Evil Wizard

 One last model for June! Here’s a necromancer from Reaper Miniatures made in metal. He’ll be used as the “evil wizard” for one of the forbidden psalm scenarios. I kept him in purple to match the skeletons I painted earlier because every necromancer needs minions!

June has been pretty productive! Hopefully I can keep it going.

Ork Dakka Jets for Aeronautica Imperialis

Bad Moons in the sky! Ork "Dakka Jets" for Aeronautica Imperialis.

Another fun bit of random painting - a pair of random "Dakka Jets" from GW's "Aeronautica Imperialis" rules for air combat in the Warhammer 40k setting. These are multi-part plastic kits from GW. 

Love that crazy "V"-shaped twin tail...

"Aeronautica Imperialis" was cancelled last year just as "Legions Imperialis" was released. While the game was available, it had great models, and these Ork fighter craft are a lot of fun to work with. They are kind of a genius model design, essentially a very interchangeable set of components you can organize in a variety of ways to create aircraft that look broadly similar without all looking the same - this is a perfect solution for the Orks, where each larger craft or vehicle is an individual work, and not something assembled off of any kind of specific plan. 

Seems like a totally safe craft to me...

The "Dakka Jet" is the basic fighter for the Orks, and as you might imagine, in the Aeronautica game they fly very fast and don't last too long damage-wise. They can also be upgraded with an assortment of bombs, rockets or even MORE blastas and other assorted whacky Orky weapons. While the "Dakka Jet" would generally be dog fighting and trying to shoot down opposing aircraft (most of the time), you can also equip it with weapons for ground attacks, so they can be used in the various scenarios the game offers.

Nice view of the engine work - surely a low-emission thing?

The wing-man...

These two models had been built, primed, and sat in a box for over a year, and they turned up here in Toronto while I was unpacking a box of hobby bits. I thought it would be a fun little palette-cleanser of a project to finish these two craft. I decided to make these primarily yellow/"Bad Moonz" type craft, to add to the color variety of the Ork ships I have painted so far.

Bombs and/or rockets away!

Love the little landing skid on the bottom...these things are so whacky...

In terms of weapons, I added a mix of bombs and rockets under the wings just to offer some further variety to the look these crazy ships. I find Ork craft don't paint too quickly, as the Orks are not the sort to go with uniform paint schemes any more than they are the sort to with uniform designs or blueprints.

So the Ork air fleet is now increased to six of these "Dakka Jets", to go along with two "Fighta Bommerz". Plenty for a game sometime. Might be time to work my way up to some of the larger "Bommas" in the Ork air arsenal...perhaps another palette-cleansing project for later in the summer? We'll see! That's all for now - thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Blood Rage Vampires

 I’m on a roll here! Blood Rage Vampires for… you guessed it, Forbidden Psalm! All are from Reaper Miniatures. 3 are in metal and one in siocast. Look for the mold lines to figure out which one is siocast. 

Based on my reading of one of the scenarios, 4 should be sufficient. If not, I’m sure Dallas has a few more kicking around!

Thanks for visiting.

Skeletons and Large Monsters

 More painting progress now for Forbidden Psalm. I finished six skeletons made from the Frostgrave cultist box, a troll and giant worm from reaper miniatures and an old model, which I think was a horror clicks model. It originally came pre-painted, but I primed it long ago in preparation for a new paint scheme. I think I subconsciously painted it the exact same colors it was originally. I tried to find a picture of the model online to confirm this, but have been unsuccessful. This model and the troll will both represent the Puca monster for forbidden psalm, while the giant worm would make a good Great Maw monster. The two Reaper models are made of the same siocast plastic as the dire boars were in my last post. One gripe about siocast is that it’s a bit harder to clean off mold lines. Metal and conventional plastic mold lines can usually be scraped and filed. Siocast doesn’t respond as well to this. I find that is tends to resist scraping or drags off larger pieces of material than intended. Filing also seems to cause the material to clump a bit, damaging some detail. It is comparatively cheap, so maybe this is just a you get what you pay for situation.

Thanks for visiting.

Sons of Horus Heavy Armour for LI

Let's roll for hope! XVI Legion Astartes Land Raiders and Kratos tanks. 

Getting back to the steady accumulation of painted models for GW's new "Legions Imperialis" game. Here we have a small selection of armour painted in the colors of the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. These are all multi-part plastic kits from GW's new LI model range. 

Land Raiders

Sons of Horus Land Raider, with a commander in the cupola, useful way of marking a "command tank" should such a designation be required.

The lack of Land Raiders in the Legions Imperialis starter box was just baffling - just one of many baffling GW decisions related to this game. But the models did get released eventually, and credit where credit is due - they are marvelous. Are they small and fiddly to assemble? Well, yes. But this "Epic", after all, so that kind of goes with the territory. If you don't enjoy small models...well, no worries, we all have our preferences!

But if you do like this scale and this setting, I think you will really love these models. The Land Raider is a classic Space Marine tank, and it's great to have some of these for the new collection. The details are just fantastic. I won't claim assembly was "fun" - but then, I am not a patient model builder! I can say, however, that painting these up was fun.

Another view of the models showing some of the engine exhaust and top decking detail.

Rules for these vehicles are NOT available in the starter box rule books (f***ing twats - back to baffling decisions, but I digress). They came out in a specific Beta-Garmon supplement for LI. But from what I can tell, Land Raiders appear to be available only as a troop-carrying option? If true, that is just...dumb...but it is easily ignored for games among friends, so not the end the of the world. 

Kratos Tanks

Some big guns on big tracks for the Sons of Horus.

The Kratos - it is the big "new" tank for the Space Marines of the Horus Heresy/Age of Darkness setting. Maybe it isn't "new" anymore, but it still feels "new" to an old grognard like me! 

Once more, a commander in one of the cupolas.

Again, the detail on these models is remarkable. Is it fun or easy to assemble such small bits? I guess it depends on what you find "fun" about the hobby. For me, it was a challenge, but worth it in the end. These are remarkable little kits, and a game like "Legions Imperialis" will provide the right scale to deploy groups of them on a table. 

These are very small modes, of course...but the quality of the kits overall is really something. 

My painting for this new game has been...well, let's just describe the pace as "relaxed". Even though I am very keen to try the game, I just haven't been that quick to get a lot of stuff painted. For all that, the Sons of Horus are coming along nicely, and I now have a "legal" force painted up, with a "Demi-company" at the core, and a variety of supporting vehicles to chip in. Add in some Knights or a Warhound Titan, and they are more than set for a game. Just need to get some more Loyalists finished off...watch this space. 

That's all for now - thanks for reading, and hope you are having a nice summer wherever you are. 

Cultist and Morka-Porkas

More progress on my Forbidden Psalm/Frostgrave project. I finished a group of 13 cultists from Northstar and 5 Dire Boars from Reaper. The Dire Boars are from the Bones line and made in that weird siocast plastic. I primed them with brush on primer as I’ve read that aerosol primer can be problematic on siocast miniatures. The detail is pretty good and they paint up nicely. Forbidden Psalm uses a beast called a Morka-Porka which is basically a giant pig. You need several of them in a scenario, so I painted up 5 of them. Unfortunately they only have one pose, but Reaper Bones models are fairly cheap which I judged to be a more important quality.

The cultist box is great and comes with a wide variety of weapons and other parts. They also include a few skeleton heads and arms so you can build a few undead models. Those should be showing up here soon!

Thanks for visiting.

Grimdark Future Game with 15mm Space Marines!

A couple weeks back I was fortunate enough to be in Toronto for work, and got to drop in on Conscript Greg for a delicious dinner and a game. Greg had planned a very cool 15mm 40K game using the "Grimdark Future One-Page Rules" and I'd brought along the 15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines I'd painted in the most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So for both his Sons of Horus and my Space Marines, this was their first tabletop outing. LET'S GOOOOO!!!

Greg had set up the three-objective scenario described in the OPR Grimdark Future ruleset. The objectives were pretty evenly spaced down the middle of the table, with the Blood Drinkers coming on from the left long edge and the Sons of Horus from the right. Greg had picked up some really cool new terrain when we were at Meeplemart earlier that day - some prepainted scale-agnostic desert stuff from GF9. It looked just as good with the 15mm Marines as it will with 28mm models! 

The forces were pretty evenly matched - I had three Rhinos (each with a 10-man tac squad in it) and a Land Raider with the command squad and a couple extra Marines. Greg had two Rhinos full of Marines and two Land Raiders ditto (one of them was actually a Spartan model standing in). My cunning plan was to leave the rightmost objective to Greg and try and take the left and centre ones. Above you can see the objective just behind my Rhino.

                                        

The Marines deployed from the Rhino just in front of the objective and awaited contact with the Sons of Horus.

This happened quite quickly as the Sons rocked up and with the help of the Land Raider, wiped out most of the squad. 

The battle in the centre turned into a general fracas with my Land Raider and many Sons of Horus assets becoming engaged. Greg had already grabbed the rightmost objective and the scenario rules dictated that once an objective is obtained, it stays under control until the enemy grabs it. This allowed troops to roll over objectives and not have to worry about leaving a unit behind to hold it, as long as the enemy couldn't reach it themselves.

Here's a good view of the centre. Lots of combat and death here! But keep in mind that the objective itself is behind the Blood Drinkers Rhino at top left...

Endgame in the centre. Unfortunately for the Sons of Horus they just couldn't wipe out the Blood Drinkers and get to the objective. The centre holds for the sons of Sanguinius.

Meanwhile over on the Blood Drinkers' left, a Rhino got blown up by Greg's Land Raider. The passengers bailed out and started movement towards the objective on the hill, just visible at top middle.

The other Blood Drinkers Rhino and missile launcher/meltagun wielding Marines managed to take out the Sons' Land Raider and caused a bailout. The Marines from the destroyed Rhino at bottom started to move towards the objective.

The command squad moved up to intercept the Marines moving toward the objective, but were defeated by the Blood Drinkers.

So that was basically the game, a Blood Drinkers victory, two objectives to one. I quite liked the ruleset and the game fairly rocketed along, lots of stuff died quickly, including the vehicles. Opinions may differ on how those are treated, in the rules as written even bolter fire can chip away at Rhinos and Land Raiders. I don't mind that, because bolters are supposed to fire mass-reactive explosive shells and there's no reason why vehicles would be totally immune to those. But it's something to keep in mind if you have a strong feeling the other way.

My thanks to Greg for setting up the game and for a great visit. It was fun to try out the Grimdark one-page rules and to get our 15mm Space Marines out for their first games!

Fantasy Sampler

 I haven’t posted in a while so I figured I’d show you what I’ve been working on lately. I initially started working on my old world Warhammer Empire Army. I’ve been using Wargames Atlantic conquistador infantry as my Empire State troops. The models are great and easy to paint. The torso are in one piece so all you have to do is attach the arms with the appropriate weapon. I finished a unit of spearman and halberdiers on 25mm bases. I also finished two great cannons and a mortar that are from Gamezone Miniatures in resin. I was in the process of finishing the crew, but decided to pivot and start working on various models I’ve collected for several fantasy skirmish games. I picked up rules for Frostgrave, and forbidden psalm a while ago, but got discouraged by the need for various monsters and beasts to complement the games. I was inspired to give it another try after playing in Dallas’s dungeon crawl murder hobo game he put on at Prairie Con. The murder hobo fits perfectly in the Forbidden Psalm lore. They would also make a pretty good faction for an evil Frostgrave war band. Both Frostgrave and Forbidden psalm require a large group of models to act as a beastiary and I’m challenging myself to work through a large collection models as quickly as possible to make up this beastiary. I’ll have to find the right compromise between quality and quantity, as well as efficient time use. 

My first experiment is with Hero Quest goblins which will act as generic goblins for the various games. I used contrast paints and managed to paint them up very quickly. They won’t be winning any awards, but they’re basically just game pieces so it’s not worth painting them to a higher standard.

Primarily from Otherworld Miniatures. The scarecrow is from Northstar.

A mix of bits from GW, Northstar, Mantic Games and a HorrorClix werewolf.

United for a Frostgrave warband 

Very old Hero Quest goblins painted with contrast paints from GW.

Thanks for visiting!