Tag: 10×10

10×10 Report for January and Painting a Bunker

On 31st January 2017

Well the 10×10 didn’t go too well this month, after a good start we didn’t play a single game for the last week and a half, so we have only completed 4% of the challenge.

So we have 96 games still left to play, we must do better next month.

Horus Heresy Weekender Scenery

I have been putting my hobby budget mostly towards scenery for the Horus Heresy Weekender, simply because I want us to step up our game in terms of scenery from last time.

So I purchased a load of Wall of Martyrs scenery so we can make ourselves a defence line board, when combined with a couple of Imperial Bastions.

I have done a test piece to set out how the rest of the stuff is going to be painted, and I think it looks quite good. The painting method is a simple one I found on a blog a few years ago.

The scenery is primed black and the concrete sections are then dry brushed with Stormvermin Fur, followed by a dry brush with Administratum Grey, the metal is painted with Leadbeltcher which is then sloppily washed with Agrax Earthshade. The small aquillas are then dry brushed with Ceremite White.

The gold is Retributor Armour, washed with Reikland Fleshshade and dry brushed with Sigmarite. The earth is Mournfang Brown, washed with Nuln Oil and then dry brushed with Mournfang Brown and then dry brushed with Tau Sept Ocre.

The Cadian armour is painted Castellan Green, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then dry brushed with Nibblet Green, and the red canister is Mepheston Red, washed with Agrax Earthshade and dry brushed with Astorath Red.

The roof is painted Doombull Brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade, drybrushed with Squig Orange and the dry brushed with Leadbelcher.

Finally the bone is Zandri Dust, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted with Ushabti Bone.

It’s a very simple scheme and one that is very easy to replicate across the three Imperial Defence Lines and two Imperial Defence Emplacments that I still have to paint, and I might be adding a Firestorm Redoubt to that pile as well.

Mostly Down

By michael

On 14th January 2017

In Blog

I have mostly had a couple of weeks of being down, to start with, we had a tragic and untimely death in the family and that and its circumstances which if I may be so dramatic, could very well be the worst thing to have ever happens on the maternal side of my family.

To further make me down we have beenhaving issues at the flat we own in Newcastle, we already had to replace the boiler this winter, something we could have gotten done for free had someone followed up on something they were supposed to have done for us, and now the washing machine broke down!

And of course when they first tried to deliver it, they refused to install it because the old washing machine had a leak, so we had to pay £75 to a plumber to go out and stop the leak, which would have stopped anyway once the old machine had been removed.

I was also a bit ill earlier in the week, including one day where I threw up my medication, which resulted in me being all over the place for a day as my meds really do keep me stable and out of pain, so I was going from manic to depressive all day.

We have also had to have some repair work done in our flat as on of the stairs slipped out of its fixings and part of it went through the ceiling below it, the landlord was absolutely shocked at how badly it had been installed, but he had joiners out to inspect and check the whole staircase and thankfully it was just the one which was bad.

We have a temporary step fitted whilst the new one is cut, it’s been approved by an inspector from the council but it still doesn’t feel safe, but that’s probably just me feeling insecure about it know the old one was dodgy.

And to top it all this week, when buying some Xbox Live credit on eBay, I managed to get someone’s house raided by the Anti-Terror Squad!

No I didn’t SWAT them, basically he asked for a scan of my driving licence and passport, now I am a paranoid git (it’s true I take tablets for it) so I think that isn’t quite right, so I say no, he says he won’t send the code. So I call eBay up, who then make me call ActionFraud, who go nuts and put me though to the Anti-Terrir Squad who themselves think that they have stumbled onto a way that terrorists have been obtaining details for fake IDs!!!

So I get a call the next day and they have conducted a dawn raid against the guy, and yeah he does have loads of driving licence and passport details, but simply because he was trying to protect himself from scammers on eBay!

But regardless what he was doing is pretty naughty and he is being charged with crimes relating to the Data Protection Act and possession of a stun gun, and I am possibly going to be called as a witness for his trial if he has one!!!

So yeah that’s all contributing to be feeling quite low.

If I am honest the stuff that has been going on has in a way been a distraction form the family death, it’s hit me hard because me and this person were extremely close growing up.

What I am Modelling

Yeah I have built the first 1000 points of my Tau, well 1009 points if you want to get technical! In addition to the Devilfish I built a couple of weeks ago, I have built a Start Collecting Box and Burning Dawn. Combined that gives me 2 Ethereal, 10 Fire Warriors, 3 XV8 Crisis Suits, 10 Pathfinders, a TX4 Piranha and 3 XV25 Stealth Suits, oh and not forgetting all those Drones too!

I have also almost finished building the Word Bearers for the 22nd as well, I also finished painting the Ashen Circle and a unite of Legion Veteran Tactical Marines, who are armed with 2 Mars-Pattern Heavy Bolters and a Sgt with a Lightning Claw. The Mars-Pattern Bolters are really quite cool and I am glad I went with them, but have fitted them, I can say with certainty that they would not have fitted a MKIII Marine without some serious cutting down of his vambrace. The ammo belts are also a little difficult to get into place, but mind you a lot of that could be bacause I mount my models on the base, and putting the basing material on before I start painting.

I didn’t get finished the Gal Vorbak, Mhara Gal, Legion Tactical Support Squad or 2 Rhinos. I feel a bit crappy going to play with unpainted models, but you know, some personal stuff can up and I kinda needed to stop painting because I had to paint, and paint because I wanted to paint for a bit.

So I did start painting the 3 Crisis Suits and I have gotten as at as getting their armour done, going to try and finish them next week.

What I am Reading

I actually haven’t read anything this week barring news and magazines. I have read through the Fall of Cadia tonight, and well talk about advancing the story!!! But I won’t spoil it for anyone.

I finished listening to Betrayer this week, and have just started on Fear to Tread, a book which I really enjoy and love even more so since a few years ago I got to spend an being with the author James Swallow as he told me about how he approached writing this book.

What I am Playing

We finalised the list of games to form our 10×10 Challenge, the final list consists of:-

Bohnanza
Castle Panic
King of Tokyo
Kingdom Builder
Lords of Waterdeep
Pandemic Legacy
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Smash Up
Speldour
Thunderbirds

Last week we had Paul around so we began Pandemic Legacy, and January got off to a bad start. We had early success in curing the blue disease, but got hit with a few outbreaks early on. We managed to then cure the yellow and black diseases and were making progress to curing the red one, but we had neglected South America, and a chain reaction of outbreaks saw us lose the game and have one city hit Panic Level 2!!!

We will tackle January again in a few weeks, it felt weird changing the game, but this is going to be an interesting experience, I just hope we have a fun campaign and we make it to December without destroying the world!

This past fortnight we have also played King of Tokyo, Tsuro and Bohnanza.

What I am Backing

Currently backing Light and Dark which is an expansion for a game which I backed last year, Ember. The creator was responsible for Lindsays best moment of the whole weekend, his enthusiasm really made her rather happy, so I was happy to back his first expansion for Ember and I am looking forward to getting this one as well which looks like it adds some different elements to an already enjoyable game, plus the dude only lives in Scarborough so is almost local!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Shadows of the Past finally arrived and I will post a bit more about this next time.

I did get through my copy of Steal This Game, plus one extra, need to get to give this a game and see how good it is. Either way I am happy to give to the campaign.

What I am Spending

I sold a couple of bits and bobs, so I had a bit of money this fornight, and feeling down I went on a mini spending spree and bought a KV128 Stormsurge for my Tau and a copy of Doom for the Xbox One plus a Season Pass for it.

I got myself a USB 3.0 hub to replace one that broke, and a friend was selling a 2016 Imperial Space Marine so I bought that one with the idea of turning it in to a Knight Errant.

Oh and I went on eBay and bought another Primus Medicae, this way I can have one for my Word Bearers and my Ultramarines.

Happy New Year and a 10×10

By michael

On 5th January 2017

In Blog

Happy New Year nerds, I hope you all had a nice time and are looking forward to 2017.
I am not doing resolutions this year, other than to paint more than I buy, but one thing I am doing is a board game 10×10 in order to get to know some of my games better.

The basic idea behind it is that you play 10 games, 10 times in a year, so 10×10! Our current list consists of:-

Pandemic Legacy
Thunderbirds
Splendour
Lords of Waterdeep
Bohnanza
Kingdom Builder
Castle Panic
Sentinels of the Multiverse

Lindsay has the last two to pick still, so I am curious as to which games she will pick. We kind of decided that we would avoid light fillers like Fluxx and Love Letter, despite Megan’s objections because we really want it to be a challenge to achieve.

I will keep you updated about how we do!

What I am Modelling

I was away at my parents in Suffolk a good part of the week, so not a lot!

I bought a Tau Devilfish which had some parts come off the sprue, so to make sure they didn’t get lost, I did build that and it’s Drones.

I am currently painting The Ashen Circle for my Word Bearers, and I really need to get a move on building and painting the rest of them!

What I am Reading

I read this week a couple of shorts in the Horus Heresy series, Red-Marked and Raptor, both have been available as audios for a while, but have now been published in anthologies so I have reading them a shot.

Red-Marked explained how Thiel got his gang together, who we meet in Deathfire, and it was about as Thiel like as we could expect. A short and sweet story, one which I throughly enjoyed.

Raptor saw the Talons of the Raven Guard come up against some Wulfen of the Space Wolves, what happens when mutant Astartes meet, well it explained the lengths that the Raven Guard would go to in order to protect Corax and showed how despite all the evidence, the Wolves don’t see their mutations as being something a fundamental flaw in their geneseed.

On the audio front, I have started and am most of the way through Bettayer, a book I enjoyed for its combination of the Word Bearers and World Eaters, two Legions whom one would never have thought to pair up. As usual the writing of Aaron Dembski-Bowden is superb, and I am rather proud that he is a friend of mine, his books are simply amazing and well worth the long wait they often take, perfection after all, should not be rushed.

What I am Playing

I got to play a few games this week on New Years Eve with my brother, his girlfriend and my nephew.

We started out with Trivial Pursuit Family Edition, it’s not really a game I would normally play, but my nephew insisted, I ended up winning that one because I got a really easy question as my final one, nobody thought I would know a thing about ballet. Through playing it, I did find out that my nephew has some serious holes in his knowledge of literature, something I think I will have to do something about.

Then me, Lindsay, Megan and my nephew played Castle Panic, at first he was a little confused about it, but once he figured it out, he really enjoyed it, and we sadly lost, but only just, but it had my nephew chomping at the bit to play again.

Alas we didn’t have the time, but once the bell struck 12 we did have a game of Batman Fluxx, but I am not sure he took that in quite as well as he was really tired and falling asleep in it, and I still didn’t get a chance to flip the promo coin that I have for it.

What I am Backing

Not backing anything still, but I did get through my copy of Braggart 2nd Edition, so expect a report about that soon.

What I am Spending

I bought a few things for my Tau specifically a Riptide and as I mentioned before a Devilfish, plus another Tau Commander that a friend offered me for cheap, and it was still sealed. And I had a friend get to Games Workshop on the 27th to pick me up the Primus Medicae in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, but not sure if he is going to join my Word Bearers or Ultramarines.

Upon delving into my Tau Empire Targeted Reconnaissance Cadre battleforce box set I found an extra Broadside had been placed in the box, so that made me happy as Larry!

I had to buy a printer as mine had gone kaput, Megan was determined that this printer be very good for photo printing so upon looking at reviews, I have bought us a Canon Pixma iP7250, but discovered afterwards that it’s just a printer and has no scanner! So either I will need to replace it again or buy a separate scanner 🙁

But a big thing was that I bought my membership to Eastercon, I will attending for the first time in 16 years this year and I am really looking forward to it.