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Unit Name: The 4th Mootshire Elite Abhuman Line. Planet of Origin: Mootshire, 11th planet in the Aver Expanse. Commanding officer: Lt. Col Reginald Trik Regimental appellations: “The Bluebonnets”, “Reginald’s Irregulars”. Notable disciplinary records of 4th MEAL. Fixer: Trik, Reginald - Lt. Colonel M41.2346 – Regimental officers mess hall storage facilities on Tanit Rex are robbed ahead of highly anticipated planetary millennial Sanguinala celebrations during an Orkish invasion. Regimental Commisariat and Planetary Probators are unable to determine culprits. M41.2347 Col. Trik is charged with attempted bribery of a planetary official using cases of Amasec commemorating the millennial Sanguinala. Subsequent investigations yield no physical evidence and Col. Trik denies charges. Col. Trik reprimanded for Rapscallionary and unit is ordered to front-line duty as punishment. Administratum clerks never receive orders rotating 4th MEAL, resulting in prolonged rear echelon duties. Raider: Longbelt, Talbit - Specialist M41.2343 – Specialist Longbelt is arrested following a string of larcenies near 4th MEAL billeting areas while deployed in defense of Imperial Shrineworld Kalamath 2. Specialist Longbelt is arrested after numerous eye witnesses identify Longbelt in suspect lineup. 4th MEAL Billeting area is searched, and while none of the stolen items are recovered, numerous artifacts reportedly stolen from planetary ecclesiarchy shrines are found. Commissariat charges Trooper Longbelt with petty pilfering to avoid involving ecclesiarchy in investigation, planetary Relics are ordered “returned” in lieu of death sentence. Bomber: Gonbelly, Jasper “lefty” – Specialist M41.2349 – While deployed to Hive City Elicoth Primus to combat Mutant Cultist Activities Specialist Gonbelly is arrested following a series of devastating explosions within PDF barracks. Initially charged with treason and fratricide Trooper Gonbelly was spared the firing squad after investigations into the explosions revealed the vast majority of PDF troopers killed in the explosions were mutants. Cultist capabilities in the hive city dropped precipitously and the hive city was retaken in short order. Specialist Gonbelly refused to cooperate with any investigation and was released from custody following flogging for disrespecting senior officers. Battlemutt: Petunia, N/A No disciplinary records exist for regimental mascot dubbed “Petunia”. Big Shot: Longchalk, Curlin – Gunner M41.2352 4th MEAL was deployed to Coberus Decius (an Agriworld in the Aver Expanse) Specialist Longchalk was arrested after being apprehended during an attempted “rustling” of a small Grox herd onto an imperial troop lander. Longchalk was sentenced to 5 lashes per stolen grox, While awaiting the punishment to be carried out the Imperial holding facilities suffered a massive explosion and Specialist Longchalk was listed as KIA. No body was recovered from the blast, and according to Administratum records Specialist Longchalk has been deployed to all subsequent 4th MEAL conflict zones. Hardbit: Manglepie, Aldebrand “Aldo” – Private M41.2340 – Then Sergeant Manglepie is arrested at an NCO lounge on Ogydox IV following a massive brawl. Witnesses swear the fight is instigated by Sgt. Manglepie. Manglepie is demoted to corporal. M41.2341 – Corporal Manglepie is arrested following a violent exchange between 4th Meal troopers and local PDF officers. Witnesses interviewed by commissariat attest Corporal Manglepie was provoked (PDF officers reportedly made numerous claims that the “mutants” of the Abhuman unit be executed. Corporal Manglepie’s violent reaction left 3 senior PDF officers hobbled with severed Achillies tendons and shattered kneecaps. Corporal Manglepie is demoted to specialist and restricted to barracks duty. M41.2341 – 3 PDF officers are found murdered in the infirmary wing at PDF headquarters. Planetary Probators and Commisariate investigations identify murder victims as same officers assaulted by Manglepie. Manglepie provides material Alibi of himself on pict-feed sitting in PDF officers lounge during the time of the murders. With no other leads the investigation is eventually dropped. Specialist manglepie is demoted to private for breaking into PDF officers lounge and breaking restriction to barracks activity. Sneak: Brandysnap, Taffy – Sergeant M41.2347 –During the defense of Tanit Rex from Waghhh Goldtoof Sergeant Brandysnap is reported MIA after forward observation post is overrun and communication is lost. Sgt. Brandysnap returns to imperial positions as Waghhh Goldtoof begins its retreat following the death of Warboss Goldtoof. Sgt. Brandysnap claims responsibility for Goldtoof’s assassination, offering collection of Gold-plated ork teeth as proof. Sgt. Brandysnap is found guilty of possession of xeno-tech and dereliction of duty, however sentencing is unable to be completed as Sgt. Brandysnap is unable to be located by authorities prior to 4th MEAL being withdrawn from the planet. Sniper: Shortbottom, Maywit – Private M41.2351 – During a surprise inspection of forward positions on Charrius III Private Shortbottom is found to be intoxicated to the point of incoherence on ecumenical herbs by regimental officers and immediately sentenced to death. During the inspection the forward observation post came under attack by heretical forces. Private Shortbottom displayed exceptional bravery and martial prowess with over a dozen confirmed kills. Shortbottom’s inebriation is deemed “in line with unit standards” and his punishment is reduced to 2 weeks latrine cleansing for consuming intoxicants while on duty. Spotter: Bayleaf, Ogy - Specialist Specialist Bayleaf guilty of no fewer than 27 counts of Grand Larceny across 9 Imperial Planets. These thefts were discovered during Inquisitor Varicia von Orm’s investigation of Xeno’s activity in the region. No charges or accusations have yet to be leveled at Specialist Bayleaf per Inquisitor von Orm’s wishes. Individual has been marked for continued observation. Stashmaster: Furrows, Hildemund “Hill” – Sergeant Sgt. Furrows has been caught pilfering from mess halls and logistics depots. No charges have been official filed against the Sergeant, as he enjoys administrative protections from Col. Trik. Each reported instance of pilfering or theft has been ameliorated by “found” logistical orders approving the acquisition of the items in question. Vox Thief: Muggins, Clovis – Specialist M41.2349 – While serving in defense of Hive City Elicoth Primus, SPC Muggins is found to have broken sacred vox rituals and breached the vox networks of planetary PDF, Adeptus Arbities, and the planetary Governor. This discovery was made after SPC. Muggins began to broadcast the location of high-priority enemy target locations across the city on Arbities only channels. Subsequent trial resulted in a sentence of death, lowered to 3 months hard labor in light of services rendered to the defense of the hive city. Supplemental Information Regarding Auxillary Ogryn forthcoming. *Had a mixup with a double post last blogpost and "unpublished" the blog because I couldn't figure out how to delete it. Rather than have an unpublished blog in my queue I used this one...not realizing it would date it before my last post. Still learning how to navigate this blog occasionally. **Removed formatting issues

Been steady picking away at my Ratlings team for the last week, and been making slow but steady progress. I swear, ratlings are basically guardsmen on hard-mode. "Oh you want to paint bare faces? What if they were even smaller and always squinting?". I do really love this kit, but if you don't like painting faces its certainly one to avoid. Or don't. They're small enough most people wont see them anyway - live your life. I have two young children (4 and 6), a spouse that has recently started a new business requiring a lot of their time, an engaging full time job and a lovely home that requires constant maintenance and repair. Hobby time does not come freely in my house at the moment. I long for the days of my youth where I could paint for hours on end, however the reality of my current situation is that I often have to make the best of what I have. And what I most frequently have is 30-45 minutes after the kids go to bed and I finish up chores, before I go to sleep myself. I'm fortunate enough to have a dedicated hobby space that allows me to leave my projects out, ready to be picked up and put down as the opportunity arises, and children that occasionally enjoy painting along side me (on two old AoBR Dreads constantly re-primed for their efforts. Even in death they still serve) I mention this because my biggest hobby "win" this last week was something my kids helped me with, testing my new static-grass applicator. As the dust from the holidays settled I found myself with a few gift-cards and after doing a bit of research I purchased the Woodland Scenics "Static King" tool, along with the power cord. TL:DR on that is that it might not be the best on the market, with the power cord its among the top performers for an affordable price, and was easily available on amazon (no local store carries the tool unfortunately). I'd been wanting to try out the applicator since it had arrived and this weekend provided a great opportunity. My kids helped apply watered down elmers onto two cast-off pieces, shake the applicator, and apply some of their mother's hair-spray to the grass in between applications. The results were really great! The longest grass didn't apply entirely how I would have liked, but I believe that was operator error on my part rather than the applicator not being able to properly apply longer grasses. The more I apply the more skills/tricks I hope I'll accumulate, but honestly if this was as good as it could get I think I'd still be pretty satisfied. I can definitely see problems with crushing/compressing the fibers with repeated uses/play, meaning this will likely see more use in building display boards and dioramas than it will with high-use minis, but for this project its already a lock, and I'm VERY excited to finish up painting these minis so I can get to work on their bases.

As part of the knives in the dark competition I started work on the Ratlings Kill Team, and their Ogryn allies. Special thanks to @Lysimachus for putting together this competition! I officially got started painting these models on Jan 12th, priming adding a zenithal to the team Assembling the team went pretty quickly, the ratlings were even smaller than I anticipated (notsurewhatIexpected.gif), but none of the parts were particularly fiddly. I'm going to magnetize the arms of the bullgryns at a future date, should be nice and easy thanks to the huge voids on the interior of the shield arm and the weapon arms respectively, but for now they're just kinda hanging out. I threw in the "Provisionally Prepared" model as well, might use them as part of a display board, might use them as an desk ornament at work, either way they're getting painted up to match the rest of the irregulars. I didn't have a particular paint scheme in mind when getting started on these boys, and as a result I was a bit slow-going on my base colors. I jumped in on skin tones just because I knew I wanted to do a variety, and had some fun mixing up different skin tons for just about all of them...even if its VERY subtle, so subtle you might question why the effort was made...but it was... Eventually I found the idea of a scheme I enjoyed (Prairie Ratlings) and the base colors started getting applied with a bit more zeal. All in all the project is moving at a pretty good clip. The ratlings are among the smaller models I've ever painted, small enough that I kind of wish I'd done them in sub-assemblies as I'm having to do a TON of touch-up painting on them. The flip side is that they're so small they paint up very quickly to start, so its a mixed bag. I'm enjoying working on the Ogryn's most at the moment, first time I've painted any and they're a fun sculpt. I picked up basing supplies for them yesterday, but will have a to wait a bit before I can get a test base mocked up as I'm waiting to buy a static-grass applicator, the idea being the team is operating in a meadow-like area, a first for me to try