Black Templars

I need to raise some cash to fund new IG and Renegade armies so I am ruthlessly digging out armies that I do not use and I am putting them up for auction on eBay. Retired civil servants are not so well off as the papers would have you believe. There is also the issue of storage space. We intend to move to a smaller house now that the birds have flown the nest.

These are a few pics.

Rebased Renegade Ogryns

I have tried out Drunken Samuris advice to darken my bases. I have to say that I am converted.
Have a look at these with a dark brown base, dry brushed in graveyard earth, and decorated with 'rocks'.

Keep the comments coming in guys! All advice greatly received.


John

Vrak Renegade Ogryns

I am always a little disappointed by close up pictures of my figure models. I use an 'impressionist' style of painting which is designed to make the miniatures look good as a unit on the wargame table. The unrelenting eye of a Nikon macro lens tends to make them look a mess, like observing an impressionist painting from two feet away.

The Heavy Metal painting technique is designed for photography. Funnily enough these models never look to me so good on the table top. Too much detail and too many colours make them look 'toylike'. It is just a personal taste thing. I could not paint to Heavy Metal standard anyway so I suppose the popint is of academin interest - but I am a retired academic.

I am also mildly colour blind. I am the guy who painted the Pink Tyrannids from the Lambshead Nebula in the last Cyphus Caine novel. I thought they were Purple!

I am very sensitive to shade and tone, however, so I suspect that also affects my painting.


John

Etched Brass

My Forge World Etched Brass order arrived and I have been fitting then to my Blood Pact vehicles.

I have never used these before so I was at a bit of a loss how to deal with them.

I cut them out and fixed them securely to the models. Then I coated them in Sepia wash and gave them 24 hours to thoroughly dry.

I brushed them hard with a pan scourer and polished the revealed metal with a rotacraft polisher.

I am quite pleased with the outcome.

John

First battle with new IG codex

I played Shaun on our usual Sunday game. We both used the new IG Codex. It was clear that an IG army has a quite different feel now. It is much more dangerous. I used a platoon, two veteran squads, a command squad with commissar and primaris psycher, two squadrons of mixed Leman Russ tanks and a basic Valkyrie. I am in the process of building a new army to ake advantage of the new rules (many still unpainted). Shaun used a 4th edition army.

I used mobility to turn Shaun's left flank and roll up his line. Shaun had his usual appalling luck with dice but, even so, the new army outperformed the old one. The Valkyrie caused havoc. Exterminators are vicious anti-infantry machines. The Vanquisher is a useful tank hunter. Shaun's armoured Sentinels with lascannons turned out to be series bits of kit.

The real stars were the tooled up command squads. They get units stuck in and they are lethal combat squads. Command squads are so, so important.

Imperial Guard Thoughts

I have been going through the IG Codex looking at the fine print. Ye Gods! It is riddled with nasty little tings. Leman Russ have a Lumbering rule. The can fire their turret weapon and another if the move up to 6", even if the turret weapon is ordnance.

The Command Orders allow squads reroll misses or to fire an extra shot. You can combine squads into a single large horde and then give a Command Order.

Add in then Advisor Options and you have a Killer Codex.

John

Death Strike Missile Launcher

GW have no intention of making this in a plastic kit so I judged it time for a little kitbashing. The hull is a Basilisk and the rocket a Revell V2.

The Death Strike Missile is of limited value in game turns but it looks fun so it is in my rejigged Jermanian Armoured Regiment.

I hate painting things white but Verner Von Braun liked white ones.

Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun
A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown
"Ha, Nazi schmazi," says Wernher von Braun


Don't say that he's hypocritical
Say rather that he's apolitical
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun

Some have harsh words for this man of renown
But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun

You too may be a big hero
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero
"In German oder English I know how to count down
Und I'm learning Chinese," says Wernher von Braun

ARTIST: Tom Lehrer
TITLE: Wernher Von Braun

John