BBC Celebrates 40K's Birthday

I know I'm late to the party on this.   However I just found it, and since I liked it I wanted to post about it.

BBC featured a video and article about 40K on their site that depicted 40K in a fairly honest and non-exploitative manner.  I was very impressed, and I highly encourage you to check them out.

New Space Marine DLC Announced

THQ announced today a new DLC coming to Space Marine.  This new DLC will feature a new game mode called Dreadnought which

adds a new multiplayer mode called Dreadnought Assault where both teams battle to capture a central location on the map and the winners spawn a player controlled Dreadnought. The Dreadnought is armed with an Assault Cannon / Auto Cannon, a Meltagun and a Power Fist / Power Claw and must capture points across the map to score points for their team. Once the Dreadnought is destroyed a new spawn point will appear.

The Dreadnought DLC also includes three new multiplayer maps Desolation, Dome Mechanicus and Chem Refinery, as well as new achievements / trophies and has a suggested cost of 800 Microsoft Points / US$9.99.

Click through the link to read all about the DLC that is slated for release January 25, 2012.

40K FAQ Updates

So a bunch of FAQs got updated by GW this month.  And by a bunch I mean everything but Cities of Death, Planetstrike, Black Templar and Tau got some sort of update.  You can see all the FAQs here.

It is an Honor to Have This Warboss in My Army

Look at my website banner.  See that really awesome Warboss?  The one that's the best looking miniature in my army?  The one painted by my buddy Steve?  Yeah well now, go buy the Cool Mini Or Not 2010 Annual that was just released.  Because that Warboss, the one painted by my buddy Steve, is on page 101.  So buy it, and look at Steve's stuff at CMON, and then vote for his stuff.

Another Rut Ploughed Through

If there's one constant theme through my blog it's that I'm an idiot and don't know the game I love all that well.  But if there's another less overt theme it's been an interesting (well interesting to me anyway) chronicle of the ups and downs of my interest in 40K.  I'm never not interested in 40K, but like anybody it waxes and wanes.  At times I'm fired up and it's all I want to think and/or talk about.  At times I just can't muster the energy to do anything with it.

This is natural.  And since this is my blog, and a personal journal of my journey into, and greater understanding of 40K, it's also been a journal of the peaks and valleys of my interest in 40K.

Currently I am on the upswing out of another valley.  You probably noticed the lack of regular updates to the site.  That's a direct result of my valleys.  Happens all the time.  I've been swamped at work, and with the holidays, and while I loves me Space Marine, I've spent more time lately playing DC Universe Online (hey new free MMORPG games are always good).  Plus I took a break from podcasts and was listening to sports talk radio (because hey, my beloved Detroit Lions don't completely suck this year).

A couple weeks ago I dusted off the old podcast app, and started listening to my favorite 40K podcasts again.  And today I'm going to start another lunchtime series of gaming with my buddy Steve.  We should be done with it by next week so I can have a good write up after that.  And as the holidays descend on us, I hope I can find the time in the madness to update the blog.

But lord knows I'm glad to be moving up and out of the valley because it's a lot more fun.

Golden Joystick Awards

The Golden Joystick Awards voting is now open.  Dawn of War II: Retribution is one of the games in the Strategy category.  So get to the polls, vote early, and vote often.

Personal Painting Challenge Update #3

When I set up this personal challenge to myself earlier this summer it was an attempt on my part to manifest my re-commitment to 40K and create a challenge to try to fit this into what is always a busy summer schedule for me.  I knew I had put some pretty heady goals for what I was trying to accomplish based on my limited time I could set aside for painting, my penchant for slow as molasses painting even with me dipping, and hard end date of Labor Day.  I'm not throwing in the towel, but the challenge is going to go down to the wire, and hope is fading.

That said, I have made progress.

My Nobz are finished.  I touched up the paint and finished dipping this week.

My Deff Dread is still a work in progress and the painting is coming along.

I have done nothing with the Ork Boyz since getting them ready to be primered.

How can I finish the challenge?  Simply put I need to buckle down and get the Deff Dread done.  IF I can focus on the Deff Dread and get done painting him by the weekend, I have a chance.  Ork Boyz are pretty basic for painting, and with large mobs of them I don't do a lot of detail work.  Yes they look good, but I don't spend the time on them like I do the other models.  I could, if time permits, feasibly get them painted in a weekend.  However it is a holiday weekend, and I am not sure how much time I will actually have.

Its' gonna be close...hopefully I can get them done.

My Personal Challenge - Update #2

In my quest at trying to find ways to fail, I think I've set up a pretty good method this month.  With two camping trips scheduled in August those weeks tend to be a complete loss for painting progress as we spend our evenings packing the camper, and getting stuff around to go.  Or at least that was the case last week.  I wasn't able to do much of anything because I was either working hard to pack stuff up, or was just too exhausted from work and everything else to focus.

But I did get some stuff done after I got home Sunday.  I glued together some of the pieces of my Deff Dread that I wanted to paint as a whole and primered them.  I've finished painting the arms of the Nobz, and have only some of the boss poles that go with them to finish up.  My Nobz bodies are all at my buddy Steve's house in the middle of a game so when that is finished I will bring them home and finish gluing them together and dip them.

I planned to magnetize and start painting the Deff Dread Wednesday, but ended up getting home late from seeing some family.  My plan is to not do much to recess the magnets, because I'm envisioning the arms looking like they are barely connected...which I think will look very Orky.  I'll have to experiment some.  I'm magnetizing the small arms to make it customizable, and the big arms to avoid breakage in transport when I take it anywhere.

The Ork Boyz have had nothing done with them, because they are currently in the middle of the same game that my Nobz are in.  So I'll clean them up and primer them when I get them back to the house.

My Personal Challenge - Update #1

I've been working as diligently as time allows on my Ork Challenge.  I always paint in pieces, and then glue together, so I started gluing together my Nobz.  I have some detail work to do, and the shoulder armor pieces need to be painted, but they are coming together quite nicely.  If I can focus on them like I want, I envision having them dipped by the end of the weekend.

The Deff Dread is completely off the sprues and cleaned up.  I'm going to magnetize the Dread so he can be customizable, so I'm looking at possibly gluing some of the bigger pieces together before I paint.  I also need to primer the pieces.

The Ork Boyz are off the sprues, but have not been cleaned yet.  Once I do that, then I'll primer them and begin the assembly line process of painting them before putting them together and dipping.

Fantasy Flight Games Assaults My Wallet Again

Admittedly offering downloadable NPC character sheets based on the Ultramarines movie for free seems to be a toothless assault, but now I'm again assailed by them to spend my non-existent funds on their Deathwatch game.

You can Download Proteus, Verenor, and the Hammer of Macragge for your Deathwatch game.

The download is available as a High Res and Low Res file at the Deathwatch Support Page.

40K Neophyte is Mobile

Thanks to the latest updates on Blogger, 40K Neophyte is now optimized to be visted on a cell phone.  All the crappy content, now scaled to bore you while you're away from your computer.  Nothing special is needed, just a web ready phone, a decent internet connection, and a willingness to be subjected to my crappy writing while you're on the go.

Announcing My New Blog

Okay guys, I'm not going to start ignoring 40K Neophyte, but I really had an urge to write about something else than just 40K.  So my buddy Steve and I have started a blog about James Bond called Bondtastic 007.

I just posted my first article out there, about a mysterious plane in Nassau that is apparently an abandoned plane from a James Bond movie, and my investigation into what plane from which movie.

So if you like the coolest spy in the history of cool spies, then enjoy Bondtastic 007.

Summer Is Here

So if my posting rate goes down a bit, it's only because my days are filled with outdoor activities and what not.  I'm still painting my Nobz, and have made them customizable.  So that's taking time too.  I also have another (non 40K) project that I'm trying to get off the ground.  That's taking up a bunch of time too, but hopefully that will get kicked off and going and I can bring some attention back here.

Also, I have some gaming planned for June 17th/18th, so look for a battle report or two to come out of that.

So I'm not officially into my normal summer blog duldrums since I am laid off still and so have more time than usual, but I just figured I'd give fair warning that if I slow down the posts it's only because I'm a fat lazy bastard.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Now Available for Pre-order

I'm not sure when it went available, or when the release date was pushed back to September, but the good news is that the game is now available for pre-order from Steam.  Not only that, but the pre-order includes the game Darksiders, and more importantly the Blood Ravens chapter pack.  I'm not sure how that chapter pack will work, but I'm glad to see it.  For my money the rightful chapter that should be featured in a Relic 40K game should be the Blood Ravens.  Not that the Ultramarines are bad (they are the face of the 40K franchise for Games Workshop), but the Blood Ravens are the face of the 40K franchise in the video game realm.  So huzzah to Relic for making them available for the game.

FOUND!!

For those who have followed the plight of my family with my missing sister, I have some good news.  She was found alive in Joliet, IL suffering from amnesia, and was identified today.  Police found her, released her photo, and a friend of a friend recognized her from the missing person flyer we had posted on Facebook.

I want to thank everyone for all the kind words and prayers.  And I really want to thank all of you for your patience as I've had other things on my mind than 40K.

We have a lot to work through (the amnesia, her last 3 weeks, why she left in the first place, and the ramifications of her being a missing person), but the biggest concerns have been resolved.  Yes she's alive, and yes we know where she is at now.

I'm Not Ignoring The Blog

Just in case anyone thinks otherwise, I'm not ignoring the blog.  After my visit with family over the Easter weekend I felt good.  The time with family, speaking with investigators, and seeing the Dollar General my Sister was last seen at sort of gave a sense of closure.  Well, not closure, but I have this feeling I will never see my sister again.  I want to know where she is, and I want to know why, how, and what happened.  But I've reached a place where I've accepted that I likely never will.  I'm not giving up, and I'm not giving in...but I have been able to move on.  And so, after I came back from Georgia I needed a bit of time to process everything, and then I started working on my Trukk again.  The cab is done, the bed is done, the front end and the boarding planks are in process.  I can see the finish line.

And so I'm focused on finishing that up so I can post pictures galore, of everything I did with my trukk.  What I did to customize it, and what I did to adapt it so I can equip certain things as needed.  Will I have it done by the end of the week?  I'm not sure, but if I don't post anything next week then I'm making a big push to finish it and blogging will recommence when  I have finished it.

Blog Roll Updates

I'm off to Georgia for Easter weekend.  I need to spend some time with the family, see the area my sister was last seen in, stuff like that.  Not as relaxing a trip as I would like, but it's something.

While I'm gone, take a look to the right, and scroll down.  My "Proud Member of the Following Blog and Wargaming Networks" widget is getting ridiculously long.  I've been added to both the gdmnw blogdex AND the Int'l House of Paincakes Blog Roll.  Both sites are pretty cool, and I recommend checking them out.  I also recommend visiting the other sites in that widget too.

Happy Easter everyone.  Enjoy your time with your families, your ham if you eat it, and use the holiday weekend as an excuse to paint, or game or whatever.

***UPDATED***Dawn of War II: Retribution Roundup - Dark Angel DLC Review, Soundtrack, and Last Standalone

Dark Angel DLC
Monday Relic sent me the code for the Dark Angel DLC.  I hadn't expected it since I won the Retribution Collector's Edition, but had gone ahead and e-mailed about it when I found out a buddy who had purchased the CE had been sent the code.

Beyond the coolness of the surprise in receiving the code, it was an excuse to get back into Retribution that I hadn't done in a couple weeks.

Personally I think they nailed the look really well.  I mean I enjoyed having the Dark Angel color scheme in the game, but this gives them a great visual flavor.  From the winged helmet of the company master, to the robes of the Tactical Marines, to the markings on the vehicles, they really look like the Dark Angels now.  You can see some screen shots of everything after the jump.  What do you guys think?  Does the Dark Angel DLC meet your approval?

Complete Dawn of War II Soundtrack
iTunes currently has the Complete Dawn of War II Soundtrack available for pre-order for $16.  The 35 track collection features songs from Dawn of War II, Chaos Rising, and Retribution and will be released on April 26th.  I have the soundtrack for the original Dawn of War II, so I'm going to beg, borrow, and steal to get the extra music.

Dawn of War II - Retribution - The Last Standalone
April 20th will see the release of Retribution - The Last Standalone.  This $10 package will contain a stand alone version of the upgraded Last Stand from Retribution.  This version will not require or contain any of the single player campaigns or competitive multiplayer from the full Retribution, just the expanded Last Stand with the new items, hero, and map.  The Last Standalone can be upgraded later to the full Retribution at a discounted price.  As of this writing I did not see it available on Steam yet.  You can get Retribution - The Last Standalone from Steam.


Hit the jump for the screenshots.

The Healing Power of Painting

I painted last night.  Worked on the gunner emplacement, bars for the cab, and the big exhaust pipe for my Ork Trukk.  It wasn't much, but for me it was monumental.  All of last week I couldn't focus on painting.  I still have no information on my sister, but for the first time in a week things felt normal...at least for a little while.   I had an hour and a half of zen like seclusion with nothing on my mind except the here and now of each brush stroke, and when I was done I felt better.  Some people pray, some people meditate, and I've done a little of everything...but for me the healing started with my MP3 player, a paint brush, and some red paint.

Missing

When the real world takes a dump on life, sometimes not even the warm and inviting confines of the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war can soothe me.

Such is that time right now.

The woman in that picture is my sister.  Her vehicle was recovered at a Dollar General in Tunnel Hill, Georgia where she was seen on surveillance camera footage in the store.  She has not been heard from since Saturday April 9, and there have been no confirmed sitings of her since the footage.  If anyone has seen her, please do not hesitate to contact one of the numbers listed.  I know this isn't 40K related, and I'm breaking my own rule about this again...but right now I can't focus on my miniatures enough to even clean up or primer them.

Hopefully we find her soon and I can get back to fixating on the minutia of this game I love, and can have the energy and focus I need to enjoy this hobby of mine.  But right now, thanks for indulging me this moment of Real Life Misery in my 40K blog.