Tuesday 30 July 2013

13. A Road To Glory: Sisters of Battle part 4. Anti-Chirst Air. 1,500pts Built.

Yeah, that is a skateboarding reference. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Air

  In my last ARTG update I posted my sister list and the models that make up that list.
Currently they are in the paint stripper bath... due to a bad batch of white spray some of the details were a bit...blurred?
That and the mold lines were terrible... As much as I want a gaming force up and running, my new hobby ethos simply wont allow that kind of sloppiness.


In the meantime, I have been working on my Aegis Defence line.
I wanted to make it more fitting with the army's aesthetic without going over the top.
There isn't much you can add to the walls, so I just stuck on a couple of Adeptus ministorum icons and other sister iconography;


Enjoy the reems of pictures with very few words...

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And now for some more words.

The Aegis defence lines Quad auto cannon is... well. Rubbish.
I really think it is very lack lustre in appearance. However, the kit itself is extremely versatile.
If you've ever seen the sprue you'll understand. The base is the same size as a turret base, essentially making it able to swap around with other turrets from other tanks.
You can see where this is going right?


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Yeah boi! Sisters AA gun!

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  All I've done here is magnetise the ADL's auto cannons to the Sisters of Battle's repressor turret weapon mount.
I've then glues the ADL's weapon mount to the back to make it look a bit more substantial (And AA gun firing solid slug weapons would need some form of stabilisation after all).
All I need to do now is glue on a SOB head and the arms  and she'll be ready to paint.


YUP! Take that Air unit spam.
I say that.... but in all seriousness, I'm not entirely confident that a single ADL will solve my aircraft issues.
But I have no other options (without taking allies), so, it will have to do!

In a bizzle

-DH-

12. Curb your enthusiasm - Building a Gaming Board. Part 3

Yup. Late update? As expected.

TO BOARD!

  I do believe we are back to the research/theory phase.
This pretty much focuses on the part that are to be added to the road pieces of the board. The blank squares take care of themselves.
So, to make this easier to follow we'll have a 'Theory' and 'Practise' section for each detail.

First off...

Curbs.
Theory:

After having a walk around the area I live; risking looking like a mentally deranged person, I set about measuring the curb slabs.
I found they were roughly 3ft long.
This is roughly half the height of an average human male (I am 6ft 2/3).
So, the height of the 'staple' figure of Warhammer 40k, the space marine, is roughly 3cm.
Half of the space marines height is roughly 1.5 cm.
The curb for my roads would be 1.5 cm each.

A square tile is 24 inches long, or roughly 60.96 cm. To make it easier round it down to 60cm.
60 divided by 1.5 = 40. This is the number of slabs per side of the road.
To fully fit out a road this number needs to be multiplied by two, which brings us to 80 curb slabs per straight road square.
As I have two of these pieces, the total curb slabs I'd need thus far would be 160.

There is also the issue of the curved road square.
The way to do this is ignore the curve for now and concentrate on the straight sections of this square.
There are two long, and two short straights.
2 long = 14 1/2 inch = 36.88 (rounded to 36) x 2 = 72/1.5 = 48
2 short = 9 1/2 inch = 24.13 (rounded to 24) x 2 = 48/1.5 = 32
This brings us to a total of 80 slabs for the square, and 240 for the board.


Practise.
The first hurdle is what material to use?
I opted for tea stirrers/lolly pop sticks.


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Seriously. Cheap and easy to get hold of!
You can realistically get 8 slabs out of a stirrer; 240/8 = 30 stirrers. McDonalds, you had it coming
tongue.png.

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So lets test this yeah?

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Nice!
A point I should bring up, when placing the slabs there will, inevitably, be a little bit of a gap; so 2 slabs side by side will probably take more space than the 3 cm total than they should. This is why I rounded down initially. However, it may turn out that a couple of slabs might have to be cut down/not use the full 40 per side.

Anyway, ONWARD!

Cut out the slabs...


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And glue them down

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Make sure to keep them straight as you go along...

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And Voila!

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Straight road done. Do this for all your straight roads... I know it is tedious as hell, but hey! I think it looks pretty good, and is pretty cheap to do.

That brings me on to the curved curb slabs.
This is far more difficult. in theory it should maintain similarity with the 1.5 curbs.
However in practise it wasn't that simple.

The first thing to do is, on a piece of plasticard, draw out the larger curve section, using the same method you did for the actual curve in the road (A spray paint lid, remember msn-wink.gif).

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It should look something like that.
Now, file it/cut it down to the correct width and cut it into pieces (about four).
Use these pieces to trace/cast another set for the inner curve (You'll only need three).

It should look something like this:

Outer curve

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Inner curve (I apologise about the blurriness).

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And that is it! Curbs done!


That'll do for updates about the board for now... it is a lot of text, and not overly exciting to look at.
But what is that white stuff you ask? Tough! You'll have to wait for the next update... well, a couple of updates. Next gaming board update shall be board features: theory and practise again.

But I'll post a few actual models in between now and then. I KNOW RIGHT!?!?

Comments, and criticism more than welcome.

-DtotheH-

Wednesday 3 July 2013

11. A Road Block to Glory: Sisters of Battle part 3 - Problems are productive.



  So almost back to sporadic update patterns?
Genuinely sorry about that denizens of the interwebs.  The past couple of weeks have been problematic.

  Firstly, I had some decorating done to my bedroom which killed my ability to do anything on my computer for almost a whole week.
Also this meant there was nowhere I could paint comfortably. Bunded.

   Secondly, I ran into a couple of roadblocks with my board. I have overcome them, but it was a bit of a setback. More on that in a separate post I guess.

  So this update will be about what I filled that time with; some sisters stuff.

 I finally got around to writing a 'take on all opponents' list of 1,500 pts.


  • St, Celestine
  •  Uriah Jacobs
  • Squad of Seraphim - 7 Sisters + 2 pairs of hand flamers + Eviscerator
  • Battle sister squad 1 - 10 sisters + Multi-Melta + storm bolter + Simulacrum Imperialis + combo-flamer
  • Battle sister squad 2 - 10 sisters + 2 Melta guns + combi-flamer + Simulacrum Imperialis
    Rhino+ extra armour  + search lights
  • Battle sister squad 3 - 10 sisters + 2 flamers + Melta bombs
    Rhino + extra armour  + search lights
  • Exorcist
  • Exorcist
  • Squad of Retributors - 10 Sisters + 4 Heavy Bolters + Simulacrum Imperialis
  • Aegis defence line + Quad Gun
Total 1,500 pts.


It is hard to talk tactics with a 'take on all' list.
   The general plan is for squad 1 to hold the home objective accompanied by the Retributors. These will lay down supporting fire whilst being surrounded by the Aegis defence line; this gives them their 3+ armour save, 6+ invulnerable save, and a 4+ cover save. I am hoping that this will make the two squads fairly survivable.

  Accompanying these two squads will be Uriah Jacobs.
He will primarily be dropped into squad 1. As well as holding the home objective it will be their task, and Jacobs, will be to operate the quad gun.
This gives me the army's only available anti-air option. Which with a 3+/6+ 4+ cover and Jacobs feel no pain, should be fairly survivable and defensible. In addition, Jacobs gives the unit he joins an extra attack. Something which could prove vital for defending that home objective.

 If there is no home objective/ no objectives at all, squad 1 will support wherever the fighting is thickest/provide support where necessary, with Jacobs in tow.


  The other squads can vie for the other objectives.
The rhinos give the sisters some flexibility in which objective/area they focus on. 1 Squads is tooled for anti armour; 2 Meltas, and the other infantry; 2 flamers. They both have contingency plans; the Melta bombs and combi flamer.


   Anything tough will be tied up by the seraphim. Again, the seraphim's main objective is anti-infantry; the Eviscerator does give the unit a bit of oomph when it comes to combating armour. As for heavily armoured infantry, well, that is where Celestine comes into play. She's dirty hard for her points cost. against armies with decent elite units the Seraphim pretty much act as a Celestine delivery unit.


I know it is not a perfect tactical framework by any stretch of the imagination, but with a decent mix of speed, and firepower, I am hoping that the list will remain flexible enough to have a decent stab at any army.

Any comments on the list, feel free to drop me a comment.

  Anyway. Enough text. Here's some, very much work in progress, pictures of the army (without the defence line).

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I did only have 5 seraphim, so I had to convert a couple extra. For the Superior I just used the Canoness model, I converted to old superior to hold a bolt pistol. The second hand flamer sister was slightly more complex, but I think it turned out okay.

I'll walk you all through it, just in case you wanna pinch the idea :P.

Start off with your base model. I chose the sister lobbing the grenade (seemed fitting/easier than the others to convert).
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Cut away the Gun;

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And now to build the hand flamer. I tried to base it off the metal sisters version.
You will need;
A knife,
Some glue,
A Bolt pistol,
A Metla gun,
A Flamer.

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First off, cut off the bolt pistols barrel and put it to one side. Then replace it with the muzzel from the metla gun.

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Next, cut away the muzzle from the flamer. Gently remove the pre-igniter,

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Finally, attach the pre-igniter underneath the 'hand flamers' muzzle, and attach the bolt pistol barrel to the end of the muzzle.
For added Flamerness, cut away the bolt pistols magazine and replace it with a flamer canister.

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Stick it on your base model...

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And you are done!

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Anyway. That is enough about the sisters for now.


Expect some updates in rapid order. Playing catch up!

Peace out.
-DH-