Deathwatch Movie Stars

Today I wanted to get a post out about my most recent endeavor. The Movie Marines. This is a completely illegal, unapproved, and probably broken army list that was published in US WD300. The idea is to make space marines as tough as they should be based on the books and movies. Now, to be fair, any space marine that is as powerful as the books make them is probably too powerful for normal games, but in Apocalypse, anything goes.

This idea is my basis for creating these super marines. I wanted something fun to have if I play in any Apocalypse games. These guys should easily fit the bill.

Now for the design. The Movie Marine list expects the following units:
1 Space Marine Sergeant (bolt pistol, chainsword, and grenades)
0-1 Space Marine Dude (bolter and grenades)
0-6 Space Marines (bolter and grenades)
0-1 Space Marine with Flamer (flamer and grenades)
0-1 Space Marine with Missile Launcher (missile launcher and grenades)
0-1 Rhino or Razorback

So basically, I need 10 Marines and their transport, but, as these are no ordinary marines, I felt it necessary to make these bigger than standard. This is where I happened upon multiple articles about making 'truescale' marines. This is a technique of using different parts, greenstuff and a lot of ingenuity to create marines that are bigger than normal.

So far I have been able to 'complete' two of my models. Here they are for your review.


The basis for my marines are terminator legs, front torsos, and arms. Added to these are standard marine backs, packs and weapons. Last there is a lot of greenstuff work to fill out the terminator legs and arms.

Additionally, I chose to be a bit more creative with my weapon selections. Since the Movie Marine weapons are much more powerful than their normal counterparts, I chose to use larger weapons to help show the stronger nature. As such, the Sergeants bolt pistol was replaced by a modified single barrel stormbolter, the chainsword switched with a chainfist, and bolters swapped with marine heavy bolters.


Here is my customized banner pole for my Sergeant. I added the Deathwatch logo to the banner using greenstuff and a skull bit.


One other cool effect I chose to use are the Cinematic Effects by Armourcast. These are cool little ways to create that extra special look for key characters. As my movie marines are all special, most will likely include these additional effects.

So the above shots show a number of angles of the Sergeant. Originally, I had edged the shoulder pads, but the plastic kept cracking, so I decided to remove this. I may go back and add greenstuff for the ridge detail, but I haven't decided if I want to take on that effort. My greenstuff skills are not the best.

Here is my first marine with bolter. I am not sure if he will be a normal guy, or my Dude, but he at least is completed. This was a lot more effort as I had to completely remake his arms with greenstuff.





Last I wanted to give a shot of these guys with a regular space marine. I have chosen an AoBR marine to help show the scale difference in my new truescale marines versus the normal marines.


So, now I am interested in every ones opinion. Do these look good? Am I going overboard with the heavy bolters in place of bolters? Should I do the heavy bolters but eliminate the backpacks and ammo feeds? Please let me know your thoughts.

Batrep: 2nd Annual LotR Independant GT (Mesa, AZ)

Hello everyone,

Well, it has been nearly a week since the dust has settled from the GitD event. I know you are all wondering how well I did, well let me go over each round first.

The event was held at Empire Games in Mesa, AZ. This was a awesome venue. There was lots, and I really mean LOTS, of space for gaming. Also the store was stocked full of merchandise. This was a welcome sight as many of the game stores I have been to locally have been a bit lacking in product. Anyway, there were plenty of Gaming tables and the tables were solidly built at standing height, although some had a few issues.

So, my list for the GitD event was an expansion of my November Primer list. It was also the same army I played against Dragi, Dean and Tim in December and January, so I had been getting a little experience with the army and its good parts and bad parts.

First my list:
Dol Amroth Fiefdoms

Imrahil Prince of Dol Amroth(Mounted)
7x Knights of Dol Amroth(Mounted)
12x Knights of Dol Amroth(Foot)
8 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth
4 Axemen of Lossarnache
12 Rangers of Gondor

Total Models:44
Bows: 12

The GT had 5 rounds; Bilbo’s Treasure, Light the Beacons, Look to the East, The Artifact, and The Last Alliance. Basically these boiled down to 3 pitched battles, a modified Capture the Prize, and a To the Death.

Game 1 (Bilbo’s Treasure) - Opponent Frank Brown

Yes, that Frank Brown. The winner of the last years Tournament Circuit. The one who came last year and took best overall at the first GitD. That Frank Brown. Yes, I shuddered when I found out who I was up against.

Dol Amroth versus Gondor(Led by Boromir, Baragond, and I think Cirion). This was a tough matchup and a tough game overall. We squared off across a Realm of Battle table that was modeled to have a large hill in the center which also had a ruin of some sort on top. The main objective was kill the enemy army, however the secondary objective was to find ‘Bilbos Treasure’. Across the table were 6 burial sites that could contain the treasure. At the beginning of the game we rolled a D6 which would identify which pile was correct, but we have to dig the pile up to find out. The game started out with both Frank and I racing our armies forward and I was lucky to have a slightly easier path to 4 of the 6 treasures. Unfortunately, none of them had the treasure and Frank was able to find its location first. The mission allowed Frank to take the treasure to any board edge, which his was still closest so he started making for that edge while I engaged his main line on both sides of the ruin.

Imrahil showed his strength here as his banner ability helped sustain my line to allow my side more winning fights, and also he held his ground against a attack by Boromir and his pile of Might. In the end however, Imrahil was still standing and the treasure was still on the board when time was called

Outcome: Draw(10 pts)

Game 2 (Light the Beacons) - Opponent Howard Beam

Dol Amroth version Last Alliance Elves and Numenorians. Howards Elves and Numenorian army was awesome to see. His painting is truly top notch! Anyway, the objective of the mission was to light as many beacons as possible and then eliminate the opposing army. Setup saw me take advantage of my side, while limiting Howard’s options to only 2 paths around impassible water.

Unfortunately, I was unable to capitalize on this as I moved my Knights incorrectly by forest, not knowing that they cannot charge in the trees. Oops. Bad move and probably cost me the game. This had the effect of eliminating Imrahil from being a benefit as he was out of position the entire game. I was able to light 5 of the beacons though gaining me 2.5 additional bonus points.

Outcome: Draw(10 pts + 2.5 Bonus Points).

Game 3 (Look to the East) - Opponent Andrey Zubkov

This was an interesting game. We were on the Mirkwood forest table which had lots of trees and difficult terrain scattered across the entire table. The missing called for us to deploy half our models and keep the other half in reserve as they would enter the ‘east’ board edge during play. East is relative as it was really from the right for each player. For this I tried using my right side of the table to help keep my models together and thought I had done well as when I got my reserves to enter Andrey was about a third of the way across the table and was still missing his reserves. I decided (incorrectly) to deploy Imrahil and my mounted Knights behind Andrey’s line in a hope to engage and squash them. Unfortunately, his Moronon Orcs were tougher than I thought and my attacks broke like the ocean against the beach. His wraith transfixed or compelled Imrahil for 5 straight rounds (3 of which he was attacked) but Imrahil held his own through seriously lucky rolls. That can’t be said for the rest of my models though and when time was called and the math added up, I was 8 point past the cut for a draw.

Outcome: Minor Loss(7 pts)

Game 4 (The Artifact) - Opponent Robert Brightwell

So I had played Rob before in the past and had seen a prior iteration of his Angmar list at the last GitD. Rob did make changes, including the addition of wild wargs and a shade. Overall this mission was a good matchup. The mission was to collect the Artifact from the center of the table and then carry it off the opponent’s table edge. The artifact could be carried by any model (mounted or foot) but could only be dug up by models on foot.

Well, I was able to run for the artifact and extract it prior to Rob getting his orcs to me but then the real game started as I tried to figure out a way around or through his defensive line. At first I thought I could take the artifact off his left side(where his wargs had deployed) as my knights had done well in the prior round engaging them, unfortunately as I committed my knight to the direction my dice failed me as the next round saw nearly every knight gone and the wargs in the free. I think the major factor in this however was the shade with its Fight lowering ability. Man does that hurt!

Well, I had to change my knights’ direction and by this time I had caused Robs rights side to collapse back on it leaving a nice path to freedom. This is the direction I took and eventually won just prior to time being called (I think it was like 2 minutes)

Outcome: Major Victory(20 pts)

Game 5 (The Last Alliance) - Opponent Keith Hruska

Dol Amroth against Dol Amroth on the Osgiliath table. This was a tough match that really only had a chance to end in a draw. Considering the terrain and the matchup of models it devolved into a simply pushing match as he pushed me one round and I pushed back the next. We both lost very few models this entire game.

Highlight was 6 Rangers of Gondor holding up all of Keith’s Knights the entire game, effectively eliminating them from any concerns.

Outcome: Draw(10 pts)

In all, I was 11th out of the 20 players. I had a great time and Tim and Dean put on another great LotR tournament!

Round Robin (Tom Bombadil)

So the guys over at AWC came up with this cool experiment called the Round Robin Painting Event. The idea was that each painter would select a single 25mm based model and assign 1 of 4 tasks to various painters and then ship the model off. Each painter would complete his/her task and then mail the model to the next person in line.

Well, the first of those models has finally made it to me for basing work. But before I go over what I did, let us take a look at the model throughout the process. Remember that at each step the model was painted by a new painter and so the overall result is a collaborative effort.

First Lets identify the model owner and selected painters.

BrentS decided to do Tom Bombadil.

His selected painters are:
Basecoat: BostonNazgul
Details: Knitemare
Washes/Hightlights: Mouth of Sauron
Basing: JLong05

Now I do not have a primed picture, but I assume he was all black. Below are the pictures after BostonNazgul had completed the base coat colors on good old Tom.



Details were completed by Knitemare, but alas pictures were unavailable, I believe the forces of Mordor somehow caused a failure in the photo process, rendering any pictures at that time un-viewable. Sad really as Tom really did look good after his details had been completed.

Next up was Mouth of Sauron(aka Smeagol) who worked next on completing highlights and shading. Here are the completed shots of Tom after his highlighting was done.



Last was myself(jlong05). I had the final job of basing the model. As I had a blank slate I really spent some time thinking over the 'best' look for a base. Taking into account Tom and his surrounding, I just got this feeling of fields of grass with some occasional stones. In fact the pose is almost as if Tom is pondering how to clear his grassy field. Anyway, this ended up making my decision and so after applying a base of Ceramic Stucco and painting it browns for earth tones I then added the slate for rocks. Last I added static grass to the entire base to give the effect of Tom standing in the middle of his grassy field.

Here are some additional shots of the final model.





So tell me what you all think. I know this wasn't done completely by me, but what do you think of the idea of multiple painters/modelers collaborating of a model to create a single finished product? For me it was fun. Stay tuned as additional models I am involved with show up and I detail their travels and process.

Red Dragon(Final) - Ent

Yeah.

I was able to find magnetic paint and so was able to finish my display base for my Red Dragon Entry. Basically it is some ornate wood rounds that I glued and nailed together. After sanding them smooth and then applying a magnetic paint primer(Basically it is paint with iron particles included) I was able to complete the black top coat for a finished look. So I am now officially ready for the 2nd annual Gathering in the Desert.

Red Dragon(Part 4) Base Completed

Oh my heck. I received a pile of comments on multiple sites for this model and I want to say Thank You to everyone who gave me suggestions and comments. Your input was greatly appreciated.

As I received such an outpouring of comments, I felt it necessary to use their recommendations and expand on the basing that I had done. I wasn't fully happy with the base previously, but with suggestions of really adding material to represent the crowded Fangorn Forest floor, I felt the need to add some additional work onto the model. I think it really does help make the model stand out even more. So again. Thanks for the comments!

Above is the final model as a complete picture. I felt close-ups of the base alone wouldn't put the entire model in the right perspective. I also included shots of the front and back of the model's base to show the dense forest growth and the narrow paths that I envision to be part of traveling through Fangorn Forest.


So. As a final update prior to my display base being completed (Hopefully before next Friday) I hope to get your final thoughts on my entry and what you all think my chances are if this was entered into a GT painting competition. I know its always an unknown on who will enter, but in general what are the thoughts?