Some dark age cavalry

Well after painting the 15mm stuff on a sort of whim, as I was going through the primed selection on miniatures (looking at the 40k stuff to complete Kill Teams) I thought I would paint the last three of the Oathmark cavalry I picked up last year - they have been slightly kit bashed with Saxon and Viking heads and shields. 

The plan is to use them with the 3 Viking and Saxon horsemen who survived the great cull, before I bought the plastic stuff for saga - which will make another 6 figure unit for Kings of War or Dragon Rampant. It has been quite a pleasant change from the 40k stuff I have been working on for the last 3 years …. Not played much, but I have plans to change that. 

Morts

Saxons - but not the usual ones.

Like a butterfly I have gone off task of painting things for Kill Team/40k and painted some more Saxon infantry for the Great Northern War (imaginations) collection. 

We have the command figures for Saxon Guard (white//Cream flag) and Kurprinz Regiment (Yellow flag).

The Saxon Guard have white hat tape. 

The Kurprinz have yellow hat tape (I am not sure if this is accurate but I makes them a little easier to differentiate).

There is something nice and easy about painting 15mm - the process seems quicker to get more acceptable results. 

I haven’t forgot the Kill Team stuff as I did pick up the new source book - Moroch. 

As it has rules for Phobos marines and the traitor guard (so I can use the Blackstone Fortress guys) - now  I was a bit too impatient buying this as when I decided to get a copy the auction prices were pushing £20 plus postage, so when was offered at £14.90 including p&p I went for it … have I have since had offers from sellers of less than £12 quid as the early adopters got a copy … d’oh!

Now I just have to assemble my Reiver/infiltrator team.

Morts 

Continued progress in Sci-fi

Over the Jubilee weekend I managed to pick up the virus of unknown origin, which was a bit of a arse to be honest. I had survived over 2 years as a key worker and not picked up even a sniff of it! My main symptoms were a rather snotty nose. We missed out on the local Jubilee celebrations and a copy of other party invites due to not wanting to infect anyone else and not wanting to be “looked” at being out and about. Although the current rules are there are no actual restrictions, it does suggest avoid large gatherings … but I do have to go to work on Monday. 

In our self imposed semi isolation I did manage to paint some furniture for thing 2’s bedroom and the garden (still have to do some more of that). 

Today I put together some old GW imperial guard weapon systems with some press-moulded Starship Troop feet. 

Flame thrower, missile system and heavy gun. 

A gun thing and a mortar. I made the press moulds for these years ago and DK picked up a bits box of guns (might be 10 years ago) so I thought that I should actually try to finish these off. They are going to need little bases and some filling. 

I have also been fiddling around with mantic’s industrial set - the raised walkway is causing me some problems … I might need to think about to “raise” them. The plan is to spray black and then gun metal - but I need to assemble the newly purchased  Necron Deathmarks to be able to get value for money out of the spray cans. 

I am also looking at selling off most of my Primaris Space Marine (except 6 which will make an Intercessor Kill Team and the Phobos Space Wolf team which is still on its spruce), but not before I have a game of Xenos Rampant with the Marines versus the Bugs of Starship Troopers. 

Morts 

COVID and Kill Team play through

I had arranged for Steedo and Tiger King to come over last night for a play through of Kill Team 2021 - finally! I had watched some play throughs and was pretty sure that I had a fair grasp of the rules. The teams were picked - Space Marine Intercessors and the recently painted Eldar Rangers and Dire Avengers. 

Ready to go!

Anyway the better half who has had a bit of a cold/cough for a day or so thought she’d better take a COVID test for work. And typically after missing it for two years (and the rather generous isolation periods etc) she was positive! I’m not (currently) but it meant the game was called off. Bugger!

Anyway after a bit of bimbling I thought I might as well just play through the rules to get a handle on basic stuff before playing a proper game with real opponents. I decided to ditch the tac-ops section and the command points as I felt that it would be a little weird playing those elements solo. The teams were reduced as it was just to get a handle on the basics - so 2 Dire Avengers and 2 Rangers versus 3 Intercessors. 

After deployment and first moves - everyone started with conceal orders so it was just moving forward - on the start of the 2nd turn (pictured above) everyone got a engage order - and the firing started. I also read that the Rangers can fire with a conceal order with the silent trait of their rifles, which will be useful. 

The marines trying to flank the Eldar - who were doing well with the shooting. I was enjoying the allocation of Defence dice against hits - with the impact of critical hits being potentially nullified. I think I got the till about mortal wounds wrong as I think they are automatically assigned even if the critical hit that caused it is removed by the defenders dice saving throw. 

Into the third turn and 2 marines down and the 2 rangers down - some of the shooting can be lethal for models with only 8 or 9 wounds . The lady marine and the one of the Dire Avengers are both wounded, but they fight on.

In this round the Intercessor charged into the uninjured Avenger and pommels him to death with his fists - 2 critical hits got through and inflicted the 8 wounds to put him out of action. 

The final turn and it was down to who won initiative - and for the 4th time the Eldar did … the Intercessor was cut down in a hail of fire. 

So a made a few errors, but on the got into the flow of the game pretty well - I don’t think this is a game that I would play solo again - there are too many interactions needing an opponent. 

Hopefully soon a game against real peeps. Might have a Chaos Space Marine and Necron Kill Teams completed by then … or more likely not. 

Morts 

Light infantry for Maurice

As a break from painting stuff for Kill Team - which I must have a trial game of soon - I thought that I would paint some 15mm light infantry for the Maurice forces. 

For the Russians 

I think that these are actually Turkish renaissance troops ,but I thought they looked close enough to Strelsi to stand in as light troops for the forces of the Tsar in imagination games. 

For the Swedes I have used Prussian Freight Korps. 

Grey coats and yellow facings. Not my best work - I might go back and increase the highlights …but as these are only proxy units for the rules rather than true to the period I’m not sure. 

Will be interesting to see how light infantry play in Maurice. 

Morts 

Dire Avengers - Kill Team

The Dire Avengers part of the Aldari (Eldar) Kill Team have been completed (apart from the tufts and varnish). 

The leader - Exarch. 

The avengers - pretty nice figures, not doubt these will be replaced by GW soon. If I am honest there are too many little details on these and I think I have missed a few of them, but I am not likely to be going back and paint them in. 

So I have the Chaos Space Marines and cultists to paint. I also need to source some Necron Deathmarks or Immortals or Flayed-ones to complete a number of Kill Teams. 

Just have to play a few games now. 

Morts

Chaos Space Marines for Kill Team

I was away at the biggest youth adventure event in the country at the weekend - saw some helicopters …

Anyway a great weekend - got a bit sunburned.

But this meant that I had to miss the local wargames show… DK did however go and I asked if he could get some Necron Deathmarks and some Chaos Space Marines - at a reasonable price for Kill Team.

He managed to find these five nasty dudes.

The bottom 2 appeared to have grey knights heads on them. 

So I had a rummage in the bits box and found a couple of Chaos Space Marine head from Blackstone Fortress. 

I think that these look better with the new heads. 

The search for the Deathmarks will continue. I am still working on the Dire Avengers … hopefully soon. 

Morts