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...

The Flesh Tearer marines are ambushed from the shadows by Death Skull Ork boyz! It's been a while since I've updated this blog but I plan to change that soon. Very soon. I decided a few months ago that I was going to box up my armies and only focus on painting and playing my Orks. While I didn't really box very much up, I did get some paint on a big hand full of boyz and lootas. Then the new Space Marines codex dropped. Wow! I was to dig my White Scars out of cold storage and begin painting and re-painting them for my updated list. Then I saw a cool batrep from Skardecast and painted on a few of my Dark Eldar. Then I found some Hellblasters I started months ago for my Salamanders and I thought their new codex will drop soon so I better finish those off... Now my desk is a big ol' pile of minis from various armies and I don't feel like I'm completing anything. Focus dropped. Enthusiasm waned. I needed some motivation and while looking up some paintin...

I've stripped and repainted a few of my "old hammer" models more than a few times and I think I'm going to take another stab at an army. This morning, I threw on a few coats of paint on a couple of models for chapters that I've considered. Test paint jobs for chapter options for my Old Hammer army. From left to right: Raven Guard, Salamanders, Flesh Tearers, Raptors, Mentors, Emperor's Spears I've long considered painting a Raven Guard army and the rules are really good right now but a black army is so boring to paint. I know a few people really prefer "grim dark" models but part of the attraction of an old hammer army is brightness and color. The Salamanders would fit with my 30k and 40k armies. Plus, I get a cool alternate scheme with the yellow and black salamander pattern, however, the rules aren't great for them as I feel a unit that doesn't allow overwatch is a must thanks to Tau and Eldar being so good at blunting ...

This past weekend was the 2019 (ninth edition) Bug Eater GT in Omaha, Nebraska - a fundraiser for a high school's debate team. (Which may be my favorite reason to hold a 40k tournament.) I took my combined army of Astra Militarum, Blood Angels, and Adeptus Custodes, and joined my friend Kyle, and made the northward trek to Omaha to play in the 40k grand tournament. I have dishonored and embarrassed myself again with a 2-4 record. I felt really good the first day going 2-2, but I lost two close games on day 2. In all of my losses, my opponents said they loved my army, said nothing was wrong with it, loved the paint job and display base ... but I can't roll dice for shit. I even bought another set from a vendor at the tournament to no avail. I tried to keep my head high but I was routinely missing charges and I can't even say that I had average dice. My army usually sends a pair of smash captains, a pair of shield captains on dawneagle jetbikes, and...

The 2019 Midwest ConQuest has come and gone and I placed 44th and went a disappointing 2-3.  In my second game, I played last year's winner, Richard Windau, and his optimized Tau list. I embarrassed myself and deployed poorly, forgot rules/stats and may have been inadvertently snarky with him about using the chess clock. Richard wanted to use the chess clock (which was fine with me because I'm using AM) but he just asked me to remove a unit after rolling to hit but he hand't rolled  to wound yet. I said that since we were on the clock, he should roll to wound before I scoop my unit. Afterword, I felt kind of shitty about it because it's a bit of gamesmanship but another tournament goer said that I was fine in asking him to do so because he asked for a clock and it is in the rules to roll to wound. Also, every time I go to a tournament and get whooped, I want to play that army. I've never wanted a Tau army until now... In my small group of friends th...

I've been frantically painting and testing my Imperial Soup list for the upcoming Midwest ConQuest and BugEater 40k GTs. I'm nearly done painting - just a handful of troops and tanks left. I'm still working on my backstory though. My buddy Kyle and I share an enthusiasm for the witch hunters in the Warhammer/40k universe so I'm crafting my fluff to be an Inquisitorial task force. Here's my list - formatted for Best Coast Pairings. Inquisition themed Astra Militarum fire their big guns! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Player: Dusty Dean + REPORTED ARMY FACTION:  Imperium + TOTAL COMMAND POINTS: 21 + TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1993 + POWER LEVEL: 124 + ARMY FACTIONS USED: Astra Militarum, Blood Angels, Adeptus Custodes + TOTAL REINFORCEMENT POINTS: 7 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ == Brigade Detachment == Astra Militarum, Cadian, [ 24PL, 1078pts] ...

When I paint models at home, I usually have some 40k batreps on in the background. I've listed some of my favorites before, like Tabletop Tactics, Winters SEO, or StrikingScorpion82. Sometimes I'll have painting videos on from Miniac or Erbert Heraderp but painting videos really require more attention to what is happening on screen - while I can just listen to batreps and be entertained by the story that is unfolding. Yesterday I found a new Youtube channel and I was blown away by their first batrep; Play on Tabletop. From the perspective of a professional videographer and photographer, I think this maybe the best batrep I've seen produced. They have multiple cameras, glide tracks or some other handheld steady-cam devices, great narration by someone not playing, player interviews that are insightful, everything is in focus, music with transitions between songs on top of color correction/grading, fantastic audio from mics or booms from the players despite being in a ...

The Warhammer 40k update for April 2019 dropped the other day and the commentary is salty! You can find it here:  Link to GW Communnity FAQ I largely like all of the rules changes and clarifications that GW has made, and I still believe that 8th edition is best version of the game. Some folks have quibbled over the Deathwatch special ammo not getting the Beta Bolter rule (or new bolter rule for Astartes.) Personally, I'm OK with Deathwatch not getting the increased number of shots because they already wound on 2+. Getting close and spraying massive amounts of firepower and getting to wound virtually every roll is, frankly, silly. It's too good. Go play Candy Crush if you want to win all of the time. The only rule that really affects me is the Cherub + Hellfire shell strategem clarification. You can't use Hellfire shells or Flack Missiles, then Cherub that weapon to shoot a Hellfire/Flack again for free. The rule specifically says you can use the strategem again, how...

The last two months have been kind of crazy. I spent a lot of time building, play testing, rebuilding, and painting various armies in preparation for the 40k Championship of the Las Vegas Open. First, I started off with several iterations of my Salamanders Space Marines. I put together the roaming Aggressor mob backed by an Ancient with banner, Captain, Lieutenant. I also had three devastator squads with heavy bolters and missile launchers for those tasty mortal wounds. I also tried a similar version of the list with Gillymon and Ultramarines but I could never quite get the list to take out the Astra Militarium hoard with Imperial Knights. I tinkered and tinkered. I tried Ad Mech, my Khorne rush, and Dark Eldar but I never really felt good about any of the lists so I decided to build an Eldar list similar to one I've seen online. I gave myself about a month to buy, assemble, paint and play test my army. (Note to self: not a good idea.) Alaitoc Farseer 3 units of 5 Dark Re...

Just like the title says, the Warhammer 40k Big FAQ 2018 2 is out! You can download the FAQ from the Warhammer Community page  HERE! *The first big change is the change to Psychic focus. Except for smite, each psychic power can only be cast once! There goes my Ork "Da Jump" force ... Honestly, in the games I've played, smite is the biggest problem, not the other powers. *Next the big change is to the tactical reserves. "Units that arrive as reinforcements must now wait until the second battle round to do so – they are reserves that arrive to reinforce your army mid-battle, not reinforce it before your opponent has had a chance to move any of their own models." *Also, the amount of reserves is now limited by points, not the number of units. *The advance deployment stratagems took a hit. Armies like Stygies VIII, Raven Guard, Alpha Legion get a pre-game 9" move instead of being able to deploy 9" away from an enemy. Personally, I think it shoul...

I've just finished painting a detachment that has caused my opponents to rage quit. My new favorite Warhammer 40k detachment is a Spearhead of Astra Militarum (nay Imperial Guard) Manticores with a Master of Ordnance from the Catachan regiment. Defending my kitchen counter top, not a jungle. These guys pump out 2d6 shots of S10 AV -2 carnage. Making them Catachan allows me to re-roll one of the random d6 shots per missile used. Keeping my master of ordnance within 6" of the tanks allows me to reroll 1s to hit. Needless to say, they rain hell on my opponents and there isn't much they can do to stop it. How do? Got Mortarion? Turned to dust. Got Magnus? I don't even have to see you. Got giant bugs? Exterminated. At less than 500 points, I have a hard time finding another formation that can pump this amount of damage that has rules that buff itself as efficiently without spending any command points. It's great against hoards, monsters, Primarch...

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?

Every year, I ask my wife for gaming supplies or models and I rarely get them as gifts for the holidays. The exception is my buddies who understand the hobby/addiction will often give something I need to further my current project. Here's what I'd like this year: 1. Dice that roll 6s when I want. 2. A Stormraven (or two.) 3. 5 Ork Weirdboys (or weirdboyz.) 4. Blood Angel Horus Heresy figs. 5. 4Ground buildings (something that would fit in WWII or the Grimdark city fight scene) 6. Another Guilliman model to convert into a Sangunious. 7. More time to game. 8. My own Youtube channel to post battle reports. 9. Dice that roll 1s when I want.

I've been in a rut at work and haven't had much time to paint or read (or do anything fun) but I did manage work up a nasty army on paper. Army building on paper is a lot like catalog shopping; everything is available and nothing is off limits. I have read a number of the SN Battle reports with the Raptors and I've always kind of liked them... but the last thing I need is another army. Except, I have all of my Primaris Marines. I planned on making them Salamanders but I haven't given them any brush work yet so I may be painting them a different shade of green. I'm trying to justify this to myself since I like most of the armies in the Badab war, the Raven Guard chapter tactics are amazing, and I'm good with green paint. I've also thought about painting them as Alpha Legion... but they wouldn't have any Primaris troops unless I concoct a shaggy dog story about Guilliman really being Omegron in disguise and this whole return has been a big ruse. The Flesh ...

So far, I've played games in the first two weeks of the Fate of Konor campaign from Games Workshop. Unfortunately, I've let the Imperium down. In my first game, I played Jim and his mostly Dark Eldar Ynnari in week 1. Jim was the attacker and had to get across the board so I deployed near the center line hoping to cut him off at the pass. Initially my plan worked and slaughtered most of his army, but I couldn't take down the Avatar or his Razorwing. They danced around and polished off my army in turn 6. My mistake was deploying too close to the center with a gun line. I should have "stuck to my guns" and camped in the back. A turn more of dakka might have been the difference for me. I played Kyle in week 2 and his Death Guard (before the new codex.) I brought nearly the same army as before and I played a lot better. At the end of turn 6, Kyle had lost all of his army except two plague marines. I had only lost my infantry models but the way the poin...