Mixed Bag 11: Mixbo Baggins

So last week I neglected posting not because I missed out on painting anything, but mostly because everything I was working on was in various states of progress. The end of this week brought a bunch of projects to a close and should be more interesting to read about. Or not. I don't tell you how to live your life…

First up were a pair of Armiger Warglaives from the new 40k starter "Forgebane". My friend Chris had picked up the set and I offered to paint these goobers up in House Krast livery since I'd painted his  Knight previously.

These were nice kits and went together well. If I had one complaint, its that they really are just scaled down versions of the Knight - almost identical in parts and build. I was expecting a little less involved construction with these cats, but it turned out fine I guess. 

If nothing else, these guys definitely gave me the chance
 to paint all the free hand hazard striping I could eat. 

I had to slightly cut down the House Krast crest (say that
five times fast) in order for it to fit on the carapace.
I was still happy with the end result.

I also finished up my ten man unit of Breachers for my Horus Heresy army. Then, as a break from painting so much yellow, I knocked out a Primus Medicae Consul for the army as well. Whew. I've just got another Vindicator to paint and the army will be at 3k points. I'll have to take some big shots of all those chuck heads together soon. 

I'm really pleased with how these guys turned out, but man was it a slog to get them done. 

"Tell me where it hurts. Everywhere? Good. Good."

Then I spent an evening applying transfers to the shields on my Arab spearmen. The decals are from Little Big Men Studios  range. They were very reasonably priced, even for shipping them to the US, and gave the models a nice "pop" once applied. This was my first time using them, and they are a little unusual, but give good results. They almost apply more like stickers than traditional decals. 

I've got enough for the rest of the army, but I'm not sure if I'd use them again in the future. That is ONLY the result of
owning a very nice printer myself and knowing how to make my own decals. For anyone not in that situation, they are an excellent product!

Finally, I finished up the second unit of Arkanauts for my burgeoning Kharadron Overlord army. These guys also felt like they took forever, but were worth the effort. Maybe I need a break from painting ten man units? The next biggest unit in this army is five guys, so hopefully that will help shake the cobwebs from my noggin and get me into a proper painting headspace.

My growing force from Barak O-Bomb-ya.
I'll be here all week. Please tip
your waitress…

Next up are probably some more Overlords, then the Vindicator tank. I hope to finish up around the moment a special treat I ordered from Forge World arrives…

Cheers!

Baptism by FIRE!

+++ Contact Initiated with the Traitors. Taking heavy fire. Send Reinforcements!
+++ Tranmission Ends. Squad Unresponsive.

Yesterday I got to play some of my first games of 30k, and what better way to ease into a new game than to toss my troops into the fiery crucible that is Zone Mortalis? My legion dove screaming into the warren of tunnels to sanctify their loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind with their rapid deaths. We used a fan-made adaption of the Heresy Era armies for 8th edition Warhammer 40,000, and the loyal forces of the Imperial Fists and Iron Hands squared off against the traitor scum of the Iron Warriors and the Emperor's Children!

My buddy Marky generously brought out his 4'x6' Zone Mortalis boards for us to battle over the
whole day. 

We played two different missions and my Marines died horribly in both of them. The first game I squared off against the Leviathan Warriors, oops I mean IRON Warriors. The two massive dreadnoughts wiped most of my units off the table in single rounds of shooting and I wept and gnashed my teeth at the indignity of it all. Much salt was thrown about. Thankfully, I did manage to finally kill one of the beasts in melee with my heroic Sword Brethren, moments before they too were wiped out. I considered it a moral victory of sorts.

My troops look so nice and ready to deal out death and destruction. This was a pipe-dream unfortunately.

Who needs and army when two of these things can just wipe your opponents off the map?

Here I am marking my Contemptor with a damage die rather than just removing him like I would have
to anyway when he was annihilated. 

Our second game saw me tangling with the more cultured gentlemen of the Emperor's Children - this went slightly better as I got to shoot and fight somewhat more in this game. In the end, we lost the second game but it was much, much closer than the previous game. 

"Everyone can fit, Brothers! You! On the left! Snuggle in there trooper! In the next 10,000 years you'll look back at this as one of the least awkward things you've done!"

After being wiped out earlier in the game, my Sword Brethren rushed back onto the board and acquitted themselves much better the second time around.

We managed to hold the primary objective for most of the game with the aid of our Iron Hands brothers. It still wasn't enough.

The brave troops of the Iron Hands pour through the doorway. This area would become choked with the dead when the Iron Warriors advanced a Leviathan into the hall. 

It was a lot of fun, but I am looking to see how the game plays on a more open battlefield with less crazy rules. Zone Mortalis has given me some motivation to get the last of my Breachers done this week, though. They definitely would have come in handy the battle zone.

Cheers!

A Little Progress

Not too much to share this week. I've lost a little momentum on projects and I'm trying to build it back up. I'm so close to having 3,000 points of Imperial Fists finished, but the last few models are feeling like a slog. First up is a unit of Breachers, which I've managed to get five to point where I can base them.

So close to being done. I can't wait to get these guys off my painting desk.

I was super jazzed when I ordered these from a seller on Ebay, but they ended up being re-casts. And shitty ones at that. The quality has really taken the wind out of my sails, but I've only got to finish five more and I'm done. I hate the idea of buying re-casts, and for the price I paid I could have just ordered from Forge World. I know we all don't think this hurts a big company like Games Workshop, but it really is a slap in the face to hard working sculptors, mould makers and artists that bring these things to life. I'm chalking this up to live-and-learn but I'm gonna paint the unit anyway.

Like a mellon-head, I primed the whole unit black. I probably should
have primed it the same way I did the previous unit.

I also managed to get the test model done for my second unit of Arkanauts for my Kharadron Overlords. I'm reversing the color scheme from the first unit, but still maintaining the black and white theme. I'm pretty happy with how this cat turned out and I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the unit done.

The left hand guy is from unit one, and the second is going to be the new scheme.

Welp, I've got more Breachers in my future and some sky dorfs as well. Next weekend I'm supposed to play my first Horus Heresy game, and I'm super excited. I'll try to take lots of photos.

Cheers!

Bearded Weirdos Week

It seems like the theme of my blog this week is dudes with beards. Weird. Not the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but not expected. First on deck is my general for the Kharadon Overlord force that is slowly growing on my painting table. This guy is called Brock Manchowder or some such thing - I've forgotten the real name and can't be bothered to use the internet at the moment. He came in a bazillion pieces, but was a lot of fun to paint!

I really dig this wacky cat. I'm not entirely sold on the chainsword,
as that gets a little to 40k for me, but the rest is a lot of fun. 

I painted him in a bunch of subassemblies for ease. I'm not sure
it made much difference, though. I did use him as an excuse to design
and print out some transfers for the runes on his sword and
dirigible. 

I also made sure to ditch the clear plastic stand and replace
it with some heavy gauge wire because hahahaha, you've fooled me
in the past flying stands and I'm not up for THAT kind of bullshit
anymore! Seriously, when someone designs a flying stand for
infantry that doesn't break off, call me.

I also finished up the first unit of Arab spearmen for a new Crusades era army I'm building for Lion Rampant or Crescent and Cross or some other system played in dimly halls that smell of cigars, shattered dreams and pine oil.  These guys were built using Gripping Beast's new plastic set and I'm a little on the fence on this one. Since the poses are supposed to work for archers or spearmen, the poses feel a little wonky to me. Still, the shear amount of guys you get in a box makes it worthwhile I'd venture.

I still need to add some insignia or flair to their shields, but for now they are ready to rock and or roll. 

Finally, a new game popped into my lap at the end of the week called SMOG: The Rise of Moloch by Cool Mini or Not. A friend had backed the Kickstarter and just didn't have the time to paint the set and I had a keen interest in scooping it up. I was a huge fan of the SMOG models when SmartMax introduced them - but being in a much larger scale (75mm if I recall) and being pretty pricey to get my hands on in the States, I had to give them a pass. CMoN has done a really great job of translating the original sculpts to board game pieces, and its a really nice way to get some of a SMOG fix without trying to hunt down the (sadly) out of production original models. 

"Major Disaster, at your service!" The whole SMOG line has a wonderful
wacky Victorian London feel and I'm super jazzed about painting the set up.

Obviously, the detail is less crisp than a metal or resin casting, but I'm
really surprised at how nice these are. 

"What, what; Old Bean?! Steady on!"