10... The Magic Number

My son Marcus turns 10 today. He recently got a hold of my camera when I wasn't looking and had a little fun. Following are a few select shots!

This is our cat Onyx sitting in the middle of an epic battle of my son's creation. We had Tau, Dark Eldar, and Genesteelers trying to take over an Imperial City. The Deathwatch were sent in to rescue the citizens. Marcus created the scenario and was also the "GM". I could see the influence of his video game exposure--He had power and level ups throughout the board and specific characters to talk to that gave out mini missions!! It was a blast watching him build this world and take me through it. So proud he is enjoying my hobby.

Marcus also got another chance to sit at the "big kids" table with my crew on game night. He played in the last session 2 weeks ago and did very well--He is now a permanent member of our Deathwatch campaign!

Over the last few weeks my son and I also got in his first games of Axis and Allies and Samurai Swords (both 80's MB games). He really enjoyed them,s and I look forward to future games! Maybe we will get some gaming in this weekend!!

Lastly, for his birthday, Marcus asked me if he could sing with our band! My mates loved the idea! We will throw a BBQ in my backyard to showcase the event! I can't wait to brag, er, I mean post about it at a later time!

Retro Models - Khorne

I am starting (another) new series showcasing my vintage figures. These are from my Khorne army. All were purchased during WH40K 2ed era except for the unpainted Juggernaut which was a "more recent" eBay find. Some of them are painted, some are not. Of the painted ones, most have more than one coat of paint on them. One hurdle I have for painting full armies (besides continuously jumping to new projects) is repainting already painted figures to current standards. 

I can't tell you how many times I'd get 20 models into an army before going to something else. Then 5 years later when I get back to the project, my style and technique is improved. More often than not, I would repaint the 20 before working on other models...

Old Skool Juggernaughts

I never glued down the riders on these juggers, so they could pull double duty in 40K and FB. In fact two of them originally came with FB riders while the other two came with a 40K rider. Back in the day I mostly used them as steeds for commanders and heroes. But now, they are so much smaller than the modern juggernaut  I'm not sure. One thought is to use one as the steed for a Chaos Knight champion, but I also thought they would look cool pulling a chaos chariot! Maybe in a 40K army, they could be counts as bikers?

Repainted to be part of the same unit and brighter colors.

Another 4 Havocs

These eight Devastator, er Havocs are some of my ancient metal chaos marines. I used to indicate different squads by painting the backpacks differently.

L: Original Chaos Dreadnought; R: From Space Crusade 

L: One of my "newer" Chaos Marines; R The Original (?)

Some newer arms added to older models

Back in the day, I thought Terminators were pretty cool. I don't have as many of the chaos variety (you will see my ridiculous pile of Aquamarine Terminators in an upcoming post), but I do have one more so I can make two 8-man units like all good and obedient Khorne generals should field!

The inset in the upper right is to better show off the hand painted World Eaters symbol on about half of the termies.

Blood Bowl League Batrep Day 4 - Necromantics vs Amazons

Another game completed in our Blood Bowl League. These two teams are currently leading the league--The Playoff slots are slipping away from me! The points are close, and anyone could make the post season, but only if there is an upset.

Here is Lord Grimskull's Batrep for his second game vs Laertes' Necromantics...

=====

Prologue:
This was a game set for disaster from the start and I guess for everyone involved. To paint the picture, Laertes has been work'n hard to actually get our game together and it was all working out, but yesterday at 3 when we played the game it was anything but. Basically I've been spending the entire bit of last week trying to get my internet fixed after (while helping a buddy) I contracted a mighty virus. This thing by itself didn't do much, nothing my anti-virus couldn't take, but somehow someway... it managed to send our public IP from our router to what I assume is a remote server that could both monitor when I was online, but also hammer the ever loving blood out of our router. To the point that no matter what we did locally (at the time) could fix it. I was two reformats in and several attempts (including an IP change from the ISP) when Laertes and I played our first game. 

This thing was tragic, the lag and hiccups were so bad I couldn't reliably control my guys, including finishing setting up my line. It seemed to come and go in play-ability and I was ready to forfeit the match but Laertes urged me on to stick it out. To be fair it was a pretty exciting match if you could ignore the lag. Sadly however on turn 13 or 14 my net finally crapped out and DCed me with no hope of re-establishing a link to the game so we could finish. At that time we were 1-1 (like we were in the current game) but the ball was in Laertes's hands and he didn't have such terrible injuries.

So to fix our net we traded out the router and Bam, everything is fine. We'd been reading (though some wouldn't care to admit) that there was a chance that the somehow the router itself had been compromised and was the center of the problem. I don't know networking or anything like that well enough to comment, I'm just happy I can use my net and not be afraid that I'm going to loose everything.

-----

The replacement game was today, still 1-1, but now Laertes had serious injuries. The honest truth though is the dice seemed to rule out player skill or tactic almost completely this game. I'm not afraid to admit I got out played, and at first out diced. A lot of Defender Down rolls put me at an 8v11 early in the first. Only through complete luck did I manage a blitz that also put the ball in my hands and it turned into a game of lock down. It seemed like at every move Laertes had a counter, and while I'm getting a little better of expecting ball movement, it was very little of what I was doing this game.

The second half didn't start off any better to be honest. He punched up a good kick off and drove it far right for me. looking at my setup I could either grab the ball with my catcher (surviving a dodge roll and the pickup) or a GFI with my thrower. I had a feeling in my bones that the dodge roll wouldn't make it, I hadn't been making many of them all game, so I went with the GFI and boom down. I'd already used my reroll earlier in the turn to stop an attacker down so I was Kapoot. Before I knew it Laertes was swarming, picked up the ball with a WW and was well on his way. I needed a very specific set of circumstances to happen to even try to stop it, which was to push a guy off a blitzer so she could blitz. Even then, she was only throwing 1 dice, sure I had a reroll but you know. I get a defender down, plus an injury on the WW and I pickup the ball... complete luck. It didn't take Laertes long to grab the ball off her again and I was stuck in yet another do-or-die situation, this time my only chance required a successful dodge roll, and before it even went off I called a fail (it did). That was the first touchdown and it was like turn 12 or 13.

At the start of the next round I count my players, 10, okay so I'm not doin too bad, glad I picked up that spare. but I've never been a 2 turn scoring type so this is going to be rough. I take my chances with a pass play and it works, get a linewoman deep and Laertes' only chance is to get his super ghoul next to her in a GFI, he fails and it breaks his collarbone. Holy cow super luck again. by the next set I think I'm back to 11 and he's down to 8? I don't remember right off hand. But we're so close to the end of the game he'll need to 2 turn it and gets unlucky with a blitz pretty much ending it in 1-1.

The gist of this game.... luck, no strategy just luck. It seemed like Laertes could throw Defender Downs all day long till it was clutch then it was all pushes, you'd have to see the first half to understand that. Then he gets both of the worst injuries this game completely by luck. I know it's the name of the game but yiesh. x_X

Props - Viking Helmet

I have mentioned before that I am in a band (one month shy of a year ago!). But I don't think I ever said that in March I made a Viking helmet to wear on stage.

I was initially trepidatious about sporting this at our gigs. But to my amazement (and the band's), I get approached constantly before, during, and after our shows with people asking me for a photograph, to try on the helmet, and all around positive comments! I have even had a line of people to see me!!! What an experience!!

Front of the helmet

Before I joined, the band started out as playing Celtic/Punk covers. At the time (and still) the lead singer, and founder, wore his clan's kilt while the rest of the band was in street clothes. As we added members, and started writing our own songs, we were also adding global folk influences.


It was around that time we decided that each member should adopt a character--A pseudo-version of their ancestry! I am half Norwegian and chose to add Viking elements to my stage outfit. Since we have a strong Punk edge, I decided to not dress in traditional garb.

Back view

I thought long and hard about buying a metal helmet. There were about 5 styles I looked at on Amazon that were under $100. I had been given gift cards and cash for Birthday/Christmas specifically for band needs. However, I eventually decided that fit and weight were going to be issues while I performed, and eventually chose to make my own helmet instead! (Thanks Dave!!)

Toy Helmet (Image taken from interwebs without permission

Never making anything like this before, I bought an adult toy helmet, thinking I could simply paint it (I do have those skills). Unfortunately thy toy helmet barely fits my soon-to-be-10-year-old son, let alone my big ol' noggin! At that point, I had a string of gigs in 2 days looming ahead and had to make it from scratch or else do without for the next 5 gig's.

First Attempt frame-work

I started out scavenging the horns, top spike and fur rings from the toy helmet. Then I went to Michael's and bought craft foam sheets (ala scrap-booking), textured felt, and googly eyes. I didn't really have a plan, I just started cutting and gluing. All was OK until I started gluing in the felt inserts. The second insert was a little off center and it completely warped the helmet... I had to start over!

The bad news was I ran out of craft foam, but the good news was I found these half round "beads that worked out much better as the rivets.

Inside the helm is tac "welded" with hot glue

The second go around was a breeze! I now had a template to follow, and was able to tweak the design in a few places, making it a more durable item. Once everything was assembled, and the glue cooled, I sprayed the inside with 3 coats of liquid rubber. After that dried, I primed everything in black.

I wanted to go simple on the paint, applying a base coat, ink wash, and a simple dry brush. Then I coated the silver with and horns with a brush on gloss coat. Finally, when everything was dry, I slid on the furry rings.

Photo by Digital Style Photography

This is a pic taken at one of our recent shows. He caught me in a strange expression, as if I was deep in thought.

I hope you like it! As always, questions and comments always welcome!

Blood Bowl League Batrep Day 4 - Orcs vs Dark Elves

Orcs vs Dark Elves II

The rematch of my Orcs vs Wintervoid's Dark Elves was played today. I was confidant going into this game as the first go around was a 4-0 blow out--Although I did sustain 2 deaths in that match. For this game my goal was to:

• Punch, punch hard, and punch often (as all Orc teams should). 
• Keep in mind the speed of the Dark Elves--While they aren't the fastest team out there, they are the fastest team in our league and much faster then the computer opponents the Orcs always seem to face.
• Start on defense (If I have the choice) as I am usually better at it, and it gives me time to widdle down the opponent for a second half player advantage.
• I chose not to buy a 12th player. I had 60k in the bank saving for my 3rd re-roll.

With that, on to the game...

First Half:

I set up with the troll and 2 black orcs on the line of scrimmage and everyone else deep, double covering TZs as tightly as possible. I rolled Perfect Defense on the kick-off and moved the three on the center line to my right in order to square up against his elves. The kick went deep and bodies crashed. I easily knocked down the elves, but none were going off the pitch. I lost my +1 MA Blitzer and was quickly down a player. Wintervoid moved to my right which is now the week side and after knocking down most of his guys I made a throw away 1 die block and failed. This unexpectedly left a bigger whole on my right.

The elves poured down the right side of the pitch, but I managed to crash in and knock down ball carrier (a Runner) and knocked down the deep Line-elf. But I was not able to get to the ball. I was in position to out number Wintervoid on my next turn and start my drive down the pitch.... However he made a beautiful (and lucky) play! His Runner dodged out of a TZ, dodged into the space where the ball was, pick it up, dodge out, dodge again and throw the ball to the Line-Elf, who ran it is for a TD!

OK, not what I expected, but I still have 4 turns to tie the game before half. I set up and realized I was still down a player. So I set up strong to my left and as expected, Wintervoid kicks right. I throw a few blocks and position defensively before running my Thrower up (with a GFI) to get the ball (which requires my last re-roll). He is a little more out in the open than I would like, so I throw 3 squares to my +1 AG Blitzer... Failed Catch! Wintervoid failed to get the ball and I manage to get the ball and my guys to the left of the field and march down. We spend a couple of turns ramming into each other and I suddenly find myself down to 9 players!  On my turn 7, my ball carrier is 13 squares away from the endzone. I block hard and manage to get almost every elf down that is near the ball. My Blitzer needs to blitz the last standing elf to make a run down field. He makes it and I figure it would be better to GFI now as it will put me farther away from the Dark Elves. The bad news is I failed the roll, the good news is Wintervoid couldn't get to me, the bad news is now I can't reach the endzone. I tried a far fetched play to have the troll throw the goblin near the ball and then pick up to score, but that plan ended on the first attempt to block an Dark Elf. End of the half, 0-1.

Second Half:

None of my orcs recovered from KOs, and I am lining up 9 orcs vs a full team. I set up strong to the left again, leaving a Blitzer and a Thrower to cover the weak side. The kickoff result was Blitz! Wintervoid went deep getting at least 2-on-1 coverage on both my weak side players. He blitzed and KOd another Blitzer leaving me with 8 players before I even started the second half! Luckily it was a touchback, so I placed the ball in the hands of my last Blitzer with 4 Black Orcs as a running wall.

I decided to push it hard and go for a quick point, hoping to get my KOd guys back and set me up for a second pont opportunity. I had an opening that required a dodge and a GFI to win... The dodge worked but I splatted in the endzone!

On Wintervoid's turn he capitalized on my poor positioning (I was banking on a score) and pushed a Black Orc off the field and KOd another Ork! The Dark Elves picked up the ball and moved it about 5 squares down field. I had a shot at the ball carrier but got a Pushed result. Then my Troll tried to shore up my dwindling defense with a 2 die block, but rolled double skull (my third or fourth of the game).

To make matters worse, two elves ganged up on a Black Orc (one die block) and KO'd my 5th player! Everyone else on my team was knocked over on that same turn. I started my 16th turn with 6 players on the field, all prone. I didn't have a chance to stop the ball, so I passed my turn. Game ends 2-0, Dark Elves.

Post Game:

I felt like I had a good game, and honestly Wintervoid did to, but this could have been easily a 2-1 win for me. I can not think of any glaring mistakes, but my opponent didn't make any either. Its dice that did me in this game. The Coup de gras was the KOs... I got ZERO KOs or Injuries against the Dark Elves and they got 5 KOs on me?!?

I rolled well for winning being on the loosing side, but am still short 10k for a re-roll. It is hard not to buy 1-2 more players with what happened in tonight's game.

Next Up:

Back to Back games vs Amazons. They are currently leading the league, plus Lord Grimskull has played one less game--If he looses, I will still be in third place, but he will drop to second. No matter the outcome of his next game, it will not effect my game plan.

Amazons are the slowest team (besides me) and the weakest AV. My plan is to grab as many girls as I can while I march up the field!