Getting ready for the Standish Standoff 2015

Whose Imperium this is I think I know.   

His corpse sits on Terra though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his Empire falter and slow.   

My navigator must think it queer   

To stop without a planet near

Between the warp and frozen void

The darkest ending and growing fear.   

He queries via comlink employed

To ask if we shall be destroyed.

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of Auger array and sensors deployed.

The stars are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And models to paint before I sleep,   

And models to paint before I sleep.

Working hard to get ready for this years Standoff. 2 weeks to go.

Campaign Updated First Mission

After some playtest feedback from my group the Campaign has had the first mission updated. Hopefully the play group will start moving forward with the campaign soon. They are looking to maybe do these once a month. Should be a lot of fun if we can get it off the ground.

CAMPAIGN STAGE 1: PLANETFALL

THE ARMIES
Choose Armies as described in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. One
player will take on the role of Attacker, the other as Defender. You may
play any size game but recommended is in the 1700-2000 point range.

THE BATTLEFIELD
Use the deployment map included with this missions. Set up terrain as
described in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.


OBJECTIVE MARKERS
After setting up terrain, the players place four Objective Markers in the
corners of the Defenders Deployment zone as shown in the deployment
map above.

DEPLOYMENT
Before any models are deployed, both players should roll to determine
their Warlord Trait as described in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.
Firstly, the Defender deploys his units anywhere within his deployment
zone (see map). The Defender may reserve as normal.

Attacker deploys no units and may not Scout, Infiltrate or Outflank any
units. Instead he will deploy using the mission special rule Orbital
Deployment.

FIRST TURN
The Attacker has the first turn. A modified No Seize the Initiative roll is
made (see Orbital Deployment) but the Attacker will always go first.

GAME LENGTH
The mission uses Variable Game Length as described in the Warhammer
40,000 rulebook.

VICTORY CONDITIONS
At the end of the game, the player who has scored the most Victory
Points wins the game. If players have the same number of Victory Points,
the game is a draw.
Primary Objectives
+2 points per objective marker held at the end of the game.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
Slay the Warlord

Attacker gains +1 point per Kill Point in defenders deployment zone at
end of game, (a squad with an Independent Character attached in the
zone is worth two points.)

Defender gains +1 point per kill point earned by game end. Attackers
units that have not been deployed are counted as destroyed.

MISSIONS SPECIAL RULES
Night Fight turn 1. Modified Reserves (see deployment)

Dug In: The Defender receives an additional Fortification Slot to his
primary detachment. This slot may be filled with any valid selection at
no cost (including upgrades). If the total cost would have been more than
150 points, any weapons on the Fortification do not work. If it has no
weapons and would be over 150 points, then any buildings have their
AV value reduced by 1 (a 15 would become 14 for example).

Anti-Air Defenses: During turn 1 the Defenders Deployment zone is
considered impassible terrain for the purposes of Deep Striking units.
Any units that scatter such that any model would be in the Defenders
Deployment zone automatically Mishap and go into ongoing reserves
(per the Orbital Deployment rule).

Orbital Deployment: All of the Attackers units will deploy via Deep
Strike even if they don’t have the rule or are required to deploy by
some other method. The Attacker first assigns independent characters
and decide any combat squads or other kill point altering unit
formations. Then without breaking up combined kill points make two
forces as even on kill points as possible. (A Rhino with a combat squad
of Tactical marines is 3 kill points but is not broken up for this division
of forces into two halves).

Before the start of Turn 1, the Defender makes a Seize the Initiative roll
using any modifiers or re-rolls they are allowed. If they succeed then the
Defender chooses what half of the Attackers force deploys turn 1, if
failed the Attacker chooses what half is deployed turn 1. The other half
goes into ongoing reserves and automatically arrives turn 2.

During turn 1 deployment all Deep Striking units scatter 3d6 rather than
2d6 (or 2d6 if they have the Deep Strike special rule). Furthermore
during turn 1any unit that Deep Strike Mishaps goes into ongoing
reserves rather than rolling on the mishap table. During turn 2 and
onward units scatter 2d6 (or 1d6 if they have the Deep Strike special
rule), and mishap normally per the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Printable Image

MISSION WRAP UP
Please provide player names and factions played, along with scores and role as Attacker/Defender. Also note about any heroic moments or awesome moments during the game.

4 years of 40k painting in review, Part 14

This last winter I worked up a centerpiece model for this years Standish Standoff. After the success of airbrushing my Blood Angel Land Raider I opted to finally work on my Knight Titan kit I picked up back when they got released. I worked on this model once more in a partial assembly. Most the armor plates where left off, and the arms and torso where also left off for painting. I once more used pre-shading to add color depth to the large flat armor plating sections. I do this by adding thin lines of black down first over the primer along joint lines and edges of the armor. As cited in previous posts I like to prime my models grey then airbrush on my first colors. As I tend to pre-shade this allows me to darken or lighten areas before putting my first coat down. 

For the green I use a trio of colors starting with a darker green base that I then progressively lighten up by adding the lighter color centrally to each plate avoiding more and more of the perimeter as I layer on the colors. AS seen best int he kneecaps this allows for a wonderful transition from nearly black edges up to a much lighter green center. For those sections that have flames I actually started by blending in an red to yellow over the whole of the plate section before even doing pre shading. I do this over a white base coat to help brighten the colors. Once this transition piece is down I lay in some airbrush flame templates I got from Kick Starter (Anarchy Models) some months back. These are made from a window cling like material so they model and stick to the model while still being easy to pull up and not leaving any residue behind. Once the template is firmly in place I proceeded to pre-shade and paint on the green armor layers as described above. Then I simply peel and remove the templates. If they are not pushed on firm enough you can get some leaking of paint under them and will need to hand brush little fixes. So be diligent and really get them affixed the first go around. 

Once all the green was done I proceeded to paint on all the metallic trim and base coat the metallic coloring for the limbs. As always I first drop on a ocher style yellow down everywhere I am painting gold. This allows me to get the gold on in 1 thin coat rather than several thin coats the inevitably end up being to thick. I then washed all the metallic in null oil being careful not to get any on the painted green armor that is already nicely blended. This left me with a hand full of details across the model to pick out and paint up including eye lenses banners and mechanicum logo's. I also add some heat scoring to the end of the cannon barrel using a trio of colored GW washes. Helps to break up the simple metallic tube that is a gun barrel. I use a purple, blue and flesh shade to achieve this effect applying them in rings along the barrel length and blend them together where they meet. 

Lastly I added some decals to the banner. I used micro-sol and micro-set to apply them and they went on great. This is one of my first uses of decals on a model and the extra time I took to learn how to use these two decal aids really paid off. I will likely be using more decals on models in the future as my freehand skills are lacking. I can't draw diddly and even my stick figures look bad after all. So this ends my running series 4 years of 40k painting. We are all caught up with what I painted over my first 4 years in this game. Moving forward model painting posts will be more sporadic as I get them done but hopefully will continue to show improvement in the painting quality. 

So with all that I leave you with this parting shot of encouragement, 10 years ago I started to paint miniatures. These are those first few models. I thought I was the man with these. I have come a long way through no special classes or learning. I just kept doing the hobby I loved and kept striving to improve upon it. So when you show up to a big event and see some outrageously great looking armies around you, just remember they all started somewhere like you and once had models that looked no better. 

4 years of 40k painting in review, Part 13

This project was conceived of after the 2013 Standish Standoff but was not completed until Dec of 2014. I wanted to really spend some time and sub assemble and paint this in parts so I could paint the inside as well as the outside of the vehicle. I also wanted to do some LED light effects and this required painting and sealing the model before putting in the lights. I think just the build time to figure out wiring placement as well as how to house the battery switch and circuit board took me months real time. In the end I was able to fit everything in the hollow of the engine block in the rear of the model as well as the voids between the inner and outer hull along the sides. Dremeling out holes for the switch and battery into the frame of the model took some time and ended with me getting hot melted plastic frag in the face. 

I dry fit everything a lot to make sure all the parts fit before I even started to prime pieces. The hardest part was hand drilling out the back of the headlights to set the LEDS in while still leaving the molded plastic grill from the lights. I also had to cut into the frame for the side doors to create a hinge for the doors so they could open and close. I ended up using a dremel blade and cutting into them downwards to make a groove, then green stuffed back in to create the top of the hinge. The paper clip was simple drilled through the hing parts at the base of the door. 

This is the first time I really got a solid use of my Airbrush to paint this model, rather than just putting down a base coat. I used a technique I had started to use with some Rhino's I was practicing on as well as some terrain. I pre-shaded the model before laying down the red. Essentially I primed the model Grey. Then played down black first into the recesses and other areas I wanted to be darker. Then I went back and added white into the center of the flat areas that I wanted to brighten. After doing this I then laid in some light thin red coats being careful to allow the transparency of the red to show thru and not cover up the black entirely. It gave the model some great highlights and vibrancy. Having the model broken up into larger but separate pics really helped in doing this painting style. I had the top, sides, back and bottom as distinct separate sections. Along with the gun mounts and hatches as separate parts. This prevented over-spray from being an issue to cloud sections I had already painted.

Once I finished the base coat to the armor plating I did some edge highlighting all along the model and picked out details and painted in the treads and other elements of the model with a more traditional brush and wash method. This model really represents a HUGE step up in the quality of my painting. To see just how much go back and look at part 4 of the series with my Grey Knight Rhinos. This model also represented a huge change in time commitment. Although I only spent two weeks real time painting it, that represented 20+ hours of actual painting time. I ended up out of state on a business training trip and had plenty of alone time without my wife or other distractions to help me focus and do nothing else but paint this model.

I've tried to provide enough pictures to show every aspect of this model, and those elements that move, and change. Most the shots are with the LED lights off to photograph better. I plan to possibly enter this model in the Painting competition for the Standish Standoff this year. The only reason this is a maybe is as you will see next post I may have topped myself.

4 years of 40k painting in review, Part 12

Here we are a year latter once more preparing for the next Standish Standoff for 2014. Once more I changed up half my list going for an all Tau list this time. My play time had been hampered a lot this year and I wanted to run something I was very familiar with as I wasn't going to get any practice games in before the event. Also Space Marines and Tau are no longer battle bros in 7th ed. (A good change honestly). So I picked up my first Forgeworld model for this army. A new Crisis Suit commander type. I wanted this one to be my "Farsight" commander so I modeled the amulet on him as well. Points prevented it from being taken but the modeling came out well all the same. I kept to the same paint scheme as last time around but having a.) practiced with it before and b.) gotten better with my airbrush. I was able to knock out these models in a much shorter time frame. I nearly doubled up the models for my Tau army. 

I did some reposing of the Riptide to create a good mirror stance of the standard Riptide positions. Along with that I also used the airbrush to get a good blending on the twin-linked plasma gun and Ion Cannon to create a nice effect still in line of the pumpkin orange accent color. The inking and edge highlighting effect really makes these models stand out and I very much enjoy the brightness of these models. Re posing the model was really fun and I wish I had done something even more drastic akin to all the crazy stuff over wrecked vehicles or terrain I've seen with other modelers. Honestly I'm to cheap to burn a second model just to use as a base. 

I also knocked out an additional team of Broadsides, to help mark the two units as different I applied an orange glow effect to the power pack on the backs rather than blue as in the last squad. I also opted to just glue on the arms and not magnetize this time around. I have yet to even want to use a rail gun broadside and I have two of the old edition models that are rail guns already. So I potentially have 5 rail gun versions if needed. 

The event itself was a lot of fun. I had three good games. I wasn't expecting a lot out of my performance as I'd not played a game of 40k for months before hand. I just wanted a chance to get in three games that day. On that I was successful. First round I got skunked. I faced another elite army, only unlike me rather than volume of fire they opted for quality of fire shooting with Wraith knights (yes two) and wraith guard. So lots of low AP shots that just peeled thru my suits very quickly. Round two I faced Tyranids. I think I am cursed to face Tyranids as round two. I think it has happened at about half the tournaments I've gone to. And it never ends well for the Nids. I just know the army and typically they are not higher end players but getting back into the game. Last game I got to play against an old school marine guard army all done up in the early style paint job. I had heard an interview with this player on the Independent Characters just weeks before so it was kinda fun to see that. All in all a fun day with some great armies to look at.