From GregB: Space Marine Land Speeder

Javelin attack speeder for the VI Space Marine Legion, the Vylka Fenryka.

The sci-fi diversions continue! This is a "Javelin Attack Speeder", an anti-grav/skimmer vehicle from the arsenals of GW's Warhammer 30k/Horus Heresy setting. The model is a resin kit from Forge World, GW's sub-unit/division/whatever that is home to 95% of their Horus Heresy products. The vehicle is carrying the colours and markings of the VI Space Marine Legion, the "Space Wolves."

Closer look at the crew - they are wearing Mark IV power armour.

With Space Marines "light" is a relative term, but this would count as a "light" vehicle for them, skimming ahead for recon duties and flanking actions. For all that, it still can mount some heavy weapons, and this vehicle has some - a heavy bolter manned by one of the crew, and the option of laser cannons or rocket launchers on the side sponsons of the vehicle. So these speeders can still damage the legion's enemies.

Sensor probe mounted to the front...I am worried about how soon that will get snapped off on the table.

View of the engine mounting on the rear of the craft.

Thanks to magnets, I am able to swap out the missile pods for the laser cannons, depending on the role the vehicle will be expected to play in a given game. A friend here in Winnipeg put this model together for me, so that is the only reason the ploy with the magnets works :)

In this photo you can see the rocket pods are mounted on the sponsons.

I quite like the design of this vehicle, although its look is rather different from the other Space Marine combat vehicles - not so brutal, and much sleeker, almost sporty. That makes sense given its intended role, but the aesthetic looks as much "Star Wars" as it does grim and dark. An interesting mix, and it helps to retain the different/apart look for the miniatures set in the Horus Heresy setting vs. the models set in the "current" Imperium of the 40k setting.

Maybe only one quibble with the design...the long sensor probe mounted on the bow of the craft. It looks cool, but is exactly the sort of thing that will be snapped off, and almost impossible to remount, on the gaming table. Oh well...

Another view of the crew, and the housing for the mysterious sci-fi drives.

Adding a vehicle, even a "light" one, always makes a force a little more "serious", and I'm enjoying this diversion into 30k painting subjects. We'll see what comes next from the painting table. Thanks for reading!

GregB

From NoelW: Sand and Sea

For a reason I can't fathom, I particularly like desert battles. Currently in my list of projects is Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt, C19th Sudan, the Crusades and WW2 Western Desert.

The main problem with the last of these is cost. Apart from skirmish games, you need tanks and armoured cars and transports and artillery. You may, perhaps, be familiar with the way a project can snowball as, strangely, once you've one tank, you find you need two more, then you have to have A/T capacity to fight against it, then you need a tow vehicle to pull the gun - and so on.

One idea I had to save a little of the cost here was to find "playworn" toys that can be repainted. There's an auction house not too far from my home which has toy sales every three months or so, and very often there are various boxes of a dozen or more playworn diecast vehicles which can be bought for the price of one or two new Warlord or Blitzkrieg tanks. There are generally Dinky, Corgi, Lledo, Matchbox or Solido models, but they can be any known manufacturer and some unknown ones, and may date as far back as the 40s.

"Playworn" means "bashed about a bit and probably with pieces missing". The same auction may also sell the same models in "collectable" condition, for which you might need to bid ten or twenty times the price of playworn. For the wargamer, though, who intends to repaint or perhaps even kitbash the model, playworn is ideal.

Here's a Dinky toy, dating from the 1950s/60s, for which you might pay £70+ if in top condition with its box, but for which I paid £1 and repainted this week for the desert.

Similarly, a Quad tow tractor of about the same age:

And a (more recent) Solido jeep:

The main problem with doing things this way is the different scales such models come in. Obviously, in a random auction lot, you're stuck with whatever you've bid for (and I've found I've bought some very strange things sometimes!) The two trucks are okay for 28mm figs, but the Solido model is probably 1/43rd, so way too big.

You can see this when I put all three together.

Nevertheless, the jeep doesn't look massively out of place, so it'll accompany my 8th army until I've something more suitable.

I've spent most of my time this week working on two more of the beautiful Black Seas ships: the merchants. I need these for a planned article, but I also think they're very nice looking models. Unfortunately, I've not quite done them the justice I'd hoped for - there are several features here I wish I'd done better. Even so, I'm pretty pleased with the results, and I think they'll be good enough to illustrate the article, if properly arranged.

Small merchant:

Large merchant:

And both ships together:

They're flagged for the East India Company, but I've made the flags detachable so with a switch of flag and pennant they can become prizes for any suitable nation. 

As for imaginary points: that's 30 for the trucks, which will also go to my side challenge with Stuart, making a running total of 305 - I don't think that I'm going to catch him! And I'm giving myself 20 points for the ships, which I think reflects the amount of work they demanded. That's two more slots filled in my initial plan, for a total of 739 points in the QChallenge, but I'm still falling behind on that, too. Need to pull your finger out, Noel!

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3
Black Seas (1/700th)	2 merchants	20
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801	Guns	50	Command Gun crew	75
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40
1860s British IF			Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15
Walmington/Sealion			3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo
WW2 Desert	3 trucks	30
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		417		322

JTinQT - Week Seven - Landsknechts

Dear All

Hope everyone is well?

Happy to make more substantive post this week with 12 new figures. After doing some Swiss thought only fair to have a look at my Landsknechts. Using the same mainly Old Glory 28mm painted this front base of pike up as the "Black Band" who fought for the French at Marignano and Pavia. At Pavia they were fighting against the Imperial Landsknechts. As the name suggests the key point is mainly black clothing.

There are a couple of Games Workshop double-handers mixed in, an Artisan I think,and see if you can name the company for the fifer?

The fifer is a figure from the 1980's - QTModels I think, based in Yorkshire. Anyway a key feature was you could mix and match heads - very cutting edge for the 1980's. These figures are based for Basic Impetus wargames rules and need to get on now and finish the back rank base.

Cheers Jez

AdamC: USS Chesapeake

Here is the USS Chesapeake one of the first US Navy ships built in what would become the Norfolk Navy Yard (called Gossport at the time). Originally she was planned as a 44 gun frigate at Washington’s requests (he wanted one of the big ships built in Virginia) budget and supply issues had her rerated as a 38 gun frigate.

 

Sometimes Chesapeake was rated as a 36 gun frigate and seems to have been the smallest of the original Six frigates.

Her stern is quite handsome.  Chesapeake had one capture in the Quasi-war taking the Le Jeune Creole (16 guns) after a chasse lasing 50 hours!  That was probably both epic and boring.

The huge eagle of figure head is also quite striking she makes a beautiful ship. Chesapeake active during the Barbary war but is most famous for her actions relating to the War of 1812. She had the misfortune to be involved on the receiving end of the Chesapeake-Leopard affair taking fire unawares from a British 4th Rate and then submitting to having her crew mustered as if she were a British merchant. 

Chesapeake made a cruise in 1812 but only captured some 5 British merchants and she did not have any opportunity to engage a ship of equal force. In 1813 she sailed out of Boston under the command of Captain Lawrence to challenge the HMS Shannon to combat. Lawrence had every opportunity to avoid combat and slip away as a raider but chose not to.

He also refused to maneuver for advantage while closing with the Shannon and chose to fight Nelson's in Nelson's fashion and "Lay your ship close alongside the enemy." As everyone knows the Shannon won the battle (though not without some hard knocks) and Lawrence expired with the words "Don't give up the ship." He uttered these words as the ship was being given up and I have always been puzzled by hero worship that Surrounds Lawrence. He is of the Heroic captains you can take in Black seas but Isaac Hull and others who won battles are ignored. English writers probably like him because he was brave and got defeated in a satisfactory manner.

From TamsinP: 28mm Wars Of The Roses Currours and Commanders

For what will be my final post for this project on here, I present the last (for now*) elements of my Wars of the Roses army.

The ADLG list allows up to two bases of "Currours" (heavy cavalry), and that is what I painted up (I know - Shock! Horror! Tamsin didn't paint more bases than the list allows!). I also painted up six command stands - three foot, three mounted - which will allow me to field two standard or three smaller armies. But on with the pics!


Currours:

Commanders:

For those who are wondering, in the seven weeks since I started this project I have painted 36 mounted and 202 foot figures. If this had been for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, that would be 1370 points without any bonuses - just short of what my pre-bonus points total for what I painted over thirteen weeks for AHPC X!

As several people had requested, I took some group shots of the completed army. Here's one of everything - I've put more on my own blog.

All figures are 28mm plastics from Perry Miniatures.



* "for now": there are lots of optional troops which can be added in future - artillery, Scots, Welsh and Irish troops, mercenary pikemen, crossbowmen and handgunners. I can foresee the collection growing large enough for me to field three or maybe even four standard-sized ADLG armies, so I will need more command stands. And baggage camps