Thursday, February 27, 2014

Pain Boss WIP

o/

Just a quick post tonight. I know my blog updates in the morning, by only because I schedule them to do so. Currently its getting late, my fingers are covered in paint and my back is starting to kill me, which means I've been painting too long. Anyways, these are WIP pics of my Pain Boss for the FW Dred Mob list.



He will be known hence forth as 'Da' 13th Dokta', and yes Doctor Who fans (looks at Rob specifically) that was meant to elicit a groan. lol, I'm not a fan of the show but needed a name for him and that was something other than my previously used 'Dokta K'vorkian and Saw Bones (my current pain boy).

;-)

Monday, February 24, 2014

So, after a month or so of trash talking...

...it was time for yet another grudge match! lol, my GF and RTVoril were the ones engaging in such trash talk, but due to personal schedule conflicts, it took awhile for us to arrange a time for a game. After our game vs. Neverness with the Taudar, RTVoril said his Dark Eldar wanted to take that on. This time however the Tau would take the lead with my Exodites forming a minimally sized allied contingent.

The Fem Fa'Tau's spirits were high at the outset!
RTVoril paraded a trio of DE jets before us, so we opted for the list with AA defense. Well, with the battle of misdirection won (he didn't use them), we prepped for battle. 1850 points, Crusade mission with 5 objectives, Tau deployment (short table edges), he won the roll and allowed us to set up and go first (he failed to steal the initiative, and 1st turn wasn't night fight).

The Fem Fa'Tau's center.

And the left. The squads deployed on the right were concealed within ruins. Note: The Fire Warrior with the flag and binoculars was acting as a Cadre Fireblade. After this game, yes I think that model is worth purchasing!

The Dark Eldar's center and left...

...and their right.

Turn 1's tau shooting took down the right most ravager, immobilized the middle one and removed a gun, and took a hull point off of the left one. A pretty good start.

The DE replied by gunning down the Tau's commander via concentrated dark lance fire, and jet bike passover attacks that tore thru the Guardians and fire warriors, breaking the latter squad.

Turn two saw the entrance of all of the Tau's out flanking forces. The sudden appearance of the Kroot rallied the Fire Warriors.

One squad of stealth suits outflanked into the back of the DE left flank...

...and the other into the hinterlands of the right.

Marker lights galore, 'Guide' from the Farseer, and overwhelming firepower reduced the bikes to one fleeing rider!

Meanwhile the Hammerheads took down the two ravagers, whilst the Stealth Suits dropped the venom.
The Fem Fa'Tau's general casually selects the next target for destruction, as it starts raining Venoms! The one with the red tipped prow contained the DE warlord.

The Exodites are in a bad spot...

...and take heavy casualties, but hold. The Kroot suffer heavily as well and go to ground out of desperation!

This venom dropped a few fire warriors, and in return the Tau's dice went cold, as all of this firepower FAILED to blow the damned thing up!
Tau fire drops two more venoms, and the broadsides' firepower wipes out the Warlord and his retinue.

The last venom drops into the fight (note the pretty WIP paint job).

The broadsides are about to suffer a trademark Dark Eldar tactic, getting shot in the back!

Killing one, the other flees off of the table, leaving the Witches w/o a target to charge. In the following turn, the Pathfinders would see them off.

Meanwhile these few wipe out the Tau right flank's infantry for only one loss of their own.

Kroot and fire warriors die in droves on the left flank (that whole 'Melee' thing), However one remaining witch falls to the pathfinders' guns, and the other three from another squad are left out in the open...

...and at the bottom of turn 4, RTVoril raises the white flag.  Turn 5 would see the three witches on the left in the cross hairs of 6 pathfinders, and a hammer head. Whilst those on the right (pictured above) were surrounded by a hammerhead, 6 stealth suits, a wounded Farseer and 3 remaining guardians. Worse yet the fleeing Jet bike would most likely fall to the other 5 stealth suits in the backfield.
Tallying things up, the Taudar had: Warlord, line breaker, 1st blood, and 1 objective totaling 6 points. The Dar Eldar had Line breaker and Warlord only, totaling 2 points. Another victory for the Greater good, Huzzah! We all had fun though, so its all good.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

I need this man to design and build a game table for me!

Being able to afford that endeavor of course is largely dependent on my winning the lottery this evening...lol. Last weekend my GF and I went to visit her sister and brother-in-law. One thing I've heard about from both Amy and her folks for the better part of last year, was Micheal's 'train world'. Well, the descriptions did not disappoint! Holy cow his set up was amazing! His current 'table' is about a 7 year WIP, but he's had several others in the past. His theme is the 1940s in Colorado.

His table has been featured in O Gauge Railroading Magazine and Light Iron Digest Magazine. He also has a youtube channel here, and a website here. Anyways, enough of my rambling, check out the pictures for yourself (I took these whilst wandering around the room, so here they are in no particular order...):

He has several areas using resin water effects. This is the largest and most impressive. lol, I was also told that if the setup is ever removed, this pond is taking a chunk of the wall's sheetrock with it...


A dog pissing on a tree, lol as you can see no detail has been left out!


I really like how this pic came out.


The trains are all radio controlled, engine sounds, movement, everything!

I didn't realize till taking this photo that the reason the roof isn't complete is because the workers are currently building it!




Now look at this weathering and I'll mention that he claims to not be artistic...I'm sure that makes as little sense to any of you as it does to us.





Another pond.


Funny story: Micheal asked for 'Forest Debris' for Christmas some time back, but no one could find it. So Amy rooted thru her Mom's potted plants and yard to find some and labeled the ziplock bag accordingly. Afterwards he created this little diorama to make use of her gift!





My favorite little scene of the whole thing. The steam shovel dumping coal into the truck, and as a result dumping it all over the truck! Not just into the back as most people would probably do. Such attention to detail is impressive! I like the weathering too, I forgot to ask if he just uses washes and dry brushing, or if he uses weathering powders too.



Any gamer/modeler can appreciate this, though its a bit too organized for my tastes. On my work spaces, CHAOS REIGNS!!!






He had a few WWII planes around too. Not sure on the scale, but they're all fairly large kits, This is an F4U Corsair.

A WII German Stuka dive bomber...

...and a German ME-109.