This is going to look great - Painting disappointment

Yes, back then I had hair

As someone who used to model and paint a lot in my youth I remember fondly cutting balsa into strips, carving things down carefully and shaving them to a hairsbreadth and patiently assembling. I'd then go to the uber thin tissue paper lather it in dope and lovingly apply it to the frame of the plane I'd worked so hard to assemble. Then, unbelievably I'd still be sitting up/seeing anything (since in the 80s proper ventilation meant open a window on the other side of the basement) I'd spray paint the whole thing carefully to make a "metal skin."


So what happened?

New order in! - Necron Wave 2

Just a quick update to a post in the making, and an exciting time like Christmas in May ;)
1 Triarch stalker
2 sets of wraiths
3 spyders
3 heavy destroyer packs
1 Nemesor Zahndrehk
1 Vargard Obyron
And finally 1 Illiminor Szeras
It's quite an order and one I was amped to make, I look forward to sharing the modeling and painting process soon.
For now, reading the new white dwarf and converting the destroyers picked up from the last but swap.

To the game! Carrying your models.

So you've collected some models, and you've taken the time to clean them up and even applied one or two colors of paint, likely more. Now you're going to head over to your local club and get your game on. However, all you have are the boxes that the models came in, or maybe an extra shoe box with some foam in it, but how do you get something a little safer for your models?

Well there's a lot of options, from the very cheap, to any amount of money you want to spend. It really depends on what you want your end result to be. Here's some questions to help you towards your solution before you spend extra money.

Battle Report - Joey's last hurrah with the Chaos Space Marines

Last night at the club Joey and I squared off on a last minute match. Joey's flight had been canceled due to inclement weather so we had some time to hit the table for a quick fight.

Joey came to the table with an MSU (Many/mulitple Small Unit) army with the hope of an objective based game, only to have the Dice Gods decide that it was going to be Annihilation. Annihilation is one point for every unit taken down in combat. This is a good thing for Necrons, just so long as you keep the opposing army at mid-range. We ended up on another roll having table quarter deployment, breaking my five game Dawn of War streak... (Thank all the powers that be, it was getting old.)

So, now we have me setting up and going first and Joey in the other corner. In the interest of brevity I'll keep this one short, but geared towards a very new player, so experienced folks, please forgive! (Also because I started with excellent intentions to take lots of pictures and took, like, two. Joey is an energetic player, and it's contagious in a good way.)

Battle Report - Brother Sergeant James faces the 'crons

Sunday brings tidings of rollin' bones over at Comic Book Heaven in White Plains, NY with a pretty steady crew. Today's bout was with Brother Sergeant James, and was for 1850 points. James is a solid player and knows his rules, and he doesn't mind chattin' with you regarding the small talk. 

James was playing around with a new concept list, so I knew this was going to be more fun, less competitive, but most of all that I'd learn a bit about different mechanics. And learnin' is just what I did. I learned all about how fast Space Marines can move across a board, and just how bad an initiative 2 is. (Though it makes for some fun picture takin'!)

Tutorial - Getting Vassal setup on Windows

One thing I get asked about when I let folks know I do IT and I show up to a gaming event is how to use Vassal, since most of the tutorials with a few exceptions assume that you're a consummate computer user and in the vein of a basics blog I wanted to setup a tutorial for those folks who aren't (and may not want to be) great at computing.

So, this is that tutorial read on to learn how to install Vassal and get it ready for playing that buddy who moved out of town, or even an online tournament.

Resources for learning

Starting off you find there's quite a lot of data out on the internet, tutorials of all types from very new painters all the way up to paying for a video to learn fine art techniques to apply so you can finally hold the Slayer Sword.

But besides those core fundamental sites there's a lot of folks out there who just keep posting videos, posting images and tips (along the lines of this site) and generally just want to share their hobby. As with the tutorials some may be suited for some, others not as much.

For me I've settled in on a few basic sites that have helped me in the hobby quite a bit, after the jump you'll see the list, so click on wayward traveler...

Monolith Ressurection

After attending my first bit swap dinner I found myself in possession among other items a "gently used/experienced" box of monolith parts, and by gently used/experience one can swap out "busted" "broken" and or "effed up." Still, for $20 the potential yield after a little bit of time is always worth it.

After working with car and computer components long enough that are second hand you learn to find good deals and the bad, and I knew this one was a decent bet with a little sweat equity.

So, I picked up another Hawk Turquoise before the paint shift and set to work.
(For folks new to the hobby another post will follow about the tools I have, most on sale, and even more on clearance racks... Getting into the hobby does not have to be expensive.)

More after the jump;

Drop pod mania!

Playing at the shop the other day I came across Mr. Jawaballs himself, a quick adjustment of the 'crons to a 2000 point list was required from my stable 1750 list and we were underway.

Dawn of War... again... Deployment and I drop everything down since deep striking is a bit of an event on this table (as you can see from the pictures the risk is immense that you'd lose a Monolith to terrain alone.) Jawaballs deploys nothing. Uh oh... I know he just accepted delivery of a veritable armada of drop pods from James... Oh, I see what you did there sir!

Hold the line!

(More after the jump)