Back from the Dead

 Boy, it's been a while....

Hello all! It's been a hot minute since I've posted here. Life tends to get in the way of this sort of thing. Pursuing an engineering degree has certainly put the hobby on the back foot in general, I suppose.

I have been picking away at hobby stuff in the meantime. Christmas break has allowed for some free time to work on things - Christmas gifts included. 

Notably, I've been working on a squad of 3rd Edition Striking Scorpions I got second-hand from the FLGS. These are added to my growing Eldar army, which, if I can keep up the blog posts, will be shown off soonish alongside the other armies I've worked on in the meantime. 

Striking Scorpions - no Exarch yet, though.

Other pursuits have included a rapidly deepening addiction to building Gunpla kits. This Christmas has delivered the HG 1/144 GFreD, which was a pleasant build experience. Quite a few stickers, though.

He's very dramatic. 

I will try to post more frequently on here - I recall the blog posts I made previously being fun to write.

Watch this space, and happy holidays!

When Deamons Attack

 Hello folks, back again after a break, this time with a battle report.

This time it was my Salamanders versus the old man’s Khorne deamons. We were playing at 1000 points using the scenario from the 40k rulebook with four objectives on a plus shape in the middle of the board. In order to score points, a player needs to control both objectives on each line of the plus. Players score victory points at the beginning of their turns, and you get extra points for controlling  all of the objectives.

Our armies were fairly standard for our games, with Dad taking his Very Scary Deamon Prince, Skulltaker, a soul grinder, a skull cannon, and a few mobs of Bloodletters, while I had a couple tac squads, a squad of Intercessors, some Devastators, some Eliminators, a Chief Librarian, and Adrax Agatone. Our strategies were pretty standard too, with me planning to hang back and shoot things, while Dad did his infamous "Bloodletter Bomb."

The calm before the storm.

 Turn one went to dad, where he moved up to take objectives with his Bloodletters, and melting a few Marines with a phlegm bombardment from the soul grinder. He then unleashed the dreaded Bloodletter bomb, and dropped a big unit  right in front of my right flank, along with the Deamon Prince and his axe of "No, God make it stop!"

This, combined with about 4 attacks per Bloodletter and a 3d6, rerolling fails charge roll, caused a disappearing act from the Intercessors and a tarpit for the tac squad, Causing my strategy of a unit per objective to go flying out the window. This meant that when my turn came around, I really only had the option to zap things with the devastators and hope for good rolls on my part. I got the Deamon Prince down to four wounds, but by that point my turn was over.

On Dad's turn two, the Soul Grinder and missed its bombardment, Bloodletters took more objectives, and a very unfortunate Agrax  happened to be on the receiving end of the Axe of Holy S***. 

      

One strength 16 hit later...

  By this point, we had to cut the game short due to time constraints and an increasingly apparent steamrolling my Salamanders had received. Final score: Deamons 1, Salamanders 0.

Take this story as a tale of caution, friends. Bubble wrap your units when you can, so a mob of deep striking Bloodletters can't collapse your right flank, along with your entire strategy (also, if you can Thunder Hammer charge a Deamon Prince who has only four wounds left, do so). Happy gaming,

FP01                  

T5 Orks are a thing now.

You saw the title, folks. Orks are going up a point of toughness. 

   

This may not seem like much, but as stated in this Warhammer Community Article, all greenskins, including grots, are going up a point of toughness.  While this may not seem huge at first, that extra point could cause big waves in your games of Warhammer 40 000. 

First of all is that most infantry weapons will be wounding Orks on 5s. Even boltguns, arguably one of the best base infantry weapons in the game, will be wounding at the same rate as the lasgun, affectionately known as the "flashlight." 

This means that most armies will not have an effective way of combating the 30-strong units of Ork Boyz, outside of heavy weapons, which frankly are not that spread out in units outside of vehicles and a handful of dedicated heavy weapon squads (like Devastators or Dark Reapers). This means that there isn't a good way to avoid a mob of Orks overrunning your midfield objective holders and hacking them away with their -1 AP choppas (That's another new thing. Not too bad for Marines but other armies might be in trouble). 

I think that extra point of toughness makes the Orks of 9th edition much more powerful than they were previously, to the point of brokenness. I am not looking forward to dealing with this sort of thing. Alas, we can only wait and see what GW does with the Orks when their Codex releases.

Happy painting,

FP01

Emplacement Build Guide

 Hello folks, Today I'll be delivering to your eyes an in-depth guide on my emplacements, as promised previously.

These were simple to make, and quick to build. Not including drying time, I think the set of 4 emplacements only took about one hour to make in total. These are an easy way to add to your gaming table or diorama, or to fill out your terrain collection. 

Now, let's get started on the build.

Step 1: Measure and Cut Out Parts.

The cardboard base.

The first thing you need to do is to measure a 5 by 20 centimetre rectangle out of a material of your choice. Cardboard, MDF, and foamcore are all great options. Cut this out, measure 32mm up from one of the long edges, then draw a line running through that point. This will act as a reference for later.

The foamcore wall.

Next, do the same on a piece of foamcore, except make it 1 inch long on the short side. This will allow your average infantry model to see over the wall, but still be in cover. As before, cut this out. Also, if at all possible, use a new blade on your knife for this. If the blade is dull, the foamcore could tear as you cut it.

Step 2: Prepare Foamcore. 

Just add water.

The next step is to peel the paper backing off of both sides of the foamcore. Depending on the brand, you could just peel it off with no extra effort. However, if your foamcore is like mine, the adhesive for the paper will make it hard to peel the paper off. If this is the case, you can simply run the foamcore under hot water so the adhesive weakens and allows you to peel the paper off. 

Texture time.

Next, add texture to both sides of the foamcore. This will add to the concrete wall look. I did this by stabbing at the foam with an old, gunked up, stiff brush, but you could use rocks or a ball of scrunched-up tin foil.

Step 3: Assemble the Parts.

Where to glue the foamcore.

The next step is to glue the two pieces together. Glue the foamcore so that it is in front of the line as shown in the picture. This will make sure there is enough space for a miniature with 32mm base to stand on the space comfortably.

Tile time.

Next, glue some cardstock rectangles to act as tiles for the larger section. These do not need to be perfect, so you can eyeball their size.

After this, add any damage to the wall you want. For mine, I added a hole in the wall, as if it was blown up. If you do this, don't forget to add rebar using paper clips.

Step 4: Basing.

Pointy.

To base the emplacements, start by gluing spikes onto the small side, at an angle pointing outward. These could be made of sprues, toothpicks, cocktail sticks, or really anything long and pointy. Next, use PVA glue to stick small pebbles, sand, and other small stones to the front of the base in a way that hides the spikes' connection to the ground. The aim is to make the spikes look as if they are embedded into the ground, so make sure to cover them in your basing material.

Step 5: Painting.

The paintjob on these is pretty simple, and requires only 4 colours and some gesso.

The first thing you need to do is give the whole emplacement a coat of gesso. Either white or black will work, but in this case I used white. Next, mix up a few shades of grey and coat the wall with a dark grey, hit the tiles and surface underneath them with a medium grey, and paint the spikes with a light grey. Then, mix black and burnt sienna to make a dark brown, and paint the sand and gravel on the front of the piece with it. once everything has dried, stipple the large rocks with medium grey to the point where only a little brown is showing in the recesses. After that is done, coat everything in very thinned black paint. This will go int the recesses and bring out a lot of detail. Lastly, drybrush everything with a very light grey. Oh, and dont forget to paint the rebar with some silver, if you chose to add it to the piece.

The finished emplacement.

And there you go! Now you know how to make easy emplacements for tabletop wargaming. Feel free to create variations and to experiment. These are fairly basic, so there is a lot of room to expand and improve upon the design. Now go and make yourself some terrain!

Happy painting,

FP01

The List

Hello folks,

This post is going to hop onto the low-effort bandwagon and bless you with the most stupendous type of post: a list.

Now, this list will be of a well covered subject, that of my top 5 favourite and top 5 least favourite Warhammer miniatures, current or otherwise. So, lets get on with things.

Number 5 Best: The Emperor's Champion

Knights in SPAAAAACE!

This model exemplifies the fact that older sculpts can still look great in the modern day. At over 20 years old, this sculpt still keeps its heroic silhouette and imposing look, with sharp details and great pose. 

Number 5 Worst: Primaris Invader ATV

Go-cart... in space?

In contrast to the champion, this model... is bad. The technical detail is fine, but honestly, the Invader looks like it would be invading the racetracks of Mario Cart instead of the far future. Also, and call me out if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure having a minigun right over your head would not make for good steering conditions. Just saying.

Number 4 Best: Skullgrinder

Add some music from your favourite FPS game here.

Ok, when your model looks like a boss from Doom, you know you are doing something right. This hammer-wielding maniac shows how much the pose affects the quality of a miniature. He is posed mid-charge, swinging his hammer to knock his enemy into next Friday. I would not want to be on this guy's hit list.

Number 4 Worst: Chaos Marauders 

Gotta admit, these guys need an update.

These models... aren't that great. They are old, which means that they are lacking in detail, so they don't look as good as newer models that you could buy instead. Their faces are wonky, the arm connections don't look natural at all, and they are tiny compared to newer miniatures. While not the worst, these guys are pretty bad off.

Number 3 Best: Celestant-Prime

Yes, that is a meteor launching staff.

Remember when I said The Emperor's Champion had a heroic silhouette? Well the Celestant-Prime turns that to 11. Descending from the heavens with wings and a cloak of magical energy, this model makes a presence on the tabletop. 

Number 3 Worst: Varghulf Courtier

The Netflix adaptation of Batman.

This model is bad. It looks like what would happen if you gave a 4 year old a vampire, teddy bear, twigs, and play-dough and left them alone for a few hours. The pose is weird, the face is atrocious,  and he inexplicably has fur, which goes against the design language of his faction. All in all, very, very bad.

Number 2 Best: Be'lakor, The Dark Master

Scary.

If the Celestant-Prime has a heroic silhouette, Be'lakor has one of evil. Standing tall, wings spread, sword out, he exudes menace. There is lots of fine detail, which includes chains, blades, and a fancy sculpted base that adds to the framing of this monster.

Number 2 Worst: Scyla Anfigrimm

And I thought the current version was bad...

I don't think I need to explain this one. This version of Scyla radiates derp energy. No menace at all for what is supposed to be an uncontrollable monster. The guy has buckteeth for pete's sake! This sculpt is sad.

Now for the top two. These are my single most liked and hated miniatures of all the Warhammer ranges. These are, in my only slightly biased opinion, the greatest and worst miniatures in Games Workshop's catalogue. They are...

Number 1 Best: Sassy Nurgling

The cutest plague deamon around.

Yes, this one model is my favourite in all of Games Workshop's ranges. No, you cannot change my mind. If you disagree with my opinion, there is an alternative here.

And finally:

Number 1 Worst: Multi-Melta Servitor

The chap in the back, not the one with a claw.

A face not even a mother could love. Need I say more?

And that concludes my top 5 favourite and least favourite miniatures in the Games Workshop ranges. This was a fun list to make, as finding the silly looking old miniatures, and some hidden gems, was rather enjoyable. However, this list has added a few things to my painting bucket list (read: more things to distract me from my ongoing projects).

Happy painting,

FP01

Enplacement Overview

 Well, I'm back again for the third post today. I wonder if I'm going at this too hard?

This time i'll go over the build and paint of my emplacements, as shown in the previous post. You can expect an in-depth build guide whenever I get around to building some different shapes. 

My first step was to cut out some cardboard as a base. I tried to go for about 5 x 20cm, but ended up with bases that while close to the same size, were different enough that one could tell they were different. C'est la vie.

This one is my favourite. Warped to all heck but still the best.

I then cut out some foamboard to the same length as the base and peeled off the paper to reveal the foam underneath. It didn't come off perfectly, often tearing and leaving bits of paper on. The larger bits were peeled off, and the smaller bits were left on as extra texture. A side effect of this was the damaged looking tops of the wall, which I think is a plus. 

Rear view of one of the solid emplacements.

Next I hot glued the foamboard so the back edge of it was 32mm away from the back of the emplacement, leaving room for most basic infantry models, who usually are on a 25 or 32mm base. However, the space is large enough for models that have a larger base (like my deamon prince).

I then used a combination of PVA and hot glue to glue small pebbles and sand, along with spikes made out of sprues to the front of the emplacement, along with tiles made of cardstock on the rear.

Corner view of an emplacement. 

I painted the emplacements with various shades of grey, mixed from white, black, and burnt sienna in varying amounts. Medium grey for the gaps in between the tiles, light grey for the tiles and rocks, dark brown for the dirt, dark grey for the spikes.

All surfaces were then drybrushed with an even lighter grey, and I filled in any spots I missed in the previous steps. This brought out the details in the piece.

Some of my Iron Warriors manning the emplacements. Medrengard stands!

I will eventually glue some green flock onto the emplacements to represent grass, but that will come later, once I get a chance.

Happy painting, 

FP01

Paints For Terrain

 Well, first proper post, so lets get on with it.

Recently I have been building some emplacements for use in Warhammer 40000, and I ran into the decision on whether to use craft or miniature paints.

Miniature paints on the left, craft paints on the right.

While miniature paints generally have good coverage, pigmentation and mix well, they are expensive (around $7 a pot). This means that it can be prohibitively costly to use them on large terrain pieces. Therefore, I found it better to use the craft paints. These do not like to thin or mix well, but their pigmentation is above average, even compared to some miniature paints. 

Chaos Space Marine painted with miniature paints, emplacement painted with craft paints.

You can see what I mean in the picture above. The emplacement has patches of white where the paint didn't cover (note: I am only talking about the brown bit. The other parts are white because they haven't been painted yet). In contrast, the Chaos Space Marine is covered fine. No white spots there.

However, the craft paint has one huge advantage: its price. The whole box of 9 paints only cost about $4, while you'd be lucky to get one miniature paint at that price. While paying extra is a sacrifice I'm willing to make when it comes to miniatures, on terrain, craft paints are the way to go. Besides, when it comes to poorly covering paint, two thin coats is better than one thick coat. 

Because of this, I recommend using craft paints on terrain if at all possible. The inexpensiveness, high pigmentation, and ease of countering their downsides makes them a great option for your terrain painting needs.

Happy painting,

FP01