the videos and I took him down a peg or two. Then I remembered he is my personal lord and savior so I went to micheal's and picked up a one pound block for $14.40.

My review will compare green stuff to sculpey firm. It will address cost, workability, quality, and a general opinion at the end.

Cost- Much cheaper than green stuff. Its not something you can compare costs to very easily considering green stuff can do two jobs and sculpey only one, but overall, your 1lb block is cheaper and should last you a really long time. Plus, when you take too much, its not wasted like Green Stuff.

Workability- Surprisingly this stuff is workable right off the block. Its really soft compared to sculpey of old. I just pinch off a bit and start making whatever I need. Aside from that its awesome because its not an epoxy, so as mentioned before, you don't need to get close on your estimate and you don't need to work the two parts together. The stuff comes in a card stock paper box and I assume won't dry out considering I pulled it off the shelf and it wasn't wrapped in any sort of plastic.

The major difference between Sculpey and GS is that GS can be used on models and it'll set up on its own. So therefor I would say it has a larger range of roles it can fill whereas Sculpey can only be used to sculpt bits or totally new models which GS can be used to do as well.

One of the first things I've noticed is that unlike GS, sculpey is not sticky. This is a double edged sword because to build you have to press your clay in and can't just set it on top like with GS. Also, its harder to do molds because you can't get your sculpey out once you mold the piece. I think a combination might be great and I'm still working that out by making a mold with sculpey (since it won't stick to what I'm making a cast of) and then casting with GS. We'll see how that goes.

Quality- It does set up pretty firm but is still softer than GS. I carved on some that I baked and I say it is about as resistant to cutting and carving as resin is. It's hard to cut a baked piece in half without one of the halves crumbling.

Overall the detail is just the same with either. Sculpey is easier to carve on after it's set than GS, you just have to be really careful since it'll crumble.

Opinion- I feel like sculpey is a great addition to my paint box. If I need to make something like a banner or a base really quick I just scuplt it up, throw it in the oven and I have it in 15 minutes versus a day later like with GS. Sculpey shouldn't replace your Green stuff, but should get a home right next to it. The things that attract me to it the most are that its cheap, its fast and there isn't any waste.

So give it a try, its not a total loss if you hate the stuff, you're only out 15$ and you'll have a block of oven bake clay just in case you need to Macgyver something.

Please feel free to post comments and questions including your personal experience with Super Sculpey Firm!!

An'ggrath finished!

I know show-off threads don't go over very well and are mostly viewed as "sure, ok" but I had to put this one up. I got An'ggrath as a commission/trade job and just finished him and thought the blogsphere might like a little rarer of a unit to be showed off to.

(also, sorry in advance, for some reason my camera was some times picking up yellows, other times picking up blues and even at other times taking the natural light picture like my lighting is supposed to be)

A quick walk through

paints used;
foundation dheneb stone
red gore
Blood red
chaos black
shining gold
enchanted blue
lightning blue
dwarf bronze
skull white
Bleach bone
graveyard earth
Snake bite leather
scorched earth
APJ light bodied sepia
APJ light body black
Citadel wash Baal Red

The whole body was primered white and then airbrushed gore red, followed by 2 heavy washes of APJ black. After, it was airbrushed with blood red. Next the bones were painted with foundation dheneb stone and washed with APJ sepia. From then on is was just detail work. The hair was done with Graveyard Earth, washed with APJ Sepia, dry brushed with bleach bone and then highlighted with a very very small amount of white. The gold areas were done with Shining Gold followed by a heavy wash of Citadel Baal Red.

The white skulls on the armor were taped off and airbrushed to give it a white-red effect that didn't come out as planned but still worked out. After that it was washed with APJ sepia. Over all, it was a lot of wash and a lot of blow drying.

I really tried to get some use of the airbrush in and it really helped with the time and the over all look of the model. It was heavily used on the body and on the white areas including the axe.
The client requested that the wings be magnetized on for easy transport, which is a great idea. The problem was not that the wings were too heavy but that because they fanned out so far they just had too much leverage for the magnets to hold. Ultimately after using a 1/8 and a 1/4'' magnets I had to put a little pin in to keep them upright. It worked out ok; the wings will stay on during movement but more than likely wouldn't survive being turned upside down.

As always feel free to leave any questions or comments! Up next on my paint bench is a grey knight baneblade for which I will once again bend the 'no one cares about show off threads' rule due to the rarity.

Blood Angels Experiences - Lets hear what you think!

Ols School here and Blood Angels are the discussion point today (the photo reference to Twilight was too funny to resist) and now that the "sky is falling, new codex rules all" is wearing off, I wanted to take the opportunity to see what players from all over the blogosphere thought about them so far and what kind of list they are running up against (or what they are running.
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I like the Blood Angels Codex and for as much hype as we had locally when they came out, not many players actually picked them up here. Of those lists I have seen run, none were too scary, though there are some nasty units on the table these days.
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How about in your area? Are they common, not so, ect?
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Another thing is the lists. Everyone seems to want to whip out Mephistion, but either puts him in a list that doesn't compliment him or swiftly realizes as us Tyranid players already have - that T6 with a 2+ save does not break the game or garauntee you will even see combat, especially with no invul. There is also the Decent of Angels Assault Marine spam, which can ruin Guard's day, but will just do dome armies a favor by bringing your little snacks to them - given 60 Marines is never really a laughing matter.
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I think one of the biggest stregnths this codex has is their ability to put a TON of AV13 on the table (eat that Auto cannon spam lists), mixed with resiliant, assualty troops and some decent HQ options. I have personally run into a 1850 that sported 3 Baals, 3 Vindis, 3 squads of assault Marines with Priests in Rhinos behind the AV13 curtain and all supported by Sanguinor and if the player would have used his army better, he really could have crippled me early enough that I wouldn't have recovered - the refreshing part of it was that there were no psychers ... while I like psychers it seems like the internet is abound with 5 libby lists and this was a pretty effective way of doing it without them.
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Anyway, what kind of lists have you run into the most with BA? Were they effective? How have you faired against them? What do you think of them so far?
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Finally, for you BA players old and new - What do you think? What do you run and how did you get to the list your currently running?
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Feeback is welcome, let's hear your BA experiences.

Painted Vulkan He'Stan by OST

Old School here with a few photos of a Vulkan He'Stan model I painted for a guy at the FLGS. His request was that the model was done similar to the GW paintjob, but with mostly Tinbitz on the trim and with a dried lava-themed base. I figured I would give it a shot and here is how it turned out.

The model was painted Snot Green, then Highlighted Goblin with a final thin highlight of Scorpion Green (thanks for the formula Chosen1). There are areas on the head and on the shins where the highlight looks ragged and it was done on purpose to add the look that there may be a slight scale pattern-sheen to the armour. The trim was done in Tinbitz and highlighted with Dwarven Bronze. The cape was done with layers of Astronomicon Grey, followed by Codex Grey, then Bleach bone with Skull white on the highest areas. The flames on the cape were done in the reverse order of my normal flames and at first I wasn't going to add the cracked lava field look to it, but once I figured it out, I really liked what it added to the model.

He wanted the blade to be a Black Obsidian style blade, so I went very flat black with it, using trace amounts of blue and a thin blue highlight on the edge of the blade. All of the purity seals and the streamers on the spear had their script added with a Micron pen, which I like because it is quick, but it needs a coat of clear matte varnish to dull down the shinyness of the ink.

The flames were painted using the same formula I used to paint the recent Salamanders Ironclad, which used the same peice from Vulcan's backpack. I think I got a little out of had with the white near the top, but I will leave that up to the owner before re-painting that area.

There are a couple spots throughout the whole base where the lava is kind of showing through and while the owner of Vulkan said he wanted dry lava, I am sure he will be happy to see how this turned out and the element it adds to the base.

I did Vulkan's eyes in Blues rather than oranges as it seems there was way to much orange in the model and I wanted to use this and the clap on his cape as an opportunity to add a couple of complimentary colors.

All in all, I had a lot more fun with this model than I first anticipated. I have always thought it looked kind of goofy on the net, but after handling it more intimately, I rather like the model and even the oddly-grasped spear pose. It was fun, taught me a couple little techniques and while It isn't my masterpeice or anything, I am proud to turn it over to its rightful owner today!

Well that is it for now, feedback is welcome as always!

CSM Tactics: Lashblits = Failure, Finding the New CSM Equation

Alright, so lets get it out of our systems before we begin - "wah, Gav ruined our codex, wah" alright, now that we all have that out of the way, lets take a look at the CSM math equation trumpeted all over the web and in the forums - Lash + Plague Marines + Oblits = List. The answer has changed to Fail, which means that the equation must be changed to get back to List in order to equal Win. So let's start taking a look at where this dead horse went wrong.

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Before we go any further, I just want to give credit to one of our oldest followers and a person who's blog is still a source of inspiration to me every week, Master Darksol of All Things 40k, for the awesome photo I have used for this article, check his Black Legion out, they are the best BL on the Web!

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Alright, so now lets all put on our CSI hats and look at Lashblitz for what it is. It is a good mechanic for popping vehicles and then rounding up units for plasma spam. Then later, pushing away assaults and pushing units off objectives for the win. This worked great at the end of 4th edition and worked really well in most areas when 5th was still new - I even won a tourney and placed high in others with the list, but with the introduction of Guard, we could start to see the gap in capabilities. Then Space Wolves and then Blood Angels and even Nids came along to show us that the new watchword in 40k was VERSITILITY, something our Lashblitz list lack, the codex isn't great at and many Chaos players just have a hard time getting a hold of.

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Why you ask? Well, lash princes or even sorcs are likely not going to get a first turn Lash in due to either distance or due to everyone being mech'ed up or in reserves. Same can be said about the meltas, which leads us to the oblitz. I know they are capable of awesome firepower and are very versitile in their weaponry - I get it - but with this build, we only really engage three targets a turn and the vehicle chart can still screw us over on the first turn pens - they do it to me all the time. This means we will not be de-meching anyone anytime soon and the whole mechanic of this played out list goes down the toilet.

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So where do we go from here? Do we paint out Slaaneshi Daemon Prince Green and call him a Nurgle DP? I wouldn't, but it could be fun. Do we ditch the Oblitz and the Plaguers? Heavens no, but we do need to find ways of making our lists versitile and increase our chances to suprise people who are expecting the same old Chaos list.

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I have been playing around with different styles on the board, but I was as hard to change as the next 10,000 year old evil-doer, so I looked around the net. First I found this at YTTH. I like it. It uses Zerks who I love and Dreads which always suprise people when I run them and they don't shoot it because they think it is worthless - until it kills their tanks! It also adds the ability to play games with the Termies and the Zerks switching vehicles and deepstriking and running an empty rhino, which can screw with the opponent and spices up your options for what you can do based on what is across the board from you. Like I said, I like it, but it still isn't as hard and fast or flexible as the 5th edition book lists out there.

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Then I went to Adepticon and saw Bushido's army (click the damn link), now the one linked I don't think was the exact one at Adepticon due to the points difference in the tournies, but it is inspiring none the less. At first glance, you say "What the hell is this random pile of Chaos Codex crap?" Then you look closer - You have a crazy assault spearhead: Abbadon + Warptime Nurgle Prince + Greater Daemon and some Zerks if necessary. I have fielded a variation of this list (because Black Legion was my first CSM army and Abbadon has lived in three variations in my armies in the past) with exactly those elements and it rapes anything the best assault armies in the game can put up (without all the crowding that happens when you try Trygon/ Stealer spam with nids). Add to this the fact that the zerks can choose to ride in their rhino or leave it empty to block LOS to the daemons or to be a sacrificial lamb OR they can ride in it and let Abby ride by himself in the Raider for a dual threat - Or Abby can DS in AND so can the Prince if need be and of course the Greater Daemon comes into the equation through any of the three champs on the board!

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Now add to the mix the fact that you have 6 troop choices. I am not wild about them (I am still having a problem with dropping my second Plague Marine squad, but it is hard to deal with 6 troop choices when you have so much harsh assaulty stuff on the board. Let's not forget that the oblitz make it in ther and much like Abby, they benefit from the icons in play and can be directed inot places where they can blow up tanks AND then provide assault support - or they can also hang back with the raider if it chooses not to move and lay down the traditional fire-support role.

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Finally, I like the raptors and have plans to play them a little more just because they add another DS unit that can punch in or can zoom up.

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Alright, so you get the idea, Stelek's list adds versitility in true Stelek style, more tanks and more long range firepower. I like it and plan to test it some more and make a few tweeks, but I really do like it. Then there is the Bushido, superflexi, assault punch army and there are surely roads in between. I have had great success running Abby and the assault spear. The best part in both of these armies is that they are fun to run and refreshing to play.

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The spikey finger now points toward you. What are you running into against Chaos or waht CSM list are you running? Do you think Lashblitz are awesome and I am smoking ballhair? Got links to a good forum post, army list, anything to show the direction you have taken the army? Let's hear it - I know you heretics are not dead and you (like me) are still kicking Loyalist ass out there somewhere!

Results from our Ard boyz adventure.

Heya Folks,

As I write this report out I am reminded of how tiring a tournament of this scale can be. Especially when you are up super late the night before helping assemble stormboyz for The Judge.

As we arrived in Ann Arbor for our games we were beset by two things, first our round one winner Greg Sparks, was also playing his second round here, and the place was a bit larger than previously told to us by a fellow gamer. However, no terrain had been set up by the organizers! We had to do it ourselves before the first game! Luckily no one got to upset by it, and most terrain seemed quite fair and balanced.

Once The Judge gets back to me with his battle report I will be posting it... if he gets back to me with it. As for me.... here we go.

Round 1:

Round one saw me up against a Nid player, which is really only my 3rd game against their new codex, and took me shockingly by surprise at the amount of bodies he can put on the field. Yes you just heard an Imperial Guard player say that.

With the unique scenario setup of two table quarters being in night fight, it made it quite easy for my opponent to force me to have to night fight check and measure to see him for a majority of the first 3 turns. This made things happily enough for him seem to go his way, and it was quickly looking like this was going to be a round 1 massacre and drop for myself. However I stemmed the tide quickly by assaulting his giant squad of gaunts and locking their poor strrength 3 up with my armor 10 vehicle, and due to how far out his unit was spread, he blocked the squads behind him from being able to move through, saving me for another turn of shooting, though it wouldn't matter much if I did not get down the Trygon down off my flank who would soon be eating through my entire army. My storm troopers took care of this with their 3-3 guns along with 2 meltas inflicting exactly 6 wounds (hurray twin linked thanks to our dear friend Creed!)

The next turn saw the killing blows to his HQ squad, leaving the poor chap with no synapse creatures near either of the two troops that were holding objectives. though genestealer squad was ravaging my backside, i mainly ignored them to shoot off his two squads holding objectives of the three and put my veterans onto one. Thereby tying the game at the very last turn. We were even tied on kill points at 7 a side! With this result I decided to stick around for round two, as two good wins could still place me high.

Round 2:

A rough match for my opponent, who fielded a heavy Monstrous Creature daemon army against me, a total of 5 MCs including the Lord of Change and Ku'gath, 2 Khorne Daemon Princes, and a Tzeentch daemon prince. He also had a plague bearer squad, two pink horror squads (one with a changeling) and two bloodletter squads.

First turn for him saw his main army in, though with bad scatters, sending him far away from me, but close enough for my own bit of shooting to take down one tzeentch demon prince, his changelings squad and most of the plaguebearers, leaving Ku'gath and The Lord of Change untouched in my second turn. However the four remaining plaguebearers got into close combat with one sentinel and would remain fighting until the last round of the game. His second turn did not see all his remaining units come in and from then out its was simple take down what came in and put a wound or two on Ku'gath until he was dead.

At the end of the game he had been tabled, I held all the objectives, and he had only gotten one kill point. My opponent was a great sport about it, and quite friendly, and would love to see him up at our FLGS sometime!

Round 3.

My hopes were up after round 2, i was in the top groupings of tables and knew that a good result here would lead me into the top 3. However as soon as i saw what army i would be facing i quickly knew i was in for a rough, and possibly horrid time. Blood Angels! Normally I would not be toooooo concerned with them, but in a Dawn of War set up when they can outflank on one board edge? Holy crap is their "everything is fast" really become scary! However I held my own mostly for the first turn, as he went first, losing only a few guardsmen, and thinking luck might just be on my side i move my units on the board, only to be horrified by the rolls my dice poured out, either my blast templates from my tanks scattered into nowhere, or failed to pen any of his vehicles, or just glanced, which really did not do much of anything in the long run. Not able to roll anything above immobilized on any pen hits, the BAs kept coming and eventually ran me down, and i conceded after my 5th turn in which i had only claimed 3 kill points to his 10, and he was going to be claiming a bunch more this turn leaving me with maybe only my HQ squad on the field. A horrifying loss, to a great opponent, GT out of Brighton Michigan who is one of the main guys on MI40K.com this game it turned out was for second place, as my opponent took it!

Final results were simple, I didn't place even in the top 6... out of 14 or 15, though i think i was around 7 or 8. The Judge did far better, coming out in 4th, which means that if one of the top 3 drop, he is in!

Until next time, burn some heretics, kill some mutants, and do it as always...

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Airbrushed Powersword will blow YOUR mind!

Old School here and just in case you haven't seen this yet or in case you have never been to Awesomepaintjob.com, then please take a look at this tutorial Les has put together for a 13th Company Space Wolf. The powersword he created strictly using an airbrush has blown my mind and maybe it will blow yours too ... or maybe you will just find something to inspire you in one of his other videos! I know that my Ebay money this week's auction will be going toward an airbrush! Check it out and let Les know what you think. Here is a peek at the video:
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'Ard Boyz semi finals tomorrow!

So with the semi finals tomorrow, Luke "The Judge" Slocum and I are headed down to Ann Arbor to take on the other folks who qualified. What shall be the final verdict? Who shall hold sway and come out on top? Will either of us come out and qualify for the finals?

Well, for me at least I am mostly looking to have a good time, and if I do place in the top 3, I will be overly happy, I am just hoping to put on a good show.

Also after much consideration, I have decided I am going to stick to my guns and keep with the original list I took to the first round, because even though it is not the utmost powerful thing. I did not have the models nor the want to figure out how to field a Inquisitor, nor did i want to feel that dirty.

Anyhow, battle reports from my own games will come out afterwords and results for both our games as well. Wish us luck!

The Road to Adepticon 2011 Begins! Will We See You There?

Ladies and Gentlenerds, we now stand at the end of the road that leads to Adepticon 2011 . Which army will you bring? What events do you look forward to? What events will you participate in? Make any friends last year you hope to see this year? We did and we are hoping to see some of you there at the Lombard Westin again in 2011! I can't speak for the rest of the DFG 1%'ers or for the Evo Team, but I do know that I am planning to enter the Combat Patrol Tourney as well as the 1850 tourney ... and maybe the painting comp if I ever get the free time to paint something for me!

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Click the link in the first sentence for more info and leave us some feedback about what your Adepticon plans may be ... we are only 295 days away from it afterall!

Video Product Review: Dragon Forge Design Power Cables

Old School here with a quick video product review of Dragon Forge Designs' Power Cables. I know most of you have already yawned yourself to sleep at that thought, but those of you that are hard corps converters know there is one thing that sucks when trying to make your own cables and cords - Guitar String (hold on, I just threw up in my mouth thinking about it). We all know Guitar Wire is generall rigid, hell on our clippers, comes unspooled and tends to stab you right under your fingernail (ouch) when you are trying to bend it. It became such a pain to me that I just gave up on it all together ... but then I saw how Dave Taylor had used some of it on one of his conversions and mentioned that it was very bendy.

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I finally decided to give it a whirl. I went to Dragon Forge, ordered it through PayPal on Sunday and it arrived at my house Wednesday morning - Super-fast shipping is always handy, especially when you do a lot of conversions for commissions. The cables arrived in a sturdy little box with padding inside. The cables come in three sizes, one which would be very good for cables on weapons and small cables on hemets and backpacks. Another size that would work well for Space Marine gas-mask helms or larger weapons and pretty much most 25-40 mm conversion work and then one Larger size that would work well for vehicles, heavy weapons and for monstrous creature size conversions. The best part about these cables is that they can bed easily and can be bent back into place easily as well - cable-conversions are back on line for this guy!

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Each of the 30 strands you recieve comes a few inches long, which is more than wht you would generally need for most conversions. I think the average hobbyist could buy one pack and be good for a long time and a heavy converter/ commission converter should get a lot of milage out of a bag of these. All for only $7.00! I might just have to make a 4 star rating system for reviews just to give Dragon Forge and this product all four!

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Here is the video for my review:

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If you have any feedback or if you have had experiences with Dragon Forge Designs both good and bad that you would like to share - we are all ears ... and eyes, since we technically can't hear you!

New Tables and a quickie Batrep for Combat Patrol

Old School here to show off the new tables CVinton made for Evolution Games, our FLGS and to give a quick batrep for the first game ever played on them.
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First off and foremost, the store recently expanded its size by about 200 percent (it is now offically a HUGE game store and probably the biggest in Michigan!) and with the planned expansion of tables built by CVinton, we will have enough tables to host 24+ teams at End of Days before resorting to taking table space away from the D&D or Magic kids - so if you are in the area, come out, we'll have fun and the prizes will only get better the more folks show up!

One thing I really like about CVinton's Tables is that there is space to the side for all the folks holding stuff in reserve (looking at you Daemons!) and there is a ton of space underneath the table for terrain and most importantly - your bags and cases - Nobdy should ever step on your Great Unclean One ever again (sounds kind of dirty LOL).
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Now with the glory of CVinton's tables out of the way, I would like to talk about the very first game ever played on one of these tables - a 400 point combat patrol mission, which saw my CSM "Bad News Plague-Bears" pitted against Shane's Ork "Sisterhood of the Purple Pants"
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I took 2 6-man squads of plaguers with flamer and melta and powerfist in rhinos while Shane took a large squad of boyz and a trukk full of Nobz with Uge Choppaz.




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The first turn was uneventful as the orks advanced, turn 2 I drove up 12 inches to at least get a chance of dodging most of the attacks from the nobz by making them hit on a 6. I forgot Orks had their Waargh though and got charged by his entire list - putting the power of "6 to hit" to the test

He wrecked one rhino with his boys, but the Nobz couldn't bust my other rhino, leading me to tank shock my way through his boyz and getting max flamer action from both squads.

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I then had the wrecked rhino's squad get charged by the boys (I was hoping they would run, but they didn't) and my good rhino got assaulted and popped by the Nobz, who then got charged by the Plague Marines inside and killed by Powerfisting goodness!

As the squad from the wrecked rhino got eaten by the last of Shane's boyz, the other plaguers tried to pop the trukk before it could get away (at this point he had 3 KP to my one and if the trukk ran away, I would never wipe him.)

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In the end the trukk ran away without a scratch, but Shane's Orks had taken a whoopin' to get the Win! So let it be known that the first ever victory on the new tables at the expanded Evolution Games was won by the Orks in the Purple Pants - Somewhere a Warboss is renaming himself as a symbol!

A Question of Balance - Who is and Who Isn't?

Old School here to post a question on the term of balance. We all have our own opinions on which codices we feel are balanced and which are unbalanced - either in their own favor or against it. You can often hear the debates about codices after a long night of gaming at the FLGS and if someone didn't turn out the lights and force everyone out, they would still be going on.

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You get the idea that some people just scream about an army being too powerful because they get beat by it a lot while you hear some arguements that sound realistic and some opinions that you are inclined to believe.

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Now there are a couple ways an army can be unbalanced through its codex if you listen to all the hype. They can be way too powerful AND they can be way too way. Common examples are that many players at the FLGS and on the web say that Guard are way too powerful and are an unbalancing factor in the game - on the other side of the coin, it is spoken like general knowledge that Tau are uncompetitive and are unbalanced because they are so much weaker than other codices. Feel free to insert names like Orks, Space Wolves, Necrons, Blood Angels or any other codex you would like in there because at any given time somebody is saying it about one or another codices.

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So this is my question to you: What codices do you think are unbalanced compared to the rest of the lot? Are they unbalanced in the powerful or the weak direction and, of course, why? Feel free to comment on the comments of others as well. hopefully we can see if there is an overall consensus or if this is relative to your local areas.

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Of course I cannot post a question like this without my own opinion on the subject. First off, I think the player deserves some credit in the debate. A bad Guard general will lose most of the time and a good Tau general will win most of the time and I have seen it happen over and over again. I have been told the new Tyranid codex sucks and is weak and used to be inclined to beleive it, but I have a very good record with the new dex. I have also heard Chaos Daemons suck, but they have been in the top teir in my area for a long time in local tournaments and so have guard - though Guard also live in the bottom teir in our area.

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I do think there are certain armies a novice can pick up and roll with and I think Guard is one of them due to all the firepower. I think Wolves and Space Marines fall into that catagory as well - while there are some armies that novices will have a sharp learning curve with like Dark Eldar, Tau and new Nids, but I think some armies are a little more forgiving than others while some take some getting used to. The main unbalancing factor I see is that some codexes are just old. I think Deamonhunters is so old and rigid that it has a hard time keeping up with the new kids. I think some codices benefit from age, like Dark Eldar with their supercheap Dark Lances or Sisters with their Immo Spam, two armies in one lists, but that just might be a matter of perspective.

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So I thank you if you have read this wall of text and now turn it over to you - Feedback is welcome as always.

Knights of Blood Furioso Librarian Dread done for Damian!

Old School here with some shots of the Knights of Blood Furioso Librarian Dreadnought that Damian won from me during the Super Blog Chain Give-Away.
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I finished this model a few days ago, but the crazy Blogger-outage kept me from posting it. Now that it's up, let's take a quick run through the model.

For those of you who saw the conversion post, you already know how it was built, so I won't drudge on about it. Paintwise, I took the model down a cleaner route than I originally planned. There was something less pleasing to the eye about how the model originallt began to turn out, so I took the "techmarine treats this one special" route and made him a bit cleaner. I ended up using the shape of the leg guards as a perfect excuse to fit in the Knights of Blood Iconography, all the scrollwork as an excuse to bust out the Micron pen and managed to throw some white trim in there as a nod to the color scheme of the rest of Damian's army.

Up top, you can see the script work on the book as well as the script work below the horned skull. The book was done with the micron pen, while the scroll was done with a brush - you can be the judge, but the ease of the Micron effect works well for me, especially when it came to all the scroll work on the weapon!

Alright, we all remember the big, over-the-top halberd. I really love this weapon on this model and it screams "I insta-kill Trygons!" I chose the green lightening effects for the blade and the eyes based on Damian's current Librarian and just took it to the dreadnought level. It is hard to get from the photos, but the dread is looking up at the blade with glowing green eyes - as if he is controlling or igniting the energy in the blade.

Here is one final look at the dread. Damian's blog is called Tales From the Warzone and is just one of his incredible sites. He has been hammering out Knights of Blood for some time now and I am only glad to have something to contribute to his work. Damian, I hope you like it - shoot me your info and I will ship it to you right away!