State of the Warp Address
Hello, faithful readers. I'd like to take some time to explain what is going on with all my plans and projects, some of which you may know about, others of which may be surprises. Taking a look back, I realized two things: I didn't make a State of the Warp Address last year, and I didn't make as much progress on my projects as I had expected. Last year, I wasn't very focused, so I tended to jump around a bit from project to project. While I made progress on a number of things, I didn't really plan it out and some of them were projects I hadn't planned when I last put this together. Hopefully this article will help me strategically plan some things out and make this year more productive than the last.

First, the projects to improve this website:

Background and Appearance
I had originally planned for a multifunction display look for Warpstorm, with brushed steel edges around a text screen and function buttons on the bottom or side for navigation. While I didn't quite get there, I did get the brushed steel around the edges and away from the text where it made people's eyes bleed. Although I haven't gotten the original look I was going for, I'm pleased with the look and I probably won't be continuing to improve it. It's simple and it works, I don't plan on messing with it much. Time spent tinkering with the look of the website is time not spent on writing up new articles or painting models. I'm pretty sure that most of you aren't here for the aesthetics of my website, so I'll just keep going with the content.

The Girls of Warpstorm!
Strangely enough, despite the fact that I've been improving my painting skills and that I've been painting more than ever, I still haven't done much with the Gallery. (Did you know Warpstorm has a gallery, I had pretty much forgotten it!) I will be adding more pictures to it this year, and I might even get it organized by army. As before, I still plan on leaving up pictures of my original painted models, in the hopes that budding painters will see them and realize that they aren't alone and that there is hope!

Next, the projects to improve my skills

Tactically
I've made some big strides here, both with understanding the underpinnings of the game and of tactics, and also with actually utilizing them in the game. I expect that my experiments with the Tau will continue to help me understand tactics and improve my game play. As I come up with better understandings or different ways to explain tactics and game play to you, I'll be bringing out more articles on the subject.

Aesthetically
Heh. I have made huge strides in my painting, but one part of my plan went off the back burner and onto the counter. I had wanted to compete in a Golden Demon competition in two years (which would be roughly this year!) I'm definitely not ready for that yet, and here are the plans that I haven't gone through with yet, but I am newly interested in doing.

The first project in this series is A Study In Black. I've wanted to do this for quite some time, but I haven't quite gotten around to it. The concept is to take some character model and paint it all in black. Just painting it black isn't enough, however. I plan to use Gloss Black and Flat Black and Cockpit Black and other shades of black that I can get my hands on. I want to take a Black model and paint it black. I'll do tone-on-tone designs and even highlight it (with graphite, most likely) Basically, I'd like to have a model that from 3+ feet away looks like it has been primed. Then as you get closer, you notice some highlights. When you pick it up, you realize it's got designs painted on it. Partially this is to satisfy my twisted desires, and partially this is to make me work on fine designs.

I actually got a start on this one, but only a small start. I picked up a Grey Knight Terminator model and a small variety of black paints. I haven't actually gotten the model assembled or any paint on the model, but it's a start.

The next step in the process is Non-Metal Metallics. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, that's the process of painting something so it looks like metal, but without using a metallic paint. You see this in posters all the time. Next time you see a print ad that has a chrome look to it but isn't just a picture, notice the painted-on lights and shadows and reflections. That's what I want to do. Eventually, I want to do a Tin-boy. I'm planning on taking a plastic character model and painting it so that it looks like it is made of metal. From 3+ feet, I'd like it to look like unpainted pewter. Once you realize that's not a pewter model, you'll be able to see the painted on reflections and things. This will be much more difficult to carry off, but I think it's a worthwhile goal.

This one I haven't made any progress on at all, though I think I have a better understanding of how to achieve the effect.

I don't have projects planned for the last two yet, but I'd like to work on my blending technique and I'd like to work on Source Lighting, which is where you paint a model so that it looks like there is light coming from it, such as a Blue Powersword casting shadows and blue tints onto the rest of the model. I still haven't made any plans here, but I've seen the source lighting effect used in a number of models, and I've got a better idea about how to pull it off when I do get to it. All of these are projects I will get to this year. (Finally)

Now, on to the armies:

Deathwing
I had made plans for reworking these guys into a more effective army, both by themselves and by adding Space Marines for a more traditional force, or scouts for a bit of a themed army, with lots and lots of power. At this point, the Terminators are still in retirement and would take a bit of working to get them back in fighting shape again. I think I would like to bring them out of retirement, but it's not really the first step on my list. The project will involve sorting out the bitz and reassembling most of them, plus adjusting them to mostly use Assault Cannons instead of the Cyclone Missile Launchers they have now. It will be weird playing an Imperial army again, but I think it'll be fun, and they could definitely use the work.

Tyranids
I have significantly updated the painting on my Tyranids and I progressed from the Godzilla army that I was beginning at the time through a constrictor swarm. In the process, I painted many, many gaunts of all varieties and experimented a great deal with what I could achieve with Gaunts. I have since decided that a true Constrictor Swarm works best at 1000pts or less. Beyond that, enemy firepower goes up faster than the number of Gaunts can. To be more effective at higher point levels, additional killing power from other models such as Genestealers has to be added. This army is now mostly on the back burner, though I'll bring it out once in a while for fun, or use the Gaunts as part of a mixed swarm or something. (I planned out a 3500 point mega-army last month that featured 12 troop selections, and I think it'd be fun to play that sometime!)

Ninja 'Nids!
This army was loosely based off an idea from somebody on Warpshadow as well. The concept is to have a bunch of well-hidden and deep-striking creatures so that the opponent has very little to shoot at. The current plan is to use Leaping Rippers as Troops. They can hide in cover, using their bonus to get better saves, then when needed, they can leap out almost 18" to tie up the enemy front line. Meanwhile, a Flying Hive Tyrant lurks in the background, behind terrain. Finally, 18 Raveners and 3 Lictors deepstrike in, most likely all on one side of the enemy line. The Leaping Rippers and Deepstriking/assaulting into combat Lictors will hide the Raveners for the turn that they deepstrike in. After that, it's a mad rush to kill as many things as possible! I already have the Tyrant and Lictors. I will, however, need the Raveners and I might even need the Rippers, as I haven't seen mine in a while. This is a planned expansion for the long-term that will round out most of my Tyranid collection and really allow me to play just about any configuration of Tyranids. This army never made it to the light of day because of lack of interest and lack of focus. I have recently had a revival of interest in it. I'm not sure I'll get to it this year, but I think I'll eventually put this army together simply for a sense of completeness. (I have pretty much every other kind of Tyranid and can field all the other armies, why not this one?)

Dark Eldar
The Dark Eldar have come back to me, so the next time I start hearing about them being a second or third-class army, I might just break them out and show people how it's done. The painting is still crap, though, so I might just have to break down and repaint them. It's not high up on my list of priorities, but they are home now, so it's a lot easier.

Other 40k Armies and Ideas
Well, I had some ideas for Eldar armies (Lan Rillishelwe, the precursor to my Dark Eldar) Space Marine armies (who knows what I was thinking) and Chaos armies (including both the ultra veterans and the Thousand Sons.) None of them were started, though the two Chaos armies did come up in the bid for my small army project before the Tau eventually won out. It's possible that I'll be revisiting these armies in the future, as the basic concept behind them still resonates with me. I expect that I won't be getting to them this year as I concentrate first on the Tau, then on other armies that I already have.

Fantasy Armies
While I still have my Fantasy armies, I haven't done much to them in a long time. Since then there has been a new edition of the game and I have been focusing exclusively on 40k. While I am still interested in playing Fantasy and I'm still interested in the armies, I think that this year is still going to be focused on 40k and the armies I mentioned above.

So, there you have it, the state of my Warp. To put it concisely, this year will be focused on 40k and the armies I currently have. I'll be finishing up my Tau and improving my painting as well as updating the Gallery here. Instead of picking up new armies, I'd like to spend my time this year bringing some of my old armies (Deathwing, Dark Eldar) up to date. While the plans aren't as grand this year, I think they are more coherent and thus more likely to be completed. If there is something you are interested in, or something in particular that you'd like to see or you'd like to see me do, please let me know.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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