The Great Bits Swap and Shop

So this past Saturday evening, the Johnson City crew had a bits swap night as part of the gaming.  I parted with a small ton of dark elf shields that I have no clue how I built up, a trio of Ravenors on the sprue,  and some FW empire bits.  What I gained however was this great little guy who will be joining my small growing group of chapter serfs ....

 

This epic landraider that Cheef had started converting into a cargo mule that I added a couple bits to finish off ....

 

And then finally, I got enough random bits, including a war buggy base, a basilisk gun shield, and a quartet of lascannon sponson bits that I combined a dreadnought arm bit and a firestorm armada bit to turn into a scratch built rapier platform.  It's a bit clunky looking but it'll do for now.

I like the way the little mule drone looks, so I'm going to be trying to acquire a few more epic landraiders to do similar conversions with.  I also managed to get two games in Saturday evening against Scott but between his dice somewhat not liking him and mine deciding they were going to be Ocean's Eleven hot.  He ended up conceding the first game at the end of Turn 4 with part of a tactical squad left and the second game saw him tabled going into Turn 5.  Both games were fun but lady luck was definitely being fickle in my favor that evening.

Up next is a Classic BattleTech Game against Murl this coming Saturday evening, and I'll try to get pictures this time for a proper battle report.

Relics and Honor Guard

The past few weeks I've been trading some models with Scott, one of the Johnson City crew at the FLGS, gaining some marine items and parting with some unused Orks and some Dark Angel bikers I'd got in a major eBay lot.  His Imperial Fist items that I got were nicely enough done up, that I had no desire to strip the paint from them.  Thus they have been re-purposed into the Lions of Harlech.

When the Lions of Harlech were founded, the Imperial Fists made sure that they received some chapter relics and equipment to ensure that the Lions started out well.  One of these was the Landraider Redeemer Faithful Purpose.  The Lions of Harlech carefully preserved this relic both to honor their progenitor chapter, the Imperial Fists, but to also as a statement of their intentions of honorable service.  When the Lions reconnected with the Imperium, one of the first emissaries they sent out was to the Imperial Fists.  It was a delegation from the Imperial Fists that helped establish that the Lions were still untainted from their long tenure apart.  Captain Shambliss of the Imperial Fists when he returned to his chapter spoke highly of the Lions and their still faithful care of the relics given to them by the Imperial Fists on the Lions' founding.  The Fists responded by sending an honor guard of two veteran squads to liaison with and work with the Lions in recognition of their faithful and honorable service.  Now the Faithful Purpose once more deploys for war representing both progenitor and successor.

The Faithful Purpose

Close up of some of the rituals detailed on the landraider

Another close up

One of the side sponsons

He did a nice effect on the glows highlighting different parts of the landraider

The two squads of Imperial Fists, his counts as Sternguard

Close up of the finished models

Close up of the veteran sgt leading the force

So that's the newest additions of the Forces of Cymru allied to the Lions of Harlech.  Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all next time.

A Spotter

So I got a Naval Artillery Observer assembled last evening.  This is 2nd Lt. Moden of the 4th Battalion of the Cymric Sub-Sector Battle Fleet 4th Naval Infantry Regiment.  He's an Imp Guard command squad adviser model with a Scion comm pack added.

But wait .... why would I need a spotter, and what is he spotting for?  Oh yes, this thing.

On the last trip up to Johnson City to play, I picked up this kit which I assembled last night and today.  I didn't add the little barrel cap bits for the Wyvern which allowed me to do a small trip so that I can slide the barrels in to use it as a Hydra as well. (Though the BattleTech enthusiast in me still wants to call it a Partisan.)

I'm happy with how well this kit goes together but I'll admit that for someone with thick stumpy fingers, the smaller and smaller bits that are closer and closer together on the GW sprues are starting to be an issue with me.  I'm using a razor knife more and more it seems to get bits off the sprues rather than the clippers I've used so long.

I still need to look into Basilisks and Manticores to properly outfit the heavy fire support part of the Regiment, but it's starting to take shape as a playable force.  Hopefully sometime this summer I'll get a game in with them.  That's all for now and as always, feel free to leave in input or suggestions in the comments.

Commisar

So just a newly built model today.  This is Commissar Vierziger.  It's a slight tweak of the Commissar plastic model.  I've used a left arm from the Scion sprue, added a parchment bit from the space marines, and a sternguard sheathed power sword to complete.  I like the dynamic pose that was the end result and it really looks like he's got a list of people to put down if they don't do their best and then some while he's extolling them forward.

Commissar Vierziger started his career at the Friesland Naval Academy headed for a career as a naval line officer, when he was noticed by a Lord Commissar presenting a guest lecture series.  He was subsequently transferred to the Schola Progenium on Newland where he finished his training as a Commissar.  He was then assigned to the Cymru Sub-Sector Fleet and has served with distinction ever since.  Vierziger's one odd quirk is one that seems to keep the men around him slightly off balance is his odd way in combat.  He seems to go into a sort of serene trance like state where his ability to cause death and destruction to the enemy takes over his normally stern demeanor.  His men will follow him into battle willingly, but more than a few admit that they do so fearfully as well.
 
I'm really happy with how this on came together and he'll be fun to get to lead a shore party not too far into the future I hope.  The fluff for him is still in a state of slight flux, I'm not 100% satisfied with it yet.  Something about it still seems a bit off.  Anyway, that's it for now and enjoy the quick new blog post until I see you next time.

Fortifications

So this blog is on the fortifications that have slowly been acquired.  So far there is a nice bunker piece that I got off of RTVortil and then a pair of Bastions that came from eBay at a very reasonable price.  I put in best offers on the Bastions and ended up getting them for $26 each which I think isn't a bad deal at all.  No idea what the final paint idea for these will be, but I'm sure I'll come up with something at some point.  I'm half thinking the blue that my marines have for their shoulder pads and then lighter metals and such to help blend into the ice and snow of their homeworld of Cymru.

I've also got a set of the trenches and strong points via the Martyrs set from a while back that RTVortil has been working on off and on.

The other terrain in the future is a Kickstarter I've gone in on.  It's by Impudent Mortals and they're doing both 15mm and 28mm terrain as part of the Kickstarter.  I've gone in to get some industrial 15mm terrain to use in Battletech.  The product all looks nice and they've got a scheduled delivery date of August so all in all not too bad.  Since it's all laser cut wood, the actual production shouldn't be an issue so I'm expecting this one to come in on time.  Cheef has a decent mix of paper buildings for Battletech but their definitely showing signs of wear so this mix of terrain will hopefully give a nice mix of terrain for these games in the future.

That's all for now.  Up next time will be an Imperial Fist relic Landraider for my Lions.

SBS Team

So I got my first squad of Scions assembled.  The Warrant Officer (Tempestor) got a power sword to go with his awesome overcoat.  The rest of the squad have their hotshot lasguns and I've included two of the salvo versions in the squad as well.  I'm styling my Scions as a type of SBS Team.  I haven't decided yet on what to call this force and I'm looking for ideas.  These are the highly trained squads of veteran armsmen in the Imperial Navy who back up the basic armsmen.

 

 

This squad will be part of Lt. Commander Joachim Steuben's 1st Infantry Battalion.  I'm planning on the organization (NOT the collection) to include 3 Companies of Regular Armsmen and 1 Company of the SBS Team equivalents.  The Warrant Officer is tentatively named Jack Scratchard following the naming convention I've started with this Regiment.  The blade made it pretty easy for me to go with that name for him.  Besides, who wouldn't want to be in a squad where the leader is nicknamed "Ripper Jack"?

I've always enjoyed the Slammer novels, so it's been enjoyable picking and reading back through the books to data mine for names for Regimental characters.  When I get around to making the Steuben character, I think it's going to be a lot of fun trying to get his ... presence to show itself in the model.  I'm going to building one more squad of these SBS guys because the models are just that neat looking.  I'm also going to be bit digging/buying for want of using up all the left over interesting bits still on the sprues.

That's all for this update and I'll see you all on the next go round.

Leman Russ

It's been a bit of a rough week or so, and thus I did not get to spend as much hobby time as I had wished.  I did however manage to get a Leman Russ assembled.  I've decided to base my Cymric Sub-Sector Battle Fleet 4th Naval Infantry Regiment roughly on David Drake's Hammer Slammers and thus this will be Lt. Commander Daniel Pritchard's command tank.  Organizationally, the Regiment will be under the leadership of Commander Alois Hammer, the 1st Battalion (Infantry) under Lt. Commander Joachim Steuben, 2nd Battalion (Infantry) under Lt. Commander Lucas Broglie, 3rd Battalion (Armored) under Lt. Commander Daniel Pritchard, and I'm still figuring out who to use for command of the 4th Battalion (Support).

This is just a standard Russ variant with battle cannon and lascannon.  I had planned on adding sponsons but the bits were being very uncooperative and so ended up being being tossed back into a bits box to preserve some of my sanity.

 

 

After this one I'd like to at least one if not two plasma based tanks to pair of with the tank destroyers.  That should give me a solid tank base line to build forces around.

This coming Saturday I'll be back up in Johnson City for some gaming and I believe I'll be playing against Skylar which should be fun as he seems to be still working his way into his own tactical style of things.  He's had some interesting Daemon lists so I'm looking forward to seeing what he brings.  I'm going to use this as an opportunity to bring some things I normally don't take in my lists so hopefully we'll both have an enjoyable game.

That's all until next time, Lions fans ....