The Warhost is ready..

The Host is all painted up and ready for their final outing of the old codex. It could be a tough one, I think there will be a Daemon player and a few other decent players. The Dex is long in the teeth and a bit costed so we'll see. It did well the time I tested it, but if I run into a strong CC army (Daemons) it could have some issues. Plus I'm not sure if I'll have enough firepower to whittle down any blobs (in cover).

It's a small 1K tourney and on 4x4 boards so it should at least be quick games. But the store needs to barrow my gaming boards and terrain so I will be taking a ton of stuff again. Tonight I'll be fixing some of their terrain that got damaged so there should be plenty. I'll also be building some new stuff for them as they are looking to expand their gaming section and have asked me to spray it up for them to look decent.

Should be a fun time ..

Total Focus

Last night I got a little time in and pretty much was touching up numerous minis. I glued the Converted Seer's Spear arm on and did a little detail work. I'm still trying to figure out some of the smaller details but he's pretty close to completion.

I also worked on a few older models as well. The Seer I added wanes to, he originally had a a lot of yellow on him and I'm trying to remove most of that as it's not really in my color scheme.

The gems were all yellow and looked decent but I'm going to move him over to reds and purples like the rest of the Dar in my force. I'll also go with a purple for the plume on his helm. Other then that it's just some updating of details and cleaning him up some.

I also started to blend the old DA Exarch

new

old

It was a mostly blue night, since I had it out I just started to go with it. I'll do that a lot, pick a color and work on that color for whatever model is close haha.. sometimes it's a good thing and sometime it leads me to painting something I had no thought of painting.. oh well.

Someone has the new Dar Dex and has been posting the details out there. Some are pretty cool but some are not and I'm getting worried about my Seers. I know it's not the whole picture yet but I'm worried they are just making the new models (expensive) the best to get the sales in. And it sounds like a lot of what was bad still is.. sad. I'm hoping the whole picture will shine but a lot of the details are looking like ugly mud.

Making a cheap modular gaming table.. part 2

This weekend I worked on finishing up the 4x8 concrete gaming board I started awhile back. There is a gaming event at the local gaming store (Chucks Comics) and they need to use my gaming boards. It was a good reason to get them finished so now they are completely done up. And since I was doing it I figured I'd take some more notes to add more info.

Some good tools to have would be
An orbital sander

And a Dremel

I sand down the surface of the board to make it smooth plus you'll probably want to sand the tongue and groove. I'm sure they are made to be tight so once they are joined they don't come apart but since the gaming boards will be built and broken down numerous times you don't want them to be that difficult to separate  And you will need a mallet to join them which can damage the tongues (which sounds kind of funny haha).

After sanding prime the boards. Kilz is typically what I use as it covers very well and dries quickly.

Let it dry.

Like I was saying in the first post I use cheap paints for the boards, generic paints are completely good enough. When making the concrete boards I noticed the grey I was using was too light. So I mixed the grey on the board and made sure to show some strokes. I don't want to it be too uniform. The streaks will show through a little and give it a nice look.

Then it's time to spray the boards with the texture paint.

There are a bunch of different brands and they all seem to work pretty well. For this one I went with Valspar as I was at Lowes at the time. You can see the old look of the board here. I painted over it with the grey to show less white/light grey. The base color will show through some so make sure it's the color you want before spraying. Plus it will require you to use less of the texture spray which is the most expensive part of making these. Once they are dry spray them with clear to protect them, you can't see it here but I actually sprayed the brown boards I made before and let me just say that Armory Clear matte sucks. So beware if you use it, it kind of hazes over.

Once you are done with all the painting it's time to sand the tongue and grooves. I typically use the orbital to sand the top and bottom of the tongue and groove. On the tongue section I sand the ends thinner making it easier to fit but don't go too thin or it could crack them. Once that's done I go back with the dremel (I use 60 grit for all sanding of the board) to get the paint that sticks in the recesses and corners. After it's sanded down they can be slide together easily.

I think they came out looking pretty good and it's nice to have both boards completely done. They will get a solid testing this weekend 8).

Part One Here

Kick the tires..

 I finished up the Vyper and Jetbike bases.. I think they came out looking pretty good. Looking at the new Vyper I painted I think I'm going to be touching up the old ones. They are looking a bit faded and I didn't have my airbrush back then. I have three more Vypers to be built and I have a few ideas for details on the front section so I'll probably test it out before I build the rest.

I know some people were looking for new Vypers but I for one like the model, hopefully they get a more survivability.

I really wish they would have revamped these bad boys. The Harley look really is dated and doesn't give the sleek speedy feel. But they are at least better then the original ones, I took a few pics of all my built ones.

I didn't realize how dusty some of these guys were haha

Again they are old and their paint jobs reflect that. But the worst of them all are these.

I hate these damn things haha.. back in the day they were I had. Then I ended up getting a real good deal on a bunch of them so I think I have another 8 sitting a box.

We're Dire Avengers. We're suppose to be surrounded.

They're finished! .. it's took awhile with the busy schedule but they are now all done up. I still see some things I'd like to touch up but they are for the table and I'm not that worried about it. I think they look pretty solid and it's nice to have them complete. I have another full squad waiting but I'm going to wait to see what my list will be looking like with the new Dex.

The Exarch .. Bladestorm GO!

And some shots of the squad members.

I'm glad I have two full squads already build and ready. It appears they are moving the box from 10 at $37 to 5 at $35.. what a bargain! If it wasn't GW it would truly amazing, doubling the price of them with no change other then the packaging. The fact that I have more Eldar then I could remotely even use is nice as I'll only be buying the few items. They can take their repacks and jam them up their ... well ... you know.

The Webz is on firers...

The Eldar Codex is getting closer and closer, and there is a ton of information out there now. A good bit of pics and rules people are picking out of those pics. It's pretty wild how much people are geeking over it. First thing I have to say is I do really like the Flyer, though I may make it a combo of both for the final look I'd go with. The biggest disappointment is the fact that we aren't getting new jetbike models. And that really does suck, it sucks hard. I have a butt ton of old jetbikes and some that I even "converted" back in the day by giving them Dire Avenger bodies and heads. But they look so bad, they are old and are showing their age. They are better then the originals which I have a few of (YUCK). I'm sure they will release them in a second wave down the road but I think they missed a big opportunity here. Hype for Dar hasn't been this high most likely ever and jetbikes seem to be a big part of the new Dex. New models mean more sales and I'd figure GW would want to be all over that. 

A couple of nice things I've seen out there is the return of the Reaper Rangefinder and Warlocks have real Psy powers again (at least it looks like). Some vehicles seem to get upgrades to their BS so they can shoot better then a standard guardsman and the run and shoot feature sounds pretty cool. That Dex can't come soon enough.

Some of the sad things I've read people say "The Aspects are still very specialized 8(" um... that is the whole purpose of Dar. And that is what typically made you work at building a very solid and focused list. And it's funny reading some peoples comments, I can tell who has been playing Dar for awhile and who is looking for Allies. People focusing on the army as a whole and those who are looking to cherry pick the lately greatest.

I'll have a lot of painting to do in the next few months. With me planning to play at Nova this year I want to have a fully well painted army with display board. I've never really worried about that but I have a couple of cool ideas I'd like to do just to have a really cool looking display for my Dar. Once the Dex comes out I'll have to figure out what I'll be using so I can figure out the size and setup of the board.

Scatterfield..

Last night I worked on a variety of stuff, I cleared the Revenant before I move on to the next step of him. I wanted to make sure the tape doesn't pull off any paint, I left the tape on his feet a little too long and it did pull some patches even though it was 3M painters tape. So now I'll have to touch it up too. Either way I'm going to start working on some of the details soon. They are saying the Wraithknight is going to be 9" tall so he won't be that much smaller then the Rev. So I'll have 2 big dudes to get done.

I also worked on the bases of my old Vypers. I applied the brown texture paint and then hit it with a dark wash. I also did the same for three of my old Jetbikes, which I'll be happy are going away soon.

I converted the riders but even so I hate the old Jetbikes. I so hope the new Windrider Jetbikes look awesome. A Jetbike army could be super strong with how fast they are now.

The Avengers are almost done, just a few more touches. That and I need to finish up the bases. Once all the bases done the army I'm going to take to the 1K Tourney will be fully painted. It's a small Tourney and I figured it will be the final battle before the new Dex. It will be a tough one at 1K, but a tough fight is always fun. Well as long as my dice don't screw me haha...

My voice is raw, My lyrics are law...

I got a game in on Friday, 1K BA which I figured I'd be nutty and throw in a LR (I forgot to take any pictures so I had to steal one from my friend Sean). I played Josh's Orks and I think he has some kind of Ork training facility. I have never seen Orks shoot so well, he was putting a serious hurt on me, not to mention I could do very little in return. Thankfully the poor rolling did save me at the end, the game ended in round 5 with a roll of a 2. And with that it gave me the game haha.. He'd pummeled me pretty bad but I had castled up in a building to take one Obj and then ran to take the center Obj which was worth more. It was a fun game either way, much smack talking was had and Josh's night was made when he took out the LR. Which he didn't let go until we had left haha

But, the big news (rumors) is the pics of the Eldar Wraithknight and the Flyer (not to mention the cover).

http://www.3plusplus.net/2013/05/some-eldar-treats/#more-6909

Though it may take a couple of times to get it to load so many people are hitting it. It's cool to see a pic of both and I'm liking the look of the flyer which I was a bit worried about. I don't really like the Dar Forgeworld flyers, the small ones at least, the one that looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey is pretty cool but how often are you going to be running that 8). If the Dar flyers looked terrible I was just going to buy the DE ones and mod them but thankfully I don't think I'll have to. The pic is small and your have to really zoom in but what I'm looking at so far looks cool.

The Wraithknight, some parts I really like some I'm a little so so about. The arms and head look too small to me, maybe it's the angle or I'm just being nit picky. Who knows.. But either way it looks to be kitted out pretty nicely. And with it probably being $85 bucks it will most likely kick ass since they will want to be selling a bunch of them. I've been really looking forward to the Dar release and now I am even more.

They are saying that pre orders will be up by the 24th and will go on sale June 8th. Which is nice (if it happens), when I spurge and drop a ton of coin I'll say it's for Father's Day. My own little gift to myself haha.. WHOOT !

Stay on target..

They are getting close to being done. I've been working on their armor, I had started to do the final edge highlights when I noticed I didn't like the blend of the light color. So I went back and added more VGC Magic Blue to brighten it up more. So now I"m going back to the edge highlights. I think they are coming out nicely, I was hoping to get them done last weekend but it was way too busy and this weekend is already looking to be just as hectic. I'm going to have some time tonight so I hope I can get a good bit done.