I Got 99 Problems...

Update

Back to the Glowing lights...

Ok I'm back. This of course means WE are back. I was away for a little longer than I had originally planned, but it's for the best. I received a large amount of product that I'll be reviewing over the next little while, in addition to a potential new addition/enterprise for the blog. So as I said, It was for a good cause (As if getting older, drinking, drinking some more and playing a stupid amount of Borderlands 2 and other games wasn't reason enough to be gone for awhile! ha!)

Anyways, Back to the grindstone. Updates will arrive on schedule again for the next little while (I'm not going anywhere for a while... spent WAAAAAY too much money!).

Big things people! Big things!

Bean out~

In lieu of a real update...

I bring you this.

Aka I totally forgot to write anything for today, and I have far too much to do still before I go to bed. Also: There probably will not be an update on Saturday, or likely, Tuesday either (unless Richard or Maqy throw down with something), as I'm visiting friends and family until Tuesday and won't have either access to a computer. Indeed I am heading over to see them for my birthday (Oh god I'm getting old...) and plan to be far FAR too drunk to write anything for Saturday.
Until then, enjoy this little laugh.

Till next time,
Keep calm and carry on.
Bean out.

Richard's Hobby Tutorials: Trollbloods Mountain King Assembly Part 1

Hello and welcome to my first hobby tutorial! While all of my articles on Roll of the Dice have pertained to Warhammer 40,000, I thought it would be fun to introduce Warmachine & Hordes (or Warmahordes for short) as well. For some quick background, I decided to get into Warmahordes at the start of summer 2012 because I had heard great things about Mark II and how the rule set was very balanced. Like many long time Warhammer players, we yearn for systemic balance both in the main rulebook as well as codices. But, it's rare for any of us to agree that the game has reached that point.

So, when I heard about Warmachine and Hordes and how one of their biggest selling points was internal balance, I jumped on the chance to start collecting a Trollbloods army. Admittedly I'm not a big fan of most of the Warmachine models, although the Hordes models are quite a bit more appealing to me. Trollbloods in particular combined kilts, ale, brute strength, ridiculous toughness and regeneration and best of all: some good ol' fashioned axe to mouth savagery. I couldn't pass up on that!

Over the last few months I've managed to collect a sizeable army which I've slowly been constructing. Nothing is painted yet although I've assembled and based about 2/3 of what I own so far, which is roughly about 600$ worth of Privateer Press product including the Main Rules and Trollbloods hard cover books. I'm looking forward to investing in the last few models I feel will compliment this large force and then painting up my first warlock and his or hers attending force. Then, I will finally get the chance to learn and play my first game(s)!

Having attended PAX 2012 a few weeks ago, Privateer Press had their booth set up and I was lucky enough to get my hands on the Mountain King before it's released soon. While I've heard mixed reviews as to the effectiveness of this Gargantuan on the tabletop, I couldn't resist the primal, visceral and downright ferocious nature of this model. There's no doubt in my mind that this is the largest model I've ever had the privilege of assembling so I decided I'd share with you my journey through the process. This tutorial will most likely end up being two parts, although if I decide to include my painting process, it could easily extend into three, four, five or even six parts depending on how I want to split up each stage of painting. Any ways, first the assembly!

Hordes Trollbloods: Mountain King Assembly Tips & Advice

Tools you need:

• Sharp Hobby Knife
• Wet Sanding Paper (maybe optional depending on your files)
• Files
• Super Glue
• Wire/Hobby Cutters for the larger pieces of flash/resin that are stuck to certain pieces
• Blue Tack (optional)
• Green Stuff/Putty

With any model kit, as soon as you unwrap the precious plastic seal and open the box, make sure you have instructions and all the pieces necessary to construct the model in every way its intended. If there are any issues with any missing pieces for the Mountain King, contact Privateer Press for parts replacement or ideally, exchange the product for a new box with the all the pieces in it! This is what you should have in your Trollbloods Mountain King box:

Catalogue your Resin pieces:

• Torso
• Mountainous Back
• Left & Right Arm
• Left & Right Leg
• Front & Back Loin Cloths
• Angry Face
• Impact Crater

Now Catalogue your Metal Pieces:

• Several Whelps including one standing on a rock
• Many, many chains
• Rock Chin Guard

And finally the extras:

• Mountain King Damage Spiral Card
• Mountain King Stat Card
• 120 MM Gargantuan Base
• Mountain King Instructions

As illustrated, make sure you have these:

Obviously the 120 milimeter Gargantuan base is necessary, although you'll notice 3 Power cards instead of 2. The one on the right has a Gold Rim around it's portrait. I received that card when I bought the Mountain King at PAX 2012 and the cashier mentioned that it was gold because it's a Con Exclusive. I'm not going to complain! Finally, the instructions will help you put this thing together, especially in regards to correct Whelp and Chain attachment!

Before I continue, I'm going to quote a great paragraph on working with Resin from Privateer Press' article on their Trollbloods War Wagon assembly:

"It is important to note that resin dust can be toxic if inhaled, so be sure to wear a dust mask when working with resin parts. An N-95 respirator is best. Using a hobby knife to scrape the mold lines creates less dust than sanding or filing, so it is the recommended method. There are times when sanding is necessary, however, and for this we recommend a wet sanding technique. Wet sanding is done with sandpaper dipped in water. The water helps trap the resin dust so that it does not release into the air. Sandpaper intended for wet sanding has a backing of plastic rather than paper, which would deteriorate in water. When you are finished cleaning the resin parts, wash them with soap and water to remove any excess resin dust and to ensure there is no mold release agent remaining on the part, which might prevent paint from adhering to the model."

So I've bolded the important parts! Please, please follow these instructions when operating with ANY kind of Resin. There are no exceptions to this to my knowledge. Resin dust even in small quantities can be extremely hazardous, so don't take any chances. In addition, I really did find the use of a model knife to be superior 95% of the time when working with the Mountain King. There were very few mold lines on the Arms, Legs, Loin Cloths, Face, Mountainous Back and Crater and thankfully, they were quick and easy to clean up. The Torso took quite a bit more work than I expected simply because the mold line was where the skin lining met up with where the Mountainous Back would join to. Here's a picture to illustrate:

Take your time and be thorough with your knife about removing this excess resin and making the Torso clean and presentable. You don't want to put it all together and find out after painting just how visible mold lines can be! Here's another picture to show the work in progress of removing that flash lining around the Torso:

And a third picture that shows a distinct mold line crossing the back of the Torso. This was pretty noticeable on my piece, so some cutting and filing was necessary to grind it down. This picture shows the work:

Now, having removed the mold lines from all the Resin pieces, there are some issues/solutions with the Head and the Legs/Feet that need to be addressed. First, take a look the MK's Head. Make sure you flatten down the back so that it contacts evenly. Also, you'll notice two grooves on the top which slot into nubs in the interior of the collar on the Torso. And yes, that is a WIP Extreme Dire Troll Mauler in the background who is almost complete at publication of this article! The following picture reveals the sanding/filing necessary to flatten it out: 

Now, look at the bottom of the feet and ensure that they are flat and level as they can be by filing them down. You can determine this by simply pushing each of the legs together and judging how well the two pieces sit on a flat surface. Blue Tack can help with this. Also, take a look at the MK's beautiful toes. No, they're not pedicured, but you'll notice resin between some of the toes as evidenced in the following picture (and also the mold lines that need to be removed so the foot is evenly surfaced):

This picture shows the top of the foot and what I meant by having resin between the toes:

It's easy to fix this by simply cutting out the triangular wedges between as many toes as you can. Take your time with this as well to have the foot look more realistic when you're all done. The following pictures shows what the other foot looked after I removed the resin between the toes and evened out the surface (mostly):

Now that you've cleaned up all the Resin pieces and ensured they will fit together well, we move on to the fun part of the tutorial where this big guy gets put together. First, file and clean up the Mountain King's Rock Chin Guard. When that's done and you've tested out a snug fit, use your super glue and attach it to the collar on the Torso.

Moving on, your efforts to fit together and even out the Legs and Feet will come to fruition when you glue them together. Do NOT; I repeat, do NOT glue the feet to the large base. You don't want to commit to putting the model on the base yet, as it will make painting the underside an exercise in frustration (and No, I'm smart enough to not be talking from personal experience!). Just glue each Leg to the other and then glue each Loin Cloth as shown in the photos below: 

 Front

 Back

You'll notice on the back the mold line above the loin cloth slightly to the left. Feel free to fill this in with Green Stuff/Putty now or later. Now, let the two Legs and Loin Cloths dry and grab the Left Arm and Impact Crater. Clear off flash and then file down and even off the bottom of the Impact Crater so that it's perfectly flat. Then glue the Impact Crater to the bottom of the Left Arm. In addition to the feet, the Impact Crater will be a third contact point to balance out the Mountain King. Finally, glue the Left Arm to the Torso as shown in the following picture (he's lopsided for drying purposes):

Here's two more pictures to reveal the joint between the Left Arm and Torso and the gap that will need to be filled with Green Stuff/Putty soon:

Front

Side

And to conclude Part 1 of the Mountain King Assembly, place the Torso atop the Legs (DON'T glue yet!) and ensure that the Impact Crater is level with the Feet so that the model rests evenly with minimal to no wobble. If you're not confident about the MK's stability, use Green Stuff/Putty underneath which ever contact point(s) are not as flat as they should be and either leave them where you want them on the base or attach them to the Legs/Impact crater. When you're ready to attach to the two combined pieces, it should look something like this:

Front

Back

Looking good eh? Richard's Hobby Tutorials: Trollbloods Mountain King Assembly Part 2 will finish off the assembly process by attaching the Mountainous Back, Right Arm and then all the dirty Whelps and their chains to keep this beast tied up when he's too hungry for his own good!

Primer Directive: Krylon Camoflage Ultra-Flat

Product Review

So recently  I ran out of primer. This is, for anyone, quite a problem if you are any type of mini-painter, but for yours truly, it's a CATASTROPHE! You see, I don't live near civilization per say. I live 30 mins drive from the nearest town and over an hours drive (1hr 12 mins to be exact) from the nearest hobby store (which it actually barely qualifies as... God I miss my old store), so running out of anything is a bit of an issue. In addition to that, I'm not legally able to drive (it's a long story.... Also part of the reason I live where I do. Short form: bad injury = No driving), so I must rely on the kindness of others to get stuff for me. Lastly, Ordering primer online is a pain because it takes a while to get to me.. and with the nice weather we've been enjoying here lately, I can't wait on snail-mail and risk loosing prime-priming-time.
SO! due to all of this, it's a bit of a problem when I run out of my beloved, far too expensive GW White primer. This has forced me to look for alternate products, preferably at a lower price point. Enter Krylon Fusion Camouflage Ultra-Flat spray primer.

THE CHALLENGER!

Scrying the Betrayal: Horus Heresy from Forge World

Saturday Potpourri

Well good god damn! That is some amazing stuff on its way out from those lovely chaps at Forge World. As if my wallet didn't already have a spending complex they start showing off some of the lovely things in store for us with this release:
The Fellblade super heavy tank!
The Sabre/Thunderer tank
A Recon Marine (my personal favorite from what we've been shown... Now i can stop searching for the old rogue trader edition one on ebay! [unless someone has one they're willing to send my way of course!!!!!])
Jet Bikes!
CATAPHRACT TERMINATOR ARMOUR (my most anticipated release)

But what else can we glean from this lovely video by looking a little closer? 

Image Courtesy of WarLlama 40k (stolen without permission... but I've linked you to make up for it!)

Image Courtesy of WarLlama 40k (stolen without permission... but I've linked you to make up for it!)

Answer: Some of the new rules we'll be seeing, in addition to some older forge world rules in play and an idea of what we'll be seeing going forward. So let us delve deeper into these mysteries and see what we can see shall we?

Richard's Warhammer 40,000 Strategy & Tactica: Missions Part 2

Mmmm, 2nd Edition...

Salutations! I took a long break from posting as a result of a vacation with PAX 2012 in Seattle being incorporated into it! I am back and ready to continue posting. So without further adieu, I present the continuation of my Warhammer 40,000 Strategy & Tactica: Missions article.

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub Part 2: The Cleanening

Tutorial Tuesday

Welcome back for part 2 of the Simple-Green review slash how to (which is, in no way, a cheap attempt to take a sub-par article and split it into two articles so i can be lazy this afternoon... no... not at all...)!

When last we met our intrepid Chemi-man he had just given his models the sweet sweet minty green dunk!

It's so.... green.....

Back to the Future

Saturday Potpourri

It's just Fabulous!

So... the Horus Heresy series by forge world is being released in the next bunch of weeks. This is both AMAZING and AWFUL at the same time.

Themed Allies in 40k

Thursday Theories

Food for thought...

As I'm sure many of you out there have noticed Allies in 6th edition are changing the game in new and mostly wonderful ways. Naturally some people out there are using these rules to power-game the system, using them to shore up the perceived in-built weaknesses of their army codeci and create the ubermenchen of army lists, but others out there (such as yours truly)see nothing but awesome conversion and themed army potential.
Now it's easy to take Blood Angels and Necrons and create a Space marine and Adeptus Mechanicus list... But what about the potential involved in that new sweet spot of the game at 2000 points? That most excellent area that allows not only an additional Force Org Chart.. but also that (seemingly lost to the void of the internet, amongst all the angst and hate) awesome SECOND ALLIES DETACHMENT?
Oh yeah.... that exists.. and it's pure friggin gold.

Behold! 1000 points of Allies for a 2000 Points + Space Marine List!

Scrub-a-dub-dub Part 1: THE SECRET OF THE OOZE

Tutorial Tuesday

We've all got one of those miniatures. You know the ones I'm talking about. That model you painted umpteen years ago while half blind from your 9th double rum and coke after painting all the way through all of the Lord of the Rings extended Editions (Natch!). That model(s) you look at now and actually hope they'll burst into flames so no-one can see your secret shame.
Or maybe that's just me.... and how most of my Saturday nights go....
Anyways, here's my guide to absolving you of your painting sins and washing away those unsightly paint jobs.
Until the next one...

The Answer to your failures. $15.00 from Canadian Tire... or whatever your DIY store is.

The Classics

Saturday Potpourri

Hair Metal forver!!

I've been asked by many people just what it is about those old Citadel & Marauder figures I love so much. They're clunky. Their proportions are way off. They don't have nearly the level of detail modern models do. They are METAL as opposed to all this resin and plastic available now-a-days. They have awful hair.
To all of these accusations I say: "yup, and that's just the tip of the iceberg!"