Surprise Inquisition in grey!

 

I have just received the Warhammer+ subscription figure, The Cool Guy and his Weird Friend, so I got a hankering to build some new style Inquisition forces to go along with them.

Oddly, there are no rules at all for these figures. Kinda weird, but the figs are cool.

Using the Inquisitorial Agents Kill Team box I made six agents and servo skull mascot. I added Inquisitor Greyfax to make sure they had some supervision.

But now I have a bunch of parts left over for the optional agents. Seems like a waste.

Luckily, The Necromunda Hive Scum 4-pack box works well enough with the spare parts to fill out my roster.

Now for some paint, and heretics to burn.

Go Build Something

Try Not to Leave Them Grey for Too Long

Yet More 3D Printed Terrain

 Somedays, you just wanna rock! Sorry. I'll see my way out.

Maybe I watched too many Road Runner vs Wile E Coyote documentaries, but I had a need for desert landscape with just rocks. I scoured the internets and came up with a nice selection of STL files to print.

The real winner here is the amazing filament we found: Rock Gradient PLA.

That's the way they printed. No paint at all! The future we are living in does have a few high points.

Go Make The Robot Do It

Just Pick Well

Ad Mech Pict Captures

 

Just a handful of shots from the time I was trying to take "family photos" with my old camera. I took over fifty shots, but the vast majority came out blurry. I'm pretty sure something is going amiss with the auto focus. I made sure my new camera has a manual focus option. 

I was using two side and a top fill light, so that was not the issue. Maybe the CMOS chip is going bad. A good chunk were also very dark. Seven years is a good run for low-end digital camera. 

"Why yes, I do have several cats. Why do you ask?" Getting distraction-free backgrounds is tough when you are shooting pics from a real game in progress.

I will try this again soon, after I get the hang of my new camera.

Go Shoot Something

With Film, I Guess it's just Pixels Now

The Cygnians Arrive

 

New race for Battlefront Valkyrie. Easy to print and fun to paint. The Cylon-esque Cygnians are very distinctive, and called for a different paint job. I found Cobalt metal (a blueish metallic) from Army Painter, it looks great on them! Even if it really hard to see in these photos. I'm still working on the Hot Pink Prototypes...

Fighting killer robots just never gets old. Might as well look good doing it. I do believe we shall try a battle this weekend to give the game a go.

Go Sling Some Paint

By Your Command

Rocks in Space

As they say, printer goes brrrrt. I just got done painting the newly printed asteroids for Battlefront Valkyrie, and they look really good on the table. 

And not just space rocks! The ruler, turn gauge, energy and ship number markers are ready to go as well.

Very close to giving this game a go.

Go Make Something

Keep the Robot Working

 

The Barbie Star Collective

 

Funny things can happen when you say "It doesn't matter". 

Fat Dragon has released the 5th expansion for Battlefront Valkyrie, a brand new faction with a very cool Cylon-ish feel. I asked Mrs. Blackheart to print them for me on her fancy Prusa XL, and she asked, "What color do you  want them?" 

I am going to prime them, and then spray a silver base coat, so it didn't really matter, and I said so.  

I kinda love my hot pink, A.I. controlled starships. I think I may just try a dark wash and see what happens.

Go Make Something

Sometimes With Surprising Results

3D Printed Starship Game

 

Battlefront Valkyrie is a Starship Combat miniatures game from Fat Dragon. It is made so you print out everything. And it is quite easy to do so. The ships are designed to be printed on a filament printer with no supports, so it is quick and easy. As are the stands and game markers. The nice ship facing graphics are also supplied, I printed them out on photo paper and the result is impressive.

Two fleets come with the base game, both kinda Star Trek-ish, which I do love.

The Terran Fleet.

The Kurgun Fleet.

At the moment five small expansions have been released with a bunch more planned, including a new fleet. 

Painting was fun and easy, and they really look sharp on the tabletop. I'm printing the game tokens (filament) and the ship control cards (paper) and will be ready to try out this new game next week.

Advice from the Internets on reviving your (mostly) dead blog: Use cats.

Go Make Something

For 2D Space Gaming in 3D

Darktide With More 3D

 

Darktide comes with nice, sturdy chipboard tokens and markers. Including some two sided ones that represent the blocking terrain and barricades. 

I understand why they didn't include plastic terrain: the cost increase would have been ridiculous. But still, the game would be so much more immersive if the terrain was 3D. Luckily, some nice folk on the internets made made some STL files ready to print and paint! The files were inexpensive, and printed well in our plastic filament machine (Mrs. Blackheart used the Prusa Mk.3S and XL).

The addition of the 3D elements really do improve the look and feel of the game. So much so, we shall talk a lot about this side of the hobby in upcoming posts.

Go Make Something

The Robots Are Here to Help!

For Now...

 

New Terrain on the Table

                               

Finally got my newly made scatter terrain out on the table for a game of Kill Team. I'm quite pleased with the results.

It's always a worry when making things from scratch that I'll get the size incorrect. Luckily, the margins for error on rubble piles are pretty wide. Big enough to block line of sight, and have to move around them, yet small enough to have a few on the board and fit into those areas that just need something in them. 

A good amount of interesting terrain makes for a good skirmish board in my opinion. I do think I will put some basing grit on the bases just to give them a more finished look.

Next up more fun with Darktide!

Go Roll Some Dice

Now With More Cover

 

Rejects, Assemble!

 

I picked up the Darktide miniatures boxed game a couple of weeks ago, and had to start with painting some minis of course. It comes a with a good amount of models, just no new sculpts. 

The "recruited" Inquisitorial team consists of a Zealot and a Psyker which are both from the Blackstone Fortress line originally, an Ogryn (old Guard model) and a Veteran (Kasrkin Kill Team). 

It just so happens that I had Nork Deddog parts left over from my last build, and they fit on the Ogryn that comes in the box. So, that was an easy and good looking upgrade. The Veteran I put on a 32mm base so he would match the others. I have yet to decide on a basing scheme for them, dark grey for the moment.

I totally cheated so we could get to playing faster: Everybody except the Ogryn and the Veteran were figures I already had in my collection and painted, I just needed to find the correct bad guys to match the ones in the game.

Ten traitor guard (from The Bloodied Kill Team), and six Poxwalkers (from Blackstone Fortress) make up the bad guys. I will build and paint up the figs that came with the set, but probally not change up any color schemes, just expand the existing forces. 

Now that everyone is ready to deploy, a review of the Darktide Miniatures Game is forthcoming.

Go Paint Something

Then Get Out On the Field

Scatter and Cover

 

At some point in every miniature gamer's life there comes a time when they realize the need  for more scatter terrain. This is completely normal and should not be a cause for alarm. This commonly occurs if they have been playing a lot of smaller scale skirmish games. 

I have been playing mostly Kill Team and OPR Grimdark Firefight, so the need for more, smaller blocking terrain has been growing. Luckily I have a substantial box of leftover bits from my various GW terrain sets. 

I pondered on exactly how to do this for a while, and decided to try some old fashioned clay as the base and then just jam lots of cut up bits onto it. Then I realized that it would do much better if it was all on a wood base. Mixed media FTW!

It took about three days for the air-dry clay to fully dry. Of course it shrank some as it did so, requiring me to then gule all the bits that popped off back on, and then glue the clay base onto the wood base. 

The whole mess took black primer very well and was ready to paint.

The six  rubble piles I made match my city terrain very well, and I can't wait to put them to use. Clean lanes of fire is kinda boring! 

Go Make Something

So Others May Hide Behind It.

SoH Terminators

 

More bite-sized posts for bite-sized models. Here we have the very tip of the spear, a unit of Justaerin Terminators. Abbadon always had a thing for black armor.

Just for fun! I'm not sure that was their War-Cry. Naturally I had to give them the most impressive ride possible, a pair of land Raider Sparans. When I get another unit of Terminators for the Sons of Horus, they will be painted in regular line unit colors.

Let the Galaxy Burn

While Wearing Stylish Black Armor

SoH Xiphons

 

Still chugging away on my Epic Sons of Horus army. Here are three (out of the four) Xiphon Interceptors in that army. I have used them in battle, and are quite pleased with the close air support they provide.

I have a Thunderhawk, two Fire Raptors, and three Storm Eagles assembled and in the painting queue for all my aerial firepower and transport needs.

Fleet Does the Flying

False Emperor's Lap Dogs Do the Dying

Carnage Asada '24

 

Yes, this is about a month late. Sorry. Life happens. We had our (mostly) annual Carnage Asada Battle & BBQ this past Memorial Day. We always like to try big and/or new things on this day, and this time we went small and new.

Mrs. Blackheart is a professional theatrical carpenter, so she likes building things. She has recently discovered a love for everyone's favorite plastic crack from Denmark. Thus, the idea was formed to host a Star Wars skirmish game using Lego for the minis and scenery. Now to pick some rules.

For a bit now, I've trying out different Skirmish Rules. I love the new version of GW's Kill Team, but it is a very closed system, without any real ability to create new units of your own. One Page Rules' Grimdark Firefight is fun, but I'll get into it in an upcoming post.

I chose Space Weirdos by Garske Games. I had picked it up a while ago, and finally got around to giving it a go. Simple, fast, and a lot of fun. Most importantly for our game, you have to create your own units!  It seemed a natural fit for the event.

I spent a few evenings hunting up the names and generating stats for all the mini figs we chose for the game. We wound up with seven teams to choose from, six Outlaw/Bounty Hunter teams plus a Squad of Stormtroopers.

The battle was a lot of fun. So much fun that I didn't even take any good pictures while it was going on. 

The Handsome Outlaws (Han, Lando, and Chewie) were victorious. The forces of Law and Order (Stormtroopers) were wiped out, and both Jabba's Enforcers and The Operators, were badly mauled in the battle of Mos Eisley's Happy Hour. 

The rules work very well for such a setting, and I shall try for others. I do have a lot of painted Imperial Assault minis that are just sitting in the garage...

Go Roll Some Dice

With Carne Asada and LEGOs

How I Re-Base

 

Just a quick little post on how I do the re(re)-basing. Let's start with a old metal Nob that I now want on a 32mm base. I got some 32mm slota bases for just such things. 

Free the model from its old 25mm base, this is done by either carefully bending the base until it breaks along the slot, or cut it away if it's stubborn. Glue on on new base!

Plastic boy on 25mm base, that I am going to keep him on. 

Carefully scrape the old flock off with a knife. Painting over the old flock is really slow and tricky. Plus, the flock I used just drinks up paint, so that is a no go.

Next, I paint the tops of the bases with Steel Legion Drab, then with the paint still wet, dunk into the vat of new grit. 

My secret sauce is (all Gale Force Nine basing grit) 4 parts super fine, 2 parts fine, 1 part medium, and 1 part rocky. It gives a nice look to the bases. 

Finally paint the base ring with Steel legion Drab, and done! Pretty quick, very easy, and it looks good.

Go Make Something

New Grit for Old Flock

Unplanned Rebasing

 

Last year I built and painted the newest Ghazghkull model. What I didn't catch myself doing was painting the base in my new desert style, which means the Supreme Leader of All Orks had decided that green bases wuz out like bell bottoms. 'Cause Gaz is neva wrong!

Like a lot of long time miniature hobbyists, I have gone through a few stages of talent and refining of my aesthetic. In the beginning there was the bright goblin green bases of the '90s.

Crude, but easy to do, and it matched my playing surface at the time.

From 1998

A few years later I moved to a less painful shade of green and better flocking, and stayed with it for a good long while. The last minis I did with green bases was the first batch of Imperial Knights.

After that, I felt the urge to make my Guard army look better, including (finally) building up the plastic Cadians. They looked sad and weird on green bases, so I went with the rocky scrublands look. 

The tan bases with sandy basing grit, along with some tufts on them looked great. Plus the neutral tan made the bases a bit more invisible. Slowly I went back and re-did the bases on most of my older armies, and all new ones going forward. Except the Orks (and Tyranids). Too damn many boyz! 
 

I had never really liked the green bases with Orks, but at the time I didn't want the ladz to have some weird basing job on my green field. So I just suffered with the ugly bases.

The time has come around at last. I've done a few test bases and now it's time to have a rebasing party!

I will move a few Orks to bigger bases. like Nobz and such, but for the most part it will just be scraping off the old green.

The Slow Evolution of my Basing

I'm sure it will take a few evenings, but it should be really worth it.

Re-Doing is Doing

Makes Old Armies Like New