And Still They Come.. Hairy Japanese Bastards Pt. 3,147,923

So yeah, we’re not dead.

After Endless January, it seems like February has been swallowed almost entirely by 1:1 scale, also known as Real Life, problems. First car – and trust me, there are not enough swears in the world to cover my feelings toward that f*cking thing at the moment – then nature – Storms Ciaran and Dennis have been wreaking havoc and even here in dear old Leicestershire, we’ve not been immune. Although it’s nothing to what some people have been suffering in places like Wales, it was a bit disconcerting to see a lake forming on my kitchen floor, while Dan suffered tiles blown off and a leaking roof. Clearly, more offerings to the sun god Ra are in order.

So that’s why we’ve been a bit quiet.

But in between the mayhem, we’ve still managed to slip in a bit of hobby time… and after the Virum Nascii were slaughtered ignominiously in their last outing, we decided a bit of exra firepwoer was in order. So with the last few models from the four boxes of Miniknight Ratmen we bought in a fit of madness back in 2018, we’ve been busily converting to create special weapon teams inspired by and similar to (but definitely not the same as) the Clan Skyre teams from Warhammer Fantasy/ Age Of Sigmar.

Basic tools of the trade – cocktail sticks, guitar strings, drinking straws, greenstuff and sprue bits

Basic colours applied after priming.. priming was a mix of grey and white sprays as we were scraping the barrel in terms of materials… followed by a thin black wash and a white drybrush – our attempt at underpainting! To be fair, it actually kind of worked this time – as always, we use a mix of cheap art shop acrylics thinned with water and some Windsor & Newton acrylic medium, and for special occasions the odd Vallejo colour. Washes are Vallejo inks and Army Painter Green Tone, thinned as before. It seems to work picking out small details on these wee little 20mm fellas.

Jezzail / Vrilrifle (depending on your chosen ruleset) – the rifle carriers originally armed with halberd, a bit of greenstuff and a guitar string as well as a triangular shield. I modelled an eyepiece with greenstuff onto the spotter.

Ratling gun teams – same halberd model, this time encased in a drinking straw. Filled in the end with greenstuff and poked a wee bit of guitar string in there. I was hoping to get six in there for the “Gatling” look, but, nah, not happening. So this is more like a rat/ Maxim look. Ammo belts are chopped up IDE cables – originally got the idea from Zrunelord on TMP to use them as tank tracks, but I think they do OK here too. I’m happier with the loader on the right as I thought to bend his around a pencil!

Warpfire/ Vrilfire (again, depending on your rules) thrower teams – these were built the same way as the Ratling gunners, but I left the barrels on the straws open. Added fuel tanks on the backs made from bits of sprue, and added a feeder hose made from a guitar string and bodged in place with greenstuff.

Master of Engineers! Well, that’s his title for now – this chap got his arm cut off and reposed, a mask added with greenstuff and is sporting an ancient mystic Vrilfire pistol that looks awfully like a Sten gun….

The lads on parade!

Unbelievably, however, we’re still not done! There are still two guys awaiting conversion to a drill team, and after that there are the war machines! Currently there’s a prototype Doomwheel lurking in the cupboard made from two peanut butter jar lids… so if the real world could leave us alone for the next few weeks, maybe we can label this project as “DONE” – inasmuch as any gaming project ever is!

Anyway, stay thrifty out there, and our thoughts go out to anyone who’s taken a real hit from the weather these last few weeks.. See you soon!