Protagonist vs Antagonist

In the run up to Christmas I was still in a Fallout mood, but obviously was unable to buy more with festivities around the corner and not knowing what I was going to get.

Therefore, I once again turned my attention to using what I already had: a pile of unpainted miniatures and a 3d printer.

And the result was a 3d printed Vault-Tec Poster Girl and a kitbashed version of a Fallout 3 character, the Antagonizer (the ants are models I already had and are from Crooked Dice).

Both of these models demonstrate a certain amount of ingenuity on my part and I'm quite proud of both of them.

Easiest to talk about is the Antagonizer, who is a character that you can meet in Fallout 3 that is engaged in a superhero-supervillain conflict with the Mechanist in the town of Canterbury Commons. 

Your character can intervene in this situation, taking one side or the other. A third option exists, which was the path I trod, where you kill both of them because you repeatedly say the wrong thing.

Interestingly, there is an official model for the Mechanist in Fallout Wasteland Warfare, but not for the Antagonizer (yet). I suspect this is because whilst there are plenty of robots for the Mechanist to command, there aren't any Giant Ant models, which is odd, as they are a fairly frequent hazard.

However, I did have a model from Crossover Miniatures called Whiskers knocking about from my proxy Marvel project. I liked the model (which is clearly Catwoman inspired) but had not found a use for it. Until now.

The model comes with a range of heads and tails, but the best fit is one with cat ears that needed filing off and antennae (bits of staple) adding. I also filled the hole in the base of the spine for her tail.

It's a fairly good fit, although the mask covers the whole face and the armour is somewhat less spiky. However, a nice touch is the knife strapped to her leg as the Antagonizer's weapon is a knife called the Ant's Sting.

Painting was quite interesting as it's quite hard to get a clear image of the character in Fallout 3 as she's mainly encountered underground. The colour of her armour can vary quite a lot between images. I when for black and gold as I felt it would be in the right ballpark without just being a mush of browns.

I'm really quite pleased with the outcome, although I need to put some though into what profile I am going to use for her in the game, and I probably need to put together a custom card.

The Vault Girl came as a part of a Humble Bundle of Fallout files and STLs I picked up before I had a 3d printer. She's actually the model that demonstrated the limits of my FDM printer when I first got it as its thin limbs small details proved too much for tree supports and even a 0.2mm nozzle could handle.

However, I've found a way around the problem.

Or more pertinently, a YouTube channel called Painted 4 Combat has with a tool called Resin2FDM.

Basically, this is a plug in for Blender that allows you to thicken the supports from pre-supported resin STLs and make them suitable for printing with an FDM printer.

The 'lite' version of the plug in is free to download and obviously required me to download Blender. However, despite never using either program, it was really easy, especially as the channel's guide video walks you through the whole process.

The outcome is a pretty dame good print. Still not as good as a resin print, but definitely better than my previous efforts and certainly good enough to use.

The model comes with a sculpted base that I was able to print more conventionally, although I did manage to clip off the pegs from. The feet of the miniature before realising there were holes for then to slot into, making gluing the whole thing together a bit more awkward.

As you can see, when painted, the details are pretty good. The undersides of arms and keys are a little less good, but, as I said, I'm really happy with it.

Painting was done really simply with bright colours and the outcome is a model that I actually think is better than the pvc miniature of Nora that can in the starter set.

I've not yet had any success with other sculpts as I've been away since Christmas Day and the one miniature I did try was a Carnevale sculpt that hasn't worked, however I'm looking forward to trying out a few more sculpts.

On the subject of Christmas, Carnevale and Fallout, Ive gad a bit of a haul this year. Mrs Cheaphammer took advantage of Black Friday at Element Games in Sheffield to make the pounds stretch a little further and I now have the latest Carnevale starter set, World's Faire After-Party, and the Hollywood Heroes set for Fallout Wasteland Warfare featuring characters from the TV series.

They were also running a paint lucky dip which garnered me a Camo Green that will definitely see use and a Purple airbrush paint which might not.

On top of this I got a haul of Horus Heresy boxes that actually have me pondering whether to start a new army. The Predator and Jet Bikes would fit perfectly on not my Blood Angels army, but the Mk II Assault Troops come armed with chainaxes, which aren't available to loyalist marines in 2nd edition, which we've stuck with.

This is making me consider starting a traitor, specifically World Eaters or Sons of Horus, or Blackshields forces. However, I'm also tempted to create some converted Angels Tears for the Blood Angels.

I received the Ravening Hordes book for Warhammer: The Old World, which contains the army lists for Orcs & Goblins, Beastmen, Tomb Kings and, most importantly for me, Warriors of Chaos. 

This allows me to run my Nurgle army in Warhammer: The Old World, and the Arcane Journal adds rules for Warp Dragons making the whole army game legal.

Finally, as part of this year's 7TV Secret Santa, I received this handful of Robin Hood themed miniatures from David.

It's a sprue of Oathmark Humans, who can easily be kitted out as Merry Men, but might also serve at Rangers of Gondor or Ruffians in MESBG. However , there's also a couple of Norman soldiers carrying a chest and so, given that I've at least one Norman miniature in my backlog. I might very well venture into a Sherwood Forest based project next year.

All in all, it's been a good few days, giving me plenty to be cracking on with.

Acquired: -52 

Painted: 532

Lead Mountain: 246

The Fight Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring apart from the twisted mutant spawn of Chaos intent on corrupting and entire planet if not stopped by the noble Astartes of the Astral Claws who would never have any truck with that Chaos nonsense, no sir!

So, Matt and I arranged to play a game of 5th edition 40k, giving him a chance to use the small Chaos force he has assembled from his Combat Patrol magazine subscription.

For my part I chose to give my Astral Claws a run out as it would allow me to field some units that I hadn't used yet.

The scenario we rolled up would be 'Capture & Control' which meant we'd be fighting over two objectives, one in each deployment zone.

The objectives in question were the building in the lower left and the ruins in the top right. Only troop choices would be able to hold objectives which presented me with an advantage as Matt's army was limited by the models he had available.

Having said that, we picked out armies before rolling up the scenario and Matt had to bend the rules a touch to include 3 HQ units due to a lack of alternatives.

Matt's Chaos Space Marines

Matt hasn't yet named his Chaos Legion, although he has specifically chosen to avoid being obviously linked to one of the well known Chapters or have colours particularly associated with a specific Chaos power.

HQ

Daemon Prince with Wings

Chaos Lord (Daemon Weapon & Jump Pack)

Chaos Sorcerer

Elite

Chaos Dreadnought (Multi-melta, Power Fist)

Troops

5 Chaos Legionnaires (Bolters)

5 Chaos Legionnaires (Bolters, Meltagun, Plasma Pistol)

Heavy

5 Havocs (Plasma Pistol, 2 Autocannon, 1 Lascannon, 1 Missile Launcher)

Matt positioned one squad of Legionnaires to hold his objective, whilst the Chaos Sorcerer led the others on the attack. The Havocs, Chaos Lord and Daemon Prince were positioned in the centre. The Dreadnought was out on the flank just in case it started attacking its allies.

My Astral Claws

I opted to go for my Astral Claws as even though I had more to choose from that Matt, the disparity was not so great as with my Blood Angels.

HQ

Captain in Terminator Armour (Lightning Claw, Combi-Flamer)

Elites

5 Terminators (Storm Bolter, Power Fist)

Troops

10 Tactical Marines (Bolters, Flamer, Heavy Bolter)

10 Tactical Marines (Bolters, Meltagun, Missile Launcher)

Rhino (Storm Bolter)

Fast Attack 

3 Space Marine Bikers (Power Sword, Meltagun)

Heavy

Predator (Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons)

I split one of my Tactical squads into combat squads to give me more flexibility in defending the objective. The Predator and Bikes were placed centrally as a firebase and mobile reserve.

On the other flank, the second Tactical squad was deployed in it's Rhino to launch an attack on the enemy objective, with the Captain and Terminators lumbering up in support.

Turn 1

After I inevitably failed to steal the initiative, Matt took the first turn and with a lack of viable targets to shoot at, much of the Chaos army surged forwards.

On my right flank, the Rhino and Terminators followed suit, whilst on the left one of the combat squads moved to be able to shoot when the Chaos troops got into range.

There was sporadic shooting from Havocs and the Predator, but in an ominous portent of what was to unfold, no damage was caused, implying that this battle would be fought up close.

Turn 2

In a move that actually surprised me, the Daemon Prince and Chaos Lord slammed into the Terminators, who, in a display of impressive saving throws, withstood the impact and won the combat. 

Meanwhile, the Havocs repositioned to be able to pour fire on the Tactical Squad which was bearing down in the temple in their Rhino, dismounting into cover.

On the other flank, the Chaos Dreadnought was slowed by stopping to fire in its own troops, but the Chaos Sorcerer push his squad forward into the teeth of the Astral Claws line, but somehow only took a single casualty from the hail of fire that rained down on them.

Turn 3

After weathering the storm, the Sorcerer's squad charged into the combat squad in front of them, cutting down all but one, who fell back.

However,the second combat squad and Bikers were lying in waiting and after pouring in Bolter an Melta fire, charged in to finish off the threat of Matt's army capturing my objectives.

Meanwhile, after the Havocs somehow failed to do anything other than destroy the Storm Bolter on the Rhino, the Tactical Squad continued to use it as cover for their advance on the temple, where the second squad of Chaos Marines lurked in hiding.

The fight between the Terminators and the Chaos heavy hitters had lasted for four rounds and seen the destruction of the Daemon Prince, Space Marine Captain and most of the Terminators.

Somehow, a single Terminator remained standing, his inevitable sacrifice enough to keep the Chaos Lord out of the main fight for another turn 

Turn 4

Late to the party, the Chaos Dreadnought lumbered into view of the objective. If it could get just a little closer, it could deny me the objective, even though it couldn't capture it.

Determined to do what they could to slow it down, the Biker drove forwards to firm a screen that would hopefully serve as a speed bump.

However, a speculative Meltagun blast managed to bring the beast down and freeing up the Bikers to join the fight elsewhere.

The Havocs finally destroyed the Rhino, but the Tactical Squad had reached it's objective and it would be down to the outnumbered Chaos Marines to drive them off.

Turn 5

In the centre, the Predator and Havocs had been playing cat and mouse so much that they'd had very little impact on the whole game.

Throwing caution to the wind, the Havocs finally advanced to the top of the hill, risking the Predator in the hope of getting another turn to rain fire on my objective.

However, fate smiled on them when a lucky plasma shot stunned the crew, and then their leader swooped in to inflict more damage in the hope of using the additional move of a charge to get it withing strike range of the enemy.

In the shadow of the temple, the Chaos Marines did the only thing they could and charged, hoping that their greater number of attacks might break the Astral Claws and drive them off.

It disn't, and their fate was sealed when no further turns were rolled, leaving the Chaos Lord and Havocs stranded in the centre, unable to do any more.

Final Score: Astral Claws 1 - Chaos Marines 0

This was a fun game. Despite Matt's lack of troops, the game was very balanced and had the fight between the Terminators and Chaos characters been resolved quicker, one of my flanks might have had more on their plate than they could handle.

My Bikes proved to be really useful, especially as a mobile reserve, and swing the fight around my objective. Meanwhile, the Predator was totally inconsequential, cursed by an inability to hit or wound.

Similarly, the Chaos Dreadnought was a bit of a liability and its erratic behaviour meant Matt couldn't coordinate his attack and so his units were destroyed piecemeal.

Matt's Combat Patrol journey isn't over, and so the next time these armies face off against each other, I'll probably end up getting chopped to pieces by a screaming horde of Khorne Berserkers.

Which will be nice.

Happy Christmas!

Well Paid Killer

I have to admit, that despite the successes of joining the MyMiniFactory tribe for Carnevale, there are clearly miniatures that my FDM printer would struggle with.

Let's be honest, it's most of them.

This has meant that I won't be abandoning traditional methods acquiring miniatures, despite continuing to print what I can.

Given that I knew that the more delicate a miniature was, the less likely it was that I'd be able to get a half decent version printed, I've been keeping an eye out for bargains.

This led me to spotting a Rialto Assassin on eBay and I swooped in to add it to my Guild forces, which, along with the addition of the Black Lamp, are experiencing a significant step up in the quality of their membership.

Rialto Assassins are, predictably, assassin's that are based in/on/around the Rialto Bridge in Venice and have thrown their lot in with the Guild.

The model has a really characterful pose, but had a couple of issues. Firstly the small punch-dagger in his right hand had broken and needed replacing, which was a somewhat fiddly job that incurred a lot of swearing.

Secondly, the model comes stood on a gondola pole which would look stupid sticking out of the street. Therefore I removed it and went looking for an alternative item of a appropriate height. The best fit was a bag of gold, which seemed appropriate.

I'm not going to waffle about the painting. It was contrast paints with a bit highlighting and washing.

Obviously, printing continues apace with this covered well and two more street tiles, all done with the same sponging method.

I went for a heavily corroded cover for the well using Nihilakh Oxide technical paint, suggesting that the metal involved is copper.

I'm pretty certain I can now do a 2'x2' board, but I've not tested that theory and will continue to print tiles between other jobs and hope that something a bit more varied (but useful, unlike the circular tile this month) turns up in the tribe.

Acquired: -85

Painted: 530

Lead Mountain: 215

I like big bots and I cannot lie

I don't know whether my return to painting Fallout miniatures is tied to the release of season 2 of the Amazon series, but it does seem to have a certain degree of synergy to it.

Primarily, I picked up the Mirelurks and this Sentry Bot because I was ordering from Modiphius around Black Friday and had a bit of spare spending money.

Whatever the true cause, I grabbed a Sentry Bot because I really like the shape and design of them. They feel imposing and threatening whilst also being ridiculously impractical.

The model I picked up is actually a Space Sentry Bot for Fallout Factions as it's apparently a variant found in Nuka World. Having only played Fallout 3, I can't confirm whether this is the case.

I think I might have made a mistake in building the model because I always intended to paint it army green, like the Sentry Bots I encountered in the Capital Wasteland, however I put the bubble helm on instead of the smaller regular head.

I think the bubble helm is a Space Sentry Bot think only and they appear to all be white-grey in colour.

I realise just after id built it, but decided not to worry too much about it rather than end up hacking at superglued resin.

In terms of painting, I kept things simple. Indeed, it's this simplicity that I really like about painting robots.

A sprayed undercoat of Death Rattle Green from Colour Forge, followed by picking out the silver bits and coating the wheels in Black Templar contrast paint and then drenching the whole thing in Agrax Earth shade.

I finished off by sponging on some chip damage. detailing the the yellow nozzles of the big weapon and painting the bubble helm gold. In theory this should be transparent yellow, but I lack the skill to achieve this effect. I figured gold was a decent compromise.

I actually took more time over the sculpted base which has tiles, bottles, tin cans and machinery parts and sets off the rather plain model well.

I'm enjoying this, but don't have anything else for Fallout. I might see what I can cobble together if just hope that Santa brings me something nice.

Acquired: -95

Painted: 527

Lead Mountain: 209

Shelling Out

Every year, the normally pricey miniatures for Fallout Wasteland Warfare get somewhat drastically reduced in price for Black Friday.

Every year, I either forget this fact or don't have any spare cash as I'm busy buying Christmas presents.

But not this year.

Due to reasons I won't go into, I found myself with a bit of cash to spend on myself around Black Friday. Some of it went on Shelob, whilst the rest went on a few bits and pieces from the Modiphius website.

A pair of Mirelurks were first in the basket as they are, for me, the most iconic Fallout gribblies given the amount of time I spent slogging my way through sewers filled with them in Fallout 3.

I also like them because they are reminiscent of the Garthim in Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, which I learned today was an influence on their design, along with (would you believe) the Droideka Destroyers from Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

They are resin miniature which comes as a pair (both the same sculpt) and were remarkably easy to put together with only a little bit of clean up required.

As they are based on the Mirelurks in Fallout 4, I opted to go for a paint scheme reminiscent of how they appear in that game using the paints I had available.

I also figured that this would be easier than the more cartooninlsh colour palette of the Fallout 3 Mirelurks.

A black undercoat was first dry brushed with Vallejo Brown Violet, before a lighter dry brush of Vallejo Khaki. I picked out a few details including the claws in Ratskin Flesh and the smaller pickers were picked out in Wraithbone. I then gave the whole model a wash of Seraphim Sepia before giving the face and edges a light dusting of Wraithbone to pick out details.

And that was it.

Sculpted bases were done quickly and the Mire lurks were ready to lurk in my games of Fallout Wasteland Warfare.

I enjoyed doing these so much that I'm half tempted to do something similar when I finally get round to painting my 30 year old Genestealers.

Acquired: -95

Painted: 526

Lead Mountain: 210

"Let go of him, you filth!"

I know I might have said that I was sorting of doing a Men of the West force for the Tale of 4 Hobbits series, but as you can see. I've gotten a touch distracted.

I've wanted the Shelob miniature for a long time, but have never gotten around to buying it. It has dutifully sat on my Christmas list each year and been steadfastly ignored due to Mrs Cheaphammer's profound arachnophobia.

However, with the impending arrival of a new plastic version made me realise that I did want the classic metal model before it disappeared and so we cut a deal that as long as Shelob is never left lying around, the last child of Ungoliant to trouble the unhappy world could enter the house.

To put it bluntly, this beast is an absolute swine to assemble. Spindly legs, a bulky metal body, indistinct sockets and no instructions combine to make for a frustrating experience.

Throw in the fact that trying to slightly adjust to stance of the back legs caused me to snap them and gave to pin them on again and I was left wishing I'd waited for the plastic model.

I found painting equally frustrating as there's not actually much to work with on what is pretty much just a big black spider with tiny eyes.

I've seen plenty of people, including Games Workshop, lean heavily into real world spider colouring (particularly black widows) or more exotic patter choices to make Shelob more vibrant.

However, I went for something more film-based which seems to be patches of more fleshy coloured areas, especially around the head. I'm satisfied with the end result, but I feel I could have been more ambitious.

The In the Clutches of Shelob set comes with Frodo all wrapped in webbing. Although there is a separate base provided, I decided to use him a scenic detail on Shelob's base as I can't think of a meaningful reason for having a separate miniature apart from as terrain in a single scenario.

The set also includess Sam armed with Sting and the Phial of Galadriel, which is a miniature I'm not massively impressed with, as the face is a bit janky (on the other side) and there are quite large blocked in sections between the cloak and Sting.

I will probably stick with my original Sam for most purposes.

Am I happy to have finally added Shelob to my collection? Yes, but...in hindsight I might have been better off all round waiting for the almost certainly significantly more expensive plastic set, which would be easier to assemble, have clearer details and include a better version of Sam.

Ah well...

Acquired: -95

Painted: 524

Lead Mountain: 212

Take It To The Bridge

I've recently got hold of the December STLs for the Carnevale Tribe on MyMiniFactory and they've left me a touch confused.

There was another file for a street tiles, but it's circular. No idea how to use more than one of those. There are some pillars, but nothing for them to support.

This has meant that, for now, I've gone in a slightly different direction.

I decided that I'd have another play with printing a miniature, despite only having an FDM printer, and whilst I was printing that I would paint up the last of the four bridges I bought when I first got into Carnevale.

The character in question is a Black Lamp, mysterious figures charged by the Guild to carry enchanted lanterns that grant a degree of protection against the magic wielding factions.

Meanwhile, the bridge is the Ringhiera Bridge, a slightly more fancy affair than those I'd already painted.

I opted to try printing the Black Lamp as the sculpt did not feature a lot of extraneous detail (something FDM struggle with) as most of the model is swathed in a heavy robe.

I opted not to print the separate hand holding the lamp pole as there was no way it would print successfully, and so instead I raided the bolts box and found a hand holding a staff (from a Frostgrave wizard sprue) and a lantern and kitbashed a replacement. I also needed to replace the short blade that snapped during support removal.

Happy with my construction, I tidied up the rest of the model as well as possible so that you really have to get close to see issues and got painting.

It's pretty much all contrast paints over Ghoul Grey from Colorforge, with metallics picked out. I highlighted the skin and used Hexwraith Flame technical paint for the eldritch flame of the lantern.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how this came out and I'll be experimenting a bit more with printing some of the sturdier looking Rashaar sculpts.

The Ringhiera Bridge is a more ornate and fancy bridge and so I added more colour than the other bridges I've painted and included some good as well.

I think I'll use this near the bigger and more ornate buildings, helping to indicate a more wealthy area.

Only a little bit of progress, and as I had a bit of a splurge on Black Friday and picked up a few bits and pieces here and there, and with Christmas round the corner, I feel like I might be going a little bit backwards.

Acquired: -91

Painted: 522

Lead Mountain: 219