6/29/2017

One Done, One Started, and a New Begining

So the 2 Battalions of the 8th Donegal Guard are now completed.  I finished basing the last company yesterday which was 1st Battalion's C Company.
C Company
First Lance
    Captain Octavius Kreuger, Griffin
    1st Lt. Nicole Summers, Valkyrie
    Reginald Fisher, Valkyrie
    Zachary Danvers, Jenner
Second Lance
    2nd Lt. Rebecca Norman, Panther
    Abigail Osborne, Panther
    Dylan Baines, Javelin
    Crystal Walker, Javelin
Third Lance
    2nd Lt. Victor Hamilton, Dervish
    Timothy Wilkes, Whitworth
    Sharon Kilralry, Whitworth
    Darius Barnes, Whitworth
And here is the completed force all together.  This should make a nice unit for defending or attacking in urban or built up areas.  It's been a fun unit to complete and I'm happy with how they all came out.  Now since this gives me 2 units of Steiners now, the other being my two lances of 20th Arcturan Guard, next up will be a Davion militia unit to eat up most of the pile of unused BattleTech minis.  To take a break from the mechs I've been painting, armored units will be up first.  The unit will be from Caselton which is in the coreward tip of the Federated Suns.  It will be again 2 Battalions but only will have 1 company of mechs with the rest all being tanks or mechanized infantry.
This is the first 3 lances being worked on.  The Pack Rat lance still needs their windows painted silver and then another layer of red before they get based.  I think the color scheme makes it pretty easy to identify them as Davion militia so we'll see how they come out.  I know Cheef will like this unit as they're going to have a lance of UrbanMechs in it.

Also I got to make a trip to a nearby game store, not the Hobby Town I normally go up to, and got my first game of 8th Edition 40K in.  Like every good blogger, I didn't take a single picture.  It went a little slow with lots of looking at books but all in all I like it.  Most of the time looking in the books was where we were use to older editions and trying to find rules that are no longer there.  I'll need a few more games to really get use to it, but first impressions are favorable for sure.

So that's all for now and I'll see you all next time.

6/26/2017

More Donegal Guard

 So made some progress on my 8th Donegal Guard.  I finished the 1st Battalion's command lance and then 2nd Battalion's F Company.  I'm off work tomorrow so planning on getting the whole group so far with a clear coat layer to finish them off.
 
1st Battalion
Command Lance
    Major Curtis Westbrook, Awesome
    1st Lt. James Lannister, Black Knight
    2nd Lt. Matthew Green, Victor
    2nd Lt. Katherine Wright, Jagermech
F Company
First Lance
    Captain Jessica Dorsett, Atlas
    1st Lt. Oliver McGinely, Atlas
    Andrew Vortemann, Rifleman
    Eric Carson, Rifleman
Second Lance
    2nd Lt. Howard Anderson, Thug
    Erica Sullivan, Stalker
    Thomas Croft, Stalker
    Cordelia Somners, Stalker
Third Lance
    2nd Lt. Edward Hathaway, Griffin
    Walther Zeiss, Griffin
    Lise Dorsch, Wolverine
    Heinrich Weiss, Wolverine

This just leaves 1st Battalion's C Company left to paint and base.  I should be able to have them done by the end of the week.  I've also got the Primaris Marines from the new 40K Starter Box to assemble as well as a Militia Unit for BattleTech to get painted.  All in all, more than enough hobby stuff to do, but we're crossing things off the list and making progress so it's all good.

Also, it looks like I'll be getting in 1K points game of 8th Edition 40K this coming Saturday night.  Cheef and I are both looking forward to taking the rules on a test drive and I'm hoping to have my list finalized in the next couple days.  I briefly considered breaking out the Knight, but no, would much rather keep it a fun casual game since we'll both be on our first game of 8th.  We'll see how it goes and I'll try to remember to take pics of the game.

That's all for now and I'll see you all next time.

6/16/2017

Donegal Guard Progress

So taking advantage of being on vacation, I continued to make some progress on the 8th Donegal Guard.  The unit is coming along nicely but I'm now not only out of my base paint but also my autumn flocking for the bases.  So while I go back to work tomorrow, I'm off Sunday and will be making a quick run up to the Hobby Town for these while I'm there picking up my 40K 8th Edition pre-orders.

First up is 1st Battalion's Company B.  This is a pretty nasty company of close in fighters that will do a lot of damage from ambush positions in an urban area.  Nothing like hitting an enemy mech with a hatchet then luring it around the corner to get shot by a Hunchback while Firestarters keep enemy infantry from getting involved.
B Company
First Lance
    Captain Danae Adams, Hatchetman
    1st Lt. Paula Matthews, Hunchback
    Xavier Stoughton,  Hunchback
    Kevin Barrows, Wasp
Second Lance
    2nd Lt. Peter Laerniss, Hatchetman
    Scott Hayes, Hatchetman
    Oliva Webster, Hatchetman
    Edmund Fitzhugh, Hatchetman
Third Lance
    2nd Lt. Ian Coleman, Shadowhawk
    Catelyn Hale, Shadowhawk
    Jennifer Squires, Firestarter
    Richard Groebben, Firestarter

After that is 2nd Battalion's E Company.  This is a bit more of an assault company though the 2nd Lance is quite maneuverable.
E Company
First Lance
    Captain Ingrid Lowenstein, Orion
    1st Lt. Bryan Mallister, Warhammer
    William Gibson, Warhammer
    Melissa Rabens, Warhammer
Second Lance
    2nd Lt. Ian MacIntyre, Flashman
    Clarissa Waterford, Grasshopper
    Eric MacAllister, Grasshopper
    Wendi Loomis, Grasshopper
Third Lance
    2nd Lt. Nicholas Warrington, Battlemaster
    Mark Immelman, Archer
    Simone Hawthorne, Exterminator
    Howard Laitnier, Exterminator

So that has 4 Companies and 1 Battalion command lance completed.  I should be able to have the other two companies and the 2nd command lance done by the end of next week hopefully.  After that I'll be starting on the militia unit to absorb the loose armor units as well as a small mech contingent that is primarily UrbanMechs and Commandos.
I've also been playing a good amount of World of Warships this week.  I've unlocked the Tier IV and V American Battleships and the Japanese Tier II and III Destroyers.  I'm having a lot of fun playing this even though the random matchmaking gets a little odd or quirky in some matches.

Well, that's all for now and I'll see you all next time.

6/13/2017

BattleTech Progress

So over the past couple months after 3 attempts at 2 different methods that I can not paint a white paint scheme.  So the idea for a ComGuard unit has been scrapped.  What I did instead is roll most of what was going to be in that unit over to join the Donegal Guard company that I did previously.

Now I had originally wanted to do the 6th Donegal Guard but I also can't pull off the Celtic knotwork, so we're doing the 8th Donegal instead.  I'm going to be doing the unit composition to reflect a more of an urban expertise in warfare, so there is going to be Hatchetmen, Firestarters, Hunchbacks, plenty of close quarters beasts.  There is also some ranged heavy hitters to punish enemy units moving into or out of the urban area as well.

So we've got the Battalion Command lance and D Company from the 2nd Battalion.  These are the ones that were done a while back.
2nd Battalion
Command Lance
    Major Jessica Epps, Atlas
    1st Lt. Tobin Hausmann, Zeus
    2nd Lt. Sarah Mayhew, Zeus
    2nd Lt. Vincent Conroy, Guillotine

D Company
1st Lance
    Captain Peter Fitzcairn, Battlemaster
    1st Lt. Sonja McTavish, Thunderbolt
    Joseph Hyde, Dragon
    Stephen St. Jaimes, Dragon

2nd Lance
    2nd Lt. Paul Kearns, Griffin
    Karen Tierny, Cicada
    James Bruce, Cidada
    Sean Ceirdwyn, Commando

3rd Lance
    2nd Lt. Andrew Fisher, Jaegermech
    Emily Bancroft, Trebuchet
    Reginald Beckett, Trebuchet
    Paul O'Sullivan, Blackjack

Now I've got another company, A Company of the 1st Battalion, complete as well.
A Company
First Lance
    Captain Geoffrey Harroldson, Archer
    1st Lt. Sarah Dorian, Quickdraw
    Sinclair Halstead, Quickdraw
    Clarissa Allenby, Dervish

Second Lance
    2nd Lt. Colleen Tavish, Crusader
    Rachael O'Connelly, Catapult
    Miroki Aioba, Catapult
    Michael Dunn, Trebuchet

Third Lance
    2nd Lt. Lloyd Paulson, Crusader
    Karen Owens, Catapult
    Phillip Tannerman, Catapult
    David Veerland, Trebuchet

I've got 3 more companies based coated in my main color for the unit, but there is another company and a battalion command lance that are on the waiting block due to running out of paint.  I'll be picking some up on Sunday when I run up to Johnson City to pick up my 8th Edition pre-order.  This unit is getting fall basing, and I think it goes well with the blue gray color of the mechs.  The vehicle portion of the former ComStar unit will be going into a militia unit to be assigned as support to the 8th Donegal Guard.

So that's what we have for now and I'll see you all next time.


6/06/2017

Finally Came To Blows

Well, I've been giving Neverness' Space Wolves grief for quite a while now about their chaos worshiping ways.  He of course has been less than amused by my commentary on them.  This past Sunday we finally set about sorting it all out on the table top though.  It was a 1,500 point game that was appropriately enough the Emperor's Will mission.
So I decided to run something different for me just to try and catch him off guard.  I took a chaplain in terminator armor and 5 TH/SS terminators in a Land Raider Redeemer, 2 ten man scout squads with cloaks and bolters, 2 Dreadnoughts with 2 twin linked Autocannons each, 3 five man Devastator Squads with 4 missile launchers each, and that was it.  No tac squads, no Ironclads, no Drop Pods, and no Sternguard.
He took a Librarian, some Wolf Terminators, a Long Fang group with missile launchers, 2 Grey Hunter squads with rhinos that they couldn't ride since the Sgts were in Term armor, a vindicator, a predator, and a vindicar assassin.  Really?  The constantly runs afoul of the Inquisition Wolves are consorting with imperial assassins?
It was a hard fought game that technically ended in a draw, but at the end I still had a viable force on the board while the Wolves had a rhino, 3/4s of a regular squad hiding behind a bunker, and then the assassin who was protecting the defenseless wolves.  So I'm taking a declared honorable win for both making Long Fangs flee off the board and Grey Hunters cower for their lives behind terrain.  I'm sure the Wolves will disagree and someday come to attempt another lesson.

But honestly it was a good fun game and a good way to see off 7th Edition.  I also got my name on the list for a new starter box set and the Empire Books 1 and 2.  I'm on vacation starting the 10th and am looking forward to spending a few days going through it all.  I really want to get my hands on the Primaris Marines, and especially that Dreadnought of theirs.  But it has cause me a small conundrum though.  I'm only half a Reserve Assault Company away from a full chapter so where to fit them in?  I'm hoping the fluff for them gives me the answer.  The previews have mentioned new chapters formed from the new Primaris marines so I just might be making a smalls successor chapter for the Lions.  I'll know for sure after I've read up on them.
And then lastly I made some progress on the Battletech Terrain.  I got the 5 storage tanks primed a nice metallic color and then put a black wash and then a sepia wash over them for a nice worn slightly rusted look.  They're now ready to toss down onto a table top as soon as I can manage to arrange a game.  I'll be trying to work on getting the rest of the terrain in progress done between this week and next as well.

So that's all for now, finally getting some more hobby stuff in and we'll see how things go.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time.