Centering in on the Centerpiece: Genestealer Cult Hullburster

All good things must come to an end.  I had fun working on the Genestealer Cult army, and this is the last piece I did for it.  I've mentioned before, my visual theory for an army is that every army or team needs a centerpiece.  It's why for Blood Bowl teams that can have a Big Guy, I make a Big Guy for the team, even if I might not want to use it- then I tend to go ahead and use it, because it looks better to have a centerpiece.

If you consider an army as an artistic composition, then just as a sculpture or painting needs to take into account where the eye will travel, and so take steps to contain the eye's wanderings, not to leave the piece and to go where you want it to go, so too an army needs this. Of course, an army is going to be set up differently, have pieces removed, etc, which is why it's even more important to have a centerpiece: one item that is bigger, bolder, more eye-candy than the rest.  It should still compliment and support the army, but it's job is to draw attention, allow enough rein to wander across the army, but pull the viewer back to it when done.  I am hoping I got that with this piece.

click for larger:

The aircraft is much the same as the other ones, though it does not have an incorporated zoanthrope piloting it. Perhaps cultists are flying it, as they probably are driving a lot of the tanks.  The zoanthrope seed never took in this one.  Why? Likely, it was eaten by something else.  Something bigger, that needed fuel to grow.

The giant Tyranid monster has reached the point where it is growing at a hyper-accelerated rate.  And it isn't content to stay within the confines of this artificial environment: it wants out.  It's tail has burst out the back and the bulk of him has burst out the top, continuing to grow rapidly as it does so.  This species has the ability to puff up it's torso, to appear larger and more threatening.

This is a combo of three kits: Valkyrie, Vendetta upgrade and the Mawloc.

Here it is before painting.

The Mawloc model is designed to rest on his tail, 'standing' on it like a cobra.  Honestly I was never a fan of the 'snake' type Tyranids, and wasn't thrilled when I saw the Mawloc kit when it was released: I'd have preferred one of the large legged Tyranids.  I also think the Mawloc kit looks very static, standing on it's tail:not very dynamic. But with this conversion, I like it. Reason being, it doesn't have to stand on it's tail!
I filled in and sculpted a bottom to the tail, so that it wouldn't look like a bisected straw, which let me wrap the tail out & around the back of the plane. This gives the creature a twisted S shape, making him a lot more dynamic.

I had to go with a red carapace for the aircraft creatures, so they wouldn't blend in with the hull of the aircraft: the vehicles were already chosen for the purple, so that was the only way to go.

So, will the aircraft survive birthing this giant monster? Or will it fall from the sky?  Either way, things are not looking good for the opposition.

This concludes the Genestealer Cult.  At least for now, it's possible the owner may come back for additions to the army.

Weather and traffic kept me from getting to gaming tonight, so that's three weeks in a row I've been unable to get there, which explains the lack of battle reports.  And next week is Thanksgiving- though looks like I'll get some Blood Bowl in for that!

Enjoy the weekend everyone,

and enjoy the clip, but maybe not over breakfast:

Flight of the Alien Infested Valkyries

... well, Vendettas actually, but 'Flight of the Vendettas' doesn't have the same ring to it.

Here are two of the three aircraft for the Genestealer Cult.
They are 'Vendettas' which are upgraded Valkyries: they have lots of lascannons.
It's a Forgeworld upgrade kit. I had no issues or problems with it- well, the side lascannon doesn't fit right into the armor cup, but it's easy enough to trim it to fit.
Hard not to want a laser cannon.

I did these on the same theory as the Sentinels: the infesting Alien DNA has grown into the host vehicle and is incorporated into it, making it an extension of itself.  I used Zoanthropes for this, since I liked their heads: the long narrow head matched the long narrow cockpit of the aircraft perfectly.

click for larger:

Plenty of infestation growing over the craft.  I used the back-vent breathers from the Zoanthrope and placed them at the joint of the wings.  I imagine this creature has it's internal parts stretching through the vehicle.
Kind of inspired from the new Battlestar Galactica, how Cylon raiders are organic creatures with an inorganic outer shell.  Flying hermit crabs with lasers.  Good fun.

Top view. 

Second of this style:

Same basic style, but with details different enough to tell them apart.  

The client didn't want any battle damage or weathering, and it was fun to paint these 'clean' using these colors

Because of shipping I didn't attach the clear flight stand to the base, but I wanted the bases to match the style of the army. Not completely covered in infestation however: I figure the infantry -some of which stand on only alien organism and some on rock with organic details, I'd go for rocks & ashen ground, with similar alien infestation, for the big bases.  

If you ever see such things on the ground and rocks, maybe while camping or hiking, don't investigate, just run! 

Only one more update for this army: next will be the centerpiece! 

Classic.. enjoy!

Genestealer Cult Motorpool: Every Evil Army Should Offer Company Cars

The Genstealer Cult Army is finished, packed up and ready to be shipped to the other side of the world.
The vehicle options are pretty extensive: 2 walkers, 13 tracked vehicles and 3 aircraft.

The latest additions to the tracked vehicles:

click for larger:

Hydra Flak Tanks.

As you can probably tell, these are anti-aircraft tanks.  Now that 40k has lots of flyers, people need something to shoot them down with. The Hydra is a forgeworld upgrade kit.  I had a terrible time with it. 

They were very badly curved when I got them. Forgeworld does some beautiful sculpting, but their quality control isn't always the best.  Still..better than Finecast <<quickly ducks the Finecast rage>>

The weapon deck is not glued in place, so it and the AAguns can swivel around. 

Lots of infestation. The colors of the army are very dark, so it was nice to have the infesting alien growth to break it up, without having to create an illogical excuse to bring in a bright color. 

Manticore Missile Batteries

What a nice kit from GW. The missile platform is not glued in place, so it can be raised and lowered. 

I saw a bunch of the real-world version of these vehicles in Minsk during the end of WWII celebration parade (the anniversary of the end of WWII, not the actual end of WWII, I'm not that old ;) 

Pretty formidable looking vehicles.  Seeing a thick twelve foot long missile really makes you glad they aren't being launched! 

Command Psyker Chimeras

These are the transport vehicles for the Psyker command infantry.  They've got more gadgets than the other chimeras: search lights, comm array and an upgraded front sensor panel. I also gave them more tentacles.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a big single army picture before I had to pack it for shipping. 

It wouldn't have worked too well anyway, since the flyers won't have their bases assembled- the client can glue them together himself, to reduce risk of breaking in transit. 

There's no limo. I know that will disappoint a lot of the Rogue Trader to 2nd edition fans. But I think a limo might be better suited to skirmish level games anyway.  All these purple and red vehicles reminded me of one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid...

I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Dastardly & Muttley were Pro-Genestealer Cult!  

More to come: the flyers!

Enjoy!

"Art is War and You are All My Prisoners" - Charles Schultz

O.K., Charles Schultz never said that- or then again, maybe he did but he was never quoted as saying it- authentically anyway.  But a great friend of mine often used that quote, when speaking about art, attributing it to Charles Schultz which has never failed to crack me up.  Fun stuff.

Creating fake quotes, or using quotes inappropriately is a lot of fun.  Back in the early neolithic when my group of friends used to have parties all the time, I used to sneak quotes in on the party fliers, one of my favorite being "Sleek, sexy entertainment!" - Newsweek, David Ansen.  Again: fun stuff.

What am I yammering on about?

The voting for the 'Dynamic Duo' painting contest on The Warhammer Forum ended, and my Halfling & Ogre didn't win. I did get a very respectable second place however, so "I'll get you Red Baron!" might be appropriate. But what actually stirred the memory of this misquote was a clever fellow on the forum took the winning picture, of two Imperial Guardsmen, and made a speaking & thought bubble for them, so people could have fun and a bit of competition to put words in their mouth.  Yet again: Fun Stuff.

Go here to see What were they thinking?

If you feel like putting words in their mouth, you can download the blank picture below, use a program to type in words and post it up the forum!

Click for larger: 

and my idea of what they are thinking:

So go on, have some fun with it :) 

In other news, just been several days of long work hours. 

The Genestealer Cult army is finished, other than the flyer bases and gloss on optics. 

So hopefully will have some of that to show soon. 

I skipped out on last Friday's game night to put more work in, and haven't had any time for any of my painting projects, but maybe I'll be able to squeeze a bit in in the near future. 

SPAM: 

And today, three spam comments got through the spam filter. Only 2 have ever made it through before, but today 3 slipped through?  Not sure how or why.  I don't want to switch to captcha, because I hate it.  I hate filling them out to leave a comment, so don't want to do it to anyone else.  I may make it so people can't post anonymously, as I've only seen 1 real, non-spam anon comment.  If you do leave comments using the anonymous, not 'signed in' format, and maybe you create a name when you do, let me know, since I don't want to make it impossible for people to leave a comment, and never know it because they can't leave a comment to let me know they can't leave a comment.  But if no one uses the anon comment function, that might be a solution if spam keeps seeping through.   Because I don't want spammers to succeed.  If canceling anonymous comments would leave people without a way to comment who do, then I'd go with moderation: since I work from home, I can check it fairly often to click 'approve', but I won't use captcha.  

So if turning off anonymous comments is an issue, let me know. 

A Rag-tag Fleet: of Quar

There are those who belief that life exists beyond the nations of Earth. That there are tribes of aliens in the inner, and perhaps outer planets. That some of these, the Quar of the moons of Mars, even now, make their way to the great moon of Earth, seeking safety, and to plunder resources for their very survival.

Gaming continues for Empire of the Dead but on the horizon is the next miniatures project: a return to a VSF campaign.This time the location switches from Venus, to nearer Earth's territory: the Moon.  Alfrik has been compiling ideas for the campaign, which will have not only army-scale fighting in 28mm but he's got plans for aeronef (airship) fleet action battles as part of the campaign.  I'm a sucker for anything with ships: spaceships, airships & navies, so this sounds good to me!  Nations of Earth, and my Quar of Phobos,will be staking out claims on the Moon, negotiating, plotting and waging battles.  When will this be?  Not sure exactly, but it's just over the horizon.

-It's continued to be a very very bad week for me, so have had low motivation to do anything for myself, just working on the finishing stages of the Genestealer Cult, but nothing ready to show on it yet, so not a lot of new stuff to share.  So seems a good time to introduce the air-navy of Phobos!

I bought these last year when BrigadeModels UK was having a sale, and I added a couple ships from Shapeways.

(click for larger)

I don't know yet what the campaign will require for number of ships or ship types, but this feels like a good fleet compliment. The majority of the fleet is from the Argentina fleet. I chose them for 2 reasons:
1. British & French fleets,while cool, seem to be pretty popular and I wanted something different.
2. I love the big round shapes incorporated into these ships.  It seems right, considering Quar have big round bellies, or 'puzik' as I tend to call it, having picked up the Russian word since it is far cuter.  but the ships also still have pointed noses,again, just like Quar! Perfect!
Speaking of Russian, the round vessel with 4 guns is a Russian 'aerial battery' which fits in nicely with the round midsections of the Argentinian fleet: just right for Quar.

I added aircraft: some large bombers and fighter squadrons.
I used this basing method once before for space ship fighters, and like it a lot. You get a lot of variety with the individual wire stands.
The carrier model is from Shapeways, and I imagine this is one of the vessels that is space-worthy.
The rest of the fleet is carried or towed by space-haulers to deposit the airfleet into a planet's (or moon's) gravitational field.

Some close-ups: (click for larger)

 I'm afraid I don't remember the name of the shapeways artist or the name of the piece.  But there are a lot of nice items on that site.

The carrier is the flagship, though the one battleship would be pretty significant.

Hopefully this fleet will be battling the verminous humans, who's gluttony is unsatisfied with the most resource-rich planet in the system:  it's time for the other peoples to push them back, contain them and harvest their fair share from the planets and moons of the sun they share in common!

For Phobos!

Inspiration for all rag-tag fleets...enjoy!

They're Just Questions. Designed to Provoke a Wargaming Response

Making the rounds is the 'Are you a proper wargamer' quiz, and in true wargaming spirit it's already been modified with home-brew changes and additions.  I believe this is the latest incarnation, from Dampf, via Big Lee.  Though I also made adjustments to it.
The test will begin in a moment, please be seated and wait your turn.

Just answer. Timing is a factor.  They're just questions, designed to provoke a wargaming response.

HAVE YOU:

1. Spent at least £500 on figures / tanks?

Yes.  : 1

You mean annually right? Because if you mean in total, ever, you need to ratchet up that number! 

2. Pricked your finger or thumb on a pike block - several times
Yes.  : 1 

3.  Tried at least 10 different rule sets and vowed never to play half of them ever again
Yes.  : 1

As close to such a vow as I get, which isn't completely, but certainly many I've given up on.    

4.  Bought an army off EBay
No.  : 0

5. Sold an army on EBay
Yes.  : 1

6. spent months painting an army - then used it in anger once
Yes.  : 1 

Once, or less- some I haven't had the chance. 

7. tried several different periods and genres
Yes.  : 1 

8. dropped a box of figures on the floor from a great height
No.  : 0

9. lost a battle on the last throw of the dice
Yes.  : 1 .

Isn't that how most battles are lost? 

10. made at least one enemy for life

Yes.  : 1 .

I wouldn't call them 'enemies': that is a title reserved for the real enemies I have.  But intolerable ass-hats who I'd rather avoid and would consider playing a game with, hoping to have fun, a completely hopeless prospect and so I wouldn't bother?  Yes, have run across a couple of those. 

11. had a proper, stand up argument over a wargamers table
Yes.  : 1 .

See above.

12. thrown a dice across a room or inflicted damage on a die that 'let you down'.
No.  : 0 .

I'm not generally given to physical displays and outbursts. Be nice to dice if you wish them to be nice to you. 

13. rebased an army for a different rule set
Yes.  : 1 .

Please Recycle. 

14. inflicted a whopping defeat on an opponent
Yes.  : 1 .

Sweet, sweet victory

15. suffered an embarrassing defeat due to a stupid tactical decision
Yes.  : 1 .

Hey even Napoleon made some stupid decisions.

16. joined a wargamers club
Yes.  : 1 .

This seems more UK-centric. we don't have the organized clubs here, but more informal groups, sure. 

17.  bought a ton of lead that remains unpainted
Yes.  : 1 .

This really should be the litmus test shouldn't it? 

18.  been to a wargamers show
Yes.  : 1 .

Again, more UK-centric. replace with 'Gaming Convention' and yes, many of them. 

19.  have more dice than is logical or necessary to own - and have used most of them
Yes.  : 1 .

I take exception to your implication that having dice in a color to match each army and team is not a necessity.

20.  have taken boxes of troops down to a club just to show them off to your mates
Yes.  : 1 .

And now some extra questions.... -Needed now that Tyrel Corp has introduced the Nexus 6 Gamer. 

21. You have reference books on each period / army you play 

Yes.  : 1 .

22. played so many different games you confidently quote rules for a totally different period, scale or ruleset to the one you're playing at that moment
Yes.  : 1 .

23. You have had dreams in which game mechanics described real-world events
Yes.  : 1 .

Conflict in dreams described in hit points or travel understood in a dream by movement distance and rates.

Yes, this stuff gets in my mind and becomes the 'language' used to express experiences. 

23. You get genuinely excited when a package arrives in the post
Yes.  : 1 .

24. You have joined a re-enactment society
No.  : 0 .

25. You have played in an unsuitable venue 
Yes.  : 1 .
Once even played the Dune boardgame all night, sitting on the cement, waiting in line for tickets for Dead Can Dance.

26. You continue to search for the perfect genre rule set and have not found one that satisfies you
Yes.  : 1 .

27. For that reason you have developed your own house rules for certain periods.  And think them far superior to the original author's efforts.
Yes.  : 1 .

28. You have returned from a wargames show and sneaked upstairs to hide the stash or lied to your romantic partner about how much money you spent .
No.  : 0 .

29. You have an irrational aversion to some genres and vow never to play them regardless of how much fun they look.
Yes.  : 1 .

Not sure it's absolute,but certainly some genres or settings hold little to no interest for me, such as:

Vietnam, Modern, US Civil War. 

30. You have made your own wargames scenery.
Yes.  : 1 .

31. You have reached a painting 'wall' at some point, either now or in the past
Yes.  : 1 .

I reached a point once where I couldn't see any improvement, and it took a lot to break past that and start again to improve.

32. You have lost - and regained - your wargaming mojo.
Yes.  : 1 .

How often do I get strings of bad luck where I can't make rolls in Blood Bowl where I have an 8/9 chance of success (or better)? But It always comes back around. But I will not make a double go-for-it to score unless it's the last turn of the half. I know it's just asking for it. 

33. have you ever bought a wargaming book or miniatures while traveling or on vacation,despite being able to get it cheaper at home, just so you would have gaming items that was bought in someplace foreign or far from home? 
Yes.  : 1 .

Much better than a tourist-trinket!

34. You have done armies in different scales for the same period 
Yes.  : 1 .

35. You have jealously coveted someone else's troops.
Yes.  : 1 .

That whole 'shall not covet' is a bunch of nonsense.  Thou shall covet! and if you're lucky, people will covet what you have too- you know you want them too. 

36. You have laughed (secretly or otherwise) at someone else's paint job 
Yes.  : 1 .

There's some really weird stuff out there.  Laughing can be the appropriate response. 

37. You have provided a piece of useless trivia relating to the troops on the table to show off your wargaming knowledge. 
Yes.  : 1 .

38. You have contradicted someone elses' trivia - demonstrating your superior knowledge and giving you a warm glow inside.
Yes.  : 1 .

Just doing my part to further knowledge.

39. You have caused a major disaster on a wargames table (spilling a pint, collapsing the table, dropped someone else's figures on the floor). 
No.  : 0 .

Just lucky I guess

40. You have cheered when an opponent's dice lets them down at a critical point

Yes.  : 1 .

If you're not excited and relieved for your little guys, you're not involved in the game!

41.  You have lied to your partner about going gaming.  
No.  : 0 .

Why would I? I never understood that. You're an adult, you can't spend your free time doing what you enjoy? It's not like you're going out to steal cars.

42. You have lied to an attractive woman (man) about your hobby.  
No.  : 0 .

Again, never understood why not.  I guess some fear being ridiculed? If someone would give grief over it, that says more about how disastrously immature they are, doesn't it? 

43. You have made an opponent cry.  It doesn't count if they are under 8 years old though.
Yes.  : 1 .

At first I put no.. but I'd forgotten, this did happen once.  Long ago, at a 40k GT. I was playing my nearly-all Ork Bike army, it was against Space Wolves.  My previous game had been against Space Wolves too, and I'd been tabled - it was a real 'glass cannon' army.  But this time, I tabled him.  By turn 3 he didn't have anything left on the battlefield and I'd suffered almost no damage. And he cried. I felt terrible, until in his almost-silent sobs he also said my army was broken and cheesy!  That was too much, I said 'sorry you're unhappy, but my last game was against wolves and I got crushed just as bad as you just did- the army isn't cheesy, it's just a game and anything can happen." But yeah. He cried. 

44. You have painted the same army in the same scale more than once 
Yes.  : 1 .

45. You have reference books on armies you haven't even got.
Yes.  : 1 .

Luckily so.  Otherwise I'd have bought even more minis than I have unpainted now.  Sometimes just fun to look at other potential armies, even when not planning to build it. 

46. You have bought figures for a period you have never and will never play - because they were cheap.
Yes.  : 1 .
Never play? there is always hope.

47. You blog or have a web-page about your Wargaming activities

Yes.  : 1 .

48. Your book collection is almost all war and wargames related
No.  : 0 .

Unless very loosely defined. Most of my books are Science Fiction, Fantasy & Alternate History Novels for fiction and History for non-fiction.  I do have a lot of gaming books, but not near as many as the rest. 

49. You critique 'war' movies (especially Hollywood war movies) for historical accuracy.
Yes.  : 1 .

Would not mind being hired to help historical accuracy in films actually, I'm always running across mistakes.

50. You spend car / train journeys checking out the lie of the land - considering which way you would attack from and whether it would make good wargaming terrain.
Yes.  : 1 .

I've found my mind wandering in that direction,yes. 

Note: I combined the question from the additional Big lee questions about inflicting damage to a die with the original question set about throwing a die across the room, and combined the original questions 23 with 28, since hiding stash & lying about purchases was really the same issue.I replaced 23 with a new question, so now any injury or insult to dice are part of the same question, I also changed question 33, which was about feeling guilty when complaining about family's spending when having spent yourself on unused miniatures, since I felt this question was already covered conceptually by questions about hiding gaming stash/lying as well as the question about having a lot of unpainted lead.  I replaced it with a new question for a new issue. 
This rounds the test to a nice-for-statistical-ease of 50 questions. 

Results: 

41/50: 82%   B-

Conclusion: I am a replicant- I mean, a wargamer.  
It seems the test believes the most infused wargamer is either dishonest about it to others, or has such a spending problem that to not hide it would endanger their safety and open them up to reprisals. 

Now, let me tell you about my mother...

Just Roll With It

Well, it's been both a very busy and a very bad week.

The kind of week that makes you question what the point of anything is when it seems people are trying their hardest to make the world as terrible as they possibly can and prevent any common sense and modicum of kindness from having an effect enough to help you find a better way.

I also saw Cloud Atlas, which was a great movie, though I'm sure one of the central themes is "no matter where you live, and what age you're living in, you have something in common with everyone else in all times and places: the world sucks."

All of the problems are prevalent because so many are selfish cruel jerks enjoying making things worse for everyone else.  All those against you are far more powerful than you and your allies will ever be.  And really, aren't they just making everything worse for themselves too? And yet they persist.

But what can you do? What is the alternative?

So roll with it. Grab the hand of the one you love, share knowing smiles with your friends, and say fuck it to the rest.  And you just might find your chance to carve out a nook of happy life.
Or not, but you have to try right?

In that vein, here's a touch of fun a friend of mine forwarded to me:

More here: 

http://www.fmx.de/media/2nd-trailer-fmx-2013.html

Now, someone needs to make some minis of these :)  Hmmm...