I'm calling this mini a Demiurg...

o/

Monday afternoon a thin little box with British postage arrived in the mail for me. The only package I'm expecting from across the pond is one coming from Warlord Games, containing 5 Ghar battlesuit sprues. This box however looked to be able to hold just one at best. Never looking at the return label, I cut thru the tape thinking: 'Great, they ran out before getting to my order, and I just spent $12.50 in shipping on a $1.50 sprue'.

The Regimental Standard does NOT approve of this message!

Thus, you can imagine my pleasant surprise when upon opening the box, I instead found the contents to a Kickstarter that I had completely forgotten about! My minis from Gydran Miniature's Pelegian Sapper Kickstarter had arrived! The KS was for a space rat which struck me initially as appealing. However on seeing the final model I didn't like it and messaged the creator to see if I could order something else instead? 

No problem! Order whatever you'd like from our store-was their reply. So after a brief perusal, I made my selections, paid the postage and promptly forgot all about it. 

That was 3 months ago...

Looks like something from
The Jetsons!

Gydran is a small outfit in Worchestershire, England who specialize primarily sci-fi dwarves (so anybody wanting some 30k Squat breachers, this is the place to go!). Anyways, I had selected the Pugwanian Mercenary B (the 'A' version has an open helmet with the pug's head visible inside), and a funky, retro-bot objective marker (indeed they do make some pretty cool robot minis).

'Wrex' marks the spot!
(yes, I named the objective marker)

The objective marker's casting is nearly flawless, and whilst the Pug-merc did have a few obvious mold lines, when set against the gold standard-it was still a better casting than many of the Forgeworld minis that I have gotten over the years. 

sans-tail

I opted not to use the curly Pug tail sticking out of the back of the space suit (how would that work anyways?), carved down the socket that said tail was to go into (yes, I literally cut off his butt hole...get over it), adding some Space Marine ammo packs and krak grenades instead. I made an antenna by using a barrel from a spare Tau burst cannon, lopped off the teeny tiny gun barrel, replacing it with a trimmed down plasma pistol tip, then added a spare jet/rocket pack made by Bombshell miniatures. Finally I glued it to the MDF base, and added a pair of human skulls just for shits and giggles. 

 All in all I'm quite pleased with it!

Now...what the hell do I do with it? Well, for 40k, the only thing I can come up with is to call it a Demiurg. I only have the one however, so I guess I could just blow a command point to field this as an understrength auxiliary support detachment. For rules, it could be a 'counts as' Vespid (like anyone has those minis anyways). The Vespid in general can barely stand up to a stiff breeze, so I doubt that just one would bother anybody much! Actually, that both sounds like a total waste of points...and something I'd totally do!

You're short! Fat! And a waste of points!

That said, Rogue Stars is really the only viable option. Whilst this mini won't fit in with either of my existing crews, I do have a pair of Tau Muppet Auxiliaries (yes really) coming soon. I suppose I could just make another, never-played RS crew for this to belong to.

Regardless I like the little guy, and that's all that matters!

*****

On a different note: Check out this AWESOME card my Beloved Wolfy got me for my birthday! Its mounted on the wall, just above my computer's monitor.

Skulls, always need more skulls...

As you can see, I only took the portion of Neverness' armies that was of any value...

Amidst the recent jolt to our daily lives, I did find time for a few online purchases. My in-laws got a gift card to amazon for my birthday, and the above was one of my purchases. Indeed it was one that was long overdue me thinks. I also bought a few non-hobby related books, but they're still in transit, coming via not-so-speedy pack mules it seems. I made a few other (non-amazon) hobby purchases as well, but will post about those as they arrive.

Savaged by real life (TM)

Well, my hobby time has been anyways. 

Not going into the details other than to say hobby time or hell, even home time has been next to nonexistent. So much so that we have a friend staying at our home to watch/take care of our critters for us. 

The only thing I've had any time for hobby-wise has been listening to the Sons of Heresy podcast whilst going to and from work, or running around town taking care of errands, grabbing take out, etc. Its been a favorite of mine for quite some time and I highly recommend it!

Life should return to something approaching normalcy by this weekend at the latest (though I'm hopeful it'll be sooner than that). Regardless, posts will likely be few for the next little while. 

A simple conversion gone awry....

'Is too small!' Growled the Cultist, as he fought to claw his way out of the fog of narcotic oblivion.

'It's fine, one size fits all.' Replied the 'saw bones' as he finished up the stitching.

'...is too short, get me 'nother one...' Slurred the still half-drugged patient.

'Listen, this ain't no forgeworld pal. Unless you want to shopping for a new one up-spire, take it or leave it! At least you'll have a whole arm again! 

*****

No chaos mutation for you!

Whilst the Skitarri arm doesn't look all that much off in the pic, it really does in person. Oh well...I seriously doubt that an incorrectly sized-bionic implant is a rare occurance in an Imperium, much less amongst the shady, back-alley medicaes available to criminal gangs and traitorous cultists!

Your end is nigh Mon'Keigh...

o/

This book is so much better spiral bound! Go ahead and do it,
before your binding falls apart in the next 2 weeks...

Welp, I finally got to try out the new edition of kill team and I rather enjoyed it. The modifiers to hit are a bit worrisome for my Orks, but I'll get to see that for myself at some point in the future as I cycle thru my forces. 

Yup, it was mid-game before I thought to actually take any photos...

For my first outing I opted to bring my Exodites, which haven't seen the table top in a hellova long time! As it turns out, Bob had had the same idea and also brought his Eldar, but switched forces when he saw me pulling out my minis. He also had IG with him, except Screech was already fielding those.

I thought this would be a fun fight, but a local house rule allow's you shoot into HTH so as long as you're forces are not involved in said combat. As such, Bob's soul reaper cannon from hell killed all three of these guys before a single punch was thrown!

So is a desperate attempt to maintain variety, he opted for his last resort which were the Thousand Sons, saying (quote): 'If someone breaks out some Rubric Marines then fuck it, I'm packing up and going home...'

Just look at those highligh-oh wait, that's just my camera's
flash reflecting off of the primer. Nevermind!

Luckily that was not the case, and we played using the multiplayer scenario. Just testing the waters myself, I didn't take enough photos or notes to bother with a battle report. Most of you know how the game plays anyways, more so than I do even!

Suffice to say it was fun. Bob and I were in a race to see who had the most cheese, whilst Screech fought a war on three fronts vs. Bob, myself and sadly his Scions' own mediocre rules/stats.  

Look at that enthusiasm as I take away one of Screech's objectives!

In terms of the cheesefest, I think the Rubric marines won out handily! However my Exodites managed to squeak out an extra VP to take the win with 12VPs for me, 11 for Bob and (gulp) 2 for Screech.

My old Exodite spell markers repurposed: stones and imps for flesh wounds,
and if a model is shaken, they's 'get butterflies'... 

INCOMING!! (and outgoing...)

o/

Welp, my hobbying here of late has mostly revolved around ebay. The proverbial flood gates are open, though it seems that almost as much is coming in (thus far) as is going out. 

Winter is coming...

I got the ball rolling with my Salamanders' dreadnought from last year's Dreadtober posts. After 20+ years of faithful service across the battlefields of Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, and more refits than I can count, it has now redeployed to South Dakota. No doubt it will be used to defend the great white north from the White walkers this coming winter...

I hope its as good as the prior incarnation.

Funds from the Dread funded my purchase of the new Kill Team rule book, and rather than paint I've been skimming the rules and mucking about with lists ever since.

You have to wonder at the logic of having the ammo
protrude out in front of the blast shield...

On a whim a bid on and won a half dozen of Anvil Industries Regiments' series mortars. They were inexplicably listed in the electronics testing gear category (no idea how I found them myself). Anyways, after winning the auction I priced them out on anvil's website, and ignoring the shipping from England, I still got them for 96% below retail price, huzzah! They will go to my Grymn who until now had only heavy stubbers for heavy support (which aren't fieldable for IG infantry in 40k).

Hope we don't melt whilst our box sits on our new home's front porch...

Needing a case for them, I booted my Salamanders' Cataphractii Terminators out of their fruit-of-the-month-club case (who's six, foam cut outs fit 60mm bases perfectly). As a further indignity, they were put up for sale on ebay. Following that they will be deploying to the hellish warzone of Texas this afternoon.

I would never pay that much for these things! No doubt a thought of the toy collectors when viewing my 40k offerings...

Starcom, still awesome after all of the years...apparently.

Following that I put up some old toys I found in a box in the back of the laundry room closet. I had to google the 'battle beasts' via the fine print on one's foot to figure out what they even were. Regardless these five old toys sold for a surprising total of $92!! I need to see what else is in that box...

Not painted of course, but for $12 for 10, I'm not complaining.

I have a chaos champion coming from a KS soon, and so ordered 20 Chaos Cultists for flesh out a kill team for her (yes her) to command. I took a sliver of the toys' funds for these. The rest of the funds from this month's ebay sales will go to bills and bolstering our woefully depleted checking accounts. Speaking of, who (here in the USA) wants some Ork vehicles? Come on now, the new codex is coming up soon...well eventually. 

So what kind of 40k Character would you be?

o/

My Beloved Wolfy asked me that whilst we were eating brunch Sunday morning, and in all honesty I don't think I'd ever thought about it really. Its kindova fun question to ponder though...so let's see.

So many meals, so little time...

My first thought for me was an Eldar of some sort, because I tend to obsess over something, then get bored with it and wander off in a different direction, much like the various Eldar 'paths'. On further thought however, I think a Kroot warrior is more appropriate. Similarity of name aside (my last name is Croot for those of you wondering), I'm tall, as the Kroot are. I love to be out in the woods. I eat a lot, and think of food frequently, and finally my combat prowess is both of questionable value and in general unwanted by those around me.

Worship her you wretched servant!

As for Beloved Wolfy, she said she'd be a follower of Chaos. Or, rather a Keeper of Secrets, with countless mortal and daemonic minions worshipping her glory. I was thinking of her as an Exodite. Living in harmony with nature, and all too happy to kill all of humanity. Yeah, before you get on your high horse and judge me for that statement, ask yourself this: How many times have you wanted to do that yourself?

Yeah..I thought so. 

Good job there buddy...

Bob, an archeologist in real life would no doubt be a Magos Explorator. Sifting thru the ruins of those best left forgotten, and in no doubt be responsible for awakening and unleashing the next Necron scourge upon the galaxy!

Screech would be a National Guardsman (yeah, yeah I know you're in the Reserves...). Given his penchant for wanting to berate ROTC students he sees at ETSU for uniform infractions, and his also frequent desire to shoot idiots (or whom he perceived to be idiots), for the latter I'll give him a brevet promotion to a Regimental Commissar.

Shush Neverness, you know this is pretty accurate!

Then of course there's Neverness. Yup, you guessed it: Weedy Grot!

So what would do you think I would be? Better yet what do you think would you be?

The Warmadillo is complete!

o/

Well it took a bit longer than anticipated, but my 30k Auxilia / 40k Imperial Guard Vanquisher tank is finally finished! I'm quite pleased with the model overall, and am not adverse to the idea of getting several more at a later date. For the time being however, I'll just have to content myself with just this one. 

Damn it! I need to touch up the right side vision slit on the front hull.

If I were to get more, I would do a few things differently. First of all, all of the wheels in the running gear will all be of the same color! It doesn't look like much to do, but for whatever reason, it was a royal pain in the ass painting them different colors! The green especially-which didn't want to coat the primer at all! No idea what that was all about, the vallejo green had no issues covering the base coat of paint...

Also I might take a page from Inso (yeah, check out that Chimera conversion based off this same model!), and omit the tools and chains on the hull. A few of those fuckers simply did not want to fit into the allotted slots and at one point I was afraid I was going to break the tank's hull trying to force them in! Apparently snap-fit doesn't allow for even the slightest inkling of' paint!

Those two complaints aside, this was a lot of fun to both build and paint! I ought to have added some decals to the hull, but got ahead of myself with the weathering, leaving me with only the turret to apply them too. Not too many though, just aquilas on the left and right sides, ID #'s on the left and rear, kill marks above the left side aquila, and lastly, a bit of decoration on the right: the skillfully painted (by the crew, not by me) Warmadillo icon! That decal was a Fallout Hobbies' custom design that was originally intended for my now long defunct 15mm Gruntz army. That said it works just as well for 28mm scale, as it would have had for the 15.

Now all the Warmadillo needs is an enemy Landraider, Battlewagon or the like to blow up!