Thursday, May 11, 2017

Yu Jing - Imperial Service Judge

Finished the "Dragon Lady", a 32mm scale High Value Target figure from Corvus Belli, for the sci-fi skirmish game Infinity. This example is an Imperial Service Judge from the Yu Jing faction.

From the Infinity rules:
"The HVT (High Value Target) represents a non-combatant character belonging to the enemy side and placed on the game table as the target of Classified Objectives.

The deployment of one of these models is compulsory for both players, as their presence and interaction with other models in-game has consequences for the achievement of Classified Objectives when playing scenarios."

HVT's can be secured, scanned, spotted, inoculated with noxious compounds, retro-engineered, their cyber-brains can be hacked, etc; loads of fun!

Someone online complained about how most people didn't paint their HVT's. He said that this figure should rather spur you to your best efforts, since it won't change much from game to game, though the composition of your fighting force will.

Mostly painted in oils, with some Citadel Washes. I painted the dress mostly in Cadmium Red oil paint, highlighting with Cadmium Scarlet. Again, I went with a darker palette for her skin tones.

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The resin base is from Dragon Forge Design. It was finished with Vallejo washes and weathering powders.

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For her sun parasol, I went with more of a Japanese theme, freehand painting cherry blossoms falling from branches. The parasol is 17mm across.

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Group shot with my other Yu Jing figures.

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In-game shots:

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Yu Jing from Operation: Red Veil

Infinity: The Game is a sci-fi skirmish game that "simulates combat and special operations in a Science fiction environment created by Gutier Lusquiños of Corvus Belli. The games aesthetics are largely inspired by Manga, particularly the work of Masamune Shirow...Unlike many tabletop games, the rules for Infinity are freely available for download..." (from the Wikipedia entry)

After collecting Infinity figures for a couple of years now, after Christmas I finally got my act together and started painting a force from one of the four (!) factions that I own.

These seven 32mm scale figures represent about half of the contents of the Operation: Red Veil boxed set, which contained 14 (or, in my case 15)  figures representing the Yu Jing and Haqqislam factions. (RE: Yu Jing: "The whole of the Far East, united under the banner of what once was China, has produced an integrated, but heterogeneous, oriental culture."

I split the box with Conscript MikeA (who got the Haqqislam and special forces operator figures). These boxed sets are great values, giving introductory rules, dice, templates, a play mat, and cardboard fold-up terrain, in addition to the figures.

These Yu Jing models are a balanced force of light infantry (3 Zhanshi armed with combi-rifles), one medium infantry (a Tiger Soldier Hacker, with a rifle/flamethrower combo), two heavy infantry (a Zuyong with either a combi-rifle or a multi-rifle, plus a pair of breaker pistols; and, a Hsien with a heavy machine gun and a fancy sword), and an Operation: Red Veil exclusive figure, a Ninja Hacker (with a silent, tactical bow, and another fancy sword). A good description of each model and its use in the game is located here. Note that over half of the figures are female. Neat touch.

Modeling:

The models are beautifully sculpted, with great anatomy and posing. The one downside to these models is their fragility. The arms are tiny, and the legs only marginally less so. I pinned all the figures to Dragon Forge "Tech-Deck" resin bases. I affixed a 1/4 inch rare-earth magnet to each base, to help transport the figs in a metal box; no rattling around!

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For painting, I started with my usual Zenithal highlighting, airbrushing white over P3 black primer, Most of the major colours were laid down with successive layers of Citadel Washes. The faces and details were painted in various oils.

The bases were finished using various Vallejo washes and weathering powders. The dark grey lines represent the front 180-degree facing of the model, a requirement for the game.

Below, a group shot, sitting on a metal medical instrument case:

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Three Zhanshi, light infantry. I painted the flesh darker than I usually do, to help show the figures' Asian background. The purple hair is pure anime.

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Below left, the Hsien heavy infantryman; love the sculpting of the flowing tails of the coat. Below right, the Zuyong Terra Cotta Soldier. Very, very nice rendering of powered armour. Maybe my favourite sculpt of the set.

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Below left, the Tiger Soldier; she's a jump trooper who's also equipped with an Assault Hacking Device. Below right, the Ninja; she is equipped with therm-optic camouflage (invisibility!) and a Killer Hacker Device. Hacking of computers, telecomms, devices, and even certain other people is an important part of the game.

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In Action:

Had my first game with them against Derek at the Legions Maxximus game convention. They also garnered me a gold medal at the 40th (!) annual Manitoba Model Soldier Society show and competition, run concurrently.

The following are photos of various games I used them in over the last little while.

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Below, two photos of Scott's terrain, at the Rest Lounge game day.

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Wednesday, May 10, 2017

More Alpha Legion - Headhunter Squad

Elite units seek out fearsome foes in my...er...kitchen....
Well spring is finally here. Between that, and being busy with work (yay!) it has meant very little painting of late - certainly nothing like the pace driven by the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  But with the NHL playoffs on, I've been putting the brush to some more of the 30k stuff I meant to paint over the winter and another unit has been finished.  This a squad of "Headhunters" from the XX Legion, known as the Alpha Legion.

"Headhunters".  How charming! None of the Legions seem to have "Hope Ambassadors" or "Sun Sharers" as elite units, do they? Oh well...

Fancy armour and big guns...of course these guys would sneak around and "hunt" stuff, right?

Space Marine Legions are big, sprawling entities, with many different troop types and vehicles to choose from.  Among these is a "Seeker Squad", a notion of a specific squad meant to take out high-value or high priority target units or personalities. They have fancier bolt guns and some extra ammunition types to choose from. It's kind of silly, in that you would think troops tagged for that work would be smaller, sneakier sorts and not giant brutes with heavy armour...but hey, it's 30k!

These are resin conversion kits from Forge World, based on plastic Mark IV power armoured Marines

As usual the sculptors at Forge World really hit this out of the park - I love all of the ornate details, legion symbols, fancy bolt guns and particularly the amazing torsos and helmets - lots of optics, and several modified "beakie" style helmet

The Alpha Legion sort of takes the "seeker squad" concept to the next level with these "Headhunters".  The models are plastic Mark IV Marines with conversion kits from Forge World which make the armour quite ornate. I don't know how you sneak around the battlefield with that kind of get-up, but I really liked how they looked and very much wanted to add a squad to my Alpha Legion force.

Transfers from the Forge World decal sheet

Another view of some of the conversion bits

We await the arrival of whole new edition of the Warhammer 40k rules, so who knows what these fellows will actually do or be able to do on the table - not that I worry much about it.  I just look forward to getting them into a 30k game sometime this summer!

Horus for hope!

This more or less exhausts the initial group of Alpha Legion models I had assembled last fall...there are about 40 foot models and one dreadnought. They have no vehicles yet, so I might turn to that next.  But then I may also wonder towards the Burning of Prospero...I was never very keen on that part of the Horus Heresy story, but I have to say, following some suggestions from my friend Curt, I think it might fun. Who knows? Anyway, I hope everyone is having a decent spring, and enjoying any nice weather that might be available while keeping the paint brushes warm...

Monday, May 1, 2017

Alpha Legion Heavy Support Squad


Missiles anyone? Heavy support for the Alpha Legion

Blowing sh!t up in the 30th millenium is quite the task, one that Space Marine Legions take very seriously.  Often they rely on scary vehicle or whacky dreadnoughts.  For city-sized wrecking jobs, they have their friends in the Titan Legions.  But often a job you do yourself in the most satisfying, so when the foot-slogging elements of a Space Marine Legion want to blow something up real good, they deploy heavy support squads. Here is one such unit for my slowly-growing Alpha Legion collection, armed with missile launchers.

After all, why fire one missile launcher at something when you can fire five missile launchers at something, right? I love 30k :)

Unit sergeant with his whacky comb - love the Mark IV Marines!

Forge World shoulder pauldrons are wonderful

These are plastic models from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set, augmented with shoulder pauldrons and transfers from Forge World.  I really love the plastic Mark IV Space Marines and since I purchased too many of them, I ended up with enough missile launchers to outfit a whole squad. So I just went with it...

Decals from the Alpha Legion transfer sheet
What is extra fun about these particular sculpts is that they are a shout-out to the original "shark fin" style missile launcher from the Rogue Trader days! It is great to see these little shout-outs throughout the whole line of Horus Heresy figures from GW, and definitely adds to the fun for a nerd like me!

While I love the old RTB-01 plastic marines, I have to say these were a little easier to assemble...these kits are quite fabulous.

What is the target? Loyalists? Other rebels? You never know for sure with the Alpha Legion...

Ready for action on the table...

To achieve true Legion-era excess, this should be a 10-man group sporting missile launchers, but, insane as I am, even I only have so many plastic Mark IV Marine sets, so five will do for now! Plus, I'm sure these guys will be able to blow up all sorts of stuff with five missiles launchers, right??

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

30k Rogue Trader Battle Report

Anti-Horus terrorists strike! The travails of the Horus Heresy...

As noted in our previous posting here on the blog, our great friend Curt was in town for a short visit over the Easter long weekend.  We staged an Epic 30k game that saw Byron's newly painted Death Guard get their first taste of action on the gaming table. The game was great fun, another opportunity to enjoy a great game in a great setting with some excellent friends! But the gaming wasn't finished - Curt was back briefly on Easter Monday before he and Sarah had to return to Regina, so we had a chance to push the toy soldiers around the table one more time!

The poor Sons of Horus column has been hit by vile so-called "Loyalists"...what will happen next?

Curt and I really enjoy the 30k setting, and we also have great memories of Rogue Trader, the original rules for 28mm sci-fi skirmishing from Games Workshop. So I thought I would set up a little Rogue Trader game set in 30k for Curt and I to play that night.

Survivors of an Astrates-sized IED...probable some vile thing devised by the Mechanicum...

Sons of Horus Chaplain prepares to lead the Scribe (hidden among the Marines) to safety, no matter how pissed he is that some Loyalist dopes blew up his ride...

While the current edition of the 28mm 30k/40k game really tries to be a mass-battle game (and hey - it looks like GW will try again...let's reserve comments on that for another time...) but what is so fun about Rogue Trader is that a very small force can offer a very engaging game. That is what I hoped to set up for Curt. An extra twist - I set the game up to be cooperative, where Curt and I would play on the same side against random actions by the opponent.

The Raven Guard move out, keen to get some measure of revenge...oh, and defend the Emperor, I guess...
The scenario envisioned an ambush by Raven Guard Marines against a Sons of Horus armoured column, on an un-named, but presumably somewhat road-to-Terra-adjacent planet.  As keen followers of the setting will know, the Raven Guard were one of the Legions trapped in the "Dropsite Massacre".  But Horus couldn't kill ALL the loyalists...some Raven Guard survived, joined isolated garrison units etc. to fight on as a so-called "Shattered Legion" - fun and entertaining for a scenario, part of why I love 30k so much...

The Raven Guard move in to mop up...

Horus' own Legion goes down fighting in close assault!
So for this game, we imagined a detachment from the "Shattered Legion" of the Raven Guard landing on some planet to cause some trouble for the Sons of Horus.  The Warmaster's XVI Legion happened to be transporting a high-value persona - represented by Curt's wonderful tribute figure painted for me during the 2015-16 Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - and they are ambushed by a small force of vengeful troops from the XIX Legion, the Raven Guard.   The numbers of figures on each side were small - 20 Raven Guard tactical Marines, with a high-ranking hero to lead them (probably a bitter survivor of the, er, "incident" on Isstvan V) and 15 Sons of Horus with the Scribe, who fought only with the goal of getting the Scribe off of one of the long table edges, and dying properly for the Warmaster, humanity's last hope...overall, this would be almost nothing for a 7th edition game, but plenty of models for a Rogue Trader game.

Curt and I each took command of some Raven Guard...

The Chaplain plots the escape...
The Raven Guard have other ideas...

The game opens with all of the vehicles already knocked out by cunning IED-type devices placed by the Raven Guard force.  The Sons of Horus realize they are being attacked by pro-"Emperor" terrorists, and try to organize an escape for the Scribe (he has important information the Warmaster needs to have his dark Mechanicum allies drain from his skull, uh, "preserve"...yes, that's it) while the Raven Guard move in to capture the Scribe, get a little revenge for events on Isstvan V, and escape before the heavy reinforcements from the Sons of Horus arrive...

Meanwhile, a point-blank gun battle develops...I love Rogue Trader...+1 to hit at this range! Suck it, Warmaster!
So Curt and I played some basic Rogue Trader as the Loyalist side, with the Sons of Horus moving randomly against us.  Our goal was to capture what Dave V would have referred to as "The Potato" - the Scribe - and kill a bunch of Horus' lads in the process!

On this night the Loyalists were successful. They slaughtered the Sons of Horus down to the last Marine, and captured the Scribe for their own purposes.  They paid a high price (about 50% casualties), but given their level of motivation, I've no doubt these Sons of Corax were pleased to have delivered a small counter-blow against the followers of the Warmaster.

Loyalists...so fixated on anger...if they would just chill, this whole Heresy wouldn't have needed to kill billions...but anyway....

Things end poorly for this acolyte of Horus...
The Sons of Corax achieve a measure of revenge...but the memory of Isstvan V will endure...
In all the game lasted about an hour-and-a-half.  It was basic, not-too-detailed, but tons of fun. I just love Rogue Trader, and I love 30k, and the two work well together.  Is Rogue Trader flawless? Well, or course not...the more narrative you can be, the better the game will be. And with Rogue Trader, less is more - in this game, everyone was carrying bolt guns other than the officers.  But it can still be a lot of fun, and I hope to run a variant of this scenario sometime for the broader Fawcett Avenue group!

It was great to have this little bit of fun with my great friend Curt. Until next time! Horus for Hope!