Necrons, World War I and A Large Lunch Box

I've got a few topics for today. First, some more Necrons I've finished painting, bringing my total Necron painted point cost to almost 1000 points (a big accomplishment for me.) I'm continuing the black shells of green glowiness, which is still turning out pretty well.

I'm still finding it difficult to get my pictures brighter, but these turned out okay. As always, click on the pics for the larger/clearer view. Check after the jump for more models and pics:

The Wraiths were quick and easy. Three models goes infinitely faster than twenty-one. I wasn't quite sure what to do with their injectors, and looking through the intarwebz no one else seems to know either. I might go back and redo them in the future, but for now they turned out fine.

I'm getting better with highlights, I can definitely see an improvement from my first models to now, but I've still got a long ways to go before I can say I have talent in the painting department.

Next up is the "Wraith Lord". You may remember this guy from a long ways back. I was so happy with the way the conversion turned out and hoped the painting would turn out just as well.

While not a masterpiece by any means, I think he turned out well. I was concerned with the paint job not getting up to par with the conversion itself, but I think they met well.

Painting that orb with his shoulder-pad in the way was a frustrating time. Getting a good mesh of green and black on the shoulder cloak was a rough time as well, but other than that it was a smooth ride.

I truly had no idea what I was doing with the Predator-piece basing. But, I ended up going with me new rule as of late; When in doubt, dry brush. I went for a burnt/charred affect on this thing and I think it turned out okay. The more melted and bent parts I put heavier Chaos Black on to give that "This tank had a bad day" feel.

The fluid motion you can see this model making makes me quite happy. I wanted to get this guy moving on his base. I mean, come on, if you can move like a Jetbike, you wouldn't just float in place.

Thanks to the shoulder-cloak, the side-step backwards movement I was going for is presented perfectly and I'm glad to see a great conversion completed.

On to the non-40k side of things. My friend Aaron is a board game/table top game fanatic. If it's played without a video game controller, he's probably tried it once if not purchased it. This year the obsession of his is a WWI dogfighting game called Aerodrome that uses hexidecimal movements and an easy-to-pickup rule set. The cool part is, to get started all you need is a model plane. No, not a unit of 10, just one single solitary model. Quite the breath of fresh air.

So after getting my plane and building this PITA, it sat on the shelf waiting to be painted for a week or so as I was out off spray primer. During this week my good friend over at The Midnight Shift had already finished his plane and went in a 40kish direction with it.

So what's a guy in the US to do with an Axis WWI airplane? Paint it like a baddy, of course! Behold, an alternate universe where Nercons joined the Germans!

I had a few disappointing moments with this thing. First, as I mentioned, it was a horrible, mind crushing pain to build. The instructions are less than helpful and the pieces... I've never seen parts of a model so tiny.

The disappointments after construction came with the wood varnish. For some reason it pooled in some places. And it's very noticeable in certain spots, specifically the bottom right wing.

I also keep forgetting transfer sheets show up horribly on black and some day I'll remember this before I glue the edges. Other than that it turned out fine.

Tonight we ran the first game with a few of us from our 40k gaming group, here's a pic of one of our games:

The game is really fast paced and easy to pic up. Each plane type has a profile with restrictions and stats. Movement is based on all 3 dimensions which adds a lot of realism to the game.

While the amass of pegs on your planning board is glaring at you can be overwhelming at first, you eventually find yourself making decisions for your pilot's fate quickly thanks to the less-than-steep learning curve.

It's a really fun game I recommend to anyone who goes to a table top convention this year (chances are it will be there.) If you're in the KC area this coming year feel free to shoot me an email and I can tell you where we'll be playing as Aaron will be hosting at 5 separate conventions.

And finally, as promised, here's a picture of my friend Trent with an oddly sized lunch box. Feel free to join me in the jokes, as I will be poking fun at him all night.

Later days!