Dark Future Games

Tervigon - Arachnarock Conversion Reborn: The Original Gets a New Look!

2012-01-31T12:11:00.000-05:00

Old School here to post up some photos of the Arachnarock Tervigon, or Tervigon Alpha with a new Hive Fleet and new paint job. A little bit of history first: About a year ago, I was able to use a combination of Ninja tricks, 007 espionage and a little Jedi mind trick to get my hands on the Arachnarock kit before it was available for purchase. With the kit in hand, I was the first to convert this monster, which I first named the Dryder Tervigon and later Tervigon Alpha, but enough history, let's take a look at this big beautiful woman-bug (does that make her a BBW-B?)

My lady here has been called many things, to include a cricket, but I stand by her as one of my favorite conversions and when many of my original Nid army made the journey to Ebay, she was sure to stay on hand for the "In Case of Emergency" Nid army, which has spearheaded the rebirth of Hive Fleet Behemoth!

While she is finished (until I really look at these photos, lol), I am still working on her base. I want her walking over some Maccrage themed destruction, with plenty of snow, mud, blood, icicles and even some after-birth slime coming from her birth canal (think of the movie Teeth). Anyway, once that is complete, I will post her in her final form.

The methods I used for painting this model are the same as for my Hive Fleet Behemoth Genestealers, only taken to a larger scale (and with that, one extra glaze of Turquoise was used before adding Ice Blue - that is the only real change). In fact, I do not plan to cover the construction aspects on this post, but if you would like to see those posts, a whole string of posts on here are available here. That should tell you everything you need to know about building this bug.

As others have mentioned, she is a little big on the table, which can be a good and a bad thing. I personally feel that when a Tervigon model does come out, it will have a smaller profile, though I still think 6-wound creatures will use oval bases as a standard and I build mine with that in mind. In the end though, I built this model to look cool more than for table top advantages or consideration. Hopefully, once based, the cool factor will really be in effect.

A shot of the big old bug booty!

Of course she is magnetized for upgrades to Scything Talons, Crushing Claws and even head swaps to represent Psychic Powers. I will have those finished for you when I post her on a finished base.

The mouth parts normally dedicated to the screamer killer carnifex set up were painted in Tentacle Pink (yeah, I still got it!). The tongue was as well. Both parts were then washed in Leviathan Purple. Once dry, I hit the recesses and entire tongue with Baal Red and called it a day. I think it came out rather well and will likely repeat it on my other large bugs and monstrous creatures.

The plates were something I was a little worried about with the size of them. I notice a few spots where they I went a little flat with some of the glazes and I will go back and correct that, but beyond that, I am pretty happy that the scheme still looks good on the big bugs (when I finished the stealers, it was a real concern for me).

I hope you enjoyed this scatter-brained revamp post, in the future, I will be bringing you Hive Guard and Gants!

Before I go, I will give you a little comparison between the new paint job and the quickie wash job I gave the model last year. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to check out the links above if you are interested in building one of your own or need advice on painting Behemoth colors. Please don't hesitate to comment and let me know what you think.

Saint Valentine's Massacre Missions Pack!

2012-01-31T09:35:00.002-05:00

Mission pack is out today. Hope to see everyone there!

GeneralChaos runs a pretty tight ship and everyone there is pretty cool. I highly recommend making the trip.

Mission Pack

The Second Foundation Of Vengeance: Patience

2012-01-30T16:59:00.001-05:00

Vengeance is not a thing to be taken lightly or without planning. A wise man once said” Before embarking on a journey of vengeance dig two graves” This of course implies vengeance will eventually destroy those that seek it. If you go into a battle with a bad plan of attack or let yourself be lured into a trap your vengeance will go unfulfilled. I was contemplating this while Squaring off with Old School Terminator and his Tyranids. The game was a very bloody affair. I was using one of my prototype lists and he was using one of his very potent and decently tested tournament lists. As a side note Dakafexes, contrary to the “wisdom of the internets” are very viable and should be killed with extreme prejudice. I saw the error in my plan as I unfolded it. I had fallen for a trap. After my Reavers had dealt with his termagaunt screen with a nice fly by, Lelith and her wyches went to the center and assaulted the surviving termangaunts, some hive guard and a massive unit of Genestealers. The plan seemed good, but thanks to Leliths killing power and the massed attacks of 3 wych squads, with re rolls for failed wounds for combat drugs, I was left sitting in the open. I had underestimated the fury of the attack. The Carnifexes and tervigons started the clean up. I was able to hold on, but my thirst for vengeance and the thrill of the kill got the better of me. I contemplated this and saw what laid before me was the second foundation of vengeance. Patience.

Vengeance is a dish best served cold. This basically means letting time pass and having wisdom temper your vengeance. In this case it means to think before you act. Hind site is 20/20. I see what I should have done in my game against OST. The only real problem is I should have seen what was going to happen during the game. I was to impatient. I went right for a tempting soft target while ignoring what was around my forces. I also did not think about what would happen if I wiped out all the units.

I have talked about having a plan and sticking to it. I have also talked about being adaptive. I am talking more about thinking steps ahead and thinking about consequences.

When deploying your force you have to think about your plan of attack. Given the amount of monstrous creatures on the board in my game with OST, those should have been the targets. The Dakafexes and the Hive guard would be first. This eliminates the shooting. Then thanks to mobility I could have picked the vital targets off and then go in for the kill. A good hunter is patient. You wait for the optimal time to carry out the kill. You do it on your terms. You do not let the prey dictate the terms of the engagement.

SO the real lesson here is that you must not get excited. Bide your time and take on the opponents army on your terms. The key to doing this is in your deployment and your plan of attack. You must identify the biggest threats to your army and eliminate or circumvent them. If the enemy is a mobile force try and corral them and direct them where you want them. If it is a force that likes to not move force them to move. Basically you want to maintain control of the game and not act prematurely. A Dark Eldar force has the ability to maintain its distance and close the gap quickly. Use this ability to its fullest.

Be patient and maintain your cool. Emotion can really lead to bad tactical decisions. Stay cool and be in control. I will be trying out the other prototype this coming week. It may be a great example of the next foundation. Surprise.

Until then........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!

Making a Portable Snow Table: Out With the Old, In With the New!

2012-01-29T21:01:00.001-05:00

CVinton's New Table for the Wolves

I love to have a table at my house. Though it doesn't get much use, I feel its my home field as completes my hobby side of the game. Evolution has, at best, game store quality terrain (funny enough, I made most of it). I feel like if I invite someone to my house for a game, I'm hosting their game experience and just as a host offers a guest the best amenities they can, I too feel this is the attitude for the 'Home Game'.

Thus I present:

Fenris

(to go)

The design of the table was to be nice and well crafted to the eye as well as able to travel...for some reason I thought it needed to travel. Maybe I'll take it to OST's house for some weird reason.

Whatever happens in the future aside, the goal for travel was to fit in a car or an SUV or something similar that wasn't the bed of a truck. Though we live in Michigan and there is no shortage of trucks, the wife says I'll NEVER own one, which I disagree with, but just in case I don't get one, I planned for the worse and am hoping for the best.

So as you can see in the top picture, it folds in half. The design in my brain when this was first storming around was a table that could be folded in half so that the surface of the two halves weren't touching but where on the inside of the fold to be protected from damage while moving. Once I started to put it to paper I realized it wasn't as easily done.

The main problem was that the design required the hinges to be on the top of the break instead of the bottom. With the weight of the two halves pushing downward, it naturally folds the table in half because of the positioning of the hinges. The solution was that I needed to lock the two halves in place once the table was folded open.

I started with locks that matched, like the one in the lower picture. When I first opened it and locked it, I let go and it almost immediately collapsed. Luckily my cat like reflexes caught it and avoided having to start all over once it was turned to splinters by the garage floor and gravity. I switched over to the top ones which will completely support the table with just saw horses under it. I don't intend on ever doing that, but it gives an idea to the strength of the locks.

The lock below is on the ends of the 6' side to hold the table shut when its folded up. Pretty simple, not a lot of stress at this lock so the fancy ones worked just fine. I'm just sad that one piece of hardware is brushed nickle and one is steel. Its my OCD.

On the short 4' edge is where the table will rest. I put furniture sliders on it so that the finish of the wood wouldn't get scuffed when it's slid or just sent on end.

The large hole in the support edge is for a bolt. I wanted this to be a frame what you would put your table in. When MI40k featured the most baller gaming room ever, the guy had a table top that had like a dozen drawers under it all with different table tops. Not to say I'm making a dozen, but I think it'd be cool to have a snow, grass, dessert and city/ash wasteland board. Go big or go home, right?

Below is a shot of the underside of the snow board. I put furniture countersinks in so that I can bolt the boards in place. I had to use a thicker board than originally intended and because of fear of the plywood's imperfect surface showing through I wen't with MDF board. That plays into later problems. (I like 15% planning then mostly think on my feet to solve problems that should have been obvious during planning, as illustrated by this project...and most of my projects)

Shot of the two halves together. The frame didn't come out perfectly sized so the halves are just a slight (like 1/16-1/8") different so I had to make them to know which half was were. In all there are four bolts holding each half down: one in each corner of each board.

Folded and empty there was more than enough room for the boards to slide in. Aside from the slight 'offness' of each half they are perfectly square and very sturdy. If I get tired of the board being flimsy I can easily joint the two ends together and make them structurally sound enough to be a free standing permanent table, with removable legs in case we move to Delaware or something.

The project as a table I found a complete success. Its a gaming table, and a nice one at that. Its make of poplar, stained, has metal brackets, the screw holes are sunk with hole covers and it has a quality finish.

For travel though...its a failure. It ended up too thick when folded in half to fit in a car which was the ultimate goal, though it will fit in a small SUV. The other thing is that with the board bolted in, it is very heavy and very awkward for one person to carry. It ends up weighting I would bet, 75 pounds. Without the MDF board I could toss this thing around one handed; its basically 1/4" MDF and soft wood weighing like 20 pounds.

Changes I would make would be to make the outside out of something that handles abuse better. The stained poplar is already pretty scratched up just from setting it out, taking pictures and putting it away. Maybe I would use a plastic composite or a harder wood. Oak would be cheaper than the composite and might handle the dings better than a soft wood like pine and poplar. That or instead of staining it I just paint it black and touch up dings with a sharpe.

Next I would have just found a nice smooth piece of plywood or used the 1/2" or 1" foam board for the surface. I could have then saved some money on the project as well as been able to travel with it while keeping the surface protected.

Lastly, I don't think it really needed to travel. If I tossed that idea out I could have focused more on how to make a light weight table that I could sore in my house without any house guests noticing and as the wife fears a little...asking questions. Basically the same reason she made me put my display case in my workshop in the basement.

On a final note, I am happy with it and don't feel it will get scrapped as much as have some improvements made upon it. I think it'll become more permanent once I figure out how I would add some removable legs to it. Right now it folds away at the very least and if someone does come over for a game they'll help me lug that table up and onto my kitchen table to play. We'll see how far the black abyss of a money sink I can make this table...

As an added bonus tip for reading the post, I want to let everyone know what I did for the snow. Its not that special, but it was the cheapest table covering ever, except when Joann was selling felt at like 2$ a yard. An no, I didn't use extra cocaine I had.

I used baking soda. It was super cheap and I bought way way way more than I'd ever use for 7.50$ which was 5 of the big boxes.

I spread watered down PVA glue first. Though I usually recommend wood glue for other surface coverings; it turns yellow and is obvious with the white covering. So after spreading the glue, sprinkle your baking soda over the table. For added effect I set it upright for 10 or so minutes which caused the glue to sort of 'run' and cause drifts and cracks. After that lay it back flat otherwise it'll just keep running and look bad. I'll get around to putting up shots of that after I FINALLY do a fur tutorial that I've been meaning to do for like 4 months now.

After its dry in a couple hours, brush off the baking soda. The excess really sticks and won't just fall off when put upright like other surface coverings. I used a shop vac brush (without the shop vac) to brush it all off. Once all the excess is off go back and do it again. You should have a good covering that won't budge. Also, its as ruff as sandpaper which is why my nice stained and sealed wood is all beat up now.

Good luck! Any questions feel free to post.

Lansing MI 3-11-12 tournament Fortress Comic and Games!

2012-01-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

Legios Sparticus Defenders of the Fortress Tournament

This is from the guys over at the fight club. You don't have to be in the fight club for this, and they run some pretty tight tournaments. Should be a good turn out and has a pretty cool design. I look forward...if this wasn't so close to the daughter's birthday...

FromSteinerp via Aspects of the Void:

I am happy to announce the details regarding the March 11 tournament that will conclude the Legios Sparticus campaign that is currently on going. This event is completely separate from the league and league participation (or lack thereof) has no impact on the final standings of this event. The only exception is detailed under the League Championship Sub-bracket heading below.

For rules not covered herein, the Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rules, and all relevant Games Workshop Errata and FAQs will be used.

Army Lists

Players MUST use the same 2100-point army, using a standard force organization chart, for the entire tournament.
Valid codices: Black Templars, Blood Angels, Chaos Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Dark Angels, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Grey Knights, Imperial Guard, Necrons, Orks, Sisters of Battle (White Dwarf), Space Marines, Space Wolves, Tau Empire, Tyranids, and Imperial Armour army lists.
The most current version of non-superheavy, non-flyer, non-gargantuan creatures Forge World and Imperial Armour units ARE allowed but are treated as 0-1 choices.
Forgeworld/Imperial Armour special characters are NOT allowed except in their respective lists without prior permission from the tournament organizer.
A separate, PRINTED army list is required for the Judge(s) and each of your opponents (5 recommended).
You must bring a copy of the 40k rulebook and any codex/Imperial Armour books your army uses.
Armies do NOT need to be painted but models must be WYSIWYG (“What You See, Is What You Get”). Conversions are allowed and encouraged. If you are unsure if your conversion is WYSIWYG, contact the tournament organizer prior to the game.

Game Play

Players will each play three (3) 150-minute rounds.
Missions will be selected from the 40kfightclub Mission book found here.
With the exception of the league championship sub-bracket (details below), players will be paired randomly for the first round, being careful not to pair players that traveled together.
After round 1, players will be paired according to battle points earned.
Should there be an uneven number of players a Bye will be awarded.
The Bye will be awarded randomly in round 1, then to the lowest ranked player in all subsequent rounds.

Scoring

Games: Players will split the battle points of drawn objectives (e.g. a total of 20 BP will be awarded each game unless stated otherwise in mission). A Bye awards Battle Points equal to the average Battle Points earned by a given player in their other rounds

Painting: Fully painted armies will receive 15 points. Armies that are 90% finished will receive 10 points. Armies that are mostly painted but are 75% finished receive 5 points. Armies that are largely unpainted receive 0 point. Paint job quality will not be judged (so long as 3 colors and based) but consistency will be factored in when determining if a model is "painted", i.e. if you have a unit that is painted as a ultramarines on ice bases and the rest of your army is painted as salamanders on lava bases, the ultramarines would not be considered finished or if you have a unit that has three colors and a base but is clearly still a work in progress, it isn't finished. In addition each player will vote on the army they consider best painted, players will receive 1 point per vote they receive (max 5).

Sportsmanship: After each game each player will rate their opponent’s sportsmanship using the following scale:

1: I will NEVER play them again and I would like to talk to the organizer about them.
2: My opponent was unpleasant to play and I will try to avoid playing them again.
3: My opponent was tough to play against due to rules issues, attitude or unsportsmanlike conduct but I would play them again
4: I’d play this person again
5: I’d go out of my way to play this person again.

If over the course of three games a player received two one’s they will be asked to leave and will be ineligible for any prizes.

If over the course of three games, a player scores a total score of eight or less they will be lose 5 tournament points, otherwise no points are awarded for sportsmanship.

League Championship Sub-bracket
The championship of the 1st annual Legios Sparticus League will be determined as part of this tournament. The participants in the sub-bracket will be placed in a 4-player direct elimination table that will be played out over the first two rounds. The only difference is that since this is a direct elimination tournament, for the purposes of advancing a tie-breaker objective worth 0 battle points will be implemented (Earn 1 or more victory points than opponent.) The losers in round 1 will enter the general pool in round 2 and the winners of round 1 will enter the general pool in round 3, with whatever points they have earned. Entries to the sub-bracket must use the same codex as they played in the league but are not required to use their fixed list.

Details

An entry fee of $10 will be charged. Members of the Legios Sparticus receive a $5 discount.
Hosted at Fortress Comics and Games in East Lansing, MI
Doors open at 9:00, Dice roll at 9:30

Wolfson's Hobby Update, Painted Dark/ Light Eldar, VC, More!

2012-01-27T06:06:00.014-05:00

Hello everyone I am sure some people thought me to be abducted by the inquisition since it has been so long since i have posted. The truth is far worse as a new semester of college has sucked me in to possibly be lost forever. I have however at least had the time to work on some hobby projects in between class and homework.
First up is a project i got a little sidetracked on. A close friend of mine is getting back into 40k and started up a Salamanders Army. I know this is not a Salamander but i used this model to teach him some basics on how to build up certain colors especially the touchy ones like red, white and yellow as these can be
hard for new people to deal with. Do not worry i taught him green as well but that one i don't find as hard to pull off. He played before the age of foundation paints and loves to undercoat everything in black so I had a lot to go over with him on how to use the new foundation paints and how the new washes actually work so on...... After helping him with his salamanders for a weekend my hobby ADD kicked in and i kept working on this model. I wanted to try the weathering that is featured in the new 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book. I quite enjoyed the way it came out and had fun taunting OST with it since its an Imperial Fist and he was working on Iron Warriors at the time.

Next up I have 10 of 20 Dire Avengers I finished for my Eldar a little while back and a prototype hull design for my vehicles that emulates celestial formations on my Wave Serpent.

I have also had my hands on Dark Eldar for quite some time but I promised myself I would paint each kit as I bought them so i would not get backed up. Here is my first squad that I used for a test bed on how I wanted to do Dark Eldar. I finally settled on The Kabal of The Obsidian Rose and these warriors just need some finishing touches and they will be done.

The big Vampire Counts launch happened earlier this month and was pretty exciting for me as they were my first fantasy army from around the 5th edition time frame. I had completed most of my ghouls and graveguard as well as some characters recently. The ghouls number 50 plus and the graveguard come in at about 40 so ill give you just a sample.

The characters I finished were Konrad, a Dark Elf Dread Knight I will use as a Vamp and my converted Wight King with Standard.
Well that is about it for now I am in the middle of touching up some skeletons I painted ten years ago so they will better match my current VC and I will be diving into those sexy new kits as soon as possible. I will do my best to keep you all updated on the progress and cant wait to see everyone at Adepticon.
-Wolfson

Forge World: New Necron and Ork Resin Crack and Will Attend Adepticon!

2012-01-26T12:57:00.001-05:00

Old School here to put the word out that Forge World is now carrying Necron Scarab Swarms and a new line of Ork vehicle bits (below) that look like they would be perfect weapons for a buggy.
While I am a little dissapointed that the scarabs don't have the "carpet of swarming evil" effect that we get from the Tyranid Swarms of theirs, I can appreciate the old school look of these scarabs. Overall, the resin stems will make them flimsy for tabletop use, but experienced modellers will just pin the to the base, so no harm-no foul.

Well, all we need now is a good looking Ork buggy. I know people can and will just make their own ...

... but the original could really use an update!

Anyway, enjoy the resin crack, I always do and it is clinically proven to be twice as addictive as plastic crack!

Perhaps the best news, though, is that Forge World will once again be present at Adepticon, which is really great, we missed them two years ago and while my wallet hates it, I always enjoy the opportunity to impulse buy Forge World models.

Hive Fleet Behemoth Space Hulk Genestealers - Ready For War!

2012-01-24T14:27:00.000-05:00

Old School here to officially show off my new take on tyranids. No matter what the internet or anyone else says, at the end of the day, I love these guys. To kick off my return to the Hive Fleets, I grabbed my Adepticon SP: Kill Zone (I think I registered for it this year) army from last year and gave it a new look during our painting night last week at Evolution Games. Let's take a look around my Space Hulk Hive Fleet Behemoth genestealers!

Since the first time I cracked open Rogue Trader back in the day to the first time I read the Space Hulk background, genestealers have been the iconic Xenos menace to me when I think of Warhammer 40k. They were fast, deadly and capable of taking over whole planetary systems. As time went on, the Black Library and codex fluff gave us the Battle for Maccrage, where Hive Fleet Behemoth nearly destroyed the chapter we all love to hate, the Ultramarines. In honor of that awesome background material, I decided to bring Hive Fleet Behemoth to the table.

The first ten genestealers came together nicely and minus one Lictor, form my Kill Zone Genestealer Invasion list. I grabbed these models from Ebay when they were still available everywhere and held onto them during my momentary loss of faith with the Tyranids. I am glad I did, as they were a dream to paint and will make up the bulk of my Tyranids for standard 40k play.

I painted the skin with the air brush, balancing a striking paint job with time management (very important when painting the hordes of nids one can field). First I sprayed the whole model black, then built up to layers of Gore Red, the first pas being for general coverage and the second from a 45 degree angle to brighten up the highlights. Finally the models were hit from directly above with short bursts of Blood Red.

The basing is straight from the Space Hulk minis, which works for my theme, which is the Battle for Maccrage, so snow, ruined structures and dead Ultramarines (with some PDF and Mortificators here and there, lol). The snow is Gale Force Nice mixed with Vallejo Still Water (thanks CVinton!). I also am looking for some icicles (or ways to make them) to hang from some of the ruins on the bases.

The carapace was then painted using watered down coats blending from 50;50 Chaos Black/ Hawk Turquois, 25:75 Black to turquoise, then watered down Hawk turquois (every coat was actually heavily diluted using a mix of Distilled water and flow aid). Finally, each carapace got a light feathering of Hawk Turquois and a lighter feathering of Ice Blue. The effect is an army that you can see from across the room and while it may border on comic book style, I really like it, which is all that really matters to me (some folks like bright nids, some do not).

One of my favorite GW models ever is the Brood Lord from the latest edition of Space Hulk. He is a huge brute perched on his small mountain of skulls and Ultramarine Veteran Terminator helmets. He is a big improvement over the standard Broodlord in his "KHAAAAAAAANNNN!!!" pose!

The size of the model and the pose shows off how effective the airbrush zenithal highlighting can be as the skin fades from bright to dark red. I was going to give him a set of Scything Talons, but honestly, I don't wat to mest with perfection (whoever sculpted the original deserves an award) and if anybody were to call me on it, I would just roll my eyes at them anyway.

Well that's it for today, I have already repainted the Dryder Tervigon from last year and am just making a new base for her and have already prepped a couple units of Hive Guard for paint. Once the Lictors get here, it will be game on for table top play! I plan to stay on track with these and paint a good 1850 for pick up games at Adepticon (any takers??).

As always feedback is always welcome!

It Came From the Forums: Bobo's Tyranid Swarm!

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Old School here with another edition of It Came From The Forums. This time, we are looking at an amazing Tyranid army, so strap in, there are a ton of photos! If at any time, you would like to see a larger pic, simply click the photo or travel to the artist's thread at the bottom of the blog post.

First off and foremost, this is an incredible paint scheme. The carapace is flawless and the color selection is unique and very alien in nature. Also, you will notice many small conversions (and plenty of big one) that really add a nice touch and complete the over all character of the army as a whole. A great example of a nice touch would be the spore mines here that are flying.

Another thing that really makes these models pop, is the addition of the plants on the bases. They look really nice.

Here is a great Doom of Malan'Tai conversion and while I have seen a number of very similar conversions, this one is the best of it's kind, again, due to the small details like the curly tail and the layers of brain and skin on the head.

Damn, I love it when gants are painted well!

I love these stealers. They are stock standard, but the paint job is great and I think everyone loves a good genestealer.

The harpy here is really nice. Hopefully when GW comes out with theirs (I hear it's soon), it will be at least this well done. I love the arms that feed into the gun arms. That is an idea I had never even thought of before!

Resin Crack!

These Hive Guard conversions are cool. I really had to do a double take to see that they weren't official models, which is the mark of a great conversionist!

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, Bobo can sculpt too. Check out the next couple of greens he built up for his spore pod.

That is just sick!!

Just add an amazing paint job and watch the jaws drop! It had to take serious dedication to build this and then paint it and for that, I salute an outstanding artist!

Forge World Malanthrope not your style, make your own!

Yet another great conversion pulled off!

One of the first creature I ever read about after Genestealers, the Lictor is easily one of the things that drew me toward Tyranids to begin with. I love the one posed on the rock!

The plastic Ravener is easily one of the best plastic models released by GW in the last couple years and seeing them painted like this makes me want to run them again!

Classic!

I have received a lot of credit for the Drider Tervigon, but I have to say that this is far superior and combines the best Tyranid aesthetics and parts from multiple kits to deliver a monster that truly looks like it belongs in the army. I absolutely love and want to imitate it!

Finally, check out the Tyrant and his Guard. The Dakka arms and feeder arms here are perfect and the bulky crushing claw limbs make it look far superior to the other dakka arm conversion I have seen. What a way to cap off a great It Came From the Forums.

That's not all folks, go check out Bobo's project log on Warseer and check out the rest of his work, tutorials and pics from the sculpting process of some of these amazing conversions and don't forget to let him know what you think of this amazing artwork!

Dark Mechanicus Rejoice! The Blight Wheel Mantis Tank is Coming!

2012-01-22T14:47:00.001-05:00

Old School here with a quick post urging you to check out Blight Wheel's upcoming Mantis Tank. There are tons of photos here, so let's take a look.

Clearly a great Sci-Fi mini for any game, I really see it having potential for Dark AdMech and Blood Pact players as a Stalk Tank! Also, this mini could make a really nice Defiler stand in or even a Soul Grinder for the AdMech themed Daemons armies out there (looking at you, Hulksmash!).

The tank look like it will be a lot of fun to paint with plenty of flat surfaces, balanced by lenses, small mechanical parts and weapons.

This beast has a small cannon on it's back, so it could stand in realistically for quite a few things (this would be the scariest Griffon Mortar ever, lol).

No matter what you do with it from playing on the table, to painting it for a display case, this is a beautiful mini.

Here is a pic for scale. If this mini excites you, check out Blight Wheels's store or their blog. You won't be disappointed. For a detailed review of the mini from an amazing artist, click here.

The First Foundation of Vengeance: Spite

2012-01-21T22:01:00.004-05:00

SeerK here to share a little series I did back on Craftworld Lansing last year. The Foundations Of Vengeance is a series I put together over the year to try and quantify my views on the hobby and the game in general. So if some of the references and game references seem a bit dated thats why. I started them shortly after my first "Test Of Khaine" tournament, which will be making a comeback this year on April 7th at Evolution Games. It was also in the wake of Adepticon 2011. I thought I would revisit the foundations as we see 5th edition come to a close. So sit back and enjoy as I lay down the 13 Foundations of Vengeance.

The first reaction of most people when they have been wronged is to wrong the person who did the deed. The simple act of vengeance or returning a wrong is not enough in some cases. You continue to hurt the person simply because you can. You show no restraint in your vengeance and this my friends is spite. It is malicious intent past the initial infraction.

Restraint is literally what holds players back. Either because of sportsmanship, which is important, or because they don't want to make their opponent mad, players will show restraint when playing. You don't assault a particular squad or you don't fire the big guns on a unit because your opponent is getting creamed.

I was contemplating this as I was playing CVinton of Dark future Games this past week. I had an initial prototype list of Dark Eldar going against a no tank, all foot, Guard army. Blob squads and Heavy weapon teams was all that I saw across the table from me. My force stood no chance. As wyches and warriors died and Raiders exploded all around my Archon and his Trueborns I thought about how I could salvage the game. CVinton kept apologizing and I think showed some restraint when he was holding some of his troops back. Granted for those of you who have not played CVinton he usually does not show a lot or restraint and mercilessly destroys his opponents. Which brings me to my next point.

You cannot restrain yourself. This is especially true if you want to win a tournament. You must not hold back. In fact overkill and being slightly malicious should be encouraged. So This is the First Foundation of Vengeance. Spite.

Dark Eldar, as I have said many many times, is a momentum army. Holding back breaks momentum. You must be without mercy. This may seem like common sense, but if you sat and thought back to the games you have had in the past month, were there instances when you should have done one thing, but did another because you did not want to seem like a jerk. I recently saw at the Test of Khaine tournament a Dark Eldar player stop his raiders mid field. He was advancing and then stopped short. He second guessed his move and hesitated. This cost him the game. CVinton capitalized on this and slew most of his army without mercy. This is how you win. You exploit weakness. Most opponents cannot recover once you break the back of there army. This is not because its not possible to recover, you can really pull a victory out of very little, but you have gotten into their head. 40K is as much about psychology as it is your list or how good of a general you are.

You see it every game. I recently played a Tyranid swarm army with the Lelith fair. I had Lelith in the thick of it cutting her way across the board. Even though my opponent knew it would be bad to send his gaunts into her he kept doing it. He was determined to kill her and saw her as a huge threat, especially after she got a couple lucky hits and killed one of the Tyrant Guard with the Hive Tyrant. She even wounded the Hive Tyrant. He was making bad decisions because Lelith in his mind was an nigh unto unstoppable killing machine. This allowed the rest of my army to advance and pick apart his force. The swarm that had outnumbered me almost 3 to 1 was being laid to waste because I pressed the attack and continued. Even when he had basically given up I had my surviving Incubi continue to an objective not only to contest it, but I actually charged the Gaunts holding it and slaughtered them.

No mercy. No restraint. Destroy everything with malice and a smile on your face.

SO there you go The First Foundation of Vengeance. I plan on keeping this in mind while I prototype up my list and play it. I am not saying to be a huge jerk mind you. Sportsmanship is important, but you want to win to. So be fair and a good sport, but don't hold back when it comes to destroying an opponents army.

Until next time

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Growth in the Twilight of 5th Edtion.

2012-01-19T07:43:00.005-05:00

As the new edition approaches just around the corner, I have started to feel that 5th edition is a lame duck. I won't say I hate 5th, or even dislike it; 5th edition was great (though, melta/tank spam is getting old). But this isn't intended to be a trip down memory lane. I'm writting this to share what the lame duck phase has taught me.

Definition of EXPLORE

transitive verb

a : to investigate, study, or analyze : look into b : to become familiar with by testing or experimenting

: to travel over (new territory) for adventure or discovery

: to examine especially for diagnostic purposes

Exploration. That's the gist of what this has taught me.

I was never a WAAC player, but I definitely brought my A game as often as I could. This meant taking the tight, kill units that 99% of the time come through. Grey Hunters stacked ceiling high; yes please. At least 2 full missile Long Fangs; of course! Thunder wolves; you know it! Then as the 6th edition rumors started sneaking around the internet I started to feel like I still had something to finish as a space wolf player.

With as much humility as the internet allows me to convey, I don't need tournament practice. The flash point for me was when Titan games had their tournament in December. I had just bought the contemptor (I was a dreadnought hater). I modeled it and painted it and really wanted to show it off. The best place to show something off at is a game store you've never been to but I really didn't want a drop pod melta dread in a 1500 point list. On top of that I wanted to show off the thunder wolves too. Though Twolves are awesome, in 1500 they're a bit much.

I went to my go-to about 40k, OST, and presented the dilemma. At first we went back and forth trying to justify it and talking about meta and all the usual things him and I go over when talking about tournament play. Then he said "You know....it really doesn't matter. You can make it work whatever you bring."

5th edition has been around for so long that if you haven't bandwagon'd every new codex that has come out, you should be a PHD in whatever your army is. And that's the case with me and wolves. I have the standard list down (I'm not invincible with it, and certainly can and will get beat with it) so why do I need to bring that list? I don't. And that's when I started looking into the fringe choices in the book.

As opposed to what most people think, there are a few more unit choices aside from rune priests, grey hunters, thunder wolves and long fangs. (I know right?) I started looking around the book and figuring out what I wanted to do for fun, and I ran with it.

I started playing anything I wanted. Wolf priest with blood claws all on bikes, lone wolf with just mark of the wulfen, foot slogging assault cannon dreads, 15 blood claws in a land raider, land speeders, fenrisian wolves, heavy bolter long fangs ( 10 heavy bolters for 230 points is A LOT of dakka).

Pushing boundaries of the codex refreshed what most consider a good but boring codex. I got so wrapped up in my set 'core' list that I never gave units a chance. Yeah fenrisian wolves just get slaughtered. Who cares? How exciting is that one game where they show up and beat up blood crushers? You'll never have that experience if you never play them.

I can only imagine that if we did a scan of a gamblers brain and 40k players brain, we'd see the same christmas tree map of activation. I'm not going to speak for everyone, but I love the gamble. I'm afraid to go to the casino because I know I'd have to come home and tell the wife I sold everything we have and we're lucky the house is in her name. I love the rush when something unlikely happens.

The only complication with wanting to explore your codex is your fellow gamers. I would quickly have abandoned this mentality if every time I wanted to bring an exploratory/fun list I had to face someone as the store "practicing their tournament list". OST and I have a gentlemen agreement for this play style. For the past 2 months whenever him and I play we bring something just for fun that we don't usually bring, even if it's just a single unit.

Then something unexpected happen, like the grinch's heart growing three times its size, my game got better! The premise is simple, but one I didn't see: If you bring baller stuff, it doesn't take as much skill and effort to win. If you bring subpar units, you fight for everything you get. The simple outcome is that you tighten up your play. You remember what your units do, you apply strong strategy, you think out side of the box.

I can't say that when 6th comes out I'll still run the weird, 2nd string units, but I hope to quickly get back to this place. I'm actually happy playing 40k. Its a hobby again. Once you get to your comfort level, stop saying "I want to practice my tournament list." You don't need to practice with your tournament list, after 4 or 5 games, you know what your list is and you know what it can do. Go outside, get out of your comfort zone and feel the wind in your hair...metaphorically.

13th Company Contemptor #2

2012-01-18T14:15:00.000-05:00

Some more 13th company got finished up last night. I'm really pushing to have a full compliment of painted for the massacre tournament.

Less dynamic than his brother, this guy is a little more subtle in his kill frenzy. I also purchased autocannon arms for both of them, for more dakka.

Applied the forgeworld weathering powders to the feet. Same dirty muddy effect I did on the rhino.

Brothers in arms. I'm on a kick of running normal out of the box dreads. One dread commonly gets pounded or ignored but two side by side supporting each other makes a really great anchor for a flank. At 105 points each you can't beat how much they can effect the game.

Most suicide units costs more so you might as well take the dread. Give them a try. Don't worry about the drop pod, don't worry about your multimelta; those usually just end up causing you to do something stupid with them and get them killed before they do something important.

13th Company Fenrisian Wolves

2012-01-17T16:34:00.000-05:00

13th Company have gathered up some Fenrisian wolves.... I got a good deal on 30 of the old metal chaos warhounds. For the most part they're wolf enough that I couldn't pass it up. Plus, being 13th company the touch of chaos is acceptable to the design. They look like they've been in the warp for a while. I only painted a portion because I was intending to run one full squad of 15 and then be able to outfit 2 IC's with 2 wolves.

I really like the half torn faces these guys have. When looking at the metal it doesn't seem like it but after a wash and dry brush the detail of flayed skin came out. I for the muscle sinew type stuff I just used the foundation red with a delvan mud wash. Then I used my same blood mix of red/black/sepia ink in Vallejo still water to make that shiny fresh look. If you use the still water be sure to dull coat and then apply the still water. Otherwise you loose the shine and whats the point?

This guy wins the crazy pose award of the 4 different poses they have. Nothing lke a big lulling tongue hanging out.

Boring award winner....

I really like the face on this guy..or lack there of. He has the eye still intact which is awesome and allowed me to really put that cat eye split pupil in there. The eye area on the other models is so small that you don't see the detail very well but this guy lets you show case that you did the pupils.

I think the warhounds let me have fenrisian wolves and keep a 13th feel without having to use the terrible goblin wolf rider wolves. I'm really looking forward to some tricky stuff with them and look forward to testing them out on the table top.

Wednesday night paint night? Yes! Please, come join us.

2012-01-17T11:13:00.004-05:00

Wednesday Night at our FLGS was at first nothing more than a few broke, bored and nothing better to do guys hanging out at our store. However we had noticed that a lot of new players were coming into the store, buying armies, but like a lot of people out there, they were not getting any painting done (and then we looked inward at ourselves and found, we were not either.)

So then we decided it was time to perhaps, since Saturday was our 40k night, to make Wednesday our paint night, and have everyone come up to the store and paint. It proved a LARGE success, so much so that for a time not only were loads of people coming up to paint their models on a weeknight, and give and get tips on how to do so, but it made Wednesday night a -second- 40k night. We were stoked, it was great! A large rising in new players kept coming....

And then... we stopped painting... we just played... People took the hobby back to their basement or bedroom, and no longer came to the store to paint just to play.

It was not long before Wednesday night was simply a night to come game, and then slowly that has even faded. We might see a few people up there now, and personally, I hold myself responsible as one of those who should have, and could have, kept painting up at the store. To encourage new players to paint and to model.

Last week I decided I was going to paint some models at the store, to get back revved up into the mode of which I have been lacking for over a year now. As I sat down worked, and talked with my friends it reminded me why it was so enjoyable before, and why is was such a huge success at the start.

With just playing games, we had taken away part of the social aspect of the hobby, the sitting around a table, talking about the lore of the universe, and painting our models.

This is what I now am striving to bring back, so for those of you in Michigan, who might have their Wednesday night's free:

Come Join us at Evolution Games for Wednesday Night Paint Night. Grab a few models to paint, your brushes and paint and sit down and enjoy yourself. Visit with me and the other DFG guys, who I am also calling on to do this.

Come one, come all and paint well.....

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

FOR THE EMPEROR!

Multiple FAQ Updates: Necrons, Nids and Chaos Marines ect.

2012-01-16T09:10:00.000-05:00

Old School Terminator here with some quick news about the big FAQ update that occurred last night. It looks like the Rulebook, Apoc, Apoc: Reload, Blood Angels, Daemons, Chaos Marines, Dark Angels, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Grey Knights, Imp Guard, Necrons, Orks, Codex Marines, Wolves and Tyranids all got an update.
Highlights include of course, Necrons getting an update that doesn't leave them nerfed and Chaos Marines took it on the chin by having to roll to hit for lash. Tyranids got a little boost in that Hive Guard won't worry about smoke or vehicles moving flat out anymore, Tyrants with Tyrant Guard only count for a single kill point and Shadow in the Warp is no longer prevented by vehicles. Now if only a Prime could climb into a pod!

Anyway, here is a link to the FAQ page, enjoy, and let us know what you think!

First Batch of Varghiests Counts as Fiends!

2012-01-16T00:02:00.000-05:00

Old School here and tonight I un-boxed and built the first three fiends for my budding Daemons Project. The Varghiest was simply too good to pass up and since the Daemon project is really just about me fielding as many cool looking models as I can stand, they fit in - in fact, they are the new cool kids in town!

Size wise, the big guy here fits the Fiend size profile perfectly, not only that, but he looks fast and looks like he can pound out a ton of attacks and even be capable of Hit and Run. This Fiend in particular, was made from a combination of the Varghiest and the Crypt Fiend bits. The head and back are Crypt Fiend parts, but being daemons from hell, I think they work. At first, I was just looking to avoid the tragic Double Mohawk back piece (yeah, I know right!), but then, I grabbed a big ghoul head and shaved off the boils. I then placed the head on the body with a bit of tack and it really reminded me of when the vampire roars at Will Smith in I am Legend - I loved it, so it stays.

I plan to weave in some more humanoid Crypt Fiend parts into the remaining models I will build to complete the project, though a healthy number will remain full fledged Varghiests. The real trouble will be whether or not I paint these guys to represent Slaanesh or should I do something else - they are already counts as, which gives me some freedom, but it could also be confusing for an opponent. fleshy pinks and purples don't seem bad to me ... hmmm, I'll see what you all come up with!

As a final note, I mentioned at the club to a fellow gamer that I thought they would be too small to represent daemon princes ... I take it back, they could easily be mounted on a raised 60mm base and work well there. I can also thinka bout a million things these wings could be used for on other models and ranges as well and I can't wait to see what people do with them.

As far as the other parts in this kit, well, I need Gorgers for the Ogre Kindoms army and I think I just found the parts I need to avoid finecast!

Anyway, let me know what you think and what direction you would take them paintwise. I am all ears (or I guess eyes in this case).

Titan Games Tournament Announcement!

2012-01-14T11:50:00.002-05:00

The guys...guy...over at Titan games is hosting another tournament! I went to the last one and it was a lot of fun. I really encourage anyone who is on the fence about it to get out there for any of their 40k tournaments.

Saint Valentine’s Massacre

Titan’s Entertainment Café is proud to present a Warhammer 40k Tournament

Where: Titan Games Entertainment Café located at 669 Capital Ave SW. Battle Creek, MI

Date: February 18^th, 2012

Time: sign up starts at 10:00 AM, dice hit the table at 11:00 AM

The tournament will be three rounds, use standard force org, and have a 1500 point limit. No Painting requirements just WYSIWYG. Missions will be available at the store and forums. Entry Fee is $10. For more information or to reserve a spot visit our forums atwww.titansentertainmentcafe.com. Or call (269) 963-3773

The Road To Adepticon: Team Deathstar

2012-01-13T20:30:00.002-05:00

The road to Adepticon is paved in Resin, plastic, paint and lots of tears. Mostly the tears of those trying to paint an army in under a month because they put it off for the past year. DFG will be representing in the Team Tournament this year. Myself, Lord Solar Steve, The Judge and Samsquatch Monster will be playing as Team Death Star. Lord Solar announced it a couple months ago, but given its the new year I thought I would start off our road to Adepticon.

I will be bringing the Craftworlders. A Seer Council on bikes to be exact. I am in process of assembly with 4 warlocks completed. I will be using the Chapter House Studios conversion kits. As it stands I have my Farseer completed and one Squadron of Guardians on bikes completed. I have yet to put paint on the warlocks, but the 4 I do have assembled are in primer and ready to paint. I have to acquire some more Chapter house warlock kits, 6 to be exact, and a couple more Guardian bikes and I will have all I need for my 1000 point force.

I will be keeping everybody posted about Team Deathstars “Road to Adepticon” over the next couple months. So keep your eyes open as there will be a flurry of modeling and painting over the next two months.

Until next time......................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Alternative Bloodletters and My Daemon Army Progress!

2012-01-13T14:45:00.001-05:00

Old School here with my version of Bloodletters for my side project Daemon Army. Also included in this post will be some of the other items new and old that will become a part of this project.

So, the reason I have never really messed with Daemons before is that I despise the majority of the model range. The models are either goofy looking, out of date or really expensive and most of them are at least two of those three things, but as a Chaos Marines player, I have a ton of stuff that could easily transfer across both books. This led me to start looking at the Fantasy line, as there are great armies there that I will likely never invest in (I'm Ogres for life, dammit!), but plenty of stuff that I could use to showcase a great range and with some subtle conversions, I could really make something pretty cool and have fun playing it.

The Beastmen have always been one of my favorite plastic kits. They cost just as much as a box of Bloodletters, but lack the goofyness I see in the letters (just my own opinion). For painting, I wanted to go with a more subtle and less vibrant paint style than the average daemon army, so I went with strong shading, brass weapons (Khorne blessed them with the weapons of the first wars!) and some barbed wire on some bases and almost every goat rocks a red shoulder pad for some 40k flair!

The box gives me enough models to field the sacred number of eight and still have two models to swap for the musician or icon, which is perfect! I plan to build one more box of these guys and painting them for a full 16 bloodletters with some options.

Sticking to troops choices, I have started conversion work on a box of ghouls to turn into Plague Bearers. I have made them taller with green stuff bellies and big horns. There is still a lot of work to do green-stuff-wise on the, but I like them so far. This is a case of Goofy meets Expensive - The current Plague Bearers are Silly Looking and cost a lot of money, while these will look as close to the codex art as possible for much less (just a little elbow grease!)

Then there are the 21 (7x3) Nurgling bases (each with seven Nurglings!) that I recently completed. Nurglings are good for manipulating your FOC for grouping purposes and with the unpainted ones that I have in the bits box, I have enough to fill 6 troop slots with them if I wanted (which will just be ridiculous and funny, thanks CVinton!)

Another great thing about the army is that it will allow me to whip out some of my old favorites, like these two models I built and painted about two and a half years ago! I pulled them out for a CSM game about a week ago and the "ooohs and awes" I got really made me want to get them on the table even more.

These guys will be super stars in this army! The Forge World Berzerkers on Juggernaughts! I built these bad boys the day the plastic juggers came out and I had to wedge them into the Space Wolves Count As idea, though I never really enjoyed fielding that army. Now I can bring them back as blood crushers. Profile-wise, the 3+/5++ still works and I avoid fielding the silly Bloodletter riders. More importantly, when the Angron I am building is finished, the eight of them (soooon precious, sooon) will form as his World Eater escort and his most trusted warriors!

Then there are the Soul Grinders ...

Personally, I don't like the daemon part of the Grinder kit and the defiler kit is too expensive to just reserve for the CSM. This one is CVinton's old Night Lords Defiler, which I will further defile and assign a legion paint scheme very soon!

The other is my Khorne mini-Brass Scorpion that I built three years ago and painted two years ago, which will see more table time now as a Phlegm Grinder and he should fit in well with Angron and the Khorne models in the army!

Finally, today I am picking up the first of my fiends ...

Why? GW Fiends breach the Expensive, Goofy Looking categories and though the models are newer, they also hover dangerously close to the out of date look of the older fiends. Also, Vampire Counts-As is a funny pun! All joking aside, these models are amazing and I really just want to find a way to put them on the table and making them Fiends will ensure they see plenty of table time!

Well, folks hate it or love it, that's what I am tackling while I am tweeking the last of my Chaos Marines. I love the opportunity to field something different. This project has even given me some other evil-themed ideas for different models, like the Oblits I started the other day.

Anyway, thanks for reading, comments are always welcome!

Obliterator Conversions with Dark Mech Feel!

2012-01-11T08:43:00.001-05:00

Old School here, coming to you from the road. I took a bit of a business trip last night and brought some of my easy travel bitz cases with me to build some DIY Obliterators. I had a lot of fun with the following conversions, so let's check out the photos:

The first Oblit I made is called Big Papa. All the Oblits I am making (I had 9 of the old ones at one point, but the model sucks and I am redefining myself as somebody who runs stuff he likes), are made from the Ogre Kingdoms body as a base. The idea is to go for the Dark Mechanicus Praetorian look. So, I took the Talos mask, which I saw used to great effect at Synaps3 for a Grotesque conversion, so I really wanted to fit that in somewhere.

The chainsaw arm is from Kromlech, the flamer looking arm is a cut-up custom mega blaster.

The big gun on his shoulder is the ravenwing upgrade sprue assault cannon modded up with a little plastic card.

Each oblit is going to have his own little character and the big gun is what defines "Big Pappa"

Here is a shot from the back. There are still some spots to tie the green stuff work together later, when the current stuff dries, but the effect is visible. The spine and cables that lead to each weapon are all made using the Tentacle Maker SAW-050 from Green Stuff Industries. If you follow no other link today, follow this one and check out this tool. It is cheap and will save you tons of time and effort on conversions.

The exhaust pipe is also from the kromlech chainsaw arm, which I cut down.

I also added some green stuff padded-type armor, which will get refined once dry with smaller amounts of green stuff.

I will leave you with a peek at the next oblit. I will call him the "Lightning Rod"

I will show him off as soon as he is done.

I think these models are a lot of fun and were a great little mini-project for the road. I will get back to Angron and some gaming when I return home this afternoon. I would love to hear what you guys think about these models and any ideas you have for future models for the Oblitz.

Iron Warriors Progress; Two squads in MkII Armor!

2012-01-10T07:58:00.000-05:00

Old School here to mark my progress on my Iron Warrior army. So far I have two squads basically done and just awaiting final details like shoulder pad markings, tightening up here and there on the painting and mostly the addition of their Champions. In the meantime, however, I would like to treat you to a few shot of the 20 Iron Warriors I have completed so far.

I chose to use the MkII Forge World suits I had in the bitzbox. I know Iron Warriors are supposed to be MkIII Iron Armor, but sue me, this is what I had and the only difference is the chest, which is almost always covered with a bolter ; ).

The shoulder pads on this armor really stood out to me and seemed like a good place to make my stand on the hazard stripes. I am currently perfecting my freehand Iron Warriors symbol before I hit up the actual models with it.

These guys are some of my favorites as they have some great running poses. They look aggressive and ready to storm the breach. Taking a closer look at them, you will see that the paint around their legs is a little gritty. The first batch that went through caught some Krylon Grey Primer and wouldn't you know, the holy trinity got me and they came out a little fuzzy. I re-primed them with Valspar Grey Primer and most of the model was fixed, though the legs are still gritty, but that's ok as rust is a heavy theme for this force and it just goes right along with the idea.

Big group shot!

I made sure to paint the green glow in the visor, even though it will never be visible on the tabletop and also treated each scope to a little blue gem love.

I could not be happier with the models and when the champions are added and the final paint job gets touched up this weekend, I will be sure to post all of them in their full glory.

Here is a little look at the rust, which was applied with a broad stippling of snakebite leather followed by a slight stippling of vermin brown. The rust to me is a sign of their fall. Like something that just keeps coming back no matter how they scrape and repair. This is not so much a Nurgle thing, but rather just a curse they live with. I don't know, I liked the idea, so I went with it!

Plenty more to come though, uh oh, looks like I may have spoiled an upcoming project by displaying it in the background. Oh well! Let me know what you think so far!

Sculpting and Converting Angron, Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters!

2012-01-08T10:46:00.000-05:00

Old School here with a sculpting project on the table: Angron, Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters Legion! I have wanted to make Angron more than any other Primarch since I first started converting models. He has always appealed to me, but it wasn't until the Ghorgon was released, that I started to look at the possibility. I began the project in earnest last night and I am sure to have a long road ahead. What you will see in this post is what a sketch is to a finished painting, so keep in mind the flat, blank armor and such (even the shape of the armor in places) will change. I plan on having Angron wearing the kind of Ornate stuff you see in the art, but let's take a look at where I am at:

I have a vision in my head that I am operating off of that includes these giant wings from the Zombie Dragon kit. I think they look great and reflect the kind of damage Angron would likely get on those thin wings as he stomped across the battlefield, recklessly seeking new challenges!

I started sculpting the armor around the thighs last night, which will eventually go from the shape of power armor - to a more segmented style armor, using plastic card and green stuff bands.

Milliput is a great tool as it behaves like clay once the epoxy is combined. It is easily worked into place, smooths to an eggshell surface with water (and a good massage, lol), take shape and keeps it - and most importantly, can be sanded smoothly, which green stuff really cannot do. Also, it's cheap!

The base of the shoulder pads were created last night and as we speak, they are on the table awaiting my files. The skull on the left pad is from the Stone Horn kit (Ogre Kingdoms) and will make up a very cool World Eaters Legion symbol once I add the globe and bottom jaw. Both pads will have a large trim added and the one that is blank now will be dedicated to Khorne. Don't worry, you will see. The metal Plaguebearer is there just for scale. Angron is HUGE!!!

Angron could never work without a ton of cables running to from his head! I am using the Green Stuff Industries Tentacle Maker right now and have been practicing on the cables you see here. I will see how the project goes and might also use milliput here just to get the cables rigid once dried in place!

Here he is with legs. As I said, there is much work to be done. Right now, he looks like a lingerie model with his yellow bra, but over the next week and a half or so, this model will start to shape up and you will see where I am heading with the armor and overall pose.

One thing I would really like some feedback on though is the shape of his lower legs. Should I do the Goat or Dog style backward-bent legs or a more humanoid leg style? If I went with the backward-bent look, I would likely use hooves as well and make it look similar to the legs on the possessed model pictured below:

Taken from Dakka just to show the type of leg

Anyway, that's it for now. If you are wondering what I plan on using Angron for, I have a very Khorne themed idea for a Daemons army (really just an excuse to make Angron), which will feature Beastmen counts as Blood Letters and Angron's personal escort of Eight Blood Crushers (played in this case, by my Forge World Berzerkers on Juggernaughts)! Thanks for reading in any case and I really would appreciate the feedback.

Iron Warrior Sorcerer Base Built; Time to Paint!

2012-01-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wanted to see your enemy torn down from his defenses and forced to watch his fortress and friends destroyed before he suffers a slow, crushing fate? So has my Sorcerer and unlike us, he has the power to do it! That is right folks, I decided to have my sorcerer based on an Imperial Fist being crushed to death by chains, let's take a closer look:

I used a set of assault Marine legs, a regular torso and pack, an assault terminator head and shoulder pads from the command box. I picked the head as it was the only one I had with that open mouthed, dismayed look. I used a biker arm because I wanted him to be reaching out to his fortress or fellow brothers, witnessing in helpless horror, what the Iron Warriors are doing to them.

I used a set of chain that I ordered from Dragon Forge some time ago when I got my old power cables. I simply wrapped him up on it and put him on a base that had a thin film of green stuff on it (the better to glue a model too. I then added some extra pieces of chain, some plastic chain bits from various Dark Eldar and Vampire Counts bits to add some tiny bits of flare.

The big piece of tile isn't part of his base, I simply mounted the base on it so I could work on the base without touching it with my hand.

One little touch I added was a resin skull (I bought them by the hundred from some Russian Ebay Seller). The skull has a crushed eye socket on one side, so I made it look like a chain had burst out of the socket!

Well, I can't talk forever. I have to put some paint on the base. I think I will also run the chains up the basing pin once the sorcerer is added and have it run either to his chain crotch piece or have it disappear up the back of his cloak. That's just one idea that has been kicking around since CVinton mentioned it at the club last night.

Let me know what you all think.

Forge World Newsletter Reveals Upcoming Resin Pre-Heresy Crack!

2012-01-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

Old School here with a couple quick peeks from the Forge World newsletter that caught my eye ... for my Iron Warriors! First was the photo above, which appears to be some sort of Roman-esque super chaplain. First I thought it was an insane Legion of the Damned, but then I noticed the tube going under the jaw guard of the outer helmet.

Next up is the photo below
, which is the a pre-heresy style looking tank commander it seems! This is perfect for the Iron Warriors (you will see when I reveal them this weekend). Hopefully, it isn't part of some big vehicle and hopefully it is a small tank commander like the Krieg Commissar Tank guy.

Well, that's it, we're keeping it short today. The other part of the letter was to let us know that they came out with this crazy Mecharius tank variant:

As always, let's hear what you think. I'll be busy building a base for the sorcerer, making Angron out of a Fantasy Gorghon and painting Iron Warriors. Until Next Time, Rust in Piece!

Iron Warriors Sorcerer Conversion Update, Fluff and Basing Ideas Brewing!

2012-01-06T07:12:00.000-05:00

Old School here with a quick update on the Iron Warrior Sorcerer I started working on the other day. This work is still a work in progress, but he is moving along rather nicely. When I was looking for ideas for Iron Warriors Sorcerers, I was shocked by the semi-lackluster results I got. It seemed like nobody had really made an Iron Warriors Sorcerer that grasped the legion character. I think there are several reasons for this and we will get to know this fellow as we walk through the photos.

From my knowledge of the IW from reading the Heresy novels and Storm of Iron, it is apperant that the legion regards daemons with disgust and sorcery with suspision. I cannot help but think, however, that the masters of siege craft could go on without placing some value in the use of psykers in the overall assault of an enemy's defense - after all, the power of a psyker and the vulnerability of a defensive position to them cannot be overlooked.

With that being said, I envision the sorcerer as somebody who lives among his brothers on the edge of their brotherhood, neither accepted nor fully denied, rather a powerful tool that can change the course of a battle with but a thought, all while exposing the legion to the daenomic influence they only seek to control for their gain. I imagine his role would be binding daemons to powerful engines of war when not breaking fortresses. So it is that Vinculum Ferrum was born into my mind. One of the things I love the most about Chaos is their anti-heroes and the ability to create scary back-stories for my HQs.

So it is that I imaging the brother who is now known as "The Iron that Binds" or the "Master of Chains" being a mysterious sorcerer whom they break out like the Duke in Boondock Saints - when the enemy must be broken from their towers and dragged into the fight, he is summoned. I imagine him as a legionnairre who discovered his powers after the decree at Nikea, while fighting the Hrud, keeping them secret until the legion broke their bonds with the Emperor at Istvaan V. I see him using his mind to find gaps in the enemy's defense, just as his chain would probe for a chink in the enemy's armor.

Mostly the ideas I have stem from the model itself and the horror I can imagine of being torn apart or being run through by barbed chains.

I still have some painting left to do and some final touches on the model itself, but the base has not even been started yet. I am trying to think of ways to fit part of a Space Marine on the base with chains either piercing his guts or coming out from his mouth. Perhaps the whole base will be made of chains with the loyalist only partially visable beneath the writhing chains. So ... I am still looking for ideas there.

This is honestly why I have always been a fan of Chaos to begin with. I love making scary models and the freedom that comes from creating little scenes of horror that would not fit with loyalist themes.

If anyone out there has ideas, comments or anything they could add or encouragement to offer, please do! I wil post the finished model with much better pics as wel - considering I just grabbed these with the phone before heading to bed!

13th Company Grey Hunters Complete!

2012-01-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

Over the holidays I wasn't able to get much hobby time in, but now that the schedule is cleared up, its was time to put the brush to to some minis. I finished up the core of the wolves and so here they are.

(Pic heavy)

Since the idea with this army was to expand my hobby skill set, of course we needed weathering powders. I posted the rhinos a little while back, but even with the paint chip, they just weren't finished. Now these are some messy, 10,000 year old rhinos.

I used forgeworld weathering powders mud and soot. I had four done but there was a tragic clear coat accident involving testor's dull coat and rubbing alcohol. On the thicker areas I think the alcohol was still there a little so it caused the dull coat to frost just those spots, then I went back to just re-powder those spots and when I dropped the alcohol on it ate the dull coat and turned it white. It was a disaster.

This is my long fang wolfguard. I painted him as a single model and put more effort into the small details. I like how he turned out. With the hair and face I'm finding myself leaning a lot more on washes than multiple layers of thin color. It saves so much time and looks just fine.

My intention with the axe was to fade it and glow effect the runes and that didn't work out. I ended up doing a slight lightning effect and glow effect. It ended up that it was so messy, you can't tell there isn't anything that works on it and turned into a mottled effect.

Here is each squad with a seperate shot of their banner. Like I said in past posts, I wanted each banner to be simple, individual, and black based. I googled wolf images and Nordic art and space wolf designs by other players and mashed it all together to get what you see.

This was a sweet accident. I broke one of the banners and as I was pinning it thought to myself how much better it would be to not have the giant banner when I was trying to pack up the mini's in their bag. Then I thought this would save me so much "you used that banner" argument time and bad feelings. Now when i use the banner, I just remove it.

I like this guy. For the most part all of the chaos bits were painted red, because most of the armor they'd be piecing together was from thousand sons, so this helmet was painted red. After wards I was reminded of that red skull villian from superman.

At gencon I took a painting class with Markia Reimer (The crystal brush winner from adepticon) I talked to her about freehand stuff and she was like "If its in a fold just don't try and paint it." It was one of those 'duh!' ideas that I'm finding more and more in advance hobby work. The theory behind it is two things; one, you'll never twist the model around to look in those folds to see the freehand. Second, if you do notice it, without knowing it isn't there your brain with continue the pattern and just think its in deep shadow. Obviously if you try to look closely you'll realize it wasn't painted, but at a quick inspection you'll get tricked. I used that theory in this banner.

Now that to core is done I'll leave off with a teaser of what I have planned next. Yeah, that's a wolf priest on a bike....

He's waiting for his swift claw brothers and fellow rune priest. Rawr!

40k Chaos Sorcerer Conversion from Fantasy Manticore Parts!

2012-01-03T06:45:00.000-05:00

Old School here with my first creation of the New Year for you, a Chaos Sorcerer created from parts of the Chaos Manticore kit from the Warhammer Fantasy Storm of Magic. From day 1, I was stricken with this model and originally bought it to be a Fallen Dark Angel objective marker, but I have been enjoying my Chaos Marines lately and plan to add him into my existing force to fight beside my Iron Warriors, Death Guard Maggot Legion and my World Eaters.

I loved the chains and the hidden face effect of the hood. The giant scythe didn't really speak to me until I had the model together in my hands.
First, I would like to say that the base is just here to stand the model up for photos as I am still looking for basing ideas, also the sorcerer will be leaned forward more to match the motion in his chain cloak and robes.

The chain cloak is easily one of the coolest thing GW has pulled off on a model in a long time. If you look at it, the links are even barbed. I love the skulls and the flow of the chains. Don't worry either, it is removable for the moment as it will need to be painted separately and it seems they understood that, making it kind of a snap on piece one its three parts are together.

And there is that scythe! I still think that it may be to over the top, but at the same time, it is pretty cool and would be a great force weapon! The chains swinging between his legs are mounted to the spot that used to be a piece of belly armor. I got a little to exited with the hobby knife and damaged the plate, so I replaced it with the metal chains from the old Bloodcrusher kits (they finally are useful!).

I kept the other hand as well, since the sorc's bolt pistol or whatever will likely just be a holster piece I add to his waist prior to painting. Also, in the pics here, the back piece actually mounts down tighter to the cape, but with the parts being separate and my hand not being there to hold it, it is popping up a little.

Like I said, he will be based on something cool and will be leaned a little forward. If you are curious about the legs, my wife said he needed to be 40k'ed up a little, so I took some assault Marine legs, shaved down the bump that usually fills in the Space Marine torso, cut the wizards cod piece off (ouch!) and mated them together. I then pinned straight through the whole model with the rod that will serve as his flying rod. Before gluing, I the cut the legs of each set of legs (the sorc's and the marine's) and swapped the knees down out, giving the sorc just enough 40k - power armor look to be right, while keeping his olden, chaosified, artificer armor look.

Finally, the chest was bare on the original model, so I made some green stuff cables using the Green Stuff Industries Tentacle Maker (which is a must have item in my opinion, and gave him the standard libby power cable treatment. I then added the skull from a shaved shoulder pad icon to the middle of the chest.

If you are interested in where I got the Tentacle maker, check out Green Stuff Industries and if you need some cheap bits from the sorcerer kit, or any kit really, I recommend Horde O' Bits on Ebay as he has been my bitz man for over 2 years now! I think I won all the sorcerer parts I used for a total of $7, not bad for an HQ!

In any case, keep your eyes open for more Chaos as I prep for the upcoming codex and enjoy my first real 40k love! Comments and ideas are always welcome!

Happy New Year From the DFG Crew!

2011-12-31T21:49:00.001-05:00

Old School here to wish you a Happy New Year! This has been a big year for us and we just wanted to thank all of you who tune in often or not so often. We hope the best to you in your future endeavors. We have had a lot of great experiences hobby-wise, painting, hanging out with fellow bloggers and fans and dabbling in systems beyond 40k, but the best is yet to come, hence the horrible cell-phone image above, marking this as the Year of Chaos for myself!

Over the past year we have partied with multiple readers and fellow bloggers at Adepticon and on the road. We look forward to another great year there ... and possibly another alcohol related contest! Hopefully, the good Chaplain of Team Snake Eyes will be nice enough to buy me a Sunday coffee again, lol!

We also saw the Michigan blogosphere grow with several associates and friends starting up blogs (Terrors from Beyond and Fresh Coast 40k to start)! Additionally, gamers we have met in the past started up blogs as well (looking at you toolin').

We have had the honor of hosting great tournaments like End of Days ect and a great summer tourney in conjuction with the folks from MI40k, CVinton and I's mancrushes (if we weren't so secretly in love with each other ... according to my wife).

Finally, we added some great bloggers to the team like Rhellion, Seerk, Wolfson and Vogrin.

We would like to thank everyone who has had some part in the Chaos that is the hobby and gaming life of DFG, locally and on the blog. We feel like we have finally become happy with what kind of blog we are and look forward to hitting you with plenty more great models, tutorials and more over the next year.

By the way, we intend to keep the DFG Painting Challenge alive into the next year. For what was accomplished in 2011, just check out the tab above or this link. It's never too late to join!

Thanks again and we wish you a safe, rowdy, solemn, sexy (or whatever other kind of night you plan to have) New Year and we will see you in the future! If there is anything you would like to see, take part in or see us work on let us know (don't worry, the eight inch tall Angron is coming!)

Also, be on the look out for great looking, cheap bases from CVinton, like his maggot bases, currently going for FIFTY CENTS a pop!

DFG Custom Bases!

2011-12-29T13:01:00.000-05:00

After much pushing from OST, I made up some 25mm of the maggot bases seen on his nurglings. I made a mold, started casting them and now want to offer them for sale to the community as a pilot to what might be a range of custom, 40k specific bases.

I'm offering them for sale with the understanding that I cast these in my basement with just a simple resin pour system. I don't use a vacuum to assure there are no bubbles. I use micro-mark resin which is very thin and from the resins I've used in the past, this one is the best when it comes to bubbles. For the ones painted and pictured here I just grabbed a full set of seven randomly out of the box to paint. That means the quality of cast you'll receive should be similar to what is pictured.

If you think you'll have a problem with getting bases with bubbles, I'd suggest you buy from someone that uses vacuum mold equipment to assure there are no bubbles. The price I'm asking is based on the the best quality I can produce without having to make the investment to produce higher quality products.

After reading that, if you're still interested the price is .50 cents a base. You can order in any quantity and will receive complete sets of seven and then random bases for any remainder. For example: if you order 50 bases, you'll receive 7 sets of 7 (49 bases total) and one random base, which makes a total of 50. Also, your random bases won't be the same. If you order 5 bases, you'll get 5 random, but different bases from the potential 7 of a complete set.

As this is just a test run to gauge the potential of making custom bases, I don't have much of an order structure set up. If you want to purchase, you can send payment to my paypal at csvinton@gmail.com. If you don't feel comfortable with just sending paypal with a special note feel free to email me and I will get back with you. I'm happy to send an invoice to you as well if you email me what you'd want. In the special note just write in how many you'd want and I'll send you a confirmation back so there are hopefully no hang ups.

13th Company Wolfguard, special weapons and wolf standard.

2011-12-26T11:51:00.000-05:00

13th Company Update

I finished up some special weapons and wolfguard in my spare time over the holidays and thought our readers would enjoy some pictures of the progress. I'm pretty stoked because my hobby ADHD usually has kicked in by now and I've moved on to another army, but these wolves still have my heart.

These two got updated with the combi melta. They were the powerfist guys from the first squad I did. Its what happens when you build the models before figuring out what you're going to use on the table top.

This was an ode to OST. Some poor iron warrior lost his arm. Better luck next time, traitors.

I'm trying to emphasize the chaos bits more and have them not repainted Space Wolves.

OST hooked me up after reorganizing his bits box and handing over like...15 of those awesome wolf backpacks. I owe him big for that,

Heres a group picture. I had a good time doing the pack markings and I like that they're all different, signifying heavy loses over the give-or-take 10,000 years in the wrap. (maybe less since time gets all funky in there)

The standards are sort of centerpieces in the squad. Everyone that has seen the army comments on them, after the dreadnought/terminators/deamon prince thunderwolf calv. I have another that is almost done and they'll all have simple icons like this one. In prospero burns, they very briefly talked about the tribal warring on Fenris. When ships would sail they flew different colors for different purposes. Black was the most insidious signifying that they were going to slaughter your village, every man, woman and child. I took that theme into the banners. Its a small detail hardly anyone will notice, but it warms my heart.

This is obviously a flamer from the dreadnought. I like it better because it fits a proportion. Also its a little different than what you normally see. Let me know what you guys think.

Hope you guys enjoy the work so far. Questions and comments are always welcome! Thanks for following the progress of the 13th company and be sure to find us at adepticon this year!

New Vampire Counts! Model Pics and Conversion Thoughts!

2011-12-25T16:21:00.000-05:00

The Awesomeness of the Warhammer Fantasy range of models continues as the Vampire Counts get the all-star treatment in the latest White Dwarf. Their update includes a large "Chariot of Doom" style kit with the Coven Throne/ Mortis Engine, a couple other multi-kits and some heroes. Enough talk, though, let's look at the photos and consider conversion possibilities as well.
Let's start with the Coven Throne above and the Mortis Engine below:

The whole kit seems great and there appear to be more than enough great pieces that VC players will have plenty of stuff left over for conversions within their existing armies. Either way, you will get the bonus of an extra Vampire or Necromancer depending on what kit you build.

For converters, the spectral horses are awesome. The chassis should make a great base for Daemon players to mount Ku'Grath. The flaming skeletons and all the great undead bits will without a doubt make for some great Chaos conversions across the board. I am very happy to be an up-and-coming daemon player myself as well as a Chaos Marine player!

OOH Baby! The Vargheist shares a kit with the Crypt Horror below. This is the box that gets me exited. I am sure the VC players (looking at you, Wolfson) will have some fun with these models, but for the conversion and Counts as folks, there is some potential here. For me, the Vargheist is the answer to my issue with finding Fiend models I like. With minimal green stuff work, these guys will make super-sexy fiends that have never been done before! Bye-Bye Spider and Snake Fiends!

The Crypt Horrors below are a great way to spend less money buying Gorgers for Ogre Kingdoms players (and they look better and fit the Gorger profile). They could make giant Plaguebearer-style Plague Beasts or even small damon princes of nurgle (add the wings to them from the varghiest side of the kit. On the far out side, These could be the counts-as crossover for some kind of bat themed Thunderwolves (I know, I shouldn't have brought it up, but I love the bats!)

In any case, these are my favorite kit so far, hopefully, they are awesome on the table as well, since I would love to see giant bats on the table.

The plastic Wight King is cool, in fact, I wish GW would just do this for 40k (and I am sure they will soon). Imagine how much cooler it would be to get Captains, Sanguinary Priests, Homeculli, Exarchs, ect in these easy plastic kits, ready to kitbash. Don't get me wrong, the detail on Finecast is superior, but it would be nicer to see conversion ready DIY Librarians and such.

The next kit is the Black Knight and Hex Wraith kit. Both look pretty cool, though the dead knights are an obvious favorite for any old D&D fan. They make me want to start an undead themed Guard army with these guys serving as rough riders!

The wraiths are cool as well and I think there are a lot of great things that can be done with them ... I think even flamer conversions (Tzeentch that is) are possible, but this is just me shooting from the hip!

Krell looks awesome! The Von Carstein kits looks nice too, but may be a little too baller for most VC players' tastes. Issabella in Finecast is cool too. The Von Carstien kit would be perfect for CVinton's Night Lords Counts as Blood Angels! Storm Shields of Fear!

My final thoughts on this are that I look forward to facing a new kind of VC on the tables in the next coming months as I get to hang out with the master of Undeath himself, Wolfson. Hopefully, we can work out a deal where I can buy some of his extra bits from him as well as there seems to be some great stuff here for the upcoming daemons.

Those are my thoughts, let's here what you converters, Twilight fanbois and VC players have to say!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Team DFG!

2011-12-25T00:16:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of the Dead Tau Project

Old School here with this wonderful pic, wishing you a Merry Christmas wherever you are from all of us at the Dark Future Games Team. Whether you are religious or not, celebrate Xmas or belong to another creed, we wish you the best this day. Hopefully, you are among friends and loved ones and healthy as well!

Before I let you off the Holiday hook, please take the time to think about those men and women who sit in austere conditions in fighting holes around the globe, sacrificing their time with loved ones for their countries. May they find some small measure of peace and holiday spirit this day. If somehow you are reading this from a combat zone, Semper Fidelis, brothers and sisters, you are not forgotten.

Enjoy this day and stand by for some evil modelling and painting from the DFG team this coming year! Now on Angron and Magnus and Fulgrim and Kurze, Come Lorgar, come Perurbo, come Mortarion, Alpharius and Horus too! Merry Heresy to all and to all a good plight!

Organizing the Bits Box: Saving Time, Space and Frustration!

2011-12-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

Old School here to talk about getting organized. It has occurred to me several times over the last year, that my bits collection (it can't be called a box when it takes up a wall in your garage ... and most of your desk ... and a closet) is a mess. While it may seem like cool bragging rights to some that I could pull a Death Wing/ Raven Wing army out of my bits boxes, I also have found and lost countless items in there as well (where the hell are the 3 Multi-Meltas I thought I had). So after not being able to find several items while I was attempting a cool conversion last night, I decided to break the cycle!
My wife in her intuitive womanly ways, had purchased a stack of organizers the other day. These are a great find for just $14.99 from Stanley and they have clamps that allow them to be stacked together without sliding around. This is an extra benefit as I tend to take the hobby with me when I travel - also, If I need more, I can just purchase more of these and they can all link together.

So last night, I broke out this huge plastic drawer, a laptop box and two other plastic bins of stuff that was mostly made up of loyalist Space Marine stuff and got to work. I made sure that I used one organizer just for rhino and other space Marine light Vehicle parts (speeders and dreads included), another organizer is just for actual infantry bits. I have a bigger organizer that I set aside for Chaos Marines as well, while the other smaller one will likely hold my daemons stuff. I gave each type of bit its own compartment and needless to say, greatly downsized the space needed for the bits.

After just those few containers had been cleared, I had the plastic bin above filled with clipped sprues and bag trash (bags were how I used to "organize" my stuff. Aside from clearing out a bunch of space in the garage so far, I also managed to find 37 more Space Marines than I knew I had, found 6 Multi Meltas for my speeders (funny that I was missing 3!) and plenty more terminator parts and shoulder pads, along with some cool character models (Games Day Templar!) and the best part is that my organizers still have plenty of room in them ... well actually, the best part is that these bits will never be lost again and that I will have a much better account of what I own from here out. I never knew I had that many extra Marines, so maybe now I will branch out my power armored forces too!

The bottom line is that some of the stuff I own is the result of me spending money on things that I didn't know I already had enough of. This just becomes a cycle and while it has resulted in me pulling armies out of no where and allowed me to make some epic bits-trades, it is borderline hording and has been a cramp on my hobby style for quite some time. With better organization, I can set goals and start actually putting painted stuff on the table because I have a clear idea of what I am working with. I can also plan better conversions as I can see all of my bits in the same location!

How about you? Getting a jump on resolutions? Did I just help you find one? Do you have a story about getting organized? I would love to hear from you!

Maggot Strewn Nurglings in a Day - Pics and Tutorial!

2011-12-21T14:38:00.000-05:00

Old School here to show off my Nurglings with full Maggot bases, a sacred seven Nurglings per base and a tutorial on how I painted 21 Nurgling bases in just over six hours! First things first, this project would have never happened without CVinton. We we trading bitz and talking shop one night when the conversation turned to Chaos, sacred numbers and the abundant supply of Nurglings I had just sitting in my bitz box.

Before leaving for the night, CVinton rounded up a number of Nurglings and vanished. Soon my kidnapped babies were the subject of text message slide shows, their bases covered in maggots. Yesterday, I dropped in on CVinton, who like a plaguebearing Santa Claus, gifted me with 21 bases of Nurglings, each with seven per base! I was so stoked, I vowed to paint them that night. Let's look at how I managed to get them done so fast!
First thing first, I primed everything grey, making sure to get good, even coverage.

Next, I based the models with the airbrush in Vallejo Model Air Olive Drab. This is the color that will ultimately color the shadows on the models.

Next, I hit all of the models from above with an airbrushing of Vallejo Game Color Plague Brown, purposely leaving the paint watered down so that it naturally would get caught in random placed and look like ... well, baby crap.

Next, I came from directly above the bases and sprayed them with Vallejo Game Color Dead Flesh. This would be the pre-highlight for later painting.

Here is an idea of what the models looked like at this point. We are about an hour and a half into this..

Next, I Dry Brushed (pretty thickly for dry brushing) Tau Sept Ochre all over the Maggots. It doesn't matter if you get a little on the Nurglings.

Next, I mixed Gryphonne Sepia and Vallejo Still Water 50/50 and applied it heavily to all the maggots. The goal is for them to look slimy but not really wet, the mix takes care of that for you.

With the maggots still wet, I then applied Thrakka Green wash to each Nurgling. We are now about four hours into the project and almost done.

With the nurglings and the bases dry, I then hit the eyes with Iyanden Darksun, the various little guts and tears in flesh with a red mix I made for blood (4:8:1) Red Gore, Baal Red, Chaos Black. Finally, the high points on the horns and teeth were brushed over quickly with bleached bone.

Paint the rim on the bases and they are done. Pretty much all the nurglings anyone would really need in just over six hours. Feel free to click the photos to enlarge them and see the details.

They are by no means masterpeices, but they are Nurgling bases and have enough detail and to not only exceed tabletop standard, but also convey the disgusting plague image I would imagine anybody would experience from meeting these nasty critters! The best part is that the look took so little time to achieve! The method can easily be applied to plaguebearer size models as well, with just a little more attention paid to them as they are bigger models. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you like the little guys and be on the lookout for more daemons in the future!

Back in Black: The first Death Wing Squad makes its painted debut!

2011-12-20T09:28:00.000-05:00

Old School here with some photos of the Death Wing's first re-painted squad in their original black color scheme. Let's take a look:

To save time, for those of you who don't know, here is a link to the post where I ruined my Death Wing and here is a post about coming back in black.

Otherwise, I am happy with the overall look and feel. Nothing compares to nice, white Death Wing models, but once I got over that, I began to appreciate my "new-old" look and the quickness with which it can be applied. I must apologize for the photo quality, I am away from my normal equipment and had to crop these photos in paintbrush, lol.

Here is one of the close ups that worked out. I'm glad this one came out as it shows off the layered gold/brass, the patina, the light edging I did with Boltgun Metal to express the paint being scraped on the edges rather than anything being line highlighted. Unfortunately, the on-board flash also did a hell of a job brightening the whole paintjob up to a brighter grey.

Here is a group shot of 2/3 the squad. I kept the basing the same as the command squad, who will remain white.

Here are the remaining squad members, including my Cyclone Missile launcher.

I will part with the overhead view of those two - note the old school checker pattern on the cyclone, which was weathered with chip weathering and a little bit of powder from Secret Weapon Miniatures!

All in all, I am very happy with them compared to where they could have been and I look forward to continuing the army now. Hopefully, I will have the infantry done by New Year!

Old School's First Crack at the Tentacle Maker!

2011-12-19T23:24:00.000-05:00

Old School here to let you know that I had my first crack at the Tentacle Maker from Green Stuff Industries tonight and so far, I like what I see. Make no mistake, this isn't my review as I need to sink my teeth into this tool a little more before I really feel like I have the chops to make a proper review. What I can say is that so far, I see lots of potential here (for those of you who might recognize the bits in the background, you may have an idea of where I am going with this.

The tool itself is really small, which is convenient for storage. The tentacles are made by rubbing a piece of greenstuff between the top and bottom, using the guide to the left to keep everything straight.

The tubes start out like this ...

and end up like this ... well, sort of, these are my first efforts. You can see some are better than others. What I like is that the tool can make tentacles and power cables and that it can do it at various sizes. So far, I like it. Look out for a real review coming soon. If you are interested in this tool or how it is used, check out Green Stuff Industries!

Da Kabal Of Da Big Teef: My New Ork Project

2011-12-18T22:35:00.001-05:00

Well I posted this latest project on Craftworld Lansing about a week ago, so I thought I would share it with the DFG readership. I am an Eldar fanatic. I have grown lax in my hobby as of late sadly. You can only build and paint so much Eldar before it becomes boring.

So I started an Ork Army. I call it “Da Kabal Of Da Big Teef”. Orks can loot anything so why not a bunch of Dark Eldar vehicles. BigMek Uzgrub “Urkon” Bigtoof was so impressed by how killy the pointy eared gits invading his base camp were he set a cunnin trap to catch them and liberate their dead killy weapons and vehicles.

So here is my first conversion for the army. This truk Was made using an old Dark Eldar Raider as a base. I had an unassembled truk kit around and some bits and gubbins from a battle wagon I recently acquired. I am a car guy so I had to make the drive Train logical, I know weird on an orky creation.

Although its a Truk its about the length of a battle wagon although not as wide. I am still deciding on a color scheme. Since the army is made of up Death Skull and Snakebite elements its probably going to be blue and red. Cuz da red uns go fasta! I have some gap filling to do and then some painting. I plan on putting some boyz on the side hanging off like the warriors on the new Raiders.

I will post More as I complete models. The next truk is going to be “flying” . It will involve def koptas and is inspired by the Osprey tilt rotor aircraft.

Until next time.................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It Came From the Forums Follow Up: Klausmasterflex Paints the Iron Hands!

2011-12-16T20:13:00.000-05:00

It Came From the Forums has been going for more than a year and it has been (and will continue to be) an honor to run this series and to help recognize artists from the forums out here in the blogosphere. One thing I have never done, is go back and feature a former It Came From the Forums artist, but tonight, I intend to try it out by featuring what I would have to say is one of the best Space Marine armies floating around the web.

The army in question is Klausmasterflex's Iron Hands:
The photo above is his Vulcan He'Stan model and it is insane with all the bits and cogs and conversion work. When I saw this model (among many others) the first time, I came up with an idea to create It Came From the Forums (here is a link to that first post).

Next up is the Master of the Forge. This model is everything I want the tech marine kit to be and so much more. I don't know where to start complimenting ... so I will just pick up my jaw and move on ...

Hammernator squads are scary enough, but this is a take on them that makes them really look imposing. Ferrus Mannus would be proud!

A close up ...

I never would have thought of the Techmarine as a base for the libby, but when you make techmarines like his Master of the Forge, the libby seems to be just right!

Now here is where I lose my mind, just take a look at these dreads. I can't decide if I like the drill guy or the tentacle arm more!

Oh, and let's not forget the best dakka dreads ever!

We have seen enough crazy elites and HQs, how about the troops ... you guessed it, they are incredible. Take a close look at all the conversions in the next couple of photos, including the bionics and special backpacks on the special and heavy weapon guys.

Now let's round it out with some vehicle. These Vindis are great for two reasons; 1) they demonstrate the ability of a skilled conversion artist to save money an vindis by using the rhino chassis and a clever bits purchase! and 2) - They look great!

Finally, we wrap this post up with the land raider. The candles are a great touch, the weathering is perfect and the Multi-Melta conversion is inspiring.

So, if you want to see more of this great work, check out Klaus's showcase here. Also, I am interested in what you all think about follow ups in the It Came From the Forums series. I think it is cool every once and a while to check in on an artist. Don't worry, fresh It Came From the Forums posts are on their way!

Back in Black; My ruined Death Wing are Reborn!

2011-12-14T10:40:00.001-05:00

To move forward, sometimes we have to go back. With my recent Death Wing painting disaster, I had to abandon my plans for a clean white Death Wing army. I worked with the ideas of brass and patina, but it just seemed like a cheap answer and betrayed all of the conversion work I put in with green stuff emblems and chapter symbols.

My frustration mounted during the recent tourney when people told me it looked like a nice "counts as" army. I love counts as, but that is not what my Death Wing is about, so I set out with my airbrush to make things right ...

Being a Death Wing enthusiast, I know that up until the recent past, the Deathwing, like the Raven Wing wore all black armor in memory of the original 1st Legion colors. Within the last thousand years or so, a squad of teminators defended a recruiting world against a genestealer infestation. Believing they would die, they adorned their armor in white powder, symbolizing that they would likely die in their mission. Amazingly, most of the squad lived and over the years, the 1st company adopted the name Death Wing and the white armor as well.

I liked the idea of going "old school" without also having to adhere to a pre-heresy theme (essentially, all the current tech existed at the time they were still in black). It also offers the chance to stick to the Death Wing theme in a paint scheme that remains true to the legion.

So anyway, I whipped out the Iwata HP/CS and laid down a base coat of Chaos Black. I like to use the airbrush for Chaos Black because it subdues the natural glossiness of the paint, also since I hate pure black armies, I knew that I would continue with zenithal highlights. With that said, next, I approached the models from a 45 degree angle with a 60/40 mix of Chaos Black and VMC White, just a slight step up from the original black. Finally I sprayed the minis from directly above with a 70/30 mix of Adeptus Battle Grey and Chaos Black, giving me a smooth fade to black using shades of grey (true black only being in the recesses).

I also airbrushed the bases with Dark Flesh, which which spread just right up the legs to mimic the work I did with powder on my white DW. Here is a shot with some basic base coating on some of the key parts. I took this photo while I was still playing with the scheme.

Another shot, different angle.

Here is where the models stand this morning. I tested stone colors on the shields, but it all just translated to more shades of grey, so I went bold and went for red icons on the shield as well. The center model is my model that is closest to being finished and he is also the recipient of the most testing!

There are still some things on the model that need some work (basing material just for starters, lol), but I like where this is going and painting the models feels much more fun. I nearly went with the glowing hammer effect, but honestly, it is a little tired since the grey knights came out, so I am sticking to the hammers seen with my white DW. the black offers the opportunity for some subtle weathering, which I am working on and it gives me the chance to put a version of the DW on the table most people will never see, so in the end I am happy with the scheme and currently floating on a cloud of motivation, which may see this army painted up before New Years, which would be great as my first army of 2012 will be a Daemons Conversion army, including World Eaters on Juggernaughts and a giant Angron!

That is it for now, comments are always welcome.

1500pt Gimdark Toys for Tots Benefit 40k Tourney Report

2011-12-13T22:00:00.017-05:00

Old School here laying down my report from the Toys for Tots Grimdark Xmas Tourney I attended this last weekend at Get Your Game On. As you can see in the photo above, the real treat to this tourney was that a ton of toys and cash was raised to benefit children without toys (including a Mt. Dew bottle it seems, lol). Anyway, here is how I did with the Death Wing.

The tourney was 1500 points, a limit I am not entirely used to, but I figured I would give it a shot with my recently damaged Death Wing. Above is the first army I fought, which also won the tourney, Tony's Inquisitorial Squat army (see also his Squat Guard from Adepticon 2010). The buggies are psyflemen dreads, the slayers are Deathcult Assassins and the miners are Crusaders - everything else is standard)

His list included Coteaz, a couple squads of minimum acolytes in razorbacks, a couple of Deathcult squads in razorbacks joined by a techmarine and another with inquisitor (both with psychotrope grenades), a full squad of Purifiers and three psyflemen dreads.

My List included:

Belial with his command squad (only upgrade was the banner, no cyclone)
in a Land Raider Crusader

3x 5 Terminator Squads with cyclones and TH/SS

2x Land Speeder Typhoons with multi-melta

The first roll I made of the game was me immobilizing my Land Raider on a fence, so I had to hoof it to the objectives. This mission awarded points to any player controlling an objective each player turn, so I knew I had to earn points or lose (this was a win/loss tourney, so no real battle points).

I made a mistake that cost me this game, which was to hop on the objective having forgotten that his razorbacks were chock full of Death cult assasins, along with a techmarine w/ psychotrope grenades. I figured I could handle the Purifiers, but my mistake saw a dog pile of close combat that resulted in the photo below ...

A bunch of dead termies and me being tabled to top it all off. Tony is a good player and would have had me on the ropes the whole game with a ton of scoring units and some deadly CC to match my resilientcy to his shooting and I wish I would have played a better game, but my mistake and his cool headed generalship was the end of this game for me.

My next game was against an amazing Dark Eldar army, which was actually made of Kroot. The list was totally themed, well painted and the player even had a codex he modified to be a Kroot Mercenaries book. The tree above is actually his Webway portal. I wish I held onto his list, but the basics were:

A succubus, a Hemocullus, a minimum squad of wracks, a squad of trueborn with blasters, three Talos, Three big Wych squads and a Beastmaster pack with 15 Chimerae.

This army was a joy to play against and I feel like luck was really against him as he managed to fail almost every leadership test he had to make in this game. Through shooting and close combat resolution, I made his entire army run away at one point or another with the exception of his Talos (Great Knarlocks). The game ended on turn five with his entire army running with the exception of the three talos, which died to terminators in close combat. This was a game where the firepower of the land raider crusader and the potent force of a banner in the command squad decided the fate of many a kroot merc.

Here is a shot of one of the Great Knarlocs. Again, this is an army I have seen on the internet and always wanted to see on the table, so this was a real treat for me, I just wish the dice would have been a little more in his favor.

Like a bonehead, I forgot to take photos during game three, but it was a quick game. My opponent was running a Chaos themed Grey Knights list with lots of conversions. It was Draigo, a Librarian and as many Paladins as could fit into 1500 points (so not too many).

My army is a little hit or miss against Draigowing, with my 3++ having to withstand multiple S5 power weapons, while hoping to deal out Insta-kills with hammers.

He won the role off and set up. It was Dawn of War, so he took a five man squad plus libby and planted it on the objective with another five man behind it. He then made one bad mistake, like my first game and got too aggressive. He ran out from the objective, placing him in range of the land raider's assault if I drove in, which I did.

The command squad made pretty short work of the Libby squad, while my missile launchers killed half of the other paladin squad through massed missile fire and some bad roles on his part. By turn three, he just had a few remaining paladins on the board and managed to roll for Draigo to come in from reserves ... only for him to scatter on top of the paladins, resulting in a mishap, which resulted in a unit destroyed.

We called it a game at that point and he was a very good sport about it. We ended up talking about Necrons, Grey Knights and Daemons while everyone wrapped up.

All in all, the event was a lot of fun, with a great cause. I was stoked to see Tau place as well! The Death Wing certainly had a good showing in their last unpainted tournament game. I also brainstormed a lot between round and came up with a solution to the Patina problem as well as the issue of having to repaint my command squad with them being so close to finished ... but that is a tale for another post ...

Team Death Star

2011-12-13T16:49:00.005-05:00

Hello my long lost companions! As I am sure plenty of you know, I have had to take a long break from both 40k and posting due to my travel schedule for work. However starting next week.... I do not travel for OVER a month, nearly two, and maybe even longer!

With such wondrous news for my friends, and horrible news for my opponents I am here also to inform you of my next project... and the announcement of some of your favorite members of DFG's intentions to the Adepticon Team Tournament.

We decided that this year, without time to -really- plan out and create a kick ass all out super painted competitive army. We would go and have a TON of fun, and hopefully win some games at least. And most of all (of course) get a bunch of drinks down our gullets. So no real serious stuff on our side, just some gaming fun.

Yet do not think this team of super stars will cave to your whimsy! No no sir... we are Team Death Star.... and as such the majority if not entirety of our list will be one giant squad of doom! Destined to cause chaos and destroy much of your army (or at least that is our hope.)

As for me? What am I taking? Well here is a hint at least.... they are big, they are mean, they are loud, and they are GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

That is right, I am running one of the Orky death star lists.... I will not release details to you yet... however be on the look out for more posts showing some of my builds....

Until next time

Orks is the biggest and the strongest.....

13th Company Rhino and Razorback

2011-12-13T11:11:00.002-05:00

Continuing work on the 13th, I rushed out a rhino and razorback trying to at the very least field fully painted vehicles. Didn't meet the goal, but I got close. The other two just need the weathering and I would have made it.

I finally got the weathering over on painting corps down. It really took the indiana jones leap of faith thing and went for it. The highlight is really what takes the most time; a surprisingly high amount...

13th company Thunder Wolves WIP 5 (With one finished one)

2011-12-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

OST got me a no reason semi-present in the form of yet another demon prince so I'm making number 5 for the thunderwolf pack. I'd ultimately like to just replace the first one. His pose is so static compared to the rest of the pack that he no longer fits. The aging alpha male, replaced by this bad SoB. Poor guy...Oh, also, jump for a finished model.

I really wanted the stretched out lunging model. I had to cut up the leg to get the fully stretched out push. I also put up the WIP without finishing the GS work to show where I start with the warhound head. Its pretty much cut off and glued on.

I had this guy worked up to have a thunderhammer but at the same time worked the shape as an acceptable axe. Its a stretch but I'm pretty sure it'll be just fine. It goes back to the slow building hatred for the first one, but the axe on that guy..that demon axe handle....it's so terrible.

So finally, I didn't want to show the finished painted model until I had all of them for that "WOW!" factor, but OST insisted. I'm happy to show everyone who has followed the project since the first WIP, thanks for following and keep checking back. There'll be more.

I really like how the nose and ears turned out. Astronomicon grey and whatever the foundation red is. Then delvin mud wash. I didn't do the pupils because it would have ended up less Micheal Jackson Thriller and more funny googly eyes.

Keep watching for more!

Retake on the Death Wing WIP - Constructive Criticism Required!

2011-12-10T00:51:00.001-05:00

Alright, so after the disaster, I realized that without weeks-worth of stripping every last speck of paint of my minis, I would never be able to get the smooth finish I wanted for the Death Wing. So my next move was to try something different. I thought of an army of the dead (kind of like Legion of the Damned, but less fire and brimstone. So I went with a two tone bronze-brass idea, using a 50/50 snakebite leather/ Tin Bitz as a base and Dwarven Brass as the zenithal highlight. I then washed everything Delvan Mud and started playing with the Patina, which is a recipe borrowed from Les Bursley.

The concept of tarnished looking Termies seemed cool and Ghostly Death Wing seemed like an interesting take, but as I move through this WIP model, I am not sure. I really think it could conceptually look cool, but I am at a point where I need somebody else to let me know what they think, so here I am. Click the photos as they are raw images from my camera and should get fairly large.

The hammer is blank right now because I want to do an airbrush effect for the hammers. The areas where there is boltgun metal, I am thinking of changing to a bright rust (with a little texture) using powders. I think that orange could pop and add to the theme. At that point, the glowing eyes would move to glowing blue as would the power weapon. So with that in mind, try to visualize that with what you see here.

The model on the left was the first test I did just to see if I liked patina at all, the model on the right is where I used the effect across the model. The white symbols are there because I felt like it offered contrast and could represent purity despite the decrepit state of the surrounding armor. The white right now is literally a base and wash, but obviously would be taken up a few steps in the process.

So with all that being said, I need criticism folks, so keep it constructive, please and fire away. Any ideas are welcome and this community has some great folks out there who may be able to really help, so I am looking forward to your thoughts!

PS: I figured these guys would be the ghosts of former Death Wing, who in death has received the Emperor's forgiveness only to serve him as they did in life. I imagine them bailing the current DW out of a harsh situation, only to be thought Fallen and just when it looks like the living DW will attack them, Ezekial steps in with his ability to see guilt and sins and knows that they are Forgiven - and poof, the whole Forgiven force vanishes like smoke only to be seen in battles across the galaxy - even where the Dark Angels are not present. Don't consider that part open for criticism, I know its cheesy!

My Biggest Hobby Fail! I Killed the Death Wing with a Brush!

2011-12-09T00:36:00.001-05:00

Tonight, I experienced the worst kind of hobby failure a man in this hobby can put himself through. That's right, strap on your party hat because it's time for my little pity party of shame. Anyway, this all starts over the weekend. I found a color of Vallejo Air called Sand that was very comparable to Dheneb Stone, which is the base color for my Death Wing. I have also recently learned that I can wash a model after basing it and keep the base color in tact by varnishing the base and then washing - followed by rubbing alcohol to remove the excess .... but just when you thought that would be the ticket to fail town, it wasn't ...
... as much as alcohol, varnish and reverse washing sound like bad ideas, it was the Model Air that betrayed me. That is right, for all the praise I have sung (and still will) for that range of paints, I killed my Death Wing tonight.

That's right, they are gone, kaput, killed, slain. Even thought I love model air paint, I figured I would play it safe and spray the Sand color on a piece of paper to color match it to my painted models. I did and it looked fantastic. So I busted out my Death Wing and put the first model up as a test. I sprayed him down and the smooth coverage looked great and the color matched Dheneb Stone perfectly. Then I based the rest of my models and brought them upstairs to dry.

Now, I sat down and enjoyed my favorite Weapon of Mass Distraction, Skyrim, for a little while, then went back to my minis. This is where the horror set in.

The color was all wrong, the minis looked like a crappy version of Bleached Bone - even worse - the color hit the models in a very inconsistent manner that meant further coats would only make the model lumpy in some of the smoothest sections. The color also appeared way glossier and brighter than it did when it was wet or on the paper.

For a second I gave up hope. I figured I could sell the army on Ebay as a converted, primed DW army ... but then I thought of the time I put into the green stuff molding and the builds. I thought about the fact that I had pulled this whole army out of my Bits Box ... and then the U.S. Marine in me kicked in. I would not give up. I went down stairs, pulled the airbrush from its chemical bath and then I ... dropped a $24 dollar part down the drain of my sink! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I still have not given up hope. Instead, I put my big-boy pants on and got to cranking out models, but like I said, the Death Wing is dead and so are the Unforgiven. In the morning, I might introduce you to something a little different. Sometimes we have to destroy something to create something of our own.

How about you? Have you ever messed up something so bad you just wanted to quit? How did you get back on the horse? Did you?

A fantastic Necron Triarch Stalker Conversion! Tutorial linked!

2011-12-07T18:47:00.000-05:00

Old School here with a great find from the internet; a Necron Triarch Stalker conversion made from actual Necron Kits! This tournament legal conversion not only looks good, fits the pic from the codex, but it also is pretty simple for your average hobbyist.

This conversion was found on the outstanding Front line gaming and comes with some tips on building it on the artist's Facebook! Check it out and enjoy! This damn near made a cron out of me!

The Heresy Relived: SeerK Brings You Classic Battles Of The Heresy

2011-12-04T19:53:00.002-05:00

I found 2 campaign packs when I was looking for old 40K source material on the web. It was a campaign weekend done at Warhammer world and Bugmans pub in the U.K. By the gaming group the Tempus Fugitives. It was called the Age of the Emperor and it detailed the major battles of the Horus Heresy. These packs include the stats for many of the personalities in the Horus Heresy novels as well as the Custodus, Sisters of Silence and the Cults of Davine. They also include Stat blocks and rules for the Primarchs. They have another Campaign weekend planned in March in England for those of you across the pond. Check out The Tempus Fugitives website for details.

So OST, Vogrin, CVinton and I will be doing some of these battles at the FLGS over the next few weeks and bring you the blow by blow highlights. Vogrin and local Daemon player Papa Nurgle squared off for our first classic battle. Sanguinius the Primarch of the Blood Angels versus the Ka'Bandha the lord of the Blood Thirsters.

Now to give a little bit of information on the Combatants.
According to the rules laid down in the campaign pack all Primarchs have the following Universal Special rules.

-Independent Character

-Eternal Warrior

-Feel No Pain

-Relentless

-Acute Senses

-Fleet

They have a 4+ invulnerable save and can Deep Strike. They may re roll failed wounds and also make all Space marines within 12” fearless. They may be targeted, even when joined to a unit, by shooting attacks due to their size and awe inspiring presence. They may also give up all their attacks to make one attack that auto hits and wounds and counts as AP1. They wear primarch armor which provides a 1+ save. Obviously this is for AP purposes as you still fail the save with a roll of a 1.

Sanguinius counts as Jump infantry and is armed with a +1 Str master crafted power weapon, frag grenades, a master crafted bolt pistol and melta bombs. He has the Surprise attack, gift of prescience and Rites of battle rules from codex Space Marines. He has Furious Charge and Preferred enemy. He also gets a bump to str and toughness when he is reduced to one wound. Stats are 10/6/6/6/5/6/5/10/1+

Ka'Bandha is obviously a Monstrous creature. He is able to assault after deep striking has a 3+ invulnerably save, FNP, Furious charge, Fleet and if he rolls doubles on his number of attacks ( which is2d6) he wounds himself with no saves permitted. He has the following Daemon gifts.

-Iron Hide

-Daemonic Flight

-Blessings of the Blood God

-Chaos Icon

-Axe of Khorne ( Causes Instant death)

his stats are 10/4/9/6/6/5/2d6/10/3+

The battle was fought on the walls of the Imperial palace as the forces of the Warmaster Horus laid siege to it. The walls were holding until Ka'Bandha charged at the head of a host of daemons and World Eaters. Sanguinius charged into the fray to stop this massive Daemon.

Vogrin played the part of Sanguinius While Papa Nurgle took on the guise of Ka'Bandha for this historic clash. When the dice flew for who would get the charge Vogrin came out on top and Sanguinius charged the massive Blood Thirster

Round 1

Sanguinius charged into the fray hitting 5 times and wounding 3 times. The dice were not with Papa Nurgle as he failed all three saves. Ka'Bandha swung back and the dice, apparently use to daemons of Nurgle, rebelled and rolled a double 1 for attacks dealing wound number 4 to Ka'Bandha. Both attacks hit home though and wounded. Vogrin rolled and failed both saves. This put Sanguinius up by 2, luckily he made both fearless saves. Round one to Sanguinius but he gets out with 3 wounds remaining and Ka'Bandha with only 1

Round 2

Sanguinius swung first again on the massive Daemon, but only manged two glancing blows that Ka'Bandhas warp spawned hide easily deflected. The Lord of Blood thirsters rolled decently getting 7 attacks and wounding 3 times. Sanguinius rolled and saved all but one of the wounds, the Axe Biting deeply into his flesh. Sadly this meant a fearless save which Sanguinius failed taking him down to one wound. Ka'Bandha laughed at the gush of blood form Sanguinius, but the blood enraged Sanguinius and the Black Rage overtook him, giving him +2 str and +1 toughness. Round two was savage and brought both of our warriors down to one wound each. Round two to Ka'Bandha.

Round 3

The two mighty warriors stepped back and circled one another like great hunting cats, sizing the other up after the furious exchange of blows. Sanguinius swung with all his might and hatred heaped upon the blows. He hit with all but one attack dealing 3 wounds. The Daemon parried all, but the last. With a mighty stab at the heart the Blood Sword plunged deep into the Blood Thirster. Screaming curses, its body was writhed in glowing tendrils of energy as it was dragged back to the hell dimension that spawned it, its tenuous grasp upon the material world torn asunder by the Primarch.

Victory Sanguinius.

The fight actually went pretty much how it is told in the “history books”. Sanguinius Tore Ka'Bandha a new one, but it was hard fought. The combatants were pretty evenly matched. As overpowered characters go these guys were pretty well balanced.

Next time I hope to settle a score that has been a long time coming. With Cvintons new 13^th company project in full swing and OST's re-dedication to the Deathwing. I think its high time The Lion and The Wolf settle the score.

Until next time....

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13th company Thunder Wolves WIP 4

2011-12-04T10:29:00.000-05:00

I've finished all the GS work and can now start in on the paint (and finish the paint on the first one). Not much to say, so enjoy the final scuplt WIP.

This guy is by far my favorite of the poses. The addition of the chaos warhound heads really makes these guys complete. I'm still looking to build 2 more in the future. But for now, 4 is plenty.

(Don't worry Tim, that tutorial is in the making)

I'm a huge fan of the guitar string for power cables.

Like the above one, adding the wolf head to this guy really brought it together. Also, I hated the pose of the hand because he looked like he was grabbing but didn't have an extended arm and just looked like...he was going to tickle something. So, of course, he gets to choke a bitch. Poor Thousand Sons....

It also gives the model a nice perspective of how terrifying/massive they are in scale. That marine looks tiny and make the wolf look even bigger.

"Chomp!"

Resurrecting the Eaters of Worlds! Where I Stand and a Preview

2011-12-02T11:22:00.000-05:00

Old School here with a change of Course on my Hobby-Fu. I will still be rocking out Ogres at the cyclic rate and slowly crafting the Death Wing, but with recent (salt-needed) rumors on Chaos Legions and with great new Monsters coming out from Fantasy (so much potential for conversion), I feel the need to pull the Chaos out and make it ready for war. I used to joke around saying that I would get around to painting my Chaos Marines one of these years ... while the collection built up and multiple legions massed on my shelves and bits boxes. No longer!

Now is the time to start building and thankfully, I waited just long enough to get pretty good at painting! Above is a WIP of a Berzerker I began painting last night. Cameras hate the color red, so the smooth transition from blood red to the red gore to the scab red within the armor is almost unrecognisable, but believe me, it is there. There is much painting left for this model, but the World Eaters shall be the first of my Legions to be brought to the front lines and given full army wide paint and this will be the basic pallete behind the paintjob! What have I got to work with so far? What is the plan?

Well, I am going to start with the Berzerkers I made a couple of Christmases ago. Each one was the result of a couple hours of conversion work and (in my opinion) very much represents the World Eaters of the post Heresy era. This is just one squad though. A long time ago, I picked up some Marauder flail bits and I have plenty of chain blades, axes and more now, so I am planning the next squad to have some bare arms, two handed chain glaive-style axes, tattoos and a lot of savagery! My goal will be to bring three squads to the table of this level.

Lord Zhufor is a model I painted ... I think last summer? Anyway, he is going to play the role of a lord in this army and hopefully, when we get a new book, the lord option becomes something desirable again. I also have five Khorne termies that will be recieving some love as well.

Then there are also the Jugger cavalry. The rumors have the very wishlist happy hint of Skull Champions on Juggernaughts as a unit selection, so I will paint the remaining cav I have on hand to bring the number to a Khorne Friendly eight. This won't be a problem since seven of them are built and four are painted so far!

As far as my vehicle armory, i have a Land Raider that needs a little more work and will than be ready for paint, then I have three rhinos that were originally looted by me to be Ork vehicles, but I plan to make them into re-habbed wrecked rhinos for the world eaters to drive in. My logic here is that they likely have little respect for the rhino as a vehicle, while their Land Raiders should be reveared like the weapons they carry to battle. Anyway, it will give me the chance to do some good weathering!

Outside of that, I have the Brass Scorpion above (I like to use it as a Defiler), which will get a re-touch and a Dreadnought that could use a paintjob.

I know I didn't show you pics of everything, but then again, what's life without a little mystery. I plan to paint this stuff quickly (but very well), so be on the look out for some khornate goodness this month!

Have any ideas, comments or questions? As always, discussion is very welcome.

13th Company Space Wolf Thunderwolves WIP # 3

2011-11-30T18:09:00.003-05:00

Update on the Thunderwolves. They're almost done. I ordered some chaos warhounds to chop up for the heads and then I'll be finished up with the four. I might end up making one or two more, but for now I think I'm set.

I added the maw to this guy because the flat face just looked weird. I think it came out much better with the maw.

It's made of a tyranid warrior face and green stuffed to have lips since I guess in the nid world, lips are overrated.

Here is the first of the two final. He obviously needs the head still, bur for the most part hes done. I'm not entirely thrilled with the pose, but he works in the squad. I chopped and re positioned the hand a little. I was going for a sheild bash wind-up.

Shield is made form a drop pod door.

And finally, the 'hulk smash' wolf. Not only is this guy busting through the wall, he's ripped his clothes and they were generous enough to increase in size as he did...like the hulk.

Overall, I'm still happy with how the project is turning out. All that is left is a little more hair work, the hound heads and finally the paint. They'll have their first tournament test (Wysiwyg) this weekend. I'll be pretty sad face if they cause confusion. I'll keep you guys posted, and thanks for following the project!

Guess Who's Back!

2011-11-30T17:36:00.007-05:00

The Judge here! I'm back from my long hiatus(not that anyone noticed or cared) and excited to get a winter project started. One of the first armies I ever got really excited about where the Black Templars and I want to redo them. Not strip down and repaint(not there was much painting done anyway), but start fresh with new models, the Templar upgrade box, and definitely some forge world stuff.

I like to run my Black Templar in Land Raider Crusaders. OST can talk all the crap he wants about 3 of them in 1850 but you should know I have a slight obsession with the LRCrusader. Its my favorite vehicle and dammit it shall be run. Im super excited about this and I'll be starting this weekend assuming my stuff gets here on time. Don't worry I will be posting the WIP's and you can all let me know if my skills have improved from the 4 year old level to maybe 6 or 7.

It's good to be back,

The Judge

Ogre Kingdoms: Firebelly Fully Painted!

2011-11-30T11:56:00.001-05:00

Old School here with some pics of my Ogre Firebelly. This model is a ton of fun to paint and to play (he is the scourge of the Skaven race locally). After a big hiccup in the fact that the head/arm/flame didn't fit together at all, I simply cut the stream of fire leading from the mouth, glued the head and arm where they belong and then just re sculpted the flam with green stuff. Once that was finished, it was time to lay some paint down. Let's take a look at the final product.

Now the big feature of this model is the flame and as such, I went into the google archive looking at flames and fire, then went out in the yard and lit a fire. I realized that the flame from the firebelly would be more of a flash/flare kind of flame rather than a burning, steady flame, so the light and look should be different. I started throwing hand fulls of very flammable material in and got the basic idea I wanted to run with.

I figured that the OSL should be heavy Orange as that mirrors what I saw in the yard. I also noticed that real flames are never red, but rather shades of yellow or orange.

Another thing I wanted to use was a creeping, flame themed tribal tattoo. For the tats, I mixed Badab black with equal parts shadow grey and came up with a color that looked like the tattoos I have, so I went with it.

I really wanted to just try a bunch of stuff with this model since the Ogres lend themselves to some cool potential ideas and the model has so many different textures and surfaces. Wolfson play Brettonians, so in my personal tradition of degrading my friends' armies in my own work, I gave the firebelly a color to his ragtag underwear. I imagine that after a good fight, there is nothing better than cooking a knight's horse and making clothes out of the colorful rags!

Personally, I don't really pay the points for the FireBelly to take a great weapon, but the hammer is so cool, that I really don't care if I get hit on WYSIWYG or if I have to pay the extra points. The brass on the hammer, along with the other brass, was painted a base of 50/50 snakebite leather/dwarven bronze, then washed Delvan Mud, given the Patina effect with a little watered down Hawk Turquise/ Thrakka Green and finally highlighted with dwarven bronze.

Going back to the flame, I wanted to really take advantage of it as much as possible, while keeping it realistic. With that said, I made the initial transitions of color on the flame using Mecharius Orange, Tau Sept Ochre and Astronomicon white. I blended the transitions with multiple glazes - progressing into darker colors, while also receding up the flame, so that by the top, it just kind of becomes a darker orange.

The flash really washed out some of the color variation here, but you can see that the smoke is also lit from the bottom, an effect created by painting the smoke from the inside out, using fortress grey for every crack and crevice, then progressing through the greys, but covering less of the smoke piece with each coat. Once the smoke was finished, it was given the orange OSL by holding the model upside down and brushing away from the source of the light with a watered down orange.

Here is a shot from behind that demonstrates what I just discussed.

Smoke is a strange thing to paint as it actually is darker from above than below. To darken it, I used the same mix that I used for the tattoos (it just looked smoggy and greasy). I then washed Badab black into all the rolls of the top part of the smoke.

The sword was a test bed for some of the powder work I have been doing lately. First, I based the blade Boltgun, then stippled on Calthan Brown, followed by Vermin Brown. I then washed the blade in Gryphonne Sepia. With the sepia dry, I varnished the surface and then liberally dusted the blade with a rusty colored powder I have, making sure to keep in away from the edges and to concentrate it near the handle. I then used an eye dropper filled Rubbing Alcohol and dropped it right on the blade. What was left behind was a multi-colored, textured rust effect that I am pretty happy with and will experiment more with in the future.

OSL was something that I had little experience with, so I went with the advise of people I respect from the blogosphere and lit the model from the source of the light to see where the OSL should fall. Above is a photo where I darkened the orange in photoshop to show where the OSL ended up after I used the aforementioned method.

My basing is standard cork ... and I plan to do a little tut on that in the future ...

The bottom line here is that I am happy with the result and had a lot of fun testing stuff out throughout the process of painting this model. I also can say that I have had quite a bit of fun roasting my enemies so far in the league games as the Firebelly has killed more than the entire 500pt list combined in each game that I have played with them.

Comments as always are appreciated. Someday I will build a light box so I can give you better pics, but for now, I am having to much fun painting and playing. I should get some more playtime in tonight and maybe I will bring the video camera to do a good, old fashioned video report or two.

My Thoughts on the Chaos Rumors, the Band Wagon Tidal Wave and Thunder Juggs!

2011-11-29T22:57:00.002-05:00

Old School here talking about Thunder Juggers ... no, not some AC/DC inspired enhancement song, but the very most recent Chaos Legions Rumor Roundup and most importantly, the fact that it includes my lovely Jugger Riding Zerk Boys! Here are the rumors and some of my thoughts as a Chaos Player and enthusiast.

For a link to the original rumors, head to the bottom of the post:

General Information:

ghost21 reports that the plan is for 3 Chaos books. Legions, Renegades and Daemons

Daemons are already covered, so the next book will cover the Chaos Legions, with a future Renegades codex incorporating all manner of traitor humans, mutants and Marines-gone-bad.

ghost21 thinks this Legions book will be 1st or 2nd book after 6th edition, which is being released July 2012, putting the release around October-November 2012

Harry supports this, saying:
I do think CSM are the first sixth edition book but not sure if they come just before or just after 6th edition.

theDarkGeneral contradicts this, saying he has heard of 3 separate Legions books with an even split of Legions in each. He claims 2 are planned for release in 2012 and the third for early 2013. He further claims a “Lost and the Damned” style book and a “largely Daemon-based” campaign book are in the works for after that.

theDarkGeneral was supposedly given the Legion split breakdown as:
*World Eaters, Word Bearers and Nightlords
*Deathguard, Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children
*Thousand Sons, Alpha Legion and Black Legion

Alright, I, like many Chaos fans, I would be happier than Khorne at a Blood Drive to see three separate books just for my beloved Legions and I know that, combined with the Renegades and Daemons books, this would put them on equal footing with the Space Marine books ... but I honestly think this is wishlisting at its worst. I cannot imagine there being three different books for them in three different releases, sorry. BigRed did chime in on the thread and say that Ghost21 seems to be the most legit and we should the rumors in accordance with who said what. I will say that I buy into the idea of a Renegade book though, but even if there were three Legions books (which would be awesome), that would also just mean more power armor (not so awesome).

Mat Ward is rumoured to be writing the codex. (seriously guys, get over it )

Minor Gods will make an appearance and all Legions will be included

I had my say on the minor gods before. I think this is the largest potential for messing up the fluff.

The minor Gods are named, and will act in a similar way to marks, but have no Daemons.

Background:
Ghost21 tells us the background has been expanded and improved so that Legions and their worship of the Gods is far less one-dimensional.

Thank the dark gods, I am tired of the Dawn of War style Super Villain feel Chaos has taken on. We need more anti-hero and dark evil!

Rules:
Each Legion will have something unique to them, but will have unit restrictions to offset their inherent bonuses.

Ghost21 further clarifies by saying World Eaters may be restricted to 1 Havoc squad, but could potentially take more by “trading in” something else.

Havok Squads? What about Preds, Defilers ect.

theDarkGeneral tells us:
it won't change according to your Legion (HQs) as in swapping more Heavies for less Fast, but your access to units in those categories opens up, becomes limited, or closes off accordingly. Easy example I was given, is taking Khorne Daemon Prince means no Scouts...

Hmmm ...

And goes on to say the following about the different Legions:

*Nightlords: I don't ask much about them, though a lil' i have for my buddy Paul has around 25,000+ points of them...Hit & Run and Stealth for universal special rules, but possible counter attack (for elite unit) as well as jump pack troops.

If it is true, CVinton's Nightlord's Counts as BA will finally lose the counts-as and get awesome, though I am dropping salt tabs hard on this one!

*Word Bearers: Apparently getting a lil' extra attention, and besides Dark Apostles, new models for "daemonancers", which just might be unit champs/sgt upgrades. I'm not sure. BUT, their summoning of Daemons from the Warp apparently allows re-rolls on the scatter dice, as well as new mishap chart!

I don't believe the big three-book deal, but god, this sounds awesome!
*Deathguard: Feel no pain and blight grenades for their Cult Terminators, new nasty flamers upgrades.

Yes! We can fantasize. Given GK and BA, this doesn't seem far off.

*Thousand Sons: AP3 bolters will be MUCH more useful under 6th Edition, and a couple new Psychic abilities, one of which (supposedly) can remove an entire enemy squad from the table on a failed stat test!

Given the things we have seen in the rumors for 6th, (5+ cover the norm), no kidding! Psychic powers that eliminate units might seem awesome, but also are little crazy, unless they rely on some kind of LD test, where lower LD units tend to be cheaper - otherwise this seems a little less than fun, IMO.

*Iron Warriors: Access to Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield termies, thunderfire cannon off-shoot, Havocs w/Tank Hunters and relentless for some squad...

I like the idea of vet skills in Chaos, but otherwise, this seems like making one of my favorite legions into Spiky Marines. This is one of the reasons I think this is wishlisting on behalf of a Counts as mentality.
*Emperor's Children: Lash is finally changed to be more in line with Daemon version. More heavy weapons upgrade count for larger units. Better Bikes? Not sure what that means...

Lash can vanish as far as I am concerned, but given the awesome models we have seen in conversions in the Halloween series we ran, I would love to see coked-up Slaaneshi Bikers!

*Alpha Legion: Lots of infiltrating abilities, outflanking, and even temporary control of enemy squads/vehicles...basically sneaky *******s!

Any way we can get a serious Alpha Legion army back up and running is welcome in my mind
*Black Legion: HQs allow broader access to all unit types, but lack of better universal special rules.
Ghost21 tells us Chaos units have built in negatives depending on the God. It is unclear if these are just Cult Troops, or all Marked units

Nurgle units can’t perform Sweeping Advances and are what he refers to as “stoic” (possibly meaning slow and purposeful, possibly just the name of this group of rules)

Khorne has to “engage in some kind of combat every turn” (not sure what this means ie does shooting count?) or roll on a D6 table and suffer some random penalty

Tzeentch require a “command figure” (likely Sorcerer) or will act based on a random D6 roll

Slaanesh are described only as having “very harsh results”

I can see the negatives fitting to character, but they really need to steer clear of the Thorpe method of random. Otherwise it makes sense that somebody like a Berzerker (having adrenal spikes in their head) getting a little crazy when not in combat!

theDarkGeneral says Nurgle Flamers can be made poisoned 3+ or even 2+ (possibly through a special character).

HQ

Special Characters:
ghost21 tells us characters will supposedly be very powerful, including the “Red Angel” from this artwork

Red Angel sounds awesome!

Although ghost21 goes on to say he hasn’t seen a named Warsmith character, only a Dark Mechanicus one.

Why not a Warsmith. Legions need less Coteaz and more Hansou. Though I could see Dark Mech in the Renegades book.

theDarkGeneral claims we will see the return of Droomrider, Doombreed, and Cypher as well as another 5 new characters. This does not preclude any or all existing special characters being included.

Cypher exites the Deathwing Player in me and I am sure SeerK is snorting lines just thinking of the Doomrider coming back!

theDarkGeneral also tells us there will be a Slaaneshi Dreadnaught special character.

theDarkGeneral reports that Ahriman will be better due to new Chaos Psychic powers as well as "some kind of guaranteed psychic ability that can't be stopped via Psychic Hoods, etc"

If you broke into the Black Library, you would have some great powers too!

Elites

theDarkGeneral tells us Chaos Dreadnaughts will no longer act randomly, and are able to take marks, but will not be able to be Venerable.

Makes sense.

theDarkGeneral claims Possessed will be improved and supposedly have upgrades either already included or that you can pay for.

Sounds like 3.5 in a good way.

ghost21 tells us there will be a "gladiator themed" World Eater unit

If there are models to match, this will be a welcome solution to the boring, old Zerker kit.

ghost21 also says Emperor's Children will have access to a unit described as "soul shieldsman" which is possibly an upgrade for Veterans.

Hmmm ... not sure what to think of that.

Troops

theDarkGeneral implies there will be some kind of “Scout unit” which will not be available to World Eaters.

God-specific Daemons will likely be included, but ghost21 is only sure of the lesser varieties (Plaguebearers, Bloodletters, Daemonettes & Horrors) and not the greater ones
theDarkGeneral claims Daemons will remain as they are in the Daemons Codex, but with slight points adjustments to reflect the ability to summon them and certain 6th edition changes.

The Word Bearers and the god-specific Marines should have them, makes sense to me.

Fast Attack

theDarkGeneral claims “Assault Berzerkers” with jump packs will be available as Fast Attack choices.

What ... World Eaters come to war in flavors other than 'regular' ... heresy, lol!

ghost21 tells us Doomrider will be a unit upgrade (presumably for Bike squads)

ghost21 also adds that Nurgle Bikes are in, but their "Stoic" rule may make them less effective in his opinion.

Well, I always thought they were gimmicky, which has been the only reason I never built them.

theDarkGeneral mentions a new unit called Brazen Knights consiting of "Skull Champions" (possibly super Khornate CSM Champions) riding Juggernauts

Praise the Dark Gods YES!!! All I want is Mother *#@*ing Berzerkers on Mother*&#$ing Juggernaughts!! If nothing else, this had better be real!

Heavy Support

theDarkGeneral tells us Slaughterfiends from Apoc will be available, as well as versions for other Legions and Marks.

SOunds cool, might jive with the current 6th ed rumor mill, but they haven't really been huge on adding FW specific stuff so far.

theDarkGeneral reports Obliterators maximum unit size is increased to 4

theDarkGeneral says most types of Daemon Engines can be taken as 3 per FOC slot

This sounds cool, but I just don't think I believe we will see 3 defilers in a slot.

theDarkGeneral claims Legions will get a new Landraider pattern with a higher transport capacity (possibly 15) and is described as a "warped version of one of the Imperial versions”

Makes sense, but falls into my category of "I wish they would come up with their own stuff"

Marked Legions are rumoured to get Havocs

theDarkGeneral has also hinted at the possibility of a new Monstrous Creature that is not a Greater Daemon. No further info is available as yet.

Miniatures:

Plastic Dreadnaught rumoured by both ghost21 and theDarkGeneral. TheDarkGeneral claims it will include multiple Dreadnought close combat weapons types, such as the Chainfist, Thunder Hammer, Power Scourge, etc.

The number one model that needs to be replaced: Chaos Dread, kind of a given.

Plastic Plague Bearers rumoured to appear in the 6th edition started

Plastic Raptors have been confirmed by the ever-reliable 75hastings69 who said:
I can add to this that the new plastic Raptors are very nice

Much like the Dread, I take it as granted.

Abaddon – ghost21 claims this miniature is almost identical to the existing one, but “bulkier and taller”

Abby needs it.

Little Horus - ghost21 reports seeing a miniature for this guy, and implies it is very good

Little Horus has been a great character with the standar Heresy series level of regret to make him both tragic and evil ... perfect!

ghost21 also claims to have spotted a miniature for a Dark Mechanicus character, but is unsure if he will make it to release. He described it as:
a very creepy sculpt based on a john Blanche piece

- Alright, switching back out of rumor mode and back into just talk. I honestly think there are huge grains of salt involved with any of this stuff, but the recurring theme is that the Legions will be getting an effect on the table that we get from the fluff. Chaos should be scary. My hope is that they give chaos plenty of their own feel and less of the "bad guy" imperial stuff. In any case, I am a die-hard Chaos fanatic, so I will paint-up, convert and play them regardless of rules, ect.

I do think that people need to understand that Chaos Legions will be the biggest bandwagon we have ever seen in the 40k universe thus far. Think about it, 3.5 gave us a tone of Chaos players who likely still have their armies (Chaos players are loyal, lol), then 4th gave aus quite a few more, many of which hung on and counts-as supplied them with an outlet for their armies. Some folks have made armies like Night Lords and T-Sons to serve specifically for a Loyalist book ... and then there will be the folks who fall in love with the fluff and the models - creating a perfect storm of bandwagonry that we have yet to see even on the SW or GK levels. Personally, I like Chaos enough that I don't care, everyone else will get over it and I personally can't wait to see "Space Wolves count as Chaos!"

Well, those are just my own personal thoughts. I know I sounded pretty negative at time, but such is the way I deal with rumors this far out ... except for the Khorne Berzerkers on Juggernaughts ... that has to be real!

What are your thoughts on this round up?

I Have Arrived

2011-11-29T17:01:00.002-05:00

For those of you that don't know me I am SeerK. I run a little blog called Craftworld Lansing. I am a former GW employee and I have been playing 40K since the tail end of Rogue Trader. As you might guess from the handle I am an avid Eldar player. I also have Dark Eldar Themed Ork army I am putting together, which I hope to post pictures off soon as I a about to receive a nice influx of bits to do some of the major mods and conversions I have planned.

OST asked me if I wanted to contribute to DFG and join the great team of bloggers he already has on the sight. I said yes of course. So look for articles in the future concerning Eldar, Orks and all things Xenos form your truly. I hope to have a battle report for you this weekend after I find a willing Necron Victim to slap around with the Eldar. I will also be posting, of course, to my blog.

SO introduction over.

Until Next Time...

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13th company Thunder Wolves WIP 2

2011-11-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

Finished doing the GS work on the second one today. After giving the first one the hobby shop test, I found it was a pretty boring stance. So, I went more dynamic with the new one.

First some updates on #1's paint. The skin still needs the full range of blending, but the rest is mostly done.

For the new one, its my shield/melta bomb cheaty wound allocation model.

Hope you enjoy the conversion work. The fur tutorial is in the works so keep checking back! Let me know what you guys think of #2.

We Want Your Opinion: DFG Belongs to Our Readers!

2011-11-26T23:30:00.001-05:00

Old School here and much like the zombie Uncle Sam in the image above, we wan to pick your brain. We have been chugging along for about four years now and have grown into a monstrous blog we never imagined (but we are happily surprised!) when this whole thing began.

With that being said, every once and a while, we would like to ask what you guys want. Well ... what would you like to see?
Let's face it, we have had our share of tacticas ... and when Chaos comes back around, you will likely see more, but we have always been more of a hobby blog. We have in our tabs above, some of the best work we have ever presented as a collective of writers and hobbyists. Additionally, we have tried our best to keep up with GW alternative products to help folks purchase great looking stuff that GW for one reason or another has never made. We have also gone above and beyond to recognise the work of others. While we have never maintained a top 10 (Ron's was way too sacred to encroach on back in the day), we have used features like It Came from the Forums and Blogs of Note to highlight the work of others (we even had an artist of the week a few years ago).

We have also offered tutorials and challenges and contests and while we have built a respectable 604 followers doing what we do, I feel like there may be more that we can offer.

So what would you like to see more of? Personally, I think we have been slacking on tuts, especially as we have grown a lot over the last year in terms of all things hobby. I am trying to remedy that with an upcoming "This is How You Use Powders" tut, which naturally leads to the "Varnish is your Friend" tut and the "Resin Sand Medium is a Painter's Auto Include" tut ... but I digress, this isn't about me; it's about the 604 people who follow us - so what do you like? Tutorials, It Came from the Forums type stuff, Rumors? What would you like to more of or less of?

We are standing by for your thoughts!