Malifaux

Well this is the new hotness at the local store. Between summer vacation with the kids, travel for work, and the crazyness of the normal routine I have not played, painted or posted as much as I would like. More on Malifaux is coming soon though. This will include pictures and reports from the games and tournaments I have had. I do have my Lady Justice crew completed and I am working on Perdita now. There are a few new releases coming up soon as well. For now check out this picture from Wyrd on their new release coming August.

So busy in March

I have been so busy lately I just have not found the time to make a post. But never worry I have been very busy!

My Stormraven is near completion. With a fully painted interior no less. I have started to assemble my Death Company Dread and it will be magnetized just like the ‘raven. Next thing will be to pick up my Death Company box set.

I have started painting my Malifaux Lady Justice crew. I picked up an Executioner and Austringer. I also picked up the Perdita crew box; it is waiting for assembly and priming. I played in a paint and play event. I am planing to play in a another paint and play event today. Unfortunately, I will not able to play in the tourney on Wednesday.

You see I finished my Dale Carnegie class. The wife was explicit… You need to spend the next Wednesday with your family! After almost three months, well I agree. I picked up Castle Ravenloft, Ruins of Ashardalon and the 25th Anniversary edition of Battletech boxed set to play with the family as a graduation gift to me. ( its nice to have so much disposable income) So there is plenty to do on Wednesdays without the damn class!

I picked off two birds on the last season of Pheasant season too! One friend demanded that I go on to hunt dove so that my marksmanship would be humbled trying to hit those birds. I was two birds up, two kills on two shells so I understand the comment … My Benelli is a cadillac…

I promise pictures of the Lady J crew and the Stormraven soon!

February hobbying – Stormraven sighted

I actually got quite a lot of stuff done in February. The lateness of this post is simply due to how busy I’ve been . I started my Dale Carnegie class as well as celebrated too many birthdays. But the highlight of the month was dinner with my parents (at Bennihana’s for my dad’s 70th) followed by a night of decreasing my hearing followed by drunken debauchery. Seriously though I took my beautiful wife to see Tainted Love at Harlow’s. I can not recommend this band enough, though a week later and my right ear still hurts.

Back to the hobby. I acquired my Stormraven. I have to disagree with all of the haters, this model is quite a rocking addition to any Blood Angels force. I really wish it was an option for my Ultramarines. I should have pictures up before the end of the month, I’m currently painting up the interior and magnetizing the weapons and so far it is all turning out great. But for now, I’m taking a break on GW games because I have discovered Malifaux.

I recommend anyone into tabletop wargaming check out Malifaux. A mix of steampunk, western and Victorian with a liberal helping of the mystical and supernatural really set this game apart. Not to mention that this game uses cards instead of dice. Several of the really nice guys I’ve met have convinced me to start playing. It works out pretty good for me too, when my class is over I’ll just keep wednesday for gaming and head over to Great Escape Games after work. So now GW is paused while I build up my Malifaux crew.

Today me and the kids had an indoor day due to the rain, they hung out and played games, I put together my Lady J crew plus an Austringer and an Executioner. This is all I need to play a 25-35 point game, and that should be most games. A word of caution; these models are incredibly detailed and attractive but they are delicate and “fiddly” beyond belief. This game, both the models and the game rules, is not for beginners. I recommend starting with GW plastic first. I’ve been modeling since high school (D&D and Battletech) and these models took every bit of my green stuff / pinning / sculpting / basing / modifying skills to get them assembled and on their bases. They are bare metal at the moment with all the green showing (the executioner, Austringer and death marshals all needed TLC). I will take pics before I put on the white base coat. Yep, white is my preferred canvas for hero models and every single model in Malifaux is a hero. I am sure I will spend weeks on each model painting to as high a standard as I can achieve. Since a whole army is just six models I am looking forward to it, unlike the daunting task of building a forest goblin army for Warhammer Fantasy. But more on that later…

January hobbying update

Hello everyone and welcome to my first hobby post for 2011. For your viewing pleasure I present three models that all were completed in January.

Up first is my repaired Black Orc Warboss on Wyvern. Back in December this model made a personal attempt to see if it could really fly, straight off of an 7 foot high shelf onto the laminate floor. Well needless to say I was heart-broken and lost my will to do any painting after that. My greatest model to date. That was not tabletop quality, not arm length quality but damn impressive while viewed up close too! Well my repairs are not too noticeable and overall the quality is still pretty much there everywhere except for the base and the tail. The repairs in those two locations are quite obvious up close but hold up at arm’s length well enough. At least he is ready for the tabletop again!

Next up is my Thunderfire Cannon. All the naysayers can bite me on this one. I love the model, and I love the rules. Well worth the time and effort to put together and quite an enjoyable model to paint. You can’t see in this one photo but I did detail the screens on the auspex/control and on the back of the cannon. If anyone is interested I will put up a photo to show my work there. Nothing spectacular (unlike my wyvern!) up close but it looks damn sharp and is quite noticeable detail on the table. I especially like the spiral yellow marks on the cannon shells. For this model I under-coated in white and worked up to the details. Lots of shading and highlights were added but nothing more than two or so coats of any highlight. To be honest a lot of my time is spent correcting bad brush strokes when I highlight as I tend to be a bit sloppy on the base coat… I hate the base coat. To get the yellow stripes, I actually striped the black! Yep, it is not too hard to get a nice yellow on a white undercoat then I just did the stripes free hand. As long as you don’t get too close I think it looks darn nice.

Finally, I am making a commitment to get terrain, nice terrain, this year. What you see in the picture is my finished broken Aquila transport from the 4th edition starter box. I finally broke that bad boy out and make it pretty. It is a nice match for my Ultramarine army bases too so it looks good as an objective or just dangerous terrain. Now I just need to finish that damn equerry with his engine core and use him as an objective… maybe in February.

For next month I have the following items on my list of things to do:

1) attend the local Conquest of Champions tourament for Fantasy. It is 2000 points, I want to play my Orcs and Goblins. They need some work, more work then my Brettonians so I don’t know. But I think that O&G might be more fun in 8th. Honestly I don’t know since I have yet to play a single game… so I need to correct that too.

2) I preordered the Stormraven and the Furioso models. I think the Stormraven is a pretty sweet model for the Space Marine chapters. I hope that C:SM gets the Stormraven soon so I can field one with my Ultramarines. In the mean time I am going to make up a 1000 point Blood Angles army. I think I am going to paint them red/blue quartered like the Brazen Claws but make them so I can field them as BA or UM. Yes that makes me a bad person, no I don’t care. I am all about Efficiency!!!

3) Finally I want to work on more terrain. I am planning on getting a bastion and a landing pad for 40K. I’ll probably get the pad when I pick up the Stormraven. Then I can use it as part of my display board too . I definitely will be getting the Witchfate Tor tower of sorcery. If you have not seen the size of this thing, well its just massive and gorgeous. After that I will just have to see what my look good on my table.

Till next month

Liono

End of the Year

Jack the Pumpkin King

I just got back from Disneyland and decided it was a good time to put up an end of year post. It’s time to call in a close for another year. 2010 was a great year for me personally, both in my private life and my professional. I am making a pledge to get into the hobbies that I love the most in 2011 and to get involved. Hitting my LGS and playing 40k and WFB, attending ComicCon and attending GenCon. I will have to see about the rest but it looks like a Denver trip at Christmas may happen. I am also going to try and put up a blog post every week that chronicles my exploits in gaming. I have tons of pictures and gamer scores to share already and I hope to keep track of my playing and building and paint as well. While I have a fairly large size Ultramarines army already, I want to start a very tight 1500 point Blood Angles army (probably Angles Encarmine since I love that paint scheme) and finish up my two fantasy armies; Bretonians and Orc and Goblins. Though I have heard that O&G is getting a new Army book soon so they will definitely be coming later.

Here is to a great 2011 everyone!

Saturday night fun

I am excited to tell everyone that I have a partner to join me at Gencon 2011. This is a notable event as it will be my first Gencon. I am still bitter that I did not have the opportunity to purchase Lord Chompy Bits this year. I am excited that I will not be missing the convention exclusives next year! Who else is going?

Wisdom of the ages

Brilliance distilled into a single, pure thought…

Disaster has struck!

My black orc warboss on wyvern just dropped 6 feet off my storage shelf and shattered on my hard wood floor. It was the best painting I had ever done. It was not pro quality but, for my skill level, it was amazing. It was the center piece of my O&G army. Now I want to chuck it all in the rubbish and start over, right after a cry for a bit…

broken wyvern

September and the start of school

Ah, my favorite time of year, the kids are back in school so if I take a day off, yep its a day to myself! With my daughter in middle school I have changed my schedule to take her to school so now I get up at 5:30 am everyday to hit the gym for an hour. Not much weight loss yet but I’m only a month in.

Last update I mentioned my new purchase and an upcoming hunting trip. No hunting trip yet, time to pick up the gear though, and get my hunting license. I was invited to hunt in the next month or so for pheasant. I am excited! I am also rooting for the next Sac Sheriff to be Mr. Cooper… I want my CCWP!

And I have been working on my GW stuff. Yep I fell back in the trap. Several podcasts have re-sparked my interests again. Specifically D6 Generation, Podhammer (explicit!) and 40K Radio. Check ‘em out, they are great entertainment for me while I am working out. I have finished my O&G Black Orc on Wyvern, which turned out freekin’ awesome, and I am looking at getting my Ultra Marines expanded to some of the new models. I am dying to try out Scout Spam with Sgt Telion, Land Speeder Storms and Land Speeders. Just trying to figure out what the balance of the army should be at the 1000/1500/1850/2000 levels so I am ready to play at a moments notice. But really, I love the Land Speeder Storm with Assault Cannon’s or Multi-Melta’s that is open top so I can do a drive bye like Dark Eldar!

I have discovered a new, potential, love too. As if 40K, Rockethammer, Warmachine and Hordes were not enough, along comes Malifaux. A totally new and innovative playing system that uses cards instead of Dice. On top of that the mini’s are very cool looking. Good thing I make a lot of money so I can support all these games, my Xbox360 addiction and everything else! But my closet is getting full, it may be time to Ebay some armies!

Hopefully I have some pics of my Black Orc Warboss up soon.

Till next time

So Wrong!

Summers over, both kids are back in school, and here I find myself back into the Miniature Gaming, frickin’ GW Warhammer specifically! Damn them for releasing such a cool update to the game and some really awesome miniatures. I’m sorry but the its about damn time you could pre-measure, every other game lets you do it, there is already enough randomness in the game with the condition tables (magic, hit, etc.) and the dice rolling. Plus that new Elf lord on Griffon is amazing. No, I wont be playing High Elves, but my daughter will be .

Next update will probably be after my first hunt. Uncle Steve tells me the season opens next month. When I figure out what that means and what we are hunting I’ll feel a lot better. Now back to the painting to finish my Orc & Goblin horde (yea my wyvern mounted hero is awesome looking but he will likely cost me as many games as he wins!). Pictures coming soon.

Brian