Hobby Project: Sons of Saint Arnold

     Another hobby project in the works. My own Blood Angels' successor chapter, the Sons of St. Arnold. Time for a history lesson (according to a combination of our good internet-friend Wikipedia, and the fine folks at Saint Arnold's brewery in Houston Texas):
Saint Arnold, in the Roman-Catholic Church, is the patron saint of hop-pickers and Belgian brewers (why only Belgians, I dunno, but as Belgian ales are my favorite, I'm not too concerned). This guy is excellent to base a chapter around as he was a career soldier who retied to an abbey where he became abbot, and then later after rising to bishop, founded another abbey where he became a brewer of beer. He encouraged local peasants to drink beer instead of water because it was healthier. At the time, the beer actually was healthier than the water because during prep for brewing the water was boiled, killing many of the pathogens in the water.
     So with the Sons of Saint Arnold, what we have here is, a chapter of warrior-monks who brew and consume beer. To 40k it up, all we have to do is make Saint Arnold an imperial saint, a brewer from the agri-world Bel'Gia who provided the populace with the ability to make their drinking water safe to imbibe during the Age of Strife by brewing it into beer. The chapter was a 'Start-up' chapter. An experiment by the Adeptus Mechanicus in creating new chapters without a primarch from the geneseed tithed by the chapters for purity-checking and archival purposes. The chapter was named in honor of the Saint whose agri-world the would-be marines, or Bel'Gians, were recruited from. Little did they know the chapter name would prove quite apt as red thirst of the blood angels was transferred through the geneseed used. However, due to a mutation in the oolitic kidney caused either by mistake from the AdMech while growing the organs, a flaw inherent in the geneseed itself or, as the AdMech claims, a result of local Bel'Gian food and beverage on the processing functions of the oolitic kidney, the Sons of St. Arnold or SoSA Marines crave processed, brewed hops and grains: Beer!
     I love the Sanguinary priests of the Blood Angels and their ability to give Feel no Pain and Furious charge to those around them. I love that the Blood Angels are so gung-ho about assault squads and dreadnoughts (especially the blood taloned ones) as my favorite part of the game is the assault phase. I just never could grow comfortable enough with the emo space vampires to allow myself to consider playing them. And I hate red. Can't stand it as a color. So this gives me a way to use the very cool, very appealing rules set of the blood angels without having to use them at all.
     For an added twist, I'm thinking about making Bel'Gia a high gravity world and converting up my entire army from Fantasy dwarves or Dwarfs as GW calls them. Hey, that's how they originally explained the squats, and what better way to reintroduce squats to my gaming circle than as short, angry, beer-drinking marines.

Hobby Project: DeathWatch

So, the rumors flying around are that the Grey Knights will be coming out in 2011.
I'm looking forward to it. Not because I want to play it, but more because I love the Inquisition of the 40k universe, their organization and the background story and fluff. Ok, maybe I want to play, a little.
     However, the Ordo Malleus 'ain't my bag, baby' so I've gone and got meself an idear. I love the ordo hereticus. Maybe it comes from my first army being Black Templars, but the witch hunting inquisitors are my favorite. I'm not wholly enamored of the bolter chicks of the sisters of battle, but give me a suit of power armor, a tall wide-brimmed hat and a combi-bolter/stake-crossbow and whee... Hours of enjoyment. The mention of the Grey Knight book losing many of the iconic inquisitorial units has saddened me somewhat, but when they finally get around to the ordo hereticus we'll see what we shall see, I guess.
     My focus here though is on the random thoughts percolating around in my brain currently. The spark that popped up at the thought of a new book of marines running around with inquisitors. Ordo Xenos and the Deathwatch! The DW role playing game has just released this year and with it has seen a resurgence in my local gaming circle of people buying deathwatch shoulder pads and converting up figs for their RP games. Back in the day, I pointed up (and started converting) a deathwatch unit for my Templars.  The idea of a specialist unit with different ammo, suspensor-assisted heavy bolter and non-termie lightning claw craziness appealed to me immensely. With the recent trends of 'counts-as' armies, I asked myself, "why can't I do that?" and couldn't think of a good answer in the negatory.
     So it looks like one of my next personal projects (once I finish the wolves; and I promise myself I will finish the wolves) is going to be a Deathwatch 'counts-as' Grey Knights army once their codex hits. There are a few more projects on the project list and hopefully those posts will be up soon. Putting these down on 'paper' as it were, helps me focus on what I need to accomplish these things and actually makes the projects seem more real to me and less a pile of ideas that I'm never going to do anything with.

Minos in Progress...

     Started on the minotaurs last night.
I'm going to need a second box. I LOVE the great weapons they provide for these guys. I think I'll be converting up some of the hand weapons as Frost weapons for my space wolves. Or at the very least, power weapons.
     So far I only have the musician complete, but I'm planning to assemble the champ and standard bearer this evening after arriving home from work.
My only complaint about the figs are the feet. They look like human legs and feet with hooved 'toes'. And yes, in traditional greek mythology the minotaur was simply a man with a bull's head, but this is my goat-man army! The minotaur art in the army book on page 35 shows hooves and goat legs. Sheesh, the giant box set has a hoofed foot option even.

     Ah well, it could be worse. These guys are a definite step up from the last minotaurs we had access to from GW. I've got more minos to work on, and another box to pick up... As always, happy modeling.

Aaaand we're back...

I'm back, I'm married (There were dwarves and a dragon on the cake!), and I got minis as a wedding gift. How cool is that? My wife received a shiny new screaming bell for her rats and I got a box of minotaurs for the beastherd. Granted, I knew we were getting them as our buddy called and asked ahead of time what we needed, but foreknowledge of a gift's contents doesn't make the gift any less great.
     What it does do is make me figure out how I will be fielding my minos and assemble thusly.
     Do I want them running around with the extra hand weapon? It's great for the front rank, but doesn't help any with subsequent ranks. That being said, all I have is the one rank currently since they come 3 to a box. But I'm hoping to expand the unit later.
     So, do I give them shields? They come with Light armor, so we'd be looking at a 5up save with a 6up ward in close combat. I kind of dig that. Not to mention the conversion ideas for what to use as a shield for a giant bull-man. However, if and when they frenzy, they lose the parry save and we're hoping they stay frenzied, so...
     Last but not least of the weapons, I think I shall kit them out with Great Weapons. They're 5 str already. Giving them a 7 almost ensures they'll be swinging at 2up to wound on everything they hit. And with a WS 4, they're hitting at 3up against most of the large things I'd want to throw them at. Great weapons can also be used to full benefit by the 2nd rank. There's also something psychologically daunting to your opponent in plopping down a unit of big fellas with monstrous weapons. I dig it.
     Now, do I want to go full command with this unit? I know the extra attack from the champion is welcome, and a musician is nigh invaluable in 8th but do I really need a standard bearer? They aren't allowed magic standards and I think this unit might be a great place for a Gorebull BSB, so do they really need their own guy waving a flag? As I'm planning on running a Gorebull BSB, I'll probably model up a standard and play with it as normal for now, or at least until I get another box of bulls.

Blog Hiatus

I'm taking a break this week and next from the blog in order to get everything in order for my upcoming wedding and the subsequent honeymoon. I should be back the week of the 18th with new pictures and stories.

Massive creation engine needs fuel...

     So this isn't a food blog, but I must admit  I am a fan. Therefore when I come across something share-worthy on those rare occasions, I feel I need to pass it along. And this week I've come across 2 such shareable places.

The year 1994, from out of space comes a runaway planet...

Or maybe it's 1999 and it's a runaway wyrdstone meteor plowing into the town of Mordheim.
Oh no! Giant Mutant Rats!
Or that could be Lucy, my hamster.We set my girl Lucy loose on the Mordheim table last week and she seemed to enjoy running around checking out the trenches, buildings, trees and sniffing all the models. My fiancee's hamster, Tatsu, had fun too, but tried to carry off one of her skaven. The Horned Rat cometh apparently.

Project Complete: Shelving

Yeah, yeah, I know. Real exciting. Well, for me it is. I've always had my minis stored away somewhere in a box in a closet. I haven't ever had any space set up to display them. I think this will be not only an excellent motivator to get me excited about finishing more models, but a great tool to aid in model completion. With all of my possible projects (or at least a good number of them) lined up in front of me where I can see them daily, i can see what I need to be spending time working on and it won't be as easy to 'out of sight, out of mind' them in favor of other activities like video gaming.

Everybody loves Masquerade

Can't wait to finish my gear for my buddy's Masquerade themed wedding. It was originally going to be steampunk in nature but not enough folks on the bride's side would know what that theme comes out to. So, we get masquerade. I plan on attempting to put in a few steampunkish touches anyway. I love my mask, I just need to find the big leather top hat I want. Of course, it would probably be a good idea to find out what my coat will look like before I start attempting to match a hat to it.

Sunday Wargaming

My local gaming group consists of Myself, my fiance, my former roommate and his brother and our buddy Wes the drug rep.
My fiance is the youngest player in our group at 28 and Wes is, well we'll call it his late 30s. We've been fairly gung-ho on 40k, but have all caught the WHFantasy bug with the release of the new edition and are taking our minis up to the shop on Sundays to duke it out. In preparation for the upcoming escalation league that the shop will be running, we're using lists of the 600/800/1000 point variety. I'm really enjoying these smaller point games. You can get some really quick games in (when you aren't learning exactly how evil the skaven are) and with the new terrain rules, the random generator and some of the mysterious types of terrain you can have a really neat looking and fun battlefield. I feel a terrain workshop coming on soon...

I'm a bad blogger...

Got some gaming in this weekend.
Hit the LGS Saturday afternoon around 1 with the fiance looking for some of our friends to meet us there for some smaller games of Warhammer Fantasy.
Since we have an 8 week escalation league coming up (2 weeks at 600points, 2 at 800, 2 at 1000 and 2 at 1200) and considering the new edition just hit and we're all still learning it, we decided to get some smaller-point value games in so we could get more in and get more experience with the new edition.
What we forgot, however, was to bring the camera. So, we don't have any photo-goodness for your eyes to feast on, hence the bad blogger title.

Workspace and display...

Starcraft II aside, I'm getting back into the swing of things as far as tabletop gaming and 'hobbying' goes. So much so that I realize I'm woefully lacking in the storage and display space categories.
Well, I have a good bit of storage available, but as with any of the gamers I know, my storage capacity is outweighed by my volume of models. "My cup runneth over" so to speak.
So I'm thinking wall shelving. Something along the lines of the single plank, multiple bracket variety. Something that will allow me to place everything I'm working on out where I can see it while keeping it up out of the way as well.


My next project then is to swing by home depot and pick up some shelf parts. We'll see how that turns out...

I am a tabletop wargamer

Notice the title is wargamer, not painter or hobbyist. That's honestly how I see myself. I'm a gamer. I love to learn new systems and I'm a big fan of plunking some minis down on a table and rolling some dice. The odd caveat to that is, I don't consider it a miniature wargame unless you have to assemble/paint the minis. Strange I know, but who said I had to make any sense? Especially on my own blog. =P

Doubles

The main attraction Casey and I felt for WARGamesCon was the doubles tourney.
She and I have played a few team games with friends locally and had a blast.
So logically, we assumed (and rightly so) that a tournament based around team gaming would be a great way to spend a day.

Back to the grind...

So, Casey and I returned home safe and sound from WARGamesCon and even got some 8th ed fantasy gaming in on Sunday.
Played in the 40k Doubles Tourney Friday.

So... No needles pulling thread here.

Today's post brings about 2 things:
1.) A tourney/con attendance announcement
2.) An experiment in progress.
Hopefully both will aid in the expansion of creativity, and further my mini-wargaming Hobbyness.

Good Wolf Lord, Bad Macro Lens

Well, these are being taken with my phone, which is wonderful for pictures in the 4-6ft and beyond range, but as there is no macro function, they aren't great. My lighting leaves a bit to be desired as well I see.

MOAR Wolf Lord

Not a great pic, but shows scale.
This bear is massive comparatively.
I've done a dry-fit with the arms and cape and I think he'll look fine once completely assembled.
He just looks a bit puny at the moment.

Wolf Lord WIP

Started the chop work on the bear I'm using for my Wolf Lord's Thunderwolf mount.
Using a walnut for the rocks he'll be standing on.
Got the bear up onto the base, and started putting him back together.
Got the right arm and paw up as if he's swiping.
And I'm just going to let the green stuff dry for now...
Once it's done I'll see about adding my Wolf Lord to his back.
I'm picking out the pieces I want to use for him at the moment.
Got the frost axe, storm shield, chest, head and cloak. Just need suitable legs and a good arm for the frost axe.

Big Bear

Working on a Wolf Lord on Bear (Thunderwolf) for my Space Wolves army.
That big bastard is going to be hacked apart and repositioned and will hopefully be the model I've been looking for to create a suitably impressive mounted Wolf Lord. That's a 60mm Dreadnought base I placed there for scale. This fellow will be truly massive when finished. I should have placed a mini probably, but there'll be one in there soon enough to show how large he is. I think I'll call him Bjoerg.

new year, 2010, yeah yeah I know

Things to do this year:
Get in shape. (Not round even though that is a shape technically)
Get married. (10/9/10)
Buy a house.
Build/paint a playable 200pt Space Wolf Army.
Build/paint a tournament size (Indy GT) Beastmen Army.
Begin work on Renegade/Pirate Space Marine chapter using current SM codex.
Complete one of:
Finish a novel
Finish Game System, begin playtesting
Open bar
Open Catalog/online store (homehealth or gaming)

links for the link impaired...

HTML / bbcode tutorial for linking things...

Href is the tag you use to embed a link in a page if it uses HTML
Example "<" a href= http://www.groovygeckosgames.com/podcast/40kwcepisode22.mp3 ">"Enter Text Here "<" /a ">"

removing the quotation marks in the example above gets you this:

Enter Text Here

for Forums/pages that use BBCode its a url tag you use:
[url=http://www.groovygeckosgames.com/podcast/40kwcepisode22.mp3]Enter text here[/url]
You don't have to remove anything from that example as this blog doesn't recognize bbcode tags.

That's it for links in 2 formats. That's all for now...