Blood Ravens Chapter Symbols (4th ed. style)

When I first started painting Blood Ravens I took the design of the chapter symbol from the 4th Ed. Space Marines codex. The logo there varies a bit from the the Marines in Dawn of War, but I didn't realize that until quite a bit later. I've stuck with this version, as have some other painters I've seen. Here is a quick guide to how I paint them. I am purposefully using a less-than-perfect example to show that this can be done in one pass, somewhat imprecisely and still have a good overall effect.

Start with a vertical black line approximately one third the height of the shoulder pad, centered vertically.  From a point two thirds up on the line, paint two more lines at 45 degrees upward to the same final height.

Paint a line from the tip of each outer point going 45 degrees downward.  The bottom point should be right around or slightly below where the original upward line diverged from the central line.  Paint two small feather lines parallel to the first on each side.

Broaden the body from the bottom of the vertical line to where the innermost feathers meet the wing line.  Paint a small circle for the head and extend the line for the beak.  Paint a grouping of five small lines for the tail feathers.

Use blood red to place the blood drop in the center of the symbol.  You will need to put more than one coat on to get good color, as blood red does not cover black in one coat typically.

The final version, although not perfectly symmetric, is clearly a Blood Ravens symbol, and looks pretty good contrasted against the bone field of the shoulder pad.

Blood Ravens Shrike Proxy - Skipping A Bit

I am mortified by the quality of the photos in that last post.  For what was supposed to be a step-by-step I certainly lost the ability to show the different steps.  When I did the Hormagaunt step-by-step for Hive Fleet Emervac, I had the photo set up and just placed the model in position after each step and click.  This time I just pointed the Ott light more or less at the mini and took a hand-held snapshot.  Ouch.

So here at left is hopefully a little better idea of what he looks like.  I had intended to show the varying levels of bone as I built up to what you see here, and I still have those photos, but I haven't looked at the quality yet.  Maybe I'll do a "step 3" that bridges the gap between step 2 and this.  Maybe I'll just pick another mini and do a real step-by-step with decent photos.  Even with the photo setup this guy shows very little of the red variation.  That may be partly because I applied some glass varnish to some point I wanted to protect and ended up varnishing a lot more of the model than I had originally planned.  (Don't ask why... I really don't know.)  The right thigh looks like it still has a little shine to it, even after the whole model got a spritz of Testors Dull Cote. 

So, still to go on this model.... hair, face clean-up, belt buckle clean-up, badge thingy clean-up, silver highlights, base detail, purity seals, and jump pack.

Blood Ravens Shrike Proxy - Step 2 (lots of pics)

A lot more procedural steps here involving red and metallic/silver.  If you are painting tabletop quality, just follow the steps until you get to the red you like then skip to the metallic.  I really wish my cameramanship (if that's not a word, feel free to refudiate) was better.  I'd really like the differences between these steps to be more evident in the photos.

First step is to basecoat with Mechrite red. Make sure to use multiple thin coats as much as possible to minimize acrylic texture as the paint dries. Don't worry about being 100% neat at this point. Covering all the right areas is more important than going out of the lines a little.

Next, wash the entire model with Devlan Mud.  Keep the wash moving if it pools up anywhere to prevent it from drying too thick in any one place.  You will probably end up with "tide marks" somewhere, but we'll deal with those later.

The right leg (left on the picture) has some tide marks.

Paint Citadel Red Gore (I used the Vallejo Game Color equivalent) over the larger areas of power armor, focusing more on the areas that face upward.  Again, use multiple thin coats to make the smoothest transitions.  The tide mark on the right leg are gone, faded into the color of the leg using multiple coats of Red Gore.

This might be a good place to stop on the red for tabletop Blood Ravens.

Highlight with a 50/50 Red Gore / Blood Red mix.  I know I'm a broken record, but thin coats will ensure good transitions.  Controlling your brush load allows the thinned out paint goes on where you want it rather than wicking into the mini like a wash.  Use something like a coffee filter or paper tower to draw excessive paint off the brush if needed, touching the side of the bristles to the edge of the paper.  You should see the thinned paint soak into the paper.

Further highlight with straight Blood Red, being very selective about the areas painted.  Pick areas that are perpendicular to the lighting direction, or edges that would pick up the light.

Say it with me now:  multiple.  thin.  coats.

Apply medium silver (Citadel Chainmail or similar.  I used Reaper Master Series Honed Steel.) on the flex joints and other metallic areas.  Touch up and areas you accidentally get metallic paint on with Mechrite Red.

Selectively wash the metallic areas with Badab Black.  We'll be touching up the metallics later so feel free to liberally apply the wash, but keep it on the metallics and don't let it slop onto the other areas.

In the next step I'll cover the bone colored areas and small details like lenses.

I Don't Normally Gripe About Prices But....

So I'm helping my 9-year old with her Orcs and Goblins yesterday and we realize that neither of her Orc chariots have a base.  Okay, so I get on the web site to see how much the bit costs. 

$4.50 each?!  Really?

I mean, this really isn't a case of custom tooling and making profit over time.  This is the same chariot base that comes with every chariot.  If they had been $2 a piece I would have probably just thrown a few in the cart, bought a few more things to get up to the free shipping point and never thought a thing of it.  Now I'm just going to buy some plasticard from FLHS and cut 50x100mm pieces. 

I remember when GW first started releasing the $25 boxes.  At the time we had a GW store around the corner from my house and I told the manager there that the move was brilliant.  $25 is firmly within "impulse buy" territory, while $35 is just a little too steep.  For all the time I ended up hanging out at the GW store playing and painting I made more $10-$25 purchases out of pure proximity to the merchandise than I ever have since that particular store closed.  It's just not convenient to order one little thing online. 

So, there the lesson I guess.  If you have just opened a store selling this stuff (you listening Big D?) the more time people spend in the presence of easy purchases the more likely they are to just go ahead and buy something that catches their eye.

Blood Ravens Shrike Proxy - Step 1

I've had a few random emails lately about my Blood Ravens painting recipe.  As a result I'm going to do a step-by-step with a model I'm painting.

We have here the model I plan to use as a Shrike proxy.  His head and the front of his body are from the Black Reach captain, which also includes that sash in the front.  The legs and his back are standard Space Marine tactical bits.  The arms are from an assault terminator, with the tops of the arms trimmed down both to mate up better with the body and to accommodate the smaller shoulder pads.  The base is a few odd pieces of shale.

I'll cover the basecoat next time.

Magnetic Putty Conversions?

I am intrigued about the "Magnetic Thinking Putty" over at Vat19.com.  How strongly magnetic is it?  Would it mix with two part epoxy putty and create magnetic sculpting material?  Could the magnetic particles be extracted and used with epoxy putty?  It is just iron filings in silly putty?

I can't really think of a good use for magnetic putty in conversions (assuming you could get it to harden) but I'm thinking there's gotta be something.


Ideas anyone?

EDIT:  I bought some.  It's fun, but useless for conversion potential.

My One Year Goal

July 13th isn't really the traditional date for making one-year resolutions, but I am sick to death of seeing the same five minis on the left side of this blog.

My goal:  Replace as many of my CoolMiniOrNot top five as I can with new ones.  I mean, come on.... that Black Templar fig is more than four years old, and I've only managed to post four other minis that even come close to that?  Even the most recent addition is almost a year and a half old.

So, the plan:

1. Pick up a couple new brushes that have better tips... Done!
2. Figure out how to better photograph minis.... no idea!
3. Slow down and concentrate on quality.

I took a couple years to do this before and managed to boost my painting skills to the point where I won my one-and-only Golden Demon.  I need to do this again so I can start hitting 8's on CMON with fairly predictable frequency.  I'm not sure I'll be able to score five >=8.3 in the next year, but I'm going to try.

I'll check back with this goal on July 12, 2011.

This Is Why Brian Gave Up WHFB

A few years ago I convinced a few of my coworkers to take of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  Of those, one gave up the game out of frustration with game mechanics that, in his words, are all about making the other army sad instead of actually killing things.  I vividly recall how irritated he would be when his Dark Elf crossbow troops would shoot a volley of bolts that would darken the sky, only to inflict exactly zero casualties against the Dwarfs he was fighting.  Then, in combat, his troops would inflict more casualties but lose combat because the other guy had ranks, a standard and outnumber.  The Elves, disheartened from their lack of having a pretty flag, would then run away crying and die.  Brian was, shall we say, unsatisfied.

With the advent of 8th Ed. Warhammer, I thought I might see if Brian wanted to give the new ruleset a try. Then I read this passage from an 8th ed. battle report on GW's web site:

Martin charged his Ironbreakers and Warriors into the Eternal Guard. The Elves went first and unleashed a total of 38 attacks, and killed not a single Dwarf. In return the Dwarfs chopped up four of the Elves and the Dwarf Lord caused enough wounds on the eternal Guard Champion to kill him four times over. The Elves promptly ran only to be cut down.

I laughed when I read it, because this is exactly the situation that Brian found so frustrating.  38 attacks and zero casualties.  I think I'll stick to playing Warmachine/Hordes with him and find an opponent for my Skaven elsewhere.

Storm Wardens: Get In While You Can!

The amazing Storm Wardens charity raffle for Doctors Without Borders is supposedly completed sometime in "mid-July."  (Does anyone have a fixed date?)  That means to have precious little time to help a good cause and possibly turn your paltry contribution into a painted army!

So do it!  Don't miss out on this one!

EDIT: July 18 is the final day to donate!!!

The Master of Information

We just got an email from our Chief Information Officer that reads as follows:

On Monday, July 12, the TV show "America's Next Top Model" will hold a casting call in the Student Center Ballroom from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. They expect up to 1,000 young ladies to show up, especially with the heavy promotion planned on CW 50/WWJ for next week.

I want all of you to be aware that the Student Center (and surrounding parking lots) will be pretty chaotic that day. You may want to pick an alternate lunch location!

If you want to show up to witness the event, you know about it!  If you are concerned about how long the line will be at Wendy's that day, you know about it!  Speaking of Wendy's... they better stock up on side salads.

Music: Doom Remix Project

Hey 1990's gamers!  Remember Doom?  Yeah, that Doom.  The first and only game that made me think "I didn't know a computer could do that."  The game that made me ditch my Amiga and get a 40MHz AMD 486 equivalent DOS box (yes, 40MHz.)  The game whose sequel forced me to upgrade to an impressive 8MB RAM.  Yeah, that Doom.

In honor of Doom's 6041st birthday, I would like to bring your attention to something wonderful released 1783 days ago, the Doom Remix Project.  This is a freely downloadable group of musical reinterpretations of the incredible music that accompanied the carnage in Doom.  Go listen and relive the days of 6000-some-odd days gone by.

Also, kudos to timeanddate.com for their date duration calculator.

First 40k Solo Victory!!

It's true!  The long series of draws and losses I have suffered is over.  I actually won a 1v1 game of 40k, and I beat Blood Angels with my Blood Ravens.  Blood this, blood that.  Come, sit, and I will tell of the time those loyal to the Emperor defeated the aberrant Blood Angels.

The mission was seize ground, with five  objectives.  Deployment was Dawn of War.  I'll spare you a long batrep, but I only won this game because I was able to kill his only scoring unit (an assault squad) and then run like a scared rabbit from his units of unstoppable killage and hold a single objective at the end of turn 5, when the game ended.

So here are the Blood Angels units that caused me so much pain:

• Death Company w/ Reclusiarch:  re-rolls of 3+ to-hit and 3+ to-wound.  Ouch.  Nothing these guys assaulted lived past the initial Furious Assault-driven wave of attacks.  The only thing that even got attacks back was my captain, and only because he is I5 and struck simultaneously.
• Stormraven: I had wondered how much a "flat out" cover save could do for a skimmer.  The answer here is that it prevented the Stormraven from being destroyed repeatedly.  All I ever managed to do is shake it and at one point knock out its assault cannon.  With the machine spirit is can flat-out and still fire too.  Whee.
• Baal Predator: what's better than a tank with 12 anti-infantry shots?  An outflanking fast tank with 12 infantry shots.  Zoom.  Brrrrraaakkkkkk.  Ugh.  
• TH/SS Terminators: just like your regular 3+ invulnerable save dudes, but with Feel No Pain!  That means your average marine shooting a single boltgun shot will kill, on average, one Terminator every 36 turns.  A marine with a plasma gun stands a much better change, killing a single Terminator every 5.4 turns, and only a 1/18 chance of killing himself each turn!

At the top of turn 5 I was holding one objective with a single sergeant w/ power fist, and was within move/run of two others with a combat squad and scout squad.  He ran the Baal pred up to my pf sergeant, zoomed the Stormraven over near the scouts and moved the Terminators to block the combat squad from getting to their nearest objective.  He had already lost his scoring unit, and all he needed to do is prevent me from taking an objective in case the game ended and engage me as soon as possible to win.  Nothing I had on the table could withstand what he still had.  The scouts and double-autocannon dread were unable to take out the Stormraven, so no objective there.  The Terminators were too scary for the combat squad to get near, so no go there.  The last hope was the lone sergeant (a conversion of the Crimson Fists char Cortez)  who needed 6's to hit the pred.  He charged, rolled enough on difficult terrain to make it to the tank, and made his three attacks.  One six!  Okay, now it's S8 vs. armor 10... glance on a 2, pen on 3+.  Even if I pen I still need 5+ to make the objective uncontested.  I roll.... pen! and on the damage chart...... 5!  wrecked!  (wipe sweat from brow.)

Finally, at the end of turn 5, I rolled to see if the game ended, and it did.  Blood Ravens take the victory 1 objective to 0.  

Rules note:  When jump troops fall back, they move 3d6" and use their jump packs to go over other units and terrain.  I lost a unit of assault marines because they fell back from a tank shock and I didn't apply this rule.  I moved them like normal marines, although I did move them 3d6, so they just couldn't put enough real estate between themselves and death company to avoid getting assaulted.  If I have been able to jump over the DC I would have put myself out of assault range easily and would have survived.

The Strange Case of Alvin Greene

I am absolutely fascinated with the whole Alvin Greene story.  If he was just an unknown who managed to squeak out a victory I don't think anyone would be all that surprised.  No, instead he's a felony-facing, zero-campaigning, unemployed dude who managed to get almost 60% of the primary vote.

Wha-huh?

So here are some theories, with my analysis:

• He's a Republican "plant."  This would imply that R's crossed over and voted in the D primary to sabotage the general election.  Vote counts in each primary make this hard to swallow.  Democratic primary turnout in 2010 was almost identical in vote count as the 2004 primary, the last time this seat was up for election.  More votes were cast in the 2010 Republican primary for the seat than in either the initial 2004 Republican primary or the ensuing runoff.  2.4x more votes were cast in the R primary than were cast in the D primary in 2010, so for this theory to hold water it implies that Republicans were able to increase their own turnout, get >25% of their own voters to cross over and vote for Mr. Greene and simultaneously suppress the Democratic turnout in similar numbers.  Sure.
• Voters are stupid.  Actually, this one is a combination of two theories.... that voters voted for him because he was the first name on the ballot or because they confused him with soul icon Al Greene.  Seriously?  Seriously?
• Voting machines were hacked/broken.  The SC Elections Board has declined to initiate an investigation of the process, stating the the system "performed accurately and consistently" on June 8, so we're not likely to get much investigation on this one.  Next logical question: who is on the Elections Board?  Are they appointed, perhaps by the governor?
• Anti-Incumbent fever. Neither democratic senate primary candidate was the incumbent senator. The favored candidate in the race, Vic Rawl, is a member of the Charleston County council and a former state legislator, for what that's worth. Negative name recognition? If Mr. Greene beats incumbent R senator Jim DeMint in November then I'll give this one a second thought.

Or maybe.... just maybe.... he actually won.

Miscellaneous Wedding Tales

So, some thoughts about the wedding this weekend....

The gentleman officiating the ceremony is seen at left, taken in the limo between the ceremony and the reception.  Apparently his office of "bishop" is holy, but he's just a regular guy.  He had adequately established his "regular guy" status such that by the time he started talking about "the shocker" I was in no way shocked.  I had not however heard of "the Spocker" which I will leave you to research or not at your discretion.

The ceremony itself was outside in a park by a pond and was quite nice.  A light sprinkling of rain fell on and off punctuated by bright sun.  There was runner going down the aisle which was not holding up well to the wind and foot traffic.  As I escorted the corresponding bridesmaid along the runner I was overly concerned with not tripping on the thing, so all picture Stef took of me have me looking down at my feet.  I look so stupid in them.

If your limo is designed for 11 and you have 14 people in your wedding party, take two cars.  The 14 of us + Bishop Shocker made for a very cramped car ride in which there were four of us on the floor at any given time.

Silver Yo-Yo's as a groomsmen's gift:  Best.  Idea.  Ever.

The guests were wonderfully eclectic, ranging from military in dress uniform to decked-out goth to gamer stereotype (fat w/ big beard.)  Everybody seemed to be having a great time and the groups seemed to mix seamlessly.

I'm not terribly loquacious with people I've recently met, but apparently I had a lapse in social skill during the reception.  One of the bridesmaid's boyfriend had only moved into town in the last 4 months from Hawaii, and when I found out he painted 40k I started talking to him.  I showed him a couple of my painted minis using Stef's iPhone, and we talked about painting and eBay selling.  Then he turns to his girlfriend and says, "You'd better say something or he's just going to keep talking."  Plain as day.  Wow.  I can honestly say I have never had someone drop such an overt "shut the hell up and go away" on me.  So, I did.  Thanks for the memory, Charles from Hawaii who recently moved to the Mason area.


So after the festivities had wound down, I tried to help get things put away as much as I could.  The parents and relatives of the bride/groom were doing all the work while all the 20-somethings were standing around watching them.  (Was I like that?  I hope not.)  I took the push broom away from the elderly aunt and went to work.

All in all, a fun and interesting time.  Thanks for the good time, folks!  I'm glad you liked your present.

Jimmy and Mimi: Zombie Hunters

Congratulations to Jimmy and Mimi, getting married tomorrow afternoon!  Jimmy likes miniatures and Mimi likes "Left for Dead" so I could not think of a better present than a zombie diorama starring the happy couple.

The paper on the side of the stairs is a scan/reprint of their invitation, which I'm hoping they will recognize.  The paper on the back of the stairs is devised to look like a flier from "Necto" (a night club they frequent) and has their wedding date and a replica of the wax seal that came on their invitations.

The top picture is taken with a spooky backdrop, and the final product is encased in a glass dome, shown in the bottom pic.  I took the pic before the glue along the dome wasn't quite dry, so it still looks white in spots.

Update: I got a call from Jimmy on Sunday (6/13) to tell me how thrilled he and Mimi were with the diorama.  Jimmy, Mimi and her family apparently spent  an hour just looking at all the details.  I am pleased.

Here's another great zombie diorama that was created as a gift. Everyone loves a zombie themed gift.

Secret Project : Miniature Math

Addition time:

Girl with chainsaw + 
guy with shotgun + 
green stuff long hair + 
zombies + 
simple masonry 
-----------------------------------
= wedding present.

Pics to come... the wedding is this weekend, and I don't want to spoil the surprise.  Oh, wait.  I think I just spoiled the surprise.

I would have liked to make more elaborate masonry for this project, but all the Hirst molds I co-owned were siezed by a friend's former house-mate (and defacto landlord) for non-payment of rent.  All in all, the charming gentleman took about $500 worth of models/hobby supplies/etc. in lieu of $150 owed for rent.  And by "took" I mean "I'll go through your stuff, take what I want, and dump the rest on the front lawn for you."  

It's a Little Thing But It's Annoying

ClickLock.  Grrr.

Stef's new computer has Windows 7, and we discovered a little irritation with the way it operates.  When browsing, sometimes the vertical scroll bar would "stick" to the mouse, so movements of the mouse would move the page you were browsing up and down. 

This irritating little feature is called "ClickLock."  To turn it off, go to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound and then click "Mouse" (located at the top, in the vicinity of "Devices and Printers.")  Once the Mouse Properties window is open, uncheck "Turn on ClickLock" at the bottom.

Warmachine/Hordes Template Deviation

For the number of times we've had to calculate what model gets hit by what template after it deviates, I'm posting it for the world to see.

small base = 30mm = 1.18 inches, .59" radius
medium base = 40mm = 1.57 inches, .79" radius
large base = 50mm = 1.97 inches, .98" radius

Radius of the base + radius of the template = maximum deviation and still be touching model.

When hit, models within (radius of template - radius of model) of the target are hit indirectly.

3" template:

small base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 2.09" misses completely
• When target hit, models within .91 inches are hit indirectly

medium base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 2.29" misses
• When target hit, models within .71" are hit indirectly

large base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 2.48" misses
• When target hit, models within .52" are hit indirectly

4" template:

small base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 2.59" misses
• When target hit, models within 1.41" are hit indirectly

medium base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 2.79" misses
• When target hit, models within 1.21" are hit indirectly

large base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 2.98" misses
• When target hit, models within 1.02" are hit indirectly

5" template:

small base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 3.09" misses
• When target hit, models within 1.91" are hit indirectly

medium base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 3.29" misses
• When target hit, models within 1.71" are hit indirectly

large base: 

• When target missed, deviation > 3.48" misses
• When target hit, models within 1.52" are hit indirectly

Please feel free to correct my math if I'm off.

Know Your Enemy: Another Protectorate Victory

Today, the Menites were victorious, but only just.

Khador:

• Commander Strakhov
• Spriggan (heavy warjack)
• Great Bears
• manhunter solo
• Yuri the Axe 

Protectorate:

• Vice Scrutator Vindictus
• 10 Holy Zealots w/ monolith bearer
• Choir of Menoth (6 models)
• Dervish (light warjack)
• Repenter (light warjack)
• Hierophant

Turn 2 the bloodshed began as the Zealots surged forward, augmented by Vindictus' "True Path" spell.  They were able to get within 5" of the Great Bears, making the stealth granted by Strakhov's "Occulation" useless.  A few Pow14 bombs later the Great Bears were gone.  Brian had placed Yuri the Axe in woods, but had placed him close enough to the edge that I could see in, so the remaining Zealots killed Yuri with indirect hits.  With effective DEF of 18, they weren't going to hit him directly.  

On the other side of the field, the two warjacks were advancing with the choir acting as a screen against the Spriggan's charge.  To my dismay, Brian charged the Spriggan right through the choir, using bulldozer, Superiority and Strakhov's feat, knocking them back as he heads directly for my warcaster.  I remember back to the last time I played at Planeswalker's, and a Spriggan with Superiority charged Kreoss and won the game for my opponent.  With 3 focus on the Spriggan, I didn't really stand a chance.

And then Brian whiffs the charge attack roll.

The remaining attacks did enough damage to bring Vindictus to within 4 damage of seeing Urcaen first-hand, but he held on.  The rolling was bad in the way my last battle was (with all the snake-eyes.)  With Vindictus still standing, I pelted Strakhov with fire bombs from the Zealots and then finished him off with the Repenter's flail.  

So here's the lesson.... not knowing your enemy can cost you the game.  Brian didn't know about Vindictus' mobility focus, and the extra movement (and pathfinder) that he can grant to everyone in his control radius.  It caught him flat-footed on turn 2 and cost him 8 points of models.  I, on the other hand, didn't know about bulldoze.  By setting the choir up I thought I was shielding my jacks from the Spriggans charge.  When Brian picked the straight path between the jacks, through the choir and straight at Vindictus I thought I was done.  He bounced each choir member back 2" clearing the path and only taking minor damage from the free strikes.

I am now almost at 50% win/loss in Warmachine, which is a new high for me.  Maybe next week I can officially tie it up.  Maybe.

Dune (movie) and 40k Imagery

Second Dune post in two days.  Second Dune post ever, come to think of it.

What an odd coincidence that the 1984 Dune movie was on TV last night.  I watched it, and was fascinated by how closely the imagery resembles what we have come to expect from 40k.  I'm not talking about the conceptual comparisons like warping space or god-emperors or what not.  I'm referring specifically to the way Dune was represented on-screen in that movie.  From the winged flying lamps to the translator-on-a-staff that the navigator guild envoy used to the ...

Okay, that's strange.  I just got a call on my office phone and the number is from a Pizza Hut in Naples, FL.  Huh.

Anyway, if you can sit through the 2.5 hours of mediocrity, then I recommend 40k fans take a good hard look at this movie.  I don't remember how much style is lifted directly out of the book, but considering it came out three years before Rogue Trader I suspect it had no small influence on the stylized setting we've all come to know.