commander dante finecast wip 1

This is my fail-cast commander dante, I guess i got a crappy one as there were so many pores on my model.

I've used baby powder mixed with super glue to putty up the holes. This is actually a really quick, clean and efficient technique to fill up small areas without making a big mess.

Completed Empire Warrior Priest

Recently I have been having vibes for painting characters. Maybe it's because I've been churning out infantry after infantry and block units to get the bulk of my armies painted. I guess now it's payback time for the single models.

After I finished my finecast Lord Commissar model I went through my collection and decided to paint up this old warrior priest model. I guess he is about ten years old. (correct me if I'm wrong).

While thinking of a color scheme for him I looked through white dwarfs and army books and the interwebs and realized that most people painted thier warrior priests in reds and black. Also adorned with many gold trimmings and the such.

However I always felt that warrior priests were more akin to monks in the Empire. Humble individuals with no desire for the glitz and glamour of most mortals with only prayer and steel to see them through.

Therefore when I painted my warrior priest I went for the dullest, cheapest and typical colors found on people not so concerned with their fashion sense. Browns and silver. The only gold item he has is his small hammer around his neck.

It's a pleasure painting characters and I guess my character painting streak has just begun. More to come!

On the painting table

In the mood for fantasy. Some handgunners and outriders.

Battle bunker live update.

Definitely a very cool shop. Nice staff. And large playing space!

If it works out and I do not have to pay for playing space. I do not mind paying full SG retail prices to support the shop.

Bargain Hunting with Embargo

I have some gaming buddies that can't quit the GW plastic/resin crack addiction lol. I'm writing a brief guide on buying from UKGW direct online store.

UKGW direct online store charge shipping and here's the shipping cost break down:

Orders Cost vs Shipping cost

£0-50 -----> shipping £10

£51-150 ---> shipping £29

£151 - infinite -> shipping £40

The above are all standard shipping cost. There's a choice for express shipping, but is crazy expensive. I recommend getting from the LGS if you are in a rush. Standard shipping would normally take around 10-14 days, at least for me. 

Anyone can see that when buying, try to get as close to the order cost threshold as possible. Consolidating group purchases is a good way to save more money as the shipping is split making it cheaper than buying from Maelstrom/Wayland when they are not running promotions. 

Discounts

All non-UK order items except for books/magazines (publications) have 16.65% discount from the RRP. 

(RRP = Recommended Retail Price, basically the price you see for the item on the website) You will only be able to see the discounted price after you press checkout and choose some other countries for delivery address. If you want to see the discounted price on the shopping cart, after checking out and choosing countries, just press another link on the website (e.g. warhammer -> show cart)

Payment

Paypal, credit cards. The standard stuffs...

UKGW vs LGS

UKGW advantages are:

1. 16.65% on everything except publications.
2. Actual currency conversion.

UKGW disadvantages are:

1. Shipping cost and time.
2. Buying more and near the order threshold. (to make the shipping cost more worth).
3. 7% GST... if you exceed the S$400 for the order cost (GW declared fully the order cost on the box).

LGS advantages are:

1. 5% member discount (some of us have it).
2. Getting the product instantly on launch date. 
3. Changing defective product on the spot.

LGS disadvantages are:

1. UKRRP * 2.53 
2. Transport cost :) (does not apply in some conditions)

From my two £50 purchases from UKGW online store, I calculated that it is around S$8-16 more expensive than buying from Maelstrom/Wayland when they are not running promotions. It would be on par and maybe even cheaper than Maelstrom/Wayland if more people could consolidate their purchases and hit £150 for their order. 

my new grey knights army

This is my new grey knights army I had commissioned. So far I only have infantry but I plan on getting some vehicles soon. I don't think I will play with this army much, this is more so for collection. Hope you guys like it.

space marine terrain base wip. 3

So this is what it’s looking like on the 3rd night of work. The hardest part up till now is covering the seams between insulation foam layers. It’s still looking very crude at this moment but as I progress into the details and final shaping sculpt, I will ditch the thermocutter and use my trusty chainsword I mean crafting knife…
As you can see, the biggest piece of the terrain series is the cannon turret meshed into the mountain side with its own cliff. I’ve got to say I’ve built these terrains with devastator squards and tank cover in mind. I’m really excited to get this done asap and see how the play in games.

space marine terrain base wip pt.2

More updates on my space marine base. I've decided to turn my dark angels fortress of redemption kit into a series of fortified positions so that when used in games, the kit provides a bit more saturated large area terrains which doesn't simply take up space in a corner somewhere. Graduualy I'll be incorporating more and more of GW terrain bits into the foundations I've developed with the pink insulation foam

I think what makes a battlefield set up interesting is when the pieces can be used practically for gaming purposes as well as being aesthetically pleasing. From what I know, we've been running some titan and super heavy battles at our Hong Kong store recently and I know the boys have been complaining about not enough cover for larger scale models so here I am again contributing my share into the hobby.

Mega Warhammer Fantasy Game

We had a mega Warhammer Fantasy battle yesterday at PI Mid Point. 2500 points aside with 2 players to each team. Defu and myself with High Elves while Defeng and You Cai worked with Dark Elves and Tomb Kings. While the game took a little longer than the usual games, we did finish it under 5 hours with deployment time and packing time built in.

There was no real preplanning, we just decided on 2v2 with 2500 points each player so there were no synergistic combinations on the table. Any that did arise were eventual.

Head on over to: https://picasaweb.google.com/100466673872876007452/20110809HEVsDEAndTK

As always, leave your comments and +1 if you're a Google Circle user!

Here are some items I would change for these sort of 2v2 games:

1. No duplicated magic items if playing the same race - e.g. Banner of Sorcery
2. No sharing of the BSB - i.e. your BSB only affects your army, not mine
3. Buffs allowed for alliance
4. Magic: each player rolls for his magic dice and his direct opponent gets the highest roll of the 2D6. For e.g. YC rolls 5 and 3 while Defeng rolls 4 and 3, I get 5 while Defu gets 4.

Feel free to add stuff on this list! 

Also, in light of the "friendly" game style, anyone wanna adopt the ETC restrictions for our Fantasy games below?

Restrictions on the composition of the army

Army restriction
No army can be doubled, no SOC allowed.

Army size: 2000/2100/2250/2700 points (depending on category, see below) with semi-secret rosters.

General composition rules

- Armies are 2000/2100/2250/2700 points.
- No characters that are: special, named or Albion
- No DoW or RoR in non-DoW armies .

- Rare choices may not be repeated, except for HE, where they can be repeated once for each choice.
- Max. 2 of the same Special choice.
- Max. 3 of the same Core choice, except ranked infantry without missile weapons and beast herds.
- Max. 3 units of chariots (incl. characters).
- Max. 9 PD/10DD in an army *
- Max. 3 units of flyers (incl. characters)
- Max. 45 models with missile weapons with a range of 20”+ (not incl. war machines, characters and chariots).
- Max. 5 warmachines.

*Magic description
You can use a maximum of 9 power dice in each magic phase. Each bound spell you use count as 1 power dice, all following bound spells used in the same turn counts as 2 power dice.

Every ability that grants the bearer complete knowledge of a single lore counts as one power dice in each magic phase.

All dice you would not normally generate, such as Focused Rumination Slann free dice, Skaven warpstones, night goblin mushrooms, power of darkness etc., also count in the total number of dice you can use in a magic phase.

Tomb Kings count each dice they use for a spell as 1 power dice and casket of souls counts as 2 dice total. They can not chose not to use all the dice when casting an incantation, for example a Liche Priest can’t choose only to use 1 dice on a spell. You can how ever choose not to cast a spell with a model. The 2 basic power dice all armies get only counts if they are used to dispel RIP spells with.

Max 10 dispel dice per army. First dispel scroll (and similar working items) you have in your army counts as 1 dispel dice, in EACH magic phase. The second and all other scrolls, counts as 2 dispel dice in each magic phase. So if you have 3 scrolls you can use a maximum of 5 dispel dice each magic phase. Dice from magic resistance does count in this maximum. Being allowed to reroll your dispel dice every turn counts as 1 dispel dice.

Dice removed by the Chaos Dwarf Chalice of Darkness count as dice used. You remove 3 power dice, you can use only 6 more in your magic phase.

Race specific:
DAEMONS OF CHAOS - Bloodthirster with Immortal Fury, Keeper of Secrets with Siren Song and Lord of Change with Will of Tzeentch count as an additional hero choice; Herald BSB may take either daemonic gifts or a daemonic icon, not both; Daemonic Gifts may not be duplicated (except for Spellbreakers); Horrors are limited to 0-2.
DARK ELVES - Ring of Hotek counts as 3 dispel dice each phase; every assassin after the first counts as a hero choice; Shades limited in unit size to max.10; Pendant of Khaleth counts as a hero choice.
EMPIRE - Steam Tank counts as two Rare choices
LIZARDMEN - Characters mounted on Stegadons also use the relevant special or rare slot; Max of 6 Terradons in army; discipline Becalming Cogitation count as 2 dispel dice. Max. 2 Stegadons of any type
ORCS & GOBLINS - Max 6 goblin fanatics.
VAMPIRE COUNTS - The Drakenhoff banner counts as an additional hero choice; Every +1 to cast in the army counts as 1 powerdice in each phase.
WOOD ELVES - Treeman Ancient counts as Treeman.

The ladder system:
All armies are divided into four categories; A, B, C and D. Category A armies are limited to 2000pts, B to 2100pts, C to 2250pts and C to 2700pts.

When calculating victory points at the end of the game, once you have the result, then add 10% to any category A army's losses rounding off as normal. Any category D army would conversely have its losses reduced by 20%

Category A (2000pts)
Demons of Chaos
Dark Elves

Category B (2100pts)
Vampires
Empire
Lizardmen

Category C (2250pts)
Skaven (to be confirmed in February)
Beastmen (to be confirmed in April)
Bretonnia
Chaos Dwarfs
Dwarfs
High Elves
Warriors of Chaos
Tomb Kings
Wood Elves

Category C (2700pts)
Ogre Kingdoms
Orcs & Goblins
Dogs of War 

space marine terrain base wip pt.1

I saw the death mountain work over at ricalopia's blog and inspired me to begin works on some new terrain to add to the Hong Kong store. I've had the proxxon thermocut lying around for about 8 months and i decided to have a go at cutting some rock terraces. Still looking around for ideas as to incorporate gw terrain parts into natural features such as mountains and rock faces.

Completed Lord Commisar

Been lacking updates due to my pregnant wife keeping me busy.

However I managed to squeeze in time to paint up my first FINECAST model. The amazing Lord Commissar.

Hopefully this model will give me the much needed momentum to paint in full force again.

The quality of the model though is less than amazing. Lots of holes throughout the model and some even caused details to be obscured or totally destroyed. So much for best miniatures in the world. I actually got a replacement model because the first one I got had an extremely crooked nose!

However aside from the flaws I can see great potential in this material and can only hope for the best in future finecast releases.

Not that I am able to buy any new miniatures due to the bloody embargo anyway......

Painting Faces

Faces are the most important part of the model as our eyes are naturally drawn to faces. I came across this really good website and they have a brilliant article on breaking down the steps for faces.

Do check it out: http://chestofcolors.com/painting-faces/

Certainly worth the time!

Ogre Kingdoms!

GW is sure keeping very closely at the releases and are doing a lot for our hobby. New pics of the Ogre Kingdom kits coming!