Falling off the hobby horse.... and getting back on.

I'll admit it. From time to time, we all take on too much.
I think I may have burned myself out a bit with my massive painting challenge, then coupled with a summer semester at school and a complete lack of fundage, I've completely fell off the hobby horse.  Sure, I still have done some hobby stuff... I've so far painted 1 Night Goblin Spider Rider. 1. Oh, and I played one game of 40K against SeerK's Eldar. Which I might add, he totally spanked me from one of the field to the other. Moral victory though, no phase out!

Falling out of the hobby isn't the hard part, it's getting back in. I've pretty much determined that I need to set aside some time each week to devote to hobbying, even if it is only a 1/2 hour. That's still some progress.  Especially with a few of the 40K gamers moving away soon, it is even more important to dust off the cobwebs and make an effort to get back into the swing of things.

Thoughts about some recent releases:

Storm of Magic? Maybe it's because I haven't sat down to read the rulebook (or because I don't have a spare $70 bucks to drop on another book...) but it seems to be fairly pointless. Sure, let's add big monsters to the game. All these new models are dropping, Vampire Counts, Chaos, Dark Elves... but not Bretonnia love. From my understanding, some of the monsters can be added to any army. For that I say cool, but I'd still like to see some Bretonnia specific new models, likewhat the Vampire Counts are getting.

New Vampire Counts models look sweet. I look forward to getting my hands on the Zombie Dragon and the Garden of  Morr. If Games Workshop screws the pooch on the Garden like they did with Witchfate Tor, I'm totally done buying any of their scenery. We will see how this one goes.

From Forge World:

This is a thing of beauty.

The Praetor Armored Assault Launcher. This is SO screaming to become part of the Krieg army.

Now that my brain is back into the game, I think it is time to rededicate myself and push forth to finish some of these projects I have yet to finish. I've been working of a scenery piece for my Bretonnian army, a "Lady in the Lake" piece with a sword being raised from the water, so look for a tutorial on working with water soon. Hound me. Keep on me. I need the motivation. I also NEED to start assembling the Krieg army, as the Necrons are just getting spanked too hard recently. They will be competitive soon with the new Codex, I know, but until that drops, I still can't hold objective missions... and that needs to be fixed.

All right, that's it for now. Let's do this.

... in which I am defeated by the holiday weekend, and I prepare for a tournament this upcoming weekend.

I was right to throw in the towel. Power for us came back on shortly after it went out, but some of the other outlaying areas of Lansing are still without power, and not due to be restored until Thursday.

I found myself getting sloppy toward the end anyway. My normal attention to detail got really distorted when painting 20+ miniatures in a sitting.

The biggest lesson I can take away from this is enjoy what you are doing. It doesn't pay to rush, and it also doesn't do you any good to sit on tons of minis either.

So here's some photos of what I've done:

Forgive the quality, I had to take the pictures with my phone, as my camera was left in the car. I will take better close ups this upcoming week, now that I can put this behind me and get back to what this blog is about: Gaming.

So, this upcoming weekend is OST's tourney out at Fowlerville. Click HERE for details.

I have settled on running my Necrons for the 1850. I'm going to keep it simple, and focus on refining my tactics, seeing as Necrons are not exactly a competitive army.

Here's my list:

10 Necron Warriors

10 Necron Warriors

5 Immortals
Necron Lord
-Veil of Darkness
-Resurrection Orb

2 Heavy Destroyers

5 Pariahs

2 Monoliths

The Nightbringer

Here's the skinny on my strategy:

Keep everyone behind the monoliths.
Keep the Warriors in reserve, and hopefully keep them off the board as long as possible. I know I'm losing some firepower, but I refuse to be phased out. 
The Lord and his bodyguard of Immortals use the Veil of Darkness to warp around the board, hitting weak units in the rear or flank.
The Nightbringer is pretty self explanatory... Keep him behind the monolith to get him close and then let the carnage begin.
The 2 Heavy Destroyers lay down supporting fire, focusing on tanks and snipers. Run the Pariahs behind the Monoliths until they are close enough to use those Warscythes of theirs like can openers.

Hopefully by the time the monoliths collide into the opposing army is when the warriors would flood out of the portals. And, if anyone gets dinged a little too hard, pull them thru the monolith to keep the numbers up.

I'm planning on trying out the list at out FLGS tomorrow night, hopefully against OST, Vogrin, or anyone else in the DFG crew. I'll post results and pics after.

Testing out the Necron list

Well, I got in a game this evening with Mr. O. We both tested out our tourney lists. I was fairly pleased with how my army worked, though I did find a few holes. Everything operated fairly smoothly, no bad mistakes.

I didn't take any pictures since this was a friendly test game, and I didn't take notes on what happened either.

The high points of the game:
Snipers took out the Nightbringer
Necron lord and immortals wreaked total havoc.
Pariahs went the distance with assault marines
Monolith deployment worked like a charm.

I ended up losing the battle, 3-1
I lost my Nightbringer and monoliths, but I took out a marine squad. If we would have went one more turn, I honestly feel I would have caught back up.

... in which I inventory my workload.

I am resolved now to hit that 50%, and to do it quickly. The first step in this challenge is to take inventory of what I have, and come up with a plan.

I'm just waiting for the glue to dry on the frame for the army board, then it will be 100%. I'll post on that probably later tonight or tomorrow.

Here's where I stand, all models included, even those partially done:

1 Witchfate Tor - top floor
1 Bretonnian Damsel on Horse
1 Hook Mountain Ogre
1 LotR Ent
52 Greatcoat Troopers
10 Vampire Counts Skeletons
1 Necron Destroyer
1 Araknarok Spider
3 Leman Russ Tanks
4 Discworld minis (nobby, Death w/guitar, Carrot, and Moist)
4 "Fighter" Knights
1 Pegasus Knight
31 Knights of the Realm
11 Archers
6 Battle Pilgrims
6 Grail Knights
2 Questing Knights
14 Men at Arms
21 Mouselings
1 Chaos Death Knight
4 Bretonnian Lords
1 Battle Standard Bearer
1 Succubus
3 Orcs
1 Warlord Crom
1 Storm Lord
1 Prince Altharin
1 Warlord Spinetail
1 Chupacabra
1 Zomie Hitler
1 Xanthos Mech
5 "Old" Knights of the Realm
1 Wolflord Marraig
3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (War, Pestilence, and Famine)
2 Phoenix Hawks
1 Construction Mech
8 Scout Cars
2 Tanks
9 DnD Heroes
1 Wyvern
1 Rotpatch
1 Space Captain
1 Action Jackson
4 Trebuchet Crew
1 Mantis Assassin
1 High Elf Prince on Griffin
1 Elf Mage
10 Sea Guard
10 sword masters of Hoeth
5 Reavers
1 Skaven Warlord
1 Warlock Engineer
40 Clanrats
1 Master Moulder
2 Rat Ogres
1 Warfire Thrower
1 Poison Wind Mortar
12 Dwarf Warriors
10 THunderers
8 Miners
1 Thane
1 Dragonslayer
1 Cannon
3 Crew
40 Night Goblins
20 Archers Goblins
10 SPider riders
1 Big Boss
1 Shaman
1 Troll

*AND* 1 Custom Bretonnian Lord Mod

For a sickening total of:













wait for it.........













412!!!!

Sheesh. I see her point. That's a bit more than I expected. Let's see.... 1/2 of that would be 206.... and if I do that over 30 days, that's an average of 6.86666~ a day... Just to get to my mods.

Let the challenge begin! Painting will start at 5 pm, April 30th. I'll post regularly my progress.

Craftworld Lansing presents the Test of Khaine

Today, starting at around 11am at Evolution Games in Lansing, Craftworld Lansing is hosting the Test of Khaine Warhammer 40K tournament. Unfortunately, due to work I will not be able to bring the Necrons for an outing, but I will be able to catch the end of the tourney.

Hope to see lots of 40K players out there, and I'll post what the outcome is!

... in which it has been too long since my last post, and current projects.

It's been too long since my last post, but "Spring Break" will do that to you. I saw "Spring" because we had a snowstorm yesterday, nothing major, just enough to be obnoxious.

The other day I couldn't help myself. I bought an Araknarok. I'm still in awe of the sheer size of the thing. I'm very anxious to get at it, but I am using it as motivation to knock out some of the other projects I've been working slowly on.

The Araknarok's base, in comparison to a Questing Knight

I blame Old School from Dark Future Games for making the Araknarok so appealing. He did quite an awesome conversion of one into a Tervigon for his 'nid army.

Other than that, I've been knocking out scenery like a champ. I used some variation to do a fall and winter piece. I don't want to go into much detail about them here, as I want to write a full article on building custom terrain. Still, here are the finished products:

I have also began work on Witchfate Tor, pics to come as it is completed.

On the painting side, I finished off the Necrons I picked up before Xmas, and now have that 100% ready to go.

What I put the most energy into lately has been my Bretonnian Trebuchet. I put a alot of detail into it, including rust on the riveting and bronze statues. There are so many tiny pieces to this, my camera can't do it justice.

I'm going to do a custom base for it as well. While it can stand just fine without one, I think I'd like it there to protect the bottom of the model from wear and tear.

Well, back to work on Witchfate Tor! My glue has dried and I am ready to prime. See you all soon for an article on doing custom scenery and effects!

Two Battle Reports for the price of one!

Despite it being a busy post-holiday week, I did manage to find time to squeak out to the hobby store to get in a game. Surprisingly, I was able to get in two, as I brought both my Armies with me, and people were out playing WFB as well.

We will start with 40K, as that was the first game I got in of the night.
My Necron Force at 1850:
2 Units of 12 Warriors
Monolith
Tomb Stalker
Tomb Spider
The Nightbringer
6 Pariahs
Lord (Destroyer Body, Res Orb, Phylactery, Gaze of Flame) with a unit of 5 Immortals

 My opponents force (as well as I know it...)
Chaos Marines
1 Unit of Bikes with a Chaos Sorcerer
4 Terminators
2 Rhinos
1 Vindicator

 Turn 1 did NOT go well for me at all. I had lost first turn, so the Chaos Marines sped in on their bikes and started laying into the Warriors and the Las Cannoning the Nightbringer. The Nightbringer took a wound and the warriors suffered a few casualties. Thankfully, my Lord w/Res Orb was right there, so I did get my WBB. My Pariahs took some heat from the Terminators and Rhino, but no wounds. The Vindicator fired on the Monolith, with no effect. On my turn 1, My warriors, Lord, and Immortals opened fire on the bike squad, peeling off only one. My Monolith fired on the Vindicator, glancing it. The Nightbringer fired on the rhino, destroying a twin linked bolter. The Tomb Stalker and Tomb Spider fired on the bike squad, then assaulted.
Here's where it got painful. The Chaos Sorcerer had the best initiative, and got to strike first. He landed only 1 wound on the tomb stalker, but that was all he needed, as he was equipped with a Force weapon. He used his psychic power and inflicted the rest of the wound on the Tomb Stalker, taking it down. The Tomb Spider wasn't able to do anything, and was forced to take 5 fearless tests after I failed the leadership roll... So much for those two units....

 The bike squad continued its sweep into my warriors, annihilating one whole squad. The las cannons kept pounding the Nightbringer, and the Pariahs had their hands full on the other side of the Monolith.

 When the bike squad got closer to the bulk of my force, his champion summoned a greater Daemon... At least THIS time I had the Nightbringer. As you can see from the pic, the Daemon and the Sorcerer broke off to attack the Nightbringer, while the rest of the squad slams into the second unit of Warriors.

 The Nightbringer was able to cut right thru the Daemon and the Sorcerer. (Yay C'Tan!) And the bike squad started taking casualties from all the fire it took. I pulled the Warriors thru the Monolith to get them out of hand to hand with the bikes.

 More Daemons were summoned, and the bikes swooped around to assault the Lord and Immortals. By this time I am really nervous, as my Phase out number is looming. On my turn, I pulled the Lord & Immortals thru the Monolith to get them out of Hand to Hand. At least this way they could open fire the bikes. 2 out of my 3 warriors fell, and if I lost one one more, I would phase out. 5 of my Pariahs fell to a good artillery hit, and the lone one began to move in with the rest of my force.

 My Warriors were able to get back up, staving off the phase out for another turn. Unfortunately, I forgot to move the Nightbringer, and he was just outside of assault range on the bikes. So, he stood there, chesse in the wind, and fell beneath the repeated Las Cannon fire........

The group of Lesser Daemons kept on the Warriors, and dropped the last 3, which was enough to make me phase out.


Sorry if this one read kinda funny, lots was going on all at the same time, and I really felt on the ropes after my Tomb Stalker got gutted back on turn 1. The bike unit with the Mark of Nurgle was a total pain. Looking at my own army, I felt that if I would have deployed slightly different, I would have fared way better. I should have swapped the unit of Pariahs and the Tomb Stalker. The Tomb Stalker would have fared better against the Terminators and Rhino, as it would have been able to shrug off most of the hits, and its multiple wounds most likely would have let it get in close enough to do some damage. The Pariahs would have been the Ace in the hole against the Sorcerer, being a Psychic abomination, soulless, and all equipped with Warscythes. Those bikes would have fell faster underneath the warscythes... Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. All in all, a fantastic game against Tony's Chaos Marines.


FOR BRETTONIA!!!!

My next game pitted my Brettonians against a swarm of Skaven. Now, this was not Mr. O's skaven, so it wasn't grudge match round 2, but I feel I fought a bit harder this time. This was a 1500 point game.

My Force:

Lord-Mounted on Hippogriff, w/Armor of Agilulf (Grants WS 10), Lance of Artois (+2 S & Killing Blow) and a Luck Stone (Re-Roll one failed Armor save).

16 Archers

Damsel of the Lany, Lvl 2, Lore of Life

6 Grail Knights w/ Wailing Banner (Unit Causes Terror)

9 Knights of the Realm wBanner of Chalons (Units may NOT use Stand and Fire when this unit charges it.)

9 Knights Errant w/ Banner of War (+1 Combat Resolution)

Paladin Battle Standard Bearer w/Sword of Strife (+2 Attacks) and Seed of Regrowth. (6+ Regeneration).

My Opponent:
3 Units of 20 Clan rats
5 Rat Ogres & Packmaster
3 Warlocks
3Warpfire Cannons

 As normal with my Bretonnians, they spent the first turn in Prayer, to get the blessing of the Lady. The Skaven advanced. Warp Lightning and Warp Fire started to rain in on the Knights, dropping a few of the Knights Errant.
Turn 2, saw the Lord advance, the Grail Knights fail a long-shot charge against the Rat Ogres, and the Knights of the Realm and Knights Errant advance.

 Unfortunately for my Knights, the Skaven then charged. Nothing takes the wind out of a Bretonnian Army's sails like denying them their charge. The Knights of the Realm held their own, however, the inexperienced Knights Errant took enough losses to break. They fled off of the board after failing to reform.
The Lord was uncontested on the Flank of the Skaven, and he launched a devestating charge on the Rat Ogre unit. After the unit suffering 5 wounds to my 0, they broke, and were cut down by the Lord.

 The Grail Knights hit the flank of the Unit of Clan Rats that was engaged with the Knights of the Realm. Being caught between the two units of Knights, the frenzied rats were cut down.
The Archers lobbed volley after volley at the warp fire cannons, as they were damaging the knights severely. One cannon went down.
The left most unit of clan rats then charged the rear of the Grail Knights, with the Lord following shortly behind, charging their rear. The Lord challenged the Skaven Warlord, and they went toe-to-toe.

The Knights of the Realm broke free and charged the second warp fire thrower, crushing it with their charge. The Lord fell in his challenge, but the Hippogriff kept fighting in his place.

When the smoke cleared on the battle field (No turn 6...) Only the unit of clan rats that run off the Knights Errant were unhurt, and the bulk of the clan rat unit was destroyed by the Knights.

We figured out the Kill points, he had 4 of his 10 units left. So, 6 Kill points for me.
I had only lost 2 units, but my lord as well, so a total of 3 Kill points for him.

 Overall, a fantastic game against Matt's Skaven. Though a decisive Bretonnian victory, I have to give Matt mad props for this battle. It was only his 3rd game of WFB, and he did exactly what he needed to do to nerf a Bretonnian Army, take away their charge. Leaving his flank open to the Lord was his undoing... I think he thought his unit of Rat Ogres would have fared better against him, but the Lord is a beast.

I look forward to seeing how this Skaven army progresses, as he builds up his army to higher point value games, it will get a lot nastier with the swarm increasing in size.

Well, that wraps it up. My last blog post of the year. Probably my last battle report for a while too, as the new semester starts up and life will be thrown into chaos. Don't fret tho, the blog will continue, as I plan on focusing more on painting and modeling for a while. I have quite the backlog of mini's to paint, terrain to build, and armies to ponder.

See you all next year!

...in which I discuss the Ultramarines Movie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


Now that I got that out of the way, lets delve into Ultramarines: The Movie!

ultramarinesthemovie.com

I will say this, the movie is pretty. And, gory! And, pretty gory!
The movie follows a squad of Ultramarines doing a recon mission that runs into some Chaos Marines. Thankfully, SeerK watched the movie with me, and was able to answer many of my n00b 40K universe questions.

The movie was penned by Dan Abnett, and though I know he has written many 40K books, I know his work from the Malus Darkblade WFB Books, and the recent work he's done with Marvel Comics for the "War of Kings" event. (BTW, I'm starting Horus Rising tomorrow morning) Anyway, the movie I found to be a little confusing. It's definately not  primer for the 40K universe, this movie was made for people steeped in the mythos of the 40K universe. As far as the script goes, it was pretty tight, much better than most of the schlock coming out of Hollywood lately.

The voice cast was also surprising. Terrance Stamp, John Hurt, Shawn Pertwee... Some pretty big names for Games Workshops first movie.

Overall, I totally dug the movie. I didn't know much about the Space Marines before, and this has inspired me to get to reading.

So, if you get a chance, pick up the movie! Support the compny so that they can make more movies about 40K. Who knows, perhaps the next one will be about Necrons....

Battle Report 12.15.10

LOL, I don't get it. Page views are WAAAAYYYYY up, but yet not many people leave comments or follow the blog. Either way, I am grateful for the traffic.

On to the battle report!

Ouch.

Chaos Daemons are a bunch of nasties.

Now, it's common knowledge that I am a 40k n00b, and that I don't know a lot about the opposing armies. My game this day taught me a lot though. Daemons are a nasty bunch to deal with, and for once, I feel that my loss was not an error of my mistaken tactics, but more that I faced a superior army with a general that knows how to use them. I had to use some proxy pieces in this battle, as I wanted to run my revamped army list, but I had not had enough time & money to buy the units I needed.

 Turn 1 left the Necrons setting up to an empty board. Now, I had lost initiative, and seeing as his army was teleporting in, I thought it would have been pointless to try and seize initiative.
I put my army in a good spread, warriors out front with the Monolith right behind, and the Lords and their units flanking the monolith.
A unit of Pink Horrors dropped in across the table, right in a blast crater. Two units of Plague Bearers dropped next, across the board from my Monolith.
The Pink Horrors then opened up on my squad of Warriors, 45 shots tearing into them. Many went down, but after my WBB roll, only 2 actually fell.

 My retaliation fire dropped a few PH's, and my Warriors moved in a little to help get their full assault fire next turn. My Lord grabbed his unit of Immortals and Veil of Darkness'ed over to the flank of the PH.
Turn 2 saw 2 Daemon Princes drop onto the table, using the standard bearers in the PH and PB units to come in spot on. Juggernauts of Khorne popped in, and a unit of flamers right to my flank. The Juggernauts assaulted my Necron Lord/Immortal unit, dropping 7 of my 8 Immortals. The Daemon Prince with the axe assaulted my warrior unit, while the flamers opened up on the Tomb Spider. The PH's kept their fire up, landing another 45 shots into my Warriors.

 I had planned on pulling my Immortal/Lord combo thru the Monolith, but discovered too late that they must be within 18"... My bad. 4 Immortals got back up, and the Lord VoD'd out to the rear of the PH's. Instead, I pulled my Monolith around and started Particle Whipping the Daemon Prince. The Unit of Pariahs sliced right thru the flamers (Yay Warscythes!)  Now, he had a named Character in with his Unit of Juggernauts that had broken off and moved towards the main force of my army. My Tomb Spider assaulted him, more keeping him tied up than actually harming him.

My reserves are where it began to get disappointing. My Flayed ones failed their reserve roll (Again!), but my Tomb Stalker made it, so it was able to Deep Strike right up by the PH's and Juggernauts. I had the TS fire on the PH's taking a few more of them out, seeing as I can't assault when I deep strike, unlike the Daemons. My Warriors were falling left and right underneath the assault from the Daemon Prince, and their assault back did nothing more than make more fall. The instant death dealt to them by the Prince just wasn't helpful.

 After the Pariahs and 2nd Lord finished off the flamers, they consolidated in around the Named Character. He was about to have a really bad turn 3 with 6 Warscythes coming for him.

Sadly, however, turn 3 never came for me. The Daemon prince wiped out the last of my Warrior squad, and the PH's dropped my second unit of Warriors, dropping me to phase out.

 A pretty resounding defeat by the Daemons for the Necrons. Like I said, however, I think I was outclassed here, and didn't make any tactical mistakes. He totally ignored my Tomb Stalker, Monolith, and Pariahs. He went straight for the phase out, cutting down my warriors with extreme prejudice. With instant death and/or power weapons, my WBB was never even a factor. This is why I don't care if they get rid of that rule. There are so many ways around it, it has never done more than have a smidgen of warriors get back up over the course of me running this army. It's been useful, but not game deciding like everyone makes it out to be. There are just too many 2x strength, powered, and other types of weapons that denies the WBB roll.

What I took away from this battle:
-Protect the Necrons! Phase out sucks, so I should barricade some Warriors aside so that Phase out isn't an issue.
-Warscythes rule!
-Should have brought the Nightbringer. If anyone sould have stepped to a Daemon Prince, it would be a C'Tan.
-The Monolith my be nigh on impossible for the opposing army to destroy, and I should use that to my advantage. Instead of holding it back, I should have put it right out and particle whipped the snot out of his troops, even though it was damaging the prince every turn, it was only dealing one would a turn, when it could have been wiping squads out.

Well, time to revamp the list for a trip out to Evolution tonight. I hope to report a victory this time!

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 3, Finishing Touches

Well, I intended for this entry to be longer, but I feel that the pictures speak for themselves.

I went over the flat areas of the base, and flocked it with a dirty earth color powder. After gluing the Tomb Stalker on, it was ready to go out and play.

I still want to make one addition to the model, but I wanted to get these posted now, and with winter break and Christmas upon us, I just don't know when I'll be able to get to that last detail.





Enjoy, and please comment! I really do enjoy reading them! Especially all you international readers out there, please speak up! I look forward to hearing from you all.

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 2, Painting

If you were out at Evolution this past Wednesday, you saw me bring the Tomb Stalker out to play. It's about 95% done... I still want to make one more addition. Unfortunately, the TS didn't really get into the battle, (Stoopid phase out), but I will post that battle report soon.

I put more into painting the base then I did the TS. For the Tomb Stalker, I stuck to my Necron Army paint scheme. I start with a black primer, then drybush Boltgun Metal on top. After that, a drybrush of Mithril Silver is added. I picked up some metallic colored paints from my local Michael's store, and I use those pretty often, especially with the Necrons. I use the metallic turquoise to paint the Necron sigil, with a highlight of the sigil itself in shining gold. I then went over the eyes with metallic red. That pretty much sums up how I do it, however, the best trick is the sealer. I use a heavy coat of Armory Matte Sealer. That really dulls the shine of the metal, and gives it a dead, souless, look.

Sorry I don't have pictures of it up yet, but I felt that the basing was more important, and you'll see it in the finished picture shots.

 For the base, I used the standard 50/50 mix of Elmer's glue and water to secure the talus rocks to the base. The Rhino shell I painted with a 50/50 mix of shadow grey and space wolf grey, so that it would have space wolf colors. I then used a heavy wash of black and brown inks to dirty it up.

 Next, I painted the whole base with a dark brown (P3's Umbral Umber). To simulate the blast marks, I used some "grimy black" weathering powder. This stuff is absolutely amazing, and very easy to work with. Look for a product review in the near future.

To finish off the base, I drybrushed a brownish/grey color (P3's Bastion Grey) over the rocks to make them pop. Next, I sealed the base with the matte sealer.

Finally, I glued the Tomb Stalker to the top.




I'll post more pictures in Part 3 of the series, flocking the base, and the finishing touches.

Until then!

Constructing a Necron Tomb Stalker Part 1, Construction

Ah, Forge World. What a cool spiky model.
Curse you! What a spiky model!

With building any large unit, I always really want to put some extra zazz into it, and really make it into a showpiece. The Tomb Stalker is not exception. I really wanted to put an edge on the model.

 In the Forge World pictures, the Tomb stalker is crawling over a piece of wreckage, and I thought that was a brilliant idea. Instead of using the aircraft that FW used, I opted for a Whirlwind hull I picked up off of eBay.
Obviously, I didn't need all the parts, so I just constructed enough of the hull to be convincing. It's going to be wreckage anyway.

After placing the constructed hull on the base, you can see it is larger than the base. This was easy to fix, I just took a razor saw and cut the hull in half.

 Once the hull was cut in half, I placed it on the base again. It was still too big, hanging slightly off of one of the edges. I cut another hunk of the back end of the hull to make it fit.

 Now I lined it up against the base one more time just to double check. Fits perfectly. Now, onto the next step.

 Using an emobossing tool (a glorified heat gun), I melted the hull in strategic places. A heat gun or a hairdryer that gets really hot could work too, I just use the embossing tool because it generates a small stream of very hot air. It is much easier to control than a heat gun or hairdryer. On the flip side, it does get hot, and quick! I had to move my painting mat because it began to warp under the heat.

 As you can see, a few seconds under the heat and the plastic begins to melt. Using a sculpting stick, you can poke, adjust and warp the hot plastic to the desired shape.

 While it is still hot, I placed the hull on the base. Pressing down lightly, to help the plastic adhere. I didn't have to use any glue here, a light bond is all I need, as I am going to sculpt the terrain up and over the wreckage.

 Using some sculpey, (yes, SCULPEY!) I began to fill in the cracks between the wreck and the base. I like working with sculpey for a few different reasons. It comes in just about every color, it only costs about a $1, and it is easy to work with. I know many people prefer to use green stuff, I just can't justify spending that much on such a small amount of putty. (On a side note, I do plan to compare Green stuff/grey stuff/and other 2 part epoxy puttys in a future article). Sculpey is an "oven bake" clay, and will not harden until exposed to heat. Obviously, I cannot put the base and wreckage in the oven, but I

 can use the embossing tool to cook the clay. This is a trick I've used since building terrain up around 'Mechs for Battletech. Sculpey may not be as hard  as green stuff,but it isn't exactly fragile either.
Once the sculpey is hard, you can sand it. I sanded it down to remove finger prints, and add a rough texture.

 The Tomb Stalker's body comes in 12 different segments, and is super poseable. Starting on the tail end, I began to glue the pieces into place, comparing it to the contour of the base.
After assembling about 5 segments, I started from the head and worked backwards. Again, I matched the contour of the base.
Once I had the tail and the head, the mid segments fell into place rather quickly.

 As you can see in the picture, the Tomb Stalker is contoured right over the wreckage.

 I used a few rather large lumps of sticky-tac to hold the TS in place while I worked on the legs. This part was insanely hard and time consuming, as it has 22 large legs, and 20 small ones. Only the large legs need to be positioned, and the claws on the end of the legs are seperate, and can be positioned as well.
I did not glue the TS to the base, so it will be easier to paint.

With the TS complete, it's time to move onto painting. Part 2 of this will detail the painting, and basing of the model.

Until then!