Editorial: Wolves in Angels Armour

There is a lot of 'hub-bubb' on the net about count-as armies, tournament lists, whatever. Kirby on 3++ stole my thunder because he articulated how I feel about my marines but in his case it's about Orks. Vile green fungus among-us... :P He's not a follower so I'm safe in my corner for now.

Inspiration: Idea Gallery Updates

Whilst scouring the web for pictures of Armorcast Baneblades I came across a gem of a thread with some awesome ideas from way back in 2007. The intricate details and the use of bits on these is outstanding and as somewhat of a self described 'tread head' and 'conversion addict' I can appreciate the ingenuity that created these beauties. Again, these aren't mine but I thought I should share.

Hellhound:

5 Minute History: Hellhound

The Hellhound falls into the fast-attack category of the Imperial Guard in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game. The tank, which uses the Imperial Guard Chimera chassis, is an interesting unit in that it has heavier armor than the standard chimera, yet it falls into a better speed class despite that fact. The standard Hellhound is armed with an Inferno Cannon, which amounts to a high-pressure flamethrower mounted in the turret, and a hull-mounted Heavy Bolter. With the release of the fifth edition codex, the choice of Hull-mounted weapons was expanded to a include the Flamer or Multi-Melta in addition to the Bolter.

A Fist Full of Bitz: Ponytails!?

I have seen all manner of female guard conversions, ideas, guides and templates on the web but none of them really appealed to me. Typically you end up with the normal gamer solution of tank tops, bikini tops or flowing hair and tight leather. None of these were what I was going for, so I went in a bit different direction. I wanted to add a female sniper to my veteran squad, but not like your stereotypical swinging from a pole female, a very subtle conversion that you would probably miss on first glance. Here is the where I started, held together with blue-tac:

The Archangels: Part 1

A small introduction, today Japehlio is publishing his first guest post, he is new to blogging and was quite literally drug from the forums to test the waters here. He has a new blog over at Of Angels and Hero's and he will be guest posting some of his work here as well from time to time. His primary focus is Blood Angels for 40k and Empire for Fantasy. What I enjoy about his work is that he is completely unafraid to take risks and try new things, something I think we could all learn a lesson from. Take it away Japehlio:

When I started my Blood Angels, I decided that I wanted to do my own, converted and custom models for my HQ choices, because, lets face it, while the current/classic Blood Angel characters do have a load of history and charm, they certainly look dated...

As a happy coincidence, the Sanguinary Guard box had just been released, and the cogs started turning...

5 Minute History: Chimera

The Chimera is the ubiquitous infantry fighting vehicle used by the Imperial Guard. The tank appears as a large, turreted tracked vehicle with six rifle barrels protruding from the top of the tank's rear compartment. The original Chimera was armed with a Multi-laser and a Heavy Bolter but subsequent updated rules sets have expanded the weaponry that the tank can be armed with.

Game Time: Speed Vs. Survivability

Roland over at Kirb your enthusiasm posted an interesting article last month about 1850 Point IG Armored Company lists using the current IG codex and offered several different ways to build such a list. Given my penchant for mechanized warfare, the Imperial Guard and tanks in general - I was intrigued to say the least. My only problem would come in pairing them down to the 1500 point level, but being as stingy as I am, I didn't think it would be a problem.

A Fist Full of Bitz: First Five GTG

The first five of my Hardened Veterans are done, two melta guneners and three lasgun troopers, as well as the Veteran / Marbo / Vox / Democharge / Swiss Army knife guy. Legs are Space Marine scouts, torsos / arms / heads are Cadian and the weapons are carbine lasguns from the tank accessory sprue. I think they look sufficiently like a motley crew of veterans:

Deep Thoughts: Make Your Fun

Local gaming clubs build a sense of friendship and community over time. Players will gravitate towards a core of like minded players who naturally think about the game and play the game with similar taste. Over time, playing with the same group of players, with the same armies and the same terrain can become a bit boring. New codex’s help for a bit, trying out different point levels and adding new units also keeps things interesting, but ultimately our hobby doesn’t update at an alarming rate, leading to what can be described as ‘gaming malaise’.

One way to combat this is by asking a simple question: ‘Why do we limit ourselves to the special characters listed in our army codex books?’

NCAA Tourney: Go Bulldogs!

As a Gonzaga Alumni, who has lived with years of disappointments lately, I would like to take this moment to revel in the shellacking that my 11 seed Bulldogs just handed the 6 seed St. Johns.

Next year BYU will be in our conference so we get a preview of next year’s conference play this Saturday at 2pm. GO ZAGS!

Community: The Astro Mag

One of my larger time commitments to the hobby is tending to the Astro Mag, a 40k e-zine/fanzine released quarterly (well, we give it the old college try).  You have your hobby articles (this is the bulk of the content), fiction, artwork, opinions, tactics and battle reports.  It is, for all intents and purposes, the poor man's White Dwarf.

5 Minute History: Baneblade Part Two

In 2002 Forgewold released the first of their Baneblade varients, three years after getting the license to make them from Armorcasat. Rules were included in Imperial Armour 1, which would be published in 2003. Forgeworld casts of the Baneblade offered significant improvement in detail over their Armorcast predecessors. Additionally, the organization structure of Forgeworld coupled with the quality of the Imperial Armor books made use of the Baneblade more common, this wider use by gamers would ultimately lead to the production of the largest Games Workshop plastic kit in their history 5 years later.

Modeling: Lock, Stock and Four Smoking Barrels

We all got the same idea as soon as we saw the quad cannon in the Aegis Defense Line: Hydras and Mortis Dreads! Quickly hobbyists began cutting, sawing, trimming and constructing to create modifications to the Aegis and bend those lovely quad cannons to their will, but everyone forgot one thing. The barrels are too short and wimpy for what we wanted to do with it. So how do you go from stock to rock without flying past cool and landing at cartoon? That's where I come in.

A Fist Full of Bitz: Plus Some Photoshop!

The Sly Marbo turned into a squad now, so the initial paint scheme is going on.

Reasons for the different colors: carapace armour and helmets are easy enough to paint between campaigns while aboard ship, so the desert colors there. The under jumpsuit is a sand color, easy enough to get a jump suit. The holsters and pouches are cloth so you can't just paint them or it will look terrible, and the demo charge is in a cloth bag, so it stay green just like the backpack because you probably aren't going to get them re-issued between campaigns. Weapons are fickle things and most guys are just superstitious when it comes to those, so obviously these guy's are superstitious and won't repaint paint them. Goggles, one eye is for infrared and the other for zoom, hence the two colors.

Observation: The Dreadful Dread Knight

For those of you returning from your mission to the moon recently, there is some big news: Games Workshop put up the advance orders along with pictures of the new miniatures for Grey Knights. First of all let me congratulate Games Workshop on the Terminators and the regular Grey Knights in power armor - they are brilliant. The heavy weapon guy with the triple barrel is pure brilliance and overall they are outstanding, so beautifully done that I have been convinced to purchase a squad just to build and paint regardless of whether or not I can play it. That being said, what in the name of all that is holy were they thinking with the 'Dread Knight'?

Community: Alacrity Raffle

Everyonce in awhile something truely unique pops up on the radar, and this would fit the criteria. b.smoove over at A Gentlemen's Ones is holding a raffle for his modular terrain board.  Now im not normally one to condone advertising like this in the normally eurdite halls of my blog but b.smoove seems to be a pretty good guy who is trying to put something back into the community rather than just auctioning it off on ebay. Of course this could all be a sinister plan on his part to cover the expansion costs of his secret collection of hand carved merry-go-round horsies with pink bows - but I doubt it.

The table is huge and apparently fills a 5 x 7 foot table with all the rooms, corridors and passageways included. For $10 bucks you get a ticket in the raffle and he covers the shipping to drop it at your door. Any raffle tickets much be purchased by this Sunday, March 13th, by midnight and the raffle will be held on Tuesday. Any money left over will be used in the construction of tables for Adepticon. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

You can find all the details for the raffle and more pictures then you can shake a stick at after the jump right here.

Heavy Hitter's: Part 2

Apothecary Akiel is a complicated model. The rules make him a monster in close combat, shooting, and the ability to fend off attacks... in a word... unstoppable!

Building Akiel is another matter.

5 Minute History: Baneblade Part One

The Baneblade first trundled into the Warhammer 40k universe in the Epic game system as the Glaive (Baneblade), along with its sister tank the Falchion (Stormsword) in January of 1990. Later that same year it would appear in White Dwarf  132, December 1990 (pg 47-56), as a construction project complete with templates, by Tony Cottrell (who now runs Forgeworld). Also included in this article was a data sheet for using the Baneblade in games of Warhammer 40,000 with acompanying damage chart and weapon effects.

(Picture from WD 132 - build from cardboard)

Painting: Brush Soap

Why, hello there.  Tallarn has twisted my arm to get me to delve into blogging.  Given that out of all the aspects of the hobby I am most proficient with a brush, posts from me will involve painting more often than not.  If there is anything you would like me to explain or do a tutorial on, do let one of us know!

Right, so, for this I'll be showing you the wonders of brush soap.  Yes, they make soap for cleaning your brushes, and this kind is $5 give or take.

Heavy Hitters: Part 1

It starts with me getting organized. Many are better painters, modelers, sculptors, but I know that I am better organized.The Bag pictured is filled with the 'tackle' boxes shown. Parts, tools, miniatures, it's all there in one 'tote bag of doom'!

Deep Thoughts: Priorities!

Why do we chronicle our hobby on blogs, forums, websites and the internet in general? Why do we take pictures, compose articles, set deadlines and creating posting schedules for ourselves? Is it for recognition, money or personal gain? I think not – hardly any of us will ever meet in real life, few of us will ever reach a number of hits high enough to create any positive income and there is very little personal gain involved in any of this. Yet, we continue to do it. Some of us even allowing it to consume ever more of our hobby time until the actual process of building, painting and playing with our armies, which is what got us into this in the first place, becomes little more than an afterthought.

Community: Old Stuff Day

Rob over at Warhammer 39,999 came up with the idea of Old Stuff Day, which apparently also falls on National Banana Cream Pie Day - so we will of course support it.

In October 2009 Mike at Santa Cruz Warhammer did a great tutorial on how he did some of his photoshop effects at the time. His article gave me some great ideas that I have used in the last couple of years more than a few times. Santa Cruz Warhammer

In June of 2009 Dave Taylor created a tutorial for what would later be called a 'Taylor Pattern Chimera', not only did he make an ork trukk into an Imperial Guard Chimera that looks great, but members of the community later dubbed the vehicle after him. Dave Taylor Miniatures

In December of 2009 Man Boy Genius posted a tutorial for how to turn a Valkyrie into a Jet fighter. Quite possibly one of the most creative and easy to accomplish variations for a kit I have seen in years, and it looks awesome to boot wheather you are building an Ork Bomber or an Imperial Thunderbolt. Spikey Bits