Dark EldArrrrrr battle report

Ahoy there, Mateys, today is "Talk like a Pirate Day" and while this particular post won't be written in like I am a drunken sailor, it will involve my favorite 40k pirates, the Dark Eldar. I played a game at a different store than the one I normally go to, and this seemed like the perfect day to write a battle report for that game.

Things Your LGS Needs: #3 Someone with Jaws of the World Wolf

 

.. and as my LGS' Space Wolf extraordinaire I get to be that someone. Using your teeth to open bottles of superglue is yet another thing that makes Canis Helix superior to the lesser, common version of the Space Marine gene seed. I mean, look at them teeth marks - it's like I was really trying to rend that bottle cap in order to open it.

While superior to GW's super glue both in ways of application, adhesive strength, quality and quantity this bottle of Loctite lacks a very important trait. Can you guess which one? Hint: It's not the fact that it is cheaper. 
Unfortunately the bottle of superglue was too resilient for my teeth. While the bottle in the background surrendered to my sharp fangs this one managed to pass its Initiative test and Jaws of the World Wolf failed open it.


Oh well. I guess Frozencore Joe will need to learn how to use a paperclip and just dip from the bottle. :(

Here are some shots of things to come: 

It's like some kind of... Dread Fleet Gothic?

My brOgres waiting for the bases to dry..

It Ain't Over Till It's Ogre! Fist Finecast model.

So, yeah.. It's official.
I'm ridin' the Orgre bandwagon.
And it feeeeels good, man. There's a bunch of goat carcasses, a big boiling pot of.. something (possibly gnoblar stew?) and jars of what looks like ketchup but is definitely coagulated blood. But you know, when in the Mountains of Mourn, do like the Ogres do.

The Ogre Kingdoms also persuaded me to give Finecast a shot and I got myself a fancy resiny Ogre Slaughtermaster. I already have two boxes of Ogre "Bulls" with ironfists and 4 brave Leadbelchers assembled so purchasing a Hero/Lord for my army made sense. Oh, and I have a Giant. He's the same giant that I was going to use for my Orcs and Goblins army but he'll be going through some surgery and I'm renaming him Garfrost.

On Finecast: 
I really like the kit I got. I opened it in the store to make sure everything was fine and dandy and besides a bubble or two on his left fist everything was lookin' good. Decided to give him the meat tenderizer to differentiate him from my Ogres who all have the huge swords and ironfists.

Gragas Jigglebelly and Mr. Jerkles

And thus, Gragas Jigglebelly, the Ogre Slaughtermaster was created.
Oh, and his wee gnoblar - Mr. Jerkles. Yep. Not because he's a little jerk, mind you.
I used some of Frozencore Joe's cork to make him fancy and added some half-eaten bodies as well. I like him.

While the model is currently priced at $38.00 I can't help but feel that he is worth every dollar.
Yes, it is a lot of money, but it does come with a few cons:
+ A Slaughtermaster will run you ~300 points as a Lord's choice if you make him a Level 4 Wizard. This is actually more points than x6 Ogre Bulls with all upgrades you can put on them - for two dollars less. Yes, you get 1 model instead of 6, but it does add a bunch of points to your army list!
+ Finecast! I shudder at the thought of having to build the metal version of this model. It would be extremely heavy, requiring lots of pinning, green stuff and praying to the Great Maw for the superglue to actually stick. The porous quality of resin not only allows the superglue to do its thing faster, but it also allowed to feet of the Ogre to stick instantaneously to the cork.
+ Extra bits! For your money you get two extra heads (Frozencore Joe: two very derptacular heads), two extra arms, extra gnoblars and other bits which you can use to convert unit champions, Butchers or even other Slaughtermasters.

I know that Frozencore will disagree with me on the awesomeness of Finecast, but he has had more experience with it so far. Expect an article by him about this new material soon.

And wish Gragas Jigglebelly many, many nasty burps!

Blast from the past: Gamebooks and Hive of the Dead!

So far the year 2011 has been a year of many great releases when it comes to our great hobby. Games Workshop released not one, not two but three great Fantasy hardcover army books accompanied by gorgeous models.Yes, there have been a few flukes *cough*Grey Knights*cough*, but when you look at the Tomb Kings, Orcs and Goblins and Ogre Kingdoms book you can even disregard the ever-increasing prices and the embargo.. Plus there's more to come.
In a similar fashion, Black Library also released some awesome books from the Horus Heresy and the book that every Space Wolf player should read - Battle of the Fang!

But I don't think I've been as excited for a Warhammer 40,000-related product as I currently am for the brand spankin' new Hive of the Dead gamebook by C. Z. Dunn. At least not this year.

Adventure?

The forces of Chaos are moving against the Imperium once more, and only YOU can stop them! The first in a new series of Warhammer 40,000 adventure game books, Hive of the Dead casts you in the role of an Imperial Guardsman, fighting for survival upon the plague-ridden world of Subiaco Diablo at the beginning of the Thirteenth Black Crusade. Face all the horrors of Abaddon’s legions, including Death Guard Chaos Space Marines, the walking dead, and foul warp-spawned daemons. Will you make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of mankind, or will your name be forgotten with the rest?

Notice the underlined words. NOTICE THEM! 
A Gamebook. When was the last time you read one of those, huh?

It is a softback book with (I'm assuming) tons of black and white pictures. 288 pages. $19.99.

ADVENTURE?!?

But seriously. It's a friggin' gamebook. A book (which is awesome by itself) that also counts as an single player game in which you get to choose your own adventure.
Now, for me gamebooks are a pretty big deal. I am pretty sure I was the last generation of hardcore gamebook.. er.. readers. Players, maybe? Born in the 90's there were literally hundreds of them, all over the place and most of them were twice my age. At least!
The popularity of gamebooks started to wane in the 90's as games such as Dungeons and Dragons became less of a social stigma and video games stopped sucking. But that was in the modern, western world.

In the great Bulgarian fatherland in which I spent my childhood, gamebooks were just becoming popular. You see, the fall of Communism had revealed decades-worth of books to be translated and all of a sudden gamebooks were the thing. Of course this meant that the genre was popular enough for young Bulgarain authors to give gamebooks a shot. Oh, what the heck, I'll just share with you what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

In the 1990s, after the fall of Communism, the genre became highly popular in Bulgaria for a period of about ten years, although it was well past the peak of its popularity in the West by that time.While internationally known series such as Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy were also translated, the period was mostly characterized by the work of a vast number of Bulgarian gamebook authors, some of them immensely productive and popular. Since Bulgarian publishing houses at the time believed that only Western names would sell, virtually all Bulgarian gamebook authors wrote under English pseudonyms a tradition that persisted despite the fact that their nationality soon became clear to the public.

- Wikipedia/Gamebook/Outside the English-speaking World

The Goblins Return!

 I received my first gamebook as a Christmas gift when I was 8 or 9 years old. I had no idea what in the world I was getting into. The book had like 295 different chapters and they were all numbered and scrambled. Was I supposed to read them in order? I started at "chapter 1" and from there the adventure began. The book was in Bulgarian - Замъкът на Таласъмите 2: Таласъмите се Завръщат (translated: Castle of the Goblins 2: The Goblins Return) by one Lyubomir Nikolov under the nickname of... er.. Colin Walumberry. It is still, to this day one of the most entertaining pieces of literature I have ever read and it was what started the whole gamebook-mania for me. 

From there I started reading a few books a week. I started trading books with my best friend's older brother who had an unending supply of them. I signed up at half a dozen libraries just to find some of the more obscure titles. I even tried to write one.. but I failed miserably, hehe. You have to understand that back then people had to print out the Dungeons and Dragons books and store them religiously in binders. Heck, I had no idea what D&D was back then, my first shot at tabletop RPG's was a Bulgarian RPG!

TL;DR: Gamebooks are awesome and Hive of the Dead better be awesome. I'm really hoping for this one to be a massive success so that we can see more and more 40k-themed gamebooks!

Cross your fingers!

Slapa-a-da paint, mon! Painting Da Silensurz!

Some of you probably still remember the conveted Ork Kommandoz I was building for eventual games of Killzone - you know.. Da Silensurz? Eight models, each with their own.. charm and back-story.

Well, after sitting in my new Battle Foam case for a month or so I decided to prime them.. and after priming I really, really wanted to start painting them. I got this surge, this need to do it.. 

You see, after Adepticon 2011 I had lost my mojo (if I even ever had one). I was sick of painting, building, even stopped playing games for a while, because I was just tired of it all. Not in a negative way, mind you - I was just tired of hobbying after painting 2,000 points of Space Wolves and playing so many game in such a small period of time. But I've been a "busy" bee these past few days and finally have some pictures to show. 

I know that I haven't really been showing my stuff as much on this blog. It has to do with the fact that I just never really had anything special to offer to the community. I'm not saying that by showing you my WIP Silensur Kommandos I am doing you a huge favor, but I feel like they are going somewhere. You know? You've probably noticed that the last handful of posts were either by Frozencore Joe or interviews/guest posts from 4chan. I guess you can say that they have inspired me to start slappin' some paint on models..

Da Silensurz!

I decided to paint my Silesurz kommandoz like I painted my orkz for Adepticon 2010. I really like the brighter, slightly irradiated/glowing skin tone for my Orkz. I also like highlighting and heavy dry-brushing to give ork shin that weathered look. After all they don't really use any lotion. 

This is my WIP so far:

All models are primed with Chaos Black primer. Too much of a pussy to try a different brand. 

Orkz always look like shit, before you start washing and fixing things. Keep that in mind.

Skin: 

"Ugh! I'm kovur'd in paint!"

First, the models are base-coated with Knarloc Green foundation paint. After the paint dries a heavy, slightly wet dry-brush of Goblin Green is painted all over the skin surface, followed by a light-to-medium dry-brush of Scorpion Green. This will give the skin a very bright, almost glowing look. The dry-brushing gives the skin a rugged, "tough" look. A very generous wash with Thraka Green bring everything together, tones down the brightness. Then you will apply a cautious, light dry-brush of Scorpion Green when everything is dry - focus on the facial features, top of the muscles, the fingers, etc. A glaze (very watered-down wash) of Devlan Mud is then painted in the recesses of the skin and also where the skin is too bright. Remember, we are painting Kommandos, so then need to be dulled down. 

Metal Bitz:

Simply base-coat Tin Bitz, then drybrush Chainmail and wash Badab Black. This is it for now.

Shirts:

Notice Killface's bandana. See the painted-in recesses?

Decided to do blue shirts, which was two parts Mordian Blue and some Chaos Black, If I am not mistaken. Then, instead of washing the blue I mixed some off same color with a lot of Chaos Black and started painting in the recesses, the folds, etc. Where there were no folds in the shirt I simply created some by painting them. What you want to do then is go around the folds that you painted with Mordian Blue, thus creating some depth.

Pants: 

Urban camo! Fenris Grey foundation paint all over! Then, grab some Chaos Black and start drawing pretty thick lines all over the paints. Don't be too smooth and fluid, be harsh and angular. Think of rubble. Then I grabbed Astronomicon Grey and started to paint little clusters of dots all over the pants. And then you wash the whole thing with Badab Black.

Othe Gubbinz: 

Leather is painted Calthan Brown - which means gloves, shoes, belts, straps. etc. Then wash Devlan Mud. 

Backpacks for now are painted Catachan Green, I believe. Later on I will paint Jungle camo on them.

 Naturally there's a lot left. Orkz are really hard to paint when you focus on a few models. The details never end.. I need to dirty-up the skin, paint more camo on weapons, skin, backpacks and then highlight it all. Of course basing the bases is also needed, but it will be the last thing I do. I need to go over some of the places where I slapa'd-da-paint too much.


Obviously very much WIP, but I figured some of you might find the process interesting enough.

Next time I will show you my Ogre Kingdoms models, but before that I have something else in store for you..

It came from 4chan: Interview with The God-Emperor of Mankind!

Welcome to yet another glorious edition of It Came From 4chan! This time we are going to talk about art and painting. And nope, I'm not talking about slapping paint on primed miniatures, but about an aspect of our hobby that we really don't get to see that often outside of the new pretty army books and codices. Yes, I am talking about Warhammer 40,000-inspired fan art and more importantly the drawings of everyone's favorite Primarchs, done by the one and only God-Emperor of Mankind (deviantART Gallery)
The elusive self-taught artist volunteered to share some trade secrets with us, the mere mortals, so if you like awesome pictures and cherish your life you will read this interview!

Blood Bowl is #1

Under his armor he painted his chest.

For those of you who remember in my previous post I mentioned that I was starting to run a Blood Bowl League for quite a few friends. In preparation for our upcoming league, where Skarvald and I will no doubt have a storied rivalry with each other and another particular gentleman, I played a game against my friend Peter. Neither he, nor I have played the game in over a year, and that afternoon reminded me about everything I love about Blood Bowl. To use a cliche it was a real roller-coaster ride, there were ups and downs, and all sorts of excitement.

Receiving the Kickoff!

From the moment we began the tension and fun started building and exploded at various places during the game with loud cheers and exclamations from both the two of us and people watching nearby. The mystery of this ancient and arcane board game combined with our laughter and shouting quickly gathered a crowd despite there being three other games being played in the store at the time. We even managed to suck in some boys who happened to be passing by the store; people who probably wouldn't have cared for the the normal Games Workshop games, but a sports themed slug-fest was right up their ally. It speaks to the simple, relatable nature of the game (and perhaps that just having a blast is infectious) but people in the store were also getting excited, cheering and laughing right along with us, even though they didn't know the rules.

The game of Blood Bowl ended up being a tie, but it was decided in the very last turn. My High Elves managed to slow the advance of the Lizardmen just long enough for it to be a draw, but it could have gone in Peter's favor, as the ball was very close to my goal line when he failed to pick it up. That is just how Blood Bowl works, it isn't so much about trying to play better than your opponent, it is all about just failing less. Which might not sound like much of a difference, but it is an important and often hilarious one.

The dreaded "Double Skull."

We have a good mix of teams lined up for our league, with only 1 duplicate, which is awesome since the fantasy line up of races is quite diverse.  As I said earlier, I will be playing my High Elves, which I spent some time with after the game getting them in top shape for next game. Skarvald, will be playing the dwarves, which I think (considering his love of Space Wolves) means both beards and drinking call to him on some base level. And naked midgets, let us not forget the naked midgets.

Urf Jewelbreaker is aptly named. (unfortunately not actually Skarvald's model)

Flying V?

I ended up putting a fresh coat of paint on my High Elf team, and it feels good to have them all more or less finished. The painting process I used for them is quite simple, employing washes on the skin and armor and only 1 shadow layer and 1 highlight on the cloth. I normally spend ludicrous amounts of time on each model I paint, so just getting a few models completely done with a simpler scheme was quite freeing. My entire team is converted from plastic High Elf spearmen, Archers, and whatever other bits I could scrounge up from my wealing and dealing.

The end result is a team that I feel looks better then their ancient metal counterparts, and plastic doesn't chip, so hopefully they will hold onto their color better than them too.

I encourage anyone with some spare time and the inclination to try out a game of Blood Bowl with a friend. The rules are free on the Games Workshop website, so give it a read. Its pure, distilled fun has stood the test of time for a reason!

Slaaneshi Whore Lord's Arachnophilia: How to paint eight-legged freaks! Part I

Slaaneshi Whore Lord from the first It came from 4chan article sent me some more stuff from his little workshop in Germany. This time he talks about the trials and tribulations of painting Arachnarok Spiders, Warbosses on spiders and he is asking you to help him decide how to paint his gobbos! So sit back, relax and read SWL's quick and easy guest post guide on painting creepy crawlies using the power of washes! While far from standard, this might be the technique that your army with over 9000 models needs.  

Conversion Corner: Witch Hunters Land Raider

===[[Begin Transmission]]===
[::[Thought of the day: Honour thy wargear]::]

Hello, and welcome to Scriptarius' Conversion Corner. With the new Sisters of Battle White Dwarf codex out and several rumors skittering around the net, I thought it might be fitting to take a look at a little something I built quite a while ago with the old Codex: Witch Hunters in mind.

The original plan was to merge elements of the Exorcist with a Land Raider - creating a transport fit for the fiery fury of the Ordo Hereticus and Adepta Sororitas. This later evolved away from the organ tank look and became something more of a Land Raider cosplaying as a cathedral.

Parts used:

-Land Raider

-Sanctum imperialis

-Immolator

The first thing to do was to take some Sanctum Imperialis wall tiles and saw them into the correct height to act as extra armour on the sides of the land Raider. I went with the panel that has the statues holding a sword, since it had a lot of cool elements I wanted on the model. Sadly I was forced to pick between losing some of the handle or some of the blade due to height problems. In hindsight, it would've been possible to just cut a bit out of the statues' legs, keeping the sword more intact, if shorter. It might also have been beneficial to make the plates thinner so they would flow into the sides better. After the side plates I added a pair of extra statues behind the Lascannons on the side to keep the theme consistent. I opted to leave the plates off the Lascannons, since they looked fine on their own, and a more stripped feel felt fitting for a Witch Hunter vehicle. After all, WHs in general looked less bulky than their Daemonhunter counterparts.

Next, I wanted some extra detail on the interior. I cut up a door from the Sanctum Imperialis and used it instead of the usual engine block part at the back. This took some fitting to pull off but gave the interior a more "holy" feel. The sides of the same door were used on the front of the Land Raider, keeping the statue theme running around the machine. These changes aside, the Land Raider was built normally. Changing the front side doors to windows allowed one to look into the tank to see the interior from other angles than just the front ramp, even though the view was nice from there too. (Ignore the gaps, those are there because the tank needed to split into two parts so the interior could be painted.)

Finally, with the core tank assembled, I added various decorative bits from the Immolator sprue to enhance the Ordo Hereticus look. Several parts were tried on for size, including cherubs, wall segements, domes, icons and flags. In the end I went with a fairly simple combo: Sororitas-style Heavy Bolters on the turret, a chunk of wall on the ramp to give it some extra mass, a cherub laud hailer and a glass dome to let in some light into the interior of the tank, as well as large Fleur de Lys plates on the sides. Some Green Stuff was used later to fill out gaps between parts.

If any of you wish to make your own one, I'd suggest throwing in parts from the plastic Venerable Dreadnought kit. It has great stuff like the side panels and guns, all of which look suitably ornate for a project like this. Perhaps you could also try replacing the front side plates with the ones from an Exorcist, and possibly adding an Exorcist Launcher or Karamazov's throne (sans legs) on the top or inside.

And that's how I built my Witch Hunters Land Raider.

If you have any questions about this conversion or converting and kitbashing in general, feel free to contact me or drop a comment in here.

You can catch me at moisio_5@hotmail.com

By Scriptarius

===[[END TRANSMISSION]]==
[::[The Emperor Protects]::]