Last day to vote on STC's painting competition!

     Today is the last chance to vote on the Standard Template Construct's chaos painting and converting competition! Be sure to head on over there and vote for your favorite paint job and your favorite conversion!
And I won a $15 gift card to Games Workshop from HOTpanda at the Chaos Manifesto! Thanks HOTpanda for putting that on!
     And in other news, I have finally finished my first quarter of grad school, so you should be seeing some more models painted/converted since I'm off for a few weeks!

Don't panic!

     For those of you who saw my previous post on the possible GW price increases, I was indeed looking at the Australian site (the page to choose which country never came up, so I just assumed I was in the right place). So there was no price increase. And I am VERY happy that a Librarian doesn't cost more than a whole 10 man squad of tacticals! So I can still start my new Space Wolves army!
     Sorry if I caused anyone else to be as depressed as I was. It was all a misunderstanding. You can go about your business. Move along...

Chaos painting and conversion contest (vote now!)

     The Chaos painting/conversion contest is going on right now over at the Standard Template Construct. There are a bunch of great chaos models competing so head on over and enjoy all the great models! And don't forget to vote for your favorite! Click here to go vote!

Showcase: Chaos Cultist Champion

      I finished painting my first ever Chaos model that I'm entering in the Standard Template Construct's painting/conversion contest. There's still a bit of time left so go check it out, and be sure to head over and vote once they put up the entries. As for my entry, I had a great time painting and converting this guy and am very happy with the way he turned out. More photos below...

WIP: Chaos Competition Entry

 
     I was able to make some time to work on painting my first ever chaos model! He still has a lot of work until he's finished, but should be done in time to enter it in the painting/converting competition being run over at Standard Template Construct right now with two $50 gift cards to Secret Weapon Miniatures as the prize! I know it's late notice, but if anyone is painting up a non-vehicle chaos model, you should enter too. There is also another competition going on at the Chaos Manifesto which is giving out gift cards to Games Workshop based on how many people join up. So go check out the competitions and win some stuff!

WIP: Chaos Cultist Conversions

        I finally was able to make a bit of time to work on my Dark Vengeance set! I really like the cultist models, but I'm not a huge fan of having sets of identical models. To remedy that situation I decided to do some minor conversions on one of each duplicated cultist models, and on the champions. After being inspired by some of krautscientist's cultists on eternalhunt, I set out to uniquify my models. More below...

MathHammer Part 4. Rolling to Hit

 

     This post is to answer a question about the MathHammer calculator. Kai asked me to explain the formula I used to determine the probability to hit with blast weapons. So here it goes. And if you have any thoughts on how this could be improved, or any other questions feel free to leave a comment! More below...

MathHammer part 3. Deep Strike

 
      Today I will show you this calculation that shows you the chances of scattering into an obstacle when deepstriking. I was actually surprised how safe deepstriking is. This, combined with the newer mishap table means that deepstriking isn't all that bad. And at the end of the article I show you my new method of deep striking into dense terrain based off these calculations. More below...

MathHammer Part 2. Flakk Missiles

     Welcome to part two of the MathHammer series. This time we will be looking at different ways of dealing with flyers. When I looked at the new Chaos codex I wondered if the new flakk missiles were actually worth an extra 10 points. I also wanted to compare the quad gun and the icarus lascannon. All this was done in my new MathHammer Calculator which you can download at that link. More below...

MathHammer Part 1. Power Weapons

          I have been working on this Excel probability calculator for a while now and decided to share it with all of you! It is incredibly useful when building army lists or determining the best way to deal with a certain unit. In this post I show how to use the calculator to determine which close combat weapon is the most cost effective for a Chosen champion. Download link, and more below...

Comparing the old and the new

            Here is a quick look at some of my older models. These are from about a year ago and I have really changed my painting style since then (for the better I think). More pictures below...

Budget Photo Setup

     I have just updated my photo setup. It is basically a cheap plastic tub with two lights and a piece of paper for the background. There is a great tutorial on how to make on of your own on Instructables by Light_Lab. This is a very inexpensive way to get some great photos. I already had the lights and paper, so all I needed was a $4 plastic tub. More on the lightbox below, and some comparison shots...

Chaos Pumpkin!

     This weekend my wife and I had our niece over and we all got into the Halloween spirit and carved some pumpkins! And nothing says Halloween like the Star of Chaos. And just for fun, I've included a pattern to make your very own corrupted pumpkin, just below!

WIP: Cyclone Missile Launcher Conversion

 

     I have been wanting a cyclone missile launcher for quite a while, but I don't really want to pay $20 to get one off of ebay, or get another box of terminators either. But when I found a picture of a converted cyclone by THE_ARCH1TECT made from two hunter killer missiles, and I had a few of those laying around (i never though spending 10pts on something that is S8, one shot was really worth it) i decided to make one of my own. I'm really happy with how it's turning out. I may even like it better than the GW version. More photos below...

Showcase: Fuel Reserve

      Here is my Fuel Reserve for the 6th edition's battlefield debris section of the terrain. More below...

Showcase: Imperial Statuary

      Here is my take on the Imperial Statuary in the battlefield debris section of the 6th edition rules. I used a technique that I got from Ded'Ard to paint the bronze statue, but I changed it around a bit to fit the paints I have. It is mostly done, just need to make the dirt and stone look a bit better. More below...

Showcase: Servo-Skull Objective Marker

 

     In light of the 6th edition using objectives in 5 out of 6 mission types, I decided to make some objective markers. Here is the first one I have completed. It's a servo-skull (most likely carrying extremely sensitive information) floating around in a ruined building. More pictures below...

The Angels of Retribution background

Screenshot from THQ's "Space Marine".

       The Angels of Retribution are my self made space marine chapter, who were betrayed by half of their chapter which turned to chaos, and were in turn excommunicated from the Imperium. The chapter was formed from two chapters, the Knights of Sanguinius, and the Lions of Caliban joining together to hunt down and destroy their fallen brothers. More details below...

Tutorial: Rule Counters

     Here is my take on the vehicle damage markers and rule counters from a post over on From the Warp.  I thought this was a great idea, and definitely an improvement over using dice to mark damage results on vehicles. I decided to put my photoshop skills back to work and make some for myself, and this is what I came up with. Let me know what you think in the comments...

Showcase: Space Marine Attack Bike

      I finally finished the Attack Bike that has been sitting around unpainted for a few years. This is the first model completed using my updated paint style and I think that it's going to work great as an army. Hopefully, these guys will be joined soon by some Space Marine Bikers! More pictures below:

Tutorial: Painting a Space Marine Captain

      I'm coming back to painting after quite a long time. After looking back at the models I've done in the past, I realized I need to update my painting style (and my paints since the GW paints are different now). So I decided to paint the assault on Black Reach captain that has been sitting around unpainted for far too long. More pictures below.