In Work Mobile Air Defense System

In Team Yankee, all forces have access to aircraft.   This bothers me a bit, because I know history and can talk to people who was preparing to fight the Soviet machine back when I was 1-year old and fight against their Air Defenses specifically.

Soviet airpower theory was much more focused on gaining air superiority through the use of integrated air defenses.  The Warsaw Pact Air Forces recognized they lagged behind NATO Air Forces.  The Soviet Union instead invested in Air Defenses.  The inclusion of Su-25 Frogfoot in the Warsaw Pact lists seems like an unnecessary list balance effort.  NATO air-power, like might F-15 Eagle (102 Air-to-Air kills, 0 Air-to-Air losses), would have made getting a Frogfoot into the fight nearly impossible.  So, SA-13s and ZSU-23s to defend my armored columns against the rightly feared A-10A.

SA-13s & ZSU-23s

Helicopters

Despite it being a long weekend, I only managed to finish painting the first pair of Mi-24 Hinds.

First Pair of Mi-24s

They were a fun change of pace from tanks.  Next up will be four ZSU-23s and two of four SA-13s.

More pics below.

More Tanks

T-72s and BMPs

This past week I was fairly successful painting four more T-72s and five BMP-2s.  These however are only the beginning of a Volks Armee force, which I think is a better representation of the Polish Army than a Soviet Red Banner force.  This drives the inclusion of more tanks overall, adding probably about 10 more tanks overall.

1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson

The Conversion from 40k to Mk III iron armor took longer than I expected, but I finally got the only remaining member of my original Rout army armed and ready to roll.  Introducing Villskap Redmaw  1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson Pack Leader of the Bloody Hunters.

Villskap Redmaw 1st Sgt of Skoll Hrodvitnisson

First 5 Tanks painted!

First Five Tanks  

I have completed painting my first five tanks and have dived into the next nine!  In painting these five tanks, I made the decision to use a dark grey for what might be metal on many models.  My theory for this is that a factory primer of some kind is always useful.

I also purchased a copy of Volks Armee, which provides an overview and lists for forces from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik's Nationale Volksarmee.  I think this list will work better as a baseline for my Poles than the main Soviet army.  The impact will be the total number of models (and thus cost) will increase.

My work space

Airbrushing Armor and Aircraft

This past week I ordered and received an airbrush.  On Sunday, I made my first attempts at airbrushing - 5 Tanks and 2 Hinds.  I am working on trying to be more consistent about working on models.  Hopefully I do not get too distracted this week's evenings.

5 T-72s

Pair of Hinds

BAOR Dragoons defeat Polish 2nd Armor

On Saturday, my brother and I played a 50-point game of Team Yankee at At Ease Games in San Diego.  He played British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and I played Polish 2nd Army (Soviets).

Just prior to Engaging

New Year New Army: My return to the Hobby

So, it has been a long time since I have posted anything to this blog and an even longer time since I did anything serious with the hobby.  This lack of time was largely due to my PhD program and in the last year getting back in the swing of "working" for a living.
For the past year I have also had an open debate about what I wanted to build. I knew I wanted to get into 30k (naturally their will also be side projects in other games), but choosing a legion took me forever.  Particularly when you see where I wound up...

As the pictures clearly indicate after much debate I opted to build a Space Wolves Legion, or as I prefer to call them the Rout.  The Rout was my first 40k army and eventually I became disenchanted with them for a variety of reasons.  I sold my army about half way through my PhD program and shelved all of my custom ideas for the army.

I have now pulled down that file and begun work on a 30k era Rout great company. Beginning with a chaplain/wolf priest:

 Although it does not show well in the photo's the model actually has six different shades/textures of gray.  I also still intend to add snow to the base, but I want a few more models finished before I mix up the snow.  Also my thanks to Brother Captain S. for the suggested conversion to the weapon.

Next I am going to take the only survivor of my original army shown below and convert him to match my new army. Then I will wrap up work on my first unit; a veteran tactical squad.

The last of my old wolves

Paragons of Honour and Duty

This past weekend I complete the first five (of ten) Invictarus Suzerains for my Horus Heresy era Ultramarines.  These five are all equipped with bolt pistols, boarding shields, and Legatine power axes.  The next five will include one equipped that way, two with plasma pistols, and two with Thunderhammers.  Thanks to Jason, my brother, for kitbashing from his bits left-handed Thunderhammers.

Leading from the Front

The models are very detailed, giving plenty of opportunity to break-up the blue of the armor and depart from heavy amounts of gold.  Other Invictarus Suzerains I have looked at make the shields blue and keep most of the details gold.  I departed from that.

Washes & Layers on the Suzerains

Slow, but steady progress on the first five Suzerains.As I began to apply the washes, the models really came to life and details started to pop.  The layers assured some details were differentiated.

Suzeriains in Progress

Based Suzerains and Tanksgiving

I only achieved progress last night on the Suzerains, completing the base colors before writing this post.  The past week has been busy, filled with plenty of driving and various events.

I recently added a Dreadclaw (1 of 3) to my slowly expanding list of projects to assemble and paint as well as additional Ultramarines torsos and a few Space Wolves torsos for Burning of Prospero/a Space Wolves Veteran Squad for my Ultramarines forces.

Lastly, I also picked up at a discount Potecknov’s Bears for Team Yankee.  The set is 9 T-72 tanks and 2 Hind helicopters.  My intent is to field a Polish Mechanized Infantry Battalion from the mid-1980s.  At the moment, the rules only allow for Soviet forces, but that doesn't mean that paint can't be Polish.

Slow Start on Suzerians

I have slowly begun painting my first 5 Invictus Suzerains.  I am slowly working on the base colors.  There are a lot of little details on these models, which makes each of them fairly individual.  Hopefully more to come next week.

11 XIIth Terminators

5 Cataphractii and 1 Praetor added!

I was motivated to paint this weekend!  I completed basing and then finished painting the 5 Cataphractii I started on two weeks ago and completed the Praetor today!  The Praetor is the "cleanest" of the models as he is my Loyalist commander unless I expand the World Eaters significantly.  For my Zones Mortalis list, the Cataphractii and Praetor can replace Kharn and the Butchers almost point for point (and may actually make the list more viable).