Continuing a Love/Hate relationship...

 o/

I haven't even cracked open the book yet.

I bought this on a whim as the FLGS had it discounted. I also got the free mini that came with it, that of Medal of Honor recipient Francis S. Currey. I may pick up the new and finally in plastic winter US infantry, or give the Quar another shot at Weird War II. I still have a handful of metal Quar including a universal carrier, as well of my newer plastic Royalist minis that I haven't done anything with. I mentioned this idea to a few folks at the FLGS and the idea was pretty well received. 

We shall see I guess...

Not dead, just distracted...

 o/

Ready to Avenge all things Dire...

Just letting you know that I am still alive. Shortly after my last post, when I spoke of needing a break from painting my Il-Kaithe, I played a game of Battletech, my first game played here in South Carolina. Two days later my Battletech Kickstarter minis arrived and all of my attention has been over on my TBAGers blog since. 

I got a cheap squad of 10 Dire Avengers on eBay, sans targeters. Nobody has those bitz available however and well, they'd inevitably just break anyways. As such, I got some Corsair backpack bitz to use in their stead.

That all said, yesterday I needed a break from painting mechs and tanks and so painted this guy up. He came out a little darker than anticipated, but isn't too bad for a 1-day turn around. Also of note (and I am sure that Neverness will no doubt notice), is that this mini is the first to debut a new shade of my alien 'aquarium plant' colored tufts. 

Oh yeah, mold lines-still got 'em!

I have a mix of 13 Dire Avengers and Dark Reapers still on my desk yet to paint. Meaning I haven't forgotten about this project. Its just that 40k has fallen onto the back burner. Several of the folks that I've met in the local Battletech crowd also play 40k. Neverness has also inquired about the next time I'll be in Tennessee in hopes of a game. So 40k will come back around to the fore after a bit I'm sure. 

Il-Kaithe Guardian Defender Squad is complete!

 o/

All ready to get obliterated at the enemy's earliest possible convenience!

Well, I milked this squad for all they were worth, now didn't I? (4) posts till completion equals 2.75 models per post (counting 11 with the separate model for the star cannon). It sounds paltry, and indeed it is compared to some folks out there. For me however, I'd call that about average (well, aside from the Covid quarantine Tau painting extravaganza of early 2022). 

The Final Four. Their Bayonets have been bloodied, though given how effective these guys are in close combat, they were likely bayonetting some Mon'keigh civilians or something similarly verminous.

Still, these weren't the slog that I expected them to be, Indeed I even managed to get a lone Dark Reaper and Farseer painted in along with them. Currently, I have the other four Dark Reapers and a full 10-Strong squad of Dire Avengers left to paint. All told these will bring me up to 400 points. Thus I've been searching eBay for a deal on something cheap to round out the first 500 points.

Yet another Guardian frolicking amongst the Venusian fly traps. 

I really like the pickaxe style bayonets!

Note the forked bayonet, much like an Eldar's tongue!

This one is in my favorite pose of the squad. This was originally a gunner model that I rearmed. 

That said, I have a partially painted Ogryn bodyguard and mortar team for my PHIGs on the table that I am thinking of shoving to the front of the line, before tackling some more Eldar. 

Il-Kaithe Dark Reaper

 o/

Death from afar!

Progress was a little slow this past week. I caught a little 24 hour bug, I turned 49 which was unrelated to feeling ill (no, seriously), basically the typical real life stuff. Nonetheless there has been some painting progress. As you can see above, I painted the first of my five Dark Reapers. 

I was trying to recall and the Il-Kaithe are shaping up to be my fourth...or maybe fifth (?) Craftworld Eldar army. Surprisingly (or maybe oddly), this is the first time I've ever had any Dark Reapers other than Maugan Ra. I never liked the old metal sculpts which is the cause of that. The current minis look alright though, thus I finally have a squad.

The last four of the Guardian Defenders are in progress. 

This week will include a really quick trip back to Tennessee to take care of some personal matters. I don't plan to be 'back home' for even 24 hours, however with about a dozen hours of round trip driving (it would take almost the same amount to fly as there are no direct flights), I don't foresee these last four getting done this week, but ya never know...

Il-Kaithe Farseer

o/

There's some witchery in-progress!

Moving right along, I finished up my Farseer. I got this 'Warlock' off of eBay for a grand total of $11.19 with shipping and sales tax. When it arrived, I realized it was a Farseer (which was a nice trade up). As such this is my fledgling force's warlord. Not that that wouldn't have also been the case were it actually the Warlock I thought he was.

32mm base and greenstuff aside, this is how it looked when it arrived in the mail, conveniently it was already based coated in Il-Kaithe colors.

It even arrived with the spear's shaft intact,

but that wouldn't last for long...

Shortly after this guy arrived and I started painting on it, I dropped it and the singing spear's shaft snapped as I caught it. Yay. It broke at about the midway point and while fixable, I figured that future breaks would be inevitable. 

A spear no more.

While the spear is superior to the blade, this isn't a guy I want that close to the enemy anyways. 

I'm really pleased with the drybrushed highlights on his coat. 

Thus, I trimmed the shaft down to a hilt, and turned the spear into a more durable witchblade. I'm sure he also has a shuriken pistol concealed somewhere. Under his coat, bag of holding, portable hole, something like that. 

As you saw in the eBay pics above, I trimmed the 25mm base down as far as I could and glued it onto a 32mm base to match the rest of the army. I then green stuffed the gap. Once painted, sand and the tufts were applied, it all blended together nicely. 

Perfection! 

This was a fun one to paint, now back to the rank and file I guess.

I already have two guardians and one dark reaper partially base coated using excess green and purple paint from my little paint palette. I'll likely paint those as a batch to break the monotony, especially as they have similar color schemes (well ok, the Reaper has a lot black as well). 

Guardians of the Storm (pt. 2)

o/

Four more on the finished list. 

Well the storm has past us (mostly, its North Carolina and above's problem now). We even saw a bit of sunshine yesterday! Downtown Charleston and the barrier islands saw some bad flooding. A brief tornado took out an Arby's about 20 minutes from here, and another came ashore and damaged several houses on Edisto island. All told we got about 12-14" of rain, but our neighborhood stayed dry. We're very lucky as they were forecasting upwards of 30" of rain!

This Dark Eldar bayonet allows for the catapult to be swung like a pickaxe. 

The token Guardian, frolicking thru the fly traps!

The extended, bejeweled antennae mark this guy out as the squad's comms specialist. 

This one is looking a bit concerned at that little red light on the top of his catapult.

As you can see above, the inability (or rather the lack of desire) to go outside provided me with the opportunity to finish the four guardians from my prior post. These bring me up to a total of six. Before tackling he final four I'm working on my Farseer instead. I also (re)assembled the Dark Reapers that showed up during the deluge. The 'quality' packaging from a cut rate eBay seller was more to blame I think, than the Postal Service.  

Just four more to go!

As I build up this fledgling force, I thought I'd run the numbers and see just what this game costs. I just snagged (10) Dire Avengers off of eBay bringing the 'army' up to 415pts. All told, my 26 Eldar (and Starcannon) have an MSRP of $247.50, $270 including tax, or about $1.53 per point. 

Such an insane hobby we have. 

That said, this force came off of eBay, where I've spent $114.51 and inside that space of time I sold $38 (net) in unwanted, old minis. As such, this army has cost me $76.50 tax and shipping included. Still feels like too much and that's almost a $200 discount! 

Guardians of the storm

o/

We're fine (so far). We still have power, internet, everything. However, Jim Cantore is in town which doesn't bode well, so there is that. Today we got about 5" of rain and tomorrow we're forecast to get about the same, and probably the day after that, and then the next day too...

Nonetheless the painting continues. 

Not the best photo, but you get the idea.

I've been batch painting Guardians since basic infantry is always a slog to paint in my opinion. These four blokes have just been inked, and are ready for the next stage where I drybrush the base colors over the inking to mitigate the heavy spots of it. Basing follows thereafter and they'll be close to done at that point. No idea when the weather will cooperate well enough for clear coating though. 

I also picked up a dirt cheap squad of Dark Reapers to accompany these guys. Those are scheduled to be delivered Tuesday, so I guess we'll see just how persistent the US Postal service is given the weather. Personally, they can wait in my opinion. Given their price, they'll likely need a little love like this squad did. 

I've also sold some unwanted minis here of late which has mitigated the cost of the Dark Reapers and my $9 dollar Warlock Farseer. I thought I was getting a warlock, but it turned out to be a Farseer, damned false eBay advertising! Conveniently, the Farseer was base coated in Il-Kaithe colors.  

 

Il-Kaithe Starcannon Team

 o/

The starcannon and now both of it's gunners are complete.

According to the fluff, the Guardians of Il-Kaithe have fairly close ties with their Dark Eldar brethren, and are known to use similar squad markings. Well, I don't have any Dark Eldar decals and hand painting unit makings is out of the question for my painting skills. So what other options are there? 

As you can see, Dark Eldar bits were the answer!  

I think the blast shield's banner translates to: Eat at Joe's. 

While not a Dark Eldar decal, this one was still suitably spiky.

I'm rather pleased with how the power core's glow came out.

The Dark Eldar Raider trophy poles work rather well I think. 

Most of the rest of the squad have Dark Eldar bayonets on their shuriken catapults, which like the trophy poles, blend quite well with the Craftworld sculpts. The bits I ordered didn't have enough bayonets for the whole squad which is fine. There always has to be at least a few Eldar on the straight and narrow.

I like that both gunner's have the same type of helmet.

The discarded Guardian helm, half buried on his base is visibly damaged, likely having lead to it's removal.

The gunners likewise don't have any blades on their catapults, though I would imagine that one of them could grab the polearm without the skulls were the situation to become up close and personal! 

Gorillas? or Guerillas?

 o/

This week's diversion...

Fittingly, the squad leader Joe Kaero's armor is more impressive looking (though not anymore effective).

These guys were hard to photograph as they blend well with both the siding of my house, and as you can see the mulch around it.

Their color scheme came out looking good, and was fairly simple.

These minis came from the 2nd Star Schlock Kickstarter which delivered 5 months ahead of schedule (that does actually happen sometimes). Clearly these were modeled after the 1960s-70s Planet of the Apes movies. Sadly, there was no Charlton Heston mini to oppose them. 

What, would you have preferred a pineapple grenade instead? 

Unlike most all running pose mins, this guy has a good contact with his base, and didn't need a strategically place rock or bit on his base for added support.

I really liked these minis when they arrived last week and so I painted them up this past weekend. Star Schlock is a retro styled miniature game, who's rules I know nothing about. Oh by the way, if anyone out there is RPGing Star Trek the Original Series, they have some minis on their site that would be excellent stand-ins for an away team!

I used this screen grab above as a painting guide, and I think these guys came out pretty well as a result.

So what to do with these guys, right? Well, Being armed with rifles, They would work as Iggies, except that there are only (5) of them. After looking thru my indexes, I settled on the Inquisitorial Henchmen datacard, as 2 wound Guardsmen with 3 melee attacks apiece sounded pretty good. I switched out their 'firearms' which are -1 AP bolt pistols for the simple autoguns that these models carry. 

Move over Hogzillaries, the Apes have arrived!

I made these primates an unaligned unit and for unit comp (as Henchmen come is all sorts of weird combos) I opted to go with the base of four grunts & a Jokaero added in to reach five models. Since they are all identically equipped, I discarded all of the Jokaero abilities (and now you know why the leader mini in the 2nd pic was named Joe Kaero). It works, and they clock in at 60 points currently. Don't know if I'll ever use them, but they now have stats and a legal points allotment in the event that I do. 

In the Grim Darkness of the future, there is a Joker inspired Craftworld

 o/

Hey, what's under that shelving unit over there?

While boxing up my office in preparations to move to South Carolina, I discovered a bitz baggie containing an Eldar Guardian minus his arms under some shelves. I tossed said baggie in the nearest box and promptly forgot about it until I found it a week or two later during the unpacking of my hobby stuff. 

The yellow & red lights on his catapult indicate that he's running low on ammo.

Lacking any Eldar bitz to replace his arms (or rather, not willing to wade thru the bitz box to try and find a matching pair of arms, if any), I ordered another set along with some other odds and ends to justify the shipping cost. I had to fill in the armpit joints with greenstuff, as all of the new Guardian arms are flat where they join the torso rather than a ball socket as it was on the old models.

Mold lines, yeah we got 'em!

When it came to picking a color scheme, there was really no question: Craftworld Il-Kaithe. My favorite color has always been purple, with green a close second. As you can see, Il-Kaithe's color scheme is just the opposite: green with purple trim. 

You know, like the Joker.

Though I believe the resemblance ends there (or not). A quick perusal of their fluff indicates that the Eldar of Il-Kaithe play well and often with the Dark Eldar, So like the Joker, they too are buddies with the bad guys!

Buns of steel!

(and armor of cardboard)

I found a squad of 9 guardian defenders that needed a little love, a warlock as well as some parts to effect repairs. Collectively, that all came to about half of their original retail their price on eBay (yes, I ought to have been buying Tau, but whatever). I'll see if I can make it through painting these before I lose interest in the Eldar (again). In the event that I do keep them, I would say that the likely pace of expansion up to an army would be glacial at best. 

The rearmed Sub-Commander Firestorm

 o/

For The Greater Good!

Following the debacle of my last game (see previous post), I'm looking for ways to up-gun my Tau. This is however hampered by the fact that our house in Tennessee hasn't sold yet leaving us with two homes to pay for, meaning no new toys can be bought. 

I paint grime so well, that you can't tell that the missile pods and sensor aren't original equipment.

First up, was to rearm Sub-Commandeer Firestorm as mentioned previously. Gone are the flamer and much maligned airbursting fragmentation launcher. Now she's armed with a pair of missile pods, while retaining the weapon support system & shield generator. Whilst not the most potent weapons that she could wield, they are the longest ranged turning her into a light fire support unit. 

The recon drone's flight stand was primed, so I flocked the base and hid the post in some foliage.

While not hers specifically, I also painted up a pair of shield drones. These will be added to my drone pool to be passed out to whomever. They're basically free floating ablative wounds. 

 I believe the decal translates to: BRRRRT!

I also assembled and painted up the pathfinders' Recon drone. This would not have helped at all in my prior game as it would have died right along with the shas'ui on turn one like most of the rest of the pathfinders (unless the shas'ui had had a shield drone...). Regardless, it is a cool mini and I'm not sure as to why I never assembled it before. 

Next up, I guess I need to build the Broadside that's been in the shrink-wrap for the past year or two...