So the the Hardback 40k rule book is no longer available on the GW website.
Are we getting a 7th edition?
Or as many are saying a 6.1 edition?
The Dark Vengeance set is still available for now, but then their are rumours of a Blood Angles vs Orks starter set. (for once I may well paint both forces in a set, rather than just one force)
And a new Ork codex following on the heels of the new rulebook!
The tail end of last week was spent trying to clear my painting table of unfinished projects, My nurgle daemons take up a fair share of the table along with some Black Templars and a few havocs for my Iron Warriors, their were also some Quake cannon craters (but I managed to finish them).
Now the Black Templars have been giving me a few problems, and have been bugging me for sometime. When I first painted them they were black and white space marines (nice and simple) then they got themselves a nice shiny codex (and an upgrade sprue) this lead to the Templars gaining tabards (similar to what medieval knights wore) and new styles of helmets. Now when I found my models I decided to sculpt on tabards rather then spend money on getting the plastic sprues to convert them. Now its the tabards that have caused me the problem. I first painted them Ceramite White, but it stood out to much and made them look too bright. Next I tried Steel Legion Drab and Zandri Dust, But both colours made them look too drab. In the end I gave up and started on my plague bearers.
Now while sorting out some stuff I came across the GW 25th Anniversary model of the Emperors Champion (EC) that was released way back in 2000 my choice of colour for the tabard were the OOP colour Scab Red and an Enchanted Blue sword! It was not one of my best paint jobs and quickly end up in a pot to be stripped. After the model had been stripped it lay unloved on my table waiting for me to paint him.
Then last week I had an idea. I glued the EC together gave him a coat of Chaos Black spray and dived in. I painted the Tabard with Rakarth Flesh and a thinned down wash of Reikland Fleshshade, followed by a light drybrush of Rakarth flesh. And to my surprise it looked fantastic not too bright and not to drab.
But what does all this have to do with the title of this post? Well it spurred me on on to paint the rest of the Templars and while doing so I figured I would need a captain model to lead my force. I headed straight for e(vil)Bay and typed in space marine captain and was greeted with over 500 results. Now I do like the look of the limited edition model that is only available direct from GW mail order but I am not going to spend £60 to get it free. As I look through the e(vil)Bay listings their are loads of listings for the limited edition model, ranging from 99p to buy it now £60. Their are auctions again ranging in price from 99p to buy it now of £35 for the code to buy the other limted model. I can understand people payin for the 1st model (£20 would the highest I would go) but paying £20 for the code for the 2nd model and then £18 on top of that for the model is just taking the piss. It always has been a sellers market, I always start my auctions at 99p and leave it to the buyers to determine what they want to pay its rare for me to place a reserve on a item and even rarer for my to use the “buy it now” option.
I have been collecting and painting models for nearly 25 years and have learnt many different techniques, when I first started words like dry-brushing and washes were all alien to me. Now they are part and parcel of my painting no model leaves my painting table with out a crafty dry brush, even if it is only the base of the model.
Well after putting together a dead zone (DZ) building yesterday, I decided to take a look on the internet to see how people were painting their buildings. Some people have taken the route of “clean” looking buildings and some have gone for the “dirty” look. As the chances of these buildings being used in the 40k setting as well as DZ I needed to be in between the 2 settings (after all 40k is the grim dark future). I also see them as more semi industrial rather than city buildings, being more of a refinery or cargo complex (taken over by cultists) so I was looking for a dirty, greasy, grimy colours.
I then came across an article over on blogspot:
http://whiteswolves.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/deadzone-terrain-speed-painting-guide.html
That uses a technique called Salt Masking, now I had seen this before but had never used it its in a few books that I have and I think it was in White Dwarf once.
I needed a test piece, step forward the humble Necromunda Plastic Bulkhead.
The 1st picture shows the bulkhead (it was under-coated with Boltgun metal spray) it has been given a coat of hairspray and covered with normal table salt (29p for a big pot).
The 2nd picture shows the bulkhead sprayed with Army Painter Desert spray (I did go bit heavy with the spray)
The 3rd picture, Show the bulkhead after it has been cleaned with warm water and a tooth brush. Their are still some grains of salt trapped under the paint but if you look at metal that has been painted it can have rust “blisters” on the paint
Over all I like the effect it has given, especially the chipped effect on the steps of the ladder.
The following 3 You Tube videos are also very good for using weathering powders and pigments.
Maybe its time to brake out the compressor and airbrush!
I have just spent the last 40 mins putting together a Dead zone building. Now I have had these models since before Christmas as part of my kick starter package. And they were one of the main reason for me backing the project, as they were billed as being totally modular and quick and easy to put together and easy to disassemble, yeah right!
I have since I had the set played around with the tiles and made various 1 x 1 buildings and towers but have never had ago at anything else. Well I just had a go at putting together a 2 x 2 “L” shape building using 8 wall tiles and 3 floor tiles, and 40 mins later it is done. The main problem lies with the plastic clips and holes that they go into, both of which have very faint mold lines on them. This means that the holes and/or the clips need to be cleaned with a file or knife to remove the line! Now you have to be very careful as if you take to much away from the clip or hole it becomes too loose.
As much as it pains me to do it, I think I am going to have too glue my models together. The thought of making a 2ft x 2ft worth of terrain before I play the game is not going to happen. And as the clips are so fragile and hard to get out once in, it makes sense to glue them together rather than farting around before the game.
In Many ways the Urban terrain from Mantic Games is great but the practicalities of it do not warrant the stress of building it before the game! Don’t get me wrong it is nice to have something that is not covered in skulls and (from what I have seen on the net) looks good when painted, but it is a far cry from being quick to put together. Also the total lack of instructions in the KS package has not helped at all.
Overall: yes its a great set, but its biggest down fall is the problems with the clips/holes. Mantic’s videos make it look so easy for the sets to be put together quickly, But in reality its not.
Would I have bought these knowing the problems? yes but not to the scale that I did
Out of the 4 sets the “core” worlds set would have been the only one that I would of bought.
The landing pad is just a copy of GW Skyshield landing pad, the defence line is a copy of the GW Aegis defence line, the bunker only has a partial roof (not much use when the artillery starts dropping shells on you). And the less said about the ruins the better.
These are just my personal opinions (after all it is my blog) their are loads of others out their with different views, at the end of the day its your choice what you buy.
After a 4 day bank holiday weekend (2 of which I was battling with my Blood Angels) the other 2 days were spent working in or around the flat.
We had some great games over the 2 days, and managed to get in 5 games. I managed 2 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw, I had took some photos of the action but this old laptop is playing up (both USB ports don`t want to work today) so I cannot upload any pictures!
Out of the 5 games may favourite has to be Blood Angels Vs Orks which ended in a draw, All I had to do was defend 4 bunkers for 6 turns easy right?
Well to start with I started off very, badly my shooting was off by miles with the dice not in my favour. And by the end of turn 2 I had lost 1 bunker (Pesky Deff Dread) with dice rolls for reserves being as good as my shooting and orks bearing down on my (very) thin red line, I saw this as being a total defeat.
Turn 3 saw my heavy bolter’s and missile launchers hitting their targets and wiping out a mob of Boyz and immobilising the Deff Dread, I on the other hand only lost 2 Marines! But now the Orks were getting to close for comfort.
Turn 4 saw the orks prepare to assault my line. The Deff Dread took a pot shot and and damaged another bunker, and in return the squad inside opened fire! this time destroying it. A mob of Grotz were shot to pieces, and did a runner. I finally got some reinforcements from 2 drop pods! the first was my death company and the second was my death company dreadnought! but with my luck they both scatted away from their target (Ork warboss and his Nobz).
Turn 5 saw the warboss and his nobz make it to the damaged bunker and destroy it with power claws and tank buster bombz! bothe the death company and the dreadnought got bogged down with a Boyz mob! As turn 5 ended I had lost two bunkers things were looking very grim.
Turn 6 was the final round and lucky for me I got some reinforcement my terminators teleported on to target bang on the warboss and nobs and promptly chopped/smashed them to pieces with the lighting claws and thunder hammers. The remains of the death company and the dreadnought finished off the boyz mob.
Points wise I had won by 1 point, but as I had lost 2 (of 4) bunkers we called it a draw!
Over the years I like most war gamers have gathered a large collection of models that are, Part made/ part painted or unassembled.
So I have decided that a purge of my collection is called for. I have for many years kept a plastic box full of stuff that would one day be destined for eBay, and a few weeks ago I started listing lots. I am really going to town and hopefully get my collection down to 40k and a few smaller ranges.
This has lead to a few forgotten army’s being found! one of which are my Black Templars Space Marines, I did these models back when the 3rd war for Armageddon codex was released for 3rd edition of 40k (back in the mists of 2000). Back then a Templars boxed set was 10 plastic marines and 2 or 3 metal scouts, Now days they get a plastic upgrade sprue but it can work out rather expensive at £20 for one infantry and one tank/apc upgrade sprues. So going through my collection of models I have managed to salvage the following.
10 Black Templars with close combat weapons.
7 Black Templars with Bolters.
5 Black Templars Assault Marines.
Some where I have a plastic command squad and some scouts that will be joining them, this time the force will be quite small rather than the mess that I had back when I first did them.
I have also been flexing my sculpting skills by making tabards for all the marines from Brown Stuff. I have seen a lot of Templar models based of the Dark Angels veterans box, but Templars where tabards not robes.
Any way enough rambling, time to list some more stuff…………………………..
So this year Salute 2014 was two days after my birthday, so with a large wad of cash in mypocket I travelled to excel in London on Saturday the 12th of April. Normally I have a list of bits that I want, but this year not much had surfaced on the internet!
One of the things that I wanted was a basing pad from Wargames Bakery/ Zinge industries
This rather nifty pad will be used for my AvP kickstarter models it retails at £25.00 but for the show they were selling them for £20.00. I also picked up some 5 miscast bags for £1.00 each (I wish I had got some more!) these bags contain an assortment of “miscast” bits from their ranges, they may have tiny air bubbles or parts missing from the sprue but for £1 you cannot go wrong!
I did get to see (and handle but no pics) the prototypes for the AvP models form Prodos Games, and I was impressed. After all these years the Aliens, Marines, and Predators have all been done perfectly. Now i just need to sit back and wait for my models!
I also hit the Mantic games stand for my free ruin sprues, and I have to say I am less than impressed with these. In all fairness I could have made my own!
The 1st and 2nd pictures are the front and back of the same sprue and as you can see you get 3 pieces of rubble, 2 of which make a free standing pile of rubble and 1 that is designed to be placed against a wall, 3 small pieces of wall, 1 small and 1 large pieces of floor.
The other sprue is slightly better with 2 full size panels, 1 half sized panel, 2 small pieces and 1 large floor section. When I went to the stand they had no “new” stuff on display but later in the day they showed off some new models (pictures surfaced on Facebook in the evening)
I will admit that I am slightly pissed with Mantic with the fact that they are selling these and the Nexus Psi book before full filling kick starter orders!
So all in all I spent 1 hour 30 minutes at excel (20 minutes was queuing to get in and 10 minutes to get out of the dame place!) and I spent a grand total of £25 at the show, and it cost me £20 for 2 tickets and £34 to get their.
Maybe next year I will give it a miss……………
