12/3/13: Smells Like Wargaming: Good Games Farmington Edition

Howdy folks!

So as I mentioned on Sunday's post, I was heading down to Farmington to pick up a new commission and play some games on the terrain I painted a while ago. I packed up my stuff late Sunday morning, and was on the road about 11. Farmington is about an hour from Durango, but thankfully most of the drive is through desert/rocky hills, so the highway is 75-80 mph the entire way. I used to make the drive to Aztec to play every Saturday, so I'm used to it. After a little navigational problems (blame the captain, not the equipment), I made it down there. I ran into some old friends from the area, and we jumped right into gaming!

My first opponent was an old buddy of mine from when I used to drive to Aztec to play; last time we played, Abaddon and his Plague Marines cleared his Genestealer army from the battlefield. This time, we had Arkos and his Faithless facing down a heavy podding Tyranid army headed by two flying Hive Tyrants. I have to say, I've never had a more anticlimatic game as this one. Let me explain.

Yours truly as I watch two flying Hive Tyrants run up into my grill. I completely forgot the rule that if you have no models on the table any time a game ends, its an auto win for the other guy. Knowing I was about to have 3 wound Lashwhip/Bonesword death drop in on me, I gunned the Hive Tyrants down HARD. Both failed their flight rolls and crashed on my turn one, where the Chosen ripped them apart with Meltas and Plasma. By the end of my turn two, both Tyrants were goopy messes, and I won the game. 

I need to play more often, my knowledge of the rules was a little rusty...

My buddy came down and hung out for a bit as well. I had him snag these pictures for me turning my game. My new Helbrute 'Lernaea' grounded a Tyrant before being ripped apart by Devourers and whatever else Tyrants are armed with.

The other Tyrant is behind the building there on the right. Massed Autogun fire and the Quad-Gun brought him down, where the other squad of Chosen got to clean a melted alien monster off their Rhino after the game. Alpha Legion love their Brill-o Pads!

I played one more game while down there, a two v. two 1000 points a player match between against two Tyranid armies. My friend brought his 40k stuff, but as he's just getting into it, we had to proxy some stuff for him. I wish I'd gotten pictures of the 24kt Dark Vengeance Chosen proxy-as Sniper Scouts! Needless to say, two Doom of Malan'tai make it hard to do anything against the big bugs strolling down the field towards you, and I lost HARD. 

Thanks again to the guys down at Good Games for making me feel like a rockstar while I was down there. There were a lot of positive comments on the terrain, as well as my own pieces. My artistic statement is to create the cinematic element of the game through fully painted pieces and terrain, and, for the first time in a long time, I got to experience that again. Speaking of terrain, though,...

...here's their next wave! Not included is 2 sets of resin barricades, but this should be a quick, fun commission, just like the last one....as long as the weather will cooperate for the next two weeks! Colorado weather in December doesn't lend well to spray-painting. But I digress! They want a taiga-tundra theme on these bad boys, so lots of spray paint and some tricks will get their new set looking sweet and sexy for gaming!

Assembly work has already begun, but if the weather plays nicely tomorrow, expect updates on the Battleboard, as well as the Citadel Woods! Stay tuned folks, I can tell this is gonna be one hell of a terrain set already!

Granesh

1/10/13: Kapitan Ivanka Coteaz and Some Designs

Hey hey hey!

So just a quick post today, with my final semester of school starting up again, time for painting has been a little slow. That, coupled with being busy down at the shop, means that I've been struggling to find time to sit down and paint. Never fear! When I have been painting, its been gold!

This is Neil's counts-as Inquisitor Coteaz for his Femme Fatale GK Henchmen army I should have had finished a while ago. The model is Kapitan Ivanka Kurganova from the Raging Heroes line and, I have to say, its a gorgeous sculpt. The model is really well done, and there's lots of little details and effects that really make this a fun piece to work on. 

The cloak is a really nice touch too, the pseudo-Russian letters and the eagle really give that Imperial Commissar feel, as the model should portray. If anyone asks where the Eagle Coteaz has is, though, we'll just tell them to ask her Plasma/Flamer pistol!

I'm always doodling in class, I think I have 2 or 3 sketchbooks I work out of on a regular basis. Magilla Gurilla came to me the other day and asked if I could design a Chapter Symbol for his allied Chaos Marines, The Carrion. Still a WIP, but I started designing Combi-Meltas and Rhino add-ons too. I'll probably have a finished design by the weekend, I expect a casual Saturday at work.

Lastly, I have one final announcement I'm going to allude to for this Monday. Its a big step for Smells Like Wargaming and, as you've all seen, I've been a little backed up regarding commissions. So expect something big for the blog and the commissions on the 14th!

Alrighty, hoping to have better pictures of Ivanka Coteaz tonight at work, so expect those in the next day or so! Back to the books!

Granesh

2/14/12: Review: Chapterhouse Studios Combi-Weapon Kit

Hey guys,

So as you know, amongst commissions, I’ve been working through my Alpha Legion Chaos Marine army whenever I get the chance. One big thing about the Chaos Marines are an apparent abundance in Combi-Weapons, on both their guys and their tanks.



Now, I’ve been trying to get this army up to a point where I can switch out pretty much any option I please. I want my Aspiring Champion to have a Power Weapon? Magnetized! Power Fist? Magnetized! Combi-Weapon? Magnetized…? A Plastic Combi-Melta really only comes in the SM Commander box, and at $12 a pop, I’d be stupid to not find another alternative. Right?
In steps Chapterhouse Studios. For $5, you get the Bolter, the 3 special weapons mounts, an Auxiliary Grenade Launcher, and the magnets to magnetize the entire set.





The set looks fine, right?
Alrighty lets break this down on a scale of 1-5, 1 being Smells Like Dog Waste, and 5 being Smells Like Gold.

• Price and S/H: 2/5

The Combi-Weapon set is $5 for the pewter set. I ordered two as I have plans for an additional CSM squad as soon as I have time. The total cost was $16.50. Wait a second, $6.50 for shipping? Ok, ok, sometimes it costs a little extra to ship…right?



That’s the actual cost to ship. Listen, either up your prices, or don’t put the pricing on the label. I don’t wanna know your kit cost an extra $4 so you could make a little more profit. $6.50 for shipping two bits of pewter is already stupid.

• Quality: 3/5

Ok, here’s the real kicker….so again, pewter set, I understand working with Pewter. I also understand that a two-part mold can be occasionally difficult to cast. But what the hell is this?



My greenstuff mold cast wasn’t this crooked…I managed to get it to work with a little filing. The other thing, and it’s a little hard to see in the pictures, is the holes for the magnets.
The holes didn’t cast entirely, meaning there was additional drilling for the magnets which, of course, were too big for the hole entirely.

• Appearance: 3/5

The bolter has a little more detail on it than I originally thought, but even that’s pretty miniscule.



You can also see the size differences here between a Bolter, a Combi-Melta, and CH’s kit. CH’s kit is a
little longer, but smaller. The biggest thing, and you can see it in the above and below pictures, is the difference in size of the Melta barrels. The Melta barrel is almost indistinguishable on Chapterhouse’s kit, and looks fairly similar to the Flamer attachment or even the Auxiliary Grenade Launcher.



I added a skull from my failed Combi-Melta cast to add a little grimdark to the set, which helps a little.

• Overall: 2.5/5

I feel like I’m being a little lenient here, but at the same time, Chapterhouse is filling a niche. Bits stores are selling Combi-Weapons for insane prices; For $12 a Combi-Melta, I might as well just buy the SM Commander. But at the same time, Chapterhouse Studio’s set is underwhelming at best. If there were more options available, I’d say go for them, but there aren’t.

Sorry Chapterhouse Studios, but here’s one unhappy customer.

Granesh