Ninja Maniac Salad

If you saw that listed on a menu, wouldn't you want to order it?  What would you expect to arrive at your table? What would be the right dressing for it?  I'm not much of a food adventurer.  But even I'd want to know what that's about. 

While you're thinking about those answers, here are some ninja models that I painted for Legends of the Rising Sun.  About the easiest damn models I ever painted.  But what's with the guy on the ground?  He'll be perfect for a true line of sight game like LotRS!

Project Tau: Kroot

A few months back I decided to go all in for a Tau army.  I got some bonus money and spent a portion of it on buying models that I needed to go from a few units to a complete force.  Trouble arrived shortly thereafter.  I started buying lots of other models.  I became distracted while the Tau sat in their boxes.  I recently decided that this had to change.

I have a lot of projects going on and the Tau project is probably the biggest.  Assembling these models would take me months at my glacial pace.  Then they have to be based, primed and then painted.  This project would never get done.  Time to call a professional. I sent my models over to Saguaro Painting Service, not for painting but for assembly.  Tim had the entire Battle Force box, two Piranhas, and a Hammehead Gunship turned around in less than a two days.  Talk about fast service!  Now all I have to do is paint this stuff.

First up from the Battle Force box are the Kroot.  I love the looks of these guys!  Kermit the Frog meets Predator!

I used Reaper paints mostly, specifically the Olive Drab Triad for their skin tones.  I really like this for green skin tones.  I wish I had those paints when I did my WHFB Orc army.  Any future green skin types will probably be painted in this scheme.  Here's a closer look at them.

I added a Shaper and some Kroot Hounds to go with these guys.  It only makes sense and fits the fluff.  I varied the green used for the Kroot Hounds.  I didn't think they should be the same color as the Kroot themselves, like you see in the Codex.  Could you imagine flesh colored dogs?  Too weird!

I painted the Tau Sept colors of Ice Blue on Kroot shoulder pads to tie them in with the Tau army.  Though you can't see it on the Kroot Hounds, I painted their eyes the same color.  So everything in the army will have a touch of that color to relate them all.

Here's an Abbey Road style shot of the Shaper with some of his band mates. 

That's all for now.  There is so much detail on these models that painting it all takes quite some time.  I think I'll tackle some of the vehicles next when I return to the Tau.   In the meantime, I'll be moving on to something else for a little break.

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers, Phase Four

At last we come to the end of the painting challenge that has been a "Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers."  I'm updating my Rivendell Elves to their final 700 point total.  Here they are posing for a group photo.

There are a total of 50 models present, coming to 692pts.  I couldn't squeeze in those final eight!  The disordered mess you see above is not much different than what I've been building all along.  I just add more of the same guys each month.  In the list is Elrond, 17 swordsmen, 16 spearmen, 16 archers.  Viola!  If I dropped Elrond I could force in about 12-13 more Elves.  But at 700 pts I'd have practically nothing to deal with the big boys I'd face at that level.  Additionally I don't want to play 700pt slug-fests, so no point in tweaking the list.

We haven't been getting in many games with these armies.  As a result, the few games I've played have been not so good.  I'm last in the competition.  So my dreams of being treated to a gigantic sirloin at one of Phoenix's most exclusive steakhouses is all but destroyed.  Looks like I'll be buying someone sushi.  I'll just have a soda.

There you have it!  I'm glad to have a new army for LotR.  Elves are definitely challenging to play and run counter to how I've played any other army in any system before.  I'm a "horde army/life is cheap" player mostly.  So defensively minded Elves are a new twist on things for me.  I'll hopefully get more table time with these Elves over the rest of the year.

28mm WWII: US Reinforcements

I've been steadily chipping away at the mountain of models I accumulated this summer.  I think I went on some sort of lead-based feeding frenzy.  There's too much to paint for a long time to come.  But I've been serious about my 28mm WWII miniatures.  I've started with Crusader miniatures and have been filling in gaps with both West Wind and Bolt Action minis.  Here's what I've got done.

First up is the command group pack from Warlord's Bolt Action range.  I wanted these for the medic and the grenade launcher.  The radio and officer models will be useful in certain scenarios.  These models are a little more normally proportioned than the Crusader line.  But mixed in with them, the Bolt Action models look fine.

These are West Wind models from the Snipers and Flamethrowers pack.  There are about five snipers and four flame throwers in the package.  I painted up two of each, figuring that I wouldn't need more. But there are obviously still some in reserve if I should need them.  These models fit in almost perfectly with the Crusader line, and I really like them.

These two pictures are of West Wind's US .50 cal HMG team package.  I like what they've done here, giving the HMG team in set-up and broken down poses.  So if you have reason to move them, you've got models to represent that.  I chose to put the set up team all on one large base.  If the team takes casualties, I can use a token to show it.

Finally here is West Wind's M5A1 Stuart tank.  I forgot to take pictures of a model next to it for scale.  But the tank does scale well with the figures.  Stuarts were genuinely small tanks and I don't know how four men got into them.  The West Wind line of vehicles are a real value.  I'm not as concerned with proper scale and making things "just so" as I am with having reasonable representations of the vehicles.  I plan to buy some of the larger tanks to see how these scale.  I think they are 1/56 scale models.

So my American force now has a little more variety than just straight up rifles and LMGs.  Next up for the 28mm WWII project will be my Japanese forces.

As a side note, I've been running a solo campaign with these models.  I've been using Flying Lead rules with Nuts! for the solo rules.  It has been a blast.  I've been keeping a campaign diary, which really helps drive the story.  It's also fun to write and re-read, even if it's just for myself.  I don't put a lot of work into it, as it's just for me.  But I've started to add pictures.  Maybe one day I'll post the write ups when the campaign is over.  Here's a shot of the US forces accepting the surrender of the remnants of a German panzergrenadier squad that tried to infiltrate US lines.  It's one of the US squad's rare victories.

The Rest of Them

As I promised in my last post, I've taken photos of the rest of my undead warband for SBH.  They are all Reaper miniatures.  I really like Reaper models and plan to collect a lot more of these.  In fact, I'll admit I snapped up a bunch more, maybe too many more.  I was planning an all Elf warband, themed on World of Warcraft's Silverwing Sentinels.  Now I'm not so sure I want to do that.  The models don't fit the look too well (other than being female) and would require some sculpting to get right.  Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

This is a Warlord model, something called a spell effect.  I thought it would make a nice undead spirit of some sort, maybe a wraith.  It had options for a big sword or just the hands.  I thought the sword look out of place on the model.

This is the Reaper of Death model.  I got him because he looks cool, though I'm not sure what game purpose I have for him.  I'm open to suggestions.  I guess I could go for "Grim Reaper" but that's too obvious and a little over powered for a small skirmish game!

As soon a I saw this model I thought of Lady Death. She doesn't have the big hair, but has all the other "big" that we love about Lady Death.  I tried to capture her vibe with dark purples and white flesh.  Reaper calls this model "Eldessa, Necromancer" but I plan on running her as a vampire. 

So those are the models, though not all might make the cut into the final warband.  I planned on doing a traditional vampire group, one main vampire, a few lesser ones, rat and bat swarms and wolves.  I could then fill it in with human servants, ghouls most likely.  I don't have those models yet, but maybe I'll get around to it one day. 

Also, for those who are curious, Warlord and Dark Heavens lines from Reaper do not mix well.  There's a big size difference, causing me to have to leave aside other Reaper models I wanted for this warband.  It irks me that they can't keep the scale consistent.  You'd think they'd want people to buy more of their models rather than go elsewhere like I had to.  

Just Because

Things have tapered off for me now that my family is back.  Demands of family life and work.... you know the whole story.  However, I've kept some side projects going nonetheless.  I've got a collection of Reaper miniatures that I bought years ago "just because."  Sometimes it's good to paint things for no other purpose than to enjoy the process.  I do have ulterior motives, however.  I'm planning on using these models for my Song of Blades and Heroes war bands.

Here is Reaper's Darkrasp model from the Dark Heavens Legends line.  I got him a long time ago because I thought he looked cool.  Despite the happy green lawn surrounding him, I think he came out looking evil enough.

Next is another Reaper model, Aysa, from the Warlords line.

I got this model when I got the Darkrasp model.  At the time I was thinking she'd make a good Banshee for a WHFB Vampire Counts army.  Though my WHFB dreams are dead, Aysa can still rise from her grave to fill a spot in my undead SBH war band.

This is all for now.  I've painted several more figures, but haven't photographed those yet.  Also on the bench are several terrain pieces.  I've got to get my new game table more terrain than a few trees and a hill.  Before long, I should have some updates regarding those terrain pieces.  Stay tuned.

WWII Germans

Here's my nascent collection of Axis 28mm figures for WW2, the Germans.

I've been relatively busy this month with painting!  My family has been out of town, leaving me plenty of time to get figures completed.  So here are three squads of German riflemen and associated support teams.  Below are some detailed shots of the squads.

So that's a pretty good base of Germans to start with.  The squad on the top has both Panerfaust and Panzerschreck.  I sort of stuck that squad together with left overs.  So now for some of the other teams.

Don't ask me why I stuck the 81mm mortar on a square base.  I thought I had some plan about mounting the figures on square bases to stick around the mortar.  Then I got over-zealous and mounted everything on rounds.  So much for ingenious planning.

Here you have an MG34 team.  Standing beside them is a sniper.  These should both help up the suppression factor on the battlefield.

Lastly here are a few different angles on the PaK 40 75mm anti-tank gun.  I really liked the way the gun came out.  It was refreshing to paint something where neatness didn't count.

So that's it for WW2 for a bit.  I have about 60 Japanese infantry to paint yet.  But I want to work on some stuff for SBH and maybe start filling in holes in my Tau army.  I also have to re-visit my US force and add in some more units as well.  My paint brushes are going to stay warm for a while!