Thanks guys!

I'm very excited. I finished my build (well, at least the pre-Adepticon build) this morning before heading off to work. I'll show you guys pics once I finish the airbrushing... right now everything's just primed black & not very interesting. Other than what you've already seen, I've added two more rapier chassis & crew and built 3 laser-destroyer arrays to go on them. Have also added a bike for the outriders and a kit-bashed Praetor on bike.

To top things off, I've got a 30k game set up for tonight. My first... so I'm really looking forward to it!

Look forward to your learnings ( and pics )

A little late to the unification party, but good call on putting all your updates in one place... means I can keep track of the awesome stuff you are doing a little easier

I love your work, it is inspiring for people like myself and gives me something to keep working towards.

Thanks Mad..


Well, game sucked. Effectively tabled by turn two. Brought models back only to get re-tabled by turn 3. I was looking for this game to give me inspiration... it did. Anyone want to buy an EC army?

What was he using that was kicking your ass so hard?

Need some details for sure.

Nothing much. A set of thud guns (whatever they're called), a Spartan and a Dorito. The rest of his army never get involved really. I'd done one hull point to each of two rhinos, that's it.

After we resurrected the Leviathan so it could assault something, it fought a squad of 5 termies, killed none of them, then died. His Praetor and a medic killed both squads of vets without taking a wound.

Safe to say that nothing I had worked at any level. Offensively, defensively, shooting or assault.

Ouch. Though, aren't those thud guns meant to be stupidly powerful? Might be wrong, but those guys can hurt if given the right upgrades. The dice gods can't have been with ya this game, but don't let it get you down too much Gits!

Not sure, but it was killing or finishing off a unit every turn.

This is my experience as well. Even the rules state that the game is supposed to be pts 2000 or greater. High volume of fire from infantry, large vehicles and violent weaponry make for a decisive and quick game.

Was your opponent an experienced 30k player? with a pretty optimal list?

Hang in there Brother, 30k is a learning curve. My first big battle with my AoV running as Dark Angels saw me have my ass handed to me by an Imperial Fist list. At 2500 points he brought more dakka than me and picked off units as I tried to close for the assault.

Levi's and Deredeo's are either gods on the battle field, or flops, never seen mine do anything inbetween. Played a game against night lords were my Deredeo just housed his troops but my Levi couldn't hit anything to save his life.

Hang in there, learn from it, and attack at it again. Solar is right, it is a Much different game than 40k

Solar_lion wrote:This is my experience as well. Even the rules state that the game is supposed to be pts 2000 or greater. High volume of fire from infantry, large vehicles and violent weaponry make for a decisive and quick game. Was your opponent an experienced 30k player? with a pretty optimal list?

Very experienced... as yes... by his own admission a tough list.

@Master Azalle: I'll try to keep that in mind (see below). One of the more experienced 30k players in our group calls any vehicle, no matter how good, a "one shot model"... and that's been my experience. One penetrating shot with high strength weaponry (which is everywhere in 30k), and "Boom!"... no more vehicle.


The saga continues...

I was unexpectedly able to attend our groups regular gaming night. While I couldn't get a proper 30k game set up, a couple of the guys were able to work me into their 40k game. T-Sons vs. Orks. The details of the game aren't important... but the crux of the matter was this...

4 EC bikes, including a veteran sergeant with a phoenix spear and my Praetor w/ spear and gadgets... charged a unit of about 15 gretchin. They did no damage, they lost a marine in return, they failed morale, they got run down (30k rules, so they can be run down). 400 points of elite marines were destroyed in one phase by 40 points of grots.

I was done.


A friend and long-time 30k player spent an hour or so talking me off the ledge. I kid you not... it was a full-on couch session. I am currently calm, I have a plan... and for the first time in my life... I'm apparently in therapy... and it took the Emperor's Children to put me there.

Well.... if there was ever a force in the in Grim Dark future that could put anyone into therapy... its The Emperors Children.

Second... throw away your dice! Actually, burn them - dice for the dice god. Go buy shiny gold and purple dice and try again.

Don't let it get you down Gitz! Finish your Sicaran and bring that bad boy into the fray and try a style that's closer to your Mantis Warriors. I had to monkey around with my list until I got it to a point I was ok with.

 Gitsplitta wrote:

Solar_lion wrote:This is my experience as well. Even the rules state that the game is supposed to be pts 2000 or greater. High volume of fire from infantry, large vehicles and violent weaponry make for a decisive and quick game. Was your opponent an experienced 30k player? with a pretty optimal list?

Very experienced... as yes... by his own admission a tough list.

Did he know you were looking to learn 30k and had a non-optimized list? Was he just looking to murder someone? Sounds like a guy not worth playing with if so.

Sucks with the bikers/grots, but we've all been on both sides of exchanges like that. Just compounded with the earlier experience I could see how you get "this army/game sucks" in your head.

@MA: Yeah, that's on the docket. Unfortunately the EC dice are a low priority right now as I'm gathering up the last few bits (models, etc.) to make the army functional when complete. Like I said, I have a plan. Finish up all the heavy stuff I've got started, then work on two units of vets with rhino transport, Then work on some terminators and a Spartan, then some palatine blades and a dread claw, phoenix terminators and Fulgrim, two large units of tactical marines, etc. That's the way I'm going to do this army from now on... one useful chunk of it at a time. I just placed what I believe will be the last order from FW that I'll need for this army. Now it's just a matter of being disciplined about working through it.

My hope is that when I'm done, I'll be able to utilize a variety of RoW without having piles and piles of useless figures. Which should keep the army interesting while not breaking the bank entirely... totally.... mostly.......


@WM: Yeah, I made that pretty clear.


I did finally find a pic I'd taken of my Praetor on bike kitbash. Not a great photo but you'll get the idea. Painting should commence either tonight or tomorrow night...



This was challenging because I didn't have extra (appropriate) arms or an extra spear... so I did a forearm mount on the plasma pistol and made a spear out of a third-party power glaive and just tucked it in the bike (like it would be stored while he was busy driving). It's far from perfect, but when painting it'll be obvious what it's supposed to represent.

That's a bummer, dude sounds like hes TFG.

Did you order more spears from FW? They are available separate now, though weirdly hard to find on the site. https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-DE/Emperors-Children-Phoenix-Power-Spears

That wrist plasma gun makes perfect sense for a biker, very cool.

Sorry to hear about the rough games, sounds like an imperfect storm bad luck, matchup and opponent in short succession. Hopefully things pick up soon.

@WM: I did. Spears, some brass so I can trick-out my rhinos. Got a deal on a nicely built but unpainted Spartan with EC goo-gaws from a friend locally. I think nearly everything I'll need (even long-term) I either have already or is on order with FW.

@Para: Thanks man, appreciate it. I think I'll really enjoy painting and building the army. I have decent units (even now) and if I use my head when I play, things will eventually improve as far as tabletop performance goes. I'll tell ya, that base violet color that MajorTom11 helped me work out is just outstanding. You don't get it from the pictures because the lights have a tendency to wash everything out... but the base purple on these guys is *really* dark and rich. I love it.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Thanks Mad..


Well, game sucked. Effectively tabled by turn two. Brought models back only to get re-tabled by turn 3. I was looking for this game to give me inspiration... it did. Anyone want to buy an EC army?

30k is touted as a balanced game....and it is, in the sense that everyone can take the same broken stuff. To get a fun game in, you are still faced with the 40k prospect of talking to your opponent about what kind of game you're looking for. Apparently you did, and you and your opponent had very different ideas of what "relaxed" means.

The first game of 30k I played, I proxied my chaos stuff as 30k models. I was excited to unearth jump marines, a land raider and a mixed force. My opponent busted out 8 quad mortars and master of the signals spam. After that game it took me 2 years to try 30k again. During my second attempt I found like minded people and have been having fun for 7 months and now have two 30k armies.

So before you pay for any therapy or sell the models I would try a few more games. Try a few different opponents and tell them that you don't have a LoW or a primarch. 30k players are usually itching to bust out the big guns and toys.

Thanks bogalubov. It's really odd... I don't think anyone has ever had issues with this particular person before... I certainly never had. He wasn't mean about it... he just crushed me, that's all. Maybe he was just practicing for Adepticon and I just happened to be in the way. I also clearly had bad dice luck, a lack of experience and a sub-standard army...

But you're spot on about people having different opinions about what "relaxed" or "friendly" means. I've talked to people whose idea of friendly is that they don't take the most murderous, cheesy, broken version of everything in their list. Anything short of that... is "friendly". I also get a chuckle when people tell me that 30k isn't as crazy competitive as 40k. That it's a friendlier, gentlemen's game. I'm confident that it can be abused every bit as much... they just to this point haven't had enough uber-competitive people get interested in the game. A rude awakening is in the offing I think.

I'm liking the look of the bike praetor, the wrist-mounted plasma is very complex, excellent for an EC! Sorry to hear about the game, sounds like it has a serious learning curve.

Very cool build. Should look amazing in purple.

So... the entire Third Legion has been put on hold while my flighty little brain has become obsessed by a 25 point ministorum priest. Thing 2 and I are playing in Apoc game next Saturday and as I was gleefully working through a list where I didn't have to worry about spending a set limit of points... I found the priest entry (I think it's from the Imperial Allies book). Cheap and gives a nice buff to the unit he's with. This is actually a Warmachine caster that I 40k'd up a bit with a chainsword (because all priests in 40k carry one apparently) and a pistol (which you can't see in the pic... it's hanging on his right hip). Having a fun time painting him... will be done tonight.

Nicely done gits!

I like the look of that priest, his Huge chainsword is just what the ministorum would order. ;-). Been toying with the idea of adding some more henchman to my Inquisitors band, may have to look beyond what GW offers. Can't wait to see him finished.

I like where that priest paint job is going! And the conversion looks perfect, imo

It's been fun experimenting with some of the little adds you can do now. I think for 100 points I could add 2 astropaths, 1 priest and one inquisitor maybe? I just love the idea of a little cadre of Imperial specialists wandering around the battlefield in a frightened little group, surrounded by giant cyborg war-machines as all hell breaks loose around them.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just picked up the "Traitor Legions" supplement so I can make my EC do double-duty!

That's a lovely model, can see why you're getting obsessed! Great colour on the robes.

Finished my ministorum priest, Brother Simon. I'm quite happy with him though I might work on the face a bit more later on. Good for now though.

You've got a fantastic Menoth (WMH) vibe on this; I'd love to see more

It's good to see you haven't completely given up on the EC, as they were shaping up to be tremendous models.

As for the Priest, I think he looks like he came straight out of 40k, a great choice of model for him I think. The red and white compliment each other very well, suitable for Inquisition colours as well. Keep trucking Gits!

So today... EC Purple was made... then things were made EC Purple. Sorry for the blurry pic. Just can't get the autofocus to work properly.



Made my purple in a very large batch which should mean I won't have to re-mix the base color for this army. Give the various painting rounds a chance to come out looking similar.

That’s a lot of purply goodness!

So much purple! it's a damn nice colour Gits, would make for a sweet Soul Drinkers army in the future :-)

Nerd is onto something there

Nothing is quite as frustrating as running out of your main colour that you've mixedx, and you have to have guess what ratio the paints are in. At least you've done the sensible thing and made a lot of it.

That's a pretty rough intoduction you've had there, glad to see you're sticking with it. I've given up on pretty much all competitive forms of play and just turn up for the narrative, if I come up against a TFG with a lethal list then I'll let them have their fun and approach the whole encounter as a doomed last stand kind of thing. If my charge gets destroyed by cannon fodder then I take it to be a slapstick encounter where the guy at the front tripped and brought everyone else down, I find approaching things like that gives a lot of psychological cushioning against the disappointment of spending ages on a unit or army and it getting tabled on its first fielding. Thinking back to five or ten years ago when I was thinking more about how to win, I would get more victories but the experience wasn't as satisfying as just steering the spectacle and watching it unfurl.

Well said lindsay40k, that is almost exactly my take on my little part of the hobby world. I definitely love the story and am happy to promote it through what I consider a thematic combat or the like. I certainly like a win every now and then of course. But imagine the saga to be written by that lone Blood Claw charging headlong into the Daemon Prince Magnus and the honour he would win if he banished him back to the Warp. Haven't seen it happen yet, but one day......

I don't know what else to say about 30k as those who have posted above me are far more knowledgeable about those things, but keep your head up and enjoy the community for what you can get out of it and always remember the amazing hobby community that you have revolving around your amazing blog. And lets see some more of that beautiful purple hey?

So much purple... so much resin. I go into shock anytime I put something as small as sisters rhino doors in a forgeworld cart, I can't imagine going as deep as you have, Gits.
I hadn't thought of using Menoth models as Ecclesiarchy, but it makes perfect sense.

An a amazing purple color to start with. Should be some nice additions to the army.

The priest looks great Gits, I honestly thought he was an older GW model at first!
Nice to see heavy progress on your EC. Did you give your recipe for that purple earlier, or is it a trade secret?

Nice job on the Priest Gits, very cool model.

Excellent work on the Priest on the previous page. He looks proper grim dark.

EDC

Harsh start to the gaming with this lot, but stick with it, remember someone always has to lose occasionally, be boring else, learn from it and come back stronger. I know you will.

Purple is so nice, and that priesty looks absolutely brilliant. such a great vibe about him.

Sorry for not replying to everyone earlier... I've been waiting to get some more work done on my EC so I'd have something to show you but the fates have conspired against me.


@lindsay40k: Good advice. Have spoken to several friends about my first experiences... and while my first opponent brought a pretty rough army for my first go... most of my issues can be chalked up to really bad dice luck. I'll keep at it, both painting and playing, I'm sure things will improve as time passes.

@Archer: See above, and thanks.

@All: Many thanks for your kind comments. I'm pretty happy with the priest. I blundered into an old cache of GW models and found an actual GW priest that is nearly identical to the model I've done already. He's carrying a huge hammer, which I plan on replacing with a chainsword of course.

Have a "training game" of 30k lined up with a friend of mine tonight, we'll see if that goes any better than the previous 2 outings...

I think a training game will do you good, just make sure you both understand that. Since it's a friend, I'm sure you'll be fine (hopefully the dice go your way too ).

Yeah, just keep at it. I'm still learning stuff about BMG. It's an ongoing process, try not to be despondent!

Dice can be a massive thing. I had a game of 3rd edition 40k a couple of nights ago with my orks vs an Eldar army. My first turn of shooting, 4 big shootas and a rokkit launches later one dead Wraithlord. Never seen anything like it. I rolled like a god and he saved terribly.

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I already wrote most of this battle report once... then accidentally deleted the post before I could finish it. Yay internet...



For those of you who were curious about my 30k battle the other evening... I cobbled up enough pics to make a decent little batrep. Hope you enjoy it.


Mission parameters:
- 1500 points
- daylight
- standard (long edge) deployment
- kill points (HQ=3, HV=2, all else =1)
- standard secondary's (STW, LB, FB)

Supporters of the False God:
- Imperial Fists
- Pride of the Legion RoW
- Praetor, Apothecary, 2x 5 terminators w/ combi-meltas & storm shields, contemptor, 5x missile launchers, 8x heavy bolters
- warlord trait allows DSing of a single unit (contemptor)



Defenders of the Imperium of Man:
- Emperor's Children
- Pride of the Legion RoW
- Preator on bike, 2x 6 vets, rapier w/ laser destroyer, 4x outriders, deredeo, leviathan
- warlord trait allows DSing of a single unit (leviathan)


Please note that I forgot 2 bikes, so the yellow bike is standing in for my Praetor and the quad bolter is standing in for a basic outrider. I also forgot that this list includes two rhinos with dozer blades.... didn't remember it until turn 4... so I played this game 80 points short!


Deployment:

My opponent John won the roll-off but then opted for me to deploy and go first. Since my two vet squads were outflanking thanks to the RoW and my leviathan was DSing thanks to my warlord trait... all I had to worry about were the bikes, deredeo and the rapier. I placed the rapier in a ruin on my left and the deredeo in a ruin on my right with the bikes encircling it as a screen. (you can just barely see the dread and bikes in the blurry background)




The spotter for the rapier looks out from his perch for valuable targets.



The Imperial Fists counter by placing both heavy weapon teams in a ruin on the EC left... just opposite the EC rapier. (sorry, no pic)



The Emperor's Children open fire on the most deadly Imperial Fists unit available... the 5-man missile launcher squad. Between the rapier and the deredeo, two marines are killed and the unit falls back in the face of a strong opening salvo.




The tactical withdrawal is only temporary however and the missile launchers move back into the ruin in good order. Meanwhile the heavy bolters fire in a futile fuselage at the entrenched EC rapier.


The first of the EC reserves arrive in the from of the two veteran squads, who move at top speed around a small patch of ruins & coming in from the left, being sure to keep out of line-of-sight of the intercepting ML squad. Once again the rapier and leviathan fire at the missile launchers, once again the IF squad takes two casualties and once again they fall back. This time the sole living member of the squad has had enough... its just not meant to be their day... and so he quits the field.

With impeccable timing and accuracy, a squad of terminators and the comtemptor materialize out of crackling air. They surround the deredeo and his protectors, dropping him to a single hull point.




A thunderous roar echoes across the ruined city as 3 EC veterans are cut down by heavy bolter fire.




The sergeant and noble vexilla bearer are the only survivors... but they hold!




The outflanking vet squads continue to push forward on the left, hoping to finish off the heavy bolters. Their fire combined with rocket fire from the deredeo reduces the squad to 6 men.




As the deredeo is about the only thing that's doing anything for the Emperor's Children, the praetor decides to defend it rather than run. With 3 plasma pistols and seven S5, AP2 attacks in CC... why not give it a try? Right??






The last of the Imperial Fists' reserves arrive on my left flank and threaten my surviving veterans. Their fire (and that of the heavy bolters) is ineffectual.




The terminators *barely* make their charge and slice my deredeo to pieces with their chain fists.




The last of the EC reserves arrive in the form of the Leviathan. It attempts to come in near the newly arrived squad of terminators threatening the left flank, but telemetry is way off and the dreadnought materializes on the far corner of the battle zone, completely out of the battle. This is "the dagger" that assures an Imperial Fists victory.




The sergeant finally leads his men into assault with the heavy bolters and removes them from further tactical consideration.




Free from any threat from the grav-flux-bombard-wielding leviathan, the Imperial Fist terminators charge the two lagging EC vets who were just too tired to make a 5" charge... with predicable results.




The surviving EC veteran squad seeks shelter in the ruin, but is eventually caught and slaughtered by the Imperial Fists terminators.




On the other flank, the rapier is eventually taken down by the contemptor.



Final War Tally:
Imperial Fists: 12
Emperor's Children: 6

Well, at least I was in this game for a while. Should have just ran the bikes the heck away from the terminators saving me 5 points. Combine that savings with the horrible dice luck I had when trying to finish off a 1-wound contemptor which would have provided me with one extra point & resulted in a 7/7 tie. Alas, it was not to be.


My Praetor and the bikes still suffer from EPIC levels of suckage. Need to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Honestly the bad luck aside you were facing a pretty tough IF list. Lots of shooting and 2 units of terminators. I say you did fairly well considering.

I give you the best painted award!

Yeah, 2+/3+ is nearly impossible for me to deal with. I can plink away at it, but not in any meaningful way.

I'm going to finish the airbrushing tonight, then start blocking out the steel. I's a bit frustrating to know that the army won't get any better with all of this painting... but it'll be a good step in the process and free me up to do something that WILL improve the army.

And, you know... it'll look damn nice.

 Gitsplitta wrote:


And, you know... it'll look damn nice.

And that is really the most important thing!

I think we've all had moments like that one charge that seemed to lose you the game. Sometimes it seems like a stroke of tactical genius, sometimes it's just cold hard logic ('surely Belial and his bodyguard squad should be able to handle that IG Command Squad in melee'... 4 dead Terminators and one smugly powerfist-toting IG Commander later... ), but the die just don't go your way. Really though, that's all part of the fun of the game. This one seemed to be down to bad luck, which is always more bearable than just a bad matchup.

Looking forward to more EC goodness!

Had lots of fun catching up on your adventures and I'm liking the new look, unified blog! I'm looking forward to following you're continued shenanigans, Gits, always a pleasure.

The last picture is my favorite. The Sargent having an Achilles moment. One of the best poses of all time.

How did that rapier get up there?

Awesome looking army and nice battle report

I didn't think you did half bad. The Levi would have shredded the Termies if it DS correctly, and I think your Vet squad at the end performed admirably. Keep it up Gits, there's a light at the end of this tunnel.

That sounds more like you had some fun at least, even with the tweaking you are having to do, it is a very nice force. The game itself sounds much more unforgiving, and you have managed to have some tough opponents even with them "taking it easy" on you.

Yes, it was a fun game.


Purple is down, next will be to block out the steel. Note that I tossed in a couple of Mantis Warrior vehicles into the mix as they're at the same stage.

Good stuff! Definitely excited for all this stuff to come.

Oh I am sure stoked to see all these guys trim and tidy! Exciting stuff!

It's well on its way Gits, keep it up!

Thing 2 and I played a game of Apoc on Saturday. I must admit that Apoc isn't really my thing... just too hard to keep tack of what's going on for it to be more than just a dice rolling exercise for me. That being said... seeing 18+ feet of custom made gaming board filled to bursting with figures is majestic. Thing 2 had a wonderful time even though his bio-titan was wiped out in the very first shooting phase. He really conducted himself well throughout, I'm proud of him.

This shot gives you an idea of what the board looked like. At least 18' of custom table made just for this fight. Following a campaign in some book... Nids out-numbered the Eldar & Imperials 2:1 (supposed to be all Eldar but we only had 1 Eldar player). There was a HUGE contingent of GS cult which had a major impact on the game. Nid force was split on either end... good guys in the middle holding a river valley and key bridge.




Thing 2's hive elements and bio-titan (in green) supporting their left flank, opposite my knights.




The Admech (there were two of us) acting as rear guard. We held... at least through 3 turns when I had to leave.




My cheeky assassin who managed to keep about 5 or 6 squads of GS cult from going into the weeds (or whatever it's called) by infiltrating into the middle of them. Special rules had the Nids not allowed to charge the first turn (lest the game be over by turn 2), which means she'd more than earned her points in the 2 turn delay she forced for significant cult elements.




By the end of turn 3 (my last turn), nearly everything I had left alive was in CC with wyomingfox's tyrant and a HUGE unit of gargoyles. Fearless, so of course you just couldn't kill them fast enough.

Looks awesome Gits! Yours definitely stood out though (best painted of course ).

I wouldn't say that.... there were some really beautifully painted models on the table (check out those purplish things behind my son's bio titan & wyfox's brown Nids are beautiful)... some not so much. But, mine were consistently good, which is what I always strive for.

Bleeding heck thats alot of swarms. Some of those models made me want to collect tyrandis for a sec. I know what you mean about big games turning into just a dice rolling affair, but if well done can be fun.

Wow, what an epic scene!! Very cool, Gits, and glad Thing 2 enjoyed himself and was a good sport

Wish I had something interesting to report or great pictures to share... but I'm just plowing my way through blocking out the metals on the EC and MW models. It's tedious. I am using some new metallic paints though and I absolutely love them. Going to have to get some more in a wider variety of colors.

Will have a photo update for you eventually... probably when the steel is finished.

Needs to be done . Nice pics of the apoc battle!

Always seems a shame to me that "it" gets lost in these huge battles, supposedly normal games are just part of a battle front campaign, just does not translate up.

What is funnier is that when I got into this it was through a friend and it was Epic, at our height we had an 8ft long battle field covered in models, deployment zones so packed we had to come up with rules for "waves", and the game would take 2 days, and every last minute was intense and wonderful and exciting, and we argued and laughed and had fun. And in real terms that is what you are playing there, but the real essence is slightly lost by the sound of it.

Thanks for the pics, it looks like fun and very spectacular, really glad Thing#2 had a good time.

Now where are these painted models?

Its partially because rounds are limited to 40 minutes, so people are very rushed. Secondly, if you are one guy facing three players for 3 turns, you are going to have a lot of enemy players yelling for your time...as they collectively try to shoot you off the board.

My units were largely ignored in the first half, so I mostly spent the first half twiddling my thumbs during the enemy turn.

That's simply massive! Nice to see the younger gen enjoying an apoc round. Out of curiousity, what metallics did you get?

 JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:
That's simply massive! Nice to see the younger gen enjoying an apoc round. Out of curiousity, what metallics did you get?

Yes... Do tell

Well... by the next game I'll have my Reaver... so it'll be just titans for me with a few groups of techs to keep them running. That should help.

Just Vallejo metallics. But they must be a newer formulation, I've had Vallejo metallic paints before and these are better. Finer flake, thin enough for the AB, cover really well. I love them.

I'll have to check them out. I'd really like to get out of GW metallics

What kind of support are you planning for the big guy? Can techs repair super heavys?

As far as I can tell, a hull point is a hull point... unless someone can show me different in the rules. Right now I'm thinking two tech priests with servitors (for each) and two dominii. All these repair on 2+. Probably get a big squad of skitarii peltasts to attach the dominii to. Add a VSG for a bit of extra protection and AA in the form of a Aegis wall w/ quad gun, 2 dune crawlers w/ Icarus arrays & the auto-cannons on the backs of the knights. In fluffy fashion, I'll need to surround the titan with skitarii in order to prevent the GS cult from popping up underneath it and killing it with rending attacks. They (meaning the cult) were probably the reason for the Nid victory in the aforementioned Apoc game.


Here's a photo dump of my game with Yorkright and his new, fancy Eldar triumvirate last night. He slaughtered me. Since I can't convince Yorkright to start his own blog... I'll have to show his stuff off here.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
What kind of support are you planning for the big guy? Can techs repair super heavys?

You would have to read the specific rule. It may limit or specify repairs to units bought from that codex or units bought from a specific army/faction. But otherwise HP are HP.

The battle looks amazing. Is that a board one of you owns or was it at a gaming store/club?

Looks like a fine battle! The Eldar Triumvirate will take the meta for a bit to adjust and find counters to, but i'm sure we'll figure out somethin'.

@ Archer, all the terrain and battle mats are provided by our FLGS. We are quite fortunate to have such a great place to game at.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Just Vallejo metallics. But they must be a newer formulation, I've had Vallejo metallic paints before and these are better. Finer flake, thin enough for the AB, cover really well. I love them.

Water based or alcohol?

 JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:
Looks like a fine battle! The Eldar Triumvirate will take the meta for a bit to adjust and find counters to, but i'm sure we'll figure out somethin'.

I think with the new Eldar, I can finally break out my allied Krootdar. 4 units of 3 jet bikes, double D wraith knight, a jet seer or 2, a riptide wing, and the remaining points invested in a firestream piranha formation. All those drones dying for the greater good should give me a good amount of double shots.

` Wyomingfox you are going to give us Eldar players a bad name with that kind of talk.

 wyomingfox wrote:

 JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:
Looks like a fine battle! The Eldar Triumvirate will take the meta for a bit to adjust and find counters to, but i'm sure we'll figure out somethin'.

I think with the new Eldar, I can finally break out my allied Krootdar. 4 units of 3 jet bikes, double D wraith knight, a jet seer or 2, a riptide wing, and the remaining points invested in a firestream piranha formation. All those drones dying for the greater good should give me a good amount of double shots.

OUCH.... and Ouch again!

Awesome pics! glad to see the Mechanicus getting out there and doing what they were designed for on the battlefield :-)

More awesome pics of battle. Have seen what Nerdy has been working on. You lucky boy.

That is a beautiful battle, Gits, thanks for the pics!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been very busy at the Casa de Gits... wife has been sick and we've been entertaining an old college friend and his family. Both he and his son game though (my fault) so we played a 5-man free-for-all of 40k one afternoon, and an old game of Titanicus the next. These weren't the original rules as people have been tinkering with them for years, but once we got used to them we had a really fun time. I'd forgotten about how much fun it was to play the titans against one another.

I should get back to painting soon.

Sounds good, even if you haven't been painting. Any pictures from the games?

 wyomingfox wrote:

 JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:
Looks like a fine battle! The Eldar Triumvirate will take the meta for a bit to adjust and find counters to, but i'm sure we'll figure out somethin'.

I think with the new Eldar, I can finally break out my allied Krootdar. 4 units of 3 jet bikes, double D wraith knight, a jet seer or 2, a riptide wing, and the remaining points invested in a firestream piranha formation. All those drones dying for the greater good should give me a good amount of double shots.

Ah yes, the under powered armies of Eldar and Tau. Truly now is the time they have come into their own.

@ DaemonColin: Alas no, I was too busy running the first game and playing in the second! My friend did give me several of the old Imperial titans though so I may do a quick paint job on them so the boys and I can play. They'll be pictures then.

Definitely going to get the new titan game I've heard rumors about when it comes out though.

> double D Wraith Knight

Not a mental image I was expecting to acquire from checking in on this thread

Such things are not unusual in this blog.

Road to Adepticon .. 1 week out.

Are you coming in on Thursday then?

Yes, Thursday morning.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
Are you coming in on Thursday then?

We have a 6pm Titannicus Game on Thursday.. Killing Eldar.

Ramos and I are getting in on Wednesday. Our drive is a bit further though.

We'll ping you when we get in so you can supervise Ramos helping carry all our stuff in.

 Solar_lion wrote:
We'll ping you when we get in so you can supervise Ramos helping carry all our stuff in.

Just feeling the love, man.






Dont know from where, though, I mean you guys are terrible...

*chuckle*

It's SL & WM.... does that surprise you?

 Ramos Asura wrote:

 Solar_lion wrote:
We'll ping you when we get in so you can supervise Ramos helping carry all our stuff in.

Just feeling the love, man.
Don't know from where, though, I mean you guys are terrible...

Dude.. your big, Always helpful and nicer than most average guys... all the things WM and I aren't. ( ok.. I'm big too ) Feel better?
So looking forward to hangin with you. Are you bringing your Marines Errants ?.. I'll have some extra stuff you can borrow if you need pts in a game.

 Solar_lion wrote:

 Ramos Asura wrote:

 Solar_lion wrote:
We'll ping you when we get in so you can supervise Ramos helping carry all our stuff in.

Just feeling the love, man.
Don't know from where, though, I mean you guys are terrible...

Dude.. your big, Always helpful and nicer than most average guys... all the things WM and I aren't. ( ok.. I'm big too ) Feel better?
So looking forward to hangin with you. Are you bringing your Marines Errants ?.. I'll have some extra stuff you can borrow if you need pts in a game.

Humph, well fiiiiine, I guess I can hang out with you guys...





But no, seriously, Im stoked for next week. Been looking forward to it for a long time, now. Gonna be good to see the whole crew

Marines Errant are at the EXACT same point as they were last year (Stupid 9-5 eats up all my time, haha...), so extra points would be waaaay helpful!

Well, I'm finally getting a little excited about Adepticon next week. I'm also mad as hades that the system they used to register is so wonky that I spent 4 hours getting constantly bumped off it it until I finally gave up... not having successfully signed up for anything. I know, given the packed house... that they don't give a damn who was able to register and who wasn't... but I'm not happy with the whole experience. Yes, I'm bitter. I'm happy to own it.

Luckily I have friends to hang out with and hope for a solid weekend of pick-up games. (If you're going and would like to play, just PM me.)



I thought with a week to go, it would be interesting to post what I'll be bringing as a way to keep myself motivated and organized. Not gear (that's boring), but army lists and photos of the armies as well. The other advantage is that it forces me to go through things ahead of time and make repairs. If you have to cart your armies around as much as I do they take damage... and posting lists and photos will help me make sure that I've gotten everything I need in good repair so it's ready to go and there are no surprises in Chicago.



First off, we've discovered over the last couple of years that the open gaming tables just suck. Bare tables with a few pieces of bad terrain to toss about (unless you get lucky and a company is previewing their kickstarter terrain on specially made tables). So this year, several of us are pitching in so that we can set up a gaming table in one of the hotel rooms so we always have a nice table to play on. My contribution is the mat and some terrain. I'm bringing the FatMat winter mat (the first one, there may be others by now) and some large trees and ruins to scatter about. There's no context for the size, but what's here is filling a 3'x3' photo booth. I figure with the bits IceAngel is bringing we should have more than enough to fill the table and still have some options so you aren't fielding exactly the same thing every time.





More to come. Taking the evening to play a 40k game with my youngest.

Well I hope you have a wonderful time, so envious, but happy to live vicariously through you.

Can't wait for the Batrep.

I'll be getting there wednesday night fellas, I'm looking forward to getting some games in.

So incredibly jealous of all this Adepticon prep. Sometime when I don't have little children at home, I'll have to join you all. Maybe in time for Adepticon 25...

Hope you have a good time Gits (hopefully it will compensate for that dreadful sign up process).

Major Adepticon prep for today...

#1 Went to one of my FLGSs and picked up a Battlefoam 1520XL bag. This baby is exactly what I needed. Came stuffed with a variety of pluck foam that was PERFECT for storing/carrying my oddly shaped AdMech figures. So happy I got this... even has wheels and a handle!



#2) Started the process of basing the last unbased knight. Because of drying times this'll take a couple of days, so good to get it started now.

#3) Finally made enough progress on the Rapiers to post a pic. The pink power coils is not what I was shooting for, so I'll have to fiddle with them a bit. Working on the crewmen and hope to have them completed soon.

I'm personally liking the pink laser, maybe just a darker red highlight would do the trick. Good to see you have plenty of carry cases too, I need to get some myself.

Love those rapiers! Saucy.

Those look cool, I like the pink plasma but what it probably needs is deeper red recesses.

Finally finished the rapier squad.

Love the coils, and the edge highlighting is very discreet. Nice job!

They look brilliant. Got to love that purple.

Those coils do look much better Gits. Also, that case looks awesome! I'll need to get myself one.

Thanks guys. These are still short on hand-painted detail (like the rest of the army). I would like to go back and revisit them at some point to make them really look the part, but for the nonce I'll have to rely on the fact that my purple and gold are solid and carry the models reasonably well.

I finished the basing on one of my knights last night, still have one to go. I also figured out that you CAN do a 3-knight war-convocation for 2000 pts. Unfortunately to pull it off (by 5 points) you'd need 3 Knights Gallant... and I only have one. Not that I'd field 3 knights in a friendly game, but I was curious.

More to come.

Nice work on the rapier squad, they look very clean. Like theve never been used

I prefer the term... "newly minted".

Nice job on the tracked guns. I like the little red/white bits for some reason, makes them look "official".

Knights are finally based and ready to go. Packed even! A reminder that these were built and painted by Ramos Asura. My only contribution was the basing.

The four horsemen...

d

Very Nice.. I know it's not planned that way.. but the guy with the shield is in the back. I'm sure they'll all get a good amount of attention

He's the spearman... he belongs in the second rank behind the cannon-fodder.

Mein gott, that shield is amazing! Ramos really hit it out of the park on that bad boy, Will he be making his stomp attacks by bashing the squads with the shield?

Two days left and both Thing 1 and I are getting excited about Adepticon. I'm excited rather than panicking because it looks like the EC figures that I'd slated for painting (two bikes, one of which is an HQ) will be completed tonight, which gives me a free evening for list building and packing (some of which is already done).

You can do it bud. Sure you will manage.

Best of luck at Adepticon, you boys have a great time.

Thanks Cam, that's very kind of you. I'm sure we'll have a great time. There are a bunch of us... many who've met through Dakka... that can all hang out together which guarantees us a good time. I'm just sorry that so many of my friends are on other continents and unable to join us. You guys would love it. In spite of my earlier complaining about the registration... the guys who run this do an amazing job. It's a beautiful, spacious venue and any game you can play on a tabletop happens there. Best of all, with a mob of guys to goof around with... you just can't go wrong.

Depending on how many armies I decide to bring... I may try to get enough paint on the Deredeo to consider it done enough to field. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Going to make it....

Finished up the two bikes. Here's the Praetor. Keep in mind "finished" is a relative term. Done enough to field without embarassment anyway.




Here's the army, managed to get it to 1500 points by sneaking in the Deredeo (which I'll finish painting tonight) and the Venetor I painted up for my Mantis Warriors. It has purple on it. I'm calling it a remnant of an old campaign where the green was added to honor an ally... perhaps something they did pre-heresy with their brothers in the Salamanders.

Nice! That's a fine force that you should be proud to put on the table.

Thanks Paradigm!



On a side note... if anyone has any ides as to exactly *where* the gold should go on the Deredeo... I'm open to suggestion. Kind of puzzled about it myself. The helmet, yes... but after that it's kind of up in the air. Keep in mind I probably only have an hour or so to finish it.... so no time for hand-painted detail really.

Perhaps gold bands down the middle of the kneepads, with a III Legion transfer inside? Or the same down the centre of the 'torso'?

That's a nice looking force there!

 Paradigm wrote:
Perhaps gold bands down the middle of the kneepads, with a III Legion transfer inside? Or the same down the centre of the 'torso'?

He's old... give him gold cufflinks and a pocket watch.

Thats a good looking force bud.

Think I would go with Para's idea, sounds reasonable to me. I like the bikes minimal bling as well so keep that in mind.

Try a gold rim around the front of the missile pods?

good suggestions guys, thanks. Please keep them coming.

Unfortunately the only Third Legion heraldry (transfers) I have are gold in color... so gold on a gold stripe wouldn't work (though I could do either, just not both together). I have thought hard and long about gold edging on the missile pods... that's certainly doable, and something that may lead nicely into the ultimate decorative motif I'd like for this vehicle.

Sparkly underpants. Or, failing that, trims and rims. I think especially the gorget would look good in gold.

There's a gorget?


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Yeah, OK, I see it. I could that and do the area behind that frames the head... that might not look too bad.

Exactly! Perfection.

Just finished the Deredeo. Granted, not really finished but good enough to field. Thanks for your suggestions on the gold guys... I didn't end up following them but it wasn't because they weren't good suggestions... I just decided they might negatively effect what I ultimately want to do with this model from a decorative standpoint. It's the same reason you don't see any transfers or insignia on the model. I do appreciate the help though, thank you.

Gits! Great work brother! I have enough DA for a heresy match at 1500 if you'd like to give it whirl brother! Looking forward to see you guys tomorrow

Lovely work on the whole gang, should look great on the tabletop!

 Master Azalle wrote:
Gits! Great work brother! I have enough DA for a heresy match at 1500 if you'd like to give it whirl brother! Looking forward to see you guys tomorrow

You're on! See you tomorrow!

Thanks CL!

Looks snazzy. Have a great time at Adepticon, you lucky dogs!

Deredeo is looking great so far.

Love the group shot of the army, looking really cool.

EDC

Looks great! IF/When you decide to get fancy with it, White and Gold looks very IIIrd legion and also pre Fulgrim for the dread. (Although some might suggest its blue and black! :p )

Looks awesome!

I was thinking gold on the helmet, but I think the gold looks better where it is now!

Gold placement works well.

You could pick out the rivets in gold too, to add a little more bling if you feel it needs it. Maybe that's just the riveteer in me talking.

Hey gang, having a great time at Adepticon. Tons of friends here. Too much to do. More later.

Have fun gitsy

Thanks Tom.


Home safe-and-sound. I had a wonderful time though I didn't play anywhere near enough 30/40k.

Highlights:

- Met and played Master Azalle... awesome guy! Hope for many more such meetings in the future. (not a cheater)
- Got to have a front seat to RiTides latest venture... "Modbitz"... I'm not exaggerating... they are the real deal. Not just a hobby deal... the real deal.
- Getting my butt kicked by CleansingFire's Sisters after I'd nearly wiped him out... I'm still not sure how that happened. (he must have cheated)
- "Going Geek" with my son all weekend.
- Seeing all my friends from across the country at our once a year (at best) get-together.
- Playing X-wing until 2 AM for the first time and doing really well with a base-level tie fighter. (which apparently is unusual?)
- Solar_lion's "Knight Fight" which was one of the most entertaining gaming things I've done in a very long time. My oft-maligned Cerastus Knight Lancer was a god...
- Actually having my EC perform well.
- Bought some awesome stuff that didn't require breaking the bank.
- Did I mention I just love hanging out with my friends?
- Getting to see both whalemusic360's and Solar_lion's titans in-person. :0
- Getting to play side-by-side with Ramos... then getting our collective butts kicked by my son's necrons. (cheater)
- Getting to play Yorkright in a 2v2 match... and getting my butt kicked by a bunch of orks. (also a cheater)
- Getting to meet and chat with the Miniwargaming guys.
- Getting a selfie with YouTube legend Wargamer Shawn. (known on Dakka as Eiluj the Farseer... a well known cheater)
- Sleeping in on Sunday morning!
- Taking pictures with my phone and then randomly PMing them to Nerdfest09. LOL!

There were lots of others... but that's what comes immediately to mind.

That sounds like a lot of fun!

How are the miniwargaming guys in person? I might be planning a trip over there this summer, so I can use all the info I can get!

Also- any hints at what you picked up at adepticon?

Sounds like a blast. What ships were you using in X Wing?

EDC

Sounds wonderful. How life should be. Can't wait for pics. Really glad you had a good time.

X-wing is fab. Good job, the basic tie remains, still, one of the best ships in the game, and tie swarm is the shark in the meta. Serious game design, that.
No BMG?
Glad you had a great time

Here's a few pics of the Knight Fight and Wardens from AdeptiCon, along with a hint at Gits' exploits, although I'll let him share the results

The final showdown of the Knight Fight (originally 7vs7). Solar_lion and Gitsplitta* (*and IceAngel, hiding in the back for this pic ) vs Lorek and Joel. But will it end with Gits' final moment of glory, or the agony of defeat???



And from earlier, a mirror match between myself (using nerdfest's wonderful knight) and Solar_lion, while IceAngel directs traffic



Wardens group picture! Only two non-Dakkanauts pictured, do you know who is who?



And this amazing army, which doesn't have a connection to any of the above but is too good not to share. I love some well done counts-as



I had such an incredible time! Thanks to the Wardens for being so fantastic to game and hang with, and for awesomely helping at my booth once again! The gaming in the evenings was the best I've had in a long time, I really enjoyed it. Cheers guys

"Getting to play Yorkright in a 2v2 match... and getting my butt kicked by a bunch of orks. (also a cheater)"

I believe you lost because you did not listen to your partner in that game ;-D. That ork list was played by our friend and he totally stomped my Ynarri army the game before.

Was great meeting RiTides and Solar-LIon, would love to get a game in with either of you next Adepticon.

gummyofallbears wrote:That sounds like a lot of fun! How are the miniwargaming guys in person? I might be planning a trip over there this summer, so I can use all the info I can get!

The MWG guys were great, I couldn't believe how "up" and positive they stayed with hundreds of people constantly demanding their attention. I spoke with Josh who was really nice & asked me excellent questions about what I liked and was interested in. I didn't want to waste a lot of his time as I really just wanted to say thanks and keep up the good work... but I'd say their on-line persona's are pretty spot-on.

gummyofallbears wrote:Also- any hints at what you picked up at adepticon?

Toys: Some FW but as prices were greatly inflated, I kept it to a minimum. 5 cacaphoni, 2 packs of EC dice, EC transfer sheet and a praetor show-only model. Some paints and basing supplies that are hard to find. Some Black Site X laser cut terrain to go with my DOW laser cut terrain from their kickstarter last year. OH, and some really cool containers (as in over-seas, huge, ship-borne containers) with famous "evil company" logos from SciFi. Going to hold off on showing you those until I get my full set. They're just too cool to spoiler. Spent most of my money on decent food from the hotel restaurants rather than the "convention food" they were selling at the back of the hall. With a teenage boy in tow we went through my mad money at a good clip... but it lasted just long enough.

evildrcheese wrote:Sounds like a blast. What ships were you using in X Wing? EDC

Whatever Imperial fighter comes in the basic set (one x-wing, two Imperials). No shields... 3 HP? We didn't do any upgrades or anything. In the end it was just me and an (I think) undamaged x-wing & I wore him down over several turns and finally took him out. Solar_lion thought it was an impressive feat... who am I to argue?

Yorkright wrote:"Getting to play Yorkright in a 2v2 match... and getting my butt kicked by a bunch of orks. (also a cheater)"

I believe you lost because you did not listen to your partner in that game ;-D. That ork list was played by our friend and he totally stomped my Ynarri army the game before.

Indeed! I certainly had the most charming teammate at the entire event. I would have listened to her more carefully but she kept claiming I was trying to cheat you... daddy's little girl that she is and all...



Soooo.... I was looking through the photos I took this year on either my camera or my phone. I didn't really take a lot... but what I have will make two battle reports... one for the Knight Fight that Solar_lion ran, and one for my 30k game with Master Azalle. I do have a few random pictures of neat armies... but I'll save those for the annual "Adepticon wrap-up" thread that Solar_lion usually starts. I will leave you with a couple of interesting pics that are topical and relevant.

Pic #1: Really cool conversion for an AdMech army. This is supposed to be a Dragoon. He had a great conversion for an Iron Strider as well but unfortunately my picture didn't come out.



Pic #2: History in the making... the view from inside RiTide's Modbitz booth.

It was definitely great meeting you, Yorkright, it's clear Gits has an awesome gaming group with you guys up in Madison! Also one that is quite good at playing 40k

Edit: Ninja'ed by Gits!

Seems like you had a good time. That AdMec conversion looks great as well!

I like the looks of the knight-fight! I gotta ask, what's the turnout for younger players, cause i'm thinkin' of going next year. At the same time, I assume most of(if not many) the attendees are Dakkanaught, or is it just your little group there Gits?

There are THOUSANDS of people who attend JATW. Dakkanaughts make up a very small percentage. It's all table-top games (well, figuratively speaking), not just 40k/30k. Infinity, Star Wars, Saga, Warmachine.... you name it. More than I can count.

They used to have a 40k junior championship... not sure if they still have that or not. The events are volunteer run... so it just depends on what people want to step up and lead.

Thanks, idk if i'd fit into a "junior" tournament, i'm a high schooler. I was just asking cause I have no clue what the turnout is in way of ages.

Gotta say the jealousy inducing randowm pics throughout were a welcome distraction to my days! nothing better than seeing your mates playing games with only knights on great boards while they enjoyed themselves

Looking forward​ to solar_lion's wrap up, don't forget to link herein!
On another note, great shot of the navigator household. I've been following it on here - yup, he's one of us! Weirdingway.

So how do modbitz work, and what are they?

@JATW: Well, the Junior Championship went all the way up to 16. So good for sophomores at least.

@graven: I'll let RiTides handle that.




Looking through my photos I decided I had enough to do a "Knight Fight" battle report of sorts.

Things you need to know about the rules...
- There were up to 14 knights on the table at once.
- It was a "Resurrection Battle", so any knights destroyed could immediately enter the fray again in the next turn.
- The turn you entered you could only run.
- Rules were simplified, but not so much that the individual knight configurations lost their character.
- Movement was simplified.... move 12", run 12", charge 12" (unless your knight had some special rule... like my lancer which was allowed to run 18")
- Victory points were awarded based on hull points removed from opposing knights in shooting or assault. Having your own knight explode & then the explosion doing hull points to your opponents did NOT count towards your total.
- The table was huge (three standard long-tables put together) with amazing, really large terrain which absolutely made the game as cool as it was.
- Turns were done like Tie Fighter... only with playing cards, so if you moved first you'd shoot last & visa-versa.


In fairness I missed the first turn or two as RiTides & I came in late.... so unfortunately I don't have a pic of the original deployment. Maybe I can steal one from one of the other players...
I also want to apologize for the wonkiness of the colors in these photos. My phone camera is damaged and it's color processor is obviously not working properly, so I did the best I could to address it... but it's kind of random.



This is how things stood when I finally got to the game, both sides... fully engaged across an urban battlefield. The team I was assigned to is the one on the left. Master Azalle was our "king". I should point out that Ramos painted the red and blue knights, Solar_lion painted the pruple knights and the orange knight atropos(?) and Nerdfest the silver knight atropos(?). I'm pretty sure the black knight near the top of the photo was Azalle's.



The boss (MA) told me to just charge forward until I hit something... so that's exactly what I did. For those of you unfamiliar with the FW knight lancer... it's a knight specifically designed to kill other knights. It's not very good at anything else... but it fulfills it's primary mission extremely well.



Here I am after running deep into the enemy's deployment zone facing off against Lorek's and his charming lady's knights.





During my activation, I charged into the blue knight, destroying it. During his, Lorek charged into me... We brutalized one-another, leaving my lancer on 2 HP and his knight on 1. The following phase the lancer finished him off and narrowly escaped being destroyed itself due to it's shield which can be used for a 5+ invul in close combat.





Here is Solar_lion laying down the law. It was a bit chaotic with the way each knight was activated... but it was a TON of fun! He worked really hard on making this happen, thanks man. The guy in the green is the gentleman who made all this amazing terrain and allowed us to use it for hours after he'd planned on taking it down (for a fee of course). SL's trying to convince him to sponsor the event next year (where we hope to make it official) by providing the terrain for us to use without cost.





Here are some famous Dakkanaughts enjoying themselves during the game. It looks posed almost but this was just a random shot.... as you can see things were pretty intense. There are three mods in this photo, though I'll let you guess who is who.





What follows are a couple of shots of the general melee. Just sit back and enjoy the cool models on this amazing table!







Finally, the resurrections stopped... and most of us left on the table had very few hull points left. Now it's a fight to the death. From left to right... Ice Angel, Solar_lion, SL's brother Joel, Lorek and I. (the knight way in the back at the edge of the table is not in-play)





SL's knight gets gunned down, I take a charge from Lorek's blue knight, but emerge victorious... leaving Ice and I to face Joel. Keep in mind that Joel's knight has more hull points than both Ice and my Knights combined. At this point I went for an outflank to try and hem Joel in and prevent him from being able to shoot at and potentially kill both of us in one turn.




Joel's knight falls back the only way it can, but is eventually caught by Ice Angel. The two destroy each other in a fiery conflagration of man and machine... leaving my Lancer as the last knight standing and the only one that was never actually destroyed.




Hope you enjoyed the report. Solar is still tweaking the system and hopes to offer it as an official event next year. Perhaps 2 tables, 10 knights each.

That looks like awesome, mad fun. Cracking stuff!

Truly looks amazingly fun. Beautiful board, beautiful Knights.

That table was so awesome, really made the event shine I think . Hopefully Solar can requisition the terrain for next year, too!

On the ModBitz, this was my first reveal of a magnetic construction toy I've been working on, with the next event being the Bay Area Maker Faire in two months. I'll have more to post closer to that and will be adding a few more pieces that people requested at the event in the interim (along with finalizing the production process, as these were all made with a silicone mold). It was really great seeing kid's eyes light up when they saw the booth, and their parents having to drag them away afterwards . I'll certainly share the info when we're close to launch!

Thanks again to the Wardens and especially Gits for his enthusiasm and help at the booth - he really is a people magnet, as you might have guessed from the blog

Haven't had a chance to get back into painting as my son (Thing 1) has been occupying my painting desk working on that mass of Necrons he was inspired to finish thanks to Adepticon. Unfortunately he's at the "tedious" stage where he's doing the same thing over and over on dozens of figures.

Will have a chance to get in a game tonight at our weekly get-together at the local store. I think I'll have one more opportunity, then nothing until June. Just in time for Sigmarization I guess.



Couple of funny observations from Adepticon...

Thing 1 and I wandered around the main playing floor while some of the big tournaments were going on and made the following observations...

During the championship... we counted 11 Magnii.... in some cases fighting each other. We also saw two Celestines on the same board though they weren't actually fighting each other yet.
During the team tournament... it appeared that about 90% of the armies were either eldar, chaos or some marine variant.... the surprising part was that AT LEAST 50% of the armies we saw were eldar or chaos. God help us when the Yvarra (sp?) army becomes legal to play, it'll be nothing but Eldar.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
God help us when the Yvarra (sp?) army becomes legal to play, it'll be nothing but Eldar.

It's spelled R-A-P-E

Gits, while Thing 1 is occupying your territory, you could post up the report of your EC's encounter with my DA

No cheating involved. The Emprah just likes me better!

@Azalle: Excellent idea, now all I have to do is find the Sim card and card reader.... I know I brought them into the house...

CleansingFire wrote:
No cheating involved. The Emprah just likes me better!

' Mike drops'

Thanks for playing nice with Brent. He was thrilled to get in a game with his New World Eaters. Now to crush those Children!

Had a lovely little game of my AdMech vs. Tau with Sadowsun and a million marker lights.

Knight... "boom!"
Dominus... "boom!"

Ahhh but then the rust stalkers and infiltrators made it into assault and the long-range AdMech firepower started to wear the tau units down. Never did touch his heavy support much, but I chewed on everything else (we both did actually) and my card draws were pretty consistently achievable.

Final score (maelstrom game): 13-10, AdMech victory

Really fun, really close fight. Shadowsun survived to fight another day. Bits of the dominus were last seen inch-worming towards each other as he slowly re-assembled himself after the battle's end.

Lol, poor Dominus but congrats on the good showing!!

Thanks! The first turn-and-a-half were pretty ugly as the Tau's 30+ marker lights just made a mess out of everything in range. In spite of that I managed to secure the majority of my maelstrom objectives and by turn three had taken a pretty decent chunk of the marker lights down, which made the rest of my army more survivable as the game went on.

Man-of-the-Match had to be the Infiltrators. They took out a small unit of marker drones, then a large unit of fire warriors w/ drone support. The Tau had to dedicate enough fire to getting rid of them that other key units survived longer than they otherwise would have. Dune crawlers, Castellan robots and Breachers also had a very good evening. Nearly everything contributed though. Even the knight which was blown up in the very first shooting phase absorbed the entirety of the Tau shooting in turn 1, leaving the rest of the army unharmed. My opponent commented that he'd positioned himself to take out the knight in turn 1, but it'd left him largely out of position for the rest of the game. I could see that as my assault troops had a pretty clean line of approach along a solid line of buildings which blocked LOS.

Congrats on the win.. tough codex to beat.

Ritides is was great to see you there and as always what trip is complete without see Gits... I mean I even got a picture with him and felt like I was a celebrity.....

@Eiluj: You WERE the celebrity! I was just lucky to get a pic with a famous YouTuber!


@SL: Indeed. I must say I'm getting less and less torn about fielding the War Convocation... because without it, I get my butt kicked pretty consistently. I think most of the units in the two AdMech codecii are good... they're just too expensive to be competitive (small "c") without all the buffs you get from the formation. It'll be interesting to see what changes 8th brings. I'm wondering if formations will be a thing of the past...

Wow. I have been gone too long.
Amazing to see that you're still so active. Tried to catch up on a lot, but my absence has given me tons of blogs to go back through.
As expected, your skills have definitely improved, but it has been about 3 years since I stepped away, so It's really cool to see all that you have been able to accomplish.
I'm back lurking, but not sure if I'll get back to posting my own work. Currently working on a Skaven Blood Bowl team. Nice to be back into the hobby again, but really nice to see you and some of the boys never left.
Look forward to following your work again, Gits! Cheers!

Welcome back Moltar, wonderful to see you again! Hope you eventually make the decision to jump back into the fray, be nice to see you posting regularly again.

Great group shot of us all pondering. Nice one.

Deredeo finished!

Damn Gits, that purple looking as good as ever. Glad to hear you had a fun game, especially against Tau. A well deserved victory by the sounds of it.

Impressive model! Exactly how much firepower is that thing packing?

I never thought you could make a dorito a piece of art, buy you've done it! The gold is real clean and goes nicely with your rich purple. Well done!

Thanks guys!

4x S8 AP4? autocannon shots with sunder
3x S6 AP3 missiles that can fire independently
2x heavy flamers (or are they twin-linked... not sure)

Very expensive... but it' s a beast. If it stands still, it also gets skyfire.

That's a beastly amount of firepower indeed... I'll hope with you it doesn't get focus fired turn 1

Trim looks good and proper!

How did you do that super rich and vibrant gold? Absolutely love it, Gits.

Gentlemen, you are too kind.


The gold is very simple but it does take 5 steps, still... it's all out of the bottle so to me that makes them very simple steps.
Preface: I don't worry about what the background color is as long as the base gold covers it completely.

1. Cover surface with a medium gold.
--------- P3: Rhulic Gold
--------- Vallejo Game Air: Glorious Gold (72.756)
--------- GW: Not sure, I ran out of what I had

2. Generous highlight of a bright gold.
--------- P3: Solid Gold
--------- Vallejo Game Air: Polished Gold (72.755)
--------- GW: Burnished Gold

3. Wash.
--------- GW: Seraphim Sepia
--------- Army Painter: Soft Tone
On larger spaces with deeper crevices, I'll line-in the crevices with...
--------- GW: Agrax Earthshade
--------- Army Painter: Strong Tone

4. Re-highlight with bright gold (step #2), not quite so generous this time.

5. Very delicate edge highlight with the brightest silver you can find. Right now I'm using Vallejo Acrylic Metal Color Airbrush Colors, Aluminum (770701). I just go with highest edges, curves or corners. I don't edge highlight everything.

Hope this helps.


I'll be working on the Leviathan today so we'll see what kind of progress I make. Was going to paint last night but Thing 1 decided he needed to kick my but in Warmahordes instead.

He's putting that rulebook to good use, I see

Dread looks great, really looking forward to the Leviathan!

Yusssss... Thats looking damn nice, Gits!! Really adore the warm purple... Warlock Purple is one of my favorite colors to use. It brings so much warmth no matter where you put it!

The touches of white on the ammo stacks is really brilliant as well...



Oh! And iffin you ever needed equivalents for the Sepia and Earthshade... Army Painter makes some stuff that is a spot on match... Soft tone will be your sepia and Strong Tone is Devlan Mud!

@Ramos: Thank's! I've added those to the post.

@RiTides: Here you go. Gold is about 1/2 way done. More to add (rivets). A lot more after that too.

Thank you for the recipe, I'm sure I'll find somewhere to use it

That Leviathan is looking good Gitz, makes me want to start putting mine together.

@Verv: Glad I could be of service!

@Yorkright: Thanks mate. It's still wayyy too purple... but it'll get there. A bit more gold, some white, some decals... some touches of glowy color... maybe even just a bit of OSL. We'll see.


I must say I'm really excited about painting these models at the moment. they're just... different. Different color, different shapes, different fluff. It's all very engaging!

Look forward to seeing more so you'll have an expanded selection come next year AC. We must get in more HH games.

They are definitely a different aesthetic, your work on them is beautiful. looking really great.

Leviathan is looking very nice so far Git's, keep up the good work

I'd love to paint tonight but the Mrs. and I killed two bottles of fine wine celebrating her (mumble, mumble) 29th birthday. Drunk posting? No. Able to paint several dozen tiny rivets?? Also no. Instead I'm watching "The Killer Shrews" on TV.

Happy birthday Mrs. Gitsplitta.

Deredeo is looking awesome. Leviathan is coming along nicely too.

EDC

Good to see fun was had.

Ah, you did do the rivets gold. Looks good.

Happy birthday Mrs 'Splitta.

Happy birthday to the lady Gits here we are approaching 27 again. Used to be 24 again. I suspect 29 again coming soon.

Hey Gitsy, I think you need to add one darker AB step and onen lighter one... things are a bit flat at the moment, push your contrasts!

@MajorTom: Will do. The Leviathan will have to stay as is, but I'll work on everything else.


Speaking of which... WIP2. White is next.

The white will break up the purple and look great Gits! Our Levi's will have to have a throw down next year!

Yeah, I think so. I've been mapping the white out in my head ever since I started the detail painting. I guess I won't know for certain until it's down on the model, but I'm hopeful it'll be a significant improvement.

I'm not sure I'm confident enough to "throw down" my Levi's... I'm a bit old and shriveled for a meat-measuring competition...

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Yeah, I think so. I've been mapping the white out in my head ever since I started the detail painting. I guess I won't know for certain until it's down on the model, but I'm hopeful it'll be a significant improvement.

Looks great. Nice spot touchesod detail. Add some transfers as it has plenty of open areas.

 Master Azalle wrote:
The white will break up the purple and look great Gits! Our Levi's will have to have a throw down next year!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I'm not sure I'm confident enough to "throw down" my Levi's... I'm a bit old and shriveled for a meat-measuring competition...

I am However confident enough! I should have a decent sized Alpha Legion force by next year ans looking to play.

Kidding aside... I really love this model. It's got this amazing and rather incongruous combination of lovely curves and massiveness (it is, in essence... a giant rectangle with arms) that I just find really alluring. I didn't think that way before I started painting it... but after working in-depth with it for a while now I'm coming to appreciate it's design.

Hey Gitsy,

This is what I am getting at, and it is all pretty simple stuff, 2 more passes with the Ab, then some quick edge highlighting with magenta then slannesh grey... I think it would be worth it and far less work than you may think!

WOW.

I wasn't disagreeing with you Tom... I was just taking into account that I'd basically have to re-paint the entire model in order to get those AB effects & I wasn't sure I had the heart to do it.

That's truly amazing though.


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I'll look at it tonight and see if I can at least do some blending up and down and the edge highlighting without scrapping everything I've done so far.

Or you could try some wet blending to paint on some of the edges by hand, what I had to do with the wraith knight commission.

I could, but I'm not really good enough at wet blending to make it transition into the airbrushing correctly. I'll give Tom's ideas a shot and see what I can accomplish. The edge highlighting isn't an issue... I've been meaning to do that from the beginning... it just always seems like I'm rushing from one project to the next so it gets left-off.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
WOW.

I wasn't disagreeing with you Tom... I was just taking into account that I'd basically have to re-paint the entire model in order to get those AB effects & I wasn't sure I had the heart to do it.

That's truly amazing though.


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I'll look at it tonight and see if I can at least do some blending up and down and the edge highlighting without scrapping everything I've done so far.

No re-start! You are already in progress to that result...

Steps to get there -

1 - navy blue or nave/black mix (aim for dark sea blue from vallejo) ab pass on larger plates, bottom of chest, bottom of shoulders, bottom of arms, inside of legs. If your AB has a good tight cone and is reliable, you can even get in on smaller details - knees, hip cylinders, forearms.*

2 - glaze that navy, maybe even navy black, with a brush, paint very thinned in areas to tight to reach or small for ab. Helmet, knees, toes, etc. Be quick, you can actually check the latest Warhammer TV vid for the visarchs sword to see what you should be doing with the shadow (he uses it for mids, but same idea for paint consistency)

3 - black line the deep seams with black wash or ink. shin, toe lobstering, other sharp seams

4 - ab magenta/bright violet top edges in reverse extreme of where you put the shade.*

5 - skip the glaze, instead, edge highlight with pure magenta along all major edges. At the corners of the edges, or the big intersections, use that slaanesh purple grey as an extreme highlight.

Sounds like a lot, but it isn't, most of this stuff is pure mechanical and doesn't require too much thought. *** the only thing, make you look down the sightline of your AB and make sure you are avoiding hitting any surfaces you don't want to. In instances where you might, use a post it stuck on, or held in your hand to mask, or silly putty.

You can get from the right to the left in 1 night or 4 hours if you are prepped and planned. I promise you! Remember the right one is the exact same path, the left one is just further along the path...

https://www.facebook.com/WarhammerTVteam/videos/357641087964209/

Thanks for the play-by-play Tom, I'll get to work on it.

I'd love to be able to get those results in my Alpha legion. So much to learn!

I wish I had the patience to try out an airbrush. It seems to get such an amazing finish. The purple looks awesome.

Tom, your AB knowledge is impressive good sir! I'll post up my Levi on my blog, maybe you could give some adive as well. Truly amazing mock work

Following with interest to see how this pans out. Good job to the both of you, Gits and MajorTom!

OK, I know this doesn't line up with Tom's amazing suggestion, but it's the best I can do given the fact that I'm having major airbrush issues. Spent most of last night dissecting and cleaning the brush, swapping out parts, etc., but still having some pretty major problems. It's better though (meaning the dread). Transitions aren't as subtle as I'd like but I'll credit that to the brush issues.

This is just the airbrushing step mind you. Still have the lining and edge highlighting to do.

Looks much better now. Less like a grape Kool-aid man.

Amazing and pretty close to Tom's direction. I think you met the intent. Especially first time trying it!

Inspires me to try!.

Looks promising!

Much improved Gits!

Yeah... I still don't like it. Will have to work on it with some medium shades and see if I can't get some of the blending to work better. I mean I like the effect... but the execution is crap.

That is much better! I see what you mean about the medium shades, but I do love the higher contrast now

Already you can see it is much better though, though I agree the execution needs some work -

Would I be correct in saying you did not get to the darker black navy pass?

The magenta is good, the only issue is the modulations placement, you want to stick horizontal, on the chest plate, there are 2 main facets on both sides. By putting the highlight on the side, there is no break. Remember, surface angle to surface angle, you want to have your highlight touching your shade on every transition. So the magenta needs to be at the top of the facet, not the side. The shade at the bottom.

That being said, the rest looks solid, just the chest is the 'incorrect' part. BUT - there is good news! There is no easier surface to just do it via brush. You don't need the ab for that part, just wet blend or even just glaze. Again, it is quick work, the chest is the absolute easiest possible scenario for that kind of brush work!

Don't give up, I know you only see the flaws you pointed out due to the AB crapping out, but everyone else sees it for what it is, a huge improvement!

No, it's there. The darks are actually a lot darker and bluer than they were in the pre-pic. It's not near black though. I could try darkening the mixture even more and give it another shot.

The small chest plate just under the vox is slated to be white, which is why I didn't bother blending it. The shoulders are too, but I decided I wanted the practice and the shoulder plates presented a good surface to work on. As far as the large, twin chest/shoulder plates go, I just followed my original modulation. I can try and re-do both of them to be closer to what you had in your mock-up. I understand what you're describing.


I'm not quite sure what you mean by glazing... can you point me to something on-line that will explain it? (didn't have a chance to look at the vid you posted yesterday... is it in there?)

@gits, that GW video I linked you above is glazing. Likewise, you could wet blend too, the surface is so large and flat.

set yourself up 3 colors, your magenta highlight, your mid indigo, your dark navy/black.

On a piece of paper, put one dot next to the other of each color, high, mid, shade. Do this quickly, then, imagining the line of the 3 dots is 'vertical', then use the flat of your brush to blend them into each other with horizontal strokes . back and forth, back and forth, until you get a smooth gradient. Try to work in a little square about the size of the chest plate facet. if you can do it right in the square, you can do it on the plate. The trick to that is getting a feel for how the paint dots will mingle and putting the right amount of paint to not drown the mix when you moosh them together.

That is wet blending

Alternately, paint the plates flat again with your mid tone. Then, take the highlight and water it, (aim for about the consistency of skim milk), initially, put your brush down on the top edge of the plate, then start placing your brush about 1/3rd into the plate and drag the brush up again and again. Think of the paint as snow on a driveway. Where you rub your brush (the shovel) you are clearing it away, and where you push your brush towards, you are piling up the 'snow' (paint).

That is glazing, you can do the opposite in the other direction for the shade. Now, SUPER IMPORTANT - your paint consistency has to be watered enough, if it is too thick and opaque, you will not get a smooth blend. Next, even more SUPER IMPORTANT!! - Let each glaze layer dry completely before you do the next. It is a cumulative effect, and if you do it on top of a still wet layer, it will just tear and you will lose the smoothness this is supposed to give and get some lumps. NOTE - the glaze will look way more opaque and 'off' while still wet. let it dry, you will see, far more delicate that you thought. Don't flood the areas, you have to leave no deep 'pools'.

OK, thanks Tom. In that case I've done glazing... but not wet blending. Glazing is how I used to get my yellow Mantis Warriors done before I bought the airbrush.

Wow, that makes a hell of a difference and once the edge highlights are done t will really pop, don't stress about being too correct with application Gits, it's a learning process and you are lucky that you already have a great level of skill when it comes to painting and using the Airbrush so your curve to learn isn't as acute, it's your fear or lack of confidence that's stopping you but as with anything in this hobby no matter what you do or how you paint if you are happy and love your stuff then thats good enough :-) but isn't it exciting to see new things happen and when you nail it (which I know you will) you'll open up a world of MORE COOL MODELS!

Thanks nerdy, I appreciate the confidence and support.

Took most of last night off to hang out with the family, but I did block out those two big torso sections in a medium dark purple. So I'll either airbrush or glaze them tonight.


On a side (but relavent) note.... Does anyone have a good recommendation for a double-action airbrush? I've been using a Paache Talon since I started... but I'm on my second and the time it's taken to go from new to some flaw that can't be fixed by cleaning or a simple parts swap has been decreasing... so I'm considering switching brands. I'm not really interested in Badger... Iwata is a good name, but I have no idea what model would be appropriate without being excessively $.

Bueler? Bueler??

Good news, Tom is on your plog. Bet he has a recommendation or two.

I am unsure of the features you are looking for I am happy with my Badger Patriot 105.

I would suggest the Renegade Krome for all the useful options (pictures in spoiler):Infinity 2 in 1 is a bit prettier and has the same options I feel are necessary:
Getting less generalized, for fine detailing I would suggest this: iwata HP-BP HI Performance Plus:
My intent is this brush to be my "second" one, for fine detail it is awesome but for general use, not so much.I find iwata and Badger very similar in design but I have heard great things about the Infinity for use but a bit more fussy to clean.
I am sure many people's results may vary.

They had an airbrush demo at Curry's art store and I would suggest from my experience that performance is very similar but each has a different heft to them so it may boil down to preference.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Thanks nerdy, I appreciate the confidence and support.

Took most of last night off to hang out with the family, but I did block out those two big torso sections in a medium dark purple. So I'll either airbrush or glaze them tonight.


On a side (but relavent) note.... Does anyone have a good recommendation for a double-action airbrush? I've been using a Paache Talon since I started... but I'm on my second and the time it's taken to go from new to some flaw that can't be fixed by cleaning or a simple parts swap has been decreasing... so I'm considering switching brands. I'm not really interested in Badger... Iwata is a good name, but I have no idea what model would be appropriate without being excessively $.

Bueler? Bueler??

If you want a budget brush, the Master G series Iwata knock-offs have served me well... still using them 5-6 years in, both work fine. For the price, can't be beat.

If you are ready to level up though, Iwata. Iwata. Iwata. Iwata-Medea Eclipse HP CS is great for minis and good price... if you wanna go god-mode though, iwata micron...

That little extra highlighting is really making an already good looking model really stand out. You got some skills Gitz, and pushing it past your comfort zone is paying off.

Gits, you are so far above my skill level, that I have nothing constructive to say.

Speaking of airbrushes, I'm planning on getting one soon. The owner at my FLGS is a Badger fan, though I've borrowed his Paashe VL to do priming in the past (wasn't impressed by the control, but it may have been how he had it set up or my own ineptitude). I want to support my store, but is there any reason why I should not get a Badger Patriot 105 as an entry level brush?
Thanks, and sorry for hijacking the thread.

I have not had good experiences with badger, though I know others who have. However, one key thing that bugs the crap out of me, the nozzles on badgers simply slot in, not screw in, making this critical, microscopic piece so easy to lose. I would steer away from badger towards Iwata, and if not Iwata, Grex or Pasche.

Page rollover fix post!

My objection to Badger has nothing to do with it's product and everything to do with the tactics I've seen it's employees use. Just not interested in supporting them.


Oh, and... thanks RiTides!

My Iwata works great, the user is pretty unskilled so ....

I have an Iwata HP-C plus that I picked up relatively cheaply through amazon from Japan.

I'm happy with it. It works.
and it doesn't complain about my use of enamel paint and white spirit unlike the cheap AB that came with my compressor.

Big surprise for you today! I'd posted my cool aquisition at Adepticon this year... three sci-fi themed shipping containers I was going to use as terrain. Well, I got five more today! I can't begin to tell you how much I love these, they make me smile every time I look at them and I'm very excited at the prospect of being able to feature them in a battle report!

Here is my full set. Props to anyone who can give me full line-up of companies & movies!




And here's a pic with some figures for size context... you can see that two crates high will block LOS for anything short of a knight.




If you're interested in something like this AWESOMENESS... you're out of luck. They're mine... ALL MINE!

OK, just kidding. Drop me a PM and I'll hook you up with the artist who is a fantastic person to work with. These were not really expensive either.

Wow, those look awesome

I know jsut about all of them, save MNU and Yoyodyne...


Really appreciate the Zorg one

Very clever stuff! I get most of these references, but it looks like I have some movie-watching to do.

Actually, I gave him the idea for Yoyodyne. I didn't know MNU either, though I have seen the movie it's from. Really cool logo though and very believable on a shipping container.

Those crates look great!

I'm taking personal responsibility on educating Ramos on Yoyodyne. It's important to educate the youth today.

They look brilliant. Nice variety as well.

Here's the key based on the original photo... top to bottom.

The purples are looking really good, but I can see what MajorTom means. The purple would benefit from more shadows and highlights. Next time

I can't believe I've missed so much while I've been gone!

@endtrans: Good to have you back mate, don't be a stranger.


OK... as this project is lagging... I'm going to finish it up today. First I'll try the airbrush one more time. Think it'll hold together enough to get this done. Then some quick lining and highlighting... then on to the final details.





On a side note... Yorkright FINALLY started his own painting thread. He's a good friend of mine and a very talented painter. If you get a chance, go over and give his thread a look-see. It's called... Yorkright's Blog. Wow, that's imaginative.

*sigh*

No Weyland-Yutani? For shame!

Good luck with the AB -

@Tom: Actually that was one of my first suggestions but I couldn't get him to bite. I'll try again later.


Here's the re-work of the body sections... also re-highlighted the rest of the red.

I think this is as far as I want to go. As exciting as Tom's mock-up was, to my eye it's decidedly pink... which is something I specifically set out to avoid. I'll work on re-doing the gold and white and hopefully will even get the decals done tonight. Everything except the basing... that's my goal for today.

I like it. Slightly more subdued, makes it more grim. And this wa


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I like it. Slightly more subdued, makes it more grim. And this way, it won't stand out too much compared to your other troops.

Ah that looks much better!

Wonderful crates! Is Buckaroo Bozsai the 30 minute version of the original film (Buckaroo Banzai)?

Looks great to me!

Pro tip: you misapplied the modulation on the upper facet of the chest... remember, dark touches light at every edge, so you on the upper facet, you should do the gradient exactly as it is on the front facet. Darkest at the bottom, lightest at the top. I think if you give that a shot, you will be shocked at what a difference it makes... I am badgering you to do it because I think getting a solid grasp of modulation will be a tool you use on nearly every mini you ever do, and it fits your style well.. YMMV


PS, you have the full spectrum of purple, indigo to magenta, I think it looks great and extremely purple, with the Magenta being a much more beautiful interaction with the gold, a much warmer purple than what you would have sticking to violets.

PPS - if you REALLY hate the magenta, you can knock back everything by applying a dark blue wash over the entire model except the metallics. This will maintain the brightness contrasts by also darkening up the dark areas a bit too.

I also support the blue wash suggested by Tom, I bet it would work a treat. However, I don't see the problem with how the model is now, seems fine to me.

Also, sounds like Yorkright has finally given in. Sounds great

OK guys... I think this is as far as I'm going to take it. I still have details and decals to do, but the basic paint job is complete.

@Tom: Sorry, I'm not quite sure what area you're referring to, but it'll have to be mis-applied I guess. I need to finish this up before I lose my enthusiasm & I still have a lot to do.

 MajorTom11 wrote:
Pro tip: you misapplied the modulation on the upper facet of the chest... remember, dark touches light at every edge, so you on the upper facet, you should do the gradient exactly as it is on the front facet. Darkest at the bottom, lightest at the top. I think if you give that a shot, you will be shocked at what a difference it makes... I am badgering you to do it because I think getting a solid grasp of modulation will be a tool you use on nearly every mini you ever do, and it fits your style well.. YMMV

Dunno if this helps but this graphic is a nice explanation:

That chart above does assume a surface that reflects light in a fairly normal fashion. The modulated purple & magenta gradients look like ChromaFlair, which seems totally appropriate for EC.

So, I've learned a whole bunch just reading the posts from the last couple of pages.... so much info, it's awesome for a noobie like me

I'm liking the big purple machine Gits, it's coming along well... we all have that model (or two) that we can't quite get the paint to do what we want.

And those containers... I LOVE those containers, they are awesome!

Thats looking really nice Git's, the white breaks the purple up really well.

Well irrespective that thing looks bloody beautiful. He's a "Prince"

Finished!

Thanks everyone for you support and especially MajorTom11 for all the amazing suggestions, help and especially patience! I'll make sure I get the modulation right on the next projects before I start painting all the details!

That's a nasty piece of work.. Well done!

That just looks amazing, Gits.

Very nice indeed

The white really pulls the model together gits! Well done!

Holy hell Gits! with the details done that looks brilliant! really nicely done and the small additions of gold and white work great, the main hull looks heaps better now with that bit of darker shade. it's all easier now for next time

Thanks guys. I like it. Definately a step above what I've done on this army before. Trick is to maintain this level of quality from now on.

This is really fantastic work. It's really encouraging/slightly depressing to see great painters raise their game even further! It shows, actually, what a great place dakka is - I know you've forced me to raise my game with C&C, and what you've produced here off the back of (especially) MajorTom's input is simply outstanding.

Hey Gitsy, no worries on the panels!

They are actually trickier than I thought, I thought the upper panel was a sharp edge, but I saw on another model that it actually gently curves over making it harder to deal with with modulation.

I prepared an example for how I think you would get around it just for the sake of the conversation, I know it is on to the next one and it still looks awesome anyhow, but so you and others can see -


Original


Half Half


Full


So basically, do the the curve, a soft transition to the magenta, then back to dark, and back to magenta at the back edge. I would not make it as bright as the panel begining... so basically, when encountering a curve instead of a facet, you dont do the hard-stop brightest to darkest no transition, you instead transition smoothly again. If that makes sense?

Still think a careful wash would be helpful, especially on the shins/feet, to 'blackline' the armor seams and toe lobstering and get a bit more definition out there. If you stare at the top, you can see there is some nice strong chiaroscuro, light to dark, but on the shins they are much more flat and the detail is harder to pick out.

Still, be proud of yourself, this is a significant improvement and now that you know how to do it, it will be that much faster next time



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Ah eff it lol -

Here is what the legs would look like black-lined/washed and with a bit more contrast, a little bit applied to a few of the major panel seams on top too -



See what I mean there?

Ahhhh! I get it now. No wonder I was confused.

I will go back and do the lining for sure... the next projects are both going to need a bit of work before they're ready for prime time, so the lining will be a nice diversion and I agree, will improve the model. See, I couldn't keep going because then I just get depressed about the project never being done. But if I unilaterally just declare it "Done"... I can then go back to it and fix it up without feeling bad about it. Psychology... it works!

You are a mad genius Tom... thanks for sticking with me.

If you're going to apply a wash to the feet to enhance contrast and make their parts distinct, I'd recommend also a lick of it around the rivets. Especially where there's a magenta gradient, their golden tone is pretty similar to that of the surface.

Good catch linds, there should be a ring around those rivets... but in the midst of all the repainting and touch-ups I forgot to do it. I'll get it on there.

I did do the black lining on the seams and feet. That did help it pop nicely.


Right now I am awash in airbrushes! Took MajorTom11's advice and picked up an Iwata and a couple of cheapie Master brushes as back-ups/extras. New hose came in too. All I'm waiting on now is the new compressor. In the mean-time I'll fiddle with the Leviathan and the Deredeo. Have a game set up for tomorrow night with my EC. Great opponent lined up so it should be fun.

I'm finding the whole list building aspect of 30k to be very frustrating... with the restrictions on types of HQs depending on point values, rights of war changing your FOC and all that. This is compounded by the fact that I don't have much in the way of any infantry painted up. Once I'm done with the next two models (Sicaran and Contemptor)... first thing on the studio desk will be a bunch of infantry.

Have fun.. do Tell!

Had an idea...

Original


New

I like the white on the back. Not digging the white wall tires though.

Whoa Gits! I havnt checked in in a while and Ive got to say your painting has improved a lot! Not saying you were bad or anything but blimey! I need to start putting brush to paint!

 KingCracker wrote:
Whoa Gits! I havnt checked in in a while and Ive got to say your painting has improved a lot! Not saying you were bad or anything but blimey! I need to start putting brush to paint!

Do it

Such a EC move.

Definitely a much improved colour choice for those parts.

I think I'll have to agree with WM the white on the back works well but I think the white wall tires come across as one trying to much if ya know what I mean.

Though I think a bit of balancing in the front might be needed. with the white in the back. Maybe white pine striping in the front fender?

I like the retro look, EC commanders had to have a lot of bling to set them apart from the troops.

Careful with your whites... whites almost never are really white, they are off whites with shading and highlights in true white. If you just plop on plain white or near it as a base, then you end up looking like you used liquid paper on the model.

So - lesson for the day, never base white with white. only highlight white with white.

There are a few exceptions to that mind, but in general, yeah. Especially on small areas, especially when providing an extreme contrast... your white should be as nuanced and graded as your purple.

Very nice, the black did seem a little off there. Unlike many I like to look of the whitewalls. But perhaps they're more of a WS thing. "I hear you do strange things to your ships"

PS the biker, agree with WM, white wall tires a bit much lol

I think in general all your infantry and vehicles would benefit a lot from edge highlights... the white areas are so strong they are really drowning out the details everywhere else. I would suggest more restraint on the white, focus on markings with it, as opposed to entire sections or whatnot. Then edge the purple, and also edge or highlight the blacks to bring the details back out.

I'm with WM as well looks cool on the back but not sure about the tires.

Whitewalls are cool. End of.

White wall tires! Though I agree with Tom. Don't go full white...never go full white

Two points.

1. Sorry guys, I love the whitewalls. My only regret is that I don't have more vehicles with actual tires to put white-walls on.

2. The white. Sorry Tom, I kind of trolled you with the white. I knew you were going to say something & actually was surprised when you didn't lecture me on it when I first did it.

Serious question for you though... given the purple... which shade would you take the off-white?



Had an absolutely wonderful 30k game with my friend Lee tonight. Like Yorkright and I do in 40k, I shared my list with Lee ahead of time so he could choose an army that would be a good match for it (given I'm fielding every figure I have painted and he's got a lot to choose from). It was incredibly bloody, we tied the primary. He beat me by STW and one extra unit surviving the game... and it really came right down to the end. The Leviathan was a stud.

As usual, the bikes and and warlord got shot once, failed morale and ran off the table on turn 2. At some point in the future, I will be smashing them to bits with a hammer... but right now I still need them for points.

Whitewalls look pretty EC to me. Then again, my colour choices are always a bit suspect, so I'm not sure for how much my opinion counts

That whitewall! Suits the champions down to the ground.

Personally, I'd go with more of a bluish-white or a neutral gray for the off-white.

ECs are looking boss, though

(whitewalls are an... interesting... choice... right.... <.< )

I can't go wrong in agreeing with Ramos. Either bluish or greyish.

Expert view on white wall tyres
I would go blue-ish grey - space wolf-y - through to very pale. The blue notes should work well with the purple.

@gits, you doocher lol

I am not entirely sure, because you go from indigo to magenta, theoretically both a steel-blue base, or a bone/ochre base could work for the white and play off the purples. That being said, it is also possible, that because of the warm/cool presence already, the best course could be a neutral grey too.

I recommend next time you do your purple, take a nice big piece of plasticard and replicate the gradient range of the purple on it. That you can use that piece as a testbed to see how your scheme will react to different colors, and where for instance a certain tone of gold will work nicer with the violet and another shade with the indigo, and be aware of it when painting too. It's a good exercise for an army painter -

Little bit of EC action for you. Had a fantastic game with my friend Lee yesterday. He's got a beautiful Sons of Horus army. A real pleasure to play.





Things got going early... managed to take out a couple of vehicles and put at least a hull point on every one. In return the SoH were about to take out both my venator and my deredeo.


Combi-meltas on the terminators made a mess out of the deredeo.


There were burning vehicles everywhere...






The Leviathan accounted for itself well, playing a pivotal role in keeping a couple of nasty assault units busy center-table.


Abaddon who?


Let it never be said that solitary grunts aren't important. We tied on the the primary (table thirds) because each of us had managed to hide away a single scoring unit (i.e. sole surviving marine) where they couldn't be gotten to.


The Son's of Horus did end up winning but just barely... it was really close, right down to the wire. Great game!