A quick July summary

My real life recently got a teensy bit busy, so I've been away from the blog, but I have still been up to a few hobby things. 

 

First up, with Bad Squiddo Games setting up a new shipping and fulfilment solution, Annie has been having a bit of a clear out of bits and pieces before the move. I picked up a whole bunch of Renedra scenery pieces to use in photo backdrops and as RPG scenery.

On the Infinity side of things "Operation Mazebreaker" came out. This new starter set has a bunch of new miniatures for Corregidor, one of my earliest factions.

I'm very keen to get back to the Nomads, but there's a lot of hobby work to be done to get there - so currently the plan is to get my vanilla Combined Army playing a bit more, and once the core of that is painted, I'll move onto my Nomad paint schemes.

I also ordered the Ciaphas Cain miniature for my Imperial Guard. I have enjoyed the books I've read and I wanted to grab him before he went out of stock and became hard to find.

I went on a little adventure to Warp Miniatures shop in Nottingham on a free weekend. I have a little more to say on that, but it deserves its own post.

And finally, I did assemble this Minotaur by Archon Studios. There is a small mistake I made with the assembly - on the very final instruction, I didn't line the parts up correctly, and there's a small gap. I'll need to fill this in with Green Stuff, but it's really annoyed me as it's such a small thing that's really standing out to me.

The kit itself is great - it's single pose but very cleverly put together to hide an awful lot of the joins under other parts, making it really easy to assemble.

Comm-link Guard, More Sorting, and Finding More Work

 

I've finished assembling the comm-link troops I need for my Imperial Guard update. I'm not painting these immediately as I've got Too Much On right now, but they'll be an easy quick paint job in a free moment.

While searching my boxes for plasma gunners I found that I actually had one more than I thought I had. After I'd bought a metal Cadian plasma gunner from eBay as an inferior substitute, obviously. At least it was before I'd painted things.

As a first pass of getting these ready for undercoat, I dropped them into a sonic cleaner bath with hot water and washing up liquid. This didn't get much paint off, but did clear off the basing sand and broke down the basing glue enough to get them separated easily. Next step will be an acetone bath, but I need to find a good container for that so awful fumes and stuff don't make my tiny flat sad.

On the subject of making me sad, I found three more baskets of part finished projects that need sorting. Oh bother. I haven't even fully gone through this basket. There's a couple of Inquisitors in Terminator armour that need a little more assembly and can then go in a box, much like the Comm-link Guard I just finished.

There's a bunch of Deathwatch repairs in another tray. This should be one of the easier jobs on the "to do" list.

There's also a tray of "stuff that's difficult to fit in things" that need putting away. I should do that. I have put away two trays of minis already, but that heart warming feeling of tidying up isn't particularly photogenic for blogging purposes.

I got a little more base coating done on the Conquest Druid. It's not a finished thing, but it's progress.

In the coming week I have my Infinity campaign game and the finale of our 40K campaign as well. That might mean I don't get a huge amount of hobby done, but we'll see how it goes.

Astra Militarum 10th Edition Plans

 

With the new Astra Militarum Codex released for 10th edition, I needed to take stock of my Guard army and work out what I'm doing. While I had a short period of considering selling them off entirely, I've enjoyed playing them in the club campaign, so decided to get them up to spec for the new edition.

Setting myself the rule of "use what you already have wherever possible", I've come up with the following starting list:

Astra Militarum - Combined Arms

Strike Force (2000 Points)

CHARACTERS

Cadian Command Squad (80 Points)

     ◦ Enhancements: Reactive Command

Commissar (40 Points)

  • Enhancements: Death Mask of Ollanius

Gaunt’s Ghosts (110 Points)

Ministorum Priest (35 Points)

Primaris Psyker (60 Points)

Sly Marbo (55 Points)

BATTLELINE

Cadian Shock Troops (65 Points)

Cadian Shock Troops (65 Points)

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Chimera (85 Points)

OTHER DATASHEETS

2 x Armoured Sentinels (130 Points)

Armoured Sentinels (65 Points)

Basilisk (140 Points)

Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad (65 Points)

Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad (65 Points)

Hellhound (125 Points)

Hellhound (125 Points)

Hydra (95 Points)

Leman Russ Executioner (170 Points)

Manticore (165 Points)

5 x Ratlings (60 Points)

5 x Ratlings (60 Points)

10 x Tempestus Scions (140 Points)

There's a handful of things that need fixing here. The two "Cadian" (Tallarn) squads and command squad still have heavy weapons, so they're gaining three plasma guns and three comm-links. With a mix of bits from eBay and existing stash, I've started putting the latter together. The plasma guns will be a later update...

Beyond that, I had Sly Marbo and Gaunt's Ghosts in my stash needing assembly, so I've dug those out. One of the Hellhounds and five of the Ratlings are also currently without paint, so they're going in the queue.

Quite a lot of my older tanks don't have sponsons and so on, so by and large I'm taking that as an opportunity to sell them, and buying new tanks to paint up to my new skills / standard. I'm not buying anything new for the Guard outside of fixing the squad load outs until the test list is painted. I'm pretty sure it's lacking in armour and anti-tank, and a Rogal Dorn tank is pretty high on the purchase list once this lot is done, but I reckon given the move and other projects, this is plenty to be getting on with...

40K Casual Tournament at Dark Sphere

On Sunday, I pottered down to Dark Sphere with my darling wife to take part in a casual 40K tournament. The idea was pretty simple - three games of 40K at 1,750 points, with an emphasis on the casual side of things.

The ticket price was £6, which is basically what Dark Sphere charges for 3 table hires for 40K. There weren't any prizes, but we got a couple of thank yous for taking part - some Sisters of Silence art cards, and a pot of paint each.

This was a new thing for Dark Sphere, and they were openly soliciting feedback at the end. I'll certainly be sending them a few thoughts. From my point of view, it was mostly little niggles, and the event was broadly enjoyable and fun.

I was running a "Castellans of the Imperium" detachment from Gathering Storm I. This let me take a mash of Imperial units from lots of different places - Inquisition, Guard and Militarum Tempestus all together.

First up, I came up against a Tau list, beautifully painted with lots and lots of big stompy robots. I was a bit nervous about the firepower it could put out, and this was soon proved right by my big Guard infantry platoon getting wiped out, along with Coteaz, before I could take a turn.

After that, it was mostly just mopping up. There was nowhere I could bring on units without something shooting them to death - even those dropping out of line of sight of any units were blown apart by interceptor units with indirect fire weapons.

In the end, the victory points stood at 18-2 in the Tau's favour. I'd maybe caused two wounds to one of their units, and almost everything was dead. It was just a case of removing models. My opponent was friendly and fun to play against, but it didn't really feel like a game as such.

 Next up, I found myself facing a beautifully painted Imperial Fist army. My opponent was just getting back into 40K after some years away, and was painting up an Imperial Fist force suitable for use in 40K or 30K.

We were playing the Emperor's Will mission, with both of us having a single objective, and we speculated on a few different narratives that could have caused the fight - was it a Heresy era battle putting down rogue psykers, a conflict in the aftermath of the Heresy when Dorn objected to the Tactica Imperialis, or maybe it was the Inquisition trying to suppress some secrets when some warp storm delayed Fists emerged in the 41st millennium?

This was a much closer game, with good back and forth in casualties. The Guard took some hits, but in turn took out a lot of tanks and wiped some key squads of Marines off the board. The Storm Trooper squads did some excellent work trying to capture the Marine objective, but weren't quite able to make it, leaving us both with our own objectives and Line Breaker, but the Marines having gained First Blood for the win.

Finally, I faced a beautifully painted Dark Eldar force who had recently joined the Ynnari. This is the new death aspected Eldar force. I really loved that we got to have a "Gathering Storm I" list face off against a "Gathering Storm II" list.

We were doing the Maelstrom of War mission where you have to hold objective points to get instructions that actually score points.

Sadly, I was unlucky on the cards - I ended up with four cards to capture two each of the objectives held by the Dark Eldar, and failed my reserve rolls twice for my Storm Troopers so they never dropped in.

I did manage to get some things to line up properly, though - I used psychic powers to grant one of the platoons rerolls to hit and Ignore Cover before ordering them to open fire with "First Rank Fire" from an officer - the resulting firestorm took out most of a Reaver Jetbike squad, and an exploding Venom took out the survivor.

So, I ended the event with some complicated feelings - my lists aren't doing well in the current meta at the moment, even at a casual game. I enjoyed the games, but I think if there'd been more than one close fought battle, then I'd certainly have enjoyed them more.

I don't play 40K enough to work out the entire problem. Is it just me not playing enough? Is it that my army selection isn't competive with all the new releases and I need to change up my units? Are the Guard simply not a reliable choice with the current Codex? Is it the terrain choices made on the tournament boards not granting enough cover?

I'm going to ponder this question a bit longer, and work out if the effort I'm putting into this is worth the enjoyment I'm getting out, or if there's things I can put the same effort into and get more enjoyment from.

How do you 40K again? 1500 points vs Space Wolves

With reinforcements in the form of some veterans from the Pakeshi sector, I thought it was time to give my Guard army an outing. So, I asked one of my Guard officers to call some chap with a fur cloak called Nigel a bunch of rude names, and soon enough, the Space Wolves were attacking...

Nothing unusual in the army, really - 20 man combined squad, some conscripts, a couple of veteran squads and an assortment of tanks - I held the demolition team in reserve in a Valkyrie. Beyond that, I was facing Void Claws and Drop Pods, so spread the infantry out for area denial.

The Void Claws dropped conservatively and safely, well out of tight of the main line. One of the drop pods, however, decided that something would have to be done about the Hellhound.

Meanwhile a small squad of Grey Hunters went to try and get the Ratlings out of their firing position. Off camera, a whirlwind rocket landed directly on the conscript's commissar, and they wisely decided to high tail it off the field.

Short ranged bolter fire is horribly effective.

But a mix of flamers and a battle cannon at short range left the Grey Hunters a fraction of their previous strength.

But more Grey Hunters were coming in from reserve, both by drop pod...

.. and by flyer.

Unsurprisingly, the first target was the Hydra, before it could do something horrible to the flyer.

The Void Claws turned the corner and cut the combined squad down, with the exception of a stubborn priest, protected by his Rosarius (and refusing a challenge and hiding at the back).

With nowhere left to hide, the priest was finally cut down.

Leaving Njal, Arjac and the Void Claws to hunt down the few surviving Guard alive on the table.

Bravely, the CO faced down a horde of angry fur draped Terminators.

On reflection, perhaps calling them names had been a poor plan. In a panic from the death of his Astropath by flung hammer, he fled the field before they could catch him.

Finally, the air cavalry arrived, peppering the Whirlwind with multilaser fire.

The Bombard destroyed by the Space Wolf flyer, the Leman Russ soon faced the same fate.

The Veterans disembarked as the Valkyrie took out the Whirlwind. While the flamers cause the Long Fangs hiding in the building some casualities, the demolition charge sadly only weakens the building and doesn't destroy it.

The Valkyrie is shot from the sky, and while the Veterans grab another couple of objectives, they are quickly surrounded and taken out.

After action thoughts

Well, that went . . . poorly. The Guard were wiped out, and were down double digits of victory points to three... My army seems to lack both AP2 and the ability to deal with drop pods in any large numbers.

I'm already having a think about what to add to even the odds a bit.

Mournful introspection at mortal frailties

Cameras once more prove to be the devil. Weeknights this week, I've been painting this delightful chap!

I started off with some brown and bone basecoats for the robe and hood. The brown is Steel Legion Drab.

Then we add sepia and orange washes over the top, painting other bits as we go.

Unfortunately, I was really happy with him on Thursday, and really not happy today. The first thing is that his face on the left, at the point of a basecoat and wash, just looks better than the one of the right, when all the extra layering has been done.

Why is that? Well, on the left, it's a Rakarth Flesh base with a Reikland Fleshshade wash. The contrast is significant. On the right, I've layered with Cadian Fleshtone, but that's actually reduced the contrast, leaving it flat and with less definition.

There are other things making me sad.

I've missed a section of the base under the robe.

There was a lump of something right on the face and while I tried to make it look like an angry sore, it just hasn't worked and looks wrong.

Rubbish overpaint from the hand onto the club.

And this bit is just sloppy and messy and needs a cleaner job.

And here's a horrible mould line. Doubly frustrating because I'm using a basecoat with lots of washes over the top which is really hard to repaint to match and blend in.

Back here, of course, he still looks pretty awesome. But the flaws are bugging me, and I want to fix them. It's particularly disheartening as I had mentally seen him as "done" and now there's a bunch more work to be done on him.

Part of it is probably that I had a really nice social weekend, which has left me rather tired and in a natural "down" after the up. That doesn't help, and I've had a bit of frustration at my failure to progress thing.

I think for my "week night" painting, I'm going to do something else that's more base coating and simple stuff, and leave details to the weekend when I'm less tired and can focus on them more.