Mordheim Freelance Knight (on foot...)

 I mentioned a while ago to a buddy that the Freelance Knight from the Mordheim range was one of my favourite all-time miniatures.  He later surprised me with a new-in-blister set for my birthday.  I then stalled 3-4 years, simply being afraid to open it and "waste" it by painting it.

I finally said "fuck it" and painted the on-foot miniature yesterday.  Absolutely lovely miniature to paint (the shield is drying so it's not glued to his pack just yet).

Love the old grizzled look, the tattered sleeves and knees of his clothing.  The broken feather, etc.  Just heaps of character.  So...here he is.

 He'll probably see a lot of use in the dungeons now as the "Warrior" going forward.  Eventually I'll take a crack at the mounted version, though I have little use for it at the moment.

PS: Editing a photo for a forum mate - ignore this bit!

Never look a gift Commissar in the mout-BLAM!!!!

So, story time!  Gather round kiddies!

Back in 2nd edition, when I was in high school I discovered the new Imperial Guard minis which were being churned out.  While I played Eldar, the historical wargaming part of me demanded I make a useless purchase, so I ended up with a squad of Valhallans, a single Leman Russ, and a commissar.  That Commissar is one of my all time favourite miniatures.

Fast forward 20 years.

I finally found one at a vaguely reasonable price on eBay and decided to paint him up for my buddy Danny's Imperial Guard force.  A late birthday present you could say.

As received via the eBayses.  Good shape, complete, missing the slottabase tab (which is fine), and pinned to a nice scenic resin base.

 

 Stripped down and cleaned up.

Re-based, and note: on a proper 25mm slottabase to match my buddy's army.  No flat Renedra here!

 

 I managed to knock him out in two sessions, one long one of painting, and then this morning doing the base, the power sword, some gloss on the boots and cover, etc.  Pretty happy with the result.

Games!: Warhammer 40K (2nd edition, and 8th edition)

Was fortunate enough to visit some friends this weekend and got in...a lot of 40K.  Perhaps too much!

Got some 2nd edition games in against a friend who was running her Chaos Space Marines, on a gorgeous techno themed table/mat (mat from Deep Cut Studios)

Then I got in a couple games against another buddy, this time trying out my new mat (Concrete Area from Urbanmatz) and my new terrain!  Huzzah!).  The table is a work in a progress but it wasn't a bad time.  I did have one of the very worst dice-games I've ever had in 20 years...that was a tough defeat!

The Bloody Handed One

Disclaimer: I'm not a good painter...and I always cheat.  Unfortunately this means that occasionally you run into a large model which is way too intimidating.  Enter the Avatar.  I sure as hell can't paint fading flames or burning crevasses in this guy's body.  I just picked up some metallics and tried to ham-fist my way through this guy.

End result?  Acceptable, if not attractive.  I'm quite glad this guy is behind me now.

Kickstarter: Miniature Wargaming (and some metal!)

I stumbled upon this and it looks quite interesting.  It's a film about the hobby, surrounding the origins of miniature gaming and its current status.  I'll probably buy into this for a digital copy, but it looks pretty slick.  Production values look pretty good.

Miniature Wargaming: The Movie

I've hit a bit of a speed bump as I've painted so quickly I've run out of bases...primer...and some paints.  I have a shipment from Neal over the The Warstore on the way (I hope), so I'm assembling, doing some painting where I can and stripping down incoming ebay stuff.

Here is the latest grab, a metal warwalker from 2nd edition.  I've given up on the current plastics that I put together and will be replacing them with metals from 2nd ed.  However I will be using plastic weapons and weapon shields - and possibly the rear vanes if necessary.  I just can't get over the look of the new plastic warwalkers, they're dreadful.

Rescue Five: Guardians and Fire Dragons

"Rescue" is perhaps a bit of a misnomer for this one since the models arrived either clean or poorly primed.  But, alas, here are some more guardians and my first squad of Fire Dragons (I have enough to field two squads of five if needed).

The guardians are a struggle...I'm trying to force myself to paint up at least 30 guardians and I'm doing all the basic ones first.  In exciting news, I have some Warp Spiders on the way after finally winning a couple of auctions on ebay!

Rescue Four: Scorpions and a Farseer

Originally I had planned to acquire enough miniatures to produce a full squad of each aspect, normally 3-7 models in 2nd Edition.  In some cases by picking up random auctions with various models I've acquired more, such as with my Striking Scorpions.

I painted up another six, allowing me to field two smaller squads if needed.  The bits of scorpions can be seen in previous posts.  I also painted up a Farseer so I at least have an HQ to field.

Both squads of Scorpions together. 

The new squad of Scorpions.  Originally I considered an alternate paint scheme, but I wanted to be able to field squads of seven when needed (so with two squads of six, I'd need a crossover miniature).  I opted for one big squad paint-scheme.

The figure I originally used for my Farseer back in high school in the mid-90's.  Not the actual mini of course, but the sculpt.  Always loved the goofy look and the fact that it's one of the most under-stated models in the game, considering how strong a Farseer is in the game.  Nothing to give away the "shoot me first!" vibe.

As luck would have it, the Farseer is my 100th figure painted this year.  Making steady progress, and will easily out-do the 112 miniatures from 2014.  Sadly I did sell off my Space Marines so my "usable" number is a bit less.

Late EDIT:  Some more Dark Reapers showed up in the mail.  While I wasn't planning on using more than one squad (Reapers tend to be very points heavy, regardless of the era) these guys were a good deal.  One is missing his launcher so I might even try an exarch conversion to a Shuriken cannon model or something similar.