US infantry (winter war) #3

Another squad trusty G.I.s has just arrived to winter bitten Ardennes, ready to eat their own guts, ask for second and then kick zee Germans back where they came from! 😋 
I am pretty surprised I've managed to paint these guys so fast but apparently taking a break from Bolt Action was just kinda breath of fresh air for the hobby. Looks like there are about 15 or so models to paint / re-paint to fit winter style and I should be able to field 1000 pts fully painted wysiwyg Battle of the Bulge force. Really cannot wait - that artificial snow looks just great contrasting with rather dull olive uniforms.

This squad is kinda different then previously painted models and the test squad. Although I like the sculpts I really don't like metal heads so this time I decided replace original reads with plastic from US set (big thanks to Marcin for the idea and Mirosław for the body parts!). These simple conversions surely aren't my best surgery works, but I really like the final result: new heads look just SO MUCH BETTER then originals! There are still several spare heads in the bits box, so they will surely be used sooner or later. 

I got this squad second hand and sadly didn't notice some barrels were broken off before placing a bid. Oh well - no one should notice that from distance, when models are placed in the crowd. Besides from afar they kinda look like carrying shotguns 😁 

So here's the current state of Snowball Company: 2 squads, some extra weapons + a taxi:

And below: fresh, regular 58 points worth G.I.s (including BAR and SMG):

Next stop: dragon ogre - most probably... 

Chaos hounds

Painting this unit took me much more time then I expected (there are only 6 models ffs!!! 😡) but I'm just so happy I can finally see them in the glass case. In my opinion these are the best sculpts of chaos hounds and I kinda regret I never got opportunity to slap some paint on them back, back days when we used to play Warhammer 5th edition. Looking from perspective must say it was just crappy game, but it had tons of brilliant figures.

Anyway models were painted as part of display Chaos Warriors army project. Because it's Slaanesh army, I am trying to keep colors bright and warm (no matter I like it or not). Such color combo should look really striking on classic grassy green battlefield. Here they are:

While working on the unit I checked the rules for Warhammer 6th edition and realised I cannot have mounted demonettes in core units section. Apparently there was some bug in Battle Scribe or something. Therefore I did some changes and below is what I want to see painted for 2000 pts army (crossed out unit are painted and it's clickable 😊):

Heroes:

- Exalted Daemon [365pts, 4 Casting Dice, 3 Dispel Dice]: General, Level 2

. Hero of Slaanesh: Master of Mortals, Sporofic Musk

- Exalted Champion of Chaos [212pts]: Gaze of the Gods, Hero of Slaanesh, Shield, Steed of Slaanesh, Sword of Might

- Sorcerer of Chaos [310pts, 3 Casting Dice, 2 Dispel Dice]: Chaos Chariot, Hero of Slaanesh, Level 2, Power Familiar

Core:

- Knights of Chaos [318pts]: Champion, 6x Knights of Chaos, Musician, Regiment of Slaanesh

. Standard Bearer: Rapturous Standard

- Warriors of Chaos [260pts]: Champion, Musician, Regiment of Slaanesh, Shield, Standard Bearer, 14x Warriors of Chaos

- Chariot of Chaos [130pts]: Chariot of Slaanesh

Special:

- Warhounds of Chaos [36pts]: 6x Warhound

Rare:

- Dragon Ogres [219pts]: 3x Dragon Ogre, Light Armour

- Spawn of Chaos [75pts]: Fiend of Slaanesh

- Spawn of Chaos [75pts]: Fiend of Slaanesh

Total: 2,000pts, 7 Casting Dice, 5 Dispel Dice

I know such army is just more then lazy painting option but I'd really like to place all painted units on a single army base. Placing more models would make whole thing just too crowdy. Now I should ask someone who actually plays Warhammer 6th edition if this force is worthy anything on battlefield 😁 I am pretty sure there will be some minor changes during painting process - dependable what models I can find in the pile of shame (or if I can find them at all).

Back to western front

Last Saturday is turned out I've finally came back to Bolt Action gaming. Operational gap was over 1,5 year wide but I must say rolling out trusty G.I.s against zee nazis was pure fun.

Not only game was fun but I got opportunity to test "Battle of the Bulge" army project in action. Recently painted infantry set was painted for this actually. All in all Americans did good job and that selector is far from overboosted. At this moment I am also waiting for some plastic heads for field surgery and it turns out I need like dozen or so infantrymen repainted winter fashion and I can move to working of vehicles. Looking forward for more field tests - gotta check if M7 Priest is the best support for the boys.

Post without pics doesn't count so here are some random and uncut pics straight from the battlefield:

US infantry (winter war) #2

After dealing with recent Warhammer Slaanesh Vampire I came back to western Europe WW2 front. Back days I was just so tired of painting everything green but now, after taking a break for fantasy stuff, working on Bolt Action stuff is just refreshing.

My trusty U.S. army hasn't found new owner yet, so decision was made to refresh the boys and repaint them in winter fashion. A while back test squad has been done like that and must admit I really like the result. I'm guessing it's the matter of contrast between uniforms and snow. Would really like to see tanks painted long time ago re-done for winter fighting, but that's not gonna happen until I get enough G.I. to field full winter selector army.

While waiting for the undercoat on infantry is dry and ready for painting I decided to adjust one of old Dodge 3/4 transporters to winter conditions. I don't really like the muddy effect on the car, so some field winter camo supported by artificial snow should improve the look.

I think after the second half of the squad is finished I might come back to terrain building. I was hoping to rebuild piece of forest we use during the summer, but somehow it was pretty busy period. Maybe long autumn evenings can provide better atmosphere for such stuff.

Candy Lobster Duke

This summer was a hobby nightmare. During two ghastly and hot months I've managed to paint only 5 models and play a single miniatures game. Back days I would naver say that, but thank Satan the summer is over. Maybe now the hobby can be put on the right tracks.

This one took me much more time then is should which makes me double happy my unit of Chaos Knighs got proper champion. Exalted champion to be more specific. The unit itself is pretty strking (for my sandards) so I wanted the champion to be even more eyecatching. At first the plan was to use original mounted chaos model, but all in all decision was made to practice some microscale surgery on innocent victim dragged out from the pile of shame 👨🏻‍⚕️

The rider is Red Duke vampire upgraded with demonette claw, Archaon's shield and mounted on oldie steed of Slaanesh. Personally I think Red Duke is one of the best vampire models GW ever released, but sadly - I was never able to give it paintwork it deserves. Same is this time but I deeply hope the claw, shield, bald head and candy pony efficiently distract viewers' attention from, mostly dull as hell, armour.

The model was placed on monster-size base, because of it's oversized claw, and unit champion's mutated arm: it was impossible to put these two in the middle of the  unit. But otoh it's exalted champion so it can ride as big as he wishes. Besides I can always field is as daemonic mount, which is much bigger then steed of Slaansh. After all these purples and candy crap I should more then happy bringing some Bolt Action infantry on painting station...

Magic number of Slaanesh is 6 but because of the large base the champion kinda breaks the composition (unit is actually 7 "normal" bases wide). So I think he will be riding between other units  alone and the sixth proper model will be standard bearer. I always wanted to paint pinkish banner anyway...

Bolt Action bunker

After dealing with Slaanesh cavalry I had to take a breaf from painting ping, purple and other disguisting colors of God ov Forbidden Pleasures. Some time ago my buddy brought me a souvenir from his trip - which surprisingly turned out to be Warlord's bunker. 

The model was assembled like 1,5 year ago, but since our  gaming kinda dropped, there was not much motivation to do anything with the piece. Until now: solid chunk of dirt and reinforced WWII concrete was great material material from painting fantasy stuff.

In order to provide better view for the bunker crew (and also to make model look better on the battlefield) I put it on a hill. Hill couldn't be steep, so infantry models can be placed on it without walling, so during the process it grew kinda more then initially planned. In fact it was so big painting it on hobby station was just impossible. See?

I didn't want it to be just a sand dune, so static grass was applied on top - we play our battles in European was theatres. The grass turned out much flatter then I expected - I assume it's because of applicator I use, which is home-made device. Apparently I should invest in better hardware before starting works on the next terrain piece 😁

Some scale shots - that thing is just one big line of sight blocker!

Some scale shots with other terrain features:

And the cherry on top: some high class special effects:

And the applicator - looks like some kinda gretchin torture device 😁

Next stop: converted exhalted champion of Chaos (hopefully).

Chosen chaos knights #2

Because of some recent distractions from so-called real life (of course we all know reality is a lie) and unexpected job orders, miniature painting planned for July got slightly delayed but I have finally managed to get the rest of Chaos knights unit done! Which means Chaos army project got ~400 points crossed off the "to do" list.

The unit got champion and 5th knight, so the squad is even more devastating.

As you can see the leader got slightly darker armour, so it looks different compared to the other knights. Darker armour also makes better contrast with blazing sword (I gave it a try befoer on Mishima Demon Hunter model and I really like it). And since it's champion, it got pretty fresh pony, with undamaged barding (at least yet).

As for the other guy it's old chaos knight model from 4th edition of the game. It's kinda static but I must admit I really like that sculpt - I actually regret I don't have standard bearer from this line, 'cause unit could surely make use of it during the battle.

It was fun making simple conversions (as mentioned before - models came with shield arms missing) but while making them I should've checked would it be possible to place models close. Turns out it's not possible because of chmpions mutated left hand... 🙄

But since there's also exalted champion planned to be added (which will be riding steed of Slaanesh) I hope to assemble it in the way it can be placed next to mutated hands. 

And last but not least - big thanks to Maniexite for help in replacing molten steed and everything 😉

The last one is pretty blurry - it's either because the heat of the enchanced blade or because knights are riding just too fast for my camera. Sadly I am too lazy to re-take the shot... 😶

Heil Slaanesh! 🤘🏻😈🤘🏻

Chosen chaos knights #1

Upcoming chaos army project just got boosted by ~200 points worth models. 

I really liked these knights when they were released (20 or so years ago...🙄) and recently I managed to get bit worn and not 100% complete unit of 4 chaos knights. It took some effort to get rid of paint and supeglue (previous owner prefered glue instead of pinning) but in the end I got the boys ready for painting.

It's Slaanesh army so decision was made to use "official" pink tone for armour. Besides such color should fit daemon prince general and already painted chaos spawns (fiends of Slaanesh) just fine. Every time I paint more then 1 or 2 models at the same time painting quality drops down so chaos knights were painted separately. This way every model could be painted slightly different and yet keeping pink coherency. The most red one was testing piece. It's more Khorne then Slaanesh actually, but it should look decent placed in the unit.

The final goal is to get 6-men strong unit (Slaanesh magic number). And mentioned above I got unit of 4 chaos knights. Sadly while washing paint off I put one of the horses to wrong jar and here's for I got 😁 Oh well, maybe one day it will be turned into Nurgle's mount...

The plan for now is getting complete chaos pony, getting 5th knight and converting chaos hero as 6th member of the unit. Basic idea is mounting Red Duke on steed of Slaanesh but parts for this conversion will be assembled after knights are done.

Cya!

Fiend of Slaanesh #2

Looks like fiend of Slaanesh I painted recently just got twin-brother (or sister - you can never be 100% sure with Slaanesh stuff). They are supposed to be part of the same battle force, so I tried to keep the same, or very similar color palette. Must say I really like the way they look standing on classic green battlefield. Brings back memories of Middlehammer era.

I hope to start working on 6-men strong unit of badass chaos knights soon. I never liked that official vivid pink or purple color of Slaanesh armour (frankly in my opinion that looks like sh!t) so thinking about final look of the main unit of the army took pretty lot of time. Now, having both fiends done, I think "crabby" tone of claws and stings is something what should do the job. That combined with black horses and steel armament should looks striking as hell, when placed on juicy green field of battle.

So here there are - about to rip apart block of zombies somewhere on Elbląg outskirts:

And mr brother / sister himself / herself. Not sure about color of the scales - might repaint that part one day (too much washes and dry pigments):

And here crab-daemons guarding general of chaos warriors army (515 points according to the current army list):

🤘🏻💀🤘🏻