Unberogenes Tribe leaders, Sigmar and his family.

Tribe leaders 

 And here we are in February. Short month, little time to paint, plus I was really sick for a good part of the time and the possibility of moving forward with many models flew by. I had planned to paint a regiment of warriors this month, but you always have time to change your mind, so off to leader month. Pointwise as follows.

Heroes and command: Total 467--------

1) barbarian leader (Chaos champion): 2 hand weapons, heavy armor. 130pt

2) barbarian leader (Chaos champion): two-handed weapon, heavy armor. 130pt

3) barbarian leader (Chaos champion): hand weapon, shield heavy armor. 129pt

4) barbarian banner bearer (chaos champion): hand weapon, army banner, heavy armor. 178pt

After many doubts and uncertainties I decided to entrust the command of the tribe to Bjorn Unberogen, Sigmar's father. To best represent him I used this Reaper model that I had around: the warrior's physique, the fur cloak and the powerful beard help to give the idea of a Bear warrior (despite the exaggerated horns of the helmet, which I was undecided whether to keep or not, but I wanted to maintain the integrity of the piece). Furthermore, the large sword made me think of the first possible Runefang to be passed down to future elector counts of the Empire.

Second in command we have Redmane Dragor, Father of Bjorn (and grandfather of Sigmar). The former king of the Tribe is still a strong and capable warrior, but he has long since handed over military command to his son, who is younger and fitter, while continuing to follow him into battle to give advice to the youngters and aspire to a worthy death in combat. Dragor is wealthy enough to afford a helmet, armor, and an expensive red cloak to reflect his name.

And now below with the new generations, the true protagonists of the stories of Sigmar and the early years. In the setting I have chosen, the well-known events have not yet begun, Sigmar and his companions are young, not yet famous warriors and the future dynamics of conflict are still distant. However, these kids are already mature enough to have a relevant role in the tribe and therefore be represented with miniatures on the field.

 The first and certainly most important is Pendrag, the battle banner bearer. Pendrag is the young blood brother of Sigmar, he bears the icon of the bear, the personal banner of King Bjorn. One day Pendrag will carry his brother's banner and end up as the Elector of the province of Middenland, but that is a story yet to be told. 

The model itself is a modification of a simple warrior, but I chose one that had a shield and armor, to better represent a successful champion. to this I added helmet and sword and a banner modeled in Greenstuff with some metal details taken from other conversions. the bear is a freehand drawing as are the designs on the shields.

A FUNDAMENTAL character in Sigmar's epic is undoubtedly his lover, Ravenna.

Little is known about this character, sister of Trinovantes and Gerron (two characters we will return to) accompanied Sigmar in his youthful adventures. Ultimately her death will mark a turning point in the story, but for now I like to imagine her as a young and powerful warrior, side by side with her love in battle and in life. 

It's difficult not to make a comparison with another similar character in a similar context, Valeria, lover of Conan... Gw took more than a few cues, it would seem...

Do you want to live Forever?

Last but not least the great man himself, Sigmar. I was rather undecided whether to include him in the project, mainly due to the difficulty of finding a suitable miniature to represent him; gathering the lead, however, I found a barbarian much larger than the others, decidedly out of scale. At first I thought about excluding him completely or maybe making a statue of some kind, but then... the powerful physique, the cloak similar to that of his grandfather and the bizarre weapons he carries partially convinced me. So I painted him as closely as possible to an ideal Sigmar, and the strange weapons like orc cleavers, collected before having Ghal Maraz, his iconic hammer. It is important to note that FOR ME this model is still temporary, and that I am still looking for a more suitable mini, and hope to find one as soon as possible.

And thats all for this month, i have still some spare barbarians around, i may add them to the army next month.. or maybe not. Lets live and see..

In the meantime, keep painting and be old school.

AdamH’s Skaven month four - The horde grows

Another chonky one this month from me, rank and file month three; the other big unit in this year’s challenge; Clan Rats!

If you have seen either of my previous Skaven Challenge entries then you will have seen me paint these toxic yellow mainstays before. Not much has changed here other than the addition of an extra Rat Ogre (that forms a unit filler), and some extra command models:

As mentioned above I painted an addition Rat Ogre, I now have one of these old sculpts in each of my Clan Rat units. I don’t think they are quite as nice models as the later 90’s Rat Ogre Sculpts and a bit too small for their profile. However I do like them so I think they fit in perfectly as a big mutated Clan Rat!

I also wanted the ability to run multiple small units of Clan Rats so painted an additional command, this means I can now run four units of 25, perfect for that weapon team spam!

Month three stats:

Models painted: 30

Total points: 198

Secret Japanese words hidden in the unit: one

May is a reduced month for me, I have a trip that cuts a week out of my painting time so I am going to focus on getting as many of my Leader models done as possible. I have been working on a little bonus model in the back ground recently though, hopefully I can finish it and get that painted next month too!

AdamH’s rat attack part three! Slaving the best for first?!

 It’s month one, energy is high, so I decided to go straight for the models that I find the most dull to paint:

Skaven Slaves! These represent my first Rank and File month submission.

Yea they are certainly not the most exciting, being deliberately painted in a drab brown scheme, but they are very useful in a Skaven army and with this unit that brings my total to three units of 25 (a combined total of a massive 195 points! (Including musicians)

I wanted to have the option to field commands with the Slave units but in reality it is rarely a good idea. You are giving your opponent victory points for nothing, plus what self respecting Warlord would allow his slaves to carry a banner?! Nevertheless I have painted some additional banner and champion models to put into my existing units to at least give me the option:

It is also worth mentioning that I have still got to varnish these models, and rather than bring out my airbrush every month I am going to wait until the end of the challenge and do them all together. Therefore they are missing some final details like basing tufts and leaf littler but you will see them with these elements on my final wrap up post later in the year.

So that brings me onto my month one stats:

• Models painted: 25
• Total points: 80
• Shades of brown: too many

Lastly for the month we have the OWAC secret Santa/model exchange/figure witness protection program?

My chosen recipient was Samothy, and I know how much he likes robots and sand so I painted him a classic Necron:

Enjoy buddy!

To all the other challengers, can’t wait to see everyone’s forces come together, and to the other member(s?) of #TeamSkaven; squeak squeak, nibble, squeak, yes-yes. (They will know what it means).

Ratwig's April OWAC VI WAB Romano-British Command Entry (229 points)

Presented this entry is Magnate Torquatas Novellius Atticus, Army General of a late Roman Army stationed in Brittania at the end of its days as a Roman province, and Decurio Gambinius Felix, his personal standard bearer (Army Standard Bearer). Torquatas displays his political connections by way of the purple stripe on his shirt and on his personal standard. To further tie him to his standard, the orbiculi on his cape is also displayed on his draco standard. He has two character advantages, "fabricae" and "born to the purple". Fabricae represents his having control of an armory which lets most forces under his command have the light armor option for +2 points each. Born to the purple extends his command radius from 12" to 18". He is not a fighting general, he doesn't mix it up against hairy barbarians personally, he stays behind the lines inspiring the troops and directing them during a battle. 

Magnate Torquata Novellius Atticus: 156 points

      Equipment: sword, light armor (+3), mounted on horse (+8)

      Special: Army General

      Character advantages: Fabricae (+15), Born to the Purple (+30)

Decurio Gambinius Felix: 73 points 

      Equipment: sword, light armor (+3), mounted on horse (+8), shield (+2) 

      Special: Army Standard Bearer (+15)

Total Points: 229

Inspiring the troops to feats of glory for Rome! Or at least not to run away at the first sign of the Picts...

These figures are by Footsore Miniatures, the general being modified by having his raised hand cut off and replaced with a Gripping Beast hand with sword molded to it so that he can now ride about the battlefield swinging it inspirationally!

That's it for this month, time for a Jack!

Ratwig out!

Adrian's Intro post - Blood Omen

Intro post

Adrian here, reporting in for another OWAC. 

This year I’ve finally fallen into another rabbit hole, succumbing to the desires of getting a small Rogue Trader force. But we are not only getting into the ancient times of 80’s punk and gritty Warhammer 40k, this year we will also descend into a RT-esque vision of the Horus Heresy.
I had a squad and a half worth of old metal, plastic and resin 'armour-through-ages' marines that I didn’t knew what to do with them. 

I was tempted to go full RT several times, but another 40k army that will be seldomly played… nah, pass it. Then, come HH and beakies are the new black again. I was talking to a friend on how could be the most heretical way that you can get into the Age of Darkness. So why not
A force that can be fielded in both games is not so different for the RT era style and lists. Also, for the OWAC I am limited mostly to the usual marine units, but in my evil masterplan I will expand it toward several of the heresy units that came after old RT artwork, WD conversions and 1st edition of Space Marine.

Now with the background:
0.067.011.M31. Following the arrival of messages from Terra seeking help from remaining loyalist armies across the Imperium, the Imperium Secundus is disbanded and the three Primarch start a campaign to arrive at Terra and reinforce the crown world.
Primarch Sanguinius of the Blood Angels legion prefer a fast approach to the Solar System like his brother Roboute Guilliman. However, while disagreeing with the punishment campaign that will execute his brother Lion El’Johnson, Sanguinius conceded that some sort of sabotage and scorched-earth strategy will be beneficial to relief the besieged terran fortifications when the warmaster forces arrive.
Several small task forces are dispatched to ensure that main supply lines behind traitor lines are disrupted. Several legion high ranking officers hope that this will also ease reinforcement to the also besieged Baal system in the near future if Terra is safe.
Lieutenant commander Lazarus of the 24th Chapter of the Blood Angels is responsible to conduct a campaign of scorched earth in the Calla Bryn sub-sector. His forces are not tasked with getting non-imperial planets into compliance anymore. Instead, any shipyard, supply warehouse, industrial complex or vital location must be annihilated no matter the cost.
The strike force achieved remarkable results in their mission until they encounter a signal of a Emperor’s Children cruiser nearby its next objective, a supply node and agricultural world in the Romeria system.
+++
T-251: Assault on Blaine’s Crane forge world is successful. Several units may undergo repairing and the force couldn’t deploy terminator armours and the heaviest armoured elements in the next mission. Agricultural world in the Romeria system node is marked as the main objective, high command is not worried that the heavy armour will be missed in this easy task. The system is under control of a small Word Bearer garrison and the local forces.
T-199: Arrival at Romeria system seems calm and without major problems. However, ship survey arrays detect a ship with the codes of the Emperor’s Children signature heading towards Romeria IV moon, Uneeda, the secondary objective and starting point of a local rebellion.
T-097: Lexicanum Trent, main librarian of the expedition, get up uneasy from his hyper-sleep with a fatal vision of madness, civilians killing each other, mutants, cultists, undeads and dark rituals. Several signs are familiar and start to rewatch several of his older B-type holo-movies to get informed about the menace of dark forces and the menace of possible reinvigorated corpses.
T-037: Resistance operatives on the moon are not responding. There is no further signs of the traitor forces either. The mission was specifically assisting loyalist freedom-fighters rebelling against the traitor government, destroy any element of the World Bearers and leave the logistic node in total disarray.
World communications give only statics or a cacophony of screams sometimes. Something feels odd for such a massive and busy food supply node in the enemy territory.

 

The Encarmine, firestorm class strike cruiser, approaching to Romeria IV and its moon.

Lieutenant Commander Lazarus gave the order to be battle ready and check all the available supplies. The marines will be deployed in 36 hours to investigate the moon and accomplish plan B: destroy the logistic capabilities of the system with or without the aid of local forces.

For this trip into the galactic civil war, I used the Space Marine Rogue Trader list. It was a matter of selecting points only, as either if I chose the RT or 2nd Edition lists there are several small deviations I need to consider for creating a force that can be played also in current Horus Heresy 2.0, and all the monthly requirements of miniatures and points are covered with both of them.

Tactical Squad Ramiel – 265 points

As you can see, the small changes are in the special and heavy weapons department. It seems that in the Horus Heresy no fun was allowed for the rank-and-file marine, and everyone should carry the standard pattern good ol’ bolter. I am using the points as per a normal squad because they will be rebalanced with the heavy support.

Tactical Squad Ismail – 265 points.

Same profile. These men haven’t got enough of the newly issued MKVI “beaky” power armours and wear older pattens. The sergeant has a power glove (converted lightning claw).

Assault Squad Zeruel – 255 points

It has been a pain in the *ss to clone all the chainswords because at that time they didn’t come with them, and getting enough rt assault weapon sprues is an impossible mission. This process adds an extra layer to the hate and love for the beakies. You hate assembling them, you love the resulting goofy looks. In this case I haven’t modelled the plasma or flamer pistols not because you cannot play them also in the HH. But because I was lazy after getting all the chainswords (in the picture there are two missings because they were still curing!) and didn’t want to clone those two weapons, but I am still deciding.

Devastator Combat Squad Gabriel – 165 points

A 5 man devastator unit. This is the other difference between HH and all the other versions of Warhammer since the 80’s. These marines follow the rule: “All the fun is allowed”. So, the sergeants also carry a heavy weapon (not shown in picture, still curing).

It simplifies giving orders in the middle of a futuristic battlefield, “nuke the same place I am shooting”.

The Angel’s Tears combat squad – 148 points.

When missions do not involve world compliance to the Empire, you need to deploy weapons of mass destruction instead of the police squads. Sanguinius has an elite cadre for this sole purpose, made from the most unruly and brutal elements, dishonoured men carrying dishonourable weapons. They abandon their previous ranks and names, but the Arch-Erelim of the squad tasked to Lazarus strike force is said to come from the Flesh Eater chapter ranks within the Legion and his past codename is simply as Duke.

Count as 5 man veteran assault marines, armed with a bunch of bolt pistols, death rays, disintegrators and flame pistols. But their trademark is the ill-famous Rad grenades.

Fun to convert, I wanted to match this special Blood Angel HH unit with the goofy aesthetic of the RT era. I am more than pleased, wanting to paint them now.

The strike force also brings some even heavier firepower.

Two transport rhinos – 746 points

The reparation of the flimsy lateral rails with a bit of aluminium wire has been better than initially expected.

Predator tank “Fire Sabre” – 600 points

And finally, the legion command designated for the strike force.

Lieutenant Commander Lazarus of the 23rd Chapter of the Blood Angel legion. Major hero with standard equipment - 115 points. 

Lovely miniature.

Lieutenant Bahamut. Minor hero with standard equipment - 69 points
Typical power sword wearing marine

Lexicanum Trent with force sword - 58 points.
The representative of the reinstated librarium and specialist in psychic warfare. As well as avid consumer of B-type ancient holoprojections and literature.

Brother chaplain Giteau. Minor hero - 50 points.

Field Medic dr. Copper, equipped with jump pack – 36 points.

 

That is a total of 2772 points (thinks skyrocket when you have tanks!), with 45 marines and 3 tanks deployed.

There are also some small scenic elements that will go to the wildcard month as well as some of the tanks.

A mysterious farmhouse I'm working on where some of the action may take place. What was that noise?

Several fortifications. Totally normal for a farmand and nothing suspicious that can point towards a secret laboratory in the middle of nowhere.

The Overlord Offering:

A mysterious figure has been walking by at several places of Romeria IV, spotted just before the visions of horror in the dreams of Lexicanum Trent.
This figure is only known as "The Director".

Our beloved overlord stated that he “LOVES horror and things that go bump in the night, be it in a cemetary or an old derelict spaceship”. You don’t have to choose if its ok for a cemetery or spaceship when none other than George A. Romero himself appear against your party. And you know that things will go really, really bad for your group in any possible scenario.

Let see how this weird, B-rated, OWAC production loosely based on the Horus Heresy ends.
See you in the first month!

Adrián’s out.