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!