Objective Secured

So for a while now I have been thinking about putting together some objective markers that can double up as pieces for terrain, scenary and diorama. I have managed to paint up my little arms cache I made from spare bits.

For something cobbled together out of literally spare bits I am happy with it. I now intend to keep this up on a regular basis and put together more bits that kind of tell the story. For a long while I have looked at doing some sort of supply drop or airborne drop.

Now that the latest 40k stuff is out I am drooling over their set of objective markers. Money is always tight so spending £20 is a big ask but maybe, just maybe, it might go on a gift list somewhere.

A change of Scenary

For a long while now I have toyed with the idea of making a few bits of scatter terrain come objective markers. I do not have the cold hard cash to stump up for the ideal bits I want though so I had a rummage around and came up with this.

Many years ago, when I purchased one of the Catachan Jungle Fighter kits from GW I had one posted to me that had obviously been left under a paint stripper. All the bits were bent, twisted, warped and shrunk. Over the years I have used bits and bobs from the kit that could be rescued and I delved back into it for a few weapons and bits that could be used.

I had also kept the sprues from the last few kits I made on purpose for terrain making. So I started chopping and fiddling and have come up with this rough form.

The beige plastic is from an old Tamiya kit I believe...

I did intend at first to build it out of sandbags (Milliput) but thought I would try sprue stacking first to see what it looks like. It is on a hardboard base (old picture frames being thrown out!) which I might seal with some PVA before applying Vallejo Primer all over. At the moment the weapons are separate for ease of painting. I was also thinking of draping some bandage over for some camouflage cloth.

Battle Fleet

The Imperial Guard cannot always just walk over to the warzone. The most common option is to have the Imperial Navy smash their way into the system and deliver the sledgehammer that is the Guard in person.

I have a sizeable BFG Imperial Fleet.

Two battleships, 14 cruisers, dozen or so escorts.

I am currently looking to paint up a few Sword Frigates, a Cruiser and a Battleship (along with an auxiliary vessel). Methinks I will play a little with some basecoats and dry brushing and see what happens.

Bretonnians - the lowly peasant

So finally I get round to making some more progress on the spearmen, as well as using the grass tufts I got for Christmas.

Painting Moonraker & Spearmen

Work has been as busy as ever and so has home life so I have not been able to break out the paints as often as I would like to relax. However I have slowly made some improvements to the miniatures mentioned in the previous post, as well as another unit of Bretonnians that have been primed ready to go for a year!

I still like the sculpts. I think perhaps some of the hands are a little out of proportion but they have some interesting details and I do not think they would go amiss in the realms of 40K as civilians, advisors, henchmen, background scenary, dioramas, objectives etc.

I also bought a new lamp (Ikea but I got it from ebay second hand) and a daylight bulb (from Lightbulbs Direct - good price and a wide range of stuff). It means I do not have to squint even when I have the 15 bulbs on in the front room (yes... 15 of the damn things and it is still a bit dim for painting)

Moonraker Miniatures

So for Christmas my wife also bought me some miniatures from Moonraker Miniatures.

Moonraker Miniatures

The one on the left I can see as being a governor or official. The second one in I can see as being a security bod. Third one across is an adventure, or inquisitorial henchman. The last one has to be a guards(wo)man.

Left to right we have an inquisitorial henchman, commander/governor, tech guy, civilian, crewman.

The moulds are very good, hardly any flash at all anywhere, crisp detail and quite a complicated model in places.

They took my new Vallejo primer very well and I am now in the process of painting them up. For £1.50 each you cannot fault them in any way and they do not really look out of place next to my other models (pics to follow once painted so you can see them in scale).

To be honest I am not even sure what I wanted to do with them. I think now that I am getting old, and now that I have less disposable income, I am really thinking hard about my hobby purchases. I still am tempted by an awful lot and I still have a mountain of unpainted stuff, but I look through various companies now and I am no longer a GW only person.

GW seem to be getting back on track and I still have thousands of their models... but at today's prices it becomes very hard to justify my meagre hobby spend on their models. At the moment I am really only using birthday and christmas presents as a way to acquire hobby material. I simply cannot afford to outline the average £20, £30 or £40 on a single unit or tank like I might have done when I was younger.

Companies like this offer an awful lot of bang for your buck. I am also of an age and a mind now that the odd non-GW model slipped in among my units and characters adds to their appeal rather than stands out as an eyesore. Some of these models just here are excellent character pieces or special pieces for a unit (or even scenary or background).

This, the aether pirate (see post below) and artillerist (see earlier post) really are in the same spirit of the original GW models and lines. They fit in lovely, the scale difference is no real problem and it gives a big boost (I think) to the look and feel of the army on the table.

Pirate - arrrgggggghhhh

So my lovely wife knew exactly what to buy me for Christmas (well... ok... I made a list and she clicked randomly)

Pirate Captain

I am looking to paint this one up as another 'advisor' - an officer of the fleet - to go with my extensive command models