Yeah, that looks more like a proper soldier...

o/

Well I only managed to get one of the other two Infinity (turned VOR) Kazaks done (though the second is in progress). This guy's pose looks far more militaryish (I don't think that's a word) than the 'battle babe' that I posted earlier in the week.
As I said in the last post, I will be spreading these guys out among various squads in order to make for a more motley appearance, hence the roman numeral II (for the 2nd squad) on his base. I made his back pack a lighter shade of green (and the third guy's will be tan) to further the lack of conformity.

In the event that you're really interested in how the Kazaks are supposed to be used, go & check out the dicerolla. True, Papa JJ doesn't really know what he's doing with Infinity (yet), at least he's giving it a go, whereas I'm not even going to bother.

Battle Babe

o/

As I stated earlier, I have no interest in the game Infinity (nor does anyone else locally) however I do like the minis & have purchased a handful for use in a possible VOR army. Whether or not that ever really happens, it does give me the excuse to buy & paint something different (an spares me of dealing with people getting their hopes up were I to paint a Warmahorde mini). Most of the minis I like are from the Ariadna faction, so if that game ever takes hold here, then I guess I'll already be set.

Anyways, I bought a blister of (3) Line Kazak minis via ebay and this is the first one. Its (sadly) one of the usual 'need to make her look as sexy as possible while wearing body armor & holding a gun' kind of models. Actually, of the three in the blister, this one I like the least. The others to actually look like they're supposed to be soldiers (as opposed to a recruitment centerfold). But whatever, I figured I'd paint her first to get her out of the way. The roman numeral 'I' on the back of her base denotes squad number. The army is planned to have four squads, which will come to 18 infantry models total. Plus the APC in the linked post above (although Secret Weapon Miniatures is working on an awesome 28mm wheeled AFV that I may get if it ever comes into production).

This week looks to be predominantly rainy, so maybe I'll be able to get the other two painted up for my late week post.

Hey, what's that little tank over there?

It's nothing, don't worry about it...

...snicker...

That somewhat infamous exchange is now something of a running joke in our gaming group. It was between myself & Neverness (who will no doubt comment when he sees this post) when he first saw my Forgeworld Cyclops speeding towards his fast approaching Ork bikers. Shortly thereafter, three bikers were vaporized and he asked 'okay, now what the hell was that?!?'

Its what I like to call '25 points of annoyance' yet is more commonly known as the Imperial Cyclops.
Long a fixture in my now sold 110th Ryza imperial guard army, this week I repainted it for use with my renegade guard. In the interim the cyclops has sat hidden away in a drawer, hoping (probably futilely) that it will be forgotten by my friends. So infamous is this little guy that I've had to change tactics & keep it (and it's operator) well hidden for most of the game, in some piece of terrain, laying in wait for the enemy's approach. Indeed, people have walked over to the table, pointed it out and told whomever I was playing to 'SHOOT THAT THING FIRST! JUST DO IT!'

...sigh...

However if all goes to plan, then around turn three or four my opponent will have one of those 'What's tha--oh shit! I didn't see that.' moments.

Hopefully it'll be in my turn where the cyclops can race forwards & kill something, otherwise it's promptly shot at & disabled or (on a roll of a '6' to glance/penetrate) it explodes! Some may call that a dirty trick, but @ 25 points is it? Using FW models & characters (with the exception of super heavies) isn't all that uncommon, and considering most people can't build a list without a 'deathstar' unit included, I would hardly call the cyclops 'dirty'. Perhaps I can get another opinion tonight when it makes its debut against some Tyranid MC spam.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the Cyclops is an IG fast attack choice. AV 10 all around plus an operator which is a lone IG grunt equipped with a lasgun (or in my operator's case, just an autopistol) & a radio controller. You can have 1-3 Cyclops per FA choice (I only have the one). So long as the cyclops is within 48" of the operator it may move normally with the exception of it may move within 1" of an enemy model. If it goes beyond 48", it stops & may not move again till the operator gets back into range.

Once you find the best place to stop (within 1" of something the enemy considers valuable) it explodes in the shooting phase & it does so like a demo charge, except it doesn't scatter and against vehicles the strength isn't halved as the hole is always going to be over the cyclops itself (the cyclops is then removed as it has been vaporized).

Of course if the enemy shoots & glances or penetrates it, the cyclops is automatically wrecked, no rolling on the chart. If the glancing or penetrating roll is a '6', then it explodes in the same manner as above, so it's best not to let this little guy near your own troops! If the operator is killed before it blows up then it basically becomes another piece of terrain, it can't even explode. So it does have it's limitations.

Alternatively, Col. Gravis has one which he uses to represent a demo charge for his veteran squad. That's a pretty good idea actually, except that for me this model has become a bit notorious. So putting it with a veteran squad (even if I were to repeatedly explain that it is just a demo charge and not an actual cyclops), would more or less be the death knell of that squad.

The cyclops is a cheap & fun little curve ball to throw out on the table every now & again though, and I highly recommend you try it out.

Orks! In! Spaaaaaaaaace!!!

(use the narrator's voice from the Muppet Show's 'Pigs in Spaaaace!' segment)

o/

I'm still kinda in the 'I want to paint, but don't feel like painting' funk. Dunno why, or when it'll end. Its kinda odd really as even when burnt out I've never had any loss in the urge to paint minis.

...shrugs...

Anyways, I decided to drag out my Ork BFG fleet yesterday and paint some ships up. BFG ships are quite easy to paint as they're more or less a case of almost all dry brushing, and Ork ships make it even easier as they really don't need to look 'pretty'. So letting my attention to detail pretty much slack off, I managed to paint the following:

Da Red Orktober! This is one of my Kill Kroozers. Its kinda sad that there is such a limited number of Ork kroozer types. but such is GW's love of its specialist games division. Having an over-abundance of karriers, all of my various kroozers (konvershuns included) are all now counted as just Kill Kroozers.


A Brute Ram ship skwadrun. These have always been little psychological warfare weapons of terror, yet have never really accomplished anything aside from said terror on the table top. However after our last game (whenever that was) I realized that I had misread the LD checks for ramming and that that was the cause of their continued failure (which shall hopefully be corrected in their future).

And lastly a pair of Savage Gunships, which are now equipped with 'Bloo Toof Teknology!' Despite their increased speed over other escort/kroozer types, these two tend to hang back till da fleet gets 'stuck in'. At which point they charge in and (hopefully) cripple something that was more concerned with the looming Kroozers and/or battleship.

At this point, all that my Ork fleet has left to be painted is my Supa Karrier (battleship) Da Orktown, and a terror ship turned kill krooozer named Da Orkinawa.

I have minions!

Mwuhahahahaha!!!!

I missed out on our group's last Dark Heresy night (nor did I make any quantifiable painting progress) as I was getting ready to make a weekend run to South Carolina. However after my Character Boris' success in tidying up our team's mission, and getting everyone back on board our ship in orbit for the long return trip home, we're now going to use our original DH characters for a bit. Which is fine, as playing the role of a sociopathic, megalomaniacle, and quite deluded madman can be a bit tiring and a break was needed for me.

My original character Yoseph was never intended (by me) to survive his first adventure as he was a more or less the 2 dimensional training wheels type. A simple 'point & shoot' kind of guy, while I learned the game. He did survive however, and as our new mission is on a hive world, Yoseph has been put in charge! (grins maniacally). Besides the players of our prior team leaders are either burnt out or (in the latter case) incompetent (whether or not I'll be any better remains to be seen).

In talking with our token guardsman the other night, I commented that with me in charge, their lives were forfeit! Assets to be exploited and discarded at my leisure. He took offense to his new reality, so he shall be the first to go!

"Now get up there in front and take that bullet for me bitch!"

Sigh, sorry but that would be Boris talking there actually (were he ever officially put in charge). When compared to Boris, Yoseph is a rather nice guy (nice for a scum anyways).

Previously I had used one of the plastic Orlock juve models with an added shotgun on his back. However with 6 months back pay to spend, as well as money from selling off his old & scavenged gear (just where or when he acquired a vox-caster is beyond my recollection), I reequipped Yoseph and switched to the (oh so appropriate) Necromundan scum model pictured @ left & above. My rolls for finding items were all pretty much good (one roll for each item barring his pistols which required the used of my 'daily reroll'). The now reequipped Yoseph has a Flak coat, two hand cannons with silencers (so they're not quite the bolt pistols on the mini, but they still pack quite a punch), plenty of ammo, his trusty ol' knife, a multi-key (every scum should have one) and the requisite flask of Rotgut booze.

I'm not really sure as to what's in store for inquisitorial team Gamma this coming Friday, however I can assure all of you that Yoseph will expend as many of the other team member's lives as is necessary to accomplish his mission!

Thought for the day: The ends justify the means.

So who's winning exactly?

o/

Well this week the enemy fled before the mediocrity of the GK retinue horde and instead a day later I played another game of Mordhiem. Now, true to form, my rats won even though we had realized that in prior games that we were doing the rout tests wrong which would have sent my rodents fleeing for their lives (taking them once reduced to 25%, not as soon as we suffered 25% casualties). Such is the way of learning to play a game. Anyways we played scenario #8 (I believe) out of the rule book in which there are no routs tests unless taken voluntarily.

So, the Skaven won, right?

I'm not too sure on that. In the aftermath of the game where we roll for injuries, income, etc., all of the accursed Reiklanders recovered without any injury (though they've amassed a few bitter enmities by this point). Meanwhile I once again had a giant rat and Verminkin die (thus maintaining my average).

What the hell?!?

Instead of spending my gold on new/cool stuff for the warband, it almost all goes towards filling the continuously opening holes in the ranks. The Skaven's lack of resilience apparently extends beyond just games of WHFB. To further complicate things, the rat below rolled 'The lad's got talent.' on the henchmen advances chart. At that point I had more heroes than henchmen!
The henchmen group he came from were equipped with clubs & shields (and almost identical paint jobs). After pondering for a moment on how to differentiate the henchman from the hero, i decided to just hire a new henchman equipping him like the old henchman, and to then just buy a sword for the newly elevated 'Snitch Blade'. Of course he came out of the as yet unpainted & unused slaves with swords & shields pile. However his hunched back & reversed blade set him apart enough not have him look like the other sword bearing henchmen models when they eventually hit the table (their swords are held blade first as is normal).

In any case, my Mordheim record up to this point is three pyrrhic victories and counting...

Assassin & Paladin

o/

In looking throught the new GK codex, I saw that the Eversor assassin's gun was no longer a combi-weapon but rather just an 'uber' bolt pistol. For years I had been using my old 'original' assassin conversion as the aptly named 'Obsolete Assassin'. He was an elite slot Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor with rosarius, bolter-stake crossbow, frag & Krak, and a power weapon, and all for a mere 68pts. He never accomplished too much other than just running around, looking cool, and ganking the occasional psyker. However two quick snips of the 'crossbow' bits on his gun, a little bit of codex gray to cover the bare plastic, and he is now returned to full assassin status as an Eversor! :-D

This evening my 'wound allocation circus' will get its battlefield debut against....something. Hopefully another fluff ball list. Though I'm already have visions of a gun line IG list that will obliterate me without ever even trying to move forward. Nonetheless, I finished painting up my paladin 'Matt Fucking Ward' last night and am rather pleased with him (well, the mini, not the actual guy).
The Chapterhouse Exorcist shoulder pad fit on nicely, and GW's sculptors really did an excellent job of giving it a really dynamic pose (though that was more a luck of the draw sort of thing for me as I ordered this lone mini from ebay). The base looked too plain to just flock (a common issue with the 40mm bases) so I trimmed down a Slaaneshi (I believe) icon to fit. All I need now is the regular Exorcist Squad and then (barring the 'borrowed' Aurora vehicles I'll have an almost entirely painted army.