Sons of Horus Razorback

For the past couple of years I've taken part in charity army painting projects. Every year I struggle with my light box. So this time around I think I am going to use a new LED setup. One of the boxes waiting for me when I returned from vacation was a little LED light box from South Korea (Foldio Studio). These are the first test shots. The photos above were taken with both LED strips turned on. I know the LEDS are a bit bright, but I liked how it exposed every bit of color modulation. 

Now, I know the razorback turret is not 30k, but I wanted to be able to use my Sons of Horus in regular games of 40k using the space marine codex. I like the idea of thinking of them existing the warp after some compliance action and finding themselves in the 40k timeline. 

One for Owen One for Me (Warlord Panzer IV)

A while back I ordered a Warlord Panzer IV kit from the UK. It arrived missing a few key parts due to some shipping problems, but Warlord's excellent customer service sorted it out quickly and sent me a replacement.

On to painting. The T34 rekindled my love for vibrant armies, though with DAK on my painting table, I focus that into changing up my recipe a tiny bit. Crazy I know, but this time I added yellow to my armor shading. I think that worked out well.

Next up are a Panzer III, and a long barrel Panzer IV. That should give me a nice hodge-podge mix of tanks to use with the motorized infantry. I think tank war might require more than that, but one of them is a Tiger. That has to count for something.

Bolt Action Russian T34 For Owen's Birthday

Steve and I decided to build and paint an army for a friend of ours for his surprise 30th birthday party.  We somehow managed to paint 80 miniatures and a tank. The scale of the task at first seemed overwhelming. We had one week to do this, and while it was crazy and a bit marathon-esque, it was a great experiment.  It is going to be great fun seeing the army on the table top. I know it will bring a lot of enjoyment to Owen. So, whose birthday is next? If we knock out a Bolt Action army every week..... 

Happy Birthday Owen!

While Steve busily paints up his Australians for our North Africa campaign, I've been sneakily painting up the big cats of the desert war.  Flak 88's and Tiger tanks are iconic of the desert campaign, and give the axis force the right flavor.  Allied tanks rightly feared both. What you see in these photos are the base colors, transfers, and oils completed. Weathering powders and chipping have yet to be applied with exception of the rusty exhaust. I mean, who can resist painting a rusty exhaust right?

The tiger is modeled after the actual tiger 112, which fought in Tunisia before being turned into a parts bucket for other vehicles. After the war, parts from that Tiger ended up in Maryland, a quick drive away from Washington. (Greg, you finally get to see that Tiger!)

The flak 88 comes with two trailer sections that will eventually be painted to match.

When it came to basing the Perry Brother's miniatures, I was at a loss. With so many miniatures to base, and the weird double stacked base that needed filling, what I really needed was a colored putty that I could paint on. That would fill the ridge gaps, and provide the base for the powders. The solution ended up being pretty simple

1. Desert Sand putty (dries rather springy) + Steel Legion Drab mixed in to darken it
2. spread the putty all around the base
3. add a few slate rocks
4. liberally douse with SWM Burning Sands weathering power

At some point we are going to have to play a standard from the book bolt action game. The narrative games have been amazing. Now I am curious how the game stands up with equally matched forces. Would I enjoy playing this game in a tournament?

Another experiment worth trying is playing a game of 40K using hybridized Bolt Action rules.  I love 40K, and I have a fun army to paint, but the rules and game durations have made the game more of a marathon than I like. Why not just bolt on the story and miniatures from 40k onto the Bolt Action rule set? It would be fun seeing Space Marines function they way they appear to in the novels. One 10 man squad should be able to take out a platoon of infantry without much difficulty.

DAK Armored Car, Truck, and Panzer II

I have been furiously painting my DAK force in preparation for our group's North Africa campaign, but I hope to use it for regular pick up games as well. That is where I hit a snag. I don't have a clue how to build a reasonable list for BA. At this point I am just painting things that I find interesting and look like they would go together. A quick dip into the BA forums last night leads me to believe that transports are fairly bad game wise. However I just can't imagine a DAK force that is not fully motorized.

Bolt Action Perry Brothers DAK Miniatures

With a new year comes a new army. The second half of my Bolt Action DAK miniatures are painted. I still have not figured out basing, that will have to wait until my second box of Perry Brother's DAK miniatures are painted, but I am really happy with how quickly the force is coming together. It is hard to imagine, but two boxes is all I need infantry wise.

Painting these reminded me of the original Space Marine box. The DAK came with enough forces to actually play the game. I remember building the first Space marine box, and having something like three squads.  The Perry box produces a 1000 point army. Add a second box, and that is all that will be needed. The models are very small(smaller in real life than the photo above!), but better proportioned than the Warlord miniatures. This means the faces are very difficult to paint. They do not have the exaggeration of heroic scale.  I'd happily recommend the DAK box for anyone getting into BA. There is also a Desert Rat force that makes a good companion army.

Despite being painted quickly, I did some experimentation on them. The photo is a bit saturated, but the uniforms are actually painted in several color variations. I tried to make some more tan, some more green, and others more yellow.  Normally I don't do this when batch painting. The idea is to create a recipe and then follow it. For these guys I just winged it. I kept a bunch of paints on the table and grabbed them almost at random. I think the method works, though it made blending  a bit rough, as I could never quit get back to the same colors again. I might try this out on a 40k army.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the new year.

More Bolt Action

My hopes of completing the army before the New Year are dwindling, but I am very happy with how these are turning out. I have about 25 infantry and 1 truck to go to have a playable force. Once that batch is complete, I get to paint the tiger. Paint chipping and powders are being saved till all of the vehicle base coats are completed.

I might paint some 40k after I complete my DAK force, but my next Bolt Action force is likely to be an American contingent. I've been watching Band of Brothers, and really want to paint up some of the good guys.

Bolt Action Mercedes G3 Truck DAK

The DAK will be my first full Bolt Action army. This G3 truck is the first of the vehicles slated for the army. We haven't reached the point where we are using transport rules in our campaign, so I am not sure if transports are good game wise. However, they are fun to paint, and I can see these being important as scenery and objectives. In terms of color, I think I solved the problem by using a more brown base, and then a paler tan/yellow color for the shading. My hope is to paint enough of these up that we can come up with any number of interesting and different scenarios.

The more research I do into Bolt Action, and consequently WW2, the more I see how much Warhammer 40k has been influenced by both great world wars. For instance, that weird little spiked bumper on the original rhino/predators turns out to be a hedge row cutter like those originally fitted to Sherman tanks during the invasion of Normandy. It amuses me to see 40's era solutions fitted to year 40K vehicles.

Now, onto the sculpt itself. The G3 is from Company B miniatures, and is one of the worst casts I have seen in a long time. I think the model works well enough on the tabletop, but it would be impossible to paint one of these for a competition. So much rework would need to be done it would end up essentially being a script build. The model costs more than an equivalent truck from Warlord games, so if I were doing it again, I would buy from Warlord.