Wednesday Weekly # 13 – Purple Nurple

Happy Hump day all! 2 more days till the weekend!

Hope everyone is having a good, relaxing week! Hope everyone has gotten some hobby time in this week!

This has been a fairly productive week... my biggest hobby related project has been the base coat of the 25 miniatures for my Emperor's Children army. Loads of purple to be seen... I was tired of looking at primed grey. So I did some work on the models themselves, and am well on the way to making them tabletop ready!

I was also lucky enough to be able to get another game of Warhammer 40k in... resounding defeat. Ok, looks like the Imperial Fists are a bit overpowered against a foot-slogging Emperor's Children Army. Guess I will be looking at some next tier stuff, see if I can find something to balance the scales. It was nice to be on the receiving of a strong army... all the things that I have not seen work well for my fists worked great for my opponent, so I guess that is a silver lining, for sure.

Lastly, in a bit of a hobby update, water is still really getting into the garage... so it is time to start moving stuff. I will be taking all the non-essentials up to my parents house for... well... a while. It will be nice to work only on the stuff I have easy access to for a while. I do have quite a backlog, and need to start powering through that.

Have a great rest of the week!

Thanks for checking it out!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 13 – Imperial Fist Tactical Support Squad

Happy Sunday all! Hope the weekend was great and relaxing!

Today I am going to show you the first of the Imperial Fist Project from the Betrayal at Calth set... My imperial Fist Tactical Support Squad, with Plasma guns! I really like these models, they came together really easily, and the painting was actually a breeze. I will go over my finished Yellow recipe in a tutorial later. I wanted to go with a very gritty, dirty look, so it looks like these guys have been in the field for a long time.

I am very pleased with the helm of the sergeant, as well as the eye lenses for all the marines. I really feel like I am growing as a painter, and just need more practice. You know what they say about practice and making perfect.

Thanks for checking them out!

Let me know what you think!

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 12 – WAR THUNDER!

Happy Friday all!

Today, I think I am going to talk about something fairly near and dear to my heart... War Thunder.

Some background... I am a History Major, History is my real love, and the 1930s-1950s are my main area of interest... The build up to World War 2, the war itself, and the rebuilding after the war. I have loved this era for years, and love building, learning, and finding new things about it. So when I found a game where you play through World War 2 era planes and tanks... I had to play it. This was the game for me. Sure, for the most part, I hate online play, MMOs.... but I thought I would give it a try for the sake of the game. Oh boy am I glad I did! I was immediately addicted.

War Thunder is a Free to play game from Gaijin, a Russian company. War Thunder is not a pay to win game. You can spend money, buy planes and tanks that are pretty good, but the real bonus they give you is increased research points, which in turn allow you to unlock stronger and stronger vehicles. The only reason I say it is not pay to win is because those premium tanks you can get are tiered equivalent to the other types of tanks they would face. Meaning, with exceptions, there is no huge in game performance boost.

I started out with planes, and worked my way up through the tiers. There are 5 different tiers to play from, with a multitude of planes in each. When you are in matchmaking, the system matches you to planes/tanks that are of a similar Battle Rating, which is usually in an equivalent tier. Tier one planes are biplanes and first generation monoplanes, whereas tier 5 is jet propelled aircraft.

There are a ton of complaints regarding the Battle Rating system, planes that are unusable because they get into matches that are too high consistently, or have a low battle rating and destroy all in their path. There are issues getting into matches of appropriate levels, and it can be really frustrating at times... but after the anger and irritation subsides, you learn from mistakes. Learn how to combat tanks and planes that are ranked higher. You learn how to exploit weaknesses.

Interested in trying out war thunder? Like I said, free to play! Tons of tanks, planes, and explosions!.

Get in it!

See ya in the sky!

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 12 – Bring on the Paint

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope the week is going well for all of you!

This has been a fairly productive week! I was at a stoppage point for painting because I was having issues with the airbrush... but I finally sat down and set to work cleaning all the gunk out of it. Once I finished that, I was feeling inspired... so I pulled some paint out, and get some models done! Am I going to show them to you? Not till Sunday, but yes. The biggest thing was that it showed me how quickly I can get paint on some models... so I think I will do some more. Next up on the paint table, I have a contemptor, my librarian, and my apothecary. The airbrush work for them all is done, just time to take a brush to them. Paint on!

However... I may have a problem.... War Thunder. I have been recaptured by the game. The gameplay is so addicting, yet so frustrating. There are times when I want to punch my computer screen in the face, and others when I am beyond ecstatic at a particular series of events. The biggest problem is that it is taking up hobby time... I am a busy guy, with a busy schedule. So the trick is juggling an awesome wife, and beautiful little boy, and work with hobby time, which of course is a pretty far step down the line. I need to prioritize. So I am working on how to divvy up my hobby time. Do I want to spend two hours painting, or shooting tanks and airplanes with my buddies.

Maybe that is the trick. If I don’t have people to play with on War Thunder, I pick up the brush instead.

Things to think about... What do you guys think?

Have a great rest of the week!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 12 – Corporate Security Unit

Happy Sunday Everyone! Today... we are going to show something a little different.

This is my Corporate Security Unit, that came in the Operation Icestorm box, from Corvus Belli. That, of course, means Infinity.

The Infinity models are so much smaller than the warhammer models, more realistic. Not only that, but the details are so much clearer. The flip side to that is that the models are all metal, which means they can be a bit tough to work with. But the result speaks for itself.

This is the first of hopefully quite a few Infinity models. Time will tell!

Thanks for looking!

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 11 – The Dream Gaming Table

Happy Friday All!

Hope everyone had a great week, and is looking forward to an awesome weekend.

Today, I thought I would talk about something that is a dream of mine....having a multi-functional gaming table. What gamer can honestly say they don’t want such a thing? I thought I would take some time today to talk about what I am looking for in a game table, and perhaps even provide a few options to make the ideas feasible.

But first…. Some dreams… I want a table that can seat 6 people comfortably, 8 if needed. A means to project a map on the board. A place to store die and magic decks. Cup holders, so there is no spill danger. Slide out desks, so Player sheets can be kept off the table and tidy. Felt, for ease of card sliding. A cover, so the depths can be covered, even if mid game. Nothing like leaving a game of risk up so you don’t have to put it away.

Anyway… enough dreaming…. Here is what I need.

Perhaps the most important thing I am looking for in a game table is the size. For me, that means the gaming space itself has to be at least 4' x 6', because that is usually the greatest most games play on. (Screw you, Apocalypse.) So I want to have a 4' by 6' space that is set down into the board, so that when I roll the dice in there they do not go flying off the table.

 

The next thing I am looking for in a table is utility... I want to be able to use this table for more than war gaming. I want to use it for Magic the Gathering, I want to use it for Rpging, I want to use it for board games. I want it to be the type of table that is easy to sit around, and at the right level to be comfortable.

The last thing I want from a gaming table is... well... I want it to look nice. I want it to have a smooth finish, and a dark look to the wood.

This kind of brings me to my last few points.... If I want this, where do I get this? Do I build it? Do I buy it? Well, I am no carpenter. My quality of workmanship would be exponentially worse than if someone made it for me. On the flip side.... The type of table I would want would cost between 4 and 13 thousand dollars. And would take between 3 and 12 months to complete. The tables are beautiful, and have tons of cool features, but that is a ton of money. Several examples are shown. 

What features would you like to see in a gaming table?

Have a great weekend!

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 11 – Slow Week!

Happy Wednesday All!

It has been a fairly slow week, hobby wise, so I will just talk a bit about what I was about to do in my free time!

This weekend, my Wife and I traveled to Montana to see family and to go for a "fun" run for St. Patty's Day. There was some drinking, some running, some horseshoes, and even some swimming.

Needless to say, it was a great, fairly relaxing weekend. And I actually love driving on these long trips because it enables me to listen to my books. I am currently on book 11 of the Wheel of Time series, so I got to put a decent dent in that.

For those interested, I did 3 miles in 22:10, which would put me well on pace to do a 3.1 in 22:30. Puts me at just under a 7:30 mile pace... for 3 miles. Happy about that, that’s for sure. And it was my fastest time since I was a junior in high school. I would love to keep training, and get into the sub-20 3.1 mark, but that will definitely take some time.

 

On Monday, I got rolling in some War Thunder for the first time in several months... Man, I miss that game. I will make a post about that game in the near future, but needless to say, I love that game. A buddy and I were rolling out the new British Tanks, and I have some tactics I need to learn to be effective.

Also, yesterday was the weekly Game night with my buddies, so we did get to rock out the last of a pathfinder campaign I started last week.

Thank you!

Have a great rest of your week!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 11 – Imperial Fist Captain

Happy Sunday everyone!

Hope the weekend was fulfilling and relaxing!

For this week's Showcase, I decided I would continue with my Fists, and show off my Captain.

This is the model I use for my Legion Preator. I really like the model, just because he looks like he is commanding rather than fighting himself. I like the resting menace of this guy. He just looking like he ready to slash you up.

This is one of the latest yellow attempts, pre-airbrush. I did layers of Averland Sunset, followed by some highlighting of Uriel Yellow. I like how clean this looks, but am not totally happy with the shading/highlighting on the model, so the quest for a better yellow continues.

What do you think?

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 10 – May the Combo Be With You

Happy Friday everyone!

For this week's fun Friday, I wanted to talk about a card game that is near and dear to my heart... Magic the Gathering. As many of you have played, and are experienced with, Magic the Gathering, I am not going to talk about basic rules. What I am going to talk about... are some nasty combos that I have discovered through my investigations of the game. I am going to start out with a few combos I myself have in deck form... then I am going to talk about some combos that are so crazy, so cheesy, that I will never subject my friends to face them in a competitive format. I like to win, but I am not that much of an Ass. Though some may tell you otherwise.

Ok! Some combos that I have rolling... Starting with my first, which is not optimized, but it still competitive in the format. One of my main decks right now is a Heroic Counter combo deck, which utilizes small creatures with the heroic mechanic to blast out huge creature quickly. I am running it as a Green/White deck, though I am putting thought into splashing a bit of blue into the deck as well. One of the key pieces to the deck is a card called Hardened Scales. Because of the cost, and the effect of that card, I can drop one, maybe even two by turn 2, with a creature, and by turn 3 have a creature that is already being bumped up toward lethal. Pivotal Cards below. 

The second Combo deck that I want to cover is actually a commander deck, with Kaalia of The Vast as the commander. This combo is meant to be a turn 4 option for the kill, though because of the nature of commander, I have only gotten it to go off once, and it has to be the right circumstance. You need to be able to bring out Kaalia by turn 3, which is possible, and swing with her on turn 4. Drop Master of Cruelties onto the field attacking with Kaalia, and if they cannot block, they lose the game.

The last combo I wanted to talk about is truly ridiculous... a student at the school I work at was telling me about it... actually showed me the deck itself. Starts like this... play a Gemstone Cavern before the game begins. Strange, I know, but I will include the cards for your perusal. Discard either Elven Spirit Guide or Simian Spirit Guide from your hand, then play Flash. Play Protean Hulk from your hand... then let it promptly die. Search your library for 4 Disciples of the vault, 1 carrion feeder, and play the 12 (!) X cost artifacts from your library.  They die because they have no toughness... Ready for this? Opponent takes 48 damage, loses the game before they even get to go. On their turn. When they are playing first.

…

Only play this deck if you really want no one to ever play with you again.

Stupid.

I was speechless.

It should be important to note that Flash has been banned, so this deck would not work competitively. But in a casual game.... Holy Hell

Know of any cool combos you would like to share?

Thank you for reading!

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 10 – Pathfinder on the Brain

Hump Daaaay!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope the Week is going well so far for all of you!

So, this week in the hobby was fairly productive. It was also quite varied. Pathfinder, Warhammer 40k, painting, and Magic! Needless to say, it has been a good week.

 

As for Pathfinder, Humble Bundle is doing a bundle for pathfinder books... 350$ worth of books for under 20$. So many people picked it up that they crashed the site. Awesome opportunity to pick up a whole lot of PDFs on the cheap, and support the charity of your choice. So, as a result of this... I have decided I want to run a pathfinder campaign with my RPG group. Included in the bundle was a whole lot of modules to play though, so we have campaigns and encounters that will last for years, even if we play every week. It may be cool if we did a rotating DM thing, but we will see where we go!

As for painting, I did get some basecoat for my Imperial fists finished, my Tactical Support Squad, and my Heavy Support Squad. No pictures today, because I am not totally happy with the results yet, but they will be coming eventually.

Speaking of Warhammer 40K, I was able to introduce the game itself to a friend of mine. It was a pretty fun game, me doing my best to remember all the rules as I explained to him.

Lastly, got some magic in. I do love me some commander. Good game all around, luckily my deck managed to pull through right at the end.

Thank you for reading!

Have a great rest of your week!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 10 – Imperial Fist Assault Squad

Hey there, everyone!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

For this Showcase, I am going to follow what I started last week, and showcase my Imperial Fists.

Today will be my Assault Squad. This is meant for a Heresy squad, but the minimum squad size is 10, so not quite there yet. I really had a ton of fun with the posing on these marines, and was very happy with the painting itself.

I also made a point with these guys to weather them a bit heavier, which I think made them stand out better.

The squad sergeant may be one of my favorite models I have finished to date. I really like to posing and threat that comes from him.

Thank you for checking it out!

Have a great week.

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 9 – The Merc With a Mouth

Happy Friday Everyone!

It is time. Time to discuss an amazing movie. A movie I have seen not once, but twice in theaters. A movie I would be happy to see again. I went with a group of friends, then I had to take my wife. Had to.

 

Deadpool.

Dead – Mothereffing- Pool

This movie is absolutely incredible. If you have gentler sensibilities (Language, Violence, Blood, Masturbation Jokes), This is not the movie for you. But If you like all of that fun stuff, you will love this movie.

There was a whole lot that this movie did so right, and a few things it did not do so well on. Here are a few of my personal views.

The absolute best part of this movie, without a shadow of a doubt, is Ryan Reynolds. He was … perfectly cast for this movie. Honestly, Deadpool must have been written, as a comic book character, nearly 20 years ago, for Ryan Reynolds. He absolutely fulfills the role of the Merc with a Mouth. In nearly every aspect of the movie, he personifies the idea of deadpool.

The fourth wall breaking for this movie was awesome. It worked really well, pulling in tons of references that worked really well for the 1990s-2000s kid in me. Over and over again, there was little things that kept popping up, that were not story driving, but great little references.

OK, a few things that were not so great... the first being Mr. Reynold's supporting cast. They were fairly two dimensional... The ladies were pretty, but that was about the extent of it. It would have been nice to see even more exploration of their characters, though I fear they may not be returning.

The next thing that I found not so great was the real lack of footprint for another movie. It is one of those things like... where can it really go after this? It just seemed like the development for the future movies was week.

Thank you for reading,

Have a great Weekend,

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 9 – Beat up Fingers

Happy Wednesday everyone!

It has been a productive week in the hobby for me.

This weekend I put in 6+ hours to finish building the last of the marines to flesh out my Age of darkness armies. I had to build 45 marines, 33 of which were standard bolter toting soldiers.

This... was a big project, that is for sure. By the end, the tips of my fingers were hurting. I spilled super glue on my hands, and generally made a mess. But... I finished the assembly process. This part itself is the one that will take... well, the second most amount of time. Color blocking and detailing will take the most amount of time. But this was the next biggest commitment.

I tackled this project as an assembly line. Cut out all the parts I was going to use, cleaned them up, then assembled them. I attached the legs to the bases first, just so I could get a better feel for how they look as I assembled them.

Once they were all assembled, I had some extra time to work on the project, so I was able to prime them as well.

I primed the Emperor's Children in a standard grey base coat. The Imperial Fists were primed in a German Red Brown. The next step will be tackling one or the other with the base coat.

Thanks for checking it out!

Have a great rest of your week

-Rob-