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Sanguinary Guard are Done

As the Blood Angels army that I am doing for a friend nears an end, I wanted to share with everyone the completed Sanguinary Guard. WiP models have been posted earlier, but finally all 18 models are done- complete with custom made resin bases for the army. The owner also converted Sanguinary Priest using the Apothocary bits from the command squad box.


As scary as these models are, this the only tank busting ability in the army, two melta guns, one plasma gun. So hide in your metal boxes people if you play against them... because once they get their chops on you it will be all over with those power weapons.



I painted the bases with a blue hued stone to help tie in the blue from the power weapons with a sharp black border.


All of the models are pinned to the resin bases in hopes they will stay attached. These bases are a bit 'rocky' by design and the pose of the models are definitely dynamic.

Blood Angels: Dante

 I was hoping to talk today about a tournament over the weekend with my Imperial Guard, but at the last minute things fell apart and I couldn't make it. :(  Instead I continued to work in the Blood Angles... and play WoW. Let me tell you WoW is of the devil.  The sweet and lovely devil!

Here is Dante- a converted version that was handed to me to paint. Not caring much for the original metal version, my friend constructed one out of plastic. He goes with the rest of the Sanguinary guard very well and was fun to pain. In the games we've played with him, he is a bit of a mystery. He had moderate durability and kill-ability. His ability not to deviate on deep strike is awesome and is probably what makes him pure gold in a  deep striking army.

Blood Angels: Honor Guard

Finally, I am nearly done painting little gold armored guys!  At least there are no white wings to work around. The Honor Guard came together pretty quickly as my gold armor it getting faster with all of the work it is getting. :) 
You can also see my custom made resin bases that I made for the army. I'll show off more of then later on, but we like how they came out. Making resin bases is pretty easy (even I can do it) and it ties the army together very nicely. Since the models are in dynamic poses everyone is pinned on the bases.  The camera angle makes one dude look like he is falling over, but he doesn't have that look on the table. 
There are 5 different bases and once you spin them around a bit each one looks a bit unique. 



The banner is the last piece to finish for this squad and needs to really stand out... I hope that I am up for the task!

WIP: Psychic Battle Squad

One of the coolest units in the new Imperial Guard codex is the Psychic Battle Squad. The variable AP template is cool and all, but Weaken Resolve is where the money is. A near automatic Ld reduction coupled with the shooting power of the Imperial Guard can threaten any unit in the game that doesn't have fearless. I say nearly, because as my last few games have showed me- I can't roll a psychic power test for crap! Still, I love the PBS (the station and the squad).



Since there are no official models for the PBS we are left to conversions and luckily for us there are lots of options. One of the most popular are generic guardsmen with Empire Flagellant bits. Its a simple, yet elegant solution. At Adepticon this year I talked with several people who used  Armorcast scenic effect bits to add some flare to their conversions. 


I plan to paint the scenic effects an ectoplasmic green or blue to represent them firing Weaken Resolve. Their uniforms/robes will be muted browns or grays in attempt to give them a more unnatural feel. These are the first ten. My full army plan is to have two full units... 

Manticore

The new Manticore/Deathstrike kit from GW is another of the very nice kits for the Imperial Guard line. However, I have one complaint. You can only make one missile from the kit. There is no way you can magnetize the missiles, ugh. But other than that, the Manticore kit is very slick.



The front 'radio' dish needs to be completed, but the rest of the model is done. The only other thing I need to do is to find some scatter dice that actually role 'hit' so that my missiles are more accurate!

Tamclat the Shorn

I hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving. My family and I had a great time with each other and eagerly await the one month count down to Christmas. Before you know it, winter will be well set in with crunchy snow in some parts and grey skies everywhere. Once the skies lift it will be time for Adepticon!  If you haven't gotten tickets yet, get 'em! Many of the 'main' events are already sold out. So don't wait any longer than you have to.

My workbench has been super busy lately, adding some more commission work. Below is a piece I did quickly for a member of our DnD group for the new Dark Sun campaign setting. Finding a hairless dwarf is a rather hard thing to do. Thankfully Reaper makes model #03271 'Tamclat the Shorn"
Everyone at our last game liked the model and I think he came out ok. I tried for the first time some NMM on the hammer and other metal bits. Next time I'll have some experience under my belt and I'll try some new colors.



On the workbench: Blood Angels- assault squad, death company, special characters x3, baal preditor; Imperial Guard: Manticore, PBS; Dark Eldar Reaver box set; and my character piece for Dark Sun. :)

Completed: Chimeras

The Cadian Guard regiment of the Black Jacks now have two new dust covered chimeras to ride around the battlefield. The first is of course the older chimera set and the second is the newer. Of course the older version comes with a great add-on kit that adds character to the transport. The new one is ok. Of course the tracks are much easier to assemble, but thats it.



One thing you my notice is that the right turret decal started to flake off. Strangely it did it on both tanks. At the moment, I am going to leave it there and let it fall off once it gets some game time. Then we can also go back and re-weather that section of the turret.

Again I heavily weathered these transports- and loved the heck out of it. First was oil washing techniques I've talked about before and then weathering pigments from Secret Weapon. This time I managed to seal the tank without blowing all the pigments off!



On the painting table is still a Manticor and a Psychic Battle Squad- full of conversions. 

All of Your Bases

... belong to me bitch!
Heh, I always wanted to say that, don't know why.
Anyway I have started on my way making custom resin bases, for my Cadian Imperial Guard.

This project resurfaced a couple of months ago when reading on the 40KHobbyBlog about making your own resin bases. Since then, I've been going strong to create some resin. Add to my hobby projects Adepticon 2011 Team Tournament and wanting to have unified bases for our team, this seemed like the perfect thing to do.  One of the best places to learn about this is Tap Plastics.  Their tutorial videos are excellent.  Until my tutorial is posted (probably a few weeks), look at the Tap videos over and over again!
First things first, a test on the Cadians. I picked up a kit from Alumiite (available at my local train store) for about $60 total. The Silicone is 'Quick Set' and the resin is 'Regular'. Though next time I will try to order from Tap Plastics directly.


Taking some bases created for the test run, I ran the kit and created a pretty nice silicone mold.
The result- some bases I love! My guard army is a bit of hack together of learning new techniques and playing around. These bases won't break that trend anytime soon.








After doing a couple of resin molds, here is what popped out. The bases held their shape very well and the detail that came out was great. As each cast was done, the sand and defects were 'removed' from the mold.
The paint scheme is supposed to represent a "Mars" theme planet that the Black Jacks have been fighting on for some time. I'm not so sure about the colors at the moment because the GW Baal Red seems to have too much yellow/orange color for my taste. We shall see after a few of the guard get plopped on the bases.

However, here are a few things I learned during the test process:
  • Make sure you have read all the instructions and have all of your material well before hand. This didn't bother me during this run, but is good advise all the same.
  • I used sand on the bases and gave them a copule of coats of 'white' glue and varnish- however, while the sand stuck to itself it didn't stick to the base. The result was when I pulled the bases from the mold, part of the base stayed behind.  It took awhile to clean he mold up and when I did, some of the detail was lost. 
  • Make sure you add a filler to the bases before doing the mold or make sure you have them well glued to the casting surface. I had some of the mold sneak under the bases leaving a lot of trimming of the mold and eventually each base. It would be so much easter just to put some putty or green stuff and 'fill' the bottom of the bases. 
  • Don't spread out the bases so much on the mold, and don't pour so much. Despite being as scientific as possible, I greatly overestimated how much mold I'd need- wasting about half a jar of the stuff (CYA $15!).  There is a better plan for next time!
  • Be sure to 'scrape' the top of the mold before it sets so that that bottom of the bases don't 'bellow' out. It just adds time to the clean up process. 
  • DO THIS!  This was fun, exciting, nerve racking, but still fun. You should try it. :)
  • A full tutorial to follow....

Blood Angels: Dante

Dante is done. D-U-N .
Its a counts-as model that my friend assembled, but it works very well. Again, the gold is fun to paint, but I like how it turned out for the time that was spent.
I was asked to do the blue-white-lightening scheme as you see on the axe. It looks good, but not great. Any ideas on how to make that transition to great?  To be honest, I've not seen too many of the blue lightening power weapons that I love. Its probably just personal taste.

The bases will begin production this week... stay tuned!





I was informed this weekend that the models will be making their first tournament appearance in a couple of weeks. 15 Sanguinary Guard, Dante, and 3 Sanguinary Priest. Yikes 19 models with power weapons or better! Just sick, I say. Well its a good thing that I am going to be him team mate with Imperial Guard.  Hah!  Now, where did those pie plate templates go....

Its Good to be an Ultramarine Player!


Its never been a better time to be sporting Ultramarine Blue. The Ultramarine movie is ready to launch in a few weeks and collectors edition is up for pre-order. Also, GW has posted some very cool UM models painted be fellow blogger Stahly from Germany. I have been a big fan of his blog for a few months now.  His blog has been on my blog roll for some time now, and even though he is painting Eldar I stop by everyday to check out what this young man is producing.

Image: Stahly and GW.com
Games-Workshop has also been blessing us with lots of Ultramarine love in their daily blog last week, including these awesome Sternguard models. Gotta love the Sternguard!

From GW.com


And of course the picture that makes me melt with pride and joy, is the 20,000 point UM army below. Perhaps one day I can own such an awesome amount of models!

Another GW image
 Well that is more than enough blue for most of you today, any more and I run the risk of having everyone starting an Ultramarine Army. 

WIP: Blood Angel Death Company

The Death Company squad for the commission army that I am painting is nearly done. All that is left is a few detail pieces and another wash for the metal. These models are really nice- full of detail and capture the spirit of the Blood Angles very well. In fact, I like these models much more than the Sanguinary Guard, who lack a lot of detail on the those models. There is a lot of plain gold on those models, which is just a pain.




Here are the Sanguinary Guard that I have painted at the moment. There are another 4 that I have started on to bring the total up to 19! I thought I was done with painting gold, until I realized that there is an honor guard squad as well!  More gold!!  At least they don't have big white wings as well. :)  


Dark Eldar First Look, Part II

For the past week, we have all been watching the official release of the Dark Eldar on the games-workshop.com site. I think the internet community needs to give GW some props with the coverage the have been giving the Dark Eldar miniature release. Being able to hear what the miniature designers have to say about the design process and seeing the artwork and early tech designs is awesome. It really gets my nerd engines rev'ing!

Ok, enough of that. I was a bit bearish in the troop models, but that is because I knew there was some awesomeness coming with the vehicles. Lets start with the model I had the biggest hopes for, the raider. Now I know that people are worried about an AV 10 open topped vehicle, but damn these things are some looking. Jes and the boys kept the space pirate image from the prior edition and turned up the volume to 11. I love all of it: the big sails, the guys riding on the side ready to jump off at any moment, and the forward gunner... all great.


Next, the Reavers. I love the 'racing' helmets and gives these guys a good MadMax feel to them. These are sleek rides that according to the early rumors will be covering 40K tables in the next year. Just one thing about them, if you read the text these are based off the 'new' Eldar jetbikes. No wonder they look so similar to the rumored images from a couple of years ago. 



Lastly the Hellions. In their first edition, the models were a joke. All metal and looked dumb on the table. Sorry, but nothing looked realistic about them. The design team was understandably limited with the tech of the time, and now those limitations have been removed. These models have surprised me the most with the realistic motion poses and the dead 'ard pirate look to the riders. Seriously, these guys give me the creeps just looking at them. I think a lot of credit needs to go to Jes and his team for making the Dark Eldar look like Space Elf Pirates- close enough to the Eldar that you recognize their past, but with enough modern goth pieces to make them look distinct and know that evil is coming on the horizon. 



Its official, I can't wait for the DE to arrive!

First Impressions: Dark Eldar

For the past several months, I have been eagerly awaiting the new Dark Eldar miniatures. One of the things that has intrigued me over the years is that the Eldar a painters army and that a new version of the Dark Eldar could spark a great number of painting opportunities for the average gamer.

Thanks to Games Workshop's daily blog, we have some great pictures of the new DE as well as some bitchin' concept art! However, my first impressions of the models have me less than excited for the new range. First off, the sculpting is very good. However, the warriors don't have any special pizzaz that make me want to run out and get them. Secondly, the paint scheme is very average. Black armor with sharp, bright highlights. Kinda boring to be honest, and it does nothing to make me want to paint up pirate space elves. Sure painting the armor will be a skill challenge, it will probably feel like a chore on the twelve warrior.

Image from G-W.com

The warriors squad have too many static poses. While I like the squad leader and the reflection of Eldar iconography on the suits, the warrior squad looks awfully bland for new plastic box that is over ten years in the making.

Image from G-W.com

However, in today's update we get some Witches. Now, we are talking. Dynamic posses, pirate elf skin, and some cool armor elements. Jess Godwin on the site talks about the gladiator style armor, and I like it. No, I love it. Giving the witches a gladiator feel makes them feel gritty, dirty, feral, and deadly in combat. Which is what these models ooze, especially with the studio paint scheme. Still not a fan of the black armor with sharp highlights. However, we will have to see what the painting community does once we get these models in our hands. 

Image from G-W.com

At the moment, I am neutral on the new models. I am waiting for the vehicles before I make a final decision. The leaked photos from Games Day UK showed me a lot of promise- Jaba's Barge with pirate flags, which is what I have been wanting for sometime. 
Oh, and the rules. Who cares... this is a painting and modeling blog, not some silly tournament blog. :)

WiP: Sanguinary Guard

Its been a blast to paint these Sanguinary Guard and the new Blood Angles for a commission project. These are amazing plastic sculpts. My client (i.e. gaming buddy) wanted them painted according to the codex, and he doesn't like NMM. So pretty basic colors on the SG's. Oh yeah, there are 20 of them total, and they are going to be a pain in the butt to deal with on the battle field!

My painting table is bombarded by flying Angels of Death. 
A couple of things on painting these models- the camera doesn't reflect the shade and highlights of the gold real well, but it is hard to get good highlights with gold. Adding silver to your gold mix tends to desaturate the color a lot which I personally don't like on models that have tons of gold (like these models). I'll add more washes before I'm done to give the models more depth and create some false highlights to it. Also the wings were a bit of a pain. My client assembled the models and attached the wings prior to delivering them to me. It would have been so much easier to prime them white and go from there. But the gold needs a black primer... and thus the white needs lots of layers of white.

Small tip:  use a dowel for painting, you won't rub the paint off of your minis. 

All that is left is the second half of the S. Guards, and then go back and paint the power weapons. I am working on some custom bases for the army, more on that later.

The 721st Black Jacks


I guess it was only a matter of time before it hit me that the regiment number to the Cadian Black Jack's would be a combination of the target number 21 and lucky 7. So obvious. 

I have started a new project while the Black Jacks get put on hold for a bit- my first commission project. A friend of mine (henceforth named the client) asked me to paint up his new Blood Angles. Loving the new plastics, I said sure!  It was a bit of a surprise when 20 Sanguinary Guard landed in my painting room. The good news is that I had plenty of Shining Gold on hand! Pictures coming in soon. 

The Black Jacks

Its taken some time, but I finally have a name for my Cadian Imperial Guard- The Black Jacks.  The name is taken from their use of 'spades' and 'diamonds' on their armor. I suppose that some units also carry the 'hearts' and 'clubs' as well. But those would be regular infantry, saving the 'spades' and 'diamonds' for the veteran troops.



The Black Jacks incorporate both black and red into their armor, breaking the typical Cadian green and khaki coloring. I hope to also tie in the red belts into the bases when they are completed. 

The army is coming close to completion- still 2 chimeras, one manticore, some more vet troops, and the psyker battle squad. 

Rogue Trader: RPG

Before leaving for GenCon, I had one last member of the Rogue Trader crew to complete: Arch-Militant Dekko. This former Imperial Guardsmen is heavily trained in the art of close combat, particularly with twin chainswords!
He ended up being a great character on the table, and the gentleman who played him really got into the spirit of charging forward and letting flesh fly!  However, he had the worst luck I've ever seen during a four-hour game. No matter then number of re-rolls, he couldn't kill a thing!!  Everyone else in the party got at least one kill shot, except the man trained since birth to kill!  It was awesome... everyone at the table had a great laugh every time Dekko rolled the dice.
The head was a simple swap with some plastic kelt models that appeared in my swag bag from Adepticon.



I don't know how or if he will ever see the 40K table as an Imperial Guardsmen. Perhaps a stand-in for one of the named characters in a friendly game.

Isn't this a painting site?

Well after a long summer of vacations, family illnesses, and well GenCon... this site will soon return to what it once was- a painting blog. Its funny how the seasons of life also carry over into my hobby time. The summer, it seems, is often set aside for board and role play gaming, while the rest of the year is dominated by miniature gaming. But anyway, the Commisar says back to work!


Imperial Commisar


GenCon was a blast and while I didn't update my blog as often as I wished, I had a few twitter updates to keep up with the action. In all, I played 30+ hours of games in a mere four days, and it was wonderful.  Sadly, I was too busy gaming to get much detailed information on any of the miniature events at GenCon. However, I did get a chance to play with the Malifaux terra-clips. And well, my final take on the project is that they need some time to get their material just right. Its just too early to tell how helpful this product will be. The biggest issue I see is that while its reasonably priced, I can get detailed plastic pieces from GW for about the same price... considering that most of the terra-clips is 'ground' with some elevations spread about the footprint. However, for the gamer that is just starting out collecting terrain it looks to be a great alternative to the GW plastic.

Mantic games is going to be a force for at least the next few years. I love their models for the fantasy line. The sprue of ghouls they gave out at Adepticon were pure magic. Furthermore, they are positioning themselves as an alternative miniature supplier for GW games, at about half the price. Its going to be interesting how both companies respond to each other over the course of the next year. And as I doubt that few people reading this blog play in 'Citadel' model only events, it will be interesting to see how many Mantic armies we see on the WFB battlefield this next year.
You have probably heard- but Mantic Games does have Alessio writing their core rules for them, and they will be free (ala the Confrontation mini-rule book).  It will be available online and in their blisters this fall. Don't expect to see their product to heavily in stores, as skipping the end retailer drives up the price... and they want to keep that price point as low as possible. I wonder how many manufacturers will start to consider this as a business model (the internet is pretty powerful you know!).

Lastly, my gamer nutrition was a success. In fact, after finishing my gruelling 15 hour day of gaming, I hit the Tower of Gygax to relive some awesome first gen DnD memories. I died about 10 mins in to a Save versus Death roll. I rolled a '4'. I needed a '6' or better. Oh well. :)

You can view my Gencon/Cosplay pictures here.

GenCon Day 1

Well day is in the books. My first time DM'ing turned out to be a blast. We all had a great time fighting vie xenos and trying not to blast holes in the bulkhead with plasma weapons. Shooting your ship from the inside out is generally not a great idea.

Here are a few tidbits from the show floor:
Wizards od the Coast have a big announcement tomorrow. No official word, but it looks like something for DnD is coming.
- White Wolf had no product on the floor, anywhere. Insteed they had a bar scene set up (kinda cool)that was announcing their special event in one month in New Orlenes to make a big announcement about the "World of Darkness". Ok, this is dumb. A month after gencon... Not good.
- Fantasy Flight Games had a huge presence again this year. They took over the middle part of the hall and constantly had huge lines to buy their stuff. I didn't have the patience to wait in line, but the new 40K role-play stuff looks great. I hope to pick some up in the morning.
- Lots of collectible card games showing up everywhere. It looked like the years after Magic the Gathering, all over again.
- I found new (to me) miniature companies that are doing great work. Dark Haven has been out fir a bit, but seeing their stuff in person was great. They have some world class talent working on their models. I also found Dark Sword Miniatures making some great single models mainly for fantasy rpg's.
- Malifaux and Pathfinder are growing their presence at the con and lots of people like their stuff. I am one of them, but nothing new that we didn't know was coming.
- the Tera-Clips terrain on the Malifaux web site was interesting in person. They are in very early production, needing thicker card stock, clearer clips, and less shiney pieces (bad glare under the lights). That being said, you get a three-foot section of terrain for $50. Perfect for a new gamer, less perfect for someone with plenty of scenery at home.
- Less Cos-Play today than I hoped to see. Perhaps tomorrow.
- Ill have pictures up on Twitter as I take them, and full pictures up when I get home early next week.

It's GenCon time!

As I type this, I'm heading tO Indianapolis for GenCon Indy 2010! The excitement has been building for the last few months and now gamer/nerd nirvana is close at hand. I'll try to bring as many updates as possible from the dealer floor as well as game updates. Follow me on twitter if you like: Twitter.com/drgabe

Tonight I'll be running a game of Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader RPG. Here is the crew of the Reed of Darkness. They are due for a tough night tonight. I can only hope they survive.

IMG_6809

Here is the link to the more of the crew: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drgabe/sets/72157623426028800/

Gamers and Nutrition


There is no doubt that many gamers (not to mention most of civilized culture) have a problem with nutrition and overall health. There is no more obvious example than next week at GenCon. There will be 20,000 or so gamers converging on the Indianapolis convention center during the August heat. Needless to say, nutrition (and lets face it - daily hygiene) could use a small discussion. In fact last year there was a full evacuation of the main hall due to a 'medical emergency' that was likely food/nutrition related.

So todays focus is eating healthy while at a con, a tournament, or a special gaming event. Good, healthy food will be hard to find. And while we aren't burning muscle energy, most of us will be using our brains pretty hard for a long stretch of the day. If you eat like crap, don't expect to survive that tough encounter against the foul necromancer! This couldn't have come more apparent to me than at a local con this spring. I only played in one game of Cathulu RPG on Saturday and while waiting for it to start we hit the local Mexican restaurant buffet pretty hard. Man versus beast had nothing on us- it was a massacre of the most saturated fat kind! The resulting game was pretty miserable. The GM and other players were great, but I was suffering from food coma and that heavy sinking feeling of too much fat and carbs during the mid-day meal.
 
This year, my GenCon Saturday consists of a 15 hour mega-gaming session! And thinking back to AdeptiCon this year where we had about a 13 hour gaming session, its obvious I need a better plan. Its too late to suggest that you start getting some exercise, but you should have been (note- while I am a doctor its highly likely I'm not your doctor- get a physical and get cleared for exercise!). By this time you should have been getting 3-5 sessions of 30+ minutes of exercise a week. However, since most of the time a gaming con is spent standing or sitting, nutrition is our +10 Sword of Slaying.

The biggest part of our meals needs to be protein, especially while we are on the run. Proteins are designed to give us much needed energy for about 6 hours- your brain will love you during that long burst of energy. Those carbs we all love will only give you about 4 hours of energy before burning out and leaving you with a carb/sugar crash. To make matters worse, most of the refined carbs contain saturated trans-fats. This will leave you in a food coma in no time (and deposit life taking plaque on your arteries). So we need foods high in protein with some polyunsaturated fats and lean on carbs designed to keep our brain operating at a high function while tasting good and being easy to obtain in the middle of a large American city. One of the things to remember when choosing what to eat is that you want to keep your fat, carb, and protein content in what I call a magic ratio. Ideally, you should be eating about 30% fat, 40% carbs, 30% protein daily (this varies between people and activity levels- the idea is to keep a balance). We want to stay away from the high fat, high carb foods and focus on what will give use a better ratio of nutrients, and more protein.

Breakfast 7AM

Two packages of instant oatmeal
(220 cal, 1.5g fat, 4g protein, 30g carbs), cup of coffee, fruit cup (roughly 45 cal, 0 fat, 11 g carbs, 1g protein).
The oatmeal is a great source of instant protein and will get your brain firing early in the morning. The fruit while containing some carbs will add a little life into an otherwise bland start to the day. If you have more time than I'll have, get 2 slices low fat bacon (60 cal, 4.5g fat, 0g carb,6g protein), or an egg white breakfast sandwich (with cheese: 340 cal,18gm fat, 26 gm carbs, 16mg protein) both of which are huge sources of protein. Skip the blueberry muffins from Starbucks (360 cal, 10g fat, 64 g carbs, 6g protein) and  pastries because by 9AM you're gonna be ready to crash and burn and we still have 14 hours left!
The thing about instant oatmeal is that its cheap and you can make it in your hotel room with the coffee maker- just run the water through the percolator without the coffee bag in. Add the hot water and you are done! I'll be brining a bit of fruit in my cooler to round out the quick breakfast.

(General Con advise- bring a cooler stocked with your favorite beverage. It will save you a ton on drinks during the weekend, and you can keep food like this cold. Screw you room service!)

Lunch 1PM

Here is the biggest hurdle to cross all day. Game one starts at 8am and runs until 1pm, which is the time game two starts! So my food options are only going to be what is served in the convention hall. Yahhhh! Lets hear it for overpriced pathetic tasting convention food! So options are pretty limited, but lets make the best out of the situation. There are usually salads available, and while not the best it can be a good substitute, especially if you can get some chicken on it (341 cal, 10g fat, 44g carb, 17g protein plus the dressing!). Be careful of over fattening dressings though- I prefer a good oil vinaigrette on mine. While I love a good hamburger- the fat will get my Pathfinder Society character killed in record time. And that, my friends, is unacceptable! You can always get a chicken sandwich with some lettuce and cheese to accompany it (~660 cal, 11g fat, 87g carbs, 47 g protein). Sometimes, this is just the best you can do. If you are a real trooper, toss the bread while saving yourself some useless carbs. Of course if you were a super trooper you'd have a PBJ sandwich (400 cal, 17g fat, 36g carb, 13 g protein) and an apple (65 cal, 0g fat, 17g carb, 0g protein).

Dinner 6PM

Game two ends at 6PM and game three starts at 7PM. So we have some time to get some grub. Unfortunately once you add travel and waiting time into the equation, we only have time for food court at the mall. The sultry treats of glorious high trans-fats will be calling my name, strong will is needed for this. Again, I'll call on the mighty power of chicken to get me through this epic struggle. Good thing the food court is full of good chicken options. If salmon is available at one of the high-end eateries I'll gladly spend my coins there- tons of protein and life saving omega-fatty acids could be the fuel that gets me through the evening.

Done with chicken and don't like fish? Easy, a turkey ranch and swiss sub (ditch the fatty ranch - unless you feel brave!) loaded with veggies (~ 590 cal, 18g fat, 75g carb, 35 g protein) will see you to the finish line.

Snacks

This is probably the winning move to my day. During those times when the party is debating which path to take and debating some esoteric rule- I'll be grabbing a quick snack in the form of a protein bar. My bar of choice is a Clif Bar (260cal, 6g fat, 42g carb, 11g protein). At a buck a piece here in St Louis, its a cheap snack and far healthier than that crappy bag of Doritios (~small bag- 150cal, 8g fat, 18g carb, 2g protein) you were thinking about packing. I'll also be packing a couple of apples or other fruit. If keeping things fresh and cold is going to be too hard, don't fret, just pack some nuts. Nuts of all kinds, but particularly treenuts (like almonds), will give you tons of energy while ecreasing your cholesterol (added bonus!). Since I know the breakfast will leave me feeling empty by 10AM, the snacks are going to be the secret to my success in the early hours of my marathon gaming.

11PM

Dinner- by this time, game three will be over and I'll be a beat puppy.The crew will probably head over to Scotty's Brewhouse, The Ram,Alcatraz, or some other such pub and get a few beers to go along with a huge burger or steak! By this time, the fate of the universe will likely not be resting on my shoulders and I can refill my carbs in the form of hops and grain and lovely trans-fats! By midnight I'll gladly embrace a food coma...

-DrGabe

Rogue Trader Crew


The Rogue Trader Crew is finished!  With GenCon less than a week away, the final touches of my Rogue Trader 40K RPG Crew are complete.  Next Thursday night I'll be running a game of Rogue Trader in the Crowne Plaza at 8pm.  Readers of the blog are encouraged to stop by and say hello! :)

The only thing left is to complete some of the NPC's- some xenos Kroot!  Which, by the way, are a blast to paint.


More pictures of the Rogue Trader Crew can be seen on my flickr page, here.

Games Are For Everyone!

The past week while on vacation along the shores of Lake Michigan, I had the opportunity to share some games with my younger nephews. While they have seen some of my miniatures in the past, they are anything but gamers. One plays World of Warcraft, but that hardly seems like a gamer's game these days!



One night, when everyone was recovering from a long day at the beach I introduced them to Munchkin... and I don't think they ever stopped playing.  For most of the rest of the trip their parents looked at me the dicontempt you might save for a short-order cook who keeps burning the eggs. But it din't bother me in the least!


Take some time to introduce your family and friends to games.  Simple card games like Munchkin are a great start into the gaming world with a simple, yet fun concept. I later played a few games of Ticket to Ride with my in-laws, who really enjoyed the train empire building concept. Now when I break out my little miniature men and some dice, it seem much less odd and superstitious and just a variation of that other board game we played last week.


 GenCon Indy is less than two weeks away!!  Are any of you planning to go?  If so, let me know.

On the painting table: Imperial Guard Vet Squad; Kroot (!?!); Individual Models for Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40K Roleplay).

Things I am Keeping My Eyes On

The last couple of days have seen some great releases in the gaming sector.  I wanted to pass a few of them along on the blog.


First off, the new Warhammer Fantasy Battles rule book is out and the reviews around here are all good. But what has me the most excited is the new miniatures in the box set.- "The Island of Blood"  Stahly at his Paint Station has some pictures of the skaven, here.
Warseer and BoLs have plenty of pictures of the High Elves.
My only dilemma is what army do collect first- High Elves, Skaven, or Bretonnians (I have models for each!).


The latest Forge World Newsletter suggest that pre-Heresy marines are on the way!  BoLS posted a small article on them, here. This would be grand indeed, since I'll need plenty of pre-Heresy models for Adepticon 2011!


Moving away from GW just a touch is some news in the 40K RPG sector from Fantasy Flight Games.
There are lots of RT supplements coming out in the next year, Battlefleet Koronus and the Ork Trilogy look very awesome: link here


For you Malifaux fans, the GenCon 2010 models have been released as well as something called TerraClips Terrain. These awesome pieces look to be made from thick cardboard, but its hard to tell from the press release. Needless to say, I'll be checking them out during GenCon this year. Link.


Lastly, board games. If you like Horror or Lovecraft, or anything of the like you must get a chance to play Arkham Horror. Its a great co-op game that we have been playing for a few years now. FFG is releasing a new expansion with a lot of new rules for everyone to enjoy. The new Gate markers and Relationship cards look to add a ton of new depth to an already deep game. Link.


And one more thing ... Cadwallon returns, this time as a board game with FFG. For those not familar with the setting, it was the RPG setting for Confrontation miniature game (back when Confrontation was awesome).  The PRG looked to have real promise, but died a quick death under the watch of the French (insert easy joke here).  I hope to get a demo of the game at GenCon... and probably pick up a copy. Link.


So there you go... a couple of things to look forward to this summer.

Ultramarines- Done!

Hello all- tonight is a glorious night... my Ultramarines are finally done!!!  Seven years later, and I can finally say the army is fully painted and all of the pieces are dry. So now more than 4,000 points of Ultramarines sit on the table. Its pretty cool!

Hell Hound Varient

I am out on vacation this week, but I wanted to drop some pictures into the blog. I added some weathering on my Hell Hound Variant before leaving for Lake Michigan (sometimes its good to be the Doc!).

This is my standard Cadian scheme. Nothing fancy, just clean colors and some decals.



Now, the weathering: I used my weathering pigments and thinned them with paint thinner. As I mentioned before this gives you the ability to add the pigments without fear of them rubbing off (or flying off with the propellant from the sealers hits it). It also turns the process into more of a glazing medium than a 'dusting' medium when you use the pigments plain. Its all about preference I guess. 

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