He's got two tacticals to do for WM & porkuslime, hopefully have them done by the end of the weekend. He's been chomping at the bit to do his tactical squad though. I think he wants to do a squad of beakies instead of the new marines! That's my boy!! *grin*

Didn't forge world create a kit to make space marines in beakie armour?

Yep, insanely expensive. Why pay $30 for 5 beakies when I have oh... probably 50 of the original ones (thanks to my own, some donations and a couple of purchases). And I sure as heck didn't pay $60 for a squad of 10.

No kidding! Im gunna have to bill you for the guys I sent now Git

I'll pay you in old beakies... (most of which need to be de-painted, but what the heck!)

You can always cast beakie heads if you want to, makes it a bit easier to bulk out the numbers.

Its a big ask but would it be possible to see a whole army shot of the Doom Eagles

Actually that's no a problem at all. The boys and I are off tomorrow so I'll have T1 set up his guys. Now in our house... only painted figures are "official", so the Doom Eagles photo will only be the units he's finished painting, but I'll give you a roster of what's left to paint too. (well, there's tons that could be painted... but I'm thinking about the stuff that he has to paint before he's allowed to move on to his Necrons... which is essentially just the rest of his "core force"). I'm sure he'll be coming back to his marines over and over again to add models and capabilities when he needs breaks from his Necron painting.


Update: Change of plans... he now wants to do the AoBR marine squad rather than beakies. That's cool, those are nice figs for a "standard" set. I thought about mooching one of them myself (the guy with the crusader style helmet... love that) but they don't really fit with where my army is going.

Actually, AoBR is great for conversions

I have been through this log, and I must admit you look like a nice dad to have, on a hobby-related level at least!!!

It sure took you a lot of time to plan, organise, build & paint for this event!!! And I'm not even mentioning the time spent explaining everything to us down here on Dakka, it must've added a lot of time to it all!!

So thanks for sharing your experiences with you... I won't probably be able to put them into practice before long (my GF & I are 26, and we'll probably won't go for parenthood before a few years), but I'll try and remember them when the time is due!!!

Anyway, as always, it's refreshing to witness such genuine enthusiasm in the hobby (and I'm not only talking about your children's).

Cheers,

Thanks Yggdrasil. As to my parenting... we'll see how they turn out. As for enthusiasm... well, I certainly have that. More and more the longer I stay on dakka. Any more enthusiasm and my wife will have to convert the "man cave" into a rubber room!

Now if only my painting and playing skills equaled my enthusiasm... then I'd have something!

Well, I cannot say for your playing skills, but I'm positive that you should take no shame in your painting... Your Tranquility Snipers are more than just ok!!!!

Gitsplitta wrote:Actually that's no a problem at all. The boys and I are off tomorrow so I'll have T1 set up his guys. Now in our house... only painted figures are "official", so the Doom Eagles photo will only be the units he's finished painting, but I'll give you a roster of what's left to paint too. (well, there's tons that could be painted... but I'm thinking about the stuff that he has to paint before he's allowed to move on to his Necrons... which is essentially just the rest of his "core force"). I'm sure he'll be coming back to his marines over and over again to add models and capabilities when he needs breaks from his Necron painting.


Update: Change of plans... he now wants to do the AoBR marine squad rather than beakies. That's cool, those are nice figs for a "standard" set. I thought about mooching one of them myself (the guy with the crusader style helmet... love that) but they don't really fit with where my army is going.

I love the crusader helmets. I bought a bt upgrade kit just for the crusader helms and tabards.(And the holy hand grenade.)

Munch Munch! wrote:

Gitsplitta wrote:Actually that's no a problem at all. The boys and I are off tomorrow so I'll have T1 set up his guys. Now in our house... only painted figures are "official", so the Doom Eagles photo will only be the units he's finished painting, but I'll give you a roster of what's left to paint too. (well, there's tons that could be painted... but I'm thinking about the stuff that he has to paint before he's allowed to move on to his Necrons... which is essentially just the rest of his "core force"). I'm sure he'll be coming back to his marines over and over again to add models and capabilities when he needs breaks from his Necron painting.


Update: Change of plans... he now wants to do the AoBR marine squad rather than beakies. That's cool, those are nice figs for a "standard" set. I thought about mooching one of them myself (the guy with the crusader style helmet... love that) but they don't really fit with where my army is going.

I love the crusader helmets. I bought a bt upgrade kit just for the crusader helms and tabards.(And the holy hand grenade.)

you mean the Holy ORB of antioch?

inquisitorial toadie: "and thou shalt count to THREE! and no more that THREE! thou shalt not stop at TWO or go on to FOUR! FIVE is RIGHT OUT!!"
Grimaldus: "Okay. ONE... TWO... FIVE!!
toadie: "that's three sir"
Grimaldus: "THREE! FOR THE EMPEROR!"

You mean...

"Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then procede to three."

I think that is right. It is certainly closer. Damnit, now I have to go check. And I think I need to watch the whole damn film, not just look it up on the web. Damn you. Damn you to hell.


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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes

Damn I'm good. Either that or dangerously obsessed with Monty Python.

Just for the record... quoting Monty Python is completely allowed on the blog... OT or not.

Fifty wrote:You mean...

"Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then procede to three."

I think that is right. It is certainly closer. Damnit, now I have to go check. And I think I need to watch the whole damn film, not just look it up on the web. Damn you. Damn you to hell.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes

Damn I'm good. Either that or dangerously obsessed with Monty Python.

Keep in mind that IMDB quotes are user-submitted. You may want to cross-reference with a screenplay site or the actual movie.

Gitsplitta wrote:Just for the record... quoting Monty Python is completely allowed on the blog... OT or not.

Yes!

KaloranSLC wrote:

Fifty wrote:You mean...

"Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then procede to three."

I think that is right. It is certainly closer. Damnit, now I have to go check. And I think I need to watch the whole damn film, not just look it up on the web. Damn you. Damn you to hell.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes

Damn I'm good. Either that or dangerously obsessed with Monty Python.

Keep in mind that IMDB quotes are user-submitted. You may want to cross-reference with a screenplay site or the actual movie.

Already had done. Screenplays have it written as "nor either", but in the film it is clearly spoken as the contraction "neither".

Thing 1 finished two Doom Eagles for the swap (actually they're pre-swap). I came in over the top and did the edge highlighting and eyes... but other than that it's his work. He did a great job this time.

Note there are no chapter insignia on the shoulder pads. That's because he thinks that the Doom Eagle insignia (at least the one in the Lexicanum) is rediculous looking. So we're leaving them as his are, with bare pads. The recipients are of course, welcome to add whatever designs they'd like. I, for one... agree with my son's opinion of the design and wouldn't try to free-hand it myself.

*looks a lexi.......*
....
....
Yeah. No chapter logo it is! DE looks great! Cant wait to get it here, he will be used as a sternguard for awhile before he makes his way to the Hall of Armor. He is welcome to do the basing on my guy as well if he would like.

Is he planning on doing his crons as the traditional silver metal? While I think he has the distressed metal look down better then I can do, I'd think he would be quite tired of painting it. There are some really cool necrons out there, so plenty of options!

I'm pretty sure he's got a "colored" variation in mind. We're browsing through the codex and I'm showed him some pics on dakka, but since he's got several marine things to do before he can start, we haven't made a clear decision yet.

Wow, they look great! I realy like the gold. I think he's doing fine on this army considering his age!
Please tell him that I credit his work, cheers.

You bet Rose, I'll be sure to tell him.

Man I wish I could get those eagle back packs in bulk, they'd be perfect to be the standard issue for the chapter. I suppose I could try making a mold for them but it's a pretty complicated piece. Would much rather purchase them if GW would just sell the bloody things...

I'm sure websites like the warstore or bitz barn have the winged jump packs you're looking for.

Put a post in the swap shop, see what you can get.

Well, honestly, I thing the DE insignia lookst good, but would be very hard to freehand though..

Well, I can get them off of the bitz dealers on e-bay... one at a time... even with $2 shipping that's still around $5 each. I'm afraid I'd have the same issue in the swap shop... the shipping on every single pack from a different person would start to add up quickly.

But... it's worth investigating!


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@Gretar: I could probably make up a transfer on my computer, I have the stuff for it... but neither my son or I like the designs... that tiny white skull on that black bird form just looks... well... silly to us (though everyone is welcome to their own opinion of course). I'm not sure what would work better... the skull and wings are a good idea, but that's standard Imperial iconography... maybe a larger skull with wings and a tail? Hmmm.... not sure. In any case, it seems wiser to leave the shoulders clean for now until he finds something he likes.

Why not buy one jump pack and cast them?

That's an option, but I haven't cast anything yet... and it's a pretty complicated little model, though it's got a good wedge shape which should help it cast appropriately.

Certainly something I've considered though... just not sure if I want to take the plunge.

Thing one is great! tell him good job thats incredible!

You would probably have to do a two sided mold to get all the details but it is possible...fiddly, but doable.

Its cases like this that you have to weigh up the cost of buying the parts themselves vs the cost of silicone, resin and GS to fix the inevitable bubbles that form.

Don't worry Gitsplitta,there are probably a bunch of casting tuts, on here and the internet. And iirc, BLACKHAND made a really good casting tutorial. Why not pm him?

Lol

Whachu loling at?

Blackhand and I PM a LOT... and yes... I am very familiar with his tutorial. One thing to read about it, quite another to take the plunge & do it. I'll check out the bits dealers first... if I can buy them 2-3 at a time, it's probably more efficient to purchase them than try to make them. If I have to buy them singly it's another story.

Yeah I've been testing alot of the things on BLACKHAND'S tute, and have concluded I don't even want to attempt casting jump packs.

Then again, I am doing a ravenwing / deathwing army

I've done a jump pack from the captain shrike model, it was pretty complicated and has about a 2 in 3 success rate for casting...that said it's a freakin cool pack with embossed wings and raven skulls all over it.

Yeah, the only way it would be worth it is if it was a custom sculpt or interesting pack like the one from shrike.

Edit: My storm shields have about a 60% success rate but with some further greening required, as they're such a thin thing to cast.

Jump packs should be easier admittedly as they're a bit thicker but they present a few different problems.

The vents are especially hard as bubbles form a lot in that area.

You were talking about the SM captain backpack with the eagle heads though weren't you Gitsplitta? not a jump pack.

Thinking about it I would get 1 or 2 of the eagle packs and cut off the eagle head at the point the meet the pack, then cast just the heads themselves. After you cast a few dozen of them you can convert your normal tac marine backpack with em.

Just how I would do it is all

@Blackhand: That's an excellent idea, thanks for that! Yep, talking about the double-eagle back pack in the photo on the previous page.

Update: Thing 1 has been busily assembling the tac squad, captain and dreadnought from the Blackreach set. For press together figures, I cant get over how good they are. He'll paint them with the standard backpacks & as I buy (or make) the double eagle versions, we can swap them out later. He's pretty cranked up about getting the tactical squad done, so I expect he'll do a nice job on them. I'm also looking forward to seeing how his dread turns out.

I'm trying to convince him to swap the load outs on the sergeant and special weapons trooper to something more practical (PF & melta or plas respectively), but he's pretty committed to making them as-is. Maybe I can figure out how to magnetize the weapons so that he can switch them out as needed.

Are the jump-packs you are talking about the Sanguinary Guard?
If so the war store might be worth checking http://www.thewarstore.com/product53488.html.

Gitsplitta wrote:

Those look great.

Thanks CT! I'll pass that on.

@CM: Sorry, that was a typo on my part... back packs (like the eagle one on the fig), not jump packs. I will check out the War Store site though. Thanks!

Well gent's, (and ladies if any are present)... I managed to order 9 of the eagle backpacks from only 3 different sources... with a good chance of ordering them in clumps of 4 or 5 in the future... so I think this is the way I'll go for now. I just love the way those look on the figures... and given the chapter name, I think they're entirely excusable. Now if I could only get something like that with preying mantis heads on them... we'd really have something!

Maybe the insignia would look better if you took the imperial eagle and placed a skull in the middle
Or maybe something like the BA symbol...

Also, on the BR captain, you ight want to try cutting the head off and replacing it with a normal marine head

it looks pretty cool

@pie: Blackhand is making a press mold of one of the existing eagle symbols on a shoulder pad that looks a lot like the DE one, save that the skull is larger and more centered on the body. I've shown it to my son and he likes that version much better... so I think we're going to be OK on the insignia front..

I'd like to fiddle with the captain a bit... combiweapon, power fist maybe... dunno, but it's his figure so we'll see. Maybe I can snag one cheap off th net & play with it for my MWs.

What are you snaggin? Powerfists I got lots of. Combis are a bit harder and rather expensive, you'd be better off getting the whole plastic commander.

Actually I have all the parts... several extra power fists and a pack of Chapterhouse's magnetized combi-weapons. Just need the extra captain figure... though... we did buy the Black Reach set at the very beginning of all this... I'm sure if I can find it the captain will still be in there on the sprue. Since Thing 1 has his own now I could ask him if I could have the old one.

I wouldnt use the black reach Cpt, hes not as easy to convert as a multipart guy (Ive done it, not fun), especally the Bolter part.

Gitsplitta wrote:@pie: Blackhand is making a press mold of one of the existing eagle symbols on a shoulder pad that looks a lot like the DE one, save that the skull is larger and more centered on the body. I've shown it to my son and he likes that version much better... so I think we're going to be OK on the insignia front...

LOL, when did I agree to this? I was actually considering doing up a pad as a test and seeing if you wanted me to cast them up for you!

I guess great minds think alike!

whalemusic360 wrote:I wouldnt use the black reach Cpt, hes not as easy to convert as a multipart guy (Ive done it, not fun), especally the Bolter part.

Too true. Note: It can be done, but very hard to. Being a push fit model with only a few peices that are meant to fit a certain way, it'll be very tough to make a converted peice fit. You're probably better off buying the plastic sm commander set.

I can snag some pics later of the one I converted if you want.

Munch Munch! wrote:

whalemusic360 wrote:I wouldnt use the black reach Cpt, hes not as easy to convert as a multipart guy (Ive done it, not fun), especally the Bolter part.

Too true. Note: It can be done, but very hard to. Being a push fit model with only a few peices that are meant to fit a certain way, it'll be very tough to make a converted peice fit. You're probably better off buying the plastic sm commander set.

This sounds like... a challenge! Hang on, I don't do Marines.... Oh wait, I do. Wonder how much it would take to make him a convincing corpse...

Well the black reach orks make excelent dead uns', but not sure if the Cpt would be a wise indever.

No one has ever accused me of being wise, so it should all work out then!

So... like... a challenge eh? Best conversion of the AoB commander figure??

I present to you.......me not being able to find my camera.

Have you considered using Tyranid Scything Talons for Mantis blades? Could either be decorations on armour or even replace power swords and the like.

Leonus wrote:Have you considered using Tyranid Scything Talons for Mantis blades? Could either be decorations on armour or even replace power swords and the like.

That's a good idea.

Whole army shot?

@Leonis: I'm not really familiar with the tyranid line, so no. I'll look into it though. Thanks! When I first started this project, I thought about using a more organic form for the mantis arms, but I decided that whatever form they took should be consistent with existing SIC templates. Something that was too alien looking would probably not be allowed to be produced, so I opted for hinged chain swords (or perhaps power swords if I can find the right ones. I can look at the 'nid bits and see if there's something there I can work with... maybe mounting them in a more traditional Imperial housing would make them convincing. Have to see.

@CG: oops! Sorry, will get on it.

I think that if you were doing Chaos MWs, the nid bits would be ace, but they will look like mutations. Have you seen Paulson games Power Scythes? Those may work for ya.

Hey guys, I'm going to move this discussion over to the Mantis Warrior thread where it belongs... will quote appropriately.

- Gits

OK, finally able to fulfill ChocolateGork's request for a group photo...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... the Doom Eagles.



From left to right starting at the front:

Bottom Left:
- Tech Marine + servitor w/ plasma cannon
- Solar Lions Tac Squad on long term deployment with DE, Rhino #1
- Great Marine Swap marines, holding the place of the second tac squad (now they're official), Rhino #2
- Chaplain w/ command squad bits (apothecary x 2, standard bearer, captian/champion), still need flocking
- Chapter Master Prince Gillian in terminator armor (Calgar eq)
- Terminator squad w/ HF x 2
- Terminator Captain (lower right), needs to be re-based

Top Left:
- Assault squad with Jump Pack Librarian
- Whirlwind
- Predator
- Attack Bikes x 2
- Rhino's x 2 (These were gotten off the net, originally made for chaos (Iron Warriors?) but the amount of chaossy conversion was minimal. They will eventually be "purified" and converted to Razorbacks.)

He also has a small unit of scouts, but the sneaky gits were hiding somewhere and missed the photo.


Things that will need to be painted before he can start working on his Necrons:
- old Vindicator
- old Land Raider (RT era)
- Land Raider Redeemer
- Tac Squad
- 2 dreadnoughts

He has other unpainted elements... termie assault squad, termie librarian, some scouts, devastators, tacticals, etc... but I'm not going to hold up his pursuit of his Necrons for them. He'll want to come back and work on his Doom Eagles from time to time and this way he's got something to come back to.


He's very enthused about working on his tac squad & has them filed and assembled. He's asked me to go over them to be sure he's gotten all of the mold lines off & then he can get them primed. He's also built one of his dread's. Since he's pretty motivated, I think things will go quickly except that he goes back to school and now that he's in 5th grade the work load increases significantly... so I'm not sure how much time he'll have to work on things. Time will tell.


It should be noted that a lot of these figures were either donated, or donated and painted by dakka members which is a great credit to everyone and which he greatly appreciates. The Solar Lions tac squad for example was donated with the idea that it would be re-painted as Doom Eagles, but he refuses to re-paint it because he want's them to appear in their original colors. Figures that were donated that he does not paint himself will find a home with one of the other young gamers in our area so the spirit of the gift is carried on.

Hope this satisfies.... Gits

The sons of Perturabo do not look kindly on their warmachines being turned into tools to serve the dogs of the corpse-god -.-*

About the picture, Things army looks great, I especially like the terminators and assault marines

He painted those... I just helped a bit with the details. I expect his tacticals will look just as good if not better. Will get the basing done on the other figures which will help them out a lot... they're actually very nicely painted, if in an older style.

I'm glad to hear Thing 1 is enjoying the AoBR marines and look forward to seeing them completed.

Oh yeah Heffling, you made his day... it's your dread he put together too! I've had one he could have had now since the beginning... but it's YOURS he wants to build! LOL

If I'd known he wasn't going to re- paint them his colors, I would have painted a new group. Rather embarrassing old world paint job.

~sigh~

He LOVES them SL... if HE doesn't care, why should you?

And I'm flattered.. But last I checked Pride was still a sin.

Ok on to my first jump back into painting in 3 weeks.

So we should be seeing a thing 1 dread soon?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
as his amy list does look dread lacking - considering his dads affection for the metal beasties

He's working on his tactical's first... but he has the same problem I do, neither one of us has had any time to paint. Expect progress but very slow over the next couple of weeks... now that he's in middle school, the academic demands really ramp up, so I suspect his free time for painting will largely evaporate save for the weekends. He is motivated though, so that will help considerably.

Soon he will be old enough to join our ranks, then its trouble. UN better be Thing1 tho.

UN?

User Name. Do they not use abrevations in WI?

Yeah... but it's just noon... I'm not awake yet. I suspect "Thing1" will be it... he likes it actually.

WI is WISCONSIN ? We're not much used to US abbreviations for their states in Europe lol...

As for him eventually joining Dakka, of course there could be no other user name than Thing1... Especially if he likes it uh...

Have a bit of an update, though no pics (yet).

Thing 1 finished cleaning up his tactical squad, and asked me to give it a good going over to make sure all the mold lines were gone. He did a pretty good job. A little heavy handed with the file but nothing I couldn't fix. I've got just about enough commander eagle backpacks for the whole squad & just purchased the last two off e-bay, but I expect now that they're ready to be painted he'll get to it as soon as he can.

He also had the opportunity to be generous in the same way so many people have been generous to him by donating figures. I found another dakka dad who was asking advice on building a marine army for his young son, so I spoke to my son about putting together a care package from some of the extra donations that it didn't look like he was going to need. We sat down and sorted out two nice (complete) tactical squads... a few of my very old metal characters and a 5-man AoBR terminator squad. While he was a little reluctant to give up the termies... when I let him know that he couldn't field more than one of each type of terminator squad anyway he relented. Once we passed that hurdle, he became very enthusiastic and helped me pick out nice figures for the young man. They aren't fancy... just AoBR & previous "canned" marines, but it was a good exercise for him in "paying it forward" and I was pleased with his response.

I'll post the squad WIPs as he makes progress.

Gits

Well done Gits, you must be very proud of him. Tell the new Dakka dad to make himself known too, I'm sure others will help out in a similar fashion.

On topic, I'm very much looking forward to Thing1's new Tac squad, what load out has he gone for?

Lol, we will have to start a "Dads of Dakka" blog at this rate!

Pity my daughter isn't in to modelling..I guess I can't really blame her, she is only 3... No! I won't make excuses for her anymore! (rushes off to sit daughter down with a hobby knife and a tube of superglue)

Really good using warhammer not only to teach him the Emperor smites all but that a giving spirit is such a rewarding and precious thing to have. Good dad work. Update: My Son was born last saturday, 28th of August at 3:29 Beijing time. Countdown to first 40k sesh begins

Bit off-topic this (or is it?) but congratulations kanelom!

That's great to hear Gitspitta, can't wait to see the new Tact Squad.
On a diffrent topic, have you seen this:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440352a&prodId=prod640020a

It contains short stories from around 10 diffrent chapters, including both Doom Eagles and the Mantis Warriors (now I finally see why people get irritated with C.S.Goto, what is a Mantis Devestator?). Doom Eagles story lets you get into the head of Veteran Seargent who's trying to rejoin the chapter after being imprisoned by Fabius Bile, while the Mantis Warriors story puts you in the mind of chapter master Khoisan Neotera, just after and just before the Badab War. I'm almost done with the book and I've enjoyed every story so far, so I can really recommend this one.

cheers Niilo! Not trying to hijack the thread Gits, sorry! haha

First off: Congratulations kanelom! Boys are good... a bit troublesome at first but they grow on you. Fun when they get older too!

Congratulating kanelorn is officially On Topic.... so don't sweat it.

Dakka dad is FITZZ. Keep in mind that he never asked for hand-outs... just help in writing up the list. It was our idea to pass on our extras. He's got two tac squads, 5 termies and a nice, very OOP librarian from us. If you had something else that might be useful in putting together a marine army that you'd be willing to share... I'm sure it would be appreciated. Funny thing is that as were were PMing, I found out they live within a couple of miles of my uncle's family! Pretty neat.

I had seen that Limbo, but didn't realize that the Doom Eagles were in it too. Will have to get it now for sure.

kanelom wrote:Really good using warhammer not only to teach him the Emperor smites all but that a giving spirit is such a rewarding and precious thing to have. Good dad work. Update: My Son was born last saturday, 28th of August at 3:29 Beijing time. Countdown to first 40k sesh begins

Congrats, and welcome to many busy and sleepless days to come.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dakka dad is FITZZ. Keep in mind that he never asked for hand-outs... just help in writing up the list. It was our idea to pass on our extras. He's got two tac squads, 5 termies and a nice, very OOP librarian from us. If you had something else that might be useful in putting together a marine army that you'd be willing to share... I'm sure it would be appreciated. Funny thing is that as were were PMing, I found out they live within a couple of miles of my uncle's family! Pretty neat.

Did I miss something? what can I do to help?

Just another dad trying to get his son started in 40k. He didn't ask for models, but Thing 1 and I sent a care package of some of the extra's he'd gotten & didn't need.

I don't know how much security is an issue for him, but since I already have is addy, if anyone wanted to contribute something & could get it to me, I could send it his way (along with a note saying who it's from of course). I suspect we'll have a few more things to contribute before it's over.

Very cool to see things getting to people who can use em. I do have a question tho, what do you mean you can only field one termi squad of each type?

and grats kanelom!

Thankyou for that. It looks awesome and will look even better when the rest is done.

I just wanted to let T1 know, his painting skills (and yours really) are among the best painting jobs Ive received from the GMS. Very impressive.

whalemusic360 wrote:Very cool to see things getting to people who can use em. I do have a question tho, what do you mean you can only field one termi squad of each type?

SHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *wink*

(though I have heard that from others... might be more fluff based than rule based)


Sorry to hear about your dad BTW... have been spared that so far, though my wife's family has had more than their share of tribulations as of late. I'm also sorry to hear that your MW took some damage on the way back. I hope it's repairable. If it's serious, send him back and I'll fix him right up for you! (and do a better job of shipping him back)

Yeah, we're both coming along. He's got potential since he's only 10... I'm... getting better. I keep reading the p-logs of the really good painters here on Dakka... it's amazing what you can pick up from their little side comments. Of course their skill is their own, but occasionally a technique or strategy comes through that's new to me and makes me a better painter. Problem is that my eyesight is slowly disintegrating and I'm sure my hand-eye coord will not improve either as I creep towards 50... so I'd better go for it while I can still see and hit what I'm aiming at! (and no, I'm not talking about my love life... get your mind out of the gutter, this is a family show)

Gitsplitta wrote:
Problem is that my eyesight is slowly disintegrating and I'm sure my hand-eye coord will not improve either as I creep towards 50... so I'd better go for it while I can still see and hit what I'm aiming at! (and no, I'm not talking about my love life... get your mind out of the gutter, this is a family show)

lol, awesome

The Bolter arm fell off, the bolter broke off, the barrel/bayonet fell off and the large grass fell out. However, he is now totally repaired! The DE came through like a champ (and is amazing, the pics really don't do em justice).

I guess it may work for some of the less equipped chapters, but there are no such restrictions in the current dex's. Thank god, as I love playing deathwing with 20 terminators!

Boy, it must have taken a beating... glad you got it fixed up. Yeah, that DE really turned out nice... and it changed how we're going to do the rest of his marines a bit, so it was a very worthwhile exercise!

Really, what caused the change?

I thought he might like to try some different bits on there that are from the DA sprue.

Just the use of the eagle backpacks on all future marines... but they do make a difference!

I'm sure he would. Right now he's using the AoBR marines which are pretty all-inclusive... Don't think I actually have any "modern" marines for him to use the bits on (other than AoBR).

Finally got all of this beast of thread read!

Spent the last few days browsing through at wok (shh, my boss thinks im working.)

Upmost respect for you guiding your kids through 40k. Even if they are now better than me and im an adult apparently.

Nothing constructive to say, just thanks for making my job bearable

I'm very happy to hear how much your son likes the tac marines, and even happier to hear that those extra terminators are going to such a worthy cause. You're a great dad, and I'm sure your sons will appreciate what you're doing with them for the rest of their lives.

@CrazyMez: Welcome to the thread. My hat's off to you for braving the pages and pages of mostly chit-chat. You're welcome any time!

@Heffling: Oh my friend, you made his month! He's been after me to double check his work on the mold lines so he can finally get started. We also decided to replace all the normal back-packs with the double eagle commander's back packs (for the doom eagles). Man is that a good look for his chapter! So once again, thank you! I just finished the last of the prep-work today, so I suspect he'll be itchin' to get to work on them.


With a little luck, we may get a game in this weekend... will write up a report if we manage it!

Have an update for everyone. Some of you will note that I haven't been very productive painting-wise lately. Now that school has started again and fall is here, I spend most of my time helping the boys with their school work or getting our property ready for winter. The other issue is that Thing 1 has been monopolizing the painting station so I haven't really had any chance to paint for myself.

But, the upshot is that I have something to share. This is Thing 1's new tactical squad. Mostly done, with absolutely no help from me what-so-ever. I'm very pleased with the results. He was highly motivated throughout and really put an effort into doing a good job. I think with a little more effort they'll be ready for my "finishing touches" and we'll be able to get them based and varnished.



Secondly, we played 2 games this weekend... well, parts of 2 games. We did a 2000 pt Doom Eagle vs. Mantis Warriors game played long ways on a 4x8' table (his scenario). We were fighting across the wall of the derelict ork stompa facility and each had to get troops to an objective in the opponent's rear to win. Unfortunately it became apparent that whoever actually crossed the wall first would get annihilated, so after several turns of maneuvering we trashed that game, removed most of the wall & started over again.

Next game I reduced some of the terrain (including most of the wall) and added some secondary objectives. Kill points + points for holding secondary objectives, however... of you got to your prime objective in the opponent's rear and hold it for one turn... game over.

Doom Eagles:
HQ: Calgar
Elite: 10-man termie squad w/ HF & Assault Cannon
Troop: 10-man tac squad w/ rhino
Troop: 10-man tac squad w/ rhino
FA: 10-man assault squad
Hvy: Predator (autocannon/las cannons)
Hvy: Vindicator
Hvy: LR Redeemer

MW:
HQ: MoTF
HQ: Pedro Kantor
Elite: 6 Sternguard in pod (with Pedro)
Elite: Dread w/ CCw & LCs in pod
Elite: Dread w/ CCW & Assault Cannon in pod
Troop: 10-man tac squad
Troop: 10-man scout squad w/ Telion
FA: LS Storm w/ MM (outflanking)
FA: LS Storm w/ MM (outflanking)
FA: LS Storm w/ MM (outflanking)
Hvy: Dread w/ LCs & ML in pod (pod drops empty)
Hvy: Dread w/ LCs & ML in pod (pod drops empty)
Hvy: Dread w/ 2 x Auto Cannons


Suffice to say we both had ways of getting into each other's backfield... me with drop pod assault and Thing 1 with deep striking termies and assault squad.


Unfortunately there is no "battle report" as we didn't finish the game (he got discouraged and gave up), but I do have a photo that pretty much explains it all.



This is a photo of the end of turn 1... it could also have been a photo of his turn 4... the only thing that would have changed is that my army would be advancing heavily on the right and the land raider would have moved forward 12" He just never moves... he just sits there, hiding in his vehicles, trying not to get anything killed. In the mean time I'm marching my whole army forward, taking some casualties but on the whole doing far more damage than I'm receiving because my whole army is engaged in the battle... not just part of it. His tac squads never moved, never affected the battle. Rather than deep striking the termies or assault squad onto his game-winning objective, he lined them up on the table and foot-slogged them across the board. He's so timid and afraid to lose figures that he misses his opportunities to do something heroic to win the battle. His dense deployment did prevent me from drop poding onto my objective (mainly as I'd have gotten my rear-end shot off if I did... however my defensive deployment was a lot looser and thinner than his. If that big termie squad had materialized in my backfield... the game would have been over the very next turn.

Now I did give him some ideas before the game started... I suggested deep striking, or combat squadding the termies and assault squad and deep striking part and keeping the other half back for defense... so it's not like he didn't have possibilities, he just doesn't want to take any risks & as a result gets piece-mealed to death. So... I'm kind of at a loss... I try to give him suggestions but his play style is so timid that it doesn't do much good. One significant loss (it this case the drop pod assault shot up his assault squad badly) and he becomes incapable of aggressive action.

The funny part is that he's the one with the mechanized army. Everything was in a transport or could deep strike... yet he hardly moved anything. My foot-slogging dreads and infantry were running like the LSU track team across the battlefield & as a result were able to get position on his defensive line and combine their fire to eliminate targets. I also combat squadded both my troop units so the two squads of scouts could hold my secondary objectives leaving my tac squad free to move forward to join the battle.


Anyway... I'm just kind of stuck as to how to get him over this hump. He thinks that going to a new army (necrons) will solve his problems... but there's nothing wrong with his army, he's just not playing them to win. Any suggestions would be welcome.


On a side note... I like my list. It's fun, balanced and not quite as paper-thin as my all scout lists. I think a refinement would be to drop the third LS storm & use the points to beef up the sternguard a bit in both numbers and equipment.

That's all for now... off to get my lawn mower repaired, chain saw blades sharpened, laundry and dishes done & the grass mowed.... and those are just the morning tasks...

.... and this is my vacation day! This afternoon is cutting, splitting and sticking firewood until my back or knee gives out.

Very very cool there, congrats to Thing1, he has managed to put me to shame with his painting speed and quality.

The yellowish building in the second photo, I take it that that is scratch built? I would love to see a few close ups of it as I loved to make something similar (why I ever give my nercomunda industrial terrain away I'll never know).

Actually the entire complex is scratch-built by Senji Studios. You can find him on the web along with close-ups of all the buildings. Really nice guy too. I have a bunch more buildings that we did not use in this particular game. Really makes the games more fun and makes the games a lot different when you have significant amounts of sight-blocking terrain. Not every battle takes place on the Russian Steppes after all.

OH, and I forgot to mention, the can of yellow primer is supposed to be the sternguard drop pod... haven't gotten to building my pods yet so I'm still using proxies so I can practice with the army.

When you do start make DP this might offer you some inspiration to make slightly more ancient ones something a little different to the regular style maybe.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/249658.page

One idea is that you play with the doom eagles next game and thing1 with the MW. Maybe if he can see his own army played by another person with other tactics it will open his mind for more posebileties?

pls congratulate thing1, my painting was nowhere near that at 10. I am currently stripping back the models and LAYERS of paint!


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one way to get round his tactics issue is to as some people have suggested swap, or copy his tactics, or give him easy wins whilst you try to shoot his tanks with lasguns

I believe you have a future GD winner on your hands! You are one lucky man to have talented sons.


_Tim?

Lennysmash wrote:When you do start make DP this might offer you some inspiration to make slightly more ancient ones something a little different to the regular style maybe.

Actually I do have some fairly extensive conversions in mind for the drop pods, including making them look as though from an earlier time. We'll see how they turn out.


I'll be sure to pass on everyone's good wishes, I'm certain he'll appreciate it.

Limbo wrote:That's great to hear Gitspitta, can't wait to see the new Tact Squad.
On a diffrent topic, have you seen this:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440352a&prodId=prod640020a

It contains short stories from around 10 diffrent chapters, including both Doom Eagles and the Mantis Warriors (now I finally see why people get irritated with C.S.Goto, what is a Mantis Devestator?). Doom Eagles story lets you get into the head of Veteran Seargent who's trying to rejoin the chapter after being imprisoned by Fabius Bile, while the Mantis Warriors story puts you in the mind of chapter master Khoisan Neotera, just after and just before the Badab War. I'm almost done with the book and I've enjoyed every story so far, so I can really recommend this one.

Yeh,I read them and they were really quite good. I found the mantis one slightly confusing but the rest are pretty cool. I have to say that the salamnder ones (in that and others) that follow Dak'ir (I think) are the best of the black library short stories!

Imp. Monkey

Hey Gits,

Maybe an approach you could take needn't be warhammer related, just find something epic you can inspire him to charge with.
EG maybe some DOW or DOW2 intro movies, viewable in SD and HD from gametrailers.com

Those two usually get me into the mood for some heroics.
Also theres a cartoon movie that came out ages ago called Titan A.E. which is rather inspiring for kids. (and adults alike) but that combined with some strategy 101 from his dad, might just do the trick

Titan AE for the win! I'm going to go watch it an work on a special project.

I don't it is that he is timid Gits, from all that you have told us about both of your boys they grasp the concepts of the game very well for their respective ages. I am almost certain that its a case of him overthinking. He is at a stage where he is aware of the consequences of failed assaults, missed shots etc. You see it in games like chess sometimes, people grasp the consequences of a certain move but not the long term consequences of a defensive stratagem, this lack of long term analysis leads them into inaction and thus defeat. Personally I think the best way to help him over come it is to swap forces as many others have suggested. You need to show him both what his force is capable of and also what his force can take. He needs to understand that some losses are acceptable and indeed sometimes necessary.

Crikey that was a rant but I hope it helps. I also hope it doesn't sound like complete rubbish to you guys, it just makes an kinda sense to me.

I want to thank everyone for their advice on my predicament. Lennysmash especially for giving me some insights that had eluded me to this point.

When we play and he gets frustrated, I often offer to switch sides with him (especially when he starts the "You have this unit which I can't defeat so I might as well just give up." talk... but he never takes me up on it, probably because he's afraid that I would be successful with the army he gave up on (a reasonable enough concern). What I might do though, is create a game specifically to work on this issue for him. We both pick our sides, set up and take turn one as normal, THEN WE SWITCH for turn two. I play his Doom Eagles and he my army (whatever it is). On turn 3 we switch back to our original armies and so forth. That way he's not quite so emotionally invested in his troops, because what's "his" keeps changing. I'll make up a victory point system so you earn victory points each round for whatever good things the army that you're controlling does... then we compare personal VP totals at the end of the game (in other words there wont be Doom Eagle or Mantis Warrior victory points, the VPs will belong to myself or my son... earned each turn with whatever army we were controlling at the time.

I think this will help him with his immediate issues, as well as starting to see the battle from his opponent's perspective (because every other turn his IS the opponent). I guess this won't really deal with the long term analysis that Len was talking about... but it's the best I can come up with at the moment.

Thoughts?


P.S. Thinking about this... I think this would be a really good exercise for experienced 40k players... It would be like a game of pool... you want to make your shots while leaving your opponent with no good follow up shots. In this game, you'd want to score all the victory points you could each round, while leaving the army in a weakened or exposed position on the following round... but not too weakened because you'll have to play them again the turn after that. This would be a real test to find out who's the best general... who does the most with what they have each round, irrespective of the list.

If he likes the shooting part, maybe he should give tau a try. Necrons are quite shooty too.

Necrons are his next army, he's already bought them... but I won't let him work on them until he finishes his marines (not too much left to do). Problem is that's a work-around & doesn't really get at the heart of his problem... it just lets him avoid his problem.

Havent we learned anything from the government? Ignore the problem and it will fix itself. Right?


Right?


Guys?

Hahaha, not in this country brother we have a capable and committed governme.... sorry I tried to keep a straight face just couldn't do it

Git think about games outside of warhammer too, chess and checkers are great ways to encourage youngsters to think a few moves in advance. Another possible thing you could do inside of your 40k games is to set timers, so you have to complete moves in a certain time limit based on the points your playing. So smaller games would give you less time to move your troops, the point of this excercise is that it forces your son to make the decision quickly without dwelling to much thinking "well if I do this, but then could also do that".

You know if you know any guys from the military or who have attended things like officer candidate school they may be able to give you some good insights into how to help your son become a more aggressive general.


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Crikey just reread that, I'm making it seem like you're training your son to be John Conner. Sorry not trying to turn your son into a freedom fighting revolutionary against technology I promise.

Well... he IS going to be playing Necrons after all... John Conner isn't such a stretch! LOL

I'll keep that in mind Len, thanks. I know a number of former servicemen but most were sergeants or below. Unfortunately the one artillery captain I knew I lost track of several years ago.

New here, but this blog caught my eye.

As someone who has had problems with being aggressive and one who was worried about losing troops, I can understand the frustration.

I too felt like a complete change in armies was needed. Instead what was pointed out to me, was using the Army I had, but building it differently.

And even then I had the same problems. Until one day, I just did, I went all in on a unit and drop podded it in behind some Lemun Russ's, well the unit died, but not until both had been popped by melta.

Lesson learned, while I did lose a unit, I did far more damage to my opponent, which allowed for my team to win that game.

Then I started thinking about what I could do. Second game after some trials and different lists. I put a TH/SS Termie squad with a Chaplain and Captain in a land raider (Chap had normal armor, Captain had artificier). Got first turn, drove the land raider up 12', dropped the squad on a Blood Angel transport (the flier one in which the name escapes me) and was able to take it out and to tie down two squads for most of the game. I ended up losing the squad due to bad rolls. But the point had been made. Playing that style (with an army built around that) works. But in order for it to work, you need to know that casualties will happen, but it will hopefully result in the opponent changing their plans and maybe using units to clear out the assault that they would have used to take objectives.

I like the idea of switching it up. But another idea would use tactics to put him in a position to get him aggressive, maybe by leaving a flank open or something (yes you may want to win, but it is an excellent teaching aid)

Good points Jason, I'll give them some thought. I don't worry about winning when I'm playing my boys... though I do like to experiment with my own army to see how things work.

I had my own problems with my orks... not using them aggressively enough. One of the things I've done to help is by not giving my sluggy boyz any shooty weapons at all. This prevents me from wanting to hang them back firing the rocket launchers or big shootas (because they don't have them any more), so all I can do with them is charge them forward into assault. The end result is that my slugga's are much more effective now because I've "tricked" myself into using them the way they should be used.

A good general could give them the big gunz of course and still be successful... but I'm still fighting my natural tendency to be shooty so it works better for me if I just don't give them the option.

Given my shooty tendencies, I suppose it's not surprising that my son has the same approach. Unfortunately his defensive style when combined with a reluctance to accept any casualties makes for a very poor overall strategy, especially given the 5th Ed. game dynamic.

I'll give it some thought. Maybe we'll get another crack at it next weekend.

I had shooty tendencies too, coming from a military background, I took preds, dreds (long range), stuff like that.

Now I put everything in a rhino, drop pod or something I have to move. The only static part of my army is when I use scouts to camp, and even then I try using the Speeder option with a 5 man to assault an objective then camp (using the speeder as mobile support)

I do admit it took a few times, as I am stubborn, but once I saw it in action, it made sense.

It also helped being former Military and having others who play, who are also in or were in, so we could all talk in Military speak which helped me understand more.

Another option would be to have him watch a game between you and someone else possibly (maybe someone who plays aggressively), and explain it on a turn by turn basis as to what happened and such.

Thing 1 had a burst of energy after his homework tonight and got most of the basic painting done on his Vindicator. He is a boy possessed... possessed by the desire to get to painting his Necrons! Anyway, pretty nice job so far. Still much to do.

Haha. I love it when I get into a painting frenzy, trying to churn out as many models as I can in time for my next game, or to finish so I could start a new army. Ah, good times...

Couple of points +1, Hopefully relevant.. first he's young with I guess a limited amount of games and opponents under his hat. Second... I think it's ok to be shooty as long as you have a follow up plan on turn 3 and 4 to go after the objective(s). Third strategy and tactics are not the same and both can be taught. Marines in general are a better shoot first, mop up later army. They can be aggressive effective ( like the BA, white scars, ravenwing DA's ect) but that depends on the army choices you make. ( all obvious stuff here)

Here are my suggestions. Set up the game with defined VP's. Have him write out his overall strategy to win the game (Not the individual objectives). After each turn have him discuss his choices to defend his overall plan. Offer to give him advice only at these stages of the game. Continue to conclusion then analyze the whole plan. Then..... fight the same battle over using the same overall plan but with a chang it tactics.

Another. Earlier in this post you mentioned running squad size games. Run them on a smaller table, and ignore the coherency rules. This can make for a faster and faster re-playable game to teach strategy. Remember to make the 2 forces equally playability capable. (Ie… no Terminators vs. Gretchen). Think Necromunda for Marines. From there you can start adding new elements ( additional models ) to change the game to direct him to the right tactics per the choices.

Third, get him playing more games, and more game to conclusion ( smaller games like mentioned above should help the time factor). I like your ideas on switching sides. Brilliant.

Lastly, something I know you are good at… Lead by example. When you counter his move explain why. When he gets you, shower the praise.
I hope this is help. I really like his new painted squad. Excellent. Sign me and him up for a marine swap!

Great ideas Solar, thank you. We'll give that a try.

I know he'll be delighted to do a marine for you... though you've already done a ton of marines for him, so I think he owes you!

We'll do a real swap. One with an updated marine with the new shoulder pad. I'll make him a sarge so he can use him with the current squad.

Great! I'll let him know. What kind of marine would you like in return?

I'll round out the trio if you like, Any game I play I'm always a long range damage dealer be in WOW, 40K or any other RPG I play. I have to really try hard to select armies or chars that are based on melee combat. Jason makes a good point,if he has learnt a slightly defensive style of you show him another aggressive player. Another option could be to make a doubles game that way he will feel like he is taking the decisions with you rather than being coached.

Hmmmm... Well, I don't object to his running a shooty army... that's my natural inclination as well & I'm having to really work to get the hang of running my orks as a more assaulty force as that's not my nature either.

I like where you guys are going... just a challenge logistically this fall with school, soccer and scouting and all. Still, I may be able to tap a couple of my buds at the FLGS to help out. Think they'll need to be playing 'nilla space marines (in a doubles game) for him to get anything out of it though, otherwise he'll just say it was the army & not the tactics.

Food for thought... thanks guys!

From what i have gathered from viewing this thread is that, well i don't think your enjoying the ork army as yea, as you stated it doesn't fit your nature. imho you should work up another army with this "shooty" nature, perhaps tau, more SM, IG. Still keep the ork army as you have put a lot of effort into it or completely change your army list to have like 45 loota's, all the boyz with shootas instead of slugga's, it might hinder your performance but at least your enjoying it more. Anyway that's my input on things, totally your decision.

I appreciate that Murray, you're comments are welcome. It was a struggle at first but I am actually slowly getting the hang of CC orks. Actually I usually have better results with close combat orks as opposed to shooty ones because I have miserable luck with dice, and cc is a little less dependent on good dice rolls.

Which brings us to another cogent point about the subject of this thread... the 10-year old, who has apparently inherited my lousy luck with dice... so his attempts to be successful with a shooty army are being frustrated by that as well. But... that can't be helped, you just need to be a better player to get past your dice.

or new dice

There is a knack to rolling the dice though I remember watching a vegas pro on a vid show you how to get good rolls. I think its same principle as the buttered toast thing it depends on how the dice starts and the distance it falls plus the energy and motion you put into the roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJbUwnnlIFQ&feature=related

Just to prove I'm not crazy.

Woah, impressive...

Also, Git, I like Murray's idea of an "all-shooty" Ork list... Would be pretty unusual & unsettling for your opponent, which could help balance the loss in efficiency!!

wow .. watched the video. Sadly if you need to cheat at 40K to win maybe you in it for the wrong reason.

Try going to the game store and letting him pick out the dice he likes. Not sure it'll help as the universe is fickle, but would give him a drive to be positive during play.

In the end good sportsmanship is the only cure. Win or lose with Honor.



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PS. have him do a regular SM trooper. I'll do a sarge to replace the one he has.

Looking good love the look of the tank and the termies

Thanks! He's got his tac squad to the point where it's just waiting for me to do the fine details, but it'll have to wait until a get a commitment or two of my own done. Things progress slowly at our house but they do progress.

finally read the 25 page's.

i am not a parent myself (luckly i'am only 21) but we have a lot of youngsters in our club. what we do is giving them tips when they want to do somthing and have a older member help them but still let them play and only give them tips on the background i a way like i would have done this or that.

about the fear of lossing models i cant help i run full terminator armies and deep strik 5 terminators in a place i know they will die but if it means i can get a small advantage ill do it. plus full gretchin armies die alot.

and too prove winning is not everything why dont you make a ridiculos army that is wacked cant win but sure if fun too use maby that will lure him out of his shell.

I am making a BA army at the momement with 9 dead's 15 death company and a librarian. once i get started i wil make a P&M blog for them as i want too convert everything.

Lastly i would like too apoligice for my bad englisch (dyslectic and dutch) and i want too say that this treat is the best becuase it shows what warhammer is a fun game for the whole family.

greets Fatty

No problem on all counts Fatty, thanks for taking the time to get caught up on the blog and commenting.

Your points are well made, the funny part is that MY main army is actually pretty stupid from a competitive standpoint but I play it all the time. It's fluff based and very characterful... and I love it. So he does see an example of this quite frequently, guess it's just not relating for him.

It's not just in gaming that he has this problem. If he's playing soccer and he perceives that he's at a disadvantage or is going to lose he tends to give up, thus ensuring that he'll lose. I'm working on this in soccer (he's on a team full of 10-year-olds playing teams up to 14-year-old, so they are at a huge disadvantage and tend to get slaughtered every game.

I'm trying to work on the soccer issue with him... not that I know anything about soccer but I'm trying to get him to turn his focus inward. i.e. "It's not important what the score is, your focus is to be better each time to take the field." I'm also reinforcing the message that you never quit on the field... if he wants to quit soccer all-together that's fine with me, but you do that off the field in-between games. If you don the uniform and take the field, you owe your teammates and coach 100% effort until the game is done, no matter what.

These are life lessons, not just sports or gaming lessons. If they sink in though, they will certainly help his issues on the gaming table.

@Gitsplitta Perhaps you should get tapes of the following matches for your son: Bulgaria - Germany in the 94 Cup (Underdog Bulgaria eliminates defending champs); Switzerland v. Spain 2010 (underdog swiss beat eventual champion spain; ; Uruguay v. Brazil 1950; U.S.A. v. Spain Confed Cup 2009 (ending spanish record streak.....) all the winning teams were at a "disadvantage" against more highly rated teams and yet they won.

Also there's thermopolaye; and Marathon; where greeks far outnumbered stood against incredible odds....Thermopolaye a defeat but legendary for the final stand. Marathon a great greek victory.

Those are all good suggestions Bee, not sure where I'd find tapes of the games but I'll inquire. The Thermopolaye example is a good one. Another real historical example that relates to something he's interested in.

Thanks!

what about 300?

Gitsplitta wrote:It's not just in gaming that he has this problem. If he's playing soccer and he perceives that he's at a disadvantage or is going to lose he tends to give up, thus ensuring that he'll lose. I'm working on this in soccer (he's on a team full of 10-year-olds playing teams up to 14-year-old, so they are at a huge disadvantage and tend to get slaughtered every game.

As a hockey player I can sympathise him, I got up at 6:15 today to go play an away match. We got there, played pretty well but we were still beaten 2-0 and I now have a badly bruised achilles heel. However, I saw it as a success, because last year they beat my team 4-0 and it was evident that we had played a better game than they did this time. What mattered most though, was I enjoyed playing, despite the injury.

And to keep him encouraged you should tell him this next little bit:
Two years ago I was playing my first proper hockey game, I was 12 and the opposition was largely made up of 13-16 year olds, most of them 15. I was a bit disheartend but our team held our ground. They only scored one goal against us, but we scored 2 proving that despite the fact 50% of my team were 12 and the rest no older than 14 we still managed to beat a team who were older and bigger than us (well me, I'm a pretty small person). It always feels good when a team of underdogs win.

Anthony_D wrote:what about 300?

This is the Battle of Thermopylae that BeeLow01 was talking about where 7000+ Greeks (I use the term loosely) defended their position for three days against upwards of ten times their number.
But agreed damn good film, also I would recommend Henry V (1989) just because really, you can tell Thing1 that if he wants his army to do well he has to provide a suitably rousing speech before each battle,

well my sport is judo. i refused too do extreem power training in favour of my bones developing better but it did mean i always was the weaker one but still i won a lot. with judo its all about using your opponnents strengt against him. maybe its an idea if he could do a couple of judo trainings? further more you might want too show thing1 the match between Anton Geesink vs akio Kaminaga the 1964 match in tokio.
he was the fisrt that defeated a Japanese at a Japanese tournament. its the ultimat under dog match.

Antone Geesking R.I.P. he died 3 weeks ago

Git, awesome job with your boys, man.

I have been lurking here since I started playing and only discovered this thread today. I spent at least 4 hours going through all your posts -- and you made me join so I could comment.

You truly are a great dad. That birthday party was epic. As stupid as this may sound, this thread has warmed my heart. I just got done dinner with my wife and was telling her all about the bronze warboss you made and the fluff behind it (she loves Orks) and she loved your story.

As far as the timidness, I can relate. The guy who taught me to play offered me this advice: "They'll never do anything epic if you never let them do anything. If they die, you can have them back next game, I promise."

You seem to have that purity seal thing down, I'm wondering if you'd consider making little purity seals or badges for your son for any of his units that do something awesome. Then, he'll be getting achievement points or "Buckeyes" every time his guys act boldly.

I don't know if this would be counterintuitive in his case, but maybe give each guy a name and keep track of what they do in some sort of scrapbook. You could even give them real ranks if they score a certain number of "points." Then again, if you give them names, your son might become even more attached to them. =)

At any rate, keep up the good work. I look forward to reading more of your adventures.

And if you ever need any Space Wolves objectives, I can hook you up. =)

I just wanted to say a big "thanks!" to all of you that have given sincere suggestions and ideas for helping me get Thing 1 a bit more confidence in both his gaming and his soccer. I don't know how many of you are parents... but when you're a kid, you have no idea how much of parenting is just a wild-a** guess while trying not to turn your kids into little axe murderers. My wife and I still can't believe we're responsible for raising two other human beings. Poor little buggers. But... given that our roles are set, we spend most of our parenting time "winging it". Even after 10 years of practice you're never quite sure you've got it down... so I really appreciate everyone's willingness to share their own experiences and volunteer suggestions that helped them through similar situations. It is a big help. Thank you. I will share your experiences with him in hopes they will help him get over this little bump in the road.

@Johnny_L: I'm glad you've enjoyed the blog and am flattered that you've taken the time to read all the way through it As you have correctly surmised, it's been quite an adventure. I didn't realize what I was getting into when I started this blog, but as I've stated before, it has been very fulfilling. You are welcome to comment at any time, it'll just make this thread richer and more enjoyable for all.

The birthday party was a smashing success. Funny thing is that I'm about the third of fourth dad to put on a party like that in that group of kids. The difference was two-fold... first of course was the gift of the objective markers. The boys really loved that. Most of those kids are still running bare plastic armies, so a nicely assembled and fully painted and flocked objective marker was a big deal. (I also talked up the fact that many were contributed from across the country, which they got a kick out of). Secondly I think, was imposing a little more structure and order on the proceedings than their usual Friday night, loose-on-the-rules Apocalypse game. They all seemed to really appreciate a tighter gaming atmosphere and the fact that they were all part of a larger struggle.

I like you're purity seal idea... I'll steal that one I think.

My convey my gratitude to your wife... I'm glad she enjoyed my little stories. There will be more if I ever have time again to relax and enjoy my orks.

Johnny_Leopold.... Space Wolf objective.... got it!



@Fatty: I have considered martial art training for him... not for the fighting aspects as much as the mental discipline that comes with it. Though I'm not adverse to him learning how to handle himself in a pinch either.


Thing 1 and I are embroiled in a classic "weekend game". We're on turn 4, and he's still hanging in there. He wanted to play the same army that I used in the recent batrap on my Mantis Warrior blog. Since I'd sent off my assault squad, I had to make a change or two, however it is in essence, the same army. I let him look it over, then he built his army accordingly to take advantage of it's weaknesses as he saw them. He did a good job... tanks and terminators... both things my MW's have difficulty dealing with. He's had some set backs, but he's kept in there swinging & is actually winning from a tactical perspective, though I've done slightly more killing. The batrep will be a nightmare as the terrain prevents me from really taking big overhead shots like usual, so I'll have to string together a bunch of tight shots to tell the story. Anyway, I'll work on that so you can see how he's progressed.

I even got a little painting done! Surprise... surprise... surprise!

Gits

Great job Gits, personally my suggestions don't come from my own parenting experiences but from the way I was raised by my own parents and grand parents. I can imagine what you mean though when you say about just 'winging it'. I find it hard enough putting a LR kit together so God only knows what I'll be like when I get my own lil sprogs. I'm reliably informed there is no downloadable PDF file on them, maybe that should be your next project

martial arts is a great way too build confidence. and Judo is a selfdefence form. if he wants a little more in the way of karate than i would say let him do a Ju-Jutsi its judo with kicks and punches.

I am really happy too hear that you two had a wonderfull game. personnaly i preffere too game against younger players because they can make a game really fun instead of older gamers who are in for the win and dont care how they win but that they win. do you get my point i play for the sake of playing not for the outcome. 9 out of 10 games i play we dont even bother too find out who won we where just having a good time and you know what they say. let the good times roll

Prologue:

Since it's "forgiveness" by the Inquisition and return to the Imperium, the Mantis Warriors have been under unprecedented levels of scrutiny by not only the Inquisition, but their fellow chapters as well. Many of these chapters do not agree with the decision to welcome the Mantis Warriors back into the fold, and actively (though covertly) seek to undermine the chapter's status and keep it militarily weak. One such chapter, is the Doom Eagles. Recently the Doom Eagles staged a raid on a shipment of weapons, technology and documents destined for the Mantis Warrior fleet. Unfortunately, the raiders were pursued by Mantis Warrior corvettes, attacked and the damaged ship was forced to land near an abandoned ork compound on a nearby world. No both Doom Eagles and Mantis Warrior forces race to the site to claim the most precious parts of the shipment held by the Doom Eagle agents.


Doom Eagles (Thing 1): 1650 pts

HQ:
Libby w/ jump pack, force dome, the avenger

Elite:
Terminators (6): assault canon, LR + Chronos
Techmarine w/ servo arm

Troops:
Tac Squad (10): flamer, ML, srg w/ PF, rhino w/ HK missile
Tac Squad (10): flamer, ML, srg w/ PW, rhino w/ HK missile

Fast:
Vanguard (5): srg w/ relic blade

Hvy:
Vindicator



Mantis Warriors Penitent: (1650)

HQ:
MoTF + servitor
Libby w/ jump pack, null zone & vortex of doom

Elite:
Venerable Dread: TL autocannons, extra armor
Sternguard (6): bolters, plasma gun, Srg w/ PF

Troops:
Tac Squad (10): plas, ML, Srg w/ PW & plas pistol, rhino
Scout Squad (10): camo cloaks, sniper rifles, ML, Darius Stone (Telion)
Scout Squad (10): sniper rifles, hvy bolter, srg w/ PF

Fast:
Land Speeder Storm: MM

Hvy:
Dreadnought: TL-LC, CCW + HF
Dreadnought: Assault Cannon, CCW + HF



The Table:

4x6', industrial terrain, take and hold (3 objectives marked with red arrows), standard deployment. Doom Eagles on the left, MWs on the right.





Deployment:

Because of the nature of the sight-blocking terrain, I couldn't just take big pictures with arrows like I usually do from the table end... I've got to patch together a bunch of little shots to make the story, sorry if its confusing. The terms of "right", "center" and "left" will be from my (Mantis Warriors) perspective as I am the story teller. I won the roll and chose to go first.

Mantis Warriors:
I decided to deploy most of my strength to my right in order to secure the objective in my rear and use the stompa construction facility to shield my forces from fire from across the table (where his rearward objective was). I decided not to put the scouts in the building with the objective as they would make too good a target for blast template weapons up there early on. Dreads, sternguard and HQ took the center right, with a protected tac squad in the rhino in the right rear to make a late run at the center objective or cover my rearward objective if the scouts got taken out. The LS-storm scouted forward to get an early run on his Vindi.



On my left I put a lone squad of snipers w/ ML in the building to harass his troops and thanks to a gantry, with the possibility of making a late run at the central objective marker (which was on his side of the big Stompa construction facility).



Doom Eagles:

Pretty straightforward... Thing 1 puts his tanks on the ground w/ tech marine for repairs, jump pack troops in reserve. Termies are in LR. You can see the locations of the objectives clearly marked in this shot.




Turn 1:

Mantis Warriors: On my right flank... Tranquility Cetachment and Libby moved left and up. Ven was useless vs. the LR and I wanted to get the sternguard off the ground & in a position to threaten the center or shoot at termies. Libby did his psychic thing (Null Zone). Dreads & MoTF move up to meet the threat, some shooting at LR but no damage.



The LS Storm zips over to keep the Vindy busy. That works for about 3 turns until the Vindy blows it's MM off.



On my left, shooting from my scout's ML (thanks to Telion's BS) takes out one of the Doom Eagle rhinos.



Doom Eagles: On my right... the LR races forward and pukes up it's charges who shoot & then charge my las-cannon dread (see photo above). It makes a large popping sound from the 11 or so PF attacks that penetrate and the resulting explosion kills one of the terminators... this scenario will repeat later. On my left I lose a scout from the now rhino-less and unhappy tactical squad's ML.




Turn 2:

Mantis Warriors: On my right... no nifty little arrows, but as you can see everything shuffles around so we can get a clean shot at those pesky terminators.



Which works for the most part...



Nothing much happens on the left during my half of the turn... some ineffectual shooting.

Doom Eagles: On my right, the terminator embarks into the LR and it roars forwards into my line, luckily it was not quite close enough to tank shock anything.



On my left all hell breaks loose. The vanguard and Libby deep strike into the middle of my backfield. The Solar Lions (one of his tac squads) disembark and move towards his rearward objective while the rhinoless tac squad move toward the center objective.




Turn 3:

Mantis Warriors: On my right... the tac squad embarks and get's the heck outta Dodge, while anything with a power fist type wepon gets into assault range. Assault cannon fire from dread does nothing, neither did the subsequent 11 PF attacks (needing a 6 to hit the fast moving LR).



On my left... the scout squad makes a run across the gantry to get into a position to threaten the central objective or at least harass the troops controlling he rearward objective. Everything else opens up on the Vanguard killing 2 AND the Libby!!



Doom Eagles: Not to be outdone, the Vanguard jet up to stop the scouts and though they don't kill any, pretty much prevent them from having any significant impact on the battle from here on in. On the right the LR legs it backwards out of the reach of my power fists, however the power of the machine knocks the assault cannon off of my remaining regular dread. I think this is the turn the Vindy knocks the gun off the LS-Storm.

Turn 4:

Mantis Warriors: On my right... The scouts begin their move into the building. I've decided to treat the buildings like stationary vehicles when it comes to movement, so they embark this turn and *must* disembark (either top or bottom) next turn. Simple and sticks to established rules. The MoTF & flunky start working their way towards the LR through cover and the tac squad starts it's final dash for the center objective, popping smoke at the end of it's move. I also zoom the damaged LS Storm up next to the LR, mainly to get it into position to challenge the center objective.



In the center, the quarterback calls for a "student body left) and anything that can still move heads towards the central objective.



My sternguard shoots at the squad below at the center objective and *of course* my plasma gun blows up, killing the marine.



We are also visited by two Greater Demons of Change... who tend to change the battlefield into piles of rubble.



On my left the melee continues. I jump my Librarian out to give the scouts a hand. The Doom Eagles lose one vanguard but kill a scout and placing a wound on my libby, thus winning the combat. Luckily all parties pass their LD tests.



Doom Eagles: On my right... the last terminator exits the LR & the Vindy moves towards the board center. The LR turns and shoots at my speeder to no avail. However the now free Vindy and the terminator open up on my sternguard wiping them out. I don't think the Vindy deviated on any shot the entire game.



On my left.... the assault goes badly for the Doom Eagle vanguard and they're taken down by the Librarian's force axe & scouts. Libby and Scouts consolidate towards central objective.




Turn 5:

Mantis Warriors: On my right... the LS Storm tears off to contest the center objective, while the MoTF & Co. assaults the LR. 5 auto-hit servo-arm hits do nothing... Dreads keep chugging towards center objective but they won't get there this turn. Scouts emerge from building to claim objective in my rear. Rhino charges forward towards center objective.



On my left... my Librarian jumps onto the roof top where the Solar Lions are holding an objective, then proceeds to kill himself by failing a psychic test... not sure what that proved. Scouts move to end of side gantries (by the middle of the stompa construction facility) and start to set up shop for next turn.

Doom Eagles: On my right... LR and Vindy shoot at LS-storm and fail to damage it. Solitary terminator shoots at my rhino w/ assault cannon but pings off armor. It then charges the rhino, hits with his PF on a 6, rolls a 6 to explode it, then after being wounded... rolls a 1 to save. All glory to the Emperor! *pif* I lose 3 tac marines in the blast as well. (see above)


We roll and the game ends!

Total:

Mantis Warriors own the objective in their rear.

Doom Eagles (Solar Lions) own the objective in their rear.



Central objective is contested!!





Thing 1 did much better this game & stuck it out even with some early setbacks. I think a lot of has to do with the fact that if the *thinks* he's going to win from the start... he plays a lot harder and smarter & doesn't get discouraged by set-backs. If he thinks he's going to lose from the start... he just goes through the motions and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Gits



Epilogue:

(intercepted Mantis Warrior radio transmission...)

"... Dang it will someone PLEASE sent the Doom Eagles a fruit basket or something?... The Badab War ended 100 years ago!!...."

(end transmission)

i am glad too hear that things1 confidence is improving. every game you have too play with the thoughed too win.

I see my objective! Woot!

Phahahaa...fruit basket. Nice report, I envy your ability to have such nice terrain at your disposal, and your ability to fight battles most weekends, my brother loses interest after an hour or two and none of my friends play... *sigh*

Nice report, it's nice to hear T1's bolder tactics worked out well!!!

Too bad for the Plasma Sternguard...

As for the Doom Eagles ...

Would these suit them?!?

or

Sorry, a bit OT, but I couldn't resist...

@ Mods : please don't burn me on the Burnful Pyre For OT-ness !

OT is pretty safe on Gits blogs, so I think you'll be good.

Thanks for the support...

Your fine Yggs... no problem from me.

Sorry Gits, I tried to find the Templar plasma gun for your marine, the replacement obviously hadn't received the correct activation litanies. I would have words with your techmarine over how to correctly bless a plasma weapon so that the poor guy makes it through the next battle.

On the plus side its good that Thing1 is taking lessons from each battle, really glad to hear that he is improving. As to the batrep, another great game by the looks of it. On a finally note whats the load out on the Greater deamons they seem a bit point heavy for a 1650 list,

Actually I love the plasma. It was the first time I tried to magnetize anything that small so I used his back hand as it was balled into a fist and the stock of the plasma gun as the mounting points. Works just fine, you can hold it upside down and the plasma stays in & now I can dress up a couple of other options for him with no problem.

Those demons are strictly H-t-H oriented. Though the damage they do is strictly random though mostly aimed at terrain. However I suspect Blackhand's skaven would be in BIG trouble (the little black one is actually quite the mouser).

haha, yeah I think no matter how cool BH's new venom/Vermin Lord is the demons would probably edge the combat.

Is there any chance of a quick photo of my/your plasma chap now he's based?

LOL, My skaven are up for it anyday...though I don't think I will want the models back after you "daemons" have finished with them, you can never get the smell off after that

Lennysmash wrote:Is there any chance of a quick photo of my/your plasma chap now he's based?

I just uploaded it on the "Great Marine Swap" page. Hope I did it justice.

You certainly have Gits that basing is amazing. The autumnal colours set him off brilliantly.

Thing 2 wants to play nids... anyone have any advice on what to get?

See my thread asking for help... http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/318238.page

Thanks!

well if you want a power list. then those nasty spawn creaturs? there very nasty and just the basic bugs and than lots of them. they kick my behind every time :( i even lost a chaos lord too them bloody daemonic weapons

Hey Gitzsplitta just bean through the thread and think is awesome the example your setting to your son..
I myself am a Proud father of two and i know i cant wait for the day my kids and i are having a game on the kitchen table..
As for you sons work i think hes very skilled and i really love the 1st/2nd edition models takes me back to when i first spotted the wonderful hobby...

jim..

I just got back from the store... $100 and almost nothing to show for it... fex to convert into that spawning thing... 1 box of gaunts, a gene stealer "sergeant" for lack of a better term... and a dex. Gods these things are expensive...

@jimmy72nd: Thanks! Really glad you've enjoyed it, please feel free to contribute any time. The more dads the better! We've got to stick together after all...

Chapterhouse makes a conversion kit for said spawning thing (or as I call him, Pukein Eddy. I dont know why)

No problem Gitz happy to Contribute anytime...

Damn straight us dads stick together and through us the next Generation of players are formed...lol.

FYI i love your Mantis Warrior's remember them from way back in the '90s..
Check out my custom Chapter the links in my sig bar..

jim..

Oh yeah... you and I are *definitely* in-line for a swap (if you're interested of course)... I just didn't say anything before 'cause I'm pretty booked. But put me on your "long term" trade list will you?

Thanks for the update, Git. It really looks like your son is having more fun, and his army is looking great.

Whew. I just finished the whole blog. Took me a couple of days (darn day to day distractions kept getting in the way. Shoulda called off work.) I love it all. Gitsplitta, you are a man to be both admired and envied! I am subscribed, sir, and eagerly awaiting your next update. And, on the subject of thing 1's timidity on the table, Have him run the orks a few times. Aggression is the only way to go with the ladz, and most ork builds tend to pay out great dividends to those who get stuck in quick and hard.

Well, today Thing 2 is 7! Yippie!


He also get's his start on his 'nid army. Hate the fact that I have to convert his first big model... stupid GW. But, when we get it (Tervigon) done he'll have a small but legal army to practice with.

May have to start another thread.... nope... be no time for gaming or painting if I start another thread.

@privateer: Thanks for taking the time man, welcome aboard. Hope to keep it lively and interesting... though school slows it down a bit. However with the onset of winter there may be more time for gaming pursuits as an officially sanctioned indoor activity. We've gone the ork route with him & he gets timid with those too... you can guess how that went. Problem is if he takes a big loss early he gets really set back off his stride. Heck, we ALL take big losses early... so it's just something he's got to work through.

Congrats on thing 2 Send him my best regards

Yeah, Happy Birthday Thing2. Hope you have an awesome day.

Happy Birthday T2, & good luck with the Great Devourer!!!

Happy Bday T2!

I think you need to have a T2 blog, wouldn't want to show favoritism

His reading is coming along pretty well, I might even sit with him tonight and see if he can read all of your birthday wishes! (that would be fun).

Since one of the first Nid projects will be a major conversion and his first real outings painting... I suppose I'll put a blog together for him too. *sigh* My Mantis Warriors are *never* going to get done, are they?

Maybe I'll just have to find a professional painter to do them, at least the green ones. I won't share my tranquility vets with anyone... they're mine.. do you hear me... MINE.

(gollum)

They've been called that before.........

.....but not by you.......

I'd be happy to do the modeling for some stuff for ya if it helps. My favorite part of the hobby.

Thanks WM, you're awfully good at it. I may take you up on it too, but I'm still waiting for parts which is why I've been dragging my heels on some of the marine trades. Should get my shoulder pads some time soon, but I still hold out hope that I can convince someone to do a helmet sculpt for me. I guess I've had so much else to do I haven't really worried about it too much, but eventually it's going to be a sticking point.

Hmm.. I'm not excaclty what would be concidered a 'professional' painter, but if you pay shipping I'll do some painting for you for free

That is, if you dont want to pay someone to do it for you

I would help out with some painting Gits but your last comment has made me want to put on LOTR so now I have to watch a marathon of films.....

Thanks gretar... same goes for you... let's wait and see where I'm at when I have all the pieces together... still waiting on the special jump packs I want for my vanguard... that's one more thing. Anyway, for now... with the Great Marine swap and my one old tactical squad I should have enough to at least be able to practice with the army (and one *really fun* major modeling project when I do up the Inquisition rhino for the Deathwatch squad).

On a side note... I need to finish the marine you sent me.. at least get his bolter on as he is "needed" to complete the story of your objective marker... Shoot, I forgot... did you come up with a name for him? I'll need that.


Len: Thanks bud... I do appreciate the offer. I may set something special aside for each of you to paint if you're so inclined when I'm finally ready... You guys have been most generous.

Hmm... never really named my marines as indviduals, I'll just google Latin Names..

So, I'll let you pick..

Adeodatus = Given by God
Aurelius = The golden one

Using google is hard work.. after going through like 5 pages of Latin boys names, the only two that I liked were in the 'A' section(first one and 1/2 page's).

Hmmm.... they both work with the story. Adeodatus it is.

Did I name mine Gits?

If not he should be called Lucius Vorenus.

Yes I know its a blatant rip but then again it is where I got the inspiration for the Evocati in the first place.

No problemo Lenny... consider it done! I wanted to mark each marine with it's name and painter anyway so that's just perfect!

Given the fact that he's got a plasma gun and I'm the one rolling his "gets hot" and saving throws... I would have named him Ignatius (fiery).

PM me some ideas for your custom helmets and I will see what we can come up with. I recently made up some custom parts for another dakkite, I poured a dozen or so resin casts for him then sent them AND the moulds to him in the states so that when he needed to he could buy some resin and cast his own.

If it helps you get your Mantis Warriors on the table I would be happy to give you a hand

bit late but till congrats Thing 2. and dit if Thing 2 wants a spawn army you have a lot of painting too do. two tervigons can spawn more than 80 models during the game i have seen it happening.

Don't tell me that Fatty! Jeez! ....

one mate of mine usess empty basses ( a shame really) the other bought a 150 gaunts and there on his table next too 30 gargoyles and more stuff. so yah i know how it looks like good luck chuck

whoa, that is a lot of gaunts...

Love this blog, just wanted to stop in a say hello and keep it up!

You are motivating me to work on my kid's play town(a 1/18th scale town for his joes), so far, he has a bank...and a ....a bank,

Keep up the great work Sir!! As a gamer and a Dad of two gamer girls, I should say two young lady gamers! its just super to see families spending time together! Before you know it they will be calling you to tell you how their last game day went. Have fun! they grow up fast, and I cant wait to see what happens next.

cant wait till i have kids of my own. only my gf says we probably should wait until we finish school. (i keep picking rubish carerer choices).

but back ot how is thing1's army comming allong?

@narceron: Hey narceron, thanks for reading! Blog is only as good as the people who contribute... all of us... so please don't be a stranger. Bank one day... First Bank of the Imperium the next. Give it an aquilla and some battle damage and you can show us what it looks like!

@talons 58: Thanks! Would be really interested to hear if raising gamer gal's is any different than gamer boys. Feel free to post here if you have any interesting observations, I'm not territorial.

@fatty: Your GF is wise... wait a bit. Enjoy life. Kids are wonderful but they will bring certain aspects of your life to a screaming halt. When you get those aspects back... you'll be 20 years older *at least*. Think about that one for a minute.

Thing 1 is just finishing up painting his last marine attack bike completing the squad. He's also begun repainting my original Mk I Land Raider. He's making pretty good progress actually. I think by the time the new Necron Dex arrives a few months hence (according to rumor), he'll be ready to start painting his 'Crons... which will be a fortuitous circumstance!

fatty wrote:cant wait till i have kids of my own. only my gf says we probably should wait until we finish school. (i keep picking rubish carerer choices).

but back ot how is thing1's army comming allong?

Though I don't have kids yet, I was about to answer when I read Gitsplitta's answer:

Gitsplitta wrote:@fatty: Your GF is wise... wait a bit. Enjoy life. Kids are wonderful but they will bring certain aspects of your life to a screaming halt. When you get those aspects back... you'll be 20 years older *at least*. Think about that one for a minute.

Thanks Git, I'm glad to hear such things from someone who is a parent... We usually hear some "Don't you have kids YET?!?", "That's the most awesome thing EVAHHHH!!!" and "When will I be a Grand-Mother?!?"... So reading such words can comfort us in our decisions...

And, fatty : Studies ARE important, enjoying your twenties' life also...

EDIT : Did you mention a new Necron Codex?!? Will there be new minis as well?!?

Well, it's all just rumors at the moment... but I think I've heard enough that I believe a new codex is actually coming. I am not an insider... just think things have reached a critical mass. Dig around, I know there are necron rumor threads on dakka.

I often steer clear off the Rumour Threads, for they usually are a whole lot of ramblings such as "OMFG that's awesome" and "I know of a friend, whose great-grandmother's uncle is currently employed as a coffee maker in a Starbucks Coffee in ForsakenTown (tm) (maybe in Wisconsin lol?) , right in front of the FLGS, whose manager has had a meeting with his GW dealer, where he was told that it could be possible for GW to release a new Squat / Necron / Chaos Dwarf / Hrud / Jokaero (insert your favourite, forsaken race here - no, not Dark Eldars, they finally made it through! - and ok, I'm a bit harsh on the Necrons, they're not THAT forgotten), maybe in the next ten years, how awesome is that?!?"

So I had no clue about them...

But I'd be curious, for I've always thought of the Necrons as a nice idea, only not thoroughly executed enough...

Eh, I can't remember exactly what I read that convinced me it was going to happen... but I am cautiously optimistic. If it doesn't happen he'll be fine. We didn't get his army on spec & have gotten some good advice given the current rules. So, we'll make the best hand out of the cards we're dealt.

My theory is that it will be Grey Knights in early 2011 and Crons in spring. I just cant see GW not doing some imperial thing between DE and Crons.

Plastic GK?

Thats the hopes and dreams. Maybe not for my bank account, but you'll have that.

I think they dropped ther GK and SoB since there codexes are online for free. they will propablly do another SM chapter or Tau

although them removing the codex's and making the models order only might of been long term preparation for the re-release of the races in mostly plastic.

you have a point but why didn't they did that with the Dark Eldar or the Necrons?

Most likely because they had plastic in their model range and making the new casts etc wouldn't of taken as long. and they where most likely stating to lose money on the sisters and demon hunters so why not save money and not rush things?

I happened across this thread and I felt compelled to post.

I too first got into WH40K in the Rogue Trader era. I still remember getting together with my friends and making cities from Lego. It was fun to actually be able to blow holes in walls..etc etc.

Recently my 7 y/o son has declared his undying love of WH40K and then promptly announced that he is going to ask Santa for an Eldar army. He really likes the Ulthwé paint scheme. That is fine with me.. since it is pretty straight forward and you know who will be painting his army for him.

I just wanted to post and tell you that I feel your pain.

After all, I am asking Santa for a Tyranid army.

They kinda did with DE model wise. A huge portion of the products for DE were unavailable, despite being otherwise labeled on the web site. If you ordered, say, a DE battleforce, they would send you a email saying "Were sorry, this item is currently unavailable blah blah blah".
I think the reason behind the pdf-dex was to try to smoosh the leaf blower list (in my limited knowledge of it).

Lord Bearer wrote: Recently my 7 y/o son has declared his undying love of WH40K and then promptly announced that he is going to ask Santa for an Eldar army. He really likes the Ulthwé paint scheme. That is fine with me.. since it is pretty straight forward and you know who will be painting his army for him.

I just wanted to post and tell you that I feel your pain.

After all, I am asking Santa for a Tyranid army.

"Welcome my son, welcome to the machine!"

Thanks for reading and taking the time to post! I'm asking Santa if he can convince my wife to start painting so she can help my little one with his 'nids... That alone would increase my productivity by leaps and bounds.

@ whalemusic - i think that was a USA situasion because i recently bought a DE battle force and i had no problem got it 3 days later.

o boy Santa gets really busy this year. i am glad in holland we got him and Saint Nicolaas.

I'm asking Santa for a fortress of redemption. At this rate, we'll all be getting coal because Santa will be broke!

LOL!

Coal is friggin expensive. Like, $100 DA fortress expensive.

*Glares at half painted $100 piece of terrain I've never used*

lol.

Haven't had an update in a long time... Thing 1's been having some issues getting his school work done so he's on hiatus from 40k. Never fear... he'll be back soon enough. Thought you might enjoy a pic of my new Mantis Warrior terminator shoulder pad made by Chapterhouse... and OH... season's greetings from Thing 1 & Thing 2!

HA!

Nice!!!

(on a side note : Get back to (home-)work, T1, you'll need it later!!)

*sigh* Now I want a son more than ever.

thedarksaint wrote:*sigh* Now I want a son more than ever.

Why not just borrow *cough*steal*cough* his?

S_P

Hey... Hey!!

be nice you... no child snatching! Make your own.

Gitsplitta wrote:Hey... Hey!!

be nice you... no child snatching! Make your own.

Now that's a p&m project blog I'd like to see... Lot of plastruct mind you.

inmygravenimage wrote:

Gitsplitta wrote:Hey... Hey!!

be nice you... no child snatching! Make your own.

Now that's a p&m project blog I'd like to see... Lot of plastruct mind you.

So Googling "How do I make a kid out of plasticard" lead to no templates or porn. How disapointing is that?

Very intriguing introduction as your sons begin their epic foray into the world of 40k! I think its every parents aspiration to have their children take an interest in the things they are passionate about. Revel in the moment my friend. I have a 4 year old daughter and I express a genuine interest particularly in her creativity. I am a firm believer in imagination and creativity; that it is one of the few things in the world that truely identify us as an individual. Someday I will introduce her to what I do (though she sees me painting all the time, and always asks me to pull down brother corbulo so she can look at him, she even knows his name )in the hopes that she will find it interesting enough to pick up a brush with me. But, if not, I will encourage her with any type of creativity or art she chooses. I look foward to your updates and a picture of these Doom Eagles!

Thanks Element, I agree with your sentiment completely. Luckily both my boys are blessed with plenty of imagination. You bring up a good point though... it might be time for an all-army shot. He's got a pretty decent mechanized force done including all of my old RT-era vehicles. Funny thing is, he's not really all that interested in painting up the new vehicles. I've got two "modern" LR's & two rhinos (well... used, but ready to be repainted) and he keeps setting them aside in favor of painting my old, old, old Mk 1 vehicles. All the kids he games with think they're a complete hoot as they are different from what everyone else has.

Gitsplitta wrote:Funny thing is, he's not really all that interested in painting up the new vehicles. I've got two "modern" LR's & two rhinos (well... used, but ready to be repainted) and he keeps setting them aside in favor of painting my old, old, old Mk 1 vehicles. All the kids he games with think they're a complete hoot as they are different from what everyone else has.

hey I say let him paint the old stuff and stand out on the battlefield if thats what he digs! If you can find him some RT things off of ebay, get out there and buy him some for his army. Its nice to see he isnt persuaded by what everyone else is doing/painting.

Well lessee...

Painted he has...

2 Mk-1 rhinos
1 Mk-1 whirlwind
1 Mk-1 predator
1 tac squad made from the original plastic beakies
1 full termie squad made from the original plastic space hulk termies
1 Mk-1 land raider
RT/ 1st Ed. characters (many)
He even has an objective marker featuring one of the original plastic beakie marines.

Painted modern figures:

1 tac squad
1 mish-mosh assault squad (RT through 3rd Ed)
3 assault bikes
calgar
5-man scout squad (though all old figs... not RT though)


So yeah... he's been very interested in preserving my origins in 40k by re-painting all my old figs. Which is nice. Unfortunately I find myself in need of a Mk-1 rhino for my Adepticon army but all of mine are now Doom Eagles! Ironic, eh?

Shows what classics they were if the newest generation prefers them over the new stuff.

Just checked out some of your work. Nice stuff. I was really impressed by your son's work. I like the eagle-head backpacks on all of the tact marines. Must have taken awhile to collect all of them. Also took a look at your (Mantis?) MK I LR. When I first began collecting, that model was already deemed impossible to find. Very cool that you have one! Hope you dont mind I rated some of the work.

Not at all. Opinions are hard to come by and good opinions are worth their weight in gold. I'm pretty proud of the way Thing 1's come along. He doesn't have that measured patience or eye for fine detail yet (still needs me to pick out the finer details and do the subtle work)... but he has good command and the basics of painting and has gotten to the point where he just sits down and does it without any prompting from me. I keep reminding myself that he is after all... just a 10 year old kid, so I try not to be too anal about his work while still encouraging him to do better with each piece. He's also the only one of his friends (there are something like... a dozen of them who play regularly) with a fully painted army. Actually most of them are fielding bare plastic, so he's got a lot of peer-generated positive feedback for his work.

I am, of course... the "cool dad" because I game & paint. So it's a win/win around our house!

Collecting those eagle backpacks was a chore... and pricey from the bits merchants. But... I think the payoff was worth it... really makes that squad stand out & look formidable.

Thanks for your interest Element... really great to have another experienced person keeping an eye on us & contributing to the "effort".

Gitsplitta wrote:Hey... Hey!!

be nice you... no child snatching! Make your own.

what paint scheme did you use on yours? and howabout there bassing? further more i love those old skools very nice.

now a a quick word from the lady who has my wallet:
[girlfriend overite] please dont encourage the monkey [girlfriend overite ended]

ps i want my wallet back new DE are released saturday

Very nice! <3 the costumes.

fatty wrote:

Gitsplitta wrote:Hey... Hey!!

be nice you... no child snatching! Make your own.

what paint scheme did you use on yours? and howabout there bassing? further more i love those old skools very nice.

now a a quick word from the lady who has my wallet:
[girlfriend overite] please dont encourage the monkey [girlfriend overite ended]

ps i want my wallet back new DE are released saturday

Painting and basing of the children I sub-contracted out to my genes... though we do occasionally go "bassing" if the weather is good and my boat is running.

LOL... significant other comments are always amusing... futile... but amusing.

maybe this is bad to ask so far in, i haven't read this blog in a long while! do you plan to or have made more fluff for the Doom Eagles like you have been doing for your mantis warriors

I haven't... the Doom Eagles have a little bit of their own fluff and Thing 1 is less worried about that aspect of the hobby at this point. With so many other projects going on I guess I'm not really looking for anything to divide my time even more.

that makes sense. I read their fluff and its pretty light. But you do seem to have a ton of projects so it makes sense not to add more.

Besides... I don't like writing! Too damn hard. I only do it for my guys because they need a little TLC after 20 years of being the crash-test-dummies for my eldar.

Since people were clamoring for a whole army shot... here you go!



This is 2540 pts, fully painted... nearly all by Thing 1. This is also entirely legal to field in one go, save that he has 3 HQ's. He's going to put together a second scout squad and another servitor for the tech marine which should more than make up the points.

In essence (not detailing all war gear):
HQ:
Calgar
Libby w/JP
Chaplain

Elite:
10-man terminator w/ 2xHF & LR
Tech Marine w/ servitor + Plasma Cannon (actually a 1st ed Conversion Beamer)

Troop:
5-man scout w/ RL
(2x) 10-man tac w/ flamer, RL & rhino

FA:
3x Attack Bikes w/ MM
10-man assault squad w/ PP

Hvy:
Vindi
Whilrlwind
Predator

All vehicles are Mark-1.

if you make it a BA army then it is entirely legal! chaplains can be elite choices.

Because Calgar is totally a BA HQ choice.......

Looks like he has a Apoty, does he have any others for a Command Squad?

I meant he could be counted as a captain or somethingg

Yes, he's got the guys, just not painted... I bet he's got another 1000 points easy, maybe more... but he's anxious to start his necrons and it doesn't seem fair to make him wait, especially since all the are hand-me-down figures. In spite of that they look pretty good I think.

Eventually he'll need a break from his 'crons & then he can come back to his Doom Eagles and finish them up.

OMG he has more painted than me!!!! well thats not very hard too accomplish. when will we see the first of the crons? and whil there be a new treat from him on a own account or are you gonna post them right here?

I have wondered about that myself, but since this blog concern's mainly his experiences & mine I think I'll keep them here for continuity's sake. He's not working on his army at the moment as he has to improve his grades a bit first. As soon as I see that he's moving in the right direction, he'll be able to get back into it.

Has he considered a not silver army? His silver on the DE is good, dont get me wrong, but you must be the reason GW doesnt have boltgun up on their site.

whalemusic360 wrote:Has he considered a not silver army? His silver on the DE is good, dont get me wrong, but you must be the reason GW doesnt have boltgun up on their site.

We discussed that actually as the same thought occurred to me. He looked at the "ceramic" versions of necrons in the dex but we decided it was just too complex. Instead, he's going with a brownish/bronze variation... so they won't be silver.

rusted necrons For the Win . i saw a pic here one dakkadakka from a grey / white necron ill try and find the pic.

edit: found it is from the user Elmodiddly


shouldnt be too hard iff you use a white base coat? i dunno but it would be a challange but maybe too fast too soon i dunno

Cool fatty, thanks! Feel free to post it up here if you'd like.

those are greatttt necronss!

I concur

Sweet! I'll have to show them to him.

Nice army selection

Been a long time since I had anything to report... but finally the time has come.

First: Thing 1's grades are back where they should be at school and he's playing 40k again. He's been busily assembling his necrons... has a 3-man destroyer squad, a necron lord with res orb and two warriors fully assembled with another 4 warriors about half way done.

Second: He's played 3 games in the last week... one at our FLGS, one at a friends house and one with me (still using his Doom Eagles of course). I took lots of photos of our battle and have every intention of posting a batrep soon, though it may take me several days to get the time to put it together.

Third: The reason for this post. While moving things around in my car the day after his game at the FLGS, I dumped his vindicator over and it crashed to the floor of my car, breaking lots of pieces off (it's an old Mk-1 version and all the extra bits are metal, so it's really heavy. I felt so bad that I spend nearly all of today repairing what I could... touching up the paint, adding detail, weathering it, etc.

So for your enjoyment I'd like to present... "The Victor"



I still need to find smoke launchers for it & replace one of the stowage boxes (the orange thing in the rear) that flew off and disappeared. If any of you have any old Mk-1 vehicle bits you can part with... I would be very appreciative. I can pay of course.

While his attention is mainly focused on his necrons now... there are a few Doom Eagle odds and ends that still need painting. As he gets to them I'll be sure to post them. I will probably just continue this thread for his necrons as everyone is used to looking for it. I may change the title... but then again perhaps not. Time will tell.

Gits & Thing 1

liking it! battle reps will be great!

I like that vindicator more than the new ones

Yeah, the old figures had a certain character. Funny that my son's entire mech-SM army is all Mk-1. 2 rhinos, pred, vindi, whirlwind, land raider. He does have 2 modern land raiders but neither is fully painted yet so they don't count in my book. :-)

I'm pretty happy with the way the vindy turned out. Poor thing, I really broke the hell out of it. Of course fixing it only pointed out to me what a lousy job I'd done assembling it in the first place. Ended up removing all the exhaust stacks & re-attaching them after adding the new pipes. Added wire antennae and the storm bolter (no idea where that came from, it's not a standard design). Hacked a rather chaossy looking searchlight apart with my little saw, green stuffed the back solid, added a cable and viola! New search light. Added detail to the commander, did his face and chest piece, also added detail to the back of vindi (where the fans are). Did up all the lights & lenses... what else... re-painted the reds to brighten them up. Oh, and weathered it to match the rest... nothing heavy, just a bit of mud along the bottom and a light grey dusting of the rest to take the shine off.

A full day's work... and not finished yet. Hopefully I'll be able to find the missing armor part & a replacement storage box.


Update:

Good news! Found both the missing armor piece *and* the missing stowage box! A little glue and paint and it'll be better than it was before! Woooo - hooo!

Next challenge for Thing 1:

He's asked to be able to paint a Doom Eagle for my sort-of Deathwatch squad... so I built him a Plasma Cannon trooper. Gotta love a challenge! He looks like he's floating but his rear foot is actually on a rock too.

looking forward to this! would love to see the whole unit when its done!

Did you glue every parts? It's going to be tough to reach the innermost torso parts...

Still, nice mini!!

Good luck T1!! Make your father (and all Dakka here) proud!!

Unfortunately I did... but if he gets the rest done, I can sneak in there and get the gold eagle on the chest done... I can help out that much with the fig. I'll also build up the terrain a bit under his front heel so it levels out & looks like he's got a solid footing.

Gitsplitta wrote: I'll also build up the terrain a bit under his front heel so it levels out & looks like he's got a solid footing.

Well, I'm not sure plasma guns (and family) induce recoil when they fire, and power armours have built-in stabilisers, so I guess there's no real problem with the base...

It's odd really, the whole reason that slanted rock is there is that when I did the test fitting I thought I needed the angle there to get his foot to stand flat. After gluing... his heel is hanging out into space. Not sure what I did wrong there but oh well... I can adapt. Some rubble on the surface of the rock will just make it look more interesting anyway.

Yeah, my Plasma Cannon guy for you is in the same state as a few weeks ago. Finals (and a zillion other projects) do that to a guy. I should be able to get him done about the same time as I get the MW squad built. Whats the deadline for those btw? Not thinking I'll be able to get the other 5 done by years end as Im traveling for a week or so.

end of feb

To get Thing 1's army off to a good start, I painted up his warriors as a Christmas present. These will eventually get based and have some extra verdigris painted into the joints, but I'm running out of time so for now they'll have to do.

looking good! I never really like necrons since they start to all look the same, but these are nice!

Very cool, Thing #1 will be stoked for sure.

Nice Job!!

Not many necron paintjobs that look good but they're great.

Gonna get your kids to try dynamic lighting on the Necrons? Would look sweeeeeet

Merry Christmas!

Thanks all, and Merry Christmas.

Merry christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Gits (and family)!

Those Necrons shall make a wonderful present for Thing 1.

Thanks GS, same to you!


Update: Last night... because it's fun (and I need the practice), I sprayed up another 16 warriors, 3 destroyers and his Lord with a res orb. Next comes a sepia wash (which I toying with the idea of applying with the airbrush just on principal), a dwarven bronze dry brush, and lastly a thraka green wash. Then they're all done save the detailing (mainly scorpion green and a little bolt gun metal here and there for spice.

Once those are based up... he'll have a fully painted, legal necron army that he can start practicing with! After that we'll tackle the 2 monoliths. Boy I hope the do actually produce a new necron dex sometime next year, would love to have this be a viable army. I think it's going to look really good when complete.

Well, spent today working mostly on Thing 1's Necrons. Got the mob (16 warriors, 3 destroyers & lord) all "metaled up" and awaiting the detail painting, which Thing 1 will begin tomorrow. I also built The Nightbringer (no small feat) involving drilling pining, bleeding, gluing and greenstuffing. He's curing as I type. Also got one of the Wraiths built & pinned. Thing 1 built 2 of the remaining 4 warriors. Not bad progress. We get these painted up and he'll have over 1000 pts ready to start play testing.

'Crons are looking great I wish I could keep up the progress rate that you and the things do. Can't wait to see more!

bleeding the most important part of the hobby. now you can say i build and painted these models with Blood, seat and tears (cuting hurts)

on a side note OMG that sounded emo

Cutting I can handle... it's drilling INTO my finger that I object too...

good one.
try a rolling a piece of sticky tape around your finger that way you wont cut or drill into it

Hey Git, I just want to say that your kids are very lucky to have you supporting them like you are. I first got into the hobby when I was 12, and I started collecting orks. I was on my mom's budget, so it was slow going, but I was able to muster up 1000 points. I painted my orks using my mom's Apple Barrel crafts paints using only one coat. I learned how to drybrush by reading about it in the codex. Anyway, I had miniatures that did not look good, and my army lost every battle. If I had a parent, or any 40k mentor figure, who played 40k, I would have had better tactics and a better looking army, and on top of that, I would not have been discouraged and stopped playing for five years.

Wow that was long-winded. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is "good job."

Army Shot Please?

I only do army shots of finished models. So the pic of the two warrior squads together IS the current army shot. When we finish up this next batch I'll take another pic.

Made more progress tonight, slow going now that we're down to the detail painting but we're still plugging away. Destroyers are done. Lord is nearly done. Warriors have been moved forward a good bit by Thing 1. Off tomorrow

@Sam: Thanks! It's entirely self-serving... if they learn the hobby that means I've always got someone to play & when I get too old to paint my own figs they'll owe me, so they can paint my armies. :-)

"if they learn the hobby that means I've always got someone to play & when I get too old to paint my own figs they'll owe me, so they can paint my armies. :-) - quote"

and they'll be able to explain to the nursing staff why that old man at 110 years old keeps yelling " Waaaaaahhhhhhh" and calling his wheelchair " my Mega Dread"

Solar_lion wrote:"if they learn the hobby that means I've always got someone to play & when I get too old to paint my own figs they'll owe me, so they can paint my armies. :-) - quote"

and they'll be able to explain to the nursing staff why that old man at 110 years old keeps yelling " Waaaaaahhhhhhh" and calling his wheelchair " my Mega Dread"

... and why it's painted yellow with black, wavy triangles.



OK, first pic of the day... there will be several. Finished the Destroyers... enjoy!

Nice work. That's all done with a spray can? I'm going to forward your technique to my friend who plays crons.

Thanks! Air brush... but it's the same principle. There's nothing I did here that requires a double-action brush though... so you could accomplish this effect with just a cheapie single-action job.

Speaking from experience, never spray a GW wash through your airbrush indoors. That rotten egg smell you get using it normally? Imagine that as an aerosol.

I'm sure you're aware, but cyano-acetate (superglue) was developed during WWI specifically for closing battlefield wounds. So, you have your first aid handy if you're pinning!

Yeah, the second time around I tried spraying the Vallejo wash, but it was really thick & came out much more like a paint than a wash. I think it'll need to be diluted quite a bit before it can be used as a wash with the airbrush. Did not have any clogging issues with it though.

Had forgotten about the superglue/wound thing... thanks for the reminder. Eh, the hole was so small it really didn't bleed hardly at all, but I just shudder to think of a spinning drill bit rearranging my tissues inside my finger!

Heffling wrote:Speaking from experience, never spray a GW wash through your airbrush indoors. That rotten egg smell you get using it normally? Imagine that as an aerosol.

I'm sure you're aware, but cyano-acetate (superglue) was developed during WWI specifically for closing battlefield wounds. So, you have your first aid handy if you're pinning!

The mix they use now is not really sutibale for wounds as it sticks stuff together too hard and prevents it from healing, better with a plaster, and to quote fallout "a intelligent man knows a bandage only hides his wounds."

Next up:

Necron Lord with resurrection orb...

niece looking model Git. but maybe you could give him some very tiny extreem highlights so it stands out of the rest you know. a couple of silver points not over te top but just on the very point it wil make the model pop but too much and it will look like rubish.

on the orb niece shine completly different from the swirls you mostly see on the orbs.

how did you paint that Rez orb? Seriously don't be holding back techniques mate. Best Necron Lord i've ever seen.

Easier than you'd probably suspect. (really, I'm not being humble). Base is slightly thinned scorp green so it goes on smooth. Then a healthy wash of Thraka Green. When that's dry, a second, light wash of the same in the areas of most shadow. Then a very light, fairly dilute dry brush of the scorp green again on top for the general highlight. Finally, I mixed scorp green & white to a light shade to make the star pattern on the top of the ball (slightly off center acutally), then pure white trace over of the star just at the center.

Most importantly a slightly diluted application of gloss varnish. Put it on heavy as you don't want any brush marks or imperfections to show. You want it to dry as a smooth, unblemished layer.

That's it... nothing too complicated... it just... worked out this time.

I might try something similar for my dark eldar, thanks Gits!

Coming in late to the discussion, that is great that your boys are playing. I too started in the Rogue Trader days then later left wargamming for some time. One year + ago my boys discovered Dawn of War (they had seen and looked through my old books from time to time so took right to it), they got AoBR and one year later we each have 2 armies. That is awesome that you are sharing the hobby and time with them. We need more new recruits. Your boys painting is great for any age and amazing for their young ages (wish I could paint as well). Great job all of you and good luck on the tables.

I dont suppose a tutorial wold be possible for those necrons?

I got a spray-gun for Christmas and i am completely lost on how to use it properly. Let alone how to get models that good looking using it.

I can do that with the next round of Necrons.

I was clueless with my gun as well, though mine came with a little booklet of exercises to practice. I went and dug around on the internet, specifically U-tube... lots of "how to's" out there and with the tubes you get to see it in action which I've found very helpful. There are still a lot of things that I want to do with my brush that I'm not sure how to do... but the ease with which I have used to to paint the necrons and base coat the genestealers has already made it an invaluable tool.

I would start by simply base coating some models with it. Getting used to how it feels and sprays is half the battle, sorting out how to handle the paints and keep it clean is the other half. All that can by learned just by base coating.

Very nice transition from the top of the light source to the botom ( most notable on the destroyers) Thing must be very pleased!

Lovely necron lord gits, but haven't you forgot to put the top on his staff??

If there's a top to his staff, it wasn't in the blister. Any idea what it's supposed to look like? Maybe I can mock something up.

It looks a lot like calling GW and getting a new one.

Here's a picture of a lord with the "Staff Cap."