From JamieM - Limbo Ogryn and More Boats (96 points)

It’s been a while since my last post and, perhaps fittingly, it’s the limbo entry on the circles from hell that delayed me. I have a lot of half finished projects (I feel I might be amongst like minded people with that here) so I decided to only do the odd figures that were either left on my painting desk because “I’m sure I’ll pop enough paint on them to finish them in between other projects” ( spoiler: I didn’t do this) or the projects that were within reaching distance of my painting desk, so any slightly larger projects that had been moved to shelves to await their turn (for months….. possibly even a year).

So, firstly, here is a larger project, Ogryn for my Horus heresy militia army

As some may know (especially after the knowledgeable and well informed posts from GregB and Curt on the subject) the Horus heresy occurred in the 31st millennium when fully half of the space marines rebelled against the emperor and threw their lot in with the chaos gods instead (who tricked them into thinking life would be better under them). This resulted in a cataclysmic interstellar war and sowed the seeds for the dystopian 41st millennium that warhammer 40K is set in.

Most of the books and other literature concentrates on the space marines fighting each other (because space marines are rad as hell, obvs) but amongst the huge empire that The Emperor's minions had carved out, there were many, many more “normal” folk, who were forced to throw their lot in with either The Emperor or Horus, often with little information as to what each really stood for. Games Workshop are renowned for getting customers to spend a lot of money on specific infantry, vehicles, etc for each setting, which is fine as a business plan and all that, but does veer away a little from the origins of Gee Dubs when scratch building and converting was the cool thing (roll on deodorant hover tank anyone?). These days, every army entry has to have a specific kit you can buy for it or they remove the entry from games until they’ve made a kit for it.

Now, it seems to me that as the Horus heresy/30k range isn’t one of their most popular ranges, the designers seems to get a little more leeway and so they produced the Militia army list to represent the many and varied standing armies and militias present on any given world. At the start of the army list there is a little bit of blurb telling you that there are no kits specifically for any of the entries and you are encouraged to use the other kits they make and kit so to build your army!

Now, I’ve always been a massive kitbasher and this was music to my ears! Even better, as a child who grew up with the first edition of war hammer 40K (aka "Rogue Trader") I’ve always had a massive soft spot for the Ogryns, who are the sci fi equivalent of the ogre. Large of body and small of thinking (“Blessed is the mind too small for doubt”) ogryn have always been taken advantage of by the imperial forces to get them to do what they say the emperor commands (“a small mind is easily filled with faith”). The militia force allows you to field big units of ogryn as your basic troops! And I could kitbash away to make them happen!

So here they are. They languished in limbo as our club played 30k for about a year and then moved onto other games and that coincided with me getting partway through them. The options for a militia force are many and varied, but I chose to have my ogryn toting shields (some official, some converted from half of a dozer blade meant for the front of fighting vehicles) and chain axes. In order to get enough chain axes, I converted them from Ork choppas and spare chain swords. I’m really pleased with the result and have 12 more to do to give me my two big units of ten. I still don’t think ogryn will stand up to the best that space marines have to offer, but they are ogryns and that’s plenty good enough for me.

Next are three more boats painted up as ghosts for Mantic’s Armada game (and warmaster naval too). Nice and simple and give me more options when added to the ones painted earlier in the challenge.

And from the other side…..

In summary then:

8 x 40mm figures = 56

Limbo bonus = 20

Three boats (worth 10, 5, 5 I think?) = 20

96 total points.

***

"I have a lot of half finished projects"

While I loathe the tiresome babble of progressivism, let me assure you: this is a SAFE SPACE for you! I am confident many/most Challengers will relate to the approach and sentiment which left your Ogryn unit to wait - and wait, and wait some more - before finally getting under the brush. And they look tremendous, and as you say, part of what makes 30k so fun is the lingering residual hobby spirit of GW's elder age where participants were encouraged to experiment and come up with their own kits. While Horus Heresy fans like myself are certainly excited to see the huge volume of kits now being released in plastic, 30k still retains things like the Militias which allow for creative folk like you to have some fun. The dozer blades...that is perfect as a shield for them! Can totally see a Commissar pointing at some in a yard and saying to the Ogryn "hey, just use these" and their perfectly small, loyal minds obeying immediately...

And also some naval stuff. Sigh. Whatever. At least they are spooky-looking ghost ships. 

96 points for you Jaimie! May the Hobby Gods infuse you with sufficient will to finish another project from the half-started pile...I mean...nothing new or cool being released? Right? Right?

Greg B