I just need an escalator.

Been doing some painting in my free time. Haven't been playing much actual 40k though. Well anyways, here is my WIP piranha.

Obviously need to to do touch ups, highlights and details, but the general scheme is there, and I'm happy with it.

Venom spam, Doing it differently

So my sister volunteered at GenCon, and being the wonderful sister she is (I bought her an xbox for Christmas) She stopped by the booth that had the Erfworld (Link) people. If you don't know Erfworld, check it out. It is an online comic that is like a Risk/Fantasy/Tron thing. Well they were doing sketches, and my sister knew I loved Venom, so she had them do that for me. Same pictures as I have as my phone background too! Got it signed by them, pretty sweet.

I am yours to command

My first team leader for my Fire warrior squad. I'm very pleased with how well he turned out. A few more details here and there and he should be completely done. I need to practice my glowing effect better, but it will come in time.

Are there no challengers!

I haven't had a pick up game in I don't know when. The time between tournaments is getting longer and I'm noticing the difference as I'm not getting practice. Between my work schedule and the general mood of the LFGS I haven't played in some time.

I can't complain too much, as I've skipped opportunities to work on the hobby.

I've gotten my first squad done. Seems like far too much time on assembling one squad, but it feels good working at a slow pace with out any rush or real deadlines.

I have some more things I've been working on, and I'll get some more pictures of those up soon.

Ard Boyz is in two weeks, and school starts the week after that. I'm hoping to get on a better schedule by then. More work to come, stay tuned.

Active camo, Engage!

My first test model for my stealth team.

So I finished painting my first Stealth suit. It took a couple hours to put the finishing touches on it, but he is pretty much done. I forgot how soothing painting could be. My first attempt at painting the energy wave of a stealth field was worse than I wanted, but better than I expected. I think If I make the line a little less "straight" it will look better.

The camera isn't showing all the little details and highlights, but I'm very proud of how this turned out. Once I get the proper bases, I'll be starting on the whole squad.

A little Tau progress.

"Get to the Chopper!"

Ok, so I've been working more on the hobby side of 40k. I haven't been making a lot of progress as I'm taking my time, but I'm getting a few things done. Plus between a social life and horrible internet, I'm finally getting around to posting some more. First off, Tau pictures.

First game with Tau

And as expected I lost. But not as badly as I expected. Nemesis called me up and wanted to get a game in, I was feeling like giving the tau a try, and had my 1.5k list ready. He wanted to play 2k, so I switched a few things up, added another commander with body guard and another pathfinder squad. We roll up annihilation with spearhead deployment.
He wins the roll to go first, so I try to deploy defensively, which takes a good amount of time. It seems I definitively need to learn to deploy better.

Games went eh

So I took my 1850 list to the Games 2 Die 4 tournament, there were around 10 people there, even one of the bloomington crowd.

My first match up was against Dodger13 and his deamons. He is definitely top tier player and I've always had trouble against deamons so I was thinking I was in for some trouble. Well he didn't get his preferred wave, I moved to middle of the board and pushed him to the back corners. I dropped Bloodthirster, half of his plague bearers and half of the seekers in my first salvo. My second turn didn't kill much if anything, while he immobilized my Storm raven. From there I kept pulling back and shooting till he finally was assaulting my front ranks in the middle of the board. We roll and the game ends at 5. He has one plague bearer alive in the back objective, fateweaver is in combat with marines on the middle one, and I have a razorback squad on my back one. Victory point tie breaker gives me the win by 200 cause of blood thirster.

Game 2 was mech eldar. I was thinking I had a pretty good chance in this game. oh how little I was wrong. Dawn of war with him going first, it was nothing really happening first turn for him. My front razorback drove up and search lighted one of his wraithlords, and I opened fire. One less lance to worry about. Then he fires all of his S6 and glances my razorbacks. almost every result blew off my lascannons. My return fire with plasmas meant I too needed 5+, but nope, I couldn't get a single one to save my life. My meltas wiffed, the squad ran on his turn, I had to focus too much fire each turn. Game ends with him holding objectives in the middle because I couldn't get enough to contest.

Game 3 was against Sandwyrms Imperial guard. It had been a long time since we had played last, and I had came a long way with my Blood angels. I won to go first, set up with AV13 in front, and ready to roll out. Scout moves and then he seized....crap. Well he caught my side armor with lascannons, I couldn't make a cover save, ever pen result was an explosion or wreck. I ended up being trapped because of my deployment and wrecks. I blew up one Vendetta and proceeded to struggle to kill empty chimeras for two turns before I got my next Kill point. Game ends 4-12 and I didn't have much left at all and I hardly touched him.

over all my games were a little eh. While two of them were very close games, I felt I could/should have done slightly better. I'm definitely putting mephiston back in instead of the Furioso dreadnought, he is more mobile and more threatening I feel.

It is about time.

I got in a practice game for the tournament tomorrow, 1850 points. It was against my Nemesis. This gentleman has single handedly accounted for at least half of the losses shown on the left. Well today I'm proud to add a Win against him. I've managed to pull out a draw once or twice against him and I gave his eldar a good go, but his is the first solid victory against his blood angels.

It would have been a solid massacre if I had kept the game tight, and maybe a little more luck. Of course I forgot to bring my camera, so no real battle report. It was spear head with 3 objectives, one in each deployment and one centered. End of turn 5 he had managed to survive and contest and would have won, Turn 6 he had a draw in the works, but the game went to 7 and I near tabled him leaving him with about two assault marines that regrouped.

This leaves me feeling pretty good about my 1850 list. I'll be taking it tomorrow to the G2D4 tournament and we'll see how it does.

My first Tau list

So it is my last day in Germany, and I have secured myself some internet for the time being. I have some things I need to upload, but those will wait till I get back home. I have been reading over the Tau codex, and I have thought about what I want to use.

Team Tournament results

So a little late, but considering it was the day before I left for Europe, and my internet access is a little hit and miss. So Team tournament....Ya that didn't go as well as I had hoped. Between busy schedules, drops and swaps, we didn't have a concrete team roster until the week of the Tourney. We had one practice game the day before. It was incredibly fun, everyone had a great time, and we all learned a thing about team tournaments.

Secret underground gaming communit

Or something like that. I though it would be cool to see a Game store here in Europe. So I checked the GW locator and found some local stores in the nearest big city. We walked around for over 2 hours and couldn't find any of them. One of them we couldn't find it even though it was supposedly on the street. Another we couldn't find anywhere, and even the people in a video game store on that street had never heard of it.

So I have another week and a half, and I'm making it my new goal. Mark my words I will find a game store that has 40k by the end of this vacation. Even if I have to drive half way around this country to an official GW store.

Vacation

So I went to Chicago this past week. Helped one of by best friends move from Kentucky up to the north side of Chicago. Furniture up to the fourth floor in 90 degree heat is not fun, even with an elevator. In less than a week I will be leaving for Europe. I will be visiting family in Germany. I haven't really gotten anything 40k done. I'm working on getting ready for the team tournament right before I leave. And I'll need to start packing soon.

So there will be about a two week gap of posts here. Nothing to surprising. If I get more time I'll try and schedule some posts for while I'm gone so it won't be too boring around here.

List I'm running

OK, So this is a scheduled post. I should be at the Bloomington Game preserve at the 1850 tournament they are having.

Last weekend I went to the G2D4 tourney and did well. My list was as follows

Everything is better with bacon

In this case bacon is a cape.

Just an Idea I had. I think it came out pretty well. The carbine and back areas could be a little cleaner. I really like how dynamic looks for such a simple thing.

The Red army

 

 A few tests for my Tau. I had a third but can't find it at the moment. Trying to find out the proper lay out of colors I want on the Fire warriors.

 

Not fully satisfied with either of them. Good thing I have a lot of random fire warriors to practice on. Ideas or suggestions?

Tyranid Alpha warrior

Some call him Tyranid Prime. He does not have all Tyranid options, he is just an expensive Warrior, and Prime can get confusing.

Tyranid lists

For the Bloomington tournament this coming weekend I've been thinking of possible lists. They are running the event at 1850.

First Idea is T6 spam

Hive Tyrant; Old Adversary, bonesword lashwhip, Scything talons, Wings
255
Hive guard x2
100
Hive guard x2
100
Tervigon; adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, stinger salvo
195
Termagaunts x10
50
Tervigon; adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, stinger salvo
195
Termagaunts x10
50
Gargoyles x10; adrenal glands, toxin sacs
80
Gargoyles x10; adrenal glands, toxin sacs
80
Tyrannofex; rupture cannon, cluster spines, desiccator larvae
265
Tyrannofex; rupture cannon, cluster spines, desiccator larvae
265
Trygon; adrenal glands
210

That's 46 T6 wounds. But really it doesn't do much more than that.

The other option I'm looking at is this

Alpha warrior; bonesword lashwhip, scything talons, adrenal glands and toxin sacs
115
Ymgarl stealers x10
230
Hive guard x2
100
Hive guard x2
100
Warriors x6; Deathspitters, barbed strangler, scything talons
215
Hormagaunts x15; adrenal glands
120
Tervigon; adrenal glands, toxin sacs, catalyst, stinger salvo
195
Termagaunts x12
60

Gene stealers x10
140
Gene stealers x10
140
Raveners x5; scything talons, rending claws
175
Mawloc
170
Biovores x2
90

This one has a good amount of flexibility. Though I still would need to test it.
What are your thoughts?

Camera woes

I was going to start uploading some pictures of my works in progress today. Alas I cannot find my cable for my camera. This means I cannot upload pictures or charge my camera until I do. Until that time you'll just have to take my word that things are getting done.

I've got some test models painted for my Tau, I magnetized my new Tyranid prime. I have 5 more warriors I'm working on assembling. Finally I'll finish magnetizing my last assault marine squad. For now I'm working on finishing up my last few nids I've been neglecting. More on that soon.

Motivation

Just got back from a tournament from Hive Fleet Indy. Went 2-1 claiming 4th general. I had been doubting myself lately and threw together a mech Blood angels list that was similar to one I had been playing. My first two games I got full wins (tabled both). My third game was against deamons. We both had some pretty bad rolls, with the game coming down to me needing to gain one more KP to tie the primary as I had the secondary set up to win. Well my dice continued to hate me and I lost the game, Minor loss essentially.

This has lifted my spirit slightly and ended my losing streak. I came home and worked on some models. I plan on getting some painting done this week. I have tomorrow free and should get some pictures posted up. It is good to be motivated again, and enjoying the game.

Army painter spray

This stuff is good! I've only used it on 4 test models so far, but it just feels right. It is more of a puff than a spray but it coats evenly and quickly. I'm just using grey but it comes in a wide range of colors. The down side is it costs about the same as GW brand stuff. Though I will probably stick with this stuff since it seems to work well for me and comes in colors. I'm going to go back outside and keep using it, I'll comment if anything comes up that changes my opinion.

Also sorry for the sporadic posts, I'll see if I can't get more posted consistently.

The struggle

So I've been away for almost two weeks. I haven't gotten a game in nor really worked on 40k in that time. Many my age would be giving the excuse of final exams. I'm busy working, trying to get back into school, and get everything else back on track. I have a few projects lined up, but with out playing games, I find my motivation is severely lacking. Luckily I was able to get a game in with my tyranids earlier today.

And so it begins!

It is a not so secret secret that I'm starting tau. Well, I just got a bunch of second hand models. like... a lot. Part of it I got from a friend, the other half I bought. Pretty much more than enough for almost anything I want, all for $70. Granted most of the fish are in bad condition and need to be salvaged. Most of the suits will be enough to hold me over till I buy my own. I have more stealth suits than I can actually field. My plan is to start working on some conversions, and based on how they go, I'll buy some new stuff and prepare for a new codex soon.
I'm working on fluff and back story for them at the moment. I'm most likely going with Da'Kavaal (The Dark Strike Force)

Too much.

So as I had mentioned... wow almost 3 weeks ago, I have gotten my shipment of Bioswords from Paulson games. My Incubi order finally came in (I guess they went to direct order only?) and Grey knights got released.

So I'm sitting here with a pile of stuff for 6 bonesword tyranid warriors, 5 Incubi, and a box of grey knights to convert into my Blood angels.

I've already started on the Grey knights, so I'll end up finishing them soon and have some pictures up of that.

Then I'll probably start on the tyranids, so I'm not proxying my warriors all the time.

The Incubi will come last, as I love the models and want to paint them, but I have no real need for them.

Battle: LA

I’ve been on vacation for this past week. I went to florida with my family, and before you start, they had had perfect weather for the past two months and were almost having a drought. Well five of the six days we were there they had thunderstorms. Now they are looking at no rain after we have left, ugh. So on one of those rainy days I convinced my family to go see Battle: LA. 

Boneswords

So I had recently ordered Some Boneswords from Paulson games. I had ordered them Thursday night. I left with my family on our way to Florida this morning (saturday). I had expected Friday processing, waiting till Monday to ship, and it maybe show up by then end of the week a day or so before we returned. Well the lady we have to take care of our dog checked in and what do you know, There is a package from Paulson for me.

Now I don't know if I somehow live next door, but a day and half after I paid they are on my doorstep. Now I'm in Birmingham Alabama dodging tornadoes at the moment, so I won't be able to do an actual review till next weekend. But I have high hopes for these things, we'll see how they turn out.

What to do...

Nothing largely new going on 40k-wise for me. I brought back the Nids for a close game, So I've been thinking about using them again for a while. I'm still working on painting my Blood angels. I have another 10 man squad and then ICs to paint.

Here is my big thought for the day; Tau or Dark Eldar. I want a more shooty advanced race.... I've almost started tau twice in the past 4 years. I buy a few models and then sell them off. But I really like some of those DE models, and their fluff is good too. I'm leaning towards tau, as I think DE will be to fragile for my tastes, and I'll fall into the same trap I normally do and try to add some Assault units because I like them, and tilt it too much in that favor and end up not having the shooty army I wanted.

The main problem that comes from that is if I were to start Tau, I'd want to do it right. Conversions, spending extra money to get all the pieces I want and making things look great. Basic math has came to near $300 before crisis suits, and crisis suits are like 60% of a tau army.

But, I'm leaving for florida in the morning so Ill have a good amount of time to think about it. Luckily this year I have an internet phone, so I can keep up to date. I'll try and schedule some posts the few times I have internet this coming week.

Return of the Tyranids

So I decided to take my tyranids out for a spin today. They preformed better than I had hoped... but I had the bar pretty low. I didn't take any pictures, but I still learned a lot.

Some painted Tyranids

 

I decided for a change of pace from the blood angels. Here are some of my favorite Tyranids I've been working on. This is a lictor I painted some time ago. I think it was shortly after the Nid codex came out. I'm pretty proud of him. Picture's a little dark but I put a good amount of detail into him. I normally use him as Death leaper. I had some extra eldar bitz some how, and I put them to good use.

Storm raven MKII, "Phantom" pattern

 Love it or hate it, This is my storm raven conversion. "Phantom" pattern Gunship. And you thought the standard SR looked bulky. I compressed mine down, repositioned the engine and wings. I wanted a more Helicopter look to it. With all the vector thrust engines it has on the bottom, I'm not too concerned about "physics"

Just a little bit chaos.

This is my Jump pack Chaplain

I'm still trying to figure out  how I want to paint him. I might try and copy Sandwyrms emo-wing look for him.

Mutha $#@#% Stormraven

 So above is my converted storm raven I made a while ago. I bought the actual kit when it first came out, but have had no need for two of them. So today I have free time, and figured I'd actually start working on it. Well I've heard mostly good reviews of the kit. well here is a bad one.

Here's Johnny!!

I'm back!

So the word in the blog-o-sphere is that today is Old stuff day. Well, I felt that it was time enough to bring back the old hunt. I still plan on posting on the back 40k just as often, but I'll be updating my Works in progress here, and just mulling over random ideas I may have.