Something that's driving me nuts...

http://musicofb5.thegreatmachine.org/the_face_of_the_enemy-bar.zip

I know it's a long shot, but does anybody know who sings this? I kinda like it but I've exhausted my googling skills and found nothing, and now it's starting to bug me...

This Week's Pictures!

Hi folks!

As promised, some long overdue shots of what I've been up to lately.

I'll start by showing the colour scheme of my Tyranid army. I've decided on the colours used in Imperial Armour 4 - bone for the exoskeleton and either green or brownish red for the carapace. I simply spray white, dip in brown wood stain, then paint the carapace. Here's how it looks:


Now, in my last post I said I was using this on the "smaller" critters. And to clarify, I mean smaller than this:


Yep, a Barbed Heirodule. This poor beast has been sitting in a box for a year and a half, so I figured it was high time I get it painted up. That has taken the better part of last week, and I still have the arms to do.


Now, on to something considerably smaller. Many of the new scenarios I've written for Urban War require objectives and, of course, I couldn't just settle for the cut-out ones I designed. I had to go and make something a little more interesting:




Out of those, only the smallest counter is a scratchbuild. The next size up are teleport homers from the Terminator sprues, and the two largest ones are resin accessories I bought online - part of a set of three but the third picture didn't come out. :(

This Week's Activities

Hi folks!

First of all I'll apologize in advance for the lack of recent pictures... I've got a couple of things to finish off which I'll post soon.

This week I had a little rummage for a project to take my mind off things and found one of my boxes full of Tyranids. "Haven't looked at these critters in a while" I said to myself so I sat down to work on them for a bit and before I knew it, I had a horde of the beasties on my table. I assembled the last few gaunts that were on the sprues, sorted out a bunch of second hand stuff I'd bought a few months ago, magnetised two carnifexes, and just tonight I've done the same with a trio of warriors. I got some painting in as well, which I'll probably show pictures of tomorrow.

I'm dipping the vast majority of them to save time, and it gives them an appearance that I'm happy with. Only the really big stuff gets the full paint treatment, and that's what I've been doing this week. I'd like to unleash them in an Apocalypse game sometime this year since I've never used them at that level, and dipping the gribblies is the only way I'll ever get them done without going insane.

In other news, I finished Homeworld's campaign for the first time ever - I was mighty impressed. For the fellow fans out there, I came across a (legal) download of an extra "official" mission, which you can get here. It was cut from the final game, but it's quite fun, if a little unpolished compared to those that were kept. The download is basically a demo the first 4 original missions plus the extra one, doesn't require the original game so anyone who has a bit of free time should check it out.

Finally, I've also been working on a community project for Urban War, putting together a collection of extra scenarios for the game. The rulebook contains four basic scenarios, and we've created a further twelve in order to give players more choice in their games. The forum topic (the scenario pack is an attachment to the first post) can be found here.

Looking forward to next week, I'll be doing more work on Tyranids and the scenario pack most likely.

Disaster

Hi folks!

Feeling pretty bummed out right now as last week it has come to my attention that a large package I sent out to an ebay buyer a few weeks ago has gone missing, worth about £90. I've refunded him and will make a claim with the Post Office which should get me £40 compensation, but unless it eventually turns up I'm £50 down.

That's put a huge dent in my Babylon 5 project since I was planning to place a large order this month. I'm going to have to postpone it for a month and pray that the ships I want are still in stock by then.

All this has had a knock-on effect and I can't bring myself to even pick up a paintbrush at the moment. I did paint a few ships before the weekend though, so I'll probably post them up sometime, and I'm still "in the zone" for Homeworld stuff.

Anyway, I hope everyone else has had better luck than me this weekend!

Distractions...

Hi folks!

As of late it seems this blog is increasingly covering non-40k material, which pretty much reflects my hobby situation at the moment. I'm finding that 40k as a game isn't much fun any more, it just seems a bit shallow compared to other games that I've been playing. At the moment I'm actually looking to other rulesets to use my models with - I still like the background too much to give them up. Stargrunt II is looking like the primary candidate for a replacement.

Anyway, that's not really my main topic for posting, but it's something important that's going on. No, tonight's topic is, for the moment, not quite hobby related.

Over the past couple of days, I've found myself getting sucked back into Homeworld, an award-winning space RTS from about 10 years ago. It's pretty much space strategy at its finest - full 3d movement, dozens of ship classes (some of them are pretty awesome), great graphics for its time, beautiful soundtrack and an epic single-player campaign.

As with any of these brief obsessions of mine, between gameplay sessions I tend to hit google and see what turns up. Among the results were mods (such as the excellent Babylon 5 mod and I remember there being a BFG mod in the works for HW2), and background info and debates including a fascinating topic on working out ship sizes. But by far the most interesting to me was the discovery of paper models. Between this and another couple of sites, they seem to have pretty much everything covered. I've printed off the Kushan Assault Frigate and Carrier to try them out.

I'm toying with the idea of statting them up for Babylon 5: A Call To Arms and miniaturizing the paper plans. I've plenty of spare plasticard for the latter, but it will probably be more difficult balancing stats for a system I'm not fluent with yet - especially since it's not a traditional points-based game.

Speaking of Babylon 5, I've made about £150 from ebay sales (after fees), so I'll be ordering more ships soon. It was tough deciding what to put on my shopping list, but I'm aiming to get my Earth, Minbari, Narn and Centauri fleets up to campaign level so we can start playing games with more varied fleets. After the summer I'll round out the collection with the other races, and the ships I need for the special scenarios in the book.

Finally, with the decline in 40k-related material on my blog, I'm thinking about giving it a facelift. No solid ideas yet.

That's all for now, take care guys!

Commission Work

Hi folks!

As I said a couple of weeks back I'm taking commissions in order to earn a little extra money with the abundance of free time I have this summer. I had one client request three pieces, and with his permission I am showing what I've done so far.

My client asked for three characters for his Space Wolf army, based on artwork he had found on deviantART: specifically this, this and this. After a quick rummage around bits sites and ebay I felt that I could pull them off. He also requested that I give them snowy bases and prime them black before posting them out to him. I've never modelled Space Wolves before, nor have I done snowy bases, so I was looking forward to these new challenges. I decided that I would pin (not glue) the models to their bases so that they could be finished separately.

Here's where I'm at now.

First up is the power-armoured hero. For this I combined elements from the Blood Claws box (head, torso, banner, powerfist, backpack) with a couple of regular marine bits and a cloak from the Warriors of Chaos box. The ruin on his base is from the Cities of Death sprues. I've still to tidy him up a bit, but he's probably the closest to finished.






Next up is the terminator-armoured hero, by far my favourite of the three. Bits came from many sources including 40k Orks, WHFB Orcs, 40k Chaos and WHFB Empire, and obviously the FW Space Wolf Terminator conversion kit. In a slight deviation from the artwork, the client wished me to convert a chainaxe for him. I've still got to finish off the wolf pelt and the tusks on the skull, as well as make a scenic base.





Finally, the Wulfen. This one required the least work, with most of the conversion going into his victim. After seeing these pictures I've decided to alter the join so that the Wulfen will have a grip on the corpse's collar as well, in order to make it look like a more "natural" hold. Again, the base is still to be made.




My client is delighted with the pictures so far and hasn't requested any changes or bits that need re-doing, and if he's happy I'm happy. I'm aiming to finish these by the start of next week.

I'd love to hear what you guys think of them as well. And if any of you want to hire me to make a special centerpiece character or squad, this post here has all the details.

Urban Terrain

Hi folks!

It's been a very quiet week on the 40k front, since I've been working with the online community on some new Urban War scenarios, and then on modelling a few bits and pieces that they require.

So today I'll show something that can fit in both 40k and Urban War, which is some of the terrain I made recently. I went for pieces that are cheap, light, durable and yet look good on the table, and I think I managed.

First up is a pretty standard intact building, constructed entirely out of foamboard - even the base. That stuff is amazing for this sort of project. It's light, easy to work with, and durable enough for gaming.
I took my inspiration from some of the Helghast bulding concept art from Killzone 2.

(Urban War Viridians shown for scale)

Next up are my two ruined buildings, again constructed from foamboard. The rubble is simply cut-up sprues, passed through one of those old metal meat grinders. It's quite hard work to grind it all up but the results are fantastic. It's also a great workout! :D
I finished them off with a couple of ladders from the Cities of Death sprues. The one thing I see missing on many ruins is a way to get up to other floors so I made sure not to miss that out on mine.



Finally we have some chemical storage tanks. These were made from Pringles tubes, so if ever you need an excuse to eat lots of Pringles, then just say you're making terrain! I finished off the look with some pipes from the Urban War Bio-Toxin Plant terrain set. The sprues are packed with pipes, platforms, storage tanks and stuff so it's worth buying if you're ever making industrial terrain. I also added some pools of "stuff" by generously glooping some Army Painter Quickshade on the base with a brush.




I still have some supplies left so what I'm thinking of doing is making a few more ruined buildings, with multiple levels, rooms and such. Something a little more interesting than the corner with a bit of floor left that most tabletop ruins end up being.

Urban War Events 2009

Hi folks!

I've decided to drop the "Other Projects" prefix on my, er... other projects posts since I seem to be posting as much about them as 40k.

Anyway, today's post is another focusing on Urban War, in particular the events I've attended this year.

The first was Urbanisation. This event took place in February, hosted by [elg] (Edinburgh League of Gamers) and was to be a sort of "Urban War Convention" with a tournament, retail stand, demo games, tables for non-competition games and a seminar with the Urban War developers - they succeeded with all but the last due to time constraints.

I signed up for the tournament as early as I could, as did my brother and one of our friends. I brought along my Viridians, and my chosen strike-team was as follows:

Colonial Marine (CAL 0) x5
Colonial Marine Sergeant (CAL 2)
Sniper (CAL 1)
Shock Marine (CAL 1) x2
Special Forces (CAL 1)
Colonial Marine HMG Team (CAL 0, 1 gunner, 1 loader)
Total: 298pts

I decided to go slightly in favour of numbers, so that my team can take a few more hits before reaching breaking point, as well as put out a good amount of firepower. The Sniper and HMG Team would be placed under Lock-Fire orders during most turns and would set up the best firing lanes I can find, in order to funnel the enemy forces into close combat with my heavy hitters - the Shock Marines (or kill anyone who decides not to go along with this little plan). The Shock Marines tore through all opposition in the testing games, and I never leave home without them. I would assign one Colonial Marine to both the Sniper and the HMG Team on Overwatch to try and interrupt anyone who takes a shot at them, hopefully killing the attacker but suppressing them to deal with later would be acceptable. The Sergeant, Special Forces and remaining Marines would either offer close-ranged support to the Shock Marines, or take the fight to another area of the field, depending on how things went.

The scenarios were all the standard "Scuffle" scenario in the book. Teams deploy 24" apart and fight until one side fails their withdrawal check (starting at 50% casualties) or is wiped out.

My first opponent was Martin, who had VASA. His team consisted of a solid base of Suppressors, with a couple of the fast-moving Archangels and Black Legion in support. Both sides advanced towards the centre steadily, with sporadic fire claiming the occasional casualty, including one of the Black Legion taking a nasty headshot from my sniper.

My main cluster of marines suffered a moment of panic when one of their number was picked off, as the Shock Marines closed into close combat. However, the VASA team's resolve broke as they reached the 50% casualty mark, netting me a Minor Victory.

My second opponent is known as "wodger the wobot" on the Urban Mammoth forums, and he'd travelled a long way to take part. He brought a brutal Syntha team, smaller on numbers but featuring a few large 'bots with an ungodly variety of templates.
As expected, he stayed back and bombarded me with all kinds of horrible blast weaponry, giving me no choice but to advance through a hail of missiles and plasma blasts. The Shock Marines made good progress, but the ordinary marines supporting them were less fortunate, getting a little shaken when their Sergeant was picked off by a stray shot.

My HMG consistently failed to do damage to anything on the right flank, a performance matched only by my sniper out on the left.

The Shock Marines eventually hit his lines, charging through a hail of firepower. One of them managed to deal a wound to one of the Macrosynths, before my team failed their withdrawal test. A Minor Defeat for me.


Game three saw me face up to Grant's Triads. He brought quite an elite force with a couple of Hatamotos and an Oni Class Shogun Battlesuit backing up his Retainers.

Both sides advanced - his were the more cautious and because of that I struggled to draw a bead on his forces with my HMG and sniper to give supporting fire. Both sides managed to pick off the occasional unit.

After suffering losses in the advance, I tried to consolidate my position behind what little cover was available. I thought it was all going to end badly as his Triad Boss sneaked round the forest and charged the HMG team, but the loader managed to fend him off until the end of the time limit. Both sides suffered moderate casualties, resulting in a draw.




In the fourth and final round, I battled against Craig's Koralon. He had a mix of nasty, hard-hitting close-combat critters, small in numbers but tough to kill. I took advantage of the buildings and placed my HMG and Sniper on higher ground to maximise their LOS. As always, the Shock Marines were poised to advance supported by the main body of marines.
Straight off the bat, the advancement of my Sergeant caused his Hydra to emerge from it's vent close to my lines, right in front of my main marine cluster, who proceeded to open fire.

It took a wound, and as my Shock Marines advanced, the Koralon opened a portal nearby and brought in reinforcements that had been hiding away behind the buildings. A few were picked off in the ensuing fight, thanks in no small part to the sniper's deadly accurate fire.



The Shock Marines were eventually overwhelmed by a second wave coming from another portal, and the Koralon went on to cut a swathe through the marines supporting them.

Once again, the Viridians withdrew at 50% casualties, resulting in another Minor Defeat.

So overall, I achieved a Minor Victory, a Draw, and two Minor Defeats. This placed me eleventh, which I'm pretty happy with bearing in mind the quality of players that were present on the day. First place went to Wodger, and I think we all agree that is was well-earned. The guy knows his stuff!
I've heard horror stories about the types of players and behaviour that tournaments can bring out. However, everyone was in good spirits and it was a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. We were all playing to win, but not at the expense of having fun and we all enjoyed it immensely.

There was also a painting competition on the day, with categories for Strike-team and Individual Models. I placed second in the Strike-team category with my Syntha team. The prize for that was a silver Urban Mammoth medal, and a couple of 50mm resin scenic bases. I've already put them to use on some of the new stuff I bought on the day.

So big thanks to Andy, the rest of [elg], Urban Mammoth, and everyone who turned up for making the event as great as it was. Here's hoping Urbanisation will continue in future years!


The second event of the year took place just a couple of days ago, when I ran another tournament. Many of those who took part in Urbanisation were there, but we had a couple of new faces as well. Rather than post the full rundown here, I'll post this link to my writeup on the Urban Mammoth forums.
Overall, the event went off very well. Everyone was on good form and had fun, and we have a host of players eager to come back next year for another shot!


From my experiences so far, the Urban War community is one I'm proud to be a part of. Everyone I've met has been an excellent sportsman and very friendly, both in their online community and the local(ish) tournament scene.

In my next post I'll show some of my Urban War collection, which includes strike-teams from about half of the available factions.