Storm of Magic

Well, Storm of Magic, Warhammer's first ever expansion has finally been released. I am going to do a quick overview for those of you who don't really know what I am talking about. Storm of Magic, as I had said before, is Warhammers first expansion. As the name implies Storm of Magic revolves around, magic. Wizards are just about the best piece that you can have in a game of Storm of Magic. They can summon monsters, make pacts with demons and other mages, and can cast the very powerful cataclysm spells. Really, if left to its own devises, a wizard can summon up enough energy to wipe out a whole army. Another very important aspect of Storm of Magic are the arcane fulcrums. These are objectives that also hold a larger in game purpose. A wizard must capture them to win the game and they also offer some protection as well as increase the wizards magical abilities.

In a way, I am not a big  fan of Storm of Magic. I like to play more balanced games where one piece can not turn the entire tide of battle just by casting one spell. Also in my case, all my armies have no wizards or any big monsters so I have to buy more pieces just to enjoy one game. Over all though, Storm of Magic looks really fun, but just don't count on playing a balanced game.

Carnifexes, Buildings With Guns, and Defense Lines

This past Fourth of July week has been a very uneventful week for most of the projects I've been working on. I had a cousin over for a few days who also brought along his Tyranid army with him. I was unable to do any painting, simply because the table I paint on, was covered in tons of Tyranids. I did though, magnetize a Carnifex. This was something I had not really tried, I simply never felt I had something that could benefit from being magnetized. Firstly I drilled a small hole into where the two joints would meet. I repeated this step with all the arm options that were going to be magnetized. I then cut a small amount of magnet off a strip of refrigerator magnet I had found around the house. And that was my one slip up. The refrigerator magnet is hard to get into the right size and also has really weird way of magnetizing. I would recommend using a very small, strong, and circular magnet. Lastly I glued the magnets into the holes and I was done. I cant say I did a very good job but I did learn a bit about what kind of magnet is best for this kind of job.

When I was not helping out my cousin with his army or watching The Three Stooges I would play around with some of the buildings I have. When I found lots of guns I had left over from a heavy weapons team, I knew just what I was going to do with them. I grabbed my Imperial Basilica Administratum, some glue, all the heavy weapons, and made a very well armed building.

I aslo went out and bought a Defense Line. I love the way the walls fit together and the turret is really cool. I would recommend this to a person who is starting to build up a collection of landscape pieces.

Well, as I said before, I had a very uneventful week, and this is just about all that happened.

Innocence Proves Nothing

Man-kinds strongest tool against the alien, daemon, and the heretic is the Inquisition. A secret organization  unknown to the population of the Imperium, the Inquisition is built up of three different Ordos. The Ordo Hereticus is by far the largest of the the three Ordos and it is its members job to watch for enemies within. The Ordo Malleus contains the most incorruptible and dangerous Inquisitors, and is assigned to defend man-kind from daemons. Lastly, The Ordo Xenos is skilled at defending man-kind from aliens. Each of these Ordos has their own military group. The Astartes of the sixth hundred sixty sixth chapter are one of the most specialized force at fighting daemons, and as such, are permanently attached to the Ordo Malleus. The Deathwatch is the most dedicated and skilled at fighting aliens and forms the chamber militant of The Ordo Xenos. The Adepta Sororitas, are in charge of the Black Ships and also form the chamber militant of the Ordo Hereticus.

That's one long intro for a small post so before I go more in depth about the Inquisition I should probably cut to the point. For awhile I have been working on a small Inquisitorial army. The thing that really stands out about it is that most of the pieces in the force are kit bashed. From a lone Grey Knight Shadow Sword to a Deathwatch Command Squad, every piece has a unique look. My goal for this force is to get a few units from each Ordo. This is going to be a more of a display army. So far I have a command squad from the Deathwatch, a Shadow Sword, and a small squad from the Grey Knights. Here are the forces of the Ordo Xenos I have so far. Oh, each piece also has a name.

Brother Captain Titus of the Ultra Marines, seconded to the Deathwatch, leads my Command Squad/ Kill Team. This is a  easy piece to make, its all from the captain set except for the helm, sword, and torso. They are from the Black Templar Chapter Upgrade set.

Inquisitor Drake Valius, armed with Conversion Beamer and Force Sword. Ordo Xenos. The Conversion Beamer is made from an arm of a servitor and the cape is made of green stuff. All the rest of the pieces come from the Black Templar Chapter Upgrade set.

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The whole squad. They were built using the Command Squad set along with bits from just about most of the Space Marine sets.

 The Grey Knight portion of the army is in dire need of new pieces, three out of four metal pieces, that's not too great. 

Old Grey Knights...

The entire force. The Shadow Sword is painted in the colors of the Grey Knights.

I still need pieces from the Ordo Hereticus to finish off this army. The organization of the force is the Deathwatch forms the back bone of the army while the Grey Knights and Sisters of Battle are the more elite units. I've been working on the Deathwatch a lot lately as they will be staring in a upcoming battle report and I am sure thats something you will really not want to miss.

  

Three Halves of Space Marines and Projects Long Forgotten

I was looking at all of my armies today when three very small marines caught my eye. When I picked them up I realized that I had found some of my test models that I had never finished. Whenever I get an idea about some new cool unit I like to draw out that idea or even better, gather together some spares and build a test model. These test models then become regular pieces in my army. But these three never did.  The first test model was a scout that helped lay down the standard kit for all my scouts.

The one Scout Sergeant that set down the basic kit for all my scouts. All the kit was just little bits from sets from the Space Marine range. 

The next two were both inspired by the Marines Malevolent, who appeared in Salamander by Nick Kyme. I was aiming for a more old and mismatched appearance. 

The Sergeant of the squad, its body is from a Chaos Space Marine. 

The Techmarine was a much more unique conversion. The Servo Arm is actually an arm from a Servitor   and the Shotgun is from the Scouts set.

The squads Techmarine.

I hope that one day these respectable enough pieces will have legs. Sadly, I found more pieces I had forgotten about.   

A Dreadknight, part of a very small Grey Knight army, is one of my favorite pieces. I reposed the legs to make it look as if the Dreadknight was running forward.

 

An  unfinished Eisenhorn.

I have to say that I like all of these pieces a lot. You can't tell from the picture but, the Dreadknight looks really good and no green stuff was even needed. I will do a post on it in the near future. If you could not pick up any thing useful  from this post then you did not pick up its meaning. When you start something, make sure to finish it. This is a tip that can help a lot when it comes to making a fully converted and painted army. 

To Build a Board

For a few months now I have been thinking about making my own home-made gaming board and today I have finally started on it. Firstly I had to decide on what I wanted my board to be made out of and what I wanted it to look like. I settled for a board made out of two 48x24 pieces of plywood, with the landscape made out of chicken wire and plaster. The plywood and chicken wire is not to expensive, but can still work just as well as an other material.

Every thing needed to make the base of the board.

The first thing to do was to make the base of the board. This stage was very easy and involved just about no work. I decided it would be best to add some form of support to the board to stop it from buckling, so I added eight 1/4x2x2 planks around all the edges of the board except for one 48 inch long edge on each board. When I finished I had two pieces of wood that when placed together would form a 48x48 board.

What I have done so far.

The next step I need to get to is to get the chicken wire and then plaster it.

Tips About Leading From The Front: Part 2

Including Unique Characters into your armies can bring many benefits. The most basic of these is that most often they can be the strongest HQ or Lords and Heroes options available to you. Also its not to uncommon to find a Unique Character that can cost less than an other HQ or Lords and Heroes with full upgrades. Unique Characters also have their own unique equipment that can really help them in most combat situations.

But, some Unique Characters can even change the entire organization of their army. Castellan Garran Crowe of the Grey Knights makes Purifiers Troop choices and Commander Dante of the Blood Angles makes Sanguinary Guard count as Troop choices as well. Grand Masters of the Grey Knights (As well as the Supreme Grand Master) have a special rule that can make units that are not normally scoring units, into scoring units. And a Bretonnian, King Louen Leoncouer, lifts the 0-1 restriction on Grail Knights.

Now who is better, Unique Characters or the other guys? I have to say, that in my opinion, Unique Characters are better, but I like to use a Space Marine Captain more than Marneus Calgar, I like to be able to make a unique back-ground for my leaders.

Tips About Leading From The Front: Part 1

Todays post is about one of any army's most important people, the general. In Warhammer, depending on how you play, I find that the general does best at the front of a large unit. The kind of protection this offers is most welcomed, if you don't want that 200+ point investment to be shot up by that group of archers. But, in 40K the role of general really does vary. The front lines may not always be the best place for a psyker, who is capable of aiding the army from a distance. Truly though, most of the time a general can have the most effect on a battle by being where the fighting is the thickest.  
        The general also normally has the opportunity to take a wide selection of special equipment, thus making an already strong piece even stronger. When ever I play Warhammer with my Bretonnians, I almost always use the same combination of equipment. I give my lord the Virtue of Empathy (20pts), saving me points on no longer having to get a steed, then I give him the Armour of Agilulf (25pts). The armour counts as a shield and heavy armour and confers a 4+ save and sadly the save can not be increased and the shield must be used at all times. That may not sound very good but thats not all it does. It also gives the wearer 10 weapon skill, which is much better than a weapon skill of 6. Next on the list of equipment is Siriennes Locket (55pts), which makes it so that the lord can take only one wound per turn. Lastly a very average Bitting Blade (10pts) helps bring down the enemies armour saves. In the end I have a lord that is very good in close combat, as well as very hard to harm in close combat, and a lord that at the minimum takes three turns to kill. When I play with him, I will normally field him with a large block of Men-At-Arms and then try to get him into the fighting as fast as posable.
          For 40K I like to take a very similar approach. For Space Marine Captains power weapons are ideal and Terminator Armour is even better. Who does not like a 2+ save. For more frail races such as Eldar and Dark Eldar I like to go all out on their armour, since they are much easer to kill and then spend a small amount of points on a good but cheap close combat weapon, Power Weapons. Also for Space Marine players Melta Bombs can be a very good idea if you think you will run into a bit of tank support and a Jump Pack can help you get your captain get to where he needs to be fast.
         Its also good to think about different ways of using your armies general. For 40K why not man that high ballistic skill model on a turret until the enemy reaches you. And in Warhammer your general can really help increase Leadership, so it really can pay to keep him near your main lines. Also any general with a high stat line, good weapons, and armour should go after other generals and heroes. In the end its a good idea to equip your general with some of the best equipment to help him use his abilities to the best of his capability and to make sure that your general is making the largest impact as possible, you don't want to see those points being used for nothing, do you?
          A few things to remember are that its good to give your general equipment that will help him in what you are going to have him do and that some times you don't need to give your armies general any equipment, they can be just that good.

Citadel Finecast

By now you should have heard of Citadel Finecast. For those of you that have not, where have you been for the last week. But to put it down in more simple terms, Citadel Finecast is a highly detailed resin that has replaced many of Citadels metal models. The detail on each model is just amazing. Each piece looks just as the original "green" did. Finecast is also very easy to work with, as the resin is much less brittle as the metal duplicate. Its also more easy to paint the pieces since the details are much more prominent. Combined with extreme detail, easy to work with, and almost feather like weight, Finecast seems to be the next best thing Citadel has ever released. But with all things nothing is ever perfect. Air bubbles are all to common and some can even be quite large. Truthfully though, these can be very easy to patch up and a little green stuff can handle the large ones. I would also like to point out that many parts can be a bit flimsy, but is that all too bad.
          So when the release date finally came I had to make the decision, what Finecast piece should I get. I decided on The Green Knight, sculpted by Michael Perry. The Green Knight is my all time favorite model, and to say otherwise would be a lie. It was my first ever Warhammer piece and as such, has a special place in my heart. Also I messed up big time on the paint job and the thought of being able to repaint my favorite model, that was now in Finecast has just so exciting. So I got the model and set to work building it.    
          The resin was so light. What would have weighed as much as a rock now weighs near to nothing. Also those pesky mold lines and extra pieces of resin were so easy to clean up. There were just three problems. One, the very end of the shield was missing, darn air bubbles. Two, The Dolorous Blade was as twisted as a chaos spawn. And three, there was a huge gap in The Shadow Steeds chest. Problems Two and Three were solved with the simple use of a hair dryer. By heating up the resin you can move parts of the resin that you would not normally be able to. So I was able to straiten out the Dolorous Blade and push together the gap in the chest, no green stuff needed. The shield was repaired with a bit of green stuff. When I was done I was impressed by the over all look of the model. The barding did not look as heavy and the detail on the shield was much more crisp.
           In the end, except for just a few flaws, Citadel Finecast is just amazing and I recommend getting one.

Detail of barding.

What Its All About

This blog is for the kind of person who is interested in the modeling area of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. I hope to introduce new ideas to help you make the perfect gaming pieces. I will also post battle missions and battle reports. Here is a small taste of what I will be doing.

One of the most basic and simple way of improving a squad of Space Marines is adding character to its members. May they be a regular Tactical Squad or even Terminators, simple turns of the torso, raising of a bolt gun, and moving the head of the model can really add character and a sense of atmosphere to the squad. Adding bits can also greatly help improve this look.

Aggressive Stances 

A model aiming down his bolt gun is much more imposing than a model with its gun lowered. To make a good shooting model its best to have much of the weight on the models back foot, as if bracing against the recoil of his gun. For heavier weaponry, such as melta and plasma guns you can emphasize the weight of the gun by having the gun held lower towards the ground. For models that are armed with pistols you position the head slightly to the side as if the model is sighting down his pistol as he fires. For models that armed with close combat weapons it is a good idea to have them held in consideration to what the weapon looks like and also to its weight and to have the torso leaned forward. For Power and Chain Swords, I like to have them held forward, as if they are being slashed down at an enemy. Power Fists and Thunder Hammers are much more heavy and strike slower and should be positioned so the are swung back, preparing to be smashed into the enemy.

This Blood Angles Captain has his Storm Shield leveled as if blocking oncoming fire. His Thunder Hammer is swung back, building up strength for impact.

Defensive Stances


Lowered weapons and more watchful poses can help make the look of a squad that is waiting for the enemy to make the first move. Models armed with a Bolt Gun are the best for this kind of pose, as it can be easy to make it look as if it is being held at rest. Having the model looking forward or away from his gun can make the model look more aware. A model with a auspex or kneeling legs could fit in to a squad like this very nicely.

Adding on Bits and Other Kinds of Detail 


Bits are just wonderful at adding character to a squad. They can help make them look more elite and more prepared for combat. Its best to try to add on kit, such as ammunition pouches, holsters, grenades, and combat blades, if you are trying to make a more real looking squad. Adding purity seals can make a squad look more elite than it normally would. Lastly drilling holes into the larger armor plates, shoulder pauldrons, can make the squad look more worn down.