Back In Business!

After a seriously long hiatus, I have finally gotten back into the swing of things and will be doing some painting! What has drawn me out of my lazy shell and spurred me on? Well, a chance at a massive Apocalypse game in around 9 months time is one, and also just doing something different is another. I have been sitting on my computer, bored, and procrastinating about something to do. Other than sitting on my computer bored.

I have been reading a bit. I bought a Kindle. The Wife is happy, because it now means I won't be pissing off to all the second hand stores and coming back with slews of mouldy sci-fi novels. Plus I also get access to cheap books through Amazon. I'm currently reading Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. It's a blend of post-apocalyptic zombie horror and Superheroes! This is a great story and I could only dream of seeing this come out on the silver screen.

Anyways, I'm outta here. Got to check on the primer job out the back before the birds pick them up and fly off with them. Yes the native birds like Warhammer too.

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy

Yep that's right, I'm lazy. In the past month I have succeeded in doing precisely nothing! Nada! Zilch! Why have you done nothing over the past month, you imaginary people are probably asking. Well, it's called Fallout: New Vegas. This damn game is too big and too compelling.

Anyways, I've finally finished most of the game (this is my second run through) and have done all the DLC's, minus the very latest one. So I'll have no choice but to get off my arse and do some modelling. Grey men, with missing arms and weapons just aren't that appealing. I'll also have to think of other things to talk about on here if I don't keep up my modelling regime too.

Battle Report: Well Kind Of

It's been a while since my last post, and I honestly haven't done too much. I've been procrastinating over what the hell to use as a Necromunda army, and have come up blank every time. I don't really want to buy Games Workshops seriously old, seriously outdated, seriously ugly and seriously expensive Necromunda models. But I may not have a choice due to the lacking amount of alternatives.

On a battle report note. I did have some fun with a mate named Dan. He is a Warhammer veteran of some 15 years and quite an accomplished painter to boot. We played a rather large 2500 point battle mission, with his Orks against my Chaos Space Marines.

The Boyz swarming in

Funnily enough, I managed to hold off his absurdly large army and we finished on a draw. I was very happy with this and it was a great game! Our rematch is going to be a 2 regiment setup, with 3000 points per side. The interesting thing with this is the chance to take up to 4 HQ's and even 6 HS! We have also allowed Apocalypse armory to make an appearance in the form of a flyer each. Hardcore fun here we come!

A Big Tank Thingy

The pictures you're seeing on here are Dan's impressive Ork models. As I stated earlier, he has been an avid Warhammer fanatic for over 15 years and has nearly every army ever made, the lucky bastard!

Beginner's Luck!

I had the chance to play a young fellow at our local game day. The difference with this, versus other encounters, was the fact that it was his first ever game. He had a 1500 point Tyranid army, that was pitted against my rather lacklustre 1500 list that I slapped together on the day.

I started off with winning the roll and we were stuck into a hold the objective mission. All started off well for me, as he was essentially a sitting duck for a hail of bullets, rocket and laser beams on the first turn. Then he slowly moved forwards for another pummelling of projectiles. Eventually the tables turned when he was close enough to physically attack, then things started looking grim for me.

I have had very little to do with Tyranids in the past, so I was as much of a noob as the young fellow was. His little aliens were ripping Chaos Marines to shreds before my eyes, their shrieks of pain was music to my evil ears. Luckily I was smart enough to keep some distance, and managed to draw on held objectives by the end of the game.

So there you go, outdone by a new player. Am I upset about this? Not at all, I had a great game and learnt a valuable lesson... Don't play against Tyranids! :P

It's In the List!

I love writing lists. This is quite unusual, because things like lists generally didn't interest me before I started playing Warhammer! As far as list building goes, Army Builder is the bees knees! While it is quite expensive, it really saves on paper, frustration and writers cramp. There are other cramps of the hand, but those are not appropriate on a Warhammer related blog! :)

Army Builder is just the core program and needs to be loaded with the rules that are used for all the different game systems. I currently have 40k, and Necromunda. Though you can find many different game systems that have been lovingly built by ardent fans. The only real downside with Army Builder, is a rather dismal support for older versions of the game. You seem to be expected to renew your copy every 12 months and AB files will eventually stop working for your piddly old version.

As for gaming, I tried out Necromunda on the weekend. Set in the 40K universe, Necromunda is a small unit tactical game of post apocalyptic gang warfare. The game mechanics seem to be quite easy to grasp, with a chopped down type of 40k ruleset.

I was trying to avoid the GW Necromunda models, but after scouring the interwebz for alternatives, I have finally chosen to use GW ones. My reasoning behind this is the specialised weapons that are needed for the game (bolt pistols, snipers, chain swords, etc). Plus the GW models generally work out at the same price, or even less than the competitors offerings. Which in the grand scheme of things is a +1 to GW... I hate to say it, but it's true :)

Anyone For A Boardgame?

I really enjoy playing boardgames. I'm not to the level of the BoardGameGeek fanatics, but I think I'm slowly getting there! Currently the games we have in our collection is Pandemic, Puerto Rico, Space Hulk and Forbidden Island.

Pandemic: (displayed) is a fantastic co-op game, where you have to try and stop a worldwide viral outbreak. You, and your friends, are fighting a constantly expanding set of viruses across a game board of the World. This is a very hard game to win, in the 15 or so times we've played it, we've only won a couple of times.

Puerto Rico: I would kind of describe as Civilization lite. You are plantation growers in Puerto Rico, and must outdo your opponents in efficiency when growing crops. Each round everyone gets to select a role with varying benefits. This is the crafty part as you can select items that your opponent may want, in order to hinder their progress.

Space Hulk: Honestly, what more really needs to be said! This is one of the best GW Boardgames to ever come out. Unluckily like most other GW games, this was only released in a limited run on multiple occasions. The last run was only a year or so ago, so you may still track it down at a reasonable price.

Forbidden Island: Coming in at the cheap end of the scale at a measly $25AU, is this little gem. While it is relatively similar to Pandemic, it is simpler and easier to get into. You (and your cohorts) are sent down to a sinking island and have to collect artifacts, while keeping the island floating and yourselves alive. While Pandemic is a co-op game, it is restrictive in what you can do with each other. This game actually promotes the idea of helping each other with suggestions and ideas.

I have also just purchased two old Games Workshop board games. They are Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper. Both were released in the 80's and never got released again. I have read that people on BoardGameGeek had been putting up counters and board scans on the site, but GW used their almighty Ban Fist (a compact version of the Power Fist) to quell this evil deed of keeping a forgotten game alive.

Bring Out Yer Lead!

It seems that metal GW models are going the way of the Dodo bird. While this is a good thing for tabletop gamers who have a shit of a time with metal getting chipped, it's an even greater time for the bargain conscious gamer.

I'll be picking up a squad of old Havocs from the local Reseller for half price. Yep, HALF PRICE! I could've gotten Abbadon, but my Son chose to not tell me of these savings in time, and I missed the veritable boat. While most people generally scorn Havocs, I can see some genuine uses for these little blokes. Make up a 10 man squad (they are the same price as normal CSM's) with a Lascannon, Autocannon and Missile Launcher. Then add yet another of the former 3 options, and you have 4 heavy weapons at your disposal each turn with a 48" range. Also with 10 men, they can take a lot of damage before you start losing the important members.

Another advantage of owning a Havoc Squad is inter-changeability between them and normal CSM squads. You can add CSM's to Havocs, and vice versa. Ever wanted to have a Lascannon in your stationary CSM squad? You had to either buy a Havoc guy with Lascannon or try and hunt one down on Ebay. Quite a challenge indeed.

One thing I am not too happy about is the Obliterator's not on the Finecast rollout. While I have stated in a previous post that I will avoid GW models. If I could replace the Obliterator's with resin I would be a very happy chappy. If you've never had the hair pulling and anger inducing joy of dealing with Obliterator's, then you are missing out on a treat! You need the never ending patience of a Swami Guru to put them together, then in your first game it's guaranteed weapons will fall off and get lost, and of course they will get chipped over, and over again, and before you know it your hard work looks as bad as the little Matchbox cars you had as a kid.

For the Dark Gods!

I have felt a tad confident since the mildly successful photographing and posting of Reaper's Mouslings yesterday, and have decided to add some photo's of the Chaos Space Marines I have been painting.

Black Legion is easy to paint, are recognizable and can be done quickly. I am still a novice painter, and had jumped in the deep end with my Khorne Berzerkers a year ago. Red is not an easy colour to apply, and I found that out the hard way. Black Legion is probably the most well known Chaos Legion, and is also one of the fastest to paint. Prime black, do the edging gold and silver, paint some filler and you're done. It's really that simple.

As you can see, it's not the best of jobs, but I'm really quite happy with the results. My hand has been getting steadier, and I have been trying different colours on parts of the models to offer a individual feel for each model. I have yet to do the bases, they will come after I have painted the 40-50 CSM models I have to paint.

Also, if you're possibly wondering why I have coloured bars on the bases. These models were the first ones I bought. They were second hand, all pre-built (and pre-broken), and either badly painted or primered. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing game wise, so my Son helped me colour code them into squads, and unit types. The guy up top is in the bone squad, and I probably had him as a normal guy.

Dock Rockin'

I'm back! Unluckily, for the one person that possibly looks at my blog, I didn't sink the house boat and drown. We had a great time. I drank a bit, read a bit, played a little bit on the Laptop and generally lounged around like a Sloth. The Wife and I are now suffering from "Sea Legs", which means we are still swaying around like we have been on a really bloody fast merry-go round. It is also known as "Dock Rock", which we found quite amusing because it sounds like "Jock Rot"

The boat was.. Well.. Cozy, to say the least. The toilet/bathroom was around half the size of a toilet and the double bed was a bit of a drama due to my exceedingly large frame (damn you giving up smoking!). Also being a "land lubber" I had to come to terms with such things as currents, and other people on the river. Just like on the roads, there are rules, except no bastard actually adheres to said rules. Jet Skier's, we worked out, are the Hoon's of the waterways. They zip around like angry Wasps getting in your way and have zero regard for anybody, including themselves. Luckily the House Boat was essentially a floating pontoon. We puttered up the river, full speed ahead, at such a leisurely pace that Jesus Christ walked past, and was kind enough to wave on the way through.

I really shouldn't complain, it was still great fun, and we are already planning ahead for the next outing in a couple of months time. Our next outing is going to be a lap of luxury. Next time it's going to be a 2 storey behemoth with 3 bedrooms, full lounge, full bathroom and 2 toilets (Yes!). We'll be dragging along a few family members for this, seeing the cost will be around $1500 for 3 nights. It would've sounded better if it was OVER $9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But at those prices, we wouldn't even get onto the jetty before we were broke.

Onto some modelling now! I have taken some oh so average pictures of some Mouslings, from Reaper Miniatures. The had their Reapercon convention a couple of weeks ago and a couple of video gaming ones have been added to their line up. The point is, I had painted some of the original Mouslings for my Wife's Birthday last year and here's some piccy's of them. Please excuse the crude looking work, they do actually look a lot better in person, but hey.















Please excuse the odd layout of the pictures. Blogger is being a pain in the arse, and I thought it's probably safer to just post it as is, rather than get even more pissed off :)

I Am Sailing, Home Again, Across the Sea

Time for me to pop on the sailors cap, man the helm and float into the sunset! What is the meaning of this you ask? I'm going onto a houseboat for the weekend! It's going to be a glorious time of reading books, fishing, drinking and lounging about naked with the Wife. Ok maybe I won't be lounging about naked, we've been together too long to do those sorts of debaucherous activities.

Anyway, I have to say I'm mighty excited and can barely contain myself! I wanted to take some models with me to paint on the boat, but I was told NO! So it's just going to be fishing, reading, drinking and possibly watching some movies on the provided TV.

A word of advice, do not type "gay sailor" into google images. I am still in shock from the horrors that were displayed before my eyes!.

One final thing. The wife, and I had paid a meagre $10 each to buy some frames for a locally produced horror film named The Tunnel. The reason this film is so interesting is the fact that it is the first film to be offered to buy on DVD, and download legally on Bittorrent. The film also had a limited release run at the cinema's, and was aired on cable television.

You can download the movie from here. If you like the film, don't be stingy bastards, support it by buying some frames. You could end up with some cool looking piccys to print out like this.

OVER 9000... DOLLARS!

Games Workshop recently announced a change over to Resin for a large chunk of their previously metal models. This is great news for all Warhammer fans, as metals models are a bastard to glue, chip easily and are just a pain in the arse.

The downside to this change is yet another increase on their already exorbitant prices. I have no idea about the cost of resin vs the cost of metal, but it seems to be that Games Workshop have moved to resin because metal is becoming too expensive. Why GW would choose to increase prices yet again is anyone's guess? We currently have a global economic crisis, but GW must believe that their customers drive around in Rolls-Royce's and have bad comb overs?

My advice in regards to this rather obscene case of utter greed, and abhorrent contempt for their customers, is to avoid GW products if you can. They will only bump up the price if people keep buying into it. Go proxy if you have to. There are a multitude of great, and cheap miniature Manufacturers like Reaper and Eureka or palm some hard earned cash over for one of the new kids on the block like Malifaux, Kings of War, Judge Dredd, Warmachine, Flames of War and Warlands

You could also dig up oldies That are generally free like, Car Wars, Necromunda, Battletech, Warzone/Mutant Chronicles, Mordheim, Warmaster and Inquisitor to name but a small sample.

Here are some other resources for yet more tabletop games. Most are free rule sets that you can proxy with any models.

Wiki Miniature War Games
Free Wargame Rules
Miniature Wargaming
Grognards

I See Nerdy People!

You'd think playing Tabletop games that it would be a world of Man Stench and dorkiness. To a degree it is. Though unlike the days of Revenge of the Nerds, with the pen liners and pocket calculator, it is far different. Nerdy is popular, and even fashionable. Nerds have long hair, tattoos, piercing's and are even built like the jocks that are supposed to throw sand in their faces! I'm a bum nerd, I dress like a bum and look like a nerd. Hence a bum nerd.

Anyways, I have finally gotten back into some painting. I still suck at it, but hey I enjoy it, and the more I paint the better I get! So, when I can finally work out how to take photos that don't look like they've been shot on a $5 throw away camera, I'll post up some pictures of my fine work! Untill then, you'll just have to believe me. :)

Bining of Laden

So, history again is made while I have been sitting at my humble computer. In this case it was the announcement of Osama Bin Laden's demise, at the hands of an elite squad of crack commando's. What ramifications will this have on America, radical Islam and the rest of the World? Possibly a lot.

Now that Bin Laden, the "Hide and Seek" Champion has been found, there are calls for the ongoing "War on Terror" throughout Afghanistan and Iraq to be abolished. This I agree with. The original reason for the invasion of these nations was supposedly to get Bin Laden. The job is now complete! If US and Allied forces stay in these countries, it will look more like a bid at the natural resources hidden beneath the sands, rather than a bid to restore peace. Which they have been trying to do unsuccessfully for the past 8 years.

There has been an immense amount of speculation in regards to the US involvement in Arabic countries that hold oil. This was initially raised with the invasion of Iraq, and rehashed with NATO strikes on Libya, while ignoring other atrocities in Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and Bahrain. The US needs to stop this selective process of wiping out one tyrant while shaking the hand of another.

How will this affect the US. I can only speculate as I'm not American. I think once all the dick sucking, chest beating and self aggrandising has simmered down, Americans are going to be left in a limbo. There's no more Bogey Man to scare American citizens into submission and into the belief that it is a good thing to invade other countries. So Americans are going to want their children serving over in The Middle East back home. This might have an effect on the economy, due to less need for armaments by the US military. Which could mean more job losses within the armament sector.

As for the effect on Terrorism. Bin Laden's death will have little impact on terrorism within the Middle East. The current groups are busy waging a war against troops and each other within their countries. Which is understandable. Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen did it in Red Dawn, why can't they do it in Afghanistan and Iraq? Also, while the West is involved in the Middle East, there will always be some group that wish to get payback for the invasion of their country, and the death of their families and friends. They do not see armed intruders as liberators, they see them as armed intruders, invaders, infidel. Which would be exactly the same thing we would be thinking, if say China invaded us

How has this affected me? I watched September 11 happen, live on my television. I saw the second plane hit as it happened, I saw the towers collapse as it happened. I was shocked! How could these people wreak so much havoc? How could they kill so many innocent people?

The retaliation on the part of the US, and her allies was more shocking. Two countries invaded, 7213 Coalition casualties and over 900,000 Afghan and Iraq casualties. Was all of this worth one man?

I think not!

Blogging and Gaming

Hey all,
Another month has gone by, and I have not had very much to talk about. Honestly, I am a recluse that rarely goes out, except to the local gaming day and to the occasional movie. You'd think I would have more time than is possibly needed to paint all my models, twice over even! I do but....


I'm lazy, and easily distracted by other things. like. The Internet, Angry Birds, good books, movies and ants traversing my obstacle course of a computer table. Anyways, seeing that I don't have much to say about Warhammer, I may as well talk about other stuff.

I am a lover of all things zombie. Books, movies, games, pictures, etc. If we were to have a zombie apocalypse, I would probably be one of the few people to actually be genuinely awed by the experience. That is until I realised my family was going to probably be eaten by them.

On the subject of Zombies, I read a great book called Feed by Mira Grant. It is to be the first of a three part trilogy based in a future where the Zombie Apocalypse had happened. The book is based in 2040, some 20 years after "The Rising". The world is a far different place, where security checks, enclosed living and constant blood testing is the norm. It follows a brother and sister Blogging Journalist team (yep bloggers), who are picked up by a Presidential candidate as his news team.

Feed is best described as a political thriller with Zombies. It is extremely well done with some fine comedic touches added in. A great read for Zombie fans, and people that enjoy a decent action thriller.

Defiler Magnetising... Not fun.

Well, it's been a few weeks since my last post, and not much has happened. I have put together some smaller models. Gotten my arse caned at some games days and half ruined my Defiler. Well half ruined my Defiler and my Daemon Prince. The story begins...

I have been using my Defiler as a legless "thing" since I got into 40K. To rectify this, I came up with the bright idea of magnetising the legs on. As anyone who has been on this blog would know, I am a complete noob when it comes to any and all things modelling related. Why would I choose a $100 model as my testing bed of doom and utter failure you ask? The reason would be my triumphant attempt at magnetising arms onto a Terminator.

While the Terminator was quite simple. Doing the same thing with a model that is not only 10 times larger, requires holes and magnets that are 10 times larger. So, I'm drilling away with the trusty cordless power drill (a Pin Vise is far too small), and everything is hunky dory. The body was quite easy as I was using the same size magnets that were used in my Terminators. I got through the ball joint of the leg and the thing is hollow. No problems, I've made the hole smaller than the magnet, it will squeeze in tightly.

I squeeze it in, and pop, it goes inside the joint. Squeeze another in, pop, that also goes into the joint. I've now got two magnets stuck together rattling inside the joint. I may as well squeeze in a 3rd one, that one goes half way through leaving a partial hole. No problems there, it does actually work. Though the leg now sticks straight ahead, rather than to the side like a spider leg.

I gave up and just glued the whole lot on. This was a drama as well. I chose to use Modelling Glue (Revell Contacta being my choice), not a wise choice. I was sitting there holding the legs in place for 10 minutes, and they'd just drop off leaving melted plastic everywhere. I chose to use some Superglue next, and that was a massive improvement with only a 10 second wait time.

Next up is the Daemon Prince. This poor fella has not only been running around without wings, but he also seemed to have misplaced his head! I really wanted to magnetised the wings on, which would allow me the ability of easy moving from home to games. After screwing around, I realised that it was just not going to work.

I had shaved the pins off the wings, which were there to guide the wings onto the body. I had done this with the intention of gluing magnets on in their place. There was enough space to stick the magnets into the body, so I did. What a Forrest Gump moment that was! The magnet fitted like "finger in bum" and that was beginning of the end. The magnet ended up being too deep, which meant no matter what, the other magnet was not going to fit on the wing.

Oh well. Out with the trusty modelling glue, and gloop that bastard on. Yet again, I sat there for ever waiting for the damn glue to set. From now on, larger models will be getting the super glue treatment. It's faster, hardly messy and works well.

Till next time...

Driller Killer Antics

Whoa! Another post so soon!?!

Actually, I've done something new. Something amazing! I drilled, and magnetized an arm to one of the Terminators I've been building for the past 3 months :D

The process was a lot easier than I was expecting. I was using a Pin Vice (a small hand held model drill) to begin with, but moved onto a variable speed cordless drill. I found using a smaller drill bit first, then the magnet sized bit was the easiest way to go.

Some tips:

Just take your time and don't use too much pressure.

Be sure to choose a drill bit slightly smaller than your magnet. That way it will be a nice tight fit.

Mark the ends of your magnets with a felt pen. Otherwise you could find yourself magnetizing the wrong way.

Be careful not to drill into your own hand. You don't need to put any magnets into that!

Where ya been?

Where have I been? Well for one I've been sitting on my computer, procrastinating about all the damn work I have to do with my models. Anyways, begone procrastination, I finally said and have been spending an average of an hour a day on my models.

So far that has involved painting one lowly Chaos Space Marine, In the lazy Black Legion scheme, and whittling away bits for model building. Not exactly the pinnacle of excitement hey?

I did get a new chair though! It's a cheap $50 job from Office Works, but compared to my last chair, my arse feels like it's floating on a cloud of titties! :)

Anyways I will keep you imaginary people posted with my ongoing adventures. And hopefully be posting more often to boot...

Another Week... Another Rant!

Here we are, 16 days since my last post, and honestly not much has happened. I've half glued my Thousand Sons (and stabbed myself cleaning up the pieces), got flogged at the last games day (2 Heavy Support destroyed before my first turn) and that's about it really.

I was at the local GW sellers place, and was pondering what to lay some hard earned cash on. Noise marines have always been at the front of my mind, but at over $100 to completely deck them out with Blastmaster and Sonic Blasters is just ridiculous.

So I went with a Chaos Vindicator. Why?.... I don't rightly know? HS is always an issue for me, so I thought I'll buy something different to run rather than the usual Predator. If it works, great. If not, then I'll have some fun building and painting it.... When I get the time!

What Did Santa Bring You?

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to anyone that may be looking at my blog. While I only got one Warhammer related item on Christmas Day (a CSM codex), I did get some other nifty things, like a new BIG ASS TV! Now I can watch my Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (I took advantage of the HD-DVD blowout sales) movies in 1080p.

Other than these great items, the wife and I were bequeathed some cash from a relative. I used some of this to buy a box of Thousand Sons, Malifaux Nicodem and a Ultraforge Miniatures "Lord of Pestilence".

The reason for me choosing Malifaux was because my Son is starting to give them a try and it's really quite cheap to get into. As for the Lord of Pestilence, I have been wanting to buy a Summoned Greater Daemon for my army, though had always found GW's asking price of $100 obscenely expensive for a rather crap looking model. Our friend, who is also the local Games day organizer and GW seller mentioned these Ultraforge offerings for half the price. This particular one was only $36AU, though it looks extremely nice.

I have to say I'm looking forward to painting this one, which is a very good thing because I have been extremely lazy for the last couple of weeks. Too much food and alcohol :)