Moving and the army to date

Going to be moving very, very soon, so updates will be sparse here for a bit.

While I am here though I'll post what I've gotten complete so far as a marker in time, hope you like what you see, and I'll post as soon as I can.

Just put it over there, thanks

Happy Memorial Day!

Off to play a 2k point game tomorrow, but wanted to acknowledge the holiday before the battle report.

Thank You to those who served past and present, you make it possible for all of us to have the Freedom we enjoy to be able to enjoy everything that we do.

Battle at the Club - Necron vs. Bishop's Eldar

Last night brought home that a whole game can hinge on just one roll. Now I know what you're thinking "Dude, if you had killed one more unit", "If you had just been more aggressive/passive", "If, if, if, if" and that's just what that is "Ifs"... Sometimes the dice, they just don't roll your way. Read on to see where you would have done things differently and I hope you'll agree the "ifs" were just plain "eh, no different than any other choice."

So, what was this game that hinged on a single roll? Bishop's Eldars versus my Necrons. I pulled a new trick out of the hat this time around taking less warriors and scarabs for a stalker. It was a good choice since it looks really nifty on the table, but I'll have to give it a few more games to see just how I want to use it, as well as which weapon load out.

The only non-blurry shot of the night.

So we setup and roll out, Annihilation and Spearhead deployment. The 'crons got first deployment, corner chosen I deployed leaving a unit hidden and since there was tall terrain hid big units behind appropriate cover, Eldar after all are shooty buggers. Bishop deployed his corner well back from my firepower, but not so much as to be "stuck" without being able to fire himself. Bishop attempts to seize initiative but fails. Illuminor boosts the unit of Immortals to a toughness 5, which is a great boon against a lot of fire power.

WIP - Stalker build

Hey all, just a quick update.

Working on a motivational challenge for an elite unit of any type on any army and came up with my fresh Stalker as the submission.

So what started as a paint and show is turning into a restoration thread. Why?  Here's why, I trimmed everything, filed it down, smoothed it out with liquid green stuff where necessary and then began test fitting all the pieces together. Every thing was laid out in order and then glue was applied. Disaster... Somehow I flipped the "body" of the stalker. All the holes that were brilliantly designed for the top part of the chassis are now at the bottom, and where the gun attaches is now on top... Really!?

But whatever, I'm continuing with the build and just not letting it get to me, I'll back fill with liquid green stuff and file everything down appropriately just making sure that I align everything "manually" versus using the tabs and holes. The paint will still look good regardless!

So, what would you do in this case? Would you try to undo the damage, would you cut the areas and flip the project? Or would you just let it be?

Communities - Online and Offline

Hey all,

Just giving a shout out to the organized "official" groups and clubs that I've jumped into. First since this is an online post would be TheFreeBootaz; It's a paid forum, but the price keeps things extremely civil and certainly weeds out the trolls who love to hide behind anonymity. That forum is from the 40k Radio team at TheFreeBootaz forums. It's probably one of the best forums I've found in the hobby yet, parsed down to quality debates and discussions.

If you're the kind of person who likes to sit down at the local club and just banter about the hobby, or things going on outside of the hobby this makes a great forum. It's a social place, so expect your welcome to be responded to within minutes, and to be very warm indeed.

For those who prefer a little face time and are in the White Plains, NY area then I'd highly recommend my local club "Battle for Salvation" as an in person version of the forums. As with the Bootaz a warm welcome was made for me within a few visits. Really glad to meet all the crew there and will continue playing, painting and hobbying with them as long as they'll have me hangin' around. :)

Glad to be part of this hobby community over all, and if you aren't local to a club get on to somewhere and just share what you do! Have fun finding new people to share with, it's a sure fire guarantee to help you get more fun out of your investments.

So, if you're in the White Plains area check out Battle for Salvation (The link is to the GT, but the head of the organization Bobby can be reached there for more information)
and if you're not in the area, but want your hobby fix take a look at The FreeBootaz

Tools of the trade

One of the most daunting parts of getting started on the hobby was cost. Of everything... The paints, the drills, the files, the brass pins, the mats, etc.

So in this post I want to share with everyone some of the tools that you can get, their approximate costs and where you might find them. We'll start with preparation of models for now since there's plenty to do in that regard setting up your models for priming

Preparation;
When you buy a box of miniatures, a blister pack or a whole battle force you're going to have a lot of parts to cut off the sprue, they've got mold lines, bubbles from manufacture, and all manner of things to do to make that model a lot more presentable on the table and in your display. A little investment goes a long way here, so hit up your model shop with this list of items and you'll be in great shape for prepping.

So, without a doubt, snips from the hobby shop are a must, around $5 you can get a great pair that will last for a long time. You can easily sharpen them should they dull, and usually have no issue biting through small gauge wire, but nothing too high a gauge should be hit otherwise you'll chip them out, never a good thing! For plastic only you'll never need to bother with anything other than a little sewing machine oil at the joint once every five years...

A pin vice is a worthwhile investment, especially when it comes to metal models and fine cast, both require some occasional pinning to complete the job. Pinning involves placing wire in places to pin the two pieces together as an internal "spine" to glue to versus the joint. These come in at around $7 to $10 on the outside. The "pins" or small drill bits are usually around $5 for a set like I have here. Full size drill bits are more for vehicles and boring out big items like razor back heavy bolters and the like. Those are about $3 a piece since they're actually wood and metal bits respectively.

A good set of files helps get a really finished look to big mishaps. For example you may have a large burr from a poor casting, or just a bad cut from your snips, at which point you'll need to file the plastic carefully down. This is immensely helpful in the case of conversions where pieces are combined that really aren't supposed to be combined in the first place, such as my crypteks. (A future post there too!) Around $8 will get you a lifetime set.

Finally, but not the only item by far is a hobby knife with extra blades. Made famous by X-acto brand, but also made by many other companies this is seconded only by duct tape in the case of useful things man has invented to make the world a better place. From $2 on up to $20 you can get these in all shapes and sizes. If you get nothing else on the list, you must get this. It can combine in the right hands all the above tools!

So, for around $30 total you can have a set of tools that will last you for years if not a lifetime of modeling goodness. Go out to your local hobby shop and check their stock out, don't go online necessarily since often times shops will be looking to offload inventory or other wise should get your business above a big web shop, support those local businesses!

Next up will be my painting/priming supply page, until then have fun!

WIP - BCJames Dread Chicken 'nid!

Ok, to date I've seen two types of conversions, one type are the minute details, the tiny hand of a wych placed in a piece of terrain that's "fallen" onto it (pun intended from Wizards of Oz) all the way up to making a complete tack on of additional posts, see cryptek conversions for good examples of that.

Then there's the type of conversion that you can see from half a block away... No joke, watching Brother Captain James walk up to the mall from the corner of the block all that was seen was shoulder bag, James, this;

Alright, so that's crazy, it's actually as tall as the monolith, and definitely wider. We know what you're thinking... huge target area, except you can't target wings, only torso. That's a small torso in comparison to the wings. Seriously, they're huge, so big that if the brakes fail on his car he needs only deploy this out the back like chutes from a drag racer...

Winning!

Ok, it's so crazy that some green stuff needs to be applied to clean it up, his back needs mounting, and the front... what to do with the front. First though, support those wings. Sylex (sp.) is our resident green stuff master, the guy is sitting there with $30 of green stuff. Seriously it's neat to watch him work with it. Of course this is probably handed down from generations since we see his 3rd cousin twice removed interacting with clear epoxy here, she's just as good! epoxy mastery at work! Same thing happens, only with green stuff. Seriously, worth the cost of membership to the club right there alone...

Molding the back from fairly flat back carapace pieces

What's this!? A funky chicken!?

There it is... A chicken beak. For real. If James doesn't paint this yellow there's going to be a lot of upset people at the club.

As work continues more pics will be posted of the Dread Chicken 'nid!

WIP - Necron Wave Two - Spyder complete! (pic heavy)

The power source is missing, but it's there now.

Work in progress indeed, as the spyder kit isn't hard, but does have a good amount of parts. This is something good though in that you've got some options. I'm sure many of you have already looked at the unboxing vids and sprue pictures galore.

So what do these things look like in the "wild?" (More after the break)

WIP shipment Necron wave 2 arrived!

Well the shipment is in...

Tweaking sprues now and will be posting the builds for each kit. 

Certainly things I'm considering are touting these around and am also looking forward to painting and building!

Battle Report - Impromptu game with Will

There's quite a bit of burn out from the recent Saturday tournament hosted by the club, so the Monday night club population was a bit sparse. Still, there's almost always a game to be had. Will was the only gent not engaged in a game, and I've been interested in battling his chaos army. As it so happened Will wasn't expecting to play, but fortunately had 1750 points rolling around to play. While they weren't the Chaos, they were Space Marines, a-ok by me. He furiously dry brushed his bases, and with super glue still curing the game begins.

On this game both Will and I were testing concepts. Will was testing his Deathwing... Will it work? Can he drop in and get up close and personal with many squads of Terminators? He's got a lot of missile launchers ready to rock, and with the ability to ignore damage from me at 2+/3++ is going to do quite well against most anything. His speeders and predators are going to be roaming around as well, but they're more "standard" issue so I should be good... Right?