Terminator squad done

I am on leave this week and predictably my body decided it was a good time to fall sick...

Nevertheless, I decided I had to complete my Terminator Squad as planned; it took a bit longer than I expected, but here they are:


With these guys done, I am one figure away from completing my entire planned force - the only remaining figure is an apothecary which I bought off ebay a few days back, so it will be another few weeks before that is done. Once that is painted I hope to pose the entire force - 25 figures and one Dreadnought model.

I'm really wondering if it will fit the ethos of this army to have a vehicle... On the other hand I have just bidded on a Robogear walker, which may see service with my old Imperial Guards, which also need refurbishing...

Gamezone Troll

After rounding up my LOTR Goblin force with some warg riders I decided they MUST have a troll in their ranks. The first thought was of course one of the many GW LOTR troll figures, but these were expensive and none fit the exact look I wanted.

Trolls from the other lines were generally too cartoony, which doesn't fit in with the look of my goblins and dwarves.

It became clear pretty soon that the best choice would be one of Gamezone's trolls, and I settled on this one:

I like the dynamic pose of the figure and its primitive look. I would have preferred that it held something other than a wagon wheel in one hand, but one of the other options held half a horse (yes, you read that right), and the other was hunching and spewing something out of its mouth, presumably emulating a Warhammer troll doing its "vomit attack".

It was a relatively clean model, but a little difficult to put together. The figure came in four parts: upper torso with head and arms, lower torso, left hand holding stone axe, and right hand holding wagon wheel. Needless to say I had to deal with breakages a few times during the process.

The figure looked a little daunting to paint, but in the end it responded well to a block-wash-highlight approach.

You can see the size of the model posed with a LOTR dwarf king below.

Reaper Andras Conversion

The latest addition in my Space Marine force is a conversion of the Reaper Overlord Captain Andras.

This is the figure in its original form.



As you can see there are lots of spikes - on the helmet, the left shoulder pad, and also the tabard. There are even studs on the edges of the shoulder pads that echo those of the Mk VI armour.

The helmet itself is reminiscent of the Mk III Crusade armour. I toyed with the idea of leaving the spike on the helmet (an option with the Mk III armour), but eventually decided to remove it for consistency in appearance with the rest of the army. I figure the back-story to this figure is that he is wearing bits of old armour, which would make him a veteran type of character.

The next thing to do was to 40K-ise the figure, which I did by adding the Space Marine backpack, a tabard on the right shoulder pad, as well as a holstered bolt-pistol. I added a skull to the chest emblem, which happened to be a Terminator-cross - I suppose this means the figure has "Terminator honours" in 40K-speak.

Here is the figure dry-fitted.

And here it is completed.

The sword didn't quite match the 40K look, so I had to buy a Nemesis Force Sword bit off ebay as replacement. Unfortunately the Andras figure appears to be left-handed, which meant I had to cut the bit into 3 parts and then re-glue them with the left hand over the right hand. The base is once again on a piece of stone.

With the completion of this figure I have four "command" figures: a Captain, a Champion, a Standard-bearer, and this new figure. I reckon I can add an Apothecary figure and make a complete Command Squad by making this figure a Veteran Sergeant with Power Weapon (Relic Blade). I have already bought an Apothecary figure, and in the meanwhile I have three Terminator figures to complete. Once all four figures are done, my small force will consist of 1 Command Squad, 3 Combat Squad, 1 Terminator Squad, and a Dreadnought. I wonder if I should add some sort of an armoured vehicle to the force...

FPW Game 2

We managed to get the second game of the FPW campaign done after a break of more than 2 months - this is why I design my campaigns to be short.

The battlefield in this game was a standard one, which meant wahj did not have the advantage of a river to slow Martin's forces down.

Martin had thrown 2 infantry and a cavalry division into this game, abandoning the planned third game to wahj, which gave him a vast numerical advantage here. His good die-rolls during the terrain placement phase also gave him a clear corridor down one flank.

wahj tried to overcome this by placing wooded hills where he could conceal his forces, and which will screen them from Prussian artillery when they withdraw.


The Prussians came down the clear axis as expected. At this point only two French batteries are visible.

The Hussars charge towards the guns. As the Prussians mass, two French regiments on a wooded hill reveal themselves and begin to engage them in a firefight.

The Hussars drive the artillery into the village, and are in turn pushed back by the infantry deployed there. Meanwhile, the Prussians deploy the guns and begin to bombard the French infantry as their own infantry deploy.

A brigade of Prussians march past the French on the hill and move towards the village. The French Chasseurs and Mitrailleuse in the middle of the battlefield are ineffective at causing casualties on them. In the background you can see the other division of the Prussian Corps bearing down on the French infantry holding the other flank.

In the end the regiments on both hills were eliminated by Prussian firepower, but the French managed to extricate the bulk of their guns and some of their infantry.

The Prussians managed to drive the French off the table in just 40 on the clock, which means they will arrive at the final game on time.

The French suffered heavy losses in this game, but the Prussian strategy of abandoning one of the tables means that the French forces deployed there will now enter the final game intact. More importantly perhaps the Prussians will now have only two points of entry on the final battlefield, which at 9 grids x 6 means they will spend a lot of time getting into position.

Space Marine Champion

Here's the Space Marines Champion from the Command Squad which I bought as a bit off ebay. I painted it pretty much as is, with the addition of the back banner. The base is made with an actual piece of stone.

New Desert/Arid terrain mat

I was by Spotlight today and decided to check their fabric section for a suitable terrain mat, and found this.

It cost me around S$25 for a 2.5m x 1.5m piece. Not an exact match for my Hittites shown here (which are painted and based by two different painters), but I think it does the job for a desert/arid type of ground.

3rd Squad of my Space Marines

That's the third squad there, with a meltagun as the squad heavy weapon. I believe it's supposed to be a multi-melta, but what's a barrel or two between friends?

I've got a champion and a squad of 5 Terminators to go before I call the project complete. Hopefully I can find some opponents for them afterwards...

Random Sunday shots

Here is the second quad of my Space Marines force. As with the first squad, I have a sergeant with a bolt pitsol and a close-combat weapon, and a heavy weapon, in this case a missile-launcher.


The sergeant is a metal figure, but used to hold a bolter - I asked a friend for a spare chainsword and he gave me one from his Death Company sprue, and it looks quite the part. Once again you can see my Marines' unhealthy obsession with skulls and death...

The torso of the Marine holding the missile-launcher is 'original', but the arms are from a more recent set, and so they do not fit exactly. I also had to do the squad number on the shoulder-pad freehand as I could not find my decals.

The long weekend also allowed me to complete my unit of goblin Warg riders for my fantasy Strandhogg project. I bought two more warg riders off ebay to round the warband up to 8, and added a flag to one of the riders. I thought for a long time on what the banner should look like, and eventually settled for the pictogram of a wolf's head and a few runes.