Here be Dragons... (v.2)

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Scary aren't they? No really, they are. Seriously!

They even have rules that say they are...

I'm sorry Zzzzz I tried, I really did. It just didn't work out. For those who aren't aware, Zzzzz is the one who named my Incandescent Coyotes chapter after seeing their initial paint jobs. As such he was rather fond of them and was somewhat appalled to have found out that they went the way of eBay. 

These were more or less no frills speed paints.

Simple & easy which bodes well for their future.

The Coyotes were all Firstborn marines, which outside of 30k are unsurprisingly going the way of the Dodo. Their color scheme was difficult and laborious to paint. Indeed the Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint was the real culprit. Unlike the other contrast paints in my inventory with which I've had considerable success, I just could never get the Coyotes' orange right. 

I need to get some of the alien tufts which are red, blue &

hot pink as opposed to these which are just dead.

So, on a whim...I thought I'd try and resurrect the Coyotes with a Primaris reboot, reversing their color scheme of orange with black trim to a more manageable black with orange trim. All was going well until...I started fighting with the damned orange contrast on the pauldrons. Multiple coats to smooth it's appearance out, difficulty with the Coyote emblem on said pauldron again as well, and then...

I said: Fuck it. 

All black it is. Sorry Zzzzz, the Coyotes are lost to history. Looking at my decal sheets I found a considerable number of still unused Silver Drake decals and I instead revisited a chapter that I toyed with years ago: the Black Dragons. Rather than retell their appeal, you can just reread it in this old post here. 

Unlike that first foray which resulted in just one painted mini and several subsequent blog mentions, I now stand at a five-strong squad of reivers and had just enough black primer for a lieutenant before running out. With Battlescribe up and running again for 10th ed, after making a 1k list for the Smurfs I then syphoned off the rest of my marines for the Dragons.

The primer didn't go on too smoothly, likely due to the ridiculously hot & humid weather. This is most evident on their combat blades.

Currently the Dragons clock in at somewhere between 600-700 points depending on whether on not they inherit my Chaplain or not. Meaning you ought not expect to see them on the table top anytime soon.

Especially as we just returned from a vacation to Boston Massachusetts which left my bank accounts almost empty (frighteningly so), while additionally adding far too much to my credit card bill for my liking. It was well worth it though! Thus no purchases for this new army will be made for a good while.

*****

One last thing of note, and on a different subject:

Red & white stripes removed.

After being used as often as not as a captain rather than a lieutenant, Lt. Siph Horridus has been officially promoted to captain of my Ultramarines 3rd Battle company army. He received his helmet repaint just yesterday. Huzzah! 

Da Groop's ARRRRRR Support!

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Da Stooka!

It's here! It's here! Perhaps this will shake off my 10th ed 40k malaise? We'll see. I've heard mostly good things, but not really interested in bothering with it at the moment. But that's not why you're here.

No, you're here to see a photo dump of my newly arrived and FANTASTICALLY painted Blitzbomma painted by the esteemed and talented Admiral Drax! Rather than re tell it, you can read about how this project came to be here. 

Drax's orkified 'Dazzle' camo.

Note the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer which the grot gunner has shot all to hell.

Gonna get me some tail!

The base, cockpit interior & krew are all that remain of my original, partial paint job. 

Da last thing da oomies see before da bombs drop!

I got the base of of eBay, from somebody in Greece I think.

Neverness is already stoked about our aerial dogfights in our future Ork vs Ork games. I am as as well, not to mention I still would like to try a war-on-the-floor game sometime in which everybody gets their aircraft together and we all just have a huge air-battle. 

Star Wars Legion Rebel Troopers

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Well I guess its time for another bi-weekly (or so) blog post. I've downloaded everything I need for 10th ed 40k, and...that's basically it. Haven't even really looked thru the PDFs other than to delete out the units I don't have. For example: I reduced the 250+ page Smurf index to 30ish pages. I've heard mostly positive reviews thus far, but haven't been too enthused to give it a try myself...yet.

Baby Yoda's looking a bit dark, may need to scrounge/blend up a lighter shade of green.

Instead I've been focusing my painting and gaming efforts on Battletech and useless shit Star Wars Legion. I guess its about time that I've had some actual, official foot troopers to go with my pizza cannon and all of the 3D printed minis. Nothing fancy, but cheap, functional and expendable. 

I really like this new type of tufts I bought. This ion trooper looks like's she's slogging thru weeds and bramble. 

I painted them to match the fleet trooper look of their army's commander. Again, just using whatever borrowed kit they could find to blend in with the local terrain. Also like their commander, they're quite dirty meaning they've been planet side for quite some time.

There's no telling if the different colored fly traps represent different species, or rather healthy vs. unhealthy plants. Either way, I wouldn't stick my hand in there if I were you...

Grand theft droid

New on Xbox...

...or, maybe not.

Originally, I had intended to make a little diorama with these little guys. However upon reading the rules for the forthcoming Ewok slingers, I instead decided to put them on bases to uses as possible proxies instead. I had thought of getting a droid when I ordered them off of Etsy, but I didn't. Luckily for me the seller added this 'Gonk' droid as a freebie!

Slightly different focus on this pic.

The new Ewok slingers will have the following rules which sound very Jawa (if not more so) to me:

Unhindered: You ignore the effects of difficult terrain (maybe more Ewok here).

Low Profile: While defending against an attack, if  you have cover, cancel one additional hit (50/50).

Target: After being issued an order, gain 1 Aim token (ok, this one doesn't really fit Jawas or Ewoks in my opinion).

A better view of all four.

Also their weapons are pistol ranged and 'primitive' or in the case of Jawas, crummy. The online, theoretical consensus (as they've not revealed what primitive means exactly) is that they can't inflict any critical hits. In close combat they have stones to hit with (again 50/50).

They also have the unique upgrade card of 'Insatiable Curiosity': Choose an enemy unit in base contact with this unit's leader, if that unit has a heavy weapon, equipment or basic weapon upgrade card (unique or otherwise), discard that upgrade and suffer 1 wound. So basically, they're caught stealing someone's stuff and get shot for it. That's very Jawa-ish to me. Far more so than the Ewoks. 

The classic 'Beatles' pose.

Their other upgrades are all very Ewok but still, for a mere 39 points (with the insatiable curiosity card), you get a half dozen minis of questionable value ,running around and inflicting comic relief. I've always run units like that in 40k, so why should Legion (if I ever play it) be any different? 

Showing their backsides as they flee at the first signs of enemy resistance. 

By now, its basically a foregone conclusion that I'm going to order some more Jawas at some future date. Currently however I just got a squad of Rebel Troopers and an AT-RT which were at roughly 50%, as well as an unridden Bantha for that aforementioned diorama off to keep me occupied.

A better view of the leader's pack with a droid arm sticking out of it (available at a discount, just for you...).

Every army needs a leader...

 ...even for games that I don't play. 

On my signal, unleash hell!

I think that I saw a guy in the one of the Mandalorian episodes who was decked out like this. I'm pretty sure that he was supposed to be a miner of some sort. That said, I painted him up like a Rebellion Red Shirt...uhh, Fleet Trooper (not that my miniscule little Legion Rebel force has any of those guys in it). 

Yeesh, wicked gate buboes on his pant leg there! I'll have to cover those up with a pouch or something.

Rather than have their idiot, off world commander get himself killed due to sticking out like a sore thumb, the local insurgents have convinced him to at least put on one of their cloaks in order to camouflage himself  a little bit. Though he does look as though he may have (crash) landed his ship in a muddy swamp and had to wade out of it.

This is my first use of the Gamer Grass alien flytraps. 

Of note is his base, which has both an Imperial Storm Trooper (of some sort's) helmet at his feet, was well as some local, carnivorous flora. Not sure how long the weeds will survive, but they're a neat concept at the least, and come in a variety of shapes and colors (for sale here at a semi-local hobby retailer).

Competing with this guy in uselessness, I'm currently working on some Jawas which don't even have rules in SW Legion, much less the Bantha that I bought as well. 

Meanwhile in da' Ooh-Kay...

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Just in time (well sorta) for 10th ed, my Ork fighta-bomma's getting some desperately needed by the talented Admiral Drax! He promises that it'll look good and properly orky in da end!

Another update received late last night. 

Guitar Hero?

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Naturally, a robot would be playing an electric guitar...

Lacking any opponents with which to play a game of anything with (again) this past Memorial Day weekend, I painted up another of my Robot of the Month Club among other (still work-in-progress) things. 

Was aiming for a shiny, dancefloor-esque base.

Not sure if I achieved that or not.

I've been meaning to paint this one up for a family friend for awhile now. Sadly, he recently was diagnosed with cancer (a treatable type at the least), so I'm hoping to lift his spirits with this, as he's slogging thru the hell of chemo at the moment. 

This is the second droid that I've gifted away, with a cyborg-lab mouse awaiting a paint job before I gift it to it's recipient. I have three more robots awaiting paint, two for me to keep and the third is kinda meh (so is way down on the list). The prototype for June's bot looks awesome though and you can see it in that link above.