What's on my painting table - MK2 Storm Talon



This weekend I managed to finish off my MK2 Storm Talon (As well as paint the 10th, and final member of my Devastator Squad and start on two Ork Nobz).  Here are some pics of the end result. 

The MK2 ready for action!

Close up of the pilot

Rear view (you can see the Nobz I've been working on in the background)

Top view. 

Another cockpit close up.

What's on my painting table - Striking Scorpions

It took a while but I've finally finished my Striking Scorpions Squad for my Eldar Kill Team.  Here is the end result. 

The finished squad

Sneak Peek

With my Scorpions finished I've started work on painting my MK2 Stormtallon.  Here's a sneak peek of the progress so far.  In a break from the norm I've actual decided to finish the base of this miniature first.

Work on the MK2 Stormtallon has begun. 

Tales from the touchline - Exebowl 2014 report



Well I'm back from Exebowl and as promised here's my report on how it all went.  Now Exebowl was the first ever NAF Blood Bowl tournament that I have entered so I wasn't really sure how it would all go down.  I knew that the out of the 32 teams that had entered around 50% of them were what I would call "Pro Blood Bowl" players, that is to say that they are fellow gamers who regularly take part in these tournaments with the aim to do well in them and boost their NAF ranking.  The remaining 50%  were rookie players, people like myself who either had no previous tournament experience or had only been to one or two of them. 


It turned out that I was the only Necromantic team entered.  There were several Undead teams, A few Elves, some Dwarfs, a lot of Skaven and a lot of Vampires.  There was an array of pitches and an equally impressive array of Club shirts on display (From clubs from across England and Wales).


My first game was against an Undead team, which I lost 2 - 0.  After a quick lunch break my second match (Which was also my favourite of the day) was against a Skaven team which ended in a 2 all draw (but more about that in a bit).   The final match of the day saw me face off against a Dwarf team, which I  lost (due in part to the worse dice rolling luck in my life!). Needless to say the final result ended 4 - 0, which also ways a lot about my tactics :) In the end I finished 28th in the tournament, which I'm happy with.  It's also put me on the NAF World Rankings and apparently I'm currently ranked as the 138th best Necromantic team in the world (Though there may be only 138 Necromantic teams in NAF). 


I have to admit that my lasting impression of the day was just how well spirited the pro players were. In both my first and second games I was up against Pros (The person I played in my first pool game actually went on to win the tournament!) and they were just great opponents.  They knew I was a rookie and they offered me tactical advice, guidance and a lot of allowance to help me improve my game play and help me to learn some neat plays.  A good example of this was in my second game where my opponent went into a 2 - 1 lead during the second half of our game.  I only had 1 turn left to play, which would also be the last turn on the match and my opponent showed me how I could pull off a 1 turn touchdown that would draw the game for me.  What was even more surprising was that I managed to roll all the dice results I needed and it actually worked!  I mean how well spirited is that.  I'd struggle to see that happening in any other competitive environment. 


Although I didn't win anything I did come away with a lot of new experience and tactical advice to take with me into my next tournament or league.  I also picked up some ideas for conversions and modelling ideas for future Blood Bowl projects, oh and of course I got two new Exebowl dice.  I'm also hoping to go to another NAF tournament sometime in the future, hopefully another 1 day event, fairly local to Exeter (I hear there is a  1 day event in Bristol in June). 


Here's a few photos that I took from the day, If you head over to Exebowl.co.uk you can see some more that Pete (the TD and organiser of Exebowl) took. 



This is a ball marker I made which is base don one that I saw at Exebowl.  It's a really good idea as you can but it under the base of the player who was the ball, making it really easy to move it around and see who has it. 

My teams casualties during my first game. 

Round 2 draw...

...and the Rround 3 draw

This Troll Slayer had a good day during my final game. 



Here's my finished marker, with added pitch line and blood!

Tales from the touchline - The Road to Exebowl



Tomorrow I'll be entering my Necromantic Team, the Al 'A' Merry-Kan Death Stars into Exebowl, Exeter's first NAF approved Blood Bowl tournament.

I was a bit of a late entry into the tournament having only signed up to it on Monday morning (and taking the last slot) so I had  a bit of a panic that evening to get my team together and do some last minute paint jobs on the miniatures to make sure that they were correctly numbered and their skills were displayed.

This is the first Blood Bowl tournament I have entered so I am slightly nervous but also excited.  Luckily it's being held  at my local gaming club, so I don't have too far to go, and I'll know some people there. 

Some of my team.



I have to admit I have no battle plan for the tournament.  I'm just going to play each game as a bit of fun and see what happens, which is pretty much my philosophy for all the games I play,  but you never know I could end up getting the Spoon!

I'm not sure if there will be any other necromantic teams.  I know there are no "Stunties" entered and there will at least be some Elves to face (I hate Elves!).

Anyway I'll let you know how the tournament went, and how I end up.

What's on my painting table - Orks Nob and Death Guard Champion

I've managed to get another few miniatures finished over the weekend (as well as start on a few new projects).  first up is this slightly converted Ork Nob with Waaagh Banner.  I've been needing a miniature to represent a Nob with Waaagh Banner for a while now so finally got round to converting myself one using the plastic Ork Nobz set and some items from my bits box.  Here's the end result.

The banner is made from several back poles as well as a bit of spru.  I had to pin the banner pole to make it stay together and to give it some added strength. 

I decided to go for a simple paint job on this miniature.  His war gear is also deliberately very limited

Next up is this Chaos Space Marine Chosen miniature from the Dark Vengeance boxset.  I'm going to hopefully be using him as a Champion for my yet to be assembled Death Guard squad (Which will be replacing one of my Red Corsair squads in my Chaos Space Marine force).

Although not a Plague Marine this Death Guard Champion has been mutated heavily by the warp. 

I used the Nurgles Rot technical paint in between the ribs on the armour. 

I also rusted up the backpack.

Future projects

Now that these two miniatures are finished I've started painting my new Striking Scorpions squad that will be part of my new Eldar Kill Team.  I've also been working on two Grot Assistants that are part of the Mek Gun kit.  I've even started painting my Stormtallon MK2 flyer. 

Sneak peek of my Striking Scorpions squad.

What's on my Painting Table - Typhus

I've been working on expanding my Chaos Space Marine force and so recently decided to get the Typhus miniature as a second HQ choice.  My end game is to have half my force as Death Guard and the other half as Red Corsairs (With a unit of Thousand Sons thrown in).

Eventually my Chaos Cultists will be replaced with Plague Zombies and one of my two Space Marine Squads will be Death Guard.  I decided to do this because I really like the Death Guard paint scheme and have already started to paint some of my new Chaos units in that scheme.  I also got into the history of the Death Guard through reading the Horus Heresy novels so really wanted to start playing them. 

Anyway here's the finished Typhus model. Enjoy :)

Typhus at the mid way point

The finished result



Stay on Target - Z95's

I've recently purchased two Z95 Headhunters to use in my games of X-Wing (The main reason being that they looked cool).  However I have found that using them can be a bit of challenge. 

So far I've played three games with them and have started to learn what their strengths and weaknesses are.  Certainly one of the big benefits of the Z95 is their cheap cost.   However their stats (2's across the board) don't make them that amazing and many players see them as a poor mans X-Wing.

What I did learn from using them for the first time is that you need to equip them with missiles! This give you way more combat options and makes them a formidable attack fighter that you could pair them up with two Y-Wings (with Ion cannons) and you've got a good little squadron.  Certainly Ion Missiles and Cluster Missiles work a treat and giving your Z95s the munitions failsafe upgrade gives you a better chance them causing some damage. 

One thing I've yet to try it to pair them with my two A-Wings.  I'm not sure how successful that combination would be but I may give it a go.

My two new Z95's

The Z95's tend to be a good hanger on as well.  Despite only having 2 shields and 2 hull points they do tend to stick around for a bit and can really annoy your opponent.  It's a shame though that they can't have an R2 unit in them, as having an option to repair shields or damage could give them even more last-ability. 

Anyway that's my first thoughts of the good old Z95.  What do you think of them?  do you have any tactics that work for you?  Let me know in the comments below.