The Vacation Squad

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Liberating yet another vacation destination from the Empire!

Last week we went on vacation for the week, spending part of the week with family in North Carolina and then a few days in Washington DC. As with our trip to Tennessee earlier this year, I figured that there would be some down time in the evenings, and so brought my paint box and some minis (or 'dolls' as my wife's aunt called them) along for the trip. 

A few token vacation pics. 

A USMC M-60, my favorite tank of all time!

The lighting in NC left a lot to be desired for painting, but was much better at the Airbnb in DC. That said, I was able to get all of these painted to a state where they were ready for inking. We had the weekend at home to recover from the trip during which I was able to finish these minis off. 

Yes, I really mean recover! It was 100 degrees every day in DC by the way...

MPL-57 Ion & Z-6 support weapon specialists.

They both have backup blaster rifles, neither of which will ever be used.

A basic trooper and the squad's token alien, a Duros. I just saw on Wookiepedia that the Duros' eyes are red, so will touch that up here shortly.

The Duros will be the squad's leader, as he (?) is the easiest to distinguish from the others. 

Two more basic troopers, the guy on the right is still my favorite sculpt out of this old set. 

I went with a motley assortment of colors on this squad's kit, unlike those squads that I've painted in the past. 

Lastly, another R2-FU Astromech to repair the AR-RT.

Edit: looking at these pics, I wonder if I should go back to using the camera on my old phone...

Is this the Ardennes? Or the Low Country?

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Well, like everywhere else in the American Southeast, we got a snow yesterday! From what I've been told, it has been 7 years since the last time it has snowed in Charleston. While the city itself is all but shut down, I work remotely and thus it was just another Wednesday. 

Still looks like paradise, just a cold one.

Nonetheless, I joined all of the other local geeks in taking pics of their toys out in the snow because why not? I mean, its not like I've never done the same in Tennessee right? So here ya go:

Patrolling the mulch bed next to my house. 

Followed by a sweep and clear of the neighbor's frigid flower beds.

There were some tight spots so had to call in the troops.

BAR gunner in the brush!

Even with the brown coats they blend decently. 

Looks like we're in the clear boys, that's a Victory for Uncle Sam!

Looking forward to New Years going out with a...bazooka?

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I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas holiday (or at least those of you who celebrate it). We don't get Frankie back from his Dad until Saturday which is when we will be celebrating our Christmas. As such, yesterday and the day before were just odd, mid week days off for me. Nevertheless, I am sure that Neverness, as well as all of the other US Postal, Amazon, FEDEX, UPS & retail workers are thrilled to know that the hell of the holiday season has largely subsided for another year and will substantially be winding down in the next week or so.   

All that's left at this point is New Year's Eve which for us means that after drinking a bottle of my wife's favorite Veuve Clicquot champagne we'll be making 12:30-1am-ish, breakfast sandwiches while we're heavily buzzed. Frankie has never experienced this before so that ought to be a hoot. 

Finally! That Bazooka team that you came here looking for...

On the gaming front...

Originally, I would have already played a game of Bolt Action 3.0 by this point, but scheduling conflicts, and then the holidays, has meant that my first game of 3.0 won't happen till sometime in January. My opponent's army is fully painted, whereas mine will be only at least a third painted. But it is (slowly) getting there...

That's it, we're outta here!

2024 has been a roller coaster for us but we're hoping for a better 2025. Hopefully it will be for all of you as well!

What happens when you put a teddy bear in a blender?

Well, let's just say that it does not end well for the teddy bear...

As you can see, I played my first ever game of Star Wars Legion. My little army got rave reviews from the folks at the shop as it was just 4 models shy of being fully painted. Indeed, one of the FLGS owners commented: So, you've clearly been buying and painting these for quite awhile, but you're only playing your first ever game now? Weird. 

The four unpainted minis were only acquired about a week or so ago. 

My opponent Jake (the FLGS' other co-owner) had only played a few games previously himself, so we were both more or less stumbling though the motions, though admittedly I was more than he. 

I fielded a generic Rebel officer, no upgrades

(2) Squads of Rebel Troopers, each with an extra trooper and a Z-6 gunner

A squad of Veterans with an extra veteran and an upgrade card that I totally forgot about, so isn't worth mentioning

A squad of Ewoks with 'Charge' and an Axe Ewok

AT-RT with a rotary blaster

Landspeeder with a refurbished Gonk droid, RPS-6 rocket gunner, hotshot pilot and a Mk II medium blaster

Jake had General Grievous

Cad Bane (he's as bad ass on the table as he is on screen)

(2) squads of 2 Droidekas

and a double squad of B-1 Battle droids with a special weapon of some sort. 

The scenario had 6 objectives which were quickly forgotten about (though they partly won me the game), secondary objectives were totally forgotten as well. 

Even though they were not on 40mm bases, the moisture evaporators were still the objectives.

B-1s suck, unless there are a lot of them...

With the B1's opening volley, they crippled the AT-RT despite having armor 2 (which cancels 2 hit outright). While it would move no further being reduced to 1 action per turn, it's rotary blaster exacted revenge, halving the B-1 squad!

Turn 2 and I got to go first with the Ambush command card. The Ewoks charged the Droidekas and a spectator asked how the Ewoks were going to kill Droidekas with sticks? My answer: PLOT ARMOR!

Not quite sure where the aim token came from, in hindsight that may have been issued erroneously...or maybe it was a command card?

The Rebel line advancing between the rocks and my fallen AT-AT.

The already wounded Doideka falls to the Teddy bears and they also wound the second one. 

Which promptly with draws from combat and the 2nd squad of Droidekas hose down the Ewoks. killing most of them!

A rebel squad and the AT-RT finish off the B1s. 

The Ewok leader tries to rally the Axe Ewok...

This looks like an epic fight.

It was not.

Air and orbital strikes dish out loads of suppression (vehicles don't suffer from suppression, another mistake). Unfortunately, Grievous found himself out in the open & the speeder hit him with everything it had, wounding him badly.

Cad Bane, taking out squads, and immobilizing more with frighteningly brutal efficiency! With only 1 action, and the rotary blaster out of arc, the AT-RT's pilot pulls out his rifle and one handedly puts 2 crits into Bane! That pilot is a Chiss you know...

No more pics were taken from this point forward, but the Rebel officer managed to put another wound on Cad Bane and also finished off the ailing (well, more than the usual) General Grievous. At that point, I was up by a point, and all Jake had left was the wounded Cad Bane and 2 Droidekas. I still had 1 or 2 of my veterans, the damaged AT-RT, the speeder, and unhurt officer. It was getting late and not seeing as path to victory he ran up the white flag. 

That was fun, I need a full hand of command cards though, I'll need to remedy that before my next game. I know we screwed up several things, but nothing really all that game changing. The Ewoks performed well, though were the glass cannon I expected them to be. Most of the rest performed decently and/or about as i had expected them to. The only exception being the Rebel officer who might deserve a name right out of the gate as he was quite the marksman. 

*****

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving! Frankie is up at his Dad's in Virginia for the holiday. As such, we have to come up and get him. I am not looking forward to a 12-14 hour round trip. It should be only 10-12 hours, but the holiday traffic, a blocked interstate due to this year's hurricanes, and a lousy weather forecast means it will be slower going. Nonetheless, we will be up in TN for a few days for Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house. The fam in Knoxville is mad at us again as a result, despite the reality that the aforementioned blocked interstate would add another 4-5ish hours round trip to go to see them (ah yes, the joy that the holidays bring...). 

I'll be packing light, but am planning on getting a small game of Battletech in with Screech at our Airbnb on Black Friday. My apologies to Neverness & the rest, no room in the car for a 40K army. I am already done Christmas shopping, so will not be partaking in the shopping madness, other than to swing by the old Hobbytown which will be right up the street from where we will be staying.

Not dead, just distracted...

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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 Dark Reaper

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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...

Guardians of the Storm (pt. 2)

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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

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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.  

 

We survived the move...

Huzzah!

Now that the colossal task of boxing everything up, driving it from Tennessee to South Carolina, closing on our new house, and unloading the U-haul trucks has all passed. We have arrived at the equally long and tedious task of unboxing everything and trying to find a place to put it all. 

Honestly, the whole experience is exhausting as you all well know. 

But we're getting there. Today I set up my home office with both this, my personal computer and my work laptop (with an extra monitor) set up side by side. Also, I've managed to uncover a handful of minis from the endless morass of boxes. However, as you can see by the cheering Quar above, no painting has yet occurred (that said my paints and brushes have been unboxed as well). 

All in all, its been a fairly easy move, with the only exception being that within 24 hours of moving into our new house, the hot water heater expired. Ugh. We knew that it was nearing the end of its life span, just didn't think it was that close to the end! As such, today was a very expensive day (most days here of late have been, though this one was exceptional). 

Still, we're moving forward and with some luck maybe I'll manage some actual hobby time outside of this rambling post. Also hoping to start exploring the Charleston area beyond what we know of it from previous visits. Unfortunately, with the heat index clocking in at around 100 degrees Fahrenheit most every day, there's little incentive to leave the air conditioning right now. 

That's what we get for moving south in the summer time I guess. 

The End of an Era...

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Sunset? Or an orbital strike? You decide.

Fear not good readers, this is not the end of this here blog, I shall keep it going for all 5 or 6 of you who still peruse it's meagre offerings. That said, this will indeed be my last post made from this blog's birthplace: the Appalachian Subsector (aka: Tennessee). 

Since my last post, my wife found us a fantastic house in the Charleston, South Carolina burbs which we now have under contract. Damn near everything that has not been sold off on Facebook Marketplace, donated to Habitat for Humanity, or else given to/spoken for by friends and family has instead been boxed up in preparation for the impending move.

This includes virtually all of my hobby stuff. That said, the Black Dragons are still accessible, as are my (non-spray) paints and my hobby tools and brushes (though everything save the Dragons who reside in my game cart are also boxed, except said boxes aren't yet sealed up). 

This guy is the last mini to be assembled prior to the impending move.

Time for gaming though? Doubtful before I move, especially as my allergies feel like they're morphing into an illness of some sort for added inconvenience. Yay. That said, for my Tennessee friends and opponents, I will be back up here for the week of the 4th of July, perhaps sooner depending on whether or not work will have my laptop for working remote ready before the move (fingers crossed). 

As for the Gravis Captain above, he will take the place of the Eradicators' escort as the pretty looking, but damned near useless in my opinion, Apothecary Biologis has redeployed to far off battlefields, never to be seen again (by me).