There's These Markings- So It's Definitely Alien....

A GZG Crusty walker. 

I had a lot of trouble assembling the models.  They are good sculpts and there is minimal flash.  I had a lot of problems gluing the parts together.  The magic Zap-a-Gap that has served me so well for everything else so far just couldn't hold the parts together.  Instead, I found my fingers extremely well stuck to various arms and legs.

After ripping my finger tips off the metal I had to do a rethink.

I used small amount of milliput AND Zap-a-Gap on the joins and it worked out serviceable.  But not perfect.  The irony of course, was that I then had to rip the arms off to get into the corners to paint.

Then a friend suggested I try "epoxy".  It was the first time I'd ever heard of it.  I'll definitely look for that product.  It'll save me hours of pain and frustration.  My next free day, I'm going to track that mysterious substance down. 

As for painting- I tried to keep it simple. 

1. Black undercoat. 
2. Dark green base coat (VGC72.028), washed with Citadel Athonian Camoshade (a mucky brown green ink) and highlighted with VGC Sick Green (VGC72.029).

3. Citadel Administratum Grey for the white panels, highlighted with Ulthuan Grey

4. Weapons: Celestia Grey base (taking care to the leave the black lining) and then highlighting with Ulthuan Grey.  The red was Khorne Red base and highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet.

I was tempted to try OSL- but considering my average skills- I was happy with simple blue dots for the 'eyes'. 

As for what these monsters count as in Tomorrow's War... I don't know.  Walkers clearly.  Perhaps Light Armoured Vehicles?  They look suitably mean and well armoured.  And armed with some heavy weaponry. 

I've got another one on the way so he'll soon have a buddy to cover him whilst he does the sprint across the street. 

Thanks for reading.

21D- Maneuver Support Section

21D- MSS

MSS. 

Pretty much complete- just need to finish black lining the rims of the bases.  If you look closely you can see the white markings of dried "Zap-a-Gap" that I use to stick on the grassy tufts.

21D- In fire teams

I think in game terms (Tomorrow's War)- the heavy weapon will count as a dual antipersonnel and anti-tank role.  I was reading through some 'Force on Force' stats on RPGs and I think that'll be a reasonable stat line to copy.

21D In Progress

Weapon teams in progress

They are the equivalent of GPMGs on tripods - though now looking at them I'm beginning to think they are more .50 calibre equivalents.

They are a bit of a grind to paint and to be honest I'm not super happy with the paint scheme.  That being said, they'll do for now.

I've had to mount them on 25mm bases as I found 40mm bases were a bit too large.

Loremaster Leitpold the Wild

 Mage of House Hansaaker.

An old wizard that I finally got around to painting and now show casing.

Platoon in Progress

Platoon 21- In Progress

Sorry, it's a bit blurry.

So I'll show some close ups....

21A

21B

21C

Platoon HQ- in progress

The platoon organization should be a bit clearer now.

The platoon will consist of:

PHQ: Platoon commander, Sergeant, Forward Observer, Signaller (?irrelevant in the days of being on Grid), platoon medic.

3x rifle sections, each consisting of 2x four man fire teams.  Each fire team having a fire team leader, a gunner with light support weapon, a grenadier (plasma caster) and a rifleman.

1x MSS - manoeuver support section- (not shown as it's still being put together)- consisting of 3 fire teams.  These are a bit different- being made up of a team leader, a heavy weapon (anti-armour or medium machine gun equivalent) and his number two and a rifleman.

The idea is that fire teams can be kind of tacked together like lego blocks as required for whatever mission the platoon commander is tasked with.  The MSS can be broken up and parceled out or kept together as a big fire support group.

The tactics for this platoon are quite straight forward.  Once contacting the enemy, the Platoon commander should be able to move his MSS into position to act as support by fire.  This allows him to then use the remainder of his sections to assault the enemy from another direction.

I'll concoct some attributes to make the prawns a bit more alien.

At the moment, their organization is distinctly human.
  

Painted Miniatures Need Good Terrain

So this big box turned up on my door step today!

I was very excited.  Taking my box cutter to it....

Hooray!

Prompt delivery and all the bits I needed- thank you Games Empire.

If you have noticed a slight World War 2 theme... barring the Energon crystals... you would be correct.  The Flames of War terrain (by Gale Force 9) looks excellent, all I need to do is give it a bit of a touch up with the static grass and then blast it with varnish.

A note to prospective buyers re: the Large Summer Wood.  Those trees are probably more suited to 28mm gaming than 15mm gaming.  I stood a GZG Crusty next to one of those trees and it TOWERED over him.  Not that this is unrealistic, I might add- I do recall walking amongst the canopy of pine trees in Canada that were dozens of metres tall.  But, just in terms of ease of spotting the little prawn buggers, the "Small Summer Wood" might be a better choice.

I'm going to have to clear out a few shelves of crusty old university notes to make space for this stuff but so be it!  Progress requires sacrifices!

I'm very happy with my new stuff.

I promise there is a battle report in the offing- and all of this Flames of War terrain will start to make sense.

Father Willibald The Small- Sigmarite Priest

A little model- in comparison to the other 28mm miniatures in the collection.

I've had him for years, so I'm glad he finally got a lick of paint.

21A and 21B

16 Prawns complete.

I was thinking I had completed 2 sections but much to my annoyance- I realized I had only 1 grenadier and 1 LSW (light support weapon- SAW) per section.  There should be two of each!

A quick rummage through my box of GZG goodies found me 1 LSW short of being able to make a proper 3 rifle sections.  Argh!  Too bad- one fire team will have to make do with 2 grenadiers instead of an LSW & grenadier.  I'm sure I can make up some sort of SNAFU that will account for that divergence from doctrine.

I'll start writing my fluffy stories to go with them once a more complete look of 21 Platoon evolves.

Thanks for reading!

First Warhammer Battle In 6 years

I took photos- but the quality was horrid.  It was, however, a good game against a great opponent.

I took 1600 points of Empire (whatever I had painted)- against 1600 points of Chaos- built into a pretty hard list.  My opponent commented that I lost at the moment I put out my list.

I guess the key points for me are:

1. Empire is synergistic.  Without buffs, infantry simply evaporate.

2.  Empire without characters in their units- are also prone to evaporate.

3.  Shoot, shoot, shoot.  And then attack whatever is left over.

4.  Increase the unit sizes of the units that count and don't waste points on 'fluff' units.

In terms of the hobby- I like painting more than I like playing.  However, I wouldn't buy a sports car and leave it in the garage either.

Time to get a bit more competitive I think.

Steam Tank: "Konigs Tiger"

"The Sledgehammer of Hansaaker"

There are fanciful tales told by travelers from far away lands.  They tell stories of a noble beast that stalks the thick green forests of the east.  A creature so utterly fearsome that all creatures who reside in its kingdom give way to its undisputed mastery of the jungle.  The people there respectfully call it the King Tiger.    

Thus Lord Hansaaker could think of no better name when christening the latest- and indeed most expensive- weapon in the House arsenal.  It personifies Humanity's ascendancy- ingenuity, engineering and technology to master a dangerous world.

Purchased with inordinate amounts of gold (and levies of Haansaker troops loaned out to the Imperial College of Engineers) the steam tank is regarded with awe by its owners and fear by its enemies.   It is commanded by Master Engineer Sigismund von Teupitz.  

This model took me MONTHS to complete.  The level of detail drove me mad.  Indeed- I painted the inside of the turret as well- but gave up doing the engineer and slammed the hatch close.

And lastly- a personal touch.

The number plate of my my loved bomb of a car that I totalled in a car crash last year.  You will always be fondly remembered.