Friday, April 14, 2017

Proxy German Storm Troopers for Konflikt 47'

Browsing Northstar Miniatures one night I came across a game called "Achtung! Cthulhu".  I never really got into the whole Cthuloid mythos, but as an old school gamer I know a bit about it.  While the game Achtung! Cthulhu doesn't interest me, the miniatures do.  They had some pretty cool Weird War II stuff with tentacles monsters and whatnot.  As I was browsing the miniatures, I saw the coolest looking Wolfenstein looking shock troopers.  I instantly had to buy them.  Since Warlord Games haven't released an official shock trooper model to go with Konflikt 47', these guys made a perfect substitution.  Take a look....





I ended up buying the box of Black Sun Troopers and a blister pack.  You get 10 in the box, but you also get a machine gunner and 2 flame thrower guys, so I got the blister pack just to round out the force.  I think they turned out awesome, and when I brought them to Adepticon, everyone who checked out my army was asking about them.  I used the guy with the backpack as my NCO in game.  Anyways, thanks for looking!!

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Some Heavy Konflikt 47' Infantry

I have to say, as time goes on I'm liking Warlord Games more and more as a company.  I dig Bolt Action.  I think the rules system is top notch and the dice pulling mechanic was genius.  My only issue with the game is that the WWII setting only gives you so many options.  Granted, tons of innovation took place.  I guess what I'm trying to say is I miss the fantasy aspect.  I dig rail guns and crazy ass creatures and whatnot.  That's not to say I don't enjoy a good historical game or even Bolt Action for that thought.

Enter Konflikt 47'.....  a game where we speed up the time line to an alternate 1947', add crazy rift technology due to the Manhattan Project opening up some inter-dimension portal, and let the super powers duke it out.  The concept of this game is awesome, so awesome that I couldn't pass it up.  The game pretty much runs off of the Bolt Action V1.0 rules with some minor rules added for flavor.  The cool thing about this is they added new Konflikt 47' specific units, but basically you can augment your normal Bolt Action forces into the game.  Kind of like a hybrid game allowing you to play two different games with your normal Bolt Action forces.

So I signed up for Konflikt 47' tournament at Adepticon 2017, and got to work on the new units.  I want to start with some heavy infantry.  Check them out..



This unit of 8 comprises the box set you can get from Warlord Games.  They were very easy to paint as they're mainly tan with some edge highlighting.  The arms and guns were a little fiddly, but with enough superglue they become workable.  So there is my German Heavy Infantry.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Necromunda Ratskin Renegades


Necromunda is one of those games that's very special to me.  It was the first official Games Workshop games I owned back in the 90's when it ended up under my Christmas Tree right after it was released.  It was one of those games you could just get a handful of mini's and play on your coffee table.  For a young 13 year old with not a lot of money, this was perfect for me.  My friends and I each had gangs (I think I was rocking Van Saar, poorly painted) and I remember setting up the cardstock terrain and having massive 3-4 man battles and just laughing the afternoon and evenings away playing this silly game.  Needless to say, I have a lot of nostalgia for this game in particular.

Fast foward 20 years.  I had seen there was a yearly Necromunda Tournament at Adepticon.  I had told myself year after year that I would paint up a gang and give it a go for the wide eyed 13 year old Dave in me.  Well, as per usual other projects ended up popping up and Necromunda kind of got pushed to the back of the que.  I have been collecting the miniatures since I got back into the hobby, but I hadn't actually painted anything from Necromunda.  I own a good portion of the gangs now, and one that always stuck out for me were the Ratskin Renegades.  I love the aesthetics of the models, and I found it hilarious that in a world of plasma guns and rocket launchers, these guys bring muskets and hand crossbows to the party and can actually hold they're own.

So last October, after the first day of Operation Sting we usually go out to dinner as a group.  Well I ended up sitting at a table with the guy who runs the Necromunda tournament at Adepticon, Jeremy.  We got to talking and the topic of Necromunda came up.  I believe I convoyed my nostalgia for the game, and mentioned that I had purchased a box of ratskin at the previous Adepticon.  He mentioned that nobody ever brings Ratskins to his tournament.  The wheels start turning in my head, and suddenly an idea pops into my head.  I have been putting off painting any Necromunda gang for so long because I didn't have a reason to paint them.  "Challenge accepted" I say.  I now had my reason to paint these guys.

A few weeks go by, and the following is what I managed to crank out.....

The Ratskin Renegades, all 11 of them


The Gang Leader




The Shaman, my favorite model out of the bunch




3 Gangers, 2 with Lasguns, 1 with Shotgun


2 Gangers, 1 with Autogun, 1 with Musket



3 Ratskin Braves, various weapons


Ratskin Totem Warrior, one of the late Fanatic casts




I went a little picture heavy on this one because I really wanted to show them off.  One of the biggest problems I had painting these guys was finding decent reference material, especially for the Totem Warrior.  Sure, people have posted pictures of these guys before.  To be quite frank though, most examples I found were awful or you really couldn't see the models good enough.  It was a rare sight indeed when I found ratskins painted to a high standard that you could actually see.  I figure this way, my pictures will end up out there and hopefully someone down the line won't have the same problem I had.  I tried to go for more of a traditional GW look with these guys, adding my own flavor in here and there.  I used Micro Art's junk bases as I felt it adds for a more interesting look.  I originally planned on doing the traditional Necromunda hazard stripes around the base, but it doesn't look good on the round lip bases.  The top part is smaller than the bottom, so it ends up like a weird 60's swirl.  I really like how these models turned out.

 If you read my recent post on Adepticon, you'll know these guys did quite well at Adepticon winning me a 2nd place "Best General" coin.  They took me a lot longer to paint then I initially anticipated.  I only have 11 here, but my collection of Ratskin models is nearly complete.  My plan is to paint the rest of them up this year, including "The Caller" and "Brakar".  With that being said, I intend on playing in the Necromunda tournament next year as well.  To challenge myself, I want to bring a new gang next year.  Hopefully this is the challenge I need to paint a new gang every year going forth until I've painted every gang.

Sorry for the long text walls here.  I'm just very nostalgic about Necromunda and I had to set this post up correctly.  I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures.  Feel free to ask any questions if you have any about painting these guys, even if it's years from now.