Ganja Girl reinforcements

You may or may not be aware, but last year my buddy Grant and I had a competition where we both took the same blood bowl race to tournaments to see who could do best.

Grant won last year, though to be fair lizardmen were awesome for both of us (He won the first tournament we played, I came 4th.  Then I won his tournament in my next try)

In 2016 the plan is we are both going to use amazons until someone wins a tournament (high hopes)

As such I needed the final blitzer painted for sure, and since I was pulling them out and they are literally just basecoat tabletop quality I got the other thrower, catcher, 2 linemen and roxanna and zara painted too.

7 painting points. If I ever do any more for this team and decide roxanna and zara deserve more attention, I'll add points then.

L-R: thrower, roxanna, blitzer, zara, catcher, lino, lino

Black Knights part 1 + Chaplain

Following up to my last post, I had also finished this second chunk of the Ravenwing army and have gotten them based and some poor photos taken.  The plasma talons OSL needs a bit of work IMO.

14 painting points.

5 Black Knights, 1 with grenade launcher

Chaplain

Ravenwing Squad 1 + Techmarine

Playing a bit of catch up here.  These have been painted for a while but I wasn't really super happy with these photos, even though I used my lightbox (or especially because I did?) but anyways I want to post about them before the year end so these will have to do.

Once I finished the roads/flocking of the display base, I felt it prudent to start gluing the bikes on to help motivate me to keep painting....  It hasn't really worked - I'd already finished the second chunk and now was just tired of doing line highlights on black.  I will probably try to mix in some of the landspeeders or the nephilem I picked up to pique my interest again in the new year.

19 painting points.

Squad 1 - bare sergeant and flamers

Squad 1 attack bike - on the display they are an attack squadron with a landspeeder

Techmarine

Stackable Necromunda Terrain ('munda table in a box)

Earlier this year I completed the paint & build of my mantic deadzone scenery - and in doing so a number of thoughts came to mind.  First was an interest in home built scenery again, and I started using pinterest to research and find different ideas.  Second was "here's another huge box I will need to store this scenery while it's not being used".  I already have four big boxes marked "necromunda" and this would be another one.

During my pinterest hunting, I spotted this from Descent of Angels - and I immediately had to run out to pick up some materials to give it a whirl.  I ended up building a bunch of buildings, a bunch of walkways, some pipeline, and some scatter terrain.  I also did up two boxes as stackable "tiers" for some extra elevation.  Two are done the same colour as the buildings and the other two are darker without any doorways or ladders, meant to just give the table some additional height.

I used some hexagoner plastic pieces to add ladders, doors and hatches to the nesting boxes, sprayed them a rusty colour and drybrushed them silver.  I also used popsicle sticks to add some detail to the nesting boxes and then sprayed them grey and used the textured spray paint I used on the brewhouse bash board.  For the pipelines I just used the tubes from tinfoil, for the walkways I used plastic canvas to put some "grate" texture, for the scatter terrain I just sprayed a bunch of spare hexagoner bits and glued them onto CD's that had the texture spray.

As I built up a bundle of ideas (like the pipeline, scatter terrain, bridges/walkways, etc.) I decided I had other ideas I wanted to implement for my own "pack and play" so I ended up making this a "housewarming" gift for my buddy Mike from shiftedmatrix.com - he's spent a year renovating the old house they bought and it's very near our house. You may recall he's the one I played serious necromunda sessions with in the past so hopeful this will mean starting that up again :)

Here's the total painting points awarded for this effort.  The entire thing packs up into a single medium sized plastic box for easy storage.

necromunda in a box (160) 
2 small buildings (10)
3 medium buildings (30)
4 large building (80)
1 wide walkways (2)
6 long walkways (12)
4 scatter debris (8)
2 building extensions (6)
2 long pipelines (8)
2 short pipelines (4)

Raptor Legion corsairs

A while back I'd had the idea to paint up a few "corsair" type chaos marines in my loyalist colours - some fun figures and could use them for alternate weapons or such.

You might remember seeing a few of my flesh tearer khorne icon bearers or khorne death company - well I have finally gotten around to painting a couple I did for my Raptor Legion - couple extra PP.

I can see doing some blending/CSM lists using my loyalist troops - Badab War factor goes a long way - been thinking of some warp talons to double as a dark fury squad in more night lord colours, I used a bit of blue wash in place of green on both these guys.

One just had some chaos-y bits and a special weapon (magnetized) - always thought it was dumb codex marines could only get flamers, but for now I could use him to add another "blood angels assault squad" using my Raptor Legion assault marines but get an extra melta in there.

One is the dual lightning claw chosen from the dark vengeance box with a jump pack added. A useful swap for my current assault marine sergeant when points allow.

Sorry for the photos, pulled out the lightbox but need to get back into practice.

quick "in progress" paint update

Been spending some time on these, so I decided to post up some pics - they aren't the greatest but at least show I have not been idle. I have broken out the ravenwing into 5 chunks of effort.  I still plan to put these on a display base as I think it will really make them look fantastic.  Next up I have 5 ravenwing black knights and a bike mounted chaplain already on the painting table.

squad 1 (flamers)

Chunk 1 is a ravenwing squad and a bike mounted techmarine.  They are complete as far as I intend to take the entire army at this point - which is one level of highlight for everything bar the bike line highlights (bikes get two) and characters will get an extra level of highlight for their "colour" (ie. red for techmarine) and coats of nuln oil which I am really pleased in terms of it's type of "dirtiness" - which suits the bikes well.

techmarine

What I have left out is the headlights and screens.  I think some OSL will look really good on them but want to get them to a playable point.  With a new DA codex dropping sometime within a month or so, it might be nice to get a game with them or even (gasp!) take them to astronomi-con (don't mention to SWMBO!). If that doesn't happen I could also consider selling them off at that point, need to see if any final stuff should be added to the army or not.

Raptor Legion scouts

Got the Raptor Legion scouts finished up. I used Iyanden Darksun foundation on the holsters and pouches - I think it works well as a "coloured" fabric. The yellow helps to keep the number of colours down and it worked with a single wash of Devlan Mud.

Added the usual decals - I found some old one's from the imperial guard chimera sheet - they will suit for the right hand shoulder pad to identify the squad (even though I doubt I will ever do any more scouts for this chapter).

Technically they need a quick swirl of coloured wash on the bases and sealing but that will get done when the humidity drops a bit - lots of rain here the past few days! 5 more painting points - definitely on a roll this year!

Terrain Quick Hit - Basing the Imperial Firebase

I have had this cardboard and bulkhead Firebase built for years - frequently used in Necromunda as well as 40K battles, I decided it was time to give it a base, since I don't want it to become as beat up as my power station did.

After the success of the texture spray paint for the brewhouse bash board - that is what I went with for this base.  At first I tried adding some volume to the base using hot glue in various places - don't do this! It didn't stick well to the MDF - it worked well enough to stick the Firebase down but any loose hot glue peeled off very easily.

Anyways - a quick hit I gave myself 5 points for this.  I spent some time with a pen to colour up the cardboard and use super glue with a brush applicator to stiffen it and protect it.

Brewhouse Bowl - Result = 1st Place

As mentioned in previous post about the Brewhouse Bash board - I participated in the Brewhouse Bowl tournament last weekend. I will try to report on the bash rounds as well as the blood bowl rounds but the first bash rounds are hazy - mostly because I didn't win them :P

Grant wanted a pic as he was really happy with the bash board - here it is.  Hanging up in his house now since it's built into a picture frame :)

Glad you like it buddy.

The background: Prior to 2015 I made a pledge/bet with Grant (the tournament organizer) that we would both play Lizardmen until we won a tournament with them.  I have been lax in my tournament updates - I still owe one for CCKO 2015 in which Grant beat me in game 5 to secure the tournament win his first time ever playing Lizards.  When I manage to get that one written up I will link to it above.

So this would have been my second tournament with lizards - however I had already lost the pledge to Grant so I was considering a more thematic team (like Norse or Dwarves) in terms of the "boozing" fluff behind this tournament - however in the end after making dozens of rosters and each one had some funky tweak to it - I decided for probably the first time to just pick a single roster - submit it and play it without making changes leading up to the tournament.  To that end I fell back to the Lizardmen because even though the skill package was not super favourable to them - the build was obvious.

I took a Kroxigor, 6 Saurus, 5 Skinks, 3 Rerolls.  After the skills package I had;
2 Saurus w Block
2 Saurus w Guard
Saurus w Frenzy
Saurus w Tackle

DAY 1

Game 1 vs. Rod D 3-0 win

In game footage

 Rod brought an Orc roster with the chainsaw star player, his skills were below.
2 Block Black Orcs
2 Mighty Blow Black Orcs
Guard Troll
Leader Thrower

I lost the kick off and Rod chose to receive. His chainsaw player managed to stun a Saurus but next turn I KO'd him which essentially put him out of the game.  A strong defensive setup meant Rod had trouble pushing forward and I eventually put enough pressure on the ball to pop it free and managed to score on my turn 8.

In the second half I caged my way upfield until I sprung a Skink loose to score a second - Rod had a few turns to try and score a consolation but his Thrower chose a very inopportune moment to go butterfingers and he failed 4 pick up rolls (2 turns each w sure hands) and a Skink ran in, scooped up the ball and even though he got knocked over he stood up - grabbed it again and scored a third.

Bash Round 1 (vs. Rod D, Mark H, Greg S, Morgan)
So blurry. Mark H won a free Fan Factor.


Game 2 vs. Rolland C 2-0 win

I am attempting to mimic Grants standard tournament photo pose. Rolland unimpressed.

Rolland also brought an Orc roster with the chainsaw star player - he took different skills though. IIRC it was;
2 Block Black Orcs
Guard Black Orc
Guard Blitzer
Strip Ball Blitzer
Tackle Blitzer

I won the coin toss but elected to kick. As previously I managed to turnover the ball and score late in the first half. In the second half it was much tighter as Rolland was able to get the ball free but in the end I managed to recover it and cage far enough that I could score my second touchdown and secure the match.

Bash Round 2 (vs. Rolland C, ?, ?, Morgan?)
So so blurry.

Game 3 vs. Mark H 2-0 win

We're at the back - you can see my future 4th and 5th round opponents in front.

In game footage,

Mark brought a pretty standard Dwarf roster - skills were;
2 Block Runners
2 Guard Blockers
Mighty Blow Trollslayer
Stand Firm Trollslayer

He won the coin toss and elected to receive. This was the 3rd match of the first day and so my recollections are a little hazy. In the first half I managed to either KO or casualty one of his runners.  I think it was casualty because he never came back but Mark could have failed his recovery rolls too. The Lizardmens strength and speed were always going to be a tough ask for the Dwarves.  I did a great job protecting my Skinks as usual (I find that Lizardmen are so fast I can usually defend well enough without commiting any Skinks) Then once Mark was down a player I had a definite advantage. I think it took a pickup on last turn of first half for me to score.
In the second half I definitely feel Mark went too agressive in his defence. Once he pushed up too far - I was able to break a little hole and shoot my Skinks through an deep into his end. I stalled for a turn or two forcing him to apply some pressure before scoring my second - pretty much ensuring that I had the game in the bag.  He had a chance to score a consolation but it didn't come off so I finished the first day 3 and 0 with 8 touchdowns for and 0 against.


DAY 2

Bash Round 3 (vs. Matt V, Alex M, Tom R, Chris H and Grant H)

Even managed to win a bash round!

We started this beginning of day two instead of last thing day one so Grant had time to even out the participants to ensure every board got a "prize" - adding additional flavour to my bash round was Matt was the only other player with 3 wins, so we knew we were matched up the night before. We played on the same bash board (mine) and were basically duelling off to try and stop the other from getting the (much more favourable) third round prizes.

This was a crazy bash match, with everyone who died managing a 6 to ressurect to 1 wound.  It went back and forth across every player in the brewhouse but finally I managed to knock out the Kroxigor of my eventual fifth round opponent Tom and score a normal skill (some gamesmanship - ie. running away meant that our round finished last so other teams got the stat increase and double skill)

Matt said he was happy enough I only got a normal skill for my skink but I was VERY happy he didn't get anything at all!

Game 4 vs. Matt V 2-1 win

Can't tell where the game is - guessing early first half.

Genius move?

Deep in thought.

Matt brought a very strong Undead roster with Sinnedbad the stabbing/side stepping skeleton. He had been talking him up all tournament about how he was such a great piece simply due to the fact he has secret weapon and is expendable so I did everything I could to just ignore him - which worked a treat! Bar Sinnedbad it was a pretty standard Undead roster with skeletons selected over zombies and the skills package was;
2 Block Ghouls
2 Wrestle Ghouls
2 Guard Wights

Matt won the coin toss and elected to receive.  For the first half I tried to defend as stoutly as possible and get some hits on his skilled players (Ghouls and Wights) - I also made what I thought was going to be a crucial error by trying to foul a stunned wrestle ghoul with a Skink and 2 assists - but I ended up rolling double 1's for the injury roll, doing no additional damage and getting my Skink ejected. I was extremely fortunate that Matt just could not penetrate the AV7 of my Skinks until the very last turn of the game so I kept my numbers.  I was also fortunate that after that mistake I began to break his armour and casualtied a Ghoul, a Skeleton (no regen) and I believe KO'd one or two as well.  Matt still managed a great score near the end of the first half, I tried a rush score up the sideline with my Side-Step Skink but it didn't come off.

Second half I tried the same quick score hoping to then push on for the win - I ended up blowing all my rerolls first 3 turns without any of them working!!! At that point it became a case of "all I can do is try the simplest thing and hope my dice pull it off" - which worked! So I scored a touchdown in my turn four and then setup and kicked to Matt again - now desperately hoping for a draw.  He failed to pick up the ball but felt it was protected enough so he decided to keep his last reroll.  This turned out to be a crucial mistake as I opened up a small hole and removed all but one tackle zone from the ball. Then I just ran in a skink, picked up the ball and dodged back behind my line and closed up my cage. At this point Matt was the one starting to hope for a draw. In a crazy last couple turns he managed to knock down my Skink and the ball bounced to his Wight who caught it. He protected him as best he could but I still had a 1 die block against him with my Frenzy Saurus (needing to GFI) and lucked out getting a pow with the first block. Still had a tackle zone on the ball but my Skink just picked it up anyways and made the successful dodge out of tackle zones to score a winner. In Matts turn 16 he finally casualtied two Skinks to even up those numbers but it was too little too late.

Game 5 vs. Tom R 2-0 win

Tom was unhappy I'd already secured 1st Place.

Why is Alex staring at the wall?

Pretty pumped at this point.

Tom was very disappointed right from the off - due to the tiebreakers for the tournament and the fact he could only tie my # of points with a win, he basically had no chance of winning the tournament outright. He made his case for Head to Head being the first tiebreaker loudly and vehemently as is usual for Tom. It has become a common theme for US coaches to come up - catch up to the top Canadian coach in the final round and beat them but to lose on tiebreakers.  Thankfully in this case I made sure that wasn't really the result.

Tom brought Lizardmen also - I think he is preparing for the world cup (as now that I think about it - Matt must be as well??) - He didn't have a spare skink he took 4 rerolls instead.  I might consider his skills package riskier but I still think my roster build was better.  His skills were;
2 Block Saurus
2 Mighty Blow Saurus
Frenzy Saurus
Guard Kroxigor

I can't remember who won the coin toss but the result was the same as previous four games - I kicked allowing me to defend will full roster and work on turning over the ball. Tom in similar style to Mark H was too aggressive with his defending and his Skinks were well within blocking distance.  I managed to KO two of his Saurus as well once my d6 started heating up.  He did kill a Block Saurus outright in retaliation but I still managed to free up the ball and score - stalling until my turn eight to give him as few KO recovery rolls as possible.

Second half he was again very aggressive and it very nearly came off for him, but all it did was force me to commit my Skinks and I blitzed the ball free and surrounded it with 4 Skinks before picking it up and running off outside of his reach by tying up his Saurus and knocking his Skinks to the ground. I ran it in as soon as there was any pressure so I gave him a chance for a consolation but nothing transpired.

So - pretty much an outstanding weekend in terms of results. Not only did I get the sweet trophy pictured below but also tournament champion dice, the standard NAF champion trophy and some prize swag.

Second time I've won a tournament.

The coaches

Here are links to a couple albums of pics Grants pics * Ezzards pics

custom Brewhouse Bash board

Currently I am in Waterloo to participate in a brand new blood bowl tournament called Brewhouse Bowl - check out the NAF forum thread if you are interested.  The basic premise is they cannot afford the fees to bring the teams to play - so they offer free booze instead.

Thus - after the first three matches players from the teams participate in an old GW mini game called Brewhouse Bash - the rules for which can be found here. The winner of the bash game will get a small boost to their blood bowl team going forwards.

The TO (grant85) is a top notch guy, very supportive of everyone else's tournaments, engaged and involved in; recruitment, setup/clean up, etc.  I had suggested to him to build a custom Brewhouse Bash board - he just didn't have the cycles to devote to it.  So wanting to do something cool for him I decided to have a go - I wanted this to be a surprise hence this is a scheduled post for that weekend.

So first up I did this design diagram so I knew what I had to build, based on the board section graphics in the PDF.

design diagram

I got some MDF from the home depot and got them to cut it to a size that would fit in a standard picture frame I bought at walmart.  The MDF will give it a bit more strength because the rest is just built from cardboard, popsicle sticks and some odds and ends.  You can see here how I did the grid and used hot glue to stick the stones and walls down.

draw grid

mark spaces for features

glue down squares for stones

two rows of double thickness card for walls

Once that was done - I sprayed it with grey primer, lined the gaps with black by hand and then gave it a couple coats using a textured spray paint from Krylon.  This gave it a great stone texture and was infinitely easier than using sand or flock. Then I glued in inside the picture frame.

sprayed grey + lined black between stones

sprayed with Krylon Make-it-Stone textured spray paint

paint gaps black and glued into picture frame

In between while stuff was drying I was building all the features that weren't stone tiles or the walls.  Some loose boxes I just cut squares of double thick card and glued cereal packet to the outside.  The fermenter used floral water tube caps and some straws along with some water effects. All the wooden stuff was build with popsicle sticks, I tried to give it some height without being fully 3D.  Finally I did the bbq after finding a good video about painting hot coals, I used a couple 40k biker bases glued together to make the metal "tub" part and followed the tutorial for painting.

glued thin card to squares cut from double thickness cardboard

made this fermentor from the caps off floral water tubes

larger features like the tables, etc. got square outlines

how the toilets were put together.

here the table is stained with a couple coats of seraphim sepia

toilets stained

the bar

booze crates - I used a different stain colour

the completed stairs/balcony

made the bbq with a couple 40k biker bases

As it was finished I would glue the pieces in - once everything was done and had a day to fully dry I gave it a nice heavy coat of gloss varnish and then a quick light shot of dullcote (that stuff is expensive!) I wasn't planning to but the gloss was very high.

all done!

I'm gonna give myself 40 painting points for this, it was a quite involved "terrain" style project - very happy with how it came out and I hope to apply some ideas I got to more terrain.  Hope you like it Grant!

WIP Raptor Legion CC scouts

One of several projects I have ongoing at this time is getting these Raptor Legion scouts painted up. Our house is quite dry and I am starting to find paints dried out - I didn't want this to happen with the last of my gryphonne sepia so I decided to get these guys painted sooner rather than later.

One difference from the rest of my Raptor Legion marines is these guys have some cloth - to keep a limited palette I decided to use dheneb stone for the cloth similarly to the weapons.  They are also covered in holsters and pouches - this is where I need your help.  Should I do those dheneb stone as well or add another colour to the mix - a leather type is my thought.  Opinions?