Universal Carriers Complete

 This past Friday was a down day for me, so I finished up the pair of Universal Carriers.  I have not added any numbering or significant iconography as it didn't seem like something there was much on the reference images.  In addition, my Matilda also does not have much iconography.  This completes out 2/3 of my initial 1,000 points of British 8th army.  A 10-man infantry section, 1 Lt and Attendant, and 6 Pdr gun are left to paint - but after a break to work on some other things.

The FLGS community's excitement has also shifted from Bolt Action and Warlord games in general back to Age of Sigmar as well as Warhammer 40k Kill Team.  Add to this people getting into Wyrd Games range, Maulifaux and The Otherside!  Lastly, there is the other World War II games - Blood Red Skies and Cruel Seas, which hold much more interest for me than the Wyrd Games.  We will see what the new year holds.

Up next for me is the Warlord Titan for Adeptus Titanicus and a small Kill Team of Orks.

Universal Carriers In-Work

Some slow progress this past week on my pair of Universal Carriers.  Both are equipped with anti-tank rifles.  They will transport the two sections I finished last week.  Again, schemes inspired by the images on tank-encyclopedia.

Pair of Universal Carriers

Expanding 8th

Royal Engineers and 5-man section

I was more disciplined this past week with painting.  I got the 5-man Royal Engineers (viewer's left) and the 5-man Infantry section painted.  These are intended to ride in a pair of Bren Carriers; the next thing I plan to paint.  I intend to paint the carriers based on the images on Tanks-Encyclopedia's page on the Universal Carriers.

The Strumpet complete

The Boring Strumpet

I finished up the Boring Strumpet Gunhauler last week.  This completes painting up my new 1,000 pt of Barak-Mhornar.  In addition, it completes 1,500 pts of painted Kharadron Overlords, but not what I want to field for 1,500 pts.  I will probably pickup the starter box for a third Gunhauler, Thunders, and Endrinriggers.

Over the holiday weekend, I played two games at 1k pts.  The first was against a new Stormcast list, which was just difficult.  Even against what seems like half the army, I felt unable to effectively defeat units.  A 12" range for most of my weapons makes engaging a threat effectively also a setup for being charged.  Lastly, the hardness of Stormcast makes it hard to knock them down and keep them down.

The second game was against a Goblin Spider list.  I did much better, which I attribute to us both rolling really poorly.  My opponent put about a third of his army out of position, while also not committing his general and sorcerer/monster-spider to the primary fight.  This let me fight a third of his army with ~two thirds of mine.  Once I won that fight, I was able to collect my forces on my objective and finish off the out-of-position third.  Both of us rolled poorly all game, but I think my victory came down to poor positioning on my opponents part.

Balloon Distraction

For the past few weeks, I have been working off-and-on upon my second Kharadron Overlords Gunhauler, the Boring Strumpet.

In-Work Boring Strumpet

I recently changed up my 1,000 point list to field two Gunhaulers instead of the Gunhauler and Frigate.  The Boring Strumpet has a a Drill Cannon instead of a Sky Cannon, giving it 6" more range for a bit less damage.  This also freed up points to bring in the Skywardens, giving me even more board presence overall.  Sadly, the two games to compare with were both against Stormcast, which were able to roundly defeat my list using ~50% of the army (bad rolls may have played a part, but still).

As I look ahead to 2,000 points, I am considering leaning into the Gunhaulers more and going with a Grundstok Escort Wing outside of the mandatory core of 3x Arkanaut Companies.  We will see if over the next few months I am motivated enough to paint up another Gunhauler, another 3 Endrinriggers, and a final Company of Arkanauts.  It may be all for naught as the Kharadron Overlords seem to struggle in my local meta and trying to actually use the range of miniatures versus the "optimized" lists.

First Component of Commonwealth Platoon

Easy simple update to share.  I got my first British and Commonwealth 8th Army section completed.  I will be adding probably two more groupings of these guys to complete my Infantry Platoon.  As I have previously shown, there are two Bren Carriers, an Engineering Section, a 5-man Rifleman section, another 10-man section, Mortar and 6-pdr Artillery piece.  I think the Bren Carriers and Engineering Section and 5-man section will make a good next component (after a brief detour to work on the second Kharadon Overlords Gunhauler).

Infantry Section, Matilda Infantry Support Tank, & MMG Team

I have also started the process of writing down map-campaign rules for the group of us.  I have identified a good map and pulled out the old Warhammer General's Compendium to reference as I write things down.   Relooking at the campaign aspect has helped, I think.  I have aspirations of adding an Armor Platoon of M3 'Honeys' possibly supported by the Grant, but that is in the long run.

Basic Colors

Slow Progress on 8th Army 

I got a little more paint on the 8th Army minis.  These are the initial units being painted.  A little daunting.

Just need to spend time on them.  The motivation is not entirely there.  Part of it is a lack of continued excitement among others, possibly my own fault.

Lots of projects to work over the coming months.  It is enjoyable to see the progress, but the quantity is a bit overwhelming somehow.

Slow Progress - Distracted

Sorry, no pictures after two weeks.  I have been lazy/distracted by things other than miniatures the past two weeks.  A lack of excitement on the parts of others and video games has sapped motivation from me.  Hopefully some progress to report next week.

8th: Built and Primed

 

1,000 pt Commonwealth Reinforced Platoon

This past week, I spent my hobby time assembling my British 8th Army Commonwealth Reinforced Platoon.  I primed it all Saturday night.  It is a fairly straightforward force built out of the 8th army Starter Army with the addition of a Matilda Infantry Support Tank.

It has two full Infantry Sections, a 1Lt with an aid, a 5-man Infantry Section with a Universal Carrier, a medium mortar team, a medium machine gun team, a 5-man unit of Royal Engineers with a Universal Carrier, a 25 pdr light artillery piece, and the Matilda.

This should be a decent way to get going in campaign (and Bolt Action in general).  Beyond this, I am looking at an Armored Platoon, like Stuarts.

Busy Week

Not even the whole Warlord

I have been busy this week.  I knew that the British 8th Army sets for the Western Desert Campaign was arriving at the store.  I dove into finishing my current Italian Infantry Section and assembling my Warlord titan for Adeptus Titanicus.  The Warlord was put on pause for magnets, which arrived Sunday - after work began on the 8th Army unit.

My 8th Army will either be British or Australian; I have not yet settled on which exactly.  Any armor I build out will be from a Royal Armour Regiment.  The long term plan is to have two platoons, one Reinforced Infantry Platoon and one Armor Platoon, both hitting 1,000 points, with the potential to expand to 1,500 points.

Konflikt '47: Infantry In Progress

Simple update for this week; weekend was a busy one filled with lots of stuff other than painting or gaming.  I have an infantry squad and my Lieutenant with attendant in work.

Progress shot

Returning to Cygnar

My FLGS is starting up a Warmachine league at the end of the month.  I have most of a Cygnar army purchased and built.  In addition to K47 Co-Belligerent Italians, I will be working on getting my Cygnar painted.  My 0-point army is the caster Captain Jeremiah Kraye, a Minuteman Warjack, Firefly Warjack, and Lancer Warjack.

Light Warjacks painted up

The Lancer Warjack (viewer's right) was painted probably two years ago at this point.  I am going for a less bright blue Cygnar force.  Painting Warmachine definitely provides opportunities to think about small things in each model as for most warbands, you can minimize the repetitiveness of having super similar models.

Konflikt '47: Bersaglieri Complete

I finished up the heavy armored Bersaglieri this weekend.  As I was getting to the layering stage, I realized that I am not looking for these to be as high-quality paint jobs as my Horus Heresy Ultramarines.  This is an project to have an army to fight Weird World War II battle!

Bersaglieri Armoured Infantry

I skipped on details like eyes or other parts to really focus on getting them looking like a unit.  I think they will look good on the table.  I did decide after looking at the models to add the bright grass. I need to figure out what is next in my ECI efforts, I have a list written out, just no models to jump into.

In addition, a group of us are considering playing Bolt Action, North Africa campaign.  I have been given the wife's blessing to play Rommel's Afrika Korps.