Deathwatch Overkillin'

As the dust settles around the 40kaddict Terrain Competition and I try and marshall my thoughts, deal with my neck/arm pain and cope with the new IT regime I thought I'd just share the highlights of a couple of Deathwatch Overkill games PeteB and I played the other night.

It's embarassing to admit that this is our first game since we played Dark Angels Vs his Daemonkin back in December and you may not be surprised to learn [given he's had about seven or eight armies in the five years I've known him] that Pete has since offloaded much of his 40k in that time.

But he was well up for trying this game out and so I subbed in my painted Genestealer and Chaos Cultists for the Hybrids and swapped my painted Dark Angels for the Deathwatch characters.

We played the first mission which is really the Deathwatch have to kill 25 Broodkin, who in turn have to kill just two Deathwatch [those are the odds...]. I'd already seen Luke's review [sorry can't add a direct link due to the IT policy, grrr!] so I knew it heavily favoured the Deathwatch and you really needed to gang up your models

Luckily I had a couple of Ambush cards that allowed me to pick another 3 cards and deploy all ambushes so now I potentially had a lot of bodies to swamp the Marines.

Anyway you can see that didn;t work very well and as my Cultists with Autoguns have no armour save I quickly decided the 6+ save on assault cultists was better than nothing, not to mention they're more likely to hit in short range.

I managed to get another card that helped speed up my brood and managed to get close up with the Astartes.

But it didn't really do me any favours and Pete continued to rack up kill points.

I played a card that allowed me to ambush in any tile, bringing some Aberrants on to surroudn the Frag Cannon wielding Rodricus Grytt, I managed ot put a owund on Jensus Natorium, the Librarian.

Pete followed up by reaching his kill target of 25.

We then played out my last turn and I was able to bring down Jensus and Rodricus, so although I was outgunned it was only just. In a normal game of 40k where everyone gets their turn this would have been a draw. So, although the Genestealers are completely outclassed ultimately if you cna get them in close then their is a possibility to make things more equal.

We then swapped sides and it was obvious my 25mm bases did afford me an advantage compared with the 32mm bases the marines are now supplied with. It also made me start to consider options for rebasing... [incidentally the Watcher is the teleport homer for Garran Brannatar [the Terminator Salamander].

I managed to get forward quite quickly and make some quick early kills leaving the Cultists thin on the ground.

Mor earrived and I was able to continue to push forwards with Garran protecting the rear.

I was able to reach the final room and take the fight to the cultists. Thanks to the Space Marine ability to heal themselves by forgoing an attack any wound inflicted was quickly recouperated. This ended up feeling too easy so I then chose not to restore any wounds.

I went on to make the 25 kills and again we played on with Pete's turn and without restoring any wounds he was able to kill Garran and Cassius. This confirmed that although it doesn't seem balanced initially there clearly is a balance between the opposing factions. I thin k it's marginally skewed in favour of the Marines and the restoring wounds is a bit much, at the least a roll to restore a wound would add some challenge, aside from the price of failing to attack. Even a 4+ would make it less easy for the Marines. We'll definitely add a house rule in for this.

And in a flurry of effort I actually finsihed basing, rewashing the resin dust off the bases and priming all the cultists. I'm hopeful if the rest of my current projects progress as planned this hobby season I may get chance to do Red Planet BASE! on them all before the end of the season.

I'd be pretty chuffed if the Ravenwing, Imperial Knight, Genestealers and Cultists bases were my only remaining successes this year, although there's still scope for more if I get a wiggle on. Anyway, hope you liked to see something a little different, I'll probably get some more games on and I'm sure Pete will be up for more games.

40kaddict Terrain Competition 2016 winner

The end of the month and voting is now closed on the 40kaddict Terrain Competition. Firstly I'd like to make a few 'thank yous'. I'm not sure who should take priority but in no particular order:

• thanks to all those who find something worth clicking on your support really made this a reality
• thanks to all those who took part, there was a moment where I thought I wasn't going to get any entries but I think 11 for a first time, untested competition was really good going. Not to mention the inventive ways everyone interpreted the templates. Hardly any of them were 'stock' recreations they all added something unique from the builders perspective which I absolutely loved.
• thanks to all those that voted. I was a little apprehensive about the poll, but poll-maker was super easy to use and its streamlined nature has made all my concerns disappear.

So all that's left to do is announce the winners, as was mentioned in the rules the first prize was for an Imperial Knight [or equivalent value model] and the second prize was £10 in vouchers for a local independent game store

Second prize goes to: Alun Heseltine and 'awww!'

First prize goes to: Marc van Holst and 'Thermoplasma Generator'

You can see all the voting here, it has made me think next time it may be wise to combine voting by all entries, as combined it looks like Alun might have won by one vote. Although I don't know if both pictures together might have reduced the cute factor of awww! on it's own, hopefully he won't be too disappointed with second prize, but please feel free to comment on whether you're happy with separate votes or would prefer combined, I know a couple of entries were specified as separate...

Now hopefully Marc wants the Imperial Knight because GW only went and released Imperial Knights: Renegade this month. Liam had asked me to go halves on a box, which initially I said I couldn't really afford at the moment as I was thinking of the Knight for myself. Then I remembered I'd promised one in my competition, duh! Anyway I agreed to go in with him and got dibs on the Warden in the set, because that's what I'd kind of been promising and Liam's got 5 knights anyway so he's probably got all the load outs.

Initially I'd thought to shop locally for the winner and have it delivered direct but everyone knows Australian prices for GW are insane and this worked out better all round for everyone. So the order is in with Wayland games, when they have new stock in they'll be sending it out and I'll then forward it on. Anyway I'll be sorting all the details out with both winners individually but I think everyone can consider themselves a winner, as they've got a cool piece of terrain out of it.

As for the other reasons for holding the competition I think I've proved AdSense competitions can work, within only 9 months I was able to reach the goal that previously had taken 4.5 years. Now it's doubtful that momentum will continue as I won't be holding a competition this time round and I won't be updating the blog with the totals each month, which usually prompted a spike in clicks. But then the quicker I reach my next target the quicker I can get round to running a new competition.

That said it will be more useful insight to see how the clicks have evolved compared to pre-competition. One interesting aside was that I did manage to link my YouTube account to my AdSense and last month made 13p from YouTube alone, so for all those bloggers with AdSense and YouTube videos it may be worthwhile joining those up.

Hopefully there'll be less stigma involved for bloggers using adverts in the future and we'll see more people taking them on and more people clicking. I'm regularly clicking on From the Fang and The Burning Eye's adverts that are relevant to me. Interestingly this last month I got this 'achievement' in my AdSense account celebrating over a million impressions on the adverts. If Google are telling me this then I'm guessing its a big deal so I'd recommend if you've got a blog just add an ad, it's not difficult and it may take four or five years to make anything from it but you never know...

'nids part 197 - Deathwatch Overkill update

Not much to see here I did make a spray stick though - a small piece of wood I had in the garage for years, some double sided tape and the Aberrants, heavy weapons hybrids and a few other first and second hybrids.

So much easier to spray, although next time I'll ensure I don't put one so close to the end as being able to hold it from both sides helps with the spraying.

Since this I've managed to build all my other Hybrids and the Deathwatch team members. All I need to do is base them ready for undercoating and I can have them all ready and waiting - put them in a box until I have chance to paint them that is!

Dark Angels - Ravenwing update

Painting the feathers on the Ravenwing should not be my priority. I seem to be saying that a lot actually. The bikes themselves are but the wings should really be done after I've finished the metals and the black because I'm clearly going to screw it up in places. However I'm having a lot of fun with it so I just carried on.

I'm playing with the paint in places. The 2nd generation Anita's turquoise looks quite opaque but goes on almost transparent so it's almost like it's been pre-thinned. I apply it and then do a second pass which makes the colour more pronounced and a third pass really gets the highlight. I also chose a different technique on one bike and subsequently applied it to two other so if there was a difference it could be contained within units. For this I did a first highlight using Army Painter Hydra Turquoise. Now this is slightly darker and bluer meaning when I applied second and third highlights with the Anitas I got a subtle shift in tonal range. Then added a black wash and a final pick up of highlights. Whether it's noticeable now and therefore worth doing I'm not sure but it was enjoyable at the time. Metals and black next...

I also moved on with the resin base for the Nephilim/Dark Talon, washing the Red Oxide Primer with Army Painter Strong Tone.

Then it was Vermilion craft acrylic for the highlight.

Followed by my first pass Vermilion and Pumpkin highlight mix, just about evident from these pics.

2nd pass highlight and then pure pumpkin edge highlight and bonewhite chips to do and then I can varnish this.

Denied

This happens regularly and I usually find a work around but this time nothing works. It seems the 'powers that be' have manged to deny access to any sites that are related to 'games'. So I will not be able to keep up-to-date on some of the things I normally would. I can currently still make blog posts but I can't review them afterwards or cross reference older posts or other blogs as I would normally like.

Its really very frustrating but there's not much I can do at this point and I'll try to continue on within the confines of these limitations, thanks for your patience.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 12

Its a bit difficult at the moment to actually collate what I'm up to as I'm doing three or four things in any one painting session. So it's difficult to show progress and we're already at part 12 of this Knight. Anyway, I moved on with the chest plate for Euronymous. All the green has been done, I could probably use this piece as a test bed for the battle damage too. The scrollwork has been base coated and washed.

I then went in with some more highlights on the scroll and picked out the rivets in bonewhite, which matches my greenwing.

I'd pencilled in the name beforehand so I knew it could fit. With these sotrs of things it's always best to start in the middle and work your way out unfortunately I still managed to cramp up the end with a large amount of space at the beginning! It's not pretty but I surprised myself by achieving it so I can live with the less than stellar penmanship ;)

In another session I added some extra highlights on the bronze on the carapace, I also did the shoulder panels too but need to do the rest of the metallics and also on the Ravenwing. If I can get all these metal highlights done that will be a massive step forward. Having completed some of the panels it would join up with those elements still to highlight and the end would almost be in sight, it;s very exciting.

I also spent a session blocking in the chevrons on the Gatling Cannon and fist, I may well wish I'd gone orange and black at some point but these will ultimately be yellow and black, with the frotn of the cannon being all black which I'll decorate with decals.

Again, this shouldn't be my focus as it can't feature in my Double Trouble list but I'm just going with the flow and with it not being the sole thing I'm painting in any given session I don;t feel too guilty about it's inclusion in my schedule.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Incoming! New Space Marine and Ork flyers

Just saw this on Bolter and Chainsword the Ork Wazbom Blastajet and the Space Marine Stormhawk Interceptor. They both look like upgrade sprues for the existing Dakkajet and Storm Talon, which I think is a cool way to get expansion opportunities off existing kits and it really shows a bit of ingenuity by GW in making these upgrades work. Check out the link above for moar pictures from White Dwarf.

This also looks promising based on recent rumours about a Flyer game in the summer...

MOAR Vortex Templates

Despite the arm pain I actually managed to do some bits. In fact because I took the day off to see the doctor I had some free time and in a moment of madness I just decided to knock out a couple more Vortex templates. Having enjoyed the fun of them in my last game I'm hoping for a number of doubles in future games and I though three would be sufficent. I originally completed the first one in July last year and had put aside a couple of the Christmas baubles the other day.

Sadly I didn't take any pictures this time but I did adapt how I made them, without considering the original tutorial:

• I used masking tape to attach a tissue round the outside to avoid overspray
• I bunched the tissue up and this formed a support to hold the bauble in a plastic cup
• when I did the colour spray I rolled up some card into a U shape so it would fit inside the bauble - when I sprayed I could get more defined lines and edges inside the bauble while masking off other areas

Having not referred to the original bauble first  I also noted:

• my spots were more uniform, bigger and more of them
• I also switched in a green spray for a bit of variety
• didn't really do any streaks
• could have done to do:
•  less spots, 
• a spray of colour,
• then some more white spots for added depth,
• a light spray of black, 
• more spots,
• final coat of black

 I'm really pleased with the two extra templates, the uniformity is a minor irritation but for a 20 minute job I was really chuffed. Should I need any more I know I can get them done in a jiffy :)

What's on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it's been just over a month since my last confession and I just need to evaluate where I'm at to keep track and focus.

 

When last we spoke I was struggling to motivate myself after Throne of Skulls, this time I'm struggling because I completed the Tactical Squad, they were actually bottom of my list of things to do, although it wasn't a priority list. This time I've listed what I think should be my priority. That's not to say I have to stick to it but if I have any sense this is the order of play.

1. Ravenwing Dark Talon/Nephilim Jetfighter
2. Ravenwing Bikes
3. Imperial Knight
4. Deathwing Knights
5. Genestealers
6. Tyranid VSG
7. Bastion

The Ravenwing are lacking in my Dark Angels, by all accounts they’re the most effective elements of the Codex, not so much the flyer, but the bikes have been pretty good and they’re not even the Ravenwing Knights! Both these items would be perfect to slot into my 750pt list for Double Trouble should I get the OK to go from the wife [if she’s not working].

What was troubling me was I still couldn’t get a flat black in places and have bought a number of blacks to try and achieve it. It’s still not what I was after but I’m hoping I can find a way to mitigate my dissatisfaction with other effects that will obscure what I’m unsatisfied with. I also picked up some Citadel Rhinox Hide, which GW suggest thinned with Lahmian Medium in the crevices of black add some much needed depth [?] and some Dark Reaper too. Dark Reaper is their standard black highlight, but surprisingly is mail order only. Equally surprising was the colour when I got the order. My own turquoise/black first stage highlight is darker so I’ve not conveniently got a 2 stage highlight, which might streamline the Ravenwing process, we’ll just have to see.

As you'll have seen my motivation has taken a little knock but luckily I managed to find something to progress on after a couple of days. The Knight may be down on my list but the most important thing is to re-ignite the mojo. In fact I even forced myself to do a set of Bonewhite highlights on the Genestealers to get me going. Now the interesting thing is I've done the Bonewhite on the head, chest and back on all the current form of Genestealers, that's the six with Toxin Sacs on and five with chitin plates but exposed backs. There are ten with Chitin coloured backs that won't need doing and the original Space Hulk Stealers will be relatively easy with their mainly fleshy backs.

The point being I allocated three days highlighting for each group of five Stealers:

• One day for the head, chest and back
• Two for the legs and arms

Multiplied by 6 gives me 18 days per highlight. But it looks like the head, chest and back will only take two days, shaving another four off my schedule for one highlight and a further four when I do the next level highlight! Maybe some of the other elements will follow suit but more importantly this process is really breaking down the build up of frustration these usually bring. Of course I'm not onto the arms, which are the really killers but I'm quietly confident I can get these guys done and hopefully well ahead of schedule, even fitting them around priority projects.

And I have to admit that although I detest time keeping I am finding this highly useful in both predicting my workload [made more fun by how I'm overachieving on it]. It's definitely something worth noting, although the subject matter is very easy to break down into it's constituent parts. Can't see the Broodkin being as straightforward to section.

Addendum
Having written all this my situation has changed a little bit. I often mention how I was forced to stop my Kendo due to an injury. One of my spinal discs is protruding onto the nerves and this causes me to have pins and needles and numbness in my hand. Over time this bizarrely switched hands from right to left and on occassion this causes an intense range of pain running up my left hand, arm, shoulder and neck. This can feel like I've been punched in the wrist or forearm or someone's just yanked a nerve or tendon. In itself it can be quite intense but the problem is that I struggle to find a position that's comfortable or where I can affect some relief from the pain. So the constant pain can often feel unbearable and I tend to think of the scene at 1 hour 18 minutes in from sci-fi 'classic' Battle Beyond the Stars as a viable solution:

So the point of all this is currently it's quite painful and painting is hard going, but possible. The Doctor has given me some tablets, that help nerve pain, but they also cause drowsiness - which will help with my sleeping but possibly cut into painting time. Another benefit is they can be used to treat bedwetting so at least I'll have dry nights ;)

It's not a pity post, you don't need to feel sad or anything, it's just frustrating I can't crack on with more of what I want to do but whatever progress will be minimal for a bit. I know everyone is tolerant for whatever updates turn up on the blog and you'll all be saying take time to recover [alongside the jokecomments of 'screw that, paint through the pain and blog about it, I expect regular content now dammit!']. After nearly 6 years blogging I know how this schtick works ;)

Anyway, I'm not dead [which can be more than is said about all these celebs at the moment], just hanging in there.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 11

Having completed the Tactical Marines I'm struggling to be motivated, that translates to two nights without painting and STILL staying up post midnight - what's THAT about! Luckily the muse evetually finds me and although the Knight should be way down my list I'm compelled, which is good enough. The Ion Shield was at this stage prior to my lack of motivation but it's much better than I expected.

I'd also done the chainsword, all the greens highlighted at least. I did however add the black stripes for the Gerantius connection on the carapace. It may be too soon but I felt I needed to be laying paint down even if it requires a touch up down the line.

Another shot of the chainsword, I think the highlights are a bit brighter than my Tactical Squad but I'm OK on that, the texture paint makes it less lake some Tron cos-play outfit.

I also did the head cowl, which was more like drybrushing really, which usually I recoil from but it's not as bad as it could be. Still so much detail to pick out that will help mitigate any of the deficiencies

But with Renegade in the offing I want him done, even if his priority is well below the needs of the Dark Talon and Ravenwing bikes. Something else I noticed is I've done all of my alternate weapons with green armour plates. Which is fine, it's just should I ever get another Knight so I can expand my House Raven household then the green paenls will clash. So I'm debating whether to go ahead with the green, replace it with black - which will fit both households or go Chevrons, which will still work but lean towards Raven. It's only the Gatling Cannon, Carapace Weapons and Thunderstike fist that are an issue, I just need to weigh up aesthetics versus versatility.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Dark Angels - Tactical Squad TO DONE!

After pushing on through I finally finished my Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad. I didn't take too many pictures as I was pressed for time and although one of the first GW rules of taking miniature pictures is not to use natural light [a lighting setup is much more controlled] I do just that because so far it's delivered the best results, granted there have been some predicted disappointments.

But surprisingly these aren't as bad as I'd feared. I'm still not sure the amount of effort I put in them is evident, the green in particular is so subtle it could perhaps have been achieved with the base coat and a wash!

But the figures turned out OK and the Sergeant too was rescued, his eyes have been done and although I re-did the skintone and made some mistakes I actually think I've done a better job of it. I even resisted the urge to highlight his eyebrows so they would look like skin - who has shaved eyebrows? So I actually painted some on, they're practically un-noticeable but I think that's because it looks more natural.

I'll do another photo-shoot down the line with the AoBR boys so you can compare the originals and more recent models for consistency but so far it looks pretty good.

I probably need to do some more close ups of the litanies inscribed on the armour. It can be quite a challenge to think of new ways to do it and the Plasma Gun guy was supposed to have two crossed swords on his left leg that went so pear-shaped I covered it up with a box which I then filled with green 'text' so it was more like a painted plaque on his leg.

The Sarge has a similar sort of illuminated script on his left leg with some added detailed border work.

The Plasma Cannon also has a lot of inscription on his power pack, including reference to Vraks, from whence they've just come

As you may have seen, freshly painted they entered into battle and did shockingly bad but that can;t diminsh I now have 20 Tactical marines painted, it sounds insignificant but to me that's extreme. I never completed 20 ever! And to add the Devastators in too... well I'm looking forward to exhibiting a new army at Armies on Parade this year. Big green stamp of approval to me!