Saturday 23 February 2019

Aquila down!

More terrain is always better. Always. I've been tinkering away at a 40K / Kill Team / ruins table for ages and while there's still more work to do and a couple of things I'd really really like to add to it, it's a longer term project. One of the things I have wanted, for KT in particular is the Aquila Lander. I picked one up late last year and finally got around to painting it.


This piece annoyed me a touch as it's all hollow and without a base. And this bit has holes all through it. So I filled all the gaps in the windows and cracks with greenstuff and Vallejo plastic putty (OMG this stuff is amazing) and based it up. 

Of course, if you've seen this piece in the flesh you'll know it's also open at the back. Well, fixed: 



I banged in some plasticard and some green stuff to close up the gaps, fished some bits out of my basement and some bits from my bitz box and boom. Some major piping and some tanks and stuff on the back wall of the cockpit. Sensible? Not at all, but super easy. 




And those are the rest of the bits. It's a great little terrain kit and a good addition to my 40K collection. 

Next Time?

A grab bag of 15mm and 28mm models. Some HMMWVs, some miscellaneous 40K models and, we'll see. Also coming up in the next few weeks, Pelarel and I will be trying out the demo version of the recently completed Kickstarter of Zone Raiders. It looks like a really slimmed down version of Infinity and given that the complexity of that game always kicks me in the butt, I'm keen to give it a crack.  

Sunday 17 February 2019

McBeth; World famous in .... Onehunga?

Yeah. So a while back (here) I attended and won Flames Con 2018. My lovely host, Mr Hutton, just sent through this article from the most excellent publication, The Onehunga Community News.



Saturday 16 February 2019

Et Imperatoris!

The light wasn't great today for photos, so forgive the washed out pictures. There's only so much I was able to do with my limited photo editing skills! 

I've been working on some Guardsmen in advance of a wee shopping trip to our local dealer (of plastic crack in a few weeks) and I needed to clear up the space on the tray to make room for some more dudes. :)

I seem to be having a lot of luck picking up models I really want lately. The classic Cadian Colonel is one of those gems. He'll make a great leader. Death stare and all. 

PROCEDERE! ET IMPERATORIS! 
I'm trying to treat my Guard squads a bit more like real squads - none of this 10 dudes with rifles and umpteen mortars hiding at the back of the board. No no. We cannot be having with that. So the first squad are my anti-tank squad, with a meltagun and a lascannon.

Assault Section

Support Section

This is the first of three squads and a command squad that will form the backbone of Manipulus Greyfax supported by a bunch of hilarious choices.

Abhumans! 


The original Ratling Snipers were some of the finest models in the original metal guard range but these newer sculpts are AMAZING. They've got sweet scenic bases and loads of character. I enjoyed painting them and they'll be a wee chuckle to put on the table when Manipulus Greyfax starts hunting heretics. They'll be part of the fire support part of the army.

Next time
Terrain. I've got the bits from an Aquila Lander from the old Battle for Macragge set to add to my 40K / KillTeam terrain box and that's been on the books for a while and I'm hacking away at a couple of other projects that might come up in a week or so too.

Saturday 9 February 2019

To celebrate 200 posts, backpacks!

Despite a slow as 2017/18, this is the 200th post we've put up here. I'm as suprised as anyone that any of us managed to keep an interest here (we are magpies after all!) for any length of time, least of all me.

Painting?
Yes! Painting. I'm pretty sure I said I should paint some Cobras that I need for an upcoming TY event (where we will play part 2 of a campaign and the brave NATO troops will fight off the WARPAC hordes!) and I have been looking for a camo scheme for ages. I found an amazing one used by the Jordanian army that they've used on Cobras and Blackhawks and it is SO COOL. This got me thinking about Khalids and...let's just stop this train of thought right now.

So Cobras:
WUB WUB WUB!


Tank and I have the same problem, that we'd both prefer our Cobras to have MARINES slapped on the side, so I've not done the transfers yet. Overall, they'll fit nicely into the randomly camo-ed MASSTER army. I am pleased.

I did hate assembling these. I do wonder about sprue design at BF sometimes. But they're done and I would consider another two at some point if I ever feel like burning 14 points in a TY army for another two very mobile ITOWs.

Vanguard!
Tank and I had a test game of Mantic's Kings of War Vanguard, using the free rules and lists Mantic have published online. That, coupled with the fact that Tank already has a bunch of Mantic Orges (note spelling), seemed like as good a reason as any to give it a blat.

The game went well - we tried some things to see how they worked out and had to talk through a bunch of stuff to understand how things worked. We got wound up in a combat where my Prince punched the Orge Sergeant and failed to kill him. Was punched in return and lived through it. Got punched AGAIN and still didn't die and then got up and put the Orge Sergeant in the dirt. He was promptly sacked by a Goblin Biggit and another Orge. It felt wrong to begin with but as we worked through the stats and the rules, it made sense in the end. By the end of the game, I had a wizard left who wasn't fleeing and Tank had two fleeing Orge grunts, a shaman (oh man that's a cool model too) and a Goblin Biggit.

I built all my wizgangs for Frostgrave from old Fantasy miniatures because they look cool. Part of the reason I wanted to play Vanguard is that I wanted that to matter again. Tank's Orges were a blunt instrument with many melee dice (although low skill) and lots of wounds. My Elves were squishy AF and had fewer melee dice but with much better skill.

I liked the power dice mechanic and each list having it's own things to do with it's power dice also adds to the variation. I think there's some interesting depth in using your power dice for extra dice on fights or saves as well as using it to fatigue models for extra activations. There'd definitely an art to that methinks.

The lists having cheap grunts and better (and slightly more survivable) warriors is a nice distinction (with each having benefits) and a nice selection of support models for each of the lists. I was able to just upgrade one of my spearman to a cavalryman by adding 'horse.' Also, being a lover of terrible dad jokes meant that I enjoyed the fact that an Orc warrior is called an Ax. A stronger Orc warrior with more weapons is a Morax. Because of course it is. Teehee.

Anything I didn't like? Not really. I've never been a super fan of exploding dice but, at least in our test game, they definitely seemed less awful than either of us expected. They turned 2 successes into 3 more often than not. Some of the terrain rules and how 'height' works (particularly as it applied to cavalry) were a little less clear than I would have liked but once we'd worked through them, they were fine.

Overall? Tank has already brought the rulebook and I won't be far behind him TBH. Pel and McBeth also tried out proper KoW as well and they really enjoyed it. Props to Mantic for putting out a free rulebook that was broad enough to test the game out and decide whether it warranted further investment!

Good News! 
The best news of the week was that Pooch noticed that I could get some backpacks for my Cadians locally. I bought many. Probably too many. I think the phrase is...oh dear, how sad, never mind? One of those things that has always vexed me about all the Imperial Guard (do not talk to me about Astra Militarum. That's just Latin for 'Star Army' and is lame.) models GW has ever made is that Guardsmen don't really have enough kit. I always feel like they're more like modern soldiers, carrying all their stuff with them, so they should have backpacks.

Carrying ALL THE THINGS


Next Week
Some Guardsmen. I've started painting them already (and I've done a test model already - you saw him in our Wrath and Glory run through) and loving how they're coming out. Oh, and I have a couple of HMMWVs I need to paint too.

Saturday 2 February 2019

Return of the MASSTER

Oddly, I don't have a legal TY army at the moment - at least if I need an army of any more than about 50 points. To get to bigger points than that, I've been pondering whether or not I should get a second Marine platoon or a second M60 platoon. 

First place to start? Finishing my first platoon of M60s that I started last......July. Man, that makes me grumpy at myself. 


I think painting these has made me want to get some more M60s. They look super cool in MASSTER camo and honestly, I think I'll prefer that to painting another dozen stands of infantry.

Next Time
Well, I have some Cobras to paint for an upcoming competition and I've been hunting for an interesting camo scheme for them. I think I've found a cool Marine one that'll be a bit different and will sit nicely alongside the MASSTER. I've also got a couple of Sergeant Yorks and some extra HMMWVs that need doing too so it'll probably be those.

Friday 1 February 2019

Pooch's January update

Well, here we are. One month down, 11 to go. One month, one post. I succeeded at that at least! As for everything else? Well....

1. Paint a new 40k Army- progress!
I was lucky enough to get a good starter from a friend for this army, and managed to get the first two test models done. So without further delay, here is the start of my Imperial Guard Krieg Army!

Commissar. Because, motivation is important.
Veteran with Shotgun

Veteran with Shotgun

2. Create a table of terrain to support a game- no progress

3. Make a modular terrain piece- no progress

4. Paint a naval fleet- no progress. I bought stuff, does that count?

5. Finish something for an army I haven't used in a year and take it to a tournament- I was close to this one, and the failed at the “actually going to the tournament” thing. I was aiming to head to a Valleycon, and painted two new Panzer IV F2 to go with my panzer army, which hasn’t been used in a year. Sadly events transpired that I couldn’t attend. They did at least get a game vs Pelarel, so..  that’s something?

To be fair, it wasn't exactly a hard paint job.....

6. Buy a starter box and paint all of it I made progress, but nothing finished. 

7. Paint every miniature for a game I own- I made progress on this one too, but didn’t finish

8. Paint a Space Marine each month- hey hey! I did do this one! I painted up the first Space Marine from the Space Marine heroes box. And I really enjoyed it. McZ and I worked hard to find what would be a stupid and fun colour scheme, ultimately arriving at the Storm Lords chapter as the most fun. Red, white, yellow AND black, all on one model. Plus, a fun chapter logo to paint by freehand.




9. Paint a stand alone force for a game- no progress

10. Update and improve a table of terrain- no progress

11. Paint something Napoleonic- no progress

12. Finish what I should have finished last year- DONE- I did this one too! One of the requirements before I started my new 40k army was to finish my old one. I bought a Death Guard army when 8th edition came out, splitting the starter box with Scotty. It was one of those armies I always wanted, right back from the fools old days of the plastic, monopods plague marines from 2nd(?) edition.

Flash forward however long it has been since that was released (years!)  I have finally finished the last of my Death Guard!

36 Plague Marines, 42 Pox Walkers,Bloat deones, HQs and Elite choices. All in all, a cool army which I really like, and it’s been fun on the tabletop too. Despite getting curb stomped in the last game by Scotty’s Grey Knights.


The whole army

The army in action vs Scotty

Many Plague Marines.

Converted Daemon Prince


Commanders and daemon engines

Next month? Hopefully more Krieg, 6 and 7 will get a big DONE, with something else finished for 12 too...

Till next time,
Pooch