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Hi all So, finally getting round to consistently painting again (or trying to) after c.15 years out of the hobby. I’ve been lingering again for the past few years and dabbling, which includes foolishly amassing rather large collections of various of the old imperial guard armies. I now have 100+ of each Vostroyans, Steel Legion and Kasrkin. I love all three armies and think they’re all so characterful and brilliant in their own way. Whilst I love some of the new models, nothing quite has the character of these guys, for me. I had a small Vostroyan army back in the day and I held onto the models. I’ve tried to recreate a similar paint job as I did back then, albeit with no idea what my recipes were and with completely different paints. The goal with these is quick and dirty - I know myself, if I don’t get a decent number of these guys done in a short period and to a consistent standard I’ll get frustrated/bored and stop. So just looking for tabletop standard with these guys for now to get my mojo back and then might treat myself to a painting project or too. Would also be nice to have a playable army, in case the world ever gets back to normal and I ever find time/someone to play with! Anyway, that’s the intro. I’ll get some photos uploaded (once I figure how to upload), and also try and figure out the best and easiest way to get some good shots. Thanks for reading! Lorr.

Last bullgryn is done, I don't make a story for him, so just the bonehead. I have a great plan for him but failed due to lacklustre of my painting skills. So I make some bloody mess around. And tried new approach for power weapon with blood. It should looks like field burns blood from maul. Technically squad is done. But I wanna more ogryns and bullgryns. It's like infantry, you just can't have enough. So I'll add more, and each gonna be somehow unique folk.

Now that Tanksgiving is over.... US Customs decided that I could have my Cyclops Demolition Vehicle. Yes. That's the old 25mm based Iron Hand Straken for size reference. Maybe next year.

Ordo Maledictum: 164th Detachment "Ash Vultures" Affiliation: Ordo Maledictum Role: Rapid Retrieval and Purification Unit Doctrine: Grav-chute insertions into rift-proximate warzones to recover warp-tainted artifacts, terminate psy-reactive entities, or destroy evidence of corruption. Motto: “By any means necessary.” Symbol: A black shoulder pad or knee guard bearing a red Inquisitorial “I” pierced by a downward silver sword — the blade representing “containment from above.” Uniform: • Fatigues: Smoke-grey and dust-tan mix, worn and scorched. • Carapace Armor: faded olive. • Markings: Red wiring, faded purity seals, patches of melted paint. Lore: Once part of the Harakoni Warhawks, the 164th were deployed for 11 years on the planet Armageddon. 16 months after the fall of Cadia, the 164th were transferred to the Vigilus Sector. Officially “lost during transit,” they were instead redirected for special duties: retrieval of warp-tainted relics, purging of psychic outbreaks, and sterilization of contaminated outposts, by the Ordo Maledictum. The Ordo Maledictum emerged after the birth of the Great Rift, and were given a near impossible task: Close the Great Rift. The 164th operate without backup, without oversight, and without limits. Each Grav Chute descent is a death sentence delayed by discipline. They’ve fought daemons, foul xenos, cultists, rogue Guardsmen, and even loyalist Astartes who impede the Ordos mission to save the Imperium of Mankind. The 164th's orders are simple: Save Humanity from Chaos... by any means necessary.

THE 164TH: Team Dossier AQUILON TEMPESTOR MASON Role: Squad Lead Weapons: Hotshot Lascarbine and a Tempestus Dagger MASON never traded up for the traditional officer’s pistol and sabre. He sticks with the same lascarbine he’s carried since his first drop, and the squad trusts him for that. He keeps a sealed relic-vial of Armageddon ash under his chestplate—grainy grey dirt Yarrick himself once trod on. MASON’s leadership style is brutally simple: “land hard, move fast, die later.” He handpicked every member of the 164th Ash Vultures after a disastrous, op that killed 80% of his previous squad at Hive Secundus. Since then, he’s shown an almost religious intolerance for incompetence and an equally religious patience for trauma. AQUILON TROOPER VESPER Role: Rifleman Weapons: Hotshot Lascarbine and a Tempestus Dagger VESPER refuses every promotion thrown at him, convinced dying starts the moment you get noticed. He blends into any formation like smoke—quiet, unobtrusive, impossible to remember until everything’s already gone to hell. Among the Ash Vultures, VESPER is the steady center. Nobody knows how old he is, but his instincts in a firefight are flawless. He and MASON share a long, unspoken history from the early Harakoni days, something involving a failed drop and a crashed Valkyrie whose crew didn’t make it. AQUILON TROOPER ECHO Role: Rifleman Weapons: Hotshot Lascarbine and a Tempestus Dagger ECHO claims her memories were wiped, that she once fought alongside silver-armoured warriors carrying halberds. The others laugh it off—mostly to hide that they believe she might be right. She’s brilliant at pattern analysis and movement prediction, often calling threats seconds before they appear. Off-mission she watches the sky like something’s going to come back for her. AQUILON TROOPER THORN Role: Rifleman Weapons: Hotshot Lascarbine and a Tempestus Dagger The sole non-Harakoni in the team, THORN survived an Ork overrunning of his Steel Legion company by sheer stubborn refusal to die. MASON dragged him into the Ash Vultures not out of pity but respect: THORN kept firing long after his gas mask cracked and his squad was gone. The others treat him like a younger cousin—respectful but merciless in hazing. THORN takes it in stride, absorbing Harakoni doctrine with frightening speed. AQUILON GRENADIER KILN Role: Demolitions Weapons: Hotshot Laspistol, Melta Bombs and a Tempestus Dagger KILN is a walking arsenal. He carries more grenade varieties than most supply officers have manifest slips for. His favorites are a pair of Krak Grenades, sizes for an Astartes. They came from a trade with a Black Templar neophyte; the reliquary he gave away in return almost certainly wasn’t authentic, but no one questions it. KILN treats explosives like fine wines—classified by vintage, flavour, and ideal occasion. AQUILON GUNFIGHTER SABLE Role: Dual-Pistol Specialist Weapons: 2× Hotshot Laspistols and a Tempestus Dagger SABLE solves problems with gunfire and is annoyed when other solutions work. Her reputation for dead spouses follows her around; the squad jokes she marries for fun and “widows” for stress relief. She and VESPER have an odd sibling rivalry: he avoids notice, she demands it. On missions, their paired advance is devastating. AQUILON GUNNER HEMLOCK Role: Melta Support Weapons: Melta Carbine and a Tempestus Dagger HEMLOCK hides his intelligence behind a slackjaw façade. In truth he’s a meticulous thinker, designing a wargame about grot submarines and Ork naval tactics. He’s terrified the others will find out—not because they’ll laugh, but because they’ll ask to play. In battle, HEMLOCK’s melta work is clinical. Anything that needs to stop existing, he deletes. AQUILON GUNNER PRAXIS Role: Plasma Support Weapons: Plasma Carbine and a Tempestus Dagger PRAXIS was raised to be a dentist, then discovered he hated teeth and loved falling out of aircraft. He took to plasma like an addict to his vice: he knows it’s killing him a little at a time, but Throne does it feel righteous. He and HEMLOCK often run paired deep-strike insertions—one melts armour, one melts everything inside it. AQUILON MARKSMAN TANGENT Role: Sniper Weapons: Hotshot Long-Las and a Tempestus Dagger TANGENT’s auditory implant plays constant choirs whenever it detects blasphemy. Given the Imperium’s general level of profanity, she’s lived in a private cathedral for four straight years. Her silence unnerves new recruits, but the Vultures consider it comforting. If TANGENT is listening to what you have to say, it means you’re not damned… yet. AQUILON PRECURSOR SPECTRE Role: Pathfinder/Forward Drop Weapons: Hotshot Laspistol and a Tempestus Dagger Youngest in the squad, SPECTRE hates aircraft with a religious intensity and prefers to free-fall whenever regulations allow. First down, first gone, he marks drop zones with burning white phosphorus—his way of telling the enemy the sky belongs to the Ash Vultures. He hero-worships MASON and distrusts ECHO, claiming ECHO “falls like she’s being watched.” SERVO-SENTRY ARGONAUT Role: Automated Support Weapons: Hotshot Volley Gun and a Tempestus Dagger The regimental Enginseer insists ARGONAUT is a standard-pattern servo-sentry. The 164th insists he’s the reassembled skull of Trooper Argus Naught, whose grav-chute failed and who crushed an Ork Big Mek on impact. The team issued the Servo-Sentry with a Tempestus Dagger, and while no one has ever seen the servitor draw the weapon (or wonder how such a miracle could occur), they find its mere presence comforting.

CRUSADE INTRODUCTION & GAME 1 Mêlée à Two-V-Two Aaaah, it's been too long! Truly, Crusade is the only way to play modern 40K. 10th may not be perfect - far from it - but for largely casual, theme-focused Crusade games? It's a lot of fun. After ending my last Crusade early - you can find how that all ended over on my WIP Thread Post Here - we all took a break to paint something other than Space Marines and Tyranids (and, in one case, to have a child!) before finally getting our act together in January this year to start something fresh. The line up this time is a little more diverse, which is always a good thing. Man cannot live on Marine-Nid matches alone, after all. Here's what everyone is bringing to the party - which may change, we have a few armies that are being tried out, and may be swapped for other options as the Crusade rolls on. - @Agnostic Doggo - The Treachery of Twilight, a Death Guard warband, currently infantry with some vehicle support. - Andrew - Balhaut 23rd Armoured Recon, Imperial Guard with plenty of vehicles. - Heath - The Blood Masons, World Eaters Warband, who may transform into Emperor's Children once those kits get downunder. - James - Craftworld Ulthwé, Infantry with bikes and more to come. - Kieran - WAAAAAAGH Grot-Snicker, a veritable horde of Grot Tanks. - Your Humble Blogsmith - The Ky'Vash Recon Cadre - Disorganised T'au stuff in camo. We're running Pariah Nexus, though I don't believe any of us are that interested in Blackstone, just after a different set of missions to flail at! We're also starting with more evenly painted forces, too! That extra time between Crusades has paid dividends, and we have a minimum of bare plastic, which I just LOVE to see. GAME 1 - TAU & ELDAR VS IMPERIAL GUARD The Engines of Balhaut. The Guns of Ky'Vash. Game one was lightly derailed by a positive COVID test, so we did a mix of 1v1 and 2v1 games, 500+500 against 1,000. Andrew's Guard was most ready to play at that size, so we started with James and I having a team-up. We won, too, with some casualties. My Hammerhead put in some real work, the first casualty of the game - if not for the Crusade as a whole, because by the time we started playing the 1v1 was in full swing - was the unfortunate Chimera it obliterated. It then proceeded to put holes in tanks, and be weirdly hard to hit until finally exploding on turn 4, having sat on top of a building soaked up the attention of both of Andrew's tanks. Poor bugger wasn't lucky with those hit rolls. It was other wise pretty standard. Rough Bikers taking down my Ghostkeel, James' Windriders taking out the other wing, and all our infantry scuffling over the middle objective. My Firewarriors didn't move all game, they just sat on the home objective and blasted away. Love that Fireblade, though he put in WAY more work in game 2. What really matters is that I got to shoot my railgun. Felt good. Balhaut 23rd Armoured Recon - 1,000 points. Craftworld Ulthwé - 500 points.

... Or almost one year later, what is the status of my "legalizing" effort to adapt my armies to 10th? This used to be one of my first entries in this blog and I feel like it is worth setting a kind of progress report. Remember, last year, after launch of 10th, the state of my armies was more or less: - AdMech (New Year / New Army 2023) - to be redesigned. - Eldars - requiring a big refresh. - Death Watch, - claiming for love for the Veterans One year (or almost) later, what is the state of the revamp? Let´s start with AdMech - the easy part in fact. At the time I barely aligned 1 and a half patrol box. So "legalizing" was not really the most appropriate term, as, indeed, I could not even pretend that I was able fielding anything playable at the time. Now, the Army has grown in a rather, let´s admit it, significant manner. It is in its maturity time where adjunctions are more intents to diversify the tactical options than required investments. It is still a challenge to face these points drops (see balnce dataslates) every quarter, but in the end I can get a good and stable core at 2000 pts with nice posibilities for variations around. And more to come. Then the Aeldari. They haven´t had any love since 3rd Ed so, anyway, 10th did not bear any guilt into their derelict status... But , hey!, it is easier to borne the responsability on rules reedition, nope? Call to Arm 2023 put me on the way of "redemption" and I managed painting almost everything I had. Then I Ebayed some stuff to get legal Guardian squads and jetbike unit a full strenght. I added everything that was needed so far 2 Serpent platforms and 1 HW platform, plus the 2 bikes that were missing to reach 9 riders. Great, nope? Well, nope. Ebay being Ebay (or rather Bouargh being Bouargh (aka a compulsive buyer)) I bought more stuff. Another HW platform, just in case, as I still have enough legs and torsos for 1 or 2 additional guardians squads, another extra bike (converted into an Autarch), 2 warlocks, a D-cannon and an old ooP Spirit warrior, for a proxy wraithlord. Plus plastic kits for Rangers on foot and on bikes and more guardians. I don´t really know why for the latter. Most has gone to a rejuvenated Pile of Shame and will be involved, hopefully, in the resuming CtA 2024. Finally DW. I did not do anything there. The 2 boxes I would require to redesign the Vets squads are still at GW warehouses. For a good time, at least untill getting a new version of the 2024 Roadmap and entering in sheer FOMO panic... But "finally" was not a real final: I indeed forgot to include, last year, my armoured fist company of Astra Militarum (SW auxilliaries). Legalization was quite small here as it consisted into adding the 2 regimental advisors missing on the rooster (fly guy and blind guy). Ebayed too. It makes me think that I´ll need a command squad may be, and building this HW squad sitting at the bottom of my Pile of Shame ever since before COVID too... I was planning last year a very limited amount of investment, excluding AdMech. I went out of control. Litterally. Eldars saw an increase of some 800 pts, considering what I disclosed here, more stuff and even more if putting into the equation DE stuff affiliated to Ynnari that joined the frey. Astra Militarum also have a potential of 200 pts and something waiting to be converted from GSC sprues I grabbed by "accident" + recycling some of these AdMech bitz accumulated. I largely recomposed my Pile of Shame while on Feb 24 it was reduced to 6 wolves, two kitbashed Rhino and Land raider and 3 ooP Rhinos chassis only. All of these still remain to in the waiting zone of course... A "consolation" I have is that all of the stuff was obtained with discounts between 15 to 30%. Even considering Ebay and comparing what I paid vs. the charged price for equivalent stuff on GW webstore. Let´s say, in a more positive way, that I was preparing myself actively for the CtA 2024 event (without knowing it). So, see you there, for sure.

Rogal Dorn #1. Casting Defect Texture. Previously I laid down the Tamiya putty texture, and added some brass handles. I lost my metal files somewhere... so the flame cuts still need re-working. Using various files, sandpaper, and a hobby knife creates a varied texture. This is too uniform. I'll either re-work it, or hit it hard on Rogal Dorn #2. In law, legal briefs are never done, just due. Just the same in Hobby, there's always more to do--but, I need an army ready for 10th edition upcoming this summer. But, this might be an easy enough fix. Also, I should have made more brass handles. More customization is always better. In some ways this is just an opportunity to experiment and figure out what should be on the next Dorn. Yes, I bought 3x. Under coat/Primer. Since I'm using Tamiya, which has great coverage, I'm not really anticipating much of the black and white from an under coat will show through. I've seen some use a splotchy, uneven black/white/grey as an undercoat. This creates a very interesting complexity to the paint job. I went instead with white on the raised surfaces, and black in the recesses. I used vallejo white and black primer. I suppose I could have also just went all black or all white. I see lots of youtube videos doing all black and it just seems like a tremendous waste of time to build up color over it. But, what do I know - talk me into it. It's all a learning experience. Main Paint. I went with Tamiya Medium blue this time. Usually I do the medium blue followed by a zenithal spray of mixes of progressively lighter blue. Here I just experimented a bit with the undertone to see what it'd look like. It definitely reads much more blue than grey. Interestingly on camera here it looks all grey and doesn't pick up the transitions. Hmmmm. I can modulate that with the oils too. But, I did want to push a bit more contrast on this model. One hard part is being impatient - I should be taping off every panel for each airbrush spray. In failing that there is a lot of imprecision in my light sources. Another hard part is getting the values right. Let's say we've got a nice square panel, and I'm working from light (almost white) blue, down to a dark (almost black) blue at the bottom. Should 80% be the normal blue, with 10% transitions at the top and bottom? Hard to say. The classic misstep is seen in painting black. A sharp edge highlight of grey/blue and you've got a model that reads to the eye as black. But, if you add too much highlight, the black doesn't read the same and you just have a grey model. Oil Paint Rendering. Following Rinaldi's tank art book is what needs to happen next. Little dots of varied oil colors, subtley wiped down with odorless turpentine create great varied surface effects. It also helps smooth out the 'airbrushed look.' It's amazing to me that the 1/35 scale modellers use yellows, magentas, all kinds of colors to subtly change the hue. Anyway, Forgot this step, and going back for it. Also, some white can really help push contrast. It can also help make an aged paint look. It can also do rain streaks (well, an off-white anyway). Lots of fun to be had here. We'll have to separate out various oil stages to make sure the paint doesn't reactivate and ruin the effect. Decals. Ok, Decals these days are awesome. I use microsol and microset, but I see Ak, MIG and other companies all have their own proprietary version now. Maybe they're better. I don't know. Again, I guess this is a warm-up Rogal Dorn. The oil paint rendering/modulation needed to happen before the decals. I got too excited and didn't follow the process. Also should have slowed down for the lore - what specific brigade/battalion are these guys supposed to be from? Then again, uniforms at Vraks don't dictate uniforms in every environment. Chipping. I just used a sponge with some Rhinox Hide for a quick heavy weathering. It's far better with a brush, but very slow. It's also better to use instead of brown, a lighter version of the paint color - here I've got Tamiya medium blue, and I could have made chipped paint with the light blue. I do typically do the hairspray technique for chipping instead of brush or sponge, but again, I just wanted to move this thing forward. Oil weathering. I'll do a wash/pin wash of burnt umber or some such in oil across the whole thing. I also like to add black oil rather thick in controlled points around various panels/parts that might have some oil leaking. Some light rust color also helps blend the chipping. Multiple colors is much more realistic. Pigment powders. I'll be handling the model a lot. Powders will wipe off. They're also hard to see if you apply a clear coat over them--they never look quite right. I think powders will come into play more with mud and dirt in the tracks. Also the exhaust right now is just rhinox hide with a light rust wash. I'd like to stipple lots of oranges, reds, and browns on there. Mud on the tracks. I'll slow down for this. This is a big step, and one people usually go way too far on. Right now I just have some browns on there as a base color. I'll add a lot of vallejo mud effects, then probably a lot of pigments, static grass, and sand to get the right variations in the texture. Maybe I should add some barbed wire too. Tank commanders. I got out an old 1999 tank commander. Man, I don't even remember this guy, I think he was pre-krieg lore. Been in the bits box a LONG LONG TIME. Even if he doesn't look great, it's good to finally use him. He needs some wash and some detailing, but he's on his way. Very tight fit. Uniform 143rd I went in with some tan and black to get some contrast going on the mask. Obviously still a lot of work to do, but it's starting to read a bit better to the eye. I stippled some brown and silver on the helmet New Project. Servo skull. I wanted to improve the display board in everyway I can. Part of that is the overall presentation. I've long thought Candles, symbols, and daemonology books would be great alongside an Inquisition army. Test tubes and medical charts might be great for Tyranids. Maps and operations orders I think are on point for for astra militarum. But, I want to make it more in universe. So, I'm working on a servo skull. If I knew more about Arduino and programming I think some really cool things could be done with special effects on this - motion tracking, lights, sounds, etc. I even found Halloween tutorials! But, realistically if anything went wrong, I wouldn't know how to trouble shoot it. It could be another $100 dead-end. Still, there's something to be said for pushing my abilities and trying new things. In fact that's a huge driving force of my last two years at Adepticon. For now I got cheap pipe fittings, hoses and cables, and fake plastic spikes for a halo. Lots of completely unanswered design questions here. No idea how to make the eye-pieces yet. Is this going to be much more difficult than I thought? Maybe. I need to look up some tutorials on servo skulls. IF I can figure out a servo sweep program for Arduino, I still have the laser line from my aliens project last year that never panned out. I was thinking I could have the laser line sweep over my army list, like the skull is reading it or something. Of course I'd still have to figure out how to fit the laser and servo into the skull... The problem is the skull I bought is much more detailed and awesome than I anticipated (very cheap on amazon). And, to have such detail, it requires thicker harder resin. So it'll be a pain to mount things on. Lots of heavy drilling work ahead. A cheaper plastic skull would be much easier to work with, but this thing nearly looks real. I wonder if I should try scribing latin phrases into the skull?

Warhammer 40k Zeppelin... So, the Rob Hawkins blog entry from 2013 (appropriately entitled "Oh the Humanity") really remains the key inspiration. Length You can see it's actually fairly big. It's also then a pain to transport on it's own. Lots of fiddly bits on the bottom. Unfortunately I also wanted double heavy stubber emplacements on the top, matching old WW1 artwork. This doesn't really work for transport. It needs to lay on one side. And though it does stand upright... I also wanted to add a left to right rudder (presently I only have up and down). I suppose again here that if I were to keep the project sectionalized/modular then separate pieces could be transported and put together at location. If (a big "if") I make a bigger one, I'd certainly figure out a way to make it in separate sections. Texture Here is one area where I departed from the inspiration. I tried to paper mache a texture, or more specifically a cloth mache. So I got some cheese cloth and used wood glue. The cheese cloth was too unwieldy. It streches when cut, and doesn't like being cut to the point it clings on stretches out in unexpected ways. In short, it worked, but was really uneven. Fixing it was going to be a terribly long endeavor. On a whim, I'd previously thought to look for athletic/cloth tape, thinking that would make it easier to cover gaps. This however turned out to be the better solution for the whole blimp. It's hard to cut really uniform lines on the curved rear and front sections, but it's good enough. Also, 100x easier than cloth mache. 100x. Lines. I wasn't sure that I really needed to run a pattern of supports like the Hawkins blimp. Also it was going to take a lot of time. I decided to just run a few lengthwise, and abandoned the plan to run them widthwise too. In the immediate run up to Adepticon there just wasn't time. I used evergreen #175 styrene strips (square shaped). I did this instead of balsa, as I found much the same as in the Hawkins blimp that balsa just didn't bend well. To be sure, styrene also doesn't like to bend too much. It was a pain to glue. With more time I'd have run some caulk down each lateral styrene strip to blend it in more with the texture (glue spots are obvious at present). Engines. Part of where this project came from was seeing the engine bits on that new ork buggie. Shokk jumpa or whatever. I saw that and thought I could make a blimp engine. An odd thought, but it stayed with me. Notably, styrene is not really that strong, so this design is not recommended. Some kind of brazed brass cage would be much better. The Sharpie marker design isn't necessarily what I wanted, but it was in the ballpark, easily reproducible, and saved me several hours of custom fabrication on each engine. I'd imagine many household items might have stood in here just fine - small bottles or travel bottles. The fins are from RC/drones, I found on ebay for fairly cheap. Steering. The old WW1 artwork had some really cool designs for steering, that wouldn't make much sense with modern innovation. But, 40k isn't about engineering efficiency, it should look a little crazy. So we're doing four fins - elevators controlling pitch, up and down. I'm not a pilot. I'm learning this. This was a bit of a catastrophe to get straight and aligned. Brass rod and plates might have been much stronger and reliable. Also, it still needs a lot of detailing. I'm not satisfied, but i'm out of time. Painting. I wanted grey, I think, but didn't have any on me in the time crunch. So, I went green. I then realized I had created a giant pickle. Facing a literal and metaphorical pickle, I went and found some brown and black. So, camo it is. In hindsight I should have sealed the whole thing with a spray varnish first as the cloth didn't take paint well at all. Also, since it's so big, I just used craft paint through the airbrush. This is not really a great way of doing it, cheap though it may be. I think a couple of cans of spray paint would do just fine. I should mention since this is foam... I did worry it would melt with spray paint so that was a limiting factor I did consider (but I'm not sure what all melts this particular foam and it certainly could work - I just couldn't risk melting my project this far in and days before the tournament). Burning the midnight oil!

Hi folks, Last post of the series introduced the reasons behind buying a GSC Patrol box (the old one) in order to get the base for kit bashing IG infantery squads. The fact that I have a sweet remember of these guies is probably not completely disconected to the selection of Neophyte Hybrids models instead of Orlocks gangers as a starting base. Even if after a carful look, As for using Sktarii heads on other bodies, I had already tried it, more or less successfully, on Wannabe Kaserkins last year: But getting 20 Neophytes in the Patrol box wasn´t enough from an economical point of view to justify the investment vs. individual boxes at retail price. Second incentive was getting the Truck, to be used either as a Proxy Taurox or as an interactive scenery element ("Last Stand in Glazer’s Creek" batRep and its reboot in WD are also some how ones of my fav pieces of junk). Doing the math, 2 squads and 1 vehicles at retail price vs. Patrol, and Patrol gets a win.* But let´s go back on the footsloggers. Using 20 bodies, sorry 23 bodies counting the crew of the Goliath truck, requires decisions and carefull weighting of what to do with them. Initial part of the plan was rather clear: I had an IG HW squad box in my Pile-of-Shame waiting to be used. Trying to sort out9 teams out of the usual 3 mounted sound feasible. I love autocannons since the time SM scouts could get one (this time has passed a long time ago), so getting 3 autocannons was no negotiable. For the rest, without tripod available, and not wishing to enter into to complicated scenic bases, I went on the easy side: Missile launchers (shoulder mounted, so no pod needed) and Mortars. And here we have 12 Neophytes converted into IG heavy gunners. And here are the 3 units of HW. As an interesting fact I n oticed that the ooP cadian HW squad was mounted on larger base than the 50 mm marked on the product decription for the newest set.. Some close views of a spotter, with cult icon mask by a flask; A Mortar, as kneeling minis are polite enough to keep the pose while I took the photo (all will be glued in place once painted) And another closer view of a hooded servant, which allowed me noticing I forgot to remove his cult emblem. Surely more of his chaps have the same kind of heretical marking left... To be solved when they will go to the hair dresser and pass under the paint brush. To see what happened with the 23-12=11 remaining boys and Truck, let´s see you in next instalements of this Blog * And this is how I end up with Aberrants, Acolytes and a Magus... But may be the Magus will be a good base for a Ynnari aligned Farseer in a next kitbash???

+++ INTRODUCTION +++ The Defence of Dakota Minor was a series of conflicts in 884M41, that saw the Imperium defending the Matteus Subsector’s primary food provider against invaders. With only a token battlefleet and planetary defence force to protect it, Dakota Minor was expected to fall to the invaders in less than three months. Fortunately, intervention by local Astra Militarum regiments and the Adeptus Astartes saw the invasion quelled and the planet secured for the Imperium. The first theatre of conflict was the defence of the city Dakota Primus, culminating with the last stand in the city's centre known as the Bastion. The "Forge Brethren" (Salamanders 5th Company, 5th Tactical Squad) hold ground against an Ork onslaught, as the DMDC soldiers continue their withdrawal. +++ THE LAST STAND AT THE BASTION +++ Despite the assistance of the Salamanders, the Imperials could not stop the numerous Orks' advance through the city. What had worked against the Orks was the narrowing of passages and blockage of easy-access routes toward the city centre, preventing their vehicles from going further. Driven by impatience and the chase of the good fight, the greenskins contently abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot. Ork invaders proceed on foot through the narrowed passages towards the Bastion, leaving their scrap-vehicles behind. The Bastion - Day 54 to 63 The Imperial forces rallied at the Bastion, the heart of Dakota Primus. They prepared for what would be the Ork's final assault, knowing that defeat would ensure Ork control of the city. Imperial elements were positioned at key points in or around the Bastion: defending infrastructure, guarding cilivian shelters or establishing kill-zones in alleyways. The Salamanders continued to distribute their forces amongst the Imperial forces, sometimes only one per DMDC platoon or at most a non-contiguous combat squad. Salamanders and DMDC forces defend the entrance to civilian shelter "N5". The first few days saw numerous skirmishes and probing attacks against the Imperial defences. Slowly but surely the defenders were wittled down, either slain at their posts or forced to withdraw in a staggered manner. Even the Adeptus Astartes were overwhelmed by the onslaught; their genetic enhancements were no matter for the Ork's weight of numbers. As such, they too joined the DMDC soldiers in their withdrawal. Little did the Imperials know that the Orks had in fact exhausted the bulk of their own forces attempting to penetrate the city. Realising that they had overextended themselves, the Warboss fled the city with his deffkopta fleet to rearm and rally the remaining Orks at their Rok landing site. Thousands of overly excited Orks and gretchin were left behind, with nowhere left to go but forward. The Final Stand - Day 64 The Emperor and His Angels are watching. Let none of us be found wanting! For Dakota Minor! For the Emperor! - Lord-Governor Hastings Freeman addressing the DMDC soldiers on the Bastion’s paraphets. By the sixty-fourth day, the Imperial defenders were pushed to the base of the Bastion's centre spire. The Salamanders had lost few of their own, but the DMDC's casualties were significant and few remained to defend the spire. To make up the shortfall, Lord-Governor Freeman ordered the various labour guilds and unions to be pressed into service. Thousand of Imperial citizens who had spend their entire life as farmers, labourers and fertiliser producers took up lasguns in defence of their world. Able men and women of the Agri-Labour League (left, centre) and the AmSul Cooks (right), needed to take up arms against the final Ork push. With gleeful abandon, the Orks launched their assault knowing it would be their last great fight. The Salamanders were conditioned for the assault, but with boltguns and flamers running empty they struggled to hold the enemy back. The DMDC soldiers and citizen militia fought back with lasgun and bayonet, but man-to-Ork they were still inferior fighters. In short time, the Imperials were engulfed by greenskins; even the Lord-Goveror and the DMDC command staff were surrounded. Captain R'Keth and Lord-Governor Freeman, along with the remaining Imperial defenders, make their last stand at the Bastion. It was then that intervention of another kind arrived on Dakota Minor. On the same day, reinforcements hailing from the Asokan Rifles and Sartorian Rangers had arrived in orbit. Tens of thousands of soldiers grav-chuted into the city to support the beleaguered defenders of Dakota Primus. The jubilant Orks were undeterred, but still were bested by the superior and freshly supplied firepower. With the battle now tilted in the other direction, the Imperials began coordinated efforts to push the Orks out of the city centre, and continue on to sweep the outer hive districts and destroy any remaining Ork presence. It would take another one-hundred-and-thirty days before the city was declared "Ork-free". +++ AFTERMATH AND LEGACY +++ The reprieve provided by the Sartorian Rangers and Asokan Rifles allowed the remaining defenders to rally and push the Orks out of the city and back into the Adatok Wastelands. Captain R'Keth convened with the human leadership and emphasised the need to maintain momentum to ensure the Orks' total defeat. With their combined might, the Imperial forces began their counter-attack to destroy the xenos invaders and stop the invasion. By the end of the war, it was estimated that thirty-seven percent of the city was destroyed or damaged; it would take six decades until it was rebuild to its original state. The battle of Dakota Primus would become a integral part of the city's culture. The Imperial victory imbued a newfound pride and confidence in the local populace, and created many tales of heroism, defiance and His Angels' interventions. Most notably, pict-recordings of Lord-Governor Freeman combating the Orks would be used for propaganda profusely for decades to come. One of many propaganda posters featuring Lord-Governor Freeman during the battle for Dakota Primus. +++ ARTICLE CONTINUES IN PART IV +++

As an advanced defensive position or as encampment security perimeter, this very quick to build basic terrain set will find lots of uses on your tabletop. Add security to your Communication Tower, Landing Platform or Tower Control. Or use them as forward defensife perimeter for your Fortification Wall or Silo Formation. There are lots of uses for this set and i think, like the Containers, it is basic accessory that should be available to choose from when creating an immersive battlefield. This PDF will give you a range of moduls for a Defense Line that can be set up very flexible. The Defense Line fits all 28mm tabletop games with a Modern or Future-Fantasy setting. Make sure to check out the fitting models of the fortification series available and coming soon. Get the set here: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/511363/Tabletop-Battlefield-Basics-Defense-Line C&C is highly appreciated, so feel free to coment or leave your wishes for future terrain sets.

The Resistance have finally captured the war machines they believe they require to make their stand. Brutus, the Malcador, reliable, dependable the spine of their battleline. She will not fail them. She will hold the line, her battlecannon roaring, her sponsons blazing as she paves the way for the Resistance's advance. The Iron Duke, his twin Earthshaker cannons blasting holes in the enemy's fortifications. He guards those retreating and the wounded behind his massive blast shield. Then there is 329, the Vulcan. ===== The Macharius Vulcan squatted low, its twin cannons draped in canvas shrouds that no one dared remove. Someone had tried hanging a tarp over the sponson flamers. It hadn’t stayed up. The air around it felt different. Heavy and watching. Krystan moved along the left track guard with slow, deliberate steps. One hand held a grease cloth. The other rested lightly against the hull. Sometimes the main power relay was warm when it shouldn’t be. Once, the hull had shifted an several metres overnight. No one admitted it. No one spoke of it. He’d stopped trying to explain. He was tightening a bolt near the forward access port when he heard boots behind him. Jagiełło. The Primus approached. His coat hung open, desert dust still clinging to the hem. He didn’t speak immediately. He just looked. "Is it secure?" he asked. Krystan kept his eyes on the bolt. "Operational, if that’s what you mean. I cleaned the filters. Primed the coolant. She’s fuelled and ready." "That’s not what I asked." Krystan hesitated, then looked up. "No. It’s not secure. It’s not anything. It’s just... watching." Jagiełło stepped closer. Krystan’s breath caught. "I wouldn’t go near it. Not without me." The Primus paused, just within the shadow of the Vulcan. The hull loomed like a waiting animal. Then, with a mechanical whisper, the main turret turned. The was no warning. No servo whine until it was already moving. The cannons angled downward with purpose. A red dot appeared on Jagiełło’s chest. Laser targetter, dead centre. Krystan didn’t move. "I didn’t tell it to do that." Jagiełło didn’t flinch. But his eyes narrowed. "Then who did?" The moment held. The red dot stayed there, unmoving. The turret didn’t twitch. It just waited. Then the light blinked off. The turret rotated back to neutral. The bay was silent again, save for the soft settling creaks of 329's cooling frame. Jagiełło stepped back, eyes still on the hull. "It responds to you," he said. "It tolerates me," Krystan replied. A long pause. "Do you fear it?" "Every time I climb in." Jagiełło gave a short nod. Then turned without another word and walked away. Krystan remained, alone in the silence, one hand resting near the hull but never quite touching. Behind him, 329 waited. Mona stood alone on the upper gantry of the repair bay, half-shrouded in shadow, her coat drawn close against the lingering cold of early morning. The lamps cast long, low arcs of yellow light across the floor below, catching on riveted hulls and coiled fuel lines, throwing everything else into gloom. Three silhouettes waited in that gloom. Brutus, the Malcador, rested broad and battered, its weight sunk into the cracked ferrocrete as though it had been there forever. The Iron Duke lay tarped still, its shape concealed, but unmistakable to those who knew. A relic swaddled in dust cloth and reverence. And then there was 329. The Vulcan crouched in the middle of the bay, a slumbering beast. Its plating still bore the soot of battle, scorched streaks trailing from vents and barrel shrouds. Someone had tried to clean it. No one had finished. Mona said nothing for a long time. Her gaze shifted from one war machine to the next, slow and measured. There was no warmth in her face, but no fear either, only thought. Beneath her coat, her fingers moved gently against one another, like feeling the edges of something invisible. A memory, perhaps, of something she held once. "We called them symbols," she said softly, to no one. "We needed strength. Something to anchor belief. And they answered." She let the words hang. From her vantage point, she could just make out Krystan, a lone figure by the Vulcan’s track. He hadn’t moved for some time. She didn’t need to see his face to know what it held. She had seen it in others. After the laying-on of hands. After the whispers. That quiet dread that follows faith too quickly given. Her eyes drifted again, past the tarp of the Iron Duke. It stirred faintly in the motionless air. "Perhaps too soon," she murmured. A tremor passed across her shoulders, a chill. The hairs along her scalp prickled before she heard him. She heard no footsteps. Just the sense of presence behind her, as though the shadows themselves had grown heavier. She did not turn. Her hands stilled. The air around her felt too still, too sharp. Even the Vulcan below seemed to hold its breath. "We can wait," rumbled the voice. It was not loud. It was not kind. It was not unkind. It was a voice Mona knew. A voice she had heard long before the desert, before the Resistance, before she had words for what moved beneath Prawa V. She closed her eyes. Her body remained still, but inside her chest, something shifted. "We have waited this long," the voice said. "We can wait longer." Silence followed. The air felt charged. Mona did not reply. When she finally moved, it was only to raise one hand to her collarbone, fingers brushing the skin there like she might steady herself. Below, 329 remained where it was. Waiting.

EDIT: Decided to make this into a painting thread to maybe help me get some progress done on my (increasingly diverse) Imperial army. Thanks for looking! +++Brother Librarian Giles+++ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ +++INDEX+++ Adeptus Ministorum Bernie the Ministorum Priest - 2015-10-15 Astra Militarum Infantry Squad 1 (with alt. heads) - 2017-07-02 Heavy Weapon Team (Capycannon) - 2017-08-15 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I converted and painted a ministorum priest for my Sisters of Battle yesterday! I quite happy with the result, so I want to share it with you guys! Hope it gives you an idea or inspiration too! Thanks for looking! Brother Librarian Giles

Hello, battle brothers! I hear the call of the God-Emperor and joined the Imperial Guard! I decided on the Imperial Guard because I think the ideia of ordinary people facing the biggest threats in the 41st millennium incredible. Also, besides that if we were at that time I would certainly be one of them and not an officer or space marine. To my first army I choose a homebrew regiment to start my army, the "Sons of Cadia" [thanks Sanctus Reach for the name] Lore: After the controversial events of the supposed fall of Cadia [Cadia Stands! The Inquisitor keeps on alert], the survivors of the old world spread across the Imperium. However, the example of Cadia and its inhabitants remains a model of honor and power of the God-Emperor and humanity. Therefore, Cadia remains, and the men and women who for some reason were not at the time of the arch-enemy's troop's disaster must keep Cadia's legacy alice. We are the Sons of Cadia and we always stand! Battle-cry: For Cadia and his Sons! Colours: Green and Black Fatigues: Green (more dark than 8th regiment) Flak Armour: Black (as a sign of mourning and respect for the fallen comrades) Emblem: Winged circle meaning the bless of the God-Emperor Crossed Lasguns meaning our weapon and meaning of fight But I can't decid the colours, first (white) or second (green). What you think? On the side, attached, are some images to ilustrate my ideia. C&C are welcome, also tips. The first enlisted: Commissar Dallas

Thought that this warranted it’s own discussion. First thing that jumped straight at me was that the Artillery Carriages have gained the Platoon and Regimental keywords! Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t that mean I can issue the “take aim” order on them? If that’s right then my Artillery would be back on the menu!! Please post any of your impressions from this update.