Back from Germany

Felipe Massa @ Lap 63

I just wanted to post and tell y'all I aint dead or something. The trip to Germany was a blast. The F1 race was amazing. But I managed to miss -all- miniature gaming related stuff, and I haven't had the time to work on any minis since coming back three days ago. 

I knew there was a couple of gaming stores in Frankfurt, but I couldn't find them. And I didn't really want to bore my dad with gaming stuff. Instead we went around the southern parts of Germany and into the Ardennes looking at WWII stuff. In total we spent 55 hours in the M3 (not too bad, it's a comfy car), one hour of it was at the legendary racetrack Nürburgring. 

I picked up an iPad at the Apple Store in Frankfurt. And it's kinda related to gaming. I scanned my 40K rulebook (which you're allowed to do according to Swedish copyright laws as long as it's for your own personal use) and created links from the index to the relevant pages. No more lugging around the BRB (or the small red book) when going gaming. Next up is the ork codex... but first I really really have to finish the orks. :)

The Waagh: Elites

Well, there's not much about it. I have twelve lootas! :)

"Gifv epix plx?"

They're usually used as two smaller units since they, in my first game with them, get shot up and run off the board. Which is kinda useless. And with the two smaller units you can actually cover more of the board. Great for denying flanks. Too bad that they, as much in the ork codex, seems scarier than they really are. It's not often you get to shoot 3 times with each model (they're 48" S7 AP4 Heavy D3), but when you do it's a victory in itself. 

Then it's just that matter of hitting stuff, which they aren't really good at either. Stuff they hit tend to break though. I've learnt that shooting at units of infantry with these are kinda "meh". Especially when it's MEQ. Shooting at vehicles and dreadnoughts though. That's usually very rewarding! :)

I have three more of these "on the bench". But out of all the ork models, these are the ones I really hate painting. There's no standard details, so you can't really line them up and paint like other ork units. "Speedpainting" lootaz is best done one by one so you don't miss all the tiny little details like cables and stuff.

What's next? Fast attack? Yeah, those koptaz gotta get their own post. :)

The Waagh: Heavy Support

The Fast Red One!

The battlewagon. Not to sure about it yet. I've only played with it in one game (against Space Wolves) which I lost with a tiiiiny margin. It sure serves its purpose of being large and scary. Which turns away fire from my killa kanz. And with AV12 on the sides it's kinda inviting to shoot at apparently.

Disgorging 20 sluggas from it is really nice as well. And they get to charge and stuff! I like it, even if it's just for the fact that I get to say "Vrooom vroom, choo-choo" when I move it around on the board.

Rokkitkanz

Rokkitz on kans are one of these "You really got to have them" on the messageboards. In reality (at least in my reality) they seldom do anything. Sure, popping rhinos from afar is nice. But even with BS3 S8 it's not safe to assume they actually hit and penetrate. It sure would be nice if the rokkits were twin linked or something like that. They screen well though, and when they get in close combat they rock! :)

Them 'zookas

Now these kanz I love! Putting out 6 blast templates is nothing short of awesome. 2-3 usually hit dead on. And sometimes they can even mitigate the scatter with their ballistic skill. I think I've popped more transports and stuff with these than with the rokkitkanz. The kan in the middle has a 'zooka from eBay. I wish I remember from who. 

Red Leader

And of course. The big red one... I hope to get to field him when I get home from Frankfurt. And I sure hope it performs spectacularly! Probably it'll just get shot to pieces in turn two or something. The problem with big stuff that looks nasty... perhaps I should've painted it in some other color than "shoot me"-red?

The idea is to paint another wagon, to hold 20 extra sluggas. And tre more zooka kanz. That way I get some alternatives to the regular kanwall build. I can go all out kanwall or add the battlewagons as flanking elements. 

Off to Frankfurt / Hockenheim for the German F1 GP

Ferrari 126 C2B Chassis No. 065 from 1983

To say I've been eagerly anticipating this trip is an understatement. My dad and me are taking his BMW M3 down to Frankfurt for the German F1 GP. Although I'm a die hard Ferrari-fan I kinda hope some of the german drivers / teams win. (It would suck to stand there with 200'000 sulky germans :))

After that we're off to some WWII sites (Nuremberg etc.) and then it's over to the Bastogne/ Ardennes, with a detour to the Nurburgring for some serious tests of what the M3 can do!

It's going to be a blast. Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos from the trip, and visit some gaming related stores as well.

Auf wiedersehen!

Review: Vallejo Black Lava

Together with the Malifaux stuff I recieved earlier I also got this jar of "Black Lava" from Vallejo.

After reading about basing with this stuff on The Pit of Oni I got kinda intrigued. Basing minis is kinda messy and you always end up with a ton of sand everywhere. Something I'm not too fond of since the cats already make my apartment feel like a gravel pitch.

The jar of lava!

It's made up of some sort of PVA based paint (that's essentially what manufacturers call "acrylics") & small beads / sand. Vallejo says:

Gritty black paste of natural stone and pigment, can be textured and built up and mixed with other mediums.

So I opened it up, picked a 25mm base from GW and slathered on some of the paste with a large brush. I also added two of the "stones" from Games Workshops 40K basing kit (Medium basing slate) and one small slate from the Gale Force 9 range directly onto the paste to see if it would stick. After about 30 minutes under the lamp it was dry to the touch and the stones felt like they were glued on. So it was just a matter of adding paint to it and it was done!

Colors used. Finished base on top of the protective lid from the jar.

As you can see from the picture. The lava dries glossy. Nothing to worry about since the paint dries kinda matte and you'd put on some varnish to protect your minis anyways.

There was no problem with the stones coming off, even though I was pretty aggressive with the drybrushing. So unless you're doing something really scenic with your bases you can skip the glue. Another bonus is that there were no sand coming off, something that usually happens even though you add another layer of watered down PVA to seal the sand.

It's black, which means you can drybrush on top of it. No more need for priming, putting on a basecoat, washing it and then drybrush. And the granules are small enough to feel realistic with 28 – 32 mm "heroic" figures. And you could add some rougher grit if you like to break it up a little.

I'd totally rate this product a 2+ with re-roll. There are more uses for it than just bases. You could use it for a first layer of "mud" or represent rusty parts on vehicles. Paint it on scenery, like walls and buildings, to give it a bit of a rough surface since GW discontinued the Rough Coat spray. Or you could build it up in layers for more scenic bases. The possibilities are endless!!! (Almost ;))

Trollforged "Alien Brain"

I've almost forgotten I ordered one of these. Not that it was especially long ago, but usually when ordering stuff from the US it takes 2-3 weeks for stuff to get here. So when ordering US-based things you order and then forget about it. There's no need to go watch the mailbox every day since you'd only get dissapointed. And then it turns into a mini-surprise (hehe, mini-surprise!) once stuff gets here!

So anyways. The Alien Brain... I saw it while browsing resin bases or something like that. And fell in love. It seemed like a fun piece to paint, and there's a ton of opportunities to use different techniques on it. :)

Now there's just the little problem of finding time to paint it. After the 1'000 orks perhaps? :)

Orks, workspaces and... Malifaux

The new workspace, the orks and the Malifaux

Yesterday was "meet friends"-day. I was originally expecting to meet a bunch of friends on the afternoon and then get home to eat some dinner and then finish all the straps on the orks. That didn't happen. I came home around 1900, but we did take a walk through the entire eastern part of Stockholm. So I was kinda spent. :)

I've also managed to make myself a proper workspace. I got rid of the sofa and put a smallish dinner table from IKEA or something there. Now I don't need to paint in close proximity to the scanner, printer, computer and drawing stuff. Which means I can actually work at my work desk, and paint and do hobby stuff at the new table. Without moving stuff to make room for work or hobby.

The orks are trundling along. The straps for them sucks to paint. It's not that it takes time. It's just a step that doesn't really show any progress. Not like painting pants grey or shirts red. It's just straps.

The Malifaux stuff arrived as well. I cheated a little and took a peek at the figures and rules, and -oh-my-lord- it's awesome. The figures are really screaming to be painted properly. The rules seemed a little weird when I looked through the book. But I guess that's just because of me being so used to dice and the Warhammer system.

Now back to the orks. Hopefully they'll be done before I go to Frankfurt. Hopefully.

Weekend Challenge: 30 orks... pt III

Yours truly. Soaked to the bone and covered with strange stuff from the roof.

It should read "Weekend Failure: Part One"...

Or – well – my parents called and asked if I could help remove moss from their roof. After living in a house for 30-some years, a lot of moss collects on the shingles.

1. It's my parents
2. I got to play with the high pressure, and I mean high pressure, Kaercher hose-thingie. It removed not only moss, but also paint and all things I pointed it at. It was a frackin' promethium spitting thing of DEATH! (almost at least :))
3. I get to climb ladders 5 meters up

So I spent the day, out in the sunshine, spraying myself and the roof.

It looks like new, I had a ton of "stuff" all over myself and I was soaking wet when done. And most important of all, my parents were really happy for all the help. Even happier since I also climbed up one of the huuuuge trees and cut down some branches for them (those suckers look small from the ground, but they're really huge. Especially when they fall down.).

So all in all, a pretty good day. Tomorrow it's ork-day. I got to get those suckers finished.

Weekend Challenge: 30 orks... pt II

It's already a fail, sort of. I realized pretty quickly that painting 30 orks would make them look way below the standard of my other orks (see the previous photo). So I cut it down to twenty, and decided to use a zenital/glazing technique on the ten shootas. Kinda like how I did the runtherder for my grots (tutorial coming on that one). And it also means that I can concentrate on painting the nob properly.

So far I've blocked in all the colors on the sluggas. What's left is painting the straps – which they have a ton of – and then washing & highlights.

There will be no Malifaux-opening stuff before the 30 ones are done though. Hopefully the Malifaux stuff will be delayed a little.

The Waaagh: Troops

Here's the current troops I run with. (That' I'm currently expanding). I love theses guys, or rather I love the looks on my opponents faces when I cover 3/4 of the board with orks. I hate moving them all though. The current standard joke when it's my moving phase is "You might wanna read the Twilight series while I move."

The sluggas & choppas. The first orks I painted. The nob got converted with the powerklaw from the AOBR warboss. To the left of him is the first ork ever... :)

Shoota Skwad One! They die like flies, but I love 'em. :)

Shoota Skwad Too! Nothing special here. :)

The little big waagh! Special Grot Skwadron Alpha! Experts at holding objectives far back, going to ground in 2 seconds sharp and decorated for running away when Space Marines look at them angrily.

Next up is the heavy support.

Weekend Challenge: 30 orks...

30 black orks...

Yeah, sort of. I kinda felt bad for buying all that Malifaux stuff. Especially when I already have a metric ton of models to paint (fortunately no commission stuff). So I set up this challenge to myself.

Before I break the seal on any of the Malifaux stuff, rulebook included. I have to have all these orks painted up. And I really need them as well. I've usually been running mobs of 19 boyz + a PK/BP nob, which hasn't stood up too well against MEQ. Especially not against space wolves. So I'll try running mobs of 29 boyz instead. That'll make them fearless for a while longer, and they'll dish out more pain as well.

Of course, the sluggas will still be in a mob of 20 in order to fit in a battlewagon. But with these painted up I'll be able to run two wagons, or slog 30 of them across the field depending on what I feel like.

Hopefully I'll be done by sunday. They wont be especially complicated. Grey pants, red shirts, brown straps and stuff. So I think I'll be able to do it. Famous last words? :)

FW Ork Kommando konvershun set!

This made me really excited. Finally an option for the metal ones. For £15 it's kinda sweet. Assuming you can equip at least 5 AOBR orks with kommando-gear.

My impressions of the "new" 40K radio.

It's perhaps not fair to judge the new 40K radio after their pilot show. No show, apart from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has been really great. And I guess they'll get up to speed after a couple of shows. Anyways.. here it goes.

The hosts

For this episode it's George, Rick & Romeo. George & Rick will be the permanent hosts. The third spot is for guests etc. For now it's Romeo.

George is the experienced player, with 20 years of 40K under his belt.

Rick is the "newbie", if you can call him that. Started out in 3d ed of 40K and seems like a knowledgable guy even though he's The New Guy.

Romeo, well, I was scared he was going to be "Battle Foam Romeo". But – and this is smart move – this is Hobby Romeo. And they really made it sure to dispel any myths & fears that this is going to be Battle Foam Radio instead of 40K Radio. Actually a large portion of this episode is about dispelling this stuff.

All in all, the host setup seems to be really solid. I really like that the third host is going to be someone new (or "old"). And... they mentioned having Stelek on the show. I'd love that. Not because of his listbuilding skills, but for the drama that will ensue on the internetz. They also mentioned having Les Bursley from Awesomepaintjob.com be on the show, talking about painting to play.

The Show

Well, it's an intro/ pilot show. The sound quality was "meh", as expected. Nothing more about that.

The direction they're taking the show seems really well thought out and solid. A lot more hobby and less "three guys getting drunk, talking 40K". And with Romeo's network at their hands I think it'll be really good in a show or three when stuff starts rolling on it's own.

A lot of 'boota talk as well. These guys really love the 'bootaz and they really made me want to renew my membership (if I hadn't spent all money on Malifaux stuff). The 'boota-centric approach is also a really smart way to get "free" content from the show. If you, as a boota, feel that you're contributing to the show, and can contribute, it's a win-win.

I really liked the show when Spencer ran it, and I think I'll like it even more now that Romeo is "running" it.

Oh... there was no F-bomb during the entire hour!

Wyrd stuff / Just shoot me.

I know I have about 80 more orks to paint. And a full 1500pts space marine army after that. And 750-ish eldar that really screams for me to paint them.

But Malifaux seems so cool? And I get to paint wonderful figures and make old-west buildings? So why not order some Malifaux?

Ah well... looking forward to delve into a perhaps little faster type of tabletop game. And the miniatures are aaaamaaaazing. Can't waint to paint some of those!

UPDATED. Ultramarines: Scutum storm shields

Since I decided on doing the 2nd company of Ultramarines instead of the 4th – I didn't like the green trim on blue, no contrast – I've looked at ways of making the marines more roman-esque to fit in with Captain Sicarius.

One way of doing it is using a roman shield, scutum, instead of the normal storm shields on TH/SS terminators.

Looking at countless threads on Dakka, B&C etc. I didn't really find any good off the shelf shields. Most of the ones out there are for 25 or 28mm and would look really tiny on terminators.

So, here's my solution for it. In plasticard.

Boomo suggested I'd tone down the details on the shields and just use an etched brass crux terminatus on it. Which saved me some hassle finding and cutting spheres for the center of the shields. I decided to add some hassle and put on some rivets on the trim.

And… I get an excuse to order more etched brass from Forge World since there's only four of them on each sprue. Bummer! ^_^

UPDATE: Mounted on a terminator. The v2 shield is 4mm longer. Making it more in-line with how it would look if it was terminator issue / made for an 8ft tall dude.

The waaagh: HQ & Objectives

I thought I should add the ever expanding horde of orks that I've painted. So far it's about 1300-ish points. And that's about half of it -.-

First up is the HQ and objectives.

Big Mek with Kustom Force Field.

Nothing fancy here. It's the bog standard Big Mek. I used some of the GW 40K basing stuff for the nice eldar helmet. All in all I'm kinda pleased with how it looks. Easy & quick.

Da Golden Klaw & Da Ammo

I should make a third objective but I haven't really figured out what to do. The power klaw is from the nobz pack, mounted on some Gale Force 9 slate. The grot is from the nob-pack too I think.

Dark Art Miniatures: Alien Section

I've always wanted to make a proper board (or in this case a couple of RoB-tiles) with a tyranid theme.

The only option for non-DIY stuff used to be the expensive Forge World terrain – no, Armorcasts "fluffy cute alien"-stuff doesn't count –until now.

I just stumbled upon this little gem from Dark Art Miniatures. It would be awesome for the generic alien stuff, some of it you still have to do yourself (such as draping resin "slime" on Imperial Sector buildings and such), but these pieces is a great theme-setter for the rest of the terrain.

And for only £41 it's kind of a steal. Now if only I hadn't promised myself not to buy more stuff to be painted until I've painted all my orks... >_<

Finished Deff Dread

I guess it's finished. Or at least I'm so bored with it I consider it done and ready for the tabletop.

I've added some weathering since the last WIP photos. A ton of rust and mud (MIG & Forge World) and Vallejo's Smoke. All the panels got some sort of filter / wash to make them stand out from each other and give the dread some sort of randomly built look.

I dabbled with some OSL (Object Source Lightning) on the visor thingie as well. It's much much harder than it looks. So very easy to have it look like you slipped with the brush instead of lightning.

I might go back to it later on and add some scratches to the armor. But for now it's done...

Adsense is wonky.

Yesterday. "Meet swedish girls".

Today.

I somehow think that Adsense buyers have targeted "nerd blogs". Kinda funny, kinda creepy.

The Bench: Deff dread 10hrs later.

Ultramarines scrap used for shoulderpad thingie.

Washing and highlighting done. Some minor detailing and weathering and it's tabletop time!

On the bench: Ork Deff Dread

One of those neglected minis that's been in the cupboard way too long.

I kinda failed magnetizing the dread, and since then (5-6 months ago?) it's been sitting in the cupboard, primed and waiting to be painted. So yesterday I glued all the arms on, basecoated it and started adding the first drybrush to the metal parts.

Gluing on the arms is going to make it a beast(sic) to transport, and I sure hope having 4 DCCW works as I want it to. Six attacks on the charge should do it? I'm not too fond of having to remove arms from it since most of the joints where the arms meet the body is kinda... messed up from the failed magnetizing.

Now it's recieved the first wash (2:1 Burnt Umber / Lamp Black. Which is kinda like Devlan Mud. Watch how to do your own washes here.) and once that's dry it's time to add highlightning and details. I'm just going to watch the F1 quals first ^_^

Model Expo Online portable spray booth review.

The spray booth. Unfolded with a Deff Dread on it. To the left is an Evolution 2in1 airbrush and a bunch of Vallejo Model Air.

So I've been doing a lot of airbrushing lately and a week ago I kinda got fed up with inhaling paint dust and solvents from the window cleaning fluid I use to dilute paints. (And I felt kinda bad for the cats). Now I work in a pretty well ventilated area. There's an A/C unit right above the painting area, but I guess it just moves the particles around. Not trapping them. Which lead me to look for a spray booth of some sort.

In Sweden, most of the paint booths are made for ad-agencies using spray glue (anyone still use that stuff? Post-It makes excellent glue sticks) and are priced accordingly. The best price I found for an Artograph booth was at around €500. Which is way too expensive. In the USA though, Model Expo Online introduced a "portable" spray booth that folds into itself to make a pretty compact unit. Perfect for my needs.

After shopping around a little, I found a german retailer (important since I want a 240VAC unit) that sold it for slightly less than €100. The shopping process was nice and smooth and 3 days later the big brown van was here with the booth.

I'll skip boring you trusty reader(s) with the tech specs. The only important thing to note is that it only moves 3 m3 of air, which translates to about 100 cubic feet per minute. This is said – on the internetz – to be enough for most hobby related airbrushing. And is the absolute minimum the OSHA recommends for a spray booth. So if you're spraying enamels or solvent based stuff. Please don't go cheap. Buy proper stuff.

And... there's no duct for venting fumes out a window. Which isn't a problem with the Vallejo stuff since it really doesn't smell much at all. Some users have apparently attached a duct to it without any problems. There are four mounting screws on the back (for the fan grille) and I guess it conforms to some sort of standard.

So far I've primed a bunch of models in it, and used it for some general basecoating and it seems to work well. I can clearly see the bigger particles blowing into the booth, and I hope the smaller ones does as well.

All in all, a pretty good booth for your money. Especially if you – like me – have limited space.

You can watch a pretty cheesy video here, with handling instructions and stuff. Enjoy.

The other hobby related thing I've recieved the last week was this seam scraper from Micro Mark. This thing is amazing!

I've usually used a scalpel blade to scrape mold seams on my minis. Quickly dulling the blade and sometimes creating really ugly scrape marks on the figure.

This thing is made of hardened tool steel (whatever that means) and is shaped like a triangle. I can use it to scrape mold lines and remove bits of sprue that's still attached. Without any ugly marks. It actually is hard to make scrape marks with this tool. Well worth the $10 and the $10 in shipping.