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...

My LGS just started a new Warhammer 40k league and I was torn on which army I should play. I've been in love with "assemble painting" lately and I've been disassembling models to paint the individual parts and reassemble them when I'm done. I have been carefully removing guns and backpacks, riders, and turrets so that I have an easier time of getting a nice even coat of paint and washes on the model. This process has also left new models, like my Ad Mech Skitarii, just sitting in piles waiting to get painted; and unfortunately unplayable. When I started playing miniature games, I would literally buy models the same day I was going to play them. I had a pair of needle-nosed pliers in my army/tackle box to bend the tabs on metal models and plastic models were mostly one or two pieces and I would slap them together minutes before I played. With so many of my armies just in components, I didn't have a lot of options on what I could play in the league. I watc...

Another, perhaps bigger, hobby of mine is comic book collecting. As a by-product of that hobby, I tend to collect things like memorabilia, t-shirts, hats, toys and even costumes. Today, I was asked to help with a Make-A-Wish child's visit to our offices in my Spider-Man costume. We were also filming a promo for an upcoming convention so I did a little goofing off and made a quick video of Spider-Man enjoying casual Friday.

A few new FAQs are out for Warhammer 40k! Some of these barely have any information in them but it does help settle a few rule disputes. Here are a few links to the Black Library site. *UPDATE* Black Library site with all links I don't know if this is the work of the new GW CEO, but I like what Games Workshop has been up to lately.

Here's a little hobby tip on how to properly cut Forge World Space Marine Shoulder Pads from the sprue. While this may seem like a waste of a blog post, I think it may acutally be helpful because the resin from Forge World isn't as easy to work with as the plastic used in regular Citadel miniatures from Games Workshop. While watching football today, I decided to clip and sand some pre Heresy Forge World MKII space marines. I thought it would be simple work and I was in factory (or assembly line) mode and making quick work through the bag of bits. The home team was winning, I was hyped about the game, and waving super sharp tools around while getting my new models ready for primer. After clipping, I used a needle file to sand down the seams, flash and rough edges when I discovered that I cut too deep on the shoulder pads and notched the top of the shoulder pads. Gah! They're ruined! They're expensive! Panic! What I had done wrong is by placing my wire cutte...

Now that it's winter, I felt compelled to break out my Valhallan Imperial Guard army and give them some time on the table top. I put out an open challenge on the Gatekeeper 40k League page and Eric answered the call with this Dark Angel Death Wing list. In addition to lots of termies, Eric brought Ezekiel and Belial! My list was a simple, shooty-blob army with a Company command squad, two veteran squads in Chimeras, an infantry blob behind a defense line, 2 independent basilisks, a hydra (didn't need the air defense), a Vendetta and few other odds and ends. Neither of had very good dice during the game. Both my psykers periled themselves to death, but Eric lost a unit of terminators to deepstrike mishap on turn 2. After seven turns of Crusade Maelstrom missions, all Eric had left was Ezekiel.  The Crusade deployment put us basically playing the long way, which was in my favor. Also, when Belial and his terminators deepstruck behind my lines, I got Prescience of...

This holiday weekend, I managed to wrap up a couple of minis from a new army - and a repainted army. First, here are my Destroyers for my Cult Mechanicus. I've armed them with grave canons and cognis flamers. Next is their boss, a Tech Priest Domnius. I really love both of these models, as-well-as the entire Mechcanius line. I may pick up a second Dominus so I can feature both of their heads. I call this one, "Space Pope 13." My buddy Kraig and I have been talking a lot about the Horus Heresy line. We've never actually played a game from 30k, we just use our models in regular 40k. I've got about $600 worth of heresy marines primed light blue and ready to be finished as Alpha Legion, but as Kraig and I chatted, we both solidified our love for a few other legions. With the Heresy board game being released, it gave Kraig a chance to pick up a Legion army on the cheap (I bought a few of his extras from him) and we decided to start working on a...