This week's round up.

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Fuck the opening crawl, we're attacking! 

I got another game of Star Wars Legion in, with my Separatist Alliance making its battlefield debut. It was my opponent's 3rd game, none of which involved droids. As such he was not able to correct me if I did anything wrong. Being my first time using said army, I am sure that I made plenty of mistakes.

My opponent was also strecthing for points and apologized for having both Vader & an AT-ST in a recon mission list. Next time I'll see if he wants to borrow my small Imperial contingent. 

I was stretching for points, so I had unit upgrades everywhere and forgot about most of them. Darth Vader killed most of my army single handedly forcing me to concede that while I don't like force users, I probably need to field one, even if only to tie up the opposing force user.

At one point, my Super Tactical Droid charged Vader, hoping to tie him up for a bit. That was an unwise decision...

I prefer more of the Rogue One/Andor type of army of average Joes (or in this case, droids) fighting the battles. However, it is Star Wars and so like the game of War Machine, the same half dozen characters don their plot armor before leading every...single...battle. 

The Dwarf Spider's 'wicked kick' attack was brushed off by a bemused Darth Vader. 

Anyways, despite heavy losses, I held a slim edge in VPs throughout the game. That is, until about midway thru the final turn when my my army finally crumbled leaving me with nothing more than my T-series command droid and one of the Dwarf Spider droids, remaining. At that point I ran up the white flag. Overall it was an enjoyable game though. 

Next up: The State of my 40k. 

In short, it is rapidly declining. I donated the vast majority (say, 95%-ish) of my spare bitz and terrain to the FLGS for use as a community resource. I have a very limited amount of space to store gaming stuff at my new house in SC. Those two tubs of plastic were taking up a lot of room in my miniatures storage closet while not being used. Nor did they possess any prospect of being needed at any time in the foreseeable future. 

Just another unfullfilled prophecy...

As for my 40K armies, the PHIGs (minus the squad siphoned off for Trench Crusade) are boxed up and will be shipping out today to a very excited buyer in California. The PHIGs will join his WWI styled Iggy army. It is exceptionally rare to get such enthusiasm from an eBay buyer. They may have have sold for less than I wanted them to, but knowing that they are going to someone who cannot wait to get them makes up for that in my opinion.

What little remains of the unpainted portions of my Smurfs, Orks & Tau are likely to be next in line for eBay. I have decided to hang on to the painted portions of my 40k armies for the time being. 

Now where did I put those Ork & Imperium styled Christmas trees that I got from Kromlech last year? 

Lastly,  this weekend I finished up these Christmas bots that I bought from Bombshell miniatures last year. These will be distributed too friends and family who neither read, nor are even aware of this blog's existance. As such, I can post them here without spoiling the surprise for anyone. 

Trench Crusade

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I put the playtest rules on a flashdrive and took it to my local UPS store and had a book made. Not having a tablet, it is much easier to use than being just one more thing to read online. 

So this is building up considerable steam here locally. When I first heard of the game in Tennessee, I read some of the fluff, the grimmer & darker than 40K hype, then read that the Black Grail is essentially Nurgle and was like WTF? With no future in it  for the foreseeable future up there that I could see, I just ignored it. 

My test paint job for a Yeoman with semi-automatic rifle. Grimmer & darker than my painted Iggy PHIGs. 

Heraldic lion emblem on the shoulder pauldron & the 'CI' (Christian Infantry) badge on the pack, c/o the DKK decal sheet of all things. 

That cross barely fit so will have to find something else. The 19th decal probably denotes a squad or platoon designation. After 300+ years or trench warfare against literal Hell, I doubt there is a 19th anything left above that unit level that can claim the number 19. 

The FLGS has the STLs and is selling minis. I like the New Antioch faction but will likely only need to buy some of the Mechanized Heavy Infantry models (which look awesome). As you have already guessed for the bulk of my warband, I've been siphoning off models from my currently unused and largely unpainted PHIGs army. 

Weapon & equipment swap with an old (and now discarded) Warzone/Prodos miniature that had been knocking around in my minis cases for years. 

With the ornate trench shield and rare SMG, I am thinking that this guy will be my Lieutenant.

Indeed, those models are being marketed on Etsy more for Trench Crusade than they are for 40k now. I took a painted PHIG model to the FLGS to compare its size to an official STL printed mini, and was told by several folks that they would be just fine with me using my PHIGs. I have some 40k bits coming of imperial agent hand axes, truncheons and a few DKK shovels to add for close combat weapons. 

Yeomen with grenade launcher & shotgun. 

2nd platoon has arrived!

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Just a quick post (indeed, its comparable to my usual Instagram posts) showing off the second platoon of PHIGs (Pointy Helmeted Imperial Guardsmen) that have just arrived. With only 12 poses to choose from, I now have 6 of everybody! 

It looks like confusion reigns on the mustering field...

Considering that I only have a little more than a dozen of the first batch of 36 painted, don't hold your breath on these guys looking any different, anytime soon. 

The 1st PHIG heavy weapon squad is complete!

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Looks like I painted the rim of that base the wrong shade of green...

I say first as I've ordered another batch of 36 minis here recently, which will give me enough missile teams for a second squad. That or spread 'em out amongst a platoon, I haven't decided yet. Regardless, this gives me my first painted squad for this army! 

I varied up the shades of brown for their leather pouches and kit as well as the autogun's stock. 

Lacking any battlefield detritus for the base, I just opted for some cork-turned-rock bits and a few tufts.

A better view of the varied leather colors. 

Just a quick little post for today as this is the only painting that I've managed to do in the past two weeks or so. 

2 PHIG missile teams and a Psyker are complete!

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Sorcery-in-progress!

This week I have an update on the slow progress of my Pointy Helmeted Imperial Guardsmen (PHIGs). I painted up a pysker, and finally finished two of the three missile teams for the heavy weapons squad (I can only do two at a time as I'm limited to just four of the tiny bases I temporarily glue them too). 

First up, the Psyker.

Feel the Force flow thr-oh wait, wrong genre. 

Note the runes on his/her kit. 

The witchery does not extend to the back of the hand...

Rune inscribed Force Hatchet.

As always there a pistol for shooting in close combat. 

This mini will serve as a Primaris Psyker. As I'm really limited on sculpts with this bunch, I just did a hand swap on a superfluous standard bearer. To help him stand out from the rest of the oh so similar infantry, I added a witchfire-esque glow to both his/her (like you can tell under all of that gear) hand and emanating from the grill of the helm. 

I rather like the effect. His/her kit is also inscribed with several runes of...warding? He/she is also equipped with a rune inscribed force hatchet.

The team's gunner is prepped to fire with the loaders each carrying a spare launcher.

This will be the red squad which seems like an appropriate color for fire support. 

The Ammo Crates hold spare rounds, presumably enough to carry them thru a standard 5-turn game.

I got a little ahead of myself on these guys and forgot to add any unit decals. I'll likely carry this omission on to the last team as well. 

Next up are two of the heavy weapons squad's missile teams. These missile teams are the only option that these minis come with in regards of heavy weaponry. That said these look good and luckily missile launchers are good against both armor and light infantry hordes. I also like the 50mm weapon team bases over the prior 60mm bases which seemed like a bit much for an Iggy weapon team.

Target acquired, fire on my mark!

Next up for this army will be to finish the last weapon team and maybe the final four grunts in my first infantry squad. After that, perhaps a 2nd tank will be in order.

The first 6 PHIGs are complete.

o/

Their dirty uniforms go well with the rusty body armor and weapons. Clearly these guys aren't mere parade troops.

Despite a busy week, I've managed to make some progress on my new PHIGs army. That said, heading into the week leading up to Christmas, and a trip immediately following thereafter, I'm not likely to accomplish much more for this year in terms of hobbying. 

The squad insignia/number/name/something is visible on the left pauldrons.

The right side pauldron armor shows a squad color stripe for ease of identification, as well as a good view of their rifle grenades for use with that lovely 'Grenades' stratagem.

Some enterprisingly individual (probably in the propaganda division) decided to have their army icon added onto some of their backpacks. However the combination of daily use and/or grit has rendered several of these icons into little more than a unidentifiable mess.

I've been pondering a name for the army beyond merely PHIGs. Maybe the Pirate Heavy Interdiction Group, or perhaps the Palachian (P'Lachian?) Heavy Infantry Guards? Hrmmm...the search continues. Regardless, 'PHIGs' has stuck in my brain, so I'll need to utilize that acronym somehow. 

Neverness had asked for a size comparison pic, so here ya go! 

As you can see, this PHIG trooper's height is not quite on par with that of 808 Linum of the Admech, not to mention he/she's a tad more rotund. Were the primaris marine also standing up straight, he would likely be about eye level with the top of the PHIG trooper's pointy helm. 

Lastly I hope all of you have a fun, safe, & enjoyable Christmas and

New Year & I will see you all again on the other side!  

New Guard Army (WiP)

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A few of the new recruits! 

Back in October, Zzzzz posted his belated entry for Nevereness' Inquisitorial conclave, and I immediately fell in love with the 3D printed minis in his post! A link shared later, three squads quickly ordered and I was off to the races! 

These guys will be accompanying my Whippet tanks (I now have three, though two will remain boxed up until after the holidays). Lacking a proper name for the army, I (currently) refer to them as the 'PHIGs' (Pointy Helmeted Imperial Guardsmen). 

No, they aren't pretty folks. Indeed I call this the 'ugly stage' of my painting process.  Next up is a million little touch ups and whatever I missed will hopefully be hidden under inking and later added grime. 

There are only a dozen individual poses for these guys which is a bit limiting, but I'm pretty sure I have 'em all worked out to where they'll work fine. After the holidays, when I'm not spending a shit-ton of $$$ on a daily basis, I'll order two more squads which will round out my force to a thousand points. 

Above and below are the first batch of ten that I'm working on:

Some basic grunts with autoguns. The bodies are 1-piece prints with only the heads being separate, plus whatever base you want to add.

As you can see, these guys are pretty heavily laden with gear. 

Squad sergeant and SAW gunner (more on the latter below). The sergeant is actually one of the superfluous standard bearers like the one seen in the first pic, just with a hand-swap.

The missile teams are currently on little bitty 20mm bases for ease of painting. Once they're ready to go, they'll be transferred to the new Iggy weapon teams' 50mm bases.

The Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) gunner. 

In Zzzzz's linked post above, he was treating this model as a heavy stubber trooper, but to me that weapon didn't quite fit the bill. With only a small stock/barrel extension and a drum magazine a SAW seemed to be more appropriate. 

However while my opponents don't have any issues with my proxies (well, Hogzillaries aside), inventing new weapons will likely give them pause. However, if I just use the stats of the IG Grenade launcher while omitting the Krak round, it works out quite nicely actually. Also, no one ever complains when I make weapons worse to justify a proxy. 

Autogun:  R:24" A:1 BS:4+ S:3 AP:0 D:1 SP: Rapid Fire 1

SAW:        R:24" A:D3 BS:4+ S:4 AP:0 D:1 SP: Blast  

Slightly better, but not too far removed from the stock autogun. I'll retain the Blast ability not because it actually is a blast weapon, but rather the extra hit per 5 models in the target unit is akin to the gunner holding the trigger down for a longer burst of fire. 

Anyways, its on to the touch ups!