Kastelan Robot pressganged into service of the Pilgryms of Erudition.  Designation unknown. 

This is my new tech priest engineseer converted from Blackstone Fortress' Taddeus the Purifier. His pistol has yet to be fired. He will likely join my Forgeworld, The Pilgrims of Erudition or be seconded to my Astra Millitarum force. #warhammer40k #paintingwarhammer #grimdark #blackstonefortress #techpriest #admech #astramilitarum #conversion #mechanicus #gamesworkshop #inquisition #inq28 #28mmminiatures

I've been spending more of my time on Instagram lately for my social media needs. I've been fixated on improving my painting skills, rather than writing or playing the game, and I've found that the simple act of taking photos and looking at the model not under my desk lamp has really helped my technique. Also, the feedback from painters of all skill levels has been very helpful and is pushing me to improve my craft. Also, while airbrushing is a great skill, Darren Latham and Duncan Rhodes are my current luminary idols. Latham especially is fantastic at breaking down some steps and his delivery is hypnotic. That being said, here's a recent photo dump of some recent and ancient models in my "portfolio." Is there an app that can cross post directly from Instagram to Blogger? The Captain of my Astral Claws army, the Bastards of Badab, who usually strolls behind my vehicle line. The Lieutenant of my Astral Claws army, the Bastards of Badab. He is moc...

Guess who has tickets to the 2019 LVO? This guy! When I went two years ago I got super sick (it was so bad that I was reported to the CDC for my illness) but still had one of the best times playing mini games ever. I even got to meet Lawrence from Tabletop Tactics, Aceface, and the Warhammer TV gang. It was epic. Now, I need to decide what army to bring. 1. Old hammer Flesh Tearers. 2. Ad Mech Mars army. 3. Imperial Soup with Raven Guard, AM, Ad Mech. 4. Dark Elder 5. Salamander I think my Flesh Tearers would get a lot of notice as a fun, old army, but I don't think they are that competitive. The Imperial Soup list is pretty competitive (in the current meta) but might not do well against a top tier Knights list. I feel like a teenager trying to decide what to wear to prom.

I'm busy building out my Salamanders/IG force for some upcoming tournaments and I start second guessing my build and daydream about retooling my Admech. I did a quick Google search for some color schemes for a Mars/Stygies combined force and I found Spikey Bit's photos of my army from the LVO a couple of years ago! Pilgrims of Erudition Spoiler alert: they didn't do well, but I did have fun playing them!

Since the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex has been released, I think I've only won a couple of games. I recently played my buddy Ryan against his Astra Militarum and Lamenters force and was thumped fairly soundly. I went first, I had Cawl leading my men from Mars, and seemingly had the deck stacked in my favor, but I think I killed one Primarius Lieutenant and about six IG guardsmen. Ryan's cannons sounded my troops crumbled. Gun line versus gun line, I did not do well. Yar. Maybe because I still haven't finished painting my robots?

I'm more than excited for the new Ad Mech err... Adeptus Mechanicus codex coming out soon. For the first time in the two decades that I've been miniature gaming, I snagged one of the limited edition codexes from Games Workshop. I was never to grab either of the White Scar or Salamander limited edition codexes for 6th and 7th edition and I actually yelled, "Yes!" when I saw that GW had some of the Omnisiah editions still available. I also picked up a box of Kastelan Robots to bolster my forces. Since I built my ad mech (the Pilgrims of Erudition) around the War Host Convocation, I never picked up the 50s-style robots from space. I know a lot of people don't like the design, but I really dig them... The amount of fire power that two models can dish out with the proper protocols is amazing and I may add two more to my forces. This afternoon I started putting them together when I ran into one of the more unusual pieces that GW has crafted... This tiny piece (...

Last weekend I traveled to the glitzy lights of the Las Vegas strip with my Ad Mech army, the Pilgrims of Erudition, to compete in the Warhammer 40k Championships at the Las Vegas Open. It has been said that it was the largest miniature war gaming tournament, ever. I didn't do well. My first night in Vegas, I got sick. Like, really sick. I've had chronic stomach problems most of my life but this was bad - and not like my usual issues. It wasn't pretty. I bought some Pepto from gift shop and soldiered on. I even found a few minutes to slip a few bucks into the one armed bandits and didn't walk away any richer and my luck never got better. The first night I found the main gaming hall. It was huge. I've never seen so many gaming tables since the Texas Wargames Con. Folks were still setting up until the wee hours of the morning but I got see a few Youtube gaming celebrities, like Dave from Miniwargaming.com, Lawrence from Table Top Tactics, and Ace Face f...

My Adeptus Mechanicus Tech Preist Dominus conversion is almost ready. I wanted to build M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) from Marvel Comics because he's one of my favorite villains. Tinkering around with some bits I had, I eventually transformed the idea into more of a dark mechanicum tech priest with tentacles in a dreadnought hull. I've got him almost ready for the LVO; just some cleanup and deepening of shadows. Let me know what you think!

I've done pretty well in my last couple of tune-up games for the Las Vegas Open. A very busy season at work has kept me out of the game room and I'm not getting as much time to fine-tune my force as I would like. I'm also not able to keep painting on my army, but I have managed to get a game against both Jim and Carey recently (Not Jim Carey. That really would have been worth a batrep. I bet he'd play Orks or maybe Chaos...) First I played Jim's very competitive Tau list with a riptide wing in ITC scenario 4. I had some poor dice all game long but I managed to win by a wide margin by taking the primary, tying on the secondary, and taking all three tertiary objectives. You couldn't tell by my model count though. Jim whittled me down to just a couple of units left on the board; but my Pilgrims of Logic took no prisoners and he didn't have many models left either.  My most recent game was against Carey and his mostly Nurgle Chaos Daemon army in ITC ...