Monthly Update: Painting Points

So I did a recount of my painting points for everything between Jan 1, 2009 and March 31, 2009. I actually had 13 points rolling into April, two more than what I had posted last month. The sad news for April is the fact that I bit off more than I could chew with the RoW: Paint or Die contest. I got overwhelmed by it and instead of using it as a springboard for painting more, it actually made me not want to paint. I think I just became overwhelmed looking at all of the models in the army. The good news is that in May, I am not going to worry about the contest but continue to work on figures for the Daemonhunters.

So how did I do for the month of April?
1 Ogryn +2 Points

1 DH Sage +1 Point

4 Skeletons +4 Points

Year to date total: 20 Points

My Goal: 75 Points

If you would like to see the original post about Painting Points, check out the following link.

Special Thanks to Lone Pilgrim for introducing such a fun idea to the 40K blogsphere.

Weekly Update: Amethyst Veil

At this point, I have five more skeletons to complete for the unit. One of them is going to be the standard bearer on a 40mm x 20mm base that will count as two skeletons. I am hopeful to have this unit completed by the weekend.

To all of my readers that are only into 40K, I promise next week that I will be returning to some 40K models.

Weekly Update: Online Contests

The Realms of Equinox Presents

Attention!

The Rules

1. Models MUST be Games Workshop. They may be heavily converted, but it must be clear that they are primarily composed of GW models/bitz. FW models may be used.
2. Entries must be a ten man squad of imperial guardsmen. The squad must be legal per the new codex.
3. You must be a follower of “The Realms of Equinox” prior to submitting an entry.
4. Entries must be painted between May 2, 2009 – May 29th, 2009. Proof of work will be required as part of the submission process (see below).
5. Submissions will be accepted between May 2, 2009 – May 29th, 2009. This gives you plenty of time to build/paint your entry. Minimum of 2 Photos will be required of your entry: Work in Progress showing the unpainted models on the new codex, and a completed work. The completed picture file can contain multiple pictures, but only one picture file will be posted per entry. The deadline for submissions will be May 29th, 2009 11:59 PM CST. To submit your photos, please email them to: equinox999equinox@yahoo.com
6. All completed submissions may not appear on any other site or blog before June 15th, 2009. Works in progress may be posted on other sites and blogs before June 15th, 2009. (This is to encourage people to talk about their creations and build excitement around the contest) Any entries found to be violating this rule will be banned from the contest.
7. Voting will be done by the readers of “The Realms of Equinox”. Photos will be placed on the blog and each follower will get to vote for their favorite entry. Voting will take place between June 1st, 2009 – June 12th 2009.
8. The winner will be announced on June 15th 2009. The Winner of the contest will receive their choice of either the new Imperial Guard Cadian Command Squad or Imperial Guard Catachan Command Squad. (Note: The prize will ship directly from the online provider, to save cost on shipping. If the winner is International, please allow extra time for the prize to arrive.)
9. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section of this blog entry.

Assassin Miniature Competition

Delephont via DakkaDakka

The competition is to design a new assassin model.

The competition will run until the end of May. The host of the contest, Delephont on Dakkadakka will pick the winner of the contest. The winning design will be passed on to a sculptor, and actually made into a miniature. The winner will get a copy of the sculpted miniature.

Weekly Update: Amethyst Veil

This is another update of the Amethyst Veil. The musician was the first model I did for the army, so he is a little over a year old at this point. I did flock his base, so that is something new for him if you have been following my writing in the last year.

The other skeleton is with a spear. I wanted the front rank to have spears with flags to give the overall unit a more grand look.

Weekly Update: Amethyst Veil

This week's update will be a series of updates as I am finishing up a small regiment of skeleton warriors for my vampire counts army. Some of these models were painted last year, while others are being finished this week.

All of the skeletons will need to have the shields done over the weekend. I expect to knock them off at one time as I don't believe painting them will take more than a couple of hours.

Aftermath: N.I.M.G.C. Tournament

This past weekend was the N.I.M.G.C. Spring Tournament in DeKalb, Illinois at On Board Games. It had been a few years since I had been out to this store and this was my first tournament hosted by the N.I.M.G.C. crew.

Leading up to the tournament, I was debating about which army I was going to bring to the tournament. I was aiming to bring the Emerald Eye (chaos daemons), but I decided that since the tournament results were based on battle points only, I would instead bring a painted army and not worry about winning. To this end, I decided to bring necrons, as I expected no one else would dare field them in a battle point tournament.

My list
Deceiver 300 pts
4 Pariahs 144 pts
7 Immortals 196 pts
10 Warriors 180 pts
10 Warriors 180 pts
4 Destroyers 200 pts
2 Wraith 81 pts
2 Wraith 81 pts
1 Heavy Destroyer
1 Heavy Destroyer

Round One
The first round of the tournament involved a mission to control the most objectives spread evenly across the table. My opponent was fielding a Nidzilla list that was optimized for the tournament.


I spent the first turn of the game basically doing nothing, as I didn’t really have a game plan. My opponent was quite the opposite, dropping each of his pie plates on me using the maximum wording of the rules.

The next few turns were basically me making small advances and him killing units. By the time we reached the fifth turn, I conceded the game as I could not capture any objectives. I had not phased out or lost my supreme general, so I felt good about the result considering all things.

Round Two
The second round was against Jeff F and his Imperial Guard. His army was impressive and by far the best painted army at the event. For this game, we each had one objective that we placed within our deployment zone. The goal was to protect our objective while capturing our opponent’s one.

The game was interesting and by far the most fun I had at the tournament. The end result was a solid draw, with me losing one battle point for my supreme general dying and Jeff getting one for his living. I cannot rave enough how much fun Jeff was as an opponent. The game had the kind of casual feel that I prefer when playing.

Round Three
The last game was also against a great player. This game also had that casual feeling. The only difference between this game and the one with Jeff was this game didn’t come down to the wire. By the end of the game, he had a badly wounded carnifex and three stealers. I had everything but my wraith and c’tan.

At the end, I came in 9th place out of 14 players. A nice finish for the “worse” army in the game.

Place - Player (Battle Points) - Army - Round results - Opponent Battle Points
1st - Tom Crzi (20) - Eldar - WWD - 35
2nd - Andrew Delso (20) - Space Marines - WWD - 25
3rd - Jeff McConnel (19) - Black Templar - WWD
4th - Tim Waeyaert (19) - Tyranids - WWL
5th - Andrew K. (18) - Chaos Space Marines
6th - Mike Rios (12) - Black Templar
7th - Jim Slagstad (10) - Tau - WDL - 50
8th - Greg Chyson (10) - Space Marines -WDL - 35
9th - John Gaszak (10) - Necrons -WDL - 32
10th - Carl Swieton (10) - Space Wolves - DDL
11th - Ricky Neyens (9) - Tyranids
12th - Jeff Florido (7) - Imperial Guard
13th - Jason Chyson (6) - Tyranids
14th - John Keehn (2) - Chaos Space Marines

So, what did I learn from the tournament? It never hurts to bring a painted army. Jeff, my second round opponent, won best painted and received a cool Battle Foam t-shirt for his efforts. This is especially cool since the best painted category was never announced.

If I bring the necrons to another tournament before a new codex, I think I will focus everything on close combat. I figure I will finish painting 10 pariahs. I am also going to add a really big unit of flayed ones. Don’t know if I would swap the Deceiver for a CC necron lord, but it is something to consider. The reason I want to do this is purely because you never see this kind of army. It just seems like a cool army if you don’t care about winning.

Another lesson I learned was I cannot play the snail game. My play style is like the Chicago Bears’ playbook. I play not to lose. I am thinking that I really want to try an army where I send everything running at the enemy instead of my usual piecemeal and hold approach.

My thoughts on the tournament are very positive. It had been a few years since I went to a 40K event, and had my reservations about going to another. The end result though was that I had two really fun games, and one that was fair. The fair game was a reflection of my usual comments about the game is about the person, not the army. That said, I will try my best to make the next tournament as I think it was worth the drive. If you live within the area, I highly recommend attending the next tournament if you like casual tournaments. The guys of N.I.M.G.C. know how to put on a fun time.

Weekly Update: Online Contests

The Realms of Equinox Presents

Attention!

The new Imperial Guard codex is on the way, so to celebrate its arrival on May 2nd, The Realms of Equinox is holding another online contest. This time, the contest is to assemble, convert, and paint a ten man squad of imperial guardsmen.


The Rules

1. Models MUST be Games Workshop. They may be heavily converted, but it must be clear that they are primarily composed of GW models/bitz. FW models may be used.
2. Entries must be a ten man squad of imperial guardsmen. The squad must be legal per the new codex.
3. You must be a follower of “The Realms of Equinox” prior to submitting an entry.
4. Entries must be painted between May 2, 2009 – May 29th, 2009. Proof of work will be required as part of the submission process (see below).
5. Submissions will be accepted between May 2, 2009 – May 29th, 2009. This gives you plenty of time to build/paint your entry. Minimum of 2 Photos will be required of your entry: Work in Progress showing the unpainted models on the new codex, and a completed work. The completed picture file can contain multiple pictures, but only one picture file will be posted per entry. The deadline for submissions will be May 29th, 2009 11:59 PM CST. To submit your photos, please email them to: equinox999equinox@yahoo.com
6. All completed submissions may not appear on any other site or blog before June 15th, 2009. Works in progress may be posted on other sites and blogs before June 15th, 2009. (This is to encourage people to talk about their creations and build excitement around the contest) Any entries found to be violating this rule will be banned from the contest.
7. Voting will be done by the readers of “The Realms of Equinox”. Photos will be placed on the blog and each follower will get to vote for their favorite entry. Voting will take place between June 1st, 2009 – June 12th 2009.
8. The winner will be announced on June 15th 2009. The Winner of the contest will receive their choice of either the new Imperial Guard Cadian Command Squad or Imperial Guard Catachan Command Squad. (Note: The prize will ship directly from the online provider, to save cost on shipping. If the winner is International, please allow extra time for the prize to arrive.)
9. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section of this blog entry.

Assassin Miniature Competition

Delephont via DakkaDakka

The competition is to design a new assassin model.

The competition will run until the end of May. The host of the contest, Delephont on Dakkadakka will pick the winner of the contest. The winning design will be passed on to a sculptor, and actually made into a miniature. The winner will get a copy of the sculpted miniature.

Weekly Update: Sage

This week's model is for my buddy Ernie. He mentioned wanting to go lighter on the gray cloth in comparison to the metal on the terminator.


The pictures are funny for this guy. There is a weird spot that looks grey around the scroll, but its not there on the actual model. Anyway, this guy needs a little touching up tomorrow, but he is for the most part done.


I need to explore a different paint scheme for the bases. After a handful of models, I have decided that I don't like the bases. Since this is a joint project with Ernie, maybe he'll have some suggestions. If any of my readers have ideas, please post them in the comments section.

TRoE Presents: Attention (Imperial Guard Contest)

The Realms of Equinox Presents

Attention!

The new Imperial Guard codex is on the way, so to celebrate its arrival on May 2nd, The Realms of Equinox is holding another online contest. This time, the contest is to assemble, convert, and paint a ten man squad of imperial guardsmen.


The Rules

1. Models MUST be Games Workshop. They may be heavily converted, but it must be clear that they are primarily composed of GW models/bitz. FW models may be used.
2. Entries must be a ten man squad of imperial guardsmen. The squad must be legal per the new codex.
3. You must be a follower of “The Realms of Equinox” prior to submitting an entry.
4. Entries must be painted between May 2, 2009 – May 29th, 2009. Proof of work will be required as part of the submission process (see below).
5. Submissions will be accepted between May 2, 2009 – May 29th, 2009. This gives you plenty of time to build/paint your entry. Minimum of 2 Photos will be required of your entry: Work in Progress showing the unpainted models on the new codex, and a completed work. The completed picture file can contain multiple pictures, but only one picture file will be posted per entry. The deadline for submissions will be May 29th, 2009 11:59 PM CST. To submit your photos, please email them to: equinox999equinox@yahoo.com
6. All completed submissions may not appear on any other site or blog before June 15th, 2009. Works in progress may be posted on other sites and blogs before June 15th, 2009. (This is to encourage people to talk about their creations and build excitement around the contest) Any entries found to be violating this rule will be banned from the contest.
7. Voting will be done by the readers of “The Realms of Equinox”. Photos will be placed on the blog and each follower will get to vote for their favorite entry. Voting will take place between June 1st, 2009 – June 12th 2009.
8. The winner will be announced on June 15th 2009. The Winner of the contest will receive their choice of either the new Imperial Guard Cadian Command Squad or Imperial Guard Catachan Command Squad. (Note: The prize will ship directly from the online provider, to save cost on shipping. If the winner is International, please allow extra time for the prize to arrive.)
9. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section of this blog entry.

Weekly Update: Online Contest

Assassin Miniature Competition

Delephont via DakkaDakka

The competition is to design a new assassin model.

The competition will run until the end of May. The host of the contest, Delephont on Dakkadakka will pick the winner of the contest. The winning design will be passed on to a sculptor, and actually made into a miniature. The winner will get a copy of the sculpted miniature.

Warpstone Flux

April Army List Challenge

I want to try something new for Warpstone Flux this month: a challenge... just to see if anyone is interested. There are no prizes for this challenge, just kudos and honour! The real aim is to help others to think about how to build effective, but themed army lists.Overview of The Challenge: Design a themed 1500 points Alpha Legion army list from EITHER codex: chaos space marines or codex: space marines for a standard mission. Why Alpha Legion? Simply because it is an army that is not seen as often as other traitor legions, but has a reasonable amount of background information surrounding it (e.g. see the Horus Heresy Book, Legion).

Challenge Rules:

(1) No named characters can be used (e.g. Fabius Bile, Lysander, Abaddon, etc.).

(2) If you use codex: space marines instead of codex: chaos space marines, then state your reason(s) for doing so in a brief sentence or two. This can be as simple as "pre-heresy", or more complex reasons.

(3) Post your army lists as a comment to this posting.

(4) On April 14th 2009, I'll start a voting poll that will be open for 1 week to vote for what Warpstone Flux readers consider to be the "most effective army list that also best articulates the theme" (whatever readers interpret that to mean) out of all entrants.

(5) Winner will be tallied and announced on April 21st.If there is sufficient interest, I might run another one of these again next month.

Weekly Update: Ogryn

So this week's model is an ogryn that I decided to paint. About 1/2 way thru the process, I decided that I would create a small unit mounted in a chimera. The name of the unit is going to be the Nut Crackers. This first ogryn's name is going to be Old Balls as he is the oldest ogryn in the unit.

We Nut Crackers like to crack nuts!

New WFB Army Coming?

The beginning of April is an interesting time as it is April Fools, but also because it seems like alot of companies use the beginning of the month to announce or reveal products/releases for the second half of the year.

Yesterday, the following post was made on Warseer:

So I just landed back from a short trip to visit with those crazy red coats on the otherside of the pond. My job in the military provides me a great deal of opportunity to explore the ins and outs of the world. Well needless to say when I went to the island I wanted to see the roots of GW...just so happened that one of my hosts brother works inside a development studio of a company that may or may not have a connection with a company that is mentioned quite a bit in this forum. Thats about as much as I will divulge on that subject... After some conversating he was able to arrange a late night game and visit to the studio. It was possibly the coolest Warhammer experience I have had in my entire life. Being surrounded by these people that live and breath the game is inspiring. Well needless to say there was about 5 of us in the studio, doing what the english do best...drinking and playing games. Well the 3 actual staffers got to talking and let me in on what is currently in the works. Lets just say there is a nearly completed Army book and range of miniatures that is amazing. The idea is apparently supposed to re-kindle the current state of the company and bring back alot of previous gamers that have not been spending as well as attract new gamers. The idea of a surprise new army release is the whole grand scheme...something no one expected. They said that is why there is a gap in releases for fantasy mini's. This range is nothing we have ever seen before. Something completely new that is supposed to take everyone (in and outside of the game) by surprise. A disturbance, bigger than the tear that Chaos brought, brings in this new race. It was like a dream come true for me. I really am biting my tongue here...but just think the opposite side of the road in regards to the later. Sorry...but thats all I've got.

Normally a post like this would be worth little, but then Harry, a respected poster and insider on Warseer, gave credit/support to the rumor. If this is true, it is an interesting and bold move by GW.

Before I discuss the move itself, assuming it's true, I want to post my own speculation on the new army. If you read the last couple lines of the OP, it implies that the new race is the opposite of chaos. So basically the new army is some kind of Forces of Order army. How that translates into actual models is anyone's guess. I know alot of people are assuming angels, but it could be something more alien looking, though I could understand creating angel models from a selling miniatures standpoint.

As for the move, I think GW is starting to show that they are alot further ahead on things then we give them credit for being. The plastic trygon is an example of this idea. The model has been finished for awhile, but GW is holding onto it. I believe by doing this, GW has made a smart move as it builds hype and increased speculation (which translates into increased discussion about their products). This means as hobbyists that we have stuff to look forward to without automatically knowing everything before the actual release. Again, it is a bold move, but it will have its detractors. Personally, the launch of 5th edition left me with a flat feeling, but the stuff happening now has really gotten me excited about the hobby again.

Weekly Update: Online Contests

Existing Contests

Rites of War
Paint or Die! A RoW Painting Contest.

The Concept is rather Simple. You choose to start a new army of 1000+ points or 1000+ points of Expansion to an army you already own to paint. You have 7 weeks from the start date to completely build, model, paint & base your 1000 points. You must update a blog with your progress weekly. At the end of the 7 weeks anyone who has completed their project will earn a "Paint or Die" Award as well as be entered in Paint Contest with the other participants In which the entire membership votes to determine 1st and 2nd place winners. Those winners split the entry fees in a 60/30 manner (10% covers fees).

Dark Art Miniatures
Create a Base Competition

RULES
We want you to create themed bases of your own design. It can be a theme that we already sell (urban, infested) but we would prefer to see a theme that we have not yet covered. Literally anything you can think of! No matter how weird or dull the theme is we would like to see it. Each entrant must submit one of the following choices: four x25mm OR two x40mm OR 1x60mm base. Each entrant may enter as many times as they like.
These bases can be round or square and must be UNPAINTED. You can use another companies 'blank base' to add your design to. You can use any kind of modelling materials such as sculpting putty, plasticard, textured sheets, sand etc You cannot use any static grass/flock. You cannot add another companies products that is not sold for scratch building onto your design (example: you cannot use the head of a GW space marine or a Rackham weapon or even part of any terrain made by another company) Entrants must not be sculptors currently selling their own product lines of bases. Failure to follow the above rules will result in your entry being void :( What we will be marking your work on: Above all it’s got to be game practical. We don’t want to see over a designed base that a miniature would not be able to stand on. If a miniature was to be mounted it should still be able to stand 'flat footed' on the base and the height of the base should not be overly high, again being practical for gaming. In some cases less is more. There is a fine line between over designed bases and interesting bases. Photos of your work can be sent to: comp@darkartminiatures.com

Warpstone Flux

April Army List Challenge

I want to try something new for Warpstone Flux this month: a challenge... just to see if anyone is interested. There are no prizes for this challenge, just kudos and honour! The real aim is to help others to think about how to build effective, but themed army lists.Overview of The Challenge: Design a themed 1500 points Alpha Legion army list from EITHER codex: chaos space marines or codex: space marines for a standard mission. Why Alpha Legion? Simply because it is an army that is not seen as often as other traitor legions, but has a reasonable amount of background information surrounding it (e.g. see the Horus Heresy Book, Legion).

Challenge Rules:

(1) No named characters can be used (e.g. Fabius Bile, Lysander, Abaddon, etc.).

(2) If you use codex: space marines instead of codex: chaos space marines, then state your reason(s) for doing so in a brief sentence or two. This can be as simple as "pre-heresy", or more complex reasons.

(3) Post your army lists as a comment to this posting.

(4) On April 14th 2009, I'll start a voting poll that will be open for 1 week to vote for what Warpstone Flux readers consider to be the "most effective army list that also best articulates the theme" (whatever readers interpret that to mean) out of all entrants.

(5) Winner will be tallied and announced on April 21st.If there is sufficient interest, I might run another one of these again next month.