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Back form the big area convention, and while there were a few hiccups and disappointments I had a great time. So did Thing #1, who tagged along so that Things #2 and #3 could have a "Girls' Day" with Mommy.

First up, X-Wing
Played 3 100 point games of X-Wing late into the night on Friday. I was playing my Imps, and my buddy G borrowed my Rebs.
Here's the List for the Rebs
3x Red Squadron Pilots (X-Wing)
Horton Salam w/ Ion Turret
He lost all three of his games, but I suspect that he wan't using Horton's ability. Two of the three games were close ones. He really seemed to get a handle of maneuvering his ships in formation. Where I to use this list again, would be to drop 2 of the X-Wings to Rookies and add Biggs and a defensive Droid to the mix.

My List
2X Academy Pilots (TIE)
Maulter Mithel (TIE)
Tempest Squadron w/Concussion Missile
Marrek Stele w/concussion Missile and Marksmanship
I enjoyed one crushing victory and two crushing defeats. I really struggled with maneuvering 5 ships... this is definitely an area I needed to practice. One highlight, though is that I managed to trap an opponents A-Wing and bringing it from full shields to only 1 remaining hullpoint on a single turn. I used similar tactics on another opponent later in the event and did a number too.

General observations: Of the 8 players, 5 were rebels and only 3 were Imps. I thought that I brought a rather elite Imperial list, but both of the other players had Vader kitted out in their lists. This limited the number of ships that they could bring. Most of the rebel lists were 3 or 4 ship lists. No one brought any of the large ships from wave 2. All of the missions were of the killpoints type... we could definitely use some more variety in lists.

I want to talk about the 40k event, but it's getting late. Maybe tomorrow.

Saturday Morning was time for 40k.
@Tourneyment organizers... if your event is on the schedule from 8am until 1pm... please don't start round #1 at 10 am. (I have already sent a letter to the event organizers, so I won't go into more details here, but this one minor blemish what was otherwise a great trip).

Down the long centerline of each table was a 4 inch wide river, dangerous terrain. Across the river at table center is a 6"x4" bridge. We played old 4th/5th style scenarios, and the river/bridge played into each one.

My first opponent was normal CSM, and the objective was to hold the bridge. He played a Lord, a Sorcerer, two units of Plague marines, and a Forge Fiend. He took an aegis line with the quad gun. He built a little bunker in one corner putting the larger squad of Plague marines behind it with the Sorcerer.
I was able to pin his Plague Marines in the bunker with my scarabs while whittling away at everything else. His forge fiend went down turn 2 to combined Annihilation Barges and a Ghost Ark and warriors. I put several wounds on his Lord and his Sorcerer suffered from Perils of the Warp before being gunned down my Barge fire. He was on the bridge at the top of turn 5 with 5 Plague marines, but he was facing all three of my ghost arks and Annihilation barges. This was a very firm victory for me.

My second opponent was running Black Legion with CSM allies. He that had the most scoring units on the other side of the bridge wins. Turn one his warpsmith hits me with an ability called Eye of Night... it destroyed one Ark and immobilized one of the Barges so that it was pointing directly into the hill it was hiding behind. He flies a demon prince on my side of the board, but because he got sub-par psychic powers, I was able to ground and obliterate him in one turns shooting. Turn 2, his heldrake comes on and explodes one more of my Ghost Arks, and toasts one unit of warriors. I manage to crash the heldrake and it lands on top of the immobilized Annihilation Barge. He deep-strikes a single obliterator behind my remaining Ghost Ark, and after playing cat and mouse with my Ghost Ark for a few turns, finishes it and the warriors inside. His unit of chosen cross the river and play with my last Annihilation barge for a while. His unit of CSM in a Landraider make it across the bridge, and my destroyer lord and wraiths finally show up, and slaughter his cultists before the wraiths get taken out by his chaos lord (how exactly does a unit get 12 force weapon attacks in a single combat?). My night scythe drops the Immortals off in cover on his side of the board, but it is too little too late, because I can't kill the unit in the landraider or finish off his chosen.

At this point, the kids are restless, it's after 3 o'clock, and we still have a 2 hour drive home, so I forfeit my last match. Its and interesting one where the objective is floating 2d6 inches down the river each turn.

I definitely made a few mistakes in the second game. I had a chance with the Destroyer Lord to take out the landraider, but instead chased down the last of his cultists. That would have forced the confrontation to happen on the bridge, and I may have been able to tie the main objective at least. Holding the Destroyer Lord and Wraiths in reserve probably wasn't' a great idea.

On the painting side, I got a lot of compliments on my army. They used an old Golden Demon rubric and I scored 23 out of 40. Pretty good, but I didn't get any conversion points for my Wraiths or Destroyer Lord, which makes me sad. I also didn't get any points for highlighting... which just shows that my highlighting is a bit too subtle. But still, ti was a great chance to meet the gamers a bit to my south, and I really enjoyed both tourneys.

Well, I put a brush to paint, and put a base coat on the grenadier officers. I also sprayed the primer on my second night scythe.

My FLGS is running a 'Ard Boyz style event in Feb. I'm thinking about borrowing my brother's tau as allies. More on that later.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

A few more coats on the grenadier officers... they should be ready for basing. Started on the first platoon. Should be able to pump them out in a few days.
Man... do I not like painting FOW infantry... my FLGS has started up a painting service and the prices are pretty reasonable. I may task them to paint up some mortars or HMG's.

UPDATE:
Wow, a heavy heart and a paint brush can get a lot of work done. The first platoon of grenadiers are finished short of a wash and basing. I plan on doing a huge batch of basing one of these days.

I've been busy on the hobby front. Both platoons of grenadiers are finished and waiting for basing. I've since turned my attention to my remaining Nightscythe, which needs only highlights and a few details on the guns.

I've ordered a mat from Frontline Gaming/Table War's Kickstarter and I'm excited to have my own table. I've ordered some paper ruins from DagobahDave. I have somewhere in the area of 30 print-and-build ruins to make in order to populate my little corner of a world. That will be a major modeling project in the new year. I also hope to add a Blood Bowl stadium to my collection. Dave has some tiles that would be just the thing.

On the X-Wing front, I received two B-Wings and an Tie-Intercepter. I'm hoping for the Imperial Aces pack to round out my Imperial forces. That being said, I also don't have a Falcon or Slave I in my collection.

I still would like to make an ork army. Specifically, I'm hoping that Speed Freaks are a viable build in the next codex. I have already picked up a Biker Box to go with the AoBR orks that I already have. I'm also hoping to find the perfect plastic farm toy to use as a basis for some Battlewagons.

Here are my completed Grenadiers!!!


These are the plastic Grenadiers from Open Fire... I'm seriously considering getting another set.
Here is my whole army up to this point.

In addition to the Grenadiers, I have:
2 Panthers
2 Pumas
6 StuG's
4 PaK40's w/observer teams
3 Kettenkrad

I have closer images of most of the units in my gallery.
Here is the army list that I'm running at my first FOW tourney.

As you can see, it is a Late-War 1000, and there is next to no way to get a German force up to 6 platoons. Luckily, all the of battles will be the fair fight missions...

Quick Tournament report:
Played a British Infantry that simply out shot me. I got 1-6 after losing both of the StuG Platoons and one of my grenadier platoons to some very lucky shooting on his part and horri-bad saves on mine. Still... I'm learning the rules and what to and what not to do.

Played American Light Armor. My StuG's struck early and destroyed 3/4 of his Shermans on Turn 1 and 2. My Grenadier platoon just wasn't enough to hold both of the objectives on my side of the board, and his artillery got revenge on the StuG. My second grenadier platoon didn't come on and I lost 1-6.

Played Russian tanks, he overwhelmed my right flank and I wasn't aggressive enough to get his. My StuG's were held in reserve... they were able to hold of his fast tanks, but when his big guns game in they just couldn't hold up. I lost (you guessed it) 1-6

I 'won' the best new-comer award and got GE801 (HQ W/3 Panzershrek Teams). I took home FOW Code GE701 (Company HQ w/2 extra Command Teams)... it looks like there are some mortars and machine guns in there.The other blister lost its tag but is supposed to be GE701.

With all of those figs, I'm mostly looking at making the mortars, machine guns and panzershreks. I think that I'll tackle this before the new year.

On another front, I'll probably join the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge. Part 1 is a zone mortalis challenge and part 2 is another 1000 points for a total of a 2k army by the end of the year.

Oh No!!!
GE701 is a Mid-war command team with Panzerknackers and anti-tank rifles (boo-hiss). Well, at least the other kit (GE801) does indeed have models that I am anxious to use.

I did join the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge.
I'm looking at converting the Ork Nobs from AoBR into Meganobz, and converting the Warboss so that he has a bike (made from one of the Deffkopters). Add in a few shoota boyz and Nob Bikers, and you have my first 1000 points. Now I just have to divide them into reasonably sized groups to get them done on time (Starting Feb 1 and finishes June 30th).
After that, it'll be the vehicles. Maybe an airbrush will be in order.

Well, it's time for my year end review...

Here's my hobby goals at the beginning of the year:

Moving on to 2013…
I want to play in a league this year.
I want to finish the three ghost arks that are in progress. The one I got this Christmas may be converted into a Triarch Stalker… I don’t really think that I need 4 Arks.
I want to finish the Spyders.
I want to finish the Lychguard… including the box that I have sitting on the shelf.
I want to finish what I have for Flames of War… and add a few weapons teams (maybe the box from Plastic Soldier Company that has Panzerschreks, Mortar teams, and HMG teams) Beyond that, Nebelweffers and some AA are also called for, but that’s less important than painting what I have now.
As a much lower priority, I’d love to add a pair of Scythes to my army.
As a much much lower priority, I’d love to add a pair of Monoliths and a Necron-style bastion. Maybe if Apoc gets updated and they rerelease the Monolith Phalanx set.

Well... I think that I played 1 league game all year. It's been a very rought year in just about every aspect of my life, so it's not surprising that this fell apart.
On to the Ghost Arks... they all did get finished. Yeah!!!
Spyders? All three are finished!!! Yippee!
Lychguard... um... no work has happened to them.
On the Flames of War front, not only did I finish the Open Fire box, but I also painted up 2 more PaK40's, 3 Kettenkrad, 2 Pumas, 2 Panthers, and 3 extra StuG's. I feel good on this front, but it probably wouldn't have happened unless I had the FOW tournament a couple of weeks ago. We'll get to what I want to add in a bit.
I did add the pair of Night Scythes to my army, and they are finished. YIPPEE!!!
I didn't add any Monoliths or Necron bastions, though I have conceptualized several that I want to add to my collection. This is especially cool now that the fortifications book is out. I'll wait at least until 2015 to make them though.
So, 4 out of 7 makes for a pretty successful year. In addtion to all the extra FOW stuff, I also painted that Ork Blood Bowl team.

Now let's look at 2014:
As I mentioned above, I've joined The Independent Character's Hobby Progress Challege...Here's the link to my project log there. That will have me painting 2000 points of Orks on top of the 90 or so points I already have painted. I want to do a truck/wagon/bike army, but I'll put most of the details on that page. I'm planning on cross posting the finished models here as well.
Here's my tentative plan for 2k:
Warboss on Bike
Big Mek
Nob Biker Troops
Meganobz and Battlewagon
2 squads of shoota boyz in trucks
3 squads of choppa boyz w/nob and powerklaw in trucks
2 Dakka Jets

There are going to be some pretty heavy conversions in there... but that's what orks are about, aren't they? I plan on making the Warboss from the AoBR Warboss, the Meganobs from the AoBR nobs. Other than that, I'm planning on streching and saving as much as I can (making two Dakka Jets out of one Box and a WWII model, etc.)

Here are my Stretch goals... the Orks above are likely to keep me plenty busy and out of hobby money the whole year. In case they don't:
Beyond the army, I've been sitting on some printable terrain. I want to make a few of the buildings so that I have terrain when my Frontline Gaming/TableWar mat arrives.
I'd also like to make a Blood Bowl stadium... I have my eyes on some printable tiles that would work well.
In the realm of Flames of War, I want to add those key support elements... MG's and mortars. I also want to add Mobelwagons, another 1-3 Panthers, another 2 Pumas, and 6 Nebelwerfers (while I'm dreaming!)

That is a very impressive list of completed projects my friend. Very nicely done! Looking forward to watching you fulfill your 2014 goals!

Thanks, Gitz! Your kinds words are appreciated.

Here's a test model for the new Ork color scheme I'm looking at.


Comments and constructive criticism are wanted!


Edit: Thanks Gitz for fixing up the colors on the photo. Late at night, it seems that my brain wasn't working.

I think there is possibly too much red on this one. On the chopper or whatever his sword thingy is called, I think i would do it all metal and not have colour on it. Use a dark metal like boltgun metal and then wash with badab black or another dark wash then higlight the edges with a lighter metal colour (old colours) chainmail or mythreal. I would keep the boots black or dark brown maybe with metal toecaps. With the gun, again I would say metal and if you were going to have some red on it why not make it look like he daubed it on himself with some terrible brush. Leave the shirt and the shoulder pads red and I think it will all work just a bit better! I am actually doing a similar scheme on my orks, evil sunz, I will update soon when real life lets me on my blog, misc one.

Have a play with him, that is what test figures are for. Hope that is helpful.

Reaper

Thanks for the feedback. Here's my second test model...

Better. You need to shade up the skin. Ork skin and muscles are fantastic, but to make the most of them you need to bring up the highlights as well as darken the recesses. If you aren't into blending yet, even a simple dry-brush would help.

An improvement, I still think dark boots and def give the steel toe caps some bolt gun metal or something. Axe handle might be better scorched brown then highlight with vermin brown or whatever GW are calling them this week!

Reaper....
Your suggestions are good, (I will be silvering the toecaps) but there's a couple of facts that I haven't given you that influence my choices.
#1 The Army name is "Red Boots"... so, I'll be sticking with the red.
#2 I plan on basing on black asphalt, so the boots need to stand out.

Gits, I did so a sepia wash on the whole model... I guess that I should both pin wash the recesses and drybrush with a couple of layers of green. I'm not into blending yet... I'm just not confident enough with it. I'm old hat at washing and drybrushing, though!

Ahh! Better keep them red then! Lol!

ICHPC First Commitment done!


The ork boyz are multiplying!!! I only need 14 for the list... but I just couldn't leave 3 unpainted.

Here's a slightly better picture of two of the boyz. I'm still struggling with lighting and camera set-ups (it doesn't help that there is a big scratch across the lens of my iPhone). Had to run these through the photoshop website to even get them to this point.


Thank you guys for pushing me to be better. I'm experimenting on these guys, so that my Warboss will be... um... well.... BOSS.

I've recently picked up an old Wartrkk (should be waiting for me at home) that will be my Warboss's ride. I have a box of Nobs, Warbikes, and picked up a box of boyz that need some assembly. I'm thinking that the Deffkoptas, Wartrakk, and Warboss will be the next on my list. I'm waiting on the bikes until I pick up the battleforce from a guy at my shop. I want to paint them all at the same time.

I like them Anpu, but the skin is kind of uniformly dark. Orks look really good with exaggerated skin tones, you should consider highlighting those bulging muscles up a shade or two. The end result will be well worth your time.

Gita, thanks for pushing me on this one. You were right, the skin got way too dark. Now, I like their skin dark, but I didn't realize just how dark it got. In part, I've been worried that I've spent too much time on the troops. (Perhaps my perception has been squed by the Necrons and 15mm stuff.)

So I went back and drybrushed the skin with Warboss green... It made a huge difference. I'm playing it conservatively.

In other news, I've made a lot of progress on the Warboss on bike. It involves painting 3 greenskins and a squig!

Excellent Anpu, glad I could be of service. It's clear you've got the painting talent, you just have to learn a few techniques and/or find the right places to use them. It's all about picking your battles... spend your time on the things that get you the greatest reward.

Giving up my workspace the next few weeks so that my wife can complete a sewing project. of. awesome...

We are hosting a Super Hero birthday Party... and the guests each receive a cape. How awesome is that? The downside is that I'll be pushing on all the housework so that she can complete the capes well before.

While waiting for my hobby space to clear up, I got some pictures. Here's my favorite of the ork boyz.

Looking good. I think you need a different base color though. It detracts from the red on the figure.

For bases, I'm looking at doing something like this... following the tutorial here as well...http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/516378.page#5429957

Very nice!

Great progress since I last popped by, the skin looks much better with that dry brush layer done. The fancy dress party sounds awesome, I just hope everyone turns up and no cloaks go to waste!

I just realized something...
Khaki pants and a red shirt...
If you are in the US that's the uniform employees at Target Stores *smacks head* Oh well... if I'm the only one who thinks of it.
The warboss and his ride are doing well... I'm almost at the point of washes. Things are pretty downhill from that. The Warboss has a name... "Big Boss Jagger" I may need to give him bigger lips somehow.

Maybe you could make an orky version of the Target symbol for their waaagh banner.