The Necrons are Coming! Or, How I Relearned to Model, Paint, and Play 40K.

Hello everyone, it's been quite a long time since I've posted on the blog and I apologize for that. Life always seems to get in the way. School, work, and a family always seems to get in the way of whats really important in life, and that's gaming. So if I still have any active follower, thanks for not removing this blog. With that being said lets start, what I hope, is the first of many posts about my death and rebirth as an enthusiastic WarGamer. Enjoy.

As many of you may or may not know, I am an avid fan of the Chaos Marines. I love them. I love them like a lonely farmer loves sheep. Well, maybe not THAT much. I do, however, love them enough to have made them my first army. And when I say I made them my first army I mean I bought a battle force of them because I loved their back story and of course their looks. I bought that expensive ass battleforce (still worth the $90 in my opinion) on a whim. What followed was a catastrophe. In my infinite wisdom I didn't bother to pick up a codex or any sort of HQ or anything like that. I just wanted to paint the minis. As it turned out...I sucked at painting. I used Testors model paint to paint my basic CSMs and they turned out terrible. The detail was almost lost and some seemed to have no necks. It was bad. I looked up to the figures I saw on the GW site and on CoolMiniOrNot.com. These were crap.

Aside from the terrible no necked traitor marines, I couldn't put a list together at all. My buddy @JD_Sampson got me a nice print out of the codex but I had never bothered to actually read the main rule book. I threw together stupid lists that were so far from legal it wasn't even funny. Entire armies of Terminators with no HQ, ugh, it was ugly. As time rolled on I learned the Force Organizational Charts and how to gradually build a respectable army. Well, sort of. The internet can be a font of information. Information and porn...and some really generic lists. After many loses I needed to find some sort of coalescing theme to my army. So I started making some Death Guard themed marines...that didn't work. So I made some World Eaters, that didn't work either. Then I combined the two...I got a couple wins. Out of the 12 times I've actually played my record stood at 2-10. I am terrible. Hence the whole Dreaded Gamer monicker. Anyway, I began looking on sites like Dakka Dakka and Bolter and Chainsword and found a few lists. Boring...BORING lists. Load up on Plague Marines or Berzerkers in a Rhino, rush into combat, lather, rinse, repeat. I got no where with that.

So a sad sad man watched as my two gaming buddies got shiny new codexes and armies and I got the crappy codex that is the CSMs. I realize that it was my skills for the most part that lead to losses for sure. But having some nice new figures and special rules doesn't hurt either. So here is where I send my battered and bruised Chaos buddies back to the warp (at least until March when a rumored new legions codex is supposed to occur) and hung my head in shame.

Until last week that is. My other favorite army: The Necrons got their own new shiny codex and a boat load of new shiny plastic figures. So, here is my proposal. I completely relearn how to play. From the ground up. Reread the rule book, learn my codex inside and out, and finally learn the proper way to paint figures. I desperately want to be a decent gamer and, as I joined this niche market to paint the models, become adept at customizing my army. So here in lies my promise to you dear readers. I will bring you on my journey to relearn EVERYTHING. Join me wont you? Let us see how an almost 30 year old man struggles to grasp rules that 8 year olds understand. Watch and laugh as I struggle to even prime my figures! It'll be a hoot! Here's to weeks of laughing at my pain! Cheers!

-Mr. V.

My first attempt at painting a World Eater Chaos Lord...the revenge...part 2

Hello and welcome back to the worst blog on the internets! I have returned, ribbed for your pleasure. As I stated before I am a huge fan of the Warhammer 40k universe and, most importantly, the models. Previously, I had been playing the Chaos Space Marines Death Guard legion of Plague Marines, however, after a couple consecutive loses I've decided to jump off defense and go for the gold...and red...lots of red. BLOOD RED!! ("Cue the SLAYER music!")

Last week I was asked to do an informative speech which could also include a "How to" on something. So, being the consummate nerd that I am, I picked How to Paint World Eaters. To which I had no previous experience. I knew how to paint white Plague Marines to death, but no idea where to begin with World Eaters.

White Plague Marine

So here is what I found is the best way to paint a World Eater (post heresy)

Let's start out with some white primer. I thought black was the best way to go...but I think white makes the colors and the detail just pop.

 

 

 

 White Primer

See, doesn't that look nice? With the black primer, maybe it's my eyes, I can't see any of the details! So this helps immensely. Next, let's do some base coating. THE most time consuming thing ever!!! I am going to look into buying a spray gun for faster base coating...I just don't want to spend 3.5 hours on one model...like I did with this one. Ok, grab some Mechrite Red foundation paint and hit all the armor. I stayed away from the armor trim and the weapons...I'm sure some people just do the entire model...this is how I did it.

Mechrite Lord

So there's the first layer. Next, give it a hit with some Badab Black Wash. 

Washes are my friend. I REALLY love washes...even though they have a fish like smell to them...hm. Anyway that wash makes everything really pop. It gets into all the recesses and brings out all the details. Next, hit the model with some Scab Red...gross.

Almost the same color as Mechrite Red but helps cut the black wash on the model...whatever that means...Moving right along. Apply a layer of Blood Red...blood for the blood god and all that.

Starting to look like a warrior of Khorne now! So highlight it up with some Shining Gold! I did all the trim and allot of the icons with gold.

There we go. I used two layers of gold just to cover up any gaps I left behind on my first layer. You will also see that I painted the horns gold in the next picture as well as some other details...but I'm rambling. Next grab your Boltgun Metal and do up the weapons and extra chains or hoses that you want.

There we go! Finally, hit that bad boy with a black wash again all over and you got yourself...

...a proper Lord of Khorne. I haven't painted the icon or the helmet he's standing on yet but i wanted to do just the Lord for my presentation. I know some of the lines are not as clean as they should be, but I was in a hurry to finish this project. Also, as time goes on I am sure I'll get better each time. I hope you learned something! It's 6 minutes until I have to leave for work so I will leave you with this brief word: Sasquabidallion.

-Mr. V.

Mr. V, a man of infinite mystery!

Hello and welcome to The Dreaded Gamer, a place for me to sit down every once and a while and spill out my brain. If you're reading this you must be incredibly bored. However, I promise I will try to keep my spelling mistakes and goofball rants to a minimum. And who knows, like my wife, you may learn to love me.

As some of you know me via Twitter I shall give you some background. My name is Jim but that doesn't sound like a cool blog name, so I like to go by Mr. V. I'm in my late twenties and I am a father and a husband. I have quite a few interests which I'm sure I'll be posting over the next few weeks, but to just give you a taste; I'm new to the game of Warhammer 40k. I enjoy building and painting SciFi models and using them as figures in games with my friends. As being a fan of all things evil and dark I play a faction called Chaos. Of course very very soon I will be blogging about all of this. this is just a space filler.


Thank you for visiting and make sure you swing back every so often as I will try to put up a new post every couple of days.

-Mr. V