Bad Dice Podcast and Honolulu

Just signed up for the Bad Dice Podcast (Warhammer Fantasy podcast out of the U.K.) hobby progress challenge as well. It is hard to resist the combined temptations of motivation and prizes for doing something that I already wanted to do. I know that trying to do two of these a month is going to be nuts so I think I'll probably go really simple (three color, simple base) on the Elves and focus on making the 40k models pretty.

Going to do WoodElves and here is the army that I have settled on;

Wood Elves 2400 pts.

• Highborn (236) Annoyance of netlings, The Spear of Twilight, Hail of Doom Arrow, longbow, light armor, shield
• Noble (175) BSB-The Royal Standard of Ariel, longbow
• Noble (145) Wild Rider kindred, the Dawnspear, longbow
• Spellsinger (175) Lv.2 (Athel Loren), Divination Orb, Befuddlement of Mischiefs, long bow
• Glade Guard x10 (132) Musician, champion, GG longbows
• Glade Guard x10 (132) Musician, champion, GG longbows
• Dryads x12 (156) Champion
• Eternal Guard x10 (150) Musician, Standard, Champion
• Scouts x5 (97) Musician
• Glade Riders x5 (138) Musician, champion
• Wild Riders x5 (191) Musician, standard-Saemrath the banner of the zenith, champion
• Tree-kin x3 (195)
• Wardancers x5 (111) Musician, Champion
• Treeman (285)
• Great Eagle x2 (100)

This gives me a crap list to play in game (probably) but I can paint most of the cool models that I have for the army. I am pretty sure that is legal but if not I can change it around a bit and still remain close to the points with just these models. Also, since it is quite MSU I stand a chance of being able to complete it along with my 40k challenge. I don't play in any tournaments or anything like that so the list itself doesn't matter too much and when (if?) the Wood Elves get a reboot someday they are bound to come down in points and this will be a base I can build off of to hopefully make it a little tougher. 

Honolulu was pretty much the same as last time. Lots of good food and a quick trip to the gaming store followed by me getting grumpy and wanting to come home. I don't know if it is one thing specifically but the combination of bureaucracy-stress, lots of people, long walks in direct sunlight, and always going there either right after or right before work puts me in a bad mood on the second day. Always happy to get back to Kona (though I do wish we had a game store here) 

And for people that are going to have international marriages don't read websites about the interviews, it is not nearly as bad as it is made out to be. Movies and articles on the web make you think they are going to ask all of these outlandish questions (do they have a birthmark, how do they make their coffee, what soap do they use?) but that is only in extremely suspicious cases where it's obvious that it is a scam (which there was one that was very likely while we were there- doddering old man that looked dazed the whole time, with a much younger pretty foreign woman...) The interviewer asked us when we started thinking about marriage, why she said yes and what we do together. Not including the wait the entire interview took less than 15 minutes. Was totally not worth worrying about. 

Though, to be fair, we don't know the results yet hahaha  

Aaaaand, just cause I don't want to post without any interesting pics here is some damn cold Mauna Kea (this was '09) 

(yeah those are horizontal icicles) 

HPC, Fantasy, and an awesome crescent moon shot!

So the I.C. Podcast Hobby Progress Challenge has been some really good motivation. I am managing to find time to do at least a little bit of work on my Sanguinary Guard every day. I have gotten the bodies based and washed, the weapons finished and am finishing up all of their gubbins (various wings and blood drops) The last step is going to be the wings since I have not yet decided on how I am going to do them. I think I'll go with the bleached bone/ sepia combination and just not highlight them as much as the wings on the armor. Highlighting up to the pure white makes them super bright and draws a lot of the focus away from other parts of the model but on the other hand leaving them darker makes the wings look kind of dirty. Also, I am quite pleased with the red for the shoulder pads. At first I was not sure it was going to look good but it really compliments the gold. They are both rich colors so they go well together. I am just glad that I looked at the picture in the codex before I started painting so I realized their right shoulder pads were supposed to be red.

Finally got in my first 8th edition game. It was really impromptu with just a few handfuls of models chucked on the table and I am sure we missed a lot of rules but it was a lot of fun and I think I may be able to get some of my group here to play it (they are all only 40k at this point) I was having a hard time conveying the fun and the tactics of Fantasy to them though. The model types and size of the battle was fairly limited as well as my not knowing the rules as well as I should. Some of the units didn't work out like they would when used in larger games while some had their effect magnified because of the limitations.  I am sure people everywhere have similar (game/entertainment related) problems but introducing people to something that you already love can be tough. Most gamers have their pet games and bringing a group around to it can be an uphill struggle. I myself am guilty of that type of stubborn resistance at times as well though so I understand it, especially the tendency to ignore the good stuff and focus on one or two negative things that happen. Even so, Runequest Ducks are the lamest things ever.

Now I am torn on what army to play though. The three friends that might start playing Fantasy are interested in Ogres, Vampire Counts, and Empire. So I am going to play either my Wood Elves or my Skaven. I have a lot of the nicer models for wood elves and their aesthetic is cool but the army book is just so old...Skaven, on the other hand, are a new effective book but some of their models are in bad need of an update (Grey Seer!) and it is fundamentally a horde army which would kill any painting dreams. I think I'll take a good long look at the Island of Blood Skaven troops again and then make my decision.

And, as a closing note here are some nice night shots that I took the other night. Caught the moon juuuuust before sunrise. You'll not see a sharper crescent than that.

Skies so clear you can see the night side 

Shooting Star, pardon the trash can

Zodiacal Light

Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge sign-up

So one of the podcasts that I listen to is doing a progress challenge from January until November. The gist is that you complete a new unit every month and build to a tournament ready 1850 list and then have a chance to win some prizes based on how faithful you were completing your hobby goals. I love their podcast so it seemed like a fun idea so I am going to sign up.

I decided to use my Blood Angels for the challenge because they are the army that I want to have completely painted the most even if I hardly ever play with them. The rules of the challenge state that you can not use already painted units so my tac marines I have worked on so far and posted pics of here will not be eligible but I am going to do the rest of the army in the same style so I guess that they can count as practice.

Here is the army list that I have come up with;

Strike Force Castigon (1850 pts. I.C. Hobby Progress Challenge)

135- Lord Adjudicator Castigon; Combi-melta, Power Fist

185- The Knights of Baal (Honor Guard); Blood Champion, Company Standard, Power Fist, Melta Gun

35- Drop Pod

160- Reclusiarch Castus; Terminator Armor

210- The Archangels (1st Comp. Terminator Assault Squad); Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield x2, Lightning Claws x3

255- The Heralds (Sanguinary Guard); Death Masks, Power Fist, Infernus Pistols x2

170- 4th Company 3rd Squad 'Baal's Fists' (Tactical Squad); x10, Flamer, Missile Launcher

100- The Lost (Death Company); x5, bolters

35- Drop Pod

225- 4th Company 7th Squad 'The Blood Rain' (Assault Squad); Meltagun x2, Power Weapon

140- 4th Company 9th Squad 'the Hammer of Baal' (Devastator Squad); Las Cannon, Plasma Cannon, Missile Launcher, Heavy Bolter

100- 4th Company Predator, 'Baal's Spear'; Auto-cannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

100- 4th Company Assault Bike Squad 'Sanguine Deliverance'; Multi-Melta x2 

Yes, yes, I know it is a pretty shit list that is going to have a hard time claiming objectives (Winning) and includes a number of odd choices (mixed devs, Death Masks on the Sang. Guard etc.) but the list lets me paint a number of cool models that I have and will provide me with lots of puzzle pieces to cobble together future armies (Devs repurposed as heavy weapons marines for Tactical Squads etc.) 

Here are the pictures for the first months posts that I have taken so far. The pre-priming unit of Sanguinary Guard (They have been dipped/scrubbed at this point. It is a mix of my old models and some that my friend Matt gave me) 

I have always had a notoriously hard time making metallics look good so I am going to do one of the models all the way through as the test so if it looks bad I do not need to scrub 5 guys, just one. So here he is primed and based with GW Calthan Brown (got the idea for brown to gold from Beasts of War)

And then here is the same model (now with magnetized Death Mask helmet) painted gold.

 After looking at the models in the codex again I realized that I need to change up a few spots but I am primarily working on the metallic armor now so I will take care of that later. 

Did a bunch of work on the single guy today. Here he is without wings but the body and arms are pretty much done.