Boarak, Death Rider of Chaos!

Just a couple short posts in the queue here... trying desperately to get back in the painting groove after some time away from it. I find that rather than bite off a 20-model unit it sometimes makes sense to paint a couple quick figures just to get the juices flowing again.

So it is with this fellow - Boarak, Death Rider of Chaos - from the old old OLD Ral Partha fantasy range.

This model is the mounted version of one of Ral Partha's excellent Chaos warriors. Blog readers may recall that I painted that model some time ago - it was actually part of the collection I assembled for RPG gaming in the early '80s.

So I happened to be surfing eBay a month or two back and spotted this model offered at a BIN of $1.99 from a seller in Quebec... score! However, shipping was noted as an absolutely extortionate $14 USD... no way, Jose.

After some negotiation, I got the seller to agree to $8 shipping from Quebec to my USA post box, where some other stuff was awaiting pickup. So it ended up being cheaper to drive down to the USA to pick up this parcel from Quebec, than to have it send in Canada by Canada Post. Go figure...

Anyway, here is Boarak "mounted and dismounted". Pretty quick paintjob on the mounted version, and I wonder whether the same sculptor actually did both models... while the mounted one is cool, the dismounted Boarak is really the superior sculpt. His armoured running shoes, for example, are much cooler than the mounted Boarak's slippers. But still awesome to have a mounted and dismounted version of this cool figure.

Crossroads: Bolt Action Normandy Battle Report

After somewhat of a hiatus, we got back to gaming at Churchill Manor last weekend with a session of Bolt Action. I'm a subscriber to the Bolt Action email newsletter (as you all should be) and since June they've been publishing a series of D-Day-themed scenarios. I selected "Crossroads" as the game for the night to ease us back into gaming mode.

The premise is pretty straightforward - in the midst of the British Operation Bluecoat (30 July-7 August 1944) the Germans are withdrawing their armoured forces. Two heavy tanks are left to hold an important road junction. Can the British tanks neutralize the armoured rearguard before the rest of the panzers make good their escape?

While I don't have the two King Tigers in my collection that the scenario calls for, I provided one King Tiger and one Tiger I for Conscript Sean to deploy near the crossroads.

The British (five Sherman Vs and one Firefly) were deployed by Conscripts Frederick, Bill and Kevin on their start line, and rapidly advanced. The British only had four turns to destroy the two heavy tanks and that meant closing the range quickly, and grabbing flank and rear shots where possible.

One of the little issues with the scenario was the minefields that are supposed to be deployed by the German player. The problem is that the scenario didn't specify the size or locations of the minefields, and although I emailed Warlord with this question, they've never gotten back to me with an answer. So for the game I allowed Sean to secretly place two minefields, each the size of a medium blast template. Fair enough.

The British tanks advanced quickly to contact and a lucky shot took out Sean's King Tiger quite early in the game.

The Germans struck back quickly though as the Tiger potted a Sherman (top left). The Sherman at bottom right crashed through the bocage hedge straight into a German minefield... which caused no damage, thanks to typical Sean die-rolling.

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Firefly has whizzed up the road into the other minefield placed by Sean on the road just to the left of the crossroads above. Of course, it goes without saying that the mines caused no damage, and the Firefly scored an immobilizing hit on the Tiger.

Surrounded now by Shermans and after their Tiger suffered another immobilizing hit, the remaining crew thought discretion to be the better part of valour and abandoned their tank. Even though both of his tanks were burning, Sean stuck it long enough to score a victory on points. Well done Sean!

Thoughts on the game... it was fun to get back to good old Bolt Action after a bit of a layoff and the game has galvanized me into action in getting some models finished and others purchased... specifically some American and British crew for my Shermans with gaping hatches. The game looked great and was good for a laugh but after deploying the models, the rather crowded table had me thinking I should have used 15mm models on the 4'x4' table instead. I think they would have looked cool with the tall bocage and would have avoided the 40K-style "drive closer, I want to hit them with my sword"/clashing gun barrels close-quarters combat we saw in this game. Next one will be on a 6'x4' with some infantry, I promise! :-)

Horus Lupercal, Warmaster

"Let the galaxy burn..." Horus Lupercal, Warmaster, Primarch and Master of the XVI Legion. Figure from Forge World.

Another fun bit of summer 30k painting to share.  Here is Horus Lupercal, Primarch of the 16th Legion, Master of the Sons of Horus, Warmaster of the Imperium, leader of the rebellion against The Emperor and instigator of the Horus Heresey. Can't have a Horus Heresy without Horus, right? I painted him in 6mm...why not try the "28mm" version?

The sculpt is from Forge World, part of their "Horus Heresy Character Series".  Forge World started this series years ago, and there are figures available now for just about every Legion Primarch (I think they have them all covered...?) as well as a few of the notable special characters from the long series of Horus Heresy novels. 

I had assumed that any model of Horus from GW would be covered in all sorts of Chaos nonsense, but I was wrong. This sculpt certainly portrays the Warmaster as a menacing fellow, but he is not obviously gone over to the dark side - he could just as easily be leading his Sons of Horus during one of the final battles of the Great Crusade, as opposed to coordinating his attacks in the Isstvan system and beyond during his revolt.

The figure is very large - Horus himself is a Primarch, much larger than an average Space Marine, which in turn is already a lot larger than an average human. He is made even larger by his custom suit of Cataphract Terminator armour, and his personalized special weapons - and then there is the huge base he is standing on.  Overall, the effect is of a figure from another scale. While this rendering of Horus is meant to co-exist (in theory) with the other "28mm"-sized 30k models, the effect is much closer to a larger scale diorama figure, 40mm at least.

The larger the figure, the greater the amount of detail, and the sculptors at Forge World did not scrimp on detail.  From the intricate symbols on the armour, to the detailed weapons, to the face, to the elaborate base, there was a lot to ponder from a painting perspective when considering how to tackle this project.  My painting techniques are pretty basic ones, and I found this figure very intimidating. I wasn't sure how much I could push my basic approach to painting...but what the heck, you have to try sometime, right?

The Base

So much detail on this very elaborate base."Aquila Eterna" heh? Not so much...

The Primarch figures all have elaborate bases, and the scenic base for Horus is particularly, well, cunningly devised, IMO.  It sort of has three "strata" - there is a fallen imperial eagle head, presumably from a statue or monument.  There is a staircase with cool faux-latin terms etched into the stairs. The final, bottom layer of the base, is more general rubble, but still has detail - metal bars, a few Mark III armoured shoulder pads, and of course a couple of skulls, all mixed in.

Early WIP photo of the base.

I just find this base fascinating. What happened to create this scene?  Did some Imperial building get damaged in some fighting, and just happen to fall in a pile like this, one that Horus would find convenient to hop on top of so he could direct his Marines or make a speech?  Or did Horus knock all of this stuff together - beat up some building and toss the components on to a pile of rubble, so he would have a handy, home-made vantage point?

The finished base, with Horus removed.  Note the crushed Mk III shoulder pauldron at the bottom under the rubble...wonder what happened there?

Another view of the base...more smashed marine shoulder pauldrons...so many possible stories spring to mind...

The base is so clever in that is sets Horus in either the pre- or post-heresy time frame too...Horus might be fighting amid Imperial-themed rubble to defend the Great Crusade...or, his rebellion is already underway, and these symbols of his father's rule would make a handy jump off point...oh, did I smash that Imperial eagle? Pity...

The Warmaster

Humanity's last hope, Horus Lupercal...hey, this eagle seems pretty handy....

Horus himself, as you might expect for someone of his rank, has some pretty swanky wargear, and you can see it on the figure.  The huge mace is "Worldbreaker". On his right hand is "The Warmaster's Talon", a custom combi power-claw/bolt-gun deal.  Together with his super-tough looking armour - adorned with the pelt of a wolf and requisite fancy cape - Horus Lupercal, Warmaster, is well-equipped to deal with combat matters personally, should the need arise.

WIP - the beginning....

The Sons of Horus are notorious for their green armour.  But Horus himself is often depicted wearing black armour - in fact, the studio painters in GW did this, and many other versions of Horus I have seen online have as well.  I considered trying to copy this approach myself, but in the end I wanted to stick with the green armour used on the bulk of his Legion's marines and vehicles.  I think it looks a little cooler. Plus, Horus' custom armour has a name, "The Serpent's Scales", which made me think even more that it should be green. So I stayed with the green.

The base mostly finished, some basic colours in place on Horus.

The hardest part of painting this model was the face.  It's the focal point of the figure, crying out for some attention, especially on a model of this size.  I tried my best here, using a lot of thinned-down coats and other things I don't usually bother with for a 28mm figure.  I'm pleased because I achieved more of an effect than I usually can achieve, but at the same time, it still looks a bit off - the tones are not...smooth enough.  Horus Lupercal is big and terrifying (especially in his "work clothes"), but he is also a "smooth" political operator, as adept at flattery and rhetoric as he is at smashing things to pieces using "Worldbreaker".  I got some OK definition on the face, but it still looks a bit too rough - too much warrior, not enough politician.  Oh well. 

Basic greens in place, base of red on the cloak.

The toughest part was the eyes. Oh, I hate painting eyes! I seldom find that painted eyes look right on a miniature. But in this case they seemed so big that it would be worse not to try...sigh...not my finest work, but not the worst either - at least he didn't come up cross-eyed :)  I sort of wish I did not bother with the eyes, and almost painted them over, but in the end, I just decided to keep them as I had finished them.

Armour mostly finished, base coat on the face.

The finished Warmaster.

Another view of Horus, directing...something.

The face on a figure like this is something where the more advanced painters around here in Winnipeg would really have gone to town.  For example, I can only imagine how cool Dave V. would make this rendition of Horus look using his oil paints, careful glazes and other techniques. But at the end of the day, I pushed myself a bit, and improved a bit.  Painting this fellow was fun. That's the whole point, right?

Horus On The Gaming Table

Horus "detached" from the main base, in theory for use in a game.

Make no mistake, painting this figure was mostly just to have fun. I already have a large collection of Sons of Horus marines for 30k, and I thought it would only be appropriate to have Horus himself to inspire them along.  This model is intended to sit and look cool on the figure display shelf - with that elaborate base, I expect the Forge World sculptors assumed the same. You would be hard-pressed to move this huge pile of figure around the table in a game where every other infantry model has a simple, round base.

And yet...you can detach Horus (a bit, at any rate) to theoretically use this model in a game.  He's still huge because he's a Primarch, and even detached from the bottom section of the base, he is standing on the head of a huge eagle statue, but there are stats for Horus Lupercal to be used on the 30k gaming table if you want to play a game where Horus personally goes to battle.

And...he's scary! In the 7th edition of the 40k game (which is still formally the "current" edition of 30k because GW), Horus has a basic stat line of a train at full speed...ST of 7, T of 6, with a base of 5 attacks and 6 wounds.  His save is 2+, and 3+ invulnerable....on and on.  His weapons, as you might expect, are fantastic. Oh, and he can call in an off-table bombardment.  In the fan-made 8th edition of 30k, Horus has 7 attacks, 9 wounds...oh man. No matter edition of the game, this guy would bash an entire Space Marine squad to pieces every turn - and would probably be able to rip up vehicles and dreadnoughts too.

"Let's Make the Imperium Great Again"....

So would we put this guy into a game? Well, you never know :) It might be fun to try sometime - "fun", that is, for whoever gets to use Horus. My gaming group is a lot of fun and tolerant of the odd whacky scenario.  But Horus himself seldom seemed to go into battle once the Heresy was under way, running things instead via his minions and directing affairs from the bridge of his vessel, the Vengeful Spirit. I expect the same for this figure - he will hopefully inspire his minions from afar on the display shelf, as opposed to getting directly into the battle with them on the table.

Steve B - Thanks!

Just wanted to add a special thanks to Steve B in Winnipeg! He put together this figure, as well as the two Land Raiders I painted earlier this summer.  Much appreciated Steve!!

That's all for now - thanks for visiting.  I hope you are having a great summer, wherever you are!

Sons of Horus Apothecary

What's up, doc? Apothecary for the Warmaster's 16th Legion

Not too much to share with this post, just a single 30k figure - an apothecary for the 16th Legion, the Warmaster's own Sons of Horus. In theory the apothecary is meant to represent a battlefield medic, but in the grim darkness of the far future, and among the super-human Space Marine Legions, the business of the apothecary is less to do with medical support and comfort than with the business of preserving the Legion for the future. 

Apothecary symbol emobssed on the right shoulder pauldron.

On the 30k battlefield, the apothecaries try and heal their brother Marines, but failing that, they recover key genetic material from the dead or heavily wounded Marines, so a new Space Marine can be created to replace him.  Marines who are injured in battle and too far gone to save receive the "Emperor's Peace" - a bolt to the brain. 

Although I'm not sure the apothecaries in Horus' own Legion would use the phrase "Emperor's Peace"...

All sorts of bits on this figure that go with the tools of the medical trade in a Space Marine Legion of the 31st millenium...looks kind of grim...

This Forge World figure shows all the tools of the battlefield medical trade in the 31st Millenium. It seems kind of grim...the apothecary is clad in modified Mark IV plate, carries a bolt pistol and a chain sword, as well as a gauntlet with it's own saw blade, injector etc.  Cylinders containing who-knows-what are clipped to different parts of his armour.  He even has his own portable lamp...

In the 30k game itself, the apothecaries play a peripheral game role, healing the odd model which might otherwise have fallen as a casualty. But I must say these apothecaries seem to find a way to spike Dallas' plans on the table, always managing to heal or preserve models that Dallas in particular has tried to take out, or thought he had successfully knocked down...that makes apothecaries fun in our games!  Strangely, I had yet to add an apothecary to my Sons of Horus collection, so I thought I would address that gap with this summer.

"First do no harm"...not sure about that...

As with the recent Iron Hands Land Raider, you can see gloss which has been applied under the decal.  It's humid in the summer, and that makes it too risky to apply matte spray, so that will wait until after Labour Day. After that, the lenses will get a final gloss coat, and I'll add some final tufts to the base.

Painting continues to be slow and lazy during nice summer weather.  I do have some more stuff on the go, and I hope I will have more to share before September arrives.  But until then, thanks for visiting the Blog, and I hope you are having a great summer, wherever you are.

Here is another sunset photo from Lake Superior...

Sunset over Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior, near Sault Ste Marie Ontario.

 Cheers for now!

Loyalist Land Raider Encore

Another loyalist Land Raider - further reinforcements for the 10th Legion.  You can see there is already some battle damage on the tracks...pursuing revenge against Horus is rough work...

Who can imagine the diet of the Space Marine Legionnaires of the 31st millennium? When you've got a Preomnor (among so many other interesting physical enhancements) I suppose it could include just about anything.  But if you serving in the 10th Legion, one imagines your diet will be high in  iron, and, let's say, "proteus"! Here is a second Land Raider for my 30k Loyalists from the Iron Hands.  Like the one I painted earlier this summer, this is an "Armoured Proteus" variant.

Decals from Forge World, very useful.

I tried to chip up the tank a fair bit...I imagine service with one of the "shattered Legions" would be pretty rough.

These models are difficult at times to assemble, and they are usually too tricky for me to do it properly.  I just don't have those skills. So this tank was also assembled by Steve B, and I'm grateful for his assistance! A close inspection of the photo will reveal a lot of damage to different track sections.  Given what a vehicle in the service of the 10th Legion will have endured during the Horus Heresy, the look doesn't bother me too much, but from a model-assembly standpoint, wow, this would be a pain in the @ss.  Steve B is a whiz at this stuff, however, and his skills overcame this challenge, no problem - which is great news for me! Thanks Steve!

You can see more damage on the tracks, and also get a look at the definitely non-carbon-neutral engine system on the vehicle.

You will see in the photos that there is still some gloss finish under the decals.  I haven't yet applied a matte spray over the model, as I'm out at the lake, and the humidity out here makes spraying models a risky prospect.  I'll apply the matte spray when I return home.

Ready to roll out...once it gets back from the lake.

With this addition to the loyalist arsenal, my Iron Hands forces are starting to get serious enough to stand on their own during a 30k game.  We have an Iron Father, a veteran tactical squad, two squads of Medusan Immortals, a Contemptor Dreadnought, and now two Land Raiders that will provide transport and heavy armoured fire support. This should make for some fun 30k mayhem this fall!

Sedition Wars Project Revisited

(Click on pictures to embiggen.)

Sedition Wars is very fun, but is currently a relatively unknown board game. Very much like playing Resident Evil, as the hi-tech Vanguard are pitted against the nano-virus-fueled zombies ("Revenants" in Sedition Wars parlance), and other (d)-evolved creatures of the Strain. Always lots of cinematic events.

A little while ago Conscript Byron and his lovely wife Kim shared side-by-side cabins with Jen and I near Clear Lake. With no WiFi, we hiked and stuff in the daytime, and played board games at night. I had originally wanted to bring out a table of terrain and some minis to do skirmish gaming. With the car already full of luggage and provisions for a week away, I decided to bring Sedition Wars as my figure gaming fix. We had fun playing a couple of scenarios with Byron's friend, Thomas.

(Below) I really like the Vanguard miniatures; the Grenadier is a crisp, resin version from Studio McVey, the other two are restic models from the Sedition Wars boxed set.

Below are three types of undead Revenants (the most horrific is the one with the deflated human head in the middle), and a couple of "evolved" Strain, a Stalker and an acid-firing Quasimodo.

We usually play the game on fully terrained tables, but the cardboard map elements from the game are colourful, and much more portable!

Don't roll low when fighting evil from the depths of space!

Our recent games prompted me to turn back to my (fairly large) collection of Sedition Wars models. I have the contents of at least three basic game boxes, plus some KickStarter exclusives I picked up online, and some very nice resin pieces from Studio McVey before they stopped trading. I decided to tackle the second-toughest Strain model in the entire game, an awesome Grendlr.

ETA: Here's Studio McVey's post about the design and sculpting of the figure: 
https://studiomcvey.blogspot.com/2012/06/sculpting-grendlr.html

To start off with, there were some severe gaps on the restic model, which I filled with epoxy putty . Restic has its own problems, which I outlined when first staring this project some years ago. You can't file it, you can't scrape it easily; you have to cut off mould lines with a fresh, sharp X-acto knife.

The creature has the in-game ability to swallow a human-sized figure whole, and convert it into something else. Bleah!

I pinned the tongue to the mouth, and the feet to the base, with brass wire. I drilled extra-deep locating holes for the tentacles.

Studio McVey also provided their own tutorial on the assembly of this model: https://studiomcvey.blogspot.com/2013/01/grendlr-assembly.html

Below on the right is the assembled figure; alongside for scale is a resin alternate sculpt of Kara Black (in the game, she's a clone of the Vanguard commander, actually).

After initially priming the figure with Chaos Black, I started zenithal highlighting with flat white using an airbrush. Partway through the session, the paint started to spatter. I finished the high highlights with a quick dusting of Citadel Wraith Bone (which is an off-white spray can paint used as a base for GW's new line of Contrast Paints). Project saved!

I started from the inside out, as it were. The various exposed muscle striations, inner mouth, tongue, and tubular bits were highlighted and shaded with various purples, reds, and pinks from the Army Painter Zombicide Warpaints Sets (with apt names like "Crusted Sore" and "Toxic Boils"). I used Citadel's new Technical Contrast Medium to add to the paints and washes, which helped with wetness and flow.

The skin areas around the lower mouths and torso were glazed with Citadel's old Ogryn Flesh wash, then painted with tones from the Vallejo Face Painting Set. The chitinous armour plates got several glazes of Citadel Seraphim Sepia shade. The claws and teeth were highlighted with various P3 and Vallejo cream and off-white colours, then glazed with Army Painter Zombie Shade. The upper face (with the guns) got some NMM work.

The base was glazed with Secret Weapon Stone wash, then finished off with weathering powders and oils.

After the whole figure got a coat of Tamiya Semi-gloss spray, I went back with some trusty Citadel Blood for the Blood God, which provides a suitably viscous, fresh blood effect. This was used judiciously where skin was tearing, and dripping from a couple of claws.

The gaping maw is truly disturbing, as Jen opined.

With this figure I can now run 8 of the 9 scenarios in the included Outbreak Campaign setting.

The only model left to do is the Cthonian, a large, tough model used in the final Boss Fight. I actually find the model to be a little underwhelming, not having the bulk of the Grendlr. I have at least three of these, so I could paint up one as stock for play, and convert another with some GW Juggernaut parts I already have.

Keeping Track of the Strain

I had previously labelled the various identical Vanguard models with etched brass numbers, to keep track of the similarly-armoured and -equipped models during play. From our recent games, it occurred to me to do the same for the Strain. So, I used etched brass letters from Hasslefree Miniatures to label the Revenants, Stalkers, and Quasimodos from, literally, A-Z. The remaining, larger Strain have no dupes, so there's no need at this time to label them (likewise there's no labels on the individual, named heroes on the Vanguard side). I affixed the brass letters with Micro Krystal Kleer, and washed them with a bit of GW Nuln Oil to help pick them out.

Project Progress

So far, it's 53 models (plus a bunch of terrain) for this ongoing project. For immediate carry and play, I got a foam insert from Battle Foam which fits in the original game box. It holds the figures I have completed, plus dice, counters, rules, and the cardboard map boards. It doesn't hold the models' printed stat cards, which I have sleeved to use dry-erase markers on, to track wounds.

With another 30+ Vanguard, including some awesome heavy powered-armour resin figs, and a horde of Strain, I could be painting SW stuff for years to come!

Below, a full squad of Vanguard wearing Gnosis heavy powered armour; resin figs by Studio McVey, painted by Angel Giraldez: