Zen and the Art of List Building

In my yearning to be the greatest Warhammer player in the history of the game (Yeah right!), I have engaged a fair chunk of my spare time pouring over Tabletop forums, and the such, looking for other peoples lists.

I have learnt through this that you can manipulate the rules of Chaos Armies by using a Land Raider as a dedicated Terminator Transport (Free Heavy Support!). Whilst this is a grey area, you are legally able to run the transport empty (leaving the Terminators to run or Deep Strike) and pile anyone in, then move on the second turn. Some people deem this as cheating, others don't. I see nothing in the rules about this, so I take it for being a legtitimate strategy.

I have also learn't that Daemon Prince's (Wings, Sorceror, Slaanesh, Warptime) make a viable, fast moving killing machine that is capable of wiping out Troops and Tanks with ease. The only issue with a Daemon Prince is vulnerability. I sent him onto a squad of Killa Kans over the weekend, he wiped out the Kans, but got himself killed by the trillion other Orks waiting.

Anyway, to finish this little rant off I have to point out that no matter how good your list is it will still fall over flat if your tactics are not up to par. My tactical skills suck badly, so I have a tendency to get steamrolled no matter what I have. Also the luck of the dice plays a massive part, so be prepared for your Plasma Gun to blow up in your face.

Umm.. Which Way Did That Wing Go?

The one thing that I love about good models is the attention to details. Lots of intricate and lovingly crafted pieces may be fine and dandy on things like model planes, cars, etc. Though when it comes to models from places like Games Workshop it becomes a worrying thing.

The reason for the worry is the time, effort and copious amounts of money we are willing to waste in creating a (hopefully) sexy looking models. Only for them to be dragged around the countryside to be manhandled, dropped, scratched and possibly even thrown in anger (I've seen dice fly, still waiting to see models become projectiles).

I have succeeded in snapping spiky bits off my Dreadnought's, Predator and Rhino's. Lost weapons and chipped the hell out of my Obliterator's. Plus a large chunk of my Khorne Berzerker's are missing arms and backpacks. I also kind of smashed someone else's Land Raider by kicking a piece off. This wasn't intentional, I just didn't see it while carrying an obscenely large box of terrain.

I really don't have an answer as to how to fix this problem, other than leaving them at home in a cupboard or display case. But where's the fun in that? I'm willing to have my models systematically fall to pieces (as they do) just so I can enjoy a game of Warhammer. Ti's but a small price to pay. :)

And Now For Something Completely Different!

Got back from our trip into uncharted territory. Well for me it was a place where no Diggler had gone before. For the Missus it was but a return to slightly familiar territory. Where might this be you ask... Sunny Brisbane, in Queensland Australia.

Funnily enough, compared to where we live (around 100km from Brisbane) it wasn't completely sunny, but yet it wasn't pissing down with rain like here.

Anyways, we came to see MUSE, and we were not let down! I was whinging about these big arse curtains taking away 80% of our view. This obscured the support act, though I was actually quite pleased that they were because I wasn't too impressed with them.

MUSE started, and holy crap Batman, I just about wet myself with excitement! Strobes, smoke, bouncy balls, ear splitting squeals (from me) and friggin amazing music was the order of the evening!

If you ever get a chance to see MUSE live (if you like them that is) then I recommend you do so! They offer one of the best live performances available, and to coin a younger persons terms, go off!

Some Pics!
























Here's a small recording!

Eurasia!

Only 1 hour left then I'm off to the Big Smoke, with the wife, to see Muse. We are very excited about this because we not only get to see a bloody great band, but also get away for the night in some dive motel.

If my phone manages to take some decent photos (my luck with camera's, likely not) I'll be posting them up on the site.

Lights! Camera! Smash!!!

Ahh, the fun I have trying to take pictures with our trusty Olympus digital camera. While it is really not a bad little camera, that manages to take some rather desirable photo's regularly. It chooses to push my buttons when it comes to the task of photographing my miniatures.

Too dark, too bright, out of focus, too close, too far away. You name it, this camera (or my exceptional photography skills) causes a problem. You will see a fine example of my camera's abilities to your left.

While it currently looks not that bad, I dare you, I double dare you to click on the link! My painting is nowhere near Eavy Metal standards, nor will it ever get anywhere near that level of skill. But at proper size, this picture makes my painting look abhorrent.

Anyways, I will get a new camera into the new year. It won't be expensive, though this one I am using now was inexpensive 3 years ago. So it will have to be an improvement... I hope :)

Rules, Rules. Rules

Talk about needing the brain of an elephant. I have been playing Warhammer (40k) for a few months and am still trying to get my head around all of the damn rules.

The worst ones are hit and damage. So many points to hit this particular type of person, animal, monster, alien, etc. Then so many points to wound based on Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness and which way the wind is currently blowing. One day I will somehow work it out. By that time the whole game will probably change, and I'll have to re-learn it all again.

Anyways It's still a fun game to play. But my son is getting bored of Warhammer and is looking at branching out to different games. Namely Necromunda, Warmachine and Blood Bowl.

The advantage of these over Warhammer is space. While Warhammer needs a specific sized table, which is bloody huge, the others can be played on a normal old dining table. Which means we can play them at home!

Which one of you bastards stole my Meltagun?

Rant time! I have been scratching my head and feeling my face grow red with anger over Games Workshop's concept of supplying parts.

If you have been following my blog, you would know that I have been currently putting together Chaos Terminators and Plague marines. Now, the dilemma with this is I want to have Lightning Claws on the Terminators and 2 Meltagun's on my Marines. Are there either of these in the boxes? NO!

My choices now involve 2 things. Try and source the Bitz or chuck the shits. While chucking the shits will make me feel happy for a short amount of time, it won't fix my problem.

Sourcing the bitz involves paying Games Workshop $17AU (Australian) for 5 Meltaguns and $37 friggin dollars (!!!) for 5 sets of Lightning Claws. After shelling out $50 for each set, they can get fucked if they think they're going to get another $55 for crap they should've supplied in the box!

Anyways, I really have no choice when it comes to Meltaguns. So it's off to Games Workshop for these. But I will be buying some Space Marine variant of the Lightning Claws from any of the decent bitz stores.

The point I'm making here is if you are just starting out in the wonderful world of Warhammer, be ready to be screwed over and ultimately let down by Games Workshop. If you are an established Warhammer player/modeler then you will feel my pain :)

Sticky Fingers

I've been putting together some of the models that I had gotten for my birthday. This includes a squad of Plague Marines, Daemon Prince and Chaos Terminators.

While the Prince and Terminators are relatively simple affairs, the Plague Marines are a royal turd. The reason for this is because they are metal. Gluing metal to plastic is not too much of an issue, gluing metal to metal, that's another story!

Some things you can do to alleviate the pain, frustration and obscene language involved in gluing metal parts is to (what I call) checker the joins before gluing.

I will get my trusty blade and slice a checker board style pattern on the joins before gluing. This will give the glue a pitted surface to adhere to. You could also go over the joins with emery cloth or a file.

If this doesn't work, then you can try pinning. I haven't done this yet, so will have to post my results in the future.

Mousling progress

Hey all,
Well I've been making slow progress on the Mouslings for the wife. I have gotten the Rogue and Knight done, which were quite simple, but am having a harder time with the little swashbuckling Errol Flynn one.

I really would like to post pictures, but my camera sucks. Or is it a case of my camera using skills suck? Anyway, the camera is around 3 years old now, so I will have to buy a new one after Christmas.

In the meantime I'll keep on trying to take pictures with the hope of getting some decent ones.

Where Have You Been? (Pt 2)

well, what can I say? Laziness, boredom and and laziness (yes I'm an extremely lazy person) has gotten in the way of both my painting and blogging as of late.

Anyways, time is ticking and I thought shit, I have to get these Mouslings done! Which is precisely what I am doing. I got the little Rogue (posted last month) done and have to say that these models seem to be a cinch versus the Games Workshop stuff.

Whilst it's no 'Eavy Metal, I'm happy with the results and hope my wife will be too. I won't be able to post the results anytime soon, but it may pique my interest in getting some of my other model done.

Where Have You Been?

Bloody great whats happened with my first attempt blogging hey. For anyone that might possibly come and check on this teeny bit of the internet, please be assured that I have not forgotten about it, just had a fair few things happen as of late.

Not only did I have problems with viruses, my Son was also hospitalized with pneumonia due to the last one. Everything is good now, he's out of hospital and on the road to recovery.

Other than that, it was my birthday a few days ago! WOOT! I got a box of Plague Marines, an Obliterator and a Rhino. I'm happy, but now I have yet more bloody models to add to my collection of must paint items.


For the wife I have chosen to test out my painting skillz, I will be painting up Reaper's new Mousling series for her, for Christmas.
I'll of course have to post up my progress, and hope like hell she doesn't look at the blog :P

Chaos Space Marine Tactica

Ok,
Time for some tactics. To be honest, I'd never really taken much time looking at tactics, which meant my army consisted of 3 Obliterators, 2 squads of Berzerkers (with a Rhino and Landraider), Predator and 2 Dreadnought's.

While this may not sound too bad, if I went up against an Imperial Guard army I was generally shot to total shit before I got out of the starting gates. I won't deny I have actually won a couple of matches with this, but not many.

After doing some searching around, and posting on one of Australia's dedicated wargaming forums Wargamerau. I was informed it is wise for me to drop one of the Dreadnought's, Lord (I have a Khorne Lord and Kharn) and Predator for a squad of CSM in a Rhino and a Defiler. I'll be trying this new setup next time I play and see how it goes.

Told You I was Sick! (Again!)

Another month, another illness. Just when I thought it could get even worse, 2/3 of the house has come down with a nasty flu virus. Vomiting, fever, aches, pains... You get the gist.

Anyways, before I got sick I managed to do a little bit of painting. This resulted in getting 1 more model completed and around half way through another. I tried to take some pictures (as I promised I would) though they all looked terrible. Time to buy a new camera, which means adding it to my list of must buy items (which currently sits at OVER 9000!)

One thing I want to do is put out some plugs.

Privateer Press have a very nice brush called Formula P3 Fine Studio Brush. I just find myself constantly using this brush while doing all my normal and higher detail painting. At $12US it's also very well priced.

Also I would like to send out a plug for Escoda Brushes. While being generally unheard of behind big names like W&N. these brushes are bloody fantastic! I bought a 2/0 and a 2 of the Escoda Kolinsky-Tajmyr Sable Point and was amazed. They have a Super fine point that always stays pointed with absolutely no stray hairs. The only downside is the 2 is practically as fine as the 2/0, just larger and more un-wieldy. If you want to a good brush for fine, to super fine detail, you just can not beat the Escoda brushes.

I Told You I Was Sick!

Hello to all the people that don't look at my blog. I haven't really done much lately, as I have been rather unfortunate to have caught a cold. I would like to turn around and say it's like a major flu virus, and I have been clinging to life, but that's not really the case. I've just been feeling like crap and not much else.

Anyways, my life and death predicaments are really not that important. Painting, gaming and modelling are. Well I've done bugger all on all three counts. I have nearly finished around 3 Khorne Berzerkers, and will definitely look at uploading some pictures in the next couple of days.

While I have been ill I did take up reading again. I have a fascination with older Sci-Fi novels, especially Post Apocalyptic stuff. The last book I read was a novel called Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. The significance of this book is that the final chapter plays out like a modern computer game. Plus my wife pointed out that it seems some ideas of the book were possibly used as inspiration for the movie Moon, starring Sam Rockwell.

Berzerkers Pt 2

Hey,
Been a little while since I posted. I've been playing too much SC2 (starCraft 2) and not enough model painting.

Anyways I have spent a little time on the Berzerkers I was intending on painting, and made myself a nice little area down in the cellar for painting and modelling. It's cold, dank and smells like mould. But it's a nice little spot, where I won't get in peoples way or make the house look messy with my clutter.

As for the Berzerkers. I have gone for a base coat of Chaos Black, followed by a heavily watered down paint over of Scab Red. I literally splashed the Scab Red on like a wash, then blew vigorously to remove bubbles. This was followed up with a wash of Baal Red, then a wash with Devlan Mud. You could probably skip the Baal Red and just use the Devlan Mud.

You could alternatively go over it with Brown Ink (if you still have a bottle of the Citadel stuff). This was very nice, but very glossy. I would in hindsight advise NOT putting on the washes till after the highlights, you hit the red and it's a turd to match once the wash is on.

Next up was painting the details which is very much a straight forward affair. Gold, white and silver on their respective areas. Once I've finished this first model, I'll post up pictures to show the end result.

Bitz and Pieces

Bitz... Don't you just love em! They are small, expensive and in some cases a real turd to get. I had heard that Games Workshop, used to have quite an extensive Bitz collection on offer through their site a couple of years back. This unluckily is not the case anymore.

Now I am stuck to scouring the internets for such things as Aspiring Champion bitz, Icons, Poles and other assorted pieces. On my journeys, I found a couple of good online stores and a couple of decent Ebay stores as well. These include:

The Combat Company: They are an Aussie store with quite an assortment of bitz plus other things. I picked up a bunch of Aspiring parts and also 4 brushes for $20AU. They arrived pretty damn quick so I was happy.

Bitz Box: Not a bad site. Very well priced and arrived quite quickly. The downside is they usually have very little in the way of stuff I'm looking for. I also posted a request on their forums, which was subsequently ignored as well.

Hoard-O-Bitz: Very good little ebay store, postage was a little rich, but he had stuff I just could not get elsewhere.

Window-Box: Another good Ebay store. The owner was nice enough to even put them in a little plastic box. I could just feel the love! :)

Now the last thing I need to mention is the Army Painter Red Primer I bought. What a bastard that was! I started out by laying on so much paint, one of the models looked like they needed to go on a diet. I then got half way through can and the pressure fizzled out on me! Not happy jan!

StarCraft 2 Launch

I know this has nothing to do with Warhammer, painting, modelling, etc. Though this is the biggest event since... Well... StarCraft. I was lucky enough to go to the StarCraft 2 Launch in Brisbane, Australia last night. Over 2000 (would've been funnier if I had the chance to say OVER 9000!) people turned up and damn was it fun!

They had a Sound Alike contest, Best Dressed comp, Trivia Contest and Q&A with SC2 Producer Kaeo Milker. We also snapped up our pre-order copies of SC2 (collectors editions of course!).

Primer Time

I have just started on my Khorne Berzerkers. They were primed with Chaos Black primer by Games Workshop, now I want these to be red. The choice I currently have is to paint them all manually, which is quite a daunting task or I could buy a colour primer.

Games Workshop only offer white or black primers (base coat). This is great if you happen to want your models to be black or white, or you just happen to be doing a couple. If, like me, you wish to do ten or more models, then what about using a competitors offering?

Army Painter have a slew of colour primers on offer. These come in around 16 flavours, and will be great for the mass painter or lazy bastard.

It's All In The Brush

Two things I have learned over the past couple of months of painting are, thin your paints, and buy decent brushes. When I first started out I bought a pile of cheap 0/00/000 brushes from the local craft shop. While they do the job, they last about as long as a snowball in Hades.

They will bend, spread and curl so quickly you could swear they are related to Twisties. While I only have a couple of decent brushes, I do have a list of what brushes are extremely good.


The brushes that I have are:

The Army Painter Insane Detail: While not a long laster, it is as the name suggests. The most insanely insane of insane detail brushes! Actually I really don't know how insane it is vs other brushes of this type. All I know is that it works quite well for my ultra small painting jobs. Though it does need to be constantly cleaned and repositioned regularly.

Citadel Fine Detail: This was originally given to me by my local Games Workshop dealer GamingDragon. I have to say that for a cheapo brush these are really nice. They maybe aren't up to the top line brushes, but the difference is also double or triple the price.

P3 Fine Studio Brush: This I haven't tried yet, though at close to $15 I hope it was worth the money.


Some of the best brushes on the market are.

Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky
Winsor & Newton Series 7
Escoda Kolinsky Sable
Reaper Master Series

While most of these brushes are extremely expensive (Da Vinci, Winsor, etc). They will last for years if looked after, and in the long run cost you less.

Sven Would Be Berserk About These

Erik the Viking was a pretty crap movie. Though the real highlight of the film was Sven the Berserk, and his old dad dishing out goodly advice about berzerking. Anyways, the point here is my Khorne Berzerkers.

I bought them as a bulk lot off my Son's friend. though most are in need of some TLC. Over time I will paint the whole lot. What way, I really don't know? I've found some rather useful guides, I just need to pick the one that I feel is right.

The choices I have are:

Tinweasel Khorne Berzerker
Bolt and Chainsword Khorne Berzerker
Theforce27 Khorne Berzerker
GirlPainting's Khorne Berzerker (my fave)
PenguinPainterz very quick Berzerker guide

While I would love to use GirlPainitng's guide, it may be a bit beyond me at the moment. I'm thinking of using PenguinPainterz red with Devlan Mud and maybe Badab Black? I have so many of these models I may just fart around with them and see what I come up with.

I See Dead Robotic People!

Maybe not the best choice of headline, but I'll definitely be having nightmares about little plastic robots after my next task. My son wants me to base coat his new Necron army with Games Workshops Tin Bitz. Oh the fun!



This is just a small sampling of the 30 or so models that need to be painted. Though, after this it's going to be nightmares about little Khorne Berzerkers, which I'll get onto shortly.

Chaos Obliterators (the first chapter)

Here's the other Obliterators that I painted. I used no guides, just based it off pictures I'd seen. For my first ever Miniature paint jobs I'm quite happy with the end results.

Chaos Obliterator (GAH!)

Okay, this is not only the third model I have painted. It is also the third Obliterator I have painted. Chaos Obliterators are hulking monstrosities from the Warhammer 40K universe. They look cool, though they are a pain in the arse to put together!

Obliterators are sloppy to say the least. They are made of metal, so you see lots of flashing (slaggy bits that you have to snip off) and other imperfections like bad fitting bits and mold damage. Did I also mention they are a nightmare to put together? Ahh yes I did! With metal models you need to use super glue, which means you glue it, then stand there like a statue getting cramps in your hands holding it in place. Only to let go and see the bastard thing fall off again. When you're doing this with tiny little guns, knives and the such you're frustration levels hit all time peaks. Your anger finally boils over when that wee little knife you've been holding in place falls on your dark carpet, and you have to crawl around like a fool looking for it.

Anyways, you've gone through the frustration of putting this together, now comes the fun part. Painting! For this model I used a guide from a fellow Blogger Glued my Fingers. I did take some minor liberties over his style. For one I find it so much easier to leave the arms off, do them separately, then glue them on after the painting is done.

Here is my end result...





While it is no Picasso, I did put a lot of effort into this pain in the bum model. The biggest issue is chipping. My son usually dips his metal models in dishwashing detergent for a few hours, maybe I should have done the same? I was constantly having to patch up black chips during the painting process and finally threw down a coat of Games Workshop's 'Ard Coat to stop the chipping. Hope you like and if you do want to paint an Obliterator, I recommend Alvin K's guide that I linked to earlier in this post.

Justin

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my first ever Blog. While I am new to blogging, I am also new to the wonderful world of Miniature painting. Here I will chronicle the destruction of lots of little people, creatures, vehicles and buildings by my own shaky hands.

Enjoy and hopefully someone will have a look at this tiny little hovel at the farthest reaches of the internet one day :)

Justin