Plains Warriors Progress

Really on a roll now with another group of dismounted Plains warriors completed. I feel like I'm well on the way towards completing the Little Bighorn project at this point. 

I had planned a trip down to Montana in September to visit the battlefield again as a reward for finishing all of the painting, but that is a bit up in the air now, for a couple of reasons. One, while my original plan was to head down during the week of Labour Day, that's hit a snag as my parents have to stay with me that week as my father has a medical appointment in the city. Two, we are now "at war" (trade war that is) with the United States and I increasingly consider it questionable form to visit and spend money there. So as for the second point anyway, we shall see if relations thaw in the next couple weeks. While we are not political on this blog, I will nevertheless say that I find the current American federal administration's position towards trade with Canada both baffling and frustrating in the extreme. Imposing tariffs that your own importers and consumers pay is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. But Canada will now impose counter-tariffs. I hope we are not entering into an escalating suicide pact. 

ANYWAY... here are eleven more Plains warriors for the project. Above are Walks Alone, Crow in Rain, and Swift White Raven from the Foundry "Young Bloods 2" pack.

Running Rabbit, Wolf Looks Back, Goes Walking. The first two are from the Young Bloods 1 pack and the last from Young Bloods 2.

Fish Arrow, Bear Licks with Tongue, Lazy Boy from Young Bloods 1.

Strikes Like Bear (from Young Bloods 2) and Holds Fire (from Young Bloods 1).

A bit of a show-off of a couple of the shields. I always have a bit of a challenge coming up with ideas for the designs but I think these are OK.

The models were painted in my usual Plains style - flesh done with Doombull Brown under Ratskin Flesh and warpaint applied over top. Basic painting but I think they look OK. With these models done I think I'll have painted one of every dismounted Foundry Plains warrior. I do have another couple packs though and next up is another Dog Soldiers pack. I will do at least one more pack of Young Bloods too. It'll be easy enough to vary the paint jobs.

Until then... hoka hey! 

Moar! Seventh Cavalry Dismounted Troopers and Personalities

The last tranche of dismounted Seventh Cavalry troopers is now finished and the Little Bighorn project continues to steam along. I'm happy with the progress!

Having painted "Autie" earlier I tackled the rest of the models in the Foundry "Personalities" pack. Here we see the General's younger brother Captain Tom Custer (winner of TWO Medals of Honor in the Civil War!), the hapless Major Marcus Reno, and Captain Frederick Benteen. Reno of course was a pretty useless tit in the battle and while Benteen showed moderately more initiative, neither were what you would call "combat effective."

Here are Lt. William W. Cooke, Lt. Charles (Carlo) DeRudio, and "Lonesome" Charley Reynolds. Cooke was Custer's adjutant and buddy. Born in Hamilton, Ontario he served with the Union army in the Civil War under Major-General Ambrose Burnside and fittingly, cultivated immense sideburns. He was the author of the infamous last note sent by Custer back to Benteen urging the latter to "be quick, bring packs." He died with Custer and was scalped twice... the second time losing one of his enormous dundrearies. DeRudio was an Italian serving with Custer and the only man in the Seventh Cavalry to carry a saber in the battle. Charley Reynolds was the chief scout with the Seventh Cavalry who had a bad feeling about this.

Here's a trooper carrying Custer's personal "standard", a bugler (there were many present at the battle) and another trooper.

With these troopers and characters I'm finished painting the dismounted Seventh Cavalry contingent for the battle. I used the standard colours - uniform coats Kantor Blue highlighted Ultramarines Blue, trousers Sky Blue highlighted Wolf Grey, and everything black highlighted Dark Rubber. The initial drybrush of DR helps a lot!

So on to some more Plains warriors now - hoka hey! 

Tyrant’s Legion and Salvagers

 I managed to add a few more units to the Tyrant’s Legion. As mentioned before, the more elite units are called Armsmen and their rules a quite flexible. They can be upgraded with carapace armour and an assortment of special and heavy weapons. They basically operate as Imperial Guard stormtroopers. Several years ago I managed to snag a pile of the old metal storm troopers from 3rd edition. I had no viable plan for them, but they’re some of my favourite gw sculpts. With my Tyrants legion project they finally found a purpose. I painted enough for two full squads with a few extra to round out the squads with heavy bolters and auto cannons. The heavy weapon troopers are from Mad Robot Miniatures who made a fairly faithful representation of the original models.

Next up is a group of space salvage workers from Anvil Industry. These are 3d prints in 28mm scale. Curt demonstrates the came scrap jacks at Prairiecon and I decided to pick up my own crew shortly after. Crew members can have different trades which I represented with different colours. Blue for medical, ochre for mechanics, purple for electronics and green for security.

Thanks for visiting!

Dereliction of (Posting) Duty

 Wow! I really fell off the posting. This will be a photo heavy post as I’m doing this on my phone and can’t bang out a huge amount of text. These have been printed for a while. Before PrairieCon actually! The two squads of sci-fi troopers are for my fallout Brotherhood of Steel army. The models are from Northstar Miniatures Stargrave troopers. They’re excellent wargaming miniatures that come with just the right amount of detail. Very easy to paint. The only drawback is the shoulders look a little bare compared with the rest of the body armour. That was a simple fix with an order to anvil industry for some shoulder pads.

 These guys I took to Prairiecon for The Doomed. All 3 are from Knightmare Miniatures and are metal! I forgot to add a model for scale, but they’re large monster sized 28mm on 40mm bases.

This last model is a kitbash for The Doomed. He was extremely overpowered in the game and 12 year old Con attendee Xavier used him with ruthless efficiency!

I also have some more models for The Tyrant’s Legion which I have yet to photograph. I should get on that.

Thanks for visiting!

Spartan APC for 30k Thousand Sons

A Spartan carrier for the XV Legion Astartes.

Well, it's been more than a little bit since my painting flurry of the recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge concluded. My brushes have been busy, but other distractions have come up and dented my hobby time, so I have been delinquent in terms of getting stuff finished, and even more delinquent in terms of getting some posts up on the blog even when I have managed to complete something. Let's make a dent in that today...here we have a serious armored reinforcement for the Space Marines of the XV Legion Astartes - this is a Spartan, the big scary troop carrying tank of the Horus Heresy setting. This is a multi-part resin model from GW's Forge World studio.

A giant slab of armour, and tons of guns...just full-on 30k silliness!

Yes, you read that right...even though GW has had a multi-part plastic version of this model available for YEARS now, here I am, in the year 2026, still finishing off painting one of the old resin Forge World version of this kit. Needless to say, this thing has been in the "pending pile" for a LONG time - and sure, I have a nice assortment of excuses: moving several times sure didn't help, and the usual distractions of other periods, settings, scales and figures have all taken their right and proper place...but still, even for me, this is a monument to hobby delay/procrastination... 

A close-up of the beast! I added some extra light rocket launchers on the cupola, because why not?

I was going to "paint it during the Painting Challenge" (the justification for many a project!). I even got started on it January, painting the quad-lascannon sponson weapons (the part of this model I found the hardest to paint, because oddball hobby reasons). But I just couldn't get around to finishing the rest of this beast in time to include in my Painting Challenge production. 

One of the quad lascannon batteries on the sponsons. For whatever reason, I just can't stand painting those things...

In fact, I was more-than-half-tempted to even "leave it for the next Challenge", but that was a bridge too far, so I just buckled down and finally finished it in April. 

Why so slow? Well, I think we all have subjects or specific models that turn into a real drag, for whatever reason, and this was no exception. I have also found that I just have trouble finding the motivation to paint big 28mm-sized vehicles in recent times. Finally, I have to admit that the 3rd edition of the Horus Heresy rules have just not landed well with me. To put it simply, playing HH 3.0 just feels like work. I still love the story, the setting and the figures (or, nearly all of them), but these days I am just not motivated to play the game and this has materially slowed my motivation to paint more 28mm sized 30k figures. 

Lovely decals from the Forge World decal sheet help provide the necessary "crazy ancient Egypt" vibe for the tank.

But for all that, this beast is at last over the line! And I'm sure the Sons of Magnus will be pleased! I've been adding a number of units to my XV Legion collection in recent years, but when it comes to vehicles, well, they've been stiffed! Their motor pool to date consists of a single Rhino APC - useful, sure, but not exactly a sign of armored might! Well, that all changes now...

Ready to roll!

The Spartan is a bonkers AFV, just absolute peak Horus Heresy. It is armed to the teeth. It has the heaviest possible armour ratings you can have on a vehicle in the game. And it carries more than 20 marines on board - enough for a great big tactical squad, or a big terminator squad, AND some flunkies. Even Space Wizards like to ride in style, after all!

Final Painting Challenge Submission for AHPC XVI - Some Space Marines!

Siege Breaker Consul and assault marines from the Sons of Horus. Resin figures from GW/Forge World.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge wrap-up concludes at last. I wanted to conclude my run in the XVIth edition of the AHPC with something fitting, and I figured some Space Marines from the XVIth Legion Astartes would do the trick. Here we have a Siege Breaker Consul and three assault marines in the fine colours of The Warmaster's own, the Sons of Horus.

Siege Breaker Consul

"So...anyone have anything that needs breaking?"

What does a "Siege Breaker Consul" do? Sounds like a bit of a made-up job...one has the impression he conducts sieges...but job title implies he "breaks" sieges so maybe his job is instead to bust up sieges attempted by opponents. Who knows? But he clearly is out to break things. I mean, look at that hammer. Like they say, when you walk around with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Woe betide the foes of The Warmaster when this chap shows up. 

In addition to the giant hammer, he obviously has a really amazing wireless plan, with unlimited 5G data, great roaming options and no hidden fees!

Love that 5G intergalactic roaming in the year 30k...

I like the little portable data terminal attached to his power armour, with a little projected 3d map, presumably of some target he is about to annihilate via an orbital strike or some other manner of Age of Darkness doom. 

Bright yellow "safety grenades" on the rear of the power pack. This chap has all sorts of grenades.

This is a resin figure from GW's "Age of Darkness" range. I'm not the biggest fan of GW's resin, but thankfully things were not too bendy. Besides, he is wearing the Mark VI "beakie" power armour and, well, I'm a sucker any models wearing that kit! 

Assault Marines

Ready to jump into the action...

These are old, old resin figures - the marines are wearing Mark IV armour. They are resin models from Forge World, circa 2012. I have re-painted them to ensure their green armour matches that of the other Sons of Horus in my collection, part of my ongoing long-term program to placate the OCD hobby monkey in brain. 

Will re-painted figures suffer the same fate as newly-painted figures?

The officer has a comb on his helmet (hilarious) and an extra-large chainsword, for those jobs that need serious two-handed chopping. The other marines are kitted out in the more traditional bolt-pistol-and-chainsword combo common to the Astartes assault troops. With these three finished, I have completed the necessary repainting to put my old squad of 15 of these fellows back into the battle line - with a tone of green armour that will match that of their colleagues and thereby sooth the rampaging OCD hobby monkey in my head.

Love the double-handed chainsword. A silly weapon made even sillier. Brilliant.

And that was it for this most recent edition of the Painting Challenge! One never does get as much stuff painted as hoped-for - much less "planned for" - but some useful progress on various projects and areas of interest was achieved, and that is all one should truly hope for in the end. Sundry ongoing painting shall resume - watch this space! And that's all for now - thanks for reading!