Friday 13 May 2016

40kaddict terrain competition prize arrives

Marc has just sent me this picture of him holding the 40kaddict terrain competition prize. He's already started to discuss his plans for the beast on his blog - http://oldschoolg4m1ng.blogspot.co.uk so if you haven't already hop on over and check it out. Personally I think he should paint it in the colour of his son's PJs they're pretty dapper!


Anyway, Marc will be doing an unboxing of the Knight, he's been after one for a long while so he's justifiably excited and I can't wait to see the crazy things he's got planned for it. A big thank you once again for all those that entered, voted and clicked on the adverts - you all made this competition happen and I look forward to doing some more in the future.

Dark Angels - Ravenwing bike squad

So the Sergeant hit a wall, darned object source lighting, it seems to be hit and miss


The problem with this is the opacity of the paint. The Acrylic Vermilion has some very weird properties, it thins down with water but doesn't actually become more transparent. Unfortunately those areas where it's applied thickest also behave oddly in that when you try to manipulate the paint it actually peels off like some fluidic skin, leaving the lighter coated areas tinted [as intended] but those areas that require more colour strip back to the black almost. Of course my impatience got the better of me and I just kept on at it until I'd put too much paint on. I mean it's not bad, but it's not right either. It's too red, too opaque, less like a red head lamp and more like someone's daubed the bonnet with Hammer Horror fake blood!


But overall it's definitely within the same palette as this picture, so if I can fix the OSL I'll be happy.


I'll take a break from finishing him off, do the rest of the bikers and hopefully refine the OSL process so I'm happy.

Thursday 12 May 2016

The bad thing... ebay purchases I won't regret

When we left it last I'd traded one of the very first models that formed part of my son's army, that I since 'appropriated' [look, I let him live in my house I donlt owe him anything!]. I knew that Otty was just a little uncomfortable to take something that was painted, he'd said that these Broodlords were seeling for quite a bit on ebay, hence why he'd asked me to trade, so I took it as a challenge.


I managed to see this lot at auction and put in a bid for £5.10 [with £4 postage]. I honestly though I'd missed out becuase even when you;re a winner it asks you if you want to  make a higher bid and at first glance I'd assumed I'd lost and moved onto looking at something else by the same seller. The fact was I'd won, so I can swap this Broodlord for the one I already gave Otty and I've also got 14 Genestealers... yay!? Oh crap, add that to the 31 I'm painting the 50+ cultists and my eventual plan to get the complete set of Space Hulk ones... too many Stealers. I did think to sell them but they're already shadow-washed in my colours! We'll see what happens.


Anyway, the other lot I was looking as was a double sized Citadel case, just with no foam inserts. I was only interested in it because there was a couple of minutes to go and it was only at a tenner.


The foam isn;t an issue as I'll eventually be getting different foam sizes to try to accommodate some of my weirder shaped models and this was going to be perfect. Postage was £6 but if I got the Stealers combined postage would be awesome :) then I thought I'd missed the Stealers :( then I was notified just as this was closing I'd got them :) I put my bid in and got it for £10.50!


I contacted the seller to see about combined postage and the next day he'd slashed the Stealer postage so it was going to cost me just £6 delivery with a grand total of £21.60! That's pretty cool, he didn't have to do that [although that's what I would have done]. I'll be sure to write him a glowing review.

Eight Genestealers new are £15 from Element Games so I consider this a pretty cool bargain. However, how on earth do I explain this to the wife? This is coming in the post and I can't explain it away like Renegade - 'it's not mine, half is Liam's and half is some guy's in Australia! 'Sure it is husband dear...'

Hopefully I can re-jig stuff in the Mancave to accommodate this...

Wednesday 11 May 2016

1500pts battle report - Dark Angels v Tyranids!

I got a chance to pop round to Otty's for a game and unusually I got to face his Tyranids, but using my Dark Angels. We were Playing a Maelstrom game and struggling to come to terms with a lot of the new FAQs in a bid to getting ready for when they're official. Personally given the extent of the FAQs I actually feel we'd be better off with a new rulebook, loathe as I am to suggest 8th Edition but a lot of these things go beyond a simple clarification.

Anyway we set up opposite [as you do when you play 40k!]


I love this modular table that Otty made, it's always packed full of realistic touches and surprisingly is quite forgiving for wobbly model syndrome [I know it doesn't look it but honestly it really]


Army list wise I took the Cerastus, two Deathwing squads, Bastion and Devs, Dark Talon and 9 Tacticals with my Scouts and my Techmarine leading. Otty had two maxed out broods of Stealers, a maxed Hormagaunt brood, a couple of Venomthropes for cover, a Broodlord, a Tyranid Prime, Harpy, Tyrannofex, one Hive Guard and Mr Tickle - the Toxicrene.


Otty got first turn, and surged forwards. He only managed to kill one Devastator with Missile Launcher but I needed all my firepower to halt the surging horde. He tried to use most of his Warp Charge to cast Dominion on the Broodlord making everything under Synapse but I easily denied. Now with level 1 psykers only allowed to cast one power the rest of his warp charge was wasted [much like the vaunted Psychic phase!]

"These are Genestealers, you may be unfamiliar with them, they're the 'premier' close combat unit in 40k"
My response was to meet him head on with the Lancer leading the way. My Devastators fragged the Hormagaunts, which broke and ran for the board. The Lancer fried some also. In Otty's turn two the Harpy arrived, I managed to wound it two or three times with my Quad Gun, but he put two wounds on the Lancer. I was saving my Ion Shield for the Tfex and Hive Guard. The Hormagaunts rallied and by the end of the turn were 2 inches in front of where they'd been at the end of turn 1. The Stealers failed to negotiate the woods, clearly stalking their prey more effectively. The Tfex whiffed and the Hive Guard targeted the Devastators again!


The Stealers charged first, but it was through the difficult terrain of the trenches so would assault last. Mr Tickle and the Tfex also got in on the action.


Mr Tickle struck first, ordinarily his S5 would have meant nothing but with the Harpy having torn chunks from the lancer the Sentient Spore Cloud surrounding the beast found vulnerable spots in his armour resulting with seven Armourbane attacks!


Somehow the Lancer survived with one wound left. The Tfex failed to hit with his Smash and the Stealer couldn't do enough damage.


In return the Lancer stomped on just a few Stealers. He was then torn apart by Mr Tickle in my turn blowing up and killing all but one Genestealer and the Prime. Mr Tickle and the Tfex just stood and watched, untouched by the catastrophic explosion! Meanwhile the Harpy swooped past the bastion but was unable to fire it's Spore Cysts due to jinking in a previous turn. My Techmarine could only look on with horror as he arrived too late to try and repair the Knight


My dark Talon arrived but did very little, the Scouts could see their position was about to be over-run but perhaps it was already too late.


As my forces were being swept asunder I suddenly became captivated with this element of Otty's Tyranid Bastion, the colours and effect was really quite outstanding.


Back to the carnage and the Genestealer managed to reach the Scouts, it was a bad day to be wearing red camo cloaks on a green battlefield!


Who couldn't possible survive against such overwhelming odds [Lost Patrol anyone?]


Mr Tickle dispatched the now exposed Techmarine with ease, but in return I was able to take the Harpy down with my Dark Talon.


The Tyranid Prime and the lone Stealer assaulted the Tactical Squad defending their ammo reserves.


They lost the combat by two, failed their morale, broke and were over-run leaving the Objective in filthy Xenos hands. OK, I realised afterwards this did not happen, that 'And they shall know no fear' prevents Sweeping Advances but I'm still getting the hang of the rules, it was 1am and do you know what? They bloomin' deserved to die given their pathetic performance.


End result was an 8:4 loss but an interesting game and it certainly allowed Otty to reconfigure his list - putting the Prime with the Hormagaunts would have prevented them breaking. And Mr Tickle was awesome, I could see him scything through unit of Terminators, or even a Vehicle Squadron if they'd taken a bit of damage. As it was he did the Knight in with ease, thanks to the Harpy damage. 

Meanwhile we also traded some bits, Otty had needed a metal Broodlord  to make some Purestrain Genestealers. He's making an 'organic' genecult, making hybrids and Aberrants out of all sorts of donor models and the Broodlord is what he's using for the Prince's. He then discovered I was trading 'Broodlord in a body warmer'. I think that didn't quite sit right with him and so swamped me with bits and even gave me a metal Azrael and Watcher in the Dark, so I've got some really interesting stuff to play around with once I can get my other jobs done.


That said the next day I did a bad thing...

Monday 9 May 2016

Dark Angels - Jefighter!!!!

Before I did the biker I actually just threw caution to the wind and painted any of the white symbols and markings on the Jetfighter. Once again I'm in two minds about why I'm doing white for these. I'm perfectly happy with the execution and it looks cool, but logically I struggle to process these white markings on vehicles that hunt in the shadows [or sort of].


To be fair 40k is riddled with these anachronisms, the Jetfighter is often shown with marble panels - hello?! It's supposed to fly and you're stone-cladding it? My own brass/bronze aesthetic is deliberately used as they're less inert, more prone to the weathering effects, and not as strong. Using these 'ancient' materials as opposed to steel, aluminium or the other futuristic materials, harkens back to the grimdark nature and that nothing makes sense.


Hopefully I'll be able to transfer my recent efforts in highlighting black onto a model of this scale, fingers crossed...


Of course that new flyer supplement probably re-renders this completely useless. I'm struggling to come to terms with the new Space Marine flyer, with greater front armour, admittedly one less hull point but more weapons but more importantly being nearly 50pts cheaper. I don't know what those stat changes equate to or hwo they compare on the battle-filed under play test simulaitons but nearly 30% is a huge difference so which is over and which is undercosted?

Saturday 7 May 2016

"What's App Doc?" 3 - Freeblade

I’d been pretty envious of those Apple fans who got Warhammer Freeblade first so I was pretty overjoyed when it got ported to Android the other day. The fact is the game itself isn’t as in depth as I imagined it to be, but then it’s a mobile game, it’s not exactly a free roaming sandbox shooter. In one review I heard it described as a ‘rail shooter’ which is pretty apt when you get down to it. Much like a roller coaster your Freeblade Imperial Knight moves from one opportunity to lay down the Emperor’s will to the next. You don’t get to move the Knight itself all you really do is point at the bad guys and obliterate them. The tactical opportunities revolve around which gun you’re going to use to do it!


But actually I really like it, sure I’d love the game I imagine it could be, and on a games console that would be awesome, but this is still pretty cool. I’ve played a number of games solidly for a few weeks and eventually lost interest – Real Racing, Tiny Troopers, Run and Gun, Carnage and Star Wars Uprising, but this is the only app I felt compelled to make an in-app purchase. For £2.99 I bought an upgrade pack with a bunch of Revives, Gold, some rare weapons and more importantly the Queen Bee livery from Tibbs Forge.


I have to say this upgrade has certainly helped progress. Having made a purchase I also get loyalty bonuses every day with more Ore or weapon cases in addition to the daily bonuses. The game itself also includes options to watch video adverts to have another crack at a daily mission or add bonuses to your next mission. I really like this, I can see how it might be annoying to some, but it is optional so you don’t have to suffer them. However, you can set an advert going go off and do something for 20 seconds come back and you’ve just got boosted experience for nowt! So I like it.


And of course in other news - Dawn of War III and everyone's talking about the money shot.


Further news reports show some potential in-game graphics. I’m particularly interested in the barricades you seem to be able to make, in particular what appears to be an Eldar Aegis Defence Line [bottom, to the right of the middle in green]… just saying.


Friday 6 May 2016

40kaddict Terrain Competition Prizes

Just a quick one, Alun Heseltine sent me a pic of him and his daughter, who clearly deserves most of the credit for the second place ;) with their prize, a gift voucher for Element Games. Hopefully they'll be able to get something cool from them.

Meanwhile the copy of Imperial Knights Renegade arrived yesterday from Wayland Games [what can I say I'm ecumenical], so I've opened it up and separated out Liam's Paladin [who wanted to go halves on the box] snf Marc's prize which I'll ship to him in Australia, in case you're all interested this is the un-boxing:





All that's left is to see it safely to the other side of the world but rest assured the competition has made some folk very happy and I look forward to the next one :)