As summer comes to a close....

I've been a busy boy lately but I need to be as I've got so many projects on the go at the moment that it is hard to know what to try and finish. Especially difficult as I want to do it all!

I have made some efforts to try and get small jobs done and put away as I have soooo many bits and bobs hanging around in the man cave prepped and undercoated.

The VSF project is still bubbling away quietly. I’m waiting on a few more Aeronefs from Blotz but thought I’d get some crew painted whilst I wait for them. I find little sets of figures like this refreshing to paint as they tend to be pretty different to the massed batch painting that comes with wargaming forces.

Also started some deck guns for the VSF which shouldn’t take long to do.

Also finished were some much needed additions to my Iron Warriors force. Sadly their first outing was less than stellar as they got absolutely smashed by a leviathan with a grav-bombard!

Bit of scenery done as well. Started them ages ago and had stalled on the painting the beige. Got a second coat on finally and then added some weathering. Lovely models!

Been building more stuff despite having lots on the go already. Couldn’t resist putting together the Dunecrawler from a cheap purchase starter box purchase from Ebay. Very cool figure and I’m looking forward to painting a bundle of stuff for the Mechanicum soon.

Priority does seem to have shifted to the Star Wars Legions stuff in the last few days as I picked up all but the last kit for the crashed star ship range that I designed with Blotz earlier in the year. Whilst I’m getting the scenery sorted I’ve started getting my Imperial forces done. They were a cheap double set that Junt spotted for Tea Urn and I. We snapped it up! They were badly put together and poorly undercoated but with a bit of TLC they’ve come out okay. I did a test one to see how much of a pain the black and white scheme was to paint but it wasn’t too much of an issue so I’m looking forward to painting these now!

The dreads and the servo crane set have taken me up to 204 items painted this year which I’m okay with. I’ve lost count of how much I’ve purchase this year which is far from my intention of only buying a minimal amount.

;-)

TTFN

The chase is on….

They’d been found. Months of meticulous planning had gone up in smoke due to bad luck. Equipment failure had taken out two of the field dampening generators that had been masking their presence. They weren’t down long but sadly long enough to mean detection.

The subsequent assault was expected and Luna Wolves had put their contingency plans into action withdrawing quickly and quietly after the first wave of assault troops had retreated. Taking the dampening field generators with them to hide their departure the entire force slid into the night.

The contingency base was not as secure as the underground complex being little more than a staging post but it would have to suffice whilst the new situation could be assessed and a new strategy drawn up.

Stealth tech and heavy foliage is good for hiding a base but not enough to stop a ground patrol blundering upon it and it became apparent as they approached that this had happened. This mission seemed cursed with poor luck! The area was laced with caches of equipment, supplies and weapons.

The reserve site was already lost due to its discovery by the Iron Warriors but those supplies were essential and had to be recovered if there was any chance of pulling any hope of withdrawal from the rapidly worsening situation. The base must be taken back, albeit briefly, to get to the cached 

equipment.

Breaking from the surrounding jungle the Luna Wolves barrelled forward into the base, dashing to cover as much ground as they could before their arrival was noticed however it didn’t take long…

The Iron Warriors had the advantage of cover but the Luna Wolves pressed the attacked gunning down one heavy support squad of Iron Warriors whilst they tried to position their Las-cannons. (1)

A Luna Wolves breaching team drew the fire of a heavy bolter team perched on the base superstructure and their heavy shields stopped most of the shots but increasingly the powerful explosive rounds got through.

Catching the beleaguered marines in a cross fire, an advancing Iron Warriors squad gunned down the last of them leaving crumpled bodies and dis-guarded shield littering the open ground between buildings.

Unseen by the newly arrived Luna Wolves, Iron Warriors within the complex began to move through the buildings keeping themselves sheltered from the firefight raging in the compound outside.

The counter attack had left the Iron Warriors left flank dangerously exposed. A tactical flaw that did not go unnoticed and with massive strides the huge form of a Contemptor dreadnought forged across the courtyard raking the enemy positions with a torrent of fire from its assault cannon.

With practiced efficiency the Luna Wolves capitalised on the moment, rising from their cover and pouring fire into the Iron Warriors. Plasma fire and bolter rounds tore through them. There was only one option left for the survivors of the unit and the last few fell back.

Trying to seize back the initiative, heavily shielded Iron Warriors broke forth from the building hoping that attack from a different direction would stall the Luna Wolves assault and give the iron Warriors a chance to remove the threat of the plasma gunners whose fire had proven so devastating.

All the Luna Wolves were familiar with the base and as such this manoeuvre was fully anticipated. The Iron Warriors were met with a storm of fire as they left the safety of the building and many were cut down as they closed for hand to hand combat. They pushed on hoping the momentum of their charge would carry them to the enemy.

The charge faltered and the comms were alive with the roared orders from command…..(2)

But it wasn’t enough as the last of them were seared and blasted by the combined horrors of explosive rounds and blazing plasma bolts. (3)

The last of the Iron Warriors patrol force were beaten back and the Luna Wolves began to retrieve the much needed caches. Time was against them and they would need to move quickly to cover enough ground to have a chance of evading the inevitable Iron Warrior re-enforcement's.

Solid Win 8-3 to Junta and his Luna Wolves using the tactical objective cards.

TTFN

(1)    Bugger. I needed them to stop the dreadnought!

(2)    Bugger. Ah well, I can use some re-rolls.
(3)    FML.

30K terminators and a dollop of Dystopian Legions

I put these terminators together in Aug 2015 and they have been languishing in a foam tray ever since. They represent the start of another push at getting more 30K stuff done and some games played. I love the setting but we’ve given it a woeful amount of time especially in light of the number and quantity of forces we have.

These were put together from Scibor bodies, Anvil heads and shoulder pads and GW terminator arms. I liked the chunkiness of the Scibor bodies and thought they looked good as prototype Terminator armour.

I’ve done heavy battle damage and wear on all my previous 30K stuff so these took a similar pounding from the sponges to distress them. I like the look of it on the power fist knuckles. Looks like they been smacking the crap out of stuff!

I’ve also been getting all of the DL stuff undercoated and it all stands ready now. Sadly they weren’t paying attention and the GoGX Sylvaneth army slipped into the queue in front of them. I still do intend to get them to the table this year.

The termies have helped my Net tally but the recent Sylvaneth haven't. Figures for the year are now:

Purchased: +85

Painted:      -48

Net:            +37

I'll need to concentrate on the Sylvaneth over the next few months to ensure that they are done to deadlines however I am still determined to get the bulk of my unpainted 30K stuff finished and make good inroads into the DL & PC stuff.

TTFN.

Termies and Nefs

This week I've managed to make some progress on both sets of terminators.

The Iron Hands have received their coats of red and this leaves them ready for detailing, decals and weathering. Plenty to do still but progressing well.

The Iron Warriors will take a bit more work. I've added both the black and white to their pads in a random fashion as I did with the MKiiis. I don't want the hazard striping to be too uniform. Once the white has two coats I then carefully add the stripes. This took a while but I like the effect once finished. These will need a little tidying up but after that they can have their yellow wash to complete the hazard panels.

Once that is dry the whole figure will have black wash to dull down the metallic grey and to make the yellow a little less glaring. Then they'll be at the same place as the Iron Hands and I can batch paint all twenty eight to finish the details off. It'll be nice to finish off a whole tray that has been sat untouched for over two years.

Also finished are the two US Aeronefs for the Martian VSF. I keep referring to it as Dystopian Legion but it really has evolved past that so VSF it is from now on. I'm thinking of adding decals to both these and the Britiannian ones but I want to have a good snoop around to choose the right sort of decals. I'm thinking of white WWII style stars for the Yankie ones but I'm not sure if that will modernise them to much?

Hopefully Blotz will have the next two ready soon.

Two things finished. Puts me at +3 YTD.

TTFN

Edit for a requested picture.

2018 so far.....

I’ve been pretty busy since Xmas but I’ve lacked any real focus. I just have too many fun projects that I want to work on. This does mean that I’ve got lots of progress but nothing getting finished.

I’ve wanted to do a siege game for Horus Heresy (HH) ever since I started collecting an army. I’ve decided to make this a reality, hopefully this year, and as such I’ve purchased some walls, gun emplacements and a TTCombat Gothic Garage which I think will make a good gatehouse. I’m planning to use this on my 3x5 dining room table so this should stretch across the narrow table side just fine. The plan is to have the attackers play up the length of the table.

The scenario will need some thinking about but, given the sterling work being done 30K Heresy Forum to create 8^th Edition rules, I should be able to use the fortification rules from the back of the 8^th edition 40K rulebook as basis for something fun.

The HH setting does inspire me and I want to vary the types of games we play. Several years ago I’d made some starship interiors scenery. Sort of my own take on a modular Space Hulk type thing. It got messed around with a few times but then stored in the loft. It struck me that it would be pretty good as a Zone Mortalis and this compelled me to bring it down from the loft.

I hadn’t varnished it at the time of making it, something that I regret now. My loft is pretty dry but I think the inherent moisture in the plaster it was made from was enough to let the mould creep in. Sadly some pieces were lost but most were recovered, repaired and giving two coats of Varnish. One Gloss and one Matt. Hopefully that will protect it in future. I also have a plan to add some larger boards to the ZM set so that it can fill an entire 6x4 table.

All this HH planning has also had the effect of galvanising me to get more stuff painted for it. I did the Iron Warriors(IW) infantry last year but they sorely need some reinforcements. Now I like the idea of dreadnoughts stomping down ZM corridors in support of the troops so the couple of dreads I had in need of stripping pushed their way to the front of the queue and got themselves a nice bath in Dettol. They came out pretty clean.

Sitting around for a while has been a tray of terminators for both the Iron Hands & Iron Warriors. These were kit bashed together from a bundle of Scibor bodies that I won on Ebay cheap, Anvil heads and Shoulder Pads all coupled with GW Termie arms and weapons. I like the notion that 30K was a time of innovation and invention giving rise to lots of variation to the weapons and armour that were used. 

So the IWs have received two coats of Gun Metal Grey so far. Onto stripes next for them. The IH Termies are started with a heavy dry brushing of Bronze and then a light dry brush of gold. This picks out the trims and lots of the details. Next comes the red colour for the main armour plates to represent the blood of Manus that these surviving IH refuse to wash off until the traitors have been wiped out we all know how well that goes!).

  

I was given, by a very kind soul, some GW scenery at Xmas. The lovely gothic machinery terrain. It is wonderfully characterful and was one of the first things I put together once the silliness of Xmas subsided. Love these models and I’m looking forward to using them with the ZM terrain.

My first wargame of the year was a cracking game with BFG and I using my Seraphon to thwart the machinations of The Silverback and Silverfox’s Chaos forces. Cracking game which I neglected to take any photos of. Still it was enough to spur me on with some additions to my Lizards.

A homemade Dread Saurian has been staring at me from the shelves of holding for some time now so he was treated to a lick of paint to get him started. I was also treated to some Seraphon Cavalry for Xmas by another kind soul and those have been constructed and undercoated. Painting 40 cavalry at once is a bit daunting so I need to get some things cleared before starting them.

My ongoing endeavours to put together a stonking urban cityscape is still also progressing with the additional of some street furniture from Blotz.

I picked up lots of additional bits for the city at Colours and Warfare and decided to get them under way. This is them all washed and they’ve been spray undercoated now as well. They should add lots of character.

Well I also need some people to populate this city so I’m working on getting the civvies and heroes finished as well so we can get on and have some games. I think some of the folks in this part of town may have dubious professions…..

One of the Hero (or Villian) figures I’ve had for a while was a suited hitman type of guy but I didn’t want to have him in a plain suit. Well….there was only one choice really wasn’t there. Let me introduce you to….

Mr Patriot!

It took the best part of two hours but it was worth it. It still needs neatening up with some white and the colours could do with another coat but he won’t take much to finish after that.

I seem to have entered one of my more productive phases again, which is great, but because I’ve not had my painting mojo for a while I have been concentrating on building. This has meant that the painting queue has grown considerably. I’m estimating that I have 300+ prepped and undercoated waiting to be done. I really should address that!

So goals for this year? Well last year I painted 366 figures. Great but I brought loads as well. Time for a new tactic. I’m going to track Net items painted. So a minus for a painted one and a plus for any new ones brought.

So the street furniture places me at -15…..but…..

….those 20 mkiii marines I didn’t think I’d win on Ebay but did takes it back to +5.

So this year I must be productive and also resist buying too many figures.

Wish me luck.

TTFN

Eddie.

Some Pulp City for a change and more.

I've been doing pretty well tackling the list of figures I drew up for the 365 challenge but there has been a lot of batch painting this year.

Also on the list were some heroes and villains for Pulp City. We've not played this in ages but I have been working on my city scenery with the primary purpose of getting more games of PC. I'm thinking about making it an early hobby objective for the beginning of 2018 to get the scenery ready so now I've got double reasons to paint them. This has afforded me a break from batch painting masses of thing the same colour. A refreshing change.

This takes me down to 76 left to do before December 10th to complete 365.

I've not had the opportunity to paint much at work lately but today I managed to get the first colour on some Iron Warrior terminators for 30K.

30K had gone a bit cold lately partly I suspect because of the prospect of playing it in 7th edition. Not massively appealing since we've moved to 8th edition.

However....you gotta love the gamer fans! Some stalwart fellows have begun to created legion lists for 30K and they have finished the core legion stuff already.

Link to the Heresy 8th project

 Looks like the legion specific stuff is going up too! A truly excellent piece of work from those fellows. So with that on the cards my mind had turned to getting some games of 30K lined up and I also fancy trying some of the other missions from 8th. There are assault scenarios in the book for attacking defended positions and it stuck me that this might be fun to do for 30K.

So I got some walls from TTCombat and some big guns to be emplacements.

This is just the first set of each. Another gun and another wall set to be made. I also want to dress them slightly to make them fit the Grimdark a bit better. I've made some molds of skull bits and light fittings to add to them.

But I need to get some more figures painted first before letting myself get to distracted by that!

Colours 2017 wargaming show in Newbury at the weekend so i'm bound to find even more distractions there!

TTFN!