Showing posts with label Spikey Bits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spikey Bits. Show all posts

40k Model Review- Blood Angels Stormraven!

MBG here with my review of the new Stormraven, which I found to be very innovative and daringly designed.

Like it or love it the new kit is here. I started right in on the assembly, after we got our black box in (containing the Furioso, and the Stormraven), and I had a field day with this thing.

If you are in the market for some Stormraven bits, checkout the Spikey Bits Online Store.

FTW Games- Richmond, VA's Fully Operational Gaming Battle Station

Much like the Death Star in RoTJ, we are now fully operational.

We offer most tabletop wargames, card games, board games, and hobby supplies such as paint and tools.

We also have EIGHT 4'x6' Gaming Tables that you can play on, as well as 4 Multi-Purpose tables, XBOX, Free Wifi, Drinks, and Snacks.

If you are in the area come by and check us out! We are about 1-1/2 hours from most of Virginia.
FTW Games 
13176 Midlothian Turnpike
Midlothian, VA 23113
804.464.1873 
Hours
Monday- Closed
Tuesday-Thursday 2pm- 10pm*
Friday-Sunday 12 Noon- 10pm* 
 *Mostly Close Later

If you like what you see here, head over to our FTW Games Website and go more in-depth with whats going on here at the shop, and how you can get involved! 

-MBG


I would like to congratulate Rob Baer on launching his store and doing his thang!  Grats man. Maybe Fritz and I can take a road trip and play in a tournament.  Jawaballs

Demi-Legion: Chaos Titan Mega Build-Two Warhounds, One Reaver

MBG here with the a summary of my current progress with the Titan Mega Build.

Well I couldn't help myself. Being a long time follower of all things Chaotic, when the Forgeworld Chaos Reaver  Titan hit I just had to have it. But I was afraid that he would be a little lonely by himself in my display case so I bought two Warhounds to keep him company as well. It seemed like a good idea at the time....

Thus my Chaotic Demi-Legion was born, to ravage apocalypse and gladiator games to no end.  However in order to make this plan come to fruition, I had to get my arse in gear and assemble these puppies.  Fortunately I have cohorts that are eager and willing to help for their share of plastic toys!

So with a watchful eye and a devoted helper the Legion began to emerge.

 

Most people by now have heard that assembling these things are a pain the arse. However its mostly just the legs that suck. You really, really have to plan that out carefully.  First trim up all your leg pieces from the toes up to the hip joints. Have it all ready to go and your leg build will go smoothly. 
It's preferable to have two people for this operation. My helper Andy "Submariner" Holley trimmed down and de-flasher these pieces in no time flat.  We used the instructions for inspiration for the leg poses (basically that means we copied it).  So while I dry fitted and glued each piece Andy held the hip and legs to make sure everything lined up and the hip joint that attached to the torso would be level.

It all turned out pretty good, and you can even do this without attaching the pistons -except the hamstring one you have to attach that when you build up to the hip.

One last piece of advice. Magnetizing or pinning the leg assembly to the torso will not only give you the ability to move you titan left to right ( and make cool machine gun noises when you shoot), but lets you transport your bad boy easier as well.

I used two 1/2" rare earth magnets here. You have to try and make sure that even with the magnets attached that the two pieces they are connecting remain flush to transfer the force of the Torso assembly to the legs. These magnets will not do all the work by themselves!

Working on the torso, while its not quite as hard as doing the legs, it's still important to make sure everything lines up correctly. I also plan on going back and painting the interior. I just want to get the outside painted first because we have an Apocalypse game coming up in a few weeks that I need this guy for.

So here's a good progress shot of Warhound # 1 along with a shot of the flexibility of the torso when its magnetized. The center of gravity of the torso seems to be working out well with the positioning of the feet.  It worked out pretty good I think.


We went ahead and cleaned up all the weapons I bought for both Warhounds just so we could have options to use for the upcoming Apocalypse game. I wasn't sure what lists we would be running for that so I wanted to make sure I at least planned the Titan out for maximum killing.

I left the leg greaves off so I could paint them, and the leg detail itself easier. The pistons go on pretty fast, but some we had to drill out because the casts had been a bit smooshed and the sides had jutted into the mounting hole.  No big deal really, but you have to be prepared for anything I think when you are assembling these things.


I ended up magnetizing the weapon arms, so we could use whatever weapon load-out I had. The most popular weapon combo so far, seemed to be the twin Turbo Laser Destroyers. I pinned the top of the weapons mount and magnetized the bottom, again with a 1/2" diameter rare earth magnet.  I also glued a small strip of plastic card onto the magnet on the weapon mount, to help prevent them from chipping or cracking- a fact learned from a previous blog comment!

Now that the assembly was complete for the most part, I needed to wash the resin down so I wouldn't have any problems with the paint adhering to it.  It's a good idea to do this because when resin is cast, a small coat of mold release is left on the model. Sometimes some of the mold comes off and gets wedged into bits of detail as well. It all can make paint run off, or not even stick at all.  So it's best to scrub this thing down with soap, and let it dry overnight.


By morning it was completely dry, and I started priming it up in the base color I wanted.  I used Army Painter's Necrotic Flesh. It's a lighter green color, like Dead Flesh, which is fine because I'm going to wash it with darker colors anyways.

So that's it so far. Primed up and ready to go to war!

-MBG

Checkout the in-depth articles complete with assembly tips and tricks. Follow along on the progress of the Titan Mega Build with the links below!

Spikey Bits
BoLS Lounge


Sorry about taking so long to get this one posted up! Jawaballs

"Enter the Mephiston" - Blood Angels 1850 List



Hey guys, this was sent in from Rob Baer and I thought you would enjoy reading it if you have not seen it already! Jawaballs

This was the third rewrite of my Blood Angels list. I kinda did it on the fly too, and made some mistakes, BUT I knew I wanted to play around with Mephiston.

As previously pointed out Mephiston is a Death Star, able to kill with realitive ease most unit in the game.  However he is not invulnerable, i.e. no INV save, but as long as you can minimize the hits he's taking he can endure for most games.

The list I wrote below was going to be my greatest list ever. However as with most master plans I forgot one little thing; he's not an Independent Character.  So he wasn't going to go into a drop pod with the honor guard, DOH! It's quite possible that the combination of him in a pod would be broken, but hey in tourney play I'm all for broken.

Anyways so I started looking for a "Mephiston Delivery System", and came up with two 15 point rhinos that belonged to some 5 man Assault squads.  Now while he couldn't start in the rhino, he could embark into it and scream 18 inches up on his first turn!  Conversely he could just start 12" or whatever up and (hopefully) wings up 12 more and fleet on his turn as well, BUT I prefer the screaming rhino tactic.

So I played this a few times and pretty much ran the flank he was on, leaving devastation in his wake.  It made me giggle on the inside, but reality set in and I realized I didn't have enough troops to do missions etc, so I scrapped the list.  BUT here it is version 2.0 of my Blood Angels Playtest List.

Now on a side note this list is the same one I ran for my playtest video 3 hopefully coming soon this week.
  • Mephiston
  • Honor Guard 4x Meltas, Pod 
  • Priest, Jump Pack, Combi Melta 
  • Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, Blood Talons, Pod w/ Loc 
  • Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, BL, Flight, Pod w/ Locator
  • Assault Squad 10 Man- Melta x2, P Fist 
  • Assault Squad 10 Man- Melta x2, Sgt w/Melta Bombs 
  • Assault Squad 10 Man- Melta x2, Sgt w/Melta Bombs
  • Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Rhino Searchlight 
  • Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Rhino Searchlight
 -MBG

So what would you fix in this list?

New Blood Angels - Playtest Battle Report Video

Here is something that Rob Baer sent into me a while ago, I thought you all would enjoy it. Jawaballs

Hey guys, MBG back again with my first Blood Angels Playtest Video. We tried out the following list vs. my Mech guard.

Overall it was a good learning experience for what the new 'Angels are capable of, and how to go about it.

I like the fast moving vehicles, and the psykers, but I dont like the lack of long range fire. However I dont think I'll be able to get around the long range fire part, as my guts telling me the more competitive builds will be all out aggro assault.

1850 Mech Angels
  • Librarian w/ Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius
  • Brother Corbulo
  • Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, BL SS
  • Furioso LIbrarian Dreadnought, BL SS, Drop Pod
  • Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, P Fist, Razorback Las/Plas
  • Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
  • Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
  • Assault Squad 5 Man- Melta, Razorback Las/Plas
  • Baal Predator
  • Baal Predator
  • Baal Predator 


The basic idea of the list is to rush forward and pound the heck out of your enemy. The single Librarian model hangs out in a razorback and gives everything a 5+ cover save.

It was a good starting point to jump in on the angels, and use some of their special stuff, however I think the direction this list will end up taking is more assault troops with jump packs and enough armor just to screen them.




Game 2, same lists.




-MBG

So what do you think of the Battle Report? I tried to snazz it up a bit with some graphics, but am far from video mastery at this point.

Conversion Spotlight- Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship WIP

MBG Rob Baer back again with a sweet conversion I've been obsessing over.  Deep down inside me I knew it was going to come to this. I would fall to the sweet siren song of converting up a Stormraven, and there was nothing anyone, not even my girlfriend, could do about (trust me she tried).

Going in I had a good idea of what I had in mind, but along the way there were issues that cropped up. Now that I got the overall structure pretty much flushed out I can get on with all the little details and clean up the multiple gaps between kits.

Keep in mind this is a very rough early look at the project. Big Red at BoLS is a taskmaster for hobby articles so I figure this will keep him in check for a week (j/k)  There is still a lot to go back and fix/ glue down, panel out and more parts to be added. Believe it or not the interior is still intact (and the ramp doors still open and close) so I will even be going back to paint that. Unfortunately that mean some of the panels can't be permanently attached yet.

I've been taking pics along the way so I'll have a in depth step by step guide to the conversion once I get it completed (hopefully in a week). Here is a brief list of things yet to be added, and below that PICS!
  • Landing gear
  • Front stubby wings, with HB underslung
  • Land raider hatches (where black sharpie marks are)
  • 2nd S foil wing similar to T- Hawk?
  • Lots of armor plating
  • 45 Degree Fillet structure on the bottom connecting the front half to back
  • 4x Bloodstrike Missiles

-MBG

I'd really like some feedback on this project, so please lets hear your .02! Yes the dread is attached by a magnetic clamp, how's it look?

I Wanna Go Fast!- Nob Bikers and Custom Bases.

And finally, here is Rob Baer, the last of my 40k buddies to be brought into the fold. Why? Well, he knows his shiznit. Like him or not, he makes beautiful models, and he knows how to play 40k. He has won several GTs and plays rock hard lists that look great. He is also a guest writer on Bell of Lost Souls. I figured he could add a little more variety to this blog, and share his Ork Conversions with you since they look fantastic! Be looking for the final two writers to be invited next week once I have had a chance to get through all the applications. At this point, I think I am looking for some one to write great batreps and some one to add more Blood Angels info. More to come... Jawaballs




MBG Rob Baer reporting in for Jawaballs!  Today I wanted to show off my Nob Biker squad, and their custom bases. The best thing you can do to really show off converted and painted models, is to put them on bases that will show off their detail , and accent the theme of your army.   I figured a base with a bunch of battlefield debris with a rocky deserty look was the way to go for these lads. So, I painted them up in a desert scheme to match the rest of my Ork horde.


First I basecoated them with Scorched Brown, then drybrushed over that with Kommando Khaki, followed by Bubonic Brown. The metals were picked out with P3's Pig Iron and washed with Devlin Mud. Then I used wood glue to affix GF9's "Straw Grass" flock to them. I use the wood glue as opposed to super glue because I think the grass just looks "fuller" when it dries.

So now its time to mount my models on their new scenic bases. Of course I'd have to pin each of them down to their base, which is fine because I know they will be sturdy. I won't have to worry about them falling off the base either (unless I drop them- UGH!)

Here's the Nob Bikers mounted on their new bases.  Since they now made the bits for Big Choppas (Nobz Box)  I splashed a few of those around the squad. Who can't resist four STR 7 hits on the charge per model?
I converted a Waaagh Banner from a Black Orc arm and an Orc Warboss Standard from Warhammer Fantasy.  I had to magnetize the arm at the shoulder to actually store it, as the whole model wouldn't even fit in a 4" foam tray!

Then I sketched the outline of the banner in pencil as a guideline for the freehand paint job. Next I went over it with black, and highlighted that with three grays; Adeptus Battlegrey, Codex Grey, Ghostly Grey, and Codex Grey 50/50 Mix. When I was done I just used the eraser to get rid of any unwanted pencil marks that were left behind!

Of course I still have some Power Claw Nobz, plus the wonder twins: Warboss Snorg and Painboy Steve. Check out the Warboss on his new base of doom! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!


Note the Attack Squig shamelessly stolen from the Fanatics Box. I also converted a flame on the Kombi-Skortcha from an Ork Boy Topknot bit. I think in the near future I'll go back and add a small banner pole to him just so he's taller that the rest of the ladz.

Last but not least is Painboy Steve. I did a lot of customizing with this model, and I think he turned out pretty good.

First he had to have a masked head, and that weird doctor head light saucer thing. Next he needed some Dok's tools and and a bone saw for operating. Then I converted him a Painboy gun from a slugga, bosspole, and burna.

I also painted a "bone cross" on his bike cowl so everyone knows he's the Dok!

So that's it. I'm itching to get these guys on the field, with the new Deff Rolla rules and see what the army can do!

-MBG

What do you think? Use the standard base for the model, or buy something that looks good? Jawaballs has a great line of affordable custom resin bases in his store to choose from!.  You can also checkout my blog Spikey Bits  for more custom tips, and tricks for customizing your models!