Valkyries Finished

I finished up a couple Valkyrie transports for my friend tuna over the weekend.
Here is Valkyrie one.

Here is a cockpit detail shot.

Here is Valkyrie two

A little closer shot of Valkyrie two.

From the Workbench

Here are a few pictures of models in progress on my Painting table.

Her are a few I am painting for my friend Tuna. The Executioner has the forgeworld turret and is actually finished. The Valkyries need a bit more work but I should have them finished soon.

A close shot of the Executioner for a better look.

A Great Unclean One, one of the Greater Daemons of Nurgle. This model has been in the bits box for several years. I picked it up from a friend of my with a bunch of plaguemarine and nurgle bits. He had bit ordered a bunch of stuff for another acquaintance and the guy never showed to get the bits. I decided to build this one to add to my nurgle apocalypse forces and maybe in a chaos daemon army.

The one short coming of the model was it was missing the tip of its tongue but a quick pick from a chaos mutation sprue and voila new tongue tip.

A side shot to show some of the join detail. A simple tongue swap to make the model unique.

Here is a forgeworld Vindicator kit I have assembled as a Death Guard chaos vindicator. Another addition to my apocalypse Death Guard force. When I get this finished it will give me two chaos vindicators and three imperial vindicators for one hell of a Line Breaker Squadron

A close up of the pintle gunner. I used a Plague Marine head to help blend in with the army theme.

Another close up of the gunner. I joined the Plague marine head into the gunner torso, added a Death Guard shoulder pad and converted the combi-flamer to a combi-melta. I really like the combi-melta. They always knock out the demolisher cannon but the combi-melta still makes them worry.

Another close up with a better view of the combi-melta conversion. I used the combi-flamer bit that comes with the chaos vehicle sprue. I cut off the bottom tank and the flamer barrel. I them added a drilled out piece of sprue for the melta muzzle. I finished it by using green stuff to make the barrel, add the muzzle detail and turn the flamer fuel tank to a melta tank.

Another oldie but goldie an Imperial Guard Landspeeder. It is destined to join my Adeptus mechanicus Guard army once it is finished.

A side view of the IG Speeder. I received the model in a trade and it was missing its original plasma cannon. I originally added a multimelta but with the release of the new guard codex giving sentinels a plasma cannon I swapped it with an old Ork heavy plasma gun. The ork gun is bulkier than the old imperial plasma cannon but I now I can field it in my Adeptus Mechanicus army in a regular game as a sentinel.

This is a bubblegum machine Mecha that I am planning on fielding as a 15mm Weird World War Two unit. My plan is to use it as a proxy unit in my flames of war army but I haven't decided which unit it will represent.

Her are a couple test models I have been working on. I think they will become part of a veteran squad once i build a few more. I was inspired to try the conversion by an Adeptua Arbite unit I saw online. the guy had converted the lasguns to look more like H&K MP5 submachineguns and did a great job of it. My Las carbine conversion is a piece of styrene rod as the muzzle and two pieces of styrene strip glued together with a little green stuff to make the magazine. The other is a shotgun. I cut off the barrel of the las gun at the front site and drilled it out to make a shotgun sized muzzle. I then cut off the lasgun magazine, trimmed down a boltpistol magazine and glued it in place. A touch of green stuff and a new combat shotgun.

These are a couple catachan officer that I am painting up to join my Adeptus Mechanicus guard army

Some mystery men models but they are rogue trader Commissars that I have stripped, rebuilt and reprimed. Several of them had stormbolters and had to have a weapon swap to be legal under the new codex.

These are a couple Mummies I have been painting up for some Pulp goodness. I just have to finish the bases and they are ready to go. I also plan to double duty them as proxy Wraiths on my warhammer Vampire Counts army.

This is Nog the Minotaur pirate. It is a Reaper model that I have repaired the broken horn and converted the sword from a cutlass it came with to a minotaur sized Rapier. The model is based on a npc character from my old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying group. The group had taken a Minotuar captive. They named it Nog and proceeded to bring it into the light of civilization by fighting in pit fights. It was an interesting addition to the game. It was always trouble having inside a town even if they did have him chained up or hidden in a wagon but out in the countryside he was always a surprise for a bunch of adventurers to have a pet minotaur. They eventually taught him how to use a rapier and entered him in the Middenheim minotuar fights were he went undefeated. Eventually the player retired several characters and Nog went with the to the west and the ocean.

I imagine this as the later Nog. Separate from the restraints of his companions and now the leader of a cutthroat band of corsairs. You can take the Minotaur out of the savage forest but no matter how much you beat him, make him wear clothes and not eat people, you can't take the savage out of the Minotuar.

A couple more Rogue Trader Models. These are two Keepers of Secrets that are greater Daeamons of Slaannesh. I have had these models since I started playing warhammer long ago. I recently stripped them and then reassembled them. I was going to use them to go with the Eldar Harlequin Solitaire data sheet Matt P made for Apocalypse games. The basic premise is that whenever the solitaire is killed a Keeper of Secrets shows up to take its soul, but this is a trick and the solitaire returns the next turn. Si as long as you have spare keeper of secrets to solitaire can return every turn.

New Project: Nurgle Contagions

I have decided on a new scratch build project. I am planning to build three Nurgle Contagion Daemonic Engines for Apocalypse games. I think they will be a good addition to my Apocalypse Deathguard army.

I am imagining a super heavy artillery piece, sort of a Plague Tower Lite.

I haven't finalized a datafax but something similar to a vindicator tank's armor, with 2 structure points, a longer range pus mortar and a pus cannon, and include the nurgling infestation and explosion of filth special rules from the Plague Tower.

I am undecided about a points cost and I am still researching if it had a transport capacity or not.

I want to have the first one done by 31Jan2010 and enter it in the PapaNurgle forum Nurgle Apocalypse contest.

My basic ideas is to start from a foam insulation block for the hull and the trebuchet counter weight. Cast up more wheels like the ones I used for the Plague towers. Build the trebuchet from balsa or bass wood and a hull cannon from PVC pipe.

I am still looking for a more detailed picture to use as a guide for the build.

ColKG

Reviresco Minos finished

The Minos is finished and delivered to Chuckaroobob. Here are a couple more in progress shots.

Here is the sides on and the roof of the superstructure test fitted.

Here is an almost finished shot. Everything assembled and test fitted. I just have to glue down the tabernacles and hold covers then finish the two lower masts.

Minos Finished! All parts painted and assembled but no rigging. I didn't really have a good plan to go by and after talking to Chuckaroo we decided running all the lines would get in the way moving figures around. I made some deviations from the standard Minos. The top of the wheel house and the boats are removable for accessibility. I also toned down the colors of the various fittings, so it would look a little more naval and less a colorful floating Greek bordello.

As I type, I believe a plan is underway to make the Minos a centerpiece in an upcoming Prospector Bob pulp game. Time will tell.

Progress on the Minos

The Minos is nearer to completion. I would have had the hull sides on but I ran out of contact cement and the super glue bled through the paper too much. The only real complaints with the kit so far is that some of the parts needed to be a bit larger and some of the double sided printed sheets were just a bit off. The flip side is some of the pieces were too big but you can trim a piece to fit and the misprinted parts can be touched up with a bit of paint. I finally finished painting the portholes and hatchways. Most were horribly cast and filing them to some sort of normal shape had held up assembly of the hull. The next real hurdle is going to be the rigging. No plans for that in the kit. It is going to be all guess work from the few pictures in the instructions. I am still trying to figure out exactly which bits and bobs go where.

Soon it will take to the gaming waters.

Tanksgiving at PBKW

On 21 Nov 09 I went with the Basement of Heaped Miniatures Regulars down to the Catawba gamers "Tanksgiving" flames of war event. It was held in Cornelius at Parker Banner Kent and Wayne game store. It is a mass game centered around the players fielding mostly tanks. We played a Midwar game and had a mostly Soviet verses german with a couple of British and Chuckaroobob as the single American player.

Here is an over view of the table deployment set up. With some of the BOHM regulars at the table next to the wall.

Jody Pleasent the head of the Catawba Historical Gaming and organizer of the event at PBKW.

The Germans move first and a unit of Panther tanks line up across the table from my Kv-1s.

The Panthers fire. One destroyed Kv-1s and three bailed out.

One Kv-1s recrews and the two active tanks head for cover in the center of the table with a company of Grant tanks. Hidden in the trees are my two Su- 152s with a litle surprise waiting for the Panthers.

The upper side of the table at the end of turn one.

German Airstrike hits the armored spearhead and destroy nothing.

Russian counter airstrike knocks out one Panther.

Two turns later and two more Panthers knocked out by my Su-152s. Of course they had knocked out one of the Su-152s but that is war.

The highlight of my game is when the leader of the panther unit failed his Motivation and retreated off the board. I was kind of stunned but it had to happen sooner or later. We played a final turn before breaking for supper and the game ended with the allies ambushing tons of tanks and taking the game by a healthy 12 point margin.

It was another great day of gaming sponsored by the Catawba Gamers.

Flames of War in the Basement of Heaped Minis

Hi Kids, To celebrate the long weekend we had some longer than normal gaming going on. In total we played 3 games of FoW with 7 total players, anywhere from 1500 point mid war to 4000 pt late war stuff.

Once again I was saddened to see nothing lighter than 50 tons in the German forces, and once again the Hun players dug in on their starting positions and waited for their opponents to give them all the advantages of cover, entrenchments, and stationary rate of fire. They didn't even have to start their tanks' engines until turn 5 or so. Am I crazy or was the German army famous for aggressive tactics? Did they just sneak across the border, dig in at the first crossroads and wait for the defenders to try to eject them? It would've taken 40 years to reach the Channel coast, so I get the notion that they used slightly more manuevering.

But that's just me.