Triple dose of Warhammer 40K goodness

It's been a while since I've blogged about Warhammer 40,000, so today's three good things for you to enjoy.

1) Dawn of War II Video out
If you even remotely enjoyed Dawn of War (quite possibly the best Warhammer 40K game to date, ever), then you need to check this out. It's quite the awesome video of what's to come in the gnarly sequel.

In case you missed the link, here it is again.

2) Games Workshop Design Studio podcast!
I'm especially pleased with this. I listen personally to a glut of good gaming and tech podcast on a daily / weekly basis and I'm quite pleased that Games Workshop has decided to embrace the social and be a lot more open with the thinking behind the games.

The first episode is pretty good with Alessio Cavatore talking about 5th Edition and what he was thinking when he was designing the thing. Kudos to Games Workshop, a very good PR move indeed.

Grab it here.

3) My Eldar Avatar



Here's my latest (un-finished) painting project. It's got about a week's worth of painting on it (whenever I can squeeze a bit of time) and I'm pretty pleased with the layering and blending on it. My best so far.

The technique I used was pretty simple, just watered down Scab Red to wash over the black undercoat and then progressive layering with 50-50 mixes all the way up to Blood Red. I'll post the finish pic once I finally get around to finishing it.

Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Video!

Just saw this from someone elses blog. It's coming, and I'm quite, quite excited.

Guess what I'm going to be doing tonight?

Being the Warhammer 40k fanboy that I am, I can't stop grinning ear-to-ear as I'm working through today. Because I'm already thinking of what I'll be doing tonight. Because this morning, I just got this:




Ah, Dawn of War: Soulstorm. I've been waiting for the chance to take my real-world tabletop army to the virtual battlefield, and was among the geeks to punch my fist in the air and shout "YES!" when the Sisters of Battle was announced as a new faction.

Now, this (model painted by me):



Can become, this:


Watch out, heretics will burn tonight.

Latest paint job: Callidus Assassin

Time to diffuse the politics-heavy talk with a bit of hobbying.

I finished painting up my Callidus Assassin last week and I must say I'm pretty pleased with the paint job. This is the first time i drybrushed over black and it looks neater than I expected. I also did a bit more extensive modding to the base of the miniature with a skeleton taken from the D&D miniature range and repainted the skelly to look more warhammer-ish.

Callidus Assassins are perhaps the most insidious of all Officio Assassinorium operatives, able to change their appearance into just about anyone with Poly-Morphine. In game terms, this means you can alter the deployment of your enemy leaving his transport stranded on one end of the table or off-position his heavy weapons team. Polymorphine also means she can appear anywhere within the enemy and charge into battle the same turn with her powerful C'tan blade.

Best of all, she's a beauty to look at on the tabletop.


Callidus in front.


Callidus at the back

The Obligatory Valentines Post

I love Lydia a lot and in this, our 7th year together, we get to celebrate our Valentines Day in a simple way for the first time as a married couple.

Just to share a picture of us eating at Carl's Jr:



And... not to forget, the best Valentine's gift ever (for now):



Just a quick short post to say "Thanks dear, love you forever!" Always will.

Latest Paint Jobs: Saint Celestine & Brother Captain Davion

Besides visiting people and disseminating Ang Pows, I spent my Chinese New Year painting some. Actually, these two have been projects for about three weeks now and it's just that I got some time during Chinese New Year to put the finishing touches to them.

Here they are... together with some self-written fluff (backgrounds).

Saint Celestine
She's the living icon of the Sisters of Battle and the Ordo Hereticus. A repentia (think crazy suicidal woman) that met her death in battle but miraculously came back to life. In gaming terms, she's an overcosted special character that gets to come back to life as long as she keeps passing leadership tests.

Painting-wise, I used thhe standard three-layer technique (basecoat, Highlight 1 and Highlight 2), together with Chestnut Ink for the Burnished Gold armor and a Flesh Wash for the fleshy bits. The most challenging part was making the fiery effect of the sword, which I still haven't mastered, and adding gloss varnish to the Lava streams on the base so as to create the "wet" effect.





Brother-Captain Davion
This is your standard Grey Knight Hero model, remodeled with a Psycannon instead of the standard storm-bolter. I needed an avatar on the field of battle and so I made him Davion (a derivative of my name lah). Haven't come up with a fluff story for him yet.

I love static grass, and all my Grey Knights are based with liberal amounts of Static Grass because it contrasts great with the mechanical looking grey-steel armour. Best thing I love about painting grey knights is the liberal amount of inking and drawing I get to do with my felt tip pen. All the icons are hand drawn, as is his insignia.







That's it for this update! Let me know what you think?

Almost done - Grey Knights

Gone done myself some painting for me latest army. And I'm so excited, I have to share them here.

These Grey Knights are the best of the Imperium and the Emperor's finest. Got a bit of static grass on them. I'll have to pull that off tonight... o_O

It's Christmas time...

So yesterday, Lydia asked me an interesting question: "Should we start shopping for Christmas this now?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"What are you going to get your guys this year ah?"

"Dunno, haven't thought of it yet. Maybe a pot of paint for Dillon and Ernest."

Then it struck me. It's pretty difficult to choose stuff for people that they actually use instead of consigning to a box sitting in a corner and collecting dust. I get a lot of stuff that I don't use from people. Stuff like candles, jigsaw puzzles, photo frames... (I have so many candles, I can light up my house just with candles for three days)

So, to help my friends out, here's a list of stuff I'm looking at for Christmas :) here goes:

1. Wood Elf Spellsinger from Games Workshop (about RM 50). I need a mage for my wood elf army, so... this is something I'll probably need. Of course, any other miniatures from the Wood Elf or Orcs & Goblin ranges are welcome. :)



2. Absolute Sandman Volume 2 (About RM 300++). This is a whopper, but darn good read. I have Volume 1 and have spent some time staring longingly at Volume 2. Sigh, cannot afford to buy. And I tell Lydia it's too expensive to buy for me (coz she ain't got no cash either).
3. Random Stylish Kitchenware (RMXX). I'm gonna move into my new house soon and we'll need to get some new kitchenware when that happens. Preferably black / white dishes or metal fork / spoon sets. :)

4. Listerine (RM 14). I use mouthwash religiously and some people suspect I drink mouthwash like coke. Haha... glad you think I have the power to metabolise so much alcohol, but I don't. Listerine Tartar Control is something I'd use.


5. Sports Shorts (RM 20 - 40). Size M, Waist about 32. Elastic type preferred. This is really what I need when I go to gym because I only have two pairs now and if I don't get more, a bit the hard lah - have to wash everyday. Most "Dai" if you buy from Jusco when Holiday sale starts.So there you have it, davidlian's top 5 most wanted Christmas gifts. :) Some aspirational stuff. Some practical stuff. What'dya waitin' for? Get crackin'!

Project Wood Elf Lord: Nearly Complete

I've been blogging very sporadically lately, and here's why:

He's one mean elf...

Even from the back.

Less blogging means more painting. Nice or not?

So I got back at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday...

It was already pretty late and I was all tired out - was sick, you see.

But then, I got a little bit of cheer in my mail:

Yup! The box of glade guard I won from listening to podhammer! I guess listening to podcasts does pay off. :)

thanks Jeff!

I'm a winner!

You know how your mother always tells you you're someone special and that you'll grow up to be a winner? Remember all those colouring contests you entered, when your mom crowed and cooed how beautiful your colouring was, but the judges didn't seem to appreciate it and you never won anything?

Yup, I entered quite a number of colouring contests, and my one win was a miserable skateboard which I never got around using.

Well, yesterday night, I did finally win something I would really appreciate! Props goes to Jeff Carroll, the host of this wonderful show - Podhammer.

As you may know, I'm a bit of a Warhammer junkie (for the uninitiated, it's a game where you have two grown men hunched over a "realistic" looking board and commanding little toy men to go into battle with each other). Podhammer is for fans of this game (particularly Warhammer Fantasy).

So Jeff ran a contest in Episode 4 of Podhammer where he said he'd offer an AUD$ 50 box set for the person with the best story about how he got into Warhammer. I was just listening to Episode 5, and... I won!

I'm so happy! This is the best prize ever - thanks Jeff!
Here's what the prize will look like once I'm done painting them - hopefully. If you like Warhammer Fantasy - or even 40k - I really encourage you to surf right over to www.podhammer.net and take a look.