The Best 40K Book I read this year...

#1

Battle of the Fang By Chris Wraight (June 2011)
Echoes of the past and hints of the future… That is why I love Battle of the Fang so much. That, and the book gives a sense of closure to some of the events that started in A Thousand Sons, in fact it’s hard not to call A Thousand Sons, Prospero Burns, and Battle of the Fang a trilogy and the best thing about it is; you realize that the story doesn’t stop here. You finish this book and it becomes apparent that these warriors are destined to fight on, down through the millennia, eternally engaged in a struggle in which neither side can actually win. I know this is a tagline for the Warhammer 40k Universe but, I’ve never seen it more vividly described than in this book. It is the existence of humanity in the year 40,000 put into the microcosm of the conflict between the Thousand Sons and the Vlka Fenryka aka The Rout, more infamously known as the Space Wolves. Just like the rest of the known universe, circumstances of the heresy have doomed both chapters into becoming “stillborn and unrealized” shadows of what they once were and could have been. There is tragedy here, sure as shit, and bravo to Mr. Wraight for capturing it so vividly. The destruction of Prospero, the breaking of Magnus, the departure of Russ, the Wolf Brothers… it all comes to a head in this novel. Something that took me by surprise in this book was the amount of Easter eggs and teases Wraight crammed into it. It literally left me drooling for more. For me, Chris Wraight is the most exciting new Black Library author to come along since Aaron Dembski Bowden and there were some great new authors who released 40k stuff this year. I’m really hoping he writes an entire Heresy novel sometime soon and there was a bit at the end of Battle of the Fang where he seems to be setting up some further Space Wolf stuff. Please tell me Chris Wraight is going to write more on the Space Wolves!!!

Books I read in 2011 #2

#2

Prospero Burns By Dan Abnett (January 2011)
Meeting Dan Abnett is on my bucket list. Even if it is just a quick signature and a handshake as he signs one of my books. I’ve never been to Games Day, or any of the cons he’s been at, but someday I’ll go, and I’ll probably go into a rant similar to the Scorsese rant in Reservoir Dogs. That is how much I love DNA’s work. When I see a new book by Dan show up on the Black Library’s release schedule, I am one of those girls screaming as they hear the Beatles live for the first time. Life, in this economy, in this job market, in this weather, whatever the reason, is hard. When I’m reading one of Dan’s books I forget all of that and become totally immersed in the pleasure of reading. Good books are treasures and each one of his books gives me the feeling that I am in fourth grade all over again discovering the great works of science fiction. Anyway, on to the book…
For my buck, it was a great read. I enjoyed meeting the Space Wolves through the main protagonist, “Kaspar’s” eyes and his relationship with the Wolves of Fenris, specifically “Bear” the Marine who is given the duty of rescuing Kaspar after inadvertently causing Kaspar’s crash landing on Fenris. I felt as if I was right next to Kaspar in his high speed flight across the frozen wastes of Fenris all the way to the plot twists at the end of the book which I won’t give away but suffice it to say, there are many. I also truly enjoyed the portrayal of Leman Russ as a calculating and thoughtful primarch and his long standing feud with Magnus the Red as a cold war with each primarch moving pieces across the board. Even as I post this, it’s hard not to pick this story as my favorite for the year. I hesitate to mention this but, if you would have been sitting on the couch with me one late night as I finished the book you might have noticed a lone tear streaming down my face. Until next winter indeed.

5 Books I read in 2011

#3

Aurelian By Aaron Dembski Bowden (October 2011)
I hesitated to put a special edition short story on my list of favorites for the year, but the story contained in Aaron Dembski Bowden’s Aurelian was simply so good I couldn’t stand to keep it off the list. Despite an epic fail on the part of the Black Library to release this short story on time, when it did come out, it was well worth the wait.
The story picks up on threads from The First Heretic and explains what happened to Lorgar when he entered the Eye of Terror, something that was left out of The First Heritic. I can’t believe how many cool moments ADB managed to cram into this thing. From a meeting featuring all of the Primarch’s (alright so it might not have been Alpharius in the hologram…) to a knockdown-drag-out fight between Lorgar and a greater demon of Khorne to a mysterious visit by Kairos Faitweaver who has some interesting tidings for Lorgar concerning the fate of himself, his legion, and the rebellion itself. On a personal note, I was very excited that the book put to rest some troubling continuity conflicts, specifically Lorgar’s behavior as portrayed at the battle for Shrike in Graham McNeill’s A Thousand Suns. If you missed this bad baby, do yourself a favor and pick up the Silver Edition on Ebay for $25.00. It is easily the most satisfying $25 you will ever spend on a Black Library book.

#4

The Outcast Dead By Graham McNeill (November 2011)
It wasn't perfect. In fact there are a couple of major continuity flaws in the book that I can't even begin to write about lest my brain get stuck in an infinite loop of madness. But... it was interesting. When I first saw The Outcast Dead turn up on The Black Library’s website, I have to admit I was less than impressed. They had just gone out of their way to hype the whole “Age of Darkness” thing and I was really looking forward to stories set in this new undiscovered era of the heresy. Then I saw this and it seemed like a side story. Well it kind of is, however, it is also so much more.
What makes this book interesting is that it gives the reader some much needed perspective on the heresy itself and addresses some long standing questions about timelines and continuity—more on that later. Kai was a very relatable character, more than any other human character in the heresy for me. Mostly, becuase he is scared shitless. We've seen amazing acts of courage and heroism but apart from this story and Jim Swallow's, Liar's Due in Age of Darkness, we haven't seen the response by either your average citizen or in this case, your not-so-average psychic mutant... For me, this is what ultimately made this book enjoyable and interesting despite it's large flaws in continuity.
In addition it shed some light on some issues that previously caused my brain to enter into infinite loops of madness. For example it is finally revealed that Konrad Curze has been away from his legion after he destroyed Nostramo in the Dark King and it was a mistake to issue the whole legion marching orders to Istvaan because the Emperor and Dorn didn't trust them. I mean come on, you want to talk heresy, this guy killed a bunch of Templar and Phoenix Guard years before Isstvaan... and he savored it like a drug! Yet you want to invite him to the party, hey let me know how that turns out! Anyway, I digress...
Between The Outcast Dead and Aurelian, the Black Library seems to be trying to write it's way through some of the troubling continuity points in the first part of the series, it's just to bad this one creates a few more. However, It’s nice to see the response to the Heresy as seen through the eyes of mortals er well, mutants… Anyway, the book suits me perfecty as an excellent closure to the first segment of the heresy and an introduction to the Age of Darkness. By the way, what the hell are those Thunder Warriors going to do now that they are cured and where the hell did that rogue Luna Wolf go?????

5 Books I read in 2011

As the new year approaches I find I am feeling a bit reflective. Despite some relative slow painting, I did get a lot of reading done this year. I thought it would be fun to pick out the five most awesome Warhammer 40k books released this year that I read. The plan is to post one book per day from now until Christmas. We'll see if I can do it. Oh yeah, and one disclaimer: I haven't read Salvation's Reach yet. I still have some catching up to do in the Gaunt's Ghosts series. Anywho, away we go...

Number 5 Age of Darkness Edited By Christian Dunn (May 2011)
Last winter, shortly after the release of Prospero Burns, word came from Black Library that the Horus Heresy would be shifting gears away from books focusing on the treachery at Istvaan and moving into a new thematic arc that would be focusing on the events that transpired in the 7 years between the Istvaan massacre and the Battle for Terra; The Age of Darkness. Despite some early misgivings about The Age of Darkness simply being a ploy to milk more cash by prolonging the heresy, I couldn’t help but get excited as word began to leak on some of the online forums regarding the stories and their authors. Early on, it was confirmed that Dan Abnett, ADB, Jim Swallow and Graham Macneil as well as Gav Thrope would all be contributing to this anthology. Black Library released a trailer for the book that contained short interviews with the authors involved as well as shots from a secret retreat in which the top Heresy authors got together and planned this whole phase out ala Marvel Comics. That was it, not only was I sold on the concept but I was absolutely foaming at the mouth to get my hands on the Age of Darkness Anthology.
Overall, the book delivered. Abnett’s “Little Horus” story was particularly chilling while ADB’s Savage Weapons gave the Dark Angels a much needed injection of interesting while at the same time delivering on some standard Night Lords baddassery. When ADB introduced a character named Sevatar as the first captain of the Night Lords in The First Heretic, some fans felt cheated that Zso Sahaal had been robbed of an appearance. This short story however, leaves no doubt as to the shear awesomeness of Sevatar and I for one, can't wait for more from him. James Swallow's Liar's Due was a particularly strong offering as well, providing some much needed perspective to the Heresy from the point of view of the common man. The story gives context to the fact that the galaxy really has been flipped on its side and people are panicking. What was really great about Age of Darkness though, was some particularly good showings by less known Black Library authors such as John French, Chris Wraight, and Rob Sanders. Sanders story on the Iron Warriors particularly stands out and Chris Wraight's linked the enigmatic Blood Ravens Chapter to the fall of The Thousand Sons which answered the age old speculation that the Blood Ravens really were left over from the Thousand Sons.
Black Library anthologies usually don’t get me very excited however, this little baby managed to raise a lively debate as to the character of Roboute Guilliman (see any online forum regarding Rules of Engagement or Iron Within), provided the origin for the Blood Ravens chapter, and seemingly redeemed Lion El’ Johnson. Not too shabby for a book of short stories.

If you check out one Warhammer blog on a semi-regular basis let Ead Brown be it...

http://daedeluskraetyr.blogspot.com/

So, after a particularly bad day at work I came home, drank a couple of beers, and started rifiling through the copy of Badab War that I bought at the beginning of last summer for some vacation reading and inspiration before Erin and I went up to Holden Beach NC. I was reading about the Minotaur's Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi which inspired me to get on my computer and check out painted Minotaur armies. As per usual, the most awesome picture that came up was the games workshop photo of Ead Brown (from forgeworld's) Mino army.

Anyway, the pic is extremely frustrating because you can't really make out any details. So, I did a little digging and came across his blog where he houses some awesome pics of his army. The site is: http://daedeluskraetyr.blogspot.com/ I recommend checking it out. His conversions are pretty amazing.

I guess I'm only posting once per month

Man I've really been slipping about posting on this blog. I recently finished reading Aurelian. It was great. I started reading the Outcast Dead and it is totally kicking my ass. I love it. I've decided to hold off on posting a reviews of them until Christmas vacation when I actually have some time to write with meaning. As for my army, I am basecoating, basecoating, and more basecoating. I've gone through two pots of Red Gore and will probably need a third. It is taking at least two coats over the black primer to really get the color I'm looking for.

In other news, today's goodies from the Black Library include a book trailer for Deliverance Lost. I kind of have mixed feelings on this book. I enjoyed the Ravens Flight audio book but thought that the Age of Darkness short story was just average. The inclusion of the Alpha Legion into the story has me a little worried. I've really been hoping for a Dan Abnett sequel to Legion. I'm worried that the further adventures of the Alpha Legion are going to be relegated to appearances in other novels. The Deliverance Lost trailer is pretty good though. I really like the use of the other book covers in the trailer.



I particularly like the bit about Corax having his vengeance... Here's to hoping for the best!

Aaarghhhh! It's been too long...

So yeah, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. The endless quest to bring illumination to the minds of Georgia's youth has been occupying an increasing and increasing amount of time and thought lately. I've sat down the last couple of Sundays with the intention of making a post but have failed to deliver. Anyway, in regard to my Blood Ravens project, I have finally completed collecting 1500 points, and it feels good!
Since my last post, some exciting things have happened. I was able to make a trip to Tower Games in Lawenceville to purchase a Space Marine Commander sprue to get the rest of the parts I needed for my Gabriel Angelos conversion. I'll post more on him later after I get him painted (it will be a while). Then, on October 2nd, Games Workshop: City Walk opened in Atlanta. I made trek into Atl and had a blast hanging out for the grand opening, even though there wasn't any free swag... The most important part of the trip however, was that I managed to pick up a Predator to round out my army. I'll post a list later but below are some pics of the assembled army.

As you can see, most of the army is in various early stages of paint. All have been primed black and the tac squads and assault squad have been basecoated with red gore. My plan is to base-coat all the models before moving on to work with the shoulder pads and highlights. Hopefully, I can post again next weekend, I just got and finished Aurelian and I'm anxious to post a responce to the short story!

Time is flying by

I haven't had very much time to post lately with school starting, but with the holiday weekend I have a little bit of time to catch my breath and write a quick update. I've working on the Black Reach tactical squad I got from e-bay just before school started. They are coming along well. DragonCon costuming has been taking up most of my time however... But now that, thats done I should have some more time to paint. In the meantime, I've been working on this for the fun of it.

Blood Ravens Sgt.

Not to much in this entry. I had planning all week last week and was working pretty hard on my Dragon Con costume every night so I didn't have much time to paint. Students actually come back to school Monday. So, this is officially the last weekend of summer. The Blood Ravens models I have been painting have been left-over odds and ends. I had enough leftovers to assemble a sgt. So here he is

Overall, I'm happy with the look. I have made some great strides on the faces lately by making sure my paint is watery and thin and gradually building up the layers. So, I'm particularly proud of that. The eyes darting to the side along with the skull in the base, gives an "I have a bad feeling about this" imression. While the chapter sigil needs work, I was happy with this little skull effect I saw on the internet and tried to replicate on the model.

Anyway, the only other thing I had time for was to prime and basecoat about 2/3 of a blackreach tactical squad I got from e-bay. I'm looking forward to continuing my experiments with layering with these guys. In addition, I'm going to try and switch from using a black wash to a brown one. Hopefully I'll have some time to paint this week...

Ugh... Back to School

First off, I can't believe that it has been over a month since I've posted. Secondly, I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. I start school next week! It's so hard to believe. Since my last post, I've made a trip to Baltimore for a wedding, a trip to Michigan to see family, and a trip to Illinois to see my girlfriend, Erin's mom. Previous to the trip up to Baltimore and just before I created this blog, we had made a trip to California to see Erin's dad. While we were out there I got to stop at a cool Games Workshop store. I purchased a tactical squad, to be painted at some point, hopefully during this school year. The coolest part was that judging for Armies on Parade had just happened a couple days prior to our arrival and the winning armies were still on display in the store. There was a pretty awesome Black Legion army on display and two really good looking Imperial Fists armies. I wish I had taken some pictures but my phone was really low on battery. Anyway, spending time at the store really made me wish we had one in the North Georgia area. You see, we used to have one at the Mall of Georgia but it closed down along with my local gaming store here in Athens. So, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I recently read on the Heresy Online boards that Atlanta will be getting a Games Workshop store sometime in August. I am absolutely giddy for the announcement of the grand opening to come. I hope I can make it over for the festivities.

Anyway, about my models... I hate to say it but, I am finding Raven Guard just too hard to paint. I originally thought that painting black models would be easy but it's crazy hard to get it to look right. So, I have put my Raven Guard Army on the back burner. Hopefully I will return to them some day as I have a rhino and scout squad in process. The question has become, what do I paint next? At first, I thought maybe I would paint some Red Scorpions, I really like their colors. Here is an example of a test marine I painted using the Red Scorpion color scheme.

As you can see, his eyes haven't been painted in, I haven't braved the chapter symbol, and he isn't based. I need to come up with a concept for the base... Any ideas? I guess it was when I was in California that I got the idea to try Red Scorpions. I found working with the shades of yellow and Gray to be much easier than working with the black of the Raven Guard, though some of the lessons I learned trying to highlight my RG army definitely came in handy with this guy. I like the clean feel the model has.

Another test I did was Blood Ravens. When I was in Illinois visiting Erin's mom I read a post that Dawn of War III is in development and I started looking at pics of Blood Raven space marines online. I was anxious to try my hand at some red shading so I decided that when I got home I would try some test models. Both models have some rough paint jobs because they had previously been painted with a heavy coat of gunmetal from a couple of years ago when I was trying some Iron Snakes marines. I tried to experiment around a bit. Blood Ravens have darker armor than Blood Angels so I had to mess with darkening shades of red. Here was the result...

I really had fun experimenting with the shading on the models. I took a lot of chances with watered down paint to try and get more of a shaded look as opposed to the hard edging I used to paint the Red Scorpion. While the Red Scorpion has a very clean crisp look to it, these guys look a bit more weathered and dirty.

I had so much fun messing around with these guys that I am going to try and put together a Blood Raven army. I'm hoping in the next couple of days to start work on a black reach tactical squad I purchased on e-bay and conversion work on a Gabriel Angelos model. Should be fun and lessen the sorrow of another summer come and gone...

Bike Squadron is Finished!!

Alright, so here is my finished bike squad and right away I have to say that I'm not entirely happy with the way that they turned out. However, the learning process continues. With this in mind, I thought I'd start this post with a bit of self reflection. First of all, I don't like my highlights. The lines are too thick and they are not straight enough. I think I need to really start thinning down my paint. But how thin should it be? What is the right amount of "thin"? I really feel like this has to improve if I want my models to start looking better. I felt ok about my highlighting abilities when I finished the tactical squad but, the bike squad exposed a lot of flaws in my technique. I guess it goes back to the planning stage of army construction. I looked through the my handy-dandy How to Paint Space Marines book, and extreme highlighting seemed like the way to go. Since then, I've taken a look at a really cool posting of an Iron Hands army over at the official Games Workshop site. The idea was to use bolt gun metal and mithril silver for the highlighting to make it look like paint has chipped or been worn. I also recently read a post over at the Jawaballs blog talking about how hard it is to get black armor to look "right". Who knew? I thought it would be easy. Additionally, you'll notice that I have been trying to freehand all the chapter sigils on my marines and bikes.

At a distance they look ok but, as you can see on the standard and the Sgt.'s bike, when you get close you really notice how messy they look. I think I overshot a bit trying to freehand them with so little painting experience. With this in mind, I'll press on with my collection of Raven Guard marines, but I don't think I'll go too much beyond what I initially purchased for this army.

Maybe further down the road I'll come back to Raven Guard but I really think, I'd like to try some other color schemes. A little while ago, I did a test Carcharodon model and I really liked working with the grays...

1st Tactical Squad

Alright, my first tactical squad is complete. I have mixed feelings about the results. I spent a lot of time looking online for ideas on painting black power armor. I thought about highlighting with Boltgun Metal but changed my mind and went with a scheme I saw in "How to Paint Space Marines".

The method is for painting Black Templar but I thought it would apply to Raven Guard as well.

The book calls for a highlight of Codex Gray and an extreme highlight of Fortress Gray. Instead, I used a lot of Shadow Gray highlights and only used the Codex Gray and Fortress gray very sparingly. The biggest thing I will take away from my first tactical squad, is that highlighting is hard. Straight lines are hard to paint. Still, the practice was good and will hopefully come in handy down the road.

The Black Reach Sgt. was extremely fun to paint. The layers of the pauldron on his extended arm are great. I ended up putting a lot more paint on his face than I wanted as I tried to get the white face mutation correct. I think the washed out faces of the Raven Guard are one of their coolest aspects. Moving forward, I'll have to get this down. Definitely before I paint the scouts.

The biggest inspiration for my Raven Guard came from Aaron Dembski Bowden's "Cadian Blood" novel.

Having completed the Black Reach marines I can't wait to get my hands on tactical squad set so I can mess with the poses a little bit.

Well, there you have it. Next week, it's on to the bike squad.
Victorus aut Mortis!

The beginning...

Well here it is.  The first post of my first ever blog.  The purpose of this blog is to outline the progress of a Warhammer 40k army from the perspective of  a beginner who is new to the hobby elements of 40k.  I have only ever played a few games of 40k in my life and never with my own models, so I am really looking forward to seeing how this all turns out.  I have decided that my first army is going to be a Raven Guard force.  I thought about trying to paint an army of Iron Snakes, as I am a big fan of the book but decided against it because I would rather have a force that follows the codex a little more strictly.  Anyway, to begin with, I will be attempting to paint a bike squad consisting of a bike sergeant with powerfist, two marines armed with melta-guns, and an attack bike armed with a multi-melta.  All together, the full 10 man squad will tally 310 points.  To construct the bike squad, I purchased the Dark Angels Ravenwing Battleforce Box along with a Ravenwing bike squadron box. 

A lot of the Ravenwing and Dark Angel specific bits will be wasted but I'm sure I can use some of those feathery pieces...  In addition, I will be painting the Assault on Black Reach tactical squad in Raven Guard color and heraldry. 

The tactical squad is worth 170 points.  I also purchased the Space Marine Commander set, originally thinking, that I would use his lightning claw to construct a Priad character for my Iron Snakes.  Instead he will be a Raven Guard Shadow Captain equipped with the aforementioned lightning claw and plasma pistol for 130 points.  I will include a scout squad with a sergeant equipped with bolt pistol and chain sword, one scout will trade his bolter for a shotgun and one will replace his bolter with a heavy bolter for a sum of 100 points. 

My ten man tactical squad will select a Rhino equipped with extra armor and a storm bolter as it's dedicated transport for 60 points. 

All together, that gives my fledgling army 770 points.  It's not 1,500 but it should be a good start and enough painting to keep me busy for a while.