Starting an Army: Mantis Warriors

So I've been tinkering with the idea of actually starting and playing an army again. I mentioned in my last post that I would be interested in starting up a Mantis Legion/Warriors army. 

With the new edition fairly new I figured it would be a good time for me to jump back into the gaming aspect of 40k. Having sat out all of 5th edition, it'll be like learning the whole game from scratch. But non the less, I've decided to start and painted up my first test model. 

So check out the model and let me know what you think so far. Mind you it's only a test model to get the color scheme and knowing which colors I'm going to use. The model isn't finished, but I'm sure I'll get around to finishing up the fine detail stuff sooner or later.

Mantis Legion/Warriors Sergeant with Power Fist.

Mantis Legion/Warriors Logo free-handed. Not the exact symbol, but close enough. I mean come on, I had to make it simple enough to free-hand paint all of them on all the other minis.

Just wanted to show the gradation of the shoulder pad and NMM I did on the boltgun. Will add the tactical symbol and number shortly.

So let me know what you guys think.

Games Day 2012: Part III

Fritz meeting up with us on Friday to head down to the GW Bunker

GW Bunker

Jawaballs and Fritz getting ready to play an epic battle on the ice world!

The crowd gathers before the doors open for Games Day

Jawaballs sitting and waiting like the rest of us, a mere mortal!

Jawaballs somehow finds a way to get in early!!! 

Jawaballs and his Ultramarines banner which won the banner contest (again!)

Jawaballs speed painting

Fritz speed painting

Fritz playing a game with a fan

The outcome of speed painting! Our group rocks!

Banner Contest

Costume contest

Sister of Battle, won the costume contest

DKoK costume

28oz Jawa-steak over at Gibson's after Games Day!

Oh and btw, we went gambling after dinner and I won THIS much :)  Spent about 2 hours at a blackjack table and it paid off. This paid for all of my Forgeworld LOL. 

Games Day 2012: Part II

Ok so let me explain why in my last post I wrote that Gamesday sucked for me this year. Don't get me wrong, I had a great weekend and enjoyed the events all day, there's just a few things that really stood out to me that made me feel the way I did.

First, I look forward to going to Gamesday every year. Not just the social part of it, but the experience of seeing new things and the excitement of the day itself. People walking around costumes, banners flying all over the place, screaming maniacs all over the convention, etc. But this year it was SUPER light. I mean there were a total of I think 5-6 costumes, 4 banners, and sometimes quiet enough that you could hear crickets during the convention. To me, compared to past Gamesdays, it sucked because of that, not enough extra things going on.

Second, it seemed as if almost half the convention floor was dedicated to the GW and forgeworld store. I get it, as a business they want to make money. Even in years past I believe there was only one year that I can recall that GW actually did a 20% off sale on models that they had pulled off the shelves and had overstock on. But it seemed this year that they focused on selling things and cutting corners with expenses by getting rid of some fun activities (chaos carnival, big canon, movie screens, full sized marines or orks walking around) and eye candy. Getting rid of these things also means less staff they have to pay also. But in doing so, they killed the mood of Gamesday imo. 

Third, there was no demon lounge. As you guys know by now, I love to paint to compete more than painting armies to play. Well, in the past few years, I looked forward to going to the demon lounge to talk with past demon winners to get ideas and insight on painting differently or to better improve my own painting style. No such thing this year. Hopefully they bring it back next year or maybe the demon winners will find a corner and do it on their own.

Lastly, no amazing looking displays or club tables. There was one amazing table this year from Iron Snakes (or something like that) where they had a huge battle barge where you played 40k. The table was big enough to put down a Thunderhawk and it made that model look tiny. Just jaw dropping. But that was about it. GW failed to put out any interesting display tables like years past. Those massive display tables brought tears to peoples eyes because they would tell stories within the display. And also not a lot of club tables this year. I believe that having clubs come in and bringing their own tables and helping run the events throughout the day would help elevate the outcome of Gamesday as a whole.

Well, I'm sure I can go on and on, but enough of me ranting. Onto the good stuff....I'll post up in another topic right after this one. 

Games Day 2012 Weekend

Well it has come and it has gone...the one weekend that we all have anticipated and looked forward to. What can I say about Games Day this year...it was so-so. Alright fine, it kind of sucked (I'll explain later)! But before I get into all that about the actual convention, let me start from the beginning.

Pre Games Day (Friday):
I headed down to Chicago with my friend Jawaballs. He picked me up to leave for the airport at 5am on Friday morning. We got on the plane for the ride down and two things that we'll remember. 1) there was a smoking hot chick sitting pretty much right next to us. All we could think about was Slaanesh and it's wonders....Jawa almost converted from a loyalist to the thoughts and wonders that could be if he just took one step closer to her LOL!  2) One other girl on the flight was a first round 'American Idol' contest that got the golden ticket and moved onto the next round. Thought that was pretty awesome. Jawaballs even got a picture with her.

So we landed super early and couldn't check in to our hotel as it was only like 9am and the hotel check in was like 2 or 3pm. So Jawaballs and I walked around a bit and grabbed some breakfast and came back to the hotel. Luckily we ran into a different person working the front desk and they got us in early...SCORE!  Once we got into the room, we had to wait up on our other buddy, Fritz. During this time, Jawa and I came up with an army list for myself and the new army I'm planning on doing. As some of you may know, I've been out of this blogging thing for a while now and to kick start things and to motivate me, I plan on doing an army and keeping you all updated. Who knows, I might even try to go to Adepticon and compete :)  (big maybe) Anyways, for those of you that know, Jawa is planning on doing his next marine chapter as the Lamenters. So I decided I will pick an army from the same war and decided to do....(big drumroll).... MANTIS WARRIORS!!! So be on the lookout on my blog to see updates.

Later that evening we met up with Fritz (who drove with his wife this year) and headed down to the Chicago bunker. My first impression of the place kind of made me gag to be honest. When I think bunker, I think of a place where no other store can match. Many many amazing looking tables, showcases full of gorgeous painted armies, posters hanging on the walls, maybe even a golden throne or something. Maybe it was just my imagination running wild as to what it could have been, but the actual bunker looked kind of cheap. By that I mean it was no more impressive than a local non-GW hobby shop back where I live. Either way we came, we played, we left.

During our stay at the bunker, Jawa and Fritz got into a game as nobody else seemed to be available. Everyone was playing 3v3 or 1v1. So Fritz and Jawa got into a pretty epic game. The game seemed very one sided in the beginning with Jawa seeming like he was going to steam roll over Fritz's eldar army. I walked out to Best Buy to pick up a memory card for my camera and when I got back, pretty much all of Jawa's units were destroyed. WTF?! All I could think about was 'What happened here in the last 10 minutes while I was gone?' Either way, they had a great epic battle.

We headed over to a tavern across the street for some food since we were all starving. I ended up getting a full rack of baby back ribs and OMG, they were freakin' awesome. Most definitely will go back if we are in the area. Not to mention that all the waitresses were smokin' hot. Three thumbs up.

On our way back to the hotel, we got off the exit to some toll booths. There were no freakin' toll booths with people. Only their I-Pass lanes and coin lanes. WTF....there were no signs whatsoever about coins only....and no booths with people available! The three of us scrambled to find change and we didn't have any! What the hell are we suppose to do now LOL. So Fritz gets out and starts flagging people down to get change. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I suppose Jawa will get the video up soon for all to see one of these days, but something we will never forget.

Enough for this entry, I'll post up pictures and another entry soon with the events of Saturday: Games Day 2012!

Games Day Chicago 2012 is Here!

Well it's that time of year everyone....Games Day! I will be flying out early Friday morning with my buddy Jawaballs. Unfortunately our other friend Fritz will not be flying with us this year, BUT he will be driving there (along with his wife). Total dedication man! Gotta hand it to Fritz for driving, I would never....flying is so much easier :)

So for this year, I will not be submitting anything into the Golden Demon competition as I have been way too busy this past year with a new born and family deaths and all. It's sad that I will not be competing, but I will scout out the competition for next year. Good luck to all those that do enter! I'm sure alot of the pieces will inspire me to step up my game and enter next year.

Even though I will not be participating in the Golden Demons competition this year, I will be participating in the speed painting, build and take, and all the other great stuff Games Day has to offer (Yes even the wonderfully super long ForgeWorld line). Also will be supporting Jawa and his awesome banner! You guys thought that the banners from the past were good, wait till you see this one!

I'm also interested in seeing the costumes this year...always a great group of people putting their heart and soul into their costumes. A few are not so great, a bunch are amazing, and sometimes we something just jaw dropping. Wonder what it'll be this year. Not to mention the awesome 'Hot Chick' costume....always one or two of them walking around at Games Day. They should have a category for 'smoking hot chick in costume'...I bet all us guys would be whistling and shouting like crazy LOL.

Let's see, what else....OH...there is always the great time afterwards hanging out with friends I haven't seen in over a year. I'm sure we'll grab a beer and an awesome steak and have some good old times laughing as usual.

Well, I'll post up some pics and vids of the the event when I get back. If you're there, just look for the HUGE Ultramarines banner that Jawa is entering and I'm sure to be hanging around him :)

Been a very very long time!

It's been almost a whole year since I wrote last....holy crap!

Well, I guess that's what happens when you fall out of gaming and painting for awhile. I pretty much hit a slump as I really wasn't into the gaming and painting anymore for a long time. I was so busy with work that I just couldn't find the time to do any gaming or painting. Plus having our first son really put me behind with time to do anything for myself. There is no time, well let me rephrase that, not enough time to do the things that I want to do. Most of the time I'm helping feed the baby, change the baby, play and spend time with the baby....all of which I believe are more important than playing with toy soldiers, but I guess I just lost track of time and how much I really did enjoy gaming and painting.

I still don't know if I have the time to play much as I only have one day during the week, but with the new 6th edition out, I might as well try. So that being said, I was speaking with Jawa and had a plan. He is starting a new Lamenters Marine army and I figured that I should start an army as well. This way I can feel like that we are both painting an army and building a competitive army from scratch. Who knows, maybe if I can make time, I might try to go with Jawa or Fritz to a competition. That's a big maybe though :)

Hopefully I can stick to it this time and actually finish something. I guess I'll have to ask Jawa and Fritz to get on my ass about it every once in awhile to press me into finishing it. I hate not finishing, but I also hate doing repetitive things, example...keeping up with a blog and posting consistently (if you haven't noticed LOL.)

So what army do you guys think I should start and try to finish. Not a generic one, but a competitive army list. Maybe something like 2000pts or something.