To the trees!

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Watch out for the poison ivy...

I gotta bunch of 'train trees' for Christmas to use in making some traversable forests for both my 15mm 40k and Classic Battletech. As such I added hex lines for use with the latter which was something of a nightmare. Normally I only discuss Battletech on my other blog, but figured duplicate posts would be kinda pointless for a mere stand of trees. 

Luckily this Locust won't devour everything in sight...

I didn't clear coat this prior to adding the hex lines and trees due to inclement weather resulting in considerable frustration as the flocking was coming off at the slightest touch. As such this was partially reflocked multiple times up until I just said fuck it! and left the little bare spots as they were. Future forests will be clear coated prior to the addition of hex lines and the trees themselves. 

Astral Claws test minis

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I had hoped to have this post out both earlier and with at least a combat squad of marines done...but Real Life (TM) happened. That said, I am rather pleased with these three and true to the memory of the handful I painted some years ago, they were fairly quick, easy and painless to paint, a good thing considering I still have this to do: 

((((gulp!)))

GW's Leadbelcher, Macragge Blue, Agrax Earthshade along with Vallejo's Glorious Gold and Flat Earth for the base and...umm yeah. That's it. Easy peasy.

I opted to go with different colored tactical arrows to tell the squads apart. I made some in red, yellow and black years ago for some long, forgotten project that never went anywhere...apparently, as I never used any of them. Without a white backing, the red is kinda dark rendering the yellow tactical arrows a lost cause. Additionally I also have the standard GW white ones too. 

Of course only one out of these three is actually sporting said red decal so its not the best plan, but the reinforcement stud pauldrons aren't too common as I recall so it should work...I think. I also made assault, devastator and veteran squad markings in black as well. 

I ordered these chapter icons from grimfritter.com's ebay page. Check em out, they've got good stuff. 

Astral Claws aside, I have been working on some 15mm terrain for that project which this one sorta derailed, but you know me...I can't stay on any given project for too long before-SQUIRREL!!

So there ya have it, not much to say other than here I go...and go, and go, and g...

So, what to do with a non-Primaris space marine army?

The above is just a small portion of the Lions of Harlech Chapter. I do believe that there is somewhere in the realm of 4-5 fully painted companies of them.

It is a valid question as out of the blue, Kushial surprised me (stunned would be more accurate) with the gift of a large space marine army this past weekend! Approximately 2k worth in points via the old marine codex as I've yet to get the current one. 

The unpainted lions...

He hasn't played 40k in close to 2 years, and has no want to paint anymore of his beloved Lions of Harlech space marines, so he was selling off the unpainted portions of his army (dreadnoughts excluded as he has a love of dreads that borders on some kind of psychosis...). However, like myself when I sold off the handful of Rainbow Warriors and the other remnants of my non-primaris marine forces, he found that they were selling for a pittance. 

The whole lot of 'em!

So, if he was to give them away, he'd give them to someone he knew that would enjoy them, rather than a total stranger. So...where to go from here, as GW (apparently) no longer has any love for the 'regular' marines. 

Perusing the archives of this blog I thought that maybe I'd revisit one of the many, many chapters that I've fielded in the past and in doing so the Tyrant's Legion caught my eye. Based on Forgeworld's (now defunct) 6th ed list, the Tyrant's Legion was Lugft Huron's attempt to build the Astral Claws up into a space marine legion of old prior to the badab war. 

At that war's conclusion, the Astral Claw/Tyrant's Legion survivors fled into the maelstrom and became the Red Corsairs, which was another army given to me  out of the blue from the Gentleman's Ones (oh how I miss that blog, and then later given away to yet another blogger who did them proud.

An image of an Astral Claw from the of FW Badab war book. Ironically, it bears a strong resemblance in color to the otherwise totally unrelated Lions of Harlech!

Anyways, originally, the Astral Claws were a loyalist chapter, and rather than have an army in open rebellion again (built of a mix of loyalist and chaos bitz as i had previously), I'm thinking of doing an earlier version, just on the cusp of heresy. The lion's share (pun intended) of the minis in my new army are 30k Mk IV marines. Conveniently, the Astral Claws had raided stockpiles of obsolete, but still serviceable kit as they sought to bolster their forces in secret. 

So how to build this with longevity in mind you ask? Simple: I use the chaos space marine codex. However like the fallen, I'll just ignore all of the chaos gods' affiliated stuff, daemons, etc., and build 'em much as a generic loyalist army, but one diverging from the codex astartes, i.e.: over sized tac squads, with 2 heavy, or special weapons, etc. 

It'll carry some of the flavor of the old FW list, whilst being entirely legal, and devoid of primaris marines and any fear of obsolescence for the foreseeable future.  Some units won't be cross-compatible of course (hey Neverness, I gotta bunch of scout snipers for ya!), and I'll need to order some bitz to convert the Landraider redeemer back into a 'regular' one. But i think it'll work and hey-best of all, that color scheme is easy to paint!

15mm Datasheet WIP

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As another nightmare of a month grinds its way forward, I've had little time for painting or playing. Prettymuch the only thing I've been able to work on (mainly on lunch breaks and the rare down time at work) has been adapting more datasheets for 15mm units as a continuation of my last post. Anyways, here they are, and let me know what ya think. 

The first (and only) datasheet so far to have a mini that I painted on it (and I sold it...years ago, sigh...). Not sure If I'll buy another of these, but it was an expertly cast model and if this does take off it will be tempting to get another...

Rather than an addition to a player's army, this is more of a random 'environmental' effect.

I do have one of these minis, the infamous 'Taco' of Rogue Stars fame, however its not painted/photogenic. I got this pic from CMoN (giving it my vote of a '10'), and just removed the jetpack from the image. 

IG Veterans, the minis pictured are from Khurasan Miniatures and on my to get eventually list. 

These minis come from Clear Horizon Miniatures, a company I'd totally forgotten about until Waaargh Pug mentioned them in a comment on my last pos. Thanks buddy!

A Viper Mech, this sheet was made at the request of Hoss using a mini from another company I'd forgotten about: Rebel Minis (located right here in good ol' Tennessee).

****

Welp, that's it for this year. So I hope all of you folks have a merry Christmas and happy New Year!

15mm 40k

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We all know that nowadays I have a love/hate relationship with 40k. However 8th ed is an easy system to learn and readily available to most everyone. For awhile now I’ve wanted to try a 40k/kill team hybrid in 15mm (indeed, I’ve pondered this idea previously). 

Huzzah! These are FINALLY available!!

To start out (on the cheap) it’ll likely be Marines vs. Nids. On the Nids side I just need to pick up a single gargoyle to use as a flying Hive Tyrant, I have a genestealer which will fill in as a Carnifex, and I have 18 old Termagants which will work as Tyranid warriors. 

(no idea why the above paragraph won't justify like the rest...)

Primaris LTs.

For the marines I preordered a 32 man platoon of Khurasan's new earth doom reserves minis which I'll use as primaris marines in terms of stats. I want to ditch 40k's backstory/aesthetic/universe entirely and we can easily make up our own instead. I'm just calling them primaris here for familiarity's sake. 

Basically will just be using 40k rules with KT's initiative and the you go-I go, on a per unit/character basis in lieu of an individual model as per the KT rules (essentially), rather than the 40k one side annihilates the other turn method.  We can also leave out with bits we don't like (CPs and CP farming, the endless, mostly situational stratagems that slow game play to a crawl, oh and those fucking maelstrom cards that turn strategy into the luck of the draw would be my top picks for omission!). 

Okay wait-I'm getting ahead of myself. We're just trying to go super basic at the outset, to see if this is viable and/or if anyone is really interested (so far my buddies Scott and Hoss are). I have PDFs of all of the codexes and will pare them down to just what is needed. Am wanting to see if this works w/o having to write a whole new game. 

Intercessors Colonial Marines.

As for miniatures…if you really wanted the 40k aesthetic, Vanguard minis makes 15mm Orks, Marines and IG, Onslaught minis makes 15mm IG, SoBs, Chaos, Squats, Dark Eldar, and a sorta Kroot faction. The Ion Age has these space...umm...frogs? that ought to work well as Tau...maybe, as well as Space marines (male and female) of their own. And of course Zombiesmith makes HORDES of 15mm Quar which are easy analogs for the Imperial Guard (as aliens), or rather they did and will soon do so again. Currently they are retooling/resculpting the entire line. 

The above is just a small sampling though as there are TONS of 15mm mini gaming manufacturers/retailers out there!

Regardless, this endeavor will be MUCH CHEAPER than actual 40k though as the platoon I ordered clocked in @ $34, which is the price of just ONE fucking character model for 40k these days! Seriously, WTF?

A Rhino Hippo with a turret slapped on top at the
expense of 2 troops carried, kinda like real life AFVs

Conveniently, 40k points are structured so that you have to buy the weapons for the basic tank hull/trooper allowing you to essentially build the tanks and infantry with whatever you want, and ignoring the 40k aesthetic altogether. 

As you can see, my 'datasheets' just a few examples, with all of the rules*, points, and stats coming from the Space Marine codex. 

*Okay, I made up the Amphibious rule because tanks plowing thru water like its not even there is dumb. I also shortened the walking speed because these guys are little!

Its all about the bases...

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I hope all of you Americans out there are all still fat and happy (and not terribly bloated) after eating all of that food on Turkey day. I know I am!

The base itself is an excellent value, and that's not including the three freebee smaller bases. These-with shipping from Greece, clocked in at a mere $13.44!
Highly recommended!!

All is pretty quiet on the non-battletech front here of late. I did however order a new flyer base off of ebay that's both textured, as well as having a deep cut out for the flight stand to fit in. I've always thought that just having the flight stand glued to a flat base might be an easy break point, so this will hopefully alleviate that concern whenever it is that I get around to building my Dakka Jet kit. 

Don't hold your breath though, I bought it when it first came out back in...2012? And uh...yeah, its still in the box and on the sprue. 

Why are we in this bloody expensive hobby again?

o/

I finally made it to the FLGS for what seems like my annual paint restock this past Saturday, my first visit there in months! Indeed, the stores owners asked if I didn't like 'em anymore. Sad face, real life sucks. Anyways...

Neverness suggested I do a blog review of the White Dwarf, but honestly I wouldn't even know where to begin on such a thing

Paint wise I bought, some more agrax earthshade as my washes were down to a mix of the last dregs of all I'd had left. Testors' flat black spray (depleted that morning) and matte varnish (almost gone as well), Leadbelcher (which was down to sludge), 2 shades of grey for all of my new Battletech terrain, and lastly the orange contrast paint to try out on my cultist/renegade IG horde. I looked at the hideously overpriced GW contrast undercoats, but opted not to get one, instead hoping one of my half dozen primer colors will instead suffice...will see I guess. 

Orange, the prefect color for these 'liberated' penal troopers, but a nightmare to paint. Hopefully the contrast paint will help with that...

I also bought a pack of grass tufts to try out (hard to believe I've been in the hobby this long and have gotten any of these), a pack of green stuff (my mortal enemy) to fix a pair of my mother-in-law's Christmas earrings (don't ask), and lastly my first White Dwarf purchase in many, many years to get the new Inquisition rules (my favorite non-Ork faction). 

Not too impressive of a haul, but when I got to the register and Tennessee added it's 9% sales tax in, that all clocked in at $75.75! The sticker shock left me wondering 'why do I do this again?' Guess it's no wonder that I only restock my paints on an annual basis. 

Sheesh! Felt like I ought to sell an army or something to balance this all out, but then I remembered that the Orks were the only army I had left (and I doubt any of my multitude of kills teams would net that much). So, I counted this as my annual Christmas present to me and likely won't be back to the FLGS to shop again till next year.