40k Giveaway: The winner is.....

They say Ordo Malleus are sworn to defend the very soul of mankind. Their mission is to ruthlessly suss out dangers to the Imperium, and extricate it. 

Having said that, it is with a heavy heart that I must send a holy inquisitor to one of my own readers. May he find you worthy, and may the Emperor have mercy on your soul. I once again used Random.org to determine where I needed to send this dog of the Imperium.

The hand of the inquisition reaches far and wide and this is no truer then now, since this Inquisitor is traveling all the way to New Zealand to it's new owner Tony Stewart!  

Shoot me your email and I'll send you your mini as soon as possible. I know international shipping is like traveling by Warp, and delivery time can be.. variable, at best.

Cheers all, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

~Muninn

High Elf photo leak

Well this morning came with a surprise leak of some new High Elf units, as well that the High Elves are being released in the immediate future. This was apparently grabbed off a GW facebook page by some lovely folks over at Warseer.

There's obviously a good bit of speculation about what we see here. There's obviously a Phoenix mount (possibly for Phoenix Guard) as well as the blue variant (Ice maybe?). One interesting bit to me is that it appears that the wings are interchangeable, so you can put them on to appear that the eagles are either flapping their wings up or down (compare the two red phoenix's wings).

Other sightings from this shot are what appears to be an Eagle Chariot, halfway off the bottom of the screen. Another guy thought the unit to the far right were new Reavers, but no one else sees it (I don't play HEs so I wouldn't be a good judge).

Either way, this looks like a good confirmation that High Elves are close, if not next. Exciting new for the folks who've been waiting patiently for their pointy-eared/helmeted army to be in the spotlight.

More when I have it.

~Muninn

Tau Codex cover art is here

Finally, over a week after the first White Dwarf Tau leaks showed up we have the codex cover art (albeit in German). I snagged this over at Faeit 212. I probably would've preferred a Fire Warrior or Stealth Suit, but I think it looks pretty good.

 Here are a few other shots from the German WD as well.

~Muninn

Even more Tau leaks! Broadside, & Characters!

Just got a hot batch of pics taken from Advanced Tau Tactica & they're beauties!

~Muninn

Meet the PC: Xiang Jiao, Deathwatch Apothecary

One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

The second member of our Deathwatch team was played by an old friend of mine, Sickpuppy. He has a dark sense of humor, so his character was Xiang Jiao, the last Apothecary from the Celestial Lions chapter. He had a very fatalistic take on the galaxy, and would throw himself into fights with abandon in order to die like his battle brothers.

Similar to my own Tactical marine, Tiberion, the only hard part about this mini was free-handing the Chapter symbol. I'd never painted a lion head before, but I thought it looked pretty good.


~Muninn

40k Giveaway: Grey Knights Inquisitor

I'd intended to do this in February, but figured I'd hold off until i had a semblance of balance in my life.

So now that things are in a slightly better, here's the next giveaway: A Grey Knight Inquisitor with Combi-weapon. Sure, I know what you're thinking: "but Muninn, who would want that? Nobody plays Grey Knights!" Well I won't hold that against anyone who just wants a nice mini. :P

This guy was given to me a while back by a friend who gave up the hobby. I already have a few inquisitors, and I'm not a Grey Knight player, so having extras that I don't intend to paint seems excessive.

So you can have him. Just follow the steps below. 

The rules are simple:
1)  Be a public follower of this blog (I want to see you in the 'Members' gadget on the right).

2)  Leave a comment below saying that you want this mini. (I'll do the drawing March 31st)

3)  If you promo my giveaway on your blog or website you'll be entered to win twice (Make sure to let me know if you do).

4)  If you win the item, come back and leave a comment once you've received it saying,"Hey, I got it!"

May the odds be ever in your favor.

~Muninn

Painting Competition: Kroot update

I've gotten some pretty good progress on my Scourge/Kroot conversion. I've been able to get about 45 minutes of modeling in every day between feedings or after my wife has taken the babies to bed.

Here's the GSed armor as it was last week. I've cleaned it up significantly since. You can see in an effort to make him appear grizzled I've added a few scars around his head (There'll be even more on the rest of his body).

Here's where I am as of this morning.

The arms are only pinned at the moment, & still need to be GSed properly, and the head isn't in place either. The head will probably be painted separately since it's set in an awkward spot between the arms and wings.

The rifle & arms were a bear. What you see is a combination of three guns cobbled together, and two mismatched arms. It took a lot of time patience & pinning to get everything where I wanted it (I accidentally put my drill through the end of the gun, but that can be fixed). I still have to GS the shoulders, but it should be just about right.

Yorrik was kind enough to give me some of his Dark Eldar troop bits, & I've tried to put them to good use. You can see I applied a kneepad to the bent leg, and gave the kroot a DA loincloth. Both of those bits had to be carved out of a trooper's legs, but they add a nice bit of color to the mini.

I have two more weeks left til the mini is due, so I think I'm right on course.

More once I'm further along.

~Muninn

More leaked Tau shots: Riptide, Farsight, Pathfinders & more

Here are a few more shots garnered from around the webs (I snagged these from Lord_Shorty at Warseer).

I've finally got some pics large enough to edit, and these have cleaned up nicely

I was really enjoying combing over the shots of the ever-intriguing Riptide. It's beastly (in a good way). I can imagine picking one of these up and using it as the largest entry in the local painting competition because... Hell, just because.

Next most interesting is Farsight. It's dynamic, and different enough that I can see a lot of people getting him just to mix up their own crisis suit teams. Another great sculpt.

The Pathfinders... I'm still not sure about. I know they used to be set apart by the elongated shape of their helmets, but I don't really see it.

The flyer looks great too. To me it looks like something you could actually see in the air (to me it looks like a plane you'd see in the old cartoon, Tail Spin)

 ~Muninn

Meet the PC: Tiberion, Deathwatch Tactical Marine

One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

One game system we explored recently was Fantasy Flight's Deathwatch RPG. I rather liked it, but the GM Yorrik had some issues on the back end, & we called it after four or five sessions. In that time though Yorrik & I managed to finish three of our four party members.

This is my character, Tiberion, a marine sergeant from the Mentor's chapter. He has a great military mind, unburdened by the archaic beliefs and traditions that many other Marines find themselves entrenched it. His forte was tactics, mechanical knowledge, and firepower. The tactical marine had access to extra clips of bolter ammo, and he made great use of it.

Yorrik bought a Deathwatch conversion pack for our party, so that part was easy. Other than basic modeling, the hardest part was free-handing the Chapter symbol. Wish the game could've lasted a bit longer, but oh well.


~Muninn

First Tau leaks arrive.

Finally, the first White Dwarf pics of the new Tau units have arrived, compliments of sinowarrior at Warseer. The shots are small, but they're the first wave of what I'm sure will be many. I do, in fact, have a mostly unbuilt Tau army so I've been watching the news with great interest, and finally we're getting our first real snippets.

The Riptide looks immense. I'll have to see what my army is lacking, but I would certainly make room for that beastly Tau mech. I can see picking up pathfinders as well, since they've always seemed a clutch unit, but I'll have to see better shots before I make that call.

 The battleforce seems reasonable, and as far as most Tau players are concerned, relatively little fat to trim. I know not everyone cares for the stealth suits, but they're one of my favorite units, & I certainly wouldn't mind adding a few more. Also, who doesn't want any Fire Warriors, Crisis Suits or Piranha?

The Broadside looks interesting, but still needs a cleaner shot for me to form a real opinion.

I'll be posting more shots as soon as I find them.

~Muninn

Painting Competition: All Kroot All the Time

So the results of the last painting competition are in.  Yorrik's Kaptin Badrukk took first place, & my Greater Knarloc came in second. A really crisp Trazyn the Infinite mini rounded out third place. (Thanks to the early arrival of the twins I never ended up completing, or even priming, my Ahriman mini. The store owner let me submit the Greater Knarloc instead.)

Now that that's over, time to prepare for the next one.

My FLGS owner is a Kroot fanatic. I'm not sure why, but he loves the quasi-avian alien mercenaries. He likes them so much that I bought him a Games Day Angkor Prok mini for his grand re-opening years ago.

He's been waiting for a new Tau Codex for years in hopes of a Kroot HQ, just so he could field an all-kroot army (other than the Forge World one that is).Now that there are rumors of an April Tau release that might just come to pass.

Anyhoo, given his predisposition for the xenos he decided that the newest painting competition would use them as a unifying theme. the entry fee for the store's painting competition is to buy a mini (usually the one you paint, but it's negotiable). This time, you just have to buy *anything* and he gives you an unpainted kroot mini. He gives you the option of taking one that's already built & primed, or just taking bits.

Painting kroot is pretty easy. I can knock out a pretty good one in under 2 hours.

I'm a glutton for punishment though, so there's no way I'm just going to submit an unmodified mini. Instead I'm converting myself a grizzled mercenary who's bargained with a Dark Eldar Haemonculus for a pair of wings. I have a diorama in mind too, so this thing will be kinda elaborate.

Here's what I've blu-tacked together so far:

You can see I've carved away a bit of his back to add some DA Scourge bits. I was going to attempt a chest swap, but it turns out those evil space-elves have tiny bodies. Instead I'll be attempting to GS some armor.

The next big thing will be to fashion a pair of arms that will be swinging it's hunting rifle as a melee weapon. That'll be a task in & of itself, but I hope to have the GSing done by Friday. The deadline at the moment is April 6th, so I hope I'm giving myself enough time.

More when I get a bit further along.

~Muninn

Meet the PC: Alexandros Belmont, Human Fighter

One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

Last in our but certainly not least in our Castlevania game is our Belmont. He was played by Yorrik's friend Chris. Interestingly, his character used a spiked shield as a weapon, and of course, the family whip.

 He was easily the most heavily converted mini in the batch. The body of one mini, a hand-swapped whip from another, and a spiked shield from a third. I credit Yorrik with the converting on this one. Chris had a very particular build in mind for his character, and we did our best to get it there. Looking at it now, I wish that we'd decided to paint him in blacks & greys instead of browns. We decided against it, since it probably would have blended in with many of the monster minis we were using as enemies, but standing next to the other characters he seems bland. There's always the next Castlevania game, right Yorrik?

~Muninn

(Next week: Deathwatch Space Marines)

Meet the PC: Father Magnus, Human Cleric

 One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

The fourth member of our Castlevania party was played by my high school friend, Havok. He rolled our party's Cleric, Father Magnus, a Catholic priest sent to investigate reports of growing werewolf activity around the Belmont lands. In the course of his duties he became close to the family and became integral to our quest.

This is Reaper's classic Jonas Kane mini. It probably wasn't the most ideal mini, but it was kinda daunting to find a cleric mini that fit the bill without looking like he was going to kick down the door and take down Dracula by himself. Were I to pick the model now, I'd use this guy, but unfortunately he wasn't produced until recently.

~Muninn

Picking the right mini for your PC

I'm sure it's obvious by now, but I'm a big fan of finding the right mini for my PCs. I thought I'd take you through my thought process when it comes to picking a good representation for your character.

Concept:
I almost always start with a character in mind. I'll usually come up with a handful of character concepts at once, and prior to the start of the game I'll pitch these characters to the rest of the group to see who will fill the niche role needed by the rest of the party.

This morning I had an idea for a character who is a zoologist (cryptozoologist?) seeking to create a field guide of dangerous monsters (The Liber Monstrum). Of course, to properly document these creatures he'll has to seek out, fight, and take specimens. Think a combination of Indiana Jones, John Audubon, and a healthy smattering of Steve Irwin (Crikey! That Tarasque's angry!).

Visualization:
Once you have a character concept you start getting ideas of how your character looks, their class, and the tools you want them to use. You probably have an idea of their personality and role as well. So whether or not they'd be a taciturn sneaky rogue, as opposed to a jubilant swashbuckling rogue. Visualizing you character informs what kind of miniature you want, as well as the personality you hope it portrays.

With my "adventuring naturalist" summary in mind I break down a few things I'd like to see about the mini:
* Male
* Human, Dwarf, or possibly Elf
* Seems likely to be a wizard or ranger
* A rugged but scholarly look (preferably with a book)
* Also in my mind is that the mini shouldn't be overly aggressive. No charging into battle or screaming battle cries.

If I know the class I want to play I'll usually also list armor & shields among the things I want to see. I don't usually list weapons as deal breakers for my minis, since weapon swaps are a relatively simple modification. 

Search:
So with these broad ideas in mind I go about my search. If I don't have a mini in mind already I tend to start looking in one of two places: Reaper's Figure Finder, and Privateer Press. I like these two because they're about the same scale, and they both put out good high detailed metal minis.Privateer Press has a strong steampunk/technology vibe, but that can be worked around.

After a cursory search I found a few possibilities.

This dwarf has some good potential. He looks both formidable, and scholarly, which is a great balance for the character I have in mind. Likewise the armor is a little vague, so he could portray a variety of classes.

For a more ranger-esque character this guy would fit the bill. I'm not as keen on his hair, but I'm no stranger to adding a hat to a mini either. It isn't my first choice, but a decent option.

This one has a bookish "Egon" quality to it. So while it doesn't have a book or scrolls, you get the feel of an intelligent character (possibly a scientific/stuffy quality as well). One of the disadvantages to this one is that it's clearly a spellcaster of some sort. He isn't a ranger or fighter, he's a straight-up spellslinger. 

This one could work if I were to change the character concept to being a cleric or fighter. For the most part clerics with books looked like they were chanting, or casting spells, but this guy just looks like he's reading from it. If I were to paint pictures of monsters on the pages of the book it'd easily go from a religious text to a field guide.

Finally, from Privateer Press we have this guy. this guy takes the rugged adventurer cake. His gun and sword would put him at odds with most fantasy worlds, but that gun could be swapped with a crossbow, or wand, or just a hand. The sword is almost certainly detachable, so I can ignore that entirely (the bullet bandolier could be painted to be glass vials). The duster and clothes don't mesh perfectly with a high fantasy setting either, but a good paintjob can fix that too.







For the record, I'd probably choose either the "Egon" mini of the Privateer Press mini. My decision would be made after chatting with my fellow players, and brainstorming bits about our characters. I see the Egon mini as being a character at the start of their expedition, whereas the PP mini would be a veteran explorer.

Completion:
Once you pick your mini you can modify, convert, and paint to fit your exact ideals. I always use minis to help me get a feel for my character, so the closer I can get to my vision, the closer I feel to the character. Hope this helps you the next time you need to find the right avatar for your tabletop character.

~Muninn