Great recap Gits, looks like a hugely productive year!

Then it’s 156 pages of mad man rambling.

Lovely work Gitsplitta!

While I ponder what to do with the blog (and everyone's welcome to jump in with an opinion)... my Dakka "resolution" was to have more regular posts on this thread (substantial posts I mean). In keeping with that, I've spent a good part of my day hobbying in the hopes of having something interesting to show you.

Unfortunately today is... "repair the AdMech day"... which is the day where I take the various scattered bits of the spindly, fragile AdMech models and try to piece them back together, rebuild missing things and re-paint the rebuilds. Unfortunately this all means that, while I actually do feel like I've accomplished something at the end of the day... there's really nothing to show you as you've seen it all before. But, just for the record... so far I've...

- fixed several infiltrators, which seem particularly prone to breaking
- replaced the exact same foot pedal on two chicken-walkers
- re-did the pinning on one of my dune crawlers so the gun fits more securely
- pinned the lance on one of the chicken-walkers so it can convert between the assault and shooting configurations of the model
- painted the autocannon for said chicken-walker
- worked on three pluck-foam trays to better hold my models so they don't break apart so easily from rough travel
- watched a Gamera film I hadn't seen before

Still have a ways to go. Two complete arm re-builds are needed on two more of the infiltrators, then I'll have 4 arms total to re-paint.

Lastly, like all amateur mechanical projects... I have parts left over with no idea where they came from or where they go!


I hope to finish up all the repairs today leaving the next hobby night for working on something new... finishing up those two ork mekadreads!

Looking forward to that.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I have parts left over with no idea where they came from or where they go!

I hope to finish up all the repairs today leaving the next hobby night for working on something new... finishing up those two ork mekadreads!

The answer is pretty clear here. If there are mekadreads in progress, there are no spare parts. Just find a place to stick it on. Especially if it’s a dakka or choppy bit.

On the thread in general. There are some perks to being a massive thread. While a new user might be daunted by the size, the fact that it’s massive means it’s got something going on. Garbage does not run 500+ pages. People can start on the last page and backfill as needed. It should help if you keep the first page updated to help act as an on ramp.

Of course, a fresh start might stop it from eating posts.

Stick with this thread. It's got posts to help navigate, sure some things get lost in the warp but such is the nature of things and mending days are always good days!

Frankly, I've been following this thread since the relatively early days, and followed your other threads too, and the length even makes it intimidating for me to try and follow. No reason why a new thread can't have a link back to this one in the very first post.

Love this thread though I do, I'd find a new one easier to tackle and keep up with.

Great yearly recap.

As for thread: It was fairly sizeable when I joined and had no worries following along.
What's important is what's happening now, If I like what I see on the latest page or 2 I'll follow along from there. I'll browse the rest at a later date when I have time.

You have kept a tight ship about this blog though, with recaps and handy links. And it's very high up on the exalted list for a reason.

Probably best if you hear from someone new about this though.

Stellar recap, Gits!! What a productive year!

As far as new vs old thread... I mean i'd keep the old one, personally. Like H said, the most important things are whats happening in the last 2 pages, so the archives are really just for those madmen who want to binge some good old fashioned Gits Goodness!

wow gitz! what a great group of pictures!! My favorites are the purple Emporers children and that munistorum priest! Also the freight crates are awesome! Congrats on a super productive hobby year !

Although my humble blog is nothing compared to your I have noticed a downturn in traffic through it. Not sure if it is the time of year, my slackening off of progress or what.

I would personally keep this one going. I have rarely started following a thread from the very beginning and back track as needed or time allows.

Thanks for your comments guys. Really appreciate them. I must admit that I am reluctant to abandon the old girl... she's like an old friend I can call on whenever I'm in the need of a morale boost or a bit of comfort.


As promised, I'm trying to be more productive, so I managed to finish the first of the two ork mekadreads tonight. I think the yellow worked out well and is fairly close to paler yellows that nerdfest and Cam made for my other walkers. Hope you like it!



Got my photo booth and proper camera up and running again so the pic is better than most of what you've seen recently. I do miss Photoshop though. Got a new lap-top so perhaps I can load it on that for the future.

That's a lovely model Gits! Can't really help out concerning the thread (no set opinion either way), but with models like this, page count shouldn't matter IMO

Love the dread. Can we get a side by side with a Deff Dread?

Thanks guys. Nerdy pointed out that I'd forgotten to weather it. I'll do some mild speckling/rust on the yellow bits and a few scratches, that's about it. Just enough to make it look properly used.

@Archer: Sure. Will take care of it when I get home.

They're orks... they don't care about matching... only about dakka and crakkin!

Nice work through. The different way you layered your metal basecoats really comes through, but not in a distracting way.

That's a Nerdfest09 special treatment. It's become one of my absolute favorites due to it's simplicity and variability. Warm or cold, dirty or clean with whatever color influences you like. It's interesting that the yellow changes the tone of the piece though... bringing out some colors that were previously just lost in the mix.


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Comparison shot:


As you can see I did the weathering. Not happy with it at all but if I continue I'll just muck it up further. I'll take it as a lesson learned and try better on the next one.

I like the weathering mate. Very Orky!

Dread looks great Gitz, are you running the orks much or still battling it out with the Ad Mech?

Looking good, ties in nicely with the other walkers.

Thanks guys. I think I have too many small rust spots, but it looks OK I guess.

Right now I'm still running AdMech but I've been experimenting with the list as it's getting boring (like running old Tau... gun-lines can only provide so much entertainment value). I've added a small commander formation involving Greyfax (as I think she's fluffy and I've got an awesome Nerdfest-painted model) and a couple of primaris psychers so I can regain the psychic phase. Push comes to shove I can call them all primaris psychers and get them on the cheap. So far (one game with my son's Necrons) the one psycher who got into the mix was really important in helping to fend off an assault on my robots by a large group of wraiths. A couple of hefty smites when a long way. Have also found room for a pair of dragoons which gives me some nicely mobile assault capability.

Once I get the second mekadread finished I think I'll start fiddling around with orks again. Not sure if I'm too cranked up about competitive builds, but I'd love to field all my walkers in a big mob and just charge them willy-nilly across the table!

NIcely done! LOVE those ork dreads. The purplish hues on the metals and then the lens remind of me of damos painting,and i saw something above about his influence so that would be really awesome if his advice had such an effect on the outcome! It looks awesome!

Yeah bebop... that metal color is ALL Damo's advice. Funny that before the yellow it didn't look anywhere near that purple!

Yup no surprise, hes a master at those gritty metals and creating depth and interest. It carried to your own work beautifully! I love seeing that kind of effect when artists hip each other to different techniques! Its what its all about!

Looking grand lad. Maybe a hint of sepia on those yellows. Cant believe I am giving constructive criticism to the master.

You know what you need, a board or something to display this lot. I would be interested in an updated army pic of the admech as you are running them nowadays.

Next project!

Making a planet and moons for the BFG segment of the upcoming campaign. I'm in a press for time so the moons are just rocks... I might do a couple others that look like worlds (and are smaller in comparison with the planet).

Those moons are lovely.

M.

That is no moon...

Nice, the moons look like actual rocks. BTW, did you get in on the special 54th Birthday of the founder of Badger Airbrush. Monday only they were selling all of their airbrushes for $64 delivered to people who emailed Ken with the title Happy 54 Birthday .

Thanks wyfox. I actually read the lead-up fluff to the campaign and Kolosus is described as a nitrogen gas-giant... that screamed Neptune to me.



The moons are described in terms of their mineral wealth rather than habitability so I figured earth-moon looking moons would be OK. I'm working on two groups of asteroids at the moment. If all goes well they'll be done tonight.


I'll be honest, I've never been a fan of Badger. Probably wouldn't have participated even if I'd known about it.

Nice work on the planet and moons. Very effective.

I love that box. That is a really cool gift.

Managed to miss the BFG moons.. Some nice work you did there!

MOOOOOOONSSSS!!!!!!! Gitsplitta showed us his full moon! *giggle*

That's no moon, its a space stat... no wait, its a moon

Well, I promised regular updates so I'm going to try and make good on that. The main thing occupying my hobby time lately is that I'm involved in a 6-person 30k campaign that a friend of mine is running. We are however, not using GW's 7th edition rules, instead we're using fan-created 8th edition rules. There are 3 people per side... 3 marines and 3 Mechanicus, one of which is Dark Mechanicus. Mechanicus players are all using 8th edition rules & armies for simplicity's sake.

In short, the campaign takes place around a gas giant called Kolosus. Kolosus is ringed by hundreds of moons and moonlets that are rich in mineral wealth, which is why there is such a heavy Mechanicum presence in the area and why it is a point of conflict. Both sides desperately need the resources it holds. That's pretty much it. From that point on we arrange our own battles and develop our own story arcs, which my friend Lee then incorporates into the larger narrative (basically a book, similar to the black books of the Heresy series). Only two weeks in it has been great fun and as gamers are wont to do, the side narratives are spinning completely out of control (I'll explain later). OH, to keep things sane, no named characters are allowed in the campaign... they're all plenty busy elsewhere.

What I thought might be fun was to bring you guys along. Present... well, not really battle reports but little narrative-driven blurbs with photo support so those of you who don't have the luxury of living in an area with a lot of other 40k players can see what it's like. I have to write up narrative stuff for Lee anyway, so I might as well get some extra bandwidth out of all my work! It's actually been quite helpful as it's forced me to define some things about my AdMech that I would have never bothered to do otherwise... which in all honesty has been great fun.

Lets begin shall we? Oh, one more thing... I don't speak Mechanicum so please forgive me if I don't try to write machine language (or even pseudo machine language).



Prologue: The Battle of Diogenes Run

The planet Kolosus is surrounded by mineral rich orbital debris, asteroids and moons, The outer layers have been mined for millennia and as such are fairly depleted. The planet-side and interior debris is still rich in minerals, but navigating the debris field is very difficult and dangerous. There is an access point through the asteroids however where three moons (due to their stable orbits, physical size and gravity) form a permanent corridor to the planet and allow access to the inner parts of the debris field. The moons are collectively known as The Diogenes, named after an ancient Terran philosopher (one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy). The space between the moons was called The Diogenes Gap. Long before the Imperium established control over the area, The Gap was the home of raiders, pirates and the like which would prey on mining ships trying to get planet-side to mine the wealth of the system or, more likely, trying to return home with their hulls full of minerals and ores. The presence of the pirates was well known and among the miners, getting through the Diogenes became known as "Running the gap." Over time, the name of the gap was transformed into "Diogenes Run".

In M29.481, a Mechanicum fleet from the Tharsis Draconis Forge on Mars was sent on an official mission to take control of the Diogenes Run and set up a permanent, defended access point to the Kolosus planetary system. Since that time the Imperium has had control of access to the inner sphere where only officially sanctioned travel was permitted. This has allowed several Forges to set up relatively secure mining operations and has made this one of the most productive resource gathering nodes in the Imperium.



Chapter 1: Tharsis Daconis Forge

Tharsis Draconis Forge is one of the many forges on the Tharsis plateau near the equator in the western hemisphere of the red planet. It is located on Tharsus Tholus, a large shield volcano in the northern part of the Tharsis plateau. There are several forges on Tharsus Tholus, Each takes the "family name" Tharsus and adds their own "personal name"... in this case, Draconis. The forge has always been loyal to Mars and Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal, but the Dominus Prime of Kolosus operations, THX-1138 is a secret member of the Cult of the Omnissiah... thus when The Schism on Mars occurred, being cut off from his home forge he and his installation stayed true to The Emperor of Man,




THX-1138 contemplated the implications of the data stream. As dominus prime of the Tharsis Draconis Forge mining operation on Kolosus, the outbreak of civil war on Mars and the schism of the Astartes was an uncalculable shock. Did Tharsis Draconis Forge still exist? Had it stayed true to the Omnissiah or backed Horus? He hadn't been able to contact anyone outside of the system for months and he only knew of the heresy by intercepting transmissions from other Imperial (or former Imperial) sources. The latter was worrying, as he knew that conflict was not far away. He also knew that there were other Forge representatives in the Kolosus system. Where did their loyalties lie?



If conflict comes, we'll be ready. THX-1138 thought. The Forge had committed a large number of resources to this mining project and he had a fleet of four capital ships at his disposal, with authority to call in more if necessary. It occurred to him that he might be in a more defensible position than even his home forge. His musings and calculations over for the moment, THX-1138 turned to his subordinate SEN-5241.. "We must secure the mining base." he canted in binaric. "Optomize the fleet's position for defense."

"Shall we cease mining operations Dominus?" replied SEN.

"No. The Omnissiah protects us only as long as we serve him faithfully. That means continuing our operation." said the Dominus.

"The Vibrante Draconus reports that the fleet is in position Dominus." reported SEN. "They are patrolling near the orbital station."

The Vibrante Draconus was his flagship... an Imperial battlecruiser. She lead three other cruisers... the Certatim Draconis, Iratus Draconis and Robrum Draconus. While far from a grand fleet, they were well captained and experienced it battle. They would serve him well.






Chapter 2: First Blood


Dominus Prime THX-1138’s concerns about getting dragged into the conflict between the forces of Warmaster Horus and the Emperor were well founded. No sooner had the Tharsis Draconis fleet re-deployed around the space station Diogenese than they were beset by forces of the Sons of Horus themselves. Luckily, the defensive nodes on the “sentinel moons” had detected the approaching fleet in time for the Tharsis Draconis fleet to react. The marine fleet’s flag ship accompanied by several cruisers filled with gene-altered space marines were quickly approaching from the opposite side of Kolosus.




Intercepted communications from the traitor fleet indicated that they intended to seize the station rather than destroy it in order to take control of the defensive network of moons and orbital gun platforms. That would change their tactics and help to even the playing field. The Sons of Horus outgunned the Draconis forces, but the defenders had the station and a variety of guns throughout the defensive network. That would also even the odds. The Warmaster's fleet split around Kolosus in a pincer action. Two cruisers accompanied the battleship Tyrant's End, while two more swung around the opposite side of the planet.




Luckily for the Draconis fleet, the cruisers Iratus Draconis and Robrum Draconis had just arrived near the two isolated cruisers.




On the other side of Kolosus, the situation was far more dire. The battlecruiser Vibrante Draconis and cruiser Certatim Draconis had taken up defensive positions near Diogenese Station and were facing the Tyrant's End and two cruiser escorts.




Shielding the Diogenese was of prime importance, and the two ships moved into position to repel the attack. They must prevent marine boarding parties from reaching the station.




The Iratus Draconis and Robrum Draconis, with the help of fire from the defensive batteries on the sentinel moons, disabled one of the enemy cruisers and caused the other to retreat, badly crippled.




The battle near the station was fierce. While the battleship remained untouched, one of her escorts was disabled and the other fled, badly damaged.




The Tyrant's End let loose her boarding parties and wisely withdrew as she was now alone vs. 4 fully functional cruisers, the station and the defensive network.




Two boarding parties made it to their target...

This is fantastic stuff gits! Nice read!

Great story and pics Gitz, looking forward to the next chapters!

Looking good! Will you be playing out the boarding action with space hulk?

Fluff-tastic. I love me a narrative campaign I do and pseudo-batreps are much more accessible to those of us who've fallen away from the GW-side of things

Chapter 3: The Incursion



Servo-skull surveillance images of the traitor legion, The Sons of Horus, conducting an incursion onto the Tharsis Draconis space station Diogenes. These have been digitally re-mastered so the event can be properly recorded by the cogitators in the Forge archives. Their target was the drone controller for the regional defense grid, marked here with a red arrow. The slow-moving drone needed to be protected from capture by the heretic legion else the regional defense access protocols could be downloaded and utilized by the Sons of Horus. Near the point of enemy embarkation, an emergency signal canted through the station's systems summoned all local combat units, with more on the way. This gave the marines a relatively short period to accomplish their goal. Bulkhead doors slammed shut around the sector, hindering the initial movement of the invaders.




Reavers reach the inner corridors, ready to rip apart any opposition.




Breachers are temporarily slowed by a bulkhead door.




Heavy bolters find an easier way into the main chamber.




The marines were allowed to move into a large, central chamber while the Draconis forces encircled them. As defensive units poured into the breach from all over the space station, the noose tightened on the traitors.




The trap was sprung and most of the heavy bolter squad was killed by a combination of rad gun fire and assault. One of the vanguard squads engaged the marines fully while the other held back to secure the southern passageway.




Skitari vangiard engage the Sons of Horus in hand to hand combat, sacrificing their lives to buy time for the drone controller to escape.




The commander of the assaulting forces was waylaid by a unit of infiltrators who had just finished eliminating the Sons of Horus Reavers.




The traitors came with in a few meters of succeeding in their mission, however the Mechanicum commander stepped in to stop the astartes.




Both routs to the servitor are covered. Though the boarding marines were able to open the passage south, there was too much distance between they and their quarry and the servitor scuttled out of site into the safety of the bowels of the space station. They knew Mechanicum forces would be arriving soon in numbers too vast to resist and fell back to their Thunderhawk.





Chapter 4 happens tonight. Chapter 5 is already played & pics are ready. Just want to finish this little story arc before I go on to something else.

Looks like you had an interesting game. Awaiting the next installment

This is a really neat campaign Gits. Great work on mixing the games up as well! I think the beginning focus on BFG was a great idea!

Thanks CK! Me too!



I have been doing a bit of painting as well. I needed a third primaris psycher as I've been fiddling around with adding a bit of psychic power to my army with a supreme command detachment. I just got 3 old-school metal psychers off e-bay, but in the interim I painted up this guy. I think he's supposed to be part of an Inquisitor's retinue... but he looks like a psycher to me, so I'm going with it!

I was really happy with the paint job until I looked at the close-up photograph. Gods... It does look good in hand though so I'll leave him be. I was actually trying this time... but I suppose the photo is probably 3x the magnification I can achieve with my Optivisor, so I shouldn't be surprised when it looks like crap on close examination. In essence... I can't even SEE this small, much less paint this small. I do have to laugh at this guys Dumbo-ears. I think his Mohawk needs a bit of touching up though.

That's a fascinating read and I really like how the previous battles forge the narrative for the ones to follow!

The psyker you've painted up is from the Hector Rex Retinue, there is an Astropath (Mystic), a Sword Bearer (Acolyte) and an Exorcist (Hierophant). So I believe he is a Mystic, but in this case is a solid choice for an imperial Psyker!

Don' t knock yourself down Gits, that's a very well-painted model.Is that a mohawk or a cable on his head? Towards the front, it looks like cable going into his skull.

Excellent story telling Gitz, these types of games are what I enjoy most about 40k. My only complaint is I could not join in on the campaign. Can’t wait for the next update. Don’t be to hard on yourself, I think the psyker looks very good.

Prologue: The Battle of Diogenes Run

The planet Kolosus is surrounded by mineral rich orbital debris, asteroids and moons, The outer layers have been mined for millennia and as such are fairly depleted. The planet-side and interior debris is still rich in minerals, but navigating the debris field is very difficult and dangerous.

There is an access point through the asteroids however where three moons (due to their stable orbits, physical size and gravity) form a permanent corridor to the planet and allow access to the inner parts of the debris field. The moons are collectively known as The Diogenes, named after an ancient Terran philosopher (one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy). The space between the moons was called The Diogenes Gap. Long before the Imperium established control over the area, The Gap was the home of raiders, pirates and the like which would prey on mining ships trying to get planet-side to mine the wealth of the system or, more likely, trying to return home with their hulls full of minerals and ores. The presence of the pirates was well known and among the miners, getting through the Diogenes became known as "Running the gap." Over time, the name of the gap was transformed into "Diogenes Run".

In M29.481, a Mechanicum fleet from the Tharsis Draconis Forge on Mars was sent on an official mission to take control of the Diogenes Run and set up a permanent, defended access point to the Kolosus planetary system. Since that time the Imperium has had control of access to the inner sphere where only officially sanctioned travel was permitted. This has allowed several Forges to set up relatively secure mining operations and has made this one of the most productive resource gathering nodes in the Imperium.

Awesome report.. nice way to sum up the campaign.

Sounds promising

Chapter 4: The Prize

"Destroy those derelict ships!" ordered the Dominus to second technician LAM-3111. Missiles arced out from multiple platforms and the first strike cruiser disappeared on a blossom of flame.

"Dominus, the second strike cruiser... designated "Sword of Truth", is much too close to the station for safe destruction. Exploding sections of the destroyed hull could pose a threat to Diogenese Station in spite of its void fields.

"Very well" replied the Dominus. "Scan the wreck for survivors and send a contingent of engineers and crew with appropriate protection over to her for reclamation. We'll add her to our fleet."

"Dominus, scans show only a few scattered life-signs aboard... no heavy assets evident."

"Good. Send in the reclamation team. OH, and you'd better send an astropath as well."



Overview of combat area on the strike cruiser Sword of Truth. Vital areas (engine control and navigation) are marked.



A Mechanicum force consisting most of technicians and engineers enters the ship from the starboard side near the navigation node. A unit of infiltrators and two small units of vanguard are assigned to clean up any space marine stragglers. They find themselves hemmed in by locked bulkhead doors.



The remaining Sons of Horus have their own plan. To do an emergency burn on the engines and ram the Mechanicum space station. They, like the Mechanicum... need control of both the engine and navigational nodes in order to accomplish their goal.



A dominus escorted by infiltrators make short work of the bulkhead doors and move swiftly down the hallway towards the engine access point.



The Astropath reaches the navigational node, only to see the chamber go up in a burst of flames as the ship slowly dies, killing several of the technicians and wounding himself!



The vanguard move out, expecting little resistance.



What the Mechanium did not foresee, was that one of those "scattered life signs" belonged to an ancient legionnaire in contemptor dreadnought armor. A god of death amongst so many sheep. The infiltrators through themselves against the monster in the hope of at least slowing him down.



With his escort slain, it is up to the Dominus to stem the tide.



A few technicians stand firm after witnessing the whole-sale slaughter of the Mechanicum elites at the hands of the monstrous god of war. If they can just buy enough time for the astropath to complete his linkage with the ships navigation...



Alas, no. The dreadnought... brother Cecil Longbottom... rounds the corner and effortlessly crushes the life out of the astropath.






Epilogue
written by Lee Zuener

Tharsis Draconis reclamation cohorts were sent to locate and retrieve the hull of the drifting astartes strike cruiser for refit. Shortly after breaching the hull of “Sword of Truth” one such cohort emitted a data burst containing fire control coordinates, evacuation protocols, and several pict captures. The Data burst did not contain the proper encryption protocols and so was not reviewed until. 4396388.M36. Approximately 53 minutes later the Wreck the “Sword of Truth” Ignited its engines and rammed its mangled prow into Diogenes Station. The stations armor was too thick to be breached by such an attack, but the sustained force pushed the it into the gravity well of the nearby moon. Both the station and the Sons of Hours vessel plunged into the atmosphere and detonated on contact with the surface.

It’s unclear if this result had been the plan of the Sons of Horus XIVth company from the start of the engagement or simply the last desperate act of the ships crew, but regardless its effectiveness cannot be denied. With the destruction of the chief defensive structure in Kolosus near space the forces of Tharsis Draconis were forced to persecute the war in a far less aggressive fashion and were opened to assault on orbital bodies in their possession.

Cecil Longbottom?

Very Sons of Horus.....

It's my revenge after having my entire army's butt kicked by a single figure.

I love that rep and photo's Gits! that's what I needed to get me back in the groove! that game looks so much fun and the armies and pics are awesome! a very tense and brutal conflict trying to wrest a victory!

What a great read Gitz, is your group going to continue the campaign or is this the last in the storyline?

Thats an ace read, I really like the narrative spin on the battles!

@nerdfest: It's all thanks to you brother. Without you, there's be no admech army to play.

@Yorkright: This is just one small section of the campaign, there are 5 other players doing their own narratives with each other... I'm just sharing mine.

@Knightley: Thanks! They're fun to do.

I have been painting. Update when I get a chance to take some decent pics.



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Proof that I've been doing some hobbying. First... added some transfers to a couple of EC figures. Bit out of practice so some of the transfer edges or centers are more visible than I'd like, but what's done is done.






Finished the second Bad Moon mekadread. Probably more piddling around I'll do on it for fun as time goes on... but it's at the "officially done" stage.




Got my 3 old-school Imperial psychers primed. Picked up a gizmo for holding the mini while you work on it. I like it. It also can stand on it's own so you can set it down and come back to it later. Not crazy expensive either. Color is a bit off the mark on this photo, the robe is actually purple however the base is dark blue and the top highlights are lighter purple mixed with light blue.

That tank looks stunning. The colours are so vibrant, and the transfers sit well. Great job, man.

At last, there he is, the return of the Gitsplitta.

The tank and dread are just so pretty, wonderful colours, transfers are subtle enough to finish them nicely. Inspiring work.

The Ork mekadread, is just magnificent, really fantastic work.

Oh and the batrep, the end there reminded me so much of Space Hulk, scared stiff of opening a door on a Chaos Dreadnought. Showing just how powerful these beasties are.

Thank you for sharing, wonderful stuff. more paint please.

Some lovely work on the tanks and the mekadread! Is that old night gobbo shield boss I spotted on his right shoudler? Cheeky Oh, and the batrep was great as well. That dread was a nifty surprise...

Nice work, Gits'.

A decal issue is just the universe pointing to where some weathering needs to be added. Is how I see it.

Had great fun at a little local tournament yesterday. Played a goofy ork army that ended up being pretty darn good. Won one, lost one, tied one. The loss was an especially brutal fight. I got tabled in turn 5 but I'd taken out most of my opponent's army by that time so his chaos marines were definitely bloodied. Cam, Nerdfest and I won "Best Painted" which allowed me to pick up a Demon Codex so I can start re-constituting my Halloween army. Did a quick read through and it looks like I shouldn't have any problem playing the demon elements. Need to get the Chaos Space Marine book now so I can assess the other part of the army. I'll have some pics from the tournament for you in a bit. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with the second Primaris Psycher. Love these old figures. Not sure how the color will turn out in the photo as his robes are really purple with blue undertones... however on my super-cheap lap top they look blue.

I think this guy is about to "peril"...

That is a fantastic expression on his face. Brilliant model, and fantastic paint job, really nice finish.

Ha, perfect little Psyker! I think you've nailed the eyes Gits, looks really shocked and intense as if he's seeing things not quite right, and I don't mean Hilary Clinton naked covered in oil sporting a shotgun while ice skating and singing god save the queen while shooting at flying Donald trump heads using hair for wings....

He looks like he just remembered that his anniversary was yesterday and that his wife was not, in fact, "fine" as previously claimed.

Psyker is looking suitably disturbed! Is there a specific reason the purity seal's seal on the staff isn't red?


@Whalemusic360: lol

Brilliant look to the psykers face!

Some pics from the tournament this weekend...

Best Painted: A collective effort - Cam, Nerdy, Rudy (blue dread) and I. People loved the display board.


Friend Brad getting his army on the table for our first game. Khorne.


Da orks stomping into the morning sun.


Skulltaker I think?


A fight broke out.


The scrum in T2... yes, T2.


Rudy's dread did good.


Orks wheel on the last demon unit. Luckily a unit of 20 bloodletters never showed up (special mission).

Looks really good. How did all those Dreads perform? In my own ork army I have 6 killa kans and 2 deff dreads and haven't managed to get them on the table for 8th edition yet.

The terrain is really nice. How did you go overall. Well done on the best painted to all those involved. Love the Blue dread, he is just too cool to conform.

Love that look on the psykers face, and over all paint job is brilliant. Looks like the orcs cleaned up on the daemons!

Nice batrep. Truly honoured to be mentioned among such brilliant peeps. Army does look good though.

How is the Morkanaught performing, just curious, would like to know for own reference.

Look forward to seeing some more.

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in answering... away on business.

@Archer: 1:1:1 All games very close, at least up to a certain key point where everything goes to heck for one side or the other. The dreads were awesome! If I had more of them I'd drop the kans and field more dreads... but I'm not about to spend another $150 on this army.

@Yorkright: Indeed. It was a pretty strong win. The high T of my army really blunted the effectiveness of a lot of his stuff. Also the fact that the 20 bloodletter unit never came on (however, if we'd have been able to continue to the point where they would auto-arrive, they would have been the only thing of his left & I don't think it would have made a difference overall.

@Cam: The Morkanaught kicks butt. Basically our Imperial Knight without taking up the SH slot. Lotsa dakka, fast, carries a unit. What's not to like?! Thank you Cam, he's a fantastic add to my army and the linchpin of this particular build!

 Gitsplitta wrote:


- fixed several infiltrators, which seem particularly prone to breaking

What's their Ld?

LOL

Looks like you had fun, and an interesting list to boot

Nice battle report. Can’t wit to read the rest.
@Whalemusic that was my thought, exactly!

Nice job on the Psyker.

Good to see models in their "natural" habitat.

Hi-ho!

Sorry I haven't been better at keeping my New-Year's resolution of more regular posts... but I also said they'd be quality and the last few weeks there's been very little time for hobbying and the needs of mundane life have taken precedence.

I did however, just start my second story arc in our 30k campaign. This time it's vs. World Eaters! That sounds like a bad match-up for a gun line army to me... does it sound like a bad match-up to you? In any case I humbly offer the first installment of the second conflict of the Tharsis Draconis Forge in the Death Moons of Kolosus campaign!



Book 2: "On the Menu"

Chapter 1:

With the dropping of the Tharsis Draconis Forge defensive grid, the Sons of Horus notified their World Eater allies that the Forge holdings in the area were ripe for the picking. The World Eaters cared little for the holdings themselves, but a chance to wipe out Forge personnel was an opportunity not to be missed. A concentration of Mechanicum elements near what appeared to be an archeological excavation at an old fortress was identified as a prime target and an assault force was dispatched. Three mobile infantry elements were sent in two rhinos and a mighty land raider Spartan. More than enough they reasoned, to handle a bunch of archeologists.


Judging that the dig site was indefensible, the Mechanicum forces fell back in order to put as much distance between them and the World Eaters as possible.




A pair of kastellans took of position in a ruin overlooking the dig site.




Tech Priest Dominus THX-1138 and a group of psychers occupy the ruin's lower level to support the troops around them.




The World Eaters moved up quickly and their opening volley wiped out a unit of skitarii vanguard and took a group of heavy plasma servitors down to one, wounded member.




The constant thrumming and pulsating of the dunecrawlers' neutron lasers heralded the end of tactical efficiency for the land raider Spartan, reducing it to minimal functionality almost immediately. This strung out the World Eaters assault forces, potentially reducing the impact of their charge when it came.




World Eater devastators moved into position behind a short wall and rained fire onto the Tharsis Draconis kastellans and dune crawlers. Two of these legionaries would later die from shots reflected by the robots' energy fields.




The crippled land raider fell behind as the assault continued, leaving the rhinos vulnerable to concentrated fire from the Mechanicum.




An attempted mugging of the devastators by Mechanicum infiltrators was foiled by the marine captain who slew the cyborgs out-of-hand. The action did however, take him out of the rest of the battle as there was no way he could reach the Mechanicum line.




The first World Eater rhino was taken down by dunecrawler fire and it's occupants rinsed away by the heavy phosphor blaster wielding kastellans. The crippling of the Spartan was leaving a bloody trail for the marines.




The second rhino was purged by neutron laser fire, leaving it's occupants just out of charge range. The land raider was now the lone armored support and conveyance for the World Eaters. It's 8 las cannons in combination with the devastator's fire took a horrible toll on the dunecrawlers over time, but damaged as it was, it could not... quite... destroy them.




"By the Emperor that was close!"




After seeing one of the kastellans ignore or reflect so many shots, Brother Simon decided that the safest place was in the ancient machine's presence.




Drogoons prepared to finish off the last surviving World Eater troops in assault, however they were beaten to the punch by members of the Astra Telepathica. An inglorious way for World Eaters to die... brains turned to mush and all.




Finally, with only their commanders and two devastators left alive, the order to fall back was given. The Tharsis Droconis Forge had won this day, but who can say what will happen tomorrow?




Epilogue:

In spite of the serious losses the World Eaters had suffered at the hands of the loyalist Mechanicum, they had succeeded in driving the Draconis away from the archeological site long enough to insert an elite combat team into the dig.

If the Draconis wanted their dig back... they were going to have to wrest it from the best the World Eaters had to offer.

To be continued...

Fun batrep! Looks like your force did very well - and the psykers seem a worthy addition

Thanks CK. In the two games I've played with them they haven't done a lot really... but I like having them on the table so I'm going to stick with them.

Excellent batrep. Lovely read. Both armies looking good.

I honestly thought the WE would munch up the skinny little robot people, but they are definitely tougher than they look. Good start bud.

Oh man, I really love these batreps! such an awesome story!

Busy day of building yesterday. Also got a campaign game in.

Ah more victims, um sorry, excellent more troops.

New unit of Killa Kan worshiping Eltecro Priests? Looking forward to some paint on these.

Primer goes on tonight, painting starts tomorrow!

New killa kan. #11 if anyone's counting.

A thing of beauty, wonderful to see.

Lovely use of washes on the metals, what really jumps out at me is the visor reminds me of the old school Cylons from the original Battle Star Galactica.

I've enjoyed your work for years and you never disappoint. The weathering is excellent, the gemming effects you use for lighting always works, your conversions are inspired and interesting. Thanks for sharing what you do, it's always worth the visit.

That's very kind of you guys to say, I appreciate it. Glad you noticed the Cylon thing... it's what I was going for. As with the mekadreads, I used Nerdfest09's general approach to doing the metal and a wink and a not to OSL. Can't go wrong by following a master.

@Skalk: Don't know what to say except "thank you". Really makes my day to know I can still turn out a good piece of work and that it's appreciated by such talented people as yourself. The encouragement you and others regularly provide is what keeps me going and has driven me to improve day after day.

Smashing kan you have there, Gits'.

lol whenever I return and post one of my bi-annual updates to my blog, I can always count on yours to be up 20 pages or so, you are constant as the northern star my friend

Glad to see you back Tom & really happy to see your work updated. Goliaths look great and I'm really excited to see what you do with that terrain!

As far as the thread goes... I'm trying to get back into the habit of providing regular content that's worth something. I don't have the productivity I used to have, but I think if I can be more disciplined there's no reason I can't be a more regular contributor of quality material again. Plus I get more models painted and have more things to play with. Win - win!


On to the Fulgrite Priests:

After hammering out that kan and 5 other scorchas, I decided to take a break from painting for an evening, but not from thinking. I stared at one of the Fulgrites for a while deciding how I was going to approach painting them. Not from a color perspective, more of a technical question.

I want to airbrush both the skin (top half of the model), and the skirts (bottom half). After a lot of thought, I think I'm going to do the top half first (which is counter-intuitive but I think the best decision) and then do the lower body. I've got a plan for doing this without masking that should still avoid any chances of overspray.

Might have some progress to show you tonight.

Fantastic weathering, especially around the teef.

My custom made trophy from our last local event. "Best Overall" which I think means I won!

Congrats Gitz! No battle shots? :-(

Congratulations bud, well done. Pics would be nice, but more importantly did you have fun?

Thing 2 had my phone all day because he forgot his army list and was using an Ap to keep track of his list, so no pics.

Gratz on the prize! Also, I totaly missed tha killa kan. Amazing work on the metals.Minor point of criticism: the blood looks a tad 'flat' to me, especially on the inside of the model. I'm pretty sure you can do better

CK: Fair enough. It's just the "Blood for the Blood God" effect paint. I'd forgotten to do an extra layer of black under part of it so there would be a couple of different shades. Too late to re-do it know, but I'll try and remember next time.

Spared no expense on that trophy!

Very cool that you have it.

Actually, the guy who does the trophy does it out of the kindness of his own heart (and walket) so that more of the entry fees can be turned back to the players in awards. I love my little hand made trophy!

Nice Job on Kan 11. I really love the Cylon look, too. It was definitely the first thing that stood out when I saw it.

Yup, Best Overall clearly can be interpreted as "best of all at everything" Congrats!

Thanks guys. First tournament I've ever won outright. Battle points weren't the main thing in this one, which is probably why I did so well.\

Last Killa Kan is on the painting desk. Airbrushed and washed. Long way to go but this looks like a good start to me.

They call him Mello-yello... looks good, lovely shading already. Make the legs blue and you've got a Minion there though

LOL! It's tempting! I've got some ideas that should make it entertaining no matter if I go the minion route or not.

He is a lovely shade of minion yellow, good call Graven.

Single eye, blue overall painted on... and a few hairs on top? Off to a good start!

Loverly yellow, cracking start.

Please use some of these, if only for 1 photo.

This must happen. Now I'm off to go find purple hair...

So... your emperor's children dread spawned killa kans?

Supply run! There's enough acreage of hair on this thing (supposed to be an Easter basket) that I'll have multiple attempts to get it just right!



If you're wondering why the sudden change from a normal minion... it's because of the "face" on that particular killa kan. Big chompy teeth doesn't seem appropriate for a regular minion, so I thought one of the purple minions would be a better fit.

Bwahahhahhaa!!!!

Yep, that's' the model I was looking at, was just having issues posting the pic for some reason.

The question is... do I leave the gob on or not? It does portray the protruding lower jaw pretty well but it does mess with the pill-shaped body. I may also need to get larger bobble eyes... though given the tiny pupils of the purple minions I'll probably have to remove the backing and paint the eyes in myself, just using the lenses for the goggles.

I think the gob will be fine once it's painted. Mutant Minions have some interesting features.

I'm so glad I planted this seed. Bad Moons for Gru and Death Skullz for El Macho - it must be done!

So... a mekboy or runtherd that looks like the boss in Despicable me might be in order too?

And of course a Mad Doc Nerfario

Progress got derailed by the need to do 5 orks for a tournament this weekend. Purple is airbrushed & washed and found a near limitless supply of good hair. Goggles are built and the hair here is just placed on top, I'll do the attachment properly when the time comes.

Love the "battle wagon" Skalk!

Sorry for the pic size, "GIMP 2" is NOT my friend.

Lush purple, you mad fool.

Purple people eater!

Still a long way to go. The goggles are built but will be added last as I'm sure the protective lacquer spray won't do the eyes any favors. Still need to build the main straps for the suspenders. After that it's blocking out the black, edge highlighting & detail painting.

I could cut lengths of hair from my source (basket) and try to glue them individually to the top of the head. I'm just not sure how that would go. I may have to experiment a bit ... though having the "rug" nailed or bolted down to the top of the kan would be a really amusing visual I think.

Ha Ha, Nice Gits', nice.

Very nice purple. Lovin'it

Hahah so good!

The resemblance is uncanny - I can't believe I never saw this before.

That#s a proper big hair squig on that guy.

Purple is always a good choice. and the airbrushing looks really smooth.

Hey guys. Took a few days off to re-charge and get a bit of playing in. Should get back to it this week. Thanks for the compliments!

@M0rdian: Well, the wash kind of took out any good airbrushing effects that were going on, but I needed it to get the color adjusted so it matched the hair better. I may give it a very light airbrushing just to get a bit of the gradient back before I attack the other colors.

Looking good.

Rest and recharging? Even better.

Hey folks! Sorry for no updates but I haven't had any time for hobbying lately. That being said I've got two games this weekend (one tonight and an Apoc game on Sunday). Hopefully will have some good pictures and stories to go with them for you.

More excitingly, we were FINALLY able to get DSL in our remote little part of the world. This means that I'll finally be able to do the video battle reports that I've wanted to do for years. Eliuj the Farseer (Wargamer Shawn on YouTube) is going to give me some basic lessons in filming, editing/producing and uploading videos to YouTube. I'm not sure exactly when I'll get the YouTube channel going (I mean it's there... but there's nothing on it), but I expect a few weeks yet before I have something worth posting. I'll let you know though. Would welcome your comments and feedback.

Looking forward to video. Always debating it myself, not for batreps though. I love your batreps and a vid can only take it to the next level. Here's hoping you have a great weekend.

Well. I'm off to sub IMMEDIATELY .

Channel name, please, so we can subscribe and set the notification bell on so we know when the first video is up!

Excellent! Gits videos, that'll be fun. Do you have a channel name yet? Like Gitstube? Or Tubespliita? Or YouGitsTube? Perhaps Great Internet Theater Stuff (GITS) for short.

No, we can do better, give me a minute.

Perhaps... Github?

I'll show myself out the door now.

Yeah, name of the channel, please. I don't watch many battle reports, but I'd love to proverbially hang out at your house. You know... in a non-creepy way.

Can't wait to see some bat reps Gitz, you should probably get some "famous" player in your local area to bring in their army. Make sure their stuff has at least 3 colors and are based, super competitive lists are a bit boring so none of that either. I will be subbing as soon as you let us know the channels name.

So... problem #1.

It appears I can't change the name of the channel without changing my google name across every platform I'm on, which I don't want to do. Is it possible to have a YouTube channel without tying it to a google account?

You could create a secondary google account, just for the channel.

I can do that? Hmmmm... I'll look into it.

You can also create a second YouTube account.

Like, I've got one I have my video-game let's plays on, with my internet handle, and one that's got my real name for professional stuff.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
I can do that? Hmmmm... I'll look into it.

It's not a social security number. Also, you already have one if you still have your dakka email account.

@WM - PM'd you. Thanks!




Haven't had much painting to show but I've been really busy playing for a change. No proper battle reports but I do have some pics for you.

This was the grand finale of the campaign I was telling you about earlier. My dominus... THX-1138 had gotten disgusted winning most of the battles but still loosing the war, so he swore allegiance to Horus and the Tharsis Draconus forge participated in a massive siege of walled city/fortress held by the Crimson Fists and Space Wolves.

There were 15,000 points on the battlefield. Our goal was to take down strongholds/bunkers behind the wall... their goal was to protect them. We had 3k more points, but they had the wall (20 wounds per section, T9, 3+ save) and they ability to bring 1k points of casualties back from reserve.

I fielded 3 knights and every unit of AdMech that I own save one. 4000 points even.

The layout... yes, that's 12 solid feet of wall!


The rebels struck first and dropped 3 wall sections. The Mechanicum's cerastis knight lancer shot quickly into the left breach in order to prevent any cohesive shoring up of the defenses.


The leftward breach from dead on. The amount of firepower the Son's of Horus had access to was formidable and they constituted the bulk of the rebel forces.


The rebel forces in front of the center breach were primarily there to contain whatever came out of the fortress, though there was a knight errant to provide a bit of punch in assault.


The knight lancer storms the hole in the wall, momentarily engaging some crimson fist marines. It would go on to gig several Space Wolf contemptor dreads and shoot and stomp a variety of marines. It was definitely hurt by the battle's end... but no doubt had done serious work. I can't wait to team this guy up with a pair of the new mini-knights. His invul is cc really makes him surprisingly durable and there are a couple of different strategems that are useful for all knights, but he seemed to particularly benefit from them. (rotate ion shields means he's got a 3+ invul in cc, and the other allows him to function as if he's not degraded)


I don't take 4 neutron laser crawlers very often... this battle was a good example why. When I used them to fire in-concert with one another, they simply obliterated whatever they were aiming at. They did something like 24 or more wounds to the main loyalist bastion in their last volley to destroy it and win the game. They are very spotty though. Turn 1 and 3 they were awesome... turn 2 they did exactly nothing. It all depends on how may shots (d3) that your roll, so just be aware that you can't *really* rely on them.


On the right the Crimson Fists filled the breach with a large unit of storm-shield terminators which were really tough to kill. This flank stalemated for a bit as the stalwart marines held off 3 units including a knight. Eventually though, they were defeated by a combination of knight stomps and (mostly) Khorne berserker-like SoH assault specialists. Unfortunately the gap in the wall exposed one of the bastions which eventually was hammered to the ground by incoming fire.


This is around the beginning of turn 2. Note the large blue super-heavy tank on the near right and the landraider spartain on the far end of the table are now both missing. Bit-o-revenge taken by the Crimson Fists.


Same shot, different angle. The Mechanicum "containment" units (heavy grav servitors and kastellan robots) did their job. Any infantry units or light vehicles that squoze out of the middle breach in the wall that weren't dealt with by assault were wiped away by gunfire. I took rangers with sniper rifles (2x arquebus per squad) and true to form they did nothing of note. That's why I don't spend the ton of points that it takes to buy them in normal games. I realize they are very popular but they've never been worth the points for me.


Critical event takes place when a SoH assault squad is able to occupy a ML-armed dev squad on top of the wall (right side of battlefield). Had they been left free to shoot they could have done major damage to our assets there (10 MLs are nothing to joke about).


Heroic dragoon is the only Mechancus model to get within a foot of the enemy (aside from the knights). He was very slowly losing to the chaplain, but we love him for trying. He returned home to a data-tape parade!




Epilogue:

THX-1138 was satisfied with the day's proceedings. The change in allegiance to Horus was a hard one but it did bring him into alignment with both his Forge's loyalties back on Mars and the Fabricator General. His misplaced faith in the Emperor of the Imperium had been shown to be fallacy as his armies and fleets were victorious time after time, yet at key points in the campaign things would mysteriously go awry and his position would weaken. The fact that in this case, the Forge's position had been secured with the final victory over the loyalists was all the justification he needed for the change.

The SECOND victory was far sweeter however... as revenge, well planned and executed should be. He had not forgiven the Son's of Horus for their destruction of his orbital space station at the beginning of the campaign and he intended to see the Legion's forces weakened to the point where they could not interfere with him again. While he had committed major forces to this last battle and they had fought unrestrained in order to help secure the victory for Horus... nearly all of the units provided were fire support. Their effort in the battle could not be questioned, but he had carefully crafted his forces to stay out of harms way as much as possible.

The battle had been won. The Son's of Horus were a very effective spear tip, but as a result took massive casualties. The Forge... well, the forge had lost exactly two individuals. Two rangers peeled off their hiding place by a fusillade of small arms fire. In effect, his forces were untouched. THX-1138 vaguely recalled an ancient battle out of Terran history. A place called Agincourt...

That looks like a truly epic battle! I'm always a fan of siege-style situations no matter the system or genre, you can always guarantee that a ton of cool stuff is going to happen as and when the walls are breached and you're going to get a real battle of attrition to the finish.

Awesome looking Apoc battle! Looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing it with us

That battle looked legit! Awesome pictures!

No just think, if Gitstube was up and running we could have had video to support the narrative as well

I took 3 videos actually, just cant figure out anything to do with them.

That looks like extremely good fun. Awesome to see. Thanks for the pics.

I think even a vid fly by, with voiceover would work here, probably better than a recorded blow by blow account.

That's exactly what I did, I just can't get the phone to do anything with it. Can you even post video directly to dakka?

No idea, does the phone not have an option to upload to Youtube, most do now. alternatively transfer it to your computer and send it that way, though I have never done video, my kids do it all the time. Must be easy then!

OK, figured out how to create a separate YouTube channel. Here it is. Nothing on it yet save the banner photo. I'll keep working on it.

Gitsapalooza

Sub'd and I love your batreps. I genuinely regret not playing 40k when I see your stuff.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
More excitingly, we were FINALLY able to get DSL in our remote little part of the world.

...what?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
I genuinely regret not playing 40k when I see your stuff.

join us

@graven: Thanks mate. I hope I can make a go of it. No idea what to do with a video camera or editing software. My goal is to tell a good story with a pretty table and models. I guess we'll see if I can pull it off.

@Skalk: I live in the boonies, so no cable or DSL... only satellite up to this point. That video (audio) is disturbing.

That does explain why I've seen you playing so much Destiny lately.

Yeppers. Can finally use the house internet rather than always having to use my phone as a hot spot.

That must have been a fun day of gaming, excellent photos and write up. Wish I could be more help on uploading the vids, good luck!

Gits, I work for an a/v software/hardware company. If you want help getting those videos pretty, I could use the practice.

--B.

Awesome batrep! (yes I'm lagging behind). And subbing to the youtube channel .

Dear followers of Gitspalooza:

It is very important to, when you subscribe, hit the little 'notification' bell. It triggers all sorts of stuff within Youtube's wacky programming.

Remember: Proper worship will awaken the Machine Spirit. Ring the bell.

Awaken the Machine Spirit

 Briancj wrote:
Gits, I work for an a/v software/hardware company. If you want help getting those videos pretty, I could use the practice.

--B.

That's very generous Brian and to be honest... my complete lack of experience handling videos is something that is holding me back (well... it has me dragging my feet mentally anyway. Since we got the good internet I haven't really had any time to do anything) I would LOVE to take you up on that. I'll be in touch by PM.

@Yorkright & CK: Thank you my friends.



Well, I'm kind of excited. My old gaming friend and college roommate is coming to visit for a long weekend. I took tomorrow off so I'm looking forwards to two full days of unbridled gaming. I'm planning on doing some filming as well, though I suspect it will be mainly for practice rather than something I actually intend to put on the channel. We're going to hang out, play, paint & I'll give him a lesson in my basing techniques.

For the last two days, Thing 2 and I have been working really hard to clean my gaming room/studio. It's been both wonderful and horribly depressing all at the same time. I've got a big room over the garage... tons of space. Unfortunately for a long time now it's been mired in the kind of organizational depravity here-to-fore reserved for troll lairs. Two days of us both working steadily and there are still piles of stuff lying around on the floor and trip-hazards everywhere. I just have too much stuff and even with a huge hobby room... just no place to put it all.

They're talking about a swap-day at one of our local FLGSs. I think I'm going to have to make some hard decisions about what I'm going to keep and what I'm going to let go. I've done that before actually and have been pretty happy having let go of 3 different armies... but it's clear a lot more needs to be done. It also doesn't help that every time the house gets cleaned frantically before someone's visit... anything that doesn't have an obvious "place" gets thrown into my game room. It also doesn't help that it serves as my office as well as housing a fairly large model train set.

The fun part though, is the re-discovery of all kinds of models that I'd forgotten about. My marines were scattered all over the place for example, so it allowed me to bring them all back together into their proper foam storage trays and get a lot of things repaired that had fallen apart over the years. I even found some rather big, showy kits that were in boxes buried under debris. Those boxes are now properly labeled and stored so that one day I might actually get to working on them.

I also found several "Mantis Maker" entries that competition participants had sent me and got them put into the display case where they should have been all along.

There's days worth of work yet to do on the studio/game room... but for the first time in a long time I'm making progress.

 Briancj wrote:
Dear followers of Gitspalooza:

It is very important to, when you subscribe, hit the little 'notification' bell. It triggers all sorts of stuff within Youtube's wacky programming.

Remember: Proper worship will awaken the Machine Spirit. Ring the bell.

Awaken the Machine Spirit

Typically one has content before doing said channel...

That said i look forward to said content with incredibly unreasonably high standards.

Glad you cleaned out the game room git. Sad it is still not clean. Do share your 48 hours of game time.

@cormandepanda: Please note I have not been begging for subscribers as I have yet to post one second of content. However, I am very grateful for the faith of those who have subscribed "on spec". Hope to make it worthwhile.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Please note I have not been begging for subscribers as I have yet to post one second of content. However, I am very grateful for the faith of those who have subscribed "on spec". Hope to make it worthwhile.

Always!

Did a bit of a re-paint of an old SoB mini for my friends Halloween-themed SoB army, "The Sisters of the Hallowed Word". This particular model has a very long history with my Mantis Warriors so it's really good to see her get a bit of fresh paint and be off to a good home. It's wasn't a complete re-paint (note the face is fairly basic), but I changed her to a primarily black & orange theme with green accents which looks really good (hard to tell from this angle, but I really like the overall effect).

Hey Gits ! I've never seen a "Halloween " themed army before , can it be used all year or just for Halloween????

Nice pumpkin. I want to say something smutty, but this is a family show.

Good job. Nice colour scheme. Would be interesting to see a reversed theme too... *checks own shelf" No not that before myself...

The cloak came out really well in the back, unfortunately the model's in Iowa now so there's no taking a second pic.

Been playing a LOT of 40k helping my youngest to get ready for Adepticon. Man he's got his Nid list down. He actually had to back it way off because he kept winning the game in half-a-turn (i.e. he'd get the first player turn & after he was done there was no point in going on with the game).

Otherwise it's prep for Adepticon. Finished turning an old CD into a base for a Dune Crawler and am in the process of decorating the bases on the Reaver. Nothing fancy for the titan bases, just round dune-crawler bases (which is why my Dune Crawlers are having to make due with CDs for now). Been staring at the titan trying to figure out how to attach the arms. My magnets never came in so now I'm contemplating some kind of pin arrangement.

Also trying to decide how much crap to bring with me. I usually like to bring a couple of different armies for pick-up games, but they've been so hard to arrange (pick-up games I mean) that I think I'll just bring the AdMech. It's the army I know best anyway.

I did figure out that I can run an entire brigade at just 1500 points, which is pretty cool. It isn't super toothy... but it's not bad and I've got command points to throw around like nobody's business.

I know this isn't an exciting photo but it does show I'm working. As previously mentioned, I used my last two dune crawler bases to expand the footprint of the "Deus Ex Machina" to make it a bit more stable. I intend to have this beast see the table as much as possible (as a set-piece for battles if not actually participating in them) and as such, the huge bases you usually see titans mounted on create too much of a problem when it comes to how the titan interacts with terrain and other units. So I decided to do a simple rounded expansion of each foot which should improve it's stability considerably. What I'd really like is a plastic version of the carapace missile-launcher as the resin blob adds a huge amount of weight to the very top of the model, greatly decreasing it's stability.



With a bit of luck, I should finish these bases up tonight and then all I have to do is get the arms/guns mounted... shoot me now.


I've got my armies selected for the event. Just bringing AdMech this year as I've already got to drag along the titan and my knights. Thanks to Nerdfest09 who finished my last dragoon (chicken-walker), I can now field a full brigade and was delighted to discover that I can do so with only 1500 points (and it's decent.... no robots at 1500, but still decent). I like the fluffiness of the brigade and the fact that I can throw CP around with reckless abandon is a very entertaining. I I'll have iterations of my army from 1000 points on up, though since I've been using the battlescribe Ap I can reliably build lists on-the-fly with no need for printing out anything. Man I love that!

More later!

Wow Gitz the detail on those legs are great. The colors work really well together as well.

The reaver legs are really attractive. I hope to see the rest of the model eventually.

I have faith you would do a good channel.

Imo the robots are really meh in admech. Dune crawlwes are amazing. Enjoy adepticon.

schank23 wrote:Wow Gitz the detail on those legs are great. The colors work really well together as well.

They are. That was painted by Nerdfest09 by-the-way. I'm just the sugar-daddy who paid for it!

cormadepanda wrote:The reaver legs are really attractive. I hope to see the rest of the model eventually.

I have faith you would do a good channel.

Imo the robots are really meh in admech. Dune crawlwes are amazing. Enjoy adepticon.

Ask and ye shall receive!




OH, and the magnets for the arms just came in. Yippie!! I'm saved!

Well, I'm all packed for Adepticon as is Thing 2. I feel like I should be doing something as I don't have to leave for 2 days. Feels odd not to be scrambling to finish something.

A few shots... the colors are a bit screwy, missing my regular graphics software which handled the variation quite easily (one of my photo lights broke so things are a bit inconsistent).

First, my 2k AdMech battalion. Not doing anything official with this, it's just for pick-ups.


Next, my titans. The Deus Ex Machina with her arms finally attached. Ended up pinning them because the magnets didn't show up until today.


Last, a glamor shot of the Deus Ex next to my favorite bits of terrain. You can see why I like the small bases, makes her much more playable.


Have the night off from regular responsibilities... might dig out an actual tech priest figure and see if I can't get it whipped together in time to take it with me.

Looks mighty fine! Now go kick bottom!

Thanks graven!

Trying to quickly throw together a proper Tech Priest for my army. Will add some gold and a couple of more colors (and basing) and I think I'll call it done enough. Blending is a bit crude at this magnification but at tabletop view it'll look fine. I actually feel better painting something at the last minute... feels more like Adepticon now.

Lol looks great. Yeah, I feel your pain about over magnified blending :/

Looking great, that Titan is breathtaking.

Now you see there is the difference between Tabletop and Showcase right there in a nutshell. You have done an excellent job on the Techpriest, but at super zoomed in it is a bit "OK". Where as a Showcase model should look good under a microscope.

By the time you base him up and add the final details he will be superb.

Hope you have a really great time bud, wish I was there with you. Have to settle for living vicariously as usual.

 Camkierhi wrote:
Hope you have a really great time bud, wish I was there with you. Have to settle for living vicariously as usual.

Vicariously is the only way I’m likely to ever get to adeptecon myself. I’ll just have to settle for pinning my hopes and dreams on those who can attend.

--

Good luck! Go forth and crush all who oppose you. And have a little fun while you are doing so. Don’t forget to take plenty of pictures. A big part of the hobby is watching two well painted armies clash, and you always bring that to the table. Find the best painted guy out there and challenge him. Paint for the paint god!

LOL! Nev, I think I love you!

I will most assuredly have a great time and will take lots of pictures. The kicking butt I can't promise but I will certainly do my best. Will be taking a laptop with me this year so should be able to do daily updates. Plan on seeing a final pic of the priest tonight. Until then... party on Garth!

Ad mech and Titans, quite the theme going on this year for Adepticon. Looking forward to seeing pics from your games, have a great time if I don't see you there.

Here's the finished tech priest enginseer. Looks like a blob of wash was allowed to form on his right cheek, but I think I'll keep it there... gives the impression of a scrape or cut he might have gotten in battle. Not a great paint job... but good I think and looks good "in hand". Kind of fun to whip something out on impulse that I'll end up using all weekend. I will re-visit him after Adepticon to get some white stripes and crenelations on the hood and perhaps the cloak too.

He looks good Gitz and will blend in just fine with the rest of your Ad Mech.

Great work even for a quick model! Good luck at Adepticon this year brother!

Thanks Azalle! Wishing you were here with us!



First Adepticon report. Sorry, no pics yet. I actually didn't take any... just wandered around shopping and looking. Shopping was very mundane. paints, brushes, simple bases, wet palate supplies. Very dull but all needed. I did pick up three more contairners with artwork from SciFi. That was the fun purchase of the day.

Tonight, Solar_lion and Thing 2 will be using whalemusic360's warlord titan in the titanicus battle. Apparently I forgot to sign up so Thing 1 and I will find something else to do. Guess my reaver won't see the light of day for another year.

Supplies are important, which brushes did you get.

Shame about the titan match, but surely you can put her in a corner just to show off.

Totally envious of being able to attend adepicon. NZ is just so far away!

Living vicariously through you. Enjoy the time with the Things!
!

Bummer about the Titan battle, would have loved to see some pictures of it in action.

I have photos. However, things worked out. Thing 1 and I instead played "car wars" with 40k vehicles. He ended up winning the fracas with 10 kills and earning his first Adepticon medal! Thing 2 played in the titan game with walemusic's warlord titan and had an absolute ball, destroying multple buildings, two objectives and reducing a phantom to a single wound. The imperials won! Couldn't be happier/prouder of both boys.

Pics!










Boy for scale...

That looks like a fun game, are those scatch built Nurgle titans or are they based of FW models. Very cool, we will have to try a game with the titans and knights later this year Gitz.

Awesome pics, thanks bud. Looking fantastic all round. Whaley's baby looking impressive among the crowd.

Great to hear you are having a good time. Keep it up bud.

A few more pics from the last two days.

The main room the morning of our tournament.


Third game of our tournament, the only one where we didn't get slaughtered like baby seals (barely squeaked out a 3:1 victory). Some of thing 1's wraiths take on a chariot and harold on steed.


Cheaky tech priest charged the knight.


Helped out RiTides with his ModCube booth. This was our booth babe... Brittany. (owned by whalemusic360 & painted by Ramos Asura)


Solar_lion's famous "Knight Fight" did not dissappoint once again!

Looks legit as all heck!

Wow. I'd love to do a Warlord titan some time.

 Sigur wrote:
Wow. I'd love to do a Warlord titan some time.

And I'm sure we would love to watch you do it Sigur!



Art, is the kid next to the Imperator your son?

Question.....Does Ramos age at all, I mean at all...Looks the same in every 'con pic I see him in, maybe that wall paper of his is a clue, he is a time traveller.

Everything is looking wonderful, looking forward to a pic dump later.

@Tom: Nah, I'm just some creepy old guy who likes to take pictures of handsome young men. Actually, you can see both of my boys in the knight fight pic next to Ramos. Very proud of them, especially Thing 2 who, when put into the proper environment turns into a total gaming animal! Sad that this may be Thing 1's last Adepticon for a while as he toddles off to college... but at least I'll have Thing 2 to keep me company.

@Cam: No, he will be an uncomfortable 19 forever...

Looks like a great time. Hugely jealous!

Looks like you had quite some fun at Adeption, and being able to play with your kids seems likr a great thing to do.

Looks like you and the boys had a lot of fun this year. That booth babe is pretty sweet .

Working on some terrain for Bushido. Bamboo made from drinking straws.

Very nice, original and a comfortable serene place for your enemies to die. How thoughtful.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to go get some bamboo? It's cheap as hell.

No.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
No.

I feel there's a story here.

I'd be interested in seeing a battle report at some time in the future. Give us a sense of how it plays.

There will be. Probably on the YouTube channel as it seems to me that it might be really difficult to write this one in a standard format. Still a long way to go though. Thing one is making great progress on his Clan but I'm still struggling to do the most rudamentary of terrain pieces. Haven't even looked at my figures yet.

Wow. Those Titan and Knight battles look Epic. Thanks for sharing!

@Briancj: No story, just a simple answer to an impractical question.

@youwashock: Thanks! Thanks for stopping by and commenting too!


A little progress tonight, finished prepping the bases, inserting the bamboo and getting the grit down. Once this dries I'll give the base a wash and then figure out what else I'm going to add.

Lovely. And excited to see you on a non-gw project!

Thanks Graven! Fun to be doing something a bit different. Though... I did just aquire a double-set of the Forgebane AdMech so you'll probably be seeing more GW in short order (have to figure out how I'm going to paint the mini-knights to match Ramos' original work on my knights).

You'll note a couple of smaller sticks of bamboo in and amongst the larger sticks with the leaves. I wanted a little bit of diversity in size & have been looking for smaller diameter straws. Couldn't find any, so I went to the Bushido rule book where they do a small tutorial on making bamboo out of wooden dowels. They used a type of modeling material that I don't have, so I tried to use green stuff in it's place. Unfortunately I found out that green stuff doesn't adhere to wood! So... I went for more of an optical illusion. I just put the same brown rings around the stalk as I did to emphasize the nodes on the larger pieces. This gives the visual impression that there are nodes even though the surface of the bamboo is smooth. I think it worked out rather nicely.

Tonight I'll wash the base, then put some ground cover on. Have to decide exactly what kind of grass I want to use.

This is taking a lot longer than I thought/hoped... but I think the end result will be worth it. Thing 1 is making good progress on his Ito Clan figures. I'll keep working on terrain and the board itself until he's done with his Clan. Then we'll switch and he can work on the terrain while I work on my figures.

Bamboo looks great gits! Very effective with the different sizes. I’ve got to try my hand st non-GW myself (if I can stop my 30/40k addiction).

As for the base, do you have yellow versions of the leaves you have used? Maybe a covering of old leaves would look cool?

Fantastic bud, been there done that....



I used Cocktail sticks/toothpicks and cotton buds...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/180/665211.page

Yours is looking better than mine though. Nice work.

What will you be doing in the long run, some buildings or just bushes etc.?

Oh and lastly not sure how applicable but check out this blog for some Feudal Japan style stuff...
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/474587.page#9074225

Hope that helps a little.

I remember your bamboo Cam, that's what gave me the idea to come up with this method. I'll probably use your method to create some shorter, denser stands.

Very interesting dakka post, thanks for the link!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, I've finished the first bamboo clump!




... and begun the second!



The second one is going much easier than the first... primarily because I found a stupid simple way to make the holes into the foam base that the bamboo slides into. I also made this one a little fuller so that even though the footprint of the bases are exactly the same they won't look like twins. Ultimately I think I'd like to do several more of these in order to create a bamboo forest type of board... but they're kind of tedious and play hell with my airbrush paint supply (airbrushing a bunch of round sticks is really inefficient), so we'll see. Will do one more for sure though with a different footprint.


Thing 1 and I both got in a "teaching game" with a friend who has been campaigning for us to try this game. As we both did a demo at Adepticon, this was a nice refresher and was a lot of fun to boot! Since Thing 1 is the only one of us with assembled models, we both used his Ito Clan. Most of his models are still unpainted, but you can see the red and green figures with the unpainted bases... those are his. Very proud of the work he's done on them. Here's a few shots from the game. Sorry about all the unpainted models, I really took the pics so I could text them to Thing 1 as our game progressed & he could see his guys in action.


There are a number of possible scenarios, but many involve establishing control over objects such as shrines. In our game we had 3 shrines (represented by the lanterns). If you get to one unopposed, you can use an action (you get two simple actions per figure per turn) to turn it in your direction, receiving it's blessings. The blessings don't manifest in any games terms... but they do earn you victory points.

An Ito swordsman saunters up to an undefended shrine and claims it for the clan.


The central shrine in a small building spends the entire game being fought over by various elements of the clans. The unpainted sword dude is a real bad a**.


There is a brawl at the right-hand shrine, but not until after the monks had turned it in their favor. It would take Ito one unopposed action to turn it back to neutral and then another to turn it in their favor. Not going to happen until all these monks are sorted out. Note the cobra headed figure as the fantasy element seeps into to Ito's "snake warrior" models (but many are just normal humans).


Eventually, it is sorted out (in spite of God-aweful dice rolling on my part) and the surviving Ito warrior turns the shrine to a neutral position (giving Ito one shrine with the other two neutral, earning them a victory point).


End game. The two remaining ito warriors close on the monk's master. He is dispatched quickly and cleanly by the gal in the red who was taring it up all game. Wiping out your opponent however, doesn't secure you victory. You need to win by points.


Luckily, turning back that one shrine to neutral was just enough. Ito wins 1 point to 0!


There you go. Really fun little game.

Awesome little batrep!!

Looks like an interesting game. Really aught to get a demo of it next year.
I really like the Master mini... riding atop a giant tortoise!~


Bamboo looks stellar. Really love the green moss you used to fill the base a bit more. that really ties it all together.

A suggestion on the wood to GS issue- Maybe mix in some more yellow next time? That makes it a whole lot stickier, and it cures just about the same. And you may want to roughen up the mating surface depending on how smooth the dowels are.
Failing that, there are some other materials I could recommend if the mood strikes you. Cant argue with your results thus far, though

 Camkierhi wrote:
Question.....Does Ramos age at all, I mean at all...Looks the same in every 'con pic I see him in, maybe that wall paper of his is a clue, he is a time traveller.

Nonsense! What silliness... me... travelling through time.. haha.
One should not ask too many questions!

<.<



I will admit though, I like that photo. For once in a candid picture I dont look terrible... Thats one of the nicer ones captured of me

Nice job on the bamboo, Gits'. Does the job.

Good to see the various battle shots too.
Good job to the thing and his little samurai.

Looks like a fun game

Bamboo looks great Git's very realistic I think.

Thing 1 is really coming on with his painting skiils as well, very nice

Bamboo looks great. Where did the buildings and shrines come from?

It's a very fun game. Thanks guys. Have a second group of bamboo for you. Getting better/more efficient at making it, but I think I'm going to switch over to something different for a while. Got a *very basic* board built & only have one more of my minis to build... thus Thing 1 and I should get some games in today. He's almost done painting his little troop. They look really good, especially the last one he's working on. Very nice.

That bamboo looks great gits! The flowers are a nice touch

Bamboo clumps look great, as does the game. What faction are you playing Gitz?

Thank you gentlemen.

I play Tengu... bird warrior clan with a kind of barbarian allies. I really like them. They're very mobile (as you might expect bird warriors to be) and even their barbarian allies have some pretty neat tricks.

Thing 1 and I played a fun game this afternoon with my unpainted models on a very rudimentary board. Still had lots of fun. Looking forward to getting some substantial pieces of terrain in, getting at least the basics done on the board and finally getting to paint my own clan! I did take a couple of photos but since everything except Thing 1's figures are unpainted I'll spare you the viewing. Still had a really cool time though.

I've always been curious of that game. I feel like it has been around for a while now. It's a skirmish fighting game right?

I am trying to think of a less pedantic way to say, "Is there anything special about that game?" but I am not figuring it out tonight.

That bamboo is looking fantastic bud. This is definitely looking like a really great game to break the monotony. Something both different and pretty. Have to add Thing#1 work is definitely coming on. Excellent work.

That bamboo is just lovely! Leave it to a biologist, eh?

Nice bamboo Gits !

Thanks guys! Sorry for the absence... had mundane responsibilities that were occupying my time completely.

@moonpie: Other than the beautiful figures, feudal Japanese setting mixed in with just the right amount of fantasy, simple but very tight rules, low starting costs (5 figures for standard sized game), only needing to fill a 2'x2' board with terrain and some pretty strategic missions where wiping out your opponent often doesn't win you the game? No... there's nothing special about it.


Working on some objectives for Bushido. These are little pillars that are nearing completion. The bunch of yellow flowers designates orientation (as that matters in the game). Each has a kanji on top painted by Thing 1 and a bronze plate below with the English translation. Please note that it this case the traslantion is NOT that of the kanji depicted in the close-up. The kanji shown is actually "earth" if I remember correctly. I'm trying to do some minor firey-glow effects on the kanji. It's tricky because everything is so small and I don't want to mess up my son's fine work.

These look awesome Gitz.

They are stunning bud, that is some really fine detailed painting. Awesome work both of you.

Very nice Indeed. Great work.

Lovely shrines, really fits the setting.

Great Work, and it must be fun getting into a new game with Thing 1

I haven’t been around nearly enough lately, the bamboo is stellar and those pillars are just the right amount of detail to work both as table scatter for random games and as objectives. I looked into Bushido and even printed out the rules. I just wish there was a good stockist for the game. I went with Test of Honour instead just because of the support that was out there, but I wish there was more of the fantasy element in the game instead.

What did you use for the leaves on your bamboo if I might ask, I need to redo my bamboo terrain now .

Nice pillars.

Good job on the lettering.
Painting in an alphabet other than what you're used to is an extra level of complication, I know.

@Anpu: Indeed. Makes it a lot more special than just the game would be itself.

@Theo: "Stocklist"?? Not sure what that is (please pardon my ignorance). I found an aquarium plant grouping at Walmart and the ground cover, kind of a grassy thing... can be cut up into the individual fronds that I've attached to my bamboo. Makes passable fronds on the cheap.

@Dr H: My talented son gets all the credit for that.

Well, got the glow done on all the kanji so the small shrines/objectives are done. We played a game last night. I won on points but Thing 1 *forced* me to suicide my last two models into his uber-warriors so that he could slaughter them and claim the moral victory. Whatev's...

We also got started on some of the larger structures that just came in. Built, sealed and with a red base coat. I don't think I'll do to much with them but they'll get a bit of highlighting and shading with the airbrush and some black parts added on. It's amazing how much feel the torii gates and curved bridge add. Below you can see the current state of our board. I'll eventually be making a proper 3-d board but for the time being, just sliding it under my GW grass mat does the trick. I'd cut out a 2x2 square but then I'd either have a useless 4x6 mat or I'd have to find other bushido players to sell off the bits too. Not sure there's enough of us around to do that. The board is a mish-mosh of thematic elements at the moment... that'll improve as we get more done, in the mean time however, it looks good and is fun to play on.



I should start working on my figures fairly soon.

stupid autocorrects. I meant a stockist (someone who stocks Bushido)

Also looks like Miniaturemarket.com has some pre-orders up for Plastcraft ashigaru houses and stuff. Around $8 each. They just cleared out some Kensei figures which would also look good on the board .

Actually I've been stockpiling links to appropriate vendors on line, if you're interested (or anyone else for that matter) I'd be happy to share the links here. Also, Noble Knight Games is here in WI and has a very healthy stock of minis and terrain.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Actually I've been stockpiling links to appropriate vendors on line, if you're interested (or anyone else for that matter) I'd be happy to share the links here. Also, Noble Knight Games is here in WI and has a very healthy stock of minis and terrain.

That would be sweet

OK, here's what I came up with... you see a lot of stuff listed under "Kensei" which apparently is another game based in feudal Japan.

Oshiro Model Terrain: UK based, terrain - http://www.oshiromodelterrain.co.uk/catalogue28.html
- Some really nice stuff from buildings to bits and bobs. Definitely ordering some smaller pieces to add flavor to my table(s)

GTC Studios: UK based, miniatures & terrain - https://gctstudios.com/store
- Makers of the game. Everything is here including both models and terrain. I've had great luck ordering from them & things come surprisingly fast.

GTC Studios (accessories): UK based, terrain - https://gctstudios.com/catalog/accessories
- just a short cut to where all the terrain elements are

Gamecraft Miniatures: US based, terrain - http://gcmini.mybigcommerce.com/28mm-mdf-kits/?sort=newest&page=2
- Not a lot here but a couple of really nice torii gates and a house on page 2 (link should take you right there).

Warlord Games: US based, terrain - https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/feudal-japan-1467-1603
- Mind-blowingly good terrain pieces & structures. Wow.

Baueda: Europe based, trees - http://www.baueda.com/rtp_trees.html
- Fantastic trees, many appropriate for Japan.

Plasticraft Games: US based, terrain - http://www.thewarstore.com/plastcraft-fukei-kensei-terrain-gallery.html
- Nice buildings and such made out of light, PVC foam sheets. My bridge is from these guys. Very nice. The foam pieces are cruder and less detailed than MDF equivalents, but the price is good.

4Ground : UK based, terrain - https://www.4ground.co.uk/shogunate-japan
- Preferred terrain provider of the game creators at GTC. Very nice stuff.

Blotz: UK based, terrain - http://blotz.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=23_29_191
- They have a Shinto shrine and standing lamp posts that I *must* own. Many other nice pieces too.

TRE Games Inc: US based, terrain - https://www.tregames.com/
- Look at the 28mm "Accessories" and "Structures" sections off the main page. Pricy but good Lord there are some amazing structures here.

Miniature Market: US based, miniatures & terrain - https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=plast+craft+kensei#/?page=1
- This link takes you to their plast craft buildings. Dig around on the site and you can find all kinds of things though. Secondary sales, not a manufacturer.

Noble Knight Games: US based, miniatures & terrain - https://www.nobleknight.com/Search?text=Bushido&ManufacturerId=2145086045
- Link takes you to there Bushido models. They don't have everything but seem to have a decent smattering of stuff. I know there's terrain somewhere too, but finding things on their site can be challenging.

Lastly... just check out ebay. Many of these sites offer e-bay sales and you may find things there (as your searches can be very specific) that you might find difficult to find on the seller's own website.


Hope this helps!

Gaming table looks great Gitz, I heard that noble games is opening near us soon maybe I will pick up a few figs and you can run me thru a game.

Really looking great Gits, those terrain bits are even better up close on the big screen! if those models weren't metal i'd have a crack at painting some!

Zen garden table looks great, good work on those markers!

Table is looking great, and so does that list of suppliers. Might see if they have something I can use as well

Thanks for the links , I’ve seen most of them but the TREgames is fantastic and I’ve not seen those.

One more I’d suggest as a cheap alternative is https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=Samurai+village&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
Ive linked to the samurai village search on their site, but papierschnitzel is the producer of the set and they have print on demand. It’s the last few buildings I’ve made. $6 gets you the file which has multiple skins to print out to make the same building different ways. They just released samurai village II which I’ll probably get this week and print them out. It has a waterwheel and a different sized home. They also have paper raft versions of the temple bell, walls, shrines and fortress (humongous) that the other sites do in foam or MDF. Not the greatest, but for the price you can make a huge table for less than some of these other kits single building costs.

Thanks for the link Theo. Always was curious about papercraft type buildings. Seems like a very economical way to go.

Got the bridge finished. I ended up adding my own wooden planks. Very happy with it now.

Nice work on the bridge , where are those crates from though?

Some place at Adepticon. No idea, they just had a bunch of stuff in bins as scatter terrain.

Interesting change of place, the bamboo is excellent

Finally started working on my actual minis to play the game (Thing 1 has been complaining about having to play vs. unpainted minis. Nothing really exciting here. Decided to keep the barbarian allies of my bird warrior clan very simple and earthtony. Lot's of good blending practice though. After airbrushing so much for the past several years I really need it.



Here's a pic from the game Thing 1 and I had last night. He's finished up painting his starter set and has done a really wonderful job on them. The board is a crazy mashup of a variety of unrelated terrain. That will change over time as I get enough related pieces to start putting together coherent boards.



As in our earlier games, I win on points but get wiped out in the process as his army is much more killy than mine (but I'm more mobile). I also continue to roll horribly. I think I only won (meaning did damage in) two or three combat exchanges the entire game. My two torii gates are nearly done. When complete I'll post a pic.


Thanks for sticking with me on this little diversion. I will of course get back to 40k eventually... but this is a refreshing change and I'm really enjoying it. The best part is both Thing 1 and I are working on things together... which really makes the rest of it all worthwhile.

That's a great looking table.

Yup, looking good!

You’ve got me in a building mood with your table. I’m going to have to make some trees because yours look so nice. Is the well the Dungeon saga one or something you made.

Also good job getting your kids into gaming. I always love to see your posts about Thing1 and Thing2 and their adventures. About all I can get my kids to do is Zombicide...which isn’t too bad .

That's looking very nice. And easy to get into...

Torii gates are finally done! Kudos to Thing 1 for building them and for the kanji on the signs (I believe they read "gate of the beginning" and "gate of the end".)

Are those Plastcraft gates?

I never trust Kanji, it could say sweet and sour chicken on it and I wouldn’t know any better.

No, those are wood, the bridge is plasticraft.

Starting to look really good on that board, Gits. I want to try Bushido out. I am going to Salute next week, so ought to find it there and give it a play.

Gates look very nice. Whole board looks great actually!

@Fifty: Thanks! Sooo jealous of your trip to Salute! Been salivating over Sigur's event reports from there for years! Bushido is fun, though we just discovered there's been a major update of the rules (found on-line at the maker's web site) which fixes a lot of things. Should make the game much easier to play. It also includes a dozen new scarios which should help as well.

Continued work on my spearwoman last night. She's coming together nicely but no pic (sorry). Pretty much down to her skin, hair and the spear haft... which are all concentrated on the top of the model which makes her look very unfinished. It's been an interesting process. I'd forgotten how much of a crutch the airbrush had become. Now that I'm painting without it I'm having to re-learn old skills.

I think I'll start working on another patch of bamboo as a side project. I figure I'll need 5 or 6 of them in various shapes and sizes to give the board a consistant look (and so I don't have to mix bamboo with deciduous trees... which looks odd to me). I'm thinking of doing a large patch with a path through the middle and maybe a little alcove for one of the smaller shrines/pillars.

Nice stuff Git!

I'm interested in a good Japanese skirmish game, will check this out. I just got Rising sun and might see if using those minis would work.

Table is looking good Gitz, bright and colorful, its really quite the contrast to 40k. Cant wait to see how your army looks when its finished.

Nice work on all the terrain bits.

Like the additions to the bridge.

Thanks guys. There's a whole continuum of 28mm Feudal Japanese games. I think terrain works for all and most of the figure sets are pretty good too. Just depends on whether you want history or fantasy and which rule set you prefer.

Finished my first Bushido model tonight. Nuniq of the Hill Tribe. Very pleased with her considering all the hand-blending that I'd forgotten how to do and had to remember/improve apon. (thanks Ramos!) I need to go deeper on the shadows of most of the colors (cloak turned out well though), but I have 5 more models to go so I'll get lots of practice. Wanted to stay with very tame earth-tones... so she's kind of a study in brown. The pic is a bit overexposed so there's more to her shading than it looks like. You'll just have to trust me on that one.






And my girl in her soon-to-be-native habitat...

She is lovely Gitz, cant wait to see how the others.

Very nice stuff, and a good change of pace. Makes me want to dig through my boxes of old Clan Wars stuff and dig out a painting project or two, just to mix things up.

Also reminds me how barren my own table is. I need more terrain.

 Nevelon wrote:
...
Also reminds me how barren my own table is. I need more terrain.

Don't we all... Especially scatter terrain and such.

The model looks great gits. Quite like the shading in cloak, and luminous skin tone

Nuniq is looking great! Love the smirk on her face, she looks very confident that way.

Thank you gentlemen. I start her big, fuzzy, axe-wielding brother tonight!


I wanted to show off some of Thing 1's work since there will be a bit of a delay in interesting posts as I work on the axe murderer...

Here's his completed Ito group. This is what's in the Ito starter set.


Here are some close-ups of the individual figures. I'm really proud of him... he's done a great job on these figures and really took his time, worked on thinning his paints and by-and-large was just generally inspired. Each model is based on a different real snake.

This was the first one and not surprisingly... the one he's least happy with. May get a re-paint some time in the near future.


This guy doesn't have great stats, but deals poison like a deck of cards...



His sorceress... he really doted on this model... or perhaps just her butt. Hard to tell sometimes...



Temple bushi... think that was a coral or king snake (red/black/yellow).


Finally his main swordsman... patterned after the black mambaaaaaaaaaa..... (a-la Megamind).



Thanks for looking! I'll be sure to share any comments with him.


OH... and by-the-way... I'm now the proud father of a newly-minted Eagle Scout! Maybe HE should have played Tengu!

I have to say the boy has some skill with the brush, and a big congrats on making Eagle! No small deed to earn.

Congratulations all round I'd say. Proud Dad, Eagle Scout, and can paint too. If he can cook, he will make someone a perfect husband. You have every right to be proud bud, children are a product of their environment. He should be well happy and proud of his work.

Talented boy. Raised right

Yes, he can cook. His mom and I have made certain of that.

Spear lady looks great and your son has definitely gotten your painting talents .

Also pass on congrats to your son on the Eagle Scout

Congrats! Those are Kensei figures, aren't they?

Thanks everyone! Very proud of my son in all his endeavors.

@Sigur: Nope. The game is called "Bushido" by GCT Studios. However, most of the terrain that's available is made for Kensei (works fine for Bushido too).


I made decent progress on my second barbarian. Might even finish him up tomorrow night.

Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. From another Eagle, a big congratulations!
His Ito look great; that's a lot of flesh. I would be hesitant to tackle all that. Great work!
Gits, your barbarians are looking good, too. the patterns on the tabard... are they molded or brushed, because I can't tell.

Thing 1 seems to be getting the hang of it And that barbarian is looking amazing, I love those muted tones you got going on these guys.

*extends left hand in greeting* Well done, Eagle Scout.
We don't appear to have anything equivalent over here. Interesting to look up the requirements. Impressive.

Good job on the painting too, to the both of you.

Taliriktug (stupid name) finished!





And the two tribesmen together...

Very nice!

Very earth tone-y, which makes sense for mountain tribe. Blends on the fabric are great. I feel like they are crying for a splash of bright color though. They almost remind me of the humans in Horizon: Zero Dawn. Might be worth checking out for some inspiration.

Thanks WM, I'll do that.

A bit of blood on an axe never hurt anyone

They look like a nice pair , their names need some work though. I keep seeing Tall Rick, not sure of a name for her yet, though Monique seems the closest in my mind.

inmygravenimage wrote:A bit of blood on an axe never hurt anyone

Ah, he is but a humble woodsman. He'd wipe the blood off his axe right away. Plus if there was blood on his axe there'd be spatter on his clothes... and if he came home with blood spattered clothes his wife would kill him.

Theophony wrote:They look like a nice pair , their names need some work though. I keep seeing Tall Rick, not sure of a name for her yet, though Monique seems the closest in my mind.

I agree. Not my choice though, it's what the gaming company named them.


Couple of shots of last night's game vs. my friend Tyler and his Temple of Ro-Kan.

We combine our terrain for a very nice looking board... This particular scenario has six objectives that get scored every two turns, then re-set. Game length is six turns. Whomever has the most points in a 2-turn "round" is given a single victory point... so it's best two-out-of-three (with one point possible each 2-turn round). You get points by moving into base-to-base with one of the pillars and then spending one of your two actions to spin it in your favor (the flowers at the base of the pillars indicate whom they favor at any given time... all are neutral at the beginning). Sorry for the blurry pic.


Tyler's "Master Ekusa" on his tortoise... he's a pain in the butt because he can instantly "exhaust" one of your figures (meaning they can't do anything for the rest of the turn).


First battle pic with a painted mini on my part! Ninuq takes on a peasant. You go girl!



The game fell into a familiar pattern. I ran like mad to claim the objectives early in the hopes of scoring points while my squad was slowly destroyed by my opponent. Unfortunately for Tyler... my new dice were magic and I didn't get slaughtered. Victory for Zim!!


I'm working on a third bamboo plot at the moment. Should finish that up today and begin the next figure. Really enjoy playing with the painted models. I'm also considering starting a local Facebook group for Bushido. There are a number of us who play, but we're scattered about and it would be nice to have a place to hang out, arrange games, encourage each other, etc.

Thanks for reading!

Looks like you had some good fun, and gratz on playing to the objective, it's nice when playing to them actually pays off

Good day yesterday...

- Finished the third (and largest) clump of bamboo.
- Dressed up two river sections so they look much nicer and fit into the board better.
- Made 3x 4" area-control objectives. I'm calling these "practice platforms" for lack of a better excuse. I'd like to dress them up eventually with mats, symbols or banners... not sure at the moment.





It's really nice to have the area control objectives done as it opens up a whole new set of missions.

They look cool, but circles of wood planks seem a little off for scatter terrain. I know they are objectives, not terrain, but that’s how they hit the eye. If they were hexagons or octagons, they might seem a little more natural, as people are more likely to build in those shapes.

Things you could put on them:
Build a gazebo.
A pair of chairs and a go board on a table.
Drying racks for bolts of silk being dyed.
Sword stand and some pillows/mats.
Geisha.
Old master
Fruit stand.


Other ideas if you want to make more area objectives would be little zen gardens. Get some tiny shrubs and the right grit of sand/gravel/rocks and rake it into an aesthetically pleasing pattern.

I love your ideas Nev, thanks. I'll put some thought into them. The trick is that they (meaning the objectives) should remain largely open so they don't impede the ability of multiple models getting onto them (and the shape is defined by the game, so I really didn't have much choice in the matter). I think both the sword stand with mats and the silk racks have real possibilities. The first shouldn't really impede movement at all and the second can be built high enough that it doesn't interfere with the models below. Hmmm...

Not sure I know what a silk drying rack actually looks like. I'll have to do some research.

I like the idea of zen gardens, just some scatter sand raked appropriately would look excellent, or a koi pond