In-Work Marauder Destroyers

A simple post this week.  Colors other than the camouflage of green and dark blue on the top of the Marauder, they are pretty close.  I think I will have them done before this coming weekend with an hour or two of effort.

In-Work Marauder Destroyers

I expect to finally play a few games of Adeptus Titanicus this coming weekend at my brother's to celebrate his birthday (barring symptoms - stay-safe - small bubble expansions here and there, talk to those that you are planning to meet with and exchange potential contact details).

Ærthegn Banner and Lance Gift

My brother has a full Maniple of the Tiger Eyes Titan Legion that he had commission painted.  Back at the end of last year, I picked up the Knight Household box and even more Knights. I have my own House Vornherr to add to, I decided for my brother's birthday I would provide him with some Knights.  For his traitors, I choose House Ærthegn to partner with his Tiger Eyes.

Long Range Knight Banner

Cerastus-Lance

I had a lot of fun painting these guys up.  They were a departure from my normal colors and allowed me to focus on details.  They also let me include techniques I had learned on previous projects, like weathering.  I also utilized the Contrast paints in combination with regular paints.

I luckily got the basing information from my brother and his commissioned painter.  I am hoping they look solid alongside his Tiger Eyes and that he is interested in using them alongside his Tiger Eyes.

Warhounds on the Prowl

This past weekend, I finished up the pair of Warhounds for my True Messengers maniple.    I used a mix of transfers from the Warhound box and my Horus Heresy Ultramarines box.

I think these Warhounds have been on long campaigns with an Ultramarines fleet.  While the Battle Titans have seen brutal action on major campaigns, the Scout Titans have supplemented subjugation campaigns on smaller worlds or against lightly defended Xenos worlds.

Pair of Warhounds on the prowl

From the other side

Still plenty of Titanicus to come in terms of my hobbying.  Up text, is a pack of 5 Knights as a gift for my brother.

A Small Pack

In Progress Warhound Bodies

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been slowly painting up a pair of Warhounds for my True Messengers maniple.  They have been fun to pour detail into and I am really happy with the scale of the minis.  The decision to move up from 6 mm to 8 mm was a good one on Games Workshop's part and really makes these models shine.

I had hoped to finish these guys up this past weekend, but I did not end up dedicating the time to do the work.  I did however assemble and prime the follow-up project, another gift project.  These guys will be done up in House Ærthegn black and red to pair with a Tiger Eyes maniple.  Hopefully the basics of the scheme will allow me to do a good job on them and get them to the recipient around the appropriate date.

Another Gift Project

Ork Air Waaagh! Complete

This past week, I finished up two more Ork Fighta-bommers.  This brings my Ork Air Waaagh! to roughly 330 points before any upgrades, aces, or crew.  It also means I have fully painted the Ork
range for Aeronautica Imperialis.

Da Air Waaagh!

This collection was a pleasure to paint.  Using Contrast paints and allowing the paint to flow some only helped with the "Orki-ness' each model.  A shout out to Le Blog de Kouzes and Da Gretchin Army that inspired the color scheme (from 2014).

Four-ship of Fighta-bommers

For the Aces, I decided to paint one as the named Black Vulture, another that can stand in for Da Big Burna (above and after the break), and a final one that is a reverse of the overall Air Waaagh, but that is so he blends in more with his Imperial prey (who are also blue).

Dakka Dakka Dakkajets! and Update

All the Dakkajets

Fourth Skwadron Boy

This past week I finished up three more Dakkajets - two aces and a fourth "normal" fighter.  I enjoyed the departure from the Skwadron Ace the most.  It gave me an opportunity to really play with the color pallet in a different way.  The Skwadron Ace is intended to be inspired by my Imperial Navy Thunderbolts and "copying" their yellow and blue scheme - so he can blend in.

 I also decided to paint up one of the Dakkajets as the named Ace - "Da Black Vulture."  I like the idea of an Ork list running multiple Aces and the scheme is an easy option as well as making it clear who "Da Black Vulture" is if I or my son decide to run him.

Skwadron Ace

Da Black Vulture

I am already most of the way done with the last two Fighta-Bombers, one of which will be a third Ork ace that will be able to stand in for the "Big Burna."  And with those two, I will round out my Ork Air Wing.  Following that I have two Marauders to assemble and paint.  At that point, I will be waiting for Taros to be available (ie once COVID restrictions are reduced) to expand my Imperial Navy Air Wing as well as add a Tau Expeditionary Air Wing!

It has been roughly a month since my family and I began self-isolating.   I think it is fair to say that I am lucky being a relatively introverted geek.  I think I have an argument that my schedule has gotten more full, between a backlog of plenty of miniatures to paint, no-more excuses from a geographically separated D&D group, and possibly adding another digital D&D game (for my son and his friends).

Thus far, the biggest negative impact for me is my kitchen-table is also now my work desk, in addition to being my hobby space.  There are some nights where I just can't stand being in the same 5 sq ft (0.5 m2) any more and land on the couch, away from the painting setup. 

Colossus Complete

 In focus, nose art of Marauder 13, the Emperor's Own

This past weekend, I finished up the Marauder Colossus.  It was a fun conversion of the Marauder Bomber.  I am not super concerned if the studio announces next weekend that conversion kits are coming.  I will appreciate rules beyond my own homebrew.

From a game-play perspective, the Colossus needs to be a one-hit wonder against ground targets.  When you get there with the bomb, it has to do something, even on a miss. To this end, I propose a rule such as Heavy Ordnance and Firestorm.

Heavy Ordnance: On a hit, it lands on the intended target see Fire Storm below.  On a miss, the bomb still hits the ground and explodes!  Roll a d6 numbering the hexes surrounding the target hex clockwise.  The bomb lands in that hex!
Firestorm:  The Colossus Bomb creates a massive fire storm around where it hits.  The surrounding hexes suffer Bomb Creep on a 3+.

A view of the Colossus Bomb

Marauders 7, 9, and 13 in flight

Distancing

Today's post is more of an admin update.  Similar to many people throughout the western world, I am operating under a COVID-19 driven government "lockdown" order.  In some ways I am fortunate as much of my work is digital and can be done from my kitchen table.

The biggest impacts are that I am now spending 9+ hours per day in the same 3 m2 space, even if I context switch from work to hobby time.  It is why I bring it up here.  I am jealous of those who have been able to take a few closed in days and spend them diving into modeling and painting.

Last week's progress on the pair of Marauders is below.  They are excellent at maintaining appropriate distancing.

The big difference is what they carry

A Better Colossus Bomb

After a discussion about my previous design for the Colossus Bomb did not look good.  I brainstormed possible bits.  I initially considered the bombs from the Ork AI range, but they were too large a diameter and not long enough.  I considered the 40k range of space marines, but not many of them are not complete bombs or missiles.

New Colossus Bomb

On Sunday, I realized that I had Imperial Guard Cadian Missile team a nice large missile.  I spent some time on Sunday converting a new Colossus bomb!

Starting Marauder Variants

The replaced bomb-bays of variant Bombers

Since I bought a second Wings of Vengeance box, I decided that I did not need a flight of four Marauder bombers. There are two variants of the Marauder and I think having one or two could be interesting for scenarios, the Marauder Vigilant and the Marauder Colossus.  The Marauder Vigilance is a reconnaissance variation.  The Marauder Colossus carries a single very large bomb.

An important piece is that they both only carry a pair of Heavy Bolter turrets fore and aft.  I have decided to make them magnetic and rotate.  Eventually, I will develop basic rules for them.

Championing a Game or Range

I overreached on planning and running the Rynn's World Campaign event day.  What I had hoped would be at least 9 to 18 games of Aeronautica Imperialis by six people across a Saturday day of gaming ended up being me playing 3 games of Aeronautica Imperialis against 3 different opponents.

New Rynn City during the Blitz

The first game was notionally just an early game of the intended event.  My son played the Orks and I played the Imperials.  He tried to bomb targets in New Rynn City and I defended them.  We set it at 150 points.  Biggest learning piece from it is working out how to deploy ground assets (still not sure).

Preparing for Rynn's World Event

Staged shot of the battle at Scar Lake

 Next weekend, I am attempting to run an Aeronautica Imperialis event at my FLGS - specifically enabling folks to play through all six of the Rynn's World campaign book scenarios as possible.  My biggest concern is either 1) not having enough players to really make it interesting or 2) being hugely successful and having too many players!  I think a good result will be if about six are able to play several games on cool maps I bought and I have good confidence to try and push for a similar event in the summer tied to the release of the Taros Campaign book.

Adding Thunderbolt 1 and 3

In the build up to it, I am working on adding more Thunderbolts to my Imperial Navy squadron and maybe a uniquely painted Ork Fighta-Bomber ace.  A long-shot is getting another Dakkajet added to the Ork skwadron.  We will see where my painting motivation takes me after this weekend.

Starting Dominion

Top-Down of the 3-way

This past weekend, I played some Necromunda with my brother and best friend.  We threw down a three-way fight: Escher-Orlock-Palatine Enforcers.

This was followed by setting up a Dominion campaign between the three of us.  My best friend is playing The Goddesses, an Escher Gang.  My brother is playing the Palatine Enforcers of Sector 225.  I am playing my Orlock gang, the Lowland gang.

We got the skeleton setup and the territories selected.  Our first moves, the Goddesses moved into a Stinger Mould Sprawl.  The Lowlands faced off again the Palatine Enforces in a Stand-Off.  While the Lowlands succeeded in taking down the Enforcer Captain, multiple members of the Lowland gang were taken out of action and the gang bottled.  The Lowlands retreated from securing the services of the Rogue Doc.

The Occuption phase moves have all been planned out and we know the games we need to play - just have to play them!