I say again, Irene

Like many, my painting desk is in the basement. Like many here on the East Coast, I have built water channels outside, tried to hire an arborist to remove house-killing trees and generally pulled together with neighbors to create overlapping-fields-of-helpfulness. Among the flood watches, tornado watches, promised power outages and battery price gouging, I had to make sure the sump pump worked. I forgot about the sump pump, good ol' sucky.

Ol' Sucky who is right under my paint table and so had to be moved. Well, I went all-in on that and tried to scoot it out of the way without being careful figuring the earthquake this week didn't do anything. Yeah I sloshed projects right onto the floor.

And Ol' Sucky just stared. Friggen Irene. So the lesson here is to ignore the hurricane outside and just paint.

Good luck East Coast!

Space Marine Video Game Demo: Review

Alright folks, I think we have a winner. I downloaded and played through the Space Marine demo on Xbox 360 tonight. I’m more than a little happy with it.

They give you two levels with what seems like full features and options (sound/video/controls/skill/etc.)

I won’t ruin anything by getting into the levels, though I don’t think it spoils much. Still, skipping some give-away details, I’ll just say that I’ve never wanted to be a Space Marine more in my life.

The sheer power that the Ultramarines have comes right across as you romp straight into mobs of orks. There are practical mechanics to the melee, like restoring health, gaining better attacks/weapons and combos. Granted, I played it on easy to get the controls but I did die to the press even then. There is little detriment to going hand-to-hand, since it is actually necessary to maintain martial honor and stay alive.

The camera gets some getting used to, that is to say, knowing that the more you melee, the more combat slows down to a flow-like slo-mo, allowing you to pan the camera, sweep your zone and redirect attacks around you, including to your six, which always has a flanking greenskin in it. Also, evading pig iron choppas via 700 pound combat rolls works well too… deliver that charge, never take one. You will thrive on learning the combos.

Grenades aren’t overly powerful, they soften up mobs the way the math works in 40k, like a buff/debuff. Rapid firing your bolter into the closing throng then going to bolt pistol/chainsword/power axe is fluid and satisfying. I think this is one thing I really love about this game. So far, I haven’t seen anything that I’d say, “there’s no way that would happen on the table.” The moment is probably coming, but who am I to judge? You play a Space Marine hero and this is true to what we know already about them by years of buckets of dice (and the occasional train of 6’s.) Some incredible things are bound to happen. Departures will afford some surprise.

I played through the first level with bolt pistol and chainsword before I realized that he had a loadout of bolter, sniper-style bolter and some sort of time delay grenade launcher I’ve never seen before, useful for laying ambushes.

Players familiar with traditional shooters like COD and Halo will get the ranged aspect fast. Players of God of War and Gears of War will appreciate the CQB ability the marines have and the role cover plays… as well they should since the grim darkness of the far future has wet work across everybody’s resumes, the marines most of all. There is room for Devastators holding ground and Blood-for-the-blood god.

The environments are epic and illustrate so much of the atmosphere we’ve come to love on paper. The level design is solid; the voice work and sound effects pretty damn solid too. The story is about what you’d expect and it looks like most of the popular kids are at the dance in terms of races/usual suspects.

I think I have two gripes at the end here. One, ork blood is black, not red. Two, I don’t own this game yet. This will definitely be a rent and play-through if not a flat-out buy, (which it will be for me.)

We can now forget Firewarrior!

As a 40k fan and video game fan, I give the whole deal a provisional A, pending the quality of the rest of the game upon release.

Chicken Pox and Chop Shop

Over the weekend I was slated to play 40K with John and Dave, two guys I know that had just jumped back into the game after a 2 year and 10 year hiatus. Both have large, earlier edition armies.

They both picked up their “new” Nid and Eldar dex's and we were gonna get our thing on as a learning game (which I need very badly.) But my kids had chicken pox and that nixed my participation. Zehr lame. Thanks Nurgle.

So lacking the Saturday game, I retreated back to my table and basically tore apart the Medusa gun I built before and finished it all over again. I really wanted a big ol' Basilisk gunshield on it, but the previous version wouldn't allow the gunshield to fit. I also finished the Punisher turret I started a bit ago, using leftovers from the gunshield I cut apart for the Medusa. I tried to finish my 3 melta hardened vets over the weekend but my jeweler's saw blade broke. It’s like that sometimes. 

In other related news, I'm helping the Nid player John figure out a Mycetic spore on the cheap so I picked up a $7 foam gourd from the local craft store. I think it fits the bill in terms of cost and size as a start. I'll add some bitz and a base. Any reactions from the Nid players out there?

BFG: 1K Point Eldar Fleet Done

Here is an Eldar fleet I finished up last night. It comes in around 850 points without compulsory Pirate Captain/rerolls and is a mix of what I think works well and what I actually own. With the Pirate Captain and 2 re-rolls, this list is an even 1k pts. From the top, clockwise: a Shadow class cruiser, a flight of Nightshade missile destroyers, an Eclipse carrier cruiser and a flight of Aconite frigates.

On the priming stand is another Eclipse and a Void Stalker to up-point the group to about 1500 points.

From there I have another Shadow cruiser, more escorts and another Void Stalker to run out at some point.

WTF WIP: Eldar Fleet

Stand to and prepare to be bored! Engage Eldar Poetry Slam!

I have no idea why I am painting Eldar ships. With so many other things more practical waiting to be done than space elves for a game nobody will play with me... well... it doesn't make sense.

But, I do like painting them and the gratification is pretty instant since BFG can paint up quickly and I can make starship noises in my basement for a reason, unlike the other times. Church is awkward in that way too.

So with the Shadow cruiser already done and the Eclipse plus escorts almost finished I guess I can hook up a brother with that mission when the Eldar come to the Imp's rescue vs. Chaos.

The 2011 Eldar Poetry Slam will feature appearances by Big Daddy Mensha Khaine, Adam Hicks, Sabrina Le Beauf and special guest host, Langston Hughes in a Spirit Stone

Terminus Est WIP: Basecoated

The Terminus Est is basecoated and the purple foundation laid down for the putrid fleshy areas that come later. I think I may make the tubing running around the ship purple as well. Still have to decide what color to make the sails... maybe a blue with botches.

BFG: Imperial Fleet Paint scheme

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms said...

"Hey Matt! I saw your BFG ships on the Rocketship Games blog and had to see more! Could you tell me how you got that awesome gold effect on these ships?Your Nurgle fleet looks awesome and I bet that Terminus Est will make one badass flagship. Keep up the good work!
Best,
Joe"

Hey Joe,
The Imp ships aren't really gold, more like a tannish-brown though what I did would be the prefect base for gold paint.
I used GW colors in this order, with a medium round brush for the drybrushing and detail brush for everything else.

1. Basecoat black.

2. Graveyard Earth drybrushed 2x. First coat heavy, the second, lighter.
3. A light drybrush of desert yellow on the high points of the ship and edges to warm up the area.
4. Rotting Flesh drybrush, again, along highpoints and edges.
5. Metals are Mithrial Silver with a wash of Ice Blue and flow improver.
6. The light blue is a Kraft Cote off-white that has a touch of blue in it. You could simply mix a dot of Ice Blue into White for the same effect.

I think after the  brown/tan foundation you could simply dry brush gold along the highpoints and it would look pretty damned good since most gold is undercoated in browns and tans. Let me know how it works out for you.

Best,
Yeti