++ Of Books and Rules ++

Hello all the Buddys, 

Hope everyone's week is going well and all that good stuff. What I wanted to talk about today is the Dark Angels Codex. I think it is a very nice and high quality book. The thing I am amazed by is the fact that this $50 dollar book is a very nice piece of bookery but it isn't a great rules book. 

  

Nice new art

Not that the rules themselves are bad, its not that, in fact I think the army has gotten a nice boost and are in-line with other armies in this edition. The rules are, however, clumsy and filled with typos... Not what you want in a 'rules' book. At first I didn't notice them and then I started reading online and thought: "it cant be that bad" but what I now realize after GW dropped their FAQ that the book is riddled with mistakes. lots of small omissions and things that could screw you if you looked i the wrong place, or didn't check the FAQ.

Whoa! Fiction in the filler pages, what is this 3rd ed?!?

You don't have to believe me, just go to GW website (here) and see how sloppy their editors did on what is basically should be a luxury item. I am not all nerd ragey or anything I just feel like if GW is going to present themselves as the premiere game of gaming with toy army men then they need to take some time and get these books airtight before publishing and putting a $50 sticker on them. When I say airtight I don't even mean from a playtest perspective, because that train left the station awhile ago and might never come back, but just in the grammar and basic editing. With the wonders of computers and cut and paste technology the stat lines and wargear lists on one page should sure as hell match the stats on another page, and in this book sadly they don't.

Whats the solution?
Well apparently I now need to stick some crusty black and white pdf' into my new 'beautiful' book in order for it to be consistent and have the proper rules. This onveneintly adds three places for me to have to look up a rule... I know gw is making the digital codexs available. and updating those, but I already bought the hardback because I am a bibliophile, but this is not just a book (on the book level this book is a good one!) it is a rules-book and should have the rules, whether good or bad, be consistent and line up throughout the book. The half-assery and shabby nature of the rules differences from one part of the book to another is somewhat pathetic for any game company, much less the bestesettsest of the best as GW fancies itself.

Overall I really have been enjoying looking over the Codex and enjoying the nice art and even the fluff is slightly better written then previous incarnations  but it is not a sound rules book for the above mentioned things. If GW continues to put out sub-par books thinking they can just update them later I am bit disappointed.

One of my all time favorites... Now in colour!

Honestly, I am diggin the book, but this rules typo situation is a bit sub-par and not worthy of a $50 book... Now I am about to order the Horus Heresy Book from Forge Word and I am curious to see how far they outclass GW proper. More on that front in a future article, 

but until then take 'er easy Buddys!

++ New Year: new Bloggery ++

Hello all you Buddys out there!

So firstly happy new year! Hope this year kicks last year's @ss because 2012 was a harsh mistress to yours truly...

     Now that that's outta the way we can look at what I have been thinking and doing, clearly keeping the blog updated has not been one of them. Well for starters my hobby has almost completely fallen by the wayside, but I have been feeling that mid-winter's itch to start-up again, and oh what do ya know a new Dark Angels Codex is right around the corner. That is good because the Chaos Dex and new models did not really make me that excited and in fact I was so underwhelmed by the dino-bots that I completely abstained from any purchases in regards to the new Chaos stuff.

     Unfortunately the 3.5 Chaos Dex basically ruined me from liking anything to come out for Chaos in nearly a decade, but since my DA army has never been a good performer and my main draw is the models and the DeathWing, this new book looks like just what the doctor ordered for me. I mean now I can run extra cool DW termies with my regular termies!

Also on a another note, this ^^^ right here has been my current hobby. This is my brand-new-second-hand bike, its 1200 cc Sportster by Harley Davidson. I have been ridin almost every day since I got her and loving my machine... like mechanicum level love for this machine. So in addition to my 40k content I am hoping to add some bike stuff as well as other non-hobby stuff like more movie and show reviews/previews t the blog content for all to enjoy (hopefully).

On that note here's an awesome looking trailer for all you buddys out there:




Lets hope this new year brings good things for all and I will see you guys on the flipside!


Cheers!

++ Posible Sixth Ed Cover! ++

 Hey Buddys,

 Just a quickie to get through the weekend. Thanks to Faeit 212 for this awesome leaked shot of what sure looks like a hardback rulebook... 6th?!?!

The only other thought I could possibly have is that it is the new cover for the hardback DA codex... But with the tagline on the bottom (pretty Blurry but appears to say "in the Grim Dark...") it sure seems like a core rule-book. It is good to see the Dark Angels finally getting some front cover love, something they haven't had since Dark Millennium 2nd ed. expansion if I recall correctly...



 Hope everyone is well and Happy Father's day out there to all you breeders!

+ Custodes in Plastic: Squad Deux +

Hello Intertubez,

Just a little show and tell to show the progress on squad deux. These guys are the push up close incinerator squad who will be the tip of the spearhead (the most sensitive part) and will ride in a Rhino so they can open up dual incinerators out of the hatch if need be.

Since the incinerators are free for purifiers this squad is the cheapy of the troops choices so I threw in the hammer and falchions, not only to make some other weapons model-wise besides guardian spears but to give this squad the extra close-combat flippy-ness and punch I want them to have.

Again with the heavy/special weapons I wanted to go with the elongated design seen in the terminator Custodes art. Although I like the incinerator 'head' so much I didn't want to put a dragon head on there even though I probably should have but I think it works. There is also another incinerator dude who is kneeling but I sole him from my dark angels army and he wasn't photographing too well so he'll show up when I post all the group shots in the near future.

Here is the falchion buddy, if he looks familiar it's because it's part of the lack Reach Captain. I decided to only give him one little sword and one regular sized one because I think it looks pretty cool and to just mix it up a bit.

anyways comments and feedback are always welcome and I will post a revised list up again soon taking into account what models I have, want to buy and the input from last post about my v.1.0 list. Thanks for taking some Buddy Times.

+ WIP It! The goldknight onslaught continues: Who needs Castellan Crowe?

So the show and tell continues today with my 'counts as' Castellan Crowe. As I have said before I want my Custodes to be Marines++ and Purifiers seems like the way t give them that extra edge over standard Marines, and once I give them all Halberds and whatever they end up being as cost effective as strike squads, I think. I know Crowe is a terrible HQ but I feel like if accomandeers a a vehicle and either hides in my back field as the ultimate F-U counter assault with his sacrifice power or as a suicidal uber model killer I think I can make him work.

Anyway onto the model:

He is rocking the arm mounted Storm Bolter and people may hate on this but I feel like the Grey Knights had have taken that design from somewhere and with Horus' claw, and some other examples, the concept of wrist mounted bolters was not unheard of in the Heresy era, and I think it look pretty sweet.

He is made of:

• Dark Angels legs and other wingy bits
• Sanguinary Guard torso with the icons altered to remove the blood drips
• Grey Knights Sword arms and back-pack
• High Elf Head
• Chaos Warriors Cape

There are also some random eagle and wing bits from wherever they're from as well

Anyway comments and criticisms welcome, thanks again for stopping by for some Buddy Times, buddies.

+WIP it! Custodes Librarian with Servo Skulls+

So the Custodes continues on their way. Today I am showing the Librian I made as an HQ for my 'Gold Knights' army; aka Custodes count as Grey Knights. There to my knowledge is not a piece of art depicting a Librarian so I again improvised and tried to echo other themes in the army or artwork.

One of the main features of the Custodes Terminators is the old-skool styled shoulder pads, and those were made using some of the extra leg guards from the Dark Angels upgrade sprue. Another smaller detail is the kinda Roman style strips that hang down from the shoulder pads which I made using the bit that comes in the Space Marine Captain set, but if I end up making the five more termies I want in the army I need to figure out a way of fabricating them out of plasti-card strips or something.

Obviously the cape was a no-brainer to give him some gusto and have him fit the rest of the force. I blinged him up with a bunch of eagle wings and what-nots, but really this is probably going to be the least converted model in the army since their is nothing really changing the core model besides adding stuff to him.

So there he is if anyone has feedback I am happy to hear it.

Now onto the Servo-skulls, one of the secret reasons I want to use this model, and I may even be throwing in a Tech-Marine to take more as well.

Here's the first three, I wanted to make cool little mini-dioramas and have the skulls kinda sneaking around or whatever they do... Float I guess

Here's two more that I have, the one on the left is the devastator one with Dark Angel wings on his head, it works well so I don't have any doubles. I have one final skull to complete but he requires painting before assembly so I'll show him when I get some paint on him.

Always thanks for stopping by the Buddy Times and see you next time.

+WIP it! Fortress of Redemption+

Welcome back to the Buddy Times Every-tuber,

Was just gonna show you guys a quick WIP it! pics of the Fortress of Redemption I'm working on in my spare hobby time (read: really, really free time...so not that often). But I'm hoping to just put a little time to complete the dang fence, and tower-thing so we can use it in the upcoming Campaign (I will be posting about it more in detail shortly).

For those who haven't seen this beast in person that red line is an 18in GW Wippy-Stik

And the first pic just shows the bulk of the whole thing.

^Large Phallic tower, in all its glory^

Trying to go for a concrete stone type look, not totally finished but I think with some Develon Mud washes it'll be good to go.

And now with Airbrush super power I think I can do a couple of cool things with the MASSIVE angel statue on each of the four sides of the tower. I have held off going beyond this point because I wasn't quite sure what to do with all that real estate. I'm still not but between the Airbrush and the campaign I gotta figure something out, so I'll keep you guys posted.

Cheers,

Hashshashin

Smoke Blood for the Blood God

+Quick Update: Way Nicer Pics+

Hello Internetz,

Hey just got off the road and am back in Colorado... Finally. added about 4,ooo miles to the ol odemeter over the past week and am glad to be sitting at home.

Over the past couple of days I was in Milwakee Wisconsin and a buddy of mine had just gotten a new camera so we snapped some shots of a couple minis, some you guys have seen but I find these to be a little truer to the models so I hope you enjoy.

Cheers,

Hashshashin

ps. we'll be back up to our regular posts soon, thanks again everybody who checks us out and we at the Buddy Times have a special announcement that will be ready soon.

Smoke Blood for the Blood God

+Blood of Skulls: Tournament debrief+

Hello Intertubez,

Yesterday was a small 1850 tournament at one of the FLGS in the area so John Henry and myself cruised by to see what we could get into. I brought my Blood Smoker Legion of Khorne and John Henry feilded his 4th company Ultramarines. I will post my list and pics of the Army sooncome. But all in the all the event was quite nice and much fun was had by most, there'a always going to be some haters wherever you go, ya' know?

I again finished somewhere in the middle, but I was able score the Adapt of Mars award for best appearance. O.o Wow didn't expect that. I always put alot of time energy and effert into my painting and modelling but I often feel that really I'm just gearing up and someday my creations will really look the way I want them to, but that now ity's just a WIP. I gotta say this award is making me reconsider that concept, and maybe I'm making more progress then I thought initially. Anyways I was stoked to be acknowledged for my energy spent painting and modelling.

So now for just some quick show and tell:

Here's an old Death Wing Chaplin I've had bumpin' around for awhile I don't think I shared here yet.

and also a shot of the rear of Sasquatch Kharn's back so you can see the GS work that went into him to fill out the proportions.

A note to true-scalers the Chaos Lord Kit is actually a bit larger than a standard Marine Termie so If you use it as a basis for a TS marine he'll be a bit bigger then even a 'normal' true scale.

This is a little duel diorama I made, you can really see the huge-ness of Sasquatch Kharn in this:

Cheers,

Hashshashin

Smoke Blood for the Blood God

+Buddy Hobby Time, Buddy+

Hello Everyone,

Just some hobby thoughts today about adding personality and character to your units.

Lately whenever I model a squad I always try to give the sergeant a little extra personality. I then use his personality and perceived action to set a theme for the squad. This is a style I developed during the making of my DeathWing Army. The Fluff for the DeathWing is that only the most trusted most Bad-@$$ doods even even become 'normal' DeathWing. So this led me to the idea that the DW Sergeants Should be even more of that stuff (trusted, awesome, etc). So I went on a quest to collect every 'special' terminator I could get. Any captain, hero, Chaplain, Forge World models I could find I would convert into DeathWing Captains or whatever.

^He's pointing and they're all walking that way^

Anyway back to my point which is if the captain is walking then the squad should look like walking as well, or at least in motion. If the captain has a static look the squad will look good in static poses as well. I know some people prefer 'dynamic poses' and some people prefer more posey poses but I think they all work just within the context of the Squad. Granted that context can be expanded to include the whole army so that everyone is charging or whatever but from a strictly logistical point of view in every kit there's a couple sets of lees walking/running, and couple sets posing. Obviously there are exceptions to this like Assault marines but as a general rule I find this to be true with 40k kits.

^These guys are all bustin' Caps^

So this gives a great opportunity to look at the different bitz options you have available and make the squads have a unified feel. These guys are all holding up their Bolters and shooting, or these guys are just striking a victory pose after a hard fought win, and so on. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that you can't mix up the bits, nothing would be more boring then if every model was posed identically (that would be like... fantasy...;)).

^These guys are in the strike a pose camp^

^These are just some different sergeants from my DeathWing^

This idea has just been on my mind lately as I build this guard army because my intention in making this army is equally in making a effective gaming force as much as an awesome opportunity to really take my modeling to the next level...hopefully.

Cheers,

Hashshashin

Smoke Blood for the Blood God

DW Side-Track

Hello Inter-tubes,

Now that I am having a bit more free time I will hopefully be updatine the blog more regularly, After dropping my Fallen Angel the other day I though I'd follow up with some DeathWing goodness. (Sorry about the poor quality pics, I will be working with my baby's momma ;) , who is a photographer to help me soon in improving the quality)

^^Here's the 1850 family shot with a few WIP's mixed in (banners & LandRaider's mainly)

But the real point of this post is the MkIIb LandRaider, have always wanted the FW one but since I already have 2 DW LR's, One Chaos LR, and a fourth still in the box, I haven't been able to justify the purchase. But I did decide to make one using plasticard, and bits, here it is:

Still need to fill the gaps around the front plates, but...C&C welcome, please.

It was built using:

• Land Raider Kit
• DA RavenWing Vehicle Bits
• Fortress of Redemption Front plates and other bits
• and the 'old-style' hatches are Chaos vehicle ones but the hatches are upside down
• Also used bits from Guard Vehicle Sprue to old-style' it up with hadles and stuff

Well since I'm on a limited schedule I'll be focusing my painting on finishing up this army, so the next few posts will likely be this but I do want to get a group shot of the Hashshashinian 113th in a group format soon as well.

Cheers,

Hashshashin

Smoke Blood for the Blood God