Zomtober 2019 (Week 4 - Final Week)

Last week of Zomtober 2019! And look at me, i actually met the deadline (albeit a bit late in the day).

I give you Jennifer,  survivor of the apocalypse.  When the dead rose,  she found solace in her meth cooking hide to step up and crush zombie-brain.

I believe she's a sculpt from the Across the Dead Earth range.  Fun sculpt too.

O and i got started on a trio of mastiffs.

Zomtober 2019 (Week 3)

"Wait, what happened to Zomtober 2019 Week 2 Dai?"

Well, life was rather fun, too fun, and then there was my 43rd birthday and so... yeah. Week 2 ended up being a bust.

But even so, here's week 3's offering,  a much rather tardy birthday present for my mate John who turned 40 last December.

Astute readers might recognise this mini as the infamous Lemmy Kilmister, sadly deceased front man of the metal band, Motorhead. John is a Lemmy nut so when i saw this zombie-survivor version of the musician, i knew i had to buy one and  paint it up for John.

Next week's Zomtober entry will be on time and.  Promise.

Zomtober 2019 (Week 1)

The first week of Zomtober and already I'm late posting, goodness... Well, things on the personal level have been super busy so that's my excuse. Busy "good" too so no complaints at all.

But here we are, week 1's offerings are a meagre pair of Zeds, Fat Leroy Brown and Deborah. Leroy was busy getting a sponge bath in hospital after going under the knife for a spleen removal when suddenly zeds stormed his room, ate the nurse and chowed down on his brain some. Not eating all of it, he resurrected and now patrols the hospital hallways in the hopes of finding that nice nurse again. Deborah had just had a successful trip at the Outlets, even finding a perfect deal on a Kate Spade purse when a crawler  slipped into the store and took a chunk out of her calf. Next thing she new, two more showed up and finished the job so now she has to drag her poor footless self all over the place. (But at least she kept hold of her Outlets haul.)

Apologies for the size of the pictures, i wasnt able edit them on my phone as even after 3 years, its still a mystery to me.

8 Year Blog Anniversary and the Start of Zomtober 2019!

A short post just to write about another blog anniversary, my 8th. Not bad. This year has been a little slow where posting and hobby in general are concerned, so my post count this year has been a bit rubbish. I'm hoping that year 9 of this little place of hobbying will offer more for you dear readers to enjoy.

During this 8th year of this blog, my personal life has changed drastically, I've moved out of the house my ex and I purchased together, seen my divorce from her go through, met someone new and now find myself engaged to marry to my lovely lady as of last month. Crazy times on  a personal level, but I've been enjoying the ride. :)

I still have lots of projects on-going and I plan to try to apply more effort in getting some of them finished by year's end. Between my multiple WW2 armies that require my attention, my Warhammer 40'000 Genestealer Cult, the Burrows and Badgers warbands and now Zomtober 2019 to try to work toward I can see myself potentially being busy these next few months. Hope my hobby mojo can keep up!

I've played no games since my last post and whilst I've done very little work at my hobby desk I do have some things in the pipeline that I plan to show off.

Many thanks as ever go out to my regular readers and commentors who without you lot, I'd have left this blog by the wayside years ago. I appreciate each and every one of you who take the time out to stop by and even comment on my meagre offerings. Please keep it up and I'll try to post more for your efforts.

Cheers and here's to year 9 of this blog!

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 3 - more WIPs)

Just a quickie. Managed to get two squads of Brood Brothers assembled. These are the  Imperial Army types who have fallen under the Genestealer Patriarch's influence and so are now ready to rise up and take up arms against their former Imperium masters.

First squad is made of a mix of figs that I've had in my collection for years. I wanted to show these off as though they are the mix of random regular citizens and others that might fall under the Genestealer influence. From Imperium factory workers, to underhive gangers to Actual Imperial army deserters and a Bounty Hunter to lead them!

Second squad some might recognise as some old 80's plastic Imperial Gaurd with some modern GW Genestealer Cult additions (heads, pouches, etc) and also the odd pair of 3rd party resin arms here and there. I have a 2nd squad of these to assemble still.

And that's all for the Chaos Genestealer Cult for the now. Next I plan to finish getting the Brood Brothers assembled and ready for priming, then on to the Kelemorph, a regular Hero to these crazy gene-scum!

Bullocks (Part 2 - Done!)

Couple posts ago I showed of an old minotaur mini kindly donated to me by Iain over at caveadsum1471 blog. Well, here's his pal. Bit more of a shaven look, which is fine for me and I think they look like a great pair. Speaking of pairs, he also got some balls added to match his friend. Both are impressive and were they not so ugly and smelly, I'm sure they'd be a hit down the local bovine bar.

The contrast is pretty crazy in these pics but he was another quick'n'dirty paint job and I like the mini very much. THANKS IAIN!

Think these two will feature in lots of future roleplay sessions where I GM and also in an old school Chaos warband I am putting together.

Next up, more Chaos Genestealer Cult!

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 2 - WIP)

A quick post to log some work in progress on my Chaos Genestealer Cult. Started cleaning up and assembling a couple Brood Brother Infantry squads and my army's commander, a fearsome Genestealer Patriarch and it's cute familiars.

Brood Brothers are supposed to represent military units that have been subverted to the Cult's cause, adding their military training to the armed might of the Cult. The Army list allows one to take basic infantry, Heavy Weapons teams and a few of the vehicle choices that the Astra Militarum Imperial Guard army book allows for regular Guard forces (Leman Russ tank, Sentinal walkers, Chimera APC's, etc.). Seeing as my Cult represents a more militaristic style organisation, I have 3 infantry squads, 3 weapons teams and 3 Chimera APC's in my initial army list.

The first Brood Brothers Infantry Squad in my army is made up of a ragtag mix of Planetary Defense Force, Guardsmen who've deserted from their respective regiments and civilian underhive dwellers. These minis range from 1980's through to early 2000's.

Just a quick pic so quality and composition is a bit rubbish. I like to paint arms separately as I can't stand trying to get behind them (And typically feck up a paint job) if they are pre-attached.

The second Brood Brothers Infantry Squad is made up from the original GW Imperial Guard plastic kit that I somehow still had in my unpainted mountain. (The 3rd will be as well.) I've added Genestealer Cult heads and accessories to add a little extra character to them. (They'll get a similar addition of Khorne markings though these will be painted on like the 1980's original Chaos Cult.) I've also used some 3rd party resin arms for these to add a little more variety and also because I'm not sure I have enough of the original kit's plastic arms!

Still some more arms to sort out on this lot. No Heavy Weapons in these squads either, just a flamer each. I plan to drive them up in the Chimera APC transports (Those will be a post for the near future.) and unload them to hose down their enemies t close range. They'll probably get chewed up pretty badly in return, but I like the idea of these lads being very disposable in any case. 

Lastly for this post is the Patriarch himself. (Herself? Itself? Who knows...?) This is the one of two original sculpts that were made for this character back in the late 80's (I think sculpted by Bob Olley?). The other was a seated version which made for a lovely vignette, but not great for gaming. This fellow is quite a bit smaller than the current plastic version, but I like him enough. To make him look a little more imposing and even a tad daemonic, I added some shoulderpads from the Purestrain Genestealer kit which I think add enough.

I think he originally came with 3 little familiars (Like psychic manifestations of it's intelligence or something) but one was lost along the decades since.  

As with the minis shown in my last post, I plan to base all of these en masse once I've assembled everything and then I'll prime those that require it so I can get to painting. After seeing how they work, I've been interested in trying out those new GW Contrast paints to see if I can get the rank and file troops done quicker. But more on that at a later date.

Cheers

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 1 - the beginning)

Picture this: it’s 1990. Wee Dai, the 14-year-old lad has been collecting Games Workshop’s monthly publication White Dwarf magazine for a bit now and casts his eyes across a brand new army that he never conceived could exist – The Genestealer Cult. Mesmerised is a small way to put it, though I’d already committed to both my first 40K love (My sorely missed and now completely currently unloved by GW) Squat army and my Nurgle obsession, so always planned to make a Cult army in the future, yet never did. The army lists (There were two, regular Cult and Chaos Cult) ended up in the 2^nd Rogue Trader expansion, Compilation.

Fast forward 20-something years and GW has really gone and fleshed out the whole idea of what the Genestealer Cult is and their model range is phenomenal. Of course I was suckered in by firstly picking up Warhammer 40K: Kill Team core set which included some of the tasty new Genestealer Cult sculpts. This in turn got my creative juices flowing and so my mind when back to that 14-year-old dream of starting my own Chaos Cult, just like in the White Dwarf. Now, the current Codex doesn’t allow for Chaos versions of a Genestealer Cult, but rules and revamped fluff be damned, I’m doing it anyhow cos they’re MY models.

The original Chaos Cult as featured in White Dwarf that got this all started. I'm planning to stay true to the same colour scheme as best as I can where it's practical. No Limo's though as I'm trying to do this project on the cheap, but there WILL be some transport options for a more modern take.

Close ups of some of the Aulde Cult. There are direct translations to the new entries int he current codex. Sadly though, those cool Beastmen and the Rogue Psyker aren't going to be featured.

So here’s the start of my take on the Chaos Genestealer Cult. It’ll loosely be based off this list from the Compendium:

As you can see there's not a tonne of entries to have to work toward and some of it will need to be switched out for figures I own in my existing collection cos like I said, I'm not in the position to spend out on stuff right now (Unless I can do so on some cheeky Ebay auction or other). The one thing I DO plan to buy are a box of those new plastic Flesh Hounds, but they'll just be added to a unit of Purestrain Genestealers using the same stats for sake of ease. I'm not about to play in tournaments with this army, it's just a "for fun" project that will be used in a campaign a friend and I are planning for next year.

The overall look of the force is also inspired by the art in the old Warhammer 40K Compendium, this image especially grabbed my attention as a lad, just as it does now. Evocative of what horror the Cult and especially a Chaos Cult can bring to any battlefield!

Looks like utter bloody pandemonium eh? That's how like my Chaos. :)

You have seen in my last post, the first two entries of my list, my Magos and the army's Standard Bearer, the Acolyte Iconward - these two are the inspirational figureheads of the Cult. The Magos is a powerful Psyker and the Iconward buffs nearby units greatly.

Next up I assembled a small 5-man unit of Acolyte Hybrids, 4 armed with hand flamers and the last with a Heavy Rock Saw. Coming in from ambush, this small squad will pack a punch and should be able to deal with most light to medium targets with ease. These will represent the 1st and 2nd Generation Hybrids in my force.

Next up is another venerable leader, my Primus. Where the Magos is a mistress of intrigue and manipulation, the Primus is the martial mastermind behind the Cult. Whilst the official sculpt for the Primus is by no means a bad sculpt, I already had a plan for making my own once GW released their special Imperial Guard character, Severina Raine. I wanted my army to have a martial background (More appropriate for worshipers of Khorne I think.) so felt a Primus who was a former Imperial Guard Commissar sounded way cooler!

The finished model is basically just Raine with Khorne trophy poles, a Bloodletter (Lesser Daemon) sword in place of her regular saber and a Hybrid's arm carved up a bit and glued to the underside of her left arm. The rules show a Primus as wielding a Needle Pistol, but I really like the sculpt-standard bolt pistol she comes with so I'm leaving that alone. I think she makes for quite a cool and dynamic looking character and am excited to get paint on her over all the models I've previewed for this project thus far.

Still lots to go though as I have units of Brood Brother Infantry (Traitor Imperial Guard) and Weapon Teams, their transport vehicles, some Neophyte Hybrids (3rd and 4th Generation) and one more character to add.

Watch this space!

Bullocks (Part 1)

Some time back, a very lovely surprise parcel arrived at my home from a kind fellow blogger by the name of Iain. (His blog is very spiffy with some lovely armies and terrain to drool over HERE) Inside I found two old Marauder Miniatures Minotaur sculpts circa 1990 that I had owned when I was but a young teen and they were first released, but sadly since lost in the annals of time and girls and booze. Iain heard my sob story after he posted his own painted versions and sent me a spare pair of these lovely bovine warriors. Below, you'll see only one of the two painted up, the 2nd to be previewed at a later date.

Now I love these old cartoony style sculpts. Per usual, they have lots of character and this fellow looks like one heck of a thick-headed brute to me. My only complaint is that as part bull, wouldn't he be sporting a lovely pair of knackers betwixt his legs like real bulls do? Of course he should! So yeah, I green-stuffed some testicles on the bloke and made sure they were appropriately visible. (Added the same to his soon to be shown pal as well.)

Yet to name him, but if you can come up with something appropriate, fire away int he comments!

A simple paintjob to just get him off my desk. It'll do for Tabletop and Roleplay games!

Guess they don't make comfortable undies large enough to contain his manliness?

Also, I found myself entertaining a little insanity and decided that starting a new Warhammer 40K army would be a great idea! So, I assembled these two and now have the start of a burgeoning Genestealer Cult army! 

Wait, are these Xenos freaks sporting Icons dedicating them to the Chaos god, Khorne!? (More on this in a future post)

Stalingrad 2019

Been a bit since I've been able to get on and post this.

The aforementioned Stalingrad event turned out to be a lot of fun, though sadly due to it starting a tad late, we couldn't finish. (Due to Densmol's prior arrangements with his inlaws for that evening)

There were 12 players at Ogre's Den in Orange Vale including the Store owner Joe who had to play ringer due to an unexpected dropout on the day. I found myself set to attack the tank factory along with a very nice chap who'd played perhaps one game of Bolt Action previously and who's name completely evades me. Our opponents were Joe and another game fellow and so the Germans and Soviets descended upon the ruins of the factory and had it out.

All started off pretty well for the Soviets with good use of terrain to cover their advances, but after a lucky hit on my partner's tank left it a bunker with a rear facing main gun, and our troops staying clear of the actual factory floor due to the Germans having both a heavy mortar AND and medium mortar AND some off-table artillery ready to light up the first sucker who rolled into the factory things ended up in a stalemate. Not a foot was placed inside the objective until the last two turns where both sides swarmed the building in an effort to hope and pray that they would be the ones left standing when the smoke cleared.

Then Densmol  realised the time and the game was called and I think overall........ it was a draw across all three tables. Not very historic at all. Good times were had by all in attendance and I have to say our end of the extra long (16'x4') table was the most fun with me and Joe giving eachother masses amount of shit each turn and resulting roars of laughter eclipsing the games on the other parts of the board.

Pics taken were not as many as I'd remembered and I blame me for having far too much fun to remember half the time and they are all out of order cos after the first pic I really can't remember which went where, but I think they are good views regardless of a gorgeous table.

The Ogre's Den has since put on a D-Day event last month to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the largest Amphibious assault ever that seemed pretty damn good too, though you'll have to look pics up on their Facebook page as I couldn't go, sadly.

O and the KV-1 tank that I was furiously trying to get painted for the day? Well..... I failed. It got a whitewash and that was it. I aim to try to get it done before the end of the Summer though. We'll see.

The bride and groom

In my continuing effort to get enough painted for the Stalingrad event this Saturday at my LGS Ogre's Den in Orange Vale I got this pair finished up last night.

The bloke is the handler from the Warlord Games Soviet Bomb Dog blister and the gal next to him in the winter onesie is a lovely sculpt by Bad Squiddo Games. Both of these will help bolster up my SMG squads a little.

Next up is a large piece, a KV1 heavy tank. I'll actually be running it as a KV8 which is the version that sports a Flame Thrower as well as it's AT Gun. I figured that flame throwers would do a better job of shifting annoying Germans from behind rubble or on buildings. Wish me luck on getting this beast done on time!