Legion Project - Adventures in Test Painting

World Eater test model - post-Testors-incident

I have recently launched on a "New Insane Project"TM of collecting and painting some Legion models from Forge World's Horus Heresy line. Like many gamers, when embarking on a new project, I like to paint a test model - a chance to see if the colours work, if there is anything I should watch out for etc, maybe I need new paints or new colours etc.  It's fun to work on one figure to iron out the approach a bit before repeating 20 or 30 times.

Legion assembly in progress - figures await priming

So far I have been concentrating on assembling the models, but I couldn't wait to try painting one, so I selected a figure representing a Marine from the World Eaters Chapter and decided to test my approach to his paint scheme.

Mix of World Eaters and Emperor's Children waiting for black base coat

This figure is the first one I have ever primed using an airbrush and Vallejo black surface primer.  Byron has been happily telling me about how he primes and basecoats his figures using an airbrush, avoiding the nasty side effects of trying to use the more conventional spray primers, a particular challenge during the winter (and especially this horrifying winter of 2013-14).

Magic stuff! Just magic!!! I'm now a lobbyist for "Big Primer"

I regard airbrushes as the prima donna tools of hobbying - needing so much to deliver so little - and my airbrushing skills are non-existent.  Airbrushing primer on in the comfort of your own basement sans the issues of spray primer? Sounds too good to be true! But Byron was patient and insistent, and even lent me a workable single-action airbrush to try it out! And it actually works! It even sticks to Forge World resin!

What is ever better is that you can brush-paint the stuff on after to follow up.  I know many of you reading this will be thinking "Greg, you idiot, this stuff has been around for a long time."  And you're right! I just get hide-bound...but for other stubborn people out there - TRY THIS STUFF!! And even try the airbrush!!

More WIP on the assembly - I love the rotor cannon gunners!

World Eater test model - waiting for a decal on the right shoulder.  Note glossy finish to undercoat the decal area and avoid "silvering"

The test figure is a regular vanilla tactical marine in Mark IV armour carrying a "Tigrus Pattern" bolter. I put the basic paint scheme in place, and thought it best to test out a decal on the right shoulder pad.  I plunked a Roman numeral "XII" down on the shoulder plate (the Worlds Eaters were orginally the 12th Legion).  To eliminate the "silvering" from the decal, I had applied a coat of gloss finish in the decal area, and once the decal had dried and set, I needed to knock off the gloss finish with a coat of Testors's "Dullcote".

Another pre-decal progress photo

I've done this for decals hundreds of times...more times that I can count. Testors has never let me down (unlike Krylon - never again Krylon). So imagine my surprise when I saw the Testors had...COMPLETELY F*CKED UP THE FIGURE.  While the gloss finish on the decal had in fact vanished, the Dullcote had also covered the figure in a white, scaly texture - like he fell in a snow bank here in Winnipeg. F*CK!!!!

WTF?!?!?!?! F**K YOU TESTORS!!!!! JUST F**K YOU!!!! A World Eater in a blizzard...where did his drop land?

Sigh.  These Forge World figures are not cheap, and no blog post is long enough to list all of the dark thoughts uttered when I saw what had happened.  Fortunately, I was able to mostly save him by re-painting over the affected front area.  The figure now has a scaly, rough and slightly-over-weathered appearance - forshawdowing, perhaps, the fate of the 12th Legion. But he will be OK, and won't stand out too badly when mixed with a unit.

A re-coat of paint later...looking not too bad

I am mightily pissed, as Testors has never, ever, ever, ever given me a problem like this before.  Cue Byron suggesting I airbrush on the Vallejo matte finish :) Maybe I will try that, but in the interim, I am trying to find a new can of Dullcote...

The finish on the legs is a little rough, but from this distance everything turned out OK - won't be as noticeable when he's with a unit of 10 figures

These Forge World figures are a lot of fun. You can see the posing on this particular figure is not great (he's not holding the bolter in a particularly "natural" combat pose). It took me a while to get the hang of assembling them, but holy cow its fun - once you get rolling.

So that's one figure down...still a long, long way from a game...but progress continues!

Poll Results - the New White Dwarf(s)

Our last poll question was: Last week, it was announced that the White Dwarf would not continue as Games Workshop's monthly hobby magazine. It will be replaced by four weekly mini-magazines and a larger monthly publication called "Warhammer Visions". Is this a good thing? Here's what you thought: 9%             Yes - White Dwarf was a stale catalog and it needed gone. Best to chuck it and start over with  something else
15%           No - WD should have been saved to continue as a monthly mag. So much history there
50%           No - flush the lot. I don't need to buy a monthly catalog for $10
24%           No - don't play the games, don't buy the WD, don't give a rip Me, I tended to think the old Dwarf, while needing drastic improvement, was worth saving. However having bought a few weeks' worth of the new weekly organ, I like the new direction. The new weekly Dwarf seems to have a lot more focus to its content and there's certainly much less overt advertising. The mag isn't wrapped in plastic which makes it easier to pick up in the shop for a flick through to determine whether it's worth taking home. I quite enjoyed the previous two issues with their exclusive focus on the Imperial Knight for 40K - however, I dropped by the store on Saturday, had a look at the latest number with the latest awful plastic hell-thing for Chaos Space Marines, and put it back on the shelf. As for "Visions", I bought the first one, thought it was very pretty but with very little compelling content, and haven't bought another.

15mm Sci-Fi Battle Report - Nova Respublik vs. Euro-Coalition

This week the lads came over for a 15mm sci-fi game. We set up a pretty straightforward scenario - seize objectives. The backstory was a bit more fun:

The Republic of Bezerkostan, former satellite of the Union of Nova Respubliks, is in turmoil. The government has been overthrown in a quasi-military coup and unrest is everywhere. The Nova Respublik, alarmed and emboldened by this turn of events, considers military action to safeguard the security of the Respublik-speakers living in Bezerkostan...

Setting: Vladimir Putin Memorial Sludge Reclamation Facility, Republic of Bezerkostan
In the interests of promoting their "peace-loving agenda of universal order for Respublik-speaking-peoples" (PLAUORSP), the Nova Respublik has dispatched a team of Spetnaz troops to secure the Sludge Reclamation Facility.  A detachment of Nova Respublik Motor Rifle troops has been sent from the nearby population centre of Putinograd to reinforce them.  Conflict looms with the well-equipped observers from the Euro-Coalition for control of the Facility, determined by occupation of three different locations on a 6' x 4' table...

Nova Respublik troops... or maybe not. They've removed their insignia and the Nova Respublik officially denies all knowledge of their activities ;-)

Euro-Coalition armour: Leopard 4A2s MBTs and Fuchs 3 APC near the eastern sludge towers.

In the centre, EC Fuchs 3s and another Leopard 4A2.

Across the table, Not-Nova Respublik tanks and APC.

Some hapless worker/observers near the central objective.

Sludge maintenance technicians keep an eye on the western objective.

Meanwhile, the "not-Nova Respublik" forces seize the eastern objective marker.

A long-range shot from a NNR tank blows up a Euro APC.

NNR tank destroyed in retaliation. It's a shooting war now!

Euro troops move on the central objective. We used our home-brewed "Red Storm!" modern rules for the game and it really rattles along. Stuff blowing up every turn!

Euro heavy weapons deploy in the centre; another APC blows up :-(

Zoom out... NNR attacking from the top of the photo.

A nice image of the scrum in the centre with Euros pinned down by NNR firing.

Euro Leopard brewed up... where's the rest of our tanks? Over on the left flank with Jim. "Come in Jim..."

Here we go - Leopards on the move.

Will it be too late for the guys on the centre objective? Here come the NNR...

Epic fail on the spotting roll by Jim. In the rules, armoured vehicles need to spot a target before engaging. The player rolls 2d6 and adds the Training value of the troops and any modifiers for moving or obscured vision. An adjusted roll of "10" or more means the target is spotted. This was Jim's third roll of snake-eyes this game... my basement drywall suffered accordingly from thrown dice. Easy Jim!!! ;-)

NNR about to take their second objective for the win. A fun game! I always like playing 15mm sci-fi and with a larger game like this one, the Red Storm! rules work well. Not too complicated but with a dash of modern design flavour in that they're not strictly IGO-UGO. Good times!

15mm Battlefront "Egyptian" PT-76

So Greg's finally sucked me into his crazy Yom Kippur war project. I've agreed to do some Egyptians. The plan is for a couple platoons of tanks, some tank destroyers, and a platoon of infantry. The models are mostly bought (Khurasan T-55s gifted from Greg, Battlefront SU-100s in a trade from Greg, and Khurasan infantry as encouraged by Greg ;-) but this is the first I've painted.

It's a Battlefront PT-76 from their Vietnam range and I have to say it's as sweet as a nut. Slick assembly with a resin body and turret (magnetized!!) and metal tracks and gubbins.

I laid on a pretty basic paint job using GW paints.

I did some "chipping" with GW Mechanicus Standard Grey on a tiny bit of sponge. I like the effect.

Tactical numbers added in Arabic.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with the model and I'll be painting the rest to the same pattern. Quick and easy.

30 Seconds Over New Rynn City: Aeronautica Imperialis Battle Report

Last Thursday I wanted to set up something we hadn't played for awhile. But I also thought it would be cool to do another game in keeping with our current and long-running Rogue Trader "Invasion of Rynn's World" campaign. The solution was "Aeronautica Imperialis", the short-lived aerial combat game from Forge World, set in the 40K universe.

I found a suitable scenario in the AI rulebook. An Ork air fleet is tasked with taking out some ammo supply bunkers on the outskirts of New Rynn City. Imperial interceptor aircraft and ground defences must defend the targets. The Orks had a Blasta Bommer, two Fighta-Bommers, and two squadrons each of three Fightas. The Imperials had two heavy flak guns and two squadrons of Thunderbolts, one of two and the other of three aircraft.

The models I have for AI are mainly the old Epic aircraft, cast in white metal. They're great models.
 

The Ork Fighta-Bommers are converted Imperial Marauders from Epic. I greenstuff'd on some Orky looking engine covers and rivets and gave 'em a red paintjob.
 

The Blasta Bommer is a resin Forge World piece. A gorgeous model but a bit of a challenge to assemble as the resin on the rear stabilizers was pretty warped. Lots of fiddly little gun barrels too, and unfortunately some were casualties of our recent house move :-(

Fightas are Epic pieces and are super-fun to paint. Very characterful and Orky little models.

Here's a nice shot of the beginnings of the furball. Aeronautica Imperialis uses clever little "maneuver cards" that also act like templates for the maneuvers. Pre-plotting is limited to choosing a maneuver for your plane for the next turn. Speed is set at the start of each turn (shown on the red dice) and altitude is a function of maneuvers picked (green dice).
 

The two sides dice for initiative at the start of each turn and the winner picks one plane to move, and play alternates back and forth. Shooting alternates too, with the initiative winner picking the first plane to shoot. Fighters generally take two points of damage to bring down but some weapons can do more than one point per hit. Ork big shootas, for example, roll 8 dice at short range! Hits are scored on a 5 or 6 if the target is at the same altitude as the firer - if they're one range band apart it takes a roll of 6.

A Thunderbolt catches one of the Ork Fightas in a deflection shot. Conscripts Greg and Mike ran the Imperial side, and if it wasn't for bad luck they'd've had no luck at all. Usually Mike can be relied upon for hot die rolling but not this night. Both Greg's and Mike's dice were appalling.

The Orks drew first blood with a shootdown of a Thunderbolt. Kills went back and forth for a bit but the Orks had more planes in the air so could absorb more losses.

Fighta and Fighta-Bommer

The Orks left the heavy lifting to the Blasta Bommer and it obliterated one of the bunkers on its first bomb run. Then the huge Bommer ended up flying off the table! A Fighta-Bommer hit the other bunker and although the doors were blasted off, the ammo inside failed to detonate.

The Orks had much better dice luck than the Imperials in the dogfight and after about 7 turns the Imperials had lost too many planes to continue - after taking 50% losses the remainder must bug out. So although the Orks only busted one bunker, we had to give them the win as they forced the other side off the table.

I really like AI for a straightforward aerial fight. There isn't a ton of record keeping required but the maneuver cards keep things flavorful and moderately tactical. The models are great too, and it's easy to put on a game. It's one of those Specialist Games that never should have died.

Sedition Wars Project - Progress Report #3

The Sedition Wars project continues apace, with the completion of the first five Vanguard Samaritans.

As I stated before, I started with zenithal highlighting; primed the figures black with P3 spray primer, then airbrushed highlights with Acryl flat white. Successive thin glazes of Games Workshop green and sepia washes allows the grey scale undercoats to shine through, emphasized the highlights and shadows of the armour and weapons.

The flesh tones were first done in Vallejo acrylics, then over-painted  with wet-on-wet tube oil paints, mostly from Weber and Winsor & Newton. The visors were also picked out using oils.



The bases were finished with various acrylic washes and oils, with some Vallejo rust wash for the man-hole cover.

To help keep track of the functionally-identical (game-wise) Samaritans, I affixed small etched brass numbers to their bases, sourced from Hasslefree Miniatures.



Next up, some more Samaritans, including heavy and special weapons...



...and one of the named characters, Akosha Nama, whose faces and hair I have already painted .



Edited To Add: These are the paints I used for the faces you see. First time I've used these Vallejo and Weber paint systems. As I indicated above, acrylic base, then oils on top. The professional artists' grade oil paints have pigments ground butter-smooth. Not having to mix up the various flesh tones means that I can work quickly from dark shadow to high highlight. The burnt sienna was used to emphasize some of the middle shadows, and the alizarin crimson was used to tint cheeks and lips slightly red. Working this way, it was 2-3 hours for the faces, easily half or less the time I usually take.

Check Your 6! - Breaking the Luftwaffe Campaign

Feb. 20th saw the latest installment of Bill and Jamie's Check Your 6! campaign. This long-running campaign has seen the 8th Air Force players winning the majority of their games against the hard pressed Luftwaffe.

Unlike our last several games, this scenario was a straight up dogfight, pitting 8 P-47 Thunderbolts against 8 Bf-109G's. However, only 3 of the German aircraft had 30mm cannons, the only weapon type amongst the involved aircraft that had a chance of destroying the tough P-47's.

Below, Glenn, DaveN, and Jamie contemplate the developing situation.






Brian observes over BillC's shoulder as two German rottes make the initial attacks; Brian and I each flew one of these two-plane elements, led by an ace (+3) pilot.



In a close-range exchange of fire, two American planes were shot down by the German aces'  heavy 30mm cannon, but Brian's ace was forced to take to his parachute.



My ace then ran out of 30mm ammo during another pass, as the Germans lost another plane.



Conscript Kevin flew brilliantly, setting up great shots. However, the dice were not with him. He missed by 1 pip on the dice at least 4 times, and the couple of times he did hit, he failed to damage the robust Thunderbolts. Meanwhile, the Germans kept losing plane...







...after plane...



Near the end of the game, my ace's wing man was trying to exit the board with a damaged engine. Seeing one of Bill's planes closing in for an easy kill, I invoked the "It's what he would have done" card and sent my ace head-on into Bill's guns, with only a pair of the Bf-109's mg's working. That German ace was lucky to just get knocked out of the fight with a damaged plane.



After that initial pass at the start of the game, the Americans didn't lose a plane. Conversely, the Germans ended up losing 6 of their 8 planes, with the majority of the German pilots surviving their bailouts. The Germans contented themselves with the thought that all these P-47's were stuck in with the Bf-109's, while somewhere else some FW-190's were tangling with the 8th Air Force bombers.