16 Days of Marines!

I have to have 1000pts of Space Marines painted in by the 16th of November, the start day of the league.  We all saw me do insanity with Orks.  Are marines next!?  I'll try!

I have a rhino painted, I have a librarian in progress.  This one is gonna be tough.

Stay tuned!

Silver Skulls Rhino "Completed"

Before I get on with the pictures, good job to Green Feevah for bringing home some prizes to HAAC!  Good on him!  He worked pretty hard on his Strider and it looked to be well deserved.

Now, after the break... some of my painting not quite up to par with his.

We Have A Winner!

So the Painting contest I had entered into finished today.  It was held at Magic Stronghold down in Burnaby.  Mostly known for Magic, the Gathering, they have a growing Warmachine crowd, and this contest was to get more people interested.

There were quite a few entrants, but sadly, not all of them submitted in time.  First prize was a Carrying case and an Eiryss model painted by the store owner.  Second place was a battlegroup box and 10 paints.  third prize was 10 paints.  then they had a vote for player's choice and that entrant got a painted Alexis model.

See the models after the break:

Space Marine Tactica Part 3- HQ Choices

As promised, I am continuing my coverage of the Space Marines in an attempt to assist Wallshammer with his Escalation League list.

Today I am going to focus on HQ's.  I'll talk about all of them in brief, but likely spend most of my time on the Librarian, as it is both a personal favourite of mine and probably the most effective HQ at the moment.

The Storm Strider Cometh!

I finally finished it!  And just in time too, as the painting contest deadline is this weekend.  Any ways, I'll take better shots when it's light out, but for now you get a painting table shot, that's a little bleached out from the light.

More after the break.

Space Marine Tactica Part 2: Elites Choices

Continuing my quest to help Walls either get into Marines or realize they aren't the army for him, I give more opinion-ed ramblings about Space Marines!

This time I delve into the Elites section of the book.  However, in keeping with my last post, I'm going to stick to the stuff that worked for me.  In this case we are talking about Dreadnoughts, Terminators, and Sternguard.

INSPIRATION!? And what's new in town...

You know what I like about this hobby?  Random inspiration.

And I think I have some.

I have an idea for a super duper secret project.  I think it would be awesome and really push all my skills to the limit.  BUT SO SECRET I CANNOT SHOW ANYONE UNTIL DONE!

Yes... THAT secret.

Stay tuned!

As for the rest of the news:

I shall be playtesting a Beastman list tonight a couple times.  I am going to try a minotaur bus and characters instead of the normal bestigors, beastlord combos.  Also: No Beast Banner, No Herdstone.  All the usual Beastmen crutches gone!   Doombull, Gorebull BSB, Lvl 3, Lvl 2, 39 Gors, 18 Ambushing Gors, 2x5 Ungor Raiders, 2 Razorgors, 2 Tuskgor Chariots, Razorgor Chariot, Cygor.   A whole bunch of units I've never used.  Never ambushed, never used the minos, cygor or razorgor chariot.  I expect I will be playing Ogres and Brettonians tonight.  Should be fun and I'll write up how things went later.

Still trying to figure out the list for marines I know will be both effective and fun and not require a ton more investment, in case I hate them in the end.  I currently own 2 drop pods, so thinking they'll be integrated and mean I will need 1 more.  It's not rhino rush, but it's close-ish.

Space Marine Tactica, Part One: The Lowly Tactical Marine

In an effort to give Wallshammer some assistance with his Marines, I did a bunch of research last night while I couldn't sleep.  I'm going to break it up one unit at a time to make it more digestible, and I'm starting with Tactical marines.

The Tactical Marine is, of course, the signature unit for Space Marines.  Everything is based around the idea of ten lunatics in power armor trudging across the field, kicking ass and taking names.  Or at least that's how it goes in the stories.  On the tabletop, things are a little different, and I've come up with a few things to help you get the most out of your Marines:

Read the list after the break:

I Hear Ya, Man...

I'm going to drop random old photos throughout the article... enjoy!

We talked about Wallshammer's Marines a lot last night.  I totally get where Wallshammer is coming from.  I'm there myself, about most of my projects right now.  I'm going to use this post to lay out everything we talked about last night, and everything I've been thinking since.

More after the break:

Getting over that hobby hump

Our loyal readers know I am in a bit of a rut with the marines right now.  Green Feevah knows this better then anyone.  I whined to him for a full hour last night about how "useless" they are, how much they "suck", how much I suck playing them, etc, etc, etc.  Such a joyous conversation and I apologize for putting him through that.  LOLZ.  Ah... hobby ruts.  Let's figure these out.

MARINES MAKE ME SMASH!

I had three "test" games tonight of my 1000pt list.

Game 1: Kill Points, Dawn of War vs Nids.  This was barely even a contest.  I got smashed pretty heartily from the get go, showing my complete inexperience with Marines.  I got too close, too fast and didn't really use my shooting nearly effectively enough.  I conceded around turn 4.

Game 2: Kill Points, Spearhead vs Orks.  A draw.  I actually thought I lost but killed enough characters and vehicles to get the draw.  I only had 7 KP on the table total.  Again, marines cannot last in assaults.   They are a short range fire fight army.  It really sucks that to get into rapid fire range they are getting assaulted the next turn though, especially when nearly every other army is better at assault.

Game 3: Kill Points, Pitched Battle (yes these were all random) vs Dark Eldar.  A win, finally.  Though, in the end I barely had anything left on the table myself.   4 Wyches decimated nearly two complete tactical squads in subsequent assaults.  My scouts died to warriors after assaulting them.  My scouts did the assaulting and bounced right off, even with a shooting phase before hand!  The same warrior squad tied down my third tactical squad nearly all game.

So what did I learn?  Marines are really frustrating.  You cannot quit.  You have to just hunker down and keep playing.   Any changes?

The league DOES have a sideboard allowance.  I am thinking a Thunderfire Cannon might be a good sideboard to replace the predator.  Woulda helped against both the nids and orks greatly.   Perhaps a dev squad sideboard in lieu of a tactical squad?   *shrugs*.

I spent time and money already on these dudes.  I'd hate to give up on them.  Any tips from other marine players out there?  My list is only a few posts down to check out!

Time for YOU to show off!

We here at Hobby At All Costs aren't all about ourselves.  We like checking out forums, getting inspired by other hobbyists' work.  So, as a new feature here on HAAC, we would like to showcase pieces that inspire us!

Send in your photos to hobbyatallcosts@gmail.com and if we love 'em, we'll throw them up for the world to see and hopefully get inspired from as well!

I Didn't Get As Much Done

... as Wallshammer.  But I did get all of my Storm Guardian assembled and one of my jetbikes converted to a Shrieker (with a Shuriken Cannon for those of you who don't know).

It was pouring here again today though, so I couldn't prime.  As soon as I get a break in the weather though.

If it's still raining tomorrow, I'm going to clean the rest of my guardians, who are sitting in Simple Green right now.

I probably won't get a ton done this weekend though, as I kick off the next chapter of my year-long D&D campaign on Sunday, and I'm not finished writing.

The Silver Skulls: Scouts done!

One unit done!

Now... to be fair and honest, I had these guys mostly done.  I finished their bases and did a couple extra things.  Still, it's a start to my 1000pt league list.

Ooo! Ooo! I Wanna Play Too!

Even though I'm divided from Wallshammer's gaming group by a mountain range and a thousand clicks, I'm going to join the league as an honorary member.  Which means I too need a 1000 point army ready for the 16th.  My Orks are painted to almost 1500 points, but where's the fun in that?  My Eldar are painted well past 1000 points, but again, there's no fun in already painted stuff.

So I'm going to do more Eldar!  1000 points fresh.  I'll start with those Guardians I was going to paint the Tale of 40k Gamers, and expand it exponentially from there to be ready in time.

So far I have A Farseer, 4 Jetbikes and 2 squads of Storm Guardians with Warlocks in Wave Serpents.  For the last 250 or so points I'm thinking either another squad of Storm Guardians in a Serpent or A Night Spinner and 10 Guardian Defenders.  It comes out to the same points.

Can I do it?  Have I once again bitten off more than I can chew?  We shall see...

Local 40k League: My next project has been decided!

Our local gaming club is running it's annual 40k Escalation League starting on November 16th.  That gives me about 3 weeks or so to get something together and ready.  I have guard, orks and daemons all ready to go at 1000pts (our starting level).  However, I also have lots of unpainted projects I wanted to do.  So... I am gonna do this one:

Is that a hint yet?  Come in and let's see!

I'm baaaaaaaack!

So I survived Hurricane Javo, a tiger attack, monkeys trying to climb into my mouth, giant spiders, geckos, habanero peppers, the Pacific Ocean and a mexican taxi.

All in a days work.

And now... what to do!  Myself and Green Feevah are thinking up the next blog project, something to keep you faithful viewers interested.  Hit us up with any ideas you might have.  Myself?  I am actually looking forward to getting back to hobby stuff after nearly a month.  Just... where to start.

Let us know!

Shhh!!! Wallshammer is Home Tomorrow!

So, clearly I didn't get as much done as I wanted.  Oh well.  I'll probably be more motivated once Walls is back.  He's kind of good at that.

But all is not lost.  I did work on my secret project!  Follow me after the break for pictures.

Another Quick Update

This is terrible.  It seems the more productive I am, the less I'm posting, which is kind of the opposite of what I'm intending to do.

Any ways, I got the last touches done on the Swordmasters.  I'm not going to post another picture because they look practically the same.  I got the pilots for the Storm Strider about half done, but now I might have to re-do the base for the strider because I put some of the base details off-centre and now the model sits on the base wonky.

I did more metal-work on my secret project, but not as much as I would have liked.  And I did some work on the Silver Helms, particularly their shields.

I'm hoping to get a lot done tonight and tomorrow, as I'll finally have the house to myself (I've been watching my wife's kid sister all week).

Hopefully I'll post more pictures soon.  Stay tuned!

Quick Update - With Pictures!

As I mentioned in the last post, I'd post pictures of everything I've worked on in the last few days to get you caught up.  I'll do a mini-caption with each picture to give you the details.  Follow me after the break:

The How Much Can I Get Done Before Wallshammer Gets Home Challenge Day 6 - A Turn Around

So firstly, I apologize for not reporting in for a few days.  Things got all hectic.  However, I have really good news.

I got back to work on my High Elves.  BIG TIME.  In the last 48+ hours I have painted all of my movement trays, am almost finished the bases on the Swordmasters, Silver Helms Chariots, Bolt Throwers and the Dragon Mage, Painted the bulk of the Dragon Mage (base colours really), and brought my Silver Helms back up to where they were before the infamous paint crash.

Now I know that seems a little strange, being almost finished basing most of the those minis when they aren't fully painted yet, but I have a logical reason.  Those white skirts that most of the Elves have are getting filthy when I paint the bases, so I figured rather than paint them, mess them up, then re-paint them, I'd just finish the bases, then go back and finish the model.  And so far I'm really happy with this idea.  Having the bases near completion is already giving the models a sense of accomplishment that I felt they were lacking before, which is encouraging me to keep painting.

I'll hopefully post some pictures later tonight, once the bases are actually finished.  Oh, and I haven't forgotten about my super-special-secret-no-Wallshammers-allowed project, but it is still on hold until I get caught up on my regular work.

The How Much Can I Get Done Before Wallshammer Gets Home Challenge Day 4 - Not Off To A Good Start

So... yeah.

Day 4.  Still not a lot done.  Day's not over yet.  I'm going to try to work on my Strider base, but my heart's not going to be in it.

Let's face it.  I get more done with Wallshammer spurring me on.

That and my gaming today was a disaster.  We played 2 games of Warmachine and I obliterated him in the first one with a turn three caster kill (not a single wound taken on my side; he'd lost a Troll Bouncer to a Satyr Counter-charge where I rolled max damage on a boosted slam [with primal], then finished him off when he hit the impaler behind him [collateral damage].  Then the girls, [my Bloodtrackers and Wolf Riders] killed half of his champions to open a lane for a Wolf Rider charge of doom..  Killed Borka on the javelin throw on the way into combat.), then he conceded turn 4 even though he was technically winning  Took a Baldur list  which I thought was pretty weak, but he logged jammed on some terrain which gave me an edge).  I popped my feat at just the right time, denying him some crucial charges, then opened up a lane to his caster.  Regrettably there was nothing I could do to his caster that turn, so he could have easily moved out of harm's way, but he conceded instead.  His heart wasn't in it.  He was frustrated and pissed off from the first game.  So it looks like now instead of just quitting Warhammer Fantasy, he's quitting mini gaming all together.  Again.

So where does that leave me?  I have all these 40k, Fantasy and Warmachine armies and no one to play against.  That's not really motivating me to paint, that's for sure.  I did find out that a nearby game store plays Warmachine on Saturdays, so that's a place to start.  I'd really like to find a place to play Fantasy though.  That'd really get my painting mojo going.

The How Much Can I Get Done Before Wallshammer Gets Home Challenge Day 3 - *sigh*

So I got nothing done today.  The closest I got to my painting station was to be in the same room while the smoke from the oven cleared.

Long story short, I screwed up when cleaning the oven and created acidy-smelling smoke instead of lemony-freshness.  Then, while leaving the house to get some fresh air, I came home to discover that my house key was not on the ring.  For some reason I still can't fathom, my wife took my key off the ring when we got the locks fixed this week, and didn't put the key back.

My father-in-law eventually came and let me in, but needless to say the day has been a disaster.  Oh did I mention that my wife is in Oregon and has my credit card with her too?  It's not been a good day.

Better luck tomorrow.  I hope.

Actually my friend is coming over to play 40k and Warmachine, then we're going to do some painting.  So maybe i'll even have some battle reports for you guys.  I'll try to remember to take picture.  Honest I will.

The How Much Can I Get Done Before Wallshammer Gets Home Challenge Day 2 - A Change of Heart

Phew... long title.

Anyways, you know the deal.  Walls, if you're reading this, keep out.  Everyone else, meet me after the break.

How Much Can I Get Done Before Wallshammer Gets Home Challenge - Day 1 Report

So here's where things really kick off!  My super-secret project, shielded from the eyes of Wallshammer  by whatever internet connection he may or may not have in Mexico.

That and the break line:

And Now For the Main Event!

So I posted yesterday about the One Thing A Week Challenge dying off.  I was thinking about it all day.  I need a new challenge.  Something big.  Dynamic.  Not High Elves.  And then it hit me.  My greatest challenge yet:

The How Much Can I Get Done before Wallshammer Gets Home Challenge!

And with that announcement I have this to say as a follow-up:

WALLSHAMMER, I KNOW YOU HAVE INTERNET ACCESS DOWN THERE.  NO PEEKING!

The rest of you, follow me after the break to learn more.

Is One Thing A Week Dead?

So I'm still trying to get everything back on track following my whirlwind trip home for Wallshammer's wedding. This morning I took a peek at the Privateer Press Forums, to see what's going on with the contest that kicked-off my love of contests: The One Thing A Week Challenge.  Only to find it's buried 4 pages back, and I'm the last 2 posts on it.  I guess that means it's finally ground to a halt.  On the bright side, since I was there from the first week, and never missed a week, I declare myself the winner!  You may shower me in adulations now.  Hello?  Anyone?  Awww, damn internet contests with no prizes...

False-bruised-ego aside, this was a fantastic Challenge, and I lament its passing.  I'm going to keep going, obviously, but I think I'll be scaling back the amount of Privateer Press products I'm painting.  I've already painted more than I can use in a standard game, and have built several different lists for Circle.  In fact I'm getting down to about a dozen models in my collection that are unpainted.  So I'm going to stretch that out a little bit to make it last the year of Tales of Skirmish Gamers.  But it's just not going to be the same.

Fare thee well One Thing a Week Challenge, we hardly knew ye.

And Now For The Bad News...

So I got all of my Tales of Challenges done, as well as my One Thing A Week Challenge... except Fantasy.  I'm really close though.  Just some highlighting on the blues and some clean up.  And basing.  Oh, do I dread basing my High Elves.  Stupid white skirts.

And here I sit, finally back home, finally able to finish them up (albeit a couple of days late), and I am procrastinating like I have never procrastinated before in my life.  Let's see, instead of painting I have:

To The Happy Couple!

A super-big congratulations to Wallshammer and his wife!

This was my wedding gift to them.  I don't know why the photo looks bleached out in the centre.  Oh well.