My side projects continue.

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I've gotten four more BB players (and a ball marker) painted these past few days. I usually paint them in pairs, one lineman & one of the other position models. This brings me up to eight finished. Enthusiasm seems to be bubbling just under the surface here locally, so I suppose I ought to download & reread the rules again.

In truth this was probably a good time to pick up a team as I'm once again heading towards 40k burnout. I play minimum once a week, often two or three times. Plus, no longer having the vast array of armies that I once had, I cycle through my lists with greater frequency making it easy to get bored with what I've got (and due to the incessant price hikes, its even more difficult to change that). So we're kinda looking at alternative games. The cheaper the better (in contrast to that statement, I do need to get some more Heavy Gear minis).

Blood Bowl I can do (assuming someone has a board, dice, templates, etc.), Necromunda & BFG, good to go, and I recently ordered a handful of Skaven off of ebay to use for a possible Mordheim warband. NO, I'm NOT making a new WHFB army (I've already had to state a few times)! I figure all I'd need is a single regiment box, and I'd have all I need to play. My city fight terrain isn't quite right for Mordheim, but should be close enough.

Speaking of ebay, I finally sold off the remnants of the 110th Ryza IG. The funds from that in turn paid for a cheap guardian squad to use with my FW conversion kit, as well as two extras to make an extra Exodite heavy weapon team. I also got a dirt cheap ($11 with shipping) Scout squad (both squads are still on the sprue). That should bring the Exodites up to about 1200 points, and the Aurora....well I have some ideas for them, but that's for later as those plans are contingent on this week's ebay auctions.

How much terrain is too much?

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So? What's the answer to that question? The photo at right is my game table as it looks now (and soon to be the sight of a gun-line IG vs. renegade gun-line IG slug fest). This is the amount of terrain I prefer, and what you see just gets rearranged periodically. It seems like a fair amount of terrain and I prefer terrain to be a bit more dense than what is generally encountered @ game shops. I want it to look like a battlefield, not a game table with the random allotment of terrain scattered about with little to no thought.

This really hasn't been an issue except that lately I've been facing Nids on a regular basis, and despite what 'teh interwebz' insist, that the Nids suck, they've been giving me a hellova time! One factor that the Hive mind has frequently mentioned is the amount of terrain I have. Most game shops seem to have their terrain doled out rather sparsely, and the lack of cover is what he insists is benefiting his army.

Its kinda hard to compare as our FLGS' city table is on par with mine (just with bigger buildings), while their desert table is quite literally, a desolate wasteland with minimal cover. Nids however are a rarity @ the FLGS.

So is terrain my problem with nids? I generally play 'fluffier' lists, but the nids aren't exactly optimized either (well, maybe not...), however running a 2 v 1 game with the '2' being a Nids/Vraks renegades in a split force org, not even (according once again to 'teh interwebz') the vaunted Space Wolves and their death star unit could stand up to them (and the Vraks shooting was less than stellar).

So what the hell?

Unnver Kan

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Just a quick post today.

My buddy neverness posted pics of his Orks and it occurred to me that Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop army itself hasn't gotten much attention on here of late, so I thought I'd paint 'unnver kan' (as can be seen below).
I thought I'd paint it blue to match my older can till I can build the rest of my kans (an' cuz bloo's a lucky color). However I got to a nice dark blue and figured that that was close enough (the old metal kan is more of a baby blue). Then I thought I'd paint some parts purple, just to be different. That was kinda bland looking so I added some yellow for contrast....and in the end it came out kinda 'meh'. That said its still a lot better looking mini than the old blue kan.

Forming the team.

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As expected, the plastic BB minis are quite easy to paint and I can crank them out relatively quickly. I already had an idea for a theme, so the decision on a color scheme was relatively easy as well. I wasn't sure how I wanted to number the players, so I tried large & small decals. Finding both pleasing to the eye, I decided to keep the small front & back numbers on the linemen, and the larger numbers on the more specialized players.

As for theme...

Of all of the provinces in the Empire, Stirland has always been my favorite, most likely because C. L. Werner's Mathius Thulmann series (my favorite of the various Warhammer series) takes place primarily in Stirland.

Stirland is considered to be the 'backwater' of the Empire (like the rest of it is so civilized). Relatively poor, Stirland's armies' uniforms tend to be mismatched and grubby in appearance, and often sporting their traditional heraldic colors of green and yellow (true BB teams aren't part of the army, but the team ownership is obviously of the patriotic sort). As everyone knows, when it comes to painting I'm firmly in the 'green is best' category. So a dirty, mismatched look for a bottom rung Stirland Blood Bowl team is what I aim to make.

The first thing any self respecting BB team needs is a good name. Going with the Stirland theme, I googled & downloaded a nicely detailed map of the province, and then pondered names for a bit (with a bedazzling array of possibilities). In the end I kept coming back to the capital city of Wurtbad. A name so awful that I had to use it in some way. Going several rounds with that, the perfect name finally came to me: The Wurtbastards.

Perfect!

Then of course the players themselves need names. The important ones anyways, linemen tend to fall into the faceless masses unless they rank up some impressive skills down the road. Most names generally come in time, after a notable in-game moment or some such thing. I do have one named player thus far though, my thrower (and as is always fun, a little story to go with it).

The bastard son of a wealthy burgomeister, Ben took a fondness to Blood Bowl in his youth and started playing as soon as he was able. Blessed with a natural affinity for the game, he quickly rose to preeminence with the sport, and it seemed that he could do no wrong. That's when the trouble started. A famed womanizer (like most Blood Bowl players), after a few dalliances with the wives & daughters of nobility led to a never ending string of legal troubles. Soon these troubles overshadowed his skill on the field, and political pressures of the angry nobility sent his career into a downward spiral. Given this reputation, any woman of worth kept their distance, leaving him no choice but to partake of Empire's the brothels. Now only the worst teams are willing to risk the political & legal baggage that comes along with the adding 'Ben Brothels-Berger' to their roster.

I found a few things to talk about.

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My Sister's wedding went rather flawlessly this past Saturday and the happy couple are probably on the beach in Florida right now! (actually as hectic as the past week was, and as early as it is right now, they're probably sound asleep) Anyways, despite a lack of hobby related progress over the weekend, I did have a few things pop up late last week.

First, The Triceratops exhibit is done!!!! Given the rush to get things done towards the end, the sacrum & the replacement ribs weren't painted by me, but they're reasonably close to my paint jobs so most people don't notice. The rib casts I had originally painted weren't usable for a variety of reasons as I expected. All in all it was a fun project involving close to a dozen people (mostly volunteers like myself) and a lot of hard work!

It'll be on display in the museum's traveling exhibit hall for another month or so and then...somewhere else, probably the new annex which is still under construction (but almost ready to open). The Museum will have possession of the cast for another year and a half or so.

Next I have a veritable can o' worms as you can see @ left. On a whim, and for no particular reason, I bought a cheap, plastic human Blood Bowl team off of ebay. I have 17 total (the 11 you don't see here are bathing in simple green right now) as well as two ball markers. I haven't played Blood Bowl in years, and admittedly don't have much desire to. THAT said, once Murl of the former 13th Cadian blog sees this post, he'll likely start foaming at the mouth with enthusiasm to play (much like when he discovered my Cygnar when I had thought about trying Warmahordes MkII).

I played in a BB league some years back, but it wasn't much fun. Trying to learn a game (with lizardmen, a bad choice I was told) in a league where everyone is playing to win (and thrown dice were not uncommon) is more or less a recipe for failure. On the pro side, BB has a low mini count (like Mordheim & I wouldn't mind trying that again, hint, hint...), and encourages the use of funny/parody styled names the latter of which I always find appealing (and more on that later in the week).

And last but not least (or maybe it is the least, ...snicker...) another friend of mine has jumped onto the blogging bandwagon starting the Warfrog's Hobby Blog. He's bursting with enthusiasm (indeed there were 4 separate posts yesterday alone!), but once the 'shiny & new' feeling wears off I figure he'll settle into a normal posting routine. Go & check it out!

Greater Demon-Part 2

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Part 1 was waaay back here (and it took a bit of searching for me to find, despite the CSM tag).

Anyways, The Doomed One, my greater demon of Malal is almost done! Here it is:
Greater demons have a tendency to pop out and get shot to death, so they're not that great, but for a mere 100pts., how can I resist? If it does make it into HTH, then it tends to fair quite well, no matter what it's fighting. I repainted the armor from my original color scheme as it invariably pops out of a Purge aspiring champion (which always pleases Malal greatly, fluff FTW!). Usually (but not always) its the poor bastard with the combi-melta as he's the least dangerous of my aspiring champions.

I still have my eternal loathing of basing minis (you would think that game 3 editions after I stopped over complicating my bases I'd be over that) but as this base is so large, I had to do something aside from my usual glue & flock mix. While I didn't have a spare Plague Marine helmet, I did dig out a regular CSM helmet out of the bitz box along with a CSM bolter and combat knife. These items no doubt were worn/held by the Purge marine that was so recently possessed!

Nice, simple, works for me.

I'm still outta clear coat, so the model isn't quite done. It still needs a coat of matte varnish, followed by 'ard coat to make certain areas looks wet (the bloody claws for example). However my sister's wedding is this weekend, so I won't be anywhere near a hobby shop for the next week or so (and I may be a bit late on posting next week as there will be NO hobby progress this weekend).

Da Green Skwadrun

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I didn't have a whole lotta time to paint this past Sunday. Usually I go to my grandparent's house for the afternoon & dinner. However as it was Mother's day, I was the one doing the cooking rather than Ma. So, knowing there would be little time for painting, I brought along some BFG ships.

Little more than an exercise in dry brushing, and picking out a few details here and there, BFG escorts fit my limited time slot just right. I have three skwadruns, each of a different type and this is the first painted one. These are onslaught attack ships, and with D6 shots @ 30cm they are one of the few skwadruns in the fleet that doesn't try/need to get into point blank range ASAP.

Also on the gaming front, Saturday my Exodites teamed up with some alpha strike Mechdar allies and we took on a Death Star SW army. It was a good game that seemed to be in the our favor, yet the Eldar victory wasn't decided till the bottom of turn 7!

The best games are always those that come down to the wire. ;-)

Real Life, CSMs & pair of Exodites

Makes for an odd grouping when you think about it...

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Notta whole lot on the hobby front this week. I've been kinda busy dealing with the hail damage my home received in last week's storms. Compared to what you've all no doubt seen on the news, I am quite grateful that the damage to my home was more or less cosmetic and I have no reason to complain. My heart goes out to those who were not so fortunate (and many of those were not too far away).

A neighbor of mine who's homeowner insurance co. is the same as mine was told that they may not get to him for another week on out to a month. About half of Tennessee got hit pretty hard in one way or another, so they've been overwhelmed. It does give me time to look for a new vehicle though, as my ol' truck will be totaled out due to hail damage. I may have to get a salvage title for it in the interim, I just have to wait and see.

I did get these to Exodites painted, but not clear coated though. I seem to have run out of that. About the only difference in appearance from what you see here will be the addition of 'ard coat on the gems, eye lenses & such.

I did get a game in which ran rather late on Wednesday. 'Hive fleet Banner Elk' descended on Bristol once more & George Lupus and his rebel alliance were ready for them. Well, at least they thought they were. After a seven turn slug fest, all that was left of the CSMs was a single Rhino that was missing it's twin bolter. There were a staggering number of rending rolls in HTH and its pretty hard to survive that.

Miasmos, my interim Chaos terminator lord apparently does not want to be demoted down to an icon bearer in the future. As despite the early loss of his squad, another squad of lesser demons charging into & being virtually wiped out by genestealers before getting to roll (GW really did a crap job on the lesser demons) he did manage to tar pit the Genestealers almost single handedly for most of the game, taking several of them with him. Speaking of demons sucking, Despite the mediocrity (to put it nicely) of the Greater Demon's combat ability, he did drop a wounded Hive Tyrant & accompanying Hive guard in one round. Saving my right flank from collapsing on either turn 2 or 3.

The tyrant and bodyguard had been softened up by my 'plasma death' havoc squad of Blood Eagles and indeed they did live up to that name. There was a yahtzee roll of ones in their initial volley which did about as much damage to themselves as the bugs. Oh well, I was loooong over due on that happening to that squad. The CSM at right was frankensteined together from bitz last night. He'll go into the Plasma Death squad as I only had nine of them and had to substitute in a loyalist to make a full unit of ten.

I do wonder if that yahtzee roll was do to an act of sabotage, perpetrated by that loyalist...

R.I.P.

Oh chill out, I'm not shutting down the blog.

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Wanting to paint something different, I thought I'd paint this dead guy. I got the Space Hulk objectives off of ebay some time back and this was the last of the three that needed to be painted. I didn't want to paint just the 'standard' Blood Angel color scheme, however as the mini is covered in BA iconography, I chose to paint it in the colors of a successor.

Most of the successors are also plain ol' red, so after a brief look on Lexicanum, I opted for the Angels Sanguine. On Lexicanum it states that the Angels Sanguine never remove their helmets in the presence of others, so it also fits well with the notion that this guy died alone somewhere.

It was a fun little diversion to paint. There is no green anywhere on the model (generally a rarity for me). Not sure what I'll do with this though. To use him as an objective for a 40k game seems appropriate enough, or assemble another city fight building and include this guy into it.

Dunno, in the long run, but currently he looks rather good on the shelf.

Edit: just like my mention of From The Jaws of Victory, Neverness, another long time friend of mine has started a gaming blog. So please go & check it out @ The Neverness Hobby Chronicle.