Stallenberg 502nd... with added Norfolkian 8th. 'Pip pip old chap!'

[Slave to Darkness]

So I was wondering what I was gonna do when the Space Brits get here for a commander and command squad, after a cheeky little google search I found the perfect minis, an absolute thing of beauty!! 

 

British Captains, Generals and Characters featuring Captain Blacksnake and a drinks cabinet

https://scarabminiatures.com/product/br001-captains-generals-and-characters/

£8.90, bargain!! 

 

General Melchett as army Commander, Black Adder as Platoon Commander, Darling as coms, Baldrik the medic, 'Bob' the Platoon Standard bearer (will just have the pole stuck in the floor behind her) and George's cricket bat will be a close combat weapon. Oh and Guillimans drinks cabinet that they need to move six inches nearer to the Cicatrix. Funny how a bad joke I made in my sig has now come true lol. Captain Blackadder of the Norfolkian 8th Siege Regiment will stalk the battlefields of the 42nd millenennenenneneneneneium... 

 

I may even use him as a proxy for Creed, as he has a cunning plan... 

 

All I need now is some tiny clocks for a Monty Python reference, some teacups and crumpets (and my damn trenches to get here from Greenstuff World, they admitted they messed my order up and its on its way now :) ) and some Space Brits and Im gonna be as happy as a Nurgling in goo for months. Ive even bought Black Adder and Dads Army boxsets for some good old British humour/inspiration. Stallenberg as the serious army, Norfolkia as the fun force. 

 

++EDIT++

 

I forgot to mention, technically I have already started the Norfolkian 8th, I did pick up a WW1 Tadpole to use as the Malcador variant with the Demolisher. 

I have found some lascannons so Ill be getting rid of the wimpy looking gun on the front and converting the front a bit when I add the weapons. 

Long boi!!

The Mortar on the back looked a bit too small so I pinched the one from my Stallenberg that had a miscast wheel and stuck that on the back instead. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Slave to Darkness
pictures

[greatcrusade08]

12 hours ago, Slave to Darkness said:

So I was wondering what I was gonna do when the Space Brits get here for a commander and command squad, after a cheeky little google search I found the perfect minis, an absolute thing of beauty!! 

 

 

Oh good lord those are fantastic

[Slave to Darkness]

As soon as I saw them I had to have them.

 

Oh my trenches finally got here from Greenstuff World, funny how something can get here from spain faster than it can from wales... Been waiting nearly a month for a damn book. 

 

Anyway, trenches... Mmmmmmm time to crack the box open and see what my pennies have bought me. I also bought 12 inches of greenstuff, dunno why I got that much but its always handy to have kicking about. I have also bought a lot of plastic teeth, but thats for something Chaos related so Ill not mention any more here, Commissar Cottrell may be looking with his power shovel... 

 

++EDIT++

 

This is what one box of Trenches will get you, now Im thinking about getting a second so I can do some space hulk style games but with trench raiding instead... 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[The Pounder]

Those trenches look amazing!

I can see many a fun trench raid game being played over them.

They almost absolve you of your heretical activities, almost (draws the shovel)

[Slave to Darkness]

Im loving the trenches but I wish there was some corner sections. Ahh well no biggie. *shrugs*

I was watching that old-ish WW1 horror film 'Deathwatch' the other day (the one with Andy Serkis) and that one bit where they were shooting at dead germans shuffling about with barbed wire twisted around them made me realise I need a Chaos Guard trench force. As I have Germans locked down and Brits on the way (Ill be ordering them next month) it looks like Ill be doing Nurgle themed Frenchies.  Not sure how Im gonna do gooey dribbly Nurgly stuff with a bright baby blue scheme but it will be an interesting challenge making it look right.

 

Annoyingly due to the current rail strikes I never made it to the gig I was going to, so I wasted £120, whilst not really 40k related Im just pissed as I could have bought everything I need for the brits in one go. *screams in gasmask whilst banging head against wall* So this time next month I should have a fair chunk of what I needed turning up, something to look forward to I guess. 

[The Pounder]

Yeah, life has a way of kicking you in the nuts sometimes.

Have you tried to  claim the money back for the train ticket?

 

Nurgle French have me intrigued.  What are you getting for the Brits?

[Slave to Darkness]

London underground website says they will not offer refunds/compensation for strike action. Im  fuming.  - snip - 

 

For the Brits Ill be using the Wargames Atlantic Bulldogs and some Black Adder goes forth minis for the command squad, then I need to find some tiny clocks for a cheeky Monty Python reference and jobs a good un. 

Edited August 22, 2022 by duz_
Removed non 40k discussion

[Slave to Darkness]

Actually instead of doing Nurgle French, Im gonna do them as the fallen Stallenberg and Brits. I have enough left over bits already for dead Stallenbergers and the WGA Bulldogs will have tons of left overs, and Im picking up two boxes so Ill have  plenty of spares to dip into. I have also found 5 meters of model razor wire I cant remember ordering so I can get creative sticking that into awkward places where you really dont want it on the fallen guardsmen. I wonder f I can get one to look like Michael Jackson in the 'Thriller' pose. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[Slave to Darkness]

Question time, what GW paints will get me a similar shade to the uniform here?

Im not too clued up on GW browns, Im more of a grey kinda guy. 

 

Also do people think a Whippet would be a good base for a Hellhound?

Instead of the machine guns poking out the bunkery looking bit I was thinking of swapping them out for flamers, and having a flamer on each side gets around the lack of a moveable turret. Or is there a more suitable vehicle that Ive missed?

 

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[The Pounder]

For the colours, I’m not certain but looks like you could try and use Dryad Bark and Gorthor Brown.

Is that one of the Brits you’re waiting on?

 

[Slave to Darkness]

Yep, thats one of the little rascals. Hopefully if real life gives me a break for once and not kick me in the tenders I should have the cash to pick up what I need in a week. If everything works out Ill be grabbing the WW1 Black Adder minis, two boxes of these guys and for the Monty Python influence Ill be getting (and I cant believe I forgot all about these beauties) the Victoria Miniatures 'Spanish Inquisition' to use as Priests.

 

Whilst I was looking through the other minis they sell I found their Rough Rider conversion kits, and added enough bits to build a Cav leader chap and command squad. Basically these with Brodie helmets instead of the Pith helmets, even getting some of those shoulder boards, gotta have those shoulder dangles chaps!! The horses I will be using will be the new Wargames Atlantic horses, nice and cheap and I can get single sprues easily on ebay. 

 

As I hit the threshold for free mini I decided to get this fella, dont know what Ill use him for, may chop off his head and use the last Brodie head Ill have to make another officer, or add cloak and peaked cap and make a Commissar. Ill worry about that later though, Im in no rush for a Commissar as I have spares in my Stallenberg that can stand in for the time being. 

 

To keep costs down I dont want to be paying that much on Victoria Miniatures Rough Riders, Ill use them for any fancy mounted characters but for general cav Ill b using WW1 British cav from North Star (same place I got my German cav from in my Stallenberg army), not the crispest sculpts but cheap and they will do the job perfectly for me at least. I want to get ten of these eventually, then I can run small units or one big one. If they do well Ill bump them up to twenty. 

 

So roughly that should work out to...

 

Commander Melchett

 

Random Michael Cain dude

 

Captain Blackadder with command squad

 

3 Priests

 

4 Veteran Squads (either Flamers or Grenade Launchers and a Heavy Bolter)

 

Special Weapon Squad (Snipers)

 

Heavy Weapon Squad (Heavy Bolters)

 

Rough Rider Commander and Command Squad (or Death Riders depending if I run them as Krieg)

 

Malcador (the one with the Demolisher)

 

 

That should keep me busy for a while, to stretch the kits out a bit more the spotter for the heavy bolter squads will be either smoking boots, crater with a broken helmet in it, random spotter pigeon  or if I can find any tiny British Bulldogs. When WGA release their WW1 Brit kit Ill use those as bog standard infantry squads and add a platoon of good old Guardsmen and more heavy weapon squads. Got everything all sorted out in my head and Im going to stick to the plan, I dont want to go nuts and get tons of stuff I dont really need. 

 

++EDIT++

 

I also ordered another 5 of the WGA Cannon Fodder bodies, so that will bring me up to ten meatsacks, lovely squishy meatsacks. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[duz_]

Nice! I like VMs stuff. I suggest a thorough scrubbing though whatever she uses for her releasing agent is tenacious! 

I also prefer using gel super glue with her stuff since sometimes the joins aren't super flush. 

 

[Slave to Darkness]

9 hours ago, duz_ said:

Nice! I like VMs stuff. I suggest a thorough scrubbing though whatever she uses for her releasing agent is tenacious! 

I also prefer using gel super glue with her stuff since sometimes the joins aren't super flush. 

 

Aye Ill give them a good scrub, Im not the biggest fan of painting in general and I dont wanna have to do it twice because the paint wont take. Cheers for mentioning the gel glue, Ill grab some of that on friday if I get the chance. 

[Slave to Darkness]

Started making some trench walls to make my Greenstuff World trenches look a bit more 'trenchy'. In typical poor hobbyist style Im making them out of matchsticks, coffee stirrers, scrap card covered in pva soaked tissue then flocked with cheap Morrissons own brand teabags (80 bags for 65p gives a lot more basing materials per penny than flock or sand).

 

Looking pretty rough atm but it was more of a 'will this work experiment' than an actual plan. 

 

Inside view

 

Outside view (corners still need tissue and whatnot, very WIP)

 

General idea of what Im going for

 

Shot taken lower down so you can get an idea of how high they are compared to meatsacks.

 

Eventually Ill get round to sculpting additional sandbags and adding dropped rifles, helmets, the occasional random limb minus the rest of the poor victim and other assorted trench themed details but thats far in the future as I need to make meters of these bloody things first.

 

Guess I better get back to it before Commissar Cottrell starts screaming at me

[Slave to Darkness]

Hopefully I gets my filthy mitts on cash tomorrow so I can pull the trigger on my Norfolkians... Im getting irritable and impatient now lol. Already gone through my shopping list, removed a few things, added them back, nearly changed my mind completely and went for Russians instead then decided to stick to the plan... I dont think it helps that Im hungry and have bugger all in the house other than pasta and a tin of mushy peas. I might try and take my mind off it and use up some of my scrap card by cutting out bases for my heavy weapon teams. 

 

Actually I could make a start on some craters,  the boys are gonna need some cover to sip their tea in half way across no mans land, and this barb wire isnt gonna lay itself... 

[Slave to Darkness]

Finally got around to all the new rumors for Guard, now Im having second thoughts on the Norfolkians considering my list is literally Vets and Special Weapon squads. Kinda makes me want to not do anything now as I dont want to have to rework the army and/or buy more stuff later on. I cant even do Marines until the dex drops because Im sick to the back teeth of looking at power armoured minis (I guess 30 years of marines would do that to a person) and the Guard was a nice distraction from that. If people are wondering why Im hung up on Vets is because I was going to use the Bulldogs as the fancy squads and basic infantry were gonna be normal WW1 Brits (less fancy kit so I can tell them apart from the Vets). 

 

I may order an extra sprue and continue as normal, the extras will just be basic meatsacks so if vets are dropped the extra special weapons can be swapped out, I guess an extra £8 and a few excess minis that wont be used will be a lot better than banging my head against the wall with frustration. Ugh, just as I thought I had everything planned in advance... 

 

*Sad Gasmask Noises*

[Slave to Darkness]

It will be another 2/3 days before I get the funds I need for my order and now theres a postal strike (seriously getting sick of strikes, I missed the bloody gig wasting over £100 and only got reimbursed £6 and now this... Grrr) 

 

On the plus side though I may even have enough cash left over to buy a new guitar amp, so I can keep my neighbour awake all night, payback for his customers waking me up slamming the side gate by my bedroom window all hours of the night/morning. Gonna make him suffer with some Bolt Thrower played badly and slightly outta tune, or run my laptop through it and make him listen to Warhammer Audios all night against his will. Hes gonna have a breakdown everytime he hears the word Krieg... Krieg. Krieg. lovely lovely Krieg. Mmmmmm gaskmasks and shovels. 

 

Anyhoo back on topic... I have started cutting out bases for craters so I have some form of cover on my trench board, still not sure what else to make other than more barbed wire strips, you guys have any ideas?? 

[The Pounder]

Yeah, it looks like all postal workers are going on strike at the end of the week. Too much inconvenience lately, that said you

can see why given how inflation is effecting everyone.

 

I think your board is gonna look sick when completed!

 

How’re you getting on with the cannonfo…. I mean infantry?
 

 

[Slave to Darkness]

It should look good when its finished... Eventually lol. Takin a break from the meatsacks, and painting in general, just messing around with terrain whilst my mojo recharges. Eager to start on the Brits though, will make a nice change from painting grey all the time. 

 

 

 

[Slave to Darkness]

So I think I have nailed down my shopping list to the following...

 

The Black Adder minis. 

3 boxes of the Space Brits (should be 72 in total.).

1 box of WW1 French (30 in coats, 5 in fancy knee boots).

1 box of Grognard heavy weapons (weapons will be split between Norfolkians and Stallenbergers, bodies will be put to one side for another project).

2 Goliath demo thingys (got some Bolt Action scale ones from some random company, thought Id give them a go).

1 sprue of WW1 French (to build Command Squad).

2 sprues of WW1 Germans (heads to use with the french bodies, bodies to fill out other squads).

1 sprue of Cannon Fodder (giving me a Command Squad and one Infantry Squad)

4 sprues of Grognards (combined with the bodies from the heavy weapon box Ill have 20 and a few extras for characters). 

1 WGA weapon upgrade sprue (fancy pointy hats with gasmasks will be used for a command squad).

200 bases. 

The old Legion of the Damned novel. 

Ltd Ed Veteran Sergeant Centurius!!! 

 

and... I have saved the best for last.

 

24 tiny Pigeons (com links old boy!!). 

 

May even get Verdun to play on the ol xbox, bit of inspiration (or distraction). 

 

So between that lot and making terrain, I will be quite busy down in the trenches with the other shovel swingers. .

 I also need to teabag (stop laughing at the back) another section of styrene, I think no mans land should be a bit longer than 24 inches. 

 

A Guardsman's work is never done... 

 

++EDIT 1++

 

Im gonna have to add some teabags to the list, not for the table, but for me to keep me calm as I build all that.  Im dreading it, but Im also kinda excited to get started. 

 

++EDIT 2++

 

Rough list done off the top of my head for the Norfolkians. 

 

Black Adder characters as  High Commanders and Command squad. 

and the following from the WGA Space Brits...

 

Platoon Commander.

Command Squad (flag dude, medic, random special weapon and coms pigeon).

 

Commissar (some form of tea based character, instead of shooting a fleeing guardsmen Im head cannoning it that the Guardsmen know if a unit breaks they will loose tea rations so they beat the crap out of the first guy to run). 

 

Special Weapon squad (Snipers).

 

3 Veteran Squads. 

 

3 Infantry Squads.

 

Heavy Weapon squad (Heavy Bolters).

 

Heavy Weapon squad (Mortars).

 

Veterans and Infantry will have a mix of Grenade Launcher or Flamer squads, all squads also have a Heavy Bolter team and coms pigeon. 

To tell the units apart on the table, Infantry will be armed with lasguns and the Vets will have machine guns. 

 

 

++EDIT 3++

The Stallenberg lot will get another 'French' platoon, Officer and Command Squad, Veteran Squad, 2 Infantry Squads, nothing fancy.

The German sprues will let me bump my Engineer squad up to ten and leave me enough to use with some left over weapons to make some more Heavy Bolter and Autocannons bumping me up to 2 Heavy Weapon squads. 

 

WW2 themed Stallenberg will be having a few new minis added and an old squad changing (the Cadian Vets will be loosing their arms and heads (and Pheasant) and they will be going onto some Grognard bodies so the greatcoat theme isnt diluted by Cadian bodies. 

 

The Goliaths may be a bit smaller than the FW ones, if so Ill just have to put them on a base thats roughly the right size and  bulk the base to make it a bit taller, they were cheap so I thought why not.

The Penal Squad Ill just build like a normal Infantry squad, can never have too many infantry. 

I got the Legion of the Damned  Sgt Centurius to add to my army I use for 1st/2nd ed games, well chuffed, this brings back memories.

 

So yeah, everything planned out to I know exactly what Im doing... Now I just need to actually do it!!! 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Slave to Darkness

[Slave to Darkness]

I went a bit nuts and bought a second Centurius without his chainsaw to convert for a Chaos Marine. Yay two!!!!

[Slave to Darkness]

 Im still waiting on 5 boxes of WGA stuff and some assorted sprues, should have been here friday but with Royal Mail being lazy Im not sure if they are just delayed or have gone awol in the warp, worrying as thats £130 worth of stuff thats unaccounted for, guess Ill wait a few more days then Ill get onto the seller and enquire whats goin on.

 

I did make a start on the Command Squad though.

 

Also started on some Scions to go with my WW1 regiment (WGA conversion sprue and some spare Grognards) and got 2 of the RC Bombs, bit smaller than expected so I put them on a base so my enemies dont laugh at me for having tiny explosives.

[Slave to Darkness]

Its Morbin time!!!!!!!

The Sprues were to finish off some squads. I got 2 of the Bratwhurst  Bashers and one of Baguette Bludgeoners.

WW1 Germans mostly for the helmets to convert the french and I need 4 bodies to fill out my Engineer squad. The Baguettes are for crew to mix in with the Grognards so the crew have same uniforms as the rest of the platoon. Grognard crew will be going into the Camoed up 502nd Vet army and the Mortars will be going to the Norfolonian 8th. The last WW1 box of Oo laa laas with be another platoon (maybe yellow, I think that would pop on the dark grey uniform nicely) for the 666th Siege Regement. 

 

Its obvious what the Bulldogs are for, I have not shut up about them for the past few pages/months. Including my order for the natives of my homebrew chapter (Medieval world, so basically Bretonnia) that leaves me with wayyy over 300 minis to paint between Brits, Stallenbergers, Normans, Vikings and more importantly Centurious and a Squad of LotD. Time to crack on. 

[GreenScorpion]

Will be nice to see it all assembled and painted

What are your thoughts on the Death Fields conversion sprue? I have looked into it several times while browsing the online retailer I use, but the extra heads when I already have loads of heads make me doubt its worth, as I was mostly interested in additional arms for making conversions to spend the extra heads in the first place.

I have not seen many reviews on the Conquest kits, any comments on the contents of the boxes that you got?

 

As a side note, the remote controlled bombs don't look so small and they fit well with your infantry.
If anyone says they are too small, I recommend showing them that the only size that matters is the size of the crater they leave behind
(Disclaimer, I am not responsible if anyone decides to use actual explosives to prove a point)

[Slave to Darkness]

The conversion sprue is ok, you get ten gun arms (rifles and smg's) but only 5 'holding' arms for the left side. The gasmask hoses seem a little long, I had to trim a couple of mil off each one otherwise the filterpack will be slapping them in the nuts as they run, now I have them sitting on the waist where I had my filter pack when stripping asbestos, looks weird but at least its realistic. The only Issue I really had with the extra bits is getting the arms and mask pipes to work together, some arms are tight across the chest and the pipe gets in the way, nothing major but does add a few minutes onto build time as you spend a few mins trynna get everything right (use plastic cement for these not superglue, as theres a fair bit of moving bits around to get it looking perfect). Theres three bionic arms, on looks like it could be used as  a lefty to hold the gun barrel, the others is a 'come at me' wiggling fingers waving hand pose and the other just looks badass like Johnny Lawrence. Oh and you get some knives as well.

Id give the sprue a good 8.5/10. The lack of left arms and annoying respirator pipes are the only gripe I have, but with the amount of left arms I have (and Im sure you have your body weight in arms going by the amount of stuff you have) then that shouldnt be a major issue. 

 

As for the Conquest minis, best thing I can say about them is 'it does what is says on the tin (or box in this case) cheap minis, not too detailed, not many blingy bits. Detail isnt GW level and that pleases me, I dont want to spend hours painting basic chaff level minis just to take them off the table a few seconds later. Bodies are one piece, heads and arms separate. Same with the Cavalry. If you want highly detailed Historical minis to GW standards then Conquest (and Gripping Beast) plastics are not for you, if you want to build an army on the cheap with mediocre detailing (ngl these would be great for kids to paint) then they are perfect. £20 a box for an average of 40 infantry or 15 cavalry is perfect for a broke ass like me. My main gripe with these is the bases, you have your singles and tons of 'strips' from 2-5 minis per strip, that annoys me as Im not playing rank and file (these are all for 1st ed 40k) but nothing some thick card cant fix.

Id give each box I have looked at so far a 8/10 not perfect, bases annoy me and theres a lack of long haired heads. 

 

The Goliaths really annoyed me, I checked the GW scale, then discovered FW dont make them any more, found cheap recasts but couldnt be bothered waiting a 2 months so I looked at 3rd party stuff, I did find a nice Tamiya kit but each 'bomb' took up the space of about 6 guardsmen, the ones I got are smaller than expected but realistically sized considering they take up 3 slots (I think) in a transport. They do look better with raised bases, they will also have some greenery and razor wire added to make them look a little bit fancier. I wont bother rating the Goliaths, there isnt much to say about them, 5 piece kit (not including the crew that have gone into the bitsbox) that goes together easily. Produced by Rubicon if you want to look further into them. 

 

As for explosions, I had a bad habit of blowing things up when I was younger, so Id settle any disagreement in the ring old school style in full Cobra Kai cosplay , less danger for those watching lol. 

 

 

++EDIT++

 

Just had a look at the Bulldog sprue, the amount of character they have in some of the bare heads actually surpasses the facial detail of GW sculpts, and unlike some of the German heads there is not a single 'Putin' head in the kit, for those reading this and needing context a lot of WGA heads look like a young Putin, does low key make me laugh looking at them. But yeah some of these Bulldog heads, man they look sweeeeet, got one having a smoke with a sneer on his face, but my fave is one screaming, his mouth is comically large but the detail and expression is just perfect... If WGA keep releasing kits to this standard then GW really should worry, especially where Guard is concerned. Ive now got to the point where the only Guard bits Ill need are heavy bolters and autocannons, and I can snag those off ebay for virtually nothing. 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Slave to Darkness