Hobby Tools and Fighting Gum Disease

Hey bloggers,

Just a quick one here. Whenever I am hobbying with someone new I always get the same question with the same incredulous tone and look. Have a look at my photo and have a guess what it is...

Why do you have a toothbrush? Every time without fail bar none. I'll be asked the question back to back by two different people. I think I've had it four or five times in one hour at it's worse. Accordingly my answer has become fairly express and economic. It's something along the lines of...

You know how when you clean a model how there's always little bits of plastic stuck on the model? Well I use the toothbrush to get rid of them. Plus I don't risk spitting all over my model (by blowing them away).

I find the toothbrush to be really good at removing those bits of plastic that blowing them off wouldn't get that are still slightly attached to the model. Also you're not blowing around all the bits of plastic already on the desk and avoid the chance of it being blown back into your eyes (I've seen this happen and experienced it). And like I said no saliva.

The pleasant part of this exchange is that the majority of people then say after something along the lines of...

Wow! That's a really good idea.

Followed by some of them then saying...

I'm going to get one too now.

As such, a number of my friends carry or use a toothbrush since I started doing this and it's proven usefully for random jobs such as cleaning up resin pieces and even for terrain building. I've always found it a handy thing to have with me when I'm hobbying. Just don't get one with the rubber bits in it. All bristles is the way to go and is cheaper and easier to clean.

Do you carry a toothbrush with your hobby gear? Or some other tool or item that's somewhat different to the norm? Let me know via comments.

Incursion on a Saturday Afternoon

Hi bloggers,

So Saturday Max came over and we had another game of Incursion. We played the third mission and I decided to take an APE Blazer for the first time to try them out (a flame-thrower). Now unlike Space Hulk he's not limited in his fuel, this bad boy came to fight. With enough Action Points (AP) and Command Points (CP) you fill the board around you with flames and help to halt the advance of zombies.

So for those of you unfamiliar with Incursion it works quite similarly to Space Hulk. Each action a model takes costs a certain number of points; moving forward is 1 AP, throwing a grenade is 2 AP and so on.

Each model has an AP value determining how many actions they can take normally, now this can be altered by the cards you draw each turn or added to by CP. CP is a pool of points, determined by how large the mission is, which you can allocate to your models to take them far beyond what they can normally do. At the beginning of a turn you can secretly bid your CP to allow you to take your turn first but obviously this leaves you without them during that turn win or lose. CP can additionally be used to "kill" cards that are played either as events or on characters (both yours and your opponents).

Everything started off fine with the flamer effectively shutting down Max's ability to bring on zombies as they would be melted down into Tyler Durden's favourite source material as soon as they stepped into the flames. But since my APEs are so slow compared to Ilsa and the Blitzhund they were able to get moving away from the flamer. Since you can control the shape of the flame within line of sight you can ensure you are able to block off a room's entrances.

The Blazer slowly advancing forward managed to take down the Blitzhund (who had been shot previously by the APE by himself) and wound Ilsa. Unfortunately for me Max had a hidden tunnel card and set one up right behind me and ran zombies at all my APE suits managing to take a wound off the APE supporting the Blazer. I then beat them back in my next turn expending my CP to ensure I would be safe during his turn only to have a Booby Trap card played against the same APE and with Max only rolling sixes whenever he tried to wound me he pulled down my APE suit.

After Ilsa grabbing the Pinger (the Mission's objective is to get it off the board) more zombies raced towards the isolated APE from the Trap Door and without the fire support from the now extinct APE they managed to pull him down under the weight of their attacks. So down to just the Blazer I had to knock out the Trap Door and focus on pulling down the much more nimble and deadly Ilsa.

After doing so with a possible victory in my grasp Max played a brilliant series of cards meaning I just couldn't bring Ilsa down before she could win the game for Max. As a Cave In occurred blocking the Blazer's line of sight Ilsa also had Blaze of Glory played on her meaning if I or the flames I had lit were to kill her she would instantly activate and have a full turn of AP to spend on her before she died meaning she could sprint off the board no matter what happened.

After bidding everything I had to take first turn I killed her Blaze of Glory with a SNAFU but Max drew and was able to play it again thanks to Ilsa's ability to draw an extra card every turn. This was the final nail in my coffin as Ilsa was able to stroll off the table to victory.

 Max's final hand of cards.

With Ilsa stacked with 3 wound counters a Blaze of Glory ensured her victory unless I could strip it before her death. Alas it was not to be.

Again this was another great game and just cemented with Max and I how good this game is. I will have to get a start on assembling my models once the expansion SNAFU gets here with all of its other goodies!

Tandarian Army, 1750pts List

Hi there bloggers,

On Saturday I went back to my parents' house for a visit and found my Imperial Guard List for my Tandaris force. I still haven't fully filled out their back story but they are a light armoured/semi mechanised force that escaped the destruction of their home planet by the forces of Nurgle and the Plague Virus. They were withdrawn along with the Vostroyan regiments sent in and since their home planet has been lost they now operate with and administratively come under the command of those Vostroyans. In many ways they mimic the Vostroyans in terms of structure and tactics, this is through necessity as much as choice since any resupply of equipment and arms now comes from the Vostroyans. Where as the Vostroyan's equipment are heirlooms of magnificent craftsmanship the Tandarian equipment are those produced by the Vostroyan forges to some of the highest standards in the Imperium. Both armies boast such wonders as the Leman Russ Battle Tank as no Son of Vostroya would leave such a valuable new found ally without the best equipment, but compared to the ancient Machine Spirits of the Vostroyan tanks there can be no compare.

HQ - Company Command Squad with Regimental Standard, Power Weapon and 3 Flamers - 90

Elite - Storm Trooper Squad with 2 Meltaguns - 105

Elite - Psyker Battle Squad with Overseer and 6 Psykers and Chimera - 135

Troops - Platoon Command Squad with 4 Flamers - 50

Troops - Infantry Squad with Autocannon and Grenade Launcher - 65

Troops - Infantry Squad with Autocannon and Grenade Launcher - 65

Troops - Infantry Squad with Lascannon and Sniper Rifle - 75

Troops - Special Weapon Squad with 3 Flamers - 50

Troops - Veteran Squad with 3 Meltaguns and Chimera - 155

Troops - Veteran Squad with 3 Meltaguns and Chimera - 155

Fast Attack - Valkyrie with Multi Rocket Pods and Heavy Bolters - 140

Fast Attack - Vendetta with Heavy Bolters - 140

Fast Attack - 2 Armoured Sentinels with Autocannons - 120

Heavy Support - Leman Russ with Lascannon and Heavy Bolters - 185

Heavy Support - Leman Russ Demolisher with Lascannon and Plasma Cannons - 220

By dropping the Armoured Sentinels and the Psyker Battle Squad and Chimera I get a tidy 1495pt army so I'm pretty happy with this list. Any ideas or comments?

Ultramarines 4th Company, 1500pts List

Hi again bloggers,

I thought I'd post up my 1500pt army list for my 4th Company Ultramarines which are currently in progress (along with a number of other projects, the curse of a hobbyist with SOS - Shiny Object Syndrome)

HQ - Librarian in Terminator Armour with Storm Shield - 140

Elite - Terminator Assault Squad with Thunderhammers and Storm Shields - 200

Troops - 10 man Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher, Meltagun, Combi-melta and Powerfist - 210

Transport - Razorback with Assault Cannons - 75

Troops - 10 man Tactical Squad with Multi-melta, Meltagun, Combi-melta and Melta Bombs - 190

Transport - Razorback with Assault Cannons - 75

Troops - 5 man Sniper Scout Squad with Missile Launcher, Combi-melta and Melta Bombs - 100

Fast Attack - Land Speeder Storm with Multi-melta - 65

Heavy Support - Land Raider Crusader with Multi-melta and Extra Armour - 275

Heavy Support - Whirlwind - 85

Heavy Support - Whirlwind - 85

So any thoughts or suggestions? I'm not entirely sure about the Missile Launcher in the Scout squad. I feel the 10 points might be better spent elsewhere. Also does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions for an Army List program? At the moment I'm just usuing Excel and want to hear of people's experiences as I'm sure there are better programs for it.

Around the World in 91 Blogs

Hey guys,

I've found another link to my Fenrisian Wolf Blogs. True Mini Wargamer has really taken the conversion up another level and I'm pretty keen to give this a try myself. They look really dynamic and are unmistakably wolfy. His greenstuff skills really make these models work even including the line around the mouth of the wolf, great stuff. Check out the final product on his blog.

Happy Easter Weekend and ANZAC Day

Heya bloggers,

So I don't know about you but I've had a pretty busy Easter Weekend. I hope yours has been a good one. With the ANZAC Day march this morning I wasn't able to get any hobby done today but for the past few days I have gotten a bit done. I will hopefully have my camera back in the next few days but until then I have been using my iPhone camera so I'm sorry about the poor quality of some of them.

On Friday I played Cliff in a game of Incursion. We played the second mission with Cliff playing the Allies APE suits and I took the Germans with Isla Von X once again playing a starring role and providing herself to be invaluable. My first blitzhound was taken out early moments after Isla blew apart two APE suits! it looked to be going my way but holding my second Blitzhound back too long and playing Isla too timidly as well as Cliff's great gaming meant it was a really close game but a victory to him in the end, just closing the last airlock and winning the mission.

Previous to this game Cliff had just finished played Little Max and after these two games decided he's getting Incursion for himself. So tonight the three of us ordered the new SNAFU Pre-order deal. I can't wait to get my hands on all the new minis as well as an expasion book double the size of the current rulebook. We're getting it from the Australian distributor at the same price as we would from the American store, so hopefully we'll save a bit on the shipping.

Speak to you soon!

Out with the Old...

As you can see I'm in the process of updating the blog. I'm looking to make a fresh start to the blog and will be posting up a few pictures and events from last year which I didn't get a chance to put up due to all the crazyness that happened. I will be going away for around a month towards May/June but if I'm organised enough I'll preload some blogs and set them to auto-upload.

So what do you think of the new blog layout? Any more tweeks you can suggest?

Around the World in 90 Blogs

I just found this link to my blog. Wow! I didn't know I sounded so good in Spanish!

This is really awesome to find your stuff out there and definitely makes it all worthwhile, hopefully it gives people a few ideas or some inspiration. That and getting to share my hobby with mates and hopefully make a few more along the way definitely make this a lot of fun.

Archiving Polls

Which Army Should I Do in Preperation for 8th Ed??
Skaven - Winner
Empire
Vampire Counts

What Colour Scheme Should I Paint my BFG Fleet?
Space Wolves - Winner
Salamanders
Ultramarines 4th Company

Teamwork: I Like to Hobby
In a Big Group
With a Best Mate or Two - Winner
By myself

Which Colour Scheme should I use??
Dave Taylor
Simon Brown - Winner
Luther Blisset
Cadian VIII

Cliff's Necrons

In other related hobby news my mate Cliff had his necrons featured on the Games Workshop Blog... Not too shabby mate!














I've always been quite impressed with his necrons and their non metallic colour scheme. One of his monoliths is all rigged up with programmable led's and a data port to do so. That's a bit beyond my abilities and patience but it's a pretty awesome army all round.

New Grey Knight Sprues!!

Hi there bloggers,

We have a lot of catching up to do but in the mean time look what arrived today! The start of my new and shiny Grey Knight army!















There's plenty of shots of the Terminator sprues floating about so I thought the power armoured marines might be of more interest to most people. It's what I opened up first.















There's a great level of detail on the minis just like the terminator sprues but I would have liked all the shoulder pads to have the carved script details like the terminators as opposed to the only one for the justicar. The plague bearer head looks awesome. Hopefully it's a prelude to plastic plague bearers as it looks like the current metal ones but is quite a bit nicer. All the parts are numbered on the sprue and the instructions are quite detailed as to how to assemble using the numbers. I usually clip out my marines into sorted bitz boxes but not for these guys as there are so many parts and the numbering would make a fair bit of difference during assembly with such detailed instructions.














Other than that I'll let the photos speak for themselves. So any questions or comments??