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Oh, boy, something shiny and new arrived in the mail today:



Only a couple little girls, how much trouble could they be?
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I actually started building quite a bit later...

And yesterday, something huge, dark and very heavy arrived:


Yep, that's my Kingdom Death : Monster core game that finally arrived after 33 months of (relatively) patient waiting. I'm kinda hot to get the starting models built up for the intro scenario against the White Lion, so we'll just see how that goes...



At this point, I'm officially in trouble for things to finish by end of year:
- Imperial Guard' Shadowsword superheavy tank
- Dogs of War' Leopold's Leopard Company
- Kingdom Death' pinups & intro scenario models

At least I got the Wraithknight built and played

It's been a while since I've had any hobby stuff to show, but I finally got the rear of my Shadowsword squared away with a low-profile fuel tank solution that doesn't raise the vehicle profile.



The I use the stock bit, but I recut the top so it doesn't sit so high up, and fill in the rear gap with plasticard and a single fuel barrel sitting low off the rear. I think it looks pretty "factory".

I added more track covers, because there would be mud, and the hull is now nearly a full inch longer than stock.

Now that the lower structure is done, I can go back to the superstructure of the beast.

Been doing a fair amount of modeling, but not for gaming -- lately, the guys have been excited over GunPla, so I helped them build a couple kits over the long weekend:

SD Blitz Gundam


1/144 MS-18E "Kampfer"

Old, non-grade kit, easier to build, and the kid is happy with it, so all good!

The Shadowsword looks like it's coming along nicely. Good work

Thanks!

With the new IG formations, it looks like my IG might structure like this:

Command
Battlegroup Command
Company Command Squad (in Chimera?)
1 Lord Commissar
I need a Standard, Ogryn bodyguard & Ordnance dude for a "proper" BGC CCS...

Core (0-3 per Command)

"Emporer's Fist" Tank Company
1 Tank Commander (in LRBT, w/ 2nd LRBT)
3 Leman Russ Squadrons (1 Demolisher ea.)
1 Enginseer
minimum legal Core, due to me just not having the extra Russes to spare

"Emporer's Shield" Infantry Company
nope.
Even with my collection, I just don't have the uniformed Guardsmen to field the 170+ model ESIC. I can come pretty close if I reshuffle things around. But even if I could, I wouldn't - too many points for not enough effectiveness.


Auxiliary (0-3 per Core)

"Emporer's Blade" Assault Company
1 Company Command Squad (in Chimera)
3 Veterans Squads (in Chimeras)
2 Hellhound Squadrons (1 ea)
I have Veterans, and like the idea of fielding what amounts to a Mech Veteran Platoon with attached Hellhounds for the ObSec bonus.

"Emporer's Shield" Infantry Platoon
1 Platoon Command Squad
5 Infantry Squads
4 Heavy Weapon Squads (HB, Mortar, 2x ML)
2 Special Weapon Squads (Melta & Plasma)
1 Conscript squad
+1 Sentinel
I actually have all of the squads and can convert up the Sentinel to make this work. This will be a minor priority, because it'd look kinda cool to field 100 Guardsmen on the tabletop. Worst case, I can break it down into a regular Infantry Platoon. Or two.

"Emporer's Wrath" Artillery Company
1 Company Command Squad (in Chimera)
1 Basilisk
1 Hydra (or Wyvern)
1 Deathstrike Missile Launcher
1 Enginseer
It's not optimal, but it's a formation I'd consider to field from time to time.

Super-Heavy Support
1x Shadowsword w/ HKM, PMHS
1x Stormlord w/ HKM, PMHS
I can field 2 of these! Or rather, I can pick one for flavor.


Unplayables
This is stuff that I don't currently own the models to field, and the rules aren't really compelling me to buy more.


Allies
Inquistion, Ecclesiarchy, Stormtroopers, Sisters, Hive Gangs and Spryers! Oh, my!


Looking at the above, I can use another Enginseer (or two), and should get that Sentinel together. Otherwise, it's "nice to haves".


Priority-wise, I think I stick with the Shadowsword.
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2019 - 3+ years later, I sat down and figured out how things should be organized

Not seen this thread before. Pretty cool. I'm interested to see what else you do with the Shadowsword.

Subbed.

EDC

Lots of very interesting stuff indeed, looking forward to your shadowsword and KD adventures...

Thanks, guys.

BTW, FWIW, this is how I transport my IG...

... in a single 1 duffel bag, 10" wide, 17" long and 11" high.

All told, that bag could easily carry:
500+ pts 1 Shadowsword
2,500 pts 200+ IG infantry
1,250 pts 9 IG Armor
= 4,250 pts total

I have another box of Inquisition / Sisters infantry, along with 8? 9? more tanks. Not to mention the WiP Valk and NISB Vendetta...

Still, that bag carries a lot of minis, making IG very workable.

2015 Year in Review

In 2015, I had planned a bunch of IG work at the start of the year; however, I ended up doing a number of things differently:

1. inventoried my Imperial Guard, built and unbuilt, and was somewhat shocked to find I had somehow grown my IG collection from an estimated 5,000 pts of stuff by a whole tournament army up to a grand total of 7,000 pts. And I found out that my other T3 Imperials added another 3k pts of stuff. I had said I had enough, and yet, I ended up buying a painted unit of Last Chancers and some more Spyrers for my Necromunda count-as Inquisition forces. Oops.

2. I assembled my portion of the Robotech Tactics split! Like the time I spent assembling Sedition Wars, this was probably not a great use of my hobby time, as I don't really ever see myself playing the game.

3. I started work on my Shadowsword, with a fair amount of conversion work to tighten up the design. I re-built the nose twice. Right now, I'm still stuck on doing the custom superstructure and gun...

4. I inventoried my Eldar when the new Craftworld Eldar Codex hit, and found that I have something like 8,000+ pts of Craftworlders, 1,000+ pts of Harlequins and a smattering of Dark Eldar, bringing that total to something like 10,000 pts.

5. I assembled a lightly-customized Wraithknight and played it a couple times. Nice model, decent rules.

6. I inventoried my Dogs of War when Age of Sigmar came out.

7. I converted up a set of BattleScrolls for my Dogs of War and played them for the first time in years. A good time was had!

8. I built Gundam with my boys!

9. I showed people how to effectively carry a fethton of Imperial Guard.

So, I started the year with IG and ended the year with IG, but took a bunch of detours for Robotech Tactics, Eldar and Dogs of War and Gundam. Built a Wraithknight, and got a Shadowsword in very rough playable shape. I also did a ton of wargaming that didn't require any creation / conversion work. And I wrote and shared initial rules for KOG light - a small, simple miniatures battle game that is taking an inordinate amount of time to get "right" for Beta release.


2016 Objectives

1. Build and play Kingdom Death : Monster.

2. Finish building that Shadowsword!

3. Realign models owned with models I might actually field by selling off a bunch of my excessive Eldar collection to plug some of the IG and Eldar formation gaps.

Of course, depending on what we decide to play, and what gets released, priorities may shift. But I gotta say, this boardgaming thing of just opening a box and playing is awfully attractive compared to building and painting.

And I still need to get KOG light into Beta!

Speaking of shifts, I traded off a bunch of unbuilt Imperial stuff and picked up an Imperial Knight Warden.

He'll probably sit for a bit, as I work my way through other projects, but it's a nice kit with a lot of options. I especially like the giant Power Fist, and wonder if maybe to model it holding a giant sword in hand..

Also, not entirely satisfied with the.pauldrons, wanting something more knightly, less beetle. Hmm...
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Also traded off a bunch of stuff for more metal Dire Avengers.

Flames of War!

This week, I've been helping build my half of the previous edition Flames of War "Open Fire!" set:
- 3 StuG III/G
- V-1 rocket & launcher
- Panzergrenadier company
- 2 PAK-40 & command

So far, I've gotten the StuG & V-1 stuff built, along with most of the infantry & cannon. I should finish tomorrow, and then there will be pictures!


I also built one of the Shermans. Ugh. Awful.

I finished building the German stuff yesterday!


Even got a quick battle in. All in all, very satisfying.

Been busy playing stuff like Flames of War and haggling, so no hobby progress.

After playing a number of games of Flames, I was surprised to find that I like the idea of 1/100 WW2 gaming far more than I actually like the playing of the game when there is such a large disconnect between ground scale and figure scale.

With an Apocalypse game coming up next weekend, and a brand new Knight Titan NOS, I finally sat down and started building it. Not a huge fan of the mono-pose static legs, but I got those together. Then I started building the torso. Wow, it's like a 3-D puzzle to get all the things lined up and squared away. Now, it's like an egg on stilts.

Leaving the armor plates off, as I suspect this needs to be painted with the armor off for best results.

More progress, tonight, got a bunch of the greebling squared away, finished the top carapace, along with the head. Built the ion shields and missile launcher.

Next big step is the arms.

And he's properly playable!

I built the weapons:
- Rapid-fire Battlecannon
- Thunderstrike Gauntlet
- Reaper Chainsword (swappable!)
- Stormspear Pod

Feeling pretty pleased.
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Pic of the bayonet mount conversion for the Chainsword & Gauntlet:

I added decorations and tacked on the armor plates tonight, so he's done and ready to hit the table tomorrow!


____

5/30 - having built and played the Knight, it's time to move on to the next thing, either back to the WiP Ragnarok-pattern Shadowsword, or the WiP Ragnarok-pattern Valkyrie. Hmm...

I got busy on the Valkyrie, finishing the hull, tail and wings:

"Finishing" as I had actually started on the kit back in 2009, when I first got it.

Nose is next, to be followed by weapons (Multi-Laser & Rocket Pods) and landing gear. I'll probably convert up the HBs as forward-facing gun pods.


As I traded off both of the NiB Valks, I just have the one to finish building.

Is that a personal record for longest build time, 2009 - 2016 is a good innings!

EDC

A couple notes:
1. Bird ain't done, yet.
2. I have a WiP Demolisher / Thunderer that's even older and not yet done.
3. I have a WiP Russ that'll be an Atlas that's even less started.


This is why I think any progress is good progress!

Mostly done as of tonight, now that the nose is assembled and Rocket Pods are attached:

I ended up filing down the rivets on the VTOL wing nozzles, as the just weren't coming out nicely.

The more significant conversion?

Yeah, I removed the boxes that go to the hugely oversized and ugly landing pads.

I need to scratchbuild some skids to go under the main hull.

For the Heavy Bolters and Multi-Laser, I'm thinking to remount the HBs where the ML would normally go, and then to remount the Multi-Laser in the nose.

Plus the remaining greebling bitz.

Looking good dude!

EDC

Thanks! Still trying to decide on the landing gear and weapons.
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ETA - got the weapons squared!

After tightening the nose to something slightly sleeker, I moved the multi-laser to the nose, slightly off-center like an A-10. For me, that entire dropped section under the cockpit is actually a belly gun evolved from a conformal weapon pod and subsequently integrated into the core airframe skin. I think it makes better sense than having it run parallel to the cockpit. Oh yeah, I'm using the Chimera Multilaser bit, because I think that one looks better than the thing in the official kit.



As nobody is using the HBs in the lists, and there's no obvious good way to mount them, I simply ignore them entirely.

Anyhow, those are the weapons.

Greeble-wise, I have the light pods since they're part of the iconic look, along with the nose tube. I moved the other bitz to the tail, to add some texture there.


Still need to address the landing gear, as this wants tricycle, I think.

Since my last post, I've gotten in a couple games with my Valkyrie.

Game 1 had plenty enough small Nids for it to score some very solid points, zipping around and shooting stuff up.

Game 2 had only big Sv3+ bugs on the board, and the Valk did basically nothing. Showing the obvious reason why people field Vendettas instead of Valks.

Still, it's a good model, and I think I'll model up landing skids under the main hull, rather than wheeled tricycle gear.
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Uploaded a couple more pictures here, a close-up of the bayonet mounts that I used for my Knight's close-combat arms, and close-up of the revised Valkyrie nose. Enjoy!

Sun 9/4 - I finally got around to making the flying base fit properly! And I tweaked it so the Valk sits a little nose down on it.

I also reworked the panels under wing, so they're now intakes for the tip jets.
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Mon 9/5 - Played against Orks. This is a good model for that!
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Wed 9/7 - Rather than tricycle landing gear, I went with fixed skids under the body.

And I cleaned up the rear so the edge of the rear ramp sits flat when it opens. Little things, but they make me happier about the model.


I still need to gap fill and deal with the cockpit, but it's getting there!

It's October, and I have been busy actually playing games and working on other stuff (KOG light, kid's GunPla, etc.). Not a big deal.

During the run up to the Made-to-Order flash sale, I decided that I'd make my IG "formation" legal, and get the last models to fill in the blanks. Yeah, I know it's a huge marketing scheme, but it's not like I'd be buying models I don't actually like or want. I ordered both GW Techpriest Enginseers to dedicate to the Tank Company & Artillery Company formations. Later this year, I'll order the Regimental Advisors and Sister Hospitalier to complete my Command units. That'll leave me just one Sentinel short of all of the IG formations that I might want to field down the line. And I think I can convert one from all of the various IG bitz in my pile.

After that, it's time to reshuffle my IG models into actual formations and figure out how to visually organize the individual models into distinct units. Ideally, I could quickly and efficiently sort my entire pile back into the squads and platoons and companies and formations that they're supposed to be in.

I also probably need to knock together a "Remnants" Force of some sort containing all of the random rabble that doesn't just neatly fold into the predefined formations.

In any case, I don't feel bad that things aren't completely finished. Visible progress. Models played. And there's still a couple months on the calendar!

Keep at it, little bits of progress over time will see it to completion.

EDC

Exactly, any progress over no progress. Start of the year, Valkyrie wasn't playable, and I didn't have the Knight at all. Now, both of them can take the field!
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11/3 - I'll be pulling the trigger to order the Regimental Advisors and Hospitalier!
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11/9 - ordered!
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11/15 - got them! The Sister Hospitalier is so delicate. Just lovely.