Tools of the Trade: Toe Nail Clippers... yeah!

   Just a really quick note here, wanted to pass on some old model railroad stuff.  When you are out looking to replace those old, worn out sprue cutters, do NOT go to the hobby store, or worse, GW.  They charge $15-20 for a sharpened pot-metal set of nippers that have an overall suck factor of %100.

  Instead, follow your wife/gf/so or whoever you know that has decent hygeine into walgreens, or CVS or where ever and buy toe nail clippers.  You may be amazed, depending on the store you go to, how many different kinds there are.  Here are some reasons to love them;

• They are made of hardened steel, they last a crap-load longer than hobby sprue nippers
• They come in a gazillion shapes, and since a lot of the GW sprues have gates VERY close to the part, hobby sprue cutters are usually too big to get in there.
• They are cheaper.
• People will think you actually have decent personal hygiene and who knows... might be date night soon???

  Here is a link to just a set on Amazon.  $12.00 as opposed to $15 for GW or similar and these will last a good deal longer.

  So there it is, just a quick bit of advice from an ol' modeler.

  In the next few days should have the 1,000pt BatRep up and some shots of the Night Scythe all finished and the Canoptek Wraiths in work...  So much to do, so little time...

BatRep 750 (Nec-SW) Doomsday Falls!

The Bloody End of it all

  How quickly doom falls!  In the 2nd Escalation game, the Necrons fell hard.  Bad setup, some lower than average rolling and power fist madness spelled doooom, and I'm not talking Doomsday Ark either.

  We rolled up the same deployment, diagonal and the mission was The Relic.  Easy peasy, lemon Squeezy, I thought.  I'll roll in, grab the relic and pound some space wolf butt...  Yeah, not hardly.

  My list follows;  Not terribly imaginative, but I thought I would the next squad of warriors just to contest more objectives and use a night Scythe to deliver them, and have a mobile gun platform.


750 Pts - Necrons Roster - Task Force OU-812-750

HQ: Overlord (1#, 130 pts)

   1 Overlord, 130 pts ((C:NE, pg. 30); Infantry; Warscythe; Resurrection Orb; Ever-Living; Independent Character; Reanimation Protocols; Warlord)

Troops: Immortals (5#, 85 pts)

   5 Immortals, 85 pts ((C:NE, pg. 34); Infantry; Tesla Carbine; Reanimation Protocols)

Troops: Warriors (10#, 130 pts)

   10 Warriors, 130 pts ((C:NE, pg. 33); Infantry; Gauss Flayer; Reanimation Protocols)

Troops: Warriors (11#, 230 pts)

   10 Warriors, 230 pts ((C:NE, pg. 33); Infantry; Gauss Flayer; Reanimation Protocols)

      1 Night Scythe ((C:NE, pg. 51); (DFTS, pgs. 61 & 70); Vehicle (Transport); 1 Access Point; 15 model capacity; TL Tesla Destructor; Deep Strike; Invasion Beams; Living Metal; Supersonic)

Heavy Support: Doomsday Ark (1#, 175 pts)

   1 Doomsday Ark, 175 pts ((C:NE, pg. 48); Doomsday Cannon; Gauss Flayer Array (each side); Quantum Shielding; Living Metal; Jink; Vehicle (Open-topped, Skimmer))

Roster satisfies all enforced validation rules
Total Roster Cost: 750
Created with Army Builder® - Try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com

  Also wanted to mention - Used the Battlemarker markers for this game, very handy, cannot recommend them highly enough!!!   The are an e-bay store that makes markers for all kinds of game systems, and all types of things.  The Reanimation Protocol, ever living, quantum shielding etc markers are so handy.  Well worth looking into!!!
 

BatRep 500 (Necron-Space Wolf)

  So, finished up the first of hopefully many games in an escalation series that a friend of mine, Devin, and I are doing.  Doing an escalation style series of games gives it more of a campaign feel, even though we are using no campaign rules at all.  It is also highly motivational in the painting department.  I just realized that I have to paint up another 250 points of necrons before the weekend.  Holy Merde!

  We played on the Realm of Battle game boards that I have just finished up, and they worked really well.  The heavy flocking stayed put, dice rolled reasonably well (take that MightyTim!!), and all in all, I have to give them an A+.  Of course, all they did was lay there and sweat, so to speak.

The Finished boards to play on. I like the way the flocking came out.

 
  The game... well that was odd.  We started out at 500pts and we will escalate 250 pts each time, and we're sticking with our forces (Necrons for me, Space Wolves for Devin) throughout, although who knows about a few one-offs that may come up!  We rolled the mission as Big Guns Never Tire with the wonky diagonal deployment.  I lost the roll and had to set up first.  No biggy, three units.  The mission helped me by making my already Velveeta-Smooth Doomsday Ark scoring.

Tools of the Trade 2: Organizer

  So, I admit it, I'm a bit OCD when it comes to organizing my tools and workbench.  Ok, Alot OCD.  So I saw this organizer from a firm called HobbyZone in Poland.  It looked SWEET, so I looked into ordering one.  Nice price, only $47, but he shipping was another $46.  Yeeegads.  Somehow, I just couldn't justify that.  But it does look sweet...

  Further searching took me to Micro-Mark, my all around go-to guys for cool tools and such.  They have an organizer there that looks remarkably similar the Hobby Zone model.  So I ordered one.

Realm of Battle WIP

  So, I took the plunge a few weeks back and picked up a Realm of Battle game board set from GW.  I know, I know, I can hear you saying "What a slobbering fanboi".  Yup... and proud.  Listen, I have my homemade MDF terrain boards here and I even built a custom frame to wheel those 2' x 2' beasts around.  BACK off!! - LOL,  j/k.

  Yeah, I have heard all the complaints about the GW boards, but I liked the look of them.  Besides, GW could release the 2nd coming of Christ and they would get knocked for him being too expensive and way overpowered compared to Necrons.  My favorite complaint was that models slide down the hills on these boards.  I have to laugh my ass off at this.  If any of you think plastic minis are going to hold their position on slick plastic boards, you're too stupid to play 40k, turn in all your crap and get out your checkers set! (Yes, I heard this complaint on a podcast.  Somebody was stuck on stupid that day).  I have also heard people bitch that the hills are too gentle and people don't measure elevation changes during movement correctly.  Umm, SLAP THEM, they are cheating.  If you let it ride, then its your fault, get over it.

  I knew the board would need to be flocked going in so I laid in supplies.  I used thinned down acrylic tube paints blasted through an airbrush to do the terrain.  I find these paints tough and durable and they spray pretty well through a .5mm airbrush.  I used;

Raw Sienna (Liquitex Basics)
Burnt Sienna (Liquitex Basics)
Raw Umber (Liquitex Basics)

Payne's Grey (Liquitex) (Super secret wash...  more later)

Tools of the Trade: Paint Mixer

(Originally posted in the Screaming Heretic Forums!)

  So, there I was, tons of paint pots and sore arms. (Don't ask...)

  I needed a paint shaker, i was really tired of shaking by hand.  It also looks really gay.. i mean, silly.  I have a Badger whirly mixer that goes in the pot and stirs it, but it always seems to me to waste paint. I needed something else.

  Enter the electric carving knife...

  Yep, you heard me right, the same device used to decimate countless thanksgiving turkeys could save me.

  So, here are the steps.