My Xmas Present

I recently got from my girlfriend a gift card from Robot4Less and I used it to buy the 1/144 RG Strike Gundam. Real Grade kits are along the same levels of detail and articulation you would find in a master grade kit. Normally 1/144 scale kits come in first grade (FG) which has barely any articulation and needs lots of coloring or they come in High Grade (HG) that does not require as much coloring but has better detail and the kits pose easier. On 1/100 scale kits you have the High Grade lines and then the Master Grade line which offers again superior articulation for the model kit. The strike gundam is a favorite of mine since it has a nice paint scheme along with its ability to carry different backpacks depending on the battle. The Aile pack offers mobility with a mix of ranged and close combat. The other 2 are launcher which is heavy range and sword that specializes in close combat. Here are a few more pics of my Work In  Progress.

Stolen Army

I am posting this here on behalf of TheHod, the other contributor her on No Turtles Allowed.

I recently sold a Lamentors army on Ebay and the buyer complained about the army and wanted a refund. He had buyers remorse and straight away opened a case and won so I lost the money from the auction. He said he sent it back but after a month of waiting (he lives in Germany) I emailed him asking what happened and no reply. I contacted ebay but had to go through the German site (because he opened the case in the German site)  and I complained the package never arrived. They said he supplied a tracking number but it was not my address and could not give me back the money that was automatically refunded to him. So not only am I out an army but I lost the money from that auction. The seller is joe_pepper on ebay. This guy not only scammed me but also stole an army so be on the lookout if he tries to resell.  

A Christmas Sneak Peak

Just a quick sneak peak for you guys before Xmas! Happy Holidays!

Khorne Berzerkerd from DV Chosen

Crazy Dave from No Turtles Allowed here. With the release of the 6th Edition Chaos Codex, I have been jazzed up to redo my World Eaters army. I first became a convert to Chaos back in 3rd edition. This was back with the original Chaos Codex release in 3rd. Before any Chapter Approved articles or any FAQ's. Like most teenage boys, Chaos had the angst and look that proved irresistible.

Back then, we had the awesome plastic Khorne Berzerker set. That set was the Bee's Knees back in early 3rd. My army of 12 years ago was made entirely of those models. Sadly, GW has done nothing to improve or resculpt them since. Sure, we have the Forgeworld Conversion Kit, but for a gamer like myself, I do not like using conversion kits that are readily available to everyone. Therefore, I set about to make my Khorne Berzerkers out of the new Dark Vengeance Chosen models, along with various other bits.

Chaos, It Has Marked Us All

        Chaos, It Has Marked Us All


Chaos Space Marines, the first codex of 6th, has dropped. We have all had enough time to digest it for the most part and make our own conclusions about the book, the Good, the Bad, and for the most part, the Bland.

The new codex has presented itself as rather in the middle in terms of power and flavor. The later being quite ironic as Chaos is the most flavorful of all the armies in 40k. The book is a definite improvement over the dull, repetitiveness of the last book, but falls short of the 3.5 Codex. In all honesty, it feels a lot like the original 3rd edition codex for chaos, lots of units, but not a lot in the options department.

Dread Knight Counts-as

Up this week are a few Dread Knight Counts-as models that I built up with dynamic poses and on scenic bases for Next Level Painting. Ken over there then painted them up with some amazing colors to go with his latest project. Here are the pictures of the finished ones I built up.

Refining a tournament: Painting Scores

   The independent tournament scene contains many variations on to how their ideas of a competitive environment should be. Now for soft scores, one of the more common issues I have heard from players has always been "why did I get this paint score?" and "how did that guy get that score?" It is an all too familiar discussion after a tournament between the organizers and the players. One idea that has helped ease those discussions has been the establishment of a painting rhubric for the players. This itemized list showed in order to maximize their painting scores, they had to meet certain criteria outlined in the rhubric. Now while this effectively makes painting scores anywhere from 80-90% objective, it leaves the remainder subjective and that can lend to discussions still.

   No matter what organizers will claim, every paint judge has a bias on what makes an army look good. Some judges abhor the use of airbrushes and have given lower scores if they know the army is airbrushed. Other judges put more weight on conversions and will score an army higher on that. This is based on personal knowledge, and talking to judges who scored GTs and local tournaments. For some players those bias and preferences can change the outcome of an award or overall standing.

     Time for a painting score game-change

  One possible solution is to adopt a policy that was used in the London 2012 Olympics. Any army that is fully painted recieves 10 points. An army that is based recieves another 5 points and finally if the models are fully WYSIWYG then add in 5 points. This gives 20 points to the player and is easily attainable for simply painting and basing your army and making it fully represented. This also cuts down the need to go through 5-10 min of reviewing a scoring rhubric for judges and allows speed of judging.

 Next, have 4-5 judges score painting on a scale of 1-10 on how they think the army looks in their own opinion.  Once they are finished scoring, have the top score and the bottom score discarded. This leaves the middle scores and they can then be combined. The plus side to this idea is that you can discard the scores of judges who are generous with their painting scores or judges who may harbor some prejudice towards a painting style.

  Another idea can be utilized if there are less than 4 judges and have the scores averaged. If there are some decimal points after the averaging, just round up to the nearest whole number. This may require a bit of math on the organizing side.

    This solution does not eliminate subjectivity but helps migate an excessive high or low score due to that subjectivity and with painting scores it is in they eye of the beholder. Note that this idea works best in a GT environment and does not translate well in the RTT environment. I will be writing about my ideas for an RTT environment in future installments.

Star Wars Celeberation VI

I just finished organizing all the photos I took at Star Wars Celebration VI that was held in Orlando this year. Next year Celebration VII is going to be in Germany. I had a great time and loved the merchandising. Here are some of the pics during the course of the weekend. People from all walks of life came to the convention and it was great seeing some of the cosplays. There was even a sighting of klingons and several trekkies at Celebration.

 Slave Leias :D

 Bender

 Random Sith warriors and Jedi.

 Mark Hamill's panel. He did his joker voice and hes damn good.

 Little kid taking on the Fett and Darth Maul

 George Lucas made a surprise visit to the super secret panel with Seth Green.

 Some writers from robot chicken and venture bros will be writing for Star Wars Detours

 Met the UCF Stormtrooper.

 Me posing with an asshole.

 Me having my balls squashed by the Shwartz.

 Gunning down a wampa as we escape echo base.

Those elusive Klingons with a starfleet chic.

DOOM!!! Ultra-Violent!!!

Today I want to share with you one of my greatest works with conversions. This is a project I helped my brother Ken with over at Next Level Painting. I had the luck and privilege to convert a Chaos Demon army to look and feel like the Demons from the amazing FPS DOOM. This article will be long and pic heavy, but I hope you will enjoy it

Penitent Dread Knight Complete

Here are the finished Pictures of the Penitent Dread Knight.

2k Grey Knight Army on eBay

I thought I would post the pics of my Grey Knight army that I am selling on eBay. This army did me well. I built it for Genghis Con in Denver earlier this year and won the event with a field of over 60 players with no practice using the army before hand. Since then I have played it 4 times, all against Ken at Next Level Painting to play test 6th and went 2-2. The army is the classic Paladin Star list and is every bit as lethal in 6th as it was in 5th. I never intended to keep it. It was always meant to be sold after Genghis Con. so now it is on eBay: Grey Knights on eBay

In addition to being the army I used to reclaim my title at Genghis Con, the army was also a test for my new airbrush. I used the hairspray/salt technique to weather the army, and the blue color was chosen as the best contrast to the rust. 

More pics bellow.

Penitent Dread Knight

Here are some pics of a commission I am currently working on, a kneeling Dread Knight. This model has a lot of work put into it with cutting, reposing, and green stuff.

The model is almost done. Just needs to have some of the green stuff work cleaned up.

Thunder Hawk Pt. 3

The Thunder Hawk I posted in these articles: Part 1  Part 2  and Part 2.5 is now finished! My brother Ken over at Next Level Painting just finished it up for his client. Click on the link to Ken's blog to see more pics of the Thunder Hawk!

Updating for your Battlefield for 6th

Crazy Dave here again! This time I want to discuss updating our terrain for 6th edition. Each new edition means we as gamers need to take it upon ourselves to update our collections as well as to pressure our LGS and various TO's to do the same. When 5th edition kicked off, true LoS made most of our 4th edition terrain useless. It took almost the entire edition before events started to update their collections. Today I will show you how to make trees that give cover vs. flyers and the such.

6th Ed. Battle Report Space Wolves v. Death Wing

Here's the inaugural battle report to issue in the new 6th edition of Warhammer 40k recently released. There is a lot that has changed, and a lot that has stayed the same. The Brothers Boucher battle it out again in another match in their long running rivalry. They hold no quarter, and fight each other as only brothers can. You can also check out Ken's blog at:

http://nextlevelpainting.blogspot.com/ Witness the destruction and carnage in the pics below.

Power Weapons Pt3. Tactics and Challenges

In this last article on Power Weapons we will take a look at tactics involving picking the best options for your Power Weapons.

Right off the bat, it would seem that the Power Axe is the best option. You lose your Initiative but gain +1S and AP2.  In some cases this is true, and in others sadly it is not. We need to examine the new Challenge mechanic to understand our options.

In 6th edition we have gained Challenges much like in Fantasy. Challenges are important for many reasons, but mainly they allow you to protect your squad. By issuing a challenge with a character like Draigo, Lysander or any other tank type character will force your opponent to fight him with their character or back down and not fight at all. This tactic works great against a unit with 1 character, or even against a unit of 1 like a Demon Prince or Dread Knight. If you have a sergeant level character in addition to your bad ass IC, challenge with your sergeant and force him to fight this low level character. He will get slaughtered against an IC, but will keep your unit alive while your IC hurts his unit. Also, if your opponent is the one issuing the challenge, you can try and do the same tactics in reverse. Match your tank to his IC, or you sergeant to his Tank.

Now that we have taken a quick glimpse at the Chess Match of challenging we need to determine which power weapons work best for sergeant level characters. The power Axe is great for its +1S and AP2, but in a challenge against an opponent with a Power Sword could cut you down first before you can attack. This makes the Power Axe powerful against terminators and such, but easily dealt with. The Power Sword has the speed to do well but falls short against any 2+ save opponent.

The pros and cons between the two make it so the swiss army knife that HTH used to be is over. Now your HTH units have to pick a role and stick to it with a few exceptions.

Right off the bat we have to look at Phantom or Hidden Power Weapons. These were terms used back in 3rd edition when character could be singled out in HTH combat. These are squad members with access to power weapons or fists. A quick look at a few units would be:
Grey Hunters
BT Crusader Squads
Vanguard

There are a lot more, but we will leave it at those. In these cases a Power Axe becomes a very attractive option as you can get your I1 attacks in and not worry about being killed first. Even units with all Power Weapons like Banshees and DCA could benefit from axes. In the case of the Banshees you would only take a few so as to not lose your I10. With the DCA it would be beneficial to take Power Swords and Axes as they have 2 weapons.

Also, units like IG Blob squads with 5 or more characters in them also benefit from Power Axes as they can accept or issue a challenge and still have plenty of back up axes to attack with. Units like these can take full benefit of Challenges and taking low Initiative weapons like Axes.

There are also a few weapons in the game that still ignore armor saves without having an AP value. These weapons for the most part are from 4th edition codexes. These weapons give the benefit of high Initiative and essentially AP2 against non-vehicle units. Some of these weapons are:
Commander Farsight's Dawn Blade (I5 and S5)
Colonel Straken (I4 and S6)
Warp Spider Power Blades(I6 S3 +1A)
Howling Banshee Mirrorswords (I6/10 S3 +2A)

6th edition has added a lot of variables to the game. Power Weapons are one of them and require a lot of Strategy and Tactics to use efficiently.

Power Weapons Pt. 2, WYSIWYG

In our last entry, we discussed unique characters and the question of modeling their weapons. In this article we will take it to the generic codex entries and discuss what options models actually have and again look at the question of modeling to your advantage.

We will take a look at the Grey Knight Codex to see the differences in weapons. I will make 2 lists. The first is models that have access to a Power Weapon, and the second will be those that specify Power Sword.

Codex GK:
Power Weapon
Death Cult Assassin
Crusader
Tech Marine

Power Sword/Force Sword
Inquisitors
Warrior Acolyte

This trend exists, albeit a lot less with the FAQs. Now lets see what it means.

The Death Cult Assasin is armed with two power weapons. The Crusader has a power weapon, the Acolyte a Power Sword and the Inquisitor a Power Sword.

The argument here is that even though the DCA has 2 power weapons in it's entry, the official model is equipped with swords and therefore the model has swords and prevents conversions to the contrary. This argument has some logic, but it has a few hiccups. Such as the fact that the DCA on the right only has one weapon, or better yet this:

Here we have an Inquisitor model armed with a Power Maul/Force Maul. Inquisitors only have the option for swords, so this model is illegal. What does that mean for the rules. The question also is raised for plastic kits. A SM Assault Squad comes with a Power Axe, so can he be modeled with the Power Sword from the Plastic SM Captain Kit?
It comes down to the fact that you have to allow for conversions, which makes the question raised in the first article that much more a hot topic.

Also, as a suggestion, in addition to being WYSIWYG, players will need to indicate what their models have on their army lists. This is to prevent you from switching from Axes against the the Death Wing army to Maces for the Ork player because you either have extra models to represent this, or they are magnetized.

This post was edited thanks to a catch by Chris Dillion.

Power Weapons Pt. 1

Power Weapons have changed drastically in 6th edition. Some good, some bad.

This will be the first in a series of posts covering the changes to power weapons, what they mean, tactics to use and will raise a few questions at the same time.

Part 1: Unique Characters

The first subject of discussion we will cover is unique characters, and how these new rules effect them.

To begin we must start with a question; Can unique characters benefit from the modeling part of the rules for power weapons?

This question sits on a fine line. On one hand, unique characters are just that, unique. They almost never have any options, and they almost always have a model to correspond to their rules. On the other hand, there seems to be no real rule to exclude them. GW encourages us to convert and forge a narrative.

 This seems to be a question that each event will have to address on its own. Luckily, the list is pretty small for the characters that can benefit from this rule (Remember that the weapon can have no melee special rules, such as Master Crafted, or Two Handed). Lets take a look at those that can:

Imperial Guard

Colour Sargeant Kell (model has Sword)
Chenkov (model has Sword)

Eldar

Baharroth (model has Sword)

Chaos

Huron Blackheart (model has Axe)
*Ahriman (model has a Staff)
*it is important to note that Ahriman's force weapon does have special rules, however, since the special rules are not melee special rules, it does not make his weapon unique like GK Nemesis weapons or Runic Weapons.

The list is small, a total of 5 unique characters that can possibly be modeled to have different power/force weapons. So let us now look at the benefits that each character might have from said change.

• Kell- Kell comes equipped with a power fist as well as a power weapon. Modelling him to have an axe would therefore be a waste. A power sword seems fitting for the initiative 4 strikes. A maul would also be interesting for some S5 shots at I4, but for the most part is not that great when you can go at I1 S6 AP2.
•  Chenkov- Chenkov, like most IG characters, benefits from a power axe the most. This is a model were changing to an axe would be more beneficial.
•  Baharroth- Being a Phoenix Lord, Baharroth sports an impressive I7. Giving him an axe is almost a crime with that high initiative. He has a good number of attacks at 4 and a very high WS at 7. Even though he is only S4, he can cut down a few marines well. I will say, I do like the idea of a Maul on him for the S6 to knock out vehicle Hull Points, but with haywire grenades and probably a unit of hawks with the same. it seems a power weapon is best suited for him.
• Huron Blackheart-Like Kell, he comes with a powerfist. This makes the axe he is modeled with redundant. He would be best suited with an sword
• Ahriman-With the change in targeting IC's in HTH, Ahriman does not need to strike at initiative. He would be best suited switching out to an Axe.

It would seem that 3/5 of our Unique Characters benefit from a little conversion. So, the question once again is "Are they allowed too?".

Storm Talons are Go

Finishing up some work for Next Level Painting(check them out at http://www.nextlevelpainting.blogspot.com/)

Working on magnetizing the weapons. I must say they are good looking models and are very easy to build

Shooting at Vehicles in Cover, 6th Edition

We have all heard the internet clamoring that Vehicles have been hit by the NERF bat in 6th. This is both true and false for more reasons than I will describe here.  Today I will describe cover and what it means for vehicles in 6th edition as it has changed in many different ways.

First lets look at the cover rules on pages 74 and 75, most importantly the first bullet:
 At least 25% of the facing of the vehicle that is bring targeted (its front, side, or rear) needs to be hidden by intervening terrain or models from the point of view of the firer for the vehicle to be in cover.


 Lets take a few looks at 25%being covered:

 We see that the Aegis can easily hide 25% of a rhino and it provides a 4+ cover save to boot. So a 50 point investment gets your vehicles good cover.

Now lets look at my favorite part of the text I referenced above:
 At least 25% of the facing of the vehicle that is bring targeted (its front, side, or rear) needs to be hidden by intervening terrain or models from the point of view of the firer for the vehicle to be in cover.


Lets explore this now

In this picture, the Interceptor has a clear view of the side armor. In 5th, this would mean that the tank had no cover, however, this is 6th. All we can consider is the facing being shot.

In this second picture the side armor is is blocked out in blue, giving us a visual aid to show us only the front armor which is clearly 25% obscured.

Next we need to take a look at how Armor Facing works in 6th compared to 5th.

Lets start with the 5th Edition Armor Facing Diagram.

5th Edition Vehicle Facing Diagram

In 5th edition we drew lines from 1 corner to next, or as the INAT ruled, we make a cross at the center and have 90 degree facings from the center point. If you notice, parts of the top of the vehicle are included in each facing.

6th Edition Vehicle Facing Diagram

 

 Now, if we look at the 6th edition diagram we notice one big change other than the fact that it is in color. The lines do not intersect in the middle of the vehicle. Page 73, were the diagram is in the book, does clarify the issue of how to determine which facing is were by drawing the lines through the corners. However, in the this diagram, none of the top of the vehicle is included in the facing. The reason for this change, I can only guess, is to prevent flyers from completely dominating other vehicles.

Lets take a look at Flyers shooting vehicles

At first glance it would appear that the Aegis is not enough to give the Razorback cover.

 From the view of the Storm Raven itself, it again looks like no cover is provided, but that is because we still see things in 5th edition.

When we block the top part of the Razorback out, like in the the other picture, we now see that the Aegis does in fact still cover 25%.

So, the cover rules have changed. Vehicles now get cover almost always. Cover may only be 5+ most of the time, but getting it always gives vehicles back some survivability that was lost from losing 4+ cover and gaining Hull Points.

I hope I enlightened some of you on these rules.