Servants of the Abyss - Traitor Command - Penitent

I actually got a bit of painting done the last few days - and listened to some more Horus Heresy Black Library Audiobooks... well... It was mostly a series of shorter audio dramas and short stories I was listening to this week.

I've finished the first five books in the series - though I listened to them out of order!? I listened to Fulgrim first (Book #5) because I wanted some background fluff for the Emperor's Children - which I was working on at the time. I didn't actually know it was book five... or that I had books one through four... I just started there... AFTERWARDS I checked to see where it was in the order of things - and which books I'd picked up in the Horus Heresy Audiobook Humble Bundle and discovered I had books 1-6 and 51-54 and a bunch of shorter stories from all over the place. One through five cover the beginning of the Heresy. Six, which I haven't read yet, is apparently a prequel of sorts that takes place 100 years earlier... so I'm not so excited to listen to that one just yet.

The painting I did this week was all 40K stuff and mostly focused on finishing up stuff for Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress.



Not a Blackstone Fortress figure. This is actually for Space Hulk. We got the game for Finnegan for his Birthday five and a half years ago. I told him I'd paint the minis for him... that took.... Waaaaaaaaay too long!? I finished the Genestealers in April of 2018... and the Space Marine Terminators in August of that year... and played a few games around that time... and I think we may have stalled because I hadn't finished this little probe/drone or whatever it is...

So... Maybe we'll get playing Space Hulk again...?

Don't hold your breath.



Then, I finished up the rest of the Servants of the Abyss box - this is basically a frame of the same minis that come in the core box for Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress (except there are TWO frames in the core box, so this essentially adds 50% more baddies!).

I picked up Abominable Intellect some time ago - it's a card-only expansion for Blackstone Fortress that is just a bunch of encounter cards... but with MORE STUFF!? and it was suggested that you would NEED more minis to make use of it... so I picked up the Servants of the Abyss.

Honestly, it often feels like the CORE set didn't come with enough. If you draw two encounter cards with the same type of hostile, you often don't have enough - if you draw three or four (happens more often than you'd think!) there will always be empty areas. Which, I guess, we just got lucky... It still feels a little cheat-y to not face as many hostiles simply because we didn't have enough of the minis...

Now I have more.

It will probably suck for our explorers...

Whatevs.

In the process I also did the Traitor Guard in such a way that They could be easily identified as part of different squads (we had a few times were different groups of Traitor Guard from different encounter cards got mixed up and weren't totally sure which to activate when. So I organized them and even repainted a few of the bases so they could be organized into three squads of seven, each squad with one of each pose.



first squad - with Necromunda or Imperialis bases.

IF I did anything iNsAnE... like... but ANOTHER Servants of the Abyss box... I'd split this and fill out a squad of each (one on NEcromunda bases, the other on Imperialis bases). But that's unlikely to happen. Ever. Even though I HAVE, obviously, considered it, at some point!?



The Second Squad is on what I'm calling my "Blackstone Bases" - with largely BLUE rubble...



The Third Squad, also on Blackstone Bases - but with largely PURPLE rubble...

While I'm at it... here are the rest of the Hostiles all together in groups...



The Ur-Ghuls - the new ones are the only ones that are REALLY different from the originals - I forgot how I did the originals and didn't study them to closely before doing the bonus ones... and also I'd changed the way I was doing "Blackstone Bases". There are rarely more than four in a group, though, so the originals can form any larger groups, and the others can form any secondary groups.



Spindle Drones.



Chaos Beastmen



Nega-Volt Cultists

that name always makes me giggle and think of NEGA SCOTT from Scott Pilgrim Versus the World!



Rogue Psykers



The Chaos Space Marines. I used a different head on the new one. I'd hoped I could find a helmeted head to use, but couldn't. So, I used a chaos mutant head. It's a horn on his head... it's a little hard to tell because it's pointed directly at the camera...



Servants of the abyss did not include an additional Obsidius Mallex (he was on a separate frame in the core box... and... why would you want a second one anyway? He's a unique main character!)



Some time ago I'd posted a few bonus Traitor Guard - just to have a few more bodies when I draw more than two Traitor Guard encounters... but decided they didn't look "Committed" enough with purple armour and some chaos sigils painted on their uniforms... so I added some spikes and horns and did one head swap... and painted one more... 

They look a little silly...



I ALSO happened to finish up the minis from the Traitor Command expansion set... so... once we're done the Quest for the Hidden Vaults we have ANOTHER choice of which to do next! (the other two being the Dreaded Ambull or the one from the Blackstone Fortress Annual 2019, involving the Master of Possession and the Two Greater Possessed)





Oh, I just about forgot! I also painted up this Penitent - which can be used as a Retinue Character, if ever the Brogan Brothers die... or we get sick of them...



Looks like I'm going to need a new drawer for any additional Blackstone Fortress minis (Like the miniatures from the Escalation expansion I'm working on next - along with the Cultists of the Abyss box - which is just MORE of the Cultists from the Escalation expansion!)

Currently Amanda and I are planning a double-header for Sunday - a regular expedition in the afternoon (just to pick up a few more clues - to locate the Hidden Vault!) and then the final challenge - the Hidden Vault itself!!! It looks... challenging... Very excited about it. I'd love to just play TONIGHT - but I've got other stuff to do! Like, get ready for TOMORROW (Saturday)!

Tomorrow, I'll be running the second session of Wrath & glory on Roll20. I ran a one-shot last week for a few guys and it was super fun so we decided to go ahead and try and play a regular campaign. This week will largely be finishing up character creation and working out some background. The characters all work for an Inquisitor - looks like we're going to have an Inquisitorial Acolyte, a Sanctioned Psyker, a Death Cult Assassin, and a Tempestus Scion.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Sunday evening I should be posting a wrap up of May's Games.

If you missed them, Part One and Two can be found here:

May Games and Stuff - Part One

May Games (and Stuff) Part the Second

After that...? Probably the game reports for Sunday's Blackstone Fortress games. This might not be until Monday, though...