Cerastus Knights for Adeptus Titanicus

A banner of Cerastus Knights armed with Shock Lances for GW's re-booted "Adpetus Titanicus".

As the quarantine painting rolls along, I thought it would be good to get back to some sci-fi subjects.  I've been painting a lot of historical stuff lately (and plan to do even more!) but every so often I find I need to apply the brushes to pieces of war machinery from GW's rebooted Adeptus Titanicus. This a banner of three "Cerastus" type Knights for GW's re-booted "Adeptus Titanicus" game.

These models...the detail is just incredible. Yes, the price is eye-watering...but GW has really hit it out of the park with their new Adpetus Titanicus models, just amazing.

"Titanicus" is a game of giant, city-crushing machines blasting and beating each other until their reactors cook off.  In that environment, the Knights play a supporting role, harassing and flanking the much larger titans like the Reavers and Warlords.  The individual Knights are perhaps not impressive compared to the massive battle titans, but when they operate in groups, and are used properly, Knights are a real threat to enemy war engines.

Incredible detail on the rear of the Knights' chassis.

These Cerastus Knights, armed with "Shock Lances", need to get close, very close, to the enemy war engines in order to strike - but their charge can be devastating, and the lances can cause fatal damage to enemy titans. These Knights are organized into "banners", and in the case of these types of Knights they max out at three machines per banner.  I opted to put together a full strength banner, just to maximize their chances of survival on the table.  These Knights are bigger than the other "Questoris" style engines, but thankfully are slightly tougher, and can move very fast on the battlefield. Opposing Princeps will need to be wary!

Power shields can fend off the assaults of other Knights...and in a group, the shields can work together to TRY and hold out under the bombardment of enemy titans...but speed is the better defence there...

Read to move out and spread "hope" - Horus for hope!

I really like the Knight models, but the actual back story of the Knights is pretty lame...best just to think of them as a sort of sub-force for the great Titan Orders.  These fellows are painted int the same teal/green colours I use for the Knights that support my Legio Mortis forces, and they will fight in the name of the Warmaster, Horus Lupercal, and his bold plans to make the Imperium great again...

I try to keep my "Titanicus" collection relatively balanced between rebel and loyalist forces, but as we go through the Quarantine Challenge I'm hoping to add a few more engines to the Warmaster's side of the equation...can always balance that out later :)

"Family photo" of my rebel Adeptus Titanicus forces...the Legio Mortis engines loom in the background...

I keep saying it, but "Titanicus" is really a great game, yet another example of how GW can crank out fantastic rule sets if they feel like it.  The advantages of the Knights over the more ponderous and more heavily equipped battle titans are subtle but real, and they can add a lot to the game.  The re-booted "Titanicus" is a just superb set of rules overall, and the new range of models that go with them are equally amazing. These particular kits have been a real treat to work with. And they are, of course, expensive...glad I purchased these before the economy collapsed...

Thanks for reading, I hope everyone is having a great day - and is staying safe.

Star Wars: Legion - Han shot first!

I painted Han Solo for Star Wars Legion. The figure is sculpted as Han in Return of the Jedi.










The eyes are sculpted as mere slits. I did not bother painting eyeballs. The eyes have nice sculpting around them, what with the eyelids and all that. The pose is excellent. I like how Han torques into his shooting posture. Most other sculpts have his right leg forward as he fires with his right hand; a much simpler posture to sculpt. The newer Legion  models going forward will be injection moulded plastic instead of soft plastic. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do.

Went with a more Star Wars (A New Hope) look for his pants, and painted his coat as more of a duster than a camouflage smock. Airbrushed zenithal highlights, acrylic washes, and artists’ oils to finish the face and for various blending and details.

Now I need to work on R2-D2 and C-3PO to finish off the first family of the original trilogy.




Rebel Scum:




Imperials (aka Space Nazis) :




The current COVID-19 crisis has everyone hunkered down at home. Now that I have over 70 models for Star Wars Legion, I cannot have the Conscripts over to play! However, online vlogger Crabbok has come to the rescue. He has created an AI card system to allow you to play Legion solo!

http://www.crabbok.com/custom-content/legion-ai-system/

I fully intend to play a few solo games, and post them to the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts blog. Stay tuned!

More Tankers: Perry Miniatures British and US Tank Crews

I'd previously posted photos of Perry Miniatures' lovely British and US tank crews, but I'd only finished the half-figures for the hatches. However the brothers Perry even thoughtfully provide two dismounted crew figures in each pack. I painted those the other day and present them here.

Here are the two GIs - one armed with an M3 "Grease Gun" and the other carrying a jerrycan and .45. The Grease Gunner wears the ubiquitous tanker jacket that was so popular among GIs, while the other tanker wears wool-lined winter combat overalls and wool shirt.

Two British tankers are pictured in front of their Sherman (with Canadian "Fort Garry Horse" markings) that recently got updated as well. The model and its troop-mate are from Solido and were originally equipped with a chunky 105mm main gun. However I recently ordered 75mm turned-brass barrels from RB Models to replace them. The barrels were cheap and fitting them was pretty easy, using a Dremel to cut off the old barrel and drill out a mount for the new one. I think they look much better now.

I painted the tankers with tan/drab shirts and wool battledress trousers. They'll fit in pretty much anywhere. Again, these Perry tankers are highly recommended if you need some crew for your WW2 AFVs.

Bolt Action Winter GIs

As noted in my recent Sherman post, I've been working on some winter GIs to face off against Conscript Greg's newly painted winter Germans. In this post I'll show off the Bolt Action winter US Army HQ pack and rifle squad boxed set.

The Bolt Action HQ figures are a mix of models wearing the drab wool double-breasted overcoat, and the light-green mackinaw coat. The officer pictured above wears an M43 field jacket under his overcoat. the overcoats were painted Rhinox Hide / Mournfang Brown and the mackinaws and M43s are Catachan Green with a heavy Camo Green overpaint.

The medic with stretcher is about my favourite model from the pack, pictured here with a greatcoat-clad officer with M1 carbine.

Here's an NCO with mackinaw and light green trousers holding an SCR-536 "handie talkie" radio along with a private, also armed with an M1 carbine. I gave the all the figures gloves painted grey, basically following the webstore illustration.

Warlord also offers a boxed set with an entire metal rifle squad. The figures are armed with a mix of M1 Garands, M1 carbines, and BARs - two of 'em for an extra firepower boost.

Here we have the NCO squad leader and three privates - two with Garands and one with BAR.

Another group including a rifle grenadier, a soldier preparing a grenade for use, and two soldiers with Garand and carbine.

Here's the last two figures in the squad, armed with BAR and Garand. All of the models were painted following the box illustration.

The models in the squad are all very well kitted out with packs and suchlike, really some veteran campaigners here. The Bolt Action models also come (mostly) with separate heads, which is handy if you're building multiple squads from the same boxes. It just allows a tiny bit of variety. The only awkward fit was the head on the rifleman aiming his Garand. No matter how I tried to position the head, it just looked awkward - you can easily pick him out in the pics above.

The Bolt Action stuff is generally good though, and I recommend both of these packs wholeheartedly. Most of the rest of my winter GIs are from Artizan though, and as such they're slightly beefier in build than the BA boys. You'll see soon... I'll be posting some pics of the rest of the platoon (and some support in the form of a .50 cal) shortly!

Winter StuG III

1/56 scale plastic StuG model - kit from Warlord Games.

As Dallas noted, I have been on quite the painting tear with a 28mm WW2 project.  I got started on a late-war winter German force last December, and the project has come along nicely, starting from zero figures to include a platoon of infantry, some support and even some Hanomags to ride around it.  It's more than enough for a nice game of "Bolt Action" - but there is one element missing - some AFV support.  This new model will address that.

An iconic piece of WW2 kit...the unique front silhouette of the StuG.

This is a plastic StuG III from Warlord Games - it is a 1/56 scale kit (sigh).  I have painted it up in winter colours to match the rest of the force that I have put together so far.

The plastic kit has lots of nice detail, but if you look closely at the bottom right I could NOT get the hull sections to sit together smoothly...f*cking plastic models...I always mess them up...

I don't plan to do a lot of tanks or anything in 28mm - I play other scales for that - but they still needed at least one to feel like my first phase of this new project was truly accomplished. So here we are!

Dallas does seem to have a lot of Sherman tanks, so I might need to add another AFV of some kind...

I left the schurzen plates off of the model, as there was no reasonable way to mount them and expect that they would not be immediately snapped off on the gaming table...

This kit was relatively straightforward to assemble, although I still found a way to struggle with it. That's just me...any normal hobby human will find this kit easy to build. BUT there is one exception to that statement: it's the schurzen plates. I really wanted to have those on the StuG, but as you can see, the Warlord model has flimsy plastic connection points. These closely mimic the real way those plates were mounted, so model is realistic. But in terms of wargaming-table logistics, this approach is delusional, as they would snap off the second someone tries to pick up the model.

Anyway, it looks great without the plates, and I might figure out a more robust solution later.  So I built the plates, but have left them to the side for now.

75mm gun will help take on enemy armour...

I threw my usual painting recipe for winter AFVs on the model...as I have said before, I like my winter vehicles to look like a mess, because winter IS a mess - a total f*cking mess. F*ck winter. Snow is pretty on Christmas Cards (and there are days like that), but anything that drives or moves through the winter will be mucky in no time at all. I like my vehicles to reflect that.

Here is the vehicle along with a couple of the infantry models painted during the recently completed AHPC X.

I wanted to start with a StuG for the Germans because StuGs look cool and they were a pretty common AFV (insofar as AFVs were available to the Germans late in the war).  I tend to neglect StuGs in my WW2 collections in other scales, so I thought I would start with this iconic vehicle in 28mm. My late war Germans now have some AFV support, and are ready for a game...whenever that might be possible...

Ready for action on the table! I'm sure it won't get knocked out on the first turn or anything like that...I mean, when has that ever happened to newly-painted vehicles, right?

As you have seen elsewhere on the blog, Dallas has been really beefing up his collection of 28mm US forces in winter kit, so at some point we'll be able to have a really awesome game of "Bolt Action" set during the Battle of the Bulge, which is something I've always wanted to try! Who knows when that game will take place...but in the interim, collection escalation is always a lot of fun. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope all are safe and healthy out there.

Winter Whitewash: Tamiya 1/48 Sherman M4A1

Readers will have seen Conscript Greg's copious updates on progress made with his winter WW2 Germans. He's amassed quite a few models in his project. And as these things go, his progress inspired me to assemble some opponents to face those Germans, if the coronavirus pandemic ever allows us to get together in person again, of course...

Fortunately I didn't have to go far for this Tamiya M4A1 kit... it was in the "Model Kits - Unbuilt" box in the basement, and went together very quickly. I built it as the later version.

I also used some resin stowage bits on this kit - the pile of stuff on the rear deck as well as the spare track links etc. on the front of the model are both from "Value Gear", an ebay seller offering tons of 1/48 stowage bits.

I painted the model Catachan Green and applied decals, then started in with the whitewash treatment. This consisted of stippled Rakarth Flesh to create a nice light base, followed by more stippled White Scar. I left a margin around the insignia markings as you see on most period photos. The vehicle was then mudded up with Rhinox Brown and Mournfang Brown.

I used a synthetic broom bristle for the antenna - these seem to work well and are pretty hardy.

Here's a better view of the Value Gear stowage.

Ready for some winter battles against Greg's Germans! Of course, it will likely be summer by the time we're able to get together...! But in the meantime, stay tuned for some more winter US Army content...

Star Wars: Legion - Rebel Scum, and more Imps

Rebel Alliance and more Imperial forces for Star Wars Legion. The Rebels were commissioned from Cody (FB @coldpaintingtable, Insta @havok100). In general, the sculpting is pretty good, with an interesting mix of male and female humans, and aliens. I like the variety of skin tones and alien features that Cody used.

Above is Luke Skywalker, as he appears when he confronted Darth Vader on Bespin in the movie The Empire Strikes Back.

Below, the first squad of Rebel Troopers, with a couple of optional heavy weapons at either end of the rear line.




Below, another squad of Rebel Troopers. Also, better views of the heavy weapons, a gatling blaster and am ion grenade launcher.




Below, some crisp Fleet Troopers (basically, shipboard marines). They were the crew we saw on Princess Leia's ship in Star Wars, and who held off Darth Vader on the Rebel command ship, at the cost of their lives, in Rogue One.




Below, some Rebel Pathfinders. These special forces types were featured in the assault on Scarif in the movie Rogue One. One the left are two alien named characters, Pau and Bistan.




Below, an R2 unit, a Rebel Officer, a Commo specialist, and a medical droid. They provide various leadership and support roles for the Rebels.




Below, an AT-RT walker. Basically a light tank, it's a 20+ years old relic of the Clone Wars. Typical gear for a rag-tag group of rebels.




Ironically, I now have 70+ figures with no way to play multi-player games with them, during the current COVID-19 emergency.

I guess some solo gaming will be the order of the day for awhile!

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More Imperials

These models are the final commissioned pieces painted by Steve Brown. Below, another squad of Imperial Stormtroopers.




Below, Stormtroopers from the Stormtrooper Upgrade set. The sculpting is a little crisper than for the regular Stormtroopers shown above. Also, take note of the heavy weapons.




According to the Internet Movie Firearms Database, all the Stormtrooper firearms (and the other blasters in the movie) are based on real world weapons. For the basic squad guys, the heavy weapon is an MG-34 and the regular blasters are Sterling SMGs (I think the rocket launcher is based on a Bazooka variant). For the Upgrade guys, the heavy weapons are, respectively, a Lewis Gun and an MG 15.