From GregB - The Marksmen of Miragliano (65 points)

Another Regiment of Renown marches forth - the Marksmen of Miragliano take aim!

For my last submission this week I have another Regiment of Renown for my Dogs of War project. Behold the Marksmen of Miragliano, the finest crossbowmen in all of Tilea! 

A couple of the Marksmen.

Under the leadership of the dashing Maximillian Damask, the Marksmen have a long tradition of service throughout the Old World, their deadly crossbow bolts bringing victory in countless battles! Only the most skilled crossbowmen can join this regiment. It is said the recruits must prove their ability by putting a bolt through the head of the prince on a gold ducat at 300 paces! 

Love the many, many little details on these beautiful sculpts...rabbit on one belt, a pheasant on the other...some fine stew around the campfire tonight lads!

Maximillian Damark and the regimental musician.

These figures are Perry sculpts, and are just so wonderful to work with. I love their character, and all of the little details that hearken back to the high-water market of GW's Fantasy figure sculpting. Things like daggers in boots, different packs with a variety of kit, all add character to the sculpts. Several of them are carrying animals they have hunted - rabbits, a pheasant - for stew around the campfire after the battle. And many of them wear the coin they had to shoot in order to prove their skill to join the regiment in the first place. 

D'oh! Broken standard in the box...

Best not to look too closely at that left hand...or either hand for that matter...

These are very, very old casting - and time is not always kind to old castings which have bumped around in a box for 20 years. Sadly the standard bearer had broken apart in the box, and in practically the word possible way. I attempted a repair, seeking to drill out the broken standard and replace it. But I am just dreadful at such hobby engineering, and made a total hash of the poor fellow's left hand. Best not to look too closely...I painted the poor chap regardless, and he has taken his place here in the regiment for now, but my hobby OCD is such that I have been scouring eBay for a replacement - it has been found, and will be painted after it arrives.

"We hit the right spot every time!"

In the WHFB game the Marksmen were a fine regiment to employ as their ability with the crossbows actually lives up to the hype, and a shower of bolts from this unit will hit a fair bit more compared to the average human archers in the Old World. They can also operate as skirmishers, causing even greater harassment for opponents, particularly ones already trying to figure out how to deal with the pikemen. 

For scoring purposes, we have 12 x 28mm foot castings, which should be good for 60 points. That's it for me for today - thanks for reading, and I hope to be back with more next week! 

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Another lovely Regiment of Renown Greg! Beautifully rendered in a Renaissance style. I agree, the Perry sculpts for this period are just terrific.

I've added a few bonus points for the flag and general awesomeness!

- Paul

From MikeF - Shiver, Splicer, Cyborg Exo-Suit - 20 Points

 I completed three more models for exploit zero. These include a psychic character called a ‘shiver’, a hacker character called a ‘splicer’, and a character in a cyborg war suit. The shiver is from Northstar Military Figures Stargrave range. The splicer is a 3-D print and is wearing a special bodysuit covered in wires, allowing him to hack into computer systems and control a variety of drones. The cyborg exo-suit doesn’t contain much biological material anymore, other than the head, and everything else has been replaced with a heavy war suit armed with a large machine gun and a power saw. It seems odd that the figures head is sticking out from the torso without a helmet, but I’m fairly certain the brain is nowhere inside that skull and is merely there to allow for a more “human” interface. The brain is likely contained in the armoured cylinder on the back of the model. This figure is from Seb games in their Void line of miniatures.

A Shiver demonstrating intense concentration 

Splicer 3d print

What does it really mean to be “human”?

3 x 28mm figures for 20 points.

Thanks for visiting!

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Great additions! But I wonder if Shiver is really doing a psyker thing, or just trying to remember where he left his car keys (that pose looks rather familiar to me...)

I've counted the chunky Exo-Suit as Cavalry for 10 points, the others are 5pts each for a 28mm fig

- Paul

ByronM - Two Foxy Fellows [14 points]

After last weeks big submission I am down to a two model submission this week, made up of 2 foxy brothers for Burrows & Badgers.  These two should make a nice addition to my outlaw (rogue) faction once I have enough games in with the faction to earn enough pennies to hire them.

These two brothers will be called Todd and Robin, some pretty obvious childhood references, but hey you can't always be cryptic with references.  I painted them up to match each other, so they are in mainly the same colours, and in dark forest green cloaks and jackets to help hide in the woods as they lay in wait for the Royalists to come by so they can rob their carriages.

Nothing fancy about the paint jobs on these two, I just tried to keep nice clean colours to match the brighter than normal cartoony style I am going for with my Burrows & Badgers figures to make sure they pop from table top viewing distance.  To that end, I am not doing any blending or subtle work on any of these figures, they get a base coat of the normal colour, a wash to add shadows, then a highlight with the base colour again and an extra highlight when needed.  That's it, plain and simple, but I think it really works with these figures as while they have detail, they tend to be a bit simplistic with fine details (I think to keep a cartoony overall look, but I could be wrong).

These guys are pretty chunky for 28mm scale, at almost 50mm tall and on 50mm bases! So they size well with the Badger I painted from a few weeks ago.

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Wonderful additions to this delightful project Byron. Your subtle colours and shading really suits them beautifully - they look like illustrations right out of Beatrix Potter!

Given their chunky yet sly disposition, I've scored them as 40mm figs

- Paul

From DallasE: Mechanicum Archmagos Prime (Belisarius Cawl) (10 points)

I guess it's nearly 10 years ago now that Games Workshop brought out plastic kits for the Adeptus Mechanicus faction of Warhammer 40K. I was pretty stoked about that, just because of the cool looks of the models and the creepy vibe they exude. So I have (over the last 10 years) painted up a small force of Adeptus Mechanicus models.

As with many of my hobby projects, GregB is to blame for this one. He very kindly sent me a box of Mechanicum Secularis Tech-Thralls Covenant models for Christmas and that's started me down the road of collecting Mechanicum models for the Horus Heresy. I was about to order a third-party resin Archmagos from Tista Minis when I remembered I had bought GW's Belisarius Cawl some years ago, and he (it?) was sitting on sprues in a box. So I busted it out and assembled it for painting. 

As you might be able to tell, it's a pretty intricate model with a lot of parts, and took a couple evenings to assemble. I built it in three assemblies - the legs, the torso, and the right arm. I'm glad I did as I reckon it would've been pretty much impossible to paint had I not left it apart for painting.

As for the paint scheme, you can see I've departed from the traditional Mars scheme and gone in another direction. I really like the charcoal grey and off-white colourway of Forge World Agrippinaa so that's the colours this model got (well the charcoal anyway). It's black with highlights of Vallejo Dark Rubber and Mechanicus Standard Grey, washed with Nuln Oil. The metal parts are Leadbelcher and Nuln Oil, and the brass is mostly Brass Scorpion, washed with Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade.

It's a pretty cool and scary looking model, and as I said it had LOTS of parts to assemble.

It's a pretty large model as well. I'm going to count it as a 54mm infantry model for 10 points.

One 54mm infantry model:  10 points

Total: 10 points

Skulls: 7

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He certainly is a large lad, and is quite the Heroic addition to any AdMech force. To me this series of GW releases really started to transform their 40k range to the new standard 'super detailed' style that can be quite intimidating to tackle. 

Notwithstanding, you've done a cracking job with him Dallas - 10points well earned!

- Paul

TomL, Traveling to Paradise (55 points)

It is time to enter Paradise at the First Sphere: The Inconstant. Leading us here is another Pulp Figures miniature from his Femme Fatales set.

 

Looking at my pile of potential I realized I had one group of figures who gave it their all, working for the betterment of others in spite of their past history but just couldn’t win in the end.

Blakes 7 was a show I came to years late and first watched on YouTube - boy would 1978 me have loved this show!  These figures are with Beast in the Broch miniatures (formerly associated with Crooked Dice).  All models were painted using TTC, Foundry and GW acrylics & washes.  Gan’s figure has the stripes sculpted in which was rather helpful.

Points for this post are: 55
Inconstant - 20 points.
7 * 28mm figures = 35 points.   Not counting the computer (sorry Peter Tuddenham).
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Blake's 7 was a show just before me time also, but alas I have never delved back to enjoy it. I guess with Dr Who, the original Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and Star Wars I was sufficiently entertained!

- Paul

From GregB - Thousand Sons Automata & Apothecary (65 points)

"No need to worry - they're with me..."

For my first submission today we have some more kit from GW's "Horus Heresy" setting. There are three Castellax-Achea Automata and an Apothecary, all wearing the colours of the XV Legion Astartes, the Thousand Sons. These are all multi-part resin models from GW/Forge World. 

Castellax-Achea Automata

Achean-Force claws, Mauler-pattern Bolt Cannon...ready for all kinds of automated fun!

GW's Space Marines are so conditioned for battle in the name of The Emperor that they come across as if they are nearly soulless killing machines. Note that descriptor - "nearly". The individual Space Marines is still a human, in a sense. But don't worry. When all-the-way-soulless-killing is called for, the Space Marines send in the Automata.

Designed and built by the various Mechanicum Forge Worlds, Automata come in all manner of shapes and sizes. Automata attached to the various Space Marine Legions are employed by their commanders either to augment otherwise limited numbers of troops or for use in combat situations considered too extreme even for the fabled Space Marines themselves. 

View of the guts on the reverse side of the armoured plates...and a glowing little crystal to help with warp-energy control...I'm sure that won't cause any problems...

The Thousand Sons applied their own little twist to the whole Automata phenomenon. Their Primarch, Magnus the Red, pitched some Mechanicum types on Automata systems that made use of psychic energy. Usually the Mechanicum Forge Lord types reject any idea which they didn't devise themselves as heretical, but in this case Magnus found a particular - and apparently isolated - Forge World that heard him out and said "hey, sounds great, we'll work that up for up for you." Behold the Castellax-Achea pattern Automata.

"WHO WANTS A HUG?"

These are essentially killer robots, with the advantage that they can be guided by their controllers using psychic means rather than more standard communications protocols. What could possible go wrong? With Automata like these around, the Thousand Sons can spend a bit of extra time reading forbidden books while the robots handle some of the tedious fighting for them.

Apothecary

Apothecary in Mk VI power armour - with handy chain sword. Of course.

Not a whole lot to say about this fellow. The Apothecaries are Legion specialists charged with ensuring the physical health of their battle brothers. In practice, this seems to work out to about 20% healing/80% recovering critical bits from seriously wounded brethren for use in creating future replacement Space Marines. 

All the tools of the trade mounted on his left arm, with lamps and sensors on the power unit on the back.

I love the "beakie" Space Marines, and when GW released a new Horus Heresy Apothecary figure wearing the Mark VI "beakie" power armour I naturally over-supplied on the models. Since I was doing some Thousand Sons Automata, I thought I might as well get this fellow painted while I was at it. 

Safety fluids galore!

The Apothecaries are great fun to employ in 30k games, almost invariably driving your opponent bonkers by sparing Space Marines who otherwise would have been obliterated. You can deploy a little pack of them to roam among your detachments and I have found them to be fun and useful in all sorts of ways. This is a second Apothecary for my Thousand Sons - so now the medical experts can do consults.  

The armour details did not leave a lot of room for Legion symbols, but I managed to get to pseudo-heiroglyph symbols on the leg greave.

For scoring, these models are much heftier than the standard 28mm Space Marines, but still not as big as the Dreadnoughts (which have counted as "vehicles"), so I'll propose to count the Automata as 54mm foot figures. 

3 x 54mm infantry = 30 points

1 x 28mm infantry = 5 points

Total= 35 points

Bonus - the Apothecary has four skullz!!

Thanks for reading - I have one more post still to come for today - stay tuned for that!

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Fab additions to your Legion Greg! The Automata are excellent - such a thematic element to break up all those Astartes. I've been meaning to add some to my World Eaters, where their high casualty rates mean that their Legion relies on some less berserk (ie reliable) firepower. 

The Apothecary is a lovely addition too. True, they seem to spend more time in the fiction harvesting organs in a non-consensual kind of way from their enemies, but then again all bleeding stopes eventually. One way or another.

Given the intricacies of the Automata, I've counted them as vehicles. Great entry!

- Paul

TomL, Stompy Robots & the Sergeant (34 points)

I decided to take a break from my ACW troops & their colour scheme. I painted some more Stompy Robots & an honorary charity figure I picked up when I bought my ACW Iron Brigade.  Starting us off is the well respected Sergeant Sawyer.  A part of Warlord from the beginning and a great contributor to GW before that. 

Finishing this post we have more painted Stompy Robots for one of my BattleTech obsessed friends.  a Clan Command Star:

 

 

 

 

 Primed & base coated with my airbrush, these were finished with really old GW and Foundry acrylics.  Quite a few casualties were discovered & their rock solid paint contents consigned to their final resting place. On the plus side, I reorganised the paint storage.

Pretty simple with 34 points.
2 45 mm Mechs * 7 = 14 points.
4 28mm figures * 5 = 20 points. 

Well BP & BA are on these tables. The guide says BT is the next hall over.

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Lovely stompy boys there Tom - the crisp contrast between reds and great and neat recess shading really makes them pop! The lovely canopy work really finishes them off beautifully also.

And yet, Sgt Sawyer rightfully steals the show. An immense personality in our hobby, and its great to see him honoured in this way. Thanks for sharing!

- Paul