A 40k n00b - Wound Allocation... eh?

Now, please forgive but I am not much of a gamer.  In general I have a decent grasp of the rules, but some stuff slips through my fingers.  Wound Allocation is such one rule.  I was hoping you kind folk of the interwebs could enlighten my mind.  And to help me, lets use an example...

I have a ten man generic space marine tactical squad.  It includes one sergeant with a power weapon, one marine with a flamer, another with a missile launcher and the rest are all armed with boltguns.

The unit suffers 12 wounds.

How would you allocate these?

Does everyone have to take one wound each, then the two remaining placed one any you choose?  Or can you pile them all onto a couple of guys?  What is the advantage of arming them all different ways?  Is it the owning player that allocates wounds, or does your opponent have a say in who he'd like to attack?  Is it done the same in combat as well as view shooting?

Thanks guys!

Empire Warrior Priest - Part II

So.  Between dissertation work (ONE MONTH LEFT!!) and other stuff, I have managed to get a small amount of painting done.  Yesterday I picked the Warrior Priest up once more and I worked on his armour.  I think it looked good.  It was multiple washes which was then layered over with lots of really thin layers of metallics.  It gave it a really good aged look to it.  I liked it.  Then, today I decided to give it another look.  I wanted to give the impression of dents and cracks in the armour - that is what those black lines are.  Or were suppose to be.  I might have to repaint the armour, as I think they spoil it. :S 

The other thing I noticed is that I really need to get better at blending.  I just can't get it quite right a lot of the time.  My layers are too far apart to blend well. So that is something else I really need to work on, especially if I want to get better.

Oh yeah, the leather on him is just basecoated and washed.  Plenty more work to do on them.

Thoughts>

Review - Salamander

This is a first book in the series labelled as "The Tome of Fire" written by Black Library author Nick Kyme (see his blog here).  As you might have gathered the novel follows the Salamander space marine chapter.  Or to be more specific it follows the 3rd Company of the Salamander's chapter.  There are a number of characters the novel follows, these being two sergeants of tactical squads - who bear a not so friendly rivalry - a librarian attached to the company, and the company's commander(s), along with other members of the chapter and company.. 

It begins with the death of the previous company's captain at the hands of an insidious, and mysterious traitor marines, the Dragon Warriors.  The company is then thrown into turmoil, with the selection of a new captain and are given a mission of utmost importance.  I will keep the spoilers to a minimum here, so I will not go into the rest of the story.  You'll have to read the novel, yourselves to find out what happens.

I will admit to being a bit biased towards Nick Kyme, I am an avid reader of his blog (though, he doesn't post as often) and love his previous novels.  That aside I thoroughly believe he has written a great novel.  The Salamanders are an unusual marine chapter, in their care for humanity, and this is something I think Nick got across in most of the main characters.  You truly feel at times that they genuinely care.  I found the momentum and the action to be well paced, especially as the action at times was split over a number of different characters - sometimes all in the same conflict.  Other novels I have read from Black Library have struggled sometimes, the characters seeming forced and quite cookie cutter.  Not so with the Salamander's Nick has brought to life.  Each one has their own curious personalities, and in some agendas.  All of which work alongside of each other to produce some well written characters.  I also enjoyed Nick's work on bringing out more detailed information on the inner workings of the Salamanders, their homeworld Nocturne and the 'Promethean Cult' they hold close.

I myself am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

Empire Warrior Priest - Part I

A new mini has begun!  I have had this warrior priest sat in a box for a long time, and I wanted to paint a mini to be sold on ebay.  This guy fits the bill.  I started off with some fixing of the hands, I have pinned them and green stuffed the join.  The shield is made from plasticard, carved to look like a shield - I think I'll try freehanding something chaotic on it.

The priest himself, I am painting his main robes red along with the generic priest of Sigmar look.  The face is finished, and I am relatively happy with the look of his face.  However, I found his left eye a pain to paint and thus is looks odd.  I also went for the 'stubbled' look on the head/crown.  I am not fully happy with the stubble on the head, it bugs me it doesn't look that good.

The other parts of the mini are just blocked in.  The metal is basecoated and washed with Badab Black.  The red is just basecoated; mechrite red and dark flesh.  This is all I have done so far.

I am wondering what colour to do the cloak.  I have considered red, but I didn't want to do too much red.  And I most likely going to attempt some freehand on the back of it, perhaps a large hammer but I am unsure.

Front View

 Rear View

Close up on the face

The Base

Dwarf Warriors - Complete

Right.  I finally got their bases completed.  They're not amazing, unfortunately the milliput was a little too sticky and so stuck to the stamp in place, so some of the bases have little tears in them. :(  But they're not so noticeable.  As usual my camera has washed away the blue tone of the unit. I really don't know why, but it does look a bit closer this time.  But, they're done:

And, an extra treat... this is my "completed model" shelf I have with me at uni.  I have more at home, but not many pictures of them. 

Dwarf Warriors - Almost there!

Right then. Update time! 

The unit is finished, except the bases.  I have fifteen of those to stamp out, and should hopefully be finished sometime next week.  But for the moment, here are some pictures of the front rank with shields. 

Command group - Musician and Veteran

D

Detail of Veteran's axe

Warriors

U

Unit Standard Bearer

So, what do you think?

Also, I believe the template for my blog is playing up - the background image has gone.  I am sorry about that, I'm going to leave it until the weekend and then if needs be find a new one.  Shame, I really liked that template. =(  Oh well. 

What do you think? 

Dwarf Warriors, WIP redux

So, midterms are now done and dusted, and I have been given some time to get a little bit of painting done.  They were pretty much done last week to be fair, I just added some more to them.  Almost finished now, just to finish off the banner, shields and base them.  I'm quite happy.

The banner.  Now, before anyone suggests it, I won't be doing NMM on the axes.  Mainly because I don't like the style and I am not happy with my blending skills as of yet.  So I'd rather practice on something I can strip easily or not care if I mess it up etc.  I am quite happy with the design of the banner.  The axe heads are not that good - different sizes and I just couldn't get them to look right.  Ah well.  I still have the axe shafts to finish, going to attempt another go at wood grain.  Oh and the runes at the bottom are for the clan and it is: Silveraxe Clan.  :)

Oh and my unit's champion is the one in the first photo on the right hand side.  I am not happy on him.  He doesn't stand out that well - I changed his weapon (hard to see from here) and his helmet is entirely bronze.  I am not that big a fan on it at the moment.  I need a better way of making his hand out without using the horns or wings.

Musician and Veteran

 Rank and file

Standard Bearer