Anything But Ones

Product review: Citadel Devlan Mud Vs. Vallejo Wash Umber Shade

2012-02-16T23:26:00.001+08:00

The magic wash. The revolution. The lifesaver. The cheater. There are many names we hear them being called. When Games Workshop put their range of washes out it basically changed the way 28mm Games Workshop 'Hobbyists' life forever. Funny though as washes have been part of miniature painting since god knows when. I guess most GW fanboys/purist are indeed in their own bubble. And I must admit I fell into the aforementioned categories once upon a time.....

Enough of my rant and on to the juice of this article. Like I mentioned my painting and hobby has progressed a lot since my fanboy days and I have expended my hobby way beyond the offerings of GW. In fact, with the damning GW EMBARGO imposed since JUNE 2011, I have had no choice but to look at alternatives to my painting needs. Refusing to pay ridiculous local retail prices I not only moved away from GW supplies but away from anything GW unfortunately.

Here I have recently acquired a bottle of Vallejo Wash Umber shade. I have also bought the black shade and sepia shade to try out. But in this article I shall focus on Umber shade as it's the closest to our beloved GW Devlan Mud wash.

Here I have tested it on my Flames of War Soviet Tank riders. The one on the furthest right is GW Devlan Mud. And the other two on the left is Vallejo Umber Shade.

Here's a back view. Devlan Mud on the left. And Umber shade on the 2 miniatures to the right.

So what's my verdict? Devlan mud is slightly darker however the difference is minimal. I never use my washes straight out of the pot as it is always too thick and dark. I always add a small drop of water to thin it down a little, and I have done this on both washes in the examples I've shown here. Basically I feel that the Vallejo Washes behave very similarly to the GW ones. With the only exception that they dry REALLY MATT. It's like you sprayed your entire mini with a thick coat of dull coat. Nothing really wrong with this for me as washes are normally a first stage for my painting so there will definitely be more layers of paint going on them and the effect won't be noticeable when your miniature is completed. However is washing a miniature is the final step of painting (I know many who use washes as a final step) then maybe you need to take note of this.

Price is a no-brainer for these as vallejo paints are always so much cheaper than GW ones. So that's a plus point.

Overall I am happy with the results and can safely say that once my current pot of Devlan Mud runs out I will be switching over to Vallejo's washes for my painting needs.

Hobby: Dollar Store Train Tracks for Flames of War

2012-02-11T11:17:00.004+08:00

Train tracks are always a nice feature on gaming tables and with my current impetus towards FoW I have been very eager to have enough terrain to be able to play my own FoW games at home. This post is about how a visit to the dollar store, which happens to be called DAISO in Singapore. And each item actually costs $2 singapore dollars. I visit the store often to get my stationary supplies, small storage items and of course, terrain and modeling needs.

So while walking through the toy section I came across this nicely detailed train tracks, yes I know they are highly modern electric tracks. However I thought that with a little strategic modeling and a nice coat of paint I could pass it off as train tracks used in WW2. After all the main structure of the rails have remained the same. So I picked up a couple of packets ($6sgd worth) and brought it home to 'fix it'.

This is the pic of the packaging (for those who has a Daiso in their country or am looking for a reference to what I bought), I bought a cross section but decided not to use it. Maybe I'll revive it sometime later, for now its gonna be in cold storage.

Here are the tracks all laid out and ready for priming. I primed them black and got to work, I simply dry brushed the whole thing with GW Bestial Brown. And painted the metal tracks individually with GW Boltgun metal. I know its a tedious task, but it did help to achieve the professional look I wanted to get out of these cheap toys.

All nice and painted and ready for the next step. Flocking.

I used Woodlands Scenics Medium Green Static Grass and flocked the sides of the tracks.

Yay a simple task but adds a whole dimension of realism to it!

Next few shots will be them on the table with my Soviet army rumbling all over them.

All in all it took me about 3 hours and $6sgd for eight 8" straight sections and four 6" curved sections. More than enough to cover the entire length of a 6x4 table!

WIP: Black Orcs and Mangler Squig

2012-02-06T09:18:00.000+08:00

Spent a good weekend working on my Black Orcs and Mangler Squig. While the completed Black Orcs are only at Level 1, I am happy I got to this level for our March ABOE. The other 10 have also been constructed over the weekend.

To take the Warboss into consideration, I have built two Black Orcs purposefully for him. The Warboss is just too large to go next to a normal Orc. So now no matter where the Boss goes, they go too. Sort of his passe. It makes quite a lot of sense too.

And of course the Manglers. A very expensive model but I got them in the end. Spent quite a lot of effort on the skin. Still have a another layer of Blood Red I want to add for the highlights. It is WIP!

High Elf Army

2012-01-31T12:58:00.000+08:00

Just thought I would showcase my High Elf army. Always a work in progress but it's my first love. Still is but something Green has taken my time recently. Hope you like the pics!

Took the time to give the recently constructed models a prime of black in preparation for painting. I usually prime them black as it helps to create shading first. However, now that the GW Washes are so useful, this will change my painting method. Badab and Devlan - AWESOME PAINTS. The most important is the highhlight after.

WIP: Black Orcs

2012-01-30T11:35:00.000+08:00

Just got back into Singapore yesterday and painted like a whirlwind. Sure missed putting paint to minis!

Kept to the following formula:
Chainmail, Badab Black and Devlan Mud for all armour. Highlights in Mithril after I complete the 2500 points in preparation for the campaign in March 2012.

Used red as my accent colour. Started with Scab Red and then Badab Black. Seeking inspiration for the banner now

Paint pots rack DIY.

2012-01-28T14:56:00.006+08:00

This post is about my frustration with storing paints and space constraints. For so long I've placed my paints in all sorts of boxes, tool boxes, shoe boxes etc. And each time I want to sit down and enjoy my painting session, I have to go through all the various boxes looking for paints that I need. And more often than not, halfway through painting we find ourselves stumbling for an extra color and this would mean going through that entire process of fumbling through the paint box.

For a long time I've been envious of hobbyists who have nice and expensive paint racks, or those with nicely customed painting areas to keep all their hobby needs within reach. So I went online to search and see what other hobbyists did to improve their painting experience with all sorts of DIY paint storage methods.

Some notable methods include magnetic strips attached to walls with washers glued onto the back of paint pots, acrylic racks customizations and of course the one I improvised upon. Most of these included a significant cost, especially acrylic customs. Therefore I made a trip down to the local hardware store to see what I could use that was easy to get hold of, simple to work with, and most importantly cheap.

This is my painting space, with my paints all stored in an Ikea box. Like I mentioned each time I wanted to look for a paint I had to drag the box out, and rummage through them. On the left of my Ikea Expedit Shelf was an empty "wall space" that I wanted to fully utilize. Therefore I set that space to store my paints.

What materials was I going to use then? I settled upon PVC wire guide casings about 4cm wide, and to adhere these were industrial strength double sided tape. I paid $2.50 Singapore dollars for 10ft of tape. And $3 Singapore dollars for each 3ft PVC casings. That bring me to a grand total of $8.50 SGD. That's cheap if you ask me!

And I only needed the thicker half of the casing. This leaves me with 6ft of thin halves that I stored away to use in other terrain projects such as roads or whatever else I can think of later.

I then measured the length needed and clipped them with the trusty plastic clippers. And the next step is to measure accurately and mark out the positions on the "wall space" you want to adhere it to. Make sure the surfaces are cleaned and dust free. Also when marking out the space remember to do so at both ends to ensure the racks are as perfectly horizontal as possible. You don't want a slanted rack with paints sliding off!

After a repeated process of cutting and sticking. This is the final result. All in all took me less than half an hour to complete!

Here's a shot of the new paint rack complete with my paints for easy view and access!

Say bye bye to messy paint storage.

Hello space saving beautiful paint rack!

Hope this will help any one contemplating to enhance your painting experience. Go on, you know you have $8.50 SGD and half an hour. Right?

FoW Soviet Tankovy all painted up!

2012-01-23T02:48:00.002+08:00

In Singapore it's the Chinese New Year Festive period. That means a very long weekend of holidays and I sure ain't gonna let those precious free time go to waste! I set the deadline and kept to it. Now I have a fully painted Flames of War Soviet Tank Company to play with!

This army consist of 20 x T-34's, with the Plastic Soldier Company miniatures I am able to have the option of both 76 & 85mm turrets. Which is great. This should be a nice 1500pts army to mess around with. (*included in the pics are 2 x KV-1 tanks which were my test models)

One of the strangest (not sure if the term here is appropriate) but I have not yet played a single game of Flames of War yet. And here I stand with a fully painted army all ready to start. It is a great feeling I must say. Normally it's the other way around!

Well enough of my rambling please enjoy the pics of my tanks and hope you will appreciate the fruits of my labor!

alternative models for vampire armies

2012-01-20T17:24:00.002+08:00

chinese new year + new vampire fantasy army

WIP: Black Orcs

2012-01-18T08:38:00.001+08:00

Worked on these bad boys over the weekend. Still experimental and have gone away from the GW style of using streaks on Black Armour. Using Silvers instead to represent metal on them throwing in washes to create shade and rust.

6 or 7 wide is a possible format for these guys. I just love the models but I do have problem of ranking them up side by side as they spill over the bases

This BO was basecoated with Mithril Silver followed by 2 coats of Badab Black and 1 coat of Devlan Mud. First model off the painting line. His brother in arms at the back will be the next but has been painted differently

PSC 15mm Soviet T-34 tank build up and review

2012-01-17T10:13:00.003+08:00

Well the is the first proper post on our blog in regards to FoW. And I'm excited at the prospect of jumping into this great game!

Many of you into FoW would have head of the Plastic Soldier Company. This is a relatively new historical miniature company producing many great miniatures not only for 15mm but for 20mm and 28mm WW2 stuff as well.

Here I embark on the ambitious task of building the core of my Soviet Tank Company. 20 of the famous T-34 tanks. One of the main reasons why this company is so revered by the FoW community is mainly because of the fact that the are plastic (who doesn't love their plastic crack?). Are half the price compared to Battlefront miniatures. And sporting much sharper details and crisper sculpts.

They also come with 2 turrets for the tank. Essentially doubling the number of tanks for gameplay. I now have 40 options to play with.

I do not have a Battlefront mini to compare with but I have seen many in the flesh and I can say that the PSC offerings are definitely much more sharp in details.

Although I must add that building them up is an extremely tedious process due to the many many parts required to built each tank.

Factory production line.

All in all as many have said I would highly recommend this to anyone starting their Soviet tank force. You just can't go wrong with this.

Beginnings of my Flames of War Soviet Tankovy

2012-01-12T21:30:00.001+08:00

As according to hobby plans for 2012, I am starting the construction of my tankovy.

That's 32 vehicles to fix up! Here we go!!

Blood in the Badlands

2012-01-12T09:31:00.001+08:00

Got the above stuff for our upcoming campaign! Mighty Empires to track our army movements on the map. Each player will have to bring 3 tokens to represent their armies which will deploy and move during the Campaign Turn. Love the system GW came up with so I will be playing it with the Anything But Ones guys.

Got a Reaper Goblin Hoard too to represent objectives and treasure! Should be fun!

Beef's Hobby Resolution for 2012

2012-01-11T10:52:00.002+08:00

Looking back at 2011 I am quite happy at the amount I have achieved. However this was all fairly random and I think would have been better if I actually listed out what I want to achieve rather than leave it to fate (in most cases it's really just a thing called "time" sadly).

2011 although a turning tide of events for my life saw alot of things getting done. I got married. I moved into my new home (with my own hobby space yay!) And of course the highlight has to be the coming of my first baby. Not to forget the standard thing called work. However I managed to start on my Nuln Empire Army (which I shall complete as part of this years resolution). Started a Grey Knights army (who didn't anyway hah!). Started a massive Dark Eldar Army (once again irresistible models). Almost finish my Mechanized Imperial Guard. And finally taking the plunge into Flames of War. I must add that all the above mentioned armies that I have started are all fully assembled and at least 50% worked on. So no "theory" armies there. Everything is in the flesh.

Enough about the past. Let's see what I shall try to promise myself for hobby year 2012.

1. Paint up my Flames of War army and play some games.
2. Finish up my Nuln Empire Army. ( 40% left unpainted)
3. Finish up the very little 20% of Mechanized Imperial Guard Models. (Damn bulk of guardsmen!)
4. Finish up my Grey Knights Army. (60% left unpainted)
5. Paint up as much Dark Eldar as possible. (This is gonna be hard as I bought every model in the range with many multiples for gaming purposes as well gulp!)
6. Start work on an Ultramarines army.
7. Join at least one painting competition.
8. Greatly limit Hobby spending. I really have more than enough (really haha?) models to paint till I'm 65yrs old. But I should try to limit the amount I'm about to spend (with the baby it's gonna make it more necessary!) and concentrate on what I already have in hand rather than trying to make my hobby room look like a premium Games-Workshop Stockist.

Playing more games has always been a problem for me. Firstly I am not much of a gamer to begin with, and commitments to life always get in the way. With a baby on my hands its gonna only make things even harder. But I'll try to dedicate more time to gaming.

Here's to me achieving my targets for 2012! And hopefully all of you out there will have a fruitful hobby year as well! Back to the brushes!!

P.S would be nice to hear the hobby resolutions from the rest of you guys as well!

Road to Badlands - Rock Lobba

2012-01-10T09:58:00.000+08:00

Completed my Rock Lobba yesterday after spending quite a lot of time working on the wood grains and skin for the crew. I have to say, this is probably my favourite completed model at the moment. The amount of detail and realism injected into it through the painting. LOVE IT!

Old One Eye and her crew of gnarly Goblins.

Old One Eye and her Taskmaster, the REAL Ol' One Eye.

New Stuff: Vampire Counts

2012-01-09T11:01:00.000+08:00

Was at the store yesterday to pick up my White Dwarf and then I stumble on the new shiny stuff! I love GW products. Just wish it was cheaper. I had always toyed with the idea of a VC army but time and money kept me at bay. Sick miniatures!

Hot flying bats!

Completed Balthasar Gelt

2012-01-06T22:48:00.001+08:00

Well I'm determined to paint as much miniatures as I can this year and rolling off the painting table is my first completed miniature for 2012. Mr Balthasar Gelt himself.

He will be commanding my Nuln army in our groups upcoming campaign and he can't wait to cast nasty tricks into all those metal and lead weapons!!!

WIP: Mangler Squigs

2012-01-05T09:36:00.002+08:00

Just finished construction of a very precarious model. It's my first Finecast model and I was pleasantly surprised at it's quality. There were some mould lines but I can see thought went into making sure those lines were pointing away from the top or visible areas.

This model is large and quite tall. As you can see above, the models towers over the Night Goblin on the base and paints in the background. Finecast allows this model to stay on top of each other without falling over so thumbs up GW. Only wish it was cheaper though. Almost 1 GBP per point. Yikes!

Other than that, this model is awesome. Lots of details and if you look carefully, each of the Night Goblin were actually glued in place. So were the chains. I am worried about transporting this miniature.

However, it is one really dynamic piece and I do love the model. Looking forward to painting it soon!

2500pts Empire Gunline all ready for painting.

2012-01-03T22:30:00.001+08:00

Here's my Gunline for our groups upcoming fantasy campaign starting in March 2012. Watch this space as I finish painting the remaining before march!!!

Models left to paint. 30 handgunners. 2 mortars. 1 cannon. 1 Helstrom battery. 1 helblaster. 1 steam tank. 2 engineers. And Balthasar gelt.

Hong Kong Ares Campaign Day - Gaming Tables Showcase

2011-12-22T14:08:00.006+08:00

A few pictures showcasing the awesome terrain we got in the HK warhammer store. I'm grateful for all the contributors we have in our community. You don't always find a gaming crowd who is willing to put effort in giving back to the community.

Dark Angels Pre-heresy Forgeworld Conversion wip 3

2011-12-19T14:18:00.002+08:00

My pre-heresy dark angels project has been an on going one. At the moment I have around 55 or so converted models. No 2 models are the same, the conversions are from forgeworld, max-mini, dark angels veterans box set, death co. box set, space wolves box set and grey knights box sets. No 2 models are the same as I like to go overboard on the conversions. The unit break down are as follows:

x3 ten men tactical squads
x2 five men assault squads with magnetized backpacks
x10 veterans
x1 honor guard squad
x1 librarian
x1 chapter master/hero/boss man model (havn't decided)

Will be showing vehicles next!

4000pts apocalypse game - blood angels vs. orks

2011-12-19T12:39:00.005+08:00

Sunday afternoon was full of orky madness. I will confess, this is only my 2nd time ever playing orks and boy are they fun to watch and kill. Ben Dal who is a regular at the HK warhammer store was nice enough to write a short narrative of the battle. I tried taking pictures so that enrgie would stop giving me grief but halfway, the battle got too intense and I forgot about it completely. hahahaha Here goes...

"Jason, Ralph and I put the forgeworld terrain to the narrative test today with an impromptu 4000pt Apocalypse game today. The Blood Angels had to defend the gates against the hordes of ravenous Orks which included a Stompa.

There were 3 buildings across the field, one of which contained access codes to open the gate, or the Orks could attempt to blow up the Land Raider thick doors.

Initially the Orks met little resistance, driving towards their objective in glee, but the sky soon darkened as over 40 marines descended from above not only claiming a bloody tally and much of the Orks heavy armour but even damaging the Stompa thanks to the efforts of Dante and his bodyguard.
However the Orks proved to be an overwhelming force and carved a gaping hole from the gates with their power klaws. Seeing the dangers Dante recalled his flying forces and took his injured brothers away through a secret entrance and remarshaled his army within the halls of the stronghold for the final stand.
Sensing victory the Orks rushed towards the doors but found it too narrow for their vehicles; only the Dreds and bikes could squeeze through with the mob close behind.
The blood letting within the halls was fast paced and unforgiving, the opening shot from the Ork dread felling Venerable-brother Asrael almost straight away.
But the Orks had expended their energy outside and were much reduced even before the close quarters fighting. When they charged into the line of waiting Deathwatch, the base was well within the hands of the Blood Angels." -Ben Dalgleish

Road to Badlands - Gobbit Lipsmacka

2011-12-19T11:21:00.001+08:00

Had some time to touch up on my Night Goblin Shaman who I dub Gobbit Lipsmacka. Took two pictures as the light source was a little from one direction.

Gobbit Lipsmacka is twin to Snikit Hamstringer. Both were birth in the dark caves on the slopes of Dragonback mountains. Gobbit often spoke of a loud booming "voice" which just confused little old Snikit. Listening to these voices, Gobbit could "interpret" these signs and often shared it with Snikit. It was these voices that kept them alive through the nefarious caves of Night Goblinhood. Fear was a common emotion and one they both sought to conquer by the only way they knew how - to take over the Olde World.

On one stinky day when the squigs were sporing, Gobbit received a vision while observing the stools of a Giant Cave Squig. It spoke of a brutish Orc simply called Zugribar. He was held by hummies in a camp just beyond the Badlands. Gobbit and Snikit put a plan around rescuing this matador of Orcs. This Orc would give them the victory they so need to take over the Olde World.

Where the blood angels at?

2011-12-16T01:33:00.001+08:00

My spring cleaning adventures takes me to my first 40k army. The Blood Angels.

Notice all the older edition tanks. Small and lovely!

j-hova's 1700 pts DOA blood angels list

2011-12-16T00:26:00.005+08:00

Here's a fun list I made for a recent campaign day. I've had my blood angels army for a year not but I haven't used them much so I'm still figuring out their strengths/play style. Here goes...

Everything will be in reserves, The idea is to drop pod the death co + chaplain. in first with locator beacons to bust vehicles and to tie up/screw up the enemy's plans.

The libby dreadnought will also drop pod with locator beacon and shoot with Blood Lance. Ass squad 1 will have a sanguinary priest attached, Ass squad 2 will have librarian attached. Both these squads will make use of the librarian dreadnought's drop pod locator beacon for safe arrival and surround the dreadnought from incoming charges. Wings of Sanguinious can help the dreadnought keep pace with these ass squads.

The x5 man razorback squad will come in on reserves taking pot shots with TL lascan and provide support where needed. Having a fast vehicle razor back will be key to getting reinforcements rapidly.

Finally, the vanguard veterans will heroic intervene as the final wave of DOA, they're meant to finish things off or they can be used to take down some odd positioned devastator type unit hiding in a corner or something but I usually use it as a mini deathstar. x3 Stormshields for extra protection if shit hits the fan.

Librarian Dreadnought
-Blood Lance
-Wings of Sanguinious
Drop Pod
T-210

Assault Squad-10
Thunderhammer
Meltagun-2
T-240

Assault Squad-10
Powerfist
Meltagun-2
T-235

Death Co.-4
Drop pod
T-115
Chaplain
Powerfist
T-115

Assault Squad-5
Powerfist
Meltagun-1
Las-cannon Razorback
T-165

Librarian
Jump Pack
-Unleash Rage
-Shield of Sanguinious
T-125

Vanguard Veterans- 7
Power Weapons- 2 + (1 free on srg.)
Jump Packs-7
Stormshield-5
Powerfist
T-420

Sanguinary Priest
Jump Pack
T-75

Storage and WIP

2011-12-15T10:45:00.000+08:00

This is a smart take on a Fantasy terrain piece. The guys over at Battle Bunker converted it for their 40k tables. Smart.

This is how I am storing my minis at the moment - IKEA storage. The height works for tall miniatures with raised weapons and banners. I will be using it to transport my bigger creatures too like the Arachnarok which is plastic. You can see that it stores the minis in their movement trays but they need to be magnetised to prevent them from moving about. Metal models really do need a proper foam casing to keep them in place and not destroy each other. I am working together with Jay to create custom foam for Orcs and Goblins.

Popped out the older mob of Orc Boyz and rebased them. Used Dark Flesh for the rims and washed the banner with Badab Black to give it more definition. The more I use the GW washes the more I am convinced this is the way forward. I spent so many hours in the past trying to create gradients using my paints. Using the GW washes, I created shades and highlights in one sweep. Unbelievable.

My focus for this week is to get this Rock Lobber to gaming quality. Base coats are done on most of them. I just have to highlight the crew and then work a little more on the Rock Lobber. Highlight then washed then highlight it again. Will post once it is completed.

Road to Badlands - The Warlord

2011-12-14T16:20:00.002+08:00

The one thing missing from the list I made was a warlord on foot. Before I made my order from my LGS I looked at the GW website but realised that it was all rather "normal". Thought about using my Orc Warlord that Sam made for me by putting him back on foot at first - the picture is rather outdated though as I have painted him to completion.

So I went about digging my "New Miniatures" box in my store room. Guess who I found? It's Grumlok and Gazbag! Only the nastiest and most souped up Orc!

While I do not plan to use him as Grumlok in the campaign, I will be using this miniature to represent my original Orc Warlord Zugribar and his retainer, Snikit.

Having crossed into the Badlands to run away from his human captors, Zugribar has finally amassed a large enough army to call himself a Warlord. Zugribar plans to use this opportunity to kill as many hummies for revenge! Once he gathers enough Orcs and Goblins flocking to his banner, he he will march out to attack the hummies who took him captive and tortured him.

I have also opened up a new section called the Road to Badlands and will capture any articles put up by you guys for this campaign. Awesome way to see your army develop with a story!

Hong Kong Ares Campaign Day - Blood Angels DOA List

2011-12-14T11:09:00.002+08:00

HQ
Librarian

Jump Pack

-unleash rage

-Shield of Sanguinious
T-125

Elites
Librarian Dreadnought

Drop Pod

Locator Beacon

T-220

Chaplain

Powerfist

T-115

Sanguinary Priest
Jump Pack
T-75

Troops
Assault Squad-10
Thunderhammer
Meltagun-2
T-240

Assault Squad-5
Powerfist
Meltagun-2

Las-cannon Razorback
T-165

Assault Squad-10
Powerfist
Meltagun-2
T-235

Death Co.-4

Drop pod

Locator Beacon

T-125

Fast

Vanguard Veterans- 7

Power Weapons- 2 + (1 free on srg.)

Jump Packs-7

Stormshield-5

Powerfist

T-380

Grand Total: 1700

Mordhiem warbands nostalgia

2011-12-13T18:41:00.001+08:00

I am currently embarking on my annual miniature spring cleaning and dust removal of cabinets. Year after year these guys never cease to remind me of the crazy fun times I had when we were playing it!

Here are my orcs and middenheimers.

Road to Badlands - The Gathering

2011-12-12T09:05:00.001+08:00

After giving a good round of encouragement to Ethan regarding building his army and participating in our home campaign Blood in the Badlands, I decided to round up my miniatures for a group shot and overview of how much I have to do in order to be ready for the campaign.

First off, the list. Took about an hour to write what I considered a balanced list with new and old units thrown in for fun.

Secondly, I then cracked open the boxes of minis to regroup the minis. The above are the minis which are complete. There are some work to be done on them as you will see down the list.

37 Night Goblins all marching to war. The 3 Fanatics at the back obviously need to be painted. There are 3 more Night Goblins which needs to be painted at the back. The rims of the NG need to be painted.

Looks like this is the only leader I have ready painted. Although all ready, need to re-base him.

Rock Lobba ready to fire sir! I painted it halfway in HK then left HK so I have to work on this one. Do you guys suggest I base the war-machine or not?

I did some work on these guys awhile back but was heavily guided by one of the best painters in HK. I don't intend to repaint them first as I still have so much more to paint first before I move onto the painted units. Mobs can come from different tribes so I can leave them this way until I get more time.

My list has more of these guys but at the moment, you will only spot 20 of the Black Orcs built. All ready for paint.

Another mob of Boyz. My idea behind this army is to depend and take advantage of the improved Choppa rule. Looking forward to redo their bases.

Finally of course, here are the new minis which I have yet to build. I am so glad I stocked up on these minis when I ordered in the past from Maelstrom before the GW embargo. Will be building them up soon so I can play with them. Still have another Mangler Squig coming in the mail.

Guys, do post your WIP's here!

Blood in the Badlands

2011-12-06T10:30:00.001+08:00

I have been spending some quality with my most recent book, Blood in the Badlands. Got it surprisingly quick from my local "source" at a more reasonable price.

On to the book, it has an awesome quality feel to it. If you have one of the existing Army Books like Tomb Kings or Orcs and Goblins, you will know what I mean. Strong hardback and good bindings. If this is the way GW is headed, I am happy.

Flipping the first few pages, you will see unique rules for the campaign including Post Battle effects. Basically the more games you play, the better your army becomes. But on the flip side, there is also a chance you will lose your General and the heroes! LOL!

The theme really is about getting together with a group of friends and then using the scenarios inside to create a chain of battles which make sense. They took a whole year to complete the campaign but there were realistically only a few battles.

They used two Mighty Empires pack and the map based campaign is cool. I have always wanted to do this with the group but it's a question of commitment.

Glorious battles from the GW crew. It's nice to see non-studio painted figs being used too as they are real players.

So you get synopsis of the games they have. And of course at the end of each season, they had a mega game with multiplayer scenarios.

At the end of it, is this a worthwhile purchase at GBP20? Well, depends on how you look at it but I choose to see it as a bumper White Dwarf with cool rules, miniatures and big battle report. Thumbs up GW

Anyone keen to do a campaign? We can tie it into our Quarterly Event!

Painting Session

2011-12-05T09:22:00.001+08:00

Two of the guys came over to my place recently to paint some models. Youcai passed me quite a number of miniatures that I ordered recently so I invited Melvin and Sam over (Sam didn't turn up though...).

My target for the day was to churn out as many Orcs as possible within the shortest amount of time. Armed with my able assistant, my girlfriend, I started pushing out models.

YC and Melvin working on their models.

Working on my models 5 at a time, I am going for a very simple bulk army method. Goblin Green for skin, Graveyard Earth for cloth and wood. Wash everything in Badab Black and Devlan Mud and I am done! Drybrush base with Bleached Bone and rim the base with Dark Flesh. This is really the base model - implying that I can always go back and streak in highlights to improve their look. However, since these are Mantic models, I am not too inclined. LOL!

60 models in a box and you can see why I am going for the super fast method

Melvin using the wet palette technique keeping his paints wet

A nice rainbow to a beautiful day.

Various stages of the models. Base colours without washes on just yet are better on camera

More base colours

Once they are washed, it becomes quite muted.

So I took a photo with flash!

And another which I hope is a better picture.

Painting sessions are awesome to get a ton done in a short time while making it a social activity. I am sure the other 2 guys would agree.

Dark Eldar WIP Warriors

2011-12-04T13:33:00.001+08:00

It's been intense hard work getting all the layers of highlight on but here they stand completed in the armor department.

Now left with some details and weapon painting and their ready!

Next in line. 20 wyches.

Catch up hobby

2011-11-28T06:12:00.001+08:00

As the age old story goes, we all don't have enough time for our hobby. And the typical excuse would be life itself.

For me it has been one mad hectic year. Settled my wedding, moved into my own home, pursued my history honors and most recently came to terms with reality of being a father with the birth of my son a week ago.

Well with the school holidays finally upon me. And all the hustle and bustle of life generally settling down nicely. I took this free period to catch up with my life long passion.

Out came the airbrush from storage. And I blasted away at 3 armies that are WIP at the moment for me (ain't everything WIP honestly, heh).

I must compliment the Vallejo air paint series. The ease of simply squeezing paint directly from the bottle into the airbrush feed is godsend. No more tedious mixing of colors with thinner. No more inconsistency and time wasting. Gonna stock up on more colors very soon.

Now let's see how much dark Eldar I can paint before Xmas.

WIP: Mantic Orcs - Bases

2011-11-24T10:59:00.001+08:00

Have just completed basing my Mantic Orcs up with sand. I mixed in some rougher gravel into my regular sand. This provided two things - makes my mini heavier (I like the metal feel-I'm old school) and creates thicker texture!

This is what they look like at Stage 2 of the painting process. Going to get into bulk painting them in about 2 weeks from now. Targetting to finish the base coats up.

You can spot some shiny silver gravel. That's the harsher gravel I have added into my sand mixture to provide texture.

The final basing technique will be finished with snow as my Orcs come from the highlands. Booldugz!

which is the most popular gw fantasy army???

2011-11-24T10:13:00.002+08:00

I'm trying to get an idea of whats the most popular fantasy army for warhammer. I've gotten many requests for a fantasy line to be created but I have very limited insight on the fantasy side. I notice the use of movement trays and I've seen some people magnetize their models to their movement trays. Ideally, should the models be stored that way or would it be best for them to have their own individual cells in the foam trays? Please let me know your thoughts.

News: Mangler Squigs

2011-11-23T13:38:00.001+08:00

More news for you guys. For an Orc and Goblin player like me, I am looking forward to the next release! Mangler squigs!

I have always loved the squig models and this is no different!

News: Beastmen Photos

2011-11-22T11:34:00.001+08:00

GW is finally making those Beastmen models. Looks like a dual kit to me. Be your own judge

blood angels army carrying case

2011-11-22T00:05:00.004+08:00

Its been a while since I've blogged about warhammer 40k. A recent game I played with pure grey knights against Ethrion's marine gt list got me rejuvenated into the hobby after a brief hiatus. I've been working on heavily touching up my blood angels army. I dunno, grey knights were disgustingly point and click which inspired me to play again. The only thing stopping me from experimenting with my blood angels army was the fact that I had nothing to safely transport my storm ravens to the store. With this set up, problems are solved...

www.evgnhobbies.com now open!!!

2011-11-21T22:46:00.003+08:00

New webstore finally up and running! New products are being updated weekly. Head on over to www.evgnhobbies.com to show your support!!!

We specialize in army carrying cases as well as table-top miniature modeling supplies.

We will soon be carrying resin conversion parts as well.

Christmas in November!!!

2011-11-19T21:12:00.001+08:00

Santa Claws + plastic crack = win

*No basketballs were harmed in this picture

$800+ worth of plastics sure are heavy... or maybe its just my puny weak arms lol...

Contents if anyone is curious:

Imperial Guard Valkrie 2
Space Marine Whirlwind 2
Savage Orcs 4
Orc Shaman 1
Ogre Kingdom Battalion 1
Ogre Ironblaster 1
Dwarf Warriors box set 1
GW Lord of the Rings: Dwarf Rangers box-set 1
Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors 1
Tomb Kings Necropolis Knights 1
Eternity Stair & Dreadfire Portal 1

Come collect your stuffs!

60 Orcs Horde - Mantic Style

2011-11-18T09:32:00.001+08:00

Just completed the Orc models I received from Maelstrom Games. Was planning to do 30 at first then realised that once I have started moving quick on them, I could go on to finish the rest.

So this is what the first 30 looked like. All ranked up with Full Command. This is regiment is from the Booldugz Tribe!

Arooooooooh! A full 60 horde completed and ready for war!

I just had to snap another picture.

In case you are wondering how they look like up close, I have to say they actually impressed me quite a bit. Although thinner than their GW counterparts, these Orcs make great troops to bulk out the mainstay of the Orc horde. Being less cost prohibitive too, you can actually have them fill up your core and then have the GW models play the Big Un's.

My plan is to base them up using sand on their bases. To magnetize them, I will be using sheet magnets as the bases have no holes like the GW models.

I will be using the wash technique on them to finish them fast. The brilliance of cheap models is that I am under no pressure to make them super nice, just tabletop quality.

2011-11-03T15:30:00.001+08:00

Just got my shipment of stuff from Maelstrom Games. Came in the brown box which was slightly crushed. Boo.

Dug right in and brought the models out. 30 for each box. All checked!

Standard sprue looks like this. Multiples of this will create the bulk of my regiment. Hopefully they won't be static.

This is the extra command sprue.

Finally bases to cap them off.

I will build them over the next weeks and will update you guys! Certainly a cheaper alternative compared to the GW prices today.

Bastions!

2011-10-22T02:14:00.005+08:00

Haven't painted much in a while, but I felt the sudden urge to do some of my Menoth. So I present to you my completed Bastions, pardon the poor camerawork :P

Thanks!

Necrons - Retailer Issues

2011-10-18T11:24:00.002+08:00

Internet is full of rage about the recent leaks of Necron images as Wayland Games seem to have an advantage over other retailers including online and brick and mortar stores. As a gamer, I am more interested to find out who I can get it from earliest so kudos to Wayland Games for keeping the eye on the ball.

Enjoy the pictures.

For those who stuck on, here are some juicy Codex details:

From BOLS/DAKKADAKKA

OVERALL ARMY ORGANIZATION

HQ

• Imotekh the Stormlord (Lord of the Sau): The most powerful Necron Overlord currently. A master strategist whose nemesis is the Orks (since their random nature is the only thing that can accidentally disrupt his flawless plans).

• Nemesor Zahndrekh: Overlord damaged in the great sleep who still thinks he is flesh and blood fighting the war of secession against his brother Necrontyr. Therefore, he is one of the few Necron Lords who still fights with honor and valor towards his enemies. Has a bodyguard named Vargard Obryron.

• Illuminor Szeras: The Necrontyr who took the C'Tan's knowledge to do bio-transfer and actually made it a reality...so he's the chief architect within the Necrons for actually making the bio-transference happen. He is a master of technology and can augment D3 units in the army with an augmentation.

• Orikan the Diviner: A master astromancer (a Cryptek specializing in tech that can predict the future), he is renown for knowing what will happen and when. During the game he is able to achieve a 'powered up' state that gives him a greatly increases statline, but this boost can randomly end on any turn dropping him back down to his regular stats.

• Anrakyr the Traveller: A Necron Lord whose goal is to unite the Necron Empires again. He travels to Tomb Worlds still sleeping and kills the 'lesser' inhabitants that may live there unaware they are on a Tomb World, the 'price' for this service is to claim a tithe from the newly awakened legions. Some Necrons see him as a golden crusader others don't want reunification and would rather see him dead.

• Trazyn the Infinite: He is a Necron who woke very early and is fascinated with studying and collecting history. His tomb world is filled with secret trinkets including (I quote) 'a giant of a man clad in baroque power armor' (start your wild theories here!). He even will attack other Necron tomb worlds to capture artifacts from them that he doesn't think they deserve. He is the character that has the CC ability to pick one type of model he killed that round and inflict wounds on all models of that type in the combat.

• Necron Overlord: Generic DIY Necron Overlord (guy who rules a Tomb World) with plenty of options. Can ride on a Catacomb Command Barge (which is a one man transport) as can all the named 'Lords' above, but not those that are Crypteks in their fluff (Illuminor Szeras & Orikan the Diviner). Also can be a Destroyer Lord instead.

• Royal Court: 0-5 regular Necron Lords (lieutenants to the Overlords) as well as 0-5 Crypteks. Crypteks are masters of Necron technology, whose abilities sometimes appear like sorcery to other races, but they do not have any psychic powers...all their abilities do not require a psychic test or anything like that (nor are they ever referred to as psychic powers in any way). Any member of the Court (Lord or Cryptek) can be split off at the start of the game to lead a unit of Warriors, Immortals, Lychguard or Deathmarks (but only one per unit). Neither Lords nor Crypteks are ICs.

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

• Night Scythe: A variant of the Doom Scythe fighter that is a 15 model flyer transport with the 'supersonic' 36" flat-out move that the new flyers (that are really skimmers) have. Can carry jump infantry models (taking up 2 spots each) and fire all its weapons even when moving at cruising speed. Has living metal (chance to ignore crew shaken & stunned) but not quantum shielding (which gives +2 armor until the vehicle suffers its first glancing or penetrating hit). AV 11/11/11 like most Necron vehicles (not open-topped though).

• Ghost Ark: 10 model transport, Open-topped AV11 with quantum shielding and living metal. Also is able to regenerate D3 models to one unit within 6" each Necron movement phase (but cannot take the unit above its starting size).

• Catacomb Command Barge: One-man vehicle for most ICs. Open-topped AV11 with quantum shielding & living metal. Can make sweep attacks over 3 enemy units it passes over when it moves. Also the character can lose wounds to negate immobilized or weapon destroyed results.

ELITES

• Deathmarks: 24" range rapid-fire AP 5 sniper unit that can choose to Deep Strike in immediately after any enemy unit arrives from Reserves (which just allows the enemy to fire at them first?)...teleporting in from a pocket dimension to target their prey. They can also mark a single unit as their 'target' which allows them to roll to wound on a 2+. Beautiful models from the pics leaked, but at the point cost listed I can't see them ever being used except to see those great models on the table. Can be transported on a Night Scythe.

• Lychguard: Traditionally these have been the bodyguards for the Overlords. Come standard with Warscythes (+2 Strength Power weapon) and can replace them with Hyperphase swords (power weapon) and Dispersion Shields (the thing that gives them a 4+ invuln and reflects enemy shooting). I made a mistake before. The Shields don't only reflect enemy shooting within 6", they reflect all enemy shooting, but only against enemy units who are within 6" of them (they reflect saved wounds, they don't affect blast/templates, for example). Can be transported on a Night Scythe.

• Triarch Ptaetorians: These used to be effectively the 'police' (my term) of the main Necron ruler (the last of which was the Silent King) to help enforce his will onto the Lords of the Empire. They are known to respect great warriors and honor valor and have sometimes ordered Necron Overlords to stop attacking a foe they deemed worthy of respect (much to the Lord's chagrin). They are Jump Infantry with a 6" AP2 S5 weapon. They can swap that out for Void Blades (a weapon with Rending and the same Entriopic ability that Scarabs have) and Particle Casters (a pistol weapon). No transport option.

• C'Tan Shard: Must take 2 of the 11 listed ability choices that basically shape what kind of C'Tan shard you're fielding. No ability can be taken more than once in the army (even if you take 3 C'Tan shards in the army). The statline is slightly less impressive than previous incarnations of the C'Tan, but still pretty decent. Also has Eternal Warrior and ignores all terrain penalties. Still explodes D6" when they die. Fluff-wise, these are shards effectively controlled by the Necron (even though they have most shards locked away in pocket dimensions). Each shard represents only a portion of the power and consciousness of the C'Tan and therefore in battle the C'Tan may not even think to utilize some of its power because the portion of it that knows it has 'X' power simply isn't there. This is essentially what explains why they only have access to 2 special abilities in battle.

• Flayed Ones: 3 Attacks base (and no additional CC weapons). Can infiltrate or Deep Strike. No transport options.

• Triarch Stalker: Concept Sketch shows a Triarch Praetorian sitting in an open-topped cockpit that is riding on a Necron-style giant almost scorpion walker set of legs. Very cool looking IMHO. Has a variable heat ray (which can be upgraded to a couple of other weapons) that can either be fired as a template or as an Assault 2 S8 24" Heavy2 Melta weapon. Has a Targeting relay which means that any enemy unit hit by the Stalker gets a counter placed by it that allows all other Necron units shooting at the same unit that phase to count as being twin-linked. AV11 & open-topped, but does have Quantum shielding & Living Metal.

TROOPS

• Warriors: You know them, you love them. Described as being basically automatons, with very little (if any) sentience. These were the non-warrior Necontyr before the bio-conversion. See my previous rumors (in the OP) for details on their points cost, etc. Can be transported on a Ghost Ark or Night Scythe.

• Immortals: Immortals are said to have the ability to at least speak, but still aren't too much brighter than Warriors. These were Elite warriors of the Necrontyr before the conversion (not sure who the rank and file troops were if the Warriors were the non-combatants and the Immortals were the Elite soldiers?). Can exchange their Gauss Blasters for Tesla Carbines (24" S5 Assault1, extra hit inflicted on a 'to hit' roll of '6') Can be transported on a Night Scythe.

FAST ATTACK

• Canoptek Wraiths: Protectors of the Tombs while the hosts slumber. Jump Infantry who ignore terrain. 3A base with Rending. All models can take one of a few different upgrades including a Whip Coil (nearly identical to a Tyranid Lash Whip), particle caster (pistol) or a Exile Beamer (12" range that kills a random model in the target unit unless it passes a Strength test).

• Canoptek Scarabs: See the rumors copied in the OP for more details on what Scarbs do now.

• Tomb Blades: Jet Bikes. From the artwork, these look like Necron warriors fused into a flying crescent throne carrying a weapon harness in their arms that is base twin-linked Tesla Carbines. The fluff says that they are pre-programmed with a bunch of different flight patterns and vectors that the onboard Warrior chooses from on the fly. this mitigates the fact that a Warrior has poor coordination, but since the programs are so advanced, in reality they act basically like any other similar unit in an enemy army despite the fact that their 'pilots' are much slower to react. They can upgrade their weapons to a couple different choices (twin-linked Gauss Blaster or Particle Beamer). The entire unit can take any of the 3 options: Nebuloscope (increases BS to 5), Shield Vanes (increased armor save to 3+) & Shadowloom (Stealth).

• Destroyers: New fluff that says Destroyers are infected with some kind of degenerative virus that causes their sole purpose in life to be to kill their enemies. As such they hate everyone and have the Preferred Enemy special rule against everyone (as do Destroyer Lords). They are Jump Infantry now. Any model in the unit can upgrade to a Heavy Destroyer.

HEAVY SUPPORT

• Doomsday Ark: Variant of the Ghost Ark transport: Open-topped, AV11, Quantum Shielding, Living Metal. Something I forogot to say about the Ghost Ark...each Guass Flayer array (5 Flayers) on each side is allowed to fire at a different enemy target (and different from the Doomsday Cannon). Not entirely clear whether a weapon destroyed takes out a whole array or not, but I'm leaning towards yes. The Doomsday cannon has two profiles, one for if the vehicle did or didn't move that turn (with the non-moving one being 72" range S9 AP1 Large Blast). The moving profile only has a 24" range and a S7 blast. Basically described as gunboat whose strategy is to hit first and destroy the enemy before they can fire back.

• Annihilation Barge: Described as anti-infantry support platforms. Variant of the Catacomb Command Barge: Open-topped, AV11, Quantum Shielding, Living Metal. Has a twin-linked Tesla Destructor & a Tesla Cannon, but can upgrade the cannon to a Gauss Cannon. Not exactly sure why you'd want to do that except for the extra range (36" for the Gauss Cannon as opposed to all Tesla weapons which are 24" range).

• Monolith: 35 Point reduction along with corresponding nerf in invulnerability (were you not expecting that?). Still AV 14 and still has Living Metal (although again that only helps remove Crew Stunned/Shaken now). Can still Deep Strike but no longer has invulnerability from Mishaps. Has 4 Gauss Flux Arcs (which are now just Heavy 3 instead of randomly rolled). Particle whip is now just a straight up S8 AP3 24" large blast. The portal can be used to either transport any non-vehicle friendly Necron unit through it or to suck enemy models within 6" to instant death who fail a Strength Test. No bonus to reanimation protocols (the replacement for WBB) is present. Although, at the end of the day, this is still an AV14 vehicle all around, which is pretty imposing in the current game. Unfortunately all of its weapons are really close range, which means it will also now tend to be in Melta range...

• Doom Scythe: Pure fighter variant of the Night Scythe. AV11 with Living Metal (but no Quantum Shielding or open-topped). Is supersonic (36" flat-out) and can fire all its weapons when moving at cruising speed. Has a twin-linked tesla Destructor & a Death Ray, which allows a 3D6" line to be drawn (with one end of the line being within 12" of the vehicle) and causes a number of hits on every unit crossed by the line equal to the number of MODELS in the unit hit. Oh and did I mention that these hits are S10 AP1? Nasty indeed! But at nearly 200 pts for an AV11 vehicle, to get within 12" to unleash this beast will probably be a bit rough.

• Tomb Spyders: The artwork makes them look much more flying and nimble, like giant Scarabs. Can now repair vehicles like a Techmarine, Big Mek, etc. Can take an anti-psychic defense against any power targeting a friendly unit within 3" (nullified on a 4+). Can still create Scarab Swarms, but only into existing swarms on the table (they no longer form a unit with the Spyder) and it can still take damage if it rolls a '1' while doing so. Can take Whip Coils (by giving up a close combat weapon and a +1 to repair vehicles) which is like a Tyranid Lash Whip. Can take 1 or 2 Particle Beamers (by removing its CC/fixer arms) to do so. 1-3 in a unit.

So that's about it for now. But I'd be remiss to point out that I didn't mention any of the special character's abilities really or any of the wargear/rules of the Crypteks. There are lots of neat toys as usual in 5th edition codexes. I'm not going to list them all, but I'll pick a random one that just seemed fun to me...there is a special character (the Stormlord) who makes the first turn of the game be night fighting no matter what the mission and can try to extend the rule into further turns by rolling higher than the current turn number on a D6...in addition, while the Night Fighting rules are in effect all unengaged enemy units suffer D6 S8 AP5 hits on a D6 roll of '6' at the start of each Necron shooting phase (hit by lightning strikes). And of course there is a Cryptek ability 'solar pulse' which allows (once per game) at the start of any turn (friend or foe) for the Night Fighting rules to be cancelled for that turn (or apply if the Night Fighting rules weren't in effect when the pulse was launched).

So I could see an army based around this using Night Fight (with Lighting Strikes, of course), and then any turn they REALLY need to shoot, you can use the Solar Pulse to cancel out the Night Fighting effects on your own turn, which still leaves them affecting enemy shooting on their turn! Seems like it could be quite nasty indeed! Oh, and he can try to seize the Initiative on a 4+ except against Orks (who confound his logic). But of course, he is also over 200 points naturally.

Anyway, plenty more tricks and stuff to read about when the codex comes out!

Tervigon Conversion

2011-10-05T11:05:00.002+08:00

Some of you may have been following various blogs on when the next big Tyranid wave is going to hit and man, I am so disappointed. I was under the impression there was going to be a mega release this August 2011 but it never came.

So I like everyone else used my Search-fu to look for more juicy rumours only to come up with various Tervigon conversions. This is one that really jumped out. Smart use of parts from the Arachnarok, Carnifex and Trygon kits. It's expensive but I thought I would share it with some of you guys out there.

In the event you're wondering where it came from: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=83958

Does remind me of the Alien Queen

Where all the gribllies come from

Non-upgraded Tervigon - still keeping to the six limbed creature

Enhanced senses

Still prefer the Fex claws instead of this one

Personally I think the Tervigon should be on a oval and he used it too.

Forgeworld for Storm of Magic

2011-10-04T01:00:00.000+08:00

Found these two images floating around recently. Great for your Storm of Magic games!

Taurus of some sort

Some fat rat!

Battle Report - Tomb Kings vs High Elves 2500

2011-10-03T11:25:00.000+08:00

Had a really good weekend with Youcai. We played 2500 points worth of Fantasy. I was commanding High Elves while he was commanding the Tomb Kings. Great news is that YC is actually slowly but surely painting his skeletons. This is awesome!

YC posted some really random pictures earlier so I am going to reorganise them into the correct order so we can actually see how the game went. YC, please add comments if I missed anything out.

All pictures have their description on the bottom of the pictures. We rolled for the mission type and got Pitched Battle so it was 12" deployment from each side. Placed 3 forests which counted as Mysterious, 2 Hills and 2 Arcane Ruins (you can roll up to 4 D6 for channelling but for each 6 rolled on more than 2 dice, you take a Miscast).

Deployment for the High Elves - overall view

Deployment for the Tomb Kings - overall view

My deployment was fairly straight forward with the Swordmaster taking the right flank to face off his Necropolis Knights.

Turn 1 movement. No charges

First turn magic phase I casted The Dwellers Below on his unit of 80 Skeletons. For some reason, YC's rolling was really low, leaving most of his 80 men intact (Strength Test - so YC had to roll below 3 or die)

In that same magic phase, my Level 4 miscasted and killed off 9 of my own White Lions. What a lovely way to start the game.

Turn 1 of YC's turn saw him charging his Necropolis Knights at my Great Eagle. I fled to draw him into my Swordmasters. YC rolled quite low leaving his unit quite far from mine.

YC moves his nicely painted Necrosphinx up the middle supported by the Chariots. Meanwhile his Ushabti with Great Weapons trudge through the big forest (rolled a 2 on the Mysterious - they now cause Fear).

Arrows took a few of my Spearmen down.

In my turn 2, I charged my Swordmasters into his Necropolis Knights and ended up short. This side of the board must be have bogs...

Regrouped my Eagle while my Level 2 High Mage moved up the hill to gain vantage for his spells.

A view from YC's side

Turn 2 YC charged his Necrosphinx into my Spearmen. This was going to be a grind. I knew I had to sacrifice this unit to hold the flank

YC also charged in his Necro Knights into my Swordmasters

A view from the top at the bottom of Turn 2

Another view of bottom of Turn 2. This is where my phone ran out of battery so I had to turn to YC's camera. Some shots have been included above.

Even with a charge, I am surprised to see how the Swordmasters just cleave through units. I lost 1 Swordmaster to 5 wounds for his Knights. Poof!

A view from the side after removing the Knights.

Meanwhile Turn 3 my White Lions charge into his Horde Skeletons. Epic battle

Moved my other units to support the White Lions. Eagle tried to charge the Casket but no luck

Chop chop and Skeletons die by the droves. However, YC did forget about My Will be Done which would have raised his skeletons to WS6. His Tomb King strikes with 5 attacks (fencer blades). Need to hits on 3's, he rolled the above (1,1,1,2,2). LOL! It was also here that YC realised that he could not charge my flank as the Ushabti was moved too far in front. A waste

The grinding match keeps on going.

After destroying the unit of Skeletons, I reformed to face his Ushabti.

And charged him in the flank

Charged my Swordmaster, spearmen and another unit of spears into his Tomb Guard.

You can see that YC's Necrosphinx still tied in combat with my Spears. Wow that is going to take forever. After despatching the Eagle, the Chariot moves up to assist the Necrophinx to take out my Bunker.

And charge they did in YC's Turn 4.

And again the bunker of madness prevails. Amazing.

Final turn of the game basically saw nothing left of the TK. Wow...

A great game nonetheless. There are lessons for both of us. I think YC is still learning his army and took everything to play! LOL! More focus is needed if that list is to be more competitive. I was really hating the leaping death ray from his Casket. Ouch.

TK vs HE pictures

2011-10-02T00:16:00.000+08:00

Pictures taken from a game with long time gaming buddy Enrgie over at a newly open LGS - Battle Bunker.

Had not played against Enrgie for quite awhile. Spent almost the whole day playing and talking/discussing about Warhammer fantasy, who can guess there are so much to talk about Warhammer Fantasy lol.

Pictures are not in order due to uploading sequence.

Casket left on HE turn 5...

White lions after finishing off the chariots and N.sphinx

TK chariot + N.sphinx combine charge! too bad 6D6 + lvl 4 = 26 boosted desiccation on white lions was dispelled by the HE with just 4D6 rolling IF dispel...

Hungry white lions eyeing the TK chariots

Tomb guard getting flank by Swordmasters = very very bad

Bad move resulting Ushabti getting flanked...

Hungry white lions

Swordmasters > Necropolis knights

Bad play number 1* (3 necropolis knights != 3 death company spezze mehrines)

After Pansies turn 1

50 wet lions down to 42...

1st turn IF dwellers on BRAVE skeleton warriors! (37 died)

sexy arms?

Game start! (nice watch)

Pansies deployment

Crumbling lalala

Bad play number 3* (forgetting Tomb king has "My Will be Done")

Necro Knights down

BRAVE skeletons Anvil vs Wet lions Death Star

Bad play number 2* (notice the ushabtis and Tomb guard were moved too far up... resulting in the counter-charge units unable to flank the white lions)

Turn 3 or 4

Epic fluff by Tomb King... rolling 1,1,1,2,2 for to hit... missing all...

Contemptor Dreadnought WIP 4

2011-09-21T11:50:00.001+08:00

I managed to get 2 coats of paint airbrushed into my Contemptor Dreadnought. After the matte black basecoat, I airbrushed on scorched brown which made my model look like a chocolate followed by bleached bone. As you can see, some areas around the joints I have purposely left black/brown for the boltgun metal colored bits.
I wanted to give the model a richer sense of color depth by doing brown first followed by bone. As you can see the effect is kinda weird. It looks more like rotting flesh/nurgle/death guard color than deathwing bone.
I think tonight I will try remedying this by doing diluted layers of devlan mud in successive layers to build up the tone I’m looking for.

Contemptor Dreadnought WIP 3

2011-09-20T11:01:00.003+08:00

In this entry, I have added a kitbashed assault cannon arm from the blood angels furioso kit for my contemptor dreadnought. I’m very pleased with the results especially since the whole build utilized GW parts with the exception of the tip of the assault cannon barrel. Managed to prime the model with resin primer/black basecoat.

Contemptor Dreadnought WIP 2

2011-09-16T10:31:00.003+08:00

For my contemptor dreadnought, I’ve managed to articulate the entire upper + the head. Sadly the thigh and the knee joints were too small for me to effective bevel out a rectangular niche for to install a joint housing. I tried to pin/glue the legs in a dynamic pose. As for the dreadnought close combat weapon, since a flamer is housed inside the middle of the fist/palm I plan on drilling more holes around the circular forearm bit so that the fist can rotate by plugging into different holes. Still left to do is adding some dark angels bling. I’ve been having a difficult time finding suitable bits as dark angels only have 1 upgrade sprue to choose from. I think I’ll need to use plenty of blood angel bits to chop/convert.

Contemptor Dreadnought WIP 1

2011-09-15T12:45:00.001+08:00

I'm trying to build this dreadnought with as much of the original resin bits as possible. As the pre-heresy dreadnoughts are more humanoid in shape, I didn't want to mess with the proportions like I do with the recycle bin pattern dreadnoughts.

The following pictures showed how I made the arm movable.

Dark Angels Pre-heresy Forgeworld Conversion wip 2

2011-09-15T12:27:00.002+08:00

The main thing I found about assembling forgeworld space marines is that with the pre-heresy MK3 armor, the heads seem to be lacking a neck when assembled into the body hence the overall model looks a bit squat. I remedied this by pinning all the heads to the forgeworld bodies. The pin can give a bit more elevation allowing you to pose the head in a more dynamic posture.

Dark Angels Pre-heresy Forgeworld Conversion wip 1

2011-09-14T11:51:00.001+08:00

This is to revive my dark angels army. I’ve had only 2 full tactical squads, 1 assault squad and 10 terminators since 3rd edition. I’ve been looking for inspiration to revive this force and I think I’ve found it while looking through the visions of heresy book.

Been using the forgeworld space marine MK3 power armor as a base to start with, plenty of blood angels and space wolves bits were used. These guys will be my assault troops without jump packs as I remember from the Decent of Angels/Fallen Angels novels that the original knights of caliban were expert swordsmen. I am still deciding the color, I think black will be rather boring. I’m leaning towards painting them green to capture the time period just after the horus rebellion and right before the caliban civil war while the newer marks of armor were being circulated to the loyalist legions. Since dark angels are all about tradition, certain elements of the army will retain their original armor to match the fluff as much as possible.

Stay tuned for my full action/posable contemptor dreadnought & dark angels fortress of redemption converted terrain soon! Its like dark angels month for me… hahaha

Mantic Forgefather Miniatures pics!

2011-09-12T14:59:00.001+08:00

I am getting properly excited for its release in a months time.
Decided to use the pic edited by scarletsquig from Warseer forums. I think it brings out the minis much better then the original blue they did it in.

A little distraction from painting.

2011-09-06T20:09:00.001+08:00

Just picked up this game today. Time to kill some Orks!!!!

Painting Yellow Dark Eldar step-by-step

2011-09-05T13:38:00.002+08:00

Trying out a not so common color scheme for the Dark Kin.

Last picture is taken in daylight and I feel that it does not look as yellow as I would have liked it to be. It feels like a failed attempt at Non Metallic Metal Gold instead......

Any suggestions or thoughts on this outcome?
Keep it or try again?

Completed Empire Handgunners of Nuln

2011-09-01T17:58:00.001+08:00

These guys have been sitting around in basecoated state for almost half a year. Decided to bite the bullet and finish them off.

p.s everything is done except for the banner. Still have not decided how I wanna do it.

commander dante finecast wip 1

2011-08-31T11:09:00.002+08:00

This is my fail-cast commander dante, I guess i got a crappy one as there were so many pores on my model.

I've used baby powder mixed with super glue to putty up the holes. This is actually a really quick, clean and efficient technique to fill up small areas without making a big mess.

Completed Empire Warrior Priest

2011-08-29T15:52:00.002+08:00

Recently I have been having vibes for painting characters. Maybe it's because I've been churning out infantry after infantry and block units to get the bulk of my armies painted. I guess now it's payback time for the single models.

After I finished my finecast Lord Commissar model I went through my collection and decided to paint up this old warrior priest model. I guess he is about ten years old. (correct me if I'm wrong).

While thinking of a color scheme for him I looked through white dwarfs and army books and the interwebs and realized that most people painted thier warrior priests in reds and black. Also adorned with many gold trimmings and the such.

However I always felt that warrior priests were more akin to monks in the Empire. Humble individuals with no desire for the glitz and glamour of most mortals with only prayer and steel to see them through.

Therefore when I painted my warrior priest I went for the dullest, cheapest and typical colors found on people not so concerned with their fashion sense. Browns and silver. The only gold item he has is his small hammer around his neck.

It's a pleasure painting characters and I guess my character painting streak has just begun. More to come!

On the painting table

2011-08-29T13:51:00.000+08:00

In the mood for fantasy. Some handgunners and outriders.

Battle bunker live update.

2011-08-25T17:27:00.000+08:00

Definitely a very cool shop. Nice staff. And large playing space!

If it works out and I do not have to pay for playing space. I do not mind paying full SG retail prices to support the shop.

Bargain Hunting with Embargo

2011-08-22T23:39:00.000+08:00

I have some gaming buddies that can't quit the GW plastic/resin crack addiction lol. I'm writing a brief guide on buying from UKGW direct online store.

UKGW direct online store charge shipping and here's the shipping cost break down:

Orders Cost vs Shipping cost

£0-50 -----> shipping £10

£51-150 ---> shipping £29

£151 - infinite -> shipping £40

The above are all standard shipping cost. There's a choice for express shipping, but is crazy expensive. I recommend getting from the LGS if you are in a rush. Standard shipping would normally take around 10-14 days, at least for me.

Anyone can see that when buying, try to get as close to the order cost threshold as possible. Consolidating group purchases is a good way to save more money as the shipping is split making it cheaper than buying from Maelstrom/Wayland when they are not running promotions.

Discounts

All non-UK order items except for books/magazines (publications) have 16.65% discount from the RRP.

(RRP = Recommended Retail Price, basically the price you see for the item on the website) You will only be able to see the discounted price after you press checkout and choose some other countries for delivery address. If you want to see the discounted price on the shopping cart, after checking out and choosing countries, just press another link on the website (e.g. warhammer -> show cart)

Payment

Paypal, credit cards. The standard stuffs...

UKGW vs LGS

UKGW advantages are:

16.65% on everything except publications.
Actual currency conversion.

UKGW disadvantages are:

Shipping cost and time.
Buying more and near the order threshold. (to make the shipping cost more worth).
7% GST... if you exceed the S$400 for the order cost (GW declared fully the order cost on the box).

LGS advantages are:

5% member discount (some of us have it).
Getting the product instantly on launch date.
Changing defective product on the spot.

LGS disadvantages are:

UKRRP * 2.53
Transport cost :) (does not apply in some conditions)

From my two £50 purchases from UKGW online store, I calculated that it is around S$8-16 more expensive than buying from Maelstrom/Wayland when they are not running promotions. It would be on par and maybe even cheaper than Maelstrom/Wayland if more people could consolidate their purchases and hit £150 for their order.

my new grey knights army

2011-08-17T09:49:00.005+08:00

This is my new grey knights army I had commissioned. So far I only have infantry but I plan on getting some vehicles soon. I don't think I will play with this army much, this is more so for collection. Hope you guys like it.

space marine terrain base wip. 3

2011-08-12T12:50:00.002+08:00

So this is what it’s looking like on the 3rd night of work. The hardest part up till now is covering the seams between insulation foam layers. It’s still looking very crude at this moment but as I progress into the details and final shaping sculpt, I will ditch the thermocutter and use my trusty chainsword I mean crafting knife…
As you can see, the biggest piece of the terrain series is the cannon turret meshed into the mountain side with its own cliff. I’ve got to say I’ve built these terrains with devastator squards and tank cover in mind. I’m really excited to get this done asap and see how the play in games.

space marine terrain base wip pt.2

2011-08-11T16:22:00.003+08:00

More updates on my space marine base. I've decided to turn my dark angels fortress of redemption kit into a series of fortified positions so that when used in games, the kit provides a bit more saturated large area terrains which doesn't simply take up space in a corner somewhere. Graduualy I'll be incorporating more and more of GW terrain bits into the foundations I've developed with the pink insulation foam

I think what makes a battlefield set up interesting is when the pieces can be used practically for gaming purposes as well as being aesthetically pleasing. From what I know, we've been running some titan and super heavy battles at our Hong Kong store recently and I know the boys have been complaining about not enough cover for larger scale models so here I am again contributing my share into the hobby.

Mega Warhammer Fantasy Game

2011-08-10T11:36:00.005+08:00

We had a mega Warhammer Fantasy battle yesterday at PI Mid Point. 2500 points aside with 2 players to each team. Defu and myself with High Elves while Defeng and You Cai worked with Dark Elves and Tomb Kings. While the game took a little longer than the usual games, we did finish it under 5 hours with deployment time and packing time built in.

There was no real preplanning, we just decided on 2v2 with 2500 points each player so there were no synergistic combinations on the table. Any that did arise were eventual.

Head on over to: https://picasaweb.google.com/100466673872876007452/20110809HEVsDEAndTK

As always, leave your comments and +1 if you're a Google Circle user!

Here are some items I would change for these sort of 2v2 games:

No duplicated magic items if playing the same race - e.g. Banner of Sorcery
No sharing of the BSB - i.e. your BSB only affects your army, not mine
Buffs allowed for alliance
Magic: each player rolls for his magic dice and his direct opponent gets the highest roll of the 2D6. For e.g. YC rolls 5 and 3 while Defeng rolls 4 and 3, I get 5 while Defu gets 4.

Feel free to add stuff on this list!

Also, in light of the "friendly" game style, anyone wanna adopt the ETC restrictions for our Fantasy games below?

Restrictions on the composition of the army

Army restriction
No army can be doubled, no SOC allowed.

Army size: 2000/2100/2250/2700 points (depending on category, see below) with semi-secret rosters.

General composition rules

- Armies are 2000/2100/2250/2700 points.
- No characters that are: special, named or Albion
- No DoW or RoR in non-DoW armies .

- Rare choices may not be repeated, except for HE, where they can be repeated once for each choice.
- Max. 2 of the same Special choice.
- Max. 3 of the same Core choice, except ranked infantry without missile weapons and beast herds.
- Max. 3 units of chariots (incl. characters).
- Max. 9 PD/10DD in an army *
- Max. 3 units of flyers (incl. characters)
- Max. 45 models with missile weapons with a range of 20”+ (not incl. war machines, characters and chariots).
- Max. 5 warmachines.

*Magic description
You can use a maximum of 9 power dice in each magic phase. Each bound spell you use count as 1 power dice, all following bound spells used in the same turn counts as 2 power dice.

Every ability that grants the bearer complete knowledge of a single lore counts as one power dice in each magic phase.

All dice you would not normally generate, such as Focused Rumination Slann free dice, Skaven warpstones, night goblin mushrooms, power of darkness etc., also count in the total number of dice you can use in a magic phase.

Tomb Kings count each dice they use for a spell as 1 power dice and casket of souls counts as 2 dice total. They can not chose not to use all the dice when casting an incantation, for example a Liche Priest can’t choose only to use 1 dice on a spell. You can how ever choose not to cast a spell with a model. The 2 basic power dice all armies get only counts if they are used to dispel RIP spells with.

Max 10 dispel dice per army. First dispel scroll (and similar working items) you have in your army counts as 1 dispel dice, in EACH magic phase. The second and all other scrolls, counts as 2 dispel dice in each magic phase. So if you have 3 scrolls you can use a maximum of 5 dispel dice each magic phase. Dice from magic resistance does count in this maximum. Being allowed to reroll your dispel dice every turn counts as 1 dispel dice.

Dice removed by the Chaos Dwarf Chalice of Darkness count as dice used. You remove 3 power dice, you can use only 6 more in your magic phase.

Race specific:
DAEMONS OF CHAOS - Bloodthirster with Immortal Fury, Keeper of Secrets with Siren Song and Lord of Change with Will of Tzeentch count as an additional hero choice; Herald BSB may take either daemonic gifts or a daemonic icon, not both; Daemonic Gifts may not be duplicated (except for Spellbreakers); Horrors are limited to 0-2.
DARK ELVES - Ring of Hotek counts as 3 dispel dice each phase; every assassin after the first counts as a hero choice; Shades limited in unit size to max.10; Pendant of Khaleth counts as a hero choice.
EMPIRE - Steam Tank counts as two Rare choices
LIZARDMEN - Characters mounted on Stegadons also use the relevant special or rare slot; Max of 6 Terradons in army; discipline Becalming Cogitation count as 2 dispel dice. Max. 2 Stegadons of any type
ORCS & GOBLINS - Max 6 goblin fanatics.
VAMPIRE COUNTS - The Drakenhoff banner counts as an additional hero choice; Every +1 to cast in the army counts as 1 powerdice in each phase.
WOOD ELVES - Treeman Ancient counts as Treeman.

The ladder system:
All armies are divided into four categories; A, B, C and D. Category A armies are limited to 2000pts, B to 2100pts, C to 2250pts and C to 2700pts.

When calculating victory points at the end of the game, once you have the result, then add 10% to any category A army's losses rounding off as normal. Any category D army would conversely have its losses reduced by 20%

Category A (2000pts)
Demons of Chaos
Dark Elves

Category B (2100pts)
Vampires
Empire
Lizardmen

Category C (2250pts)
Skaven (to be confirmed in February)
Beastmen (to be confirmed in April)
Bretonnia
Chaos Dwarfs
Dwarfs
High Elves
Warriors of Chaos
Tomb Kings
Wood Elves

Category C (2700pts)
Ogre Kingdoms
Orcs & Goblins
Dogs of War

space marine terrain base wip pt.1

2011-08-09T00:07:00.004+08:00

I saw the death mountain work over at ricalopia's blog and inspired me to begin works on some new terrain to add to the Hong Kong store. I've had the proxxon thermocut lying around for about 8 months and i decided to have a go at cutting some rock terraces. Still looking around for ideas as to incorporate gw terrain parts into natural features such as mountains and rock faces.

Completed Lord Commisar

2011-08-04T12:12:00.001+08:00

Been lacking updates due to my pregnant wife keeping me busy.

However I managed to squeeze in time to paint up my first FINECAST model. The amazing Lord Commissar.

Hopefully this model will give me the much needed momentum to paint in full force again.

The quality of the model though is less than amazing. Lots of holes throughout the model and some even caused details to be obscured or totally destroyed. So much for best miniatures in the world. I actually got a replacement model because the first one I got had an extremely crooked nose!

However aside from the flaws I can see great potential in this material and can only hope for the best in future finecast releases.

Not that I am able to buy any new miniatures due to the bloody embargo anyway......

Painting Faces

2011-08-03T10:32:00.000+08:00

Faces are the most important part of the model as our eyes are naturally drawn to faces. I came across this really good website and they have a brilliant article on breaking down the steps for faces.

Do check it out: http://chestofcolors.com/painting-faces/

Certainly worth the time!

Ogre Kingdoms!

2011-08-02T10:55:00.000+08:00

GW is sure keeping very closely at the releases and are doing a lot for our hobby. New pics of the Ogre Kingdom kits coming!

Hong Kong Visit

2011-07-26T14:36:00.000+08:00

Just came back from visiting Hong Kong and it was a good trip. Met up with Jay and we went for a few drinks and it was good times!

Back to gaming news, Jay actually passed me some stuff for Warhammer Fantasy. Great sheets. Now I will be trying them out for movement trays shortly and let you guys know.

Jay moving his units around - bullying a kid.

Another game in progress.

Terrain just keeps getting better and better around here....

Some painted figs in the cupboard!

NMM-this chap actually won a Golden Demon trophy!

The latest FW Eldar Titan.

Tournament Space Wolves Units Pt 1

2011-07-26T13:28:00.010+08:00

In the recent Warhammer 40K campaign in Hong Kong this past Sunday, I got a really good chance to battle some races that I have never played before. It’s in events like this that really have your wheels turning as to what sort of lists to bring that can handle the most amount of unknowns, very similar to the hypothetical scenarios you present yourself with when writing ‘ard boyz & tournament based lists.
Since writing 3 battle reports would be rather boring I want to instead talk about which squads in my army are very stable performers and their pros and cons.

Below you will find a brief squad analysis as to why I bring which units to the table. Now I know there will be units left uncovered but the ones I did write about are the ones that have been play tested and these squads are the list of contenders I would choose to take depending on who or what I am up against.
Some may think by writing unit analyses I am revealing my under-belly to my foes but this blog is about sharing my experience and if eventually my combos do get cracked, it will push me to field more different combos to test their mettle. Here goes…

Squad 1:
-Logan Grimnar
-x4 Terminator Wolf guard w/ twin wolf claws
-x1 Terminator Wolf guard w/ TT/SS
-Drop pod delivery

For my drop pod assaults, I have found this unit is definitely the hardest hitting unit. Since Logan’s Axe of Morkai attacks can either be counted as a powerfist or a frost blade, its very important to have a significant number of attacks that can strike first or at the same time as your enemy. The terminators with twin wolf claws are to fill this role. Wolf claws can allow you to re-roll hits or misses, Logan can further stack preferred enemy and on top of this, he can give everyone within 18” +1 attacks once per game. The thunder hammer/Storm Shield terminator is there to take wounds and die first. No need to really worry about assaulting mech units either as Logan can opt to make his attacks as a powerfist. When using this squad you want to protect logan and the terminator wolfguard with claws so that they can continue on their rampage.

Pros: This combo will most likely chew through anything thrown at them, their durability should not be an issue either as these guys are in terminator armor. With a drop pod delivery system, they shouldn’t have to spend too much time idle being shot at. I have found this squad most effective by dropping them into the hottest sector of battle.

Cons: This squad is a huge point sinker! Model counts will usually be low and unless the game size is also big, it is very hard to field a wolf wing army. When model count is low, it is also usually very hard to come up with a contingency plan. I rarely take named characters in my games as I think they really spoil your ability to think fast by being too overly powerful.

Squad 2:
-Rune Priest w/ chooser of the slain
-Wolfguard w/ power fist
-x5 Grey hunters, melta gun & mark of wulfen
-Rhino

This squad is the core for any space wolf list I write with the only variation being the squad size. Any space wolves player will tell you how versatile grey hunters are. While other space marine tactical squads can bring heavy weapons, we have other goodies like an extra close combat weapon, counter attack which means you still get the +1 attacks if you get charged and mark of wulfen which can potentially give you D6+1 rending attacks if you roll 6’s. Essentially, you can really rush these guys into the enemy and expect them to hold their lines and if they don’t, its usually at a very high cost at the enemy’s expense. The Wolfguard is there to beef up the close combat attacks with his power fist while the grey hunters provide ablative wounds if need be. The power fist attacks coupled with the mark of wulfen attacks are usually ample to overwhelm most multi wound units (tyranids inclusive).

As for the Rune Priest, I embed him into greyhunters for 3 reasons: psychic protection, sniping, and area control. I would argue he is one of the best psychic attack/defensive assets in the Warhammer 40k universe. Firstly for psychic protection he cancels out any psychic ability cast against his team by rolling a 4+ if the psyker is within 24” range. For sniping purposes, living lightning stacked with chooser of the slain means you hit on 2’s and wound on 2’s. This attack has unlimited range and requires no line of sight which makes this perfect for rolling along with rhinos so that you can soften up targets before you charge out and rip them a new one. As for area control, I swear by the Jaws of the World Wolf. In a nutshell, the ground opens up and swallows most of everything barring tanks if within a strait 24” line from the Rune Priest. When this line is drawn, each model the line passes must make an initiative test, all fails result in the model being removed from play. This is the best way to quickly deal with multi wound characters. Yes, characters can be targeted.

Pros: This combo of Rune Priest, Wolf guard & Grey hunter can be tooled to any amount of points you can afford. They have excellent attack characteristics in both ranged and assault. Normal tactical squads can have heavy weapons but that means they can’t move and shoot, you can combat squad them but that greatly diminishes their endurance. The Rune Priest shooting attacks can effectively cover anywhere on the table while still being able to shoot and move. Wolf guard to power fist the enemy’s face should they be too arrogant, Grey hunters with melta gun to tank bust and mark of wulfen to rend really tough enemies. With the space wolves force organization chart, each slot basically allows the space wolves to take 2 units per slot so you can have up to 4 HQ’s as rune priest and spam this as your army. Basically its like having 4 mini armies within 1 army.

Cons: As grey hunters are there to be ablative wounds for your steam rolling attacks, squad endurance is the issue of concern. To preserve the survivability of the Rune Priest and Wolf Guard I never take less than 5 grey hunters. Any less, it will begin eating into your squad’s endurance as more and more enemies decide to pick apart that squad.

Squad 3: Long Fangs
-x5 long fangs
-x2 missile launchers
-x2 lascannons

Long fangs are the best devastator squads. They can split fire, to engage up to 2 different targets with devastating results. Many space wolves players roll with all missile launchers, against nids with relatively weaker armor, I would do the same but for most cases, I bring in 2 lascannons for the extra punch. For the best results, I always fire my 2 missiles first. If the missiles score wounds then great, but if not, I still got 2 lascannons to shoot depending on how big of a threat the target is. Against horde armies, I usually throw out 2 salvos of frag missiles to force saves on my opponent.

Pros: Can engage 2 different targets. Some players lead their Long Fangs with Wolfguard in terminator armor/cyclone missiles for that extra punch in shooting and assault defence. They also have counter charge so you can expect they will do a bit better than conventional devastator squads when being assaulted.

Cons: Most fragile of all space wolves infantry units.

Squad 4: Thunderwolf Cavalry
-x4 Thunderwolf Cavalry, Thunder hammer/Storm Shield

This squad almost guarantees to be in assault in their first turn if played correctly. This unit does everything a cavalry unit is supposed to do in every sense. They basically smash in on the flanks of your opponent and work their way through. To do this, I always keep these units in reserve while baiting the enemy into mid field range. This shouldn’t be too hard as 5th edition is mostly fought over the middle ground. Once in combat, depending on what you are charging you may want either the thunder hammer storm shield rider or a basic rider to die first depending on how squishy the unit you are assaulting is. For very squishy units, they will usually be in a horde and since the thunder hammer attacks last anyways, his shield can come in handy at weathering attacks. If the enemy is really hard, you will want the basic riders to take one for the team surviving the thunder hammer attacks to do most of the damage. Always take a thunderhammer/storm shield for all around offensive and defensive capabilities!!! Every time I run this squad it has not failed me. Since GW still hasn’t released any official models for this unit, it can be said that not many opponents will expect to face them.

Pros: Extremely effective against arrogant players whom you’ve successfully baited. They are very fast and hit with a very high velocity. Toughness 5 with 2 wounds makes them extremely survivable when unleashed at the right time. Aesthetically, they are most space wolves themed units period…

Cons: at 50 points/thunderwolf these are very expensive. They are relatively hard to use as everything comes down to timing and target priority for this unit.

Thats it for now folks... I hope this was helpful and provided some insight to the inner workings of a space wolves army. I'll be putting up more unit tacticas in the near future so be sure to look out for them. Do you play space wolves? Do you have any tricks you would like to share? As always, questions and comments are welcome!

Hong Kong Warhammer 40k Campaign Day

2011-07-24T21:53:00.002+08:00

Hey guys, this week has been a blast. One of my really good buddies Ray AKA enrgie was in town and we had a blast at the wine bar. Ray and I had plenty fun psycho-analyzing a group of very pleasant ladies while also catching up with our gaming hobbies.

Not to digress too far from warhammer, I've been putting up WIPs frantically with my space wolves army this past month. The reason for this was a few of the guys who play at Fun Atelier in HK were nice enough to organize a campaign day today. In a nutshell, I present to you "Best Painted Army" award...

I feel this is our blog's award as I have learned so much and picked up bits and pieces from reading all the different contributor's painting styles. I hope this award will serve as an encouragement to you all to stick with this hobby through thick and thin. I will be posting up pics from today's games as well as my army lists later.

Ulrik the Slayer WIP PT1

2011-07-15T00:41:00.002+08:00

Took around 2 days for me to strip this model I got from a friend for free. He told me this model was a gift from his 6th grade birthday part. He is now 26 lol...

For this model, I strait up dry brushed everything on. Heres the order.

armor:
1. matte black basecoat
2. dry brush on 2-3 layers of shadow grey
3. extreme highlights with spacewolves grey.

bone bits:
1. tausept ocre
2. devlan mud
3. dry brush bleached bone

yellow bits:
1. tausept ocre
2. devlan mud
3. dry brush tausept ocre

furs:
1. scorched brown
2. dry brush 3-4 layers of dhaneb stone

Gold bits:
1. dwarf bronze

Of course this is a WIP. theres bit more details to pick out depending on how many hours I wanna spend on this guy. So far its been only 3 hours... I just wanna encourage everyone if there is a will, there is a way. I'll do my best to share with you all how to raise a space wolf strike force in the fastest possible way. Comments are welcome!

sniper wolf scouts WIP 1

2011-07-14T11:14:00.000+08:00

For those of you who havn't been following my entries, I have been powering through a major update to my Spacewolves army. Aside from drop pods and wolfguard reinforcements, I decided to add a task force of wolf scouts to my army. I still have never play tested these units so I have nothing tactical to say about them yet. I tend to paint up models I like to collect more than to play games with. When they are all done up, I will be sure to keep you all posted about their tactical performance :)

Warhammer Mecca

2011-07-13T09:30:00.004+08:00

For those of us not lucky enough to visit Warhammer Mecca and home to our hobby - Warhammer World, I present to you an awesome video clip by a few fellas lucky enough to go! With the British Pounds being so weak, this may be a good time to go! Anyone keen for a trip?

space wolves reinforcements: converted terminator wolfguard, wolf scouts, rhino & drop pods PT5

2011-07-10T00:43:00.003+08:00

Wolf Scouts Complete!!! This is my new table-top standard, 5 wolf scouts took me less than 6 hours to complete from build to finish. I still got 15 more wolf scouts to do so revising my speed painting technique was imperative to tackle this project.
Hope you guys like them!

space wolves reinforcements: converted terminator wolfguard, wolf scouts, rhino & drop pods PT4

2011-07-08T02:06:00.003+08:00

Almost done... just a few more details and touching up on the bases... work's a bitch... if only we can stay young forever and just chill in the summer... lol I would have so much more time to paint...

Multi-wound Counters

2011-07-06T10:34:00.000+08:00

Saw this over at http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18195 and thought I would share this with everyone. I thought it's a very smart way to keep track of all those multi-wounds. I wish I did this for my larger creatures (nids).

Space Wolves Terminator Heads

2011-07-05T10:59:00.001+08:00

I used to dread painting models without helmets as I struggled a lot with painting convincing skin tones. I even went as far as to assembling my Dark Angels army with all models in helmets just to steer away from skin tones. NOT ANYMORE!!! The majority of my Space Wolves army does not believe in helmets. When you regularly face the most broken of lists, helmet or no helmet it doesn’t really make a difference… 
Back to the hobby side, I’ve realized painting faces is easier than painting the details onto helmets as you can easily utilize washes/layering/highlights to get reasonable results in a very very short amount of time. The skin tones on the heads shown here took me 20 mins to do. It looks like a lot of steps but considering the area on a mini’s face, its really not that much… Here is the order of colors I used.
1. Black basecoat
2. Tausept ocre – try to get a good even layer sparing only the crevices
3. Dwarf flesh – layered on the raised edges
4. Elf flesh – high lighted by dry brushing
5. Gryphonne Sepia – wash the entire face
6. Elf flesh – high lights again

40k space marine terrain center piece

2011-07-05T00:29:00.004+08:00

I saw this and I gotta do it... I've had the fortress of redemption kit for 2 years just chillin. This guys got the right idea of how a proper space marine center piece should look like. Be inspired...

for more, check out this link below:

40k Megabattle

2011-07-04T12:00:00.000+08:00

We had a blast on the 3rd of July at PI Fusionpolis. It has been quite awhile since we gathered to have a good game and a mega-40k game was really the way to go!

3 vs 3 with the following in 2 teams:
Xenos: Defeng (Imperial Guard) + Alvin (Tau) + Ray (Tyranids)
Imperium: Ethan (Grey Knights) + Melvin (Imperial Guard) + Sam (Flesh Tearers/Blood Angels)

Brilliant game and brilliant day! Took us about 4 hours to complete the entire game in 5 turns. 2 objectives with Victory Points as Tie Breaker.

Head on over to: https://picasaweb.google.com/enrgie/4thJuly2011Megabattle40k and do leave your comments either on this post or on the pictures! There are a few pictures that require the participants to post their comments as I had no clue what was going on the other side of the field!

Space Wolves: Paint Style Variation

2011-07-04T01:05:00.006+08:00

space wolves reinforcements: converted terminator wolfguard, wolf scouts, rhino & drop pods PT3

2011-07-04T00:08:00.002+08:00

Okay!!!, this weekend's update focuses on my converted wolfguard terminators. This post especially goes out to an exceptional supplier: without further adiue, Mr. Joel Pitt from Anvil Industy who supplied these awesome shoulder pads for my wolf guard terminator conversion project.

All the bodies are done so far. Outstanding bits being the gem stones which are encrusted into the golden bits. I will be aiming to finish the heads to mount onto these models as well as the bases.

As for the Space wolves reinforcements, I managed to pick up 2 more drop pods from our local store, my wolf scouts with sniper rifles kit also arrived this past saturday so you cna be sure there will be a lot on my plate. Come to think of it, what originally was meant to be a small update to my Space Wolves force has turned out to be a decent sized project.

Completed in the past 14 days:
- x2 drop pods
- x5 wolf guard terminators
- x1 rhino

To be completed within the next 14 days: (hopefully)
- x14 wolf scouts
- x2 drop pods

space wolves reinforcements: converted terminator wolfguard, wolf scouts, rhino & drop pods PT2

2011-06-27T11:53:00.002+08:00

Good progress this weekend. Finished the drop pods and rhino on Saturday and began with my converted terminator wolfguard squad on Sunday. I am really loving the resin should pads a lot. The one with the storm shield/thunder hammer will be my candidate for Arjac Rockfist or “Ah Jack” in local tongue.

60 Followers and Counting!

2011-06-27T09:58:00.000+08:00

We have hit a great milestone today. 60 Followers for a small blog like this is amazing! I would like to pat each of you who have spent the time to take pictures, make comments and participating in a blog like this.

Reach out and spread our blog's name!

We will be meeting up for a massive game this coming weekend and I will be putting up a massive post of our games. Look forward to this space!

News: FAILcast, FineCOST - GW rolls a 1 and Fumbles

2011-06-24T17:26:00.000+08:00

I believe some of you may have seen this from Wayland but still worth mentioning since I know quite a large number of us will inevitably order them from Games Workshop.

Head on over to http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/games-workshop/finecast-resin-models/cat_955.html and see for yourself.

space wolves reinforcements: converted terminator wolfguard, wolf scouts, rhino & drop pods

2011-06-22T23:32:00.005+08:00

these are my new units to reinforce my space wolves army. I'm also trying to order the long out of production metal wolf scout models to add into this force. I will need more drop pods as well. As you might of guessed, I'm trying to improve the delivery method of my army. I'm used to mech riding and since space wolves are so tactically flexible I want to try exploring other avenues.

warhound titan urban camo WIP 2

2011-06-17T00:27:00.003+08:00

inspired by metal gear snake eater x russian sukhoi jets. So far so good, managed to install all pistons without losing any. first layer of highlight on. I'm shooting for a realistic tank look. I'm doing this for a friend and this has turned out to be a series of experiments. first choas khorne titan, now imperial. Included the paints I used with the airbrush.

Storm of magic miniatures pics!

2011-06-11T09:16:00.000+08:00

Wow, I'm impressed. GW quality never fails.
Pics off warseer forums.

warhound titan urban camo WIP

2011-06-10T00:18:00.002+08:00

Sporecon 2011 - Singapore Gaming Convention

2011-05-31T14:56:00.001+08:00

I competed in the recent Sporecon 2011 - the annual Singapore gaming convention for 40k, Fantasy and Warmarchine/Hordes.

Here's the report of the event.

Head on over to https://picasaweb.google.com/enrgie/Sporecon2011# and drop comments!

2000pts Battle report: Blood Angels vs. Space Marines

2011-05-27T13:02:00.010+08:00

My most recent game with Yonathan. I was blood angels vs Yon's space marines.
Awesome game, however getting my Storm raven shot down on 1 really did give my opponent a huge advantage as my payload of carnage wasn't delivered. All other assets in my army stretched themselves to the limit to try to achieve their objectives. Comments are welcome!

You can find the link to the pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/113541076637094249651/Batrep1750ptsBloodAngelsVsSpaceMarines#

CUSTOM CONVERTED THUNDERWOLF MOUNTS!!! WIP 4

2011-05-26T22:56:00.005+08:00

I need to finish the base, I was thinking frozen rockfaces made from cork... I can't find any. If nothing happens on friday night, I will buy a bottle of the cheapest wine with a real cork! T__T" lol.

A Labour of Love: My DIY Chapter

2011-05-25T21:04:00.002+08:00

I've been thinking about starting this "blog project" for a while, and certainly Enrgie has tried his level best to convince me to blog about my work. I am fairly busy and generally distracted by life (and often, other games during my free time) but I thought I'd just get the ball rolling here.

I started 40k back when I was in primary school, with little more than a bunch of old plastic Marines, a Predator, a single Terminator and an old Ultramarine Commander in 2nd edition. Being a young kid, the choice was obvious for me - I liked Space Marines since the moment I laid eyes on my cousin's Space Wolves, and I liked the color blue. Thus, my army started as an Ultramarine army, but alas, after 3rd ed. came out and we managed to get a few games down, I realized one thing: I hated shooting, and "codex" Space Marines are precisely that – fairly shooty.

Then came the 3rd ed. Blood Angels codex back in 1999 (I believe) and after playing it, I was hooked. Thus began the dilemma - I loved blue, but had to repaint them into something that wasn't Ultramarine; I had to make a DIY chapter. Enrgie suggested combining their colors together so I could maintain their Ultramarine "heritage" while making them clearly not so, and thus the Emperor's Fury was born. Twelve years ago I was barely a teenager, and the color scheme/chapter name seemed fine to me (heh).

Clearly, being that young, my painting skills were pretty bad and thus I come to the point of this post: over the past ~15 years of miniature gaming, I have played many armies and many game systems, but ultimately my DIY Space Marines are still “home” as far as my miniatures go. Over the years I've accumulated a decent amount of miniatures (so much so I'm not going to dig everything out for the obligatory group shot :P) but more importantly, I've gone back to my old miniatures and redone their paintjobs and adding in new bitz to make them look better and more updated.

Thus, I'll generally blog about my DIY Chapter as I revisit them. Updates will probably be slow and far in between, but at least it would eventually get somewhere. In the meantime, enjoy some (albeit rather old) "before and after" photos to get an idea of what I mean by revamping the paint jobs :)

Why Warmachine has fixed colors? B&W Menoth Repenter Warjack.

2011-05-22T23:27:00.000+08:00

With my mood for Games Workshop miniatures at an all time low I decided to take a break from them and dig out some old Menoth miniatures I bought about 4 years ago.

My warmachine army of choice is Menoth. The extreme religious stance is something that interests me much. Therefore I would like to have a crusader theme going through them. And being all nice and bright just didn't seem to fit with the dark and brooding background normally associated with a overzealous and crusading army.

The main issue I had with warmachine was that there seemed to be a "fixed" color scheme for each army. And when we see alternate color schemes applied in warmachine armies most of the time it would feel "wrong".

Even as I embarked upon my slightly different colored Menoth warjack I did not really feel comfortable. But I have to admit after looking at it for awhile longer I began to "warm up" to the color scheme.

I wanted a darker scheme to the Menoth army. But Menoth tended to look good with whites and bright colors. I saw a couple of very dark painted Menoth minis and it just didn't quite kick it.

Therefore I decided on white as a base, as normal. But swapped out all the purple and bright colors with black.
This resulted in a single black and white color scheme which I feel retains the bright mainstay of the Menoth look while subtly adding that dimension of darkness to it.

Pardon My Sense of Humor...

2011-05-21T18:47:00.005+08:00

My Chief Apothecary (Corbulo counts-as), WIP (still needs paint, haha). Yes, Chief Apothecary :P

The scythe on, effectively, a doctor, just tickles me. And seriously, no one will tell me that isn't a "+1S rending close combat weapon".

I'm thinking of either naming him normally (my current name is Taledar) or to go for a parody (Cipro Floxacin, a pun on the name of an antibiotic used to treat typhoid, from where Typhus's name was derived from....and theres no need to guess why Typhus is brought up in this post :P).

General fluff idea is that he is actually born from an assassin caste in his homeworld, but decided to become a healer instead, while still maintaining his natural brooding darkness and crazy assassin-ness. Think "very scary doctor" and its not too far off :X

And of course, that Apothecary backpack is magnetized, in the advent I don't take Corbulo and need a second SHP with a jump pack.

C&C welcome, thanks!

EDIT: Shortened his arms, new picture up :)