Land Raider: Prime

Had to take a break and wait for the ink to dry on the Rogue Trader Ultramarine Land Raider. The model is in pretty bad shape, so while it'll look ok, it's never going to win any contests.

Stripped and primed white.  

Glued together. I'll add the lascannons after its painted.

Kinda like the blue and white look, even though that white's just primer.

Meanwhile, Alex is painting \Imotek the Stormlord. 

Painted blue and black and doused in black ink. Once this is dry, it's drybrushing time.

-Adam!!!

25th Anniversary Ultramarines

I'm a little freaked out by all this 25th anniversary business. Why? Because I was there when it all started.  Minis were hard to get in Seattle back then, and many never reached us (not until 2nd edition, anyway.)

Most of my Rogue Trader collection was gathered in the 90's once Ebay took off as a resource for these sorts of things. Also, GW was selling pretty much everything they'd ever made on their website back then, making collecting older stuff a snap.  It's a little tougher nowadays, but I've already got 90%+ of the Space Marine minis they made back then, and here they are.

The whole army. About 2000pts, depending on what Elites I select.

Terminators, plus a Terminator Captain (far left)

Two Land Speeders. I stand my opinion that these are the worst minis GW ever made.

The original Artificer Armor.

Top, Devastator Squad. Bottom, Tac Squad of the original Space Marine models.

Veterans. Each has Terminator Honors (except for the Plasma Gun guy.)

Assault Bike 

Assault Squad. Two squads, actually.

Devastator squad (Lascannon x2, Multimelta x2) and Dreadnoughts in the back. 

These last guys are orphans. They don't currently fit into any squads.

-Adam!!!

The Big Dipper

I have two land raiders. One "Rogue Trader" style from way back in the day, and also one of the newer,bigger, Land Raiders. I like them both.  The older one is painted in the Mentor Legion white and green, and now that I have a modern LR for the Mentors, I'm keen to give my Rogue Trader Ultramarine army some old school Land Raider power.  The model, however, has already been painted at least twice, and has lost much detail in the process.  I can't paint it again without stripping it, something I've been nervous about doing. If I ruin it, I'll probably not be able to replace it.

One Mentor-style Rogue Trader Land Raider. Not a bad paint job, but I can do better.

This is the hard part.  

I'm hoping a couple of days in 25% Simple Green solution will be adequate.  I also hope I don't ruin my wife's Tupperware.

As with my other recent posts, it's my hope that I can get the Land Raider done in time for the 25th Anniversary event.

I'll post more as I strip and repaint it.

-Adam!!!

New "Old" Guys

I've decided to head out to the local GW store for the 25th festivities. I think people will get a kick out of my all Rogue Trader army on a day like that.

Bionic Eyes, on the right, turned out to be a difficult guy to find and purchase.  Heavy Plasma Gun trooper was almost as tough.  Some minis seem to be rarer than others, for sure.

-Adam!!!

Imperial Metal

I prefer metal figures.  I think it's just what I'm used to, because the quality of the modern plastics is quite high (as is the price.)  I like the weight in my hand, the heavier the better.  I prefer lead to pewter for exactly that reason.  I'm aware there are drawbacks with metal.  Slender items like antenna and swords tend to do better with plastic, for example.

As Alex's Necrons continue to accumulate, all plastic and Finecast (not a fan of that, either) my Imperial Guard have some brand new 'eavy metal HQ and Elites.

 The new guys. TechPriest (how cool is he?), Master of Ordinance, Astropath, and Officer of the Fleet. 

Bonus! The TechPriest came with four bases. Score!

I'm starting to fall behind with my painting, but Alex wants to get more Necrons painted, so we'll set aside some time soon.  I'll prime these guys ASAP, so they'll be ready for the next painting session.

-Adam

Neck-rons

As I've mentioned, I'm playing with my son Alex.  I wanted him to have his own army and he chose Necrons.  Since a new Necron Code was (at the time) about to come out, I agreed it was an excellent choice.  The models have been arriving from eBay ever since.  This is the first batch Alex and I had to build ourselves. It was a LOT harder to assemble these plastics than I expected.  In the old days, assembly meant gluing some arms onto a single hunk of metal and sticking it on a base, if that.  These new kits are far trickier, including a lot of tiny, tiny, parts all requiring assembly.  I was surprised how difficult it was for us to assemble these guys, and even now weapons, heads and other parts keep popping off at regular intervals. The Lychguard in particular are very, very, fragile. That's just nit-picking because they look cool as hell.

The one on your right is holding its weapon backwards. I don't like it.  The Overlord is in the foreground.  The fact he came with the barge (in the back) was primary reason I bought the barge.  Well played Games Workshop, well played.

Alex is really gung-ho to paint them, so I expect it won't be long before they're on the battlefield.

-Adam!!!

UltraMarines vs Imperial Guard 2

Alex wanted to do an annihilation battle, and I had no problem with that.  I wanted to do the set-up where the battlefield was drawn into quarters and the armies set up opposite each other diagonally.  He had no problem with that. With that sorted, we placed our minis and got to it.

The Battlefield

Imperial Guard putting Penal Legion troopers out front

"I don't wanna go!"

The Commander leading from the front (that went badly.)

Terminators taking the forward position. Those fence pieces are among my favorite terrain bits. They don't obscure firing, or provide cover, but do obstruct troop movement. Tanks just go through them.

Rhinos and Assault Marines bring up the rear.

Two Speeders, two Dreadnaughts, a Techmarine, and a Servitor.

Ogrynn!

The first turn.

First turn casualties. (Stopped using the flash. The photos are darker, but better.)

Second turn casualties.

Marines, disembark!

Veterans (with Meltabombs) assault!  This was awesome. Two Chimeras full of melta-bomb armed veterans poured out and surrounded the Dreadnaughts. They destroyed one of them. 

Firing range. Killed a few marines, but they killed my tanks right back.

Turn three casualties.

Turn four casualties.

Additional turn 4 casualty.

The game ended after turn 5, with me getting 1 VP for destroying one Dreadnaught.  I could never finish off any other troops or vehicles.  Alex wiped out my Penal Legion squad and Command Squad, for a total of 2 VP, so got his second win in a row.  

-Adam!!!