News and notes

Hey folks,

Well, School starts up for me tomorrow, you know what that means? More time for me to blog!  Believe it or not I will actually get way more blogging done from work than I will taking care of the jawababy at home.  I still have Nova Open info and Gamesday stuff coming up!  I have been having problems with Windows Movie Maker for some reason. I throw together a movie made up of video shorts that I have shot, and when I go to publish, it just stalls out and I have to restart the program, losing all of my work.  Frustrating. Any clues WTF?  On a related note, I am looking for a quick, convenient and easy program that I can use to convert my HD video from my Canon Vixia HF 200 into a format that I can use on Movie Maker.  I have Studio Pro, but it is honestly too much software!  All I want to do is select a folder full of videos from my camera, and tell them all to turn into files Movie Maker can use.  Is that too much to ask?

On a related note, I will be taking a break from the weekly Jawaballs Live! broadcasts.  I need to try to make some money so I will be going back to the photography gig after school.  I shoot action pictures for high school yearbooks.  Jawa wants to buy a house!  While I enjoy doing the broadcasts, I need to devote those evenings to doing something that makes me moolah.  I will however do unscheduled broadcasts a couple times a month. So stay tuned here for details on those.

I have a couple of cool things coming up in the next few months, and some neat things I think you guys should check out.

First of all, a new 40k blog!  The blog scene is exploding which is fantastic. But I always love to plug the Blood Angels ones. Kevin, a reader and poster here, has decided to take a stab at a blog of his own, and HERE IT IS!  Go take a look!

Also there is a new Blood Angels infosite/forum that has just launched and I registered for.  GO SEE IT HERE.  It just launched, but at first glance looks pretty spiffy!  Way better than my hack job of a site.    I'm happy to be part of the growing community.

Coming up for tournaments we have two in October and one in November.

First of all comes The Battle for Salvation! 

This one is being put on by my club of the same name, and NO we are not a religious organization. We simply meet in a Salvation Army hall which happens to be in the back of a church.  This tournament is being run in the style that had a huge success this year at The Nova Open. There are 48 spots only, and the top few will be invited back the second day for a mini round robin tournament to decide the overall Emperor of mankind and winner of The Battle for Salvation.  It is being held in White Plains, NY which is a short train hop from Manhattan and is a beautiful destination for any one who appreciates beautiful fall weather and great 40k.  Visit the site for more details.

Moving on, my next stop will be at The Meadowlands for The Warstore Weekend! 

This is a great weekend being put on by every ones favorite online store, The Warstore!  Neal and the boys have a bunch of great stuff planned for the weekend, including a 40k tournament that I plan on entering. So I hope to see you all there!

Then shortly after I will be traveling out to PA again for The Mechanicon!

Last year I made the trip out for the first one and came a 3+ armor save away from winning it all. Tony and the boys ran a warm and inviting tournament on beautiful tables with cool terrain, and their philosophy is to try to send away as many dudes as possible with loot.  They have one award called Army Domination that goes to the best player for each particular army. Never win with your Necrons? Well now is your chance!  Come throw down in PA!

Not missing a beat, except for the one I will get from my wife, the following weekend I will be traveling out to Rochester, NY for Da Boys GT 2010! I have spoken to Goatboy and Darkwyn and both are planning on attending, which makes it a mandatory Jawaballs appearance just to share some brews since I missed them in Austin.  I love you honey!  If she only knew that I only went out to these events to hang out with cool dudes and get wasted. :)

Jawababy bathtime with an annoyed Jawawife.

  Finally it is a little far out yet, but I am planning on gathering up Fritz, Black Matt, Brother Captain James, Danny Internets and the rest of the bunch for a trip out to Rhode Island, home of TAPS and Templecon!

The details elude me at this very moment, but a challenge has definitely been dropped for the top clubs of the east coast to show up and represent... and a finger was definitely pointed at Battle for Salvation.  I forget who sent me the email and it has been lost amongst thousands of spams and youtube comment announcements, so whoever it was resend your great email!  Was that you Kevin?  

There is another team event that Fritz will be organizing for us to attend in the near future as well. Is it time for Battle for Salvation to claim the Golden Throne?

Finally finally, the one good thing to come from Fritz and I having to bail on Wargamescon, is that we have some airline credit with Jetblue to go some place, and we decided to go to next years Adepticon.  If you missed us at Gamesday, Bolscon, Nova Open, Mechanicon, Hard Boys, Grim, The Unknown, or any of the other places we have traveled to for a throwdown, head on out to Adepticon where we will be hooking up with our buds from Bell of Lost Souls to beat face!  

Phew that was a lot of stuff!

Ok, that is all for now.  This week I plan on spending loads of time formating my hours of video content from Nova and Gamesday, and writing up some late reviews on both.  Also be looking for more info on the Templecon throwdown and I hopw to see as many of you as possible at The Battle for Salvation! Don't wait, there are only 48 spots and there will be NO extended spots.  

More to come...

Jawaballs

Email help! How to beat IG Mech?

Email in:

Heyo Jawa,
 
Got a few questions for you.  How do you deal with IG?  To give you some background to what happened to me tonight and why I'm asking here's our lists.
 
Libby  sword/shield
 
SP power weapon
 
5 5 man RAS power weapon, meltagun, RB w/ las/plas hk missles
5 man RAS power weapon meltagun rhino
 
3 baal preds w/ heavy bolters hk missle
 
2 preds las spons hk missles
 
him
 
command squad with astropath/master of the fleet chimera
 
4 veteran squads   2 with all 3 meltas  2 with 3 plasmas  I don't remember if they had power weapons because I didn't get anywhere near them. 
2 autocannon weapon squads
2 infantry squads with las weapon teams
 
2 vendettas
 
2 demolishers
1 deathstrike missle launcher
 
 
He didn't tailor his list to fight me specifically.  He's a guy that's been teaching me how to improve my game to tourney level(along with your help too) and recently just got the army to the point he could play it.  He won first turn and I didn't think to reserve my army.  Even turtling around my libby rhino for SoS half my tanks were stunned/shaken and 1 pred was wrecked.  It was all downhill from their.  I'll admit I've never rolled so poorly in my life but it was unreal how much fire was coming down on me.  I only wrecked 2 tanks and took 1 gun off a vendetta and he nearly tabled me.  I think I had 4 marines left and no tanks.  
 
Should I reserved even though he's running the astropath if he wins first turn?  Is there some other tactic I could have used.  I his my razor chassis behind my baals to get 3+ covers on them but at the beginning of turn 2 I knew turtling wasn't going to work and tried to push out and press him a bit but I was denied in all regards.   There were 3 paths across the board(we played with about 7-10 terrain pieces), 1 he blocked with 2 chimera squads 1 melta 1 plas and the other 2 were like driving through hell via LC.  
 
How do you beat ultra competitive mech IG?  Even had I been rolling better I don't think I could have won that game.
 
 
Thundrchickn

Response:

Hey Thundrchickn!  With the list you were packing, you were in trouble.  Going up against that list in a tournament is always going to come down to luck.  If you are lucky enough to get first turn, you have a fighting chance.  With your list, I would probably deploy and seize the initiative. A 1 in 6 chance of crippling him is not bad, and I have to say that those are probably better chances than you would have in a gun battle. Just understand that if you fail, you are screwed.  In a recent tournament vs Danny Internets in which he was using a similar list, I deployed and went for the seize. I knew what he was going to do, but I knew that it was my only real chance at beating him.  Of course I failed and he tabled me, but we played a game for fun right afterwards, in which I did seize, and I tabled him.  

So, you have to ask yourself... feeling lucky... punk?  

Extreme luck aside your options are limited.  AV 12 is a surprisingly tough nut to crack. He has a lot of hard hitting guns that can get at your soft parts.  You have two choices.  

Deploy:

He is going to go first. He is going to blast the shit out of you. Just accept that.  Take your losses, and on your turn move every thing up into his face and pop smoke.  All you need is a break and blammo, you are in his lines and popping chimeras with your melta guns and assaulting the boys inside.  The good part is that with your depleted squads you will not slaughter him on the charge. You will beat his boys on his assault, then move onto the next on yours.  Again, with a little luck, you will create a chain reaction where you get to mow him down.  

Reserve:

His cheeze may actually work in your favor.  I can't wait until allies are removed from the game. (I honestly don't know if it is the allies that give the dude that messes with reserves or not, but it does not matter, I threw in this quip here.) But until then you may get lucky and have nothing come on turn two.  That is two turns of him having nothing to shoot at!  The good thing is that you can come on from reserve and fire all your guns.  You are guaranteed to get shots off at his vendettas before losing them.  You are packing 9 Las Cannons.  With a good round of reserves, you can get them on the table and smoke his ass.  Target the vendettas, then try for shots at his crap in the back. Some of those heavy hitting pieces are only AV 12!  All you need is a pinhole and he has to make cover saves. A 50% chance at shaking them is good enough, and all you need to do is shake them.  So shoot them until shaken, then move on.  Move your razors 12" and shoot the las. Bring on your Baals and go for side shots from the flanks.  

In a tactical game, the most competitive way to go is reserves. You are playing into his strengths, but it is relying on less luck.  If you want to go for the win... gamble and Seize the Initiative.  I have lost more games than I have won in tournaments to Mech Guard. But I did manage to take down two of them at the Nova Open.  (granted circumstances worked out in my favor for both games)  

Also, it is worth checking out his list.  A couple of medusas in the back, and Russ tanks with Demolisher cannons is an absolute deploy.  He does not have the range or fire power.  He will hurt you with his Vendettas, but your return fire should take them down.  Then pop his Medusas to protect your razors, then eat him up with your marines.  

List help?

Drop a Baal and pick up another ac/lc pred.  The HKs are nice, but you can probably drop most of them too.  Drop down to just missles on the predators.  For what you are paying for all those missiles, you can make a few changes and pick up a chaplain with melta pistol, and/or more priests.  I would increase the size of your rhino squad to 8, and throw in the chaplain and priest with melta pistols.  Give them a fist and melta gun and now you have a killer unit inside an 18" red torpedo. Give it dozer blades.  If you need more points, drop another Baal.  I wrote an article come time ago about Las being King again. It is.  

Good luck!

Jawaballs

Gamesday Coverage coming right up!

I'm Sorry! I'm backlogged and have hours and hours of material to post up starting with Nova Open. Fritz got me into Dungeons and Dragons Online and that has consumed my time this week!  But never fear... Jack is in Daycare, I am off, and plan on getting a lot of posting done this week.

I will start by saying that Gamesday was a blur. I took on three challengers, and that consumed most of the day, and I really didn't get to see much of the event itself.. but no biggy really. Fritz and Rob Baer among many others managed to get good footage. I'm sure they will be posting up stuff all week. Check back later!

Jawaballs

Gamesday 2010!

Jawaballs (the handsome portly man on the left) takes on a challenger at Gamesday 09

Tomorrow Fritz and I scoop up Brother Captain James and head on down to Baltimore for Gamesday 2010!  Like last year we will have a club table this year, and be offering more of the same. Bring your models and I will be more than happy to give you painting advice, or bring your army lists and pick the inner depths of Fritz's brain for tactical knowledge.  But we have a couple of special treats for you!

First of all, join our day long meat grinder event!  Come packing a 1k army with an HQ and two troops, painted of course, and join the fun.  At any given time, if you want to join the fray, all you need to do is put your forces into reserve. At the start of the next turn, you automatically come into the game and start shooting. Your objective? Take the center of the board. Every turn prizes will be given out to those who have it!

The prizes? Well, you are competing for a 1500 point space wolves army painted by Fritz!  Prizes will be in the form of tickets for a drawing being held at the end of the day. The winner takes home the army!

In addition to the meat grinder, we will have open gaming tables where you can bring your 1850-2k point list and challenge Jawaballs or Fritz.

Finally we will have the Storm Wardens army on display, and the winner of the army will be coming to collect his prize and play his first game against John from Santa-Cruz Warhammer, who is flying out to the east coast just for this opportunity.

So, come check out Jawaballs' Blood Angels, Fritz's Saim-Hann, the Storm Wardens, some nice hand painted banners and good old fashioned fun!  Cant wait to see you all there!

Jawaballs

The Nova Open results.

DAAAAN!!!

The results of the Nova Open are posted. As you know, my main goal was Renaisance Man. I figured I had to go 3-1 to have a chance at winning it, as well as do well in sportsmanship and painting.  So I accomplished my goals. I managed to go 3-1, which was no small feat, and I was amongst the top in painting and sportsmanship! Only two guys scored higher than me on Sportsmanship, and I was in a 4 way tie for 2nd.  Similar results for the painting scores. 

But sadly for me, and outstandingly for Danny Internets, he edged me out for the Ren Man. (essentially best overall) by .01. Thats right, POINT ZERO ONE.  There was a great math equation that arrived at the winner of the award based on your over all competitive points, painting points and sportsman points.  Danny did quite a lot better than me on the table, and I did a good amount better than him in painting, but he scored 15/16 in sportsman while I only managed a paultry 14/16.  That is pretty much what made the difference! 

Sure I could have done better on the painting score.  I spoke to one of the judges and he gave me his input... basicly had I just made sure all of my models were on my own Jawabases I would have scored about 10 points higher on his scale... which would have equated to that .01, but no, I was too damn lazy in the waning hours before the tournament to rebase them, and I just flocked and sanded some of the newest models.  :)  That is an example of just how close it gets! 

I'm glad for Dan as he really deserved the win. He is a great sportsman and a master at beating some ones face in while earning their utmost admiration and respect.

The Ren Man win, which came with a pile o loot including a massive Ork Stompa Apocalypse thing and a cool trophy, also came with a ticket to Vegas. Which I believe Danny has declined, so the Vegas Qualifier lands in my lap, my second! Since I already have mine, hopefully the next guy in line will be able to take advantage of it.

Now for me to set my sights on The Warstore Weekend, and The Mechanicon, two big fall events. If you are not yet signed up for The Mechanicon, don't wait, I expect the date to sell out quick. 

As for my personal Nova Open batreps, including my crushing defeat of Old Shatter Hands, and the ass pounding I took from Dash of Pepper. I will get to work on those tonight. It's back to daddy day care for me right now!

Jawaballs

Jawaballs is signed on for The Mechanicon!

After an outstanding performance for me at The Nova Open, I am eager to plot out my next few steps. I just purchased my ticket for The Mechanicon which is happening in November. Last year this was a great tournament run with efficiency and professionalism. I think I took 3rd best overall thanks to Corbulo failing a 3+ armor save on the last shot of the last game and dying like a punk. But that is old news! This year is all new for the Blood Angels. 

Also coming up soon are The Warstore Weekend and the as yet unnamed tournament also happening in October run by my club Battle for Salvation.  

So get over to The Mechanicon website asap and grab your ticket... Don't let yourself get wait listed!  Hope to see you there.  

Jawaballs 

Nova Open: I'm finally home! What a weekend.

It was a long rainy drive home, with my hung over head throbbing every mile of the way.  But I have to admit that it was well worth it!  First of all I would like to congratulate Old Shatter Hands for winning Best Painted Model. He had a Tau suit that was outstanding. Also, grats goes out to Danny Internets for winning Renaissance Man. Well done!

I will be writing up a complete review of the event tomorrow, right now my head hurts too much. But I can easily say that this event is ranged right up there with Bol...er...Wargames Con with the best events I have ever attended. I won my first three games, but lost my fourth, eliminating me from the Sunday Playoffs. But I'm standing proud... winning those three games was no small feat! I would say 95 percent of the dudes at the open were serious tournament gamers and they came to play. It was like a huge Hard Boys!

Any way, time to go watch the end of Return of the Jedi on Spike, drink lots of water, and crash. (the drive home took almost 8 hours.)  :(

More to come!

Jawaballs

Beating Tau? Like taking beer from a baby.

Before you get your panties in a bunch, the baby did NOT actually drink beer.

Tomorrow night I will be taking on Old Shatter Hands and his Tau army.  I have to say I am more than a little worried.  One good round of shooting on his part will ellliminate my army as a threat. Then all he has to do is sit back and pick off isolated pockets of marines.  The challenge is to get to his lines before that happens... which he will be doing his best to stop by blocking me with stupid skimmers and devil fish. Can't wait!  Jawaballs

Nova Open countdown! Tomorrow is the Whiskey Challenge

Nearly finished land raider that I gave a sneak peak of last time.

It has been a long week. Since I decided to go to the Nova Open a week ago, I have literally spent every spare second I had working on my army. I can happily say that it is just about ready!  I didn't have enough time to do my signature hand painted visuals on every tank. So I settled for hand painting the tank markings, squad markings to match the troops they carry and blood drops. Maybe in the future I will find time to go back and paint Blood Angels icons on the sides. Until then however, I managed to get each tank in my army, 8 including a Land Raider, painted up to a high Jawaquality.  I also went through all of my existing infantry and repainted all squad marking to match, banners and bases. I will be putting up video of the entire army after Nova and a complete list here along with a tactical breakdown of how I use it.  I will hopefully do well in Chantilly!

In the end though, I am mostly going there for the good times and good people. I love traveling to events to meet up with dudes like Ole Shatter Hands, Stelek and Mike Brandt play some 40k and knock back a few cold ones. See you all there! 

Jawaballs

Streaming Live this week: Jawaballs preps for Nova Open!

A taste of the new Jawa Army.

This week on Jawaballs Live! Check out my Nova Open army. Jawaballs will put the finishing touches on his 2k point army for the Nova Open, discussing painting theme, army build and tactics, as well as Nova Open scenarios rules and possible titles including Renaissance Man.  This is an award that takes into account Painting, Sportsmanship and Game Performance. Me Want!  

Also don't miss every ones favorite Jawa-slut in progress! 

She will get some finishing of her own. :) 

Jawaballs streams live video every Wednesday night on his own Ustream channel at 6pm EST. CLICK HERE for the URL!

Nova Open Whiskey Challenge! Me vs Old Shatter Hands' Tau

So next Friday night I will be matched up vs Old Shatter Hands at the Nova Open!  We are taking part in the Whiskey Challenge, which I am sure will have plenty of kick butt, and whiskey. I consider myself an expert at both. Oh, and killing Tau. Looks like I am gonna score a hat trick! Luckily for Old Shatter Hands, I don't believe in playing a list tailored for specific armies. I play an all comer list designed to beat down any one. Sure I could play a list designed to slaughter Tau but nah.

However, just for fun... If I were going to make a list to slaughter Tau, what should I bring?

Tau have 3 main threats and are awesome vs Mech.

Threat One:
Pathfinders.  Markerlights are sick. Moreso than any power in the game, Markerlights make marines whimper. One second we are sitting in our Land Raider all smoked up and giggling about how we are about to disembark and eat Tau Crunchies, the next the LR is exploded and we have no cover and are being mowed down by plasma fire. Also, they are hard to kill with shooting. Get them into a ruin and they get a 3+ cover save. Pathfinders need to be dealt with immediately.

Threat Two:
Hand in Hand with the Pathfinders comes the Rail Gun. Broadside suit squads and Hammer Heads. Typically you will see a hammer and two squads of 3 suits. The gun is Str 10, AP 1 and can reach any thing on the table. Plus, those pesky suits have a 2+ save and can take lots of drones giving them extra wounds.  Tough to kill to say the least.

Threat Three:
Mobility. Tau Crisis suits can jump 12", shoot all kinds of hardware, at different targets, then jump away 6". Tau Pirhana can pack melta guns and zoom all over the place.  They slice through light armor without even trying and are death to Land Raiders.  Plus they have a nasty habit of moving and blocking your lanes of advance.

These three factors lend themselves to Space Marines getting blasted off the table routinely by those pesky Xenos.  How do I stop from getting tabled early?  Well, Blood Angels have a big advantage over all other marines... Fast Vehicles.  If you are going first, move every thing 18" and pop smoke. Sure his pathfinders will take away the cover saves... but not all of them! Odds are that next round you are going to have something in his ranks causing problems.  Las cannons are good. Shoot the crap out of the things that are going to block your advance.  I know, you are tempted to shoot the Broadsides right? Don't. Odds are you may kill one, but you will have to sink a LOT of shots into them to do it. They are going to shoot no matter what. Move what you can, and use your tanks and devastators to sit back and pick off the pirhana and devilfish. Yes they are probably always going to have cover saves.  That is why you need a LOT of shots!

You are taking a crap shoot either way, but take the better gamble.  Some of your forces will reach the lines... it is better to stop him from being able to stop you from assaulting than to try to whittle down his guns. You will get to them eventually, and once you do, they go down like five dollar whores.

Whirlwinds are nice too at taking away the pathfinders.  I actually may just take one in my army for shits and giggles. It will give me a few points to spend on upgrades, and the right shot can completely take out a pathfinder squad... pretty much eliminating the serious Tau threat.

Muahaha.

Jawaballs

Roll Call! Jawaballs wants YOU.

This is my bimonthly blogger roll call. I like to throw up a thread once in a while to get people to post up their URL so I can add it to my blog roll. It's massively lazy I know, but if you would like your blog to appear in my blog roll, comment and put the entire URL here.   Lets have em! And please post me up on yours.

Jawaballs

Great News! Jawaballs will be at the Nova Open.

Great news! After some sweet talking to the wife, and paying her 100 bucks, plus having to cancel on Bolscon and a week of moping around the house like a kid who lost his Buzz Saw cassette. (Name the reference and I will be impressed!) I was able to get permission to go to the Nova Open!  This event is turning out to be a veritable "Who's Who" of the 40k Blogosphere with some big names showing up. I can't wait to meet up with other dudes at the Whiskey Challenge on Friday Night. I will be playing Old Shattered Hands and his Tau scum. Time to purge me some xenos! I will plant my Chapter Banner and claim the day! Be looking for some Jawaballs Live! if I can make it happen. 

Can't wait for a great weekend. Time to make up for some missed fun last week. :)

Jawaballs

Ok, back to bloggin!

Back to work. Sorry if I missed you last week on Jawaballs Live! I was taking care of business, but I will be back this Wednesday, and painting for you a Jawa Girlfriend! Thats right. :) Tune in this Wednesday at 6pm EST for the long awaited painting of my first Jawa Slave girl. Just click the picture to the right of me and the giant Space Marine. That will bring you to the proper URL.

See you then!

Jawaballs

Sad news. :(

Bad news guys. Fritz and I have had to cancel our trip to Texas this weekend due to some personal stuff that came up Tuesday night. We will be back in action soon though. Gotta take care of the families first. We will have to catch up with the BOLS guys at Adepticon!  Have fun every one.  Jawaballs

Well, in one week I will be teaming up in a doubles tournament with Goatboy at Bolscon! I know they changed the name, but I don't know what the new name is off hand. Go take a look at the site. Last year was a blast and this year is even bigger. Fritz and I will be running a Thursday night appocalypse game, there are doubles tournaments on Friday, and a seven game GT going on the rest of the weekend. There are tournaments for Warmachines, WHFB, 40k and I think Flames of War!  This event definitely deserves a spot on your yearly travel list next to Adepticon. I can't wait!  So if you are going, I look forward to meeting you. If you are on the fence, get off and get your self to Austin next weekend!

Jawaballs

The Storm Wardens Collaborative Army Build Drawing!

This is it folks!  The Storm Wardens finish line is near. The drawing will be held THIS SUNDAY at 2pm EST live on Jawaballs Live! and you get to watch it.  Join us for a special presentation of Jawaballs Live! at 2pm Eastern Standard Time.  Jawaballs Live! is a weekly show that is broadcast live every Wednesday at 6pm EST.

But we are not just giving away an army. There is a list of loot to be given away as well! 

A customized deck of cards and patch donated by Bolter and Chainsword

An Airbrush
A Forge World Eldar Vampire kit
Deamon Prince & codex
Secret Weapon $50 credit
2 games day tickets
and more!

The final loot list will be posted before the show, but at any rate, you don't want to miss this!  Simply come to Ustream.tv by CLICKING HERE and join the fun. I suggest you register for the site and create a screen name.  You do not need to attend the live show to win the prizes.  But why not be there!  The show sould take about half an hour. Members of the Storm Wardens build team will be in the live chat as well to answer questions about the project.  Check back here for any final updates, I will edit this post as the end approaches.

Jawaballs

Hobby: Painting a Tau Crisis Suit

Hey folks. As promised, here is a step by step of painting a Tau Crisis Suit!

Step One:
Assemble the model!  Thats right. I assembled the entire crisis suit, save for the weapons. A major divergence from my normal procedure. Normally I assemble the models bit by bit as I paint them. But these suits have few parts that obstruct other parts, plus that is time consuming. So just get the whole guy built. I did not put on the weapon options yet because I intend on magnetizing those.

Step Two:
Get yourself a can of Army Painter Desert Yellow color spray primer. They don't print the color names on the can, only on the cap, so I suggest you use some tape and write the name on the can. Who the hell keeps the caps!

Step Three:

Shake the crap out of the can. For real, give it a shake for at least 3 minutes.  

Step Four:

Set up your models to be painted. Spray outside whenever possible! I'm spraying these right outside on the front porch. I set up some card board to spray on.  I laid out the models, leaving the weapons right on the sprue. You can take them off too, as sometimes the sprue blocks the spray from some parts of the guns, forcing you to do touch up.  The choice is yours, do as you will.

Step Five:
Now here is the part where you need to make a decision.  To prime or not to prime?  Army Painter Color Primers are just that... Spray Prime. You do not need to pre-prime your models. Simply paint them with the base color you want and you are good to go. Having said that, you need to consider shade and hue.  For example, Desert Yellow is a very bright color. This will be toned down in a later step using Medium Quickshade, but some of you might like really dark Tau. In that case, spray prime your models black!  Or the opposite... you may like a super bright model, so spray them white first.  It is useful to know that you can get three shades of the same color, simply by under painting black or white, or leaving the model grey.

It is also useful to know how your surface interacts with the paint. Metal and Plastic react differently to spray prime. If you are painting a metal model, or a combination model, it may be useful to spray them with a black or white undercoat. First of all, to make sure that the model is all the same color, but also, paint easily flecks off from Metal. A dedicated spray prime might be a little more useful at helping the paint not scrape off the metal.  Whatever you decide, try it out on an old model first. I used an old Eldar Heavy Weapon and painted it all sorts of different ways when working on metal.  The bottom line... EXPERIMENT BEFORE YOU WORK ON YOUR REAL MODEL. You've been warned.

On these plastic models, I am spraying directly onto the plastic, with no under coat.  When you spray, hold the can relatively close to the model. The pigment in Army Painter spray is ultra fine. So fine that it may dry in mid air! This will cause a sand paper texture to appear on your model. BAD! The way to avoid it is spray close, in quick short bursts. Never start a burst directly on the model. Activate the spray on the cardboard, then swipe the can over the model.

Spray the models with a thin layer. It is always better to spray multiple thin layers than one thick coat.  There may be areas of exposed grey still. It is ok. Flip the model over, do the other side. Then come back to the first side. If you attempt to completely cover the model in one go, you will fill in details.  Ive seen it happen, and done it myself.  Slow and steady gets the job done here folks!

Step Six:

Once the spraying is done, bring your little rascal inside and get ready for the next stage! I actually assembled the weapons at this point. I will not magnetize this particular model, since most of the suits in my army will have the same gear.  I will do a magnetizing tutorial later.  At this point, the little plastic stand is quite useful too. Stick that up his butt.  

Now it is time to bust out your Army Painter Quickshade. I am using Medium tone for this army.  With a cheapo brush, apply the shade to the model.  Observe in the video:

Check back next week for the rest of the tutorial.

Public Service Announcement:

Protect your baby. Spray outside. You may think it is ok to spray just a swipe or two of primer onto your models in the confines of your hobby room. Ventilated or not, this can be dangerous to your baby. He weighs a handful of pounds. If you are like me, you way much, much, much more than that. Just a few particles of possibly dangerous inhalants can be much more harmful to your baby.  Do you and your baby a favor, spray outside.  

Blood Angels list help!

I got this email today:

Hi Jawa,

I have been following you for about a year and a half (not quite sure) but it was back when you first posted your Venn Diagram of doom list.  Anyways I got into BA back then because I loved the idea of the Ba'al Predator. This codex comes in and things look better but once again the BA are more of a finesse army than kick to the groin army like wolves.  So in this edition I love the idea of the storm raven and am trying to make it work.  I have come up with 2 lists and I would like to know what you think about them.

List 1

HQ
-Reclusiarch 

Elite 
-Sanguinary Priest * 2 

-Assault Terminators * 10 
Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield * 10 

-Furioso Dreadnought 
Blood Fists 
Heavy Flamer 
Extra Armor 

Troops 
-Death Company *10 
Thunder hammer 
Power Weapon * 2 

-DC Dread * 2 
Blood Talons 
Heavy Flamer 

Heavy 
-3 ravens with EA 

In this list the Reclusiarch rides with the DC in a raven with the Furisio.  The Termies combat squad and hitch a ride on a raven with the 2 DC dreads and the priests ride with them.  Now I know I cant capture objectives, so my second list drops 1 raven, 1 DC dread, and 5 termies, and adds 2 AS squads with jump packs with various gear (generally 2 meltaguns, a PF on the sarge and a Infernus pistol on the sarge).  To finish the list we give one of the priests a jump pack and you have some objective takers or you can combat squad the meltas and run some deep striking suicide squads to pop tanks.  

Any advice?  Ive played 2 games with 1 raven (with DC inside) and done pretty well but I just like the idea of an air force.

Thanks, keep up the great blog.

-Frank 




Thanks for the email Frank!  First off, go with the second list.  I have been banging around a 3 Raven list myself and have come to the conclusion that to make it work, you have to go light on points for the rest of your army.  That means that terminators may be out of the question. First of all, they don't have jump packs so they cannot assault out of a Raven after it moves!  Also, Death Company are a fail for the first reason you pointed out. No takey objectivy! Plus we get into issues with Rage, and cost.  Death Company just arent that great for what you are getting at the cost, and they have a big drawback.  IF you were so inclined to play them, play a 5 man squad and buy a Dread, give the DC jump packs and attach the reclusiarch and let them go. Paint their raven black and it will be quite imposing!


Having said that, here is my suggested list. Bear in mind, this may not be the most competitive:


Libby JP
Reclusiarch JP Infernus


Troops:
RAS PW
RAS PW
RAS Razorback with your choice, flamer or bolter
Scouts x5 with snipers, sgt has Locator
DC x5 one pw, JPS
DC Dread, Blood Claws


Elite:
Sang Priest with JP and PW
x2 Furioso Dread your taste on free options


Heavy:
x3 Ravens extra armor


2k points on the nose.  


Seems pretty thin!  Libby, Reclusiarch and Priest join each of the two RAS and the DC.  Give the  libby preferred enemy and lance.  Or str 10.  Load them up in their favorite ride and have at it.  Infiltrate scouts and have a little fun with deep strike, or just reserve the ravens and bring them in off your edge moving 24".  Reserve the razor and have it come into claim objectives opened up by your shock troops.  


Weakness?  You got crap.  :)  10 marines and 5 DC to wipe out enemy defenders is iffy at best. 3 dreads is nice!  But not a sure thing. Odds are you are going to bring them on the table, and at 2k points there is so much enemy fire that they will all die.  Of course there are tactics you can try to use to keep them alive.  After all they are gunships.  Deep strike em, fire off all your load, hope you live! Honestly you need another 500 points to make this army effective. 


Not much more I can really say about it. These things are just too point heavy to make them useful. (They cost what a Valkrye should cost). Especially taking three.  My suggestion?  Take one.  Fill it with your DC and let them go have fun. Spend the rest of the points on some hard hitting ground forces.  Hopefully we will see some raven lists popping up after Hard Boys is over this weekend!  


Oh, and the Storm Raven conversion in the picture is for sale if any one wants it.  60 bucks plus shipping as is and it comes with a flyer base, and all parts needed to finish the conversion including all weapon options.


Jawaballs!




EDIT:
I was mistaken. Any model can assault out of a Storm Raven provided it has not moved over 12". Only models with Jump Packs can take advantage of the Skies of Blood special rule. 

Storm Wardens Army last call! Help a great charity.

This is your last chance to get in on the Storm Wardens collaborative army build.  The time to make donations ends this Sunday!  If you have not yet gotten your donation in by now, what are you waiting for??  But I just wanted to take a moment to talk about the bigger picture.  Sure, the army is fantastic. This is a true first and I only wish I was eligible to win.

But really, this is not about toys at all. It is about being part of something bigger than yourself.  Every one of us who donated or worked on this project is stepping up and joining a cause that universally offers aid, no matter who or where you are.  That is the essence of community and compassion, and that is the defining quality that makes our little gaming family so special. If only more people in this world did the same! It does not matter how much you donated, it just matters that you did. You should be proud to know that your dollar will go towards helping those who need it.  You can find out more about Doctors Without Borders for yourself. They won a Nobel Peace Prize! As the end of the drive approaches, dig deep into those pockets and give what you can. If you already did, thank you. We know times are tight. Know that you are part of something great.

Be sure to check out the Storm Wardens blog for pics of the loot!

Jawaballs