Ogre standard bearer

Looks like it's the last model painted in 2020 so I'm glad it's kinda special:

ogre standard bearer from the best (imo) Warhammer period.

Two other guys were also painted this year (ogre #1, ogre #2) so in order to keep unit look coherent I tried using similar color choice: vivid flesh tone, metallics, similar style of bases.

It's middlehmmer / herohammer period model so banner must be paper - no doubts about it! At first I was trying to adopt one of orcs & goblins army book standards but then decided to make something less complicated but much more striking. 

These ogres are supposed to be corrupted servants of vampire lord so they should carry his colors, the same as undead chariot painted almost 2 years ago. I'm going to prepare similar army standard for main skeleton unit, so whole project should look pretty eyecatching. 

One day...

See you in 2021 I guess 😏

X-mas Eve manoeuvres

Hey,

X-mas just passed and because my brother came to vist once again there was a chance to confront US and German armies. Both bloodthirsty, both fully painted!

After setting the battlefield we randomly picked Top Secret scenarion:

long story short the plane crashed in some western Europe village, whole crew died but there was still a briefcase containing top secret documents to be retrieved. Most probably V3 rockets plans or something. Both sides need that stuff and need it now!

The battlefield:   

Round 1:

It was retrieve mission so both sides tried to bring in as many units as possible from the very beginning. Big surprise was German infantry squad mounted on bikes which got dangerously close to the plane in the very first round!
The only thing I could do was bringing Hellcat into the game: luckly for Uncle Sam my destroyer hit the nazi bikers both with big gun and machine gun, sending 5 of them to Valhalla and forcing the last one to flee. 

Most of US forces also reached the positions: 
infantry squad moved into building supported by medic and veteran sniper, on the other side of the road arrived the commander, bazooka team, mortar and air force forward observer. 

At the same time Germans brought medium mortar and spotter, infantry squad and truck loaded with another squad + force commander.
Those damn nazis dismounted reaching the plane! Disaster! 😤

Round 2:

Germans started the second round by bringing the biggest nightmare of any US commander: Flakverling! From the hill it had clear view on the most of the battlefield! 🥶

Before the gun crew left transporter I tried to reach it with bazooka but the target was an inch beyond the maximum range.
At this point I had no other choice then calling an airstrike on infantry next covering the plane.

German MMG and infantry opened fire to Hellcat giving it 2 pin markers:
which was just enought to make it fail order test and eventually - useless to the very end of the game. In responce my GIs left the building and fired at enemy machine gun:

11 shots at close range was more that enough to take it down. Still the Hellcat wasn't worth it.

German commander grabbed the briefcase and started falling back covered by infantry. 

My mortar  and HQ squad missed so shit got really thick right now...

Trying to cut off German commander Dodge packed with infantry squad and Jeep moved from the flank but they reached only the hedge line. Seeing that German commander moved the truck in front of my wheelers which opened fire at my Jeep pinning it.

Germans brought another medium machine gun to stop my flanking action, they also tried to take down my sniper with mortar fire but luck was on my side this time.

Round 3:

Suddenly US airplane came down from the skies aiming for German infantry squad but Flakverling did it's job right: plane pilot didn't even see the target before flak fire torn his machine into bits of scrap. The battle seemed to be over but in act of desperation another airstrike was called - this time on Flakverling itself.

Seconds after pieces of burning junk fell down from the skies Panzerkampfwagen III flanked my cars destroying Dodge and forcing the squad to emergency landing. PzIII also took down 3 GIs advancing nearby. Actually there were 4 casaulties but medic did his job.

It wasn't much better on the flank:

Kubelwagen rolled in trying to take down my mortar and then - lieutenant, bazooka team or the observer (all easy targets). But it missed all shots!

Seconds later my commander and his sidekick moved between trees and fired the invader - a perfect shot just under the line of Stahlhelm was just enough to get rid of mobile MMG.

The briefcase was now almost behind German line...

US assault squad tried to storm machine gun in the back but failed order check.
Germans put some more pin markers on the Jeep so it looked like the game was over. 

US commander ripped army list to pieces and prepared to pack the toys and go back home...

Round 4:

Since the game was practically over and we were bit drunk already decision was made just to solve an airstrike pro forma:

tha plane not only arrived but evaded all shots from Flakverling and second later there was no more German flak!

US commander had to take pieces army list from the bin trying to assemble it...  

There still was some hope!
I didn't manage to bring the other truck in the previous turn but it arrived now just from behind the hill. The driver fired at enemy commander but didn't even make a scratch.
Engineers did better: 

after jumping of the Dodge they gunned down Axis lieutenant and tried to torch the squad nearby but it was out of flamethrower's range. Gulp! 😬

Germans didn't take a risk:

they put on the bayonets and charged US engineers killing 5 and giving 2 in return. 
Without any US units able to pick up the briefcase nearmy the game was definitely over. 
Looking forward for rematch.

Selling: US Rangers and M8 Greyhound

This time it's just quick advert:

A while back I put whole infantry on market but part of them were repainted for local contest. Turned out I like the winter style so much, that decided to keep and redo ordinary infantrymen. But there are still models looking for new place which won't be repainted:

M8 Greyhound: Italeri piece, painted with acrylics, sealed with matt varnish, antennas were replaced with bendy, unbreakable rods (which make it more real imo). Price: 60 USD.

US Rangers: mix of 10 metal models: Stoessi's Heroes, Black Tree Designs, Artizan Designs and West Wind Production, painted with acrylics, sealed with matt varnish, all models have Rangers' decals. I gave them extra foliage to make it pop among rest of my units, but that should also make them proper unit for Pacific War selectors. Price: 150 USD.

For any other informations drop me message or write a comment. 
Thanks for attention!

US infantry (winter war) #1

Looks like I've finally made it - the entry for Strategie painting contest is finished!
Was bit worried before entering, because after finishing painting the army I was barely pissing olive green. Painting lots of stuff with the very same colors is just damn boring and demotivating. After getting army done allI wanted was painting anything red 😁

So to make things little different I washed some models and gave them fresh paints - this time winter themed. The idea is the winter came suddenly (not  much snow on the ground) and GIs haven't got proper, winter clothing. 

I am pretty satisfied about artificial snow, it makes really nice contrast with greens and browns of uniforms. I also like placing team weapons on single bases - not very smart for gaming purposes but looks way better.

Time to repaint some vehicle...

Bloat thrall

After commercial success of the last post I decided to give my Cryx force one more ranged attack unit: Toruk's most favorite fattie: bloat thrall.

It's the third bloat thrall I've painted so far and believe - the last (how many times can you paint the same model after all?). Nevertheless each and every time I've been having lots of fun - this piece is just ton (!) of fun, despite the fact it's pain in the (fat) ass to base properly.

This time I tried to paint strong contrast colors: pale, dead flesh and dark, corroded metal to make that blob pop even stronger on the battlefield. Looking at the final pics I think some rotten blood leaking from between the stitches but was bit scared to screw the flesh.
Oh well, apparently necrotechs did great job this time.

Original base (40 mm) is just way too small the this monstrocity so I replaced it with 50 mm - which is acceptable. There's no way to pin these spider legs to the base so you need extra care (and superglue) to put it on the base properly.

These bile thralls on the first picture are for the scale, solid piece of lard, ain't it? 😁

Take care and remember to stick to the Evil Side 🤘

Lich Lord Terminus

Looks like one more time cat's dragged in something really big and nasty!

Last weekend we were looking for some conversion parts with my son and he found that huge, spare wing. I told him it's piece of model I got long time ago but somehow never had enough strenght to paint is. So he asked: 

Maybe you can paint it now?

You bet I can!

I got Terminus model long time ago, maybe 10 years ago? When we were still playing Warmachine quite a lot. Nope, just checked: over 10 years ago 😳
Terminus wasn't really my type of caster in the game but always considered the model supercool. Apart from the fact assembling it and manipulating during painting process was f#cking nightmare... NIGHTMARE!
Really: it's one of the very few models I had to paint half assembled but must say if I ever had to work on it again I'd surely paint all parts separated and then put the model together.

As for color choice Terminus is supposed to lead my Cryx force so tried to keep same flesh and metal colors plus similar style of bases (just like on mechanithralls there are front and back arcs marked on bases).
The sculpt is pretty wicked. I never liked that sword painted metal, it definitely looks more like piece of huge bone so that's the way I painted it. Besides blood  always looks much more striking on bone, than on metal.

Enough of chit chat - here's the necrobusiness:

🤘

Soviet assault squad

After finishing some fantasy stuff (Modred the Damned and ogre halfwits) we're back to witer front of world war 2. The big plan about assembling sovier army for Bolt action is still on, but I've just reailsed available infantry models, except for metal siberian squad and combat engineers, are quite poor... 😕

At least not my cup of tea...

So decision was made to take this project on slow, looking for models I like. Especially the idea is my heir one day will take command over these fellas.

In the meantime I've finished remaining 3 models which came with KV-2 panzer abomination. The plastic box provides lots of conversion options, just check the observer below. These should fit nicely any winter force (early winter - looking at uniforms).

What I wanted to achieve was nice shade of green for uniforms and winter bases. I like the squad alltohether. 5 models were painted a while back so their uniforms are more vibrant. But on the other hand it's early winter, they didn't get proper clothing yet... 😊

And the freshly painted troopers. I really regret there were not enough SMGs for all models, these are much more useful than LMG.

And the last thing: technological improvement!
Models are plastic, whch means light. To make transportatnion easier (and safer) I decided to put a magnet into each base - works just nice so far! 😁

Seeya!