Happy New Year: 2010 a year of progress

The magic hour draws nearer and the guys all wanted to get one last post in before the ball drops. Rather then run through everything we are just going to to a quick recap of everything that made 2010 a great year for 40k and Fantasy. First off the updates, not just Dark Eldar, Space Wolves, Blood Angels and not to mention the slew of new kits to go with them. In 2010 we saw two dead armies be reborn (BA and DE) and got a ton of new all plastic kits to go with them. Its been a year of progress, with new codices and new kits the community had its fill of new material and new possibility's. There where also the new modules for Battle Missions and Spearhead. And then of course there was the sensational release of Fantasy 8th edition and the waves of new skaven (including the awesome island of blood set)

But not all was good. we saw price increases and scandal (well at least in the Oakridge store) With no official word on weather 2011 will see another price increase or not a lot of gamers are growing weary of the constant price fluctuations, who knows what the new year may hold for us.

For the most part how ever the community has never been stronger. With fresh faces and new talent being brought into the fold and new blogs and webcasts starting up all over 2010 has been one of the best years for growth in terms of the net community.


But the web community is not the only place we have seen growth. Our own gaming group over at Legends Games has exploded, from a couple of us meeting on the weekends and wailing on each other has grown to well over thirty people with a core of about ten regulars. We also started our increasingly popular play for paint tournament series over at the shop. With regular events and games we have seen our small group of gamers grow into a small community.

As for the store we have gone from this
To this...

We also saw the holidays go off with a bang, with Legends first annual "Seasons Beatings" tournament. Seven of the stores top generals and Seer's battled it out for the top spot.


This year also saw my transformation from a relatively casual hobbies into a "professional Painter" I went from the occasional unit to having a full workload with waiting list. D has yet to let me live down the shame of turning into the one thing I love to hate on the inter webs (mostly eBay) Which brings me to the post I should have made a few days ago, but thanks to a blizzard and several shipping delays I couldn't do so until tonight.



Yes tonight I finally got a light box, nothing fancy, but the best part is its compact and stows away easily. So expect more (hopefully decent) photos of future projects. Also I just had to break this thing in (and considering how bad my last botched light tent attempts)


Well that's about it, so tonight raise a glass to the emperor or the ruinous powers and drink deep, but have a toast for all of us to, from the guys down in the trenches to the Fly Lords of Terra. From all of us at Bay Hammer have a happy new years.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Happy Holidays

Well its that night of oh so special nights once more, with several drinks behind me and a groggy morning of family and merriment ahead of me I would like to say on behalf of myself and the whole crew over here at Bay Hammer. Have a happy holiday (which ever yours may be) and good new year, filled with brutal battles and plenty of plastic crack and friends and fun.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

On The Painting Table: Dark Eldar Warrior

So weeks after the storms died down over Dark Eldar (of which I shamelessly got caught up in and bought out a few box sets) I finally got to sit down and start painting the little buggers. I will start by stating that I did in all honesty attempt to go all out with the highlight out of the box style that most people seem to be going with, after that came out looking horrid I moved on and went for the more deep blended look you see here. I still have a long way to go on this project but at least I have a theme laid down.

The flash doesn't really show the actual shading, the purple really comes out under direct light, otherwise the piece looks almost black with a deep tinge of purple which I feel adds a suitable heir of menace about them.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

On The Painting Table: Tau Crisis Suit Commander

The holidays are a time for merriment, warm chocolaty drinks and dragging the corpse of a recently eviscerated Douglas fir into your living room to adorn with shiny balls. It also happens to be that time of year when my wallet shrinks, so to off set this I have taken on a few small commissions. The first of which is this piece of canned sushi, I painted this guy up using my thirty minute mini technique (soon to be on dvd) For about an hours worth of work I think he came out alright. I started with a liberal brushing of lyenden Darksun followed by a good dry brushing of tausept ochre and Boltgun metal for the details. Ill do some touch up on him later today.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

GW Glue: The sillines continues

So the other day the shop received its weekly order and while rummaging around the latest shipment of plastic crack I happened to notice something a bit odd. GW appears to have changed the plastic glue bottle to the old super glue bottle, why they did this is beyond me as the previous bottle already had problems with clogging so anything with a narrower tip just screams wasted minutes spent with a tac nail trying to de gunk the damn thing. The reason I bring this up is because Jawaballs posted a rather decent blurt about GW glues, I myself use them mostly because I just seem to acquire them while working on projects or commissions but I have to say that I do not care for them or the price. I have not tried the new bottle out but one might assume that the new bottle and narrow aperture may mean they thinned down the mix to be less like 4 day old hair gel. What do you think about the numerous design changes GW has gone through with there hobby supplies this year?

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor

Bowing out: A lesson in losing

As D pointed out to me the other day its been a while since I have managed to get a post up, and rather then bore you with a quick snapshot of my DE army in progress I thought I would post something more meaningful.

Today I would like to talk about surrendering gracefully. Now some will say "why not just play through and take the loss" well there are a couple of reasons you might want to simply opt out, the biggest one being time, if you simply cant finish by the time you expected to leave it can be appropriate to bow out and call it a game, but do make sure that you do not do this to your advantage. What I mean by that is call the game a loss or a draw depending on the situation. Another reason you may wish to end a game early is a well analyzed evaluation of your options, in some situations you can see weather or not it is worth it for you to stick it out or call it a day and pack up early. I particularly like this option as it gives you time to pack up and talk about the game and go over what went wrong in your strategy, or simply go and grab lunch or drinks. A good example of this was when I played D at 2000 points the other day. The first half of the game went rather well for me, but by turn four out of the two objectives he had one and was contesting the other by placing several squads of guardians in waveserpants around my poor lone chimera and the squad of ten farseers on jetbikes did not bode well. True I did have two tanks still fully operational but at that point there could be little done tactically to change the outcome of the battle. There is not always a way to cheat death my friends, and so sometimes it is necessary to embrace it then get a sandwich.

The third and most disliked option is simply the "I don't really feel like playing anymore" If it comes to this there should be a decent reason behind it other then getting your rear entrance kicked in. Illness and stress (I am talking real stress) death of a pet or loved one. Let us be honest though, if any of those are affecting you then you should not be playing that day in the first place, but should it come to that simply state that you do not wish to continue due to what ever it is that is actually inhibiting your game play. If your opponent is a sportsman then it would be proper to arrange another match when you are in better condition.

That being said I am sure there are many ways to bow out of a game but the point of this article is that no matter why or how you do it, be sure to be sure to show respect and do so in a way that will not offend. The point of casual games is to have fun and work on strategy or throw down with friends. So the next time you feel the need to drop out remember to be a good sport about it and try not to ruin the experience for yourself or your opponent.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Tyranids OH MY!

Hello there, Ian back from I don't remember when I made a post last, I haven't really been making any posts lately because I've been busy with school, working on my Tyranids, Ill be getting a photo of that mainly the Tervigons, and some awesome bikers, they are slowly coming along, ill get a photo of that as well up at some point. But my next biggest project is making a Tyrannofex, that's going to be fun.

In spirit of Halloween, I am holding a mini campaign on both Friday and Saturday, competitors, are allowed one HQ unit up to 200 points, and no retinues are allowed. The opposing force and game parameters will be revealed that day. There will be multiple games and some prize support, sign ups will be mandatory before each game and 3 players per round, all rules will be explained at the store. There is also boards for free play while waiting or if you would like to just get in some pick up games. Other than that Happy wargaming and see you tomorrow if you make it!

Just a quick reminder that this event will be held at Legends Comics and Games in Cupertino. There is no entry fee and all GW products are 10% off, and you can still get 15% off all new Dark Eldar sets by advance ordering until November 1st