40K Battle Report: Imperial Guard vs. Marines

Battle Report!

I successfully recruited one of my buddies to come over to the house and try a game of 40K. I put together a small force of marines for him and a guard army for me. The battle would be seize ground, with the variation that any infantry unit could hold an objective. Here is the breakdown:

SPACE MARINES

• Space Marine Captain with Power Sword and Artificer Armor
• Command Squad with the following equipment: 1 Plasma Pistol, 1 Pair of Lightning Claws, 1 Power Sword,Company Champion, and Apothecary
• 10 Man Tactical Squad with Plasma Gun and Heavy Bolter
• 3 Space Marine Bikers with a Melta Gun

I was a little worried about this army since I only have a few models at hand (hence all the extra equipment). Turns out they were fine!

IMPERIAL GUARD:

• Company Command Squad with Autocannon
• Platoon Command Squad with Missile Launcher and 2 Plasma Guns
• 2 Squads with Heavy Bolter and a Power Sword on the Sergeants
• Veteran Squad with 3 Plasma Guns in a Chimera
• 2 Armored Sentinels with Autocannon and Plasma Cannon

I honestly thought this would be enough plasma. I really did.

 Aaron split the tactical squad into combat squads and moved the heavy bolter to the top of a building in the first round. He had a good field of fire and began putting the hurt down early on. They also controlled an objective. There was one near his deployment zone and two near the center. The rest of his force began running down the table to pounce on the center objectives right away. He left his bikes in reserve.

 This unit would prove the toughest to dislodge. After this command squad got in the ruins, it proved very difficult to put any wounds on them. Their Apothecary kept them going despite Lasguns, Heavy Bolters, and Autocannons causing tons of wounds. I had intended to wipe them out with the Veterans, but they were delayed in getting there.

 Here is a birds-eye view. I spent three turns leap frogging my infantry units near them, but was unable to cause any casualties. I refrained from getting too close to their potential assault.

 The Captain went off on his own, trusting to his armor to see him safe. The bikes racing up behind got a bead on the Sentinels, who themselves were targeting the combat squad on the other objective. You can't see it here, but the Captain is getting ready to assault a squad between the buildings.

 In a later turn, he managed to wipe the squad out, but then my Chimera finally showed up and three veterans with Plasma Guns popped out the top hatch and hosed him with six shots! Despite some fevered dice rolling, the Space Marine Captain was wiped out. He performed well, however, destroying the squad I was trying to use to seize an objective with.

The chimera, platoon command squad, and sentinels wiped out the bikers and the combat squad on objective number two. We rolled to see if round six would begin and it was a "2." Game Over! With another round I could have used my vehicles to contest the other objectives and the veterans to hold one. Close to a victory, but not close enough. Congratulations to the Noob!






I made two big mistakes. For some reason I put the Missile Launcher and Plasma Guns in a standard platoon command squad. They should have been my Company Command Squad where these weapons would have benefited from the improved BS. As it was, the Company Command Squad was pretty useless as the marines got their normal save from the autocannon hits and the junior officer could not force the marines to reroll cover saves from the plasma.

Mistake number two was keeping the chimera in reserve. He would have been better off shooting all weapons from round one and pushing into enemy territory to try and contest that objective. The delay to round four because of lousy reserve rolls was punishing.

A good fun game. 600 points is all right by me.

-Maniple

I Guard vs Orks 2000 points

On Friday I went out to JW's place and threw down with him and his buddy Chris. I brought my 2000 point Imperial Guard List and they each brought 1000 points of orks. There were a few things missing that I had hoped to see. There was no heavy armor for my Vanquisher to take apart, so it quickly became obvious that this was going to be a waste of points. I would have been much better off with a standard Leman Russ. They did bring a lot of what I did not want to see, however. The first thing was boyz. It looked like there were three mobs of thirty boys each with three rokkits and a power klaw on the nob. At ninety models I was going to struggle to kill them fast enough. Then there was a trukk with about ten nobs inside that weighed in at over 300 points. Running interference for that flank was a big mob of Gretchin. There was also a mob of Lootas ready to take position in a nice bunker on a hill.

On the other flank there was more nastiness. Along with one of the big mobs, there were six killa kans followed by a Big Mek with Force field, a Deff Dread, a mob of shootas to support the Big Mek, and a trukk with a mob of burna boyz. This was a nasty list.

I set up first down the middle of the board. This was a challenge since I would be presenting the rear armor of my tanks to whichever side of the board I was not shooting at. The orks were allowed to set up 12 inches from my deployment zone, so that meant I needed to stay well back from my edges to give me the most time to shoot. I opted to not put anything in reserve since I needed to start shooting everything in round one.





1. In round one I shot a lot. My best shooting was with the autocannon on the sentinel. It targeted the trukk full of Nobz and scored a penetrating hit. The resulting "careen" result sent the trukk back into his own lines where it promptly blew up. The Nobz inside were unscathed, but now they had to foot slog it with everyone else. I pulled my tanks up elsewhere to try and get some hits on the killa kans. They had wisely deployed where they had maximum protection from my big guns. The chimera with flamer-armed veterans rushed up to the ork lines in order to flame them, but were still a little short. My shooting began to tell a little bit by putting some initial hits on his walkers, but I knew that only one needed to make it through to ruin my day.

In his turn, he fired off a bunch of rokkits and blew up my chimera, killing most of the veterans inside. They were now sitting ducks that would also give him a free charge move if I didn't do something quick. The killa kans shot some grotzookas and my lines started taking casualties.

2. Turn two was much the same as the first. he kept marching and I kept shooting. The kans were getting whittled down, but I was having trouble killing them fast enough. The Lootas immobilized the demolisher by hitting its rear armor. I had turned it around in order to move closer to the advancing killa kans and thought that the woods behind me would offer cover. Unfortunately he rolled for a ton of hits and I failed my cover save. I was left with nothing to shoot at because of the exceedingly short range of the cannon. I did get lucky when he failed a bunch of cover saves of his own and more kans went to the discard pile.

3. Turn three was pretty good for me. Sly Marbo showed up and tossed a demo charge on top of the Nobz a bunch of them died and then failed a leadership roll to stick around. I don't think the orks made a single leadership roll the whole game, even with bosspoles! I had hoped to use Marbo the next turn to assault the Lootas in the bunker, but in retrospect, he would have been better off on the other side throwing his demo charge on the kans. Elsewhere I began to pull back from his advance and try to delay his inevitable Waaagh. The veterans in the Valkyrie dropped out and melta gunned the killa kans. Unfortunately, only one was able to hit, which resulted in one dead kan rather than the two or three I had hoped for. The resulting flamer response killed the whole squad. The Valkyrie also got assaulted and would not be able to shoot in the next round. Sly Marbo went down under a hail of pistol fire.

4. The Leman Russ took a shot at the Big Mek and his unit. A bunch of boyz died, he failed his leadership, and began falling back. This was good for me since the unit would not be able to rally and his kans would no longer get the 4+ save. This helped the rest of my shooting, but unfortunately it looked like two kans were still going to get in. I had opted to stay put and fire rather than pull back. This would turn out badly for me, since my shooting was ineffective. The vanquisher's one job was to kill the Deff Dread, but the one time I got a shot, I missed. As a result, my tank was now vulnerable to an assault in later tunrs.One rule I did check later was that on squadrons- if a member of a squadron is immobilized, it is wrecked immediately. One of the kans remained on the table after this result since we thought that it remained until the unit next moved. As a result, I got one immobilized result with my Leman Russ and a destroyed result from a Lascannon unit. Both hits were applied to the same model. What should have happened was that the immobilized unit should have been removed and the remaining kan destroyed. This left the last kan charging towards my lines unscathed. Bad News.

5. My shooting was growing worse and worse. My plasma toting command squad killed one enemy and one of their own. A far cry from the three or four I had hoped for. The grots had been soaking up a ton of fire the whole game but finally broke and fled this round. He got really close on the left flank and started to assault my middle. A Nob was able to assault and wreck the Vanquisher with his power klaw. The same unit also charged two of my command squads. I thought that one of them was safe, but the charge move was just enough to get his boyz in. This was just about my single biggest mistake in the game. I did not keep my own units far enough apart in order to prevent multiple charges. However, being stuck in the middle, there wasn't really any place to hide anyway. This was typical of the decisions I had to make all game: do I remain forward in rapid fire range, or do I retreat and stay out of assault range? The Sentinel AC killed another Kan this round. He was quickly becoming my MVP. The Deff Dread got blown up by a lucky Lascannon shot and saved the Leman Russ. We rolled for another round and...

6. This was my last chance to pull out a victory. His assault from last round had folded up my lines like a piece of wet toilet paper. The shooting I had left was not nearly enough to make him flee. Most of my tanks were either wrecked or missing guns, so there was no help there. The Kan that had survived from the end turned away from my lines and assaulted the Leman Russ. The big tank finally went down. The boyz in the middle were able to make multiple assaults and completely wiped out most of my remaining troopers. All I had left was one limping tank, the Sentinel, A command squad, and a couple squads from the same platoon. I had dished out a fair amount of damage, but he held the middle.

Result: Each side scored one point for each unit they killed, plus one point for each unit they had remaining. I scored 18 points, the orks scored 19. Boo Hoo. Although, if I had caught that bit about the immobilized result in the Kan squadron, who knows?

Game ended. orks win by one. Much fun was had by all.





Analysis:

• My bubble wrap tactic did not work since I was not careful to prevent multiple charges. I needed to spread out more and offer more cover. If I had done this more effectively, I would have been given several more opportunities to shoot at his mobs.
• Leave the Vanquisher at home unless I know I will be seeing AV 14 tanks
• Put Veteran units in reserve. By leaving them out, they were vulnerable to shooting right away and once their transports went down, they gave a free assault move to the units I was trying to slow down.
• Reduce the amount of equipment on my sergeants. I had a few power fists out there, but everyone who had one was shot before he got to use it. A few Melta Bombs or set of Krak Grenades would have been useful for taking down those killa kans that got in, however.
• Switch out at least one Lascannon for a Rocket Launcher or Autocannon in Platoon A. These weapons were consistently more effective.
• Looking at the pictures, it seems that my units were often technically inside difficult terrain when they were assaulted. this may have given them a chance to survive one turn longer if I had remembered to apply terrain effects properly.
• Put heavy flamers on the tanks. This gives the tank good anti-infantry firepower when the enemy closes and the main gun has been blown off.
• Know the rules!

300 Challenge: More Imperial Guard

 In preparation for my big 40K game the other day I finished up the banner bearer for my company command squad. this banner was easy to paint since the design is embossed. I picked out a few colors to match the example in the book and set to work. I found that highlighting the entire banner with a white drybrush before I started made it easier to see all the lines later. Once I blocked in the colors I gave it a quick highlight and put it back on the shelf!

 Here are some more "legacy models." They were made from leftovers of the Fuselier conversion. They are basically Cadians with Brettonian and Empire heads. I swapped out a few lasguns for grenade launchers and turned them into another veteran squad. I should now be able to field a pretty decent force of all veterans for the I Guard now. I am curious to see how they do.

The paint scheme is pretty basic. Dwarven Flesh for the face and hands, Chainmail for the metal bits, a green blend for the guns, and Scab Red for the uniforms. The leather bits are Scorched Brown. I had some ballast I was using for the Dystopian Wars bases so these guys got the same treatment. They look alright, so off to the shelf for them!

These eleven models bring my total for September to 109! I know I am posting this on October 1st, but I did start them in September so I am counting it as a win. I think it will be time to switch gears a little bit and get into a game system I haven't touched yet this semester. Not sure where to go. If only there was a game system that combined all my favorite steam-powered, magical, undead fantasies into one!

Warhammer 40K: 2000 Point Imperial Guard

I have a big 40K game coming up this weekend and I have been working on an army list. We will be playing a scenario where my 2000 point army will be assaulted from all sides by two 1000 point armies played by Chris and JW. Since they have two armies, that means they have the potential for twice the number of HQ and Elite units. I will have to tailor my army to match this potential threat.







Threats:

• Lots of HQ and Elite means lots of 2+ saves and multi-wound models.
• The assaulting armies will have to rush across the board to get me, so that means lots of transports or Land Raiders or Deep Striking units, perhaps in drop pods.
• If Orks or Nids are present I can expect to see a good deal of foot-slogging infantry trying to soak up fire for the Elites coming behind.

Answers:

• Lots of plasma will see to those pesky 2+ armor saves.
• Several Lascannons will give me the ability to double-out some character models. They will also force any armor out their to be careful.
• A meltagun hidden in a squad will take care of drop pods to prevent them from contesting my objective.
• Tanks will run interferance, pound oncoming infantry, and snipe other tanks. I will be taking a Vanquisher to make sure no Land Raiders get anywhere close to my lines.
• Veteran squads in transports will remain in reserve in order to respond to threats I have not anticipated.

Here is how the army is coming together:
Company Command Squad. This HQ will babysit the front line troops and annihilate anything that comes too close. The power fist will help out my tarpit unit. MotF will delay enemy reinforcements.
-Commander with power fist
-Three veterans with plasma guns
-Vox caster. This will improve my chances of twin-linking the plasma guns against light tanks and monstrous creatures and will actually increase their survivability better than a medi-kit while making their shooting more effective at the same time.
-Master of the Fleet.

Company Command Squad. This unit will hunker down in a tall building and snipe anything it can see while also handing out orders to nearby units. I went with a sniper rifle since it can threaten big things and enemy heroes at range. There aren't many other gun options that pair well with the Lascannon, but this should at least some of the time.
-Commander, naked
-Officer of the Fleet
-Veteran Lascannon team
-Veteran with Sniper Rifle

ELITE
Sly Marbo. I am interested to see how this model works out. I have heard good things but never put him in a list before. He can appear anywhere on the board, throw a demolition charge, and hopefully stick around to engage in a little shooting in later turns.

TROOPS
Infantry Platoon 1. This platoon is kitted out with a lot of long range weaponry. I think I will tend to field them as "bubble-wrap" units. This means they will usually be deployed as separate squads, each with a heavy weapon. They will ring the outside of the deployment area and shoot at any incoming armor. Once assault troops come in range, they will receive the charge, get wiped out, and set the opponent up to be shot at in the next round.
-Platoon Command with lascannon, 2 sniper rifles.
-Platoon Squad with grenade launcher and lascannon. Attached Commisar with power sword.
-Platoon Squad with grenade launcher and lascannon
-Platoon Squad with grenade launcher and autocannon

Infantry Platoon 2. This platoon can also be fielded singly, but I would prefer to deploy the individual squads together to form a tarpit in the center. This will receive a charge and hold up the enemy until one of them dies or reinforcements arrive.
-Platoon Command with heavy flamer, plasma gun, platoon standard, and medi-kit.
-Platoon Squad with flamer and heavy bolter. Attached Commisar with power sword.
-Platoon Squad with grenade launcher and heavy bolter
-Platoon Squad with meltagun and heavy bolter

Veteran Squad 1. This squad is equipped with some serious troop killing power and can also reinforce the troops in the center if they get into trouble. The Chimera brings some serious firepower as well.
-Veteran Squad with power sword and three plasma guns
-Chimera with heavy flamer, dozer blade, pintle heavy stubber

Veteran Squad 2: This squad is equipped with anti-tank guns and comes mounted in a Valkyrie. By now it looks like I am overkilling tanks, but I have to assume that some of my elements will be taken out early or won't get a shot off. This gives me more flexibility and redundancy.
-Veteran Squad with power fist and three meltaguns
-Valkyrie with rocket pods.

HEAVY SUPPORT
These three tanks are taken separately and will do their best to remain in cover and bring all their sponsons to bear. The Vanquisher will kill tanks, the others will focus on troops.
-Leman Russ with lascannon, heavy bolter sponsons, pintle heavy stubber
-Leman Russ Demolisher with heavy bolter, plasma sponsons
-Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon

I hope all goes according to plan. What seems more likely is that everyone will be in everyone else's way and the enemy will be on top of me in turn two. I calculate that it will take two terminators and 3 genestealers to completely wipe out my line...

- Maniple

40K Terrain: Instant City

I like to find simple solutions for terrain since having it around is such an important part of wargaming. Many people don't make terrain since they think it is too hard, too expensive or any old pile of crap will do anyway. To the contrary, I think decent terrain can be had cheaply, easily, and thematically. This technique can be used for just about any game system, just change the template a bit and you are good to go. For this project you will need:

2 Sheets of black foamcore

2 Empty cereal boxes

Pencil

Ruler

White Glue

Hobby Knife

Dress Pins

 

This set of terrain was made one day when I realized that I was going to have a 40K game the next day and all my terrain either sucked or was elsewhere. I started with a tip from White Dwarf. I took two cereal boxes and made a pair of templates. I measured out some windows and doorways using a ruler and straight edge, cutting them out with a sharp knife. Each story is about 2" tall.

 I made the second template with some arched windows that could be used for a chapel or something. The point of the template is that it will make all your buildings similar, making them appear to belong in the same city. When making them, keep all your measurements precise and take your time cutting the windows out. Consistency is your friend!

 Take your sheets of foamcore and use a pencil to trace out the shape of each wall that you want. For a ruined city, make some of them angled where they have been asploded. With the basic shape drawn, lay the template over it and trace out the windows and doors. Once this is done, use your hobby knife to cut it all out. I can't stress this enough- use a sharp knife! If all your edges are ragged and torn it will mark you out as a lazy builder who doesn't know his (ahem)... method. Make three cuts- paper, foam, paper. Don't rush it.

 Now take your wall pieces and glue them together. Some dress pins can be used to hold it all together while drying. I also cut out and measured some floor pieces. They are designed to hold models comfortably without danger of them toppling off.

 I turned out a whole bunch of buildings pretty quickly with this method that are playable right away. From here you can add window frames, floorbeams, busted doors, and custom bases for a much more finished look. A gray drybrush would also be a nice simple touch. On the right you can see a simple bunker I made for my command squad and behind that some fuel tanks made from cardboard tubes.

I also added some GW barriers and a few loops of razor wire. On the left is my landing pad. Awesome, huh?
Here is how to make the razor wire (sorry no pics ATM): Take two lengths of wire, one thick and one thin. Wrap the thin one around the thick one like the design on a barber pole. Once you get to the desired length, clip off any excess. Take the wrapped pieces of wire and wrap them around your pencil, creating a coil. Remove pencil and you are done!



Keep in mind you can buy a very nice plastic version of this set up for about $300, if you want. This cost me 15 bucks.

-Maniple

300 Challenge: Deathwatch Squad Part 2

 Back to work on the Deathwatch squad. I actually painted over some of the shoulder pads and had another go at the freehand chapter symbols. I am not very good at the freehand stuff, but each attempt was slightly better than the last. On the armor, I did a couple of subtle highlights on the black and ink washed all the metal bits. The bases got a coat of the standard gray.

 It is not very clear, but you can see the highlights on the arms a little bit. I used a little Space Wolves Gray mixed with Chaos black to brighten up the edges just a bit. I also drybrushed some Chainmail on the metal pieces by way of a highlight.

 Sideview of the squad. Click on the picture to get a bigger view of the shoulder pads. Some of them need another go, but I still have more models to paint so I will get back to them letter. I picked out the purity seals and some cables on the armor before gluing on their weapons.

I realized that I did not bring the proper bolters with me when i packed these guys up. A couple of them have Deathwatch bolters in the back row, but the rest are standard. I used just a little bit of glue to hold on the temporary ones so I can bust them off later!

With these ten models "table worthy" they are heading back to the shelf. My total now comes to 61. Tomorrow I will be heading back to the place "where bad things happen..."



-Maniple

300 Challenge: Deathwatch Squad Part 1

 Here is my Deathwatch squad. I think I started putting them together in 3rd edition! There were Chapter approved rules released in White Dwarf some time ago that were pretty cool. As I recall, the Heavy Bolter could be fired on the move, the squad had access to specialty ammo, they could deep strike, and the squad could be lead by a number od different characters, including a Librarian. GW still sells a conversion kit with a number of heads, well-detailed shoulder pads, and bolters with scopes. I will be fielding them as Sternguard Veterans with a couple of combi-weapons thrown in.

 The first step was to put a fresh coat of thinned-down black paint over the model. This fills in places that the spray missed and evens out the finish, making it a bit more glossy than the primer I used. The difference is subtle, but look at these two minis. The black is smoother and brighter on the right-hand model and the left-hand model looks dull and boring. This will give me an even point to begin highlighting from.

I did some more work on the shoulder pads. These marines represent some of the marine chapters that  my buddies play. Starting in the back we have Mortifactors, Iron Hands, Silver Skulls, Imperial Fists, Eric Marines, Grief Bringers, Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, and Space Wolves.

 I started free-handing some chapter symbols as practice. this was my second attempt at a "U." It could still be cleaned up a bit, but considering this is my first attempt at free-hand work ever, it is not terrible.

 Blood Angels

Iron Hands

Now I need to clean up my work and highlight the armor. I also plan to hit some of the marine armor details that I have typically ignored in the past. More soon!


-Maniple

300 Painting Challenge: The Vanirmen

 This morning I set out a new squad to work on. These are the rest of my Vanirmen, a conversion using Catachan and Marauder bits. I will use them in my 40K games as Penal Legion Troopers since they have a mix of weapons and a rough and tumble look to them. Ignore the models on the far left, I will get to them later. As you can see, they are primed black. At this stage I mentally prepared a painting plan in order to get these 25 guys done in one day. If I employed too many steps thay would never be finished. The steps were: Dwarven Flesh, Graveyard Earth shirts, Bestial Brown leather and hair, Ultramarine Blue pants, Chainmail metal, Flesh Wash, Elf Flesh Blend Highlight, Gray Base. each step would take me about an hour on 25 models, so this was an all day project.

Here I have completed the flesh, pants, and metal. At this point you could actually stop painting since they follow the "3-color" rule that most tournaments require for play. They still look flat, though, and need some more work.

 Here they are at the end with the flesh highlights, mistakes corrected, and paint covering almost all of the black primer. I did not put camo on the pants since I need to be able to distinguish them from the Vanir Veteran squad I finished last week. They look pretty good even without metal washes and highlights.

Here is a close-up of the finished model. I like doing extreme flesh highlights on models with lots of exposed skin. It really makes them stand out. This completes 25 more models, bringing my total to 51!

Soon I will turn back to the Space Marines and complete a Deathwatch squad that has been lurking around my hobby table for about five years...

-Maniple

300 Painting Challenge: Space Marines

 These models are a mix of bits and pieces I have picked up over the years. Some of them I thought I would use in an army that never happened, other are for my Deathwatch campaign. With all of these leftovers, I thought it would be fun to paint each of them up in a different chapter color. This would give me practice working with colors and also force me to be more detail oriented than I was on the guardsmen.

 The models were all basecoated black and set to go. Black is my favorite place to start, but if I want something to be brighter when finished, I will paint on a layer of white or tan in order to make it stand out. There is little more frustrating than painting red or yellow over black. You can lay down three coats and never see a difference. Worse, the color will not look right when finished. A light underlay saves tons of time. You can see this on the banner. See how one layer of yellow already stands out?

 Here is my Grief Bringer captain. I think this guy came out of the Battle for Black Reach boxed set. He is an awesome model- I can't believe I didn't do something with him before! He needs a little more work on the face, the banner, and the sword, but I am putting him in the done pile for now.

 My main army back home is Iron Hands. I have all the sergeants sporting quite a bit of wargear and bionics. There just wasn't a place for this guy in that army. I like the Blood Ravens scheme, so I had a go at painting some red. He needs some work done on the face and I need to decorate his shoulder pad, but he is done for now.

 Chief Librarian Tigurius is a sweet model. There are tons of little bits to pick out on the model, so this one was the most challenging. I will come back to him when my skill has come up a bit. He deserves another go but is good enough for now.

 I started a second Chapter a while back. My Iron Hands have tons of Land Raiders and Terminators, so functions mainly as a close assault army. I wanted something different, so I went with an army of Mortifactors. They assault as well but rely more on scout units, Assault Marines, and some long-range firepower. This guy will find a place in a squad pretty easily.

 This is my first yellow model ever. The Imperial Fists are pretty cool and I think they were one of the first 40K armies I ever saw in person. The yellow was tough but I found you can trick the eye by using contrasting colors like red on the shoulder pads and the purple tabard. They make the yellow look brighter and cleaner than it actually is.His axe needs some work and I need to look at shading the joints in his armor.

 Here they are together, ready to go out on a campaign!

I also had time to work on the Deathwatch characters. The guys at the War Store were kind enough to put together a nice bits pack for me and these three guys took shape. There is a Black Templar, A Storm Warden, and an Ultramarine. The guy in the middle is based on the guy from the front cover of the rule book. With a little cutting and repositioning of arms I think I got fairly close. I am not totally happy with his stance, however. If I get a chance I am going to pop off the torso and see how it looks on a pair of legs from the assault sprue.

This brings to basic completion 8 more models, bringing the total to 26. I have a ways to go...

-Maniple

300 Painting Challenge: Imperial Guard

My 300 Painting Challenge is coming along nicely. I went through my army looking for the most neglected models. Here I have a selection of special weapons, heavy weapons, and a sergeant with a power fist. The Lascannons will be for popping Killer Kans and the sniper rifles will be handy for pinning Gretchin and Ork mobs. Plasma is always handy no matter who I am facing and the power fist is a nice option to have in platoon when Marines might be deep-striking nearby.

 I wanted to keep my efforts focused on the selected models, but more stuff kept showing up. In the foreground are a couple of guys I bought on sale over ten years ago. They are the models for a Tallarn heavy weapon squad. I think their lascannon ended up on an ork battlewagon somewhere. They and the guy in the blue coat can be used for objectives, I suppose, or maybe characters for Dark Heresy?

 It is good to take pictures of your models since the camera will pick up details the eye can miss. For instance, I am not happy with the red gun, the blue vials, the sunglasses, or the bases. They will have to wait for my revisit, though, since they are good enough to play with and I am already off onto other things!

 These Ogryn were an old conversion. I mixed some fantasy Ogres and 40K Ogryn to make a nasty looking 5-man squad. I was inspired by a short story that came out some years ago in the "Deathwatch" collection (I think). It featured an Inquisitor cobbling together a force of Ogryn, Grief Bringer Space Marines, and whatever else he could find to kill a very nasty bad guy. My brother actually started a Grief Bringers army that is pretty sweet. My original paint job was, in a word, horrific. By restarting and sticking to a simple Cadian scheme that blot has been wiped from my record.

These plasma gunners got cleaned up and I added some bright green to the power unit on the gun. It really makes them stand out on the table, so I won't forget to use them!

Overall these models are alright compared to what I think I am capable of. Since I haven't really done a lot of serious painting for a while it was good to start on something simple. These are "table-ready" and plenty good enough for now. I can always go back later and do a little more.



This brings to completion 18 more models!

-Maniple