My Miniatures New Digs

I've always felt that putting so much time and effort into painting an army just to hide it away in a travel case was such a waste.  Thanks to IKEA I was able to get a nice glass display case on the cheap.  How much on the cheap?  $59.99 plus, another $10 for the light.  A complete glass tower display case for $70.00 how could I walk away from that?

Since this piece is from IKEA it's not the Ferrari of display cases, but it's decent and looks nice.  There's enough surface area per shelf to hold a small army of maybe 1000 points depending on what the army consists of. Assembly was easy, but does require two people.  I should also mention that this thing weighs 93lbs.  I grabbed mine at the store, but you may want to take that into account if you want one and need to pay shipping.

Overall I'm happy with it and I'm very excited to fill it.  It's motivating in a way. If you're looking or thinking about getting a display case and don't want to spend a bunch of money then I definitely recommend this one.

Genesis Chapter Dreadnought

Brother Mephistus of the Genesis Chapter 1st Company

After months of endless battle with the paint gods and fate against me, my Genesis Chapter Dreadnought is finally finished.  The paint scheme is exactly the same as my Genesis Chapter Terminators with one exception.  I decided not to use the Badab Black wash on the the Codex Grey base coat for the honour badging.  On to the how I did it...

• See Genesis Chapter Terminators
  
• To get the burnt look on the Multi-melta I first dry brushed on Tin Bitz progressively.  I started with a heavy dry brushing in the front and progressively got lighter towards the back.  Then I did the same with some Chaos Black, but only went about half way down the barrel.
• I did a small experiment painting the skull on its base.  I wanted to try something different for painting bone.  I started with Kommando Kkaki followed by a wash of Devlan Mud and finally Bleached Bone for highlights.  I think it came out OK, but not as close to bone as I would have liked - back to the drawing board.
• Overall I tried to keep the scheme as simple as possible, only using a small assortment of colours.  This is best seen in the wires and hosing between the armour plating and the sarcophagus.  It's mostly metal in colour, but broken up a bit with some blue.

Pit of the Oni Joins the FtW Blogger Group

Just as the title says. Pit of the Oni has joined the ++ FROM THE WARP ++ Blogger Group and in doing so I have given my blog a bit of a face lift. What does all this mean? Well... It means a lot more posts, eye candy and downloads. Let the fun begin!

Army Progress - Genesis Chapter

Terminator Squad of the Genesis Chapter 1st Company

Finally I've made some progress on my Genesis Chapter project. That little thing called 'life' and 'job' keep getting in the way, but at least the job fuels my hobby so I guess I can't complain too much. Anyway... As any well versed Warhammer 40,000 player can tell this is the Terminator squad from the Assault on Black Reach box set - an absolutely amazing box set I might add. I chose to do the Genesis chapter for two reasons: one - because I wanted to do something different; a codex chapter that no one sees, but isn't a 'home brew' and two - I wanted them to be a successor chapter of the Ultramarines.

So how did I paint these? Let me first say that this my interpretation of the Genesis Chapter. They're actually supposed to be more red, but that didn't appeal to me so I toned it down a bit. Also I tried to do these in a manner that made the painting process fast and easy while still producing a nice tabletop quality.

• I started from a Chaos Black undercoat and painted the whole miniature Mechrite Red.
• To do the shading and highlighting I first gave the miniature a heavy wash of Devlan Mud followed by a drybrushing of Blood Red after the wash was given enough time to dry.
• Their helmets, chest eagles, crux terminatus and other little honour badges were first painted with Codex Grey then given a wash of Badab Black. Highlights were done with Fortress Grey followed by Skull White.
• The Purity Seal ribbons where painted Bleached Bone and then given a wash of Gryphonne Sepia and then highlighted with some thinned Bleached Bone. The wax seal was painted Ultramarines Blue, washed with Asurman Blue and highlighted with Ultramarines Blue again.
• The metallic areas of the Storm Bolters were first painted with Boltgun Metal and washed with Badab Black and highlighted with lite a drybrushing Mithril Silver.
• The captains golden halo and sword hilt were first painted Shining Gold followed by Brown Ink and highlighted with Burnished Gold.

Warhammer 40,000 Large Army Roster

- Download Army Roster -

Ok everyone, I've worked really hard on this one. Well... not really, but if you think I did so much the better. This time around I have for you a complete Army Roster. This thing is seven pages long, divided up by HQ, Troops, Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. One of the nicest things about this one is that the PDF is a 'form' so that you can type in all your stats and information before you print it out. Fancy isn't it? That one's for all you people out there that write like chicken scratch. Now keep in mind this is a first draft. I need feedback to make it better. If you want to see something changed like have more fields or a different background, leave a comment. In the meantime, enjoy!

- See and get other roster sheets here -

Warhammer 40,000 Roster Sheet

- Download Roster Sheet -

So after making the 5E Combat Patrol PDF I thought "How nice would it be to have a roster sheet." So after a brief scouring of the intarwebs the only one I found was the ugly pile of rubbish offered by GW. Seriously GW... That thing is ugly. You can do way better! Anyway... I decided to make my own. I hope you enjoy.

- See and get other roster sheets here -

Combat Patrol - Updated for 5th Edition

- Download Combat Patrol -

If you love Combat Patrol as much as I do than this is exactly what you've been waiting for. If you're not familiar with Combat Patrol let me give you a short run down. Combat Patrol, also known as 40K in 40 Minutes and Patrol Clash was originally the creation of one Tim Eagling published in White Dwarf #274. It was later published in the 4th edition Warhammer 40,000 rulebook where it took on the name of Combat Patrol. The Combat Patrol 'guide lines' make it possible to play fast games of 40K when time is a restriction. Recently, with the release of the 5th edition Warhammer 40,000 rulebook, Games Workshop for one reason or another decided to exclude Combat Patrol. I've taken it upon myself to create this small PDF with very minor revisions to bring Combat Patrol in to the realm of 5th edition 40K. I hope you enjoy.

Decals - Getting That "Painted On" Look

Ok, if you like that "Painted On" look, but lack the free-hand painting skills to do it than I highly suggest these two products. Microscale Industries, Inc. Micro Set and Micro Sol. They are absolutely wonderful.

Micro Set is a very versatile decal setting solution that does several things, it softens the decal so that it can conform better to the model's surface, and can be used as a decal remover / lifter after the decal has already been put into place.

Micro Sol setting solution is for the most difficult irregular surfaces. It completely softens the decal allowing it to drape down onto the surface of the model conforming perfectly and without distortion.

Brush a little Micro Set onto the surface where the decal is to be applied. Place your decal and than carefully brush some more Micro Set onto the decal. Wait a few minute for the setting solution to work. If needed apply more Micro Set -OR- use Micro Sol for more softening strength. Once Micro Sol has been used, leave it alone, it does the work. Don't touch it before it's dry as the decal is very soft at this stage and could be easily damaged.

Here are some examples:

Ultramarines: Army Progress - Post One

Combat Squad Primus of the Ultramarines 2nd Company.

This is the first installment of the progression on my Ultramarines force. I'm not sure how long this squad took me, but it sure feels like quite awhile. I haven't painted mini's since I last played back in the days of 2nd edition. Over all I feel these turned out quite well.

NOTES:

• I started from a base coat of Chaos Black primer and then painted the armor with a 1:1 mix of Chaos Black and Regal Blue, including the deep recesses of the armor plates.
• Next I used a 1:1 mix of Regal Blue and Ultramarines Blue to build up the color of the armor, taking care not to get any in recesses.
• To make the extreme highlights I then applied a thin line of Ultramarines Blue to the edges of the armor plates excluding the shoulder guards, followed by another even thinner line of a 1:1 mix Ultramarines Blue and Space Wolves Grey.
• The gold chest eagles and shoulder guard trim was first painted Brazen Brass to give me a good foundation. I then built upon this with Shining Gold, followed by Brown Ink to give me some better shading effects.
• Lastly the chest eagle and shoulder guard trim was highlighted with a 1:1 mix Shining Gold and Mithril Silver.

5th Edition FAQ's & Reference Sheets

So with the release of the new Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition comes the inevitable FAQ's and reference sheets. These are a necessary evil in this game as there are a lot of "players" out there that want to manipulate the rules or try to deceive their unknowing opponent.

"the most important rule is that the rules aren’t all that important! So long as both players agree, you can treat them as sacrosanct or mere guidelines." So, that being said on to the links.

FAQ's

Reference Sheets

~Updated: Instead of constantly updating individual links to every FAQ and Reference Sheet I linked to the main page for each on the GW site.

FIREBASE #7 - Warhammer 40,000 Magazine

Firebase is Warseer's own online magazine - free for download of course. It's packed with loads of good reading. I recommend checking out issue #7 as well as Warseer. The forums are a great source of information and news.

Rants & Raves: Cover Saves

Here we are again and only a short time after the 1st Rants & Raves post.

Anyway... Keeping in line with the last rant about TLoS, it would seem that there's an equal amount of [expletive delete] that can't grasp the new cover saves. So again here I am posting actual rulebook excerpts to try and clear things up.

"When any part of the target model’s body (as defined previously by the LoS rules) is obscured from the point of view of the firer, the target model is in cover. This is intentionally generous, and it represents the fact that the warrior, unlike the model, will be actively trying to take cover (as well as the smoke, explosions and flying debris that are mercifully absent from our tabletop battlefields)." "If a target is partially hidden from the firer’s view by other models, it receives a 4+ cover save in the same way as if it was behind terrain."

Intervening models includes ALL models, friend and foe alike.

Update: There's a lot of asshats out there trying to abuse the new cover save rules vs. intervening models. They're trying to grant a symbiotic cover save amongst two units in a staggered formation (See Image). This is a sticky situation because it works, but is generally considered to be an underhanded or "beardy" tactic. In the image we see a SM (Spacemarine) unit firing into a staggered formation of two Ork units.

From the SM position both Ork units will receive a cover save, because even though there are no intervening models to fire through to hit unit 1 the majority of it is behind unit 2 granting it a 4+ cover save. In regards to unit 2 the cover save rules specifically state that "If a model fires through the gaps between models in an intervening unit, the target is in cover".

Rants & Raves: TLoS

Welcome to the 1st Rants & Raves posting. These posts, as I'm sure there will be many more, will consist of my point of view on controversial issues in the Warhammer 40,000 community.

As you probably already know TLoS (True Line of Sight) is one of the many mechanics changes in the new 5th edition of Warhammer 40K. The confusion that this is causing is mind numbing. I didn't realize that so many people would be unable to grasp the simple and literal fact - if you can see it, you can shoot it.

To clarify any debate I've posted an excerpt from the actual rulebook.

"Line of sight literally represents your warriors’ view of the enemy " "Line of sight must be traced from the eyes of the firing model to any part of the body of at least one of the models in the target unit (for ‘body’ we mean its head, torso, legs and arms). Sometimes, all that may be visible of a model is a weapon, an antenna, a banner or some other ornament he is wearing or carrying (including its wings and tail, even though they are technically part of its body). In these cases, the model is not visible. These rules are intended to ensure that models don’t get penalised for having impressive standards, blades, guns, majestic wings, etc." "Firing models can always draw line of sight through members of their own unit"

Furthermore let me state that AT (Area Terrain) poses ZERO effect on TLoS and only now pertains to cover saves and difficult terrain movement.

And So It Begins

OK, so recently I've decided to jump back into gaming with Warhammer 40,000 and in doing such decided to keep a blog on the progress of my armies and any other 40K hoopla I care to share with the world. More to come...