Artist in training...

My little one learning the basics of base coating. She's actually pretty good! :)

Distractions

I knew it was coming. I told myself that I wouldn't let it bother me. Of course that only lasted until 11/5 at about 12 noon. Like many of you, I ran down to my local hobby shop and picked up my spanking brand new, pre-ordered copy of codex Necrons. Doh! I tried. To be honest, (and if you haven't figured it out yet) 40K is my favorite game. Necrons are my largest army at present, and after my adventures (misadventures?) at NOVA 2011 a few months ago I was itching for a little update to my old friend Psemtekh and his followers. I posted a few pics of the models I intend to keep. The army is over eight years old but as it turns out they fit right into a current codex group, the Atun Dynasty. That will make painting future models real easy. I'll get some new models pics up soon. Enjoy.

Psemtekh with some upstart Autarch's head.

In the old days, the only suitable bodyguard for a lord, replaced by the awesome Lychguard.

My first attempt at lighting effects.

Rank and file Necron warriors. To make them look a little different I actually put plastic rod rivets in the heads of all 40 of my Necron Warriors. Yeesh!. Yes, I was insane back then. Don't want to have to do that again.

Buggers got a nice upgrade in the codex. I'll be gettin' more!

More to come...

Just wanted to get a few Ogre pics out. It's been a busy month for me but there's more to come.

WIP Hunter and Battle Standard bearer

NOVA Open 2011 results and reflections :Part 2

Finally got the time to finish this. So..where was I? Oh yeah, I just got creamed on the first day and was looking for the door. Lol! Truth be told I was really tired that day. Having stayed up until about 3am the morning before, then having to be ready to go at 8am and playing for about 10hrs can do that. Need sleep. Always better in the morning. So day 2 started like this....

Round 5: Blood Angels. Vehicle spam (again). 3 rzbks w/ las/plas. 4 predators: 3 las/autocn and 1 Baal. All asslt sqds: 2 jump, 3 on foot. 2 SanPriest, Chap, and Libra. 1 term sqd. Table quarters game. This battle was close. We fought well considering the opposition. Pretty even on KP's and VP's. Table quarters lost simply because he was faster (and had transports). Good game. I felt more confident with the army than the day before. My opponent went on to a 5-3 record winning his bracket with a 4-0 day. Good job Dave!

Round 6: This round was weird. After scaring away my next opponent (he quit the tourney, lol) it took about 30 mins to find another player. Imperial Guard. Heavy vehicle list. 3 Manticores (YIKES!), 3 Vendets (DBL YIKES!), 3 Vet sds, 1 Mech Inf plt. CC HQ squad w/ Chimera. Kill points game. The 3 manticores scared the crap outta me. I just knew I was dead but my Monolith and scarabs were the heroes of this game. Almost all of the heavy fire was placed on my Monolith. 3 turns of shooting from str 10 and 9 wpns and nada! WOOT!. While the heavy guns scratched the paint on my floating step pyramid, my scarabs proceeded to destroy 2 Vendets and 2 Chimeras with their Disruption fields. The last Chimera had the CC HQ and after immobilizing it, they surrounded and destroyed it with the HQ inside sealing my victory. Woosa!

Round 7: Black Templars. More vehicles. 3 Rzrbks w/twn-lnked las, 3 las Preds, 3 Typh spders. 2 term sqds, 4-6 man crusader squads (that actually fit in the rzrbks!) Emp's chump (champ), and chap. Objectives game. Almost pulled this one out. 3 to 2 on objectives. Damn vehicle spam is crazy!. This must have happened pre-heresy, lol. Pretty close game. Really cool player, rare for a BT player for sure.

Round 8: Grey Knights (finally). I was looking forward to this. I wanted to see how the Necrons would fare VS a recent list. Fortunately, I found the only GK player who reads the stories and didn't bring 5 damn Dreads with str 8 autocans. 2-10 man GK term sqds, 2 Dreads with said autocans, 1 tech marine, 1 librarian. Mordrak and ghost GK!?. No vehicles, Wow!. Table quarters game. This game went kinda quick. Because he had no vehicles he opted to DS the term squads. They didn't come in till turn 4! By then I had dismantled both dreads, killed the Librarian and pinned Mordrak and his ghost in 1 quarter. He came in hoping to free up Mordrak but ended up getting bogged down fighting 30 warriors, tomb spiders and scarabs. On the last turn I used the Monolith to port a squad to another quarter and brought my 1 DS unit on the board in another. Game over.

My list:


2000 Pts - Necrons Roster

HQ: Lord (1#, 200 pts)
1 Lord, 200 pts (Gaze of Flame; Phase Shifter; Phylactery; Resurrection Orb)

Elite: Immortals (7#, 196 pts)
7 Immortals, 196 pts

Troops: Warriors (20#, 360 pts)
20 Warriors, 360 pts

Troops: Warriors (10#, 180 pts)
10 Warriors, 180 pts

Troops: Warriors (10#, 180 pts)
10 Warriors, 180 pts

Fast Attack: Destroyers (5#, 250 pts)
5 Destroyers, 250 pts

Fast Attack: Scarab Swarms (10#, 160 pts)
10 Scarab Swarms, 160 pts (Disruption Field)

Fast Attack: Wraiths (3#, 123 pts)
3 Wraiths, 123 pts

Heavy Support: Monolith (1#, 235 pts)
1 Monolith, 235 pts

Heavy Support: Tomb Spyder (2#, 110 pts)
1 Tomb Spyder, 110 pts (Particle Projector)
1 Tomb Spyder (Particle Projector)

Composition Report:
HQ: 1 (1 - 2)
Elite: 1 (0 - 3)
Troops: 3 (2 - 6)
Fast: 3 (0 - 3)
Heavy: 2 (0 - 3)

Total Roster Cost: 1994


So my adventures at NOVA 2011 came to a close on a high note. My Necrons performed admirably for an old list. With the drawbacks that I mentioned before, I expected much worst. Two phase outs isn't bad. With the new codex we will see a few changes I'm sure. Until then I think I'll give 40k a little rest. I've been meaning to post some of my other interest and now is a good time to do that. Next time FOW and Warhammer.

NOVA Open 2011 results and reflections :Part 1

WOW! What a great weekend of gaming NOVA 2011 was. Big thanks to Mike Brandt and company for putting on a great event. I will definitely be attending next year, despite my record...ehm. My record you say?..Oh..well...it was respectable, considering what army I played. I ended up 3-5 using my Necrons of all things. Not only were they not tournament ready but the list is so outdated I didn't really stand a chance. But for some unconscious reason I really WANTED to play with them. I can't quite put my finger on it. But I still had a blast the whole weekend anyway, so now I'll give a few details.

The tourney was 8 games over a 2 day period, 4 games each day. First day was really a feeling out period, second day things were more serious. All of my oppenents were great sports and there were very few "disagreements" between players on the whole. In 3 of my 5 losses I won the victory point win condition, unfortunately that wasn't the primary condition of those games. I ended up with about 10000 VP out of a possible 16000 VP. Not too bad for Necrons if you ask me. Biggest drawback IMO to the Necron army is no transports. In all the games that I lost, my opponents had at least several troops with transports and a few more vehicles under heavy support options. Again my list wasn't tourney ready, which is my fault, but I was under no delusions that I would win anyway. I'm way to casual of a player to beat most of these guys. The top 10 or 15 guys live this stuff, so I expect them to trash most of us "army collectors" any day of the week. That being said, I think the best player I played ended up 6-2 and in the top 25 (Space wolves. GH and LF spam list) but only managed to win against me on the last turn of the game. Necrons are tough to kill but rarely put out enough damage to win against the newer list. New codex should see that issue resolved, along with a few others (PHASE OUT!!!!!!). Overall, I had a great time and look forward to doing it next year. Maybe even with some new and improved Necrons. Below is the game break downs for my weekend.

Round 1: Space Wolves. GH w/ Rhino spam. 3 LF squads and 2 WS squads. WG in all squads and a WG term squad. Objective game, went down to the wire but I lost with a phase out. Curses!!!

Round 2: Tau Empire. Battlesuit army. 15 suits w/ 3 heavies. 2 Flanking Kroot squads and 2 FW w/ DF. 2 HH tanks and 1 PTHF squad marking up stuff. Table quarters game, I doubled his VP's and tied on Table quarters. He won with Objectives by using the 2 FW w/ DF and flat outted on the last turn. Nothing I could do....sigh.....

Round 3: Blood Angels. Dante list with 3 SanGurd units with SanPriest in 2 and Dante in 1. Two 10 man asslt and two 5 man vangaurd squads. Kill Points game. I tabled this guy. His biggest mistake to me was making the 10 man asslt squads 5 man combats!? In a Kill Point game...bad decision. This guy had bad luck throughout the tourney. Real nice guy though and nicely painted BA.

Round 4: Ultramarines. Got to play a friend here, Jeff Wallichs. Any of the old GW crew will remember Jeff back during the Glen Burnie bunker days. Objectives game. Jeff's army was as fancy as they come (typical Ultramarines), complete with a laminated army list with background on characters (..as if we cared who they were) and pics and all the trimmings (kinda sickening if you ask me. LOL!) Jeff's army was also really heavy on firepower. 2 las/plas RB w/ tac sqds, 2 Sniper scout sqds, 2 TF cannons, landraider and vindicator. Oh yeah, and 5 attk bks and typhoon spder. Librarian and termies. Everyone played the back the whole game (more typical Ultramarines). The only ones to step up (and get thoroughly squashed for it) were the Termies. Basically shot me to pieces and then grabbed objectives. Phase out, again. Not good. (Jeff you still owe me lunch buddy. See you in Chi-town next year.)

1-3 on the day. Yikes! Next post will be day 2 and my list. Things get better. :)

Best laid plans

Sometimes, life throws you a curve ball. But, every now and then, it throws a bloody cannonball. In a mere 30 day or so all the plans I had made (as far as modeling goes) for the remainder of the year have totally changed. It started with a surge at work, then a delay in the mail. Add in a few favors and some invitations and presto! So much for best laid plans. Ok, let start over shall we. Firstly, Project: Genesis is in hiatus until further notice. I told you a little of what was going on there a few post ago so enough said. The invite I got was for NOVA Open Some of the old Wrecking Crew are coming to town, and since I missed Adepticon and WarGamesCon this year NOVA is it for me. That being said I needed an army in a hurry. After a week of mad scrambling I conceded to use an army I started a few years ago. So let go Ravens! Iron Ravens that is....

HOA deadline

He guys. Make sure you take the time to make a donation to the Heroes of Armageddon Charity Project. You have until midnight EST on Saturday July 23 to make your pledge. Your donation goes to support the Doctors Without Borders program. This program provides medical assistance all around the world to people who would otherwise not receive any care. Do your part and join with fellow gamers who have contributed their time and money to support this great charity. Thanks a lot to all those who have already donated!!

Long month!?

Wow, I don't think I realized how fast time could fly until these last few weeks. Everything seems to be a blur. Maybe I'm just gettin' old. Lol. Anyway, Its been almost a month since my last post so I'll pick up right where I left off. Here is the finished Steel Legion squad for HOA. I have a few pro shots that I'll post when I get them this weekend, but for now here are my "amateur" shots. Its not too late to donate to this charity project so head over to http://heroesofarmageddon.blogspot.com/ to find out how. Enjoy!

Long week

Been a long busy week for me as evident with the lack of post. Been prepping to go out of town all week only to have my trip cancelled today. Sucks... I'll post up the finished Steel Legion squad and a few prelim Genesis Chapter guys over the weekend.

Genesis!?

The gods of the warp have decided to toy with my GW order in an attempt to dissuade me from doing a new marine army. Going on day 12 and still no shoulder pads. Curses!.............

Steel Legion Update: Moving right along...

These guys are easy, but I didn't want to rush them. Anyhow, here is the most recent stage.

If you're wondering, I airbrushed these guys with GW Iyanden Darksun. I wanted to make the jackets really pop in comparison to the darker boots, mask and armor pieces so I primed everything white and washed down the jackets. Later, I'll trim up the leather and armor parts then highlight them. Should be done with them within a week. Dave and the guys did a great job with the tanks this weekend. Can't wait to see how the flaking turned out.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning...

I was inspired the other day. I was hanging out at the new Bowie Bunker in MD when it happened. I ran into a young player that I hadn’t seen in a long time. This guy had been coming to the bunker (back when it was in Glen Burnie, MD) since he was in his teens. He and I got to talking and he was eager to show me this army that he started several years ago. As he began pulling it out, I was awed by the sheer number of models that he had. Not just that, but also that they were all fully painted and based (believe me, that’s rare these days). I was both proud and humbled by this kid (yes, I’m that old that I can call a person in his twenties a kid). When was the last time that I’d finished an army so completely, so diligently!? I mean, he had almost everything in the army list done. I congratulated him on a job well done and left with a big question mark in my mind. Why can’t I do that anymore!? Why can’t I finish an army to that level of completeness, without losing interest and jumping to something else? While driving home I made up my mind to do just that. What better place to start than with a new beginning! A genesis if you will...

Steel Legion Update

Some pics of the Steel Legion squad I'm doing for the Heroes of Armageddon Charity project.

Heroes of Armageddon: Steel Legion

So I have officially joined the build team for the HoA a.k.a Heroes of Armageddon Charity project. I have to thank Dave over at Dave Taylor Miniatures for allowing me to help out. I missed out on last years Storm Wardens Charity project (something that I'm still kicking myself about), but not this time. I have requisitioned a squad of Steel Legion guardians from my own reserves to report for duty. I'll be building and painting these over the next week or so and I'll post up some picks as soon as their done. If you want to contribute to this great charity cause then check out the HOA site to find out how! L8tr for now....

Project Cadia: Part 1

Project Cadia was my effort to create an entire Imperial Guard regiment. It has taken on several different incarnations over the years, but with the current codex I think I may finally be able to complete it. That being said, here are a few pics of the most recent additions to the growing XXVI Cadian Regimental Combat Team (RCT). 

The 2-piece plastic Cadians are a blessing from the Emperor!

The old MK Leman Russ tanks add a bit of history to the regiment.

I still have to add some more unit markings and details to the tanks and infantry.

I'm working on a custom unit symbol and a short tutorial on how I painted the infantry. With the ridiculous amount of models I intend to have I won't be done painting them anytime soon. More to come...

The Jade Tigers have a new home!

For those of you who can remember, here are a few pics of my personal chapter. The 2006 Golden Demon 40k Squad Champs. The pics are not great (still need that new camera), but they are up!

Stoopid Camera!!!

Try as I might, I couldn't get the camera to take pics good enough to post. Curses...! I guess a 5MP job isn't good enough anymore, lol. I'm gonna have to invest in a REAL camera in the near future. Tomorrow I'll see if I can pull a few pics from my hard drive. I think I have some left over from a few competitions I entered a while back. We'll see.....

Gettin' started...

Finally done!! I think I changed this thing about a hundred times since yesterday, but here we are. Now as soon as I can get this camera to work right I'll get some pics posted up :)...BB soon