Sisters, Valhallans, and Bog-Standard Cadian-Types

So I went a little overboard on Ebay again recently... but first a few more things I've actually PAINTED...

All of these figures are from Games Workshop.



Two more Sisters of Battle for Amanda's Adepta Sororitas force - a second Canoness and another Sister Superior. I picked up the second Sister superior because the complete squad I'd picked up for Amanda had a Imaginifier in it (which is actually a separate character now) and thus she had a character and a incomplete squad of 9... This second Sister Superior allows her to field the squad as two smaller squads of five or one of 10 (as this Sister Superior, armed with a bolter, could easily pass for a regular ol'sister...).



An Inquisition Acolyte with a big-ass flamer - to KILL IT WITH FIRE!!! I finished this one up to use as one of the extra characters for Blessings Unheralded. The Character is an Inquisition Acolyte that looks just like this figure... minus the big-ass flamethrower.



A renegade space marine... just... because... reasons...

I figured it's alway s good to have a handful of these as baddies for 40K roleplaying... I have two more to paint up, along with a pair of terminators and a squad and a half of cultists.

So... the other stuff...

A BIG order arrived in the mail today and I set to organizing them to see what I'd got myself into!


Valhallans



There are a few more minis inbound from different sellers (another mortar team, two more Infantry men and two more BA-64s). I will, ultimately, have a Brigade Detachment of these. HQ options will include up to three commanders (or possibly a Commander, a Primaris Psyker and Lord Commissar...?). I have six identical Infantry Squads for troop options (Sergeant, Flamer, and 8 Guard with Lasguns). I have three Command Squads for Elites (and possibly 2 Lieutenants, if I go with the Primaries Psyker and Lord Commissar options for HQ). I have four Heavy Weapon Squads for Heavy Support (Heavy Bolters, Lascannons, and two squads with Mortars). Additionally, for Heavy Support, I plan on converting those three 1/48 scale KV-2 tanks into Ragnarock tanks (which will basically use the same stats as Leman Russ tanks...). Maybe I could get a fourth and make it a Tank commander for ANOTHER HQ option...? For Fast Attack I thought I'd use three BA-64... and just use them as "Armoured Sentinels". I thought I might remove the diminutive turret (as no 40K guns would fit in it...) and place one of the Sentinel rocket pods on top. Alternatively, if I could find a model of an OT-26 "chemical tank" I could pass those off as Hellhounds...?

But wait, there's MORE...


Cadians



Because they had them, I picked up two squads of metal Cadians from the same place I picked up more of the Valhallans. At one point I had an entire COMPANY of Cadians - in plastic... but I traded (most of) them away over the winter when I decided I didn't need THREE full Imperial Guard forces... (of course, now I'm going to have FOUR). This force is a bit "top heavy" - I have three officers and three command squads for a force with only three Infantry Squads... Ah, well... I have no intention of filling this out to a full-sized force - definitely not getting any armour for this force. I thought I'd used them for Ship'sTroops for the Rogue Trader campaign or as a back up or supplementary detachement for another Imperial force - like the Sisters or my Knights... There's basically a Battalion Detachment there (with 9 Command Points!).

Oh, that wasn't all...


Adepta Sororitas
 

I also picked up another squad of 10 sisters from the same place to add to Amanda's force. I actually have another 5 inbound - so eventually this will be a Battalion force (when fielded as squads of five - or two of ten and one of five..?). It will bring the force to 29... they could all fit into three Rhinos - which might be the next addition - once these all get finished... and maybe PLAYED with!?

She will be playing with ONE of them Friday evening, as Amanda has called "dibs" on Battle Sister Henna Orten.

Shoot, I just realized She also picked up the Celestine: The Living Saint box for me to assemble and paint for her... (which are not included in this pic). That'd be THREE HQ options... Could this become a Brigade?! No... that would require a bunch more elites... and some fast attack... and heavy support... Battalion, though... sure, that's doable.

I'm not sure when exactly I'm going to get to painting any of these (or the Drukhari, or my Craftworld Eldar, or the couple handfuls of Marines and Chaos Renegades for that matter)? My original Game Plan set out a pretty full schedule of painting to try and get my Tallarn all done this year - and most of the ECW stuff... I'm sure I'll fit a few in here and there and it might be another year before ALL of the Tallarn get done. The problem is enough are done that I can play a pretty decent sized game, so some of the impetus to get them finished has gone. It gets harder to finish up units that I'm pretty certain won't ever see action (or not much...).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully I'll get a chance to finish up that first Knight soon... but I do have new shiny stuff, so... I'll probably spend some time over the next few days stripping minis that need stripping, basing and priming all of them.

I also need to maybe take a break from painting and stuff and do some serious cleaning and reorganizing of the hobby dungeon. It is a bit of a mess. Has been for the last four years - never really recovered from the renovations in the rest of the house (when we had to take everything from the rest of the house and store it in the basement - some stuff just never found i's way back upstairs).

Over the summer, after I've cleaned and organized things, the plan is to haul everything out of the Game Room and do a little renovating in there - building some new shelves, dismantling the giant gaming table (to make room for a new gaming table that Amanda found last fall and has been propped up between the bed and the wall in Finnegan's room ever since...). But, as I said, the first thing is to clean up the giant mess downstairs.

Assorted 40k Minis

Taking a break from the Imperial Knight, I finished up a few odd and assorted 40K minis today. Some of these are to use with Blessings Unheralded - the Wrath & Glory Free RPG Day quick-start rules and adventure I'll be running on Friday. Others have just been on the workbench forever and I finally finished them up...



A solitary space marines of the Adeptus Astartes White Scars chapter. (Miniature from Games Workshop - of course!)



This will be Battle-Brother Trojon Kull - one of the pre-generated characters for Blessings Unheralded.



A female veteran Tallarn Sniper. The miniature is converted from an old I-Kore Void figure.



Navigator and Droid - from Lead Adventure Miniatures Astropolis II Kickstarter



Their backsides - so many bits and bobs and wee little details...



A pair of Astra Militarum Tankers from Games Workshop.  I painted them in standard Cadian green and Khaki, which is a colour scheme I don't mind. I started them ages ago and really just finished them up this week. After having taken these pictures, however, it has occurred to me that I won't actually HAVE any Cadian tanks... all my tanks (currently and planned for) are either Tallarn or Valhallan...

doh...



Detail of the one tanker and his t-shirt - taking a little inspiration from Jesse Custer's Zippo lighter from the Preacher comics...

(it said "FUCK COMMUNISM" - it had been presented to his dad by John Wayne himself while he was serving in Vietnam... I figured this t-shirt above might be the 40K version of such sentiment)



Valhallan Mortar team (from Games Workshop). The only new thing here is the mortar actually. The two crew I'd originally painted up on individual bases to use as regular infantrymen. I had the mortar, but as I only had ten Valhallan infantry at the time, I figured infantrymen would be more useful... now that I have a pile more inbound - including FIVE more mortar teams, I decided to paint up the mortar and rebase them as a team so I'd eventually have six mortar teams - which makes two Heavy Weapon Squads.



Some old school, Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard (from Citadel Minatures/Games Workshop). Four of these are minis I've had for 30 years and decided to strip and repaint a few years back. I though I might be able to pass the one on the right off as Sergeant Gael Harden - another of the pre-generated characters for Blessings Unheralded.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have one or two more minis to finish up for the Wrath & Glory game on Friday, so expect those in the next day or two... Then I suppose it's back to work on the Imperial Knight...

I was hoping I might get in a few games of 40K with the family (or friends) now that all the kids regularly scheduled activities have wrapped up for the summer - so there may be a battle report or two in the not-too-distant future.

Painting the Knight Update

I've been working on assembling and painting an Imperial Knight over the last week since I picked up Imperial Knights: Renegade just over a week ago. I also picked up the Imperial Knights Codex. Going through it I spotted an illustration of a Freeblade Knight Armiger with it's carapace painted in a pattern similar to the camouflage use on some German aircraft in the Great War.



 Which got me thinking I might do one of mine in a similar pattern. So I spent a day or two, while still assembling, messing around with some different pattern ideas.



I finally settled on one and started painting away... I have to admit at first I was thinking I'd made a horrible mistake.



As I got closer to finishing the area I was painting with the pattern - and especially as I did some the gilding on the edges - I started warming up to it.

Part of me feels like maybe it's too many different colours and/or I should have made the hexagons bigger... but at this point I'm leaving it and just going to have to live with it.

Still not sure how to paint the forward facing armour plates. Some sort of heraldic colours? Continue the "camouflage" pattern? At first I was thinking definitely heraldic patterns and not the camouflage, but now I'm considering it as an option...

I still haven't settled on what weapons to kit this one out with. It's not even entirely goes together at this point. The main body is just sitting on the legs and the carapace and shoulder guards are just sitting on the body at this point.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I'll hopefully finish this beast up within the week. I have a few other random 40K minis I'm trying to finish up - mostly stuff I'm going to be using with Blessings Unheralded, the Wrath & Glory quick-start rules and introductory adventure given out at Free RPG Day.

News from the Factorum

Last in, first out... Seems to be my motto these days.

You had to know I was just going to shove everything else to the side and just start assembling these...



I still haven't entirely made up my mind about which variants to build or how to paint them... but there is a lot that can be assembled before you have to make those sorts of final-ish decisions, so I thought I'd get started - in case inspiration strikes.

I noted in the comments of a previous post that there is an illustration of a freeblade in the new Imperial Knights Codex book the actually has it's carapace painted with a pattern similar to Great War German biplane camouflage - which I think looks pretty fab! I'm leaning towards doing something similar for at least one of them!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Oh... probably this knight... Not like I'm going to shove it aside and say "Damn, I really want to paint those Napoleonic British Rifles that I have no other miniatures painted for them to join... or opponents for them to face... or even the rules I plan to paint with them..." (not that those reasons have ever stopped me from painting something before... when I was in the mood to paint the thing... but I'm in the mood to paint something else now, so...)

In other news... I kind of just bought enough Valhallans off eBay to fill out an entire force of them... well... a "Brigade" detachment... because, y'know... TWO Imperial Guard forces is just not enough!

Hey- maybe I'll do one of my Knights in whites and greys and blues to support the Valhallans and the other in yellows and browns to support the Tallarn...

Or maybe I'll just do them in CrAzY colours like the Warhound and field a Disco Dance Party of DEATH!

Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire - Sepulchral Guard

I picked up Orphan Black Season Five from the library on Friday and, as everyone's been kind of sick and not really feeling up to doing anything, Amanda and I watched the entire series Friday night and Saturday... It was pretty okay...

WHILE watching it, I finished off this set of Sepulchral Guard for my friend John.



The Sepulchral Guard miniatures are from Games Workshop and are for the game Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire. I haven't actually played it, and thus know nothing about the game really, other than it's a fantasy skimrish-y game and there are cards involved...



The minis are really nice - multipart and very dynamic.



The weapons and armour and other equipment on these looked pretty beat up - so I tried to accentuate the look by making all the arms and armour very rusty looking and the cloth grey - as whatever dyes that might have been in the had long since faded - and soiled and stained.





I have also been working on another war band for John -  the orcs. (Ironskull's Boyz). They're about half done. Hopefully I'll get to finish them up before I get too distracted by the Knights I just picked up...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hard to say... could be the Ironskull's Boyz warband for Shadespire...

Could be some Imperial Knights (eh... probably not... I'm very conflicted as to how I'm going to build and paint them... they could take a while... or maybe I'll have a flash of inspiration and they'll be done by Wednesday...)

Could be another unit for Rebels and Patriots... I have some British Napoleonic Rifles that have made their way onto the painting table and I worked on them over the last couple episodes of Orphan Black..

Imperial Knights: Renegade

So... I kind of did this thing...



There is a LOT of stuff in that big box... should keep me busy for a while...

So much to consider...

Do I do them as Freeblade(s)?

Do I start a Knightly House?

Do I go with the Pink Leopard pattern of my Warhound Titan?

Probably not. Warhounds would be part of an Adeptus Titanicus Legios... Knights are part of the Questor Imperialis... I guess there are Mechanicus Knights... and the Titan Legions have some affiliation with the Adeptus Mechanicus...?

Another thought was to carry Baron Philipe Lapin forward into the 41st millennium and form a knightly house around his Bunny Rampant Banner...

Finnegan keeps asking if I'm going to be building BOTH knights. I think he'd like one... mind you, he hasn't finished the Gorkanaut he picked up on Boxing Day, so.... Honestly, if he wants a giant robot monster, he should probably pick up a Stompa for his Orks (or the T'au that he's planning on doing next). The Stompa, in terms of power level, is about the same as the TWO knights together!? I saw a really great Gargant scratch-build a while back. I was thinking we could build one of those... then I could take my knights AND my Warhound Titan AND my Shadowsword up against that!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I'd like to say "KNIGHTS, Obviously!" but I actually have two Shadespire gangs on the workbench and one is very nearly done and the other is half done and I'd kind of like to get those out of the way before working on these new beasties!

Warhound Titan

Too much? I can never tell…



This is a classic Warhound Titan that was produced under license by Armourcast. I picked it up off ebay back in January [link]. Since then I’ve been pondering painting schemes. I’ve agonized about it for ages. It’s not like a $5 rank and file guy that if you totally eff it up… well…it’s a $5 mini… just grab the next one and paint it instead… 

I waivered back and forth between some fancy heraldic colours or doing something like camouflage. Or some kind of combination of the two? The warhound is supposed to be a “scout” titan…

A couple days ago I had a moment of inspiration and started painting.



And… well… this is what I came up with… 

A bit of a departure from my other Imperial 40K stuff. The kids wondered if it was supposed to be a Chaos Titan – some sort of worshiper of Slannesh they thought.



It is a pretty big model – definitely the largest miniature I own. It is smaller than the current Forge World Warhound Titan and would be dwarfed by any of the other full-sized titans…

Not sure what the backstory for this is just yet… I guess it would belong to a Titan Legio. What would they look like? Should ALL of them be in a pink/purple leopard spot paint scheme? Or different coloured leopard spot paint schemes?

I thought I should come up with a name for the titan and I’m kind of thinking of Pardus Purpura. It is supposed to be Latin for Purple Leopard. I thought it sounded better than Pardus Rosea, which would be Pink Leopard… Perhaps I’ll paint it on the side at some point in gothis calligraphy-like letters. 

I wish I'd thought of a similar way to jazz up my Arvis Lighter...

I do still have an epic scale Warhound titan to paint – it’s actually partly done, and in the same paint scheme, I just didn’t have it quite finished in time to take pictures and I was just so very excited to post this…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Well… now that that is done… I’m not really sure. Part of me feels like I’m on a bit of a roll here having finished up this and the Arvis Lighter in the last week, and the Shadowsword and a couple other tanks within the last month… I feel a little like finishing up the last couple tanks I have to assemble and paint… Maybe even tackle a few of the other larger models I have (Non-GW models I got to convert)…? Or maybe it’s time to take a break and do some serious reorganizing in the basement…?

Part of me is tempted to pick up the new Imperial Knights: Renegade boxed sets coming out in a week or two… Not sure how I’d paint them up.