Finished Valkyrie with Secret Weapon Base!

It's Been a Long Time

     It has taken me a very (read: VERY!) long time to complete this model.  Rightfully so!  It's not an easy kit to assemble, even more difficult if you're constantly fretting over which bits should be painted before assembling.  This kit isn't for beginners, even the ones that don't intend to paint the model.

     This represents quite a few milestones for me.  This is the largest Warhammer 40K model I've ever assembled and painted.  This is also the first time that I've had a pre-made resin base.  I absolutely fell in love with Secret Weapon Minisatures' Urban Street bases (see previous post).  The base was so easy to paint that it almost felt like cheating.  Not cheating enough for me NOT to use it.

     I'll have some more pictures and a funny story about the Valkyrie in a bit, but first I want to talk about the base.

The Joy of Basing

     As I said above, this was a joy to paint.  I got to experiment with all sorts of techniques that I have been wanting to try.  I think the end results were pretty good and I learned a bit about different methods of applications of weathering powders.

     Before I could paint it, I needed to make sure that I could fix the flight stand such that it would sit flat on the base.  The elevated portion of the base, containing the side walk, was the challenge.  I decided that I would try a bit of carving.  I went to a hobby store and purchased a cheap wood working kit that had a few carving tools.  I looked for one that had the width of one of the "fins" of the flight stand (the typical GW one) and lucked out with one that was just slightly larger.  I then traced out the footprint of the flight stand on the bare resin base with a pencil.  I then started carving into my perfectly nice base.  You can clearly see the carved out portion here:

     Took some guts to do this to this beautiful base

     Once I was sure I was getting close to a good fit, I just kept test fitting and shaving off smaller amounts each time.  At the end, the flight stand fit perfectly!  Here is a close look at the result:

     Since the "fin" that I had carved out that little trench for was sunken ever so slightly into the base, I was sure to use a more daring amount of glue on that portion of the stand.  It seems like I have a good strong fix between the stand and the base, but I'll likely always treat it a bit gingerly just in they desire to divorce themselves of each other.

The Gunners: Frick and Frack

     The final piece I had to complete on this model was the door gunners.  I had spent a fair bit of time making sure the cabin was detailed, and I had made sure to magnetize the gun cradles to the swing arms such that I could be truly WYSIWYG if I should opt NOT to take the two Heavy Bolter door guns.  With all that work in place, I knew that I wanted to put some real detail into the door gunners themselves.  Obviously I wouldn't spend as much time as I had on some of my infantry models, such as my command squad, but I wanted them to still stand up to some scrutiny.  So here they are:

Frick on the left, Frack on the right

     I made sure that they matched the infantry but yet looked a little bit different such that they represented flight crew, not ground slogging infantry.  Their armor is fresher looking, no bullet holes or rusting.  They have flight suits so no camo spots either.  I spent a bit of time making sure those visors on their helmets had some very subtle light streaks and spots.  After all that, here's what you see of them when they're installed:

Detail work?  Totally worth it.  Just look at that visor!

     Yes, I do feel like a bit of an idiot.  I'm a slow painter because I'm still not super great at NOT painting bits of the model in less detail.  That's truly a talent in and of itself.  Dave Taylor, ex-GW man and the absolute master of the fast army, is my hero because of that ability alone.  I've see his work on his blog and everything is simple and elegant.  While he's capable of finely detailed paint jobs, he doesn't do it unless he has to for the most part.  He knows how to spend the effort on the parts of the model that the eye naturally clings to.  Maybe I'll be able to do that some day.  Oh and if you think the above photo is bad, wait until you see it with the wing attached!

What door gunner?

Summary

     I really feel that this was a pretty good milestone for me.  I'm proud of the model, but I'm also immensely pleased to have it OFF my painting table and in my display cabinet.  I've got another Valkyrie kit sitting here, but that will have to wait.  I have an Ork flyer to paint!

     I was worried that this paint scheme wouldn't fit in with my army.  I wanted the Valkyries to stand apart because they are flyers, and I reasoned that they shouldn't have the same camo pattern as my tanks.  To that end, I went with a bit of a "stealthier" look since these things will be shuttling two Storm Trooper squads around.  Just to make sure that it would still fit, I added those stripes.  I think that did the trick.  Here are some pictures with a few of my infantry to compare:

     I had some fun staging those two pictures.  Some day, when I have a table and some terrain, I could see myself wasting some time setting up some scenes with my models.  Full man-child achievement unlocked!

     I have a game lined up for tomorrow.  I think I'll be taking my Guard along for shits and giggles.  Might as well start to learn how to use them a bit.  Additionally I've been dying to mess about with a flyer so this gives me the perfect excuse.

     I leave you with a few more pictures of the Valkyrie:

Secret Weapon Miniatures Resin Bases First Impressions

I'll gladly pay someone to do this for me

     I'm not a fan of making bases myself.  I've done it, and I might even dare say that I've done it well in a few cases.  Nothing fancy, nothing amazing, but clean and simple bases for models I intend to use quite often.  When I started working on my Imperial Guard, I wanted to really try on some of those bases.  I really did put some extra effort, but still with an eye to the fact that these models were intended to be played on a table, not sat on a plinth for display.  After I finished 25 infantry models, I made an executive decision: I'll gladly pay someone to make something a bit fancier than what I'm capable of doing.

     Enter Secret Weapon Miniatures!

     The concept with my Imperial Guard, when I started, was that I would have the Veterans/Regulars have a mix of dirt and urban rubble.  Some cement blocks but some brown earth and some flock.  I then wanted the more elite portion of my army to be the real urban warfare types.  To this end I would have two Storm Trooper squads and two Valkyries with urban streets and rubble as their bases.  I found exactly what I was looking for on Secret Weapon's site.  Here they are!

     I also recently purchased an Ork flyer kit.  My Orks have a very simple base theme.  Muddy dirt.  Lots of rich browns to be properly Orky.  It would compliment the orange color that I had picked as my war band's primary color.  Looking around Secret Weapon's site again, I found this!  Painted to match, that "desert wasteland" could easily fit into my mudpocalypse theme.

Got it, opened it, and here's what I think

     The bases arrived by mail, and I was all too happy to tear into the envelope.  I should mention now that this is the first time I've ever purchased resin bases, so there was a lot of impressions to be had here.  The bases are incredible.  While the large oval bases clearly steal the show, even the small infantry bases have loads of details and importantly lots of space onto which I can place the model.  There's only a tiny bit of flashing around the edges of the bases that can either be filed off or even just scraped off with a blade.

Large Ovals

     I was worried about the sizing of the large oval bases.  The Urban Streets variety said on the site that it was 90x120mm but the Desert Wasteland one said 95x120mm.  Well I'm happy to report that they are in fact the same size and also the same size as the Games Workshop large oval base.

Same size! 

     I will have to do a slight bit of carving to get the flight stand on that Urban Streets base.  Not too much, though and I'll have to be delicate about it.  I'm thinking about getting an actual carving tool to make sure I do it as cleanly as possible.  The Desert Wasteland might need a very slight amount as well.

Infantry Bases

     The small bases are perfect.  I'll need no sort of tweaking to make a model fit, which is great.  There are a decent amount of variation, though I'm sure I'll enhance that through added bits to the base, be it flocking or painting.  I still want my Storm Troopers to look really unique, and I haven't locked in how I want to achieve that just yet.  What will be important is if I end up with metal, plastic, or resin models because I might have to do some pinning to make sure the models fight tightly to the bases.

     The only concern I could see someone else having (me, I don't give a toss) is that the added modeling material that Secret Weapon Miniatures has used  on top of the standard base raises the height of the infantry model about a quarter of an inch.  Seen here:

The rest of the men will need platform boots to keep up!

     It's not such a huge thing to me, but I'm sure that some neck-beard out there would have an absolute conniption if he thought that this quarter inch would deny his men critical cover in a game.  I don't care at all, whatsoever, and thus I'll just smile and nod.

Summary

     Good quality.  The oval bases are certainly center pieces, the infantry bases aren't so complex that you can't fit a figure on it, and the price seems very reasonable to me.  It's a dollar a base for the infantry bases and $10 for the large ovals.  If you are striving to make your army really stand out from the others around you, this might be a good route to go.  If you're tired of making your own bases, and you'd like to pay someone else to do it for you, Secret Weapons ain't a bad choice at all.

     Final note: if you do get resin bases, always make sure you wash them in warm soapy water to remove any of the mold release agent residue that might still be there.  Paint and mold release do not mix, and bad things will happen.  You will be a sad panda.

Chaplain all finished! Compare it to my first ever mini!

Chaplain Complete!

     Yay!  It's done!  This model is still one of my most favorite models from GW.  It's tough looking and menacing.  I'm a fan of chaplains in the game in general but this one is just the most aggressive looking of the bunch.  I've painted two now, maybe one day I'll paint one that I own.

     I decided, upon completion of this model, that what I had in my hands was what I very well might describe as my best painted mini to date.  There are things I could have done better, details I could have spent more time on, and I've yet to date not ventured away from using metallic paints thus all this leads me to still be sure in that this isn't Golden Demon quality.  Here are some other pics of the Chaplain:

     Since I'm so fond of the model, I decided to take a moment, open up my display cabinet and pull out the first model I had ever painted.  It was just about 5 years ago that I had purchased the Assault on Black Reach Painting Starter Kit.  It came with five snap-together marines, six horrible paints (really rubbery), and one less than optimal brush.  I remember how proud I was of that first model.  How proud I was after completing all five!  I still feel the same way when I complete any new model.

     With this old model in my hand, I gave it a good going over with my more skilled eye.  It looks silly to me now, but it still makes me smile.  Considering I was using a really horrible brush and really horrible paints, it's not that bad...  no, it's bad.  But it's mine, and you never forget your first.

The Good Old Days

     Thanks for reading!  Hope you've enjoyed the progress pics of the Chaplain.  Up next I have to ABSOLUTELY finish my Valkyrie.  That bastard has been lurking around my painting table for far too long and it's time it did something useful.  I have some fancy resin bases on order from Secret Weapons Miniatures so once those come in I'll be sure to give a brief review.  I should be able to order the last bits needed for my Guard army within this next month.  I'm excited about that, but I'm even MORE excited about being able to put together my Ork flyer!  Airborne WAAAGH!

More Chaplain progress and Vehicle movement cheating

Chaplain Progress

     Here is an updated shot of the commissioned Chaplain.  Still a bunch of work to do, but I'm very close.  The client apologized as he later mentioned to his brother-in-law that he thought I was raising the price on him.  Thankfully his brother-in-law was there when I agreed to paint it for $35.  He then paid me $40.  Conflict resolved.

     Having never painted yellow on this type of miniature (I did yellow stripes on my Firestorm Armada Dendrenzi ships) I certainly learned some lessons.  I started with a brown base and built it up to what you see there.  As usual, soon after finishing all the yellow, happened to check Dave Taylor's blog and he had done some wonderful work on a Lamenters assault marine.  I could tell that he had based with orange and built up from there.  The effect is better, in my opinion, so should I find myself doing yellow marines, I'll be trying that.

     There are plenty of details and final highlights yet to go.  I need to work on the base as well, but regardless I'm going to heavily seal this puppy because he'll be receiving some serious table time.  I certainly know that yellow is fun to weather though.  This is for true.  Anways, more pics:

Vehicle Movement Cheating

     I watched a video on Youtube from Beasts of War.  If you're not familiar with this group, they do a bunch of videos concerning a multitude of table top war games.  On one of their recent videos, Darrell (their resident rules-lawyer and self appointed "Cheese Master".  His new found strategy for using Land Speeders involved cheating.  That sounds harsh but I'm calling a spade a spade.

     In his example, he placed his Land Speeder right up on the deployment line, with the nose of the LS pointing towards the short table edge, and his side facing the enemy.  When it is his turn, he pivots the LS 90 degrees to now face his opponent, then measures 12" from the front of the vehicle to move.  The net result is that he has gained an inch by pivoting the LS before he measures the move.

     This is just completely wrong.  Page 71 of the BRB covers vehicle movement.  They say that you should measure from the hull.  Pivoting does not reduce the vehicle's movement.  Vehicles that pivot but otherwise stay stationary don't count as having moved.  Now that all those facts are there, let me say this:  if you measure from where Darrell's LS started at the beginning of his movement phase, to where it ends, that's 13".  There's no other way to describe that.  He pivots then moves.  The pivot can be PART of the move, and the rules certainly state that there's no penalty for that, but it also describes the total distance a model as moved as determining the "speed" the vehicle is traveling at.

     If you want to LEGALLY achieve this effect, you can pivot on your first turn, then move on your second.  Technically you've gained the same inch, but you've done it within the constructs of the rules.

     If pivoting the vehicle, then measuring the move is okay, then I should similarly be allowed to pivot my Nob Bikers, and the Forgeworld Warboss on his bike because I can stand to gain inches there.  Quite frankly this is all bullshit.  If you intend to move a vehicle, don't touch the vehicle until you determine the distance and thus the final location the vehicle will be moved to.  You avoid this rules breaking nonsense and everyone goes home without a number of new stab wounds.

Chaplain commission progress, and Valkyrie

Terminator Chaplain Commission

     A person I know at work started getting into 40K some time back.  I might have left retail quite some time ago, but apparently I still have the touch of selling people on things.  I do it while trying not to sometimes.  He asked me to paint up this Terminator Chaplain.  I agreed to do it for just $35.  I felt that was reasonable and I know that I was going to deliver him a top notch figure.  Obviously I don't do this for the money, but since I'm taking time away from finishing up my Valkyrie, a little compensation is only fair, I feel.  I had made some good progress (despite having to paint parts of him yellow... ugh) and he is looking decent, as you can see above.

     Today at work he asked how it was going, and I said it was going very well indeed.  I've been spending quite a lot of time on the figure, but he will be supremely happy when he sees it.  He then tells me that he hopes it's worth the $30.  "You mean $35."  And then he stares at me confused.  "We agreed on $35."  I know, it's five dollars and that's maybe a bit too small of a figure to argue over but I've had a history of frustration with this guy in and out of work, so I wasn't capitulating.  He swears to me, up and down, that I said $30.  "Why would I make that up?" I asked him.  I told him that I would be happy to return the figure after I clean off the paint, because I wasn't going to play this game over $5.  I'm not pleased with the situation.  I'm especially upset about this because I've done some good detail work, on the helmet for example.  I was looking forward to being proud to present this to this guy when I was done.

Speaking of Valkyries

     There she is!  Getting closer!  I just added the stripes last, and they need to be roughed up and made to look more part of the model.  I'm looking forward to that.  Really there's only weathering and some detail work left to do.  I've amused my wife to no end with my antics flying the Valkyrie around making engine purposefully obnoxious engine noises and cheesy "PEW PEW!" laser sounds.  She smiles, either out of pitty or shame... or BOTH!  With our first child due to arrive later this year (a boy, no less) I'm sure she'll have plenty other things to worry about.  Namely my influence on the poor child.

Valkyrie Progress and 6th Edition Games

Valkyrie Ain't Easy Being Un-Finished-y


Work on the Valkyrie has continued, though clearly slow.  I glued down the canopy so my work on the canopy is finished for sure.  Here are some shots:

I've completed all of the base coating for the outside of the vehicle.  I also tried just dry brushing to bring out edge highlighting, but I just wasn't happy with that.  I then took the longer hard road of edge highlighting.  That was pretty tedious.  Turns out there are a crap ton of edges on this bastard.  I took my time.  Results were good though, and I took the opportunity to do some scratches and general light weathering.

Still got a lot of work to do, and I'll eventually ... do it.  I guess.

6th Edition Games


I've now finished two games of 6th edition and I've got to say that I've found it to be absolutely enjoyable.  The random charge ranges have made for some really interesting turns in these games.  In one particular failed charge by my opponent, it completely gave me an advantage in escaping what could have been a potentially fatal assault.  My opponent would have been able to make the assault in 5th edition.  The life span of vehicles does seem to really be limited, but thankfully my Ork Trukk was pretty soft before.  I'm doing alright.  I am sad that someone at the store walked up to me, glanced at my Nob Bikers and said "I've really got to get those for my Ork army, because now they're just AMAZING!"  Er... ok.  They're slightly better but some things are slightly worse.  On the measure, I'd say you had just as much reason to take them in 5th as you did in 6th.  Perhaps some of those reasons are different.

First Game of Sixth Edition

The Beast Has Arrived


     I played my first game of Warhammer 40K 6th edition today.  It... took... awhile.  Many readers might not know that I actually haven't been into 40K that long.  I got started almost a year after 5th edition had launched.  I had completed my first 1500 point army and played my first game about the time that 5th edition was celebrating it's first birthday.  Starting a game as complex as 40K (or really most table top war games) is difficult, but it helps if there are plenty of blogs, Youtube videos, and podcasts that are almost wholly concerned with sussing out some new rules.  That's exactly how I managed to figure out 5th edition, at least as much that I felt like I could put some models on a table, shuffle them about, and roll some dice with a modicum of confidence that some of that conformed with the rules.

     This is my first rules shift.  Many vets out there have been there, done that, purchased the over-priced limited collector's edition T-shirt.  I certainly haven't and I'm a bit worried.  One of my least favorite experiences in this hobby to date was one of my first ever public pick-up game.  One of the regulars at the gaming store I visited agreed to play against me in a low point game.  My first few games I had played with a friend, and I had a blast learning the rules with him.  This pick-up game was different.  This guy didn't care to teach me anything, other than how to try and piece back my ego.  Ultimately, the sore spot for me wasn't that I lost (I've had plenty of that since) but the way that I lost.

     He used 4th edition and even 3rd edition rules that favored him.  True line of sight? PFFT!  Not if it meant I had caught him at a disadvantage.  There were many more instances of creative rule blending, and it made me furious because I found out AFTER the fact.  Not only that but he had played far more points against me.  He had just dropped some models on the table and ran rough shod over the "newb" and didn't care what that meant for the community.

     It had occurred to me that perhaps he didn't know what he was doing.  Perhaps he was just a bit of a bumbling idiot that generally forgot what edition he was playing, or had a difficult time sorting out the rules in his head.  Maybe he added up his army wrong when he put together his 1300 pt "1000 pt" Eldar army.

     Bollocks!  He was a punk.  I'm worried that I might fail to pickup 6th edition rules and 5th edition rules will pop out instead, so I'm trying extra hard to dump 5th edition, and learn 6th quickly.  I don't someone to think I was trying to be the bastard against them.

So How Was It?


     Well, it was "fine."  That might seem a bit lack-luster for a review, but I'm not sure one game is enough to tell anything.  Just reading the rule book made me feel like my Orks had taken a bit of a pummeling.  Some of that beating showed up on the table, but I'm learning to cope.  The allies rule allowed me to dust off those Grey Knights I had made for that exact purpose back when the Demon Hunter codex allowed allies.  They performed admirably on the table, but 6th has really dull the razor sharp tip of the Grey Knights spear.  It was needed, don't get me wrong, but if your Grey Knights come face to face with Thunder Hammer wielding Terminators, get ready to pluck some models off the table.

     The wound allocation method is certainly "logical" and a little forethought goes a long way if you position your units properly.  I had not spent much time learning the rules for wound allocation in close combat, but as it so happens I did it right.  This was mainly because the allocation rules between shooting and close combat are pretty much the same, and seemed second nature to me.  I'm sure the beard-ier members of the community might be hating it right now, but for a more "cinematic" game (which we've heard multiple time from GW that this was the intent of this edition) they really have hit the nail firmly on the head.

     The mission that we played was number 6 on the list: The Relic.  It just so happens that I had made up a very similar mission one day while playing a friendly game.  It's an entertaining mission and one that forced me to play counter to the Ork ethos.

Orks in 6th


     Much has been made about the effect this edition has on a number of armies.  Generally there is conscensus that assaulting has been negatively impacted, while shooting has been positively so.  Here is a quick list of things I feel hurt and also help my Orks in 6th:

Bad Stuff
- Furious charge is only +1 strength, and not +1 strength and +1 initiative
- Feel No Pain is only on a 5+
- Cover saves are generally lower
- No assaulting from reserves
- Fleet no longer allows assaulting after running but a re-roll of a run die, and the charge dice so a slight net loss (this is only a benefit to units that innately have Fleet, not gain it for a single turn like the Orks with their WAAAGH! rule)
- Wound allocation by wargear is gone (needed to be fixed anyways)
- Overwatch means I get shot at when I assault (I tend to do a lot of assaulting)

Good Stuff
- No more Fearless wounds
- Look Out Sir allows some wound allocation schenanigans for my Nobz (which brings me to...)
- Nobz are all characters (challenges, precise strikes/shots, and Look out sir)
- Bike +1 toughness is accounted for when determining Instant Death (HUGE!)
- Reserves come in on 3+ on both turn 2 and 3.  Automatically arrive on turn 4.
- Snap Fire means I'm only shooting at one less Ballistic Skill than normal!  Never a tough choice.
- More Night Fighting missions.  People hate it, but for assaulting armies, it's great.
- Feel No Pain only negated by Instant Death wounds not AP1, AP2, and Instant Death

     There is more, I'm sure, that I simply can't remember at this time.  There is plenty of "neutral" stuff that I haven't figured out if it's a boon or bust for me just yet.  The random charge ranges seem like a random element I could have done without, but on the table, it creates some interesting situations and surprises.  My Deff Dread stomped up 9 inches on a charge!  He was in assault in turn 3, which was previously unheard of.

     This has turned into a wall of text.  I'm stopping here.  I'll be back later with more thoughts about 6th edition.  Feel free to ask me any questions concerning 6th, my Orks, or anything else 40K related.  I won the game that I played, by the way.  4 victory points to 1.  Good start to the new edition.