Badab War: New Mantis Warriors Apothecary

Welcome back! Continuing work on the new Company HQ comes the Apothecary off my painting table. Here are some pics. Work on the rest of the HQ continues...

Badab War: New Mantis Warriors Captain

Howdy again! When I first began the Badab War project, I started by building and painting the company HQ. Since it had been a while since I had done much painting for Warhammer, 40,000 and so may of my projects had been WWII projects with lots of field gray and khaki, I was a little rusty. Now that I have two of the squads done for the Mantis Warriors and have had a chance to nail down the technique, color scheme, and process for them, I decided it was time to do a repaint of the company HQ. I had never been entirely happy with them. So they went into the strip bucket with the purple stuff. Well, I finished the Captain today and gave him a new name and background info.

Presenting the new Captain of the 2nd company, Mantis Warriors: Maetrus. I gave him a name from the Badab War background material. He is equipped with a combination of MK IV and MK VI armor, an Iron Halo, a master crafted Bolt Pistol, a chapter relic Power Sword (gifted from the White Scars) named Heart of Tranquility. Here he is, ready for the table.

Hope you enjoy!

Badab War: Dice Trays!

Quick update. I made some custom dice trays for the Badab War project. These are just simple wooden boxes you can get at most craft stores like Michael's and A.C. Moore. I primed them, painted them the base colors, and then printed out the chapter symbols onto card paper and cut them out as a stencil that I used to trace the design onto the box with a pencil. After painting the chapter symbol, I coated the boxes with multiple layers of spray on clear gloss Polyeurethane.

Now I can roll dice in style for the chapters my friends and I are playing in the Badab War campaign.

Biel-Tan Eldar. A slight Diversion and Some Thoughts on Oldhammer

Howdy, and welcome back. I have been busy with a slight diversion lately. A friend of mine gave me a pile of his old 1990s Eldar. Out of the bunch, I only really cared for the Guardians, the Falcons, and the Vyper jetbike. I decided to paint up two squads of Guardians, the vehicles, add a new box of the plastic Wraithguard (these new ones are so cool!), and finish it off with the new plastic Farseer. This would give me a small force that I can add to later. I've always really liked the Biel-Tan color scheme of dark green and white, so I went with that. Now, when it comes to this whole Oldhammer revival thing...

The box of Eldar my friend gave me had a bunch of the original metal Aspect Warriors and other various retro stuff. While I like the old models, I'm not really into the whole nostalgia thing, especially when it comes to Oldhammer models. I like the idea of Oldhammer and I look back fondly at the old times to a certain extent. But I really can't get excited about the old models that much. I'd much rather revive the old background but use updated models to do it. Hence my Badab War project which is based on an old bit of fluff, but using new beakie Space Marine models, newer Badab War color schemes and playing within the new expanded Forgeworld Badab War timeline. Like Nouveau Oldhammer I guess.

I don't know why, but when I look at the old models, I don't feel nostalgia, I often think "Man, the stuff we have now is so much better!". Now, that doesn't mean there isn't some old models that have held up well. I really like the old Jes Goodwin designs especially. And it's not like I like everything new either. The new chaos marines are still awful, in my opinion.

Overall, I feel like the old material didn't age that well. And even when it comes to the old models that I like, a lot of it is at a smaller scale than the new, so mixing it up in the same army bothers me visually. It's why I haven't painted up all of the Aspect Warriors I was given. I actually like the models, but they are so small next to the Guardians and the Shuriken weapons look different enough that I am not into it.

It might just be that I'm not a nostalgic person. I think the art and fluff of the Warhammer 40,000 universe has come a long way over the years and I don't look back on the past with rose colored eye glasses. Most of the rules were bad (especially Rogue Trader-how did we ever actually play that system?) and so much of the original setting was just so goofy. I guess that's what people like about it though, Maybe they miss their gaming youth and there is some legitimacy to the criticism of the newer Warhammer 40,000 universe taking itself too seriously. I'm just not one of those types. I enjoy the painting skills I have now, the extra disposable income, and the extra time I have for the hobby. I wouldn't go back to then if given the choice.

However, one thing I am all for is Games Workshop rereleasing old games and miniatures through their new reincarnation of Specialist Games. When it comes to redoing the old with new designs...bring on Necromunda! (And Battlefleet Gothic etc. etc.).

Just some thoughts on the new trend of Oldhammer gaming and collecting.

Anyway. Stepping down from my soapbox... here are some Eldar!

Enjoy!

Guardian Squad

Vyper Jetbike

New plastic Wraithguard

Falcon grav tank

Badab War: Mantis Warriors Decals

Progress! I recently received my custom printed Mantis Warriors and Fire Hawk transfer sheet Fallout Hobbies. Rather than hand painting every chapter symbol on my Marines, I wanted to be able to just use decals. Fallout Hobbies offers a custom printing service that I couldn't pass up. The decals have a ton of each symbol on them so I have enough for my force and then some.

I have two minor complaints about the decals. Fallout Hobbies service was initially really good. Ron was quick to respond and got my design worked up right away. Only trouble was it took a long time to get my decals with pretty large gaps of no communication. As I understand he is very busy with his full time jobs and swamped with orders for Fallout, so in the end, it's no big deal. He did deliver and overall the service was good enough. The other minor quibble is that the decals themselves have a pretty low resolution for the color and the Maelstrom Warder decal was slightly misaligned. No big deal, I was planning on painting over them to give them a painted on look anyway. In the end I am very happy with how they came out and I really like the uniformity they gave the models.

So, overall, I give Fallout Hobbies custom decals a decent  review. Not bad, but I'm not blown away either. Though, to be fair, I was happy with the results in the end. Hope you enjoy the pics of my now completed first Mantis Warriors tactical squad.

Badab War: Fire Hawks Contemptor Dreadnought

Hello, and welcome back. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the Contemptor dreadnought that came with my Betrayal at Calth box. I'm not a huge fan of the model itself as the pose is pretty static. Since I wasn't going to be painting it to use with my Horus Heresy Ultramarines, I thought I'd give it to the Fire Hawks to use. The scroll on the front of the sarcophagus says "Burn Them All, The Emperor Will Know His Own". I thought that was an appropriate message to go with a chapter known for their indifference to human casualties.

So here's the result. Painted over the last two nights. I'm really happy with the way it came out and I think I like the model a little more now that it's painted. I think I shall call him "Trogdan the Incinerator.

Enjoy!

Here he is next to the Mantis Warriors Hellfire Dreadnought, the Venerable Secarssa the Bow of Ma'Dan. I hadn't realized just how BIG these Contemptors were.

Badab War: Mantis Warriors Progress

Hello,

I will soon be starting on the second Mantis Warriors tactical squad. Here are some shots of the force so far: a tactical squad and the dreadnought Venerable Secarssa, the Bow of Ma'Dan.

I also played a game last night at our club with fellow local gamer Raven Feast. We used my mod, Betrayal at Badab. The game went well, though I got my butt handed to me in record time. I played the Mantis Warriors and he played the Fire Hawks. We played a simple meeting engagement in the ruins of a city. By the end of the third turn, he had almost wiped out my whole force. The Mantis Warriors could not get in a good position to use their Hit and Rule special rule and I just simply didn't use my firepower well, especially the dreadnought.

Here are some pics of the Mantis Warriors force and pics of the game.

The table

The Mantis Warriors deploy

Mantis Warriors crossing the street under fire

Fire Hawks push the flank

The Mantis Warriors withdraw using Hit and Run

Only two left...

The Venerable Secarssa goes down

The sergeant was the only survivor