Save the Craftworld: Episode 2

Received a number of ebay auctions today via the post.

As with the others the plan is...strip, sand, base, and reclaim into useful gaming figures.

As you can see, I received figures in various conditions.  The blisters I picked up solely to land the two exarchs - I'll sell on the Wraithguard (likely go for plastics for that unit).  I also received seven Dire Avengers I forgot to snap a picture of (they're already in the stripping pot!)

My goal is to field a solid full size squad of all the Aspects if possible (swooping hawks and warp spiders being the most difficult).  While I'm willing to spend a small chunk on these guys, I refuse to pay $10+ per figure for most of those.

Marine "Combat Engineers" and more Eldar

I received another small ebay purchase of random Eldar guardians (old metals).  This group was mainly officers which is great.  In addition, I used to have half of these figures in my original Eldar force, so the nostalgia was in full effect.

I also completed five of my quasi-Mentor marines.  I had them assembled when I decided to sell off my marines, so I finished them.  I'll be finishing up three more jump marines and the whole bunch will go on ebay (mainly to fund additional Eldar!).

Save the Craftworld: Episode 1

As with most gamers of my generation my initial exposure to wargames started through board games.  There was Hero Quest, followed on by Battlemasters, etc.  At the time I was still fully enraptured in the lure of toy soldiers.  My father was a toy geek and he helped me acquire quite an army of plastic men.

One day at a hobby shop I stumbled upon a box of plastic space marines and thought they were, more or less, toy soldiers.  I didn't realize I'd have to assemble them and eventually paint them.

This began a 14 year span of playing Games Workshop titles, slowly going from playing toy soldiers to playing wargames with said toy soldiers.  After a brief affair with Space Marines I settled on Eldar as my army of choice.  The 2nd edition codex was superb and the story/logic behind the Eldar was fantastic.

I amassed a couple of different Eldar armies, finally ceasing in mid 3rd edition (maybe early 4th, I can't recall).  Advance nine years to now and I've decided to give Eldar another go.  I've no interest in playing 40K but I'm going to collect and build an Eldar army to either play retro 2nd edition 40K or find/build a suitable alternative.

The marines from the Mentors will be sold off to help fund the space elves.  I've never really loved marines, but the project was fun to do.

The following posts in "Save the Craftworld" will detail newly purchased kits (no resin!) and reclaimed ebay fodder such as that seen below.  I've another half dozen ebay bids on the way.  There are certain figures/metals which are just too expensive to buy because of the resin blite that has destroyed the Eldar aspect warrior line, but I'll see what I can manage.

The below sets are being noted down for before/after photographs.

Old single piece cast metal scouts.

These two sets of five were two of the more common guardian poses with the shuriken catapults (remember in 2nd ed. and RT the guardians came standard with lasguns and shuriken catapults were an upgrade)

I can't promise a speed result on any of this stuff - I'm once again in the process of relocating/changing jobs, but I'm looking forward to a new table full of Eldar.

I set an old rhino chassis and the above Eldar in some Super Clean to begin the stripping process.  The rhino will be sold along with the marines.  I clipped the slottabases off of the Eldar (they'll be on 25/40mm renedra plastics) and removed some plastic bits added by a previous owner.  I'll be brushing these to see how good the result is shortly!

Dreadnought!

After deciding to finally dig into my Betrayal at Calth box, I set upon constructing the rather mediocre Contemptor Dreadnought.  Ugly face, with stumpy legs.

I decided to kit-bash my own with a bunch of random VOTOMS bits I had sitting around.  The end result is a taller/heavier looking dreadnought.  Since I won't be playing 40K the equipment is irrelevant.  I decided to replace the assault cannon with a multiple-barrel missile launcher.

More Mentor characters.

I knocked out a few characters assembled from random plastics I'd picked up on ebay.  One is a Librarian (opted for blue robes instead of armor, deal with it!) and I fashioned a kit-bashed Techmarine from a terminator, using some random robot bits and some arms from some Dust Tactics suits I had laying around.

Opted to skip the force weapon piece on this guy - preferred a simple chainsword.

 

As with my other terminator bashes this is a modern torso/legs, Cataphractii arms and shoulders, a MkIV helmet (from a devastator), and some bits from a couple of Dust Tactics walkers I had laying around.  Armed with a chain fist and a combi-weapon (flamer/bolter).  As I won't be playing 40K the equipment is not important.

Ermergerd, Werhermmer Qwerst!

So, a few weeks ago my buddies and I decided to whip out the old copy of Warhammer Quest my friend had shoved under his gaming table.

Bear in mind, I hadn't played this since 1995-1996...though it is my all-time favourite Games Workshop product.  I was excited to say the least.  We met up yesterday for a couple of games.

Prior to the games, I had decided immediately I would resume my role as the Trollslayer, the only character pack I bought in high school. I secretly built and painted up a Trollslayer using an Avatars of War plastic box I had sitting in a bin. I wanted to go with something unique, something very different from the angry-Scottish red-mohawked Trollslayers of the Warhammer world.

This is the result!

Not your normal looking Trollslayer...

Below is a photo I took during one of our games - the "yep, this is Warhammer Quest" moment of the day.  We tried two starting adventure groups, both of which were slain/killed/useless.  We'll try again later this week I hope!

Night Goblin archers forced us to draw another card...a trap...which in turn added another event...a Minotaur, who in turn forced us to draw another card, more orcs! 

Before heading out, I was bemoaning my lack of fantasy miniatures (as I'd got the dander up to paint some!) and my buddy tossed me a new-in-blist Pit Fighter from 1995!  I don't think I've painted a 21 year old miniature before.

I hope  I've done him justice, as I'm definitely on the lower end of skill for the fellas in my gaming group.  I hope it's worthwhile and will see much bloodshed in the future!  Here is the wildly uncomfortably dressed Pit Fighter! 

The base was left undone so my buddy can paint it up to his other stuff.  I don't love the figure but the end result was better than I had hoped I could do.

More marines!

I finished up seven more jump marines for my force.  This was limited by the 12 studded shoulder pads I had available and a similar number of beakie helmets.  I figured of all the forces, assault marines flying through the air deserved the sleeker helmets etc.  Ground marines will share some regular MkIV stuff.

My force now consists of two offices (terminator and techno-chaplain) and the dozen jump marines.  I'll probably add another squad or two of normal guys and devastators and a few more characters.  I've been perusing online for cheap rhinos as I wouldn't mind having a few vehicles - hoping for some old school ones.

New recruits - seven more jump marines.  Armed with a mix bolters, close combat weapons and special weapons.

The combined jump force.

Lieutenant Dan got hisself some new legs! (the others were the subject of a dip accident where it pooled horribly overnight while drying, so I broke the torso off and placed it on some newer legs!)

The techno-chaplain, terminator officer alongside one of the sergeants.

Space Marine "Techno Chaplain"?

I took the chaplain figure from the 30K Betrayal at Calth box and put him together (again using a Mechanicus head).  It came out okay, though I'm not in love with the model - a bit busy compared with the other marines.

Nothing too fancy, I "thinned" the dip...and this time it came up a little too runny!

Here is a teaser for another model I'm working on (my goal is to assemble a small Space Marine force which is suitable for play with any small sci-fi skirmish game.  Likely end up with a few squads and some characters, a vehicle or two).

New inhabitants for Drake's Branch!

Drake's Branch is the name of my fictional New Mexico town where I play my games of Shoot N' Skedaddle.

After a long hiatus, I've added a few new figures (I'll be phasing out older, crappier figures as I replace them).

 A new Knuckleduster 32mm digital sculpt - these are the finest metal miniatures I've received from any manufacturer...absolutely great!

 Another Knuckleduster 32mm - this time a Pinkerton with a sawed off shotgun.

A third 32mm Knuckleduster.  Their current range mirrors the characters from the wonderful movie Tombstone.  I've chosen not to mirror their clothing/paint schemes, so the characters will be more versatile --- the above figure is one of the Clanton brothers I believe.

A Conquest Plains Indian - wonderful figures.

Another Plains Indian by Conquest miniature (now sold under Warlord Games I believe)

I've had a "Soldier" character in Shoot N' Skedaddle since the beginning...been lazy about painting up an actual figure till now!  One of Great Escape Games U.S. Cavalry figures.

And the assembled portion of the new cast...also my first time using 25mm rounds on the Renedra bases as well --- added grass tufts from Army Painter. So far, so good!

Clearing the table...(some more!)

Again, in the desire to clear stuff off my table and starting cleaning up fringe projects and stuff that's been sitting idle for months/years, I knocked out the following small terrain bits.

One is a slightly dry-brushed boat which was too dark to begin with.  Then I completed two small 4-5 space bridges for use with my dungeon project, and two "tunnel" entrances for use with Shoot N' Skedaddle (they'll be adorned with some grass tufts when they show up in the mail!).

Simple and unexciting.  Breath of fresh air though getting some stuff out of "that" corner of my painting table.

And a mechanic shall lead them!

Continuing with my quasi-Mentor Legion fellas, I decided to bash up a terminator for fun.

Going with the older fluff from the Mentor Legion, I decided to add some Mechanicus flair to the unit.  In the ole' fluff, the Mentor Legion serve as a test bed for new weapons and technology.  They work out of a secret home-world, known only to the highest tech priests of the Mechanicus.

As such, I've decided that the Mentor Legion have officers/agents from the Mechanicus added to the Chapter.  Why not?  Seems fun.  Makes sense for those who exist to test weapons and tech.

Here is a kit-bash for ya: (please ignore the legs, they were ruined in a dip accident and I can't figure out a way to save them!)

Modern terminator body with Horus Heresy era arms/shoulders, and a Mechanicus head. 

First Space Marines in 20 years!

Like most people in my age, I stumbled into wargaming through games like Hero Quest, Battlemaster and eventually 40K.  I picked up some packs of cool looking figures when I was maybe 12-13.  They turned out to be Space Marines.

That led to 14 years of gaming 40K (where I actually ended up fielding Eldar).

When Betrayal at Calth popped up I was immediately intrigued.  I have no interest in 40K but I enjoy the fluff and I loved the Horus Heresy stuff.  I picked up a box in the off chance I wanted do something with it (play another game using the models etc.)

In my head I immediately jumped back to Mentor Legion, discovered in an old White Dwarf I picked up at a used book store when I was a kid.  Loved the paint scheme, loved the idea (veteran cadre, testers of all new military equipment, etc.).  Not a normal Chapter by any stretch of the imagination.

I found some MkVI beakie heads and ordered up some fan-made jetpacks from Spellcrow in Poland (easy to find and purchase via ebay).

This is the end result.  Possibly more coming in the future depending on how far I want to go with this stuff.  I can see doing a few more squads and characters, maybe some terminators etc.

Now, for the purists...yes, none of it technically matches up.  I wanted retro-beakie jump marines without spending a ton and this is the result:

Clearing the table...slowly.

I managed to paint up some stuff yesterday.  I'm trying to clean up little bits and pieces as I may need them in my soon-to-be (at least that's what I said 12 years ago) dungeon crawl game.

I threw together a Thief from some Frostgrave bits I acquired in a sprue-trade.  I painted up an Otherworld pack mule which had been sitting on my table primed for...nigh a year.  I used some Perry foot knights to make a couple of armored skeletons (may do more of those later).

Painter's block...damned Ratmen.

Finally got over my hesitation to paint the rest of my simple dozen ratmen (Skaven with some spikes and icons removed and given wicker shields).  Just really didn't enjoy painting these guys at all.  They turned out fine and I'm glad to have them done...hoping this breaks my painter's block as of late.