Thin Blue Line

No, I wasn't expecting this either.

I've returned to a project I haven't touched for almost exactly eight years and finished off almost the last few unpainted 6mm American Civil War miniatures for my Union army.

Almost a decade ago our little gaming group got very briefly grabbed by 6mm gaming following attending the Joy of Six show in Sheffield.

We opted to dip our toes in by painting up American Civil War forces, with two of us building Union forces and two doing Confederate armies, using Bacchus Miniatures as our supplier.

At the time we played through a brief Vicksburg campaign using Black Powder rules, in which, despite starting well, Matt and I got out manoeuvred and defeated.

The campaign can be read about here and here.

I suspect that's why it's been eight years since I did anything with them.

However, I was lacking a bit of motivation yesterday and had some time on my hands, so I went with something that seemed easy.

6mm miniatures, especially in the regular uniform blue of the Union army, are incredibly easy to do.

The trick is to remember that the aren't meant to be looked at up close and so there's not much call for more than dabbing paint on in the appropriate places.

With the miniatures and bases I had left I've put together two regiments and two stands of skirmishers. The skirmishers have a couple more models on each base than the ones I've done previously and so will be good for representing regiments that have been deployed as pickets as opposed to the skirmishers put out in front of a regiment.

I still have five strips of infantry, with no command, that I'm not sure what to do with, but it was a nice change of pace and removes a healthy chunk from my backlog - I originally counted each strip as a single miniature when I started on Lead Mountain, and so this bunch qualifies at 16 miniatures.

Acquired: -84
Painted: 75
Lead Mountain: 498

Sic Semper Tyrannis

I know I said I was going to start working on some vehicles for my Astral Claws, but two things got in the way.

Firstly, I don't currently have any Space Marine vehicles to build and paint, which, as I'm sure you'll admit, is an issue.

Secondly, I had such a good time kitbashing my Ork Skorcha, I decided to continue on this theme by using the only Marine miniatures that I currently have unpainted: the Space Hulk Terminators. And the only Terminator armoured miniature that I had plans to add to my army was Lugft Huron, the Tyrant of Badab himself.

You may be wondering why I've decided to kitbash my warlord rather than search out the rather excellent out of print resin miniature that was produced by Forge World.

Well, my reasons are threefold: I wanted my version of Huron to scale well with the Space Hulk Terminators; I wanted a model that could conceivably work as a more generic captain as well; I currently using both of my kidneys.

However, the Forge World mini is firmly based on, what I believe to be, the only official piece of art of Huron as the Tyrant of Badab. Therefore I turned to this image for inspiration.

The key features were the Heavy Flamer and Lightning Claw, the back banner and Iron Halo, a loin cloth and the raise lions on his shoulder pads.

In terms of painting, I'd need to increase the amount of blue I used on the armour compared to rest of the Terminators, and make sure that there was plenty of gold to help him stand out from the crowd.

When it came to building the model, I was able to equip him correctly, although technically the weapons are in the wrong hands and the Heavy Flamer is the wrong pattern.

The Lightning Claw was constructed by adding Mk VI claw blades to the Power Fist, whilst the Iron Halo was trimmed from a Blood Angels helmet (the accessories on his belt also came from the same upgrade sprue). The loincloth is a trimmed bit of flag. A small Bretonnian shield was added to his shoulder to hide the small gap created by posing his arm a bit more widely spread.

The only thing I couldn't replicate were the ornate shoulder pads, but I can live with that.

When it came to painting I used the same simple methods as I have with all of my Astral Claws, although I did have to wrestle with the dregs of a can of Army Painter Gun Metal Primer, which I absolutely do not recommend. I've had it for years and it's been a really problematic paint in terms of thickness and coverage - I'd just run out of my more reliable Colour Forge spray.

I used more blue on the weapon arms as shown in the illustration and set about adding a bit of bling. Basically, anything that I'd painted bone on the other Terminators became gold along with the helmet and the Iron Halo. The idea was to evoke the illustration on a model that doesn't have the same amount of trim.

Transfers were added, but the Maelstrom Warders symbol on his knee was freehanded as I was out of transfers that size.

All in all I'm really pleased with how he's turned out. He scales appropriately with my army and has enough to clearly mark him out as a HQ choice.

However, by being my own conversion it means that he doesn't have to be Huron in the next campaign event if someone else has the official model.

In game I'll be using the profile for the Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour with a Combi Weapon and Exalted Weapon. Although there is a Huron Blackheart profile, I can't really use that as he's not in Terminator Armour and therefore can't join the Tyrant's Shield (his bodyguard unit) in game.

I'm now well on my way towards 1500 points, which seems likely to be the next benchmark in the campaign.

Acquired: -84
Painted: 59
Lead Mountain: 514

Old, New, 'Borrowed' and Blue

"If we wasn't meant ta loot it, it wudn't be where we cud find it!" - Death Skull proverb

I mentioned in my last post that I had an old tank I wanted to kitbash into an Ork vehicle, but I didn't know what to do with it.

Well, I decided.

I had been considering using the model as a Looted Wagon, either with an overly large 'boomgun' or a transport deck for my Goffs to ride in. Both of these ideas would have involved a degree of construction on top of the tank.

However, after perusing my bits box I realised that I still had a bunch of pointless mounted weapons from the Land Raider Spartan, including a heavy flamer.

A quick bit of research in the 5th edition Ork Codex revealed that flames, tracks and a little bit of extra armour on a buggy sized model could result in something that would pass muster as a Skorcha.

My Skorcha began life as a 'Tank in a Tin', a small gift I was kindly given by Mrs Cheaphammer quite a few years ago.

Due to the fact that it was an American tank in 1/72 scale, there was no opportunity to use it in Bolt Action or Flames of War, and so it has sat unloved and alone, as the 12 soldiers got transferred to 101st Binbound Regiment.

I had contemplated using as the basis of a mechanical Daemon Prince or some kind of Mechanicus construct, but these ideas never took root.

However, removing the turret and replacing it with a hatch and pintel mounted heavy flamer from the Land Raider Spartan crew I had something that could conceivably be a PDF or Arbites armoured car that's been 'liberated' by the Orks for use as a Skorcha.

Given that the Death Skull clan are known for looting pretty much anything not nailed down, I went with a chipped blue paint scheme and added a few bits to make it a little more Orky: spikes, grinders, bull bars, etc. and an undead shield design that passes for a Death Skull glyph.

The gunner was cobbled together from a Gorkamorka body, a couple of 2nd edition arms, a bit of Leviathan foot as a shoulder pad and a head from the 1987 Fantasy Regiments plastic box that I still had.

I decided to add the stowage on the back for a several reasons: I wanted to break up the blue paint; I wanted to lean into the Death Skull theme and add stuff they've looted, and I felt the vehicle still looked too imperial.

All in all, I'm really pleased with a vehicle that has cost me nothing, but adds to my army with a bit of humour and narrative. It's about the same size as the Trukk I painted last week, so it's pretty much the right size too.

The only downside side is that it is more anti-infantry weapons, meaning that I'm still not well place to deal with the Imperial Guard tank that all of my potential opponents now own.

Leaning into the lucky blue of the Death Skulls seems to have rubbed off, as Mrs Cheaphammer revealed that for some reason she had a £10 voucher from Games Workshop which was about to expire. Therefore I rushed off to the webstore to spend it.

It's VERY hard to only spend £10 in this manner.

Ultimately I decided to grit my teeth and pick up a Mek for the eye-watering price of £18 plus postage. I figured that after the voucher was deducted £10 was fine for a model I wanted for the army anyway and is only available online so discounts elsewhere weren't possible.

I do like the model though.

He's painted in Bad Moon colours to go with my Warboss and the largest clan in the army.

As part of the lucky streak, Mrs Cheaphammer and I were asked to take part in a survey on our local area and were each rewarded with a £10 Amazon voucher by way of thanks.

Fortunately (there's a theme here) I was able to find a very good copy of the 5th edition Ork codex for exactly that amount and free postage.

All in all, it's been a lucky week and most of that good fortune seems to emanate from Mrs Cheaphammer.

It seems I married well.

Acquired: -81
Painted: 58
Lead Mountain: 518

The Arms Race

For the past few months, our gaming group has had a bit of a focus on 5th edition 40k. I've enjoyed re-discovering that Blood Angels are a bit filthy, getting to use my Daemons and taking part in my first Apocalypse game.

However, inevitably a feverish escalation has begun to take place. Pete is churning out Space Wolves and Eldar, Matt is turning the contents of the Combat Patrol magazine into 5th edition forces, and even Wes has bought an Imperial Guard army.

As for me, well, I'm never one to avoid jumping aboard a bandwagon...or should I say bandtrukk.

As I'm all out of Marines due to my Badab War adventure, and I painted all my Daemons when I bought them, I turned to the Orks I've painted for 2nd edition and Gorkamorka.

Also, due to edition points creep, what had been a 1300 point force in 2nd edition had deflated to 850 points by 5th, and so I needed to add to the army to get it to a reasonable size for a game.

The most obvious initial target for my attention was the spare Gorkamorka Trukk I still had unpainted. 

I opted to go for paint this up as a Bad Moons Trukk as my plan was for it to convey my Warboss and Nobs more quickly into battle, where their Choppas could do the talking. Also l, this means that I have the option of fielding two mobs in Gorkamorka, should I want to introduce anyone to the game 

Vehicles are quick to paint for Orks: base coat silver, wash with Agrax Earthshade, pick our panels for specific colours, sponge weathering, paint the tyres. Easy.

The awkward bit was the crew, as I didn't have any, apart from a couple of torsos, which I think had been freed up from using metal bodies on my Evil Sunz biker and Trukk driver.

Therefore I began cobbling together my crew from the bitz box. The lehs are from the Maelstrom's Edge miniatures I used as Servitors for my Corpsetaker Apothecary (for some reason the sprue had four sets of legs and only two torsos), whilst the arms are a mix of Skaven and Zombie bits I had lying around.

The worst elements of this rushed kitbash are covered either by their cramped compartment or some improvised pads on the driver's shoulders.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

The other addition to the army was adding a Shoota to the back of one of my Nobz who was missing a ranged weapon (which I've realised still needs some yellow markings adding).

It doesn't change his profile, it just makes him more WYSIWYG.

I've got a range of bits and pieces to put together for the Orks. I've inherited a Rebel Grot gang for Gorkamorka (with an incomplete Big Lugga) that can be added to my Gretchin mob, although I'd need a second Runtherd. 

I also have a toy tank that I'm mulling over what to convert into: a Trukk for the Goffs, a Scorcher or a Looted Tank. It's a decision that will largely depend on the bits I have available.

Although none of these are particularly powerful, it should mean I can properly play a 1000 point game of 5th edition.

Acquired: 82
Painted: 56
Lead Mountain: 519

Easy Riders?

Since the Badab War event at Warhammer World in February, I haven't done much with my Astral Claws.

Partly this was to do with focussing on other projects, but mainly it was to do with the series of mishaps an missteps which occured as I tried to put together this little lot.

These are Iron Hunters, Astral Claws bikers and one of the only fast moving of Assault troops that feature in the Tyrant's Legion army list.

I had two bikers already that came with a lot I bought that included a Dreadnought and a Land Speeder (both of which I've painted up previously). Unfortunately, this does not constitute a unit under 10th edition rules and one but was missing a bolter.

Therefore, I popped onto eBay and bid for a lot of five bikes. I've never had too much trouble with eBay purchases and so a quick glance at the (looking back, suspiciously poor) image told me that I should be able to put together a unit of six bikes with a bit of work.

I was wrong.

When they arrived I discovered that they were an absolute mess. They had been assembled so poorly that I can only imagine it was done on purpose.

The screens for the handlebars were glued almost flat to the front wheels, some bolters were back to front, others were just normal bolters (complete with handles) stuck on top, one wheel had be assembled with half of it inside out.

Then there was the paint, which was called on so thick that entire helmets had been smoothed over.

I set about trying to salvage what I could, but they had also been put together with gallons of poly-cement, which meant nothing was shifting without a struggle, and try as I might (with Biostrip and Dettol), I couldn't clear clumps of paint.

The one bright point was discovering that hidden within the mess were three metal biker bodies: a sergeant with a Power Sword, a Marine with a Meltagun and a Marine with a Plasma Gun.

Ultimately, I was able to salvage just a single bike from the mess and replace the rider of one I already had with the Sergeant. Even then, the Meltagun guy's bike is really chewed up in places.

I've managed to get it good enough for tabletop use and so I now have a, smaller than planned, unit of Iron Hunters to harass my enemy's flanks, something the Powersword, Meltagun and jazzy banner (Chaos Icon) will help with.

This was a frustrating process as the rest of the sludge encrusted crap had to go in the bin. I will add another three bikes (including a Plasma Gun) to this unit, but I need a break from them and to find some I can assemble myself.

Whilst I was doing all this, I took the opportunity to make a couple of adjustments to some models I'd already painted.

My Aspiring Champion's base needed finishing and one of the Terminators needed to not have a Power Fist, because I already have three and Chaos doesn't like uniformity. I've also decided that all power weapons in the army will be done with Nihilakh Oxide over white, so both models got that treatment.

The Lightning Claw came from the Mark VI Marine sprues from the Horus Heresy, and it was a simple enough kitbash to do that I'm now tempted to use one of my spare Space Hulk Terminators to cobble together my own version of Lugft Huron.

Putting together the Iron Hunters means that I've now reached a bit of a milestone in my Badab War project as I can now field a 1000 point army of Astral Claws.

Admittedly, due to the bikes debacle, I'm having to put some Goliaths in as the Renegade Marauders (Cultists) that were drafted in by Huron as a desperate measure (seems appropriate), but it is a fully playable army:

• Corpsetaker Apothecary (Dark Apostle)
• 5 Tyrant's Shield (Chaos Terminators)
• 10 Legion Cohort (Chaos Legionaries)
• 10 Legion Cohort (Chaos Legionaries)
• 10 Renegade Marauders (Cultist Mob)
• 5 Devastator Marines (Havocs)
• 3 Iron Hunters (Chaos Bikers)
• 1 Dreadnought (Hellbrute)

As I said, I'm tempted to put Lugft Huron together, but I'm also considering bringing in some heavy Support vehicles. However, I am trying to limit cost on this project, so I may just continue to add some really crappy infantry and use the Space Hulk Terminators to make a second unit.

We'll have to see.

Acquired: 82
Painted: 55
Lead Mountain: 520

Retail Therapy

I've been lack a bit of focus in my painting for the last couple of weeks and have been a touch frustrated with a couple of purchases which has prevented me from completing some goals I'd set myself (hence the lack of a post last week).

Therefore I decided to sit down and churn through some bits and pieces of 'street' furniture I've had floating about for a while as a way to de-stress.

Most of these are bits from various Mantic Terrain Crates that I was given (last year?) as part of the 7TV Secret Santa I participate in annually.

I hadn't got round to most of them because they are internal features (mainly from shops) and I don't tend to game in building interiors.

First up are these shelving units and a clothes rail. The produce on the shelves were all separate pieces, and I've added some other bits I had floating around. I kept the shelves dark so they might conceivably work in a variety of settings, for example Pulp or Post-Apocalypse.

I haven't worried about doing too much detail on the packaging or clothing as these are background elements and I didn't want to make them too specific.

I took a similar approach to the bending machine, giving the impression of a variety of brands but not worrying too much about doing more than painting each item a different colour.

The magazine rack I kept as faded paper without any colour, again so that I would hit into a variety of settings.

I'm struggling to think of when I might use the janitor's trolley. However, it is a funky little thing.

I bought this skip years ago at a wargames show. In fact it was Sheffield Triples, which might give an indication of how long I've had it.

I never got round to painting it as it is warped and had a broken section. I did however paint the other one I picked up at the time.

I decided to stop fretting and filled it with rubble, including a resin bin bag, and used a tarpaulin made from masking tape to cover the damaged section.

Finally is the teddy bear, which was really easy to to - easier and faster than anything else in this post, and a mcguffin from the launch of 7TV Apocalypse.

I'm not sure I'll ever use it as a mcguffin, but it will work fine as scatter terrain in Fallout or other post-apocalyptic games.

My shopping frustrations (more on this in a future post) have led to me binning several miniatures after stripping anything that might be salvageable. I've also sold some metal Death Company that I was never going to use (I have 10 painted already), and so I've actually made a bit of a dent in the lead pile this week.

Acquired: -83
Painted: 52
Lead Mountain: 524

Hidden Treasure

My head has been in a bit of a Carnevale space for the past couple of weeks which has meant I've been feeling a bit frustrated at not having more to paint for the game whilst I've also lacked motivation for other projects.

Therefore I set about digging through my backlog to see if there was any hidden gems that would help me scratch an itch.

In short, there was.

The longer answer was that I remembered that I still had a pile of treasure chests from a Mantic Terrain Crate lying around and once that was done I set about kitbashing a model to join one of my Carnevale forces to stand next to it as on their own, the chests would make for a rubbish blog post.

The model I used as the base of my kitbash is a soft plastic D&D miniature from Wizkids. I've had my eye on using it for some time as it stands roughly the right height and is armed reasonably appropriately.

The major issue was it had a pretty featureless face, and so the first order of business was a head swap (I think was from a viking sprue). On top of this I gave him a new sword and quiver from some Frostgrave sprues as the sculpted ones were rubbish, and procured a cloak from some Fireforge cavalry.

The result? He'll do.

Not an amazing outcome, the base miniature really has limitations, but I am pleased that I do have something that is useable and will look okay at table level, especially as he'll be joining my Vatican force, which is almost all proxy miniatures of varying standards.

In game I'll be using him as a Templar Marshall as there are only two options for characters in the Vatican using a (regular sized) crossbow, and the beard and bald headake him not look massively like a Squire.

The chests are the final unpainted piece I had left of the Treasury Terrain Crate from Mantic.

Although a bit fantastical, they won't look too out of place on the quaysides of Venice, waiting to be loaded onto a passing privateer vessel.

As such, I took the time to make the open scrolls look like maps to more hidden treasure, or perhaps to where this pile of loot will be hidden.

All in all, I'm pleased to have got these models painted, even if neither are my best work, as I've been able to use up some miniatures that were being overlooked and allowed me to scratch my itch at the same time.

On top of this, I've also managed to sell another Blood Bowl team (this time the plastic Elves from Dungeon Bowl), and so the week ends positively in terms of progress after my purchases.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 44

Lead Mountain: 540