Codices times two

So, I heard back from GC-Minis about my double shipment. They thanked me for letting them know. They said they would beat the shipping trolls responsible for the error. They told me to keep the books and they hoped I could trade them for something I can use.

Keeners!

I thought that they were good people. This means that I can hard-use the sets I have and still have a nice set for the bookcase. Or maybe even give the Space Wolves rules to my son.

We are now an army!

My marine army – Dead Heads – can be fielded as basic marines or Space Wolves. I have two Tactical squads, a Devastator squad, about a dozen Terminators, a Scout squad, 2 old Dreadnaughts, 2 old Rhinos, an old Predator, and an old Land Raider. The vehicles are a bit beaten up and would need a bit of repair but are fieldable.

For Tyranids, I have a Hive Tyrant, 2 Carnifexes, a Zoanthrope, 8 Tyranid Warriors, a Biovore and spore mines, lots of Gaunts, a Genestealer Patriarch (Broodlord), and over 30 Genestealers.


For both of these armies I have a lot more figures, but this is what I could reasonably expect to find and be able to field.

My son is starting a Space Wolves army (I’m so proud) – he has a Captain, Tactical squad, Razorback, and a Dread. My wife has the beginnings of a Sisters of Battle army – she has a Battle Squad, Exorcist, Penitent Engine, and a few individual figures.
I would have to dig them out and paint them, but I have enough troops for an Imperial Guard army (with sentinels but no tanks – except an old White Dwarf Baneblade and the new plastic Baneblade) and a decent Ork army which would also need to be found and painted. I only have the Dark Eldar from the old boxed set, a few Necron figures, and probably enough Eldar Guardians and Harlequins to field – if they were painted. I also have enough Squat bikers to field – if they were painted and there was a codex for them.

Dead Heads - origins

If you talk to most of the 40K players about the armies they field, they’ve got a story. If it’s a marine army and one of the few official armies like Ultra Marines, Black Templars, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, etc. then they have the official published histories. If it’s one of the other official named armies then they may have a bit of backstory. If they made up their own chapter, then they usually have an involved backstory and history. Often they have a notebook full of info and are more than willing to share this with you.

Not me.

My chapter, the Dead Heads, only has a simple idea for a backstory – and that only came about when I was painting them. They were originally going to be Space Wolves. I had painted them the Space Wolf Blue Grey as a base color and then inked them with a wash of Blue ink. The color that created was a very rich deep blue – a good match is Phthalo Blue. Not wanting to cover over this with another layer of Space Wolf Blue Gray and then Space Wolf Grey, I left it and then decided to have my marines be one of the nameless alternate chapters. I just had to come up with a chapter symbol and a name.

I had a t-shirt with a smiley face with a bullet hole and liked the graphic. It was an easy and striking symbol and easy to modify for the different types of troops. A standard circle shape for the Tactical squad, a sunburst for the Devastator squad, a face with a tongue sticking out for the Assault squad, and an octagon for a Terminator squad. The blood trails on the symbol would reflect the campaigns in which the figure participated. The helmets were also a smiley face yellow with the bullet mark and blood trails – which looked pretty cool with the old beakie helmets.
For the name, I settled on ‘the Dead Heads’. I’m not a big Grateful Dead fan – but their video ‘Touch of Grey’ was big at the time. The other reason was the Ork books – I was assembling a Death Skulls army so it seemed a good match.

My only idea towards the backstory was that the Captain was on the battlefield when he had a brief moment of doubt – a caress of a touch of Chaos – when he was hit in the helmet by a bolter shell that failed to fully detonate. His resolve renewed, he fought on with vigor. The helmet and chapter symbol serve as a reminder of his temptation and mark his repentance.

Pre Paint

I’d hoped to get more painted the week before last but didn’t. I was able to get D3’s Rhino, Dread, and Captain as well as my Drop Pod and AoBR Ork Nobs primed.

I’m using very old Armory primer. I love the way it covers and dries but have been hearing bad things about the new cans being more prone to spitting. If I get on a painting kick again and run out, I’m not looking forward to finding a good replacement that isn’t crazy expensive.

Mystery Mail - solved

For those of you following along at home. It seems that it was indeed a double shipment of my last codex order. So I have sent them an email informing them of their error and checking to see if they want me to send the package back to them.

mystery mail goodness

I’m perplexed and excited. I had a bit of issue with one of my orders from the end of last year – but that ended up working out fine. I had since placed another order for the first 4 codices and had received them fine as well. But then I had another delivery notice from them and I have no idea what it might be.

Did they double ship my codex order? Did they reship my January order? Did they ship me something nice for my troubles (which was certainly not needed)?
Tracking online shows it as being delivered so I am certainly looking forward to finding out what it might be.

Back to the Basics

I had ordered the first four codices from the Fifth edition 40K from GCMinis. These are Space Marine, Imperial Guard, Tyranid, and Space Wolves. These should cover the basic armies I can actually field. I just got them on Monday so I haven't really had enough time to really go through them more than a cursory amount.

Now that I’m getting back into 40K and have the codices and the Assault on Black Reach rules, I can start looking at the gaps I need to fill. I should be able to field Space Marines or Tyranids without much effort. Orks were the last codex published before the new rules so they might be a while before the upgrade. I still want to get the Apocalypse rules as well.

Laser Jungle

We were at the Laser Jungle for D3’s birthday party. It was quite fun and the staff was very nice. I haven’t played lasertag since my Bachelor party at the Dark Zone but it seemed to be about the same.
The environment was good – with a few different areas and levels – including a bunker and a jungle. The first game was a free-for-all and Gaby and I hung together and managed to keep shooting each other. The second game was a team event and it seems that I’m better than a room full of elementary kids. Woo-hoo me!
If you can get 12 people together (or are willing to pay for 12) you can get a private party – which keeps out the regular wahoos and leaves you with the wahoos you know. Now the kids are trying to convince Shan to have hers and Michelle’s birthday there.

If it was closer it would probably be more of an option – but it is in Stonewall so it’s only a 15-20 minute drive from our end of the city.

DDR - the 10K Commotion

If you are or were into DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) or, like me, aren't that into it but still like Magna-style comics check out the 10K Commotion.

She's got the entire story up now so it is much easier to read than when I was waiting for the weekly-or-so updates. She has a nice fresh / clean style and I realy like how she did the lettering. It would be nice to see it as a graphic novel but this is a good, fun read - even if you don't fully understand the game.

Time to get Addicted again!

Scott over at Scale Model Addict has finally started his new season. He's not doing the King Tiger tank though - he's sticking with something a bit more sci-fi. He's doing the Battle of Hoth - but not the little diorama kit, he's upsizing it with regular AT-AT models and some nice scratchbuilds. It should be a good season to follow.



My only concern, he seems to have jumped ahead a bit for the start - with a beatiful scratch built Ion Cannon and a very nice mini AT-ST already done. It would have been nice to see him start right from the box. Even so, I'll certainly be looking forward to see where he takes it.

Figure Painting started!

To count a figure a being fully painted, it has to be covered and based. While I didn’t manage to finish painting any figures in February, I finally did manage to start on some. I’m painted up some gangs for the Rules With No Name. I’m making some four man teams based on some western movies.

So far I have painted up a Silverado team and started painting an Unforgiven team. I got to watch Silverado again lately to get the colors and will have to watch Unforgiven when I’m off as the internet let me down in pictures for both movies.

IMDB.com, which is usually pretty good for images wasn't good in either of these cases. A site I did find that helped me out somewhat was the Internet Movie Firearm Database.