Half way there!

Plans for our club escalation 40K season thing are coming along with the first 500 point day some time in April. As a result, I am starting to get myself together and crack on with the the Spectrus Kill Team that is the basis for my 500 point build. 

Eliminators

The first two finished marines are one each of the varietal of Primaris Eliminators

On the left, a Las Fusil and on the right a Bolt Sniper Rifle. I really love the Sniper pose with the pistol out and couldn't not build this model!

These two were a bit of a challenge as while the kits have lots of options, there were really only a couple that left me able to fit a Deathwatch shoulder on the left and neither of these two marines has a visible chapter marking on his right shoulder. As a result, one has a tiny strip of Blood Angels Red and the other Ultramarine Blue.

Incursors

The second part of the Kill Team was a trio of Incursors, one with the necessary and rather delightful Haywire Mine. 

These (as part of the Infiltrator kit) were sweet to assemble too - there are a fantastic multi-part kit. I really like the one on the left, a Space Wolf with a throwing knife! Seems wonderfully appropriate.

The Eltee

Blogger Scotty hooked me up with this little gem - the easy-build Phobos Lieutenant from one of the older Primaris-containing box sets. 

The LT was a bit of a challenge from an assembly standpoint as an easy build. The whole left arm had to come off and be replaced by one from the Infiltrator kit - the Deathwatch shoulder would not have fit otherwise - and the right required serious attacking with a file to get it filed down enough to fit the normal embossed shoulder. 

Next Time

I've got six (maybe seven) Infiltrators to do for the rest of this Kill Team. I've got their base washes done but no colour on them yet. They're a nice break from Stormtroopers for a bit although I really should get cracking with the second bunch of white armour soon so I can get a game of Legion in with my own stuff! 
 

Deathy things

So deathy things are the theme for this week.

 Death Troopers

 I got my Death Troopers for Star Wars: Legion finished up this week. 

Krennic's Bodyguard

I'll admit, it's pretty much solid black with some very dark highlights. Blogger Pooch and I are competing for simplest Legion colour scheme right now. I thought I was winning with six. I was wrong! They were a nice easy little unit to knock off. I will be going through and putting gloss varnish on all their eyes (with all my Stormtroopers too) but that'll be one big project once everything else is done. In the meantime, these are back in the hot water cupboard finishing off the drying out of the gel bases.

Slow DW Progress

I think we're planning on some 500 point Crusade games of 9e 40K in April sometime. And so far I have painted most of three models, only two of which I need for my sneaky Kill Team. I kind of need to crack on methinks!

Incursors

I've basically got to do all the final highlights on these guys to do and put some flock on the bases. It has been good to remind myself how these models paint up and how I do them! It has been a while. But happy enough with how they're coming together. 

Next Time

I think I might be able to get the Ghosties on the table for a game next weekend, which will be cool. I still haven't based that army yet, so it'll be a good excuse to start on that when I've played that game. So you should get a batrep of that game, some finished Deathwatch Marines and, if I'm super diligent (?) then I'll be trying to crack through the last of my Stormtroopers...

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

 Not been a lot of productivity this week due mostly to being on holiday with the Regimenters during which we played many boardgames, laughed a lot and ate some amazing food. It was most excellent. We did, disappointingly, not get around to our Gaslands Annual so that'll get played at a later date. We did, however, play a fair bit of Cthulhu, Death May Die:

The end of Lost Episode III when Shub Niggurath ended the world

One of the lads picked this up from a CMON Kickstarter about 3 years ago and he's been painting it up slowly since then while we've been playing it every now and then. It's a REALLY cool game. It plays up to 5 in a fully co-op game. I've often played as a kind of DM for the game, managing the turn sequence and all the things the Elder One is supposed to do, as well as keeping tabs on the monsters, summons, mission special rules and more. 

 Players arrive in a location where there are inevitably cultists summoning one of the Elder Ones and they must disrupt the ritual before the Elder One arrives in the world. Ideally, they've done this, otherwise they have to try and do it while the Elder One is stomping about the place! One the ritual is disrupted then they have to banish the Elder One.  The game is mechanically simple with a basic turn sequence and, as it is fully co-op, it doesn't get bogged down in monster phases.

It captures the Cthulhu mythos very well as the players have to durdle around this world, trying to stop a ritual, beset by monsters and going more and more insane. As they go crazy, they learn more about the mythos and become more in tune with their innate abilities. They all have unique combinations of abilities (some are magically inclined, some are quick or sneaky, others are more fighty) they also have unique mental conditions that trigger whenever they've seen enough weirdness. 

 Finally, it's got so many cool components. Leaving aside the lovely player-characters and monsters, the Elder Ones and their minions are amazing. Perhaps one of the best buts though, are the player boards. You can see one on the left of the photo above. The character card slots in between two plastic covers that have holes for the health, stress, sanity and madness markers as well as any items or companions the players discover.

We've played nine of the 15 episodes that exist with a mix of the Elder Gods and we could easily go back to episode one and play it again just picking one of the different gods. Also, there is a mission with moose. And dynamite. And aliens. Yup. It's a great game! 

 Workbench?

Still managed to get a few Stormtroopers finished this week too. The specialists pack has added some good options to my Stormtrooper choices.

From L - R, the Stormtrooper Captain, the Specialist, the R97C (it's really an MG42 with a box mag) and the T21 launcher. The Captain will help trooper morale, the Specialist provides new gear and the other two add some interesting firepower choices. 

Next Time

Death Troopers and Deathwatch. MOAR DEATH. 

Pooch's February progress

Wait, where did February go?

It promised to be the most professionally challenging one that I had ever had, and it didn't disappoint. As always, painting toy soldiers was a way for me to relax and help get my head right.

So how did I get on then?

1. Finish a table of terrain

Well, I figured that finishing one piece each month would actually be the easiest way to do this goal, so... that's what I did!

I finished up the Bell Tower from TT combat. Mostly done with spray cans, I used contrast paint to provide the stained glass look (red, because of course it's red in Frostgrave).

With Anna and Elsa for scale!

Next up? More Frostgrave terrain!

2. Play a game a month

Just the one game this month, which has already been blogged. 

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

This month continues on from the start I made last month, completing my first full squad of Sisters! Equipped with a meltagun and heavy flamer, they come loaded to bear to take down the mutant, the heretic and the psyker....

The whole force so far....

Close up on the Sanctum Imperialis

Meltagun. For when you want to cook things with the power of the sun but they are too big to (or unwilling to be) put in a microwave.

And I also managed to rebase and update the Pious Vorne figure, who previously saw duty in my Krieg army to be repurposed to provide some additional faith and ferver to my Sisters!

Burning things while cutting things!

Next up? Seraphim!

4. Finish armies that I have part started

I have a particularly frustrating commission on at present, as well as wanting to do my absolute best painting on the sisters. That means that I have lots of difficult things, but no easy things to paint.

The solution then? Grab something out of the pile of shame that is super easy to give myself a break!

And lo, WW2 US is the answer, because it's tough to be more boring than Olive Drab!

I finished up four of the new plastic M8 Scotts. The new plastics are awesome, except that they only come with a single crew member for the turret. So naturally I converted up a full set of crew for each, and added some stowage to give a more "lived in" feel. Overall I am happy with them, and they definitely fit the bill for being easy!

So cute with their little snub 75mm guns....

Attempting to show off the crew, plus the pink air recognition panel

I have a bunch more WW2 US to paint, so expect to see more of these in the coming months...

5. Buy, build and play a new game

Well, less dramatic than last month, but still darn useful- a squad of B1 battle droids!

Nine B1 Battle Droids. Identical in equipment to the other two squads, but some different poses in there.

So that means I have a legal list, but probably not very good. The solution is likely more droids....

Progress on every objective? Excellent... the eye is pleased....

Pooch

The magpie struggle is real

So, honestly, a bit all over the shop this week. I haven't really been able to keep my magpie under control and have been bouncing all over the place between projects. Today is a bit of a check in for me to try and focus a bit more!

 Things I have not yet completed

The second Warhound, looking a bit jestery

 

All my titans look like this at the start. The flat panel colours go down before a wash and then the careful sponging of a pattern on the top to really make the panels pop. It's been ages since I looked at one in this state. It has reminded me of just how much trim there are on these things and I'm not looking forward to that. It is probably my last AT titan for the foreseeable future. Basically until Forge World makes a Banelord. Then I am all in. 

 

Rough. Very rough.

Scotty and Pooch have both started on their slow-grows for 2021 so I figured I should start on mine. We're talking about some 500 point 9e late in April so I should get the new sneaky Kill Team done by then. Figured I'd start with the Incursors, then the Eliminators and finally the Infiltrators. Then some characters and the sweet sweet Warsuit.

Almost there. 

 

The four Stormtrooper Specialists haven't been too bad, although those orange shoulders with black trim definitely lead to some language my painting desk doesn't see all that often. They should probably have been done in pieces. I'll give myself a small pass on these as the bases aren't dry yet so hammering through the whites didn't seem like a whole heck of a lot of point. 

 

Things I have (amazingly) completed

 

Ululatos Os rearmed

Adding the Natrix Shock Lance is going to make these things SO much scarier. Run up, take advantage of Vulpa's bonus to hit at super short range, and the range bonus on the shock lance to hit something and aim to damage it and making it suffer Emergency Shut Down. Oh yeah.

Test Deathtrooper

And lazy me did a Deathtrooper. Just to see how long it took. The answer is about 25 minutes. A lot of that was waiting for washes to dry. It has four colours and two wash colours. The rest of the unit will take....a couple of hours at most.

Next Time

A rerun of last years Gaslands Annual. Now that we have a slightly better handle on the game, hoping we'll make it past gate one this time!!