Works in Progress

 Lots going on at my hobby station of late! Nothing actually completed, but work progresses on a number of projects per the pictures to follow. 

These are 3D printed Universal Carriers for my 2023 WW2 Greeks project. I found them on Etsy for a steal. What arrived were nice crisp sculpts, though of two different types of Carrier, but I can work with that. They were crew-less though, so I found some spare Soviet infantry and started hacking away and whilst the end result looks somewhat crude up close-and-unpainted (Crew's helmets look close enough to those worn by the Greeks to me.), I think they'll do just fine on the tabletop from 3 feet! I also needed "pintle-mounted Bren Guns" on them so sourced some nice metal bren guns from The Assault Group in the UK, trimmed a paper clip down to stick them upon and drilled holes for the pintle mounts to settle into on the Carriers. Finished result I think looks good enough for gaming! 

*More on said Greeks in a future post.

Sticking with the vehicles theme here's a German Panzer IV Ausf-H that is primed and ready for paint. I plan to add this as an alternative tank option to my Late War Winter Germans collection featured previously. "Where's the era appropriate Schurtzen?" I hear you ask in my addled schizoid brain, well dear reader those are going to be built and painted separately for ease of assembly and painting. 

Along with the tank, featured here are three Soviet riflemen that I had bits left over to build after crafting the Carrier crews shown above. Thought it would be good to have a few spares in squads where I didn't include a Light Machine Gun toting fellow. They need some basing pumice adding then priming prior to being ready for paint.

A less exciting option - these are some mdf tree bases I found on Etsy. After our last game in my previous post, I realised that I need not only more fencing and trees themselves, but also some better defined bases for the trees I do have so they stand out more for gaming purposes. (Line of sight, etc) So far these have been assembled, gritted with sand from a Monterrey area beach, sprayed dark brown then highlighted with a lighter brown craft paint. All that's left is to apply snow, though I'm trying to figure out how best to go about this step in an effort not to use up all of my Woodland Scenics  snow flock but still applying enough for the bases to look good on my Winter table set-up? I'll see what I can come up with.

Last up is a second batch of mdf fencing for much talked about Winter setup. (I did not feature the first set, for some reason, though honestly they are not really exciting enough to feature in their own post, right?) Simple 2-piece kits that I found in an online sale years ago. They have been primed the same dark brown as the tree bases and given a light dusting of white spray paint. Next step will be to pick out the vertical posts with dark brown and then apply snow effects and the odd grass tuft. Densmol was right, one needs far more than just one set of fencing on a 6x4 foot table!

No progress made on my Dieppe Canadians as I've not been in much of a mindset for painting lately, but I feel that'll change next week, so hope to have something new and actually "finished" to show off soon!

Stay well out there.

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 4 - A New Year & more WIP's)

There’s a lot that’s been happening my end that explains my lack of posting these past months.

My lady and I got married, we also moved to a larger apartment and then add in all the traditional Holiday fun that comes with attending my wife’s family gatherings. No complaints from me on this though, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being welcomed into her family and returning those sentiments as best as I can.

On the hobby side of things, a New Year is here once more and I’ve at least not been completely idle, O no.

I’ve been slowly assembling some of the model kits I have sat on my hobby shelves in preparation for the projects I intend to get done this year.

 A Kellmorph for my Chaos Genestealer Cult from my Kill Team box. "Chaos" cos he has horns alright? Actually, I really liked the stock sculpt as is, but realised he would look like anyone else's and he also needed something "Chaos" about him, so yeah - horns. I like them, though there'll be some cursing as he tries to get through the lower doorjams.

Next, a Games Workshop Leman Russ tank that was a birthday gift last October from a very good friend. The kit doesn’t seem to have changed that much since the Leman Russ was first released (I got one on release day even) and went together pretty well. In lieu of the wholly uninspiring commander mini that is supplied on the sprue, I instead stuck in an old re-casted Forge World Imperial Guard tank commander that I’d had in my bits box for around the last 10 years. I’ve also added Genestealer Cult badges on it’s hulls and a Chaos back-banner cut down to show it’s leanings toward the Chaos god Khorne.

After that, I got inspired by the preview picture of a future supplement for Bolt Action, D-Day (Brit/Canadians) and began putting together a Warlord Games Churchill tank that I built as a Mark VI. The kit was not at all simple to assemble like the Leman Russ as the instructions were bloody vague. After a few evenings of cursing and fingers glued together, I finally ended up with this beast. Not a bad finished result and like the Leman Russ above, I used an alternate metal tank commander (Produced by CompanyB) as the one on the sprue was awful.

Somehow the rear didn't sit flush against the lower chassis, so I had to get creative and cut down sprue pieces to fill the gap. It'll do for me.

Lastly and assembly completed just last night, is this full section of Commonwealth infantry by Warlord Games for my Dieppe Landing project. These lot were a flippin pig to assemble and I had no fun at all during the process. Why on earth the designers thought that making all of the water canteens, pouches and so forth separate was a good idea, or that separate arms and weapons was “fun”, I have no idea… I’m not even sure I’ll make the remaining 15 in the box the process was so painful. Any future additions to my commonwealth will be metals for sure, though once done this ten-man squad at least looks half decent.

And that's it for the now. New place doesn't have a spot to spray paint at and I'm not sure I could get away with trying to do so on my balcony, but I'm going to see if I can't sneak in a late night effort. In the meantime, I'll be assembling more things to empty my shelves a little more and try to get posts up at least once a month as that's not really asking too much now, is it???

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 3 - more WIPs)

Just a quickie. Managed to get two squads of Brood Brothers assembled. These are the  Imperial Army types who have fallen under the Genestealer Patriarch's influence and so are now ready to rise up and take up arms against their former Imperium masters.

First squad is made of a mix of figs that I've had in my collection for years. I wanted to show these off as though they are the mix of random regular citizens and others that might fall under the Genestealer influence. From Imperium factory workers, to underhive gangers to Actual Imperial army deserters and a Bounty Hunter to lead them!

Second squad some might recognise as some old 80's plastic Imperial Gaurd with some modern GW Genestealer Cult additions (heads, pouches, etc) and also the odd pair of 3rd party resin arms here and there. I have a 2nd squad of these to assemble still.

And that's all for the Chaos Genestealer Cult for the now. Next I plan to finish getting the Brood Brothers assembled and ready for priming, then on to the Kelemorph, a regular Hero to these crazy gene-scum!

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 2 - WIP)

A quick post to log some work in progress on my Chaos Genestealer Cult. Started cleaning up and assembling a couple Brood Brother Infantry squads and my army's commander, a fearsome Genestealer Patriarch and it's cute familiars.

Brood Brothers are supposed to represent military units that have been subverted to the Cult's cause, adding their military training to the armed might of the Cult. The Army list allows one to take basic infantry, Heavy Weapons teams and a few of the vehicle choices that the Astra Militarum Imperial Guard army book allows for regular Guard forces (Leman Russ tank, Sentinal walkers, Chimera APC's, etc.). Seeing as my Cult represents a more militaristic style organisation, I have 3 infantry squads, 3 weapons teams and 3 Chimera APC's in my initial army list.

The first Brood Brothers Infantry Squad in my army is made up of a ragtag mix of Planetary Defense Force, Guardsmen who've deserted from their respective regiments and civilian underhive dwellers. These minis range from 1980's through to early 2000's.

Just a quick pic so quality and composition is a bit rubbish. I like to paint arms separately as I can't stand trying to get behind them (And typically feck up a paint job) if they are pre-attached.

The second Brood Brothers Infantry Squad is made up from the original GW Imperial Guard plastic kit that I somehow still had in my unpainted mountain. (The 3rd will be as well.) I've added Genestealer Cult heads and accessories to add a little extra character to them. (They'll get a similar addition of Khorne markings though these will be painted on like the 1980's original Chaos Cult.) I've also used some 3rd party resin arms for these to add a little more variety and also because I'm not sure I have enough of the original kit's plastic arms!

Still some more arms to sort out on this lot. No Heavy Weapons in these squads either, just a flamer each. I plan to drive them up in the Chimera APC transports (Those will be a post for the near future.) and unload them to hose down their enemies t close range. They'll probably get chewed up pretty badly in return, but I like the idea of these lads being very disposable in any case. 

Lastly for this post is the Patriarch himself. (Herself? Itself? Who knows...?) This is the one of two original sculpts that were made for this character back in the late 80's (I think sculpted by Bob Olley?). The other was a seated version which made for a lovely vignette, but not great for gaming. This fellow is quite a bit smaller than the current plastic version, but I like him enough. To make him look a little more imposing and even a tad daemonic, I added some shoulderpads from the Purestrain Genestealer kit which I think add enough.

I think he originally came with 3 little familiars (Like psychic manifestations of it's intelligence or something) but one was lost along the decades since.  

As with the minis shown in my last post, I plan to base all of these en masse once I've assembled everything and then I'll prime those that require it so I can get to painting. After seeing how they work, I've been interested in trying out those new GW Contrast paints to see if I can get the rank and file troops done quicker. But more on that at a later date.

Cheers

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 1 - the beginning)

Picture this: it’s 1990. Wee Dai, the 14-year-old lad has been collecting Games Workshop’s monthly publication White Dwarf magazine for a bit now and casts his eyes across a brand new army that he never conceived could exist – The Genestealer Cult. Mesmerised is a small way to put it, though I’d already committed to both my first 40K love (My sorely missed and now completely currently unloved by GW) Squat army and my Nurgle obsession, so always planned to make a Cult army in the future, yet never did. The army lists (There were two, regular Cult and Chaos Cult) ended up in the 2^nd Rogue Trader expansion, Compilation.

Fast forward 20-something years and GW has really gone and fleshed out the whole idea of what the Genestealer Cult is and their model range is phenomenal. Of course I was suckered in by firstly picking up Warhammer 40K: Kill Team core set which included some of the tasty new Genestealer Cult sculpts. This in turn got my creative juices flowing and so my mind when back to that 14-year-old dream of starting my own Chaos Cult, just like in the White Dwarf. Now, the current Codex doesn’t allow for Chaos versions of a Genestealer Cult, but rules and revamped fluff be damned, I’m doing it anyhow cos they’re MY models.

The original Chaos Cult as featured in White Dwarf that got this all started. I'm planning to stay true to the same colour scheme as best as I can where it's practical. No Limo's though as I'm trying to do this project on the cheap, but there WILL be some transport options for a more modern take.

Close ups of some of the Aulde Cult. There are direct translations to the new entries int he current codex. Sadly though, those cool Beastmen and the Rogue Psyker aren't going to be featured.

So here’s the start of my take on the Chaos Genestealer Cult. It’ll loosely be based off this list from the Compendium:

As you can see there's not a tonne of entries to have to work toward and some of it will need to be switched out for figures I own in my existing collection cos like I said, I'm not in the position to spend out on stuff right now (Unless I can do so on some cheeky Ebay auction or other). The one thing I DO plan to buy are a box of those new plastic Flesh Hounds, but they'll just be added to a unit of Purestrain Genestealers using the same stats for sake of ease. I'm not about to play in tournaments with this army, it's just a "for fun" project that will be used in a campaign a friend and I are planning for next year.

The overall look of the force is also inspired by the art in the old Warhammer 40K Compendium, this image especially grabbed my attention as a lad, just as it does now. Evocative of what horror the Cult and especially a Chaos Cult can bring to any battlefield!

Looks like utter bloody pandemonium eh? That's how like my Chaos. :)

You have seen in my last post, the first two entries of my list, my Magos and the army's Standard Bearer, the Acolyte Iconward - these two are the inspirational figureheads of the Cult. The Magos is a powerful Psyker and the Iconward buffs nearby units greatly.

Next up I assembled a small 5-man unit of Acolyte Hybrids, 4 armed with hand flamers and the last with a Heavy Rock Saw. Coming in from ambush, this small squad will pack a punch and should be able to deal with most light to medium targets with ease. These will represent the 1st and 2nd Generation Hybrids in my force.

Next up is another venerable leader, my Primus. Where the Magos is a mistress of intrigue and manipulation, the Primus is the martial mastermind behind the Cult. Whilst the official sculpt for the Primus is by no means a bad sculpt, I already had a plan for making my own once GW released their special Imperial Guard character, Severina Raine. I wanted my army to have a martial background (More appropriate for worshipers of Khorne I think.) so felt a Primus who was a former Imperial Guard Commissar sounded way cooler!

The finished model is basically just Raine with Khorne trophy poles, a Bloodletter (Lesser Daemon) sword in place of her regular saber and a Hybrid's arm carved up a bit and glued to the underside of her left arm. The rules show a Primus as wielding a Needle Pistol, but I really like the sculpt-standard bolt pistol she comes with so I'm leaving that alone. I think she makes for quite a cool and dynamic looking character and am excited to get paint on her over all the models I've previewed for this project thus far.

Still lots to go though as I have units of Brood Brother Infantry (Traitor Imperial Guard) and Weapon Teams, their transport vehicles, some Neophyte Hybrids (3rd and 4th Generation) and one more character to add.

Watch this space!

Comrade! (Part 27 - KV Wip and something ancient-y)

Only a little hobbying to show since last post.

I built the KV-1/2 kit I get as part of my prize from the Stalingrad event  I went to on the 21st. It was a relatively simple model to put together and I really love the fact that it comes with two distinct different turrets for the chassis so you can make either the standard KV-1, or the crazy top-heavy looking KV-2. (Differences between the two - the KV-1 mounted a medium anti-tank gun, whilst the KV-2 had a scary arsed Heavy Howitzer!)

Just a pic of the build so far. The only real fiddly bits were the two tiny machinegun barrels (One on the hull as pictured and another on the rear of each turret) that were hard to handle without getting one's fingers glued up.

Silly design really - these things could potentially tip backwards if they were set up on an incline!

I also was excited to see this new shiny thing arrive in my postbox on Saturday! This is a new game put out by Andy Hobday, who seems a jolly nice bloke. Along with this new starter set, the Gangs of War game in general seems to be very well supported with lots of free to download scenarios that can take new players beyond the one in the box. I really like how it's a really small scale game (So only a handful of minis each that need to be painted!) and after a quick scan through the rules, seems very straight forward to learn. This set also was a steal as it includes a beautiful Temple to Apollo in mid-construction (By Sarissa Design.). I've begun gluing it together, though there's not much to look at so far, so instead, here is a derpy picture of me and my acquisition from the weekend.

Ladies, this hunk is avail... oh feck, who am I kidding. There're no ladies following my blog!

In my last post, I briefly described a very funny (At the time) moment during the Stalingrad event where my team-mate, Tony sent in from reserve his Ampulet team up a sewerage canal on an inflatable dingy. Well, here's a pic he took of said team! Bloody ridiculous and we all (German player aside) had a good laugh over it!

Last night I had a wee bit of time to slap a little paint on a couple of my zombie collection to cleanse the pallet sotospeak after painting so much WW2 uniforms, so next post they should be finished and ready to show off - watch this space!

Stalingrad Event

The Volga Crossing where I played

Pavlov's House in the center of the long table

The Tractor Factory. The lavender yarn was used to mark deployment zones. Those diagonal deployment zones made for an interesting setup.

My view up the table.

In my last post I described an event that I have been very much looking forward to, the first I've been able to attend this year. The area's main hub for Bolt Action, Ogre's Den in Orangevale graciously opened doors and allowed the group to set up a 4'x18' table to represent three of the most iconic parts of the Battle for Stalingrad in World War 2 - The Tractor Factory, Pavlov's House and the Volga Crossings. The table(s) looked simply breathtaking, easily rivaling anything I've seen posted online. Andrew Bergthold was the on-the-day organiser and was also celebrating his birthday (So we all got free BBQ'd burgers, kindly provided by his father.) and had designed the overall scenario and specific conditions that each section of the table had to abide by. Each table section had a pair of players for each side playing 5 turns over two connected games. The 1st game we could not affect what was happening on the tables next to us, but in the 2nd game (After we were provided reinforcements, we could, which made for some really fun matchups.). It all made for a very fun and thematic day of gaming, with the overall winner who had the most kills, taken objectives and also managed to get their troops into their enemy's deployment area.


My list for the day had a few restrictions in the players packet, seeing as Tony and I were "Crossing the Volga river". No vehicles (In the initial crossing, though any taken could come on as reserves, no
gun teams larger than a light AT/Howitzer and to reflect the constant peppering those poor sods had to endure on those wooden boats all units that arrive in the "1st Wave" (A turn 1 mechanism in Bolt Action) arrive already having a pin on them.

My force on the day.
1st Lt.
2x 12-man Regulars each with 2x LMG's - Fantatics
2x 7-man Regulars all with SMG's - Fanatics
1x (free) 12-man Inexperienced Squad - Fantatics
Regular Sniper team - Fantatics
Regular Flame Thrower team
Regular Anti-Tank Rifle team (Ended up just taking the one) - Fanatics
A Forward Artillery Observer
Medium Mortar Team - Fanatics

And here are some of the other armies present at the event - some really nicely painted forces I think!

The following are just the pictures I took of the day's gaming; that is, when I remembered to take them. Our main objective was to have more troops on the wooden square just past the beach then the Germans by the end of the 1st round. I will say, #1 highlight of the day was my mates Gregg and Frank from my rpg group turning up to check out the game and my old Flames of War pal Rich (Of Flames of Nerd blog fame likewise dropping by and feeling so inspired he went and picked up a whole new Japanese army later that day! Woo, a new opponent!) who stuck around for the early stages. 

That crashed aircraft terrain piece was lovely. Have since bought a 1/48 Spitfire to make something similar myself!

This StuG did a good job of scaring the Soviets on the beach to keep their heads down, but in the end would end up immobilised and thereafter, ignored. 

Forward you dogs!

When you aim to be killingest general of the day, this is how one should roll. (A rare day where my dice and I loved eachother.)

So close!

There had been a Kraut Flame Thrower team at the crest of that rise for a second there.... wonder where they went? 

Getting a bit packed on this beach.

Meanwhile, over behind Pavlov's House.

Action shot of Travis Hiett's Assault Engineers stomping through some rubble

Wait, there can't possibly be more troops coming from across the river???

That's right Nazi pigs!

Sudden breakthrough on the left flank! Soviets assault the German sniper who had set up in the left side ruins.

The Tractor Factory was incredibly hard fought. 

Well, somehow, that person was me. My first #1 placing at any sort of event. :)

Highlights of the game:

1.  One of my fine opponents, Aaron brought on his Flame Thrower team from reserve a mere 6" from a squad of my own poor troops who had just managed to crawl off the beach and take their first step on dry land. Aaron gleefully throws his to-hit dice to spread fiery death upon them and rolls.... a "one", thoroughly missing his shot! Next he rolls to see if his Flamethrower still had fuel left and rolls.... another "one"! Seems the silly buggers forgot to fuel up before leaving for the front lines! (Free kill point for me.)

2. My Soviet partner, Tony (Who's company made the day even more fun), brought along a T-34 tank, which seemed to cause our German playing opponents some concern (Even though, throughout the game, the tank shot and hit NOTHING). So both Aaron and Kat called in an Airstrike by the Luftwaffe Stukas to take it out. Both roll to see if/how the strike was coming in and.... both rolled a "one" at the same time! In Bolt Action, that means the incoming aircraft mistake their own forces as targets and the opposing player(s) (In this case Tony and I) got to pick their targets instead! Whilst the ensuing airstrikes didn't kill all that much (Mostly due to both German forces being Veteran skill level throughout for the most part), they caused enough pins on the German units to be really annoying.

3. Kat's lone remaining Veteran Grenadier that had been withstanding a withering hail of small arms fire and yet surviving all of it, was eventually charged by Tony's 6-man Naval squad and forced to defend himself in close combat! Of course, Tony rolled not one dice enough to take the bugger out and Kat in turn did just enough to win the combat, wiping out all 6 sailors with a cheeky grin on her face. (She now has a reputation for this sort of shenanigan after doing similarly against me in my previous matchup against her)

4. My Medium Mortar team refused to come in from reserves 3 turns in a row.... Then when it finally set up for a shot, ranged in first time and annihilated the remainder of a 5-man Veteran Grenadiers squad. (The Commissar had just brought out his pistol to execute traitors to the Motherland as well...)

5. The last two turns of the day saw a KV-1 tank (Borrowed from Jason, a very nice chap) brought on from my post-game reserves come on over on the Factory table to tackle some nasty stubborn German StuG (that had a heavy howitzer!?), but it couldn't penetrate the makeshift tankhunter's extra-thick armour; and Tony's Ampulet team come on on the same board, paddling an inflatable raft up a sewerage canal and try to lob globes of firey death at the StuG (Also to no effect.). This in turn caused Craig (The StuG's owner) to angrily pick up his tank and claim "It wouldn't stick around". Needless to say, he didn't enjoy the game. LOL.

In the end the day was an emphatic overall Soviet victory and called off early, with the Commies holding all three main objectives and really piling the hurt on the poor Germans. Also, it seems the Luftwaffe were on drugs or something that day because as well as the two fouled-up airstrikes on our table, a 3rd was called in and also fouled up (Destroying it's own German gun team I think) on the Tractor Factory table too, along with a general strafing of the whole board after the 1st round that hit absolutely nothing. (!?)

The winner of the event was... me, with 11 kills for the day, 3 of my own units in my opponent's deployment zone and our main objective taken (And had the game gone on one more turn I would have grabbed one of the German secondary objectives too.).  My first time winning a gaming event too. With my in-store credit that I received as reward, I quickly spent it prior to heading home, leaving with a new Warlord plastic KV-1/2 tank kit, a Soviet Anti-tank Dogs team, Soviet Heavy Mortar team, a 2nd red orders dice set (So I can play armies larger than 12 units total.) and the below Rubicon Models Soviet Studebaker truck (That I glued together last night.). A fine haul!

If you got down to this part, then congrats, didn't realise this was going to end up so wordy!

The paint table is a little cluttered right now with many project on the go at the same time. I think a little non-WW2 is in order to clean off my hobby palette?