Squats! Eh... I mean April roundup.

 This month I have mostly been painting Squats. 

For those following this marks the 'end' of my pseudo quest to paint all the 2nd edition forces for Epic/Space Marine/NetEpic.

I neglected the Squats the longest as I don't have a major love for them - didn't own enough for an army the first time around and they never really grabbed me visually.

I think they are a great addition to the Rogue Trader universe of pirates, gangs, scum and villainy on distant worlds cut off from the imperium, but don't know if they scale well to mass battles. (And I guess GW maybe felt the same way?)

Anyhoo, that aside - I've played against them enough times to realise they are a force to be reckoned with and are very much worth having in the collection.

I kit-bashed quite a few of the vehicles that are either massively over priced, rare or that I really just don't like the look of, so this is possibly my cheapest army to date.

I still have some unpainted units that I plan on adding when the mood strikes, but for now i'm fairly burned out on stuntie miners.

It was almost exclusively epic/6mm painting this month, and this looks to continue a bit into May.

for some breaks from the squats I kitbashed some Sabre Tank Hunters for my Blood angels, made up some Eldar units that I felt were missing from my roster, as well as doing some re-paints of a Warlock titan and some Warhounds that were amongst the first things I painted almost 8 years ago when getting back into the hobby. I feel much better about them this time around and it's sparked a scary thought in my head to potentially re-paint a large portion of my Eldar and Imperial guard forces that I'm not too proud of.

On the table currently are some Slaanesh Knights - which I still want to get enough of to field as their own force, and some squat stragglers that may end up back in the pile of shame until a later time.

If I paint anything else this month it might be some Bolt Action fallschrimjager or Brits... we'll see!

March (early) round-up - Mostly Epic!

 I'm a little early this month, but making hay whilst the sun shines i guess!

It's been a productive few weeks, where I've had a little spark of creativity and decided to revisit some 6mm projects I had bouncing around my brain and bits box...

I started with some Ork character stands and their gretchin body guards - a Painboy, Mekboy, Wierdboy, Runtherd and Warlord, which i had based up last year and finally decided to put paint to plastic. (At the end of the month i realised i was a few Nobz short too, so added them).

Some Goff Gutrippas followed - I just had them and fancied painting them, which is a recurring theme this month.

I (sort-of) made some squat progress, although not in the way i wanted. I still couldn't bring myself to paint the infantry, instead I knocked out a Collosus and it's recon Gyro-Copter, a Leviathan for the IG which was already thick with paint and I didn't bother stripping it, and them some kit bashed Goliath Mega Cannon.

The Cannon were inspired by a few things.

• Dog turd bag roll tubes - looked a decent size (probably a bit big in fairness!) and I had lots to hand.
• The price of the originals - some crazy scalps selling them for £15+ a model!
• The fact i don't like the originals, and felt they needed to be somewhat self-propelled to be 'realistic'
• an excuse to kitbash, and it ties in nicely with my squat lore, that my guys are closely tied to the ad-mech, sharing tech and resources, so the older STLs and vehicles have been passed on and modified

I messed around with a few configurations settling on a more compact design, mostly to make them easier to store and more robust, and I'm really happy with them.

The Poundland/Dollar-store tunneller got some paint too as a test. I have another 2 so will maybe run them as Moles to take my squat warriors into combat.

The green imperial Knight Palladin Household were finished - after sitting base coated in my bits box for a year or so. They are rough, but passable.

The last 2 demon prince proxies from Vanguard got a lick of paint. These projects are great for a rainy mid-week lunch break effort as they (and everything this month) come together very quickly.

Lastly - more Orks! Madboyz, 3 units of them to fill up any 2nd edition army free support slots. Had to be done!

On to April now - Squats! Bikers, Infantry, Light artillery and then we are done.

Bolt action - finish the Volksstrum.

Maybe some more kitbashing... We'll see.

February round-up - Mostly Bolt Action!

 Happy March everyone!

I'm a little late in updating, and to be honest February continued the roll of hobby progress, with lots of Bolt Actions stuff painted and played with.

Apologies again for the out of order photo dump, I think Google is working against me here.

I started Feb by outlining my Epic Squat 'to do' list, splitting the units into formations and companies for 2nd Ed/Net Epic and began the task of painting.

So far I've base coated my biker guilds and support bikes but stalled again already. hoping to treat them as a palate cleanser when i run out of steam painting WW2 stuff.

Talking of which...

I picked up a fresh box of the new British Commandos, Winter Germans and a Stuart III.

My plan is to update my Commando force with some better sculpts (and paint jobs) as well as use some of the bodies and bits from other kits to flesh out my regular British Army and do some SAS guys too.

The Winter Germans have started life as a Volksstrum unit, but given how rubbish they are in game (anecdotally), I'll likely save the rest of the box for a future project, perhaps something Eastern Front...

The Stuart III got some kit bash treatment to give me the option of running it as a USMC Stuart, or Commonwealth Stuart Recce.

I also picked up a bits box job lot which had a bunch of German Grenadiers, Fallschrimjager, a Kettenkrad a host of other bits which will work great for conversions (the first being a platform for my 20mm Flak cannon).

The grenadiers found themselves being converted to a squad of Gebirgsjager, with rope bundles made from braided fishing line, caps, green stuff jacket hoods, G43 rifles and MG34s selling the look.

We also managed a mini campaign of sorts, playing a couple of Firefight Skirmish games with the Commandos vs SS and culminating in a Paratroopers vs SS 750pt game. 

The Brits were smashed in all 3 games, a lot of this being due to my over aggression and not really playing to their strengths... Next time!

And lastly (or firstly) I updated some of my Sci-Fi jungle terrain to be a bit more 'realistic', but still some work to do their to dull it all down etc...