More Vehicles

I've got a lot of old retro Space Marine vehicles lying around the place now, all of which I'm planning on restoring and repainting, mainly for my retro Crimson Fists marines.

My retro Crimson Fists marines!

Along with the Rhino that's currently soaking in Dettol, I also have this second Rhino that I picked up on evilbay for about a fiver:

 I've managed to dismantle it into it's main components, mostly because it wasn't put together quite right and had large gaps between the hull and the track modules.

This original Predator is one I bought from GW myself, back in the mid 90s. I painted it to go with a small contingent of White Scars marines I had at the time. It's quite a neat paintjob, but I always regretted going with White Scars, as my vehicles always looked unfinished, since I knew nothing of washes or weathering back then.

My Predator tank

 Finally, we have this Dreadnaught. It's not a Rogue Trader dread, but it is the first of the new style of dreads they made for space marine forces (when 2nd edition 40k was released). As such, this beast is solid metal!

 

A solid metal dreadnaught!

Eventually, all of these vehicles will be repainted in the colours of the Crimson Fists, giving the marines some much needed heavy support.

Dettol-ing a Rhino.

The Rhino I bought at Hammerhead earlier this year has been soaking in Dettol in the garage.

Today I made a start with scrubbing the paint off.

The Rhino soaking in Dettol:

What I managed to scrub off:

 So now it's back in the Dettol for another few days! I guess there was more layers of paint on that thing than I first thought...

Hammerhead 2013

Today myself, my girlfriend, my mate Steve and his daughter Alice all braved the conditions and ventured up to Newark to attend HAMMERHEAD 2013! The weather was overcast grey and raining a lot (perfect wargames convention weather) but we got there in good time and were among the first inside the venue.

Kelham Hall, Newark

We arrived and went straight to the snack bar for a bacon butty and a cup of tea! There was a lot of participation games on, some recognisable, others obscure, and some plain strange. Of course, the traders and the bring-and-buy were the main attractions for us, and although I'd hoped for some certain items (P3 paints and old White Dwarfs mainly) I still managed to acquire the following:

Lets break this down shall we:
First we have four blisters of furniture from Ainsty Castings. I have plans for this little lot!

Next we have some scenic items from Zinge Industries. Ladders and those little wheel lock things you get on hatch doors and steam pipes are really hard to scratch build, so I happily paid some moneys to get some. I've already used one ladder on the latest piece of Necromunda terrain I've been building.

Then there's these little blast and fire markers from Litko. I've been meaning to buy some of these for years. I don't quite know what I'm going to use them for yet, but I'm sure they'll come in handy at some point.

Moving on, there's a varying selection of old, battered and frankly random second hand models that I found on various stalls and the bring-and-buy (which actually had some stuff I wanted to buy this year!).
There's a blister of Escher gangers to add to the gang box I bought last week, there's some Rogue Trader plastic Space Orks with a shit-ton of spare arms and weapons, and another bag of Ork weapons. There was also a few old lead models which are already in the Dettol jar!

Finally, there's this gem. I found it at the bring-and-buy, just as I'd passed over about five other modern Rhinos. It's got a lot of junk on it, but once it's Dettol'd and refurbished, it'll be a great transport for my retro Crimson Fists marines!

All in all, a good day!

Rogue Trader Missions - Retrieval

The next RT mission I hope to run:

Retrieval - Mission Overview:

"Contact with Imperial Research Outpost P5-GLB, on the forest moon of Bunndor has been lost for reasons unknown. Forces from two factions have detected their distress signal and have been dispatched to investigate. Each has been instructed to retrieve anything worth studying and report back. It is unknown what went wrong, whether the outpost’s staff are still alive, or if hostile forces are involved. The planet is known to harbour a few dangerous life forms, but the outpost’s defences were thought to be sufficient..."

40k Rogue Trader: Raid on Fuel Station Zeta-6

This was the first game of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader ever run at Dreamdealers, I intend to run many more of them, when I can get the minis painted! The mission is fairly straightforward, I kept it simple for the first game, as I wanted to make sure I got the rules right! We tried it twice, and although the marines won both times, they were still close games and the marines took a lot of casualties along the way (T3 and a 4+ power armour save in RT!).

Mission Overview:
The rebel forces on the backwater Imperial planet of Lunburg III have taken control of most of the world’s settlements and key installations in less than a year. Although not a particularly populous or important planet, Lunburg III is an agricultural world and thus a vital source of food and other resources like timber and water needed by nearby systems. Imperial forces have been slow to respond, but Space Marines of the Crimson Fists have finally arrived in force to assist the beleaguered Imperial troops in retaking the world. First, the rebels must be deprived of fuel and supplies, so space marine strike teams have dropped in all over the planet with the intention of taking control of or destroying the various supply dumps and fuel depots that are scattered around the hinterlands of the world’s small and only landmass.

Fuel Station Zeta-6, and surrounding hinterlands.

The Space Marines, strike team Dagger 2-8, has been dropped in under cover of darkness two klicks from Fuel Station Zeta-6. The station itself is a small fenced compound with various fuel tanks and stacks of drums full of fuel. Because significant rebel forces are active in the area (these are likely to respond quickly when they hear the fuel station coming under attack), it would be impossible to hold if it was captured, and it’s so far behind enemy lines, the remaining planetary defence forces couldn’t make use of the supplies in any case. Therefore it has been decided that destruction is the only course of action available. Orbital Energy scans revealed that the tanks are protected by an energy field, so long range weaponry won’t work. This, coupled with the fact that the fleet can’t get close enough to destroy them from orbit because of the rebel controlled planetary defence lasers, means that the strike team will have to assault the station, move in past the power field and blow the tanks with explosives.

The fuel station itself, guarded by rebel patrols.

The Space Marines:
• Each marine has a bolt pistol, knife, frag grenades and power armour (4+ save!).
• 9 marines have boltguns.
• 1 marine has a Plasma Gun.
• 1 marine has a Flamer.
• Sergeant Bosco (a space marine Hero) also carries a Chainsword and replaces Bolt Pistol with a Plasma Pistol.
• 2 demolition charges (carried by Bolter armed marines).

The Rebel Militia:
• 12 men (in 3 units of 4 men) all with Knives, Autoguns and Flak Armour.
• Commander Dhecker (human Hero) with Knife, Autogun and Flak Armour.
• Rebel reinforcements - one unit of 5 militia enters a random point on a board edge at the start of each rebel turn. 
 

Crimson Fist marines advance on the compound, one marine is hit and goes down!...

 Rebel militia rush to defend the sandbagged emplacement from the advancing space marines.

Rebel troops take up firing positions on the top of the fuel tanks.

A squad of marines advances past an overgrown ruin.

Rebels decide (perhaps foolishly) to counter-attack, and advance on the marines.

Rebel reinforcements appear and exchange shots with the marines. Both sides suffer casualties on the open ground.

The marines bravely continue to advance in the face of rebel gunfire, and several are killed. Remember, in RT, space marines are only toughness 3 and power armour only grants a 4+ armour save, which is further reduced to a 5+ since Autoguns have a -1 save modifier!

They don't have it all their own way though, as all the rebels on the walkway are blasted by highly accurate plasma gun fire! (plasma guns (and pistols) in RT are "follow fire" weapons, as long as you keep hitting and causing wounds, you can keep taking additional shots at other targets within 2" of the last one).

Despite being the only survivor of his squad, a lone marine continues to advance on the rebel compound.

Sergeant Bosco and his remaining men reach the fence, and chuck their demolition charge into the compound! Rebel Commander Dhecker looks on in horror from behind his barricade!

Despite Commander Dhecker's attempt to reach the demo charge and throw it clear, it explodes and wins the game for the Crimson Fists! (and leaves nothing of Dhecker but a pair of smoking boots). 

All in all, a great first game of Rogue Trader! I'm planning further games involving Imperial Army troopers, the marines of course, a band of Space Ork raiders, and undesirable cult and even some mystery aliens!

On The Workbench

Well with a full time job and two cats to look after, time is always short for hobby related stuff (thank Tzeentch I don't have any kids yet...). No battle report just yet (that'll take a while to write), so just a quick update on what is (amongst a crap-ton of other stuff) currently on my workbench (desk).

Something I've just completed (sort of):

 These guys are the first five of a squad of ten Imperial Army troopers! Yes that's right, 'Army'. In 40k Rogue Trader they weren't yet Imperial Guard, they were army. They'll hopefully be used in some retro games of RT at some point, I have a couple of scenarios written already that involve them, some space marines, and some mystery aliens!

Next up:

Some mystery aliens! I know what they are, but can anyone else recognise the game these guys are from? Although the game was shit, these aliens are great looking models and make excellent 'generic' aliens, when you need something other than Orks or Eldar. I also quite like the hex bases they came with.

Finally:

New Necromunda terrain! It'll be some sort of fuel storage tank or something. I need to find a few doodads to add on to it so it doesn't look too plain once it's painted.

Fiends and Zoats

Right, it's about time I wrote some sort of new post or something, otherwise this blogging malarkey is going to grind to a halt before it's even started!

This is the cast I made of a model I'm very lucky to already own. I don't know when or where I bought it, but I've had it for ages. It is a Warhammer Fantasy Zoat. Rather than just paint up the one I have, I decided to make a mould of it and paint the cast ones. That way (as with everything I've moulded) I can have as many as I want! Without having to pay the extortionate evilbay prices (fuck you ebay!). This is something I intend to do with a lot of the vintage models I have (and will buy in the future), such as my classic 80s Chaos Warriors. I want to be able to have some great retro games without having to line the pockets of the ebay ripoff mechants!

Next up is a Fiend of Slaanesh. Unfortunately it's not the very first incarnation of the Fiend (I hope to acquire of those one day), I think it's from 4th or 5th edition Warhammer parhaps? I don't know. Either way it's a nice model and I moulded and cast it so I can have as many as I want for any Realms of Chaos games I might try to run.

And for the interested, this is what those models look like before they're assembled and painted. Even though the models above were the best casts I'd made, they still had some air bubbles here and there. Bit it wasn't much trouble to fill these in with a bit of green stuff. Not a too dissimilar process you might undertake to most other miniatures one might buy these days!

I should point out of course, that this moulding and casting is something that I do because these models are old, rare and not in production any more. I wouldn't, and I don't recommend, that anyone go casting up figures that are still readily available from the original manufacturers. Although it's not illegal to do so (as long as you don't try and sell them to anyone, then it is very much illegal!), it doesn't do the hobby any good, as these companies need to make money. They have a right to make a living just like everyone else (except the evilbay extortionists...). Having said that, casting up these vintage models is a great way to get lots of them for that retro army you've always wanted!

Next up, a battle report I think!