Why I’m doing all this: Creating Communities of Gaming
Take a look at the Categories section to the right of the page and you’ll see I play a LOT of model games. I hope to add more soon. Why?
I am a teacher. I currently teach science in a nice little DOOMED middle school. Tonight our fate will be decided, and safe money says I won’t have a job next year. However, it is my ambition to teach high school, and to start a wargaming club in that high school.
To that end, I did not want students limited to 40K or Warmachine, so I expanded. I’m trying to get at least 2 playable forces for each game, along with the neccesary terrain dice, etc. to put on demo games. Hopefully once students are interested in one (or more) games they wil have their own armies and play with their friends. It is my wish to give these kids the support of a local gaming group, and a place to play that is easily accessible.
Some of the best times of my life have been playing 40K back in the old Mary Mayo days. Studio 40K doesn’t exist anymore as far as I know, but if I get a high school teaching job, I want to start up a similar club. Unlike Studio 40K, it would be free to the students, and provide a safe fun alternative to drugs and alcohol (which is how I will pitch it to the principal).
Hopefully I can find a job next year and realize these ambitions. Until then, keep a look out for more posts, especially for my new Necromunda board, made by Jen.
Update: The meeting that could end my middle school has been postponed. The Sword of Damocles will hang over our heads for a bit longer, it seems.
Cozamalotl, Skink of the Konquata Monitors
Painting
Cozamalotl is my test Skink for my new color scheme. He was painted with an undercoat of Games Workshop Ice Blue. His scales and crest were given a light coat of Vallejo Hawk Turquoise. He was then given a full body wash of P3 Turquoise Ink. His skin was then highlighted with Vallejo Jade Green. His shoulder pads are GW Mechrite red with a Blood Red drybrush and a Blazing Orange Highlight, finished with Skull White for the numerals. His claws are Snakebite Leather with Bleached Bone and Skull White highlights. His eyes are Sunburst Yellow with Chaos Black pupils. His mouth was very carefully inked black. The base is Goblin Green with static grass, Chaos Black and Skull White for the Name and Number.
Cozamalotl is an authentic Nahuatl name, and the numerals on his shoulder pads read “32” in Mayan numerals.
Loudmouf Sneakilla
Loudmouf Sneakilla
Modeling
Loudmouf uses Snuikrot’s body. I used the head from the plastic Nob box that has Cylon eyes, and connected it with putty to fill out the neck. Into the neck and mouth-tube I inserted Guitar Wire that runs up to the speakers, which come from the Sisters of Battle tank sprue. The frame on his back is a sprue. The canopy is from the old plastic tree terrain sprue. Loudmouf’s custom Cesti (plural of Cestus) are sharpened pieces of sprue held on with custom sculpted putty vines to hide Snikrot’s dog tags. The switch on the back is putty and paper clip.
Backstory
The last words Loudmouf uttered with his own vocal chords were: “Oi! I just ‘membered dat I left me favrit squig at ‘ome!”
This was as his Kommando squad was about to infiltrate an Imperial Guard base and bring down the defenses so that Smartyskull could raid it. His Nob was less than thrilled when two thirds of the squad was obliterated by heavy bolter fire. Dragging Loudmouf by his neck all the way back to camp, the Nob deposited him before Smartyskull and asked for a judgment, as Da Boss always found funny ways to punish the stupid or careless. Smartyskull’s verdict was that because Loudmouf’s neck was so badly injured, that he should go see Dok Gilgivva, hur hur hur.
Loudmouf’s Nob didn’t like this verdict much; so on the way he took a large chunk of Loudmouf’s neck with him. This was the luckiest thing that could have happened to Loudmouf, as you can’t install gills into a ruined neck. With the help of Manik Upzindownz, the Dok installed another invention he had been working on, his patented loudener.
Once finished, Loudmouf was unable to utter any syllables below 130 decibels. The Dok’s new loudener also came with a very important feature: a mute switch. Though it tends to get caught on things, Loudmouf became adept at moving so that he doesn’t accidentally turn it on. This has made him the new paragon of Ork stealth. (So stealthy in fact that his Nob didn’t hear Loudmouf sneaking up on him.)
His signature weapons (custom made at great expense) are cesti (horseshoe shaped bars, sharpened along their outer edge), strapped to his forearms. This allows him to slash up Humies in combat while keeping his hands free to move underbrush, open doors, or muffle a sentry before he can shout. Loudmouf enjoys creeping up on an enemy, then turning on his loudener and shouting “WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” in a blast that leaves the enemy temporarily deafened, and unable to hear orders. Then, he shuts off the loudener and melts back into the background, ready to pop out and kill again.
Gotz more trukks, boss! Job’s a good’un!
Here’s my other three trukks. The first you saw before was an Evil Sunz Trukk, so it was red. Other clans are more subtle with their red paint job.
The Goff trukk with the black and white checkers has some red panels. Red’s a good Goff color too! For extra combattyness, this trukk has a wreckin’ ball!
There’s a yellow Bad Moons trukk with a wicked red racing stripe. Added black flames for more style.
Then of course there’s the Deathskull trukk. The red paint job is UNDER the fresh blue paint job that was put on minutes before the battle started. So no one will know it’s stolen.
In remembrance of loves lost: my Flesh Tearers army
Once you’ve been gaming long enough, been desperate for cash enough, or simply let that fire go out for one particular army, you’ve sold off an entire force. Sometimes you put a lot of effort into a force of models, only to let those minis go for some cash you could have gotten by taking some overtime or selling blood. To every thing, turn turn turn.
I have only sold one army: my Flesh Tearers Space Marines. You may recall from previous entries that I won the initial seed of this army in the very last auction held at the Games Workshop in Novi, Michigan (now out of business). That was a huge emotional high. After years of seeing Joe’s Angels Sacrosanct take on all comers, I wanted to start some Blood Angels. It was originally my idea to have a Space Marine army for each primarch. Blood Angels seemed like the next logical step as a second army.
First I had to figure out WHAT Blood Angels to play. Joe’s army was a “normal” Blood Angel army, and so I wanted something a bit different. I remembered the Flesh Tearer list from the Index Astartes article and thought that would be perfect. Lots of great conversion opportunities, neat color scheme, and a doomed, heroic background. Plus, the extra chance of Death Company made it so I wouldn’t need a lot of Elite troops, as they were less worth it to take because they would be Death Company more often. It would keep the Tearers from getting out of control like the Azure Flames, who are barely contained in their new case.
The Index Astartes article had an “Imperial Chain Axe” and so I thought that would be my signature. I begged, borrowed, and bartered for Khorne Berzerker chain axes and used my trusty multi-tool file to file the chaos-y details off. I then custom sculpted double-eagles or Flesh Tearer logos on each axe. These details were 1/8″ wide and looked fantastic. These Axes would go on every sergeant, as by the rules the sergeant was the FIRST chosen for the Death Company, and I didn’t want to pay for power weapons. When these rules changed, I simply painted the teeth of the chain axes bone and said they were the teeth of the Dinosaurs of Cretacia, the Tearer’s homeworld, and they counted as power weapons.
At the time, Chapter Master Seth had no special rules of his own. (he now has some and a bitchin’ ass model too!) So I used the Salamanders Chaplain Xavier model, Dante’s Melta Pistol, and a wicked looking jagged sword. Seth was my stand-in for Dante, just as my modified Tigirius (the OLD Tigirius as the new one has a stupid face) was my Mephiston.
I also had (not pictured below) four Rhinos with the Razorback hatch. When I wanted a Razorback I popped in a gun. When I wanted a Rhino, I popped in a custom hatch with a berserk Flesh Tearer popping out, or a hunter-killer missile! These Rhinos had custom rear doors and openable side doors!
All of my Death Company were modded onto flying stands so that they flew. My greatest triumph (sadly not pictured) were my Veteran Assault Marines. These were all RIDICULOUS conversions. Almost all of them had Woo-style pistols. One was modeled after the art of an assault marine kicking two orks in the face while shooting two pistols. Another was actually shooting a pistol BEHIND HIS BACK. One was diving to the side, another had two plasma pistols firing two directions. One had a flamer, holstered to the side, while he was wielding a chainsword as tall as he was! One had a Dante melta pistol and a melta gun! I modded all of these during the power outage of 2003 to keep from killing myself from boredom.
Sadly, I lost interest in the Tearers as the White Dwarf list came out and made them a little boring. Yes, the list was more balanced and fair, but it also took some of the randomness out of the army and therefore some of the fun. I took them to Adepticon 2009 and sold them piecemeal. One guy bought the Rhinos, saying he was going to strip them. They had fully detailed and painted interiors. *sniff* My painted characters and Death Company went like hotcakes. The converted Assault Marines went almost immediately. Finally, the remaining Tactical Squads, loose minis, and the custom made case was sold to a kid who was buying his FIRST ARMY. I felt a lot better about selling them at that point. I made a kid really happy and and made a bunch of money.
The bottom line is that I sold the Flesh Tearers because even though I owned them, they weren’t MINE. The Azure Flames were MINE. I made their stories. I rose and fell with them. I felt the pain of their losses and the joy of their victories. Some other dude created the Flesh Tearers and it was fun to play them. But I realize that it’s hard fo rme to want to build, paint, or play with an army that wasn’t my own creation. So I abandoned my dream of owning a Space Marine army for each Primarch and instead found armies that I could create. This led to Poindexta Smartyskull’s warband and the Saratogan 58th.
Sometimes I miss the Flesh Tearers. I did some INCREDIBLE paint jobs and conversions. But I don’t regret selling them, no matter HOW overpowered the Blood Angels are now. For your viewing pleasure, here is an image dump of all the pics I took of the Tearers.
Ol’ Dok Gillgivva
Modeling
Dok Gillgivva was made mostly from an Assault on Black Reach Nob. The Klaw and Bionik arm are from the plastic Nob box. I carved down a Slugga for the left bionik arm. To both arms I added syringes made from thick plasticard rods, paperclips, and Space Marine Meltabombs with the middle square bits carved out. The Head light was custom sculpted. I cut the goldfish out of plasticard, and added plasticard gills and used a pin vise for the eye.
Gillgivva was painted like my other orks, with dipping. I then added some dynamic lighting effeccts from the green liquid on his left arm to make it look like it was glowing.
For the ‘Ard Boyz, I used wooden spheres for the heads and custom sculpted the victorian grilles. The tubing is Lego Pneumatic tubing, and the air tanks are Imperial Guard Flamer tanks.
Backstory
Ol’ Dok Gillgivva earned his name when he realized that the skin of a slime squig, carefully applied to an incision on a Boy’s neck, could filter “da good stuff” out of water, essentially giving an Ork gills, allowing him to breathe underwater.
His first experiments did not breathe water well, so to compensate, he used multiple slits, all around the neck. This improved water breathing efficiency, but made the Ork unable to breathe regular air. To compensate for this, he sends them to Manik Upzindownz, the Mad Mek, who sells them an expensive apparatus designed to let them carry around a water supply. Designed by Gillgivva himself, this system incorporates water containers coated with that same slime squig skin, allowing the water to be re-oxygenated and sent to a helmet where the Ork can breathe it in.
To protect their new weakness, most of Gillgivva’s “patients” become Ard Boyz, armoring themselves and their water supplies. Though they can breathe underwater, this prevents them from being amphibious as the armored packs are heavy, and without them they could not leave the water. These Ard Boyz tend to hang around Gillgivva, because after all, gills need maintenance and he has not found a way to give you gills twice.
Gillgivva was the Dok who put Poindexta Smartyskull’s brain(s) in, and Smartyskull keeps him around, protecting him from his victims in exchange for a promise never to give Smartyskull gills.
Force Org Fight! A recount of an epic battle.
In honor of my friend Joe finally joining Facebook so all his friends can GODDAMN TALK to him, I am recounting the most epic battle Joe and I ever had. We put our models on the table.
ALL OF THEM.
Well, almost all. Joe proposed that we screw points values and limit ourselves to one force organization chart. We did. I had the Azure Flames (my only army at the time) and he had his Angels Sacrosanct, a Blood Angels successor. This was back in 3rd ed, so Blood Angels cost the same but got free Death Company, and free Furious Charge, and overcharged engines, and you had to wash the Blood Angels player’s car or something.
Anyway, we covered the deployment zone in miniatures. Mine deep blue, his maroon and black. We fought. Men died. It was epic. Of course I lost. Joe had a much bigger and more developed army, plus a significant rules advantage. Nowadays I think it would be more even, as I have 50 Terminators and 3 Land raiders. I’m not sure if the Angels have really developed as Joe has a bunch more armies, including a counts-as Eldar that are modeled as Exodites which are BAD ASS.
By the way, DON’T do this unless you have a LOT of time. Especially for cleanup.
Battlefleet Gothic Modeling and Painting
So, if you’ve read some of the posts in this blog, you’ll know I got into Battlefleet Gothic because my friend Lexington did. I started a Space Marine Fleet to accompany my 40K Space Marine Army, the Azure Flames. You’ll see some of their ships in the gallery below.
But, since then, I have been on a bit of a Gothic kick. I am a teacher (currently middle school, but I plan to move to a High School eventually) and I want to be able to start a wargaming club at that school. I needed two fleets to teach someone how to play Gothic, and the best way to do that is with Imperial Navy and Chaos fleets. So I have those now.
The Azure Flames fleet has custom flames sculpted on all the capital ships. They are Azure Flames blue with Enchanted blue details and Ice blue highlights. They have their bearing markers painted on the base, and their names in calligraphy with flame details.
The Chaos Fleet is a dark purple with lighter drybrush highlights. The metal is bronze and the lighiting is Mechrite Red with Blood Red over the top of it.
The Imperial Navy fleet is Codex Gray with a wash of black and then highlighted with lighter grays twice. The metal is gold and the front is Blood Red. Lighting is white or Ice blue.
You’ll see some small black squares with stuff on it. These are Low Orbit Table defenses. The Airstrip has a putty-molded copy of an Imperial Fury Interceptor, a piece of blister plastic for a runway, and beads that look like a control tower and a hangar. Once painted, I will scrape the sides of the top bead on the tower to make it clear blue. The one with the 6 green hatches is a missile silo, putty moulded from the Epic scale Rhino. The thing that looks like the power generator and Ion cannon from The Empire Strikes Back is a Lance battery. Note that all of these are mounted with a half of an Epic base, so that when balanced on this they point “up” to the top of the low orbit table.
I also made Gas and Dust Clouds from pictures given to me by John. These are of all possible sizes you can generate, and have been laminated 10 mil so that they will last forever. There are also ring-shaped gas and dust clouds. Not shown are asteroids, also laminated 10 mil. The Gas and Dust Clouds have the dimensions printed on the back.
I made some custom markers for the Sunward Edge, and Solar Flares and Radiation Bursts. These will make keeping track of these easier.
Finally are markers for Warp Rifts similar to the Gas and Dust clouds. These also have the dimensions on the back and are laminated 10 mil.
With these, some unpainted transports and orbital defenses, and a few other props, I have everything I need to play any game of Gothic at anytime. I have a piece of black felt 4’x6′ and a smaller piece of blue felt for a low orbit table.