After the effort of getting the Super Secret Project done in a little over a week, I was unsurprisingly a little burnt out from painting. But not as much as I would have excepted - I'd certainly had enough of painting black on Eldar, but not enough that I didn't want to pick up a brush.
I didn't do very much - I laid down the white half of the base coat for 5 of the Assault on Black Reach marines I'm repainting, and three of the scouts I've primed.
Interestingly, the half-white half-blue marines look quite good. Good enough that I keep entertaining the though of using that as a colour scheme. Then I remember how long it's going to take me to get through everything I still have to paint, let alone starting from scratch again, and I smack my head into the wall until I stop thinking it's a good idea.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Super Secret Project: Announced
The Super Secret Project was to assemble and paint a box of Eldar Guardians for Willbo's birthday!Willbo used to play 40k years ago, but sold his Eldar army. Recently we had a long, drunken conversation about exactly what army he would build if he got back into it, and why that was unlikely. The main problem being that while he enjoyed the game, he didn't really like the whole building and painting part. So the joke was that I could build his army for him. He even told me that he wanted the Ulthwe craftworld.
When I was ordering my big pile of stuff from Maelstrom Games, it occurred to me that Willbo's birthday was just around the corner. So I decided to start his army for him!
10 Ulthwe Guardians with a heavy weapons platform. I went to the trouble of magnetising the guns on the heavy weapons platform so they can be easily swapped around. I also had to alter the hands of two of the guardians after I got the various gun arms muddled up and ended up with two guardians who couldn't hold their weapons.
Ulthwe are primarily black with bone (or yellow), so I just primed them all with black gesso. I wanted to keep the scheme fairly simple so it would be easy to replicate if the army ever got expanded, but I also wanted to make the armour different from the bodysuits. So I hit all the armour with a few layers of increasingly lighter grey, finished off with some light grey highlights. In the end it was a lot of work for not much gain, so next time I'll simplify that step.
The bone areas were just a couple of quick coats of Skull White to get a rough coverage, and then hit with a Griffon Sepia wash. It was the first time I'd used Griffon Sepia, and the results were fantastic.
I hit the rest of the model with a light wash of Badab Black, which toned down the contrast between the grey highlights a little (which was good). Where I had the occasional piece of cloth, the black wash really helped to make them look like cloth. I was very happy with that.
I went with a selection of colours for the soulstones and ended up getting the hang of it. I was pretty pleased with about 50%-75% of what I painted, including the large ones on the weapons platform.
This was the first time I'd done any basing. I just flocked the bases with some of Gale Force 9's Meadow Blend. I decided not to paint the base before I flocked it, partly because I was running out of time, and partly because I liked the black under the base - it makes the guardians look like they're running around at night.
I used a couple of transfers, but the two I used on the guardians didn't really look very good. I was happy with the one on the weapons platform though.
I would have liked to do some more detailed work on the different guns and do some touch ups on the Guardians, but they were in the mail a day late as it was. And since "better" is the enemy of "done", I decided they were good enough!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Painting: A Bad Craftsman Always Blames His Tools
So maybe I was a little too quick to dismiss the quality of my painting. Yesterday I managed to finish off my super secret project, which involved doing some more gems. With a little bit of care and some slightly thinner paints I was able to get something that looked pretty good - some of the time at least.
The real trick seems to be not looking at it too closely, and not expecting it to look good until it's all been done.
The real trick seems to be not looking at it too closely, and not expecting it to look good until it's all been done.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Super Secret Project Deadline
Today is the deadline for my My Super Secret Project! Unfortunately, I've hit a couple of small snags, so I'm not going to make it.
First off, I've come down with a cold. I'd been holding it at bay for a couple of weeks, but it finally caught up with me at the end of last week. So that's slowed me down a little.
I was still hopeful that I could get it all done last night, but at the last minute I had to do Family Techsupport. I had to deal with a fairly nasty virus on a laptop that I've managed to just keep together over the last 12 months.
So I'm tired, sick and behind schedule. But the good news is that I'm getting closer! I'll definitely get it done by the end of the week - maybe even by tonight, but we'll see.
First off, I've come down with a cold. I'd been holding it at bay for a couple of weeks, but it finally caught up with me at the end of last week. So that's slowed me down a little.
I was still hopeful that I could get it all done last night, but at the last minute I had to do Family Techsupport. I had to deal with a fairly nasty virus on a laptop that I've managed to just keep together over the last 12 months.
So I'm tired, sick and behind schedule. But the good news is that I'm getting closer! I'll definitely get it done by the end of the week - maybe even by tonight, but we'll see.
Painting: I Need Better Stuff
I know my painting skills are reasonable. They've always been okay, but partly through taking the time to learn new techniques and plain old practice, I've improved over the few years. For example, compare this, which was one of the first things I painted when I first started painting again in 2007:
and this, which is the best painting I've done (around June 2009 I think):
One of the things I'm starting to find is that I'm hitting the limit of my tools. Up until very recently I've been using craft paints. I started picking them up because they were cheaper and easier to get my hands on than proper paints. For the most part they've worked fairly well. But now that I know what to look for, I'm starting to see the limitations. The pigment and coverage isn't nearly as good, and they're too globby.
The other thing I'm struggling with are my brushes. Back when I first started painting when I was 11 or 12, I got a couple of proper sable brushes. Despite all the use and abuse they've had, they're still better than any of the new brushes I have now. I currently don't have a sable brush that isn't starting to fray out, which makes doing fine detail work extremely difficult.
This all became painfully clear to me last night when I tried to paint some gems. The basic idea is this: paint with the base colour, go over one side with a darker version, the opposite side with a lighter version. You finish up with a touch of white (or almost white). Here's some examples if that wasn't clear.
My gems ended up looking like blobs of a flat colour with big raised areas. Which was a lot of effort to go to for an ugly result. The annoying thing about replacing my paint is that it's not cheap - around $4-$5 a pot, and I don't really like the GW paint pots. But the results are so much better...
and this, which is the best painting I've done (around June 2009 I think):
One of the things I'm starting to find is that I'm hitting the limit of my tools. Up until very recently I've been using craft paints. I started picking them up because they were cheaper and easier to get my hands on than proper paints. For the most part they've worked fairly well. But now that I know what to look for, I'm starting to see the limitations. The pigment and coverage isn't nearly as good, and they're too globby.
The other thing I'm struggling with are my brushes. Back when I first started painting when I was 11 or 12, I got a couple of proper sable brushes. Despite all the use and abuse they've had, they're still better than any of the new brushes I have now. I currently don't have a sable brush that isn't starting to fray out, which makes doing fine detail work extremely difficult.
This all became painfully clear to me last night when I tried to paint some gems. The basic idea is this: paint with the base colour, go over one side with a darker version, the opposite side with a lighter version. You finish up with a touch of white (or almost white). Here's some examples if that wasn't clear.
My gems ended up looking like blobs of a flat colour with big raised areas. Which was a lot of effort to go to for an ugly result. The annoying thing about replacing my paint is that it's not cheap - around $4-$5 a pot, and I don't really like the GW paint pots. But the results are so much better...
Friday, March 19, 2010
News: BattleLore Goblin Army
Fantasy Flight has announced that they're going to be releasing a goblin army pack for BattleLore! I'm still trying to convince myself to buy the Heroes pack, but it's great to see some serious love from FF.
So it looks like there'll be two significant Fantasy Flight purchases later in the year. Good thing I've got a major birthday coming up...
So it looks like there'll be two significant Fantasy Flight purchases later in the year. Good thing I've got a major birthday coming up...
Super Secret Project Update
My super secret project is progressing well. It's amazing how much you can get done when you've got a nice tight deadline. Hopefully just one or two more evenings of solid work should see it all finished. Assuming I finish it by my deadline, this will be the fasted work I've done.
I'm still keeping it all super secret, but I'll lift the wraps off sometime next week. I will say though that it's something 40k, and it's not part of a Space Marines army.
I'm still keeping it all super secret, but I'll lift the wraps off sometime next week. I will say though that it's something 40k, and it's not part of a Space Marines army.
First Go at a Space Marine List
I finally sat down and worked out roughly what I could bring to the table (including my new purchases, but leaving aside the whole "being assembled" part), and was somewhat surprised to see that I could field almost 2000pts fairly easily. Doesn't meant it would be a particularly effective 2000pt army, but whatever.
So I started messing around with a few ideas for potential lists. I figured aiming for around 1000pts is probably a good starting point.
HQ: Librarian - 130pts
Heavy Support: Predator - 80pts
Which comes to exactly 1000pts.
To anyone who actually plays 40K, it's probably painfully clear that I don't have any idea what I'm doing.
But the basic idea is that the dreadnought will drop in near the enemy's tanks and start running amok. Meanwhile I've got one tactical squad who can double as tank busters and another one for helping with hoard-armies. The Terminators can stomp around being a distraction while the Predator provides some support and cover fire. And, hopefully, the Librarian can help deal with any psykers.
So I started messing around with a few ideas for potential lists. I figured aiming for around 1000pts is probably a good starting point.
HQ: Librarian - 130pts
- Terminator Armour
- Storm Bolter
- Psychic Powers: Null Zone & Vortex of Doom
- 9 marines with a meltgun & missile launcher
- Sergeant with a powerfist & meltabombs
- Rhino
- 9 marines with flamer & missile launcher
- Sergant with combi-flamer & meltabombs
- Rhino
- Multimelta
- Close combat weapon
- Drop pod
Heavy Support: Predator - 80pts
- Side sponsons with heavy bolters
Which comes to exactly 1000pts.
To anyone who actually plays 40K, it's probably painfully clear that I don't have any idea what I'm doing.
But the basic idea is that the dreadnought will drop in near the enemy's tanks and start running amok. Meanwhile I've got one tactical squad who can double as tank busters and another one for helping with hoard-armies. The Terminators can stomp around being a distraction while the Predator provides some support and cover fire. And, hopefully, the Librarian can help deal with any psykers.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Ramblings on Spending Money
There are lots of arguments you can make about how gaming isn't actually an expensive hobby. But when you need to get something through the Significant-Other Budget Approval Process (which, let's face it, is probably the only thing stopping some of us from just buying our own game store), gaming can certainly appear to be an expensive hobby.
When you say you're going to spend $60 on a book with creepy artwork or bunch of little plastic army men, chances are your SO isn't thinking about how it's going to entertain you and your friends every Thursday night for the next six months or how you'll be down to $2/hour of fun before your army even hits the table. Chances are - even if they're the most understanding SO in the world - they're thinking "wow, $60 is a lot for a book".
And, frankly, I'm thinking that too - at least when I'm not thinking about how awesome that $60 book is.
Obviously, if the book costs $60 but you only have to pay $50, it's a good thing. The SOBAP goes a lot smoother if you can appear to be getting good value for money, and if you've already budgeted to spent $60, you've still got $10 left over for something else.
Lets take a look at my recent pile of stuff (including the super secret project). If I had paid full retail price for everything, I would have been looking at more than AU$300. The Landraider itself is almost AU$100 from the GW website! Which is too much money to spend on a plastic tank, no matter how many guns it has.
Fortunately, I didn't spend anywhere near that much money. My Landraider, for example, ended up costing me about AU$50. Which is still a fair bit to spend on a plastic tank, but it's a much easier sell ("look how many guns it has! And I saved $50!").
Maelstrom Games is my shop of choice. They offer around 10% off UK Games Workshop retail prices (which are already significantly cheaper than the Australian GW prices), and they offer free shipping world wide. Combined with the awesome exchange rate at the moment and one of their periodic sales, it meant I could get a big pile of stuff for about 50% of what it would normally cost me. And no matter how you justify your gaming purchases, that's a pretty good deal.
When you say you're going to spend $60 on a book with creepy artwork or bunch of little plastic army men, chances are your SO isn't thinking about how it's going to entertain you and your friends every Thursday night for the next six months or how you'll be down to $2/hour of fun before your army even hits the table. Chances are - even if they're the most understanding SO in the world - they're thinking "wow, $60 is a lot for a book".
And, frankly, I'm thinking that too - at least when I'm not thinking about how awesome that $60 book is.
Obviously, if the book costs $60 but you only have to pay $50, it's a good thing. The SOBAP goes a lot smoother if you can appear to be getting good value for money, and if you've already budgeted to spent $60, you've still got $10 left over for something else.
Lets take a look at my recent pile of stuff (including the super secret project). If I had paid full retail price for everything, I would have been looking at more than AU$300. The Landraider itself is almost AU$100 from the GW website! Which is too much money to spend on a plastic tank, no matter how many guns it has.
Fortunately, I didn't spend anywhere near that much money. My Landraider, for example, ended up costing me about AU$50. Which is still a fair bit to spend on a plastic tank, but it's a much easier sell ("look how many guns it has! And I saved $50!").
Maelstrom Games is my shop of choice. They offer around 10% off UK Games Workshop retail prices (which are already significantly cheaper than the Australian GW prices), and they offer free shipping world wide. Combined with the awesome exchange rate at the moment and one of their periodic sales, it meant I could get a big pile of stuff for about 50% of what it would normally cost me. And no matter how you justify your gaming purchases, that's a pretty good deal.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Snow Storm Sale
I must admit, I always get jealous when I see a post by someone showing off the latest pile of boxes that arrived on their door. So when I got an email from the very nice people at Maelstrom Games telling me they were having a sale (combined with the excellent exchange rate), I decided it was my turn to get a big pile of boxes.It had to come in two boxes, so of course one arrived yesterday and the other one today. But I'm going to pretend they all came at once.
I felt my Angels of Redemption lacked some mechanised support, so I got a Land Raider (actually a Crusader/Redeemer), a Predator (I read just today that they're going to release a new Predator model around June) and I also got a Razorback (which will double as another Rhino as the need arises).
So I now have lots of cars to drive my army men around in!
I've already posted about the Mantic Elven Spearmen. And the last thing in the picture is the introductory sculpting set from Gale Force 9. I've been playing around with a bit of greenstuff, but it's really hard to do much with just my fingers.
Also, not pictured here is the box for my Super Secret Project. So actually my pile of new stuff is even bigger!
Super Secret Project
As of last night, I've put my Angels of Redemption on hold briefly to start work on my super secret project!
Obviously, since it's super secret, there's not a lot I can say about it right now. Except to say that I've started, and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first stage. I'm hoping to get it all finished within the next week, so stay tuned for more info.
Obviously, since it's super secret, there's not a lot I can say about it right now. Except to say that I've started, and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first stage. I'm hoping to get it all finished within the next week, so stay tuned for more info.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Initial Impressions: Mantic's Elven Spearmen
So I got a box of stuff in the mail today. I'm going to do a post about all of it, but I was particularly impressed by the Matic Games Kings of War Elven Spear Command box I got.
The box itself is the size of a PC game DVD box, made from hard white plastic. It's certainly looks very nice, and is a change from the standard GW boxes. The box is also designed to store the assembled troops!
Opening up the box, the first thing to see is a promo pamphlet/poster.
Unfolding it, there's an A3 sized version of this. And it looks really nice. On the other side is a whole lot of different things. There's some fluff pieces about the elves preparing for war. There's some assembly instructions. And there's some other stuff Mantic thought they'd like to tell you about. I'm sure if you were buying lots of boxes it would get old quickly, but I thought it was really nifty.
Then behind that is the single sprue. There are a range of different troop sizes you can get, but I opted for the smallest. This is 10 spear men (9 and a commander I think).
The sprue itself is full of detail and extra bits. There's even a dead elf to stick on a base or whatever. The figures are all multi-part (spear arms and the occasional head), so different poses will be pretty simple.
The detail on the individual figures is pretty impressive. This image doesn't even do it justice.
Overall, I'm really impressed. I know where I'm going for all my elf (and undead) 28mm needs!
The box itself is the size of a PC game DVD box, made from hard white plastic. It's certainly looks very nice, and is a change from the standard GW boxes. The box is also designed to store the assembled troops!
Opening up the box, the first thing to see is a promo pamphlet/poster.
Unfolding it, there's an A3 sized version of this. And it looks really nice. On the other side is a whole lot of different things. There's some fluff pieces about the elves preparing for war. There's some assembly instructions. And there's some other stuff Mantic thought they'd like to tell you about. I'm sure if you were buying lots of boxes it would get old quickly, but I thought it was really nifty.
Then behind that is the single sprue. There are a range of different troop sizes you can get, but I opted for the smallest. This is 10 spear men (9 and a commander I think).
The sprue itself is full of detail and extra bits. There's even a dead elf to stick on a base or whatever. The figures are all multi-part (spear arms and the occasional head), so different poses will be pretty simple.
The detail on the individual figures is pretty impressive. This image doesn't even do it justice.Overall, I'm really impressed. I know where I'm going for all my elf (and undead) 28mm needs!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Cats Away: Night 4
Here's my updated scores (in a slightly re-formatted table so you can actually see all the numbers). I perhaps overestimated the amount of preparing I'd already done. But either way, here are my new scores.
| Model | Prep | Con | Ass | Prim | Col | Det | Bas | Total |
| Tactical (AoBR) | 10\10 | 0\0 | 10\10 | 10\10 | 0\30 | 10\30 | 0\30 | 40\120 |
| Tactical | 10\10 | 0\0 | 5\20 | 5\10 | 15\30 | 5\30 | 0\30 | 35\130 |
| Combat | 5\5 | 0\0 | 0\10 | 0\5 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 0\65 |
| Assault | 5\5 | 0\0 | 8\10 | 3\5 | 3\15 | 3\15 | 0\15 | 19\65 |
| Scouts | 5\5 | 0\0 | 3\10 | 3\5 | 1\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 12\65 |
| Terminators | 5\5 | 0\0 | 5\5 | 5\5 | 6\15 | 8\15 | 0\15 | 29\60 |
| Captain | 1\1 | 0\0 | 1\1 | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 3\12 |
| Librarian | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\1 | 1\1 | 1\3 | 1\3 | 0\3 | 4\15 |
| Dreadnought | 1\1 | 0\0 | 1\1 | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 3\12 |
| Rhino | 1\1 | 0\0 | 2\2 | 1\1 | 2\3 | 2\3 | 0\0 | 8\13 |
| Total | 44\44 | 0\3 | 35\70 | 30\44 | 28\132 | 26\132 | 0\129 | 163\554 |
Sins of a Solar Empire: Multiplayer, Part II
Shaz and I both managed to find some time this weekend to try and finish off our game from the weekend before. Despite having saved the game before we stopped, I couldn't find it on my list of saved games. Fortunately there was an autosave from moments before I saved the game, so I just loaded that up.
The game progressed pretty much as expected. Since we were still on opposite sides of the map, Shaz and I basically just kept ignoring each other. The remaining PC player had control of galactic south of the map as well as parts of the centre (I was in the east and Shaz in the west), so I decided to push south.
My economy was humming along, so I concentrated on consolidating my planets and maxing out all the research options I wanted. I had another smaller fleet guarding my systems in the galactic centre, and they received a message that my culture spread had turned a colony nearby to neutral. Thinking this was a gift, I jumped on over.
The system had been held by the eliminated PC player, and so all their structures were still in orbit (and still hostile) - including a starbase. I quickly claimed the planet and left the fleet to mop up the structures.
My main focus was on my push south, so it was with a bit of shock when I discovered that the smaller fleet on mop up duty had been almost wiped out. All by the starbase. It took a fair bit of time, resources and micro-management to deal with the rouge base, but eventually it exploded.
I started building some Novalith cannons around the time the second PC player was wiped out (I assume by me, since I took out it's capital, but I'm not sure what Shaz was up to).
I then moved to consolidate my empire and reposition my forces to start targeting Shaz. Unfortunately we had to stop around this time, so we never found out who would actually win. But Shaz did say afterwards that a lot of his planets were uncolonisable now because of radiation (presumably due to my Novalith cannons).
Overall I was pretty pleased with the multiplayer experience, and I'm keen for some more!
The game progressed pretty much as expected. Since we were still on opposite sides of the map, Shaz and I basically just kept ignoring each other. The remaining PC player had control of galactic south of the map as well as parts of the centre (I was in the east and Shaz in the west), so I decided to push south.
My economy was humming along, so I concentrated on consolidating my planets and maxing out all the research options I wanted. I had another smaller fleet guarding my systems in the galactic centre, and they received a message that my culture spread had turned a colony nearby to neutral. Thinking this was a gift, I jumped on over.
The system had been held by the eliminated PC player, and so all their structures were still in orbit (and still hostile) - including a starbase. I quickly claimed the planet and left the fleet to mop up the structures.
My main focus was on my push south, so it was with a bit of shock when I discovered that the smaller fleet on mop up duty had been almost wiped out. All by the starbase. It took a fair bit of time, resources and micro-management to deal with the rouge base, but eventually it exploded.
I started building some Novalith cannons around the time the second PC player was wiped out (I assume by me, since I took out it's capital, but I'm not sure what Shaz was up to).I then moved to consolidate my empire and reposition my forces to start targeting Shaz. Unfortunately we had to stop around this time, so we never found out who would actually win. But Shaz did say afterwards that a lot of his planets were uncolonisable now because of radiation (presumably due to my Novalith cannons).
Overall I was pretty pleased with the multiplayer experience, and I'm keen for some more!
Monday, March 8, 2010
My Own Bits Boxes
While I didn't do much painting over the weekend, this is what I did do.That's most of the bits from a Space Marines Battleforce. All cut from the sprues, mold lines filed off and sorted.
Aside from the things I already have assembled, all that's not in the picture are some things from the scout sprues and a few extras from the rhino sprue.
I'll work out my current points tomorrow.
Oh, and torso are nice and easy, backpack are the devils work.
Weekend Painting with Better Photos
I didn't do any more painting this weekend, but I figured I'd post a few better photos of how the marines are looking. 
The Assault Marine on the right has been hit with my white undercoat, but I haven't done the second coat yet. Which is why he looks a bit "creamier" than the others. The guy on the left has been half painted in Dark Angels Green as a test to see what the flat colour on black would look like. I'm interested to see what happens when I hit it with my standard green colour.
I when over the green undercoats with a wash of Dark Angels Green, and I liked how they came out. I still have to do some highlighting, add the backpacks and weapons (or, in the case of the guy in the middle of the back, his arm!).
The guy on the left was hit with a Badab Black wash which is why his white half looks so grubby. I was testing out ways to improve my painting time. Two of these guys were done by carefully painting the basecoat around the lines in the armour (leaving the black). On the other three I went much quicker but not as carefully. On two I went back over the lines with black and the last one I hit with the wash. Which didn't work like I was hoping.
I'm not sure which of the other two methods was better, but I think adding in the black lines later was faster. More tests required.
The Assault Marine on the right has been hit with my white undercoat, but I haven't done the second coat yet. Which is why he looks a bit "creamier" than the others. The guy on the left has been half painted in Dark Angels Green as a test to see what the flat colour on black would look like. I'm interested to see what happens when I hit it with my standard green colour.
I when over the green undercoats with a wash of Dark Angels Green, and I liked how they came out. I still have to do some highlighting, add the backpacks and weapons (or, in the case of the guy in the middle of the back, his arm!).
The guy on the left was hit with a Badab Black wash which is why his white half looks so grubby. I was testing out ways to improve my painting time. Two of these guys were done by carefully painting the basecoat around the lines in the armour (leaving the black). On the other three I went much quicker but not as carefully. On two I went back over the lines with black and the last one I hit with the wash. Which didn't work like I was hoping.I'm not sure which of the other two methods was better, but I think adding in the black lines later was faster. More tests required.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Golden Woops
I've had some of these paints for a few years now, and in the last few months I've started to notice some of the less used colours have started to dry out a little.In the case of my gold, a plug of semi-dried paint had formed just inside the dropper. I thought I could just carefully squeeze it out, but no...
The worst is that the paint plug didn't actually come out - it just pushed open and then closed itself again.
Angels of Redemption: Tactical Marines
I spent a couple of hours this evening doing some details on the 5 tactical and 3 assault marines I've been working on. My camera's got a flat battery and I couldn't be bothered digging up the charger, so you're stuck with my phone.I'm ready to attach the weapons (or arm, in the case of the guy in the back left) and the backpacks. Once that's done, I'll do a quick wash, some highlights and these guys will be ready for basing!
Cat's Away: Night 0
I spent about half an hour last night clipping a bunch of backpacks and torsos off the spure and cleaning off the mold lines. Wow space marine backpacks are annoying to clean up!
Anyway, I decided that the way I was managing the scores was really hard to understand. So here's a table. The work I did last night wasn't really worth any points, so everything it still the same as the last post.
Anyway, I decided that the way I was managing the scores was really hard to understand. So here's a table. The work I did last night wasn't really worth any points, so everything it still the same as the last post.
| Model | Prep | Con | Ass | Prim | Col | Det | Bas | Total |
| Tactical (AoBR) | 10\10 | 0\0 | 10\10 | 10\10 | 0\30 | 10\30 | 0\30 | 40\120 |
| Tactical | 10\10 | 0\0 | 5\20 | 5\10 | 15\30 | 0\30 | 0\30 | 35\130 |
| Combat | 0\5 | 0\0 | 0\10 | 0\5 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 0\65 |
| Assault | 5\5 | 0\0 | 8\10 | 3\5 | 3\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 19\65 |
| Scouts | 5\5 | 0\0 | 3\10 | 3\5 | 1\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 12\65 |
| Terminators | 5\5 | 0\0 | 5\5 | 5\5 | 6\15 | 8\15 | 0\15 | 29\60 |
| Captain | 1\1 | 0\0 | 1\1 | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 3\12 |
| Librarian | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\1 | 1\1 | 1\3 | 1\3 | 0\3 | 4\15 |
| Dreadnought | 1\1 | 0\0 | 1\1 | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 3\12 |
| Rhino | 1\1 | 0\0 | 2\2 | 1\1 | 2\3 | 2\3 | 0\0 | 8\13 |
| Total | 39\44 | 0\3 | 35\70 | 30\44 | 28\132 | 21\132 | 0\129 | 153\554 |
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Cats Away: Head Start
Okay, so like I mentioned before, I'm not starting from scratch with all of these. So how many point have I already earned?
All of the Assault on Black Reach stuff is already cut, assembled and primed. So that's 51pts. The model I'm going to use as my librarian has also been assembled, but I'm probably going to pull it all apart again. So I'll only claim 2pts for it. I've already painted all of the tactical marines as Ultramarins, so that doesn't help me, but it does mean that if I'm careful I won't have to redo a lot of the details. So let's take 1 point for each of them (so another 10pts). 2 of the terminators have also been painted blue, so I'll claim another point for each of them. Of the other 3 terminators, I've painted them all green, so I have to do the white half and maybe touch up a few details, so I'll claim 4 points for them. The librarian has had some painting but since I'm going back to do some conversion work, I'll only claim 2 painting points for it. So that's 79 points done from the AoBR models.
For the Battleforce models, I've got 5 tactical marines assembled and base coated (6 points each, since i haven't done weapons or backpacks yet). I've also cut and cleaned the parts for the other 5. I have 3 Assault Marines assembled and half of their base colours done (5 points each), I have another assembled (3pts) and the parts for the 5th ready to go (1pt). I also have 3 scouts primed (one with half the base colours done) and the parts for the other two ready. I put the Rhino together a while ago and painted it green. So I still have to do the white half and touch up some details (so 8pts). So that's 76 points of the Battleforce done.
Altogether, I've already done 155/554, which is a bit more than 25%. It leaves me with about 400 points to cover in 14 days, or about 30 points a day.
If I can cover 200 points then I'll be very happy. Anything less than 100 would be disappointing (unless it meant I was off doing something even more fun). Let's see how I go!
All of the Assault on Black Reach stuff is already cut, assembled and primed. So that's 51pts. The model I'm going to use as my librarian has also been assembled, but I'm probably going to pull it all apart again. So I'll only claim 2pts for it. I've already painted all of the tactical marines as Ultramarins, so that doesn't help me, but it does mean that if I'm careful I won't have to redo a lot of the details. So let's take 1 point for each of them (so another 10pts). 2 of the terminators have also been painted blue, so I'll claim another point for each of them. Of the other 3 terminators, I've painted them all green, so I have to do the white half and maybe touch up a few details, so I'll claim 4 points for them. The librarian has had some painting but since I'm going back to do some conversion work, I'll only claim 2 painting points for it. So that's 79 points done from the AoBR models.
For the Battleforce models, I've got 5 tactical marines assembled and base coated (6 points each, since i haven't done weapons or backpacks yet). I've also cut and cleaned the parts for the other 5. I have 3 Assault Marines assembled and half of their base colours done (5 points each), I have another assembled (3pts) and the parts for the 5th ready to go (1pt). I also have 3 scouts primed (one with half the base colours done) and the parts for the other two ready. I put the Rhino together a while ago and painted it green. So I still have to do the white half and touch up some details (so 8pts). So that's 76 points of the Battleforce done.
Altogether, I've already done 155/554, which is a bit more than 25%. It leaves me with about 400 points to cover in 14 days, or about 30 points a day.
If I can cover 200 points then I'll be very happy. Anything less than 100 would be disappointing (unless it meant I was off doing something even more fun). Let's see how I go!
The Cat's Away Hobby Challenge
I'm going to have a reasonable amount of hobby time over the next couple of weeks while K's away in London. So I figure I may as well set myself some goals. Here is the list of stuff currently in my to do pile:
Space Marine Battleforce
10x Tactical Marines
5x Combat Marines
5x Assault Marines
5x Scouts
Rhino
Assault on Black Reach
10x Tactical Marines
6x Terminators (I picked up an extra one with a copy of White Dwarf which I want to convert into a Librarian)
1x Captain
1x Dreadnought
The aim is to get all this stuff assembled, painted and based. Which isn't going to happen in this time frame (even given the fact that some of it's already been started). But to see how well I go, I'm going to work out some point values for achieving different things.
1 - preparing the pieces
1-3 - any conversion work
2 - assembling the model (1pt for anything from AoBR)
1 - priming
3 - base colours
3 - details and highlights
3 - basing
So the list above breaks down like this:
Tactical Marines - 250
Combat Marines - 65
Assault Marines - 65
Scouts - 65
Rhino - 10
Terminators - 60
Librarian - 15
Captain - 12
Dreadnought - 12
Total - 554
Wow, I'd better get cracking!
Space Marine Battleforce
10x Tactical Marines
5x Combat Marines
5x Assault Marines
5x Scouts
Rhino
Assault on Black Reach
10x Tactical Marines
6x Terminators (I picked up an extra one with a copy of White Dwarf which I want to convert into a Librarian)
1x Captain
1x Dreadnought
The aim is to get all this stuff assembled, painted and based. Which isn't going to happen in this time frame (even given the fact that some of it's already been started). But to see how well I go, I'm going to work out some point values for achieving different things.
1 - preparing the pieces
1-3 - any conversion work
2 - assembling the model (1pt for anything from AoBR)
1 - priming
3 - base colours
3 - details and highlights
3 - basing
So the list above breaks down like this:
Tactical Marines - 250
Combat Marines - 65
Assault Marines - 65
Scouts - 65
Rhino - 10
Terminators - 60
Librarian - 15
Captain - 12
Dreadnought - 12
Total - 554
Wow, I'd better get cracking!
Monday, March 1, 2010
News: Rackham Posts all AT-43 Rule Books
I just found out that Rackham Games has put online PDFs of all the rule books for AT-43. I've never really looked at AT-43 before, but now I certainly will!
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