On my plate 9/26/14: Distracted Edition

Things are not going great, but it’s high time for me to stop letting life get in the way and do some hardcore hobby action!  All three of my readers demand it!  Well, truth be told, they’ve been a bit silent, but I can feel it in their hearts.  My hobby bones are rumbling.

Bones rumble, don’t they?

Battlefleet Gothic Tau – As my Tau player dropped out during our campaign I sort of lost interest in painting this fleet.  However it’s about 1/3 done and I want to finish it so it should be my primary goal.  Other projects should jump in.  Status: 3 more capital ships, a large selection of escorts, and some defences left to do.  I also have to pick a scheme for the Nicassar.  Perhaps earth tones?  Or go super extravagant with gold?

Azure Flames – I need to finish my Grav Sternguard.  Next, a 5 man non-jump-pack assault squad with 2 flamers.  Finally, I need to make some new sergeants with power swords.  I have been getting MURDERED in challenges with Power Fists.  I also need Centurions, a Hunter/Stalker, and a Stormraven.

Orks – MORE LADZ!  I also need to buy some Fighta-bommaz and perhaps some new Big Gunz.

Battlefleet Gothic Eldar – I purchased a pre-painted Eldar fleet, but it had no light cruisers.  I won one of each light cruiser in an auction and I need to strip them and try to match the paint scheme of my new fleet.

Battlefleet Gothic Necrons – I need a paint scheme and I need to get painting.  They are the last thing for Gothic.  Until I buy a new fleet NO BAD BOZEMAN!

Blood Bowl Orcs – I need to make four Cheerleader goblins, and then paint them as well as my four Assistant Coach goblins and the team coach, Warboss Grimfang da Lotz.

Epic Orks – Gotta finish that 3000pt teaching list.

Epic Eldar – Gotta make a 3000 pt teaching list and build it and paint it as the Yme-Loc craftworld (gray and orange with white details)

Epic Lost and the Damned – 3000pt teaching list and paint it.

Necromunda – Paint my Escher gang, Razor and the Scumettes.

Epic Space Marines – Finish painting a whole chapter so I can say “I have painted a whole chapter of Space Marines.”

Space Hulk – Wait for an ebay auction for the new mission book and rulebook, and the new tiles.  Also “acquire” the expansions. *looks innocent*

Nicassar Dhows, Caravan, and Rig

In my Battlefleet Gothic campaign, I got a new player hooked by letting him use my Tau Kor’or’vesh fleet.  You don’t see it in the Image Gallery for Gothic because it’s not painted yet.  The collection is small; a battleship, six crusiers, and assorted escorts.  It’s just under 2000 points, which is the size you’d need for a roster in a campaign.  I also had four Nicassar Dhows and a Tau Orbital unbuilt.

Thank goodness for the 2012 update.  It included the option for the Nicassar Caravan, which is an orbital rig with four Dhows to tow it around.  Even better: during a campaign you can choose for the Caravan to either be the Caravan OR four Dhows and an immobile unarmed defense.  With these options, the Tau fleet comes in at 1990 points, perfect to start a campaign!

…it just took me until now to complete them.  The Dhows are magnetized to remove them from their flying bases if necessary.  The core bits of the Tau orbital were used, and I bits ordered four of the Tau battlesuit sensors.  I modified them into the docking pylons for the Rig.  With the four Dhows, the Rig becomes the Caravan.

Next: look for more Gothic and hopefully my first forays into 7th ed 40K!

Pour out a 40 for pewter: The Great Smelting

If you hadn’t heard, here’s the latest scoop.  Games Workshop is shipping all of their pewter miniatures off to be smelted.  The price of pewter is pretty high, and they need revenue.  You know what else would have gotten revenue?  LETTING US TAKE A CRACK AT IT!  Seriously!  I’d have paid double the price you’d have gotten for scrap PLUS SHIPPING!

So many soldiers, lost before their time.  The Emperor is weeping.

Well, not for the daemons, but look no one’s having a good day in the 40K universe today.

Edit: There are still metal minis on the site, so it looks like they didn’t melt them all.  Still, pewter was a great medium for models.  I have 50 pewter Terminators and various other pewter marines, orks, guardsmen, and in a non-gw related note, all-pewter Cygnar.  I’ll miss pewter.

Fully Magnetized Stormtalon

I AM OZYMANDIAS, KING OF KINGS!  LOOK UPON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR!

These are the parts for the guns of my new Stormtalon Gunship.  Magnetized.  Fully Modular.  Behold the madness below.

To the left, the exterior casing meant for the Lascannon and Heavy Bolter.  To the right, the interior casing, which will be permanently glued to the side of the Stormtalon.  The magnets make them fit together.

Above, the fully assembled Gun weapon pod, held together with magnets.  Below, see a different shot of the Gun pod exterior, with a magnet puttied to be behind the hole where the Lascannon or Heavy Bolter can go.

Above, magnets were added to the Lascannon and Heavy Bolter Bitz.  Below, see that the magnets are strong enough to hold the gun pod aloft BY THE LASCANNON.  This won’t work when attached to the final ship, obviously, but it will keep the gun in place during a game.

Above, the interior of the gun pod again, with back views on the Lascannon and Heavy Bolter ammo feeds.  Below, the magnet inside the pod is strong enough to hold the feeds on securely.

Above, the pod interior with the Missile exterior attached.  The missile exterior has two large magnets which join to smaller magnets in each of the missile pod types.  Below, each type of missile pod, held together by magnets.

FINALLY, a masterpiece of magnetic engineering:

Above, the flying stand, with a high-gauss magnet (stronger than normal rare earth magnets) and the interior of the Stormtalon with two very large magnets.  Below, see that the flying stand is held aloft securely, making in-game movement a breeze.

I initially tried four smaller magnets in the flying stand, but if did not hold at all.  The magnets were competing.  This explains the damage to the top of the flying base, which will be hidden during a game.

Next: Painting the Stormtalon and then Combi-Grav Sternguard!  The Updatening for 6th ed continues!

On My Plate: 1/5/14

I have so many projects that I’m working on that I can’t really decide which to do, so hopefully laying them all out will let e get perspective.

-Battlefleet Gothic Necrons: Must come up with a paint scheme and paint.  I’m thinking Gold with green power pathways that have “pulses” of energy in a lighter green.

-Battlefleet Gothic Tau Kor’Or’Vesh: Another scheme and paint.  Perhaps Farsight Enclave?  Maroon and grey look good together.

-Azure Flames Grav Project: I have four tactical marines and two magnetic biker arms to complete.  After that, ten Sternguard veterans with Combi-Gravs.  Yes, ten.  Suck it superheavies and giant monstrous creatures.

-Blood Bowl: The Grimfang Scrappaz coach is partially done, as are assistant coaches.  I need to do a few cheerleaders and then paint them all.  I also need to do an Apothecary and Bloodweiser Babes…

-Epic: Finish painting Azure Flames, finish painting Ork 3000 point teaching list, finish Lost and the Damned Chaos Altar conversions, build and paint Eldar, and find two of the new version of the Revenant Titan for the Eldar.  Last ones on ebay went for $150 for the pair.

-Necromunda: Hired Guns are a priority if there’s going to be a campaign at AFK, and I also have Razor and the Scumettes to paint…

-Saratogan 58th: Still need a viable 1500 point list and/or allied detachment to take with the Azure Flames.  Note sure what I want.

-WAAAAGH! Smartyskull: Still need to paint half the stuff and find ways to improve the case situation, some stuff is getting dinged.

-Fantasy and Warmachine: On hold

Based on the above, I think I’m going to work on the Flames.  They are my main army, and grav weapons are FUN.

Update: Power Loss and super secret project!

So, long time viewers (all four of you) know that I live in Lansing, MI now, and that Lansing was recently wiped off the map by an ice storm.  I lost power for 8 days.  However, I was not idle in that time.  BEHOLD!  MY xmas present to my roommate Jen!

The Reik River Raiders are a bunch of Goblins from the foothills near the city of Reikland, bankrolled by the mad scientist Dr. Emmet Von Braun.  Von Braun has them test his latest weapons and potions on the blood bowl pitch.  In addition, the Goblins have bribed two river trolls from the Reik River to be their muscle.  Von Braun hopes to use the profits from the Reik River Raiders to bankroll his further attempts to undermine reality through science!

Next: a battle report between me and Lexington of Dice Abide!  Salamander Space Marines (6th ed) vs. Orks!  No holds barred, no aircraft, no superheavies!  Stay tuned!

On my plate: 10-31-13

Happy Halloween!  Haven’t done an On my plate post in a while, so here’s what I’m working on.

Azure Flames: Top Secret Project.  Status: In progress, expect updates soon!  THIS IS TOTALLY LEGAL.  I AM NOT KIDDING.  WINK.

Necromunda: Delaque Gang.  Status: almost done!

Necromunda: Escher Gang.  Status: Gang collected, painting soon!  They will be called Razor and the Scumettes, after the fictional band led by Razor the punk rock girl from the NES classic: Maniac Mansion.  Perhaps their logo will be a hamster in a microwave…

Blood Bowl Grimfang Scrappaz Coach, Assistant Coaches, and Cheerleaders: On Hold but first in queue.

Battlefleet Gothic: Top Secret Project.  Status: ON HOLD until other projects done.  Wait, didn’t I say I was done with Gothic?  Moo hoo ha ha.

Epic Armageddon: ON HOLD pending other projects.

WAAAAGH! Smartyskull!: On hold, pending the end of winter.  I need warm temperatures to be able to dip them.

Saratogan 58th: ON HOLD.

Warmachine and Fantasy: ON HOLD PERMANENTLY until I need them for something.

Next: Probably more Delaques.

Starting a Blood Bowl team.

Today I ran a demo for Blood Bowl at Highland Library.  I’m hoping I piqued enough interest to get people to start their own teams.

So, how does one start their own Blood Bowl team?  With Games Workshop discontinuing all of Specialist Games, this has become harder, but not impossible or expensive, depending on what you want to do.  First, have someone who knows Blood Bowl demo the game for you.  Then, read the team lists and pick a team.  Only then should you buy.  You have four options.

1. Buy the Blood Bowl box set, preferably ordering through a local game store.  This will get you an Orc team and a Human team.  Sell one of the teams to a friend.  This is the only way to buy direct from Games Workshop anymore.  The box set was still sold on the website as of the posting of this article.  Sadly, this is not an option for players who do not wish to play Orcs or Humans.

2. Camp on ebay.  This is an easy way to get a team.  However, there is no guarantee.  The team you are looking for may have several auctions right now, or none.  Just do a search every morning and wait.  The biggest problem with this is variability.  Some players getting rid of their team can let it go for a steal, and some people who have delusions of grandeur sell a poorly painted team with a $300 buy it now.  Just be patient.

3. Use existing pewter, plastic, and Finecast minis from the Warhammer Fantasy and 40K lines to convert your own team.  This is what I did with the Konquata Monitors and the Grimfang Scrappaz.  It helps to have a small amount of putty sculpting skills as well.  This works best with Chaos, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Human, Khemri, Lizardman, Ogre, Orc, and Skaven teams, but not so well with others.  Choose a team, look at existing model lines and get ideas.  Hopefully you’ll have a good one.

4. Go to a third party.  Mantic Games makes amazing Blood Bowl teams, but I can’t find them on their website.  They must have been forced to stop.  Look around for other companies.  Reaper makes good fantasy models that could be easily converted to a Blood Bowl team.  Meiko minis has good elves, ogres, and Nurgle.  Impact minis has a huge selection and great support models.

Check all of the above options before buying.  I searched ebay while writing this, and found several auctions of full team at less than $50.  Buying plastic either through bitz order or box sets could set you back $40-$80 depending on what you need.

Blood Bowl Konquata Monitors Coach: Lord Kroak

Lord Kroak, last of the First Generation of Slaan personally commissioned the creation of the Konquata Monitors Blood Bowl team after the Lizardmen re-conquered the mystical island of Albion (called Konquata by the Lizardmen) from the Dark Elves.  To promote the superiority of the Lizardmen race, Kroak ordered the team be composed of members of the first spawnings from the newly formed spawning pools on Albion.  Unwaveringly loyal to Kroak’s vision, the Monitors have become the hottest new team in Blood Bowl.  Kroak himself has recently taken up the mantle of Coach, personally leading the Monitors from the sidelines.  Eschewing his customary floating chair and gold death mask for a simple cap, Kroak is prepared to help the Monitors win to bring glory to the Lizardmen.  Of course, his incredibly powerful magics would never be used during a match.  That is, unless the inducement was right…

Interesting blog I found: Afterimagedan

As you can see to the right, there’s a new blog in the blogroll: a BFG centered blog by Afterimagedan.  He’s a fantastic painter, a great tactician, and an entertaining blogger with good pictures.  Check his blog out here:

http://afterimagedan.blogspot.com/