First Battle

I played my first game of 40k since about 1992 this past Wednesday night at the Los Angeles battle bunker. We picked one of the great tables that they have there that depicts an Ork camp I guess you would call it. Tons of cut up bits and sprue in piles around the board.

We chose the three player scenario in the back of the 5th ed rule book, "Broken Alliance".

My Chaplain faces off against a Farseer at the center of the board.

It turned out Space Marine vs. Space Marine vs Eldar in a 550pt battle.

Slorak's Son's of Dorn defend the plant from Wall-E from my Dreadnought.

The game ended in a draw as my scouts captured the center cap point, but left my home base unguarded. All in all, I had a lot of fun relearning the rules (Im not sure I ever even knew them anyway) and navigating the ton of dangerous terrain on the Ork board.

The postman brought some presents yesterday as well:

A games day captain from ebay, and my Forgeworld order of weathering powders and Imperial Fist Land Raider doors.

I am excited for these and hopefully I will have a review up once I figure out how to properly use them!

Painting Yellow

My previous method of painting yellow with Iyanden Darksun over black undercoat has left me wanting a little more.

In leafing through some old White Dwarfs, I came across a masterclass for painting a Bad Moons Warboss in Issue WD350(US) (also available here, but you need to log in).

Basically it calls for an basecoat of Tausept Ochre:


A wash of Gryphone Sepia in the receses:



Then a midcoat of Iyanden Darksun+Golden Yellow (a 1 to 1 mix):



Highlights are an equal parts Iyanden Darksun+Golden Yellow+Skull White. I actually added more white as my mixture was a little watery after adding a drop of water.

Here is the result on a non-test model:






So there you have it, I am pretty pleased with this method and the results give the models a little more depth and character.

The White Dwarf article also gives a great little snippet on painting battle damage that I used to cover up a small divit from clipping the model from the sprue.



And here is a poor picture of my attempt on the shoulder pauldron:

Chaplain Work

Was able to steal a few moments to get some work done on my Chaplain today. Ive got a faint highlight going, but need to work on it some more. I am really pleased with how the skull helm has turned out.



Got a few squad members starting to shape up:

Disaster!

After sitting in a simple green bath for a day and a half, the rhino emerged in not so great a condition. The paint refused to come off of the plastic of the rhino, while the primer came straight off for the most part of the Forgeworld extra armor.

So I decided to stick it in the freezer to loosen the glue to remove the forgeworld parts. Of course several pieces shattered...



The rhino is a loss, but the forgeworld parts may be salvageable...we will have to see.

On a better note, I finished up the sergeant.

Salvage Work

I pulled an old Rhino out of the Bitz pile/box to transport one of my tactical squads.



It definitely will need a date with a Simple Green bath, as there is something funky with the top half of it.



Ill let it sit all day tomorrow, and get it primed and basecoated this weekend.



As you can see, it is outfitted with extra armor from forgeworld and will include a pintle mounted storm bolter.

Local Gamers?

According to Google Analytics, I get quite a few hits from the Orange County/LA Area.

I just thought I'd put this out here: Would any of you like to get involved in with a Tale of Four Gamers ?

I think we could use one more to round out the group. We plan on meeting the first Tuesday of every month at the LA Battle Bunker , usually from about 5pm till 8pm.

Failing that, would anyone be interested in forming some sort of Orange County gaming club?

Drop me a note in comments if you are interested.

Almost There and P3 Paints

Getting there slowly. In between football and normal weekend activities I got the dread to a point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am a very slow painter.







I am very pleased how the green targeting lenses came out.

There is some small detail work to be done to be sure, but I'll be able to paint the rim of the base and varnish it tomorrow hopefully.

I was able to get my hands on some of Privateer Press's P3 formula paints.



The reds seem like they may make a good system for the Space Hulk Terminators.

Does anyone have any experience with the paints? Tips? Testimonials?

Sarcophagus Work

After a long day, I was able to steal some minutes to get some work done on the Dread's sarcophagus.

It's a bit blown out from the flash here, but the wings do have more definition than that, but a few very thin washes of Asurmen should help pick out the detail on the wings a bit better.

I always have a hard time with white, it either looks too chalky or too runny. This came out okay, but could be a bit tidier.

I do like the the white on the black background though.

365 Points Progress

I've made some headway on the Dread with its many coats of yellow:



I am stuck at a point on what the sarcophagus should look like. I am thinking keeping the background black and doing the eagle, skull and scroll in white. Or filling in the back with yellow and doing the wings and skull in red.

What say you?



Here's some work on the sergeant.

Overall its taking a little longer than I am anticipating, but hopefully I can get these156 pts out of 365 pts ready by wednesday.

365 Points

Ive decided to tackle the Tale of Four Gamers with 365 points first. That includes the Dreadnought and one Tactical Squad.

First up, the Dreadnought:



Got it based and primed, and a quick drybrush of Boltgun on the metal parts. Added a few items; a Forgeworld purity seal and an Imperial Fist icon from the GW Imperial Fist Conversion Pack .

This is, of course, the ubiquitous Black Reach Dread.

Next, a sergeant from the tactical squad:



This, I believe, is a GamesDay limited edition, with a simple arm swap. Base coated, drybrushed and based.

I've decided to stick with Imperial Fists, but went a different direction with the yellow, using Iyanden Darksun rather than the Tamiya Camel Yellow spray.

I am probably going to make them part of the Imperial Fist's 5th company with the black rimed shoulder pauldrons.

Tale of Four Gamers

I was lucky to stumble upon a thread on the Librarium Online forums about a group of gamers in my area that were trying to start up a group to take on a Tale of Four Gamers adventure. It had been some time since the thread had been active, but after messaging one of the contributors, interest was again stirred after their efforts had stalled early this year.

We met at the local Battle Bunker and discussed starting it back up. Since two other members had already had an indeterminate number of points left over, we decided to take the first month to have me catch up point wise.

Here is what I have ahead of me this month:

Its about 550 points which should keep me very busy.

Along with Space Hulk, it is a very full hobby month!