Post-Apocalyptic Soviets

Another little distraction from the Vimy project… I’ve been working on these on and off over the last couple of weeks – during painting downtime – while waiting for glue or primer or finish to dry… or at the end of a solid eveneing of painting after finishing off a unit (as a “treat”).

The figures are form Lead Adventure Miniatures  - though I ordered them from Magister Militum. I’ve been wanting to pick some of these up for a couple years now – pretty much since they first came out. From the moment I spotted them I thought they’d be perfect for a Twilight:2000 game. I have a pile of the adventures. I thought I could use Flying Lead or Mutants and Death Ray Guns as a simple system for combat resolution and bolt on some skill resolution system…

 I also have the KGB pack.

I finished up a few of these a couple weeks ago and even used them in a game of Mutants and Death Ray Guns already… of course… most of them died… Of course that was just one-of game to try the system out – they will all be resurrected when we get to starting a proper campaign. And now I have a bigger pool of guy sto choose from or use as replacements as guys inevitably die…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Post apocalyptic Soviets from Lead Adventure Miniatures.

Here is the whole gang together.

I’m definitely going to have to pick up some more packs of post-apocalyptic types from Lead Adventure Miniatures. I’d also like to pick up some of their Astropolis figures – they’d be great for a Rogue Trader campaign.

(I also kind of just backed the Dwarven Gold Fever Kickstarter - because I apparently don’t have enough Dwarves!?)

The nice thing about backing kickstarters at the moment (as opposed to ordering new toys) is I can dream of future fun, but know they won’t show up until after April and cause any further distraction…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Canadians… Seriously… I had a good day of assembling things yesterday – gluing figures to bases, assembling trench mortars, etc… 

Deniable Assets

I did get the three battalions I hope to paint this week based, and primed and gooped. While I was waiting for the goop to dry (or set…? Whatever…) I knocked off these thre modern operators from Spectre Miniatures…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Three Operators from Spectre Miniatures.

I just picked these up last week from a local fellow that posted them on the Saskatoon Miniatures buy and sell facebook page. He apparently got them and some others and the Spectre Ops rules in a kickstarter. I’d seen Spectre Miniatures and thought I’d definitely like to check them out when I get back to working on modern subjects, so when these (and the others) showed up I couldn’t pass them up.

The proportions are very naturalistic – which makes them a lot slighter than most 28mm miniatures these days – and their poses are very dynamic. They look like they mean business. Unfortunately their gun barrels are very thin and probably won’t last – that long suppressor on the marksmans rifle has been bent 90° twice already – I’m sure the only thing holding on at this point is the layers of paint, primer, and finish… broken rifle barrels drive me CrAzY!? Especially ones that are so slight they simply cannot be repaired. I also got some SAS Jungle Operators and some GRU Spetznaz with these guys. (at least one of their rifle barrels is broken already! GRRRRRRR!!!)

Here they are next to some of the other modern figures I have…

From left to right: Wargames Foundry, Spectre Miniatures, The Assault Group, Spectre Miniatures, Eureka Miniatures, Empress Miniatures, Hasslefree Miniatures, Spectre Miniatures, Eureka Miniatures

I also got the Spectre Ops rule book with the figure lot. I don't know that I'll ever play them, but it's a fabulous book to look through - just for all the full-colour photos of all their pretty miniatures!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’ve actually finished up the first of the three battalions of Germans for this week. I may or may not post them in the next day or two (I may just wait until the entire regiment is done and post them all together on the weekend…?).

Micro Distractions

Back with a few “Epic scale” Eldar I finished knocked off Saturday evening. (I also worked on some great war stuff and was waiting for green stuff to cure before painting, so I cranked out a few of these guys.

I had been freaking out a few weeks back wondering where my Future War Commander book had gotten to and finally asked Other Tim if he had a copy (or if maybe I’d loaned him mine…?) and it turned out I had. H returned it to me this week and I’ve been a little distracted reading through that again and trying to remember how it worked and how units were organized and did some costing out of things.

Apparently I have WAY more Marines than I could ever hope to have opponents to fiend the entire force against!? Remember that unit of Terminators I finished last month? Yeah those four elements of Terminators and an HQ are over 1000 points – not including their Land Raiders!? Granted that is probably the most pricey unit in the force… but still, I have a LOT more Marines… Not so much of anything else.

I thought when I had pare moments I might finish up a few Eldar things – here and there. I do have Orks, but I have to paint SO MANY to be any match for the Marines. I figured the Eldar are closer to being able to going toe-to-toe with them.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Stinging Scorpions

Actually only two of these elements are newly painted. The other four elements were painted when I got them and I decided they were painted well enough I’d leave them and just rebased them. I had two other elements of Stinging Scorpions that I recently tried to paint to match them – can you tell which are mine?

Old School Falcon Grav… Tanks…? I always think of the Falcon as a “Tank” but it’s really more of an IFV, isn’t it?  I thought I’d paint the tanks to sort of match the colour scheme of the infantry they’ll carry.

I also have a fair few Grav bikes (or where they Jet bikes..?) I though I’d use them as HQ elements and have likewise painted it to match the general scheme.

The Eldar Force so far…

Should Stinging Scorpions all be deployed in one big force like this…? Or should they be tasked out as single elements in various different war hosts. I have to admit, I don’t know enough of the fluff about Eldar Tactical doctrine. That’s what I both love and hate about the 40K universe – it has such a rich and fleshed out background that there probably IS some book with detailed fluff describing Eldar tactical doctrine… and that makes me worry that some know-it-all could come along and tell me I’m not organizing MY purely fantastical toys right…

Among the other elements painted so far are four elements of Fire Dragons, 3 Elements of Harlequins (sadly there seems to be no stat line for Harlequins in FWC…), and 12 more Falcon IFVs. The Fire Dragons and Harlequins weren't painted by me - I got them with the Striking Scorpions - and they were nice enough that I just re-based them.

I see now I've changed how I painted the Falcons. I'm going to have to do some touch-ups on them - including the ones I just did! the one unit with the gold canopies I'll re-do to match the red ones of the other units, and I just realized that there's a gold bit on the shooty-laser-blaster-stick-thingie that I missed  on the ones I just painted. 

Not that I'm going to do any more work on these right away, I'm wondering if I should do some Falcons to match the Fire Dragons next, or some infantry to go in the other Falcons I have painted. Guardians or Dire Avengers...? 

I need to find something to use as a command element for the entire force... 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A brief update on the status of the Vimy Project.