On the Road......

Well, this summer poses a lot of travel for the DTP. I just returned from London UK (wrote my last post on the plane and posted from the hotel) and will be headed out to Atlanta GA (USA) and Seattle WA (USA) over the next month. Past that I will be spending 2 weeks in the North Eastern state of NH at the end of July and start of August.

So, is this just a post bragging about my travel plans? Nope, not at all. I am looking to get some games in while on the road. I will be packing up my Battlefoam and bringing the DTP with me on the plane and to the far reaches of the USA. So, fearless readers, I ask who is up for a game? I will likely have both my Malifaux and Eldar with me, so I am up for either.

Current plans are for Atlanta from 7/13 - 7/16. Due to work, I would need to nail down games for either Tuesday the 13th, or Thursday the 15th in the evening.

Seattle plans are for 7/20 through 7/22. I am on the red-eye flight out on the 22nd, so would need to meet for a game in the afternoon. I could also squeeze in a game on Tuesday evening, 7/20.

For the NH trip, I will be in town from 7/26 through 8/6. I have a fairly flexible schedule right now and will be in the Londonderry area, near the Game Castle. I will have a larger set of my army with me on that trip, along with (most likely) all of my Malifaux.

Hopefully I am able to get some games set-up with my "more remote" readers. Shoot me a message in the comments to this post or directly via email and lets schedule some games!

Book Review: Path of the Warrior

Path of the warrior by Gav Thorpe, what can I  say other than wow? 

Ok, let me go back a bit and explain. I am confident you are sitting and wondering to yourself " How did he get to read this book a week before it's release date?" Thanks to a good friend of mine, Phil from Broken Forge and the Warbanner I was able to get my hands on a preview copy of this novel. Then I ended up on a long flight to the UK for work so had plenty of time to read it due to my inability to sleep on a plane.

Now let me return to my previous comment, wow! This is a great book for several readers of Black Library books. Those casual BL readers will like Gav's writing style and the flow of the story once the book progresses to action. Gav's battle descriptions are fantastic and visceral, letting the reader feel the taste of blood in the air of the battles. 

Then there will be those readers like me who are fans of that elusive 40K backstory for the Eldar. For those of us who are Eldar fans this book provides the voyeuristic glimpse of the Craftworld Eldar lives we have been craving! Fiinally we get to see and experience the full meaning of the Eldar Paths and how they shape and impact an Eldars life. Any of you who are not Eldar fans may not understand how cool that is.

I felt the main character in the book, Korlandril, is very well developed. We see him grow along the Path from the Path of the Artist through what can only be called a breakdown and onto the Path of the Warrior. We get a brief glance at how an Eldar chooses one of the Aspects of the Warrior Path as he chooses to become a Striking Scorpion. We even get to experience the warrior path and gain some understanding about Exarchs and the Phoenix Lords.

So this will not be a gushing post of praise alone. I will admit disappointment in a couple areas of the book. There are two characters introduced early in the story, Thirianna and Aradryan, who are not developed well. We get shown these characters as counterpoint to our hero, along with their having key roles in  Korlandril's development. They are not well developed, not enough to really care for them. I suspect these will be the primary characters in the next two books, which may explain this decision. The other criticism I have is one of grandiosity. There is a scene near the end where three Phoenix Lords arrive in the story. Come on Gav...... 3 Phoenix Lords? While the event in the story at that point are moment us there is no real explanation why 3 are required. Then only 1 really plays a role in the story. While I understand and appreciate Karandras's role in the story, the others were not needed.

So for anyone even slightly interested in the Eldar, this book is a must read. 

For the general BL reader, this is a clear 4 out of 5.

A little Candy?

When I first typed the title of this post, I did not realize how ironic the title was. Candy is a very little model, although she is larger than Kade. I am finding that the Malifaux models are inspiring me to sit down and paint, although to date it has been my wife's models that inspire. I have also noticed that the picture of the models on the back of the crew boxes are painted differently to the pictures from the Wyrd miniatures web-site.

Additionally, I tried something new this time on the hair. I normally would have used some type of yellow color for painting blond hair, then washed with a brown wash. After listening to the recent episode of Podhammer, I decided to try a different scheme. The change to this method is that there are no actual yellow's used to paint her hair. I know some of you will point to the fact I use "Desert Yellow", but if you take a look you will see that is actually in the brown family of colors from Citidel. Candy's hair is painted to the following formula:

1. Snakebite Leather (Base Coat)
2. Desert Yellow (Mid-Dry-Brush)
3. Gryphonne Sepia (Wash)
4. Vomit Brown (Light-Dry-Brush)

I am very happy with the result, and will likely use this method in the future. Lets get on to looking at the model.

Karandras, Warlock, and THE KIDS GOT A KNIFE!!!

That's right, I painted my first Malifaux miniature and it ends up being one of my wife's models. The picture to the left is not my model, but the promo picture from Wyrd miniatures website. In addition to painting up "Baby Kade" from the Malifaux Neverborn faction, I also completed an Eldar warlock on foot and Phoenix Lord Karandras, the Shadow Hunter.

I received confirmation today that the bases I ordered for the Malifaux mini's are on their way. I ordered bases from Micro-Art Studio and will mount the models once they arrive. In the interim I am starting to paint them, using plain bases to hold the models for painting. We will see how many I get knocked out before the bases arrive.

So lets get on to the pictures! I will start out with a couple pictures of Baby Kade, as that's the lead-in to this post. He was a tough little bugger to take pictures of, and his size makes the camera lens much harsher than how he actually looks on the table. For that matter, I think in this case the lens is harsher than how he looks holding him close up.

Phoenix Lord Karandras, the Shadow Hunter

Karandras is the most mysterious of the Phonix Lords. No one knows where his shrine originally lay, but perhaps it was on one of the many small craftworlds that survived the Fall but were destroyed soon after. He is not the oldest of the Exarchs of the Striking Scorpions, for that honour belongs to Arhra the Father of Scorpions, the most sinister of all the Phoenix Lords, the Fallen Phoenix who burns with the dark light of Chaos. Karandras took his place, tempering the murderous nature of his predecessor with the patience of the hunter.

Karandras has joined my growing group of Phoenix Lords, which will eventually be able to field as part of the Phoenix Court of Khaine.

Lastly I completed the last of the warlocks on foot that were on my tray. Just a bit more to knock out and I will need to pick the next squad to paint.

Warlocks, Asurmen, Malifaux

Those of you who closely follow my blog may have noticed the updates on the left. My painting tray has shrunk while my assembly queue has grown. In addition, I have added a new abbreviation over there, more on that later.

Its been a couple weeks since my last post, with lots of things happening lately. Unfortunately, only some of it has been hobby related. Its amazing how life can kick you in the balls sometimes, and it takes a bit to roll with the kicks. That aside, hobby work is getting back on track and I did complete a couple additional models.

First we have a new Phoenix Lord joining the group. Phoenix Lord Asurmen, The Hand of Asuryan has been painted up and added to the case.

Asurmen, first of the Dire Avengers, founded more shrines on more craftworlds than any other Phoenix Lord. Soon after their inception he vanished, but tales of his deeds persisted. He was reported fighting against the Great Enemy from the Eye of Terror to the galaxy's rim, and word of his valour spread.

In addition to working on Asurmen, I also completed a couple Warlocks and a Bonesinger.

So that is the work completed toward the Dead Tau Project. You will also notice a new abbreviation on my assembly tray [Mal]. Those who have listened to the Gamers Lounge podcast know that I have just recently played two introduction games for Malifaux by Wyrd Games. Based on that introduction, I have been hooked and decided to pick up a couple crews along with the rule book. During my introduction I played two crews from two different factions. I played the Ortega crew from the Guild Faction, along with the McMourning crew from the resurectionists. I will be playing Malifaux as my secondary (tertiary) game as a alternative to my GW fix.

As it came to picking up a crew of my own, I decided to go with Lady Justice from the Guild faction:

As a nice surprise, my wife took a look at some of the models and found a faction she liked as well. I will be painting up the crew she liked and teaching her the game. Hopefully she takes a liking.

Thats it for now. Keep an eye on the blog for new stuff through the summer.