Death Korp of Krieg Command Squad

So I painted this unit a few years back for Golden Demon and made 1st cut, but was just out of reach of honorable mention. The models were actually pretty easy to paint. Almost painted themselves really. I couldn't put the brush down once I started. The amount of detail on the models is amazing. I bless and curse forgeworld at the same time for such gorgeous models but at the cost of an arm and a leg.

Hope you enjoy and leave some comments :)

Light Box for Photos

So I've been wanting to get one for the longest time, but the ones that I want are pretty expensive. Plus that fact that I needed and wanted one at this moment didn't help either. So I decided to google a little bit and found some do it yourself constructions and improvised some of the ideas to make my own. See the one that I've made below.

Materials needed:

1. Shoe box or some sort of cardboard box. Needs to be sturdy.

2. Bright white paper or white cloth.

3. Sharp knife.

4. Ruler

5. Pencil or pen

6. packing tape (the clear ones)

Instructions:

1. To start, I measured about 1 inch from all borders to create sort of a window on the two sides and top of the box.



2. Once the measurements are done, place the ruler down and draw out the lines and then examine.



3. Use the knife and ruler to cut out the windows.



4. Place the bright white paper along the inside of the box. Why the inside you say? Well, if you put the white paper on the outside, the inside will still be brown cardboard and the light will not be effective. The paper inside creates white walls allong the bottom sides and top. With finishing off the bottom and back drop, the white interior will allow the rays of light to bounce around and illuminate the interior of the box more.



5. Tape all the edges of the exterior of the box to create a sturdier box. This will also help prevent any light leaking out rather than bounce around inside where your object of interest is.



6. Print out a background image that is white gradually fading into a different color using a gradient tool on illustrator. (can also be found online if you look for it). Experiment with different colors, they all give the model a different look.

That's it, you should be done with the box and all you need now is a camera (hopefully mounted so it won't move), an object of interest you want to photograph, and lighting. Lighting is key here. I usually 1 daylamp above the box so the light comes through the top window, and two smaller ones on either side. Once in awhile I will put only one on the side and a smaller light source in the interior of the photo box but out of camera view. This creates a shot with more depth with high contrast due to light being directly on the source versus being spread by the white back drop. Not the best photo booth that could be made, but it serves its purpose for me.

Hope this helps and have fun taking some photos of your beautifully painted pieces. I hope you can send me some samples or photos taken using a photo box/booth. Cheers.

AoBR Marines Finished

So I've been all over the place lately between writing army lists for my daemon army to AoBR marines. I kind of like to skip around alot if you haven't noticed yet. But it isn't always a bad thing since I won't get stuck with just some models and I get to play around with different colors alot. This allows me to experiment with color combinations and the like which I wouldn't otherwise. Doing this helps me become an overall better painter using basic color theory and also quicker with painting the standard model(s) for table top gaming.

This leads me to show you my finished AoBR marines. I know I posted a unit WIP a few posts back, but again, while skipping around with so many projects, they unit got done now. If I would have focused on just this unit I would have taken a few hours or so to finish the unit from scratch.

The unit is base coated and has 2 highlights and mud on boots/leg done along with free hand chapter symbol. Enjoy! Comments appreciated.

Tactica: Nurglings

My Thoughts of Nurglings in 40K:

So I've been playing with the idea of having more nurgling units on the table. To me it seems like the nurglings are pretty hard-core objective holders in 5th edition where everybody seems to be going mech. I mean that fact that they are able to deep strike on the objective (if you roll correctly), have an invulnerable save, can't be instant death, 3 wounds a base, have stealth giving them an even better chance in cover.....I think they are just perfect for holding objectives. The fact they are still vulnerable to blast templates still kind of hurt, but you're only taking 2 wounds instead of instant death. That means another shot wasted to try to take them out.

How to use them:

Well I definately wouldn't just put them out in the open or try to charge the enemy with them....that's for sure. Unless I was desperate and needed to tie something up before another unit came to support them. Nurglings by themselves IMO are use-less unless supported by another unit that can provide a counter attack.

Defensive:

The idea that you could possibly have a unit of 8 nurgling bases (24 wounds!) for just over 100 points backed by a unit of plaguebearers at 14 strong for only 210 points, that's a tough 310+ points your opponent has to deal with just so that you don't hold the objective. All you have to do is keep the nurglings in cover close to the objective. Keep the unit of plagebearers close enough that they can counter assault or move to where they are needed. You probably don't even need to have a full 14 man squad, even a 7 man unit of plagebearers are tough to take out (going with fluff, that's why the numbers are 14 and 7). The point is that you are trying to hold the objective until you can bring in the rest or part of your army to stop your opponent. Of course if your opponent really wanted, they could wipe out your nurgling and plaguebearer units if you don't pay any attention to them and leave your units be. Support is key to holding objectives for any army, it's just that nurgle has it better IMO :)

Offensive:

So how can you use nurglings offensively you ask. Well for one, they provide cover saves to your units behind them. For a demon player, this is huge. If my opponent decides to fire bolters or whatever at my plaguebearer unit, as long as I have nurglings in front of them I get a cover save which is better than the invulnerable save. Plus a re-roll for FnP. I would much rather have to roll a 4+ instead of a 5+ any time any day. Who wouldn't? Not only the cover saves, but the fact that once I get close enough, I can tie up my opponents units (either charging or taking the charge) until my other units can join in. Most nurgle units have the slow and purposeful rule which kind of hurts their movement. This allows opponents to punish them and kill as mush as possible before CC. But if you can tie them up for a turn or two, that would make a world of a difference. Less shots would be taken by the plaguebearers who can then slowly take their time to walk into the fight with more numbers on my side to help make the difference.

So your thoughts, should I take 3 units of nurglings at around 7 or 8 strong?

Please feel free to post a comment, both negative or positive comments will only make my army better in the long run.

Updated Daemon List

So since I really can't build or paint much with the move, I've been coming up with a list for my daemon army. Originally I was going to do an all out nurgle army, but with a low WS and only wounding on 4+ (with the opponent getting an armor save), it was kind of tough to win....even to compete. So I decided that I was going to have a one two punch by using nurgle and khorne.

The reason behind this is that by playing nurgle, I will have pretty tough units to defend objectives and just be a pain in the butt for my opponent to try to waste their time getting rid of them. If they decide to just ignore nurgle units, then they will have a harder time as the game continues to wipe them out from contesting or holding objectives and even for kill points. As for khorne, what can I say, the power of the hellblades just keeps on calling my name. The fact that even a small desperate unit of 5 or 6 bloodletters having the capability of wiping out an entire 10 space marine squad just is not fair at all. So having about 15 of them or so should be pretty fun.

All in all, I am not making this army to be competitive as I do not go to local tourney's (work gets in the way...yes I work 6 days a week), but for the fun of it. Plus I would like to make this a showcase type army for when our gaming club sets up next year in Games Day Baltimore. I will be using VC Ghouls as my plaguebearers and I will try to convert some of them along with bloodletter pieces to make the entire army seem more as a whole instead of individual squads just put together.

Here is the list:

Ku'Gath
7 Nurglings (instant death does not apply so 3 wounds each base should make it fun and annoying for the opponent)
30 plague bearers split into 2 groups
25 blood letters split into 2 groups
5 blood crushers
1 DP with mark of nurgle
1 DP with mark of khorne

All adds up to right around 1750pts.

Give me your opinion on the army list and what I can do to make it better. Although I will not be competing as mentioned before, I still don't want an army that can't win either :D

Moving = Sucks

Sorry for lack of updating everyone. Unfortantely for me, the past couple of weeks and the next few upcoming weeks will be very busy for me. I've been slowly moving stuff into the new place and I have no idea which boxes some of my models and things I need are! This sucks....I have to go through each box and pick the things I need and pull them out to model and paint. Most of my other stuff will be stored away in storage until we can move all the things out of the old place and organize the new place a bit. But have faith as I will definately make up for it :) Maybe some pics will be posted later of the move and crap (boxes) all over the place.