Tuesday nights all right for fighting

Just under a year ago I had an email from a guy from the Lost Boys Gaming Club who'd been inspired by my efforts to create his own Dark Angel Wound Markers he contacted me the other day asking if I wanted a match up against his Fallen with the nids because he's got a 1750pt tournamnet and he's never faced the great Devourer. How could I refuse? Not only do I get some practice with a list similar to my Blog Wars effort I get to see what Dark Angels can do.

Sadly I've not been to Lost Boys in quite a while, I usually get there later than everyone else and the night finishes at 10 so I'm hard pressed to complete a full game, not that that's a problem at Throne of Skulls, why is that? But that closing time also makes it problematic for packing up. When you factor in my priority in painting figures and the ability to satisfy my gaming needs with showdowns against PeteB and Ben and occassionally Liam it's been low on my priority list.

Anyway, I got to Ainsdale and Chris and I had a chat about our respective armies, his Land Raider is really cool and even has an LED inside to light up the transport area for his Deathwing. While we were talking though disaster struck and I managed to catch the Scourge of Oktavia with the pocket on my hoody and drag it off the table. As it hung precariously on the edge by it's base I stepped back horrified only to see it plunge to ground, it hadn't even been overwatched and still it was grounded! All the magnetize limbs ejected from their respective partners and the slate the tail mount was stuck to fractured just below the super-glue join, that's what slate does. Additionally one of the wing claws is snapped and one of his toe talons is bent/broken by about 3mm. All in all it could have been a lot worse, although I haven't done a full inspection of the damage yet. Suffice to say I think it crossed both our minds that coming out tonight was proving less than spectacular so far.

The piece of slate in question that fractured, from when I first started the Tyrant.

  
So we set up, Crusade I think, Hammer and Anvil, 2 onjectives each. Chris took all these pictures [many thanks] It's not a full battle report, I'm trying to be brief. Chris had a couple of Tactical squads, a Deathwing Squad and Deathwing Knights, Ravenwing Squad and Ravening Knights, Attack Bike, Land Raider Redeemer and an Autocannon Mortis Dreadnought and a Librarian running the show. My two objectives are behind my Bastion and on the first floor in the ruins. Chris positioned his in the second floor of a ruin with a Tactical squad just put of shot on the left and on that ledge of a ruin in the orange area terrain. Night fighting was in effect and Chris went first, he moved everything up and managed to get 4 wounds on the CC Tervigon thanks to some pretty apalling saving throws from myself.

Now I had 60 Termagants, minus 11 killed by a Plasma cannon plus 13 spawned [while the Great Maw spawned out on 7] surrounding a Tervigon with 2 wounds left! The only choice was to go for the Land Raider, death or glory, but it had the Crushing Claws that could open it. Only it failed it's charge roll of 5"! Other Termagants headed for the Deathwing that telported next to the Bastion, they also failed their 5" charge range. I glanced the Dreadnought and may have pinged a Ravenwing with the Biovores/Hive Guard/Quad Gun, but it was the Twin Flyrants that did the damage, taking out the entire tactical squad in the orange area terrain, with a little help from the 30 Termagants. They would eventually swoop behind the Land Raider and put 20 Devourer shots on it's back door only to fail to glance it even once!

This is somewhere around turn 3 I think. Chris managed to get the Ravewing Knights on, he had some pretty disastrous Plasma shooting, killing one or two Marines throughout the game. When the attack bike arrived next to my Bastion I suddenly realise the Zoanthrope, Hive Guard and Bastion and Quad Gun was likely to go up in vaporized chitin. Interceptor fire from the Quad Gun put a wound on the attack bike but not enough to stop it firing but Chris rolled badly, not even getting a glance on the Fortification! His Deathwing tried to bash it to pieces but only succeeded in wounding a Hive Guard inside thanks to glancing blows. The wounded CC Tervigon succumbed to Assault Cannon rends, taking some Termagants with it but not enough to concern me.

  

The Mawloc arrived turn 2 and given my options I went for the Ravewning Knights, further from the board edge than the Ravewning and Attack bike and lower saves than the 3+ Invuls of the Deathwing Knights. Somehow the Ravewning Knights were swallowed whole, I took three in the first Terror from the Deep and managed to wound the remaining two meaning the Mawloc didn't burrow back out of sight. He was subsequently charged by the Deathwing Knights, whose Smite ability put about 8-10 S10 Ap2 hits on the poor thing, still I think it did it's job.

The Great Maw and Termagants managed to take down the Deathwing after two rounds of combat.

Then they consoldiated back round the bastion with the Hive Guard and Great Maw assaulting the Ravenwing, who'd lost the attack bike and another rider to the twin Biovores! A Hive Guard died to overwatch but I think the Ravewning came to a sticky end. They tried Krak grenades on the Great Maw, I think it had only 2 wounds left and out of 4 hits got three 1's and a 2 for wound rolls! He later had another set saving throws that resulted in three 1's. The Dark Angels had 'fallen' from grace in the yes of the Emperor.

One Tyrant glanced the back of the Land Raider and then Smashed it, getting two pens, one of which, thanks to AP 2 blew it apart killing more Termagants in the explosion than the Flamestorms had during the entire game. I guess Promethium is very flammable! The other Flyrant went for the Deathwing Knights, and together with the Termagants and Warriors who popped out of cover managed to riddle them with weight of fire, killing them or leaving just two left. The Dreadnought also fell and the game was called.

Chris had some unlucky dice rolls, but I have to say those Deathwing Knights are extremely tough. i may well have to consider investing in some in the future. It was a really great game and even when my Tyranid Codex fell off the table and bent the hardback cover it couldn't shake the positivity of the match. It was great to play against someone new, in a none tournament way and I'm really glad Chris asked for the game. Hopefully it won't be so long before I go back again, although this time with less physical damage to my models please ;) I can see lots of remedial work to Hive Guard, Zoanthropes, Flyrant and Biovore before Blog Wars.

Better off Dread - Dark Angel AoBR Dreadnought Update Update Update Update - TO DONE!

After 3 years and 1 months since Brother Cask first graced Confessions of a 40k Addict he is finally complete. Yes indeed, in the months I have set aside for painting Dark Angels I've actually painted some Dark Angels!

As you can see I've added litany writings and freehand 5th Company markings. I tried to use a circular magnet for the symbol, by painting it black and stamping it on the shoulder to get a perfect circle but that just made a blob. So I had to do it by hand but it came out pretty neat.  

I think even with the litanies and extra detail work he's quite understated. He'll be used in some of my early games just because he's done, I may well have him come in my Drop Pod, should I manage to finish that!

If I was doing another one I'd probably have used those top four panels to make the quartered 5th company symbol but I do like the V to represent the company and to be seen from a Titan.

I say finished, I obviously mean there's still a little to do, some flock on the base and his name on his shins scroll. I'd painted over it and bought a technical drawing pen that claimed to be water resistant, which in truth it might be able to substantiate but it is NOT resistant to Army Painter Anti-Shine. So the redrawn 'CASK' washed away and I'll consider adding it on top, in which case it'll be a bit glossy or try and freehand paint it again, yikes.

Here you can see him alongside my Deathwing and Tactical marines, you'll notice just how matt that Anti Shine came out. It's a funny paint in that it can be uber matt or even shiny. This time it may be because I might have laid it on thick, it actually took around 18 hours to fully dry.

It's not a 100% match in greens but hopefully with the rest of the guys it will all fit seamlessly together.

It's difficult to tell which is the more accurate colours .

More pics of the 'happy couple' ;)

This is what happens when you stay out in the Ferron badlands too long the UV radiation and sulphur-rich atmosphere tend to make your vision just that little bit jaundiced.

Interestingly I found this filter on my phone cam that removed the yellow in certain areas, makes Dark Angels quite interesting in blue, don't you think?

Here's my big blue tick, for finally getting it done! More importantly it's something crossed off my To Do List, which actually looks a bit pathetic given only 6 of 20 items have been done. I'm sure come the reckoning day I'll have made up for it somehow and certainly getting something finally complete that's been on every list I've created thus far is a big deal. I now have 490pts of Dark Angels painted.

Meanwhile I've 12 bases to paint, which will make 36 bases I've painted since Throne of Skulls. Then I'll be adding some green to all my Tactical and Devastator squads but the primary concerns will be my Dark Vengeance Librarian, I need a HQ and getting my Lictor and Carnifex ready for Blog Wars 7.

Blogging Networks or Blogging Notworks how blogging success seems to have changed?

I've been blogging since 2010 and I remember back in the day that I saw SO many people who started a blog and then never got more than a few posts done. I charged myself with the task of blogging every other day for a year. If it got too much I could take a break but thanks to scheduling most of my posts in advance it's been quite a run, three years on [I know it's just started getting patchy ;) ]. In the beginning though any increase in traffic was great news and I think I've reached a place now that I never dreamed of. I think I've learned a thing or two and as other folk start down this path I thought I'd share an observation should you be wanting to take your blog to the next level.

Back in those days if you wanted to get noticed it was blogging networks and blog rolls that you had to be on and if there was only one blog roll to be on it was Ron's of From the Warp. Now Ron has been on hiatus from blogging for the last 16 months [come back Ron, we miss you!] but to this date, outside of google searches, From the Warp has referred more people to my blog than any other source, the main reason I still have the FTW blogger group logo on the right hand side [the other being it's very cool]. You can see I'm also a member of Tale of Painters Blog Network and the UK Bloggers Group, I even used to have the BoLS banner up there too. In truth though I'm not sure if any of these 'memberships' brings new readers or followers to the blog, certainly not based on the statistics my blogger dashboard tells me. This isn't a dig at them, it's not their fault, viewers can't be forced to follow up links I just think people are creatures of habit, they go to a location and do their thing, if they link to something else it must be pretty special or pushed in such a way to be worth following. However, no man is an island and so it's important to be part of the community so I will still continue to promote those groups I've committed to on my blog.

What I do find is that if you want folk to come to your blog then you really have to do the leg work yourself. Blog rolls work a little better, certainly Faeit212 is the place to be and Natfka openly wants new blogs to go on the roll. I think his blog has massive readership and quite a potential audience but equally the blog roll is large so your place within it when you post will rapidly be taken by someone else's post. Anyone who gets on his BlogExchange will see a massive surge of hits but once that post is 'yesterday's newspaper' there's no guarantee you'll retain those readers. So if you haven't applied to be included yet I'd consider when you want to be added, probably not in the infancy of your blog 

There are a number of other blogs that when my blog has been mentioned I've had a surge in visitors - www.fritz40k.com was one, www.3plusplus.net  was another. Recently someone posted a link to my Tyranid Aegis Defence Line in a comment on a BoLS news story - I got over 2,000 page views in one day!

However, a lot of my views come from forums where I'm actively sharing the work I've done, most often a short precis of the larger blog post. That way folk can either take what's offered or come to the blog to find out more and hopefully experience everything else on offer. Equally Facebook Groups and Google+ are a great way to access 1000s of people already interested in the hobby.

What I'm trying to get at is that there are options available to grow your blog but my evidence would suggest it is no substitute for hitting the streets and promoting it yourself. There are definitely sites that if you can get featured on will greatly increase your traffic but the double edged sword is that 'with greater traffic comes greater responsibility' with more followers your obligation for decent and more importantly regular content is increased. If you want to take it to the next level then you have to make sure you're delivering a 'next level' blog.

One other downside to 'keeping score' is it becomes obsessive [like I need any more of that!]. Constantly checking hits, trying to predict how you will do this month compared to last - it can get a bit much. For instance in December I managed to break the 20,000 barrier, not bad when a lot of folks were spending time with family instead of trawling the interwebs. In January I eclipsed all the freebies and Capillary Tower content from December with a 25% increase in page views! I've also noticed that weekend posts often get less traffic than a weekday post. Never assume your audience has loads of free time at the weekend, if they do they're probably out enjoying themselves, they're not you, they're not a geek with a blog who sits there watching their stat counter. ;) So if you're ever deciding which blog post to cut, I'd recommend Saturday or Sunday's!

I'm not saying blog networks are a waste, far from it, you should be part of them, but I think they're less successful than they used to be in introducing people to your blog. From my experience there's really no substitute for hawking your blog yourself. There we have it, a little peak behind the curtain at 40kaddict Towers, maybe some advice that can help with your own efforts. Just a reminder too there's still an open invitation to anyone with a blog to be featured in my own 'Support your local blogger'. I'm not a network but those that have been featured have seen a few extra hits. So feel free to leave a link in the comments section, perhaps a link to an image, maybe a description and I'll put some of them up and see if it helps.

Star Wars - Off topic I know but I amused myself and wanted to share...

Apparently that picture of the new Star Wars 7 cast was missing another member who'd been caught up in traffic, here's the picture they took later on when he turned up and started to make friends.

Strike from the shadows

My new distraction! Oh well, it's for a reason at least. I'm hoping to go to Blog Wars 7 and you have to take a Special Character. Last time I took the Doom, obviously, and this time I can't, obviously. So I could take the Swarmlord, in fact I SHOULD take the Swarmlord, considering I have all the bits magnetized and painted [although my metal Tyrant needs some remedial work]. However, I just got this Lictor and so I could take Deathleaper and a Dakkafex instead, which sounds like more fun if more work in the wrong direction. Alternatively I could even use the Carnifex as Old One Eye, seeing as I have magnetized Scytals and Crushing Claws...

But I am actually painting, I did some of my metallics and my Heavy Support unit has their bases done. I've even started the bases on the 10 Dark Vengeance Tactical marines not to mention the Venomthrope is ready for the first set of Chitin highlights! At least the Genestealers have hardly been touched. 

BUT, I have zero motivation to photograph them even if I know I'll regret it and it's going to hit the blog as you can already tell what with no blog post for a few days. So I'll try and find a way to fit it in but please don't fret if it goes quiet for a bit, no need to check if my milk is still on the front step, I'm not being eaten by the cat.

...and the post-Thrones malaise hits

I don't know what's happened but my momentum has seriously stalled practically as soon as I wrote my 'what's on my pallette' post. I've tried to do more nids, much to my own disgust, in an attempt to kickstart my motivation. I've done little bits but it's all the metallics on the Dark Angels that I can't bring myself to start, so I went bug. The problems continued as you can see on my Venomthrope - the blue paint just won't stick to the Red Oxide Primer!

So you can see I tried to create some sort of 'key' for it to stick to, using a product I already know adds a fine texture - Seraphim Sepia - hence all the powder smudges where it's gone all chalky. Nothing like being able to guarantee a failure of product and therefore use it to your advantage instead of it ruining your model. I've since added some more blue on top and it's 90% covered now, whether that's to do with the Sepia I don't know but the problems haven't helped me progress.

I also went completely off-piste and started my Carnifex, it's been magnetized but I still need to resolve what to do in his spare limb sockets. I've done the Felshborer Hives as twin linked Devourers and they're polarized so I can use them on the Great Maw too. But when you use them you still have those spare sockets.

I'm doing some Mawloc Claws for feeble combat weapons and may do an alternative of Venom Cannon sacks but need to model the right hand sack as they're all lefties, or 'sinister' as they're officially known in our house!

I also had a game with PeteB and took what I thought was a really 'dirty' list - two Punisher Vengeance Weapon Batteries, Flyrant, 2 Tervigons, 60 Termagants a Mawloc, Hive Guard and Biovore. I even proxied my spare Tyrant as a Dakkafex to see what would happen.

PeteB's Wraithguard/Lord and WraithSeer [Avatar proxy] heavy list seemed like it was outmatched against all my Monstrous Creatures.

I got hammered though, the mawloc mishapped [and died] when it failed to take down even one of his three War Walkers when they outflanked. Much of my dice rolling was appalling, though PeteB was equally stuck with turns of little significance. Ultimately though his force was just more durable with plenty of FnP being passed amongst his Wraithguard. The Dakkafex met an thoroughly ignominious end, charging a Wraithlord and getting killed before it could even try and hit it!

It was a good game but another reminder that the Tyranid Codex is a fickle beast. It can work but even what I would consider a 'dirty' list can roll over and die at a moments notice. PeteB was equally shocked, particularly with 'prowess' of the Dakkafex!

So it was a bit of an anti-climax and its a reminder that despite the effort put into painiting there's no guarantee the figures will perform. Once you add in the very slow progress, the array of hurdles that are obstructing the slow progress it's taken most of my momentum away. The knock on effect is I've not much 'progress' content for the blog and that's making me less inspired to write, which is a shame as I've had a number of new followers join and I really do owe it to you all to keep standards up.

I've actually been thinking about experimenting with Twitter and seeing if I can link the accounts so I can tweet some updates. I've mentioned before I need to learn the skill of 'micro-blogging', long posts are OK, but short and sweet are also useful, I just struggle keeping things brief. Twitter forces you to be brief and social media is something I need to get a firmer grasp of because I've applied fo a temporary promotion in my job which is less design [boo] but more customer engagement [yay]. I think we need to be more customer focused and embrace social media a bit more. The good thing is even with my limited experience I think I'm one of the 'sharper tools in the box' heading into this, but if anyone has experience of using Twitter and integrating it with their blogging,or building I'd be interested in any advice, both for 40kaddict and my wider experience.

Support your local blogger - thepaintingbunker.com

John at www.thepaintingbunker.com has an amazing blog. It's fit to bursting with top notch content, in particular his terrain and scenery is a whole other level. He lavishes the same attention to his battle boards as most people do to their armies. Combining Forgeworld, GW, his own resin casts, scratchbuilds and every shade of hobby related technique to create some awesome battle boards, just check this out:

His work in progress logs are so worth checking out as you can see the effort and skill involved to create these often unique buildings. The great things is you can see from the recent Horus Heresy Tournament he hosted that all the competitors brought fantastically painted armies to battle. There's no point bringing half-painted plastic when you're gaming on tables of this calibre.

So if you weren't already aware of the painting bunker get there now because it can entertain you far more than my review of it. Go, go like the wind!