Apologies and Space Rats

Ok been super long time since I updated....so quickly then...got engaged....working millions of hours to pay for the wedding...painted a Veermyn lord and here it is.  I got an Adepticon project so I'll be posting that soon enough.

Late again

Well I had hopes of writing something before I took a little vacation but alas....didn't happen.  So while I'm fighting a battle with jet lag I thought I'd drop a few lines.  Hmmmm, what's new in my geek world....well I did nearly finish my Ork fleet for Uncharted Seas though I still have to snap some shots of them.  All the destroyer and cruisers are done, all I have to do is finish up the battleship and life will be good.

I saw that Fantasy Flight is coming out with another expansion for Arkham Horror.  That'll make 4 board expansions now.  I'm not sure if my group will try and put all the boards together.  We tried with the first two expansion and it was just killer.  Having to get people to the other boards just trying to stop all the bad things for popping off....uggh, plus I don't know if anyone has a table big enough to put the whole damn thing one..the original hardly has enough room on a 4x6 table.  Miskatonic Horror, can't wait to try it out though. It's supposed to have new injuries and extra cards for some of the expansions and new investigators.  It'll be a blast no matter what.

Now to Rome.  We used my friend's companion passes that works for United.  So basically we got to fly in the cushy international business class.  Not too shabby, especially when it's an overnight and you can turn your seat into a bed and have unlimited drinks.  We did have to wait a bit to check into our hotel so we decided to do some walking around.  Our first stop put us at the Pantheon, which I like but I wasn't overwhelmed by it.  The age of the thing is more awe inspiring than the building itself is, in my opinion.  I still think it's a thing that needs to be seen if you have not seen it yet. After that we took a little walk to this gelato place my friend Amanda sent me too.  Giolitti's.   I'm not such the aficionado that I can discern the difference between bad gelato and good, but I know this stuff has to be good, cause the couple of times I've tried gelato, it seemed that all I was eating was ice cream.  This stuff, not so.  I recommend this place if you do go to Rome.  After that it was close to the time where we could check in to our hotel so we walked by the Trevi Fountain on our way back.  Now this time impressed me.  The sculptures themselves and the integration into the building.  It was just amazing.  Can't say enough about it.

On the agenda today?  Probably the Coloseum and places surrounding.....

What If....

So I've been working on my Demons of Chaos army list.  I figured I'd do a 1000 pts first and then go up from there.  Now with the new rules, it's impossible to get a good hero for demons and the way I figure it you'd need at least 3000 to get a good lord.  Either way I'm excited to get this thing going.  So here's the unveiling.  

Heros

The Blue Scribes Of Tzeentch  

Epidemius, Tallyman of Nurgle

Core

15 Pink Horrors with Musician, Standard Bearer and Changling

- Icon of Sorcery

15 Plaguebearers with command squad 

        - Icon of Eternal Virulence

Special

3 Screamers  

Rare

5 Flamers

I had initially went with 2 10 man units of Pink Horrors and a 10 man unit of Plaguebearers but after a discussion with my buddy Jeff, I let him talk me into staying with my original design of a 15 man unit of Pink Horrors and a 15 man unit of Plague Bearers.  Let me know what you guys think.....

Today I was having a discussion with my buddy Stu about what if Cliff Burton hadn't died and someone else from Metallica died instead.  I personally would throw my dart at Lars.  Stu said Hammett.  Then the conversation went to who would replace them which then warped to who would the ultimate thrash band make up would be.  So we came up with the format for the ultimate thrash band to comprise 1 vocalist, 2 guitars, bass and drums.  Stu's list went like this.

Drums:  Dave Lombardo (Slayer)

Bass:  Cliff Burton (Metallica)

Guitar:   Scott Ian (Anthrax)

Guitar:  Jeff Hannemann (Slayer)

Vocalist:  Max Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulfly) or Laura Nichol (Light This City)

I find it very interesting that Stu would go with a female lead vocalist...not something I would go with in the Ultimate Thrash Band....so my line up would be this

Drums:  Vinnie Paul (Pantera)

Bass:  Vince Hornsby (Sevendust)

Guitar:  Scott Ian (Anthrax)

Guitar:  Alex Skolnick (Testament)

Vocalist:  Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour)

Now I chose Vinnie Paul cause the guy has a great groove to his drumming.  Whether he's 32nd noting it or laying down a 4/4, it's just rock solid.  Vince Hornsby is also a great  groove bassist.  He's not the most technical but he lays down a nice groove that flows with the drums.  Praise and Beautiful off Sevendust's Animosity album are excellent examples.  Now Scott Ian is just an icon in the industry and what I would say is the most under rated guitarist in the genre.  The guy is rock solid as a rhythm guitarist and really holds the song together when Danny Spitz is wailing.  The guy is concrete.  These 3 together would be a bomb shelter....solid and unbreakable as a rhythm section.

For a lead guitarist I went back and forth with who I would put in this slot if I was putting together the band.  After long thought I chose either Diamond Darrell or Alex Skolnick as my final two and decided to go with Skolnick because he's just a little more technical than Diamond.  That's not to say that Diamond isn't an excellent player.  The guys is an icon in his own right but I'm more partial to the more technical shredder.  Must be the educated musician in me.  

Vocalist was another debate in my own head.  I had this narrowed down to either Chuck Billy or Corey Taylor.  Now Chuck Billy is a beast and he can be melodic when he wants to be.  Return To Serenity is a good example but it's not my favorite song from Testament.  In the end I chose Corey Taylor because he can growl and he can sing equally well while in my opinion Chuck Billy's strength is in his growl as it should be.

Well that's my Ultimate Thrash Band and I would love to hear what other people would come up with if you like this genre of music.

New year...new determination

Soooooo.  I guess with the new year comes a new determination to paint muh figs.  So as we chatted yesterday morning about getting my Ork fleet done for Uncharted seas, I actually finished a small model.  It's actually my test model to see if I liked what I would do.

So with the Dwarf fleet I went for a clean look because well they're dwarves and they likes themselves some craftsmanship.  With the Orks I went with a more feral feel.  I, hopefully, tried to get a green wood look, like the orks didn't care what kind of tree they cut down.  "Let's jus git da boats dun and kill sum 'oomies!" kind of attitude.  I hope the look works.  Here is a shot of the finished product.

Probably not the best shot but I'm tired and I'll try and get a new shot up in the morning.  I really need to get better at shooting models.  Well on to paint the other 5!  

2011?! Already!?

Well friends....here we are in 2011.  It's almost been a whole week already.  I don't know where to start.  Do I start with the NFL playoffs? Upcoming projects? Upcoming games that need to be played.  I think I'll start with a little football.

So the regular NFL season has ended and the playoffs begin this weekend.  We'll start with the game I'm most interested in.  Eagles vs. Packers.  Being a Chicago fan I'm hoping the Packers get their asses kicked. Now to be a realist, its been shown that the Eagles can fall apart if you pressure Vick something fierce.  The Bears did it, and then the Vikings did it.  I mean the VIKINGS!  That's a team you shouldn't have to lose to as horrible as they were but the Eagles did.  Now the Packers have a pretty good defense so I'm betting that the Packer will roll over the Eagles though I'd rather have the Bears play the Eagles in round 2.  The next game I would throw money at is the Saints vs. the Seahawks.  A team with a losing record in the playoffs.  While this is kinda ridiculous in itself I do agree with Tony Dungy.  Winners of the division deserve to be in there or winning the division means nothing and if that's the case why have divisions.  All signs point to the Saints winning and normally I would agree. I'm really hoping for some crazy upset win.  It is the playoff for god's sake.

The AFC.  Not a fan.  Though I would like to see the Jets beat the Colts cause Indiana is too close to Illinois and I can't stand the Colt fans running in my city.  Reality again.  Don't think the Jets can do it and Sanchez is not Manning yet....if ever.  The other game is the Chiefs vs the Ravens.  I would love to see the Chiefs go all the way. Ravens are strong and I do hates me some Ravens also but I also don't think KC has enough to beat the Ravens, the Steelers, and the Pats.  That's just a lot to go through.

Upcoming projects.  I've got two on my plate right now.  Started on my Ork fleet for Uncharted Seas.  I'm working on a test model at this time and I will get some pics up shortly after I get it done.  Concurrent to that is my Demon army for Warhammer.  I'm putting together a small host to use at the Adepticon Warhammer team tourney.  Though I'm not sure I'm enthused to play in the team tournament.  I've been asked by a couple of people to team up. I'm just not sure I can pull the gumption to play.  I will have the army ready in case said people would really like me to play.  I can't let the friends down.  Got a couple of units of Pink Horrors and Plague Bearers to paint.  When I get my list finalized I'll post and hopefully some of you will critique and advise.

So I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve and here's to a great 2011 for everyone.  Skooch get home soon.  Gen Con is calling.

What did Santa bring you?

Merry Xmas everyone!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  Only 3 more days left and we'll be into 2011 which hopefully will be bringing me more motivation to paint some figs.

I hope everyone also got some great loot from Santa this year.  I personally am very happy with what I scored.  I'm a very difficult person to shop for, so it's always great when people can get me stuff that I don't already have.  So this post I want to dedicate to my latest painting project which is finished and what I got for Christmas.

So of the late I haven't been much on playing the classics, ie: 40k, Fantasy, Warmachine, or FoW.  I've quite gotten into a game called Uncharted Seas.  It's a fantasy naval battle not unlike Man O' War.  I've pick up two starter fleets, Dwarves and Orks.  I just finished my Dwarf fleet.  Here are some of my pics.  I'll be posting the Orks next.  Just getting to start them after the new year.

 So this is a snap of the finished fleet.  It's a battleship, 3 destroyer and 6 cruiser.

A closer look at the battleship

A destroyer

and lastly a cruiser

So now it's time to show off what I got for Xmas.  Let me say again how I love the stuff I got this year.  It's almost all stuff that I'm gonna use on a daily basis.  So the first thing I'm gonna show off is this Arkham Horror expansion that I got.  This game is a favorite among the gaming group.  We just love to play this game but when you put all the board and card expansions together, this thing becomes MASSIVE and quite overwhelming :).

Next, my friends Melissa and Adam got me the Seafarers expansion for Settlers of Catan.  We've been playing thing game quite a bit lately and getting the expansions is only gonna insure that this game stays in rotation. 

One of my most favorite gifts this year.  My lady got me this awesome coffee press.  I used it this morning too and I must say that it does make a better tasting cup of coffee when you make it this way than with a drip.  This thing will get a ton of usage.

So this is a bottle of beer that came with a gift card to Binny's that was my secret Santa gift at work.  Oh how Santa knows me well.  Haven't opened it yet, but I'll be drinking this thing during New Years Eve.

This here is a stocking stuff that my girlfriend got me.  Not sure what it's supposed to represent but what the hell, I'll read it and maybe I'll glean some hidden gem from the mind of Charles Shultz.

This by far is one of the coolest things I was able to procure of the winter holiday.  I got this from a White Elephant gift exchange at a Christmas party.  It's a set of shot glasses with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it.  Love it!

Another expansion for the Settlers of Catan that my woman got me.  Can wait to try this one out.

I got a set of dice for the Arkham Horror game.  I'm glad the lady got this for me as I was eyeing this set of dice for our games of Arkham Horror.  Another gift that will see much usage.

The final two gift my girlfriend got me are also awesome.  The first is a Shadowrun sourcebook called Feral cities.  Covering many of the overrun cities of the Awakened World.  I've been waiting for this book to come out so I can add some of these cities to my campaign.  The last gift is a book reading lamp which, according to my girlfriend, I needed desperately as to not keep her up while I read and she tries to sleep.

Well that's it for now.  I hope everyone had a great Xmas and that you like my dwarf fleet.  Look forward to an exciting new year of friends, family, the Bears in the Superbowl and some great gaming!

Xmas Time!

Well Xmas draws near and I'm drawn to thinking about what I asked for on my wishlist which coincedentally is all boardgames. I'm not sure when I drifted away from RPG's and table top wargaming. I mean, I've always enjoyed a good boardgame on the occasion but of the late I've really been putting in the overtime with games like Settlers of Catan, Last Day on Earth, the revamped Talisman, Arkham Horror, Cash and Guns, Robo Rally, etc, etc, etc.

It makes me think that maybe it's the group I've been playing games with every once in awhile. Seems like it's board games with a smattering of Shawdowrun, Eberron, and Vampire. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about the quality of my geek time. I'm just making an observation.

Or is it something else. I was chatting with my buddy Stu the other night about how we kinda fell away from table top wargaming and he's in the industry for God's sake. For me I think it's because I just don't have a solid group of players anymore. Though I will say that I have definitely moved away from 40K and such. I'm liking the square bases more lately. Uncharted Seas has captured most of my attention. I do likes me a good sea battle from time to time.

So I guess back to my original statement...wishlist...I'm looking over my list again and it's mostly expansions for Settlers, Empire Builder which is a railroad game that uses crayons and a map. Another Arkham Horror expansion and the latest version of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It the old days this list would've been miniatures galore. What's on everyone else's list? Maybe I need new ideas?

On another side note, anyone try that Kinect yet? I'm still up in the air with this contraption. I hear good things. In reality I've read good things. Let me know what you guys think. If I don't post again soon, I want to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.