6mm Skirmish!

Hi!

Last night I found myself hankering after some 6mm gaming so had a rummage through my collection and settled on Chaos versus Ultramarines!

As I didn't have much time to play, I settled on tiny forces with less than half a dozen stands a side to see how Song of Blasters works with small numbers and I fancied a skirmish.

 Ultramarines

The Ultramarines had a command squad, Rhino, two tactical bases and a Centurion.

 Khorne!

The Chaos side consisted of an aspiring champion, Rhino and two marine stands, one of which toted a missile launcher.

The game itself took place on a nameless agri world somewhere on the border and the scenario called for both sides to take control of two settlements in order to win.

The game started with both command units roaring forward in their Rhinos to take control of the larger hab block whilst the Ultramarine tactical squads cautiously approached the peasant quarters. The Khorne marines took command of the centre of the board on top of a hill where their missile launcher could hit pretty much anything they could see.

Turn two had the chaos troops gain the initiative and whilst the champion moved into heavy cover and took potshots at the command rhino, it's rival machine hurtled round the side of the settlement and fired on the Ultramarine command stand causing a wound and blast marker.

Shrugging off missile fire from the distant Khorne marines, the Ultramarine Centurion turned it's lascannon on the Chaos Rhino and succeeded in damaging it at long range.

Meanwhile the Khorne marines realising they weren't acting very in character by standing around shooting stuff, decided to charge down the hill and into the village and engage the Ultramarine tactical squads. The ensuing firefight and combat saw the Ultramarines driven back out of the village after losing a base to the rampaging berzerkers.

Seeing his followers spilling blood in glorious close combat, the Khorne champion bellowed a challenge and burst from the cover of the building and charged the Ultramarine command stand. Weathering a storm of fire, the two units exchanged blows eventually seeing the Imperial forces driven back out of the hab zone too leaving the battlefield under Khornate control.

Whee! What a fun little game! I'm quite pleased with how Song of Blasters is developing and I'm now eying up my unpainted Epic gubbins to see what I can add to my armies.

Hopefully I'll get chance to play another game or two in the coming days and have been putting together some game aids to help move things along a bit so watch this space!

All the best!

Vongola City State Ironclads Sighted

Hi!

I recently picked up some of Brigade Models' Land Ironclad miniatures as a trade and after stripping the paint, a bit of clean up and a fresh coat of paint, the first three are ready for action!

 Vongola Land Ironclad Formation

I must admit that I had initially thought of just adding them to my Dwarf force but as soon as I finished the clean up on them and picked one up to paint the black and yellow livery sprang to mind.

I am currently reading my way through the manga Hitman Reborn which features mafia families with magical powers and the Vongola clicked as the name of the city state that these somewhat sinister ironclads call home.

Needless to say, I'll need to somehow incorporate them into my setting but it shouldn't be too difficult to add a somewhat ruthless Human city state flexing its muscles to seize control of independant regions in the wartorn and lawless border regions of Aeroth.

I was pleasantly surprised by just how much fun the tiny tanks were to work on and am not sure why Brigade's Land Ironclad range doesn't get more interest as I've very rarely seen anyone else working on it.

These miniatures are from the British range and are called Brunel Tractors and are essentially a steam engine mounted on tracks with a couple of light guns mounted on turrets fore and aft.

I actually have a bunch more to work on including some larger ironclads which will just need a few infantry and cavalry stands to give me an entire new army to duke it out in the badlands and I cannot wait to work on some more of them!

Hopefully I'll get chance to finish another formation or two before the end of my hols but we shall see as I continue to flit from project to project.

Vongola Ironclads clash with Orcish Necrosaur Wartowers in the badlands

Speaking of flitting, I am feeling the urge to play some Rogue Trader again so will need to put together some 15mm scale gubbins for a bit for retro gaming fun in the next couple of days with the Governor General deploying his armour against some troublesome Badmoon Boyz...

Till then, All the best!

Spring Hobbytime Ponderings

Hi!

Well we're almost two months into 2020 and I seem to be achieving more with my scattergun approach to my hobby than I ever did with trying to focus.

Thus far I've painted 32 things ranging from large 28mm to teeny 2mm and pretty much everything inbetween and I must admit that whilst it's a bit frustrating not getting one project done and dusted, I cannot help but feel that this approach seems to be working for me!

I'm enjoying painting all manner of bits and bobs and my leadpile is shrinking for the most part faster than I have added to it and whilst games are running a bit sparse on the ground, I am slowly making progress towards having enough stuff painted to cover several different projects that have stalled badly over the last couple of years.

My 2mm Land Ironclads project is gathering steam and I've recently added a Dig Bomber to my Dwarven force:

Dwarven engineering at it's finest

I've also picked up some of Brigade Models Land Ironclads as a trade over on Facebook and have stripped some with the intention of adding them to my Dwarf force but as soon as I looked at them an entirely new army came to mind! I've since painted the first two of my Vongola Famiglia Land Ironclads (bonus points if you get the reference!) who will be giving me some city dwelling humans to brawl with my Dwarves and Orcs, or they may yet inhabit another world entirely but we shall see...

Speaking of repainting an old model, I have also recently completed this chap for my Leviathan project:

Earth Elemental

He's an old soft plastic Elemental Wall or some such from D&D but has made for a great addition to my Barbarian warband!

I'm also working on an Earthbound Dragon for Leviathan which I will post up as a project log at some point but that's for another day.

At present I find myself pulled towards the tiny and keep finding new ideas filling my head which is both great and annoying as I really want to finish my Dwarves, paint up some more stuff for 15mm, round out my Epic stuff, add my Witches of Selene to my SD warbands, play games and generally potter around but with the approach I am taking, it may take the whole year to do it but I think I can keep all the projects bubbling on even if it's a somewhat circuitous route.

We shall have to see if I can keep this enthusiasm going moving forward but I must admit that I am finding it heartening just how much fun I am having being so scatterbrained!

In the meantime, All the best!

Anvil Class Land Ironclad

Hi!

Just a quick post this evening as I've finished a new Land Ironclad for my Dwarves in the form of the Anvil:

Anvil Class Land Ironclad

The Anvil personifies the Dwarves defensive choice of warfare. It is heavily armed and armoured and rather slow moving but capable of taking on much heavier foes due to it's heavy guns. It has been designed as an infantry tank and as such it's designers have constructed it like a mobile fortification with a blocky structure and good defensive as well as offensive weapons. 

Following early clashes with fast moving foes such as the Elves who often outmaneuvered the first Ironclads, The Anvil has rear and flank firing light guns to stave off attacks from unexpected quarters. It's broad tracks and two boilers ensure that it can cross even the toughest of terrain and whilst one of the slower of the Dwarven vehicles, it has proven to be a firm favourite with it's crews and the infantry it supports.

Ironclad and Anvil

As with all my Land Ironclad stuff, the Anvil is scratch built from some plasticard, paper and greenstuff and will be the standard medium contraption of the Dwarven Holds. I've got two more to paint and then I am going to move onto something bigger...

I must admit that I am surprising myself with just how productive 2020 has been on the hobby front and I seem to be happily pootling along in several scales at once. Better yet, I have a week of holidays starting tomorrow so hope to get more stuff painted and at least a couple of battle reports too so watch this space.

In the meantime, All the best!

Syntha Spotted!

Hi!

After all the 28mm stuff I've been working on lately I figured it would be nice to take a bit of a look in my 15mm scale collection to see if I had anything interesting to paint!

This resulted in me painting up a Syntha investigation team:

Codename: Omega Epsilon 

I had a couple of Alternative Armies figures as well as two GZG high tech chaps (I've no idea where the rest of them have vanished to!) and combined with a repainted Hotwheels, they look pretty good as a small recon squad dispatched on unknowable missions by their megacorporate masters.

I'm quite pleased with how they all turned out to be honest and their ride was really satisfying to paint too!

Syntha ATV

Although it's pretty sleek, it does look like it could manage the rough terrain of a frontier settlement and armed with a pair of heavy pulse rifles, it's going to add a bit of a punch to corporate negotiations.

 More Views

That's not all though! Buoyed by this vehicle painting malarky, I painted a light tank for my Imperial forces to trundle about in:

 Mongoose Light Tank

Lightly armoured and with only a heavy Bolter as armament, the Mongoose is nonetheless a workhorse of the Imperial frontier. It is cheap to manufacture, maintain and will run pretty much anywhere. This example is one of the Praetorian 2nd Armoured Cavalry that has been sent to bolster the Governor General's forces on Farpoint.
 

Scale Shot

With a two man crew it's very small and is originally a Matilda I Light Tank that I picked up from Hobbycraft for £4.00. I actually have another pair to work on next and look forward to seeing how they cope in battle. I replaced the rather tiny machinegun with a heavy bolter and painted on a few sci-fi gubbins to try and make it a bit less WW2. I decided to base it on a Warbases Pill Base that I picked up a couple of years ago as without the base, infantry towered over it a bit!

Hopefully I'll get chance to work on some more 15mm stuff soon but till next time, All the best!

Skirmish on Viridia II

Hi!

I managed to play a quick game of Song of Blasters a couple of days ago featuring the forces of the Imperium being charged with driving a mercenary unit away from a strategic bunker on Viridia II.

 Imperial patrol

The best thing about playing games in 15mm scale is that it is really quick and easy, not to mention cheap to throw together a couple of small forces! My Imperials cost about £5 and my Mercs even less!

Mercenary Outfit

The Imperials were at a real disadvantage with only a single heavy bolter and a couple of grenade launchers as well as a heavy rifle and would struggle against the mechanised Mercs. The Imperial Sentinel with a multilaser would prove vital in laying down enough fire to keep the mercenary mechs from dominating the battlefield.

 Imperial heavy weapon squad

The Imperials won initiative repeatedly throughout the game and opened up with their heavy bolter on the larger mech and managed to scratch the paint on the beast before it opened up with two missile pods and blew the whole squad up.

 Mercenary Mech advances

Supremely confident in it's heavy armour protecting it, the heavy mech advances on the Imperial lines firing as it goes.

Sentinel and Battlesuit exchange fire.

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Sentinel and Battlesuit repeatedly exchanged fire but the multilaser's high rate of fire told and succeeded in riddling the mercenary machine sending it crashing to the ground.

Fire from the Mech hits the Heavy Weapons squad.

Things were looking grim for the Imperials as the heavy mech gunned down the Sentinel and approached the second infantry squad who hurled everything they could at the rampaging machine. Fortunately a well placed barrage of grenades and heavy rifle fire finally brought down the beast and the Imperial command squad droid called down an artillery barrage that spooked the mercenaries and forced them to withdraw.

End of Play

The Imperium lost three dead and five wounded whilst their Sentinel was recovered but would be in the shop for some time being repaired.

The Mercenaries lost two dead and three wounded whilst both mechs were damaged beyond repair and had to be abandoned on the battlefield.

Apologies for the ropey pics but I used my phone to take all the shots so it's a little bit fuzzy but a lot quicker to put together a quick report!

Hopefully I'll get chance to play some more games in the next couple of weeks so watch this space!

Tiny Infantry

Hi!

Here's a quick update showing my tiny Dwarven infantry brigade for Land Ironclads, Aeroth:

Dwarf Infantry on maneuvers with Land Ironclad support

I actually painted these little guys last month but hadn't had chance to get any pics till now. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out but need to paint a second brigade with command stands to give me a full regiment but I am really chuffed with the little guys and want to crack on with some Land Ironclads gaming soon but really need to finish work on the assorted gubbins I have first!

Speaking of which, here's a quick preview of my L4 Dwarven Ironclad formation:

L5 Ironclad's in front of 2 L4 Anvil's and a L4 Thunderdrake

The new Anvil class is somewhat bigger and more heavily armed than the basic Ironclad with a single heavy gun mounted in a turret and side sponsons with forward firing medium guns and rear firing light guns. Intended as an infantry support tank, they are slow moving but very hard to stop. 

The specialist tank is a Thunderdrake, an artillery modification to the normal Anvil which replaces it's turret with a rocket battery giving the formation a fearsome long range punch.

Hopefully I'll get the little vehicles painted alongside my Thunderhammer tank squadrons that I made last year and then I will need to build a L3 command tank to loom over the battlefield...

In the meantime, All the best!