The Hobbit Review

Been quite some time Battle Brothers! Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time, but I had a lot of things going on that I was trying to juggle and the blog kinda fell on the wayside. I won't bore you with details, but I needed a break from blogging. I'm still in the hobby and playing regularly and I'll get back to my hobby focused posts shortly. For now, I wanted to post a quick spoiler free review of The Hobbit which I saw last night.

I held out some hope for this movie, but sadly the action was way too over the top and unbelievable and the acting corny with one liners and quips that just seemed out of place. I get that the Hobbit is supposed to have a different feel from Lord of the Rings, but that feeling shouldn't be unbelievable and cheesy.

Most of the intense scenes were over written and over acted or spoiled by an attempted forced joke or someone saying something stupid. Ian McKellan stole the show and did a great job as Gandalf as he always does. Andy Serkis' Gollum was also impressive and you can see how much further the technology has come.

The 48 FPS I could have done without. It made everything look too real which made me think everything was fake if that makes any sense. The Hobbit is probably a movie you should see in the theatre as it is a visual spectacle and there are a lot of cool set pieces to oogle over (Rivendell, Erebor, etc.). Just expect to roll your eyes and shake your head quite a few times.

Next time, I'll post an update on my current 40K projects.

Until then,
-The Harrower

E TENEBRAE LUX: Painting Challenge

Man, does time fly. I've been holed up playing 6th Edition and working on my entry for the E TENEBRAE LUX painting challenge from over on Bolter and Chainsword. It's a cool thing the forum does every once in awhile where the different chapters from the various subforums duke it out and see who can paint the most models.

This is my first time contributing and it figures that the Blood Angels are getting crushed. I still wanted to finish my vow, get my models done, and preserve my honor. I really wish this competition didn't take place during the 6th Edition release window as I would have been able to get a lot more done. I'm contemplating upping the ante and doing a second vow, but there is less than a week left so we'll see what happens.

Below are the completed pictures of what I pledged: 2 Baal Predators, a converted Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun Turret, and a Death Company Dreadnought is 480 points. A pittance I know, but every little bit helps. I'm fairly satisfied with how these turned out. Messed around with weathering powders for the first time and I can see a lot of potential for these in the future.

I also included a pic of my converted Librarian as I've been working on him forever. Reminds me a lot of the Librarian that Ron was working on over on From the Warp. Great minds think alike!

You may have seen some of my blog posts over on the 40K Radio website. I volunteered for the staff writer position so you'll be seeing my posts over there as well. If you don't know what 40K Radio is, it's THE 40K Radio Podcast that caters to all things 40K. You can check it out here.

I have my first 6th Edition Tournament this Sunday so I'll try and take some pics and provide a quick tournament report. Have a lot planned for the blog in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Warhammer 40K 6th Edition: Rules Dump

Rumor posts aren't really my thing. Granted in our Gaming Club I'm the one that gets all of the dirt on the newest releases, I just don't usually blog about them because of formatting and other people, like Natfka, do a much better job than I could ever do. I know a lot of people are looking for confirmation on a lot of stuff and I have it here in a bulleted format.

This was from a long Q and A Thread on Reddit where Rixitotal borrowed the book from a local store and was kind (brave?) enough to answer questions. I'd say this stuff is 99.9% accurate. There might be some issues with how things were transcribed. Here goes in no particular order:

• Grenades: 1 model per unit can throw a grenade instead of shooting normally. All are Blast except Krak and Haywire. Frag S3 AP -, Plasma S4 AP4, Krak S6 AP4. Haywire works the same, but grenades are thrown instead (ouch!).

• Fearless: Auto pass Leadership. No longer takes additional wounds for losing combat!

• Allies: Battle Brothers can join each others units with Independent Characters and cast psychic powers on each other as if they were friendly. Allies of Convenience can't do any of that (basically act as 2 separate armies). Desperate Allies have to roll at the beginning of each turn if they are with 6". If they roll a 1 they can't do anything. A list of allies is on Games Workshop's website here. Apparently, the matrix that was floating around that was in the Double's Tournament is exactly what's in 6th Edition.

• Feel No Pain: 5+ against everything except for instant death.

• Instant Death: Unchanged.

• Close Combat Weapon AP Values: Power Sword [AP3], Power Axe [AP2, +2 Strength, Strike at Initiative 1], Power Maul [AP4, +2 Strength]. Crozius Arcanum is a Power Maul.

• Hull Points: Basically wounds for tanks. Glance removes 1 Hull Point. Penetrating hit removes 1 Hull Point and rolls on the Vehicle Damage Chart. If a vehicle is reduced to 0 Hull Points it's wrecked like in 5th Edition.

• Vehicle Damage Chart:

1-2 Shaken

3 Stunned

4 Weapon Destroyed

5 Immobilized

6 Explodes!

Modifiers are AP1 +2, AP2 +1, Open Topped +1.

• Direct Hits: Snipers and Characters that roll a 6 to hit can choose what model is wounded.

• Assault: 2D6". Jump Packs reroll the 2D6".

• Assaulting Through Cover: 2D6" drop the highest. Models are Initiative 1. Assault Grenades still work through cover like in 5th. (Hope this is wrong. Makes cover incredibly valuable.)

• Fleet: Can reroll Assault and Run rolls.

• Pre-measuring: Is in.

• Warlord: Model with the highest Leadership in the army gets to roll once on 1 of 3 ability charts. Ability charts are Command, Personal, Strategic.

Command Abilities:

1. Friendly units in 12" get to use your Leadership.

2. Enemy units in 12" use the lowest Leadership in their squad.

3. All friendly units in 12" get Move Through Cover.

4. All friendly units in 12" may reroll Run rolls.

5. All friendly units in 12" reroll 1s to hit when shooting at an enemy within 3" of an objective.

6. All friendly units in 12" add 1 to assault distance. 

Personal Abilities:

1. Warlord and his unit get Counter Attack if in own their deployment zone.

2. Warlord and his unit get Furious Charge if in enemy deployment zone.

3. Warlord and any unit he joins in deployment get Outflank.

4. Get 1 Victory Point for each character killed by you warlord.

5. Your warlord and his unit get Feel No Pain if within 3" of an objective.

6. Your warlord is a scoring unit.

Strategic Abilities:

1. All your units get Move Though Cover and Stealth in ruins.

2. You amy have Night Fighting on the first turn.

3. Your outflanking units gain Acute Senses.

4. While the Warlord is alive you may reroll reserve rolls.

5. While the Warlord is alive your opponent gets -1 on reserve rolls.

6. After both sides have deployed but before scouts you may redeploy 1 unit 3D6", or 3 units D6". May not leave deployment zone.

• Overwatch: Can shoot at incoming chargers at BS1. Template weapons inflict D3 hits. Hits are resolved at the Strength and AP or the weapon. Blast weapons cannot be used during Overwatch.

• Jink: All Skimmers have a 5+ cover save if they moved in the previous turn.

• Vehicles Firing: Same as it was previously, except any weapons you can't shoot normally you can "snap fire" at BS1.

• Template Weapons: Mechanics for shooting same as 5th Edition (i.e. Hit or Scatter 2d6" minus the firer's BS). Any part of A template touching a vehicle resolves hit at full Strength.

• Rage: +2 Attacks. Having to move toward the closest unit is gone. Death Company now get +3 Attacks when Assaulting!

• Bikes: Turboboost in the Shooting phase 12". Jet Bikes 24". Eldar Jet Bikes 36".

• Preferred Enemy: Reroll all to hit and to wound rolls of 1. Works for shooting and close combat.

• Cover: For almost everything including shooting through troops and vehicles 5+. Ruins are 4+.

• Wound Allocation: Closest to furthest. Wargear makes no difference. Characters transfer the wound to the squad. So you do lead from the front!

• Jump Infantry: Gain an auto hit per model at Initiative 10, Strength of the model, AP –. Called Hammer of Wrath.

• Chaos Daemons: Cause Fear! Take Leadership test or strike at WS1.

• Disembark: Can only disembark from a vehicle if it moved 6" or less. Disembark is always 6" (no more 2" disembark move).

• Firing from Vehicles: Can always fire out of a vehicle provided it did not move flat out. If a vehicle moves over 6", unit inside snap fires at BS1.

• Monstrous Creatures: No more 2d6 Armor Penetration. Replaced with Smash Attack which is half Attacks at double Strength.

• Beasts: Move 12", Assault 2d6" and reroll.

• Pile In: Done in order of Initiative.

• Witchblades: Wound on 2+, vs. vehicles Strength 3 + 2d6 for Armor Penetration.

• Fast Vehicles: 6" Fire All, 12" Fire 2 at BS and the rest at BS1, 18" Can't fire.

• Night Fighting: Can't shoot over 36". Over 24" +2 Cover Save. Over 12" Stealth.

• Furious Charge: +1 Strength. Bye bye +1 Initiative. :(

• 40K Authors: Jeremy Vetock, Adam Troke, Matt Ward

Oh, just wanted to plug my favorite local gaming store, Adventure Games. If you are in Northeast Pennsylvania (particularly the Scranton area) they are running a Warhammer 40K midnight release party this Friday, June 29th. The party starts at 10:00 PM and the store will be open until 4:00 AM. We have some fun events planned including a 250 point bring and battle.

Cost to attend is $5 to preorder your copy of the book which you can do over the phone. Info on Adventure Games including address and phone number is available via their Facebook page. Come on down and challenge me and the rest of the DED 'ARD crew to a game of 40K 6th Edition and be the first to play before anyone else!

I'll be the one wearing the "Like A Boss" T-shirt so make sure you stop on over and say, "hi!". Hope to see you there!

–The Harrower

Warhammer 40K 6th Edition Cover Leaked!!!

The cover for the new rulebook leaked earlier today and as I thought, the Dark Angels seem to be the new poster boys for 40K. This is a welcome change as I'm really not a fan of the Ultramarines and Dark Angels players really do deserve it.

There been a lot of rumors and speculation over what the new edition will bring. I'm just hoping for a deeper more tactical game with more options. I think that the more 6th Edition turns the rules on their head the better.

I do apologize for my sporadic updates. I've figured out that my problem with posting is that I'm always trying to do some grandiose post with an amazing conversion or tutorial and my blog will sit for weeks at a time until I figure out what that post is.

I'll be taking a page from Ron Saikowski's book and just posting about what I'm working on and providing brief insight into my methods and techniques. Ron runs From the Warp which is the best hobby blog out there in my opinion, and I need to realize that small nuggets of information on a more consistent basis are better than several solid tutorial posts per year. The release of 6th Edition will be a good time to change things up.

Till next time,
–The Harrower

Resin Casting: 1 Part Molds

I apologize for the brief hiatus. School has been keeping me really busy, but I have been squeezing in hobby time here and there. My latest projects have me working on casting as I have chosen Necrons as my second amy, but I don't want to pay a ton of money for canoptek scarabs.

Ron over at From The Warp did a great tutorial on making scarabs from epoxy ribbon (aka Green Stuff) and I messed around with that, but the cure time takes way too long and I wanted something faster. Eventually I will get into 2 part molds and specifically how to make scarabs, but I want to start on something simpler so I can explain the process. Today I have a tutorial on 1 part molds made from Instant Mold and plastic resin. Here is what you need to get started:

• Instant Mold (Bought mine from TheWarStore)
• Smooth-Cast 300 (Bought mine from Smooth-On)
• Blu-Tack. This is the stuff used to hang posters on the wall. Make sure you buy get actual Blu-Tack. There are a few other brands out there including a white version and one by Elmers. In my experience, they don't work well at all. Get the good stuff.
• Legos. My kids have tons of these, but you can order whatever pieces you need right from the Lego website.
• A piece with a flat side to cast. I casted one of the skulls from Games Workshop's Arcane Ruins, but you can do a chapter icon, a Rhino door, or something similar. Just make sure one side is perfectly flat.
• X-Acto Knife
• 3 small mixing cups.
• Sand paper.

Step 1: Build a mold box. I use Legos for this step as they work the best. You want to build a box that is just slightly larger than your part. You also want to build a second piece you can press down on top of your mold. Here is what mine looks like.

Step 2: You need to attach the piece you will be molding to the bottom of your mold box with Blu-Tack like I did below. Make sure the piece sits firmly down and doesn't have any raised edges or the Instant Mold will get under the piece and mess up your mold. I took my walls off to make sure my part was secure.

Step 3: Put the Instant Mold in hot water. I actually boil my water on the stove and cut the Instant Mold down into little pieces. This stuff dries super fast and once it starts to dry, the Instant Mold won't stick to itself so make sure its really hot.

Step 4: Shake off any excess moisture and quickly push the instant mold over the main detail of the part. Fill in all of the gaps and use your press to push down on the mold. Like I mentioned previously, this stuff dries really fast. If you mess it up, don't worry. Instant Mold is reusable and you can heat it up and try again. When you push down on your part, your press piece may stick. This is fine and don't mess with it. Put the mold in the freezer for about 15 minutes and come back to it.

Step 5: You are ready to de-mold your part. Take your mold box apart and remove the molded piece. Carefully pry out your piece with your finger nail or with an x-acto knife.

Step 6: You'll see there is a bit of flashing on the mold from pressing too hard. Just trim the mold with your knife and save the pieces. You can use them later. I heat mine up and roll the unused Instant Mold into a ball. Our mold is done and now we are ready to make our first cast!

Step 7: Working with resin can me messy. It needs to be mixed in equal amounts. I use a cup for each part because pouring from the bottle is way too messy. Nothing will stick to Instant Mold, so you don't need to use mold release or anything like that. Once you have equal amounts of part A and part B, pour them into your mixing cup and mix it well for a minute or two. Make sure to scrape the sides of your container.

Carefully pour the resin into your molds and start the pour on the lowest point of the model. This helps alleviate air bubbles. Don't over fill your molds. You can slightly go over, but you don't want resin pouring out all over as you'll have to sand the pieces flat later on which can be a pain. You'll see I did overfill one of the molds below, but that's the 2 part mold for the scarabs and we'll discuss how that works next time.

Step 8: This is the most agonizing step: waiting till it's done. As the resin cures, it'll get white in the middle and eventually expand out to the edges. This whole process should take about 15 minutes or so and when it starts, it'll happen pretty quickly. You don't want to de-mold the part too soon and ruin it, so be patient!

Step 9: Now that the resin is dry you can remove the part from the mold. You can use either your finger or a hobby knife. Below you can see the molded part and the original. Success! 

Step 10: Take your hobby knife and clean up the flash from around your part. You'll also want to run the back across a piece of sand paper to smooth everything out. If you look closely, you can see some minor imperfections here and there. I'm no master mold maker, but if you ask me this looks a hell of a lot better than Fine Cast.

Below are some of the other pieces I've casted along with the scarabs I have been doing. This method is fairly quick and I can pop out about 3 casts in an hour.

Next time, we'll talk a little bit more about casting and we'll tackle the process I used to create a 2 part mold for the scarabs. Have a Happy Easter!

Until then,

–The Harrower

Fixing Wobbly Model Syndrome

How many times when you play 40K do your miniatures end up like the picture on the left? Do you lay your models down and say, "They are right here!" in frustration? A couple guys in our club that play Tyranids and Orks (go figure!) do this more often than not and while we play a pretty lose game, it's still annoying and isn't conducive to a fun game environment.

The other problem is precariously placing an entire unit on a hill or other piece of terrain and as soon as you get the last model in place, they all fall over. This not only slows down gameplay, but also leads to broken and chipped models with no one wants to deal with.

There are some ways to remedy with this: use empty bases, creating terrain that is more model friendly (mine certainly isn't), or just advising your opponent where you models are standing (but this causes issues in more competitive games). Today, I'm going to do a quick tutorial for creating stand in markers for 25mm bases. Below is a list of what you need to get started. Let's go!

• Felt. Get the kind that is peel and stick as that is the easiest to work with. Color choice is up to you. I got mine at Michaels.
• 1/8" x 1" washers. You can buy these at any DIY store like Lowes or Home Depot.
• 1" Hole Punch. These can be purchased at any craft store. I bought mine at Michaels.
• A computer with a printer and some sort of image editing software. Hopefully, you have a Mac. :-)
• Card Stock
• Testor's Dull Cote or some other clear coat spray.
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Razor Knife
• Cutting mat or some other suitable cutting surface.

Step 1: Cut a piece of the felt with the razor knife on your cutting mat. You may want to be more careful than I was and try to minimize excess waste. Peel off the backing and stick the washers to it.

Step 2: Again using a razor knife, cut out each of the washers. You just want a loose cut here we're not looking for precise. I find it to be a lot easier to do the major cuts with the razor knife as the felt will get stuck to the scissors if you are cutting a really big piece.

Step 3: Once the washers are all cut out, use the scissors to trim off the excess by using the washer as a guide. This step is a bit time consuming as the excess pieces will stick to the scissors. I wouldn't recommend using the hole punch for this. I tried and ruined mine so take our time and stick with the scissors.

Step 4: Create an icon sheet with your image editing software package of choice. I prefer Photoshop CS 5.5, but I know everyone won't have access to that. I hear good things about GIMP if you are looking for software to use. If you need icons, you can download various 40K icon fonts here. Below is the image I used for my Blood Angels. I created one icon in white and one in yellow to represent a Sergeant or a model with a special weapon. When creating your icon sheet, be careful to leave enough room between the icons. I'd recommend leaving an 1 1/2" or more.

Step 5: Print out your icons onto card stock. Once the ink dries, spray the sheet with clear coat. This will help protect the tokens them and keep them lasting longer. When the clear coat dries (and you can use a hair dryer to speed up the process) use the hole punch and cut them out.

Step 6: Once you have all of the icons punched out, you want to add a bit of glue from the glue stick and glue the card stock in place. I'd recommend putting something on top of the token while it dries. Other washers work well. Let these dry for a couple hours and you're done!

Below is the same picture from the beginning of this post, but now I am using tokens instead of miniatures. This is far more preferably as I know exactly where my miniatures are, and I'm not worried about them falling over and breaking or chipping. The felt helps the miniatures "stick" into place and you can use the tokens at greater than a 45 degree angle without them sliding off as you can see from the second picture below.

Next time, I'll post some pictures of the desert table and terrain I created for a campaign I am currently running for my gaming club. I'll also be posting the rules I created with the help of someone else in my gaming club for a different way to play 4 player 40K games.

Until then,
–The Harrower

Blood Angels Captain new Gamesday Mini!

I didn't play 40K back in the 2nd Edition days, but I did buy the boxed set and I always loved the cover. Shortly thereafter 3rd Edition came out and me and a couple of friends decided to switch from Warhammer Fantasy Battle to Warhammer 40K.

It wasn't a coincidence that Blood Angels were my army of choice. The original artwork was done by John Blanche and I believe Mike McVey did a conversion of the model in White Dwarf back in the day. I have a copy of the issue somewhere and I'll see if I can dig it up and update this post with the pic.

The below pics leaked on Heresy Online today and the new mini looks amazing. Click on the below pics for a larger image. This was an awesome Christmas surprise, though being Finecast makes the baby Jesus cry just a bit. Hopefully, they have the whole Finecast thing figured out with the newer models. In any case, I want this miniature bad and I'll probably get raped on eBay when I go to get mine. Anyone heading to Gamesday this year and want to do me a huge favor? :)

Till next time,

–The Harrower