Surprise Invasion

No, I wasn't expecting a Scourge battle fleet to turn up either.

These are the last of my unpainted ships for Dropfleet Commander. I've had them in the backlog for so long the company has changed hands and a new edition has been released.

Why paint them now?

I was short on time today and was looking for something that would be easy to get done and by taking the same slapdash approach I originally took with the models from the Kickstarter to get them on the table, they didn't take long at all.

When the game was originally released I swapped my UCM for Carl's Scourge, giving me plenty of shops for a decent sized fleet. So much so that there was a sprue of frigates I never got round to painting.

These two are Harpies, the basic fighter frigate that you're encouraged to build when starting off. I only made two (possibly because they're not very good) so I figured taking that number to four might be a good idea.

The other two ships on the sprue I turned into Charybdis, which are interestingly, if I remember correctly, the only ships in the Scourge fleet with bombardment capability (note the downwards facing guns).

I think this is because the parasitic Scourge seek to take over rather than destroy.

I do remember not building these previously because they are ridiculously easy to destroy when they are hovering over a city without their shields.

The main attraction, however, is the hulking monstrosity of the Daemon super heavy battleship.

I went with the Daemon, which has lots and lots of guns, over the Dragon, which has torpedoes, mainly because I didn't realise there were options when I was building it and I had stuck the weapons array before I noticed the other bits.

The model is resin and was really well cast with lots of detail to work with.

So I sprayed it silver and dumped a load of washes on it, as is my way.

I'm happy enough and it counts as done.

Will I ever use these? I don't know. But they are off the list and I can get rid of the box I was keeping for the sole purpose of storing a sprue.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 379
Lead Mountain: 633

Veteran Raiders

As I bounce about my backlog, I'm always pleased to find use for the miniatures that I've owned the longest.

Due to the fact that in the early nineties the only place to buy miniatures in my hometown was a model shop with a limited selection, many of these older models are from less well known ranges.

Such is the case with these three...

These are three 'Future Savages', formerly from Grenadier and now sold by Mirliton SG. They've loitered in my collection, run with my Necromunda Gangs (mainly Goliaths as Juves) and for the last 20 years have languished in a friend's garage.

However, they are now back in my possession and destined for the Capital Wasteland as Raiders in Fallout Wasteland Warfare.

I've already added one of this set to my Raiders gang as a Psycho, and these three will be joining the crew, adding a bit of muscle and a savagery to the hunting pack.

There is a fifth model from the set, but someone in their infinite wisdom chopped his hands off in a poorly executed plan to get him holding a Necromunda shotgun (which would look like a cannon in Fallout), so I need to do some careful kitbashing to get him ready for action.

They are an eclectic bunch armed primarily with brutal close combat weapons.

This guy used to be holding a cleaver, which had been chopped off to allow him to have a ranged weapon (again for Necromunda), and so I've scaled things back to give him a less bulky weapon that can potentially pass muster as a pipe rifle or similar weapon.

He's still got his fighting claw and a somewhat anachronistic sword. Who knows where he found that, but it's definitely the sort of thing that would be kept and given a name by an image conscious (check out the hair) scavenger and later looted and sold by the Lone Survivor because it's not as good as a Shishkebab.

One of the things I've struggled with painting for a while is black skin. This time I followed some online advice and went for Wyldwood contrast paint over a coat of Gulliman Flesh. 

It looked terrible and so I tried to salvage it with some Mournfang Brown highlighting and ended up much happier with the outcome and this it likely to be my goto approach (minus the Gulliman Flesh) in the future.

A further highlight was added with an extremely light drybrush of Ushabti Bone, but I applied this to the all three models to make them dusty from there time in the wilderness.

One of the things I like about this set of miniatures are the idiosyncratic details on each model. This one has a bird skull fetish, jewellery made from the teeth of some foul creature and most of a teddy bear.

Admittedly, a couple of these elements root this character in the eighties: the floppy disk and digital watch. They are not quite right for Fallout, but they're still fun details.

Finally, I like the fact that these three add to the running theme in my Raiders of them clearly spending too much time on their hair. Bright dye jobs, mohawks, whatever the last guy had and, in this case, dreadlocks all indicate that they want to look good whilst butchering settlers.

It's nice to see miniatures that reflect the fact that people come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and I can't quite shake the feeling that this one looks a bit like Boris Johnson. In fact, it would take much to convince me that this is his weekend attire.

I'm not sure why the post-apocalyptic genre seems to assume that humanity will devolve into savagery whilst dressed in fetish gear but I think Mad Max has something to do with it.

Again there's a nice collection of fun details on the model (beyond the posing pouch). The doll pendant, the pocket watch on the 'belt' and the computer keyboard (I was tempted to paint this as a Speak & Spell) all add personality. 

There's also another eighties anachronism in the CND symbol on the quiver, but given that the organisation was actually founded in 1958, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that in the alternate reality of Fallout, the symbol became more widespread earlier in response to nuclear proliferation.

I probably have enough Raiders to play the free narrative campaign Modiphius released when the Raiders were launched, but I'll look into running it solo as finding time and opponents for all the games I want to play is hard and at least Fallout Wasteland Warfare has a well developed solo mode.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 374
Lead Mountain: 638

Blood From A Stone

When the decision was made that our big Christmas game this year would be 40k Apocalypse using 5th edition rules, I saw that I could use this as an opportunity to add to my original Blood Angels army outside of what fits with the Horus Heresy.

However, I don't have much in the way of unpainted 40k miniatures, especially as I've recently been raiding that particular pile for my Astral Claws, leaving only scraps to pick over.

Thankfully, I was able to rustle up enough parts to put together a couple of Assault Marines and a Sanguinary Priest to add a little more punch to what had always been an understrength unit.

I always find painting Blood Angels a bit of a chore because I still use the same laborious method I've used since I redid the army in lockdown. It's slow, but it does ensure that the new models fit in and I like the final outcome.

The Sanguinary Priest uses a combination of parts from newer Blood Angels upgrade sprues put on a body I had originally used for a kitbashed Chaplain when I first put this army together.

In 5th edition Sanguinary Priests are force multipliers, making nearby units both more deadly and more durable. Exactly what might be needed in my first ever Apocalypse game.

The Assault Marines were scraped together with whatever parts I had left over. Fortunately, in 5th edition one in five could be armed with a Meltagun, Flamer or Plasma Gun so I could take advantage of my Heresy weapon sprues when the Chainswords ran out.

I had an unpleasant surprise when I discovered that the green parts of the Tesseract Glow technical paint I'd used on my Plasma Guns for this army had solidified, leaving me with a watery yellow wash. Fortunately, I've discovers that adding some Hexwraith flame over the top gives a better result than the original paint.

I currently have only a single Marine body left in my bits box and he's been earmarked for service in the Badab War. However, I still have one more thing to add to the Apocalypse war effort without needing to spend any more money.

More on that soon.*

Acquired: -61

Painted: 371

Lead Mountain: 641

* Don't get too excited, it's only a Land Speeder.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

It's Halloween. That means witches, ghosts and spooky scariness...or, all three at once.

'Witch' King

Ring'wraith'

And it doesn't get much more spooky and scary than a magic ghost with flaming sword coming at you on the back of flying terror chicken.

Although I'm a long way away from the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in my Quest of the Ringbearer, I've had this model built for months and been a bit intimidated about starting it; it's not only big, it's awkward to handle.

Two things have helped motivate me to finally get this baddest boy painted: I've built up a head of steam this week by getting lots done; and I've discovered the joy of dumping Basilicanum Grey all over models and they dry-brushing my way to victory.

There was very little other painting to do on the model once I'd found a way to address the majority of the model, and mist of that is washes and contrast paint.

Were I to do another of these (and in theory there is a need for at least three of them in the campaign) I would almost certainly not attach the reins and rider until after the model was painted.

My major gripes with the model (it's an older sculpt so it's got visible joins that I'm not massively worried about) are about the base.

Firstly, the plastic rod does not fit into the hole in the model and so getting it to stick was a pain. I ended up cutting off the ball joint an feed the rod into the body.

Secondly, the base features weapons from the War of the Last Alliance and as far as I'm aware the fell beasts ridden by the Nazgul were only ever seen in the War of the Ring...what a disgrace!

Despite this level of pedantic irritation, I'm enjoying The Rings of Power. 

Go figure.

One of the concerns I had with this model was an issue of storing it safely. However, recently I've gained a display case for my gaming room, which means I can can effectively store my larger models without worrying about them getting broken.

I probably need to sort the way I set them out, and I might have to get hold of some transparent stands to make things prettier.

For reference I have a shelf reserved for future giant elephants.

Anyway, that's my spooky Halloween post. I'm really happy to have got this model finished to a standard I'm pleased with and I'm continuing to build my confidence with bigger models as I have another winged lizard in the works.

No. It's not Smaug. This is Cheaphammer after all.

Acquired: -61

Painted: 368

Lead Mountain: 644

Ashes to Ashes, Rust to Rust

Having had a play around with rust effects in my last post, I decided to go mad and create some suitable terrain for Fallout and other post-apocalyptic games.

The base model is a diecast car I picked up whilst on holiday, mainly because it had the look of a car from the fifties and would be suitable for Fallout.

It's missing the circular design in the bonnet, which I think is meant to indicate it's nuclear fuel cell, but it's close enough for my purposes.

I did spend a good deal of time researching rust methods and thinking about how to go about base coating the car to cover the shiny blue paintwork.

Ultimately, after my experiment with the troll, I decided to just slap Typhus Corrosion straight onto the model, and if the paintwork or shiny bits showed through, that would be fine.

I may end up regretting this decision later, but this process was so quick that I'm not really worried about having to fix it up (or down, as the case may be).

I also threw Typhus Corrosion over the windows to make them grimy, swamped the inside with Garaghak's Sewer contrast paint to make it rotten and filthy, and ripped the tyres off.

After the base, I sponged on Mournfang Brown, Tausept Ochre and Ryza Rust again (going easy on the last one as it's really bright). I also added some sponging of Ratskin flesh to get a more muted orange in there.

I went over some of the chrome areas with touches of Chainmail rather than dry-brushing the whole model as I wanted only these bits to have any sort of gleam.

Finally I put some basing material and tufts in suitable places and did some streaks of Agrax Earth shade down the sides 

All in all, I'm really happy with the outcome. It's not pretty, but it's not meant to be, and this was quick and simple enough to be something I can do quickly when I get my hands on other suitable vehicles.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 367
Lead Mountain: 645

It's a Troll, Fol-De-Rol

Not much more to say really.

It's a Mordor Troll.

I picked this chunky lad up at Vapnartak this year for the princely sum of £5.

As Pete and I have been muttering about playing some of the Gondor at War scenarios for MESBG, it seemed like a good time to get him painted.

The kit itself has both the positives and negatives of GW's earlier plastic kits. On the plus side, it was easy to put together and contained a wealth of options, however, on the other hand, it has some horrid seams down its side which I'm choosing to ignore rather than do much about.

I opted to go for a simple coat of Basilicanum Grey for the skin, as in my head that's the colour of these guys as they burst through the gates of Minas Tirith. Reference material seems to disagree with me, but it's my model and Trolls aren't real, so I'm not going to argue about it.

I decided to focus more effort on having a go at a rust effect without spending money on specific products, and I'm quite happy with the outcome

I had a black base which I gave a coat of Typhus Corrosion technical paint to in order to provide texture. Then I sponged on, in decreasing amounts, Mournfang Brown, Tausept Ochre and Ryza Rust before giving all the armour a light drybrush of Leadbelcher.

I've never really played with rust effects before, but this feels like a decent starting point for me to experiment further.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 366
Lead Mountain: 646

Cry Havoc!

Back to Badab we go...

When I started this project, I had a squad of Tactical Marines and a few bits and pieces to play with. The rest has been picked up as cheap secondhand lots on eBay, something which is always a little bit of a lottery.

And it proved to be the case with this little lot.

This is a Devastator Squad, a Space Marine heavy weapons team which I shall be using in my 'definitely not yet' Chaos Space Marine army for the Astral Claws.

In Chaos terms they will be fielded as Havocs, which are pretty much Devastators with a slightly more edgy name; Chaos being the ultimate edge-lord army.

The unit features a Sergeant with a Plasma Gun, and four Marines armed with a Lascannon, a Missile Launcher and two Heavy Bolters.

Technically, to use these as Havocs in the Combat Patrol list I'll be using, one of the Heavy Bolters should be replaced by a Reaper Chaincannon, something regular Marines don't have access to.

It's something I would need to discuss with an opponent, whether they're happy for a slightly different loadout in the unit, or would prefer me to proxy one of the Heavy Bolters as a different weapon. It's no skin off my nose either way.

So where did the lottery element come in?

Well, firstly there is never a guarantee that you'll get everything that you need in a single purchase. For example, I spent ages looking for the right combination of weapons in different lots.

This one won out due to only being a Heavy Bolter out and the fact that the Sergeant was missing a weapon, allowing me to grab a Plasma Gun from my Horus Heresy stash.

Then there's other issues, such as the fact that the guy with the Missile Launcher isn't actually a proper Devastator Marine. He seems to have been cobbled together from spare bits, including a regular backpack (rather than one with an auto-loader)  an Assault Marine body and left arm which leads to a pose where he's nonchalantly dual-wielding a heavy weapon.

Also there's odd stuff as you end up discovering that the person you bought from used some very odd glue, which started giving up as soon as I started spraying sliver paint on them. The Lascannon Marine collapsed, with both arms falling off and others lost limbs in the process.

Although sticking them back together was easy enough, it does make me worry about the long term durability of the models.

Finally there are details like issues with the build of the models.

There were hefty mould lines still in place on the legs and, if you look closely enough, there are points where sprue gates haven't been cleaned very well, and these are things that are tricky to sort once the model has been built.

Another issue I had for some reason was that the transfers kept sliding off. I'm not sure why as I've not done anything different this time to previously, but it did prove a frustrating process.

All in all, I'm happy with how they've turned out, but they won't win me any prizes.

I've now completed the Combat Patrol I was aiming to build using the rules for the now out of print 40k 9th edition Chaos Space Marine Combat Patrol. Technically I need a Marine with a Meltagun (I'm currently proxying a flamer) and the aforementioned Reaper Chaincannon, but it's serviceable.

I'm using Chaos Space Marine rules mainly because it's a more authentic representation of the First Born Marines that are being phased out of the main line. Also, it thematically fits the Astral Claws, who are a chapter already well on their way towards Chaos by the start of the Badab War.

Before moving the force forwards, I need to find out how the project will be organised on Arbitor Ian's YouTube channel. I do have some bits and pieces left over from my purchases, along with some very old models I intend to use, but I'd like a little direction before making any plans.

Acquired: -61
Painted: 365
Lead Mountain: 647