American Civil War, Epic style!

Man, I went back and forth on this for a while. On the one hand, I have a ton of 28mm ACW miniatures (quite a few painted, actually!) but on the other hand…epic scale means that I can get a lot more on the table, and play some big battles!

So I pulled the trigger and got the Gettysburg boxed set AND the Guts and Glory boxed set. Which means I effectively have enough miniatures to keep me occupied for at least two years after I’m dead. Which I already had anyway.

Opposed to the recommended five stands to make up a regiment, I’ve opted to go with three. So here’s Johnny Reb:

And here’s Billy Yank:

Right now I have three Confederate regiments and one stand shy of two union regiments done. My goal is twenty apiece, in addition to cavalry. artillery, leaders, and casualties. Whee! We’ll see how that goes!

Advanced Heroquest

Okay, so I wasn’t really back. But now I’m sort of half-assed back.

Anyhow, amongst the many, many things that I’m painting (epic ACW, anyone?) I have here a medley of monsters painted up for Advanced Heroquest. What an up-and-down 34-year ride I’ve had with this game! My old group had played the heck out of the original Heroquest, so when I went to the ‘ol local gamestore looking for a new challenge, I spied two beautiful boxes:

Naturally, I chose Advanced Heroquest.

I chose wrong.

Oh, it initially seemed like a vast improvement over regular Heroquest, but it really wasn’t. It was way more clunkier and meatier to get into, and after a couple of games I went back and picked up Space Hulk and never once regretted that choice. First Edition Space Hulk has endless hours of fun for over 30 years, I’d say that’s a pretty good bargain!

But the siren’s call of AHQ was always there, faintly whispering my name. Now, I’ve played a TON of WarhammerQuest…

But that didn’t quite scratch the same itch. While there have been a few abortive attempts over the years, a few months ago while taking a break from the regularly scheduled D&D game, we played some AHQ…and hot damn, it was some fun!

I finally “got” how the game was supposed to work. I guess. I dunno, anyway, it was a good time! So I painted up some old-as-hell Warhammer miniatures that I have had just a little short of forever, and hopefully we’ll get some more games in soon.

Anyhow, it’s good to be back.

Deathwatch: Overkill

I almost picked this gem up when it first came out a few years back, but I hesitated, and like so may Games Workshop games, it was quickly out of print. I mostly wanted it for the hybrids to fill out the ranks of the Spacehulk Genestealers, so no big loss, really.

Anyhow, I was able to scoop it up at a sale, and what do you know, first things first I started painting the damn marines.

The pissed off Chaplain!

Despite having ten tons of other miniatures to paint, I’ve decided to hammer out this board game before anything else. Five Deathwatch marines down, six to go! (and then the Genestealer side, of course)

And hey! I finally have an actual light box to work with!

I’m Back!

After a slight layoff of almost five years, I’m back to posting. I’ve been gaming (and painting) Anyway, here are some pics from our battle from last weekend, around 1700 points of Iron Hands and Blood Angels beat the snot out of roughly the same amount of Orks!

No battle report this time, however.

But expect more to come!

Or not, hell maybe I’m lying and this is it!

Kill Team!

So it’s been a while, right?

Anyhow, we’re gearing up for Kill Team around these parts, so here’s some of what I’ve been working on:

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Deathwatch! Hammer and Anvil!

 

 

Primaris Reivers and Intercessors! The Space Wolves are from the Fangs of Ulfrich KT boxed set, and the “Deathwatch” Primaris are from the Easy-build kits.

 

 

Here’s the rest of the Deathwatch roster, painted up and ready for action, and only two Frag Cannons! How’s that for sporting?

 

I picked up a couple of Sector Munitorum sets, but I only have one (mostly) painted. The other one is still on the sprue, sadly…

 

I’m not gonna lie, it was mostly the little tool box that sold me on this set. I mean, sure, trenches and ruined buildings and all of that other shit are nice, but how often do we get a non-Ork little tool box in the 40k universe?

Perhaps next time I will post my Rogue Trader-era metal Harlequins that I painted up for KT. No diamond patterns, though, because I suck.

World War 2!!

Yeah, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted.

I’ve been painting like mad, BUT setting up the camera and lights are such a pain in the ass!

So I’m lazy, sue me.

I’ve taken a bit of a break from Games Workshop stuff in order to concentrate on getting my 28mm Late War Americans and Germans into fighting shape.

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Crusader Miniatures Americans

I have a lot of Early War French and Germans painted up, maybe I’ll get around to posting them.

Maybe.

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Battle Honors .30 cal MG team

Some of these Battle Honors guys have been kicking around for 20 years or so!

I really like Battle Honors miniatures, although they’re a little on the small side, being 25mm or so. I find that they fit in well enough with other ranges, however. The fact that they have no pictures for half of their stuff on their website is a problem that I’m sure keeps a lot of people away, but they really are decent figs!

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Battle Honors bazooka team

 

Here’s a medley of Battle Honors G.I.s:

 

 

Here’s a side-by-side:

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Battle Honors (left) and Crusader.

 

I’m not a huge fan of West Wind (Berlin or Bust) miniatures, but painted up they look decent enough:

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West Wind Americans

 

For Late War vehicles, I have mostly Bolt Action stuff from Warlord Games.

 

The same goes for my German vehicles, more Bolt Action:

I have a ton more to paint, mostly Sherman and Panther tanks, but a handful of Infantry as well. We’re gearing up for a big game of Disposable Heroes using Skirmish Campaigns for the scenarios.

That means we’ll have a battle report, at some point!

Warhammer Quest!

After spending a year painting Blood Angels and Space Orks, I’ve finally decided to jump back into something else, namely Warhammer Quest. Specifically, WHQ Silver Tower!

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Not the glory days, but still glorious!

Back in 1990 I picked up Advanced Heroquest, expecting many, many hours of monster-bashing fun…but it never quite delivered. I really loved everything about it, but I could never seem to get a campaign of it off of the ground. I’ve played it a fair number of times, sure, but not as much as say Space Hulk or even Talisman.

I never owned WHQ though, until perhaps 5 years ago, when I managed to pick up two copies on Ebay for a ridiculously low price.

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Two copies, plus Lair of the Ork Lord & Catacombs of Terror for under $300?? Hell yeah!

 

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THIS is the magic I was missing!

Now HERE was a game!

Everything that AHQ was lacking and then some!

Naturally, when Silver Tower came out, I had to jump on top of it (and later on, Shadows Over Hammerhal)

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The ever-growing mountain of shit games! Yes, I own everything for Tide of Iron too!

 

Anyhow, I’ve needed a break from 40k, so I started knocking out the Silver Tower miniatures.

First the heroes:

 

…and the monsters:

 

I’ve been working on these suckers ever since Christmas, I think. Only the Gaunt Summoner and Ogroid Thaumaturge left to go, then Silver Tower is done! (which is more than I can say for my AHQ miniatures)

 

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Pink Horrors, ready to dance their asses off!

 

Whenever the last two are done, I’m switching it up again to WW2 miniatures.

I know the original purpose behind this blog was to chronicle the painting of the Blood Angels army, and I’ll still work on that, but man, I need a break from painting 40k miniatures!

Warboss and Nobz!

I thought that I would try something different, so I rigged up a ‘poor man’s light box.’ I guess the results turned out okay:

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Dis is my action poze!

I’m pretty sure that I picked up these guys back in 3rd edition, and have just recently gotten around to painting them. They’re the old metal nobz, no weakling plastics around here!

 

The bulk of my Orks are finally done, after years of neglect! That doesn’t take into account most of the vehicles, but it’s a start!

 

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Dis is me good side!

Besides the Nobs, I also managed to paint up one of my Trukks:

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Lookit the sleek lines on this baby!

 

I had some of the original GorkaMorka era trukks at one time, but I can’t say that I was much of a fan of those things, they were too damn small.

The newer models, however, are pretty spot-on. No, you still can’t fit a bunch of Ork miniatures inside, but hey- let me see you try to actually put marines in a Rhino!

I still have some finished Lootas that I have to get around to taking some pics of, but I must say, after spending the last year painting 40k miniatures (Blood Angels and Orks) I’m really feeling the need to switch it up for a while.

So we’ll see what comes next…

Battle Report! Blood Angels vs Orks!

‘Ere we go, the long awaited battle between Blood Angels and Bad Moon Orks! This is the first time I’ve had my Orks on a battlefield since 3rd Edition! (even if I wasn’t the one playing them)

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It doesn’t get any more realistic than this!

Blood Angels, 2000 points:

HQ 212 points

Astorath

Sanginary Priest

ELITES 280 points

14 Death Company marines

TROOPS 88 Points

5 scouts with sniper rifles, scout sergeant with Storm Bolter

HEAVY SUPPORT 864 points

Baal Predator with twin assault cannon/ heavy bolter sponsons

Predator with twin las-cannon/heavy bolter sponsons

Whirlwind with Castellan missiles

Whirlwind with Castellan missiles

10 Devastators with 4 heavy bolters

10 Devastators with 4 heavy bolters

LORD OF WAR 556 points

Knight Crusader W/ Avenger Gatling cannon, Rapid-fire Battle cannon, Ironstorm missile pod, heavy stubber, heavy flamer

 

Bad Moon Orks, 1993 points:

HQ 267 points

3 Warbosses w/2 Power Klaws & 1 big choppa

Boss Snikrot

ELITES 458 points

3 Nobs W/ Waaagh banner

15 Kommandos w/ 6 flamers

Troops 724 points

120 Boyz

Heavy Support 544 points

9 lootas w/ Mekaniak

Morkanaut W/Kustom Mega Kannon, Kustom Mega Blasta, Rokkit Launcha, twin big shoots, Klaw of Gork

 

 

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Awaiting the Green Tide!

 

The Battle, round 1!

Since the Blood Angels finished setting up first, I decided to reluctantly take the first turn. Reluctant, because the Orks were almost entirely out of range of my shooting. My opponent Warboss Andy solved that problem by promptly seizing the initiative (shocking) and going first.

This helped me quite a bit, because I wasn’t tempted (or able) to move out of my position, which was set up specifically to deny his Kommandos from popping up in my backfield and causing havoc.

ORKS:

The Orks all advanced, while The Morkanaut with half of the Lootas with their Mekaniak rode along inside. The other half of the Lootas and the Mork shot at the Baal Predator, inflicting a few wounds on it, but doing no real harm.

Hell yeah, 8th edition! In previous editions, that fucker would’ve blown up like a firecracker!

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Get marchin’ ya skum!

 

Having no better targets, the Kommandos, along with Snikrot, popped up into some woods by the scouts, and promptly charged in (minus Snikrot, and 5 Kommandos who couldn’t make it) Two of them got cut down on the way, but the rest pressed home and wiped out the scouts to a man!

 

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Blood Angels:

Apart from the Death Company and Astorath, everybody stays put.

Both Whirlwinds shoot the advancing Slugga Ork boyz…killing one.

Predator shoots lascannons at Morkanaut and misses. The side-bolters kill a few Kommandos.

The Baal mows down a bunch of advancing shoota boyz, and the Red Devastators do the same!

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We are ACTUAL Blood Angels Devastaors, dammit!

The Blue Devastators wipe out the Kommandos that charged the scouts!

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Crimson Fists? Us? What makes you think that?

The Knight spreads the goodness around, shooting the Morkanaut, blowing Snikrot off of the map with the Avenger Gatling Cannon, and peppering a few boyz for good measure.

DC and ‘ol Astie drop down from the heavens to inflict some pain on the Lootas, by bolt-pistoling them to death! Since the intended target is now dead, they opt to charge a squad of 30 boys…and fail. Two of them get shot for their efforts.

This is gonna get real ugly in a minute…

Round 2

ORKS:

The Boyz keep advancing, except for the squad facing Astorath and the Death Company. They get moved back towards those doomed souls.

The Morkanaut drops off the remaining Lootas, who shoot at Astorath…and do zero damage!

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Time fer yer ta leg it, lads!

The Morkanaut then shoots at the Knight, knocking off a few points.

Then 29 boyz (minus 1 that gets shot going in) charge Astorath and 12 Death Company marines!

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Here they come!

The Orks get a stupid amount of attacks, something like 140 altogether…and still only manage to kill 7 DC marines! The Nobz accompanying them, however, just manage to wipe out Astorath, which causes the remaining DC to flee!

Blood Angels:

Red Devastators and the Baal Predator shoot the shit out of a squad of advancing Ork Shoota boyz. The other Predator shoots at the Mork and misses (again) then bolters the few remaining shoota boyz. Thank the Emperor for split-fire!

The Whirlwinds underperform again, killing a handful of Slugga boyz.

The Blue Devastators kill all of the remaining Kommandos save for two.

The Knight guns down almost all of the remaining Shoota boyz, missiles a Loota to death, and fails to damage the Morkanaut whatsoever!

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That out-of-focus yellow blob sure is heading this way in a hurry…

 

Round 3

ORKS:

The orks keep charging! (except for the boyz that chewed up Astorath and the Death Company; They’re now hopelessly out of position)

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Keep goin’ lads!

The Morkanaut and Lootas unload everything they’ve got on the Baal Predator…and fail to hurt it!

 

Blood Angels:

The Red devastators and Baal Predator  shoot the Slugga Boyz on the right, mowing down a fair number.

Both Whirlwinds combine to finally wipe the remaining Shoota boyz out.

The Blue Devastators and Knight unload on the Slugga boyz in the center, killing quite a few. The Knight also lobs some missiles at the Lootas, killing another one.

The Predator shoots at the Morkanaught and misses for the THIRD time. In order to make up for that error, it lights up the center Slugga Boyz for a few more casualties.

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‘Ere we go! The orks get ready to close!

 

Round 4

ORKS:

The Morkanaut unloads everything at the Blue Devastators, killing three marines.

The Lootas shoot the Baal Predator, doing a few more points of damage, hampering its effectiveness ever so slightly.

The center Ork squad charges the other Predator, takes a couple of casualties going in, but don’t manage to kill it.

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‘Ave some of dis choppa, ya humie skum! Why ain’t it dyin’ boss?

 

The remaining Ork Boyz try to charge the Baal…and fail. Then Warboss Andy tries a re-roll…and fails again! Bad news for the Bad Moons!

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“Charge! Nar? Whatcha mean, nar we ain’t chargin’?”

 

Blood Angels:

The hammer of Baal comes down hard indeed! The Red Devastators, whirlwinds, and Baal Predator unleash hell on the Orks that failed their charge! They get blown off of the table!

The Blue Devastators shoot up the Morkanaut, softening it for the eventual fury of the Knight!

The Knight unloads on the Morkanaut, and BOOM goes the Dynamite! The Mork explodes with a terrific ball of fire!

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I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!

The Knight also kills a Loota for good measure with a missile, then charges into the embattled Orks fighting the Predator!

 

That was pretty much the game!

 

 

 

 

A tiny selection of Bad Moon Orks.

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What I’ve been painting since July!

Orks, orks, so many orks!

I finally have the bulk of the footsloggers painted, but I still have Lootas, Tankbustas, around 30 more Boyz, around 40-50 Gretchin, a handful of snotlings (or whatever they’re called anymore) and some old-school Nobz in power armor.

None of that, of course, takes into account the vehicles…

But hey, at least the Kommandos are done!

…and then there are these guys, my only two Burna Boyz, which have been press-ganged into the Kommando force:

 

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“We has been impressed inta da service.”

The bulk of all of my painting has been taken up with Da Boyz. Now, I already had 30 of these suckers painted (which were pretty much the only Orks that I even had painted) But now I at least have them all based! These are some of the oldest 40k miniatures (not including the Nob) that I own, dating back to the old Rogue Trader days.

 

In addition to the old RT Orks, I also have a handful of old 2nd edition (The best edition!) Orks that I painted up with a bunch of Slugga Boyz:

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Goff Boy, Evil Sun Boy, and two Snakebites. Looks like they’re Bad Moons now…

Plus a couple of scratch-built Big Shootas, one of which is an old 2nd edition metal Goff Boy:

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“Dis is state of da art tecknolergy.”

 

Finally, the last of the painted Shoota Boyz:

 

Next time will be the Ork Nobz!