2009: Year in Review

18th of January 2009 marks the beginning of Stealthy Blades. It may not be much of a blog, but to me it signifies my intent and seriousness of my hobby. Although initially intended as a gallery for my Raven Guard army, it soon evolved as my own personal hobby blog as the word 'Stealth' can be applied to all three armies I own at the moment; Raven Guard, Alpha Legion, and Wood Elves.

Somewhere around March or April, I joined a fantastic hobby club called Legio Malaysia. Damn, it was one hell of wacky & fun people to be with. In this club too, I get to be reacquainted with some familiar faces of the past (Faizal, Arzmi, Jit/Rizal and 'small' Shazli to be exact). We spent almost every Friday nights together, talking and doing hobby, rolling dices, painting stuffs, making tables, and organizing events to make the Malaysian gaming community better. We even went to Singapore together, just to play some more games. I am so happy that I found a place that I felt at home with, thanks guys!

Come July, I was already halfway through my second 40K army: the Alpha Legion. Up to this moment, that army is still in the 'Painting in Progress' mode, but trust me when I say it already wrecked havoc in my gaming club. Especially during the great Arenxis Minoris campaign that was organized by Azlan. I also noticed something while working on this Chaos army; other than the freedom of conversion that it provided, my painting skills actually improved. This realization came to me when I decided to play a game with my Raven Guard again. I definitely have to thank Jeff and Khairul for this, because now I feel more confident to actually finish painting my abandoned Wood Elves.

And now, I'm already looking and searching for my own airbrush set. Being in a proper hobby club really encouraged me to be better. I'm really confident that my conversion skill has gone way beyond my own expectations, just need to brush up on the painting skills. The best part is, I'm doing it by my own free will because I want to be just as good as the other hobbyists around me. Some fellow hobbyist even went a bit extreme by developing their own secret army projects, hahaha. I'm foreseeing that 2010 will be the year of secrets unveiling. I wish I was this eager with other aspects of my life.

My real life, almost all aspects of it, can be summed up in one word: Sucks! Hoping it would turned for the best by next year though.
And some may notice that I don't drive, at all. One small reason was because my license has expired way back during my studying period overseas, while another big reason was...hmm, don't really wanna talk about this much. Let's just say even when you're working in the health-care field, actually being diagnosed of something doesn't really sound nice to your ears. I'm thinking of going against the doctor's orders in 2010; can't just rely on others' kindness, sometimes we just have to take the risk.

I am very tempted to start a new army in 2010. BUT, I'm not going to buy anything until I completed painting all the models that I'm going to frequently use in my current armies. This applies to all my Dryads, Glade Guards, Treemen, Wardancers, Alter Kindreds, Raven Guard & Alpha Legion Tanks & Walkers, Daemon Princes, Obliterators, Raven Guard marines & scouts, and Alpha Legionnaires. Looking at all those stuff, maybe I won't be able to start a new army at all but who knows? It's a son of Corax, an Alpha Legionnaire, and an Asrai who's doing the talking here; nothing is what it may seemed to be ;)

Fare thee well 2009. Welcome 2010.

Fastball Special

In the last few days, the boredom of painting only either black, blue, or green finally got to me. But all that changed yesterday. Guess what arrived in my mailbox (courtesy of Wolf's Game Shop):

Yup, the Wood Elves Blood Bowl team. I even played it straight out of the box and won my first match against Shaz's Human team. My experience playing with multiple Alter Kindred heroes really helped, as playing the Catchers and the Wardancers in this team were just like playing with the former (freakin' speed demons but still, not as fast as the Lizardmen's JTLoD: Jaguar Turbo Lizard of Doom). I chose to name them the Darkwald Vanguards, after the Darkwald Forest somewhere within the Empire region. Initially planned to name them 'Sentinels', because the Asrai are guardians of the Forest, but when I mentioned that word, the first thing that came to everybody's minds that were there yesterday was the giant purple-maroon mutant-hunting robots. 'Defenders' and 'Watchers' were too cliche, so 'Vanguard' it is then.

And here it was today, in their white primer condition. 2.5 hours later, all of them are already based coloured, but the camera I have right now doesn't do me justice. The main colour would be bright red, since I wanted something away from the blue or green hues. Yellow did came into consideration, but since I'm going to paint them blonde, painting them yellow would then be very boring to look at. Once I get a better camera, I'll post a better picture.

Hmm..I may need at least 1 more Catcher in this team.

p/s: The pictures are taken with my phone's 2 megapixel camera. Sorry for the low quality.

Some Random Cool Army (not mine)

"Damn cool bikes!"

40K: The Next Step

I'm on a roll, four blog posts in less than 24 hours. Hahaha :D

I have some projects to do, and I may need some help to get these particular bits to get the job done. I've posted some pictures along, but there are three items that I couldn't post the pictures because I don't even have them. Those items would be:

• CSM Nurgle Champion helmet x2
• CSM Slaanesh Champion head x2
• CSM Tzeentch Champion helmet x3

and these, are the other items that I'm looking for:

This particular helmet comes either from the Attack Bike sprue or the Landspeeder sprue, I'm not too sure. I need three more of this.

This shoulder pad is from the CSM box. I need five more of this particular shoulder pad. I want to build a totally uniform squad of Alpha Legionnaire, to go with the fluff "We are all Alpharius."

That sense of uniformity is continued to the torso, as I also need five more of this. I'll trade the other CSM torso designs for this.

This beakie helmet, will clearly be for my Raven Guard marines. There's no limit for this helmet, I'll take any number that you have.

The same limitless RG wishlist goes for this particular shoulder pad.

And it also applies to this SM torso. I have lots of the 'Aquila with pirate skull' torso that I didn't use, so if you want it, perhaps a trade for an unlimited amount of this torso.

Contact me if you have them, I'll trade/buy them off from you.

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Do you think I'll end this week without any update of my current projects? The frustration for zero progress this week turned out for the better, as I did finally manage to make some small progress. Did you guys remember Battle Brother Trowa? I've posted a blog specifically for him early this year, but since then he has been deactivated from duty. However, the Chapter Master has decided to reactivate him and bestowed a new pair of arms. Not only that, he'll have two other fellow battle brothers; Quatre and Heero, to accompany him.

They will be my current project while waiting for those bits available to me, along with completing 'Venom' and making some master moulds for my Kindred army (and Faizal's) basing.

Okay, that's it for this week. By the way, congratulations to Iskazri for your 3rd purity seal ;)

"Three Colours, with painting effort."

Greetings.

Lately there has been some issues regarding the three colour requirement that my gaming club emphasized on their tournaments. Hopefully, this article would help to clarify and give a better visual aid of what the phrase "minimum of three colours, with painting effort" actually means.

Take a look at the model pictured on the left. If we count it together, it has 5 colours; black, blue, green, metal and red. Plus, it's based. The big question would be, does this model actually fulfill the criteria of "minimum of three colours, with painting effort"?

I'd say 'NO'. Why? Let me explain. First of all, the black on this model is only a prime coating (as the rest of the army were either blue or green). The red eyes weren't taken into consideration as putting some red paint on eye sockets ain't exactly an 'effort', but if the helmet was the part got painted, that's another matter. That leaves us with blue, green, and metal. That's three colours, but even this still needs consent with the tournament organizers. For me personally, slapping some green and metal to a pistol ain't that much of an effort. So, if it were up to me, that model still doesn't fulfill the requirement.

So, what can you do? Take a look at the next picture. With some quick drybrushing and some simple freehand, you've fulfilled the 'effort' part. It's actually that easy, just put your mind into it. Though I wish that you guys won't stop the painting process at this stage; keep working on the model but take your time so that you'll gain satisfaction you craved.

Note: The base is counted separately from the model. No matter how marvellous you painted the base, it's the paintjob on the model that counts.

Now, that's easy if you have a squad that's currently was in the same stage of painting. Now, what if you've painted a model in your squad to a higher standard while the rest are only in their base colour. And let's say, it's in the middle of the night and your deadline (a tournament) is on the next morning. My tip: skip any highlighting and freehand work, just paint the glaring features seen on your model. Now, take a look at these next two models.

On a short glance, don't any of you agree that they belong together? Take a closer look. By now, you've probably noticed that the Power Fist Legionnaire ain't exactly finished; it was not highlighted at all. But since the silver rims and the horns were the most glaring features, by skipping the highlighting process, you're still maintaining the cohesiveness of your army. That's why batch painting one squad at a time is a good thing. However, promise to yourself to continue working on it after the tournament.

There are some other examples of the "three colours, with painting effort". Our next case, is this Rhino.

Blue + green + silver = three colours. What do you think, does this Rhino qualify? Surprisingly, yes. The 'effort' was shown at the racing stripes. As vehicles has lots of large flat surface, being creative at filling those blanks automatically counts as effort. Trust me, painting two large even straight stripes from the front to back ain't exactly an easy effort, this one took three days (mostly because of waiting for the paint to be totally dry before continuing to the next phase). Okay, let's move on to the next case: My Raven Guard stealth tank.

It's black with no highlight whatsoever (fluffwise, it's a stealth tank). The tracks are painted tin bitz and drybrushed with boltgun metal, and later washed with devlan mud. Solid yellow with some very subtle highlight or the lights, plus some metal here and there. 'Effort' is shown at the freehanded solid white insignia on the front and the Eldar rune mockery on the hatch. Even though it looks plain flat black, the extra work put into it made the difference (although I actually painted the interior too, forgot to take a picture of it).

These are some example of my models that fulfilled my gaming club's three colour requirement. My painting is just mediocre, but I'm proud of them since I painted them all by myself. Don't be intimidated by the blending and NMM methods that all other players/painters around you churned out on their models. Be awed and inspired, instead. Even simple flat colours and dipping will do, as if you genuinely love your hobby, your painting technique will also improve as the time goes by.

So, let's paint those models and happy hobbying.

Legio Hobby Night 18/12/09

Look closely at the shirts...

"Brothers/Kindred"

Short and Simple

Had a brief brainstorming with some close friends of mine, while having some drinks at Dawood's. We had a chat about the many of aspects of life, but the main topic was about our hobbies and all the elements that was directly/indirectly involved with it.

Conclusion: I may need some sprues, will post the things I need tomorrow so that it'd be clear. Anyway, the blog I promised will also be up by tomorrow, stay tune :)

Passing through.

No progress this week. Yup, a huge solid massive zero. My initial plan was to continue with the Arenxis Minoris campaign summary, with the target of at least 50%, turns out it remained static at 10%. Zero progress on the painting and modelling aspect; (1) my current RG Dreadnoughts project remained as what they are now, (2) "Venom", the Alpha Legion defiler that I'm so proud of, still have solid Regal Blue limbs, (3) the rest of my Glade Guards aren't even primed yet, and (4) my Alpha Legion Armoured Regiment remained at their '3-colour with painting effort' status'.

Real life reared its ugly head again. Have been really busy this week, and right now I should be spending this little time I have to sleep instead of blogging. But, I think I'm almost addicted to blog; feels weird not to write anything in a week. Looking at the hobbies I have (miniatures, gaming, photography), perhaps this is some sort of creative urge? Hahaha :D

Speaking of which, I plan to post a blog regarding the '3-colour requirement with painting effort' that my gaming club has been talking about, by this weekend. Hopefully it would give my fellow hobbyist a better visual aid on what that phrase actually means. I will get this plan materialized, and I promise you there will be pictures, so tune in to this humble blog of mine by Sunday.

That's all for now. After all, I'm just passing through.


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Do you guys ever look back at your life, wondering how your life would have been if you took the other option during that fate-determining decision? I do. The turning point of my life was way back in early Form 5, on one seemingly small-looking decision at that time. It was the decision whether to take the Arts subject for SPM, or not. I chose the latter, and this is how my life has become. It has all been from that simple choice.

At some points, there has been some regrets and perhaps, some of those regret may still remain. But I chose to just look at things positively, and enjoy the things that I have right now. Maybe if I took the other option, I may never even have the time for my hobby and met the great guys I've met with along the way.

Although in the end it goes down to two words: "What if?," it's now actually up to us to make our life better. No one would do it for you.

Just my two cents.

Marksmanship Award, and 'Kindred'

Yesterday, was the Marksmanship tournament for the Legio League 3. As usual, Swiss-type tournament, 3 rounds of dice chucking. Only 7 participants took part; 1 Eldar, 1 Daemonhunters, 2 SM (Ultramarine & former Ultramarine), 1 Tyranids, and 2 Alpha Legion. See, by default, the Alpha legion has already won. Hahaha :D

This was my army list:
(the theme was duality/twin/mirror-image..as you can see, almost everything except the Defiler is in pairs..4 terminators is paired with 4 Obliterators)

• Sorcerer with plasma pistol & Gift of Chaos
• Sorcerer with Warptime
• 4 Terminator with Combi-melta
• 7 Chosen with 4 Meltagun & 1 Power Fist, in Rhino
• 7 Chosen with 3 Flamers & 2 Power Fist, in Rhino
• 7 Plague Marines with 2 Meltagun, in Rhino
• 7 Plague Marines with 2 Meltagun, in Rhino
• 2 Obliterator
• 2 Obliterator
• 1 Defiler with 3 DCCW, Reaper Autocannon & Battlecannon
  

My first match was against Zaki's Tyranids. The last time I fought him was probably last year, at Comics Mart. At that time, his army wasn't even painted yet. Now, it has 'Selangor Glory' painted all over them. Just by looking at them during deployment is awesome. The game was seize ground and we had FIVE objectives. I was really outnumbered in this match, and the synapse thing really made it tough (lost one of my sorcerers due to misunderstanding in the synapse ability, force weapon doesn't work as normal against 'Fex). Due to the sheer number of models on the table, the match took quite some time and the time was called during our turn 4. I only managed to wipe out two massive squads of Gaunts, and contesting 2 other objectives that was held by another two massive squad of Gaunts and 2 units of Genestealers. The match ended up in a draw. We definitely must have a rematch.

Second match was against Arzmi's Daemonhunters and it's Annihilation. Getting Kill Points from him ain't easy, especially considering the fact that my Termicide squad had a deep strike mishap and my battlecannon scattered too far destroying my own rhino. I got a good start though, as I managed to wreck his Terminator-carrying Land Raider, his uber killy unit. The match went see-saw, and in the end, I won the match by 9-8. Damn, it's really close. Only after the match did Arzmi pointed out to me that I almost TA'ed him as the Grandmaster and the 3 terminators on the board, are actually the only models he has left on the table. Our game was fast, so fast that we already in our turn 4 while Zaki's Tyranids vs Shazli's Ultramarines are still in their deployment phase.

After the match, I get the opportunity to chat and discuss regarding the concepts and principals or army building with Quek, the first SPOREcon champ. It's really nice to know how he's seeing the game in another perspective, while at the same time maintaining fluff and not going overboard on powergaming. That chat gave me a new insight; as now I'm already scratching out Terminators & Land Raiders from my Raven Guard list, adding a new dimension to my Alpha Legion list, and a secret list for the Kindred doubles tournament (so that I can compliment Faizal's army list). More on Kindred later.

If I win this last game, I'll be the Marksman Champ. Alvin, my fellow Legionnaire, was really hyped about it since he already won the league Fanatic award, and it would definitely be nice for Alpha Legion to conquer the whole thing. The last match was against Khairul's Saim-Hann. It was Capture & Control, in a very dense terrain set-up. My Raven Guard would love this table, but my Alpha Legion hates it. However, Khairul even hate it more as it limited his turbo-boosting and skimmer ability. This game was very tough, yet it was the best one I had for the day. It was evenly balanced, and in the end, it was a draw with perfectly even scores. However, there was a conditional catch in this round; if it's a draw then we had to count Kill Points. Therefore, I lose and Khairul became the champ. Congratulations bro!

Anyway, this paint-in-progress unit was my MVP for the day:


Kinda feel sad (and a bit bitter) since I only managed to 'almost win' the tournament. It's normal, post-tournament blues, as people say. But I'm going to make it up in Kindred, as Faizal and I are now aiming for the Best General, People's Choice, and Team Hobby. Anyway, what's Kindred? Feast your eyes on this:

I'm teaming up with Faizal, and now we're officialy announcing the army we're going to use to the whole world: Chaos Undivided a.k.a Black Legion. Kindred shall be our Black Crusade and no, we will not bleed together, because we're going to be victorious and all of our opponent shall bleed to death!

Legio Hobby Night 04/12/09 - The Arenxis Minoris Campaign Finale!

Suffice to say, it was a very successful campaign.
The Forces of Disorder won, but Forces of Order were given another chance to save their dignity in an Apocalypse campaign game. Might I say, another Imperium propaganda?

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Dunnkyrc was the only region left in Arenxis Minoris, and this is the place where the Forces of Order were making their last stand while waiting for rescue. The Cadian 7th, the Ravenwing, and the Inquisition were very busy setting up defences, while keeping out the former Ultramarines 5th company and the Saim-Hann Craftworld out of the picture, as they were tied with controversies involving the Alpha Legion during the war. The treacherous Craftworld Aulthavon however, were still nowhere to be seen.

A very disturbing satellite image however, caused the Imperium to re-consider the allegiance of the former Ultramarines and the only xenos ally they have at the moment. This was the image they saw, a bit blurry, but by looking at it we probably know why.

The Alpha Legion were marching straight to Dunnkyrc, along with its armoured regiment. Something was definitely wrong, as this was never their modus operandi. Later reports did mention that Lord Eulikules of the Unclean were among them, but as all of the few lucky survivors witnessed, Lucius was leading the Conclave's charge. Apparently, an unlucky Legionnaire has probably met the Eternal One in the past and killed him. Big mistake then, major advantage now.

Soon they arrived, and out of nowhere, the bulk force of the Unclean joined them. Later, flock of Daemon Princes of Khorne and Nurgle (??) caused a rift in the temporal space and appeared in the midst of their forces. There were two out of the six armies of the Force of Disorder arriving into battle. The two xenos; the Eldar's Kabal of the Disembowlers, and the Ork's Da Mad Mobz, made it publicly known that they were not interested on the humans affairs anymore as they already have what they came for. The World Eaters and the Red Corsairs however, weren't there. Confusion ran among the Imperium ranks, as they were expecting a surprise attack from the Alpha Legion, not from any of the dedicated assault armies. That alone proved the cunning leadership of Lord Minthras.

A wall of Land Raiders were deployed to halt the oncoming assault, while the artillery tanks placed behind them. But it was to no avail, as the Forces of Disorders unleashed their volley of bombardments and later called down a barrage from the orbit, providing them with a thick wall of smoke to cover their advance.

The thin line of assault, revealing the weakness and frailty of the Imperium for inability to defend against such a small number of the assaulting force.

The blood-frenzy World Eaters assaulted from behind, surrounding the Forces of Order. It appeared that Lord Minthras orchestrated this assault using only half of his force's total strength, due to the absence of the Red Corsairs. The former Ultramarines' made a great sacrifice to prove their allegiance, none of their marines in Tactical Dreadnought Armours survived as they were all wiped out in a single turn. Some were even converted to a Hydra spawn, as shown in the above satellite image. The sacrifice seemed to be worth it, as they managed to halt the Alpha Legion's heavy gunline advance. Later on, it will prove to be useless.

A satellite image of Lord Minthras in his final act of valour and bravery, making his stand against the coward marines of the Ravenwing. Their leader refused the challenge made, and sent his goons instead. In the background, we could see the Ravenwing leader skimmering side-by-side with a xenos. as he gleefully watched Lord Minthras trampled over by the bikes. Ain't he a pure hypocrite?

Nevertheless, the resistance was futile and the losses were bad. Brother Captain Stern of the Inquisition was ripped into pieces by lesser daemons, an Ordo Malleus Grandmaster was eaten alive by a Khorne Daemon Prince, and the Imperium supreme commander was assassinated by a World Eaters' Tactical Dreadnought armour squad. The promised rescue party never landed, as the condition on the ground looked very grim and it would be suicidal to land. Only a few who were willful enough managed to escape the planet by their own from the ensuing slaughter. The Inquisition army was obliterated, while the status of the former Ultramarines were unknown. There were rumours saying that Lord Syammael escaped along with his newfound xenos ally, together with their faithful xenos-loving (junior) Lord Commissar Faizal.

The future now looked brighter for Arenxis Minoris, as it has been liberated from the foul taint and corrupting influence of Imperium. For The Emperor!

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Yes, Chaos wins.

For more pics, checkout Rizal's blog.

Work vs Hobby

Just found out something today. There's a huge possibility that I might be re-assigned out of the Klang Valley starting next June/July (government mah...). Definitely not a good news especially for my hobbying needs. So, I'll start appealing tomorrow. If later I'm still re-assigned to someplace else that doesn't exactly matches my likings, probably will consider to quit the job (hate the routine rounds and the on-call duties anyway) but not sure about the APC stuff. Will get more details regarding the matter, and definitely will look for options and loopholes to exploit.

Hmm...options, loopholes, exploit...definitely too much Alpha Legion for me, hahaha :D