Tyrants Legion under construction

After much deliberation and a chance encounter in our hobby room with a the recent killteam box containing a full plastic tactical squad, I settled on building my centurions out of these parts. I also came up with just enough resin industrial/rubble bases to base my fledgeling Tyrants Legion on them. To make the process of building a new army manageable, I decided to go build and paint them in 500 put blocks.

Presented below is the first block; an imperial guard HQ command with meltagun and lascannon(not pictured), a ten men infantry squad with flamer and missile launcher (the tyrant guard combined marine and guard elements, I wanted the guardsmen to emulate Marines by carrying their signature weapons) a Chimera armoured transport and a single marine centurion. Since the marine codex doesn't allow veteran sergeants as independent characters , the only option is to make him a techmarine.

The guardsmen where painted a decade ago and have him surviving in a plastic bag ever since, so are in need of some touching up and adding some tyrant legion colours.

Early war german paratroopers

Some support paratroopers for bolt action and chain of command. Mainly engineers plus an antitank rifle and a light mortar.

Converted flame thrower from a radio operator. He should have a round gastank, but I'd like to imagine some creative paratroopers disguising the tank in something more innocent.

Adeptus support for the Imperial Guard

I've stumbled across some of my adeptus models in various stages of painting. And recently acquired five battle sisters. Currently I have three assassins ( of which two are actually necromunda spyerers)  5 Arbiter, 5 seraphim, an inquisitor, a techpriest, two frateris militia and some naval advisors. I'll assemble them and try to get them painted soon.

Dutch ww2 Huzars

The Dutch army of 1940 had a few motorised regiments; the Huzaren motorrijders. Around my hometown they were mainly used to guard the motorways against enemy airborne forces and insurgents. The dutch armoured car platoons were also supported by the huzars. Thus they helped defend airfield Ypenburg against the attacking fallschirmjager.

For my Bolt Action force I converted a BA10 into something not entirely unlike a Landsverk M 36, and converted some Warlord games German motorbikes into huzars, by means of a simple headswap. The huzars wore brown leather motorjackets and pants, coupled with dark cavalry boots ( and spurs according to some!).

The last Dwarfs

As part of my vacation painting and basing spree I finished my WFB dwarf army today. I painted my Anvil of Doom and dwarf lord, and based my slayers ( very nice avatars of war plastics)  and scouts. With these models my dwarf army is officially finished. Hopefully I can squeeze in a game with my entire dwarf force before everybody switches form 8th to Age of Sigmar.

Painting and basing spree

At the beginning of this year I had quite a long list of miniaturen to paint. Than life happened and only a handful got painted. The next few weeks are my holidays, and since the DIY tasks are postponed due to the builders finishing late, I have some time on my hands. Apparently I'm very good at starting projects but not at seeing them through ( it seems to me most wargamers share that ). So I've gathered some of the last remnants of armies almost finished. Below you can see them in all their unfinished glory:

- catachans (marbo, an ogryn stand-in for Not Deddog, and some snipers/ troopers)
- Russians ( scouts, an mmg, light mortar, commisar, spotter And officer)
- Germans ( mid/late war troops, panzerschreck and flamethrower plus a group of early war fallschirmjager)
- dwarfs ( anvil, lord, scouts, converted irondrakes and a unit of slayers)
- dutch ww2 Huzars on motorcycles

Hopefully I can start posting pictures of them finished or at least progressing through the next few weeks. Some of the miniatures only need basing, others haven't even received their basecoat yet.

Dutch support units 28mm

The first series of pictures of my 28mm dutch ww2 force. Since no company manufactures these units I've had to convert them.

The Landsverk M36 armoured car is based of a 1/48 Russian BA-10. I got that idea out of the flames of war dutch guide, but it seems to work better in 15mm than 28mm, the details are just to recognizable. Both the conversion as well as the paint job could do with some improvement, but for now it will do

The artillery is a piece of veld-7, converted from another 75mm Krupp gun. Since Outpost manufactures only one officer, I used some small conversions. On the artillery sergeant I just replaced the hand, having him ready for the fire order.

The last picture is an 45mm light at-gun. Luckily the Italian army used the same gun and had putties as part of their uniform. A simple headswap on the warlord games set (courtesy of their flexible head system) has them ready for action.

28mm Dutch ww2 army for may 1940

The last few months I've been working on a few different projects, and didn't get around to posting anything. The main project are two armies for 28mm ww2: Dutch and German Fallschirmjager. Since nobody manufactures 28mm ww2 Dutch, I had to mix and match different models from various manufacturers. The infantry is mostly Outpost Wargame Service's ( excellent service in providing a specific selection of models I could use) range of rumanians, who happened to use the same helmet and almost the same uniform. I sculped the webbing on (first sculpting project ever, the result will have to do), and ordered Lewis guns from another company. 

The weird green-blue-grey color of the dutch uniform was difficult to replicate, and I'm not entirely pleased with the result, but it's passable for tabletop encounters. I'll try and take some snapshots of the different units and post them soon, including my converted "not entirely unlike a Landsverk" M38 armoured car and my small but proud squad of motorbike mounted Hussars.

To do list for 2014

Last week I had vacation and spend some time rummaging through our attic. I came across quite a number of unfinished armies. Thus I decided to see if I could spend some time finishing them. These armies are currently on my to do list ( apart from finishing my 40k chaos, guard, wfb dwarves and high elves and bolt action germans and rusians). I guess my lack of focus is clearly showing...

-15mm flames of war mid war english infantry company plus support

- 10mm thirty years war catholic army for field of glory

- 15 mm ak47 rhodesia clone plus legion etrangere para troops

- 15 mm deamonworld orcs and goblins for our homebrew sets or vis magica

- 20 mm ww2 early war scotish infantry platoon for baps or chain of command

- 28mm acw confederate and union armies for brother against brother

progress on the Romans

A few more pics of my Romans, hopefully I'll manage to finish this army somewhere in the next two weeks and get a game of warhammer ancient battles in. But also because I have a lot lying arround waiting to get painted as well: a Saga Anglo Saxon war band my friend Peter kindly gave me in as a gift, a necron tomb barge and annihilation barge and LOTS of high elves...

1st cohort

2nd cohort

3rd cohort

scorpio's and slingers in the background

veteran cohort

Gallic noble cavalry auxillia

veterans and gallic nobles undercoated and drybrushed

Painting Romans

The last few months I've been painting caesarian romans. I plan to use them for both Warhammer Ancient Battles and Hail Ceasar, although I'll have to find some players for the last set first. the models are fro wargames factory. The quality is reasonable, but the models pale in comparison to Perry or GW plastics. luckily they are dirt cheap, with 48 legionaires coming in at about 25 euro's.

I've painted  three cohorts, two small units of skirmishers (archers and slingers) and three scorpio's. on the to do list are two units of cavalry (Gallic and German Allies), one more normal cohort, a cohort of veterans and a small unit of auxillia infantry. As soon as I manage to get more pictures of of my IPhone, I'll post some closeups and the progress.

The infantry units are 18 man models strong, deployed in three ranks, which gives me a good number for WAB and the abillity to play Hail Caesar with either a slightly reduced frontage or in two ranks.

Mustering the Infantry

This week I have a game of 40k planned against orks. Because I haven't got the new chaos codex yet, I decided to bring out my Imperial Guard foot army.Since I intended to finish this army this year as well it seemed like a good time to try and at least finish some more models for the match.

just out of storage...

Since it's only 1500 points, I can't use many extra units. I always use three platoons of three squads, costing me about 1000 points. Next in are my rough riders and ratling snipers. My psyker battle squad has been three guys short for the past few years. Last year (Sinterklaas) I got the last three as a gift, but never got around to paint them.

So now I have! All that needs to be done now is base about 120 guardsmen.....

pre-Devlan-Mud-Dip

Hopefully I can post a few pics of the battle and the army in full after the game friday. Below a small preview of the first platoon of the 4th Hollan ' Emperor's Own'  Line Infantry Regiment, 3rd company ' The Ostriches'.

1st Platoon + auxiliaries

The Valhallan 532nd

As mentioned previously I am busy  painting and finishing my Valhallan army. The last year I played a number of games at a thousand points. But now I'm painting it up to 1500. I selected the units partially because they were what I had lying around and partly to have a good mix of different units to show my friends, who were new players at the time, the different rules and mechanics of the game.

For those interested a short armylist of the Valhallan 532nd regiment:

-Company Command Squad; RPG (you should never refer to them as Missile Launcher, unless you're looking to taunt the dice-gods), Vox and Boltgun for the officer, loaded into a Chimera armoured transport.

-Primaris Psyker

-Marbo's Valhallan Comrade

-Platoon Command Squad; 3 Grenade Launchers and a Vox

-3 Infantry Squads; Flamer, Heavy Bolter, one squad with a Vox and another with a Commissar

-Mortar Squad

-Lascannon Squad

-Veterans; 3 meltaguns

-5 Rough Riders

-Valkyrie with Rocketpods

-Griffon

-Leman Russ Battle Tank Squadron; 2 tanks, both with hull Heavy Bolter and Heavy Bolter sponsons.

-Hydra Flakgun


Here are some pictures of the HQ and elite units of my Valhallan army. Hopefully I'll be able to show you more pictures of my army later this week.

The Company Command Squad

The Primaris Psyker and Commissar

Marbo's Valhallan Comrade

A Confession

A confession: I don't like miniature painting. On our attic lies at least a few thousand euro's worth of mainly GW produced plastic and metal miniatures, with a mild sprinkling of historicals. Enough to last most wargamers a lifetime.... Last week, while trying to paint my latest 40k purchases, I realised the only models I do sort of enjoy painting are my 40K imperial guardsmen. Luckely for me, I have been collecting these for the last 15 years, so I have a reasonable collection to pick from.

I decided to cast aside my current project (A Sons of Malice Chaos Space Marine Warband of which I may show you some pictures later), and first try to finish the two imperial guard armies I've had lying around for years, mostly painted but not quite finished.

So first to arrive on my painting station are my Valhallans, a force I started to paint recently to use against a few of my friends who finally started wargaming last year (amazing what a baby and bit of peer-presure can accomplish). After that I have my trusted Praetorian/Mordian infantry army lying arround, waiting to have the dust brushed off and almost finished for the past 5 years or so. And on the horizon blooms a veteran Catachan jungle fighters strike force (must finish other armies first, must finish....).

The start of something new

Well than then, here goes my first attempt at blogging. I'm not what one would call tech-savvy; I don't have a MSN or Twitter account, my family shares one computer (and my wife's E-Book) and my phone doesn't even have a camera on it. Still, there's a first for everything. My passion for tabletop gaming has had me lurking on the net, watching other people share their growing collections and gaming experiences.

Last weekend I decided that maybe it would be fun to try something similar. So without further ado I present to you my first Gaming and Painting Blog. Enjoy, and please tell me what you think of it.

Maarten