Project Space Marine continues

I got some hobby time in last night, and did a little work on these two.  Continuing on from the last post, I've put down the base colors on all the little bits.  Charadon Granite was used for the metal bits, Mechrite Red was used for the red bits, Iyanden Darksun for the yellow, and Dheneb Stone for the skulls and purity seals.

wtf of the week

So the latest project that I've decided to take on was inspired by Les at AwesomePaintJob.com.  I am going to paint an army of Space Marines where every single marine is from a different chapter.  If that's not crazy enough, I plan on maxing out every slot (HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support) with infantry.  That's around 150 marines.  I've not made a list up yet, but I estimate the army to come in around 4000-5000 points when I'm finished.  I'll be painting these marines in between other projects, so keep an eye out for some variety.

I separated the chapters by their primary colors, and started there.  The first two chapters I'll be doing share the same color scheme, just organized in different ways.  Here are the Imperial Castellans and the Angels Porphyr:

I've primed each model grey, then re-primed white from about 6 inches above and away from the model (to simulate the light source).  Each model has had a coat of Mordian Blue put on in the appropriate places.

Tournament of Championships

I've been plugging our upcoming local tournament on this site as of late, and I wanted to open up a discussion with the gaming community at large regarding tournaments.

As this is my first time running such an event, it is important to me to "fix" some of the issues that I have had with other local tournaments.  The primary things that I wanted to address are:

• Starting on time, and staying on time - A tournament can last quite a while, it shouldn't take up more of my time than advertised that it would.
• Having a transparent scoring system - I want to know how my army and my games will be scored before I get to the event.  Will the event be more hobby-based, or competitive in nature?  The scene here in Indy is largely competitive, and many people tailor their lists to meet the comp requirements of the event they are attending.  I'd like to know going into the event what type of crowd I'm going against.
• Having good prize support - Having a 20-man event and only handing out the standard prize support that GW provides your store feels cheap.  I'm all for stores making money off of the events that they run, but some effort should be made to spread some of that love around.  The recent event at Games 2 Die 4 had great prize support, and I'd love to try to emulate that spirit of giving.
• Encouraging fun, gentlemanly play - I hate that the guy who wins best sportsmanship is always the person who comes in last.  The prize given to this guy speaks worlds about how much importance is placed on sportsmanship (usually a dice cube).

What are some other things that you have been disappointed with in your local tournaments?  Am I missing something here that would prevent you from having a good time at an event?  What would you like to see in a local, or even a national event?

A quick reminder

Just a quick update to say that 8 of the 20 slots available for the 40k tournament on June 19th have been filled after 1 week of sign-ups.  With 5 more weeks to go, this will surely fill up rather quickly.  If you haven't already, sign up now!

South Indy 40k Tournament Signup Has Begun!

I'll be running my first tournament on June 19th.  If you will be in the Indianapolis area, and would like to get a day full of gaming in, sign up and bring your army.  There are 20 slots available, and we have a fairly large local gaming group, so sign up now!

2 more Indy blogs!

I added 2 more blogs to the Indy Blog roll.  Check them out.

Circle City Gamers is a site with news and a forum for all gamers of the Indianapolis variety, attempting to inform us all of events in the area.

Totengräber's Workpläce is an Indy gamers' personal blog with battle reports on 40k and Warmachine.

Last week, I added Rites of Battle, a blog where they commonly wax philosophical about the state of 40k.

Army Showcase - Crimson Fists Crusade Company

Before I post my battle reports from the tournament last weekend, I thought I would run through my army.

I have been playing Crimson Fists since 3rd Ed.  The iconic red fists always appealed to me for some reason.  Their fluff also spoke to me; the tragic chapter that is fighting back from the brink of destruction seems really cool.  Around the same time that I started CF, my buddy started an Ork army.  The Crimson Fists are natural enemies of the Orks, so the rivalry would play itself out accordingly.  The fluff behind my particular band of Crimson Fists is that they are the remnants of a Crusade Company that was sent out after the Ork Waaagh! that was responsible for the destruction of their fortress on their home planet of Rynn's World.  The current rules I use to reflect this theme is the Black Templars Codex.  The zealous, in-your-face fighting style fits perfectly.



My Emperor's Champion leads this force.  I have the original Emperor's Champion model, from back when any Space Marine chapter could take one.  The model needed a bit of updating though, so I converted up a new one for this force.


The EC is joined to this Crusader Squad, which rides in this Land Raider Crusader.



The Venerable Dreadnought at the top has the Tank Hunter ability, making him very useful for hunting tough enemy armour.

These Terminators also have the Tank Hunter ability, and were originally used to take out light armoured targets like Ork Killa Kans, and Buggy squadrons, but are quite good at taking out armour of any variety.



A pair of Vindicators provide some up-close support.



Not pictured are two squads of Marines with Lascannons and Plasma Guns in Rhinos for some more long-range anti-tank, and serve as mobile objective grabbers late in the game.  Also are two Attack Bikes with Multi-Meltas, serving to harass armour and to contest objectives late in the game.

Tournament results - aka "You got rolled by a kid?!"

The tournament yesterday was a lot of fun.  Games 2 Die 4 is a really cool store with a focus on Flames of War and Warhammer Fantasy.  What impressed me the most was their selection of paints and supplies.  They carry an extensive selection of paints from Vallejo (Game Color, Model Color, AND Model Air), GW,  P3, and Army Painter.

As far as the tournament went, there were 15 players of which I finished 4th overall.  Farmpunk came in 3rd just above me.  The top 2 spots went to regular players from the local club.

My best moment was my embarrassing loss in game 1 to a  Daemon player.  He's around 13,  plays very well, and utterly destroyed my army.  What makes this funnier is that he forgot to bring on a unit of Fiends, who ended up staying in reserve the entire game.  I'll post some battle reports soon.