Infinity and Warsenal

 

For some reason and I really don’t know why, I have not posted to my blog in forever.  And somehow, I gained two followers?  Wow, thanks. 

So here is a little update as I need to post the final Stargrave campaign battle from the summer with my son but also need to get those images ready first.

My painting has tapered off a bit, but I have also gotten more into the Infinity/ Corvus Belli line of miniatures.  They are perfect for my 5 Parsecs game (need to get that back going too) and I generally just really dig the aesthetic and lore.  I’m not sure I will ever play the game though.

I also got a bit obsessed with cool sci fi cyberpunk-esque terrain and bought a bunch of Warsenal color printed buildings during last years Cybermonday sale (yup, a year ago) then some more in the summer and finally have it all built. 

So below are some of the mini’s I painted over the summer along with the buildings from Warsenal - 

Zoe and Pi-Well, Special Clockmakers Team

The backdrop is an image on my laptop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These guys are some bots I printed for a game I am playing with friends....Eclipse Phase.  These are supposed to be basic case-morphs.  

 

They are from Skull Forge Studios 

 

The Warsenal terrain looks really great on the table top and is easy to assemble.

 

Going to try to get the finaly Stargrave battle up this week, was a really fun one. 

Stargrave - The Derelict Warship

 This was actually game two in a summer campaign between me and my son.  Game one was a short brutal affair in an urban environment that was marked by some very bad die rolls by my son.  Wasn't sure if he would even be up for a game two....

But, here we were. Our crews leaving Nexus 9 at nearly the same time, and there coming out of warp in front of us, an ancient derelict spaceship....we immediately gathered our boarding crews.  Time was of the essence as sensors showed imminent reactor core meltdown was at hand...

Realizing that this has become a party each captain instructs their men to carefully but quickly proceed into the ship.

I was happy to use my 40k Into the Dark terrain for this, with a mix of Battle-systems and TinkerTurf crates.  Our crews are a mix of miniatures from 40k, Infinity and some random sci-fi mini's I had.

 

 

Captain Nikodemus and crew

 

Captain Oliver and gang
 

The crews fan out...all hatches and door ways are open upon entry...

Each captain leads part of his crew into a large central room and directs their first mates to take the remaining crew into smaller side rooms. 

And suddenly the ship lurches, ship systems coming alive and all the hatches and doorway suddenly slam shut scattering all nearby looters.....luckily no one was hurt.  Repair bots guarding each cache come alive and direct their attention nearby intruders.

Shots ring out as men engage the repair bots.  Each captain moves toward loot caches, also engaging repair bots that clearly have ill intent.

 

Captain Nik moves to engage a repair bot 

 Captain Nik's crew moves to open a loot cache.

 Nik takes his shot as his crewman opens the door, distracting the bot

 Captain Oliver directs his flamer to burn the heretic....oops wrong game...kill the bot!

 Nik's first mate hacks the terminal as a trooper takes out the repair bot, and suddenly a nearby exterior hatchway fails causing a sudden decompression.....the crew scrambles to hold on to anything they can grab as emergency shields come online and plug the hole.

 

 

Oliver's first mate radios in, "We have secured the loot sir, repair bot eliminated"

 

 Suddenly explosions ring out across the ship.  Captain Nik's Pathfinder is flung across the room, landing in an unconscious heap.  Captain Oliver's men somehow go unscathed....(literally six men avoided getting wounded by this blast that laid out Nik's man)

 Captain Oliver's sniper looks on in complete boredom....

 

Oliver looks down in contempt at a slain repair bot.

 

Suddenly alarm klaxons ring out...reactor core breach is imminent.  Count down has started.

Both Captains realize that there is no time to face off and fight for control of loot.  They must take what they have an leave.  Oliver makes sure each of his crew men safely escapes before himself departs into the safety of his ship, Nik doing the same with his wound crewman over his shoulder. 

 

 

 That game was much fun.  The random event at the end of each round added a lot of flavor and I really like a countdown timer starting.  My son cleaned up on repair bot kills too.

Five Parsecs - Starfire Salvage Op

Episode 4

Took a while to play Turn 4.  We last left our crew having discovered a data stick on there recently deceased rival, Drave Spectre that also had coordinates to the derelict ship that Captain Voss had heard about as a possible salvage job.  And a crew of Unity Salvage Operators were on route also!

The crew departed Mirrorshard post haste to the edge of the system where they found the derelict vessel...a Science and Research vessel called the Aetherion Helix and registered to a Vita Synth Corp.  They docked and split into two teams of three with Voss leading Kai and Jax and Lyra "Hex" leading Rax and Ellias.  There was salvage to find and four points of interest that should lead to something interesting.

As they geared up Captain Voss told the crew, "Only pistols and shotguns...the ship is still pressurized with breathable air, I dont want any mishaps."

They made their way into the ship via rear hatchways.  Voss and her crew took to the port side and Hex took her crew starboard.   Very quickly Hex and company discovered some good salve and the first point of interest.  But it wasn't long before Rax's scanner went off along with the thud of another ship docking with the Aetherion Helix...

 The table was set up using a mix of Battlesystems Galactic Core and TinkerTurf industrial terrain on the map from Rogue Trader Kill Team.  40k Navy Breachers played the role of the Unity Salvage team. I did a terrible job not taking enough pictures.

 

Aetherion Helix layout

 

 Lyra "Hex" Tanis and her crew investigate the hanger and docking area.

 

Scanners go off as an exterior hatch is blown open - Unity Salvage team confront Captain "Starfire" Voss

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 Gunfire erupts, Voss takes two to the chest only to be saves by her luck and combat armor. She is knocked into one of the intruders and takes him out with her glare sword. Active ship systems turn to red after detecting gunfire.  Lyra tells her crew to move fast before more Unity agents board the ship.

 

Jax "Cypher" Morgan finds the quest data they are looking for in the still active view screen in the comms room. 

 

Scanners go off as more Unity agents board the port side of the ship.  A massive fire fight erupts as Voss and her team fight tooth and nails.  Lyra manages to make it to the bridge and recover they final bit of data they have been searching for.

 As the team fends of the Unity Savage unit all points of interests are located and data downloaded and the crew manage to escape back to the Starlight Vanguard.

The data that Jax downloaded provided one more clue to the quest they have found themselves on.  The were able to retrieve several nice pieces of salvage and Rax even found a box of Frakk Grenades!  And Lyra had a heart to heart with Captain Voss, thanking her for giving her the chance to lead a team and showing confidence in her abilities.

Onward to Nexus-9......

 

 

 

 

 

John Blanche Vol 1 & 2 by Army Painter...a new good thing.

 

Wanted to post a quick one as I had a very enjoyable experience with a new set of paints.

I like paint.  I have too many bottles of paint.  My miniature painting journey began many years ago and included Testor and Tamiya paints.  These were primarily for D&D and military models.  Think Ral Partha and Grenadier miniatures.  Years went by and I picked up painting again and used Reaper and Vallejo paints.  I had a few of the old screw cap Citadel paint pots, which were my prized paints but just a little too expensive for me at the time. 

Fast forward a few more years and one day my daughter and I were walking out of a bookstore only to spy a sign that said “Warhammer” and my life was changed forever.  Citadel seemed to have a paint for every occasion and color and the mini boxes even told you what to buy!

Not so long and a few spilled pots later I decided to see what else was out there.  I tried Scale75 and while they did have a bit of a learning curve, I was very pleased the results.  Then ProAcryl became all the rage and I bought quite a bit of those paints.  I will be honest, everyone loves them but I have had my issues, mainly some of the colors being very hydrophobic and lacking surface adhesion to the miniatures (looking at you greens).  But their white and off-white colors are pretty amazing.

And then the guy at the Warhammer store (no really) told me to try AK Interactive and those absolutely were THE paints.  To the point that all other have remained mostly unused except for terrain (well except Incubi Darkness and Abyssal Blue, those two are awesome!).  I will add, I do use quite a few Contrast and Instant paints from Citadel and Scale75 still.

But, I get bored, and I did have a few holes in my AK Collection.  And I kept seeing these John Blanche paints popping up here and there.

Now I admit, I have always avoided Army Painter as they seemed lower end (the pre Fanatic range that is) and by the time the new Fanatic range came out I was fully committed to AK.  But I bought a wash set and kind of liked them (although they can be a bit glossy if you don’t shake them enough).  But I resisted buying any of the new regular paints just based on reviews claiming they were very thick and had a satin finish (matte finish all the way for me!)

But….I just could not resist the John Blanche set.  Perfect for Trench Crusade, yeah?  And it pretty much has all the colors I like best and filled most of the holes in my decently large AK collection.  So, I bought Volume 1 with a credit I had on Amazon, started painting this guy and immediately ordered Volume 2!  Thank you for next day shipping (and no, my local store did not have one in stock unfortunately).

The paints remind me of the best of the best of Citadel.  They are thick, but that just was not a problem.  They are very smooth and creamy and mix very well, and they mix fine with my AK paints.

 

I did this miniature (kit bash from Wildercorp Hunters and Cities of Sigmar because I lost his original arm) using every trick I know.  Wet blending, dry brushing, used the washes (mainly on the belt and gloves and some pin lining) and even tried some NMM.  They did dry very satin, but I actually tried Scale75 Instant “Dispel Magic” medium mixed in them to dull them down a bit.  But in the end, that is what matte varnish is for, right?

Oh, and bonus, they were perfect still on my wet palette the next day, something I can not say about AK Interactive. 

Banshee Brown is a Rhinox Hide replacement and Bloodmoon red is basically contrast Blood Angels Red.  All the greens are amazing shades and well they are all pretty great colors and paints IMO.  The only exception was the Ivory White.  It was fine, but super thick and I honestly have much better off-whites and ivories in my collection so wasn’t wowed by it like I was the rest of the paints.  The only paints I did not use or mess with was the Fiery Vermillion and Heavy Metal.  But, these two seem to be favorites in several of the YouTube reviews I watched.  I just sort of ran out of miniature to paint.

Anyway, big thumbs up on these sets.  Will I but more Army Painter paints….I have no idea.  Are they a great value….I don’t know, paints have gone up and up in price so I am not sure.  But I am glad I have them.  I plan on using them exclusively on a Trench Crusade warband……should be perfect!