Gaming Table Gets a Game

Last night, Jeanie finally caved and played a game of 40k with me! We played just shy of 1,000 points. She used her Eldar because she wanted to play with the Harlequins and I used the Ultramarines because I don't have enough Knights Bellicose ready to use yet.

The game ended after Turn 5 with me as the victor. She gave me a run for my money, though. I will admit that the game ended with a small amount of frustration on account of us having to keep stopping to check the rules. I haven't played many games of 7th edition, so I wasn't as familiar with the rules and had to keep looking things up.

Take a look at how the game went!

The starting lineup!

Jeanie considers her move.

Our first experience with the Psychic Phase.

The Ultramarines take some losses.

Close combat!

Both sides take losses.

Captain Sicarius 

End of the game!

Next time, I'll have progress on my next painting progress and a plan on what's coming up next! Keep checking back and have fun painting!

Ultramarines vs. Eldar

Not long ago, my best friend Sean Tipper came over to visit. One day during his visit we went down to Dice Age to get a game in. There isn't enough terrain ready for the table at the house or we would have put up a battle report from there so you guys could see the terrain table in action. I was really curious how a heavily forested board would play since that's mainly what my fist terrain table would play like. We rolled for terrain and then put trees on the board wherever we could.

I thought it was a pretty fun game! It was my first time playing 7th Edition and I haven't used my models in a while, so I ended up learning a lot. Check out the pictures below to see how the game went!

Trees everywhere!

A heavily forested board should let me know how the table
at home will turn out.

All set up!

The two remaining Ultramarines from the combat squad make
a final push for the objective in the trees. They never made it.

See the dreadnought? Being the only armor on the table,
he went down pretty quick.

Epic combat! Captain Sicarius did pretty well!

The devastators taking out a target of opportunity.

Sicarius in the end

Stretching out from an objective to see around a hill

The Eldar holding two objectives

In the end, Sean won with the Eldar. It was a really fun game. I'm looking forward to getting some terrain done so that I can have games like this at home. That being said, the next Knights Bellicose squad is almost completed! It'll be my most lively squad to date because I plan on making it available for use in kill team games. Next up will be a few trees to use on the terrain table! Keep checking back to see how things turn out!

Until next time, have fun painting!

Harlequins Uploaded, Research Complete

After way too many hours of staring into a magnifying glass, I'm happy to report that the Harlequins have finally been completed!

You can see them in all their glory over on the Eldar page!

But first, remember this little guy?

Remember me?

This was part of a test I started last week to test out some transfers I wanted to use on my shoulder pads when I started my Knights Bellicose army. If you recall, this is how they turned out:

Yuk.

You can see the film around the edges.

As you can see from these close-up shots, the film is clearly visible around the edges of the water transfer. Also, much of the transfer wouldn't lay flat across the curved shoulder pad. Having decided this was no way to make an entire chapter, I decided that, like my Ultramarines, I would be hand-painting my shoulder insignia once again.

I wanted to make some changes, though. I came to the conclusion that the squad markings that I had placed on the legs of my Ultramarines was too difficult to see when I had multiple squads in close combat, making it too difficult to see who was in each squad. To fix this problem, I'm going to be painting the roman numerals onto the shoulder pads, next to the squad markings.

Lastly, I'll be continuing to paint the colors on the rims of the shoulder pads according to what company they're in, adhering to the Codex Astartes in true fashion. Years down the road, when I've completed the entire chapter, this will look amazing, I think.

So without further ado, here are the results of my most recent painting test:

The whole model

I'm considering using sculpted symbols just
for the first company. I haven't decided yet.

This is what my chapter symbol is going to
look like.

You can see how I'm putting the squad
numbers on the shoulder pad this time.

Sometimes, I had to remove some of the
tactical markings (this one is an assault
marking)  so the squad number would fit.

You can see how I had to remove some of my
devastator marking to fit this number in too.

Scouts don't get a color or a symbol. They just
get a large roman numeral for a squad number.

Knights Bellicose, Eldar Progress

With the release of the new Codex: Space Marine, I've decided to formally begin work on the Knights Bellicose. When thinking about the new army, I've considered changing up some of my techniques. One thing I've considered doing is to use waterslide transfers to apply the tactical markings to my units. To test this, I took a large flying stand and glued a bunch of posts to it. I then hung a shoulder pad from each one of those. I painted each shoulder pad as if it were from a different company, just to see how they would all look. After that, I started applying some waterslide transfers to them, just to see how it would look. Here's how it turned out:

Left: waterslide transfers / Right: hand-painted (incomplete)

You can see the edge of the film pretty obviously

As you can see, the waterslide transfers are far too obvious and would detract from the models. It looks like I'll be hand painting them. When I complete my second test (the one on the right in the first picture), I'll be sure to post more pictures and let you know how it turned out!

Progress on the Eldar army is coming along nicely. The Harlequins are almost done! Most of the models are done and sealed. All I have left is the Troop Master and the Shadowseer. Keep checking back to see how the progress is going, but you can have a sneak peek right now!

The masks really make the model stand out.

So Drew, you're working on three armies now? What? No! Well, kind of.

Since I'm going to start working on the Knights Bellicose, I'm setting aside the Ultramarines. In the beginning, they weren't intended to be a full army anyway. 1,000 points is a nice round number to stop them at for a nice little side project. I'm now going to devote my time to getting the Knights Bellicose up to full strength. I plan on building the entire chapter someday! So right now, the only two armies I'm putting effort into is the Eldar and the Knights Bellicose. I think that if I try to do more than two armies at once, I'll get too bogged down and I won't ever finish anything.

Because of the circumstances I find myself in, I have the opportunity to have a gaming table once again. My awesome father-in-law is helping me build it. That means that in a few months, I'm going to be able to start working on terrain! When that happens, I'm going to devote some attention to building and painting some awesome terrain to play on and take pictures on! I'm going to put as much effort into the terrain as I do the armies I build. Hopefully, we'll have some pretty awesome terrain to use! Keep checking back to see how it all turns out! I'll be sure to post up some tutorials as the terrain happens!

Until next time, have fun painting!

Guardians Finished, New Blog!

Last weekend, I was able to finish my third and final Guardian squad. With this squad finished, I now have all my troops completed for both my Eldar and my Ultramarines. After fighting through all that monotony, I can finally shift my focus onto more elite and interesting units.The new squad can be seen on the Eldar page, so go check them out!

With the completion of the Guardians, my next squad is the Harlequins. I must say that I'm a little worried about painting them. It'll be my most detailed squad yet. I'm still going back and forth about if I'm even going to put a pattern on them or if it'll look better without. I'll post pictures throughout the painting process so you can see what I came up with.

On the topic of learning painting tricks, I have a new tutorial up for you! This one covers Eldar armor, which is really useful no matter what Edar unit you're working on. You can find the new tutorial on the How To page. Also, don't forget that you can email me at 40khobbiest@gmail.com and suggest new tutorials that you'd like to see.

Just the other day one of my two best friends, Reuben Qualls, started his new blog: The Tabletop Generation. Where my blog solely revolves around the 40k hobby and community, his takes a broader approach and encompasses all forms of tabletop gaming. When you finally get tired of reading about my 40k musings and would like to expand your horizons a bit, head on over to his blog for game and store reviews, tips, techniques, and everything in between!

Staying Engaged

When I work on my models, it's like I'm in my own little world. I'll listen to music while I paint, or perhaps put something simple on the television. I'll generally watch something science fiction related, something that I can listen to and don't have to look at. As of late, I've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I've seen enough of it in the past that I can listen to it without having to focus on it. The distraction helps me devote attention to my models and keep me motivated enough to work for longer periods of time without getting bored with the painting process itself. Despite the motivation I have to work on models when they're right in front of me, I need to keep that motivation while I'm not painting, so that I'll keep coming back and continuing my work.

In my day job, I am a professional truck driver. Since I drive for long hours, I am unable to read novels, browse the internet, or receive any other visual stimulation to keep me interested in the hobby. Instead, I download a bunch of 40k-related podcasts to listen to when I drive. Listening to battle reports or hobby progress from other 40k players always makes me want to work on my models.

What do you do to motivate yourself when you're working on your hobby? Even if you don't paint models, what gives you to motivation to keep up with your creativity? When you're not working on your hobby (painting, knitting, etc), what keeps you coming back for more? Leave a comment below and let me know about how you do your hobby.

As for my own personal hobby progress, work is continuing steadily on the third and final Guardian squad. Today, I've basecoated the arms and am preparing to attach them to the Guardians. I've also basecoated the weapon platform. This squad is getting steadily closer to being finished. I'm looking forward to being finished with this squad so that I can start working on more ambitious projects. After this squad is finished, the Harlequins will be getting some work. I'm looking forward to seeing how the squad markings work. Keep checking back to see how the Guardians turn out!

Seer Council

The other day, I took a break from painting the third Guardian squad to focus on their squad leader, the Warlock. After an entire day staring into my magnifying glass, he's completely finished. With my third Warlock completed, I've been presented with an idea. Next time I play, I'm going to try running a Seer Council instead of tossing them into the Guardian squads like I normally do. I've realized that I'm having trouble getting their powers to work effectively and am having limited usefulness in their current position. I think, in the end, I'll keep them in their Guardian squads (where their squad markings will make more sense), but for the next game or two I'm going to try keeping them together so that I'll have more freedom with their powers. Feel free to post comments below and let me know what you think.

As for now, check out how the third Warlock came out. I think they look pretty sweet as a Seer Council.

As for the Guardians themselves, they're coming along nicely! I should have them done in another week or so. With all the pictures I've taken of all the steps, it looks like its going to be a fantastic tutorial when its done! Keep checking back!

Trying the New Eldar

Yesterday, I went down to Games Workshop: Eastport Plaza to see if I could get a game. I haven't played with the Eldar since the new codex came out, so I wanted to try them out. I ended up finding a game with Avery and Eric, who play Space Marines and Necrons, respectively. We played a 1,500 point game with my army verses the two of them (it's how the points ended up). In order for me to round out to a nice even 1,500 points, I used the Eldar as my main force and allied in a few squads of my Ultramarines.

We played for objectives, so when you see my Titan crew wandering around the board, that's why. They were the objectives.

The pictures below tell most of the story, but I'll give you a few highlights first. For starters, I took 6 troop choices (2 Guardians, 2 Dire Avengers, & 2 Tactical Squads), an Autarch, a Farseer, a Space Marine captain, and to a lesser extent, a dreadnaught. When you look through the pictures, you'll notice that the dreadnaught isn't in any of them. Why is that, you ask? Because it was immediately destroyed before it could take its first shot.

Also, in most of the pictures, the only Space Marines you'll see are mine. This is because the entirety of Avery's force was outflanking or deep striking and didn't make it on until late in the game.

That being said, I was still annihilated. Eric's Tesla-whatevers just killed squad after squad. In the end, I ended up losing, but I still learned a whole lot about how the new Eldar play, as well as what choices I should make in the future to have more successful games.

Check out the pictures below to see how the battle went!

Battle lines are drawn

Awesomely airbrushed Necron vehicles:
the bane of my existance

Eldar Guardians worked out amazingly well, even if they
didn't make it to the end of the game.

Space Marine allies outflank me!

This is the end. . .

 In hobby news, the last squad of Eldar Guardians is coming along swimmingly. I'm really looking forward to having them finished. When this last squad is done, I'll have all my troops done for both armies and I can focus on painting the fun stuff! Keep checking back to see the progress on the final troop squad!