So just after x-mas I decided to pick up a little point and shoot.
Now one thing these little bastards can do better than DSLR's is take macro (close up) shots. DSLR's have big sensors, which is generally a good thing when it comes to image quality and low light performance. The downside of big sensors is that they require large optics and as such the range of what's in focus is generally lower. That can be a really good thing most of the time as it gives a sharp subject focus and a nice out of focus background. The downside however is when you want to photograph something very small, the range of what's in focus is razor thin and the only way around that is having a crapload of light and/or a tripod. Enter the point and shoot.
Now the nice thing about this little guy (canon 300hs) is it has a decently wide lens at 24mm. Which means you can put it right down on the table and get pictures that are more immersive. I've tried doing that with my slr and even at F/11-F/16 I can't get results that my point and shoot can get. I also picked up one these:
Manfrotto MP3-D01
Spoiler:
The main reason you want to mount the camera on is that hand help pictures end up having some blur because if you care about having optimal image quality you will be using the lowest possible ISO (light sensitivity) which will likely result in exposures (pictures) taken at 1/30th of a second or slower (exponentially more if zoomed in). Most pics I take in my basement range from 1/5th to 1/30th of a second, so if I try and hand hold the camera, even with image stabilization, it almost always has motion blur.
The trick is doing the following: turn the flash off, turn macro mode on (it's the little picture of a flower), leave the lens zoomed out (a big mistake people make is trying to zoom in which f**ks everything up), set the camera to delayed shot(usually looks like a stop watch with a number), most cams will have either 2 or 10 seconds delay, brace the camera against terrain or models or place on the table enough so that it's balanced and won't move at all, half press the shutter button to lock in the exposure/focus, press all the way down and wait for the magic. The camera will be so-so at getting the exposure down so you may want to add a bias like +1 or -1 EV or if you have a point and shoot with a manual setting you can just use that. Also, it's worth pointing out that if you have control of your ISO keep it at the lowest possible setting, which is usually iso100 or 200. This ensures the best quality when it comes to noise.
The biggest mistake everyone makes is zooming in. What happens when you zoom is you take your nice f/2.8-3.7 apertures (the bigger holes that let in the more light) and quickly reduces them to f/5.6 or f/8 (smaller holes, less light). So basically you take an already slow exposure (think blurry) of less than 1/30th of second into a death spiral to the point where unless you're on a tripod you'll get a lot of blur. The other problem with zooming in is the minimum focus (the closest you can get the subject to the lens) goes way up. Most point and shoots can be a couple of inches away and still get focus when they're zoomed out but the second you zoom in all that math changes and the minimum focus can now be couple feet.
I would also reccomend turning off image stabilization when shooting this way (braced/tripod with delayed shutter) because it may actually cause blur if left on. Some higher end compacts may be smart enough to autodetect the complete lack of motion and disengage is automatically, but the majority of the lower end point and shoots won't be that smart.
The main benefit of shooting wide is your camera can get right up to the "action" and if the models are decently painted it can look really cool to see the world from their perspective. The other benefit of shooting wide is you'll have room to crop however you want. I know I mentioned never zooming earlier because it would increase the minimum focus (how close you can get a model in focus) but so long as the camera is completely stable it can be worthwhile to zoom a little bit and shoot some things tighter to reduce distortion and tighten the focus. Overall though, a lot of point and shoots will trend towards being sharpest wide open, which is not the case for most dslr's where you usually have to stop down a bit (lower the amount of light entering the camera by making the aperture smaller) to get the the sharpest possible result from the lens.
Cell phones can also take great shots, the same rules apply, make sure it ain't moving and it's place pretty low to the table. There are fantastic apps out there that unlock all sorts of manual controls for your phone's camera and are totally worth it in the long run.
Feel free to post camera/photography related questions, I can usually recommend what gear I like currently if you're in the market for a new camera so don't be shy.
I would so pinch some of these images, rework them to look like real photos of the combat. Next time you do a battle report try using this set up and you'll be golden
Ribon Fox wrote:I would so pinch some of these images, rework them to look like real photos of the combat. Next time you do a battle report try using this set up and you'll be golden
Pinch away dude, just saw long as you post the edit
Yup, it goes for about 145$ Canadian here but its available in most markets, it just might have a different name in some. In north america it's called the canon 300hs, it might be slightly different in europe or asia.
I'd love to write an article, shoud i just pm it to you so you can update the post?
A few pics from a recent game. My buddies guard army is inspired by command and conquer's brotherhood of nod. There's some really amazing conversions and scratch built stuff in it.
Man I still can't believe how well those Scouts performed. For those who weren't there, they destroyed a autocannon/lascannon Predator, 2 Typhoon Land Speeders and ran a combat squad off the table in combat, under heavy fire the entire time.
You should promote those men, a damn fine job they did. Only downside I guess is you won't have the element of surprise but they're still pretty damn solid.
It looks like your terrain is a mix of GW and Pegasus Hobbies stuff, are there any other brands on your table? I really like the look of your board so it'd be great if you could share with us.
creeping-deth87 wrote:It looks like your terrain is a mix of GW and Pegasus Hobbies stuff, are there any other brands on your table? I really like the look of your board so it'd be great if you could share with us.
It's actually at the local GW, I just bring the pegasus sandbags with me most of the time. The rest is pretty much pure GW, we also use the roads they used to sell rolls of.
So, I have a camera that's a bigger, fancier number than a point and click. Is having the smaller camera really necessary? How much field of focus would really be lost with a more optics-heavy setup? I'd assume a nice little tripod like that guy, but how much does the camera matter here?
So, I have a camera that's a bigger, fancier number than a point and click. Is having the smaller camera really necessary? How much field of focus would really be lost with a more optics-heavy setup? I'd assume a nice little tripod like that guy, but how much does the camera matter here?
On the one hand, it's got a telescope on the front. On the other hand, its aperture gets up to 2.8
Ive taken some decent close in pictures before, but they've only been SO close in:
But that's not nearly as far in as yours. Of course, my FLGS is dark (as, appears, is yours), which means most of my stuff has to be wide FoV and that which isn't has terribly narrow FoF, just like you said. I don't have a tiny tripod though. I wonder if that would be enough. I could do an 8 second exposure if I had one of those...
Well, the problem with that camera and zoom is that there's ONLY the auto-focus. As the auto-focus never seems to focus properly once you zoom in past roughly 2x or 3x, I've always been stuck in 1x. Of course, it's also for field of focus issues, and, most importantly, for light.
There's no way that I'd be able to get a non-blurry picture while zoomed in, as it's just too dark at my FLGS, especially in the back of the room where my pictures get the choice of blurry and dark, or not blurry and pitch black...
What I'm really wondering is how much is it the tripod, and how much is it the camera. A new tiny tripod I can afford, a new camera I can not. If it's the camera that makes the difference, then I might as well save the money on the tripod.
On the one hand, it's got a telescope on the front. On the other hand, its aperture gets up to 2.8
Ive taken some decent close in pictures before, but they've only been SO close in:
But that's not nearly as far in as yours. Of course, my FLGS is dark (as, appears, is yours), which means most of my stuff has to be wide FoV and that which isn't has terribly narrow FoF, just like you said. I don't have a tiny tripod though. I wonder if that would be enough. I could do an 8 second exposure if I had one of those...
The problem with that model is it doesn't go very wide. The lens is 36mm to 420mm, the little canon is 24mm and a lot of the newer panasonics can go to 26mm. I have issues with focussing too, no manual focussing on mine sadly :( .
Theses are some absolutely fething amazing models, painjobs and photos. I am jealous of such beautiful armies. Thank you so much for showing them to us, and how to take photos like these.
Is your Deathwatch army just count-as SM, or are you using another codex? I don't recognise the walker that looks like a penitent engine with whirlwind launchers.
NimbleJack3 wrote:Theses are some absolutely fething amazing models, painjobs and photos. I am jealous of such beautiful armies. Thank you so much for showing them to us, and how to take photos like these.
Is your Deathwatch army just count-as SM, or are you using another codex? I don't recognise the walker that looks like a penitent engine with whirlwind launchers.
It's a vanilla marines army for the most part, the penitent engine is a count as contemptor dread. It's stil la work in progress, got lots more left to paint.
I really love that you and all of your opponants have such nicely painted minis! Most of the folks in my group (myself included) can't find the time to paint all our guys.
Crablezworth: those are some impressive shots of some beautiful minis!
I've been thinking about picking up a new digital camera for a while. My girlfriend has one for general purpose picture taking, but it's next to useless when it comes to minis. Additionally, in my line of work, having a camera that can capture good details at a close range would be pretty useful. I'm amazed by the quality of the pics you've taken, and I think I might look into your choice of camera and pocket tripod- I'd be happy if I could get pics that looked half as sharp as yours!
loota boy wrote:I really love that you and all of your opponants have such nicely painted minis! Most of the folks in my group (myself included) can't find the time to paint all our guys.
Thanks dude . Painted armies and terrain really help bring the game to its full potential.
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Stormfather wrote:Crablezworth: those are some impressive shots of some beautiful minis!
I've been thinking about picking up a new digital camera for a while. My girlfriend has one for general purpose picture taking, but it's next to useless when it comes to minis. Additionally, in my line of work, having a camera that can capture good details at a close range would be pretty useful. I'm amazed by the quality of the pics you've taken, and I think I might look into your choice of camera and pocket tripod- I'd be happy if I could get pics that looked half as sharp as yours!
It's a great little camera, I highly reccomend it.
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terranarc wrote:Is that.... dawn of war 3?
Heh, I wish
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DarbNilbirts wrote:I've always liked the look of SM scouts with IG heads, even better close up on such great models.
Thx, I don't like the scout heads, they all look roided out and there jaws are way too square, they all look like stan from american dad.
Great photos! The terrain is excellent, and I really, really like the movie theater. That MARBO poster is probably the best thing I've seen all day! I'm also a big fan of the Orky missile bunches; assuming they're Lobbas or something similar?
This is a fantastic thread. Those are some of the best painted models and most interesting battlefields I've seen outside of a codex. Real first rate stuff.
Amazing photos, some of them really do want to drag you inside the battle! Easily WD quality, at least most of them. Kudos to everyone involved for all those great paintjobs, and the cool terrain.
(on a sidenote, that Dread sooo looks like a Jenner 'mech - bonus points if that was an intentional reference )
I don't know about the dread, but the photos ae dam good. I'm glade to see that you are still willing to share your photos with us! Remember that we will always enjoy them, even if we don't post when we see them.
I Love these 2 shots. Very dramatic and immersing - the shot of the Vindicators particularly has great composition and lighting.
Crablezworth wrote:
Out of focus forgrounds can be tricky. I think (generally) you want to avoid having out of focus objects too close to the centre or blocking your main subject.
This is a little hard on the eyes with 2 big nastily blurred weapons right where I want to be looking
Crablezworth wrote:
This one is very nice. The out of focus areas are nicely balanced in the forground and background and artisticly frame the subject, drawing you into the scene. I like it
Crablezworth wrote:
This should never have made the cut. I feel a little bit nausious
Crablezworth wrote:
This is just the most awesome thing ever, lol. Is this a conversion or something you can buy?
Crablezworth wrote:
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DarbNilbirts wrote:I've always liked the look of SM scouts with IG heads, even better close up on such great models.
Hadn't noticed these first time looking through, but I'm glad I took the time to go back through and find them - they're a very cool looking squad! Should almost be an elites choice
I counter-cheezed and used belial and his scoring termies, I never really saw how nasty it could be, killed epidemius really early in the battle. Still, he won 2 to 0, none of us held any of the 3 objectives but he had first blood and warlord.
I have a Canon 450d, but I read that the DSLR cameras are typically too large/heavy for the mini tripod. Would you say that its better suited for the P&S cameras? I have an older panasonic lumix something or another that takes pretty decent macro shots. I'd love to pick up that little tripod and start taking shots.
kcwm wrote: I have a Canon 450d, but I read that the DSLR cameras are typically too large/heavy for the mini tripod. Would you say that its better suited for the P&S cameras? I have an older panasonic lumix something or another that takes pretty decent macro shots. I'd love to pick up that little tripod and start taking shots.
Point and shoots are generally better suited for this sort of photography. SLR's large sensors end up being their own worst enemy when it comes to macro work on mini's in the context of a game.
I counter-cheezed and used belial and his scoring termies, I never really saw how nasty it could be, killed epidemius really early in the battle. Still, he won 2 to 0, none of us held any of the 3 objectives but he had first blood and warlord.
Ah good idea. Fair enough in this case, Epidemus is pretty damn cheap.
kcwm wrote: I have a Canon 450d, but I read that the DSLR cameras are typically too large/heavy for the mini tripod. Would you say that its better suited for the P&S cameras? I have an older panasonic lumix something or another that takes pretty decent macro shots. I'd love to pick up that little tripod and start taking shots.
Point and shoots are generally better suited for this sort of photography. SLR's large sensors end up being their own worst enemy when it comes to macro work on mini's in the context of a game.
Sorry, I should have clarified. Is the camera stand better suited for P&S than DSLRs? Thinking of uses other than what you're using it for.
It works ok with slr's, I've used it on my 5dmk2 and it's decent but you can only angle it so much and maintain balance, it probably would work better with a lighter slr.
Those are some creepy looking tyranids. That blood red color really works well for them. What's that little missile launcher on tracks? Counts-as TFC or something else?
Awesome pics indeed. Such well-made armies all around, as well!
I was wondering what your army was, but then noticed in one of the posts that it was Deathwatch. Hmm, it makes for a tempting choice, as I've been looking into fielding black marines using C:SM to go together with my Templars. Deathwatch C:SM would allow me to field IF and CF without actually having to paint them in those colors, too And technically a model could be changed from BT to DW or vice versa by simply swapping the left arm and the shoulder pad. Just like the plan was to differentiate a black C:SM chapter from BT (if both were on the table at the same time) with the shoulder pads.
Problem is of course the cost of the DW upgrade kit, although only the shoulders would really be needed.
Would you mind Crable if we nicked this thread and stuck it under the How to write good batreps tips and tricks section?
The general tips are great and pics jaw dropping.
Hopefully will inspire some great action shots for the Batrep crews.
Ratius wrote: Would you mind Crable if we nicked this thread and stuck it under the How to write good batreps tips and tricks section?
The general tips are great and pics jaw dropping.
Hopefully will inspire some great action shots for the Batrep crews.
By all means
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varl wrote: lots of plasma. that had to hurt are those shotguns made from sprue?
I believe they're chopped up lasguns but I'll ask lutnit
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TheLionOfTheForest wrote: Great photos and awesome looking armies, as usual! I always look forward to this thread.
Fethin' love this thread. I've tried taking pics of my battles for my own and to try and share my wins or loses. Never considered snapping photos from the view-point of the models. I hope my iPhone 5 will let me pull that off.
VERY well painted armies. My only fluff question is for you to consider for your deathwatch marines. Are you going to paint their shoulders as separate marine chapters? As they are known to be pulled from all astartes chapters.
Spaz431 wrote: Fethin' love this thread. I've tried taking pics of my battles for my own and to try and share my wins or loses. Never considered snapping photos from the view-point of the models. I hope my iPhone 5 will let me pull that off.
VERY well painted armies. My only fluff question is for you to consider for your deathwatch marines. Are you going to paint their shoulders as separate marine chapters? As they are known to be pulled from all astartes chapters.
ragingmunkyz wrote: These are some of the better pics I've seen around the 'net, just makes me a little sad that there are no batrep stories to go with them.
Yeah andilus is a damn good writer, most of the shots I post here are taken during my opponents turn, more just appreciation of painted models/terrain from a tabletop perspective than any real narrative that can be understood.
ragingmunkyz wrote: These are some of the better pics I've seen around the 'net, just makes me a little sad that there are no batrep stories to go with them.
Crablezworth wrote: Yeah andilus is a damn good writer, most of the shots I post here are taken during my opponents turn, more just appreciation of painted models/terrain from a tabletop perspective than any real narrative that can be understood.
Thank you good sirs. It's been a little while since my last report, it's about time I got around to a new one. On a related note, it'd be cool to see Terminator Samedi in battle.
ragingmunkyz wrote: These are some of the better pics I've seen around the 'net, just makes me a little sad that there are no batrep stories to go with them.
Crablezworth wrote: Yeah andilus is a damn good writer, most of the shots I post here are taken during my opponents turn, more just appreciation of painted models/terrain from a tabletop perspective than any real narrative that can be understood.
Thank you good sirs. It's been a little while since my last report, it's about time I got around to a new one. On a related note, it'd be cool to see Terminator Samedi in battle.
If you're back in town I'm down for a game this weekend, I'm also workin on my own "battle bunker" of sorts, already got an 8x4
Yeah I'm back, I could do a game this weekend. And battle bunker you say? Oooh sounds fun. When I'm out of school and have a job, I'm looking forward to constructing my own man cave haha
Andilus Greatsword wrote: Yeah I'm back, I could do a game this weekend. And battle bunker you say? Oooh sounds fun. When I'm out of school and have a job, I'm looking forward to constructing my own man cave haha
Nice I'll shoot you a pm. The bunker is coming along nicely, gonna be mostly urban but I might do desert too.
I have to say, as a late comer to this thread, I am just blown away. If only every game of 40k looked that good, this game would have a ton more players. This is just WORLDS away from all the local seas of gray plastic I have to play against. I wish I lived where you guys are.
Also, those last few shots of Orks look great. But I have to admit I laughed out loud when I saw the shots of the Mega Armored Nobs. Those legs are just...hilarious!
Edit: Just shown my girlfriend the Marbo poster, she said (and I quote) 'that's Marbolous!'
Ha! I liked it too. I'm happy I'm not alone.
Maybe you could show us how you came up with the different film posters here?
Just photoshoped'm up, the little posters everywhere were actually designed by a GW staffer, they used to have them on their website before they signed their pact with satan.
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varl wrote: gorgeous terrain. how much of that is home made vs. bought?
A lot of it is pegasus or gw, but there's a healthy mix of diy like the prometheum refinery and the movie theater.
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Matney X wrote: This is a perfect example of how good terrain can make a game better.
Big los blockers for the win. We also play without any melting through walls.
I spotted a plastic dominos sugar container in one of those pictures as part of the scenario, a silo I think? I have the same piece put to in side for the same purpose. Lol
Andilus Greatsword wrote: If only my 2 Demolishers had blown up that bloody Rhino on the first turn, it might have been different...
Can't wait to see the batrep
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TheLionOfTheForest wrote: I spotted a plastic dominos sugar container in one of those pictures as part of the scenario, a silo I think? I have the same piece put to in side for the same purpose. Lol
Yeah I've got into the habbit now of saving containers and coffee cans, can never have enough big los blockers.
Game I had vs skimask mohawk's raven guard, 1500pts, was a good game, raven guard won in the end
So somethin a bit different, we forged a narrative.
1500pts per player, an00bis and chimera vs me and lutnit. We got raped, again. 16 vp to 0 vp. Great game though, riptides are awesome.
Came up with some fluff to explain ultramarines and tau workin together. Hope ya like it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
999.M41
++Origin: Valan’s Run (Munitorium Troop Ship)
++Astropath: Hapshalt Gorn
++Priority: Gamma
++Sector: Ultramar
++Transit: Talasa Prime
++Operative Ident: #00-34593-340795
I fear Macragge’s tolerance of xenos will bring its destruction brother. The Iron Warriors besiege Ultramar yet Calgar sees fit to dispatch much needed Astartes to parlay with xenos. As you read this the Ultramarines strike cruiser Vae Victus departs Macragge for the Prassium sector.
The last transmission received from my asset aboard the Vae Victues mentions Prassium IV as the likely point of contact. I cannot allow this meeting to take place. Emperor protects we will be able to intercept the Vae Victus and convince our brothers to abandon this madness, however if the Ultramarines make planet fall we will have no choice but to annihilate them.
Regrettably brother I have been unable to develop any assets amongst the Tau empire and as such intelligence as to the size and disposition of Tau forces in the Prassium sector is limited to a single source, rogue trader Augustus Veigt. Veigt has claimed to have traded with Tau forces in Prassium within the past 6 months and has characterized their garrison as significant.
Veigt claims the Tau’s interest in the sector to be limited to a single mining outpost located in the northern hemisphere of Prassium IV. Veigt described vast deposits of a green crystalline mineral that matches no known substance he has ever encountered.
Orbital defenses of Prassium IV are limited to a single fortress station and several capital ships. Segmentum command in Kar Duniash has pledged several elements of Battlefleet Kainen. I have commandeered a veteran imperial regiment, the 728th Cadian Hoplites and am currently mustering my forces in the Shindlegeist sector.
I cannot do this alone brother, if the Ultramarines cannot be made to see reason I will need you to lead the Black Shields personally and destroy the Sons of Guilliman and their xenos conspirators. Bring your pet.
Andilus Greatsword wrote: T'was a good game, I wish it had been a little more even but I can't complain.
It was fun, my lsck of long range fire support is my biggest weakness. Lemme know when you're workin on the batrep and I'll upload the other shots to photobucket.
Andilus Greatsword wrote: Did one of your champions become a daemon prince, or did you include one in your list that game?
Had it in the list, gave'm power armour, wings and the burning brand of skalathrax. It did ok, roasted some stealth suits then got killed. The T5 is a bad joke, not really thrilled with it. The way I kitted it out it was the price of a stock landraider.
loving those blue & white orks. I assume that's the warboss in the 5th image? lots of character, at any rate. what's in the background? ork tank of some sort?
varl wrote: loving those blue & white orks. I assume that's the warboss in the 5th image? lots of character, at any rate. what's in the background? ork tank of some sort?
Agreed, they look very sharp. Same with the Ultramarines.
btw, bat rep's still coming, I've just been swamped with work lately...
varl wrote: loving those blue & white orks. I assume that's the warboss in the 5th image? lots of character, at any rate. what's in the background? ork tank of some sort?
Game vs an00bis's tau vs my marines, 2000pts (1 force org) an00bis ran some cool count as alien mercenary models he converted, the shentari (spelling?). Count as interogator chaplain and scouts. It was a damn good game. Can't remember what the vp's were but I think an00bis took it in the end.
These are all so awesome! Excellent job. I would like to see more of these from different battles, and definitely some from Fantasy games, maybe a siege game.
I have to say that I love the Brotherhood of NOD IG army. I always wanted to have the skill to do a GDI IG army that has ORCAs as their Valkaries/Vendettas. Wouldn't be too hard of a conversion.
Ovion wrote: How did he make that Riptide? Iwantone.
Ihe made from a bunch of different stuff, pieces from gundams, all sorts of stuff.
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Mountain-Breaker wrote: These are all so awesome! Excellent job. I would like to see more of these from different battles, and definitely some from Fantasy games, maybe a siege game.
Not a big fan of fantasy, never played it.
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Farseer Faenyin wrote: I have to say that I love the Brotherhood of NOD IG army. I always wanted to have the skill to do a GDI IG army that has ORCAs as their Valkaries/Vendettas. Wouldn't be too hard of a conversion.
Eldercaveman wrote: Wow that was a nice looking battle, those Deathwing look awesome!
Really like the Marine chapter colour scheme as well, what chapter is it?
It's his own chapter, he does amazing freehand work, I wish I had got a better shot of his rhinos, the top hatch both have free hand chapter symbols and both symbols are so expertly done that they look identical. Mallues's deathwing were also amazingly detailed, the glowing eyes on the termies is just so sick. I was scared of them.
Andilus greatsword's wolves vs my deathwatch (chaos), 1500pts. It was a damn fine game, very close, it ended on 5 but if it had gone even one more turn I would have lost.
Those Golden Marine pictures are excellent! Even if the paintjobs aren't great in all of them, the photography is. Those grots are my favorite army there though, and this was definitely my favorite image:
Automatically Appended Next Post: Dante vs Astorath, the heresy!
Apparently one of them had made some remarks about the other's combat sandals :p
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Brother SRM wrote: Those Golden Marine pictures are excellent! Even if the paintjobs aren't great in all of them, the photography is. Those grots are my favorite army there though, and this was definitely my favorite image:
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah a few armies didn't look consistently finnished but there was still plenty of eye candy. Rkelly's canadian forces guard was really cool to see, he built those howitzers right before the event. Manchester's grot army was really something too, so many amazing conversions. Chooka's space wolves were awesome too, I jokingly said he should have called his army team jacob.
Well just about any point and shoot should do, my prefference is canon. The good news is the mood light is cheap and has free shipping. Best part is the remote control, really makes it easy to use.
Couple games. First one was against An00bis's farsight enclave army, 1500pts, it was a total blast, a lot of fun to play against. Second was a 2v2 1500pts per player game. Marines and guard vs marines and eldar. Was a damn good game, very back and forth. Eldar and marines took it, 7 to 9.
Check out An00bis's wicked awesome markers for his riptide.
He's pretty cool if you wanna unlock outflanking on a bunch of units. I dropped him from my most recent list, just cuz he doesn't have any ap2 cc attacks.
Had some time to get in a couple more games with the new marine dex. Was running white scars chapter tactics, everything getting hit and run is broken as feth. Biker commands quads are really cheap too. I stopped running count as khan, didn't really plan on outlfanking anything. I like the thundefire being barrage but it's much more win big lose big now, that first scatter is so critical. Back when it was direct and each shot scattered indipendently I found I did more wounds on average. Anyway, liking the new dex a lot but will probably go back to playing my deathwatch as chaos for a bit once I get more oblits painted.
On the game side of things I played lutnit's guard and khaine's eldar, 1500pts, choose warlord trait, no allies, no fortifications.
On the terrain side, got some more battlefield in a box terrain, always love their stuff, the desert terrain is really amazing and make great los blockers. The rivers are pegasus and they're pretty sweet, they come pre painted and they're very affordable.
Just played a pretty sweet narrative game for a local campaign, the gist of the story for the game is a necron lord is siphoning the power of the warp from a chaos shrine into crystals (for the nefarious purpose of powering a c’tan gate that can breach the webway), this sends the local imperials fleeing and also greatly pisses the forces of chaos who are drawn to the planet to stop the desecration of their shrine. Word reaches ultramar and the sons of guilliman and their ordos xenos allies mount an assault on the chaos forces.
The game was 3000pts per side (1500pts per player). On the imperial side was myself playing my deathwatch (white scars chapter tactics) and chimera playing his ultramarines. On the chaos side marduk was playing is khorne marines and thanos was playin his daemons. Basically we put a chaos shrine in the center of the table, it was worth 6vp, each player then placed an objective wherever they wanted on the board. It was a complete bloodbath, came down to no one holding any objectives, chaos had 3vp, 1 from first blood and 2 from the two warlords. Imperials had 2vp, 1 from warlord and 1 from line breaker. Pretty crazy. I haven't played a game this close in a while.
My deathwatch (white scars lol) vs skimask mohawk's chaos, 2000pts. No allies, no fortifications, choose warlord traits. Got some new terrain done, big los blockers for all! I also finally got my stormtalon painted, it's still a bit rough, might have to clean up the edges. .
4 players, 1500pts a piece. My deathwatch (white scars) and lutnit's guard vs skimask mohawk's chaos and tatz101's necrons. The imperials got their asses kicked pretty good.
First game vs skimask mohawk's raven guard, 1500pts. It was a damn close game, went all the way to turn 7. I managed a bs win but only by a thread. Second game vs lutnit's farsight enclave 1250pts, also went to turn 7, it was pretty much a massacre for the tau but somehow managed to tie it. Awesome games.
Very inspiring to get all my stuff painted and finally build some new terrain with all the stuff I've been collecting so we can have have some nice scenic battles.
Very inspiring to get all my stuff painted and finally build some new terrain with all the stuff I've been collecting so we can have have some nice scenic battles.
I gotta get off my butt and finish my honor guard.
My deathwatch and skimask mohawk's raven guard vs lutnit's farsight enclave and desc's iron hands. 1500pts per player, no allies, no fortifications, choose warlord trait aka 40k light (33% less fat). It was a good game, ended up 3vp to 12vp for the tau/marines. I think I've reached that point where I just stop taking much in the way of close combat, we got out shot pretty bad overall. Still it was a damn good game and had a decent back and forth, we decided to locking in to end at turn 5 just because we were running out of time. Not a fluffy matchup by any means but the models are purdy.
Farsight enclave is damn scary and add to that desc's iron hands had a lot of good shooting especially in the long range department. We had the advantage of having the third objective but we spread our attack too thin and didn't focus enough.
I don't know about the other guys but for my Tau my skills are actually quite a bit lower than my experience would imply. There are people winning Golden Demon with 3-5 years mini painting experience and I've been painting since 1995 and haven't won anything but best painted in local tournaments.
4 player game, my deathwatch (white scars) and khain's eldar vs chimera's ultramarines with inquisition and thanos's daemons with chaos marine allies. 1500pts per player.
2 games, first one vs skimask mohawk's raven guard, second vs desc's iron hands. Both games were 1500pts. Skimask ran a pretty crazy list, 6 dev centurions and 10 TH/SS terminators, was a pretty damn good game, skimask took it in the end after kicking my ass pretty good. Desc also kicked my ass pretty good, very interesting game, I made a few mistakes early on, especially with where I put my thunderfire and vindicator. Great games all round.
I've had some requests to do a wide shot of the table so I did a bunch of shots all round to give an idea of what the table looked like. Big los blockers for the win!
Crablezworth wrote: Just played a pretty sweet narrative game for a local campaign, the gist of the story for the game is a necron lord is siphoning the power of the warp from a chaos shrine into crystals (for the nefarious purpose of powering a c’tan gate that can breach the webway), this sends the local imperials fleeing and also greatly pisses the forces of chaos who are drawn to the planet to stop the desecration of their shrine. Word reaches ultramar and the sons of guilliman and their ordos xenos allies mount an assault on the chaos forces.
The game was 3000pts per side (1500pts per player). On the imperial side was myself playing my deathwatch (white scars chapter tactics) and chimera playing his ultramarines. On the chaos side marduk was playing is khorne marines and thanos was playin his daemons. Basically we put a chaos shrine in the center of the table, it was worth 6vp, each player then placed an objective wherever they wanted on the board. It was a complete bloodbath, came down to no one holding any objectives, chaos had 3vp, 1 from first blood and 2 from the two warlords. Imperials had 2vp, 1 from warlord and 1 from line breaker. Pretty crazy. I haven't played a game this close in a while.
]
LOL! That Marbo movie picture is a nice touch to the scenery. I guess Chaos wanted to cut in line and the loyalists took offense at the idea? How do you make those cards to stick onto scenary for that extra touch? Edit them in Microsoft Word and print them out?
Crablezworth wrote: Just played a pretty sweet narrative game for a local campaign, the gist of the story for the game is a necron lord is siphoning the power of the warp from a chaos shrine into crystals (for the nefarious purpose of powering a c’tan gate that can breach the webway), this sends the local imperials fleeing and also greatly pisses the forces of chaos who are drawn to the planet to stop the desecration of their shrine. Word reaches ultramar and the sons of guilliman and their ordos xenos allies mount an assault on the chaos forces.
The game was 3000pts per side (1500pts per player). On the imperial side was myself playing my deathwatch (white scars chapter tactics) and chimera playing his ultramarines. On the chaos side marduk was playing is khorne marines and thanos was playin his daemons. Basically we put a chaos shrine in the center of the table, it was worth 6vp, each player then placed an objective wherever they wanted on the board. It was a complete bloodbath, came down to no one holding any objectives, chaos had 3vp, 1 from first blood and 2 from the two warlords. Imperials had 2vp, 1 from warlord and 1 from line breaker. Pretty crazy. I haven't played a game this close in a while.
]
LOL! That Marbo movie picture is a nice touch to the scenery. I guess Chaos wanted to cut in line and the loyalists took offense at the idea? How do you make those cards to stick onto scenary for that extra touch? Edit them in Microsoft Word and print them out?
2000pts game between An00bis's tau and my deathwatch (white scars trait). Was a good game, very back and forth. I managed to pull off some bs with my captain but it was damn close, he almost got one shotted by longstrike. In the end it was tau 1vp to deathwatch 5vp. An00bis got first blood wrecking my storm with his broadsides. I held the objective in my zone and had linebreaker and warlord. My warlord managed to take the tau off one objective and then proceeded to contest the other.
LUTNIT wrote: How did the Vespid fair? I like the concept but they don't look to be worth their points except in very specific situations.
They did ok, sucked up a decent amount of firepower, they didn't kill too much. I like that they're immune to dangerous and have stealth in ruins. They could be interesting in bigger games, not really worth the points. I love the paintjob an00bis gave them though.
Exactly, no one can resist the call of the cave. Speaking of which, when you hittin the capital yo? Gotta test my metal against the new nid dex.
I keep getting booked on nights and/or weekends so it makes getting ahold of the car a hassle, especially when trying to work out schedules with the other 4 people in my house...
However, I booked off the 14th and 15th so I can head down on one of those 2 days most likely. Just gotta wait til Monday when schedules go up. Anyway, I'm getting in a game with the Nids with another friend before then so hopefully it'll be a better list for that. Can't wait to play, it's been too damn long!
Sweet! Mid feb sounds good, I always love playin your nids, they also look terrifying with the crimson scheme. You think you could do 2000pts all painted with the new dex?
Crablezworth wrote: Sweet! Mid feb sounds good, I always love playin your nids, they also look terrifying with the crimson scheme. You think you could do 2000pts all painted with the new dex?
this never fails to make me gak my pants
Definitely, should make for a pretty good battle, I find that Nids do better with more points too so that's a plus.
Crablezworth wrote: Sweet! Mid feb sounds good, I always love playin your nids, they also look terrifying with the crimson scheme. You think you could do 2000pts all painted with the new dex?
this never fails to make me gak my pants
Definitely, should make for a pretty good battle, I find that Nids do better with more points too so that's a plus.
I can't wait, gonna setup a sick board, probably arid/desert.
In other news, got a new camera today.
A buddy of mine was lookin to sell it for a damn good price and I just couldn't resist. I'm happy that this thing unlike the 300HS can shoot raw, also has a faster lens
Skimask Mohawk wrote: I totally need to play that guy, its been forever. Quick question tho, why not paint the stuff on the centurions legs?
Too much flash/flair, they already look like pimpqueens. I might give'm a better highlight but I don't really wanna, I can only imagine how bad it would have been with the iron kilts.
1500 point game vs an00bis's nod themed guard. It was a good game, we both were pretty static, I luckde out and had more terrain in which to hide from barrage. Final score was 9 to 5, he had one objective as well as first blood and warlord, I had 3 objectives. The new camera is pretty sweet, the depth of field is a bit limiting in a few shots but I love the extra colour control it allows for. It seems to produce a bit more pleasing video than the 300hs.
2000pt single foc game, skimask mohawk's raven guard vs an00bis's tau. I won't spoil it, there's a batrep incoming )
Setup the arid terrain for this one. It was a nice change of scenery from the usual urban setup. I went for fewer los blockers and more low cover to give the table a more rural setting, even a couple pieces of area terrain (quite rare for us to play with other than for vehicle craters). Tossed in some pegasus rivers and bridges to really make it pop. An00bis got a second ripdite painted, he finnished hours before the game. Skimask is sporting his new count as tigerius model, turned out really cool, the paintjob on the head and face is badass.
Eldercaveman wrote: Do you have any recommendations on cameras for this kind of photography?
My bias is generally towards canon, but really a lot of that is familiarity with their menus and enjoyment that they rarely try to re-invent the wheel from camera to camera.
Realistically any small "point and shoot" should work for ya due to the smaller sensors they are more ideal for taking pictures of small things while maintaining a pretty good depth of field (range of what is in focus), it's more about technique and context than camera model in the end.
Regardless of what point and shoot compact camera you get, this right here is an absolute must have:
You really don't want to be hand holding the camera, gotta put it down and on delayed so that there is zero motion.
Eldercaveman wrote: Do you have any recommendations on cameras for this kind of photography?
My bias is generally towards canon, but really a lot of that is familiarity with their menus and enjoyment that they rarely try to re-invent the wheel from camera to camera.
Realistically any small "point and shoot" should work for ya due to the smaller sensors they are more ideal for taking pictures of small things while maintaining a pretty good depth of field (range of what is in focus), it's more about technique and context than camera model in the end.
Regardless of what point and shoot compact camera you get, this right here is an absolute must have:
You really don't want to be hand holding the camera, gotta put it down and on delayed so that there is zero motion.
I would highly reccomend the s100, only problem is you'd have to find one on ebay. I believe the current iteration of it is the s120. It may also have a different name in europe. The little tripod is a manfrotto MP3-D01. A gorilla pod should work ok, it may be more difficult to get it into tight spots but at the end of the day what matters is that the camera is braced and in no way moving during the shot.
I'm kind of stupid when it comes to the finer points of photography settings, but I bought a Canon PowerShot A1400 on sale for just over $100, and followed Crablezworth's instructions at the start of the thread. Basically any digital point-and-shoot where you can customize the settings puts out fantastic miniature photography (although it can be annoying having to fiddle with the settings every time).
I can get a s100 from amazon UK for 165 I thibk. Is there much difference that will effect this type of photography between the s100 and the ones further up in the line?
Eldercaveman wrote: I can get a s100 from amazon UK for 165 I thibk. Is there much difference that will effect this type of photography between the s100 and the ones further up in the line?
Nope, in fact the s110 is worse than the s100 in a lot of ways. The s120 will have slightly better colour and a slightly wider dynamic range. The difference in low light performance is neglible.
Eldercaveman wrote: I can get a s100 from amazon UK for 165 I thibk. Is there much difference that will effect this type of photography between the s100 and the ones further up in the line?
Nope, in fact the s110 is worse than the s100 in a lot of ways. The s120 will have slightly better colour and a slightly wider dynamic range. The difference in low light performance is neglible.
What is the basic spec I should be looking for if I want to go elsewhere? Sorry for all the questions
Well you don't want the sensor to get too big, which is highly unusual because usually the larger the sensor the better. So it's important to stick with compact cameras, generally point and shoots. If you don't it will be a pain in the but keeping a meaningful amount of models in focus. I can see a marked difference in the depth of field (range of what is in focus) since upgrade to the s100 for the 330hs. Two things account of that, slightly bigger sensor and a lens that is 1 stop faster (f/2.8-f/2.0).
Sony make fantastic cameras, if you really want to spoil yourself they make one of the best little cameras in the world the rx100 or rx100 version 2. But really if game or model pix is the only likely end use I wouldn't break the bank, even entry level point and shoots should take decent pictures as long as you brace the camera or use a tripod and delayed shutter.
For now the majority of the photos will be game and model photos, but I do a lot of back packing so I could do with the versatility of it being able to take nice scenic photos.
So this happened. Batrep's in the oven, should be ready shortly. I took on Skimask Mohaw's chaos marines and LUTNIT's farsight enclave with my orks. We discovered a mythical and a glorious thing we've come to call assault.
by Mork, i just ruined my point and shoot camera (quiet a good one) while i was drunk as feth last holiday and rolled in the snow or a stream (i was soaking wet and walking alone in unknown direction is the first thing i remember after a gap of prob. 1 hour in my memory)
Andilus greatsword made a trip down to my neck of the woods and brought 2000pts of nids. I guess I better write a guest article for bols about how there's nothing wrong with nid dex seeing as he kicked my orks in the butt pretty good. It was a damn good game, I went way too wide on the right flank and he made me pay dearly for that. Swarmlord is still a combat pimp.