Yellow: the least popular color in 40K

I am referring to the Imperial Fists space marines.  I have a project I was thinking of starting this weekend (but didn't) in which I paint up one good model from various chapters to make up Pedro Kantor's Honor Guard squad (I call it Operation: Royal Flush or the Royal Flush Gang -- just don't tell DC comics that).  So I was looking in the SM Codex for inspiration, and you know what?  The only IF model in the whole book is Captain Lysander. The whole damn space marine codex.

AND I just came from Barnes and Noble and was perusing the BL bookshelves, and saw "The Architect of Fate" which shows the drawing of an Imperial Fist marine on the spine, indicating it is probably in the battles series featuring that iconic chapter, right?  But the cover shows no IF marines that I can see!  The main feature is a Changer of the Way and a lot of shadow-shrouded and dead-looking marines, but I don't see a damn shade of yellow on there at all.

Is this chapter so unpopular that GW can't risk low sales by showing them on the cover art of their own book??  Or feature all the painted glory of said chapter--a FOUNDING chapter by the way--in the codex itself???  Seems pretty ridiculous.  Maybe it's that, like the Ultramarines (though they do get the most glory), the Imperial Fists are so generically space marine that they just don't attract much attention from fans.  Of course, if you google them for images you'll find plenty from hobbyists who disagree (fortunately for me and my research).

  

House Rules: Snap Shots

So I was just out mowing the lawn and sweating my butt off, which is a good time for thinking about stuff (not as good as the shower or the crapper, but not bad).  And what I was thinking was how much I didn't like some of the restrictions on the new snap shots rules.  Of course there's always something to complain about with a new edition, that's half the fun of it, but here's my logic...

Weapons that fire blast, large blast, or template patterns cannot snap shot under the new 6th edition 40K rules.  Snap shot's a great idea that allows some units that went to waste in previous editions to get their weapons to bear more often.  I'm all for that, but let's say you have a missile launcher.  If your marine fires a krak missile on the move, no problem, pull the trigger and let fly.  But if he fires a frag missile, coming out of the same steel tube and pushing the same little red button, whole different ball game, can't do it.  The missile no doubt looks the same, it's just the effect on detonation.  So here's my proposed solution...

Blast and Large Blast weapons fired as snap shots:  The firer rolls 3D6 (instead of 2D6 as usual) along with the scatter die and must discard the lowest result.  Do not subtract 1 for the BS 1 -- it's too wild a shot.  If a hit is rolled on the scatter consider it the same as a 6 for a normal snap shot: right on target.
(Technically there's a 2 out of 6 chance of rolling a hit, rather than 1 of 6 of rolling a 6, but we'll just consider it off-set by the more extreme deviation when it does scatter, okay?)

Flamer Template weapons fired as snap shots:  Similar concept.  Jerking that thing around in a hurry may be dangerous for everyone around you--and even for you!.  Place the template where you would like it to land.  Roll a scatter die and 1D6, but do not subtract the BS 1 from this total. Measure from the circle at the center of the template's business end and scatter as rolled keeping the pointy end pointing at the firer as much as possible.  This may hit friends as well as foes, the firer himself, and even separate the pointy end of the template from the weapon barrel -- that's fine.  Consider it the wild arc of the flame (or whatever energy or chemical), jumping up and coming down hard.  This is the risk you take if you choose to snap shot such a weapon.  (And if it deviates backward at all, guess who's getting hit...?)

I think that would work great and make for more exciting games.  What do you think???

Rainy Sunday on Rynn's World

So after posting about deadlines and being so busy, I woke up today and it was actually RAINING here in San Antonio.  That makes maybe 10 times in the year that we've lived here?  And it is STILL raining, nice and steady, about 6 hours later.  So I decided that on a nice, cool, rainy Sunday, I was doing some painting damn it!

I looked at my options last night, thinking I'd like to bust our the brushes I haven't used in months, but when I saw the growing list of models I wanted to assemble and/or paint, the wind rushed back out of my sails.  It was too much.  I was overwhelmed and hadn't even started yet.  What was the point?

But the cool wet breeze got me moving today so I picked the best two of my Crimson Fist Devastator squad that still needed colors and went to work.  It was pretty quick and I decided I wouldn't sweat over the small stuff too much.  (I have to suppress my inner perfectionist and just be satisfied with my work, else I'll never paint anything and never be done.)  Right now I'm happy with the results.  Later, when the perfectionist returns and I look again under a different light source, who knows...?

I was most eager to paint my heavy bolter, and while I liked the helmeted look he had going on, I tore off his head with some needle-nose pliers and added a Rambo-esque screamer from the Sanguary Guard kit.  I like it.  Imagine him roaring at enemy almost as loud as his weapon does!

The base colors went on fast -- royal blue dry brushed with a lighter combo, black on the big bolter with a very quick silver drybrushing, then the hands and chest plate, easy stuff.  The head took the longest -- it's probably the same with everyone who paints miniatures, but I find the smallest things take the most time.  I spent more time on the head than the whole blue body, drybrushing and all.  And it really wasn't that much work -- flesh colored, then flesh and brown mix on the hair, then a couple washes till I got it the way I liked. Plus drilling a handle drill bit in the bottom to make it all easier to work on.  I am also finding that just mass producing models ("mass" being the wrong word since I turn out a dozen models a year on average) isn't good enough for me -- they almost all have to have some individual flare, some small bit of personality.  This guy's got it.

I actually salvaged this missile launcher marine's red helmet from another model who had served as a double-wielding bolter and pistol sternguard model of mine.  But when I decided to go Spartan on the sternguard squad (hopefully coming soon), I disassembled that model for parts and kept the head safe, knowing I'd want to use it on someone else.  So after a head transplant, this guy got himself a better brain for picking targets.  He was quick to paint simultaneously with the HB model, and with the same technique.  The previous owner also based this model, which is simple and looks good enough for me -- though I still didn't bother painting it.  Someday.

Whenever I get the whole squad done it'll be another "Heavy Handed" blog episode for my Crimson Fist army.  If I get another nice rainy day sometime soon, that may not be far behind.

HAUNTED HOUSE, EMPTY HOUSE

Long time, no blog.  My original idea was to have at least a blog entry a week.  That would keep me motivated and on-track and keep up a nice web presence, right?  Then again, is anyone actually reading this stuff…?  Hello?  HELLO? 

hello… hello… [echo]

Well recently real life has been getting in the way.  Most notably we have been house hunting for almost a month now.  My work days start at 5am and on the days we’ve been checking out houses they don’t end until 7 or 8pm. That’s a long damn day.  Even now that we’ve found a house (and a nice one too) it doesn’t get much easier, what with the paperwork and all.  All that on top of a 50+ hour work week and family time and everything else, needless to say I am behind on my personal objectives, most importantly writing.  A couple weeks ago I realized that blogging was going to have to take a backseat, maybe to every other week.  Hopefully I can still maintain that (I should be able to, anyway).

But even back-logged, I’m still trudging forward.  I am currently working on a story formerly known to me as "Vermin", the first draft of which I wrote about 5 years ago (maybe more) and am now rewriting.  My hope is to have it ready to submit to the Writers of the Future Contest but the cap there is 17,000 words (about 50 pages) and as of right now this story is beyond that.  After some reworking and harsh editing, who knows?  But I’d like to be done and have it submitted by September 30^th, which is a pretty harsh and fast-approaching deadline.  If it doesn’t all work out “Prince” may be an e-book available soon.  Then I’d like to have my book-length collection One-Eyed Jacks done by November 30^th because  one of the stories featured in it will be the weekly audio-story told on the horror-zine podcast Pseudopod.org.  (Be sure to tune in for that, it’s free! Don't worry, I'll remind you...)  But that gives me only 2 months to rewrite, revise, and reformat what will likely be nearly 200 pages of material.  May not make it.  Thus, again, blogging takes a back seat.

So I’m not disappearing, just wandering around inside my new haunted house; perhaps I fell through a trapdoor or the bookshelf moved and swallowed me up.  Just don’t tune out completely, cuz I’m still here with more blogging fun to come, I promise!  I have one more X-men entry to make (Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and went through a very brief Blood Angels period last week (cheatin' vampire bastards).

Here's a couple of teaser pics just to get things started (for whenever it is I get time to follow-up):