To Catch A Predator...

For our latest predator we had one of our interns pose as a twelve year old girl on a science fiction chat room. Shortly after, today's subject came on. When we asked how old he was, he replied that parts of him dated back to the Horus Heresy (clearly he was not a minor). The conversation covered various topics, but when our intern brought up the move "Avatar" and how much she liked the Na'vi he immediately became aggitated and wanted to come over. We gave him our address and waited.



When he came in he seemped suprised to find us here. I asked him to sit, he said he preferred it idle in place. I asked him what he expected to find when he came here. He replied, "A heretic xenos-lover who would need to be purged." I aked him what he would "purge" her with (we have visited several websites and are unsure which connotation he was referring to). He implied that he would use his "heavy bolters" but he also had these with him:



He claimed they were his " magnetized lascannon sponsons". Again we have scoured the internet and so-called kink sites try to find what these are but they have eluded us.



When the officers we had on hand attempted to apprehend him, he blew up their squad car and departed. We chose not to follow.

First Troops of the Year: Scouts

Somewhere in these eleven figures is a full scout squad. Kind of an ecclectic bunch; I will probably need to get a boxed set or two to round out a second squad. Not really sure how to use them but I'll figure something out in the near future. More importantly, it's that many less I'll have to convert over to team blue. Huzzah.

I Call This Masterpiece "Getting Tabled in Four Rounds by 'Nids"

So here is the battle over Christmas vacation where I got my blue power-armored buttocks devoured by my friend Steve's (of wrote the Powerborne: Book One of the Zarryostrom fame-great read, get your copy at www.nenethomas.com while they last) bugs.

Basic setup is the city of Gorkopolis, infamous for getting ransacked at the drop of a hat (town theme song forthcoming) the scifi sister city to Tubbleheim which frequently suffers a similar fate in Warhammer. End of the world of the week; Tyranids. Since it's late and I'm tired, what you see is pretty much wysiwyg only the Razorbacks had Heavy Bolters.

Deployment (notice the spffy turn counter there in Central Gorkopolis Park)

My setup (make not of the tactical squad to the right, sitting all happy on the flank-that will come up later SPOILER ALERT-it does not end well).



Steve's setup:


The panoramic vew of Steve's setup:






Turn 1: Steve Wins Initiative

Kiss one Dreadnaught and Razorback goodbye in return for a wound on a hive guard or something lame like that.








Turn 2: Shrikes Advance




Marneus Calgar runs into Hand to Hand. I fail to wound Zoanthropes with lascannons and oh by the way does anyone else remember that Marne can call down ordinance fire 'cuz apparently he forgot.




Turn 3: Marne takes out a Hive Guard. There goes the other Razorback (which will make great cover for the shrikes by the way) and the hive tyrant decides Marne is going to get the bonesword. Also, guess who else shows up for the part? Genestealers! Remember the Tac squad I mentioned earlier? Gone of course. My counterattack units rally and whittle the genestealers down (yeah, taking a flamer paid off for once). Oh and Marne bites it.






Turn 4 The shrikes take out the devastator squad, and guess who was close enough to get get demolished by the genestealers? Yeah, the coutnerattack force who subsequently wipes them and the remaining tac squad out. The last of the devastators get taken out by the hive tyrant and it is all over except the digestion.







Errors on my part; putting the Razorbacks too far ahead. They worked against me as cover once taken out. Second, placing the Tac squad within charge distance of the flank. Third, placing the counterattack force within charge distance of the flank after demolishing the first group.

It was a fun game and playing with two fully painted armies on fully painted terrain was worth the embarassing loss.

I made up for it by a crushing victory against our friend Jon's Necrons the next day but of course I forgot to take picutres of that. Bummer.

First Miniatures of the Year Brought to You by Freem's Livestock

Best Grovet Bulls this side of Gardner's Paradise. Plenty of livestock available, unless those darn orks raid us again....



These are going to be "terrain" for next week's modern redeux of the Rogue Trader classic "Battle at the Farm." In this case, ork raiders will go up against local planetary militia (imperial guard) in defense of Freen's Homestead. Hopefully I'll have the rest of the terrain up by then.

also in the works, I have some scouts for the 2012 Freeboota Challenge, and a predator that I am converting over to Ultramarines.



Over the break I also got in two games. In the first, which I heavily documented, I was-well you'll see the battle report but it was not the Ultras finest hour. The second that I completely failed to photograph I soundly defeated Necrons, although at the time it did not feel like it. More details to follow on both shortly.

Lastly, the redacted by the Inquisition vehicle that I built last year was a mycoetic spore that I did for a friend of mine:

End of the Year Closeout

A little early but with my work schedule migrating towards nights and I leave on vacation the 23rd I don't foresee much more in the way of painting so here goes:

The end of the year total is:

Painted:
190 Miniatures
7 Vehicles
10 Objective Markers
16 Ressurection Protocol Markers

Made but not painted (intentionally)
1 Vehicle [CENSORED BY THE INQUISITION]
40 Objective markers (30 Ultramarine markers given for free, five Necron markers given as a gift and 5 [CENSORED BY THE INQUISITION])

All told, down from last year but I lost two months to travel and even more to work. I expect next year to be down a little as well. I am going to shift focus to more terrain; I have boxes of parts and ideas that have been gathering dust literally for years. My big miniature project/yearly challenge will be Heresy Era Ultramarines and I look forward to getting started on them, however my current era Ultras still have plenty of work needing to be done on them.

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

In Your Honor, Honor Guard Conversions and More Chapterhouse Goodness

First, thank you GW for converting Marnie Calgar and his buddies to finecast. No I actually mean that; other than some minor work I have not had any problems with this set:



On the other hand, thanks (sarcasm this time) for not making the individual Honor Guard available for purchase any more. So I was forced by my overwhelming cravings for a second honor guard squad to make my own using Tac Marines as a base and the Spartan Heads from Chapterhouse Studios:



There was a bit of conversion work obviously. The swords were cut from some spare terminator arms (those arms are were converted to hold the Thunder Hammers on the termies I did earlier). I used various extra bits from the tac squad and command squad for the shoulders as well as the GW metal Ultramarines shoulder pads. I made leather straps for the front and sculpted capes (thanks to Ron over at fromthewarp.blogspot.com for the tutorials, as well as modelbits.co.uk for some spare parts not in my bits box).



The real thing that made these a cut above (as far as anything I've done could be considered a cut above anything else) was the heads. To make them fit properly I pinned them on to the torsos (the base of the head is a touch small to fit perfectly) but that was not a problem. The heads themselves were fantastic and there were no issues with flash (they are metal so bubbles were not a problem). I have a ton more and plan on using them in my Heresy era projects.

More Objective Markers

This time for Necrons: