Blackstone Fortress Villians

The painting for Blackstone Fortress is complete! I had a good time painting them, very nice sculpts with crisp detail. Today let's look at the Bad Guys.

With the starting lineup of adversaries, the Traitor Guardsmen are numerous and belligerent. Two squads of seven give a great variety of poses and weapons. The Flamer can be quite deadly as can the Grenadier. Best to cleanse them all with fire.

Spindle Drones are (probably) native to the Fortress and get madder the more of them you kill.
Best to let UR-025 have its way with them.

Negavolt Cultists are another new creation for the game, and they are unpleasant "people".
Best to purge them from a distance.

The Ur Ghuls infestation is a classic example of what happens when you bring pets along on a picnic and then leave them behind. Best to cull the pack with fire.

Chaos Beastmen (as opposed to the "good" kind) are very smelly and dangerous.
Best to target and eliminate first.

Rogue Psykers can negatively affect your team from anywhere on the map.
Best to eradicate these floating abominations as fast as possible.

And most foul and dangerous of all, Chaos Lord Obsidius Mallex and his two Chaos Marines. Best to concentrate fire early and often.

Tomorrow a quick look at the Explorers!

Go Make Something

And Make A Board Game Better

Magic Robo Arms

I'll be honest, some of us laughed at the Citadel Assembly Handle when it was released. It just looked goofy, and kinda impractical.

I received one as a birthday gift, so I decided to give it a fair chance the next time I built something. 

A few days later I was deep into painting the Blackstone Fortress guys, when disaster struck! I lost track of where Ms Eldar Ranger was on the table and bumped her long rifle with my elbow and broke the slender weapon. 

With Vaul's grace I was able to find it on the carpet, but how to fix it? I wanted to use plastic cement so it would kind of weld back together. It is a super thin part so holding it in place for a few minutes for the glue to set, and then at least half an hour to really cure was going to be difficult. 

Unless one had some kind of wonder tool! I quickly set it up and did a dry fitting with no issues. A little bit of glue and presto! I placed the handle someplace safe from the cats and me. About a hour later I checked on it, carefully removing the clamps to find the rifle perfectly straight and solidly fixed.

I have since used them a few time for similar type of construction. The "arms" are well segmented to achieve almost any position. Very useful to secure a tricky part and let it dry while you move on the something else. Fun to use, inexpensive, and quite handy.

Go Build Something

And Let the Robo-Arms Help

Party Like it's 39919

Happy New year! Momentum has been increasing here now that the holiday season is finally past us. The Industrial terrain is complete, and the new city buildings are going well. I decided to go with the dusty tan look because I like it, and it gives good contrast to most models.

When the City is done we are going to try a short Kill Team Campaign followed by a full-blown 40K/Kill Team campaign kicking off in March.

There is a good backlog of board games we shall try in the upcoming months and report on.

I am going to do my best to keep my slightly aggressive painting/building schedule. Next on the bench will be the figures from Blackstone Fortress, and some after action write ups on the game as well.

I'm sure GW will have some surprises in store for us as the year unfolds. What happens after the next two Codexes? (Genestealer Cult and Sisters of Battle) We shall find out!

The Emperor Protects

With Champagne and Gunfire  

All Over the Bench

My last two painting projects were Kill Teams. Small number of figures, small footprint on our dining/gaming table. Easy to move aside to game and/or eat.

I have a good amount of Sector Mechanicus terrain, mostly kinda assembled. Some parts even had a bit of paint them. I wanted to make some really dynamic industrial battlefields for 40K/Kill Team, so I picked a few more terrain sets that would fit in with the theme.

Then I decided to paint ALL MY TERRAIN AT ONCE. A bold move to be sure, but not a very well thought out one. I wanted my Sector Mechanicus to be glued together but still modular, and yet in small enough sections I could actually store in bins (to keep dust and cat paws off of it).

A week of test fitting, guling, stacking, cursing, and just staring at it, finally gave me what I wanted.

Then it was time to paint. Oh mighty Emperor, I gravely underestimated how long it would take to paint all those big slabs of detailed plastic. Or how many times I would have to run to the game store for more paint.

Big projects can get out of control fast. By breaking it down to its component parts I was able to tame this doom I brought upon the work bench. Paint all the red, do all the leadbelcher, (so, so much leadbelcher), in a assembly line fashion. I know that doesn't work for everyone, but it does for me.

The terrain is so detailed, I could have gone way down the rabbit hole with this one, but I did a lot with drybushing and washes, and picking out just select detail to give a little pop.

So after two weeks I declared it done enough. I could easily spend a lot more time detailing but I actually want to play something. After a few games I'm sure I will notice somethings that bug me and I'll go back and touch some stuff up. But tonight the table will be clear!

Until I start on the Sector Imperialis stuff...

Go Make Something

But Leave Room To Eat