Lurker

“Clothes of brass and hair of brown, Seldom needs to breathe. Don't need no wings to fly. Oh a heart of stone and a fear of fire and water. Who am I?”

Internet bragging points to anyone who can identify the link between the post title and the quote above.

Sorry, where was I?  Ah yes, I painted a Tyranid Lictor.

Hilariously, I found an older post where I said I wouldn’t be doing a whole Tyranid army.  That aged well 😂

Same techniques as all my other tyranids, so I will say no more on that.  This was a second and model in finecast though, so I'll blame that for any rough edges.

I was also looking through the Advanced Space Crusade rulebook the other day and wondered if this might be one of the earliest representations of a Lictor (before there was a model).

Space Hulk Mission 3: Rescue

Alternatively, ‘that darn Cat’.

Although Tuesday Space Hulk has now become a thing at work, I'm still occasionally working through the missions solo.

Up next, mission three - 'Rescue'.  Two terminator squads entering at either end of the board - one must carry the Cybernetically Altered Task Unit to the other end and exit the board.

As the marines were successful in the last game, they started out with the reward that they could use a CP once in the game to prevent the genestealers being reinforced (I'll assume they are able to counterattack somewhere or block off a bulkhead).

nice choke point right in the middle...

"Move out!" (the C.A.T. is centre of the left hand column)

CAT in their possession. Squad Adorn moved off as rapidly as possible, well aware that they had limited time, pushing up two parallel corridors.

Meanwhile, squad Giovan headed in to link up, peeling off their heavy flamer and a storm bolter armed terminator to hold the exit point.

Squad Adorn's Sergeant was the first to engage the 'stealers, taking out a group on the squad's left flank in a brutal close melee, before backing off and letting his own squad's flamer take up the role of defending their rear.  the two marines on the right risked a rush ahead to take the centre ground - a risk that paid off when the nearest contact proved to be nothing but an error on the Auspex.

"Contact!"

"Nothing there, just a false alarm..."

The heavy flamers did the heavy lifting, keeping the exit route clear by roasting any alien that dared enter at that spawn point, while squad Adorn's flamer gradually retreated behind a solid wall of flame that protected the squad's rear. 

"Burn, xenos scum!"

Can you smell burning?

While aliens burned at either end of the board, the rest of squad Giovan fought through the encroaching genestealers in that awkward chokepoint to link up the two squads and provide safe passage for the C.A.T.

"Push through brothers!"

This was the hairiest moment for the marines, and this was the moment they decided to call in to command to intervene. The techmarines succeeded in closing off some nearby bulkheads to slow the flow of genestealers, buying a moment for the two squads to regroup and for the CAT carrying terminator to finally link up with squad Giovan.

With the two squads finally linked up, but the flamers starting to run low on prometheum, (and a fortunate high CP roll), the marine carrying the cat was able to pass through Squad Giovan's perimeter and off the board without a single terminator lost.

I just had to be curious didn’t I...  With the CAT safe, but the genestealers pushing in hard on the flanks, I decided to play on to see how many marines would make it safely off the board (adding no more genestealer reinforcements from this point.  Typically, squad Adorno’s Sergeant was lost in a heroic rearguard action where he gunned down four of the genestealers facing him before his gun jammed and he fell under a mass of teeth and claws.  A terminator from squad Giovan then fell in similar circumstances near the exit point, but was swiftly avenged as the squad’s heavy flamer roasted the offending creatures to cinders.  And with that, there were no more aliens and it was all over.

"Avenge me, brothers!" 

Sergeant Adorn holds off the encroaching genestealers as long as he can

A further marine victory.  The flamers were an absolute star this mission (a trick I have learnt from playing against Tony on Tuesday lunchtimes).

In terms of the benefit for the next turn, I'm going to say that the knowledge from the CAT about the Hulk's layout will allow the marines to arrive early to the next mission and have a turn before the genestealer reinforcements turn up.

Imperial Army Command

 Some more Rogue Trader era Imperial Army minis.  A Captain, lieutenant, medic and sanctioned Psyker join the ranks.

The original lasguns have been shortened.  The lieutenant has the original plastic arms - the rest have combinations from Wargames Atlantic, Warhammer Empire Militia, and the Frostgrave soldiers sprue.

Gosh he’s a big chap!

 I blame Matt of the Mottblog (it’s usually his fault somehow).  He was the one who pointed out that my Tyranid/genestealer painting frenzy had given me about enough for a 1000pt force under 40k second edition.  All I needed was a Hive Tyrant…. Is that eBay I hear calling?

Offer accepted Sunday, arrived Thursday, base coat and wash Friday (yes, I should have stripped the previous paint but couldn’t be ar***d), details Saturday and Sunday.

“He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”

Having settled on a technique that is quick, easy and effective, I’ve gone from being intimidated by Tyranid models to really rather enjoying them.

What next? Lictor? Carnifex? Zoanthrope?

Gribbly Aliens

With the Bretonnian Damsel having broken my painting drought, I’ve got down to work.  First up, completing all the genestealers from my copy of Space Hulk (joining the terminators a did relatively recently), and the rest of the hormagaunts I’ve had for years.

A quick job for both using sprays, washes and contrast paints.

Oh, so many genestealers!  I couldn’t do a Tyranid army, it would be too painful a painting exercise! [update, I did a Tyranid army...]

And whoever designed the hormagaunts back in the day did not think about balancing them!

Colonel Schaeffer’s Last Chancers

In my previous post I mentioned I was spending some time completing unfinished projects.  This is another one.

Around two decades ago I picked up the set of Colonel Schaefer’s Last Chancers (probably from the Derby GW store on Sadler Gate).  I don’t even recall why, I knew nothing of their background (other than the obvious Dirt Dozen theme) - I think I just liked the models.  I painted a few at the time, but never finished them.  Now I thought it was time I got around to it.  

Colonel Schaeffer, Demolition Man, and Hero

Scope, Brains, and Ox

Rocket Girl, Fingers and Grease Monkey

Shiv, Warrior Woman and Animal

If you can, have fun guessing which ones were done recently, and which are now roughly twenty years old.

Random SF Stuff

Just painting random odds and ends the last few weeks - stuff that’s been laying around too long waiting for paint.  Particularly models from almost complete projects I started years ago.

Copplestone Neo Sov banner bearer.  Still needs a banner.  Last of the Neo Sov models I have, all the others were painted years ago.

Similar issue.  Painted some metal GW Cadians almost twenty years ago, but had one left over.  Quite fun trying to replicate a decades old paint job, with different colour ranges.  Chap on the left is new, one on the right is old.  Not bad, new one’s a bit darker, possibly because I used a black rather than white undercoat.  I now have enough of this range to field a 40k 2nd edition fully ‘legal’ platoon.

Some Scavenger/gang types.  Having fun with leftover parts I had laying around, including sprues from magazine freebies.  Bodies are Frostgrave Soldiers kit, with other parts mainly from Wargames Atlantic and Konflict 47 Fireflies.  The BFG was painted with a battered look, to hint at something that might have started life as mining equipment.  Guy on the right is fielding a cut down BAR.

Space Hulk second edition - missions 1 & 2

 Having painted up the terminators from 2nd edition Space Hulk, it would be rude not to use them.  I found a set of rules online to simulate the genestealer’s turn, and off I went.

Mission 1 - Suicide Mission

As the introductory mission it’s not quite as hard as the name suggests.  You only get one squad of marines, but the map is small and the bad guys only get one blip per turn as reinforcements.

This first mission saw the marines having to destroy the controls for the escape pods, to avoid any contamination of the planet below.  

Despite some appalling rolls on the ‘Jam’ dice, they successfully completed the mission with only one casualty (as a result of one of those Jammed Storm Bolters), partly due to some good command point rolls early in the game that got them moving.

As a reward for success, I decided the marines would get +1 to their command point rolls next turn.

Mission 2 - Exterminate

Simple.  Hold position and kill 30 genestealers.  

This mission does somewhat favour the marines if careful with placement, and opening doors to create clear lanes of fire, so no genestealers can reach a marine in a single move.  That said, the pressure builds up as the game goes on and, once the marines start taking casualties, it can get hairy real fast.

The sergeant and flamer formed a reserve, while the other three covered the perimeter.

The Marine’s dice rolls were on fire, with very few jams this time and some excellent command point rolls (even without the bonus).

The result was a win with no losses.  I played through to the end of turn in which the marines got kill number 30, and the Terminators ended up with a final tally of 32 kills, including one very lucky close combat kill in the very last turn!

Pressure builds up on the right flank, but it’ll all work out…

The sergeant and flamer didn’t fire a shot, but Terminator of the match went to the marine on the left flank.  Who racked up a full 15 kills.

Man of the match; ‘Ace Rimmer, what a guy…’

The reward this time will be that the Terminators can use a command point once in the next mission to stop the genestealers receiving reinforcements for a single turn.

On reflection I think the rules I’m using for the genestealers are making them too cautious.  I’m going to tweak that to make them more aggressive.  I’ll put it down to them initially being sluggish from cryo.

Thudd Gun and Servitor

Sticking with the Rogue Trader theme, here’s some work updating the squat crewman from my old Thudd Gun, and a Bob Olley sculpted servitor.

The skin on the servitor was made deliberately pale and given some pink and purple washes for a nice, unhealthy look!

The Thudd Gun hasn’t had any work.  However I kind of like the battered look it has gained over the years.  I may just tidy up the control unit on the base, but I’m open to thoughts.