Eating Crow....sorta...

o/

Not sure where that term came from, I first heard it via Spencer on 40k Radio.

Anyways, when I heard that the new 8th ed WHFB rulebook was $75-$125 depending on which version you bought, I pitched a fit. WTF?!? I haven't played the game in close to two years now, and I'm NOT spending that kind of money just to see if I want to be bothered with it again. Really? $100ish for an update, even if you have an army? Good deal or not, the Starter box coming at a cost of $100 as well seems like a serious error in judgment. When I was a kid, had I asked my Mom to buy me a game @ that cost because it looked neat would have been met with a firm 'no, put it back' (off topic train, hang on why I redirect).

Anyways, a few regiments went on ebay, one sold with no interest in the others and back on the shelf they went (I had a similar experience last year). I've since heard that horde armies have gotten a good boost, and fielding Night Goblins, I started to wonder. After all of my bitching & screaming over costs of 8th ed., and being more or less indifferent to whether or not I even want to deal with the game, I've decided to keep the goblins.

Some of them anyways.

When the boxed set comes out, I only need to wait a few weeks, and then I can buy the little rulebook online for $15-$20 or so. So, as a compromise, I've only put the units I'm not fond of on ebay, trimming the horde down to a 1k list. 1k (despite containing more than 100 minis, it fits in a smallish box, so is easily contained, already paid for, and barring 10 gobbos, fully painted (not a flocked base in sight though).

Here's what's left:



Aside from fanatics, squig hoppers are 'the premiere unit' in a night goblin army.

The 'lobba' in back was 'captured' from some Kaos stunties....ok, from Da Long Ways Dezert Groop, but they shoot rocks out of it too, so does it matter? I don't like the WHFB lobba kit, however as that crew is made of the only non-night goblin models in the army, if I decide I like the game, I may replace it with a doom diver (though truth be told, I don't much like that kit either).

Anyways, with the crow eaten, I now have an army who's only real strength is sheer numbers. This is nothing new of course as it takes good karma, the proper alignment of celestial bodes, and the potential sacrifice of a live squid (not so easily attainable in eastern Tennessee) for night goblins to win anyways.

Monday Morning Update.

o/

Not a whole lot is new since my screaming FW rant.

Murl came over Thursday evening for a game of BFG. He'd never faced the Orks before and made the mistake of closing with them quickly. Once you're within 15cm (eavy gunz' range) the Ork fleet is in its element and in short order, three Chaos Murder class cruisers fled the field leaving the shattered remains of their fleet behind them.

Friday evening Screech came over to to pick up that infernal Medusa (as I wouldn't be @ the FLGS this past weekend). He seemed pleased with the model. He mentioned getting another one, to which I informed him that he'd be on his own. He had also brought his Imperial BFG fleet, and the Orks went to battle once more. I would like to say that they weren't yet fully recovered from the previous evening's engagement. However, I think it was an EPIC failure to brace for impact, despite a reroll on my Deth-Deala class battleship (Da' Orktown) when it was caught between 2 locked on Dominators on one side, and a locked on battlecruiser (the class escapes me) on the other. With da' Orktown badly crippled in one turn, my Orks never really recovered and were eventually tabled.

Ah well that was the first defeat for my Ork fleet, was bound to happen.

On the painting front I painted my shoota boyz Nob.

They say the camera adds 10lbs, or for minis, 10 mistakes. So after this was taken, several touch ups were made. Anyways, this is actually the one-off Flash Git mini that GW has made. Personally I would think a flash git's equipment would be 'flashier' but it works well enough for a nob.

'For Experienced Modelers'

o/

Time to rant! I haven't done this in a while (on here anyways).

'For Experienced Modelers' (or was it 'Hobbyists'?) was posted on the Forgeworld website for the longest time as resin cast miniatures are rather ornery to deal with. I say 'was' as I looked for that statement this morning on their website and didn't see it. Does that mean that FW is for novices?

No, HELL no!

Now, I have many FW models & conversion kits (indeed I have some being shipped to me right now), so I'm pretty used to working with their models and have always been pleased with what I've bought. This past week however I've been working on an Armageddon pattern Medusa for a friend of mine. Which basically means that my evenings have been filled with excessive amounts of profanity!

This is the tank owner's first FW purchase and it came 'warped all to hell' in his words. Warps in resin is fairly common and easily corrected with some hot water, time, and knowing that doing a little at a time is MUCH better than trying to do it all at once. Resin is brittle, so care must also be taken when removing gates to avoid breakage. Resin needs to be washed & scrubbed (sometimes repeatedly as in this case to remove all of the release coating), sanding requires going outside & wearing a respirator mask as resin dust is toxic, etc. These things are not the cause of my ire, they're just the nature of the beast. My complaint is in regards to miscasted pieces.

Personally I think this model should have been returned/exchanged for a new one. I told him that FW's customer service is first rate to deal with, but he didn't want to wait a month and a half for replacement parts (ironically, I've had the tank in my possession for roughly that length of time). Miscasted parts included:

•The enclosed compartment had a terrible miscast line on the left, outside edge.
•The lower hull interior piece with the ammo shells on it, the molds had obviously slid/shifted during casting.
•The rear hatch/ramp didn't fit the opening at all requiring excessive sanding (and I still don't like the result).
•The interior of the enclosed compartment had excessive flash (globs really) in damned near impossible places to reach yet would be visible on the finished model.
•The medusa cannon molds slid/shifted down the entire length of the barrel.
•The cannon's breach has a gate and is half filled with globs.
•Virtually every warped piece was warped in a different direction (ok, warps are the norm, but it does get old when you have to fix virtually every piece in the kit, and I am ranting).

Really?

I dread the thought of a super heavy anything after this experience! Checking the currency exchange rates (for today) means he effectively paid $89.25 (shipping included) for that! Now I know that this is not a new model, and molds do age/wear out. So shouldn't that mean that the model should be removed from production while the molds are recast rather than just blindly producing garbage (whomever put these parts into the bag was NOT a quality control person) while making people pay through the nose for it? The 'for experienced modelers' clause now seems to reek of a license to pump out substandard quality.

Again while its not my tank/decision to make, I think the model should have been replaced/exchanged, and odds are FW would have done that without question (though who knows what sort of quality the replacement would have had). However somebody @ FW saw the lack of quality in these pieces and shipped them out anyways.

Ok, rant over, here are the photos of the tank. The major components aren't glued together to allow for painting, which isn't 'my department'. Sorry the photos aren't the best as it was late and i was thoroughly aggravated with the tank at the point where the camera came out.










In the end, when painted, it'll probably get lots of 'oohs & ahhs' however I can assure you that you'll never see an Armageddon Pattern tank in my inventory.

Anuver day, anuver Deffkpota

Feels that way sometimes...

o/

Not too much this time around, though I did paint a DeffKopta yesterday.

As you can see this one has a buzz saw. I could call that a 'konvershun' however it was such an easy add-on that I don't think it really qualifies.

Saturday night I got a game in with my CSMs. I would like to say it was a glorious victory but in all honesty my opponent's dice failed him so horribly, that its really hard to gauge just how my army did. The sole exception to that was my all plasma havoc squad in a rhino. Four plasma guns and an aspiring champion with plasma-bolter hopped out, opened fire, and none of my guys died (indeed only one shot missed). When the smoke cleared a lone Gray Hunter was left before them which the remaining Havocs with bolters took down. Beyond that one moment, his dice rolling was so bad that evaluating my army's performance is debatable at best.

That's all I have really. As short as this post is, I'll throw in some 'filler'. Here's a looted wagon that I'm posting as a query for legality for the upcoming Chattanooga Classic tournament. The T.O. seems to be lenient on Konvershuns, but as this isn't based on a GW model I wanted to be sure prior to using it.


Its an old Armorcast Scorpion generic Sci-Fi tank. When I bought this it was new in the box & out of production, that may have changed though as Armorcast seems to be in better health than in the past.

I forgot that they put details inside of rhinos!

Yeah the title pretty much says it all. Its been a while since I've built a Rhino, and the two that I already had (currently) were of the older style. So, while assembling my Chaos rhino on Friday I had to do a quick stop building & paint session to finish the interior before gluing the roof on.


Looks alright I suppose.

Also I got a free ticket to the nationwide series NASCAR race this week, so I took the camera to play around with the settings. I won't bore you with racing pics (in most cases they were blurs anyhow, even at caution speeds) but about 20 rows in front of me I did find this:

The zoom works good!

Ok, so maybe I should read the instructions....

o/

Well I got a new digital camera, a Canon A3000. It was kinda late last night, so I just pulled it out of the box, snapped a few photos, uploaded them to my computer and figured that was good enough.

Did I read the instructions? No.

Did I try to find the correct setting? No.

The result: Kinda grainy.

So I suppose I'll have to actually read the manual a bit to see what I'm doing wrong/not doing at all/etc.

Anyways here are a few shots...

An Aurora Scout, one of the few I have painted.


My new Demon prince-turned Greater Demon of Malal (which is why there are no wings).

Inquisitor Proust and two of his 'slaught troopers' (warriors w/hellguns). I have enough to do a full storm trooper squad and these boys (they're old VOR Rad Troopers) have obviously been inhaling too much in the way of drugs, thus their emaciated appearance & my justification for the 4+ save. After all, it doesn't hurt when you're high! The inquisitor is an old SM mini that was featured recently on the Gentleman's ones (well his mini, not mine), and posted for comparison purposes at B.Smoove's request.

Screen shot! (sorta) I'm still using a PC keyboard on my Mac mini, and as I don't have an apple key, I can't take screen shots. Anyways this is my cash cow in EVE online, its an asteroid mining ship classed as a 'Hulk' and named Lou Ferrigno. Asteroid mining in EVE is as much fun as watching paint dry, which is why i often paint minis while mining (so I really am watching paint dry). From past conversations via in-game local (solar system), corp (like a guild), and alliance channels, there are quite a few miners that are painting minis while mining in EVE.

Geek Multi-tasking FTW!

Anyways that's all I've got for this week. I'll be fielding my CSM army this weekend to try out the Greater Demon. By just arriving on the table top he'll be garnering a victory for Malal (by the way, if you don't know who Malal is, click here), as it'll kill an aspiring minion of one of Malal's rivals. Most of the army is unpainted still, and has once again raided the Imperial motor pool for rhinos & a predator. While I call my CSMs the 'Blood Eagles' the 'Scavengers' seems more appropriate...

Birthday Presents!

o/

Its my birthday today, woohoo! Well not really, just kindova normal day. 35 isn't one of the 'exciting' ages that warrants a party or anything. As a kid, birthdays always meant TOYS! (and invariably new clothes for school, bleh). Then you grow up, and the toys go away, unless...you're a gamer! Then the toys never go away!

Usually the family just sends money, which this year will go towards a new camera (hopefully I'll get that tonight) and a tune up for my ol' truck (which I first test drove 14 years ago today). My two best friends though, Screech & Murl are also gamers, so they buy toys. Murl got me a new plastic demon prince. I'll be using this as 'The Doomed One' (a greater Demon of Malal). Screech bought me another Forgeworld Sabre Defence Platform with a quad heavy stubber (FW doesn't make renegade gunners anymore though, so will need to convert one)! The Quad stubber Sabre is one of my favorite units (useless as it is, he figured it would be the least threatening thing he'd have shooting at him). He also gave back my AoBR quad autocannon Dread that I traded to him for a sentinel a few months back. He doesn't need it, and the Dark Hands are no longer on the auction block, so he figured it was best to send it back 'home'. Lastly as a birthday present to me, I bought a chaos rhino for my Blood Eagles CSMs. They're desperate for transports, and I picked up the Slaanesh FW doors last time I did an order. The winged emblem on the FW doors are pretty close to the decals that I'm using for them.

So all in all a pretty good haul I'd say! Hopefully I'll have some WIP photos of the demon prince later in the week.

Orks & Scum

Ya know, with a title like that, it begs the question: Is there a difference between the two?

Anyways, here's a group shot of my Orks that I'm going to try out this weekend.

Sorry, my coffee table has a glass top, so you can see right through to all the junk underneath. I also need to check their camera settings, as the photo looks kinda grainy for no reason that I can think of.

Anyways, this is kindova trial run on the army I'm looking to run for the Chattanooga classic in October. Da Masta Cheef himself isn't present, rather I have a big mek on a bike & weird boy who are vying for the chance to be his sidekick in the tourney itself. I've also only ever run a handful of deff koptas, so this will be the first outting with damned near a full air wing.

As for the 'Scum' in the title...

Here's just a little something I cooked up for a character background for Dark heresy. So far the 'underhive Scum' has the most appeal to me. When talking with a friend of mine the other day, I was asked what kind of character I would like to play, and the first thing that came to mind was a sociopath. Now true the following doesn't fit that description, but it does kinda work for the typical scumbag (mixed with a healthy does of my usual sense of humor).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I'm stuck with you lot eh? What? No I didn' do nuthin, really it was like this...

Jus' like any self respecting underhive scum I was working as a roadie for a band named KISS. Was lots of really loud and bad music all the time, and the band wore lots of really weird make up & costumes. Wasn't the best gig I coulda pulled I guess, but there was lotsa good drugs and women beggin to see the band. They're always willing to do anything to see 'em and were always around. So...ya know, the job had good 'benefits' an' all.

Life was good till this one show when the damned Arbitrators showed up! Guns blazing, cyber dogs, the works! The band fled. They like just disappeared into thin air! A bunch of the crew got killed, sorry lot they were. The cops got me an' then thrown me in the lock up. Turns out I can't read High Gothic. Yeah I know, it sucks. Anyways how was I supposed to know that the gibberish in front of KISS was "Harlequin's"? Explains the make up & costumes I guess, jus' figured it to be an off-worlder thing, ya know? Any Emperor fearing soul like me isn't supposed to know about the...what was the word? Xenos. Yeah that was it I think, Xenos. Yeah, I thought that was pretty weak too, but best I could think of on the fly. They sure as hell didn't buy it, fucking cops!

Anyways I was waitin' for execution when the Inquisitor investigatin' the band figured my 'insight' or something like that. It was a weird word the Inquisitor used, into the Xenos he called 'Eldars' might be useful to his network. I suppose he was talking about KISS. Ya know, the band. Anyways, he said my sentence wasn't commuted, only postponed as my death is inevitable. Another fancy word of his.

Whatever.

Anyways, I'm taking that bunk over there, you touch my stuff I'll knife ya, an' somewhere where you'll die slow. Oh, an' if ya lose anything, I'm sure I got one jus' like it. I can sell it bac..err...um to ya for a good price. Cause, you know, we're all on the same side.

Right?

Da Roag Skwadrun!

o/

Well I got my gift card/refund from office depot for my crappy camera, but I haven't gotten a new one yet. I do however have my grandparent's digital camera this week as they wanted me to save their photos to a cd as the camera was almost full. So THAT means I have a photo this week!

Behold:

So, can you find the screwed up one with the serious aerodynamic issues?

Boy, it sure is nice to actually see what is in the photo!

Anyways, I have no idea who will be Wej Antilly as of yet. I was asked if I'll be naming all of the pilots after those in the books, but as I've not read the books, the answer is no. Currently the only one with a name is the bloo one named (yup, you guessed it) 'BLOO THUNDA!' That one also has a buzz saw. I have four more of those left on the Catachan Sentinel sprues from which it came, all of which will be added to various koptas. The dezert colored one on the right is the newest paint job. It originally was converted to a twin-linked big shoota, but I didn't like it, so it was converted back into a twin-linked rokkit launcha (and oddly enough, I like it more than the standard fit, but don't have the bitz to convert anymore to match). It also has a big bomm as does the bleached bone kopta, and one of the others behind them. To date, big bomms have effectively done squat for me, however I just HAD to use those cool looking wrecking balls from the trukk kit for something!

The Imperium's dented can sale

Image found on google search & used without permission.

‘Howdy folks!

‘You lookin’ for a tank?’

‘That so? Well you came to the right place! Yes sir, best tanks the Imperium has to offer this side of the Eastern Fringe!’

‘Whatcha lookin for specifically? Fire support, main battle, APC, infantry fighting, I’ll have one of the boys look; we still might have a skimmer or two round ba—what’s that?’ ‘Infantry fighting?’

‘Infantry fighting it is!’

‘Here, now will ya jus look at this little darlin’ right here? Got her a few years back, jus’ been a waitin’ for the right owner to show up. Wouldn’t sell the ol’ gal to just anyone ya know? Some Guard tanker would have her blown to bits in a week’s time.

But you? You two look as though you were made for each other, now looky here; multi-laser, heavy bolter, searchlight & smoke, all sorts of extra hull stowage, so the locals will knows you means business! An look at that after market turret, that's sure to make some heads turn! She’s even gotta new coat of paint, gave it to her this week. Something in my head tol’ me that you were com---whoa, whoa there! Have yer boys put their guns away! I jus’ had a hankerin’ that’s all, no witches here I can assure you!’

‘Ok, ok now…where were we?

‘Oh yes you were just about to—what’s that?

Looks like a 13 year old built it?

Sir I can’t believe you’d suggest that I’d try to sell you a wha-huh? Amateurish green stuff job?

THAT sir is a reinforced weld. Nothing’ll keep the fire from some vile flithy Xenos out like that! Now you listen to me, she runs great and will do you no wrong! You sign right here on the dotted line an’ we’ll get you two all fixed up, what d’ya say?’

‘Wha-?’

‘By the authority of the immortal Emperor, just what the hell d’you think this---okay, okay…I’ll let ya have her, jus’ put yer guns away! Honest, we’re all Emperor fearin’ souls here!’

‘I’ll let you slide just this once Mister Inquisitor Sir.’

So I bought a Chimera off of ebay sometime back and it was junk. 'OOP Collector's item, ready to use/display, yada yada...' Fuzzy photo, old style plow (the one with the spikes) made it the 'OOP Collector's item' I guess. Upon opening its package for inspection, the tank literally fell apart in my hands. Worst assembly job I've seen! Before or since, but what do ya expect for $10, right? I've fiddled, doctored & converted it as best as I could on and off, even replacing the turret with one from Old Crow miniatures, but its still kinda ugly. Discarding its original intended purpose, my renegade IG veterans have been riding around in it for a while now. Who else would use such a wreck?

Well, turns out my Inquisitorial forces.

I've never painted the model (beyond a few primer coats) as I realized it'll always look like a wreck. Not too inspiring. Some tanks are just beyond salvage. However my renegades don't need a Chimera, whereas my Inquisition does. They only have 2 rhinos. One, painted specifically for the Imperial Forestry Service squad, and the other in bright fucking red! However about 2/3 of my Inquisition minis are either scaly green and/or gray. Not wanting to repaint a rhino, they'll get the crummy ol' Chimera. I suppose the wear & tear on it's hull will help it blend in with local PDF forces or something. I'll probably give it a flat coat of scaly green and just pick out the details before dry brushing (when I'm not painting Orks that is).

Sorry, still no camera and thus, no photos.

A few updates.

Mornin' Folks,

Well, my former camera arrived at Office Depot's warranty HQ in TX last week, so I'm just waiting for them to go through the motions of processing my claim and sending me my gift card to put towards a new/better camera. Still no option for me to take any photos though. Which is a shame as I was working on my Orks again in hopes of taking Da Long Ways Dezert Groop itself to the Chattanooga Classic in October.

After removing non-GT legal models (my Battlewagon & one of my looted tanks, as they're not based on GW kits) I have about 1600-1700 points of Orks painted. This weekend I set to finishing off my lobbas battery, painting the Mek-turned-Runtherd, 5 grot krew (bringing the Lobba krew's total to 12) and flocking their bases. All I have left to do for that unit are the three ammo grots. After they're done I'll paint my shoota boyz Nob (the 1-off GW Flash Git model), and then divide my time between killa kans and deffkoptas.

I was looking for a point sink to flesh out the army cheaply while improving my anti-tank ability and adding in some much needed power klaws. Mega nobs were my first thought after having them tear my IG a new one at the Meltdown tourney. However even on ebay the best deal I could find was $16 each. Needing at least three, add in mad doc Grotsnik to add survivability, a trukk to transport...aaaaand that cost too much. So prowling ebay some more, I found and bought six deffkoptas still on the sprue for $20, shipping included!

With a total of 12 koptas, I'll now have a veritable air wing (already named 'Wej Antilly's Roag Skwadrun)! fielding 10 with twin rokkits, 1 with twin big shootas, and 1 with KMB (the latter two won't see action in the tourney as with my buggy skwadrun already painted, I'll be 'limited' to 10). One of my painted koptas has the IG sentinel chainsaw underneath for use as a buzz saw (essentially a power klaw), and I have 4 more on sprues. So that'll take care of my much needed anti-tank support, while still having the speed to keep up with and to support all my trukks (and hopefully drawing fire off of the kans).

...and in other news...

(Copyrights of Fantasy Flight Games & GW, neither used with permission)

I picked up a copy of Rogue Trader off of ebay for about $25, shipping included. Just wanted something to read when I go to bed. I like to read a bit to kinda unwind, but novels are no good as I often will look over at my alarm clock and realize that its 1am!! Always liking Rogue Traders, and having a BFG RT fleet, I figured it would be a good fluff/back ground read, yet won't hook me into it like a novel's story. However I was talking with a few friends after gaming @ the FLGS last Saturday, and we're thinking of trying out Dark Heresy, so now I need to pick that book up too.

I've only ever dabbled in RPGs over the years. Either not being able to keep up with the number crunchers (note: don't try to learn to RPG with a bunch of engineering students) when it came to all the modifier/die rolls, not knowing the background of the game to know how to properly act (all but murdering any realism, such as it is...) and boring 'adventures' (which often lead to me having more fun antagonizing party members than our imaginary adversaries) more or less killing any campaign that I was a party to. I've never had what would be called a 'good' DM, although the guy looking to run our campaign has DM'ed a few times before (including DH games), and all of us being 40k gamers for years, we know the background frontwards, backwards and sideways. So that's promising.

I haven't RPGed at all in 7-8 years give or take, but after listening to thaco, my favorite podcast for quite some time (even though its RPG centric, their sense of humor is very much on my wavelength) I've kinda been in the mood to give RPGs another try. It'll be a few weeks to get that organized though, and to fill out a group with good chemistry (the local gaming scene is very 'clique-ish'), so more updates on that to come I suppose.