Silver Drakes Sergeant

On my signal, unleash hell...

A few months back, I bought a squad of assembled and (mostly) base coated silver Intercessors to serve as reinforcements for my Silver Drakes due to my Ultramarines army having substantially depleted the Drakes' numbers. Naturally though, as I was on a Smurf painting kick at that moment, 3 of these new recruits were commandeered by GW's poster boys.  

Of the remaining seven, there was a sergeant model (as well as one of the aforementioned Ultramarine converts) who was painted in the prior owner's chapter colors: Silver bodies, red arms, and black pauldrons. No idea if that's a canon color scheme or a homebrew, but they stood out like a sore thumb amongst my painted, unpainted and base coated marines alike. Thus, it's likely that my last painted marine of 2021 is this repainted Silver Drakes Sergeant. 

Its curious at how a bigger scope (and presumably different ammo) change this rifle into a heavy weapon.

No doubt the Heavy Support chevron on his pauldron has likely already raised an eyebrow or two. My Silver Drakes army is a small, 500pt patrol list. Marked out as the 8th reserve company by their purple chest aquilas, all of the company's squads are intercessors.  As such this sergeant's squad is armed with stalker pattern bolt rifles, serving as the army's light fire support unit. 

I'm sure that even the mention of the stalker bolt rifles will elicit cries of disbelief as I've never once seen them fielded by anybody! Indeed, there are obviously far better options available. Still, stalker intercessors are where future Eliminators come from and besdies, it's just a fucking patrol. It's not supposed to be a well rounded force. 

Boy cutting the decal just right around that braided cord on his pauldron was a treat. Kinda hard to see due to the wash, but it does line up beneath said cording. 

If it makes everyone feel better, the Drakes are likely to get my servo-strike bofors turret, as well. Whilst that was originally planned to go to the Smurfs, Neverness had suggested that I get more Hellblasters after our last game. 

Sci-Fi City in Knoxville which is conveniently located on the route I take to my folks' house is (was?) having a 30% off everything sale. As such the Utramarines' Hellblaster corps increased by another ten, which with the removal of the turret from their list, ought to round that army out to about an even 1k. 

Some day this squad is going to cause a lot of hurt. 

On station once again.

 o/

Sans helmet, he can now stare death directly in the eyes!

This lone Fire Warrior was a 1-off paint job I did some ways back when a bit too much OD Green globbed out of the dropper bottle whilst painting something Bolt Action and I didn't want it all to go to waste it. Anyways, I brought him into work to 'stand guard' in my cube and thus he came into immediate combat with...our cleaning lady. 

Didn't matter which nook or cranny I tucked him into, I'd always come in the next day to find him somewhere else on my cube's shelf. His first injury was when I came in one day to find his Pulse Rifle almost snapped in two indicating his first fall to the floor. That was an easy fix.

After a few more months are waging war vs. a feather duster wielding blue hair,  I arrived to find him decapitated!  Victorious she surely thought: Take your toys home nerd! Thusly defeated, he indeed was taken home, his helmeted head was never to be found. 

He's got a bit of a gnarled look about his face due to the dry brushing on his head and face. I'm rather pleased with that. 

He knocked about in the clusterfuck that is my hobby desk for a few months until, on a whim I scrounged thru my bitz for a new noggin, and painted him up earlier this week. He's now back on station and will likely take a cue from my chocolate chip camo marine by meekly cowering standing guard beneath one of my computer monitors, which is apparently safely out of range. 

Or at least it might be, right up until his old feather dusting nemesis sees that he's returned... 

Ultramarine Primaris Ancient & Friends are complete

 o/

To quote Neverness who saw a preview of this model:
'That's the face of a guy who stares down Greater Daemons!'

Well these three were a bit of a slog, especially after the Banner scroll debacle. Said debacle delayed this post by about a week, indeed my prior post was to come after this one to be honest. 

However, as I was getting ready to take pics of these three completed minis, I noticed only then that my Hellblaster was sporting a tactical arrow rather than devastator chevron. Thus they were delayed once more. 

First up, the Ancient:

Ultimately, I'm happy with the result (Note: the discarded Primaris Lt. helm half buried at his feet).

A chunk of Rhino door from an unidentified chapter/warband/legion rounds out the battlefield debris on his base.

The rear view, which in his battlefield debut was backed into a table corner, surrounded by a daemonic horde of Slaanesh.  

Second up is my first painted Hellblaster:

This unit is golden in every game in which they're fielded. That is why I've been so slow to paint them as they sometimes moonlighted as Silver Drakes. 

The aforementioned corrected unit icon.

Next is my final (female) Intercessor:

As she is the last Intercessor in my squad of 10, it goes without saying that clearly Ladies First doesn't apply on Macragge. 

Not sure who's box o' ammo she's standing on, but it looks cinematic enough.

With her helm sporting a red stripe she'll serve as her sergeant's squad 2nd, and will lead the separate combat squad when I opt for that deployment option.

Lastly, a group shot of the three:

I think that that's enough painting of Smurfs for a bit. Surprisingly, I'm getting dangerously close to having my whole (little) army painted!

Frankie (briefly) joins the Empire!

 

Frankie carefully choosing his maneuvers, with his dial hidden from my view beneath the table (because you know, they're so transparent to begin with...).

o/

Frankie stayed home with us this past weekend, so as per our usual when he does so, the two of us spent a few hours at the FLGS playing a game of X-Wing. Our game was already well under way before I ever thought to take any photos, so instead of the usual bat rep, what follows are just a few highlights. 

This was the first time I've used my beloved Scarlet Harlot since we've started playing again (necessitating it's removal from retirement in the display case). The ship, purchased as a Rebel Sympathizer and with Lando Calrissian at the helm would survive the game with only minor damage. 

Once again Frankie wanted the rather large (star wars legion sized) 3D printed asteroid terrain. We decided that fighters could pass thru the arch unhindered as his red canopied TIE did the turn before, and my Z-95 was doing in this turn (though you can barely see it). 

I would allow his Decimator to make that turn without flying off of the board (as that would have effectively ended the game prematurely). However my ARC-170 inflicted a critical hit that rendered all further hard turns as stress maneuvers which greatly hindered the ship's already poor handling. 

RAMMING SPEED!!! Seriously, this ability is the ONLY reason to use the Decimator. Though the Harlot's Anti-pursuit lasers chipped a point of damage off of the Decimator as well!

As the big ships sized each other up for another close and punishing pass, I would cash that earlier favor to allow the Decimator to remain on the board when I misread which direction Zev's TIE was facing and picked a maneuver that would run it straight off of the board. However Frankie promptly blew it to pieces afterwards so I guess it was a moot point.

By this point, the Decimator was on it's own and collecting both standard damage cards and crits like it was a hobby. I was down to the Scarlet and a Z-95 though the latter was well out of position and would play no more part in the game. Lamenting his choice of terrain, I 'saved' Frankie from an inevitable collision with a rather large rock next turn by finishing off the Decimator. 

His three crits which really made the Decimator's life difficult, though he was at least able to flip the left-most card over, prolonging the ship's lifespan for another turn. He ought to have flipped the center one over as well as I read it now, but I think it was only in effect for one extra turn where he thankfully would've turned anyhow. 

***

While Frankie enjoyed the ability to hit enemy ships intentionally to cause damage, as well as the high speed and maneuverability of the TIE fighters, he didn't like the TIE's fragility at all! When I asked what he thought about playing the Empire, his response was simple: Never again. 

Next time he wants to try Scum and Villainy, though he's also made it clear he'd like to try some other games as well. Cue the Space Marines...

Ultramarines Ancient WIP

 Currently, I hate it. 

I'm pretty sure that that banner scribbling says something akin to: this guy sucks at painting. 

Okay so...were it not for the fucking flag, these three would have already been done (days ago). That is despite an unwanted visit by papa Nurgle over the holiday weekend that ground all forward painting progress (and pretty much everything else in my world) to an abysmal halt for a few days. 

The problem is...is that when painting out words, I tend to really suck at it. No problem right? Just use a pen-problem solved. Except, whatever pen I used previously for this sort of thing had long since disappeared. I did find a blue one though and hey-Smurfs are blue so why not? and that's where it all went wrong...

Kinda wishing it was a blank slate on the front side as well...

First attempt, I got the spacing wrong, as expected but hey, no worries, once dry I'll just paint over it and...the whole fucking scroll smeared blue, WTF?!? Wait until dry again, repaint and still a blue smear, okay seriously what the hell? 4-5 layers of Bleached bone later, new/different brushes that have never touched anything blue-still no good. What the actual fuck?!?

So I clear coated it, waited a few days due to real life shit and then, still smearing blue. DESPITE the fucking varnish!!! Base coat brown over-bleeds thru again (btw, despite being a perfectly serviceable pen, I threw that fucker in the trash purely out of spite). Also, the skull above said scroll had lost all detail by this point the paint was on so thick. Fuck.

His two sidekicks still need decals of their own. 

Alrighty so, this brings me to option A: Simple green it and start over. Or option B: scrape the paint off down to the bare plastic and start that scroll anew. I opted for option B though that probably is the least logical idea as it's prone to damaging the standard irreparably. 

It worked well enough though and I repainted most of the banner, and just opted for the black scribble in lieu of actual writing. But...I hate the way that that looks, so likely will try repainting it bleached bone again and...I dunno at that point. 

Decals...I went with decals. Looks good enough I guess. I wonder though, what planet these guys are fighting on?

Three more Ultramarine Intercessors are complete...

 ...but as usual, you can't see them because they're camouflaged!

The guy on the left is ready to stomp on some flowers in a very un-Smurfy fashion.

Grenade launcher #2, so each combat squad can have one...

...or one can instead just have both.

The Intercessors' last marine 'Smurfette' along with my Ancient and my first Hellblaster to see paint have all been started in earnest. 

Rebels vs. Scum & Villainy Battle Report

 o/

Frankie joined me for another bout of X-Wing this past weekend and here's how it all went down...

Frankie wanted to use some of the FLGS' 3D-printed Hoth terrain for Star Wars Legion as asteroids rather than the usual cardboard chits. We decided that the low split on the left side asteroid would be passable to fighters without any ill effect.

As such, my Binayre pilot took his Z-95 off in the direction to do just that, whereas my smarter pilots decided to go around...

X-Wings approaching from the other side. 

The Z-95 chickened out and instead made a hard right towards the Red Kraken that was charging across the center of the board. This Y-wing (which was outfitted with a bomb loadout upgrade yet no bombs because stupid pirates), squeaked by in hopes of making of a flanking run.  

Overconfident due to the Kraken's near invincibility in the past, Frankie charged straight into the teeth of my force and lost damned near all of the Kraken's shields for his efforts. 

His Z-95 unsuccessfully tried to thread the gap, losing a shield in the process. 

That said, he was rather amused as my Z-95 then flew straight into another asteroid in the following turn. 

The opposite flank of the board also saw some seriously close maneuvering as well!

Dipping into armor at this point, Chewbacca slews the Kraken around in a K-turn, Whilst the passing Dragonfly continues to pump dorsal ventral turret fire into the rebel YT. 

With ships scattered all over, I'd like to point out the two Black Sun Z-95s on the right. The one facing the X-Wings was my leader, N'Dru Suhlak (curiously I can't find a pic of him/her/it) who also had the Lone wolf and hull upgrade cards. Thus he got an extra shot and could reroll a blank die while either attacking or defending so long as no friendlies were within range 1-2.

But do you see that other Z-95 to his left? 

Yup, that little fucker wandered within range two, robbing N'Dru of his bonuses, and as a result the two X-Wings made short work of him, blasting thru all of his shields and hull points in one turn.  Damnit!

Speaking of leaders, Chewbacca and the Red Kraken were down to their last hull point and although the Kraken stripped all of the shields from my incoming Y-Wing, the Y's return fire finished him off!

Frankie's X-Wings however were still on a tear and would vaporize The Dragonfly in a quick retaliation!

At this point my buddy Rob wandered into the shop, and there was an intermission whilst we caught up. Frankie meanwhile played X-Wing Jenga, and the battle resumed once I took notice of both this and his obvious boredom. 

I'm not sure as to at when his Z-95 met it's end, but the tide finally turned at this point as I took down one of his X-Wings, leaving the other on it's own. 

The surviving X-Wing made a run for it, intending to fly thru the asteroid pass and off into the void. Unfortunately, it cut a turn a little too wide and glanced off of a different asteroid. While no damage from the collision was incurred, the distraction was enough for my for Y-wings to take out Frankie's last ship.

Following the requisite 20 minutes of sorting and putting away of Fantasy Fight Games nightmarish menagerie of tokens, I then took Frankie out for dinner, followed by a bit of Christmas shopping for his Mom. 

All in all, it was a fun evening!