Bolt action league results

So last night I won my bolt action league! Here is the proof: 

I went 7 wins with 1 draw and 2 losses over the last couple of months. Very pleased with the overall result obviously, but also since I've not really played bolt action prior to this term, exstatic to have a the juggernaughts trophy for a short while. 

You can watch my latest vlog about bolt action here:  

Missile launcher conversion: to done!

Finally! A painting update. This major project has taken months of my time and has been a real labour of love.

 

So just in time for Double Trouble, I've painted this missile launcher rack to indicate that my old school Ultramarines have a missile launcher. 

 

I've used blue stripes as a spot colour to tie it into the first founding chapter, but ive painted the base a yellow colour to tie it in with the Howling Griffons.  

 

The base, coupled with the little dots on the control panel all help to brighten this model up a bit, I was concerned that it was all just shades of mechanical gray to start with but the spot colours have worked that out nicely. In a pinch I might be tempted to use this as some form of fortification add on or something. It's generic enough.  I can't find the 2016 "40k addict" hobby stamp that indicates this is "to done", but I'm signing this little project off as completed :)

Jump jump jump!

Another day, another blog article. Just kidding - sorry it's taken so long for an update! I've been quite busy, party with work as we get a new bishop, but also I really have just been enjoying reading my book! So there is a couple of good-ish reasons. 

 

I wanted to update you on my Jumpmaster painting progress. This is my second, and as you can see its now painted! The beady eyed amongst you will notice that it's not the same as the first one 

(viewable on this vlog here) and in fact uses a whole new paint scheme. As before, I ummed and arrr'd about what colour to paint it. However, this time I decided to go the purple and bought about 4 different colours of purple paint before really deciding on a style!

I eventually went for something not to dissimilar to my first Jumpmaster, with some vertical patterns and lines that corresponded to where the rest of the ship meets the crescent. However, this time the base couloirs were different, with a bleached bone crescent and central column, whilst the other bits were a gun metal grey. Brought together through a bit of washing and drybrushing, they are subtly different tones without being to obvious.  

You should also be able to see from the above picture that I went for a reflection on the windscreen. First time I've tried that, and I'm really pleased with how it worked out!

 

I wanted to try something a bit more freaky for the freehand design, and ended up going with this. It took me a couple of decent sessions to get this nailed on. It's not a flat area, but it also goes up and down at different places. So trying to do justice to that whilst also making a believable pattern was hard work! However, I'm very pleased with the result :)

I also painted the engine glow again. This process was a lot smoother second time around as I've learnt at which angle to hold (and not hold) the brush so that you don't get paint where you don't want it!

 

I'm actually more pleased with the other side (below),  it's a much smoother transition of colours and shape. From this angle you can also see what I meant about the bone and grey contrast. 

 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this guys turned out. It's not airbrush quality, but I don't have an airbrush! The next step is that I'm going to start magnetising the ships onto new bases. That'll be good fun. I've never done it before, but I have a friend who has and he's been kind enough to help me understand what I need to do it! It's hard to explain but basically they will be at dynamic moveable angles and look super cool. 

30,000 page views!

Hooray! Sometime over the weekend I broke through the 30,000 page views mark :) which means I'm now officially in the age of crusading across the blog-o-sphere. Soon half my blog will turn away from me and be tempted by the sultry calls of other blogs such as STand wargaming or from the Horus Hersey to infinity and beyond. 

In all seriousness, thank you for reading my mumbling thoughts! In the last month I've had an influx of traffic, and I'm hoping to keep that up. I know my blog has become much more focuses on X-wing at the moment, and I hope you'll beat with me!  I'm hoping over this weekend to get some painting done (hopefully the new ghost or the jumpmaster 5000) so I'll share that when it's done. 

Until then, fly casual!

Achievement unlocked: win a tournament

You may be able to geuss what this blog post is about due to the title. Whilst it's not a goal on my hobby resolutions, it's been an overarching goal for some time. Indeed, on the "mr & Mrs" video that my wife and I did for when we got married, it was one of my stated aims, instead of things like kids and the like. One thing at a time I say!

In summary, yesterday I went to an X-wing store championships at Titan games in Lichfield. I ran the 4 scum ywings with tlt and unhinged astromech. For this that don't know, that means each ship has a turret that fires twice a turn, as well as being making the ships much more manoeuvrable. 

I went undefeated in Swiss, (despite having 1 z95 take out 2.5  ywings on its own!) and then went all the way after the cut. In my semi final/ top 4 game I was very fortunate, and got the drop on my oppenant, who should have had me dead to rights. And then in the final, I played a Biggs/wes/keyan build that is beaten in round 4, and successfully managed to broadside them one at a time. 

Further in depth reports will follow as well as a vlog, but I couldn't contain my excitement and had to blog about it! 

X-wing store championships tomorrow

Just a quick update! Tomorrow Aaron (from Webway Lamentations) and I are off to a store championships for X-wing at Titan games in Lichfield! 

I won't be running the three kwing list. Not this weekend anyway. It's good fun, but isn't quite what I'm looking for. I'll be taking my 4 tlt ywing list, but this time I'm going to try the scum version, which makes all my 3 speed manevuers green. I'm hoping to vlog the experience as well :)

Wish me luck! 

Space Marine Bike HQ: Complete!

Huzzah! Knocked another little milestone on its head. I've finished what was one of my modest hobby goals for 2016. My space marine HQ choice. 

Hardcore power gamer that I am, this guy is modelled in a way that makes him ambiguous. Is he a captain? Is he a librarian? Could he be a chapter master? Or maybe even a high elf prince riding a dragon?* Who knows. 

Anyhoo, there are a couple of things with this guy I'm reasonably pleased about. The first is his cloak. I took the time to put a couple of extra layers of highlights onto his cloak. It's not amazingly different, but you can tell the difference when you see the model up close. 

The second is his elevated position. Whilst you can't tell because of my mad skillz, his front wheel isn't touching the ground. Not a lot, but enough that it raises his profile when compared to other bikers:

This has been achieved by a small clear piece of plastic, the type that are the sprue for flying base stands. I've covered it up with grass, but because it's clear plastic unless you actually know it's there it's really hard to tell. 

And finally, the sword. To indicate that it has "power" of some description (be that otherworldly or just a power sword - like i said I'm a wannabe power gamer) I painted several thin white coats in a lightning like motif across the blade. What's more, I then went back and put gloss varnish on just the lighting strike. A small detail to catch the eye, but one I'm pleased with. 

So there you have it! I'm giving myself a completed stamp for this bad boy! Hooray! Now, if only I knew people who played 40k......

*not this one

The Juggernaut Shield - Pictures and Final Thoughts

I thought I would showcase some photos of the teams from our tourney last weekend, and also muse on the advantages and disadvantages of having a bye.

Waaaagshington Greenskins

Ian's team are an experienced team of many editions of blood bowl, and even include a painted coach and apothecary (see back row in the centre).

The starting line up, a nice traditional red colour scheme, with some added extras. Ian did a bit of touching up on the models in preparation with some liquid skill (nuln oil). There are some really nice details, for example the shoulder pads of the blitzers came out really well. 

These are the two models that were hastily assembled in order to crunch me in round 4 and the semi final. Rather intimidating when he's assembling a black Orc (Thrasher) as we play, in case we play next round. The goblin was who nearly scored in the final is called "Pancake McNumpty". 

The final line up! With added emergency models takin thier assigned places. Really nice team to play against, great to have two fully painted playing ball on the pitch!

Pro Elf Pansies

Not fully painted, but that didn't stop them destroying all before them! They scored 18 touchdowns in three games!

And very impressively, these 3 were the cornerstone of the attack. 11 completions and 13 touchdowns between the three players (one of the catchers got a completion as well!) meant that the thrower and 2 catchers made this team champions! Plus they had terrific names :)

Mul-Buldohr Brewmiesters 

As featured in a previous post, the drunken dwarves! Thankfully from my perspective I never had to face thier death roller. Love the 3D printed tankards, and especially beer leader in the middle!

And to underline things- here they are kicking the teeth in of my wood elves! For some reason I tried to go toe to toe with them!

Bad Kings of the Old World

Although you've seen them before, here is a shot or two of my team:

A close up of a loyal lineman

Some of the star performers. My catcher scored most of my TDs and this wardancer got +1 armour! (And also didn't die!)

Obviously there were 5 teams, but I didn't get any close up shots of the South Park Rangers - although very nicely painted they were a stand in team and tbh I also forgot!

Project completed!

Whilst I'm a little late to the party, I'm declaring the combined blood bowl bits from January a major achievement of my 2015-2016 list. I completed the team by the 16th, majorly fast painting skills! And we also held the tourney. I only scored 8 touchdowns in 5 games, so that's a bit of a fail, and something I need to work on in the future. 

Having a bye
One of the things that we encountered was that every person had a bye for one game. In such a small tournament it didnt have to great an effect, but I can think of a couple of ways that it might be made more interesting. For example, so that there could be some benefit to having a bye, the coach could pick one of the following four options for his team to complete.

• "Rest week". In the middle of any busy season, teams always need a chance to rest and recuperate. Sometimes squads arent big enough to allow proper rotation, so you choose to give your team a short break. Effect: This bye allows any "miss next game" effects from the casualty table to be healed during your bye, meaning that players can start your next match.
• "Press Drive". Every second counts in this league! You and your players go on a press drive, flooding instagoblin, faceelf and all other types of social media/media in an effort to grow your fanbase. This has a positive effect, but you wont know how much until your next game. Effect: At the start of your next league game, you may permanently add some fan factor to your roster. Roll a D3 and add the result to your fan factor.
• "Intensive Training". Theres no rest for the wicked. You need to use this week to train your team up and work on those special plays. They spend the whole week on the training ground. This has varying positive outcomes, but at least you get more experienced as a unit. Effect: Randomly assign one team member +3 SPP to represent this training.
• "Gala Dinner". Be it Dragon Steak or Halfling Hotpot, your team has a fund raising dinner in an effort to prop up its ailing bank balance. You invite the local nobles and barons to your home ground for an evening of mixing with their star players in the hope of attracting more funding. Effect: Roll a D3 and add this much to your treasury. If this boosts your treasury enough to make a purchase, you may do so before your next game.

These are just my ideas! Does anybody have any comments or counterpoints? To powerful? To weak? Not needed? 

As ever, thanks for reading :) hopefully later this week, I will be musing further on double trouble lists. I'm going to address what for me is the elephant in the room :)