Zombie Hunter Jess

1st mini uploaded to the WAMP Hasslefree Competition - Zombie Hunter Jess. Never near a winning entry, but had fun painting her up. Being a pseudo one off entry I had a wee play with trying a theme base, hence the zombie hand stretching out from behind.

The whole thing was a learning experence again. Having altered my "style" (if you can call it such) a while ago to a tabletop quality the step up to painting a single figure in a fine painting comp is quite daunting/depressing. Made a muck of the face, as feared. My paints were far too thick, and I learned that undiluted GW Flash Wash is WAY to dark! All the other blending skills, etc are lacking, with areas still painted in a blotchy highlighted fashion more akin bold to "arms length" viewing.

No good close up, but looks fine from afar. I'd rate this whole thing as educational, fun and the end result I'm looking forward to putting her on the table for a game. So success.

I'm continuing on with a second mini (deadline still towards the end of September) to hopefully put into practice some of things I've learned on Jess...

SoBH Campaign Battle 4

Battlefield: Hill land
Weather: Heavy Rain
Scenario: Breakthrough
Defender: Dwarves

Forces:
(New additions/changes are shown in italics. Full stats are shown for new recruits)

Valgen Maests Warband (256pts)

• Valgen Maest: DWARF COMMANDER (88 Pts) XP: 3
• Falkaya Bloodsworn "Mrs Maest"  (32 Pts)  XP:2
• Falster Vonlyr: Elite Warrior (46 Pts) XP:3
• Squint Ironsights: Crossbowman (24 Pts) XP 2
• Rorr Burgarmash: Beastslayer (40 Pts) XP: 3

Johan's Beast Herd (356pts)

• Johan Tierpfleger: HUMAN LEADER (66 Pts) XP:0/3
  Acrobat
• Torgor: Beastman #1 (36 Pts)  XP:0/3
  Fearless
• Kragos:  Beastman  #2 (36 Pts)  XP:0/3
  Fearless
• Arax:  Beastman  #3 (36 Pts)  XP:0/3
  Fearless
• Sidern: Minotaur Warrior (58 Pts)  XP:0/3
  Fearless
• Jamwar: Young Minotaur (42 Pts)  XP:0/3
  Q3+
• Kodar the Cruel: Chaos Warrior (42 Pts)  XP:0/3
  Q3+
• Grimdur Gutwrencher: Chaos Dwarf (New Recruit) (40 Pts)  XP 0/0
  Q 3+, C 4, Short Move, Mutant

Setup:

With the hill land set up the Dwarves chose to hold the line mid table. The Beastmen set up on one side of the table.

The mud from the heavy rain made progress slow. Ideally the beastmen wanted to take advantage of their superior movement to get past the dwarven line, but they kept finding "1"s in their dice rolls and ended up slow and segmented.

With the beastmen going down one flank the dwarven line pivoted round. The Minotaur and heavily armoured Chaos Warrior led to try and hold the pass for their comrades to catch up and pass.

The beastmen tried to hold their ground, but an aimed shot from the dwarf crossbow knocked down the Chaos warrior, and the dwarve beast slayer squared up to the minotaur and knocked him down as well.

The Minotaur got back to it's feet and rejoined the affray with the beastslayer, but the Chaos Warrior failed to pull himself out the mud and Valgen moved into to finish him off, doing so with ease.

Full of confidence Thh Dwarven leader than took on the lone Mintaur. The ensuing battle between the two left Valgen on the ground, an a lowly beastman rushed down the hill to take advantage and slay the warband leader. The Grimdar the Chaos Dwarf came in to cover the straggling beastmen from the threat of the beastslayer on the hill.

Most dwarves stood steadfast as their leader fell. Only Mrs Valgen crunmbled on seeing her husband go to the sword. The Elite Warrior, Falser, looked to make amends and moved up to confront the opposing leader, Johan, but was beaten back. The Rorr The Beastslayer came down from the hill with a roar and dispatched the Chaos Dwarf in one swift move.

He then rushed in to help his comrade on the neighbouring slope, with his attack parried by his hooded foe. Things were looking bleak for the Human as he was confronted with the combined threat of two more powerful enemies.

But help came in the form of the young Mintaur. Will the beastslayer was distracted he dashed in and savagely gouged the dwarf.

The resulting loss of numbers and savage death caused the dwarves to falter and they fled to safety, leaving the beasts to go on their way.

Battle Result: Beastman Win.

Space Marine Reinforcements

Well with the hobby shed now committed to a Space Marine army I did what any frugal father would do and hit ebay. Managed to back a wee bargain for £36 all told:

1 x Spacemarine captain
1 x Spacemarine standard bearer
1 x Techmarine with power axe
1 x Spacemarine rhino
1 x Spacemarine bike
1 x Spacemarine land-speeder
3 x Spacemarine tactical squad
1 x Spacemarine devastator squad
1 x Spacemarine terminator squad
1 x Spacemarine commander (Master of the Ultramarines, Marneus Calgar)

by my rough calculations when combined with what we already have  this takes the point count well over 2000 pts (albeit very infantry heavy). I'm pretty sure that we'll be advised about the necessity of buying in some armour but we'll see. I've still to fully go through the box they came in and get all the arms back on the torsos. The figures would appear to be around mid 90's - especially as it came with a 2nd Ed Ultramarine Codex (which makes nice reading with the old mini's!)

Don't hold you're breath for them getting all painted mind you...

Quick Pipe Terrain

After seeing them in a few demo games ( in games online) I thought I'd have a bash at a couple of those "Sci-fi industrial zone underground vent pipe" thingies.
Materials used:

• uPVC Pipes bends
• Fibreboard (or your usual basing material - cardboard, mdf, etc)
• Hot glue gun (with glue sticks obviously)
• PVA glue
• sand/grit
• cheap matt black spray paint
• hobby paints

 

Picked up a couple of uPVC pipe bends at B&Q for £1.49 each. For basing I hacked off a couple of pieces from some fibre board I bought a while ago. Can't remember how much this stuff costs, but a I know a large board of it is just a few pounds (GBP). Wasn't too fussy about being exact as it they will be free standing, so the more irregular the better probably.

 

Sanded down the board edges to a slope and then got the hot glue gun out and glued the pieces together. 

Time to cover the bases before undercoating. A good covering of PVA glue and cover in sand/grit.

  

To save time in drying stages I then immediately spray painted the lot in a cheap matt black. Spraying meant that I didn't disturb the wet sand on the base and I'd only have to wait once to start the colour painting process.

  

Came back a couple of days later and all the sand/glue/paint was dry. Dry brush the pipes GW gunbolt metal and the bases a good brown. As a note here, something a lot of tutorial don't do is mention that you are probably best to try and match the base board/cover used on your gaming table. I use a sheet of brown leatherette as my cover so I've used a very brown base. You may prefer a grey landscape. Something I should have done with my rubble piles. I'll have to go back and sort that when I get time.

 

Give the pipes a wash the pipes with a colour to simulate rust and grime. Conventently I used used a watered down Miniature Paints paint called "Rust". Also the bases have a drybrush of a lighter brown.

 

The pipes were looking a bit too brown and blending in with the base, so another quick drybrush with boltgun metal, and a final drybrush with GW tanned flesh for the base.

Obviously you can add as much detail as you like, but I 've stopped at the basic level. Not bad for 2 sub 30 minute sessions.