Grimdark Future - Tanks!

 I built and painted these at the start of the month, utilising Predator and Razorback kits, plus a plethora of bits.

As usual, I couldn't go vanilla and had to make some conversions. The modular nature of the Rhino allowed me to create some different loadouts, including magnetising all of the 'out of the box' stuff, and scratch building an Anti-Aircraft unit and Mortar module. 

I've also launched a YouTube channel where I hope to do more builds like this and record them.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1jqlxQISlOUgh4uKEj30A

Next up - Genestealers! Finally clearing my storage boxes of my unpainted Space Hulk Xenos and Battle for Macragge 40k Starter models.

Grimdark Future - Scouts and Machine Cult

 More progress through the big box of gifted minis...

I'm calling the Space Marine/Battle Brother Scouts done, and the same for the Ad-Mech/Machine Cult troops.

I would have spent a bit more time on them but I've been feeling ill the last couple of days and just wanted them off the table, plus in game I expect them to be squishy, so don't want to pour too much love into them to see them destroyed :D

N.B. I will go back and tidy them up when I feel better as I can see some annoying stuff in the photos now.

Grimdark Future - Ribbits!

 Happy New Year!

I've cracked into some more of the Warhammer 40k Christmas haul to paint up some Ad-Mech to use with Grimdark future, and some additional Space Bros, which are works in progress.

At this rate I'll have the whole lot done by the end of the month!

In other news - my gaming buddies and I have a new podcast discussing all things RPG and Tabletop, which might interest some folk!

https://open.spotify.com/show/3ItXAn2F0g9bAv7MaumWsf

Cheers!

Grimdark Future - Prime Battle Brothers

A little bit of hobby therapy over the last couple of days, painting some of the new (to me at least) Primaris Space Marines up as hard sci-fi, expendable government assets, where joining the corps was the only option.

None of this pious, warrior space monk for me!

It also gives me a solid excuse to paint lazy, having everything various shades of olive green and then just dirty them up.

Looking forward to getting some tanks and scouts done next, as well as some more Prime Brothers and eventually Mech Cult (with converted heads)

For now, I've got my first batch of Intercessors, a Redemptor dread and a couple of Reivers 'finished'.

I've also taken the plunge (£4.50...) into OnePageRules Grimdark Future rules.

This could be the answer to all of my hobby woes (well, some of them).

A single ruleset that covers 6mm-28mm, sci-fi, fantasy, skirmish and large scale.

I've had a quick read and watched a few videos. Seems to contain a lot of elements I like;

Alternative activation

No 'phases'

No charts

easy army building

optional rules for suppression

To name but a few! Hopefully 2021 will give me the chance to try it out for real.

 

Merry Christmas - Hobby Update

 Seasons greetings!

As is the tradition I'm going to do a quick (hopefully) hobby state of the union address, and follow up with my plans for 2021.

OK, so it was was a weird one...

The year started with the finishing up of my Epic scale Chaos army, I managed to get a game in with them, and begun great fun X-Wing 1.0 campaign with some friends. My Hobby Chi was in perfect balance. I was paring down unused games/models and focusing in on the practicalities of actual gaming.

Then you know what happened - we ended up in lockdown and face to face gaming was swept away and replaced with perpetual time at home.

Boredom struck, and whilst I maintained a steady run-off of unused toys in a bid to achieve similar minimalism that I practice in other aspects of my life, I was too weak...

Frostgrave - painting warbands, terrain and monsters too up the 2nd quarter.

Epic Tau - I spontaneously bought and painted a sizable proxy-Tau Epic army, which were almost as quickly consigned to storage. I have no idea if or when I'll get them on the table.

Bolt Action - The remainder of the year was WW2 focused, and it's rapidly taken a fair chunk of my hobby time and storage (mostly the terrain, having to dive back in to 28mm)

By December I was in a good place, hardly anything unpainted, surplus photographed and boxed for eBay... Harmony once again.

Then Santa...

Santa, in a generous, yet cruel twist of fate delivered me an embarrassment of Warhammer 40k, including a number of starter forces and the Blackstone Fortress dungeon crawler game.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by it, and my first instinct (normally the one you should trust) was telling me to graciously accept, and then as they are non-returnable, I would sell them on without dwelling on it.

But then... I remembered One Page Rules: Grimdark Future exists.
I started list building... talking to people about it... and now it's happening...

Another year, yet another game to add to the list.

My reasoning;

• I wish to honour the gift.
• OPR: GF looks like a great game system for my simple brain.
• The models are great, and I'd love to paint them.  

So stay tuned! 2021 looks like we are heading back to the big space toys.
I'll mark this in blood however here are my hobby goals for the year ahead;

Bolt Action - Play if possible, don't need to buy anything else, still have a few sprues to add more troops to my lists if the notion takes.

Epic - Paint a few more formations from my bits box when feeling like it, sell some of the excess/unfinished stuff

40k/OPR:GF - Paint all the things, sell any odd bits.

Terrain - Don't add, reduce if possible

Lets go for it!

Also - for the sake of having a photo, this is my planned scheme for the Space Lads... No Ultra-Smurfs here... i'm going hard Sci-Fi, with a bit of Aliens thrown in, weathering, camo and some attitude rather than piety.

 

Bolt Action - Stoooooog

Just a quick one - Painted a Stug, notable for a couple of reasons;

1. I wasn't going to buy any more Bolt Action for a bit - but then this came up cheap(er) and if there is something a Scotsman can't resist, it's a bargain!

2. I used my airbrush - a tool that I have dedicated some time, money and storage too, yet for some reason can rarely be arsed bringing it out of its box.

The side armour skirts are removable.

I also touched up my 251/10 Half-track with some spots to make it a bit more European

And that's about it.

Photos;

Epic - Blood Angels Stragglers

 I've decided to focus any further painting of Space Marines to my Blood Angels army.

This is to give me as many options as possible for them, and whilst having multiple chapter sized forces with all the possible units is great, it's a massive undertaking and doesn't make much sense to me now.

That said, I did enjoy the palate cleanser of the Son of Horus inspired 30k models I painted recently, and could be tempted to make a force of these guys at some point...

It does mean that I think my Dark Angels project is a bit dead in the water, which is a shame as I'd painted 3-4 companies of stuff... who knows, maybe I'll finish it off one day!

For now, I'm raking through the bits box, finding stuff that I can make a detachement out of and painting it up.

Starting with characters, a medic/sanguinary priest/apothecary, a Techmarine, a Librarian and Commander. I think I'll do another HQ stand with banners etc for the force commander/chapter master at some point.

Additionally I finally painted a unit of Rapier Laser Destroyers, and mounted them next to some servitors, these could work equally well in my Ad-Mech force.