Descent Back Into Madness...

It has been entirely too long since my last blog post. I partly blame Facebook. It has distracted me from posting here due to the ease of posting to various groups I belong to (such as my gaming club) over there. Much of the posting I do on my phone. I apologize for the delay, and I do hope to get back to posting here more regularly. I got a new phone yesterday with a much better camera, so the quality of the photos should improve, if not the quality of their editing.

I have been quiet here, but I have been very busy the past year. Namely, as per the title of this post...I have delved back into a madness of sorts: Warhammer 40,000! I mentioned this in a previous post, but I have spent a lot of time since then painting miniatures and building terrain. I have thoroughly enjoyed this descent into madness and it has kindled anew my love of all things miniatures and wargaming and given me a new sense of enthusiasm that had admittedly been waning in the past year. Not that I don't paint or game historicals mind you. It's just that I have so many historical projects completed that I have not felt much drive to tackle anything new except to finish up a few older projects here and there.

Now, while I may have been delving back into 40k, I have not been using their rules. Myself and a few other friends of mine have been having WAY too much fun using a modified form of Disposable Heroes and Disposable Heroes: Point Blank to play with our 40k forces. It has been a blast. One of the best scenarios we played was the rescue of a downed governor and retinue at a crash site of an Imperial Aquila lander. Beset on all sides by Orks, the Imperial Guardsmen who rushed to the rescue had to survive long enough for Crimson Fists scouts to arrive and set up a teleport homing beacon to port them out. it was a very tense and fun game (pics to follow). It was a lot like a Black Hawk Down of the 41st millenium.

So what have I been painting? ORKS! A bunch of them. And some Marines...and Steel Legion...well, you get the idea.

Here are some pics of my completed forces so far and a teaser for a future project that is very very old.

On to the show:

The Warboss and his Boyz.

Shoota' mob #1

Burna' mob

Slugga' and Choppa' mob

I went old school and added back plates to all my Orks.

Da Warbosses Tribe, the Grimskulls.

The Nobz retinue. More backplates.

These Orks represent the Grimskull tribe of the Deathskulls clan under the WAAAGH of Snagrod the Arch Arsonist of Charadon. I attempted to add in the style and flavor of the old GW Orks as drawn by Paul Bonner in the 80s and 90s. This includes adding one of my favorite elements of the old Ork identity: backplates! These plates showed the Ork's tribal emblem and was his main form of identity and source of pride. A warboss showed his power and might by how many backplates he had on his bosspole, therefore showing how many tribes he had under his command. I plan to make a nob carrying the bosspole festooned with looted gear, trophies, and backplates of the tribes in the warband. I have also enjoyed recreating the color scheme of the old Ork warband I had when I first got into 40k. My warboss back then had a heavy flamer and a personal teleporter I used to love using in second edition with the wargear cards. I might have to try to convert a model of that as well.

Up next for the warband is a group of 3 mega armored nobs, more killa kans, and more boys. I want to add one of the new Gorkanaughts and a Dreadnaught. That will require some scrounging of teef though...

Enough about the boys. How about some Imperial stuff?

Forgeworld mk VI Beakie marines as Crimson Fists

I used these to play the old "Battle at the Farm" scenario from Rogue Trader

Scouts

Silver Skulls because...why not?

Steel Legion.

Some Imperial personalities. The Astropath, Governor, Confessor, etc. 

And...a Blood Raven for when I do some current fluff Marines.

As promised, here are some pics of the rescue the governor game:

The crashed Aquila.

Local Imperial Guardsmen arrive to secure the crash site.

The Orks begin arriving in force.

Guardsmen about to be overrun...but, they actually manage to fight off this wave!

Close combat. An axe to the face followed by a missile to the gut...

The scouts arrive just in time.

More Orks pour in...

WAAAGGH!

Sorry for the quality of those pics, they were taken on my old phone.

Below is a sneak peak of the big project I hope to complete this year...this is taking it back old school to one of my favorite armies from one of my favorite periods of the 40k timeline. Bonus points if you know the chapter and the war. It was the first full army of Marines I painted when I got into 40k.

And that's all for now. I will post more as these projects unfold. Thanks for stopping by!