Death from the Skies

Or, the hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

  What a day.  After trying to kill the Dish Network guy, things went downhill...

  But I still got my hopper and it is pretty freakin cool.  My fed-up-ness wirth DirectTV is finally over.

  I did try to start painting the realm of battle boards tonight.  Only to find that when I spray primered them, I used an enamel primer... yay Me!!  In a hurry, in a cheap mood, got stupid and bammo, now I have to re-prime the boards.  Oh well.  I should still get to them this weekend if all goes well still.  it is annoying though, I was all ready to go and nada.

  But on to the new book. Thunder from the skies is a mixed bag, IMHO. There is about 15 pages of fluff. Then a section on new air war missions, just like any other mission book they have put out. If you want to use them, you have to roll and win, then you can roll to see which one you play (unless you both agree, of course). After that is a reprint of the Burning Skies rules for air combat and more flyer fun to add to the game. Up next is the 'Bestiary', war gear and army lists for the flyers. The Space marine section adds icons to show what flavor SM chapter has access to what flyers.

White Dorf, Stormraven and Icon WIP

  Well, it's the day of the Daytona 500.  Not much will get done today, but the new White Dwarf is out, Chaos Daemons everywhere.  Again, the catalog format is in full swing, but the battle report is quite good.  Adam Troke did up some nice Daemons and plays a good game.  I wish they had gone more into the details, but it looked like a fun game.  Overall, the issue is as good as any recent, but not anything to write home about.

  Did make progress on the Stormraven yesterday.  Got the wings attached, finished all the cockpit painting, painted the crew parts,  tinted the cockpit glass and generally built it out.  I was going to leave the wings off and magnetize them, to save storage space... but...  The wife told me that we would be building a display case for the Dining Room to house our miniatures.  Ok, sold!  (She fields Nids like all girls do :)

Cockpit finished

Crew colored

Cockpit tinted and weapons magnetized

Wings!

  I also worked on the Templars Sanguine icon mold.  Version 2 is made, I just need to mix up some resin and go to it.

  Ok, maybe more later, have to watch the 42 rednecks chase the girl now....  lol, Go Junior!!!!!

Update 1 : What the hell happened to Picasa? It went from a little photo aggregator to something that now wants to index my entire hard drive and send everything to Google.  Well, deleted that damn thing.  Hey Google, go screw your mad selves!!

WIP - Storm Raven, Aquilla, Icon Mold

  Long weekend, short on ability.  Story of my life, it seems.  I did something to my arm Friday night and spent the whole weekend aching.  It falls asleep a lot and tingles just about all the time.  Methinks this is not good.  Anyhow, between that and some other malady's, my hobby work was cut quite short.   So, first off, a big "huzzah" to Danica Patrick for taking the pole for the Daytona 500.  you go, girl!

  Next, I was able to finish up on my Aquila.  This version does not suck nearly as bad as the last one.  Here it is, it still needs dullcote and some final tweaks...

  The next thing I worked on was the new icon for my chapter, the Templars Sanguine.  I will be putting up a whole page of their goodness, with preliminary fluff and designs very soon.  What I needed was the blood angels wings with a templar cross.  I can't have my brand spanking new chapter going around with the wrong iconography.  So, since I was working on my Storm Raven anyhow, I decided to cut apart the wings from one of the icons.  I also hacked up a banner from the Black Templar upgrade box to get the cross.  I had to chisel off the skull and re-shape it a bit, but it made the grade.

Hatin on the GW

or, hating GW is the new grey knights!

  Wow, the release of Death from Above has certainly stirred up a hate-storm.  It makes me think back to everything GW releases and every time they raise their prices.  The general torrent of hate that flies around the interwebz is amazing.  You would think, that with everyone hating GW so much, how are they still in business?

  Well, I’m going to put my fanboi hat on and defend the Gee-Dubya folks.  Mostly because I like GW and have no real problems with them, except for some recent asshat FAQs, but hey, mistakes gonna happen, haters gonna hate.  So, let me address some issues that I like, in no particular order;

$33 for a damn flier book that has nothing in it but old stuff and FAQs that I can get for free?   

  Yes, it’s $33.  Shut up and pay, or don’t.  Here is a novel thought for you to cogitate on.  YOU ARE NOT FORCED TO BUY IT!  It is a compendium… compendium means

compendium |kəmˈpendēəm| noun
a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject, esp. in a book or other publication.

  See? it’s a collection of other stuff.  They did not say it’s all new stuff.  So get over your  self and buy it for what it is.  Or don't buy it.  Really, it's not something to get so worked up about!

Direct sales for a book/model/codex/etc is a way of killing the local game stores.  That’s a dick-head move.!!

WIPs and Chains and DFA!!

  Ok, no whips and chains, really...  I meant Works in Progress.  Get your minds out of there!!

  I am posting a pic of my new improved Aquila from the Honored Imperium set.  I think the stone look came out ok, but I think it will really pop when the background is painted on.  I am following the same basic thoughts as the Warhammer Lady (see link to the right).  I want that look of fallen stone, not the fallen metal Aquila I had tried before.  In retrospect, it looked garish in metal.  I'm glad I stripped it.  Hopefully I can knock it all out this weekend.

  Got a new piece of Pegasus Hobbies Terrain, the small Gothic City Building kit.  Very cool kit, it really is a decent investment, and I am just about to plunk down the money for the bigger set.  A great alternative to GW terrain and will make the board look a little different.  The picture just gives you an idea of what's in the box.  It snaps together, but for any real gaming, it will require glue and a lot of mold line work.  All the usual prime/paint stuff as well.  But again, their stuff is modular, so you can combine the kits in a particular range to get something really cool.  Odd part on this kit, no floor or roof.  Easy enough to fix, but just kind of odd.  Also, the conical caps for the columns, only 8 in the kit, but there is a crap-ton of columns.  I wish they had tossed in a few more sprues of those.  I may just have to cast some of those from plaster or something like that.  These are not a lot cheaper than the GW stuff, but the change in design and look is worth it, I think.

Also, just ordered Death From The Skies.  GW's new compendium of aerial rules.  Yes, I paid the $33 for the book, like a good GW fanboi should.  But it looks really cool.  And the promise of being able to use the Storm Raven with VSM and Templars is just too good to pass up!  Especially now that I have redone the fluff of my chapter to be a cross between BA and BT.  I have heard a lot of arguments that say this is a bad thing, GW selling this direct order only, with no pre-release hype, but I cannot say as I mind.  There are no secrets in this hobby, everyone knew it was dropping today.  I'm looking forward to it!

    

GW Store Denver and Otter Stuff

  Yep, that's no misprint.  I said Otter stuff.

  So, I went up to Denver this weekend for a quick trip and some serious shopping.  After the great desk debacle of 2012, I have really needed a computer room make-over.  Since the guys from HGTV are not coming to the state of New Mexico anytime soon, I have to do it myself.  Enter Ikea.  Oh, yeah, Euro-goodness. More on that later. 

  The weekend started bad and went downhill.  I'll spare all the drama, suffice to say, I'm sick as a dog, but managed to shop and at least get to the aquarium.  Enter, the otters...

  Ok, enough of the terminally cute otters.

  I have to say, Square One in Denver is a great GW store.  It's a small shop, but the owner is a stand up guy and he runs a good shop.  I spent WAY too much money there, with the highlight being a brand new Realm of Battle GameBoard set.  Other purchases included;

Ball Predator
Space Marine BattleBarge (Battlefleet Gothic)
Space Marine Strike Cruiser (Battlefleet Gothic)
Blood Angles Sanguinary Guards
A Warhammer Wraith (Vampire counts) (to convert a Necron Wraith)
Some Termagaunts and Brood Lord (For the wife's Nid Force)
And fa la la la...

  Yeah, i dropped some hard earned money there, but hey, I'm trying to help the economy!!  I'm doing my part!

  The store was really hopping when I was there (twice, I hemmed and hawed about the RoB board purchase) and there were games on all the table space.  There is a paint bar and all the usual shelves of GW stuff and such.  If you're in the area, do hop in and say hi, you'll be treated well!

  I'm really looking forward to getting this beast primed and painted up.  I have been working on my own set of terrain boards, but to be honest, the thought of transporting them anywhere was daunting.  That and I was having to make them too generic in order to be flexible.  Now, they are going to go full Necron World.  Be ready, these Necron boards are going to be all Necron, all the time.


  So, off to bed with me, try to get rid of this cold and maybe build a desk...

Pegasus Hobbies Terrain

  Quick note on something I found at my FLGS (Active Imagination) Friday night.  These are snap together kits from Pegasus Hobbies that go together rather quickly and easily.  I am including a pic of the of the box, the completed power plant and the plan next to my unpainted Manufactorum.  As you can see, these are not GW terrain pieces by any stretch of the imagination, but they are very cool pieces in their own right.  They have a very good, 40k-esque look to them.  I think, with some seam work, mold line work, some glue, primer and paint, these will rock.

  Also, in their favor, they are completely modular.  If you were to get another kit, they would fit right together and you could build an even bigger complex.  I am thinking about doing just that.  Anyhow, just a quick note on these.  Very cool, and a decent alternative to the standard GW Terrain pieces.