Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Ork Warlord: Black Reach, I have you now!



The Ork Warlord snarled and, with a wave of his mighty powerclaw, motioned his boyz forward towards the Ultramarines battleline.
" Waaghh!!"


Here is my humble take on the Ork Warlord from The Battle for Black Reach boxed set.

The Battle for Black Reach boxed set is the latest introductory version of Warhammer 40K and is probably the best boxed set they have produced. You get almost 50 miniatures for 60 bucks and the quality of the new miniatures is excellent.

Orks are one of the great races in the game. They are evil and big and scary looking but they also have a sense of mischief and fun about them. You'd probably love having them at a party if they didn't want to kill everyone all the time.

The Ork Warlord is, by far, the nicest miniature in the whole Black reach set and has an impressive amount of detail. The figure oozes orkyness!

It's my goal to get all the orks painted up from that set but, as of this post I have three! painted out of 29!


Enjoy!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Star Blazers: The First Battle

Hello Loyal Readers!

Here is the first Star Blazers Fleet Battle System game that my son and I played together. Jake had just finished painting his first Star Blazer miniature and was anxious to get it into space.  So we present you with this battle report.  (sorry for the blurry pics, the regular camera was down)

The Vengeance of Desslock!


Below is Jake's Earth Fleet. Anchored by a mighty Radetsky class Battleship, the Musaki, accompanying the Flagship was the Borodino class Battleship "New Jersey" and 3 Gearing class Destroyers.

My Fleet consisted of the Desslock's Battleship (Revenge II), a Gamalon Battleship, Strike Cruiser and 3 Destroyers.



Turn 1: The Gamalons moved forward while the EDF stayed put to charge the Wave Motion guns.

Turn 2:  The Gamalons accelerate while the EDF starts to move forward. Fleets get into extreme missile range. The Gamalon Battleship trades missiles with the two Earth Battleships. Light damage is exchanged.

Turn 3: The Gamalons move ahead at max combat speed. The Gamalon Destroyers and Strike Cruiser flank to the left while the two Gamalon Heavy ships dive into combat with the earth Ships. The EDF Destroyers break off and set up an attack run on their Gamalon counterparts.




Missiles rage between the two fleets. The EDF destroyers kill the small Gamalon ships with a full salvo of Torpedoes! However the Gamalon ships manage to drop a mine field in front of the Charging EDF Ships.

 Desslock, displeased with the Earth fleet, unleashes a massive missile salvo from both his battleships  at the New Jersey.  The pummelled earth ship succumbs on a critical hit and explodes!

Return fire from the Earth fleet is split and both Gamalon Battleships take damage, but not enough to cripple.



Turn 4:   The Two fleets pass on another and come around. The EDF Destroyers plow into the mines, killing two of them. Desslock's own flagship take out the last Destroyer with a long range shot.

Missiles again fill the void, with the Musaki almost being crippled and the Revenge II taking more damage.




Turn 5:  Discretion is the better part of valor and the Musaki retreats off the board! Desslock has his vengeance.


This was a fun introduction to the rules for my son. His EDF fleet was defeated but his flagship escaped to fight again.  The biggest mistake the EDF made was pulling off the destroyers from escorting the battleships. The EDF battleships have very poor missile defenses and need to have escorts nearby to help shoot down some of the massive missile salvos.

The Gamalons lost three Destroyers while The EDF lost a battleship and 3 destroyers.

Enjoy!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Yamato...Space Battleship



Here is the miniature of the Hero ship of Star Blazers. The Space Battleship Yamato or Argo.


This miniature is from Star Blazers Fleet Battle System ( http://www.starblazersonline.com/ ) and is about 2.25 inches long and has photo etched antenna. I painted it in more of a Cartoony style. I hope you guys like it.






Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Star Blazers! We're off to outer space...!

Star Blazers one of of those shows that really effected me as a kid. It was the first cartoon I had ever seen that actually had a continuing plot! Every day I would race home from school to see the continuing adventures of the Argo and her crew. 
  The  Star Blazers premise was designed to hook kids like me from the start. Cool spaceships that were heavily influenced by WW2, in fact the hero ship was a re-built ww2 battleship.

Only later did I discover that this was, in fact, a Japanese cartoon, or Anime, originally called Space Battleship Yamato. What made Star Blazers different from other cartoons and imported anime  at the time was that the translation was pretty accurate and they actually hired quality voice actors. Rare for shows like that in the '70s and '80s.

What does this have to do with miniatures you ask? Well, around 10 years ago or so Musashi Enterprises came out with a game called "Star Blazers Fleet Battle System" The also came out wih a range of uber small miniatures for said game.

My son now loves the show as well and recently expressed an interest in playing a game. As I didn't have any good "bad guy" forces I was happy with I decided to whip some together over a weekend.


red Gamalon Battleship sometimes commanded by Emperor Desslock


A Gamalon Strike Cruiser. WW2 meets, Captain Nemo, meets Spaceship

Baby Gamalon Destroyers. This guys are tiny! They are glued to push pins!



The Gamalon fleet in all it's glory.


in the upcoming weeks I plan on building a few more, including the mighty Argo herself!

enjoy!
























Monday, September 1, 2008

New 5th addition Warhammer 40K

Orks, I hate those guys.





Orks... Space Orks... not to be confused with your high stepping fantasy Orcs. See adding the "K" makes them "SPACY".



Above is one of the new models from the new version of 40k. This Ork Nob is all kitted out and ready to smash some unlucky space marine!



I wanted to pick a easy to paint scheme so I went with all black, as if this Ork were attending a funeral... yours!



This is one serious Ork!



This was the first real model I tried the new Citadel Washes on and I really, really like them. I recommend anyone painting miniatures give them a try.



Enjoy!