Test of Honour warband

At the end of my last post (if you actually read all that), I noted that I would show off my Test of Honour force that I took to Adepticon 2018.  Well, this would be that post, and here is the army/warband/clan/whatever.

This was about half the box of the core game, plus the metal unarmoured samurai I showed off a few months back.  You get something like 35 models in there, enough to do two starter forces.  This kit consisted of old Wargames Factory model line that were re-purposed for Warlord's new game "Test of Honour".  I'd say the scale is the equivalent of true 28mm (think LoTR SBG models).

The plastics were a pain in the ass to put together.  I think I spent the better half of my Saturday putting them together.  Note, I'm an extremely fast model builder with a ton of experience and I had trouble with these models.  The spears that go in the hands you basically have to put between the fingers and palms, which bends the fingers, then you have to bend them back.  Every armature is a separate piece.  Head, two arms, two legs, two pieces of the chest, back-flag, and weapons.  This was not a kit for the uninitiated or beginner.  The mold lines weren't bad though, so that's a plus.

As far as painting goes, I think I did them justice.  Warlord's painted examples of them looked horrible and trying to find good reference material was difficult.  They are not easy models to paint and it doesn't surprise me that so many people have had trouble with them.  I wanted to do something a little different than the basic black armor with colored cloth.  I started these guys in early March with a deadline of March 21st (roughly 3 weeks)  and had to cut a few corners, so all the grey/white is pretty much dry brushed.  Normally this is a practice I don't use for 28mm models (besides in basing), but I was in a time crunch.  I think it turned out pretty good.  They're a unique looking force that looks a little different from every thing out there.

Another issue was the musician (4th picture on the far right).  I spent a good hour trying to figure out what the hell he was blowing into.  I settled on a shell and painted it as such.  It's probably something different, but I like the idea of some dude blowing into a shell.

I made the mistake of not priming my bases before gluing sand.  Typically I glue sand, then prime as you get a stronger bond with both the glue and the primer.  For the normal bases, this is not a problem.  For the wide 3 holder bases, chunks of sand split off, causing me to go back and redo them.  The transfers I ordered from Veni Vidi Vici were just a tad too big for the back standards and I had to flip them vertically to make them work.  Historically, they're not correct for a Takedo clan standard, but I think they look good.  I also spent a good amount of time putting the cherry blossoms onto the bases.  I basically hand placed each piece of foliage (with tweezers) as the usual "glue and dump" method didn't look natural.  The cherry blossoms really do add much needed color and was a good idea.  I picked up a bag at Huge Miniatures.

All in all, the models themselves turned out really good.  The process was a pain, but I'm really happy with the end result.  I'm not sure when we'll see some more Test of Honour.  My goal this year is to paint for games I don't have anything painted for, to expand my options when tournaments and conventions come around.  Look for more new stuff in future blogs.

Some more vehicles for Bolt Action

Up next we got some vehicles that I painted last year for Operation Sting.  Again, I never got around to posting anything involving them, so I'm rectifying that.  I believe both models are resin.  The Kubelwagen has some metal parts to it, but is primarily resin.

So up first we have my Panzer III model.

I really like the look of this tank.  This is one of my favorite models I've done for Bolt Action and was a lot of fun to paint.  I think it came out really good and I'm very happy with it.

Up next we got my Kubelwagen, lets take a look....

This model kit was a pain in the ass to build.  Lots of little fiddly bits and if you know anything about Warlord games, they're not the best with directions on they're resin models.  I think I glued my hands to this model like 5 times.  Painting wise, it came together pretty well.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  Trying to paint the driver was a bit tricky.  I also would've liked it if they would've given me a glass or something in the kit to put in for the windshield instead of having a blank space.  Sure, I could put together something, but I'm not going to.

That's it for today, thanks for checking it out.

Weird Science!!!

In keeping up with my backlog of photos of miniatures I've painted that I said I was going to post, I present you today with some photos of monsters I did for my German Konflikt 47' army.

Up first, we have 4 of my "Nachjager".  I'm not sure what a "Nachjager" is, but they kind of remind me of the main monster in the movie Pan.  You know, the dude with the eyes in his hands.  Anyway, here they are....

They were pretty interesting to paint.  A lot of dry brushing and glazing to get the transitions to look good.  I went a little heavier than I wanted to go with the blood, but I think they look pretty cool.  They're also a terror to behold on the battlefield.  My only issue with these models is there are only two poses.  I think at least one more pose would've been nice.  I do dig the head with part of the spine in the one pose.

Next we have my German Werewolves which are called Schreckwulfen.  I thought the models looked pretty cool, so I painted up two blister packs.  Here's what I got...

I kind of did my own thing with these guys.  I didn't want them to all look the same, so I broke them up into 3 groups of 2 and tackled the unit that way.  It was fun to paint different types of colors for skin tones that you normally don't paint as skin.  I'm also pretty sure the same guy sculpted both the Schreckwulfen and the Nachjagers based on the feet.  Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the photos.

Operation Sting 2017

So Operation Sting 2017 happened this past weekend.  I was originally planning a new army with a kick ass display board, but I never found the motivation to do so.  I switched back to my old army pretty much last minute and painted like 5 miniatures and a car to augment my list (see my previous post, that's pretty much all I did).  In all honesty, this was the least amount of work I've ever put into prepping for a tournament.  At first, I kind of felt bad about it, but then I was like "Meh..... I'm lazy".  My expectations for how well I'd do was pretty low.  In fact, I went into my first game with the expectation I was going to get last place (which comes with a prize btw), so I set the bar pretty low.  Lets take a look at my army....

The theme of this tournament was 1943, so I decided to go with Operation Citadel (Battle of Kursk) list.  My options were extremely limited so I decided on 4 smaller units of regular troops (one LMG, 3 Assault Rifles, 3-4 rifles per unit), a pioneer unit with a flame thrower, sniper team, medium mortar team, flame thrower team, MMG team, rifle team, kubelwagen, Sdz half-track, and Panzer 4.  I tried to max out on order dice while keeping the units small but effective.  I maxed out at 14 order dice out of a possible max of 15.  That's a lot of order dice for me as I usually only take 11 to 12.  My regular units had 14-15 shots per unit per turn at full strength which can devastate a un-expecting opponent.  The Panzer 4 in my opinion is the best tank for the cost in the German army.  Great firepower, decent defense, and cheap point cost for what you're getting.  I think it beats out all other tanks available to the German army.  The two flame throwers gave my opponents something to think about as they could easily destroy any unit of infantry.  I like the bringing a small veteran pioneer unit w/flame thrower as it can really cause chaos on boards where firing arcs are a problem.  I like to make a point of keeping my single flame thrower team and the Kubelwagen in reserve, ready to strike when a tasty target got too close.  All in all, I had a pretty decent army going in.

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are some of the armies I took pictures of.  This is not all of them as some pictures I had didn't turn out that well.

This army took top painting.  Definitely deserving of the award

And here are some of the tables we played on.....

Now I didn't get pictures of all the tables or all the armies.  Shit happens.  This is just a smattering of some of what was there.  So how did I do?  Did I go down in a burning wreck like I previously predicted?

Well......

So yeah..... that happened.  Don't ask me how it happened, but it did.  Apparently Operation Sting 2017 was not good day for the Axis as I ended up taking top Axis General.  The top 6 spots went to allied players while I squeaked ahead of the rest of the Axis pack by apparently taking 7th place.  I went 2-2-1 for my 5 games.  About a 50% average.  The two games I lost were both against the top general overall and the top allied general.  I was out-played, out-matched, and my dice abandoned me for both of those games.  However, even in defeat I managed to get max points by making sure my secret objectives were achieved.  I think that's what put me ahead for the Axis as I was able to secure 10 points even in defeat while achieving max points (25) in victory. 

My army performed pretty well overall.  I'd change a few things like taking out the rifle team (garbage) and maybe adding a medic.  I had a lot of trouble with other tanks as I had to commit my Panzer 4 to a tank battle instead of mowing units down and just causing general carnage to my opponents army.  I think adding some heavy artillery would counter this problem.  Air strikes were still a problem, so maybe some more flak would help to counter it.  Building an army for tournament play in general is difficult in the sense that you don't know what you're going to be playing against, so you have to build a one-size-fits-all kind of army.  It's pretty much like that in any game you play tournaments for.

So all in all, Operation Sting 2017 was a lot of fun.  Lots of highs, a few lows, and an unexpected trophy.