Ultramarine Librarian

As promised, here is mini to match the picture in my last post. It has bits from multiple kits though the majority come from the Sanguinary Guard and Grey Knights but there are bits and pieces from the SM Command Squad as well as random dodads from the bits box.

The interesting thing is that after I finished painting this guy I counted the number of colours I used. All told it came to 26. I was shocked at the figure as I didnt realise that I had used that many. Granted some of the colours are only used in tiny amounts such as the yellow and orange on his gems but they are present.

A few comments. For some reason I couldnt get the camera to focus in as crisply as I would like. Also, his sword does not have an abnormally long hilt. As in the picture, his right hand is actually gripping the pommel stone

Lastly. this is my current work space. Since I have been unable to source a desk since the big trans-Atlantic move I have had to use my bathroom sink. Its not ideal and sitting sideways on the toilet is absolutely killing my back. Still, its better than nothing and has allowed me to get the job done plus you get the benifit of unlimited clean water.

Coming up.....

After too long its time to give 40k some love.

Here is a hint of whats in the works......

More Flames of War

In preperation for a Mid War campaign this spring I got my arse in gear and finished up painting the final models of my 1500 point Panzerkompanie.

My list looks like this:

HQ:

Panther D - 275

Combat Platoons:

4 x Panzer IV H with Schurzen - 680

3 x StuG G with shurzen - 525

1480 points

And the new models look like this:

StuG G's are from Battlefront. 2 are from the starter box and the command tank is from the Panzer Kanno box. Went with a minimal camo scheme in contrast to the Panzer IV's which are just covered.

The Panzer IV's are from the Plastic Soldier Company and are wonderful plastic kits. Very easy to put together and around half the price of the Battlefront ones. Only draw back is they dont have much customization on the sprue. No stowage etc which would have made them perfect.

World of Tanks

World of Tanks, for those who dont know, is a Capture the Flag-esk online game where you drive around in random teams in, you guessed it, tanks. Its might good fun and I have been playing pretty much everyday for the last 8 months.

Last night I played my 3000'th battle. Thats a whole lot of battles and a whole lot of time spent.

In that time I have destroyed 2318 enemies and in turn been destroyed 2238 times which means I kill more than I die. I have survived 768 battles and have a 47% win rate overall. Most kills in a game have been 7 which considering that there are 15 players a side is pretty good and I have achieved this twice.

I play using the German line and there have been some really good tanks and some real stinkers in there that I have had to grind through. One caveat though is that the tanks some time are not historically accurate in that they have upgrades that the real ones never did such as different turrets and guns. There are also tanks that only ever existed as blueprints or only made it to prototype.

My absolute favourite tanks is the JagdPanther.

This is a Tank Destroyer armed with a 8.8cm pak 43 L/71. I have played 524 matches with it and have 504 kills.

Next up is my little money maker. My Panzer IV.

This is a tier 5 medium armed with a 7.5cm Kwk 42 L / 70. A sniper of extordanary accuracy I have played this tank 430 times and have 371 kills.

Next is my 2nd favourite. The Tiger II.

Its a tier 8 brawler. With front armour that is very hard to get through I can really get into the thick of things and still come out on top. Armed with the 10.5cm Kwk 46 L/68 I have played 395 games with 332 kills.

And lastly is the new kid on the block. The E-75 which is fast becoming my favourite.

Based heavily on the Tiger 2 this tank never saw battle. The thing is a beast though I will say that at the start I almost rage quit with how poor it was. But with all its upgrades its an unstopable monster. Its the only tank I have which has positive kill ration greater than the games I have played. Armed with its monster 12.8cm Kwk 44 L/55 I have played a mere 196 games with it but have 218 kills. Its one of the tanks with 7 kills in a battle and is so tough that in one game it took 33 hits to destroy me.

So there we have it. A good fun game and I hope to play another 3000+ games :)

FOW Panther

I have been trying a new way of painting on the below Panther. Since I dont have an airbrush I was looking for a way to try and mimic the airbrush effect. Using a normal paintbrush ended up giving a camo that was too hard edged.

However, a combination of stippling, light drybrushing and layers of matt varnish have, I think, turned out a nice result.

I will say, however, that it does look a lot better than the photos would have you believe. The use of flash and being enlarged do not do it full justice. Thats not to say it's going to win awards but it does look nicer in person.

As promised

As promised yesterday I have taken some more and better photos of my recent activity.

First up, my Jager Gear. As I said yesterday this is just a test scheme but I have to say it came out beautifully and will be carried over with very few tweaks to the whole army once I have purchased it. The photos are quite dark though. He is a bit brighter in real life and the purple has less of a blue hue to it.

Next up is a closer view of my only completed Flames of War mini. A Tiger tank. I have left off the additional brown and green camo stripes as this vehicle is fresh from the factory and hasn't received them yet. (real reason is that I cant paint them on very well yet) It has suffered from some paint chipping during transit from the UK to the USA which I will touch up when I get all my paints out.

And lastly, the last 2 completed Tactical squads from my 2nd Company Ultramarines.This rounds out the full company which is also pictured.

 The above squad does have the full 10 guys, only noticed the one was out of shot after all the equipment was put away.

100 Space marines. 60 Tactical, 20 Assault marines and 20 Devastator marines.

Back in action

Its been a while but in my defense a lot has happened.

Biggest thing is that I moved across the Atlantic from the UK to the USA. North Carolina in fact. This has meant that there has been bugger all money for hobby. Even worse is that I don't have any area to paint so haven't even been able to paint us the back log.

Still, I have managed to get some hobby done. Played a few games of 40k but also a few games from other systems. I have had a few games of Battletech and Heavy Gear. I have also started collecting a Flames of War army.

Now, since no one wants to just read a text update I suppose I should throw in some pictures.

First, my FOW army. Going with Germans and currently have 10 tanks. Only 1 is painted up though the other 9 have all been basecoated. Will be adding infantry in the future. Just chose tanks so as to be able to get an army on the table as fast as possible.

My tank park. 3 StugIII's, 5 Panzer IVH's and a single Tiger (which is painted up).

Now this chap is a test Jager from Heavy Gear. Its a test colour scheme but it just looks spanky. Will be running an army from the Eastern Sun Emirates with Southern Republican Army support.

I am really liking the look of Heavy Gear. I like that it plays quite differently from 40k with stacked modifiers and objectives that are very different from the bog standard 40k stuff. I also think the minis are rather attractive and I also love the fact that its a low model count game.

Tomorrow, when there is better light and I am not so tired, I shall put up some more pics of the Gear and tanks. I shall also put up some photos of the 2 completed Tactical Squads that I mentioned in my last post. I now have the full 2nd Company Ultramarines.