Downsizing 'da Groop

 lol, I'm sure that just by that title alone Neverness has a knot in the pit of his stomach, and perhaps rightly so.

It isn't news to anybody that I don't play near as often as I once did, which has only been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. Thus my pile o' shame is both considerable and taking up a lot of space. Granted I still have some extra of that following the passing of My Beloved Wolfy, but that said I could probably do something better with it were some of it not filled with a literal pile of plastic that I have little want to paint. As such, force reductions are well under way:

First up, the Spess Mahreenz. As y'all may recall, having just sold off all of my non-primaris Spess Mahreenz, Kushial blindsided me with the gift of a veritable horde of them! From that collection both the Astral Claws were reborn, and my Incandescent Coyotes came into being. However with the Coyotes clocking in at about 500 points, and the Astral Claws at about the same, I was still left with a Landraider and 30-odd marines. Not wanting to sell what was gifted to me, I passed those minis on to Neverness. 

My Silver Drakes clock in at about 1000 points, with maybe 1/10 of that painted. No plans to add to or reduce their numbers at this point in time. They're not too high on the list to get painted either...

Next up: Chaos. I mentioned just a few posts back that I sold the majority of  my chaos marines off, reducing them to a mere kill team. 

Then there's My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau. By far my largest army (at the start of this paragraph anyways...), clocking in at a little over 1500 points of almost entirely unpainted minis (the original, paltry collection of painted Fem Fa'Tau minis Wolfy herself fielded are all in my display case). I didn't see meself doing much with these, and burned out after just a few painted up in a new scheme. Still, being hers, I didn't want to sell em, so what to do? Well, my buddy Hoss has flirted with Tau and 40k for years, but the astronomical cost of entry into the game has always kept him from making the jump. He was also one of My Wolfy's favorite folks. As such I have approx. 1K of Tau set aside to suck him into the financial hell that is 40k. The remainder are staying with me to all wear the Fem F'aTau's new colors...someday. 

The Exodites...barely clock in at 500 points, They're good as is. 

And lastly there's Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself. Recently they achieved something like 90+% painted status when 30 or so unpainted minis were sold to another local gamer. Riddled with sentimental favorites, they're all but impossible to sell off in their entirety. They are still fieldable as an army (albeit a small one) as their troops compliment has been reduced to a mere 10-strong slugga boy mob. 

Storage and transport of these little guys will be much easier as well!

That said, just days prior to the above mentioned sale, I purchased 48 new orks (pictured above)...in 15mm scale. Sure they may not be as detailed, nor have as much variety of models, but at the same time a *NEW* 500pt army cost me $50, of which a goodly portion of that was shipping from the UK. 

So...that's the current state of things around here. More minis are likely to go, just not sure what at this point. 

Making progress on painting up my caverns.

 o/

One of these is not like the others...

Welp, this project is going faster than I expected. After trying one or two color combos I just opted to go super easy, with a simple dry brushed layer of Bleached Bone over Testors Light Earth flat spray paint. 

Amusingly, my generic base flocking works quite well in the caves.

Mad Cap Mushrooms?

To break up the monotony, I've added a few little tufts here and there in a variety of colors representing alien shrooms, fungi, or flowers that apparently don't need any light. Several columns and wall sides are also 'ard coated to look wet but that doesn't show up in these pics. 

I have 2 of each type of entrance. 

No cave trolls spotted...yet.

The two cave entrances that I have painted thus far are flocked mainly on the outside and around the arch undersides, representing the forest beyond. 

The simple dry brushing really ties it all together nicely.

Zone Mortalis in 15mm!!

These are fairly quick and easy to do, and am batch painting them at a rate of a half dozen at a time. Already about a third of the way done, I'm hoping I can push thru the rest before running out of steam, with my hobby butterfly wandering off to paint something else. 

The underworld expands!

I ordered another set of caves and they arrived this past week. I just love these things and probably spent an hour or so just putting this layout together, assembling and reassembling so as to use every piece that I have. 

The full layout though as always, once disassembled the same layout will never again be made. 

15mm marines performing a sweep and clear. 

The marines consist of a Lt., and (3) 5-man tac squads of 'first born' bolter grunts. It's all straight up 40k with just their movement rates halved.

'Movement detected up ahead...'

...and then there is my Quarmy. Easily representing IG in 15mm, albeit with a few minor alterations.

Both forces clock in at 250pts., though for an almost kill team-esque option, the Quar split in half evenly enough to make two, 125pt forces. I mean let's face it: in tunnel fighting, marines are going to slaughter the IG.

Squad sgt. watching the Sentinel tank as it advances up the narrow passage way.

Company CO bellowing out orders via megaphone...it's no wonder the marines can here them!

It's called Zone Mor-what?!?

The Commissar ambling along in the rear, shooting any stragglers for his own amusement.

As always I want more, but am thinking I'll hold off on any more purchases till I get these painted up. Yeah I know, everybody says that...but this will more or less just be an exercise in dry brushing using a color palette reminiscent of the vastly larger Triceratops I painted some years back. 

I sent the layout pic to my GF, and almost immediately this meme is what I got back in return...lol.

So long to this wretched year!

 

o/

2020 has been an awful year for most everyone. Rather than recap my personally experienced horrors, I'll instead let ya know where things stand as this ol' blog has been fairly quiet here of late. 

First up:, I based my 15mm Quar kickstarter army and tweaked their 'Sentinel tank' as well. Not knowing just what I'll do with them, I've organized them as a 250pt IG Combat Patrol force for 40k in 15mm. A few liberties were taken but not enough to really matter in the event that that anyone wants to actually fight 15mm anteaters in 40k. 

That said, much like I did with my Weird War II Quar in Bolt Action, there is a temptation to rebase them and use them with my Abrams tanks as a Weird War III Team Yankee army. We'll see on that though...

Yes of course I painted that! Can't you see the brush strokes? 

Speaking of Team Yankee, the MLRS' that I'd gotten with my tanks were actually toys and more importantly, of the wrong scale. So I gave them to my GF's son who was quite please with them. I did however get 2 sprues of individual Humvees, and for Christmas a box of A-10 Warthogs as well as the American army book and unit cards. So more to come on that front in the future. 

Just today I ordered a 2nd allotment of modular caves using my government stimulus $$$. What d'ya mean that's not what it's for?? Fine, fine, the rest will go to my property taxes and savings, sheesh...lol. Essentially it was a carbon copy of my first order. That ought to do it for the caves for the foreseeable future, as now I need to get em painted up. 

All is quiet on the 40k front. I sold off my still new-in-box alt IG, as lord knows when I'd ever get around to them. I haven't painted ANYTHING for them (or much of anything else really), nor played in quite some time. To be honest I don't see any expansion of my current forces/collections for the foreseeable future. 

This Spellcrow Whirlwind bit was my last 40k acquisition. Presumably the Incandescent Coyotes will get it after I eventually finish that Rhino in the background. 

Which means of course that I still have an endless queue to paint on. The FLGS is starting a Crusade campaign this weekend...power levels, bleh. As such, don't expect to hear  too much from me about 40k for a bit aside from my getting bored and painting a random model or two here and there. 

Happy New year folks! Hopefully things will get better for us all in 2021!

The caves have arrived!

 o/

With the pieces fitting together like a puzzle without a picture to go by, I'll likely never assemble the same board twice. 

I love this stuff and as I've stated previously, I need moar!!! This bunch here clocked in at $100 and it almost fills a third of my game table. Better yet, it fits under the table top meaning it can be left in place when we're done playing.

These won't really work for spess mahreens and their 32mm bases, indeed 25mm bases are the biggest that'll fit but really, this screams 15mm gaming!! May have to sell some 40k armies to finance some more hexes. Anyways, enough jabbering just look at the pics:

Damned Hobbit sized entrance!

As you can see, 25mm bases just barely fit into the passageways.

And even those are a bit too big for some hexes.

Psst, you see anything over there?  yeah, umm...no peeking over the cavern walls, lol.

High crested helms are probably not recommended in caves and caverns. 

15mm minis on the other hand...yeah they're prefect! I've been wanting to break into some sort of 15mm gaming for awhile due to the vastly reduced cost and storage needs. Even going so far as to simply halve the ranges of everything in regular scale 40k for simplicity's sake. If anybody could recommend a good system it would be appreciated. 

A much better fit!

A squad of my 15mm marines getting ambushed by some sort of alien horrors!

To the trees!

o/

Watch out for the poison ivy...

I gotta bunch of 'train trees' for Christmas to use in making some traversable forests for both my 15mm 40k and Classic Battletech. As such I added hex lines for use with the latter which was something of a nightmare. Normally I only discuss Battletech on my other blog, but figured duplicate posts would be kinda pointless for a mere stand of trees. 

Luckily this Locust won't devour everything in sight...

I didn't clear coat this prior to adding the hex lines and trees due to inclement weather resulting in considerable frustration as the flocking was coming off at the slightest touch. As such this was partially reflocked multiple times up until I just said fuck it! and left the little bare spots as they were. Future forests will be clear coated prior to the addition of hex lines and the trees themselves. 

Astral Claws test minis

o/

I had hoped to have this post out both earlier and with at least a combat squad of marines done...but Real Life (TM) happened. That said, I am rather pleased with these three and true to the memory of the handful I painted some years ago, they were fairly quick, easy and painless to paint, a good thing considering I still have this to do: 

((((gulp!)))

GW's Leadbelcher, Macragge Blue, Agrax Earthshade along with Vallejo's Glorious Gold and Flat Earth for the base and...umm yeah. That's it. Easy peasy.

I opted to go with different colored tactical arrows to tell the squads apart. I made some in red, yellow and black years ago for some long, forgotten project that never went anywhere...apparently, as I never used any of them. Without a white backing, the red is kinda dark rendering the yellow tactical arrows a lost cause. Additionally I also have the standard GW white ones too. 

Of course only one out of these three is actually sporting said red decal so its not the best plan, but the reinforcement stud pauldrons aren't too common as I recall so it should work...I think. I also made assault, devastator and veteran squad markings in black as well. 

I ordered these chapter icons from grimfritter.com's ebay page. Check em out, they've got good stuff. 

Astral Claws aside, I have been working on some 15mm terrain for that project which this one sorta derailed, but you know me...I can't stay on any given project for too long before-SQUIRREL!!

So there ya have it, not much to say other than here I go...and go, and go, and g...

15mm Datasheet WIP

o/

As another nightmare of a month grinds its way forward, I've had little time for painting or playing. Prettymuch the only thing I've been able to work on (mainly on lunch breaks and the rare down time at work) has been adapting more datasheets for 15mm units as a continuation of my last post. Anyways, here they are, and let me know what ya think. 

The first (and only) datasheet so far to have a mini that I painted on it (and I sold it...years ago, sigh...). Not sure If I'll buy another of these, but it was an expertly cast model and if this does take off it will be tempting to get another...

Rather than an addition to a player's army, this is more of a random 'environmental' effect.

I do have one of these minis, the infamous 'Taco' of Rogue Stars fame, however its not painted/photogenic. I got this pic from CMoN (giving it my vote of a '10'), and just removed the jetpack from the image. 

IG Veterans, the minis pictured are from Khurasan Miniatures and on my to get eventually list. 

These minis come from Clear Horizon Miniatures, a company I'd totally forgotten about until Waaargh Pug mentioned them in a comment on my last pos. Thanks buddy!

A Viper Mech, this sheet was made at the request of Hoss using a mini from another company I'd forgotten about: Rebel Minis (located right here in good ol' Tennessee).

****

Welp, that's it for this year. So I hope all of you folks have a merry Christmas and happy New Year!

15mm 40k

o/

We all know that nowadays I have a love/hate relationship with 40k. However 8th ed is an easy system to learn and readily available to most everyone. For awhile now I’ve wanted to try a 40k/kill team hybrid in 15mm (indeed, I’ve pondered this idea previously). 

Huzzah! These are FINALLY available!!

To start out (on the cheap) it’ll likely be Marines vs. Nids. On the Nids side I just need to pick up a single gargoyle to use as a flying Hive Tyrant, I have a genestealer which will fill in as a Carnifex, and I have 18 old Termagants which will work as Tyranid warriors. 

(no idea why the above paragraph won't justify like the rest...)

Primaris LTs.

For the marines I preordered a 32 man platoon of Khurasan's new earth doom reserves minis which I'll use as primaris marines in terms of stats. I want to ditch 40k's backstory/aesthetic/universe entirely and we can easily make up our own instead. I'm just calling them primaris here for familiarity's sake. 

Basically will just be using 40k rules with KT's initiative and the you go-I go, on a per unit/character basis in lieu of an individual model as per the KT rules (essentially), rather than the 40k one side annihilates the other turn method.  We can also leave out with bits we don't like (CPs and CP farming, the endless, mostly situational stratagems that slow game play to a crawl, oh and those fucking maelstrom cards that turn strategy into the luck of the draw would be my top picks for omission!). 

Okay wait-I'm getting ahead of myself. We're just trying to go super basic at the outset, to see if this is viable and/or if anyone is really interested (so far my buddies Scott and Hoss are). I have PDFs of all of the codexes and will pare them down to just what is needed. Am wanting to see if this works w/o having to write a whole new game. 

Intercessors Colonial Marines.

As for miniatures…if you really wanted the 40k aesthetic, Vanguard minis makes 15mm Orks, Marines and IG, Onslaught minis makes 15mm IG, SoBs, Chaos, Squats, Dark Eldar, and a sorta Kroot faction. The Ion Age has these space...umm...frogs? that ought to work well as Tau...maybe, as well as Space marines (male and female) of their own. And of course Zombiesmith makes HORDES of 15mm Quar which are easy analogs for the Imperial Guard (as aliens), or rather they did and will soon do so again. Currently they are retooling/resculpting the entire line. 

The above is just a small sampling though as there are TONS of 15mm mini gaming manufacturers/retailers out there!

Regardless, this endeavor will be MUCH CHEAPER than actual 40k though as the platoon I ordered clocked in @ $34, which is the price of just ONE fucking character model for 40k these days! Seriously, WTF?

A Rhino Hippo with a turret slapped on top at the
expense of 2 troops carried, kinda like real life AFVs

Conveniently, 40k points are structured so that you have to buy the weapons for the basic tank hull/trooper allowing you to essentially build the tanks and infantry with whatever you want, and ignoring the 40k aesthetic altogether. 

As you can see, my 'datasheets' just a few examples, with all of the rules*, points, and stats coming from the Space Marine codex. 

*Okay, I made up the Amphibious rule because tanks plowing thru water like its not even there is dumb. I also shortened the walking speed because these guys are little!