D. Hunter Phillips's Blog, page 5

Working with Decals: 40k Edition

So, I’ve finally gathered the courage into diving into using Decals. My space marines have been waiting for decals before getting their final sealant coating for quite some time. Before proceeding with using my brand new airbrush, I wanted to knock out the nearly finished units.

I started with decals from the old base sets. Tactical marines seemed to be the best to experiment on. Who cares if they look good? Okay, sure, you want them all to look good. You need someone to practice on.

As you can see above, I had decent success with the tactical squad symbols. The size made them easier to work with than some of the decals I tried later.

The Big Lesson: Make sure that the decals get thoroughly wet when you soak them or they become quite a pain to get off of the paper and onto the model smoothly.

Also, use Micro Set and Micro Sol, it will help to slide the decals into place, I can’t imagine trying without that stuff.

Then, after feeling a little more comfortable, I dove into using custom printed decals.

My attempt to print on the smaller than 8×11 paper was an utter failure, totally wasting half of the piece that I printed onto.

Then, as I started trying to soak my custom decals, the ink disappeared from the paper. The reason, of course, was because I use an inkjet. I finally figured out the key to making it work. I sprayed my paper with acrylic coating. Then, magically, the ink did not dissolve off from the water.

The paper had a different consistency than the Games Workshop decals. It didn’t dissolve onto the minis quite as well. The above example shows a pretty seamless decal on my dreadnought, but the ones on my terminator shoulder pads didn’t go anywhere near as smoothly. Those poor terminators didn’t get much help from my decal abilities. Sorry boys.

The Big Lesson: Be patient. Also, spray your custom decal paper after printing with acrylic to seal the ink on the paper.

For my future custom decal applications I am also going to cut the paper much closer to the edges of the design before soaking.

Drinking, Fighting, and Reminiscing in The World’s End

I have enjoyed my year in movies, that year stayed strong for me with The World’s End.

Though I couldn’t say that I could pin each of the characters in this group of guys with specific friends of mine, I could envision such a situation occurring with my friends if we split off now and reunited in 15 years or so.

The drinking with the old gang, who wouldn’t love to experience that? The beginning of the movie is different and not exotic without being boring. It was just enough time to develop the characters in this old crew just enough.

This movie had the fighting fun, though not flashy like Hot Fuzz, which makes sense considering that was an action movie spoof. The first alien discovery scene was a hell of a lot of fun.

The reminiscing of the characters allowed me to reminisce about 80′s movies and my own past experiences without feeling like a total goofball. I loved the touch of This Corrosion by Sisters of Mercy being played at several segments throughout the movie, slowly playing a little bit more of the song each time until the end credits.

The last few minutes of the movie completely shift gears, and I must say, unlike a lot of Hollywood movies these days, I was ready to watch that movie for another hour with that twist. It just got so damn cool all of a sudden!

Please make a sequel focusing on the last scenes of the movie!

A straight forward action romp of a book: Hell’s Faire

It has been a while since I read a John Ringo book, and this book is by no means a new release (being almost 10 years old), so I decided recently to finally jump back into the Legacy of the Aldenata series with Hell’s Faire.

The first two books of this series are a couple of my favorite all time books. I enjoyed the character development, the locations of the events were exotic and also close to home. The battle sequences were really stellar and the tactics and strategy tended to inspire.

After reading the Afterworde of Hell’s Faire, a few things made a lot more sense. When I read “When the Devil Dances”, I thought the back cover explanation made absolutely no sense. Now I know why! John had intended the two books to be one book, and the dust cover reads like what Hell’s Faire is about.

I’ve enjoyed following the adventures of Mike O’Neal, leader of the ACS battalion, but in this book, all those segments tended to be a little stale. I enjoyed the brief segments with General Horner more than probably the rest of the book.

Also, I quite enjoyed Glennis, a young armored battalion commander that escorted the SheVa gun during the book.

Overall, I just found the tactics and the story progression to be less interesting. I felt like this book was stretched out unnecessarily so that it could be a fourth novel instead of a concluding 100 pages or so to the last book.

The plots that start to get more developed with the Cyberpunks and the Bane Sidhe are also great developments to look forward to future books. I didn’t regret reading this book and I zipped right along through it, but it just is no match to the awesomeness of Hymn Before Battle.

GenCon 2013 Reflections Part 1

I learned a lot of valuable lessons about going to cons this Gencon.

1. Always have back up plans.

I should have learned this lesson after a previous Dragoncon, where my flight was cancelled due to a hurricane and I had to hurriedly find a ride to the convention instead. Gencon had a similar problem this year, where my previous ride had another obligation come up at the last minute (Sunday before Gencon). I had to scramble to find someone else that was going to drive or buy a one way flight to then ride back with my friend. So, after these experiences, it is best to have knowledge of other possible plans, just in case your current travel plan falls apart.

2. Tournaments take a LOT of time.

I played in the Star Wars LCG tournament, which was a lot of fun, but it took up an entire day of the convention. This is something to take into account when choosing events to purchase when events open up.

3. Food trucks rule.

The food trucks have been, perhaps, the single best addition to the convention. It makes getting food really easy, and the food is a LOT better than the food at the convention center.

I’ll be posting some more about Gencon in the coming weeks. This Gencon had almost fifty thousand attendees. I am very impressed with how the crowds have been kept under control and that the staff has really kept things in order. After going to so many other conventions, I am genuinely very impressed.

Writing multiple POV characters for a book

I know, I haven’t posted on my blog much lately. I’ve been busy with putting my thoughts and writing abilities toward working on my next novel. I am very excited about it and I have finally found some new inspiration and new juice.

I am writing out character flashback segments that will help to flesh out some of the secondary characters and make them into more major/main characters. This is what I have been wanting all along. I really wanted to have about 4 major characters that I can use for POV, but for the most part, until now, it has been really just one or two. After writing for one character so much, it was a real challenge to try to think about where other characters were and what they were doing while the main character was doing his/her business.

I have definitely learned from this experience that writing for just one character is a hell of a lot easier than 3, 4, or more. It gives me a new found respect for writers like GRRM.

I was talking with another one of my writer friends at brunch a few weeks ago and we got on the subject of picking up a book project after leaving it for a while. That is the conversation that drove home, for me, the best way to be able to do that. I have a character dossier for each of the characters that makes more than just one appearance with a break down of anything that happens to them in the book, any time I use a descriptive word for them, and any possessions they have. This has helped me immensely in keeping all of the details straight. All my future book projects will be a little bit slower going in the writing, but much better organized.

New Muzak Review: Blaqk Audio

It has been a hot minute since I bought some new music and talked about it on teh ol’ blog o’ sphere.

I just noticed that the long awaited new Blaqk Audio album was out. I bought the digital version and started listening about 3 weeks ago.

I was going through some interesting and emotional experiences in my life just at that very moment. I don’t know if that had something to do with the feelings that I had about the album, but it might have tainted my perspective. When I listened to the sound bites, I was not all that impressed with what I heard. After listening to the album a dozen or more times, I can say, without a doubt, that I love the album.

There are a few songs on the album that didn’t strike my fancy, but at least they aren’t just sound effect filler tracks as can be common in the genre of synthpop.

Cold War is a great song to bring new fans into the fold. It is pleasant, with interesting lyrics and quite short.

Bliss is a slower song that I discounted at first, but now I am finding it grow on me quite a bit.

Deconstructing Gods kind of bores me, I usually skip that song.

Faith Healer has fun lyrics and I imagine it will be quite fun to dance to.

The album has a lot of tragic romance elements in the lyrics, just as the previous album did. If you like slightly slower, good lyrical synth, you should definitely check it out.

Post Happy Hour snacky time at La Porta

I have now gone to La Porta’s in Old Town Alexandria (On Duke Street) twice. Both times, I have had a wonderful experience with the service, staff, and the food. I’ve actually found their vegetarian options very enjoyable (not that I am a vegetarian). The last time was just a selection of small plates and lots of delicious Champagne and wine.

I don’t have a ton to say about this place but that the atmosphere is very relaxed and feels upscale without feeling pretentious. Its location is off the path of King Street but in an area where there isn’t much other competition.

I highly recommend stopping in to La Porta’s for drinks, dinner, or just snacking with the small plates.

40k Battle Report: Orks vs. Space Wolves

I’ve been having so much luck with rolling to see who goes first. I’m so spoiled.

This was an 1850 point battle with my Orks against Ashley’s Space Wolf army.

Ork army highlights:

Warboss with full nob squad, pain boy, cyborks, with shoota/skorchas in a Battlewagon (get used to it)

30 boyz

30 gretchin

10 gretchin joined with a Mekboy with shokk attack gun sitting on an objective

1 Deff dread

3 Meganobz

2 Killa kanz

9 Stormboyz

15 Kommandos

15 boyz

5 tank bustaz

3 Deffkoptas in reserve(outflank)

Space wolf army highlights:

2 Long fang squads

3 Drop pods with Grey hunters and a rune priest

2 units of cavalry

1 unit of wolves

1 more grey hunter group at the rear objective

1 Dreadnought

Turn 1:

My kommandos and stormboyz bounded forward into the tough ruin cover in the middle of the table. As usual, all other units generally advanced, except the shokk attack gun.

(See one of my new squads that I painted recently below, yay!)



Space wolves plopped down two drop pods. The rune priest promptly blasted away some of my boyz and 1 mega nob. Also, the wolves engaged my 30 gretchin and wiped the whole squad. More fire poured into my kommandos and stormboyz.

(I can’t recall who got first blood, I think I did, but now that I think about it, it must have been the gretchin)

Turn 2:

Time to get stuck in! The Battlewagon rolled forward and disgorged the nob squad to engage one grey hunter unit. My boyz (that had been decimated by fire) charged forth to engage the rune priest and his squad. My deff koptas came on the board not on the side I would have hoped (but did support against the rune priest unit). My storm boyz got wiped out and my kommandos tore through one long fang squad. The left flank was looking pretty sorry against the horde of Space Wolf cavalry coming in to clash with my units.

Turn 3:

By the end of Turn three, the right flank completely belonged to the orks (as well as both objectives there). The left side of the board was inundated in close combats, most of which were stalemates slowly going in the favor of the Space Wolves. The Nob squad marched that way to join in the battle.

At this point, the battle was pretty much a done deal. My commander was safe from enemies, I held most of the objectives and the enemy warlord was dead. It was still close in the victory points, but the orks controlled the battlefield and won by a single point.

40k Battle Report: Orks vs. Dark Angels and Imperial Guard

My most recent match of 40k was a 1500 point romp between my orks against a combined force of Dark Angels and Imperial Guard.

My force consisted of some shoota trukk boys, two mobs of full strength ‘ard boys, a small group of tankbusta boyz, and my big ole’ awesome new standard unit, the Battlewagon with a Warboss with a 10 man nob squad with a pain boy, cybork bodies, and all shoota/skorchas.

The enemy force consisted of no vehicles, so my tank bustaz were actually pretty useless. The imperial guard force was a guant’s ghosts inspired unit of just sneaky veterans and deep strike Stormtroopers. The Dark Angels were made up of a bunch of bikes, devastators, tactical marines, and veteran marines.

We had to objectives, one at the bottom left of the first image and the other is the bunker at the top right of the image. Orks got to go first.

Turn 1:

The Orks don’t defend! Both groups of ‘ard boys, the trukk, the battle wagon, and the tank busta boys all slogged their way forward. Shooting resulted in the Orks firing their guns harmlessly into the air.

The Imperium forces moved forward most of the Dark Angel force to go after the enemy objective. Fire widdled away a few ‘Ard Boys. The bikes assaulted the left flank ‘Ard Boys and did fairly well, not taking a single casualty.

Turn 2:

The left flank didn’t see many changes with the only Orks in range engaged in melee with the bikes, until the bikes hit and run of course! The right flank became quite dangerous for the Imperium as the Nob squad of destruction moved out of the transport and assaulted the veteran space marines and a veteran imperial guard squad. The Dark Angels began to assault all the Ork units with all the strength they could muster after allowing their imperial guard allies to take some pot shots. The Storm Troopers drop in and obliterate the Tank Bustaz.

Turn 3:

The Warboss and his nobs now turn their attention to a much further target, the beleaguered left flank. The Ard Boys actually fair pretty well against the space marine commander and the squad he was attached to. It ends up being about 15-20 boyz against just the commander.

Turn 4:

The two boyz squads assault the bunker with the nobs having the only shot at harming the guys inside, and doing some damage. The Warboss’s squad wipes out one of the imp guard veteran squads and the lord commissar has his head removed by the Warboss! We called the game at this point with their Warlord gone and me getting first blood.

Lessons learned:

The epic nob squad keeps owning, as long as it doesn’t have to foot slog early and the Battlewagon is used to block line of sight after winning in assaults.

Even doing a disorganized charge with orks is great, keep them engaged so that they can’t be shot at.

Assaulting orks is better than being assaulted by orks, especially for the bikes (that then need 6′s to wound with just Strength 3).

Troop choices are king, nothing else much matters if you can’t control any objectives. I wish that some other units were also scoring units all the time. Like, why shouldn’t storm troopers be able to control objectives? Its just goofy.

The Birds!

I almost forgot to put up pictures and mention the birds that nested in the Umbrella on the back patio! Not much to say but that it was cool to see the birds show up, have their little babies, and then fly off.