Sunday, May 29, 2011

Finecast Preview!

OK, here's a preview of some new Dark Eldar Finecast miniatures.   So my next army is gonna be Dark Eldar (after winning some Kabalite Warriors at the Berks Spring Assault).   I was in the Granite Run mall Saturday, near Media, PA, and saw that Showcase Comics had some new Finecast models.  I remember talking to Kung Fu Dave about our trepidations about the new line of models because of some early negative previews this past week.   So I wanted to see if some of these problems were true (bad miscasts, bubble problems, warped peices).

First off, I took a brief look at the Finecast models they had for sale that were in the clear backed packages.   Overall things looked pretty good, no GLARING miscasts to speak of.   I looked at the same Librarian in Terminator armor that Legion from Dakka Dakka reviewed earlier this week.   The model Showcase had was in good condition.  The bolter was NOT miscast and overall it looked good.  The only issue with that Librarian model I saw was that his Force Staff thing was a bit warped, as in it had a slight curve to it (just like Legions model).

So having inspected the different models I picked up a Dark Eldar Succubus, Archon and a pack of Incubi.  Doing a quick open and inspection in my car afterwards all the models looked good with no major defects or bubble issues.

After getting home and taking photos for you guys to inspect, I did fine one minor bubble issue with a specific posed model of the Incubi.   See below outlined in red.   You'll see a small bubble issue on the model's left elbow joint.   Seems to effect the elbow and the cloth ribbon right below it.  This isn't a huge issue, I'm sure a little bit of green stuff will fill in the gap easily, but a small defect non-the-less.


























Otherwise the models looked nice.   There is A LOT OF FLASH on these, you will have to spend more time cleaning them.  But you will be able to model and do conversions MUCH EASIER than metal.   The detail is very good and pretty much on par with Forge World resin parts (i've included a pict of Forge World Blood Angels' Land Raider doors for reference.)

Overall Impression of Finecast:  Good.

I would highly recommend inspecting the sprues before you buy (for the clear container models anyways), but then again I did that with my metal blister purchases too, so its only common sense.

Here are pictures of the rest of the sprues.  Please inspect and point out any miscasts or anything I may have missed.   If any are found I will update the blog.

















































Forge World piece:

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Berks Spring Assault II results

Golden Grot Painting Competition:
 1st Place: Leslie McCormack of Berks-PA Gaming Club, with her awesome Tyranid Harradin conversion
2nd Place: Andy Miller of Brave New Worlds with his Blood Angels Storm Raven
3rd Place: Eric Bates of Berks-PA Gaming Club with: Blood Angels Storm Raven

Best Overall:
 1st Overall: Tony Spino, Gaming Garage, West Chester PA (Eldar...made from Skaven)
2nd Overall: Matt Defranza
3rd Overall: Wilson Badillo Jr, Beltway Gamers, Rockville MD: (Chaos Space Marines)
(4th: honorable mention: Dave Setzman, Brave New Worlds, Willow Grove PA (Tyranids)).

Sportsmanship:
 1st Sportsmanship: Gary Klinger, Snake Eyes Gaming, Altoona PA
2nd Sportsman: Tom McCole, Philadelphia Area Gamers, Philadelphia PA
3rd Sportsman: Bill Olstein, Snake Eyes Gaming, Altoona/Pittsburgh PA

Appearance:
 1st in Appearance: Frank Osborne, Gaming Garage, West Chester PA (Traitor Imperial Guard)
2nd best appearance: Chris Smoker, Pottsville PA, (Dark Eldar)
3rd best appearance: Josh Toriano, Snake Eyes Gaming, Altoona PA

Best Youngblood overall: Alex Fulmer, Lancashire Wargaming, Lancaster-PA

Best Youngblood sport: Wilon Badillo III, Beltway Gamers, Rockville MD ( Imperial Fists)

Player's Choice: Best Army (Theme, composition, appearance): Wilson Badillo Jr, Chaos Space Marines, Beltway Gamers, Rockville MD

Smoking boots! (Last place): Steve Regrut (Battle Sisters/ Whitch hunters), Berks-)A Gaming Club, Pottsville PA

Army Domination Awards (by codex): 
 * Black Templars: Isaac Nohr, Lancashire Wargaming, Lancaster PA
* Blood Angels: Jon Kissinger, Berks-PA Gaming Club, Reading PA
* Chaos Space Marines: Wilson Badillo JR, Beltway Gamers, Rockville MD
* Dark Angels: Jon Sullenberger, Lancashire Wargaming, Litiz PA
'* Dark Eldar: Charlie "Darklance" Emslie, Berks-PA Gaming Club, Boyertown PA
* Eldar: Tony Spino, Gaming Garage, West Chester PA
* Grey Knights: "Texas Joe" Seaman, Beltway Gamerss, Rockville MD
* Imperial Guard: Matt LeBaron,
* Orks: Alex Fulmer, Lancashire Wargaming, Lancaster PA
* Space Marines: Marc Smith, Beltway Gamers, Rockville MD
* Space Wolves: Mike Mirobelli, Snake Eyes Gaming, Altoona PA
* Tau Empire: Jerrome Nicolson, Gaming Garage, West Chester PA
* Tyranids: "Kungfu Dave" Setzman, Brave New Worlds, Willow Grove PA
* Witch Hunters: Mike Keisling, Brave New Worlds, Willow Grove PA


Not Represented:
* Chaos Daemons, Necrons, and the last chance to play the old Daemon Hunters codex.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Berks Spring Assault II

Participated in my first BIG tournament this past weekend in Reading, PA.   The tourny was a lot of fun and a big hats off to Mike "Steel Thunder" Biancone for organizing the event.  They brought in 50 participents and was a big success overall. 

I brought my Tau army and had a fully painted army to play.  I finished my Broadside just in time to play and highlighted, decaled and varnished the rest of my main forces too (will have photos up soon for each unit).   I was very pleased to receive a lot of great painting comments from the players at the tournament and actually recieved a few votes for the Player's Favorite Painted army competition too.

I also submitted my Blood Angels Stormraven in the Golden Grot competition and won 2nd prize overall, winning a $25 gift card to The Adventurer's Guild in Harrisburg, PA.  The winner, a huge Tyranid dragon, was beautiful and got my vote for best of show too. 

Gameplay wise I did OK.   It started out VERY rough.  My final tally was 1 win, 1 narrow victory (technically a Draw) and 2 losses (one of which I got tabled!!!)  Luckwise things didn't go my way either, every game I got first turn the opposing player Seized the Initiative (facepalm). 

First game was Dawn of War, which between the night fighting and the fact that I had to walk my Pathfinders from the table edge (not letting them able to shoot markerlights) didn't make for a very good start.  It was an objectives game and my opponent was Alex Scheiler's (sp?) Space Wolves.   He was smart and had a heavy weapons team that destroyed one of my Crisis Teams pretty quickly.   I shot up all his tanks but he was able to sit on the middle objective and the objective in his deployment zone without me getting to contest them so he won 2 objectives to my 1 objective.  Also both our Generals survived.   The final Victory points tally was 1250-750 which was a Minor Victory per the Tournament's scoring scale.




















The second game was an Annihilation Victory Points match versus Wilson Badillo Jr. from Maryland who played a Khorne Chaos Space Marines army.   Oh, and this time, the ENTIRE GAME was Night Fighting (more facepalm).  I got first turn and he Siezed the Initiative so I knew this was gonna be a badddd game for me.   He deployed near the center of the board and then turns 2 and 3 all his deamons teleported in and ate all my Tau.  One morale victory though is my Broadside was a Close Combat beast lasting basically 3 turns in close combat with his Deamons thanks to his 2+ save.  He proceeded to table my army.... I don't wanna talk about this game anymore heheh.   Though to his credit, Wilson did go on to win a bunch of prizes and best overall army/general so I dont feel TOO bad about the devastation heheh.




















My third game was a Capture the Flag game versus Stephen H. (forgot his full last name, sorry) and his Sisters of Battle army.   From a morale standpoint, I REALLY needed to win a game and I did much better in this game.   We basically had to capture 2 objectives and if we brought that objective back to our deployment zone we got double points.   We both retreived 1 objective each but combat wise I was the clear cut winner.   I think he killed 3 pathfinders and immobolized my Devilfish but otherwise my Tau were unscathed.  I destroyed his Exorcist tank and wiped out 3 squads of his sisters.






















My last game was a great game versus Levell Harmon's Tyranids (beautifully painted by the way - I'm a sucker for the earth tones!).   I got first turn and he Seized the Initiative but chose to go second (he had a deep strike/outflank army).   The first 2 turns I really had nothing to shoot at... then turn 3 almost all his stuff (except his gaunts) came in at once.  But fortunately my Tau (and markerlights!) shot well and I almost wiped out his entire Gene Stealer squad (which destroyed my Devilfish).   The next couple turns we went back and forth.   I shot up his Tyranid Warriors, he wiped out a Firewarrior squad, my Crisis Suits forced his outflanking gaunts to flee and then his Trygon Prime jacked up my HQ/Crisis Suits.   In the end only his HQ was left standing and my Hammerhead, Broadside and a unit of Firewarriors was left.   Because his HQ was SO expensive I only won by about 20-30 points (apparently his army was only 925 pts he said?) so my victory was only a Draw technically.   Still, it was DEFINATELY the most intense game of the day for me. 




















Overall it was a great day, again hat's off to Mike Biancone for organizing the day.   I won a box of Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors in the auction so now I'm musing a new Dark Eldar army and I have a pretty cool idea for a theme for it. Probably gonna pick up a new battalion box in June.

Can't wait until next years event and now my goal for next year is to show up with my fully painted Blood Angels army which will definately be better suited for a small quarters assault tournament. 

Oh, here's a bonus pict of a nice Tau themed board at the event: