Knights Bellicose First Game

This week, my best friend Sean Tipper came down to visit. As always, we made sure to get in a game of Warhammer. We headed down to Dice Age, set up some terrain, and played a roughly 750 point game. To change things up a bit, I finally brought out my Knights Bellicose! I had to use an Ultramarine captain and my Arbites to support them, but I got to run my two Tactical Squads. The main differences between the Knights and the Ultramarines are that the Ultramarines squad leaders had plasma pistols and chainswords, whereas the Knights had bolt pistols and power swords instead. Also, the Ultramarines Tactical Squads had missile launchers, where the Knights have heavy bolters. I think these two combinations have made the squads more effective because they lasted much longer on the battlefield. Once I can finally get some more squads completed, I'm expecting the Knights Bellicose to be more effective than the Ultramarines.

Check out how the game went!

The table's layout. I wanted it to be similar to my idea for the
table in the art room.

Knights Bellicose lined up of the table for the first time.

Arbites, ready to take the road down to the relic.

Heavy bolter combat squad, overwatching the relic.

2nd squad's heavy bolter team takes out 

The Ultramarines captain leads the charge into the Kroot.

Beating up on the Kroot. This is the first time I've won a fight
against them and I did so with very little effort. Sergeants with
power swords is the way to go!

The Fire Warriors cross the river, headed for the relic.

Final scene. The Knights & Arbites lost, but I did well in
areas I hadn't before and I learned a lot!

After I finish my third Tactical Squad, I'll be doing my Command Squad, Captain, and Chaplain. Following that, I'll be moving back to the Eldar for a special project! Keep checking back to see how it turns out!

Setting Goals

For the past few months, it's been difficult for me to find time to paint. When I finally have an opportunity to sit at the painting table, I take a look at my current squad of models and think about how long they've been sitting there and how little progress has been made. With as little time as I have to actually devote to painting, it's difficult to stay motivated.

Luckily, the guys over at Masters of the Forge have come to my rescue once again. Adam and Snorre showed me a blog post that talks about setting painting goals to avoid burnout and stay motivated to keep making progress. In response to this awesome piece of advice, I've taken a look at my current painting schedule to see if there was anything I could do to help me stay motivated. I just painted two complete Tactical Squads and am currently working on the third. My idea is to get all six of the regular Tactical Squads out of the way first, so I can focus on all the fun stuff in the company. That's a lot of bolter marines all at once. That's a lot of the same thing for a long time.

Now, I'm going to change things up a bit. After I've finished the squad I'm working on, I'll be doing 4th Company's Captain, Chaplain, and Command Squad. I'm looking forward to working on that awesome banner as well as all the details on my Chaplain.

Check out all that awesome detail!

After that, I'll probably do another Tactical Squad or two and throw in something cool every once in a while. After I do another Tactical Squad, I may move on to the Devastators or maybe even some scouts! I've been thinking about how fun it'd be to work on a vehicle, so I may make my Command Squad's Razorback. I guess you'll just have to stay tuned to see what awesomeness comes out next!

As for now, here's where I'm currently at:

Slow and steady wins the race, I guess. Keep checking back to see how things turn out!

The State of the Hobbiest

With work and school taking its toll on my schedule, it's been a while since I've been able to work on any hobby goodness, let alone post about it here. In response, here's the current state of my hobby progress and where I'm headed in the future.

Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to recognize my favorite podcast: The Masters of the Forge. These guys are single-handedly keeping me interested in the fluff and keeping my mind on the hobby while I'm spending time away. Snorre and Adam are always coming up with new interesting ways to play the game and going into detail about the parts of the background that I've always loved. In a world of responsibilities, they're my one last bastion of hobby goodness. If you haven't listened to them yet, go check them out.

And now, on with the blog post.

Gaming Table:

The table itself is complete and the first set of tiles is finished. I only have one set of trees to place on it, but I'd like to make a whole lot more as well as a little farm to put next to the road. I'm hoping to do some more work on it after I've gotten a sizable force of Knights Bellicose completed.

Current Knights Bellicose Project:

Right now, I'm working on the third Tactical Squad for 4th Company. My goal for now is to duplicate what I have in my Ultramarines force, then expand on it from there. Ultimately, I'm planning on completing the entire company, then move on to other companies until the entire Chapter is complete. Once this squad is complete, I'll have three full Tactical Squads to work with, and they'll all have options of which specialist weapons I want to include. Here's how they currently look:

Having recently completed my skin test, I'm confident I can add some radial diversity to my Chapter, which is something I've always wanted to do. In the spirit of that, this squad will feature three separate Marines without their helmets on. In order to better facilitate the painting process, I'll be painting the heads separate from the rest of the Marine.

Future Project:

Once my third Tactical Squad is complete, the force still won't be playable. I'll need some leadership for that. To help me break up the monotony of painting so many Tactical Marines, I'm going to work on 4th Company's Captain and Chaplain next. I'll probably even do the whole Command Squad, so the whole leadership section will be completed in one go. As of now, I've purchased the models and made sure there were no defects since I went with Finecast in an effort to build a whole army with no metal in it. Here's the models I chose:

Hopefully, I'll be able to devote more time to the hobby in the future. I really miss being able to work on my models as much as I used to and I miss posting on the blog as often as I used to. Once I get a little more homework out of the way, I'm hoping to spend a very large amount of progress in the hobby room. Keep checking back to see how things turn out!

Have fun painting!

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!

Skin Test Results

When I painted the last squad, I had my first ever marine without a helmet on. In an effort to create a more personable army, I decided I was going to have a few marines without helmets on. I just wanted a few to add a bit more personality to the army.

After finishing my last squad, which had one un-helmeted marine in it, I decided that I needed to learn a bit more about different skin styles. I did a little research and tried a few things out. I ended up making a test just like I did on the shoulder pads and laurels. Take a look at how it the different skin tones turned out!

I selected half of the heads with hair and half without so that I can practice with hair as well. Here's how it looks:

After it was all done, I wrote up all my recipes so that I won't forget them in the future:

Next up on the project list is the third squad of tactical marines. I'm going to have three marines without helmets. After this test, I'll be able to add some racial diversity to this squad and the rest of my army.

What do you think about it?

First Terrain Piece

Despite the late nights at work and the piles of homework, I've managed to crank out another project for 40k. This time, I've finished my first piece of terrain: The Citadel Wood set. In addition to finishing this piece, this is a new type of model for me to photograph since I did took the pictures on the terrain table instead of in my photo booth. Hopefully, as I finish more terrain pieces, I'll get more proficient and have better pictures to show you.

Speaking of finishing more terrain pieces, this is the first of many Citadel Wood sets that I'll be making. I want this to be a forest board with a farmhouse and farm in one corner. I want all the trees in my forest to match, so I'll be sticking with multiples of this set. I figure I'll need a total of 12 to 15 sets to adequately cover the board. Now that I have the process down, I think I'll be able to complete multiple sets at once and make everything go faster.

Check out how it all came out! Let me know on Facebook or in the comments section!

Up next, I'll be working on another Knights Bellicose tactical squad. I'll most likely work on a Chaplain as well so that the army has some leadership and can be played. Keep checking back to see how it all turns out and have fun painting!

Second Squad Complete!

 With work and school, it's taken me a long time to get this squad finished. It has a lot of new ideas in it, so take a look at how it turned out! Check out the Knights Bellicose page to see the new squad!

Also, I've posted the pictures right here for you!

Every squad has all three specialist weapons, so I have some
choices (no grav guns in the army, though).

This is the first squad to use the new plasma gun technique.

My two beakies. Now they're more important members of
the squad. In my army's fluff, there's two beakies per squad
and they're a specialist position.

This is the first marine I have to not wear
a helmet. In the future, there should be more
skins to come, so I'll have some racial
diversity in the army.

My first attempt at laurels. It came out well,
I think.

A nice shot of the bases. Differing bases will help tell the
squads apart on the battlefield. Check out the other squads
to see how they're different.

Squad marking. Almost everyone in the
Chapter will have one.

Group photo!

Up next is the Citadel Wood. This project will be the first of many, as I am planning on covering my board with forests. It'll be an interesting project as I want to try to find a way of painting in an economical fashion (so I don't have to paint each individual leaf). I think that drybrushing can tend to look too "lazy," but I'm going to see how maybe some washing looks. I'm just afraid that I'll mess it up if I try my layering technique on something like that. Any thoughts? Feel free to leave a comment about that.

Don't think I forgot about my skin tone test! I have some more ideas about that, so keep checking back!