Capital Gains

I haven't made much hobby progress this week as I've been busy with work and I've been mulling over where to focus my hobby efforts next.   My recent rekindling of my desire to play Orks is one possible avenue to pursue as well as I'd like to get a nice set of terrain for my table done.  I think I'll finish the Valkyrie terrain piece as dessert terrain and I think it would pretty easy (with the wire cutter) to make some dessert rocks, throw down a dessert mat and I'll have a decent set of dessert terrain.

The one semi-hobby related activity I've made progress in is some bartertown activity.  I picked up a damaged land raider for $20 to use as a terrain piece.  I could use it as a CSM piece that is possessed but I think another wrecked vehicle would be much cooler (and I would get a lot more use out of it). 

I also picked up a bike army on bartertown cheap.  I didn't buy it with any intention of using it, but the price was right in that I should be able to flip it on ebay and make some bucks off of it. I'll do even better if I break it up but I'm not sure that's worth the effort.  I occasionally do this kind of thing, usually I do better with these kinds of deals on craigslist/local store markets when I can pick up models at a deep discount.  It's a fantastic feeling when you can fund your hobby from within.   Anyone that knows me has heard me ramble on about how fantastic it can be to sell on eBay, rantings aside from the nutty fees, it is the best way to get afair price for your stuff. Maybe I'll write up a blog list about the method to my madness soon, but I'm not sure that's worth the effort as I do often break even or lose a couple of bucks and I really don't need to get flamed.

Distractions

 

I haven't done a lot on the gaming front, I spent most of the week busy with work and what little free time I had was taken up with posting (and shipping) 100+ RPG sourcebooks.  I decided a few weeks ago to sell off the majority of my RP books, most were just collecting dust.  I had worked in a few game stores in my twenties and RP book collecting became something of a disturbing habit.  I kept a few gems and some modern books but I decided the rest could get sacrificed to the eBay.

I did play in a FLGS' 1850 over the weekend, bringing my Orks.  I knew my Ork list was terrible, but didn't realize how terrible until I got my teeth kicked in by a 'nid list and a Blood Angel player.  I did fair well against an IG list, but it was because I got first turn, survived a bunch of KFF cover saves on my nob unit and got some power claws into base to base with his russ squadron.  

Sideproject - Valkyrie Down (update)

I added some more damage and painted up the crashed Valkyrie's exterior today.  I took the lazy route and used spray paint for the black undercoat as well as the green base coat.  I did end up using a brush to apply some boltgun metal to the inside of the model as well as the heavy bolter.

I started the base of the terrain piece by carving up some foam rocks, putting them on a piece of wood and adding sand.  I gave it a liberal coat of glue/water mix so I could spray it and 8 hours later (took forever to dry) sprayed it black.  It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but its about 12 inches by 12 inches.

 

Popping my Cherry

Most people who have played 40k as long as I have (more then 5 years on and off) know and understand how important it is to pin their models.   Some models are just so heavy, it is the only way to get them to go together and stay together.  My dirty gaming secret is that I never learned, thinking it was kind of a hassle and just suffered through broken limbs and holding models for an eternity in strange positions while glue dried.

I had planned on continuning the Valkyrie project but the hobby shop didn't have the foam cutter I needed, so I sat down and thought about what I wanted to work on.  I have a decent amount of stuff to paint but I really wanted to model.  I enjoy the modeling part a lot more then the painting of this hobby.   I've been secretly holding a candle for the Tau for a long time, and while I've been resisiting the urge to pick them up until a new codex drops I've been thinking of collecting a few to sate my wandering collecting urges. 

I'd converted a Broadside a while ago and it was the only Tau model I had kept when I had sold off the last army I collected.   He had broken in many pieces so I decided tonight was the night I would put him together.  While starting I decided to give pinning a shot.  I have the tools/pins and just hadn't ever had the urge to try.

Below is the model in pieces.  I put the suit back on the legs, but decided to pin the arms, as they were so heavy. 

 I drilled out the arms as well.

Then I put the pins in and started to assemble the arms.

 

I decided to pin the feet as well.  I broke them off, and put pins in the legs.  It was a bit tricky, as they were at funky angles.  Some of the pin is showing, but I think it will be okay.

All done. It was much easier then I thought it would be, and I'm sure this model will be able to stand up to the rigors of the modern battlefield much better then unpinned.

Sideproject - Valkyrie Down

Last October I picked up a partially built Valkyrie on eBay for $25.  It was an as is auction, meaning it was missing a sprue. When it got to me it was really only missing a few pieces, though it was enough that I couldn't use it in the IG army I was building.  I didn't mind at the time, because I love bits and you never know when you are going to need 95% of a model to do something.   I finally decided a few weeks ago what I wanted to use it for.  I'm going to make a crashed Valkyrie terrain piece.   I'm going to turn this....

Into this....

While listening to the witty banter of Nathan Fillion I assembled the remaining parts of the Valkyrie to be able to then destroy it.   The previous owner had obviously never heard of trimming the sprue before assembly and there are some pretty big gaps in the hull.  I tried to continue with this method of assembly to make it look like shock damage, we'll see how it comes it out.  I finished up the assembly of the model and now I need to work on details. 

I'm going to build the pilot, gunner and door gunner out of a combination of skeleton and the actual model pieces to make it look like they crashed, fought off some attackers, and then were killed. I'm thinking of picking up a bunch of heavy bolter casing pieces online to add on the ground around the door gunner.  I'm also planning on making the canopy appear shattered (you can see the clipped frame of the cockpit) and smash in the front of the model ( I am missing a piece of the bottom of the nose, as you can see) to cover up missing pieces. 

When I'm done it should make for a nice center piece for gaming.  I'm sure I'll be tossing my objective tokens on it every game I can.



Too Much Awesome

I've mentioned before how my gaming time gets infringed upon by other hobbies. Like an 19th century nobleman I just can't have one mistress.   I often feel the pull and have to pick which of my interests grabs me.  I tend to suffer from a bit of "whats new gets my attention" syndrome, though I've done better in the last few years.  Occasionally I have to pick among a few things going on what to spend my limited amount of free time on.  This weekend is going to be brutal.

Warhammer is having a big weekend, as Adepticon is taking place in Chicago.  While I never would consider actually going, getting sucked up and obsessively following blog and forum coverage is a natural choice.  This year should be really interesting as guys at The Independent Characters are broadcasting the final table.  I watched their test games and it looks like they have found a way to make 40k into a spectator sport.

The next event to grab my gnat like attention span is Wondercon.  Its a comicbook convention held annually in SF. A friend introduced me to it three or four years and its become an annual tradition.  Usually there is a panel or two about some piece of pop culture we partake in, but mostly we go to see the crazy cos players and see all the ridiculous-ness that comes from a comic book convention.

The last event is that it is the opening weekend for one of the two professional paintball leagues this weekend.  This event I've always wanted to check out and never gotten around to it.  Normally there is not much coverage until after the fact on forums/you tube/magazines but this year is a bit different.  ESPN is actually covering the event, on ESPN3's website.  Not exactly on sports center, but still pretty cool.

I'm not sure yet how I'm going to spend my time this weekend during this rare perfect storm.

Faith No More

Spent Saturday night painting up a few replacement models for the Raptors army as well as getting a game in.   I was also inspired to put brush to model, as I had ordered a missile launcher conversion from Irondog Studios.  When it showed up on Thursday I spent some time to finish up some Black Reach termies to build two.  I'll talk about the resin conversion pieces in a separate post, but the short version is I liked the look of them.  I had primed up a modified terminator as well as the Black Reach captain I was going to use as the Raptor's chapter master.

A few notes about the paint job the Raptors are wearing...

The army wasn't painted by me, it was painted by a good friend who is a much....much better painter.  I do want to put that on Front Street, I don't want any semblance of trying to take credit. No shenanigans like the 2010 Grad Waaagh here. The army was done by him trying paint up right before a Dundracon a few years ago and the rapid painting techniques employed to finish the models in a hurry look better then what I put out when I take my time.  So matching the look was going to be a challenge.  I was able to approximate the look of the models and finish most of the terminator and the captain model in the afternoon/early evening so we could actually get in a game that night. 

Without going into a ridiculous level of detail ( I hate battle reports in most cases, because they seem so self absorbed) I did take a few pictures and had some thoughts to share about the game.  My buddy (the same one who painted the Raptors) had brought his Sisters of Battle over to my place for a game.  We played at 1850 as I had wanted to try the Raptor list I was running.  The list I had included:

• Lias Issodan (Raptors Chapter Master from IA9)
• Assault Squad, ten strong with 2 flamers
• Terminator Squad, 5 strong with a cyclone missile launcher
• Two Sterngaurd Squads, 5 strong with 2 missile launchers and 2 combi-meltas
• Four Tactical squads, 10 strong with a flamer and missile launcher
• Two Devastator squads, 5 strong with 5 missile launchers

The basic idea of the list is to sit on objectives/blast the opponent.  It sometimes works, but usually runs into trouble in assault.  I've found basic marines are pretty good at not dying, but terrible at actually killing anything. 

We rolled up a spearhead deployment with annihilation as the mission.  I ended up getting to pick my side but the Sisters stole the initiative.   It turned out to really cost me, not getting the opening round of shooting.  His list, as you can see had many transports.  By the end of the first turn he was on top of me with only one transport popped.

The next few turns saw the Raptors getting whittled down one or two squads at a time.  I thought my assault squad could finally take the fight to the Sisters after both of my Dev squads getting cooked (along with my HQ) by marauding Sisters of Battle.

Regretabbly that didn't happen the way I had hoped, and my assault squad got stomped and made a beeline off the board.  Emperor's finest my butt.....

At this point my entire left flank had been crushed as the Assault Squad ran off the board, the Terminators got crushed (I failed 4 saves in one turn) so I fell back into the building, and tried to pick off what I could to get some KPs.  The Sisters moved up and began to return the favor.

The game went on for one more turn, I was able to pull out another kill point but the sisters got two more.

At the end of turn six I rolled a one to end the game.  Although the game ended with 9-6 it was a bit of a deceptive score as my opponent really shwacked me well.   The sisters had lost a few squads and a few transports but I was down to 3 of my original squads.  The Raptors were combat ineffective.  It was a fantastic game for me, even though I lost, as I got to play a round against the Sisters and learn how faith points work.  I also have to give anyone who plays the army credit as that is a painful army in the wallet.