Weekly Finds #9

Last day of the year. And boy has it felt like a roller coaster with its ups and downs. On the hobby front there has been a steady stream of new, and well balanced codices. There is the reliable reports of Grey Knights coming out next year, some time around April, as well as rumour of Black Templars. I've also begun to work on the Victorian Crusade again after almost two years of mostly silence. On a personal note I'm almost finished my first University degree, started a blog which people actually follow and comment on and I've gotten engaged to my high school sweet heart. But onto the last finds of the week for 2010...

Guest Article: Cheap and easy Sanguinary Priest by Keith from Mind War - I've seen this article before over on Heresy Online, but when I saw it again on Mind War, well it had to be included. Wouldn't be a cheap conversion if you didn't have the parts, but if you do it will save you some monies.

Friday Quick Tip: OTT Lite Bulbs by Grey Death from The Painting Corps - Not much chance for me to get my hands on an OTT Lite bulb, but this has encouraged me to go looking for some white-white light bulbs. Also need to get my hand on some more appropriate lamps for painting.

Heavy Bolter Servitor by Brother Captain from The Bolter and Chainsword - This is just brilliant conversion. Instead of heavy bolters could use hunter killer missiles or some Rocker Launchers from the Imperial Guard range to create some cheap count as Devastators.

Repairing Damaged Models by Ron from FTW - Nothing overly exciting about this post, bit it may be helpful for someone out there. Remember to pin your metal miniatures and to use primer on all your miniatures. Also get yourself a decent quality transport case. Games Workshop has theirs, can get yourself a Battlefoam bag or you could go with any number of others like Sable or Feldherr.

4th Company Ultramarines Rhino (freehand motifs) by Side Streaker from 4th Company - I saw this in the latest Tuesday Top Ten by Ryan over at From The Warp. I'm glad that I found it, because the freehand is just stunning.

Colonel Shofer's Mild OCD Model Blog - This entire blog is filled with useful articles from around the blog-o-sphere. Especially everything on making rivets, something that I have been interested in for some time.

I hope everyone has a happy New Years. God Bless!

Imperial Armour Vol. X: The Badab War Part II Preview

Okay so this has made it's rounds about the interwebz already. I would have joined the masses, but wanted to be unique special. I really want to get this series of Imperial Armour... but they cost so damn much. So says the person who has spent 260 AUD on shoes in the past two days...

The map in the second picture looks cool with the borders on it. The second last picture answers the question of which chapter the Achilles is painted in.

And before going to bed I'll leave you all with a final reminder for Dave Taylor's Steel Legion Competition. Not only is there the chance to win something that will no doubt be awesome. But you will help out a pillar of our small community as well as see your own army list painted up to an amazing standard. Plus you will join the ranks of Dethtron, TKE and Brent who have all given into the desire to join the kool kids.

Madness Combat

Won't be a White Dwarf review for this month at the moment. Decided that I will do a bunch of them at the same time and then post them on the first Wednesday of their respective months. Means that there will be White Dwarfs dating back as far as the mid 00's. But onto the content that is behind the name of the post...

And the madness doesn't stop with those four. But that is enough violence for one day. And don't forget you only have a few days left to enter Dave Taylor's Steel Legion Competition. Tasty Taste and Dethtron are in on the action. Are you?

The Swarm Returns

The interwebz is consistently spewing out more and more content directly into our brains with each passing day. Guess we know how these feel during a turbulent flight. So it comes as no surprise that there is newer 'Nid and Ork content to be stolen added to the blog.

I'm not sure where to start with the 'Nids to be honest. Anybody who has taken a look at Mid-Life Gaming Crisis will be aware of just how much new content there is. Even just the list compiled by Old School Terminator would take days of free time to read. Fortunately for my imaginary readers I am willing to waste the time to gain some insight into the thoughts of others. First, I'll take a look at Dark Future Games and then the series by Hulksmash.

As for Orks... there is the stuff produced by fester that needs to be run over with my purple italics. And there is more content to be added to the Ork Defence Force.

Shout Out: Mid-Life Gaming Crisis

After my last shout out I figured there should be more. This time it is for a blogger who is doing something very similar to myself. He is collecting all useful articles on Tyranids into a library in a hope to improve the quality of army lists and tactics. Unlike me he has focused specifically on the 'Nids, is putting up content of his own and is deserving of more followers. So without further ado I present Mid-Life Gaming Crisis.

And don't forget you still have a few more days to enter an Army List for Dave Taylor's Steel Legion competition. Emails have been sent out to several bloggers including Kirby and The League of Dastards.

Music Monday - Massive Attack

Once again I've jumped into the time machine so that a post goes up when it was supposed to. Now it has been awhile since there has been a Music Monday. To make up for it there will be two videos, both by Massive Attack. The first is something new to me while the second is something I have heard many times.

The video for Teardrop is pretty freaky but the music is great, and really works in favour of the video. While I've got your attention here is a friendly reminder to my Imaginary Friends that there is only a few more days left to enter Dave Taylor's Steel Legion competition. And go have a look at The Ranting Griffin. It isn't a hobby blog, but it has alot of interesting content including songs and cop stories.

Warning: Flammable Rocks!

Found this while wasting time on this...

... and hope your having a happy Christmas.

Weekly Finds #8

Only one more sleep till Christmas for most of the world. Which means that only seven more sleeps till it is a new year. Feels like the past one has just flown by. But anyways, even with my silence on the the blog-o-sphere I've managed to compile a collection of articles.

Tutorial how to make socket label by Raffa from Massive Voodoo - There has been an absences of these guys in Weekly Finds. However, they have returned with this pretty cool tutorial on how to make a label for a plinth. Not something a gamer would need, but still interesting.

Friday Quick Tip: Black Battle Damage by Grey Death from The Painting Corps - This isn't a tutorial, but it does offer alternative methods to achieving battle damage on black armour/surfaces. It is something I have struggled with for my tanks for some time. Hopefully my practise goes work out.

Painting black armour, learning how by Ron from FTW - This leads into an article further down. It looks at different ways of painting black armour. I really like the end result of the miniature shown below. However, I'm not a big fan of line highlighting every damn surface. I've done it before on my Black Templars. Just too time consuming...

Spacecurves' Tactics Class: More Deployment Strategies by Spacecurves from Bell of Lost Souls - Another article that has gone against the common trend of craptastic advice from BoLS. It isn't something I'd consider awesome, but it is something that would be helpful for newer players.

40k Scourge Conversions by Bigred from Bell of Lost Souls - Not actually by Bigred, instead done by a BoLS reader named Daniel. They look awesome, and alot better than the others that were shown. I'd use different heads just to lower the costs, even though the Incubi heads would really help to make the miniatures look unique...

Friday Quick Tip: Painting Snow by Grey Death from The Painting Corps - This is an old article that was linked to in a recent post by GD. I have a tub of Games Workshop snow that I plan on using eventually. May get some of the realistic snow from Secret Weapon Miniatures to achieve the effect talked about here.

Painting black, some help by Ron from FTW - With a horde of Black Templars these sort of discussions are always an interesting read. It is interesting to see how other people go about painting black. I particularly like the effect achieved in the picture below...

Dark Eldar Wyche Painting Tutorial by Dave Taylor from davetaylorminiatures - This is a follow on from Dave's tutorial that he did for From The Warp. I much prefer the effect achived by Ron for the black armour, but the skin and hair works. Especially the skin which reminds me of a Dark Elf army featured in White Dwarf many years ago.

Imperial Fists Sternguard Veteran by Mister Justin from misterjustin.com - Something else from the past that I decided to throw up on the blog. I really, really like the look of the large crests from the Secret Weapon Miniatures range. And the way the Imperial Fists has been painted just looks awesome... probably pick up a set of these in my next order.

Hope everyone has a happy Christmas and an awesome New Year...  

Dawn of War II Retribution Trailer

Saw this over on the Bolter & Chainsword. Figured that some of my imaginary friends may be interested in the DoW series. I've never gotten the chance to play any of them for a number of reasons. Looks interesting...

... and the FAACs can go slit their wrists if they have a problem with khorne daemons fighting alongside Noise Marines.

Tower of Sorcery

Another quiet week from me with little activity in the blop-o-sphere. Side effect of work and Christmas shopping. Everything will return to normal the beginning of January. Anyways, below is a post from What's New Today with any of my thoughts in purple italics as usual...

Today which was actually November 24th, we've added two new articles to the Astronomican. Warhammer: Painting Witchfate Tor, Tower of Sorcery is a step-by-step guide on how to paint your own Tower of Sorcery. Chad has included some great hobby tips throughout the article - my particular favourite being how to match your tower with the scenery you already own. Can you imagine building your very own sinister tower surrounded by dark and haunted woods? Or would you paint up a glorious, well-maintained tower that dominates fresh rolling pastures? I like the top view which I've added below. Could easily use that in a Black Templar Chapter Keep.

PNEUMoNIC'S ZoMBIE CRUSH...

...is a place filled with time wasting stuff. The sort of stuff I don't mind wasting time over.

... and that is only from the first few pages out of 58. So if you wanna kill time, and some brain cells, then go visit PNEUMoNIC'S ZoMBIE CRUSH.

Weekly Finds #7

Another quiet week on the blog. Although, once again I have managed to collect some articles for today. Not as many as there usually is, but I've saved the best for last...

Belial Redux - Deathwing Project Update by John from Santa Cruz Warhammer - The final product looks awesome, and was featured over on From The Warp. However, I particularly like the WiP pictures and how John went about adding the detail on the shins.

Recipe: Black by b.smoove from A Gentleman's One - The tutorial shows a different way of painting black... more of a blue actually. But with some washes it could be turned into a true black...

Painting Question: Line Highlighting by Sandwyrm from the back 40k - I like Sandwyrm's painting style. Especially the way he uses contrast. It makes his models pop, even in photos from a few feet away. This is just one of many painting articles by him that I have enjoyed reading... I'm stealing the way he painted his Sanguinary Guard wings, although I will make the blood more prominent.

Applying Waterslide Decals Step-by-Step by Winterdyne from Winterdyne Commission Modelling - Been some time since Winterdyne's work has appeared on the blog. But he has returned with another tutorial, this time on applying waterslide decals.

Improving my basing by Ron from FTW - The best has been saved for last this week. A tutorial by Ron on making those crucial next steps in basing. I will have some pictures after Christmas showing what sort of difference those extra steps can make. Yes you read that correctly, there will be pictures.

Citadel Terrain & Scenery

Another Saturday without a spotlight. To be honest, I've not been in the mood to spend much time on the interwebz the last week. The level of stupidity over in the Black Templar subforum of BnC is beginning to match that of Warseer and Dakka Dakka. Some of the worst advice I have ever seen. Oddly enough, the stupidity has encouraged me to make further progress on the Victorian Crusade. I've spent the better part of day and half cleaning and pinning Sisters of Battle. Has anyone else noticed that their feet is really ducked up? I digress, it has been too long since my last look at some terrain. The below images and commentary have been taken from the latest What's New Today post, and as usual my thoughts are in purple italics...

Today, the blog has been based around scenery and the potential that if offers the ambitious modeller. Jervis, Kevin and Adi all mentioned scenery when they told us about their Ultimate Gifts, so it seemed like a good time to go out and find some examples of it. Stop the press! A Games Workshop employee is spamming three Land Speeders armed with multi meltas and heavy flamers. To accompany today's battlefield-based content, Adam Troke has written an article about Getting Started With Citadel Terrain, which is a great way to learn more about how to start your scenery collection. Now, off to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where they have a very big tower:

Weekly Finds #6

The blog has been quiet the past week... no real reason, other than me wanting to spend time away from the computer. I have still managed to amass a collection of content that interests me.

Long Barrelled Heavy Bolter by Spyrle from The Medusan Triple Nickel - I can't imagine this tutorial being much help to my Black Templars. But, it may be useful for others. And the construction of the barrel could be useful in future projects...

Magnetising a Rhino/Predator by The Other Kevin from Paint Pot Procrastinator - I like this tutorial, especially the bit on converting the side doors and sponsons. It is the first time I have seen someone suggest magnets being placed like that... this conversion for the AoBR Dreadnought arms may interest someone as well.

Imperial Fist Fellblade by Tom McBride from Bell of Lost Souls - I like it, simply because it doesn't look like a Baneblade painted in Space Marine heraldry. The effort to make it look distinctly different, yet similar, is noticeable. 

TKE's GoT - "Wound Allocation" by TKE from Mind War, ftw! - This is a long, in depth read. However, it slaps iamaddji in the face, and hopefully educates the unwashed masses. And, don't forget we were vindicated in the latest FAQ, which proved what GW intended with wound allocation... also, click the picture.

Spacecurves' Tactics Class: The Art of Disembarking by Spacecurves from BoLS - I respect Spacecurves for what he is doing. He isn't the first to write useful tactic articles, but he is doing it on a blog renown for being so illogical that it has resulted in mass suicides of entire alien races. And while your off reading about disembarking, go take a look at this article by TKE...

Basics: Science Fiction models by Ron from FTW - If you haven't been following this series, then now is as good a time as any. This one is great, because it breaks down each step to show Ron's Target Priority.

Painting Dark Eldar and doing it well by Dave Taylor from FTW - This tutorial is similar to the above, as it shows how to achieve a simple table top standard miniature with minimal effort. It won't be winning any awards, but will mean your fielding a fully painted army. The below picture is Ron's attempt at the tutorial. I much prefer his finished model, most likely a result of multiple washes over the armour.

I got my two orders from Wayland Games this week. Means that I only need a few more things before I have everything needed. Should have my articles for Kirby finished soon. Probably start taking photos as well... but no promises.

Music Monday - Captain Planet Theme Song

After last Thursday's post, I figured this would be a perfect song to start the week...

Weekly Finds #5

It is only three weeks away from Christmas and soon all of my most recent orders should arrive. I'm looking forward to when my Battlefoam Bag arrives... although I am a little annoyed that I missed out on the Black Friday sale by a week. Made the order the Friday before. Enough of that tangent...

'The Basics' - Part One: Choosing An Army by TKE from Mind War, ftw! - This is a REALLY long read. It is almost TL;DR. But it is still worth the time. TKE takes a look at the idea of winning and how it influences your choice of army list. I may do my own post on what I believe winning is and use my authorship to post it up on Mind War. First, I will need to get my ideas onto a medium and then bounce ideas off TKE and others.

Shout Out: Community Involvement

First up is a shout out for Dave Taylor. Hopefully you all know who he is and the amazing work he does. If not then here are some links to give you some ideas. Click me and me and me! So why is Dave getting a shout out? Well, other then being an awesome guy and an Aussie, he has a project he will be involved in next year and is in need of a 3000 point Apocalypse army list. But, he also wants some competitive 1500-1850 point lists that can be built from those 3000 points. This is something I believe alot of my imaginary friends will be able to help out with. So if your interested then here is the link.

Next is a shout out for Col. Corbane who is in need of some help for a side project of his, Going On Campaign. If you don't know who the Colonel is then now is your chance. A tutorial of his is also include in my finds for the week, which should be appearing on the blog-o-sphere in the next few hours.

Cartoons Invade Facebook

Went onto Facebook today and noticed a bunch of people had changed their display pictures to something from a cartoon. Scrolling down the Most Recent page, I came across this post...

Change your Facebook profile picture to a CARTOON FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories! This is for a CAMPAIGN AGAINST VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN

For next few days I'm going to have the Bike Mice from Mars logo up and then probably change it to either Captain Planet or Banana Man. What about you?

White Dwarf 372 December 2010

Inside this month's issue:

Trial of Champions - Not one, not two but three battle reports. The White Dwarf team take on the Games Developers in War of the Ring, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 battles to see who comes out on top Necrons beat Imperial Guard in a wacky scenario.

Dark Eldar Kabals - Phil Kelly shows us some brand new background on the Kabals of the Dark Eldar, providing you with new inspiration and paint scheme ideas.

Tactica Spearhead - Official New Rules - Jervis puts pen to paper on two new Spearhead formations - the Skystorm and Destroyer Spearheads - while Andy Hall provides some tactical insight to give you the winning edge is Spearhead games.

Battle in the Deep - Adam Troke recounts one of the bitterest battles in Middle-earth history; the Dwarves against the Moria Goblins. Not only does he provide us with some exciting ideas for recreating underground battles but he also presents a new War of the Ring scenario for you to play.

Standard Bearer - Inside this month's issue Jervis talks about the nature of change and narrative campaigns. 

Battlefield Challenges: Tower of Sorcery - Jervis creates a Warhammer scenario that is designed to be played with Witchfate Tor. 

Modelling Workshop: Realms of Battle: For our Trial of Champions mega battle report we had three new terrain sets specifically built and painted by the Studio hobbyists Chad Mierzwa. Adam Troke talks to our one-man scenery machine to find out more. 

Citadel: Battlefield Terrain - After getting some pretty pictures and little blurbs on how to achieve the look, we then get hit with some more advertising on Games Workshop terrain. 

Army Masters: Matthew Hutson's High Elves - Fresh from the trials of our online edition of 'A Tale of Four Games', our Matt has spent the former half of 2010 painting up a rather good High Elf warhost. Being anything but shy, he was more than happy to feature it on these very pages. 

Some Kind of Monster -  In this article, Adam explains how you can play a competitive game and still have fun. There are dozens of these sorts of articles all over the interwebz. Just take a look at The Pinktastic blog with its host of writers who have shared their thoughts on the topic. The difference is that this is by an employee of Games Workshop sharing his thoughts in a Games Workshop publication. It challenges some strongly held beliefs that being competitive is bad for the hobby and that all competitive gamers are 'powergamers', 'cheesy', 'beardy' or my favourite 'WAAC'.

Citadel: Hall of Fame -  A look back at some of the miniatures that have been inducted as well as the latest addition.

You'll also find full details of all the latest releases and news, a directory featuring all of the hobby activities in your local area.