2nd hand vehicle woes...

o/

Overcompensating much?

Prior to Christmas I picked up a 3rd party Big Momma space marine vindicator for barely more than the price of the conversion kit (plus the shipping cost). Basically the attached rhino hull clocked in at a mere $3, awesome right? Yeah not so much. It looked as though it was assembled but a 10-year old who thought 'the more glue the better!' And then there are the tracks...what the actual fuck happened there?

In true ANGRY MAHREEN!!! fashion (with Floyd Uberson included in the pic for scale), they could easily be fired out of this gun, perhaps even two at a time!

Despite that, on arrival the big fucking gun bit was (luckily) separate from the rhino. After a fair bit of scraping of excess glue and trimming, etc., I'm thinking the rhino is going to be a total write off. I mean it would be workable if not for the fact that I need to replace the tracks and well...those bitz cost so much by themselves on ebay (assuming you can even find 'em) that hell, I may as well just get a whole rhino for not much more.

Damnit!

Looks like I can get a rhino hull in pieces for a fairly reasonable $25 or so. But that'll have to wait for a bit as our Pacifica decided it wanted a Christmas present too in the form of a new starter/ignition. Yay.

Oh well, the tank is functional enough for the time being in the event that I actually manage to get in a game of 30k.

The Hunchback

'What hump?'

lol, oh wait-wrong hunchback...

Screech put in an order for some Mechwarrior Online-styled battlemechs for Battletech. Coming from Australia, shipping costs were astronomical, so a group order to split the shipping was the idea (though after only 4 mechs, the shipping got even worse!). Not knowing what to get him for Christmas I offered to buy him a mech, and in turn he bought mine (killing 2-birds with one stone for the both of us). So what did I get? A hunchback!

This is what it looks like in MWO.

The Hunchback has a bucket load of versions and whilst not an omnimech fluff wise, the mini was built as one (more or less) where the main armament could be swapped out for another. In game terms its a moot point as you only use one configuration through out the battle, omni or not. They do sell single armament versions of the mini which are cheaper, but the cost difference was negligible, so why bother?

Of course not everything in MWO is completely cross compatible with its table-top forebearer. Thus I ended up with some extra parts. Either unidentifiable weapons not available in the table top version, extra lasers as the all med. laser variant in MWO gives you the option of mounting them on either shoulder or split between the two (the latter of which is probably best but regardless not available for the table top), one SRM-6 launcher was missing out of the two needed for the dual mount, (2) AC-20/10 bits (which was fine as both were somewhat badly miscast and after considerable drilling/scraping/cutting I took the better of the two), and so on.

Fodder for basing...In hindsight, I may snag the one on the far right with the extended barrel to use as the oh-so-mediocre (but occasionally useful) AC-5 variant. 

The miscasts were unfortunate given that it was on the mech's trademark weapon, but in the end I have usable bits for my three preferred versions:

easily one of Battletech's most
 recognizable designs.

The HBK-4G (base model AC-20, plus upgraded AC-20 variants of which there are many), the 4-H AC-10 variant (my favorite Hunchback type overall. The Autocannon toting variants are the Hunchback's bread and butter. Whilst everyone fears the AC-20 ones I prefer the AC-10 which halves the damage for double the range. The only AC-20 version that I like to use the is the 5-H pirate model which is also festooned with rocket packs!

6 medium laser in the torso
and 1 more in each arm!

The HBK-4P or, as I like to call it 'Death by a thousand laser cuts' is my 2nd favorite Hunchback. Whilst its just as short ranged as the AC-20 types, it doesn't suffer from having your 'big gun' miss with one bad die roll (like Rob did twice in our last game!), but instead fires a flurry of shots that will shred the target. Like the AC-20 types, this is an excellent city fighter!

This would be a great fire
support mech for a Hunchback
lance though...

And lastly the HBK-4J, twin-LRM 10 model. Sure the dervish or Apollo, or..well, any number of other fire support mechs do the job either better, cheaper (or both), but (1) the LRM bit is visually my favorite of the weapons options in this set and (2) I don't have any of the other fire support mechs in my limited inventory. Yes, as far as hunchbacks go, this is kind of a meh option but it looks cool, so will no doubt see some tabletop use.



So yeah, a good buy, I'd highly recommend 'em, just beware of casting issues which are far too expensive to return.

Tau update

o/

Notta whole lot of hobby time this week, so I'm working thru the backlog.

All they need now are some space marines to kill!

A little ways back I managed to assemble the remaining three Breachers and their attendant Guardian drone. I've never seen this squad type used and am curious to see how they fair in our games of Kill Team. The Guardian Drone confers a 5++ save to the squad which ought to (hopefully) compensate for the fact that their guns are most effective at point blank range.

The Gue'vesa Squad leader is the one on the left with the little critter who will mete out her 2 close combat attacks. 

This week I did manage at least to finish painting the first of my Farsight Enclave Fire Warriors. This is a repaint of one of my older minis which was painted in a time-consuming camouflage scheme of discontinued colors. This color scheme is much quicker to paint!

As small as the auxiliaries' guns are, I think I'll just use the same stats as the auxiliary carbines that they wield in 30k rather than the standard lasguns. I doubt any of my opponents will mind. 

He's painted to match my Grymn who will serve as Tau Auxiliaries (a.k.a.: cannon fodder) for my Kill Team. Its a simple color scheme that's easy to paint, and considering that the Fem Fa'Tau are led by Commander Shadowsun (who is tasked with bringing Farsight in), its easily justifiable to have our forces shooting at one another in a Kill Team game.

Mr. Dangly Bitz

 As the convoy of Knarlocs came to a halt, the Kroot Shaper took in his surroundings. The scouts had chosen well, deep beneath the canopy they were hidden from Imperial aircraft, and well beyond the range of their artillery. Yes it would do. With a gesture his warriors set about making camp, hobbling the Knarlocs so they wouldn’t wander off, and securing their human prisoners to several large trees.

Humans...such sad creatures. Their Fem Fa’Tau allies referred to these as Catachan Jungle Fighters. The Tau spoke as if they were a dangerous foe in the forests. The Kroot had balked at the notion and rightly so. Like all, typical humans, these were poor opponents. A loud and boisterous lot, oblivious to their surroundings...clearly they’d felt safe from any threat and were taken by total surprise with nary a shot fired, still the Shaper was curious.

I'm really pleased with how this mini turned (despite the 'brass balls').

Their leader, ‘Sarge’ his men had called him, was separated from the rest for interrogation. All of the prisoners were stripped naked to ensure no blades were hidden to allow them escape, a lesson hard learned a few weeks earlier in the campaign. The man’s body language was defiant, his eyes seethed with hatred.

Taking a moment to wrap his alien tongue around the human language, the Shaper spoke."Brass balls...what means this?"

"W...what?" The prisoner was instantly dumbfounded.

"We tracked your patrol, for long while, you spoke loudly and gestured (pointing to the man’s groin) you say BRASS BALLS! Loudly, many times...what means this?"

Still confused the sergeant gave the worst possible answer to the Kroot. "It means I’m brave. A fierce warrior."

"Brave. Fierce Warrior." Repeated the Shaper, his eyes lighting up with delight!

With a deft motion, almost too fast to follow, a blade was in the Shaper’s hand, the man’s ‘bravery’ was sliced from his body and the Shaper popped the morsels into his beak and began to chew!

He pondered his meal...not the most delectable part of the human anatomy...perhaps he ought to have washed them first. Normally, they fed these along with the other scraps to the hounds.

The prisoner however was wailing far in excess of what the Shaper thought appropriate for losing such a small piece of his anatomy. Further still, many of the other prisoners had cried out as well, and all were watching with emotions ranging from panic to abject horror!

Brave. Fierce warrior...maybe there was some connection after all. 

*****

In the early dawn, the Kroot broke camp in preparation for another raid on the humans. As what was left of the human carcasses were strapped back onto the Knarlocs, the Shaper tinkered with his kit, mulling over the previous evening.

Ya know ya wanted
to see 'em...

The rest of the prisoners, despite having been bound at the wrists and ankles had fought savagely to avoid their leader’s fate. So much so that two Kroot warriors suffered injury in the process of butchering the humans in preparation for the night’s meal.

The Shaper secured two, brass colored containment spheres to a preserved paw, taken from a wild beast, killed some time ago but kept as a talisman. He then strapped these to his lower torso, with the spheres dangling between his legs. They felt awkward. Brass Balls...so strange humans were.

*****

...aaaaand there you have it folks, the backstory of ‘Mr. Dangly Bitz’, my Beloved Wolfy’s first, and thus far only (I think) converted mini. She’s quite proud of her customization (I’m notta fan even though I realize its something of a play on the fact that 40k is largely a guy’s realm). Its always annoyed me that we had to look between the legs of the various Kroot  minis to figure out which one was the Shaper (meaning I rarely bothered).

Kinda hard to see, but the banner is
from the 11th Catachan.

With a bit of patience I eventually I found an Ethereal’s hover drone cheap on eBay and added it to her conversion making Mr. Dangly bitz instantly recognizable. No doubt the drone was bartered as partial payment for services to the Tau Empire. Handles were added for ease of tying it to a Knarloc for transport/storage when not in use, and the markings are most likely a signature/symbol of ownership.

The Shaper’s metallic coloring came out a bit greener than I wanted, but looks alright I suppose. I was aiming for the blues, greens and golds of a peacock. Now with another Tau mini in the completed column, I suppose I ought to work on Kushial’s dreadnought a bit more. Especially since I know Neverness eagerly awaits facing it!

Leviathan WIP 3

o/

Yup, I'm running late this week too. Real Life intervened postponing Kushial and my 'tanks only' Battletech game. That was rather fortuitous as Papa Nurgle launched a surgical strike in my direction later that evening that lead to yet another weekend of illness.

Late last week though I did manage to at least get some more paint onto Kushial's leviathan dread. As I recall, he wanted it to be finished before year's end meaning I'm well behind schedule. Don't recall if he specifically said which year though...

Gaaaah! It's blind!

Yes, I know...its not much to look at, and the blue paint matches up quite well with the blue painter's tape I used to mask off the center torso. I don't normally mask off area's on minis but I wasn't too confident of my ability to paint straight lines up and around the curved torso. I have something special in my for this model, but it'll take a bit more work to see if I can pull it off yet.

So stay tuned...

Prepping for battle

o/

Yes both posts are a day late this week...deal with it.

Anyways, in our next round of what I've taken to calling Hobart's Funnies (following last week's all Urbanmech game), Kushial and are playing a 'no mechs' game of battletech this coming weekend.

They look like little more than wreckage at this point.

Cleaned up...mostly. The behemoth wouldn't come clean after at least a year in the simple green, followed by such a vigorous scrubbing that I nearly broke one of the guns off of the turret! 

My force. The Behemoth isn't a standard tank for the Free Worlds League Militia, so this one was captured at some point. Judging by the appearance of it however, it looks like it was recovered from the bottom of an ocean!

In preparation, I pulled my horde of tanks out of the simple green and scrubbed what was left of their old paint jobs off. Seriously, considering the majority of the 2nd hand CBT tanks I've gotten over the years, I think the average Battletech miniature painter is visually impaired, though as always there are exceptions (yeah and those paint jobs make mine look I'm visually impaired...).

Aww yeah...

Speaking of, I painted an AC-2 Carrier this week giving me 2 painted minis vs. Kushial's completely painted force. :-/ 

The AC-2 Carrier is kinda like my signature tank if there is such a thing. I've converted several over the years, but this is my best incarnation yet, built off of an old Oro. At best they're very situational, at worst...near worthless. But for whatever reason I like 'em. It'll also make a reasonable stand-in for another fav or mine, the even more maligned Laser Carrier.

Hopping on the Primaris bandwagon...

...but only long enough to rant about it again.

Okay I'll admit it up front: I like 'em! Most of them are really nice looking models that I want to paint though like all miniature lines, some just look like crap. Their fluff however is...in a word: awful. But I've ranted about that before, so why do so again right? Right. Let's bitch about some matched play point values instead.

But first off, the cause of this rant: my Alpha Legion Lieutenant.

Note the Rainbow warrior helms decorating the base...

Admittedly it was fun if somewhat laborious to paint, using my old tried and tested 30k color scheme. So, despite my apathy towards 8th, what to do with him if I were to try 8th again? Not sure, but some mild research has generated some confusion in me, so here we go...

I guess he could be considered a Chaos exalted champion, but honestly why bother? In matched play...he could be a full blown Chaos lord for four measly points more. What do those 4 points grant you? 1+ better to shoot, +1 better armor save, +2 wounds, +1 to his Ld, and a 4++ save. Seriously, all of that for 4 freakin' points?!? Are they even trying? Why wouldn't you take him as a lord over a champion except for purely fluffy reasons (which have no place in matched play because it is for the competitive sort...).

Moving on, lord or champion stats ignored, he's my only HA (Heretic Astartes as an acronym shouldn't be an expression of amusement), let's try it again: my only CSM which makes him my warlord by default. That means he gets a relic for the points of the weapon it replaces, otherwise known as for FREE! Because that seems fair. Yep, chainsword-turned-relic = free. Dumb, but whatever. The Alpha Legion relic (which conveniently and unbeknownst to me prior to painting is a chainsword) is the Blade of the Hydra which has +1S, -2AP, Damage: 2, and D3 extra attacks. Cool.

But, but Chaos doesn't have Primaris marines you say? Don't they? Well why not, they have a Loyalist Space Marine relic so why not Primaris marines? Lemme splain...

Yeah, that Blade of the Hydra...its the same fucking thing as the Space Marine relic called the Teeth of fucking Terra!!! Seriously, same stats! Sure that may qualify as literal matched play, but that's not game design...that's just plain fucking lazy!

Crap its late, time for bed so for the time being, on the shelf this guy shall remain!