Play Adept Magazine & Beer Cans

I realize the DKoK are supposed to be extraordinarily disciplined, but I wanted to give the Medusa a lived in feel. The Base layers and some oils have been completed, and I decided to make a little girly magazine and some beer cans to add to the interior. I'll be adding additional stowage, so the placement isn't finalized. I just wanted to see what people thought of my beer cans. I have not been able to paint any meaningful design on them without deforming them, so they would remain blue. Anyone have a source for 1/56 beer cans? I used aluminum foil wrapped around a cocktail straw to make these.

Ancient Imperial Guard Griffon Mortar Reborn

I think this model came out in mid nineties, and it has been in my collection for at least twenty years. This model is old. It is so old that the tracks still have road wheels hidden away out of sight. Somehow after all these years, this old AFV called to me. In this third incarnation the tank is painted to match my DKoK force. At least that is what I had intended. I should have looked at my DKoK before painting, as I exaggerated the modulation a bit much here. But no matter that, I'm happy this old mortar tractor is back in business. It can now sit on my shelf. Again.

Since I don't play 40k these days, but plan to do so when the new edition drops, does this model even exist in current 40k? If there is at least an existing model there might be some hope of there being rules for it. If I can't find rules, I can always pop the mortar out, and use the vehicle as an open topped Ogryn transport or something.

Death Korps Centaur Trash Cast

The Centaur model from Forgeworld is a lovely model. This incarnation of it is not. What is worse is that I think this model has 1000 coats of paint on it. Despite that, I had fun painting it up. Did I succeed in turning this model into something presentable? I'm not sure about that, but I think it could be embedded in a piece of terrain quite nicely now as a wreck and nobody would care. I'll do some more pigment and oil effects, and just maybe throw on some mud. It all depends how messy I want my workspace to become.

By the way, this is the first of my two salvage efforts. The other model is my original griffen which accompanied the first imperial guard box set I painted. I tried a harder on that model since it has impeccable lineage.

Trio of Death Korps of Krieg Vehicles WIP

I've decided to start painting some 40k again, so after a long hiatus, I jumped back in and started work on a trio of vehicles for my Death Korps force. Included in these vehicles is an original Imperial Guard Griffen self propelled mortar. The Griffen will get a post dedicated to it later, as it is one of my original guard vehicles dating back twenty years or so. What I want to discuss here is the Armageddon pattern Medusa. That kit, purchased just a few years ago from Forgeworld, was meant to be a display piece. Unfortunately, the kit is rubbish. None of the pieces fit together, and the only way I managed to get the brass etch and flooring in was to use a heat gun on the model after I had painted the interior. Then I had viciously chop off detail on the inside. The geometry simply doesn't work. This is a shame. I love the general look of the thing. Hopefully it will look like a reasonable AFV when completed. Don't worry about the ramp, It isn't completed yet. I just splashed some paint on it while getting the hard to reach internal areas painted prior to assembly.

What on earth is that Centaur doing that Griffen in the background?

Ogre Bust WIP

This Ogre bust was a gift from Roman Lappat, whom you might know as Jarhead from Massive Voodoo. My wife and I were traveling through Germany and stopped by to hang out and get some lunch with Roman and Eric. To my surprise, he provided a resin cast of one of his sculpts. With my hobby mojo low, this model sat on my desk for a few months. After cleaning my desk (ok..mostly) I needed some zen time, and set to work on it. I had forgotten how peaceful painting is. I really enjoyed playing with the flesh tones, but my focus was on the ogres eyes. I want this guy to look human. As you can tell the brown areas are not painted yet, and there is additional l work to do on the ogres scars, on his runny nose. I'm tempted to paint him as if he were crying, using gloss paint to make the tear marks. I think those could work well with the inevitable blood splashes. Maybe this ogre regrets killing but can't stop. There is definitely a sadness to the sculpt that I enjoy.

2017 Hobby Desk Cleaning

It has been a long time since I last posted. One of the reasons for that, besides endless travel, was the state of my hobby desk. My workspace had become terrible. Believe it or not, the photos above are of my cleaned workspace. It is not completed, but the paints are at least in racks. Imagine how it was before! Having a clean workspace is motivating. It also helps to get some of those long suffering half painted miniatures sitting on it completed. So, my goal is to finish my 1/72 scale British paratroopers by COB Friday. Once they are done, I'll have a clean slate for painting, and a clean area to do it in. (ok..it is going to take a few more days to completely de-clutter the desk, but this is pretty good all things considered!)

Arnhem 30K Style

The gaming club I am a member of, has altered the way I war-game in a positive way. Rather than seeing war games as winner/loser propositions, they have become a means toward story telling. It is in this vein that Eric and I decided to run a little campaign/rpg. I am in love with the Arnhem table, so we decided to use it as the first setting for the narrative. Weirdly, it works having World Eaters as the main protagonists. I won't spill all of the beans here, but following presentation includes a lot of hints to help Eric out. The game begins before the actual heresy, so at this point everyone is friendly.



The presentation setting the scene:

Arnhem The Game at Last

The End State.

How we got there....

The first phase of the game was played over email and run by Steve(who is working on the official AAR). The British and German forces had to determine how they would defend, or attack Arnhem. As players, we did not know the outcome of the email portion of the game until the powerpoint presentation at the beginning of the tabletop game. The German players provided a historically accurate defense, while the British commander deviated from history and managed to get two battalions to Arnhem. However Frost's battalion got held up west of the city and did not make it in time for the fight. I guess there will be no Frost bridge! In a twist, the British team, which had successfully attacked Arnhem, became the Germans for the tabletop fight. As Germans, we decided to place machine guns on the causeway, and use infantry to clear houses in order to protect our tanks as we advanced on the western edge of the board through the housing subdivision. No forces were deployed on the easter side of the board. This concentration of forces should have aided us as we cleared buildings and advanced towards the bridge. 

German 9th panzer recon advance half tracks on the causeway to provide king of the hill machine gun fire.

Infantry and tanks advance on both sides of the western edge row houses. Rather spectacularly, two of Richard's squads are decimated clearing the first two row houses. Sixteen Germans die on the first turn.

I advance my forces along with Mike and Drew's HQ along what appears to be a safer route.

The tanks push forward to the intersection as houses are finally cleared at great cost to the Germans. Many red devils die in the process.

Red Devil's attempt to redeploy from the empty right flank, but are caught by MG fire from the German halftracks on the causeway.

Owen's Red Devils hid behind the causeway pillars and statue.

Panzer IV tanks being firing their machine guns on the western most buildings adjacent to the bridge.

The panzer supporting my squad makes it to the boardwalk and begins firing at the western buildings as well.