Custom Broadside Dryfit ( XV-88s ver. ja )

this is my take on the tau broadside suits. the GW rail cannons are a p.o.s. all warped and shrunk in the most obscene form. shame on you gw. your most useful parts were only the head and backpack.

GW; a degenerate scale models company

I'm pretty pissed at gamesworkshop... their tau crisis suit designs and production models are possibly the most design flawed models I have ever attempted.

Firstly, lets start with the design aspect. I thought crisis suits were supposed to be piloted by a tau pilot inside. With the GW model, there is physically no way a tau can ever fit inside. If it were a suit of external armor systems, the tau pilot must have a stance as wide as a buffalo (nuts included) to fit into the suit's pelvis stance. In whats shown on the forgeworld site, a normal tau without armor looks more like a tall lanky disco junkie from the 70's afro, bell bottoms, how do they sit inside that god forsaken mecha suit? Also, there seems to be no torso movement at all. Can you imagine living life doing everyday things without being able to rotate your waist?

I think the tau suit idea is a good one... but like most imitators, the execution is an epic fail. Since the tau designers have proven that their IQ is roughly congruent with that of a cabbage, I hereby nominate my garden gnome eddy mcfuck to undertake the next tau codex' suit designs entirely. With all due respects, leave the robot designing to the Japanese.

Secondly, lets go over the quality of gw products, how many times have tank panels not lined up symmetrically with the corresponding sides? how many forgeworld doors have you bought that seem to suffer from more shrinkage than penis on a cold day if ice fishing? how many tau suit heads have dents on the smack middle of the top panel? (see picture, red circles marks the spot)

*my only suggestion to warhammer model enthusiasts is to buy a Bandai Gundam model, just build a master grade without even painting it to see the gap of comparison I am trying to illustrate.*

Now gw wants to charge $24.03 (nyc tax included) for this crappy model? how can I quantify this fact and have it make sense in the most marginal manner? Thats almost like saying Catholic priests do not molest underage boys and that the pope does not look like emperor palpatine... This makes me re-think all holy truths and everything else I've been taught...

Being calm now, I must say normally i never buy any fake goods as I believe people should get dues for what they put out on the market but this case is different... clearly we can see that even with the high premium gw is already charging, they still cannot afford a proper quality control team to oversee their products... and yet all nations rip on china for bad quality... I think from now on, I will only buy 1 box or unit of whatever I need, fix that up and just re-cast my own master molds into however many pieces I need. At least that will save me a lot of time than trying to make good something that's defective.

Tau Tanks

With 36 fire warriors, sniper drone team, 18 drones & 9 stealth suits done, the outstanding units are 10 crisis suits with an armada of tau tanks.

Since last week, camo and basic coloring for the 6 tau tanks are done. final posing and mods to the battle suits are also done awaiting basecoating in black.

The reason why the tau are partially red is because to be frugal, I bought all the tanks and the battle suits 2nd hand for a huge bargain. I guess the kid who put the models together did it in a rush. All of those pre-owned models were basically gut up into bits and pieces, filed down, reposed, joints modified and converted and then put back together in my style of assembly.

Being a huge gundam/mecha fan, my experiences with building and modeling tau has really allowed me to feel in my own element of talent whenever I work on these models. I want them to look like they jumped out of the appleseed universe. Lets hope it all works out.

How To Airbrush Tau Camouflage

Heres a simple how to on tau camo.

1. My tau are themed based on the sa'cea sept color pattern made up of pure shadow grey (darker tone) & a 50/50 mix of shadow grey & spacewolves grey. (lighter tone) I've decided that the darker tone will be the primary color where as the lighter tone will be the camo pattern. First Airbrush the lighter tone evenly over the target surface.

2. tape rows of masking tape onto a self healing cutting mat with the rows touching eachother forming a larger sheet surface. (see picture) then use a ruler and score out intercepting diagonal lines throughout the sheet until you have irregular angles.

3. Using the irregular shapes, tape them onto the target surface in the desired pattern.

4. airbrush an even layer of the primary color (darker tone)

Special remarks:

the reason why your masking isn't working can be 1 of the 3 reasons below:

a. your airbrush regulator needs to be pumping out less than 1 lbs of pressure. anything stronger will blow off the masking tape or cause the paints to seep in.

b. you need to be hitting the masking tape with the airbrush on the top or "face" surface. if you hit it from the sides. paint will build up between the edge of the tape and the unmasked surface. When you peel off the tape, the edges will look shit.

c. your masking tape probably has dust or dirst stuck to the edges. buy a new roll.

Sometimes its so hard to focus on a single army and not lose interest. Building, converting and painting all the pieces to have a playable array of strategic assets in your army is perhaps one of the hardest things I struggle to do. I dunno, I just find it hard to really concentrate with a single hobby.

Nonetheless within the 40k universe space wolves are cool but perhaps they are a more forgiving army? It sucks to win a game and have someone call you out for the army you are using. My basis is I build whatever I think looks cool in a collection.

Way before I knew how warhammer was played, I remember buying a pack of fire warriors when my younger brother at the time bought his starter set with (I think we space marines & dark eldar)? maybe 10 years ago...

Anyhow, I decided to airbrush my way through this endeavor. The fish in the center with camo is the test subject. The fishes were all first airbrushed with a 50/50 mix of shadow grey & space wolves grey. Then masked followed by a successive layer of shadow grey to create the urban camo shapes.

Cranking Ass Cans Out the Ass

How much does it suck to have to drop cash everytime you wanted a one-off component from a GW kit? Not anymore! I've decided to save up money and attempted to cast my own resin parts. In the close up shot, you can see the quality... not as bad as the worst of what I've bought from forgeworld.

13th Co. WIP

Just started works on 20 13th co. space wolves plus 1 converted wolf priest as besides the main names characters, space wolves hq are hard to come by in hkg.

Its gonna suck painting up so many guys. I dread this stage so much. I just wanna fast forward to the last 20% as that's when the sense of reward starts to settle in.

Venerable Dreadnought Complete

I've been side tracking a lot lately with different projects I'm juggling all at once. This venerable dreadnought was q pretty fun build. For the time being I think its done. Done in a sense that it is completely expandable... I won't bother with doing the other weapons as the plasma cannon is the only weapon I don't have on a dreadnought, not that I'm a plasma cannon fan lol. they always end up killing myself overheating, don't have to worry about that on a dreadnought though but with how far plasma rounds can scatter, I wouldn't count on it too much.

Ultimately I want to add nid skulls onto this model. I want this to be a tyranid prize fighter dreadnought.

Canis' defective head

Canis is almost done, just need to put some snow powder onto the base when i get my hands on some. In the closeups of canis' face, you can see his right cheek is much more defined and protrudes more than his left cheek. also as mentioned before his right cerebral cortex seems to be flat.

I guess when you are raised by feral wolves, you tend to suffer more than your mother dropping you as a baby for a few times. I shouldn't of painted it... I think my exchange with gw should be for the 'eavy metal's display model. I would hate to have to repaint the whole thing again.

Canis Wolfborn WIP

My surprise present wip. I have mixed feelings about this one... I still don't know who sent this here and the sculpt kinda sucks as part of canis' head suffered from severe miscast tragedy resulting a flat skull (with hair to comb over) on his right cerebral cortex. On the same note, the wolf kinda reminds me of a mad chow x german shepherd if there is such thing. I dunno how to make this cool.... :(

Mr. Topcoat

Instead of using GW's Purity Seal, my alternative is GSI's Mr. Topcoat from the Mr. Hobby series. This varnish is UV cut meaning it will give you protection against color fading caused by the ultra-violet spectrum of sunlight.

Shootie Space Wolves

Most people associate space wolves with headstrong full frontal assaults. However, with the long fang's ability to split fire long fangs are a huge asset when it comes to swinging the tides of battle.

The only draw back is without the option of being able to take more than 5 long fangs for ablative wounds, they are more vulnerable than your standard marine devastator squad load-out. To counter this, some like to field an extra wolfguard in terminator armor with ass cannon and missile rack.

4 long fangs with missile launchers + wolfguard with missile rack allows 6 or 7 shots of missiles... I can't remember if the missile rack shoots 2 rounds or counts as twin linked, but nonetheless this is a whole lot of dakka.

In case that wasn't enough, Rune priest can also support Long Fangs with their living lightning abilities. D6 hits at S7 AP5 with unlimited range hitting on a 2 up with chooser of the slain... btw, space wolves can field up to 4 rune priests.

Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought WIP

A Brief Tactica VS Tyranids

Hi there, in my recent conversations with Ray, I was saying how anythingbutones is really lacking some tactical content. I think mainly this is due to the nature of our game that we do not power-game. We are professionals at what we do for a living; we have vibrant lives and beautiful girlfriends. We are not your average geek-freak. BUT…. Nonetheless I think it is crucial we explore some of the ins and outs of 40k with some of our own experiences.

This time, I will talk a little bit about the combat philosophies behind playing against Tyranids as they are the army that I play against most. Please note, I ain’t claiming to be a gaming guru so if I am wrong, take a chill pill… You will get over it. I promise… J

As a space wolf player, I am very used to being outnumbered. Get used to it, learn to work with it, learn to love it as this is the way of the space marine. Lets face it, 40k is about creating and defending the options available for your units to execute on the playing field. If you lose a unit, you lose a set of options available for that unit and hence also to your army. How well you make use of these options depends on the way your list of units mutually support each other. Realistically to win at 40k is to preserve your units; keeping them alive so they can do more in the game.

Against nids, to win or break is governed by your deployment. There are a few reasons for this:

• As sw fighting nids, chances are their initiative is higher than mine. Any foolish assault can yield horrible outcomes
• Generally, space marines are better at shooting. Heavy weapons need to be stationary to shoot so an optimum vantage point for these units is very important during deployment
• Nids are very fast. Their combat motive is to come to you. Let them do so while utilizing the distances the nids must travel to get to you as a killing field

The way I play it is to create tiers of defenses for the nids to cut through instead of leaving a big concentration to be gangbanged. Usually to do this, you want to funnel your opponents into your fire lanes. I do this with tanks. Since my grey hunters do not want to be out in the open, they will camp around ruins near objectives so that frees up my rhinos with double storm bolters to act as a mobile wall. There are many benefits to this as having only 6 turns to a game; the enemy must waste 1 turn to shoot/assault these rhinos. Sporting double storm bolters and also having the chance to explode on the nids is a huge benefit often overlooked not to mention it’s wreck could also become difficult terrain. In short, you need to micro manage the nids into chewable bite sizes.

Next topic to cover is the mutual supporting edges your units give each other.

I will start off with my vindicators and whirlwinds. The bottom line is since these units have a difference of range, the vindicator must be ahead of the whirlwind. And the vindicator must always shoot first being the stronger weapon. Whatever the demolisher cannon fails to kill, the whirlwind will mop up. Even against armies with better armor than nids, you still want to take weapons that use the large pie blast template. 40k being a game of chance, you force your opponent to take saves. With enough saves forced on your opponent even the strongest units will start taking wounds. Another reason to keep these units apart is the characteristic of a nid rush is usually a whole tide capable of multi-charging. Do not risk the chance of losing 2 units together if at all avoidable.

Dreadnoughts must always be around tactical squads. Many fluff driven players are mistaken in thinking dreadnoughts are super tanks able to take a lot and walk away. Basically they are beefier terminators with AV12 that can shoot heavy weapons and assault. In CQC, the tactical squads must take the blunt of the charge first. After the initial wave is absorbed, the dreadnought joins combat with a powerfist to mop up the unit or to further diminish the enemy squad. Being initiative 4, they are not too good 1 on 1 in CQC. Try to avoid the dreadnought being isolated as they are very very easy targets to kill.

HQ choices should be area control units. Some units CQC beasts but that doesn’t mean they should lead the charge all the way to the other end of the table but remain in close support range of your troops. I have said before on this blog that 5^th ed. 40k is all about controlling the mid field. My rune priests are designed for this duty further digesting the tyranid tide into smaller pieces.

Finally in respect to target saturation, after all my games I always ask my opponent if they thought anything was especially scary. The best answer you can possibly get is “NO” . The reason for this is simple; you do not want anything glaringly powerful as they will often be the target of high priority. My trainings as an architect also echoes this thought as the strongest most enduring buildings are not the top of bottom heavy structures but buildings with the structural integrity to “share” the bulk of the load.

With all respect to the players that support and vouch their game to their named chapter heroes, you are treading in dangerous waters. Like a building, once the main beams are located and destroyed, the rest will also crumble.

Another more eye catching reason not to take named characters in below 2000 point games is the cost of these units. I try to run my lists as plain as can be. Some people argue decking out units with a macabre of wargear. I personally do not feel this is needed as all unit entries in the codex’ are inherently good at something if used properly. The key is to figure out what unit is effect against which unit and fielding them accordingly.

They say “knowing is half the battle” , Sun Tzu’s Art of War says “ If you don’t know yourself and don’t know your enemy, you will lose all the time; if you know yourself but not your enemy, you may win half the time; if you know yourself and know your enemy you will win ALL the time. Lets hope there is merit with Sun Tzu’s words in 40k.

Space Wolves Tanks WIP 1

Wulfen Predator Tanks

I did 2 layers of highlights on every single edge on 3 preds... after assembly, these 3 tanks took only 3 days to do... base coat, primary color, wash & highlights... a personal record for me... say hurray for the bad guy!

Painting Music

I hate painting quiet into the night... I'm usually a black music kinda guy, hop-hop, jazz, soul and R&B... but when I paint, LP gives me the drive, keeps me awake... Whats your sound? drop ur beats..... Let me know what ur listening so we can cut through this b*tich together...

Space Wolves Long Fangs WIP

Just to keep up with my obligations to my buddy Ray in terms of painting, here are my new long fangs. I've spent about 6 or so hours so far... 40k is really a love/hate relationship for like all my relationships with girls... You love them, but there are def. times I wanna twist off their heads.

Nothing really unique about my style, pretty much standard procedure. The only thing is I try to get them done the cheapest way possible. instead of using gw's matt black spray paint, I use any kind of matte black spray I can find at hardware stores for 3 reasons.

1. Price. I ain't payin gw S**T... $20 hong kong roughly around $2.50 usd, i can get the same sized spray can instead of whatever the obscene amount gw demands...

2. Spray paints sold at hardware stores tend to be less fine than hobby grade sprays. This can be used to your advantage when you decide to dry brush and highlights as the rougher spray tends to pick up better and therefore saving time on dry brushing without re-applying layers that appear to be too faint. You will need to get a feel for this first...

3. Your basecoat should always be the most important layer. I could care less if you can paint Sistine chapel on your model if your colors peel off due to crappy base coats. Hard ware grade spray paints are designed to hold onto almost anything... My neighbor's spotted chihuahua will agree with me. With that said, there is also no longer the need for metal primers for metaloid minis and therefore saving you even more money... Please note, metal models will still chip if you are not careful. The reason is paints is softer than metal... You will still want to purity seal the model.

Thanks for reading guys...