Brother-Captain Turel, reporting for duty.

Here's my latest work (for Space Marines, anyway.) This is a counts as Shrike model I worked up, and if I ever get more assault marines, he will see some action on the tabletop. For now, however, he is little more than a centerpiece. In any case, props to Jawaballs for his wing tutorials! I did mine far too small, but used the basic techniques to create my own wing pattern. I may have to try the wings again in the future. Anyway, here's some pics of the newest addition to the Dawn Crusaders command structure!

AstroMag Article Response

After reading the excellent new issue of the AstroMag, I felt somewhat inspired and uplifted by the first article, entitled "40K in 2009: the Big Picture." The author brings out excellent points that quite frankly, as gamers in a niche market, we're complaining far too much about a company that in the grand scheme of things is pretty stinking small. They're running 3 popular miniatures games systems with a staff of 77 creative developers total. In other words, there are video game studios with a higher number of creative staff. They're doing their best, so pipe down and enjoy your hobby. That was the general idea of the article. I agree with this for the most part, but there is one statement that I take issue with, and I will quote it for you now:

"In a hobby advertised not through mass marketing but rather through word of mouth, it is imperative that our words and our corresponding actions support Games Workshop in every decision they make."

In every decision they make? No, I don't think so. For example, I don't think that dropping Imperial Guardsmen troops from 20 to 10 troops in a box is a great decision. Does it make some amount of business sense? Sure, but charging the same price for half the models is a bit extreme, in my opinion. Yeah, the world economy is in bad shape, but I think that this may push all but the most driven of potential Guard players away to an extent, minimizing the number of Guard horde armies. This leads to a generally stale set of army list composition. While I agree that we need to be positive about the game and most certainly its developers, if we ever stop questioning decisions completely and letting GW know about our concerns in an intelligent, irenic fashion they will begin to make more and more decisions without consumer feedback, which is important to any business. So ultimately, if we give our complaints the right vehicle, they do matter.

I suppose that that is the real point of the article: vent your spleen to the right person in the right venue. It does no good to complain to your buddy about a decision GW makes, let your concerns be known to GW in a civilized manner if you want to get a decent answer. The answer may not be one you like, but they are much more likely to give you a good reason if your complaint isn't along the lines of "OMG, u r teh suxxor!!!!1! Brng bak teh infnite asslts whit teh corn brzrkrs lol!" And for goodness sake, if you're trying to bring a new player into the game, don't constantly complain about GW in front of them. That's just going to scare them off, decreasing your number of potential opponents.

Overall, I definitely agree with the author of "Big Picture" for the most part, but I would say that you should never forget that if you're going to complain, there is a proper time and place to do so. Remember, words do have a great amount of power, so be careful what you say, and to whom.

1850 Potential Tourney List

After a bit of brain storming and looking over what I have, I came up with the following list. I present it to you now for consideration.

HQ
Space Marine Chapter Master -- 170 pts.
--Boltgun
--Artificer Armor
--Relic Blade

Space Marine Chaplain -- 125 pts.
--Jump Pack
--Digital Weapons

Elites
Dreadnought -- 125 pts.
--Assault Cannon
--Heavy Flamer

1x5 Terminators --230
--Assault Cannon

Troops
1x10 Man Tactical Squad--205 points
--Flamer
--Multi-melta
--Rhino

1x10 Man Tactical Squad--255 points
--Plasma gun
--Missile launcher
--Razorback (TL Lascannon)

Fast Attack
1x10 Man Assault Squad -- 215
--Powerfist
--Combat Shield
--Melta Bombs

Heavy Support
Whirlwind -- 85 points

Land Raider --250 points

Predator -- 190 points
--Autocannon
--Lascannon Sponsons
--Sgt. Chronus

TOTAL: 1850

The way I see it working out is I'll have the Chapter Master joined to the Terminators inside the LR to go forth and kill what they can. The MM Tac Squad in the Rhino will go hunting, while the Razorback Tac Squad will set up as a kind of forward fire base. The Whirlwind will be set up to start smashing hordes, with the Predator tooled up for support, hopefully from behind cover. The Dreadnought will mainly be used as a hunter/distraction. The Assault marines, finally, will be paired with the Chaplain and used for interdiction. I plan to keep them behind cover/out of line of sight until they're in a good position to ruin somebody's day.

Feel free to let me know what you think!

Layout Changes and Table Construction

Well, normally I refuse to do these sort of posts on principle, because they do little to actually further the content of my blog, but I made some layout changes. I felt like the widgets got far too distracting on the left side when trying to read a post, so now they're over there ----->.

In order to satisfy my own standards, let it be known that a friend and I have started working on making 2' x 4' table top sections for our games. We used the basic plans from miniwargaming.com, found in their "How to" articles section. Hopefully the tabletops will be done shortly after finals are over. They aren't the prettiest or the most professionally done, but we're not professionals, and it gives us some excuse to play wi...ehrm...get more experience with power tools.

Last, but by no means least, I am getting ready for a tournament. 1850. A list will be posted shortly for criticism/suggestions.

Thank you, and good night!

Door Hinging: how to

I realize that I am making this post in an era of magnetization, in which models are almost always magnetized to maximize the number of options available to them. And this is an excellent idea! However, I have yet to see a tutorial using magnetization (please point one out to me if you have seen it!) in order to make Land Raider and Rhino/Razorback doors articulate on their hinges. With a great deal of ignorance, I tried a few things out, and surprisingly, they seem to have worked. Here is my method of hinging transport doors, for your consideration.

Materials needed:
Pin vice
Wire clippers
Staple(s)
Green-stuff
Model (duh)

Step 1: First, you have to decide that you really want to do this to your doors. Once this is done, there is no going back in terms of being able to magnetize options effectively. Once that decision has been made, get your model ready!

Step 2: Drill holes into the sides of the hatch jam with your pin vice. An example is below. However, I would suggest drilling one of those holes at a straight on 90 degree angle for ease of installation later. I put in two 45 degree angle holes to help hold the staples in, and while it worked fine for the first, the second staple was a real bugger to get in. Again, your call, but save yourself some of the hassle.

Step 3: Drill holes into the door hinges.

Step 4: Get a single staple, and carefully cut it in half with your wire clippers. The best method for doing this and still being able to find the pieces, I found, is to hold the staple with two fingers of your non-cutting hand on your work-mat, and clipping with the other hand.

Step 5: Put half of the staple into one of the door hinges, and the second in the other. Hold them both in, and clip them in the center area to get them down to size.

Step 6: Finagle your door/staple monstrosity into the holes you drilled into the frame. The fit should be pretty snug.

Step 7: On the other side of the frame, either bend the staples towards the center of the frame, or swivel them down next to the frame and trim off the excess (the latter is a lot easier.)

Step 8: Get a nice, big glob of green stuff, divide it in half, and smear each half over the exposed staple. (Example below. It's hard [maybe impossible] to see, but there is still part of an exposed staple on the left!)

Step 9: Admire the majesty of your now articulated doors! Since the fit is so tight, the staples will be held in place by a combination of pressure inside the jam and green stuff smeared on the inside of the frame.


And that's that! I hope it's inspired you to not skimp on making those doors articulate now, because it's really not that big of a deal. One word of caution, though: NEVER try to shove anything through a small hole with your pin vice. The bits WILL snap, leaving you up a creek without a paddle.

As always, questions and comments are welcome, and if you've magnetized hinges, by all means, show me! I would love to see your work!

Wednesday Work

Well, I got the stupid idea of making the side doors on my new Land Raider chassis articulate. No, not meaning they will be able to recite Shakespeare (though that'd be a heck of a trick!) but rather that they're mobile. I learned a few good things after making a few distinct mistakes, which I will cover in a future tutorial when I (hopefully) make the doors on my Razorback completely articulate. Pictures will be coming, but I'm afraid Blogger's photo capabilities are failing me at the moment. (What else is new, eh?)

EDIT: Photos are up. Enjoy!

Coming down the pipes

I got in another team game a few nights ago (no bat rep, unfortunately) and my team-mate and I won. Go us! 1500 points a player, Dawn of War, annihilation, we won 9 KPs to 6.

Now that the jubilation is over, I thought I'd share what's currently on my work table awaiting their fates:

1 Land Raider Chassis
1 Master of the Chapter
1 Devestator Squad
1 metal Veteran w/Lightning Claws & Jump Pack (counts as Shrike)
4 Tactical marines, final equipment fate undecided
5 Terminators
5 Assault Marines w/ Jump Packs
1 Jump Pack Chaplain to be stripped and repainted.
1 Razorback

Hopefully I'll be able to get some work done soon. I have a few days off for Easter break, but I have some other obligations to attend to first, as well as some tests coming up after we get back to school. Hopefully, once I get this stuff painted, there will be pictures to prove it.

Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to leave me a comment, if the mood strikes you.