Secret Project Revealed

I am very excited to finally reveal to the diceRolla community the results of a secret project that I've been working on for most of the past year. Sorry to have kept so many of you in the dark about this while all the behind-the-scenes stuff was going on, I thought it would be more appropriate to keep quiet until everything was in place. So it now brings me incredible joy to introduce you to my newest gaming and painting buddy, Oswald Montgomery Jones!

Little Monty!

Ozzie (or Monty for you fans of The Simpsons) was born earlier this week on Monday and then my wife and I adopted him on Wednesday. Hopefully this explains at least somewhat why I have not been blogging as much as I used to. I've been rather preoccupied these last couple months. ;) With all that we had to do in order to become eligible and qualify for the adoption, I've had less time than usual for hobbying and blogging, though that was certainly a trade-off I was more than happy to make.

We'll be staying just across the border in South Carolina for the next couple of weeks as we await the legal authority to travel across state-lines with our new baby. During this time I don't have a lot to do other than taking care of Ozzie and our now three year old daughter, Cassidy, who is by the way very happy to be a big sister. :) Therefore I'm optimistic that I'll be able to post a few more times over the coming days about some of the gaming that I managed to squeeze in recently. Also I have with me a small stack of wargaming rulebooks to read, so if everything goes alright I might be able to review a couple of them as well. Of course I'll likely be delirious from a lack of sleep but that's never stopped me before.... Here is what I have on hand to help pass the time:

5150 - Star Army

Larger Than Life

Adventures in the Lost Lands

Strange Aeons

Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten (BETA)

Fear and Faith

Pulp City

Heavy Gear Blitz!

Songs of Our Ancestors

If anyone is particularly interested in hearing more about any of these games, let me know and I'll put it (or them) at the top of the list for examination and discussion. I've already started testing out Strange Aeons and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. It feels like it was written especially for me as it hits all the right buttons, being a skirmish-level game based on the Cthulhu Mythos, and I suspect that it will become a big part of my hobby life once things settle down again. Therefore I'll likely start the reviews with Strange Aeons unless someone would prefer me to begin elsewhere.

Okay friends, that's it for now. If you want to check out the beginning of what promises to be a cool series about another secret Mystery Project (and one that is actually intended to benefit fellow bloggers too!), you can go check out Thor's blog Creative Twilight. Here's the link for that: Mystery Project WIP. So until next time, happy painting and gaming!!

Frontline Infinity

I'm taking a little break from the hobby whatnots tonight as another round of family visitors arrived earlier today. Thursdays are nominally my Infinity day for blogging, although during my first month back to diceRolla I hardly did anything at all related to the game and so it was skipped a few times in my weekly rotation. This is personally disappointing for me as Infinity is one of the games which I am right now most excited about. I am eager to become more familiar with it and I look forward to playing the game as well as painting a bunch of miniatures from Corvus Belli's beautiful range of models, it's just taken me longer to get started than I had hoped.

Therefore I've been sort of frustrated by these largely self-made delays in getting underway with Infinity. Fortunately to help me get the regular Infinity-fix that I have been craving, not long ago I started reading an awesome wargaming blog called Frontline Gamer that is written by an unabashed fan of the game. There is a lot of excellent content on the blog concerned with other games besides Infinity so I recommend you check it out even if that one particular game does not interest you. The Infinity articles however are the main reason that I've been digging through Frontline Gamer's blog archives as they are not only very clear, informative, and well written, but also the passion the author has for this game is infectious. Therefore tonight I would like to highlight a few of my favorite Infinity articles that I've found over at Frontline Gamer. Here is a selection of them:

Infinity: The best game there's ever been? Part 1 -- The start of a thorough discussion on why Infinity kicks so much ass.

Infinity: The best game there's ever been? Part 2 -- A continuation of Frontline Gamer's thesis on why we should all be playing Infinity.

Infinity: The best game there's ever been? Part 3 -- Umm... part 3, right? Yes, just in case you need more convincing this one is about the Infinity community.

Building an Infinity army (plus how not to do it) -- Along with covering a lot of important points to keep in mind while deciding whom to take to war, this article is also an awesome introduction to the game and goes over many of the key features to playing Infinity.

Infinity factions Haiku's : A really fun article offering a summation of each of the factions for Infinity, presented in the form of a haiku. Perfect!

There are of course quite a few other Infinity articles posted at Frontline Gamer, those that I have highlighted here were as I said simply my favorites. Thus if you're interested in the game I encourage you to visit Frontline Gamer's blog as it looks to be a great resource, and not just for Infinity but a slew of other games as well. Frontline Gamer is also currently participating in the HoP Idol competition at the House of Paincakes blog network so check there too for more hobby goodness. Voting for week 2 has just begun should you want to help decide who will carry on to next week's round. (Hint, hint.)

Alright, that's it for now. If you haven't previously done so, take a moment when you can and go visit Frontline Gamer, I think you will enjoy it. Goodnight!

Chaos Lord Kit-Bash

The other day I noticed some pictures of a fantastically Chaosified jump-pack Chaplin which Rich had posted over at his blog, Ineptus Mechanicus. He's been working steadily on a Word Bearers army for close to a year that makes heavy use of converted and kitbashed models. It's been a really cool project to watch develop because of the creativity, thought, and planning that Rich has put into each model, his corrupted Chaplin being no exception.

Along with admiring his conversion work on the Chaplin, seeing Rich's use of those Possessed wings reminded me of a model that I had kitbashed for a Black Legion army, another project that's been sitting on the back-burner for quite a long time. There's not much to my Chaos Lord, just a simple mix of pieces from various Chaos Marine and Space Marine kits and the tiniest amount of cutting. There are bits from the Chaos Space Marines, Possessed Marines, and Terminator Lord kits, and from the Dark Angels and Space Wolves frames as well. All that's left that I want to add to this model would be some Chaos-style gauntlets made out of greenstuff to his wrists in order to better disguise the loyalist origins of his arms.

Ripper Murdark, scourge of the Groening Sector and diabolical leader of the Black Legion warband, The Cancelled Souls. Having established his base of operations in the tumultuous region of space known as the North Haverbrook Anomaly, Ripper Murdark has since waged a ceaseless campaign of terror and sabotage against the valuable Agri worlds for which the Sector is famous. This aggression reached its peak with his attempt to overthrow Imperial control of the planet Fonsager, fostering a protracted and violent rebellion which was bloodily quelled by the Stonecutters chapter of Space Marines. Having escaped the planet with his Black Legion warband largely intact, Lord Murdark has sworn to take revenge against the Stonecutters and to personally kill the flamboyant leader of its Second Company, Captain Homer, whom he blames for his defeat.

Chaos Space Marines Chaos Lord - Mark of Tzeentch, Daemon Weapon, Melta Bombs, Personal Icon, Jump Pack. 175 points.

That's the basic idea at least. To go along with the Stonecutters and the Blisstonian 9th that I've been gradually working on, I thought it would be fun to include some bad guys to further populate the Groening Sector. Since updating my progress on Captain Homer last night, this seemed like a good time to introduce his nemesis, Ripper Murdark. The Cancelled Souls are obviously in a very preliminary state right now but I've nonetheless enjoyed having an outlet for the occasional Chaos fix. I don't know what I eventually envision for this Black Legion army. At this point I do not have any grand ambitions for them beyond a rather small but still playable collection.

Okay, that's it for this now. I'm going to work more on those Slaanesh Chaos Daemons this week and I will try to post an update about them soon. Happy painting and gaming!

A Rising Waaagh Lifts All Orcs

Earlier this year I asked fellow blogger DrGabe if he would be interested in doing some commissioned painting for me. He had been working on what was to be a 3000 point Blood Angels army when, halfway through the job, his client ended up having to quit the hobby entirely. Thus the completed portion of the army went off to eBay and DrGabe, as it seemed only natural to me, was presumably left befuddled with how to use his newly liberated painting time. Sensing an opportunity to exploit a longtime friend, I delicately broached the subject with him.

"If you can paint an army for a stranger, you can paint one for me!"

Or maybe at the time I was more diplomatic about it, there are conflicting accounts about how it all went down. In exchange for a bunch of Eldar minis I'd stashed away for the better part of a decade, DrGabe agreed to paint an Orcs and Goblins army for me. Turns out he was in fact eager to paint a Fantasy army as a change of pace and for the opportunity to develop different approaches to painting. DrG had told me he was particularly keen to practice his speed painting techniques and thus an Orc Waaagh would be quite suitable to that.

Perfecto!

The O&G models that I shipped to Gabe mostly date back to the early days of the Battle for Skull Pass era and had been untouched since then. Although I know I would have enjoyed painting this army, after choosing to go with the Dark Elves for my main Warhammer faction I realized it was unlikely I would ever get around to working on these greenskins. I'm therefore very happy to have entrusted them to DrGabe as I knew he would do a great job with them. We discussed what type of army I wanted to have and kicked around ideas about the potential composition, background, and color scheme options. Ultimately I gave him instructions along the lines of a more or less traditional O&G force, though perhaps a tad livelier with some extra orange and purple added to the selection of colors.

There was one detail however about which I was more specific, and that was the treatment of the bases that I wanted. I had been inspired by a passage of background from the current Orcs and Goblins army book about the greenskin tribes who live in Naggaroth. It tells of their history of originally being enslaved in huge numbers by the upstart Dark Elves and then being forced to wage war on behalf of the Druchii. Eventually the Orcs fought their way out of captivity, established themselves in the wild lands, and hence forth have been a sometimes-enemy, sometimes-ally of their former Dark Elf masters. It was this little nugget of fluff that provided the inspiration for this army in addition to being the reason why we elected to use snowy, icy bases befitting Orcs living in the Land of Chill.

I plan on trying to emulate DrGabe's technique creating snowy bases for my Dark Elf army. I think it will therefore look really nice when I use the armies to fight against each other when providing an army for an opponent to use, but would also appear complementary should I want to ally the two armies together for really big games. I'm sure when we get together it will be a blast to play a game against each other using these two armies. Just the thought of that has really motivated me to get back to work on my Dark Elves. Groovy!

The Night Goblins seen in the above picture are the first unit finished for this Waaagh-in-Progress. I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. If you want to check out any of his previous posts concerning the army project, I encourage you to utilize the following link:

http://drgabe.gabeusry.com/search/label/Orcs

Summer is always a busy time for the good Doctor so it looks like things have become understandably quiet lately at his blog, DrGabe's Miniatures. He's off to Gen Con in a day or two so hopefully he might be able to get some interesting photos of all the neat new things there on display. I've duly complained about his recent lack of posting (haha!) and have encouraged him to share anything really cool that he sees with his lucky Followers.

After his trip to Gen Con however I have threatened to banish him to the salt mines if he doesn't get back to painting my Orcs, so I expect the Waaagh will be growing again very soon...

[Evil hand wringing ensues.]

Goodnight, everyone!

AdeptiDone - I'm Home!

With the dust settling from AdeptiCon and the sounds of battle finally fading away, I am happy to report that I had an absolutely marvelous time! I will have plenty to report on in the coming days though it will take me a little while to get things in order and to sort out my thoughts on what took place. Unfortunately after spending almost all of Monday dealing with some... ahem, car troubles... it wasn't until after 6pm before I at last departed Chicago and began the thousand mile drive back to Charleston. I therefore did not arrive home till the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday and only now am starting to feel recovered from the past week. It was an amazingly good trip but has nonetheless certainly taken its toll on me. :)

AdeptiCon was a fantastic weekend, by far one of my most enjoyable hobby experiences and well worth the long journey and the associated expense. Every one of the twelve games I played in was a blast and in the process I didn't meet a single gamer whom I'd avoid playing against in the future. The games were fun and exciting and the opposing players were uniformly good sports, patient and fair. I couldn't have asked for a better lineup of people with whom to spend a few days rolling dice.

Besides the games which I enjoyed thoroughly and the huge amount of inspiring models, another highlight from AdeptiCon was meeting and befriending so many wonderful people, either across from me at the gaming tables or else those I randomly encountered while wandering the site. Along with all of my opponents from the weekend, I was also fortunate to have met many wonderful gamers and painters and enjoyed every minute spent talking with them about our shared hobbies. So that I don't forget to do so later, I would like to thank and say hello to the following new friends:

TheDude (aka GopherDave) of Armored Gopher Games.

Neil from the Dark Future Games crew.

Bill/Nix of The Dead Tau Project and Gamers Lounge.

Dave Pauwels of Gogon Studios.

Hoagy from When Cannons Fade...,

Dethtron of Dick Move fame,

and their bandmates from Crusader, Joe, Ian, and Brad.

Aaron V., Nick H., and Robert C. from the Friday tournament.

The members of Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands contingent.

The members of Checkmate Hobbies and Skull-N-Bonz.

Brent of Strictly Average whom I accosted in the elevator.

My teammates Wolf Lord Pat and Company Commander Josh.

Chris Borer of Full Borer Miniatures

b.smoove of A Gentleman's Ones

Also I want to thank all the staff and volunteers who obviously put in a ridiculous amount of effort into making AdeptiCon as much fun as it was. Lastly I want to thank my good friend who has tolerated my antics for many years, DrGabe of DrGabe's Miniatures. Once again being able to hangout like old times was the best part of the weekend... thanks, buddy! It's my hope that I will get to see lots of these same good people again before next year's event, but if not until then, that will be yet another reason for me to look forward to AdeptiCon in 2012.

I do intend on reviewing the various events I played in at AdeptiCon though I haven't decided yet on the manner in which I will do so. Since I'm not sure if I was ever clear about my schedule before leaving for Chicago, essentially it was the 1000pt Fantasy tournament on Friday, the 40k Team Tournament on Saturday, and the Killzone event on Sunday. I expect I'll at least put together a separate report discussing each of those tournaments although I likely won't try to do a full battle report for every one of my games. But for now I've picked out a sampling of pictures from my weekend to sort of preview what I will be posting and talking about over the coming days.

"Follow me, men, I know the way to VICTORY!" Famous last words...

Mere seconds before rolling three of my many twin-linked misses of the day....

"Uh, guys... hello? Where did you go? Weren't you alive just a minute ago?"

One of Chris Borer's amazing marines from his Killzone team, of which I will show more in its own post...

Beasts of Annihilation enter the Killzone, never to be seen again.

I will begin organizing my AdeptiReports later this evening so hopefully I'll have more ready to post soon... until next time, take care and happy gaming!

Old Stuff Day!

As decreed by Rob over at Warhammer 39,999, today is Old Stuff Day for all of us hobby bloggers. It's a chance to dust off some old favorites and to take another look at posts that may have been forgotten, overlooked, or otherwise somehow missed by the internet since originally being posted. Not many folks have the time or interest to dig around through archived material to find the juicy bits, and certainly some blogs [ahem, diceRolla, cough cough] do not make it terribly accessible either. So hooray for Old Stuff Day!

For today's fun I've picked out links to a sampling of vintage diceRolla posts, including a bunch of still unfinished projects, all of which I plan on returning to later this year. Therefore as well as being a sort of review of diceRolla's past, this is also a preview of some projects which I hope to work on in the coming months. Even though I might not have mentioned them in quite a while, they have not been forgotten. For your consideration the posts I have chosen are: a 40k army project, a Killzone project, the collaborative results of a contest, a "semi-regular" blog feature, and a 15mm historical minis project from long ago relative to the lifespan of this blog.

The Drones of Sector 7G (Illustrated) - I love the Simpsons, and I love 40k. Newer readers might not be aware of the ways I've been trying to make the two subjects intersect. This post describes the selection process I went through in choosing which units to include in one of my current army projects, the Blisstonian 9th, an Imperial Guard army based on the workforce of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Competitiveness, efficiency, and all other normal gaming considerations were discarded in pursuit of my chosen theme, an admittedly silly one at that. Work on this project has been on hold for several months with just a little bit of occasional painting but it's still one that I am very eager to get back to, hopefully sometime this coming spring or summer.

Killzone WIP: Rogue Trader Crew - What can I say, Killzone is awesome! Unfortunately I've only been able to play a handful of games so far since Big Jim and the Killzone development team made available this amazing set of fan-created skirmish rules for 40k. As part of the 10/10/10 Killzone Blitz I decided to put together a Special Ops team based on a Rogue Trader accompanied by his closest associates, bodyguards, and allies. I didn't finish painting these guys in time for the Blitz but was able to get a decent amount of color onto each one, certainly enough to get a sense of what they'll look like once fully painted. I'd like to have them completed later this month in anticipation of the big Killzone extravaganza at this year's Adepticon.

Contest Links Bonanza - This was the culmination of the most recent diceRolla contest, a big list of links supplied by lots and lots of hobby bloggers. To participate in the Good Karma Pre-Heresy Celebration and qualify for the prize drawing, I had asked everyone to provide a link to something of which they were particularly proud, or to link to someone else's work that had inspired them in some way. I really enjoyed following the links to learn more about my fellow hobby enthusiasts and to see the sort of things that really motivate and inspire them. This contest was a lot of fun for me and I look forward to hosting another one in the coming months, though details of which are yet to be determined.

Flashbacks and Nightmares: Plaguebearers - Ahh... the sweet, sweet taste of internet fame. :) This post garnered the much sought after approval of my peers in that it made From the Warp's Tuesday's Top Ten list. WOOHOO!! Many thanks to Ryan for being so kind as to honor some of my own handiwork with inclusion in one of his weekly lists, this was indeed an early highpoint in my blogging adventures. It also happened to have been the second and final installment in what I had planned on being a semi-regular feature here at diceRolla. I have a fair number of old minis I'd like to photograph for use in future Flashbacks and Nightmares, I just haven't gotten around to it yet... almost a year later. Pitiful, just pitiful. We'll see, I'd like to revive this series if it can even be called that.

Woo-Hoo!! Painted Archers! - I generally advise against going too far back into the history of my blog but this is a special day after all, so for this last one let's go waaay back. This post is from the second week of diceRolla and showed off the first minis painted since having started the blog. At that point I was primarily focused on de Bellis Antiquitatis and so I spent most of my hobby time working on various 15mm armies. These archers from Corvus Belli are for an unfinished Hundred Years War: English army that I haven't touched in over a year. Since moving on from the idea of collecting Bretonnians, I've realized that whatever interest I had in painting medieval knights and archers could be directed at this old HYW project instead. I don't know when I'll work on them again but it's nice having them around should I feel so inclined. And once I've finished with the English there's still the French to be painted, too.

That's it for my participation in Old Stuff Day. I hope it's been an enjoyable look back at some of diceRolla's past glories. Thank you very much to all my readers, both old and new alike. It's been an exceptional joy posting up my hobby ramblings here for you to read. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to check out what I've been up to and I am grateful for all the excellent feedback and comments I receive. I understand the blog has been quiet lately but with Adepticon less than a month away it's going to be a busy couple of weeks. Thanks for sticking with me so far... there's lots more hobby fun still to come!

Contest Links Bonanza

To close out the Good Karma Pre-Heresy Celebration I've compiled a list of all the links submitted for the contest. To enter the drawing, I asked people to either post a link to something they've worked on of which they are proud, or to post a link to someone else's work that had provided inspiration or help for their hobby activities. In return I received a tremendous variety of fascinating submissions. Thanks to everyone who participated in this, I learned a lot from you and had a great time checking out so much hobby material. Thank you!

Eldar Harlequins - The Storytellers

How To Convert A Renegade Guardsman

Tyranids, Crushing Claw Conversion

Recipe: Yellow

Weekly Top X Shout Out - Be More Awesome

Kroot Hounds

Lord Shaper's Converted Kroot Hounds (bonus link)

BATREPS.com

Chaos Stars

Tau Tactics: The Moving Screen

More Tau Tactics: Boxed Screening

My Battalion Album - Dark Angels

Hello kids, the Word of the day is Lorgar!

Warhammer 40k Miniatures in Guatemala

Your painting station/table - WarSeer thread

Tutorial - Assembling Dragon Ogres

Finished Reaver Titan

Arctic Templars: Background Story and Campaign Setting

Project Space Marine

The Quest for Perfection - DakkaDakka thread

Spec Ops Killzone: Rules Archive

A Gentleman's Ones

Eldar Dictionary

Vela The Performer

CoolMiniOrNot - A shadow in the desert

Tutorial - Sculpting Pith Helmets

Lego Intersystem Fueler

chaos marine biker on horse, the first yutz!

Chariot of Khorne WIP

Juggerlord with daemon weapon

The Afriel Strain

Subject to Stupidity

Ghazghkull Thraka goes to a Diner

Building a Display Board Part 1, Part 2

Disease Lord

Corbania Prime

Cadian 8th Standard Bearer

Warrior to Immortal/Flayed One Conversion

Sons of Dorn/Thunderhawk - Bolter & Chainsword thread

Friday Quick Tip: Painting Battle Damage

Deathwing: Terminator Chaplin with GW Washes

The Sin of Alacrity

Dante's Inferno - CMDante's Blog

Boxfile Modular Space ship

Boxfile Spaceship Module 1 Complete

Boxfile Spaceship Module 2 Complete

Spawn Riders - Coming to an Imperial city near you! (bonus link)

Blood Bowl (bonus b.smoove link)

Sundays Top 5 Blogs That Need Followers!!! (#1) (bonus link)

Alright, lots of awesome stuff contained in those links.... Click, click, click. Click, click. Thanks again to everyone for making this a great celebration of miniatures and gaming glory. Woo-hoo!!

Click.