Some fabulous fantasy modelling

While visiting last night, Murray shared with me two new model pieces he has finished for HotT, or DBF.

A Great Flyer for the Ratmen

This one a knight, specifically a chariot, for the Ratmen. The figures are old GW figures.

Painting challenge .. the Defiler

A quick shot of my own progress on this year's painting challenge. The Chaos Defiler is interesting as a kit build. I've pre-painted everything I can on the sprues before I start assembly. This then requires additional touch ups as assembly proceeds in those paces where I've had to file to fit, or where a little too much glue has been applied.

This is the state of play as of last night, with the legs and basic body assembled.

I'll leave highlighting etc until assembly is almost complete so that I am highlighting those parts that would naturally reflect light.

There will also be quite a bit of detailing to be done at that stage as well.

Vostroyans for the painting challenge

Well, this year's painting challenge has been under way for several weeks and each of us has faced delays. For Andy and I it has been work and family pressures. For Adrian it has been the availability of the figures etc that he wanted. Adrian decided to opt for some Vostroyans which could not only be sued for 40K, but could also double as a steam punk army for other rules sets. Thursday night, and he presented the first squad.

Painted to Adrian's usual astounding standard, these look amazing.

Painting Challenge progress

Time for an update on the Painting Challenge progress which, quite frankly, has been pedestrian to say the least. An overseas conference and work pressure generally have taken their toll. However I have been pottering away painting parts on sprues to try to make sure that I get a reasonable quality paint finish.

So here were the sprues earlier this evening with many (but not all) parts painted, and ready for assembly.

I managed a little assembly this evening in between outbreaks of marking. More anon.

Adrian it turns out has taken to painting some GW Vostroyans for (maybe) 40K, but also to double as a steam punk army, and Andy is making progress with some Space marines that have sat unassembled in boxes for a number of years along with a Dreadnought.

I'm pestering them for photos.

This year's painting challenge

Back in 2013 Adrian, Andy and I undertook a 40K Combat patrol 400 point painting challenge. You can see the results here.

The net result was the completion of my L&tD mutants, Adrian's Necrons, and Andy's Guard (well he didn't quite make 400 points. We didn't really want to start new armies, but the painting challenge certainly progresses projects, so this year it's a 40K vehicle challenge.

I've chosen a Defiler to give the L&tD a little more Chaos firepower, although frankly I a much more interested in the enjoyment of painting a very cool model.

Andy is tackling a Dreadnought, and I haven't heard from Adrian yet.. I suspect something Dark Eldar'ish.

Hopefully we'll keep the blog updated with photos of our progress.

Cultists/Mutants.. enjoyable painting.

After a long drawn out term I've finally finished the most recent painting project: the 20 Cultists from the latest WH40K boxed set. Last year three of us held a small painting competition in which we aimed to paint 400 points of 40K figures for Combat Patrol, and I chose Lost and the Damned. Since then the most recent rules version and Chaos Codex have come out, and L&tD has become the generic name for Chaos. Mutants have disappeared (were they ever really there?) and humans in the service of Chaos are termed Cultists.

I have quite enjoyed the painting (even though I can't quite say the same for the games rules) and so indulged myself with the purchase in order to paint some more figures. I decided to use the same theme that I'd used for my existing Mutants: pale flesh tones, rag-tag camouflage uniforms and dark base finish in order to tie these latest Cultists in with the earlier efforts.

Latest cultists mixed with the earlier mutants

And again alongside the earlier mutants

They seem to work in well together. Now competent 40K 'gamers will probably tell em that these will never be the basis for a competitive Chaos army, but.., hey .. that wasn't the aim. I've had fun painting them.

So you can "unlearn" ...

It's quite pleasant to wander down to the local cavaliers club for a couple of hours on a Thursday evening every now and then, grab a pint of 'Old dark', and enjoy a small game with Adrian. And now that Lorraine and I have finished our rock n roll dance training commitment is over for this year, Adrian and I have started to do just that. At the moment we are 'messing around' with 400-600 point games of 40K (still using 5th edition at the moment), and I've been putting the Lost and the Damned army to use (after all, it seemed a shame to paint it up and not see the greeblies and despicable traitors out on the table top). So this time Adrian brought along his 'Sisters of battle', another beautifully painted army from his extensive collection.

It seems that from the gaming perspective this week I successfully managed to 'unlearn' just about everything I thought I had learned so far about this game system. Frankly the subtleties of the system continue to elude me - I guess I'm just slow when it comes to Warhammer 40K.

Again rather than a possibly tedious blow by blow account, just a few selected snapshots of some of the action.

The Chaos Space Marine unit managed to make it into contact with a unit of Sisters who sadly, from the CSM point of view, were quickly joined by a Penitent Engine...

The mutants ended up in contact with a unit of Seraphim and a Penitent Engine.. now that was never going to end well ...

In the finish there were only the two Traitor Sentinels and the squad of Autocannons left... very ugly.. for the Traitors ....

More Necrons for the 40K painting challenge

It was only ever meant to be 400 points, but Adrian felt the 'calling', pushing the Necron 'horde' out to 1500 points with these most recent additions.

Lost and the Damned outing #3

The Lost and the Damned seem to be perpetually lost and damned... funny that. Choosing to take on those tin men, the Necrons again, may not have been such a good idea, even though they say success in their previous meeting. This time we played 600 points, although we still applied the Combat Patrol force limitations.

On their right the Mutants ran forward to tackle the Necron left, supported by the two Traitor Sentinels.

The centre was held by the Chaos Space Marines supported by a unit of Traitors and a squad of Auto cannons, with another unit of Traitors on the left.

The mutants doubled forward ready to attack the unit of Necron warriors holding their left, but these were supported by a large Necron Stalker.. ooo darn, this may not end well. The Stalker assaulted the Mutants and the few remaining mutants broke and fled.

The Traitors on the left doubled forward to attack the Necron right, but those warriors were spoiling for a fight and after a round of Gaus Rifle fire they advanced to take the fight to the Traitors.

They quickly despatched that unit, but were then hit in the flank by the Traitors that had advanced in the centre.

The Chaos Space Marines assaulted the Wraiths that had emerged from cover to protect the central unit of warriors.

The Mutants disappeared in a wave of blood and gore, allowing the Necron left to advance. A battle developed between the Stalker and the Sentinels.

With Traitors and CSM's locked in combat, and the Stalker immobilized, the game came to an end. The L&tD casualties were significant with one unit of Traitors and the Mutants eliminated. All of the Necron units were still in place. The Wraiths had been reduced to two stands, and the Stalker had been immobilized, but each of the three Warrior units had lost only one of two figures.

More tidying up ... "odds and sods"

It's been a busy hobby week amidst the 'wind down' from one heck of a school term. Pottering through the boxes of stuff to be done/projects to be completed (searching out anything else remotely interesting for the 20mm Spearhead project) I came across three unpainted GW Imperial Guard Kasyrkin figures that had apparently been surplus to requirements. So these three have now been recruited into the ranks of the Traitor army. Feeling a little lazy I painted all three in the jungle camouflage scheme. It seemed to be the one requiring the least thought.

I also discovered a solitary Imperial Guard officer painted, but missing an arm. He had come with the bulk lot of IG I'd bought already painted several years ago. No arm? Well not entirely 'armless.. but a complete sitter for a mutant.

One mutated arm (well, an Orc arm actually, but somewhat out of proportion for an ordinary human) and another mutant is added to the list.

Never under estimate the value of the old 'spares box' eh??

Now, I have some of those 20mm zombies and zombie dogs on the pins ready for painting for the HotT Undead army.

I must try to figure out why I get that dark area lower right on the photos when I use the flash.. I'm not obscuring anything with fingers, so it's a bit odd. Any thoughts?

Lost and the Damned come up trumps ...

With a rare Thursday evening fre, Adrian and I popped along to the local cavaliers 'gaming club to enjoy a pint and a game of Combat patrol using the new CP armies. The beer and the conversation were great, as was the game, and for the first time that i can ever recall, I won a game of 40K.
The mutants advanced in cover, ran and then hit Adrian's Necron Warriors, cleaning them out in two turns. The Chaos Space marines advanced in the centre, soaked up a fair amount of firepower before charging the three wraiths that came out to play, The wraiths had sent a unit of traitors fleeing, but these boys managed to rally after a turn.

The mutants joined the CSM in combat with the wraiths and helped to eliminate them. The 'after' shot (I forgot to to take my camera, so grabbed these few photos with my phone after the action was all over.

The Traitor heavy weapons platoon managed exactly nothing, despite several hits.

All good fun: I think we'll do it again.

The Lost & the Damned were ..

.. well, lost and damned really. First outing for the boys after our Combat Patrol painting challenge, and Adrian's Necrons were out to take the first small piece of this lush planet from the Traitors.

The L&tD army consisted of two squads of traitors, with a heavy weapon each (it was what they had managed to drag along with them), an 'assemblage' of mutants, with a unit of Chaos Space marines sent along to bolster their strength. We played this game using the 5th Edition 40K rules.

The mutants made a dash for the ruins on the left, hoping to be able to assault forward from cover.

The units of traitors took up positions to bring their firepower down and command the two fire lanes that the terrain presented.

The Necron warriors and a unit of three wraiths advanced behind the terrain, looking to shoot and kill.

Early firepower began to reduce mutant numbers, despite the cover offered by the ruins.

The mutants charged out of the ruins hoping to assault the Necron warriors, but they were held up extricating themselves from the difficult terrain, and so found themselves out in the open in front of the Necron warriors. This wasn't going to end well ...

Meanwhile the Wraiths assaulted the Chaos Space Marines ...

Traitors looked on, still bringing their fire down on the advancing Necron warriors (who kept on standing up again.. 'the 'I'll be back' rule.. damn!!). The Chaos Space Marines held their own for 3 turns of melee before finally succumbing.

On the flank the Necron Stalked was advancing on the second traitor squad when the missile launcher team finally scored a penetrating hit, immobilising the walker.

At the end of 6 turns, the L&tD force had lost well over 300 points, while they had manged to inflict a mere 90 points... the Lost and the Damned were certainly lost and damned on this field of battle.

However, we had an absolute ball of a game.... maybe we need to get a copy of 6th edition rules to give these guys another run.