Maelee, the 'female' space marine

Purists like Neverness, no doubt already feel their gorge rising at this heretical notion...

So...given that the Primaris marines shit-canned decades of fluff by their sudden appearance into 40k, I ask why stop there? If Cawl could so improve upon the Emprah's work, why couldn't he exponentially double the potential recruitment pool by adding in female space marines?

Note the ANGRY MAHREENZ!!! trademark power wrench in her hand. No doubt she prized it from the grip of it's previous owner's still twitching corpse.

Entirely chauvinistic reasons aside, I still like to think of the two missing Legions that even the traitor astartes won't discuss as being female legions. I mean seriously, what holds their treacherous tongues on the subject?

 (30k and 40k fanboi nerd rage in 3, 2, 1...)

I shaved off the accent plate on her torso just beneath the collar to make room for an Aquila decal or the like.

Maelee, is Bombshell Minis' Gencon release mini, and a fine one at that I think! I didn't care for her not-bolt rifle and power pack (can't be too similar so as to avoid a lawsuit...) and so replaced them with a spare arm, holster and then sacrificed an actual primaris marine for his backpack. 

Yeah, I need to attach a helmet to her belt so as to add the obligatory Lt. stripes.

In the rare event that she sees the table top rather than just the display case, she'll serve as a Primaris Lieutenant (well of course, lol). I was thinking of painting her up in the colors of the ANGRY MARINES!!!! arch nemesis-the Pretty Marines. 

Da boyz iz back in town!

 o/

My assembled Kill Team Ork Kommandos:

Honestly, they really are beautiful sculpts!

As I've sold off my KT rules and tokens, these will instead be folded into my Ork army's scant infantry forces (increasing it by almost a third)! The only speshulists built were the rokkit launcha boy to round out my Tankbustas to an even dozen (+ bomb squig), and da snipa which will serve as a big shoota since his gun is already a big shoota with stock, scope and flash suppressor added. 

I also modified the sluggas with the horizontal muzzles that made them look more like giant flat-head screws rather than gun barrels-seriously what the hell is up with that design? Are da boys stealing shuriken ammo from da panzies now? I think not...

Oops! I forgot to add in the mouthful of grenades. Oh well...

....annnnnnd I'm broke.

Well, not really. However my buying new toys budget is frozen for a bit as at this point I have so many new minis to build and paint that I don't even know where to start! I perused the new KT rules and was so thrilled with the updates that those plus the tokens and dumb movement tools are on eBay with one bid and almost a dozen watchers! It'll be good riddance to them. 

Rules aside, there's still a metric ton of plastic in the box and having seen the built minis and terrain at the FLGS where I bought these, I'll definitely be hanging onto those!! I'll probably build those minis first now that I think of 'em...

After spending a bloody fortune, I came back a bit later for a game of X-wing with Frankie. Here's a few highlight pics rather than a bat rep, as being a week after playing, I don't recall all of the details specifically. That said it was my first win against him. A good thing too as he was starting to feel bad for me...lol. 

My wily opponent looking pleased as Chewbacca and the Wookie commandos aboard his YT-1300 The Red Kraken waylay into my Scoutmaster 3000 in turn two. 

A truly uneven contest though I did take a good chunk of the Kraken's shields out in one volley much to Frankie's surprise.

Turn 3, it died. Not sure but think this is only my second use of this ship and I don't think I liked it the first go 'round either...

My Y-wing, down to it's last hit point instructs Frankie on the fine art of blocking and thus avoiding getting shot for 2 turns or so, much to his annoyance. 

That said it did blow up, but only did so shortly before the Kraken itself also went BOOM! Up until this game he starting to believe it was invincible I think as I'd previously only inflicted minimal damage to it.  

Down to his last, shieldless X-wing and just a little shocked at how good my StarViper was (it was still undamaged), Frankie's last X-Wing bolted off of the table, escaping to fight another day!

Gettin' in (Heavy) Gear

 o/

A Warrior IV. This was one of my first purchases and as it turns out...it wasn't the model I actually wanted. Oh well.

Yes, yes...as mentioned previously I'm revisiting an old, dead game that I got rid of way back in 2015. However, Heavy Gear seems to have had some new life breathed into it here of late. My buddies Rob and Scott have been playing this fairly frequently and I've heard that a few other folks are looking into it as well. 

I have the rule book (a printed out PDF) as well as the unit compendium (non-printed PDF), and 8 Gears built, with another 5 on the way. Currently, my forces as built clock in at 65pts, which is a bit over the minimum 50pts for a skirmish game. The Gears I have on order will round my little army up to 100pts., which is more or less the average game size. 

The convoluted rules that have plagued Heavy Gear in the past have supposedly been majorly simplified in this 3rd edition, but they don't read too much like it to me (not that they do in most any gaming rule book that i read...). Rob & Scott seem to have 'em figured out, and are still playing. That's what I was waiting for before throwing my hat into the ring.

Once that Warrior IV wanders off to take on the role of unit duelist (it's a thing in the HGB universe), this Strike section will become instead a GP section with a lower grade gear taking it's place.

Similarly, the Metal Cat (far left) and Ferret (far right) will join two incoming Iguanas to form a Recon section, and be replaced with two GP gears with Light Bazookas (or something similar) like the two Chasseurs in the middle. 

My favorite faction has always been the desert dwelling Badlanders, and as such my Gears are a mishmash of units from the major powers of Terra Nova (the games's principle setting). Gears from Peace River and NuCoal(-ition) are the most common (once my new arrivals get here that is) with a smattering of Gears from the Polar Nations as well. 

For those not familiar with the background, Peace River and NuCoal are two newer,  'nation-states' that have formed in the equatorial desert known as the badlands. As such they tend to support smaller independent settlements in hopes of building relationships and more importantly, securing buyers for their wares. Whereas the Gears coming from the northern and southern factions/suppliers are more likely repaired battlefield salvage, 2nd or 3rd hand purchases, or else Northern/Southern deserters and their rides.

Anyways, in total I'll have 13 Gears @ 100pts., one each of Recon, General Purpose and Fire Support sections along with an independent duelist (the Warrior IV from the top pic). Being from an as-yet unidentified minor faction, their equipment tends to be obsolete simpler, older and more robust. 

Recon Gears aside, all the rest are variations of the basic gears of all of the major factions allowing for the ease of repair and replacement parts and more commonly available ammo types. All of which are essential when considering that these are both isolated and cash strapped Badlanders. 

I'll hopefully add infantry and armor in time...to add in some variation assuming this actually takes off and we start playing regularly.

New Toys

My recent arrivals: Imperial Mud Troopers, a single Republic Clone, a lone Gamorrean, and a smattering of minis from Diehard Miniatures. 

Ah yes, its that time of the year again. The annually occurring bout of me buying all kinds of random minis in under the premise of: I want it! Usually, this spending spree is centered around all things 40k. This year however, not so much. 

Or rather, not at all. 

I'm kinda over 40k to be honest, with even the impending onslaught of new Ork releases failing to catch my fancy. I did put my name down on the list in one of the local FLGS's for the new Kill Team boxed set. 

However GW's inevitable supply scam shortages, means they likely won't get enouh for everybody who wanted one. That coupled with the apparent need to buy an additional $50 book for the full set of rules means that I think I'll take a pass on that as well. 

Besides, Battletech and X-wing are really the only games that I play these days anyways, and even those two are sporadic at best. Instead I seem to have crossed the line into primarily a mini painter, rather than a gamer. 

The WIP Pizza Cannon

The majority of my recent purchases you might have noted, have been for Star Wars Legion; a game that I'm still not keen to learn to play. I sure like the (mostly 3D printed) minis though. My small (250pts +/-) of Rebels is almost complete with just the pizza cannon above remaining to be finished.  

Opposing them will be the Mud troopers pictured t the top, as well as an occupier assault tank (I'm sure half of the folks who follow that link will be too distracted to return, but whatever) though I have yet to purchase that model. They'll clock in at about 300pts or so (I think), not that it really matters. 

I've also purchased more tanks for Battletech (who will get their own post on my TBAGers blog), as well as minis for a probably stupid revisitation to both the Beyond the Gates of Antares and Heavy Gear game systems. Oh I'll probably paint 'em up, not holding my breath for any actual gaming. 

Also I'm currently reading the book Ghost Riders, meaning my (unrelated to that theater) Bolt Action army may again see a ray of hope of reentering the painting queue

Oh don't worry Neverness, I haven't opened the eBay 40k flood gates yet. Selling off vast swathes of my 40k forces, painted and otherwise. Though I can't say that the idea isn't under any consideration...

Inquisitor MS-D05 is complete!

The Ordo Mechanimun is a little known Ordo that works closely with the Explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the much larger Inquisitonal branch of the Ordo Xenos. Principally, they are tasked with confiscating recovered Xenos weapons lest they fall into the wrong hands (i.e.: anyone's other than their own).

I had to trim down those ridiculously oversized power...uh, thingies.

The dust caked, desert looking base is in stark contrast to my deck which was recently subjected to an east Tennessee deluge! 

The Mechanum Inquisitors tend to not be as heavily augmented with cybernetic and bionic implants as the upper ranks of the Mechanicus Magi are, though few if any are totally human themselves. This particular Inquisitor for example looks for all intents and purposes to be a standard human. However you'd be mad to think that the power pack he wears is purely for his weapon, armor and research equipment.

Ack! No icons can mean only one thing:

It's the dreaded blue screens of death!

MS-D05 doesn't appear to be equipped for melee combat...though one never knows what potential close combat upgrades may be simply concealed rather than easily visible. That said, even an unarmed Inquisitor can easily hold his own in hand-to-hand combat if needs be.

I'm rather pleased with how his ammo vial came out.

For ranged combat he is armed with a needle pistol. As MS-D05 is someone who holds to the creed of The flesh is weak, the notion of his adversaries agonizingly dying in a virulent hell that he himself has inflicted upon them (and one that his own metabolic systems would easily filter out within moments) is probably just a sadistic bit of irony.

*****

Inquisitors McClellan and MS-D05.

Both pointedly ignoring one another...

So there you have it: my two contributions to this year's Inquisitorial Conclave. My thanks again to Neverness for creating this event that puts a gun to my head motivates me to chip away at my infinite backlog of minis. 

(Squat) Captain Teague

I based him the same as Dev0504, meaning they'll both likely fight alongside one another in Stargrave at some point.

Teague grew up the child of diplomats, spending his childhood traveling the galaxy. Honestly, his early years were the envy of most children I would imagine (and that's excluding the fact that most Squat children were devoured by the Nids). He had an eye for the worlds his family visited and took to pict recorders naturally. He easily ought to have been famous the galaxy over, but wasn't by personal choice. 

Despite being an abhuman, he was accepted for and contented himself with a menial and meagerly pict recorder position within the Imperial Propagandus division of the Administratum. His lack of personal drive was baffling to most, even those close to him. Like all squats, he had a taste for heavy drink, though his was rumored to be excessive even by a Squat's standard. 

Often his superiors would submit his picts for award consideration, with frequent wins and most of the resultant bonuses going to those above him. Honestly, Teague couldn't be bothered to even care. He soldiered on quietly, mindlessly. Rather than reap the rewards of his minimal though still spectacular picts, he instead chose to live in his once decent but soon dilapidated and trash filled, mid-spire hab.

After a century or so of dutiful (and in his opinion) effortless work for the Propagandus, Teague reconnected with an old love from his youth and chose to suddenly retire and move onto a happy retirement on a distant world. 

Within days of his departure, that dream was shattered. Details are few, it is believed that his personal daemons (liquid and otherwise) which probably lead to his lack of drive in life came to a head, and his love cast him off. 

Walking off into the unknown...

He sold all of his pict recorders, claiming 'that wasn't him anymore'. He sobered himself up (no mean feat for even a modestly drinking Squat), tried in vain to clean up his hab before selling it all, and along with a not to insubstantial inheritance, he purchased what is officially a small Chartist vessel, but would be better described as a curiously warp capable garbage scow. 

Teague chose to end his days in the difficult, dirty and dangerous work of a lowly Chartist captain (as is evidenced by his bionic arm after losing his own in an industrial accident aboard his own ship). His vessel, the Knuckledragger departed with without fanfare and for points unknown. Sadly, Teague and the Knuckledragger haven't been heard from since. 

*****

Originally, Captain Teague was going to be the Rogue Trader-esque captain who hauled Inquisitor McClellan around the galaxy as like said inquisitor, Teague is also based off of someone I once knew. I only met him once, though he was a decades long RPGing friend and acquaintance of My Beloved Wolfy. 

Since he deactivated his Facebook account sometime last year, I have no idea where he is. Though presumably (due to a lack of funds) he's still locally punishing himself with his chosen physically demanding, minimum wage jobs in lieu of his gifted photography. Hopefully the remodeling of his woefully neglected home is coming along as well. 

Rather than get any deeper into Teague's personal demise, I'll instead leave you with his 'parting shot' that ended his decades long career at our little local newspaper.

Photo credit: Andre Teague, 7-31-20

Also, for anyone interested: 

The above mini came from Uscarl Miniatures.