Hello,

I am Ben Morin one of the retail staff at the Games Workshop Hobby Centre in Laval.

Army List

Ok, well since my last update never got sent off.. again (yay for the wonderful world of technology) I'll just make this one longer.

So, I'm ALMOST done. So very close and with four days left, I must say I am in fact sweating just a touch because not only do I have to completely finish my terminators (just a few highlights and small details. But today is going to be a complete write-off due to some fortunate events in my life and I also have to pack so that I can start moving into my new place next week.

"My Chaplain is done!” I say, Belial is too. If I have time I’ll add a banner to his back to make him look cooler. Both Land Raiders are finished (just missing decals and a Hunter Killer Missile) I cheated a bit though since I couldn't get a kit for 'Extra Armor' but whatever, it's 30 points. I put a Meltagun on instead of what was supposed to be a pintle mounted storm bolter, it'll even out. I haven't done the exact calculations but it doesn't matter, Surely HQ won't fail me for a handful of points. At least I don't think so.

Venerable Dreadnought is also done. He looks so purdy too. Three terminator squads that are nearly finished is all that separates me from freedom.

I have, however, played a few games with the army already. First game was against Steven Hamer.  He won. I lost to a newbie. There you go Steven, I know you're reading this since you check up on me EVERY week. So now you have proof, go show your friends.

I love how beating me is a HUGE accomplishment for people. It makes me feel way better and cooler than I truly am. OK.. well maybe not cooler, cooler than me just isn't possible.

Also played little Mr. Petrari, he's new though so it doesn't count. Helping the poor guy learn to play.

Andre Simard was my FIRST victory with the army. At the end all that was left standing on my side of the table was Belial and two Land Raiders and an immobilized dreadnought. When lascannons and plasma cannons start shooting into terminators it opens up a WORLD of pain. But in the end I wiped out everything of his except for his Land Raider. Good game.

Sorry for not having photos again this week, but due to time constraints, lack of batteries and the fact that I'm e-mailing this from home, you'll all just have to come into the store next Wednesday or Sunday to see the finished product.

Before I forget, our Warhammer Hall of Heroes was a blast. Thanks to all who showed up. Sorry that we couldn't fill all the slots but we did well with what we had. You guys definitely showed up the 40K players. HUGELY massive thanks to our local Gaming club "Le 38" for helping me throw together some things last minute and providing some tables and great looking terrain for the event (especially that tavern and wizards tower, whoever painted those is AMAZING.)

Last but not least I really have to send out a huge thank you to Lionel Miranda for providing some Terminators for me (that's how he suckered me into this.. and by the way Lionel, your army looks SICK.) as well as all the customers who have kept on coming in asking about my army and trying to keep me motivated. A thank you goes to Marc-Andre Bougie for donating a Black Templar Land Raider which is now a freshly painted Dark Angels Land Raider (oh the blasphemy.. the Black Templar players are going to disown you Marc.)

And as a final note to myself: NEVER DO THIS AGAIN! BAD BEN! WRONG!

Off I go to sleep, pack, run errands and hopefully finish all them little details.

No real update to do this week. I've done a little work on my army but not as much as I would have liked. However, I'm on vacation all week so that will give me ample time to paint my army (especially considering they're fixing the hydro lines around my neighborhood so there is no power during the day so I can't get distracted by my TV or computer.) I'm hoping to have all of it finished by Thursday.. well.. all but the second land raider which I'll be picking up on friday.

Next week I PROMISE I'll put up pictures. For those of you who want to play against a Deathwing army, show up on Thursday and we'll have a 1500 point game. If you didn't show up to our Apocalypse battle on the weekend though, you're going to the back of the challenge line. See, so not only did you miss an awesome game run by Chris.. but now you lose out on the chance to lose to my new Deathwing army.

For all my fans who are specifically Warhammer Fantasy Battle only... Don't forget the hall of Heroes Tournament I'll be running with Guillaume towards the end of the month. For the exact date give Guillaume a call since i'm on vacation.

I also feel the need to send out some serious props to Adam Brown for a fantastic looking nid army. Being the mad Nid freak that I am I have to say that army is the sweetest nid army I have ever seen. Definitely puts mine to shame. Then again.. nids were my first army and that was back when I couldn't paint. Thanks for the inspiration Adam, now I have to go restart mine and try to make them look better than yours.

My Chaplain! … My Chaplain ! ... My Chaplain!”

Sorry, no pictures this week. Me, being the super-intelligent supreme-being that I am, I brought my camera into work to take pictures of the progress on Belial, “My Chaplain!” and the Land Raider Crusader (thank you Marc-Andre!) but I forgot one crucial thing… Electronic devices require batteries. So I’ve got my spiffy new camera, my cable and some nicely painted models… but no batteries to take the pictures. Go ME!

With 30 odd days left It’s getting down to crunch time but those of you who stop by regularly know that I’m not far off now. Also I have some vacation time coming up which will easily put an end to this army.

In Other news, the brass scorpion for the chaos army in the store is DONE. Come check it out. While you’re here, I’ll show you them lovely knew high elf models I’m painting for the store too!

Also, if you’re going to come down, try to make it this Saturday (Nov 3rd)  at around noon. Chris will be running a HUGE apocalypse bring-and-battle upstairs. Bring all the points in 40K you can because it’s going to be wild. Who knows… maybe we’ll put the two baneblades and the brass scorpion on the table again. Maybe even a Tide of Spawn or Warp Rift formation too.

I’m ALIVE!!!

Alright, after weeks of posting NOTHING I feel really bad. Ok, so that’s not true, I HAD typed up blogs and mailed them here to the store but since I rarely work Mondays or Tuesdays they never seem to have been sent off.  But that’s ok, I’m here now.

If you happen to pass by the store regularly enough though you’ll know that I’ve been busy with a few things.

First, is that beautiful brass scorpion. Go ahead, click the picture, you know you want to. It’s still not finished but it’s already my new baby. We even put it on the table the other day during our tank battle. Apparently people would rather shoot at it instead of 2 baneblades. If that doesn’t prove that it’s a scary monster just know that it also destroyed a penitent engine and a land raider in ONE turn. And that’s with me behind the dice.

Second, the famous berserkers that just REFUSED to get finished. They aren’t actually orange or that bright, that’s just the flash on my camera, ditto for the red on the scorpion.

Third, the unholy plague of DEATH. That’s right, I got some crazy illness of doom that knocked my 230lb butt out of commission for the better part of 2 weeks but I worked like a freak anyway. Just don’t confuse me being dumb with being tough.

So finally that brings us to where Ben is now. I haven’t done a lot on my army up to date but it took me the better part of a month to find colors that worked and didn’t make my terminators look like pumpkins trying to be Imperial fists. It also cost me a land raider and a squad of terminators that are now butchered beyond salvation. I’ve never painted a light-colored army before so I’ll just consider this a learning experience. The sergeant was the first, so he looks a little… off. The others are looking much better to date but as you can see. All of it is mostly half painted. And I still have 2 land raiders to do as well.

That being said.. I’m off to paint.

Ok, so it’s day 2 of Paint or Die and I already feel the need to take a break and rant. Yeah, this is definitely NOT off to a good start.

First, I know there are a lot of people that are going to look at my list and immediately start with the booing and hissing and all, seeing that it’s only a whopping 20 models. This is mainly because I have a serious physical handicap… My feet are located in my mouth. Not literally of course, but I do have a tendency to always ram my feet into my own mouth. It’s due to a complete lack of thinking before speaking/typing things. So here I am, involved in a ‘contest’ that could end up costing me far more than I can truly afford, but at least I had the forethought of choosing a low model count army.

The only problem with this army and it’s low model count is that I, due to lack of forethought, decided that I could afford to give each model 5 days of attention each. Of course Land Raiders and the Dreadnought will end up taking MORE time, as well as the special characters. But I decided to try and do the whole army without dry brushing to make them look good. So far, it’s not really looking that good. My original intention was to base them with bronzed flesh and ink them with flesh wash then go up from there, so I was going to ‘cheat’. I basically made a vat full of ink (mixed with 2 parts water or slightly more) and had basically planned to paint the models, let them dry, toss them in the vat of ink and then pull them out and let them dry thus saving time. Well… my little vat of ink really didn’t go that well and to correct the problem I had to wash them with more flesh wash thus making them WAY darker than originally intended. I guess you could say I salvaged them with the first coat of bubonic brown… but it’s not really the effect I was going for. I can officially throw best painted out the window right now.

The second unwanted side effect was that due to being tossed into a vat of WATER and ink it basically unglued the PVA glue on the bases thus making any sand rub off the second ANYTHING makes contact with it.  Also, the plasticard I put on the bases to provide a broken city street effect really hasn’t provided the desired effect. Basically, these are going to be the ugliest terminators with the most bland bases you have ever seen.

So, there are lessons to be learned from this whole thing:

1. Learn to keep thy mouth shut
2. Always test a wash or sneaky trick before committing to it with 5 terminators
3. Never listen to your colleagues when they goad you into ‘taking your time to paint them real nice because you only have a 20 model army list’

Oh, and I am painting their arms apart and the funny thing with them is that although I let the paint dry for 20 minutes before trying to wash them.. there was apparently STILL wet paint in one of the cracks SOMEWHERE. Paint and ink don’t mix very well…

Guh… this is by far worst start to a painting competition EVER.  Go ahead and start making your army lists with at least one baneblade people.