historical portraits and minis: Lenin

It seems to me that some of my favorite studios (e.g. Copplestone castings) base their figs on less-well known photos or statues of historical figures; the implication being that what better way to make a miniature historical than replicating a detailed portrait in the interests of getting the style right. So, I was browsing the "back of beyond" catalog for a fig that had a particular look and I came across this in the pack of "European advisers" and I was particularly interested in the mini second in from the right as I recalled the following portrait from the Wolf biography of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin:



Pretty darn close, no?

Daemonhunters are awesome and they suck

Hey everyone,

Soon I am California bound, but I got in a couple of 40K games with a guy here in town (military from the base) using Grey Knights/Daemon Hunters last week, and so despite the lack of photos I wanted to post a little Battle Report of the two games I played. The guy I was playing against was a big tournament player, and so has been very good about introducing me to some tournament strategies versus those he might use for a fun game.

Game One: His Imperial guard were mostly what he had assembled thus far, as he is making a new army. He wanted to introduce me to some of the points of the game, and so took an all-infantry force with more variety than single purpose. Our game was seizing objectives, and I took Greay Knights with on Inquisitor and a few Stormtroopers. The game was also 40K in 40 minutes, so we played 500 points without any big characters or 2+ saves.

I deployed on the side with a few more objectives, and the game for me was refusing the right flank after sacrificing the Stormtroopers on that side, while sweeping the left with Grey Knights and the other unit of Stormtroopers. In all I swept that flank somewhat effectively and at game end I held more objectives, so my plan worked. My Grey Knights also turned out to be pretty damn hard, and the assaulting Stormbolters combined with close combat abilities made it hard for the Imperial guard to mount defense. I felt really good about the game at the end, and was happy that my general tactic seemed to work well with my army. However:

Game Two: For this game my opponent told me that he was going to turn up the competition a bit, indicating that he had taken some smart choices, but hadn't gone all out. His force ended up being three troop transports, a skimmer, and a Leman Russ. This didn't freak me out too much, as I had Termintators deep striking in (this game was 1K) with a honcho, and so I thought "all I need to do is get to him with a few fellers." Oy. He started dropping fire on me from the first turn and my forces just evaporated. Five shots per round with the Leman Russ = 5x the small Template worth of S8 AP2, and then the transports and the Skimmer (twin-linked Lascannons) added insult to injury, and then added more injury. There was some dice favor towards him, but the game can be summed up as follows: My guys suck all kinds of ass.

The result of the two (in retrspect), is that against infantry armies my guys do OK, but against all-mechanized forces I am pretty much screwed. I will take another shot at it tomorrow and try to load up on Meltaguns to the extent that I can, but this is a very small extent (Grey Knights have choices mostly limited to Heavy Flamers, Psycannons, and Stormbolters). In the game tomorrow I think he is going to leave the Leman Russ behind as well, as kicking someone's ass so completely wasn't really fun for him either.

bloodbowl humans

Hi all! Here is my latest project, all finished! These are the humans from the base set that comes in the bloodbowl box. For plastics, quality is ok. I went with the blue pants theme because I wanted them to have a striking difference from the (green) orcs I published in an earlier blog (so, it's green vs. blue instead of black vs. white) ;)

For Southpaw

I saw this (buried deep in an otherwise-mediocre thread) on Dakka, and thought that Chris might appreciate it after his initial Space Marine modeling efforts.

How to Build a Huey Helicopter

Terrain: Oil Drums

Hey Gang:

Sorry for the long delay. It was good to see rcar, Granta, and MS last week and get some 40K gaming in.

A couple of months ago, my kids came home with little plastic things full of gum from a kid's b-day party goodie bag. See Here:
Like me, you no doubt noticed that it is shaped awfully like a 50-gallon oil drum. So, with a little selective cutting (to get rid of the handle) and some paint, they look like this:
The Ork -- by the way -- is done by my friend, NB. This is his first experience painting figs and as you can see he is already quite proficient. He is about ready to try some more detail work -- washes, etc. But, back the drums, I think they turned out OK. I like the one on the left more than the one on the right -- more bleed through of previous colors. I was going for rusty barrel look -- you can let me know how I did.

The barrels are a tad out of scale but only a tad -- no more so than the vehicles (though in the opposite direction).

I have yet to locate the source of these plastic gum-filled terrain possibilities but another appeared in my home (again, in a goodie bag). I am trying to track down the source and when I do I will be happy to share that info or even send along a couple to you (if it turns out to be an IL thing).

Cheers,
SP

Quick battle report: Crimsom Fists vs. Necrons 650-ish; Pitched Battle

Granta 94 played a necron army, 2 squads of 12 and a lord that was very heavily kitted out: resurrection orb & some other stuff but the former featured rather well for Granta throughout the game.

I had everything in 5 man combat squads: 1 tactical (w/rhino) 1 assault and 1 scout. The tactical squad had a missile launcher and the scout squad had a heavy bolter. My chapter master had a power weapon, master crafted bolter and all the juice you get with a chapter master.

I won deployment and initiative and went first. I chose to deep strike my assault squad so they stayed in reserve for the first round of combat. I moved the rhino around the archaic-style terrain piece toward one of Granta's squads and his lord. The scout squad used the infiltrate rule and hid in the woods 12 inches away from the other squad.

Not much happened in that first round. The second round was the most eventful for me: my assault troopers deep struck right behind one of Granta's squad. Though intended to appear behind the lord they actually shifted four inches to the left and wound up behind a squad. My gamble worked as the location for their appearance was rather close to the table edge. (See 1st two photos.)

I took out 6 (half the squad) but the res orb that the necron lord was toting about allowed two to survive the assault reducing the total dead in the squad to four. The squad was subsequently wiped out by the necrons who w/their str 5 gauss rifles just ripped through the assault marines. I went cold on the saves and this represented, for me, the beginning of the end.

This would be the full extent of the damage I would inflict against the necrons. The rest of the game saw my squads cut down entirely with the exception of a fleeing heavy bolter in the scout squad and my chapter master who failed horribly on the orbital bombardment (which went 8" wide from the intended target). After round two the dice went entirely cold.

Highlights: my epistolary librarian standing his ground against a half-squad and Granta's lord. However, Granta's lord literally vaporized the librarian; my snake eyes did not save against the two wounds and poof, gone.

rcar workbench: Cpt. Aguilar

Still need to add bits of detail to the sword and other places but this is, more or less, the finished product.