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Fast AND fabulous, well done! If Space Marine is generally the march theme, you and I will be well set! An excellent set of entries as well, truly a successful year Nev!

brushcommando wrote:Nice work. You cranked those deathwatch out fast. I think I like the iron hand with the heavy flamer best of all.

Inevitable_Faith wrote:Superb entry for the painting comp dude. He definitely fits the theme very well.

evildrcheese wrote:Excellent work on the DW dude, they're looking fantastic.

The MoS does fit the theme, but I don’t think he’s distinctive enough to place above my normal “not quite last” placing.

I’m happy with the way the DW turned out overall. I’m not sure who my favorite is. The Iron Hand is up there, but that’s mostly the HF talking. If I wasn’t trying to get one member from each legion, I’m not sure I would have included him. I should have gone for a successor chapter. I like the pads that offer a little more contrast with the black/silver of the DW scheme. IH is just more of the same.

From a general build/body POV, I like the BA with the shotgun. Nice flow to him I think. The pad is just kinda there; again, the black is not doing it any favors.

I like the Raptor and Howling Griffon pads, as well as the freehand Mantis Warrior. Of all the pads, I think they pop the most, and add a lot of character to the squad. White Scar is not bad, but I feel I should go over the trim with a brighter red.

Looking back at my year of competitions, I don’t see a huge amount of improvement. The alpha and omega are pretty similar. I feel that there was a lot of quality production, but not a huge amount of growth. But I do feel I’ve done a lot of lateral work, by painting a broad selection of things. Also two of my entries were 4 man squads, which is a stretch for my pace in a month. Or was at the time I was doing them. I’ve gotten a lot more efficient these days, and that’s not just the increased free time talking.

Couple of set backs on the job front today, but I keep soldiering on. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

PS. Yes, I did see that my Primarch is up and walking about in plastic. You can expect to see him here in a few months.

Edit: I was typing when you posted J, thanks. Need to set aside a marine to paint to start the next year off on a good note.

Everything is amazing as usual.

I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )

Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space

 gummyofallbears wrote:

I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )

Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space

PM sent, and man oh man is it a bad model. It just looks like a stormcast character with some toilet seats attached. I really don't like the AoSification of the new models.

I like the FW version a lot more. But considering the cost and irritation of dealing with resin, I’m OK with the plastic one. In general a lot of the bad models we see in leaks are better once we get full on views of them. The pose does look a little off, but I’m not going to let that stop me.

Cypher is also looking ace. I think a quick file to the DA symbol on his belt, and he’s going to be a 30k Moritat gunslinging consul. Might have to do something about that sword. I’ll have to see what the sprues look like.

The GK is a nice looking sculpt, but nothing I really need. Could field him as an Inquisitor in TDA. Or see how much work it would take to field him as a codex librarian. Or sell/trade him.

But 2/3rds of the box appeals to me, including the headliner.

Powerful respect for the Zoat. Nice batch of minis all around.

 youwashock wrote:
Powerful respect for the Zoat. Nice batch of minis all around.

He’s got a friend who might see paint someday. Stripped him, but not primed yet.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:

I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )

Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space

PM sent, and man oh man is it a bad model. It just looks like a stormcast character with some toilet seats attached. I really don't like the AoSification of the new models.

The proportions are just so.. off. The shoulder pads are so big and the legs look like he is wearing boots. His head is too small and his chest is way to puffed out.

I adore the new cypher model, easily my second favorite out of the 'triumvirates' we've seen (first being Greyfax), he looks amazing.

I am not a fan of the grey knight, not because he is badly sculpted, but although the mini is new, it just doesn't feel special.

 gummyofallbears wrote:

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:

I am excited to see what you do with Guilliman (even if I really don't like him )

Additionally, Creed- I might have some spare Raptor shoulder pads left, I can send them to you if you'd be interested, as they aren't doing anything besides taking up space

PM sent, and man oh man is it a bad model. It just looks like a stormcast character with some toilet seats attached. I really don't like the AoSification of the new models.

The proportions are just so.. off. The shoulder pads are so big and the legs look like he is wearing boots. His head is too small and his chest is way to puffed out.

I adore the new cypher model, easily my second favorite out of the 'triumvirates' we've seen (first being Greyfax), he looks amazing.

I am not a fan of the grey knight, not because he is badly sculpted, but although the mini is new, it just doesn't feel special.

I'll be getting this kit, because primarchs are primarchs, but his armor is almost... too ornate. Compared to his FW model, it's far more excessive and busy than his other mini(which I prefer). I also have a thing with him using the burning blade, like, what happened to his sword? But Cypher's lookin' on point, and the GK character isn't anything huge, but i'd still paint him.

 JustaerinAtTheWall wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:


The proportions are just so.. off. The shoulder pads are so big and the legs look like he is wearing boots. His head is too small and his chest is way to puffed out.

I adore the new cypher model, easily my second favorite out of the 'triumvirates' we've seen (first being Greyfax), he looks amazing.

I am not a fan of the grey knight, not because he is badly sculpted, but although the mini is new, it just doesn't feel special.

I'll be getting this kit, because primarchs are primarchs, but his armor is almost... too ornate. Compared to his FW model, it's far more excessive and busy than his other mini(which I prefer). I also have a thing with him using the burning blade, like, what happened to his sword? But Cypher's lookin' on point, and the GK character isn't anything huge, but i'd still paint him.

Some of the fluff is leaked. I guess some/all his new gear is provided by that admech guy. The sword, I think, is the Emperors.

The armor is far more ornate then I’d prefer. But then again, this is 40k, not 30k. It’s a lot more baroque and gilded. So if his armor is a new set, that explains a lot. And I can deal with it either way. I’m hoping the proportion issues are just bad photos. If not, again, I can deal with it. It’s my Primarch! How can I not pick him up? I might try my hand at a little light sculpting. I wonder how his helm would look with a roman crest? Will be interesting to see his rules, but I suspect those leaks are a bit out.

I feel bad for that GK. He’s not a bad sculpt. But he’s in the same box as Guiliman (OMG Primarch!) and Cypher (besides being awesome in his own right, the best sculpt of the 3). So the GK ends up just being the 3rd guy to fill in the box. Yawn. If he was released on his own, he’d get a lot more press and fanfare.

And that’s the last of the SC:Eldar box built and ready to be primed. Primary guns magnetized, magnetized flight stems for easy transport, and the seer had his heads swappable and the arm is tight enough with a push-fir that it can be swapped.

I should really figure out what I want to paint next. This move is getting me in a very dithering about kinda mood.

Paint the eldar if they're ready for it.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Paint the eldar if they're ready for it.

These guys aren’t. I need to wait until spring to prime. But I do have some from the last batch ready to go. I’ll start work on them. It’s been mostly marines so far this year anyway...

Also cleaned up 2 more RTB01s this morning and put them in the to-prime pile. Rough on the hands. Getting old sucks.

Can you explain to me what the right priming conditions are, 'cause I'm never sure what people mean. Surely it can't be raining/snowing 24/7.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Can you explain to me what the right priming conditions are, 'cause I'm never sure what people mean. Surely it can't be raining/snowing 24/7.

It really is a goldilocks just right thing. I prime with a rattle can. It can’t be too hot, or too cold. Can says between 50-90 degrees F (10-32 C) and the humidity needs to be below 65%. But it can’t be too dry, of the paint might dry before it hits the mini. Can’t be too windy. There are some people who spray prime in the winter. In theory if you keep the can warm, and just pop out for a quick spray and bring everything inside quick, it can work. I’m not going to risk it.

Making progress on the Eldar is good. Gives you plenty to prime come spring!

What's the boxset you talk of (MoS?). Have I had my head in The Ninth Age for too long?

 Zambro wrote:
Making progress on the Eldar is good. Gives you plenty to prime come spring!

What's the boxset you talk of (MoS?). Have I had my head in The Ninth Age for too long?

Put the red down on a bike last night. So started on an eldar squad.

MoS in this context is Master of Signal, a 30k rank/position. They have a bunch of auspex/signum/interceptor ticks, in addition to being able to call down an orbital strike once a game. Required for one of the Ultra’s Rites of War for 30k. He’s mostly built from the BaC Mk IV parts, with an old CML targeting arm and some other assorted bits and bobs from my bits box.

The box set I’m talking about is a separate thing. GW is advancing the plot a bit for 40k with the Gathering Storm storyline. They’ve been releasing character triumvirate boxes with some of the key players. The first was St. Celesine, some big AdMech Magos, and an inquisiter. The second box was Eldar, with an Avatar of Ynneed, it’s herald, and a champion. The third box, which should be out in March, is Guilliman, Cypher, and a GK grand master.

I agree on the note of the baroque armour being quite stunning, and I do adore anything baroque (it is my favorite type of classical music after all ) but agh I don't know

The jetbikes look awesome, they are such a gorgeous sculpt, its a shame there is such a stigma pertaining to Eldar bikes otherwise I'd take some allied Saimm Hann.

Can't wait to see the paint job!

Yah, kinda torqued that bikes are so good. I love the look and theme to them, but don’t want to be TFG. I find running them in the old 1-in-3 heavy, and just shuicannons at that takes some of the sting out of them. That and don’t spam them. Guardians in a WS are also an acceptable troop pick.

Anyway, here is the first of the new bikers with his base red and black down.


Heading down to the FLGS tonight, hopefully get a game in.

I do the same thing with my bikes Nev. Since the 7th edition Eldar dex dropped I took one look at the bike entry and said "nope, not being that guy". I stick to the ol' 1 in 3 rule as well, preferring cannons but I sometimes pop out the scatter lasers. I have a buddy here who asked me about it one day and I told him I don't max out on scatbikes cause it's completely broken in casual play and he asked me to write up a list with them for him to fight just so he could see firsthand if they were really that bad. Needless to say it's an experience neither of us ever want to recreate, it wasn't fun for him to be blown off the board by turn 3 and it wasn't fun for me to devolve my entire game into "it's my shooting phase, I roll lots of dice and watch you weep". If I wanted that I'd be playing Tau...

 Nevelon wrote:
There are some people who spray prime in the winter. In theory if you keep the can warm, and just pop out for a quick spray and bring everything inside quick, it can work.

I am one of those people...because I live in the frozen north and won't wait for spring. Snow and rain are what we have to avoid most of the time, however my building does have a workshop I can do some spraying if it is not in use by others, have to wear a full filter mask though.

Cheers,

CB

PS: My Jetbikes are one special weapon per five bikes.

I had a frosting incident while spray varnishing. Since then I put the minis in a fan oven set at the lowest temp with the door left open a bit.

I cook them, take them outside to spray, and then put them back in the oven until the varnish does not look wet.

It occurs to me that the same thing might work for priming with a rattle can.

I’m not sure I could bring myself to put minis in the oven. Although I’m sure the local tyranids would love Ultramarines served up golden brown delicious! I’m fine with just planning ahead in the fall and stockpiling stuff for the winter like a crazy squirrel.

Got a game in. Vs. thousand suns (with some demons) Airiman and some sorcerous formation, some rubricks and terminators, and some horrors, tzangors and oblits. Probably a few more sorcerers stuck in for good measure. I brought an assorted CAD.



Captain with HG in a LR
Full grav and melta tacs in rhinos
Speeders, pred, vindi
Full DW squad (counts-as sternguard) with their librarian (who rode in the LR)
Drop dread.

Mission was the maelstrom where you draw up to 3 at the start of your turn.
Deployment:

He goes first. Moves up a little, but is mostly out of range for most of the psychic stuff. He’s generating 20+ warp charge; it’s where the teeth of his army is. I think most of his initial turn is buffing up, although he does shake the vindi. A unit of horrors is also summoned

My turn I focus on taking out critical threats. Most of my long range firepower blows the oblits and their attendant wizard off the hill in the back. My sternguard come down, combat squad, and blow a chunk out of the sorcerer deathstar. Killing one, wounding another and I think a terminator or two dies due to look out sirs. I charge and kill the summoned demons with my HG. Which, in hindsight, was probably a mistake.

I think we each scored a objective or two, game is close on points.

His turn he plows his deathstar into mine. Things get ugly and bloody. One of those sorcerers has a demon sword, doing ID at AP2. I get some of my own licks in, and the terminators are all killed, and I think I put a few more wounds in on the characters. Bad things happen to the sternguard, but the sarge survives. Vindi is immobilized.

Game is still pretty close on points, I’m starting to get worried.

But I shouldn’t be. I score some of the objectives, and begin to churn them out. He’s got a huge chunk of his army sunk into the sorcerers and arhiman. I start pouring in firepower from the LR, pred, and speeders. He starts loosing wounds, and then models. The WC pool gets smaller, so the psychic phase starts to hurt less. I I have the run of the table.




I think this is turn 3. The midfield tacs are about to go over the wall and start shooting up the rubrics. The other tacs and their rhino split up to camp 3 separate objectives. The game goes on the full 7 turns. At the end, all he has is the horrors in the corner with a herald, and the rest of the table is mine. Due to some good die rolling on variable tactical objectives, but also some lucky draws (I got the Domination: control every objective on the last turn when I did) the final score was something like 22-6. Crushing victory for the Ultramarines!

Fresh paint report:
Vindi has been out a few times. He only got to shoot his big gun once, and it scattered horribly off target. He did eat a lot of fire. Not sure if he’s worth it as a pure distraction unit. He does do that job well though.
TH champ killed some horrors, but died vs. his real foe in a challenge. While most stuff that is AP2 strikes last, there is some that goes before him.
Deathwatch did a great job. Podded in, killed a sorcerer and put some pain on the deathstar. The plasma guns were a bit overkill due to all the invuln saves, but didn’t hurt.
The DW Lib did nothing relevant. In hindsight, they might have charged turn 2, not the first. I remember him being in the box the first psychic phase.

Nice battle report. It's fun to read about two of my favorite armies slugging it out. Although it does make me realize that I no longer really have any idea how to play modern 40k... Still. Well done on your victory.

 brushcommando wrote:
Nice battle report. It's fun to read about two of my favorite armies slugging it out. Although it does make me realize that I no longer really have any idea how to play modern 40k... Still. Well done on your victory.

All the mechanics are basically the same. Big change is the psychic stuff, which is back to being a mini-game like in 2nd. OK, not quite that bad, but close.

The maelstrom missions are probably the biggest change to how the game plays. There are still the old eternal war missions, which are more or less the same as previous editions. But there are also new ones using the tactical objective deck (“Tacos" in the local parlance). Different missions have you draw and deal with them in assorted ways. Unlike eternal war, where most of the objectives only mater when the game is over, maelstrom are score as you go. So you might draw a card that says “Score one VP if you hold objective #4” (all of them are played with 6 numberd objectives). So you get your squad in their box, roll over to it, and put some boots on that objective. Bam. VP for the pool. Keep doing that, run your tally, and compare at the end. Some of them are more then just objectives. Things like “win a challenge gain a VP” “wipe out a unit in CC for a VP, kill 3 and get d3 VP” “Claim an objective that your opponent held at the start of your turn for d3 VP”. So you have more goals during the game to keep things interesting and mobile.

I makes the game a bit more random, but mostly in a good way. And it rewards fun play. If you just bunker up in the corner and gunline, with a last minute sprint to claim objectives, you miss out on a lot.

I'm a huge fan of the maelstrom missions, they make the objectives important throughout the entire game not just the last turn (I always hated the "boom boom boom boom dash" playstyle of eternal war missions) and they act as a really good balancing agent between two armies that may have wildly varying power levels since the premise is not 100% "destroy your enemy". We play ours with some house rules though because, as GW tends to do, they started with a good idea but didn't think it all the way through. Our main house rule is that if you draw a card that is impossible for you to achieve throughout the battle, such as "cast a psychic power but you have no psykers" or "destroy an enemy flyer but they don't have any in their list" then we can immediately discard them and redraw for free. That goes a long way to removing the complete randomness of the game type and putting both players on a more even playing field.

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
I'm a huge fan of the maelstrom missions, they make the objectives important throughout the entire game not just the last turn (I always hated the "boom boom boom boom dash" playstyle of eternal war missions) and they act as a really good balancing agent between two armies that may have wildly varying power levels since the premise is not 100% "destroy your enemy". We play ours with some house rules though because, as GW tends to do, they started with a good idea but didn't think it all the way through. Our main house rule is that if you draw a card that is impossible for you to achieve throughout the battle, such as "cast a psychic power but you have no psykers" or "destroy an enemy flyer but they don't have any in their list" then we can immediately discard them and redraw for free. That goes a long way to removing the complete randomness of the game type and putting both players on a more even playing field.

We also play that way. Also, in the game we were playing we were allowed to discard one card at the end out our turn, and then draw up to 3 at the start of out next one. Not sure if the discard is part of the core maelstrom rules, but it helped prevent getting clogs in the objective flow. At different parts of the game we were both looking at hands that while technically achievable, were highly unlikely to happen. Being able to cycle the cards helps keep the game moving.

Edit:

I’m trying hard not to replay in a lot of the gathering storm threads, with the whole primarch returning thing. It’s starting to feel like RL politics threads. Lot of blind UM hate, theories based on the thinnest rumor and extrapolated out. etc. And it’s too early to know what exactly is going on. I’m used to a certain level of Ultramarine hate. It spiked back in 5th, wound itself up in the internet echo chamber, and has been very slowly receding for a while, almost to tolerable levels. But it’s on the rise again. Kinda getting under my skin. Some of it’s just the passive references, like smurfs and rowboat girlyman cracks adding up, but some is more overt stuff. Either cherrypicking bad BL stuff, or just intentionally misrepresenting fluff for personal vendettas.

Sorry to rant. Just needed to let that out. Just found myself writing, then erasing an angry rebuttal, and not for the first time. I don’t need to get into arguments on the internet, especially based on thin rumors and opinions.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
I'm a huge fan of the maelstrom missions, they make the objectives important throughout the entire game not just the last turn (I always hated the "boom boom boom boom dash" playstyle of eternal war missions) and they act as a really good balancing agent between two armies that may have wildly varying power levels since the premise is not 100% "destroy your enemy". We play ours with some house rules though because, as GW tends to do, they started with a good idea but didn't think it all the way through. Our main house rule is that if you draw a card that is impossible for you to achieve throughout the battle, such as "cast a psychic power but you have no psykers" or "destroy an enemy flyer but they don't have any in their list" then we can immediately discard them and redraw for free. That goes a long way to removing the complete randomness of the game type and putting both players on a more even playing field.

We also play that way. Also, in the game we were playing we were allowed to discard one card at the end out our turn, and then draw up to 3 at the start of out next one. Not sure if the discard is part of the core maelstrom rules, but it helped prevent getting clogs in the objective flow. At different parts of the game we were both looking at hands that while technically achievable, were highly unlikely to happen. Being able to cycle the cards helps keep the game moving.

Edit:

I’m trying hard not to replay in a lot of the gathering storm threads, with the whole primarch returning thing. It’s starting to feel like RL politics threads. Lot of blind UM hate, theories based on the thinnest rumor and extrapolated out. etc. And it’s too early to know what exactly is going on. I’m used to a certain level of Ultramarine hate. It spiked back in 5th, wound itself up in the internet echo chamber, and has been very slowly receding for a while, almost to tolerable levels. But it’s on the rise again. Kinda getting under my skin. Some of it’s just the passive references, like smurfs and rowboat girlyman cracks adding up, but some is more overt stuff. Either cherrypicking bad BL stuff, or just intentionally misrepresenting fluff for personal vendettas.

Sorry to rant. Just needed to let that out. Just found myself writing, then erasing an angry rebuttal, and not for the first time. I don’t need to get into arguments on the internet, especially based on thin rumors and opinions.

I just don't look at the gathering storm threads, except occasionally posing a meme when I find one. They all think a little too highly of themselves, it's just not worth it. I'll wait for the new fluff to actually release, then I might engage in an internet shitstorm over what's actually there.

That said................

Good natured ribbing I get. I know the whole “End Times” thing is a bit emotional, particularly with what happened with WHFB/AoS. People are invested in what’s happening and don’t like change. I get that. Hell, with what’s going on in my life, I really get that.

But the irrational herp-derp ultra hate needs to stop.

 Nevelon wrote:
Good natured ribbing I get. I know the whole “End Times” thing is a bit emotional, particularly with what happened with WHFB/AoS. People are invested in what’s happening and don’t like change. I get that. Hell, with what’s going on in my life, I really get that.

But the irrational herp-derp ultra hate needs to stop.

I've started using the ignore feature liberally. It works out, I still get to read good threads, and there's less negativity in my forums experience thanks to it.