Loyal Local Craft Show

On Sunday, August 4th, I went to a craft show with my wife. This show, called the Loyal Local event, was a craft show put on by Made in Vancouver, a group of local crafters looking to turn their hobby into a successful business. I'm not a member of this group, however, as I have no interest in painting for money.

Let me back up. Every once in a while, it's my wife's turn to host "craft nights" at the house, where about a dozen MiV women come over and knit, crochet, work beads, or whatever else they do. They also use this as an opportunity to network and discuss business ideas. I generally just sit in the living room and paint like I always do. I don't mind having them over because it generally means free pizza for me, as well as a bunch of new people looking at my models and saying how cool they are. For the purposes of this story, it's also important to note that my display case is also in the living room.

My display case at home

On one particular craft night, one of the higher-ups in the MiV group saw my models and offered me a free table at the upcoming Loyal Local event. Since it was free, I jumped at the chance to hand out business cards and generate some traffic (and maybe even a discussion or two) for the blog.

My table at the event

It was a pretty neat event! Since I wasn't selling anything, I had nothing to lose! I handed out 32 of the 34 business cards I brought, and hopefully that will do well for the blog and the Facebook page! Only time will tell!

In hobby news, work is progressing steadily on my last Guardian squad. I'm just finishing up the guns and arms today. Hopefully, those will be done by the end of the day. After that, all that's lfet is the head, antenna, and rims of the base. And the heavy weapon platform. . .

I'm remembering to take pictures along the way for the Eldar armor tutorial. I'm hoping to have that one up on the site not long after the squad is finished. Shouldn't be long now!

As was to be expected, rumors have started flying around about the new Space Marine codex. In my personal opinion, the Space Marines have too rich a background already to be able to give them new units. One rumor is regarding a new Whirlwind-style tank that has Skyfire. I actually like that and can absolutely see how it fits into a Space Marine chapter. There's another one about handing out assault cannons to tactical squads and devastators. That one's not bad either. It makes sense to me. The one I don't like is something about a new suit of armor called "Centurions." If the Astartes have had this armor, why are we only hearing about it now? Why is it not in the Horus Heresy? I very strongly disapprove of Games Workshop so vastly changing their rich background like this. I sincerely hope this one is just a rumor and we won't see such a giant plot hole in the new codex. Only time will tell.

That's enough ranting for me for one day. Have fun painting!

1,750 Point Battle

This past Monday, I went down to my local game store, Dice Age Games to attend my regular Monday night game. Monday is their 40k night. Instead of playing my regular 1,000 point Ultramarine list like I have been doing, I decided to combine the Ultramarnes and the Eldar to create a 1,750 list. This was my first time using an allied force and the result was pretty cool! I really like how I can use the strengths of one army to fill in the shortcomings in another. This should increase the variety of army lists we'll see at tournaments and simple friendly games.

The idea came up when my rules-advisor and best friend, Sean Tipper, came to visit me from California. While he was here, he gave me the idea of using my Grey Knights to augment my Ultramarines force. When I throw in an Inquisitor with them, that's a quick way to add 250 points into my army. It also makes me want to finish up that Arbites squad to use as a squad of Inquisitorial henchmen, but that's neither here nor there.

When he showed me the allies table and we learned that the Space Marines and Eldar can fight together, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for army lists. In the short term, it means I can play larger games quicker by combining forces. Check out the pictures below to see both armies fighting together for once!

The battle lines are drawn

Ultramarines and Eldar, ready to fight!

Guardians holding the objective (red crystal)

Captain Sicarius joins up with 1st squad

In gaming news, all the rumors around here point to Eldar being the next army to get updated, with Space Marines coming in shortly after that. With the promise of new rules and new models on the horizon, I won't be working on any Space Marines or Eldar after I finish the Guardian squad I'm currently working on. While I wait for the new armies to come out, I'm going to work on my Grey Knights, Inquisitor, and Arbites to use as my allied force. Since I'm using them out of the Grey Knights codex (which isn't changing any time soon) and they're allies of convenience for both the Eldar and the Space Marines, I can work on them with no threat of their rules changing or new models coming out. Keep checking back to see how the new Grey Knighs come out and what cool conversions I do when working on the Arbites!