"...There is Only War."

On a personal note, I recently moved from the lovely state of Virginia to the wonderful state of Ohio. Things are different here. I miss my gaming partners and dear friends Bwana Bill (and his son!)and Consul Scipio (and his son!). However, I'm pleased to report there are gamers here, and my "war room" is up and operational once again.

My first task is to prepare for a GW event on 16 April 2016, "Celebrating 30 Years of Space Marines." Therefore my Space Wolves are back to their position at the front of my never-ending painting queue. Thankfully, the infantry is pretty close to being done, with just detail work needed on one unit of Grey Hunters and one unit of Space Pups (Blood Claws). The second unit of Grey Hunters has most basic colors on it, but needs a bit of flesh here and there, as do my Thunderwolf Cavalry.

Given the need to roll more die, I may flesh out the Space Pups with a few extra lads, toss them in a Land Raider Crusader (which is only gray at the moment!), and send them into battle. Which leads me to my vehicular dilemma.

I have only one vehicle - a Rhino - that is painted. Since I painted that particular transport my painting style has changed as has the color pallet - thanks GW! ** so I may have to paint that one again, or touch it up a bit. Additionally, I have a Razorback that requires additional paint, and (if I decide on adding Blood Claws) a Landraider Crusader that needs a lot of work.

As it stands, I know I can finish the infantry and the Razorback prior to 16 April. Stay tuned, I'll post the results of my ongoing painting frenzy, as well as any gaming exploits that may or may not occur.



********* Addition - Last evening, as I was drifting off to sleep one of our cats pulled a "ninja" and broke into the war room. He then began throwing $50.00 models and infantry figures from the table to the floor, breaking several of them. I'm now taking time from painting to research a recipe for "Kitten Tikka Masala." <*just kidding - but I'm not a happy chappy!*> ******

A Tribute and Final Salute to the Orkmeister

These are very sad days for our gaming group. Mr. Carl E. Cordell, our beloved and revered Orkmeister, also known to us as Karlmek, passed away on July 31st. It was not unexpected, but nevertheless we never gave up hope that he would be with us for many more years. He never gave up hope either.

Carl was the consummate hobbyist and wargame enthusiast. Not only was he an extremely brilliant tactician, he was also one the best model builders that we have known. His achievements in this area were many, but the one thing we will always remember best were the Space Ork vehicles he scratch-built for playing Warhammer 40,000 (40K). We spent many hours over the 12 years that we knew Carl playing in huge elaborate battles, both 40K and WWII in 28mm scale, that he staged and directed. We spent many hours trying to defeat his vaunted force of orks and their beautifully hand-crafted battlewagons, wartracks, guntracks, stompas, and trukks full of the best close combat specialists in the universe. We rarely won.

Carl was one of the best 40K players on the East Coast. He frequently competed in the Games Workshop Grand Tournaments in Baltimore and Philadelphia. In 2003 the Games Workshop staff at the Grand Tournament were particularly struck by the appearance of Carl's army and his scratch-built vehicles. They decided that some photos of his models would go nicely with an article they were preparing about Ork Speed Freaks; an army list that Carl truly loved using. So they took some photos of a few of his models and they ended up on page 72 of issue 279 (April, 2003) of their "White Dwarf" magazine (middle photo). This was truly a unique honor for a hobbyist who had not sought out any recognition or publicity for his modeling skills, but it was very well deserved.

Carl was also a master at designing and making scenery for our games. As can be seen in the photo above he made the most beautiful 40K city that anyone has ever seen. In this case he actually used Games Workshop's "Cites of Death" building models, but of course nothing out of a kit was ever good enough for Carl. He took the basic kits and added his own plastic pieces to them to make them even more imposing and impressive.

I also need to mention that we also spent a very large amount of our gaming time on World War II. This was another aspect of the hobby that Carl loved. We were always amazed by Carl's encylopedic knowledge of World War II, especially the North Africa campaign. Along with this, he seemed to know everything there was to know about WWII armored vehicles and trucks. We used to talk on the phone frequently and listen to him talk on this subject for one to two hours at a time. Everything we did in the WWII area was always done with 28mm infantry figures and 1/48 or 1/50 scale vehicles. Carl had a flair for dramatic effects and as far as he was concerned any models in scales smaller than that were lacking in visual impact. It was an expensive way to do it, but there was no arguing with the approach. Every time we set up our WWII stuff at the local hobby shop we always drew a large crowd of envious onlookers!

We had a great time using all the wonderful scenery sets that he created. We had a lot of fun over a period of 12 wonderful years with Carl, and because of Carl. We of course are very grateful for the time we had with him but we are sure we will never see his like again and we feel very empty.

REAL Thunderwolf Cavalry

As I previously noted, I discovered a gent who makes true Thunderwolf Cavalry. Of course, he doesn't call them that - or GW would be all over copyright infringement or some nonsense. Which makes it tough for those of desiring to field howlin puppy cav - since GW doesn't MAKE any. On top of not making any decent models for a really cool unit, GW doesn't even make any halfway decent models.

Paulson Games = problem solved.

Not only does he make lovely wolf models that are the right size to have an eight-foot tall Space Marine riding them, he makes the saddle/legs for the rider as an extra bits option you can buy. I bought the "full meal deal" with all three poses of howlin pups and the legs to match.

The models are made of resin and require assembly (duh!) and painting. There is some flash, but it requires minimal effort to clean the bits up and prep them for gluing. Not having worked with resin before, I discovered that my model glue doesn't work, so in stepped my "Zap-a Gap" to save the day.

Interestingly, the bodies have Roman numerals inside ("What have the Romans ever done for us!?!") to keep the modeler from getting confused about which body half goes with the other.

There are three poses available. I'm not sure if Mr. Paulson intends on crafting any more poses. Perhaps if he sells enough, he might be encouraged to offer another pose or two. Perhaps a "lunging" or crouching model? Just saying!

As nice as the wolves are, I have to say the rider legs and saddle bits really brought a smile to my face. They are extremely well crafted, nicely detailed, and have "Space Wolves" touches on them. In addition to the very cool space marine cavalry legs (with stirrups!), Mr. Paulson has created textured bases the same size and shape as GW Warhammer 40K cavalry bases!



Here are a few photos of the models and bases painted white and touched up with badab black wash to show the detail. For unadulterated images, head over the Paulson Games.

As soon as I get one ready to show off, I'll slap up some pics for my fellow Space Puppy fans to drool over.







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Thunderwolf Calvary Tweaks and "Hacks"

I mentioned a while back that I planned on “hacking” some non-Games Workshop figures to create Thunderwolf Calvary. I found some figures that were almost right – still a tad small – and looked nice. Not great, but they would do… I found them at my (RIP) local, Game Parlor Woodbridge (the shop closed recently after six years of trying to stay afloat – the main GP store in Chantilly, VA remains open!). I asked some of the lads at the shop about wolves. They ran through the normal litany of Ral Partha, GW Dire Wolves, and Reaper minis. While some of the Reaper figures were actually quite nice, they were far too small. I started digging through various stacks of figures and raiding different racks in a random manner – when I came across the Privateer Press figures for Warmachine. Specifically, there were some wolf figures for the Hordes add-on that were about the right size, had some armor, and weren’t “ugly”. So, I bought three figures and mounted space marines on them. Mounting the marines, in particular, the legs, was torture for me – and for the space marine in question. After several tries, I was able to get them on, but not without breaking the legs on one or two, and having to use green stuff to fill in gaps or glue to hold the bits together. No Canis, space marine legs aren’t designed to bend that way!

I’ll get some photos of my “hacks” up soon. They remain a work in progress; however, I have to get this post up, because I know there are Space Wolves players out there that are desperate to field some new figures, and, like myself, are having a tough time finding appropriate figs. Although these “hacks” work, and they are “nice”, the reason I felt compelled to throw this post up was that I’ve actually found some incredible figures online.

I originally found the link on the Dakka-Dakka forums, if I recall correctly – so some SW players know about them. However, I’m so very impressed with these figures that I want to spread the word – and do a good deed for fellow SW players, and for an extremely talented sculptor. For now I’ll throw in a link to the Web site – later, after I’ve had a chance to actually do some work on them, I’ll try to do proper justice to them with a full post!

Huzzah Hobbies: New Gaming Store In Northern Virginia

For those of you who live in the VA, MD, DC area you might be interested to know that there is a new hobby store in Ashburn, Virginia. It's called Huzzah Hobbies. I have not been up there yet, but from the looks of it they apparently support quite a variety of game systems to include some historical systems such as Flames of War and DBA.
http://www.huzzahhobbies.com/index.cfm

Looks like it will be well worth checking out!

The Graying of Canis Wolfborn - Continued from the Greening of Canis Wolfborn

As you can see, I'm all about snappy titles and endowed with great creativity! (kidding!)

Some time back I described cleaning and "greening" the Canis Wolfborn model here. I primed him before I finished writing my post about the greening, and then began to paint.

After months and months of painting a bit here and a bit there, I've finally decided to leave well enough alone, and have finished Canis Wolfborn.

I used the photos on GW's website and the box cover as a guide for colors and such. Where I deviated from the GW paint scheme is where I felt the artistic need to express my own unique flavor, in paint.

Enjoy the "wolfy" goodness!






















































I had a "model" to pose for me, so I could make the wolf more realistic - and personal: Izabelle, smile and take a bow sweet girl!



... and for my next trick, Thunderwolf cavalry, "hacked" from GW Space Wolves space marine models and Warmachine "Warbeasts".

The Greening of Canis Wolfborne

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had happily acquired the new Games Workshop model, Canis Wolfborn for my Space Wolves Warhammer 40K army.

I was so excited by this acquisition that, although I was completely awash in pre-convention painting projects, I took time to clean the model and put him together.

I will reiterate that I have never seen such an imposing hunk of metal designed for the tabletop! Canis is a "mere" Space Marine, his size alone is inconsequential - unless compared to a "mere" mortal! However, his mount, the cybernetically enhanced Thunder Wolf, Fangir is another story altogether.

I have not done actual measurements so cannot provide an accurate size for the model; let's just say it's really big!

Unfortunately, when I built Canis and Fangir, I was out of "green stuff" modeling putty and could not fill the cracks left between larger bits.

I finally got some green stuff and went to work on Fangir - and here are a couple of photos showing the results.
















Fangir and his rider, from the front















Looking down at Fangirs' tail end



As I worked with the model, it became apparent that the spaces left between Canis' arms and his torso did not require putty. However, poor Fangir had a few spots that needed a bit of help.

I mushed up the yellow and blue parts of the green stuff, squished it around till it was nicely blended, then rolled it out in long strips that would nearly fit into the crevices. Using a dental pick, I pressed the green stuff into the cracks, and poked it into a similar appearance and texture as his fur.

I also learned a bit about photography while getting the shots for this posting; Note to budding miniatures photographers - when using the Super Macro setting on your camera, using a flash will leave a large black shadow in the shape of your lens! DOH!

I have begun the carbonite freezing process... umm.... I mean the priming process, and hope to begin painting Fangir and his pet space marine soon!

Canis Wolfborn

After many years without a "real" codex, Space Wolves players are once again "official". The new codex is out and I got a copy very early on, having pre-ordered it at my local brick and mortar game shop! I'm still plowing through the book, though I do intend on providing our dear readers with a review of the document, this post is about a new character (of which there are several!) that I also purchased days after it's release.

Canis Wolfborn rides a mighty cybernetically enhanced Fenris wolf which is called a Thunderwolf. His name is Fangir.

Being a fan of wolves, I find the creature too massive for my personal tastes; however, it is supposed to represent an alien breed of wolves that are much larger and more fierce than their Terran cousins. Add some cybernetics to enhance his attacks, and the beast is nearly the equal of his space marine rider!

I've actually built the model already, though I have not yet primed it or begun to paint.

First impressions:

Like many large Games Workshop models, the bits don't all necessarily fit together smoothly. I managed to put the model together without pinning any parts; however, I will likely regret that move in the future. If you are building this beastie, be aware that pinning the arms on Canis will likely be a safe bet, and aid in keeping the arms in place later during transportation and gameplay!

Although I have applied my "pumice" to the base, along with a small stone from the garden, I cannot prime and thus begin to paint until I acquire some "green stuff". I'll be stopping off at my local game store today to pick up a pack. Without green stuff, there will be rather annoying gaps here and there at the joints on Fangir.

I plan on posting photos of my progress with this model, so please stay tuned!

Final Series of Apocalypse photos

Here is our last installment of our recent Apocalypse action. In the first photo is Eldarmeister Tom's Eldar Avatar. Then in the next photo, there he is again, but this time he is going down fighting surrounded by a horde of Orkmeister Karl's bloodthirsty Orks!

The third photo shows one of the Ork Stompas closing in on an unfortunate IG tank. "Come to Papa!" he says!

Last, but not least, you see two of the three Stompas casually strolling through the armored "gun line" like they are out looking for daisies to pick! In the back of the same photo you can see the unit of Ork "Tank Annoyer" boys trying to appear as though they still matter!

Space Wolves Vehicle Camouflage

I love camouflage!

I retired from the Army a while back, and I recall an Army that wore "green sateens", which were, arguably one of the ugliest uniforms ever!

Although the elite Space Marines of the 40th Millennium are supposedly too "l33t" to require or desire camouflage, the old soldier in me bristles at the thought of any equipment entering a combat zone in "parade gloss" paint schemes.

After a discussion with Bwana Bill and Orkmeister Karl, I came up with a camo scheme for my Space Wolves vehicles.

I tried to stay true to their wolf-gray, winter-world origins, and came up with the scheme pictured below.











What do you think? We love comments and suggestions from our loyal readers!!

Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse armored gun line

OK, are you ready for this? Get a load of THIS gun line! Have you ever see so many 40K tanks in one place before? This is something you DO NOT SEE EVERY DAY! You have to come here to see anything like this. Amazing,isn't it?

Apocalypse continued

I almost forgot that a few days ago I said that I would post some pictures from our latest Apocalypse game. So, here they are!

The first photo is Orkmeister Karl's unit of Ork Tankbusta boys. These models come from a by-gone era of Warhammer 40,000 (40K), and Karl has added a lot of very nice scratch-built weapons and other details. This was a unit that we all greatly feared over the years. Now, unfortunatley, the latest Ork Codex seems to have turned them into a unit who's overall performance is quite disappointing.

The second photo is one of the Orkmeister's beautiful scratch-built Ork Stompas. He can field three of them now, much to the chagrin of his Imperial opponents. They have not yet managed to destroy even one of them!

Photo number 3 is Andrew's classic Imerial Guard Steel Legion unit.

The last photo is 20 of my Khorne Berserkers grouped into one huge squad. Kharn the Betrayer is somewhere in there with them. I wanted to try this combination to see what would happen. My reasoning was that a large squad would serve to protect Kharn well and escort him into assault range. Plus, even if Kharn did kill a few of his own side during his frenzied assualt, it wouldn't matter that much if he was in a large squad. There is also a demon prince and a Predator tank operating independently on their flank. I decided on all this even though I knew it might be difficult to get them into assault range without a transport vehicle. So, since our game only lasted two turns before we ran out of time ... yes, you guessed it; none of them had time to get within assault range. So, it proved to be a bad idea after all.

Baneblade tank rumbles forward!

OK, I have told you this before. Every once in a while we escape from reality and digress from historical gaming into science fiction. So last Sunday the gang got together to put together a Warhammer 40,00 Apocalypse game and for the first time in 13 months we had an opportunity to pull our super-heavy Baneblade tank out of the garage, load her up on the transporter and send her into action against the infidels. And here she is! Rumbling into action! The earth shakes, and the enemy shakes with fear! Stay tuned to this channel and we will show you more of the action in the coming days!

What I've been up to lately

Y'all need to 'give it up' for Bwana Bill, who has been carrying the blog along for some time now. Thanks Bill!!! He has posted new products, games that he's trying out, and games he and I have played. That's a lot of work, and I really appreciate all he has done to keep this blog from the dusty rolls of 'deadblogtown'.

Here are some things I've been doing to stay busy:

Space Wolves - I sold this army off a few years back, but have decided to rebuild it and play again.

Here are the Rune Priest and Wolf Priest for this "space going Viking' army of the far flung future!











And this is my latest project: Some new figures from Artizan 28mm WWII!!

This is a 'work in progress' and is just begun! I've cleaned and mounted the figures on a large base, and added the pumice flocking stuff we use for a lot of our figures. I'll post more images as I get more work done!







That's it for now!!!

But this is just a teaser, have a look at those lovely Askari miniatures again.... Bersaglieri?? Western Desert?? That sounds like an area that deserves wargaming again!

Ciao for now!

Take Out that Baneblade!

Even though it was not contesting an objective, the Eldar fixated on reducing the Baneblade on the Imperial right flank to flaming junk. We counted approximately a dozen or more lascannon equivalent (or whatever those damned Eldar things are called!) hits on the Baneblade. Look at all the hit markers on that thing! By the end of turn two the Baneblade had only one structure point left and only one heavy bolter mount functioning. It definitely would not have survived another turn. Fortunately we ran out of time so there were no more turns!

Stompas Move in for the Kill

I have nothing more to say about this!