From PeteF: Elven Heavy Cavalry for SAGA (50 points)

Next out of my big box of randomness was this troop of Elven (Elfish?) Stormwind Cavalry from Mantic Games. The big box of randomness was the result of buying a kickstarter on EBay with all the add-ons and freebies. There are ogres, goblins, orcs, war engines, gargoyles and who knows what. I decided to build a SAGA Age of Magic army by blindly selecting one plastic bag at a time from the box.

A couple of weeks ago this packet of cavalry came out. They are made of a plastic/resin/vinyl material that allows for a decent level of detail. There are some downsides. At least for this kickstarter the manufacturer did not do a great job with mold lines. The material has to be superglued (I much prefer hard plastic and hard plastic glue for both the bond and filling in gaps). The fit of the various bits was far from perfect - they recommend bending the figures after bathing them in very hot water.

I am experimenting with Turbo Dork's colour shift paints and used "Forrest Flux" for the green metallics. The initial layer of green looked a bit heavy and even with the colourshifting was monotonous, so they got gold trim on everything. I tried painting the horse cloth green but it (and the cloaks) were better a more neutral white.

There are five stormwind cavalry on individual magnetized bases. They'll do for SAGA mounted hearthguard as well as a troop of heavy cavalry for Kings of War when stuck to a metal tray. The plan is to have a complete SAGA Age of Magic army done by the time the local games stores are open again. I hope all my fellow quarantiners are staying sane.

 

From Iannick : Emperor's Children Leviathans and Whirlwinds, and a sneak peek at un upcoming project

Well more Epic this week, I feel like I'm getting predictable! 

So yes, reinforcements for my Emperor's Children. The army is starting to look quite good, but I have quite a few more pieces I want to paint before taking the mandatory army shot. It's obviously missing titans and knights, at the very least. Maybe by the end of this challenge? Or maybe for the next Analogue challenge? We'll see.

Anyways, for today we have two more units ready for battle. One of the great things about Epic is I can pretty much paint a unit per week, and often another one during the week-end. Now i'm sure some of you paint a 28mm unit in a week but for a (agonizingly) slow painter such as myself it's immensely gratifying seeing your army grow, and fast!

First we have a quatuor of Whirlwinds tanks. The Whirlwind is an Imperial artillery support vehicle based upon the  Rhino armoured personnel carrier chassis.

It plays the role of artillery support, providing support fire on enemy formations from the relative safety of geographical cover, such as behind hills, forests or other line-of-sight obstructions. It is intended to be used primarily for softening up a heavily-fortified static position or other well-defended target prior to the start of a major Space Marine assault.

I was missing artillery, especially compared to John's force (my main opponent, playing the Blood Angels) but between last week's vindicators and these, I'm starting to feel better about my legion's long range destroying capacities!

Painting them was a bit boring, as its basically a Rhino, not the most fun tank outhere, with loads of missile. 

So I cleanse my palate this week-end with a lovely trio of Leviathan Dreadnoughts. 

Created in limited numbers in the latter days of the Great Crusade of the late 30th Millennium, the  Leviathan Dreadnought is a massive engine of war,  incorporating hybridised technologies, some dating back into the dim past of humanity. Towering over later Imperial combat walker patterns, this heavily armoured Dreadnought is savagely powerful.

It was designed for siege warfare and primarily armed with close combat and support weaponry that can rend buildings, vehicles and flesh alike.

Dreadnoughts are my favourite Epic figures to paint, and these were even more fun! They look the part for sure! I'll probably have to find and paint more dreadnoughts than needed for both my EC and Ultramarines, just because I enjoy painting them so much. It will also give me more variety to choose from when building a force.

And we finish today with something far removed from the 31st millennium, a regiment of Napoleonic Hungarians! I've been having so much fun painting Epic than I decided work on a Napoleonic project in 6mm, using Adler miniatures. Now, I was told they are really a pain to base so before jumping in I wanted to do a test base. My good friend Roger Murrow, owner of Murawski Miniatures, surprised me for Christmas with a painted battalion of the little guys. I just had to base them. So I did. Bit of a learning curve for the first battalions but already by the second I was getting the hang of it. 

I'm waiting for the flags to call it done but I'm very excited about them so here's some pics of my very first 6mm base. Call it a sneak peek. I'll talk more about the project in upcoming weeks, and even show off some painting of my own if I manage to get away from Epic!

Until next time, wishing you all a lovely quarantine time!

From TimG - WW2 German gun crew

 I’ve just finished a pair of 3-man WW2 German gun crews - here is one of them at the controls of my 21st Century Toys 88mm gun (a pre-painted model which I bought a couple of years ago). They’re plastic figures by CTS and are a good match for the TSSD infantry figures. 

From DaveD - Cars and Hedges -35 pts

I have completed another couple of cars for an inaugural Gaslands game- sometime post lockdowns I guess.

Plus I have made up another 12 feet worth of hedging to add to the terrain box — you always need more seems to be driver here. That takes me to 60 feet so far .

So that takes me to 250 pts.

I am back at the coal face of work tomorrow so not sure what else I might get done over the next few weeks .

From SanderS: "The Beacons are lit, the Corona Beacons are lit!" (10points)

Hoi,

Remember me telling you guys I had bought a 3D printer? Well it's been running almost non-stop and is making some lovely terrain and vehicles, part of which you have been able to see in my last Star Wars Legion post. I have printed quite some fantasy buildings and Heroquest furniture.

A lot of the companies that produce STL files for us home-printers, have released free samples during this Corona lock-down and this one I really liked the idea of: it's a version of the beacons of Minas Tirith from the Lord of the Rings done by RM Printable Terrain. The idea is that the beacon shines a little ray (down Roussel they don't mean you!) of Hope into our hearts and homes. I didn't print the groundwork base because I want to use it with my terrain-mat or Venice terrain.

The roof is lift-off and has a nice peg and hole so you always know how to place the roof back on.

 I included some of my old GW LotR figures just for fun, oh boy I wish I hadn't because they really need re-basing and re-painting...

 As far as points go, since this is not a building with walls all round I am awarding myself 10 points.
I am printing more GI Joe vehicles and some Medieval Terrain right now as well as painting 28mm Napoleonics and even more SWL figures...

From Curt: Gregor and Cherubael

I'm a big fan of Dan Abnett's writing as I find that his treatment of the 40K universe being the best aligned to that of Priestly and Blanche's original dystopian vision. 

Of Abnett's many characters, my favourite is Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. (Spoiler alert: The next few paragraphs give away some of the core bits of the novels, so you've been forewarned!)

Over the arc of the Eisenhorn books, the nature of Gregor's character, with his no-holds barred struggle with the enemies of Mankind, becomes irrevocably compromised as he slowly shifts from being a puritanical and dogmatic posterboy of the Inquisition, to something that is far more dark, ruthless and morally questionable.

Probably one of the most damning things that Eisenhorn does is his binding of the powerful daemon 'Cherubael' to an unwilling human host. He rationalises this act as a foul means to an end, a repugnant-but-necessary tool to assist him in his fight against the forces of Chaos. 

This decision ultimately results in him being excommunicated by the Inquisition, hunted as a fugitive by his former colleagues and forever haunted by his uncompromising decisions. 

Eisenhorn is a wonderfully complex, compelling antihero - a breath of fresh air in a setting which is often portrayed as a simplistic, binary struggle between good and evil. A rollicking good read, I recommend it to anyone who has a passing interest with things GrimDark.

The middle-aged Eisenhorn I have here is a 'Finecast' miniature from Games Workshop. While the Finecast 'recipe' has greatly improved over the years, it still has a hard time standing up to some of the resin offerings you can get from other manufacturers. Case in point is the model of the Daemonhost, 'Cherubael', which is from Artel W Miniatures. This model (essentially a 10-part minikit) is absolutely exquisite, with the resin needing virtually no preparation before assembly. While I typically prefer working with metal figures, I can see how the complex posing and intricate detail of this figure necessitates it being done in lightweight resin - like Eisenhorn's decision, it was a necessary evil. :)

Gregor and Cherubael will give me 10 points, putting me at 90 overall.

Thanks for dropping in to take a peek!

Curt