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 (...

Since seeing him in action at the Midwest Conquest GT, I decided to add Roboute Guilliman to my forces for the Bug Eater. He's an incredibly intricate model to buy, sand, glue, prime and paint for a tournament. I'd like to spend a lot more time on him, but I'm not ashamed of what I've got here. I'm not quite done but he's well on his way. Also, here's a Flesh Tearer that's nearly done.

Do you know what's hard? Painting 6 Heldrakes for a major ITC event in a few weeks is hard. I had no idea how hard it is to paint a heldrake, let alone 6, but I'm giving a go. As you can see in the picture, I've got all my space dragons clipped, sanded, primed and now I have black to red gradients painted on all of the parts that need the coverage. Now, I've begun the arduous task of hitting all of the "veins" and edges of the dragons. Luckily, Leadbelcher is a base color from Citadel and I can usually get one coat coverage. I may not have time to edge highlight... At present, I have one model done and awaiting magnets, one model nearly done - but has the wings magnetized, and the rest are sitting in boxes waiting for their first coat of silver. It's taking me about 7-10 hours per heldrake just to paint the silver. Oy. After I get all of the silver painted, I plan on adding a black oil wash and then air brushing some energy spots on the balefla...

Tonight I broke out and began clipping and assembly of one of my favorite models from Games Workshop, the Ork Stompa. I never really had enough Space Orks to make a game of Apocalypse worth playing but I've envied the Stompa since it was released a few years back. Since it's just a Lord of War in the current Ork codex - albeit nearly 800 points of model - I thought I should finally add it to my ranks. I cracked open my new box of over-costed model only to find that the instructions did not have part numbers!? There weren't as many parts as most big models, and there were numbers on the sprue, but not in the instructions. I had a bit of a panic. Normally, ol' GW is really good about making complex models simple to assemble but without numbers to guide me, I was afraid I was going to be lost. Luckily, like any Ork Mek, it seems you can pretty easily follow along and get your Stompa slapped together without too much fuss. My wife and I were watching TV and I thou...

I've grown a little bored with my White Scars. They're hard to paint and I get a little anxiety when I think about how many bikes I have left to paint. Plus, they've lost a little of their punch in the new Space Marine codex because they don't receive the extra bonus to their jink save. But you know who does get that extra bit of cover save? Raven Guard. At least in the first turn... One of the radio plays I'm in this year is "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. Last year's radio play featured three Poe stories, "Cask of Amontillado," "Tell-tale Heart," and "The Black Cat" so I have had a steady diet of gothic imagery from Poe that obviously inspired the Raven Guard. In fact, I have named my Blood Angel dreads after a few Poe characters and I've thought of painting a standard after the Montresor family crest from "Cask." While at rehearsal (and when my roles are not being rehearsed) I've dayd...

Here are a couple of my White Scars works in progress shots from my desk. I'm adding a few new weapons to some old metal oop land speeders. These big blocks of lead came with flamers and multi-meltas, but I find the higher volume of firepower is often more effective so I've decided to use missile launchers and heavy bolters. These guys also have a 3+ jink thanks to the White Scars chapter affiliation making them tougher to shoot down. These will be my custom objective markers for my motor pool. I still haven't come up with a clever pun to use as a name, but "Motor Pool" seems to be what I've been calling the army in my head. 

There's a new Warhammer 40k League starting soon at my local game shop and it's motivated me to continue work on my growing White Scar army. Since I have about 3 dozen bikes to assemble, I was experimenting with new ways to fill those pesky gaps you see on a lot of Space Marine bikes. The process is pretty simple and I thought I'd share my technique that helps save some time glueing models together so you can get to the painting table, then gaming table even faster. You won't need any pastes, expensive green stuff, or putty. After I assemble the bike with plastic glue, I give the gaps and good standing so the edges are flush. Next, I use more plastic glue as a "weld" and run a line of glue over the seams. Since the plastic glue melts the model to create a bond, the halves of the bike are fused together and the glue runs into the seams, filling any gaps. Make sure to let the model dry completely before moving onto the next step. Next, I re-sa...

I picked up another blister pack of Early War British troops to add to my growing army. Normally, the models are well inspected before being sent off to market with just a little flash that needs to be sanded off. However, this blister had two models with some filled in neck holes. The Early War Brit BA models come with separate heads on a sprue that have long neck stalks that allow gamers to select from 10 different heads and have them face in a variety of directions. A couple of models in this blister had filled in neck holes that required a bit of extra trimming and sanding to get the head to sit properly on the models shoulders. It's not that big of a deal, except that I managed to glue my fingers to the model while holding it in place and waiting for the glue to set. Yar.

Here are some homemade objective markers I made for 40k (or any other mini game I happen to be playing.) I found mosaic glass tiles at Michael's craft store and thought they would make awesome obelisk tokens in the style of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I shouldn't say, "homemade" because  I simply glued them to 40mm Games Workshop bases and added a little bit of flock. It's a simple idea and I think they look great. A few of them even have a bit of metallic sheen. The "2001" theme pretty much gives me license to sci-fi up any game. They could be energy portals, power stones, warp stones that randomly happen to rectangular-cubes, fuel cells, or just mysterious obelisks that appear to confound those who find them.