Painting Chart

All hail Admiral Drax for this wonderful idea.  I've known about it now for a while, (at least the last couple years) but never thought I really needed it myself...   Recently I started thinking about it though and I realized that I really did have a lot of models that weren't really finished. Sure most are OK for the table top, but not really Finished.

So that is going to be one of  my 40K  hobby goals for the year.   No I don't plan on finishing it all,  but I would like to make a dent in it and keep the chart up to date.  Maybe I'll try to post an updated chart every month.  That might just give me the extra kick to keep working on all this stuff.

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"Son,  how do you expect to requisition the replacements we need if you don't even know how many troopers we are supposed to have?  Now pull out your slates and lets have a look."  said Marshal Argos, to one of the clerks outside the Ops room, as he pulled up a field chair.  "What, you need to speak up son." 

 Slowly the young trooper looked up, glanced around, and replied. "Marshal Argos Sir, We don't have an exact SO&E, none of us were here as the Battle Group was formed, and we haven't found any slates with that Information.  All we have is the size of each Regiment as it was assigned to the Group, and upon it's arrival."

Well I'll be, thought Argos. We probably left the slates back on New Praxis.  What was that Quartermasters name again?  To bad he was already dead, or I'd have him shot. "Ok, then lets start with the size of each Regiment, check your Records and use the larger size.  Either that upon it's arrival or as it was assigned."  Argos stood up and headed back to the Ops Room.  "Oh, and send me your Supervisor. There's a few details about the upcoming operation that I'd like to discuss with him."

Defense of Avenweddon

Arial view of "East Ovis Orientalweide" prior to the Chaos Attacks.  Much of the city has already been destroyed by Chaos bombardments.

"We're still holding sir but it's not looking good. We've had to pull our forces out of the eastern part of the region.  The vile forces of Chaos are using some sort of heresy to block out the sun and wreck havoc on our instruments.  We can barely see the enemy, much less maneuver against him."  Col. Pallidar hoped that he was getting through to Battle Group command.  The atmospherics were only getting worse the closer the enemy came.

Turning away from the Vox, Marshal Argos could barely control his anger.  "Get me the senior representative from the AdMech and from the Ecclesiarchy.  One of them had better have a solution for this."  We need our sensor net we we're going to defeat these bastards.  "And get one of the Witches over here.  Maybe one of THEM can do something about this, if the others can't."  The battle had started early, but everything started out as planned.

Last view from Camera 34.259, before city goes black.

But somehow the sun never came up, shuddering Argos tried to push the thoughts from his mind.  "Marshal Argos, what is it that I may do for you?" Squeaked the Tech Magos as he came upon the battle plotter.

My Emperor, when will he get that speaker fixed, maybe someone needs to tell him.. thought Argos before replying.  "Well for one you can have someone check your voice box.  You're going to kill someone with that high pitched voice of yours.  And after that you can find a way to get our tactical sensor net back up and running.  Without it we're shooting in the dark.  I have 3 Regiments up there with untold PDF forces and they're all useless to me if they can't see the enemy or at least pass on targeting information for the artillery and Super Heavies."

Elements of the 7th Scansin move up with support from the 313th DTR.

"Sir, there's something going on." Shouted Sgt. Baker seconds before a bright light followed by a thunderous roar, knocked 3rd Squad and the Platoon HQ to the ground.  "They're behind us!!"  went up the cry all along the front.

 

Almost knocked to the ground Col. Pallidar quickly regains his senses when as realizes that the enemy is now behind them.   "Quickly men, defend the armor!"  He shouts, urging his command team and the troopers around him to get into a supporting position.  He knew already that it would be a lost fight, there was no way his troopers could stop the beasts falling upon them. They just need to slow them down long enough for the armor to pull out and Astartes to move up.

"Pick him up you fool, don't just stand there."  Yelled Lt. Albertson of the 7th Scansin.  "I don't give a damn if I'm not part of your Regiment, your Colonel needs your help!  And by the Emperor so long as I'm assigned to your Regiment as a Liaison you will do as I ordered!"   The fight hadn't lasted more than mere seconds before the entire squad was killed, thought Albertson.  Looking up at the medics carrying Col. Pallidar away, there was barely time to pull the Colonel out of there before those daemons charged right by us. Where were the Astartes?  Why didn't they move in to assist?

"Joe... Joe... JOE!!!!" screamed Private Smith, before giving up and just hitting him upside the head.  Ever since those tread heads moved up into a position behind them, they couldn't hear a damn thing.  Even the ringing has faded away to silence.

Last charge of Lt. Cropper

"Signals, relay the following:  All Imperial forces pull back to Objective line Delta.  I repeat, All Imperial forces pull back to Objective line Delta!"  He'd heard enough though, Argos sat back in his chair as his command tank began to move off.  This did not go as planned, but better to pull back now than to waste more material and men in lost cause.  The situation was not getting better, and without being to bring his big guns to bear it wasn't going to.  We need to find out what was causing the blackouts and comms issues.  We need to find a way to counter it. We can't let this happen again, or the planet may very well fall into the arch enemies hands.

++++++++++++++++++++++

I was actually supposed to post this up a month ago, but never got around to finishing it.  Hope ya'll enjoyed the read. 

  

War for Avenweddon III (Battle Report)

(Battlefield view from Canis Vulpis)

Well I got in my 3rd game of 40K this year and my 1st game of Apocalypse under the new rules.  14000 Pts per side, with 14 players, and  2k pts per person.  The low point limit per person really made it hard to get together a good list, so it really took a bit of coordination from the whole team to make sure that we had all our bases covered.  To further complicate things I have been away on a business trip the last few weeks and was hardly able to get anything together.

So I won't bore you with my list, but will instead show you a picture of my list instead. 

2000 Pts on the dot.  Not much fits in there, but the Double-Barreled Laser Destructor and a pair of Plasma-Blast guns are enough to inflict quite a bit of damage.  :)

Well to keep a long story short, and of course save a bit of fun for the my next "fluffy" post I won't bore you with all of the details.  We started at 9am and got done shortly after 8pm, and the tragic thing is that we had a great opening 2 turns, but ended up loosing the game.  Canis Vulpis (my Warhound) lived through the entire game without being shot at even one time.  In return, she took down untold enemy infantry and helped take out a few tanks, but nothing glorious...

The biggest problem we had was the CTan Mephet'ran.  He made sure that the we fought the entire game under the "Night Fighting" Rules which ensured that all of our vehicles only had a 36" range until something illuminated it. 

t'scha, In the end we made a few other mistakes but none that really were game breakers.  We had a good game and I'm really getting the urge to get back into the game again.  I work up a more "Historic" battle  report over the next few  days and try to get it posted before the end of the week.

Thanks to all members of "GT-Battlezone" for putting together a great Apocalyptic day!!!

War for Avenweddon III

(The war continues.)

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
++++++PRIORITY:  High
++TRANSMITTED:  Avenweddon Imperial Field HQ
++++++RECEIVED: Tribanus Relay Station 1
 +++DESTINATION: Marshal Argos, Battle Group 82
+++++++++++REF:  DJS-5548-176
 +++++++SUBJECT: War of Avenweddon
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greeting Marshal Argos. Please find attached the latest intelligence and your new orders.

Intelligence 
The latest intelligence provided by the Departmento Munitorium, and the agents of the Inquisitor CLASSIFIED have determined that the Forces of Chaos have once again started to gather under a single flag.  Although the Imperial Forces have worked hard to disrupt the forces of Chaos, we believe there is a new power in their leadership.  This new leader not only has the charisma to gather troops under a single flag, he also appears to be working with the both the alien and Necrons.

As we receive new information we will forward on the details that may be pertinent to you being able to fulfill your orders. 

Deployment Orders
1. Form a Task Force consisting of no less than 50% of your available combat forces and proceed to location 32UMC612514.  PDF forces will advance to hold your current line until BG82 can return to it's current deployment zone.

2. If required Det. 6 of the Legio Astraman will be made available for SH support.

3. A complete mission briefing can be found on the following Munitorium Portal Awenweddon Planetary Intelligence System (APIS)

7th Scansin (1st section) Part 2.

And done, it only took 2 months longer than planed but the 1st Section is finally finished.  Now I just have to start and finish 2nd Section before the 23rd of November.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Walking the lines of Leman Russes, Marshal Argos appeared deep in though.  None of his staff or Regimental Commanders dared to interrupt him.  They new from experience that when he was ready he would begin.  Until then the talked softly among themselves, following the Marshals lead.   "Gentleman, as I'm sure you've noticed we have received new Orders.  started Marshal Argos I'll be going into details as soon as we start the operation planning.  Until then please make sure your Regiments are ready for deployment.  If your equipment isn't serviceable, fix it.  If you can get it fixed prior to deployment, leave it or destroy it in place.  If your troopers are sick, or injured they have until the "step off" to get healed.  After that they'll be left behind with the baggage train.

This is going to be a big one.  We'll need every lasgun we can muster if we're going to pull this off.  Make sure your troopers have their heads on straight, and their gear squared away.  

Attend to your duties, my aides will call for you to attend the Op Meeting, once I've conferred with Field Headquarters.

Inquisitor (54mm)

Ah, I found these stuck away in the cellar last week as I was searching for something else.  Unfortunately they didn't survive the move to Germany 9 years ago, nor the 2 moves within the last 9 years.   But before I strip the paint I thought I'd post up how they originally looked 11 sum odd years ago when I first bought and painted these guys up at GW Glen Burnie USA.

Oh, yeah!  This was the first time I had ever painted such large models of people.  Up until this point I had only painted 28mm, 1/35, and 1/72 scale models, and even then they weren't to a very high standard.  I do hope that I have gotten better over the years. 

As you notice they're quite scratched and chipped, and somewhere in the box is a thumb for the Termie armored Inquisitor.  As for the shoulder mounted Psi-Cannon on the other Inquisitor, I don't think I ever mounted it, I have no idea where that could be.

Now I know I still have the Female Inquisitor and the Space Marine somewhere as well.  I just don't know if where, so it's looking like I may have to take another trip to the cellar to see what I can see. 

Kurgan Winter Guard (shameles plug)

Not sure how many of you are familiar with Mad Robot Miniatures, but if your not go check out their website .  He's been offering some really nice bits for a while now, and although I personally haven't tried any out, I have been thinking about it more and more. (I need to finish my other projects first)

Now he's offering a sort of kickstarter call Roll Call, where you can get the above miniatures for a reduced price.   I love the workups he's done (Works in Progress), somewhere around page 50 or so in the thread, and even though these guys aren't my cup of beer I still thought I'd give them a short plug.

And expect to see more of the 7th Scansin soon.

Review: 28mm steampunk inspired heavy weapons (Part 2)

 And here's part 2. Part 1 can be found here = Part 1

The good:
Very little clean-up was needed. I only found one place with a little bit of mold release left over, and that was gone in a jiffy.  I would still recommend giving the kits a good washing though as it is resin and all.

As I stated in the last post, 90% of the flash flakes off at the touch.  To get the last 10% you need a hobby knife and a couple of files.  (Don't take your wife's nail file though...  They won't like it when they find out what you've been using it for). 

As promised here's a few pics showing off the awesome detail in the kits:

The Bad: 

No Insturctions... Although to be honest these kits are super easy to put together and I really don't see a need for printed instructions.  The only time I wished I had a picture was assembly of the Rocket Launcher.  I used the pictures that were on thee kick-starter page for reference.  IF the good Col. Gravis reads this, maybe putting up some finished model pics on your website with a note as to where we could see the pics would be nice in the future.

The Middle:

The points where the mold connected to the wheel was a bit worse, but if you turn the that part to the bottom it's not visible any whey.

There were also a couple of mold lines here and there but they were easily removed with a file.

And as requested by "Buffer" in the last post here is a comparison shot of the Bombardier.

Left to Right:  Mix of Victoria Mini's an GW Legs, Bombardier, GW Preatorian, GW Master of the fleet.

Review: 28mm steampunk inspired heavy weapons (Part 1)

Some of you might remember this post IG Heavy Weapons from Curious Constructs. Well I received my pledge the other day, (last week, but I was on vacation so it doesn't count) and thought I might  as well get a review up of everything that came in the box.

Unpacking: ;) look at all these new toys!

Initial Impressions: Lots of flash, rocket launchers a bit bent, but fixed within 10 minutes.The flash is extremely thin, and crumbles away when you touch it so it's not that hard to remove. 

 Clean up:  All I needed was a hobby knife and a normal file. To clean this one up took me about 5 minutes. 

Now the metal bits (the gun crews) and limited edition "Bombardier"  had almost no flash on them at all.  Just a hint of a mold line here and there, and those can be cleaned up with a simple file.  Below is a not so good picture of the Bombardier, and all the gun crews.

What I really think is great are the number of heads that are included.  We all know from experience how much it hurts to build our army and every 4 models have the same head.  In this case we received 10 heads for every 6 Troopers!!

Kit and Detail:  The kits themselves are very nicely done, and go together in a breeze.  The detail on these is simply amazing, from the rear of the gun-shield to the pistons and machine parts on the guns themselves. I am more than impressed with the work and attention to detail that went into these, it really makes these look sharp.  I'll get some more pics of the individual weapons up in Part 2, as I begin to assemble them.

And last but not least, here's the start of the "Bombardier", I just couldn't wait to get started on this guy, he's still a WIP but for 30 minutes of painting he'll fit in perfectly with my army. Now I just have to pick a name for this guy. 

Over all:
Great stuff and I'm really looking forward to finishing some of these up to use in my army. More detailed pics of the weapons and assembly in Part 2. 

7th Scansin "Sharpshooters" (Pt.2)

So I finally sat down and started painting up the first test mini for my Sharpshooters (Counts as Ratling), and successfully turned the above mini into this:

Now I like his head, and I think the colors are pretty close to what I want, but the uniform is just too dark. I wanted the uniform to be a lighter color green than the camo cloak, but the seemed to have almost blended into the same color.  Not sure what color I'll go with instead, but it's going to really have to be a lighter shade so that when I run a green wash over it, the colors don't darken to the point that they did this time.

Now the Camo cloak is much better, but still needs to be worked on a bit...  I thought I'd see how the blob scheme worked but have decided that it just isn't gonna cut it. Now I'm thinking more along the lines of this:

Picture found on the web, (I found it a while ago and saved it I don't know who owns it...)

It's the camo pattern worn by the US Marine Corps during ww2.  I don't want the pattern to be anything new / high-tech looking, it needs to match with the rest of the army.  So what do you guys think, shall I make the camo cloak as above, or with the larger camo patterns in it? 

Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition

 Here's one of the models that started it all!  During 2nd Edition I had pretty much always played using friends mini's or with proxy's.  This was however the very first 40K model that I ever picked up, thank god though that a buddy of mine painted it for me, otherwise I may have gave up the game completely.

+"Inquisitor, have you arrived in system?"

-"Do you not trust in the Emperor, of course I have arrived.  My agents have already begun assessing the damage."

+"Are they aware of your presence?"

 -"Ha, Do you mean the guard or those imbeciles from the Ordo Xenos?"

When I look at the pictures like this, I think I really need to change the base on my Inquisitor.

+ "Inquisitor, need I remind you of the importance of this sector?  Remember your duty, serve the Emperor above all.  Exterminatus is not an option, if the planet falls then we must re-claim it in the name of the Emperor. 

- "Yes my lord"

 +  "If there is a chance to save the situation then do so, even if it means enlisting the aid of the other Ordo's"

A simple arm swap helped balance out the differences between the old and new GK Terminators.  Besides, I think the new arms look a lot better than the old. 

7th Scansin (1st Section)

Progress has been made! I've got the base colors down, and even knocked out the first layer of shading.  Skin tones are in and even the start of a few beards.  I really love the detail in the heads, the one's from Victoria Miniatures fit the best (the bodies are from there as well)  but those from Max Mini, (once trimmed) fit in just fine.

 Since the last picture was taken I've done a bit of detailing, and the 2nd layer of shading.  More pics to follow at some point... 

Oh, and as a parting gift here's a quick shot of what's going to be my 6 man squad of Sharpshooters (counts as squats).

Open projects

 

Here's just a few of my open projects, that I would like to see done before the end of the year.  I probably have a few more but this is more than enough to keep me busy (and some of these are already a year in the making...).  First up is my GK terminators.  I've had these guys since, well... to be honest I'm not even sure anymore.  Three of the 5 are 90% done, the other 2 need a bit more work.

Ah yes, the armor of the 73rd Fantoma Armored Regt.  Above is the new color scheme.  I only have 12 more tanks to re-paint like that and I'll be done.  Even with the airbrush that's gonna take a while.  

The Imperial Navy Fleet assets of Vallivar Sub-sector.

Vengeance Class Grand Cruiser "Bringer of Truth" (90%)

Dictator Class Cruiser "Death Dealer " (done)

Gothic Class Cruiser "Integrity" (done)

Dauntless Class Light Cruiser "Redemptor" (0%)

Dauntless Class Light Cruiser "Relentless" (0%)

Falchion Class Escort "Fury Squadron" (0%)

Cobra Class Escort "Wraith Squadron" (0%)

 I"m slowly making headway on these guys to.  I've decided to change a lot of the detailing, and started on the first squad.  There will be a separate dedicated post to these guys in the next few days. 

Almost the same as above.  The last two are the projects that are sitting on my desk.  The others on the shelve right above my desk, and the projects that are on other shelves or boxes are not even listed.  Like above, I'll do a separate dedicated post to these guys in the next few days.  

28mm Steampunk (Kickstarter plug)

Now I'm fairly confident that most of you have seen this, but seeing that this has been a draft post since last week I should finally get it out there.  Have ya'll seen these? 

Meridian Miniatures

Now I do feel that there are to many kickstarters going on but this one looks interesting.  The officers are really well done, and I'd love to get my hands on them.

 
What really got me going though was the larges assortment of head option (wink, wink, nudge, nudge to some of my other favorite bits stores that are making selling heads  ;)   )   I just which he had a pic with of his heads on a GW mini.

and last but not least for those of you who might be interested in using these in 40K here's a couple of pics of his mini's next to GW's (and others)

Personally  haven't made up my mind as of yet, but I'll be keeping an on this over the next few weeks.