What to write, what to write... I know, let my adoring fans (fan) decide!

It's been a while since I posted anything and I'm just overflowing with Ideas! SO many that I couldn't even begin to describe them all right now! So it's up to you, the fans (fan) to decide what I rant about next!! So, without further delay, the choices are... *drumroll...*




Plant Marines (until i think of a better name)-
Every marine has an organ implanted during their creation that allows them to absorb some of the memories of a dead creature by eating it's flesh... so what happens when a marine chapter's homeworld is on a planet with sentient plants? Are the marines battle hardened minds strong enough to withstand thousands of years of memories and emotions?
Not at all!

White Templars-
One of the most famous Space Marine Chapters of all time are the Black Templars. Engaged in thousands of crusades across the entire galaxy they are the only Chapter to contain more than a thousand men. They are known as the Swords of the God-Emperor.
But What of the White Templars? One of only two Chapter to be created from the gene seed of the Black Templars, and yet nothing is known of them... In my mind... they are, The Shields of the Emperor!

Arship Pirates-
Need I say more? With the Space Marine rules of course :)

And...
Jacks Lanterns-
Specially Halloween themed army, centered around the insane Demon Prince Jack, and his dark world of twisted Chivalry. The Pumpkin King, The Orange Knight, his insane gallivanting journey around his personal twilight invariably leaves a hoard of twisted creatures in his wake... his not-quite soulless minions, Jack's Lanterns.


And so, the Great Space Marine Army Fluff Contest (also known as GSMAFC for short) all comes down to you! Your vote will decide which i rant about in my next post!!
Comment away!!

Mini Breakthrough!!

Ok, so I told myself that I wasn't going to post again on the Nezumi until I had actually gotten something done, but I just had a super exciting mini-breakthrough (as the title of this post might suggest) and I had to share it!! 

In my last post I talked a little bit about both the fundamental design of Skaven weaponry and the basic design for the Nezumi Hovercraft... well I just had a breakthrough on both! Specifically though, in regards to the hovercraft, and how I can keep with the over-arcing theme of a-chunk-of-warpstone-between-two-metal-prongs idea :) I drew up a little diagram here of what exactly I mean when I say this, as well as two specific examples from the models already in existence, which I mentioned in the last post, but what the hell, here you go again :)

 

Now don't say I never gave you anything ;)

So, to continue my story, earlier this evening (morning) I was perusing the Forge World website and I stubled upon a nifty model... a model that has mow become a huge source of inspiration behind the Nezumi Hovercraft! And here it is!

 

 

So Just imagine this, minus the bit that sticks out in the back, and the cockpit... the put the Doomwheel propeller at the back, set so that the center of the propeller lines up with the 'wings'... then set the Skaven cockpit against that as per normal :D

The best thing is, with the 'wings'/pontoons being so flat, I can easily make them out of plasticard, rather than having to carve something more Eldar shaped from florist's foam or something... and since the wing/pontoons are so flat, I can easily have little rat men ride into battle on it! 

Now, I fully recognize that it is past three in the morning and I very well might think that this is a stupid idea by tomorrow... however! This morning it's very new and very cool and I'm very excited about it!!

I promise promise promise that, baring any other new discoveries, or some substantial progress on the Nezumi, I'll post some rundowns of other army concepts I've been developing over the summer and the beginning of this year! Promise!

And now... Night!! :D

Back and Back with a vengeance!!!

Hello hello hello!! After a long summer of very little posting, I am officially back in business!! There has been so much going on in the world of Nerd and especially table-top hobby that I simply don't know where to begin!

Heh, ok, get my head together... I should start from the newest big project! A very good place to start... that's how the song goes, right? :)

So, recently, I found an amazing deal on Ebay! One half of the Island of Blood box set! (for those of you who don't know what this is, check out Games Workshop.com, under 'Warhammer' and under 'Island of Blood'... or go HERE) I am now the proud owner of the almost 800pts set of IoB Skaven :) Recently, on Dakka, I've been following a number of project threads about people creating their own 40k Skaven, using the rules for Orks, Tyranids, Guardsmen, even Eldar! It's my turn to get in on the action! :D

To that end, I've begun to search for the bits and pieces that come together to create a fully-modified, fully-converted 40k army! For this army, that has no basis in the 40k universe whatsoever, I decided to work from the ground up... Use what I know about Skaven, and what I know about 40k, to create a fully fledged race, complete with their own technologies, customs, and social structures, that are completely different from any other race's.

On that note, I was about... eehhh... 60% successful? Keeping in mind that they are no where near planned, let alone completed :) My biggest problem (and eventually most of the 40% originality fail) was really describing the Skaen's social structure, the society that created this race of raiding pirates... and then it happened! On the Games-Workshop website, they posted a series of videos of the gentlemen in charge of writing the background for the newly-revamped Dark Eldar, talking about that background! As if this wasn't wonderful enough (I would kill to be one of these guys, they're pretty much rock stars in my book!) the final video (so far) put into words incredibly eloquently exactly what I had been trying to capture! And so, without further adue, the video, edited to show only the bits I want! (just ignore the watermark, I'm cheap and don't like to pay for stuff :P)

Just replace every instance that they say 'Kabal' with 'Clan', 'Archon' with 'Warlord', 'Vect' with 'The Council of Nine' and the three sub-groups (Wytches, Incubis, and Humunculus) with the Classic Clans of the Skaven (Moulder, Skyre, Pestilens, and Eshin)

I'm sorry, I recognize that that sentence probably made very little to no sense... however! The point still stands! I especially wanted to focus on the  gang-type aspect of the Skaven, the mafia like organization. From the outside, they may look like an insane rabble of crazy ratmen, but every Skaven instinctively knows his place in the grand scheme of things, depending on what Clan he belongs to and where that Clan is in the great dance.

I also wanted to get a distinct look that was largely reminiscent of the Skaven of the Fantasy universe, with lots of very subtle Asian influences... specifically Japanese. To this end, I decided to steal a page from Magic the Gathering and call this new race of rat men Nezumi. I still haven't decided if Nezumi (meaning rat or mouse in traditional japanese) will be the name of the race as a whole, or of my specific Clan... but what the hell :)

And now... the fun part... conversions! I wanted these Rat men to have a look and feel distinctly unique from the other races of 40k. To this end, i started to think about creating their tech :) On Dakka, not sure who's log it was in, I saw a helicopter type deal created from the Doomwheel:

And I knew I had to steal the idea! But I wanted to create something unique... something that no other race had. (at least not exactly)... then it hit me! I imagine the Skaven home world as being about half gigantic, sprawling hive world, and half endless marshland, with everywhere being dark, dreary, dank and often soggy... And so, the Skaven main mode of transport was born!

Drawn by yours truly :)

Obviously the proportions would be a little different, but the main concept is here! The Giant Propeller in the back would provide the forward thrust, made of one half of the doom wheel, wheel. The cockpit, directly attached to the doomwheel propeller, would come from the inside of the doomwheel, and would have the craft's main cannon. The biggest build would be the pontoons on the side... these would provide the stability, warpstone set into the bottoms would provide the hovering lift when on solid ground, and the tops would be used for troop transport... all in all a very mobile, cut down craft, capable of flying a squad into combat, and quickly fleeing with the loot.

As for the rest of the tech... I'm still working on the weapon specifics. Obviously, all of their weapons will be powered by warpstone, but it's the look that I'm really striving for. On both the Doomwheel an on this wonderful model (that I now own :) )

The trick seems to be Warpstone, combined with a two-prong sorta deal... still working on the specifics of this! Heh, and how to turn it into a gun... there also seem to be a great many tubes on all their advanced weapons... as I said, still working on the specifics, but that's the general idea! Here are the weapons (from third party manufacturer...) that I'm considering basing the conversions on...

Obviously I'd find ways to work tubing and warpstone into anything that I made, but these are the one I'd be likely to start with as a conversion!

Wow, my spelling is starting to deteriorate... maybe I should just end this here :) That's most of what I have to share thus far... I still have some specifics of how to make the whole army feel more Japanese Yakuza and more Skaven in general, as well as what rules I'll be using to represent these guys... but that shall wait for another day!!

Speaking of another day... can anyone say Adeptus Soriatus? Heh or desert Sand Worm Riders? (of Chaos?) No worries, all will be explained!!

I'm Back!!!

But I has got nothinfg to say... too sleepy... hehe I will soon though!!!!!

Check it out! hehe

Ooops, was so excited I almost forgot a title :P

Wow!
That's really all I can say as I look back over the last week/two weeks and try to sum up everything that's been going on in the world of Nerd! 
There's been unimaginable amounts of theater nerd stuff, mostly shows at the Majestic Theater, culminating now with Annie in a couple of days, and continuing into Children of Eden into July! :) That and the summer camp where I'm working as the Senior Theater Counselor begins in 5 DAYS! My email has been awash with age appropriate theater games from all my Theater Education friends back at school, and I've been searching for the rights to short shows, and fighting with the organizers of the camp for more time to meet with the campers... it's been insane! I promise I'll take pictures as soon as I have a camera, and probably devote an entire post to camp at some point. That, and considering that this post has officially broadened this blog to include more than just tabletop hobby, I'll try to get some pics up from the Majestic, not just from Annie, but from Into The Woods, which just finished up!
However! There has been tabletop hobby sneaking its way in through the cracks in Theater's walls, heh, mostly at three in the morning (like right now) when I'm actually home and I have some time to myself! If I had one complaint about theater, it would be just that; very little alone time, which I believe is necessary to keep brains working! (heh, obviously much more important than sleep in my books!)
So where to begin... oh, I know! I ACTUALLY BOUGHT STUFF!! Everything that I've talked about in previous posts has remained nestled safely in my head, with this being the only medium through which I passed my ideas into the world... however!! Fueled by it being three in the morning, and the recently discovered amazing-ness of eBay when it comes to buying Cheap bits, I went on a little shopping spree! (insert slightly embarrassed, but triumphant face here) 
I bought arms and heads and bodies and legs to start building guys similar to this one:

Heh, just like that, but with big ole' fuzzy USSR Russian hats over their gas masks! Oh, and no swords :P I wrote about three pages of fluff about these guys, but I reeeealy don't feel like typing any of it up! So now the fun begins of actually being able to get plastic under my fingers and trying to fit a number of pieces that really are not supposed to go together in to one coherent whole... Once again, I promise there will be pictures of exactly what I'm dealing with as soon as I get something (other than my phone) that can take pictures! Who knows, I also found plahns online for a light box, and it didn't seem to difficult to make...
And, last but not least in this crash-course of an update, a whole new army!!!! What a surprise!! However, I'm admitting right off the bat what I only recently came to admit about the commie-wanna-be(s), this will probably never grow into a full-fledged army. I will probably get bored with it and move onto something new. I recognize this flaw within myself (hangs head in shame) sooooo... my goal now is to build a big chunk before that happens! Specifically any big conversion type pieces that would be totally unique to this force! Hopefully when I'm done, I'll have a force that's big enough that I can play a couple of games with it, but, if not, it should make a really cool diorama of some kind!
To begin this army, let me come right out and say, I've always loved the flavor txt surrounding the Chaos God Slaanesh. He was the first Naughty Magic Card I made, way back in the day (before this blog was ever considered... if I can find some of those really old cards, I'll try to scan them, but I might have to blur some parts out! *blush*) So, when wandering around ReaperMinis (link at left) I found this beautiful model:

I knew it would be a perfect champion in a Slaanesh Army! (for those of you not well versed in the Warhammer cosmology, see my previous blog posts for descriptions of the Chaos Gods! I'll try to find a link for you to them :) Also, I should mention, I LOVE the work of Werner Kloke! He's a sculptor that works for Reaper, and all of his stuff is absolutely beautiful! He has a special talent when it comes to sculpting faces, and his models are always overflowing with character!
Upon reading the (newly downloaded) armybook, there was one unit entry that really caught my eye... the Chaos Warshrine. Essentially a giant shrine to the chaos gods that gets dragged onto the battlefield where it bestows blessings on all those around it! Sounded wicked cool, and when I combined that with the fact tat it was- holy of hollies! a unit with no model representing it, I knew I had to convert one! So I started searching the web for what others had done, and the model websites for something to mount this thing on! I'll spare you the details of the hundreds of trial runs and false starts before I finally settled on my current design, all built around the Skaven Doombell, which you can see in all it's glory HERE
I was able to find the chassis for this behemoth on BitzBox (sans wheels, platforms, rats, bell, base,and top of arch) and I snatched it up because there was only one left! The columns on either side (that used to support the arch) were what really gave me the idea for the theme of this model. What if the Warshrine was just that, a temple to Slaanesh that some devoted followers had ripped out of the ground and loaded on a cart to take with them!
I'll whip up a sketch at some point of what I have in mind and scan it it... but at this point, it's officially 4am :P I need to sleep! What I will leave you with is a picture to make sure you come back for more ;) Heh, if for no other reason than to hear how this is being worked into the model!

Thank goodness for Mother Russia!

 Help!! Help I'm relapsing!! I'm seeing... RED!!!
(side note, I know I haven't been here in a while, but to sum up my Wargaming exploits in a few sentences: Angels: probably still on hold, more fun to write about than to model and paint, Imperial Guard/Daemons: On hold/abandoned because there are new demons coming out, and I'm sure I can think of something much better than that idea :P Vampires: lack of paint scheme put me on hold, but I decided to say 'fuck it' and start building them now, while I'm still looking for a paint scheme. And that's essentially it, so, if I may return you to your regularly scheduled program:)
That's right, commie fever has struck again! I'd wager that there were two major causes for this Backslide (which, if I may clarify, is only in my wargaming and not in my politics. I've been down the red road once, i don't think I'll be going back soon. While it's a fantastic idea, I just find socialism so much more realistic :P) The first of which being i saw these really cool models on GW while perusing:

 They're called Vostroyan troops and are essentially a faction of the Imperial Guard, one that represents the USSR, in the same way that the Death Corps are modeled after the Nazis and the Talliban- *ahem* 'scuse me, the Talleran represent Middle East Dessert fighters. And the Catchatans represent Rambo. Essentially.
The other source of inspiration, was that I stumbled (literally, not the web browsing site) on a video that I hadn't seen in years. Back in Freshman year of high school, my english teacher showed us an Anime video called "cannon fodder", part of a three 'episode' collection, collectively called Memories. I won't sum up the whole thing here because I really really really really think you should go watch it HERE.

I was going to describe the army idea here, but I'm having trouble being eloquent :P Really, there would have been stories of a war torn country fighting an enemy shrouded in nuclear winter, and the people fighting for the glory of their nation without knowing why. Ill work on the story later for now, here's the models!
The main troops, the stormtroopers, would have the arms and torsos of regular guardsmen, the legs of the Grave Guard and these really cool heads I found:

On second thought I'll post the pictures later, when my internet isn't slower than dial-up :P
And suddenly the second half of this post turns into an epic fail!! Wooooo! How can I save this post... gaaah... I know!! A picture of a cute girl/preview of things to come if I ever fix this post!!!

Brilliant Conversion Idea!!

So... I've been saving up posting until after school ended, just because there was so much going on... sorry not to mention that before I vanished... However! I just had a brilliant Idea and I had to write it down before I forgot it!! I still have a bunch of stuff that I've been contemplating over the past couple of weeks, and all of that will get posted eventually, but for tonight (this morning... today... whatever you say at 4am) I'll leave you wanting more with this little conversion idea...

Now, I know I said I was setting necrons aside buuuuuut I also said they would always hold a dear place in my heart, and so I jumped with excitement when I saw this amazing new model:

I know what your response must be: 'But Josh!' you cry, 'That's an Eldar Model, what does that have to do with anything?!?' Well, my friends, in truth, more than anything else, I was excited about the base:

To me it looks remarkably like a Necron Destroyer body, which can be seen HERE only bigger and more scary-cool looking :) So my idea became a giant Necron lord, but I realized that it would look quite silly next to any other Necron Lord I was likely to have on the table... So I came up with a new idea; This model would stand in for a C'Tan!!

For those of you new to the world of Necron Mythology, the C'tan were the dark Star-Vampire-Gods who encased the Necrons in metal, so they could begin the dark work of harvesting the sous of the galaxy for consumption. There are rules for playing with two on them on the tabletop, The Deceiver and The Nightbringer.

Now, I already have a model of the Nightbringer, a delightfully scary dude, but I've always really wanted a Deceiver, mostly for the rules. I thought that this model could be my chance to have it in a form that doesn't look-exactly-the-same-as-the-Nightbringer *ahem gw*

So, I was thinking start with the base, put glowing rods into the exhaust pipes (all six of them around the circle) and put a floating body in the center. The Deciver works by putting images into the mind of it's enemies, so I was thinking that this would be the Brain in a Jar or Queen of the Hive sort of model, something specially made to channel psychic energy.

To give the center body an old and godly look (it would be suspended by a flying base pole from the middle of that center hole...) I was thinking of using a wraith body with a modified head and arms here's a good picture of the body HERE and the head that I have in mind you can see HERE, but I may change it if I can find something better.

My main problem are the arms. Since he's essentially the mind controlling wizard of the necrons, I was thinking some kind of arm with robes? Or cloth of some kind hanging off of it? Something to billow in the wind this guy creates...

So, that's the question, if anyone actually reads this, I'd love to know the answer... I'll probably tell you all about it in a couple of days :)

Peace and sleep well :)

Im baa-aaaack...

Hey all!!! Back again, back again!
I have been so so so busy recently!! I have had no time to do anything but schoolwork for the last week and a half/ two weeks... hence my not being here and this post being so small... It's a shame, I find that the more I do musical theater Constantly, I begin to miss this blog, and the joy of just Thinking. Constantly. Really Hard. About the most random, nerdy stuff.
There's just something intoxication about an idea bursting into my head like a supernova, creating worlds in my head, or taking other peoples, and creating new sides and elements of those worlds that even the creators haven't even begun to imagine... That and the search, the challenge of searching for the pieces to make what I've imagined come to life, come out of my head and into the world, where I can share those thoughts and concepts with the people around me...
It makes me wish and wonder if I could do something like this for a living... what one would major in, where they would work, what it would consist of... that's why recently I've been investigating LARPing. It seems like running a LARP, creating a world that other people come and live in, putting together all the pieces... I don't know, it's a possibility. (and it involves theater!!)
I really have a terrible habit of taking things that should really be no more than hobbies for any sane person, and trying to imagine and create a life with them :P But that's just the thing, I cant begin to imagine doing something I'm not passionate about. It just so happens that the things I'm passionate about are really not fiscally viable...
I also feel bad that my mind immediately goes to money when I think about the future... I can't help it, being raised by the people I have been, my mind immediately goes to money, and having a career that makes a lot of it. I wont go into specifics here, but yeah, happens all the time.
Which makes me come to the realization. I don't care. Or, rather, I cant... I feel so terrible saying it, but I just can't bring myself to care about fiscal responsibility, or having a career that will make me money. Maybe it's because I can't really comprehend money, it doesn't really exist!! But also because, as much as it's been beaten into my head that money is important, it's been even more beaten into my head that you Have to do what you love. That if you don't 'Wake up in the morning and love what you're doing, it's not worth doing'.
Which leads me, invariably, to trying (and failing) to find a career that would allow me to have both :P

So that's my little rant :) Hope you enjoyed it... and if you would care for a little dose of nerdyness, there's a bit after the break :)
(click on 'read more' over there)
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Cool wicked weird dream :)

Sitting in a room, with Kieth Joyal, Eric Shaff, Lari Mathis, Travis Corcoran, Me, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. We're all talking about how lame we are that we keep coming back to high school (Hogwarts) after we graduated.
Suddenly, Hermione's owl (which is a wicked cool, three inch high, owl lion mix creature) flies in. It has a note on it's leg.
"This owl is poisoned. Give it the antidote. Harry Potter is also poisoned. You have no antidote."
We all start freaking out, 'what do we do???"
Hermione: 'Get to the hospital wing!'
Everyone else: 'That's a stupid idea!'
Hermione: 'Then just follow me!' and she runs out
What they don't know is, she really is leading us to the hospital wing! Da-da-daaaaaaa!

Back again, back again, jiggity jog...

Sorry in advance for the title, I'll probably change it soon for something better, as soon as I think of something.

So, it's been a bit, hasn't it? Needless to say, I didn't feel much like blogging, at least not about my nerdyness... The last week and a half were kinda like a void of zero creativity, and zero desire to be creative... but yeah, I'm back again... good sign, right?
The last day or so have actually been a creative whirlwind, the comment in my last post of a 'dream/nightmare' army got me thinking... While I've given up (possibly temporarily) on a dream army led by a sorceress queen by the name of Mab, I've been getting more and more interested in Chaos Daemons.
Recently Games Workshop decided to release the new models and rules for the Blood Angels, which, at least in game play, are remarkably similar to my Angels of Reclamation. This frustrated me. Heh, I don't want to just copy a Games Workshop army, even though, in terms of game-play, I totally thought of it first! So, until I think of something new, or the buzz behind the new rules has died down a bit, I think I shall put my Angels on hold for a moment :P
But as I said, Chaos Daemons! Specifically 40k daemons, firstly because with the temporary shelving of the angels, I'm 40k-less, and secondly, because upon reading the rules to determine the possibility of a dream army, I found them to be so random and incongruous with the rest of the 40k world, they seem like they would be devilishly tricky to play, to play against, and a huge amount of Random fun :)
Oh yeah, and thirdly, because I read the rules for a gentleman by the name of Epidermis. Essentially, he sits on the battlefield, and as units of Nurgle cause wounds on the tabletop, you keep track of them. As you pass certain thresholds, ALL of your Nurgle units get more and more powerful!
I should take a moment to explain, in the Cosmology of 40k essentially the 'bad humans' are those affected by "chaos", raw energy from another dimension that enters into our universe through huge tears in space-time. This other dimension is ruled over by the Four Ruinous Powers, the Lords of Chaos. The are Khorn, God of rage, slaughter, blood and combat; Tezeetch (sp?), God of magic, fate, forbidden knowledge; Nurgle, god of disease and entropy; and Slaanesh, God of excess, lust, and the satisfaction of earthly whims. These four gods seek to lead the Beings of the Mortal Realm (our galaxy) to ruin.
So, back to the new army, I love the idea of an army just getting stronger and stronger the more enemies you kill. The model isn't the coolest though:

Buuuut, then I found this beauty on ReaperMinis:

Beautiful!
This just sealed the deal for me, I knew then that there would need to be serious thought put to an army of Nurgle! Read on after the break to witness my plan unfold!!
(click read more over there)
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Really quick post before the weekend :)

Hey all, just wanted to throw something out there really quick before the weekend! And apparently repeat my title... but no matter!! Onward we go!!!
So, I've been really getting into 40k again, poring over the rule book, trying to re-learn a game that I never really learned how to play... however, in order to facilitate my re-learning of the game I have decided to make a cheat-sheet for myself. But not just any cheat sheet... I plan to use the Magic card editor to make myself a series of Magic-sized cards that will contain all of the rules in abbreviated form. I figure, with my Magic experience, I can flip through a pack of cards much faster than I can flip through a rulebook... specially when that rulebook isn't exactly made of paper if-you-know-what-I-mean :P

I'll probably use this sorta format, and fill the center with txt rather than an image, and probably not red... Since im planning on printing out mini (card sized) color pictures of the 40k rulebook to serve as the back of the card, I'll probably go with either black or artifact-gray... just depends on which one matches better :)

I also have started to plan out my Angels of Reclamation force... I think I have the Army List for my Chapter Master and his Honor Guard all set. The honor guard will be those angelic space marines from the last post, armed with Relic Blades and a Thunder Hammer, as well as a Bolter of some kind probably... this is likely to change though, as I become more familiar with the rules... it'll definitely be a small force, just the six of them add up to almost 500 points...
I also hashed out a basic color scheme:

Starting from top left, moving clockwise: Tactical Marine, Vanguard Veteran, and Honor Guard
Not shown: Devestator squad- will be painted the same as the marines, but with a black helmet.
Terminator: same generally as the veteran, notice the inverse color on the shoulders :)

My one concern is that the scheme is very similar to the scheme for my vampire counts... I don't want them to look too similar, or to have people think I'm trying to tie one into the other... i think the solution will have to be making sure that the whites and blacks on the vampires have an obvious blue undertone, that wont be present in the smooth clean white finishes of the Marines. Also, making sure that the Vampires use a lot of neutral colors, browns and the like to make them appear dirtier... and make the angels appear stark white by comparison :)

One last thing, starting to contemplate a librarian/chaplain of some sort, with the winged Caduceus, and possibly a snake around his shoulders? Also, I think that would be a good name for a character... Caduceus... hehe sounds pretty bad-ass :)

Bunches of New Stuff! Post 2 of 2!!'

Hellow again!! Long time no see :P Unfortunately, this post wont be nearly as sexy as the last one, but I hope that it'll be just as interesting :) Now that my entire Vampire Counts army has been planned out (don't worrk, I havn't forgotten the list of what I need to share with you all :) descriptions of my conversion plahns will still be forthcoming:) ) I was still cruising around BitzBox, just seeing if I could be inspired, and I remembered one of my old planning pet-projects: Chaos Dwarves.
Several generations ago, both in the literal sense in some cases, as well as referencing reincarnations of Warhammer. Chaos Dwarfs were a staple in The Game of Fantasy Battles... the were also quite silly looking:

I thought that there must be a way to make Chaos dwarfs look a little less silly and more BA... and then I saw the Hell Cannon of Chaos HERE and knew that these were the dwarfs I was looking for! They were freaky looking, and I could just imagine them, standing over their dark forges, crafting weapons for men and demons, binding vile energies of the Warp into cold steel... it was brilliant! 

 I knew that this needed to be the centerpiece for a new, all chaos dwarf army! I decided to forgo using the old chaos Dwarf rules, firstly, because they hadn't been updated since about edition 2 (we're on 5 now), and because then I wouldn't be able to field the giant war machine that inspired this army!! I decided to stick with the warriors of Chaos rules, and create units that would fit the bill and could 'count as' :)

I envision squishing together the 'marauders of chaos' and the 'dwarf warriors' kits (yes I know that this is technically kitbashing, not conversions, but I'm not going to create a tag for Kitbashing and a tag for Conversions, I want them all in the same place!)

The dwarf warriors will get the shields and weapons from the marauders and be painted in dark reds and blacks and bronze. In case yo haven't guessed, they'll be an army of Khorne, both Dwarfs and Khorne are very anti-magic, have a propensity for axes, AND if it turns out I could still use demons in a Warriors of Chaos army (not sure if I can :P) I can use the Slayers to represent Bloodletters! (if not, they'll probably be Chosen)

I figured as well, to represent both Knights and Marauder Horsemen I could mount my dwarfs on Boars from the Orcs line, and Bloodcrushers (possibly) from the Chaos Demon line... but I'll probably stick to Boars :) After all, Chaos dwarfs are known for their tusks, and would probably feel some kinship to their long-toothed brothers :)

Keep in mind that this is all still in the development phase, and I probably wont act on any of these ideas for a while.... but that doesn't mean I can't continue to develop them ;)

And speaking of developing ideas, I've been considering going back to Warhammer 40 as well... but not with Necrons! I love necrons dearly, and they've won me a few games, but they're just sooooo boring!! Both to play with and the flavor text. Well, the text is cool, but there's no room to personalize it and make it whatever I want :P And it terms of combat, they're amazing... a little too amazing...  every game consists of walking them forward until they can open fire with their rapid fire super guns, and then they rip everything (especially tanks, the only things with weapons big enough to kill them for good) to little tiny sub-atomic particles :P no, necrons, for now, I think I shall put aside...

But what to collect in their place? None of the other armies really appeal to me... or so I thought...

I knew my obsession with Angel Iconography would do me in someday! Yes, *hangs head in shame* I believe I might be almost taking an interest in the most over played army of all time... the Space Marines... It's just these models! They're so pretty... (+10 for using 'pretty' and 'models' in the same sentence and having it refer to hunks of metal) 

But! My Space Marines will be different from every other! I know that other people create their own chapters, but mine will have the full might of my creative juices behind it! Hehe, I cannot justify purchasing even a single space marine until I have a phenomenal back story, and a good amount of the army all planned out! With that in mind...

I kinda worked through French 402 to come up with the bare bones of this back story (+5 alliteration) I had been toying with an the idea of an Imperial Search and Rescue  Chapter, Space marries that swoop into war zones and rescue dead and dying space marines from other chapters. I say 'rescue' in regards to dead marines, because in the creation of a Space Marine, they receive a number of biological implants. One of these implants are the Progenoids, the Gene-Seeds. They're implanted into the Marine's neck and chest, and react in conjunction to the other biological implants, causing them to work to their full efficiency and granting the Space Marine certain special traits. These Traits vary from chapter to chapter and are what make each individual chapter unique. Progenoids grow and mature within the body of the Space Marine, and when fully developed are harvested, replaced with immature ones, and new Progenoids are created from the harvested ones. In this way, Space Marines can only be created from other Space Marines, and a Chapter's Gene-Seed is one of it's most protected secrets...

Knowing all of this, I sat down a hashed out the beginning of of a back ground for:

The Angels of Reclamation

 All of the Imperium knows of the Angels, warriors clad in gold, white and black who swoop into highly contested battle zones and rescue dead, dying and wounded Space Marines. These warriors are returned to their chapters, to the eternal gratitude of the Masters.

But what less know is that there is a darker, more sinister side to the Angels of Reclamation. While it's true that they return every Marine rescued, these Marines are rarely in the condition they were found in...

The Angels expect a ransom for every Marine they return, often the best piece of equipment they possess. That, and the Progenoid from the back of their neck.

The Masters are grateful yes, but it is a gratefulness tinged with bitter disappointment and smouldering fury. There's no way to prove that the Progenoid was taken by the Angels, and even if there was, there is still a complete Progenoid remaining, and they have a Marine, and most of his equipment, that would have been lost otherwise. That doesn't stop the Angels being referred to as Vampires in private, with gestures towards the holes in the rescued Marines necks.

In this way, the Angels of Reclamation are some of the best equipped warriors in the Galaxy, and this advanced equipment almost completely counterbalances the flaw in the Angel's Gene Seed.

The Gene-Seed of the Angels of Reclamation is one of the weakest in the Imperium. Most that know of the true nature of the Angel's rescues assume that they're using the Progenoids to create stronger Angels... but that is not the case...

The Angels or Reclamation possess some of the most advanced Apothecaries in the galaxy. In addition to healing the dying Marines rescued, they are also hard a work on the stolen Gene-Seeds. They seek to isolate the strengths and diminish the weaknesses of each chapter's Progenoid. They seek to create what no human has created for thousands of years... a new strain of Gene Seed. With this, and their great technology, the Angels or Reclamation seek to become the most powerful force in the Galaxy.

This is their chapter symbol:

The twin serpents of Greed and Envy...

Bunches of New Stuff!!! Post 1 of 2 :)

Ok!! Where to begin!! Blogger has been acting up for a couple of days so I haven't been able to get here, but it appears to be up and running once again!! All my ideas have been building and building in my head, and I havn't been able to share them with the world! I'll probably split this into a couple of posts :) So, without further adieu...

First things first, I GOT MY LAPTOP BACK!!!!! It's amazingly exciting!! hehe back behind my shield and separated from the world!! Well, not really, but it's really nice not to have to walk to Kingsbury every time I wanna use the internet, especially on my crutch!
Second: I downloaded this program that allows me to create my own magic cards! So, as promised, I'm posting the fruits of my Sexy Magic card toils and, more importantly the descriptions behind them :) this is not all of the cards that I've made, but it is a good selection and contains some of my favorites :) I'll post a card and then the description underneath it:

Starting off strong with a nice big Legendary Creature! When I envisioned what white could be, my main thoughts were of Purity and Innocence and, most importantly, Love.
When making my list of 'Creatures that could be considered sexual' Angels were the top of the list for white. First and foremost, because I'm obsessed with angel iconography (not religiously, just the concept of winged humans) And secondly, because they were a humanoid creature that I felt perfectly embodied the concepts I associated with White. So here she is, Cupid herself, firing her arrows that will put enemy creatures in a daze of Love :)

More cards after the Break!!

Time for some questionable content... ;)

"Jocks are so good at sports because that's all they think about, we nerds, all we think about is sex"
One of my favorite quotes of all time, from revenge of the nerds :) because it's so true! But yeah, that was just a preface to the amazing post I have for you today! (those of you who are sensitive to bad puns may want to cover your ears) Thus far the most steamy things in this blog were the steam punk skeletons.. *snicker* but I promised to post whatever comes into my head, so...
So last night I was thinking about magic cards, and I was thinking about sex, and I was thinking, what if there was some way to combine these delightful things...
SO, I started brain-storming, how to make MTG sexy, or, at the very least, humorous and vaguely soft-core
pornographic... But the thing is, I'm too much of a purist to just throw some stuff together, I needed to make it as much like real magic as possible. In magic, all the card are tied strongly, both in theme and what they do, to their color. Red is all about fiery rage, chaos, and white is all about morality and order. So, I stared brainstorming, and then brainstormed more, and ended up with a list of words and I ideas. I then put them in categories based on what color, what idea, they closely resembled. For some, I came up with how they might be represented within the game itself.
If you promise not to steal my ideas, I shall post the refined list here:
Or not. Sorry, I was in the process of typing it, and it made me sound really creepy and sexist and awful... hehe if I was able to explain it to you in person it would make perfect sense, but for now... I'll leave it at the description :) I'll keep working on it though, and, as I finish stuff, I shall share it here, with the description of why it exists :D

Hehe, please don't judge me too harshly :)

More soon :)

So.. here we go!!

It seems that I'm olny ever able to write here when I should be doing something else, this time: Character Bios and GOTE sheets for History of Musical Theater! (For those of you who are unaware, namely, the entirety of the world GOTE stands for Goals Obstacles Tactics Expectations and is a standard sheet you fill out when you start working on a scene )
Last time I said that there would be big things coming, and I wasn't lying!! Also like I said last time, I've managed to plan out almost my entire army!! A lot of it is just simple 'counts-as' model swaps, and none of it requires quite as much explanation as the previous two entries (Ghouls and Zombies), but if it seems like I've put less time into these, think again! I have spent hours on the likes of bitzbox.co.uk, thewarstore.com, and my old standby games-workshop.com looking for the perfect bitz to bring these models to life! And dont get me wrong, every unit will have technical descriptions similar to the Ghouls and Zombies, but that's the next phase! I generally start with an image as my concept and explain how it works from what I see, adding to the image if absolutely necessary, as seen with the Ghouls :) So yeah, this is just the first you will be seeing of all these models!
In this post I'll start with all the easy stuff, the simple model swaps. I'll talk about the more detailed conversions (the Vampire Lord, Corpse Cart, Black Coach, Fell Bats, Blood Knights, Necromancers and, my favorite, the Black Knights) in later posts, so I can give them the attention I feel they deserve :) In Warhammer, for those of you who don't know, there is a rule known as 'Counts As'. You can have anything 'count as' something else of a similar size, as long as you announce it to the opponent at the beginning of the battle. Similar size is important because, if the stand in unit is too small, fewer enemies can attack it at the same time and it becomes harder to kill. Controversely, if a stand in model is too large, the opposite occurs making it easier to kill, however, the model can also be used to block other unit LOS (line of sight) and movement on the tabletop, giving an advantage to the owner of the too-large unit. In table-top gaming, size matters ;) (+10 points for penis joke)
Simple Swaps/Conversions:
Core Units:
Skeletons:

I really love these models, in my opinion,. they are some of the best that Games-Workshop has made, and I wanted to change them as little as possible. I needed, however to give them the diesel-punk theme that I have running through the rest of the army. The solution jumped out and smacked me in the face one day when Games-Workshop announced a bit that they were going to be selling independently of the set it came in...

The Space Marine backpack! Slap one of these babies on the back of the skeleton (it does fit, I've tried it) give it a nice brassy paint job, possibly run some wires or hydraulic tubes from either side to the rest of the model and, if I really felt like it, some steam/smoke from the exhausts, and you've got a skeleton running on steam power!

Dire Wolves:

I've never been a fan of the wolves from the Vampire Counts range, however, I adore these from the Beastmen army! Still not entirely sure on how to make them Diesel-Steam Punk, but I'm working on it! One idea was to possibly have them being herded by a little robotic guy? Possibly? Any Ideas? Anyone?

Bat Swarms:

While I was trying really hard to use all Games-Workshop citadel minis for this army (don't ask me why, the idea just sorta got stuck in my head, seeing what I could make from what they had available) I just couldn't see using their bats... ugh painful... you can see them HERE. These are from reapermini.com, a fantastic website, and one with a lot of beautiful models on it :) For how to make them Deisel-Steam, I was thinking of borrowing something from Batman... a small sonar device? Well, it this case large... or maybe these should be the ones being herded... Sorry, I don't really plan to be using a lot of these, or the wolves in the army, so I haven't thought about them as much... maybe that'll be reconsitered though if I think of something cool :)

Special Units:

Grave Guard:

What can I say? Games-Workshop knows how to make skeletons! Another beautiful unit, and one that I cant wait to open up a box of!! These will be as is, with a similar addition to the other skeletons (i figured all skeleton shaped things would be made to work the same way):

This backpack from a Chaos Space Marine, bigger and better than the skeletons, showing their better stats and higher standing, this will be made to work with the model in the same way as the similar conversion above :)

Rare Units:

Carin Wraiths:

Stand back everyone, I'm going to be overly masculine for a moment! Hehe what could be better than hot women wielding big ass swords? What's that you say? You're correct, nothing! Not to mention the fact that the swords are acctually giant chainsaws! Very Diesel Punk. 

These were one of the first units I picked for the army and, after all sorts of other changes, they remain. I'm even finding that they'll fit well with the paint scheme Im toying with at the moment, with equal parts skin, metal and cloth, they should look extremely striking.

Varghulf:

Which leads to the Pièce de résistance of the army! The model that started it all!! I don't know what else to say about this fantastic model, it's just perfect! The one concern is that it may be a bit too big (that's what she said) but with some bending and repositioning it should be able to fit! (that's what he said) (+15 points)

So that's all the simple stuff, next time I'll start talking about the really interesting stuff, the intense conversions :) the stuff I'm even prouder of :) I'll also start sprinkling in some interesting tidbits, maybe some of the back story of the army, or the specs on how exactly those skeletons work :) More cool stuff to come!

I have so much to tell you! Just not right now...

Hi everyone!!! I have so much to tell, especially about the Warhammer Army!!! I've spent long hours on Bitzbox and Thw WarStore and Games-Workshop, and I've managed to plan out almost the entire army!!!
Unfortunately, this is destined to be an incredibly short post, as I need to to run shortly to see Mask and Dager's production of Almost, Maine...
But don't go too far!! Exciting things are coming, and quickly!!

I really really should be doing homework right now... Ghouls!!!!! :D

Like seriously, I have an essay due tomorrow, that I already have an extension on, that I need to rewrite the entirety of... because, while I did print it out before my computer died, I managed to loose that copy, and the edited draft that my teacher and I had worked on together... However! Because that is certain to be a truly long and arduous task, seeing as I need to re-create my first draft before I can edit it and turn it into my second draft... I find myself here, getting ready to tell you all about another unit in my army! Woot! (+10 points for procrastination)
So, Crypt Ghouls.... for the longest time I couldn't stand them, the models I mean. Something about the way that they were painted by the Games Workshop staff just... *shudder* not a pretty sight...
I've gone through many different phases about how to make these guys actually fit into the army, considered just replacing them with other units, but to no avail. I had almost forgotten about them, when, while reading an article on the Games Workshop website, a brilliant idea struck! It was something random about painting Tyranids... but it brought up an interesting point: Every unit in the Tyranid army is armor-plated. Normally they're painted to look like growths of bone, or some kind of chitinous shell, but I though, why couldn't they be painted like actual armor? What's to stop me from sticking a piece like this:

From a Tyranid Hormagaunt, into the arm soccet of a Ghoul, giving him a biotic arm? Or an arm that looks like the hand has been replaced with a blade, with metal plates fused directly onto the muscle? With this idea in mind, my brand new concept for my Crypt Ghouls was born!

 

Beasts still made of flesh, but with their entire internal structure replaced with machinery! The pinnacle of a technology-crazed vampire experimenting on lowly villagers and corpses to create something not quite alive or dead, actually more like a machine with human flesh as part of it's components. Think that episode of Dr Who with Madame de Pompadour, and the way the ship used found 'components'. 

I then set about designing the machinery that would make this guy work...
The most important thing to note about these guys is that they retain almost all of the muscle, skin, and bones they had when they were alive. All that the machinery does is generate a charge, which is then wired directly into the parts of the brain related into motor functions. There's a perfectly good neurosystem in there, why not utilize it?
This spark is basically achieved by a warpstone-powered boiler being inserted into the chest cavity, and running a wire directly from it, to the brain in question. Considering the fact that, while they are in possession of rather sophisticated (for the theoretical time period) pieces of equipment, Ghouls are still a Core unit, the equivalent of foot soldiers, I imagine the boiler would be run on pieces of warpstone not fit for other machinery. If the zombies are the wast receptacle for used water, the Ghouls are receptacles for used Warpstone. When a piece of warpstone cracks or breaks and is no longer the flawless crystalline shape needed to power the more advanced pieces of equipment, it would be shattered, crushed, and used to power the boilers of the ghouls.
One tube, the input tube, would run from the throat of the Ghoul to the boiler chamber, nestled in its empty hip bones. This would be connected to two water tanks. The water would rush in through a series of restricting valves, wash over the warpstone, boil and rise up a vent at the top of the dome. This vent leads to a turbine, which powers a small generator, which is connected by a small wire to the skull of the ghoul. The steam then travels back to the water tanks through a series of tubes, where it condenses and the process starts all over again. Essentially, before a battle, necromancers will take damaged or discarded warpstone and crush it. This is then shoved down the throats of Ghouls, powering them.
While the ghoul is technically dead, it does not rot or decay. After it died, its body was preserved in a formaldehyde-like substance. It's muscles are further prevented from decaying bu being continually exposed to the dark energies inherent in warpstone. The 'system of tubes' that the steam must travel to before returning to the water chambers is actually the ghouls disused circulatory system, with the pressure of the steam forcing it through it's veins.
Any excess steam is released through the vents in the Ghouls back, which will be modeled from small tubes, and the skin around the tubes will be modeled from green stuff.

Very Much in the way of Sadness...

So... my laptop died... and can i just say,
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
It's incredibly sad, now that I've lost this lost protective barrier I'll have to... I don't know interact with the outside world... or something like that....
Sigh, no more Stumbling for hours, no more Facebook, having to hike to the library to check my email, and, most tragically, so little time to spend here, in this baby bird of a blog (+5 points for alliteration) As Dorthy said to the scarecrow 'I'll miss you most of all...'
No, no more being crushed by extreme sadness and electronics withdraw (I'm in a basement at this very moment, just trying to get my fix) No, I shall use this disaster positively! I will hike to the library and just it to get in shape! I will interact with the outside world! I will finally learn how to play guitar! And I will make every moment connected to the internet count! I shall plan my blog posts before i get to the computer (sort of) I will ahve a list of emails that need to be send! The only thing I will do on Facebook is check my inbox, and maybe a game or two of Boggle!!!
So this is the last random post for a bit... hmmm i think I'd like to talk about Warhammer again soon... so look forward to it!!
And in way of a parting remark:
PomPoko is an amazing movie!!! Incredible!! Just watched it last night and even though I was exhausted I couldn't do anything but stare the whole time! For me, Miasaki's movies are kind of hit-or-miss, but this one was a huge, fantastic hit! :D
Hope to be back here later tonight!

Drag Ball!! (and more Magic)

Drag Ball!!!!!!!
Last night I went to my first drag ball... it was so so so much fun!!! My legs are still incredibly sore! But in a good way!! One of my friends, Jake, dressed as Lady Gaga, whom i idolize, and he looked so much like her... I literally did a double take just to make sure that all my earthly dreams hadn't come true... So yeah, in short,
Drag Ball = Amazingness
Got back to the dorm at like 12:20, just in time to play Magic till 2 in the morning... but I did surprisingly well... that red/black deck is working pretty good, I still have long periods of time though when I'm sitting and desperately hoping for anything that isn't a land to come up, because I've emptied my hand a while ago. That's why cards like seal of fire are phenomenal, you play them, but can wait to use it till the moment is right.
DRAG BALL!!!!

Magic and Laundry...

Soooo... I just played a couple of games of Magic against this guy, Tim, in my dorm. He's really good, and my past attempts to play against him were... painful. To say the least. However...
I Came So Close To Winning!!
Last night, I got mad after loosing terribly, and went back to my room ad threw together a new deck. Pretty much a combination of 'Hellbent' and burn cards... it worked surprisingly well...
I mean, I lost both games, only retained a small amount of dignity by mana burning myself to death before he could kill me, but still!
What I really want to do is make a white/any other color deck, but I'm remarkably lacking in white cards...
Wow, that was an amazingly inarticulate post... it's far too late to be typing, but I'm waiting for my laundry to get out the dryer...

Zombies Solved!!!!!

I have been working for weeks, nigh months to figure out exactly how to convert the zombies for my Warhammer Vampire Counts army.. and I've finally had a breakthrough!!!
I had been toying with ideas ranging to something out of the matrix, like they had been implanted with something, or there were holes where something had been implaned or injected... here's a couple of research photos from then...

 But I wasn't sure how to make something like that read on the model, and on the tabletop... I'm also a big fan of easy conversions, especially on things models like zombies, where you're likely to have a lot of them... so then I thought, what if something that had been implanted hadn't been removed? What if there was like a warpstone fulled little power device (very similar to IronMan) just embedded in the flesh of this zombie? What if it was something like the Matrix, only instead of Jacking in with wires a thin rod of warpstone was injected directly into the brain?

Here's an example of what i thought by 'power source':

(the green thing in his chest)

Once again, unless it's huge, it would be really difficult to see... I still might do something like this, if I can get proficient enough with GreenStuff Modeling Puddy... something I am very trepidations about using... it's remarkably expensive! (for me :P)

So then I had the thought, earlier today: Throughout the army I'm using Warpstone as the power source that creates the steam that powers all of these insane inventions, in that context it's very similar to nuclear material. The thing is, I'm also still considering the fluff of the Warpstone being a foci for dark magic, as well as having the ability to, without direction, 'create' zombies. That's were the idea from earlier about shoving a raw hunk of warpstone into a corpse's brain and viola instant zombie!

However, if I was a vampire, and running my quasi mechanical army off of Warpstone, I certainly wouldn't waste it on a lowly zombie! And another idea I consitered, having the zombies just being a bi-product serfs dieing in close proximity to the vampire's forges, didn't seem to make sense because, on the battelfeild, Necromancers and Vampires have the ability to raise more zombies, no there definately needs to be some way of creating them.

That's where my comparison to nuclear material from above comes in! In a nuclear plant, the water that is heated by the neuclear fission into steam is used over and over again, eventually becoming extremely irradiated. If Warpstone does the same, the vampire would have a huge amount of Warpstone-infused water. If this material could be injected directly into a corpse's skull, between the skull and brain, i imagine the water would eventually saturate the brain and bam! you have a new zombie, ready to be bent to your will!

And when it comes to representing this on the tabletop... why, I almost wouldn't have to! If I do say so myself, it's quite subtle... if I wanted to though, I could always paint some blue-ish tinted veins on the zombie's skull, radiating out from the central point of injection...

I may still model something if I become proficient with Green-Stuff, however, this seems live a viable alternative... it's what I would do if I was a technology obsessed vampire :)

It also fit's with the model I was planning on using for my Vampire Lord (the model's Fabius Bile, if anyone was curious :P) He has that little injector-thing...

Ok... this is starting to make sense...

I think I'm finally beginning to understand how this website works... made some changes to how the type appears... and centered it... and found an absolutely fabulous new layout!
My major curiosity now is whether or not people actually read things like this? And, if so, hod they find them? I assume I can't just expect people to start randomly commenting on things... Which would imply that somehow I need to get this blog out into the world...
Although, I imagine that, given the opportunity, I would feel like a complete tool saying:
"here's the link to my blog, you should check it out, I say some pretty fascinating things"
Does having a blog in the first place? Does having a blog that no one reads make me a pathetic anti-social egotist, spouting my daily life in the hopes that some stranger will comment on it and make my existence feel validated?
Gaah, no one told me that having a blog would inspire existential quandaries!!
This is making my head hurt... i think I need to get out from being the computer for a bit...
Heh, If anyone's there... I may be back... maybe... we'll see how it goes...