Paul Sherratt - Last Call! We'll pick again this Friday if you don't contact me!

To All,

If Paul Sherratt does not contact me by this Friday at 1pm(Eastern Standard Time) we will pick a new winner.

The Stout Smurf

2000-point Ultramarine list for NOVA Open.

To All,
Here is the list I'm going to bring to the NOVA open. I decided to drop the Legion of the Damned (Jawaballs was right) and get some more firepower. I also didn't want to walk my Dreadnought across the board anymore (because he was not making it) so I went with a drop pod. I also am "upgrading" to Chaplain Cassius - a few extra points for some nice features.

Chaplain Cassius  -   125 points
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Rosarius; Bolt Pistol; Crozius Arcanum; Infernus; Combat Tactics; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Honour of the Chapter; Independent Character; Liturgies of Battle

Space Marine Librarian - 140 points
in Terminator Armour; And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Tactics; Independent Character; Psyker; Might of the Ancients; Null Zone, Psychic Hood; Force Weapon; Storm Shield

Thunderfire Cannon  -  100 points
Techmarine Gunner  - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Artificer Armour; Servo Harness; Bolt Pistol; Thunderfire Cannon; And They Shall Know No Fear; Blessing of the Omnissiah; Bolster Defenses; Combat Tactics; Independent Character; Servo Harness

Thunderfire Cannon  -  100 points
Techmarine Gunner - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Artificer Armour; Servo Harness; Bolt Pistol; Thunderfire Cannon; And They Shall Know No Fear; Blessing of the Omnissiah; Bolster Defenses; Combat Tactics; Independent Character; Servo Harness

Thunderfire Cannon  -  135 points
Techmarine Gunner  - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Artificer Armour; Servo Harness; Bolt
Pistol; Thunderfire Cannon; And They Shall Know No Fear; Blessing of the Omnissiah; Bolster Defenses; Combat Tactics; Independent Character; Servo Harness 
Drop Pod - Transport Capacity: 12 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System

Terminator Assault Squad  -  475 points
Lightning Claws (pair) (x3); Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield (x1);
And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics; Land Raider Crusader
Sergeant - Lightning Claws (pair) (x1); And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics
Land Raider Crusader - Transport Capacity: 16 models; Access Points: 3; Frag Assault Launchers; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Extra Armor; Multi-Melta; 2x Hurricane Bolters; Twin Linked Assault Cannon; Assault Vehicle; Power of the Machine Spirit

Tactical Squad  - 235 points
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol (x9); Bolter (x7); Meltagun; Multi-Melta; And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat
Sergeant - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist (x1); And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics
Rhino - Transport Capacity: 10 model:  Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter; Repair

Tactical Squad  - 215 points
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol (x9); Bolter(x7); Flamer; Lascannon; And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics;
Sergeant - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Bolter; And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics
Rhino - Transport Capacity: 10 models; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter; Repair

Tactical Squad - 165points
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol (x4); Bolter(x4); And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics; Razorback
Sergeant - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Bolter;And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics
Razorback - Transport Capacity: 6 models; Access Points: 3; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Twin Linked Lascannon

Ironclad Dreadnought - 185 points
Extra Armor; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Ironclad Assault Launchers; Dreadnought CCW; Meltagun; Seismic Hammer; Storm Bolter; Move ThroughCover; Drop Pod
Drop Pod - Transport Capacity: 12 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System

Scout Squad  - 125 points
Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Scout Armour; Camo Cloaks; Bolt Pistol (x4); Sniper Rifle (x3); Missile Launcher; And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Scouts
Sergeant - Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Scout Armour; Camo Cloaks; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist (x1); And They Shall Know No Fear; Combat Squads; Combat Tactics; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Scouts

The Stout Smurf

Weathering and Battle Damage - Is it necessary?

To All,
I'm proud of my Dreadnought.

Looking at the rubric from the Colonial GT there were points awarded for weathering and battle damage. My question is: do I really have to mess up what I believe is a nice paint job to represent mud and rust? Wouldn't Ultramarines, or any other force, take care of the weapons and armor that keeps them alive?

Do other painting rubrics at GTs award points for weathering?

I need some guidance here.

The Stout Smurf

Forge World MK III IRON ARMOUR Marines

To All,

Before I evaluate and revamp my list, I want to get back to the part of the hobby that I truly enjoy - painting. I'm pretty sure I am going to keep the 25 marines in my list - 2 units of ten marines and 1 unit of five - so I'm going to spent the next week or so painting up the fifteen Forge World marines I bought to replace the Marines in my army that come from the Assault on Black Reach set.   (in reality I'm going to replace all 25 because I went with extreme highlighting on my first army and I'm going to do some blending on my next list. My goal is to get all the figures and models on my list to the quality of my Dreadnought.)

In a previous post I put up pictures of the soaking and washing of  the figures. Here's what I did a few weeks ago:
                                                               

Unpack and Flash

 

Soak

Scrub

Dry 

Last night I used Army Painter primer to prime the five Mark III armor marines. Because I'm going for a darker base I first primed them black:

and followed with a light coat of Blue:

 

Here are the primers I used:

I'm looking forward to getting some paint on them. I'll keep you posted.
The Stout Smurf

Paging Paul Sherratt - You Won the Dread!!!

To All,
Paul Sherratt - You won the Dreadnought. Contact me at StantonCT@gmail.com with your information so I can send it out to you.

The Stout Smurf

Sorry about last week - I'm back.

To All,
Sorry that nothing was posted last week. I went with my family to Washington, DC and had scheduled some posts to go up but I screwed it up somehow and I'm not tech-savvy enough to correct it through my phone. I haven't been to Washington since I was 18. It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone as a nice, 3-4 day trip.

On Monday I'll start regular posting again.

Happy Easter everyone!

The Stout Smurf.

Colonial GT Recap - Day 2

To All,
Entering day two I figure I'm going to have two opponents who are having similar luck, matchup, and list issues.

Round Four:
My round four opponent was running Demons.

Again the dice failed me. I couldn't make a single saving throw the entire game. I didn't get tabled though and I did manage to get 6 game points. But Demons are nasty - the Princes and keeper of Secrets were wicked.

So this brings me to Game Five. I'm feeling that I'll be able to get at least a draw if not a win. I have 6 points, the guy I'm going to be paired against only has 13 points. But, as the weekend is going, they guy drops out and I'm then paired against the "ringer." The ringer is Ray O'Dowd and he has a "Deathwing" army and knows how to play it. He dismantles me and I end the tournament getting tabled. Ray was a great opponent and the game was incredibly fun.

Thus, I ended up with the Smokin' Boots. I would like to make it like the Stanley Cup - I'll hold onto the trophy until I present it to the Smokin' Boots recipient next year. That would be pretty cool.

The Stout Smurf

Colonial GT Recap

To All,

My non-game Colonial GT experience was awesome and the organizers of the event should be commended. The facility was awesome, the tournament was well run, and it seemed a good time was had by all.

As far as the tournament for yours truly it boils down to two words - Smokin' Boots!!

 This is the trophy/diorama they gave for Smokin' Boots - A beautifully painted diorama by Ray O'Dowd.

For those of you unaware of who the Smokin' Boots are awarded to it is the person who comes in dead last. And that was me - I was outgunned, smashed, crushed, destroyed, etc. As far as I can tell there are three things you need to be successful at a tournament - a good list, a couple of favorable matchups, and luck with the dice. The Stout Smurf had none of these last weekend.

Game One:
 I played a Space Wolves list that was run by a pretty pleasant guy. I would say he was more effective with his shooting as my Land Raider and Dreadnought were gone, blown up, by the end of turn one. that meant I had to either foot slog my Terminators across the board or Gate of Infinity them. GoI it was and the legion of the Damned came in near them. I thinking I'm in good shape until he shot the crud out of them and then assaulted.

That fight raged the for a few turns with me knocking out a couple of units and a rhino but without fire or Dread support all I had standing at the end was a single Terminator with a thunder hammer. Meanwhile my shooting was terrible and he was able to close in on all Ultramarine units on my side of the board. I got tabled.

Game Two:
I was matched up with Rich T. who had a Sisters or Battle list. When Jawaballs came by the table after his game ended he wondered why I was playing a guy/list like this in the second round. Even the guy I was playing against was like "I know?!?"

This army has all kinds of crazy faith point rolls that made the bad stuff happening to me much worse. In this game I was totally outclassed by my opponent. He used his vehicles to box my LR and Dread in and I was toast. I was too hesitant to commit the marines to the melee and as a result I, again, got tabled.

Game Three:
I played a double storm raver Blood Angles list. I won the roll to go first and deployed like I was going to. Then he rolled a 6 and seized initiative. For the second time on the day my LR was burning at the end of turn one.

 After the conclusion of turn two, where I didn't make a single saving throw in my first two turns, the guy felt bad and bought me a gin-and-tonic. Mephiston and the blood talon dread tore the rest of my stuff up. Tabled again.

Day one in the books and I didn't have a single game point. I was looking forward to day two.

Dreadnought Winner!!

To All,

The winner of the Dreadnought "drawing" is Paul Sherratt.

Brother Captn James came in second and wins a bag of Jawaballs bases.

Paul Sherrat please contact me at StantonCT@gmail.com so I can send it out to you.

I will post a Colonial GT report tomorrow - tournament was great, my results not so much.

The Stout Smurf

Forge World Ultramarines Dreadnought - Finished!

To All,
I got the Dread done. I think it came out pretty good.

I'm thinking this Dreadnought should carry the name Dienekes or Stelios. What do you think?

He'll be ready to tear it up at The Colonial GT this weekend!

Quick Refence Sheets - great resource for the Noob!

To All,

Here are the tools I need to use since I am a noob. Jawaballs Gave me a copy (still in the bag) of White Dwarf from July,2008 which is the issue for the launch of 5th edition. I think it should be required reading for all newbies. A great thing about that issue is that a quick reference guide was included with it.Until I get a much better handle on the mechanics of the game I'm going to lean on it heavily!

 I also use the "Summary" page from the Space Marines CODEX:

(I put these pages up as examples of the tools I use to play the game. If this is a copyright problem please email me at stantonct@gmail.com and I will remove them. My intention is not to steal anyone's intellectual property.)

The Stout Smurf

Ultramarines vs IG "Leafblower/Parking Lot" - What can I do??

To All,

Ultimately I'm going to have to play an Imperial Guard "parking lot" or "leaf-blower" list.

Looking at my list, is there any hope for it?

Please offer suggestions.

The Stout Smurf

Ultramarines Forge World Dreadnought - Almost Done!

To All,
I got most of the banner done with the little time I had to work on it this weekend. The Dread will be tabletop ready tonight.

The Stout Smurf

Ultramarines List for The Colonial GT on Army Builder

To All,

A huge help to your humble correspondent, a noob, is the point-and-click list-building program called Army Builder. Not only does it help you keep track of the points as you are putting your list together but also keeps track of the unit statistics and prints out a list specific quick reference sheet that they call "footnotes."

Look towards the bottom and you can see the psychic powers, special rules, unit types, wargear, and weapons associated with the troops I have added to my Ultramarines List. The program also tells you what page you can find the rule on in the rule book or Codex for clarification.

 

I know the program is $39.99 and I'm never one to tell someone how to spend their money. But I justify it like this - in the three months or so I have been involved in 40K program must have saved me 5 hours of list building, tinkering, and "hand-writing it out" time. My free time is worth more then eight dollars an hour.

The Stout Smurf

Ultramarines Forge World Dreadnought - Progress being made.

To All,
Here is the progress I've made so far. I love the model!

What color or what hive should the Tyranid on the banner be? After reading some of the "fluff" I'm leaning towards either Hive Fleet Behemoth or Kraken. Let me know your thoughts.

The Stout Smurf

Forge World Dreadnought

To All,
Here is a quick picture on the progress I've made on the Forge World Dreadnought.

I believe the front part is supposed to carved stone so I attempted to make it look like it.

The Stout Smurf

Painting the Jawaballs bases to look like stone.

To All,

First a quick note; When I paint terrain I like to use Americana acrylics from DecoArt. I have used them on various terrain pieces and figures and find it to be very durable and the colors are very, very consistent from bottle to bottle.

The 60mm base for the dreadnought is made from black resin so I didn't do anything to it besides soak and scrub it. The 25mm bases are regular resin so after I soaked and scrubbed them I primed them black.

I first painted Dark Chocolate on all of parts of the base. The dark chocolate on the non-stone parts of the base will be covered by flocking so at this point I'm not too concerned about those areas. They will be flocked and set after the figure has been put on the base. In this picture the paint is still wet - it does not dry that shiny.

The next step is to dry brush the Americana color Coco on the stone sections leaving the "dirt" sections alone.

Next I applied Citadel Gryphonne Sepia wash to enhance the dry brushing/highlighting.

And then a final dry brush of Desert Sand to bring out the highest ridges on the stone to add depth.

I chose this color for the stone because I'm planning ahead for my "fancy" display board. I'm thinking a raised alter area with stone steps cascading down to the vehicles on the bottom. Still in the planning stages though.

I will post after the colonial how the black bases did verses the traditional white/tan resin. I'll snap some pics and let you be the judge.

The Stout Smurf

Gate of Infinity - out of combat?

To all,

At TempleCon my Librarian had the Psychic Powers  the Avenger and Null Zone. Null Zone worked great while the Avenger was OK, but not as devastating as I imagined it to be. For The Colonial I'm switching from The Avenger to The Gate of Infinity. I have two questions about the power:

1) When traveling by himself does the Librarian scatter when "coming out of the gate/warp."

and of course the big one:

2) Can the Librarian (and the unit he is with) use the Gate of Infinity to teleport out of combat?

The Rule:
"This power is used at the beginning of the Librarian's Movement phase. The Librarian, and any unit he is with, are removed from the tabletop and immediatly placed back together anywhere within 24" using the deep strike rules. If the Librarian travels alone, there is a chance something will go wrong.If the deep strike attempt scatters and a double is rolled, one member of the unit, chosen by the controlling player, is claimed by the Warp and removed as a casualty (the survivors scatter normally)."
Page 57 of the Space Marine Codex

Need to know before the Colonial on the 8th.

The Stout Smurf

Army Painter - Continued

To All,
My son, who has been coming to wargaming conventions and helping me run games for three years, wants to learn how to play 40K. We decide that he should paint his own army and, because I'm just learning how to play, learn to play Space Marines.

I tell him to look through Codex Chapters and pick something he thinks is cool but thinks he can paint on his own. He selects the Doom Legion.(Likes the skull - only one with a jawbone (I don't know either))

I want to make it as simple for him as possible but still have an army he can be proud of.  This is what I came up with:

1) Black Reach marines from ebay.
2) Prime figures with Army Painter Platemail Metal.(I primed them)
3) Fill in shoulder pads and gun with Black
4) Snot Green on the trim of shoulder pad, chest eagle, and vents on backpack. Plus any other raised eagle or skull.
5) Blood red and bleached bone on purity seal.
6) Wash entire figure with Badab Black. The wash fills in all the crevices on the metal and the green. 
7) Red in Eyes.

This is the pretty sweet result:

(I painted the yellow in the headlights and spotlight. We worked together on the lenses. Teaching and Practicing)

The keys to the entire process are the Army Painter primer and the Badab Black wash.

The Stout Smurf

Army Painter - You'll be Amazed!

To All,

Army Painter Colour Primers - I'm a fan.

I have been using them since my introduction to these colored primers by Jawaballs on different, non-Games Workshop figures:
 

The red on the Clurichauns and the green on the Leprechauns is straight out of the can primer without any shading at all.

 The black on these Orangemen is just the primer.

BUT...Here is the genius of Army Painter. The following marines were "painted" by my 12 year-old son using only:
Army Painter Platemail Metal primer
Snot Green
Blood Red
Bleached Bone
Badab Black Wash
Skull White

 More on this tomorrow...

The Stout Smurf

A change in course: peer pressure or sound advice?

In a recent post I discussed how I was going to upgrade a few of the figures in my army for the Colonial GT. I had decided to replace four marines with Forge World marines.

In a conversation with Jawaballs about the direction I’m taking for my army over the next two weeks he disagreed with me (something new?) on what I should prioritize – the five non-upgrade marines or the new dreadnought. All the figures and the dreadnought come from Forge World so it’s not a decision based on “coolness” – they're all pretty bad ass – but how much of an impact the models will have on the different aspects of what I’m trying to achieve as a “tournament player.”

Our conversation focused on two aspects:

     1) How much “tabletop” time will the figures/dred get?

    

           2) What is going to impact my painting score more?

Tabletop time is a big factor. The five marines will replace the four marines in my non-upgrade five-man unit. That unit’s role in my army is to sit inside the razorback and shoot the vehicle's TL Lascannon at the opponent’s tanks, rhinos, and razorbacks. Thus the figures would only hit the tabletop battlefield if they were forced out of the razorback.  The Dred, on the other hand, is an important part of my “attack down the center”  section of my list. Its role is to follow my Land Raider and then support the Terminators when they charge into melee. So the dreadnought will be on the table the entire game.

As for display purposes you can see that my Ironclad is on the front of my display board and the new Dred will take its place. Plus the model and banner are awesome. The four marines are at the rear on the right and are just four of the twenty five marines I have on my board. ( I am aware that I can reposition the stuff on my display board to put the four figures in toward the front)

All that being said I’m going to spend next week painting up the Dreadnought and then, if I have time,  paint up the marines.

Thoughts?

The Stout Smurf

Bases from Jawaballs!!

To All,

I had my painting rubric from TempleCon and I was going to scan it in and share it with you but I seem to have misplaced it. It will turn up in a couple of days but in the meantime I need to forge ahead.

One of the categories I did poorly on was basing. For all the models and figures in my current army I used the bases that came with them from Games Workshop and glued a flocking mix to it. It is the same mix I used for my display board so for the casual passerby it wasn't obvious but the judging was another matter So that is one area that I'm going to concentrate on to grab some extra points.

I dropped by Jawa's room today to get some of his resin bases .He had three sizes so i helped myself to a "set" of all three.(Thanks buddy!)

 The first set: 25mm textured:

The next set:
40mm textured black resin bases. I asked Jawaballs why black? His response was pretty interesting: during transport oftentimes the edges of his bases get chipped. With the paint chipped away the white resin shows through making the bases look "banged up." With the black resin the chips won't be obvious.

And I had to get a 60mm dreadnought base, also black resin.

I'm going to soak, scrub, prime, and paint these up.

I do not think you have to prime the black bases. I'm going to paint them without priming - i'll let you know how it goes.

The Stout Smurf