Can the Department of Homeland Security please not unpack my models this time?

As most of you know, I'm shipping out for the States next week for a fortnight (cue jokes of, "We'll see you in six months then, ho ho ho!") and right now I'm packing the important stuff for the trip.

Yep, I'm packing up my toy soldiers.

Well, there is a tournament in a month's time (Bristol Vanquish , if you're interested http://www.bristolvanguard.co.uk/BV/Vanquish_09.html).

I need to get some painting done for said tournament, and I need to something to do whilst I'm out there, so I might as well take the Fists. I may even get a game or two at GW Stoneridge Mall (or if you're Willard Foxton, GW San Dimas - Wyld Stallyns!).

Anyhow, this is the main thing I'm going to be painting - a squad of Thunder Hammer Terminators.

They're very bad ass, in theory. They'll be led by Captain Hammer himself, Captain Lysander, and most likely the good Dr Octavius. I had considered taking Captain Shrike (modelling a yellow, lightning clawed, jump packed captain and calling him Captain Strike) to make them all super fast Teriminators, but that was by common consent, too bent for words. So, the one man wrecking crew, the unit-in-a-model, the man with eight limbs that is Forgemaster Octavius will be joining Lysander in building bases and smashing aliens.

In other news, I've been cooking more lately. In a terrible bout of middle aged middle classness, Dom, Ben and I have been comparing notes on cookery. Dom did a very nice Normandie Pork chop with apple cider sauce and shallots and some very tasty meatballs in special sauce. Ben and I have been concentrating on Chinese, particularly from Ching-He Huang's book. Here's a picture of my chilli chicken and noodle with spring onion garnish.

I've also done some sweet and sour chicken (sauce made from scratch) for our gaming night on Monday. Everyone said it was good, so either it was, or they're just trying not to hurt my feelings. I choose to believe the former.

Snowmen and other fun

I'd meant to put these up earlier, but through a combination of slackness and other things didn't quite get round to it. The weather's been... unusual lately - just the opportunity for everyone to slack off and frolick in the snow instead of going to work and school. Unfortunately, walking to work these days I didn't have much excuse to stay at home. Although at least one morning I did leave the house and Jason with, "I'm just going outside - I may be some time".

Anyway, Laura came up at the weekend and we built a snowman, which was a lot of fun.



We couldn't exactly agree on what to call him, so as a compromise, he became known as Bob Frosty.

And then Dom forwarded me this photo - no idea where it is, but there's some great ones in there. Check out Ninja snowman (he's camouflaged), alien snowman, and Bert and Ernie Snowmen. Jason now has it as his computer desktop.



Continuing the snowman theme, we have Calvin and Hobbes. On seeing these photos, Jason said, "It's all very Calvin and Hobbes". So I investigated (i.e. I typed Calvin Hobbes Snowman into Google) and came up with these gems:




And finally, a real life version. Which is AWESOME.



ACTUALLY finally, I had to post this as well. Although it's on Youtube, I didn't actually find it there... I found it in a much geekier place...

"Small cars parked in fields fear many things... They fear discovery, they fear retribution, but most of all, they fear the Wrath of the Space Marines!!!"

I had been planning to write a new post this week (I don't update this as often as I should) and it was going to something cheerful and jolly, like playing in snow and with silly models.

But right now I don't feel like it. The father of a good friend of mine has died this week, and I'm sitting here feeling increasingly angry about it. I'm not sure what I'm angry at in particular, but I do know that it shouldn't have happened. I also feel sad that now I shall never get the chance to meet a man I've heard so much about, who sounded so witty, brave and interesting. I find myself wondering how many more are going to be affected by the times we live in.

I'm so sorry for you Will, and all your friends are here for you if you need us. You've got our phone numbers.

Everything is Easier with Four Extra Limbs

As it happened, they didn't all return. One of them never made it to Nottingham. Like a moron, I managed to leave one of the Scouts at home 'guarding' the painting table, necessiating the borrowing of one of Jason's spare Mantis Warrior Scouts. Oops.

Anyway, we had a great time at the 40k Doubles tournament. We finished mid-table, with three wins, a draw and three losses. We also got nominated for best army, but as Willard Foxton correctly predicted, were beaten by Andrew and Nicola's Black Dragons and Witch Hunters. I'm forced to concede that their victory was entirely justified.

In gaming terms, I think we did pretty well given the entirely non-bent army that we took. A good mix of infantry, vehicles and characters. Unlike some armies that were there - common themes were dual Daemon Prince with Lash of Slaanesh, Tyranid monstrous creature armies, and Orks. Lots of Orks. Principally Ork Warbike bosses with nobz bikes that then become a Troops choice, aaargh! Fortunately we didn't meet those. As Jason pointed out, we didn't win enough games to face them (At this point may I apologise to the startled man in the lunch queue who looked somewhat shocked when a complete stranger berated him as 'a total bender' for taking said army). Our army was a lot of fun to use, with the stand out components being:

• Dr. Octavius, Forgemaster of the Imperial Fists. With his four extra robotic arms, mounting claws, flmaethrowers and plasma cutters, he's a whole unit in one model! His ability to build a base also helps.
• Librarian Shimio of the Mantis Warriors. Has the 'Gate of Infinity' power (or teleport to you and me) which he uses to drive what became known as 'The Fun-Vee' ("I'm sorry, this is the Fun-Vee. The Humdrum-Vee is back there"). This was himself, ten more Space Marines and later Dr. Octavius jumping around the board, setting fire to things and generally being rowdy. But with psychic powers.
• The Imperial Fists Whirlwind Artillery tank. No-one really expected this one. Certainly not Owen Rees and his Master of the Ravenwing Landspeeder, which we proceeded to fire missiles at the back of.

Here are some of the highlights of the weekend (I'll post a seperate article featuring the Fists, just for you Will!):

Paul McCabe desperately finishes his army in Bugman's bar on Saturday morning AGAIN. Despite being nominated for best army (along with GW Cribs' Johnny), some of his models were still on the sprue ten mintues before the first game.

The Imperial Fists bravely charge over the top towards the most powerful tank in the game, the Land Raider. Hmm, good luck with that.

In a fortunate bit of desperate rulebook flipping, we found that Jason's Dreadnought was able to clamber on top of the enemy's wrecked tanks, thus saving the Fun-Vee from the terrible Twin Chaos Lords, J'aake and El-Wood.

Andrew, Nicola, Jason and I celebrate after winning the Bugman's Pub Quiz. Hurrah for free drinks!

Our combined army having been nominated for best painted.

Andrew's Witch Hunters

Nicola's Black Dragons.

Will Hayes' and partner's Ork Band.

A very cool Ork Warboss on bike conversion, modelled in a General Grievous style rolling machine thing. Note the Squig being dragged after him.

Owen Rees' slightly bizarre Watcher in the Dark mounted on Cyber-Manticore.

A very cool Apocalypse board (12' x 6') with an Eldar artefact being excavated by gaint diggers and bulldozers behind an Imperial Fortress. The attackers go up hill through a ruined town, taking cover behind wrecked Titans and Baneblade.

A demonic red cow we spotted on our way back from Bugman's to the hotel on Saturday night. Despite being drunk, it turned out be real.

An only slightly less terrifying thought for many of you, I'm sure - Warhammer World's gaming hall, filled with over 250 gamers.

Finally, GW had a display of their old Warhammer sets in cabinets at the front. This one in particular caught our eye. Jason: "Hmmm... He is pretty tragic".

BRING THEM VICTORY OR BRING THEM DEATH

The mighty Imperial Fists march to war this weekend, resplendant in their new colour scheme. Led by Forgemaster Dr. Octavius, this brave band of men, with their allies the Mantis Warriors (who are much more dubious and much less glorious) will attempt to destroy the alien menace. How many will return? Will any? Find out next week, and wish them good luck and Godspeed!

Can I put those points into shooting please?

As most of you know, I've spent my weekends being a terrible tourist here in California. However, rather than spend my weekday evenings like a terrible business traveller getting drunk in my hotel room/at the hotel bar, I've been pootling down to the local Games Workshop at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton. By pure coincidence, this is a five minute walk from my hotel. The staff there are a great bunch of guys, with manager Greg, and Eric, Kev and Chase. Basically, all GW's around the world are pretty much the same, same layout, same stock, same kind of people frequenting them, same quotes being bandied about. The only difference is the accents. Or as Eric put it (referring to the staff's love of Monty Python and Eddie Izzard), "It's either British accents or bad British accents".

Anyway, as it turns out, staff member Kev, who I got on really well with, is a former US Marine. Also, one of his roles was as rifle and pistol instructor. On hearing that I'd never fired a hand gun, he offered to take me to the local range and "Teach me how to shoot like a marine". How could I pass that up?


So we went to 'TargetMasters' (wow, the Transformers references are coming almost one a post) shooting range in Milpitas and Kev picked a .357 Magnum (yes, the Dirty Harry one) and off we went. Apparently I did pretty good for a beginner.



It was all very GURPS - how can I up my gun skill? You mean I can't live in a skip filled with guns? Ooh, tenuous method that's allowed! Now I know what it's like being Bob's character in an RPG.

Boys vs. Robot

My latest purchase from GW - a Space Marine Scout squad, led by Sergeant Telion, equipped with Camo Cloaks and Bolt Guns. I've modified the original sniper rifles to look like Bolter/Assault Rifles with Suppressors. These chaps are going to be Imperial Fists, but with a reversed colour scheme of Carbon Black body armour with very small amounts of yellow trim. Sergeant Telephone has had all his Ultramarines markings removed and will be painted as a Fist also. Might take these to the Doubles Tournament, but they come to a lot of points. But hey, the alternative was a single clanky robot with a giant death hammer. Hang on, what am I thinking?