Skaven Weapon Teams

I’ve finished the Poison Wind Mortar for my Skaven army. The other pic has a couple of the older Weapon Teams (Warpfire Thrower, Jezzail, and Ratling Gun from left to right). The last pic is an in-progress of my converted Doom Flayer. Yes, that’s a chainsaw.

The Mortar was a return to my rats. I haven’t actually painted anything in the Skaven army for 3 years, as I got to a good stopping point (at the time). With the new rules, I’m converting up new units, and rethinking some of my oldest paint jobs. Some of the clanrats were painted almost 15 years ago!

American Armored Infantry

These are a couple units from the American Armored Corps I’m painting up for a client.  A selection of M3 Half-tracks, along with a Bazooka team from the Armored Infantry platoon. The jeeps and carbine teams are from the Recon platoon.The American army is nearly done!

Warp Lightning Cannon

 

I’ve done more work on the Warp Lightning Cannon for my Skaven. Lots of scratch building and bits diving. Parts from everywhere, and plenty of drilling, pinning, and bending of plastic rod. I had a general idea of the end result, but I sort of let it come together ‘organically’, adding bits as I went. Hopefully I’ve stopped before it got too ridiculous.

Now it’s ready to paint. This is going to be time-consuming…

 

Greeks vs. Gauls

These are a few shots from this week’s Field of Glory game. It was my Lacodamion Spartan army versus my friend’s Gaul army. Technically not ‘true’ to history, but Gaulic tribes did invade Greece from the north on occasion. His army list came from the Rome Triumphant book, about 400 or so years after my Classical Greek list from Immortal Fire.  We’ve played these armies together several times, and it’s always a fun time.

In typical fashion, he lined up his huge battlegroups of medium and heavy Gaulic foot across from my relatively thin Greek hoplite line, seperated by skirmishers and assorted cavalry. After a good amount of manuever and delaying action (and some good shooting on my part) we connected all along the line. My line weathered the impact of all that Gaulic foot, and held. After sustained melee, my Greeks came out ahead, breaking 6 battlegroups. Armored Spear against Protected Swordsmen is a rough fight.

My friend’s Gauls are well-painted. He (like alot of players) uses wood stain to shade his paint jobs on the miniatures. It does a great job of adding detail at 15mm scale. I’ve never gotten into it though. I at most use a thin black wash to shade. The Gauls seen on unfinished bases are because he is converting a fair amount of Medium foot to Heavy foot.

Better pics of my Greeks are in some older posts here.

New Skaven weapons

 

With the arrival of the new Skaven book, I’m revisiting my ratties. I kit-bashed a Poison Wind Mortar team (plenty of bits at hand) and have brought out the parts for my own Warp Lightning Cannon.

I’ve had the parts and designs for my version of the Cannon since the previous edition of the Skaven book, but I just never got around to it. The old points value also dissuaded me, but the lower cost (as well as lower cost of many things in the army) mean I’ll finish it and give it a go on the table. The pics of the Cannon are in-progress, so are missing parts and wires.

Imperial Guard randomness

 

Some more of my Imperial Guard army.  A few more troops, with their sergeant. A good selection of flesh tones, with Hispanic, Indian, Caucasian, and African.

The flamer-armed Guardsman’s helmet was made from a fantasy Chaos Warrior, and the fire apron is just cardstock.

The Snipers are made from a pile of parts, with contributions from the IG plastics, Necromunda weapons and backpacks, Forgeworld bits, old old IG bits, and even a Marine scout head. The sniper on the right is a right out of the box Cadian sniper. I either add them to the Infantry squads, or field them as counts-as Ratlings.

American Armored Company

 

Some pics from this week’s game of Flames of War. This was a late war game using the Breakthrough scenario. The US Armored company (that I’m painting for a friend) had to punch through the thin line of my German Grenadiers.

The US force was a pair of Sherman HQ tanks, a Sherman platoon, a Sherman 76 platoon, an M10 Tank Destroyer platoon, a couple Armored Recon patrols, a battery of Priests, and an Armored Rifle platoon. The Germans included Grenadier HQ w/ Anti-tank Section, 2 Grenadier platoons, a Pioneer platoon, a Panzer H platoon, a StuG III G platoon, support lelG18 guns, and a platoon of Pak40 anti-tank guns. We played 1400 points, since that’s the amount I’ve painted up so far for his army. The US force will eventually recieve an M12 Field Artillery battery to round it out to 1750.

We’ve been playing through all the scenarios to get my friend comfortable with the rules, and other players (as well as I) give tactical and rules tips over the course of the game; ie ‘don’t drive into those woods’ or ’shoot the anti-tank guns before they can acquire you at short range’.

The first part of the game (pics 1-3) had his Shermans and Recon patrols test the German cordon around their starting positions, under cover of the Priests. They didn’t get far, getting wiped out by crossfire from StuG’s and PaK40’s, also losing both the Company commander and his 2iC. The US flank march took its time getting on to the table, giving the defenders time to shift to cover their approach to the objectives.

In the latter half of the game (pics 4-6), the US flank march arrived in force right into the sights of the StuG’s, Panzers, and dug-in Grenadiers. The Sherman 76’s actually did a lot of damage, taking out 3 of the Panzers, and the infantry accounted for several stands of Grenadiers (almost wiping out a platoon) and a StuG. However, he was never able to dig in and had no cover, so even the arrival of the M10 Tank Hunters couldn’t save them, and all US platoons in that section were wiped out/broke and ran.

Panzers!

 

More of my Germans. This time, some of the tanks and armored vehicles.

The first pic is a variety of Panzers, with a Panzer IV F1, Panzer IV H, and Panzer III M. I went for the darker camouflage on them, but might some day go back and redo them with a brighter mustard yellow or olive camo scheme.

The second are a Marder I tank hunter and an 8-Rad armored scout car. I plan on going back to paint the scout car in a more interesting camo scheme, as the basic German grey may be accurate, but it’s sort of blah compared to the rest of the army.

The third and fourth pics are some StuG II G’s.

A platoon of Panther D’s are in-progress. I’ll soon have enough tanks to play them as a Panzerkompanie, with some infantry in support.

Grenadierkompanie 2

 

More of the German army. In this case, the transport vehicles allowing me to field the German infantry as Panzergrenadiers (trucks) or Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers (half-tracks).

The truck is a captured Soviet ZIS-5 truck, repainted for German use. The other stand is one of the objectives for games. Some poor bastard sniped when he got out of his truck.

Grenadierkompanie

 

Some of the Grenadiers from my German army for Flames of War. They serve for both mid or late war. The minefield was fun to make, even if it’s effect in-game is hard to notice. The Pak 40’s are not for the mid-war force, but show up in the late war army.

At the tournament a while back, the Grenadierkompanie placed about middle out of 16 players, but did win Best Painted. The prize coupons went back into the army, with some support guns and Panthers on the way

The mid-war force included the Grenadier HQ, 2 Grenadier platoons, a Pioneer platoon, a MG section, Mortar section, 2 Marder I tank hunters, 3 StuG III G’s, and a PaK 38 Anti-tank platoon. And a Sniper for good measure.