My God, are we halfway down already...

... yups, so june comes to a close with a move with the soon-to-be fiancee to install her on her new appartment.  But that doesn`t mean the hobby dies, au contraire, the benefit is now that this one has gained a valuable hobby asset in the past months... focus.

Gone are the days of doing dribs and drabs, as I proudly pund myself on the chest that the last months I solely bought (and got as a present) and painted Chaos Dwarfs and related models.

Another `good thing` is that I am attending my local club far less frequent then before.  Good thing in the way of that I finally took that sabbatical in trying to organise things, and only turn up when I have a game scheduled.  It`s kind of refreshing to be honest, no stress of setting things up, no frustration of seeing things go down the drain.

Paint wise, that meant after a month or 3 I totally overhauled my aims, and even though it lists 900+ models `bought` that includes the 300 odd Dawi Zharr I got from Hashut`s Chosen (see the legacy article a few months ago), as well as the train load of 15mm models for the Hordes of Things `chaos dwarf` project, of which you`ll get to see the first finished models in a short while.

I`m on a course of seemingly completing almost all set goals as I progress down painting row, with the March of the Gold Saints, the initial 2000 points Chaos Dwarves, my Vongalazthag Violators Blood Bowl team and all entries for the recently finished Lead Painter`s League completed.

Next goal to first complet is the 7 rounds of the Brush Slave League, even seeing how it goes, an 8th *might* be held, more on that as soon as it is confirmed.  After that, I`m going to finish the first 500 points of my `unofficial` Warhammer Armies: Hobgoblins force, they didn`t make it on time for the tournament the comming weekend, but the force is full of possibilities for funny things to add, that I`m going to keep expanding on it.  And yes, I even found a way to include Pokachu in the force, you`ll see him in the BSL round 6 entry beginning of august.

Thereafter, some units left and right will be added to both those armies, while the first 24 points of the HoTT army are being painted up.  The final two painting goals aren`t to dramatic if I don`t make it, but I`ll still be painting superheroes and gundams in between, even though they don`t have an actual `gaming use` at the moment.  And one will be in the BSL as well, obligatory entry and all.

Gaming wise, so far I played one 2000 point warhammer tournament in february, the second one, this time for petite forces, comming up this sunday.  In the TSA Blood Bowl league I`m still in the running for the play offs, and I participated once again in the huge ACW weekend battle (and be on the victorious side once again).

Video game front, I yielded to Creepy Corridor Andy, I seriously doubt that I can catch up with him anymore, especcially since I`m spending way to much gaming time on the DSi as well now playing Pokemon again.  We`ll see if we`ll catch up, but I doubt it.

And i can`t stop playing Saint Seiya anyways on the PS3, even though the platinum was already gained more then 2 months ago.  I love that game, I`m still enjoying beating up hordes of minions shouting 'Pegasus Ryu Seiken!!!' in the middle of the night hehehe

That`s about all on the hobby front that passed by the past months, now to get my lass settled and then back to the new time management plannings and adapting to the not `single do as I want` life...

500 points update

Roight, small update as apparently one needs 3 units to do the 500 points thing, something the organiser forgot to mention during checking.

No problem, I switched to the Ravening Hordes list then as the Tamurkhan list is unplayable at that scale and needing 3 units, so here is the new force:

Hero: Level 1 Sorcerer - 65 points

Core: 19 Warriors full command - 201 points
Core: 10 Blunderbusses - 120 points

Rare: Earthshaker Cannon - 110 points

Totaal: 496 points

Easy for the opponent as the RH list is still on the GW site for downloading, so they don`t even need the big book from Forge World, and that makes the force look now like this:



Basically the warrior unit now counts 3 more members, and my favorite boom-toy has been added YAY.

500 pts Chaos Dwarfs: the B-List

Okay, this weekend TSA is having it`s `in-club` small tournament called `Het Groot Tornooi voor Kleine Legers`, roughly translated as the large tournament for small armies.  All those excellent fanbased army books out there are allowed, and my initial plan was to restore 500 points of Hobgoblins and some new units for this.

But then time started flying a bit to fast and the initial plan of painting up 94 models in under 2 months crashed spectacularly, as it takes place this weekend and I only finished about half of the planned force.  And not ever will I put an unpainted model on the tabletop, so enter plan B, a small and compact force of `regular` Chaos Dwarfs.

I opted for the Tamurkhan Legion of Azgorh list, well, for no particular reason as the models are more expensive then the Ravening Hordes versions, but they have their special armour in exchange.

Numbering only 27 models, this will be my traditional block style force, but I fear a little the horde armies I might encounter as I don`t have my beloved template weapons to thin out the enemy ranks.

So the smallish list consists of one Level 1 Deamonsmith, whose lore will be fire of metal depending what army I`ll be facing, a full command block of 16 warriors who`ll have to be the guys `solving it all` and a unit of 10 hailshot blunderbusses to hopefully take care of enemy skirmishers and other flanking forces on assassination missions.

The tournament itself has a couple special scenarios which are looking to be going heaps of fun, the first is the straightforward Pitched Battle, the second is one where evil gets bonusses on casting and dispelling dice, while the good guys all get hatred (I HOPE to face another evil force in this round, because otherwise the balance will be big time for the Goodie Two-Shoes) with an additional +50% VP bonus for both sides if destroying opponents.
The third scenaro is chasing a frog, and if you actually capture it, you even get to keep it.  Prices apparently are supplied for places 1 to 3, the red lantern and the best painted.

And this time, that other Chaos Dwarf player seems to actually be present, so my goal is set, ending above that wannabee usurper!

Mummy Road Show (returns) 1 - Vongalazthag Violators 1

It`s been a while, but I got a game in tonight, and nothing less then the Blood Bowl League rematch against my Nemesis' Undead team.


At the moment in the lead position of the League, having 3 games, 7 points and 15 Team rating more, I was in a definite underdog position this time, so the inducements bought me the services of a Bloodweiser babe and an extra re-roll.

Some odd things during this game: the four kick-off rolls yielded 2x Cheering Fans (both times getting me an extra re-roll) and 2 high kicks.  32000 fans attended the match, nicely split down the middle at 16000 for each squad.

The game started rather surprisingly for my opponent, as Dauntless Bob, helped with a Guard dwarf, immediatly stunned a Mummy.  Ow how would the joy have been had the dead guy been carried of the pitch.


He took his revenge nearly instantly though, as he killed one of my Dwarfs in first instance, but luckily the apothecary knew her job and changed the result to only a Badly Hurt.

A Ghoul then broke through the lines of the Hashut followers and passed to a Wight, who then ran in and scored the 1-0 halfway first half.  The resulting kickoff saw a Bull Centaur break through, but he couldn`t get just far enough before a STR 4 Wight and a lineman stopped him, thus letting the half cobble to the end.

This time though, it seemed Hashut bestowed his blessings on Dwarf Vha'Durs team, as the Violators managed to knock out no less then 4 players of the Undead, another zonbie was send of with a red card and one of my hobgoblins injured a mummy also by a fowl (but he regenerated, beuh).

One of my Hobgoblins however had the ball in his hands, and a box of Dwarf warriors steamed over his flank, holding off and protecting the carrier.  When that fella almost got isolated, he handed it off to another hobgoblin, who made the run for it over the cleared pitch, only to score in my final turn for the equalizer, 1 - 1 and a good result in my book.

The team went to cheer to the fans while three brave Hobgoblins stood poised to take some last moments beatings, but the Undead failed a pick up of the ball (he wanted to try a quick pass for an extra easy SPP), and so the match ended.

Each side had one casualty without serious consequences and the only player rolling was the Hobgoblin Hercules who had scored the touchdown.  Gaining a skill, I gave him Strip Ball, just for the cheer nastiness of that one.  Both our fan factors rose, but more importantly, I had amassed enough gold to add the final player to the roster, as The Great Bull of Hashut, my Minotaur, now became part of the team woozaaah.  From now on, winnings can go to the treasury for the `just in case`, but I still consider myself extremely lucky that I still haven`t had to replace any players on the roster so far.

League wise, I now am at 10 points out of 6 matches, it still is possible to qualify for the cross finals, but I have no clue (as it seems, no-one has) when the preliminaries are going to end...

Smiiiile at the Pikachu

Pimp the Nintendo DSi!


Roight, here is the full story, and nothing but the truth.  Believe me, it has nothing to do at all with a fetish for the small yellow rodent.  I`m not a fanboy... so this is my tale.

About a month ago, I bought Pokemon Battle Revolutions on the Nintendo Wii for the 6-year old son of my girldfriend.  But as I read the package, you have only a choice of 2 times 6 Pokemon to play with, and the rest needs to be imported from a DS system to expand the range of playables.  Bit like the Nintendo 64 with the classic Blue / Red cartridges from the old Gameboy Classic / Color as it is.

So I also bought Pokemon Pearl for the DS to capture and train an arsenal of beasties for the kid to play with.  One small problem though... I didn`t have a DS.

Enter my 9 and 11 year old cousins, Kyanu and Jason, also known as Humpty and Dumpty.  Entering `Ome Tom` modus, I started negotiating with the little brats to give me one of their DSi`s, as they had just received the newer 3DS consoles.

In the end, I made the promise I`ll take them along to Game Mania (kind a like a chain of stores like Game in the UK) and they get to choose one game each in exchange for the DSi.

I ended up with Kyanu`s console, as this only had a small clips damage on the stylus (which I don`t use anyway), while the more used one of Jason had an issue with the powerbutton.

Problem two... it was pimped with army style camo stickers... not my style at all.  So I bought some vinyl Pikachu stickers and replaced the army ones.  Makes perfect sense for adults, exchanging army stickers for FPS like games of a 9 year old with an electrical mouse from a 34 year old, doesn`t it...

Problem three: if I ever say `Smile at the Pikachu` to my beloved again, she`s gonna kill me.

And the final problem... the amount of little kids I have to smack away now on the public transportation when playing the game on my way to work... Gotta catch `em all after all...

PIKKKAAAAAAA

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth: Sho of Toucan

Sho of Toucan, leader of the anime only Steel Saints, a group of young boys equipped by the Grade Foundation with mechanical armours.  They might not generate a Cosmo of their own, but the power levels of their robotic armours seem to be on par with the better bronze saints, as shown the various times they intervened to help out our heroes in the battles with the Silver Saints.

Now, on the contrary to most manga purists, I did like the looks and designs of these armours, so when they where released as a limited edition series by Tamashii I immediatly bought the duo set, and at the Antwerp Convention I finally laid my pawns of the rather expensive (he goes around 189 euros incl shipping on average on ebay for example) Sho.

His armour represents a Toucan and in object mode is a small glider plane under which Sho hangs as he flies into battle.  His special attack involves absorbing the attacking energy of his opponent and then returning it.

The cloth itself is a gorgeous and vivid red, with the usual parts mix of metal and plastic pieces, and assembles without to many problems.

Facial expressions are accurate and I must honestly say, he is worth every penny, something I found with the whole Steel saint team, definitly some of the best models in the Myth line ever released in my modest opinion.

Meet the Team

And so here they are, all three Steel Saints, worth about 250 - 300 euros for the set of 3 models. Of the whole team, I probably should choose Daichi (the Young Wolf, the kid with the golden yellowish armour) as the best executed of the three, but don`t let that be a reason NOT to buy the whole set.  They are worth it big time!!!!

Heroic Duels

Some heroclix Marvels I painted the last days in between the Brush Slave League and Golden Hat 17 entries:

Doctor Strange and his nemesis Nightmare

and The Purple Man (a villain able to secrete pheromones to make people do his bidding) and Domino (an X-Force mercenary mutant whose talent is having incredible luck, causing her to never miss)

So this was a quickie post, but I`m in the middle of the final bout of my clearing out of non Chaos Dwarf and anime / comics models, as well as the move of my girlfriend to her new appartment.

Recognising Nerdiness

This is a hard post for me, believe it.  People who know me (or have the ill chance of having to live in my `sphere of influence`) know that I`m a a not giving up, fighting chance `till we drop kind of bloke.

But once in a while, you encounter those infamous `battles you cannot win`, and the Playstation 3 challenge versus Creepy Corridor Andy is one of those things.

Oddly enough, I`m currently going through the process of `learning that game called Real Life`, with my relation and all taking a turn for the more seriousness compared to the last, well, 3 years and a jiffy or so, and this eats lots of time out of my natural routine of painting and gaming.  Mind you, i don`t mind at all, it`s working out quit well thank you.

However, this leads to several factors in the contest, in that

1. I don`t get to power up the PS3 as often as I used to
2. I tend to play those J-RPG kind of games that take 150+ hours to complete and grant just as much trophies as your average 10+ hours beat-em-up or shooter game
3. I`m playing Pokemon way to much on the DS

Yes, Pokemon.  I liked that game (the blue one on the classic GameBoy) way before the whole Pikachu hype began due to associated cartoons, and the little games are still addictive as hell (started the Pearl edition last week).

But this leads to the realisation that I won`t be able to close the gap with the Andy Family, nor is it likely to happen anyway soonish or before the end of the year.  I lost the challenge of one vs four, fair and square, and I salute my victor for having even less social life and being able to game that much.

On the other hand, my armies are getting painted at least, teeheeheee

Release the... Hounds? Brush Slave League round 4

A nice draw, putting me in the 6th position on the League table after 4 rounds.

The entry this time was part of the planned 500 points Hobgoblin army.  The force contains an entry for hobhounds, but unfortunatly I only have two of the old models and the packmaster.

So enter Mega Miniatures and order some common dogs, to make an entry looking a bit comical, with the packmaster setting forth his hunting pack of chihuahuas, bulldogs and other poodles...

Just the kind of small scale funny things one can include in an army of low leadership, rabbling greenskins of very dubious fighting quality.

Next regiment to finish for this force... the slave unit.  It might not get finished in time for the tourney in july, it`ll definitly be ready for any `follow ups` comming from that, or become the basis for a full fledged army.

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth: Algol of Perseus

One of the more recent addittions to my collection, this Silver Saint is one big bad-ass killer.  We see him first time in the series when he slays three children trying to escape from Sanctuary, as he turns them into stone and then crushes one of their heads, all in front of Aiolia.

Unbeknown at that time that he was the Gold Leo Saint, I think it would have been way better if we were shown the true power of a Gold Saint at that time, with Aiolia donning his cloth and giving a demonstration against this Silver Saint as what his power really is. 

Does it need further saying I think Algol being a jerk?

Instead, the Silver saint turns out to be one of the most hardest to defeat for the Bronze antagonists, as he ambushes the heroes when they travel to Sanctuary.  He petrifies both Seiya and Shun with his Medusa shield, and Shiryu has to blind himself (yep, here his blind / not blind career starts) in order to defeat the Perseus saint.

In the anime, this also marks the last appearance of the Steel Saints in a battle to help out the Bronzes, their impact less then in previous interventions.

As you might have noticed as well, is that I dropped the `review` part of this going series.  Basically, the gap in quality between the older and newer clothes is becomming really large, so it is like comparing apples with pears nowadays. 

Still, I`ll be showing all clothes I collect and then let you decide wether or not you want to add one to the collection, as you`ll have a `normal` picture instead of the photoshopped and colour enhanced promotion pictures of the manufacturer himself :)

Crash Course to Epic Failure

I`m not going to make it.  It doesn`t happen often, but it seems this time I met my match in speed painting and planning.


I wanted to join the TSA 500point tournament with a true horde of almost 100 Hobgoblins, painted up in just under 2 months, but I started stalling after the first month due to a variety of reasons...

* Two marriages and the day after hang overs costed me 2 weekends
* Intesified relationship with my girlfriend, which is a good thing, costs another lot of evenings
* I need to finish the entries for both round 5 of the Brush Slave League and the 17th edition of the Golden Hat painting contest, both over at Chaos Dwarfs Online
* I got Pokemon Pearl yesterday and a Nintendo DS from my little cousins (whom themselves both got a 3DS now), and need to catch and level up some beasties to play the Wii version with the 6year old son of my girlfriend (well, fiancee actually, but it ain`t officialised just yet).
* Sorting out still thousands of cards to complete my database and be able to trade for missing cards in my various collections.

So I`ll be attending with a 500 points Legion list instead, and hope small elite forces (I estimate I only will have around 20 to 30 models, seeing the average price of a Chaos Dwarf) will stay their place if swamped by all sides by the enemy...

Still going to try my best to get it done, but I doubt it very very much, since I`m losing next weekend as well.

I`ll update some pictures of how the Horde is standing soonish, this months BSL round has to end first as one of the regiments is now fighting it out in there.