Lucky

As trite as it might sound, and how often friends have said similar things, it occurs to me that I'm very lucky to be able to get involved in my hobbies as much as I am, and don't have to worry about whether or not I get to eat tonight, or whether I can safely sleep.  Maybe those thoughts deserve a little more thought.

Trade and additions

A few weeks ago a friend mentioned that he had a small 40k army someone had given him some time ago that he was going to sell before moving out of state while we were talking about different games.  He's a big Magic the Gathering player and I happened to have a collection I started in about '93 that had been sitting in a box for a decade so we discussed a trade.  Long story short, through another friend who acted as broker the trade happened this weekend and I'm thrilled.  For one box of cards, about equal in value to the broker-friend's estimate of the value of the 40k army, I got:

2 Rhinos circa 93, good condition, both have tiny issues that will take me about 5 minutes to fix, plastic
1 Whirlwind circa 93, plastic hull, metal turret, very good condition
1 Razorback circa 93, plastic hull, metal turret, very good condition
1 "Lasorback" circa 93, plastic hull metal turret, very good condition
1 Dreadnought, metal, assault cannon and CCW, good condition but needs to be stripped - the primer and paint are very heavy in some spots.
48 marines of various generations in power armor, some of which need parts.  4 are chest-huggers I may not use, two lascannons, two heavy bolters, 2 missile launchers and a plasma cannon
5 plastic terminators on 25mm bases - all need to be stripped but are otherwise in good condition
2 metal terminators on 25mm bases - lightning claws and TS/SS, unpainted
1 plastic land speeder that needs some work
1 Dark Angels Chapter Master figure, without the helm-bearer, unpainted and in nearly mint condition
1 metal techmarine with arm, needs a lot of stripping but may be viable
1 company captain in power armor, primed and in great condition
1 older style librarian in power armor, primed and in great condition
1 oooold style Blood Angels chaplain of the same type as my other one, unpainted and in very good condition - I'll probably trade or sell this one
1 metal apothacary with power sword primed and in good condition
1 metal standard bearer primed and in good condition
1 GW Army Carrier - case is in perfect condition, but I'll probably replace the foam at some point.

The army is mostly primed green with some paint - the tanks have almost no paint so they'll be really easy to work with.  It also seems to have been done on the DA codex, except the Blood Angels chaplain, so they'll interface very nicely with my current army.  I'm really happy about this deal - it cost neither of us anything , but it allowed us both to have more fun with hobbies we like and get rid of stuff we're not using.

New tank

I just finished the construction of a new tank - purchased as a GW Predator, but with magnets, it can be a lot of things.  At present, until I can get my hands on some bits, it can be:

Predator - AC Turret, Heavy Bolter sponsons
Predator - Lascannon Turret, Heavy Bolter sponsons
Rhino

I can attach a pintle mounted storm bolter to any of the options, and I'm trying to figure out where I can stick a hunter killer.  I need 8 bits to be able to use lascannon sponsons, and I think 6 each to be able to do a heavy bolter or lascannon Razorback.

The "commander" operating the stormbolter I kitbashed and converted a little... well more properly, I modified the arms meant to operate the SB, so he could have one hand on it and the other hand flourishing the chain sword arm from the space marine captain set, and he's got the bare head with breather head attached to him.  The "commander" who would appear to be driving the tank is also bareheaded.

Have to think of a name for it now...

Black Templars codex

Fiddling with the BT list on Army Builder I discovered that if I used that codex I could actually field a 5000 point army including 27-30 terminators, 80ish power armored space marines and 4 tanks.  For fluff reasons I don't know if I'd actually do it, but it's interesting to know I can field an Apocalypse level army.

originality and business in the 40k universe

I was reading a forum and these thoughts came to me.  I figured this was a more appropriate forum for them.

So much of sci-fi is borrowed, influenced or even stolen from its fore bearers.  As everyone's noted, Lovecraft (Chaos gods, etc), Bradbury (Martian Chronicles), Giger (Alien, Species, Bullet Babies, etc), Cameron (Alien, Terminator), Heinlein (Starship Troopers), Saberhagen (the Berserker series)... there are original ideas popping up here and there, but there have been plenty of people smarter than I am who've observed that there are only a dozen original stories that have ever existed.

Are the 40k and WHFB worlds original?  Heck no.  Is GW a crappy corporate entity for suing left and right for IP violations?  Heck yes.  But legal realities do not actually form true reality, as much as our governments and lawyers might argue otherwise.  Papa Tolkien had some wonderful ideas, but his races and many of his characters were directly out of myth and folklore.  Heinlein was making a political statement when he wrote Starship Troopers, and didn't even intend on hiding it in the slightest.  Sadly a lot of our world is a business and our hobby has become one.  I kind of wish I'd gotten involved in the 80s when I was playing Battletech, but I didn't - nothing to be done for it.  I AM glad I've gotten involved at a time when there are so many amazing models out there, and so many brilliant people designing them, the more brilliant people buying, modifying and painting them.

TSR was much more user friendly than WOTC, old GW was apparently similar... but we move on.  I hear Privateer Press is a little better, but starting to make the corporate slide... I think it's an unavoidable problem. Once a company gets big enough that they have a world wide audience, and hence can support world class artists to design their models, they become a profit seeking corporation.  I don't know if there's a real solution, but I hope the models and art keeps up at its current pace of excellent work and continuing improvement.

New Supplies

After several suggestions, I've picked up 2 Micron pens from AC Moore for details in purity seals, books and name plates for the army - the 005 and 01 sizes... so more rework on my dreads and tanks... we'll see how it looks.

Contemptor

Holy crap do I want to get one (or two) of these for the Chorus

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/c/Contemptor.pdf

Tower, more figures and other stuff

Well, I've been working on the Tower of Witchfate Tor ( http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=12500057a&_requestid=150577 ) for the last several weeks - it was a birthday present from my wonderful girlfriend.  I'm about 32 hours in and probably have another 20 in details before I'm at least partly satisfied - hoping to have pictures soon.

On another note, I got my hands on a couple more Legion of the Damned models, both with bolt guns, so they'll be getting added - two more until I am able to field a DA Company Veteran's Squad made up of Damned Legionnaires.  I may at some point field the Chorus using the Space Marine's codex just to give the Legion its self a try, not to mention a shot at using their HQ unit that can use Orbital Bombardment.  The Master of the Death Company and the other Legion figure I was working on are just about done being painted.  I'll probably give them the clear coat next week if all goes well.

I'm also going to try my hand at creating, then duplicating in resin via a latex mold, a set of 5 custom bases, first in 40mm then in 25mm.  At first I'm just going to see if I can get my idea to work... then I'll figure out if I'm going to use them for new Chorus models or if I'm going to start a new army.  I'm heavily leaning towards Tau Empire at this point, but I like the look of the Necron models a lot, and I have this obsession with creating an Atreides/Fremen army using the IG codex too.

All of that said, I don't want to go TOO far overboard... I already have one army that I can't get into two Citadel army boxes (my Land Raider Crusader and the Land Speeder don't fit with everything else), so I'm going to take my time on any ideas to start another army barely 8 months into the new hobby.

Chorus Lucia enrollment log update

Some of the models I have available for the army have had their purpose changed, and I've obtained one or two others, so the actual roster has changed a bit...

I'm leaving the Supreme Grand Master off this list... I don't like the model all that much and there is a conversion in the works to go with that stats set...

HQ:

• Grand Master of Librarians (librarian in terminator armor model, converted using DA vet bits to provide book and stand)
• Interrogator Chaplain (chaplain in terminator armor model, fairly standard build)
• Chaplain (OLD Blood Angels chaplain model I was given, need to repaint and possibly mod a little more)
• Master of the Death Company (two actual models - a Terminator Captain with power sword and storm bolter, and a standard modern terminator with thunder hammer and storm shield, depending on what I want to send him out with)
• Company Master (DA Company Master model with power sword and bolt pistol)
• Command Squad #1 (Company Champion, Apothecary, Standard Bearer, 1 marine with a power weapon, 1 with bolter)
• Command Squad #2 (Apothecary, 2 marines with meltaguns, 2 marines with bolt guns, with a Company Champion that can be swapped in as needed)

Troops

• Tactical Squad 1 - Rage of the Imperium (All grey helmeted Inquisition survivors - 10 man squad, 1 flamer, and a marine with a missile launcher can be swapped in at need - sgt equiped with power sword and plasma pistol)
• Tactical Squad 2 (10 man squad with one meltagun, sgt equipped with power sword and bolt pistol.
• Tactical Squad 3 (5 man squad equipped with old style bolters, sgt equipped with power fist and plasma pistol)
• Tactical Squad 4 - The Old Guard (all beakie-helmets, GotC marines from original founding - 10 man squad with a flamer and a heavy bolter that can be swapped in as needed)
• Tactical Squad 5 - Ad Hoc (5 man squad - this is the non-heavies of the devastator squad that could be used as a tactical squad if needed - the models are not obviously a unit yet, and some need heavy conversion and/or paint)

Elites

• Scout Squad (10 man squad, 5 including sgt equipped with sniper rifles, 1 heavy bolter, 1 shotgun, 1 bolter, 1 bolt pistol and ccw)
• Deathwing Terminator Squad 1 - The Grey Men (the squad that will be upgraded should the Master of the Death Company be on the field, 1 pair lightning claws, 2 pairs thunder hammer and storm shield, 1 chain fist, 1 heavy flamer)
• Deathwing Terminator Squad 2 (Currently still in red paint, though they will go grey eventually too most likely - 1 pair lightning claws, 1 heavy flamer)
• Deathwing Terminator Squad 3 (also still red, 1 cyclone missile launcher)
• Deathwing Terminator Squad 4 (also still red, 1 cyclone missile launcher)
• Deathwing Terminator Squad 5 (currently unpainted older style models, and one heavily modified very old model with DA assault cannon arm)
• Venerable Dreadnought - Colmus (Lascannon arm, claw CCW, heavy flamer)
• Dreadnought (plasma cannon arm, modified FW claw CCW, heavy bolter)
• Company Veterans Squad (10 man squad, 1 storm bolter, 1 meltagun, 1 plasma cannon, 1 power fist, 4 power swords and one Legion of the Damned marine with multi melta that can be swapped for the plasma cannon as needed)

Fast Attack

• Ravenwing Attack Squadron - The Four Horsemen (3 Ravenwing bikes, 1 with meltagun, sgt has power sword, 1 attack bike with multi melta)
• Ravenwing Support Squadron (equipped with multi melta and heavy flamer)
• Assault Squad - Imperium's Sword (5 man squad, sgt has power sword and combat shield - these models have green details to denote the marines' status as IG trainee survivors)

Heavy Support

• Predator 1 - Purgo (auto cannon turret, lascannon sponsons, storm bolter and hunter killer missile - black paint to match the tactical squads it usually supports)
• Predator 2 - Lucia's Tear (lascannon turret, lascannon sponsons, storm bolter and hunter killer missile - red paint to denote its status as "flag ship" of sorts for the Chapter)
• Devastator Squad (mix of up to 3 lascannons, 4 missile launchers, with the heavy bolter from tactical squad 4, the plasma cannon from the company veterans squad or the multi melta from the company veterans squad available, 5-10 man squad possible, sgt has two chain swords)
• Land Raider Crusader (twin linked assault cannon, hurricane bolter sponsons, multi melta and storm bolter)

Transport

• Razorback - Redemptio (heavy bolter turret, hunter killer missile, turret is unglued, so can be sent out configured as a Rhino as well)