30k Militia Turrets

While Dallas and Greg have been pumping out models with regularity, my progress has been slowed by school being cancelled and at home learning g being implemented. This program has been a failure in my opinion as although  technology has allowed us to attempt remote learning, it is not yet capable of the task asked of it. Thankfully the school year is ‘officially’ done and I’ve been able to carve out a few hours of painting here and there. First up there s a unit of troops for my 30k militia force. Models are from anvil industry and are armed with lasrifles. The rules allow you to buy augmented weapons which add +1 to the strength of las weapons making these long range bolt guns. A bolt gun isn’t anything to get excited about when your fighting  World Eater Legionnaires swinging a chain axe at your skull, but it’s better than strength 3 I guess.

The Sargent is armed with a power maul and blast pistol for those pesky World Eater Terminators. Yikes!

I’ve also reorganized my existing Imperial Guard army to fit in with the 30k list. It’s pretty basic and would be used to add some fodder for the Traitor Legions. I purchased some new turrets for my Leman Russ tanks from Kromlech. The turrets fit perfectly and have almost every weapon option for the tank. I opted for the demolished, battle cannon and twin lascannon turrets. I added some Sons of Horus transfers to show off their new allegiance. I’m sure Horus will be considerate of their crews lives.

Fifth Painting Challenge Submission - Vostroyan Officer and Special Weapon Troopers

Vostroyan Officer and Special Weapon troopers, metal 28mm figures from GW. 

My fifth submission into Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge included more metal goodness from GW days gone past.  The setting switches from Middle Earth to the grim darkness of the far future, GW's Warhammer 40k.  These figures are special weapon troopers for the "Vostroyan" Regiments of the Astra Militarum Imperial Guard.  They are 28mm metal castings from GW. 

Vostroyan officer - power fist and laser pistol (and feathers!)

A view of the detail on the casting - love the buckles, the bearskins...wow, these are cool and fun figures.

The Vostroyans first appeared as a box set some time in...I want to say 2004? I can't recall exactly...but it was a while ago.  I fell in love with them at the time.  They have a bizarre, baroque look that, to me, meshes just so well with the dark artwork of folks like John Blanche. The Vostroyan troops look like some manner of 19th Century Grenadier, with a grim-dark-tech touch that is done very nicely, giving them an utterly dour and ominous appearance. Other sculptors have tried to fuse the various notions of black powder-era soldiers and sci-fi (particularly GW's grimdark sort), but I have never seen it done better than with the GW Vostroyan castings. 

Plasma gunners - blue feathers on this bunch to distinguish themselves. 

The look, of course, is not for everyone.  This style of sci-fi is a bit of a specific look, and I find people either love it or hate it. Certainly I love it. I started painting a few up "back in the day" when they were first released.  This initial painting output covered most of the force from one of the starter boxes - two 10-man squads and a command squad - not very many for a game. Over time GW's product lineup has "evolved", and the Vostroyan castings (and all other metal products) became harder to find.  Before they faded from view completely, I did use some Christmas money to assemble a final addition to round out the force into something useful for the tabletop. I even painted one of these squads back in the 2013-14 edition of the Painting Challenge. 

Some different colour for the feathers on these fellows. 

Rear view showing (probably very dangerous) power supply for the weapons. 

But since then...well, I haven't touched the fellows! The project went into hibernation - still something that "I'll get around to soon"...LOL!  Which is unfortunate - at 30 troops (plus a few commanders) strong, it is a small force (although they have seen a lot of action on the tabletop over the years). In fact, even though my painted force of Vostroyans is small, they have been used a lot, usually as an allied detachment of some kind, or playing a smaller role alongside a larger force.
But if I just bulked them up a bit, painting more figures, they would make a fine overall (or more complete) force of Imperial Guard for the gaming table - after all, the vehicles do most of the work in an Imperial Guard force, so why not have nice metal sculpts to serve as the dismounts.

So, for years I have been meaning to dig out my precious little metal reserve of Vostroyan castings and paint them up. Like...well, at least five years I have been telling myself "hey, I'll do those next." Clearly my painting interests get easily distracted.

Troopers with "flamers" - squad-level flame-throwers. I would not have though a flamethrower could appear baroque, but here you are...

It is always fun during the Curt's Painting Challenges to see long-stalled efforts get some renewed energy. It is a common theme from many of the participants, and I find it inspires me to do the same, to finally tackle something that has been sitting around for a long time. I resolved to start with these fellows who had been waiting - base-coated and all - in the "pending" pile for quite some time now. Having found the will to get back to them, I did, however, encounter another Challenge...I could not remember the colour sequence I used back then...

Rear view of the flame troopers. 

So...well, I did my best to match the look of the figures I had painted...14 years ago.  I don't paint the same way I did in 2004 - or even 2014 for that matter. I like to think it is mostly for the better, as I have been able to improve with experience, as all of us do, but there are some aspects that are more about an evolution in style than a strict improvement.  As I said, I tried my best to match the look of the previously painted models, while allowing for a new touch here and there. 

Grenadier. 

Rear view of the trooper with the grenade launcher. 

There is one officer and seven troopers with special weapons - four with plasma guns, two with flamers and one with a grenade launcher.  These will give some variety to the regular squads, who otherwise come equipped with only flamers.  The plasma guns in particular are quite useful in the game, as they offer some hope of bringing down heavily armoured opponents (not much hope, but some).   The extra officer will give a bit more command flexibility too.  But most importantly, hopefully I can run more of these figures through my painting table and get that "small" initial force from 2004 to a larger level.

These figures were good for another 40 "points" toward my goal of 1200 points worth of painting through the Challenge period.  The submissions continue to pile up at Curt's blog, with a wide variety of subjects and projects trucking along from participants all over the world.  I encourage you to take some time (or just kill some time at the office) and check it out!

Death of a Baneblade - 40k 8th Edition Battle Report

Imperial Baneblade 6813 contemplates its final moments amid 40k action ...

Do you have any figures that you must actually dust off before you use them on the table? Last night I had the chance to do just that as Conscript Byron popped over for a game of 40k 8th Edition.

Earlier in the week I had dug out and dusted off my collection of Imperial Guard "Praetorians".  The original plan was for them to face off against Dallas' Ork hordes, but unfortunately Dallas was unable to join us this week. A substitute "Xenos threat" was therefore required. To address this need I went even further into the "old-stuff-I-don't-have-room-to-display-but-can't-find-the-will-to-dispose-of" pile in my basement and pulled out my long-dormant Tau collection...

Starting disposition - the Imperial infantry have secured the staging site of an old mine facility,  while the Baneblade (accompanied by a Chimera APC with a mounted squad aboard); the Tau ambush would come at the right side of the photo. 

How old is some of this stuff? Well, the Praetorians have been part of my collection probably since...around 2009 or 2010. I do not recall the last time they saw action on the tabletop...it may be on the blog here somewhere, but it would have been quite a while ago, back before Dallas moved to his current address.

Praetorian troops take up firing positions.

Praetorian auto cannon support squad ready for action. 

As for the Tau, well, they are even older - you can tell from the photos.  I painted these when the Tau were first released by GW, so this would have been somewhere around 2001-02, something like that.  It was fitting that Byron was able to stop by last night, as we were chuckling at how I had painted these very Tau models to be ready for one of the "WarCon" tournaments he used to run - and that was a long time ago!

Imperial mechanized troops dismount as the ambush begins.

Tau Pathfinders deploy markerlights to ease the targeting of their fellow troops - while Kroot mercenaries cover them up front. 

So - one old collection to face off against another old collection.  I wanted to spice it up a bit...and I thought..."Baneblade!"  Back in January of 2011 I completed one of the (at the time) new plastic Baneblade tank kits.  But it had never once seen action on the tabletop, not once, since that time.  So I thought it would be fun to haul it out and see how it performed in the 8th Edition of Warhammer 40k.

The Tau ambush takes shape...the plastic targeting markers were used to indicate markerlight "hits".

I set up a 6' x 6' table, and made the Baneblade central to the scenario.  The Imperial Force would represent some column advancing toward an objective on a sparsely-populated Imperial mining colony.  The Tau interlopers, while indifferent to the Imperial infantry, were alarmed at the Baneblade, and sent a strike force to eliminate it.  The Tau would have six turns to destroy the Baneblade.

The Kroot decide to eliminate the Chimera with a close assault...would tie up the tank and render it useless for the game...

Byron took command of the Tau, while I played the Baneblade and its covering force of Praetorian infantry.  Both sides were at 70 "Power Levels" in terms of size.

Byron's Tau commander opted for an aggressive strategy, with his XV8 Crisis teams arriving in a drop from their Manta gunship high above the table, and hoping to get a kill with an all-out assault in that first round of shooting. We laughed at how this plan might have been received by the other Crisis Suit pilots..."like, right in front the enemy objective...are we SURE about that?"

Surprise! The Tau Commander, accompanied by two XV8 Crisis Suit teams, drops in to make the kill!

Baneblade commander notes the presence of Xenos power suits...

Meanwhile, Fire Warriors engage the supporting Praetorian infantry at long range. 

It almost worked like that. Byron's drop was dramatic, and did damage the Baneblade pretty badly, but it still survived for a bit. The air filled with firing from exotic Tau weapons, met with shattering return volleys of Imperial Guard heavy weapons and the arsenal of the mighty Baneblade tank. It took four turns, but the Baneblade was eventually put out of action, with the coup-de-grace delivered by the lethal railgun of the Tau Hammerhead tank.

The Company Commander watches developments from his improvised command post. 

More Fire Warriors move into position...

Imperial mortars try and eliminate enemy infantry...

It was a costly victory, in that the Tau lost both of their XV8 Crisis teams in the huge volleys of return fire. The Tau Commander himself was nearly clipped, losing his two shield drones (lucky for him they came along!).  On the other hand, no Crisis Suit pilots would be around to question the Commander's strategy...the losses were regrettable, but I suspect this counted as a "greater good" overall outcome for this Tau Commander...

The end is near for the Baneblade...Tau Devilfish APCs attempt to kill steal...and they would almost manage it!

KaBOOM! The Baneblade is "out of action"!

Tau Hammerhead taking in the spectacle of its kill shot...

"Where did those other Crisis suits go? Oh well...it's for the greater good, after all."

It was a lot of fun to get these models out on to the table, so a big thanks to Byron for stopping by. 40k's 8th Edition has many, many warts, but the setting is still awesome, and the game is still a ton of fun when you play with fun players.  It is great that these dusty old figures can still get some time on the gaming tables. Hope to see folks again next week!

Imperial Guard Re-paint

Been some time since I posted. A 3 year old combined with shift work definitely means slow progress on the hobby front. I've finished some small projects since then, but I wanted to showcase the largest one I've completed since Robyn was born. Most of the models are from my Future Brits, but with new heads from Pig Iron. Many of the vehicles are from other non-GW model lines that have been re-purposed to stand in for the transports. These had been acquired on past impulse buys and had no particular project in mind. I did however, go with GW for the MBT's.

 The Leman Russ tanks all painted with a Russian theme. Simple, but anything more complex would likely have never been completed.

 I used Pig Iron transports for the Chimera's. One squad of 3rd edition Stormtroopers are being used as Veterans.

 The platoon command squad and inf squads in Taurox APC's. I got these models from Antenocitis Workshop before they ditched their model line to make terrain for Infinity. The turrets have been adapted to sport twin autocannons.

 Puppets war Dragon fly and Hornet fighter stand in for Vulture and Thunderbolt. The Hornet is a great little model. No aerodynamic qualities and enough thrusters for a 747. Very I.G.

 Had to get on of these.

 My Command squad. The guy in red is a commissar. Not sure who made him. The guy with the peak hat is the Commander. I also can't remember the company, but he's marketed as Space Rommel.

 Heavy Weapons and a "Sherman" Hellhound. The turret is GW though.

Another veteran squad with camo.
Currently working through some long neglected projects. My goal is to start a Bad Moon Ork army by summer.

Painting Challenge Theme Submission - "Nostalgia"

Rogue-Trader era members of the "Imperial Army"

Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge features a very, very wide variety of participants and painting submissions.  To spice things up, Curt has also set up some "Theme Rounds", where the participants are encouraged to submit something in line with a particular theme.  You score a few bonus points, and the submissions are pretty interesting - and participants have in the past made some pretty liberal interpretations of the themes in question (a particular spider will live in infamy, but I digress...)

I have mostly ignored these Theme Rounds, not because they are bad, but because I am bad at being ready for them, and efforts on my part to try and prepare just derail what I was already trying to work on.  Best to ignore the trouble...but the first round up this year was "Nostalgia", and I had two figures that fit perfectly...

Proper lead figures, the way wargames figures are SUPPOSED to be made...

I'm in a big sci-fi groove (or "rut", perhaps) and with that in mind, "Nostalgia", to me, brings to mind Rogue Trader.  This theme rounds was a great chance to paint a couple more old timey Imperial troops for my Rogue Trader-era Imperial Guard. Or, more correctly, "Imperial Army".

Love that old flak armour...

The fellow with the "non-regulation" hair is "Trooper Brock", first seen in 1988(!).  He is carrying an autogun, the assault rifle of choice in the 40th millenium. 

The other fellow is a gun crew commander, seen with Thudd Guns, Rapiers, Mole Mortars etc.  Same era - 1988.

"Welcome to the Imperial Guard, dude..."

Both sport the distinctive "Imperial Army" flak armour of the old, early Rogue Trader era.  They were fun to paint, and should fit in well with the RT-era gang.  Although Brock is going to stand out from his more regulation oriented colleagues...at least he still has his helmet handy in case the Commissars show up...

The next theme round is "Epic Fail" - sounds perfectly named for my theme round efforts...we'll see if I manage anything for it...

Tempestus Scions - Full Squad

GW's Tempestus Scions

More dribs and drabs from the painting table.  Here is a completed 10-man Tempestus Scion squad, GW's new plastic storm trooper figures for the Imperial Guard. This is a completion of the original mini-project that I started back in July.  I had intended to finish these models, together with a command group, in time for Curt's visit at the end of July.  The timing didn't work out, but at least this initial batch is finished now.

The squad has two special weapon spots, and I opted to go with the new "hot-shot" volley guns.  Unlike the lasguns, they are pretty decent weapons.  They suffer from the intensely lame "gets hot" special rule, but with some luck (ha! yeah right!) and some use of orders from the officer you can avoid most of the worst after-effects from that barmy rule.

Look cool, but they die easily and quickly in the game

A few of these individual models saw some limited action during Curt's visit and the hunt for the "Red Barun", but they will have to wait a bit for their first use on the table as a full group.

Lots of gear and stowage on these models

These models are lovely, but the Tempestus Scions are not really a viable force in the current Warhammer 40k tabletop environment.  The low strength and short range of their basic weapons renders them close to useless and unable to reliably or predictably overcome any of the basic troop types of basically every other race in the game.  They are not able to bring heavy weapons with them. They will not last very long in 40k's noxious "close combat" dominated environment, and will not have the firepower or range to prevent "close combat" from happening to them.

If you don't mind painting lenses, then these models will be fun to paint!

So, in other words, they are just like a standard Imperial Guard force: you will be relying on your vehicles (or perhaps allies) to do the heavy lifting.  In my particular case, it will be up to the Valkyries to do the heavy lifting (which is what happened in the game against the Orks).  You can also build a ground-themed force if you wish, but that would mean using the Taurox, one of the worst model designs I have seen from GW in a long time (I used to say "the" worst, but every time you think they hit bottom, someone throws them a shovel). Your mileage, however, may vary :)

But it is fun to zip around the table and drop out of Valkyries - so if that appeals to you (and why not?), then prepare to enjoy your Scions!

And as for the painting table, it's time to get back to a project from the spring...more on that later,

New recruits for the Horus Heresy coming soon...