1,500 pts in a Month: 21 Days to Go - GK Troops Done

Hey everyone, so I'm pretty pleased with myself at the moment because last night I finally finished the work on the Grey Knight Troops, a ban of 5 Grey Knight Terminators with a Grand Master and a Squad of 7 Grey Knights in Power Armor. I'm very happy with the way they've come out, and was not expecting the amount of time it would take to get to this point, spending probably close to 40 hours to get the two squads done.

But I think they came out quite nicely, so today I'll be working on the Land Raider Crusader as I just finished gluing it together. Expect to see some pictures on that in the next couple of days. And then I get down to the painting some IG Vets :)

So as always you can click the pictures for larger size, enjoy the ones below.

-CKR

1,500 pts in a Month: 23 Days to Go

Ok so Tuesday I started working on the Grey Knight Terminators.

It took me pretty most of the day Tuesday to get the silver onto them.

Then yesterday I started adding the trims, here is the Gold.

The reds.

The Scroll work and the whites.

Here are just about done, just a little bit more work to do on the bases, and face (I hate painting faces) and then I'm going to try the new technique for the Nemesis Weapons and they should all be done tomorrow. And if I can manage that then maybe I can manage painting their Land Raider too!

Wish me Luck :)

-CKR

1,500 pts in a Month: 27 Days to Go VOTE!

Ok, so I've run into a predicament. Should I use the Sword or the Halberd for my Grand Master?

1,500 pts in a Month: 27 Days to Go

Ok, so as one can imagine the weekend was a little busy, and to make it even busier I received an email from my instructor with reading assignments to do before my class starts at UTD. So I didn't quite get a far as I was hoping to on these guys, but I'm still happy with the progress.

Here you can see them with the silver and gold on them.

Here I've finished all of the reds, and done bestial brown on all of the parchment.

Now I've worked my way from bestial brown, to vermin brown, to bleached bone on the parchements.

I then did the whites on the shoulder pads to get them ready for their unique shoulder pads.

So this part is probably the second longest part, other then the base of the silver on their armor. The hardest part is probably coming up with unique designs for all of the pads. I was going to keep going but unfortunately I didn't have any Hawk Turquoise to do the Nemesis Force Weapons. But I'll picking some of that up tomorrow.

That means today I'll start work on the Terminators, and the goal will be to have the PAGKs GKTs and maybe... maybe... the LRC painted by the end of the weekend. I'll keep posting up progress.

-CKR

1,500 pts in a Month: 30 Days to Go

Ok, so Yesterday or perhaps the day before I decided that I would not play my Eldar Army for Astronomi-con. Simply because I needed an excuse to paint up my Grey Knights, and I wanted something different. I started my GKs to be a fun army, and Astro is supposed to be a fun event. So there we go, that's what I'll play.

So above you can see the GK I did for the troop Painting contest. Then there's the rest of his squad, the idea is to have them done painting by the weekend so I can start painting the GK Terminators.

So I got the base Boltgun Metal done on one Guy, it took me about 45 minutes yesterday to do. Oh man, and I could already feel my finger cramping.

All of them are done, well with the base Boltgun Metal. For me that is the hardest part, getting them to look good at the start and keeping those nice black lines for contrast I think is key to a good looking GK.

So today I wanted to get my GK Terminators finished being built. I had already used them in the Escalation League, but Now I needed to create some Storm Shields and Thunder Hammers. I started off by making a mold of the left and right shoulder pads, and I let that dry most of yesterday.

Then before I went to bed last night I started one set of Should Pads, by using the Mold and the pieces I was going to place them with so that they fit around them with out me having to dig out the pads. Green Stuff really is the hardest thing to shave from properly because it starts to tear along the edges of where you mixed the two pieces together.

So with the Pads done, I started to trim them down so that they actually started looking like shoulder pads.

Then I did some test placements with the terminator, and of course all the weapons are magnetized these days ;)

Here are the two GK terminators all finished from about 20 minutes ago.

Another view of them.

And here is the finished command squad with the converted Grand Master from the Escalation Conversion Contest from about a month ago. You can see that this squad is ready to kick some butt and take some names.

If you enjoyed this, be sure to keep track as I build and paint a 1,500 pt army in a month to get ready for this Tournament. You might as yourself am I "Mad" doing an army in a month with only 1 painted mini to it's name, and most of the models not even purchased yet, well yes I am! We'll just see if I can make it.

-CKR

40k in 40 Seconds: 'Ard Boyz Prelim Game 02

The second game of the day went quite well, with me and the Orks ending in a tie. I've got to say that Tommy was rolling some hot dice, and my opening round of shooting not doing anything, and I do mean missing with all of my twin linked missiles and him making all of his cover saves was a bit of a hit to start with.



To visit the video on youtube, click here.

40k in 40 Seconds: 'Ard Boyz Prelim Game 01

Hey everyone, so I got the chance to test out a new toy during 'Ard Boyz. Unfortunantly I only had enough battery power for 1 Game. This was my first game of the day, against foot slogging Space Marines with over 100 models.



Click video to go to youtube and watch it in HD.

'Ard Boyz Inspiration

A little Inspirational Music before 'Ard Boyz Today!

My First Grey Knight

The escalation league over at TGR had a troop painting contest. All about painting a normal guy in your army. I hadn't started painting my Knights yet as I've been busy building them so I figured I'd use this as a good oppurtunity to get a test model done and see what it takes to paint the grey knights.


I went ahead and tried out the free-hand painting on the shoulder pad, I think it came out pretty well, with a little practice it should be better. I also ended up using a Pigment brush for the script work, which makes it alot alot easier.


So the only think I'm not quite sure of on him is the basing, let me know what you guys think. That and I was thinking about doing the Nemisis blades in the same style as the Space Wolf Frost Blades to give them more of that energy feel.

-CKR

Astronomi-con Trophies

Ever have on of those moments when you're speechless? Well the crew at TGR had that experience last night and today. We've received the trophies for the mighty Astronomi-con and all I have to say is ... "Wow" and "I want one!"

From my understanding this is just the tip of the iceberg. Cool prizes and support as well as little additions like these trophies will make this a really really cool GT.

So without too much further ado here we go:


As you can see here it's a pretty impressive trophy in it's own right, but you want to go "Wow"?

We have all the trophies on display at the Store so stop by and take a look at all of them. Don't forget to also head out and sign up for a chance to win one of these babies by bringing it to your opponents! www.astronomi-con.com

Clock Hammer?

So as we're coming up on Tournament Season again I'm reminded of how important it is to play, and play expediently. That doesn't mean to just make a move and hope for the best, but to use the most out of the available time to make the best decisions possible. Using your opponents turns to plan out your moves, and react to his turn as appropriate.

One of the things me and a friend of mine have always joked about, was using a chess timer, to keep both of us playing at a decent rate. So here's my thoughts on that, and how I think it would work.

Each player would get 1 hour total for their turn. Then each of those player turns would be broken down as such.

Before clock starts, mission, roll for sides, etc.

Start Time
Turn 1: 20 minutes per player (this includes deployment time)
Turn 2: 10 additional minutes added per player
Turn 3: 10 additional minutes added per player
Turn 4: 10 additional minutes added per player
Turn 5: 10 additional minutes added per player

Now here's the what happens if you don't use up your entire alloted time. So say turn 1 you have 20 minutes but only use 15 minutes on the clock. Well you get 10 additional minutes for turn 2. So your turn would end at the 30 minute mark on the timer, allowing for 15 minutes of play during turn 2.

This will allow for all players involved to get to turn 5. Now if there is still time at the end of turn five and the game is to continue, both players could decide if they would like to continue based on the time left on there clocks. But would have to dice down once their turn's time ran out, and the other player would finish their turn, and same with turn 7. But I've yet to see a real tournament game go to turn 7, and usually doesn't make it past 4 so this would be a way to get a round played through and entire game.

What do you guys think?

-CKR

Under Rated Units - Eldar Edition

There are many units out there that people consider to be under rated. Today I'm going to talk about 2 of the Eldar units I recently started using and having plenty of fun with.

Warp Spiders - You look at these guys on paper and go, wow they Suck, I can't believe they even exist. Sure they have a Str 6 shooting weapon, but what happened to the AP? Where did it go. At least that's how I was, and how most of the forums were as I was reading them. But then someone said, no no they're actually pretty good.

So I decided I was tired of playing pure competition lists and would try out some different things. Wow was I surprised at how well these guys perform. I'm running 7 of them plus an exarch with power blades and dual Death Spinners. That's 18 Str 6 shots raining out from these guys. Sure the range of 12" isn't the best, but they are fast and have a 3+ save and can move backwards after shooting, they've been doing a great job in my games, and I might end up working them into my 1,500 pt lists later on.

Striking Scorpions - Again you see them, and you have Howling Banshees on the other page screaming out, hey we all have power weapons. The thing that's been eating me up when I run Banshees is the amount of Heavy Flamers that are out there these days, they eat things, and banshees will dies faster then anything else when that template is put down.

But not the Scorpions, they get that beautiful 3+ save, they also are Str 4, which means they don't suck against units you haven't Doomed, and and they get 1 extra attack. So they get 4 attacks on the charge vs 3, and will usually wound on 4s vs 5s. Now I know what you're saying, "POWERWEAPONS" yeah they rock. But the odds are you're actually doing the same amount of kills with Scorpions on everything armor 4 and up. They get edge out with 2+ and 3+ but that's when you shoot those buggers to death.

The pure survivability of this unit makes it a winner in my book, especially when my race is already dieing off ;)

Maybe one of these days I'll trying some Swooping Hawks out, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

-CKR

Helping Stores Help Themselves

It might seem that I'm on a rampage of talking about the Local Gaming Stores, but it's what is being talked about right now so I'm going to share my thoughts. So here are 4 things stores can do to help themselves.

Rule 1: Communicate - This is something I've run into a couple of times during the past year or so, and it's poor communication of event details. Players and Participants want to know as much details as possible. If you have prizes, let people know what the prizes are, it gets them interested. If there are special rules like a minimum of 3 or 5 participants, be up front about it, don't use it as a get out of free card later when people have put in the work and others haven't.

Rule 2: Follow Through - If you say you're going to run an event, make sure it's run, and that you follow through with it. To often I've entered painting contests and the like and a week or two after the event end date no one knows what's going on with it. Results should be decided soon, and a date hopefully known by participants by communication.

Rule 3: Availability - Make sure you're available to answer questions. Most people have to spend money, or use their time to enter events and contests, we understand you're busy, but so are we. If we're spending 20+ hours to paint, write, convert then we would like a couple minutes of your time to spend answering emails on the event. If you don't have the answer right away, shoot us a email saying "I don't know, but I'll get back with you." That way you're following rule number one.

Rule 4: Be Fair - When you make a judgment, ask yourself if it is fair to all the parties involved. We all understand that you're a business and here to make money, but we're also here to support you. So as long as you're fair to us, we'll be fair to you, other wise we can do what I've done in the past, and go play at my place, where I can stay as long as I want, and usually have a couple beers too ;)

If you follow these things, then there is no reason not to have good events and a store worth going to, but it's when these simple rules start to be forgotten there will be mutterings in the gaming halls.

-CKR

Support your Stores

So earlier this week I made a post on a forum talking about going into a GW store. I was quite surprised when another frequenter of the forums said he wouldn't go into a GW store based on principle and then mentioned the number of other stores I could be going to.

I can see where he is coming from, but I don't think I could ever go to a store based sorely on principle. I have formed my own opinion of stores through the past few years based on Employees, Table Space, Events, Products, and more. But I've not banned any stores just because.

This is why I would like for everyone to support the stores they enjoy going to. I know that there are places where you can get things cheaper, I myself can get things much much cheaper, and often do. But that doesn't keep me from also buying from the stores I frequent.

I think lately the DFW area is starting to do a better job of supporting stores, and the stores are starting to help themselves also. In the past I've seen tournaments going for 25 bucks, seems a little steep to me, but if it's a 25 dollar purchase, both the store and player wins. The store gets there cut, and the player gets a product from the store he might have bought elsewhere for cheaper.

But that doesn't mean this is the only time you should buy from them. Remember that they're a business and it takes money to keep that store open and providing tables for you to play at. So try to buy from them when you can, and participate in there events. Otherwise we might see all these incredible new stores close later down the road.

-CKR

Codex Inquisition

So while I was up at my local GW I was talking with a Red Shirt and Black Shirt. I purchasing a Inquisitor and the guy asked if I new the Plastics for the GKs were coming out soon. I asked if that was now confirmed and he said Yes. I asked when, and he told me that they had beat out DE for release, but that DE was also confirmed as arriving by Christmas.

Evidently the information comes from a conference out in Las Vegas.

The facts I know from the conversation.

1. Inquisitor Dex will arrive before DE
2. DE by Christmas
3. Inquisitor Dex will be after 8th Ed Fantasy
4. One Codex to contain all Ordo's, Malleous, Xeno, and Heriric
5. Sisters will not be present in the Dex, but will have there own Codex at a later time.
6. Deathwatch/Alien Hunters will be present

Other info based on them not actually getting to see the Codex but talking with the people, sounds like you'll still be able to build a pure GK army, and sounds like it will be more useful. Points Drop on PAGKs, TGKs to stay about the same point cost but be better.

That's about all I know for now, more info to come as I get it.