Motivational Monday #2

Time for a Monday Motivational Poster!

I don't take credit for creating the above imagine.
Unknown author. Used without permission.

... Mitch

It's all in the details

I know its not game related, but it is a subject on paint! Now my car has never been a slouch when it comes to the look, but today I went above and beyond. I spent a total of 8 hours working on the finish and here are some of the things done:

• Meguiars Clay Bar
• Meguiars Swirl X
• Meguiars Deep Crystal Polish
• Meguiars NXT 2.0 Wax
• Turtle Wax Tire Shine
• Mothers Powerball and Rim Polish
• Simoniz Car Shampoo
• Simonix 10" Random Orbit Polisher
• VHT Red Caliper paint
• Meguiars Rubber and Trim cleaner

I have to say $120 later, and I'm impressed. The paint is smooth as silk, and feels almost like butter. Its hard to tell from the color of the car, but the reflection is 100% correct and undistorted! Getting a car detailed like this a shop would be over $200 I'm sure.

The Car is a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix with a 3.8L Supercharged V6, putting out at least 260 hp and 280 lb·ft. The color is Stealth Grey. I'm entering it into an Ontario wide calender. I hope it makes it in!

... Mitch

Debate: Special Characters

Today, I wanted to bring up an issue that seems to be floating around on various forums and locally in Ottawa. It seems that the general population has a dislike for special  and named characters. Its even gone as far as recent and future tournaments have banned the usage of 40k's greatest hero's! Poor Eldrad!

I don't fully understand why these upstanding characters, provoke such negative reactions! I know, some of the more recent Codex's have made some really interesting, and equally powerful rules concerning unique characters. So, removing them reduces the power level of certain books. Books like Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Orks all have powerful special characters, that really change how the army fights.

Now, the issue is when removing these special characters is that weaker armies will suffer more. See, without Mephiston being used, Blood Angels can make an army list just as competitive as before, or maybe more. Since there is almost no bad choices in the recent books, they are not really as effected.

Now take Necrons, with three total HQ choices. They have Lord, Deceiver, Nightbringer. The choice they have nos is only the Lord, with the main difference will be with or without destroyer body. This really doesn't restrict them that much, but it doesn't allow them to field an army that's different then the normal Lord + 20 warriors, etc.

Who's even in worse shape from this change is Dark Angels. Without the characters allowed, the codex is basically superseded by Codex: Space Marines. Without the Deathwing and Ravenwing, Dark Angels really suffer. Now, thats not saying you can't use the codex without this, but you will basically have an army that is between 10%-25% higher in points cost then an almost completely similar C:SM list.

So I leave the issue open for discussion: Are special characters that game breaking? I'll enable comments, and make a poll on the right to see!

... Mitch

** The above images are used without permission from there respected owners. If these pictures belong to a model of yours, please email me and I'll remove them

Motivational Monday #1

Time for a Monday Motivational Poster!

I don't take credit for creating the above imagine.
Unknown author. Used without permission.

... Mitch

Golden Marine XV Pictures

The Golden marine had a great turn out, and I believe that 38 out of 40 people showed up, which is really good turn out considering the weather this weekend was torrential rain!

In all 4 rounds I played, we never actually finished a game. Ninety minutes for setup and to play doubles with 2214 points a side wasn't near enough time. Two hours would of worked much better! I guess it doesn't matter much, since generalship wasn't being scored at all. I ended up playing the same three people twice each, so I didn't get to mingle with some of the other people I don't know, which is unfortunate.

The venue was good too. I love the unlimited ice water! At the end of the day, it was a great event! I thank Corey Tamas for putting the extra effort into making it really fun.

Unfortunately none of my pictures turned out that I took. The camera I have really doesn't have a good macro setting, and it blurs most of my pictures. If anyone knows a way to help this, its a Kodak Easyshare.

These pictures are used with permission from Crablezworth.

... Mitch

Heavy Gear Blitz!

Not only is Heavy Gear combat between huge armored tanks and powerfull mecha, its made by Canadians! Dream Pod 9 is located in Montreal, which is only two hours away from Ottawa.

The back story for the games is Terra Nova where the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere battle over the badlands. The North is the classic blue faction, where they are more democratic and the south is the classic red faction!

The main combat unit for the factions is the Heavy Gear. The pilot sits in the torso of the biped walking war machines. They seem to carry a good balance of offence, defence and speed. There is also 4 legged walkers, tank, hover vehicles, aircraft and infantry. I'd certainly hate to be an infantry man in this world! 

The scale of the miniatures is 1/144 (10mm-12mm). N-gauge railroad buildings should work really well for this game. Tables can start at 3'x3' and go up from there. The game system uses six side (D6) dice, which is great and simple!

Sportsmanship is emphasized allot in the rulebook, which I should mention is about 200 pages long, in full color. Full color is certainly a rare feature in a full length rulebook. With other companies, you normally only get a third of the pages in color!

Since this is only a small introduction into Heavy gear, I will be publishing more detailed reports of the rule systems and its expansions in upcoming posts. In the next few months, I will be doing a detailed painting guide of the Gears, and getting some battle reports in. Until then, I leave you with a picture of how the rules are laid out!

... Mitch

Winner Announced: 3 Gamesday VIP Tickets

The winner of the pair of tickets is Amber and Steven Hupalo from Oakville. They will be receiving a pair of tickets courtesy of Andrew(twinlinked) and the Ottawa Gamer!

The winner of the single ticket is Danny Curtis of Chapel Hill! He will receive a VIP ticket courtesy of Nick(Toxic Alien) and the Ottawa Gamer!

The tickets and being sent with Canada Post to be on the lookout for the letter!

Also, please ensure to take many pictures and email them so we may envy your enjoyment next weekend while you cut in front the the lines VIP style!

Oh, the picture below? That was taking at the Montreal Botanical Garden last weekend! I know it gives me ideas for making terrain, what about you?

... Mitch

Games Day VIP Tickets Giveaway!

Have you ever wanted to cut in front of lines, wear a VIP logo or just go to North America's biggest Warhammer event this year?

Now is your chance to be a part of history and get your set of VIP tickets. There is a total of 3 tickets available to be given away.

Entering information and rules:

Draw will take place at Friday August 13, 2010 at 12:00pm EST which is tomorrow!
Leave a comment below on this post with your name
Become a follower so you'll know if you win
Write how many tickets you want
Email me your address details so I will be able to send the tickets tomorrow

Since Games Day is in 8 days, I will be shipping out the tickets tomorrow at 2:00pm so they get to the winners house before the event. This contest is only available for readers in North America only


... Mitch

DoomWheel WIP

So I recently picked up the skaven Doomwheel model from Games Workshop, and i have to say I'm really loving the look of it!





Although, it is most wise not to fully assemble it before painting it. Mine is in about 10 different pieces right now so I can paint all the obscured details, and my friend there are many many details that would be all but impossible to reach if it was fully assembled. The Image posted is what it looks like in the cockpit when full built so you can Imagine how hard it would be to paint fully assembled.





So stay tuned as I'll have photos of the finished product soon enough and let me know what you guys think so far this is my first real post. If you guys like what you see stick around 'cause I've got lots more coming!

...toxic alien

Pegasus Hobbies Crater Set

When I was in North Bay this weekend I picked up this Pegasus Hobbies Crater Set for only $24.00 for 5. I'm very happy with the quality and the fact that this set is cheaper then GW's and its painted.

...Fox

A new blogger among you!

Hey Guys,

My name is Nick and I'll be the newest edition to this growing blog, some of you may know me as tatz_101 on other forums, here you can call me toxic alien.

I'm big into the hobby scene and have been painting and gaming for close to 4 years now. I'll be doing lots of posts on my work so look forward to lots of pics, reviews and videos, possibly even a tutorial or two if anyone shows interest (Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?).

Look forward to much much more coming from me.

... toxic alien

Everyone in Ottawa Knows Nick! His orks are mean and fast.

His current streak against me is 3-0 for him!!! Curses! 

...Mitch

Grendel Sci-Fi APC WIP

What we have today is a Grendel Sci-Fi APC that I am currently working on. Onto the good bits!

The Review

The tank is made from solid resin, which feels heavy and more solid then ForgeWorld stuff. The vehicle has a pretty high weight to it, and assembly was very simple. It was tracks, body and turret for a total of four parts.

I used two-part epoxy resin to glue this bad boy together since it had huge contact areas, and I wanted it to be solid, and use it as a gaming piece. The APC is a little smaller then a Rhino and matches 40k Scale pretty good and does not seem grossly undersized.

It has a cost of around $10 Canadian, and I use the word value! It really is caste very well and has sharp detail and low bubble count! So in the end, I highly recommend getting this vehicle if you are looking for something to fill the lines with a great price! $10, value indeed!

If you want to purchase this tank, it can be found here

The How-to

The first thing I did was clean the model with pink hand soap. It works really well, and I have gallons of it at work. I trimmed some flash around the tracks, and sanded the bottom of the turret so it would be more flush with the vehicle. As said before, i used a two-part epoxy resin to attach the part together.

The gun mounted on the turret the tank came with was a metal chaingun, similar to the bow gun. Since I will be using this tank in my Imperial Guard Catachan Mercenary force, I wanted to assemble it as a Leman Russ Exterminator. What I did was use some plastic hollow tubes I had left over. I trimmed them to make the cannon appear to have a thermal sleeve near the end of the gun, and armored mount including the first section of the barrel being armored as well. I designed the barrel, to look as if it would recoil into the tank as it fires, and being a smooth bore recoiling design, I didn't want a muzzle break.

On the turret near the cannon mount, there is a small heat extractor to keep the fumes under control during long bursts from the twin autocannons! I am certain this vehicle will be the bane of lightly armored vehicles like Armor Personal Carriers, light vehicles and most skimmers!

I primed the tank using Tamiya Brush on Grey Primer. This stuff has a huge chemical smell, but really helps prevent paint chipping off resin and metal vehicles. Make sure to always use a disposable brush, since the solvent in the thinner damages natural hair brushes.

For paint I used

• Reaper Coldstone Grey
• Reaper Icy Grey
• Reaper Clotted Red
• Reaper White
• GW Chaos Black
• GW Blood Red
• GW Boltgun Metal
• GW Black Wash

My coworker is the one who designed the camo based on model kits he used to do as a kid. This is actually the first ever vehicle that he has painted, not counting 1:25 Scale Cars. He did a pretty good job for an urban scheme!

Weathering Effects - Will be shown in a few days when I complete it! Be warned tho, I will be using alott of Tamiya, Vallejo, and Mig products to make this tank look battle worn!

... Mitch

Deathwatch Killteam

For the longest time I've wanted to make a deathwatch kill team using the sternguard rules. I ordered a bunch of deathwatch shoulder pads from the war store. For the bolter mags I ordered heavy bolter ammo containters and chopped them up so they'd look right. For the combi-flamers I used bolters from the rhino and land raider kits and added part of the standard marine flamer.

Painting wise I opted not to do the whole different chapter on the other shoulder pad. I always thought that looked tacky and lame. Instead of various chapters symbols I opted to just put some etched brass from forgeworld on their other shoulder. I also opted not to paint the bolters red, I felt it clashed with the whole badass deathwatch vibe.

... Ben

WIP: Hassle Free Imogen #1

I recently received this miniatures from the great folks at Hassle Free Miniatures. She didn't require much cleaning at all, and assembly was a snap. I did end up gluing my finger to the wings when I held them while they dried!

I have allot of experience painting up lava/heat effects on miniatures, so I look forward to painting up the flaming sword this weekend. The flesh will be painted using a base of Reaper Tanned Flesh, and I am thinking of painting the hair a nice auburn color, maybe with a streak running in it. For a base, I have a resin cracked earth, which should work really well!

... Mitch

Review: Pegasus Hobbies Small Gothic Ciy Building 1

Pegasus Hobbies Small Gothic City Building 1.

I purchased this kit from the WarStore a few months back. Before I bought this kit, I looked all over the Internet, and couldn't really find many opinions of this wonderful kit, so I took a risk ordering it from the Internet. Since it was under $30, it was a nice deal considering the Canadian Dollar was at Parity when I bought it!

Its made from a very hard dark grey plastic, which is very difficult to cut. Thankfully most of the building parts are not on sprue and ready to be glued right away. Detail is superb, with attention focused on the right parts. Standard Tamiya model cement worked perfectly on this model, and the bond is very strong.

There were a few small issues with this kit that I will list.

• No flooring or roof parts where included at all. I used plasticard to make some flooring, so it worked out since I made my own custom design
• The doors are backwards - If you assemble the kit to match the texture of other Pegasus buildings, you have to assembled the doors where they open inwards, which is kinda strange
• Accessories - They gave a pack of gargoyles, lions, torches, and lanterns to put inside the "mounting pegs" but didn't include enough to kit the whole building out how they show it on the box

Even tho I pointed out the above issues, this building is still two or three times bigger then a Games Workshop building, and half the price in Canada. I highly reccomend it!

... Mitch