217 Where I'm At, Currently

Hi, All,

Most recent painting chart (end of July '10):
Some interesting projects in the pipeline, but these are balanced against poor lighting, worse seating and constant battles with moths...oh yes, I'm back out in The Shed again.

That is all.

- Drax.

216 Second Night at the New Club = Success.

Hi, All,

I went to the club again tonight: I really like it, and I look forward to getting to become a regular there (work permitting). The club is the marvellous Cross-Swords Gaming Club, and it's also a store (catering for a range of different systems) so even if you're not local to Devon in the UK, it's still worth checking out the link!

Tonight I had a fun game Against a very sporting chap called Jason, who was playing with a chaos daemons army. Sadly for Jason, he'd put together an anti-horde list (having seen my infantry company a fortnight ago) and I'd figured I'd try out a mech list. D'oh!

I took these guys along:No batrep, but in summary, his daemons made a rather piecemeal arrival due to some really duff deep-strike rolls, struggled to hurt my vehicles and then got eradicated (mostly by shooting) as they hove into range. We ended with him having scored two KPs, and with only three bloodletters and a damaged, immobile soulgrinder left for him to fight back with. The dice really were unkind to Jason, alas.

As for my stuff?

Marbo was pretty useless but a fun distraction, G/Sgt Harker was...meh...and the jury's out on the devil dog. It did nuke the other soulgrinder, but was broadly ineffectual beforehand. Nurgle truly are buggers to kill.

I can see why people find chimera-vets such an attractive choice, though I couldn't bring myself to arm mine with anything beyond grenade launchers!

My list, for reference:

HQ:

Primaris Psyker

EL:

Guardsman Marbo

TP:

Vets w. G/Sgt Harker, autocannon, hvy flamer, 2 grenade launchers [infiltrated]

Vets w. 3 grenade launchers,
- Chimera [with Primaris Psyker attached]

Vets w. 3 grenade launchers,
- Chimera

FA:

Hellhound w. hvy stubber + smoke

Hellhound w. hvy stubber + smoke

Devil Dog w. smoke

HS:

Leman Russ MBT

Leman Russ Exterminator w. hvy bolter sponsons + hvy stubber

Leman Russ Exterminator w. hvy bolter sponsons + hvy stubber

= 1500pts.

Cheers, and thanks to Jason too, if you read this. Cheers for being a good sport.

- Drax.

215 Hellhound/Devil Dog, Thirty and Junk...

Hey, dudes.

First up, let me drop in a plug for the excellent Terrain from Junk: Tristan's excellent blog which...well, does exactly what it says on the tin. Plus, he has a great competition on at the moment!

Now, please allow me to introduce you to the most recent addition to my forces: a 'devil dog' hellhound variant, Gelert:
I rescued her from a very heavily painted (and, oddly, heavily textured) hellhound, and like most of my vehicles, I've kept aspects of her previous incarnation: here mostly in the colour of the side hatches.

Given the state of her, and my reluctance to strip and recondition the paintwork, it was nice to spend barely any time on a tank!

She is the third in the squadron, hence the 'C' demarcation. The other two can be seen here, though I'll be posting the whole squadron soon.

I think I have a spare hellhound cannon, but I guess it doesn't really matter. I may yet give her a dozer blade.

There you go.

By the way, for those of you still reading, I turned thirty this week. Here's a nice pic of Clan Drax in a moment of celebration:

I love my girls!

Cheers,

- Drax.

214 Work in Progress: Re-conditioning Ebay Win.

A progress shot. Nothing special - don't ask!

Bag o' bitz courtesy of the marvellous generosity of bG over at Iron Legion: thanks, mate!

That is all.

- Drax.

213 B Coy, 2/24th Cadian Light Infantry 1500pts Army List

Hi, Drax-fans. Light Infantry time.

I said I'd post the 1500pt all-infantry list (AKA my infantry company), and here it is, followed by photos (some of which are slightly out of date):

HQ:
Company Command Squad w. plasma gun and mortar and a Master of Ordnance as an advisor (100)

TP: 1 Pl
1 Pl Command Squad w. 3 grenade launchers (45)
1 Pl 1 Sect w. plasma gun (65)
1 Pl 2 Sect w. melta gun (60)
1 Pl 3 Sect w. grenade launcher (55)
1 Pl Hvy Wpn Squad B w. 3 missile launchers (90)
1 Pl Hvy Wpn Squad C w. 3 autocannon (75)
1 Pl Spec Wpn Squad w. 2 melta guns and a demo charge (75)

TP: 2Pl

2 Pl Command Squad w. 3 grenade launchers (45)
2 Pl 1 Sect w. plasma gun (65)
2 Pl 2 Sect w. melta gun (60)
2 Pl 3 Sect w. grenade launcher (55)
2 Pl Hvy Wpn Squad A w. 3 lascannon (105)
2 Pl Hvy Wpn Squad D w. 3 heavy bolters (75)
2 Pl Spec Wpn Squad w. 2 flamers and a gren lnchr (50)

TP: 3Pl

3 Pl Command Squad w. 3 grenade launchers (45)
3 Pl 1 Sect w. plasma gun (65)
3 Pl 2 Sect w. melta gun (60)
3 Pl 3 Sect w. grenade launcher (55)
3 Pl Mortar Sub A w. 3 mortars (60)
3 Pl Mortar Sub B w. 3 mortars (60)
3 Pl Spec Wpn Squad w. 2 gren lnchrs and a flamer (50)

TP: Veterans w. 3 grenade launchers (85).

Total: 1500pts.

Here's the whole of B Coy, 2/24th Cadian Light Infantry:

I've only ever fielded them en masse once - last week - and they did very well indeed: I was impressed! If they have a secret it's that they're relatively versatile, but utterly expendable. There's only one unit which costs over 100pts, and none of them cannot be done without.

Some stats:

177men; 4 officers;

111 lasguns and pistols;

31 special weapons;

19 heavy weapons;

1 ordnance weapon (M/Ord)

If you've never done so, try an all-infantry list some time: it's good for a giggle!

Thanks for your time,

- Drax.

212 Unique, Special, Upgrade and Independent Characters

Hullo!

Being a teacher has its perks: I'm now on summer holiday 'til September, so I plan to spend a fair bit of time on the hobby, where real life allows. As a part of this, I'm doing some blog-keeping (like housekeeping, but bloggier), so this is another post to allow me to re-sort and re-catalogue old posts. More for my administrative purposes than anything else, but a nice chance to revisit older models. Today: characters.

Please find links below (in Codex order):

• Officer of the Fleet
• Master of Ordnance
• Commissars (I've never actually posted all my commissars. Hmm...)
• Primaris Psyker
• Techpriest Engineseer
• Guardsman 'Sly' Marbo
• G/Sgt Harker
• Capt. Al'Rahem
• Nork Deddog (in progress)
• Capt. Stephenson (house rules)
• Regimental Mascot.

The pic above is - of course - 'After the War', the regimental mascot of the 2/24th Cadian. Many of you older readers will recognise him, I know, but I'm thinking of committing him to a base and some rules at last, so all new suggestions gratefully received!

Cheers,

- Drax.

211 Master of Ordnance and Coy HQ Mortar

Hullo,

Allow me to introduce my rather ineffectual Master of Ordnance:

He is a model I started work on years ago, as an artillery observer ('staff officer') for the old 'High Command' WD Chapter Approved rules*, and although he's now absolutely cruddy in game terms, I finished him up t'other day in order to try his ruleset at the new Game Club. Not a great mini, but here's another shot for the sake of completeness

And here are the new mortar crew/runners/spare personnel for the Company command squad. They're kinda 'jacks of all trades':

I really like this picture, for some reason:

Cheers,

- Drax.

* Great rules, too: I've got a scan of them if anyone's interested. If so, let me know...

210 New Gaming Club (Part II - Pics + Brief Batrep)

Hullo!

Sorry for the confusion with Part I of this double-post. For those of you who took time to read it, this is how things panned out, with a few pics and notes. My memory's really poor, by the way...

1500pts - my complete infantry company Vs James's orks:

Mission: Seize Ground (x4 Objs); Deployment: Pitched Battle.

I chose to deploy and move second; failed to grab initiative.

From Imperial Archives: B Coy, 2/24th Cadian Light Infantry on parade beforehand:

It was a pleasure to arrange a game with a complete stranger only to find that not only is he a proper gent, but he also has a wonderful fully painted army. Here they are arrayed across the table from me:

And here are my brave boys deployed to face them. The not-so-thin green line:

Here's the alleged nerve-centre of B Company - the OC with his command squad and - in an attempt to try something new and field a newly-painted model (more on him later) - my Master of Ordnance. Boy was he ever a huge waste of points! No surprise, I know. He's the one right at the back; they also have a mortar and a plasma gun: [sorry for cruddy focus]

Here is James's AWESOMELY WELL PAINTED Battle Wagon:

And my boys (mostly part of 1 Platoon) swarming over the ruins on my right flank:

This is his hard-as-nails Warboss who slaughtered his way through my left flank in comically orky style. I got him in the end, but only after a lot of (rather fun) speedbumping!

And the last pic, his last killer kan tied in a slow war of attrition with 1 Platoon's Special Weapon Team. Note the guy with the demo charge in the foreground: when he threw it it accounted for 10 boys from a mob of 20! Woo-hoo!

I love that pic.

In a nutshell: despite a few early casualties to mortar fire, the Orks gunned down the lascannon squad then closed with the IG with lightning speed (turn 2 assault)

The Guard met the Ork Waargh! on both flanks with an unfaltering hedge of bayonets and three depleted infantry squads - all of whom were wiped out - and then the orders to fire rang out and the charging Orks were mostly cut down wholesale. The demo charge and two flamers on the counter-attack wreaked havoc.

His light vehicles (incl. two deff copters) were all knocked out by turn two, as were most of my direct-fire heavy weapons (who - with the exception of the autocannon team - couldn't hit a thing!)

We had some fun with the Warboss on the left flank, as it seemed too boring to simply sit and shoot at him, so the Guardsmen took it in turns to die in front of him for a couple of turns. He was a hard bastard.

The Battle Wagon fell in a later turn to a meltagunner at short range, and the killer kans did extraordinarily well right upto the bitter end. His bikes (more great models) were nobly whittled down and sadly rather ineffectual.

The Master of Ordnance was (predictably) rubbish and a waste of points, but my two mortar squads were simply great - Death to Orks, that's for sure!

Models of the match?

Orks: Killer Kans and Warboss

Guard: Demo Charge 'Wrecker' and Mortar Squads.

Result: Win to the Imperial Guard (we ended the game with a turn in hand, IG on 2/4 objectives and about to get a third next turn).

Caualties: Orks: about 90-95%; Guard - about 30-35%

James was a true gent throughout, and a delight to play against. Cheers, mate!

Hope that was of interest. I'll post my list up soon...and James's if I can get it.

Cheers,

- Drax.

PS: Jeez, but I had a helluva lot of shots per turn...

209 First Night at New Gaming Club (Part I - Intro)

Wow: what a great time I had!

The club will remain nameless until I've checked with them that it's okay to refer to them, but they were really friendly and welcoming and I had a great game too!

I played a chap called James who was there early to meet me and utterly gentlemanly throughout. He fielded orks and I went for my trusty Guard - a 1500pt game. Because it was a new experience, and because I've just got them all finished up (after seven years!) I thought I'd try something fluffy. I also didn't want to field a nasty, beardy 'killy' army for my first date: I figured that'd be bad form, and it's not my style anyway.

So I went for an entire light infantry company (B Coy, 2/24th Cadian Light Infantry).

In essence, a Coy Comd squad; 3 Platoons, each of 53 men (including heavy and special weapons squads); and a squad of vanilla veterans. Total: 174 men + 4 officers.

The rationale behind this choice (other than that above) was that I was keen to see if the infantry company could hold their own against an all-comers army: I deliberately chose my army list before knowing (and little caring) what I'd be up against, and to James's credit he fielded a generic force too.

I realised as I was packing away my toys that - for three hours - I'd barely looked up from the table! Some of you were kind enough to wish me luck on my 'white-hot geek date' (as a friend termed it) and were interested in how it turned out, so here goes:

...

EDIT: At this point, Drax's baby started crying, and he accidentally hit 'publish' rather than 'save'! Sorry for the cliffhanger: more to follow very soon...with pictures!

208 Sentinel Squadron

Hi,

Another post to allow me to consolidate and catalogue my units on the blog. Tonight, we have my three normal sentinels, Faith, Hope and Charity:

Named after three Gloster Gladiator biplanes, famed for and symbolic of the valiant RAF defence of the Malta* during WWII. Here are their hyperlinks:

Faith (multilaser)

Hope (lascannon)

Charity (heavy flamer)

...and here are a couple more photos:

Cheers,

- Drax.

PS: By the way, I can't stress enough how fascinating the story of the WWII Seige of Malta is. The names at the top are hyperlinked to a Wikipedia entry, but the real gem is to be found in James Holland's Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege 1940-1943 (Cassell Military Paperbacks).

207 3 Platoon

Hi All,

This is the first in a occasional series of posts designed to re-catalogue my collection of posts, and to update a couple. This is now the go-to* post for 3 Platoon.
In this case, 3 Platoon is complete and has been for a while, but in honour of the fact that I might actually be playing a game this week (shock! horror!) and using them, I thought I'd start with them.

Hyperlinks for 3 Platoon:
- HQ Section
- 1 Section
- 2 Section
- 3 Section
- Mortar Sub A
- Mortar Sub B
- Special Weapon Section (F)

...And I might take a piccie of their special weapon section when I get a chance.

Wish me luck in my game at my (gulp!) new gaming club - this is a massive step for me, for I am a real closet dork and this is the Drax equivalent of 'coming out'.

Aargh!

- Drax.

* I do - of course - realise that even the most faithful of my readers aren't too interested in dull stuff like this, but I find it useful if I need to refer to my own models whilst painting without digging them out of the shed!

206 APC Progress

Hey, All.

Thanks for the comments and the encouragement from the previous APC post - I've had a busy couple of weeks with work and a few sleepless nights courtesy of Drax Minora, but here are some shots of the progress I've snatched, with a few notes:
1) The turret/hatch mount is now the other half of the mount from the aegis defence autocannon, and note the brackets at the back for airlifting - paperclips - there'll be a couple at the front soon, too:
Yes, I still need to put more equipment onto the mudguards!

2) I redesigned the armour around the driver's hatch: it's a bit too chunky maybe, but it looks fairly 'guard'. The side panels still need some rivets and maybe some bulking-out: The wheels are axle-mounted by the way: she rides!

3) The two side hatches are from a Space Marine rhino. You may be able to see here that I trimmed a few mm from the middle of the heavy flamer to shorten it:

4) I'm particularly proud of how the jerry can bracket on the spare wheel worked out...:

5) Here you can see a couple of the touches I enjoyed working on - firstly, the circuit wire around the heavy flamer mount worked to blend the two components and mask a rather stark join. Secondly, I made a small winch which you can just make out here:

What do you make of the smoke launchers? They just seem too big and unsightly, but I've run out of better ones.

As always, I'm interested in comments and criticisms...

Cheers,

- Drax.