Legion-Games.com

LED Land Raider Project

2011-03-26T18:49:00.003-05:00

I have been working on installing LEDs in a Land Raider for a FAQ I'm working on for the 40k Radio Freebootas online Mag.

Here are some of the Photos of the build.
The FAQ ended up being 24 pages and having like 40 photos.
The file size was 50mb... the pdf version was 2.5mb... so it was fairly detailed...

I'm not dead... Still working on IG

2011-03-14T18:10:00.003-05:00

I'm slowly cranking out IG's...
I'm up to 100 Troops, and 12 Hw teams.

I also got bored and built a squad of Termies and a "Belial" with Thunderhammer and Storm Shield.

Also I'm working on a LRC with Leds..... Alot going on I guess you could say.

Restarting my Grey Knights

2011-03-13T20:10:00.003-05:00

A long time ago I purchased a squad of Grey Knights in power armor on their release day and was able to paint them up for a contest at Games Workshop. To make their weapons appear different I polished the pewter blades up to a mirror finish (which takes about 2-3 hours a model) and did my best paint jobs on them. This won me first place in the contest and I was able to enter the next leg of the contest in Austin. I drove down to Austin with a newly repainted squad and re-polished blades and was beaten by the managers girl friend and best friend. My "prize" was free admission into all tournaments held in the store for the next year. Nothing like winning something that you have to drive 5 hours to use.

After this I expanded the list to be 2000 points of various models and Inquisitorial forces. When the Grey Knight rumors started to surface I dug the models back out and started taking a good hard look at them. The models were originally painted with Testor's Metalizer and the blades were polished up to a mirror finish.
(pics after the break)

Since painting 2000 points in that scheme I picked up over 8000 points in trades in the past year. I've been thinking of repainting the whole bunch of them and I finally decided too. However, since each of those original models takes roughly 2 hours of prep time per model I figured it was time to do something quicker. I give you the awesome-sauce that is Alclad Steel:

Prep time: 30 minutes per model
The only down side is that the finish is comprised of 2 primer coats (with an hour wait between each) and then waiting overnight to apply the base coat.
You may notice the little chip on his head and shoulder, that is from me dropping the model from about 5 feet in the air while carrying it to my car. Those scratches (and the backpack popping off) are the ONLY damage! The Alclad is a very strong Laquer based paint and it's about as strong as most protective coats.
Even with the 3 layers of paint you can see that very little detail is obscured on the model, in fact you can see that I missed a few mold lines on the original!

After showing the model off a bit I decided to take the test base coated mini and turn it into a test paint mini.

My camera needs a little more work when it comes to white backgrounds but you get an idea.

Each "piece" has something different that allowed me to test the looks of certain techniques. The 3 inlay pieces have different techniques applied (sepia on the leg, sepia + mud on the left chest, and Rhulic gold on the right chest), there are 2 different ribbing colors, different pieces of armor have different washes applied, and if you look close you'll see that there is some touch up tests in a few spots (REALLY easy to spot in person).

And from what I learned here I painted my first Grey Knight!
May I present Rabacyal Grand Master of the Grey Knights

So where do I go from here? Well I've nearly finished stripping all 10k of metal knights. I've been cleaning the models as I strip them by filing mold lines down, sharpening weapons, smoothing armor plates and the usual. I plan on starting to prime these models in April, which will give me all of that month and a bit of May to prepare for the Alamo GT in San Antonio, Texas! And from there on to Warcon!

AdeptiCon 2011: Are you going?

2010-10-26T21:23:00.003-05:00

I'll be the first one to tell you I hate playing in tourny settings.
To quote a former famous pod caster.... I'm a Beer and Pretzel type gamer...I mean there is no way in heck I could play all of mine, hell even 1/6th of them in a "normal" tourny setting ( 28,000pts and still climbing!).

So why am I going to the premier 40k tourny in North America next year? To Throw down! Not just playing table top stuff, but to Party.....
I'm going up for the whole week end . I am trying some thing out....http://www.adepticon.org/

I booked with a tour company.....
http://www.geeknationtours.com/index.php
For the most part every thing was taken care of. I'm driving up so a fun filled 10hour trip from Sweet Home Al awaits me next spring... Hey at least I got a new car that I won't have to worry about breaking down ( Happy to say VW love in the House! ....again, I miss the R32 :( )
I also got in early enough that I got to book my weekend event early , and I won a drawing for a free weekend pass ( Free stuff is good! Since I booked a ton of classes/seminars). So things are already looking up.

I've already had every thing I wanted to do booked for several days before the the general masses could book. I have registered for a ton of seminars and classes. I will have time to walk the floors and take picts , chat,buy, meet and greet.... but not play in one of the big events....

Why you ask? Should I not be going up to Play?

Because I'm trying to become a better painter and sculptor. Other than the fluff it's what I enjoy the most in the hobby , not the competitive play. I just like having fun, low or no stress.
it was the same way when I was playing Mechwarrior the dark ages and heroclix... I preferred to judge and have fun. I had my fill of competitive paintball ( don't laugh I played on the bigger circuits for 7-10 years and I enjoyed it ,but I got burned out from the stress and political infighting that was always going on), it was as cut through and intense as you can get ( as if regular Paintball was not normally intense)

Another reason? Well I'm hooking up with a bunch of my online friends and seeing some old friends.

Are you going? You Should be, get off your duff and go! I'm sad I missed out on the 40k radio UK trip, but I don't think the wife would let me go to the UK with out her, and she is not fond of my extra curricular activities ( I'll say she tolerates it, and some times gives a gift to me as a surprise :) )

I may bring up the Pack MAX with some selected Apoc goodness for an impromptu throw down, but it is not my top priority...

It's only 5 months away and I can't wait.
See you all there.

Flesh tide : small update

2010-10-11T22:03:00.001-05:00

I've finished up 30 of the 140+ troopers.
I'll post picts later.

I ordered 120 of the pig iron heads of the same type that I posted earlier for the troops, then ordered some more for the heavy weapons ,Vehicle drivers , and finally for the command squads.

It's slow going but things are looking good.
Pict to follow.

How I do Power Weapons

2010-10-06T14:01:00.010-05:00

Hi Guys!

I often get asked how I do the 2 types of power weapons that people see in my armies, well today I will show you.

The first type of power weapon I do is using the normal GW model as a base. here's an example
using a squad of Honor Guard and Calgar that I did for a friend of mine.
Step 1) Paint the model's weapon (or area you would like to be shiny) chainmail or another bright metal.

Step 2) Go to your local hobby shop and see if they carry Tamiya paints. Tamiya paints are acrylic just like GW paints so they'll thin and clean up with water. For this tutorial I will be using Clear Green and Clear Red.

Sadly my clear green bottle broke so I had to transfer it into another bottle.

Step 3) Paint ONE side of the weapon in the color of your choice.
Be VERY careful to not try and paint both sides of the weapon at once, and try to tease any air bubbles you may see off onto your brush. This paint takes about 10 minutes to become tacky, so during that that time you can experiment with it. After you start noticing the paint becoming tacky STOP working on your piece and put it aside to dry for 1 hour. During the tacky stage, 10-60 minutes, touching the object or trying to brush on it will cause it to keep that shape and look horrible.
It may take 2-3 coats to get the correct sheen you want on your weapon. If the first completely dried coat does not look right put another one on top. Just like normal painting, its better to put multiple light coats than one heavy coat.

If you've done everything right this is how a finished blade should look.
Step 4) Repeat step 3 on the other side of the blade.

Now don't think that this can be exclusively used on blades. I use it for eye lenses, gems, plasma gun coils, displays, readouts, and anything else I think needs a glow to it. Here's another of those honor guard with his chest gem and helmet lenses painted in the Clear Gloss Red.

And here's some green gems on Calgar's swordIf you look closely the power coils on this techmarine's backpack, plasma pistol, and auspex have all been painted using this method. I also used it on the thunderfire cannon's sensors.

Now lets say you don't like the "lego" blunt butter knife look to your power weapons. The next method I use for power weapons will make your weapons sharper (but sadly more breakable). You can see this technique on my chapter champion.
This process is a little more involved so please bear with me.
Step 1) Paint your model as normal.
Step 2) Go out and find some cocktail skewers shaped like swords. Most restruant supply stores, cooking stores, liquor stores, and some mass market stores will have them. Be sure you like the colors on the swords, I usually go for a deep red (not light red) or a light green. You can often find them in packs of 50 or so for $2-3. You'll probably have to buy a bunch of different colors to get the ones you want but them's the breaks.

Step 3) Sharpen your sword.
This is a little harder than just painting the weapon and can take some practice to get right. It's a good thing you've got a ton of extra swords to practice on.

Step 4) Cut the cocktail sword off to the desired weapon length.
Step 5) Cut the model's sword off at the hilt.
Step 6) Attach the cut-off cocktail sword to the empty hilt.
Step 7) Coat the cocktail sword in Future non-wax floor finish or any other high gloss sealer for that extra "glow."

Here's a comparison of both the methods side by side.
As you can see the cocktail skewers are a lot sharper than the normal GW sword, but will of course be easier to break off as it is a separate piece. They will also be missing the normal details that come sculpted onto the weapon such as power feeds or other embellishments.

Now I don't think these techniques will win you any Golden Demons but I do think they look great on the table top, and can make people really stop and take an extra look at your models.

Flesh Tide... man up !IG ground pounder army

2010-09-23T18:04:00.004-05:00

I have been SLOWLY building the Ig's squad by squad. I Air brushed the base coat on, and have been going at it in waves...waves of 10.
Hey Army Men! Ah brings you back to your child hood does it not? A bucket of green men.

Ok here is the first squad... notice any thing?How about now?

Some may say Hey those are not Cadian heads....and you would be correct. My bud Grim on the Freebootas forum sent me some PigIron head to try out before buying 160+ of them. Thanks man esp for sending them all the way from Jolly ole' England.

I think they worked fairly well....
Send in the Next 10!
Then the next 40.....ugh!

Titan Progress - Dashboard lights

2010-09-23T12:42:00.005-05:00

Hi Guys!

Sorry for the delay school has been really kicking the crap out of me this week so I'm afraid this will be a combination of this week's and last week's post.

I started working on the titan's dashboard. First up I sawed a multi-led to make it flat, then painted the sides and bottom black (to stop any light bleeding out where I don't want).

Then I tested them in the dashboard.

Next up I soldered some wires onto another LED this little amber guy will go in the third slot.

Next up the dashboards needed painting, so I found some nice gray Tamiya paint that worked great in my airbrush and I sprayed the 4 dashboards.Of course this required a test fitting.

Next up was installing the lights in their correct place.
And finally wiring the resisters up and getting it to work. I took a quick movie instead of taking pictures as it shows off the Multi-LED's "animation" better.

More progress on the Warhounds

2010-09-13T10:44:00.003-05:00

Hi guys!
Just thought I'd give y'all an update on the titans. I've hit a bit of a mental block on the predators and decided to switch back to the warhounds for a bit.

First up I added some armor to the roof/top of the body.

Then we gave it some rivets.

We also added a door

And finally we've started working on the lights for the dash board.

However after coming up with some cool lights we realized that the dashboards were a little too far into the cockpit to be seen well, so to remedy this it required sawing off about 1/2 and inch of side panel detail from the cockpit!

In case you're wondering what the pink thing is, it's a titan holder designed from insulation foam. It allows me to work on the titans upper body with out it shifting around all the time.

We're hoping to have these 4 guys done by Christmas with paint and everything and it's looking like that will happen. Up next is more dashboard lights, then painting the interior

Painting Predators: Part I

2010-09-06T14:55:00.003-05:00

Last week I showed you how I had basecoated some tanks. Later this week I basecoated the magnetized turrets, and I have started painting them.

Here are photos of the 3 assembled tanks. The weapons and stowage racks on the back are magnetized so later when I get different weapons I will be able to swap them.

The left side of a tank where i will be showing the progress.

The first step is painting all of the areas that will be white Adeptus Battle Grey.

Next I paint all of the areas that will be parchment Khemri Brown. In my Legion of the Damned post I mentioned I used Scorched Brown, but I have recently switched over to Khemri Brown to give the parchments a lighter look when finished.

A trick that I use to keep up a decent pace and to find time to paint I try to put at least 1 color down every night. If I have time I'll put down another color.

Pic Of The Day

2010-09-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

Starting your models: The base coat

2010-08-30T14:01:00.008-05:00

Today I figured I'd talk a little bit about the different ways I paint my models. I often find it's best to start with a colored basecoat so you save a TON of time not having to brush it on slowly.
My father and I have had a spray booth for almost 20 years but we've never been really happy with the way the ventilation system worked and there was never really enough light. So this week my father and I swapped out the fan for an old motor from our solar heating system, and put in an OTT bulb and the result was nothing short of amazing!

I find that you can airbrush GW paints if you simply thin them enough. It's almost a 1:1 ratio but once you hit that sweet spot you'll know. Airbrushing allows you to put down a nice light coat without obscuring any detail. Since this is not precise work I'm using a single action airbrush.
Here you can see me applying Ultramarines Blue to a Predator.

As you can see the paint does go everywhere and there's even some on my fingers.

Here's a shot of the newly installed fan and light set up.

This shows why you want to have good ventilation, after 30 minutes this is what the filter looked like. Before we updated the fan I would usually be sneezing and coughing this paint for a few days after wards.
This is another method I use. If you can find a stick that is 1"x1" you can place your models in a checkerboard pattern on each side. This allows you to waste very little paint and catch much of the over spray on the model behind the one you're concentrating on. When using this method I use colored spray paints. For my guardsmen I went with Tamiya spray paints Desert Yellow.

Spray paints aren't as accurate as an airbrush so be sure to do this outside. Also some spray paints (like the Tamiya I use) doesn't like to be painted over so I have to seal all of my models with Krylon Matte Finish before I'm able to paint any details. I find I can usually get about 70ish models per 2 1/2 cans of Tamiya paint set up this way, if doing each model individually I'm lucky if I get 20 per can.

Using a colored base coat allows me to skip brushing the color into every crevice as the spray will go where you point it.

Properly thinned down I was able to put 2 coats on each of the following models with 1 bottle of Ultramarines Blue paint.

For those that can't tell that's 3 turret-less predators with removable side doors, 6 Ultramarines with Plasma guns, 1 Damoclese Rhino, 1 Land Raider Crusader, and not pictured is a black reach dreadnought with removable arms.

I find that with these 2 methods I don't usually need a primer coat and the paint seems to stay on the figures. The spray painted metal guardsmen don't chip too bad as they have the spray, the sealer, the basic paints, then another coat of sealer. While the airbrushed models usually have 2 coats of paint, basic paints, and sealer.

The Flesh tide.......IG horde build

2010-08-29T21:22:00.002-05:00

Er' we go. It's going to be a big project. and take a while to finish. I've already base coated 60 of them. More pictures to follow.

Some of the Metals I've got.
22 Cadian troop sprews
Command Squads and Sentinels... I think 7 Cmd, 3 new Sents....
Here is every thing all parted out.......
This is a good way to to Die.... I was well ventilated in the garage but 22 sprews and a full can of primer...My wife found me passed out on the couch. The fumes got pulled up stairs by the AC...
Not fun....

I think 18 heavy weapon teams.

Troops primed ....

The first 10 ready to be airbrushed.

I Finished the first ten tonight minus the heads , I'm thinking about ordering Pig Iron heads for the whole army.

Still Kicking

2010-08-28T00:55:00.000-05:00

Thought that I'd pop a quick post just to say hi, so HI! I've been trying to figure out PhotoShop just for the hell of it and painting stuff for Jamie. I gotta say that Fobba's post are a real treat and we are happy to have him. Jamie is working on his massive IG project and will soon have some neat stuff to show.

In the meantime, here is some noob work to laugh at:

Reaver Street

1st one that I ever did.

Speed Painting

2010-08-23T01:37:00.004-05:00

Hello again!

This time I figured I'd talk to y'all a little bit about how I seem to get so much work done so fast. The trick is speed painting. Before I went off to Wargames con a few weeks ago I was able to finish my guard army a little ahead of schedule. To treat myself I wanted to do a new project so I ran a poll on my local forums and they decided I should paint the new Legion of the Damned figures.

I had assembled these figures when they had come out (and done some minor conversions) back in February then primed them and put them away for later.
So I broke out the models on July 25th and started putting down colors. A quick look at the models shows the main colors are black, bone, and fire (Fire's a color just get used to it).
Now I knew that I wanted to experiment with the way I painted black so that left the bone and the fire. So I started off with a kermi brown basecoat for the bone areas.

It sure was everywhere! Next up was the fire. I wanted to paint the fire realistically with the lighter portion at the bottom and the darker portion at the top, so I picked up Iyanden Darksun and painted all of the flames.

Up next was the browns, which would be purity seals, parchment, wood, anything that needed a dark brown basecoat. Scorched Brown was up to the task and down it went.

Now those weapons are looking mighty bare so everything metallic got a coat of bolt gun metal.

Now it's time to switch brushes. Up until this point I had been using a number 1 brush. That brush seems huge and it is. I didn't care if I had a little bit of over lap as the next color will often times cover up the mistakes.
The next color was a highlight for the flames, Solar Mecharius Orange. I painted the upper 1/2 of the sculpted flames and concentrated on the larger areas on the "real" fire on the braziers and banners.

The next color was Mechrite Red, this was applied to the upper 1/2 of the orange areas. Now would you believe that is all of the basic colors? Well it kind of is. After this I gave the models 2 heavy washes with Badab Black (waiting a full day in between each coat before moving on).

The next step was to bring those colors I'd just applied back out. I started off with a 1/4 inch flat drybrush loaded with Bleached Bone and hit a the edges of every bone area and parchment. Then I did the same with Calthan Brown on the gun straps.
Finally I got an old number 1 brush out and drybrushed back in the yellow.

I was going to call it quits here so I used a micron pen to do text and wrote some stuff. I then took an old 3/0 brush and drybrushed in the orange and the red back into the flames. Next I took the 1/4 flat and hit drybrushed the weapons with boltgun metal. This created a very subdued color scheme which I think really fits the Legion well.

I then used my usual method for lenses and power weapons. I know it's weird to not use chaos black on a black model, but these guys don't have a drop of it on them! It's all done with black wash and controlled drybrushing. Never throw away your old brushes when they don't hold a point anymore, set them aside as they'll become excellent tools at creating little highlights.

So here's the finished product.

Would you believe that I finished 20 of these miniatures in just 2 weeks.
Well that's it for me.
You can find more pictures of these guys here.

I did some work on the titans this past week but nothing really earth shattering so I'll post about that later.

We Require DUSTOFF ASAP! : Thunderhawk build wrap up!

2010-08-16T20:42:00.006-05:00

Warning crappy iPhone picts ahead!

Custom cut Foam from Battlefoam
http://battlefoam.com/catalog.php?item=230&catid=82&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D82
So just How big is a Thunderhawk?

This is a reference pict (from L to R) Mk2b FW LR, SM Dreadnought, Belial Termy commander, and a MotC on a standard Inf base.

Oh what that in the back ground?

Yes it's like 2.5/2.75 Land raiders long.... and 4-5 wide! about 2 tall
And has some good weight to it ( the 9v batt in mine dose no add that much weight to it)

Well I'm Done with it! ( minus the Battle cannon which I'm 99.8% certain I'll never use ;) )I finished up all the weapons & the windscreen "Glass" this past Sunday night.This last round of building and painting was rough...

The Missiles each had to have the magnets labeled the polarity (red paint on one side of each magnet x6 missiles x2 magnets per missile and rack...so like 24 magnets that had to be lined up so any missile could go on any of the 6 rails....) and each missile also had to modified so that there was a semi flat surface to mount the magnet.
The Volcano cannon was easy.... I had already before I got waist deep set up the magnets on both the guns and the Hull mount. I had to ad a strip of plasti-card under the gun to keep the barrel from drooping.
The wing Heavy bolters are on magnets to allow full 360Deg movement, with out falling off or breaking.
The Windscreen "glass" was some of the colored translucent PVC sheets I picked up at a closing Hobeytown USA. I used a substance called Micro Krystal Klear from Microscale Industries to "glue" each hand cut window in. I had several people recommended the Micro Sol for decals, and when I went to the web page I got a full kit of their products... It dried clear and I'm fairly happy with my first attempt.... ( much more use of it to come with the IG army!)http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MI-SP&Category_Code=FINPROD&Product_Count=11 The front is yellow and the top is red...

The chapter doors (Dark Angels) turned out well ( much better than the first set I got from FW ... they were a nightmare to fit on the Mk2b LR)
Any how picts.....

The Last thing a PDF wants to see...
Tally Ho!

Hello everyone!

2010-08-15T15:03:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone,

I guess the moral of that picture is not to try talking to someone when Kage is trying to take a picture of you.

I figure for my first post I better give y'all a little history about my self.

I originally started 40k with Tyranids. However due to the lack of a codex I decided to start Space Marines. I then expanded into Eldar, Guard, Chaos, and basically every army but orks and Dark Eldar. After a while I decided that I couldn't afford the "Cold War" going on in my house and sold everything but the Imperial armies.

As Kage said I like scratch building a bit, and end up with some crazy projects.

Kage showed off my custom Medusa cannons. The barrel was turned on a lathe, and there is rifling down the barrel. The breach was built out of plasticard, and other things.

After scratch building this I cast them in resin.

Of course that was my smallest project.
Probably the largest I've done was a warlord. I built this warlord based upon the images from the "Titan" graphic novel. In the comic series the titan was very large (what most would consider out of scale). The titan is 5 feet 1/4 tall

The back of the legs open up to carry 6 chimeras each, the body opens up to hold over 75 guardsmen. There are almost 100 LEDs, and 12 sound effects.
Lately however I'm planning on using it as a Imperator due to GW decreasing the size of titans while increasing the size of other models.

My latest project has been 4 pose able Warhound titans (no they're not for sale)

I've also been working on and off on updating the old Epic Stormahmmer to 40k.

Well that's it for the history lesson. I'll try to update y'all on my progress on the Warhounds and other projects.
I've got my personal blog showing off my progress on my commissions and other items, just go here.

If you're looking for more pictures of my 40k stuff, just go here.

NEW GUY

2010-08-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

We have another author to the blog.

John (aka FodaBett) is someone we know from the Big Waaagh back in 2008. This cat really knows his stuff. He is a keen IG player and absolutely a fantastic modeler. While he may not be not that much to look at, HIS WORK IS!

We look forward to the post that he can bring to the blog. Cheers!

Pic of the day: Chaos lunch

2010-08-09T16:08:00.000-05:00

I ate something that something that didn't argee with me and now it's playing hell with my guts!!!

Death from Above.... well Almost: Thunderhawk build mega update!

2010-08-03T18:42:00.007-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts!I've had some health issues and Work has kept me very busy, so there has been very little time for 40K.Now that the temps are hitting 100+ deg F, I've been spending more time inside , and less time doing much needed yard work.I've basically finished the Thunderhawk with the exception of the weapon load out and the chapter doors and the glass on the canopy. There are a couple things I will "touch up" or weather a bit.Here is a walk around from the tail forward clockwise
I used Testors Master Modeler Air brush only Jet Exhaust over GW Boltgun Metal for the exhausts. There are some GW Tin bitz and Chaos Black on some of the fine detailsSame here on the Air breaks . Light Airbrushing of the TMM Jet Exhaust over TMM British Crimson , the under side is BGM, CB,TB,Bloody Red, Mithrial Silver and Shining Gold. All the flaps are Pined on but as an added touch I left small gaps with the pins barely exposed to look like the Hydraulics for the flaps, there is some BGM in the gaps too. Brit Crimson on the flaps.TMM Black Chrome Trim was airbrushed for the main color. This fits very well for my Deathwing army and my Built Landraiders are the exact same colors. For my first go at Airbrushing it turned out very well. I had a steep learning curve but did my home work. The TMM BCT was an enamel which required a mix of thinner , and the Brit Crim is an Acryl which required a different type of thinner in a different mixture. I cleaned up every thing well in between switching the colors.
The Jet Exhaust went strait threw since it is more of a wash than a paint.
The only bad thing that came up was some over spray that got on my Kick ASS gaming table top. A quick blast of some Grey primer and a touch up of the Stone Fleck paint and it will be as good as new.Ok I know the Canopy is lose , but I just put it on for show , I have to put in the colored transparency stuff before tacking it down. The interior is fully painted and hit with a heavy wash of GW Badab Black over the BGM, CB, and several minor bright colors for control panels and lights ( Fiery Orange, Snot Green, Scorpion Green, Blood Red, and Bad Moon Yellow off the top of my head) Speaking of Lights.Oh I forgot ....Lights offLights On...It's Miller time!
two red 3mm Leds (5-13v) in the front cargo bay running in series they also have black heat shrink tubing on them to help hide the wires on the roof with all the resin piping and wiring, a "Welding" bundle of 3mm Leds in series (blue, white, light blue that flash/twinkle) to add some flair to the upper cargo bay, it's a neat effect that photos don't do it justice. it reflects down to look like there is some activity or some sort of display screen flashing up there, but it's not a direct light so it's subtitle. Wired in Series to make the wiring a bit simpler on me in the tight confines and to help use just one 9v batt "hidden" in a neat tidy batt compartment under the fuselage.
Another Red led up under the front consoles adds some back lighting flair to the 2 crew. and to show off all the painting I had to do ( it sucks :( I can't paint flesh and eyes worth a crap)

Side shot of the Mood lighting... This will be buttoned up with a chapter door when finished. The Heavy Bolter turrets fully moves and traverses and elevates on both sides, all the wings had to be pinned on and same with the mounts for the boltersA shot of the huge engines and Stub wings.The stub wings are hinged and can elevate and depress. This stub wing also has a Lascannon on it.The Capacitors and Batts are detailed too. For the astute that look at the picture , they will notice that there are no missile rail on this wing. This was a running change when I decided to magnetize them so that they can be removed.
More stub wing Burn up Air break viewsHere are all the weapons in production. The main Gun is magnetized so that dick venues that won't let you play with destroyer weapons can still eat Crow when I whip it out. Get ready for some Death From Above.

Now for a sad note....

I'm beat building Marines right now! Yes I have a crap ton of Marines in different stages of build ( 3 FW land raiders,40 DW Termies, 30 more DA vets, 4-5 different Dreads and FW dread weapons, 30 Urban Camo Scout snipers at a quick glance to go with the 26,000 pts I've built already) and if I keep them up I think I will burn out and stop playing...EEK!

So with out further a due....
I introduce the diversion to keep me in the game.

Yep I went straight Cheese!
IG Beotches....

4 IG battle boxes Cadian of course, 4 10 man sqds,3 valks, 2 FW Vults,2 additional command squads,3 New Manticores, 16 metal blisters, a Emperor's Fist Tank Co ( 10 LRBT's) with extra grub-ins ( Baneblade parts for conversions, and some FW bits) Oh and 1 more Shadowsword ( makes my 4th) and 2 more Baneblades (makes 3 &4 but one is a conversion can one say VMB on a real turret?)..... oh and there are some hydra turrets in there some place for the Armored fist squads.....

Eat it....Peace Out....

GHz Update

2010-07-07T22:10:00.000-05:00

Yep, we are still here! I know that I said that we would be posting more than this but Bull has been sick and getting the pleasure of being worked like a dog at his job. I have moved to Mobile, AL and I just got my computer hooked up. Moving is a bitch in itself!

I already have some new things to post about but just give us a few to get things in order. THANKS!

Moment of Zen Pic

2010-06-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

Which one would you race: Tau rail cannon or happy fish? Either way, extra points for goofiness!

Any guess what my next army is going to be?

2010-06-07T20:02:00.004-05:00

2 new Battleboxes
1 old Battlebox ( LRBT one)
4 10 man squads
3 Valks
2 New FW Vults
another 2 Baneblades ( one for a very evil conversion ,Nids and horde armies and Aircraft beware)
1 more Shadowsword ( Iron Saint? Yep)
1 Armored fist box (Chimera & 10 man sqd)
2 Command Squads
Creed & Kell
IG advisers x2
2x Psycher Primaris
6 assorted Commissars
4 Sniper blisters ( so 8)
Oh and the Emperor's Fist Tank co.... with Forge world turrets !

just need 3 Manticores
and one more Battle box....
Paint scheme is picked as is the back ground.... In-fact the paint is already purchased.

Thunderhawk PT 5: Landing soon near you!

2010-06-07T19:39:00.005-05:00

A little test fit on the Battlefoam Pack M.A.X.
Gear Down , Lights on.....
Profile shot...
The ever popular 3/4ths Facebook shot.

I'm still working on it if you all have not guessed. It is taking longer than the Reaver Battle titan did. Some very difficult areas to paint. The engines on the wings have been an absolute P.I.T.A.
I broke out the Air brush ....finally and did the base coat of Black Chrome Trim ( really flat black that is smooth not matte finished) and the British Crimson...They are the same colors for my armada of Land Raiders. The lights are fully integrated and work perfectly. I'm Currently working on the Hellfire missiles... adding magnets so that you can remove them.
Steady work...bit it is shaping up well.

Forge Tables

2010-05-13T20:56:00.000-05:00

We all have our cozy and some not so cozy places that we work at. Everybody needs a place to build and paint a fig. When I first got into this hobby the place to go was at the store itself. To work on models in store gave several advantages of associating with like friends; besides, everything that you will need will probably be there to buy should you need to. Well, as time goes on, the family got bigger and so did my responsibilities. Like so many of you, I had to make gaming closer to home in terms of play and modeling.

Essentially I have two spots to work on the models. The one inside is basically a small area dedicated to working and brush painting models. It's nice with descent lighting and I get to hang out more with my best friend (my wife).

If I need to crank out a mad conversion or do some serious painting then the garage is where it's at. The two 4X8 gaming tables double as worktables for massive projects. All of the spray paint and airbrush tools are out there. On the work benches you can find drills, solder guns, files, clippers, and just about any other manner of tools of the trade are there. It has taken some time at some expense to get where I need it to be. Am I bragging, sure, it's my slice of heaven!

Jamie has pretty much the same setup. The pic posted doesn't do the total scope of his operations justice. He literally has a vault room full of boxed and unfinished models! We broke in his new gaming table that we built just a few months back. We played Nids vs. his SM force with a Reaver titan support. I can think of no better way to christen it by smearing fresh steaming bug guts all over it! Am I bragging about it, hell no! That was hell for my Nids to go through!

I invite you to post links to your forge tables at home or in the store in our comments section to give everyone an idea what it's like for your hobby area. Thanks!

Thunderhawk build :part 4 Let there be Light

2010-05-09T20:56:00.006-05:00

Well I got every thing wired up. Sodering every thing took a bit of time, but the most time consuming was stripping the ends of the small gauge wires.

I ordered a Batt box from of all places a Music store. Apparently guitar players convert their acoustic guitars for mics and electric pick ups. That is what this batt box was for.
I had to cut a slot in the bottom of the Thawk to "hide" the batt door. This required some very good Dremil tool work and Dremil saw work. This resin was very thick, and I used a recessed hatch as a guide for the cut. The rest I marked off with a pencil. I had to make sure I got it right the first time since I would not get a second chance.
Once cut I slid the batt box in and test fitted it. and it was a perfect cut.
I used the 4 screws to secure the batt box to the hull and I also used some gap filling glue from the inside around the cut. So this thing ain't coming out with out a fight.
Here is what it looks like on the inside of the hull.Yeah it's big but it's an area that you really can see for the out side when it all put together.
I sodered every thing in parallel , since it was the easiest way for me to do. Also the total number of LEDs was 6 , and I ordered them with the resistors already on them. I used the shrink tubing to tidy up the wires on the inside and to cover up the soder joints.
This is it all buttoned up. Not the cleanest install but it works just look....
In this pict you can see the on/off switch... I'll show you in a later post how I mounted it...
I've progressed much further but I'll save the rest for the next post later this week.

Thunderhawk build :part 3.5, now with Picts

2010-04-28T10:41:00.007-05:00

It Takes Shape!

Well I've been working a bit here and there still fighting allergen problems ( frigging Tree pollen!).
The interior is finally finished being painted.

I'm still working on the lights , and ran in to a major problem last night that I will go in to in a moment.

The major feat last night was I got the wings installed on the wing roots. One went on with no problems ( left side) the other major problems... mostly due to yet another horrid casting job by FW ( not I found a date stamp for the cast on the under side of one of the engines any one want to take a guess? Try 2002! EeK!). After using a huge amount of Gap filling glue I gave up and am having to break out the Aviation putty or Green stuff to fix the approximate 1/8" gap on the top of the Wing root , same for the rear end of the wing root. The wing is on there very well , just there is an unsightly gap. You can see some of the wiring for LEDs in the pict above.

The other problems I ran in to when test fitting the upper hull are two fold.
1. There is a "slight" indentation on the lower lip of the upper hull, this is where the wing root meets the upper hull. On the side that fit well this indentation is not deep enough, so the hull wont sit flush in the groove. ( pict to follow) This won't be hard to fix, just that I had already primed it and it will require some dremil work.

The left wing .... it's ok!

The right wing .... Not so much.

2. After test fitting the full multi section upper hull , originally I though I would be able to leave on part of the hull "loose" to get to the batteries for the LEDs.... This assumption was very wrong.I can't get that section of the hull off when the front ( with assault ramp) and rear hull are glued in place. The hull sections all fit together tightly like a puzzle. So I may have to install a Batt door on the bottom now which will require a lot of cutting or mounting the batt on the "rear" drop hatch in the lower assault bay, with a hinge and magnets to open the door. This would be the easy way to do it, but then if the front Assault door is open ( why would it not be if I'm putting lights in it and went threw the trouble of painting the details in there!) There would be this Honking 9v batt sitting in the back end of that area...very visible with all the lights in there.

Any thoughts?

As Expected the Memphis Battle Bunker (GW NA HQ ) is reopening!

2010-04-23T12:26:00.003-05:00

Well The south east USA finally will gt a "second" (like 4th or 5th really) chance at having a GW store.

For the Memphis area this is a good thing. From my understanding the last GW store ran the other FLGS out of business , then promptly closed. There have been a few smaller stores to open since then but it has not been much.

The main thing is that this is the "New" North America HQ for GW. It moved from MD to Memphis where the NA warehouse and factory was, consolidating the operations once Kerby came across the pond to run the NA side of things.

I wonder if you will be able to order FW stuff from the store there, like the old days?

Any how here is the press release. Any one up for a trip?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=4700009&section=community&aId=10200007a&utm_source=namay2010&utm_medium=email&utm_term=events&utm_content=textlinkbody&utm_campaign=NA-May-2010&_requestid=141809

Not exactly 40k , but intresting none the less

2010-04-21T19:28:00.004-05:00

http://warhammer-historical.com/Aspreads/WAB.html

There is a new edition of the Warhammer historicals about to come to market...No word on whether or not it will be "widely" distributed or it will be only FW...

I may have to get a copy and give it a review.

BTW ...I've been sick as a dog since past weekend and have gotten nothing done on the T-hawk.
I've been to Radioshack or the "Jack $#itshack" ( you can quote me on that btw lol) as I will now call them since they don't stock anything remotely useful to the project, it seems that all they do now stock is prepaid cell phones and over priced HDMI cables.....Remind me Why exactly does Best Buy want to buy them?

Guess I will turn to the interwebs like I do for every thing else.

Also the fire works at Thunder over Louisville Rocked....700,000 people, 10 barges fill with high explosives, closing 2 Federal interstate bridges and loading them with more fireworks, Hugh air show ( God like I needed to be reminded how much the B1B lancer rocks!), only down side... 500"thunderpots" that's right kids 500 port -o-pots/loos for 700,000 people! Can you say "unsanitary"? the show lasted for about 30-45 minutes.... and other than the once every 4 years Olympic openings this is the biggest fireworks display held on an annual basis....
If you have a chance to go to KY for the Derby , this is something not to miss, as well as the Patton museum of armor at Ft. Knox....

Teaser Picts of Thunderhawk wiring for lights

2010-04-13T19:02:00.004-05:00

Since Jason promised that we would be more frequent with the posts here goes.
as you can see from my previous post my Camera got jacked....
It had a series of photos showing the Thunderhawk build....
They are now long gone.
So please bare with me.

This was a proof of concept test.
What is it?Yeah I know its dark and a crummy iPhone shot but you will get the idea.
I will have at least one more light in the front assault ramp area.

As you can now see this will be the last thing you would want to see in a see of image intensifiers at night....
I will also have some blue and white lights flashing berried way back in the ship... they due to the highly reflective interior paint job will cast light up threw the flight deck and the lower cargo holds...
I was just testing out if I wired them correctly in parallel and if all the leds worked correctly as well as the on /off and the 9v connector. I will do a walk threw and have some better pict in a bit.
Enjoy....
Bull

With out Camera

2010-04-12T15:41:00.004-05:00

Some Tool made off with my camera this weekend at the Grand Am/Indycar race. This is the 2nd camera I've had Jacked in 2 years ( last was much more painful, A Sony Alpha 900 DSLR with 3 lenses from work!). It was not that great ( 10MP Cannon point and shoot) , but still its principle of it.

There will be tow bad things that effect my blog posts...
First you will be seeing crappy iPhone 3GS 3mp photos till I can replace it....which could be a bit
Second I had a ton of Thunderhawk build photos that I had yet to post here.

I've made good progress and Have all the parts but a 9V batt clip to mount the Batt in the bird. I may fashion something but no big rush.

Sorry to all
and hope the @$$ that swiped it rots in H-E double Hockey sticks for all eternity.

GREAT EMPEROR'S GHOST! GHz BLOG TURNS 40!

2010-04-12T11:29:00.001-05:00

Thanks to this guy: MADCLAW.

We now have a whopping 40 members! Yes, this a very far cry from BOLS and FTW and that's why we have their widgets to give the props for the work that they do.

There has been a lot of thought between us at this blog as to what we can do to generate more interest in what we do and how to do it. Over the next few weeks we will hopefully be bringing on two new members to contribute to our post. These members are store owners in the hobby that we all love.

What you will be seeing here is a more constant blog post and new features. Hell, we may even spring for a better template for the site!

Until then I would like to say thanks for the members that we do have and we really do appreciate your comments and interest. THANKS!

Dirty Reaver Titan

2010-04-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

I've got Jamie's Lil' Bull Reaver Titan at my home forge. What I am doing is giving it some final touches in the weathering dept. I have to say that its been fun having such a awesome game piece. This really is a cool model!

Let me start by saying, I hate to paint. The great thing about

painting vehicles is getting to add the weathering effects. This part is my favorite. For Lil' Bull, neither of us wanted to make this model so dirty that we loose the paint job in the soot. So the way I figured is that you will not find such a well kept machine too beat up but we wanted to convey that it has seen some action soon after deployment. Well here it all is!

At the very least enjoy the pics. More pics found here:

GHz PICS

Thunderhawk build :part 2.5 (small update)

2010-04-07T10:28:00.002-05:00

Small update...

I have some more picts of the painting of the inside I'll post later. It is taking a while, there is way too much detail in there.

I got in a Order of small LED's to "Illuminate" the inside of the beast, since it's got so much left over room. Red overhead and under console lighting with some blue and white stuff way to the back. Powered by a 9v.

Waiting on a large order of resin bases and flight stands from Dragonforge that I placed late last week.

I will do a work up on that too, most likely next week ( Indy cars and Grand-AM race in town this weekend so I'll be busy). I have made good progress painting the interior, and it is close to being finished. Once it is done , I get the major external stuff built.

Manticore and Night Spinner conformation!

2010-04-01T10:41:00.003-05:00

Updated!
This came up from a usually very reliable source. This was in the trade order for "Previews" ( which is a comic and hobby store order firm if I'm not mistaken)

You now have two new kit confirmations .. Old school looking Manticore and an Eldar Night spinner. First leaks from a Non GW source!

Big thanks to Scryer at Warseer
(Note to self... start talking with brother more... he orders for a Chain of Comic/Toy/hobby stores in the mid west!)

GW has a Funny Bone!

2010-04-01T10:33:00.001-05:00

Had a good laugh at this... :)
it's amazing to see that some people Don't know what day it is...and think it's real...
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=9900028a

BE CAREFUL today!

Thunderhawk build: pt2

2010-03-31T14:23:00.005-05:00

I've not forgotten this project... I have been working on it a couple hours here couple hours there.If you are thinking about getting one and have never done a big resin model before ....DON'T do it .

Get a kit that is made from a much newer mold. The Thawk cast is very warn out.

I had to spend 2 months sanding /heating/sanding/filling/sanding BEFORE I could put it in the cleaning bath. After the bath you could tell the resin used was not really good because it was semi tacky and if gripped to hard your finger print would etch in to the parts. It was not the wash either. The Wash I used was also greatly diluted compared to many of the of the other FW projects I have done. The Reaver and BFG stuff I have built in the last year I put in full strength and had no ill effect other than skin peeing off... no really Wear heavy duty rubber gloves and eye protection when cleaning every thing up in water after the wash.

So I had to heat things up again and smooth out the prints while wearing gloves, and then prime it fast.Not all the parts had this issue, just a few big ones... there was also some major shrinkage and warping too... worst I've seen on a FW kit to date (the Land Raider MK2b was easy with it's notoriously bad 8/10th size resin cast parts, if you need tip on it too let me know I built one of those like 3 years ago... looks fairly good too!).

I would highly recommend test fitting every thing before washing it. You no doubt will have some sanding/cutting/grinding to do and you don't want any of the resin dust screwing up the paint job.

Step 1
Sanding/flash removal
Basically you need to go threw and get the flash and flash gates off. This is where the dermil and Multi max can save some major time! Just be careful. You can't add back resin, but you can sand it down it there is too much.

Tip :Use the Sharpy to mark off where you are cutting. I color in the area that I want to keep, I've seen others do it the other way around where they color in all the area that the need to cut off. This also works with sanding large areas, user the straight edge and color in the area that needs to be leveled out, leaving the un colored area where you need to stop.

Step 2
Test fit

The major sub Assembly's "should" fit reasonably well together.... this was not the case with this model. You can use Blue Tac or silly putty to help hold things tight but I generally don't use them.You can see if the hulls fit , or sub Assembly's fit correctly. In my case the main hull was bent and twisted on the "X" and "Y" axis and the side wills were also bent in a bit. So I had major work to do before I could get the hull and crew areas to test fit together.

Tip: This is the point where many people will get the pot of hot water out and dunk the parts and bend them to shape. I could not do this due to the parts being way to long even for a large "chilli" pot that holds several gallons of water. I got a "heat" gun from Jason by way of a model shop closing down. I've use a high end high volume salon style hair dryer for the same thing till the wife found out...Eeek! The heat gun will let you direct the heat to the areas you need to "loosen" up while leaving others untouched. Also keeps every thing from getting wet. I had to put major high heat on some parts so I needed tongs to hold it since many of the parts were 1/3-1/2" thick that needed to be bent. I also use a can of "Canned Air" to blow resin dust off and rapidly cool the parts down once I had them in the correct position, nothing like burning your self on white hot resin when you have to hold it in position slowly waiting for it to cool down.... It sucks trust me ;)

Step 3
You should now be able to "Reasonably" test fit every thing together. In my case This was a good opportunity to start work on the crazy detailed interior/ crew area... heat bend and sand/file every thing to the point where you are comfortable with the tolerances ( can be fixed with green stuff or gap filler glue).

BTW/WTFWTT/RANT Moment: I want to know what the hell the designer was thinking when they put as much detail in to the inside as the did. I don't joke, you can see 85% of the interior unless you make the hull come apart , which really does not condone the game play factor of it. The Reaver comes apart in sections that really don't effect the game play or models stability , where if you want to see the rear tech sections/radar station and upper cargo area, the model would be seriously structurally compromised since you will be holding it a lot more than a Reaver which basically stands there. You have to FLY this thing over the battle field and such... which will bring me to another thing a flight stand.... which I will deal with in a different build segment. I know it is to be a "showcase" model ... but you can't play with it like that. I did not drop $600+ for it to sit there and look pretty ( Ironically looking back at my bank statements I paid Less for the Reaver then the Thunderhawk ... that is how bad the Dollar had got last fall, Now is a good time to buy with the Euro and GBP hovering at 10-12 month lows) End Rant...sorry!

Step 4
Chemical degreaser/Wash
Purple power or castrol super clean are my favorites from about 8 years of building stuff.
Get some dedicated big sealable Glaad/Hefty wear plastic containers. Only use them for washing , no food will ever go in these from now on. You can cut the cleaner with tap water 2:1 water to cleaner, this is strong btw .... 3:1 will get the job done... I 'm crazy and go 0:1 all degreaser....LOL
Nothing has melted yet , and if you have to strip paint off plastics or metals it will also work with the 0:1 and no damage to the plastics...
Let sit for 2-3days sealed. Get some paper towels or rags near a sink and a cheap o mechanical tooth brush ( can get 2 packs at Wally world for like $7, Costco has 4 packs for $12).

Tip: Put in a drain plug or the filter plug to keep parts from going down the drain...
run some medium hot water and pull the parts out and go over them with the tooth brush...
Then let dry...

Step 5
Priming
If you don't know how to do this ... well I don't know what to say. I typically use Rustolium or Krylon Auto body primer in either Grey or Black. Both brands will adhere to plastic and resin if all the mold release agent is off ( did you wash every thing?) The primer is cheap ( $4 a can at WalMart). The GW stuff is very inconsistent in the spray quality and crazy expensive ($15 a can). The Army Painter stuff is said to be very good and comes in many different colors but yet again is crazy expensive and you have to normally order it unless a local shop has some. I may try it on a up coming "Fish".

Shopping lists!
This helps me when I start a project to see if I have every thing up front and don't have to go out half they way threw it to get some thing quick

Things need to Test Fit major sub assembly's:
Heat gun /Heavy duty hair dryer or pot of hot water and some big heavy books (Pharmacy catalogs tend to work great since the pages are very thin and the book weighs like 30lbs ;) )
Assorted grit sand paper
Assorted files and modeling "rat tail" files
Dremil rotary tool with detail extension
Jewelers saw
Exacto/hobby knife
Hobby cutters/Nippers
Black Sharpy
A straight level
Non flexible ruler/yard stick
Air /breather filters ** (Resin Dust is very bad if you breath it in (can cause cancer), especially if your are Asthmatic!)

Not needed but nice to have
My new favorite the Dremel multi max saw... this thing rocks!
3M Blue Tac or Photo Matt
Silly puddy /green stuff
"Canned Air"/canned computer duster....
Eye protection

"Washing"items
Cleaner (Purple power or Castrol Super cleaner, at least a Gallon, 2 is good for some thing this big)
Glad/Hefty/Rubbermaid large sealable lid container/s
Mechanical tooth brush
Sink
Water
Towels or Paper towels

Primer Items
Primer (2 cans of Black Krylon Autobody primer from Wally world for some thing this big)
Well ventilated area
Mask
I have a Large Box I use ( old Reaver FW box....ironically) with one side cut out
Smaller boxes ( keep sub sections together and to move stuf out of the paint box) I use old GW models (Baneblades, Land Raiders, Fortress of Redemption) or shoe boxes ( I wear size 13)

Begun have the Foam Wars Have ...Part 2

2010-03-31T10:53:00.002-05:00

Looks like we have a little bit of a legal battle brewing in the state of Az.

Battle Foam vs Foam Corps...
I'm still reading up on the filing.
Looks to be a Copy rights/trade secret/trademark battle.

More once I'm finished up reading.

Linky linky...
http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/2010/03/small_dispute_b.html

Major Forge world Web page upgrade

2010-03-30T15:44:00.003-05:00

If you have not had a look at it yet , go give it a try.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/

It runs fairly fast, I've had no issues browsing it.

Couple notes:
Colors.... well They are Bad, like 5th grade 1st time web programing bad.

Most items have been cut to a single picture...kinda odd

With the Marine stuff , each item for each chapter is listed separately instead of in a drop down, even though most of the picts are reused...

A lot of the FAQ's and other info is only available if you make a new account, and your old account and any saved "wish lists" are gone.

The Forge World Open day was last Sunday for the lucky UK chaps and Ladies...
New stuff mostly ork
Grot tanks
Ork weapons
Ork Vehicle weapons
Ork Def Kopter transport
Very early Eldar Phantom titan... (it was cut out of foam 2.5' (foot) + tall, Expect it to be same price range as Reaver)
Tau Suits... more weapon load outs for the XV-9 Hazards, and a new command suit based on the Xv-9
Raven guard SM stuff ( doors, dread, Vet pack (based off the RTB1 marines stuff!))
IA8 is due in latter half of MAY 2010

Other tid bits:
FW is expanding it operations ( not new if you have read the GW stock reports)
Expect more IA books (3 a year, with more Masterclass and IA Apoc books too!)
Most if not all books will be IMP vs Xenos from now on...
No hot Xeno on Xeno action ( for the foreseeable time line :( )
Next book Eldar vs IG ( Cadien or Valhallen)....

Possible hint of Cult of Mars vs Cron ( would be major undertaking with basically every thing from scratch)

Warhamer stuff is getting it's own "forge" ( look at the bottom of the front home page at the FW link above)
Same goes for the "historicals"

Oh yeah for the Chaos Deamon worshipers , expect the Lord of Change and the Keeper of Secrets followers to get a codex to follow up ( Think Vraks but not 3 books)

DKoK and the Elyaisians are getting a rules update to fit 5th edition... like a mini dex that could be the size of the FW order catalogs.....neat if they are free, no word on if they will be , but some time this summer is when they should be out.

One funny pict was of the "Space Marine Lander" the FW guys have been working on, in there best humorous minds decided also put a Packard next to it stating "NOT THE STORMRAVEN"

Thanks to Philbrad.... leading the charge!

News Flash! I finally got a game in !

2010-03-30T13:05:00.003-05:00

I Finally got to break in the new game table....
I also had some of the terrain stuff I was working on during the winter Olympics to show off.

I was fully expecting a "genestealer cult" from Jason. Basically Nids with IG tanks (LAME). So I decided to put the beat down stick out. ALL Land Raiders, A Reaver loaded out with nothing but Turbo lasers, 30+ Deathwing termies, and 10 Sternguard with Kantor and Lysander....
Jason to my surprise basicly played Big bug...Which were pretty much done after my shooting phase. And if they poped up again I got danger close with the Turbo Laser and tri lasers... and NEVER hit a single Friendly.... I was prepared to take one for the Emperor...

So I lost a LR Aries , a single 5 man Dev squad, 4 Sternguard, 3 Termies, and had two damaged Dreads, and a Dread Drop pod.
He had nothing left...
I don't think Jason will be as nice the next time... So I have some thing in the"WINGS" soon. CLUCK CLUCK!

GHz Vulture Review

2010-03-28T22:18:00.000-05:00

Forge World Vulture done already! After staring at the bag of parts for about a month or two I finally got around to building the thing. Honestly, what got me going at it was the delivery of the Vendetta guns and Punisher cannons to use under the wings.

The first step was to soak all of the resin parts in the bath of cleaner for the night. After the soak, cut and file. The kit uses a good bit of Valkyrie parts and several main body resin, cockpit, and small wing bits. The detail on the resin parts is really good. There were no defects or even bubbles on any of the parts. The instructions were less than helpful but not a total loss.

I did manage to screw up one part while filing it away from the "sprue". I got inpatient and broke the top part of the back of the cockpit. No big deal but it did cause issues getting the assembly to fit with the fuselage.

My goal was to make this thing with interchangeable weapons so magnets were the order of the day. This is real simple with flat rectangular magnets on the wing hard points and weapons themselves. FW gave us two hard points for each wing making screwing up on these parts tolerable.

The pics have various weapon load outs. Honestly, I don't even know if the thing can carry twin-linked las cannons but ya have to admit they do look sweet!

Hot glue was used for the base and the whole thing is surprisingly well balanced. Over all, I love the model. I know that it is going to be a major paint for my opponent. I can't wait to try it out and when I do I promise to give you all an update in a battle report.

More pics here:
GHz Vulture
Cheers!

Blood Angels up for preorder=GW Web page crash

2010-03-08T09:55:00.004-06:00

As of 10am CST the GW web page is Crashed/down.
EDIT// Its back up
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1430057&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

Had to get the picts from Daaka daaka since GW is down.

The BA's were up for Pre order.

3 plastic sets

Baal Predator
Death Company /BA upgrade pack ( 5 death co)
Sanguinary Guard

A ton of new metals :(
Astorath ( Norwegian Death Rock!)
Lemartes ( I don't think he is new)
Sanguinary Priest
Sanguinor (Male Living saint?)
Seth ( that is one big chain sword)
Vanguard Veteran Sergeant with hand flamer

also the Flesh terrors shoulder pads.

no word on any thing else ...yet.
Disappointed no Furioso and Stormraven... :(

Blood angels dex out in store black boxes

2010-03-05T10:28:00.002-06:00

Here is the summery , It is all over the net now. Many of the Canadian store have them now.
The previous leaded pdf dex was not real, but may have been an early play test version since there are many similarity's.

Mephiston looks to make mince meat of the Swarm Lord and Abadon , he really is that powerful and cost as much as a Landraider....

Stormraven... game changer nuff said. No picts of it in the new dex, so don't expecet it out for a while. Think a Valk buffed for marine use armor 12 all the way around. Melta wepons don't get bonuses against it either.

Magna grappel on the Dreads is also very cool!

Well here is the summery enjoy. Thanks to warseer and daaka daaka.

<<<"Rules

Army-wide Special Rules
Combat Tactics – As per C:SM

And They Shall Know No Fear – As per C:SM

Red Thirst - Almost all BA units have it. After deployment roll D6 for each unit with the Red Thirst rule. Any unit that rolls a 1 must exchange Combat Tactics for Furious Charge and Fearless.

Descent of Angels - Anything with a Pump Pack can re-roll reserve rolls and will only Scatter 1d6 when Deep Striking.

Weapons & Wargear
GW have said there will be a range of specialist wargear for the Blood Angels

Infernus Pistols – 6” Melta pistols

Hand Flamers - S3 AP6 Template

Death Mask - Force a Ld check at -2. Fail and fight at WS1.

Over-charged Engines are gone, replaced with Fast on some vehicles.

Blood Talons - close combat weapons on the Furioso Dreadnought. A dreadnought CCW with a Stormbolter, likely upgradeable to Meltagun/Heavy Flamer.

Magna-Grapples - A R12” S8 anti-vehicle harpoon weapon for Dreadnaughts. On a successful Penetrating or Glancing hit, the target vehicle is dragged 2D6" toward the Dreadnought, facing unchanged. Will only pull a vehicle as far as the edge of Terrain or 1" away from (friendly?) models. It has been said it can cause Tank Shock.

Psychic Powers
The Sanguine Sword – Gives Librarian S10
Wings of Sanguinius – As per GW PDF
Quickening - As per C:SM
Unleash Rage - Gives unit Preferred Enemy
Blood Boil – A successful Psychic test causes a wound on an enemy unit, allocated by enemy Player. If the Psychic Test is passed with a result of 5 or less, The Blood Angels player allocates the wound.
Unnamed - Draw a line of length 4D6” from the Librarian ignoring friendly models. Enemy models take a single S8 AP1 Lance hit.
Unnamed - Units within 6” get a 5+ cover save
Unnamed – One enemy squad has to take a Ld test to Move, Run, Shoot or Assault.

HQ
Dante, Lord of the Blood Angels – He and his squad don't scatter when Deep Striking. He doesn't have Eternal Warrior.
Death Mask of Sanguinius – As per regular Death Mask, plus pick a single Independent Character at the start of the game and cause -1 to WS, A, I and Ld.
Gives his squad Hit & Run
Allows Sanguinary Guard as Troops

Gabriel Seth, Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers – Captain stat line Armed with a very large Chainsword (S8, rending), Bolt Pistol and Iron Halo
Can forgo his normal attacks and cause one auto-hit on everything in base to base contact with him
If an enemy rolls 1 to hit him, he hits back with a basic close combat attack.
Causes all units with Red Thirst to suffer it on a 1-3.

Mephiston, Lord of Death – WS7 BS5 S6 T6 W5 I7 A~5 Ld10 Sv 2+ Around the cost of a Land Raider
Armed with Psychic Hood, Plasma Pistol, Force Weapon, Frag & Krak grenades
May cast 3 psychic powers per turn,
Transfixing Gaze - Does not require a psychic test. A single Independent Character must take a Ld test with a -4 modifier. If they fail Mephiston may re-roll failed hits and wounds. The enemy may fight back is they survive.

Tycho, Captain of the 3rd Company – Hits like a Monstrous Creature (at S4) and can re-roll a single To-Wound roll. His Combi-Melta has access to Sternguard special ammo.
Apparently there are multiple versions such as Death Company in the codex.

Reclusiarch Chaplain – Death Company get to re-roll to-wound and to-hits on the charge with the Liturgies of Hate

Librarian – No news yet

Company Captain – No news yet

Honour Guard – No news yet

Astorath the Grim – Armed with Power Axe, pistol and Jump Pack
Described as an Uber Chaplain. Apparently, if he is with the Death Company, they can re-roll Hits and Wounds.

Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host – A “mysterious avenging angel” armed with 2-handed master crafted Power Sword (possibly S6), Bolt Pistol, and Jump Pack. WS8 ST5 T4 A5 Sv2+ 3++
Forces successful invulnerable saves in close combat to be re-rolled
Can nominate an enemy HQ and get re-rolls to all To-Hit and Wound rolls on that model
All friendly units within 6” get +1 attack
Blessing of Sanguinor - One sergeant in your army has +1 to WS, S, W, I, A and Ld

Elites
Chaplain – Death Company get to re-roll to-wound and to-hits on the charge with the Liturgies of Hate

Terminator Squad – No news yet

Terminator Assault Squad – No news yet

Dreadnaught – Can upgrade to Venerable, Furioso, and Furioso Librarian
Furioso Librarian have a single Blood Talon and Force Weapon, they have to choose which to use in close combat, but they DO get the +1 attack for having multiple CCWs. They can take 2 Blood Angel psychic powers (including Wings of Sanguinius) and has a Psychic Hood.

Techmarine – No access to the Thunderfire Cannon

Vanguard Veterans – A bit cheaper than C:SM. No Relic Blades, but access to the Glaive Encarmine (master crafted Power Weapons). Able to take Hand Flamers. Can supposedly take an Exsanguinator

Sternguard Veterans – As per C:SM

Sanguinary Guard – Armed with wrist-mounted Angelus Boltguns (12" S4 AP4 Assault 2), Glaives Encarmine (master crafted Power Weapons) Jump Packs and Artificer Armour. May take Death Masks. Max squad size of 5.

Sanguinary Priests – Unit of 1-3.

Brother Corbulo – Upgrade to Sanguinary Priests. Same profile. Armed with a S5 rending Chainsword. Red grail gives Feel No Pain and Furious Charge within 6”. Supposedly only gets FNP himself on a 2+

Troops
Assault Squad – As per C:SM but have Red Thirst

Tactical Squad – As per C:SM but have Red Thirst

Death Company – Furious charge, fearless, relentless, FNP, 3-30 models, 0-1 choice. Armed with Bolter, Bolt Pistol and Close Combat Weapon. Can take Power Weapons and Power Fists. Can take Jump Packs.
Cost with Jump Packs is the same as it is in the GW PDF.
Not a Scoring Unit

Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost – Upgrade character for Death Company. Armed with Crozius, Bolt Pistol and Jump Pack. Gets stronger if he loses one of his two wounds.

Death Company Dreadnaught - May take one for every 5 Death Company in the army. Several different weapon options including Magna-Grapple, Blood Talons (some form of Melta weapon), etc.

Scout Squad – Standard Scouts. No “Mad Max” style ones

Fast Attack
Baal Predator – Pretty much the same, but is Fast, has the Scout USR, and the option for a turret-mounted Flamestorm Cannon.

Bike Squadron – No news yet

Attack Bike Squadron – No news yet

Land Speeder – No news yet

Land Speeder Storm – Likely Added

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad – No news yet

Whirlwind – As per C:SM

Predator – No news yet

Vindicator – As per C:SM but are Fast

Stormraven Gunship – Armour 12 all around, Skimmer, Fast, Assault Vehicle, Deep Strike.
Armed with twin-linked Assault Cannons, twin-linked Heavy Bolters and 4 Bloodstrike Missiles.
Ceremite Plating make is immune to Melta weapons' extra penetration due to being able to withstand atmospheric re-entry temperatures
Bloodstrike Missiles Range 72” S8 AP1 Heavy 1, One-shot
Transports up to 12 Marines (Jump Troops take up 2 slots) and up to 1 Dreadnought at the same time.
Transported Dreads take a single S4 hit on rear armour if the Stormraven explodes
Models can be deployed at any point of the move, even if it goes flat out but they must take a Dangerous Terrain test (Jump Pack Troops have a better chance of passing). Models deployed in this way cannot assault.
No fire points
4 access points (front, sides and top (?))
May replace Heavy Bolters with either twin-linked Multi-Melta or twin-linked Typhoon Launchers. May also take Hurricane Bolter sponsons.

Dedicated Transports
Rhino – 50 pts. As per C:SM but are Fast

Razorback – No news yet

Drop Pod – No news yet

Land Raider – Standard, Crusader and Redeemer. Only available as Dedicated Transports. Can supposedly Deep Strike somehow."
>>>

Bull's Gaming table

2010-02-22T14:17:00.005-06:00

Well things have been a bit quite recently. So I started a big project. I can't leave the house for extended periods of time due to the new puppy, and I want to get some gaming in , so I did the most logical thing to me. Build a huge gaming table that takes up enough room that I can park a car in my garage any more...well I might squeeze the wife's sedan in.

Needless to say my Wife was absolutely Thrilled! ;)
It is on locking castor's so that I can "move" it ( it's huge and weighs over 100 lbs). It is extra reinforced with deck building materials and Deck grade lumber.
The paint looks a bit spotty , but it really is not, it has several layers to the black , so it is a bit irregular wood look in the picts. Up close it is satin black..
The top is Fleck stone paint, so it is kinda like having a game mat on it, but is fairly smooth and looks like gravel or stone.
Yeah it is a big table, a full sheet of plywood, so I will just mark it off for standard games.
It also has a fully braced and supported top and lower shelf. There is a small shelf that runs along the out side the table but under the gaming surface. This is for "gaming aides" such as loaded dice and Adult beverages.

It is playable now, but I'm going to add a raised arm rest that is slightly elevated over the edge the the game surface. This will serve two purposes. First it's and arm rest.... second it will help keep units and dice from falling off the play surface.

Magnetize Trygon

2010-02-09T22:52:00.000-06:00

Once again Crazy Kage has the fix for which version of the big bug to build out of one kit: ALL OF THEM! The dilemma is that while you would like to field all three different versions of the new GW Trygon at some point, you have a limited amount of funds for a $50 model. We at Game Headz have never been stuck on the notion that YOU MUST BUILD THAT ONE AND ONLY VERSION! So here is our magnetized Trygon:

You’ll need:

GW Trygon model kit
CA super glue (we used thick Maxi-Cure)
Hobby knife
File set
Dremel or drill press with the proper sized bits
Eight 1/16”X1/32” magnet disc (D101-N50 from http://www.kjmagnetics.com/)
One 5/16" dia. x 3/16" or 5/16" dia. x 1/8" magnet disc (D53 or D52-N52)
Four 1/8" dia. x 1/32" magnet disc (D201-N52)
One 1/4" x 1/8" x 1/32" rectangle magnet (B4201)
About 18 more magnets for the arms if you really want to take it that far (we were too lazy and didn’t)

UNDERSTAND MAGNET POLARITY!! Before you go gluing magnets all over your fig, check how those are going to work on the thing. Opposites attract. Test fit and mark the ends that do not attract. This will save you time and frustration.

Another thing, our drill bits were a tad too small for some magnets so you would want to use you hobby knife or rounded file to open the holes up more.
After cutting the parts out and prepping them for assembly, break out your drill.

Let’s tackle the tail first. You could try and pin these parts in and honestly would be a simpler solution but we were afraid of ending up with a part that would not fit right and just swing around.

Drill a small hole at the tail base and at the tail parts so that the two magnets (D201) once fitted would meet up perfectly. This is a bit tricky because if you look close enough at the pic, you can see that there is this kind of ridge. This ridge must align with the two parts and if you haven’t made your magnet seat flush with the part this section will not look right. No big deal, just file the parts until they do fit. And if you poke a hole through the tail like I did, some Green Stuff or thick CA glue will take care of that.

Next, go ahead and assemble the rest of the tail along with the lower torso. You could if you wanted to go ahead and make a magnetized waist. We simply ran out of magnets that would be strong enough to hold the upper section’s weight but it would make for great poses and transport ease. We glued the upper torso on at this point.

Now the head, which took a bit of playing around with, came down to using just one really strong magnet to hold up the jaw and the mandible pinchers. We used the D52-N52. It took a small amount of filing to get it in but worked out better than we thought that it would. Glue the head together without the top and slide the magnet in with a glob of glue. Hold together the Trygon lower jaw and test fit it with head before the glue sets to make sure that you have a good fit.

Next open the Trygon jaw back up and place a D101 magnet inside with a good glob of glue and place the two halves together. Place the new assembly in the head where it goes. Leave it there for about a minute, this will let the magnet inside move to the proper polarity position without having to do all of the guesswork. Now assemble the Mawloc jaw with D101 magnets as shown, this will take some guesswork. Once assembled, they should stay in place reasonably well.

Go ahead and glue the head on to the body. Now you can drill the small holes for the pinchers. Check polarity of the D101’s to the D52 and then glue in place. The plastic is fairly soft and simply forcing them in was enough to keep them there but a spot of glue helps to. Don’t forget to do all sets and make sure that you have the right drill hole spot by test fitting first!

Finally let’s build on the crown. We placed the B4201 on the very from and a small D101 on one of the crowns. Come to find it, it really didn’t need it with the other crown part so this is entirely your call.

The decision was made not to make the back parts of the Mawloc magnetized, as the parts received from were incomplete, thanks GW! We did kinda mix up the talons for those WYSIWYG lawyers.

I hope this has been informative and will post pics of it whenever I get around to painting it after I get this IG Vulture finished that I have been working on.

Quick GW USA update and FW updates

2010-01-25T15:29:00.003-06:00

On the GW NA side of thing , the shake up has already started in the Management
side of things since Kirby Came to town.

GW NA Hq on the move to ..... Memphis. They are closing up shop in MD. The move will be finished before July of this year. There is some speculation as to the Fate of the Battle bunker in MD, since it shared space and rent with the NA Corp HQ. Some of the higher ups that were not in favor of the move have been made redundant ( Pink slip/fired).

Word is that the Gamesday will remain in Baltimore this year, after that who knows? Reason being that they can't get a cheap location to run it in Memphis on short notice ( Cook County Convention center seemed to have a bunch of room when the Big Waaagh was going on last year)

On the FW side.
New Valk variant spotted... it's as predicted a Cargo carrier , like a Sky Crain helo or the Thunderhawk Transporter. No troop area , 4 claws that clamp on to a vehicle or box like object.
Has missile pods and nose gun still

A big Ork siege style tank. Think a Space marine Vindicator up sized by a factor of 2 with a Gargant big lobba cannon for it's main gun. Don't expect a whole lot of new Elysian and Raven Wing marines with IA 8...and 9 they are going to be back to back and have 3 ork factions per book apparently. Both should be released closely together opposed to the IA5-6-7 over 3 years.

That's it...

Quick nid Update

2010-01-22T10:23:00.003-06:00

Apparently in the USA there is a GW shortage of Hive Guards. The may be available at your local store currently , but threw GW there could be up to a eight week delay due to the shortage. All the other new Nid items seem to ship next day

Get them while you can ....If you can.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1020011&prodId=prod370002a

I was not impressed with the model but apparently it is either selling very well or they under produced it.

Not so Mini Blood Angels update

2010-01-20T10:34:00.003-06:00

Ok stuff is really starting to pour out at this time.

In the UK the feb Wd is showing up and there have been some conformations...
Furiso Dread, and a Librarian Dread!

(NOTE THIS MAY BE the actual page listings, I can not confirm or deny if it's really the one in the new codex, so for now it's just "Fan generated" and not from a GW Codex, take with Salt)

also this got leaked out too.
Its the army list and page numbers from the new codex
Get a look at it while you can ... it came from several trusted forums and trusted posters, I'd rather not directly which ones at this point to keep the ban hammer off them and GW legal off their necks.

Interesting notes ...
1 page for the Land raiders
a lot of Named IC's for several chapters
Honor guard AND the Exalted....they are different people..
2 types of Scout and scout bikers.
Tantalus.... if you don't know don't ask ( or read a couple posts below)
Baal Pread separate from Reg Pred
Mephiston gets 2 pages of entrees
Victor Nergal... a MASTER OF THE FORGE! ( finally....)
Any how enjoy while it lasts

----
page -26 background
27 combat squads, red fury, furious charge, they shall know no fear
28 Commander
29 Sanguinary Priest
30 Chaplain
31 Librarian
32 Tactical Squad
33 Assault Squad
34 Devastator Squad
35 Death Company
36 Terminator Squad
37 Honour Guard
38 Dreadnought
39 Furioso Dreadnought
40 Scouts
41 Initiate Scouts
42 Bikes
43 Scoutbikes
44 Land Speeder
45 Exalted
46 Techmarine/Razorback
47 Rhino
48 Drop Pod
49 Tantalus
50 Predator
51 Baal Predator
52 Whirlwind/Vindicator
53 Land Raider
54 Commander Cervan Dante, Chaptermaster of the Blood Angels
55 Mikhael Faustus, Sanguinor of the Blood Angels, Exemplar of the Host
56-57 Mephiston, Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels, Lord of Death
58 Erasmus Tycho, Captain of the 3. Company of the Blood Angels
59 Reo Lemartes, Chaplain of the Blood Angels, Guardian of the Lost
60 Victor Nergal, Master of the Forge of the Blood Angels
61 Moriar the Chosen, Death Company Dreadnought of the Blood Angels
62 Hieri Lorenzo, Sergeant of the First Company of the Blood Angels
63 Absolutus, Dreadnought of the Flesh Tearers, Furioso Supremo
64 Gabriel Seth, Chaptermaster of the Flesh Tearers
65 Toledo Astorath, Chaptermaster of the Angels Sanguine
66-72 wargear
73 psychic powers
----

Edit :Here's more...

-----
Force Organization Chart

Blood Angel FOC is divergant from the Ultramarine one:

-Dreadnoughts are heavy support.

-Furioso Dreads with droppods are fast attack.

-Twin scout entries are both elites, but one is scoring.

-Only dedicated ground transport is the Rhino (Razorbacks are out)

-Assault Squad and Tactical Squad are troops.

-Honour Guard can be troops if fielded with Dante.

-Jump pack units are in every FOC category except heavy support and HQ:

--Assault Squad - troops

--Honour Guard - elites

--Exalted - fast attack

Death Company is 0-1 and doesn't need a slot in the FOC

Units Rules

Tantalus Lander is a dedicated transport for everything in the army except tanks, Land Speeders and Exalted. Its weaponry is: 2 twin-linked assault cannons, 1 twin-linked special weapon.

Land Raider: Redeemer, Crusader and Standard

Terminator sergeants can get close combat wargear. There is a Terminator upgrade to allow shooting in an enemy phase.

Exalted: 4/4/4(5)/4/1/5/1+1/10/3+, jump troops, hit & run, furious charge, no red fury/combat tactics, power armor, stormbolter, power weapon, bolt pistol, no options, no transports.

Quite angelic: masterfully crafted slim armor, jump packs, mechanical wings, masks, long hair.

Named Characters

Erasmus: Furious charge, digital weapons (rending), master crafted combi melta: 18" S:8 AP:1 Assault 1, melta, reroll to hit, 4+ ward save, can chose one set of special rules:

-squad ignores red fury
-red fury and preferred enemy
-rage and feel no pain

Mephiston: 7/7/5/5/3/7/4/10/2+, FnP, Fearless, Eternal Warrior, Fleet, 2 psychic powers per turn.

More potent versions of Might of heroes, Transfixing Gaze and Blood Stasis powers:

The gun of Victor's servitor is 36" S:6 AP:6 Assault6

Psychic Powers

Quickening: Infantry moves as beasts, jump troops and walkers gain fleet.

Blood Stasis: 5" vortex of blood in base contact. Enemy models count as being in difficult terrain, and suffer one wound if they try to move and any of the distance dice shows a 1, Mephiston: can cast it in close combat centered on himself, and enemies attacking with a 1 suffer a wound.

Might of Heroes: one model in squad gets +D3 attacks, Mephiston: can cast it on himself.

Primarchs Grace: Squad may reroll dangerous terrain tests.

Transfixing Gaze: Target model must take a leadership roll off or not able to attack librarian, Mephiston: not able to attack any model.

Living Darkness: A template which blocks line of sight.

Fluff

Background: mainly Blood Angels and 4 successor chapters with one page each:

-Blood Consuls

-Angels Sanguine

-Flesh Tearers

-Angels Vermillion
------

Thanks to the people at the place for the things , got to protect the sources.... but they like looking at large battles... and could be a Star trek fan from the Bayou.

Magnetized Ravener Build Review

2010-01-19T23:52:00.000-06:00

If there is one thing that I can’t stand about box sets is being forced to use only one version of what the unit can be. I hate to shell out the money for another box of figs just because A) I am a stickler for WYSIWYG but B) you only have enough points left over for the cheap version of whatever you are playing in that game. You cannot play a different weapon type or upgrade if the other parts are permanently glued to the fig.

This is where neodymium magnets come in for changing out weapons and such. Neodymium magnets are some of the strongest magnets that you can get and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes for relatively few dollars. I buy mine from http://www.kjmagnetics.com/ but Goggle “rare earth magnets” or neodymium for other sites but the cost will be about the same. Normally I don’t promote a store that isn’t a sponsor of our site but what the hell! This blog is about being helpful right?

Enough already:

Raveners
THREE all plastic Tyranid Raveners with medium sized 40mm bases.
-This box let’s you make the bare minimum of a Ravener squad. GW’s website can be a bit confusing by telling you on one hand that the box comes with just 3 figs while on the other the box can make 3-9. -

Anyways, you end up with two sprues with enough parts to make any configuration listed in the new Tyranid codex. There is a few bonus parts: you get one ripper/ankle biter bug and one extra fancy base decoration to make one of your Raveners look like it is popping out of the ground. Not bad!

Construction is simple and the detail is great! I really like the way that the main talons are serrated and the new mouth pinchers look. There are plenty of sharp barbs and spikes on these bugs; so many that one actually broke skin on my finger.

Now the first step was simply to glue the tale on to the base.

NEXT IS IMPORTANT: the magnets will be sold in sets and typically will stack on end. You need to make sure which end is which. Use a marker to mark which polar end is which. The last thing that you want to do is to go through all of this work just to find that like ends don’t attract and now your fig’s freak’n arm refuses to stay on!!

Next, get the back torso section ready for the magnets. Use a pin vice to drill a small hole in the socket of where you want the optional arm to be. You may need to use a hobby knife or pointed file to widen the whole for the magnet to fit. I use a tiny 1/16" dia. x 1/32" thick disc magnet. It’s rated as a N50, which is fairly strong as these kinds of magnets go. After the arm magnets came a 1/4" dia. x 1/8" thick N42 disc. These torsos are deep so I used a thick magnet with lots of glue.

Make sure that you let the glue dry completely before attaching other magnets or they will just pull off and try to stick to each other. I use medium thickness maxi-cure super glue. It dries in about 10-15 seconds but is still thick enough to use as gap filler.

While this part dries, glue in the polar opposite side of the magnets to the front torsos and arms. When these parts dry, test fit them to the back torso, they should snap right together. At this point, glue the back of the head to the back of the rear torso part. This is a bit tricky and you may want to file a very small notch on the back of the head where it lays on the torso back for support.

Now take the chest plate off and glue just the back of the permanent arms to the rear torso part. Glue the rear torso assembly to the rear of the tale assembly on the base. Use glue only on the rear of the inner parts so that you magnetized parts will have no troubles fitting into place.

When it all dries you should have a fully customizable Ravener.

I do have to apologize for the awful pics as my main camera wasn’t with me.

To GW’s credit, they do make other models customizable of sorts like their Bane Blade and Hell Hound kits, well sorta.

More requested picts of the Pack Max case.

2010-01-19T09:34:00.004-06:00

I've had some more pict requests on the BF Pack MAX case I recently acquired. Specifically picts of "normal" sized BF in the case to see how much room there really is.

Ok, let me say my "normal" sized BF Foam trays are,well not normal sized. They are custom sized for Some "small" Superheavies. The Reaver leg tray is 6" while the other trays are 5" tall. Apparently there is a system of inserts to "adapt" the standard trays to the Pack MAX. It would best to call Battle Foam on this subject though.

I remind the viewers .... these trays are VERY LARGE "standard" sized trays.

Enough with the words... on to the picts.
This shows there is still a good 4"+ above the 6" deep tray.
This is two trays side to side and there is still a fair amount of room left.

Tyranid Hive Guard, Pyrovore, and Venomthrope Builds

2010-01-18T19:33:00.000-06:00

I have had the joy of building these things over the weekend. I must say that the detail and workmanship (at least the ones that I got) are really good. You still have all of the wonderful things to do like snip them from the sprues and file the flash. Nothing new here.

Here we Go:

Hive Guard

SIX metal parts and one medium sized 40mm base

Pretty well thought out design and fit without any problems. In fact, this was a breeze to put together. One side of the leg assembly supports most of the model and made it easy to glue together. It’s big and heavy but should pose no monumental problem for transport.

In summary: a heavy fig, kinda big, great detail, well designed, but a tad on the expensive side at $20 blister.

Pyrovore

SEVEN metal parts and one large sized 60mm base.

The fig from this box is well detailed and designed. After filing the flash and such, the parts fit just fine. The two hind legs fit to the body while the front to large legs give the fig great stability. The tail was kind of difficult to put into place but that may have been due to me gluing the fig on the base already.

To sum it up: Heavy, large, metal model. Well designed and detailed. At over $30, how bad do you need it?

Venomthrope

NINE metal parts and one medium sized 40mm base. Wow, where to start? It is about the height of a carnifex but still relatively small. Once you get it to stand up you need to figure out just how you want the tentacles to look. Being metal the bend quite easily. This is the detail part that I like over this already good-looking fig (in Tyranid terms anyway). It would be easy for a medium skilled modeler to wrap one of these appendages around some poor hapless guardsman for an awesome effect. You would probably want to use pins if you tried that, as these things are difficult to keep on the fig. The tentacles are so long that they are a heavy weight to keep up. I didn’t pin the arms but bent them in a way that makes the load easier to deal with. The two little hip protrusions are kind of a pain to glue in place but nothing real bad.

Summary: Detail is good and has plenty of potential for conversions and such. Unless pinned, the arms are most likely going to come off in transport. Good luck finding something to transport this thing in. I like the fig and knowing what an advantage having this in the army makes the $20 price palatable.

Now I gotta break open this box of Raveners

Intresting GWUSA/NA developments

2010-01-15T12:53:00.002-06:00

I try to follow the financial information on GW , cause from time to time there are some significant information leaks that have an impact on the gaming community at large.

This one has started popping up today.

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:GAW.L&display=news&action=article&articleid=7706794&from=rss

So the general gist of it is that GW NA ain't doing as well as expected... ( Might have some thing to do with the crazy high prices and long lead time between codei?maybe...some thing they may want to look in to).

So Tom Kirby ( not the comic book guy) is setting up shop here in MD to, well I really don't know what do. Right the sinking ship, learn how modern business run, get out of the frozen UK, watch how non "English cottage" industry works? Who knows, but the general feeling is that this is not a "Good Thing" as on Jail bird Billionaire says.

I would look for massive restructuring as to how GW does business in the "Colonies" soon. GW has tried before to push English way of doing things over here, but it really has not worked so far, and I think they may try to do it again ... unsuccessfully yet again.

There is only so much water you can squeeze out of a rock, and recently the gamming community has started pushing back.

More as it unfolds.....

This Ain't Edwards Army... and they don't glimmer

2010-01-14T10:35:00.006-06:00

New art from GW...
and the press release
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=7300006a

This is a compilation of all the reasonable rumors and release lists complied from several trusted sources... Light NaCl will be needed for the release list
A heavy Shake of NaCl for the rules...

Ok for all you Emo Goth Vampire want-a-be's here is a warning Go Home and listen to some old Depesh Mode and get Twilight books out and hide in your parents basement...Cause the Blood Angels are back and look to take the crown for the most Overpowered codex yet.

This army will be an Assault lovers Dream. Don't get me wrong , the Nids can be choppy, but are mainly a horde army as a foil to the IG Shooty horde and the Ork Mixed horde.
If you like Jump packs you will be a hog in filth.

I've pieced the most reliable BA release schedule together and there are some decent surprises.
As we all know by now GW is tight lipped on any thing till the month before/current White Dwarf come out during the release schedule.

here goes:
March (in conjunction with the Battle Missions Add on book)
2 sets
New plastic Pread Tank with Baal Pred options
New Ven Dread/Dread kit ( some debate if it includes both reg and ven, most likely just Ven) with Furiso options...

April ( leaning mid to late month release over 2-3 weeks)
4/5 new kits (2 metal, 2 plastic)*
BA Codex
BA Assault marine box ( 10 models plastic), includes all the BA Upgrades sprews ( jump packs!)
BA Death Company (Metal /or plastic) interesting thing ...NO JUMP PACKS included
BA Exalted (metal ) think Vanguard Vets

And The biggy....
BA Tantalus ( Tarantula?) Lander ( plastic kit) It uses a Valk flight stand , and the word is to think Flying Land Raider/Razorback type vehicle ( This is reportedly very Hush Hush and to be a big surprise) is also the source of the Deep striking Land Raider rumors that came out in the past few weeks*

June
(3 metal ,1 plastic)*
Victor and Unholt (metal)
BA Scouts (Metal)

Then the Metal blisters for the IC's and the Shoulder pads ( Splash---> D.O.)

The totals are
3 new plastic**
3 new Metal
3-7 Metal blisters

*some question as to when the Tant Lander comes out, not all of June's stuff has been revealed
**Not including the 2 general Marine releases

Rumors are that the:
whole army get base 2 Attacks
Furious Charge ( whole army)
Mephiestophion(SP) is a 300+ pt monster
Dreads are a huge part of the army (3 per Heavy slot?Heavy slot?)
Assault marines are/can count as Troops
Death CO is now Optional...
Some new Tech Marine ( Master of the forge?)
Tychio has 3 different stats ( like 3 different versions?)
Rhinos still have turbo charged engines , and Razorbacks may get it too
Possible IC Dread like the SW one....

God forbid and maybe the most horrid thing I've read :there may be a unit that has Bat wings.....

As stated compiled from multiple sources (B &C, Warseer,Dakka) cause there is a lot of crap out there right now to wade threw

All is subject to change but I'm fairly certain on the kits at least. The army rules stuff not so much.

Poppa's got a Brand New Bag!

2010-01-12T11:20:00.004-06:00

My BattleFoam Pack Max came in yesterday...

How do I sum it up in a few words ?

GIANORMUS...TITANIC... LotR: Two Towers : the Directors Cut..... ( sorry had to... lol :) )

If any one has seen the 1520's and though wow that is huge , I can now say you were incorrect, it is "just" average.

Review...

The Construction (bag) : 5 of 5
The bag us up to the standard over kill Battle Foam standards, but turned up to 11! Oshkosh needs to learn how to build MRap's like this. Take the standard tough as nails bag, and make it stronger... Yeah apparently the walls, top and bottom are all extra reinforced with WOOD. So in addition to the plastic to stiffen the walls it now has some armor to prevent punctures, even though one would have had a hard time even with the "old" bags. This is not a case you would take with you to the air port. Even if checked you most likely would be charged for it being over sized. If I did not get some of the foam cut the way I did , I'm 100% that I could fit ALL 25,000 points of my Dark angels in it ( 10 built Land Raiders & 100 Termies...so far)... As I said HUGE!
This case was made to keep and transport the "Show Case " type models. No I'm not talking Gw plastic Super Heavies, I'm talking $600+ Fw models. To transport any thing less is total over kill.
This case would have been perfect for my Reaver project Last summer, to bad it did not come out till Xmas time.

Edit:
The weight of this big ol' bag is 15lbs empty (the wood panels are where most of this come from).... so loaded out it will be fairly hefty.There are no Back pack straps that "pretend" (see some one wearing a 1520 in to the store, it's fairly funny due to the weight and size of the bag) to carry all the weight, just the Condura nylon handles that go all the way under the bag to support the weight, not ever manufacture does this. If a strap tears loose you stuff is SOL, and this is just another feature to emphasise these are the Rolls Royce of Army transport bags. There is a name tag/business card holder that has a plastic window on the top of the bag for identification ( not that there are a bunch of these running around right now, but you never know).

The color choice... OD green, in fact I don't think there is an option for other colors ....yet ( the C4 case comes in black now I think).

There is a Pocket on the side that looks small, but I assure you will hold a standard GW Codex in it.

The Foam: 4.75 of 5

It is top notch as ever. I still wish it was a tad bit more rigid, but the case more than makes up for it. There was a bit of fraying from being recently cut, but nothing really bad.
As you can see from the picts below, this case I had made to transport my Death Wing Termies.
When I ordered it , I talked with Romeo about what I wanted it to hold.. and there were some changes to what we discussed, but I'm still ecstatic about it.
There are 4 trays..
2 Termie trays
A Thunderhawk tray
and a Thawk tray extender.

The Termie trays were originally to be 4 of the standard All termie trays with extra Foam inserts to make them snug with the case (around 140 total), since it is much larger than the standard BF tray size. Instead I got 1 tray that holds 84 Termies, with no inserts, but still room for customization if some one wanted. 84! so with the two trays I now have room for 168 terminators..... I bit much even for me, so some of my larger more dynamically posed standard base models will go in. I still have plans for around 130 or so Termies, so don't be surprised if I fill it up, but it will take some time.

Here is like 60 plus Termies with 3 Hq's in Termie armor. Still 20 spots left, and this is just one tray!

Now the Thawk tray
Well it holds a Thawk ( mines in the process of being built , but I hit a road block ( another Puppy) and like 4+ Rhino's stacked, 4 Land raiders Stacked, and 6+ Dreadnoughts Stacked.
No I know some would say "Stacked?" , well Battle Foam was nice enough to include Foam dividers for every slot , cut to match the trace. The only issue would be if you have alot of non removable items sticking up off the models. This tray configuration is different than the "Standard" Thawk tray. The Standard one has one slot for the big bird, one slot for the rhino, one slot for the Land Raider , and one Standard Drop pod slot (GW troop). I really don't use regular drop pods ( have one for Sternguard Surprise atack formation) and Don't have a single Rhino in my entire force ( do have 3 Razor backs and a Damocles) but I can use the Rhino slot for Dread weapons and missiles , turrets etc from the Land raiders.

My only real gripe about the foam , is the inserts/ spacers for stacking, the ones I got were , for lack of better term, Shaggy. They are also kind of thin to be put in between Land Raiders and Dreads, So may end up ordering some 2x thickness ones just to be safe.
The extender tray is exactly the same as the Thawk tray but just add more caring capacity. It is about 1/3 as tall as the main tray below.

Overall 5 of 5
Only Catch... it will put a big ( and I mean it literally) dent in your pocket book. I got a steal on it since I bought it on Black Friday ( the day after Thanksgiving in the USA, and the traditional "Start" of the Christmas Shopping season, usually most stores have Big sales). The Discount was 25% off the total case. So the regular price and shipping were to be ... just a FEW dollars Short of $400... I ended up paying about $300. Still not an easy pill to swallow, but as the saying goes you got to pay to play. With the several very large and very expensive FW models I have it was a necessary Evil in my book. The other plus is I can Almost fit 100% of what I usually play Marine wise with the Thunderhawk in this case. I can trade in my other cases and get some more foam cut for the rest of my ground ponders and customised Tanks, and some normal trays for the 1520...

I think I will leave my Tau stuff in Army transport cases for now, but when I start building my IG I will keep these trays in mind.

I'm looking forward to the PACK 720 that is said to be carry on luggage sized but larger than the 420 sized bag... 6 weeks is the ETA right now on the release.

If you all got questions, or would like more picts just ask.

Odds’n’Ends

2010-01-10T20:22:00.001-06:00

One good thing about being stuck at home due to weather is getting some projects done or at least started. Here is a tid bit of a blurb on the figs going on in the forge at home. I got started a Bombard and Manticore and realized that I was out of magnets. So I got as far as I comfortably could. While I am waiting on those things I may as well get to working on the Vulture. Yep, I’m gonna need some magnets for this one and another Vulture. The plan is to load up one with the twin Punisher cannon and the other full of rocket pods. More on all of this to come.

When It Rains It Splash Damages!

2010-01-07T00:12:00.002-06:00

Well this is the kinda suck thing to happen and turn it into a win for you! Yesterday we had a water line burst in the store. A good bit of Flames of War, War Machine, and a few other odds and end got damaged. As a result, we are going to sell these things at 35 to 40% off. Yep, that's right 35% or 40% off plus shipping.

You can buy any water-damaged product at 35% off if you pay with Pay Pal OR pay with credit card over the phone or cash in hand and get 40% off! Seeing how we are liquidating or liquid damaged products we need to make sure that we don't come up loosing even more money with shipping cost so this offer will not follow our normal shipping policy. Shipping will cost a minimum of $5.99 unless it is higher in cost. If you end up ordering a boat load of stuff then we will weigh everything and give you a true cost to ship before we process the order. Shipping will be with USPS and UPS (whichever is cheaper).

NOTICE:

This discount of 35% or 40% is only on water-damaged goods.

This offer is while supplies last and for a limited time.

Most boxes and blisters are in OK condition while others are in bad shape.

Decals and playing cards maybe damaged beyond use but the actual figures should be in good shape as they are plastic and metal.

NO REFUNDS, NO WARRANTIES, NO EXCHANGES on water damaged goods.

Paying with Pay Pal gives you a 35% discount and credit card/ cash gives a 40% discount.

You pay $5.99 for shipping unless higher where as you pay the true shipping amount.

We can only ship with in the US ONLY.

Orders for these items cannot be processed through our retail site. You will need to email us for request and then we can send you back an invoice.

Subject to change.

We are going to work as fast as we can to provide a list of what is up on the chopping block, however we had snow predicted on Thursday. Snow and/or ice shut the Deep South down, as we cannot figure out just how the hell to drive in it. In the meantime, you can email me (buystuff@game-headz.com) for things that you are looking for and will answer you back for availability on Sunday after we have completed the list. There doesn't seem to be any GW products damaged by the water. Most of it is FOW, WM, Mech Warrior, Hero Clix, Star Wars games, and things like that.

The Kalm before the Waaagh Update

2010-01-05T14:33:00.005-06:00

From what I've been told it is sold out!
The 60 slots are all booked up, and the Warboss is taking a wait list/substitute list now for the expected no shows- drop outs. So if you really wanted to go, and did not get in, contact the Warboss and beg borrow and Steal.
http://thekalm.com/contact-us/

There are always drop outs ( I was one of them , it snowed and the wife freaked out, In the deep south if it snows the whole state shuts down for like a week, and me being from the mid west 1-2" is like any rainy day !)

It only took 9 days , which is fairly quick for a "local" event. The first year some one from Mississippi or Mobile were the farthest travelers, this year not by a long shot! This year there are some people coming from the West coast ( Cali ,WA),the Mid west (Ohio), and the South west (AZ).
A ton of people form Mississippi, Tenn, the Peach State.

Kind of surprising that AL did not have all that many sign up.
Stay tuned for more up coming info on the event, there could be some Surprises!
I know that there will be good Prize support, but the main thing is that there will be great times had by all!

Sorry for the Delay on the Thunderhawk Build

2010-01-05T14:24:00.003-06:00

I started working on the Thawk on Xmas Eve. I got about half way threw trimming the flash gates and the beginning of sanding....and then the wife threw a new variable in....

She got another dog, specifically a very young Lab. So No free time when I get home from work to go upstairs to work on it. The puppy has to go out every 2 hours at the max.

I'll be lucky if I can really get going on it again by Feb.

Any how , I'll post picts of what I finished up tonight.

There is a TON of flash and flash gates.... I've had to use the heat gun on more than one occasion and there is going to be some Green stuff / putty work.

Advice to all.... DON'T get a ThunderHawk from Forgeworld unless you are up for a very serious challenge.... like Kroot Ox challenge. Wait till Gw releases the plastic one this year..... Yes I said this year , but I may have said too much already.

Thunderhawk build :part 1

2009-12-23T13:30:00.004-06:00

I know it does not look like much but it was like 2 hours of work with a dedicated heat gun just straightening it all out.

I know some people will say Boiling water does the trick , my response is "well yes it does, but what do you do when the part is about 18"+ inches long"... go to a closed school or Prison to borrow one of the Mega pots? Yeah you get my point.

This is the "Before" picture.... note the resemblance to a Banana

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fQ23hvEdNXg/SpX4-w4O-aI/AAAAAAAAAUg/BjRqeY2SYqM/s1600-h/IMG_0501%5B1%5D

and here is the "After"
And here are a few more to show that the front is now straight enough to start the test fit for the Assault ramp and nose.
I know it's just the first "baby"steps, but it is a major deal so that I cna test fit every thing and figure out what all needs to be sanded/filled. If the stuff was not straight, it would have been a P.I.T.A.

I will start sanding tomorrow since I have a Half day at work and No Xmas shopping or parties to go to... Yes I have no friends.... Pitty Party !

HoHoHo!

The Kalm Before the Waaagh 2010 !

2009-12-18T16:04:00.003-06:00

IT's BAAAAAAACK... one of the Best little "friendly" tournaments in the country...

Several of the big personalities in the industry have rated it on the "must To-DO List" every year. In the same vein as Adepticon but with southern charm and more "cozy" ( read as Smaller).

It is at a new loctaion and looks to be like the same old hijinks... FUN!

Its run buy some the 40k half of the Big Waaagh.... So it is a Non ASS-HAT admitted turny.

You can play to win but if you are one of the following don't attend:
a: Ass-Hat...
b: under 21, you will be stopped at the door, there is an open bar! Adult beverages served
c: Can't play to have fun while while ... well... playing... you can still play to win but don't be a jerk ( Yeah I suck but , well I know I Suck, take it easy on me !)

THERE IS LIMITED SPACE! Every year the slots book up well in advance... DO NOT WAIT if your are Thinking of coming... Last year it booked up in like under a week.

This is a Truly Unique event that is a lot of fun, before the serious big time turny's and Gt's start.
Good chance to try out your new army builds against competitive players in a relaxed environment.

See you all there!

http://thekalm.com/

Major Build anouncement! FW Thunderhawk...

2009-12-18T10:29:00.004-06:00

I Finally have got in to the building and modeling mood again.

While the wife was ordering presents on my PC last night I started on the next major Project for Game-Headz....

Forge World Thunderhawk...

I ordered this after I got back from the Big Waaagh this year along with some other Resin that I either sold there or new kits had come out. It was a Large order so the customary Free express shipping was involved...

On the initial kit opening I was impress by the size and that it came with all the Hellstrikes it could carry instead of hitting you up for them separately like on the IG superheavy flyers...

After looking at things a big more I was a bit dismayed at some of the casting... needless to say on the main Hull it was very Poor. The main hull was bent like a Banana and had a slight twist to it...the interior details were not well cast, almost like not enough resin was used. I later come to find out hull was this way due to the Age of the Molds that were used... The Reaver I built earlier this year at the time had only 379 uses or so , while the Thunderhawk was at least double that and the design and casting was much older and less modular....That being there are Large and Thick highly detail parts on the T-hawk, while on the Reaver the Parts are big but several SMALLER (kinda) parts would go together to make a Larger Sub Assemble, so large Number of highly detailed "smaller" parts ( legs are 97 parts by themselves from the waist down to give you a rough Idea of the numbers we are talking about), which helps in the casting process , less wear and tear on the molds , and more detail...

I had previously posted a pict of how bent the T-hawk hull was, so for me this time on this build
I will have to do things differently than on the Reaver. It will not progress any where as fast.
I will start putting up picts as I go most likely starting tonight.

I don't think I will be able to really break things down to Major sub assembly's at all. The guns, missiles and engines can be slightly done by them selves , while the wings and cockpit to a point can be also.

I started cleaning up and straightening the "lower" hull last night. Jason donated a good heat gun to the cause , and it did wonders , but I will have to work on it bit more and post some before and after picts.

So order of build:
Inspection and catalogue of parts
Clean up and straightening
Test fitting of major sub assemblies
Chemical degreaser bath ( 4-7 days) detail clean up ( there is a TON of mold release on this kit very greasy and has very apparent Sheen to it)
Prime
Send major parts to Jason for Air brushing
Cockpit/lower hull Assembly/assault ramps
Upper hull/canopy
Tail section & engines
Wings....
Weapon systems (bolters, Turbolaser, Missiles)
Details and touch up.

The paint colors right now will be my death wing colors Testors Black Chrome trim ( wich ironically is a very flat black and not metallic at all) English desert red ( well it's a redish pink....lol)and Testors Metallic black... With Bolt gun , Bloody red, Burnished gold, and a couple of the Silver and whites from GW for details and highlights...

I have yet to decide if I will put Atmospheric scoring on it or other weathering , or leave it "Factory Fresh" . Jason no doubt will push for the weathering, with the really good weathering he has started doing to all his IG stuff.

I've never been big on that , but have recently done some weathering on several FW terrain kits.

Well the adventure has begun. I and kinda going at this blind , since the Instructions really suck compared to the Titans from FW and I've yet to find a Good build up of one with Photos..
I'll try and detail it as much as I can , And really suck meaning a 4-5 page photocopied instruction sheet vs a 23+page with tips and detailed sub Assembly instructions.

Praise be to the Tech Marines and the the Machine god ( we all know its the Void Dragon, stop Hiding it)....

March Battle missions models...

2009-12-18T10:26:00.004-06:00

Early Xmas present for you all.

This is from the UK Jan WD.. by way of reds8n on several forums..

White Dwarf 361, Jan 2010, page 12 wrote:
Alongside this exciting new Expansion for Warhammer 40,000 we're releasing a swathe of fantastic new Citadel miniatures to support many of the races, including a new Basilisk and Chimera. In March's White Dwarf we'll reveal all, showing the exciting new releases, as well as introducing the Warhammer 40,000 Battle Missions book itself.

There you go , told you so.. a month or so ago... No word on conformation on Hydra or LR though.

If you have not heard Nids are up for Preorder..

2009-12-09T14:53:00.003-06:00

I won't go in to a long review , or spill many rules leaks, but the New Nids and New Codex are up for Pre-order at GW now.

Highlights:
Hive tyrants... the only HQ in the dex ( not including named special Nids , old one eye, red terror)
Broodlords... work like Sgts for Marine squads
The battle box has nothing but troops in it... yes Warriors (in some form) are now troops
Carnifexes can be taken in broods of 3 ( IG tank co's any one?)
Hiveguard 2 shot Str 8 possibly Indirect fire weapon or no cover save...
Pyrovore.. shoots flame blasts, this may be the Anti tank all nid players have been waiting for.
Venomthrope... hits on 2+ , emits spore clouds.
Mawloc ... can attack and dis-engage from combat apparently or some thing like it.
Trigon... well its a trigon.. tunnels , fires a electrical blast short range and Raveners can come threw the tunnel... oh and Apoc data sheets are coming in Feb WD.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1430057&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

PS: Battle Missions.
One should expect a decent amount of releases for SM, IG, and Ork, stuff has been confirmed for these 3 races, but no one else. The Kits are just speculation but it could be like the COD ( Tau second wave and releases spread out for just about every one) release or PS ( Marine wave 2)

The space marine releases MAY have a direct tie in with another Codex a month or so later ( Blood Angels?) ( Passably a new plastic Dread kit) big news.. and if so I'm SOOOOO broke! Plastic Thunderhawk..... damn, you all know it was going to happen after me getting the FW kit. Always does.

IG's ... Look for some of the Artil to finally come out passable the stormtroopers and LR and Chimera ( Artil and the tanks are very good bets, since they only require 1-2 different sprew compared to the Hellhound and Demolisher kits, storm troopers to me are sill pipe dreams) Look at the pict released for the the Battle Mission already... the Basilisk looks a bit different, especially on the treads ( kit bash?)

Orks... Warboss kit, Buggies, Trac's, Plastic Killer cans ( 3 pack) and plastic Deff dread.
I think there are some picts of the Kans and the buggies that have been out for a long time see if you can find them, hint they are in a WD and few if any have said much about them ;) and the Cad's of the Traks has been around for a bit too.

First modeling done since SEPT!

2009-12-05T19:17:00.003-06:00

I've been unmotivated !

I finally got some thing done today...
Start to finish it was not much but Maybe I stay motivated.

I started and finished a second Tri Laser blaster for my Reaver I did last summer.

The game play Cheesiness is very high, but playing the horde armies I do... the 6 Pizza plate sized "D" strength shots is almost a requirement. Also knowing that my Reaver is going to be drawing all the fire away from ....well every thing else is also good.

I'll post a pict or two in a bit for proof of my motivation, but it looks exactly like the other one down to the silver dollar sized magnet.... UA and UF both suck! GO TIGERS!

Nid Box set up for pre order.

2009-12-04T13:58:00.004-06:00

Update!
Unfortunately the rumors were true.... No Carnifex in the new Nid army box

Contents...
3 Warriors
8 Genesteelers
16 Hormagaunts
16 Termagants
Update! ( they are not pictured , but are listed as contents )
3 Ripper swarms

That's it folks....

It's up for Advance order but not on the Advance order tab?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat320001a&prodId=prod370004a

If wanted, give us a shout.
Good troop builder to build up a army , or get you started if you are just picking it up for the first time in Jan. I think we may have some of the old boxes left too, with the Carni's!

Crazy Kage post spotted!!!

2009-12-04T10:55:00.000-06:00

Howdy kidz! I haven’t been doing anything with the blog as of late for I am working in retail. As many of you already know, retail during the holiday season is a bit like being assigned to a penal legion. This will all change in January as I may have a better career within the IT department of AT&T.

At any rate, Jamie (the post master on this blog) has been telling me that there are a lot of request for updates on projects that are being worked on like the Vulture. I have to control my 40K ADD to get this stuff done but there are three in the soup. First, my IG battalion is being worked out to around 15k to 20k of points, second task is Jamie’s Christmas gift, and third is this year’s tree ornament (first year’s is at the bottom of this blog site). On the side, we are both working on Apoc data sheets from our site for you to use.

The Vulture has been degreased and primed for building and will be worked on soon. For now, I will show ya my homemade Trygon. This thing is about two years old but still one of my favorite models to play. You can make one of thee things easily.

You will need:
1 carnifex model
1 brass wire about 21/2” long
2 brass wires about 1/2" long
green stuff
sculp tool
pin vice or small drill
extra spiky nid bitz
glue and paint of course

Step one: put together the body of the Fex. Next take the wire and poke it through the middle of the base. Bend it in such a way that it will remain upright on top. Drill a hole on the bottom of the tail and cut the end of the tail off. Bend the cut off tail to the desired position; you will need to wrap most of it around the base with green stuff later. Test fit and then glue the tail on the wire attached to the base.

Next, drill a hole in the body of the fex and test fit with the tail. This wire is what is going to pin the tail and body. With out this, you may not get the right posture and loose stability. Pay close attention at the posture of the bug in this stage. Mine maybe a bit too hunched over but if you go too far up then all the thing will every see is sky instead of prey. Btw, as far as the husk/back, the normal seemed to be the logical choice.

Once that you figured out the posture, insert the pin and glue it. At this point some green stuff was applied to the top of the ball on the tail. The green stuff will fill in the gaps and it is easy to sculpt to look like bug skin.

Get your green stuff and make a tail. Attach it to the end of the tail and begin to wrap it around the base. Use the nid bits as shown to make it look covered in Armour. Use the sculpting tool to carve segments in the tail. Don't forget to add some bits on the end.

Use the other wire to make a pin for the head and body in the same fashion as the tail and body. I used the head with tusks, as it just looks mean. Again, green stuff was used between the body and head to make a better fit. Glue the talons on using the larger ones on front/top. Use green stuff to attach the smaller talons where the legs of the fex normally go.

Next is the prime and painting. That's it! Go play!

Space Marines have a crunchy outer shell with a gooey center.

Nid Info Scuttles out of the Hive... Finally!

2009-12-02T20:53:00.003-06:00

GW has had Info locked up tighter than Ft. Knox even though the Nids come out NEXT MONTH!
There are some confirmed picts of the prototype Trygon/Locjaw too, but no model picts yet so no linky linky.

Thanks The Dude and all others listed.

This is from Warseer:

Thank you Carnassire for the picts yeah they are not so good but you get the Idea

Gargoyles: Released 16 Jan 2010 - £18.00 / US$29.00 / 22,75€ / Oz$48.00 – Brimstone tells us Fleshborers are the only weapon option (or any other option) on the sprues and says each model consists of: Left wing, Right wing, Head, Left arm, Right arm with Fleshborer, main body with tail and half torso, other Torso half. I have been told they still come with flying bases (ie not sculpted scenic bases).
http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=76032&d=1259794465

Raveners:(Plastic 3 models) Released 16 Jan 2010 – Shown in White Dwarf:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=76034&d=1259794701

Venomthrope:(Metal Blister - 1 Model) Released 16 Jan 2010 - – Stickmonkey tells us they come on a 40mmm base and are quite tall, solid minis, possibly prone to tipping. Silverstu describes them as looking like the current Tyrant Guard, but leaping forward and armed with a large ranged weapon similar to a huge Spike Rifle.
http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww354/gajowy21/Newcreature.jpg

http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=76035&d=1259794701

Hive Guard:(Metal blister) Released 16 Jan 2010 –

http://www.warseer.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=76033&d=1259794651

PS:
The Gargoyals look Spiffy... the Raveners are retarded expensive for a smaller plastic kit.... Venomthrope is interesting yet very fragile looking , while the Hive Guard look very $#*&y bad pict and bad model

Legion of the Dammed ( Firehawks?)

2009-11-30T14:18:00.003-06:00

The LoD are up for Pre-order... Looks to be a total of 10 different sculpts, A 5man squad with Sgt,
2 2man packs and a Heavy Flamer or Multi Metla single packs....

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1430057&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

I personally thing the sculpts are good. The bad thing about them is they are Metal and fairly expensive....

We all knew that GW just could not let the Nids come out with some random Space marines spoiling their month....

BTW if you have not heard they is/was a delay in the Nid release. I was to start the first week of Jan but instead has been put off til mid month. This was apparently due to a Printing issue with the new codex.. ( some doof at the print shop put the new covers on the 4ed dex , and no one caught it till after a ton of codexs were run ...)

The black boxes "Should" be out in the next week or two.. so maybe FINALLY we will find out what is really going on with the Nids new codex and get some Picts...

I'm getting very put off by GW and this information lock down to the point were I've basically ( and many others I've spoken with ) have stopped playing 40k due to a lack of enthusiasm , and in my case have been hitting the video games hard... in fact most of my 40k budget ( which many know is fairly sizable) has gone almost entirely to video games.... I did just buy some big ticket items but they were budgeted out far in advance and Black Friday sales pushed me over the top on the buy... and I'll post more about them in the coming weeks when every thing comes in.

I'll just say , Thank you to Battle Foam for the black Friday sale... (they were swamped , which should indicate that people want the stuff but not the current prices...)

And Thank you Paul at Legions....A review of this "Item" will most likely be up in the next few days....

UPDATE: GW WWII GAME

2009-11-26T08:47:00.002-06:00

This was from Wargames Illustrated:

The Historical Wargamers Group, in association with Wargames Illustrated, held another successful event at Warhammer World on 24 - 25 October, WAB players from around Europe did battle across several campaign settings and attendees were treated to a bonus surprise appearance when Warwick Kinrade of Forgeworld demonstrated the forthcoming Games Workshop World War II game.

Warwick ran through a game in which a British Battlegroup stormed a German held position in Normandy circa 1944 - the British sector in Normandy being the focus for the rulebook. The game is designed for 20mm figures although it will work equally well with 15mm (adjustments will be necessary for 28mm). Interestingly the game seemed to owe little to the well-known Warhammer game system.

The game is still work in progress with a release date of "next year - hopefully early on" planned. The core rulebook will be supported by further supplements, which will include more army lists and (further down the line) more threatres of the war).

***Well There you go.... sounds like another Game system from GW
I don't know if it will be a Main line or a FW/BL/SG release though....let the speculation begin.

Any one looking for a Figure Case? Foam Wars EPI 2

2009-11-25T10:17:00.003-06:00

There are some decent deals on Game cases on Black Friday.

Sabol (army transport for those not in the know) is running there usual Black Friday sale. 25% off every thing.... not bad, usually will wait for it when I need one, load up on Foam ( I've got racks of it in the basement)... the 26-29th, online only, a code is needed at check out, pm me if needed.

Battlefoam has countered ....
25% off Every thing, including custom cut stuff and the new Thunderhawk mega case.
Free Shipping on the 1520 ! with the 25% off! That can be a huge deal for International people that have been on the fence over getting one due to the very high shipping costs and just the normal high costs associated with these Bentley like cases.

It is a bit late to try the send in your old case thing ( could not be applied in time but still going on) , but if you call in an order ( 6am-6pm PST on the 27th only) you can place an order for a custom cut foam and case , but can get them hold the order till you get the custom specs in for the foam at a later date.

Either way, AWESOME news for any one on a budget or that have been holding out for a good deal on a figure case.

Lets just say I may be doing some shopping , but the misses may kill me... at least it won't say Nottingham England as the sent from location... Those are very hard to explain.... She knows that about $500+ just went Poof!

Possable New GW Game line.... WWII?

2009-11-25T09:57:00.003-06:00

There are some persistent rumors in trade Mags saying that GW MAY ( that's a big MAY ) be getting in to historical TTG. Starting with a 15mm WWII stuff...

Sound a bit familiar? no? How about Flames of War... still not ringing a bell? where you been people!

Any how, some of the designers for Gw have been meeting for a "Historical Group" frequently and the play mechanics of said game are nothing like WHF or WH40K....

Some are saying that it will be initially launched threw Forge World... others say it will be a main GW line not part of the forgotten step child specialist games division....

If they are serious about it I think FW would basically set it up for failure... to limited distribution and expensive, same for Specialist games....

As they say in poker All in or Go Home...that is the only way I see it being successful. Full support full distribution network.

It could be a good Idea but I think they may be spreading them selves too thin if it is true. It seems that they are missing dates ( nid codex....for one but that was a "Printing mistake") already and the staff is spread way out already... People are already getting very frustrated with lack of regular updates or Codexs that go a DECADE ( oh I when there) before being updated (while in the same time frame the Space marines , Britoians and Elves all get about 3 different revisions).

Are retailers going to want to devote MORE shelf space to a new GW product? The next 2 years for GW, WHFB and LOTR are said to be the major focus.... even though here in the states most people could not care about either ( sorry WHFB the plane Jane Space Marines out sell your ENTIRE LINE and the next two non marine codexs consistently by them selves).

Are you Ready for another GW game?
Look for more possibly next spring .

Fortress of Redemption

2009-11-24T10:31:00.003-06:00

Some Lucky souls have received it...

Words to describe it ...
HUGE! the picts I seen of it and comments floating around say it's big enough for Inquisitor games!
2 Missile tubes , not one, the second one is under the Las Turret
Some ,not all DA icons are dual sided with generic Imp icons ( boon for non DA players)

The tower panels are one piece (the ones with the Angel of Death on them on top of a lot of skulls) , meaning they are huge! This kit looks to be testing the limits of Large single part casts... HINT HINT! Some thing big is coming!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/266518.page

There are discussions on if you can combine multiple kits like with the bastions....
I don't know yet , but we will find out soon enough!

Enjoy!

2010-11 GW Turny schedule...

2009-11-23T14:07:00.002-06:00

2010-11 GW Turny schedule...

Well it looks like players will have a YEAR and a HALF to get qualified for the finals in Vegas...
then the next on is in 2012... hey the Bolscon for 2009 was a qualifier too...so really like 2 years. Talk about a large build up.

Here are the venues...with the number of spots available.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=&pIndex=1&aId=14700053&start=2

Take note! there are very few turnies in the South East other than one in NC and one in Tenn...
Then there are 1/4th the total in Texas.... ( just kidding , but seriously there are a ton in TX)

Another thing I saw was no Big WAAAGH!.... I'm hoping this was a mistake. Micha or some one else drop us a line ... I 'll set it straight...

Afternote:
Sorry for the serious lack of updates... Jason and I have been busting our butts at our real jobs ( got to get the Joes with the Kung-fu grip for the kiddies for Xmas you know) , and I've had a ton of weddings to go to this fall....

I've also been totally unmotivated to paint any thing...After I finished all my FW terrain I kinda hit a wall and have not been motivated.

Well I'm stirring the pot finally! I've started a "small" project. A second Laser Blaster for my Reaver titan... Yeah size wise it's big, but parts wise its small and Jason already did some work on it. Only mod to it will be a large magnet so that it will snap on the existing arm of the titan.

Hopefully this will spur me to get going on some of the other stuff (Big @$$ Bastion sitting half done! the Thunderhawk, or the remaining Deathwing termies and LR's).

Officially: Official Only 1 Games Day North America in 2010

2009-11-04T12:37:00.004-06:00

The rumors have been around for like 2 months now with no conformations till now...

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=300002&aId=5800004a

Aug 21st in Baltimore ( bad location for just one con needs to be centrally located, but hey cheap air fair on South West in to BWI from B'ham) is the date. Also Tickets must be purchased in advance and are $25.

They added a note at the bottom to bring your armies....

This is just me speaking out loud....
We all saw it coming with how crappy they have been since like 2006, when there were ATL, Balt,LV,LA,Chi town, and Toronto... then Balt again for the seasons ending turnies....

The moneys spent had lowered a lot and the quality had suffered

80% of the people I knew that went to any of them were going solely to get FW stuff with out the shipping or for the Upcoming releases . With how the conversion rates against he GBP ( got a Reaver for less than I payed for a Thunderhawk...) have been and GW locking down any an all rumors , there have been little incentive to go...

I know that GW NA is HQed in Glenn Burnie MD , but come on Balt for the only con they put on?
If you are going to go big , have it in a Centrally located city or BIG city (LA,NY,CHI, Houston).

Aug 21st? To late in the season... If GW is trying to get the kids to play when they are young, they could have not picked a worse time other than Xmas time in the states for the kids OR their parents to attend. In the South East and Mid west a lot of School systems either start back to school the week before or the week after this weekend.

The cost is right , but no doubt they will hit us up for the GD model extra again like this year.

No Tix at the door? I like it, cut down on the retarded wait they used to have for the first hour or so... the FW like will still be like a 3+ hour wait though....

Enough of my rant... Tix go on sale on the 27th of this month... I May go to see how it turns out...

Also more on the nid is starting to creep out of the hive..... Army box on early to mid Dec... willing to bet NO new models in it since most of the new stuff does not come out till Jan.
Gaunts are slit up in to 2 different boxes.... the so called"Toxothrope " in English will be the "Venomthrope"

WOW! Whooping huge Planetstrike FAQ

2009-11-03T12:21:00.002-06:00

My eyes were watering just from reading it.... it took so long....

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m640095a_FAQ_Planetstrike_Oct2009.pdf

Jk lol... 2 entrees , the Deep striking reserves style armies ( Tripple D's : Demons, Deathwing, Droppod) one is a change from what is said in the codex...pay attention to it...

Demon hunters may be a bit miffed...

New Advanced orders are up

2009-10-23T08:47:00.004-05:00

GW got the holiday season started early with some Big expensive advanced orders today

Space Marine Megaforce $175 (20 tac , 5 assault, 5 scout snipers,rhino, pred,dread)
Ork Mega Force $200 (40 boyz, 9 warbikers, a truck , 5 lootas/ burnas)
Fortress of Redemption ( DA indom. fortress from PS) $99
2 pack of "Flat" Realm of Battle tiles $99

Oddly enough I posted the exact con tense of every thing not long ago... I must be a Psycher (Psycho) call the Witch hunters...

And my Favorite!
The Imperial Warzone! for a svelte $748.50... ( RoB, 5 bastions, 7 Aegis defense lines, 2 sky shields, 3 moon crater packs , and a Fortress of Redemption). Hey Jason ;)

As alway give us a call or drop us an email if you are wishing for Xmas presents...
most of it will be released the week of Nov 28th ( weekend after thanksgiving)

Still waiting on the Imperial city/sector and the Imp strong point...
Don't forget the Pink and I think Green big figure cases too...

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1490603&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k

Space Wolves Diorama from GD UK09

2009-10-22T09:30:00.002-05:00

This is a short post , but for all you terrain builders out there this is pretty neat-o.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=&section=&pIndex=0&aId=4800010a&start=1#

For the very careful eye , you can see some "un-released" kits in the build up of the Fortress.
Just very cool what you can do with a unlimited budget and a team of people working together.

Many people have been asking for close up's of it, and GW has obliged them..
enjoy...

ps: I did not see any new nid models , but it would not surprise me if there were, there is just TOO Much for me to look at with a close eye.

Nid Price points for new dex

2009-10-21T10:26:00.003-05:00

OPEN FLOOD GATES NOW!

Let me thank Scryer up front for these... My Ninja skills have been lacking recently.
"
Hiveguard £12.00 / US$20.00 / 17,50€ / Oz$33.00
Toxatroph £12.00 / US$20.00 / 17,50€ / Oz$33.00
Pyrovore £20.00 / US$33.00 / 26,00€ / Oz$55.00
Hormagaunts £15.00 / US$??.?? / 19,50€ / Oz$41.00
Termagaunts £15.00 / US$??.?? / 19,50€ / Oz$41.00
Gargoyles £18.00 / US$29.00 / 22,75€ / Oz$48.00
Raveners £27.00 / US$44.50 / 35,00€ / Oz$74.00
Battleforce £60.00 / US$??.?? / 85,00€ / Oz$165.00

Which just leaves us with:

99060106064 £10.00 / US$16.50 / 13,00€ / Oz$28.00
99120106019 £30.00 / US$49.50 / 39,00€ / Oz$83.00

And given that's "3 new Plastic kits and 3 new metal models", the £10 metal blister is looking like a Bitz Pack like I originally said."

The so called Toxatroph and Pyrovore and Hive Guard are all said to be metals
The Raveners is a box of 5 plastics
The Gargoyles are plastic
The "Gaunt" boxes have already started showing up in Europe, and the box art is different ( new weapon paint on Hive fleet Behemoth) but the models are old , just broken in to 2 different boxes.
The last plastic kit is most likely the Trygon at 49.50
The names of the new stuff MAY change since the were ninjaed from a German source by way of the Dude on warseer.

No clue on the "Hiveguard"
Pryovore is said to work like a Basilisk Artil with flames/melta/ lance type properties
The codex designer was quoted saying you will be able to field MORE Carni's in a army than previously.... Expect some form of Old' one Eye leader 'fex to accomplish this.... ( no offence I thought 6 was TOO MANY to start with Can you imagine 9-12 in a single army? Holy skewered Humans Batman!)
No Flying Tyrant model... :( have to go to FW or scratch built it.

I'll update this if needed... but I think i'v hit the big stuff..
Thanks Scryer & the Dude at Warseer....

Xmas stuff from GW

2009-10-21T09:11:00.006-05:00

Sorry upfront, for well being infrequent in posting, Work has had both me and Jason tied down tight. Here is a product update.

Reds8n posted the Euro picts for some of the big boxes for Xmas time

First the Biggie...
Yep it is exactly the same one from the PS codex...
2 please!
The two mega forces are fairly tame , and not really news worthy for what they include, but What the DON'T INCLUDE!First the Marines... a Pred, a rhino, a Dread, 2 Tac squads, 5 man Assault, and 5 man Scout sniper sqd... For me very under whelming at $175 + , but good for the people that are expanding a generic marine army... nothing chapter specific, and units that Every one can Use.
Next... the orks...
I'm not an ork player , but It looks to be a box of Loota& and burnas, 3 boys boxes , 3 boxes of 3 bikes, and a Truk.... yet again great for building up an existing army. It is over the $200 mark , and both mega boxes are "limited" so get them while you can.

Then from Bols:

Nid stuff here are your 3 new nids...
Pyrovore: (rumored to be a fire-based biovore variant giving the nids a strong indirect fire option)
Toxathrope: (probably the bug above, and sounding like a minor variant of a malanthrope/zoanthrope based on its name, size, and appearance)
Trygon: (the big guy himself, but still no word of whether its in the codex, or Apocalypse only)

Call me Underwhelmed! We ( at least I) have yet to see the stats, but with the one pict above I'm not that impressed... Hodge podge of Ravener/Malenthrope/Lictor... and the oft rumored Tyrgon.

Word on the street is that the demo Nids will be in store the first week of Dec last week of Nov, and the they actually be up for sale "Jan 2nd" in the states. I don't know what will be in that wave or how the waves will be broken up...

3 price points have popped up though:
$18-22
$35
$49.50...
It's your guess as to what is priced as what.

All of the picts are assumed to come from either the euro dealer info packets or Euro WD that has not hit our shores yet.

Thanks to both Reds8en and Bols.

Other news
BA will be out next year after Nids, look for late spring launch period.

Alessio has stated as well as other sources that : don't expect the Dark eldar any earler than oct 2010 or march 2011... which fits with what I have been saying... nid/BA/___/de or ___/de or ___ with at least 1 of the blanks being marine or imperial , and one being most likely a rule book expansion.

So there is your year, throw in a small wave of IG ( tanks/artil/chemiera) and possably a wave of some Orks ( plastic buggies/ Dreads/plastic cans/plastic mega nobs) and Demons (New big guy and some smaller lessor stuff that was sighted yet again at UK GD) with a good chance for a Mega big Apoc release ( Warhound/Thawk/Tbolt).

PS
I finished up the crashed Valk and I'll post some picts in the next day or two...

Breaking Codex News....Blood Angels after nids , and that is only half the story!

2009-10-09T13:24:00.005-05:00

Bolter and Chain Sword have some "leaks" on the new Blood Angel codex due in March or April of next year.

Normally with how tight GW is now on ANY release that is a major coupe.
Word is that the Italian GD MAY have some stuff sneaking out. Word is Assault troops as... well Troops and the army is VERY Assaulty ( no offense, every one should have expected this like the flu and college football in the fall). Psy powers take a decidedly Vamperic/ Bloody undertone.
The Boxes should follow the mark set by the Space wolves. Major upgrade box to modify every thing , then a couple stand alones ( Baal Pred in all plastic? Death Co in plastic? Furiso Dread?) with new and re-released Hq's to boot.

So you would think I'm done.... nope not by a long shot.

Edited new info has come out! No angels of Death :(

The BA's are only one of 2 Marine codexes for next year. No word on the second Marine codex but there will be 4 or 5 new 40k projects for next year.

So #1 Nids
#2 BA's after that? One other Marine dex.... the other 2 projects are not known at this point, but a Xenos and some rule book expansion ( Planetstrike, Apoc, COD) would be good bets.

Sorry to jump to conclusions on the DA's

New/ Rereleased Stuff comming out late this year.

2009-10-08T09:39:00.003-05:00

The Imperial Sector

Imperial Sector Looks to be getting it's annual re launch This Xmas time.
If you have ever wanted a ton of really good terrain it is a can't miss. It's basically 10 of the various COD boxes. Usually it has a couple extra accessory sprews thrown in. I know some may think I'm crazy on the grand scheme of the things I build or some of the stuff Jason Cooks up, so if you are thinking of a Huge Base / Titan/ PDF gun , this would go a long way towards that goal and have a good bit of stuff left over....

Look for it in the $99-125 range(£48.95).

Second is new bit of kit.
Fortress of Redemption.....

The Fortress of Redemption is the very cool Prefab structure that was originally rumored to come out with the Planetstrike stuff. It is a decent sized multi story Fortress originally constructed by the Dark Angels.... The word going around is that the DA stuff on it will be dropped or toned down and the kit will be very limited run. Most stores will be lucky to get 1-2 and that's it, like the Imp Strong point. I think we got 3 and they sold out very quickly, and even though they were still/ are still listed on GW's web portal stores can't order them even Direct only.... Look for it to be in the same $99-125 area (£58.70)... order early and often... (thanks mutiple sources including Scryer and others at Warser and Dakka)

The next two are not really a shock but a bit surprising with the way Gw has been moving with less for more...
A New Space Marine Mega force and ORK Mega Force in the $175-200 price range(£97.85 each, now hearing the Orks will be at the $200 price point while the Marines are at $175). No clue on what either contain, but usually they are fairly decent and if you were thinking of starting either army both might be worth a look.

Lastly the Imperial Strongpoint...
They were a splash release when they came out in July , Good value for whats in the box. As I say get your order in early and often if you are thinking of building a big project or table and need some good "Cheaper" terrain , the buying in bulk is a good idea, cause you never know when you are going to need them and usually it's a 1 time a year or every other year when they come out. Same price as this summer $99.

NEXT YEAR
Nids confirmed as we already know

Possible changes to White dwarf Mag, with it either moving online or publishing being out sourced
This came from Bloomburg financial news on like Friday with a heads up to the 40k radio freebootas....

I'm hearing one of two scenarios for next years releases
either a whole lot of Marines with Nids ( which will see the BA,BT, DA all coming out) or Whole lot of Xenos with just the Blood Angels ( Nid, BA, Cron,Tau DE in 2k11 in that order)....
The latter seems to be the flavor for this month with Tau now in the mix for late next year , for a TAU-RIFFIC Holiday period!

I'm still saying next year will be WHFB VERY Heavy with a new Rule book. So only look for 2-3 codexs next year for 40k ( that's me but not what many others are expecting). Also look for a major Apoc push in late spring with a couple surprises...BIG Surprises (hint hint).

Space Hulk GW FAQ already!

2009-09-29T10:15:00.003-05:00

GW via it's Twitter update services (Voxcaster) has announced a Space Hulk FAQ already ( wow that was crazy fast). This is lightning fast for GW.

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m500247a_FAQ_SpaceHulk_2009.pdf

Nids in Brief & other GD UK rumors

2009-09-28T15:16:00.004-05:00

Nids confirmed for Jan 2010.
Codex
3 new plastic kits
3 new metal kits....Confirmed.
No word on What is plastic or what is metal. On any semi closed door sightings other than the cover which has been getting hammered in the forums.
The metal surprises me since just yesterday Jervis (GD UK 09 in seminar) said they are moving every thing to plastic.

Also The dex is said to rely on the Hord aspect of the army instead of the different Biomorphs that v 4th ed had. Read this as less options, lower cost, more Gaunts. Gaunts are said to be both Cheaper points and cost wise... I'm predicting and IG style 10 Gaunts for 22 which would be $$ more expensive. So Stock up while you can....hint hint...
Stealers are said to be elites now and can only be troops with by taking the Broodlord.

Codex cover from GW all rights and props to them...

Other news from GDUK...
All you xenos lovers .... can light up the torches and get the pitch forks out and start sharpening them up. GD all but confirmed BA Marines next year , as well as expect MORE Marines before more Xenos... No word on DE or cron... so BT,DA,WS,BR,IH and any other marine faction go do a dance....So MORE marines will show up next year with the BAs....
I'm going for next year:
Jan 2010
Nid
March/April BA
Fall BT/DA
IG tanks some where in the summer.
Jan 2011
Ork 3rd wave
Cron

Some where you will also have Demons wave 2 come out, every has seen the new Demon Prince and Slenessh demons... just on when and why it's taking so long.

I don't think the Tau will pop up due to the surprise new Tau suit at FW last week. The have said more will be coming, and that no Cron and DE cause GW said no... wait till new dexes are out.

As Nelson from the Simpsons says " Ha-Ha"
I say "Eat it DE and Necron players, if you want them out sooner get more people to buy them."

New Fw Stuff.... some demons and a NEW TAU Suit!

2009-09-24T10:09:00.007-05:00

The are some new Demons.... Basically just new versions of the Blood slaughterer and Defiler.. One Nurgel and a Khorn one with a Harpoon type weapon.. that basically pulls its targets to it.... ( Lash any one?)
For me and 71.9 % of the fellow 40k players the big news and surprise...... the Tau are getting a new Suit.... not just a Modified XV-8x series Crisis suit, but a new design from the ground up. I had been hearing that there would be a new Suit based on the XV-22 that Shadow Sun uses, but that was WAY off the mark...

First its name XV-9 "Hazard" series ( note the series meaning more than one)

The Tau are learning..... Adapting to their weak points.... Close Combat and durability.
Yes this suit is a better CC suit... and it will have people throwing fits since it runs in the typical squads of 3 but the whole squad has Retro rockets/thrusters.... Yes the suits can attack get in CC , then "Jump" out of CC for more shooting.. And Shoot it does...

The Base suit has 2 twin-linked burst cannons. There are more variants on the way and it can "fluff wise" pack more firepower or stronger firepower than the comparable XV-8x series. The rules are up... too

Defensive grenades, can dump drones if it gets in CC, Retro rockets, Multi Track, one other sensor from list, Acute Senses...

The suit is bigger then the Xv-8 and FW XV-8x's and reminds me a bit of the suit that the Tau commander wore in DoW1 mixed with a Mech Warrior mech named "Spyder".
I like it , but I can wait to see wait other weapon fits come out.

The big thing to me is the Rumors of Tau vs _____ for IA 9 look to be true. Ive heard few names thrown around : Ad Mech , Eldar, Cron and Nid... the Ad Mech have been on the short list for a while. The Eldar have creeped up with some new stuff coming out from FW( big Tanks like Super heavies)

here are the FW exp. rules
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/pdf/xv9.pdf

Thanks as always to FW... going where GW won't or can't... keep the drum beating

DoW 2 : Chaos Rising.... exp. pack

2009-09-22T14:26:00.004-05:00

Even thought the game looked visually stunning, it was no where near as well received as DOW1 and it's expansions... ( personally I thought it sucked... Once I beat it I have never played it again vs me playing DOW 1 and the expansion packs frequently, only ONE playable race in Single player? what a massive leap BACKWARDS!). Some how it sold enough to warrant an expansion.

DoW2 : Chaos Rising... any one want to bet what the game is about?
Apparently you can continue on from where you left off in the first game, and there are chaos tainted weapons that are very powerful but have consequences from their use.... DUH...
Squad cap was raised to a whopping 30 from the previous 20... so now you may be able play all your units , but no word on if they corrected the ass hat unit numbers... 3 man termie squad?

here is the link:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/09/dawn-of-war-ii-expansion-announced.ars