Thursday, December 13, 2012

RANT: Forgefiend Assembly


Well the good news is that I am still making progress on the Chaos Marine army, the bad news is that thanks to GW I am facing an absolute mess when it comes to assembling my Forgefiend. You see in their instructions they co ahead and tell you to assemble the ball jointed feet on the miniature to the legs and then attach them to the body, the problem becomes that the feet end up in the wrong locations and you end up with this splay legged Forgefiend, I am not impressed…In the least!
I have one leg that right now I can’t do anything about given it has already been painted highlighted and shaded, the other three I am soaking in Simple Green with the hope of being able to break the bonds on the glue so I can reposition them, needless to say I am annoyed and its really delaying the completion of the piece.
What bothers me the most about this is that GW surely must have QA and one would think that they would have tested the instructions first before releasing them, I generally have a very favorable opinion of GW but this time I am down right angry, its costing me a lot of time and effort to get what is supposed to be a centerpiece of my army up and painted, and hopefully not damaging the paint work already done.
I’ll update the blog as soon as I have found a solution, but right now its just trying what I can and see where that takes me.  

Friday, November 30, 2012

Actual Progress!


Well folks, other than the picture not being great there is the first real progress on my army in some time, I am working on getting my forgefiend done. I am hoping to have it completed this weekend, at which time I will take some photos with my better camera and really get the detail out, but so far I am very very happy with how its turning out, its a pain in the neck kit to work on but I am liking the result. 

Anyways, just a short update, back to painting!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Codex Chaos: An Opinion Piece

 
Ahh yes the return of the ruinous powers, after the unbelievable launch of Dark Vengence we finally get to see the full Codex in all of its glory, so sit back and relax and take in a few of my impressions for the new book.

Things I Like
GW really knocked it out of the park with the book itself, it has a wonderful premium feeling from the first time you pick it up. Careful attention was obviously paid to how the layout was handled, with the whole book feeling like an ancient tome spilling forth its blasphemous knowledge, being full color is an absolute treat  and GW should be commended for making such a premium piece.
Another nice feature of the book is the adaptability, with all the options you can field a full blown traitor legion, or a newly fallen chapter, just by choosing the appropriate models, its definitely is a “Power To The Players” moment, and was something sorely needed in my opinion.
Cultists! Need I say more? Brilliant new models, and great new cheap fodder troops, a nice new addition that while hinted at for some time was still a great surprise.
I am blown away by the aesthetic of the new models, there has been a real attempt to take them back to being these 10,000 year old warriors that have come crashing through the Warp and into real space, bringing with them years of hatred and debasement at the hands of the chaos gods. The models, especially the Chosen that come in the Dark Vengence set really set this mood, along with the new raptors and especially the Demon Engines [more on those in a moment] it’s a good change for Chaos and one that wasn’t too drastic, but added a lot to the flavor of the force.
The Demon Engines [Forge Fiend, Mauler Fiend, Hell Drake, and Hellbrute] are all welcome additions, I am most impressed by the the Forge Fiend/Mauler Fiend kit as it has the most personality, the Hell Drake is also another amazingly fun kit, though I would have liked a longer tail to make it even more Dragon like, but that’s just a minimal niggle.
Fluff, fluff and more fluff! The book does a great job instilling in the player [old and new] the true nature of the corruption of the Warp, and the battle of “The Long War” and how the tide appears to be turning towards the forces of the Warp.

 Things I Don’t Like
My biggest complaint was that we didn’t get a single new miniature for any of the big boy characters, no new Abbadon, Kharn, or Fabius Bile, I was really disappointed with this, many of these miniatures while great looking, now tend to look small compared to the more modern figures, it would have been great to see at least Abbadon get the “Heroic” treatment.
Although its old news about Demons being their own Codex I am still frustrated to not have them readily available in some form in Codex Chaos, that is one of the core aspects to Chaos so it’s a shame to not see them in there. Also along those lines, unless I missed something there is no listing for any ranged options for the Demon Prince, even though the classic model has been rereleased with the Kai Gun on it’s arm, as I said I might have missed something, if someone knows otherwise please let me know in the comments below.

Overall
I am really happy with this edition of the Codex, it remains to be seen how competitive the army  will be once more games are played, but I am more of a modeler anyways so I don’t panic too much about the meta.  Great new miniatures, excellent handling of the fluff, and some really interesting new special ruIes, what more can we ask for? I really hope that this version of Codex Chaos is the shape of things to come with Codex releases for GW.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Let the Galaxy Burn...


Ok so things here haven't been going so well on a personal life side, I have been away from work for 12 weeks on a medical leave and I am just getting back, everything took a back burner including painting...However with the release of the new Chaos Codex I have finally gotten my butt in gear and started getting some project work done.

So far the list of what I have purchased and gotten prepped for the army is as follows.

1 Terminator Lord
1 Terminator Sorceror Lord
6 Chosen
20 Cultists
20 Chaos Marines
5 Chaos Terminators
5 Raptors
1 Aspiring Champion [Plastic Kit]
1 Forge Fiend
1 Hell Drake

Thats the starting point for the list, right now there isn't a lot to report when it comes to modelling, I am working on a lava theme for the bases for these guys and have started doing those up, I am planning on a base tutorial for them for later in the week so be looking for that.

I am also trying to perfect the design for the blasted brass armor using the current GW range of paints, since some of the colors have chaged that has ended up being a little tricker than I was planning, but I am pretty confident that I will have something figured out shortly. I will try to have the progress pictures up later this week for the Forge Fiend and the first squad of Marines.

Until then, keep painting and having fun!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Chaos Marines Pt 1: Reaching To The Past


Of all the figures I have painted the one above is my favorite, it has won competitions and gotten some great acclaim, but honestly none of that compares to the fact it was just fun to paint! There is something that has always drawn me to the Chaos Marines, something about the baroque detailing, and story of 10,000 years of anger and rage that has built up that just draws me to the miniatures.

So this is where I am going to start project wise, I am sure I am going to be hopping around a ton on different projectts, but this is the first out of the gate.

Color scheme is going to be pretty similar to the marine above, I want that dark baroque feeling, the concept of the living nightmare, that sort of thing.

Hopefully I will be able to show off some progress later this week!

Monday, April 23, 2012

We Are Legion! And We Are Unpainted!


Ummm...Wow...That's really all I can say at this point, so as I posted last week I  was planning to get through cleaning my painting area and getting to a couple of my backlogged GW kits, I posted a list of what I THOUGHT I had on hand, after going through everything I had I found the list was a little longer than I thought...

Currently I have the following on hand new on sprue:

Chaos
1 Posessed
1 Chaos Space Marine Squad
2 Chaos Space Marine Terminators
1 Chaos Land Raider
1 Chaos Rhino

Space Marines
1 Space Marine Commander
1 Space Marine Terminators
1 Sanguinary Guard
1 Full Assault on Blackreach set

Eldar
1 Wraithlord
1 Vyper

Grey Knights
2 Terminators

Dark Eldar
1 Scourges

Orks
1 Full Assault on Blackreach set

So yeah, a lot more than I realized, which means that I am going to be rethinking what project to target first, stay tuned as later today I should have made the decision as to what I am going to start with kit wise.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Chaplain Says: You Fail!!!


Ok, so this blog definately stalled out, not going to make a bunch of excuses, its been a busy few months at work and I haven't had a lot of time to get much done, but due to the prodding of a fellow coworker about painting I am working to get more done starting this month.

So what are my goals? First I need to get my painting area cleaned up and sorted, I haven't done an inventory in months of my paints and I need to know what I have currently. I want to get at least two kits completed this month, that's going to be a challenge for me given my usual leisurely pace, but I am hoping that the blog will be a good motivator to getting both kits done.

Right now I am trying to decide between the following:

Dark Eldar Scourges
Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard
Grey Knight Terminators
Eldar Vyper
Eldar Wraithlord

I am leaning towards the Vyper and Wraithlord, but let me know in the comments if there is something you would like to see done out of the list.

Anyways time to run, lots of organizing to get done!