Thursday Thoughts

(think of it as a late Monday Musings)

Rumour Control - Percentages

I know this much is... True

We don't do rumours on this site, mainly because other people do it much better. However, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the rumours regarding 6th edition that are circulating around and to see how they might affect us. A lot of them seem to be wishing for a return to 2nd ed. Ah, 2nd ed where a 2000 point army was about 4 squads of Marines and it still took about 6 hours to play a game. It's true, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

One of the things we used to have back then and is rumoured to be making a return is percentages instead of the FOC. Now, Warhammer Fantasy Battle already uses this system but what would it mean to 40K? Well, frankly for Space Wolves it would be awesome. Assuming that missions remain broadly similar and you need troops to capture objectives, it would do away with one of the main drawbacks of the Wolves, namely that you can only take 6 scoring units. The other thing that we'd see would be more Long Fangs (and to think, Graham already calls them Cheese Fangs) Let's look at the numbers - in a 1750 point list, 3 units of 6 Long Fangs with 5 Rocket Launchers comes to 24%. So, we can fire 15 Rockets at 6 targets. Or we could have 4 units of 4 Long Fangs with 3 Rocket Launchers and a unit of 3 Long Fangs with 2 Rocket Launchers. This comes to just over 24%. Okay, so we've lost 1 Rocket shot but we can now fire at 10 targets!

I'm not a huge fan of returning to percentages to be honest, I think the FOC works pretty well especially with the characters that swap around slots. It would be interesting if they built on this in 6th edition and had characters that allowed a bit more development with regard to the FOC. Rumours are the Chaos Legion codex may have something like this where you can take an Iron Warriors Captain and get an extra Heavy Support choice for the loss of a Fast Attack one for example.

We can rebuild him

So, as you might have noticed, still no pictures of completed Thunderwolves. Turns out my finger was slightly more broken that initially thought. It is getting better though, so hopefully some more modelling pics next week...

94 Not Out

I'm sure all bloggers have been through this before - slowly watching your Followers total move towards the magical three digits. Then you realise that BoLS has more than 2,000 and you realise that world domination is still a long way away...

Anyone else starting to get excited about the impending 6th Ed? Or is anyone worried that GW will balls it up? Has anyone seen any beautiful new TWC anywhere? And is there anything specific that our 94 loyal followers would like to see? Let us know below the line...

Tuesday Thoughts

(think of it as a late Monday Musings)

Thunderwolves

As you can see, I've put together my first Thunderwolf. Before I add the rider I think it's wise to do some thinking about the actual use for the unit. Now, I've seen Thunderwolves used in many different guises since the codex came out - there's the super rock unit of Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf accompanied by 5 of his buddies down to the solo Thunderwolf as a counter-attacking threat. I think that the first option suffers from the same problems as any rock - it's a lot of eggs in one basket. As Mick found out, in some games they'll kick arse and take names and in others they will do very little. I'm also not totally convinced by the solo T-Wolves. Yes, they can easily claim cover behind a Rhino and there are definitely going to be handy against MSU armies in combat.

So, where now for me? I'm thinking of a unit of 3 initially. This feels like a good balance between the two options above and also because there are 3 in the box. It should be easy enough to claim cover with 3 but they are also going to pack a bit of a punch in combat. Thunderwolf units can get very expensive very quickly and I want a unit that on one hand I won't want to throwaway but on the other hand one that I can afford to lose without it making a huge dent in my battleplan...

3 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 2 Storm Shields, Power Fist

comes to 235 points. That seems really expensive when you consider that 5 Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators are only 200 points. However, the T-Wolves are a lot more mobile. So, the plan is that these guys will be replacing some of my Wolf Guard. Unfortunately, I have a badly bruised finger from being landed on by a Running Back at the weekend so I don't think I'll be able to finish the models this week...

Whaddya Need?

I've been thinking a lot about some of the rumours that are flying around the internets regarding rumours for the next 40K Codex and I started thinking, who would I like to see done next. Yes, we'd all like to see a better Tyranid codex but that isn't going to happen any time soon so what would we like to see? The rumours seem to point to Dark Angels or Chaos Legions, although Tau and Eldar are mentioned as outside possibilities. Following the last errata, Dark Angels are actually a pretty good army and while it would be nice to see an update I don't really think they need one right now. Personally, I think there are already too many shooty armies out there so that sees Tau off my radar. Eldar are an interesting one. I would quite like to see them being redone as their unit speciality makes them a pretty unique army on the tabletop. However, I have to admit that I'd much rather see a "big book of Chaos" The good guys have had it their way too long, it's time for the bad guys to shine.

Now, when I say "big book of Chaos", I mean, Chaos Legions, Renegades and Daemons all in the same book so that you can pick and choose. This means that you can run your all Daemon list, your all Bezerker army or anything inbetween. I had an idea of a recently renegade army that was in collusion with Daemons because they thought that they were visions of the God Emperor. So, they wouldn't fight with Cult units because they don't realise that they're actually turning evil yet.

Unfortunately, this book won't happen as there is no way that GW would release one book when they can release three and because it would be almost impossible to balance properly.

So, does anybody have any tips for using Thunderwolves? And if you could have any codex released next, which one would it be and why?

My-Mycetic Spores...

In all the armies I build I have to have units that come on by Deep Strike and Outflank, I just do, it's how I play. So when building my Nid army this left me with a bit of a problem. Tervigons are easy enough to build as shown in Grazer's article here but Mycetic Spores need to be big, alien looking and easy enough to make a few of them.

Now there are a few companies out there that make some in resin, and a quick search on Google will show you, but having looked at them, I'll be honest, I really didn't like the look of them. Couple this with the cost of them and I knew I had to find a cheaper alternative that I liked. In any project I draw up a plan, and would encourage everyone to do the same, it doesnt have to be set in stone, but it will help you keep on track. What I needed for my pods was the following:

• Size: Big, big enough to house 20 Gaunts, a Fex or a Brood of Warriors
• Cheap: I was going to want between 5 and 10 of these so I could do an all pod army if I wanted
• Cool: They had to look good and attract attention from people passing by

During my search I stumbled across these:

Now I'm sure most Nid players will have seen or heard of these by now and they tick all three of the requirements I outlined above. However, those that know me know that a) I cant just use something out of the box and b) I always have to go one better than the next person (hence my £100+ custom Blood Bowl team).

So I picked one up and went to work. Initially I thought about green stuff for the inside but a) I suck at GS and b) it would take a lot of time and probably not look that good. Wandering around a local DIY Store for ideas I came across this and the solution quickly formed in my head:

(Note, this is the can after I've used it...when working on a project I'm not tidy in the slightest)

Expanding foam is sold at all DIY shops, is relatively cheap and easy to work with. Not only that but it would make all the pods look unique. All very good points.

Building

So, start by taking the Plasma Hatcher toy out of the box and clean off the mold lines with a sharp hobby knife and file. It's quite a difficult plastic to work with but well worth it in the long run. There are a couple of lips/tabs on the two harves as well that need to be trimmed off so look out for those. Following this a quick wash in some warm soapy water will get off any excess dust or release agents.

Here is a shot of my test pod where I failed to remove the tabs/lines and when painted you can see them:

Once this is done I pin each pod half to a large oval base, or use a quick squirt of the expanding foam to secure it. Super glue doesn't work on the plastic the toy is made from and so that's why I recomend pinning or foam.

Then simply spray some foam around the inside of the pod half and wait for 5-10 min for the foam to expand and become sticky/tacky and workable. Less is more in this case, you'd be surprised the first time you make these how much the foam will expand, and you can always go back and add more. I generally find if you make them in batched of 4-6, by the time you've come to squirt the foam in the last pod, the 1st will be ready to shape. I recomend using latex gloves when you start working with the foam, and you'll get through several pairs of them so have a good stock.

By pinching, pulling and molding the foam you can create a truely grim and alien inside to the pod. That's pretty much it, quick, easy and cheap. When shaping them just have fun with it, try new things and don't be afraid to add more foam where needed. It's likely you wont have got a full coverage with the first application.

You can fit both halves of the Pod onto one base, but it's a bit of a squeeze so it's up to you. If you want to add a bit more detail you can add gaunts, rippers etc into the foam or parts from your bitz box on the outside such as bio weapons, claws etc.

Painting

Before you paint your pod you need to coat the entire thing in PVA glue, otherwise the paint will flake off and ruin all your hard work. After that paint it however you want that fits in with your army. The easiest way I've found to do it is to undercoat them white, and then use the GW washes on the inside (Devlan Mud and Baal Red work wonders).

 Here is a shot for scale:

...and thats it. The most fun you can have with expanding foam and latex without having to pay £1000 an hour for...ahem...

Top Tips

• Take the time to clean the Pod
• Secure the Pod with pinning
• Less is more, you can go back and add extra
• PVA glue before applying paint
• Latex Gloves

Now, since making my first few and other people seeing them I've had several orders from other gamers. If any of our readers would like some please contact us and I'll get in touch with a price.

Monday Musings

Yes, I know it's Tuesday

Scouting for Wolves

So, I spent Friday putting together a second squad of Wolf Scouts. I love Wolf Scouts but they are a bit random so my plan to mitigate this is to take two units! I just need to sort their heads out now...

Newcrons

Wow! Did you see all the pictures of the new Necron models at Games Day UK? No, neither did we. GW seem to be struggling at the moment to get the balance between leaking everything and leaking nothing. It didn't have to be the full model range but just an acknowledgement that Necrons are coming and a few concept pictures would have been nice.

Forging Ahead

Picture "borrowed" from Sons of Sanguinius

At least Forge World turned up to Games Day. I love this model and from the sounds of it, he's going to be pretty hardcore.

Where next?

Once the Scouts are done, my 1750 tournament list will be pretty much sorted. Which leave one question - where next? I put together this guy over the summer, intended to be part of a "Loganwing" Termiantor army:

but I'm a bit disenchanted at how hard it is to get hold of Cyclone Missile Launchers...

Which leaves this pile:

I love the idea of a Drop Pod army but I'm not sure how successful it would be. I bought the Land Raider after a tournament at the start of the year after I faced yet another multiple Raider list and decided that if I couldn't beat them I'd join them! There's no way that I'll have any of these forces painted before 6th edition drops (even if that isn't until 2014!!) but I'd like to start assembling one of them...

Monday Music

This is a feature on Twitter that I'm stealing for here. I'm really old school so I prefer CDs to downloads and I seem to have picked up loads of new stuff in the last couple of weeks. Hence, I might not get round to blogging much as I spend more time listening to music. In no particular order, I've got the following in the need to listen to pile; Kasabian - Velociraptor, Cornershop - Cornershop & The Double O Groove Of, Wild Beasts - Smother, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Mirror Traffic, Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams. I've also just got this new album by a band from Seattle called Nevermind. It's a complete rip-off of the Pixies' quiet-loud-quiet sound but it's pretty good. Some of the tracks sound like they'd work pretty well on an acoustic guitar. If only there was some kind of Music Television channel that had a kind of "Unplugged" program...

How's your week been? Did you go to Games Day and find it as rubbish as everyone else? Where should I go to with the Wolves? What are you listening to these days? Have you heard of this band Nirvana?

On The Warpath!

Oh!

I've just been brousing the tinterweb and have spent a few minutes drooling over the new miniatures from Mantic Games' Warpath game, which should be out soon. The game system has been written by ex-GW scribe Alessio Cavatore. I'm not sure who has sculted the models, but... I LIKE!

Here follows a link to their website: http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath.html

I've also taken the liberty of posting a few pictures below, which I have borrowed from their website. All images are of course copyright Mantic Games (hope I've not done anything naughty?!).

Blog Wars! Huh! What is it good for?

In case you've never heard of it, here's the low down on Blog Wars. Yep, basically it's a tournament in the UK where people from various blogs go to meet each other in the real world and play some 40K. One of the USPs of BW is that you have to take a Special Character.

Now, I've been having a bit of think about what I might take as a Space Wolves special character and I'v already started some work on a model:

In the immortal words of Rolf Harris, "Can you guess what it is yet?"

Flock off you flocking flock head

Basing models to me is equal to the paint job for overall look of a model and its something that I am poor at so with my new grey knights I decided to avoid the issue all together and go for some sculpted bases from micro art which luckily they sell at Maelstrom so after long deliberation I decided to go with these.

Thats all I've really got to say today. Cheerio.

... and now for something completely different!

I may have mentioned that I'm starting up a Blood Bowl team to take part in the club's League. I've really got the bug and after taking a bit of a stuffing in my first game I was hooked. The dice looked more favourably on me in game 2 with a narrow loss against our very own Baron's Dwarves, but my Orcs put in a much more bashy performance consigning 3 of the little stunties to the seriously injured bin. Hopefully I'll be getting more games in over the next few weeks and in order to ensure that I look my best I've converted up some players (one notable exception, see if you can spot him!):


Black Orcs


Blitzers


Linemen and Thrower


Re-Rolls and Score Counter

Pics from the Bughouse

As the original pictures I uploaded were a little on the small side, I have reloaded them. Hopefully they are a little clearer this time!

If you like my work and would like to see more (or even pay me to make some scratchbuilt models for you!) then please let me know.

The basic model:

Undercoated:

Finished:

Big Momma

I have now finished my first Tervigon, and have even used it in a couple of games. Here is a quick guide to how I made the model...

First, I built the body from a plastic dinosaur I bought on holiday last year. The model was just about the right size (approximately 8 inches...ahem...), and had the requisite spikes and spines that Tyranids demand. I took the dinosaur head off as it was a little bit feeble, and repositioned the tail by cutting it in three places, angling the ends and then regluing to get the gentle curve I wanted.

Next, I added the front and rear legs, plus the excellent crushing claws which gave the beast a very menacing demeanour. At the same time I added a Carnifex head, which I imbedded into the carved-out neck cavity of the dinosaur skeleton.

I also had to fill the hollow body of the model, to convert the long-dead bones into the lumbering behemoth it wouls shortly become. To do this, I mixed PVA glue and water in equal quantities, then soaked up the mixture into kitchen roll. I rolled up balls of glue-inpregnated papier-mache and inserted them into the dinosaur's body cavity (slightly reminiscent of stuffing a bird at Christmas, but that's a tale for an entirely different website). The texture on the kitchen-roll gave a satisfyingly leathery skin texture to the belly of the beast. At this stage I also created the head-crest, which I made from flat, approximately 5mm thick strips of modelling clay on a curved piece of see-through plastic superglue blister pack!

Once the model was complete, I undercoated it with grey carpaint and then got to work with the acrylics. The main colour is Citadel's Ice Blue, over which I washed Asurmen Blue ink. The spines and scales were painted Warlock purple, and detailed with increasingly fine lines of lighter purples and finally white.

The last piece of work to do was the base. I use modelling clay to create a lightly textured rocky effect (no sand is used in the making of this model's base), which I then paint light grey and wash with Ogryn Flesh ink. Some dry-brushing helps to pick out the peaks of the rocky crags, and finally flock is added to give a bit of colour and contrast to the otherwise neutral base.

Rise of the Tervigon

As you may already have guessed, I have recently began building the first of two Tervigons for my new Tyranid army. Now, I am not one for following the masses, so I have decided rather than converting a Trygon or Carnifex, I will scratch-build my own unique model.

Until I build the second.

Then the first one won't be quite as unique.

Anyway, I digress (it's late, it's Friday, I've been building furniture til 10.30pm, I'm tired and rambling). I have decided that my Tervigon will be based on another of my favourite things, a dinosaur skeleton:

Coupled to this, I've added legs, crushing claws and a head from a previous monstrous creature kit, plus an Alien Queen-style head-mantle which I moulded and carved from modelling clay (this was the fiddly but fun part). After that, it was just a matter of stuffing the hollow skeleton with papier-mache, and then basing the entire thing on a thin plasticard base.

Finally I base-coated the whole thing with grey car primer, and then set to work painting the theme in the colours of Hive Fleet Nemesis - that is, light blue inked with Asurman Blue, with purple armour plates and details. I will of course post pictures of the fully painted mummy-beast when she is finished!

Building a Tervigon

Clipped Wings and Magnetic Doors

It's been a long time since I pre-ordered my Storm Ravens, in fact since then I have traded one of them in for more Tyranid models to complete my 1500pt force! Only one though because I always knew I wanted to field at least one at some point in the future.

On my return from a short trip to Berlin earlier this week I decided that the time had come to put the Storm Raven together. It's a pretty easy kit to work with and it went together really well, the only slightly tricky parts are the struts on the cockpit covers for both the pilot and the gunner, I think the clear screens are going to be tricky once I get to them.



Also in its favour is how easy it is to magnetise the weapons on the turret. If you do not fit the bar designed to hold the guns onto the sides of the turret, a 4mm hole is left on either side which is the perfect size for one of my little magnets. With this taken care of all you need to do is drill a hole in the weapon to fit a magnet to the guns, I didn't bother with the drilling and to be honest it looks fine without recessing these magnets.



To magnetise the side door options I did what I usually do which is to take a length of sprue just wider than the door aperture, build up the ends with discs of sprue to give you some relief from the hull. I glue the sprue into place across the doorway and then glue a magnet onto the centre of the piece of sprue. In this case it was very difficult to tell whether or not I would be able to just glue the other magnets to doors directly or if they would need to be built up in order to connect to to the magnet in the doorway. In order to ensure I didn't mess this up I used some grey-stuff to fix the magnet in place on the door, this way if it was not close enough I could move it around and build it up as required. As it turned out I needed to build up the magnets on the doors quite a bit so I would say to anyone else that you do not need to move the sprue too far back from the hull if at all.



I wanted to leave the canopies clear so I had to paint the pilot and gunner before completing the assembly, I'm also trying to work out how to magnetise the front facing guns but I may just not bother with it an use blue-tack to secure them to the assembly.







Anyway, that's all for now. I'll be continuing to work on it this week so I'll try and keep you all updated.