Knosso Prond

It's Knosso Prond - again! All set to join her fellow Elucidian Starstriders.

Wow! A second post in a week! Let's keep the momentum rolling!

Not a whole lot to share here - meet Knosso Prond. She is a "Death Cult Assassin", which is a job you can totally have in GW's Warhammer 40k setting. Seems like a rewarding occupation - why look, she gets to carry a trophy around with her!

"Anyone looking for an orc head? Because I found one..."

These cult-assassin types are often found in the employ of specialist Imperial officials such as members of the Inquisition, but in this case, Knosso here is a member of the "Elucidian Starstriders". Her skills were used in support of a Rogue Trader Elucia Vhane and the ill-fated crew of the New Dawn. This is a set of 28mm plastic figures GW released several years ago in support of its 40k small-skirmish game "Kill Team". The Starstriders are a wonderful set of character-type figures for the 40k setting, so I tracked down a box circa 2021. I was initially drawn to the Rogue Trader figure from the box, and not so much the supporting members, so I ended painting the Knosso Prond figure as a "Curtgeld" for the 2021 edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

But the Starstriders as a set are actually all very cool models and I ended up painting the lot of them in the summer of 2022. So I had the whole set...but no longer a Knosso Prond...

This is a plastic 28mm figure from GW, lots of detail.

It started to nag at me that I had every single member of that team other than Knosso Prond...and my mind is the sort of mind that can be hung up on such a thing. It will be a distant, but still noticeable, voice in my hobby brain bugging me, steadily increasing in tone by tiny increments over time, until I finally snap and decide I "need" to address it. 

Used a few "Contrast" paints here and there, but in the end I found myself resorting to the boring old acrylics...

"Snapping" in this instance occurred in March of this year, when I finally tracked down a spare copy of the figure, and I painted her up later in the spring. My set of Elucidian Starstriders is thus complete, and that particular portion of the buzzing in my hobby brain has now stopped (leaving room for the buzzing of other hobby matters to take over, but alas, that is features as much as it is a bug - at least, that is what I tell myself). 

What are the uses of this figure, beyond looking cool in my cabinet with the rest of the "Starstriders"? Probably not much beyond isolated applications of characters or extras needed as objectives or special figures in games of 30k or 40k. But "looking cool in my cabinet" is still a fine thing as far as I'm concerned. so I'm glad to have settled this one little "buzzing voice" in my hobby brain. On to the next one...

Some 30k in the 6ix

It would seem that posting on the blog, like so many things in life, is very easy to get lazy about! I have been continuously saying "oh, I need to get some pics up on the blog, but, I'll do it later because [INSERT EXCUSE]". The excuse has varied - there has been travel, and work has been very, very busy. Then there is the lovely summer weather, which has pulled me get outside as often as I can spare it...a person-not-posting tends to remain a person-not-posting...need to break that cycle, as I actually have been hobbying! Gaming even! 

The Sons of Horus in action against a detachment of Ultramarines, supported by an allied detachment of Blood Angels.

An Assault Squad from my XVI Legion gets ready to, er, jump into action...

I moved to Toronto full-time in February, and over the past few months I have been fortunate to connect with a thriving local gaming community, which includes some passionate 30k players. It has been great to play some 30k! I have even managed to participate in a day-long narrative 30k tournament, which was excellent, even with the Nurgle-levels of humidity in the facility...any way, to shake off the blog-posting-slumber, I thought it would be good to post a few pics of some of the 30k games I have had the chance to enjoy in the past couple of months. 

A XVI Legion Moritat confronts an Ultramarine lander speeder squadron. 

These games have all been great fun, and it has been a blast to get the Sons of Horus into some action on the table. Playing in a narrative-driven tournament was a particularly excellent experience.

Elite IX Legion assault troops confront one of my Contemptor dreadnoughts...good punching was had by all! But mostly by the dreadnought...

The Blood Angels have some pesky assault troops! Fortunately the Tactical Support Squad was ready at hand - Volkite Calivers solve lots of problems!

My XVI Legion Spartan confronts an armored group of Ultramarines. An Iron Hands Deredeo-class dreadnought supports them on the hill (and was very, very annoying).

There are a number of tournament-style events are scheduled in the GTA this fall, although prior travel commitments and vacation will make attendance a bit dicey, so we'll have to see about those. But I'm sure we'll manage more friendly weekend battles here and there into the coming fall. 

Is that a Bluetooth speaker built into a custom mount on a Land Raider? Is that speaker blasting out heavy metal tunes during the game? Yes, and yes! Some tremendous hobbyists in the GTA!

In one of the games our Legion was joined by some survivors from a local garrison. In a bid to ensure "inclusiveness", my Praetor let them take the lead on one of the flanks! Isn't that nice?

Did I learn anything from the gaming? Well, I can confirm that the new "Age of Darkness" 30k game is great fun. I can further confirm that including a Moritat in your force is guaranteed to bring hilarious results (the single model shoots like 24 times in the right circumstances, and is a hilarious one-man wrecking crew). Finally, I would note that the rules-writers must have been overcome with sympathy for the Iron Hands, because those @#$@#$ing clowns are all but un-killable, and make even the tiresome Iron Warrior Terminators seem reasonable. You are basically reduced to trash talk when confronting them - "The Iron Hands are missing one thing - a Primarch!". 

A VII Legion task force bolstered by Imperial militia! The Baneblade is quite the beast on the gaming table!

Heavy armored presence in this Imperial Fists force!

We cam equipped for the job! "Hope" deploys to sweep the table clean of "pro-Emperor" terrorists! It's even backed by a heavy support squad!

The dice were not with us! Here you see the remnants of what had started out as a 20-man tactical squad! At least the Moritat got in there and shot everyone...

That's all for now - thanks for reading, and I hope I can get off my lazy @ss and get a few more posts about stuff I have been painting this summer...

Adios Otherworld!

Some sad news from the world of hobbying - one of my favourite companies has ceased trading. Yes, Otherworld Miniatures is no more. Conscript Dave V. shared a recent Facebook post where the company announced this, along with a sale of 50% off their remaining stock... quick as I was to get on it, I was far too late as there was pretty much nothing left.

Fortunately I'd placed an order not long before Prairiecon, and had gotten these two models (the "Brigands II" pack) painted. I do have a few more in the pending pile as well.

Anyway these models were typical of Otherworld, just excellent figures, great sculpts and well cast. Their miniatures skirmish wargame is great fun as well.

Allegedly the moulds are being passed on to other traders so the models may appear again from other companies. I certainly hope so, we've painted lots of their models and they're uniformly excellent. They totally nail the old school vibe that feeds the nostalgia of gamers "of a certain age".

So adios Otherworld, hope to see you again someday.
 

Wendigo

 Forbidden Psalm has some really big monsters in it, including the Corpse Collector and the Puca. The Puca has a tall thin body with moose antlers and a savage looking mouth.  It’s basically a Wendigo. 

Various designers have made 3d prints of both models which are available on Etsy. I’m not a fan of the resin 3d print models are made of. I find it brittle and delicate and worry how well they’ll survive shipping. As such I wanted to reduce the amount of shipping time. Luckily, one of the Esty shops is based in Quebec and sold both the Corpse Collector and a nasty looking Windego which will stand in well for the Puca monster. Both models arrived last week and I was surprised to find that they survived Canada Post shipping intact. The first model I managed to paint is the wendigo. He painted up well, but there were a few times I was worried I was going to break the arms or antlers while painting. The model looks great but feels very fragile for gaming. 

Hopefully I can get the corpse collector done next week.

Thanks for visiting.

Cold Warriors - BobMack 3D 28mm Marder 1A3s, Plus More Eureka Bundeswehr and Soviets

OK so there's a few more Cold Warriors to post here! I recently ordered some freaky Chaos/Hieronymous Bosch li'l dudes from Eureka, and threw some Bundeswehr and Soviets into the order, just because. They were quick to paint so here they are, along with some extra unpainted models from years ago. 

MG3 machinegunner in NBC gear. A leftover.

Panzerfaust 3 operator and GraMaWa (granatmaschinenwaffe - grenade machinegun) gunner. Whoa!

Bundeswehr sniper with G22 (Accuracy International AWM-F) in .300 Winchester Magnum (7.62x67).

I also picked up a couple more Chemical Commies, a Sagger (AT-3 ATGM) operator, PKM machinegunner, and flamethrower operator.

The Sagger set from Eureka is so cool. So much ATGM goodness.

The flamethrower dude and PKM gunner are great too. The Chemical Commies are painted with Vallejo German Uniform highlighted up with a VGU/white mix. The Bundeswehr flecktarn is Doombull Brown, Castellan Green, and Deathworld Forest.

But check these out - 3D-printed BobMack 3D Marder 1A3s from their Kickstarter, printed for me by Conscript Byron.

These are 1/56 scale models, and replace the North Korea store Marders in my Bundeswehr force. These scale quite well against the Leopard 2s I have already. (For those who are wondering, the NKS Marders were built on the SAME CHASSIS as their Leopard 2s. They were therefore waaaay bigger than scale Marders should be. These ones are much smaller than the Leopards).

I also got decals for these from District Miniatures. On the Marder 1A3 sheet you get decals for four vehicles, including crosses and (importantly) number plates. These are some great decals! The camo is Doombull Brown, Castellan Green/Deathworld Forest, and Vallejo Dark Rubber.

Here's one of the Marders with some BW infantrymen. Can hardly wait to get these out for a game. It will happen this summer I swear. I just have to find/write a Cold War mod for Bolt Action, I think that'd work best for a game.

Animals Big and Small

 Another quick batch of models for my Frostgrave bestiary. Here’s a gorilla, bear, 4 wolves and cougar (snow leopard proxy). With the exception of the cougar, all are from Northstar miniatures. I also painted up a werewolf from Reaper miniatures. Nothing too fancy here, but got them done quick!

Thanks for visiting and Happy Canada Day!