February 28, 2015

W40K: Black Templars 'Stormraven Gunship 1' Complete

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I started working on my Stormraven Gunship for my Black Templars army. A little bit of painting last night and some more today, and my flyer is completed.
 
I think for 'table top quality', it came out alright. I am still not happy with how my decals look on 'black', and I should have tried something a little different with the windows (yes I got lazy and just decided to prime the windows black). I probably should have tried a drybrush on the windows instead of hard edges.
 
Since the model is of decent size, the photos did not come out as well as I wanted (the model did not fit well inside my light box).
 
It's done, it can be played with, time for the next model.
 
Assault Cannons
 
Lascannons
 
Plasma Cannons
Painting Points: 10

February 27, 2015

W40K: Black Templars 'Stormraven Gunship 1' WIP

Slowly this week I have been working on a Stormraven Gunship as an addition to my Black Templars army. I really like the fact that I can assault from the vehicle, and I thought it would be a cool looking flyer to add to the army.

I am hoping to get it all completed tomorrow (Saturday), but I thought I'd share some of my work in progress photos.

Magnetized Weapons

Magnetized Weapons
 

February 23, 2015

Garage Cleanup (Dragan's Lair)

Over the last few years, my garage has gone through quite a few cleanups depending on which hobby I am currently interested in. Originally when we moved in 5 years ago it was mainly for storage (since we do not have basements here in Arizona) with room for a gaming table.
 
Then I went on a gaming hiatus and cleared out all the items in my garage into a storage unit and placed a custom wood routed 16'x19' 1/24th slot car track.
 
Once I was done with slot cars (the track is now located not far away at a friends garage), the items from storage returned and I setup a work area for my RC cars.
 
Now my hiatus from gaming is currently over and all the items went back into a storage unit this weekend. My son and I spent all day Sunday getting the garage cleaned up and turned into the 'Dragan's Lair'.
 
The first picture below shows a work in progress (I forgot to take an initial picture when we first started cleaning), and the second picture shows the end result. My son really wanted the carpet in there (so it looked more like a gaming den) so we ran out to our local atHome store and picked up a couple of 9'x7' rugs.
 
 

February 20, 2015

Warhammer 40K Gaming Board (Secret Weapon)

The past week I have been debateing about what kind of gaming board I want for my garage. I currently have the original Games Workship grass mat, and a brown 6'x4' felt mat, but I do not have anything really for Warhammer 40K.

I've been debating between a black felt mat, Frontline Gaming Mat, GW's new 40K realm of battle board, and making my own board from pink foam. Pink foam is very hard to find here in Arizona, but I came across a 1" 8'x4' board last night night. So today I had decided I was going to go the way of the pink foam board and just make my own ruined board, then I came across the Secret Weapon Miniatures website and they now make gaming tiles in 1'x1' pieces and you get 24 tiles.
You can choose between 'Forgotten City', 'Rolling Fields', 'Scrap Yard', 'Urban Street-Clean', and 'Urban Street-Damagesd'. I really liked the way 'Urban Street-Damaged' looks and decided to order this board.

All orders over $150 included free shipping which was plus. Hopefully we'll get the tiles next week and I can start getting them painted.

February 19, 2015

W40K: Black Templars 'Terminators'

Besides adding two Black Templars Marines to fill out some units last month, it has been quite a few years since I lasted painted for Warhammer 40K. With my renewed interest in W40K for this year, it is time to get some models painted.

My current Black Templars army is quite a few years old, ok, really old, so some of the models are OOP including my current Terminators unit. This past weekend I got a steller deal on a unit of Terminators. So why not, let's get them painted and added to the army. Over the next few weeks we'll be adding more new models for the Black Templars as we get the army ready for a map campaign I am playing in.

Black Templars: Terminators
Black Templars: Terminators
Painting Points: 10

February 15, 2015

Battle Report: W40K 2/14/2015

The second game played on Valentine's weekend was Warhammer 40K. My son and I along with our friend Gyan just started a map based campaign to get us back into Warhammer 40K and play some friendly games. I have placed the rules and maps on www.adeptusarizona.com if you would like to follow along.
 
We started the Campaign this past Friday night, and we are currently on Turn 4. My fleet 'D1' was approaching the planet 'Bosan' along with my sons fleet 'T1'. When two fleets invade the same planet, a game is played on the table top and the winner will then control that planet.
 
So we rolled for mission and deployment as per the rules in the Warhammer 40K rulebook.
 
Planet: Bosan
Points: 1500
Fleets: 'D1' Black Templars / 'T1' Dark Angels
Mission: Purge the Alien
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
 
I wanted to try out a new list for my Black Templars, so I had to proxy a Stormraven Gunship and borrow a Land Raider Crusader from my son's Salamanders army. I wanted to have two vehicles that my units can assault from. The problem with these two vehicles is that use a lot points.
 
Seeing how we rolled a mission that awards 1 Victory Point for each enemy unit killed, my son had plenty of vehicles/units in his list for me to kill.
 
I concentrated first on the easier Razorbacks to pick up points at fast as possible, then I was going to worry about the larger vehicles and units. That paid off for me as the two Razorbacks went down quite quickly.
 
Once the Stormraven Gunship arrived, it dropped of a Crusader Squad that assaulted a Devastator Squad and hovered to the rear of a Predator and elimintaing that tank.
 
While my Land Raider Crusdader was immobilized, it still managed to do 2 glancing shots and 1 pentrating shot on the Dark Angels Land Raider Crusader, then my Gunship hovered closer for the final penetrating shot with it's twin linked multi-meltas.
 
Combat was a different story. My one Crusader Squad easily took down the Devastor Squad, then got looked into combat with two Dark Angel Combat Squads. The Crusader Squad with my Emperor's Champion and Champlain were locked into combat for 3 Turns with Belial and his Terminators. Nothing was left of the Crusaders except the Emperor's Champion was still locked in a challenge with Belial at the end of the game. My Emperor's Champion did manage to get 1 wound on Belial.
 
The game ended at the end of Turn 5. My Black Templars had 8 Victory Points to the Dark Angels 3. The Black Templars now control the planet 'Bosan' and the Dark Angels fleet must retreat back to their home planet.
 

Battle Report: X-Wing 2/13/2015

My long vacation (drive to Florida and back) is over and it is time to get some gaming back in. It has been quite awhile since I played, so this weekend I got in a game of X-Wing and Warhammer 40K.
 
First we start with X-Wing on Friday night. 'Dark Knight' played in a Store Championship last weekend at Desert Sky Games and was able to get 5 games in and some practice and it showed off.

Game: Dogfight
Points: 100

'Han &Chewy' [100] (Arrow)
Han Solo (YT-1300) [54]
[Marsmanship, Gunner]
Chewbacca (YT-1300) [46]
[Push The Limit, Millennium Falcom]

'XXXZZZ' [99] (Dark Knight)
Rookie Pilot (X-Wing) [21]
Rookie Pilot (X-Wing) [21]
Rookie Pilot (X-Wing) [21]
Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z-Wing) [12]
Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z-Wing) [12]
Bandit Squadron Pilot (Z-Wing) [12]

Let's just say that when you have 6 ships shooting at you, your bound to crash & burn. The 2 YT-1300's could not shake off all the shots from the X's and Z's. Han & Chewy did manage to take down all 3 Z-Wings's, but the X-Wings then finished off Han Solo just as time was about to expire.
 
'Dark Knight' got the Match Win.
 
I think this would be a good list for 'Dark Knight' to try in the next Store Championships. I may have to try and come up with some type of Rebel swarm list to also play. All the fire power is tough to deal with.
 
'Dark Knight' Starting Fleet
'Arrow' Starting Fleet
The Final Outcome