From IanW - 6mm Fest - Surprise Surprise (113 Points)

I have two lots of British Napoleonic's to paint, one lot for my son and the others for a mate for his Waterloo game. I have never painted British Napoleonic's before so a rather nervous first as these are supposed to be for a display game at the Worlds.

I have a total of 22 Battalions for Steve (as well as cavalry) so these are samples for him to give the thumbs up or request changes for the rest. He gets to see them Thursday, so you steel the march on him a little.

I find something stirring in me when I see the Union flag rippled by the wind, by the time I had painted all the edges on the third one something else was stirring too.

All units today are the 2nd Battalion of their respective Regiments. First up the 30th Regiment. The yellow facings proved a little tricky, a surprise given I have had less trouble working it onto Prussian Blue previously.

The 33rd Regiment has a white George and I have a flag sheet on order from Baccus along with a few other bits so these won't be finished for at least a few days. 

The 69th Regiment has a bright almost mint green facings and as the following regiment has a darker green facing I wanted to try and show the difference. Unfortunately I failed to get a close up of the 73rd, try and get that sorted out.

No backpack straps to paint, yippee. I have to admit that I found the experience rather pleasant, now ask me again when I have the current thirty four battalions finished how it feels.

The next submissions, well I blame Clint, well he did ask for more. These like all the figures today are Baccus. Some rather splendid stone throwers. I have some of these from Essex for my 15mm but you really get the feel of BIG with these boys.

I have experimented with using one of my hairs to provide the wire/rope?? that flings the stone, you may just about see it. Maybe next time I will use one of the grey ones.

As I want to use Hail Caesar with my Ancients I thought it nice to use casualty markers rather than dice to show unit loss. So I may as well have a go and see what they look like.

The markers are the smaller Warbase models costing just 60p each and are reasonably small. This Hoplite curiously seems to be missing his head so I have painted him up with a cloak possibly covering said head.

Another Hoplite but more obviously dead. I have a whole bag of these guys so some will make it onto the normal bases for flavour.

I also painted up one of the cavalry casualties and I really like the way he is posed against the horse. I want the bases to be fairly minimal so not a great deal of Static grass. Still experimenting with the Baccus Huff Puff but I feel I am getting there as the grass stands up rather well. Time consuming but I like the effect.

Last up (for now) is a nice bright corpse, this time an unarmoured Hoplite. It's had to see but he is lying on his shield.

I originally planned just two units of Light Infantry with javelin but overestimated how many figures would fit on the 60x40 base so in the end I painted up four units. Whilst I don't see me using four in the early games maybe if we build up massive armies then I will need them, time will tell.

Rather than have them all facing forwards I have some of them running back from the enemy hoping to draw them on. Again I want the bases to look like what I think they would in action, not just a few figures on a small base but spread out.

I also did the same with the bow armed light troops, my only quibble is that they look like they are armed with longbows rather than the smaller bow of the time. Not that I am an expert so could be wrong on this.

I would ideally preferred more than two posses but again this is not really a moan as a wish for more character on the bases. I suppose if I was really fussed I could check out the Rapier figures to see if they are comparable.

As well as light infantry units Hail Caesar has skirmish units, to represent these I have put two figures per base on a 2.5cm round I picked up at The Worlds last year in the goody bag. I would have preferred them to be thinner but they are fine.

Last up the same but with Javelin. I still have yet to paint up test units of my Hoplites, Agema cavalry and Peltast's as well as plenty of Pike. Long term I am looking at 10 blocks of 96 pike and hope to be able to field them probably by the end of the next challenge.

Figures wise I have

96 British for 48 points

96 light troops for 48 points

3 infantry and 1 cavalry casualties for 1.25 points LOL

Large stone throwers 16 crew for 8 points and whatever Curt gives for the balista's.

So 105.25 plus the lobbers.

Next week will be back to the 15mm Roman's and maybe a few more Vikings in 28mm


From Curt:

Okay, so what's with all the people using their body exfoliates  for modelling? It's starting to freak me out. It reminds me of the scene in 'Black Adder Goes Forth' when Baldrick informs BA that, because of the rationing at the Front, the 'coffee with milk and sugar' is actually mud, spit and dandruff...

Those British Napoleonics looks great Ian. I can't believe that after the zillion 6mm Nappies you've painted to-date you've not done any Brits - how does that happen?! Anyway, your friend and son will be delighted with these little gems.

You know, I actually think the 6mm scale works better with those casualty markers than the 28s you've done previously (which were excellent in their own right). The extra real-estate allowed for the basework seems to compliment the whole arrangement. But, maybe it's just me.

Again, wonderful job Ian. Now, don't get tempted with doing multiple units of HYW English archers or you'll make yourself bald from the bowstrings... :)

From DavidL - More Epic Orks: The Death Skulls (92 Points)

My Epic40K project rolls on.

This week, we have the Death Skulls clan, which I consider the "core" of my army in the bit of background I've worked up:

On the planet inhabited by House Beaumaris (my friend's Imperial Knights army), tech levels remain medieval outside the centers of civilization. In addition to primitive humans, there is a feral Ork population that still wields axes and spears, rides around on giant boars, and breeds massive Squiggoths to perform manual labor. Recently, however, a mysterious Death Skull warboss known only as "Da Blue Baron" has arrived planetside. Inspired by the Knights and Titans of House Beaumaris, he has started building Stompas and Gargants in imitation. (Indeed, it is rumored that he even stole his exalted title from Baron Beaumaris.) As the Waagh waxes strong within Da Blue Baron (who previously was content simply to steal stuff from his fellow Orks while they were off doing the fighting - as evidenced by the presence of Goff Gutrippas and Evil Sunz Scorchas in his army - then leg it to another system before anyone noticed), he has contracted with some stinking Blood Axe mercenaries to bulk up his forces. The rising Waagh has also attracted the local Savage Ork population, who have flocked to Da Baron's banner (and his idol-like Great Gargant, which they worship openly as a god), forming a Wildboyz horde (like Snakebites, only more primitive).

And so here we have the Death Skulls and Da Baron, along with his escort of Stompas, plus the looted tanks referenced above. (Once again, my lightbox proved too small to get everyone in a single shot, but this is everyone sans Stompas...)

Like the Blood Axes, the Death Skulls are usually something of a second-tier force, but I liked the idea of being able to take other clans' special units as my own, and the idea of making these guys my "core" had a certain perverse appeal that led directly to the whole Blue Baron background.

(Plus, mechanically, I love the fact that when a Death Skulls unit is out of command, its default action is to drop everything and start looting--so Orky!)

Death Skulls often don blue and white face paint, so I gave about half of the figures that treatment, which was an interesting exercise in such a small scale!

Da Baron himself, along with his Nobz, a Painboy in blood-spattered smock, and a Mekboy wielding a Shokk Attack Gun, probably my favorite bit of Orky tech.

You just cant go wrong with a gun that teleports a gaggle of Snotlings (dumped into the machine through a funnel, no less) through the Warp and into the delicate workings of tanks and Titans!

The looted Goff Gutrippas. I considered giving them a Goff paintjob with blue stripes slapped on, but I decided in the end that the Death Skulls would have sandblasted the Goff paintjob away and applied their own slapdash colors, similar to what we see with photos of captured enemy tanks in WWII.

I was quite intent on giving the tanks a real "lived-in" look, with plenty of rust streaks and chipped paint, and I'm happy with the results.

And here are the looted Evil Sunz Skorchas.

There's something quintessentially Orky about a massive flamethrower spigot located directly above the exposed driver...

And finally, the Stompa mob.

I got these off of eBay, and the original owner had done a fun little conversion to indicate the commander of the mob. Da Blue Baron's second-in-command, no doubt...

One of the things I absolutely love about the Stompa models is their little slate-roofed shacks on the back. It's strangely homey in a way.

Last, and certainly least, a Gretchin mob to act as a meat shield for the clan...

And on that anti-climactic note, the tally this week comes out to 122 infantry, the Shokk Attack Gun (which may or may not count as an artillery piece...I'll leave that up to Curt), 6 vehicles, and 6 Stompas (not sure on points scoring for those...once again, I'll leave it up to Curt).

Next week: some odds and sods plus...the Gargants.


From Curt:

I'm usually not a big fan of the whole Space Ork thing in 40K but I can't help get onboard with the infectious fun that you're having with these models and the entire 'ethos' of the army (if such a word can be used with Orks). For example, as soon as I read your description of the workings of the Shokk Attack Gun I immediately wanted to game with it. 

Again, like your previous entries with this collection, I really like the punchy, high-contrast colours you've gone with. The ork's green flesh is clearly apparent and that bright blue is a nice change from the common red you typically see with Ork stuff.

Wonderful stuff David!