It's the beginning of a new month, and sometimes I like to use the beginning of a month to sit down and map out my hobby progress and plans. it helps a tiny little bit in clarifying what I'm doing hobby-wise, and why I'm doing it.
First up is my army list for Standish Standoff 3. Way back at the beginning of summer, I'd planned on bringing a retooled "all fast" bike list. The composition requirements we use at the Standoff require that you fill all your FOC slots (1-1-3-1-1) before taking a second slot of any type, if you want to avoid penalties. I had a solid 1750 list a couple months ago after the new Marine Codex dropped, but it would be obliterated purely on composition points at the Standoff. I could apply for a theme waiver, but I don't think it would warrant enough of a waiver to be worth it. It runs with 2 HQs, two non-slot HQs, three or four Troops, three Fast Attack, no Elites, and no Heavy Support. My plan was to expand the list to match the slot-filling composition scoring. I wanted to add Vanguard Vets as Elites (hooray for moving them where they belong!), and a Stormraven in Heavy Support. None of those models happened, so that plan is out the window.
Instead, I'm planning to run a list I've ALWAYS wanted to run: Classic Half-Company. The list takes the standard Ultramarine Battle Company layout of 6 Tactical, 2 Assault, and 2 Devastator squads and halves it to fit into a non-Apocalypse points level. So, the list contains 3 Tactical, 1 Assault, and 1 Devastator squad. Add in Cato Sicarius and a Command Squad, and give them a Land Raider Crusader to ride in and you've got a Codex-perfect army list. It does take a 5 point hit for having a second Heavy slot without having any Elites, but that's a surmountable number. I'd tried some other iterations of the list that had perfect comp scores, like swapping the Command for some Sternguard, but it just didn't "feel" right. Cato doesn't run with Sternguard in any of the fiction I've ever read. He runs with a Command Squad.
So, I'm painting toward that list. Funnily enough, the only thing keeping me from running this in the past (besides old points costs) was not having enough bolter-armed Marines. I was three short, so I'm currently working on those three grunts. The first one is done all of his base painting, and awaiting a coat of sealer tonight before he gets freehand symbols on his shoulders.
I'm also planning on painting up a new sergeant for the Devastator squad. Allof the sergeants I have now are armed for tactical Squad duty with bolt pistol and some form of melee weapon. Devestator sergeants don't need any of those, so this one will have just his pistol and a bolter, as well as his signum backpack and a head with some bionic targeters.
I've made progress on the base for my Hive Tyrant, which also needs to be done by the 23rd for the Standoff. I'm collecting images for a step-by-step post on the base, so I won't share them early. It looks great though.
The brood of five Genestealers I've been staring at for months is still sitting at the wash stage. They're just not urgent enough of a project to work on right now. I'm also considering selling off all the Nid sprues I have collected, but I might wait until the new book drops next year in order to maximize on sales price (due to popularity).
As for Marines going forward, I'm juggling some plans. I'd like to get my two drop pods built and painted, but have also been hankering to get a Bike Chaplain done (I've already bought most of the parts I needed), as well as a Company Champion and a Company Standard Bearer to round out the options available to my Command Squads.
Showing posts with label Wishlisting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wishlisting. Show all posts
4.29.2013
Caving to the Pressure?
I spent the last couple days of last week testing out colors for the armor on my Nids. I flopped around between a dark green, green-blue, gray, and khaki colors. I decided I had to test some stuff out before deciding, and slapped a ton of swatches right onto the talons I was working on:
There's a lot of random colors on there. I didn't end up using any of them. I slapped a light coat of primer back over the colors and started painting in an ochre brown scheme. I snapped a shot, but it got corrupted in the transfer from SD card to PC. I'll put up another later on, when I've got a few more layers on it and you can start to see the transition from dark to light.
I've also been thinking ahead to list design, and that's where the title of this post comes from. My intent when I first started working on a Nid army was to create an all-melee force. Everything that could fight in melee would have melee upgrades like scything talons, rending claws, and toxin sacs. I wanted a walking Tyrant with armored shell, a couple base Carnifex (all scytals), and scything/rending Warriors and Raveners. I even thought about doing nothing in the army with less than a 40mm base, which meant Warriors as troops. Then I became obsessed with Genestealers after playing some games of Death Angel and seeing some awesome Ymgarl sculpts. My Hive Tyrant isn't even half done, and I've managed to buy 25 or so Genestealers and a bunch of Gaunts. I never intended to run Gaunts!
I am falling into the same trap I fell into with Marines...buying and trading for items because they're cheap. I've got a box of stuff next to my desk, and it bothers me.
The more I read about Nids on blogs and forums, the more I drift toward playing a force I never intended to run. I'm looking at Dakkafexes, flying Tyrants with brainleech devourers, etc. I've held firm against Tervigons, but everything else seems to be eroding. I looked at gargoyles, and found them interesting as well. I never wanted to run any of those units!
At this point I can do one of two things: pare my now-growing Nid collection back down to what I actually intended to run, or cave to the competitive pressure and run models that are awesome on paper (and the table), but total crap in my mind. I'm not sure yet which way to go. I'd really like to hold to my convictions and run only 40mm+ base models with lots of all-melee upgrades. But where do i draw the line? I love Raveners both for the models and the rules. Raveners can take various shooting weapons, and still retain their melee orientation. Do I skip taking spinefists on a model they're actually useful for in order to preserve my all-melee force? Do I not take a Trygon because it has a base shooting attack? Gargoyles are incredibly useful, do I break the 40mm rule and the no-shooting rule to take them?
I think the first thing I have to do is purge myself of all these Termigaunts. I know I'll never actually use them, so I should try to trade or sell them towards Warriors. I'll hold onto the Hormagaunts and Genestealers because they do fit the melee rule, but not the 40mm rule, though I can see myself shedding the Hormas as well.
It's a good thing I caught this problem early. I can still salvage some value out of the gaunts while they're still new on sprue. If I'd assembled and painted a ton of them, I'd have lost a lot more time and money.
Of course,the biggest obstacle to my Nids right now is my lack of painting! I need to get rolling on the Tyrant at a faster pace. I have til November for him to be perfect and competition-ready, but if i stall that long on him, I'll never move onward to other models.
There's a lot of random colors on there. I didn't end up using any of them. I slapped a light coat of primer back over the colors and started painting in an ochre brown scheme. I snapped a shot, but it got corrupted in the transfer from SD card to PC. I'll put up another later on, when I've got a few more layers on it and you can start to see the transition from dark to light.
I've also been thinking ahead to list design, and that's where the title of this post comes from. My intent when I first started working on a Nid army was to create an all-melee force. Everything that could fight in melee would have melee upgrades like scything talons, rending claws, and toxin sacs. I wanted a walking Tyrant with armored shell, a couple base Carnifex (all scytals), and scything/rending Warriors and Raveners. I even thought about doing nothing in the army with less than a 40mm base, which meant Warriors as troops. Then I became obsessed with Genestealers after playing some games of Death Angel and seeing some awesome Ymgarl sculpts. My Hive Tyrant isn't even half done, and I've managed to buy 25 or so Genestealers and a bunch of Gaunts. I never intended to run Gaunts!
I am falling into the same trap I fell into with Marines...buying and trading for items because they're cheap. I've got a box of stuff next to my desk, and it bothers me.
The more I read about Nids on blogs and forums, the more I drift toward playing a force I never intended to run. I'm looking at Dakkafexes, flying Tyrants with brainleech devourers, etc. I've held firm against Tervigons, but everything else seems to be eroding. I looked at gargoyles, and found them interesting as well. I never wanted to run any of those units!
At this point I can do one of two things: pare my now-growing Nid collection back down to what I actually intended to run, or cave to the competitive pressure and run models that are awesome on paper (and the table), but total crap in my mind. I'm not sure yet which way to go. I'd really like to hold to my convictions and run only 40mm+ base models with lots of all-melee upgrades. But where do i draw the line? I love Raveners both for the models and the rules. Raveners can take various shooting weapons, and still retain their melee orientation. Do I skip taking spinefists on a model they're actually useful for in order to preserve my all-melee force? Do I not take a Trygon because it has a base shooting attack? Gargoyles are incredibly useful, do I break the 40mm rule and the no-shooting rule to take them?
I think the first thing I have to do is purge myself of all these Termigaunts. I know I'll never actually use them, so I should try to trade or sell them towards Warriors. I'll hold onto the Hormagaunts and Genestealers because they do fit the melee rule, but not the 40mm rule, though I can see myself shedding the Hormas as well.
It's a good thing I caught this problem early. I can still salvage some value out of the gaunts while they're still new on sprue. If I'd assembled and painted a ton of them, I'd have lost a lot more time and money.
Of course,the biggest obstacle to my Nids right now is my lack of painting! I need to get rolling on the Tyrant at a faster pace. I have til November for him to be perfect and competition-ready, but if i stall that long on him, I'll never move onward to other models.
4.04.2013
Full Stop!
Brace yourselves, dear readers, wall of text incoming...
I'm in another one of those 40K funks, and it sucks.
You see, I tend to get into a "who the hell cares about 40K?" frame of mind every once and a while. it typically coincides with massive levels of stress in my life. I know what causes it, and that it will pass, but just can't seem to fix it before it runs its course.
Symptoms are a general apathy about the game, and the hobby in general. I get into this "I don't play more than three games a month, so why bother playing at all?" mindset. I try to jump start my enthusiasm by starting up a new painting project or playing a completely radical army list, which sometimes works and sometimes does not. I have trouble summoning the energy to paint, or even scrape mold lines.
This current funk is pretty deep. I'm considering liquidating all of my Space Marine back stock. I sat down in the living room one day early last week and went through everything I have sitting unbuilt in boxes. Off the top of my head I ran up three Rhinos, a FW Vindicator kit (sans Rhino), a Whirlwind turret, half a squad of AoBR Tac Marines, a metal Techmarine and Servitors box, a Land Raider with ALL armament options, a metal Legion of the Damned box plus a couple blisters, three or four Scout Bikes, a Landspeeder Storm, a Landspeeder, a Dreadnought, an early multipart Tac Squad, and a metal Chaplain. That's just one plastic storage tote! Stashed in an armoire I have two or three Terminator boxes, a box of Scouts, half a Command Squad box, and two Drop Pods. If I jump into my bitz storage organizer, we're talking another 10-15 AoBR Terminators, 10 or so Scouts, 10+ Tac Marines, 15 or so jump packs, Marneus Calgar in metal, 10 or so metal Veteran models, parts of Antaro Chronus, a pair of old metal Techmarines with servoarms, a metal Dreadnought, 4-6 old style Scout Bikes, several old metal Attack Bike sidecars, the limited edition Web Store veteran, the limited edition Army Box Veteran, and a plethora of Marine bitz.
I've amassed all that over the years by making impulse buys at the FLGS, buying people out of their collections via Bartertown or eBay, or just deal-watching for rock bottom eBay auctions. Counting all of that stuff out and inventorying it doesn't make me feel better because I have everything a Marine player could ever want, it makes me feel worse because I know it will take years to assemble and paint it all.
The weight of my amassed Space Marines is crushing the life out of my motivation. Add in my new interest in Tyranids, and it's overwhelming.
I think it might be high time to put a full stop on Space Marines. I tinker with the idea of inventorying and liquidating all of the Marine stuff in one go, just to be free of it. Every time I've thought about it, that little voice in my head says "But you might use that someday!" or "But the next codex might mean you need those kits!". I need to send in a Deathwatch Kill team or some Genestealers to kill that voice.
Is anyone else out there in the same situation? So much stuff backed up, not enough time or motivation to use it all, but a nagging voice that refuses to let you free yourself of it all?
What I need is a plan, and it looks like this: count up all my main Marine body and armament bitz. Keep X parts to build about 20 Marines total. Count up my Scout parts and armaments, and keep 10 total Scouts with a variety of armaments and a heavy bolter (as much as I think it'd be cool to run an all-Scout army, it won't ever actually happen!). Count up my Terminator parts, and keep enough to build two heavy flamer and two Cyclone bearers. I won't ever actually build my Ultrawing force, especially now that they have changed the makeup of Deathwing forces. Keep the drop pods (one was a gift). Bundle up all the Land Raider stuff into the one box and find it a new home. Keep the plastic Dread, get rid of the metal one. Keep the Rhinos and the Vindicator kit, think hard about the Whirlwind sprue.Keep the Techmarine box and one servo-arm Techmarine, plus a full compliment of Servitors. Liquidate the extras. Shed the Legion of the Damned stuff (I love them, but they're pointless for now), and the Storm. Keep the regular Landspeeder kit, and anything bike related. Liquidate EVERYTHING else.
That should bring in some good money no matter what channel I use to sell it (eBay, Bartertown, or local). It'll pare my backlog of Marines to a manageable level. The biggest thing I have to deal with is the doubt. The feeling that all this stuff might be useful "some day." A new Marine codex WILL be released, and it likely will make some of the stuff I'm shedding awesome or fun. I'll have to deal with that as it comes. Hell, with the money I'll have made from liquidating my backlog, i can afford to buy a new box of Marines if I want something new, obviously. It's the hoarding, the mass buying that will murder me. I'm already seeing it with my Tyranids. I've bought several things already, and only one set of scything talons have paint on them, and even that is a work in progress. I have to stop amassing a backlog, ASAP!
I'm getting motivated just planning this out, so maybe I'll spend tonight watching the Bruins game (debut of Jagr in black and gold...), inventorying, and pricing things out...
I'm in another one of those 40K funks, and it sucks.
You see, I tend to get into a "who the hell cares about 40K?" frame of mind every once and a while. it typically coincides with massive levels of stress in my life. I know what causes it, and that it will pass, but just can't seem to fix it before it runs its course.
Symptoms are a general apathy about the game, and the hobby in general. I get into this "I don't play more than three games a month, so why bother playing at all?" mindset. I try to jump start my enthusiasm by starting up a new painting project or playing a completely radical army list, which sometimes works and sometimes does not. I have trouble summoning the energy to paint, or even scrape mold lines.
This current funk is pretty deep. I'm considering liquidating all of my Space Marine back stock. I sat down in the living room one day early last week and went through everything I have sitting unbuilt in boxes. Off the top of my head I ran up three Rhinos, a FW Vindicator kit (sans Rhino), a Whirlwind turret, half a squad of AoBR Tac Marines, a metal Techmarine and Servitors box, a Land Raider with ALL armament options, a metal Legion of the Damned box plus a couple blisters, three or four Scout Bikes, a Landspeeder Storm, a Landspeeder, a Dreadnought, an early multipart Tac Squad, and a metal Chaplain. That's just one plastic storage tote! Stashed in an armoire I have two or three Terminator boxes, a box of Scouts, half a Command Squad box, and two Drop Pods. If I jump into my bitz storage organizer, we're talking another 10-15 AoBR Terminators, 10 or so Scouts, 10+ Tac Marines, 15 or so jump packs, Marneus Calgar in metal, 10 or so metal Veteran models, parts of Antaro Chronus, a pair of old metal Techmarines with servoarms, a metal Dreadnought, 4-6 old style Scout Bikes, several old metal Attack Bike sidecars, the limited edition Web Store veteran, the limited edition Army Box Veteran, and a plethora of Marine bitz.
I've amassed all that over the years by making impulse buys at the FLGS, buying people out of their collections via Bartertown or eBay, or just deal-watching for rock bottom eBay auctions. Counting all of that stuff out and inventorying it doesn't make me feel better because I have everything a Marine player could ever want, it makes me feel worse because I know it will take years to assemble and paint it all.
The weight of my amassed Space Marines is crushing the life out of my motivation. Add in my new interest in Tyranids, and it's overwhelming.
I think it might be high time to put a full stop on Space Marines. I tinker with the idea of inventorying and liquidating all of the Marine stuff in one go, just to be free of it. Every time I've thought about it, that little voice in my head says "But you might use that someday!" or "But the next codex might mean you need those kits!". I need to send in a Deathwatch Kill team or some Genestealers to kill that voice.
Is anyone else out there in the same situation? So much stuff backed up, not enough time or motivation to use it all, but a nagging voice that refuses to let you free yourself of it all?
What I need is a plan, and it looks like this: count up all my main Marine body and armament bitz. Keep X parts to build about 20 Marines total. Count up my Scout parts and armaments, and keep 10 total Scouts with a variety of armaments and a heavy bolter (as much as I think it'd be cool to run an all-Scout army, it won't ever actually happen!). Count up my Terminator parts, and keep enough to build two heavy flamer and two Cyclone bearers. I won't ever actually build my Ultrawing force, especially now that they have changed the makeup of Deathwing forces. Keep the drop pods (one was a gift). Bundle up all the Land Raider stuff into the one box and find it a new home. Keep the plastic Dread, get rid of the metal one. Keep the Rhinos and the Vindicator kit, think hard about the Whirlwind sprue.Keep the Techmarine box and one servo-arm Techmarine, plus a full compliment of Servitors. Liquidate the extras. Shed the Legion of the Damned stuff (I love them, but they're pointless for now), and the Storm. Keep the regular Landspeeder kit, and anything bike related. Liquidate EVERYTHING else.
That should bring in some good money no matter what channel I use to sell it (eBay, Bartertown, or local). It'll pare my backlog of Marines to a manageable level. The biggest thing I have to deal with is the doubt. The feeling that all this stuff might be useful "some day." A new Marine codex WILL be released, and it likely will make some of the stuff I'm shedding awesome or fun. I'll have to deal with that as it comes. Hell, with the money I'll have made from liquidating my backlog, i can afford to buy a new box of Marines if I want something new, obviously. It's the hoarding, the mass buying that will murder me. I'm already seeing it with my Tyranids. I've bought several things already, and only one set of scything talons have paint on them, and even that is a work in progress. I have to stop amassing a backlog, ASAP!
I'm getting motivated just planning this out, so maybe I'll spend tonight watching the Bruins game (debut of Jagr in black and gold...), inventorying, and pricing things out...
1.02.2013
I Hate Cats, and I Dislike Dark Angels
Warning: there is cursing ahead!
Yes, I hate cats. There's nothing worse than a pet that barfs on your floor, sits on your kitchen counters, and shits in a box that you have to empty daily. Unless it's a pet that decides to dump half of your 40K collection on the floor for fun. Such was the case on Saturday. I was playing on the floor with my son in the nursery when I heard a massive crash from my office. The source? Aforementioned cat tearing three full Battlefoam trays of models off of the shelf they were stored on, and down onto the floor. About a four foot drop.
So, one full tray of bikes, one full tray of Terminators and Assault Marines, and a tray of Dreadnoughts and Landspeeders on the floor. Smashed into pieces.
I resisted the temptation to throw the cat out into traffic, and the pile sat there for a few hours while I waited for the wife to wake up from her post-work sleep.
I eventually sorted through the carnage and the result was:
Yes, I hate cats. There's nothing worse than a pet that barfs on your floor, sits on your kitchen counters, and shits in a box that you have to empty daily. Unless it's a pet that decides to dump half of your 40K collection on the floor for fun. Such was the case on Saturday. I was playing on the floor with my son in the nursery when I heard a massive crash from my office. The source? Aforementioned cat tearing three full Battlefoam trays of models off of the shelf they were stored on, and down onto the floor. About a four foot drop.
So, one full tray of bikes, one full tray of Terminators and Assault Marines, and a tray of Dreadnoughts and Landspeeders on the floor. Smashed into pieces.
I resisted the temptation to throw the cat out into traffic, and the pile sat there for a few hours while I waited for the wife to wake up from her post-work sleep.
I eventually sorted through the carnage and the result was:
That's one Terminator loosened from his base, a Terminator Chaplain with his Iron Halo bashed off, a dozen bikers in various states of destruction, two metal Dreads smashed off their bases and feet, a Landspeeder with broken gun rails, a Landspeeder gunner with his gun broken from his hands, and two Assault Marines with jump packs broken off.
Anyone who knows my paint process and speed knows that this pile represents about 6-9 months of work. These days painting all these models would take me over a year. I was seeing red, and was tempted to throw it all in the trash and quit (it had been a very tiring and frustrating holiday week-plus).
Thankfully, when I was able to get the boy to bed later that night and take a deep breath, I looked over all the models under my OttLite with my glasses on. There was a minimum of damaged paint, with only a few smudges or streaks here and there. My multiple coats of Dullcote paid off. Anything that exploded tended to do so at a pinned point (Dread feet, jump packs) or a glueable area. After two full hours of work, I'd reassembled everything. The hardest part was figuring out which backpack went to which Biker. I had to closely inspect the broken joints and match up glue distortion patterns in the plastic. Tedious.
In the end, I was able to recover all of the models. The cat lives, for now.
I'm sure most folks have already seen the leaked photos of the upcoming Dark Angels model kits. If not, search around the 40K blogosphere.
All I can say is "what the fuck?" That's my first impression of what I've seen of the new models. The new Landspeeder is a unanimous failure. Straight out terrible. How does the pilot fly that thing with his gunner blocking 50% of his field of view? And where is the best place to be when firing a huge double plasma cannon turret? Why, with your head right between the plasma coils, of course! I'm not sure who designed this kit, but they need to be fired. Twice.
The new flyer is nice. It's essentially a redesign of the Stormtalon kit that everyone cried about. I never had a major problem with it. The new wings are boss, though.
People are pissing their pants over the new Ravenwing kits. I'll have to get hold of the sprues to decide if there are any good stowage or decorative bitz for my Ultramarines bikers. Folks are up in arms, good or bad, over twin-linked plasma guns on bikes. I run plasma on bikes a lot folks, and twin-linking isn't a huge deal. Fewer overheats, sure, but it's not all-powerful. You don't get extra shots from twin-linking, extra range, or anything of that sort. Marines were already reliable in shooting plasmaguns.
The new Terminator kits are "meh" to me. The posing of the models is purely uninspired. Most are standing there in some awkward "I've got an itch" pose. The dual-claw model is in a Wolverine-esque pose, but his legs lack any motion, so the end result is floppy.
Overall, I'm not impressed with the amount of decoration on the new models. I feel it's overdone. Some decoration is acceptable, especially for veterans and characters. The design team did well with the Blood Angel and Grey Knight kits. Those are detailed without being too busy. These DA kits simply have too much going on. Every possible surface is covered in something. A design philosophy like that essentially shoehorns modellers into one specific style. Yes, you could mix with the basic Marine kits like Space Wolves kits are designed to do, but then you ask "Why does that Terminator have legs encrusted in designs and decoration, but the rest of him is not?"
I have to reserve final judgement for when I see the sprues in person, but right now I'm not impressed.
12.12.2012
Hell is Other Armies
I do a lot of brainstorming and daydreaming about 40K armies, and it's a constant source of torture for me.
I own thousands of points of unassembled and unpainted Space Marine models and parts. I also have my several thousand points worth of Ultramarines, painted and assembled.
The players at my FLGS know that I've recently been struggling with the idea of changing Chapters to something a little more exciting or obscure. I go back and forth on that idea repeatedly, and never do anything about it. The reasons are numerous.
Despite my self-knowledge that I'll never restart my existing army, or start a new one, I continue to think about the process of doing exactly that. I have a "game plan" for several armies that I'd build if I had limitless free time and income.
In an effort to alleviate some of my brain pain by writing things down, here's some of my more prevalent ideas:
Chaos Marines: The Horned Host. A warband of Tzeentchian Chaos Marines who have been cursed with mutation. Spines, horns, and quills erupt from their bodies, often bursting straight through their power armor. Pretty generic, but it would be an interesting project to modify all those mutations.
Chaos Marines: World Eaters warband. If you're gonna go "established Chaos fluff" you can't beat the World Eaters.
Dark Eldar: Coven of the Needle's Eye. This is an excuse to scratchbuild a horde of Wracks and Grotesques from various models. I have this nefarious plan to build Wracks from Empire Flagellants models. Sadly, this idea was largely squashed when Webway Portals became pointless for melee armies.
Imperial Guard: Catachan 27th Tank Company and Catachan 30th Artillery Company. The tank company would have used the Imperial Armor Armored Battlegroup rules from the now-defunct downloadable PDF. It would have to come from the newly updated IA:2 book now. The artillery company was a focus on troops units with sniper rifles and mortars, backed by as many artillery pieces as I could lay hands on.
Imperial Guard: Mordian 95th Regiment of Foot. Gunline. Nothing but a sea of out of production metal Mordians as far as the eye can see. SUPER expensive project.
Orks: Scrapgrabba's Loota Boyz. An Ork army led by a Big Mek (Scrapgrabba) with tons of converted, looted models. Lootas, Burna Boyz, Kans, Dreds, Boomwagons, etc. Basically a big mob of mek-smart Orks who build all their kit from scrap. I'd include as many random-effect units as I could. I feel dirty even thinking about making an Ork army.
Tyranids: A completely shooting-less army of gribblies. Masses of Genestealers, Hormagaunts, Raveners, Lictors, Carnifex and Warriors. No spawn-poopers or anything fancy. Just tons of melee dice.
Tyranids: Retro Second Edition army. Build an army using only the units that were available in the old second edition codex. I can't decide if I wanted to build this one using authentic second edition metals, or with current plastics. It would probably make more sense using the old metals.
Those are the sorts of things that bang around in my head every few days. So many cool projects to try, so little time!
On the Marine front, I have actually made some minor progress with my white helmet experiments. I tried out the wash+hand paint method, and I think I like it. I'll have photos and commentary up in the next few days. Last night was a rough night for putting the boy to bed, and by the time he actually fell asleep, I need the catharsis of smashing zombies in Dead Island.
I own thousands of points of unassembled and unpainted Space Marine models and parts. I also have my several thousand points worth of Ultramarines, painted and assembled.
The players at my FLGS know that I've recently been struggling with the idea of changing Chapters to something a little more exciting or obscure. I go back and forth on that idea repeatedly, and never do anything about it. The reasons are numerous.
Despite my self-knowledge that I'll never restart my existing army, or start a new one, I continue to think about the process of doing exactly that. I have a "game plan" for several armies that I'd build if I had limitless free time and income.
In an effort to alleviate some of my brain pain by writing things down, here's some of my more prevalent ideas:
Chaos Marines: The Horned Host. A warband of Tzeentchian Chaos Marines who have been cursed with mutation. Spines, horns, and quills erupt from their bodies, often bursting straight through their power armor. Pretty generic, but it would be an interesting project to modify all those mutations.
Chaos Marines: World Eaters warband. If you're gonna go "established Chaos fluff" you can't beat the World Eaters.
Dark Eldar: Coven of the Needle's Eye. This is an excuse to scratchbuild a horde of Wracks and Grotesques from various models. I have this nefarious plan to build Wracks from Empire Flagellants models. Sadly, this idea was largely squashed when Webway Portals became pointless for melee armies.
Imperial Guard: Catachan 27th Tank Company and Catachan 30th Artillery Company. The tank company would have used the Imperial Armor Armored Battlegroup rules from the now-defunct downloadable PDF. It would have to come from the newly updated IA:2 book now. The artillery company was a focus on troops units with sniper rifles and mortars, backed by as many artillery pieces as I could lay hands on.
Imperial Guard: Mordian 95th Regiment of Foot. Gunline. Nothing but a sea of out of production metal Mordians as far as the eye can see. SUPER expensive project.
Orks: Scrapgrabba's Loota Boyz. An Ork army led by a Big Mek (Scrapgrabba) with tons of converted, looted models. Lootas, Burna Boyz, Kans, Dreds, Boomwagons, etc. Basically a big mob of mek-smart Orks who build all their kit from scrap. I'd include as many random-effect units as I could. I feel dirty even thinking about making an Ork army.
Tyranids: A completely shooting-less army of gribblies. Masses of Genestealers, Hormagaunts, Raveners, Lictors, Carnifex and Warriors. No spawn-poopers or anything fancy. Just tons of melee dice.
Tyranids: Retro Second Edition army. Build an army using only the units that were available in the old second edition codex. I can't decide if I wanted to build this one using authentic second edition metals, or with current plastics. It would probably make more sense using the old metals.
Those are the sorts of things that bang around in my head every few days. So many cool projects to try, so little time!
On the Marine front, I have actually made some minor progress with my white helmet experiments. I tried out the wash+hand paint method, and I think I like it. I'll have photos and commentary up in the next few days. Last night was a rough night for putting the boy to bed, and by the time he actually fell asleep, I need the catharsis of smashing zombies in Dead Island.
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