Blood Bowl

No painting this week and I blame the release of Blood Bowl (for Windows) for the this. This game is very addictive. I predict the next week and the week after the next are going to be spent playing Bloodbowl and not painting. Anyway, since I am doing a bit of research on Blood Bowl articles, and a couple of friends are interested in those too, I thought I should make a list of them and post them here, so others can browse them as well.

Living Rulebook 5 edition (pdf)
Living Rulebook Proposed 6 edition (pdf) (I think this is used by Cyanide's PC version)
Lot's of strategies (general and race specific)
Blocking Techniques (The art of blocking pdf)
A plethora of Playbooks for all teams

For those that don't want to pay 50 euros for a game, you can try the free java version of Blood Bowl over at FUMBBL.

I also played my first two private league matches. It was serious fun. The risk of losing my players that I had just leveled tremendously added to the excitment. The league is a greek one called GBBL (Greek Blood Bowl League) and we are constantly looking for more members. Join up if you are interested. Password is 'gr'.

Ooh, some many computer game releases and news, so little time to paint.

Following the announcement of MechWarrior reboot (see previous blog post) which got me excited, I decided to buy the Blood Bowl PC game too. I had never played Blood Bowl before, but I always was interested in it.

It's really awesome, albeit a bit pricey at 50 euros for a digital download (I could also buy the DVD version, but I couldn't be bothered to visit the local mall). As I see it, the solo campaign is pretty OK, but the game really shines in Mutliplayer mode. You got an option for RTS mode and Turn based. I love turn based games, so that's what I prefer. The rules are very loyal to the current version of Blood Bowl (Living Rulebook 5th edition).

If you are interested in playing a few games with me, my coach name is 'plutonick'. I am also fervertly looking for more Greek players, and perhaps I might get a Greek league started!

New MechWarrior videogame in the works, and other news

This week has been pretty exciting for me and every Warhammer fan. More Spacehulk news surfaced, Planetstrike released, Warhammer Invasion card game announced. But I think BattleTech fans were the winners.

You see there hasn't been a BattleTech/MechWarrior game for 7 years. Last one released was MW4:Mercenaries in 2002. After then, development of a new game by MicroSoft was in development hell, and then abandoned altogether. Now, seven years later, their prayers have been answered. A MechWarrior reboot is currently in production at Smith and Tinker (current holder of MicroSoft/FASA Mechwarrior IP) and Piranha games. Yes, that's right, reboot. Instead of this game becoming MechWarrior 5, the developers have decided to completely re-launch the entire franchise, calling this new title MechWarrior.

Also in honor of BattleTech's 25th anniversary, Smith & Tinker has authorized MekTek.net and MekTek Studios to distribute MechWarrior 4 (along with its expansion packs) completely free.

Me, I am starting saving for a new PC and planning my annual leave accordingly.

More info and videos here: IGN

Conversion: Space Marine Bike to Chopper, part 3 (WIP)

Part 1
Part 2

Progress so far. I glued the Space Marine together, then glued the Space Marine to the fork, but did not glue the Space Marine nor the fork to the bike since I need figure out how to add the armour plate with the headlight to the fork. Also, I need to decide where to put the bolter. Either on the front wheel, on the fork or next to the exhaust pipes.


I didn't like how the original feet-holders (dunno how they are called) looked on the chopper bike. They are ok on the original bike, but look to blocky on a chopper. So I cut it out a bit and made it slimmer.


I am getting used to the extremely long fork and general look. Below are some pictures of the model so far, starting with a picture with extreme perspective (fits the general tone).


This is an picture angled so you can see the cockpit. I am kinda proud of how it turned out, considering I started painting models a month ago.


I am really getting obsessed with Space Marine converted bikes. I did some researching and found some truly inspiring pictures. The one I singled out was by Santa Cruz Warhammer (thanks for posting your comment!). I like how the fork is almost parallel to the ground. Reminds me of some anime/manga bikes (Akira?). I will definately try this on my next model.

Conversion: Space Marine Chopper bike - part 2

Here is part 1

I did some progress yesterday.

As seen from the first picture, I inserted a wedge below the fork. The wedge was made by cutting the frame of a sprue. Also, I created suspensions and rivets using and sculpting glue.



Finally tried painting the cockpit on the sprue.



Now, I am trying to decide where to glue the 'fog-light and armor' piece. I might not use this after all. Also the bolters are a bit tricky to place. I might place then on the left and right of the front wheel.

SM Chopper Biker: Is this ridiculous, awesome, or both?

I like extremities, so I started modifying my SM bikers to look like Chopper riders. I went for an extreme look, that looks both awesome and ridiculous. Before going on to convert the rest of the squad I would like to hear your thoughts.

I still need to cut of the steering axl so the angle of the main body will be corrected.

Researching for AoBR Space Marines conversion

Lately I have been thinking how to convert the space marines included in my second set of Assault on Black Reach. Since I don't have that many models besides my first AoBR set (just a Pred, Rhino, Sternguards and some scouts), I have been told by other, more experienced w40k players, that I need some kind of assault troops. Also, AoBR terminators are rather weak compared to the stand alone set.

What I have concluded is that I need to do the following:
1. Buy the Assault Terminator squad and use the spare arms (Thunderhammer or Lightning claws) to replace the AoBR terminators' arms.
2. Buy some Tactical Marines in order to include some plasma equiped soldiers (or find a way to convert an AoBR marine to carry plasma)
3. Somehow convert the Dreadnaught to add some firepower on his left hand.

I did some reasearch on the net and found some nice links. I will post them here in order to have them all in one place for quick reference and also perhaps help others looking for similar resources.


Mainly cosmetic conversions on AoBR dreadnaught, without changing anything but their looks.
AoBR Tacticals to Sternguard
AoBR Terminators to Assault Terminators
AoBR Terminators to Assault Terminators #2
AoBR Captain conversion
AoBR Dreadnaught plasma cannon conversions
AoBR Dreadnaught plasma cannon conversion #2

Also, there are numerous sites/blogs about how to convert SM to CSM, or how to convert the Ork minis, but I was not interested in then at the time.

Some W40k inspired sketches/doodles. No painting.

I have slowed down painting the last 2 weeks and debating with myself if I should buy a Space Marine Battleforce and a Heavy Support Squad,
However, I did take some pretty bad photos of some pretty bad doodles I did while at work. I am reading Starship Troopers currently, playing a lot of MegaMek (BattleTech java) and reading stuff about W40k, so I guess I was influenced by all those things. They are basically some dreadnought/battletech robots, something similar to a Space Marine and Hitler in Power Armor.

First attempt at blending, lighting and painting faces (AoBR - Terminator sergeant)

I have been trying to finish painting my AoBR space marines since I got the starter. This being my first Warhammer 40k purchase and my first attempt at painting I have been struggling finding motivation to paint, time from other hobbies (I blame MekWars - an online BattleTech Java campaign, and Facebook which is a huge timesink) and also the problem that as a beginner in painting, I kinda hate my painted minituaers due to low quality.

Anyway, thanks to Gareth and to the FTW blogring, I found the motivation to go on. Here is a previous post about my progress on AoBR terminators. This is a picture of further progress.

As you can see, I painted glowing eyes on terminators after reading a few tutorials on jeweling, and also finished the first layer on the on the sculted insignias (using Valejo's Wolf Grey). I also did a layer of Valejo's boltgun metal on the weapons and Terminator's cables/tubes.

I spent a considerable more time trying to paint the face of the sergeant. After reading various tutorials on how to paint faces (especialy this) and loading a few pictures on my PC of that very same model (thanks Gareth again), I tried to paint my first face.

What I did was paint the whole head Parasite Brown (Valejo's), then wash it with Beasty Brown, and highlight forehead, cheekbones, chin, nose and lips with a 1/1 mix of Parasite Brown and Elf Skin tones (all my paints so far are Valejo paints). I did a further very thin highlight of bleached bone. The short hair and freshly shaved beard was done with a mix of stonewall grey and elf skin tone.

Then I tried to do the power weapon. My main inspiration (I actually completely copied the color scheme was from The Painting Corps. I painted the blade black and tried doing the blending technique. I applied a very watered down Bloody Red on the tip of the sword and tried to blend it down to the hilt of the sword blending it with black. I used a lot of water. In fact applied a layer of just water to the blade so the color would flow more easily.






Afterwards I tried to apply some electric sparks. I painted straight lines of red, and then on top of those lines I painted gradually thiner lines, using a lighter version of that red color. Somehow I need to make the lines a lot thinner, however the look thinner in reality, the photo tends to magnify the whole thing (and it also makes mistakes a lot more evident)

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Tabletop Gaming News is up again.

After reading about TGN's problems and fearing that the site would be shut down, now it's report some god news. It seems the problems that TGN was facing were finally solved, the site is up and running with the usual gaming and miniature news!