Mixed Bag 10: Week of Weird

This has been an odd hobby week for me. I filled out a 10 man Heavy Support Squad for my 30k
Imperial Fists and then spent the remainder of my time painting up odd models that have been sitting on my desk lamenting their colorlessness in sullen silence. It felt good to clear some off, but there are still soooooo many still left.

"First, choose the target of the Emperor's Wrath. Then intone the ancient chant of the Heavy Bolter Operator -
Let. Us. Rock. Then, depress the firing stud for a controlled burst." - Catechism of the Heavy Bolter

I finished five more Heavy Bolter marines for the squad because, hey - if I'm gonna play Heresy Era Warhammer, I'm gonna do it the whole way. I'm looking forward to seeing how much fun this unit will be in an actual battle, or if I will just dream of Games Workshop releasing an Ulanor Crusade supplement where I get to fight Orks forever.

After getting these cats done, I turned my attention to a couple of models that were made by Patrick Keith for his Bombshell Miniatures line from some art by yours truly. For the 10 years + that I've done concept art for miniature companies, painting something I worked on never gets old.

I added a bit of plastic Ork hair to the mace to make the censer smoke. 

She ended up much more raccoon eyed than I intended, so I may revisit the model at a later time. Easy to do when I've got a bunch of extra castings!

Moving from fantasy, I then grabbed a couple of weird science fiction models I had around. These are modern sculpts, and I can't remember for the life of me who made them, but they ooze a "certain" 80's charm. I don't know what I'll use these for, but I guess sometimes things don't need a purpose beyond just being fun.

"Oh, Mitch Lazer! You're so handsome!!" "Burp. Thanks Sheila-12. I know it."

Then I tied it all together with a time traveling theme by finishing two more models for my Time Bandits mob, Pig Og and Kevin. Kevin's face is little grotty, but I can live with it.

Sir Oinks-a-lot and Martin Freeman, err… Kevin! Yep. Kevin.

Finally, I finished up the week by getting in a couple of games of Lion Rampant. I really want to like this game, so my buddy Ron and I noodled with the rules a bit. We had a first great game, but the second game shit the bed because of the damn command system. Still, we had enough fun that we were both interested in painting up some more units for our armies. I guess that's positive?

The game system may not be my favorite, but the battle ALWAYS looks great.

Going into this week I'm a little unsure of what I'm going to work on next. Which is a little strange for me. I guess I just have to open myself up the magic. Or some bullshit like that. :)

Cheers!

Sword Brethren Have Arrived

The first five of my Sword Brethren for my 30K Imperial Fists are completed. I need to add five more of these cats to make a 10-man unit, but when I do they should be a pretty powerful presence on the battlefield. All of them are armed with power swords and carry shields which confer a 5+ invulnerable save in melee. Pretty diesel.

"We are the Faithful. Guardians of the Temple. Champions of the Emperor Himself! To War!!"

These guys were made using the standard MKIII plastic Marine kits, with the shields and swords added  as resin bits from Kromlech. They needed a little chopping and drilling to work, but it wasn't too much effort. The black color scheme was a really nice break from the ordinary all yellow scheme.

I'm pretty chuffed with the face on this guy.

This shot gives you pretty good look at the shield.

And who doesn't like a good vexilla shot?

The plan is to add 5 more for a 10 man squad, but that will have to wait. This week, I'm going to add 5 more heavy bolter Marines to my Support Squad to round them out to 10. That'll give me time to order the next round of swords and shields.

Cheers!

More Gangers Set to Explore the Under Hive

In April of last year while I was at Salute, I picked up a couple of blister packs from Lead Adventure's Astropolis line and had every intention of painting them up immediately. Welp, nearly 10 months later and I've only now gotten around to laying color onto them. D'oh!

These are really fun models and with Necromunda being the latest hotness, I'll use them as part of my Salvage Crew Hive Scummers. 

First up are a pair of the ship's crew - Initiate Boslo and Iron 'Ed. I'll probably end up
counting these cats as Juves - that'll be a good reason if they seem undersized to GW sculpts.

I really dig all the little gribblies on these models. They make them feel "lived
in" and a part of something bigger.

My cybernetic contingent will consist of Bacotron 9000 and Karlborg P-34.

I figure Bacotron can be a stand-in for the upcoming "pets" and Karlborg…
well I don't even know what the hell is going on with Karlborg. Are those car
batteries for hands? 

Finally here is Skull Head-13, some kind of combat servitor. The core
of the model is a leftover Sector Mechanicus skull crane, with an Ork Killa Kan arm
and pair of melta gun arms from a Contemptor dreadnought.

I love the little power socket in the back. Once the rules for "Brutes" are
released for Necromunda my plan is to use this guy as a stand-in
for one. 

I had a ton of fun doing these guys. I really love how they capture the wacky yet nightmarish feel of the 40K universe and they are perfect additions to kind of projects. Also, in less sexy news; I finished up a set of Bulkhead doors I bought as an expansion for Necromunda. These combined with what I have and the two Ryza Pattern Ruins I have should allow me to damn near create my own Zone Mortalis board. I just need to create some cool corner pieces to join them up. Efforts are being made on that front. Top men are working on it. Top. Men.

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 9: The Bag is Full!

I haven't updated my blog in almost two weeks. Not for a lack of hobbying, but more because I wasn't sure that each thing I was working on would really make a single compelling post. Instead, I've opted to just throw it all together in a super post. Not much of an improvement, but it feels less like spamming junk out into the world this way.

The first thing I cranked out was painting up the scenery that comes with the latest edition of Necromunda. I still haven't touched the gangs yet, as I'm using the Orlock legacy rules for my Hive Gangers in a local campaign. I'm sure I'll get around to them - they are super nice models and it would be fun to approach them in a way where I'm not looking to build them for optimum game play.

The Foreman gets ready to beat down a slimer from below!

I'm really looking forward to the rules for a Genestealer Cult in Necromunda. Hoping that comes sooner rather than later.

All the barricades. I kept these all in a similar color scheme to what I have done for my Ryza Pattern ruins. That way, I can use them all together and it all feels cohesive.

Control panels and a shrine. Lined up, these look like the loosest slots in all of Necromunda.

Some doors. Yep. Doors. Super exciting.

All the crates and the much sought after Priority marker.

Then I jumped back to my Horus Heresy era Imperial Fists to complete a Tactical Support Squad for the army. The whole bunch is now around 2000pts and I'm starting on plans for the next 500pts. I should have known better than thinking I could just dip my toes in a game system. Sigh.

10 Meltaguns should give any opponent pause. I've got to paint up a Rhino APC next to make sure these cats make it into the actual fight. 

I also managed to crank out four more Plague Marines for my Death Guard army. These guys will be split up and added to existing squads, bringing them from 5 to 7 man units. As it only correct by the standards of Papa Nurgle.

I kit-bashed these out of another set of Dark Imperium. Just to give a little variety. The parts mixed and matched pretty well, I think.

While painting up the Plague Marines, I also stumbled upon an old metal Ursarkar Creed model and painted him up for fun. While I don't play the Astra Militarium at the moment, Creed is a great model for use as an Imperial governor or other high ranking functionary that are good for rescue or escort scenarios. And he's just a lot of fun to paint!

            

And finally, I put the paint to a second bunker model that I picked up. I'm glad I grabbed this - I just know that if I hadn't, I'd be lamenting only having one and needing a second at some point in the future.

So yeah. That's been my last two weeks. How about yours? Hopefully getting lots painted as well!

Cheers!