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. 

Got the Malifaux bug.

Recently I've been putting together minis for Wyrd Miniature's Malifaux game.  Since I like the idea of the wild west, I chose Perdita Orgeta and her family for my crew.  Word got out that I was starting Malifaux and one of my buddies commissioned me to put together a Ten Thunders crew for him.  I've been able to put together the crews, now I just have to find the time to paint them.  To give the crews a little pop, I ordered some Secret Miniatures bases.  I believe they have some of the best resin bases on the market.  I cleaned up the miniatures, added green stuff where needed, and primed them using Walmart's Black Primer, and Krylon White Primer. 

Tomorrow's technology, today.

I was looking up the up coming movie Elysium staring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster (Hello Clarice), when I saw an add for the Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) by Lockheed Martain.  If there will ever be a power armor initiative in our time, this has to be it.  Terminator armor in Warhammer 40K had to begin somewhere, what if it started like this? 

The Broadside Bash

I visited the Kingdom-Con, Broadside Bash event located inside the Crown Plaza Hotel in San Diego, CA this weekend.  I arrived late in the afternoon on the last day of the event, not looking to participate.  My adjenda was to meet up with Blake of Life After the Cover Save fame and see what he's been up to.  To my surprise I wasn't charged an entry fee to the event, all I had to pay for was $3.00 for parking. I was able to walk around for a while and see the end of the 40K tournament.  I found Blake, just in time to see him win 2nd place in a Malifaux tournament.  Blake received a sweet prize, the Relic Hunters box set.  It was good to see Blake again, as I am quite interested in hearing what he has to say.  We had lunch and on our way out, I was able to snag a fist full of bitz from the kit bashing conversion table contest.  I scored a bunch of bitz for my terminiators, enough arms to swap out some of my assault terminator for regular stormbolter terminators.  I had a good time at the Broadside Bash, and will have to attened it next year. 

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.