Squighogs!

   It's Orktober and I want some projects finished, so here's the last unit for my Beast Snagga Ork combat patrol - the Squighogs.

   I complained bitterly on the main Beast Snagga post about not breaking the 3 colour rule, so adding squigs into the mix has only amplified the problem - with green and now red filling 2/3s of that rule without even trying.

   I have also found in the past that red is a colour that you can wash, highlight and still end up with a blob of indistinct red, so looking online, someone recommended a purple base coat and no washes, so I tried that out and I am really quite pleased.

I'm also quite enjoying painting Ork check patterns

Thanks for reading

Just So Angry

   While I've only been to the new club twice now and I'm not able to go for another few months, but the two games I have played have made me rethink how I am collecting some of my 40k armies. The games I've tended to play in the last couple of years have been fairly small - Combat Patrol or 1500 points or much less, while this club is playing the more 'standard' points limit of 2000 points. This has made me realise that quite a lot of my armies are just so small - normally pushing over 1000 points with a few that are 1500 - 1700, but that would be using the whole collection and not a thought out army.

   I've been writing a fair few lists for my two chaos armies - aiming to focus on a single area before I spread out too much into other projects. Which one became the army that had the money spent on it was the reason I hadn't spent any money, I just couldn't decide, until chatting to one of my mates about the two collections and I made a passing comment that I thought my World Eaters were my better painted army and that in time I'd like to go back and re-tidy my regular chaos. He suggested that I finish the army I think is better painted, so that I can happily play any games I'm offered, to give me time to go back to the other army.

   So I picked the list I thought would be the most fun (and cost the least) and bought a unit or two for it. At the same time as I'd made decision, my birthday came around and my brothers, unprompted, bought me a *model for that army too. So, I got painting.

*big big

   This post is the units I've finished for my World Eaters;

Berserker Surgeon - Master of Executions. I'm not a huge fan of the base model and seeing a lot of World Eaters players taking the full 3 allowed to buff squads just looks ridiculous, but the fluff keeps going on about how the World Eaters basically only still exist because they have a strong cadre of berserker surgeons and the Fabius Bile backpack I found in the box from Phil, really got me thinking.

By my reckoning, beside the base model and the backpack, there are at least 3 other kits on show here including parts from the berserker sprues.

I am incredibly pleased with this model.

My second Hell Brute - this one a bit more basic in terms of weapons - a pair of fists with flamers in each but I was pleased with how it came out.

A old spawn model I bought online as I need pairs of spawn to make a legal unit and I only had the single one. I will add a box to round out to four in the future.

Next up is a Slaughterbound HQ. This is the newest HQ model for this army and I knew I wanted one when they came out. I gave this guy light skin so that the other stuff on the model would pop.

An unit of Exalted Eightbound, which are the elite version of the Eightbound box. These guys are never seen in current lists as they currently aren't very good but I have a Slaughterbound which is the Eightbound version of a HQ, so I wanted his units available to me. Plus units in 40k might be terrible this month and great next month, so having them in my arsenal just makes sense.

The last unit for this batch is a second rhino for the army. This is another model that I made from Phil's box - the more bits of this I found as I went through the box , the more hopeful I was that I could build a whole one.

I tried to make this one look more like a fairly recently captured Imperial one rather than a historic vehicle from their armoury.

Thanks for reading

Beast Snagga Orks

   Back in February, I'd been chatting to my brothers about the wargaming we planned to do this year and one of them gave in to temptation and bought themselves a combat patrol that none of us expected them to give in to. This sort of opened the flood gates of temptation and I found myself ordering two combat patrols in less than 24 hours. The second one I ordered was the World Eaters which have already been painted and have been on the table, but the first was the Beast Snagga Orks, which lingered mostly built, some painted but with no real momentum behind them.

   One of my brothers had the aim for 2025 that he wanted to get his Ork army on the table, so I wrote the option for them to appear in our current campaign (spoilers) and decided to also do a small force* so that I could reinforce him and keep the story going if he were to flag, but I did the new patrol of Beast Snaggas so that I wouldn't be stepping on his toes.

*it has since got out of hand

   This was a combat patrol that I started to build, sprayed the first squad, then felt intimidated by how to paint them and started other things instead. I tend to try to keep to the 3 colour rule when painting, so keeping non-black/white scale colours to 3 or less as more tends to get busy and just look wrong if you don't seriously plan them. I'm not good enough at getting warm and cold colours balanced, so sticking to the 3 colours tends to give me better results.

   These orks have green skin, 2 different animal skins on their backs, armour and trousers. If I went with "colours" I would go over that magic number without even looking at details and spot colours. The decision I went for was to copy my old Lizardmen skin colour of an off desert yellow for the scaly skins, go brown trousers to keep the brightness down and then rely on whites and blacks for the big blocks of other space, including the furry skins. Although, I did allow myself a bit of red for details as the various species of Squigs in the army will also be red.

   I then finished my first unit in March, started a post about it, then did nothing with the army for nearly 5 months as other projects took the priority. Now with Orktober coming up, I wanted to get the bulk of the army done while the drive was there.

   So below, we have the warboss and the two units of boyz, which just leaves the Squighogs from the combat patrol to go. Although there are 750/1000 point lists on the table that I would like to try if I don't get distracted too hard by other things.

Thanks for reading

584th Liumia Pegasii Taurox Prime

   I'm very much trying to be good with my hobby spend and not doing brilliantly - especially considering how few games I have been playing this year - and the one project that I've ummed and urghed about the most is my Tempestus Scions.

   Ultimately, as they have a finish point that is reasonable, it makes sense to get this project done and with that in mind I had two last units to pick up;

1. The second infantry squad

2. The Turox

   As the thumb nail probably gave away, I bought the vehicle instead of the squad. The thinking was, that, while I normally try to get as much of my regular infantry painted while I still have the motivation, in this case, the project was likely to come unstuck when it came to buy the transport, so I cut that issue out and just bought it.

Posing with the command squad

   Cards on the table. This is a model I have never liked and had no plans of ever buying, but as one is needed for the Combat Patrol, I sucked it up and just got one.

   Now, that I've built and painted my first, I absolutely love it and want more. I kept the colours similar to the infantry - although I used a different beige to make sure it didn't match the cloth of the uniform exactly.

   The regimental badge is from an old Bretonnian decal sheet and fits almost exactly. While the number at the back is my time from my first Park Run at the end of September. 

   I am almost definitely planning on buying more of these as time goes on, as I just really enjoyed the finished project. Maybe this army will become a thing.

Thanks for reading

Growing the Knights

   After painting the Eradicators and saying that scratched the itch quite nicely, I then bought some more marines fairly soon afterwards. In defence of myself*, a local player was having a fire sale of unbuilt kits after a domestic conversation and as I'd had some Blade Guard Veterans on the list of models that I really wanted but just could not justify the price tag of, and seeing some cheap it seemed stupid not to just pick them up**.

   I have also been thinking about my current level of gaming., One big thing was that I wasn't doing much collecting/painting for the Imperial side of the campaign as we were fairly well represented on that side, but due to the lack of games and a lack of gaming venue, this has slightly shifted the other way, so I wanted to have a second look at my Aurora Knights and fill any gaps.

*Someone needs to defend me

**I was persuaded during the visit to pick up some unplanned bits but hey

   This post is a few units that I picked up or have dug out of my own backlog and got ready for the table and to fill those gaps.

   The first unit are the Blade Guard Veterans that set this little debacle off. These have been painted as fairly standard 1st company vets for my Aurora Knights as seen in my Sternguard from the Leviathan boxset. When it came to the shields, I gave one a Ukrainian flag (as the guy selling the models has links to the war), a Norfolk flag (as I decided to buy these while in the county) and the last guy has a bit of a placer shield while I try to think of something else to do.

   Next up is an Invader ATV, which has been in my backlog for far longer than I am happy with. It came from a partworks magazine - not sure if it was Conquest or Imperium - but it was something I wasn't ever going to buy full price, but a tenner made it worth picking up. It was another model that I had painters block on trying to decide what should be gold and what should be mechanical. Now I have this, it probably needs a squad of Outriders to go with it.

   Next up is Captain Hippolytus of the 4th Company. I was chatting to a mate and he was working out a campaign for these space marines to play in next year***, at which point I noticed I didn't have much in the way of regular leadership for the Aurora Knights 4th Company - the glaring missing entry was the captain himself****.

    I decided as a rule of thumb, that I can break at my own leisure, battle company captains would wear Gravis armour (sort of baby Terminator armour) and reserve company captains could wear regular MKx armour - just so I can use what ever models I like but feel like there is a system. Hippolytus is therefore wearing the best in non-terminator armour the chapter can supply, with a cloak in his company colour and an ancient chainsword, once welded on Terra by a hero of the heresy*****. 

***which I am pretty sure won't happen 

****I do have a captain model for this chapter, but as he is in terminator armour, I want to keep him as the 1st company captain.

*****any rumours that a shrine world is missing it's star relic are unsubstantiated by the chapter

   Next is the Apothecary Biologis, from the Leviathan boxset. This model was so close to being finished before he must have gotten caught up in a tidy up session and packed away. I finished the last few bits and added the decals. He isn't perfect, but he is done.

   Lastly for this post is a model I painted a few months back on a whim, wrote a post for then didn't ever take a photo of, so he's been lumped to the bottom of this one. When we finished the Fratribusia campaign, I found some decals I wanted to use for any Imperial forces who had taken part (the crab claw with the skull on the banner) and the more I thought about it, the more a banner for the company that I got add campaign markings to as I went, made sense.

And yes, I do have more in the backlog for this project . . .

Thanks for reading

Sling Off

   I've got two bigger posts of things I'm painting for another couple of projects that by rights should have beaten this one out, but as these figures are not going to be joined by any friends for a fair while, it was worth them jumping the queue.

   I bought some Mid-Late Roman Slingers a few years back as part of another order, just as a cheap pair of skirmishing units for my 15mm Crisis of the 3rd Century Roman project, although, I think they might be a touch later in their appearance. These models were stuck in their lolly sticks, sprayed and then sat in a draw for going on 3 years at this point. I'm currently having a bit of a sort out and trying to make my man cave/office usable* and, if I'm really good, include a permanent gaming table so I can actually play some games. These figures needed to be painted and put away, so that's what I did.

*not a death trap

   The colour scheme was pretty plain, I kept them in off white tunics as I think it's likely to be the most historically accurate for them and mixed the trouser and hair colours for variety. I have broken my basing convention for these armies with these guys, but I thought as fully skirmishing units I wanted that to stand out on the board, so instead of regular size bases but spread out, I halved the base size.

This project still has another 7 or 8 bases of units to go - mostly for one side addition to the idea - plus some scenery bits, so hopefully that won't take another 3 years to get around to.

Thanks for reading

584th Liumia Pegasii Command

   This isn't going to be the most ground breaking post but the 584th Liumia Pegasii Tempestus Scions are a project I started with fanfare and then lost momentum on, so I need to fix that. With no games having been played for nearly 2 months now there had been no real motivation to force myself to paint anything that I wasn't enjoying and these guys are a touch too fiddly to be fun.

   I had a rule that I was going to buy a box of these guys at a time rather than whole squads, just to make sure I had a conveyor belt of models without going hard into something that might have just been dropped, but the last time I bought a box, I got overly excited and picked up two instead. Then inevitably, didn't paint them up straight after the first.

   However, now with these done and knowing I'm two units away from the combat patrol and over half way in terms of figures, I'm wondering if it is worth picking up the last few models and just getting it done, but I also have other projects to do?

Thanks for reading

Eradication Games

   Another unit that is hard to explain. I had a few weeks where I was toying with another big space marine project of, at minimum, Combat Patrol size, which was frankly ridiculous when I already have so many projects on the go. So, to scratch the itch with minimal outlay, effort and disruption, I picked up a box of Eradicator Marines which I do actually have in a list I have hopes of using in late October.

   It has to be said, some projects you struggle with until you are nearly finished and others are just a delight from start to finish. This unit was the latter. I need to give my Aurora Knights a bit more love as I have a fair few of them but nothing that looks like a really usable list - something to think about.

It's only at the point of going to post this that I noticed I haven't painted their left knee pad black like the rest of my marines but that can be fixed.

Thanks for reading

Slayers

   There are two units I think my dwarf army is missing, beyond just generally making the army bigger, a war machine - bolt thrower especially and a unit of slayers.

   The Gotrek and Felix series of novels - even with the early ones starting to date badly now* - are a must read for every warhammer fantasy/Age of Sigmar fan and I am slowly working my way through them after giving up on Dragonslayer probably 20 years ago now. These books really got me thinking about the unit of slayers I keep meaning to add to the army.

*controversial?

   Back in 2023 with old world slayers having been discontinued and seriously expensive online I needed a different plan, so I looked for recommendations online, but none of the alternative figures quite did it for me. Then I went back to a half baked plan, the Age of Sigmar Fyreslayers, who are the spiritual descendants of the slayer, so would they work. I bought a sprue online to test the theory.

   The long and the short, they were OK, but a lot of phaff to make and the plan was never going to be cheap. Then along came the rerelease of the Old World and a box of the old metal slayers - in a box of 12 . . . The price made me upset, but eBay prices made me sadder and my initial Fyreslayer plan also wasn't cheap, so I bought a set when they went on preorder.

   I really like these old figures and while my bank account was sad for a month or so, I don't have a lot of regrets beyond why they sat half painted on the shelf behind me for a year or so at this point.

   I especially love the sad expressions on these two's faces. They may be berserkers who are atoning for perceived sins, but they are also sad about those sins.

Thanks for reading

Dark Angels? Really?

   This is a post slightly out of time, but I had been on a bit of a Chaos painting fix and was stuck between motivation, so I did the only sensible thing and pick a unit I knew I was going to need to force myself to start and do that instead.

   The unit I picked was my converted unit of Dark Angel Possessed for my Fallen Angel Combat Patrol. These were converted from a mix of the Possessed box and some MKiii marines to keep the period feel. After all the moaning going into painting them, once the skins were based and washed they felt really good, with everything following it just being, mostly, good fun.

   It's only taken me nearly a year to do the last unit of this combat patrol . . .

Thanks for reading

2nd Edition Warhammer 40k?

   One of my old 30k podcast mates started playing Warhammer 40k in 2nd edition* and has a real nostalgia for that era that he can't quite shake. He's been talking about doing a 2nd edition project for a few months now, but finally took the plunge a couple of months back, buying up figures he would have used at the time, namely Space Wolves, and painting them in the style of the edition.

*compared to my 3rd edition beginnings 

   I'm someone who is always happy to look at a new project if it won't cost an absolute bomb and there is a decent chance it will get used, so I toyed with looking into doing something similar, settling on probably just building something a bit closer to 3rd edition and calling it quits.

   Until someone who reads this blog - Phil - messaged to say he had a box of old Warhammer to get rid of, did I want it? Looking through some of the photos, I saw 2nd Edition Chaos Space Marines and my creative juices started flowing.

   This post is about the first squad plus Aspiring Champion (separate unit) for this army. I've painted them in, what I think is, 2nd edition colours for the Black Legion - so more yellow and red than you'd see nowadays. I plan to go back over the army if I find any better pictures online, but my googlefu has slightly failed me on this one.

Thanks for reading and extra thanks to Phil

Undead Wolves

   I always try and stay upbeat and positive about models and the hobby on this blog, as anyone that stumbles upon it isn't here to see me whining, but this unit have been a real disappointment in multiple ways.

   I ordered them back in February from Little Corporal and they arrived in the last couple of days of August. To be fair to the shop, the figures are from a US company and the shop thought they had stock on hand at the time of the order and only found out they didn't when they initially tried to pack them. Add in the order time from the US, the shop itself moved and didn't do any orders for a month and then the owner had a health scare and didn't send anything for a couple more months and its been a long process actually getting them.

   Then the figures turn up and as they are 15mm skeletons with spindly little legs, necks and tails, them being packed in a padded jiffy bag has meant that every single one was squashed flat. I've bent them all back up and had about a third of them being too broken to be able to fix. So, I've downgraded them from two bases and a couple of spares worth to a single horde base.

   Now, the figures. These are skeleton wolves, which I've quietly lusted over for a couple of years now, mostly successfully not ordering until a moment of weakness earlier this year. They were a test order as I wanted to see how they looked alongside other stuff before I took the plunge with a big order.

   They are simply painted up as there isn't much to do with them and I quite like them, now they are based, but they are fragile as anything and it's a unit (like the bats) that I don't think will survive more than a game or two before someone breaks one or more.

Thanks for reading

Sanctifiers

   How do I explain this post? Really it should be the second or 3rd post in a series but it's the first, so lets give this a go. Warhammer released scenery kit a few years back of an angelic statue about 2 stories high that I always meant to buy but couldn't quite justify the price of, they then discountinued it and the second hand price went mental. A few years later, Warhammer released a Kill Team box called Blood and Zeal, which had the statue in again but I also couldn't justify buying two Kill Teams to get some scenery, so I passed on.

   I have spent the start of summer painting a World Eaters Chaos army and one of the units it can take are Goremoungers, effectively slightly improved cultists who rather helpfully come in the Blood and Zeal box. As the box is out of print now the 3 parts of it have gone on sale separately and are all about half the price of the box. It was about this point I realised that I wanted 2 parts, I had a vague use for the 3rd. 

   Luckily there is a shop around the corner from me that is actually a vape shop, but who set a board up in their shop to play 40k during the day and kept having customers ask if they sold Warhammer, so they decided to do just that. Because they don't have a website, strange boxes of things that sell out on release day sit unsold on their shelves, so it's a grab place to pick up the odd things that you missed first time around - this was one of those.

   This is very much becoming one of those units that was bought without a plan as the 'almost free' bit of a set I wanted and has quickly become my favourite bit. I now need to make sure I don't build an army around it, but I have so many projects fighting to be the first I do next, that's not too big a challenge.

Thanks for reading

Astral Claws Scout Squad

   Is this another new project? Let me explain. 

   My old Heresy podcast group is a strange whatsapp chat where we can be completely silent for months and then we talk non-stop for a few weeks, spitballing ideas that rarely go anywhere. One idea I floated a few months back was of a meet up to play 5th edition Warhammer using the Badab War books from Forgewold. I've always wanted to play some games from this campaign but I've never had an opponent. 

   I'd worked out a 1000 point list, which was pretty normal for the time, worked out prices and was fairly surprised by how cheap the bulk of the project would be, barring two units - the dreadnought (I didn't want a venerable one and GW don't sell the old normal one anymore) and the scout squad.

   Then someone who reads this blog got in contact to say they were getting rid of their old warhammer bits and did I want them? Of course I said yes - thanks Phil! 

   I'm going to go into some of the stuff in the box properly in another post - as there is another whole new project I'm doing from this box, plus another half formed project in my head - but one thing that jumped out when I was sorting through the bits was the metal scouts.

   With excited cries, I ran to check my notebook and my 1000 point list and found I had all the scouts, plus extras, that I needed. So they duly got sprayed and put onto my painting desk - the project was go.

   I need to order some decals from my German supplier, but I'm really pleased to see this project starting up. I've got big plans even knowing that I don't expect this to ever see a table top. Sometimes it's nice to get ideas out of your head and be creative.

Thanks for reading

584th Liumia Pegasii

   As the guy who is playing all sides in the current 40k campaign, I keep thinking about what isn't represented that probably should be*, the Imperial Battle Group is likely to include a few Space Marine chapters, at least one Sisters of Battle order, then nowhere near enough Guard.

   With this in mind, I sat and thought about what would make sense to represent another regiment but to keep the project small without it being daft that I only painted a single platoon. It was obvious that the answer is basically Kasrkin or Tempestus Scions and as I have a unit of the former to paint for my traitors, the latter made the most sense.

*the chaos side is easier, as they are just warbands pulled together, there are no rules, although, I probably need a bit more variety in traitor guard/cultists

   As an elite unit, who are trained and recruited from the same pool of orphans as Commissars and Sisters Of Battle (if I remember my fluff right), I decided I wanted these guys to reflect something from real world elite forces and use a colour scheme that might help them rather than hinder**. With this in mind, I chose a dark green armour and a beige uniform underneath.

**although it is still 40k, so of course they have a metallic trim to their armour

  This was supposed to just be a test box to see if the idea worked and to stop myself going mad and then not doing anything with the project but I ended up buying a second box once I finished it and now I have a full squad. At this point I now have a squad I can add to my guard armies but can also use for Kill Team, then look at adding another squad, a command squad and then either a Taurox (to make the combat patrol) or a squad of Aquilons for rule of cool and a 500 point army (plus they are a Kill Team themselves)

Thanks for reading

Imperial Navy Bomber Wing 1538

   Unlike my Fighter Wing from this post*, I've gone with a much more two tone, camouflaged scheme instead of a bold one colour, matching what real bombers would have. I've figured that in the novels fighters are smaller and tend to be showier, relying on speed in the air and being moved under cover on the ground to keep the aircraft safe. Bombers on the other hand are slower in the air, and more likely to be less under cover on the ground, so need a bit more protection, plus as they are from different Wings, they don't need to match**.

*which still needs expanding by a couple of planes really

**I plan to add a 3rd different Wing in the future too

   It's quite odd that I really like the beige scheme my fighter wing is currently in and I also have a model of a plane from it in 28mm sitting on a shelf behind me, but looking at these bombers, they really do just feel 'right'.

Thanks for reading

Campaign Chetis 4

   With the planet being digested around them and no hope of delaying the hive fleet any longer, the Imperial forces on Fratribusia pull out while their route of escape is still open, evacuating as much of strategic importance as possible. Military equipment and relics are all taken from their places of storage, while civilians of fighting age and build are forcibly removed from their families and inducted into the Astra Militarum to continue the fight on other planets. Billions of people, thousands of tons of equipment and stragglers from the Imperial forces are left to their fate with the xenos.

   While the planet, it’s population and the regular tithe have all been lost to the Imperium of man, the hive fleet was held up for longer than expected, allowing more time for a build up of forces at the anchor world of Sanctum.

   Battle group Constintinia has been formed from the remnants of the Imperial forces and been ordered to the planet of Chetis 4.

 

   Chetis 4 is an arid world whose main off world tithe is focused on munitions, cotton fabrics and Imperial Guard regiments all of which are crucial to the on going war against the hive fleets of the Tyranids. In recent years, the planetary governor, a certain Cardinal-Astra Marcellus, has declared himself a facet of the God-Emperor of mankind himself, declaring war on the corruption of the Imperium as he sees it and stopping all tithe materials leaving while he builds his own crusading army.

   While the vast majority of solblade strike forces are being pulled back to the anchor worlds, now their delaying missions have been completed, to help strengthen the lines, those involved in the Fratribusia conflict have been grouped together and reinforced with an extra division of Astra Militarum as Battle Group Contintinia tasked with bringing Chetis 4 back into the Imperial fold.

   Upon reaching Chetis 4, Battle Group Contintinia has discovered that the problem is far more than a secessionist government and isn't confined to the single planet.

   The first wave of attacks were lead by the 1st Division Astra Militarum (Hervictus 14th, 17th, 31st and the Fratibusia Free Engineers), supported by the Ossuary Brotherhood chapter of Astartes, the Order of the Fallen Angels, Adepeta Soroitas and House Steinschild of the Imperial Knights.

The Imperial Knights were deployed outside of the main invasion area to neutralise a repair and reequipment site used by traitor Knights, with the aim of knocking a potent threat out of the war early on.

   The Ossuary Brotherhood was spread far thinner than planned when local, unsupported counter attacks from the forces of Chaos responded faster than anticipated but their heroic sacrifices meant the Imperial beach head has held, for the moment. Is a third of a company fallen in the opening gambit too high a price?

   Even with a full scale invasion of the planet going on, the warbands roving Chetis, supposedly under the command of Cardinal-Astra Marcellus, have been unable to co-ordinate a full scale response and have been recorded fighting amongst themselves on at least three separate occasions.

   Reported sightings of silver armoured Adeptus Astartes active on Chetis 4 are unsubstantiated and liable to lead to Inquisitional interest.

Thanks for reading