Resin Bases

I have never used resin bases before, but decided to take the plunge! Recently, I received 2 shipments of resin bases to add to my existing Necromunda gangs. I wound up shopping at 2 different companies to get the styles of bases I was looking for-- Tech-Deck from The Dragon Forge (for my Goliaths) and Scrap Yard from resinfx (for my Scaavys). About a year ago, I also purchased some Swamp resin bases from Kerr & King for a Warmachine Cryx force that Laertes bought me.

On a side note, both The Dragon Forge and resinfx shipped their products relatively quickly (for crossing the pond)-- they arrived in about 11 business days. When I opened the packages, I was pleasantly surprised as both companies sent extra bases (a 60mm base from The Dragon Forge, and five 25mm bases from resinfx).

The Dragon Forge bases are crisp and free of bubbles. The bottom of the bases have not been sanded, but it will be unnecessary as they are already smooth and flat. There is a little bit of very thin "flashing" that easily flakes off with my finger. Overall, these are an excellent product!

A few of the 25mm & 40mm bases from The Dragon Forge

The 60mm "freebie"

The resinfx bases need a little bit of clean up. While the bottoms are sanded flat, the base edge has some "over cast" along the ring that needs to be sanded and/or scraped off. I noticed a few bubbles, but they are very minor. I am very pleased with these bases.

A few of the 25mm & 40mm bases from resinfx

The 25mm "freebies"

The Kerr & King need the most clean-up. The bottoms aren't flat, and will need a fair bit of sanding, and there are multiple bubbles on nearly every base. Also, there is a fair amount of "over cast" on a number of bases. I want to be clear that I do not think these are an inferior product-- they are perfect for my Cryx warband, but in comparison to the other two companies' products, these bases can't be used as-is..

A few of the 30/40/50mm bases from Kerr & King

I also ordered a pair of wreck markers from Kerr & King. They have a selection of large and small wreck markers for all (most?) Warmachine factions.

Blood Bowl Legendary Edition (Part 2)

Screen-Cap of team after adding a lineman.

 (click on image to enlarge)

OK, I started playing a campaign and I'm 7 games in (part way through the second tier/period). Here is my team as it was initially built.

Greenskin Packers (Starting Line-up)
1x Troll
4x Black Orcs
4x Blitzers
1x Thrower
2x Goblin
1x Re-roll

I wanted to ground and pound with the Orcs, but sheesh, I cant get a break and play vs. any soft teams!! While you could say the Dwarves are the "weakest" team I've played against in regards to strength (# of STR 4 & 5 players), the team I played vs. had a Death Roller (STR 7)!!

Throughout Period 1 (including playoffs) I received between 200-300k in pre-match inducements as I had the lower team value. Once I hit the second period, I am much closer in team value to my opponents.

Period 1:
Win vs. Dwarf 2-0
Win vs. Ogre 2-1
Win vs. Undead 1-1

Period 1 Playoffs:
Win vs. Dwarf 2-0
Win vs. Ogre 1-0 (sustained 1 serious injury)

Period 2:
Win vs. Undead 2-0 (sustained 1 death and 1 injury)
Win vs. Khemri 1-0 (sustained 1 injury)

The last game I played was unbelievable! I received the kick-off, and started trudging slowly up field in my typical wedge along the sideline. The Khemri coach managed to squeeze someone through, after a blitz from a Blitz-ra Star Player. On my next turn, I had to move the ball carrier out of a tackle zone and failed the dodge roll. The fans threw the ball into the middle of the pitch, but I did manage to scramble and we exchanged possession twice with no movement on the pitch throughout 5-6 turns. I finally broke away on the 8th turn and fell one square short of a TD, pushed it once, and failed. First half ended 0-0.

In the next half, I kicked off deep, almost landing in his end-zone, and rushed up field. I managed to create a big jumbled up mess he couldn't get around or through. I was able to knock over the ball carrier on the 15th turn, scooped up the ball, and was just able to run it in for a TD on turn 16!! That was a close one!

So far, there have been 4 pitch invasions (out of about 16 kickoffs)... those SUCK!!! However, I think my opponents have taken the brunt of the results.

I really wish you could export/save/keep game stats, even if it was only a w/l record vs. what races. It keeps a good set of player stats by season and by career, but I'd like to be able to reference a team's past games.

While I've kept up with the Blood Bowl Living Rules Editions over the years, there are some teams that I never played or played against. I typically need to see teams (or fleets, gangs, or squads) "in action" to really understand what their capabilities are... uhm... my first enfcounter with Kemri... 4x STR 5 Tomb Mummies!! (while this is not as good as 6x STR 5 Ogres, the Ogre teams have snotlings!! :P ...which actually aren't that bad any more-- 3 snotlings taking down an orc blitzer is a little humiliating)

Kemri have reinforced my opinion from all the way back to second edition Blood Bowl-- I still hate with a passion, playing against Undead!!! Plus, I think Kemri are worse!! I've never played with/vs. a Vampire or Necromantic team, so I'm not sure how I feel about the later two undead teams.

Oh... BTW, the team that is missing in the video game is the Chaos Dwarves. (Laertes main team in the board game)

Blood Bowl Legendary Edition (Part 1)

The latest edition of the Blood Bowl video game is a MUST BUY for any fan of the game. I had been watching the progress of the game on their website very early on in development, and was extremely excited to get the game. However, I was disappointed in only 9 playable races in the initial release. I decided to bide my time until an expansion came out to include all (or most) of the races found in the board game.

So far, I have only played a couple of games in the "classic" mode (turn-based), but it is amazing how well they captured the feel of playing the board game. There are 20 playable races, lots of customization, dirty tricks/weapons, and all the pre/post game campaign rules.

The "classic" mode was enough to sell me, but there is also a "blitz" mode (real-time) that I haven't even looked at. I bought Laertes a copy for Xmas, so we will be testing out the online "blitz" mode in the near future.

Arbites (counts-as) Rhino WiP

I mentioned the Arbites (counts-as) Rhino in my last post: Back on the Bench. But since taking the picture, I received the eBay bitz I was waiting for.

Using some Poster Putty (actually any brand tacky putty works), I added the remaining bitz. However, I'm not happy with the placement of the smoke launchers, and I'm not sure what to do.

(click to enlarge image)

(click to enlarge image)

I'm also not sure about the door handles. I may draw/paint them on instead of adding a bit (what you see in the pic is a handle from a Land Speeder Storm). If I can fit it on, I will add an Aquillia hood ornament too.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

Back on the Bench

Well, 2010 was quite a year! Know one had any idea how long my recovery would take-- but I wont rehash everything here (I'll have links to the posts discussing it at the bottom of this post). I've got a lot to share, so I expect this is going to be a monster post.

The only gaming I have gotten in over the last year is a handful of sessions of Dark Heresy (run by Adeptus-B).  I am playing a Psyker and our group is a few hundred XP into our 4th rank. There are 5 players left after 2 had previously dropped out of the campaign. We play about once a month. Here are a few highlighted encounters.

On a forge world, an abandoned platform about a mile off shore. 
We land in an Aquillia Lander to assault the heretics.

(click on image to enlarge)

On a feral world, we set up an ambush in order to capture the
leader of a small group of poachers. I started a detailed
description of the encounter in this post: Ambush!
(click on image to enlarge)

On a frontier world, we approach a disabled wagon on the side
of the road -- as expected, it was an ambush!
(click on image to enlarge)

 

On the modeling front, I started about 1-2 weeks ago putting in some quantifiable time on the work bench. Nothing really to completion yet... its all WiP. Even more than ever, I have a very short attention span-- I'll paint a mini for a few minutes, then grab a different mini to pin on a arm and hand, then dig through a bitz boxes looking for the right piece for something else, then I'll go back to the original mini and add a little more paint. (all this in between repairing my son's toys and organizing the garage!! :) )

The first images are for a squad of Rough Riders. These were in my "to do" pile for a few years, but Adeptus-B recently asked if I had any cowboys on horses for a future encounter-- this was the best I could come up with. Although, I decided to equip them as a unit of Rough Riders rather than random cowboys... which makes them a little less fitting as cowboys. The reason for that decision is that I would love to complete an IG army representing a small out-world "last stand" planetary defense (ie hodge-podge army).

Rogue Trader era Rough Riders as given to me by Laertes.
(click on image to enlarge)

After some minor conversion work (arm and weapon swaps),
and adding 2 Rogue Trader era IG jet bike riders to horses.
(click on image to enlarge)

In a previous post, I have mentioned my small Adeptus Arbites force here: Adeptus Arbites. I managed to mostly complete one of the counts-as rhinos. Again, this was a request from Adeptus-B for use in Dark Heresy. I still plan on adding badging, some recently acquired eBay bitz, and possibly adjusting the placement of the brush guard.

A Dollar Tree toy with some bitz and paint.
(click on image to enlarge)

I have worked on some minis specifically for our Dark Heresy campaign as well-- Version 2.0 for our adept and my character, and a servo-skull. Nothing of note on the servo-skull, but on the two player character minis, this will be the first time I have temporarily mounted the models on something to make handling easier. I will also be attempting Ron's (from FTW) technique of painting "inside out".

This one is essentially done-- just need to spray with matte clear
cote and then gloss the metal bitz.
(click on image to enlarge)

Our group's psyker mk II (a Dark Age Forsaken Leader) and
adept mk II (a Games Workshop Master of Ordinance)
(click image to enlarge)

Well, I think that covers most of it. I did score some OOP Space Fleet minis on ebay to add to my Battlefleet Gothic fleets, but I'll cover that in a later post.

If you want to read more about what Ive gone through, Ive mentioned it in these posts: Going on Hiatus, Back on my Feet... Sort of, Recovery Round 3, and Still Here!