Fully Magnetized Stormtalon
I AM OZYMANDIAS, KING OF KINGS! LOOK UPON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR!
These are the parts for the guns of my new Stormtalon Gunship. Magnetized. Fully Modular. Behold the madness below.
To the left, the exterior casing meant for the Lascannon and Heavy Bolter. To the right, the interior casing, which will be permanently glued to the side of the Stormtalon. The magnets make them fit together.
Above, the fully assembled Gun weapon pod, held together with magnets. Below, see a different shot of the Gun pod exterior, with a magnet puttied to be behind the hole where the Lascannon or Heavy Bolter can go.
Above, magnets were added to the Lascannon and Heavy Bolter Bitz. Below, see that the magnets are strong enough to hold the gun pod aloft BY THE LASCANNON. This won’t work when attached to the final ship, obviously, but it will keep the gun in place during a game.
Above, the interior of the gun pod again, with back views on the Lascannon and Heavy Bolter ammo feeds. Below, the magnet inside the pod is strong enough to hold the feeds on securely.
Above, the pod interior with the Missile exterior attached. The missile exterior has two large magnets which join to smaller magnets in each of the missile pod types. Below, each type of missile pod, held together by magnets.
FINALLY, a masterpiece of magnetic engineering:
Above, the flying stand, with a high-gauss magnet (stronger than normal rare earth magnets) and the interior of the Stormtalon with two very large magnets. Below, see that the flying stand is held aloft securely, making in-game movement a breeze.
I initially tried four smaller magnets in the flying stand, but if did not hold at all. The magnets were competing. This explains the damage to the top of the flying base, which will be hidden during a game.
Next: Painting the Stormtalon and then Combi-Grav Sternguard! The Updatening for 6th ed continues!
On My Plate: 1/5/14
I have so many projects that I’m working on that I can’t really decide which to do, so hopefully laying them all out will let e get perspective.
-Battlefleet Gothic Necrons: Must come up with a paint scheme and paint. I’m thinking Gold with green power pathways that have “pulses” of energy in a lighter green.
-Battlefleet Gothic Tau Kor’Or’Vesh: Another scheme and paint. Perhaps Farsight Enclave? Maroon and grey look good together.
-Azure Flames Grav Project: I have four tactical marines and two magnetic biker arms to complete. After that, ten Sternguard veterans with Combi-Gravs. Yes, ten. Suck it superheavies and giant monstrous creatures.
-Blood Bowl: The Grimfang Scrappaz coach is partially done, as are assistant coaches. I need to do a few cheerleaders and then paint them all. I also need to do an Apothecary and Bloodweiser Babes…
-Epic: Finish painting Azure Flames, finish painting Ork 3000 point teaching list, finish Lost and the Damned Chaos Altar conversions, build and paint Eldar, and find two of the new version of the Revenant Titan for the Eldar. Last ones on ebay went for $150 for the pair.
-Necromunda: Hired Guns are a priority if there’s going to be a campaign at AFK, and I also have Razor and the Scumettes to paint…
-Saratogan 58th: Still need a viable 1500 point list and/or allied detachment to take with the Azure Flames. Note sure what I want.
-WAAAAGH! Smartyskull: Still need to paint half the stuff and find ways to improve the case situation, some stuff is getting dinged.
-Fantasy and Warmachine: On hold
Based on the above, I think I’m going to work on the Flames. They are my main army, and grav weapons are FUN.
Update: Power Loss and super secret project!
So, long time viewers (all four of you) know that I live in Lansing, MI now, and that Lansing was recently wiped off the map by an ice storm. I lost power for 8 days. However, I was not idle in that time. BEHOLD! MY xmas present to my roommate Jen!
The Reik River Raiders are a bunch of Goblins from the foothills near the city of Reikland, bankrolled by the mad scientist Dr. Emmet Von Braun. Von Braun has them test his latest weapons and potions on the blood bowl pitch. In addition, the Goblins have bribed two river trolls from the Reik River to be their muscle. Von Braun hopes to use the profits from the Reik River Raiders to bankroll his further attempts to undermine reality through science!
Next: a battle report between me and Lexington of Dice Abide! Salamander Space Marines (6th ed) vs. Orks! No holds barred, no aircraft, no superheavies! Stay tuned!
On my plate: 10-31-13
Happy Halloween! Haven’t done an On my plate post in a while, so here’s what I’m working on.
Azure Flames: Top Secret Project. Status: In progress, expect updates soon! THIS IS TOTALLY LEGAL. I AM NOT KIDDING. WINK.
Necromunda: Delaque Gang. Status: almost done!
Necromunda: Escher Gang. Status: Gang collected, painting soon! They will be called Razor and the Scumettes, after the fictional band led by Razor the punk rock girl from the NES classic: Maniac Mansion. Perhaps their logo will be a hamster in a microwave…
Blood Bowl Grimfang Scrappaz Coach, Assistant Coaches, and Cheerleaders: On Hold but first in queue.
Battlefleet Gothic: Top Secret Project. Status: ON HOLD until other projects done. Wait, didn’t I say I was done with Gothic? Moo hoo ha ha.
Epic Armageddon: ON HOLD pending other projects.
WAAAAGH! Smartyskull!: On hold, pending the end of winter. I need warm temperatures to be able to dip them.
Saratogan 58th: ON HOLD.
Warmachine and Fantasy: ON HOLD PERMANENTLY until I need them for something.
Next: Probably more Delaques.
Starting a Blood Bowl team.
Today I ran a demo for Blood Bowl at Highland Library. I’m hoping I piqued enough interest to get people to start their own teams.
So, how does one start their own Blood Bowl team? With Games Workshop discontinuing all of Specialist Games, this has become harder, but not impossible or expensive, depending on what you want to do. First, have someone who knows Blood Bowl demo the game for you. Then, read the team lists and pick a team. Only then should you buy. You have four options.
1. Buy the Blood Bowl box set, preferably ordering through a local game store. This will get you an Orc team and a Human team. Sell one of the teams to a friend. This is the only way to buy direct from Games Workshop anymore. The box set was still sold on the website as of the posting of this article. Sadly, this is not an option for players who do not wish to play Orcs or Humans.
2. Camp on ebay. This is an easy way to get a team. However, there is no guarantee. The team you are looking for may have several auctions right now, or none. Just do a search every morning and wait. The biggest problem with this is variability. Some players getting rid of their team can let it go for a steal, and some people who have delusions of grandeur sell a poorly painted team with a $300 buy it now. Just be patient.
3. Use existing pewter, plastic, and Finecast minis from the Warhammer Fantasy and 40K lines to convert your own team. This is what I did with the Konquata Monitors and the Grimfang Scrappaz. It helps to have a small amount of putty sculpting skills as well. This works best with Chaos, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Human, Khemri, Lizardman, Ogre, Orc, and Skaven teams, but not so well with others. Choose a team, look at existing model lines and get ideas. Hopefully you’ll have a good one.
4. Go to a third party. Mantic Games makes amazing Blood Bowl teams, but I can’t find them on their website. They must have been forced to stop. Look around for other companies. Reaper makes good fantasy models that could be easily converted to a Blood Bowl team. Meiko minis has good elves, ogres, and Nurgle. Impact minis has a huge selection and great support models.
Check all of the above options before buying. I searched ebay while writing this, and found several auctions of full team at less than $50. Buying plastic either through bitz order or box sets could set you back $40-$80 depending on what you need.
Blood Bowl Konquata Monitors Coach: Lord Kroak
Lord Kroak, last of the First Generation of Slaan personally commissioned the creation of the Konquata Monitors Blood Bowl team after the Lizardmen re-conquered the mystical island of Albion (called Konquata by the Lizardmen) from the Dark Elves. To promote the superiority of the Lizardmen race, Kroak ordered the team be composed of members of the first spawnings from the newly formed spawning pools on Albion. Unwaveringly loyal to Kroak’s vision, the Monitors have become the hottest new team in Blood Bowl. Kroak himself has recently taken up the mantle of Coach, personally leading the Monitors from the sidelines. Eschewing his customary floating chair and gold death mask for a simple cap, Kroak is prepared to help the Monitors win to bring glory to the Lizardmen. Of course, his incredibly powerful magics would never be used during a match. That is, unless the inducement was right…
Interesting blog I found: Afterimagedan
As you can see to the right, there’s a new blog in the blogroll: a BFG centered blog by Afterimagedan. He’s a fantastic painter, a great tactician, and an entertaining blogger with good pictures. Check his blog out here:
http://afterimagedan.blogspot.com/
Epic Lost and the Damned Land Transporter
The above model is a Polish Suwalska Half-track APC from Brigade Models. I have spent years and lots of money buying bits to “chaos out” these generic looking models. It is only today that, completely by accident, I figured out the perfect thing to make the model more spiky: ordinary tack nails. I added eight ends of nails and two small links of chain. Now I only have to do that like 23 more times.
Still working on those Orks, I just had to do this because I was inspired by the shape of the nails. I want to finish these Orks before I move in two weeks or I might never finish.
Epic Lost and the Damned Daemon Prince and Chaos Altar
I’ve been a bit busy. Got some new stuff for my Lost and the Damned. Now you may ask, Bozeman, why all the Nurgle lately? Surely other Chaos gods need love too. My answer is that for the list I’m building, I need a big Nurgle blob squad tricked out and ready to summon daemons and hold an objective. Hence, the altar and Daemon Prince.
First, the altar uses old pewter Ork trakks. The body is a bit that I got in an auction a year ago and have no idea what it is. A normal non-slotta round base makes up the filth pool, with a plaguebearer cut in half. The plastic pustules are from the Tyranid Mawloc sting tail. The hose nozzle is from the old plastic Ork Mega Stompa. Chains were from a hobby store. Finally, two beasts of Nurgle tow the thing. I added a drop of putty to make it look all pus-filled.
The Daemon Prince was easy, I took an old Necromunda Milliasaur (not easy to find, or cheap) and added two Tyranid Mawloc mandibles. It makes him look like Duriel from Diablo II, which is what the army is visually based on, in part.
Next: painted Ork shootas, a Tzeentch Chaos Altar, and possibly more!
Epic Nurgle Plague Tower mod
I was bad a while ago. I bought a bunch of stuff for my Lost and the Damned Epic army. This included a Tzeentch Firelord and three Tzeentch Doomwings. It also included most of a Nurgle Plague Tower. This was my fault: I did not research what a Plague Tower should look like, and it was missing the Plague Mortar up top and the Nurgle symbol staff on the back.
So, I improvised. I used a handcannon from the Privateer Press Devil Dogs mercenaries up top, and embedded it in a pustule of putty. I added some drips to make it seem bursting with pus. I then added putty to the back and three more pustules in the Nurgle symbol. I used a pin vise in the top pustule when it was cured, put in a small piece of paperclip, and covered it with putty to make a spurt of goo.
Yeah, it’s not 100% authentic but it looks great and it’s way cheaper.
Next: Ork shootas! The last of the shootas, then on to sluggas.