May 10-18th, 2013 - A Very Productive Period

The local guys may have known this for some time. By pure attrition, I've earned my second Purity Seal as I was the only one who completed the 2000pts Army Throwdown challenge on May 10th, 2013.

Picture Courtesy of the Legio Malaysia Official Site

Two Purity Seals, both earned from 'painting endurance' events (the first one was from Iron Painter). I also earned the Iron Halo from the most recent Iron Painter event. Slowly, I'm beginning to figure out what my strength really is; whilst I may not be the best painter nor gamer, it seems that I might probably have something special in endurance challenge. This theory need to be tested in the next Iron Painter and Army Throwdown events.

May 18th, 2013 marked the day that Legio Malaysia organised their fifth Birthday Bash (Happy Birthday!). For the current installment, Kindred 4 (K4) and Golden Kris was held concurrently during the celebration. Rizal and I didn't do well in K4, both of us rolled too many double and triple 1s the entire tournament, but we won't fret much about it. To cut things short, the 5th Birthday Bash was another great event by Jeff and Khairul (Thanks!).

The pictures below are shots of my entry for the Duel Category; a Raven Guard marine versus a Khorne Bloodletter.

 
 
 
 

This Duel diorama earned me First Place in the Duel category; my very first First Place finish. Honestly, the marine was a hurried job of 'wet-on-dry' and the daemonsword OSL was not so good. Perhaps, my elaborate base won me the trophy. For more pictures (which is a lot) of the Birthday Bash event, please visit Legio Malaysia's Facebook site.

Yes, the trophy is humongous!

I think I had enough of painting proper WH40K and WFB miniatures for now. My next projects will be to paint up the Kill Team terrains I owed Mark and to create a Legio Cybernetica Maniple prototype. 

This is plain AWESOME!

Those who knew me probably knows that my Raven Guard army is a scout-heavy army. And to see this picture on the new artwork section of the Black Library really excites me. It's just too damn cool not to make note about it.

Random Transmission

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+++Indirect Transmission to The Falcon+++
+++Level Kappa Omega Delta, masked and encrypted+++
+++Source: Glenmarie Sector+++
+++Filter: SM19.10C-7200P32-L02D-K42N+++
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Hail Lord Madrox...Mission successful....Parsel Boa assassinated...Overheard something...Twentieth going to Pearl of the Orient...Investigating flesh-eating marines and same hand eldars?...Information unclear...Sending recon photo...Situation yellow...Not investigating further...Returning home now...Karn out....Victorus aut Mortis!

 
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+++Transmission End+++
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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.

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.

I wish this would be released in plastic...

Wow, what a sight for sore eyes. If GW released this kit in plastic, definitely buying at least one. I know FW has them, but huge resin models ain't my thing...too fragile bro.

SPORE madness

6 days left, and I still have lots of things to do..

paint my 4 attack bikes, 1 Land Raider, 6 terminators..
to complete assembling, converting & painting 19 scouts..
chapter insignia on everything mentioned above..
and, the hyped up version of my army list..

speaking of which, this would be the list I'm bringing to SPORE:

(HQ) Shrike - 195
(Elite) 6 Assault Terminators (3LC, 3TH) - 240
(Troops) 10 Scouts + PF - 165
(Troops) 10 Scouts + PF - 165
(Troops) 10 Scouts + PW + Meltabomb - 160
(Fast Attack) 10 ASM + TH + 2PP - 250
(Fast Attack) 2 MM Attack Bike - 100
(Fast Attack) 2 MM Attack Bike - 100
(Heavy Support) Vindicator - 115
(Heavy Support) LR Crusader + MM - 260

wish me luck!

Some more Fast Attack options.

This TIE-phoon module Land Speeder was initially used only for combat patrol (400-500 pts) games only. But since 5th ed upgraded its weapon options, lately I've been using it a bit more frequent.

This is actually the first assault squad that I had completed two years ago, used to play them as veteran assault marines due to the "Blessed be the Warriors" trait. You may notice that they aren't highlighted. Fluffwise, the Raven Guard are stealthy marines that strike from the shadows. Taking that fact into consideration, thus the dull stealthy power-armours ala the B52 stealth bomber. Subsequently, the creation of Hoth's Raiders that I posted previously.

Up to this moment, you're only seeing Fast Attack options (and 1 dreadnought) for my army. You've probably been wondering what I'm actually using as HQ and Troops, the two vital slots for a Warhammer 40K game. Trust me, they'll make an appearance soon. It's just a matter of time on when will they decide to emerge from the shadows ;)

Battle Brother Trowa

Trowa, one of the ancient warriors of the chapter, still in service to the Empire as a Dreadnought.

Hoth's Raiders

This is the assault squad that won me the Painting Competition (Squad Category) between the Sons of Corax and the Serpent's Lair forums a few weeks back. Gotta say I'm really proud of them.