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!

 

 

Five Parsecs From Home - Starfire Scoudrels and the Rival

 Episode 3 -

 After the successful mission assisting the VIP recover the "stolen" research for Biomorphix Corp the crew decided to relax and get ready to possibly leave Mirrorshroud on route to the recently discovered Salvage Job.  While exploring town, Kai received a message from an old hacker contact that there was a data-stick on Mirrorshroud and asked if she could retrieve it....one catch.  Her personal rival Drave Spectre was on route to intercept the data-stick.  Kai couldn't pass up the possibility to earn some credits from a old friend and get rid of her rival for good.  And as a bonus, she was told this was a known loot cache and therefore more to be found than just a data-stick.  Captain Voss agreed, but unfortunately Rax would have to set this one out as he was in the middle of prepping the Starlight Vanguard for dust off.  

The crew of now five, armed up and made way to the area where the cache was supposed to be found.  And they had it on good authority their Drave had hired some local Tech Gangers to provide some extra firepower. 

Drave Spectre (right) the Freelance Hacker and a Tech Gang Sharpshooter

 This was a pretty straight forward deployment with the enemy randomly placed on one edge of the table, which just so happened to be a pretty lucky spot for the Starfire Scoundrels.

 The mini's were all Infinity and the table was set up with a mix of BattleSystems, TinkerTurf and MicroArt Studio,

 

 Drave and his crew at the top with the Starfire Scoundrels on the bottom, equidistant to the loot cache.

The two crews move into position

Drave shows himself

First blood as Voss wheels into motion and takes down one of the gangers as Drave charges across the street towards the cache

A barrage of gunfire from the opposing rooftops echos through the streets.  In the end the tech ganger sharpshooter is down

Drave throws a smoke grenade, but Voss's cyber eye sees through the darkness and engages in melee.  They both hit and both do damage and both escape via a spent luck point

Drave literally runs right into Hex Tanis, and that is his end...

After taking out the final ganger and as the smoke clears, the Starfire Scoundrels look down over the fallen Drave Spectre.

 

Kai drops down and checks the loot cache...the datastick is there along with two damaged items - nano sludge and a motion tracker.  

The tech gangers have a set of Flex Armor and Drave's neural optimizer is "removed" from his skull.  Interestingly, he too has a data-stick and it contains a quest rumor involving the derelict salvage ship Voss has recently discovered.

The crew hastens back to the ship.  There may be other interested parties headed for the salvage job.  Rax has the ship ready, and hey! He sold 3 credits of cargo and got 2 more credits on the side while waiting for the crew to return.

The Starlight Vanguard  receives clearance to depart and the Starfire Scoundrels leave Mirrorshroud on route to the derelict vessel far out on the edge of the Nexus system.

 

 

Five Parsecs From Home - VIP Hacker down by the docks aka Turn two

 After loot and credits were divided from the job out to Research Station Delta the Starfire Scoundrels decided to stay and find more work.  First off, the crew was paid and 6 credits was paid towards the ship's debt.  The Captain and Kai went looking for more work while the rest of the crew went to trade and explore.  The captain was able to ascertain the location of an illegal salvage job on a derelict ship that had been left on the float at the edge of the system.  Kai was contacted by her government contact and offered a VIP protection job...an agent from the Biomorphix Corp needed discreet muscle while they retrieved some "stolen" research that was being stored in the space docks.  A 2 credit bonus and a fringe benefit - one implant installed on successful completion.  The only problem, the "stolen" research was due to be retrieved by the Blood Storm Mercs this turn!

 Rax and Ellias sold some cargo and found and sold some contraband, netting 4 credits!  Jax went exploring and found the local bounty board....Captain said we were about to clash with the Blood Storm Mercs and there was a bounty on one of them (random roll)

Hex spent her time running cover from potential rivals.

This mission would be gloomy with 9 inch visiblilty (very appropriate I thought) and we would be -1 to seize the inititive.  This was not going to be the cake walk the first mission was....

 

The small red container in the center it the VIP's objective.  We have to get him there and keep him secure for a full round.  The terrain is from the BattleSytems Galactic Core set and cargo containers from TinkerTurf Sci-fi Terrain.

 

Using the Infinity Operation Sandtrap JSA for Blood Storm Mercs.

The first round consisted of each group moving into position.  The crew split up with Rax taking to the roof with his marksman rifle and Ellias taking to cover and overwatch on the ground.  Kai and Hex moved with the VIP towards the objective.  The Captain and Jax made their way around and through the shipping container to try to flank the enemy.  Using the AI random movement tables the merc leader and specialist tried to flank, inadvetantly moving toward the Captain and Jax....

 

In round two the Captain and Jax spring from cover and take out the unsuspecting Merc leader and specialist.

 

Rax, who is supposed to be providing overwatch gets completly distracted by something shiny and wanders off...wtf.

 

The second group of mercs engages Kai and Hex who are protecting the VIP and both are hit and a story point was spent to keep Hex standing (which was crazy as she is the toughest in the group...I just didnt trust Kai to remain alone and Captain Voss and Jax were pretty far off).  

 

Kai does a mag dump and kills the bounty target.  Ellias can only shoot because of the muzzle flashes in the gloom but misses.  Rax where are you!

 

 

 

 

Round three starts with a hail of bullets taking out all the Mercs except the priority target who is hit and stunned.  Kai is stunned again!  The Captain and Jax move to engage next round.

Round three starts with a hail of bullets taking out all the Mercs except the priority target who is hit and stunned.  Kai is stunned again - twice before she can go and she is down!  The Captain and Jax move to engage next round.

 

 

Round four and Captain Voss and Hex charge into melee with the prioty target.  He fends them off and Hex only manages to beat him due to the +1 she gets due to his being stunned (Voss and Hex are +3 and +2 in combat with a boarding saber and ripper sword...that should not have been that hard!) and she cuts him in half with the ripper she picked up from the cultist from the previous job.

 

 

As the dust settled, the Biomorphix agent signals that all is good.  The Blood Storm Mercs were hit hard, but decide best not to take the Starfire Scoundrels and rivals.  Biomorphix is impressed and becomes a new patron and agree to implant the Captain with night sight.  We find a trinket, two broken weapons and loot some combat armor.  We pay 3 creds for another roll and gain a tracker sight.  Luckily Kai was just knocked out and will not require sick bay (roll of 87)

 

This was a tough battle and the crew gets together to relfect and takes it as a good learning opportunity and all gain +1 XP.  

Latter, Jax receives a message from home (+1 XP and quest).  Her rival is on Mirrorshroud and was also after the "stolen" Biomorphix research....maybe there is more to his story.....

 

 

Five Parsecs From Home - Mirrorshroud Campaign Turn One

 The crew of the Starlight Vanguard arrived to the moon of Mirrorshroud in the Nexus System on the hopes to make some quick credits.  Mirrorshroud is a habitable moon of the gas giant Nexus-3 and is enveloped in a thick, swirling layer of reflective dust that plays havoc with laser-based weaponry. There is also lack of starship services adds to the moon's isolation. Their original purpose here was a courier job originating from the orbital star-port found on Nexus -9.  Apparently the Starlight Vanguard wasn't up for the short journey and a required a few repairs before the crew could depart, the lack of services and lack of parts causing a bit of a delay.

While Rax was busy tinkering with the ship Captain Starfire Voss and Kai went looking for a quick job or two.  Kai eventually made contact with the local government via her patron Admiral Reyes.  Apparently a research outpost located in the Mirrorshroud out lands had not been heard from in some time.  The job was to make contact and deliver a encrypted data drive to the outpost.

A land transport was provided and the Starfire Scoundrels where on their way. As they exited town a brief message come into their comms from their government contact....a local water trader just sent them a message saying that they had passed by the Research Station last week on his normal trade route and was accosted by cultists (Mirrorshorud's remote location attracted strange cultists and criminals alike hiding from the law).  The trader told them he had to abort his normal stop at the research station for fear of being robbed or worse.

This was my very first time playing Five Parsecs from Home.  The Starfire Scoundrels are composed of miniatures from Infinity, the cultists are 40K Cultists and the terrain is the Battle Systems Outlands Delta Garrison along with some odds and ends from TinkerTurf

View of Research Station Delta from a short distance away.....nothing unusual but hard to tell in the weird swirling dust.  Wait, who or what are those figures milling around on that hab's rooftop...

Captain Starfire Voss tried all comms channels but none from the station made any response.  Then a crackling reply in a dry course voice "stay away whoever you are, this prize is for the Great One who cleanses all..."

"Lock and load" Starfire told her  crew, "looks like there's some cultists that need a lesson in manners."

 

 Aerial view, north on top.

 

As the crew made their way to the station, taking up positions of cover, the cultists likewise took to cover on the far side of the of the facility.  The central data-hub was pretty much out in the open and Jax and Hex moved over to the north side of the buildings, Ellias and Kai to the south while Starfire and Rax took up shooting positions on the eastern research building.

This combat was pretty slow and methodical with Captain Starfire dominating with her needle rifle and high combat skill.  Rax did pretty well with the Marksman rifle despite his + 0 skill rolls.  And Kai, Jax and Hex were able to gain the advantage of being on the roofs and made short work of those that sought cover.  The cultists were controlled with the random AI Variations tables in Compendium.  I also gave them a round of reinforcements. The Starfire Scoundrels did receive a few hits but none were taken down.

 

Jax and Hex trade shots with two crazed cultists

 

 

 Jax Morgan takes aim with her machine pistol

Kai "Ghost" Tanaka and Ellias "Tech" Thorne take out the final cultist

 

 

And when the dust finally settled, frightened but relieved researchers ventured forth and thanked the crew for saving them from the Cultists that had been trying to force their way into the facility for over a week.

 

Payment was good with a bonus bounty and a "shiny"object found.  And the researchers rewarded the crew with 3 pieces of scrap.  Having made new friends we received a story point and the Captain rolled and received a "Boosted" leg augment and a new shotgun. Later Kai and Voss had a heart to heart talk about the recent events and received +1 XP.

 

All and all a pretty great first turn.