Monday, December 21, 2015

Yearly Chaos Incursion - BE WARY for enemies of the Emperor

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Begin Transmission

Repetition of General Directive 264-A-XCIV

To: Distribution, Sectorium Primus
From: Office of The Grand Inquisitor, Ebineezar Grinchanius
Re: Yearly Chaos Incursion

This purpose of this notice is to remind the forgetful of the annual visitation by the minion of Chaos known to the unworthy as Santa Claus.

+++ The Emperor's Light Banishes the Shadows of Heresy +++

As the diligent will recall, the incursion occurs regularly every 8742 to
8766 Terran hours, roughly corresponding to a Terran year. This trespass has
occurred with disturbing regularity since at least the Horus Heresy, and
perhaps longer, as many records were misplaced.

+++ Love and Obey the Emperor +++

The faithful will recognize the target on sight, as his garb and gear mark
him immediately as an agent of the abominations.

Santa Claus is a corpulent, bloated creature approximating the human form.
It wears a crimson tunic the color of fresh blood, marking him as a possible
follower of Khorne. It is bearded, mocking the honorable Squats, and its
hair is a sallow shade of gray, betraying its unnatural age. Be advised that
despite the creatures fearsome name, no claws have been observed, and the
former is likely a ruse.

The target has been observed in the company of smaller creatures having the
appearance of thin (less than 30 kg, approx.), stunted (1.5 meters)
humanoids with pointed ears. Their appearance suggests the involvement of
the decadent panzee, and although that race denies involvement (*reference
the Rudolphian Campaign [index 4111-BGE-MMXCII-Primus], specifically the
Battle of Yukon Coneliaus IV [ibid., index 6]*), agents are advised to be
prepared for their involvement, as the panzee are known for their deceitful
ways.

Santa Claus is conveyed by means of a grav-sled powered by unnatural
livestock as detailed below.

The target's vehicle is a grav-sled. It has superfluous runners which are
used only on landing and take-off. Despite the appearance, no frozen water
is necessary for its operation (another ruse). The vehicle's resemblance to
the foul Palanquin of Nurgle should not be discounted, even though the
colors continue to be reminiscent of Khorne.

The device is powered by the unholy ministrations of eight or nine
quadrupeds. Ordo Malleus scholars have identified these creatures as warped
versions of an extinct species of Terran mammal known as a Moose (reference
900002-ER-CIV). These beings single-mindedly pull the target's vehicle
during its yearly invasion. They are outfitted with belled harnesses which
are apparently imbued with the ability of flight. These beasts have been
likened to the Fiends of Slaanesh, and such a comparison should not be
dismissed too lightly, as the creatures shed a luminous substance as
effluent as they move. Inquisitors should take care to avoid exposure.

Perhaps more disturbing is the variable number of the minion-creatures. On
occasion, a ninth Moose has been observed, placed before the other Mooses.
This creature radiates a sickly reddish glow from its snout, as a psychic
beacon to other followers of the Vile Ones. This Chaotic device has allowed
the target to navigate despite our best efforts to jam its navigation
systems.

+++ Blessed is the Virtue of Blind Faith +++

Santa Claus gains entry to the domiciles of loyal Imperial Citizens (see
below) and leaves small Chaos Rewards to tempt the faithful.

Inquisitors are reminded to confiscate and incinerate these items before any
lasting damage is done. As a localized temporal distortion field is in
effect around the target, these items are secreted in the habitations of the
Imperium at exactly 2400 hours in every location defiled by the creature. It
is therefore possible to gain entry to the citizens' quarters and remove the
items (often cunningly hidden in footwear) before the citizens are aware of
the heresy that has been committed upon them.

In other cases, removal of the items after the citizens have discovered them
is possible. In such situations, small children are occasionally loath to
surrender the items, as the tainting of the juveniles has already begun.
Executions of the above are to be handled in the most expedient manner
possible.

Often, juveniles that are well within the Emperor's Grace are given small
blocks of graphite ore rather than the more tempting gifts visited upon the
less faithful. The identity of these individuals are to be recorded, as
future recruitment into the Inquisition or Adeptus Terra is possible [Note:
Inquisitors or other agents who do *not* receive the graphite stones should
be watched carefully].

Santa Claus enters the domiciles be way of heating ducts and waste vents.
The size of the opening is not a factor, as the creature can adjust its mass
and displacement by means of psychic manipulation. Mining these openings
with frag, krak and other demolitions has proven unsuccessful.

The creature egresses by the same means, after ritually caressing his
nostrils. No mucus has ever been recovered.

+++ The Death of Emperor's Enemies is the Only Gift We Can Give +++

Although all previous attempts at the destruction of Santa Claus have
failed, Inquisitors are urged to make such an attempt whenever possible.

However, of more importance is the suppression of cultist activity
associated with the yearly incursion. The Tainted have been known to erect
shrines in their homes in the form of shrubbery adorned with baubles and
lights [Note: the shrubbery is often highly inflammable, and offers a
discrete method of executing the offending heretics without calling undue
attention to the operation].
Other warning signs include:

Hallucinations involving sugared candies during slumber;
Excessive singing;
References to "a magical time of year" (note the influence of Tzeentch);
The construction of effigies made of snow; and
The performance of Slaanishi rituals while underneath plant clippings of the
genus Phoradendron flavescens.
Once again, executions should be handled in an expedient manner.

+++The Emperor Protects+++

End Transmission

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Friday, December 4, 2015

Warzone Damocles LE - Video unboxing

Latest unboxing video is up...

Warzone Damocles this time.  I got the Limited Edition, and it seems like a pretty good deal, overall.


Enjoy!

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Monday, October 26, 2015

Friends don't let friends bend airbrush needles

  So, guess what happens when you swing your arm around and clip the side of your paint booth with your airbrush!  Yeah, you guessed it.

  Bent the needle on the Renegade Krome.  Damn that hurts.  Took the photos with a celestron digital microscope.

  The lesson... be careful when you have your nice airbrush in your hands.  I guess my zenithal highlighting experiment waits till Thursday when the replacement comes in...  <sigh>




New Walls. For Sigmar or Warmachine

  Well, with all those new Tau moving walls running around, I thought I would cobble some together for my Age of Sigmar and Warmachine games.  Super easy to make, the process is actually in the Warmachine rulebook.  You just cut a small piece of insulation foam, I went with 1/2" by 6" and 8".  They are, of course, 1" tall.  Then I rolled up some tin foil into a ball, to get a nice textured surface.  Press that into the foam, then use a ballpoint pen to draw in the 'mortar' lines for the stones.   For the base, I just cut some dollar store foam core board into shapes, peeled off the top layer of paper, cut a 1/2" groove in it and removed that foam as well.  Then used Elmer's glue to put them together.

  After that just paint and detail to your heart's content.  I did some grey and some umber walls, just to have some variety.  I had the hay bales just laying around from some other project.

  Making them in 6 and 8 inch segments means I can arrange them however I like.  I made some "forts" below just for examples sake.

  Making all 6 took about 2 hours, not counting paint drying time.  Simple, easy sunday project.




Saturday, October 24, 2015

Tamiya Hobby Drill - Great tool for Pinning!

  Hey folks,  I like to share whenever I see a great item for us hobby crazed folks, and I have found one!

  This is the Tamiya Electric Handy Drill.  I bought it at a hobby store on a lark, thinking it might be a good tool for pinning.  Boy is it ever!!  It uses a regular hobby motor, but has a gearing arrangement that gives it a decent amount of torque.  I tested it on plastic, wood and white metal (Privateer Press minis) and it was great to very good on all of them.  It has a collet lock, trigger lock and even a spare collet for larger drill bits.

  It blasted through the wood and plastic easily.  Even with the small drill bit for pinning, it was very sure and precise.  On the metal minis, it was perfection in a plastic case!  This was the function I had most wanted to use it for, so I was very pleased with that!!

  Drilling metal is a pain in the arse.    Yes, I know, a pin vise works, as does the dremel.  But the pin vise is manual, and I hate work.  The dremel, meanwhile spins very quickly, but with almost no torque at all.  So you usually end up with either a broken bit (the really small ones) or a stalled dremel tool that you then have to work out of the hole it dug.  That and the fact that using the dremel can really heat up a mini.  This drill has a nice gear reduction set that gives it just enough torque to drill the metal, but not heat it up or stall.  Perfection!

  The downsides of this thing?  Well, it is a kit, you have to build it.  Luckily you don't have to drill anything, or you would end up in a Möbius loop forever.  Also, the gearing and everything except the motor and battery parts are plastic.  It is tough and durable, but it will not stand up to too much punishment.  (Take care of your tools, kids, and they'll take care of you!)

  Do be careful, if you run to get one... Amazon sells them for anything from ~$18 to ~$58.  Don't get caught with the expensive one.  Here is a shameless link to one from my Amazon store...




  So, if you need one, you really need one.  It's quite handy and I can give it an unqualified thumbs up!

Who knew, a kit to build kits...  LOL
Side view showing the tool, the trigger lock and the collet stop (Brass button near the shaft)
2 AA batteries required!
   So, if you do a bunch of pinning or anything that needs drilling, this may just be your tool of choice for the future!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Warmachine - Cryx Themed cary-all box

Hiya folks,

  I made a box to haul all my miscellaneous Warmachine/Cryx stuff in.  Thought I would share the results.  It's not a figure case, just a case to haul all the other stuff in.  I have a video and some pics... 

Hope you enjoy!




And now the pics;

  The box in all it's new glory...  It's a plain Michael's (craft supply store) box, painted green, cuz that's what Cryx does.  The corners and pirate logos are also from Michael's. They are epoxied on and the corners have 2 screws in them.  The third (middle) screw head is cut off because of the angle of the box.

   The Cryx logo is decoupaged onto the top.  Not the best work, but I don't decoupage much...
 
  The  marker storage is just cheap dollar store foam core, cut and glued.  I hold the pieces together with pins until the glue dries.  The it was painted... yup, green...

  The bottom holds the rulers, dice, cards etc for the game.  Kinda fun to make.  Hopefully you'll get motivated for your game/race/faction/ thing!

See ya!

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Embracing mediocrity - Or learning to love Warmachine minis again...

  Wow, almost a month since my last post.  My apologies for that.  It's not like I haven't done anything though.  I have been busy, even with hobby stuff.

  What has happened is a little odd though.  I got some paint on my Baleful Realmgates, and some of my other Age of Sigmar stuff as well.  I am enjoying painting and building those models, I must say.  But I have also been playing the Privateer Press card game called High Command.  It's a drop dead fun card game set in the Iron Kingdoms.  It has a very good mechanic and is boatload of fun.  This, of course, got me interested in Warmachine again...

  That's when the fun began in earnest.  I had a whole bunch of Convergence of Cyriss models, as well alot of my old Cryx stuff that was unbuilt.  I set out to build up the Convergence stuff, and almost immediately put them back down.

  (Writers note: I am not trying to drag Privateer through the mud here, but I am going to point out some real differences between them and GW.  If you're a foaming flag-waver for Privateer, this may be hard to read :)

  Why put them down?  They are horrible.  When I was playing warmachine regularly (a few games???) the models were metal and had the level of detail you would expect from metal minis.  Not great but acceptable.  One of the reasons I liked the new Cyriss was that they were all plastics.  A lot of Privateer's models are plastic now.  'This is a great step up', I thought to myself...

  Boy was I ever wrong.  Their version of plastic is a crappy resin that has terrible detail and a crap ton of mold release on them.  The detail pieces are so small as to be flimsy, and there attachment points are virtually non existent.  Using super glue on them was chore, at best and what should have been an easy night of model building turned into a frustrating exercise.  <sigh> 

  What's worse is that the battle pack I got had no assembly instructions in them at all.  I thought perhaps my pack was just shorted the assembly sheet, no big deal.  I would go online to find them.  HAH!  Nope, they don't put sheets with any of their models.

  So, I had this ~$50 battle pack, with lots of parts in bags, but each bag has parts from all the different models in them.  The only thing online is an after-the-fact blog post with pictorial assembly guides.  What kind of crap is that?  Would the 15 cents it took to include a diagram of the parts really cut that deeply into their bottom line?

  So, here I am with horrible models that lack detail, come in many tiny parts and have no assembly info.  Online, I find out that this is the norm for their models and packs.

  I step back and think to myself, maybe I'm just too curmudgeonly.  Maybe I need to just knuckle down and do this.  After all, I've got 30+ years of modeling under my belt, I can do it.

  Then I think... why?  Why should I blindly accept mediocrity in exchange for my hard earned cash?  In these days of high prices of models and the 'entry cost' for the miniatures hobby is always rising, shouldn't I expect better? I have the right to expect damned good models, with great detail and good instructions inside the box for these prices.  The level of detail on these models is quite acceptable, for 1978.  This is 2015, I expect, nay, I demand better.

  In reading the forums and blogs that are dedicated to Warmahordes, I noticed this certain air of superiority from the modellers who build and convert Warmahordes minis.  They seemed to exude (and in some cases state overtly) that this is what separates the 'men from the boys' (Sorry ladies, but all the posts I saw were men...).  I say bullcrap to that.  What this does is simply separate those who accept mediocrity from those who do not.

  Yes, I built the minis, and I primed them, I knuckled under.  But I didn't enjoy it, not like I do when I build some other company's miniatures.  I will paint them and I will play warmahordes again.  It's a good game, with good people writing it and playing it.  I just wish people would not accept less than they should for their money.  Someone has to compete with GW, and I thought PP would do that.  Unfortunately, after being away from Warmahordes for many years, I don't see that  growth.   I still see a great, fun game, with alot of involvement and care from the company, but I don't see any real growth.  And that makes me a sad panda!

<ahem... page 5 alert>

Come on Privateer, manufacture and produce like you got a pair!!!!

 <page 5 off>

   Again, I'm not riding them down, They're a great company, with a great game.  But they can do better!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Age of Sigmar App Update - Getting better

  Well, they updated it again.  I have to say it is getting better, marginally. 

  I was going to update the app earlier this week when I purchased the Stormcast Eternals book using the in-app purchase methodology.  Needless to say, it did not work at all.  I could download the book but it would not let me read it.  I was a pit peeved, ok, alot peeved.  But there was an update yesterday that added alot of features and it seems to be coming along... again.

  For starters, the books all work now.  Yay!  All the sourcebooks and battle-tomes and the painting guide are available in the app.  Buying the book unlocks all the warscrolls and material from that book in the appropriate sections.

  What is new is the ability to add the Time of War and Battle-Plans to your "My Battle" listing.  This gives you the ability to have all the rules for your current battle in one place, and easy reference to them.  A big improvement.

  In the reader, it still remembers your place in the book when you close it, and the table of contents allows you to navigate the books better.  It is still not as handy as the pure iBooks version of the books, but it is at least, useful.

  you can also now purchase "battlepacks" which is all the app related content from the particular books.  So if you have the book in some other media type, you can just buy the parts that matter to the game in the app.  Very handy and well done!   A great way to make money on the same content twice!!

  For now, I have to give it a decent enough C+, maybe a B-.  It still has some clunkiness, but I do not see them adding in the functionality of a full ibook reader, that would compete with their iBook sales.

  At least, I can finally say, this is a decent app to pick up and use.  I can recommend it, at last.  Way to improve things, GW.   They must have fired the 8 year old and hired a 15 year old :)

Monday, September 14, 2015

Markers for Age of Sigmar

  Hey guys,

  Just made a set of markers for Age of Sigmar games.  This set is pretty tailored to Terrain and the Stormcast Eternals force I'm building up.

  There are 4 markers for each terrain type, 6 run markers, 8 for combat round completed (I always forget which units I have activated) and some other spell / Hero effect markers.

  Here is a link to the PDF, if you so desire to download them for your own use.

Age of Sigmar Markers.

  I build them up by printing out the sheet, cutting them out with a 1" hole punch and attaching them to 1" clear plastic/vinyl toppers.  Here is a link to the post where I describe making them in detail.

How to make miniature game markers.

  Dead simple, and pretty handy too.  I'll work up a chaos sheet soon, and add some other things to that one as well.  Enjoy!!!

Friday, September 4, 2015

Dragonfate Dias - Age of Sigmar

A quick video for my Dragonfate Dias.  Just showing off a bit of my work...


See ya soon!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Age of Sigmar App review - update

  Well, they did it, they updated the app so it's only fair that I update my review.

Still lame - but getting better.  Not worth the $$ yet, that's for sure.

So, the fixes that I can see are;

-- In the book section, you don't lose your place every time you open the book.  It used to start you back at page 1 every time you opened or switched back to it.  This was a major bummer.  While the advertisement says this update adds a table of contents, I can only see this table of contents on my iPhone.  It does not work on the iPad.  They also say you can "re-download" the book using a "long press gesture".  No freaking idea what that is, and nothing I seem to try will re-download the book.  So, the book is still pretty much useless for anything other than a quick read of the fluffy bits.
 <Edit - 1752MST - You can get chapters on the iPad version, you just have to delete the app and re-download it, restore your purchases and download the book again.  Crappy programming!> 

-- The new "how to paint" section is actually just an opportunity for you to buy the e-book version of the how to paint Age of Sigmar book.  There is no 'how to paint' section of the program.

-- You can now buy individual war-scrolls that you don't have unlocked from the book purchases.  Again, this is freaking annoying, since if you buy the hard cover or e-version, you have no way to tell the app and unlock them in the app unless you pay for it again.  Worthless ass money-grubbing.  But at least you can buy all the scrolls for 99 cents each.  <what a freaking joke>

-- The rules section works now.  Wow, it took weeks to un-f%&k up a 4 page pdf?  The 8 year old programmer must have gotten to that page in the objective-c programming book.

  So, where before I gave this an F-minus for shitty execution and crappy programming, I will upgrade it to an D-plus for shitty execution and crappy programming, but some fixes.

  I must still advise you to run away from this garbage.  Perhaps I should clarify, run away from purchasing books on this garbage.  Having the rules and scrolls is pretty handy overall though, so it is worth the download.

  Also, I was asked to clarify where I came from on this, so I should say that I use a couple of things for my opinion.  First, the utility of the enhanced editions of the 40k codexes.  Second, the Privateer press digital rulebooks and their War-Room apps, both of which are pretty damned decent apps overall.  Lastly, I have programmed in almost every major language since high-school (in 1982).  So, that's where it all comes from.

  See ya soon!!

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Age of Sigmar - WIP 2, now with terrain

  Who knew, something like Age of Sigmar could get me fired up to paint again? 

  But it did, and I am.  Here are my Retributors, almost done except for basing and some highlighting.  I know, I'm no Duncan Rhodes :)

  I do try though.  Getting a little better at the highlighting, but I have to work on my brush control a lot!!


  I also started work on a terrain piece of my own design.  Ages ago, I cut up some foam board into little blocks on the band saw.  I was going to make a castle for a D&D game, but got sidetracked.  I stumbled on these and thought, hey, there is a ruined building in there!  It's glued down and basecoated.  Needs a bunch of paint, details and texture still, but it is a start!  Generic enough for D&D, WH40k and AoS now...

On with the pics... let me know what you think, try not to laugh to hard :)




  Going for the gold armour, green details, in case you weren't aware...  I love the citadel Liberator gold layer paint, new for the Sigmar release.  It's very smooth and VERY gold, perfect highlight for the Retributor Armor gold paint.  I guess they planned that.  heh heh he.  On with the ruins;



  Reasonably simplistic, but I think it will look good once it's painted up and debris/grass/wood tossed around.

  See ya soon!  Play more games! (thank Wil Wheaton!)

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Citadel Brushes (cont) and Age of Sigmar WIP




 
  Well, it was a crazy weekend, but I did manage to get some work done on the AoS stuff.  While doing so, I got to check out the new Retributor Armour spray Paint from GW.


  Have to say, this is expensive, but it is VERY very gold colored.  With the exception of some non modeling paints, this is the best metallic spray paint I have seen.  In my time with the USAF, I have seen some very special purpose metallic sprays, but the cost of those was in the thousands of $$ per can.  Yes, this stuff is $28 bucks a can, but it is a HUGE time saver for the AoS Eternals and I like it.


  I also had the opportunity to play around more with the Citadel brushes and I am very displeased with the medium Layer brush in the range.  It could not keep a point and it splayed like nobody's business.  It was almost impossible to work with.  The other layer brushes were very good to use and held up rather well.  The glaze brush and wash brushes also did quite well.


  Anyhow, some quick WIP shots.  I'm kind of following the Duncan Rhodes method on these, but I am not taking a ton of time on them.  These are 'just for fun' models :)  I'm going with the gold armour look, but with green theme instead of the blue like the 'book' models.  The base coat will be Incubi darkness followed by some green layers.  We shall see...

Primed with Stynlyryzzzzz black and sprayed with GW Retributor Armour.  it is VERY gold in person and quite durable.  No flecking or peeling.

Terrible angle, but the troops with their wash on...

Retributors with some of the base coats and some washes on.

  Have to mention, I picked up my Apple watch on Saturday.  Very odd it is, I'm not sure if I love it, or if I just wasted a ton of $$??  time will tell...  HAH, get it?  time will tell???  Apple watch???  (I kill me...)

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Age of Sigmar IOS App = junk


  Folks, you know me as the GW apologist, I freely admit it.  But I'm here today to warn you off downloading the app and then buying the book in the Age of Sigmar app for IOS.  It's just not ready yet.  In fact, it's waaaay not ready.  It seems to work ok on the phone, but the iPad version is just junk. 

  Here is the review I gave it on iTunes  (a 1 star review)

Wow, is this ever lame.  Free app, sure, but you get nothing for that. You spend the $50.00 for the book and guess what?  It's useless!  No bookmarks, no annotations, nothing to make it even remotely useful. Free rules?  Not hardly. My copy has not ever displayed the rules, not once. This is bad programming and money-grubbing to the extreme. Run, do not walk, away from this loser.  Spend your $50 on the real book.
   When you spend the $50+ for the book, you get a crappy copy of the book that does not even have the layout done correctly.  The typeface is incorrect and you get a lot of blending and overtyping, especially on the headings.  You cannot bookmark it, annotate it or anything.  Hell, it does not even have a table of contents to go to different parts.  You have to MANUALLY flip through the thing to get to pages you want.  Forget flipping back and forth through the scenarios.  The "rules" icon does not work, and never has for me.  (It does work on the phone though, just not the ipad version).

  It does load up and display the data sheets for your units, and allows you to flag sheets for the game your playing, so that is cool, but this app is not done and not ready.  There is no way to flip through your data sheets, you have to close one and open another.  It's as if they had a programmer slap this thing out in 30 minutes and then forgot about it.  Pure drivel.  

  Just remember, these are my experiences and ymmv.  The iPhone app seems to work decently, but I use the iPad app, and that is my choice of platforms. (old eyes don't like phone screens... lol)  I expected something on the order of the enhanced Codices from 40k and got junk. <sigh>

  So, take this as you see fit..

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Age of Sigmar? Who dat? Hey, this is fun...

  Well damn, it's the summer 40k break at GW.  They're pushing out some kind of warhammer fantasy crap for the next few months.  Good thing since I'm traveling a while, so I can miss all this sillyness.

   Sooo, get back home and go to the FLGS and there is a new box on the shelf.  Age of Sigmar... who is Sigmar...

  Ut-oh, sounds of fun coming from a mini table, have to check it out...  Hah... just losers playing warhammer fantasy...  or... wait a minute...  no slidey trays, no masses of troops... laughter...  mirth.  What the hell is going on here???  Don't these guys know they are playing a GW game.  No laughing, no fun.   Get your noses into that 500 page rulebook and look something up.  Argue about spells and magic, damnit.

  "Hey, wanna join us, it's the new warhammer fantasy.  Just grab some models and set them down, we'll work you in."  One of the mindless fantasy players asks.

  "Sure, I'm going to read a few hundred pages of rules, scrolls and other drivel so I can join in." I reply, smug in my knowledge of 7th edition 40k.

  "Nah, 4 pages of rules.  Super easy.  In fact, you probably don't need them.  Here are some sheets for the units over there.  Grab some and lets rollllll....."

  Holy crap!  in 3 minutes I'm in the game, fighting, moving, rolling and learning a few hard lessons.  4 pages may be misleading, this game has some serious mechanics hidden in 4 pages.

  Yes, I picked up the new Age of Sigmar box, and yes I am building the minis.  Why?  It was fun.  I mean crazy kind of fun.  Very easy to learn, but I think mastering it will be a stretch.  There are holes in the rulebook... big ones, big enough for trucks to drive through, but maybe they meant for them to be there?  Like no prohibition from shooting and fighting in melee in the same turn?  Did they mean to allow that?  It sure seems like they did.  Units have some interesting special abilities and hero's have a real impact.  Things interact in really weird ways.

  The game has no points, no endless hours of list building, net-listing and perfectly balancing.  Just grab some models and get going.  The guy with more "stuff" is the attacker.  The game is supposed to be scenario based, and that might be interesting going forward.  I also see some situations where people will take advantage of the no points and beat up the unsuspecting fluff player.  But that is self correcting, don't play with jerk-offs.

  This is NOT your father's Warhammer Fantasy.  In fact, I can see where this is going to royally piss off the Fantasy players that have a big investment in the game.  It is stripped down to the absolute most basic miniatures game and I'm not sure that is good in the long run.  Time will tell.

  I see GW putting this out there as a pusher gives you your first few bags.  Get ya hooked then suck ya in.  I can also see that this game may scale up or down pretty well in the long run.

  But for now, check it out.  It really is strangely fun.  It is also a gateway drug, use it wisely :)

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Unboxing the Raven Guard Codex C.E.

Hey guys, just here to point you to a video I made, unboxing and showing the Adeptus Astartes Collectors edition codex, Raven Guard edition.  Overall, pretty nice.  Standard caveat though, for $160, you do not get anything 'extra' for gaming purposes.  It's just for the aesthetics of the version that you would spend the hard-earned ducats on!!  


See ya soon!!

Friday, June 5, 2015

Citadel Brushes - Reviewed

  I have done it again, I have sacrificed my wallet to test out the new Citadel Brush range.  Well, most of it anyhow.  I had no interest in the scenery brushes or the re-branded green stuff spreader.

 These are a different take from usual brush ranges in the past, and on the whole, I kinda like them.  They have the following 'ranges'; Base, Layer, Dry, Glaze and shade.  There are technical and scenery ranges too, but not for this kid.

  The base range seems to be synthetic, and the dry range are something else... camel hair maybe?  The rest are other natural sables, but I do not think they are kolinsky sables, with the exception of the Artificer Layer, which is their finest detail brush.  They seem to me to be reasonably priced, again, except for the artificer layer brush which comes in at a whopping $20, most of the range is in the $5-$10 range.

  Overall, I think they are good for someone just getting into this and looking to get a decent set of brushes.  I do not think they will replace the Winsor-Newton series 7 or Raphael's for the golden demon types, but for us mere mortals, they do seem to do the jobs.  Let me break them down for you now...


Sunday, May 31, 2015

Horus Heresy Book 5 - Tempest - Overview.

Hey folks, just posted a video review of the newest ForgeWorld Horus Heresy Book.  Book 5, Tempest.  Very good if you like Titans, Mechanicum, Ultramarines or Word Bearers.  Check it out!


Monday, May 25, 2015

Space Marines inbound!

  Wow, saw a video over on Spikey Bits.  Linked to this video, it's unlisted on the GW (Warhammer TV) channel, but it sure points to next Saturday as the new Spess Mahrine day!  Check it out...


Always a good day when new Spess Mahrines drop :)

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Foldio 2 - Unboxed and reviewed

  Hey all,  my Foldio2 arrived from the post woman today.  Did a quick video on unboxing and taking a look it.  It's better than the Foldio 1 in a lot of ways, 2 LED strips, universal power adapter and it's bigger! (size matters!)  Soooo, take a look.  If you want to up your game for miniatures photography, this may be a good answer for you.  Small, convenient, portable and powerful!

  Have a great weekend!!


And for the Americans, have a great memorial day weekend!!
 

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Assassinorum Execution Force video

  Hey guys,  Just a quick (4 minute) unboxing and semi-review of the Assassinorum Execution Force game from GW.  A good buy if you ever want to play assassins in your lists, since the value of the 3 assassins in the game is higher than the value of the game.  And to top it off, the game is great fun as well!!



Enjoy!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Piecing together an Airbrush Compressor

  Sorry for the delay between posts.  Been sick a while and awfully busy at work.  But, better busy than the alternative... 

  So a while back I bought a Badger TC910 air compressor off of Amazon.  I had heard really good things about them and was in need.  I should say, I was in "want", because I had a compressor, my trusty old Paasche D400R, but it had no air tank and I was always a bit leery of that.  Living in the desert, it does not get very humid, but I still did notice weirdness every now and then.

  Well, I can safely say I am not a fan of the badger compressor at all.  From the day I got it, it has rattled like crazy, even after adding foam and fuzz wherever metal meets metal.  Another issue is a tremendous design flaw where the 90degree angle pipe comes out to mate up to my regulator/gauge.  It started leaking from there and I had to take it apart and put some Teflon tape on it (which it did not come with).  Well, the 90 degree angle pipe is a piece of pot metal crap, and the moment I tried to tighten it (and no, I did not go ape-sh&t on it), it broke.  No big deal, I thought, 90 degree pipes are easy to find.  Except, that all the normal 90 degree bends are too big to fit this thing (The 90 degree union will keep the Compressor from bolting onto the tank).

  I knew then that I had to toss this POS and start over.  I'm not trying to beat up badger, I probably got a bad model, but at the price I paid, I expected better.  So, I ordered a tank from e-bay and got some fittings from True Value.  Lowes supplied the Angle Iron and I added the elbow grease.  I ended up with the rig you see here...  It works like a champ, the tank and airbrush combo held 95 psi for over 1 hour without even a full psi of pressure loss.  Plus, it has the nice quiet Paasche compressor and not the clunky monster that was the Badger.  So, here are some pics with captions...  Enjoy!

The raw materials.  I also got to add a metal blade for my chop saw to my arsenal, added bonus!!

Testing the MDF "floors" for the carrier combo box

Version 1 of the layout, I changed this to have the compressor at the bottom and tank on top.  It gives better access to the tank pressure gauge and to the blow down valve on the bottom.
 More after the break!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Markers for Dropzone Commander

Hey folks.  Been a while, but been really busy.  I have had a chance to play another game of DZC, and we are really digging this game.  So much so, that I made another set of markers, like I did for the Warhammer 40k game.  These are all pretty self explanatory, and I think they will help us out in the game as well.  I am not making objective markers, as the ones that came with the game are fine.  They are made the same way as in this post...

Markers for 40k games.

  Here is what they look like.  Links at the bottom of the post so you can download the PDFs...





Sheet 1
Sheet 2
Sheet 3
Sheet 4

Enjoy, hope you like them...

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Khorne Daemonkin Collectors Ed Unboxing

  Hey guys, just a quick unboxing video of the new Codex: Khorne Daemonkin collector's edition.  It's a nice product the presentation is slick and the extras are nice, but it is a tad pricey for what you get...  Here is the video:

 
  Enjoy! 

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Pens? with a 40k twist...

  Hey guys,  Kind of way off topic here, but I just finished turning another 40k themed Pen for a friend.  Pen turning is another hobby of mine and I enjoy it.  When I saw the skull pen kits come out, I knew right away these would have a tie in to 40k.  So anyhow, for your viewing pleasure...

  On the left is the latest, a pen for the Dark Angels.  Center, Blood Angels of course...  On the right, well, who knows?  I had a fantastic piece of stabilized burl that I thought would just look really nice.  

  So, like I said, short post, just to be all narcissistic...  :)  See ya tomorrow, with my new Dropzone Commander markers...

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Citadel Crusader Case + KR foam = Fits!

  Quick update folks,  I was asked in a question on the last blog post about the crusader case if KR foam would fit in it.  I am happy to report it does.  Check it out...

   This is the Crusader case with KR foam in it.  It fits perfectly, with a small gap between the 2 sets.  I'm sure I can find something to shove in there, Books, dice, templates etc.

  So, this was the contents of one of my KR cases, you can see that they both fit with room for at least another half of a case to spare.  So this will surely take about 1.5 KR standard Card Cases. 

  Now, this is a crusader case, I do not know if the other two will work the same, given that they have smaller dimensions.  But this just added a great deal of utility to this case for me!!!

  Thanks Stefaan!

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Citadel Crusader Case - Cool!

  Hey folks!  Just a quick review of the new Mini case from Citadel. 

  I asked the folks at my FLGS to get me one of the crusade cases, and it arrived yesterday (Friday).  I have to say, I am impressed.  When I first saw it, my reaction was, “wow, that’s smaller than I thought”  But just like the TARDIS, it’s smaller on the outside!!

  So, overall first impressions.  It’s a sturdy plastic that has a little ‘give’ to it, but it is not bendy.  It is nice and tough and has reinforcement where it really needs.  The D-Rings for the shoulder straps are molded in, not snap in, so that’s a plus.  The latches are also a lot nicer than the old ones.  Another nice feature, it only opens to a certain point then is stopped from going further.  Nice to know you wont have the lid let go and crush your (or a friends) minis after they are on the table.

  Now, what about this new, wavy, nested foamy thing inside?  Yes, I saw the video of how it works on the GW Youtube page, but seeing it in person has made a believer out of me.

  I am a long time user of KR Cases and foam.  I love their systems and the way they make things work.  I do not see that changing any time soon.  But I can say I will be adding this case to my game day carry.

  The wavy foam is very nice for holding minis and as a bonus, as you add more minis, it makes the foam ‘form’ around the minis even more for a nicer fit.  You can also lay minis down if they have long weapons/banners/poles etc.  Because the wavy foam is not glued to the bottom, you can stretch it to fit around anything from a snotling to a dreadnought.  Even vehicles can be wiggled into the foam and protected.

  In one of the pictures, you can see how I took my “high” models (Catacomb command barge and ghost ark) and put them in, then flipped the wavy foam over the fit over the protruding parts.  I’m not sure if they meant for that to work, but it does, and it’s an option.

  So, in summary, these are nice cases and they come in at a price point that is very competitive with other systems out there.  Highly cool, IMHO.

  I have not checked to see if they will fit in an airline overhead bin or under a seat, I don’t have spare airliners around :)

  So, check them out, they do not suck!  They are quite useful, I would think.


  Pictures and such after the break, click below :)

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Markers for 40k games - Easy as cake

  Hey guys!  Just wanted to share a quick piece of work I did the last couple of weeks, markers for my 40k game.  Now, the reason for these is simple, I forget everything, good and bad.  I forget if I moved with jump packs in the movement phase, I forget ever-living etc. I would forget my dice if I didn't have a huge game tote to bring everything in.

 So, enter the fine folk at Objective Secured who made fantastic markers for Infinity.  So, I stole the idea and used it for 40k (and soon for Dropzone Commander as well.)

  Turns out, these are dead easy to make!  All you need is your favorite art program, some bottle cap inserts from amazon and patience.

I made three sheets so far, but I will be making more as time goes on.  I just played a game of dropzone commander and I saw a huge need for these in that game as well.   Here are the sheets made in the YouTube video...  Download links are after the jump break.



Instructions and more photos after the jump break... 

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Pegasus Barbed Wire kit review / Conquest / FTN Template

  Hey guys!  Here to review a kit I bought today from my FLGS.  It's the Pegasus Hobbies Barbed Wire kit.  This is a kit that has been around a while, but I was never interested because I used brass ethc barbed wire.  But for $6 I couldn't say no...  (Can I ever?)

  When I first saw it open, I was really disenchanted.  The barbed wire is on a plastic sprue with TONS of gates.  After looking at it though, it looks like real barked wire.  One of my knocks on the etched brass barbed wire has always been that they look really flat and 2 dimensional.  Even when you put a good twist on them, they look like twisted flat stuff.  The Pegasus barbed wire has barbs all over the surface, at different angles and degrees, so it looks good,

  That being said, this product does not look like real barbed wire up close.  There is no attempt made to even make it look like wire strands with barbed wraps on it.  My feeling is that at the distance most people will observe it (2-4 feet away), it will be as, or more, convincing than the brass etch stuff.  That is just an opinion though.  For up close, diorama use, the etched brass may have the better profile.  So, you decide.

  Of course, the sheer number of gates means you have to be careful getting this off the sprues. 
 
  I will let he pictures tell the tale!  I think it will look good from a distance, and the price is cheap, at 29 feet for $6 to $8.

  Also, I got the new Conquest cards (Zogwort's Curse) and my FTN Templates came in, Thanks TPM, Kenny, Rob and

Juice!!






And now... the pictures...

Older kit, been out for a while...
These are the posts to attach the barbed wire too, or you can toss them, they don't look great


Look at all those little gates.  Be careful with those sprue cutters :)
See, the barbs come out at different angles :)