Some of you may remember the climactic last scene when the Assault Squad landed on the roof amidst the crowd of Grot defenders, cutting a swathe through them and launching the poor little sods left, right and centre.. well, we figured that not all of them would be dead, and of course the Dread had survived with a Gretchin pilot who might just be persuaded to help his fellows reach safety…
With that in mind, we set up a jungle/ forest theme table with loads of covers, as the Grot survivors would be attempting to leg it from one narrow end of the board to sanctuary at the other, being hunted by a force of Marines – the whole thing worked out as about 500 pts for the Grots, which let the Marines send Captain T and his Assault Squad bodyguard after them – quite thematic, I imagine he’d be looking for a little payback and Blood Angels are known for getting stuck in! Plus the Marines had jump packs, which would be quite handy here…
The Grots deployed first and got effectively two turns of movement in to make sure it didn’t immediately become a slaughter, and off we went.
Grots deploy on the left, da Dread in the centre watching over his charges“Foller me ladz, I’z got a cunning plan”Off in to the woods we go, everyone running full tiltUh oh… Captain T and the Assault Squad deploy, looking to spill some green blood.. Da Dread wheels to face themFrag grenades fall amongst the scurrying Gretchin, decimating them!Da Dread wreaks a mighty vengeance, downing two Marines with heavy bolter and lascannon fireGunning their jump packs, the Blood Angels get stuck in with bolt pistol, chainsword and krak grenadeMarines hack off a buzzsaw limb…Their brothers, however, are less enthusiastic – having lost 40% of their combat squad, they then proceed to fail their morale check and hightail it behind the nearest rocky outcrop….Da Dread causes carnage, laying about itself and downing Assault Marines right, left & centre! In retrospect I was way too hung up on bringing this thing down, and it absorbed a lot of combat power that could and should have gone on shooting up the GretchinGrot mobs are all broken and running for cover, but happily for Jim that’s taking them in the right directionCaptain Tycho pitches in and Da Dread falls!Scurrying just as fast as their little legs will carry them (and note that not a shot was fired from any of those 40+ autoguns this whole game!) the Gretchin are almost to the safety of Da Black Ork Cav basecamp…Delirious with rage, the surviving Assault Marines turn their bolt pistols on the Gretchin, hoping to bring down enough to.. well, I don’t know by this point!ONE.
Sigh.
Well, some you win… but I think we have to call this at least a qualified success for Da Cav as a good 30 or so Gretchin escaped… the Meks will be hard at work and I daresay won’t be struggling to find volunteer pilots amongst the survivors – but a good fun time all round!
So now… the Blood Angels need to rest and repair their Assault Squad, Da Cav need to reinforce.. so over to you, dear readers, where should the story go next? Answers on a postcode or in a comment!
Ebay should come with a health warning. “Based on your previous purchases, you may like…” it simpered innocently at me. And before I knew it I’d snapped another 10 Genestealers for a project that was an accident in the first damn place.
Still, it WAS a good deal – £4.95 including postage for what turned out to be 10 minis, all in more or less good shape.. and after a little bit of selfless internet research, I discovered that Andy Champers (praise be upon him) had in fact written a Genestealer Cult army list as well as a Tyranid Invasion Force for the 2nd Ed Tyranid Codex, and you can download it FREE (and I believe legally) here. I got my copy and have yet to be held to ransom by Russian gangsters… (touches wood just in case).
This is just a quickie post as there really is nothing new here, I painted these lads in exactly the same way I did the previous two waves, but we’re up to 24 models now which is a fairly decent horde (and I’ve probably given the game away for my next plans for them…)
Note a couple of tentacles bodged from greenstuff in place of missing arms.. arms which I subsequently found in the packaging… sigh.A couple of subtle differences in the shades of wash and basing as I had to hand mix these colours having run out in the period since we last encountered them…If you look closely you’ll see the basing materials are a little different as I lost my pot of Garage Floor Dust (TM) and used a dab of Dry Garden Soil (TM)…But on the whole I think they mix pretty well!Ole’ Six-Eyes leads his newly reinforced brood forward…..and here they are in action against their spiritual foes, Dan’s 1991 Blood Angel Terminators!“They’re coming out of the walls! They’re coming out of the Throne-damned walls!”
I’m actually quite chuffed with these, for an accidental maintaining-sanity-during-COVID project they’ve come out OK and are forming into a nice little army.. of course, in Skinflint style these lads will be pulling extra duty, not just for 40k (and if all the rumours surrounding 10th edition having free rules and datasheets and no codexes are to be believed, then HELL YES we’ll be all over that!), but also different flavours of Space Crusade and another Space based GW classic.. plus of course a ’90s classic rule set that was rather overlooked back in the day that we’ve been trying like hell to figure out..
..and maybe these lads will crop up in the junglesof Armageddon too? I mean, you never really know what’s lurking out there…
Stay safe and thrifty out there, and keep watching the skies!
Apparently so.. aww, remember when we thought Donald Trump was a threat to world peace? And that Brexit was a genuine existential problem?
And so we come to 2023, having endured plague, economic catastrophe and war in Europe.. it really is true that you only realise you’re in a Golden Age after its’ gone. Still, at least it can’t get any worse, right?
RIGHT?
Anyway – we figured that a great way to wind up a pretty shitty year would be to get as far away from reality as possible, 38,000 years into the future and return once more to the world of Hazzard. Since our last scrap, we’ve added a HELL of a lot of kit to both the Ork and Imperial sides, not to mention a small contingent of Squat allies – so stay tuned, this should be a good one.
I rolled out Waagh-Bozzhog, recently reinforced with aDeath Skull clan – and of course Big Red from a few years ago – and the order of battle was thus:
Evil Sunz clan reinforced with Nobz Warbikes, Gobsmashas, Bowelburnas, Spleenrippas and Mekboy Dragster
Goff Clan reinforced with Lungburstas, Gutrippas and Skullhamma battle fortress
Bad Moon Clan reinforced with Braincrushas, Squig Catapults and Weirdboy Battletowers
Death Skull Clan reinforced with Bonebreaka and Stompas
Ork Warlord & Stompas
Slasher Gargant
“Big Red” – Great Gargant.
This lot topped out at 6,600 points, so yeah – game on!
Jim pondered and decided that after the Redeemers had taken such a kicking in their last game and it would take time to replenish their geneseed, it would be my DIY Guard and his DIY Squats taking centre stage. Standing up to the orkish horde would be:
So, with forces chosen, we rolled up a battlefield, placed objectives and had at it!
Look at all that delicious cardstockBattle lines are drawnThe Imperial coalitionMy ladz, Waagh-Bozzhog, bigger and stringer than ever!More shots of da boyzThe Hazzard 1977th prepare to roll forward on the Imperial right flank“We might need an Imperator…”With an almighty “WAAAAAAAGH!!!”, the ladz roll forwards – Goffs lead the Death Skulls with Warlord Bozzhog on the Ork left with the Slasher, Big Red anchors the centre, the Bad Moons roll into position to provide fire support and the Evil Sunz zoom off in a furious charge to take out the Squat artillery and tanksGoffs pour forward along the valley floor, Death Skulls in supportImperial armour wheels to face the Evil Sunz and protect the SquatsLeviathan faces down the Slasher as the Guard rolls into positionImperial guns open up on the charging Orks!Squat Grand Battery, Colossus and infantry all open up on the Evil Sunz, but will it be enough?
Massed fire from the Guard infantry bite into the Deathskulls and strip the power felds off the Slasher, allowing the Leviathan to administer the coup de grace!On the Imperial left, however, it’s carnage as the Breathless Vengeance falls to massed fire from the Bad MoonsEvil Sunz close assault the Squat Grand Battery, and a couple of the Guard Vindicators to bootThis ends pretty much as expectedLand Raiders & Warlord Titan combine to down Big Red, whilst the combined fire of the Bad Moons and their lethal Weirdboy Battletowers turn the town to rubble, slaughtering the Squat infantryEvil Sunz are in amongst the Imperial lines, causing havoc but taking serious losses in the processGoffs charge in as the Death Skulls retreat, whilst Warlord Bozzhog and his Stompa Mob turn their fury on to the Leviathan, destroying it utterly!Goffs assault into the woods, capturing Objective 7 from the GuardCarnage across the board! At this point Jim was keeping his Space Marines sheltered for a counterattack, having learned from previous games..Hard to say who’s winning here…
…but as it turned out, the Imperials had the good fortune to explode both the Gargants from internal fires, and had caused just enough casualties to break the remaining clans! Despite having lost a Land Raider Company, all the Squats, the Leviathan and most of the Vindicators there was still a solid core of Guard forces plus a Veteran Marine company as yet untouched… so yet again, Warlord Bozzhog’s dastardly plans have come to naught!
Jim admitted he really thought that was in the bags for the Boyz, crediting pure luck with the destruction of the Gargants, and part of me agrees woth him… ah well, all the more excuse to reset and go again! And how will the Squat community on Hazzard feel about seeing their forces massacred while the Redeemers Space Marines cowered in their Rhinos, I wonder… might have the war on Hazard taken another turn??
Still, I wanted to do Epic Squats this year, and DAMN IT, I am going to do Epic Squats!
Now, I’d already got the infantry contingent and a Grand Battery sorted, and my plan was next to tackle the Guild Bikers, but…
…
Now, if like me, Grandfather Nurgle has blessed you with asthma from an early age, you’re either dead or you’ve amassed a fair collection of these:
I’ve got a fair few of these dead inhalers floating around my Box Of Interestingly Shaped Crap, and looking at them from different angles I’ve had a few ideas for things they could be… but then I saw this pic:
And something just clicked…
5mm foamboard, 80mm x 25mm. I made two of these to be the track sections..and then trimmed them as shown aboveAttached with the magic mix of PVA (for a longer lasting and flexible bond) and superglue (for immediate grip)And now the fun begins! Tracks are chopped up IDE cables, cereal box cardboard over the track units… Superglue tube lid for mega cannon, with drinking straws for battle cannon, another drinking straw for the turret mounted defence laser.. the turret itself made from a kids juice bottle cap with the excess height sawn off. Cocktail sticks for the missiles, two calibres of drinking straws for the exhausts. Rivets were quick dry PVA dabbed on with a cocktail stick.Ain’t she purdy?? Single corrugated card for the gyrocopter launch pad on the back, another superglue tube cap for the control tower..
Primed white & preshaded with thinned Vallejo Smokey Ink, but pics have apparently been eaten by my phone.. so you’ll have to make do with these!
Main colour was Goblin Green, shaded with Army Painter Green Tone.. twice over, I think.. then a drybrush up with straight Goblin Green and a lightened version. Brass was Vallejo Mithril Silver overpainted with a cheap craft bronze, which in turn got a wash of Vallejo Skin Wash… rivets were pin washed with thinned Smokey InkThe force so far!The Breathless Vengeance towers over her kin!
So there we go, there is an upside to asthma after all – even if it is a slightly niche one! Hopefully we can get these lads into action before long, and as students of Squat lore will be aware, this chassis was also used for the Leviathan and Cyclops Titan-killer… so watch this space! And of course, I still have to figure out how to make a Gyrocopter…
There’s an old saying – when you’re in a hole, stop digging, but when you’re on a roll, keep rollin’! So after the first Rhino actually took me slightly less than two years….
These were built exactly the same way as the first one, papercraft template downloaded from “In The Grim Cheapness” (RIP), glued to card… ignored the fiddly bits, used straws for the exhausts, PVA dabs for the rivets and Polyfilla (sanded down with an emery board) to fill in and take care of any glaring gaps. Primed white (and pre-shaded with brown ink), then Vallejo Hot Orange base, Red Ink Wash, drybrush with Hot Orange and edged with cheap Cadmium Yellow craft paint.
Metallics are Vallejo Mithril Silver over craft black base, whites are Dulux Jasmine White house paint (!)Notice that No. 9 Rhino has a) the variant frontal armour and b) a small dent after having been inadvertently sat on by the boy.. not to worry, what would have been £30+ quid of plastic down the pan gets a quick shake, squeeze and prodding back out with a cocktail stick and..Good to go! Seen here with the first Rhino, Captain Tycho and some friends…“Our aim is to create a recognisable brand to strike fear into the hearts of the Imperium’s enemies”
So there we go, more progress on the 1991 Blood Angels Tribute Act… now, to make this force 2nd Ed legal, I need to bodge together a Techmarine, plus there’s a Land Speeder, a Land Raider, a Thudd Gun, two bikes (Christ knows how I’m going to do them) and the rest of the characters still to do… so hmmm, what’s next on the hit list….
Stay safe and thrifty out there, and slavia Ukrainia, slavia heroyem – all things pass
I actually built the basic hull and treads back in 2020 (!) and pretty much forgot about it, so hauled it back out and started applying details. Hatches and armour layers were cut from thin card, and the iconic four exhausts (borrowing from Wyloch.. praise be upon him) were made from drinking straws. I plugged up the holes with greenstuff and cut down thinner drinking straws for the very top of the exhaust.
You can see the rivets – dots of PVA glue, dabbed on with a cocktail stick. I also used Polyfilla (spackle, in American) to fill in some of the gaps, and then sanded it down before priming.
In white, naturally, as was the style of the time – and I decided to get clever, adding a thin chestnut/brown wash over the primer:
Before applying the basecoat, two thin coats (naturally) of Vallejo Hot Orange, washed with Vallejo Red Ink, drybrushed with Hot Orange and edge highlighted with thinned Cadmium Yellow craft paint.
Craft black for the bits that are going to be metallic and the campaign badge, and the vision slits because no bloody way was I going to cut out raised lips for them…
You might notice that although this is based on the classic Mk 1 Rhino from the Rogue Trader but I wimped out of doing the radiator grills – I did have a plan to use nylon tulle (which we used when we made Skalk Point) but after losing several layers of skin trying to superglue the bastard stuff I gave up and went for armour layers with cardboard. So we have a beast which is neither quite fish nor fowl, but after a lick of paint, we are left with….
My First Papercraft! With thanks to Jim for a bit of assistance 😉Freehand shapes were drawn on in pencil and then Dulux Jasmine White house paint (thinned with Windsor & Newton medium) to fill in the shapes.. I actually measured the arrow to get it geometrically right, a first for me!In situ on the terrain mat with somefriends for scale
So there we are – it’s not quite done, I need to get a couple of bolters to mount on it but riding a wave of confidence I may even scratchbuild some to stick on there!
Not perfect and I very much doubt it would fool anyone into thinking it’s a legit GW product, but works nicely for us and looks pretty good – the army list calls for another two, so that’s me occupied for the next few weeks!
On another note, we decided that one thing we could do is cash out everything we’ve earned from selling Apocalypse: Earth to the DEC appeal to support Ukraine, so from now on until all this is over all proceeds will be going there. Not much, but better than nothing. As Jim mentioned in the last post, we did have some engagement with Russia (43 readers… out of 144 million people.. still) so if you ARE a young Russian chap of draftable age reading this and conscription season is right around the corner, maybe now is time to take that gap year abroad you’ve been promising yourself…..
Stay thrifty and safe out there, and may sanity prevail before too long. Slavia Ukraini, slavia heroyem
Sometimes, you just want that quick little win. And so it was the other day, as I finished the washing up and was about to toss an innocuous looking soft cheese container into the recycling, when I caught sight of it from a certain angle and something about it caught my eye..
Hmmm..
Cue a rummage around the Drawer Of Interestingly Shaped Crap (we’ve all got one) – and an old internet/ phone line junction box, a bottle cap and the lid from a nasal spray and things are starting to take shape:
Definitely something there….
Added superglue tops and made an archway with cardboard – after all, personnel have to be able to get in and out, even in the Imperium!
View from the other side
Out to the shed we go.. Primed black, then dusted white.. I’m not sure about the merits of zenithal highlighting, but as the black spray can ran out events forced my hand…
Overbrush with Wilko’s Duck Egg Blue house paint from our long serving tester pot
Drybrush/overbrush with Granite Dust (another Wilko’s tester pot)
Highlight up with Cloud Burst house paint drybrushed strategically, and then a thin black wash to tie it all together
Next up I blocked in base colours – Vallejo Russian Green and Mithril Silver for the metallic bits and gave the whole thing a thin black wash. I mixed in a little tan craft paint to create something lighter and did a little edge highlighting (sorry Dan) on the exposed edges, and for the psychic Astronomicon relay tower I used the same trick from the plasmareactors (itself lifted from one of Duncan’s old Warhammer TV painting guides), so I won’t retread that here – particularly since I don’t think I made that great a job of it, just couldn’t get it accurate enough so the effect is a bit smeary.
The great thing about the base box is that it comes with its own base! So I painted the lip brown, painted it with PVA and sprinkled first earth, then sand, then flock over it. Matt varnish sealed the whole thing and boom, we’re good to go! Beauty shots below:
Roman numeral for “44” in honour of the TRUE F1 world champion.. he shall return and wreak vengeance!!Weathering wash applied using a thinned down Vallejo skinwash – I tried to find places where rain might gather and streakOne of Whittlesey’s decals – I was hoping to get a second one on the other side but failed in applying it and manged to tear it…
So there we go, first build of 2022! On an unrelated note, we’re both big fans of Mel The Terrain Tutor, and he’s been worryingly quiet of late, particularly taking note of health issues he’s been suffering from – we wish him well wherever he is, and if you happen to be reading this Mel, drop us a line to let us know you’re Ok.
Meantime, stay safe, sane and thrifty everyone, we’ll see you again soon!
How do – seeing as having recently written an absolutely EPICbattlereport, my partner in blogging currently resembles this:
I thought I’d take over blogging duties for a little while and share my next block of progress with the Retro Blood Angels – for those of you unfamiliar with this endeavour, I picked up a job lot of Marines on eBay last year in celebration of my car unexpectedly passing its MOT, realised that if I combined them with the Marines from our inadvertent eBay purchase of a 2nd Ed 40K box set I would be able to put together the Blood Angels army featured in the first ever White Dwarf I ever read, issue 139 from May 1991.
I resolved to paint them in the classic 90s style – white primer, PVA & sand bases (painted Goblin Green), edge highlighting, no weathering – and offer up this tribute to.. well, I fell down there, really. I just wanted to have the army that I fell in love with as a nipper.
So far I’ve got the bulk of the infantry done – two Tactical Squads, a Devastator squad and an Assault squad, so this time it’s the turn of the elite 1st company veterans in their Tactical Dreadnought Armour:
I won’t delve into the painting format as it’s largely the same as what the rest of them have had just with an extra layer or two of yellow to bring out some highlights.
This was my goal:
Linked from Whittlesey40k, who also very kindly provided a set of decals for the project – owe you a beer!
And this was what I managed:
Don’t think the ‘Eavy Metal team will be beating a path to my door just yet, but from two feet away they look pretty good – and you’ll just have to trust me when I say that banner looks better in the flesh….
What next? Well, that’s the infantry largely done, although the characters all need to be painted and there are some Techmarine conversions I’ll need to figure out – building sci-fi spanners out of cardboard and granny rating should while away a few evenings as the nights draw in – but the original force featured a Land Raider, a Thudd Gun, a Land Speeder and a few Rhinos which in the spirit of thriftiness I intend to scratchbuild – Jim’s given me a template for a papercraft Rhino from the now sadly shuttered In The Grim Cheapness, as well as a few hints and tips from his own experiences – and of course there’s always Wyloch.
Stay safe and thrifty out there and fingers crossed the Mu variant doesn’t doom us all to another lockdown winter…
Ok, so here in Blighty it is allegedly the height of summer but the sun has been an inconsistent companion.. however, in the grim darkness of the far future the primary colours are always bright and the grass is always Goblin Green.
And to give some variety, let me present a post that is NOT all about granny grating… we’re back to 1991 for some retro Blood Angels assault troops!
Now these guys were a little more speculative in terms of colour scheme as they certainly weren’t in the initial magazine article in White Dwarf 139, and in fact I’m not sure they ever made it into a battle report before Space Wolves and then Ultramarines became the flavour of the month, but really the only difference is in the helmet – those that are wearing them – being painted bright yellow.
The lads out in the shed for priming – I had to do a little conversion, buying in aftermarket resin jump packs (possibly 3D printed judging from the feel of the material) and chainswords, the essential assault weapon of the 41st millenium. PVA and sand on the bases BEFORE priming – this makes things a hell of a lot easier and less messy later on, wish I’d known that back in the day..The finished article! Painting process was the same as previousunits so no point repeating myself here, although the yellow was shaded with Vallejo Skin Wash before brushed back up with cheapy craft Cadmium Yellow paint.
“Space Wolves? Who they?”
Mk 6 armour makes an appearance
As conversions go, this is pretty brutal! But once I saw Hopalong here, he had to be an assault trooper… “T’is but a scratch!”The lads all ranked up on the dining table – that’s all the line troops done, next up Terminators, characters, Techmarines and vehicles. The grim darkness of the far future never looked so vivid!
Shout out to Whittlesey40k for the decals that set the whole thing off, very kind of you – and when things FINALLY open back up, these lads will be making their pilgrimage to Warhammer World… stay safe, stay thrifty and we’ll see you again soon
gave birth to yet another little side project, as he’d managed to purchase a box of Genestealers and Tyranids through our joint eBay account, ironically enough getting a pretty good deal! I inherited them from Dan back before Lockdown III – Rise Of The Revenge struck, my compadre realising that even his hobby ADHD would struggle to cope with yet another project, and I figured that these gribblies would be a good OPFOR for something like Space Hulk, Space Crusade or even outside the 40k universe as acid-for-blood-they’re-coming-out-of-the-goddamn-walls-man generic baddies, and got the first few painted back late last year.
But the last few lay in their tupperware box, in various states of disrepair and different coloured primers, silently entreating me “Father, give me legs”… and I could only hold out for so long. There were a few missing limbs, requiring tentacles bodged from greenstuff, but in the main they came together pretty well.
Foreground ‘Stealer has a homemade tentacle… I followed the same paint scheme as last time, but was a little bit hit and miss mixing up the colours to match with the first group.. however, Vallejo Smokey Ink covers all sins, and a bone drybrush covers any that the wash misses! The first group are slightly pinker but I think overall it works out OKHybrid – this guy got a rock glued to his base to stop him falling over..Look closely enough and this little guy has an arm for a leg… however, I didn’t realise until painting… and it’s all in the name of biodiversity!Patriarch (Ol’ Six Eyes) leads his brood forwardI believe this chap is a shout out to the RT- era Ymgarl genestealerSurging forward over the polystyrene ruins.. sucks to be a Grot here!
I know Dan’s Blood Angels are going to have a Terminator squad amongst their number, so I’m looking forward to trying some Space Hulk out in a few months when (hopefully) freedom will reign once again.. till then, stay safe, sane and thrifty out there, some good stuff coming in the next few weeks!
Skinflint Games 