Necrons – Stalkers and Hyperspace Hunters

Triarch Stalker

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The Stalker is, in my opinion, a very cool looking model; and thankfully it has some useful abilities on the battle field. I’ve provided mine with the weapon loadout unique to the Stalker, the Heat ray.

Like the Doomsday Cannon, the Heat Ray has two alternate firemodes, providing some great levels of tactical flexibility:

  • Focused Beam: 24″, S8, AP1, Heavy2, Melta – Perfect for popping heavy armour
  • Dispersed Beam: Flamer template, S5, AP4 – Perfect for handling infantry hordes

If the heat ray wasn’t enough, the Stalker adds to Necron’s pool of AV13 armour AND if the heat-ray hits an enemy unit, all other Necron units targeting the same enemy unit count their weapons as twin-linked thanks the the Stalker’ target relay ability. Synergy FTW.

Deathmarks

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Deathmarks are essentially snipers, with all the offensive capabilities that the sniper rule brings to the table. Increasing deathmarks’ kill-ability is the Hunters from Hyperspace ability, pick an enemy unit when deathmarks enter the battlefield and they gain bonuses to ability to take out chosen unit even more easily than usual. Filter in deep-strike with the ability to arrive in the opponents turn thanks to Ethereal Interception, and deathmarks can definitely become a thorn in the opponent’s side.

–Andrew

Stripping paint from miniatures, UK style

I’ve been a gamer for many years, so long in fact some of my collection is over 20years old. Whilst my painting skills are far from Golden Daemon standard some of my first forays into gaming are, um, not good. But some of the figures are great, and with the cost of gaming going up (there’s another rant right there) and spawn0 draining my bank account I’ve been trying to be more frugal and reuse some of my old collects.

First aspect of this is to strip the old paint from the miniature. I’d spent a while searching through various forums for advice on stripping paint, most solutions I found were US-centric with specific products (mostly oven cleaners) named. Based on this I started with an owned brand oven cleaner, the results were less than spectacular.

Luckily I’ve since come across Spud Tate – paint stripping from a gamer in Leeds, recommending Superdrug’ acetone free nail polish remover. At ~£1 a bottle, it was too tempting not to try; pleased to say first test batch was successful, old Delaque gang currently submerged as I type.

–Andrew

4weeks and counting – Middlesbrough 10k race 2013

I’ve been meaning to post an update for some time: Despite it being the safe bet, I’m still training and somehow it’s going better than expected – My progress can still be followed over at RunKeeper.

I hit a major (for me) milestone last week, completing 5km without needing to stop/slow (and in a reasonable time, <35mins). As this was my original training goal back in 2012 I proud to have got there in the end, unfortunately it left me with five weeks training to double my distance if I’m to complete the race’ course in one piece. Feels like a tall order needing to add an extra km every week, but so-far It’s an increase I’m managing to stay ahead of.

As I’m now only 28 days from race day (providing opportunity for ~12 training runs) I’ve finally gotten around to setting up my Just-Giving page for anyone that able to help spur me forward and help out an excellent local charity, Teeside Philanthropic Foundation, in the process. Any donation, great or small, will be greatly received.

Thanks in advance, see you at the finish line.

Andrew Waite

Middlesbrough 10k race 2013

A little over a year ago I wrote a post (over on my infosec-focused site) detailing my attempt to lose weight and get fitter. The drive at the time was to enable I was able to run around the park with my then just expected daughter: I’ve got zero interest in finding out how you tell your kids you can’t play in the park because “daddy prefers pizza”.

Unfortunately the reality of parenthood hit, my responsibilities increased and my training plan fell by the way-side. I’ve tried a couple of times this year to get back into the routine, but haven’t been able to keep my running schedule consistent enough to get back in the habit.

This week at work was our usual 6 monthly staff review meeting and aside from the usual facts, figures and motivational style pick-me-ups, our fearless leader announced  he would be running the Middlesbrough 10K run this year for the companies chosen charity (the rather excellent Middlesbrough & Teeside Philanthropic Foundation) – and that he was looking for 5 others to fill the vacant spaces allocated to work. In a moment of clarity/madness (*delete as appropriate after the event) I decided the end goal, target date and peer-pressure would be the perfect motivation to ensure I follow through and get training again, so I signed up.

Before making the decision I’d review some of my recent activity and realised that at worse case I can walk 10K in 2 hours, so I’ve set myself a provisional target of completing the course in 1hr30mins. Far from race winning pace, but what can you expect from an over-weight geek?

This evening I completed my first training run, which was a little over 4km in ~35minutes. Not exactly 10K, but better than I was expecting to achieve at first attempt, and not a bad starting point. Future training sessions should all be recorded by RunKeeper, if anyone is interested enough to track my progress, or if anyone of my fellow ‘volunteers’ want to compare training and progress, you should be able to follow me at RunKeeper.

Wish me luck…..
— Andrew

The Necron tomb awakens

To get inspiration for my Word Bearer host I read Anthony Reynolds excellent Word Bearer Omnibus. As the Necrons are the recurring antagonists it sparked my curiosity in the futuristic undead, they became an obvious choice for my next project.

Despite the ease of painting (and my own shortcomings in the area) one thing I want to avoid was a monotone metallic force so went off in inspiration of alternatives. Fortunately the GW site has an article challenging a selection gamers and modellers to design a new scheme for a Necron force in just one day. Dan Harden’s attempt immediately caught my attention due to a distinct lack of metal, serving as a great design base I swapped out Dan’ purple (which I really liked) as I wanted to continue to make use of the translucent green gauss barrels from the warrior set.

Without further ado: Single warrior

P1020370

Full Unit

P1020378

And matching scarabs

P1020364

More of the tomb should awaken shortly…

Logo code release – circa 1995

When we moved house recently I came across several things I had thought had become lost to the sands of time. One of which was my first ever code release, years before I had any ideas of becoming a professional geek (I’d wanted to be an accountant, I know…..).

The most hi-tech equipment my school had at the time was a BBC Micro (which was also my home system at the time) hooked up to a robotic Turtle (which I didn’t have). Each pupil was provided (very) brief instructions to commanding the turtle in Logo and a limited time (~30 minutes, I think) to play before returning to standard lessons.

The result, was my very first code release:

LogoPresentation

Step

Step

repeat 36
[
FD 100
RT 90
FD 100
RT 90
FD 50
BK 50
LT 90
BK 100
LT 90
BK 100
RT 10
]
END

 

Stapper

Stapper

 

STEP
FD 100
STEP
BK 200
STEP
FD 100
RT 90
FD 100
STEP
BK 200
STEP
END

Snow

Snow

 

STAPPER
HOME
PE
STEP
END

CodeCode

Can’t remember who drew the tutles for me, but it definitely wasn’t my work, thanks to whoever was involved at the time.

Not my best code release (or maybe it is), but not bad for a 10 (and a half) year old Accountant in training.

—
Andrew Waite

 

 

Wintery Morning Walk

Woke this morning to find that last weekend‘ apparent start of Spring was a false alarm, with the snow returning for (hopefully) one last time this winter. Undeterred the little-one was wrapped in many layers and braved the (not so) chilly conditions to find some nice wintery shots to add to the collection:

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We’re now back home safe, sound and warmer, with a free Saturday to do with as we like as most of my planned DIY involved being outside, which isn’t going to happen now.

—
Andrew Waite

There and back again (to Durham)

Woke up to a beautiful crisp morning, so we rounded up the clan (well; me, Jo, Chloe and the 4-legged ones) and took a walk into Durham. It’s closer than I was expecting, and lead to some great rolling countryside, especially considering we barely left concrete filled civilisation.

Route on the way into Durham:

There

This was the first view we glimpsed of Durham Cathedral. Unfortunately I only had my phone on me so picture quality isn’t great, for those that can’t make it out, you’re looking for the two blocky shapes in the centre.

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Rolling greenery:
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And first sighting of the River Wear:

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After a brief rest for lunch in Durham Marketplace we headed back home, this time sticking to what can be considered civilisation.

And Back Again
And Back Again

All told, not a bad way to spend a quiet Sunday morning

Crisp winter morning

Woke up early this morning to a bright, crisp and clear start to the day. Didn’t manage to go far as the little geek-in-training wanted plenty of attention, but did manage to step outside for a few moments with the camera. Results are below, considering the rushed nature of capturing the snaps, quite happy with the morning’s work.

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