Jawaballs and Fritz broadcast live: Take Two!




Happy New Year! To get it going in style, Jawaballs and Fritz will be broadcasting just about all day on December 30th LIVE! Thats right! We have lots of stuff planned: Space Hulk, Blood Angels vs Necrons, Plus lots of tactical stuff!

If you would like to see us explain something tactical, post here and we will see what we can do.

In order to see our live broadcast you will need to do a few things:

GO to http://www.ustream.tv/ and register for the site. You will need to be a registered user to log in.

Then go to: My Ustream TV station!

You will be prompted to enter a password. It is jawaballs1

What time? Who knows. I expect Fritz to arrive late in the morning Eastern Standard Time. I think the UK is 5 hours ahead of me. So 10 AM EST is 3PM in the UK and 7 AM in California. Google the time zones. Once Fritz arrives, we will be broadcasting for many hours. You will be able to chat via the Ustream IM chatroom program with each other, and we will be able to answer your questions through Audio.

So there you go! Come and see some Jawaballs and Fritz live fun.

Here is the youtube announcement.

Trying to get back to some sort of normalcy!



"Giants Caroling"
David Monette


The baby has come, the dust is starting to settle. Now to try to return to some sort of normal life! I am actually going to try to get in a game tonight!

The reason I am posting now though is to introduce you all to a very good friend of mine, David Monette. He is a fantasy illustrator and has done work for card games like Magic the Gathering and loads of magazines. He is ten times the artist I am and actually is the one who inspired me to become an artist and art teacher. So if you would like to see work from the guy who inspired me... check him out! I believe he does do commission painting. If you got some sweet model you would like to have immortalized in beautiful art, give him a shout, and I bet if you throw some money at him he will do it for you!

His style has changed through the years. He used to be purely a painter, focusing on extreme detail and always tried to work in his own sense of humor to his work. But recently, he has transformed himself by relearning his craft on the computer. In "Giants Caroling", a recent Christmas Card project for his agent, you can see that sense of irony coming out! So go on over to David's blog and become a follower. Comment on his work and enjoy his art! Oh, Jawa-followers who are also following David's blog may be eligible for some future Jawa-giveaways... hint hint...

Happy New Year!

Jawaballs

The Jawa-Baby is here!






Finally I am finding some time to get things done, and one of those things is to announce to the world the arrival of my new baby Jack! He came on Tuesday and is a beautiful and healthy little boy. Many of you have already wished me well and I just wanted to say thanks in advance to the rest of you. I will be contentedly happy with my hands full for a while. Merry Christmas to you all!

Hopefully much, much more to come...

Jawaballs

Bartertown sale post pictures.























Here I am uploading some pics of things from my sale post on Bartertown. There is a lot of stuff available, but here are some pics of some of the things. Here is the link to my bartertown post.

Jawa-Baby Update and News and notes. Shop Amazon? Throw some of that Amazon love my way! :)

Hey guys, if you are a frequent Amazon shopper, do me a favor. On the right of my blog under the Subscriber section is a new Amazon.com search bar. If you ever use Amazon to shop, start your search there. It will lead you to whatever you were looking for just like normal, but Amazon will pay me a portion of the sale! This goes for any thing from Rare earth Magnets, xacto blades to 50" plasma tvs and computers. Send me some Jawa-Love! And help support the Jawa-baby. :) Lets see how much money I can wrangle out of Amazon. I will keep a running total!

Jawa-Baby Update:

He is due in two days on Sunday 12/13. (Sorry I have not been keeping up on blogging.) I will keep you all posted and will put up pics as soon as he is born! The Jawa-lady is doing well and has been fantastic while pregnant. I could not ask for any better! We are both really excited and anxious at the same time.

More to come!

Jawaballs

jawaballs needs a new logo! A mini jawa-contest.

Hey guys, in an attempt to head off Lucasfilm and their innevitable Cease and Desist for using a jawa in my logo, I am looking for a new offical logo for my site and videos. I have gotten some nice fan art that I use from time to time on my vids, but I am now looking for my new OFFICAL one! So I am opening this up to you. I wont let this one hang forever. Here are the rules.

Due date: Friday, Jan 15 at 8pm EST.

Email your entry to: jawaballs at yahoo

Size? Make your entry up to 8x10 at 300 resolution. No smaller then 5x7.

It must be a Jpeg.

No Lucasfilm or GW IP can be used. Jawaballs is stretching it as it is. That means no Hooded heads with glowing eyes. No Imperial Eagles. No Blood Angels logos. Etc.

The only copy that can appear is "A Jawaballs Production" But you can put it in any format you want.

Please do not include a signature or water mark.

The winner will receive some sort of Jawa-loot as determined when I make the selection. It depends on the entries I guess. Plus his art will replace my current logo as my offical letterhead and icon, at least until the next one is needed.

All entries may be used in some videos on youtube.

So bust out your photoshop skills. Bust out your colored pencils and paints. And start creating! Be professional. Artwork on lined paper will not be selected. Remember, I am an artist and art teacher myself! Use high resolution. It is ok to draw marines in power armor, so long as it is your own artwork. It is also ok to do parodies of offical IP. The angel wings and blood drop are out, but something that looks similar...

If I don't get enough quality entries, (Remember I will be putting this on all offical jawaballs productions corespondaence)the offical contest will be cancelled, but your entries will still be used in some of my videos to give you guys props.

Have Fun!

Jawaballs

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Chaos Marines

Baal Prime:

...ssshhkiiitttt... static.... beep beep...

..."Incoming Transmission"... Forward scouting party reporting in... Sir! We have come under heavy fire... ssshhkiittt... ...encountered large force of Traitor marines led by Kharn himself!... Our position compromized... Please advi......

And that is it Lord Dante. Before their final transmission our scouts reported sightings of Kharn, Noice Marines, Berzerkers, Plague Bearers, heavy armor and even daemons. It looks like Kharn has managed to rally forces from all sectors of the Chaos realm. They have taken control of an inactive munitions depot and are using three key power relays to erect some sort of machinery. This chaos cursed machine seems to be able to tear a rift in the warp in order to bring in reinforces. The depot will be rounding Prime Secundus for one more cycle, allowing our drop forces the opportunity to land under the cover of darkness, then strike with first light.

Captain Colaradros, ready the 2nd company and move to intercept this force. Exterminate them with full prejudice. Suffer not Chaos to live. Bring me the Head of the Betrayer. For Sanguinius and the Emperor. Dante out.

Mission: Capture and Control 3 power relays
Deployment: Dawn of War

My opponent won and took first turn. He deployed Noise Marines close to the middle of the board in a crater, and Plague Marines further back in a trench. He had a winged lord in the middle of the table behind terrain.

I deployed two 5 man Combat Squads in terrain with Lascannons.

Turn 1:
He went first, and his Noise Marines managed to draw range to one of my Las squads. 3 Blood Angels died in the horrific volley. The rest of his forces came on to the battle field. He moved a Predator with 3 Lascannons 12" as well as a vindicator. Kharn, some daemons, berzerkers in a rhino also moved on from the edge. The surviving marines were pinned.

On my turn I moved on my tanks in the back right corner. The two Baal preds providing cover for the two rhinos moving in behind. My bikes moved on behind my other Combat Squad on the left side. They would intercept a charging Khorne rhino. I killed some Noise Marines with Predator fire.

Turn 2:
The chaos scum would finish off the two marines that were pinned down by noise marines. The Berzerkers moved up in their rhino and the predator and vindicator fired on a Baal but failed to hurt it.

On my turn, two of my pods came down. One dread deployed and vaporized Kharn with a melta shot. The other dropped right in front of his Vindicator but missed with the melta gun. My bikes destroyed his Khorne rhino and killed a couple of berzerkers in the explosion. My predators layed down supressing fire on the Noise Marines killing all but four while one of my rhinos used the distraction to move fast up the right edge of the board. It was going to flank around and claim an uncontested objective in the rear while the predators cleared a hole for it.

Turn 3:
He tried to get his berzerkers away from my dreadnought. He moved them up on bikes and killed them. He also moved his winged lord to the squad but was out of range to assault. He fired his Vindicator on the dread right in front of it, but it scattered onto his own Plague Marines! Killing 4. He fired his Lascannon shots at another dread, but only blew off an arm. The dreads would assault!

On my turn I dropped my other pod near his berzerkers, and the dread got out and flamed them, killing a couple more. My predators finished off the Noise Marines and one of my dreads charged the squad of Plague marines who got hit with their own Vindicator and killed them all while the other one charged his daemons. That fight would last til the end of the game, but they were out of it.

At the end of turn 3 the game was mostly over. His Plague Marines and Noise Marines were dead. He had his daemons tied up in combat against a dread they could not hurt and his Berzerkers were being chased by another angry dread.

Turn 4:

Attempting to save stop my charge, the vindicator fired on my flanking Rhino but scattered off. The Las Pred fired on my Rhino, but only Stunned it, which was reduced to a Shaken because I always take extra armor. (One more example where having extra armor made a difference. Had I not had it, I would have not gotten that squad into objetive scoring range.) In the assaults, his zerkers killed off my Las team while his lord jumped into terrain and took a wound. Another Daemon died to my dread.

On my turn, my predators sprayed some shots at his vindicator. My rhino, that was only shaken due to extra armor, moved 18" to just barely claim an objective. The other rhino moved up and claimed a second. The dread that slaughtered the Plague Marines moved up and assaulted his Vindicator, exploding it. On the left side, my Death Company finally came on...(I forgot to bring them on sooner) and they assaulted the lord and killed him.

Turn 5:
The game was pretty much over. He assaulted my DC models with his remaining zerkers and killed them then massacred into a trench. His Las pred fired on the Dread charging it, but failed to stop him. That was all he had left!

I immobilized the rhino on the trench next to its objective, but the boys inside bailed out and fired their melta on the Las pred while the Dread moved up and shot at it as well. Both missed, but the Dread would managed to reach it in assault, and exploded it. The zerker dread charged them and squished them as well! Game over.

The dreads coming out of pods were simply outstanding. They tore things up in the middle of the table. The key was killing Kharn with a melta shot coming out of the pod. He was the only model on the table that could do more then a grenade in close combat against my dreads. Once he was dead, my dreads would be able to charge into combat with abandon. And they did. So that wraps it up. This game serves as a tune up game for my next Tournament action in January. With the little jawa coming any second now, I probably wont get in many more games, so it was good to work out a few things.

Bring on the Conflict GT!

Jawaballs

Paint to play or play to paint? Which one are YOU?


When I got into 40k three years ago I was not very good at painting. There were no decent tutorial videos out there (Which I fixed!) and the GW instructions are written along the same lines as instructions on how to assemble a book case. I struggled through trial and error and my first Ultramarines just didn't look good. I, like probably 80% of guys who try the hobby, threw up my hands on painting and just focused on learning how to play from Fritz and hacked away at painting here and there. I bought a bunch of poorly painted old crap off ebay and used that on the tables.

But then I decided to focus on painting. I got some high quality brushes, practiced my technique on my crappy models and actually developed some skill. The first model I painted that I was proud of, which is horrible by my current standards, was the Chaplain with Jump pack and I still have him! He was mostly Red Gore and looked like a Khorne Berzerker. I had no clue I used the Khorne color scheme until Black Matt pointed it out to me. I started truely looking at models on line and started to truely see the level of detail that was possible and what I could do. The point of that is that just about any color scheme that works well is already done. As a beginner, don't try to reinvent the wheel and make up your own scheme. Pick an established scheme that you like and go with it. Like I did as I finished that chaplain that looked like a Khorn Berzerker. I used what was already done, and I made it my own.

Then the new BA dex came out, I started using Blood Red, and then my current level of painting was born. I came in with some more models, much improved, and showed Matt again. I told him I was looking at the Golden Daemon stuff in White Dwarf for inspiration. He asked "What do I want to accomplish?" My answer was to win a Golden Daemon after some thought. He smiled and wished me luck, saying if I think I can, then to go for it!

Not long after I won my first of several Best Painted awards, almost won Players Choice at Baltimore GT and was in the top runnings at any tournament I played at.

Now I am flattered to say I am considered a "Pro" and guide hundreds of people in their own painting!

What is the point of all this rambling Jawa???

I ask you the question. Do you paint to play? Or play to paint?

When is started, I painted so I could play. Painting was secondary. I wanted to get good at the game. But then I realized I could paint, and started focusing on that. My goal at tournaments became to go to win Best Painted, standings be damned. That happened pretty fast. Then what?

I was going to tournaments, winning Best Painted, but getting crushed on the tables. I was cool with playing to paint, but let me tell you, my competitive ego was taking a bruising every time.

Flash forward to Toywiz Conflict GT 2009 last Jan, out of about 40 players, I took best painted with my Blood Angels, but also took 6th overall. What? I wasnt 3rd from last? I went to a tournament and won games? The truth of it is that had my buddy Greg not stuck it to me in game 5, I could have won the whole thing. We all have a thousand of those stories, I know, but the fact that I could have actually won stuck with me. And grated on me! My painting is what pushed me into the upper reaches of the tournament. I was one of, if not the only guy to score maximum points for painting. I realized, that with good painting, decent playing, and a little luck, I could compete for the whole shabang! Especially since most guys who go to tournaments are of the Paint to Play mentality. (Getting some gaming quality painted models on the table so they can play their army.)

So boom, the arms race begins. I start refining my list. Next thing I know I am showing up for tournament after tournament with a new list, improving on what I had done before. I am playing casual games with the intent to tweak my list and get the most efficient use of my points I could. A few months later WHAM! I won a tournament. Then another! Then a 4th place... (I was on top table game 3 and drew.) Then I took a third at Mechanicon... I was playing for the win overall, but tie breakers, and my poorly finished army, dropped me to third. Thats right, I said poorly painted army. In my obsession to win games and score battle points, I neglected what I did best, painting. All of my tweaks and army changes left me with using only a Tactical squad and a rhino that were in my first Best Painted win. Everything else was new. I was throwing together models and painting them over night to table top standard, just so I could field them... I showed up there with a tactical squad with no insignias, drop pods with no highlights and half finished bikes. I became one of those guys!

Painting to Play might be what cost me 1st at the Mechanicon GT. It definitely cost me Best Painted at the recent Battle for Salvation tournament. (But I did win best overall.) I thought I could show up and let the impressive stuff in my army outshine the poor quality overall. While my army still looked outstanding, I was putting models on the table that I was not proud of and doing myself a disservice.

Finally I will cut to the point. If you want to win tournaments, you need to focus on both painting and playing. If you look at all of the Best Overall winners, they not only crush their opponents, but their armies are beautiful... Usually, sometimes guys are just so good that painting doesnt matter, but they still have at least good looking armies so as not to lose points.

This January I will come full circle. I will play in the 2010 Conflict GT and try to defend my Best Painted crown, AND win the whole thing! Personally I am no longer trying to paint to play, or play to paint. Best Painted and Best Overall. I want it all! Is that too much? Ugh... I have visions of that obnoxious girl from the original Charly and the Chocolate Factory. :)

More to Come...

Jawaballs

Death Company Drop Pod




My current project is to add some unity to my entire army. I have been losing points in painting judging lately because A: My army is not finished... I have done so many changes the last few months that I have let my painting slip and some of the models are hurting. And B: More importantly, my army is in discord. My style has changed so drasticly over the last year that models I painted a year ago no longer look like they belong with the models I did a few weeks ago. I have three Baal Preds that look like they were painted by three different people! Some tournaments have army theme as a major part of painting scoring, and I think that hurt me at Mechanicon for example, and my shoddy rush work definitely hurt me at the last BFS tournament.

What am I doing to fix this? Well I am putting in some major love time to get them done and finished with some unity. Last spring when I did my Honor Guard and angel winged predator I added a checker design to all the models to give them unity. I decided to go with these checkers on all of my armor. Starting with my new Death Company pods I'm going to work backwards and bring all of my models into unity with each other.

So here is a quick bit about one of my Death Company pods.

First off, how to paint it.

These were actually painted red when I was using them as normal dread pods. So I sprayed them black using Army Painter black primer, which is the best I have found by the way.

After trying a few grey combinations, I decided on using Fenris Grey Foundation paint as the first highlight and I hit every edge with it. Then as the second highlight I used Codex grey, and as an extreme I used Fortress. I went with Fenris because it is a very cool grey and I wanted to add some subtle blue accent to the army when it is sitting all together on display. It wont be obvious, but the blue will help the eye relax while looking at all that glaring red and orange.

Having done that, I cut out a stencil X and used it to put the same X on every door. I painted that with mechrite red, then did some blending from Red Gore, to a red that I mixed using scorched brown to blood red, and I highlighted the edges with Blazing Orange and Fiery orange.

Then I did some re-entry paint wear. Along all the edges that face the table, I used some Boltgun Metal and just dabbed the brush on the edge, letting the paint thin as I dragged it up towards the armor plate.

That brought me to the checkers and danger stripes.

Danger Stripes first.

I have always wanted to do these on a pod, they look great on the box, but have hesitated because more often then not when you see them attempted on guys pods, they are messy and dont work.

So I got out my little hobby ruler and went to town. I measuerd down the length of the door, marking off segments that would become the lines. Using the same measurements, I did this for each door. Then I free hand painted the segments with Iyanden Darksun. Painting a straight line is not for the faint of heart! This is the part that makes or breakts the danger stripes. But one thing that allows me to paint to a good level is a steady hand and I make good use of it. So after painting the darksun, I paint the bottom half of the line segments with Blazing Orange, then I layer in more yellow using Golden, then sunburst then Lemon Yellow by Valejo as a highlight then white on the extreme top edge. I work the color down from the top to the bottom, covering the Blazing orange but leaving it visible with thin layers.

I repeat the same steps on the checker pattersn on the fins. I used a 3/10 inch square and measured them all in, making the same exact squares on each fin. They did not come out perfect because it is actually very hard to hold a squirmy pod, metal ruler and pencil, and make marks at the same time. After laying out the grid I used the same color combo, but omitted the blaziing orange. Though I might add it in on later pods.

So there you go! That brings you up to date. I will post more updates on the progress of the pods, but watch my youtube channel for video!

What have your experiences been with painting hazard stripes? How bout mixing painting styles in your army?

More to come...

Jawaballs

Here is some video: