Blackstone fortress - Noise Marines - etc

Just a few things rolling off the workbench this week. I was trying really hard to get the last few explorers for Blackstone Fortress finished so they could potentially be used in the game I'm running at ToonCon this evening... but it was really hard as so many of the ebay items I picked up over the last few weeks all arrived in the last 10 days (Mostly Chaos Space Marines - Noise Marines and Terminators... and a few other things) and they proved to be a pretty HUGE distraction...

Also this week, in a not-so-relevant, but sort of relevant tangent. I got rid of the last of my vinyl records... The reason this is sort of relevant is twofold...



First it cleared up a LOT of space! I built these cabinets about a decade ago (though the drawers weren't finished until just a few years ago. Originally the record player was in the spat beside the amplifier and CD player. Records originally took up six of the large spaces - the ones on the left side and all along the bottom.

A few years back I did a PURGE and got rid of HALF my records - just GAVE them all away to Diabetes Canada (which collects unwanted household items and sells them to Value Village). That cleared up the rightmost bottom three, and left the three on the left side still filled with records... oh, and there was a box with about fifty still sitting on the floor to be sorted...

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the living room and looking at them all and realized I haven't really listened to any in YEARS and decided it was time for them all to GO! 90% of those remaining I donated to the SSO Book and Music Sale - but I set aside about 50-60 of the ones that didn't suck, to take into the Vinyl Diner (where I actually used to work, many, many years ago!) and sold them to the new owners.

I've had bad experiences selling used stuff to other record stores in the past - took in dozens of CDS only to be offered $5 for the lot of them... So I did so with some trepidation. But it turns out the new owners are a great bunch of guys and they were really excited about some of the stuff I brought in and offered me a pretty decent deal for them... and with that...



(and some birthday money) I picked up a few things at the Dragon's Den.

They will take up much less space!

It's been nice to get rid of them. As you can see in the picture above, the space was instantly filled with games that had, until then, just been in piles around the house... That isn't even close to all the board games we have... I think THAT collection needs some purging as well. I am getting rid of a few in the ToonCon auction - that should be a start!

I've kind of let the purchased/acquired get a bit ahead of the painted tally - 123 painted 28mm figures versus 172 acquired! Part of that wasn't even my fault, though. My friend John brought by about 40 miniatures for my birthday. Half were Coppelstone Ngoni he picked up out of the bargain bin at the Sentry Box when he was in Calgary last year, and the rest were a bunch of spurs of plastic minis that came with Wargames Illustrated - which he has a subscription to... Details can be seen here:

2020 Painted versus Purchased

Anyway... the newly painted minis...

(apologies for the poor quality of the pics, they were taken hastily in some poor morning light so I could get this all done before Finnegan needed to get on the computer to do his school work - and I wanted to get them posted before the weekend...)



UR-025, Imperial Robot, from the Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress box set.



Taddeus the Purifier, Ministorum Priest, also from the Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress box set.



And, finally, the Ratling Twins, Rein and Raus - the last of the Explorers from the Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress box set.

Now to get cracking on the Escalation box stuff... and the Servants of the Abyss!

Other items I've finished up:



Another Scavvy Champion for Necromunda. More back up for Karloth Valois!



Not a totally new one - I'd previously painted this Ratskin, but thought I'd experiment with putting them on some 25mm "Shattered Dominion" bases from GW to see if I could make it look like bits of the deep, dark sump where they all live... and I'm pretty happy with the outcome, so I will likely start rebasing the rest of these... at some point....



Human Psyker - an old Rogue Trader era mini. I haven't named her yet. Originally I'd intended her to be an "under cover version" Keira's Sanctioned Psyker character in our Wrath & Glory/Dark Heresy/Inquisitorial campaign... but she dropped out of that between me ordering this and it arriving...

I will find a use for her as a either a Rogue or Sanctioned Psyker in Necromunda or elsewhere.



Female Ratling - I'd originally imagined her as part of a Rogue Trader's crew... but maybe she'll be a Bounty Hunter...? The figure is from Hasslefree Miniatures. I'd thought of sculpting bare feet on - and am now feeling like maybe I should have... Ah, well... not going to change it now. I like the Cherry Docs.



NOISE MARINES!!! I was going to wait until I had full squads done... but I just couldn't wait. I'll post better pics when I DO finish off complete squads!

I now have all the Noise Marines I need (for NOW!) - three squads of ten. These above make eight painted so far - almost a quarter of the way. They are slow going as each are, more or less, being individually painted. But, I don't NEED them until the end of April, so it shouldn't be any trouble getting them all done.

While painting these I listened to the Fulgrim audiobook (which I'd, conveniently, picked up as part of a Horous Heresy Humble Bundle) - which gave me some background of Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children legion and their descent into decadence - and how the Noise Marines came to be! So that was pretty cool.

There are a half-dozen other minis that I finished up this week... but they're part of two separate complete Gangs/Kill Teams I'm working on - both of which I'd like to post separately, when ALL are completed, with some extensive background I've been brewing up for both of those. So stay tuned for those! One I might try to finish up alongside the Noise Marines. The other... well... it might be a bit longer...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

TOONCON!

ToonCon starts this evening - so expect game reports after the weekend. There will probably be four of them - one for each game I'm running there, and then a general one for the rest of the weekend.

Tonight I am running Blackstone Fortress (and Amanda is playing in Ecos and Innovation, I think).

Tomorrow I am playing in Stone Age at noon (I don't think I signed up for a morning thing, so I could sleep in!) and later in the afternoon trying out Architects of the West Kingdom with Amanda (She's not going for the first two sessions as she has to get Keira to dance classes and teach a yoga class). In the evening, after the AUCTION (hopefully I'll come home with fewer that I'm selling!!!), I'm running Hellboy and Amanda is playing Terraforming Mars.

On Sunday I am running my big Necromunda game and then playing in Power Grid. Amanda is playing in Terra Mystica  and then Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar.

Should be a fun weekend!