Da Boys iz back in Town!

o/

My Tankbustas, so generously painted by Admiral Drax after I won a contest on his blog for his 500th post back in May, arrived back on my doorstep this past Friday. I think they look fantastic! The bases aren't flocked per my request so I can base them to match my army. Drax lamented the speed at which he painted them, but in that time span I've only painted 2 Orks myself, so he was moving way faster than I am on the green skin painting front!

Anyways...

...ere dey are!

Note: the spiral on the rokkit, I never would have even tried to do that something like that myself!

A brown, leather-like helmet...in all of the Orks I've ever painted, curiously that idea has never occurred to me.

Gray Knights SUCK! Just saying...

Again, another rokkit painted waaaaay better than I would have managed.

Neverness and I already have a old Ork codex (as I sold my copy of the new, heinous tome) vs. a new Ork codex game in the vague planning stages for an as yet unknown future date.

Also, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! This will be my final post for the rest of the year.

Khurasan Hovertank painting begins...

o/

Just a quick post tonight as I'm quite tired and I've only just started this project. This is a Sword class hovertank from Khurasan that I'll be using for my Buffet Assault Group army for Gruntz. The camo scheme, which is still in the base coating stage was inspired by a winter/urban camo scheme painted by Dwartist for one of Khurasan's other 15mm tanks (just scroll down a bit).

No paint aside from primer has been applied to the turret yet.

There will be a Buffet Assault Group decal on that rear panel!

From an aerial point of view, the camo does break up the silhouette nicely.

Looks good so far I think despite being as clean as it is, but have no fear-by the time I'm done it'll be dusty and filthy as a tank properly should be!

A Christmas present...one of last year's actually.

No, no regifting I can assure you, rather I finally built it (and my apologies Neverness, its not the grot-bot). Last year Kushial gave me a quartet of old, Japanese released Robotech/Battletech models in 1/72nd scale. They were most likely released in the 80's, but looked fairly well intact, even with original boxes for 2 of them.

Lacking instructions (which would have been in Japanese, but would also provide pictures to go by), I managed to get a Veritech in 'Battloid mode' together in short order. Confident, I tried a 2nd model, A Battletech Griffon, resulting in about two and a half hours of cursing and swearing at poor model design that was (laughably) intended to be multi-posable like an action figure. That was enough for one night and I decided to finish it the next...only to find the next day that a sprue was missing meaning there would be no fore-arms.

Well fuck.

Scrapping that model (with the remaining parts, mainly weapons) going into the bitz box, I gave the similarly designed Shadow Hawk a look and yup, the same parts were missing. More bitz for the box and I went onto see if the snap-fit veritech in 'Guardian Mode' would also be a bust. Nope, looks like it was all there, but...

...looks like an arm was warped (or rather bent, probably 20 years ago), and after 30+ minutes of yet more profanity, I regrettably gave up. That fucking arm will not bend back! Leaving me with the single built VT of the four models.

The problem with that model was the big hole in its back where a screw was to be inserted to attach it to it's suction cup display-thing. Japanese homes are notoriously small, and suction cupping a model to a window to save on shelf space sounds like a good idea, but to me, it looked just awful. Into the trash those parts went and I was left with a VT with a hole in it's back.

Luckily, the back assembly and back-mounted engines from the defunct Guardian mode VT were in good shape, and with some minor trimming, were easily modified to cover up the glaring hole. I think in Robotech, built like it is, it would qualify as a 'Super Veritech', but as a longtime CBT player, it looks to me like a Phoenix Hawk (which Robotech rightly sued-the-ever-loving-shit out-of-FASA for illegally stealing their design).

Being a snap-fit model, fit and finish is a little rough around the edges, but to be honest, I'm really happy with it. Its been sitting on my desk for a few weeks now, awaiting its turn with the paint brushes. I'm not sure which color scheme to use, but I'm leaning towards the Free Worlds League Militia. Primarily as purple is my favorite color, and I have an idea for some 'purpleflage'.

Where its been standing for the past few weeks.

Yes, still one little hole to fill, no idea what it was for...

One will be a base, but the others? I have no idea.

To go with that idea, Kushial also gave me some Battletech medallion-buckle-things that I've been wondering what to do with since my birthday this year. However one (likely the FWL) ought to make a good base for the Phoenix Hawk when its all finished. The rest? I have no idea...

All you can eat HERESY!!! Just $4.99 a plate at the Black Dragon!

I sh!t you not, there's a sign that says that above the mess haul entrance on board the Black Dragons' flagship!

My slight variation from the 'official' icon.

I've always like the Black Dragons Space Marine chapter. Rife with mutation, and rumored to even be encouraging it. Yet denying that heretical practice outwardly, but not enough to avoid being on the eternal shit list of several marine chapters (notably the Dark Angels who are all about concealing dark chapter secrets and my eternal favorites, the Marines Malevolent).  Additionally, the Inquisition, and Magos biologis aren't too fond of them either as it seems their gene tithes are always late, yet flawless when finally collected.

Curious that...

The Black Dragons are rumored to be a Salamanders' successor chapter and the only reason I can tell that that, might be is because their chapter emblem is a freaking lizard! Yes folks, in the Grim Dark this is what passes for genetic research! There is mention of a slightly darker skin tone among their more mutated members, but that's going on the assumption that also in the grim dark, everybody is genetically Caucasian to begin with except the Salamanders...

Anyways, all this rambling comes to you because I've painted my 1st Black Dragon marine:

I hate how zoomed in close photos add a million flaws...

This is my (as yet unnamed) captain of the chapter's 7th company. Any passing resemblance to the former Captain I killed Draigo of my ebayed off Storm Wardens' army is purely coincidental. Black armor is fairly easy to paint (I should know, once having had a HUGE Iron Hands army), and only a light drybrushing of Administratum Gray was applied to keep the armor from being too flat and featureless.  Indeed, by my usual 40k painting standards, this guy's armor is damned near pristine!

Grunts won't get checkers, but maybe vehicles will...

The 7th company's Codex Astartes color is orange, however not wanting my guys to look like Halloween Marines, I stole Codicer Ignatius' idea of putting the company color on the bolter. Additionally, there's a large roundel on this mini's shoulder pauldron and as the company captain, it seemed to be a good place to put some heraldry. In this case, a black and orange checker board with the company number over it. Lemme tell ya, for those who haven't tried, painting checkerboards sucks! The other shoulder got a dragon decal which was my 1st use of my Fallout Hobbies decals, and I couldn't be happier with them! Hell, it went on easier than most any GW decal that I've ever put on a SM pauldron!

Aside from his Mk II artificer this captain stands out as an oddity as here's armed simply, with just a bolter and sword. That's a pretty stark contrast to most Marine characters, and even sergeants who tend to be armed with the best the chapter has to offer! There is one caveat to that though, as a Salamanders' successor, each character gets a free 'master-crafted' upgrade to 1 weapon. So ya see that gold hilt on the sword? Yup, you guessed it: a Master-Crafted CCW!

Now all that's left to do is to decapitate Neverness' new daemon prince with that Master-Crafted sword...

Its a shame they can't invade Poland...

o/

Well, in case anybody missed it, last week Admiral Drax finished my Tankbustas! Not only do they look fantastic, but they ought to be shipping out to me today.

WAAAAAAAUGH!!!

Note: The bases weren't flocked per my request. This way I'll be able to base em to match my army.

That said...they're only (according to google maps) about 5 hours from Warsaw, which needs a little bit of a roughing up.

Ok boyz, fink uv it az a Kommando raid...

Not the whole city mind you, just Maxmini's offices. Ya see, the Green Alliance kickstarter has reached the 1 year behind schedule mark this month, and there's little relief in sight. I'd really like my Orc Shooterz, but...well its yet another Kickstarter, by a long established company, that can release new products from their regular product lines, but not follow thru with their KS promises. Yeah...I don't care what they have to offer, I'm not buying any of it till I get my Orks! The discontent pales in comparison to say...the Robotech Tactics' mythical Wave 2 but still, us backers aren't to happy.

Av yoo seen deez boyz? No? Yeah, me neether...

So it would be great if my Boyz could go in, rokkits blazin' and rescue my Ork Shooterz prior to shipping home.

Oh well, at least I'm getting some well-painted Orks, that were a bitch to paint I'm sure (which is why I didn't want to paint em myself). Indeed to Drax's quote on the subject:

'Hopefully I'll never need to paint one of these blasted sculpts ever again...'

lol, but anyways this really wasn't supposed to be a 'rant' post as Drax has done both a superb job and a huge favor for me by painting these boyz up! Though I will admit to being a bit jealous that my Tankbustas got to enjoy an extended trip to a country that I myself may never be able to afford to visit.

Captain Gunnbjorn is complete!

o/

He's all done, and I think he came out rather well. Take a look:

The colors in my inventory are a bit limited, especially with my browns and metal color options. Technically this is due to the fact that I haven't bought any new paints in a long, long time. However in this day and age, I can instead just go with a trendy term saying I opted for a 'limited palette.'

lol.

My intent was to give this to Rob for Christmas, but that idea was rebuffed with a flat 'no.' He replied by saying 'I'm buying you more Trolls so you can build an army and we can play sometime.'

Nope, not happening. Besides he already gave me the Hound's Tooth for Christmas.

So...on the shelf the good Cap'n will go.