A Wargaming blog covering Tabletop Wargaming - The universes, books, fluff and gaming. From writers up and down the East Coast: MikeD, AmateurDorn, TaoChi, Lord Castillo and Wynforth.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Angels Sanguine Cannon Fluff
Friday, July 23, 2010
Weapon Loadouts: Honor Guard, Vanguards, Sergeants, and Death Company
When it comes down to it, there are wayyy too many opinions for weapons and gear for the Blood Angels and their successors. In my mind, the battlefield role of these units are the key to equiping them. So what do we want? Jump Pack Death Company? Razorback foot sloggers with Thunder Hammers and Plasma Weapons? Or just Honor Guard with Maxxed Melta Death to rain down as a nut cracking unit with attached Priesty love?
There is always more then one way to skin a cat, lets count the ways.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Progress Report: Squad Saleos
The only issue left is to figure out a good way to add shades to the red armor without needing to repaint the entire armor back Blood Red. If I use a dark wash, to shade the recesses it tends to need a reaaply of Blood Red before I can highlight. Any suggestions? I am also trying the red inks and washes. I want to avoid lining it by hand, but might have to. A dark brown mixed with Blood Red might work.
I am hoping that the first red highlight I applyed with the base coats can still be seen through.
Anyone else out there have any suggestions about shading with red on power armor?
-Mike
Monday, July 19, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Trash or Treasure? WiP
So my family and I moved into our house about three months ago, and my fiance had a pile of old crap she wanted to trash. I salvaged a nifty little cabinet thing with a drawer. It had a loose fitting wire window, removed in the pic, and needed a little bit of tweaking and tightening. otherwise, it was a great little cabinet. It has a shelf inside, with two little metal rails to keep things on the shelf and the bottom, two doors and a small area on the bottom that fits a little drawer. Perfect for little nick nacks, thimbles, porcelain figures, or in my case, Superhuman Angelic Warriors of the 41st millennium.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Angels Sanguine Test Squad
Tactical Squad Bathin. Done. That's right, I don't do test Minis. I do test SQUADS. I am that hard core... And since I have some tactical squads that will probably not be fielded waaay to often, I decided to start with my third string tactical squad, Bathin. This squad consists of AoBr marines, including a backpack from the Death Company sprue.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Second Bananas?
Today I got the pleasant little surprise that the Imperial Fists will show up in the upcoming movie Ultramarines. You can read about it here. At first, I was ecstatic. Fists! Rendered in cinematic-quality CG! Boltguns blazing, power swords swording! Fighting alongside their brother Ultras against the hordes of...of whatever they're gonna put in the movie! I grabbed my phone to call up people I know to tell them.
I got halfway through dialing my grandmother when a thought occurred to me. This is an Ultramarines movie. The Imperial Fists are going to be sidekicks to the Ultras. Once again, the boys in blue are going to get the spotlight while other more tastefully-decorated chapters get to ride in the backseat. My excitement waned; Grandma would have to wait.
Now I'm sure you're reading this and saying, "No shit, AmateurDork, look at the title of the movie!" And you're right, if a bit rude. But if you play non-Ultramarine SM armies you may understand how I feel. We want a little more time in the spotlight.
Now this is an old, dead horse that I'm not going to start beating nor do I encourage any of you to. We know why Ultras are the posterboys of 40k, and it makes sense that the movie would focus on them. I have NO Ultrahate, and I'm sure that Ultramarines will be a delight for all Space Marine fans and hopefully for the rest of you too. I'm just a little worried about how the Fists will be portrayed.
There's a bit of Imperial Fist fluff that takes place during the Heresy. It's the big showdown between the Fists and their evil counterparts, the Iron Warriors and its called The Iron Cage. Long story short, Rogal Dorn leads the Fists in a massive siege against an Iron Warrior fortress. It's an amazing battle between two forces, equally matched in siege warfare, each unyielding to the other. I love this story. Except for the ending.
Apparently, while the Fists were slogging through trenches of blood, the battleground littered with the bodies of friend and foe alike, the pristine blue ships of the Ultramarines swooped down, bombed the fortress and SAVED the Imperial Fists. No one called in the Ultras, they just show up because they're worried about Dorn and his ability to knock down a castle. Dorn is grateful, and vows to adhere to Guilliman's new book, "Galactic Conquest for Dummies".
I just don't want the movie to be like that. I just want the Fists to be able to stand on their own. I'll be pissed if they're portrayed as rock-headed, unimaginative warriors who bite off more than they can chew, only to be rescued and tut-tutted for not studying the Codex enough.
The truth is, I’m not really sure what to expect, but I am optimistic. Everything I have read so far seems like they are really try to make this movie for the fans, and 40k fans have high expectations. I am happy that my beloved Imperial Fists will be in the movie and portrayed by awesome actors like John Hurt and Johnny Harris. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, and who knows; maybe this will be the start of some exciting new fluff for all of us.
Friday, July 9, 2010
More stuff for the Toolbag: Kuler
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Angels Sanguine Decals
Decals Rock! Here I am worrying about how to get my Angels Sanguine logo onto my marines, thinking I can draw it on, paint it freehand, I can try to make a press mold and make greenstuff icons, or I can cut itty bitty stencils and airbrush it on..Ha fat chance any of those ideas wouldn't make me go insane.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
ARG!! Listbuilding!
As I noted, I am lucky to have a bevy of models at my disposal but I just don't know where to go with it... I am very happy to have a army that I feel sticks with my gameplay style. The Angels are manaueverable, fast, and can be very synergistic. One of my major gameply favs, hence my Eldar army, and my planned Fantasy DE or WE armies (damn elfy types). I always like the Glass cannon approach (hence Mr. McStabbyStab from WoW as well...) and am kinda reluctant to jump full into Mech, but it feels like a necessary evil.
So in list building, can you can see my dilemma? I want to build fun lists for me, and I want them to be competitive, but the Blood Angels (Angels Sanguine) have so many damn choices. WHAT TO DO!?!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Tutorial: How to Paint Scorched Weapon Muzzles
All right. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I’ve finally been able to spend some time in the Dorn Studio. I’ve been trying to finish up a Land Speeder so I can move on to a tasty Dread, and she’s almost complete, the weapons being the last item on the list. Since I’m doing a Heavy Flamer/Multimelta combo, I thought that this would be a perfect time for a tutorial on how I paint burn effects on the muzzles on all my heat-based weaponry. I’m not the best painter in the world but, I’ve learned some cool tricks here and there to add a bit of realism to my models (and to draw attention away from other mistakes). So without further ado: How To Paint Scorched Weapon Muzzles or something to that effect……
Saturday, July 3, 2010
TauChi Episode 3
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tutorial: Rifleman Dreadnought Arms
RIFLEMEN!!
So, I decided to add some Twin Linked Auto Cannon (TLAC) -Rifleman arms to my dreadnoughts, as I don't own any Predators, and I want some long range anti-transport capability. Seeing that these Dreadnought configs are all the rage these days, I started to look for economical and cool (read:. cheap and easy) ways to add some. My search fu was weak, I saw plenty of "Here is my Dread!" threads and posts, but no How-to. So, without further ado, here is my take on it.