well, it was bound to happen.

so a friend and local gamer has started this strange combination of tumblr, humor, and wargaming: hot models with fugly minis. basically, felix photographs the two fugly models above (a cygnaran long rifle and a space marine) with other models or in strange wargaming situations.

like a flameguard toga party.

don't ask.

it's a relatively new blog/thing and there are a couple of slightly scandalous (perhaps even impertinent or down right inappropriate) situations that are amusing as hell.

you should spend time there. the fugly minis would want you to.

++ updated with new photo of my stuff with felix's ++

electralux in the 41st millennium?

the advance orders for the blood angel stormraven gunship went live today.

as far as i'm concerned the jury is still out on this one.  personally, i think it looks like someone added wings to a vacuum cleaner, but blocky is the style for space marines.

 

regardless, gw is getting really good at these second wave releases.

now if only they could perfect their pricing...

+edit/update+

thanks to xenite for his link to this image:

which correctly identifies the aerodynamic inspiration for pretty much all space marine vehicles.  of course, any suitably inebriated rocket scientist will inform you that even a brick will fly provided you strap enough engines to it...


all images property of games workshop except for that last one which is all xenite, baby!

is that a space hulk in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

i didn't go to gencon.  everyone of my friends rave about how awesome it was.  it's kinda annoying really, but i'll probably wind up going next year.  even though all the footage online show huge lines of fat bastards wheezing over copies of games that no one else can buy yet.

and i can only image the magnitude of gamer funk and steampunk costume desperation...

but one good thing did come of it.  i had a friend (thanks mike!) pick up a copy of fantasy flight games' death angel.

the game is a cooperative endeavor for 1 to 6 players, who take on the role of imperial space marines tasked with clearing a xenos infestation from the space hulk sin of damnation.

folks familiar with the games workshop property that inspired this little silverline game will know all about marines versus genestealers (or 'stealers).  for the rest of you, imagine this:  space men fight nasty aliens in a derelict ship.  sold yet?  you should be.

i tried two solo games today, and i have to admit it's a helluva challenge and a lot of fun!

here are my thoughts broken down:

pros:

• small and portable like the rest of the silverline.  great quality in the printing of the cards and all components.  as usual. 
• nice length of game (about an hour to play)
• gets the environment of space hulk right.  great atmosphere, art, and very tense gameplay.  unlike the board game, the card game has location cards that are marked to illustrate areas where 'stealers are more likely to appear than others, but this doesn't reduce the amount of tension, and as you start to lose marines, it really does become harder and harder to manage your fire lanes and kill the 'stealers before they eat your face.
• simple gameplay that is pretty straightforward and easy once you learn the way the cards work.
• a nice cooperative mechanic that allows for a variety of choices for actions that are resolved in a particular order.  fail to be a good team member, and you could be killing not only yourself, but the rest of the squad as well. 
• nice variety between the various marines allowing a team that is good at shooting and close combat. 

cons:

• the rules booklet.  the layout is awkward and requires some flipping back and forth in the booklet to get a grip on the way the various cards work within the rule system.
• would like to have either a small zip top bag or tuck box for the components included. 
• would like the marines have more than a 50% chance of killing something when attacking.  imperial space marines are genetically engineered killing machines.  i would probably suggest having the kill pip (a skull) on 4 of the 6 faces (taking it to 66%) of the die.  to compensate for this the blip piles could contain more 'stealers and each location could "spawn" an additional 'stealer during the event phase.    

overall, it's a lot of fun, and definitely worth your hard earned gaming dollar!

Furioso Update

been doing some painting on the furioso dreadnoughts.  as you can see i got the second one built, and most of the effort has been in priming and washing with some basecoating and blockcoloring. 

i used the army painter red spray primer to start with, and after achieving a nice even coat, i let it dry and cure for about 24 to 36 hours.  after that i applied a 50/50 wash of games workshop's badab black and devlan mud.

once the wash was dry i began working the red with vallejo's blood red.  the metal is a base of vallejo's tinny tin.  the front armor plates and the legs are tinny tin with a thinner than usual coat of gunmetal over it (i like the depth that thin layers of metallics create).  the blood talons are mordian blue.

more work forthcoming soon!  please feel free to comment and if you've got questions, i've got answers.

furioso dreadnought

one of the really scary things in the new (2010) blood angel codex is the furioso dreadnought.  so i've decided to add two of them to the force.  here are some early assembly snapshots of the first of them...

 

 
as you can see, i've added a lot of extra bitz and gubbins to the new venerable dreadnought chassis.  i've always felt that a marine's armor should be a shrine to himself and his chapter.  i can see a dreadnought being a shrine to the chapter and the imperium. 

the piece i like best is the set of blood talons that i picked up from paulson games.  well cast, easy to clean, and nicely detailed, they are a breeze to fit onto the model. 

i'll add more content as i continue to progress on this dreadnought and the other.

space hulk expansion

not really an expansion to the games workshop boxed game, but fantasy flight games has just released a teaser page for it's newest release in the silverline series of games: death angel.

a card-based, co-operative game for 1-6 players, it allows you to take command of a team of superhuman space marines fighting the terrifying genestealers aboard one of the most dangerous environments in the warhammer 40,000 universe: a space hulk.

scheduled for release this summer, death angel will retail for $24.95.

now you can purge the xenos during your lunch hour.

image source: fantasy flight games