Santa might have pulled me back in...

So When opening my Christmas presents I found this sitting in my lap...

A very cool piece.  Will have to assemble it and see how hard it will be to magnetize / modify it so I can swap out the Maticore for the Deathstrike.

The next question that comes is...How does this fit in the "Theme" of the army.  I suppose it could be "Horse Rocket artillery"

Course I might not want to jinx the model with the accuracy shown by the Horse Arty in the video above. ;)

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and got lots of sweet gaming loot from Santa.

Hiatus from 40k...heard the call of Battletech again.

Been a few months since my last post.  Figured it was more than time for an update as to my status.

I've gotten a little blog happy as of recent.  In July I started up a 40k campaign with the local gaming crew.


Using Planetary empire rules.  Made a blog for the players to follow online and set up battles at their own homes.  Unfortunately, if fizzled rather quickly, with only 3 of the players meeting after the first two months.  Campaign is still going on, though updates will be very few an far between figuring it might be months before anyone gets a game in.  You can see the details at...

http://acadia40k.blogspot.com/

What am I doing now?  All my gaming energy is going into running a Battletech campaign.  For years the guys have been bugging me to run another Battletech campaign.  Finally after some dedicated harassment from a couple of players, I broke and jumped in to the campaign creation process with both feet.  We had our first game 2 weeks ago, plan on playing once a month.  You can see the campaign details and follow the progress of the Campaign over at...

http://operationbulldog.blogspot.com/

Til Later,
Rangerrob

Group Shot and summary of the unpainted.

Click for the Large image

  Here they are...The Mordian 95th Rifles.  Six full Veteran squads to the left.  HQ's, Two command squads and Elites in the center.  To the right is the extras, Flamers, Heavy bolters, Mortar stands.

In the back we have our Armor and Transports.

I purposely took the shot with the flash on so when I come back to look at this pic, the unpainted minis really shout out "PAINT ME!".  So what I have left to paint for infantry figs:

Ratlings with the Shakos added

• Sharpe
• Harker, 
• Teresa, 
• 5 Ratlings, 
• 3 Mortar crewmen, 
• a Heavy Bolter 
• and 2 mortar tubes

 As for the vehicles,

Hornblower in an Executioner (Worth the points)

• Leman Russ Exterminator tank
• Leman Russ Demolisher Turret (Magnetized)
• Punisher, Demolisher, Vanquisher barrels, Lots of sponson weapons
• Vendetta with all weapons magnetized.

You can see the unprimed Demolisher turret, I got that as a bits purchase.  I have one of the old Exterminator Leman Russes.  In my opinion the worst Russ option.  I would probably only field it against Eldar where the Autcannon and triple HB set up would come in handy.  So looking at all these spare barrels that you get with the Demolisher kit I figured that swapping the turret out, you give me much more flexability with my armor builds. 

 That's all for now, time to get painting.
 

How to paint the Valk?

  I've also finished magnetizing my Valkyrie.  Used the left over Land Raider LasCannon sponsons from a Land Raider Crusader box that allows me to convert the Valkyrie to a Vendetta should I want to.  Trouble is I'm kind of stumped as to paint it up as. I've got some ideas running though my head and I just wanted to run them by the followers for input.

  To me the Valkyrie doesn't really fit with the Sniper Vet themed army.  So I'm figuring Sharpe requisitioned one outside of the normal supply chain.  Why does this matter?  Well it lets me be more flexible with the paint scheme.  Before I get into the various ideas, some back story on Sharpe and the 95th that might be relevant.  On of my favorite of the Sharpe movies is Sharpe's Eagle.  A British Major dies and losses the Kings colors (Flag) to some French Calvary.  He was just following the poor orders of his Colonel, but anyway.  As he is dieing in Sharpe's arms, he asks Sharpe to get him a French Eagle (Aigle de drapeau).  So Sharpe later in the show storms through a French line as it is disrupted by some line fire, and gets the Eagle.


So here are the Ideas I have had in no particular order.

1) Great White Shark scheme.  Grey-Blue on the top, White on the bottom.  Black eyes under the cockpit, no open mouth decal, just a thin black line for the mouth.  This one is kind of an inside joke, due to my irrational fear of sharks.  Saw Jaws at too young of an age or or was on the Indianapolis in a past life, or something who knows.

2) Streaky French Tri-Color.  Fifteen to twenty years ago there was this ad in a magazine for the Concorde.  Image was looking head on to the Concorde the was painted in the colors of the French flag, only the paint job looks like it was applied in a Wind tunnel.  Made the Concorde look faster than it already looked if that was possible.  You think I could find that image...my Web-Fu failed me.  But I found this shot to the left so you get the basic Idea.  This fits with the "Eagle" reasoning from above.

3) Union Jack.  Fits with the 95th, British theme.

4) Modern Fighter Grey.  Emphasis of the army should be on the 95th and not the support craft.  Each Valk also comes with Imperial Wing waterslide transfers.  So this option could have the white imperial eagle wings, keeping with the "Eagle" theme.

5) Standard Green Valk.  The one you have seen dozens of times over on the GW site.  With or without the white imperial wing decals.

6) ME 262 Paint scheme.  Just cause of all the aircraft paint schemes I've ever seen, I've liked this one the best.







I'll be making a poll over on the right, feel free to vote there, and if you want leave your comments below.

Thanks,
Ranger Rob

Comandante Teresa Moreno

  Followers of this blog know that the theme of the army is the fictional stories of the British 95th Rifles Regiment.  Mostly drawing from the television series that follows Richard Sharpe and the 95th Rifles.

  You have seen that I have found minis and army listings to represent some of the major characters of the Sharpe shows.  Sharpe is a Commisar mini that counts as Straken.  Harper is Harker.  Hornblower a Mordian Lascannon gunner cut off at the waist and stuck in a tank as Pask...OK that one doesn't really come from the Sharpe stories, but it fits the theme and time period of the army.

  Anyway, having finished green stuffing Harper, it is time to move on to my next character.  Comandante Teresa Moreno.

  In the Sharpe stories, Teresa is a leader of the Spanish partisans fighting the French.  She works behind enemy lines, harassing the French, spying on them, and disrupting their ability to make war.  Sharpe gave her the nickname of "La Aguja" ("The Needle"), for her skill with the blade. 

  To me there is only one character in the Sharpe stories that fits this description.  Marbo.  Yeah there is a Major Pyecroft who is an explosives expert that could have been Marbo, but the Behind the lines fits the role of Teresa better.  Besides, all my armies have at least one female model (Eldar, Dark Elves, Escher gang...)

So now I needed to find a female mini that I could use for Marbo, First I looked for the pistol, had to be look enough like the ripper pistol on the actual Marbo model.  Second I wanted a GW mini, just to have the option if I wanted to field the 95th in an 'Ard Boyz tourney eventually, I'd be legal.  Looking through my Escher minis I found just the one.  This one will make a great starting point. 


  First, I'll cut the sword from her hand and add a Space Marine Melta Bomb to represent the Demo charge.  Then I'll trim off the pouches on her left leg and add the envenomed blade in a sheath there.  Finally the most risky part, I'll trim her top knot and green stuff her some "Curly" hair. 

  I have all the parts, I'll post some pics when she is done.  I've played with Marbo twice now, One time missing the Demo charge throw, the other time taking out 4 Terminators, both times Marbo getting gunned down the turn after she pops out.  To me the Demo pack is more important to display on the mini than a knife that will rarely see combat.

That's all for now.

Redone Harker

Well after much commentary, Harper lost his hat.  All of you were correct, he looks a lot btter with just his curly hair.  So what did I do with the hat?  Gave it and some others I had to some Ratlings I picked up.

The shot above is from a game of Planet strike I recently played.  Vet squads given free immobile Land Raiders with 6 fire points (Bunker Annexes) is kinda like cheating.  You can see the details of the game and the campain over at http://acadia40k.blogspot.com/

Final shot is my Vendetta that I finished assembling...fully magnetized to swap back to a Valk.

That's all for now.

Going on Campaign...

   Sorry for the lack of updates, been a little busy setting up a campaign with the local group of guys I play with.  You can see above what my painting time has gone into, finished up the Planetary Empires tiles last night.  It is going to be a major undertaking we are using all the rule sets for 40k.  Planetary Empires, Cities of Death, Planetstrike, Battle Missions, Apocalypse, and Spearhead are all viable options for our campaign.  Even added in the Winter War rules from the GW website.

Guess I've gotten a little obsessed with the campaign setup as I have made a Blog about it as well.

http://acadia40k.blogspot.com/

  Figure that the campaign will get me even more dedicated to finishing up the few unpainted models I have for the 95th.  Will probably get me to add to the 95th too.

That's all for now...

Painting chart, Army theme, Characters and Tank names.

I finally got around to making a painting chart (Big props to Admiral Drax for this idea.) Putting it on "paper" like this was great to see how my force lines up. It also shows my build options. As you can see I don't have many basic guardsmen (riflmen) left. So building a traditional guard force is not a viable option. Sure I could probably build one full platoon. Then what, lots of heavy weapon and special weapon teams. Nah, I like the elite guardsmen route the army has taken.

This left me with quite a few heavy weapons and crew to spare. I mean, I'm not going to put one mortar in a veteran squad, so what am I going to do with all these crews? You can see what I did on the painting chart. They got drafted to be either carry a vox or a demo charge. The mortar crews are a good example of this I use the loader as a Demo charge guy, easily spotable. The gunner's "trigger device", looks like an oversided cell phone / walkie talkie that a vox caster would use to communicate, the lascannon gunners have the same "trigger device" so the vox guys have a similar look.

The theme of the army is BS4. With the preferred special weapon being the sniper rifle, and the preferred heavy weapon being the lascannon. I've added demo charges here and there to slow the advance. I could add one to all 6 veteran squad if needed as I have the spare mortar loaders.

I've added many of the named characters from the Sharpe series, and linked them with named character that best fits their style. I have "Inquisitor" Lord Wellington with his mystic command staff, not for the anti-deep strike...well that helps. But the Inquisitor Lord allows me to take a Vindicare assassin and call him, Rifleman Daniel Hagman. Those that know the series, know why Hagman has to be a Vindicare and not just another veteran with a sniper rifle.

Then there are the Tanks. It was hard to justify fitting Leman Russes into a Napoleonic themed guard army. I was thinking, maybe I could tie in the British Navy and treat the tanks like Ships of the Line. That lead me to using Knight commander Pask as Horatio Hornblower, and naming all of the armor in the force after ships that Hornblower commanded in his stories. Hornblower is currently in a basic LRBT, but will be moving over to the Executioner once I get it assembled and painted.

That just leaves how I named of the Valkyrie, but I'll save that story for another day. Though most of you will be able to figure it out.

Thanks for reading...

Harker to Harper with Greenstuff

So some of you may not know who Sgt. Major Patrick Harper is...

From Wikipedia...
Harper is a large, fierce-seeming man from Donegal, Ireland. He joined the 95th Rifle Regiment as a rifleman. Harper and Richard Sharpe are enemies initially, but Harper becomes Sharpe's best friend and most reliable companion, rising in rank to sergeant and later to regimental sergeant-major. Along with Sharpe he is one of the principal protagonists of the series, and appears in most of the books.

As in an earlier entry I said I would be using the Harker stats to represent Harper. To see Harper in action... head about 3 minutes in and enjoy the rest. You get to see Harper and Sharpe do their stuff...note the multibarrel gun that Harper uses.



Anyway...I finally got some greenstuff, and converted my Harker mini to a Harper mini. I had to sacrifice an old commisar minii for the Epaulettes, I really liked that mini, but it was worth it. Plus there will never be a commisar in the 95th (Sharpe would kill them before they layed a hand on one of his Sgts.)

This was my first go at this amount of greenstuff. The camera really shows what my eyes couldn't make out for mistakes. I'll be going back and touching him up, but for a first try I think he came out OK.





That's all for now...

Found my Sharpe.

So after a year of looking I finally chose the mini I will use to represent Sharpe, for my Commanding officer. Turns out he was right under my nose all along.

I went back to the guard page on the GW site just to look around and I saw him.



Figure I will paint him up to look like this...


Still undecided if I will take the head off and replace with a Boromir head from their LOTR line. I probably won't due that, do to the goatee on all the Boromir figs.

Sharpe at times wore a great coat, but it was always muddy/dirty, so I'm not sure I will want my commanding officer looking like this...


I'll be using the following website to assist my painting to be sure I get the colors right.
http://seanbeanonline.net/compendium/uniforms.html

And on a side note I have begun to assemble the Valkyrie. The paint scheme I plan to do for that is a story for another day.

That's all for now...

Painted a little more on the bunkers

As promised...some more pics of the wooden box bunkers.

Got the Sandbags on all of them, and the "concrete" part painted.

Here is one with a typical 95th Veteran squad.


Did I mention the top comes off? Glued 4 wooden dowels into the corners. Figure when the bunker is destroyed, I can take out the lower portion and just leave the top as ruins.


And they are big enough to fit a good sized squad.


You can take 6 bunkers if you take the "Bunker" card in Apoc...so I made 6.


There are firing slits on the sides and the whole length of the back (front?) of the bunkers. Next up is to paint the doors and those vision slits a metallic color, and patch up the sandbags that I dropped getting ready to take this shot. :)

That's all for now.

Planetstrike and Apoc terrain...on the cheap

So looking at the core of my guard force, veterans with their old 5+ armor save I thought about building them some terrain.

In both Apoc and Planetstrike there is the ability to have Bunkers and or bastions.

I really like the idea of putting my guys in an armor 14 fire base. The downside is ability to give orders takes a hit as you can't order guys set up in buildings...unless you are in the building. Anyway here are some of the buildings I'm working on...(Ignore the Space Marines, these are older pics I'm just getting to post now.)

First a building...


Next up...a Bastion. Used a "Mega-Jug" from KFC as the tower. A tile, 4 cardboard tubes, and 4 1" cubes to the top. Door way is made from some broken keychain flashlights.


But having played a game with just one bastion...I decided to make a few more.


Finally, a bunker. First I found this wooden box at Micheals for $3.00.


Remove the latches, add some wooden coffee stirrers, and blocks.


I'll round out the top by adding sandbags made from super scuplty.

the new Fortifications...


More images to come...I got the sand bags done for the bunkers and painted them up this weekend.

Ard Boyz list...maybe

So I've been giving some thought to running my guard in Ard Boys rather than my Eldar. With my Eldar, I know how they play, their strengths and weaknesses. I haven't played the guard that much. Mostly in Apoc games, where the Baneblade does most of the damage.

The 95th is a themed army, with priority given to having BS4, sniper rifles and lascannons. Not the best build for Ard Boys, where cheese is on the table. But it would be fun and a challenge. Our FLGS usually has a poor showing for Ard Boys...maybe 8 people, so if the dice are with me...

I missed last years Ard Boyz with family stuff. I brought my Eldar two years back and built an Anti-Marine force. There were 8 players that year, 3 marine, 1 chaos marine, 2 Ork, and a dark eldar. Course I get Ork, DE, and Ork for my draws. Finished in 4th, losing the 1st game and winning the next two. anyway back to the 95th...

I had been using just a generic commander for Sharpe, but looking closer I think Straken fits him well. Tough to kill, a beast with a sword, and always charging into combat with riflemen.

For 65 points how can you go wrong with Marbo? I added him or let me say her. I'll be using an old Escher figure and calling her Miss Teresa. Spanish resistance leader who was nicknamed "The Needle" who harassed the French behind enemy lines.

You have already seen my Harker / Harper comments from 9 months ago...I got to check in more often, sorry folks.

I added Pask (Hornblower) to one of the Russes. The added BS fits the army theme. For guard heavy support I only own 3 basic LRBT and one Exterminator...which one would you leave home?

any way I'm rambling...here is the list...

2500 Pts - 5th Edition Roster - Mordian 95th Rifles, Ard Boyz

HQ: Company Command Squad @ 255 pts (Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon x2; Lasgun x1; Sniper Rifle x1; Heavy Weapons Team; Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken; Master of Ordnance; Chimera)
1 Heavy Weapons Team (Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Lascannon)
1 Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken (Flak Armour; Refractor Field; Close Combat Weapon; Plasma Pistol; Shotgun; Cold Steel and Courage; Gung-ho; Man of Adamantium; Senior Officer)
1 Master of Ordnance (Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon; Laspistol; Artillery Bombardment)
1 Chimera (Heavy Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser)

HQ: Company Command Squad @ 95 pts (Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon x2; Lasgun x2; Regimental Standard; Heavy Weapons Team)
1 Heavy Weapons Team (Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Lascannon)
1 Company Commander (Flak Armour; Refractor Field; Close Combat Weapon; Plasma Pistol; Senior Officer)

Elite: Guardsman Marbo (1#, 65 pts)
1 Guardsman Marbo @ 65 pts (Demolition Charge; Envenomed Blade; Flak Armour; Melta Bombs; Ripper Pistol; Fearless; Fleet; Hit & Run; Move Through Cover; Stealth)

Elite: Storm Trooper Squad (10#, 215 pts)
9 Storm Trooper Squad @ 215 pts (Carapace Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Hot-shot Lasgun x7; Hot-shot Laspistol x9; Plasmagun x2; Special Operations)
1 Storm Trooper Sergeant (Carapace Armour; Close Combat Weapon; Krak Grenades; Plasma Pistol; Power Weapon)

Elite: Ogryn Squad (6#, 265 pts)
4 Ogryn Squad @ 265 pts (Flak Armour; Ripper Gun; Chimera; Furious Charge; Stubborn)
1 Ogryn Bone 'ead (Flak Armour; Ripper Gun; Furious Charge; Stubborn)
1 Chimera (Heavy Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser)

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 105 pts)
7 Veteran Squad @ 105 pts (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Lasgun x4; Sniper Rifle x3; Veteran Weapons Team)
1 Veteran Weapons Team (Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Krak Grenades; Lascannon)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 105 pts)
7 Veteran Squad @ 105 pts (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Lasgun x4; Sniper Rifle x3; Veteran Weapons Team)
1 Veteran Weapons Team (Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Krak Grenades; Lascannon)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 105 pts)
7 Veteran Squad @ 105 pts (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Lasgun x4; Sniper Rifle x3; Veteran Weapons Team)
1 Veteran Weapons Team (Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Krak Grenades; Lascannon)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 125 pts)
7 Veteran Squad @ 125 pts (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Lasgun x4; Demolition Charge; Melta Bombs; Grenade Launcher x3; Veteran Weapons Team; Demolitions)
1 Veteran Weapons Team (Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Melta Bombs; Krak Grenades; Heavy Bolter)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Melta Bombs)

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 170 pts)
9 Veteran Squad @ 170 pts (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Lasgun x6; Demolition Charge; Melta Bombs; Grenade Launcher x3; Gunnery Sergeant Harker; Demolitions)
1 Gunnery Sergeant Harker ('Payback' (Heavy Bolter); Close Combat Weapon; Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Melta Bombs; Catachan Devils; Feel No Pain; Relentless)

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 245 pts)
9 Veteran Squad @ 245 pts (Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Lasgun x6; Demolition Charge; Melta Bombs; Meltagun x3; Sergeant Bastonne; Chimera; Demolitions)
1 Sergeant Bastonne (Carapace Armour; Hot-shot Laspistol; Krak Grenades; Power Sword; Melta Bombs; It's Up to Us, Lads; Never Give Up, Never Surrender!)
1 Chimera (Heavy Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser)

Fast Attack: Valkyrie Assault Carrier Squadron (1#, 145 pts)
1 Valkyrie (Extra Armor; Searchlight; Lascannon; Multiple Rocket Pods x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 235 pts)
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank (Battle Cannon; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2; Knight Commander Pask)
1 Knight Commander Pask

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 185 pts)
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank (Battle Cannon; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 185 pts)
1 Leman Russ Battle Tank (Battle Cannon; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Validation Report:
Roster satisfies all enforced validation rules

Total Roster Cost: 2500

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