Sketchbook Gaming

I'm getting closer to creating a better close combat system for Kill Team

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 13:50:00 +0000

It hit me like a freight train the other day, the close combat system I'd created and we were using had become this bloated monster in just four short months of playing.

Just like that. I go from a relatively simple system to something that requires charts and slogging through a list of modifiers a mile long. Resolving close combat all but brought the game to a halt.

It didn't happen overnight. It was all the small things added up over time. A modifier here, a small rule change there... You don't realize it while it's happening and then all of a sudden, you wake up and find yourself someplace you never intended to be.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I didn't have this problem with shooting, but that's another story. The biggest reason I didn't is shooting is nothing more than an individual skill check. A model's shooting skill is modified by a few outside things like range and cover, but it remains something that model does on his own.

You don't get a say in how well I shoot. You can only hope I suck or the cover you're behind makes it too hard for me to hit you. Once I hit you though, your armour is your last hope. We don't roll to wound in our games. If you're hit and your armour doesn't absorb it, you're wounded.
Take your damage like a champ.

Close combat on the other hand involves another model. This changes everything. You don't just get to do your own thing like shooting. I'm not going to stand there and let you beat me to death. I get a say in how this plays out. Now it's a comparison of skills.

The system we were using wasn't bad.
It captured most of the differences between models. The problem is that it became too complex and lost the speed in resolving it. If I take out the complexity to get the speed back, I lose the differences between models.

I'm willing to sacrifice a small degree of accuracy for speed. It does me no good to develop an "accurate" system if using it slows the game down so much that it kills the flow of the game. Shooting flows right now, close combat does not.

I realize that GW does not have a base metric they use to determine how good someone is in close combat compared to another. If they do, I have absolutely no clue what it is. If anyone does know, please email me.

In some cases, they'll give a model more attacks, some might get access to better weapons, some will have better armour. When you compare everyone across one aspect though, it all falls apart.

How do you build a close combat system if there's no starting point for all models?

I'm not saying you can't have some models with better weapons or more attacks, but you need a starting point. That's what bothers me most. I've tried to figure it out by looking at model stats, but for each comparison I try, there's an example that makes absolutely no sense at all.

My newest system is based off a model's weapon skill (WS). Even this is flawed when you look at GW's stats, but I decided to start here since it created the least number of problems and lined up with how shooting is resolved.

In a nutshell, my new close combat system goes like this...

Both players roll 4D10. Each player is attempting to get as many successes as possible based on their WS stat. Then players compare hits. Hits are ALLOCATED by the player who reacts better each round (initially determined by a LD test and then by damage inflicted for subsequent rounds) and hits are RESOLVED in order of speed (determined separately by a model's base movement).

There are only two outside modifiers involved. The two "universal" ones we use (being wounded and activating more than once). This helps streamline the process similar to shooting.

After a little bit of testing, I'm really starting to like this approach. It's much better than what I created before. I keep running tests with different models from Harlequins to Chaos Cultists to find problems.

I have two final aspects I'm working through. That's what to do with a model that has more than one close combat weapon (currently it gives the model a reroll when attacking) and then what to do with a model that has more than one base attack.

Having more than one base attack may not need to be addressed in the long run since it's not an accurate reflection of a model's skill when you compare it evenly across the board to other models.

I suppose the real test will be how this system holds up in four months.
Will it bloat out into some unwieldy process or will it stay fast and lean?

The artwork comes from Games Workshop. The Dark Eldar image is Fantasy Flight publishing.

Playtesting my keyword activation system for Kill Team, lessons learned

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 13:59:00 +0000

Trying to design a way to activate models in Kill Team that's balanced with a continuous reaction system is tough to do. Not impossible, just tough. The challenge has been a fun one.

My friend and I sat down last night to go over what I've come up with so far. That discussion along with a few test games shows some promise for the new system.

This change to how we activate models and react to enemy actions was made because of how bad I messed up my friend's Blackstone Fortress Kill Team. I didn't realize this until he started playing Tau though.

With his Tau, I looked at how to change the core rules to include them. This was the right way to do it. When I worked on his Blackstone Fortress team a few months prior to this, I looked at how I could change the team instead of the rules.

Looking at the team instead of the rules was the wrong way to do it. I nerfed them way too much. The rules need to be adjusted for the teams, not the other way around.

I say that, but there's a balance in there. Sometimes, a simple change to the team is what needed. For example, Grey Knight Force weapons. I didn't change the close combat rules, but made a small change to how force weapons work and that was all that was needed.

Same went for Tau markerlights, they were adjusted instead of overhauling the shooting rules.

Back to the activation system.
We alternate between players like "normal" Kill Team, but each activation allows that model to do all of his actions. Move, shoot, assault, etc. If the reaction requirements are met, nearby or affected enemy models may react to the activated model's action. This makes for a great back and forth between players.

The changes I've been working on affect WHO can activate more than HOW they activate. At the start of each turn, you get a number of activations equal to the models you have on the board. Activations are divided up based on model name and not faction keyword. This is a small, but important distinction.

This is how my Dark Angel activations look. Four Tactical Marine activations and three Terminator activations. I can use the Tactical Marine activations however I want between the Tactical Marines and the Terminator activiations however I want among the Terminators.

What I can't do though, is use a Tactical Maine activation to activate a Terminator. Same thing the other way around. I can't use a Terminator activation to activate a Tactical Marine. Now there are other limits like a maximum number of times a a model can activate in one turn and the penalties for going beyond one activation, but this model name limitation is the key part.

Here's the breakdown for my Black Templars. Four Veteran activations, one Chaplain activation and one Terminator activation.

The end result is every model has the ability to activate at least once and those models that are from the same entry and have the same model name (Tactical Marine, Grey Knight, Veteran...) can share their activations.

I wanted to try and minimize the "dragon effect" as I've read it described online. That's where the most powerful model in a team will use all the activations and rampage across the game board destroying the enemy force until all activations have been used up. The rest of the team just stands there doing nothing. They aren't even needed.

Playtesting has uncovered some smaller issues with close combat and reaction requirements, but those are minor issues and this overall model name activation system seems really promising. I'm going to try a few more games this weekend in hopes of ironing out anything else that pops up.

The Death Guard/Ultramarine image is from Games Workshop, the dragon is from Wizards of the Coast.

Balancing our version of Kill Team with a keyword activation system

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 14:16:00 +0000

Balancing out Kill Team has been an ongoing challenge for me.
As the main rules writer for our version of the game, I've spent the last day or so working through an issue my friend and I have been kicking down the street and avoiding since we started playing. How to balance the game and still maintain the diversity and ability to pretty much play whatever model we want.

My goal is to create a set of guidelines for building a Kill Team that makes this possible.

I'm not even really sure where to start since so many things tie into this idea.
I went looking at Magic the Gathering (MtG) deck building for inspiration. I used to play back in the day and I figured there had to be something there I could use.

They have minimal "restrictions" on deck building and I was interested in how they balance the different strengths of each color and the freedom players have to build their decks. Seems like what I want to do... build my kill team with lots of freedom and minimal restrictions.

Here's the biggest difference that jumped out at me. MtG has a built-in balance system where Kill Team does not.

It comes in the form of lands. In MtG, if you want to use all the powerful cards from different colors, you can. No problem. You just need to factor that into your deck construction and make sure you have enough of the correct colored lands to be able to cast and use all those spells.

The idea of playing all the powerful spells from different colors is still viable, it's just harder to implement. The more colors you play, the harder it gets. Compare that to playing just one color. While you don't get access to all the powerful spells (in other colors) when you stick to one color, your ability to cast and use the ones you do have access to is considerably easier.

Kill Team does not use any kind of land or payment system to activate models. The question then becomes, can I translate the idea of the MtG land payment concept (for lack of a better way of explaining it) into Kill Team?

I have an idea I'm going to playtest this weekend. We already have a number of other smaller house rules we follow when building our kill teams, but I'm looking at making one fairly substantial change. Hopefully making this change will allows me to clean up and remove some of the smaller house rules we've implemented up to this point.

I want to change our model activation system to include Faction keywords.

Now, a model's Faction keyword will affect how it can be activated. I'm trying to think of the best way to explain this without writing a whole book here. Think of it in the same way I explained MtG above except replace the word "colors" with "factions."

If you want to use all the powerful models from different factions, you can. No problem. Activating them on the battlefield will be limited though. The more factions you want to play, the more limited your activation options. Stick to one faction and while you won't have all the different "powerful" models at your disposal, your ability to activate the ones you do have will be considerably more flexible.

If this works the way I think it will, I'll have another post explaining this in detail. If I'm right, this should allow us to maintain diversity, play pretty much whatever model we want (using counts as) and maintain a balance with this freedom.

I'm off to do some playtesting now.
You can read about the initial results here.

I believe the 40k images are from Games Workshop. I found the magic cards on Mystic Waffle.

Reviving my Black Templar crusade and I fixed Elite Veterans

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Wed, 29 May 2019 17:32:00 +0000

I was looking through the Elites book and decided I would revive my Black Templar force.
I want to see if I can make a "fluffy" list work. By fluffy, I mean something that fits with how Templars are known to fight. With bolt pistols and chainswords.

The trick is going to be finding a suitable Kill Team model type that best represents this in the game. I thought I might find it in the Elites book. Now I'm not so sure. I'm leaning towards using Reivers as my starting point. This at least gets me the correct equipment since Tactical Marines can't actually take the bolt pistol/chainsword combo (which is stupid).

I could use Veterans, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I plan on including one Terminator (since I have the model and he looks too cool not to include) equipped with a heavy flamer and chain fist. The chain fist is a little more deadly than a regular power fist, but not by much.

I still have some work to do before they're game ready. I need to base my Terminator and I want to finish a couple of Neophytes (what Scouts are called by Templars) to include in the team. I always thought it was cool they folded their new guys into their normal squads in order to teach them.

I learned that as a Dark Angel player, I can't field jump pack equipped Assault Marines.
But... if I simply paint them another color, say red for example and call them Blood Angels, it'd be perfectly acceptable. I lack the words for how dumb this is.

So what you're telling me is my little green toy soldiers can't have this particular piece of equipment, but my little red ones can? You're kidding right? This is why I change the rules.

How about this... If you're a Veteran, you're either in charge (Sergeant) or not (Regular dude).
Pick whatever equipment you want. There, fixed it.

For those crying about how this could unbalance the game, maybe GW could try writing better rules instead of "fixing" things with lots of patches all over the place. I'm not even going to get into how this all looks like one giant test for what the next edition of 40k will be like.

I laid out the parts for two of them this morning. I know I'm not the only person who does this. I lay out all the bits for a model and make sure everything looks good together. The right legs with the right torso with the right shoulder pads. I rearrange them between models until everything is perfect. Once I have it all sorted out, then I start building.

I haven't decided on a chapter for these guys. They'd fit in with the Templar fluff perfectly, but part of me wants to make them Dark Angels just because I can.

My Terminator Sergeant: Inspiration, magnets and a grenade launcher

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Tue, 28 May 2019 09:30:00 +0000

The many faces of my magnetized Deathwing Terminator Sergeant.
I opted to go the magnet route years ago when building my Space Hulk Deathwing because I wanted to be able to change out weapons without having to build a few hundred Terminators with all the options (and sometimes duplicates). That wasn't happening.

Best thing I ever did. It was a giant pain in the backside, but worth every minute of it. I built a handful of torsos and the rest were just the arms I needed. I would tell anyone to consider adding magnets. Depending on how you play, it may be the best decision you'll ever make.

At the top are the three options I have for my Sergeant.
The far left is the standard loadout. Power Sword and Storm Bolter. The default setting.

The middle one is the rarely fielded Thunderhammer and Storm Shield combo. The hammer is the same style I used for the 2010 Storm Wardens Charity army I participated in (I built a banner bearer and Terminator Assault Squad). The Storm Shield is the same style as well and incorporates the blue from the Storm Wardens color scheme. I like this loadout in Space Hulk.

The far right is my "Captain" option. I don't run this one, but I always wanted to build an integral grenade launcher mounted to a power fist. Kill Team Elites has rules for it too!

For those who just want to see his banner, here it is.

The inspiration for this originated decades ago. I saw this GW image in something Space Hulk related and I knew I'd build the grenade launcher one day. Back then, I didn't have the sculpting skills to pull this off and I tried at least a dozen ways to build it with bits. Nothing ever looked as good as the picture though. Years went by and it eluded me.

After lots of practice using greenstuff (doing commissions), I figured I might give the impossible a go one more time. If I remember correctly, it took three tries to get it right.

Once it was painted, you'd have to look real close to tell it's not part of the model and has been sculpted on instead. I'm proud of the detail I got on there. At the time, it was a huge success for me and boosted my confidence to no end.

The unpainted image on the left is the first power fist I mounted it on. I later pulled it off that one and remounted it onto a new power fist so I could add the power sword to his hand. That required resculpting his thumb to make it look like he was actually holding the handle.

All that work for something I never use. Still, it was a invaluable lesson in converting.
Now you can get online and bits order one of these grenade launcher things.

One last thing I always thought was cool were the arm shields you'd see Sergeants wearing. I think they were called combat shields back then. This was before GW moved them up to the shoulder pad. They had no in-game effect that I remember, but they looked cool.

I didn't even try to look for old bits online. I found some old pictures and made these out of plasticard. On the front, I added the rivets and the skull bit (cast from greenstuff). On the underside, I cut a portion of his arm away so the shield would lay flat against his arm and sculpted a small mounting bracket to make it look like it was attached to his forearm.

The feathers are a nod to the old Deathwing heraldry. The particular patterns and colors each have meaning. I add them to my model when they've achieved a certain goal and survived. They have to live through the mission to be awarded the feather. Nothing is awarded posthumously.

The Sergeant on the right is the one I used to play through all the 3rd Ed Space Hulk missions.
The Sergeant on the left is my new Kill Team leader.

He still has to earn his feathers.

Figuring out how to make Tau viable and learning to play with standard Tactical Marines

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Mon, 27 May 2019 11:43:00 +0000

Figuring out how to make Tau a viable force in our version of Kill Team took some work.
I spent yesterday afternoon playing Kill Team against my friend's newly painted Tau force. When testing a new force, we'll try to stick to how GW wrote them up for the first mission. If nothing else, it gives us a baseline to work from and we have an idea of the changes we might need to make.

From there, we'll make as many changes as we need to in order to make the force viable. And by that, I mean they can hold their own against our other teams. We're not looking to design and force someone into an optimal army build as much as we're trying to integrate the entire army into our existing ruleset.

We played two games. After the first, we learned Tau were all but worthless the way they are written when used in our ruleset. They certainly aren't any good at close combat. Everyone knows that. But they lacked in shooting too.

We're not big on changing stats unless it's painfully overpowered. We usually start looking elsewhere first. Tau were not overpowered by any stretch of the imagination, so it had to be something else.

This is what the battlefield looks like when you're trying to work through changes to a new force. Not nearly as dramatic as people may imagine it to be. Lots of getting it wrong before you get it right. In this case, it ended up being markerlights.

We found markerlights weren't working at all. Maybe they're ok with the GW ruleset, but our system of activation and reaction made them pointless. They needed to be effective.

Who in their right mind is going to give up a chance to shoot and kill an enemy just to "mark" them? That made no sense at all. And why doesn't everyone have them? If the idea is to mark the enemy, you'd think you'd be a little more generous in handing them out. If only one or two guys have them, what good are they?

We gave markerlights to all his guys (drones don't get them though) and any time they score a shooting hit on an enemy model, it gets "marked." No more sacrificing shooting to "mark" an enemy, it's automatic if you hit them. To indicate a model has been marked, we place an odd colored D6 next to it with the number of markerlight hits it has on it. This makes sense and the application is simple.

Markerlights accumulate over the course of the turn and are cleared off at the end of the turn. Any Tau that shoots at an enemy model that's been "marked," benefits from them.

The other change was getting rid of the existing markerlight chart and replacing it with a simple +1 to hit for each markerlight on a model. As they accumulate, they offset the negative modifiers like long range and cover. At one point, I had a Terminator with four markerlights on him. Even with two wounds, I was sure he was a dead duck.

This change to how markerlights worked made a huge difference for the second game. We still have a couple smaller things to fine tune like the drone protocols thing and the special rule where Tau get benefit from having a friend nearby when they need to take a LD test.

I'm learning how to play with something other than a Terminator. I finished off my Sergeant for my combat squad in time to use him yesterday. I opted to use the Primaris MK4 style helmet to match his armour. That and it fits down inside the high collar he has.

I chose to make them from the 3rd company for two reasons. One, it's an easy symbol to paint and two, I'd already marked some of my other guys from the third. Yep, I'm that lazy.

My banners however, are a constant source of entertainment for my friend. I think he's just jealous though. I tell him it's advanced technology and Tau wouldn't understand. He claims he should get a bonus when shooting at them.

The big thing for me is learning that you don't have to always have multi-wound models with huge guns to win the game. On more than one occasion during our games, it was a Tactical guy that made the difference. I may drop down to two Terminators and add in a couple more Tactical guys just to see how that plays out.

That's one of the beauties of playing small like this. With this kind of flexibility in list building, you can change change up your force at the drop of a hat. That's not really possible with 40k unless you have lots of money and spare models available.

Aside from figuring out how to make Tau viable and me learning it's ok to play with something other than a Terminator, we made a handful of changes to our core rules. Mainly getting rid of rules we don't use anymore and cleaning up a few others. The net result being the game has increased in brutality. That's not a bad thing though.

Rarely do we make it past turn two.

The Tau image and the Kill Team markerlight chart are Games Workshop images.

Commanders and Specialists (don't need them), new supplies and my friend's Tau

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sat, 25 May 2019 15:47:00 +0000

Made a good bit of headway on my Dark Angel Sergeant yesterday.
There's not too terribly much left to do. Finish up the base and the banner really. I still haven't decided on a company. I've made them the Fifth Tactical squad, but I need to decide which company icon looks best on the banner.

He's not really a Sergeant in the game, he just looks the part. We don't use Commanders or Specialists in our games, so we either nominate a model to be a leader or paint one up to look the part.

Even then, nominating a leader is really only needed for one of two missions we have. Outside of that, they just look cool and are good for bragging rights when you kill one.

I already have my Terminator Sergeant as my leader, but I needed an excuse to add another banner to my team. Besides, no combat squad would not dare go into battle without their boss. I say we don't use Commanders or any of the Specialist bonuses, but we do steal some of the cool Commander rules.

Most of the time we'll take a Commander model and temper his stats so he's not an unstoppable killing machine that can walk across the board with immunity from everything.

Those kind of models advance what I call the arms race. You field one and your opponent has to field a counter to it or they don't stand a chance of winning. Then you field a counter to their counter and then they have to field a counter to your counter to their counter.

Drives me nuts. Before you know it, you can't play with any of the models you really want to because you're afraid you'll get wiped from the board if you do. That's just stupid. If your opponent has a one man killing machine, the game can be over before you know it.

We temper the Commanders so you get some of the cool rules that come with them without creating the never ending arms race. We keep a close eye on how models perform to make sure we aren't including something that all but mandates the other player include a specific counter model in their force or else.

Another big part of this is the dual missions we use too.

The other thing we don't use are Specialists. I know they're a big thing in Kill team, but I see no need to include them. Anyone can be a sniper or a heavy gunner. Just because you have a certain weapon in your hand shouldn't give you any kind of special magic ability. I don't get it.

Balance the shooting and close combat rules and you don't need to add more rules for "specialists."

I ordered some new supplies last week and they finally arrived last night. More molding putty and two new brushes. My last project used up the last of both items. I still need to get some more Red Gore paint though. I'm scraping the bottom of the pot now.

Despite coming from Europe, the Blu-Stuff arrived quickly. The only complaint I have about it is the way it's packaged now. Instead of being two separate containers, both are glued to each other. That means one container sits upright and the other has to be upside down underneath it. I don't care for that in the least. It used to be two separate containers. That way is far better.

Last but not least, my friend's Tau progress. Last time we played, we talked about color schemes for his force. Ironic since neither of us know anything about Tau or have ever played them. He went with contrasting muted colors like Tau are best known for and I think it came out looking really good.

I'm excited to see the finished squad and how they play. They're a shooting force with no skill in close combat, so it'll be a complete 180 from facing his Grey Knights. Not sure how I'll do against them, but I'm not worried.

I know he won't have any one man killing machines in there.

The image of Abaddon and Guilliman facing off is from Games Workshop.

Elites, banners and a classic looking Sergeant for my Dark Angels Kill Team

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Fri, 24 May 2019 09:04:00 +0000

Having gotten my hands on the Elites book yesterday and promptly emailing a copy along to my friend, we've started looking over what the new expansion has to offer us.

The first thing I did was look at how GW kitted out Terminators. I wanted to see how close my Terminator specs were. I wasn't too far off. Still, I've made some changes to mine so they better fit our games.

I like the reserves rules in the book.
Maybe a better way to say it is, I like the idea of reserves. I'm not sold on how GW has decided to implement it. We've started toying with reserves in our games lately since my friend's Blackstone Team has models with that kind of ability.

The models with the reserve ability don't seem to throw game balance out of whack. In my mind, this means we can look at expanding the idea to include more models and other ways of entering the board. It may add another level of tactical decision making which would be a nice addition.

After looking through the book, I figured out the exact points for my Kill Team and I'm right on target. I suspect I still have some final tweaks to make to my team in order to maintain the overall balance, but it won't be much.

I decided to build a "classic" looking Sergeant model. He's nothing more than a Tactical Marine as far as rules go though. He just looks cooler. It's odd to see him after being base coated like this compared to how his armour will look once completed.

Right now, he's bright green and glossy. The finished models are a far cry from that. I don't remember how I arrived at this particular process for painting them other than I wanted something that was both quick and avoided the dreaded "Christmas Tree" look.

He's primed black, given a quick spray paint of green using a zenith highlight approach and then washed back down resulting in a dark green that's nearly an exact match for Caliban Green. The only difference I didn't have to do a dozen coats of Caliban to get there and the spray paint was super cheap.

It's such a close match, I actually use Caliban Green to touch up any mistakes and you can't tell the difference.

Now I'm struggling with what head to use. All my guys are helmeted right now so I'm leaning that way, but I want the right one. A beakie helmet won't fit inside the higher collar. I thought about going MK4 to match his armour. Right now, I think I'm going to use a Primaris helmet (close enough to MK4) that fits inside the collar. Maybe there is a use for Primaris Marines after all.

I screwed up painting his armour and went too heavy on the green spray. I had to do two black washes to tone him down so his armour matched the other guys in the squad. That's what happens when you paint models for the same squad over a year apart. At least I was smart enough to write down and keep my painting formula.

(Click here to see the full version)

Then I decided I needed banners. I haven't had them on my models for ages despite really liking how they look. Reminds of the old days when every character model had their own. I got the Terminator banner done and as soon as I finish my Tactical Sergeant, I'll add his banner to him.

I only run three Terminators in my Kill Team. I like the combined arms approach and the contrasting dark green of the Tactical Marines looks cool next to the white of the Terminators. That along with the bone colored robes on the Sergeant makes for a visually interesting team. As long as they look cool, what else really matters?

And then my friend informed me I just put giant flags on guys who are trying to sneak around.

The image of the Imperial Fist Marines is from the cover of the Kill Team Elites rulebook.

My fascination with Mentor Legion and I really wanted to love Primaris Marines

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Wed, 22 May 2019 09:10:00 +0000

I remember the first time seeing and reading about them.
It was in the 40k Compendium. Right inside the cover was a two page spread. The Mentor Legion. There wasn't much to it in reality, probably just filler to make printing the book easier or something like that.

Much like GW often does, it was a vague picture of a Space Marine and a tiny blurb about how they fight bad guys, but these Space Marines are different from all the other Marines.

Still, they looked cool and that was good enough for me.

When I got back into the hobby a few years ago, I started adding a Mentor Space Marine to each of my forces. I built one for Space Hulk so he could tag along with the best Terminators in the Imperium. Then I built a Primaris one for my Deathwatch Kill Team team. Now that I've assembled a Dark Angels Kill Team, I built a power armoured Mentor to follow them too.

My newest one pales in comparison to the size of the Primaris version. And that's my problem. I want to like Primaris Marines. I really do. I even built an entire Kill Team with them. The models look great... by themselves. Put them with anything else non-Primaris and it kills it for the older stuff.

The older stuff looks horrible compared to them. Separate the new from the old and they all look fine. I know there are all kinds of problems with scale across the model range. If everyone has the same problem though, it doesn't stand out like it does when you put a new model (Primaris) in the mix that doesn't have that problem.

I'm sure this is some big plan GW has. I'm sure one day, that's all there'll be. Eventually, we'll all end up buying new models and rebuilding our forces. It won't happen overnight, but I suspect it'll come to pass over time. And I'm ok with that. I'd just like to have the models to do it now.

I'd like to have all the models scaled up so I can rebuild my force and it will look consistent. How long do I need to play just one kind of Marine or the other? How long before I get Terminators that are the proper scale to Primaris Marines?

These are first world problems I have. I'm worried about the size of little plastic toy soldiers.

Painting the newest Mentor was fun way to spend the morning. Because of his color scheme, I break him down in to every individual piece and paint him that way. There's just something about building him in the end once he's completely painted. I'm pretty sure it takes the same amount of time, but it feels like painting goes way faster this way.

This chapter symbol is one of the hardest ones I paint. Even breaking it down into manageable shapes doesn't help that much. Who else has an orange and yellow owl for their symbol though? That alone is reason enough for me to do it.

I actually sculpted the symbol for the Terminator I did. If you think painting it is hard, try sculpting it. That took me forever to get it where I was reasonably happy with. If I ever need another, I'm ripping that one off and casting it.

If and when more Primaris come out, I may be persuaded to mix them with my normal Space Marines. It'll depend on how consistent the force looks in terms of scale. For now, I'm sticking with the old school Space Marines. I have my Primaris guys, but they're a separate army and I won't be mixing them in with my other models.

As of today, this is what my Dark Angels Kill Team looks like. I swapped around some guys so I have all beakie helmets. You know, old school. They're all marked from the fifth company too. The Mentor Legion Marine just takes the place of one of them (I only run a total of four).

He has a Grav Gun. Never used one of those before. No clue how it works either. From what I remember about their fluff though, they use the experimental technology stuff and that thing looks strange enough to fit the bill.

I didn't know if I should drill out the gun barrel or not. Does it actually shoot something or does it just do magic stuff and the enemy dies? I opted to drill out the barrel. I felt better about it that way.

The Mentor Legion image is from the old Warhammer 40k Compendium.

Playing Kill Team with my Dark Angels force, background and changes

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Tue, 21 May 2019 10:03:00 +0000

Once you start playing Dark Angels, there's no going back. Ever.
When I first discovered Deathwing back in the 90's, I was hooked. The idea that there might be other Space Marine chapters out there never crossed my mind after that. Except for that one time I played Black Templars.

With Kill Team, I thought I'd try and see what I could build for 120 points. That's the loose point level my friend and I play at. I'm not sure how we arrived there and in no way is it accurate, but it works. I think my friend's team is closer to 200 points. That's another discussion though.

My goal with this team was to be take my existing Dark Angel Tactical Marines and combine them with a few Terminators. Toss in a Chaplain to lead the group and presto, instant Kill Team. The beauty here is that I have all the models so there's no additional work.

The Tactical Marines are your basic bolter guys with one toting a plasma gun. The Terminators are a Sergeant and two normal guys all magnetized so I can swap out their arms. This just gives me the ability to field whatever weapon loadout I want.

They're all based using one of my older methods (spacers under the feet), and the Termies are only partially art scaled (the abdominal extension and arm relocation), but they're Dark Angels.

I stole the idea to run three Terminators from the Space Hulk Deathwing expansion. When that came out, it gave Marine players the ability to "build" their teams. Terminators were grouped into squads and assigned point values. Just like 40k is.

There was a small formation called a Reconnaissance Squad. Three Terminators. One Sergeant and two normal guys. Nothing fancy, but I stole the idea. The formation has absolutely no in-game value or benefit. It's purely background.

The picture is from the old Space Hulk Deathwing Expansion rulebook. The cool thing about the image is the Terminators were drawn like the original models were sculpted.

After figuring out the points for my guys, I opted to drop the Chaplain and just use the Terminator Sergeant as my boss. I used them on Sunday against my friend's Blackstone Fortress team. Even though I killed almost every one of his models, I still only managed a draw in the one game we played. His force is a tough nut to crack.

He's got some pics of the game board and a bit of a battle report over on his blog.

I've dropped a Tactical Marine to get me closer to 120 points. With the Terminators having their improved saves and access to a heavy weapon, I need to be careful of additional points creeping in there and adding up.

I finally figured out where all my Red Gore went. Painting all the bolters and squad markings for twenty Dark Angle Tactical Marines apparently gobbled it right up. Who knew three coats for everything would use so much?

My Word Bearers, the inspiration behind a Kill Team 15 years in the making

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Mon, 20 May 2019 10:23:00 +0000

One photo in a White Dwarf magazine.
That's where I first saw the image that would end up being the influence for my Word Bearer Kill Team 15 years later. It's not much, you'd miss it if you weren't interested in reading about a narrative campaign some of the GW painters were starting. It was March of 2005.

There was a small section in the middle of the issue where they highlighted their armies.
In this case, the army (squad really) that caught my attention was John Shaffer's Astral Claws. It was his retinue for Huron Blackheart. Seeing this one squad blew me away.

It was the composition of the squad the fascinated me. I never knew you could mix model types like that. To have Terminators and regular Marines and a character all in one squad was completely foreign to me. For me, it came at a time when I was playing all the "good" units, following all the rules and played with a mindset that couldn't fathom how a unit like that would be any good.

I wanted to do it. I desperately wanted to be able to play an army like that.

I secretly decided I'd build that kind of "mixed" force one day.
One day when I was brave enough to. I didn't know how or when I'd do it, but I knew I was going to some day. And that's where it sat, on the back burner for another decade and a half. I halfheartedly flirted with the idea when I played Black Templars. Mixing regular power armoured Marines and Neophytes (scouts) in the same squad. That was as close as I would ever get. I was still too afraid. Until about a year ago.

(Click here to see a larger version of the team)

Jump forward to today. I'm much older. I have the time, the modeling skills and most importantly, the correct mindset to make what I kept in the back of my mind for fifteen years into a reality.

I say the mindset is the most important thing because you can teach hobby skills. You can teach rules. What you can't teach someone is the path they're going to take.

They have to choose that for themselves. They have to choose what it is they want to make of the game. Play competitively, play for fun, never play and just hobby... whatever it is, only they can choose.

It's often a mix and it changes over time. I'm more about the hobby. Always have been if I'm being honest. I like the challenge of building and painting and choose projects for that reason. I play, but I don't follow the rules anymore. It's more about getting together with my friend for an afternoon of pushing little toy soldiers around while we talk about the make believe world we're playing in.

It's an escape from the daily grind. The beauty is that this escape looks different for everyone.

My hope in sharing this is two fold. First, you discover the way you enjoy this game the most. Gaming, painting, converting, whatever it may be. And second, that you allow yourself to enjoy that path no matter where it takes you or what others may say or think.

Take the things that inspire you and use them to shape the game into what you want.
Don't wait fifteen years like I did.

How I paint my Word Bearers in three steps

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sun, 19 May 2019 13:25:00 +0000

Since I'm done with painting, I thought I'd share how I paint my Word Bearers.
It's three steps. Easily replicated. You don't have to be a Golden Demon winner to get these kind of results. Of course you're not going to get a Golden Demon using these, but you will get them painted and on the tabletop in no time at all.

At first, I thought I'd completely screwed myself over choosing Red Gore as my base color. I won't lie, I had second thoughts as soon as I put in on the first model and realized how horrible the coverage was. To add insult to injury, I'd primed the model black since I wanted that super "grim dark" color scheme. What was I thinking?

Transparent red over black? Brilliant plan.
I seriously contemplated scrapping the first guy all together and going another route.

Anything easier. Anything not involving Red Gore. But I stuck with it. I wanted that particular shade of red. Fortunately, it only took two quick coats to get enough of a coverage for me to be happy with it. I knew I'd be shading and drybrushing over it, so it didn't have to be perfect.

Had I needed "better" results, I'd have gone another route. I don't have the patience to do a million coats of one color. I'm too old for that silliness.

So let's get to it.

I'm going to assume you've cleaned your mold lines, done any conversion work you want and have your model assembled to the degree you like (if you're using sub-assemblies to paint).
I'm not using them this time because I'm lazy.

Step One
Only paint the base colors on things that are metal. Things like the armour, weapons, etc. I used GW Red Gore (for the armour), P3 Coal Black (the weapons) and GW Leadbelcher (all the trim). That's it. Clean up any mistakes and let dry. Note, the model may look like junk, but the next step will fix that. It should fix that.

Step Two
There are two things you need to do for this step. First is wash the entire model with Black. I use Army Painter Dark Tone. Let this dry completely. You need to let this dry completely! The second part is a light drybrush of GW Leadbelcher across the entire model.

This simulates the wear and tear on all the metal parts of the model. This is our battle damage. Don't worry if you get drybrush marks on things that aren't metal. The final step fixes all those. In fact, you can see the skull above has been drybrushed in the process, but it's not a problem.

Option: You can go lighter or heavier with the drybrush to simulate more or less wear and tear. Go with what looks best to you. I'm all over the place when I do this and consistent is not the word I'd use to describe my approach.

Step Three
Paint all of the non-metal parts of the model. Things like skulls, tabards, bits and bobs. Then add any fancy extras like decals. The colors you use in this step will depend on the color palette you've chosen.

You can substitute any of the colors really. Use a different red, regular black instead of Coal Black, something other than Leadbelcher. It doesn't really matter in the end. The results will vary based on what you use, but I accept no responsibility for how the model plays on the tabletop if you venture out on your own.

That's it. Not even a highlight on this guy.
Attach him to his base if he's not already there and you're good to go.

This is my tabletop level painting. It's quick, easy and I like the gritty results. It doesn't take forever to paint up a squad using this method either.

Warning: This process will work for just about any dark colored armour, but it will NOT work for light colored armour. Anything lighter than your middle value grey needs to be done differently.

I took the image at the top of the post from the Chaos Codex. It's a colorized version of the Word Bearer image I really like.

Da Vinci Terminators, my attempt to build Terminators the way I like them

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sat, 18 May 2019 23:37:00 +0000

For nearly a decade now, I've been chasing this modeling puzzle.
I'm trying to build a Terminator that I'm happy with the way it looks. I'm not talking about a super cool action pose, I'm focused on getting his proportions correct for his size.

I've been doing lots of "true scale" or "art scale" work as of late. I certainly can't take responsibility for my actions, so I blame the new Primaris models for this. Had Marines stayed small, I'd have left well enough alone. That's not the case and there's a couple things I'd like to change.

I'm calling them Da Vinci Terminators.
I really need this to fly because I think the name is cool.

Gone is the idea that they (my Terminators) need to be bigger than a Primaris Marine to work.
That was a trap I fell into almost immediately. Lesson learned.

I'd much rather they be proportioned correctly no matter what height they are. And that leads me to the image I used at the top. A long time ago, I took two images and superimposed one over the other. A suit of Terminator armour and Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man drawing.

I was surprised at how well they matched up with each other after one minor change. The Vitruvian Man fit perfectly inside the suit of armour by adding a tiny bit of height the the Terminator armour in the abdominal area. This seemingly simple solution was good and bad. It made it easy for me to "fix" my models, but it kept me from looking to understand the whole picture. I had what I needed, why look any further?

I should have, but I didn't. Now I'm here with Primaris guys who are scaled completely different than anything else out there. GW knows what they're doing. This whole thing is not a mistake. They are a money making company and that's the bottom line. I don't fault them for that. It just creates a bunch of issues for us gamers who want our little toy soldiers to be a certain way.

I'm one of those people.

Here's the plan.
In addition to the small abdominal extension (not too much though or it throws everything out of whack I've learned), I'm making three other changes. The first one is one I already do. I lower the arm connection points on the torso so the arms are not sprouting out of his ears, but more like where his shoulders would be. It's not perfect, but it's an improvement.

The second and third changes are new.

The second is adding a small spacer under each foot to bulk out his boots.This is a bit of a cheat in that it adds some height to the overall model without having to do a ton of work. If you look at Primaris models, their shins are almost the same size as Terminators, but their boots are huge compared to Terminator boots. That little change makes a difference.

The third is the most involved, but the one I think is most needed. I am bulking out his upper thighs. This means I need to resculpt the armour around his entire upper leg on both sides. Not that hard to do when done in stages and broken down into manageable parts. I say that, but it's not been until recently I could sculpt at that level of detail. Again, it's a minor change, but the bulk makes it look like he actually has legs inside the armour.

Where does this leave me?

I don't know just yet. If all goes according to plan, I'll have a Terminator with enough bulk to appear to be correct in terms of his proportions. At this point, he ends up being about as tall as a Primaris Marine.

UPDATE: After looking at the mock up, I think it's going to be a combination of expanding his belt (waist) upward slightly and reducing the amount I extend his torso down. Trying to do it all with the torso is going to create the wrong look I think.

After adding a bigger belt and further review, I think I may move the arms back up a little higher and make the distance I raise the torso a bare minimum. Maybe I had it wrong all along. I do know that now that I've bulked out the thighs, his lower leg armour needs some work. Other than that, I may be close to getting this.

The end goal is to make three Terminators for my new Dark Angels combined arms Kill Team.

On a completely unrelated note, I managed to sneak my Chaos Terminator onto the display board at my local GW and take a picture of him fighting against the Nurgle display models. I don't know what's better, that he's on the board or that he's not an "official" Games Workshop mini.

Why would I enter a painting contest if I didn't know what the criteria would be?

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sat, 18 May 2019 16:37:00 +0000

Otherwise, it's just picking favorites.
I stopped by my local game store yesterday to buy some more Terminators (because I don't have enough of them already) and I was told about an upcoming painting contest they were having. I'm not sure he was prepared for my response.

I asked him what the criteria was. Seemed like a fair question to me. I don't think that's what he expected to hear. I think he was looking more for excitement and frantic scrambling for how I'm going to enter my best model ever.

I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this.

Him: We're having a painting contest soon, you should enter.
Me: Cool, what's the criteria?
Him: Well, it needs to look good.
Me: You're kidding me right?

I asked a bunch more questions, but got no real answers. I don't think it's much to ask for a store that's going to host a painting contest (that has the potential to draw a wide variety of skill levels) to have clear and concise criteria for how entries will be judged.

I deliberately chose these Ork images for this post. The models belong to a friend I used to play 40k with years ago. They are painted horribly and I absolutely love them. How do you think they'd do in this painting contest? I suppose that depends on the criteria. If we only knew what that was.

Despite the fact these models get worse the closer you look at them, they're an amazing army.

They're painted in what can only be described as a "unique" style. That's how we describe someone's painting that sucks. We say it's "unique," because telling someone it sucks is reserved for those rare people who know us personally and we value their opinion. Otherwise you're being "that guy."

I'm not talking about specific techniques here. I'm talking about someone's personal painting style. Specific techniques can be judged when given clear criteria. Personal styles cannot.

I know the guy who painted these and I've told him how I feel about his style of painting. I hope that one day I'm able to paint my models with the same feeling and approach he does with his. You see, this is how he wants to paint. He has the technical skill and chooses his own style. He's not worried about catering to anyone else's opinion about his models. He paints the way he likes to paint.

I want to be like that. Will my models look like his?. Not even close. My personal style will be completely different, but it will be mine. With each passing model I paint, I'm getting closer. I'm letting go of all the notions of what I should and should not do when it comes to painting and I'm doing what I like.

I'd much rather see an army that's painted to reflect someone's personal style and not what the latest painting trend is. Technical proficiency is great and all, but it only goes so far. Technical skill can be taught to anyone and with enough practice, anyone can do it well. That's what painting contests with clear criteria were made for. To judge your progress on the climb to the top of technical proficiency.

I'm trying to breath life into the little toy soldiers I play with. I'm trying to find my own style.
I love seeing models that are painted in a player's own style. Models that stand out in a sea of cookie cutter copies. It has nothing to do with technical proficiency, it's more than that.

If you do nothing else, paint in your style.

What I learned scaling up a power armoured Grey Knight for my friend

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sat, 18 May 2019 13:25:00 +0000

Having found enough bits to try this project, I decided to scale up a Grey Knight for my friend's Kill Team. I wanted to see how he'd look given the same "art scale" treatment I gave my Word Bearers. He didn't turn out too bad and I learned a new trick along the way.

He's close enough in size to a Primaris Marine for what I'm trying to do.

Just like before, I used Terminator legs, arms, shoulder pads and chest front piece. His weapon (the Daemon Hammer), his backpack and the back of his torso are the only power armour bits. I think the head is a Terminator head too. There are some extra bits on there, but I added them for a specific reason I'll talk about in a minute. This post shows all the bits laid out.

Here's the sculpting of his torso. After raising it to the overall height I want, I sculpt in the area between his existing chest armour and his waist. Once that cures, I cut away the bottom edge of what will now be his new extended chest armour. Adding the arms and backpack blocks a good bit of my work, but that actually makes it easier. I don't have to be so exact when sculpting.

This is the big thing I learned with this model. I don't know how I missed it building my Word Bearers. It's so obvious to me now. The shoulders of the Terminator arms need to be "replaced" with shoulders from power armoured arms.

Why? The power armoured shoulders are much smaller and allow the shoulder pads to sit lower on the model's arms.

If you kept the Terminator shoulders under the shoulder pads, they would force the shoulder pads to sit too high on the model and look out of place. This means you need to "replace" them (the shoulders). I thought that meant cut them off and glue new, power armour sized shoulders in place. Today, I realized I don't have to do it that way.

I can simply cut down the existing Terminator shoulders until they're close to the same size as power armoured shoulders. I do this all the time with my snap-fit Primaris Marines when I want to replace the cast in place shoulder pad with another one. I just cut everything away until I'm left with a little nub about the size of a normal shoulder. The new replacement shoulder pad fits right over it.

This alone saved me so much work trying to get the arms in place.

You can see the amount of work that goes into trying to replace the Terminator shoulders with power armoured ones and then gluing everything back into place. This is what one of my Chaos Marines looked like without his shoulder pads covering everything up. God forbid your guy is holding a gun with both hands. Talk about frustrating.

Now for the extra bits I added and more importantly, the why behind adding them.

I added a couple of key things to the model. A few purity seals and two elements around his waist. This is to add bulk out his waist area. The purity seals hang down over his waist and the two elements are attached to his waist at certain points so that when you view the model, his mid section appears wider than it actually is.

And now that I think about it, the scapula (tabard) and scrolls hanging from his waist are there for the very same reason. Because they hide his thighs. Because they're hidden, your brain fills in what should be there. And of course, you fill it in at the correct scale. I don't have to actually sculpt it, you do it for me in your head.

Without these extras, the model does not look "right." He looks too skinny through the middle. These extra bits hide that fact he is not sculpted properly through the hips and thighs. It's the one thing I want to try and fix with my next attempt at sculpting a Terminator.

Fortunately I don't have to paint this guy, but I will have to fight him. This is the same weapon loadout my friend has on his existing Grey Knight leader. I'm looking forward to seeing him painted up.

I've started working on a solution to this with one of my new Deathwing Terminators.
I'll put up my results tonight.

Cataphractii Terminator complete, sharing bits and figuring out rules for my Kill Team

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Fri, 17 May 2019 09:13:00 +0000

So I finished him.
I really like how he came out. He's the perfect heavy weapon option for my Chaos Kill Team. Sunday I get to see how he plays. This picture shows how he compares to a regular Primaris Marine and one of my art scaled Chaos Marines. The one below shows him compared to the art scale Deathwatch Terminator I sculpted last month.

A noticeable difference here as well. I may be taking this whole "art scale" thing a little too far. It's cool and all, but it's hell on trying to build an army. You have to resculpt every single model. Maybe I need to look for a different army. One that can't be scaled up.

On Sunday, my friend and I plan on playing some Kill Team. We'll most likely spend the better part of the afternoon talking instead of playing. That's perfectly fine with me. Anything is better than cutting the grass.

This is all the stuff I have for him. A couple of paints, two Necromunda bases,some cast shoulder pads and a spare set of Grey Knight Terminator legs. Oh, and some decals. If one of us has something and the other needs it, we either loan it or give it to them.

Chances are one of us has what the other needs. Case in point, he gave me a whole bag of 40mm bases in case I needed them for my Marines. Hobbying with adults is cool.

I've been digging through the rules to figure out what kind of stats my Terminator and doggos should have. The Termie was fairly easy. I had my friend text me the rules we use for the robot thing from Blackstone Fortress. We changed it slightly for how we play and that should work well enough for what I want to do.

For the doggos, I'm going with a Hormagaunt as my starting point. I think mine need to be subject to some kind of demon rule (only seems fitting) and I'm not sure how to work their leadership. It's honestly frustrating for me to work with GW's rules sometimes. Things just don't make sense. The inconsistencies and the overlapping patchwork solutions kill me.

It'll be interesting to see what new rules Elites brings to Kill Team. Maybe I can steal something useful from there. I'm not holding my breath though.

Slowing down to clean up and put my studio back together after a crazy week of hobbying

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Thu, 16 May 2019 19:19:00 +0000

I spent some time today cleaning up my studio and ordering new supplies. I'd pretty much trashed the place this past week with all I've been working on. You know how it goes, you get in the zone and you just start creating things. It's a messy process. I'm not judging. A couple hours later when you come up for air, the whole place looks like a war zone.

Even the dog won't come out from under the bed.
Paintbrushes, tools, paints, everything is strewn about.

Bonus points for me... I vacuumed up the place. I got tired of tracking plastic shavings and scraps of greenstuff around the house. When you find half a space marine hand on the kitchen floor, but your studio is upstairs, it's time to reevaluate what you're doing. I'm just saying there's a balance somewhere.

I didn't know it, but I managed to kill my pot of Red Gore working on my Word Bearers. I didn't think I used that much, but I guess I did. Finished off my black wash too. I already have a new one of those though. Had to replace my Leadbelcher a couple days ago. This whole painting models thing is getting expensive.

And... I had to order some new brushes. I put a few miles on my last good one painting my Deathwatch and then my Word Bearers. It's still a front line brush, but I like to have a backup handy in case something goes south.

I bought two more from Secret Weapon Minis. I'm sure you can get them anywhere, that's just who I order mine from. I don't make any money off this plug, I'm just passing along what I do.

They are expensive, but oh so beautiful to paint with. I don't use anything else. I keep mine forever. They go from frontline work all the way down to using them to spread glue on a base so I can texture it. I try and make my brushes last as long as I can. I've always been a little heavy handed when I paint (the result being you destroy your brush tips faster), but I've gotten better over the years.

The exact brush I use is a Scharff 3000 Kolinsky Sable Brush - Size 0. The pic above shows my best condition one at the top and how they progress through to their death at the bottom. I broke that second one accidentally. I don't like to talk about, my therapist says I need to move on. I still use it though.

I went all out and replaced the light bulbs over my desk as well. One of them was blinking constantly which was enough to give anyone a seizure.

This is actually worth mentioning... I use fluorescent lighting over my desk because it mimics the same light found in game stores. How my model looks at home is how it'll look when I take it to the store to play or more importantly, enter a painting competition (back when I used to do that kind of thing).

Nothing is more disheartening than to paint your model perfectly, take it someplace to be judged, say for a Golden Demon only find out it looks completely different under the lighting they're using. If you're going to paint for competition, you'd do well to match your lighting to what your model will be displayed under.

Besides, I find the brighter light to be less stressful on my eyes.

Adding elements to balance out a model and do I call this thing an apron or what?

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Thu, 16 May 2019 12:34:00 +0000

I'm putting the finishing touches on my Cataphractii pattern Chaos Terminator.
I didn't really have a pattern before, but I do now. I looked up armour patterns to see which one I was closest to and I started adding the appropriate widgets to make it convincing. I feel much better having a pattern.

I'm not that guy who goes out and makes up his own chapter and stuff. I stick to what's safe.

I added two things, a top knot and a leather strap tabard. The top knot doesn't really count (but I like the way it looks) and all the cool GW models have the tabard. I went with the top knot because it extends the area above his head and that makes his head look like it's set lower.

It's an illusion, but it helps with the overall feel of the model. It's nothing more than the top knot from a normal Chaos Marine helmet I cut off and pinned in place.

The tabard is made from the same cardstock I used to make the shoulder straps. I say "cardstock" because I sound like I know what I'm doing. Buy a box of cereal and use the box. It's the same thing.

Visually, it unifies the model. Adding a chainmail or cloth tabard wouldn't have the same effect. I considered both. But like I said before, I stick with what's safe.

Writing this post, Blogger repeatedly told me I was spelling tabard wrong. So I looked it up. I'm not, but next thing I know, I'm watching this video on YouTube. The historical origin of the Paladin crotch flap, NOT A TABARD!

At ten minutes, it's a fun watch. It's fun because he's genuinely trying to educate folks on the differences between various historical garments. I actually learned a good bit by watching this. Mainly that my guy is not wearing a tabard. Technically, it's more of a scapula. Even then, it's not really that either, it's more like an apron.

My dude wears an apron.
Dark Angels wear a monastic scapula. I think. I'm not sure. Man, I love the internet.

All that being said, I don't know what to call the thingy anymore. If I use the wrong term, regular people will understand me. If I use the correct term, I'll look like some kind of 40k looney. So the correct term it is.

This will give me a chance to show people how smart I am when I explain the differences and it makes for a far better story. Seriously, go check out the video. I don't know the guy, but it's worth ten minutes. He did a good job.

Even with the top knot in place, the neck on my apron dude looked too "open." I like the open look on the power armoured guys, but it doesn't fit this guy.

I took what was a normal Terminator curved hood piece, trimmed it down considerably, flipped it over and glued it in place to simulate an extended collar. I had to greenstuff the gap under it to make it blend in. Sometimes I just can't win. Adding this really set his head in place though.

I know the overall proportions are wrong for this guy. Despite that, I love him. Apron and all. I think he looks suitably grim dark for 40k. He's more like art than model. I am an artist after all.

As I was going through all my bits looking for more things that I could add on at the last minute, I found an old autocannon from the old Chaos Terminator box set. And no, I wasn't going to give him an autocannon in each hand.

I saw it and noticed it's much smaller than its twin from the brand new Chaos Terminator box set. And they say scale creep isn't real.

Terminator progress, balancing the look of his chain fist and a hidden gem at my local GW

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Wed, 15 May 2019 19:12:00 +0000

I got him built and he's going to paint today.
Actually, he's there now. I'm in the waiting room outside. I took this picture earlier to show the size comparison between him and my art scaled power armoured guys. I don't think he looks too bad.

I need to compare him to the loyalist one I sculpted. I bet a combination of aspects from the two models would be the way to go. That's really tempting to try.

I was pushing stuff out of the way to take the comparison picture when I realized I waste a lot of greenstuff. You'd think I'd have figured out how much I need after sculpting for so many years. Best guess, I'm around 73.17 percent wasted. Not that it's costing me hundreds of dollars every month, I just find it interesting I still can't estimate how much I really need.

And yes, just like bits, I save the extra greenstuff. Sometimes I need a little bit and can salvage some before it's cured too much.

Here's the chain fist issue I was figuring out this morning. I'd painted the base colors for my Terminator and there was something "wrong" with his chain fist arm. It just didn't look right. At first, I couldn't place it and then it hit me. It was red.

A better way to say it is, "It was ONLY red." It needed something else. The model was unbalanced visually. I had this huge weapon painted black on one side and nothing on the other. Now I can't make the chain fist any bigger (not true, technically I can), but I can give it more visual weight with a fraction of the work.

I did this with my Blood Angel Terminators. All I did was paint the chain fist housing to match their weapons and it solved the problem. Strange thing is, I tried it once with my Space Hulk Deathwing and it looked horrible. It actually created the unbalanced problem on those guys.

I stopped by my local GW yesterday to wander around and kill some time. My friend and I will text each other when we head to the store to see if the other needs anything. What's a good friend for if they don't support your addiction? He "needed" paint.

I decided I want to try my hand at building a Chaos Maulerfiend. I have absolutely no idea what in the world I would do with him, but he looks so cool. But that's not the point here.

When I was walking out, I saw these bases in the display case next to the register. Nothing more than a handful of small oval bases textured with different texture paints and numbered so you could see which one creates which effect.

This is brilliant. For the new player who wants to try the textured paints, but doesn't know how they'll turn out or if they'll like the end result, this is the best thing you could do to help them.

Honestly, it struck me from way out in left field since I'm so used to walking into a GW and being bombarded with the whole you need to buy this approach instead of the how can I help you out at no cost.

It was like a little ray of hobby sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.

Fixing broken Pre-Heresy shoulder pads and my friend's disappointment with his XV25

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Wed, 15 May 2019 10:37:00 +0000

Work continues on this beast. Lots of little things to do before I move to painting.
Fortunately, painting will take no time at all. I'm going with the same scheme I used for my power armoured Marines. I'd planned on light grey, but chickened out at the last minute worrying he'll look out of place.

Here's the the process I use to paint them.

I'm gonna leave his head off for painting. It'll be too hard for me to get in there once it's glued in place so I'm gonna paint it separately. It's not worth the headache.

Here's the repair I did to his shoulder pad. I broke a portion off cutting it from the sprue. To fix it, I laid it flat on some plasticard, mixed some greenstuff with Milliput and did a rough sculpt for the area to be fixed. The plasticard underneath gave me the smooth back surface and it was easy to pop the whole thing off once it cured.

The reason I sculpted more than I needed was so I could trim away the excess and get nice, clean edges to the area I repaired. Adding Milliput to the greenstuff made it cure rock hard. It was a breeze to sand and trim it down to the correct shape. Once I paint it, nobody will ever know it was broken.

Look close enough under the shoulder pad mounted on the model and you can see the studded leather straps I added hanging under it. These are decorative, add a little bulk to the shoulders and hide the area where the arms go up into the shoulder pads.

They are a monumental pain in the backside to add to the model, but they are so worth it. Each one is cut to shape for its specific position and glued in place. Then you go back and add a rivet to the end of each one. Like I said, a HUGE pain to do.

The straps are made with cereal box cardstock. It's relatively thick and can be easily bent to look like it's hanging there over the power fist. They're coated with superglue once they're in place. This seals the cardstock and basically makes them like plastic.

My friend sent me this pic. His Tau stealth suit arrived and he started building it. His note with the picture said, "I thought it would be bigger." I told him Tau are small things in the 40k universe. I don't think they're supposed to be as big as Space Marines. I don't think I helped any.

Funny how we both had Primaris forces a week ago and now I've scaled one way with Chaos and he's scaled the other way with Tau. I'm super interested in seeing how they play. I fully expect to get my teeth kicked in.

He blogs over at My Miniature Painting Journey. I think he's on Instagram more right now, but he's starting blog again where he can share his story behind the pics. And yes, his Reaver has a Lightning Claw. I don't know what I was thinking when I said I didn't mind if he played it like that.

I've done dumber things though like art scale an entire squad of Marines.

Autogun wielding Cultists finished, a flamer conversion and prep work on my Terminator

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Tue, 14 May 2019 22:31:00 +0000

Here they are! All four of them.
My Chaos Cultists in all their glory. I'm not sure they could be much weaker in Kill Team. Their stats don't inspire much confidence. Of course they're only a few points each, so I'm not sure what I was expecting. I'm hoping their numbers make up for what they're lacking in everything.

I still have one last guy to paint. The flamer dude. All I did with this guy was chop him up slightly to make the arm fit. Oh, and I scratched the Imperial symbol off the side of the gun. Can't have that on there.

Technically he shouldn't have a pistol... or the combat knife.
I don't either one is going to break the game though.

I started working on my Terminator. Just prep work right now. Mold lines, removing the Space Wolf iconography from his chain fist and I'll need to fix his broken shoulder pad.

Because his stance is a little wonky, I need to prop one foot up on something. I have the perfect Imperial Fist Space Marine trophy. A backpack. I'm only using it because it's the correct height for optimal model stability. There's absolutely no ulterior motive here like mocking my friend's Imperial Fist Kill Team.

The head though. That's going to need to be just right if this is going to be convincing. I'm going sans helmet on this guy. I want the smaller human head to reinforce the larger size of the model.

This one looks suitably menacing and has some cool eye robotic thing.

Testing my Cultist color scheme and considering a Terminator for my Kill Team

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Tue, 14 May 2019 11:57:00 +0000

Once I finished my Warhounds, I thought I might at least paint up one of the Cultists I had lying on my desk. They were the original plan until I found I could summon the dogs instead. That's way cooler. The Cultist idea was sidelined immediately. Still, I wanted to paint one.

Turns out, I like how he looks. I don't see why Imperial Guard players get all bent out of shape when it comes to painting. These guys paint up in no time at all. A couple colors, a wash and done. Maybe it's because I only have five to paint and IG players have like 60,000 of them to do.

All these guys will have Autoguns. Except one, he might have a flamer. Yeah... a flamer. I don't see any need to kit them out with heavy weapons though. I'm not sure their handlers would trust them with those anyway. Besides, this is not a competitive Kill Team by any stretch of the imagination.

It's still strange seeing how small Imperial Guard models are to my converted Space Marines. Just like the one from the store the other day, these guys are dwarfed by Art Scale Marines. It definitely looks cool and gives the illusion of the Marines being way more powerful.

That prompted me to dig this guy up from the forgotten depths of my closet. I got him years ago from Three Stage Studios. From the looks of it, they're no longer around unless they fly under a different flag now.

The trouble with this guy back then was that he was too big compared to the existing model range. Fast forward to today and he's not too far off from to my Art Scale Marines. Close enough that I'm going with it.

I've always imagined Terminators to not only be elite, but even more than that, scarce. Since his armour is unadorned and I have the perfect leftover shoulder pads from maxmini.eu, I'm going with a pre-heresy color scheme. I think that's light grey, but I need to look.

He should stand out nicely compared to his smaller, power armoured counterparts.

I hadn't realized how much carnage I'd done until last night. When I'm working on a project, I'll toss anything "extra" up in the corner of my work area. Things like bits, cut away parts of a model, pieces I thought I needed but didn't... stuff like that. Everything.

I keep it all in one pile until the project is done. It's sort of like a temporary staging area for stuff I might need. I don't want to put it away yet, but I don't need it right now. I've never gone back for anything, but I still save it all.

I know the one time I don't save something will be the time I need it.

How to cast Space Marine shoulder pads and paint pot fixes and frustrations

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Mon, 13 May 2019 15:28:00 +0000

With all the work I've been doing on my Word Bearers, I've had this little job on the back burner all week. Every day, I make another Grey Knight shoulder pad. The end result is a half dozen of the particular shoulder pad my friend likes and wants for his Grey Knight Kill Team.

It ain't much, but it's honest work.

They didn't turn out too bad if I do say so myself. For all the detail on the master, these guys will be indistinguishable once painted. Which is good for me because I talked a big game when I said it'd be no problem to cast them.

The mold is a two part mold which is a good bit more complex than your simple press mold. It's not too frustrating once you wrap your head around the concept behind it though. The mold is made with Blu-Stuff putty.

This highly detailed and precise rendering gives you a rough idea at best of how the mold works.

I mix my greenstuff with Milliput around a 60/40 ratio (heavy on the greenstuff). This makes the greenstuff really soft and pliable at first (so it captures fine detail in the mold) and then it cures rock hard.

If you look at the shoulder pads in the original picture, they're a lighter shade of yellowish-green. That's what mixing in the Milliput does. In addition to it curing harder, it changes the color ever so slightly. The curing is important, the color is not.

In addition to the shoulder pads and some spare bases, I'm going to give my friend my last pair of Grey Knight Terminator legs and suggest he try Art Scaling one of his Grey Knights. Like me, he's not too fond of how short ALL other Marines are compared to the new Primaris poster boys. I added the poster boy part, he didn't say that.

Actually, I asked him if he minded if I copy his Grey Knight Leader and try to Art Scale it myself.
He doesn't care what I do.

I went digging through my bits box this morning and sure enough, I have just enough bits to pull off the conversion. I knew I had a handful of stuff left over from my own Grey Knights, I just wasn't sure if I had the right bits.

This one might actually be harder to do than my Chaos guys.

I broke the lid to one of my favorite P3 colors yesterday. Coal Black from Privateer Press. I bought this color years ago after seeing it used on someone else's model in place of normal black. I stole that idea right then and there. It gives the model a little color instead of being so flat when painted with straight black.

Months ago, the lid started to crack. Not enough that it was a problem, but like a windshield, the crack continued until my paint was in jeopardy of drying. You can see it split in the pic above.

I don't know why I saved it, but I had a spare P3 bottle (cleaned out) from a color I'd used up years ago. It was a purple I'd bought for a specific commission and actually used the entire bottle. I took the lid from that one and put it on my Coal Black. Works like new.

Here's another fancy contraption I made out of frustration. It works for GW paints. It's a small piece of plasticard that fits under the lid and holds it about half way open.

This way, the paint drips back down into the bottle and not around the outer edge of the bottle where it hardens over time inside the cap each time you close it.

It holds the lid open just enough that I can get my brush in there to dab a little paint out of the underside of the cap without any trouble. Now I'm not cleaning out my paint pot lids every week so I can get them to close properly.

Now I can waste my time doing better things like art scaling models I can't use in my army.

How I base my models has changed over the years and I finished my Chaos Warhounds!

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sun, 12 May 2019 20:19:00 +0000

Finished my Chaos Warhounds today!
With everything that went wrong yesterday, I was sure this squad was going to take another year and a half to finish. Those eagle eyed viewers among you undoubtedly notice the addition of tails on the doggos.

I talk a big game, but fold at the first sign of resistance. I got up this morning, took one look at them and my heart broke. They needed their tails.

Besides, it's good design. With their heads hanging off the front of the base, the tail hanging off the back helps with visual balance.

Still have no idea what rules I want to use for them. I suppose I'll figure that out this week. They aren't going to be tough as nails. It's not like they're running around in canine terminator armour. They're only dogs. I might try and make them tougher for the charge, but after that, relatively harmless.

They obviously can't hold objectives. I'm not sure how good of a LD they need. It's not like they're going to need to react to the enemy by shooting. What are they gonna do, bark loudly? I don't know. I'll have to look around and see what else is out there and come up with something.

I was surprised I didn't break a single one attaching them to their bases today. I pin all my models now. I didn't do that when I first started out years ago. Back in my day, we just glued them right to the base and went on from there. It wasn't until I noticed what all the cool kids were doing.

Their models were standing on "top" of the base and didn't look like they were "sinking" down into the terrain. I wanted to be like them too. I started adding thin plasticard spacers to the bottoms of my models before gluing them to their bases. I was learning.

Eventually, I learned how to paint in sub-assemblies and pin my models. From that point on, I've worked on the model and base separately until both are done and then I attach the model as the last step.

Another silly thing I prefer to do with my bases (if I'm not using custom made ones) is to use scale material. That's the fancy way of saying that I like the rocks to look like rocks. It's truly petty, but I hate basing material that's too large to accurately represent what it's supposed to be.

I've settled on using a combination of two materials when I'm doing my standard tabletop level basing. Both are from GW, but I suspect you could get similar stuff anywhere. I believe it's Fine Sand and Medium Sand. I looked on the GW site and didn't see it, so I'm not sure they even sell it anymore. This means I'm in trouble when I run out.

The material is small enough that it looks "correct" to me.
I use two different sizes for variety. You know, because I'm an artist.

Seems like today's standard is custom themed bases. Back in the day, it was rare to see them. I'm ok with that, it gives everyone the opportunity to base their force in a theme they really like especially if they don't have the skill to scratchbuild it. There are so many different vendors and themes out there it's silly.

My friend texted me today to tell me he can't prime today because of the rain. I understand, but I don't let that stop me. I just open a window and prime indoors. No, I'm kidding. I don't do that.

He sent me a pic of his Fire Warriors so far. Apparently he ordered the Stealth Suit he needed. I hope it's just one. Actually, I hope it gets lost in the mail. His Tau Kill Team is coming along nicely. Save for the whole issue with the rain.

I'm actually excited to play against it. I don't think he's ever played Tau and I've never played Chaos so this is new ground for both of us. Maybe we'll take our fancy new Kill Teams on the road for an exhibition game at the local store once we're both done. It's always fun to share what you've done and look at other cool models.

But seriously, don't prime indoors kids.

Everything that could go wrong trying to build a squad of Chaos Warhounds

noreply@blogger.com (Boarding Mission) — Sun, 12 May 2019 09:29:00 +0000

I've cleaned a lot of mold lines and sculpted a lot of things in the past decade. But when I found myself trying to clean up the working end of a Chaos hound so I could paint him, I stopped for a moment to reflect on what I was doing with my life.

I felt it best to use some discretion and obscure the unmentionable portions of the hound for my more sensitive readers.

I started these guys yesterday and ran into one problem after another. I thought they'd be fairly easy to build after looking at the sprues. How tough could it be? Heck, I figured I'd build half the box and then go have lunch. Glue two pieces together, toss some horns on and you're good to go right? I could not have been more wrong.

Let's start with the fancy oval bases. They all have this dimple in the middle you need to fill with something or it shows up on the finished model. Not only do they have this dimple, they have some kind of nub that sticks out that you have to cut off first before you try fill in the space. Seriously?

In the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a problem, but should I have to be dealing with this? You'd think this kind of thing could be solved already with the technology we have today. We're smarter than this.

Then I glued them together. This was the point I noticed the seam runs straight down the middle of their backs. It's less like a seam and more like the Grand Canyon. It's in the one place you have to look at on the model. I wanted to leave it. I really did.

As I stood at my desk, my hopes of finishing just one hound died a little more with the passing of each country music song on the radio. It was a strange morning to say the least.

Do you have any idea how tough it is to drill into a hound's paw so you can pin him to his base? No, that's not difficult at all. It's not like their legs are even narrower than their paws. What could possibly go wrong?

Filling in the seam was the right thing to do, but it took me forever. On a completely unrelated note, I'm really good at sculpting fur now. It doesn't look like much here, but once primed, it blended in just fine.

At this point, I'd given up emotionally. I decided none of them were going to have tails. I couldn't handle whatever problems would be created by adding them. I rationalized it by saying they're from the warp.

The thing that gives me the most heartburn is the size of the base. I made the mistake of assuming the bases provided were the right size for the models. And I'm sure they are if I were playing competitively and followed every single rule. But that's not the case and these things look stupid. They're far too big for these little guys.

How can his base be bigger than the Art Scale Marine standing next to him? If the Marine stands on a 32mm base and the hound is half his size at best... why is his base twice as big? I'm no rocket scientist, but no matter how I work the numbers, it doesn't make sense.

All the time spent prepping, texturing, priming and painting the five bases was a complete waste.
That one cut deep.

That's when I went outside to feed the birds. I needed a break. When I came back, I tried a few other bases and texted my friend to see what he had. I've decide to go with round 32mm bases for the doggos. If it's good enough for their handler, it's good enough for them and it's good enough for me.

I did get one hound painted.
That means I have my color scheme figured out so I should be able to crank out the other four relatively quick. I know what I'm doing for bases now, so that problem is taken care of as well. Barring any natural disasters, I should have these little fellas done today.