Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Primaris golf cart is assembled!

o/

How do you say 'DAKKA, DAKKA, DAKKA!' in Primaris?

Yeah, yeah, I know they call this thing an 'ATV" but actual ATVs have ground clearance. This thing would likely bottom out on a street side curb! Space marine bikes (both new and old) have always suffered from this trait as well. 

As you see it above, its outfitted in the infantry killing configuration. On the nose it has the driver operated, twin-linked bolt rifle, as well as the pintle mounted Onslaught Gatling Cannon (weaponry naming conventions clearly don't follow the 10th ed 'simpler' concept). 

Collectively pumping out a whopping 10 shots a turn from this little buggy! Add to that, the bolters rerolling wound rolls, and the gatling having devastating wounds, this little ditty ought to be a priority target. As such, I see some outflanking maneuvers in its future...

mmMMmm...Toasty!

Or swap out the gatling cannon for a multi-melta (the bolt rifles are fixed), and you get what my buddy Rob's commented: 'Fast moving multi-meltas scare me.' Noted. Although, that's not as much of a concern for me, were I to face one of these (Nevereness has one for example), as I tend to run basic infantry hordes with minimal vehicles and elite units. 

Snap-fit for the win!

As you can see above, the pintle mount and the gunner's arms are not glued in place to allow for the swapping of the main armament. Also, both the gunner, driver, the ATV's handlebars and the cross-shaped armor plate in front of them are also removable to make this easier to paint. 

That said, due to all the nooks and crannies even when it is halfway unassembled again, this will likely go to the Black Dragons. Because well, deep down little details will not really be seen, especially when everything is black. Also, it will give me the chance to drybrush on some lavender 'dust & grime' to match the rest of the army's basing which ought be an interesting change from the norm. 

Monday, March 25, 2024

These little guys again?

 

Yeah, not everything measures up to a Space Marine.  

This week my new Zombiesmith boxed game arrived! This time with the Quar in (semi) multi-part plastic minis rather than metal, huzzah! Produced by Wargames Atlantic, I've been waiting quite awhile for this set! You get enough for a dozen each of Royalists and Crusaders, along with a quick-start, skirmish only ruleboook. 

You can cut the box up to make basic terrain printed on the inside, though I don't plan to do so. I have other ideas for my Quar terrain...

The rules are as ever mystifying to me, especially as rules comprehension isn't my strong suit. That said, some folks are working getting some youtube battle reports posted up which ought to help. For example: I have a halfway decent understanding of Star Wars legion due to watching battle reports, despite never playing the game. 

At first these struck me as being even smaller than the old sculpts.

However after some side-by-side comparisons, they're actually bigger in all respects. Though still dwarfed by the Primaris Marine in the first pic above.

Proportionally, they don't gel too well with the old metal minis, though I'm sure folks will mix their metal and plastic forces. I only have a handful of older metals sculpts left, nominally set up for Bolt Action. As such They'll likely be kept separate from these guys. 

These three are a royalist Yawdryl with a Doru SMG on the left and two Rhyflers with Harlech (you read that correctly Kushial!) bolt action rifles to his right.

Note that unlike the Rhyflers, the Yawdryl carries only a food canister and light rucksack with two baguettes sticking out of it. If you couldn't tell by their rotund stature, the Quar like to eat!

These come with flat, 25mm bases akin to those of say Bolt Action, however I've ordered some 20mm bases which are in transit currently. I test fitted them to some of the old, gunked up 20mm bases that I still have and their little integral bases will fit on them just fine without any overhang. 

Two Crusader Rhyflers (one could be a Yawdryl, as they're equipped the same) with semi-automatic Bogen rifles, and one gunner with what's called a Ryshi. Its basically a cross between a Bogen and a WWII Boys anti-tank rifle!

Crusaders tend to carry less gear on their backs than their Royalist opponents. That said, extra Ryshi ammo is spread across the squad. This is important as each squad can have up to three of them!

So why 20mm bases you ask? Because once mounted on 20mm bases, combined with their short height and stooped stature, these Quar will be perfect for some skirmish-styled tunnel fighting in my caverns terrain! Since nobody that I know of locally is even remotely interested in 15mm gaming (admittedly, they're not interested in the Quar either...), my caverns have sat boxed up in the basement, untouched for well over a year now. 

Stay tuned, there will be more about these guys to come!

Friday, March 15, 2024

We March-er...or-uh, mosey(?) for Macragge

 o/

Its been a busy month for me so far and as you can tell by the title, odds are that I'm not going to get all 20 of my remaining Smurf intercessors and hellblasters painted like I had originally had hoped to. Indeed, two weeks in and I've managed just five so far. 

Judging by the color, I'd say the guy in the middle pushing his plasma incinerator a little too hard...

That said, they look pretty good, and I'm rather pleased with the glowy effect on the plasma guns. The three Hellblasters bring me up to a combat squad of those guys, whereas the two Intercessors round those out to a dozen painted. Ignoring these two intercessors, I can now field 635 points of fully painted Ultramarines! So yeah, still a long ways to go. 

Beneath the grime, you can just make out some campaign badges on their thigh armor plates.

I had only intended to work on basic troops as they are both the most numerous and least exciting to paint. However after my last game with Neverness, the Librarian has wormed his way into the next batch of Smurfs to paint thanks to his glorious psychic deeds in combat! 

The next five on deck. 

Likewise the 2nd squad's sergeant is in there as well due to consistently rolling 6s to hit & wound with his bolt pistol. He's even successfully wounded a Carnifex with said bolt pistol! Curiously, he also brings 5 chainsword attacks to the table (Suck it assault intercessors!). Backing that up is another 27 CCW attacks, which ought to make even basic intercessors a worrisome target to charge into.

With luck, hopefully I'll get these five (and maybe a few more) done before the month is out. 

Monday, March 4, 2024

Henry Rollins, Black Dragons Ancient

 

Yes, because he's carrying a Black Flag

This guy's been knocking about on my desk for a few months, so I decided to finally paint him up. Like all of my Dragons he painted up fairly quickly being predominantly of just one color: black (you'd think I'd have more of them painted...). Unfortunately said color makes these guys a bit difficult to photograph as they try to turn into silhouettes. 

There are 7 decals on the standard alone, including the first use of the chapter icons from my new decal sheet.

I'm not sure as to just what type of or how many accolades Mr. Rollins has racked up in his long and varied career, but with this model he gains one more: The most decals that I've ever added to a single infantry model; 11 in total, yeesh.

The left pauldron icon, and a white wing on the thigh armor plate which signifies...something.


The right side thigh plate no doubt tells of his epic deeds. That, or perhaps its just a collection of links to his personal website & webstore, Wikipedia page, Facebook and Instagram...

Armed with the Standard bolt rifle, he's not the most potent of characters, though he does make for a nice centerpiece model who will easily stand out amongst the still mostly primed black horde.  

Insert Khorney joke here. 


Thursday, February 29, 2024

Ultramarines Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon

 I'm thinking that this might be my first ever leap year post. 

What d'ya mean you can't see him?

This past Saturday evening I elected to not go out and game and instead I painted this guy up. I did a minor arm and head swap as I didn't like the chitinous, replacement, hillbilly armored pauldron and, well I just prefer for my marines to be helmeted. 

Zzzzz commented in our group chat that he couldn't wait to see the matching terrain that was to go with his armor's color scheme. 

As such, I put this guy in front of the Tennessee equivalent of Zzzzz's famous Brick of Scrutiny. Personally, I think this Lt. blends pretty well in a concrete environment.

In hindsight I ought to had added a few kill markings on the side of the combi-flamer.

At first I didn't quite know what to think of this model or its utility. However at some point it just clicked that he's basically a Space Wolves' Lone Wolf, albeit one for any chapter. Sure he lacks the customizability of kit, but most primaris marines suffer from that trait. 

Unlike the rest of my Camo-Smurfs, this guy's camo covers the pauldrons and helm as well. 

Come here bug, I'm gonna cut ya!

Given my Marines' repeated pummeling of Hivefleet Neverness, I was tempted to paint the 'nid gribbly under his foot in Neverness' nids' color scheme. Rather than add yet more bluish tones to this model, I opted for something with more of a visual contrast. Thus, I picked the colors on a whim, I have no idea if there's a known Hivefleet in these colors or not. 

Aside from simply 'a dead one', does anybody know what sort of 'nid gribbly it is that he's crushing underfoot?

Edit: Neverness brought to my attention a new (to me) painting challenge along the lines of Dreadtober, only for Smurf players called 'March for Macragge'. As such I guess this guy can kick that off for me as the Emprah knows that I have hordes of primed Smurfs awaiting paint. 

Monday, February 26, 2024

Singin' da bloos

 o/

Rememba yoo weedy gitz: Bloo iz a lucky color!

Well its been a minute since my last post, indeed February is almost over at this point! All forward progress ground to a halt due to an impromptu trip to Ft. Lauderdale to lay a dear friend to rest. As such, I've struggled a bit to get the creative juices flowing once again. 

Slugga & big choppa, da propa' weapons of a boss nob!

That said, just prior to getting the bad news, I got together with Neverness for a game of 40k in which Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself came out of seclusion and made it's 10th ed 40k debut. Neverness already has a battle report here. The TL;DR version is dat bugs iz not az gud at killin' az Da Orks iz! 

His holstered slugga is almost the size of a shoota!

In that battle report, this nob that you see pictured both above and below earned his paintjob following a glorious last stand in that game. After killing off my kommandos (who reduced the brood by about half) a Brood lord and its' remaining genestealers charged and obliterated the Nob's mob, leaving him alone and wounded. Furthermore, the broodlord subjected this Nob to its hypnotic gaze

I'm particularly pleased with how the gore came out on his big choppa.

Outraged and swinging his big choppa with all of his fury and might he rolled three 6's to hit which doubled to six hits due to the Get stuck in detachment rule! As such, he killed all of the lord's brood of remaining 'stealers, and when a second mob charged in to his rescue a turn later, the Broodlord (which always strikes first) was so incensed by this nob that it made sure to kill him before the charging nob tore it to pieces. 

Yes, that was worthy of a paint job I think.

He must've gone digging deep in the scrap pile to find a bit with the word 'Mordian' on it! Those guys haven't been seen on the tabletop in what, 4-5 editions of the game now?

My favorite Tankbustas missed the game as you have to have a tank hammer boy in your mob. Typical of GW's post-Chapterhouse lawsuit 'you can only field what mono-pose models we put in the box' bullshit. For a company that so once embraced variety and konvershuns, GW more or less treats such concepts as anathema nowadays. 

Da tankbustas iz back baby!

Well, fuck 'em! Needing a tank hammer which is more likely to kill it's user than a tank (okay, so that part is Orky), I managed to splice together a spare runtherd body with some Kommando breacher bitz and a standard boys' head for my own version of a tank hammer grunt. Since the big shootas largely suck (I may have killed a single termagaunt with them all game), the rest of da bustas will spread out to the uvver mobs to serve as mere rokkit boyz.

Monday, February 5, 2024

2 PHIG missile teams and a Psyker are complete!

 o/

Sorcery-in-progress!

This week I have an update on the slow progress of my Pointy Helmeted Imperial Guardsmen (PHIGs). I painted up a pysker, and finally finished two of the three missile teams for the heavy weapons squad (I can only do two at a time as I'm limited to just four of the tiny bases I temporarily glue them too). 

First up, the Psyker.

Feel the Force flow thr-oh wait, wrong genre. 

Note the runes on his/her kit. 

The witchery does not extend to the back of the hand...

Rune inscribed Force Hatchet.

As always there a pistol for shooting in close combat. 

This mini will serve as a Primaris Psyker. As I'm really limited on sculpts with this bunch, I just did a hand swap on a superfluous standard bearer. To help him stand out from the rest of the oh so similar infantry, I added a witchfire-esque glow to both his/her (like you can tell under all of that gear) hand and emanating from the grill of the helm. 

I rather like the effect. His/her kit is also inscribed with several runes of...warding? He/she is also equipped with a rune inscribed force hatchet.

The team's gunner is prepped to fire with the loaders each carrying a spare launcher.

This will be the red squad which seems like an appropriate color for fire support. 

The Ammo Crates hold spare rounds, presumably enough to carry them thru a standard 5-turn game.

I got a little ahead of myself on these guys and forgot to add any unit decals. I'll likely carry this omission on to the last team as well. 

Next up are two of the heavy weapons squad's missile teams. These missile teams are the only option that these minis come with in regards of heavy weaponry. That said these look good and luckily missile launchers are good against both armor and light infantry hordes. I also like the 50mm weapon team bases over the prior 60mm bases which seemed like a bit much for an Iggy weapon team.

Target acquired, fire on my mark!

Next up for this army will be to finish the last weapon team and maybe the final four grunts in my first infantry squad. After that, perhaps a 2nd tank will be in order.