Dear Diary

Today I've done something that probably would be common sense to most and that is I've started writing down all of my painting techniques in a journal. The idea came to me as I was repairing one of my Plague Drones and I was thinking about how long it took me to remember how I did the boils (ended up searching through my own blog posts) which is no good when I get hit with a sudden flash of inspiration. By the time I've either remembered how I did a technique or found how I did that technique I've lost the will to live never mind the will to paint. This way all of my techniques will be in one place and readily accessible at any time. I had the idea of arranging them by God and by army but that would be insane to even attempt without a ring binder and I'm not going that crazy. Well not yet at least. 

My next job with the journal is to go through each of my blog posts and write down any techniques and colour schemes I've used and write them into the journal to start building it up. It will almost be a painting Grimoire (or Book of Shadows for any wiccans out there) at some point in the future I plan to have pictures attached to the pages so I have a reference for how the finished article is supposed to look. Unlike a Grimoire there won't be any records of experiments gone wrong, information or anything else, just colour schemes and techniques I think have been successful and will most likely want to repeat in the future.

All for one

Today I offer up four Champions to the Chaos altar of t'internet for sacrifice. By which I mean I finally got my act together and painted some more Chaos Space Marines. These were sort of an experiment of combining various styles and techniques while creating a cohesive central theme at the same time and I like to think that it was a success and I hope you agree. In light of the forthcoming hardback version of the Black Legion supplement I'm painting my Chosen Marines (and most of the rest of my CSM) as Black Legion. At least until another supplement comes out and I start painting some stuff for that one. I think I'm going to end up with a set of models worthy of the Index Astartes by the time I'm done. I think we'll need a bigger display cabinet...

The Battle is Over

For those subscribed to Forge World emails this isn't new information but for those that aren't this will be pretty awesome. Remember my post detailing the two Primarchs competing for the Games Day spot? And remember my more recent post about Kor Phaeron and Erebus? Well it turns out that not only will the two Word Bearers be turning up but so will... Ferrus Manus. 

One For The Books

I can honestly say that as far as I know, no one saw this coming. This post is on the back of my previous post about the Horus Heresy character that will be available at Games Day this year and while the community were teaming up behind either Mortarion or Ferrus Manus (myself included for the former) it turns out we were fed false information by the masters of spin; the Word Bearers. Yes you read correctly. Bit out of the blue but there we go. If you haven't already seen then it is Erebus and Kor Phaeron that will be released (unless these guys are a cover for there being a bigger surprise but I wouldn't hold my breath).

Breaking News!

I don't normally deal with news and rumours (much better blogs out there for that) but I have to share this one because it actually affects what I do here. 

The Black Library are apparently releasing unit Tactica!! Well not apparently because here's a screenshot:

This first one is for the Wraithknight (not that much is needed for them apart from point, shoot, kill, avoid high strength/low AP weapons) and obviously there are a lot of units for them to cover. My guess is that the company is taking note of the fact that there are some out there with little tactical ability who look online for tactical analysis, such as the ones I write here, and are catering to it. For a price of course: £1.49 which isn't bad I guess. Of course if they're doing that for each individual unit then it will very quickly add up. 

What this means for us Tactica bloggers is that someone is doing our job for us and charging for the privilege. The obvious advantage of this is that we are getting this advice from the people involved in creating the units and I suspect it will be quite detailed (I'll find out when it comes out). The disadvantage is that we have to buy this advice. Personally I don't mind as long as the advice is good but I guess that's personal choice.

In other news just quickly before I go, the Black Library website says that the Black Legion supplement is due for a hardback release in November while the Farsight supplement is due in October. Also in Hardback.

Also the Enhanced Edition of the Space Marine codex is back online and they're releasing the Force Requisition list builder in stages meaning that only Troops, HQ and Heavy Support is currently available. Now I've seen a lot of people complain about this feature but I think we need to cut GW a bit of slack here; as far as I'm aware (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) this is the first time GW have tried to join the list building game so they are going to get things wrong and they're going to have to update things a lot as they go. Just be patient while they gain their sea legs and before long they'll be sailing right alongside the other ships on the sea.

Battle of Brothers

I'm not usually one to deal in rumours on this site (Daemons aside) but this one has got me thinking so I thought that I'd share my thoughts. The rumour I'm talking about is which of the Primarchs is to be the next model released by Forge World. The current majority are talking about it being between Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands and Mortarion of the Death Guard. I'm going to talk about why each of them is a likely candidate to be the next release and I'm going to start with Mortarion because I just prefer the Traitor Legions to the Loyalists.

Bitter Enmity

There are two things I want to show you in this post and one of them is my brand new models! Now I've only been able to clean the mould lines so far so they look a little plain but trust me they'll be amazing.