The Hammer of the Emperor

While I work away at the projects I recently laid out for 2013, I thought I'd show you the finished photos of a tank I finished up last weekend. This is a Baneblade I painted up as a favor for a good guy in Las Vegas. A good wargaming friend of his passed away well before his time, and this guy took on the task of helping his friend's widow keep her head above water by selling off his wargaming collection. His Vostroyan army was sold off with the promise that I would paint up the Baneblade.

For some unknown reason, we never decided on a deadline, and as such this tank never really registered on my priority listing, despite the obvious need to get it sorted. After too long a time, I finally got it all squared away and shipped off to the new owner. The tank arrived yesterday and I'm really hoping it was a) a good tribute to the departed friend, and b) worth the wait.

The tank is magnetized where it is needed, and can be switched out to sport heavy bolter OR heavy flamer sponsons (in any of the three spots), and can also be switched up to be run as a Hellhammer, as you can see below.

It was great to be able to see the finished model head out the door after almost two years of lurking around the edges of my painting table. Tim, may your Baneblade smite many foes of the Emperor!

Cheers
Dave

Genswick 33rd Rifles Regiment, 1st Company - The HQ

Back in February I started to post some of the models from my Genswick Imperial Guard army. I've taken a few more photos since then, and thought I'd given you guys some more toy soldiers to look at. Here they are, the HQ choices for my Genswick 33rd Rifles, 1st Company.

The Genswick Rifles were inspired by the troopers of the same name (Genswick at least) from Dan Abnett's Straight Silver, the fifth (I think) novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series. The Genswick are the first troops the Tanith encounter on the front lines of a tragic trench-war that has lasted for more than four decades. I really got the impression of an army that had been beaten down by not only the relentless grind of 40 years of toil in the mud, but also by an incredibly archaic command structure. When I built my army, I wanted the commanders to be awful stereotypes of incredibly obnoxious aristocratic fops in the best tradition of General Melchett from Black Adder Goes Forth.

Thus, Major Barnabus Collins was born. You can see him in his incredibly clean dress uniform above. He is attended by his personal physician, the regimental Standard Bearer, and 1st Company's only two functioning plasma guns. When such things existed, I had him rated as a "Junior Officer", so that I could not benefit from strong leadership, I also did not give him the Iron Discipline "skill" that I reserved for the NCOs that lead the platoons (but more on them in another post).

Above you can see my second Command HQ squad. I built this squad when we were working on an "Alien Hunter" article for US WD. I can't remember the issue number though, perhaps someone can remind me.

This squad was obviously inspired by the opening scenes from Zulu, as Michael Caine returns to his command after a successful hunt. Amusingly enough, the commander (who I never named) looks a lot like General Melchett.

And finally, I know these guys are part of the Troops section of the army, but I felt they needed to be here. This Conscript Platoon, dressed in their parade uniforms, is the bodyguard of Major Barnabus Collins. Following a bit of a snide remark I made about the static posing of the Baneblade commander model on its release, I was sent quite a few of them by amused co-workers. I was then required to assemble them and paint them up in their dress whites.

Anyway, that's it for today's post. Next time we'll take a look at the Troops that fight under the "Fighting Badgers" banner of the Genswick 33rd Rifles.

Cheers

Dave

The Withdrawal: Diorama entry for Chicago Golden Demons - Part 2 (The Finishing)

Only 48 hours till I fly to Chicago!

Here's the finished diorama. Unfortunately the pics look a bit washed out, I'll have to take a few more next week (maybe while getting some practice in with my new work lighting rig and camera).

Anyway, I decided to stick with the 144th Cadian regiment, something about the number just spoke to me. The models are not glued down yet, that'll happen on Saturday morning, so you may see some gaps between feet and ground. This is so that it will be a LOT easier to transport this beast out to Chicago. No sense hoping it'll arrive in one piece so I'll start with it traveling in 15 or so pieces ; )

I hope you like it. This diorama represents the largest amount of time I've spent on a model that wasn't intended for gaming. Even if it doesn't win a trophy, I'm still very happy with the journey and the end result.

Cheers

Dave

The Withdrawal: Diorama entry for Chicago Golden Demons

Right after Baltimore Games Day I started thinking about a diorama I could do for the Chicago Golden Demons. I mean literally right after! By the time the second beer was hitting the back of my throat I had the kernel of an idea, and by the end of the third the idea was really fleshed out.

In dioramas you typically see troops advancing, fighting off menacing hordes of traitors or aliens, and occasionally you'll see some commander (or tanker) poring over his charts. For a couple of great recent dioramas done by a member of the DakkaDakka community (Gundam-Mecha) you can look here and here. These are certainly part of the inspiration for working on a diorama like this.

Anyway, my earlier point was that only very rarely do you see the wounded being pulled off the frontlines.

Enter, "The Withdrawal of the Cadian 144th".

Obviously I will need a vehicle to evacuate my wounded Imperial Guardsmen. I'm currently working on a half-track version of the Troop Transport Truck. The suspension is based on the Semovente tank. The riveting is a bit different for this beast. In the "heavy duty" areas I'm using 1mm ball bearings glued into small holes drilled in the plating.

I will also need a location to park the half-track and get the guys loaded up. The base is 1/4" MDF, overlaid with varying thicknesses of Apoxie Sculpt from AVES Studio. This two-part putty is easy (if a bit messy) to work with, gives a smooth finish, and dries rock hard!

Pressed into the surface and standing proud above the drainage ditches is a cracked and crazy road made from the concrete rubble made by Gale Force 9. There's quite a bit more work to be done to the base.

And then come the Imperial Guardsmen of the Cadian 144th. These first two will be loading a stretcher onto the half-track.

The next two are an Autocannon team (you'll see what I mean soon), plus the Departmento Munitorium half-track gunner taking a break.

The walking wounded.

An argument over who is being evacuated. The Departmento NEVER makes mistakes!

And finally, a vox operator calling the rest of his platoon in, a standard bearer to act as a rally point, and no, that guy isn't dancing! He'll be seated in the back of the half-track, resting his bandaged leg.

All of the troops will be painted to their finished "pristine" state. And then weathered like they've just been through some rough stuff.

I hope you like it so far!

Cheers

Dave

What's that over there?

Well, at least that's what I'm thinking this J.E.B. Stuart miniature keeps asking me.

Why a Civil War mini? Well that's what I've been painting over the last couple of weeks, and the best thing is it's been for work! The great Confederate cavalry commander (above) and half a dozen Union cavalrymen will be making an appearance in the July issue of Wargames Illustrated (#261) as part of our "American Civil War -The road to Gettysburg" theme.

The finishing touches on the re-launch issue (#260) are being finalized in England as I type, and I have to say it has been a pleasure to work with Dan Faulconbridge on this one. I have certainly learned a lot about putting together a magazine that isn't a "house mag". There's a certain freedom that is VERY refreshing. I have also learned that I need to start pushing my personal design and layout skills a bit, skills that have atrophied over the last few years of management. Anyway, this all means I'm very happy with the way my new job is going!

Oh, and I thought I'd throw in this pic. It's my take on a Dutch Windmill for Flames of War (or any other 15mm game with the potential to be set in Holland). The brief was to build a Dutch windmill from materials that are really easy to get a hold of. While I still have a few more things to add to the model above (including paint) this have been made from a cereal box, some Coke cases, a Bic pen, and a handful of bass wood strips (perhaps the toughest thing to get a hold of thus far). As well as making it into the upcoming Firestorm: Operation Market Garden campaign box coming out later in the year, we'll be doing a "how to" in Wargames Illustrated.

The building in front of the windmill is a resin cast of one of the cool Flames of War French village buildings that'll be released later this year. Jason Buyaki (of Gale Force 9, formerly my colleague at GW, and terrain guru) created all the masters for these pieces and boy are they really beautifully detailed!

So, I finally had a chance to take a good look through the Imperial Guard Codex (thanks Harry) and it is incredibly exciting!

It is full of great possibilities. In my mind there are as many options as there were with the doctrines system and the best part is, the all seem to be worth taking at some point or against some enemies! Although I have over 20,000 points of IG, I'll be using this codex to create lists for my Blood Pact first. The vast array of infantry and character options will make it really easy to field the units described by Dan Abnett in the Gaunt's Ghosts series. My Commander model (one of the first I painted back at the start of this blog) will be easily able to represent Colonel Straken, Creed can be used to represent Sagittar Slaith, etc etc.

My favorite idea (currently) is to add some Infardi (the green-silk wearing pilgrim-cultists from Honour Guard), lead by a Priest and Pater Sin. The Infardi will be built from Empire flagellants and behave as Conscripts in the army. Pater Sin turned up again in Sabbat Martyr leading two blind child-psykers - what a great chance to support my Blood Pact with a Psyker Choir!

Then, of course, there are these models (and character options). Oh what fun I shall have corrupting them!

And that's not even getting to the tanks and support vehicles!

I've almost finished all of my entries for the Baltimore Golden Demons, pics of these to come. Wish me luck!

Cheers
Dave