'Resistance' by MikeF: Cadian Regimental Standard Bearer

For the Resistance Theme, I painted up a Cadian Regimental Standard Bearer. Cadia stood firm against the forces of the Eye of Terror for 10,000 years - then in 8th edition, I guess they turned coward and allowed the planet to explode #NOTMY40K. I'm rooted in the before time however, when Cadia and the Imperium was always 1 minute from midnight. Regardless, the armies of Cadia stand ready to resist Chaos wherever it might manifest and have done so for over 10,000 years. Not a bad record!

The model is the classic metal miniature from GW. I replaced his head with one from Pig Iron Productions to better fit with the rest of my Cadian Imperial Guard. This guy, along with the 2 regimental advisors I completed earlier in the challenge, completes the command squad for the army.

That pesky red star again!

1 x 28mm miniature plus theme bonus = 55 Points

Thanks for visiting!

'Toy Story' from MikeF - 10 x 28mm Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout

My entry to the Toy Story theme goes back to 1997-98. I was not technically a child, but I was a youth and the inspiration for my entry was much more formative than the Ninja Turtles of my childhood. In '97 the Fallout video game was released. A friend of mine had a fairly advanced computer for the time (which is strange considering he lived in a shack which was literally on the wrong side of the tracks). He had a copy of Fallout and the following year Fallout 2 and though he only let me play it occasionally (this was a real fulfilling friendship) I was captivated by the gameplay and the post-apocalyptic theme of the game. Most importantly I thought the power armour wearing faction, the Brother hood of Steel, were super cool and helped inspire my tabletop gaming for years to come.

  

The game coincided with my introduction to 40k and my first space marine chapter was actually based on the BoS. It was a pretty weak attempt and I repainted the army several years ago as the Minotaurs. I think this blog has a few entries of that effort.

In 2008, Fallout 3 was released and I purchased an Xbox 360 solely to play the game. Many hours were logged (wasted?) exploring the wasteland in my own T-51b power armour. Eventually time constraints would force me to choose miniature painting over video games. but I've always felt fallout would make the perfect setting for tabletop gaming. 

I was initially quite happy to see that Modiphius had acquired the licence and was making a tabletop fallout game. As I looked into it though, a few things turned me off. The size of the battles were fairly small, and the miniatures were expensive. IP's are pricey and the company needs to make a profit. The games low model count also reflects the high price, so I can't complain too much, but if I wanted to have a game involving several squads of miniatures, I would need to go another way.

Fortunately the tabletop miniature community came to the rescue. A seller on Etsy was selling heads that were exact matches for those used in Fallout (he most definitely did this under licence!). Another seller also had appropriate decals scaled for 28mm models. I wasn't sure what to use for the body, until Games Workshop released their MK II space marines for the new edition of Horus Heresy. These models looked like they would work perfectly, so I ordered a box. Mu goal was to turn the 10 man squad into something like this:

T-51b Power Armour from Fallout. Note the hand wheel on the back.

I decided against using the shoulder pads and backpacks of the space marines, as I felt they would look too much like 40k space marines. I had to source several bits from other sources to create the look I was going for. These included shoulder pads from Anvil Industry, special and heavy weapons for horus heresy and hand wheels from the new cadian artillery sprue. I also had to modify the backs of the models with greenstuff to make some oxygen or fuel tanks so they didn't look too plain. 

This is how they turned out:

Note the hand wheels and tanks on the back.

One of the weapons in the game is called a "shishkebab" which is a flaming sword made out of  scavenged parts including a lawn mower blade, motor cycle gas tank, MC hand brake and a pilot light. The leader on the far left has a kitbashed shishkebab.

I plan to use these guys in a game of Xenos Rampant.

For points - 10 x 28mm models for 50 points, plus 50 points for the theme. Total of 100 points.

Thanks for visiting!

'Empire' From Mike F - Tyrant’s Legion Command Squad - Empire Theme - 80 Points

 Hello fellow challengers! It’s usually late January before I get my first entry in, but this year I seem to have my act together. Hopefully I can keep the momentum rolling. I’ll apologize now to the bulk of you who paint historical and fantasy miniatures, as I’ll be blathering on about 40k and space marines for most of the challenge. I’ve tried to pivot to history at different times, as I do have a passion for it, but I just can't seem to get any momentum going with a historical or even historical adjacent project. 

For the past year or two, I’ve been in full blown 40k nostalgia! 5th edition and Badab War specifically. I’ve completed a Minotaurs Chapter and have (mostly) completed an Executioners Chapter. Both of these were involved in the Badab War on opposite sides. I enjoy these large projects, so decided to move on to the primary bad guy of the Badab War - The Astral Claws! 

For those not familiar with the lore of the Badab War, It's a small civil war in the 40k Imperium which involved several Space Marine Chapters and lasted for about 10 years. The Astral Claws were originally put in charge of a sector of space and tasked with liberating the Maelstrom Zone which is littered with pirates, raiders and chaos empires. As usually happens, the Imperium eventually lost interest and focused on other matters. The Astral Claws chapter master, Lufgt Huron became incensed and turned his homeworld and surrounding systems into a small empire with which to pacify the Maelstrom. This led to him withholding his Imperial tithes, expanding his chapter beyond the size which was allowed and when challenged, to secede from the Imperium. At its height, the Astral Claws empire was quite powerful and held off over a dozen space marine chapters before it was destroyed. As such, I'm submitting this post for the Empire Theme to commemorate both the rise and fall of the Astral Claws Badab "Empire".

The first unit for this project is a Command Squad for the Tyrant's Legion. This was an Auxiliary force of normal humans to help secure the Badab Sector for the Astral Claws. In the 2010’s Forgeworld actually made an army list for the Tyrant’s Legion. They were poorly equipped and utterly expendable, but could include space marines in the list. I’ve put together a varied collection of models from different manufacturers to represent the various units and most of the GW models were purchased second hand. I hope to complete a good chunk of the army during this challenge.

The full command squad.

I used the original Commissar Yarrick model as the Commander who is known as a Tribune.

The actual leader of the army is the Astral Claws Centurion in the centre represented in MK IV armour. The human members are from the Wargames Atlantic Raumjager box with heads from Mad Robot Miniatures.

The standard is also from Mad Robot. The tyrant's claw and Astral Claw decal is from Fallout Hobbies. Unfortunately they are going to stop trading their line of space marine decals.

The color scheme for the Tyrant's Legion is pretty vague. Grey uniform with dark grey armour. I tried to include a few different greys and blue greys to add a bit of variety and break up the models a bit.

6 28mm figures for 30 points plus 50 points for the Empire Theme = 80 points.

Thanks for visiting!