Gaming Templates

I lost my flame template for my 40K game a while back and needed to replace it.  I had the option to buy a new one, but instead I copied the templates in the back of the main rule book. 

The templates were easy to make.  I copied the page with the templates on it.  After copying them on a color printer, I cut them out with a scissor.  I cut out the holes in the center of the templates using an X-acto knife.  I had the templates laminated at my local Staples.  Then I cut them out leaving a little plastic around the edges of the template, to keep the templates from warping.  Done. 

 

How to make stencil template.

Some times I need to make a stencil template to repeat a pattern or design for my models or terrain.  The templates are great for airbrushing and for repeating terrain details.  Here is the way I create my templates, and how I apply them. 

What you'll need:

1. Cardboard; you can get this from cereal boxes, or buy card stock at an art store.
2. Blue painters tape; you can use regular masking tape, but I find it may take away paint from models. 
3. X-acto knife and scissor
4. Pencil or pen
5. Steel ruler
6. Cutting surface

To begin with use your scissor to cut out a piece of cardboard to work with. 

Copy your design onto the cardboard. Blacken in any areas you want to keep or cut out.  Just remember to be consistent. 

Use your X-acto knife and steel ruler to cut out the designated areas. 

Place some blue painters tape down on your cutting surface.  You can overlap tape incase your template is large and you need more room. 

Place your stencil template over the blue painter tape, and use your pencil or pen to mark the areas that you will be cutting out on the blue painters tape. 

Using your X-acto knife and steel ruler cut out the shapes on the blue painters tape. 

Your blue painters tape is now ready to place over your models or terrain. 

You can keep reusing the cardboard stencil template as many time as you need to repeat your design over blue painters tape, cardboard or polystyrene sheets. 

Note: The blue painters tape will begin to lift up if you leave your template on a model or terrain piece for a long time.  Run your fingers over the blue painters tape before beginning to paint if you left it sitting around for a while. 

Template example.

Template example applied to my drop pod ramps.

Zealot Miniatures

I wanted to add a little more character to my Tau army.  I looked around on the Internet and found a small after market bits dealer named Zealot Miniatures.  Zealot Miniatures is located somewhere on Great Britain.  I noticed on their website that they have created several alternate male and female heads for Tau infantry.  They also make Tau infantry arms which look like they have marker lights on them.  It took a few weeks for the bits to arrive, but I'm happy with my purchase.  The bits are cast well and contain no bubbles, but you can see noticeable amounts of flash near the seams.  The hands are a bit large and out of scale, but nothing a surgeons scalpel can't fix. 

Tau Army

I’m working on redoing my Tau army that has been sitting inside old boxes for seven years.  I began by dusting everything off and taking an inventory of what I had on hand.  I have 2 Ethereals, 12 Crises Suits, 12 Stealth Suits, 2 Devilfish, 1 Hammerhead, 30+ Fire Warriors, 30+ Kroot, 2 Forge World Marker Drones, 3 Forge World Air Caste, and scores of regular Drones.  The jewel of my old Tau army is a Barracuda Air superiority fighter.  It’s going to look great once I strip it, and find a new base for it.

With my inventory complete I submerged the infantry and Crisis Suits in Super Clean.  My Tau have been soaking in the stuff for a month.  I’m in no hurry to get them out of their bath.  I’m happy to know that they will be ready for stripping when I find the time. 

I purchased some reinforcements for my Tau a few weeks back.  I picked up a Riptide, Sun Shark, 3 Broadsides, some Pathfinders, Longstrike, Darkstrider, and a Fireblade.  To give my army a unique look, I purchased some aftermarket bits from Paulson Games and Zealot Miniatures.   I think these two forces mixed together will be a considerable army to fight with.  Now I have to work out the point values and pick out a paint scheme. 

Avatars

I have been thinking about rules on how to add an avatar of yourself into 40K.  Usually a gamer is represented by the HQ unit on the board, but what happens when your HQ is a named character?  I am using Vulkan He'stan as my HQ, and sadly I'm a poor substitute for Vulkan.  I decided to make an avatar of myself using some spare bits, and some special order bits from MaxMini, Anvil Industry, and Forgeworld.  I am running an Ultramarines army, and I wanted to keep with the Roman style that is seen in the Ultramarines miniature range. 

I decided to make my avatar a gladiator with two swords.  His helmet had to be easily identifiable as a myrmillo.  I wanted to get an over armored right arm, and an under armored left arm, but I wasn't able to find anything like that online, so I just got different shoulder pads instead.  Looking back I should have looked at the Dark Eldar range.  I also needed a range weapon for him, so I made sure to use the gauntlet bolter of the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard.  Once I had all my parts together, I started assembly.  I reposed the miniature using some metal pins, and green stuff.  The base is made of cork, dipped in sand. 

As far as rules are concerned, I was thinking of having my avatar being worth 1 victory point.  The point is earned if he is captured, not killed.  You capture him using the Relic rules.  The catch is he can only be capture if his squad is destroyed, and he is killed (knocked unconscious). I would only use the avatar house rule if my opponent also had an avatar, this way the possible points earned in a game will not suffer. 

I was also think of making a vehicle pilot avatar.  A vehicle would be worth 5 victory points.  To earn the point you will first have to destroy the vehicle.  An objective marker would be placed where the vehicle was destroyed.  Then you use the objective rules to capture the downed pilot. 

Bitz

I like buying bitz to customize my armies from small independent companies, and from bitz sellers.

My favorite site at the moment is Anvil Industry, run by Joel Pitt out of London, UK.  I wrote to Joel months ago asking him to make some combi weapons.  He delivered by making some magnetised combination weapons for his miniature range.  I'm sure he's had plenty of requests for the items before I came along, but it felt like he really listened to me.  I want to add that the quality of Joel's products are excellent and well cast.  I've picked up some bitz from him in the past, and continue to look forward to what his company will be putting out in the future. 

 

 

I'm dusting off my Tau army now since it's the flavor of the month.  I turned to Paulson Games a company located in Downers Grove, IL for extra bitz to customize my character miniatures, and to add a little flavor to the rank and file.  The quality of the products are good with no heavy mold lines or miss casts. 

 



West Coast Podcast Alliance T-shirts were shipped out.

I'm a fan of three 40K hobby podcasts that operate out of Southern California.  The shows are Life After the Cover Save (LAtCS), Imperial Vox Cast (IVC), and The Independent Characters (ICs).  The three shows belong to the West Coast Podcast Alliance (WCPA).  I wanted to support the three podcasts and help spread the word by making some WCPA T-shirts and offering other listeners a chance to pick one up for themselves.  Unfortunately for me the T-shirts weren't popular, and I wasn't able to generate much interest in them from the three WCPA forums.  I did get a break when the hosts of IVC and ICs agreed to help me out by picking up some shirts, especially Tor of IVC fame who picked up two shirts for himself.  With the help of two other courageous fans out there Adan 'Blacksword' from the ICs forum, and Philip 'Gazpacho Soup' from the LAtCS forum, I was able to complete the order with Uberprints.

In order to complete the T-shirt order I had to buy three shirts for myself.  I only needed one, so I donated two of them.  One went to Carl at the ICs, in hopes that he will use it in a WCPA contest, and the second went to Robo Ed at LAtCS, as a gift for all his work in keeping the show going after one of the show's founding cast members left the podcast. 

Shirts are in 

 

A picture of Blake, Carl and Bill at At Ease Games located in Poway, CA. 

Last Month I was busy taking care of things at work, that my hobby blog was neglected.  I did get around to do some hobby work for the Independent Characters podcast for their Hobby Progress Challenge.  Last, I attended the LA Battle Bunker (RIP) the week it was down sized by Games Workshop.

 



With the economy being in such bad shape, it was only a matter of time before Games Workshop started to close its Battle Bunkers around the country.  I managed to get in a game with Blake 'Big Nasty B' of Life After the Cover Save fame, before the Bunker was closed down for good. Blake just so happens to stand as tall as a Space Marine in full power armor, interesting.     

 

How to make game cards to mark your Forests, Jungles and Woods area terrain.

I picked up an awesome idea from Tall Mike (RIP) one of the hosts of the Imperial Vox Cast.  Mike is a reformed Magic player, and he had the ingenuity of making up some Magic cards displaying the Forests, Jungles, and Woods (FJW) random table results.  I don’t play Magic, but I do like the idea of quick reference cards that can be placed alongside a terrain piece to mark what it’s random FJW table result is. 

To being with I scoured Google images for some pictures to represent the FJW results.  Once I had the pictures I needed, I stored on my PC.  Next I used my Microsoft Word to make four rectangles on a page.  I made the rectangle size 3.62” x  2.62” which is the size of a plastic game card sleeve.  Each rectangle is an individual creation.  I found copy and pasting changes the rectangles dimensions and blurs the text inside the rectangles.  I made sure to align the out board sides of the cards to the margins.  In one box I typed up the FJW text.  In the opposite rectangle I pasted the picture I wanted to use.  I did this twice, and then I printed the sheet.  I reloaded the same sheet and reprinted the page.  I readjusted the images 1/8” to the right before I reprinted.  This helped with the card alignment.  This will give you double sided cards.  After I printed the cards out I realized they needed some durability, so I took the cards down to my local Staples and had them laminated.   Last, I cut the cards to size. 

 

 

Printed Sheets

 

 



Close up of my Carnivorous Jungle card

 

 

 

Finished cards, ready to place next to terrain. 

 

IC Hobby Progress Challenge '13

It's a new year and I'm up and running.  This year begins with me accepting the The Independent Characters 2013 Hobby Progress Challenge.  It's a contest held by Carl Tuttle and Geoff Hummel on their podcast website The Independent Characters.  The challenge is simple, create a 1850 competitive list, then build and paint your army to match.  You can also forgo starting an army from scratch, and instead do additions to your existing army.  Every month you have to finish a unit or character and submit before and after pictures of the miniatures you are entering.  For every entry you put in, you get a chance to win a prize.  For the full details visit the IC's on their site and read the contest rules there. 

My first entry will be my Vulcan He'stan, who has been sitting around primed and ready for months. 

 

 

 

 

My second entry is a unit of Sternguard with combi-meltas and heavy flamers.  This unit takes parts from several different sources.  The marines helmets are from Maxmini, while the sergeant's helmet is from Forgeworld.  The weapons are from Custom Minis.  I put everything together with Gorilla Super Glue and some green stuff. 

 

 





 

 



 

Here's an Sternguard update.  I finished adding Dhener Stone on the white area of five of my Sternguard.  I still have to finish the rest of them, and paint up Vulkan He'stan before the end of the month.  The pressure is on. 

 



 

 

The finished Sternguard squad.  I still need to find some cross decals so I can use them for the right shoulder pad markings. 

 

 

 

 









 





Banners

Recently I made a banner for a Blood Angels sergeant.  I was able to take the logo of my favorite 40K podcast Life After the Cover Save and turn it into a banner for a squad of space marines.  Here's how you can make banners of your own. 

 

What you'll need:

1. Digital image, the picture you want on the flag.
2. Microsoft Word or any word processing software that will allow you to place pictures inside the page.
3. Paper, you can use regular printing paper, but I recommend you buy a few sheets of the good stuff so the banners colors remain vivid. 
4. Elmer's glue, the Brits call it PVA glue. 
5. A plastic rod, or stick to turn into a banner pole.  You can use toothpicks, metal rod, polystyrene etc.
6. X-acto knife
7. Pencil
8. Old paint brush
9. Ruler
10. Matt Varnish
11. A Surface to cut on. 

To Begin with you need to have the pictures you want to use stored on your PC.  Create a folder where these images are easy to get to.  You can choose to edit the size of your picture now, or later when you are importing the pictures onto your document.  If you wish to do it now, click on your picture and edit it until the height of the picture is the right dimension consistent with the size of your banner pole.  I recommend 1" in height, the length will readjust automatically.  Save the picture, and make sure you are including the height of the picture in the picture title.  This will make it easier to find in your files. 

Open up a new page on Microsoft Word, click on the Insert Tab, then the Shapes Tab.  Select a rectangle shape, and make a rectangle on your page about 6"x 8".  The color you chose will become the background of your flag, or it's border depending on what your picture looks like.  An example would be if the background of your picture is black, and you create a black rectangle, the picture background and black rectangle will blend together and give you a smooth transition.  If the picture background is different, then your rectangle color you will be able to make a trim around your picture, giving the impression of a border around your picture. 

Import your picture onto the Microsoft Word Doc. Click on your picture and choose the Wrap Text option, then the In Front of Text option. This will bring your photo out to the front of the rectangle  you have created.  Click on your picture and use the Size and Position option, here's the your second chance to play around with the dimensions, remembering that your banner needs to fit your banner pole. You can now import the same picture again, or choose a new one. Keep in mind that the pictures you choose should be close in size, so both sides of your banner will be in proportion.  Aline the pictures side by side, and space them out so that you will be able to create a span of paper to wrap around the banner pole, between 1/4"-3/4" depending on the girth of  your banner pole.  Remember to place the pictures close to the center so there's plenty of room for you to cut material away during the next part of the project.  Save the page, and Print it. 

 

 Take the page and apply matt varnish to it.  I use Krylon matt varnish.  Wait for the varnish to dry.  Take the page and tape it down to your cutting surface.  Use your ruler and pencil to draw the lines of your banner around your pictures.  I created a 1/4" order around everything.  Draw the spacers between the pictures which will be the banner border and material which will attach your banner to its pole.  You can also choose to make pennants attached to the back of your flag by extending lines outward and bring them back to the border of your flag, forming triangles.  Once all your lines have been established, cut the banner out using an X-acto knife. 

Using a old paint brush, apply watered down glue to the inside of the flag. apply glue to both sides.  Take your banner and wrap it around your banner pole.  This is a messy process, bear with it.  Join both sides together and hold them there waiting for the glue to start bonding.  Make sure to press down around the flag material that's attaching directly to the pole, it should be a snug fit.  You need to begin making folds in your flag now as the glue is setting.  Just use your fingers to shape the folds out.  Once everything drys you will see some extra white material here and there.  You can choose to paint over this, or cut it out with your exacto knife.  Take a Sharpie marker, or a good brush and paint the edges of your banner to hide all the white paper underneath. Use the tip of the your brush, not the edge to paint in the white overlap. 

40K Battle

I played a game of 40K vs my buddy Alex.  I ran my orks, he ran his Chaos Space Marines army.  Long story short, I won.  In Alex's defense, it was his first time playing 6th Ed 40K.  He ran a balanced Nurgle host, with Slaanesh demons as allies.  Alex's down fall was that he rushed me, and didn't take into account how important it is to be the defender during a charge.  The pictures posted below are some of the highlights of that batte. 

Blood Angels Update

Last night I finished my pro bono commission for Blake (Big Nasty B) from the Life After the Cover Save podcast.  Blake plays Warhammer 40K and uses a Blood Angels Space Marines army.  A while ago Blake came up with the idea of having his listeners paint up his miniatures.  A few people have already volenteered for the task.  I thought this would be a great way to say thanks for all the laughter he and the LAtCS crew have brought into my life in the past year. 

The following are a few shots of my painting progress on Blakes models.  All that's left is to paint the jump pack engines, add the LAtCS flag, varnish, and oil wash.  This project should have been over with weeks ago, I've just been precrastinating.  I finally found the time, and I'm going to complete Blake's Blood Angels tonight. 

 

Blood Angels Space Marines

I was given a combat squad of Blood Angels assault Marines from Blake (BnB, American Steel) from Life After the Cover Save to paint.  I was glad to receive the marines, and look forward to completing them.  I had to add some bits to complete the miniatures.  I also felt the Sergeant needed a more imposing heroic pose, so I included a banner pole in his left hand.  I will be painting up a LAtCS banner and attaching it to the pole.  I also elevated him above his men by using some cork tile to give the Sergeant a bit more height.  I airbrushed the primary red colors, and will be using my brushes to finish off the detail work.  I plan on using oil paints to shade the models after they have added the decals and a layer of clear coat. 

West Coast Podcast Alliance weekend

Last weekend I attended the West Coast Podcast Alliance Golden Ticket Event in Palmdale, CA.  I was able to do everything I wanted to do.  I met the podcast hosts from Life After the Cover Save, The Independent Characters, and Imperial Vox Cast.  I thanked them for all the time and effort they put into their shows and promoting our hobby here in California. 

I met several LAtCS celebrities while I was there.  Lets see there was Matt "Long Hair" LAtCS Survivor Series Champion,  Dan "The Magnet Man" with a wonderfully magnetised Tyranid Trygon, and  "Colonel Dracus" of Forge World fame.  It was cool to meet the guys.  They were all friendly and easy going people.  We discussed hobby tips and game strategy while we were there.  I think everyone had a good time. Especially after the pizzas got there, Thanks Ed for ordering those pies. 

I was able to play a four-man game with Josh from LAtCS. We ran my Orks and Josh's Eldar/Dark Eldar vs Matt "Long Hair" and Matt "SavageJester" and their Space Wolfs and Blood Angles respectively. The mass infantry of the Orks, mixed with the rapid deployment options of the Eldar are tough to defend against. Our opponents were good sports and fought to the bitter end. Ultimately it was our numbers that kept our team one step ahead of the Marines. We won the game by a hand full of kill points. 

 

Here are a few pictures of the tables that were being used at the event. 

 

Life After the Cover Save recorded their 56 episode while the event was underway.  Here are some pictures of the hosts interviewing the crews of Imperial Vox Cast, and The Independent Characters.

I had a great time at the Thunderdome, and hope the WCPA makes the Golden Ticket Event an annual affair. 

I was at the Thunderdome well after the rest of the hosts and fans had said their good byes.  Late into the night you could still hear laughter and the sound of rolling dice coming form the Thunderdome.