Hell yeah!!!
New Tomb Kings book and Necro Sphinx…
Keep em peeled!
Preparing for war!
By the gods! where has the time gone? it seems like only yesterday that I was at AdeptiCon hanging out with Dethtron and Evan… Well, I guess a new position at work, my computer at home taking a shit and generally being bloody knackered are the reasons that I haven’t posted in a while…anyway, enough of the excuses!
AdeptiCon was great fun, and a great chance to catch up with some people from the blogging universe. I met Tasty Taste, Brent, Sandwyrm and a couple of others from the HOP network (sorry, names are escaping me right now!). I also met Papa JJ from Dicerolla who is a gentleman! he approached me and Dethtron at the convention and asked if one or either of us were with Crusader, and thus, the ice was broken! Unfortunately we didn’t get to really hang out much, what with the tourneys going on, and our impending show that night at a venue that was only marginally bigger than my 3-year old’s bedroom. But, friendships were forged and i’m sure that we’ll be seeing Papa JJ again soon for more fermented grain beverages.
My one down point from the con was Forge World. I won’t go on about it, but this is definitely their second strike in my book. They had sod all I wanted at Games Day a couple of years back, and the same thing happened at AdeptiCon. I wanted the ‘event exclusive’ mini, a rather sweet ‘boarding marine’ in pre-heresy armor, but they had sold out. Way to go Forge World. They were painfully trying to get rid of some Eldar Titan that they didn’t want to have to cart home, and from what I understand they did end up taking it home. Well thought out lads…
Forge world: see all this really cool shit here?
me: sweet! hell yeah!
Forge world: well, you can’t buy any of it.
me: >sad face<
If any of you are familiar with the ‘Cheese Shop’ Monty Python sketch, it’s pretty spot on with my FW experience.
So, new Tomb Kings are imminent, and I am super excited. It’s put me into gear full throttle with painting my WFB army, which is also another reason I haven’t posted for a while.
I saw the leaked pictures and pretty much had a nerdgasm. I’ve heard on the interwebs a lot of hate toward the Sepulchral Stalkers/Necropolis Knights, but I think they’re really cool looking, and somewhat over-the-top, which I’ve been coming to expect from Fantasy Battle, considering recent releases. I actually also really like the thought of skeleton troops harnessing them and riding them, it’s just so ‘out there’ and quite refreshing to have this unusual take on what I believe will be a heavy cavalry class for this army. (about bloody time too!). The Sphinx is great too, and the model options just look incredible! I’m super excited about the Tomb Guard though. I actually held a box in my hand at my FLGS the other day, but alas it was still shrik wrapped, but it was on the ‘coming soon’ display. The down side to these guys is that they will be retailing for $41, the same price as a Stegadon… yowch! The one thing that I did find odd about them is the choice of head dress they are wearing, which looks distinctly more Mayan than Egyptian, in my opinion:
A small thing, which I don’t really care about, I just thought it odd… I also managed to thumb through the new army book too, which is gorgeous and lavishly illustrated in full color (yes, it will cost more too). Although we haven’t seen them yet, there will be another wave of TK stuff, as we have seen with other lines, GW will do an initial release, then a second wave. The second wave will consist of what look like plastic Ushabti (3 in a box for about $40 i’m guessing) and some new character figures, including some TK that looks like he’s appearing from a mound of scarabs. I’m hoping that new Liche Priests will be on the cards. Looks like we TK players are stuck with the gods-awful Screaming Skull catapult model, and I didn’t see anything about a new Bone Giant (I HATE that mini!) Having said that, I was in a bit of a rush, and didn’t get to look as deep into the book as I’d liked.
I was also half hoping that we would get new skeleton infantry minis, but alas it was not to be. The cavalry models seem to be out of scale with current horse models they make for other cavalry, which kinda sucks. I would’ve liked to have seen TK dedicated skellie minis, instead of the VCs ones with a couple of egyptian style upgrade sprues in there. There’s a lot I don’t use from those regular sprues, and won’t be using on anything else. Oh well, the pro’s defintely outweigh the cons for the imminent Tomb Kings, and I for one am a happy camper…
The release date of May 7th has totally put the firecrackers up my arse that I needed, and as I wanted to take a much needed break away from painting the Emperor’s finest, this has been perfect! I’ll be posting up some pictures of my progress in the next few days, so stay tuned.
Cheers for now
Crusader, Adepticon, oh, and some Sisters of Battle news…
Ultra quick post today my lovlies…
After what we thought was going to be a big shit dump of a mess, no thanks at all to Brauerhouse in Lombard, We’ve actually managed to secure a spot on a show for this saturday night for all those people at Adepticon who want to listen to some heavy metal. So, Brad, our He-Man-esque guitar player, whose pastimes include playing guitar for us, and wrestling dragons, managed to get us on the bill with She Likes Todd and Situation red. The best bit is it’s f*cking FREE to get in, and only a 10 minute ride from the Adepticon venue. For more in depth details on how to get to the show from Adepticon, be sure to swing by Dethtron’s blog, Dick Move, to get the information. So, come along, hang out, have fun, drink some beer, and pick up our brand new release EP – ‘Rise of the Templars’ for a mere $5 🙂
In other news, I found out yesterday, with thanks to the Blood Of Kittens network, that we have a little taster of what is to come for Sisters of Battle! HELL YEAH!! It appears to be a page from the upcoming new codex… Looks like Sisters will be ‘losing’ acts of faith as an ‘extra’ , but gaining some of them as standard special rules. I’m wondering if different slots will have access to different AoF? AND we see that Repressors are included as vehicle options. Could this possibly mean a plastic kit??? and WTF is an ‘arcaballista’? Anyway, i’m very excited, and you will be too, when you see the image by clicking here!
If you haven’t already, I urge you to join up with BoK, it’s a great network for fellow 40k bloggers.
Thanks for listening, and see you Saturday night!
Paul
Tomb Kings and other asshattery.
It was a busy weekend this last week. Hell, it’s been crazy the last few weeks. I started a new position at my job, so that has been sucking up a lot of my time. Now I’m getting into the ‘groove’, I should be able to start posting again, many apologies for my lack of new stuff since ‘Old Stuff Day’, which is not even really new stuff, its old stuff. I think a rip just opened in the time/space continuum.
Played a show with my band, Crusader, on Friday night, at some hole-in-the-wall place called Mikes Luv N Music on the south side. I couldn’t quite make up my mind if it’s supposed to be read as ‘Mikes Love and Music’, which would instantly call into disrepute the nature of the place, ‘Mike’s Lovin’ Music’ which would make me think of Barry White for getting your girl in the mood or ‘Mike’s Loving Music’ as in he really digs music. I’ll go with the latter, although I’m still not sure. Anyway, beware, as me and Mr. Dethtron feel that they may have an infestation problem, in which case, it would be option number one in regard to how to read the venue name.
The show went OK. Maybe a couple dozen people were there, but it opened up a gateway for playing shows at a venue in the city, so it was worth it. The sad news, it appears, is that Crusader will not be playing the weekend of Adepticon. This is in no way anything on our part, but on the part of a venue owner who offered us the night of the 2nd April, ignored my numerous emails for about a month, only to be told last week that he had a ‘booking conflict’ and that it ‘wouldn’t work’. Well, f*ck that guy and his shady business practices. We are still looking for an alternative, but I’m not hopeful at this juncture. Me and Dethtron will be at Adepticon though, and I will have a small amount of CDs and shirts available for those interested. Don’t forget you can hear a couple of tracks from our EP on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crusader/172112556153977 and can also buy our merch from our newly created Big Cartel hub: http://crusader.bigcartel.com/
Saturday saw a game between Dethtron and myself, with me fielding my Black Templars against his Tyranids. We were playing 1500 points, and I was wondering how the game would end. We were playing for kill points and Dethy was leading the way by about 5 points through a good portion of the game, but I managed to squeak out a victory by 1 kill point. The Emperor saves! Especially in the case of my lone Templar with a flamer who was the sole survivor of his 10 man unit. He just refused to die. His crowning moment was when he took 8 wounds in one go, which I was sure he would die from, only to save on all of them, much to the disbelief of Dethtron (and me!).
Yesterday saw me and the family running about hither and yon over suburbialand visiting various stores (including a Borders that is closing down – 40k books SCORE!) and also a brief stop in at GW in Orland Park. I marched in and picked up the new White Dwarf to have a peep. Yeah yeah, Grey Knights all over the place, Gundam walkers aplenty and orangutans flinging poop etc etc. Sod that, I went straight to the back page, and there was a picture of a Tomb King, with confirmation that April will in fact, belong to the dead. I spoke with the Black Shirt in there to see if I could glean some info about Nehekara’s finest and this is what I managed to get:
• The skeleton box set will NOT be re-done (booooo! Vampire Counts SUCK! – literally).
• Chariots will also remain the same, although these look good as is, I feel.
• Looks like Ushabtis will be in plastic, probably 3 in a box with load out options.
• Bone Giant redone (thank the gods) and in plastic, again, with different weapon options.
• New character models in metal, although not too sure who.
• Mention of a heavy cavalry? Something about riders on giant snakes? This sounds a bit lame to me, but I reserve judgment to see it in the flesh before punching any kittens.
• Most likely that mummies will be in the list now. Really? Mummies in an Egyptian inspired army? That’s LUDICROUS! I mean, they obviously are better suited to a mid-European style Vampire Counts army*
• Big Beastie. Every army has one, maybe even two. Much speculation surrounds this, but consistent themes that pop up are some kind of Sphinx based monster.
• New Liche Priest minis. HELL YES! I refused to buy those other pieces of crap they had because they looked completely out of place with the delicate detailing of the other models. Well done GW!*
That’s all I got. I kick myself now for not asking about war machines ala the Screaming Skull catapult, which, while being an awesome item, is an utter worthless piece of shit to put together. Oh, he did mention that the TK book would also be hardback, and $39… Please bear in mind that this was all info from a Black Shirt, so take it with a large pinch of salt (except the book price), as I think the general public is more informed than they are sometimes. But, we only have to wait a little over a week to find out. I expect an ‘INCOMING’ email from GW any second now.
On a completely unrelated note, it would appear that the traitorous forces are targeting children in order to swell their ranks by making toys like this:
Defiler, anyone??
Until next time…
(* in case you were wondering, this was sarcasm.)
100th Post! Today is Old Stuff Day… Black Templars revisited!
Rob over at Warhammer 39,999 had a great idea for resurrecting old blog posts that may have been missed by newer readers, or just forgotten about in the annals of internet time.
I guess When Cannons Fade is still in it’s infancy when you look at some of the other big players out there, but thats ok. I’ve never really been one to post up army lists, dissect rules, or start working on the math behind my beloved hobby (I leave all that complicated stuff to Dethtron 🙂 ).
I do however, enjoy focusing more on the hobby side of the game, the painting, converting, WIP side of it, so thats what this contribution to Old Stuff Day will be, a look back on my boys in black, my Templars.
This post from back in February 2009 showcased my efforts for the founding of my Templar chapter. I had acquired the Assault on Black Reach box set, and given the Orkses away to my buddy Evan. I thought that this would be a great way to start an army, or at least bulk up the plastics I had already been amassing.
First to be tackled was the Dreadnought. The snap-fit style of the set was good, although I think they used a harder type of plastic, because cutting and trimming it was a bitch! Eventually, after some blood, sweat and tears were expended the honored brother, in all his resplendent glory, was finished:
Don’t forget to check out the original post for more views: http://whencannonsfade.com/2009/02/27/completed-the-aobr-dready/
Fast forward to August of 2009. After tinkering around with some other bits and pieces, I did a test run on how I would be painting my boys in black. I was very happy with the results:
Before
After
You can see the post and pictures in it’s entirety here: http://whencannonsfade.com/2009/08/27/chaos-lord-wip-and-black-templar/
November 2009 sees the appearance of my Black Templar Assault Marines. Exactly as the label says:
So there we have it, a couple of snap shots from WCF’s past. Since then I feel that I have improved on my painting skills (i’m pretty pleased with my Templar Rhino with xtra armor, and my Landspeeder). There will be more Templar goodness to come, but I do hope you’ll swing by the WCF TARDIS and have a look back through the archives!
Cheers!
Paul
Old Stuff Day is tomorrow!
Rob over ar Warhammer 39,999 came up with this sweet idea, clicky here to see his blog entry! so this evening I’m going to resurrect one of my old posts for you to lob tomatoes at…
Stay tuned!
Black Templar Rhino with xtra armor/armour
This seemed to take waaaaay too long to paint. I’m not too sure why. Maybe because you can’t be as ‘slap happy’ with marine vehicles like you can with say, Imperial Guard vehicles. Well, I guess you can, but it just doesn’t work as well, IMO.
The Forge World armor pieces were pretty much a pain in the arse to work with. Some parts were bent, others ridiculously warped and at least 2 pieces had shrunk, yes shrunk. Making the best of a bad situation, I forged ahead (geddit? Forged? Forge World? never mind…) and this was the finished product:
The Templar cross was masked off and sprayed onto the roof, then weathered to show wear and tear. I’m pleased with the results, I just hope that my other vehicles (i’m looking at you, Vindicator) won’t take as long.
In the meantime, having OB’d (over blacked) i’m going to take a few days off from painting Templars, and having a go with something with a bit more color to it (well, slightly more, I guess). I started one last night. Here is a teaser:
As always, C+C always welcome!
Having a hobby without having time for it.
Playing tabletop wargames is by no means a whimsical hobby to be lightly flirted with. While hobbies as a whole require time and dedication there are those hobbies out there which require the hobbyist to go above and beyond, not only in the wallet department, but in the time management department too.
A couple of days ago, I read an interesting article on the House of Paincakes, highlighting some articles from Rathstar’s Ramblings Blog concerning motivation to getting miniatures painted. It prompted me to write an entry for WCF.
Ours is a tough road, this ‘ere hobby. Beset on both sides by manufacturers waving their new factions or chapters under our noses, or the sweet promises of those new, updated codexes and subsequent miniatures. I’m sure we all know people, or are guilty ourselves of buying up armfuls of miniatures, eager to assemble them and get them on the table to test their mettle.
See, that’s the easy part. Assembling the little blighters is, for me anyway, a quick fix. I can have a unit assembled in an evening. Painting them however is a different story. Painting armies can be quite a daunting, and sometimes even off-putting prospect. A problem I have is that I am a perfectionist when it comes to painting, so my squads get done painfully slowly, although I have been making a considerable effort to step away from this when painting my forces, particularly the rank and file.
Some of us are just not that fond of the painting side of the hobby, whereas others have the same crushing problem I do. Not enough time. Being at work 40 hours of the week, and also a father of a 3 year old, it doesn’t leave me much in the way of time to get my loyal (and patient) forces painted up. I’ve tried a number of different approaches to tackling this, but met with little success.
It’s a mindset you have to get used to. You have to be realistic about what you want to achieve and the timeframe you want to achieve it in. I’ve become happy in the knowledge now that I’m not going to be able to paint every night. If I can paint two or three nights a week, then I am doing well. I can usually average about two or two and a half hours. Seven hours of paint time a week is not to be sniffed at especially when you have to keep LadyBoss happy and also be a responsible dad.
One way I have found to help me is planning. The night before I know I’m going to paint, I figure out what it is I’m going to tackle. I’ll get the items together I’m going to need, put them on my painting tray (one of the most invaluable items GW has ever made, IMO) and have it ready to grab for the following evening. Maybe I want to do some more Black Templars, or even work some more on a competition entry, or even those Lizardmen, or the Stegadon that’s been eyeballing me every time I walk into my nerd closet*
It ‘s quite surprising just how much of your time is lost with set up and break down, if you’re like me and don’t have a permanent area for painting, and have to get everything out every time you want to paint.
The key is definitely in the planning, but also hand in hand is variety! Surely, is it not the spice of life? Change things up a little. Three straight painting sessions of painting just Black Templar armor is enough to make anyone want to take up stamp collecting instead, so, if you have other armies you play (admit it, you do, don’t you?) then paint something from them. Suddenly you’ll start seeing more minis and units coming together without really realizing it.
It’s important, most of all that you have fun and enjoy your hobby. This shouldn’t become something you dread to even think of. If you get to that point, it has become a chore, and possibly the time to sell up and move on.
Here is a sneak peek at what I have been working on bit by bit, using my procedure above. It’s almost ready to be posted up here in full glory.
Cheers!
INCOMING… Tomb Kings!
YES!!!!
This made my sullen Monday, which included missing my train to work after a somewhat surreal weekend, a lot sunnier. As a Tomb Kings player, I was beginning to think that these guys would be put on a back burner (like every other army I play) but it would seem I was wrong! This morning I received an email from Games Workshop with a little taster teaser of what is to come. A new piece of art, and a couple of little pictures which appears to be parts of new minis!
Does this mean new plastic skeletons??? Does this mean some decent looking Liche Priests that don’t look like some shitty rip-offs of the Universal Pictures creatures from ‘The Mummy’? Will we even have mummies??? Will we have plastic Tomb Guard??? Will we have a Bone Giant that doesn’t look like a dead Care Bear? Will be have machines of destruction that aren’t a f*cking nightmare to put together?? oooh the possibilities!!!
My thoughts on the ‘teasers’ – i’m thinking one is definitely a Tomb King, possibly Settra or maybe even Queen Khalida? Not too sure on the other though…
When Cannons Fade... 
