It's been a while.........

Wow have I not posted here for a while! Life got pretty manic and to be perfectly honest I was somewhat burnt out from lots of painting and play and needed a break to find the love again.

So I am currently working on painting Astoroth the Grim. I love his fluff and the model pose is superb. I will hopefully post up some WiP pics this weekend if the light is good.

As an after thought, I am thinking about offering a painting service. I think I am of a reasonably good painting standard so thought it was worth a try. If you do wish to contact me about any possible commission work then drop me a mail and we can discuss prices.

Thanks,

Dodge

How to Magnetise the new GW Baal Predator kit

Hi there,
Second attempt at posting this. The first one was on my old camcorder and the quality was shocking so hopefully this will be better. Its a walkthrough of the way I have magnetised the new GW Blood Angels Baal Predator kit so it can be used as both a Flamestorm Cannon and twin linked assault cannons. I had to make a couple of heavy handed cuts to get it inside YouTube's 10 minute cutoff so apologies for that.

Hope some of you find it helpful,

Cheers

Podcasts I listen too

Just a quick post about a couple of podcasts I listen to, both are great for insight into the 40K game. Looking at tactics, unit synergy and ways to improve your game as well as general game/alpha nerd banter

Check out

http://dicelikethunder.com/ and
http://imperialvoxcast.squarespace.com/

Quick promo to a good blogsite

Just found one of the guys at my local game group website. Check it out.

http://blog.domonet.co.uk

Mephiston Update

Finally feels like I am getting there! Sword is done although I am not really happy with it and may go back and redo it. Most of the detail is done. I have fubar'd the lower section of his breastplate so that needs redoing. I reckon about another 10 hours worth of painting and he will be done.

Things left to do

1) His back pack

2) His armour

3) His personal banner from the new Codex

4) Attempt at a freehand design on the back of his cloak....eek

Hmm, I don't think I am going to complete my challenge

OK so my Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge is due tonight.

My list to paint was

1x 5 man assault squad (90% done)
1x Furioso Dreadnaught (80% done)
1x Mephiston (70% done)
1 x drop pod (DONE!! \o/)

As you can see from the progress list I am probably not going to get all that done tonight :( Ooops

Oh well for your viewing pleasure here is my Mephiston WiP

More dread and assault squad updates

Apologies for crappy iPhone pics

Dreadnaught started, starting to run out of time too!!

Some paint down on the Furioso

Starting to think I may run out of time....13 days left of the challenge and an estimated 40 hours worth of painting to do.

Drop Pod with ramps open

Oops completely forgot to post this. Noticed a couple of patches on the ramps which I have since corrected.

Drop pod finished!

Drop pod finally done!!!

Forgot to take a photo with the ramps down so will do so tonight

Drop Pod IV - nearly there!

OK did the last few fiddly bits on the upright struts and the drop ramps last night. Will hopefully have the base finished tonight and possibly assembled and done finally!!

Drop Pod III

Yellow and black warning flashes down the side of the ramp now done.

Drop pod II

Spent 2 1/2 hours last night painting the red strips down the side of the ramp for the drop pod. Eek. The iphone camera doesn't really do the blending any justice.

Drop pod update

More work on the drop pod uprights. I have blocked out the large area on the outside of the strut in yellow (several thinned coats to give an even coverage). Still struggling to get the colour right in photos. I think I am going to try and build myself a little lightbox.

Finally some photos!!

Finally I have started some meaningful work on my Bolter and Chainsword painting challenge. The official WiP thread for it can be found here.

Here are the first pictures of the drop pod

Last night I started the main white area on the upright struts putting some yellow down on it for hazardous warning chevrons and also painted the lower vent area as well. Pics to come later tonight on the update

Blood Angels on the way Part Two - The Revenge!!

OK well there is a "leaked"codex out there and the forums are going nuts with the is it or isn't it real debate. For me it is quite gratifying as some of the stuff I have predicted appears to be in there (Dante special rule involving reserves....nailed it!)


I am still and I would encourage others to try and remain objective on this alleged leak. It certainly appears to be a wonky translational copy and confirms a lot of the rumours that are out there (inc the fast skimmer rumoured release). However to paraphrase the legendary Sir PTerry


---------

The difference between me and Neil in our attitude to .... projects is
that he doesn't believe they're going to happen until he's sitting in
his seat eating popcorn, and I don't believe they're going to happen.

-------

Until we have the codex in our hands, this really is all just internet hype and rumour gone mad. I get the feeling that when the codex comes out and it doesn't contain the uberepixawsoomautokill character for 35 points that there is going to be  a torrent of pent up fanboi backlash against GW that all this stuff isn't in the codex when most of the stuff they are hoping for is wishlisting gone mad.

Restraint please!!!

Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge

Well in an effort to kick myself in the butt painting wise I have signed up to the Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge. I have vowed to have the following completed models ready by the end of March

1 x 5 man assault squad
1x Drop Pod
1x Furioso Dread (will be an ironclad with both DCCW arms)
Mephiston

Will post my progress on here as I get on.

New Blood Angels on the way

Well aren't I excited now. The official e-mail has come out and the forums are going nuts, Blood Angels are on their way. The new codex being released in April time.

This is the first codex I can say I am genuinely excited about owning. Blood Angels where the first 40k miniatures I collected and I have recently made a return to them.

What has also struck me is how nuts the rumour machine has gone already and how some plain fantasy wish list posting is after two pages of random nonsense segwayed by the odd bit off common sense has these wishlists quoted as fact. Rumours of space marines flying bats, flying landraiders, Captain Tycho back in 17 varients each of which come with more ICANHAZMURKILLLZZ!!11! better than before.

I for one am trying to take the restrained path so I offer the 4 of you that read this my insight into what will come in the new codex and will revisit it in April to see how accurate my predictions were

Dante - Stat line to bring him up to date with other chapter masters so gets orbital bombardment, eternal warrior and I am expecting a special rule based on the fact he is the oldest living chapter master at 1,100 years old. So something along the lines of "ancient tactition" or something like that....probably effecting reserve rolls in some way.

Tycho - Updated rules to bring his stats in line with Sicarius and the option of pre and post Hissy Fit rules and points

Lemartes - new sculpt and updated rules.

The return of Moriar the dreadnought as a HQ choice possibly.

Mephiston I am expecting big things for. With the inclusion of him in pre-lord of death guise in space hulk and the bump that Nigel got in the space pups dex I am expecting his stat line to remain the same but BAngles to get 6 phsyic powers to choose from the same as vanilla codex and puppies and for Mephiston to know all of them and cast 3 of them per turn. Not expecting an inv save for him though....he is T5 and 2+ as it is so only has to worry about doubling out from S10 and there isn't too much of that around. Rail guns and demolisher cannons he can hide in a squad from and any S10 hitting monsters or characters...well he has furious charge and S6 on the charge with a force weapon....I'd fancy his chances against Lysander (granted the force weapon doesn't help then but the volume of high S attacks does!)  or a big bug.

I can see the DC coming back as an elite option to be paid for as normal squad, either that or as a command squad type unit for a chaplain. Ie do not use a force org slot but you need a chaplain to buy one. Not predicting any massive new rules for them though, just a jig in how they are bought which leads me to......

Reduced cost of most units. tac squads, assault squads, dev squads....anything that had a points bump to account for "Free" DC models. I am expecting these to brought down in line with the standard marines codex with assault squads getting the options for flamers as well.

Also expecting the old Black rage rule to come back in some form or other, either in the form of furious charge across the board or unlocked by buying a captain and it replaces Chapter tactics.

With regards to models I would expect a blood angels box set with the option to assemble the units as either DC or assault squads with upgrady bits for other models. Also expecting a new predator release with plastic Baal assault cannons.

There are rumours of another vehicle on the same stand as a valkyre.....that I have no idea about and am not going to speculate or listen to rumour for the time being on that one.